I'm back!

Hello! After a chaotic year I am back and starting to get settled in to our new home. I look forward to bringing you exciting new deals and information as we move in to the New Year. For now I'd like to recommend a few services/products that caught my eye over the last year.

If you are looking for a new home (or to sell your current home) and you live in the Triad area, you should strongly consider Gloria Adams at Allen Tate. We had a great experience working with her and she is especially helpful if you are a first time home buyer.

Here's a tip for moving that I learned this go round: get boxes at your local ABC store. Apparently this a well known tip but I was unaware of it before now. The boxes are easy to get to and have less risk of cockroaches. They also tend to be smaller so you are not weighing down your boxes too much. A smaller dense box is much better than a large medium weight box.

Bed Bath and Beyond - check them out if you're in the process of furnishing your house. We found curtain rods and blinds on two separate trips that were reduced nearly 75%. We saved an additional amount by using the coupons they mail out every week or so. The Greensboro store lets you stack the coupons in one order (usually one coupon per item). We saved a lot of money on some nice home decor this way.

Feliway Plug-ins - if you have cats and they are about to be in a stressful situation (moving, new cat, etc), this is the product you need. Truthfully I can't speak as to how much was the plug-in and how much was time, but the cats went from a panicked state to a purring, tail up, affectionate state in less than a day after using this product. I can't say what will happen when it runs out, but for now everything is well and that means so much more to me than the price we paid for the product. By the way if you're looking into buying, check out Amazon.com. It was a good bit cheaper there than in stores.

I'm still here

Just a note to say that I'm still around and plan to do more blogging in the future! Keep posted...

Afrin PureSea Hydrating Nasal Rinse

I was chosen to take part in a new BzzAgent campaign last week for Afrin PureSea hydrating nasal rinse. You may have heard this concept referred to as a netti pot before. Basically you use saline to clear out your sinuses and it's supposed to remove toxins and allergens that cause allergies and sinus issues. I've been allergic to mold for a long time and take a handful of allergy medications to keep my allergies from driving me crazy. They don't always work. Therefore I was pretty psyched about trying this new product, but admittedly apprehensive at the same time. How would it work? How would it feel? Weird I should think. I'm excited about the opportunity to test something and let my friends know how it goes. Here's my first report.

Tried it for the first time about twenty minutes ago. I've used a saline spray before but never a rinse that is designed to go through your sinus cavity. Ick? The pictures show to lay your head to the side so the saline will go in one nostril and out the other. Tips suggest breathing through your mouth. This seems like a wise suggestion. I start out with deep breaths because I'm terrified of what will happen if I inhale through my nose. It starts out feeling just like the spray I use but then I feel a cold feeling under my eyes (where my sinuses would be). I'm waiting for it to work it's way to the other side and all I can feel is an uncomfortable trickle down the back of my throat. I didn't expect that. Maybe my head wasn't quite horizontal? Anyhow I tried the other side too and it was pretty similar. I'll try again later and see if it follows the directions better. Afterward I found I could breath a lot better and my ears popped a little (again, kind of weird). If this helps my allergies, I'm all for it. Will let you know more as time progresses. If you're interested in trying Afrin PureSea I have several coupons good for $3.00 off that I would be happy to give you. Just email me or reply to this blog and I'll make sure they get to you.

On a completely different note, if you are in need of warm weather hoodies, fleece blankets or sweat pants. Check out your local CVS. You can save 90% with your ExtraCare card. I was able to get a hoodie for $0.75 and a fleece blanket for the kitties for $0.25!! And the hoodie is really snuggly and roomy. Try to look for the hoodie UPC that ends in 816 (some aren't on sale). It's always a good idea to scan it before you bring it to the counter because some CVS's have different discounts.

Victoria's Secret Freebie!

