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Archives for 2012

LaMar’s Donuts: National Doughnut Day – June 1, 2012

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Photograph Credit: LaMar's Donuts

More free doughnuts on National Donut Day. LaMar’s Donuts welcomes guests to choose a free gourmet donut with a hole with no purchase required.

If you are near a participating LaMar’s Donuts’ location, then stop in on June 1, 2012 between 5:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to choose your sweet treat.

The following history of National Donut Day is from LaMar’s Donuts’ web site:

THE HISTORY OF NATIONAL DONUT DAY

National Donut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June. In 1917, Salvation Army female volunteers known as “lassies” prepared thousands of donuts to the homesick soldiers that served in France during World War I.

The doughnuts were made by filling a pail with oil and using left over dough flour and other ingredients on hand and a wine bottle as a rolling pin. Doughnuts were fried – seven at a time – in steel helmets on an 18-inch stove. The 100 doughnuts made that first day were an immediate success.

Soon, hundreds of soldiers stood in muck outside the tent, waiting for the sweet taste of doughnuts. Before long, The Salvation Army was cooking thousands of doughnuts around the clock. National Donut Day was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression.

As you continue using time wisely and investing in the lives of those around you, enjoy a little sweetness together to begin your weekend! Happy Doughnut Day!

Krispy Kreme: National Doughnut Day – June 1, 2012

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Photograph Credit: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Time to celebrate

It’s National Doughnut Day!

To kick off the party, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is giving away one doughnut of any variety to each of its customers on June 1.

Whether you enjoy a hot and ready glazed or a crème filled or a cake doughnut, you can choose any variety for free at participating Krispy Kreme Doughnut locations throughout the United States.

Brace yourselves. The sweetness of these doughnuts makes it difficult to eat only one. 🙂 Happy Doughnut Day! Enjoy!

Question: What is your favorite Krispy Kreme Doughnut variety?

2012 Summer Reading: Barnes & Noble

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Summer has arrived, so let the summer reading begin.

Encouraging students to read and learn during the summer months, Barnes & Noble offers a free book for completing their summer reading requirements.

With a goal of earning a new book, my son worked at reading his 8 books last year. By the time he concluded his books, the choices at our local store were low.

Though he did not receive his first or second choice, he enjoyed choosing the book alone.

If you participate, I recommend redeeming your reading log immediately upon completion for the best selection. 🙂

Photograph Credit: Barnes & Noble

To earn your free book, simply follow these three easy steps:

Step 1: Read any eight books this summer and record them in this Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Imagination’s Destination Journal. Be sure to include to whom you would recommend each book and why.

Step 2: Bring your completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 22 and September 4, 2012.

Step 3: Choose your FREE reading adventure from the book list featured on the back of the journal.

Participation is for students in 1st through 6th grades. To participate, visit the Barnes & Noble web site, download and print the journal, and read. Happy summer reading!

Register Review: May 29, 2012 Edition

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Time to check one or more receipts for savings strategies and combinations to feed our families while spending less and saving more.

For earlier editions of the Register Review, please click on these links for more examples:

In this edition, I will share my three shopping trips for the week.

In keeping our grocery budget to $80 per week, this week’s shopping trips totaled $75.44, but I will need to get another gallon of milk later in the week.

Publix

2 – Oscar Mayer Beef Franks

$5.19 each, on sale buy one, get one free

Paid – $2.60 and $2.59

2 – Domino Premium Pure Cane Sugar, 5 lb.

$3.19, on sale $2.99

Used Publix coupon for $1 off 2

Paid – $2.49 and $2.49

2 – Publix Soft Drinks, 2-liter – Root Beer and Cream Soda

$1.49, on sale 2 for $1

Paid – $.50 and $.50

8 – Kraft American Singles, 12 oz.

$3.29, on sale 2 for $4

Paid – $2, $2, $2, $2, $2, $2, $2, and $2

4 – Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner, 22 or 24 oz.

$3.49, on sale 2 for $5

Used 2 manufacturer coupons for $2 off 2

Paid – $1.50, $1.50, $1.50, and $1.50

Subtotal: $33.17

Tax: $.60

Total: $33.77

In using 3 coupons and purchasing buy one, get one free items and sale items, I purchased $61.01 worth of groceries for $33.77 which is a savings of 45.6%. My goal is 50% savings, but Kraft Singles for $2 per package is a stock up price for me. This shopping trip restocked my cheese and cleaning supplies while staying within our food budget.

Bi-Lo

2 – Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage, 14 oz.

$4.59, on sale 2 for $5

Used 2 manufacturer’s coupons for $.55 off which doubled to $1.10 off each

Paid – $1.40 and $1.40

2 – Mayfield Ice Cream, 48 oz. – butter pecan and double chocolate chip

$5.99, on sale buy one, get one free for $2.99

Used 2 manufacturer’s coupons for $1 off

Paid – $1.99 and $1.99

Ball Park Hot Dog Buns, 8 ct.

$2.49, on sale buy one, get one free for $1.24

Used manufacturer’s coupon for $.55 off which doubled to $1.10 off

Paid – $.24

2 – Ground chuck value pack, $2.49 lb.

$13.74 for 3.41 lb. and $13.33 for 3.26 lb., on sale

Paid – $8.59 and $8.12

4 – Nabisco Teddy Grahams, 8-10 oz.

