I’ve already told you about the grocery apps I use to save a bit of money (part 1 here and part 2 here). Here are some other sites that I earn points through as well. As with the grocery apps, you’re not going to strike it rich, but you will still be able to add a bit of cushion to your bank account. You can get some “free” money too – all it costs is your time. And for several of these, once you set them up, it doesn’t even take much time.
Walgreens Balance Rewards. Find it here.
How It Works: You sign up for a card in store. You earn points on all of your purchases, plus additional points on products that have special deals during the week. You can cash those points in towards a gift card to pay for more stuff.
Cool Features: You can also sync the app up with your Fitbit to earn points for activity. Even on a low step day, I typically get 40-60 points. They add up over time!
Payout: 10,000 points gets you $10, which is the lowest payout option. As you save your points up for higher dollar amounts, it costs less per point to get them.
How Much Can I Earn?: I’ve been a member of this program since it started a few years ago. Even though I no longer live near enough a Walgreens to shop there weekly, I still keep the app on my phone. I’ve cashed in two $20 gift cards and am just about ready for my third.
Why Should I Join?: If you shop at Walgreens often, this one is a no brainer. If you shop there only occasionally, but use a Fitbit, go through the sign up process once and you’ll work your way up to a gift card with no extra work! Sign up here.
Swagbucks. Find it here.
How It Works: You create an online account. Swagbucks is basically Google with distractions. You can use it as a search engine, and you will randomly be rewarded points, or Swagbucks, for searching. One of the easiest ways to do this is to search “facebook” when you’re headed to facebook. The extra step doesn’t take long, and you might earn some points!
Cool Features: There are also about 18 other ways to earn points on the site, from cash back for shopping to surveys to signing up for special offers (create a junk email account for those if you decide to do them). You can also work towards a daily goal and earn bonus Swagbucks for completing it for multiple days in a row. How much you earn is really based on how much time you want to put in.
Payout: Depends on what reward you choose. I’ve always gone with gift cards, and they start as low as 300 Swagbucks for a $3 Amazon card.
How Much Can I Earn?: I’ve been a member of Swagbucks for several years. There was a period where I was spending over an hour a day on watching videos and clicking special offers, and at that point I was earning $50 a month in Amazon and Paypal gift cards. I don’t spend much time on it any more, but I still earn $3-$5 a month just from searching.
Why Should I Join?: Do you search for things on the Internet? You could be earning points for that. This site is really easy, and if you have a bit of extra time, why not spend it earning money? Sign up here.
Pampers Rewards. Find it here.
How It Works: You enter codes via the website or app. You can find a code on any Pampers diaper or baby wipes package, but they also regularly release bonus codes on Facebook and Twitter. If you enter at least one package code per month, you’ll also get special bonuses as part of the Grow On program.
Cool Features: You don’t have to be in the baby diapering stage to earn points, and the rewards options are not limited to just baby products. You can also earn points by reading specially marked articles or watching videos on the site.
Payout: Bonus codes are 5-10 points, and codes from packaging can be worth 50+ points (or more? we don’t buy Pampers diapers very often). Sweepstakes entries are as low as 10 points, and Shutterfly products start at 500 points. There are also magazine subscriptions, toys, and sometimes gift cards or diaper products.
How Much Can I Earn?: I’ve been a member of this one since Jonah was in diapers (six years ago), and I’ve redeemed quite a few photo card deals, plus a toy or two.
Why Should I Join?: If you’re buying diapers and baby wipes anyways, get rewarded for them! Plus, following on Facebook makes it easy to catch the bonus codes. Sign up here.
Huggies Rewards. Find it here.
How It Works: This one is actually changing as of the end of June, but currently it works by entering codes from diaper and wipes packaging into the website. There’s an app coming, which will be nice!
Cool Features: There actually used to be a TON of bonus codes for this program, but those ended a couple years ago because people were abusing them. Bummer. There aren’t any other ways to earn points right now, but it looks like there will be surveys and other bonus opportunities soon. They’re also going to start allowing Amazon orders to qualify for points, which is great for those Subscribe and Save orders! They also occasionally email free Shutterfly product codes.
Payout: Codes are worth 5-45 points, depending on the size of the package. I almost always turn my points in for a free pack or box of diapers, which start at 500 points.
How Much Can I Earn?: I’ve been a member of this one since Jonah was in diapers (six years ago) too, and even though there aren’t bonus opportunities any more, the points still add up fairly quickly when you have multiple kids in diapers. I’ve earned several free packs of diapers here.
Why Should I Join?: If you’re buying Huggies, you may as well earn some free diapers! Sign up here.
My Coke Rewards. Find it here.
How It Works: Enter codes from bottle caps or soda boxes to earn points.
Cool Features: Sometimes they have 0 point rewards that are really good! I’ve gotten free Shutterfly products and even a free soda or two from their 1-day 0 point promotions.
Payout: Codes are worth 3 points each for single serve bottles. Free drinks cost 55 points, while gift cards, merchandise, and magazines cost more.
