Keep Searching

Yippee! I just won 59 Swagbucks for searching! Over a hundred points today now. I just cashed in for a $5 Amazon card on Monday, and now I'll be able to get another one before the mid month cut off.

 

If you haven't joined Swagbucks, yet I can't figure out what you might be waiting for, because this is MEGA BUCKS Friday and Summer Swag week.

 

To celebrate the Summer of Swag there are the two BIG things going on this week that all of us Swagbucks people might be interested in knowing about:
Each day next week Swagbucks will be highlighting a different high value Swag Buck bill, starting on Monday June 7th, with the 25. Every 7th searching win on Swagbucks will be awarded that big bill, meaning that more people will have big wins next week!
Do you still need more convincing on why you should sign up for Swagbucks? I mean really…you haven't signed up yet?
New users can use the code SUMMEROFSWAG when you sign up for an extra 20 Swag Bucks to start their account. The code is good until the midnight on Friday, June 11th.

How To Make Your Blogger Blog Fast on Mobile Phones

As you know, millions of people use their mobile phones to access internet. The mobile internet speed is also very fast these days with 3G's , mobile apps,etc.

From this, we can say many of your readers are coming to your blog through mobile phones..But, if you don't make your blog mobile friendly, you may lose all your mobile readers because in a mobile phone, a normal blog takes lot of time to load and there are other issues that your site not fitting properly in the mobile screen.

So, here is how to make your Blogger (blogspot) blog mobile internet friendly..

Sign into your Blogger account; Design: Edit html

Find this line..

Now your mobile followers can access your blog with amazing speed.

If you can't get it from this blog, just click the source below and try it from there.

Thanks to Blogger tricks

A Frugal Game On The Go

Sometimes when you're out and about with children around, there's a lull in the action and the children get antsy and rambunctious. It happened recently at a birthday party we attended for our neighbors 5 yr old grand child. The kid was going crazy waiting for everyone to finish eating before he could have his cake and open presents. He would repeat to anyone, "we're opening presents when we're done eating, Are you done yet"? It wasn't really that annoying, in fact I thought it was cute. I felt sorry for the kid because it was basically an adults Memorial Day weekend BBQ, and he was the only kid there. At his grandparents house there were only minimal toys, and the one fun thing he liked was the Wii, but he wasn't allowed to play alone.

 

Anyway, I was done eating and we played a game to keep him occupied while everyone else finished eating. It's a simple concept and actually has some educational value, and it didn't require any props or anything other than our minds. It's just the alphabet game. We played the Animal Alphabet game, where I asked him to name an animal that started with A. He said ANT. Well, an ant is not an animal but we went with it. Anything that was alive and not a person, counted as an animal. Next he said BEAR, then for C he said snake. But we know that snake is S, so this was an opportunity to help him with sounding out C words and we went with CAT. Then DOG. He was having a tough time thinking of an E word, so a couple hints and he figured out ELEPHANT. F was FROG. G was GIRAFFE.

 

All the time during the game I asked him to tell me what the next letter was in the alphabet, so he had to start at the beginning and recite it to figure out what was next. This was a good exercise for the kid and he enjoyed showing off that he knew it. The toughest one to come up with something was the letter N, and we finally thought of NURSE SHARK after soliciting input from the others. I suppose we could have said NORTH AMERICAN SLOTH or something like that too. He totally lost interest around letter P, but after checking every ones progress with eating, he came back and we picked up there and finished. We went back to the beginning and named all the animals that he had picked and by then it was time for cake and presents.

 

So, if you ever need to occupy a young child, the Alphabet game is a great frugal game to play on the fly.

Publix Sneak Peek BOGO's June 10-16, 2010

BOGO's

Mott's Juice 100% Apple 46-64oz bottle $2.95 BOGO
Back to Nature Granola 7.5-13.5oz bag $3.59 BOGO
Pompeian Olive Oil 16oz bottle $5.99 BOGO
Ragu pasta Sauce 45oz jar $3.19 BOGO
Ronzoni Pasta Spaghetti 12-16oz box $1.17 BOGO
Near East Rice Pilaf 5.25-10oz box $2.19 BOGO
Doritos Tortilla chips 11.5-12.5oz bag $3.99 BOGO
Thomas Bagels 6ct $3.99 BOGO
Nabisco Nilla Wafers 8-12oz box $3.89 BOGO
Propel Fitness Water 6 pack $3.99 BOGO
Nabisco Wheat thins 12-16oz box $4.49 BOGO
General Mills Cereal Cheerios 10.4-17.2oz box $3.99 BOGO
Aunt Jemima Syrup 24oz bottle $3.89 BOGO
Ocean Spray Craisins 6oz bag $2.09 BOGO
Post Cereal Fruity Pebbles 11-14.75oz box $2.89 BOGO
Hellmann's Easy Out! Mayonnaise Real 22oz bottle $4.69 BOGO
Starkist Tuna Chunk Light $3.55 BOGO
Mt. Olive Pickles 16oz jar $2.19 BOGO
Pop-Secret Premium Popcorn 6ct box $4.69 BOGO
Arnold Select Sandwich Thins 12oz pkg $2.99 BOGO
Snickers Fun Size Snack Big Bag 22.34-22.55oz bag $6.59 BOGO
Lysol Neutra Air Sanitizing spray 10oz can $3.59 BOGO
Speed Stick Gel 2.3-3.25oz pkg $2.65 BOGO
Nestle Toll House Refrigerated Dough Cookies 16oz pkg $2.79 BOGO
Popsicle Ice Pops 21.6-39.6oz box $2.99 BOGO
Stouffer's French Bread Pizza 2ct $2.49 BOGO
Edwards Pie Slices 2ct 2/$5 BOGO (so $2.50 BOGO)
Aunt Jemima Pancakes Microwaveable 12ct $2.69 BOGO

