Frugal Flopping

I'm feeling troubled this week because I feel like I've spent too much money. I'm excited to report that the last payment has been made to completely pay off our Lowe's Project Card where we carried our interest free, counter top and cabinet purchase for the last six months. All year we've cut back on travel, clothes shopping, Amazon purchases and other supplies because we had a monster payment of $1500 each month to pay for the kitchen remodel we did in February and March.

 

So after paying off the kitchen this week, I wanted to get our automated savings level up again to "before remodel" levels. But somewhere between logging into the bank, I stopped at www.leejeans.com and bought some capris, visited www.sierratradingcompany.com and got 4 shirts and a pair of pants, also purchased a toner cartridge from Amazon, and a new camera battery, along with shopping at my local bicycle shop University Bicycle Center to use my $25 off $60 coupon and get a new bike tire, bike shorts and some repair supplies like tubes and patch kits.

 

I was totally sucked in by the email deals on the first two (free shipping and 1/2 price clothes), but I did need the toner for my printer, and its not very often the bike shop has deals. So I justified it. But I still feel like I fell off the frugal wagon. I've spent more in one week than I have all year on basically non-essential stuff. I was happier denying myself stuff and feeling proud of my restraint, and frugalness to get by with what I had.

 

So that's it. No more spending for a while. At least til July anyway.

How to Freeze Blueberries

If you haven't gotten your $1.50 off Berrys coupon at Publix, you better print some now because it expires Wednesday, June 23. As luck would have it, Publix has blueberries on sale for $1.50 so they are free. I picked up several pints this weekend and made some wonderful blueberry pancakes and blueberry cobbler. But I still have berries so I'll be freezing some. Here's how

Step 1: What You'll Need to Freeze Blueberries

• Fresh blueberries
• Strainer or Colander
• Rimmed cookie sheet or jelly roll pan
• Airtight containers or resealable freezer bags

Step 2: How to Freeze Blueberries

1. Place the blueberries in the colander, and pick them over, discarding any leaves or stray stems. Make sure the blueberries remain intact. Squashed blueberries can help creates clumps.
2. Rinse the blueberries in the colander.
3. Let the blueberries dry.
4. Spread the berries in a single layer on the cookie sheet.
5. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer, and allow the blueberries to freeze over night.
6. Remove the cookie sheet from the freezer, and quickly transfer the blueberries to resealable bags or airtight containers for long term storage.

Step 3: How to Use Frozen Blueberries

1. If you're making a blueberry pie or blueberry cobbler, you can use the berries directly from their frozen state.
2. If you're using blueberries in baked goods where the make up a small portion of the batter, you should also be fine with frozen berries.
3. If you're making blueberry pancakes, how you use the frozen blueberries depends on whether you're using small wild blueberries or larger blueberries.
   1. If you're using the smaller wild blueberries, rinse them under warm water, pat dry, and use the same way you would use fresh.
   2. If using larger blueberries, rinse them, pat dry, and thaw in the microwave for 2 minutes at 30% power, then add to the pancake batter.

Publix Watching For Coupon Fraud

I just saw this video on how Publix is training their cashiers on how to spot fraudulent coupons and to scrutinize all coupons more carefully. Just a heads up to Publix shoppers, its not you its them. Your trips are going to take a little longer as the cashier spreads your booty all over the scanner belt and looks for the UPC codes and fine print. And YIKES! Those internet printables! They will be looking at those with the eagle eye.

 

I didn't like how they insinuated that all internet printables are fraudulent coupons, especially when the coupon value is high, or exceeds purchase prices. Goodbye, Schick razor overage! Hello manager override, which will become a much more regular thing. Oh well, its still worth it, but the pleasure is decreasing.

Nothing Can Stop Me From Shopping

So I've been fighting a head cold for a week now, I got it from this guy at work. He asked me to help him upload a quick pad on his computer, and I'm pointing what icons to click, when he says "Oh by the way, I have a cold". My head is about 6 inches from his infested communicable airspace and apparently I picked it up real quick. It started as a sneezy runny nose and progressed to nasal congestion and then seemed to wain after I called off on Friday. So I go for a nice long motorcycle ride Sat morning and then afterward realize my ear is totally blocked and now pounding with the beginnings of an earache.

 

As I'm laying there on a heating pad trying to drain some serumun from my ear, DH is googling earache home remedies. Some are quite funny. Like mixing peanut butter with sweet oil and heating it up and putting it in your ear. I actually tried the one where it recommended heating a wet paper towel in the microwave in a coffee cup and hold it under your tilted head so the steam can melt your ear goo. I skipped the few drops of breast milk as we didn't have a lactating mother near by, and I couldn't get myself to allow DH to pee in a cup to gather a few drops of urine to dispense in my blocked ear. I did finally apply a couple drops of expired prescription antibiotics, hydrocortizone drops to my ears and the ear ache went away and I can "pop" my ears again. It is still blocked and ringing and I can hardly hear, but it doesn't hurt. All these ailments have also somehow affected my appetite and I've lost 5 lbs in a week - I have no appetite, no taste buds, and want to sleep all the time.