How Much Can I Earn?: Depends on how much soda you drink. If you don’t, then this program isn’t for you. We go through phases of having soda or Powerade in our house, and I keep my account for those. I’ve earned quite a few free drink coupons, plus a couple magazine subscriptions.
Why Should I Join?: If you drink soda, you may as well get a little something in your pocket. Sign up here.
Kelloggs Family Rewards. Find it here.
How It Works: Enter in pack codes, scan your receipt, or use your store loyalty card (that you’ve attached to your KFR account) to earn points. They’re in the middle of switching this over, and have been for awhile.
Cool Features: They are constantly sending out bonus codes. Every third email or so has at least one bonus. They also send out free Shutterfly product codes fairly often. Even if you don’t buy cereal, you can still earn points pretty quickly.
Payout: Depends on the product, or if there are bonus promotions going on. A box of cereal might get you 80 points, but if you buy 3, you’ll get a bonus of 100 points per box (this is a made up example, but fairly accurate in terms of the points they regularly offer). You can get high value coupons for 850 points, magazine subscriptions, merchandise, and occasionally a Starbucks gift card for 7,000 points.
How Much Can I Earn?: Because of all the bonuses, these points add up quickly. I’ve been a member of this one for about 4 years, and I’ve earned quite a few coupons (back in my couponing days), plus several gift cards. I haven’t scanned a single receipt or hooked up a loyalty card, by the way. This is just from occasional random pack codes at my parents’ house and mostly bonuses.
Why Should I Join?: If you eat a lot of Kelloggs products, you’ll obviously want to earn a little something on those. But even if you don’t, the bonus codes will get you something free before too long. Sign up here.
MyPoints. Find it here.
How It Works: Click through emails to earn 5 points, take surveys, shop through special links for points per dollar spent. Kind of like Swagbucks, you have several earning options.
Cool Features: You can earn up to 75 points a day watching videos if that’s something you’re into.
Payout: Typical activities give you a few points at a time. Gift cards are your only option here, and most start at 1,600 points for a $10 card.
How Much Can I Earn?: This was my very first rewards site that I signed up for, 10 years ago. Since then I’ve earned 31,492 points, almost all of which came from clicking through the 5 point emails. I have these set up to go to a separate folder in my email, and I click through them about once a week.
Why Should I Join?: Do you like free gift cards? There’s a reason I keep using this one. It’s quick and easy. Sign up here.
Recyclebank. Find it here.
How It Works: They offer bonus points for completing online activities, such as reading articles, taking quizzes, and clicking through slideshows, all about recycling and green living.
Cool Features: You can visit each day and click the Daily Pledge button for an easy 5 points. Content is regularly updated, so there’s new earning features pretty often, and you can also find help on recycling pretty much everything.
Payout: Each activity gives you 5-40 points, depending on the length (but none of them are very long). Magazine subscriptions start at 240 points, gift cards to their partner shop One Twine start at 1200 points for $5. There are also various coupons and discounts you can cash in your points for.
How Much Can I Earn?: I’ve been a member since 2011, which was shortly after the site started. Since then, I redeemed points for several free product coupons and high value Kashi coupons (neither of which they offer as rewards any more), plus a one year subscription to Men’s Health for my husband and a $50 One Twine gift card.
Why Should I Join?: Are you interested in recycling and green living? There’s tons to learn here. Are you interested in earning points for magazines or eco-friendly products? You’ll earn fairly quickly. Sign up here.
Ebates. Find it here.
How It Works: Earn cash back on purchases when you shop through this site. There are lots of cash back sites out there, but I think this one is the easiest and gives you the most money for your shopping.
Cool Features: You get $10 in your account just for signing up and spending $25. Not much cooler than free money!
Payout: Each transaction gets you a percentage back, usually 2-4%, but they run specials where you can get much higher percentages for a limited time, up to 40%.
How Much Can I Earn?: Here’s where I’m a bad example. I’ve been a member for a couple years, and I’ve only earned $13.47, but that’s because I forget to click here first when I’m doing my shopping. If you actually remember to do that, you’ll earn a lot more.
Why Should I Join?: Do you shop online? One extra click will put some of that money back in your pocket. Plus you’ll get $10 just for signing up. Do that here.
The bottom line is that each of these sites has the potential to put a little bit of cash in your wallet. Choose the one that fits with your schedule and take advantage of the rewards!
Photo credits: All of the site photos are cropped from screenshots taken on my computer. All logos and images are owned by the companies listed.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are my referral links. If you sign up through these links, I may receive points or credits at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Hi Katy! I found your blog via the webinar last week 🙂 Do you know about Shopkick? It’s a rewards app that’s really easy, too. You just walk into stores and scan items and receipts to get points that you can redeem for gift cards. It’s easy if you always have your phone on you but it takes a while to rack up points.
Andrea – hi! I do know about Shopkick. I used to use it regularly, but then we moved to rural Iowa and most of the stores that have it are far away. But that’s another good one!