Having a Plan For Now and Beyond

The key to any journey is knowing where you’d like to end up.  My journey ends with an iPad.  How I get there is a story yet to be told.  I have decided to map out how I would like to get to my destination, because I believe the key to success is organization and flexibility.

I figure I will need at least $650 to get a low level iPad with an extended warranty (I will, of course, aim for less than that, but I have to be realistic).  I’ll be giving this to a 3 year old (he’ll be 3 by the time he gets it), so I’m guessing the likelihood of something happening to it is fairly high (even though he is pretty good to his belongings, he IS a child and children have tantrums, so you have to be prepared, right?)

So how do I get $650?

Well, on SwagBucks you can get up to 5 gift cards of any one type and denomination per month (so (5)- $5 Amazon Gift Cards, (5)- $5 PayPal Gift Cards, (5)- $25 Amazon Gift Cards, (5)- $25 PayPal Gift Cards, etc)  The gift cards vary depending on availability, but best case scenario is that if I could max out those two vendors in all of the denominations offered every month, I would have $900 in Amazon gift cards and $900 in PayPal.  

 If I got enough SwagBucks, I could get an iPad in just one month (with a lot left over).  Somehow, I’m thinking that’s not going to happen unless a few thousand people sign up under my referral link since SwagBucks only matches up to 1000 SwagBucks earned (from searches only) every month from each referral.

Then I got to thinking, what if I do get enough referrals to get this iPad and I end up with a ton of leftover SwagBucks/gift cards?  I wouldn’t feel right just keeping all of that.  So I have decided that once I get the iPad for my son, I am going to take the rest of the SwagBucks earned from my referrals and use them to buy toys for needy kids for Christmas.  I love searching for deals, and I’m pretty good at it.  Not to mention that Black Friday is it’s very own holiday in my house.

I’d also like to do a giveaway for the people that sign up under my referral link.  Maybe a $25 Amazon gift card?  I’ll have to check into the legality of that, but I would definitely like to give back to those that help to make my son’s dream a reality.

So if you have not yet signed up for SwagBucks, please use my link below to get started. Every buck you earn through searches helps me get one step closer to an iPad for my son, and eventually gets toys into the hands of needy children.  I will start doing frequent updates once I start accumulating referral points.

SwagBucks Referral Link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/HobbyCakesCloth

MyPoints Referral: Please contact me and I will send you an invite (kalbrecht80@gmail.com)

Starting My Journey to an iPad

My son is 2 years old.  He has always loved technology.  For his second Christmas I got him an iPod Touch and that thing has been his best friend ever since.  He listens to Tchaikovsky on it and looks at photos.  He calls it his 'iPhone' and pretends to have conversations with his aunts and cousins on it.

Isaac is truly a wonderful child.  He loves to shop.  Several times a week, we go to Wal-mart and Target and just walk around.  Eating macaroni in the Target cafe is one of his favorite things to do.  I enjoy taking him 'shopping' because he loves to search for things on clearance and he is so well behaved.  He's not one of those kids that heads for the toy aisle and wants everything in sight.  He doesn't throw tantrums when I tell him that he can't have something.  Actually, he rarely ever asks for anything.  He likes to look and push buttons, but usually he just looks around.  The only thing he has ever asked me for on our numerous trips to the store was a bottle of bubbles, and yes I bought them.  He said, "Mommy, may I have this?" and I said "Well, honey, $3 is kind of a lot for a bottle of bubbles."  He looked at it and said, "Ok, Mommy." and then put it back on the shelf. 

Heaven help me, I was so proud of him.  We walked around a bit and I found a sale where if you bought a certain amount, you got a $5 gift card.  The items were things we used, they were on sale, and I had coupons.  So I picked them up and explained to my son that we could get the bubbles now, and his face lit up.  I checked out first and got the gift card and handed it to him.  He pushed his little Melissa & Doug shopping cart up to the register and placed his bubbles on the checkout belt and then handed the gift card to the cashier.  He had enough left over on his gift card to get some macaroni in the café and he sat there looking at his bubbles, eating his macaroni, and telling me how this was “the best day EVER”

My son doesn’t ask for much, so when he does, I really take it seriously.  Well, his aunt came to visit one day, and she has an iPad.  That was the beginning of the end :)

Once he realized iPads existed, he has been all about iPads.  He has a collection of magazines that have iPads in them and ‘reads’ them frequently.  Whenever we go to the store, he wants to go to electronics to look at the iPads.  He frequently requests to go to Verizon because they have iPads on display that you can touch.  He says hi and bye to the iPads in the stores.  One day, he was looking at an iPad in the case and he asked me “Mommy, can the iPad come home with us?”  and I said, “Not today, honey.  The iPad is very expensive.  I don’t have that much money.”  He said, “Ok Mommy.”  Then he looked at the iPad some more and said to the iPad “Maybe tomorrow, iPad.”

That’s when I knew.  I knew that no matter what it took, I had to find a way to get my son an iPad.  And so, I have begun my journey to get an iPad for my son.  My plan is to use rewards programs such as SwagBucks and MyPoints to earn gift cards and then use those giftcards to get the iPad.  If you would like to lend a hand on this journey, my referral links are below.  If you sign up under me, I earn a points when you earn points and every little bit helps.

SwagBucks Referral Link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/HobbyCakesCloth

MyPoints Referral: Please contact me and I will send you an invite (kalbrecht80@gmail.com)

Join me on this journey.  My goal is to get enough together to get the iPad next Christmas.  Let's see if I can make it!