Great deals on Energy Star Light Bulbs!

What started as finding one coupon for my non-profit to use for Energy Star CFL light bulbs (we're trying our hardest to go green!) has spiraled into a great list of good deals. So let there be light... cheap, energy efficient light!

Until next Monday the 30th, there’s a $2 off coupon for any GE Energy Smart CFL product ONLY at Target. According to Fat Wallet, that makes them .39 a light bulb! Some Targets will only let you use one printed coupon at a time, so keep that in mind. I know I'll be at Target sometime this weekend with all the post-Thanksgiving deals, so I'll take advantage of this one!

Here's a $1.00 of 2 GE Energy Smart (or GE Reveal or GE Edison Halogen bulbs if you need other bulbs) that's a manufacturer coupon, so I think you can use it in combination with the Target store coupon. You can always try at least! I must admit I'm confused by Target coupon policies and have seen/heard/experienced totally conflicting things. Just remember to always be patient and kind!

Here's a $5 off coupon for a GE Energy Smart CFL 5 or 6 pack light bulbs. If you go to the link, you can print the coupon, then close the window and pull up the link again to print a second coupon. You can only print two coupons per computer & it expires on Jan 22nd.

Here’s a coupon for $1 off Sylvania CFL light bulbs. It expires Dec 22nd and it says any Energy Star CFL product.

Also, as an FYI, there are some coupons/rebates if you buy energy star headlights for your car. I didn’t even realize that was available, so if you find yourself needing headlights, it's definitely worth looking into!

I'm excited to be working on green initiatives at my office -please send some good thoughts for this grant request I'm writing! PLUS today is exciting since my husband & I will (hopefully!) be going to see Al Gore speak tonight. We'll see how it works out because we have reservations but we can only get there an hour early and it seems to be a "Please RSVP, but first come first served" situation. Have a happy #ecomonday!

Free Movies: Huge Fan

Have you discovered Redbox & Blockbuster Express? Y'know those boxes that rent movies in front of drug stores & grocery stores? They give a TON a free rentals so you should use them! Plus you can go online and see what movies they have at the locations by you, so you're not surprised. 

The codes are for a FREE one-night rental. You have to get it in the next day at 9PM. And if you're late, it's only $1 per night you're late. 

• Here's a free code good until 12/3 for Blockbuster Express: G29SA1. Just bring that code to a Publix (or other stores) near you that has a Blockbuster Express (search for locations here), type it in and rent a movie!
  
• Here's a free code at Redbox: DVDONME. Redbox has kiosks at Walgreens, Wal-mart, McDonald's, um almost everywhere. Here are some other codes to try that should work but your mileage may vary (YMMV): BREAKROOM, DVDATWAG (walgreens only).

Redbox also does a free movie rental the first Monday of every month and frankly there are new codes coming out all the time, so watch for them and I'll keep you posted!

OMG, it was a coupon box.

Yesterday I had the privilge of touring the Community Action Center (CAC), an awesome nonprofit serving those in need and actively working to prevent homelessness in Sandy Springs & Dunwoody. I walked through the food pantry, saw the volunteers sorting clothes, almost bought a purse in the thrift store (it was really cute and $3, but they weren't open for business) and then I SAW IT.

Sitting on a side table in the waiting room where people wait to meet one-on-one to tell of their needs and have CAC compassionately work to help them... THERE IT WAS.

It was a black plastic box marked COUPONS.

I love coupons. I have an adorable coupon box. And I love how saving $0.40 really does add up. But I don't NEED to save the $0.40. (Here's a previous post on that idea.) I am not a small step away from homelessness or already homeless like many of these people seeking assistance from CAC. If you read my We-Not-Me Wednesday posts, you know that I believe that fabulousness does not come from expensive clothes or having money, it comes from thinking of others, enjoying life and constantly doing the best you can with what you have. That's where the frugal part comes in. Just doing the best with what you have... um, and taking advantage of companies that want to give you free stuff and try to get you to buy their products! :)

I love that CAC has a coupon box, so I couldn't help myself and peeked inside. It had a few walgreens coupon pages, but not much. I thought immediately of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and realized that "using coupons" doesn't rank up there with food & shelter. These people have more important things to worry about and even though coupons save you money, you have to have money to use them. I hope & pray that sometime very soon, these people will have enough money to use and enjoy coupons like I do.

