Glade Deal at Target

Heidi and I like to use Glade candles to help the house smell a little better. We found a pretty good deal at Target today.

FREE $5 TARGET GIFTCARD™ with purchase of 5 selected Glade air care items!

By selected they are referring to the Holiday Collection. So here is what we did.

Buy 1 Scented Oil Candle Tin, Get 1 FREE Refill Pack from 12/6 SS
$2.00/2 Scented Oil Candle Refills from 12/6 SS
$1.50/2 Jar Candles from 11/1 or 12/6 SS

So we got 1 Scented Oil Candle Tin, 3 refills and 2 Jar Candles.
We bought 6 things instead of 5 since we didn't already have the tin to place the refills in and it coordinated well with the coupons we had. The tin was $2.64 and the rest was on sale for $2.50 each for a total of $15.14. After coupons it was $9.64 and then we received a $5 gift card.

Printer Ink

If you are doing the coupon thing you will find that there are many great coupons you can print online. This, of course, means using expensive printer ink. Since the point of this thing is to be frugal and save money you can try one of two things. First try going here to check if Walgreen's can just refill your empty cartridge for you. You can search for the type of cartridge you have to make sure they can do it. Right now its advertised online for $12.99. This is easily one-third of the cost of buying a name brand cartridge. Sometimes Walgreen's will run even better deals than the $12.99. If you can't get what you need at Walgreen's then you may go here and give Data Bazaar a try. You can search by your printer type to see if they have what you need. You can then get a generic brand for a much cheaper price than buying name brands and they ship it to your door for free.

Chick-fil-a B1G1 Breakfasts

My coworker told me that I certainly don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to freebies because I didn't know that Chick-fil-a has buy one get one free breakfasts from now thru December 24th. You will want to ask, because it may be limited to certain items. Seeing how I love the chicken minis, I may have to check in on this deal!

Free Christmas Cheer from ITunes

ITunes has a free Christmas sampler for download. Here's the lineup:

O Come All Ye Faithful – Amy Grant
The First Noel – David Archuleta
Silent Night – Sarah McLachlan
Carol of the Bells/Jingle Bells – Barry Manilow
It Snowed – Meaghan Smith
Above the Northern Lights – Manheim Steamroller
Baby It’s Cold Outside – Lady Antebellum
We Three Kings – Toby Keith
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Rascal Flatts
Silent Night – Wynonna
12 Days of Christmas – Mexicani Marimba Band
We Wish You a Merry Christmas – Weezer
A Snowflake Fell (and It Felt Like a Kiss) – Glasvegas
Another Christmas Song – Stephen Colbert
Greensleeves – Vince Guaraldi
Dream a Dream – Charlotte Church
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act 2: Character Dances – Kirov Orchestra & Valery Gergiev
Angels We Have Heard on High – Aretha Franklin
O Holy Night – Musiq Soulchild
Auld Lang Syne – The Lonesome Travelers

Go here to get it, and click on Free Download. You will need to have iTunes installed on your computer.

Thanks to Common Sense With Money!

Get Paid for Taking Surveys

There are many survey web sites that will pay/reward you to take surveys about various consumer products. Some of these reward you in cash and some in gift cards or other free products. I have just gotten started on a few of these over the last couple of months so I thought I’d share what I know so far.

First off, you can check out any survey sites you come across at www.surveypolice.com . This site ranks all survey sites and allows users to file complaints so it’s a great place to find out if a survey site is worth your time or if it’s a scam.

Here are the sites I’m trying out:


E-Rewards

This is actually an invitation only site and I received the invitation from being on American Eagle’s email list. I’m not sure how else to get an invitation but this is definitely my favorite survey site so far. They send me several surveys per week and even if I do not qualify for the survey (this actually happens a lot with all of the survey sites because they are looking for a particular demographic) e-rewards still gives me some kind of credit for trying. Each completed survey puts $1 to $3 of credit into my account that can be redeemed for frequent flyer miles, Borders Rewards, American Eagle Gift cards, Magazine subscriptions and a few other things. I’ve only been completing surveys for a couple of months and I’ve already been able to redeem a $15 Borders Reward (which combined with two Borders coupons and free shipping got me $25 worth of merchandise for FREE!). I’ve already got enough credit in my account to redeem for another Borders Reward, however you can only redeem for that reward once per calendar year so I am waiting until January to redeem this credit.

