As promised last week that is a picture of how I store my 2L of pop. Each pop flat can hold eight two liters, so we have room for 24 more two liters of pop before we fill-up.

I have no idea where we got these – I do know we did not pay the $2 deposit on them. IMO this is an easy, and space-saving way to store pop, so even if you need to pay the deposit on 3-4 of them and then keep the storage flat, it could be worth your while depending on available shelf space in your house, and how many two liters you store on average.

Do you have any space-saving or interesting stockpile storage ideas?

I have always said that you will never read “7 Uses For Dryer Lint” on Coupons, Deals and More – and in spite of the title, you’re still not going to read that here!

You see dryer link is extremely flammable, so there is, IMO, only one safe use for dryer lint:

A fire-starter.

Sonny-boy is an Eagle Scout. If you have a scout in your family, you know these boys love, love, love to camp. And one of the camping draws is learning the various ways to start a fire. When Sonny-boy camped they used to take empty bathroom tissue or paper towel rolls and stuff a bit of dryer lint inside, leaving on end dryer lint-free. They would then light that dryer-lint-free end, and then use it to light their kindling fanning the flames. They also used to light these fire-staters and toss them into the fire to see how fast they would go up in flames.

Because dryer lint is so flammable, people are advised to use metal venting from the back of the dryer to the outdoors, as well as to clean out the venting on occasion and make certain the vent outside is not blocked. We’ve all heard of dryer fires and how quickly they can spread, so do take the time to check your venting to make certain the dryer lint has not clogged up.

Do you check the venting in your dryer frequently to make certain it is not clogged?

I haven’t posted pictures of my stockpile in quite some time. You see hubby and I have been making an effort to eat through the stockpile.

Between giving Sonny-boy goods for the frat-house, and my reduced dry goods shopping, we have made quite a dent in the old stockpile, as you can see from past pictures.

I knew it was going well when hubby told me that we could consolidate the frozen goods into two freezers (we own four), and I was in serious need of dishwashing soap, down to my last two bottles!! I never wanted to be that low on a staple, so I was very glad to be able to stock up at Tops!

Stockpiles give us a sense of security – we don’t have to worry where our next meal is coming from, and it is a hedge against price spikes. But we all have to remember that it is there to use, seriously outdated food is a waste. So use those stockpiles!

Do you rotate your stockpile stock? Stop or reduce shopping and try and eat through your stockpile occasionally? What does your stockpile mean to you?

In September of 2010, I ran a four part series: Part 1, Part 2 , part 3 and Part 4. Honestly I thought I did this last spring – I was shocked to see it had been a full 19 months (nearly 20!) since I had last cleaned and organized the pantry.

When I reorganzied in 2010, I spent a lot of time labeling and sorting as well as grouping products on the shelf, so that clearly held up. Although you wouldn’t know it to listen to hubby! He bought a shelving unit last fall – which is still sitting by the pantry – because he wanted to organize the pantry “correctly”. Apparently he felt the pantry was being overrun with excessive stockpile that I wasn’t shipping off to the basement in a timely manner.

Let’s just say hubby was much chagrined to find out the disorganization culprit was hubby’s Indian foods!!

Here are the before pics of this year’s pantry organization:

For us, the key to keeping the pantry at least semi-organized though the last year and a half has been small plastic see-through bins that are labeled!

Here are the after pics of this year’s pantry organization:

In all, this was the total excessive stockpile I had in the pantry that ended up being brought down to the basement stockpile.

Looks like I finally found a pantry organization method that works for me!

Do you have any pantry organization tips or hints that work for you?

I know a lot of people are afraid of credit cards. They mostly fear not paying the balance off monthly and getting socked with steep interest payments, or having their credit card information stolen.

But other people people embrace credit cards as a great way to keep track of all of their purchases trackjing monthly spending. Another perk to credit cards versus paying cash for everything, if if you use credit, you have credit when you need it – be it an emergency or when you purchase a car or a home.

Another benefit to using a credit card can be the perks offered by the credit card companies for purchases made.

For instance credit cards have rewards that give:

• Cash back on purchases
• Product rewards, such as gift certificates or items
• Free upgrade features hotels, airlines, trips and airport concierge clubs, plus more

It seems there is a credit card perk for just about anything if you look hard enough!

The perks really only work though if you were going to make a purchase anyway, will utilize the reward, and most importantly – pay off your credit card bill every month! After the first two months where you “break it in” by not paying the card off for two months (usually advised when you are just beginning to build credit) to “show a history” for the credit card agencies, I’m not certain there is ever a benefit to carrying a balance on an interest accumulating credit card. If your card is no interest (also usually an offered perk for a limited time), sure ride that balance – provided that you can pay off the entirety of the bill just prior to the interest kicking in.

Do you have a credit card with a great reward? If so, what is it, and would you recommend the program?

My hubby says some pretty things. So much so that when I call him on it, he has begun to encoure me to start a “Crap My Hubby Says” series so I could share his pearls of witticism (if you could call them that). If you could hear the stuff he says sometimes including the gems he utters that gets him “the look”, and the strange and twisted male-logic he spouts on many occasion, wellllll it all adds up to some pretty fine posting material.

Too bad I don’t carry around a recorder or a pen and paper. This would be one doozy of a column.

Today I am sharing a long one – only because it was first thing this morning, and I am still ready to bop him over the head for saying it…

Thursday is my long day on Coupons, Deals and More. And it has been for years. And years. And YEARS! I post my normal 10 -15 posts on Thursdays, which includes two store match-ups and I do Friday’s store match-ups too. The Friday match-ups are scheduled because Hubby and I take my grandfather to lunch that day. For those of you that blog and do match-ups, you know that each store match-up takes 1-3 hours. That is one of the reasons I have CVS and Rite Aid and Walgreens ads posted weeks early – there wouldn’t be enough time to get them up for Friday if I didn’t start very early. As it is, every Thursday – for years, and years, and YEARS – I work 12-14 hours.

Hubby seldom remembers my work schedule, and daily he unfailingly asks me, “So what are you doing today!?”

To which I unfailingly reply, “Oh, getting a pedicure, reading a book, and eating bonbons. WTH Do you think I am doing today!?”

Now some would say it is nice that he cares enough to ask me what my day entails. And, yes, I have to agree, that is definitely one way of looking at it. But the one day he ticks me off with this question is when he asks on Thursday. Because he knows. I truly dread Thursdays.

On Thursday I start working at 7-8am and seldom go to bed before 11pm. Thursdays are rough, and due to when the ads appear and coupon insert previews are finished, there is little more I can do to make Thursdays a shorter work day than what I have already done – well, except not take Grandpa to lunch on Friday, which I am unwilling to stop. He’s 93, and each lunch is precious time with my grandfather.

And now to (finally) get to the point of this mini-rant …

So what does hubby ask me this morning?

“Today’s your slow day, right? What do you plan on doing when you finish working?”

Now I am gonna give him the benefit of the doubt that he thought he was being funny. He did move pretty quickly when I lunged at him. And I swear I heard a chuckle as he was fleeing.

Yeah, he’s hilarious.

Anyhooooo one of these days I will begin this series in earnest. The stuff that my hubby says … I could write a book, never mind a column.

First the dishwasher, now the blow dryer. Since these things seem to come in threes, I am afraid of what will stop working next.

While away in Florida, my blow dryer died. The timing was such that I just ran to the nearest CVS, grabbed a cheap Conair dryer from the shelf, paid my $17 and left.

Now $17 sounds like a great deal, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Less than three months later, the drying power is already winding down and it is taking longer and longer to style my hair each morning.

I also did a big boo-boo. A few years ago, Walgreens had a massive blow dryer clearance where they were cheap, cheap, cheap and pretty darned good! That puppy blew my hair dry without frying it in under 10 minutes a day. Unfortunately, that was the one I tossed in Florida, neglecting to write down the make and model. And, the spares I bought? Those were given away to family members that immediately needed a blow dryer without my holding back one for myself!

Dumb, I know.

So now I need to get a hair dryer or two. One to have, and one as a backup. And I say in all seriousness, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t inexpensive. If you knew my obsession with my hair, you would know why. As hubby says, “Oooooh the hair! Nothing is too good for the haaaaiiiirrrr”. And yes, I ignore the sarcastic tone and take his words at face value, because it is true; nothing is too good for my hair. I sorta like it.

Do you have a hair dryer you would recommend? How long have you had it? Any special features?

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post to inform you whether or not your store’s ground beef contains pink slime.

At that time, there were many stores that used pink slime, and those that did not. Yesterday, Beef Products, Inc suspended production of pink slime at three of their four plants. And Cargill has stated it has cut back production.

While I do not know whether or not pink slime will completely go away, consumer pressure has taken its toll on the product.