$3.19, on sale $2.50

Used 2 manufacturer’s coupons for $1 off 2

Used Bi-Lo e-coupon for $.51 off 1

Paid – $1.87, $1.87, $1.87, and $1.88

Southern Home Chewy Granola Bars, 10 ct.

$2.19, on sale for $2

Used Bi-Lo e-coupon for $.51 off 1

Paid – $1.49

2 – Bumble Bee Chunk Light Tuna, 5 oz.

$1.05, on sale for $.89

Used Bi-Lo e-coupon for $.30 off 1

Paid – $.74 and $.74

Southern Home Decaffeinated Tea Bags, 48 ct.

$5.39, on sale for $4.99

Paid – $4.99

Total: $39.18

Tax: $0

Bag Credit: $.15

Total: $39.03

By combining manufacturer coupons, e-coupons, buy one, get one free deals, and sales, I purchased $73.36 in merchandise for $39.03 which is a 46.7% savings. Still not up to 50%, but I have hamburger, tea bags, and snacks to last at least a week. 🙂

Rite Aid

3 dozen eggs

$1.49, on sale for $.88 each

Paid: $.88, $.88, and $.88

Total: $2.64 – no tax

My total for the week came to $75.44: Publix – $33.77, Bi-Lo – $39.03, and Rite Aid – $2.64. I still have a little wiggle room for another gallon of milk. Though I do not use cash when I shop, I keep a running total from my grocery list and calculating as I go to stay within our $80 per week budget.

This system works for me. Hoping that by sharing these examples, you can see that savings are possible with and without coupons. In using time wisely, I aim to save 50% or more on each shopping trip.

Though I could have purchase items with deeper discounts, I chose to purchase items that fit my family’s needs. Just knowing that I stayed within our budget and did not pay full price is reward enough for me. Happy savings!

Question: What deep discount did you find this week? 

How to Organize Your Daily Deal Vouchers

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Photograph Credit: Couptivate

As a subscriber to multiple daily deal sites, I love the deals available. When I purchase one, the voucher gets deposited into that daily deal site’s account. When I want to use that voucher, I access my account, print, and redeem.

If I only had one account, then I would just access that daily deal site. However, I purchase deals from multiple daily deal sites: Groupon, LivingSocial, and Plum District.

The Problem

With multiple deal sites, I must keep track of when deals expire and which accounts holds which purchase. When stretching your dollars and using daily deals sites for great deals, you may spend more time staying organized than you want.

For example, I planned an outing to a bounce house place for which I had a voucher. I went to Groupon, logged in, viewed my vouchers, and found that the bounce house deal was not purchased through Groupon. So, I logged out, signed into LivingSocial, viewed my vouchers, found the right one, printed, and then logged out.

This process involved lots of steps and wasted time to find the voucher I needed. I knew there had to be a better way to using time wisely.

A Solution

In looking for a solution without creating a spreadsheet to keep up, I read about Couptivate, a site that captures all your daily deal vouchers and holds them in one account. After taking the tour on their site, reading about their encrypted security, and verifying free registration, I signed up.

Upon creating a new account using my name, e-mail, and password, I landed on the My Accounts page listing all the available daily deal sites.

As of the writing of this post, Couptivate includes the following 13 daily deal sites:

Photograph Credit: Couptivate

  • Groupon
  • LivingSocial
  • Bloomspot
  • Lifebooker
  • HomeRun
  • KGB Deals
  • EverSave
  • Tippr
  • Plum District
  • Travel Zoo
  • Yelp
  • Gilt City
  • BuyWithMe

I selected Groupon and entered my Groupon user name and password. Couptivate accessed my Groupon account and added my vouchers. I then selected LivingSocial and entered my LivingSocial user name and password. After a moment of verification, Couptivate added those vouchers.

Now I can log in to my Couptivate account to view and print all my daily deal vouchers in one place. As I purchase more deals, I only need to log in to my Couptivate account, and Couptivate captures new vouchers before loading the MY DEALS page.

TIP: If you do not see a newly purchased voucher, you can select IMPORT MORE DEALS to refresh the page.

Benefits to this Solution

Couptivate allows you to sort your vouchers by expiration date, deal site, or category. In your account settings, you can choose one or both e-mail notifications:

1. A monthly voucher summary and/or

2. Expiration date reminder of your choice of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 20 days before the deadline.

SIDE NOTE: If you use multiple e-mail addresses (i.e., personal, junk, business, etc.) and have more than one account for Groupon or LivingSocial, then you will need a separate Couptivate account for each e-mail address.

For example, if you have a Groupon and a LivingSocial account with your personal e-mail address and another Groupon account and LivingSocial account with your junk e-mail address, and a Groupon account for your business, then you will need three Couptivate accounts: personal (1), junk (2), and business (3). At this time, Couptivate only allows access to one account per daily deal sites.

In using time wisely and stretching our dollars via daily deal sites, I keep my vouchers organized through the free service of Couptivate. Taking the fear out of forgetting to use a voucher, Couptivate offers e-mail notifications and holds all my vouchers for my e-mail address in one place. With many daily deal vouchers and accounts, Couptivate saves me time and energy while using time wisely.

Question: How do you organize your daily deal vouchers?