Swagbucks - paying Mastercard into Paypal to make more of your Swagbucks

*** STOP PRESS! After feedback from members of our Facebook group (thanks Kelly!) it seems that there are no longer any fees to pay Mastercard into Paypal if you add the Mastercard as a payment card on one Paypal account and then pay using it into your main Paypal account. So you need 2 Paypal accounts with different email addresses***

If you're a Swagbucks member, you'll know that at the time of writing it costs 800 swagbucks to get a £5 Paypal voucher. However, due to the current sale, it only costs 700 swagbucks to get a £5 virtual Mastercard.

So it makes sense to get a Mastercard, right? But what do do if you want to put the money in your Paypal account? Well thankfully, it's easy :)

Once your Mastercard details come through from Swagbucks, you'll need to verify it with your name and address.

Once you've done that you'll be given the details of the card (I've covered my details up in the pic below)

Now, to add this to your Paypal account you'll need:

1) A Paypal account
2) An email address that is different to your Paypal email address

You can set up a second email address through Gmail or something quite easily.

Now, log into your Paypal account and find 'Request Money' - depending on whether you have on older or newer, personal or business Paypal account will depend on where you find this.

Mine is in Money --> Send or Request Money:

Then click on request money from a friend or customer (or similar):

On the next screen input your second email address and the amount you want to request.

Log out of Paypal.

Now, go to your second email account and pick up the email that will have been sent:

Open up the email and click on Pay Now:

Now, and this is the important bit - DO NOT LOG IN TO YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT!

Click on 'Pay without a Paypal Account'

This will take you to a screen where you can choose to pay via credit / debit card - input your Mastercard details and pay the request.

Upon logging back in to your Paypal account, you should now see your payment:

Note that there is a fee of 37p per five pounds (if anyone knows a way around this please let me know) but, bearing in mind you've saved 100 swagbucks which is about £90p, you're still a few pence up :)

*** STOP PRESS! After feedback from members of our Facebook group (thanks Kelly!) it seems that there are no longer any fees to pay Mastercard into Paypal if you add the Mastercard as a payment card on one Paypal account and then pay using it into your main Paypal account. So you need 2 Paypal accounts with different email addresses***


Want more help like this? Come and join our Swagbucks / Mintvine / Prolific Facebook group!

If this has helped you, please share with your Swagbucks friends!

How to reach your second goal on Swagbucks with very little effort and minimal risk

If you're a Swagbucks user, you're probably familiar with the 'Daily Goal' aspect of the site. This is shown at the top of your screen when you're on the desktop version of the site, and has a 'first' daily goal and a 'second' daily goal.

The first is usually fairly low - if you're new it could be as low as 40 or 50 swagbucks - and the second a higher target. The more you do on Swagbucks, the higher your second daily goal will be, but the first is usually easily achievable.

For example, today my first goal was 105 - and this is my second:

My second goal is 800, and if I get it, I'll get a 76sb bonus at the end of the month. Reaching goal for 7 days in a row adds on an extra 25sb bonus, 14 days a 100sb bonus, 28 days a 200sb bonus and 28 days a whopping 300sb bonus, so it's well worth reaching at least your first daily goal every day. 

I've been on Swagbucks since 2012 (although only using seriously since 2016), so a lot of the offers in Discovery that pay big swagbucks are no longer available to me, or I have to spend in order to get them and I don't like spending money to earn money ;) (There are exceptions to this rule and I'll post about this another time)

However, thanks to the Swagbucks and other money making apps / sites group that I set up on Facebook, I've come across a great tip for making goal fairly quickly, fairly easily and with very little risk.

Make Swagstakes work for you

Swagstakes is Swagbucks' mini gambling area on the site. Usually I ignore it, as I cling to my SB fairly hard :)

But, there is a fairly low risk way to wager swagbucks - you won't increase your sb total in the examples I'm going to use, but you can reach goals and snag those all important bonuses.

I'm going to walk you through the process right here.

First, pop on over to Swagstakes - it's in the left hand menu under 'Contests' or you could click on http://www.swagbucks.com/swagstakes if you're already logged in:

Once in the Swagstakes screen, you'll see many options - my advice is to ignore them all - it's tempting, but that's not what we're concentrating on here.

Click on the link that says 'Limited Entries' (I've bookmarked the page which is at http://www.swagbucks.com/s/category/-1/Limited-Entries ):

On the next screen you're looking for the entries that only have 3 chances available - this means that only three entries are accepted, and then the prize is drawn. I've circled (kind of!) the 2 that I use - one is to win 50sb and one to win 100sb.