You can reference the original post for the links, but to date these are the positive changes that have been made at retailers that used to or are in the process of discontinuing purchase of pink slime products:

Will No Longer Carry Pink Slime Products

• Ahold (Stop & Shop, Giant, Martin’s, Peapod)
• Aldi’s
• Bi-Lo LLC and Winn-Dixie Stores Inc
• BJs
• Fred Meyer
• Giant Eagle
• Kroger (Ralph’s, Fry’s, King Scoopers, Smith’s, QFC, Gerbes, Baker’s, City Market, Dillons)
• Meijer
• Safeway (Carrs, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Pak ‘n’ Save, Randall’s, Tom Thumb, Vons, Pavilions)
• SuperValu – (Acme, Alberstons, Cub, Jewel-Osco, Shaw/Star Market, Shop ‘n Save and Shoppers)
• Wegmans
• Weis Supermarket
• Zaycon

Will Still Carry Pink Slime Products

• Commissaries (Defense Commissary Agency)
• Hy-Vee
• Save Mart
• WinCo (prepackaged)
• Sam’s Club
• WalMart
On 3/21 WalMart stated that WalMart & Sam’s Club stores will begin selling meat that doesn’t contain the additive. They did not say they would no longer carry pink slime meat, just that consumers will have a pink-slime-free choice.
On 3/22 Wal-Mart updated its Wednesday statement to say that it will have the new, slime free products in stores asap, and to ask the butcher for help in locating them.

Never Carried Pink Slime Products

• A&P (Pathmark, Superfresh, Waldbaums, The Food Emporium, Food Basics, USA)
• Buehler’s Fresh Foods
• Costco
• Crest Foods
• Food Lion
• Harris Teeter
• Hen House
• Ingles
• Price Chopper
• Publix
• Target
• Tops Markets
• Waldbaums
• Whole Foods

I fully expect the price of ground beef to rise with the discontinuation of pink slime use in most stores. An easy way to reduce costs and/or know exactly what meat you are receiving is to buy a cow or, in the case of ground beef, have fresh beef ground in-store, or do it yourself.

One of the biggest peeves about Extreme Couponing last year was the explosion of shelf clearers – if there are twenty products on the shelf, you may be entitled to take all twenty, but couponing politeness has long held that you take a reasonable family quantity (you determine the reasonableness) when there is a limited shelf supply. If there is a ton of product, go for it!

But what if it is a great deal and you know your store will never have the twenty you want/need, what can you do?

Well, the old stand-by is a rain check. Basically, the store gives you a slip of paper to redeem at a later date (between 30 days and forever – some rain checks do not expire) for the same price as the sale.

But what happens if you were going to use a coupon and it will expire before the rain check can be redeemed? Ask your store manager what their policy for this is. Many stores will honor that coupon, even if expired, provided you attach it to the rain check. This is not universal however, so do ask.

But the very best way to get the quantity of product you want, is to establish a relationship with your store manager who then allows you to check your local ad early, and you can order large quantities in advance! While national previews appear online, all drugstores and grocery stores have regional ads. You can assume your ad will have the same products as a preview, but do double check. Always. That is actually something you should do before you shop weekly; check your local ad first.

You can also, on occasion, order a product that you like that may not regularly be carried in-store. I recently did that with Brown Cow yogurt. Tops stopped carrying it at my store, the local organic store stopped carrying it, and Wegmans started carrying it. That was great – except Wegmans only had two flavors. So, my local organic store ordered me a case! Sure brand loyalties are out the window when you coupon, but we all have our dirty little secrets. The bonus for me is the organic store is cheaper than Wegmans.

Have you ever ordered product in advance of a sale? How’d it go?

Ok I don’t hand out many household tips or ideas. Considering my total lack of interest in housework it is sorta like the car mechanic giving advice on taxes – absolutely no reason to believe the advice would be good given the skill set of the adviser. I swear in another life I was a duchess or a princess who had a lot of servants thereby explaining my disinterest in housework – more likely I was the servant and that better explains the current attitude.

And besides, I always figure if I know a household tip, everyone over eight years old must know the same info.

But, I have one that I think only the old-timers know well and utilize. I learned it from my grandmother just by watching her do it. Hubby called me crazy the first dozen times he saw me do it. After that he just said I was senile. And his mother actually didn’t help my case when she said she does the same thing. Hubby thinks we are all nuts.

I have explained to him my reluctance to put meat bones down the garbage disposal because you don’t know when the bone will stick, and besides some of them are too large to fit in the disposal anyway! And as anyone who has ever put fat into a garbage disposal knows, it just goes whhhhrrrr whhhhrrrr and ends up a big blobby mess. And sticking your hand down the garbage disposal to pull out a wad of mushed up fat is not anyone’s idea of a good time.

So, I make a weekly fat-and-bones-bag during the warm months of the year, and stick the bag in the freezer. Every time we have fat or bones or other animal products that are not candidates for the garbage disposal, I add them to the bag. I even keep the wrappings from the raw product in the bag too! Then, when garbage day comes I just drop the whole bag into the can and it is whisked away by the fine folks from the refuse company. We also have a grease can and do the same, but that can will last the entire season before it fills up.

Now why do this? Simple. See these guys?

I don’t like them! And freezing animal fat, bones, leftover meats, etc., means lack of flies in the garbage bins, and no maggots. I actually dread when we have weekend parties in the summer because people just toss everything in the trash ignoring my request to leave their plates on the counter, (they think they are being helpful) and I just have to hope for no critter visits.

Do you have any obscure household tips? You know, something you do that you see no one else do, but it it a great help to the cleanliness and general well-being of your household? Is so, please share!

So wouldn’t you know it? Pink slime was a hot topic last week, and we discover we are out of ground beef. Now hubby and I usually buy a cow or buy directly from the butcher. And even if we had to buy locally, Tops is not on the pink slime list. But, we didn’t have time to drive out to the butcher (we frequent a few that are about 45 minutes away and slaughter), and ground beef didn’t seem to be on sale last week, so we decided to have it ground by a local grocery store butcher.

The local store had strip loin for $2.99#. After speaking to the butcher, he said the fat content was going to be between 10-15% if we ground the strip loin. That is actually quite a good ratio for meatloaf or burgers for our use.

Ever made a burger with 93%- 95% lean ground beef? Well, let’s just say it isn’t for me.

So we had the butcher double ground the strip loin. For us that is more versatile than a single grind which is quite coarse (think chili grind as a single grind).

When we got the meat home, hubby portioned it out into two pound bags.

He then used his hand-dandy foodsaver to prepare seven of the bags for freezing.

And we held one back to use this week.

Yes, we (that is the royal “we” ’cause everyone knows it would have been hubby and not me) could have ground it ourselves, but why? It took the butcher just a few minutes, and saved us the grinder clean-up!

So a great way to choose what makes up your ground beef is to buy a hunk of meat and have the butcher grind it, or grind it yourself. And I still recommend buying a cow – which we will be doing again this fall.

If you are interested in what pink slime is, and whether or not your store’s ground beef uses pink slime, click here.

A lot has been written lately about Pink Slime, and you probably want to know if your store carries ground beef that contains pink slime or not.

But first, what exactly is pink slime?

“Pink slime” results from grinding together connective tissue and beef scraps normally used to make dog food or for rendering (that would be fat to make lard). The grindings are then treated with ammonia hydroxide, which kills pathogens such as E coli and salmonella. The term pink slime was first coined by microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein in 2002.

It is estimated that up to 70% of the nation’s grocery stores’ ground beef contains pink slime.

Here are the responses I could find for major grocery stores as to whether or not their ground beef contains pink slime. The hyperlinks in the store name lead directly to their corporate responses.

• A&P (Pathmark, Superfresh, Waldbaums, The Food Emporium, Food Basics, USA) – does not use pink slime

• Ahold (Stop & Shop, Giant, Martin’s, Peapod) – Stores operated by the divisions of Ahold USA do carry ground beef made with Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (BLBT), also called Finely Textured Beef (FTB)
Update Ahold will no longer sell pink slime meat!

• Albertsons – does use pink slime
Update Albertson’s (supervalu stores will “no longer purchase fresh ground beef products that contain finely textured beef. ”

• Aldi’s – declines to respond
Update Adli “Over the last week, customers have been telling us that they do not want ground beef made with lean finely textured beef. That’s why ALDI has decided that we no longer will purchase ground beef made with this ingredient.”

• Bi-Lo LLC and Winn-Dixie Stores Inc will discontinue pink slime use.

• BJ’s – does use pink slime
Update: BJs discontinues pink slime use 4/7/12 for fresh products, and 4/20/12 for frozen products.

• Buehler’s Fresh Foods – issued a statement Tuesday to say that its Certified Angus Beef contains no pink slime.

• Commissaries – updated their information, and they do use pink slime. Thanks for the update Dealzstealz!

• Costco – does not use pink slime

• Crest Foods – does not use pink slime

• Food Lion - does not add lean finely textured beef (LFTB) to the ground beef we produce in stores.