I learned about a great freebie the other day. If you're a fan of Victoria's Secret (I am!), check out their new club: VS Pink Nation. If you sign up now they will send you two coupons: one for a free gift, and one for $10 off of a $35 purchase (amounts of coupon may vary). Rumor on the web was that the free gift was a tote bag. I figured it would be pretty cheap, but we're stocking up on reusable grocery bags and it would have come in handy. When we visited the store I made an effort to browse and find something to buy (with the coupon of course). They have these really great Pink body products that are 100% vegan and don't test on animals. I almost picked up some but then decided to stick to my meager budget. Lo and behold I get to the counter and my freebie is not a tote bag, but a really cute travel bag with a hodgepodge of the body products I was looking at. A great freebie, because it's worth $25! It comes with the Energizing Body Wash, Energizing Body Lotion, Lip Butter and Everything Refresher Spray. FYI, the lip butter is awesome and the scent is very energizing as they proclaim. I highly encourage anyone interested to take advantage of this deal; although your mileage may vary as to the free gift.

While I'm on the subject of vegan products, I wanted to recommend a few other products I've tried last week. Kashi just introduced two new frozen Vegan meals and they are mind blowingly good! I'm so impressed by Kashi's ability to include chunks of healthy veggies that actually taste fresh. The two new meals are Mayan Harvest Bake and Tuscan Veggie Bake. Tried both and they're very delish. Right now Kashi is offering a coupon for a free meal via snailmail (doesn't have to be Vegan). I haven't gotten mine yet, but I've heard from others who have. I seem to recall that Kashi's promotions tend to take a while. I'll try to be patient!

Yesterday Mike and I tried the peanut butter filled Newman-O's. I think Mike's in love. I think I'm starting to fall hard too. They're very rich but subtle too. Mike's pronouced them better than the regular Newman-O's and he's a huge Oreo fan. No free coupons for this one, but Deep Roots has them on sale right now.

Swagbucks is in!

Swagbucks has officially passed my test. I had thought it would take a really long time to accrue enough points to get anything of value, but as it turns out Swagbucks.com offers a lot of different options for your points. While you can hold on to your points for a long time for a gift card, occassionally they will have some pretty cool CDs, posters, etc that cost less points and are a pretty good value. The options are pretty random which kind of adds to the fun. I was able to find a promo CD by a comic Mike really likes and get it for him as a surprise. And the prize arrived just a few days ago. Ergo Swagbucks is officially a site worth belonging to in my opinion. I'm kind of psyched to build my points back up and snag something cool for myself. You can read an earlier post with more detail about the site. Click the banner at the bottom of this post to join or at the bottom of the blog. It's fun and painless!

Latest Harris Teeter trip!

Mike and I took a special trip to Harris Teeter last week and we got all this for only $0.22 and it's not even triples!

There was supposed to be a free 50 oz bottle of Harris Teeter brand laundry detergent as well but they were all out. Hopefully they'll have some in stock when we go again on Tuesday. Otherwise I'm going to look into getting my first raincheck! We did have a $2.50 harris teeter catalina coupon earned from previous purchases that helped pull the cost down, but the rest was just sales and Sunday coupons.

We had hoped to get a few more good deals today at other stores but the sleet has kept us inside.
I've been finding a lot of deals on on-line shopping. I got a Victoria's Secret Penn State hoodie sweatshirt (weird, I know) for about $25 including shipping. Plus got a free Victoria's Secret energizing body lotion in-store. I got gold cloth napkins for the holidays for free from Macys.com(including shipping) using a coupon and gift certificate earned from registry gifts from our wedding. I also finally earned enough swagbucks to order a used CD for Mike. Yay!

Birthday Tips

I recently celebrated a birthday and wanted to let everyone know about some really great birthday freebies that are out there. If you have a local Hollywood Video, make sure you've get a card before your birthday. They let you rent a free movie on your special day. Many restaurants offer birthday specials. Cold Stone Creamery will give you a free creation. Ruby Tuesdays, Macaroni Grill, and sometimes Olive Garden will give you a free dessert (usually cake) on your birthday. If you sign-up for Sonic's e-mails, you'll get a birthday e-coupon for a free slush drink or tater tots. Moe's will give you a free birthday burrito (I think you have to sign up for it first). I even got an offer for free shipping from Macys.com. There's enough deals out there that you can treat yourself many times without spending a dime!