Free Starbucks K-Cup packs

Every once in awhile, Target places an amazing free offer on their website. This time, you can grab free Starbucks K-Cups packs. I have family members that are totally addicted to Starbucks, so I'll be sharing this freebie with them after I finish writing this post. Next to Wawa, which is located only on the East Coast, Starbucks is my favorite.

If you have a Keurig brewing machine, then you are eligible to request the Starbucks K-Cups free samples. If you don't have one, the website won't send you any samples. Of course, if you still want to try them, you can always share the freebie offer with a friend. Your friend can request the samples and invite you over for a cup of coffee when they come in.
To get the Starbucks K-Cups, you'll have to visit Target's Free Samples Page. Click on the picture of the K-Cups to bring up the survey. You'll have to answer eight questions. These questions are mainly about your previous experience with K-Cups, and only take a few seconds to answer.

Next, you'll have to fill out full name, mailing address, e-mail address and then check the box that states you are at least 13 years of age or older. Click “Next.” The last page is the confirmation page. All you have to do is answer the security question. My question was “What is 2 + five?” The final step is to click “Submit Order.”

The Starbucks K-Cups samples will take up to 8 to 10 weeks to arrive in the mail.

Earn free stuff with Disney's Movie Rewards

Disney has a rewards program to honor all of their dedicated customers. With this program, it is possible to earn free stuff such as DVDs, posters, sing-a-longs, gift cards, clothing, storybooks, toys and even flowers.

Here's how the program works:

1. You register for the program. This is entirely free. Just enter your birth date, zip code, first and last name, e-mail address, select a password, choose whether you are male or female and check the box that states you understand the terms and conditions (you can click on the link to view these first).

2. Purchase Disney DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs and movie tickets. These items contain special codes that you can enter into your Disney Movie Rewards account. Each code has a certain amount of points assigned to it. These points will continue to climb as you enter the special codes.

3. Enter the code “M1D179FJ391K” and then code “M1D17NF74NDA” to receive an additional 50 points free. Make sure you do it in the order listed above or it won't work.

4. Watch for special codes that come in the Disney newsletter. Enter any codes you see into your account.

5. Take any of the surveys offered to you. If you qualify, you'll be awarded even more codes that you can redeem for rewards.

6. Request your rewards. Once you have earned enough points for the items you want in the rewards catalog, you can go ahead and request them.

Warning: Points do expire if you fail to log in to the Disney Rewards website for a total of 210 days in a row. Make sure you log in once per month so that this doesn't happen.

Free bananas

Dole has started up a new season of their Dole Monday Funday Sweepstakes. This sweepstakes is for six months worth of free bananas. We eat a lot of bananas in our house, so you better believe that I will be entering this giveaway!

Dole Monday Funday is available from June 18, 2012 until September 17, 2012. Each Monday during the sweepstakes time frame, you can enter to win the free bananas. A total of five winners will be chosen each week.

To enter the Monday Funday giveaway, head to Dole's Facebook page. You'll need to click the “Like” button before you can continue on. From there you will be able to enter your e-mail address, name and mailing address. You'll also need to answer a question. This question is different from week to week. Sometimes it will involve a multiple choice question, and other times it will simply require a true or false answer.
You can enter the Monday Funday banana giveaway once each week, and as the name implies, only on Monday. If you win, you'll get a packet of 26 coupons (for 26 weeks) for $2.00 worth of bananas. Bananas sometimes go on sale for $.49 a pound. In that case we could get four pounds. Otherwise, the bananas are $.69 per pound so we'd only be able to get around three pounds. You are responsible to pay anything that goes over the $2.00 mark.

Some things you can do with the bananas if you win include making banana bread, frozen banana treats, banana boat sundaes, banana smoothies, chocolate covered bananas and banana pudding.

Every little bit helps

These small savings tips can add up.

Sometimes people don’t have time to clip coupons or scour the web for deals, but they still want to save money. How can you do this with minimal effort? There are lots of things you can do that will save you small amounts of money over time—and every little bit helps! Here are just a few easy tips.

Use reusable bags. Many stores, like Aldi’s and Target, reward you for not using their bags (at Aldi’s, you have to buy them anyway) and knock off some of your bill just for bringing reusable bags.

Get a debit card from the store you use most often (if they offer one). We have a Target debit card because my husband works there, so on top of his employee discount we get a five percent discount for using the card. Any person can apply for this card and use it to get a discount each time they shop; you don’t have to put money on it since it debits directly from your bank account.