Check out http://www.ourcac.com/ for ways you can help the Community Action Center. And you hang in there and keep clipping coupons! The more you save, the more dollars you have to help others!

**In other news, I'm totally jazzed that I won two tickets to Primal Atlanta this weekend! Huge thanks to Georgia Organics (become a fan of them on facebook right now). Great food, free beer & wine and some amazing people who really care about their food & where it comes from. Can't wait!

Make this Season about Others: Notice Them!

Maybe it's the fact that I woke up feeling sick this morning and am drugged up on decongestants & already multiple cups of honey vanilla chamomile tea with lemon, but my "We-not-me" Wednesday is a little deep today.

We're embarking on the Holiday Season- seriously like 25 business days till Christmas- and there are opportunities ALL around us to make this season not about us but about others just by being aware.

Start saving coins now and notice the Salvation Army bell ringers as they start next Friday. You don't have to give money all the time (or any of the time really)- but you can ALWAYS smile & acknowledge them. As I'm running to the next store to get more Christmas things, they're braving the elements and worse, putting up with people avoiding their eyes and rushing by trying to ignore them.

Speaking of rushing around, be aware of when you are in a hurry. Why are you in a hurry? Are you just rushing through a self-imposed unrealistic to-do list? Slow down. Be aware of the customer service people. My fav question, um ever, is to ask "They keepin' you busy enough today?" Whatever their answer is, I follow up with something that includes, "Well, we appreciate you!" Now, I'm pretty sure my husband is over me asking this to literally EVERY checkout person we encounter, but I feel like I'm doing my small part to keep someone else sane- which is a community service!

If you're an agenda person, allot an extra 5 minutes to every activity this season, just to smile, chat with folks, notice a child's happiness as they pick out gifts for others, etc. It doesn't take money to be a fabulous person.

ShopText & Free Tea!

Do you have unlimited texts? Then this freebie service is for you. ShopText is using advertising in a new way- by having you respond to ads by texting them a code to get something free. It's really easy! If it's your first text to them, it'll take a few texts back and forth to get you signed up, but after that it just takes one. Here's a current deal that's cool- Text BETTY to 467467 for a FREE Betty Crocker Recipe & Coupon Booklet. 

Free Green Tea Sample from Lipton!  I am an herbal tea junkie, but I'm not huge on green tea. So, I'm excited to try it and give it a chance. I'm trying the naturally decaf honey lemon. Get your sample by clicking the Free Sample on the top right corner.

Love pets? Drink Wine!

Today's "We not me" Wednesday brings about helping others through drinking wine & shopping. LOVE IT!

There are two upcoming wine crawl events to benefit the Small Animal Rescue & Humane Society, which finds loving homes for homeless dogs in Atlanta. For just $5 in advance, you can visit 5 restaurants in Vinings on this Saturday the 14th from 1-5pm OR three on Wednesday the 18th in Midtown from 6-9pm. You'll be able to sample great wines and they'll have food specials along the way! Visit Atlantabartours.com for all the details!

I'm starting to adore how often Gap has great coupons! Save 30% at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Gap & Banana Outlet THIS WEEKEND, Nov 12-15. As if that's not awesome enough, 5% of what you spend goes to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! Woot woot! Here's the printable coupon link.

Postcards, Paper & Veterans Day!

Today, I decided to catch up on cool free samples, so I'm passing on my favs! I'm a huge free sample fan and truly, I do not get a ton of junk mail because of all the samples I get. I do get a lot more mail, but that's because they're sending me my samples and free coupons!

THIS IS REALLY COOL: Ok, through Hippopost, you can customize and send two FREE postcards a day. So, they'll take care of all the printing and mailing, and you have to do is fill out what you want and where you want it sent. Fun! And it really is a great way to get people familiar with their services, so it's a great company promotion! 

Free Memo Cube: Sandy Paper is promoting itself in my favorite way, by sending folks free stuff with their website on it! Get your free memo cube - I could always use more scratch paper! I end up writing directions to where I'm going on the end of a piece of mail (C'mon, you've done that too!)

