By now you have probably signed up at SwagBucks and are beginning to earn swag bucks on your searches.

Here is just a quick tip to maximize your prizes.

You’ve probably noticed that there are Search and Win with Everyone sub-sites (Beyonce, Chris Brown, Kiss, etc. etc.). If your looking to earn a celebrity specific prize this won’t apply to you but if your saving for gift cards or any of the big prizes this is important.

Every swag buck you earn is pooled together to make your swag buck total.. However, swag bucks you earn from the sub-sites can not be used at the main prize store (SwagBucks.com).

So let’s say you search and win several swag bucks at the Beyonce site, the Kiss site and the Colts site. These can all be used for prizes at any of those or any of the other Swag Stores BUT NOT the main store at SwagBucks.com.

Why does this matter? Because the prizes at the main store require way less swag bucks then the prizes at the others. For instance, to “buy” a $5 Amazon gift certificate at the main store, it costs 45 Swag Bucks but to “buy” that very same $5 Amazon gift certificate at the Colts Search and Win store it costs 60 Swag Bucks.

My advice? Unless you want a celebrity specific prize ONLY search at the main SwagBucks.com search and win site and ignore the rest.

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New to search and win sites? Check out the others:

Winzy - Tons of point wins for sweepstakes entries, $5 Amazon is a somewhat common prize but there are bigger prizes also.
Blingo - Great prizes, no points. My second favorite search and win site.
Lucky Search - Win points to trade for prizes. This one is good if you win but I haven’t won in a looooong time.
PCH - New search and win, same company as Blingo.

After my doctor said I was a big fat cow, I’ve been on a mission to lose some extra pounds. Ok, maybe she didn’t say those words exactly, but that’s what I heard.

I’m a firm believer that the best diet is a diet consisting of only things that grow. No processed foods, no meat, etc. However, at this point I’m just not up for the challenge so I’ve decided on the basic calorie counting.

A 1,200 calorie diet consisting of loosely three 300 calorie meals and three 100 calorie snacks.

The big craze on the market right now is 100 calorie snacks. You can buy just about everything in a 100 calorie prepackaged bag. These convenience items are overpriced and completely unnecessary.

I still buy everything I would normally buy at the store but instead of eating the snacks straight from the box, I divide the package up into small 100 calorie bags.

The nutrition information on the package will tell you everything you need to know. You can quickly use a measuring cup to measure out the right amount. A lot of crackers and chips will say something like “serving size is about 15 chips”, so you can easily count out the chips for your bag. The hardest part is not popping a few in your mouth while your counting.

I do this quickly and am not crazy about it, if I get 16 chips in the bag and 15 chips is the serving size it’s no big deal.

I use Ziploc snack bags. Any baggie would work but the snack bags are nice. If I’m running late for work these are great to grab and go.

If you want to be super frugal and/or earth friendly, after your snack is gone fill it up again with the same or similar item.

Of course, the best snack is a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts but when you just gotta have something else, this is a nice alternative.

Do you buy the 100 calorie snack products? Do you use any tricks to limit your food portions?

I received this email a few days ago and thought it was worth posting on the blog.

“Do you think you could break down what you do when you go shopping. I am having a tough time following. For example.. If I go to Ralphs… how do I know what coupons I should print out? Should I make a list of things I need and then go look for coupons online.. then head to the store? Is that a good plan? What do you do?”

This is how I prepare for my shopping trips :

1. Look through the grocery ad and write down everything (product & price) that I definitely want to buy, might want to buy, or think I might be able to get for super cheap/free with a coupon.

2. I take my list to the computer and just go down the list one by one. I first look to see if I already have a coupon for the product. If I don’t or think there might be a better one online I go to the product website (e.g. BettyCrocker.com, DietCoke.com, etc.) and quickly scan for a coupon link. Looking for a “promotions” or “special offers” tab is always a good place to start.

Of course I’m always checking and keeping in mind the coupons currently offered at Coupons.com, Smartsource.com, etc.

If a coupon is offered that I want, I print it and move on to the next item on my list.

3. As I go down the list, I’m scratching items off my list that I won’t be buying and gathering coupons I will be using in a pile. When I’m done with the list, I write the “official” grocery list for that visit. Put it with the coupons I will be using and I’m done!

4. Go shopping and save tons of money!

How do you prepare for your shopping trips?

The 127th Festival of Frugality was hosted by Funny About Money… Here are my favorite posts from the carnival in no particular order…

- 15 Tips For A Frugal, Relaxing, Earth Friendly Vacation, Car Free from Money and Values
- How To Create An Effective Spending Plan from Financial Zip.
- Save Money By Taking The Train or Bus from Free Money Finance.
- Why Living In An Urban Area Doesn’t Have To Be Expensive from Living The Cheap Life
- Why Recession Is Good For Us from Northern Cheapskate.
- Not Deprived from Remodeling This Life
- I Don’t Wanna Work from Just Shoot Me Now
- George Bush Offers to Give You $2 Million, But… from Budget’s Are Sexy

See all the great articles from the festival here.

