Just in case any of you are not yet signed up with Swagbucks, you should sign up, pronto! I love Swagbucks because it pays me for doing something I do anyway - search the Internet. Since November of 2009, when I started using Swagbucks, I have redeemed eleven $5 Amazon Gift Cards, just from doing a few searches a day.
To use Swagbucks, you can either download their toolbar, which I didn't do, because I don't like to download a bunch of stuff, or you can remember to go to the website to perform your search. It's very simple to use, you just type your search in the way your normally would. If you win bucks for your search, a notification will come up in the upper right corner or at the top of the screen, flashing. Search results are provided by Google and Ask, and I've found them to be reliable.
I have discovered a few tricks from using the site for the last nine months. If I perform a search and don't get Swagbucks right away, it helps to check all pages of results. Sometimes they pop up on the second or third page. You can get 50 Swagbucks for registering your birthday on the site, and one Swagbuck each for checking the Survey section and the No Obligation Offers section (just select "skip" for each offer you're not interested in) and participating in the Daily Poll. If you care to participate in any of the surveys, you can earn bucks that way too. It gives you an indication how likely you are to qualify for each survey before you start. I like this, because if my odds are slim, I don't waste my time! If you do any shopping on the Internet, you can earn points like that.
Don't forget to check Twitter, Facebook and the official Swagbucks Blog. From time to time they will give out codes that you can input to get additional Swagbucks. You can also win Swagbucks if your name comes up as the Hourly Random Winner on the site. I have never seen my name come up, though. Fridays are MegaSwagbucks Days, and you can win more Swagbucks per search on Fridays.
When you have some Swagbucks accumulated, browse around the Swag Store until you find something you want to redeem them for. At the time I'm writing this, my preferred prize, an Amazon e-card, is going for 450 Swagbucks. After you order, they send you an email you need to confirm, and then you have to wait a week or so for your prize to post.
If anyone wants to sign up, please use my link:
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/betsybargain
They give you 30 Swagbucks just for signing up. Once you are signed up, you can also earn points when your referrals earn points.
I hope you like Swagbucks if you sign up, and that you are able to earn a lot of great prizes! If you have any questions about Swagbucks, feel free to leave a comment and ask me.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Bushels Of Uses For Seasonal Bounty
One of my favorite things about this time of year is the abundance of delicious, fresh fruit. Your neighbors are begging you to take it off their hands. It's on sale at every grocery store, and available at local farm stands. The only question is, how to use it all up before it spoils!
Stone fruits, such as peaches, plums and nectarines have a myriad of uses. They can be grilled, tossed into salads, blended in smoothies, cooked into jam, sliced up and made into a topping for ice cream or crepes, baked into pies or cobblers, canned, frozen or dried for later use, or made into wine or liqueurs.
Melons, such as cantaloupe, watermelon or honeydew, can be scooped out with a melon baller, and frozen for later. The texture will be slightly less firm, but it will still taste great. They are terrific in salads and in chicken entrees. They can be dried and eaten later, or frozen into sorbets. They can be juiced. Watermelon rind can be made into pickles.
No matter how you eat them now, or preserve them for later, summer fruits are a delicious way to add important nutrients to your diet. Please share your own ideas for using the fruits of the season!
Stone fruits, such as peaches, plums and nectarines have a myriad of uses. They can be grilled, tossed into salads, blended in smoothies, cooked into jam, sliced up and made into a topping for ice cream or crepes, baked into pies or cobblers, canned, frozen or dried for later use, or made into wine or liqueurs.
Melons, such as cantaloupe, watermelon or honeydew, can be scooped out with a melon baller, and frozen for later. The texture will be slightly less firm, but it will still taste great. They are terrific in salads and in chicken entrees. They can be dried and eaten later, or frozen into sorbets. They can be juiced. Watermelon rind can be made into pickles.
No matter how you eat them now, or preserve them for later, summer fruits are a delicious way to add important nutrients to your diet. Please share your own ideas for using the fruits of the season!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
You'll Go Bananas For This Icy Treat
Hot summer days are here. Are you looking for an easy, healthy alternative to ice cream? Look no further! This sweet, frosty treat has no fat or cholesterol if you use soy milk, and very little if you use nonfat or low fat milk. It's also full of vitamins and minerals, and pretty inexpensive, too. The soy milk or juice version is great for those who are lactose intolerant, or vegans.