 

So a week of this is getting old. I have clipping to do and shopping trips to plan, and actually stores to visit. I've delegated clipping to DH while he watches the Rays try to stay on top of the standings, against the stupid Yankees. We actually scored several of the free pizza's by going to a couple different Kanes on Sunday and Monday to redeem our certificates from Saturdays 10 strikeouts. Anyway, I had to go to Publix yesterday to use up some nearly expiring coupons.

 

One deal of note that I happened to have 8 copies of coupons is the Scrubbing Bubbles Sprayer starter kit deal. 
Buy Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Cleaner or Extend A Clean – $7.99
AND the Refill – $3.94
Use this $5/1 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer Starter coupon OR 6-13 SS
AND the $3/1 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer Target coupon
AND the (use BoGo: Buy Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer Get a Refill FREE coupon
AND the Get a $5 Target Giftcard wyb Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer starter kit 5-23 SS (expires TODAY 6/16)
FREE and MONEYMAKER for both after all coupons!
I saved $133, and my order was negative 0.31, but I paid $2.14 in tax. My order included a $40 Publix gift card, and all my product was free. I had way to many stacking coupons to try to get fillers, so I had to have manager override and that always adds drama. The store I love is undergoing staff changes and all my good buddy staffers are changing or moving to other stores. Cody, my fav manager had to straighten out my receipt after the newbie Charlie couldn't figure out how to apply the $5 gift card coupons to the order. He deactivated my gift card and wanted me to go to customer service. I said I didn't want to do that. DH throws in about how it wouldn't be very pleasurable. Anyway, it worked out fine, but I tell ya, this couponing business is not for the faint of heart.

Publix Sneak Peek June 17-23

BOGO's

Nabisco cookies Chips Ahoy BOGO $2.99
Ocean Spray Juice – BOGO $2.95
Wish-bone Dressing – BOGO $2.69
Kelloggs Cereal Frosted Flakes – BOGO $3.99
Post Cereal Honey Bunches of Oats – BOGO $3.99$
Duncan Hines Moist Delux Cake Mix – BOGO $1.69
Juicy Juice All Natural 100% Apple – 64 oz bottle – BOGO $3.39
Tostitos Tortilla Chips Family size – BOGO $4.99
Arnold Wholegrains Bread – BOGO $3.69
Duncan Hines Brownie Mix – BOGO $2.59
Kraft Easy Mac and Cheese Dinner – BOGO  $3.39
Uncle Ben's Rice Boil – in-Bag Enriched Long grain – BOGO $2.29
Green Giant cut green beans 4pk – BOGO $4.99

Luzianne Tea Bags Family size 24ct bag – BOGO #2.29
Luzianne Tea Bags Family size decaffeinated – 24 ct – BOGO #3.69
Louana Canola/Vegtable Oil – BOGO $3.39
Old EL Paso dinner kit Taco – BOGO $2.69
Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping corn – BOGO $4.89
Keebler Town house Crackers – BOGO $3.99
Emerald Almonds – BOGO $5.79
Hershey's Bliss – BOGO $4.29
Milk-Bone chewy treats – BOGO $2.99
Seventh generation natural dish liquid – BOGO $2.99
Lysol Disinfectant Cleaner All purpose – BOGO $3.19
Hefty Everyday plates – 130 ct – BOGO $4.49
Earth's Best Organic Baby food 6 months and up – BOGO $0.99
Schick Xtreme 3 disposables Razor – 4 ct – BOGO $6.99
Vaseline Aloe Fresh Body Lotion – BOGO $6.85
Publix Anti-Diarrhea caplets – 24 ct box – BOGO $4.99

GE Reveal Light Bulbs – 4 ct – BOGO $3.49
Bailey's Coffee Creamer – BOGO $2.09
Smart Balance spread – BOGO $2.89
Kozy Shack Pudding – BOGO $2.99
Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream – BOGO $3.39
Tombstone Pizza  – BOGO $5.49
Kellogg's Eggo Waffles – BOGO $2.29
Hungry Man Fried chicken – BOGO $3.59
Ray's New York Bagels – BOGO $3.29

Oscar Mayer 95% fat free oven roasted turkey – BOGO $3.99
Oscar Mayer Meat Bolgna – BOGO $2.99
Oscar Mayer Turkey Ham – BOGO $3.49

Quirch Sofrito – 2lb bag – BOGO $3.59

Kaukauna Sharp cheddar – BOGO $4.39

 

For a complete listing with coupon matchups, visit Truecouponing.com

 

KanesStrikeOut Get Your Free Pizza

I love this promotion and finally the Rays got 10 strikeouts Saturday Night. When the Tampa Bay Rays strike out 10 or more batters in a home game, their sponser Kanes Furniture offers a free Papa Johns 10 inch personal pizza, for a limited time.

 

So HURRY -  the Rays struck out 10 players on June 12th, so within 24 hours you must click HERE and register and print out a certificate, and then within 3 days bring it to a Tampa area Kanes furniture store customer service desk and they will give you a little card that you redeem at Papa Johns. You have to get your butt into Kanes within 3 days of a strike out, but the card for a free pizza is good until June 30, 2010.

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