Spending Free Money

A few months ago, I started using SwagBucks as my search engine. It rewards you randomly when you search with "Swag Bucks" which you can redeem for prizes. I've earned almost $40 in Amazon gift cards through this program, and today I bought my first items off Amazon with that moola.

I am most excited for my primary purchase, The Pioneer Woman Cookbook! I love Ree's website and recipes, which are laid out in easy to follow picture-accompanied steps, and am really looking forward to having her book in my kitchen.

I also got Family Feasts for $75 a week, which had really high recommendations saying the recipes were very original, so I figured I'd give that one a try too (esp since Ree's book doesn't cost enough to qualify for free shipping on its own).

Of course, having a positive balance (or credit) on my amazon account from the gift cards I earned, I didn't have to pay a penny out of pocket for either, which makes me awfully happy. Can't wait to get them in a week or so and start trying new things! Hopefully they'll both become staples in my kitchen.

Bad Lean Cusines?

I always keep a few frozen meals in the freezer here at work, in case I forget to pack my lunch or we decide not to go out on a Friday. Last week though, our office lost power for 24-26 hours. Everything in the fridge was tossed out of course, but they've left the freezer goods up to our discretion. Also, I don't think the freezer was opened at all while the power was out.

So, do lean cusines and the like go bad that fast? Would you toss the suckers, or just nuke 'um a little longer?

Thanks!
Annathy

Great Finds at Kohl's

Personally, I find that Kohl's advertises that they have unbeatable prices every time they have a sale, but going this weekend I have to admit they're right about this one. With the economy as it is, I certainly can't predict if these will be the lowest these items go through the year, but I thought some deals were worth mentioning here. Also important to note, the Kohl's sale is only through tomorrow, 10/27.

• Shoe sale- everything seems to be about 50% off, including these babies, which are my favorite work shoes ever. The pair I own now has been on my feet about 3 days a week for the past year, and while they currently need polishing, are still going strong. $22.99 is the best price I've seen on them, so I had to get them.

• Houdini- 50% off; this is definately the best price I've seen on these. Normally they go on sale for about $25 but this week all the Houdini wine accessories are half price. If you have a vino enthusiast friend, these openers are a great gift, and the fancy (and awesome) corkscrew they have is $17 right now.

• Kitchenaid Pink- While the kitchenaid pink line is on a pretty average sale (20-33% off), since it's the end of breast cancer awareness month, they've started to quietly clearance some of the items. Scan a few things- I found a nice parring knife for $7.50 down from $15.

• Pantry items- I've wanted an olive oil bottle for awhile, but $8 sounded rediculous, and it never seemed to be on sale. This week all that stuff is 50% off. I also got a ceramic range spoon for $3, since sitting the stirrer on the top of the oven was driving me nutso.

• Pillows- All on sale. Kohl's normal prices on these are pretty high, so you might be able to find better, but if you're looking for guest pillows that don't get used every night, the "big one" is only $3.99 and is comfy enough. I splurged on a double chambered down pillow for $27 myself (bedding is one thing I refuse to skimp on- after all, I spend almost a third of my life there!).

In additon to the deals you also get $10 Kohl's cash for every $50 you spend, which is basically a large RR good from 10/28 to 11/10. Between all this, it's one of the best Kohl's sales I've seen in awhile.


Happy Hounding!
Annathy

Rite Aid, I think I love you

If you haven't heard about the fantastic deals Rite Aid is running this week, it's time you did! They have the gift of savings program for fall (ending Saturday), a boatload of free after rebate products, and a P&G deal that combined with the Olay rebate out right now is just too good to pass up! (oh, and to give credit where it is due, I got these deals from Frugalsuz)

P&G Deal- spend $30 on qualifying products, get a $10 Rite Aid gift card, Olay rebate is buy the anti-aging eye roller and a Pantene shampoo or conditioner (12.6 oz or larger), get $20 back.
I bought (I'll try and post pics later):
$21.99 Anti-aging eye roller ($1 Q out there)
$3.50 Pantene shampoo, 12.6 oz
$2.50 Herbal essences shampoo
$2.50 Herbal essences styler (Buy 1 shampoo/cond. get free styler Q in P&G insert this week)
and use a $5/25 Rite Aid Q from their website
=30.49 subtotal
=21.99 after coupons, plus tax on the subtotal
You get back both a $10 GC and a $20 rebate, so that's $8.01 profit if you live in oregon. Down here in Cali it's more like $5... darn sales tax.

