Stop waiting and use your stuff before it expires!

I recently was trying to get stuff organized and in sorting through everything found the following items, all of which were expired:

• Several high value coupons, including a few free item coupons
  
• A $15 facebook ads credit
  
• A coupon for a $20 Target gift card for completing a baby registry (which I did)
  
• A $25 cash card from Huggies Enjoy the Ride (Oh the pain! The shame!)
  

It made me literally sick to my stomach to essentially throw away over $45 just because of my procrastination and lack of organization. In truth I knew I had the cash card, but didn't realize it had an expiration date on it and was saving it. Why was I saving something that could essentially be used as cash for any of my everyday purchases? Partly because it's a pain to use, but really mostly because it was something I had won, and so I wanted to use it for something special for me. So I waited just long enough to not be able to use it on anything.

There is surely a lesson to be learned from this. Keep track of what you have by going through things regularly instead of twice a year. Check gift cards and coupons for expiration dates immediately and make little reminders for yourself if those dates are short. But mostly... stop waiting. There will never be a perfect moment to use something, so take the plunge and just use it while it's still good. You'll get your value and save yourself this sick feeling.

Easy way to earn some extra swagbucks

I recently discovered a way to earn some extra Swagbucks, in addition to doing regular web searches and taking the daily poll (you do have a Swagbucks account, right?)

If you click on "ways to earn" and then "special offers" at the top of the page, you'll be taken to a page with limited time offers. Many of these are email submits, sign ups, or other typical GPT type offers. However, if you flip through the offers, you'll find several that pay you swagbucks just to watch a 2 minute video. I found videos in the SuperRewards section and the OfferPal section, but there seem to be different ones every few days.

I typically earn enough SB for a $5 Amazon giftcard every three months or so just from my searches, so this will speed it up a bit!