• Fred Meyer yes, and no Slime free Fred Meyer products: Private Selection Angus Ground Beef 90%,
Private Selection All Natural Ground Beef 93% lean, Private Selection Organic Ground Beef 90% Lean, Store made Ground Beef from store trimmings prepared in store, 85% Ground Chili Meat 1 & 3LB 80%, 85% and 93% Ground Beef Chub Rolls, 5LB 73% Ground Beef Chub Rolls, – All beef in AK stores is slime free.
Update: – Fred Meyer will no longer carry pink slime.

• Giant Eagle – spokesperson said she had no information on the subject. UPDATE: Giant Eagle does use pink slime. The Nature’s Basket products are slime -free Thanks Jennifer!
Update: – Giant Eagle will no longer use pink slime: “After careful review of feedback from our customers, Giant Eagle has decided that effective immediately, the company will no longer source fresh ground beef” that contains the filler also known as boneless lean beef trim, Roberts said on Thursday.

• Hannaford – maybe They will not rule out pink slime use from suppliers.
Update: – Hannaford – will discontinue pink slime use

• Harris Teeter – does not use pink slime Thanks Kelly!
Thank you for your email. Our suppliers do not use pink slime in any of our Harris Teeter brands of ground beef. This includes our Harris Teeter Naturals, Rancher and Angus ground beef.
Sincerely,
Melisa
Harris Teeter Customer Relations

• H-E-B – All our ground beef sold at H-E-B is 100% pure with no additives.

• Hen House – no response on facebook page to this direct question. Hen House does not carry pink slime.

• Hy-Vee – yes, and no – If you wish to purchase Hy-Vee ground beef that is not blended with LFTB, we would suggest our 85 Percent Lean Amana Chuck Trim.
Hy-Vee will no longer carry pink slime products.
Update: 3/28/12 Hy Vee will continue to offer pink slime to give their customers a choice Thanks Deb!

• Ingles – does not Thanks Dealzstealz!

• Kroger (Ralph’s, Fry’s, King Scoopers, Smith’s, QFC, Gerbes, Baker’s, City Market, Dillons) – yes, and no – Kroger carries ground beef both with and without lean finely textured beef. For customers who choose to avoid it, we offer a variety of options including Kroger’s Private Selection Angus Ground Chuck, Round and Sirloin; Private Selection All Natural Ground Beef and Private Selection Organic Ground Beef solid in 1 lb. packages, labeled 80% lean and above; Laura’s Lean Ground Beef; and ground beef prepared in store. All ground beef you find at your local Kroger is USDA-regulated, inspected and approved for food safety and quality. That includes beef products made with lean finely textured beef.
Update Kroger will no longer sell pink slime meat!

• Meijer – yes, and no – We want our customers to know that most types of fresh ground beef that Meijer sells do not have lean finely textured beef as an ingredient.
Update: Meijer will no longer be carrying pink slime.

• Publix – We have never allowed the use of LFTB (pink slime) in our meat. It’s 100 percent ground beef with no LFTB.

• Safeway (Carrs, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Pak ‘n’ Save, Randall’s, Tom Thumb, Vons, Pavilions) – does – We rely on the federal government to help guide us on food safety issues. USDA has been clear in its judgment that Lean Finely Textured Ground Beef is a safe source of nutrition. However, we are reviewing the matter at this time.
Update: Safeway pulls pink slime! Thanks Barbee!

• Save Mart – does use pink slime

• Sam’s Club – does use pink slime. Thanks Mini!

• Superfresh – does not use pink slime

• SuperValu – (Acme, Alberstons, Cub, Jewel-Osco, Shaw/Star Market, Shop ‘n Save and Shoppers) – does use pink slime
Update – SuperValue stores will “no longer purchase fresh ground beef products that contain finely textured beef.”
Acme
Albertson’s
Jewel
Shaws

• Target – Its ground beef vendors do not use the ammonia treatment during production.
Target places great emphasis on sourcing food and products from industry leaders for safety and quality. Our ground beef vendors do not use an ammonium hydroxide treatment in their production processes. Any additional questions can be directed to vendors.

• Tops Markets – does not use pink slime.

• WalMart – declines to respond – WalMart does use pink slime. Thanks Mini!
Update:
On 3/21 WalMart stated that WalMart & Sam’s Club stores will begin selling meat that doesn’t contain the additive. They did not say they would no longer carry pink slime meat.
On 3/22 Wal-Mart updated its Wednesday statement to say that it will have the new, slime free products in stores asap, and to ask the butcher for help in locating them

• Waldbaums – does not use pink slime

• Wegmans – does (sorta) – While most ground beef contains a small percentage of boneless lean beef trimmings, our processor does not use ammoniated meat products in the production of fresh ground beef
Update: Wegmans abandons pink slime!

• Weis Supermarket – does use pink slime in their ground beef
Update: Weis to stop selling pink slime!

• Whole Foods – Does not use pink slime.

• Winco – they do not know! Updated: winco facebook page – the winco brand does not have pink slime, however, they have other brands they carry and they do not know if they contain pink slime. Thanks Troy!

• Zaycon Foods – does not – We buy all of the ground beef from National Beef and have asked them directly about the “pink slime” and they have said no. Note: Zaycon amended to : “we are awaiting more information” Zaycon has been amended to DOES use pink slime. Thanks Rachel!

If you are unsure of your local store, contact their corporate headquarters, or ask on their facebook page. And if all else fails, you could always buy a cow directly from your local farmer or rancher, or have the butcher grind a roast for you instead of picking up that ground beef package.

Sources:
9WSYR.com
ABC News
Cdapress.com
Examiner.com
kmbc.com
New York Times
TimesReporter.com
Syracuse.com

Recently, for the second time in less than a year, my credit card information was stolen. The first time my CC company called me about suspicious activity, and the account was immediately closed without any fraudulent activity ever being added to my account. I was then sent new cards, and all was good.

Or so I thought.

Thereafter at least once a month I would get a call from the fraud alert department of my credit card company asking me if this-or-that charge was authorized. This was a giant PITA because Sonny-boy uses my card, and while some items were easily recognizable, other items I had to call back about later. Inevitably, every fraud alert call was a waste of my time … until a few weeks ago.

While down in Florida, I received another call. Some inner sense must have kicked in, because instead of getting testy with another useless call, I was very pleasant to the rep calling.

The fraud agent asked me about some charges that were coming from somewhere in Europe. They were not mine, so all three were denied, and never hit the account. I thought all was well, when two weeks later I received yet another call. This time, over $1600 in charges that were not mine had been placed on my card in just a few days.

My credit card company emailed me a fraud statement that I had to sign. When I checked it to return, the dates did not match-up. I was looking at my paper statement, and the fraudulent charges started 2/8/12 not the 2/15/12 listed in the email.

After placing another call to my credit card company, we figured out another $2400 in fraudulent charges had been added to this card. Everything from adult websites to clothing stores to auto part retailers, and nearly all charges were from Europe or South America.

I saw a great deal of irony in the fact that so many of my valid charges were called upon for verification in the last eight months, but a week long spat of overseas charges for adult entertainment was completely missed by my credit card company.

So what can you do to protect yourself from a cyber thief?

• While most major retailer websites have secure check-outs, always check for a secure feature (remember the lock on ie?)
• Try and use a credit card online that offers a one-time-use feature. Citibank is the only card I know of that currently has this feature, and is what hubby and I use for online purchases. You can be sure Sonny-boy will be applying when he gets home from spring break.
• Some credit cards allow you to receive an email alert for every charge to your card. It is a great way to keep tabs on your account activity.
• Many websites now accept paypal as payment. If your credit card is attached to your paypal account, it is another layer of protection against internet thieves.
• Know where your credit card is at all times. Sometimes you can’t keep the server that is swiping your card at a restaurant in sight at all times, but do try.
• Shred your old statements if you still receive paper ones. Make sure you shred your receipts too once you compare them to your bill for proper account reconciliation.

And what do you do if your information is stolen, and fraudulent charges are placed on your card?

• If you suspect your card has been compromised, contact the fraud department of your credit card to report the charge. Some credit cards accept verbal confirmation of an unauthorized charge, and will email you a form to email back to confirm you did not make these charges. Other credit card companies may require written verification. It is best to ask when you call the fraud department exactly what they want.
• Here are the federal guidelines on stolen credit cards.
• Close your credit card and have a new one reissued. Yes, it is a pain, but so is never knowing when the next bad charge will arrive.
• And remember, if a website looks iffy, don’t buy there. Better safe than sorry.

And sometimes, there is nothing you can do. Very secure websites are compromised. Someone swipes the credit card image and you never saw it. There are all types of thieves out there that would rather use their talents for evil instead of good. Just remember that you are not liable for unauthorized charges, and while inconvenient, waiting for a new credit card is better than the alternatives.

Do you have any other thoughts on what to do if your credit card information is stolen?

When we purchased our house seven years ago, the number one thing I did not want was a pool!

So of course, our house came with an in-ground pool.

For years I lobbied to have it filled in, always being vetoed by Hubby and Sonny-boy.