Now for the freebies! This week only...
Personally I skipped a few (the kids stuff, & the poligrip), but I may go back for those to hit the Gift of Savings max and just donate those products.
$2.29 Carmex Moisture Plus Lip Balm
$2.99 Sucrets
$3.99 Comtrex cold fighter
$7.99 Breathe again decongestant
$2.99 Bodi Heat wraps
$2.99 Children's throat coolers
$3.99 Coldwar cold fighter
$4.99 Simply Saline adult ($1 coupon 7/26 insert)
$3.99 Simply Saline children's ($1 coupon 7/26 insert)
$2.49 Bee M.D. cough drops
$9.99 Allergen Block gel ($3 coupon 5/3 insert)
$1.99 Carmex 3 pack (the original tubes)
$8.99 Allergy Buster or Sinus Buster
$1.99 Super Poligrip (freebie coupon 10/4 insert)

If you buy all these, it's $61.66 before coupons and tax, so that's what you will get back since all the items are FAR. Use the insert coupons and two $5/25 Rite Aid coupons (you'll probably need to break it up into two transactions), and you can get it all for $44.67 + taxes. That's already like $17 profit! (Okay, Okay, like 11 in Cali... but you get the idea)

Even better, everything you buy qualifies towards the gift of savings program which works like this: Buy $25 worth of stuff, get a $5 gift card, buy $50 worth of stuff, get a $10 gift card, buy $100 worth of stuff, get a $20 gift card. Just these items stack you up to $92.15, skipping a few I'm still over $80. That's a free $10 gift card, bringing your total profit to over $20, even after accounting for sales tax. If you're close to the $100 mark, it's worth it to buy a few items you'd pick up at the grocery store here instead and make it a $20 GC. Just sayin'.

For icing on the cake, all but one (the fancy lip balm) of the freebie items is a qualified flexible spending account item for you FSA and HSA kids. So you may even be able to pay with money from those accounts!

Have fun Hounding everyone!!!

Things I've done recently to save $

Hey, I know it's been forever since I've posted, um, anything. But I'm alive, I've just been using the stockpile more than building it, particularly since my storage space has decreased (though I do have a very nice size closet/pantry dedicated entirely to hounding- it's just full!). I figured I'd go over some of the more day-to-day things I've been doing.

1) Transferred my prescription around. I've done this twice in the past 45 days, getting a $30 credit/gc at a grocery store each time. I like eating for free, don't you?

2) Coinstar'd my spare change into a CVS gift card- for free! Coinstar waives their fee if you get a gift card instead of cash (thier website lets you know which machines have which GC options).

3) Using Swagbucks as my search engine. So far, I've accumulated $30 in amazon gift cards (which are stackable) and deposited them in an amazon account. Just for doing searches and referring a few friends- I love that site.

4) Tracking my expenses. Just knowing that I have to write it down makes me think twice about something I want.

5) Submitted my FSA claims as they come up. I'm less likely to lose the reciepts this way, and I get my moola back faster.

I'm hoping to get some good hounding in this weekend at CVS, WAGS, and RA. We will see!

Target Trip

I'm going to start this post with the caveat that only the Razor deal and Tide deal is good now (slash elsewhere). My local Target just opened a grocery section last month and had sent out some promotional home mailers with Target Q's that are what made my trip such a good deal for me.

So, we'll start with the stuff that is still good.

Schick Razor $6.99, sale (normally $8.29 at my location)
-$4 MC from last week's paper
-$4 Target Q from this week's paper
=$1.01 overage!

Tide, 100 oz, $10.99
-$1 MC from this week's paper
-$1 Target Q (mine was from the mailer, but I believe there is another recent one out)
=$8.99
The smaller bottles are also on sale at CVS this week for a lower OOP, but I like to use the Total Care which are not included in the CVS sales (if your CVS even carries that kind) and per ounce it's a comparable deal.