Veteran's Day tomorrow: If you're a veteran or active duty, check out this site for a list of freebies and specials for Veteran's Day, tomorrow.

Thanks to my fav sample sites: MommySavesBig & Free Sample Freak!

Weekend Deals!

Ok there are some AWESOME deals going on this weekend!

IKEA: If you don't already eat at the IKEA cafe b/c it's a good deal and good food, you should this weeekend! Stop at IKEA in Midtown for their $1 Swedish Meatball plate at IKEA. It's 20 meatballs with mashed potatoes & cream sauce - a good about of food that's usually over $4. You don't need a coupon (deal is good Nov 7-10). Thanks to Cities on the Cheap!

GAP: Woohoo! 25% off entire purchase at GAP with printable coupon! It even includes sales items! (Good only Nov 6-8)

Macy's: It's Veteran's Day Weekend, so on top of 30-60% off sales, be sure to print out your additional 15% off at Macy's with this printable pass. If that link doesn't work for you, go here and look on the left side of the page about 2/3 of the way down. (Good only Nov 5-11)

Stein Mart: Stein Mart is just one of those store I expect to have nothing interesting and they always have great deals and cool stuff. Always. Here are great printable coupons for 20% off any single regular priced or sale item at Stein Mart AND 25% off Red Dot/Clearance! (Good through Nov 11)

I saw a bunch of these deals on Twitter, but thanks to Coupon Dad for the details!

**BONUS: Have you tried Nature Valley Nut Clusters yet? Get your free sample here! We love the Cashew kind and they've been like .30 with $1 off printable coupon at Coupons.com and if you load your Kroger Card, $1 off from Shortcuts.com & $1 off from Cellfire.com. Love it!

Games for Good: Encourage Others!

I have a TON of friends on Facebook who just love their games- mafia wars, farmville, all the quizzes, etc. The thing that makes those fun is that you encourage your friends to play with you. Well I discovered this cool site called SocialVibe that feels like you're playing games and encouraging your friends to play to via facebook, twitter, etc. but the whole time you're earning money for the cause of your choice!

Today, on "We-not-me" Wednesday, I'm featuring SocialVibe. SocialVibe calls it being "sponsored". Basically someone else (a big company) has committed to give money to a charity of your choice when you or a friend of yours does a set activity- something small linked to their brand awareness. The activities vary but so far I've posted my favorite Karaoke song (as part of a promo for an Xbox game) & wrote a note of encouragement (as part of a coffee-mate promo). I posted one activity to Twitter and one activity to Facebook to encourage folks to join me. So far, with about 6 minutes of effort that felt like a game, I've earned 460 points, which means that my small action has paid for 12 1/2 hours of support for sick kids through the charity I chose to support, Starlight Children's Foundation. It's fun!

I just posted the badge to the sidebar of my blog, so please click on it or it'll stay at 0 hours which makes me sad!

*If you don't know about Starlight Children's Foundation, they're a great organization that supports chronically ill kids through programs like providing video game & laptop carts during hospital stays to make the time go faster and organizing groups of kids & their families to go on fun outings to enjoy themselves and build a sense of community. It's good stuff.

Lookin' Fab for $55

I'm not an incredibly hip gal. Frankly, I'm generally so focused on the frugal that I lose a little of the fab. So this past week was an awesome step towards me being more equally balanced as frugal & looking fab! I spent a little over $55 and bought black boots, black heels, tights, non-brown everyday shoes AND a sweater dress! Here's the breakdown of my shopping week:

My fashion coach (AKA my awesome sister-in-law) had told me about this website, AMIClubwear.com. She thought I would like it because they have shoes on sale for quite cheap and send out coupon codes. Everyone is always trying to get me to buy new shoes because somehow I missed out on the female gene of enjoying shoe shopping. I only have a brown pair of boots, so I wanted to get a black pair. I bought these black suede knee high flat boots from AMI Clubwear because I thought they looked cool and they are not at all like my brown boots.

My cool new boots:

Sale Price: $12.99
Coupon code: Save 30%
Shipping/Fees: $11.88
Total: $20.97

**Enter code AMISHIPPED to get free shipping at AMI Clubwear if you spend over $50! Plus, it's worth a quick internet search to see if they have a current 30% off coupon code.


