$5,000 with Duck Tape

You can win $5,000 with the Duck Tape Duck Saves the Day Contest.

A wise man once said, "The one thing people love more than duct tape, is telling their duct tape story"

One grand prize winner will receive $5,000 and a years supply of duck tape. Ten random entries will win $500 and a years supply of duct tape.

You can enter your duck tape saved the day story (250 words) until December 31st. (the website says 2007 but I just received an advertisment on this which said 2008)
In 2007 they had 2,600 people share a story, so really you odds of winning with a creative entry are higher than most contest.

If you enter let me know and we'll highlight some of your great projects. I received none of my Mother's creative talent so I'll be sitting this one out.

Using a clothesline

I found a new blog to enjoy smallnotebook.org. It was like fate because the first day I read her blog it was about electrical use. It really got me thinking and I started to add up our usage for certain products. It’s amazing how things add up.

Visit her post HERE to see the equation. For example using small notebooks equation for our dryer I came up with this:

Our new but very wasteful dryer uses 24 amps
24 X 240 = 5760
/1000=5.76
x .75 = 4.32
x .08 = .345

We have very cheap electrical rates, one of the good things about living in this area. There’s aren’t many advantages so I’ll take what I can get, but even with our cheap rate it still cost us 34 cents each time we run our dryer. That’s $2.07 a week and $107.64 a year!

I figured if we cut out half our loads we’ll save around $54 for the year. It’s not astronomical but it helps.

In order to cut down some of these cost we decided to begin using a clothesline. Here are some of the benefits we’ve experienced (or will) since our experiment began.

• Saving money on electrical cost (of course)
• We’re using our central air less b/c our dryer isn’t raising our temp
• Spending time together while hanging clothes
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions
• No lint on line dried clothes
• No more static cling
• Our clothes won’t shrink

The clothesline rope cost us $3.50. An investment I can live with.

Running these numbers really motivated me to cut our cost in other places around our house. Check back next week to see how we decided to save money on other items.

All You - August

If you haven’t picked up your August issue of All You at Wal-Mart, do so now… I mean seriously, like right now… run! There are over $40 in coupons and 8 FREE or B1G1 products. These are by far some of the best coupons I’ve seen in an All You, right now I’m holding out on purchasing another this month, but I have a feeling I won’t make it. There are just so many great coupons on products we buy all the time. The extra savings will definitely pay for the $1.97 it cost. Just the Kraft coupons alone really, I’ve got some big plans for those.


Here’s what you’ll find the August issue:

$1.50 on any 32 oz Greased Lightning Cleaning product
$.50 on BUNdinos
$2 on Whole Body Cleanse
$2 on any MiraLAX product
FREE Kraft Singles wyb any 3 Kraft, Nabisco, or Oscar Mayer product
FREE Crystal Light wyb any 3 Kraft, Nabisco, or Oscar Mayer product
FREE Oscar Mayer hot dogs wyb any 3 Kraft, Nabisco, or Oscar Mayer Product
FREE 16 0z Kraft Dressing wyb any 3 Kraft, Nabisco, or Oscar Mayer Product
FREE Nabisco wheat thins crackers wyb any 3 Kraft, Nabisco, or Oscar Mayer Product
$1 on any All Small & Mighty (3x)
$1 on 2 Tyson breaded frozen box or 1 breaded frozen bagged item
$.75 off any 1 Jif to Go
B1G1 Rimmel Colour Rush eye shadow
$1 any Kotex Product
$1 on any Ban (1.5 fl oz) – I love Ban
$.75 on 1 Trident Xtra Care
$2 on any 1 Abaya or Hydrolage hair care product
$3 wyb 2 Neutrogena cosmetics products
$1 Orville Redenbacher 100 calorie mini smart cakes
$3 on any Visine product (1/2 fl oz)
$1 off any Emerald Breakfast on the Go! 6 pouch carton
$1 off any Nature Made liquid soft gel
B1G1 Giant Chewy nerds (1.8oz)
$1 any size Peter Pan peanut Butter
$1 on any 2 Kid Cuisine
$1 on Splenda No cal sweetener mini
$.75 on any Dole Fruit Bowls
$.50 on any 6 count package White Castle Microwavable Hamburgers
$1 on Kelloggs Frosted Miniwheats Blueberry muffin
$1 off any one Far Rich product
$.55 off one Uncrustables
$.55 wyb 2 Sunny D chilled products
$1 on 2 TGI Friday’s frozen Snacks
$1 off 2 Del Monte Fruit Chillers
$1 off TGI Fridays Complete Skillet meals
$1 on 4 Boston Market Frozen Entrees
FREE Weight Watchers Smart One’s Desert wyb any 5 WWSO Products
$1 wyb 2 Ore-Ida frozen potatoes
$2.50 on any Biz Product
$1 on 1 Spot Shot instant carpet stain & odor eliminator
$1 on Glade Fabric & air odor eliminator
$1 on any 2000 flushes automatic toilet bowl cleaner

Wal- Mart 7/28

I have a TON of coupons expiring at the end of July (as I’m sure most of us do) so I headed over to Wal-mart to see what deals I could find. I was a little disappointed because I couldn’t find any of the free Gillette 2 in 1 body washes, but other than that I think we did quite well. I’m still no where near as good as some, but I’m learning.



