Tuesday, December 9, 2008
photo by iChaz on flickr
I think every online shopper is at least vaguely aware of coupon codes online, but I wanted to put this up as a resource for you when looking for coupon codes.
If you are looking for a really quick coupon code to get you in and out of your shopping cart fast, check www.retailmenot.com. I've gone here to check for Victoria's Secret coupon codes (because VS actually lets you use THREE in one transaction!) & they also have other stores available. For example, there is a $10 off $30 coupon for American Girl listed here. I have also found retailmenot to be good for Papa John's online coupons.
If you want to get the most bang for your buck, shop through a program that will give you extra rewards, such as MyPoints and Ebates. I've already written about my love for MyPoints, and I often complete a lot of my online purchases through Mypoints because I will earn big points for them, such as right now Overstock.com is offering MyPoints members 10 points per dollar in addition to their site-wide free shipping.
Ebates is another program you can use. Shop by clicking through Ebates' links to your favorite merchants and you will earn cash back on your purchases. Right now is double cash back, so some sites are giving 8% cash back! You will get this money in the form of a check in February (Ebates sends out checks several times a year). What is great is that Ebates shows you what other coupon code offers you can use in addition to your cash back. If you want to sign up under my referral and earn a $5 bonus, you can sign up here.
Whatever you do, don't shop online without coupon codes and without getting something in return. Combine these offers with a rewards-generating credit card and you can get yourself some really good bonuses for things that you have to purchase anyway.
Hope this helps! Love, Bay
This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday. Be sure to check out the other WFMW tips at Rocks in my Dryer.
image by africankelli on flickr
For those of you who would rather make homemade gifts this year, or don't know what to buy various teachers, co-workers, doormen...There are gifts in a jar. Gifts in a jar can be anything, like the beautiful limoncello above, to pre-made cookies and candies. Most common, and probably the most economical for you to make, are the mixes in a jar.
It is not just soup or chocolate chip cookie mix, either. You can make anything from trail mixes, to breakfast mixes. Here are a few different ones that won't put too much strain on your wallet. Just make little cards with the name of the mix, the additional ingredients and instructions. You can also decorate the tops of the jars with fabric & attach the cards with raffia, or cover with tissue paper and tie the card on with ribbon.
Raisin Bran Muffins (I loved these as a kid!)
Use a 1qt. canning jar & pack the ingredients down in the order listed:
1 1/2 cups All Bran cereal
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins
Attach to jar:
Additional ingredients needed:
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Empty mix in a large bowl. Combine dry mix and then add additional ingredients. Mix well. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins 2/3 of the way full. Bake 16 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!
Apple Cinnamon Pancakes (or whatever dried fruit you use!)
Use a 1 qt. canning jar & pack down the ingredients in the order listed:
3 cups flour
3 T sugar
2 T baking powder
1/2 cup dried apples (or whichever fruit you want to use, blueberries, etc.)
4 t. cinnamon (if you are not using apples, you can nix this if you want, I'm not a cinnamon fan)
1 t. salt
Attach to jar:
Additional ingredients needed:
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 T vegetable oil
Combine dry mix and measure 1 1/3 c. Return excess mix to jar. In a mixing bowl, combine milk, egg and oil. Whisk in 1 1/3 c. of pancake mix until moistened (will still have lumps). Cook on lightly greased skillet. Makes about 10 5" pancakes.
Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Use a 1 qt. canning jar & pack the ingredients down in the order listed:
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder (you may need to wipe the jar down after this layer)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cup Craisins
1 cup chocolate chips
Combine 1 3/4 cups of flour, 1 tsp. baking powder & 1/2 tsp. baking soda and use as the last layer.
Attach to jar:
Additional ingredients needed:
1 egg
1 1/2 sticks melted butter or margarine
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Empty mix into a large bowl. Combine dry mix with the additional ingredients and mix well. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 13-15 minutes. Yields about 30 cookies.
Monday, December 8, 2008
I've been busy running around doing all the usual Christmas shopping, so it has been a slow news weekend. I found a couple of posts about free items at Target and I thought I'd pass them along. Not sure if I'm gonna run out to Target for these, but if you are stopping by it is worth a shot!
Moneysavingmom has a post about possible free Rayovac batteries at Target here. If you can find the Rayovac batteries in your Target's dollar section, this would be a sweet deal!
Common Sense with Money has a post about free Airwick Luminair flameless candles here. These would make great little add-on gifts or stocking stuffers.
Hope these work for you! Also, to let you know, there is a website called A Full Cup that has a Target printable coupon generator, that lets you save some paper when printing Target printable coupons. Go here to check it out. And don't forget that Target store coupons can be combined with manufacturer coupons to get some really good deals. My store used to give me a hard time about this, so I tend to go to the youngest cashiers available, it sounds terrible to say, but the young ones actually tend to listen and say "I'll try it" while the older ones just want to argue. But it does work!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Ever seen those big Redbox movie rental kiosks in your grocery store? My Acme definitely has one, but apparently they are every where, including (in some areas) Walmarts, Walgreens & McDonald's (the geniuses at McD's are responsible for creating Redbox).
