Online-Sweepstakes.com

This is a wonderful site for all you that like to win things. They list thousands of contest/sweepstakes on hundreds of different websites. It's free to use and they sort it by so many different categories. I usually just enter the ones that cancel the next day. I haven't won yet, but I read on their comments that there are winners. There also tools to download to make it easier to enter these contests. Maybe when I get a bigger computer, I'll use this.

Shopping Tip of the Week

Sorry I'm a little late on this week's tip, but here it is because I know you're all super excited and can't wait for it. Create a grocery budget and stick to it. If you only allocate a certain amount of money each month, you'll get creative in how to spend it. Shop all weekly ads and buy what's on sale or what's in season. Remember that sometimes specialty stores, like Asian or Hispanic stores can be cheaper on certain items. I found that you can get fresh tortillas or a bag a good rice cheaper at these types of stores.

Arby's Wednesday Freebie

Today's freebie of the week for Arby's is a free FruitTea with any sandwich purchase, which if you're in the Seattle area right now, you'll want that extra drink. It's topping over 100 degrees in some areas today!

Kayak.com

If you're looking to purchase a flight, or look for hotels or whatever, I totally recommend the site kayak.com. It's a wonderful site that does the searching for you! You can even tailer it to your needs including how many stops, departure and arrival times, etc. I used this on my last trip to Boston and it saved me a lot of money and time. I like it too because you can even search by airline so you can keep earning your airline miles.

Other good travel sites that I use are of course the regulars like Expedia.com, Priceline.com and Orbitz. I also use farecast.com when I'm shopping for a trip over a month or two. It keeps you updated on the most recent prices for your vacation.

Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com is a great way to save money eating out. It's also a cool way to try out new restaurants that might be a little spendy otherwise. You can choose from hundreds of restaurants within a certain mile radius from your home and pay only a fraction of what you normally pay. The normal price is usually$10 for a$25 gift certificate. They have other value amounts, but right now they have a deal that if you put in the special code "napkin," it's only $2 for a $25 gift certificate!!

I've bought two so far and only used one. I tried this small italian place by me and it was so easy. I let them know I had this gift certificate and I had to spend at least $35 to use it. But honestly, a $35 dollar dinner for $12, that's a steal! I have about 4 pages of restaurants around me so I have a lot more to try.

Kids Eat Free

With this recession comes many restaurants just trying to get anyone in the door, which is bad news for them, great news for us! There are tons of kids eat free offers and I've listed a few of them here along with the night of the week they correspond with. There are a few everyday offers like Taco del Mar's promotion that a kids meal for 12 and under is free after 5p.m. with a $4 or more adult purchase. I would love to list more so if you have any, send them my way.

Tuesday

• Denny’s – get up to two free kid’s meals (with the purchase of an adult entrée) from 4 to 10 p.m.


• Lone Star Steakhouse – up to two kids eat free off the kids’ menu with the purchase of an adult entrée. Offer is good all day.


• Chik-fil-A - free four-pack kid's meal complete with toy and a drink on Tuesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for every adult combo meal purchased.


• Ihop - Between 4pm and 8pm you'll receive one free Kids' Menu item for each adult entree purchased.

Wednesday

• Ihop - Between 4pm and 8pm you'll receive one free Kids' Menu item for each adult entree purchased.


• Rainforest Cafe- Not free, but nearly $1.99 meals for kids at dinnertime.

Energy Savings

I know it's the summertime and a lot of us, especially in the northwest do not use a lot of electricity but it's a great time to start thinking about it. Many insulation and winter type products are on sale or on clearance. Plus it's easier to install when it's nice outside, rather than wet and windy. A great site to use to calculate your home energy use is http://hes.lbl.gov/. It calculates the best ways for you to save energy in your home. It's so easy and user friendly. I'll be posting more news on ways to save energy in the future so keep your eyes open.

Shopping Tip of the Week

To save a lot of money, look through your shopping ads and plan your meals, rather than just going to the store. By planning your meals on what's on sale or in season, you can save a lot of money. A lot of times Safeway and Albertsons will have deals on value packs of meat and that is great! I have saved $30 on waiting until their sale to buy pork chops and chicken breasts. The bad part is when I get home I have to seperate it all, but I just keep telling myself, you saved money! It's worth it.

