Ways to Save: Decorating on the Cheap

When we got married, we had little money. We had both been in college for several years just before we got married. And before that, my husband had lived as a missionary for 5 years, making pretty much nothing. Not having much forced us to learn how to live simply and also how to stretch every dollar as far as possible. At first I found it discouraging, but soon it became a challenge and I loved seeing how much I could save on whatever I bought. However, I also soon discovered that it's much harder to save on some items; there just aren't a lot of ways to get them for cheap.

From the beginning, one thing that we both weren't willing to spend lots of money on was home decor items. The problem with this is that we are also both pretty picky about what we use to decorate. We know what we like and so not just anything goes. That meant two things happened- we got creative in finding ways to decorate inexpensively and...we just didn't have much for a long time! Honestly, it looked rather bare bones (and still does in a couple of spots!).

However, over time, we did find some ways to decorate and fix up our house inexpensively. Here are a few of the things we've done:

Did you ever know that nice mirrors are rather expensive? Well, they are. We had been looking for one to put in our living room for quite a while when one day we were at the outlets and spotted some really nice ones in one of the store's window-front display. The sale signs plastered on them drew us inside and we eagerly checked them out. Much to our disappointment, they still were above what we really wanted to pay. However, my husband noticed one had a chip in the frame and knew that if we hung it so that the chipped part was at the top, you'd never notice it. So he asked if they would give us a discount on it. Without batting an eye, the manager agreed to give us another percentage off. I don't remember anymore exactly how much we saved, but it was somewhere between 50-75% if I recall correctly.

Moral of the story: Don't be scared to ask for discounts if something is slightly damaged. We've discovered that often the manager will be more than glad to give you one.

Don't you just love these? We needed a sort of room divider to put in our spare bedroom which also is a storage spot for us and struggled to find something that would work. I'm not sure what inspired this idea but I think it may have come from something I saw in This Olde House magazine. Vince simply got some old shutters for about $10 at Habitat Restore, painted them and then fastened them together with hinges and tada! We have a beautiful room divider! (Let me just say they look WAY nicer in real life. The picture shows the paint as more shiny than it is and in real life you can see all the bumps and nicks that give it character.)

Moral of the Story: Be creative and make your own item.

This little stand used to be hideous with it's dark brown wood stain. But a couple coats of paint later and it is perfect for our nursery. In fact, most of the furniture that is in our nursery was painted...it's such an easy way to get matching furniture!

Moral of the Story: Have a piece of furniture you hate because of it's color/stain? Paint it! You'll be amazed at the transformation.

We got two lights like this at a yard sale for $5 total. They were both barely used and the lady that was selling them was just glad to get rid of them. We were pretty excited to find them because we had just bought our house and it's a fixer-upper that we are working on as we have time. Several of the light fixtures that were in our house were horrid and desperately needed replaced. While these fixtures probably weren't what we would have bought if we had gone to get lights, we still liked them and for that price couldn't pass them up. New ones like this cost around $50, just to give you an idea of the savings we experienced.

Moral of the story: Yard sales are excellent places to look for items, whether it is light fixtures or wall hangings. If you keep your eyes open, you often can find some great treasures!

Wall hangings can be SO expensive! But we've gotten almost all of ours for 1/2 price. Here's how. Our local Christian store occasionally puts their wall hangings on sale 50% off and they also send out mailers that have 50% coupons in them. They have a nice selection of pictures and wall art, many of them by P. Graham Dunn. We have also gotten a few from other stores when they have them on sale for 50% or more.

Moral of the Story: Use coupons and sales to buy things to decorate your home inexpensively.

I used to collect tea cups when I was younger. I had sort of forgotten about it until I was going through some of my storage boxes one day and came across them. I'm not really a tea cups kind of girl anymore but decided to keep the nicest ones. I had been racking my brain for ideas of what to put on the shelves above my kitchen sink and when I was trying to decide what to do with my tea cups I got this idea. I'm not totally satisfied with it, but it works for now and is a simple way to display the tea cups.

