I completely neglected to add the Swagbucks plugin to my browser window when I had to replace my laptop because of its imminent demise. (Am I the only one who notices that the first laptop lasted until the letters literally wore off the keys and the new ones seem to last 12-18 months? I’ve gone through three in the past five years after one that lasted the entire five years.) Anyway, I realized I wasn’t earning Swagbucks and added the plugin so that I could make all my searches through Swagbucks, cashed them in and got a notice today that my $5 Amazon gift card is ready to be spent.

I don’t do a ton of searching. Most times, I’m typing a url directly into the window instead of doing a search. But what I do search for pays off in six or seven $5 gift cards a year. When I used to do more searching because of research projects, I really earned bucks fast.

If you aren’t searching through Swagbucks or just forgot to set it back up like I did, I recommend giving it a try. Sign up for a Swagbucks account and see how it works for you.

(The link in this post is an affiliate link, which means I get credit for having you sign up through it. If you prefer not to use it, you can also type www.swagbucks.com into your browser window to visit the site.)

I know. Wordless Wednesday means no words. But asking me not to write is like suggesting I hold my breath for a day. Not happening! I’ll keep it short, though. This week, I want to spotlight the ultimate emergency food supply fan:

Squirrels routinely store food for the winter months.

Do you have an emergency food supply? Even if you don’t do something as elaborate as the LDS folks do, you should have at least a few weeks worth of food and water stored in a safe, dry spot. The US government recommends that you have three days worth, but after the response time for Hurricane Katrina, I really recommend that you have at least a month’s worth of food and drinking water stored for emergencies. After seeing how long it took to get aid overseas during the Haiti earthquake, I’m thinking we should all follow this clever little squirrel’s example and store enough to last us an entire season!

We love pork tenderloins around here. Sometimes, I’ll score an incredibly good deal on them at my local Food Lion, like 80% off because their sell by date is two days away. The other day, I got one for $1.89. Not per pound. For the whole thing. Can you believe it? Those are prices from the 1950’s.

Rob Owen-Wahl/SXC

So, that’s already a good deal right? But I like to make it better. I pull out my crock pot and a bottle of marinade (Free with coupons and sales last July. I am coming down to the last few bottles, but there will be more sales coming up as people start barbecuing again.) I put the pork and the marinade in the pot, let it simmer away all day and then we have pork tenderloin, veggies and fresh rolls for dinner. Delicious.

The next day, I take the left over pork, shred it and have pork barbecue sandwiches for lunch. (Ketchup, homemade relish, a pinch of brown sugar, lemon juice and mustard is a very mild barbecue sauce that tastes a bit sloppy joeish.)

Two meals from one $1.89 cut of meat? That’s enough to make this frugal mama very, very happy.

Don’t forget to check out all the other Tightwad Tuesday tips!

Another week, another set of deals. There are some good ones this week and there are still some coupon days specials, but I did a double trip last week and will only be picking up milk and Kashi (See below for details.) this week. So, on to the deals:

Coupon Days

Jumbo shrimp 2 pound bag $5.99 a pound
4 pound bag of California navel oranges $1.99
Skippy peanut butter two for $3.00
10 ounce bag of fresh spinach $.99
fresh corned beef brisket $1.99 a pound for flat cut or $.99 a pound for point cut
Hormel refrigerated entrées $1.00 off -$3.99 with coupon(I tried these and do not care for them, so don’t stock up if you’ve never had them before!)
$2.00 off your minimum $5.00 bakery purchase
get Giant soft breadsticks free when you buy Giant Grab and Go Packaged Soup
Get $1.00 off When you buy Six Giant canned vegetables
Get Giant pancake syrup free when you buy two Giant pancake and waffle mix
Snyders pretzel pieces to for $4.00
Dr. Oetker Ristorante pizza $2.49
Lipton tea bags two for $4.00
There are several more coupon deals, but they don’t look that promising to me.

Instant Savings Deals

By any seven save $3.00 instantly:
Bordon individually wrapped cheese slices 2/$4
Stoneyfield Yo Baby Meals 2/$4
Hot Pockets 5/$10
Kellogg’s fruit snacks or Yogos 2/$4
Kellogg’s pop tarts family pack 2/$5
Krusteaz pancake, bar, or muffin mix $1.99
Celeste pizza for one 10/$10
Boston Market dinners 5/$10
Ore-Ida fries 2/$5 *
Nabisco 100 calorie snack bars 2/$5
Quaker Mini Delights $2.39

There is also a buy any four save $3.00 instantly deal. It doesn’t look that great, so I’m not going to list everything that qualifies. The same with a buy any 3 save $5 meat deal. The meat is more per pound than I usually pay, so it isn’t that great a deal.

