Saving Freak

Hope your weekend has been grand and that your mailbox has been stuffed with free samples.

Free Sample of Clean and Clear Morning Burst Sheets

Signup for Moe’s neighborhood and get a free entree on your birthday.

Free sample of Lindi Skin Care

Coupon for free tube of Bayer Advantage Multi for dogs

Coupon for a free Auntie Anne’s Pretzel

Free Sample Dunkin Donuts Coffee

Join the Baskin Robins Birthday Club and get a coupon for a free scoop five days before your birthday

Free Sample Smashbox O Gloss from Allure — Text SMASHBOX to ALLURE(255873), with your name and address, to receive a free sample of Smashbox O-Gloss -after you send it you’ll get a text that says “If you are a winner, you will receive your O-GLOSS product within 4-5 weeks” but it’s supposed to be a sample, and not a contest for one.

Free Sample of Holistic Blend Pet Food — select consumer then select samples you want on next page

and get a Free Sample of Fruitista Freeze at Participating Taco Bells between July 8-15

Just a quick look at the blog posts that I thought were interesting over the last week.

Joe Sangl did a great series on Negotiating a Pay Raise

Simple Dollar did an interesting analysis with teh Economics of Children’s Birthday Parties

My Money Blog posted about a free Schick Quatro Razr

Punny Money had a hilarious post on How I Lost 20 Pounds in Two Months on the Krispy Kreme Donut Diet

Frugal Duchess had an interesting post on selling stuff to raise extra cash

Great post on Eating Healthy on a Budget by beingfrugal.net

That’s the best from this week.  Hope your frugal exploits are expanded by all these great authors.

Weekly Freebie: Get a free thomas the tank engine toy at Toys R Us with this printable coupon offer ends tomorrow

Meritline has 40% off all Wii accessories using coupon code “wii40poff”

Linens ‘n Things has 33% off four different quilt sets with free shipping, plus get and extra 20% off using coupon code “26620000008″

Get up to 55% off at the Gap.com Summer Sale and if you use the coupon code “SILVER” you get free shipping.

70% off select children’s fashions at Pleasemum.com

Pottery Barn has up to 50% off in its summer sale

You can get 30 Tech deals under $100 at Staples

Finally, Target has up to 75% off in its clearance section plus an additional 10% off using code “GOIH5SPN”

I realize my posts have been sporadic as of late and I ask that you bear with me as I fix this hacker problem. I did not want to deprive you of free samples for too long though so here we go.

Free samples when you sign up for remedy life magazine

Coupon for free New York Pizzeria Dip’n Sticks.  Have to complete survey to get coupon.

Free pack of Stride Gum

Free sample Motions Marula Hair Strengthening Moisturizer

Free sample of Pledge Multisurface Wipes and Coupons

Free sample of Papua New Guinea Green Bean Coffee

Register for contest and get voucher for free natural choice pet food

Free sample Zrii nutritional drink

Free sample of tea from Vitabase

and another coffee sample from Carmen Estates

I have been having some problems with the site for the last couple of days.  I think it is all back to normal now but the time consumption made it hard for me to get my regular posts out.  I hope this will be the last of my hacker problems but who knows.  Here are some great tips from readers.

Use White Out for Tiny Painting Jobs

Need to do a small touch up job on something white but don’t have
the white paint or don’t want to open that big can?  For a small,
very small touch up job needing white, use White Out.  It works
great. I picked up a white stand at a garage sale with a couple
of nicks and I covered them with White Out and it looks like new
–By DEBRADJ from ILLINOIS

Cleaning with Odor-free Oven Cleaner

Odor-free Oven Cleaner is especially great for cleaning dirty can
openers and tops of kitchen waste cans. Spray the cutting blade
of the can opener, let set overnight, and in the morning, rinse
with hot water and a light scrubbing with an old toothbrush.
Spray the top of the waste container and let set for an hour or
two. The grime will ‘brown’ then rinse clean in the bath tub.
–By Cajun from Collinsville, IL

Affordable Dental Work

Is there a university medical center near you?  I have had my
entire mouth repaired (and I needed a lot!) at the Dental School
of the university at a fraction of what it costs in the
mainstream.  I went there because I wasn’t satisfied with my
dental care in the mainstream market.  I can’t say enough good
things about the care given at the school.  Dental students are
nearing their degree in dentistry and are very carefully
supervised by a teaching dentist with advanced degrees.  Truly,
the best decision I ever made in the medical arena. And yes, in
my experience they take credit cards, checks, and cash.  Nobody
hounds you to pay on the day of service. Make those calls!
–By Lois from Pennsylvania and Western NY

This one isn’t so thrifty but I would have eaten more eggs as a kid if my mom did this.