For the first few years that we lived here, Sonny-boy and his buddies would use the pool several times a week. While I disliked the cost and the maintenance, at least someone was using the pool.

Or at least that was the argument Hubby and Sonny-boy would give me.

And the truth is, I refused to clean the pool or add water to it, or prime the filter, or purchase the chemicals, or… well, do just about anything related to the pool. And yes, that did include swim in it.

Over the years, Sonny-boy went off to college and Hubby was working insane hours so slowly it became my job to add the water so the filter would still run. I also scheduled the opening and closing, and picked up after the pool guys. Slowly but surely the slippery slope developed where I was adding water, then chemicals, then cleaning the sides of the pool … pretty soon I could see that I would be vacuuming and skimming and that is when I put my foot down. We hired the pool company to do the weekly maintenance.

They were about $100 a week, but it was either that or marriage counseling, so the cost was negligible by comparison. And all this money was for something that was being used under half a dozen times a year!

Throughout this period, I was still lobbying hard to get the pool filled in. I figured we were spending about $3000 a year on a pool no one used! What a complete waste of money.

All of this came to a head last year when the pool guys could not get the pool blue. They would come out, clean it, add chemicals, etc, but no amount of shock was clearing the pool water. It turned out that our pool had become porous, and an algae of some-sort-or-another was living in the lining, and could not be removed. The cost to empty the pool, blast the sides, reskim, fix the one broken tile and redo the cool-decking was $15,000. Yup, FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. To fix a 35 year old pool that probably didn’t cost that much to be installed originally.

When we first moved in, I had given a cursory look into filling in the pool, and that cost was approximately $10,000.

Hmmmmm $15,000 to fix a pool we seldom used + the $3000 yearly costs, versus $10,000 to fill it in and be done with the headache and regain a portion of our yard.

Seemed like a no-brainer to me!

Well, over the course of the winter hubby ruminated on the idea. I kept offering to get a few more quotes to fix the pool, and he kept putting it off. I suspected he was coming around to my way of thinking, but wasn’t certain.

Three weeks ago, we had a clean-up landscaper over to quote spring cleaning yard work and trim the bushes that enclose our backyard (they are almost 16 feet tall and that is totally beyond us). During casual conversation, we mentioned the issue of the pool and that we only knew of one place that filled in pools in the area. He told us of someone he worked with frequently who specialized in pool-fill-ins, and gave us a name and number.

A few days later, the excavator stopped by, gave us a quote for $7,800 to fill in the pool and that included sod and resodding.

Done! Hubby checked references, and we signed on the dotted line.

Two days later, they were here and starting the work of breaking up the pool.

Max would like to help!

The final empty.

They moved in a small bobcat while the pool was emptying.

He punched hundreds of holes in the pool for water drainage.

Once he got an area weak enough, he’d start collapsing the exterior of the pool and the cool deck.

While no one else was amazed with the bobcat operator, I was simply astounded he didn’t dump the bobcat in the empty pool!

They had intended to fill in the pool with fill the next day, but as luck would have it rain was forecast and they were concerned that we’d have a mudhole in the backyard before the sod could be laid and the inspector signed off on the work.

So, the initial break-up work was done on Thursday, and they did not return to fill in the pool until the following Tuesday.

Some groundwater did sink back in, but we have a guarantee that if the fill-in sinks, they will come back next year and refill and resod the depressed area.

They covered all the sidewalks

And the grass

And then the dump trucks started arriving with the clean fill.

In all, we were told that the 10 rounds of trucks (two per time) were dumping 20 yards of fill each time … 200 yards of fill total.

The bobcat driver made himself a path that he kept driving over again and again. Not only did that allow him to reach the furthest end of the pool, but he was basically tamping down the fill as he went!

Almost done.

And they filled it!

After they finished filling in the broken apart pool with the clean fill, they added a layer of topsoil and screened.

The next day, Wednesday, our sprinkler guy (who is all sorts of awesome! Truly, I can’t recommend this guy enough. If anyone in the Buffalo-area needs a recommendation, email me!) came in to lay the lines, the inspector came to check the electric, they laid the sod, cleaned up after themselves (they were amazing!) and we now have this:

We had a heater and a sand filter in the garage, as well as electric for the pool lights, the filter and pipes for the natural gas. That is all gone now too! They dumped the sand into the pool, wheeled that empty container out along with the heater, took all the pipes and the pool cover (a shame that could not be reused on another pool, but it is custom made). We now have a good eighth of our garage back which I am sure hubby will quickly fill with useless stuff.

Also, even though it is only April and the daytime highs are only in the 50s, we still need the new sod watered heavily. The sprinklers did this once in the middle of the night, and once during the day for a little over a week. It was soggy, but that sod grass has greened-up nicely.

All in all for us, this was a wonderful experience. It took three days total to go from a useless, old pool to a wonderful green yard that we will enjoy thoroughly, especially when I consider we are saving thousands of dollars per year on not having to maintain a pool! If we had done this when we moved in, the fill-in would have paid for itself in three years. Oh well, hindsight is 20-20. I am just glad it is done and we can now enjoy the savings.

Do you research your purchases both large and small? Oh I don’t just mean your price books for lowest sale pricing for grocery store, I mean researching your furniture purchases, mattresses, appliances, and cars.

We do. As a matter of fact, I think hubby and I can research things to death! When we decided to get rid of our Sante Fe a few years back, it took almost three years before we settled on the Ford Edge.

When we bought mattresses, I found a forum that explained exactly what we were looking for to make for a longterm purchase. Construction, durability, high, low and middling models were explained in full (the forum has since closed).

Our furniture purchases were even more interesting. I spent months and months reading about, and educating myself on, furniture. It helped that my grandfather worked for Kittinger’s for 40 years, and any questions I had about construction he could answer. The negative was everything was “too expensive” to him – he’d been retired for over 20 years when we went looking! Hubby and I did make the trip to North Carolina after seeing the Metro NYC furniture pricing, and that was well worth it (in the middle of a hurricane, which is a story in itself, but I digress).

For those starting out researching any major household purchase, I always recommend Gardenweb’s Home Forums. Some of the forums are better than others – the laundry people are serious about their soaps and washers and dryers, for instance. You will be amazed!

What do you do to research a major purchase? Magazines? Books? Home-centers? Any tips and hints you would like to share with us!?

Our time in Florida has come to an end for winter, 2012. We may head back in late fall to double check the rental we have chosen for next February, but for now it is back up north for us!

I thought I would share some of the pics of our vacation with you all.

This was the view from our Miami Beach condo. We were on the 28th floor, and on a clear day you truly could see forever! Every day the cruise ships sailed by, flocks of pelicans flew by, and oddly, the helicopters that flew below our condo level.

Two cruise ships pulling out at 5pm. They actually looked at lot closer with the naked eye.

And this is a picture of the beach after a storm.

We ended up looking for dog friendly beaches, and found them in the St Augustine area. Max abosultely loved playing with the waves! It was hilarious how he would play with them running back and forth so as not to get wet. Once, he was so engrossed by something that had washed up with a wave that he didn’t notice the next one come at him – and BAM! – he got a mouthful of seawater. I really wish I had had a video of that!

We really did enjoy our time in Florida, and we look forward to doing another month-long vacation next year.

The last few days we touched on the whys, the how tos, the whats, and the whens of deal blogging.

Today I would like to discuss the who.

A blog, by definition, is a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. When you begin a blog, any type of blog, you are the writer. You are the who.

You must give something of yourself to your readers to be successful, in my opinion. People want to know who they are connecting with and have a reason to trust what you say. If you are just going to be someone that slaps up affiliate deal after affiliate deal without “talking” to your readers, do not be surprised if you have very few readers.

How much you share about yourself is completely up to you. I have advised making your personal information private. I am also loathe to tell people to share their pictures or pictures of their children online. Clearly people do, and it is always a personal choice.

There are reasons I do not have pictures of myself plastered all over my blog (well, except the goddess in the header, of course) – I have stalkers, and have had them for years. I could share a pic, but that would be from when I was skinny and pretty and you would not recognize me today from that pic if you saw me on the street.

In all seriousness, there are many reasons NOT to share too much online. There are a lot of kooks out there. So, I strongly urge you to get a UPS box for business purposes and use it to connect with readers, PR people and anyone that may need to contact you via your blog business.

On one level I won’t personally share a pic, but on the other hand I have regular meet-ups, teach classes and will go to conferences and seminars freely introducing myself as Ann from Coupons, Deals and More. I guess I figure once folks meet the Grizzled Coupon Veteran, stalking will never be an issue.

Hmmm maybe I should take up vlogging?

Whatever you do, have a contact on your blog so your readers can reach out to you via email. And for goodness sake, personally answer your email! These are your readers – potential friends and acquaintances. They read you because they like/admire/relate to you and what you write, so have the common decency to answer them and not pawn your email off on a VA or an auto-responder.

So on the one hand my advice is to put yourself out there to your readers sharing your life and your family situation, but on the other hand I strongly urge you to do so smartly and as safely as possible so Freddie Krueger isn’t showing up at your door at midnight one Friday the 13th.

