#23:: Homemade Play-Dough Recipes!

Got kids at home and looking for a fun project to do? Homemade Play-Dough is the easiest and funnest project ever. Here’s just three recipes I found online. You can always Google to find all sorts of other neat recipes that use different ingredients.

Basic

Add fifty drops food coloring to two cups water.  Then add two cups flour, one cup salt, one teaspoon Cream of Tartar, and two tablespoons Wesson Corn Oil.  Mix well.  Cook and stir over medium heat for three minutes (or until the mixture holds together).  Turn onto a board or a cookie sheet and knead to the proper consistency.  Store in an airtight container.

Edible (CONTAINS PEANUTS)

one 18-oz. jar creamy peanut butter
6 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup non-fat dry milk

Easiest Gluten-Free Edible Play Dough Recipe

1 Cup White Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Cornstarch
1/2 Cup Salt
1 Tbsp Cream of Tartar
1-1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 Cup Water, hot but not boiling
Food Coloring, as desired

#20:: Fast Food Receipts Can Be Redeemed For Free Food

There are a handful of fast food places that will offer a survey on the back of your receipt. Upon completion, you will receive a code that you can redeem for a free item. Typically, it’s for a dessert or something from their value item. Now, I live in MN and I rarely eat fast food anymore, so there are lots of other places that probably offer this. Just make sure to ask for your receipt next time to visit a fast food place.

Here is a small list of who I know does offer this:

• Arby’s (value shake or turnover)
• Burger King (I think it’s a junior whopper or fries)
• Subway (free cookie)

Feel free to comment if you know of any others

Coupon Tip::Online Resources That Kick @$$

Since we both work full-time jobs, and part-time jobs on top of that most of the time, it is really hard for us to go to the store to scout these deals. Thankfully, there are multiple online resources that make this a breeze!

I shall start with my absolute favorite resource: Pocket Your Dollars.

This website is fantastic. Every week when the sale ads start over, she creates a new shopping list for major manufacturers to help you seek out the deals.

Let me give you an example from one of her Rainbow Foods shopping lists:

 Purell Hand Sanitizer (8 oz. or 12 oz. bonus size) $2.00
$1/1 Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer Bottle 8 oz.+ from 7/28 Smart Source #1 insert
$1/3 Purell products from 7/28 Smart Source insert
$1/2 Purell Hand Sanitizer printable
$1/3 Purell Product printable
$3/$10 Purell Hand Sanitizer Products printable
Final price: As low as free after doubled coupon

Fairly straight-forward. The first have tells you what the product is and the retail price. What follows is where to find the coupons. The first two on this example refer to the inserts you receive with the newspaper. The following hyperlinks are coupons that you can print from the Internet. The end price is generally the best value you can get, which in this case is the Smart Source #1 insert (if you shop at Rainbow Foods when they double coupons on either Wednesday or Saturday).

Another good one I use frequently: Coupon Divas

They have the most complete list of retailers, and the lists are pretty similar to the Pocket Your Dollars list. Let’s look at and example from their Dollar Tree list:

Colgate Max Fresh – $1.00

• Colgate Total,Optic White,Max Fresh,Sensitive 4oz ($1/1) – SS Insert 07/28 | 08/10
• Colgate Toothpaste ($.75/1) – Coupons.com 07/03 |  09/30

Final Price FREE

There are multiple websites out there that can serve as great resources! When you get the time, search for them online and see what you come up with!

Wedding On A Budget::Research Freelance Photographers

Oh, weddings! Such expensive life events. So far, I’ve been able to stay within a small budget. My biggest struggle to date: finding a wedding photographer in my price range.

I requested quote after quote to discover many of these photographers had a $3,000 minimum. Holy crap! Right now, I have my wedding dress, the venues booked, and some reception decorations and I haven’t even spent $1,500 on this wedding.

There had to be a friendlier alternative.

I searched ‘freelance photographers’ in my area on google, and came up with a whole mess of great names. Typically, freelance photographers are just doing it on their own. They don’t have a big flashy studio, and their equipment is pretty basic. Just by going with a ‘freelance’ photographer, I went from $3,000 down to $650 (not including engagement pictures).