Komo 4 Rewards

For all those that are local, there's a great new program called Komo 4 Rewards. It's really great because you earn points for codes shown on channel 4 during news broadcasts, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and more! You can also purchase local items for points as well. I also get a weekly email that sends me a code worth some points, so even the out of towners get a chance to get involved, it might just take a bit longer.

I've been a member for about two weeks and so far I have 590 points. You can use the points to be in a drawing or to purchase gift certificates or items in their "store." It looks like you need about 5,000 points to get a good gift certificate, but if you watch a lot of news and shows on channel 4, you could really rack them up.

Credit Reports

One of the best freebies I can recommend that everyone use no matter who you are is getting a free annual credit report. I can not express enough how important it is to view your credit report at least once a year. Annualcreditreport.com is a website that was created when the government mandated free credit reports to everyone. It's so easy and it could save you a lot of hassle and not to mention money in the future! We all know everything, including home purchases, auto loans and even your insurance costs are tied to your credit score.

If you want more information on your credit, I recommend Credit.com. Easy to remember and great information!

Arby's Wednesday Freebie

Today is Freebie day at Arbys and if you purchase a soft drink today only, you'll get a Regular Roast Beef sandwich for free! Also, if you go to their website and sign up, you'll get more deals. Next Wednesday is free Roastburger with any drink purchase. I might have to do that one.

keepcash.com

During Thanksgiving time, I'm on a hunt for those Black Friday deals. Now I know it's a little early to be talking Christmas, but it's never too early to start shopping for it. A great website that I've come across is keepcash.com. Not only do they link you to the Black Friday listings, they update their site daily with deals from a bunch of stores, including Walmart, Target, Overstock.com and more. It's fabulous! Each day it updates with some of the best deals out there. It's really good for electronics and video games. I keep my eye on it everyday. The site also loads throughout the day as well and has a link for you to click if the deal is expired. So far, I've gotten a couple of video games and some gifts from this site.

Freecycle

Freecycle is a great new group providing free membership to people all over the world. It's a wonderful alternative to the craigslist.org free section. All you have to do is register for free on their website and you will get emails sent to your inbox daily from people in your area with free goods, wanted goods, etc. It's fabulous. I find that these people are more reliable and it's a great way to get free stuff or to get rid of your unused items. This also helps the nonprofits around your area as well.

Shopping Tip of the Week

Don't ever go to the store hungry. I'm sure you've already heard this one, but it's something I have to keep reminding myself. Retailers spend a lot of money stocking displays and shelves to get you to buy more than what you just went into the store for. They want you to purchase those "impulse" items. There are huge signs yelling "Sale!" "Clearance!" "Lowest Price of the Year!" and more. I know I'm seeing more and more each time I go in.



Research shows that 50% to 60% of shopping buys are those "impulse" items. So take a look at your next receipt and calculate the difference of what you meant to get, and you actually did get. It might surprise you.

Inbox Dollars

About a year ago, I found a website, Inbox Dollars, that pays you for clicking on emails, taking surveys and playing games. I have a link to it below. I can't believe how easy it is! I signed up for the games through Inbox Dollars too and I earn money having fun and can even win great money prizes on the game portion. So far I have $60. It's not much and it takes a while to earn but hey, it's free money!

Every day you'll get a few emails to click on and you earn money from those emails, just a couple of cents, but then there's offers that help you earn more $$$ if you sign up for items. The great thing is that if you have a friend that signs up, you earn a percentage of their money too! So invite all your friends and get some free cash!!

Safeway

Safeway just introduced what they are calling coupon link! This is something I've been hoping would happen for some time now and I'm very excited. You can select digital coupons and have them placed on your Safeway club card. The discounts are taken when you scan your club card at checkout. No more clipping, just saving.

The downside is that you'll have to remember what you uploaded, but they do allow you to print these coupons and bring them in as well. After loading some coupons, the partner site shortcuts.com lets you see what you just selected so you could also print that sheet and bring it in with you.