I hope you have enjoyed this series on the who, what, when, how and why of deal blogging. These posts were not meant to stop you from blogging or deal blogging – they were meant to make you realize that blogging is a ton of work, not a get-rich-scheme, and not something you quit your day job to begin. Blog because you love to write and want to help folks. You will be happier without immediate financial expectations.

It seems that what started as an idea for bullet points has become a novella, so I will end this now. There are a hundred million other things to make a successful blog other than the few items I posted this week, but that will get you started – or finished – as the case my be. If you have any other questions about starting a blog, please do not hesitate to email me. I am always happy to help.

The last few days we touched on the whys, the how tos, and the whats, of deal blogging.

Today I would like to discuss the whens.

In my opening post in this series, I told you about the 60-70 hour work weeks I would work when I first began deal blogging. The first year I started blogging I took off one day: Christmas. The second year I was blogging I took off two days: Christmas and the day after BlogHer.

By year three, I was taking off a lot more half days in addition to those two full days off (again Christmas and the day after BlogHer). I have two VAs (virtual assistants) to help me on the blog now, and I, for sanity’s sake, have cut my personal work week down to about 50 hours this past year. And clearly this week I did something completely crazy and went on vacation – and decided not to work through it! That is a first for me.

Will you need to work the same amount of time I did when I began blogging if you deal blog? If you want a following, probably. At least in the beginning. You see, you need to work to get dependable, engaged readers, and once you have a loyal following you need to deliver the goods to those people who now depend on you. Because while you have recreational savers, you also have people who cannot afford to eat without couponing and doing deals. These folks will go to the library and see what you have written that day, be it a deal, coupons or advice. You are helping them to eat. They look to you for support and guidance.

And that is a huge responsibility.

I will never forget my first PM (private message) on fatwallet that said, “Thank you. Without your help my family could not afford to eat.”

And while that PM, and the ones that followed, not to mention the email I receive now, always bring tears to my eyes, I too was once in the same place, so I can totally relate.

So do not toy with people. If you are going to deal blog, unless it is strictly a brag-blog or for your friends and family, know that consistent content is extremely important to your readers.

Do you need to post 50 times a day? That is purely up to you. Can you be a deal blogger with only four posts a day? Absolutely if they are helpful, quality posts. The quantity does not matter as much the quality and consistency. People who read you will come to expect the consistency and know whether or not your blog suits their purposes. Along the way you will learn what does/doesn’t work for you and your readers and adjust accordingly. And when you figure out how to deal blog successfully at four hours per day, five days a week, come back and tell me how!

Tomorrow we will discuss the “whos” of deal blogging.

The last few days we touched on the whys and the how tos of deal blogging.

Today let’s touch upon “what” to blog – specifically if you are deal blogging.

Something I have noticed since the start of Extreme Couponing is a lot of people that began to coupon and hunt deals in the last year are setting themselves up as “experts” and beginning to “teach” classes and online tips about how to coupon, how to shop to save, etc.

This is me after visiting one of those blogs:

The misinformation is astounding. No, you are not an expert at anything after six months or a year. No field, nor hobby proclaims you an “expert” with so little experience. Now, if you are new to the hobby and want to share your hauls, what you have learned, how it works for you, GREAT! And I have to say at least you are shopping and really out there in the trenches as opposed to many other “deal bloggers” that do not shop themselves and wouldn’t know a great deal if it bit ‘em in the hiney. But professing to be an expert… wait a few years and just write helpful posts in the meantime. Your learning experiences, problems and mistakes will not only be more authentic, they will be of greater help to others too!

Another huge “what” in the world of blogging is to remember to write your own material! Do not take someone’s thoughts, ideas, pictures, write-ups, etc. If you did not write an article yourself, do not use it on your blog without permission.

I can’t tell you how often established bloggers need to chase down newbies, who truly just do not know any better, to take down the established blogger’s intellectual property. If you aren’t sure if you can use it – and no, you cannot copy someone’s entire match-up list, coupon page, rebate list or story and paste it to your blog – email the blogger and ask if you can exchange deals. Or perhaps use the top 3 deals and then link back to the original post (this is a very common practice).

Sometimes you see a deal spread all over the blogging world and you would like to post it too. You can chase down the original poster to credit if you like or not (there is a reason that can be tough to do when it has spread, how do you find the original person that started the deal?), but make sure you rewrite the deal into your own words. I can’t tell you how many times I see “And my husband and I took our three kids and …” copied and pasted onto a newbie’s blog when referring to the copied-deal, and the newbie-blogger is a neither married, nor has children! So reword, it isn’t that difficult to do.

And if you see a personal story? That is completely off limits to copy and paste or reword. Ask for permission to use the story, or better yet, explain what it is about and link directly to the story! If you were impressed, others will be too.

If you are ever in doubt about what is permissible to copy and what is not, my wonderful friend Sara writes a blog law series on her blog Saving For Someday. Sara also explains “common use” and what you can/cannot use on your blog via pictures, scans, etc., what must be paid for, and about leaving copyright marks on pictures.

Tomorrow we will discuss the “whens” of deal blogging.

Yesterday, we touched on the reasons to begin blogging.

Today I would like to discuss the hows of starting to blog.

To begin blogging, you need a blogging platform – blogger or wordpress.org are most common. Blogger is free, but google has a nasty habit of shutting down deal blogs as spam. *poof* You can get your blogger-blog back by dialing in and proving you are a human being to google (versus a spam bot), but wow it is terrible to see your work go away even for a few days.

I recommend that you start by purchasing your blog name. Spend the extra money for privacy because if you do not your name, address, zip code and phone number will be out there for the world to see. If you are on blogger, you can upload that name and it will look like you are self-hosting a blog. When you finally make the transition from blogger to a self-hosted blog that transition will be smoother.

If you are not 100% certain you will be blogging years from now, start with blogger. Since it is free, the $50 for a domain name + privacy will be your only real investment. You can easily customize your blog yourself – no need to pay a designer when working on blogger. If you decide in six months or a year that, “Yeah, I like this and I have people who are following my work”, then move on to a self-hosted wordpress blog.

Coupons, Deals and More is a self hosted wordpress blog. What that means is I started a wordpress.org platform, got a theme (Thesis now), and have the entire site hosted on my own server. I began with wordpress as I knew I would be blogging for a good long time. I purchased my blog name through godaddy as they always have a coupon code (I now own 50+ names). You do NOT have to host with godaddy to buy a domain through them. Godaddy is now the largest seller of domain names, but you can buy through any reputable domain register. I did start my blog hosting on godaddy on a shared server. That was not something I would recommend to anyone due to frequent outages and slow load times.

After a while, I had enough traffic rolling in that I decided to move to a different hosting company that has many different packages to choose from. I selected a cloud server, and they would bounce my blog based on traffic. The way a normal server works is 300 sites are crammed on the same machine without regard for space or web-hog considerations (deal blogs are web-hogs based a lot on data). With the new host I was moved around so I wasn’t sucking up speed from other sites or vice versa. Eventually my traffic got to the point where I needed my own server, which is what I currently use.

So now your have your name, your host and your theme. You need to customize it. If you are graphic designer you can do this yourself. If you are not, you will probably need to pay someone to customize your site. Make sure you own your blog design! And make sure you do pay for the pictures that are used in your design unless you drew everything from your own imagination.

Now that you have set up your site, you can begin to blog.

Tomorrow I will be writing about the “whats” of deal blogging.

Sometimes I forget that people have not been couponing and rebating forever. I had a question on how to rebate a few weeks ago, and I explained via email and links. I also decided to do a write up in light of the giant pile I did at the beginning of January – I know you all love pictures!

First let me say that I absolutely hate doing rebates (refunds). I do them because I like the checks, but I dislike the work involved. Over the years, some manufacturers have made rebates easier, and some more difficult. There are several very important components to doing rebates:

• Find the forms. This is crucial, because while there are no-form-needed offers, they are few and far between. I keep a list of printable rebate forms that is quite extensive. Your local grocery or drug store may also have forms – either in the aisle by the product, on a product shipper or on a board or tucked away in a box in the office.

• Rebate form organization. If you are new to rebates, really, really need the money, or just hate slippage (the industry term for unredeemed rebates – what!? you didn’t really think the manufacturers wanted to give you your money back, did you?) read this post on rebate form organization. It will help. A lot.

• Read the form The details on the what, whens and how of what you are submitting must be followed to get paid. Here is a great post (if I do say so myself) on how to ring up multiple rebate products on one shopping trip. Remember, some offers want the UPC, some want the cash register tape, some want both. Some want you to print, some want a valid birth date (liquor), some are only valid in certain states. You are never required to give an email address for a rebate. Write “none” in that spot or use a spam email. I do the same for phone number, writing “none” when asked.

• Purchase the products. I keep a list of what products I need in order to redeem current rebates I am interested in.

