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12 Swagbucks Searches that Will Change Your Bottom Line

We look into 12 Swagbucks searches and discuss Swagbucks search words that will actually make you, or save you, MONEY.

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I can’t tell you the number of things I’ve saved money on for our family, the countless ways I’ve added to our savings account, or the endless number of times I’ve gotten our cash flow to “make it” just by seeking out knowledge from others  (often through swagbucks searches) and implementing it for our own use.

I’m a huge believer in the phrase “knowledge is power.” In fact, I believe it’s even more than just power; knowledge is financial power as well.

Most of the information I’ve found about saving me money over the years was by using specific online searches, using specific search phrases.

Pssst: again, read through the entire article to learn more about Swagbucks search words, including an official statement from the company.

And because this is a blog all about adding to your own bottom line, I’m calling these Swagbuck searches (not Google searches).

✔️Not on the Swagbucks wagon yet? Using the search engine called Swagbucks instead of Google is a great way to earn points called SB that you can then cash in for rewards or actual cash just by doing what you do anyway: searching the internet. You also get chances to earn points for cash by referring others, taking surveys, and lots of other activities.

In addition to adding to your bottom line by earning points while searching the internet, let me show you 10 searches you want to complete that will help + boost your cash flow even more!

What to Search to Get Swagbucks – How to Search and Earn on Swagbucks

Looking for what to search to earn swagbucks? Here is what to search on swagbucks to get points:

Swagbucks Search #1: “Your local area + free things to do”

I often challenge people to take their entertainment budgets down to $0. That’s not me telling them to sit on the couch and binge-watch Downton Abbey or Hoarders: Buried Alive. Rather it’s a way to find alternative forms of entertainment so that you can siphon those dollars off towards another goal (adding an extra payment onto your debt one month, saving up for a family trip, stocking your emergency fund, etc.).

I’ve been so pleasantly surprised over the years with what this simple internet search yields that I’m passing it onto you. I’m talking about free outdoor movies in the summer time, a week-long daily yoga/meditation/lecture/homemade Indian food seminar for free by Swami Mukundananda  (I’ve since gone four years in a row now), free Cuban music/dance night outside a museum, a free genealogy research class at our local library, free afternoons at the zoo, etc.

It’s mind-boggling the opportunities out there!

Swagbucks Search #3: “Resident Discounts + Your Local Area/City/State

Did you know that tons of local areas, cities, and even states offer resident discounts for local attractions?

For example, when I lived in Florida, I was surprised to learn I could save 30%-40% on a pass to Disney World.

What kinds of discounts can you uncover?

Swagbucks Search #4: “How to DIY + Something You were Going to Hire Out

Is there something you were going to hire out for that you have a sneaking suspicion you might be able to do yourself (if only you knew how)?

We’ve saved a decent amount of money by searching for what we need done and following some directions/videos/experiences of how other people have done it. For example, searching for, “how to fix fireplace cracks” yielded us a way to save almost an estimated $800 a company quoted us for the same work (the guy who came out to quote us actually told us to do this!). It was really easy to do, and my husband felt confident that he could get the job done on his own. Almost six years later and the work he did still looks great.

Swagbucks Search #5: “Best Savings Account Interest Rates”

It’s helpful from time-to-time to make sure you’re in the ballpark of receiving the most amount of interest on your emergency fund or travel fund money as you could be. This is especially true if you’re looking to bank-hop because you are moving, want to take the plunge from a brick-and-mortar bank to an online one, or have a large sum of money held in a savings account (at that point, even incremental interest rate increases will make a big difference).

Pssst: looking for sites like Swagbucks? Check out my review of Bing Rewards vs. Swagbucks for websites like Swagbucks.  

Swagbucks Search #6: “How to DIY + Something You’ve Been Putting Off because of Mental Obstacles

Oooohhh is this a delicious one to tell you about. About a year and a half ago I talked about a gorgeous piece of art I stumbled upon from Bill and Giuliana’s reality television show: The Octopus Triptych. I fell in love, and quickly looked it up online only to find that the art piece runs between $3,000 and $6,787.50. Good grief! Still, you know how it is to really want something, right?