This was my submission to the carnival. However, thanks to Rob’s comment on the post, I’ve totally redone my coupons. I now have all my coupons filed on the computer and I must say finding coupons for my shopping trips has never been easier. Thanks Rob!

Before I start, please overlook my spelling errors that I’ve so proudly photographed and shown the world. Spell check is seriously my friend.

As my coupon “collection” grew my coupon filing system of individual envelopes that I carried everywhere had to change. Also, that paying $1 for cereal changed! I would never pay anything for cereal now! It’s all free!

A few months ago I finally found a system that really worked for me. I had two baskets that I bought on Christmas clearance at CVS which were the perfect width for letter size envelopes.

I bought a couple boxes of envelopes (or you could be really frugal and use envelopes you get in the mail), and I already had a package of recipe cards (I must have bought them thinking I was going to become a fabulous chef).

I cut off the flaps of the envelopes and wrote my categories on one end of the recipe cards, which were then placed inside each envelope. Now I have separate envelopes for each type of coupon and with the category cards (alphabetized of course) it’s super easy to find what I’m looking for while making my grocery lists.

You’ll notice in the back of the photo a Rubbermaid box. This is my “to do” box which is always full because I’m always behind. I absolutely hate cutting coupons.

Some people file their coupon flyers by date and then only clip when they are going to buy something. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work for me.

Although, I’m always expanding or changing up my coupon categories, this is how I have them categorized right now:

Air Fresheners Plug-In/Table Top… Air Fresheners Spray… Antacids.. Aspirin… Baking… Body Wash… Boxed… Bread… Bread Pillsbury… Bread Frozen… Butter… Cake & Frosting… Candles… Candy… Cereal & Oatmeal… Cheese, Chips & Popcorn… Cleaning… Cold Medicine… Coffee & Tea… Condiments… Cookies… Crackers… Dairy… Deodorant… Dish Soap… Drinks… Eating Out… Eggs… Eye Care… Frozen Meals… Frozen Meat… Frozen Snacks… Fruit… Granola/Energy/Nutrition Bars… Hair Products… Hand Soap… Juice… Laundry Products… Lotion… Make-Up… Meat… Medical… Milk… Misc. Food… Misc. Non-Food… Mouthwash… Nuts… Paper Products… Pasta/Pasta Sauce… Peanut Butter & Jelly… Pudding… Rebates… Rice… Salad & Salad Dressing… Seasonings… Shampoo & Conditioner… Shaving Products… Skincare… Soda… Soup… Sugar… Tampons… Toothbrush/Floss… Toothpaste… Veggies Can/Fresh… Veggies Frozen… Vitamins… Water/Water Mix… Yogurt.

Some of the categories may seem to overlap like Dairy, Eggs, Milk, Butter. The Dairy category is for any leftovers that don’t fit in the others, like sour cream. I have a Paper Products category that also holds things like Ziploc bag coupons and such. It’s not perfect, but I know where I keep things so it works.

I would love to be able to take all of my coupons with me to the store. However, I am to cheap to buy a car or pay for gas so I take public transportation and carrying a big bulky folder full of coupons just doesn’t make sense.

Instead I have a small coupon pouch that carries all of the coupons I plan to use during the week at various stores. It also holds a small pen so I can jot down anything I might want to come back for, such as unadvertised sales or clearance items I have coupons for at home.

So that’s me, how about you? How do you organize your coupons?

Beginning May 2nd, Kroger stores are offering customers the opportunity to exchange their tax refund or economic stimulus checks for a Kroger gift card with an extra $30.00, $60.00 or $120.00 added to it for free.

For example:

$300 could be exchanged for a $330 gift card.
$600 could be exchanged for $660 in gift cards.
$1,200 could be exchanged for $1,320 in gift cards.

Click here to read the press release.

We won’t be receiving a tax refund but we should get the $1,200 stimulus check. This is very tempting, $120 in free money that we would spend eventually at the store anyway seems like a pretty good deal to me considering we have no plans for the check.

I will have to figure how long it would take us to spend $1320 at the grocery store and then compare it to how much interest we would earn if $1,200 was just sitting in a bank account to decide. Either way I like having this choice. I think this is a super smart move on Krogers part.

What are your thoughts on this offer?
Do you think you would trade your check for grocery gift cards?

Huge thanks to Going Like Sixty for sending me this article!