for a complete listing of the upcoming ad, check slickdeals.net

Summer Of Swag

To celebrate the Summer of Swag there are the two BIG things going on this coming week that all of us Swagbucks people might be interested in knowing about:
1. Starting Monday June 7, Swagbucks will be having a Swag Code Extravaganza – they will be releasing at least 5 Swag Codes throughout the day – this would be a great way for any newcomers to start out with a bang!
2. Each day next week Swagbucks will be highlighting a different high value Swag Buck bill, starting on Monday June 7th, with the 25. Every 7th searching win on Swagbucks will be awarded that big bill, meaning that more people will have big wins next week!
Do you still need more convincing on why you should sign up for Swagbucks? I mean really…you haven't signed up yet? I just cashed in for a couple more Amazon gift cards. It's easy.
New users can use the code SUMMEROFSWAG when you sign up for an extra 20 Swag Bucks to start their account. The code is good until the midnight on Friday, June 11th.

Twitter Hop

Welcome to Frugalapolis if you're finding me from the latest Twitter Hop Thursday, hosted by Simply Stacie, The King's Court IV, Little Yaya's, Review Retreat and Moms Wear Your Tees.  Join by clicking on any of the hosts and add your twitter handle to the list, you'll get a bunch more followers!

 

Anyway, here are some tidbits for the week of shopping - there will be three coupon inserts (RP, SS, P&G) in the paper this weekend, so you'll probably want to get at least two to go with those BOGO sales.

 

Also there is an ongoing sale this week at Target where you get 10 SOBE water for $1 each, use the Target coupon printable from their website for $0.50 off each, so you pay $5 and get a $5 Target Gift Card, so in the end they are kinda free.

Memorial Weekend Laptop Fizzle

On one of the past few days DH was wasting time on my precious laptop, surfing youtube and he picked up a virus. He didn't let me know right away, just after it got annoying when he tried to search and google would come up with a totally weird place in UK. Anyway, by the time I became aware of the problem it was a few days and there were no uninfected restore points on the system tools to go back to an earlier date.

 

I should have backed up my drive but I didn't. I did move all my files, music and pictures off and then tried to figure out my best option. I was planning on reformatting some day anyway, so that's what I did. I just re-installed the XP operating system, but what a pain now. I have to use my other hard drive to transfer at least an Internet browser onto the laptop so I can download some programs.

 

Needless to say, I'm backing up my main desktop so I don't have a problem if I ever have a virus or breakdown. And I told DH no more random surfing on youtube.com. So it'll be a while before he gets my laptop back.

$5 of $30 competitor coupon

In Tampa, there is a $5 off $30 Sweetbay coupon peelie on the front of both local newspapers. Good for use at Publix. Expires 6/6.

The Versatile Blogger

A big THANK YOU to The Trials of Big J and Little J who awarded me with the "Versatile Blogger" Award! Visit her fun blog HERE.

Part of the responsibility of accepting an award is to share the love - 

The rules for " The Versatile Blogger" award are:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!

4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

( Rules are flexible, in case you're not good with rules!)

So here are seven interesting things to know about me:

1. My name is Marie.
2. I grew up in the same house my whole life in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. At the end of our street was a lot of property that had fields, trees, a fossil creek and later on, nice walking paths. We called this "General Mills" because it was owned by GM and was adjacent to one of their manufacturing plants and you could smell Trix and other cereals in the air when it was being manufactured. Many of the workers would walk on the paths during their breaks in their white lab coats. We played in the fields all the time and walked our dog there almost every day.
3. I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science in Food Science. My first job was a temp job at Pillsbury's Research and Development Laboratories working for $4 an hour. Within a couple months one of the scientists hired me as a food technologist. It was the best job I ever had; making cookies, pizza, popcorn, salsa, meals, brownies, cookies, toaster strudels and biscuits. I had to buy a chest freezer to keep all the giveaway products from the pilot plant tests. Everyone there was a stockpiler and hoarder, trading cookie dough for pizza.
4. I worked as a Food Technologist, and later as a Food Scientist for Pillsbury and then Sandoz Nutrition for many years. Then I met my DH and we moved to Florida, and I continued work in the food industry, but to work on the flip side of the fence for the ingredient suppliers.
5. After 911, jobs in the manufacturing industry were getting less stable. Companies were failing and getting bought out and merging. I was laid off from several jobs in the ingredient and pharmaceutical industry and decided to get out and into something more stable. Thus the boring government job I have worked for many years, and will probably retire here. I work for Child Support Enforcement as a Government Analyst. I just analyze cases and make lists for staff to close or work cases, I also do some process improvement work as I am a certified quality analyst too. Dull.
6. I've been with DH for twenty two years, and he's the life of my life. We both grew up in MN and moved to FL when we were young enough to enjoy all it has to offer. My parents and our families still live in MN and no one will probably ever move. That's just the way Minnesotans are. They love it there.
7. I started this blog to share frugal stuff with people who may be interested. I have another personal blog but everyone up North doesn't really care how much I save at Publix because they don't have Publix up there.