The middle part of my shopping trip is thanks to Oprah and her awesome 2-day 50% off coupon to Payless Shoes. So I went after work on Friday and I've never seen such happy women in the store. Everyone was chatting, handing shoes back and forth to eachother, all excited to be getting 50% off!. I found two pairs of shoes I liked: A brown pair of everyday loafer-like flats and a pair of black patent round toe heels. They have a stilletto heel, but it's not too high. I desperately need black heels (I literally don't have a basic pair of black heels, a truth that baffles my friend Jen) so that was an easy choice. Then I saw that if I bought my brown flats in dark purple, they were half price- so $24 for brown, but $12 for purple (both before my coupon). So I decided since it's still a dark fall color, I should abandon my standby of brown and step out to buy a color. My hubby asked this morning what color they were and I called them eggplant (he seemed impressed by that answer). I also bought a pair of black tights & paid the extra .50 for the ones partially made from bamboo. Now I'll be ready to wear my new boots in the cold. This isn't the best picture of the shoes, but my cat Paisley was being so cute that I had to include her.

My Payless Trip:
Black heels, sale price: $14.99
Dark purple loafer shoes, sale price: $12.00
Zoe & Zac Black tights: $7.99
Oprah Coupon: 50%
Total with tax: $18.22

**Payless has their BOGO half off sale going on now, so there are still good deals to be had!

Ok, so now I have a cool pair of boots, but I have like one appropriate dress to wear with them, so I was in desperate need of a sweater dress. I checked out Target and ended up finding a dress at Ross. Ok, so I love this dress, but it's so out of character for me- it's bright green, very form-fitting & pretty short. And it's a dress. I'm hoping I'll actually convince myself to wear it. I'm working on being a girl who wears dresses and I'm getting there.

Something to Wear with my New Boots:
Sweater Dress at Ross: $14.99
Total w/tax: $16.04

Shopping total: $55.23 So if I had actually set a limit of $50 in advance of my shopping spree, then I would not have made budget. But since I was just buying things that I thought were a good deal (which is generally not the recommend method), I was impressed that I got a pair of boots, 2 pairs of shoes, a pair of tights & a dress for $55. Acutally, I'm just impressed that I managed to buy 3 pairs of shoes- that's a lot for me!

Beauty & Beer!

It's MapYeti Monday! Last week I mentioned that I mostly used mapyeti.com for restaurant deals, so I decided that I'd comb through some of the other sections to see what great deals I could find for y'all!

Ok so now that we're past Halloween, it really feels like we're in the homestretch to Christmas. I LOVE getting people gifts from Sephora and fortunately, Sephora does good promotions where they give you something free (one for you, one for them!) and always free samples which are great to pad someone's gift. MapYeti linked me to Sephora's weekly deals page. The magnifi-scent deals are nice- if you're going to spend $70 on a designer fragrance, make sure you get something free! There's also a deal on Dior mascara that gets you two bonus small size mascaras- so you can decide if you like the Iconic better than DiorShow. Ok I'm speaking a language I do NOT know. I'm not a mascara gal, but if you are- let me know what you think!

Let's move to something I know better: BEER! Ok I've mentioned HopCity before and how awesome they are. They post their beer deals to MapYeti, so you can easily see what's going on at HopCity. This Wednesday is a FREE Thomas Creek Beer tasting at Octane Coffee Bar. Thomas Creek is brewed is from Upstate South Carolina, so you get to try some southern brew. The Thomas Creek website says 5 - 7PM, but Hop City says 5:30 -7:30, so I'd bet Hop City & Octane would get them to stay till 7:30. :)

With the weather getting colder and with holiday parties and family get-togethers on the horizon, here's a good introductory spray tan deal. Get an airbrush spray tan for $19.99 at Circuit Tan on 1529-A Piedmont Rd in Midtown. I have not tried spray tanning before, but it seems like it'd be an amusing venture and their website says you don't need an appointment which is fabulous for last-minute folks like me. You should go to their website and check out the header picture- the guy has electric blue eyes and it says come tan with me- sorta vampire like. It seems a little out of place, but it makes me smile.

Enjoy!