Keep the good deals rollin'!

Today the Plum District (like groupon and other deal websites) deal is “refer 4 friends to sign up for an account and receive a $20 Target gift card.”  Not too shabby!  So if you do not already have an account you can sign up for Plum district here.  Once you are signed up you can invite your friends to sign up through your referral link that you get by clicking “Get It.”  Please make sure to read all of the details.  Your card will be mailed to you within 10 days.  Limit one per person/household.  Also, your friends need to confirm the link in the confirmation email before you will get your credit, if they don’t confirm, no credit for you.

 image from plumdistrict.com

Cheers,

      A

Free Petit Desserts at Starbucks- YUM!

Today through Saturday, between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m.  Starbucks is giving away one of their new petit desserts with the purchase of a coffee.  It's part of their tribute days.  Check it out here.  I especially love how cute the pink birthday cake pops are:

image from: starbucks.com

Enjoy!

Cheers,

     A

Cheap Photo Prints!

Today only, if you go to snapfish and sign up for a new account (if you already have an account with them this deal won't work), you can get 51 prints for $0.09 total.  Upload your photos and enter the code FSPREZDAY  at check out and you will get all those photos sent to you for only 9 cents people!  I have not done this deal yet, so I am not sure if you will have to pay for shipping, but I plan to do it later today so I will let you know.  I wanted to get this awesome deal out to you ASAP so go check it out!

Cheers,
      A
     

Hey slacker, write something!

So, I start this blog and I am really excited about it, and then I don’t post for like 2 weeks!  Slacker much?  Sorry for being so lame I have been sick with a nasty cold and haven’t had the energy to do anything. 

I don’t know how many people out there reading this have debt.  Financial advisors will tell us that there is good debt and bad debt.  Good debt is generally a mortgage or student loans.  Bad debt is usually characterized by consumer debt.  I have both.  I am no financial advisor but I see debt as debt.  Debt means you owe someone money.  Money doesn’t care what it was used for, it’s still green paper and you still need to give it back at some point.  There was a time when being in debt was a huge shame.  Now, it is not uncommon for a 20 something to be thirty, forty, or fifty thousand dollars in debt.  We go to schools we can’t afford, live in apartments we can’t afford, take vacations we can’t afford because we think that is normal.  And the unfortunate truth is that it is normal.  But statistics do not equate to right.  Our country is in so much debt that we can barely keep our heads above water.  I’d like to introduce you to someone who is really weird.  His name is Dave Ramsey.  Some of you may have heard of him but let’s be real you have probably ignored him because what he says “probably wouldn’t work for me.”  I beg to differ and I hope that you will check his stuff out.  You don’t even have to pay for it, go to the library and check one of his books out…yes, library…people still use those.  If you have a little extra money to spare you could take his Financial Peace University class.  I took this class a year ago as a wedding anniversary present, and I am so glad I did.  Financial Peace University will completely change the way you think about money.  I could reiterate everything that I learned in this class but every person is different and I’m sure you will take something different out of what he says.  I plan to post more about Dave and what he teaches in later posts but I want you to take a few minutes and just peek at his website (I know some of it looks really cheesy) or check out his books (I have a couple I would be happy to loan out, just ask) and report back or ask some questions.  In the meantime I’m going to rest up so that I have better posts for you in the future!

Cheers,

        A

Make it for less Monday

Make it for less Monday will be a repeating post on how to make popular foods at home.  It will include recipes modeled after restaurant meals or processed foods.  In an effort to healthier living and thicker wallets, make it for less Monday will feature recipes that have less calories and cost less money than their popular counterparts. 

When the husband and I first moved in together I did not know how to cook for the life of me.  Rice-A-Roni, Top Ramen and Hamburger Helper were staples in our home.  Over the past six years I have slowly developed a love for cooking and also realized that pre-packaged meals are not so good for you…  Out went the overly processed, pre-packaged meals.  This was definitely for the best, but here is the problem – we really liked hamburger helper.   Nothing homemade could possibly stand in for that powdered cheese mixture, until I did some research.  Turns out, there is a way to mimic the delicious cheesy goodness with REAL ingredients. Though the cost of making this particular recipe is approximately the same as the prepared mixture, this healthy alternative at least better for you and most of the ingredients are staples in my home so all I needed to purchase was the ground turkey. Without further adieu, here is a recipe for home made hamburger helper:

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey (you can also use ground beef if you prefer the taste, but note the nutritionals will be different)
1 cup hot water
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups macaroni (I used piccolini because I had it on hand, you can really use any type of pasta you like)
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Dry ingredient mixture:
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon paprika

*To make this recipe easy you can mix all of the dry ingredients into a Zip-loc bag and have on hand when you are ready to make this recipe.

 Brown hamburger in a skillet.  Once browned, drain excess fat if using ground beef.  If using lean ground turkey, leave the juices in the pan.

