CouponChief.com Review

Part of staying at home right now means tightening the belt where finances are concerned. Between my husband and I there are 3 sets of parents, 4 siblings and 8 nieces and nephews. Then there is the two of us and our daughter and everyone has birthdays on top of the gift giving holidays throughout the year.

Whenever I possibly can, I try to find the best deals to stretch our gift giving dollars. One way is to take advantage of coupon codes and websites that provide lists of them to all my favorite stores. I was recently asked to review CouponChief.com and went for a look at what I could find for all the moms for Mother’s Day.

Coupon Chief  has the largest source of online coupons and store discounts for apparel, electronics, travel, entertainment and more!

Features:

• Find coupons for 1000’s of retailers.
• Search for coupons and browse by product category.
• All coupons are valid and rated by community.
• Rate coupons and leave comments.
• Set coupon alerts and view your browsing history.
• Share coupons with friends and relatives via email.
• Submit coupons and earn some cash.
• CouponChief demo video.

I love photo gifts, especially for the grandmas, and found codes for Shutterfly, Snapfish and Tiny Prints. Sites like Wine.com would be perfect for my mother-in-law, Bath & Body Works for my Mom and Kohl’s for my stepmom. I like that this is also a great way to discover sites that you may have missed like Coffee of Hawaii.

I’m already looking ahead to my next anniversary. I always get my husband a “traditional” wedding anniversary gift, like a cast iron skillet for our sixth anniversary. Could a wool scarf be in his future for next year? I doubt we’ll live in Florida forever. These from Scarves.com could be as low as $12.75 with a current coupon code.

They also reward you for submitting coupon codes with their Pays-2-Share Program. Every time someone uses a coupon you’ve uploaded, Coupon Chief will give you 2% of the sales via check or PayPal! This is something I am definitely going to try to start doing.

They also have Coupons-4-Causes where you can help support your favorite cause every time you shop. Just use their coupons for your online shopping, and they’ll donate up to 20% of the purchase to your favorite charity, school, or church.

Coupon Chief is worth a look next time you’re shopping online and could be a great fundraising or extra income opportunity.

 

**This review was sponsored by CouponChief.com but the thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Valentine’s Day 2012

Even though I knew it was coming, Valentine’s Day still kind of snuck up on me. Mostly because I didn’t really think I was going to do anything for it but in the last coupe of days before it, I decided why not celebrate a little?

I decided I wanted to try to take some Valentine’s-ee pictures of Kelsey. I had a hand-me-down dress that fit Kelsey but wasn’t overly hearts and pink. Someone was giving away baskets on freecycle so I spray painted one white. I was tidying up some stuff in my craft area and came across a couple bunches of red carnations left over from a project a couple of years ago. I saw a little heart garland in the background of someone’s picture that I thought was cute.

Let the Valentine’s decor begin!

I picked up a couple of sheets of felt from Walmart, cut into fourths, then cut out hearts. I then cut slits into the hearts to run the ribbon through, which I already had. I stuck a few nails in the fence out back to hang them from. I put the flowers in the basket, put Kelsey in the middle of it and started snapping away. I have found that keeping her in one spot works best if I give her things to play with.

After the shoot, I hung the hearts around the living room and the flowers turned into a door decoration. I picked up a half ball of floral foam, tied ribbon around it to hang it from and just stuck the blooms into the foam. Viola!

For my husband, I took advantage of a free personalized card from Tiny Prints and I decided to make something yummy. Most importantly, I finally found a use a heart pie baker we got for our wedding almost 6 years ago!

I followed the directions to make this No Crust Strawberry Pie I found through The Frugal Girls. However, instead of whipped topping, we heated up and drizzle some dark chocolate topping over our servings. Who doesn’t love chocolate and strawberries?

I gave Kelsey a couple of treats in the morning. I picked up a box of Sweethearts on sale and got a heart lollipop from a wedding I went to last week. She promptly turned the candy into a shaker and proceeded to swat the dog with the lollipop.

Since my husband stil had his regular, into the middle of the night work hours, we got the idea to go to IHOP for breakfast.

In the afternoon, it was girls time at the mall. I picked up my free, travel-size, Signature Collection item from Bath & Bodyworks from their facebook promotion and then picked up an Icedream from Chik-fil-A, soft serve with pink sprinkles! Kelsey had a few nibbles, the child won’t drink milk or eat cheese or yogurt but she likes ice cream.

We both worked off our treat on the playground – Kelsey by climbing up everything and me by having to carry her down off of everything. She’s still not too sure about getting off items but she’s starting to gain an appreciation for slides. Here she is giving the dolphin a kiss!

Earlier in the day, my husband gave me a card and a box of Zombie Bonbons – chocolate with cherry brains – and picked up a copy of Breaking Dawn from Redbox, free one night rental through their facebook promotion. I had a MacDill Enlisted Spouses Club meeting but once we got home and I got Kelsey to bed, I was able to finally watch it. Yes, I’m a little bit of a Twilight dork.

All in all, it was a pretty good (and relatively cheap) Valentine’s Day! I hope you had a good one, too.

Here’s a few more pictures, I can’t help myself.

What Can You Do with a Can of Tomato Soup?

While picking up some photos (most were free with a promo code!), I fell for a little “splurge” sale item today at Walgreens. Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup (10.75 oz) for $.59 each with in ad coupon (there is supposed to be a coupon in SS 9/11/11 and 10/2/11 but sadly my coupons are not organized at this point in time and I couldn’t find it). Here’s the thing though, I hate Tomato Soup and they were out of the Chicken Noodle. Only paying $.59 for each can, I figured if nothing else I would have something to give next time there was a food drive.

After thinking about it, I decided to check out www.supercook.com to see if there was anything I could make using the soup. I didn’t know there were so many options!

