Airfare: Southwest $39 one way

Southwest Airlines is celebrating their 39th anniversary by having $39 (one way) sale! You must book by 11:59pm PST on June 24 for travel between Sept 8- Nov 17, 2010. Deal does not apply if you travel on Friday or Sunday.
Click here for list of qualifying cities as well as terms & conditions.

Source: Consumerist

Free DiGiorno Deep Dish Pizza

DiGiorno is giving away a Deep Dish Pizza if you go to their Facebook page, click on the "Deep Dish" tab, and superimpose your pic (can even use your profile pic) into one of their photos.  They have you post it to your wall, then they'll send you a coupon for a free Deep Dish Pizza.  Limit one per family/household/email.  If you're not on Facebook, they will send you a $1 off coupon.

Coupon & Review: $2 off Off! Clip On

Right@Home has a $2 off coupon for Off! Clip On starter packs. The starters typically run about $8 each and comes with 1 cartridge which lasts approx 12 hours. (If the link doesn't allow you to get a coupon, you may have to join Right@Home.

I'll admit, I was skeptical about these at first, but after using them for almost a month now, I think they do a good job at warding off bugs. They are not designed for lots of motion though as they require you to be fairly still. They are great if you're watching a sporting event or gardening, just any activity that does not require you to move around too much, making the fan blowing the repellent around you ineffective. The clip doesn't clip on securely, it's more like it just hangs there. I usually hang it out of my shorts' pockets.

Mailbox Love

In the mailbox today were:

1. A coupon for $1 off any Philadelphia Cream Cheese
2. A payment check from Opinion Outpost
3. A thong from American Apparel, seafoam green, size 4...insert laughter...HERE. If I go missing for a while, chances are, I got drunk and was stupid enough to try on said thong, thus requiring surgical removal and lengthy hospital stay.
   

Stride Rite Outlets sale

Stride Rite Outlets is having a blowout sale! Click here to find a location near you.

Costumes sale!

BuyCostumes.com has an awesome sale going on right now...40% off clearance/blowout costumes! Click the link to go straight to the clearance items, and use code clear40 at checkout. Their shipping costs are reasonable too, just $4.99 for standard economy shipping. I bought my husband a costume and a couple for my kids for under $35 with shipping. I'm stoked!

Veggie Wash

Summer is upon us. In fact, today marks the official first day of summer. With summer comes tasty, delicious, healthy fresh fruits and veggies.  With produce comes the eternal question of organic vs regular vs who knows what else.  Suffice to say, organic produce comes at a premium, and sometimes it's hard to justify the cost when they can be twice as much as the non organic stuff.

You've probably heard of the "dirty dozen" by now, the produce that contains the most pesticide residue, but in case you haven't they are: 

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Domestic blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Sweet bell peppers
8. Spinach, kale and collard greens
9. Cherries
10. Potatoes
11. Imported grapes
12. Lettuce

But don't freak out too much yet. Pesticide isn't always a bad thing.

Last month, I learned of a veggie wash recipe from a guest post on Couponing to Disney that is not only economical but should help rinse off a bit of those pesticides.  My initial worry was that it would make my produce smell or taste vinegary but much to my glee, it didn't, even after soaking some blueberries in it for about an hour. (I'd forgotten about it. Ooops!)  Here's the recipe:


Produce wash:

1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
2 TBS baking soda
2 TBS lemon juice

Mix all ingredients and put in a clean spray bottle. Spray your produce well and let sit for at least 5 minutes before rinsing with clean water. Note: Make sure to first mix ingredients in deep container since there will be some fizzing from the baking soda & vinegar.

Spoonful of Sugar

I’m having a bad day. I’m just all around flat out grumpy from having a crappy night. At one point, I got mad, lashed out at Swag Bucks, and this is what I got:

(click to enlarge)

I will admit. It made me laugh and cheered me up, albeit temporarily. That TSG (The Swag Guy/Gal) sure does have a sense of humor.

Oh yeah, and in case you didn’t know. I do on occasion…sometimes frequently, use profanities. That’s just how I roll. ;)

One last chance

I've been using Blogger for my blogging needs for years...well before Google acquired them. Most of it was for personal and private reasons, and I never had any problems, but now that I have a public blog that I enjoy sharing with the world, Blogger just doesn't seem to cut it for me. So many features they promise to work, especially considering it's Google's own products just aren't working right and haven't been for weeks. Needless to say, it's frustrating me.  The latest came when I tried to respond to a reader (Steph) who commented on my Swag Bucks/Amazon shopping spree post. I tried to respond several times and each time it just ate my response. I made a test response on another post and for some reason it won't allow me to delete the test. It's just frustrating to say the least. I'm going to give Blogger one last chance to make things right.  I'll give it till the end of Monday so that it has all weekend and a full working day to fix things and if it doesn't work, I'm jumping ship to Wordpress.  My hope is that my lovely and awesome readers will follow me along the crazy ride during the move. I'll try to make it as seamless as possible and will post the link here if the move ends up happening.

