How We Got Our 42″ (New) TV for $99 Buckaroos.

September 6, 2012 by Anne 9 Comments

Once upon a time, Kenny and I decided that we’d like to ditch his 1,000,000 lb tube TV for a flat screen.

However, there was a slight problem: no dinero in the budget.

So we turned to my favorite way to earn moolah on the internet: Swagbucks.

This is the story of how we purchased a $450 42″ TV for a mere $99.  //gasps//

 

(I’ll pause for a moment to let you all get back on your chairs.)

 

Proof: Here’s a photo:

I even took this with my real camera, not my cell phone. //gasps again//

On to the story. When we left off, we had no dinero in the budget. That hasn’t changed. But we did have a great idea.

I’ve been using the Swagbucks search engine for awhile now, always cashing in the points I earned for $5 Amazon giftcards. I used them to offset the cost of my textbooks and some other fun stuff. But one fateful day (in November, I think), Kenny and I made each other a deal: we’d save our giftcards and put them toward the cost of a TV once we got married.

Swagbucks is a search engine that randomly awards you points (anywhere from 7-40) for searching. You don’t get points every time you search, but if you use the search engine regularly just for searching, you can rack up quite a bit of points which can then be turned into giftcards. You can also earn points by doing surveys, taking polls, completing special offers, and referring other people. <— (people, this is my referral link. You should use it if you are at all interested.)

As far as search engines go, Swagbucks stinks. The results, quite frankly, aren’t very good, but you can usually find what you are looking for. I just wouldn’t use it for, say, academic research. Bad idea. And I think the way their business model works is through a bunch of advertising and special offers and stuff, so you’ll have to deal with that. I think it’s worth it, though (see above picture).

Anyway, $5 giftcard by $5 giftcard, we both saved our Swagbucks until we had, as of last week, $350 in Amazon cash. We decided we could use up to $100 of wedding money to supplement, and I let Kenny research to his heart’s content. He (of course) chose one that was almost exactly $100 more than our giftcards, and we pulled the trigger.

I’ll let you gaze at our new TV some more, if you haven’t already gone to sign up for Swagbucks.

See what the TV is sitting on? Kenny BUILT THAT. I know. I’m as shocked as you are. He is pretty incredible.

Also, we like nerdy games a bit.

Now we can watch the Lions play, which, according to Kenny, is awesome. I’m just glad we didn’t spend an arm and a leg on this TV. This purchase definitely falls into my category of awesome deals.