Let's take the 50sb game here - each entry costs 25sb. If you buy one entry, you have a 1 in 3 chance of winning. If you win you have spent 25sb and gained 50, which is good. HOWEVER if you snag 2 entries, one after the other, you have a 2 in 3 chance of winning. You'll spend 50 sb and if you win, gain 50sb, so no overall gain in your total SB, but the 50 WILL count towards your daily total.

So, let's grab one entry:

Snag the first entry, which will ask you to confirm and then take you to your swagstakes screen where your entry will show:

Click on that entry to snag another entry:

The key here is to be quick and get two out of the three before anyone else jumps in. Once you have 2 entries, just wait:

Many time you will win: 

You can do this multiple times to build up your daily goal total.

**Edited to add** Here's my final total for today:

****HOWEVER PLEASE BEWARE****

You will not win every time. Sometimes, even though the odds are in your favour, you WILL lose. See my luck so far today below:

I'm 200sb up on my daily total today but 105sb down on my overall total because I lost twice. I'm ok with that because my second daily goal bonus will be worth 76sb at the end of the month, plus hopefully the 300 monthly master when I get 28 consecutive daily goals.

Some days I'm luckier than others, and I only do this when I have a few sb i'm willing to lose. When I've lost 3 times, I stop. Most days I break even on the overall total and reach second goal.

I don't do this every day, but some days it really does help me reach goal.

It's not for the faint hearted, but if you need a few extra SB to reach either goal, it might be worth risking a few SB to see if it can work for you.

Not a Swagbucks member? I made £123 in February 2016 with very little effort, you could too. Join now. And don't forget to join our Facebook group too!

Any questions? Ask in the Facebook group and we'll all be happy to help!

You might also like to read how to make 60sb a day from Swagbucks video apps while you work / sleep / do housework / play

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.

Making money from Swagbucks - video apps

If you're a Swagbucks addict like me, you've learned a few tips and tricks along the way (although I'm still learning all the time) to maximise your chances of earning Swagbucks.

One of the easiest that guarantees 60/70 sb per day is the video apps. I run a group on Facebook where members help each other out on various survey sites and receipt / cashback apps, and one of the questions we're asked the most is how we make 60/70 sb a day JUST on videos, so here's a quick and dirty how to.

*** Please note that you can now run the video apps twice per day - once after 8am and once between 2am and 8am, so if you're an early riser you could run them all again between 6 and 8am, for an extra 60/70sb ***

Unfortunately the twice a day promotion has now finished, so you can only run the apps through once per day between 8am and 8pm - meaning 50sb on iPhone and 70sb on Android.

Install the video apps 

First of all you need to have ALL of the video apps installed - in the UK these are shown below (please ignore the one called Amped 360, this is US only, instead look for SBTV (Android only) as your 6th video app and use the main Swagbucks app as your 7th), and you can find the links to them at http://www.swagbucks.com/mobile

Run the video apps IN FULL daily!

Sounds easy, but so many people miss this bit out. For each app you have to run between 10 and 14 videos to earn 2sb. What people don't seem to see is that once you've done that 2sb, you can then run the app again another 4 times (and sometimes once more for bonus sp) to earn a total of 10 sb from each app, making 60sb a day.

So, this is what I do after logging in to the app (not signing in, the login link is lower down and you log in with your Swagbucks account logins.

1) Start the app

I'm going to use EntertaiNow as my example, as it's always the first one I use. Open the app:

2) Choose the quickest videos

Using the menu top left (the 3 straight lines), open up the menu and choose 'short clips' (second option under 'channels'

3) Run the videos

This will give you screen similar to this:

Click on the first video and it will start running - clips in this section are generally under 30 seconds long (but see the power user tip at the end of this post!)

Your video will start running:

Once your video has run you'll see this screen:

(it may say fewer videos depending on how many are in the run)

Once all the videos in the cycle have run, you'll get an alert that you've got your 2 swagbucks:

This is where a lot of people stop, thinking they have done their bit on that app - BUT WAIT!

4) Do it all again (4 times!)

At the top right of that last screen is a 'next video' link - click on that and start the whole cycle again! You can run each app 5 times, giving 10sb in total - in some cases you will get a 6th chance so keep an eye out!

Don't forget - do this on all 6/7 apps, not just this one! That's 60/70sb for nothing.

Swagbucks video app power user tip!

If you don't want to hover over your phone while these apps are running, then you can just leave it on the side (i'd recommend plugged in as it does eat battery!) and let it run it's course.

HOWEVER, if you're watching TV or want to get it over and done with quickly, then this is how to do it:

4 second rule

Run the app as above, and run the first video. Let it run for 4 seconds and then click the 'done' link top right:

Move on quickly

You'll then get the usual screen, on this one, click 'next video' (top right) to move on to the next one without waiting:

Rinse and repeat!

At an average of 4 seconds per video, 2 seconds to move on, 14 videos per round and 5 rounds to run, you can have 10 sb in around 7 minutes. 

