Wednesday's learn and earn...

~WORD OF THE DAY~

Thanksgiving   \thaŋ(k)s-ˈgi-viŋ also ˈthaŋ(k)s-ˌ\ ~  noun
DEFINITION(s) 1: the act of giving thanks

2: a prayer expressing gratitude

3a : a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness b capitalized : thanksgiving day

EXAMPLES: They sang a hymn of thanksgiving.

DID YOU KNOW? The first known use of the work Thanksgiving is found in 1533.

~THE REBATE~

Great coffee makes for a great gift and now through 12/31/11 you can get a $5.00 Starbucks gift card when you purchase 3 packages of Starbucks coffee.  The offer is good on 10, 11, 12 and 20 oz ground or whole bean Starbucks® coffee, 6, 7, or 8 ct Starbucks VIA® Ready Brew, or a combination of three (3) qualifying products.  You will need your receipt, then just fill in the rebate form on line and either mail it in or send it electronically.

I hope you all have a great day, tomorrow I will be taking the day off to enjoy with my family and hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
C.Q.

Tastefully Tueday...

Last year I shared my pumpkin pie recipe for our family's traditional Thanksgiving, this year I thought I would share a very old recipe that my mom made since I was a little girl.  It came in a 1950s salad cook book that I still have, and let me tell you there are some very strange things in there, but this one is a gem.  Everyone seems love it, it was dads favorite, now my hubby and Niece ask for it each year. 

Rosy Fruit-cocktail salad ~

2 3oz packages of cream cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup heavy cream - whipped
3.5 oz fruit cocktail well drained
1/4 cup maraschino cherries quartered
2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice for color and flavor

Soften the cream cheese and blend with mayonnaise. Fold in the remaining ingredients.

Pour the salad mixture into a shallow round container or onto a baking sheet with a lip and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours. To serve let it stand for a few minutes, then remove from container, if you need to you can set the bottom of the container in warm water to loosen it up. If you use a baking sheet cut into triangles and use a spatula to lift out of the pan.

Coupons:
Save $0.50 off 2 Philadelphia Cream Cheeses at Target
Save $1.00 off any two Hood Cream Products

Today's no cook option comes from Boston Market, print off the $3.00 coupon and bring it in with you.  When you order $15.00 worth of food they will give you the $3.00 off until November 29th.  The fine print: "Good at participating Boston Market® restaurants only. Present coupon when ordering. Not valid with any other coupon or special or reduced price offer including the $7.99 1/2 Chicken Meal or $4.99 and $5.99 1/4 Dark Meal offers. Not redeemable for cash or gift card purchase. Not applicable for heat and serve banquets, catering orders, or grocery items. Applicable taxes paid by bearer."

Hope everyone is having a nice week so far.

C.Q.

Thursdays picture perfect deal...

The picture...

This is a close up of one of the champagne glasses from our Thanksgiving feast last year.  A toast to you for the holiday and thank you for following my blog through the year.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The deal...

If you are going to have to squint to read the amount you saved on your Black Friday sales receipts or your getting blurry eyed reading the directions to put that bike together before Christmas then its time to check out Coastal Contacts.  Recently a friend got a pair of eye glasses there for FREE, all she paid for were the lenses.  All she needed to do was click the like button on Facebook and she was notified when they had a free day.  When they do that they give away 10,000 pairs of glasses in a day and when the promotion is over you need to wait for the next one.  They still have great deals going, right now you can get one pair of glasses free with the purchase of another pair, just pick the ones you like and when you check out use coupon code THANKSBOGO, this sale will end on November 29th though so act quick for this one.  They always have promotional codes available and you can find a list of them together with a 7% rebate if you shop through Ebates.  Remember to have your current prescription handy and a measuring tape as you will need to measure between your pupils for your PD (my friend used the first answer she found on Yahoo Answers that was 71, the correct answer is more like 16.  Good thing someone called to check on that.)  Coastal Contacts also has a 110% low price guarantee as well as an amazing return policy like none I have ever seen.  If you have difficulty ordering online or need help with some questions you can reach them Monday - Thursday between 5am and 10pm, Friday 5 am to 5 pm, Saturday 8 am to 4:30 pm, Sunday 9:30 am to 10 pm at 1-866-333-6888.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

C.Q.

Its in the cards....Part three

Yesterday I had some problems with the blogger program dropping some of my loyalty programs links so I have included them in today's information. I am also posting the information about discount programs that offer savings up front but often are not free to join. Its important with discount cards that charge fees to know if your going to use it enough to make back the fee over the course time until the next fee is due. Barns and Noble for example charges a $25 annual fee, for me this is not a problem, I can usually make up the $25 in under 2 months, but if your not an avid reader this program would not work.

Wyndham Hotels

Choice Hotels

Hilton Hotels

Priority Club which has Holiday Inn Hotels and a few others like the Indigo Hotels which I am looking forward to trying sometime when I can't find a Kimpton Hotel where I am staying.

Hyatt Hotels

MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas

Amtrak

Every major US airline has a reward program and it can be hard to sort through all the information to find the one that's best for you, especially since they all partner with different hotel chains, car rentals and some even with cruise lines and department stores. There is a web site dedicated to helping you find the one that is right for you, its called Frequentflier.com

Discount Cards:

Barns and Noble again, there is a $25 annual fee for the card so make sure you can save at least that much per year. The discount card also works in the coffee shop section so be sure to use it for any snacks as well.

F.Y.E. you can only join at the brick and mortar store but you can use the discounts on line, there is a $25 per year fee.

PetCo is free to sign up.

PetSmart is also free to join.

Starbucks Coffee, they have several levels to their program, each offering different discounts. The cards are free at the base level but there is also a Gold level which has a $10 fee for the year.

Sears offers a program for all their Craftsmen products.

Spencer Gifts

GNC Nutrition stores, there is a $15 fee for this card and it is very limited in its use.

There are quite a few different grocery stores that offer discounts, in the Midwest where I live there are only has a handful that offer any type of frequent buyer program, but if you have one near you its worth checking out, they are all free to join to the best of my knowledge.

Harris Teeter

Winn-Dixie

Ingles

Safeway

Giant Eagle

This will be the last blog until after Thanksgiving to give me time to prepare the feast. I am going to try to make as much from scratch as possible, frozen fruit salad, cream of carrot soup, zucchini bread, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce all from scratch, hopefully the house will still be standing when I am done.

Hope you all have a fun and safe Thanksgiving, and for those of you heading out for Black Friday I wish you all the best.

C.Q.

Hot Thanksgiving meal deal!

I wanted to make sure this was in early so everyone shopping for Thanksgiving would have an early start. Walmart issued a press release on November 5th saying that you can get a $20 Thanksgiving meal for eight. The press release states "In addition to a twelve pound Grade A turkey, shoppers can buy three 11 to 15.5 ounce cans of Green Giant vegetables, two cans of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, three six ounce boxes of Stove Top stuffing, one five pound bag of potatoes, a twelve count package of Sara Lee dinner rolls and a 22 ounce pumpkin roll cake - all for that twenty dollar price!" You can see the whole release at: Walmart press release.

C.Q.