Check out this article on the death of coupons as we know them.

What do you think?
Would you like to see the end of the paper coupon?

In my opinion, for serious coupon users this is probably one of the worst things that could happen in relation to our grocery budget. Normal grocery shoppers will probably really be able to benefit from it.

Thanks to 1GR8Mommy for linking this article first.

This is just a reminder for people without a printer (or with a printer that only works when it feels like it, like mine) that still want to take an advantage of printable coupons online.

When the coupons are printing via bricks (for instance this Honey Bunches of Oats coupon) go to the bottom right hand corner and push on “Help”. A lot of times (not always) an address form will pop up and you can request the coupon be mailed to you. I do this a lot if I don’t need the coupon right away to save ink. The coupons usually arrive within a matter of days.

Also, if you really want a coupon but you don’t have any way to print it look for the companies contact information. Email or even call and ask if you can have one mailed. They don’t always do this but it’s always worth a shot. The worst thing? You will be on their mailing list for future coupons.

Although I love Target, I hardly ever go. For me Target equals spending money that doesn’t need to be spent.

Every visit goes the same way… office supplies, dvd’s, clothes, and home accessories jump inside my cart and the end result is always the cashier asking for all of my money.

However, if you have self control (which I do not), this article posted at Wise Bread includes some really great tips on when and how to shop at Target.

I just finished reading this post from We Need To Be Debt Free and started thinking about being frugal and what that means to me.

Frugal Vs. Not Frugal - Where You Draw The Line

Food/Toiletries : It will come to no surprise to anyone that reads this blog that I’m all about saving money in these departments. I am coupon and free crap obsessed. Winner : Frugal

Cable : I guess we are frugal in the sense we don’t have movie channels or a DVR. We do have digital cable and although I hardly ever watch tv it is a package deal with the internet/phone. My husband would have a stroke if he turned on the television and there was no NFL Network and I would follow shortly after if my high speed internet was gone. Winner : Kinda Not Frugal

Water/Heat : In the post he stated his family has upped their shower time from 4 minutes to 6 minutes. Maybe I have more body to cover but I can’t imagine being in and out of the shower in 6 minutes. Shampoo, condition, wash, brush teeth, shave in six minutes. I love a hot shower and sometimes I even just stand there and enjoy the water no matter how un-green that is of me. We are super frugal on electric this time of year as we don’t have a heater. I’m taking a frugal point on that one! Winner : Semi-Frugal

Cell Phones : I need to be able to track my husbands location at all times, this is a must I kid, I kid. I know there was a time before cell phones but it’s hard to remember and in reality, it probably kind of blew. Cell phones are nice and dare I saw a necessity. Winner : Not Frugal

Clothes : I am a definitely a frugal clothes shopper. I see no reason to pay high prices for clothing and shoes when there are so many places to find nice even name brand items if that’s your thing for cheap. Ross is one example. The clothes are priced well and by shopping the clearance racks I’ve found countless items for $3 and under and I don’t even look like a total dork. Winner : Frugal

Other : Washing and reusing Ziploc bags, saving little ketchup packets from fast food restaurants and things like this are all respectable and some might even say smart things to do, but I don’t.

I have tried to wash Ziploc bags and hang them over the faucet just like my mother did and probably still does but I swear that thing never dries completely. I get frustrated when I need to use the sink and just throw it away.

My mother also used to have an entire basket full of ketchup and mustard packets in the fridge when I was growing up. For the life of me I can’t remember one time we used them, hell they might even still be in her fridge! We always just grabbed the full size condiments, it’s easier and for me anyway that stuff would just get lost in the black hole that is my fridge.

I found the remnants of a zucchini not long ago and just between you and me, I think I bought that zucchini about five months ago. I’m telling you, once something goes in that “crisper” it’s as good as gone.

I do reuse those pesky plastic bags for small trash can liners and lunch bags but have obviously only scratched the surface, check out these ideas.

On a side note, I once read an article about a lady that was so cheap frugal, she would buy toilet paper and when she got home would separate the layers in each roll and re-roll each one into two rolls of 1-ply paper. Now I’ve got a lot of free time but wowzer, that’s a little crazy. If any of you do this, I’m completely impressed with your frugality but really, your lovely tush deserves both layers.

Overall, I’ve found that I could be much more frugal then I am but for now I’m satisfied with my frugal level. I do my best to stretch that dollar but not so much that it affects my desired quality of living.

Of course, everyone’s desired quality of living is different. For me a six minute shower would be torture but for others a four minute shower is all they need. I’m quite happy in $5 jeans, others like a perfect $60 fit.

Everyone has their own comfort levels, things they will and will not budge on. Where do you draw the line? What frugal ways of living do you embrace? Which do you push away?