I always buy some overripe bananas on sale, peel them, and keep them in a gallon-size storage bag in my freezer. When I want a treat, I pull out one or two, break them into chunks, and throw them in my blender. If I want a more ice cream-like concoction, I add low fat milk or soy milk. If I want more of a sorbet, I add whatever fruit juice I have laying around. Add it a little at a time, until you get just enough where it can blend without bogging down the motor, but not so much that it's too thin. You want it as thick as possible. If I want chocolate "ice cream", I add a little hot cocoa mix. If I want fruity ice cream or sorbet, I add a little jam or a piece of overripe fruit. Blend until smooth. Use a rubber scraper to transfer the mixture to a bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer. Remove it every fifteen minutes and give it a stir, until it freezes to the right consistency.
Enjoy your guilt-free summer treat!
I always buy some overripe bananas on sale, peel them, and keep them in a gallon-size storage bag in my freezer. When I want a treat, I pull out one or two, break them into chunks, and throw them in my blender. If I want a more ice cream-like concoction, I add low fat milk or soy milk. If I want more of a sorbet, I add whatever fruit juice I have laying around. Add it a little at a time, until you get just enough where it can blend without bogging down the motor, but not so much that it's too thin. You want it as thick as possible. If I want chocolate "ice cream", I add a little hot cocoa mix. If I want fruity ice cream or sorbet, I add a little jam or a piece of overripe fruit. Blend until smooth. Use a rubber scraper to transfer the mixture to a bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer. Remove it every fifteen minutes and give it a stir, until it freezes to the right consistency.
Enjoy your guilt-free summer treat!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Cheap Cheats
There are little tricks we can employ in every area of our lives to save money. I like to call them cheap cheats. Each of them will save just a few cents here and there, but using all of them together can really add up over time. I'd like to share a few of mine with you.
Kitchen:
-Make your own pickles for pennies. Buy a cucumber on sale. Plunge it into boiling water using tongs for a few seconds to kill any bacteria. Slice thinly and pack the slices into a jar of juice you've saved from store bought pickles. In a few days they are ready to eat! Every few times you'll have to buy a jar of pickles from the store and start over.
-Use clean hotel shower caps you've collected while on vacation to cover bowls in the refrigerator. Make sure the plastic doesn't touch the food, as it's not food safe plastic. I wash mine in the top rack of the dishwasher and reuse them. Just make sure they can't fall through to the heating element and melt!
Bath:
-Flatten the toilet paper roll slightly with your hand before you put it on the holder. It won't roll so easily, preventing family members from accidentally rolling out too much at once and wasting paper.
-Water down those little shampoo samples left over from the hotel and use as hand soap. Just save a pump dispenser from store-bought soap and use it over and over again.
- A small rubber band wound a couple of times around the base of your soap or lotion pump will keep too much from dispensing at once.
Cleaning:
-Use newspaper or catalog pages to clean grease out of pans, pet messes- anything too nasty for your washable cleaning rags. No need to buy paper towels.
-Even though we use our reusable grocery bags, we still manage to accumulate some plastic ones. Use these to line trashcans instead of buying trash bags.
Laundry:
-If you use fabric softener, the sheets can be cut into narrow strips, and still work just as well. This can really stretch a box.
-Vinegar added to the rinse cycle is an even cheaper, natural fabric softener.
Heating and Cooling:
-Keep the windows open at night and early in the morning while it's cool, and close them before it starts to heat up.
-Close all the blinds on the sunny side of the house until the sun goes down or goes around the other side.
-Reverse the blade direction on your ceiling fan in the winter to help push the heat down from the ceiling.
Do you have any cheap cheats of your own? I'm always interested in hearing your money-saving ideas.
Kitchen:
-Make your own pickles for pennies. Buy a cucumber on sale. Plunge it into boiling water using tongs for a few seconds to kill any bacteria. Slice thinly and pack the slices into a jar of juice you've saved from store bought pickles. In a few days they are ready to eat! Every few times you'll have to buy a jar of pickles from the store and start over.
-Use clean hotel shower caps you've collected while on vacation to cover bowls in the refrigerator. Make sure the plastic doesn't touch the food, as it's not food safe plastic. I wash mine in the top rack of the dishwasher and reuse them. Just make sure they can't fall through to the heating element and melt!
Bath:
-Flatten the toilet paper roll slightly with your hand before you put it on the holder. It won't roll so easily, preventing family members from accidentally rolling out too much at once and wasting paper.
-Water down those little shampoo samples left over from the hotel and use as hand soap. Just save a pump dispenser from store-bought soap and use it over and over again.
- A small rubber band wound a couple of times around the base of your soap or lotion pump will keep too much from dispensing at once.
Cleaning:
-Use newspaper or catalog pages to clean grease out of pans, pet messes- anything too nasty for your washable cleaning rags. No need to buy paper towels.