Regular Deals

Four cans of Campbell’s tomato soup (must buy 4) $2
Turkey Hill ice cream 4/$10
Giant tote bag of apples 99 cents a pound
Hass avocados 5/$5
Giant green cabbage 29 cents a pound
Banquet Brown N Serve sausage 10/$10 (We use these in spaghetti sometimes.)
Barilla pasta or Tuttorosso tomatoes 10/$10
White House apple sauce 46-48 ounce jar 2/$3
Dole fruit bowls 2/$4
General Mills cereal 8.9-13 ounce Cheeries, Reese’s Puffs, or Golden Grahams 2/$4
Post kids cereal 2/$4
Kashi cereal 4/$8 Must buy 4 (If you scored some coupons and a sample in the mail the other day, you can really do well. We love the apple cinnamon sample and are excited to get some more at a good price!)
Sargento shredded cheese 2/$4
British Blends Tetley tea bags 2/$5 (We love this tea. Sort of like a mild English breakfast. If you do, too, I think there is a 30 cents off coupon out there somewhere.)
Scotties facial tissues 10/$10 (Check your coupons for additional savings.)

Well, this week’s CVS Adventure took awhile to get to. I finally was able to make it over Friday night to grab the deals. Money Saving Mom had mentioned that there was a coupon at the scanner for $1 off CVS brand paper towels, so I snagged that first. Then, I grabbed an Oral B brush, a Nivea lip balm and a CVS big roll of paper towels. I have been so busy with my internship and a few other things that I didn’t have time to look for coupons to match up, but I think there is one for the toothbrush. Since I didn’t have it, I might not have done as well as some people, but here is my report for this week’s adventures:

• 1 Oral B toothbrush $4
• 1 Nivea lip balm $2.99
• 1 CVS EE Big roll of paper towels $1.29

8.78 after tax

Scanned my bag tag, so just two more to go.

Handed over one $1 off paper towel coupon and $5.50 in ECB bucks from last week. 8.78-6.50=$2.28 out of pocket and $6.99 in ECB for next week’s deals. Yay! (Now, I am working on building my ECB up, but I still wouldn’t go spend money out of pocket on things I didn’t need. People go through a lot of toothbrushes around here and the heat has really dried out a lot of lips. So, I don’t mind paying $1 each out of pocket for those things and 28 cents for the towels. )

Looking for some great deals and sales so you can stretch your dollars? Want some great thrifty living tips? Then, you’ll want to check out all the frugal bloggers and blog posts in this week’s Find a Deal Friday:

Photo: SXC

Eliza from Babies in the News has compiled all the baby deals for the week of March 7th. (Umm. Just to be clear, these are deals on baby supplies, not actual babies. I think I might need more caffeine this morning…)

Marijke from Montreal On The Cheap found a great deal on family entertainment this month. On March 27th, you can enjoy a play with the kids for only $8 for adults and $6 for kids. I wish our theaters had tickets at those prices!

Money Saving Mom found an offer for a free lesson of Financial Peace University from Dave Ramsey. (If you don’t know who he is, you’re missing out on some great tips for living within a budget and getting out of debt. Many people credit him with changing their financial lives!)

Sales Weekly found an Hy-Vee deal that pays you to walk out with your cereal. Wow. Now, I’m wishing I had one of these stores near me. Looks like there are a lot of deals there every month.

Do you have a great deal to share? I’d love to hear about it!

Have you been wishing you could learn more of the DuBois family’s back story? Longing for Joe’s Dad to stop by and get things in an uproar? Would you settle for his dad being alive? I would! I am so excited about Allison Rolen Got Married. I’m hoping the show will have some funny scenes and a look at the way Joe and his dad interact when he’s got a body to cause trouble in! And then there’s Allison’s lovely grandma again. It’ll be like going along to a class reunion when you didn’t go to that school, but you’ve heard so much about everyone that you feel like you did!

Well, tomorrow, we’ll see exactly what is going on, but we’ve got a teaser to keep us going to then:

Oh, wow. It looks awesome!

Image: http://www.wordle.net/

Just thought you could use some inspiration to get ready for a week of thrifty living!

Martin’s is doing another week of coupon days. I’m not terribly excited about a lot of them, but there are a few okay deals going on. Before I went into the deals, though, I wanted to mention a few tips for people who aren’t familiar with the store:

• Sign up for the email newsletter. Sometimes, there are coupons in there that aren’t available at the store kiosk.
• Check the store kiosk every week for new coupons. The 50 cents off Nature Made products coupon is great for getting organic baby food for a few cents a jar or organic canned beans for around 30 cents.
• Don’t be afraid to use internet coupons. Martin’s is happy to take them, as long as they don’t say free or buy one get one free.
• Take advantage of double coupons. Martin’s doubles coupons up to 99 cents and sometimes has special doubler coupons in the sales circular that allow you to double dollar coupons.