• Mail on time. You will receive a “box closed” submission returned to you if you mail outside of the last postmark date or form expiration date (some forms only list one or the other).

• Make copies of your submissions. Read this post for why you should make copies.

And I am also listing this post about satisfaction guarantees for you fence sitters.

Let me show you how the rebate-procrastinator does a lot of rebates at one time:

I lay everything out and start matching up CRTs, UPCs and forms.

This is what a UPC + CRT look like.

I always cross out my card ids and my credit card information. Better safe than sorry in my opinion.

Since I write out all my forms and envelopes at one time, I paper clip everything to the forms so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

And finally I have a nice stack of rebates to go out. Many require you to fill out even the envelope by hand, so read the fine print careful.

Why do I bother? That little stack will return over $200 to my pocket!

Not a week goes by where I don’t receive a few email asking for help with beginning a blog. Most of the folks have been reading Coupons, Deals and More, learned how to coupon, and now want to blog themselves.

This either means they think I am doing a crappy job and they can do a lot better, or they feel that the field is not super saturated and there is room for their voice.

I am going to go with the latter as it makes me feel better.

If you want to deal blog (or coupon blog if you prefer) to make money, forget it. Do not under any circumstance start any type of blog if you are not doing so to share – be it share your experiences, your expertise, your stories about Aunt Thelma and Cousin Bob – whatever it is, it needs to be about giving some part of you away for free. If money is your primary motivation, don’t even start.

Why, you may ask? Simple. Most bloggers, even deal bloggers, never make a dime of profit. When I started blogging after many, many years on forums, I had an affiliate background. There is so much to learn on how to make money, that it is a good year or so before most bloggers can figure out the “how” of making a buck on a blog. I started making money less than six months in, and that is difficult for most bloggers to do. And by “making money” I mean covering all costs except my time. By year two I was making minimum wage on 40 hours a week – too bad I was working 60-70 hours a week.

If you caught that last sentence, you will notice I wrote “working 60-70 hours a week”. When you start up blogging, like any new start up company, you are the boss. And the sole employee. That means long hours for little monetary reward. If you look at “bigger bloggers” (I consider myself medium sized), they usually have large staffs and seldom write up the deals themselves. They choose a corporate route and basically parlayed their blog name into a company. Do not compare yourself to a “bigger blogger”, and do not expect the same monetary rewards they took years to build to come to you immediately.

It takes years to do what the “bigger bloggers” do, a specific mindset, a willingness to forgo your “voice”, a good PR firm in many cases, excellent SEO and a few other things. If you expect to start blogging tomorrow and get rich next week (or next year), readjust your thinking.

Circling back to why most deal bloggers do not make money – most people do not last six months blogging. It is a lot of work and time. If you have five kids at home, work full time, home school, etc., you quickly realize that, while you would sincerely like to help others, the time spent away from your family is not worth the effort. Your family must come first. So, most blogs do not survive the first six months. And most blogs do not make money before the first year. Since A + B = C, if most blogs begin to make money at year one, and most blogs do not last six months, most blogs do not make money. Please notice the “most”. Nothing is absolute, and it is possible you may buck that trend.

This post is not meant to stop you from blogging or deal blogging – it is meant to make you realize that blogging is a ton of work, not a get-rich-scheme, and not something you quit your day job to begin. Begin blogging because you love to write and want to help folks. If that is a success, then you can transition to professional blogging and all its rewards.

Tomorrow I will give you an idea of the mechanics of beginning to blog, what you need and how you can proceed.

The Novartis Consumer Health OTC Recall made me remember how many expired OTC medications I had disposed of lately. When we get something for free, we tend to stockpile quite a bit of it; sometimes too much.

While gathering from my stockpile for a donation last month, I discovered how many medicines I had in my H&BA closet, and how many were expired. I had to dispose of a lot of expired OTC medications. Most can be just disposed of into the trash. But for best practices, refer to this handy-dandy FTC Consumer Health Information Booklet: How To Dispose Of Unused Medicines.

Seeing all the meds I disposed of, I have decided to keep no more than two alike medications from now on. While getting it for free is great, donating OTC meds can be difficult – I have a battered women’s shelter that will accept them, but no where else. Even if free, it really is a waste to just toss something in the trash unused. From now on, I will be more judicious in my OTC meds “purchases”.

It is that time of year again! Make your 2012 prophecies here!!

I predict …

… the world will not end in 2012.

… Rite Aid’s drugstore program will tank.

… stores will continue to pull back on loss leaders.

… coupon usage will surge.

… we will make the best of it regardless of what obstacles are thrown in our path.

What are your 2012 prophecies and predictions!?

I needed some whipping cream for a recipe, and asked hubby to get some when he went to the store. He told me there was a some in the refrigerator. I said it was heavy cream, and he said “well what’s the difference?”

So I went on a search to find out. It all comes down to the fat content:

• Nonfat Milk: 0%-1%
• 1% Milk: 1%-2%
• 2% Lowfat Milk: 2%
• Whole Milk: 4%
• Half-and-half: 12%-15%
• Light Cream: 18%-30%
This my brother’s guess as to why Tim Horton’s tastes so good. Light Cream is also known as Coffee Cream
• Whipping Cream: 30%-36%
• Heavy Cream: 36%-44%
• Manufacturer’s Cream: 44%+
- This is pourable English double cream (no stabilizers, emulsifiers or preservatives) Upstate Farms does make it. You would have to contact them to see where you can purchase. Same for Byrne Dairy.

FDA milk regulations.

You can use generally heavy cream as whipping cream, but beware of using ultra pasteurized cream as it is heated to a much higher temperature that pasteurized cream. While ultra pasteurized has a longer shelf life, ultra pasteurized is difficult to whip. If you live in a state that only offers pasteurized or ultra pasteurized whipping cream in the dairy department, you might be better off purchasing organic.

Here is a fascinating milk products and production relationship chart.

If you are based in NYS, looking for a particular type of dairy cow product and unable to locate it, you could contact the Cornell cooperative extension for a location near you where to purchase. There is an office in every county in the state.

The holiday season can be a financial challenge for even the most savvy saver. Here are some tips and ideas to save a few dollars on your holiday decor:

• Use natural items found in your backyard – from holly to evergreens, natural or spray-painted with glitter paint, outdoor sprays brought inside can grace everything from tabletops to fireplace mantels.

• Use fresh oranges with cloves for a quick, fragrant decoration tabletop decoration.

• Ornaments inside a glass bowl or, on top of a wooden platter, make for a quick, festive, inexpensive decoration.

• Put a mirror under it! A mirror under sparkle and sparkle – be it paint, crystal, or an ornament – adds reflections and makes everything look festive!

• Wrap empty boxes in traditional holiday wrapping paper for a cute entryway piece. Add a basket of pine cones, and the scent of cinnamon for a warm and inviting holiday entrance.

• Bring three cinnamon sticks, a few whole cloves and a splash of nutmeg along with three quarts of water to a simmer on the stove for a great whole-house holiday fragrance.

• Remember to search stores such as Target, Pier 1 and Kohl’s after Christmas holiday sales for deeply discounted decorations. Store for next year!

What are some of your favorite inexpensive Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas?

Last May, I wrote a post for people to watch out for thieves. It is time for another reminder.

WATCH FOR COUPON THIEVES! It seems to be an epidemic lately!

Here are some tips to help avoid people stealing your coupons:

• Install carabiner onto the end of your binder, and hook it to your cart while in the store.

• If you use a coupon box, use a strap to secure your box to the cart. The idea is to deter a walk-off.

• Treat your coupons like cash. You would not leave your money in your cart, would you? So don’t leave your coupons unattended in the cart.

• Do not store your cash, gift cards or rewards with your coupons.

• Mark your coupon storage equipment with a Name and Phone Number (use a free google voice number, not your real number) in case the coupon binder/case is recovered outside. Sometimes people are looking for cash and when they see coupons, they dump it.

If you coupons are stolen:

• Report the theft to the store manager, and ask then to review the tapes to see who stole your coupons. While it may not help you get your coupons back, it will alert the store to a problem to hopefully prevent future incidents.

• If you have gift cards, cash, etc you can file a police report. Again it is doubtful it will help you, but it will put the store on notice that they have a thief in their midst.

• Call back to the store and ask if it was “found”.

What are your suggestions to deter or prevent coupon theft?

Coupon Organization Methods

Many of you who have been reading Coupons, Deals and More for years now may have heard this story … at the very least bits and pieces of it, so please feel free to skip the boring parts.

A long, long time ago, I got married at what is quite young by today’s standards. A year after we married, my ex-husband got a “dream” job where everyone thought we would be set for life. His starting salary was $8.88 an hour at the local electric company – and no, that was not great money in the mid 80s.

I was working too, so our income was enough to (barely) pay the bills. I got pregnant with Sonny-boy though, and we decided that when we considered the cost of child care, my staying home made the best financial sense. Child care + travel + clothes + lunch + taxes would have pretty much consumed everything I was making. And, by this time my ex was up to 10 bucks an hour, so we figured by scrimping and moving to a lower rent apartment, we could make due until a better job came up for my ex at work.