-Even though we use our reusable grocery bags, we still manage to accumulate some plastic ones. Use these to line trashcans instead of buying trash bags.
Laundry:
-If you use fabric softener, the sheets can be cut into narrow strips, and still work just as well. This can really stretch a box.
-Vinegar added to the rinse cycle is an even cheaper, natural fabric softener.
Heating and Cooling:
-Keep the windows open at night and early in the morning while it's cool, and close them before it starts to heat up.
-Close all the blinds on the sunny side of the house until the sun goes down or goes around the other side.
-Reverse the blade direction on your ceiling fan in the winter to help push the heat down from the ceiling.
Do you have any cheap cheats of your own? I'm always interested in hearing your money-saving ideas.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Packaging, Schmackaging
My biggest pet peeve when I go shopping is excess packaging. Boxed snacks with little individually wrapped portions inside, shrink-wrapped flats of plastic water bottles, tiny toys in huge clam shell packaging with cardboard inserts, they all drive me nuts.
Although I see some small signs of change lately from manufacturers, there is still a lot of room for improvement. What can we do to send a message to manufacturers that we don't want this waste to continue?
-Email the manufacturers of your favorite products and ask them to make packaging that can be reused for something. Once upon a time, jelly came in juice glasses with a disposable top. After eating the jelly, you could drink out of the glass. Flour came in cloth sacks that could be used as dish towels. Let's bring this practice back.
-Buy staples in bulk and store them in reusable containers. When companies sell fewer of their over packaged offerings, they will have to change their ways or risk losing sales.
-Purchase the new, concentrated versions of things like laundry detergents, which come in smaller containers. Manufacturers actually prefer these nowadays anyway, as they help them to save on shipping costs.
-Find ways to reuse containers that products come in. Cat litter buckets can be used as planters after drilling holes in them, for instance. Remove labels from jars and coffee cans and use for storage. Plastic food trays or small boxes can be used to organize drawers.
-Give locally made handcrafted toys rather than the over-packaged plastic junk made overseas whenever possible.
-Buy a filter and filter your own tap water. Stop buying those ridiculous bottles!
-Purchase a used item. Yard sales and thrift stores are good places to buy household items that are still in great shape, and they usually don't have any packaging!
The practice of over packaging is not going to change overnight. After all, packaging is designed not only to protect the products we buy from damage and theft, but also to entice us to buy the products. However, with a clear message from consumers, and the pressure of increased shipping and packaging costs, change will eventually happen. In the meantime, don't forget to recycle any excess packaging you can't avoid!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Take Me To Your Loss Leader
What is a loss leader? A loss leader is a product sold by the store below cost. This is meant to get you in the door in the hope that you will buy other more profitable products at the same time. It also gets you in to the store more often thereby increasing the likelihood that you'll buy more stuff each time you're there. For instance, I usually only grocery shop once a month, but if there are some cheap sale items I need that week, I'll go again. The store only has a few of these items in their flyer each week, because they want you to come in on a weekly basis. Typically, loss leaders are found on the first or last page of a store's flyer. The price will seem unusually low to you. Better than the typical sale price.
In order to benefit from these extremely low priced items, you need to do several things. First, you must avoid the temptation to buy other items that are not available for a good price. Second, if the loss leader is an item you use regularly, you should buy as many as the promotion will allow. When something is on sale for a great price, and I am the only one in the family who uses the product, I will ask other family members to buy some for me too. Lastly, don't drive all over town to pick up one or two items that are on sale. That will just eat up all your savings in wasted gas. Plan to stop at each store when you will already be in the area on another errand. Try to plan the most efficient route to hit all your stops.
Don't forget, you can still use a coupon on these heavily discounted items to maximize your savings. If you don't have one already, check the online coupon sites. I usually just do a web search "coupon kraft macaroni and cheese" or whatever the product is. Make sure you check the date of the resulting hits. You will find some outdated ones too.
Hopefully, this post has inspired you to check your sale flyers, head to your nearest grocery store, and fling open the door, shouting "take me to your loss leaders!"
In order to benefit from these extremely low priced items, you need to do several things. First, you must avoid the temptation to buy other items that are not available for a good price. Second, if the loss leader is an item you use regularly, you should buy as many as the promotion will allow. When something is on sale for a great price, and I am the only one in the family who uses the product, I will ask other family members to buy some for me too. Lastly, don't drive all over town to pick up one or two items that are on sale. That will just eat up all your savings in wasted gas. Plan to stop at each store when you will already be in the area on another errand. Try to plan the most efficient route to hit all your stops.