Toluna

Toluna is taking a bit longer to earn credit because I do not qualify for as many of the surveys and I do not get credit for trying a survey that I don’t qualify for. But, I nearly have enough for either a $20 Amazon gift card or a $20 check.

I am also doing surveys for Valued Opinions and Opinion Outpost. No real results from either one yet but I think I’ll like Opinion Outpost because you can redeem your points for $5 Amazon gift cards as soon as you have enough points. I’m only giving summaries of these so I would recommend reading the information on the sites and on survey police so you know what you are getting into and how it works. Also, be sure and add the survey site email address to your contacts because I’ve had trouble with the surveys going to my spam folder. This does take some time but I’ve found that if I just take a few minutes and do the surveys as they come in that I don’t really notice the time it takes and I’m really enjoying the free stuff I’ve gotten so far!

Get Your Budget in Fighting Shape

Here is a great article posted on Investopedia.com by Andrew Beattie.

If you follow our blog for very long you will figure out very soon that we are big time advocates of taking control of your finances. Debt places such a heavy burden on the borrower. As Proverbs 22:7 says, the borrower is slave to the lender. And yet, even in the mess the economy is in today we are encouraged to run out and spend, spend, spend because spending is what will save the economy and lead to recovery. I want to encourage you to take a look at your personal "economy". Let's get our own finances in shape before we worry about others finances. Then you have total control. You can spend some money because you have become debt free and actually have some. You can save. You can give to support your church, a local non-profit, missons or even just bless a friend with a gift. We hope that you find this site helpful whether you are really depending on finding a great deal to be able to brush your teeth or whether you want to use the deals you find to donate to others. One of our main goals through all of this is to be able to use what we find to bless those in need around us and to be able to save money so we can support our missionary friends.

Adding to Alissa's deals...

We pretty much duplicated what Alissa did this week. We also got some toothpaste at CVS though.

Buy 2 Crest Toothpaste at $2.25 each, Get $2.50 ECBs (Limit 1)
Use $1.00/2 coupon

With the coupon it was 2/$3.50. I used my ECB's to make it free and get $2.50 back in ECB's.

Oh, and Blue Bell ice cream for $3 is a steal even when its 20 degrees outside!!!

Alissa's Deals of the Week

All of this cost about $5.50.

Here's my CVS & Walgreens shopping lists for the week, thanks to Money Saving Mom and Common Sense with Money (check out their sites for links to the printable coupons):

Walgreens

Chinet Plates, on sale Buy One Get One Free (2 for $2.99)
Buy 2 and use 2 $1/1 printable coupons
$.49 each after coupons

Kellogs Cereal - $1.00
Use $5/4 printable coupon on Target website (this is actually a manufacturer's coupon so Target will take it)
Pay $2.96 for 4 boxes

Blue Bell Ice Cream - 2/$8
Use $1/1 printable coupon
Pay $3 each after coupons

Finesses Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styler - $1.99
Use $1/1 coupon from 10/25 Red Plum Insert
Pay $.99 after coupon

(I used $8.50 in Register Rewards leftover from the Thanksgiving sale.)

CVS

Buy 1 Essence of Beauty Bath & Body at $4.99, get $4 Extra Care Bucks (Limit 2)
$.99 after Extra Care Bucks

Gillette Fusion, Mach 3, Series or Satin Care Shave Gel - $1.99
Use $1/1 from the 11/29 Proctor & Gamble insert
Stack with $1/1 CVS coupon from the $100 Flu Booklet (Ask for this from the pharmacy)
FREE after Coupons

(I used $4.00 in Extra Care Bucks.)