Now, on with the deals!

Coupon Days (Really not that great this time, but I’ll list them.)

Jumbo cantaloupe $1.49

Fresh corned beef brisket $1.99 a pound for flat cut or 99 cents a pound for point cut

Free Weight Watchers’ Smart Ones when you buy 5. (All the brand name deals seem to be manufacturers’ coupons, so probably cannot be combined with another coupon. )

Dole classic salad 99 cents

Free Bob Evans mashed potatoes or mac and cheese when you buy Barber Foods stuffed chicken breasts for $10.99

Giant premium frozen fish fillets or steaks $5.99 each

$2 off 1 pound or more of Boar’s Head chicken breast

Giant creme cake $2.99

Get a free Giant clear splash when you buy 3 packs of Giant soft cookies.

Get Giant pasta when you buy 3 Giant past sauce

Get Giant Salsa when you buy 2 Giant Festingo tortilla chips

Get Giant cake mix when you buy 2 Giant frostings

Lays potato chips $2.49

Kraft deluxe mac and cheese 3/$4

Kraft shredded cheese 2/$4

Folgers gourmet coffee $2.99

Pepperidge Farm Bagels or Cookies 2/$4

DiGiorno pizzas 2/$10

$1 off 2 Kotex

Buy any 3 Special K cereals for $2.99 each and get $2 off Special K bars

Other Deals

Cabbage 29 cents a pound

Strawberries buy one pound get one free

Thomas’ original English muffins buy one get one free

Chicken of the Sea solid white tuna 10/$10

Hatfield Simply Tender pork loin buy one get one free

Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage buy one get one free (There’s a Redplum coupon out for $1/2)

Giant 12 inch sub $4.99

Healthy Choice soup 10/$10

Ronzoni pasta 10/$10

Pillsbury cake mix 10/$10

Nabisco Chips Ahoy! cookies or premium crackers 3/$6 (Must buy 3)

Buy any 4 General Mills cereals and get $4 off

Drake’s Cakes buy one get one free

Keebler crackers 3/$6 (Must buy 3)

Yoplait yogurt 10/$5

Dannon Danimals 2/$4

Buy 10 Kool-Aid packets, get 10 free

Gatorade 64 ounce 3/$5 (Must buy 3)

Birds Eye veggies 10/$10

Totino’s pizza rolls 10/$10

Haagen-Dazs ice cream cups 10/$10

Burger King frozen fries 10/$10

Puffs tissues 10/$10 (Look for a 25 cents off coupon in this week’s P&G insert.)

Sparkle 8 count paper towels 2/$10 (Must buy 2)

Fill Up Your Freezer Deal

Buy 6 get $5 off your shopping order instantly:

Ittibitz cups 5/$5

Seviroli ravioli 10/$10

Palermo’s thin pizza 2/$10

Duncan Hines frozen brownies $2.69

Hungry Man dinners 5/$10

Gortons Frozen fish sticks $3.99

Giant fudge bars $1.69

Sara Lee pound cake $2.99

Breyers ice cream 2/$5

Aunt Jemima waffles 2/$3

Ellio’s pizza 2/$6

Lender’s New York style bagels $1.69

Kraft bagel-fuls $1.99

I think I will give Martin’s a miss this week. I gave my $10 off my next order coupon from last week to my mom and this sale isn’t tempting me too much. Do you see anything that excites you?

Here’s the recap of the open mic event for Medium episode 6.15 How to Beat a Bad Guy. I thought you might like to see Dean Norris, who plays Scanlon’s now deceased brother Paul.

9:00
Allison is walking in a dark parking lot on the phone with bags on her arm.

9:01
Looking more alert now, but a guy is approaching.

9:01
He wants $5.

9:01
Now, he’s stealing her purse. She wants her daughter’s baby photos.

9:02
She beats him up. And goes Kung Fu on the other boys.

9:02
Way to rewrite your ending Allison.

9:03
I love it. “I would have given you my purse, but nobody touches my little girl’s baby pictures.”

9:04
And she’s being revived in the parking lot. I liked the kicking butt version better.

9:07
Joe wants to kill somebody, but other than that.

9:08
Talking to the self defense instructor.

9:08
Maybe some lessons are in order? She took the instructor’s card.

9:09
Kids are upset. I would be, too. Seeing their mom’s face like that….

9:10
Allison hears a noise and turns to ask Joe if he heard it. But he’s not there.

9:10
Gets up to investigate and is attacked by the mugger. Thank goodness it was a dream this time.

9:11
Allison goes to see the instructor in the morning.

9:12
Hears her story about why she became an instructor.