Use your library’s inter-library loan system instead of buying books. You can get a few at a time and though you’ll have to wait, you won’t have to spend a penny.

Keep a change container somewhere. In your car is helpful; we keep one in our console and one near our front door. The console money is used for my husband’s lunches, and sometimes car washes; the door money is used in either emergencies or for the ice cream truck. This is a great way to pay for small expenses without really budgeting for them, if you ever use cash.

Reuse your water bottles. If every person did this, we would save hundreds of dollars each while not wasting so much plastic! And if you really want purified water, a home system can save you tons of money; you can get a faucet system for about $35 and a water pitcher for your fridge for less than $20. All you’ll have to do is buy a filter every so often, depending upon your use.

Use scoop-able cat litter. It’s not as cheap as the clay clumping kind, but you can scoop it easily and not have to change it nearly as often—think weekly instead of twice, or less if you only have one cat!—and it will save you at least one bag of litter each month.

Reuse everything you can. Using partial lemons for a recipe? Use them for scenting your home and cleaning as well, and skip the expensive air freshener. Instead of pitching anything in the mail, reuse any envelopes you can (replies to companies who solicit sales that you’re going to recycle anyway are great for this) and put the paper in a pile to use for scrap writing. This is really handy for everything from budgeting and doing math problems to writing grocery lists.

Consumer Reports recommends Shop Smart Magazine

I am always on the hunt for good deals. It helps if you find one source that will provide a long list of excellent savings and Shop Smart Magazine does that. I found this magazine while browsing through Consumer Report's website. I'm so glad I did.

Shop Smart Magazine has many benefits. What I like the best is that the website is ad free. You don't have to worry about having to sign up for things in order to get a freebie or a great deal. You have three options when it comes to Shop Smart Magazine. First, you can order a subscription of the magazine delivered directly to your door through the website. Second, you can pick up the magazine at a variety of news stands. Finally, you can stick with viewing articles that are available on the website for free.
Shop Smart Magazine informs its readers not only on how to get free samples, but also how to shop for new items without spending a fortune. There are articles on decorating with style, cooking gourmet meals and purchasing flowers - all at the cheapest price possible.

Shopping smart isn't just about saving money either. The website covers product recalls, handling store clerks that don't have a good disposition, food pyramids and news on the latest electronics.

I was extremely impressed with Shop Smart Magazine's website. They were true to their word in that not one single ad popped up or appeared within an article. The site was easy to navigate. The only thing I wish it had was a search box. I would have liked to do a quick search of the articles that were in previous issues by topic. You can't do this currently, but hopefully they will add that feature in the future.

Freebie tips for newbies

I've been obtaining free stuff for over 10 years. I have learned a few key things along the way.

1. Create a separate e-mail address. Grab a free e-mail address from either Yahoo or Gmail to use exclusively for signing up for freebies. If you don't, you'll quickly see that your main e-mail account is swamped with e-mails that you really have no interest in reading. Then you'll have to spend all your time clicking the unsubscribe links in each e-mail.

2. Join some freebie forums. It takes too much time to try and hunt down all the new freebies that pop up. Joining a few reputable freebie forums is the best way to keep your eye out for great deals. Checking them once per day will only take about five or 10 minutes. This is where I find most of the freebies I sign up for.

3. Some freebies aren't worth it. Don't sign up for every freebie you come across. Some sites require you to give away a ton of your private information, sign up for other deals, or take surveys that really end up requiring you to purchase something. These are not worth it. To me, time is money. If it is going to take me more than one to two minutes to fill out a form to get the freebie, then I won't do it.

4. Check in with Walmart and Target. Both Walmart and Target have their own free sample section. I check these once per week in addition to the freebie forums because they always have name brand products that I can try totally for free.

5. Be patient. You are likely to forget about the free samples you requested before they actually show up at your house. Typically, it takes between six and eight weeks to get your free sample. If you are an organized individual, just keep a notebook handy with a list of all the freebies you requested and the dates that you requested them. You can check them off as they arrive.

Summer movies for kids for only one buck!


If you live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Florida, you are in luck. You can take your kids to the movies for $1. Frank Theaters has a summer movie program for kids. Two days a week, a children's movie will be playing in the theater and the cost for each ticket is a low $1.

