Swagbucks is helping me have a thrifty vacation!

     Many of you who follow my blog, are military families so we are very well aware that money does not grow on trees and we need to stretch it as much as possible. For many, our vacations are the days in between PCS'ing to a new location. 2012 will be the first year that we have had a vacation since our honeymoon so we are going to make it the best it can be.


     First off, Swagbucks has a lot to do with making my vacation a little thrifty but enjoyable at the same time.
If you haven't already signed up, the link is at the bottom to do so.


     My first step was to spend my Swagbucks savings on a $25 Travelocity gift card! The downfall is that you can't "stack" these but you could stay in different hotels every few days depending on how long you will be at your location so that you could use multiple ones. For us, it's better that we stay in one location for the entire week.


     Other than the hotel expense, normally food is the main cost. I used my Swagbucks to purchase $25 Restaurant.com gift cards! The gift cards are 400 points each. I suggest getting at least one or two per day.


      We are going to Pigeon Forge, TN so I searched the area for restaurants and found some familiar ones. The next step is to find ones with $25 gift cards that only require a $35 purchase. If you haven't used Restaurant.com before here is how it works: you go in and spend you min. $35, use your $25 gift card and pay $10 out of pocket. For us, we normally eat between $35-$45 at each restaurant so we will save at least 50% on each  meal!


     Now you have other expenses along the way: gas, gifts, etc. I would suggest looking for deals with gift cards right now. This time of the year is when stores really start pushing gift cards. If you have a Kroger near you, they are offering 4X the gas points when you buy gift cards! CVS had a gas card deal for several weeks earlier this year and currently they have a gift card promotion going on when you spend $30 on certain products, you will receive a $10 gift card of your choice(from what they have to choose from) I always choose the American Express gift cards and these can be used for gas or gifts!


If you haven't already sign up for Swagbucks, here is the link:

Be on the lookout, the next few days for a full explanation of Swagbucks & a list of stores that have promotions when you buy gift cards!