I'm pretty annoyed with the move because I put a lot of work and energy into this blog, in just the comments numbering coding alone.  Bah!  Oh well.  C'est la vie, non?

In the mean time, would any brave volunteers like to give Wordpress a test run for me, pretty please?  I just need you to poke around, test things out, leave me a comment...say whatever, tell me I smell and my mother dresses me funny, but please keep it clean. (Ironic since I smell, no?)  Tell me what you think!  I really appreciate your patience and help. You guys are awesome!

Here's the link for the brave people who are killing (company) time to read my blog: http://cheaponinja.wordpress.com/

xoxo
~CN

Mailbox Love

Nothing too exciting in the mail today

I got a coupon for $2.00 off Energizer Recharge battery/charger pack and just a bill...and not the ones on Capitol Hill...which is a good thing to NOT get in my mail actually.

Treat to self

You're probably aware I'm pretty addicted to Swag Bucks by now. I've been redeeming my Swag Bucks for Amazon gift cards and I had enough to treat myself to a little guilt free shopping. I've always loved the game Mouse Trap and I really wanted to treat myself to it, but it wasn't on sale at all on Amazon, and you know me...I don't like buying things that are not on sale, even if it's just 25 cents off. (In fact, when I just now researched the game, I discovered that Hasbro has it through their own online store for $2 cheaper than Amazon. WTH?) Anyway, since it wasn't on sale, I thought I'd just keep an eye on it and buy it at another time when it is on sale. (Board games tends to go on sale right around the holidays but unfortunately, I haven't seen Mouse Trap on sale the past few years.)

Instead of treating myself to something, I ended up buying stuff that benefits the whole family. (So much for getting something that's just for me, eh?) Not that I wouldn't enjoy it, they are things that I've been wanting for a while, but it's just not something that's just for me. Then again, Mouse Trap wouldn't be "just for me" either, but I'd have a hell of a lot of fun locking myself in my room just building and playing with the trap like I used to do as a kid. :p

I ended up getting a cake decorating set and a popcorn popper...both for free and I still have enough gift card money left over to treat myself to Mouse Trap...should it ever go on sale. :)

(Click to enlarge)

Half price happy hour Pinkberry

Pinkberry, purveyor of tasty frozen yogurt goodness will be having having half priced happy hour between 5pm - 7pm starting June 25, 2010 to promote their new summer flavors.  (Proof is on their website, on the front page.)

Now does this mean that it will happen at all Pinkberry?  Your guess is as good as mine.  With new Pinkberry such as the one in Denver, Colorado having lines that are an hour long just to get in and pay full price for it, I can't imagine why they would need to run a half priced promo, BUT it never hurts to inquire about it. If you are in the Denver metro area, I would definitely look them up and call before you head down there expecting to take advantage of the deal, but considering the line, I highly doubt anyone minds paying full price for the frozen goodness. :)  Or at the very least, wear your comfy shoes because I imagine the lines will be astronomically long.

Recipe: Grilled Bruschetta Chicken w/Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

I know that recipes doesn't exactly jive with the theme of this blog, but this recipe was just too 'smack yo momma good' to not share with you...or at the very least, note for myself. :)

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken w/Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
1/4 cup Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing, divided (recipe to follow)

Directions:
Heat grill to medium heat.

Marinade chicken with 2 Tbsp. of dressing. Refrigerate 10 min. or even better - overnight!

Place chicken on grill; cover with lid. Grill 6 min...depending on thickness of chicken.

Turn chicken over. Grill, covered, grill 8 min. or until chicken is done (165ºF).

Adapted from Kraft.

Serve over a bed of whole wheat pasta, topped with diced Roma tomatoes (on sale!), some of the remaining Sun-Dried Tomato Dress and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.


Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing
Yield: Makes about 3 1/2 cups

Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 8-ounce jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil

Directions:
Toss ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Drizzle olive oil (eye ball it) until desired amount.  (I usually don't use more than 1/8 of a cup, I don't like my dressings oily and greasy.)  Blend again until smooth. 

Adapted from Epicurious.

Enjoy!


Tips:
I butterfly my boneless skinless chicken breasts.  That makes it cook faster, thus using less propane/energy to cook. Another side benefit of this is, it also tricks my brain into eating less. It's portion control.  It makes the meat go farther, and I spend less on buying meats, which is the costliest thing on my grocery list.  (And greener too!)

