Get great deals when doing your holiday travel shopping! (US) #Swagbucks

Now that the holidays are in full gear, a lot of you likely have travel on the horizon. If you're in that same boat, you can get great deals and cash back for shopping through Swagbucks! Just go here and see all of the great cash back you can get from some of your favorite stores. Here's how it works:

1. Click here to see the stores offering deals and cash back.
2. Click through to the store(s) of your choice and do some shopping!
3. Get cash back in the form of points (called SB) that you can redeem for free gift cards so you can stretch your holiday (and decorating) budget even further!

As an extra bonus, if you're not a Swagbucks member and join through my link (or you've joined through my link this month), you'll get an one time 200 SB bonus when you spend $25 or more in any of the Swagbucks Shop stores before December 1st! Swagbucks is a great site where you earn SB points for doing every day things online like shopping, discovering deals, taking surveys, watching videos, searching the web, and more. The SB you earn, the more gift cards you can get, which are a HUGE help this time of year.

You can do all sorts of online activities on Swagbucks to earn SB, including other offers like this one! Then you can turn your gift cards in to PayPal cash or gift cards to places like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, and more!

The Happiest Day Ever: Including Your Loved Ones In Your Wedding

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Contrary to popular belief, your wedding is not just about you. I know! It’s a shocker. But in the future when you look back at your big day, you’ll find that some of your best memories are of your friends and your family. Of course, you and your groom are the top priority, but if you look around at your friends and family and figure out what would make their part of your wedding even better, you’ll discover that not only will they be delighted, but you’ll enjoy yourself even more too.

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Take Your Friends Dress Shopping With You

First of all, remember that even though you love your wedding party dearly and you know they’ll always be there for you, they won’t be at your beck and call for the entire run up to your wedding. You and your husband are the only people whose lives are centering around your wedding so make sure you aren’t a bridezilla! But your friends will love to come dress shopping with you at least once. Take them to a beautiful bridal shop so you can try on a couple of gowns, they can inspect the bridesmaids’ dresses, and you can all indulge in a sparkling glass of champagne. Take them out for dinner or to a bar afterwards so you can have a girly chat about what’s going on in their lives – use your wedding as a chance to spend time with your favorite people instead of just focusing on yourself.

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Spend Time With Your Mother In Law

Some people have very bad relationships with their partner’s family, which is a pretty sad turn of events. But if you start off on the right foot, you’ll be able to build a positive and loving relationship. When you get married, you aren’t just marrying your partner – you’re also marrying into their family and becoming part of it. Half of your Thanksgivings and Christmases will likely be spent with his family so it’s vital that you have a good relationship with them. Invite your future mother in law to a dress fitting, include her in your plans, and make sure that she feels that she’s playing a vital role in your wedding and that she’s supporting you. Make sure you have boundaries and make it clear if she’s overstepping them. If you have kids, you want them to have supportive and loving grandparents, and the best way for you to live an easy life is to get along with them well. The run up to your wedding is an ideal time to lay those foundations.

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Write Letters To Your Close Family And Friends

Make sure you thank them and show your appreciation for all their hard work and how they’ve supported you and your big day. Even if you aren’t usually a big fan of expressing your feelings, now is the perfect time to start doing it. Write your parents letters - read more for an example - and hand them over on the morning of your wedding to show that even though you’re extending your family by becoming part of your new husband’s, you appreciate everything they’ve done for you and will remain close to them forever. Likewise, giving notes and gifts to your bridesmaids will absolutely make their day. Look online for gifts that can be personalized to add an extra touch of love.

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Make Sure You Balance Your Time Well

You might want to spend your whole day with your brand new husband, but let’s face it – the whole point of your wedding is that you’re about to spend your entire lives together! Make sure that you move around and that you say hi to the friends and family who have traveled from far and wide to see you get married. They’ll love having a little special attention each and getting the chance to congratulate you. Likewise, spending time dancing with your father and grandfather will produce photographs and memories that you’ll cherish for the rest of your life.

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The Party Isn’t Just For You!

You might want to slow dance with your brand new husband all night, but chances are, your friends won’t want to do that. Make sure that you play some fast, fun music that everyone will appreciate. Throw in a little vintage Beatles and Rolling Stones for the older generation before making a move into some of the music that you and your friends loved when you were younger. You’ll be sure to find that All The Small Things and Teenage Dirtbag get a much more rapturous response than the fifth sappy love song in a row!

Mt. Swagmore Collector's Bills

One of my favorite things about using Swagbucks is that I can get rewards for searching the web through their search engine. Every now and then they have "Collector's Bills" that you can collect by simply searching the web. Collect them all, and you get an SB Bonus!

Here's all the information for this week's Mt. Swagmore Collector's Bills

How Do I Get Collector’s Bills?

It’s simple. Search the web through the Swagbucks search starting Monday, November 7th at 12:01am PT/3:01am ET through Sunday, November 13th at 11:59pm PT/Monday, November 14th 2:59am ET, and when you get a search win, you may get a special Collector’s Bill valued at either:

• 5 SB
• 10 SB
• 13 SB
• 22 SB

What happens when I get a Collector’s Bill?

When you get a Collector’s Bill you’ll receive the value of the bill and the bill will be added to your “Collector’s Bills” ledger. Collect all 4 Collector’s Bills and you’ll instantly earn a 20 SB Bonus!

Is it possible to collect the same Collector’s Bills multiple times?

