Don't Forget - Stamp Out Hunger -Saturday May 14

This is copied from an email I received today from Labels for Education.

Fill a Bag. Feed Families.

On Saturday, May 14, 2011, you can donate non-perishable* food to help combat hunger right here in the U.S. by taking part in Stamp Out Hunger, the nation’s largest single-day food drive. We know that during the year you already make a difference by supporting your school through the purchase of participating Labels for Education® products, but on May 14 you can help Stamp Out Hunger by donating these products at your mailbox. It’s a great way to help the 50 million Americans that are at risk of hunger.** Here's how to participate: Buy non-perishable food items. Many Labels for Education participating products qualify! Visit our Participating Products page to see a list. Place at mailbox for pickup & your letter carrier will deliver to a local food bank. Learn more at HelpStampOutHunger.com to help nourish everyone’s potential. The Labels for Education® Team! *Donate items like canned meats, fish, soup, vegetables; bottled juice, pasta, cereal and rice that do not require refrigeration. Please do not include items that have expired or in glass containers. **USDA Household Food Security Study 2009

New Printable Publix Coupons

Publix has a new sheet of coupons available to print here, and they are some good ones, that combined with manufacturer Qs could equal some free or close to free products...

• $1.25/1 Pace Salsa or Picante
• $1/1 Wish-bone Dressing
• $1/1 V-8 VFusion Juice
• $1/1 Swanson's Broth or Stock

and several others.

Swagbucks and Tornado Relief

We here in N. Alabama are so greatful for all of the help coming from so many different directions during this time of recovery from the devastating tornadoes that ripped through the state less than two weeks ago.  I'm very proud to see that Swagbucks has stepped up once again and this time they are asking you to donate your Swagbucks to help Alabama via The United Way of Western Alabama.

Right now you can donate any amount of Swagbucks starting at 5 Swagbucks, throughout the month of May and Swagbucks will be converting Swagbucks to real dollars to make a donation to the United Way of Western Alabama.  You can make a donation and see the conversion chart here.

If you are new to Swagbucks, you should check them out.  Swagbucks allows you to earn points (aka Swagbucks) for doing things you already do (like searching the web & making purchases online), which you can then trade in for tangible goods as well as gift cards (to Amazon, Paypal, Home Depot, CVS, B&N and many others), or as I posted above you can donate your Swagbucks and help others.  Sign Up Here.

We Really Needed Razors Trip

My husband has a skin condition that requires him to use a new razor head every day, this gets expensive so when I find them on sale, I stock up.  As luck would have it, every drugstore had a deal on BIC razors this week, and there were lots of good coupons.  I basically missed the deal at Publix last week but I got a raincheck and I'm saving my $3/1 Qs to go with that, for the best deal. 

Today, I hit up CVS (two stores) and stocked up, using up my $2/1 coupons before they expire tomorrow.  Whenever I see these sales on the 4 packs I always try to find the bonus packs that give you 2 extras, for an even better deal.  Today, I was able to find 6 of these bonus packs (between 2 stores).

Trip 1

• 1 All Small & Mighty @ $4.99
• 1 BIC Comfort 3 (8ct) @ $8.79
• 3 BIC Comfort ME @ $5.79

-$2.90 (B1 Get 1 50% Off)
-$2.90 (B1 Get 1 50% Off)
-(4) $2/1 BIC Coupons
-(1) $1/1 ALL Coupon
-$5/30 CVS coupon
-$9 in ECBs
= Total $2.14 (after tax)

Trip 2
3 BIC Comfort (8ct) @ $7.99
2 BIC Comfort Advanced @ $6.99
1 BIC Comfort ME @ $5.49
7 Russel Stover Easter Candies @ $.35
1 Dr. Pepper @ $1.59
-$4 (B1 Get 1 50%)
-$3.50 (B1 Get 1 50%)
-$2.75 (B1 Get 1 50%)
- (6) $2/1 BIC coupons
- (1)$1/1 BIC coupon*
= Total $27.21 (after tax)

* I only gave her the 6 $2/1 coupons, the $1/1 was a peelie on one of the packages that she took off and scanned, without my knowledge.

I did also earn a $1ECB on the first trip, but I'd left it in the car at the second store.  Typing this out I'm realizing how much of a price difference there is at the two different stores I went to, which are about 8 miles apart.

Kroger Bans Stacked Coupons

I posted a couple of months ago about how Kroger had changed its policy that previously allowed you to use a digital coupon (on your Kroger card) at the same time as a paper coupon, now they are taking things a step further.  Kroger has recently announced that they will no longer allow any stacking of manufacturer and store coupons (even if both are paper).  They have changed their software so that the the computers no longer allow more than one coupon for any given item.

Digital coupons are now being processed first (and do not double), so if you have digital coupons loaded on your card you may need to remove them before you head out to shop (if you have paper coupons you'd rather use). However, this article is the first I'd heard (or read) about a change to allowing you to stack two paper coupons (with one being a store and the other a manufacturer coupon).

I've even heard reports that some stores (or the computers within) won't allow you to use a BOGO coupon with a $/1 coupon (basically attaching the BOGO coupon to both items).

 Just yesterday, I received a packet of Kroger store coupons in the mail that I was very excited about stacking with manufacturer coupons.  Now, I'm not so sure I will be able to (unless I take them to Publix).  I'd love to hear your experiences with Kroger since their policies began changing a few months ago.  Have you noticed any changes beyond the earlier noted changes to stacking digital coupons with paper?