Moral of the Story: Be creative and use what you have. Look at what you have lying around your house and try to find creative new ways to use those items.

Hopefully this has given you some inspiration! Do you have any money saving decorating ideas or have you blogged about this subject? Maybe you have a story about something you got for a little bit of nothing. Feel free to leave a comment and/or links. I'd love to get more ideas!

New Huggies Enjoy the Ride Codes

Here are more points for you to add to your Huggies Enjoy the Ride account. Never heard of this program? Read about it here.

Codes Worth 1 Point Each
BCPBB-XQHPH-RJPGB
BBQHL-LQQPC-MLPGB
BCCBD-JBCTB-HFPGB
BCCHZ-WFLLX-GGPGB
BCDXM-ZPMFW-SQPGB

Codes Worth 5 Points Each
PBWSM-QGKCL-BKPGB
TPJNG-DZCQB-HGPGB
WHTZH-NBDQF-XKPGB
BCWPP-SDLLF-SFPGB

Thanks Common Sense with Money!

Guest Post: Being a Wise Consumer

Guest Post by Laura from Sharpen Your Scissors.

I believe that as an American, I live in the land of over-abundance. Endless opportunities and options force us to make choices all day long. While savvy shopping and coupon spending skills are amazing tools to help ourselves and our families to shell out less of our hard earned incomes, we can also be doing ourselves a disservice, maybe without even realizing it!

Isn't it easier to donate an item of clothing that you purchased from the clearance rack rather than a really nice designer pair of jeans that you can still remember exactly how much you spent on them? I think that it is completely normal to have the price tag value of an item dictate how we care for an item.

Obviously I take better care of my pots and pans (by hand washing them)than I do my spatula that I also use to cook with. The truth being the replacement value is higher for the pots and pans, and I'm not interested in replacing them anytime soon!

But how does this mentality translate into our everyday consumables? How about when we factor in purchasing everyday essentials for pennies on the dollar when we make our purchases with coupons?

Personally, I have found myself guilty of over-using products simply because of the purchase value. Many items that I purchase are either extremely minimal in cost or FREE! I have found myself not really caring how much shampoo I squeeze out of the bottle, or how many baby wipes I use in changing dirty diapers... as long as I had a back up product in my arsenal that I call my stockpile, did I really care?

For the last several months I have begun reading the recommended dosage on product containers... kind of like Weight Watchers for over-consumers... wink!

My current bottle of body wash actually encourages me to use a button sized dollop. I was under the impression that if I used more I may smell even better. So, reluctantly, I tried a button's worth and found that a button's worth of wash works just as well as a silver dollar size!

Then I began experimenting...

I have heard that breaking dish detergent tabs in half, and just washing dishes with half of the recommended dosage works just as well as the full tab. In all honesty, I needed to decide if I really cared enough to break a tab in half- seeing that I purchased a box of 20 tabs with a coupon and only paid $.50 for the box. Was the breakage worth my time?

I already was experiencing a great deal every time I washed my dishes with a $.025 tab... but I tried a half tab load of dishes and realized that they came out just as clean as a full tab. Now I happily clean my dishes for just over a penny per load.

I also have taken the laundry soap challenge by washing a load of laundry on just half a large load's worth of detergent.

We have sensitive skin in our family, so I am a stickler for my favorite laundry soaps, which includes Tide Free and Clear. This jug was actually purchased for FREE with store reward money (ECB's) at CVS. So by the typical standard, I really shouldn't care how quickly the bottle is emptied, especially since I have more bottles of Tide awaiting their turn for use in my arsenal.

The cup on the left has the recommended dosage for a large load of laundry, the cup on the right is the amount that I personally add to my large loads of laundry. I've used the smaller quantity and been just as happy at the result as when I had used full strength... although I'm bummed that I still needed to fold and put away the clothing...

I'm also a recovering over paster.

I've had the pleasure of donating 200+ full sized tubes of toothpaste this year- we've experienced a ridiculous over abundance of toothpaste in our family- so much so that it is easy to bestow absolutely NO value whatsoever to toothpaste (except for the clean teeth and minty fresh breath aspect... wink #2)!