I hope this mini how to guide has helped someone out there, please consider commenting below if it has, and over on our Swagbucks, Mintvine, Shopprize and more Facebook Page. And of course, if you're not a Swagbucks member yet, come and join me! 

How to cook your Christmas turkey in the dishwasher and live to tell the tale

So, a week before Xmas my oven decides to stop working. All the local shops can't deliver a new one for 6 weeks, and I have 7 for Christmas dinner... aarrrgghhh!

So what did I do? I turned to trusty Twitter and Facebook for an answer. After posting out my plea, I received back many ideas:

• microwave it
• BBQ it
• deep fry it
• cook it in the dishwasher

Yep, that's right, cook it in the dishwasher.

Now, I admit that one of the other three options must be easier than the dishwasher suggestion, but come on - when have I backed down in the face of a challenge? The dishwasher it must be!

I told the family and they looked at me aghast. "Cook the turkey... in the dishwasher....?" All except Leigh, who said "What a great idea for a blog post!" (glad to see she inherited my nose for drama ;) )

And so, on Xmas morning we duly got out the turkey:

Well, to be honest it was a Chapon not a turkey as such, but it once had feathers and laid eggs so I'm not quibbling :)

The recipes I found online said to wrap it in stemaing bags - we didn't have any so we extra quadruple wrapped it in thick turkey foil while we were running the dishwasher through on empty to make sure it was clean.

Then into the dishwasher it went:

Here's the turkey in it's home for the next few hours:

It was a 3.5KG bird, so we put it through 4 cycles at the highest temperature (75 deg) - checking it after each cycle to see if it really was cooking. Leigh was on standby with chicken nuggets if it didn't, and Shaun mentioned many times how glad he was having fish that could be cooked in the microwave (wuss!)

After 4 cycles, we unwrapped it and took a look:

It was cooked! OK, it was a bit pale and anaemic looking, but nothing a quick blast in the microwave grill and copious amounts of gravy couldn't sort out.

Most importantly, it tasted yummy - moist, flavourful, and very definitely edible - with not a trace of detergent to be found ;)

The rest of the Christmas dinner was cooked in the halogen oven we borrowed, in pans and in the microwave, so it was a bit of a 'take it as you find it' affair, but all in all it worked well and everyone had a lovely Christmas dinner, as well as having created a bit of a talking point!

 They tell me I'm brave to have tried it on such an important meal; there's a thin line between bravery and stupidity; I'm not sure which side I'm on LOL!

So for those of you who thought it couldn't be done - it can! For those of you who thought I wouldn't do it - I did! And for those of you who want to try it - do it! It really didn't take much longer than cooking the traditional way, and the end result was most pleasant.

What would you have done with your Christmas turkey if your oven broke a few days before Christmas?

A morning in the life of a multi tasking Mummy

Image via CrunchBaseI know us women are supposed to be able to multi task, but what a day so far today!

07.30: Wake up to find that baby O has vomited all over her bed in the night and then slept in it!

07.45: Put Baby O in bath and change bed

08:00: Feed Baby O her breakfast as she is all smiles

08.15: Clean up the sofa, carpet, high chair, floor and ME as Baby O has vomited everywhere again

08:30: Find out that the internet in the house isn't working, and the Doctor's isn't open until 2pm

08:35: Frantically try to rearrange Skype mentoring calls as no Internet or phone lines, while entertaining a miserable 9 month old

09:00: Nanny arrives to look after 9 month old while I go to Macdonald's to get free Wifi

09:30: Arrive at Macdonald's to find I've forgotten my purse and there's no plug to plug my laptop in. Also the 'a,bient' music is so loud I can't make Skype calls...

10:00: Happily have rescheduled all calls, explained situation to clients, and found some money in my pocket for a coffee and a muffin.

10:30: Important emails done, can now go home and continue working on my iPhone

10:45: Go to car to find that battery is flat and car won't start. Go back into Macdonald's to start up laptop to charge phone as battery is dead on that also!

11:00: Telephone friend to get her to come and pick me up

11:15: Think friend is lost - standing in freezing cold outside McD's

11:30: Friend turns up, takes me home. 9 month old still not well, so start other car to go get petrol to be able to get to pharmacy after doc's appointment

11:35: Get to petrol station and realise still don't have purse - drive home again, pick it up and fill up with fuel. Doc's not open until 2pm

11:45 Get internet tehering on iPhone working for internet access, Skype still crap

12:00: Finally get a cup of decent coffee!

Baby O is ok, just has an upset tummy - we'll be off to the doc's at 2pm! One car is still stranded at McD's, but luckily the other one is running (although my penchant for old cars may work against me here!).

I still have a days work to do - and I'm knackered :)