So you know that I love getting money for stuff I do anyway. This is why I love Mystery Shopping. I'm gonna eat and grocery shop so I might as well get paid. Right?

Well, Swagbucks is like that, too. You're gonna do online searches so you might as well get something out of it and what you get are swagbucks. You get to decide what to do with your swagbucks just like they get to decide when to give you the Swagbucks but there are some pretty cool things you can get. Personally, I wait and turn mine in for Amazon certificates or PayPal but there are hundreds of choices.

Additional ways to get Swagbucks - you can download the Swagbucks toolbar and they release free swagcodes there. Also, swag codes get released on twitter and Facebook so it pays to follow them on those places.

Fridays are special in Swagbucks land because it's Mega Swagbucks Day and large denomination Swagbuck are given out. Seriously large in fact. So make sure you do some searching on Fridays because it could pay out nicely. And wouldn't that be a Cool Idea!

Are you stuck for what to get your loved ones for Valentine's Day? Or maybe you're just stuck inside because of the weather - like me. Well, I have some Swagbucks traded in for Amazon gift cards and with my Prime Membership I can have something cute or fun or whatever here in a couple of days. So, now I'm off to shop with my free money because that is a tremendously Cool Idea!

I hope so. It's a great way to get both information and good stuff.

Signing up with Swagbucks is easy. Follow the link or one of the Swagbucks buttons or banners on this page. Also, you can go through my search swidget down on the lower right hand bar.

One of the great reasons to use Swagbucks is that if you download the Swagbucks toolbar, you'll get notice of free Swagbucks - and who doesn't want free stuff! This week there's a free Swagbuck every day being released on the toolbar. Just download the toolbar and keep an eye out for when it pops up to tell you that there's a new one out there. You also get Swagbucks randomly for your searches.

And once you get a good number of Swagbucks accumulated you can check out the Swag Store and see what you want to buy with your Swagbucks. Usually I get Amazon certificates or I turn them in for PayPal cash. It just depends what I need at the time or if the Swag Store is running a sale. Either way I win because I'm getting a prize for something I'd be doing anyway which I think is definitely a Cool Idea!

Mercedes at Common Sense with Money is hosting a fantastic giveaway. She is giving away a six month supply of Ragu sauce to three readers. Hop on over and check out the ways to enter. This giveaway is open until 9/6/09.

Kids Eat Free at IKEA Sept 5-7, 2009 - not to mention that they have some wonderful things on sale this Labor Day weekend. So, if you need anything for the house this fall and you want to feed the kids a healthy meal head on out to your local IKEA.

Don't forget you can enter The Big Clip sweepstakes daily for a huge chance to win Box Tops for Education for your school.

Don't forget that you can still get a 10% discount on Lovable Labels until Sept 10th using the code itscool.

And in case you haven't noticed yet SWAGBUCKS released a new toolbar yesterday and it is super cool! Not only can you still search from the toolbar if you are an IE user but now Firefox and Safari users can, too! Very Nice! SwagCodes can also be found on the toolbar and you can trade your swagbucks in much easier. Well there are even more things you can do but you'll need to download it to believe it. It's beautiful. Truly.

Another bonus is that they are releasing a free SwagCode every day for the Month of September to celebrate the new toolbar. It will be much easier to catch the codes if you have the new toolbar so grab the button here and hop on over. Swagbucks are definitely a Cool Idea!

And here we go with our weekly freebie list:

FREE greeting card from The Card Store until 9/7

FREE Sample of Bear Naked Cereal or Granola Bars

FREE Sample of Aveeno Nourish+Shampoo and Conditioner

FREE Sample of Kashi Cereal

FREE Sample of Playtex Sport Tampons

I know that I've posted about Swagbucks before. In fact, there's a link in my 'Stickies' section so that the post is always at our fingertips because Swagbucks is an awesome way to search your way to cash and prizes.

How? Just use Swagbucks the way you would Google or Yahoo search engines. It's powered by the same engines as Ask.com and gives great results except that also randomly gives out Swagbucks!