 Add cup of hot water, milk, pasta and dry ingredient mixture.

 Bring mixture to a boil, reduce, cover and let simmer for 8 minutes, or until pasta is done.

 Add cheese and stir.   (If liquid has cooked off you can add a little more milk for a creamier sauce.)

Replace cover and simmer for 4 more minutes.  

Uncover and remove from heat to allow sauce to thicken.

 

 Enjoy with a big salad.

Or do like my usually picky husband, who couldn't wait to grab a plate... :-)

Cheers,
    A

I LOVE WAGS

WAGS= Walgreens.   

My family likes to make fun of me because of the similar love I share with the great deals at Walgreens to none other than my eccentric, coupon clipping, grandmother.  But you, my friends, will learn that Walgreens deals, unlike many things in life are very reliable, and the work you put in usually yields great rewards, Register Rewards.  Register Rewards, or RRs for short, are like winning the lottery!  These are rewards you get from certain companies when buying their products, to use on anything in the store on your next purchase within a certain amount of time (usually about a week or two). 

For instance, here is a RR deal for this week:

Buy 1 Arnicare Pain Relief for $5.99
Computer will print a $6 RR good for your next purchase
That makes this product free!  (If you don’t think you would use the product, donate it or give it away, sometimes deals are so good that you want to buy the item just to get the RR)


But here’s where it gets really good:
Sometimes there is a coupon out there for the item- click here for a $2/1 coupon (sometimes this coupon is in a newspaper that you have to buy or have to have in your stash, but sometimes you can find this coupon online and print it right from your computer-like this one).  You do have to sign up for a Walgreens card, similar to a Safeway club card or any other store rewards card, and use it when you make your purchase.
If you use this coupon when you purchase this item you will only spend $3.99 and you will in turn receive a $6 RR.  That means that you just got paid to go shopping, how cool is that?

So here is my challenge to you, spelled out nice and clear for all you newbies:

Before Sunday (the last day to take advantage of this deal) print the coupon above and head over to your local Walgreens.  Immediately sign up for their rewards card and they will give you a card to use, no obligation people, this goldmine is FREE!  

Go find the Arnicare Pain Relief.  Walgreens is known to move stuff around the store based on promotions but they are generally very nice if you ask them to point you to where you might find something.
Use your $2 off coupon and purchase the product.  After your receipt prints out, the machine next to that printer will print off an RR for $6 off of your next purchase.  

Pretty cool, huh?

*If for any reason the RR does not print just head on over to customer service and ask them why and if they can’t help you out return the item and get your money back.

 I’ll cover more info on RRs in a later post but I just want to get you all excited to actually come back and read more so go do this deal and let me know how it goes for you!  Leave any comments or questions in the comments box.

Cheers,
     A

Welcome to FrugalistaPDX

Welcome to FrugalistaPDX.  I decided to start this blog because I was sharing deals on Facebook a lot but I felt like I was probably being annoying to those whose walls I was taking up with virtual advertisements for various companies.  So I started this blog to share ideas with people who actually seek them out and want to hear about it and I will leave my Facebook profile for general gossip and witty quips…  I also wanted to create this blog to keep me accountable with my goals and attempting to be a 20-something not buried in debt. 

My discovery of coupons and frugal living started a couple of years ago when I was still an undergrad working very part time as a waitress and more than part time as an intern (*read un-paid slave laborer).  The husband and I were barely scraping by and even though we had a savings account, it never accumulated because we were constantly dipping into it for emergencies.  While searching the internet for coupons I came across a couple of blogs that covered a world of frugality that I was unaware of.  Most of these lovely bloggers were stay at home moms who wrote about the savings involved with cloth diapers as opposed to disposable but here and there I came across a deal that was beneficial to my small family (myself, husband, and crazy cat).  

Living on the cheap has not been easy and I’ve had numerous ups and downs- like spending hours coming up with awesome coupon deals to save $20 on my weekly groceries to then spend $75 for dinner and wine on a Tuesday night (no special occasion involved).  I chalked this up to being in my 20s and the fact that after working for free for a good period of college I was making a decent wage doing a job that I could stand and could afford to celebrate life.  Money didn’t have time to burn a hole in my pocket.  It never made it into my pocket to begin with.  2010 was a super crummy year for my family and me and my wallet paid a heavy price for sure.  This year I hope to make bigger changes that have more lasting effects.  I hope to clear away a good portion of consumer debt that we have accumulated and start saving for my future goals (more on that later).  I struggle to stay on the straight and narrow of spending wisely on a daily basis but now I get to share that all with you.  Don’t you feel lucky?  I promise not to be super annoying with my stories of personal struggles when it comes to money but I hope that I can inspire some of you to save some dough because if I can do it, you can too!

Cheers,
     A