But after reading that kid's can get away with a pea sized dab on their bristles- I decided to try it our for myself... and guess what- my teeth were just as clean (heh, I felt like a kid again!!!)!

I've personally decided that I can no longer bypass consumption recommendations and abuse my privileges of owning nice products simply because I have purchased them inexpensively.

Being a savvy consumer, in addition to purchasing wisely, also means consuming wisely as well. The less I over use, the longer my family will benefit from my wise spending habits and the more I will have to give away when someone that I know is in need.

Making Money at Home

I've always had a hankering for earning a couple of extra dollars, and so when I knew that I was going to be becoming a stay at home mom, I nosed around for ways that I could still earn money while being at home. That is how I discovered the wonderful world of drug store games, couponing, and ....survey companies. Yes, you heard me. Survey companies.

At first I was a bit skeptical. Do people really actually make money with these companies? I did some research and discovered that they do. So I dove in and tried it myself. I learned things the hard way- by trial and error- and made plenty of mistakes. But before too long, I was making a nice little side income without spending too much time doing it.

Maybe you are interested in making a little extra money. If so, I have compiled a list of the companies that I like and some of the important information about them. Feel free to leave me any questions you have regarding any of them. I'll be more than glad to try to help you out!

Oh and one more thing, if you are interested in joining survey companies, you seriously might want to consider downloading roboform to your computer. This little tool will speed up filling out all your personal information in those surveys you fill out and save you a LOT of time.

HCD Research
Cash Out: $10, paid by check
Survey Frequency: once a week
Referral Program: $0.50 for each referral
Sign Up Bonus: NONE

This is a fun company to do surveys with. So far, all the surveys I have done have paid 50 points, which is $0.50, and have taken about 5 minutes. I have found the surveys to be fun since they involve watching a short, informational video and answering approximately five questions. (I do know of others who get surveys with higher payouts than this.)

Surveyhead
Cash Out: $25 by Paypal or Amazon.com gift cards
Survey Frequency: multiple offers per day
Referral Program: NONE
Sign Up Bonus: $5

I enjoy doing surveys for this company because of the often high value amounts of the surveys. I also really like that you can see up front how long a survey will take and what you are going to get paid to do the survey. This makes it easy to decide it if it worth your time. You will receive some survey invitations by email, but I highly recommend logging into your account too as you will see all the surveys available to you there. All surveys are worth at least $1 and I have done some for $4, $5, and $10. Those go quickly though, so you need to be fast if you want to do them. Occasionally, when you opt to do a survey, you will do what is called a pre-screen survey and be disqualified. This is because they have already filled their quota for that type of participant. This can be frustrating, but they pre-screen surveys typically take less than 1 minute.

I cashed out several times with Surveyhead. It does take a couple of weeks for the money to be deposited into your Paypal account once you request a payout, but it does happen eventually. (The reason for this is that all the surveys that you did need to be "cleared" before they can pay you.)

You Data
Cash Out: No minimum, whatever you earned is automatically deposited weekly to Paypal
Ad Frequency: Several a week
Referral Program: Up to $1 per referral
Sign Up Bonus: NONE

This is another fun, fast way to earn a little money. Basically you get paid to view advertising- well actually it is usually websites and will typically earn $0.10 to $0.20 per advertisement. The really neat thing is that your earnings are automatically deposited into your Paypal account every Friday, not matter how much you have earned. The two downsides of YouData are that Paypal deducts a small fee when the money is deposited, so instead of $0.10 you might only get $0.07 and the other thing is that lately the offers have been pretty sparse, at least for me. However, I know of some other people that are still getting quite a few advertising offers per week.

One other thing you should know is that when you sign up, you will be asked for a phone number to text you a verification code. Don't worry though, you will not get any other texts or phone calls from YouData. And if you don't have text capabilities, call them and they should be able to give you a code over the phone. They did for me anyway. In fact if you have any questions or concerns, I have found the customer service very helpful and workable.