Simply Lemonade, $2.04 with CRV
-$0.75 Target Q from my Mailer
=$1.29

2*Tostitos, sale $2.50 (plus free salsa when you buy 2)
-$1/2 Target Q from my Mailer
=$4 for both

Salsa, $0 (from above deal)

A&H Baking Soda (larger size, for my stinky sink!) $1.18

Subtotal: $26.10 before CRV and sales tax
-$5/25 Target Q from my Mailer
-all other Q's mentioned above
+ remaining sales tax
=$10.06 OOP!

I hope the Razor and/or Tide scenario helps. The Tostitos deal isn't bad either if you like their salsa. I'm not a fan personally, but I needed to get to $25 and I do like the scoop chips for guac.

Lata!
Annathy

Saving and Traveling- Hotels!

So, we all have this dilemma. Hotels are expensive. Always. Like, several times more per night than my rent (even in the middle of nowhere, and I rent in the land of overpriced beachyness... or beachiness- I'm not sure of the correct grammer there). The good news is there are a few benefits to them.


1) You don't need your own shampoo. Unless you're really picky and/or allergic. I rarely use all the things they put in the room, but I find they generally replace them after day 1 because I put them in the shower (where I... use them!) instead of on the counter. So I like to take these and keep them as an emergency stash. They also work really well paired with guest towels to make your company feel plush (if you have a borderline rediculous stockpile of J&J buddies, I may have stolen and tweaked this tip from you). I also take them with me if I'm staying with friends or family (particularly the soap bars) for some occasion.

2) Rewards. Again it depends on the chain. Hilton does points + miles so you earn both, but the amount of points needed to redeem a free room can be about twice as many as their nemesis Marriott. (Disclaimer: I mostly stay at Hilton b/c my coworkers prefer it and we try to share rental cars, but I worked at a Marriott through college and I think the brands are pretty comparable). Smaller chains tend to offer less predictable rewards- for example Omni gave me a get your second weekend night free certificate awhile back when I checked in, but they don't have a specific point based program. Even online brokers are beginning to get into the deal (unlike airlines who mostly don't award miles through expedia/hotwire type purchases). However, they are usually specific to their purchase website, not the brand or all stays. I hear Radisson (part of Gold Points) has some of the best rewards, but unfortunately I really, really dislike their sleep-number beds.



Of course, there are also things to watch out for:

1) Parking. To me, this is the equivalent of a checked bag fee on airlines. Once you're there, you are stuck with it. So when you're looking around, check the prices. Especially if you are staying downtown or near a touristy area (sporting stadium, zoo, etc) where parking is premium.

2) Breakfast. This can be huge, depending on who you're traveling with. For families I think it is almost always better to stay somewhere with a free breakfast, but if that isn't possible look for rates that include it. Usually the price difference is about the amount of one adult breakfast, making your spouse and/or children nearly free. Also, even if breakfast is crazy expensive and you have no option 2.5 (see directly below), pastries from the local grocer are always cheaper than dining out.

2.5) Mini fridge or fridge. The mini is ALMOST as good as free breakfast. You can buy groceries for a fraction of what eating out costs. Mini fridges are getting relatively common at "family friendly" hotels, but always check. Full size fridges are even better, generally found in long term hotels (which do take short term reservations) which often times feature full kitchens. These hotels allow you the flexibility to make breakfast and dinner at your hotel and only eat lunch out during your daily activities, but can cost more depending on the area.

3) Internet. If you just need directions somewhere the desk staff should be able to take care of that, but if your teenagers are addicted to facebook (and the prospect of listening to them whine about it all week makes you queesy) or you need to check your work email to ensure the world didn't end (you might be an earthquake specialist in San Francisco... I don't know), this is a free bonus to look for.

4) Pools. If this is important to you, call ahead! You'll want to make sure they aren't painting the thing or doing work on it for the duration of your trip, and get an idea of the pool size, indoor or outdoor, and if there are other pools you can use (like if sister hotels are adjacent, they will usually let guests of either hotel use their pool- especially if one is indoor and the other outdoor).

5) Transportation. If you're flying in, see if the hotel offers a shuttle service that would keep you from needing a rental car or cab.