The Strapped For Cash Survival Guide – Day 9: Gift cards and Awards

Author photoBy Joy Littleton

Welcome back to the second to last entry in our guide on ways that you can earn some extra money. So far, we’ve managed to cover things like earning money through side jobs you can do online, earning money in your community, and even earning money by doing small tasks. But today, it’s time to delve into all of the ways that you can earn some money through different gift cards, awards, and other similar ways.

 

Get money back from things you’ve bought

You can sign up on services like Paribus to get money back on things that you already bought, but ended up dropping in price shortly after that. It’s really easy to get some money back this way because the service will connect to your email account and keep track of your receipts, and then if there’s a drop in the price, it’s automatically going to file a price adjustment claim for you.

 

Cash-in unused gift cards

Getting gift cards to stores and services that are no use to you is no longer such a bad thing, thanks to sites like Raise, Gift Card Granny, and Cardpool. With these websites, you can convert those old gift cards into cash by selling them.

 

Sign up for free gift cards

You can sign up for some free gift cards that you can use on places like Ebates and MyPoints, where you can use their services or complete tasks to redeem gift cards or get some of the money you spent back in your pocket.

 

Make money off of pharmacies

Many pharmacies tend to have many promotional offers from different pharmaceutical companies, especially for things like prescriptions. For example, if you sign up for CVS ExtraCare Pharmacy and Health Rewards, you can earn ExtraBucks Rewards, similar to gift cards.

 

Score free gift cards on social media

Many big brands tend to promote their products or services by hosting giveaways on social media platforms. All you need to do is to keep track of what your favorite brands or companies are posting, or even better, keep track of any hashtags that relate to giveaways and enter for a potential win.

 

Referrals

Companies, both big and small, offer rewards to people who are using their products or services, and then get other people to start using them. You can look into the products or services you use, and the companies behind them to see if they offer something along the lines of referrals to you, and then get some of your friends to start using them as well.

 

Buy groceries and score rebates

Saving on groceries is one of the best ways to cut down on your cost of living expenses easily. And there are plenty of places where you can actually earn some money while you’re shopping for groceries, thanks to apps like Ibotta, that offer cash rebates for grocery store purchases.

 

These were seven more ways to easily earn some money, whether it’s through gift cards or through awards that companies offer their customers. If you liked this list, make sure you stick around for the last one in this series, where we’ll be talking about the last several ways that you can earn some money.