Tip of the Day Tuesday: Check out MyPoints!

In my Menu Planning Monday post, I shared that I cut our “eating out” budget to $50 for the month. To be honest, since I’ve been focusing on counting my points for Weight Watchers and eating better, I don’t really have a desire to eat out, but one of the ways that we are able to eat out without spending very much money out of pocket is by using gift cards that I have earned from sites like My Points.

If you’re looking to earn gift cards to supplement your 100% cash Christmas budget or you’re looking for an easy way to earn gift cards to supplement other budget categories, My Points makes it very easy! I joined the site about 5 years ago and in that five years, I have earned gift cards to places such as Chili’s, Target, Rainforest Cafe, Amazon.com, and CVS.

Here are some easy ways that you can earn points through My Points:

*Read the e-mails you receive – You will get 1-2 e-mails per day with various offers (I have not gotten any additional spam from this site, but you may want to sign up with a different e-mail address). Click on the “get points” icon in the e-mails that you receive and they will be added to your account! I usually earn 150-200 points each month just by doing this!

*Print and redeem coupons – you can print your coupons through MyPoints and you earn points each month when you redeem them!

*Earn points for your Bzz Agent reports – If you are a member of Bzz Agent (and if you’re not yet, you should join that, too!), you will typically earn 50-100 points for every Bzz report you submit. These are added to your My Points account!

*Shop through the links on their site – I usually do most of my shopping through Ebates, but if a retailer is not listed with them, I always check out My Points next!

Your points will add up before you know it and with 1,500 points, you can cash out for gift cards from several popular retailers including:

*Barnes and Noble
*Bass Pro Shops
*Bath and Body Works
*Borders
*Chili’s
*Gap/Old Navy
*Panera Bread
*Red Lobster/Olive Garden