Swagbucks
Cash Out: Varies depending on what you cash out for. For 45 Swagbucks you can get a $5 Amazon.com gift card (probably the best offer) or for 70 Swagbucks you can get a $5 PayPal deposit.
Swag Earning Frequency: Depends how often you search, but typically at least one winning search a day
Referral Program: earn what your referral earns up to 100 Swagbucks per referral
Sign Up Bonus: 3 Swagbucks

You've probably seen me link to this before but I thought I would explain it more here. I LOVE Swagbucks as it is one of the easiest ways to earn a little extra money.

This site is a little different from the others that I mentioned in that you earn "swagbucks" for searching the internet. You can do this by either logging onto their website or by downloading their search toolbar. (I recommend the toolbar, then you can use that to search anytime you need it. It will simply take the place of the Google search bar if you have that.) You do not earn swagbucks for every search, but from my experience you will earn something for approximately every five searches. The usual winning is 1 swagbuck, but occasionally you will earn more than that at a time.

CashCrate
Cash Out: $20
Survey Frequency: Once daily, however there are also offers you can do as well
Referral Program: 20% of level one referral earnings, 10% of level two earnings & $3 when your level one referrals reach $10
Sign Up Bonus:NONE

You can do 2 daily surveys both of which pay $0.80 each. There are also a whole list of offers that you can complete for various dollar amounts. If you do the offers, be sure to use an email account where you don't mind getting spam, because you will get it. It takes a bit to learn how to do the offers successfully, but with a little bit of time and by frequenting the forum, you can do fairly well.

I don't devote a lot of time to this site, but when I have a couple of free minutes, I do a few offers and slowly the money adds up.

MyPoints
Cash Out: Varies on what gift card you cash out for
Offer Frequency: Several offers daily
Referral Program: varies, but I think it is typically around 100 to 200 points
Sign Up Bonus: NONE

This is another easy way to earn a little bit of extra money via gift cards. Basically you earn points by reading emails, completing offers, doing surveys etc. and then can redeem the points for a variety of gift cards. I typically just do the email offers and am able to earn a couple of gift cards a year.

This is not a huge moneymaker, but for the little bit of time and effort it takes, I think it is easily worth it. If you decide to sign up for MyPoints, I'd be honored if you'd leave a comment or send me an email so that I can send you a referral link. Someone might as well benefit if you sign up, right?

Pinecone Research
Cash Out: $3- the amount for each survey
Survey Frequency: once to twice a month
Referral Program: NONE
Sign Up Bonus: NONE

This is one of the best survey companies out there. However, part of being one of the best also means that they are an "exclusive" survey company and really limit their openings. In the last 6 months though, they accepted applications at least twice. The next time that there is an opening, I will try to let you know.

The great thing about Pinecone is that you get paid $3 for each survey and they usually take about 10 minutes to complete. And after each survey you get paid, no waiting for a minimum payout amount or anything. You can get paid via Paypal or by check. The other really neat thing is that sometimes you get offers to try out the product that you took a survey about. So not only do you get paid to do the survey, you receive a free product!


Some other companies that I have tried and not found worth it in my humble opinion are Memolink, Inbox Dollars, Ipsos, Dollar Surveys, and Mind Field Online. Either they took too long to have any real earning potential or else the surveys were very low payouts for the amount of time spent doing them.

There are also several other companies that I am checking out and as I find ones that are legitimate and worth taking the time to sign up for, I'll be sure to let you know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Very early in the morning, we are heading to Arkansas to be with family for a long weekend. Looking forward to being there, but NOT the trip out! (Think 18 hours of sitting in a vehicle.)

Thanks too for all your get well wishes. That meant so much! I don't have a fever anymore, but I still have a nasty cold and don't feel the greatest. But God gave me enough energy today to do what I needed to do, so I am thankful!

Also, I just want to let you know that when we are in Arkansas, as far as I know we will have no Internet connection. So although you won't see my usual frequent posting, I do have at least 1 post a day scheduled. Hopefully by the middle of next week we'll be back to normal again!