Free sample of Emeril's Original Essence

Head on over to grab a free sample of Emeril's Essence seasoning packet.  The samples are while supplies last.

Free Golf Grip

Head over to Lamkin and sign up to get a free golf grip.


-thanks RocketCitySavings

Is Your StockPile Insured?

If you have a stockpile of frozen food you need to call your insurance and make sure it's insured.  Some homeowners policies may automatically cover "spoiled food" others may require a special provision.  Typically, this coverage will cover up to a certain amount of "lost food" due to loss of power to your freezer.

In our case, we have it!  However, I don't think we had a few months ago.  Less than 3 months ago we changed insurance providers and in doing so went through all the initial questions and one of the questions the guy had was whether or not we had a deep freeze, and as such he included this coverage in our quote.

So, while we lost 15 cubic feet of frozen food, it doesn't feel so bad since we know we'll be reimbursed for it.

Tonight I cooked up the turkey that survived. It smells like Thanksgiving at my place.  Today we went to Publix and took advantage of the BOGO boneless skinless chicken breasts.  We spent about $50 (still saving about 60%) and still our fridge and freezer(s) are empty. 

Most of us (ourselves included) don't ever pull out their homeowners policy until something bad happens and then they (we) hope that it's covered (whatever IT is).  Don't wait till you need to know.  Check your policy and make sure your stockpile is covered.

Finally Got Power Back!

We finally got power back last night around 5:30pm (down just over 7 full days) and finally got our internet back this morning.  We were very lucky overall, we had some damage to our fence as the result of 3 huge trees that went down.  We were hit during the middle set of storms that went through around noon.  I knew that these weren't the only trees down in our neighborhood when the power went out.  There is one particular corner in our neighborhood that has often had trees go down during really bad storms, in the last few years.  When the power went out I knew something had gone down at this corner again, but I had no idea until I went for a walk after the storms died down a bit.  I only got to my next door neighbors house before I realized that we had a third tree go down, blocking his drive-way.  The huge tree that I knew had come down at the roots had fallen across his car and hit his house a bit (luckily, causing only minor damage).  There was another tree down blocking most of our road.  Another neighbor walking the neighborhood told me the damage on our block was nothing compared to what was down at the bottom of the neighborhood.  I walked down to the area where I figured trees had fallen knocking out the power and found that three houses in that area had trees on their roofs, as well as many trees and power lines blocking the road.  Another neighbor told me that the other entrance to our neighborhood was also blocked.  The neighborhood was already coming together to clear a path so people could get to their homes.

With the power out our only access to the outside world was the car radio and my phone (which had limited internet access including access to Facebook), so we really had no idea how bad things were in other areas.  It was only via Facebook updates that we found out that power had gone out throughout the county.  We were most thankful on Thursday morning that at least one station was doing nothing but airing local information (rather than their usual music), giving updates regarding the power situation and taking phone calls to help people get and share information.

We were happy to know that we had plenty of food on hand, although a little concerned at what might happen to the portion of our food that was in the freezer if the power remained off for several days.  We discovered that power was out to the entire area because the lines from the main nuclear plant were down, therefore power would remain down for several days.  We knew we'd have to do something with our frozen stockpile.  Thursday afternoon UPS showed up with the box of Omaha Steaks we'd ordered the week before; more too eat!  We were happy to be able to share our stockpile (and the steaks) with friends and neighbors over the next couple of days.  Despite sharing, we still had a lot of food we had to throw out when we finally got power back yesterday.

When it was all said and done and we got our power back, I emptied our fridge and both freezers and we were left with a turkey, 4 bowls of cool whip (still solid?), 2 bags of potatoes, some hot dogs, cookie dough and lots of cheese.

This morning I loaded up a bunch of bags of health & beauty items and non-perishable foods from our stockpile and took them to one of the local churches that were taking donations and distributing them directly to shelters in areas nearby.  Most all of us with any kind of stockpile have way more than we need and it is in times like these that we can use those stockpiles to help others who are in need.  There food banks and shelters that can use these items any day of the week, but at times like these there are so many more people in need.  There is no reason to not donate items from your stockpile.  Take some time and go through it, look for items that you have too many of or that you won't likely use before they expire.  Use this as an opportunity and reminder to clean out your stockpile, but more importantly to help others.

I posted the link from Passionate Penny Pincher of donation opportunities that she put together just a couple of days into the recovery process.  As more and more power is restored there are more and more locations where you can drop-off donations.  If you are not close enough to drop-off donations, please call some of these locations to see if you can't mail items, or find out if there is not a drop-off location closer to you.  There are locations all over the country that are bringing donated items into the area.  You can see a current list of donation drop-off locations, shelters and resources on the website of our local CBS affiliate, WHNT19.  Please consider helping in any way that you can.

Starbucks Happy Hour - May 6 - May 15

It's the return of the Starbucks Happy Hour!  Between May 6 and May 15, you can go to a participating Starbucks from 3-5 p.m. for a half-price Frappuccino blended beverage of your choice.  Of course, call your local Starbucks to make sure that they are participating.


(I know that we could probably make our own Frappuccinos at home for cheaper, but this is a great deal for a treat for yourself!)