Cooking hack: The Singing Swede

So called because it 'whistles' while it cooks, this is such an easy way to cook swede - no peeling, chopping or boiling! Simply pop in the microwave for 20 minutes or so and scoop out all that loveliness straight into a bowl!

Add some butter, a little pepper and serve and eat!

(If anyone knows who Kerry is so I can credit her properly for the pic, please let me know)

How do I make money from Mintvine?

I'm a massive fan of Mintvine. It's kind of a rival to Swagbucks, but a lot easier to navigate and there seem to be more surveys available at any one time.

I'm going to presume that you're completely capable of signing up and following the instructions for the initial 'getting to know you' questions (plus I'm being lazy), and that you now have an account and are not sure what to do.

I'll share with you the things that I do if I'm focused enough, each day.

Daily Survey

The easiest way to earn 5 points every day is to do the Daily Survey. Scroll down and you will be given the option to take part (I've done mine already which is why it's already filled in)

There's a new one each day and that's 5 points per day. Time taken: 5 seconds.

Survey Street

The first thing you see, top right of your screen or via the menu, is Survey Street.

The steps are easy:

1) Click on 'Go Take My First Survey' - you'll see something like this:

Scroll down and you'll see you have to agree to a few things before you can take a survey:

You have to tick those 3 boxes before you can proceed

2) Take the survey:

You won't necessarily see the exact screen I have above, but you'll be on your way to your first survey.

Things to know:

• You may not qualify for every survey 
• You may have to answer a few questions before you find out you don't qualify
• Different surveys have different times and different values

You'll be offered other surveys once you've finished one - it's up to you if you do another one or move on to:

Rewards Road

Underneath Survey Street  you should see Rewards Road:

Basically it's just another version of surveys, but each one of these is worth 70 points each. You don't have to agree to anything like before, you just do the surveys.

You'll see this screen once you click on 'Go to Rewards Road':

Click on 'Continue' and you'll get to a screen like this with a few qualifying questions:

Answer the questions and you'll be offered a survey:

As before, you could be disqualified after answering a few questions. Unfortunately that's just the way it is.

These are the main ways to get points on Mintvine. I'll cover some other ways in future blog posts.

Things to note:

• Points 'pend' for 2 weeks, so while they will show as part of your total, you won't be able to withdraw them until they're approved.
• Mininum cashout for Mintvine is 1000 points.
• 1000 points equals $10
• Once you have 1000 points, you can cashout any amount beyond that, so for example 1264 points will get you $12.64
• HOWEVER, 1000 points is just £7.49 via Paypal, but £13.10 on Amazon so Amazon cashout is MUCH better!
• Mintvine takes around 5 days from requesting a cashout to receiving it

If you're not on Mintvine already I'd highly recommend it - unlike Swagbucks and other survey sites there seem to be a LOT more surveys available and if you can qualify for them then the points add up pretty quickly.

If you have any Mintvine questions, post them in the comments below and I'll answer them in future blog posts, or pop over to our Facebook group and join.