Money Saver Christmas: Recycle Ink Cartridges

Have you been recycling your empty ink cartridges? If not, then you have been missing out!! I love this program! It is a great money maker.
I have listed the programs at the major office supply stores.

Officemax: $3 per cartridge
Limit of 10 per week (Sun - Sat)

Accepts qualifying HP, Dell, and Lexmark ink catridges. E-certificate received around the 20th of the month for the previous month.
* This is the best program. My Officemax lets me get gift cards. They carry gift cards for Toy R Us, Best Buy, PetSmart, and more. Check to see if your store will let you get gift cards.

Staples: $3 per catridge
Limit 10 per month

You can recycle ANY ink cartridge - no matter which brand! This includes Brother®, Epson® and Canon ink or toner cartridges, up to 10 per calendar month per customer and receive $3 back in Staples Rewards per cartridge. Limit one Staples Rewards account per address.


Office Depot: $3 per cartridge (Office Depot certificate)
Members can recycle up to 5 ink and toner cartridges per day - any brand! Your Recycling Rewards will not exceed the amount of your total qualifying annual Office Depot purchases.


How can you get empty ink cartridges? Ask your family and friends for their ink cartridges. Also look at garage sales, I have found many ink cartridges at garage sales.

How can you use this program for Christmas? I love getting the gift cards at Officemax. If you can't get gift cards then you can purchase free after rebate items and receive a rebate check or you can buy school supplies using your certificates. Then put the same amount of cash in your Christmas fund.

Money Saver Christmas: Sweepstakes

Winning prizes from sweepstakes is fun! I usually enter sweepstakes at night when I am watching TV. Sweepstakes prizes can help you save money on Christmas.

I have won gift cards, free coupons, and many other prizes. I have used gift cards to buy groceries or gifts for family. I have given some prizes as gifts or sold them at my garage sale.

If you want to get some free prizes before Christmas then you need to start now. Sweepstakes are given by a wide range of companies from nationally recognized companies to small blogs. Blog contests have usually smaller prizes but they are usually shipped faster and have fewer entrants.

Tips for entering:
1. Enter only for prizes that you want. It will help maximize your time.
2. Sometimes you will receive a prize that you didn't really want. Perhaps it was a 2nd level prize in a sweepstakes. You can sell your prize at a garage sale or donate it to a fundraiser/charity.
3. One Time Entries and Instant wins are my favorites. I have won more prizes on those types of sweepstakes.
4. Never pay to enter a sweepstakes!!
5. Never pay to receive a prize!!

My favorite websites for sweepstakes:

Sweepstakes Today
Sweepstakes Advantage
Online Sweepstakes

Good Luck!

Money Saver Christmas: Swagbucks

Swagbucks, Swagbucks, Swagbucks!!!

Have you heard of Swagbucks? You can find this service promoted everywhere on the Internet. It is the most popular program right now because it is easy and fun.

First, the easy part. You sign up and then you search using the Swagbucks search. The Swagbucks search returns results from Google and Ask.com . So you are searching the Internet like you do everyday but now you are earning Swagbucks.

How many swagbucks do you earn? The swagbucks from searching vary from 1 point to 100. The most that I have won on a search is 5 points.

What prizes can I receive and how many Swagbucks do they cost? They have a lot of different prizes. In my opinion, the best prize is the Amazon e-gift card for 45 Swagbucks. You can stack these gift cards and order a more expensive item from Amazon.

It gets better. You can refer friends or relatives. I referred my husband. When they search and earn swagbucks, you earn the same number of swagbucks on your account. Earn up to 100 matching Swagbucks per friend. So for example, you search on Monday and earn 2 Swagbucks. Your friend searches on Monday and earns 1 swagbuck. Now your account is 3 Swagbucks richer!

You can easily earn enough to purchase 1 or 2 gifts on Amazon for Christmas!
Get started now!

If you would like to help me earn points then click here .

Otherwise you visit Swagbucks here.

Money Saver Christmas : Start Now

I just realized that Christmas is 6 months away. It will be here fast. Now is the time to start planning for a Money Saver Christmas. I will be doing a series of articles on how you can get free or cheap Christmas gifts. There are many ways to earn gift cards and gifts. Some ways are super easy and others require a little bit of work. You can choose the ideas that you think will work for you.

I already posted about buying Christmas gifts at garage sales. You can see the garage sale articles here.

You can't buy all your Christmas gifts at garage sales. Maybe your daughter wants an iTunes gift card or your son wants a new SpongeBob Lego set. You will end up buying some gifts at the store.

You need to start now and you need a plan. All you need to start is a notebook, an envelope for gift cards, and a empty box for gifts.

Starting tomorrow, you can keep track of your Christmas savings progress.