My Absence

Well, I guess the flu finally got me. So far this year I've been able to avoid it but yesterday I felt somewhat sick and then during the night I had a ferocious fever. When I woke up this morning I wasn't sure how I was going to make it all day taking care of our little guy. Thankfully, one of my teenage friends heard I was sick and offered to come over for the day. What a blessing!! I don't know what I would have done without her.

So I've been resting- sometimes buried in covers and other times as hot as a furnace. I'm really hoping I get better before Thanksgiving as we are traveling 18 hours to be with family.

Sorry for my absence, but well, I just don't feel up to doing much!

Free Sample: Seventh Generation Laundry Sheets

Go here to request your free sample of Seventh Generation fabric softener sheets.

Thanks Saving with Shellie!

Weekly Spending Summary

Michelle's post last last week inspired me to try to be more faithful at showing my weekly purchases. Hopefully it can inspire you and you'll see that using coupons can indeed save you quite a bit of money!

RiteAid/Farmer's Market
I bought the carrots and lettuce at our local farmer's market for $2.15 total.

Then I went to RiteAid and bought the rest of the items there. I spent $5.53 out of pocket and will get back $5.69 in SCR (Single Check Rebates); $2.69 for the Crest, $2 for the Kotex, and $1 for the Renuzit. So I actually made $0.16! Part of what made my out of pocket so low was a $5/$20 Video Values coupon that I had.

CVS
My total before Extra Bucks was $8.42. I had a $7.99 Extra Bucks coupon to use so I only spent $0.43 on this. And actually, I used a CVS gift card that I earned through MyPoints to pay for that, so nothing went against my budget! I also earned another $3 Extra Bucks coupon to use toward another purchase.

Giant
I was able to get all of the above free after coupons. Rather amazing, considering I typically can't do that at our grocery stores around here. When I checked out, it was kind of funny. The cashier got this mildly shocked look on her face then said, "Well, that is the first time I've ever had a customer pay nothing!" I just smiled.


So all in all, I only had $2.15 go against my budgeted amount. Don't think too many amazing thoughts...what you don't see is that about two weeks ago I bought a bunch of meat and spent a good part of our monthly budget on that!

Did you get any good deals lately that you want to share?

Printable $0.50/1 Dole Coupon

Whohoo! The $0.50/1 Dole canned fruit, fruit bowls, all natural fruit jars or frozen fruit coupon is back again! Go here to print yours. Use this at a store that doubles coupons and you should be able to get some free fruit!

Can you tell that I am very excited about this? I just used the two I printed last time to get some free fruit this past week at Giant. There is nothing like free fruit in my humble opinion!

Thanks Money Saving Mom!

Free Sample: Seventh Generation Dish Soap

Go here to request your free Lavender Floral & Mint dish soap sample from Seventh Generation. You will need to either log in or register to get the sample.

Free Sample: Always Pads

Shoptext has a new freebie. Just text ALWAYS to 46467 to get a free sample of Always Infinity Pads mailed to you. New to Shoptext? Go here to learn more.

Thanks For the Mommas!

Printable Kellogg's Coupons

Kellogg's just released some new printable coupons here. Included are:
* $0.75/1 Rice Krispies
* $0.75/1 Crispix, All-Bran or Smart Start
* $1/1 Frosted Mini Wheats Little Bites

Thanks The Frugal Girls!

Free Sample: Millstone Coffee

Go here to request your free sample of Millstone coffee courtesy of Walmart.

Giant: Free Scotties & Dole

I just thought I should let you know about a couple of items you can get free at Giant this week. I mean, who doesn't love free?

* Scotties Tissues are on sale for $1 and you can use the coupon here to save $1 on them.

* Various Dole canned fruits, including mandarin oranges and pineapple, are on sale for $1. Play the Flip A Fruit instant game, and at the end you should be able to print a coupon for $0.50/1 Dole product. This will double to $1, making it free

Don't forget, you can print two coupons per item, if you click your browser's back button. Also, if you have more than one computer, you can print the same coupon twice from each computer!