WELL...I see a lot of blogs posting Redbox codes every Monday for a free rental. This has never seemed convenient for me, as we probably won't watch the movie on Monday and then I will get charged $1 a day until I bring the movie back. What I just learned from The Centsible Sawyer is that there are other codes frequently popping up that can be used any night of the week. She also has some codes on her site for free movies at Walmart on Sundays. Check out her post about Redbox here.
I'm not sure if I'll actually start using this soon, since I already use Netflix and have a lot of 'shows' on my DVR. But I think it's good to know about the free code site in the event any of us have a movie fix, it might as well be free!
Friday, December 5, 2008
First, if you are new to working deals at Acme, please read the background info on one of my earlier deals posts. This will explain how the coupons double & how to print two copies of the printable coupons.
The deals are still pretty slim. Here is what I see:
Non-coupon deals:
Lean Cuisine & Stouffer's Red Box- All 50% off.
Buy any two Pepperidge Farm Holiday Crackers (2 for $5) get a free 26 oz. Swanson Cooking stock ($2.99 value) when you use your Supercard. If you have a coupon for Swanson stock, use it and the coupon value will be applied towards your total
Antioch Stuffed Chicken Breast single serve sale for $1 each
Thomas English Muffin twin packs are on sale for $1.99
Deals using printable coupons and regular coupons:
In the Acme Big Book circular (the monthly book) there is a coupon for Prima Familia Italian Meatballs, buy one get two free.
On the front page of this week's circular is a coupon for buy one get two free Hormel Black Label Bacon.
There is a coupon in the Big Book for 15 bottles of POWERade or POWERade Zero for $10 (a savings of $5). There is also a coupon on the last page of this week's circular for a free 24-pack of Dasani water when you purchase 10 bottles of POWERade. Use them both and get 15 bottles of POWERade and 24 bottles of Dasani for $10.
Progresso classic soups are on sale for $1 each. Use the $1 off 2 or $2 off 4 coupon here to get them for $0.50 each.
Green Giant frozen boxed vegetables are on sale for $1 each. Use the $0.60 off 2 coupon here (they will double to $1.20) to get them for $0.40 each.
15.6-18 oz. General Mills cereals & Nature Valley granola bars are $2 each when you buy four. Not sure if Wheaties is included but there are $0.75 cents off (will double to $1.50) coupons here that would make them $0.50 a box. There are $1 off two General Mills coupons here and here. There are also $1 off three General Mills coupons in recent newspaper inserts.
Soy Joy bars are on sale for $1 each. Use the buy one get one free coupon from a recent insert to get them for $0.50 each.
Lysol cleaning products are on sale for $2.50 each. There are printables here for $0.50 (will double to $1) or $1 off. Get each Lysol product for $1.50.
I guess you can tell by that last one that the deals really aren't that spectacular. If I see something better in the store I'll update the post. If you see anything good, leave a comment. Thanks!! Love, Bay
Thursday, December 4, 2008
iHere are a few more websites that you may be interested in joining. I am a member of all of these and there aren't any referrals needed here, you just sign up.
Vocalpoint- I love Vocalpoint! You join, they mail you free things. Well, they also have a bunch of other activities and articles going on, but when they do have promotions they just up and mail you something free. I have received a free Venus Breeze razor, coupon packs for Starkist tuna & Del Monte fruit bowls, and just this week I got a little calendar/planner from Crest with coupons, including a coupon for a free Crest Weekly Clean toothpaste. You can sign up here.
Shespeaks- This site is another that aims to be a community for women, with polls, chats, etc. What is cool is that they claim to have special offers, coupons, and products to test out. I was just selected for my first product test & will be receiving some free Ghirardelli chocolate squares. You can sign up here.
House Party- I would love to have one of these! Will they ever pick me? lol...Maybe I'm not putting that I have enough friends to invite...Anyway, House Party is a site for different companies to promote their products by sending kits to people who pledge to host a party & invite all their friends. The host gets supplies to help throw the party & samples to give out/use at the party. There was one where you had to have an Xbox 360, and they sent out a movie from Netflix and a SceneIt game to use on the Xbox. If any of you are chosen to host a party, you better invite me! You can sign up here.
Hope you like them! Love, Bay
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Looks like some decent freebies are around again!
Get a Glad ForceFlex trash bags sample
Benefiber on-the-go samples are still available here
Free sample of Always Infinity
GoodNites Underpants is offering a free sample
Lysol is offering a free "Looking after you and your baby" booklet to mothers of babies 0-18 months. It probably also contains some coupons, but also after you sign up there is a link to Home Solutions where you can print some coupons right now.
Get a free sample of Black Truffle gourmet olive oil
Free Juicy Juice sippy cup when you sign-up here
Schick Quattro Titanium trimmer is still available
Free Sun-Maid recipe booklet
If you haven't signed up already, there are coupon and/or recipe booklets available from:
Betty Crocker
Pillsbury and
Home Made Simple (including a coupon for a free jet-dry)
Enjoy! Love, Bay