Well, I did an internet search and found out that several crafty DIY bloggers were on the mission of recreating it within a reasonable budget. It took me two years to get around to actually doing it, but this beautiful piece is now hanging in our living room for just $52.17 + a few hours of my time.

picture of DIY octopustriptych in my library

In case you’re in love with this now as well, here’s some info to get you started:

  • Free Octopus Clip Art: You can find the pattern on The Graphics Fairy.
  • Free Photoshop-Like Software: Then you want to use a free photoshop-like software like PicMonkey.com to edit it to the colors you’d like.
  • Free Tutorials: I used a combination of a tutorial from SplendidMinta, and Southern State of Mind’s idea to do it in 11 X 17’s to help with frame sizing and printing it out.
  • Free Image-Splitting Software: I had no idea how I was going to split the image into two rows and three columns of 11 X 17’s to print out at an Office Store. Then I searched on the internet something like “how to split an image up”, and came upon the glorious free tool, ImageSplitter. Took me ten minutes!
  • Print Out at an Office Store: I went to Office Max and had the 6 images (which were automatically created using ImageSplitter) printed out in color on 11 X 17 paper, fit to page.
  • Frames: By far the part of the project that took the longest for me (besides actually getting around to do it) was finding the right frames. I needed three 11 X 36, white frames, and looked at IKEA, Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, etc. The nice wooden ones were quite expensive, plus they were all black so I’d have to spray-paint them anyway. Then I stumbled into a Garden Ridge store my husband suggested to me, and they happened to be having a store closing sale. Bam – there were three 11 X 36 frames with beautiful wood at 40% off. I picked out a Modern White Matted spray paint, spray painted the wood outside for ventilation, and then pieced the whole thing together.

I’m simply in love!

How about you: is there something that you fell in love with that costs enough to make your eyeballs dislocate…but you just can’t stop thinking about it? Search online for how people are DIY’ing the very thing you’d like (there are entire blogs dedicated to recreating pieces from Pottery Barn, for example).

You might be surprised with what you find.

Pssst: sad this article is almost finished? Here's 5 MORE Swagbucks Search that will change your bottom line.

Swagbucks Search #7: “How to Make + Your Favorite Signature Coffee Shop Drink

Do you have a certain coffee shop addiction that you’d rather not give up, or would like to indulge in more but simply can’t justify spending the money?

The good news is there are hundreds of copycat recipes available online for your favorite signature drinks. By searching for them, you can add the items needed to your next grocery store list and save yourself probably 50% the cost of what you’d pay at a coffee shop.

My own drink of choice? Iced Soy Chais from Starbucks. Yummy.

If you get into the habit of making one or two of your favorites from copycat recipes at home, then you can really add to your bottom line (those $3-$5 coffee-shop stops really add up!).

Swagbucks Search #8: “Pharmacies + Your Zipcode

Okay, here’s a crazy ‘secret’ I found out a few years ago: the cost of a prescription is different at different pharmacies. Seriously.

I was always under the impression that the cost of the same antibiotic would be regulated to some set price no matter if I went to my grocery store pharmacy, a Costco, or to the local CVS. But it’s not true! In fact, this study sent secret shoppers around to find out the price of a set of prescriptions at various stores, with the discovery of an astounding 447% price difference!

So if you’re on a high-deductible insurance plan where you’re likely going to be paying out of pocket for your prescriptions most of the year, and have prescriptions to fill – especially maintenance-types that you are paying for each month – then it makes sense to shop around and find the lowest priced option. Heck, if you’re generally a healthy person and you don’t usually meet a lower deductible (like $600) throughout the year, then you want to shop around as well because you’ll be paying out of pocket.

This search will yield you pharmacies close to your home, so gather the phone numbers and make a few calls to inquire about the prescription meds on your list. Create a little chart and figure out where you’ll be shopping from now on.

Hint: the same is true of pet medications, and even medical procedures like a hernia operation. So shop around for these as well.