::Purchased::

2 Bic Pens (.88 each) = $1.76
- $1 wyb any 2 Bic Stationary products
Febreze Room freshener = $3.97
Febreze Air Effects = $2.66
- $2.66 wyb 1 Room Freshner G1 Air Effects
V8 – V Fusion = $2.98
-$2 on any V8 – V Fusion
8 Iams canned Cat food (.33 each) = $2.64
- $1 wyb 4 Iams cans (2)
2 Gillette Shave gel (.97 each) = $1.94
-$1 off Gillette Shave gel (2)
Freshmatic Mini = $5
$4 off any Freshmatic mini
Kotex 14 count = $1
-$1 any Kotex product
4 Herbal Essences (trial size .97 each) = $3.88
-$3 wyb 2 (2)
Tampax Pearl 18 count = $3.96
-$1 off any Tampax
Neosporin = $4.67
- $1 off any Neosporin product

::Non Coupon purchases::
All You = $1.77
Pink Lemonade = $2.50
Conditioner = $1.46
Ibuprofen (2 bottle count) = $4

We spent a total of $21.53 (before tax) and received $44.19 in merchandise. That’s a 49% savings! I also received $2.18 in overage and some great coupons in the new All You.

Weekly Sweeps 7/28

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.


Instant Wins
Build your Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I haven’t been playing this one daily, but I plan to start soon. I thought you had to design a bean every day but after entering your email address you can click right to the scratch and win game. Play until August 31st.

National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius. Enter until September 1st.

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Best of all the instant win game is a version on Plinko. Enter once a day until September 30th.

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can win a years supply of paper towels or gift cards for different amounts. Until September 30th

Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano. Ends August 10th.

Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag. Play every day until August 4th.

Disney Shopping is giving away more movie tickets, $10 off disneyshopping.com, and a grand prize; a trip for four to a Disney Resort. Stop by the Wall-e’s Wishbox to enter.

Head on over to the SprayChel, campaign for president sweepstakes for your chance to win the presidents salary or $15 Target Gift card. (35 per day). Play five times per day until July 27th. You can also print 50 cent off coupons for I can’t Believe its not butter. I won a $15 Target gift card!

Lipton’s instant win is giving away gift cards. Best of all you can win up to TEN instant win prizes until August 24th.

Stop by the General Mills Batman sweeps for a chance to win a $5000 gift card, more common prizes are baseball hats, and backpacks. Enter once a day until August 31st for instant win games. You can also send in 10 UPC’s from participating General Mills products and get 2 free movie tickets to see Batman: “The Dark Knight”

Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day. Play until September 29th.

Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

Totino’s is giving away 2,100 movie tickets to The Dark Knight until December 31st.

Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.


Just Plain Sweeps
Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.

Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff. Register until October.

The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.

Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end June 30th. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.

Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyward BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.


One time Entry
MGM is giving away five copies of War Games. You can only enter once.

MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win a trip for two to a game of the 2008 MLB World Series Championship or $5,000 cash. Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

Disapointing Weekly Sales

Sorry I haven't been around since Thursday, I've worked the last 7 days in a row and only have 11 more to go... yeah I'm pretty tired and cranky. My postings may be a little scarce during this time. I've got a pretty busy next few weeks, August 16th will be my next free day.

And is it just me or is this week a real let down in the shopping department?
I haven't been to CVS in what feels like forever, but I've got some ecb's that are going to expire so I'll have to whip something up.

Right now I'm planning to skip Kroger and Meijer this week. I do however, plan to make a run to Wal-mart to use up some of those coupons expiring at the end of the month. We'll see how it goes I've heard some horrible stories about them scanning coupons incorrectly. I'll update everyone with what I come out with.

So anyway, that's the skinny on my life right now. I'll try my best to get my July spending post out by the weekend as well... but don't hold me to it.

Saving Energy & Money

I love reading other blogs especially from those that can help me reach my goal of financial freedom. It really is amazing how many things you can do to save money. Most take little to no work at all. Pretty much everything we’ve done so far we don’t even notice.

I want to start using a part of this blog to share some of the things we’re trying to help us save money. It’s interesting how much I’ve come to enjoy things I used to fear with a passion. I actually like clipping coupons and I find every time I walk through the house I am coming up with new ideas of how to save money. It’s become a game to me; and my checkbook enjoys when I win.