Mailbox Love

Nothing good in the mail today.  Just 2 junk mail, and a Disney Vacation planning DVD...which may or may not have a discount code in it but it doesn't really matter since we're not booking anything now anyway. :(

Price juggles

I made a lil quickie trip to Target to pick up some things and while there, I decided to get my son a Hot Wheels car to reward him for being so patient this week.  As I perused the toy aisle, I was happy to see some happy little yellow tags protruding out indicating a Temporary Price Cut.   Just in case you didn't know, I like savings. :)

I first saw a pack of 5 Hot Wheels cars for $4.49.  Not bad since they're typically $5+ a pack or .97 individually.  So I picked a pack out.  Then I saw something even better: a 10 pack for $8.99 instead of the usual $9.99.  Ok, savings of $1 instead of 50 cents.  I'll take that instead.  As I grabbed the 10 pack I noticed something else: the individually packaged ones were on sale for 79 cents each!  Ok, think quick, how much is that for 10?  Right, $7.90...um...that's an even bigger savings than $8.99.  It makes absolutely NO sense...well at least to the consumers that have been previously trained to think that buying more equals savings.  Apparently, that's just not the case anymore. Consumers practically need a degree in mathematics to figure out merchants' pricing tricks.

Needless to say, I picked out 10 of the individually wrapped ones not only for the savings, but I also got to pick specifically the ones I wanted instead of a pack of mixed in stuff that we might not want.  (Yes, I can hear my husband telling me that I didn't NEED to buy 10, but I did because now I can hide them and bring them out later as rewards. Plus they make great stocking stuffers.) The whole experience made no sense whatsoever, but it's taught me an important lesson: as a consumer, I need to be smart about the way I shop. Conventional trains of thoughts no longer applies anymore.  Merchants are coming up with new and different ways to make money off of unsuspecting shoppers.

Caveat emptor.

Vacay Fund Pay Day

It's Friday, so that means pay day to the vacation fund.  While reading a reader's comment on Couponing to Disney yesterday, I got a great idea.  The reader does a round up kind of thing to deposit money into her vacay fund with a max of $10 because they're on a budget.  For example, if the paycheck was $249.32, she'd deposit $9.32 into the vacay fund.  That sounded like a great idea to me so I decided to do the same.  Only, the "round off" part of the paycheck was a mind boggling.....42 cents. Yeah, I spat all over my laptop laughing so hard.  Oh well.

Anyway, we didn't spend much this week so the deposit is rather small...only $35.  Most of it came in the form of coupons, which hey, that's not bad!  The "big" part of the deposit came in the form of Swag Bucks rewards.  I got another $10 in Amazon gift cards from Swag Bucks last night, making my total rewards a record breaking (for me anyway) $20.  I'm excited to do some shopping. :D

Size does matter

We went grocery shopping last night and since it's been a while since I bought yogurt, I decided to get some. My kids wanted GoGurt.  I didn't mind, so we went to the dairy case and snagged a box.  There were 2 sizes on the shelf: a smaller box with the unit price of 12.9 cents, and the larger box of 13.8 cents.

Uh ok?  I thought you pay less if you buy more?

Sorry bub, that's soooooo yesterday.  Now the trend is buy more pay more.  Is it true? Have stores caught on to consumers thinking that if they buy more they pay less?

Needless to say, the cheapo in me snagged the smaller box with the cheaper unit price. Thanks to my husband, who taught me to check the unit price when price comparing, I caught on to the store's scheme to get me to spend more.  Lesson to be learned here: check the unit price.

Mailbox Love

I wonder if my mailman (mail-ghetto-fab-woman*) is sick of bringing me Tampons because I got another Playtex Gentle Glide sample w/coupon in the mail today, plus 2 copies of Parenting magazine. Why they send me 2 copies, I don't know, but at least I'll have one in each bathroom now. :p

* My ghetto fab mail woman...I freakin' love her. (Vast improvement over the lazyass who used to drive his mail truck up to each house, turn the engine off, walk up the steps...not disabled, mind you, drop the mail off, walk back to his truck, fire up the engine, drive the few yards to the next house, rinse, repeat.) I just love her spunk. And yes, she really is ghetto fab, complete with 6" acrylic nails that are awesome.  How she rocks those blue latex gloves with those nails, I'll never know, but that's part of what makes her awesome.  She makes me want to tell her to put the mail down and sit on my steps with a couple of bottles of 40s wrapped in paper bags.

$1 Smoothies @ Jamba Juice

Today, June 16, 2010 only, score a Jamba Juice Superfruit Smoothie for just $1!  Limit 2 per customer!  Details here.

Disney Movie Rewards

Do you have plans to see any Disney movies in the theaters this summer? I know we're super excited to see Toy Story 3 and we already got our (free!) tickets to see it on opening day!  If you don't have free tickets to Toy Story, fret not, there's a promo that'll still get you some goodies.

Disney Movie Rewards has partnered up with Fandango. If you buy your Toy Story 3 tickets through Fandango, you can get up to 200 DMR points plus a Toy Story 3 digital book.  Details here.  After you've seen the movie, be sure to save your ticket stubs because you can submit them (electronically) to DMR and get up to another 200 points!  The ticket stub rewards is good for most Disney movies including Alice in Wonderland, and Prince of Persia so if Toy Story 3 is not your style, if you see any other Disney movie this summer, save your stubs and check the DMR website to see if it qualifies for points.  You can redeem DMR points for Disney merchandise.  For details on ticket stub submitting/redemption, click here.