Swagbucks Search #9: “Bus/Metro Route From Place of Hometo Place of Work

Even if you’re not paying exorbitant gas costs to commute to work, this is a good search to do. Why? Because if your car ever breaks down – and us beater car owners know this will happen from time to time – then you won’t feel pressured to immediately rush into a new car purchase. Knowing that there is a route, even if it’s an inconvenient one, to get you to work and back should your own vehicle ever need an end-of-life repair (like ours did after plunking down most of our savings onto our home down payment six years ago) is quite freeing.

Swagbucks Search #10: “Free Substitute + Something You are Paying for Right Now But No Longer Want to Be

Be bold in your search request on this one. Choose something that you never thought or have little faith that you could find for free. It’s possible it’s something that can’t be converted to free, after all, but it’s also possible that there is that one person out there who has figured out either a free or cheap alternative that you haven’t thought of before.

A few of my shocking discoveries from this search have been things like free internet through FreedomPOP, a free almost-what-I-needed-Microsoft-Office alternative (OpenOffice.org), and this awesome tool where you can plug in your favorite shows and see if/where they are available for streaming (in case you’re thinking about cutting the cable cord).     

Swagbucks Search #11: “Cash for + An Old Electronic Hanging Around Your Electronic Graveyard

No matter how much I might fight it – even as a blogger, who relies on it much more than other professions – technology is a big part of our lives. This means that your home and ours periodically become littered with what I like to call an electronic graveyard.

The sooner you get around to cashing in these old devices as you upgrade to new ones, the more money you will receive for them. So take the time to rid your home of some of them by shopping around for the best cash amount you can get (when I did this a few years ago, we reaped $107 in cash, $25.99 in tax deductions, $4 store credit to the Office Depot, and 150 points for my Recyclebank account).

Swagbucks Search #12: “Best Bank Bonus Offers + Today’s Date or the Year

Looking for some relatively quick cash or to jump-start a savings goal? When I set the goal of saving up $2,500 in cash for our honeymoon to Austria outside of our paychecks (as our paychecks were going towards any number of other things that year – the wedding, our new home purchase, paying off our the remaining $25,000 of our original $59,496 in debt before walking down the aisle), I decided to open up a new account with a laser-focus on its purpose. Well, that and, because when you open a new savings or checking account you can generally do a quick Swagbucks search and find a decent bonus to jump-start the savings. For us, the bonuses I reaped with this strategy ended up totaling $421. That was 16.8% of our savings goal right there!

Note: you’ll owe taxes at the end of the year on any bank account bonuses you end up receiving – the bank will send you a tax form automatically for this around tax season. 

Now it’s your turn: what internet searches have you conducted that really made a difference to your bottom line? Did you try any of these, or any from the first post, with success? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Bonus Swagbucks Search: “Swagbucks Search Words”

I emailed the team over at Swagbucks to ask about whether or not the rumors were true. You know, where you can find the Swagbucks search words that have earned others Swagbucks that day (or as recently as possible) with the hopes that once you enter those search phrases, you'll earn big to.

Here's the official quote I got from the company on Swagbucks keywords,

“The idea of specific keywords triggering a search win for every user isn't accurate, it is all done at random through an algorithm this is coupled with confidential security controls.  An easy way to earn SBs is by answering our Daily Poll, or completing the Daily Search in the “To Do List”.”

So, there you have it folks!

Now it’s your turn: what are some internet search phrases you’ve used to really make a change to your bottom line? What swagbucks searches that pay have you loved doing? I’d love to hear all about it!

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Amanda L Grossman

Personal Finance Writer and CEO at Frugal Confessions, LLC
Amanda L. Grossman is a writer and Certified Financial Education Instructor, Plutus Foundation Grant Recipient, and founder of Frugal Confessions. Over the last 13 years, her money work has helped people with how to save money and how to manage money. She's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, LifeHacker, Real Simple Magazine, Woman's World, Woman's Day, ABC 13 Houston, Keybank, and more. Read more here or on LinkedIn.