I’ve only been doing this for about two months and we’re already eating better and getting free products. Thanks to some great sites (look to the right) I’ve gotten two free movie tickets, $5 Subway cards, $5 Kroger card, a $15 Target card and lots of free samples. That’s $25 in just gift cards not including the cost of the other free products or my savings from CVS. I feel more stable since we started saving, less stressed about money and best of all we’ll be debt free soon.

Anyway, I hope to post at least one item a week on what we’re doing to save money around the house. I would also like to start tracking our energy use from month to month, but I can’t promise anything yet.

Until then check out these other articles on how to save money around your own home

101 Easy Ways to save

How to Save Energy around the House

The Incredible Hulk

I forgot all about reviewing the movie Matt and I saw almost three weeks ago now; The Incredible Hulk. Not to be confused with Hulk, but we'll get to that later. I sat through all of the first one, exactly once and that was enough. I wouldn't have even entered the theater for this one but someone may have mentioned Edward Norton.

I've been a fan of Norton since Primal Fear. His acting usually makes any film. Most people noticed Norton in Fight Club but his real break through role is in Primal Fear. It's amazing. Watch it if you haven't already; Primal Fear I mean.

Although, you can watch The Incredible Hulk as well because contrary to all my predispositions against it, I actually liked it. The CG and story line are so much better than the first one.

My only real problem with the film is the fact it was made to being with. We've all heard of remakes but who has ever heard of remaking a film in less than five years? This is not a sequel as some suggested it is an all out redo, in my opinion. A better one yes, but still a complete do over. I know it feels like Hollywood is running out of ideas but now they've stepped up to full Mulligans. When will it stop?

Red Robin Gift Cards Instant Win

Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

Free Jewelry

Looking to score some free jewelry?

ShopDI.com has a few selections you'll want to check out. When you stop by ShopDi.com scroll to the bottom and click on free jewelry or visit this link. All you have to pay is the $3.45 shipping fee. These free offerings haven't changed in quite a while so I wouldn't be too worried about them running out.


Please don't mind my bad picture or apparently dirty desk

I ordered this bracelet last year but never got around to writing about it. I haven't had the chance to wear it as often as I would like but so far I'm enjoying it. It's kind of an odd shape but I like that you can adjust the size. Any of these free pieces would make great Christmas gifts this year.

Also make sure to check out their free gift of the month on the left side when you make any purchase (excluding free jewelry).

And while you're there put your name in the hat for a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree (awarded every three months).

I promise this is really just a good site I'm not getting anything for this review; although, if ShopDi.com would like to send me free jewelry... I guess I'd be ok with that. :)

Free GeoTrax DVD

Mattel is giving away free a free GeoTrax DVD. It contains three eposides promising to take you all over GeoTown. Each episode is about 11 minutes total DVD time of 34 minutes.
One per household while supplies last.

Thanks to Freebies 4 Mom

More Instant Wins & Free stuff

Shutterfly is hosting a summer Sweepstakes

Hit the Road Sweepstakes

When you post a favorite vacation picture you receive free 4x6 prints (up to 75) and a chance to win hundreds of weekly prizes (Gift Cards to lots of stores). The more you post, the more chances you have to win.

Hurry because this sweeps ends August 12th.


Freebies
You can also get a free 11x14 photo collage poster. All you have to do is enter 62SUMMER in your shopping card.
Ends July 23rd, 2008 and you do have to pay shipping and handling fees.

Sweeps for the Week 7/21

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.


Instant Wins
Build your Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I haven’t been playing this one daily, but I plan to start soon. I thought you had to design a bean every day but after entering your email address you can click right to the scratch and win game. Play until August 31st.

National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius. Enter until September 1st.

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Best of all the instant win game is a version on Plinko. Enter once a day until September 30th.

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can win a years supply of paper towels or gift cards for different amounts. Until September 30th

Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano. Ends August 10th.

Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag. Play every day until August 4th.

Disney Shopping is giving away more movie tickets, $10 off disneyshopping.com, and a grand prize; a trip for four to a Disney Resort. Stop by the Wall-e’s Wishbox to enter.

Head on over to the SprayChel, campaign for president sweepstakes for your chance to win the presidents salary or $15 Target Gift card. (35 per day). Play five times per day until July 27th. You can also print 50 cent off coupons for I can’t Believe its not butter. I won a $15 Target gift card!

Lipton’s instant win is giving away gift cards. Best of all you can win up to TEN instant win prizes until August 24th.

Stop by the General Mills Batman sweeps for a chance to win a $5000 gift card, more common prizes are baseball hats, and backpacks. Enter once a day until August 31st for instant win games. You can also send in 10 UPC’s from participating General Mills products and get 2 free movie tickets to see Batman: “The Dark Knight”

Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day. Play until September 29th.

Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

Totino’s is giving away 2,100 movie tickets to The Dark Knight until December 31st.

Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

Just Plain Sweeps

Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.

Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff. Register until October.

The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.

Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end June 30th. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.

Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyward BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.


One time Entry
MGM is giving away five copies of War Games. You can only enter once.

MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win a trip for two to a game of the 2008 MLB World Series Championship or $5,000 cash. Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

2008 World Series Sweepstakes

MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win a trip for two to a game of the 2008 MLB World Series Championship or $5,000 cash. Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

Weekly Freebies 7/19

My box of freebies is spilling over so I'm sharing what I received over the last two weeks.


Freebies with Coupons (not shown)

• Kotex sample
  
• $1 any Kotex product
  
• Escada Moon Sparkle Perfume
• True Lemon, orange, and lime sample
• $.40 on any true lemon lime or orange
  
• Stetson Fresh Cologne sample
• Curel Lotion
  
• $1 on any Curel Moisturizer
  
• Garnier moisture lotion
  
• Poise personal cleansing cloths & Cottonelle flushable wipes
• $1 on Poise Product
• $1 wyb 2 Cottonelle fresh wipes
  
• Juicy Juice sippy cup (for when the family visits)
• Spa Selects natural cat food
  
• $2 off any bag (2)
  
• Healthful Life Cat Chow (not pictured)
• $1.50 on 3.5lb or larger bag
  
• Tide with Dawn Stain Scrubbers
  
• Vera Wang - Princess perfume
• Multi Grain Cherrios
• Caulk Singles
• Old Spice - Red Zone Body Wash
  
• Gillette face & Body wash
  
• Pup-Peroni (not pictures - B.P. has already enjoyed)
  
• $1 on Pup-Peroni dog snacks

Just Coupons

• FREE country Bob's all purpose sauce
• Purina Packet
• FREE can of Mighty Dog
• Buy 4 can of Mighty Dog and get 1 FREE
  
• Purina One (30 Day challenge)
  
• 1 FREE bag 4lb or smaller dog food
• 1 FREE bag 3.5lb or smaller cat food
  
• $5 & $1 Luvs diapers (for next giveaway)
  
• Huggies coupon pack - I'll probably put these in my next coupon giveaway
• Save on diapers, wipes, and body product
  

Magazines – Reading Material
- Understanding Valuation and Insurance Options (protecting your home)
- Feed Our Kids Well from Ragu – recipe book
- The Repbulic of Tea magazine (with free tea sample that sounds amazing)
- Guide to Scenic Highways & Byways (I might end up listing this on )
- 2008 Consumer Action Handbook
- Your Home – MetLife pamphlet (will come in useful if we do sell our house)
- Harmony – Storage Solutions (much needed for this house and a possible apartment)
- Investment Advisor (free subscription from work – don’t ask me why)
- Home - The Remodeling & Design Resource
- Country Home (June & July/Aug editions)
- 2 Partners magazines
- Living the Country Life
- Kraft Maid idea book (extra handy if we stay in our home)

One day I’ll post what I do with all these free magazines once I’ve read them and taken all the free coupons…. Of course.


If I continue to receive this much stuff each day I’ll have to start updating weekly.

CVS 7/18

Matt and I stopped by CVS on Thursday. Of course they were out of Sure deodorant and 4x6 books (realized after I’d already made mine). I had planned to do two transactions but with the limited quanities and my inability to find any extra $3 off coupons for the books I only ended up doing one. And trust me I looked for that coupon…everywhere, those who got them are lucky. I’ll have to keep my eye out more in the future.



::Purchased::
2 Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Polish (@.99) - $1.98
1 Airwick Freshmatic starter kit - $4.99
1 6x8 Photo book - $ 7.99
1 4x6 Photo book - $3.90 (not pictured – we have to pick up later)
1 CVS make up removers - $2.99

Coupons
$4 – Airwick
$3/2 Sally Hansen (reduced to $1.98)
$2 CVS skin care product
$3/$15 CVS Coupon !!!!!!!


Total Cost: $21.85
Coupons Used: $10.87
ECBs used: $9.49
Cash: $1.82 (could have been less but I got distracted)

Ecb’s earned: $12.98 ($1 CVS wipes, $7.99 photo book, $3.99 photo book)

YTD Savings: $126.57
Spending: $4.42


I only use Hard as Nails clear polish so finding it for this deal was great.

Check out The “cent”sible Sawyer for more cvs deals.

$5 in coupons

Get $5 in coupons when you sign up to be a member at healthy balance.

Healthy Balance is a brand of Old Orchard which contains reduced sugar and calories than your normal juice drinks.

Meijer Sweeps

Just a reminder if you live near a Meijer they are giving away a chance to win $10,000 or instant win prices. You can find more information HERE Enter once a day until August 15th.

Check out Freebies 4 Mom for even more great sweeps and instant win prizes.

Great News!!

I walked into my CVS today to see a bright red coupon scanner!