9:12
Lee is meeting with Devalos. Ooh, nice suit.

9:13
Scumbag attacking a teen and videoing it.

9:15
An undercover guy on the case disappeared and Devalos is warning Scanlon to stay away. He’s almost certain that the rapist is Scanlon’s brother!

9:16
Wait. Scanlon has a brother. Did I know that?

9:20
Oh, okay. His name is Ben. He’s a bad guy, but he saved Scanlon when their drunken dad was beating him.

9:20
Of course, Scanlon did not listen to Devalos. He went right to visit his brother.

9:21
Scanlon and “the mom” are engaged. His baby’s name is Lee. Is it just me or is he more into Lee than former Deputy Doll?

9:22
His brother says he isn’t a pervert. He’s 50. He’s a different guy. He’s got a handle on things.

9:22
Scanlon doesn’t believe him.

9:24
Joe is watching a movie and Allison does some Karate Kid moves.

9:24
She’s feeling more like herself again.

9:24
Joe thinks so, too.

9:25
Kira is fighting with a man in Allison’s dream.

9:26
Allison goes to her and tells her she found the man on the sex offender registry.

9:27
She doesn’t think it was him and isn’t sure she really saw his face.

9:27
She brushes Allison off and walks off.

9:28
Allison goes to Scanlon for help. Henry Maynard is the guy in the photo. Really Sean Riley who is the undercover cop who disappeared. Uh, oh.

9:32
Joe makes Allison feel better. “Gee, now I hate you, too.”

9:33
And Allison didn’t know about Joe’s brother, either. I guess I don’t need to feel so bad.

9:33
And they found Riley dead after Allison dreamed about his location.

9:34
Devalos will be bringing in Scanlon’s brother for questioning.

9:35
“Manny, you don’t understand. This is my big brother.”

9:35
Devalos is asking Ben about the girl in the video and about his tattoo.

9:36
He denies all knowledge.

9:36
But Henry/Sean he does recognize.

9:37
Not as a murderer, but as the scumbag who might have hurt a girl.

9:38
Ben yells at Scanlon, who he knows is watching. He calls him “Mr. Good” and blames him.

9:39
Allison sees a vision of Ben attacking a girl.

9:40
She evades Scanlon’s questions about his brother and brings up her head injury. He gets to the truth. His brother was the one who raped the girl.

9:40
Fat weasel. I guess I’d call my brother worse than that if he was a rapist.

9:41
Scanlon is holding his gun to his brother’s head after breaking into his place to question him.

9:41
Does he believe his story?

9:41
I think he wants to. But does he?

9:42
Henry/Sean wakes up bound and gagged.

9:42
He sits up and tries to escape. Picking the lock on his cuffs when Kira walks in and says, “You’re awake. Good.”

9:43
He tries to talk, but there’s a gag in his mouth and she doesn’t want to hear him anyway.

9:44
Sean tries to explain, but he doesn’t quite pick phrases that would make a former rape victim happy. “Stop fighting.” “It’ll only get worse…” Dude. Seriously. Try, “I’m a cop under cover!”

9:47
By the way, if you miss Joe’s dad, be sure to tune in for episode 6.16 Allison Rolen Got Married. He’s in it!

9:47
Allison stops in to see Kira.

9:47
A new list. A list of dead sex offenders.

9:49
And news about Henry being a cop under cover instead of a sex offender. Kira says again she knows nothing. Then she asks Allison if she’s going to arrest her, which would require proof and muscle, neither of which she has.

9:50
Scanlon’s brother shows up with a stuffed toy to meet the gf and the baby. Scanlon tells him he sent them away. And then he tells him he watched the video of the teenager being raped today.

9:50
The guy kept bending his thumb back all the way to his wrist. His brother is double jointed and had the same habit.

9:51
One time offer to turn himself in and Scanlon will stand by him.

9:51
He’ll get him help to get better. “You don’t get it Mr. Good do you?…I’m fine. I like me.”

9:52
Very creepy guy. Must take after their dad.

9:53
Kira is talking to her victim – Scanlon’s brother.

9:54
Scanlon wakes up when Allison calls to tell him that Kira is going after his brother.

9:55
Wait. Kira’s going after Paul? I guess they changed Scanlon’s brother’s name from the casting call?

9:55
And Scanlon relieves the detective watching two hours early.

9:56
He sees Kira walk out after his brother.

9:56
Allison calls Scanlon. “Paul’s dead Allison…They were too late…”

9:57
Only he isn’t dead yet. Scanlon’s sitting in his car and just waiting.

9:57
Wow.

9:57
And next ep, as I mentioned, Allison is a young bride and Joe’s parents and her grandma will be appearing. Fun!

9:58
See you all next week.