Write “Magic” Messages On Eggs

Mix a solution of white vinegar and alum (8:1 ratio). Alum can be
found in the spice section.  Using a small craft paintbrush,
write your message(s) on the shells of eggs. Boil eggs to hard.
The writing will appear on the whites of the eggs when they are
shelled.
–By Laura from Long Beach, CA

Get a free tool from Home Depot when you purchase any of the Ryobi One+ combo kits using this mail in rebate

Up to 75% off of Pampered Chef Outlet Specials

Neiman Marcus knock 75% off its Egyptian cotton sheet sets and get free shipping using coupon code “SHOPNM”

Get an original recipe sandwich for free at KFC when you purchase a large drink using this coupon.  Offer good till July 13

Allbattery.com has a 24 pack of AA rechargeables and a 12pack of AA rechargeables for $33.99.  Use coupon code “dealnews” to drop it to $29.91.

Office Depot has 20% off with no minimum using code “47490845″

Get 50% off one item using code “EFS171” at Joann fabric and craft store

Shopping boards are one of the most established ways to find deals online.  They are very easy to find just go to Blingo (we don’t use Google on this website find out why here) and type in shopping boards.  A bunch of different forums will pop up.  My favorite is Mycoupons.com.  This is one of the most active shopping boards around.  It was my first foray into using the internet to get better deals on items that I wanted to purchase.

You will find that most of the people who post to these boards are women and that they are VERY thrifty.  In fact many times when they are posting if the deal is less than 50% off the post sounds more like an apology than information.  I myself will post from time to time when I find a great deal.  A few example of items that I have gotten at amazing prices due to these boards are:

Eddie Bauer Mountain Bike — reg price $200 - purchase price $50
Extra LCD screen for DVD player — reg price $100 - purchase price $25
32 piece dish set — reg price 52.00 — purchase price $13.00

These are just a few of the deals that can be found on the shopping boards. The disadvantage to this method of online shopping is that it is very time consuming and highly unpredictable. For most people it only makes sense if you are looking for general deals or are expecting clearance items to start coming through for specific stores. A great example right now is that many Target locations have marked their summer lines down 50% off. In a couple of weeks these prices should drop to 75% off (This happens at Target so check my post on Target clearance). The best way to know when this happens is to watch the LWIF B&M boards and hope no one else beats you to the deals.

There are tons of investing tools out on the internet.  Calculators, guides, and tutorials are just a few of the options available to us.  Ultimately whatit all boils down to is knowledge.  In the information age knowledge is power and many of us are showing up to the fight with a pea shooter instead of a bazooka.  To get started on the path to understanding investments I have found very few places that compare with Investing101 by the LA Times.  This 10 part guide to investments is really a great start for any new comer to investing.  It covers everything from diversification to defining different types of investments.  This is a must read for anyone just entering the job market or who wants to actually understand what has been going on in their 401k for all those years.  Even for experienced investors this is a great refresher.

I was coming back from vacation yesterday and finally got a chance to get this post out today.  Since we all love free stuff here is the roundup

Free sample of Zicam XCID antacid

Coupon for a free order of Chips from Buffalo Wild Wings

Free Sample of Puperoni Dog Snacks

Free Sample of Enfamil Next Step for toddlers

Free sample of SinuClense nasal therapy

Coupon for $7 off Crest Whitestrips whitening and tartar protection

Get a free Mom’s kit from Johnson and Johnson by calling 1-866-565-2229 and press 1 - its automated

Free Sample of Quick Wrap Bags

Free sample of Airborne Seasonal

With the high cost of crude oil based fuels people need to start looking at vehicles that use alternative fules.  This three part series will cover alternatives that are available now.  Not possibilities for the future.

The last of the alternative vehicles that are currently avaiable is the Natural Gas vehicle.  This type of alternative fuel has been around for decades.  Many fleets of government vehicles run on Natural Gas.  This means that if you look for them they are available. There are two types of Natural Gas vehicles; Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquid Petroleum Gast (LPG).  Which one is best for you really depends on what fueling stations are in your area.  The best website I have found to get an idea of stations in your area is the Alternative Fuel Station Locator.

If there are no fueling stations that are convenient for you and natural gas is available at your home you can purchase a home fueling station from Phill.  This will cost you about $2k but if you drive long distances each day the savings are substantial.   How substantial?  Well, Natural Gas vehicles run at about the same mileage as gasoline but only costs around $1.50 per gallon equivalent.  

Other factors to consider with Natural Gas is that it burns so cleanly that you do not have to change the oil as much and the engines last longer.  A well maintained CNG engine should last for about 500k miles.  This means by the time your CNG vehicle dies on you we should have some other alternatives to talk about. 

For me CNG seems to be a great option.  The idea of fueling up at home is very appealing.  I hope this series has been fun and informative and that you will consider purchasing a vehicle that saves you money and allows for a little more supply in the regular gasoline market.  Making prices go down for everyone.