Tuesday's tid-bit...

Monday's value meal...

Its already time for the apple harvest in our area, things have been a little ahead of schedule all year.  Today's recipe takes advantage of using the apples while they are at their best, I hope it's something you will enjoy.

APPLE STUFFED PORK LOIN

1 1/2 lbs. boneless pork loin

1 tsp. salt

Dash of ground ginger

Dash of ground cloves

STUFFING:

2 green onions, chopped fine

2 green apples, grated or chopped

2 tbsp. soft butter

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. mustard

Mix all ingredients for stuffing and set aside.  Make slits in loin, deep enough for filling. Rub pork loin with salt, ginger and cloves. Place loin in roasting pan and spoon stuffing into pockets in loin. Place rest of stuffing around loin. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until pork is done. Let stand 15 minutes covered with foil before slicing.  Optional: After slicing, garnish with sauteed apples, spoon pan juices over slices with extra stuffing.

---Main course---

$1.00 off any HORMEL® ALWAYS TENDER® product
$0.50 off two Land O Lakes Butter
$0.60 off Imperial Sugar Redi-Measure Light Brown Sugar
$0.50 off French's Mustard

---Salad---

$1.00 off one Olivia's Organic Salad
$2.00 off one Hidden Valley Farmhouse Originals Dressing (coupon is at the bottom of the page)

---Vegetable---

FREE Birds Eye Steamfresh Vegetable wyb Mrs. Paul's or Van de Kamp's Seafood (this isn't available in all areas of the country)

---Beverage---

$0.50 off any Newman's Own drink (not wine)

---Dessert---

$1.00 off any Sara Lee Frozen Dessert

Have a great week everyone!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

I have had a long time love of movies and when DVDs first came out I started collecting them, to the point that they now have their own cabinet as well as shelves build in around the TV to house the TV series and holiday film.  You would think owing over 500 DVDs I would have found Disney's Movie Rewards a long time ago!  I guess I thought Disney Movies were just for kids and I only had a couple, but guess what? Disney is so diverse I actually had 14 of them and now have over 1500 points in my account.  What does that mean?  Well, depending on how patient I am it could mean a trip to Disney Land.  In the 0 - 400 range you can get a free 0 point reward mini story book that goes along with the new Tinkerbell movie release, or if you want to spend some points you can make a donation to one of several organizations, get free Snapfish photo prints or a movie poster.  If you are willing to save up a little longer the 2810 and up category has $100 Delta vacation certificate, Hannah Montana guitar, Mary Poppins and the Lion King tickets on Broadway  and the Walt Disney Studios Special Private Tour for four.  Signing up for the program is easy, just enter your basic information and start putting in your Disney codes, you can find the code numbers on the DVD and Blue Rays as well as the Disney CDs.  You can even earn reward points by uploading a photo of your theater movie ticket stubs.  So go check your DVD collection, bet you will be surprised by what you have, then start saving your points for something fun for you, your child or grand kids.

Have a fantastic Sunday everyone!

Saving through portal shopping...

Reward programs have been around for years, remember S and H Green Stamps? They were started in the 1930s by the Sperry and Hutchinson company (S and H), founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson, and given to customers at grocery stores, department stores and gas stations. During the 1960s, the rewards catalog printed by the company was the largest publication in the United States and the company issued three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service.

Now with the Internet there are some great reward sites for shopping online, and while there are a lot of good ones I am going to go over the four I am the most familiar with today, starting with My Points. When I first ventured into reward sites on the Internet in the 80s this was the first site I joined.  Originally started by United Airlines, the company was purchased by a private corporation in 1996 and has been handled very well.  They payout points for shopping, points are awarded after a one month waiting time, this insured that large products are not returned and point credits reversed. If you choose to subscribe to their email list you also earn 5 points for almost every email read, this adds up very quickly.  You only need 1,500 for a $10 gift card to Olive Garden or Red Lobster, there are also a lot of other payout options, most in gift cards.

The next site is Quick Rewards, this is the second site I joined.  The things I really like about this program are the extremely fast customer service, the speed the cash back is credited to my account, (sometimes with in minutes but usually with in a day) and the fact that it is a cash system, not a point system so I know exactly what my account is worth at all times and there is no minimum payout.  When you want your money you have the option of cash to PayPal, or store and online gift certificates.  Like MyPoints you can also earn cash for reading email and doing surveys as well as for shopping.