If you get the Sunday paper, the 11/15 Red Plum had a coupon in it for $1/2 Breakstone's sour cream. These are on sale this week for $1.33 each. Use the coupon to get 2 for $0.83 each.

Coupon for Free Bottle of Metromint

Take this survey and you will get a printable coupon for a free bottle of Metromint water. At the end of the survey, there will be a printable code that you will need to write down. Simply enter that code when asked for it, and you should be able to print your coupon.

Curious where you can redeem your coupon? Find locations here.

Free Samples: Degree, Pond's, Caress, & Hellman's

Vive Mejor, a website owned by Unilever, is offering four product samples at their website. Samples include:

* Degree Women Fine Fragrance Collection
* Pond's Rejuveness
* Caress Skinwear Collection
* Hellman's Light Mayo

Thanks Common Sense with Money!

Printable Coupon Roundup

Go here to print a coupon for $0.75/1 Kleenex product. This coupon states redeemable at Kmart, but it is a manufacturer's coupon and can be used anywhere. CVS has Kleenex on sale for $0.99 this week, so this would make for some cheap tissues there!

Thanks Frugal and Thrifty Mama!

Use this $1/1 Coffee-Mate Powder or Liquid Creamer coupon to score some cheap creamer. If you don't drink coffee with creamer, there are some really good recipes on the Coffee-Mate website that you might want to buy it for. Or, use it to make your own cappuccino mix like I do.

Go here to get a $0.50/1 Wesson Oil coupon. These are on sale this week at Giant for $2.49. Use this coupon to get 48 oz. oil for $1.49 (coupon will double). Update: I'm sorry, the coupon actually says, DO NOT DOUBLE on it, so the oil would be $1.99 at Giant this week.

If you use margarine, here is a $1/1 I Can't Believe It's Not Butter coupon.

Free Sample: UnderJams

Go here to request your free sample of UnderJams Night Wear.

Thanks The Frugal Girls!

Free Sample: Always Infinity

Wow, the sample offers for Always just keep coming! This one's from Walmart, go here to claim your free sample of Always Infinity pads.

Here are some other Always offers I posted before but are still available. If you haven't requested them, I'd highly recommend it!

** Always Infinity Pads

**Always Flexi-style Liner

** Being Girl sample kit (Includes coupon for FREE box of Always Infinity!)

Steaz Tea: Coupon for FREE Tea

Go here to print out your coupon for one FREE 16 oz. Steaz organic iced tea. These are available at Target.

And if you have a Whole Foods or other health food store closeby, you might want to print out this coupon for a FREE Steaz Zero Calorie tea.

Thanks Money Saving Mom.

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet 'N Tangy Carrots

Mmmm! Just thinking about these makes my mouth water! I first made this recipe about 3 years ago, soon after we were married. Tired of the normal "boring" veggies, I decided to give this recipe a try and we loved it. It has become a frequent dish on our table. Well, at least when I am not in a hurry and take the time to peel and slice all those carrots!

Here is the recipe, slightly adapted from the original recipe found in a small family cookbook someone gave to me.

Sweet 'N Tangy Carrots

2 lbs. carrots, peeled & sliced
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. minced parsley

Place carrots in a large saucepan; sprinkle with salt and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well. Add brown sugar, butter, mustard and pepper. Cook and stir over low heat until well coated. Sprinkle with parsley.

Yield: 6-8 servings

For other recipe ideas, check out Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday, Blessed with Grace's Tempt my Tummy Tuesday, and All the Small Stuff's Tuesday's at the Table.

Free Sample: Stacy's Pita Chips

Go here to request your free sample of Stacy's Pita Chips.

Thanks For the Mommas!

Free Sample: Lipton Green Tea

Go here to request a free sample of Lipton Green Tea.

50 Free Photo Cards

The Frugal Girls has the details here on how to get 50 free photo cards plus free shipping.

Taste of Home: $5 Cookbooks

Taste of Home is offering a number of their cookbooks for $5- many of them are regularly priced around $20 to $25. I love the pictures in these cookbooks and think they make wonderful gifts.