The best laid plans …

The better job did not appear as hoped, and our situation was getting pretty bleak. I had always used coupons casually from the time I earned my first paycheck at 17, but now I had to figure out how to get that grocery bill waaaaay down. I started hardcore couponing to get anything and everything I could for free. I would then do the applicable rebate on a product (back then it was easy no cash register tapes were needed, and P&G would pay you four times for the same purchase via their different offers) to get money to pay not only for food, but other necessities as well. There was more than one month that rebate “income” paid the utility bills.

All the extra free items I gathered were then sold at yard sales. Back then I did not have the luxury of donating goods – we needed every penny would could scrape together.

Over the years things got better financially … the ex did get a better job with the company, Sonny-boy went to school and I was able to work part time outside the home. But, I never stopped couponing – not in good times nor in bad. Whether you coupon as “the game” or for dire necessity, couponing does get into your blood.

I am curious – what prompted you to begin couponing?

After our time in South Dakota and our drive over the the mountain, we finally arrived at Yellowstone.

On our drive through the park we did see buffalo, but the ones at Custer State Park were so much more impressive that hubby declined to stop and let me take pics. The distance really was great at Yellowstone.

I did manage to get a quick pic of what may be elk (or deer I donno) … in between dodging the rubbernecking cars and the park police trying to shoo the folks not pulling over.

Our main focus was on geysers though. We saw small ones, percolating ones, small ones blow, big ones blow. It really was worth the trip to see!

The big ticket item we went to see in Yellowstone was Old Faithful.

This is Old Faithful sleeping (probably perking):

And Old Faithful blowing:

(That last pic was taken with a droid! Amazing, huh?)

A few words about Yellowstone: We decided to do this trip about two months ago so there was no room at the park inns. We stayed off site in a Holiday Inn that was $275 a night!! And the internet was dog-slow. The food in town was crazy expensive. I do not think we had a restaurant bill under $30 … and that was breakfast!

If you are planning a trip to Yellowstone, either book a year in advance and get a hotel on the grounds ($150 – $200 a night) and bring all your food in a cooler and eat out once per day, or camp and bring all your food period.

All-in-all we had a very nice vacation. I have now been to 49 states (I am missing Oregon!), and am busy trying to figure out how to plan a trip to that last state without getting on a plane.

Hubby and I left Rapid City to drive to Yellowstone. I wanted to make sure we took a detour though North Dakota and stopped, just to say we had been there. That meant that while the ride to Yellowstone was doable in one day, it would be long, so we decided not to push it. Instead we spent the night in Billings, Montana, and took the “scenic route” to Yellowstone.

And what a scenic route it was!!!

We are driving along and I was saying to hubby “gee, I wonder if there is a tunnel or if we go around?”

Wrong on both counts! We went over the mountain!!

There were these ground squirrels or chipmunks running around begging for food. Hubby found them fascinating, especially how they begged for food off this one guy, and he kept feeding them!

Me? I preferred the view. This picture does not do it justice. It was simply amazing, but cold and windy. While it was 100º everywhere in the country, I had a heavy wool sweater on. The mountain top was about 55º.

Cold enough that the (dirty) snow never did melt…

When we got down the mountain, we completed our drive to Yellowstone.

I have been to nearly all 50 states. I have wanted to go to a few northern states on a long car ride for several years now to visit the states I had never been to. Since I had a conference in Colorado, hubby and I decided to visit his brother (in Illinois), drive on to my conference, and then take a week’s vacation traveling through SD, ND (quick in an out), MT and WY.

Our first stop was Rapid City, South Dakota. We spent several days in the Rapid City area, and do not have enough good things to say about it! It was beautiful, inexpensive and the people were very, very nice.

Of course the main draw is Mt Rushmore.

Now even though I knew that you could not get very close, I still have to say it: What a bust.

Everything is framed for an optimal view, but because of how far away you are it is difficult to get a good perspective on how difficult an endeavor this was. Hubby took that pic above with a zoom lense, but we could have just as easily bought a postcard.

On the way down the hill, you saw George Washington in profile and THAT was when you were impressed. It was closer and you were better able to see just how massive and detailed the carvings are. Too bad I did not have my camera out at that time.

So, seeing how “eh” we were about Mt Rushmore, we decided not to go to Crazy Horse. Instead we went to Custer State Park.

As we were driving to the park (had not yet entered or paid), we were greeted by this fellow coming down from a cliff.

There were two motorcyclists ahead of us that got a tad, er, skittish, and the buffalo gave hubby “a look” as he passed by the car, but I have to say that was probably the highlight of the trip! It was so cool to have a buffalo within arms length!

We drove through Custer State Park for a while, and I swore that that one escapee was the extent of the 1300 buffalo in the park. And as for other wild life? Pffft was what I was thinking, when what should happen, but we rounded a curve and saw 20 cars pulled over for the “mooches”. Even though the signs say “DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE” the burros never got the memo and were mooching crackers and vegetables off of the people in the parked cars.

And this guy was serious – he saw hubby chewing so came over to investigate!

Our next wildlife encounter was this buffalo taking a drink of water. We scrambled back to the car when he started stomping the ground.

So why did the buffalo cross the road?

To get to the other side of course!

And he was just the start of the herd of buffalo that was waiting for us:

We did quite a bit of shopping at the Christmas Tree Store, wineries (not grape wine), Sioux Indian store, and several other establishments.

We truly enjoyed our time in Rapid City, and found the state to be very lovely indeed.

The following is a guest post from Kelly of Kansas City Mamas

Peaches.

I love juicy, sweet peaches.

Unfortunately, their peak season lasts for about three weeks in Kansas City. The good news is that when they are in their prime they taste amazing and are dirt cheap. The bad news, you have to set aside time to do some serious canning/freezing to make their awesomeness last year-round.

Canning Peaches

Here are the necessities for canning peaches – peaches, sugar, canning jars and lids, and an ascorbic-acid (darkening reducer). You can either buy an ascorbic-acid (Fruit Fresh) or you can make your own with either lemon juice or crushed vitamin C and water.

Canning peaches is a fast paced process. I recommend reading this canning peaches tutorial before you start and even printing off a copy as a reference if this is your first time canning peaches.

As a novice fruit-canner, there are a couple of steps I wished would have been better outlined.

• Give yourself three hours to can peaches. It is five-step process and shouldn’t be started at 8:00 at night. Unfortunately, once you start, you have to finish.
• Pick firm peaches that have minimal amounts of bruising.
• Don’t be afraid to put peaches back into boiling water if the skins don’t come off easy. It is better to give them a little more time than to mutilate them while getting the skins off.
• Rule of thumb is 3 lbs of peaches per quart jar. This can vary greatly, so it is better to have more canning jars sterilized than less.
• The best time to can peaches is before a meal. As you are cutting them into slices, you will have “pieces” that aren’t fit for canning, but are fit for eating. Since you don’t want to be wasteful, you’ll end up eating quite a few and may end up with a tummy ache. (Have no idea how I know this.)

Final Product

Look at it. It reminds me of my grandmother’s peaches. And while there aren’t twenty-five jars of peaches, there are enough to bring a little sunshine in my life on a cold and gray Kansas February day. And that will be when the work was TOTALLY worth it.

Kelly Snyder is the author of Kansas City Mamas – a website devoted to living well by saving more. She is married to her best friend (Hubs) and is the stay-at-home mama to DS (8) and DD (5). In addition, she believes that life is too short for bad coffee, wine or food (but not necessarily in that order).

Hubby got a new toy a few weeks ago and shesh, what a production that was!

Hubby had a slicer he was not thrilled with. He gave it away, planning to get a new one asap. Well, asap turned into “oops, I forgot” and when he needed it a few weeks ago, he really went looking around online.

He found this company in Texas that was selling slicers on ebay, so he researched, called to confirm his slicer was Italian made (and not Chinese made), and then ordered.

Well, they could not get him (for some reason or another) what he ordered, so they offered him a bigger horsepower one for $60 more. He talked them down to a $30 increase, but the catch was we would have to pick it up. Since their American distribution center is in Niagara Falls (for this Texas company), hubby said ok.

Well through a series of errors on both the company’s part, and by hubby, they ended up having to deliver the slicer to us anyway. It was a real production. (He only paid the $30 increase even though they ad to ship.)

So hubby plans on using this for cheese:

Which he laid it out neatly after slicing:

For easier wrapping.

Hubby did the same for lunchmeat:

Since we will not be cutting copious quantities of cheese, we are OK with just the one blade.

And of course, everything not immediately used was foodsavered for later use. He got the cheese and meat at a local restaurant supply store that is open to the public. The Buffalo chicken in the last picture was only $1.49 a pound! Granted it will take a long time to recoup the slicer cost before saving $5 a pound on luncheon meat pays for the slicer, but hubby is still happy with his new toy.