I'm so giddy you have no idea, even Matt was excited. I was always so jealous of everyone else getting great $/$$ deals off their cards. Until today I had yet to receive ANY printed coupons.

Today after scanning my card I received:

$2/$10 CVS Brand Purchase (If only I hadn't used up most of my monthly deals already)
$1 on CVS Brand Multi Vitamins (60ct or larger)

Check back tomorrow to see what I ended up buying at CVS today.

More Free Coupons

In the spirit of coupon giveaways Frugonomics:101 is giving away $50 in free coupons. Enter the contest Here

More CVS 7/11

On Friday I stopped at CVS to try the Febreze deal; of course, my store was all out. I ended up getting a rain check but I’m quite sure it was written out incorrectly as it doesn’t list the earned ecb’s only the sale price.

Anyway I did end up taking advantage of the Dawn deal and a few more monthly items. I forgot to take a picture, sorry. It actually ended up being a money maker which I wasn’t expecting.

We Bought
2 Dawn dish soaps @ 1
2 Sure Deodorants @ 2.69
1 CVS make up removers @ 2.99

Coupons
1 CVS coupon - $2 ($2)
2 Sure coupons - $1 ($2)
2 Dawn Coupons - $1 ($2)

Paid with:
$4 in ecbs and $.63 oop

Earned $5 in ECB’s.
($1 Dawn, $1 CVS Wipes, $3 Sure)

Year to date savings: $115.13
Summer Spending: $3.79

School Shopping

When the week started out I thought it was going to be very slow on deals, but I eneded up having a good shopping week. The best finds this week was on school supplies.

Here’s what we got at Staples this week. My amazing husband made three trips during the week while he was out and about for his day.



In total we purchased
4 – Purell hand sanitizers @ .01
6 – Packs of pencils @ .01
10 – Binders @ .25
30 – Folders @ .01

Total Spent: $2.90 out of pocket. We needed to replenish some of our office supplies and since I spend all day shaking hands with strangers I’ll make quick use of the Purell. The items we won’t use I plan to donate to our church when they do a call for school supplies.

Since the Staples sale ended on Wednesday we spent Thursday at Walmart looking at their school section.



Our purchases were:
2 – Stick glue @ .22
2 – Rose Art colored pencils (12 count) @ .60
2 – Rose Art Crayons (24 count) @ .17
2 – Rose Art Markers (11 count) @ .60
4 – One Subject Notebooks @ .05
2 – Giant Coloring books @ 1
1 – Index Cards @ .46

Total Cost: $5.84 I use the glue sticks in my scrap booking and index cards for recipes. Matt will use the notebooks for school. I plan to use the rest of the items to make two birthday gifts we’ll need next month.

Total School shopping: $8.74 For less than $10 we purchased enough to replenish our needed office supplies, put together two birthday gifts and even have a little left over to donate. What more can you ask for?

Free Milk!

It’s Week Three of Mommies with Cents Free milk giveaway!

They are giving away FIVE free cartons of Little Einsteins milk to one lucky reader who leaves them a comment. You can get the full scoop and enter HERE.

Make sure to get over there and sign up for this opportunity. You don’t want to miss out on this. And just in case you don’t win you can also print a coupon for $1 off your next purchase.

Coupon Giveaway Winners!

Drum Roll Please …

The winners of the coupon give away are:

Set One:Praveen




Set Two: On Fire for Jesus


Even better news for the winners; I’m throwing in more coupons! I ended up getting another set at work and plan to throw extras in your envelopes.

Emails have been sent out to the winners. I just want to say thank you to everyone who entered the response was more than I ever imagined. I set out thinking I’d get maybe 20 entries but ended with 242 comments of people wanting to enter.

Big thanks to the following bloggers for helping to promote my giveaway:
The “Cent”sible Sawyer
Coupon Cravings
Mommies with Cents
Freebies 4 Mom

For those of you who didn’t win this time I promise there will be many more coupon giveaways in the future so keep reading. I’ve already started a nice little stack and when I get a decent number I’ll make sure they go to a good home.

Free Subscriptions

One year Free subscription to

Blender
Latina
Maxim and
Shape

at Low Price Subs but act fast these usually go quickly.

Sweeps for the week 7/7

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. All of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.


Instant Wins
Build your Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I haven’t been playing this one daily, but I plan to start soon. I thought you had to design a bean every day but after entering your email address you can click right to the scratch and win game.

National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius.

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Best of all the instant win game is a version on Plinko. Enter once a day.

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can win a years supply of paper towels or gift cards for different amounts.

Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano.

Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag.

Disney Shopping is giving away more movie tickets, $10 off disneyshopping.com, and a grand prize; a trip for four to a Disney Resort. Stop by the Wall-e’s Wishbox to enter. Thanks to Freebies4mom for sharing the sweeps.