Don't forget, you can still use a coupon on these heavily discounted items to maximize your savings. If you don't have one already, check the online coupon sites. I usually just do a web search "coupon kraft macaroni and cheese" or whatever the product is. Make sure you check the date of the resulting hits. You will find some outdated ones too.
Hopefully, this post has inspired you to check your sale flyers, head to your nearest grocery store, and fling open the door, shouting "take me to your loss leaders!"
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Birthday Booty
Ok, I got your attention, but that's not what I meant at all. Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm talking about all the free stuff you can get from companies on your birthday.
If you like Starbucks, just register a gift card with them, and you'll get a free drink on your birthday. If you keep reloading and using the same card, you will earn a star with each visit. When you reach 30 stars, you will get a free drink every 15 visits, as well as on your birthday. There are other benefits too, which you can read up on at the website.
I like to browse around at this cool store called Anthropologie. It's expensive, so I rarely buy anything there, but I signed up for their club. Last year on my birthday they sent me a cool little sewing kit. This year they sent me the cutest necklace made out of a birthday candle. If you live near an Anthropologie store, you should sign up.
Join the email lists of all the restaurants you regularly dine at. Many of them will send you a coupon for a free dinner or dessert on your birthday. Sometimes they require that another meal be purchased, but you're probably not eating out alone anyway.
Ice cream chains such as Baskin Robbins, Coldstone Creamery and Dairy Queen typically offer a free cone on your birthday. This year with the economy being bad I got a buy-one-get-one coupon from Dairy Queen, which I thought was a little cheap considering those type of coupons are often found in the local paper anyway.
Check with all of your local movie theaters, since many of them offer a free movie or snack bar item on your birthday. If you rent movies, many of the rental chains offer a free rental on your birthday with membership.
Ski resorts typically offer a free lift ticket on your birthday (or a free ride for summer birthdays) and many golf courses give you a free round of golf.
Local bowling alleys will usually give you a free game on your birthday. They may require you to rent shoes, though.
Speaking of shoes, I found a coupon in my email from Payless offering me a 20% discount on a pair of shoes during my birthday month. Not a bad discount if you needed a pair anyway.
Someone just told me Krispy Kreme offers a dozen free doughnuts on your birthday. I hope so, since mine's coming up soon! I know Dunkin' Doughnuts gives you a free medium drink on your special day.
Don't forget to use your junk email address when you sign up for all these freebies. Otherwise, your regular email will be full of ads all year! Register with all the stores and restaurants you normally visit, and I promise when your birthday rolls around, you will have all sorts of offers!
If you know of any birthday freebies not mentioned here, please leave a comment and let us all in on them!
If you like Starbucks, just register a gift card with them, and you'll get a free drink on your birthday. If you keep reloading and using the same card, you will earn a star with each visit. When you reach 30 stars, you will get a free drink every 15 visits, as well as on your birthday. There are other benefits too, which you can read up on at the website.
I like to browse around at this cool store called Anthropologie. It's expensive, so I rarely buy anything there, but I signed up for their club. Last year on my birthday they sent me a cool little sewing kit. This year they sent me the cutest necklace made out of a birthday candle. If you live near an Anthropologie store, you should sign up.
Join the email lists of all the restaurants you regularly dine at. Many of them will send you a coupon for a free dinner or dessert on your birthday. Sometimes they require that another meal be purchased, but you're probably not eating out alone anyway.
Ice cream chains such as Baskin Robbins, Coldstone Creamery and Dairy Queen typically offer a free cone on your birthday. This year with the economy being bad I got a buy-one-get-one coupon from Dairy Queen, which I thought was a little cheap considering those type of coupons are often found in the local paper anyway.
Check with all of your local movie theaters, since many of them offer a free movie or snack bar item on your birthday. If you rent movies, many of the rental chains offer a free rental on your birthday with membership.
Ski resorts typically offer a free lift ticket on your birthday (or a free ride for summer birthdays) and many golf courses give you a free round of golf.
Local bowling alleys will usually give you a free game on your birthday. They may require you to rent shoes, though.
Speaking of shoes, I found a coupon in my email from Payless offering me a 20% discount on a pair of shoes during my birthday month. Not a bad discount if you needed a pair anyway.
Someone just told me Krispy Kreme offers a dozen free doughnuts on your birthday. I hope so, since mine's coming up soon! I know Dunkin' Doughnuts gives you a free medium drink on your special day.
Don't forget to use your junk email address when you sign up for all these freebies. Otherwise, your regular email will be full of ads all year! Register with all the stores and restaurants you normally visit, and I promise when your birthday rolls around, you will have all sorts of offers!
If you know of any birthday freebies not mentioned here, please leave a comment and let us all in on them!
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