Some of the movies on the summer list include Rio, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Happy Feet Two, Shrek Forever After, Puss in Boots, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, The Smurfs, Kung Fu Panda 2, Dolphin Tale, and The Adventures of Tin Tin. I'm excited about this program, as there are several movies that my kids have never seen. For one dollar I'll have no excuse not to take them.There is one thing I'm sure of. Frank Theaters is banking on the fact that large crowds will show up to watch these movies. Families and summer school groups are sure to have plenty of money for popcorn, soda and candy since the movie itself only costs $1. Since the shows are on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 am when the theater is usually empty, this makes for a great profit for the movie theater.

I highly recommend that any parents or teachers that take advantage of Frank Theaters' offer arrive at least a half an hour before showtime. The movie is first come, first serve and I have no doubt that seats will fill up fast. This is even more important for me because my youngest daughter is handicap and we need to grab the handicap seating. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that those without a disability grab those seats because they are spacious. They also don't move when they see someone come in with a genuine need.

Free Baskin-Robbins ice cream


Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945. The company serves ice cream, frozen drinks and frozen desserts. With more than 6,700 stores, you are sure to find one in your area. Best of all, you can even get some free Baskin-Robbins ice cream on your birthday!

In order to get your free ice cream, you'll have to head to Baskin-Robbins Birthday Club page. Here you can fill out your full name, gender, e-mail, zip code, date of birth and a password that you want to use to log in to the website in the future. You can add your cell phone number if you like and then click the “Next” button.
The following screen that pops up will ask you to pick your favorite ice cream flavor. There are over 33 flavors to choose from including strawberry cheesecake, chocolate fudge, rum raisin, black walnut, baseball nut and red raspberry sherbert. A second drop-down menu asks you to choose which Baskin-Robbins product is your favorite. Once you have made your choices, click the “Next” button.

A third screen will come up next. This screen allows you to add your family members to the Birthday Club. You can add your spouse, your kids, your parents and even your grandparents. I added both of my children and my grandmother, as she lives in my tenant house next to my main house. Click “Submit” and you'll come to a Thank You screen. From there you can find a shop near you if you aren't sure where one is.

Use QuiBids to score great deals


QuiBids is a penny auction site that has everything from high-end electronics to gift cards and gadgets. If you're savvy enough, you can win televisions and gaming systems for $20.

So how does QuiBids really work? This site can actually be confusing at first, but once the concept is explained and you try your hand at winning a prize, you won't have any trouble at all. To start out, you'll have to register with QuiBids and purchase your bids. Each bid equals $.60, and the website requires you to purchase 100 bids upfront. That is a total of $60 to get started.

Next, you will be able to bid on any item you want. When you use each bid, the price of the item you're bidding on goes up by a penny (which is why it is considered a penny auction). There is also a timer under each prize. The timer increases after you place a bid.
So how do you win a prize? When the timer on the clock runs out, the person who placed the last bid is declared the winner. The winner is responsible to pay the total ending price.

It is important to know your limits and what constitutes a good deal. Don't forget to calculate the cost of your bids into the final price that you will be spending on the item. Let's say it took you 20 bids to win a $25 gift card, and the gift card sold for $5.68. After adding the $12 you spent on bids to get the gift card, you come away spending a total of $17.68 for a gift card worth $25. That is a great deal. If both figures combined added up to more than $25, then you wouldn't have made a good deal.

Free jigsaw puzzles

Although we had a television growing up, it was still an era where kids played outside, read books, and worked on jigsaw puzzles or paint-by-number kits. Today, everything kids do seems to be online. They read books online, listen to music online and now they can even complete jigsaw puzzles online. Best of all, they can do this entirely for free.

JigZone.com is a website stocked with online jigsaw puzzles. No registration is required in order to use the site either, which is a huge plus in my book. You can click on the special puzzle of the day, or browse for puzzles through the categories listed on the left-hand side of the screen. Once you find a puzzle you like, click on it.
The puzzle will appear already broken up into puzzle pieces. You have to arrange these pieces to fit and form the original picture that you chose. What I like about this website is that you can choose which type puzzle pieces you want, and how many pieces you want the puzzle broken down into. My favorite is to pick the 51 piece crazy, but you can pick up to 247 pieces.

Another feature of this website is the timer. You can see the fastest time that the puzzle was completed, the average time it takes to complete that particular puzzle, and how long it took you to finish the puzzle. You can even rate each particular puzzle at the bottom of the page after you complete it.

I like to compete and this website also allows me to do that. You can share your puzzle times with your friends, who in turn can complete the same puzzles to see if they can beat your time.

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