Illegally Sighted » Frugality

Call Me A Freebie Junkie

Amber — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:30:04 +0000

“I can’t wait to find the next one!”

“Just one more then I’ll go cook dinner!”

“I can stop whenever I want to!”

Does this sound like you? Well ya better face it you’re hooked…on freebies!

For me, it started when I was in grade school. My best friend and I would call the 800 numbers that were on TV. They lured you in with their promises of a free sample or a free coupon. We spent hours looking through our comic books, magazines and cereal boxes for free stuff. It was so exciting!

When the mail came it was like Christmas! Little boxes and envelopes with our names on them. They were just begging to be opened! We’d open whatever it was, mess with it for awhile then forget about it. We’d move on to our next treasure with wide eyes and excited laughter.

To this day I still get like that when something comes to me for free!

I have a freebie for you today that will give you a happy AND be useful!

It’s Swag Bucks! OK, right now you may be thinking “Not another referral site/search site/craptacular waste of time.”But it’s not by any means any of those things!

Basically you are getting paid to search. But, the cool thing is you can actually redeem these “Swag Bucks” for real rewards. THey have Amazon gift cards, cards for Starbucks, game shops, online things and so manyother choices. All you do is use their search engine and you win the Swag Bucks.

I’ve actually gotten a couple Amazon cards and they have been put towards some of my workout dupplies and videos!

The easiest way to win is just to set it as your search engine. If you don’t like it of course you can go back to your favorite search engine later. Just have your family do all their searches with SwagBucks engine and start earning those gift cards.

So sign up today and you seriously will NOT be sorry! I’m sure not I love it!

Easy Ways To Keep Cool When You’re Broke

Amber — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:41:46 +0000

In Southern California, the weather starts getting extremely hot in August and September. It’s like summer is saying “Fine kiss my butt I’m leaving and gonna make ya miserable in the process.”OK well maybe not so much but it feels like it sometimes.

I live in a house without air conditioning. Oh, we have one of those window air units! The problem however, is that it was probably built in like 1965 or something and eats electricity like Pac Man eats power pellets!

So what’s a girl to do when she’s melting away on at the computer? Here are my picks for the top cheapo cool down methods! These are in no particular order…

Make a water baby! A friend of mine used to freeze water in a 2 liter bottle and wrap it in a towel or sheet. She called them “water babies” because they are snuggled close like you’re holding a baby.
Freeze up some grapes! You can even stick toothpicks in them and pretend they’re “grapecicles”
If you want to head outdoors, find a shaded park and go ice blocking! You need to find a park with a rather large hill and bring one of those big blocks of ice with you (which you can make yourself if you want by freezing water in a small plastic tub. You sit on the ice blok and slide down the hill. It’s a real bum chiller!
Make salad for dinner. Why heat up the house when it’s unreasonably hot? Put together a huge salad with your favorite veggies, cheese, dressing and whatever else. Cold chicken that’s already been prepared or prepackaged can be thrown in if you desire. It’s healthy and keeps you cool!
Use the kiddie pool. Those of you who have kidlets probably have a small “kiddie pool” that you put the kids in during the summer. Well, if they’re not using it (and even if they are!) fill it on up and at least dunk your feet in. Make yourself a “grown up drink” if you want and sit in a shady part of your yardo r patio.
Get Misty With it! Get a water spray bottle and put some ice and cold water in. When you feel like you’re gonna melt spray yourself. Those with cats will find it amusing to see the cat scurry away thinking they’re gonna get in trouble for something!

Question – What are your cheapo cool down tips?

Savings Sunday – Some Tips I’m Putting Into Practice

Amber — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:10:51 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been reading a lotabout budgeting and savings. I want to be prepared for this holiday season so I’m thinking about it now. Last year I was so ill prepared that i had as many half made craft projects lying around as I do pairs of flip flops. Those of you who know me certainly know that I have a strange love affair with flip flops so that should tell ya something!

First off I will be putting $84 away per month. By the time it’s shopping time this should leave me with a pretty good chunk of change This will help me to get those odds and ends that I am going to add to my handmade gifts.

I am also starting early with my crafting. While it may look like the best craft sales are around holiday season it’s not the case. Craft chain stores KNOW that people procrastinate and they also KNOW that most crafters will purchase those forgotten items they desperately need no matter what the cost.

Closer to the holidays I am going to make my menus. This will be the first full holiday season I will spend with my family in 2 years. If all goes well (meaning my mother lets me do ANY cooking!) I will have the menu planned and can start shopping the sales as they hit.

I think I have a pretty good start. What do you think?

On a side note I am combining Thrifty Thursday and Savings Sunday. I’ll keep the posting to a Sunday since that’s when the majority of the ads come out.

My question to you is What are your pre holiday planning and savings tips?

Thrifty Thursday – Saving Money

Amber — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Happy Thursday! I can’t believe the week has flown by so fast!
I wanted to talk about saving money today. While I know it’s hard to do it’s something those of us on a fixed income need to worry about. Heck, some who make more money are interested in it too nowadays!
Today I am going to list a few of my favorite blogs that are related to saving money.

Surviving The Stores
This blog is amazing! There are sections about how to save money at stores like CVS and Walgreen where you can get deals for next to nothing on things you use everyday. She goes into details about the reward programs and coupons and how to combine them to get the best bang for the buck!

Couponing 101
This site has opened my eyes to the wonderful world of couponing! Seriously, Stephanie gives such great information about how to use your coupons wisely to save the most money possible. She talks about couponing at grocery stores and drug stores. Check out her “Getting Started” page if you are a new couponer!

Lemonade Mama
Gwen is such a rockin’ person! She talks a great deal about things that save her money here. It’s more a personal blog but I have found so many helpful things from reading her blog. She writes with humor and style! Check it out and you so won’t be sorry!

I could go on and on about my favorite blogs. Seriously I think i may have to write a post about my favorite blogs of different categories!
That’s it for Thrifty Thursday. If you have an idea that you’d like me to talk about on a future TT please comment and let me know!