Now for the drum roll and who I would like to share the love with. I follow many blogs that entertain or teach me things everyday. I'm going to list some great blogs that don't necessarily have to do with being frugal, but are worth the read. I would like to pass the Versatile Blogger Award to these blogs, check them out-

1. The Thrifty Little Blog
2. Maximum Chaos
3. Moneyapolis
4. Thrifty Florida Mamma
5. Frugal For Life
6. Four Hats and Frugal
7. Frugal Racing Fan Mommy
8. The Coupon Momma
9. Frugal Dr. Mom
10. Becoming Minimalist
11. The Obnoxious SAHM
12. Frugal Hacks
13. Frugal Floridian
14. Blogger Chix Designs

So Thanks again for visiting, and please take a minute to visit them too. 

Even Pros Can Make Mistakes

Well we just did our last weekly shop of the month and there is so much that we like, it was a pretty big shop. I usually don't like to get much over $25 per shop, opting instead to go multiple times so I can use a $5/$25 competitor coupon for each order. But to tell you the truth, I'm getting a little tired of all this shopping. I wasn't totally on my A game and made a mistake in the store that ended up costing probably about $5.23. I picked up the Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts (with sea salt) and apparently they weren't BIGI, so of course then I paid for the 3rd can of nuts AND the 4th can. Anyway, DH talked me out of going to exchange for the correct item - he said are you really going to go in and ask for $5.23 back when you only paid $10 for $140 worth of product??? I actually used a gift card I got from overage earlier this month so it didn't really even come out of any budget or anything. The silly receipt is 44 inches long so it would kinda be embarrassing to show them my error. Oh well, I can live with it.

 

Anyway, the moneymakers this time were the Vivarin and the Sominex (in the front of the picture) and 3 schick razors, plus I would have made $0.71 for each 4 cans of nuts if I hadn't screwed up and got the "deluxe" nuts. They better be good. The savings basically were from lots of stacking of Publix Q's and Target Q's with MQ's. So here's my shopping list, I actually make this spreadsheet and try to go with it, but I have to fly by the seat of my tight pants sometimes. Today was one of those days, and thats when mistakes happen.

 

27-May	67		137.22	28.70	99.98	tax	8.90	73	-93.51%
Product	qty	price	subtl	-B1G1	-Q		total	Q#	Q details
corn	2	0.25	0.50				0.50
romaine	1	1.99	1.99				1.99
tomato	1	0.75	0.75				0.75
cucumber	1	0.43	0.43				0.43
bananas	2	0.30	0.60				0.60
mushrooms, sliced	1	1.99	1.99				1.99
Yokisaba noodles	6	0.60	3.60		3.00		0.60	3	$1/2 MQ 5-16ss or 4-18ss
garlic clove	1	0.10	0.10				0.10
sour cream, breakstone	1	0.99	0.99				0.99
texas toast croutons GAB	4	0.99	3.96		2.00		1.96	4	$0.50/1 x6/30
water 2.5 gal	1	1.99	1.99				1.99
milk	1	2.39	2.39				2.39
Planters Flvr Grv nuts BOGO	4	2.99	11.96	5.98	5.99		-0.01	4	$1/1 MQ print+ B3G1 free TQ
Planters nuts BOGO 9.25oz	4	4.29	17.16	4.29	9.29		3.58	6	$1/2 3-7ss+$1/1TQ+B3G1TQ
Chobani Greek Yogurt	9	1.00	9.00		9.00		0.00	12	B2G1free+(2)$1/1 MQ x5/31
Fisher Fushion Nut Snacks	3	1.00	3.00		3.00		0.00	3	$1/1 MQ
Morningstar veg patty BOGO	8	3.99	31.92	15.96	15.00		0.96	15	$1/1PQ+$1/1 MQ
Toy for birthday present	1	6.99	6.99				6.99
Kleenex hand towels 60ct	4	2.49	9.96		8.00	0.70	2.66	8	$1/1 TQ+$1/1 MQ
Qtips BOGO	2	2.47	4.94	2.47	1.70	0.35	1.12	4	$0.55/1PQ+0.30/1 MQ 5-23rp
schick razor 2pk	3	0.99	2.97		6.00	0.21	-2.82	3	$2/1 5-23ss
Phazyme, Sominex, Vivarin	6	3.19	19.14		27.00		-7.86	9	$5/2 PQ+(2) $2/1 5-16 MQ
$/$$ coupon		0.00	0.00		10.00		-10.00	2	$5/$25 competitor
hamburger buns	1	0.89	0.89