Just go to safeway.com and walk through the steps. When I selected the link, it brought me to partner sites that have other stores listed as well, including Krogers, Frys and more. I'm sure Albertsons will step on board soon as well.

McDonalds, Arbys and more

Well the positive spin on the recession is that fast food restaurants like McDonalds and Arbys are offering a lot of freebies. Besides the buy something, get something free freebie every Wednesday at Arby's, McDonalds is joining the mix by offering free Mochas every Monday! Sounds like a good way to start the week if you ask me. Every Monday, from 7 Am to & Pm, McDonalds is offering anyone that comes in an Iced or Hot Mocha and you don't even have to purchase anything. It's a way to kick off their McCafe brand.

If you don't like Mochas, there are some other retailers/restaurants offering some freebies as well.

• 7 11 is offering a free slurpees on 7/11, shouldn't be hard to forget.


• Tacoma Del Mar is offering a free kids meal with an adult food purchase of $4 or more after 5 p.m. in July.


• Ben & Jerry's is also having a freebie, buy one sundae, get one free on mondays, but you need to go to their website and get a coupon through August 31st.

http://benjerry.com/scoop-shops/feature/sundaes-on-mondays/

Another way to get some good discounts and freebies is go to your favorite fast food restaurants and join their clubs or sign up for their emails. I just got one from Arbys for a free BBQ Bacon Chedder burger with the purchase of a beverage. Helps out on those weekday lunches.

Coupons

I love coupons. Anyone that knows me really knows that. I'm a Sunday paper subscriber just for this very reason. At my best times, I've saved over $100, and that was at Safeway. Lately, it seems like Safeway and Albertsons are competing with Walmart for business so you can really find some good deals. A good website to learn about coupons and the best deals is couponmom.com. That's where I really learned how to get the best deals. I don't go as far as they do by traveling to different stores, I just use what I have when I go shopping. It helps when Safeway sends those mailers of really good coupons.

I finally got my mom to start using a coupons and she'll give me the ones she doesn't want, which helps me when I really use a product. If you can get a group of friends to do this, you might be able to get more of what you like cheaper.

Times are a little tough right now to stock up on household items like deodorant, shampoo, etc. but you can really save a lot when you see coupons and sales on your favorite items. Couponmom.com really shows you how to do this.

I bought a little organizer for my coupons at Walmart and just keep them in generic categories like beverages, paper products, etc. Some people organize them by aisle, but that's too much for me. haha.

You can get coupons from more than just the paper, there are many sites that offer coupons including manufacturer sites that have online coupons. You need to be careful because some retailers do not honor those coupons. I've had luck with Walmart though.

Swagbucks.com

My first saving tip comes actually from an article I read on MSN not too long ago and I wanted to share it. This is my second day of joining this search engine and so far I am completely satisfied.

Swagbucks is a search engine site, just like yahoo.com or google.com, except for when you do searches, you can actually win swagbucks. Once you earn enough swagbucks, you can redeem them for prizes, like a Starbucks gift card. I personally am going for the Target gift cards. Even though this is an online only gift certificate, it will really help come Christmas time. Especially for sending gifts to those loved ones far away.

Like I said earlier, it's my second day and just using it normally like I would use the MSN search function, I've earned 7 swagbucks! It's great. I hope you enjoy as well. I have posted a link below. Get your friends to join and you can earn even more swagbucks!

http://swagbucks.com/refer/babybearlove

My First Post

I am so excited to be starting this blog. I've thought long and hard on whether or not to do this, but I really enjoy sharing my finds and tips on how to save money. I'm hoping this becomes a useful site to everyone and that maybe you'll share it with friends.

I started this mainly to help others like me who might not be the 100% die hard saver, but just someone who likes to save a few bucks here and there. Maybe earn some gift cards for birthdays or for Christmas shopping.

I have a small family, just me and my husband and my two cats but a very large extended family, so holidays are rough sometimes when it comes to gifts, food and entertaining in general.

I would love to hear any comments or ideas you might have for new products, ways to save, and just critiques of blog. This is my first attempt at a public blog like this, so I hope you enjoy.