Head on over to the SprayChel, campaign for president sweepstakes for your chance to win the presidents salary or $15 Target Gift card. (35 per day). Play five times per day until July 27th. You can also print 50 cent off coupons for I can’t Believe its not butter. Thanks to Freebies4Mom for sharing this one. I won a $15 Target gift card!

Lipton’s instant win is giving away gift cards. Best of all you can win up to TEN instant win prizes.

Here’s another great sweep from Freebies4Mom Stop by the General Mills Batman sweeps for a chance to win a $5000 gift card, more common prizes are baseball hats, and backpacks. Enter once a day until August 31st for instant win games. You can also send in 10 UPC’s from participating General Mills products and get 2 free movie tickets to see Batman: “The Dark Knight”


Just Plain Sweeps

Circuit City is giving away different prizes each week. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.

Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff.

The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards.

Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end June 30th. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.


Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day.

Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyward BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.

Malibu Outdoor living is giving away $20,000. One entry a day until July 15th.

One time Entry
MGM is giving away five copies of War Games. You can only enter once.


Let me know if you've won anything from a listed sweeps or have one that should be on the list .

Free Coupons

That’s right I’m giving away FREE COUPONS!
89 to be exact, in two sets. One set of baby items (diapers, pull ups) and the other of everything else. These are good coupons just things we will not use. Rather than throw them away I figured I’d pass them on to someone who might.

All you have to do in order to win is leave a comment with your email address in this post by Thursday, July 10th - 3pm (est). If you are only interested in winning one set please make sure and let me know in your comment.

Here are the details.

Set One: 18 coupons

- Pull ups $1.50 (2)
- Huggies $1 (2)
- Huggies wipes .50
- Huggies Bath/Body Product $1
- Little Swimmers $1 (4)
- Under jams $2 (2)
- Pampers Splashers $1.50 (2)
- Pampers diapers $1 (2)
- Pampers Wipes .50
- Flinstones Multivitamins $1

Set Two: 71 coupons
There are way too many to go through the whole list but here’s a nice sample.

- Haircare/Shampoos
- $3 off Semipro
- Household
Includes: Cascade (7 different), Ziplock, Pur Water filters, Swiffer varieties
-Food
Includes: Lloyds products, Boost, Bob Evans products, Zone products
-Vitamins
Includes: Prilosec, NatureMade, Metamucil, Gold Bond

I will randomly choose the winner on Thursday evening and send out the coupon packs on Friday.

CVS - 7/6

CVS was slightly better than expected.

Here is how we did.




1 Gentle Glide (18 count) @ $4.99
1 CVS Tampon (5 count) @ $1.49
1 CVS Pantiliners (22 count) @ .99
1 CVS Make-up removers @ $2.99
2 Sure Deodorants (2.69 each) @ $5.38

Total: $15.84

Coupons Used
- $1 off Sure solid (2)
- $1 Gentle Glide tampons
- $2 CVS Skincare

Paid with $10.84 in ecb’s ( $6.98 & $4 marked down to $3.86)

I paid $.18 oop (tax)
Earned: $9.48 in ECB’s

I lost a little on the trip but I’m sure I’ll make them up later. I wasn’t able to do the Dawn deal today, nothing was labled yet and I didn’t want to risk it. I’ll try again later in the week if I end up doing the Febreze deal.

I also stopped at Miejer to stock up on bread and ended up walking out with a sheet of Iams Dog/Cat food coupons (from vendor) and a free bottle of Sheer Fressia from Bath & Body Works and a bottle of nail polish (from Salon handouts). It was a good day.

CVS Senarios for 7/6

Its kind of a slow week at CVS huh?

This is what I’m planning to do tomorrow if I can make it all work.

1 Playtex Tampon (18count) @ 4.99
~ Use $1.00 coupon
~Earn $3 ecbs
Total cost: $.99

1 CVS Pantiliner @.99
~Earn $.99 ecbs
Total cost: FREE

1 CVS Make up removers @ $2.99
~Use $2/1 CVS coupon
~Earn $1
Total Cost: Free

2 Sure Solid Deodorants (2.99 each) @ $5.98
~Use (2) $1/1 Sure Coupon
~Earn $3 ecbs
Total Cost: $.98

1 CVS Tampon @ $1.49
~Earn $1.49 ecbs
Total Cost: FREE

I might do the Dawn dish soap if I can get my coupons from the Home Made Simple book to work.
2 Dawn Dish Soaps @ $2
~Use either a $1 or $.50 off coupon (maybe both)
~Earn $1 ecb


Without the Dawn my total is as follows

Total: $16.44
Use $5.00 in coupons
Spend $10.98 in ecbs & $.46 oop
Earn: $9.48 in ecbs
I’ll be losing a few ecbs but I hope to make them up in better deal weeks to come.