A few weeks ago, Wegmans had blueberries for $4.99 for two pounds. We did not join a CSA this year, and our frozen fruits and vegetables are running low. Normally blueberries run over $5 per pound (usually B1G1 2/$3.99 in 6oz containers), so I jumped at the $4.99 for two pound price and purchased four containers.

I decided to freeze them, so began by thoroughly rinsing the blueberries in a colander in the sink to remove any debris. There isn’t much by way of dirt or twigs with store-bought blueberries, but hey, you never know!

After that, I soaked the blueberries to remove any additives. A fruit wash and water, or vinegar and water works well.

I dried the blueberries on trays lined with paper towels to remove moisture.

The blueberries were frozen on trays in a single layer.

Afterwards, hubby and I loaded the frozen blueberries into (6) 1 pound bags, and (1) 2 pound bags.

Hubby then foodsavered the bags, and I marked and dated them.

A good book for preserving and freezing is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

And now we have enough frozen blueberries to last us until next year!

The following gift ideas were submitted by a Coupons, Deals and More reader that asked me to “protect the innocent, as well as the not so innocent!”

A couple of nights ago, we had a bachelorette party for my 60 year young friend who is getting married for the second time Saturday. Here’s what I gave her – all free items:

We all were requested to bring panties, with the hope that she will get rid of the grannies. Of course mine came from Vickies using the free coupons I sometimes receive.

We contributed to group gifts, the main ones being monogrammed spa robes. So, I got stuff to go with that, all themed.

For her - Excedrin Migrane so “not tonight dear, I have a headache” wouldn’t work.
For him – Excedrin Extra Strength to get ready.
For both – Nodoze – to stay awake.
For both – Spin toothbrushes to be kissable.
For both – Body washes, body sponges, loofah sponge to start……
For both – Candles to set the mood.
For her..maybe him …KY
For both a bottle of wine – used a rebate of course.
To end for her – Tylenol PM
To end for him – Bengay!

It was alot of fun and laughs, and it only cost a couple of dollars for the wine!

Long before Extreme Couponing, free internet coupon acceptance was on the wane in many areas. In my area, neither Wegmans nor Tops will accept free internet coupons, heck they will not even accept B1G1 internet printables!

Much of this goes back 9-10 years when printable coupons first came into vogue. Always looking to save money – and FSIs, magazines prints and home mailing are all costly when compared to having a customer print their own coupon – manufacturers started releasing free coupons as printables.

Well as you can imagine, for a buncha geeks that were used to copying as many Staples, Office Max and Office Depot coupons as they liked and redeeming them, copying manufacturer coupons seemed no different. (The difference was that those stores are owned by the retailer, and accepting or denying a coupon is at the store agent’s (clerk or manager) discretion. The manufacturer has no such B&M and relies on a third party. Well, that and the legal wording on the various coupons. )

It was not long before copying lead to counterfeiting – which has been around in coupon-land since the days of the earliest Xerox, but now it was being done on a grander scale with Photoshop-like programs, and the coupon manipulation was sometimes quite good with dates and denomination changes virtually undetectable. And sometimes it was a lousy scan with a marker change.

The counterfeiters quickly went underground, forming yahoo groups where exchanges could be made. Today groups still exist and I will receive periodic email from readers asking if the free coupon Aunt Bessy emailed them is real or fake. Hint: If you get an email from anyone other than the manufacturer or the manufacturer’s agent with a free coupon attached, chances are excellent it is fake. Delete the email and tell Aunt Bessy to destroy any prints she may have made and to stop forwarding that “great” coupon to people.

So getting back to my title question Do your stores accept free internet printable coupons? What about B1G1s? And if so, which stores?

Last March, hubby bought a 50# bag of onions at Restaurant Depot “because they were a great deal”.

As a follow-up, this is what happened with the last 20# or so…

Hubby peeled them (of course).

He only had to slice them in half because…

He has a handy-dandy dicer. He can dice just about anything with this, but onions are a really good choice. He places half of a peeled onion underneath the press and …

Voilà! Uniformly diced onions.

He places all the diced onions into a bowl so he can scoop them and bag them.

He uses a one cup measurement.

And places two cups per zip lock freezer bag.

Because these onions are destined for stews, casseroles and soups, he did not bother to foodsaver them. He does express all the air out to prevent condensation and freezer burn.

These went into the chest freezer, so hubby stacked them inside a zip lock container for easy storage.

I know some of you have pretty strong opinions against purchasing a newspaper. I am told, “there is nothing I can use” in regards to newspaper coupons quite often. And to that I say a very stern: Hogwash.

Now we all understand that if an area has doubles to 99¢, that area will receive a lot of $1/1 or $1/2 coupons. For areas with doubles to 50¢, you probably see a lot of 55¢ coupons. To enhance savings, people use clipping services, they trade, or they get Aunt Nellie to send them great Florida inserts weekly. *cough*

But, do not unilaterally decide that your area newspaper coupons always stink. They may, they may not. It will vary weekly.

Let’s take for example what I did this past Sunday.

These are the coupons I was able to use from the local 6/12/11 newspaper inserts (in conjunction with sales and rewards not listed below):

Schick Razor $8 – used $4 coupon
Bayer Advantage $3 – used $2 coupon
AirWick Freshener $7.99 – used $4 coupon
Dial Body Wash $2.99 – used $2 coupon
Grain Berry Pancake Mix $2.50 – used $2 coupon
Grain Berry Cereals $2.50 – used $2 coupon
Grain Berry Crackers $2.50 – used $2 coupon
Renuzit Crystals $4.99 – used $3 coupon
(2) Soft Scrub $2.50 – used B1G1 coupon for a $2.50 savings

and I used a $1 tic tac coupon in conjunction with several other $1 tic tac coupons at CVS.

Total saved: $24.50 or over 1000% return on my $2 investment.

And, I still have more coupons from that insert to use at another time.

No my inserts are not usually full of 75¢/1 coupons as I live in a 99¢ doubling area, but we do frequently receive higher value coupons due to this And those higher values really can add up to some great savings!

While I am not suggesting you give up printables, or discountinue buying out of area or trading, I am stating that sometimes your local paper may very well hold great coupons which in turn will make for great deals.

In the early part of the 1990s the Buffalo area did not enjoy double coupons. However, nearby Rochester did. My mother and I had a serious discussion about driving down the thruway for hour to partake of the double coupons savings being offered at Tops and Wegmans that were unavailable to us.

Well, the corporate HQ at both those stores must have had their ears burning, because it was shortly thereafter that Tops started doubling to 99¢ in Buffalo, and Wegmans followed suit almost immediately.

We never did take that road trip.

Now those of you that have known me for many years now know that hubby and I travel often. One of the things I do while traveling, while in the US or in another country, is hit the local grocery store! I absolutely love to see what is happening in other parts of the country. Last summer’s road trip had us starting in Tulsa, and ending in Raleigh with many cities and towns that were in between.

So when Pathmark had a triple coupon event while we were scheduled to be in the Poconos …. welllll we just could not pass up the opportunity! So we didn’t!

We did take one of our three Coleman Extreme 5 Day Coolers. However I decided to concentrate on grocery, rather than frozen or dairy.

Here are several things to consider if you decide to travel for doubles or triples:

• How far will you be going? Is an overnight stay required? That will eat into your savings even if you book via priceline, hotwire, hotels.com or one of the other discounted online travel sites. If you use points, that may make the current stay free but you do lose the opportunity cost of using those points at another time.

• Try and enlist a shopping buddy to go along with you.

• Clip and sort your coupons – and don’t forget them. I did not have the time to clip and sort before we left, so hubby and I spent an hour in the hotel going through 40 pounds of inserts before heading out. (Using the ironing board as a worktable in the hotel really worked!)

• Make sure you have seen an ad before you make a trip. Sure the “good stuff” may be gone if you cannot see the ad a day or two early, but you cannot really decide if the trip will be economically worthwhile without doing coupon match-ups for coupons you have on hand. You also need to find out daily limits. A list is imperative at an unfamiliar store, even if you are familiar with the grocery chain itself.

• Find out how easy or difficult to obtain and/or if it is even necessary to have a shoppers card to obtain sale prices. Going hand and hand with above, you need to discover if the card has daily limits.

• If “purchasing” dairy or frozen, a good cooler like the Coleman Extreme 5 Day Cooler will ensure your products arrive home edible and undamaged.

• Take boxes or bags so as to best utilize the space in your vehicle.

• Map out different stores and the best path to travel from one to the other. If you are unfamiliar with the town, do a google search to make certain the store you are traveling to is in a safe area, especially after dark.

• Bring cash and credit cards. I suggest some cash because it makes multiple, small orders go quickly and I’ve heard of credit card companies disallowing a lot of transaction at the same store within 24 hours.

• Above all, have fun! Sure it is work to drive, shop and coupon, but the feeling of euphoria when you have obtained a lot of great deals can’t be beat!

What other tips do you have for someone who is traveling for doubles or triples?