Use code 1062 at checkout to get them shipped for only $1 or if you are buying 4 or more of them, use code LST02 to get free shipping.

Want to save even more? Shop through ShopAtHome and earn 10% cash back on your order. If you are new to ShopAtHome, you'll get $5 just for signing up!

Thanks Coupon Geek!

Blockbuster Express: Free Rental

Use code GT11A when checking out at a Blockbuster Express kiosk and you'll get a free rental. This code expires 1/31/2010. Want to find a Blockbuster Express near you? Go here.

Thanks Saving with Shellie.

Freebie: Tampax Pearl

Go here to request your free sample of Tampax Pearl tampons.

Walmart: Duncan Hines Cake Mixes for $0.45 with Coupon

Wow! This is an amazing deal. Walmart has Duncan Hines cake mixes on rollback for $0.78. Use the $1/3 coupon from the 10/11 SmartSource insert and get them for $0.45 each! We got two SmartSource inserts that week and they both had the coupon in it.

Thanks Frugal and Thrifty Mama!

Printable Coupons

-- $0.50/1 Tabasco Sauce

-- $1/1 Lever 2000 (IE) or (Firefox)
-- $1/4 Campbell's Cooking Soups


-- $0.55/1 Ziploc product

-- $1.10/1 Progresso High Fiber Soup

PineCone Research : Accepting Applications

I don't know if you remember my mention of PineCone Research before or not, but it is a survey company that is very reputable and one of my personal favorites. They only accept applications periodically and it appears that right now is one of those times. If you are interested, I'd highly recommend signing up now, as these openings usually don't last very long. Sign up here.

Want to read more about it? Go here.

Are you interested in learning more about companies like PineCone? If so, you'll enjoy the post I'm working on for next week about the different companies that I do work for to earn a little extra money each month. Stay tuned to learn more!

Giant: $0.66 Cheese!

For those of you that have Giant's/Martin's close-by, I've found a deal you might want to try to get. The Heluva Good! cheese is on sale for 3/$5 this week. There is a printable coupon for $0.50/1 Heluva Good! product that you can use toward the sale items to get a 6 or 8 ounce package of cheese for only $0.66! Oh and you can print this coupon FOUR times!

Around here, that is an unheard of price for cheese. Now if only I had another computer so that I could print out more coupons!

** Please note, some stores enforce the rule of only doubling one coupon per same item per transaction. If that is the case, most cashiers are more than happy to simply ring each item separately.

Redbox: Free Rental with Discover Card

Do you have a Discover card? If so, you can use it to get a free movie rental at Redbox. Simply swipe your Discover card when you rent the movie and use code KJXMT3.

Thanks Saving with Shellie!

GGP Malls: Free $10 Gift Card

Update: I figured out a way to link to a copy of the email I received. Here's how you can get this $10 GGP gift card offer too.

Simply go here and click "send to a friend". Then send it to yourself and from there, follow the instructions in the email you receive. I still recommend signing up as part of The Club so you don't miss out on any of these great deals!

Do you remember the $10 GGP Mall gift card that I posted about as part of their Shop Smart Look Fab promotion. Well, I just got an email from our local GGP Mall, Park City Center, offering me another $10 GGP Mall gift card if I bring the email in to the specified location this Saturday!

So why am I telling you this? Because if you have a GGP Mall in your area, you really might want to consider signing up as part of The Club. As part of The Club, you'll receive special promotions and offers like these. So how do you sign up?

* Go here and then type in your zipcode to pull up your local GGP mall's website.

* Once there, click the "Join the Club" tab in the top right hand corner of the screen.

* Enter your information...and you are on your way to receiving these offers too!

P. Graham Dunn: $100 Gift Certificate Drawing

Go here to enter a $100 drawing for a P. Graham Dunn.com gift certificate. Winners will be drawn every week from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

I don't often post sweepstakes/drawings, but P. Graham Dunn is one of my favorite home decor producers. I love many of their products and what I really love is the fact that most of their items have Scripture verses on them.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Sherilyn, for letting me know about this!