Yes, you could collect any of the Collector’s Bills multiple times.

Get The Children In Your Life A Free Book and get $8

 

 World Book and Swagbucks have the perfect gift for the little reader in your life - a free book that makes history come alive! World book has a great assortment of vibrant, fun, and informative books about a variety of different historical events, people, and legends that are perfect for grades 6-8. This offer gets you a free book (you pay $1 in shipping) AND you get $5 (paid in Swagbucks' SB Points) for doing it, plus a bonus $3 (300SB) for signing up for Swagbucks through me first. Here's how you can get your free book and $8:

1. Click here to get to the offer. When you get there, if you're not already a member you'll be prompted to create your Swagbucks account - it takes less than 30 seconds.
2. Click the blue "Continue" button
3. Order your free book - that's it! The 500 SB will credit immediately, and if you're a new member signing up for Swagbucks through the above link, you'll get another 300 SB in the first week of December.

So, what's this Swagbucks I'm talking about? It's the site where you earn points (called SB) for things you're already doing online, like shopping, watching videos, discovering deals (like this one!), taking surveys, or even searching the web! Then you take your points and redeem them for PayPal cash or gift cards to places like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, and more! In fact, for signing up through me, you can actually get ANOTHER bonus $2 if you spend $25 or more on holiday shopping through Swagbucks this month!

I love Swagbucks and it's where I do all my online searching because I get rewarded with random Swagbuck amounts as I do so. I also take the daily poll for 1 SB and sometimes watch videos and sign up for information for things I want to know about for even more SB. There are a ton of ways to earn Swagbucks and I have been on this site for years! Check it out!

How to Safely Shop on Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving (this year, that's November 28^th). Like Black Friday, it's a day for holiday shopping, and it is becoming bigger and bigger with each passing year. In fact, some analysts predict that Cyber Monday could outstrip Black Friday this year in total dollars spent. And that isn't surprising, if you consider how pervasive online shopping has become over the last decade. After all, who hasn't bought something (or more likely, many hundreds of things) off of Amazon?

But Cyber Monday can pose risks if you aren't careful. Thankfully, there are a number of simple preventive measures you can take to safeguard against theft. To ensure your information is secure and safe, follow these tips on Cyber Monday. Whether you're shopping from your phone or your computer, you can't be too safe or too cautious.

Use Different Passwords

If you maintain multiple accounts on e-commerce websites, it's best that you use multiple passwords for each. Any website with stored credit card information should be treated with the utmost respect and care; don't use simple passwords, and don't use passwords that you've used elsewhere. If you are concerned that you won't be able to remember multiple passwords for multiple sites, consider using an online password manager. There are a multitude of password managers to choose from, many of which are completely free.

Keep Your Mobile and Desktop OS Up-to-Date

Your operating system, whether on your smartphone or your computer, acts as a front-line deterrent against malware, viruses, and other potentially harmful online risks. To protect your private data and credit card information, it is important that you regularly update your operating system. If you shop online using your phone or tablet, you may also consider getting a phone with built-in security features. Mobile processors such as Snapdragon by Qualcomm offer a number of built-in security features that can help with malware detection, theft deterrence, content protection, and user authentication on your phone. Buy a phone that helps protect your data for you.

Don't Use Public Wi-Fi to Shop

No matter what, don't shop on a public, unprotected Wi-Fi network. The dangers of open Wi-Fi networks are well documented, but if you are unfamiliar with the dangers, the basic risk is this: open Wi-Fi networks leave you vulnerable to identity theft, including theft of private financial information, such as bank account and credit card numbers. If you choose to shop from your smartphone or tablet, do so over a secure cellular network or protected Wi-Fi network, or install a virtual private network (VPN) on your mobile device. These applications encrypt private data, offering a helpful barrier against would-be hackers.

Shop from Trusted Retailers

Sometimes the simplest solution is the most effective one. If you shop only from trusted retailers, you can minimize your risk of identity theft and fraud. Most major retailers maintain SSL certification on their websites. Sites with an SSL certificate are more secure than those without, and are easily identified by two distinct features: an HTTPS web address, and a padlock icon in the domain field, which is placed in front of the web address. Retailers like J. Crew and Walmart have SSL certificates on their websites, while others, like Target, surprisingly do not (as of this writing).

Disable Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of digital information or data that are stored by your web browser. Typically, cookies are intended to help improve the user experience by storing information that may be used later. For example, your web browser may remember your shipping address or contact information; when you activate an input field, your browser may automatically input this data or suggest it for quicker data entry. It certainly is convenient, there is no doubt about that. But this information is often of a sensitive and private nature, and should your device become lost or stolen, this data could end up in the wrong hands. For peace of mind and added security, disable cookies on your device.

Shop Smart. Shop Safe.

There's no reason to be afraid of shopping on Cyber Monday. But that isn't an excuse to become complacent either. Taking simple precautionary measures can help ensure your personal and private data isn't stolen or leaked, and this in turn can guarantee a safe, pleasant, and trouble-free shopping experience this holiday season. Happy shopping and happy holidays!

Samantha Rivers is a freelance writer who lives in Chicago (Go Cubs!) and loves writing anything in the lifestyle, parenting and career realm both online and print. When she's not running the Upward Onward blog, she enjoys curling up with a good book, finding new restaurants, being active outside, and indulging in a glass of wine or two. 

Follow her on Twitter!