So here I am this weekend, snowed (or slushed...) in in my cozy little house. :) Part of me wishes I was back in my old neighborhood where I grew up and where there were lots of other people to play with in the snow. I remember going for a walk late one night down our street with Michael and his parents. Everything was so peaceful and quiet and white. It was beautiful. I remember having to do my paper route (yup, I had a paper route.) in the snow a few times. It was always a great excuse to get out in the snow...although I could never figure out how to do the whole thing without my feet freezing on me! :)
The other part of me is enjoying having an entire day just to be at home - that rarely happens. I'm here in the evenings all the time, but rarely a whole day.
Anyways, since I am here at home and can't go anywhere, I figured I would write about a couple things I have been getting into lately. You may have noticed the little box on the right side of my blog titled Swagbucks. Some of you already know about Swagbucks, but for those of you who don't, here is the definition from their website:
Swagbucks.com is...
"An online portal dedicated to helping you earn digital dollars called "Swag Bucks", which can be redeemed for exclusive swagbucks.com merchandise."
Basically SB is a place to search the internet that is powered by Google (so, basically the same as going to google.com...just a different address...). When you use it to search for anything you would normally search for, every so often it will reward you with a "swag buck".
You can also earn more swag bucks by completing Special Offers. For example, I registered on a new photo developing website (similar to Snapfish or Shutterfly), made one very small order (cost me $3, including shipping), and earned 75SB. Now, granted, I will only do that every great once in a while, but it did help boost my SB count. :)
Once a week there are also "free" special offers. These are a list of about 5 websites you can sign up for (contact lenses, insurance, etc.). The great thing about these though is that you do not have to actually sign up for any of them (which is good, because I wouldn't!), all you have to do is click through them (clicking on the "skip" button at the bottom of each) to find a Swag Buck Code at the end that will earn you one SB for free!
Once your swag bucks start adding up, you can trade them in at the "swag store" for lots of different items. Of course the items range in swagbuck price from 1SB to up in the thousands. I started about 3 weeks ago and I already have enough SB that I could trade them in for $15 worth of gift cards to Amazon.com or a $10 gift card to Starbucks or a $10 gift card to Barnes & Noble! The prizes that you can earn are real and worth earning essentially for free!
If you are interested in checking it out, simply click on the SB icon to the right! And if you have any questions, just ask. :)
The next thing I have been getting into is couponing. I think it's funny that "couponing" is a verb now! I have heard stories about people who use coupons to get items for next to nothing but had no clue how they did it until a friend of mine started posting about it on her Facebook page. She motivated me to look into it and I think I'm hooked. I have not saved as much as she has (she payed $38 for $194 worth of groceries...an impressive 80% savings!) but I would love to get there eventually!
She sent a very long list of websites to obtain printable coupons from but I have narrowed the list down to what seems like the best ones. I will post the links below - and please tell me if there are any others that you already know about that are good ones!
My first experiment was this past Monday. I worked for about a week saving up coupons from online and in the newspaper. Then I headed to Krogers. I ended up spending $25 on $56 worth of groceries for an approximate 45% savings. Like I said, not as good as Jewel...but ok for my first try. My most impressive purchase was a box of Post cereal that was on sale for $2.50, Krogers was running a special that allowed me to get $0.50 off of that, bringing it down to $1.99...and I had a $2 off coupon on top of that, making that box of cereal completely free! This is how the coupon pros do it - they "stack" coupons on top of sales on top of coupons. You can combine a store coupon (like a Target coupon) with a manufacturer's coupon (like a Kraft cheese coupon), with an item that is on sale to bring the price waay down. I think my savings will get better as I add more coupons to my "collection". :)
Anyways, I feel like I'm rambling, and if you are still reading by now, you are a faithful reader (and I would LOVE for you to leave a comment and let me know what you think!). :)
I will post the list of websites below and if you have any coupon tips or ideas, I would love to hear them!
Printable coupon sites:
Electronic coupon sites:
A note about these last three...first of all, Kroger does have printable coupons. However all three of these websites have "electronic coupons" - there will be a list of coupons, you click on the ones you want, and they will add it to your Kroger Plus Card! Then when you check out at Krogers and scan your Plus Card, it will put any available coupons towards your purchase. You can even combine electronic coupons with paper coupons!
Helpful websites:
One more link to inspire you. Stephanie Nelson is known as the Coupon Mom (that's the link to her website above.). She goes around helping people learn how to cut their grocery bills in half...if not more. There are several videos of her on YouTube that make me want to learn how to save more...and have her come shopping with me sometime! Check out this video to see what I mean:
My friend Jewel's goal for this year is to save so much with couponing (including rebates) and Swagbucks that she pays nothing out-of-pocket for Christmas 2010! I can't wait to see how she does...I'm not sure I'll be that good...but I'll give it a try!
Ok, have I completely overwhelmed you? Or did you quit a while ago? :)
On to some pictures! I went for a walk in the slush today. You could hear the snow melting and running down any hills or slopes around. It was still beautiful and peaceful outside though and I enjoyed being outside.
My driveway. Covered in a thick layer of slush.
Standing on the walking track at the church across the street and looking back towards the river.
Evidently I wasn't the only one who came out for a walk today!
Slush!! It was kind of fun to stomp around in though... :}
L: Slush completely covered the church parking lot with little pockets of air making it spotted. That was fun to stomp on too. (How old am I??) Lol. R: Only a few tire tracks broke up the slush in the parking lot. You can see the inch or so of water running down the tracks.
See the mountain to the very left? That is what my house looks directly at. And that is the playground we love to play on when it's warmer outside. Except when it is inhabited by bumble bees.
Just some snow caught in a tree. :)
Except for a few cars and the melting snow, this was the only sound I heard today - a woodpecker! He was pretty high up in the tree so this was as close as I could get. Check my other blog for another photo of him when I walked too close to the tree for his comfort!