Stop by The “Cent”sible Sawyer and Money Saving Mom for more CVS scenarios. I just realized most of my deals are monthly rather than weekly, just goes to show how bad the week really is.

More 4th Spending

As I said, yesterday Matt I also shopped at our local book store and Goodwill before CVS.

Here’s what we got at the book store.



All year long our Bargain Books has a whole section of their store with books for $1. Every year on the 4th of July they have a 50% off sale. It’s a great spot to find new authors and who can pass up $.50 reading material? We ended up with 15 books and spent $15.35. Most of the books we purchased were $.50 – all the ones on the right (12 in total). I did pick up a couple extras for Christmas gifts and Matt found a book in the series he’s reading (3 on the left). During this sale you really have to judge a book by its cover, but in the past we’ve been successful at finding good reads. Last year we spent over $80 on this sale.

I picked up the book on the bottom “Your Money or Your Life” by Neil Cavuto thinking it was another by a similar title. I still plan to read it and then list it on since someone is waiting for it. This year by being a little picky and mainly sticking to the $1 table we were able to make a good sale great.

After loading up on books we stopped by the Goodwill next door to look for fabric. I really want to start sewing this summer but I hate paying full price for vintage looking fabric only to waste it if I make a mistake. In the craft blogs I read I’ve found many people are hunting for old sheets at thrift stores. I decided to give it a shot knowing that it would be hit and miss.



I picked up three very large pieces of fabric in patterns I really like. Not as “vintage” as I was hoping for but a great price as I paid only $4.97 total for everything pictured. Less than the cost of one yard of fabric at my local JoAnns. Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to make with them. If only I would have picked up a sewing book at the sale :)

Overall for my whole day of shopping on the 4th (Goodwill, CVS, & Bargain Books) we only spent $21.40. So much better than anything we would have done in the past and all we had to do was shop smartly.

4th of July Shopping

Today Matt and I did a lot of shopping in celebration of the fourth. There is an annual sale where our local book store is entirely 50% off. A great price for a couple of book junkies. Since we were on that side of town we stopped by Goodwill so I could look for some vintage fabric (sheets) that are vastly becoming the new sewing fad. And of course on the way home we stopped by CVS to round out the sales. Here’s what we ended up with.

CVS



4 bags of Lifesavers hard/gummie candies
1 CVS Tampon
1 CVS make-up removers
1 Bic Soleil Razor
1 Bic Soleil refill (4 count)
2 Trident Xtra Care
Total: $25.82

Coupons I Used
(2) BOGO Life Savers Coupon
$2/1 CVS Skin Care
$.75/1 Trident Xtra Care
(2) $4/1 Soleil Razor or cartridge refill

Total after coupons: $11.08
Used $10 in ECB’s and $1.08 oop.
Earned: $8.49 in ECB’s

Overall I received $30.20 in merchandise for $1.08 of my own money. All four bags of Life Savers were free, the razor and refills cost $.98, and I paid -.01 for the face wipes. The gum was the most expensive oop item at $1.23, had I done my math correctly I wouldn’t have purchased it but I thought it was a better deal.

Tomorrow I’ll post our finds at the book store and Goodwill. Until then check out the other great CVS finds at The “Cent”sible Sawyer

Also feel free to link your great CVS finds below.

Inside the Home Made Simple Guide

Earlier I told you I'd post what coupons can be found in the Home Made Simple Guide, well here they are. You can order yours here and I strongly suggest you do.
All coupons expire on 9/30/08

Swiffer
$1 on any one swiffer sweeper starter kit or two dry or wet refills.
$5 on one Swiffer Sweeper Vac Starter Kit
$1 on any one Swiffer Dusters Starter kit or Refill
$5 on one Swiffer WetJet Starter Kit
$.50 on any one Swiffer WetJet Refill

Cascade
$1 on any one size Cascade 2in1 Action packs
$.50 on any one size Cascade complete
$.50 on any one Cascade Powder or Gel
Free any one 8.45oz Cascade Crystal Clear Rinse Aid

Dawn
$.50 on any one size Ultra Dawn
$1 on any one size Dawn Simple Pleasures
$1.50 on any one Dawn Direct Foam Pump
$2 on any one dawn Direct Foam Refill

Febreze
$.50 on any one Febreze Fabric Refresher
$2 on any one Febreze Noticeables Starter Kit
$1 on Febreze Noticeables Dual pack or two refills
$.50 on any one Febreze Air Effects
$1 on any one Febreze Candle


Mr.Clean
$.50 on any one size Mr.Clean Magic Eraser
$.50 on any one size Mr. Clean multi surfaces liquid
$.50 on any one size Mr. Clean Multi Surfaces Spray
$.50 on any one size Mr. Clean Wipes or Power Multi-Surface wipes

Iams
$3 on any one Iams Healthy Naturals Product
$1 on any one Iams dry cat food or 6 cans of Iams Canned Cat food

I was a little skeptical that this book would even show up, but it did and its got some great deals inside. Make sure you sign up for yours soon.