Many brides have told me not to sacrifice cost on wedding photos. And I don’t think that I have. Through research, I have found that ‘freelance’ photographers do just as gorgeous work as a ‘wedding’ photographer.

Plus, I like to support the small businesses whenever I can 🙂

#9:: Love ‘Which Wich’ Subs? Get A Free Sandwich Coupon!!

***I DO NOT OWN WHICH WICH***

I LOOOOOVE Which Wich. And if you don’t know what they are, check out the link here: http://www.whichwich.com/locations/

They have an exclusive club: The Vibe Club. It’s completely free. You’ll have to put in some information, including your physical address and email address. After registering, you’ll receive an exclusive coupon for  1 free regular sandwich with the purchase of a drink and chips. I paid $2.70 for my lunch today with this coupon!

This coupon is non transferable, and technically you’re suppose to show your ID when you use it. I didn’t have to.  It’ll have your name on the bottom of it.

Swagbucks:: Earning a Little Extra ‘Cash’

***I DO NOT OWN SWAGBUCKS OR ANY OF THE MAJOR MANUFACTURERS MENTIONED IN THIS POST****

What is it?

Swagbucks is an all-purpose website where you can surf, watch videos, play games, take surveys, etc.

What makes it awesome?

Sign up for a free account and you can earn points! And you can redeem these points for all sorts of goodies!!!

What kind of goodies are we talking about?

I went through the rewards store. Here is just some of the items you can get with Swagbucks:

• Avent smoothie pacifiers
• Sippie cups
• Fisher Price toys
• Scrabble board game
• Pearl Earrings
• Pet Stairs
• 500x Power Microscope
• 14-Foot Trampoline
• Bottle of Dish Soap
• Lamaze Belly Rub
• Various Gift Cards (included Amazon and other major retailers)
• Xbox Live Points
• Various Charity Donations
• Secret Brand deodorant

Holy Cow!! What’s the catch?

No catch. Just give them your time, and you will start earning points.

So how do you earn points?

There are multiple ways to earn points, depending on your interests and how involved you want to be:

• The daily poll. Once a day, you can answer the daily poll and receive 1 Swagbuck point.
  
• Videos are a great way to rack up points. After watching around 3 different videos, you will receive 3 Swagbuck points. There’s a little ‘meter that you have to fill up to earn the points.
  
  This is a pretty easy way to earn points. When I’m working on the computer, I keep a window open and continuously play Swagbuck videos on mute. I can get around 9 extra Swagbucks a day doing this, depending on my computer usage that day.
• Games. They aren’t your mainstream angry critters, but they can be quite addictive. The amount of points you can earn varies. You can also enter tournaments to earn even more swagbuck points.
• Surveys. These are offered by Swagbucks from a 3rd party company/establishment/whatever. They never ask for super-personal information like a credit card or social security number. They can take anywhere from 5 – 45 minutes. They average around 50 Swagbucks each. The most I got from one survey was 125.
• Searching the web.  It works just like any other search engine, but every once in a while you earn extra Swagbucks. The amounts can vary greatly, but my average has been about 5 swagbuck codes every 10 searches or so.
• 
• Shopping online. I don’t do this, but you can earn extra Swagbuck points by shopping your favorite online stores. You just need to go through Swagbucks.com.
• Extra Swagcodes. These can be posted on the Swagbucks code, website, blog, twitter, etc. Just look for them!

Are there any cons to Swagbucks?
It does take a while to save up points to get the things you want. I’ve been doing it off and on for over a year, and I’ve earned $30 in gift cards towards a new computer. I’m going to jump back into it pretty heavily. And you do have to be careful with the ‘special offers’ portion. You can download certain programs, get insurance quotes, etc for some extra points but they can spam your email and your computer. Just use your better judgement and you’ll be fine.

#2::Make Your Own Lemonade For Free At Restaurants

I do this all the time.  It’s very simple:

1.) Ask for a water with lemon

2.) Squeeze the lemon into the water

3.) Add sugar

Presto!! If you want a little more flavor, you could probably ask for a side of lemons at no additional cost.