There are also Swag Codes for additional Bucks. These also come out randomly. Sometimes you see them on the homepage or on the Swag Blog or on the Facebook page or on someone else's blog. But the best way to get additional Swagbucks is my referring other people. It's as simple as that.

So, what can I use my swagbucks for? Almost everything under the sun! I've traded mine in for Amazon e-certificates but now they do Paypal, too. It takes 80 swagbucks for $5 into Paypal vs. 45 Swagbucks toward Amazon but if what you are after is cash then this is worth it and if you are doing internet searches anyway you'll rack up the Swagbucks quickly enough.

The Swag People make it fairly easy. You can download a Swagbucks search toolbar if you use IE and there's a drop down box for the Firefox search area. Whew!! How easy. It's right there at your fingertips. So go and get started and to make it even easier click on the gigantic Swagbucks banner in the righthand sidebar and it'll magically take you to the land of the Swagbucks. Now go and get started and begin learning things so that you can pick up more Swagbucks!! It's a Cool Idea!

Yesterday,  Jenn at Frugal Upstate had a guest post who did a step-by-step with pictures recipe for Porcupine Meatballs. Since this is a recipe I've been thinking of adding to our menu plan I found it interesting and since this is my blog of interesting things, I'm going to pass it along. I hope you find it interesting, too.

Also, if you are doing you haven't started doing your searches through Swagbucks yet here's some incentive. If you are a new user you'll get 2 extra Swagbucks for using the code: MONEYSAVINGMETHODS in your GIMME! box once you've created your account. See the details on Carrie's blog and act fast because this expires tomorrow!!

There you go! Enjoy!

If you've taken a tour of my blog - and, hey, who hasn't:) You might have noticed that there's a banner at the bottom for Swagbucks - the "premier digital dollar". If you haven't started doing your searches through Swagbucks I highly recommend signing up and giving it a try. 

First of all, let me explain what Swagbucks is. Swagbucks is a search engine. Sort of. That's what you're going to notice first. It's powered by Google and Ask.com and you're going to get the same quality of information that you would get if you just did your search through the Google or Yahoo home page. The difference is that you will randomly get rewarded with Swagbucks in random denominations. The more searches you do the more opportunities you have for earning Swagbucks.

Secondly, You can get Swagbucks for shopping through the Swagbucks stores. You get 1 Swagbuck for every $5 spent. If you're going to spend the money anyway through these online retailers this is another way for you to get some extra credit.

Thirdly, you can "Go Green" by recycling your old cell phones. I just looked up the cell phone I just replaced and it appears I could get 47 Swagbucks for it. Sweet!

Fourthly, there are occasionally free Swagcodes sent out on Facebook, the Swag Guy blog, and Twitter that you can snag and add to your account that will net you some extra 'bucks. Oh, and if you sign up through my banner at the bottom of the page I can benefit by telling a friend. Just spreading the word gives you some Swagbucks.

Oh, there's more - and there's less - if you want. There's an IE toolbar if you want your Swagbucks search at your finger tips. There's also a plugin for Firefox. If you're using Safari you'll need to just manually put in on the toolbar and make sure to do searches from there.

So, why would searching through Swagbucks be a Cool Idea? If you do nothing but a few searches a day, like I do, in a few months you could have around 100 Swagbucks. For this I could get 2 - $5 gift cards to Amazon and have a bit left still in my account. Or I could get 2-$5 Starbucks cards or a $10 Barnes and Noble Card. It's not going to make me rich but I'm already doing the searches so why can't I get something extra for it if it's being offered. 

I'm not talking about expectation here. No one owes me for the things I look up online. No ones me free Swagbucks when I go to the fan site on Facebook. I'm talking about being thankful that I can take advantage of the opportunity that exists for as long as it's able to exist. 

So, check out Swagbucks. Pick up some Stuff We All Get. Pass it along and help out some friends, too. We're all out there Googling - see, it's a verb already! Swagbucks is just helping us with a bit on the side and making it a Very Cool Idea.