How much of your day is really yours?

It’s no secret; I want to retire, and I want to retire soon. Its not that I have anything against working. I rather enjoy my field and seeing the people I help. I suspect that even after I retire (granting I can do it early) I’ll continue to work in some fashion.

What I don’t want to waste any more time on is working for someone else. I hate knowing that I’m working 45+ hours every week to line the pockets of a man I’ve never met. Its like Office Space. if I work really hard and save the company $5,000 (like last month) I don’t earn any extra money. Heck I don’t even get an acknowledgement. Yet, when I mess up you can bet your buttons everyone knows. This obviously bothers me.

I am giving away the prime years of my life for a few thousand dollars. Not only prime years but on a more basic scale also the prime hours. Think about it, you have 24 hours a day to work with. Actually, less but lets go with 24. In most cases a minimum of 9 hours are spent at work (8 hours working – 1 hour lunch). Hopefully 8 hours are spent sleeping. Figure you spend a bare minimum of 30 minutes getting ready in the morning; although, I bet it’s actually quite a bit more. Lets then say your commuting 30 minutes each way, that’s an hour of unpaid driving time.

So far just with these work and sleep related things you only have 5 ½ hours for you. How do you spend that time? An hour for dinner, paying bills, 30 minutes reading a book or magazine? When you look at it that way any you time you get in those 5 ½ hours is pretty precious huh?

In my case I have even less time since I work more than 40 hours every week. I average around 4 hours of me time every day. See why these hours are worth a lot to me? I work about 47 hours a week, almost a full extra day of work than the average person.

When you run the numbers like this less than 20% of your day actually belongs to you. I end up with about 16% of my time being mine. And Honestly, most days I’m so tired I just come home and veg in front of the T.V. When the weekend does roll around we’re at open houses, meals out, yard work, doing laundry/dishes etc.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that you own 100% of your time?
I think so.

Two more sweeps/ instant wins

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Best of all the instant win game is a version on Plinko. Enter once a day.

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can win a years supply of paper towels or gift cards for different amounts.

You really can win at sweeps

When I first started entering instant win games and sweeps I didn’t think I’d ever win anything, I’m not the lucky type. Two days later and I won a movie ticket. I was still skeptical thinking my theater wouldn’t take it or something. When they did, I was hooked.

Now I’m like the sweeps Queen. I love entering every day, most the games are fun, and its amazing the things I’ve actually won so far.

To date I have won two movie tickets, a $5 subway gift card, $5 Kroger gift card, a $15 Target gift card (from Spraychel still going on), and this morning I picked up a free pair of Adidas shoes from the Mt.Dew Old School New School Contest.

What do I have to do to win this great free stuff?? I play a few games online while watching tv or enter a few codes from the 1,000 Mt.Dew bottles my co-workers consume every day. There is no hoop jumping like I thought or scams, not even spam. It’s amazing really. I had no idea how easy it really is to win all these great prizes.

Just in gift cards alone I brought in $25 for the month of June. That’s not counting the cost of the free movie tickets, coupons, and other freebie samples I’ve received. My total is probably more around $100.

I just had to share how amazing playing these sweeps really are and how easy it is to win. If you haven’t played an instant win before take a look at my posting here and sign up for a few today, you never know what will end up in your mailbox.

Freebies in my Mail box

Since I started signing up for freebies a few weeks ago my mailbox has been surprising me with goodies every day.

Here is what I’ve received over the last two weeks.




Vaseline Men’s Body & Face Lotion
Hamburger Helper Singles – Cheeseburger Mac
Playtex Bottle
Huggies Pull up Training Pants & Shampoo
Crystal Light Mix
Coupon for a free Nuk bottle and $1 on pacifier 2 packs from Gerber
Planet Heros DVD
Febreze coupon
Home Made Simple $31 coupon Book (I’ll post what’s inside later)
Ban Deodorant
Wall*E Watches
- Another thing I love about our theater, often when we attend they are giving out freebies. Normally its free candy, popcorn or pop, but last weekend it was Wall*E watches by the box full. We took four, one for each of the nieces and nephews.
Playtex gentle Glide sample & coupon
- I love these kinds of samples. With my current position at work everyone to find when they are in need of one. This way I can still be helpful but without spending a ton of money out of pocket.

I can't wait to see what will show up next week.

Freebie Finds

Not too many freebies to report this week. I’ve been bad about keeping track of which ones I’ve signed up for.

Found free Sunsilk from Totally Free Crap

Walmart is offering free samples of Ponds cleansing towelettes

Also at Walmart free Huggies Supreme samples.

On Slickdeals I also ran by this rebate from Noxzema for free razors up to $3. This should lead to some more free products.

I’ll make sure to keep better track this week, I promise.