I’m thinking Grandma’s Easy Shells for the next MacDill Enlisted Spouses Club meeting.

This American Pork Rice Dish would be an easy one-dish meal and uses things we usually have on hand.

I’ve got everything in the kitchen already for Mom’s Easy French Dressing - I love French dressing but for some reason haven’t had it in forever.

Hmm… that’s already using all three cans. I think I’m going to have to go back for more!

Easy Tomato and Eggplant Soup (hit the farmers market for the eggplant) would be good with some homemade croutons. This Very Quick and Easy Tuna Casserole is another potential potluck item, I would add some Italian spice mix and, hey, canned tuna is on sale at Walgreens this week, too! Finally, Shipwreck Stew for the crockpot; it’s a little heavy on the onion for our tastes but great with the cooler weather starting to come in.

That is already four more cans. Yep, I see another run to Walgreens this week. Maybe I can find that darn coupon.

Week of Treats in Review

We had an unusually social week this week. I’m happy that we got to get out and socialize and it gave me an excuse to make a few things.

It started on Saturday with the dinner at Sabrina’s and Red Velvet Cake Cookie Sandwiches. On Sunday we went to a friend’s 1st birthday party. I made her a little collection of hair clips in red since their family are big Oklahoma fans. I hope they like them.

Strawberry Cake Cookie Sandwiches

On Tuesday I had a MacDill AFB Enlisted Spouses Club planning meeting to go to. The next two recipes basically stemmed from not wanting things to go to waste. I had half of the can of cream cheese frosting left over from the last batch of cake cookies so I made another batch with strawberry cake mix I found for about $1 on Price Cut at Target. They were a hit again and went fast!

My mother was in town last weekend and left some black olives and mushrooms leftover from a veggie pizza we made. Well, neither my husband nor I really eat either them but, again, I didn’t want them to go to waste. I used www.supercook.com to see if I could find something to do with them and found this Mushroom Olive Salad recipe. I substituted the olives and didn’t use the measurements in the recipe, just tossed in the ingredients until it looked right. Fortunately, our hosts’ husband likes both black olives and mushroom and he apparently liked this recipe so much he had to be reminded that he did not have to eat the whole bowl in one sitting. I think this would be good for a party or potluck dish or maybe added to some pasta and chicken to make it a meal.

Finally, we met a bunch of military spouses and children at a local splashground on Wednesday. I had seen several granola bar recipes around the internet and finally found one that used quick oats (we’ve been on an oatmeal kick and have been buying it from Sam’s Club so we had plenty on hand!). We had some of the ingredients in the cupboards, I used my $.55/1 Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk coupon (it was also on sale at Publix) and took advantage of the Tuesday military discount at Walgreens for a few more ingredients. Here is what was in my version of these Easy Granola Bars.

Easy Granola Bars

• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 cup tropical dried fruit mix
• 1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup flax seed meal

I took them with me to the splashground but forgot to tell people that I had them until the snacks had already come out but my husband and I split one and thought they were pretty good. Chewy, sweet, and filling. However, I don’t know if this is something I would use too often if I had to purchase all the ingredients. If you have enough odds and ends around or know you’ll be making a lot of them it’s worth it for a customized version of the sometimes too sugary store granola bars.

We had some family portraits taken this morning and finally took Kelsey to the pool for the first time this afternoon. Hoping to make Watermelon Frosties this weekend but other than that, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s activities … nothing!

Photo by Frontdorr Photos

Linking to www.thefrugalgirls.com!

Couponing for a Cause – Summer Project

So I have started couponing. Not in an Extreme Couponing kind of way, but just trying to shave a few bucks off the shopping bill each week. I also love free stuff. Of course I’m always on the look out for stuff for my little girl but I decided to give myself a little project for the summer.

I have decided to collect items to donate to Treats for Troops care packages (by the way, they really need financial contributions right now). If I can get it free, or for a few cents, I’ll pick it up and add it to the bag. I’ve also been taking advantage of freebies and product promotions online to hopefully add to the collection.

The coupons I don’t use or when they expire I’ll be sending them to military families stationed overseas. Out there they are accepted up to six months past the expiration date. Looking at one envelope to be sent out a month.

So far:

• Reach floss – free
• Carefree panty liners (2) – $.50 each
• Ivory soap, 3pk – free
• Black Flag Fly Paper – free
• Degree Deodorant for Men (4) - $.44-$.50 for each
• Right Guard Men’s Deodorant for Men (2) - free
• Preparation H Totables Wipes – free (actually made $2 off this one)
• Gillette Fusion Proglide – free, internet giveaway
• ZONE Perfect Sweet & Salty bar – free, internet giveaway
• Degree for Women deodorant - sample
• Suave for Women deodorant - free
• Sampler pack of Nescafe Taster’s Choice Instant Coffee – free, internet giveaway
• Bic Ballpoint Pens 10pk (2) – free
• Paper Mate 10pk (2) – 1 free, 1 $.27
• Aquafresh Extreme Clean travel size – $.27
• Crest Pro Health Toothpaste and Mouthwash travel size – free, internet giveaway
• Hello cards, pack of 5 – free
• Soyjoy Bar – free, internet giveaway

8/8/11: Well, the summer is coming to an end and MacDill ESC will be having it’s first meeting back for the fall tomorrow night. I ended up with three gallon baggies of items, primarily free through coupons and sales or giveaway items. Each bag has cash and a thank you note to service members included in it for Treats for Troops to use. I can’t wait to see how much MacDill ESC collected as a group, I hope it is a good amount. I’ll be taking all the items to Treats for Troops soon and hopefully I’ll be able to make some blanks cards for service members to use to write home before I deliver everything.