Thursday, June 17, 2010

Cheap List, Phoenix-Based

I wrote this up for a recently fired friend, and am putting it up here for anyone who might find it useful. Every time we lose someone else there it's like friggin' Watership Down.

Anyway . . .

Go get a GMail or Yahoo or similar account just for this stuff before you do anything.

http://moneysavingmom.com/ - lots of info on sales, drugstore fun, and general cheapness. This is where so much of my toothpaste comes from. Y

http://www.savingcentswithsense.net/ - similar, but Tucson based

http://www.5dollardinners.com/ - some good inspiration

http://weelicious.com/ - ditto, but with more agave nectar. That ingredient pisses me off, for some reason.

http://startsampling.com/ - sign up with a spam account, receive tampons and fibre supplements in the mail.

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-free-samples.aspx - Same idea. Don't mine the Walmart-ness. This is being done by the manufacturers.

http://www.kraftfirsttaste.com/default.aspx - Okay, it's not health food, but if you check the offers stuff, you'll often get coupons for free products.

http://www.vocalpoint.com/ - More stuff in the mail. Kashi coupons should make anyone at least moderately happy.

http://www.mambosprouts.com/sign-up.php - coupons for natural stuff.

http://www.getpaidsurveys.com/lightspeed/ - see if the link here works. My favorite by far, since it rewards pretty well, and you can get Amazon cards with it.

Look into Swag Bucks if you get bored. Not as fast, and I installed it on IE, so Firefox stays nice and clean. Run searches a couple times a day, eventually get $5 from Amazon.

https://www.mypoints.com - get points for clicking links in emails, or shopping through certain sites. I probably have a referral link somewhere, but haven't done much with this recently.

http://www.alpinevalleybread.com/ - go to the store on Friday (before 2:30), take $10 and a giant Ikea bag, come back with a ton of cheap, good bread. A lot of the labels are covered over, so you may need to guess, but your chances of scratching off the label when you get home and finding that you paid 50 cents for organic bread are pretty high.

http://www.freshandeasy.com/ - sign up for their mailing list, get coupons for $5 off $25 or $10 off $50 from time to time (they're nice about letting you do two transactions to use two coupons), get cheap organic stuff and markdowns. And get the banana gelato!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Jam FTW!

About a year ago, I ordered a case of mangoes from the co-op. Milo was just getting into solid foods then, so most of the mangoes got pureed and/or frozen, and that was that. A week or two ago, I ordered another case of mangoes, organic this time, since they'd worked out so well last time. Apparently, Milo's no longer digging the mangoes, so I gave a few to a friend, and was left with twenty-some little yellow mangoes going soft in their box on the counter. Not so cool. I ended up peeling and dicing them all today, with a veggie peeler, which I've found to be the most efficient way, and froze four cups of them. The rest were turned into mango jam, which was really quite good.

Mango's got a very nice flavor by itself, but in baked things, it tends to end up tasting sweet, rather than like itself, so the jam was a nice alternative to muffins or bread. Will definitely make this one again. And yes, its was very easy. Just throw mango chunks, sugar, and a bit of lemon or lime juice in a pot, stir for about twenty minutes, and make sure there's some toast ready to go, and you've got a nice little snack.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Shopping List, 2/14

Aww, Valentine's Day! Not that it means much now, since I'm too old for Batman cards and cutting hearts out of construction paper, but it pretty well guarantees cheap candy over the next week or two. We might manage a geocache tomorrow, too, and I'm long overdue for wandering around in the desert with a GPS and bag of trinkets.

So, on to the shopping list, as written by me, for me, since I've got a memory like a sieve, and not even an especially cute sieve. More like a dollar store one. Tomorrow should have three stops, including the bank.

Fry's

Purex Laundry Detergent, as explained here.

Lots of Chunky soup, since the husband likes it, and it's fairly cheap. There are some printables here, which should bring them down to $0.50-$0.70 each, which is cool.

Sliced cheese is $1 each, but the fridge is in its death throes, so will wait to see if we can get that fixed first.

CVS

Lots of good stuff here. I'm looking at (as stolen from the link above):

Crest Pro Health Enamel Shield Toothpaste (4-4.2 oz) or Rinse (14.8 oz), $3.50
Earn $3.50 Extra Bucks (Limit 2)
$0.75/1 Crest Toothpaste or Liquid Gel – 1-17-10 P&G
$0.75/1 Crest Toothpaste or Liquid Gel – 2-7-10 P&G
Final Price after Extra Bucks: FREE + $0.75 overage

Aussie Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styler, $2.99
Earn $2 Extra Bucks (Limit 1)
$1/1 Aussie Products – 2-14-10 RP
Final Price after Extra Bucks: FREE

Spend $12 on Select Glade Products, Get $4 Extra Bucks (Limit 3)
Glade Sense & Spray, Fragrance Collection Candle or Diffuser, or Plug in Lasting Impressions, $6
$3/1 Sense & Spray Starter Kit – 1-24-10 SS
$3/2 Fragrance Collection Products – 2-7-10 SS
$3/2 Fragrance Collection Products printable
$3/1 Glade Candles or Diffusers – 2-7-10 SS

Glade Plugins Scented Oil Refill, Sense & Spray Refill, Essentials Oil Candle 4 oz., Scented Oil refills 3 ct., $3
$2/2 Sense & Spray Refills – 1-24-10 SS

Soft Scrub Cleanser, $2
$0.50/1 Soft Scrub – 1-10-10 RP
$1.50/1 Printable
Final Price: as low as $0.50/each

I'm hoping to find a way to use my $2/3 Glade, umm, those more high-end candles I can't remember the name of.

Also, I have a $2 Soft Scrub coupon from Recycle Bank. There seriously is a lot more stuff at the link, so if you happen to stumble by here, click on it already.