Third I joined Ebates in 2005, this site is specifically for shopping online and aside from offering the cash back also lists all the coupons available, which is a general time saver.  Like MyPoints your cash earned will show as pending in your account until they are sure you are going to keep your purchase, and like Quick Rewards your balance is all in cash.  You earn $5.00 to your account just for signing up with them, then every 3 months, they send a cash back payment for purchases posted during the previous quarter based on their posted schedule. But if you've earned less than $5.01 cash back, they carry it over your money to the next check.  You can opt for a check  payable to you, your child, a charity or any organization of your choice, and of course there is always the option for PayPal.

Finally I recently joined Market America, I have a friend who has used this site for years and loves it.  He does probably all his shopping through this site.  You earn cash for your purchases of both their own branded products as well as their partner sites.  Their site has a great feature that allows you to type in what you are looking for and it will find it for you at multiple stores as well as find comparable products.  It works a little like the shopping feature on Google but has more options.  When your account reaches $50.00 you can cash out for a check to yourself or like Ebates, a child, charity or any organization of your choice, if your balance is under $50.00 you can use it to spend on their own branded products.  This is a fantastic way to try something new to see if you like it, who knows it could save you a ton of money in the long run! 

When I use my cash back shopping portals I always check to see where the best deal is, so for example if I want to order a book through Target for $20.00 I will check them all and find that...

MyPoints will pay 10 points per dollar, that's 200 points or about $0.13
Quick Rewards will pay me 4.20% or $0.84
Ebates will pay me 4.00% or $0.80
Market America will pay me 2% or $0.40

In this case I would use Quick Rewards, but that isn't always the case.  Each retailer is willing to pay each portal provider different amounts and in some cases is will only go through a certain provider so its worth while to check which sites offer what rewards.  I was able to earn thousands of dollars when we built our house a few years back, I used shopping reward sites combined with my reward credit cards for an even better deal.  So remember when you shopp on line to check for rewards and cash back though at least two portals to maximize your discount.

Have a great weekend everyone!

C.Q.

Friday's freebie...

A friend of mine found this great deal and passed it along.  I have another friend taking her children to the museum using this freebie so I found a dining idea for kids to go with the deal.  Hope you have a great time with this one!

Saturday, September 25th is free museum day, all you have to do is fill in the information required to get your free admission ticket via email.  The free ticket is good for you and one guest, just remember to print and bring your ticket to your selected participating museum. 

If you are bringing your child with you and have a Marie Calender's nearby this is a perfect time to bring them in to dine, Tuesday's and Saturday's children under 12 dine free with the purchase of an adult meal.  They get their choice of selected entrees, a soft drink and a sundae for dessert.

Have a great Friday everyone!

C.Q.

Thursdays picture perfect deal...

The picture...

This picture was taken looking up through the iron work of the Duluth Rose Garden gazebo.  The original rose garden was moved from the home of Mrs. John Klints and opened in 1965 within Leif Erickson Park, with 2,000 roses.  In 1990 the rose garden was revised to allow for the highway to go under the park and was reopened in 1994, it now has over 3000 roses and 12,000 non-rose plantings, including day lilies, evergreen shrubs, mixed perennials and an herb garden.

The deal...

With kids going back to college and living in drab dorm rooms its time to check out All Posters back to school sale.  Thousands of their posters are on sale starting at only $4.98, they have free shipping on orders over $9.99, just enter coupon code TAUPE in the area where is says  "Add Gift Certificate Or Coupon Code" at check out.  This is a great way to make a visual statement without breaking the bank.  To make your poster look even better you can find nice set of 6 Mainstay poster frames at Walmart for $34.00, that's only $5.67 each!  If you don't need 6 of them Target has a nice set of 2 Elite Poster frames for only $11.99, and Amazon has a single MCS Acrylic & Corrugated Back Poster Frame for only $5.95.  Posters are a nice in an office space as well because you can change your artwork when you get tired of looking at the same thing every day.

I hope you are all having a great Thursday!

C.Q.

Wednesday's learn and earn...

~WORD OF THE DAY~

grimalkin  \grih-MAWL-kin\ ~ noun

DEFINITION: a domestic cat; especially : an old female cat

EXAMPLE: Maizy, the family grimalkin, wasn't as fast as she used to be, but she was still very good at catching mice.

DID YOU KNOW? In the opening scene of Macbeth, one of the three witches planning to meet with Macbeth suddenly announces, "I come, Graymalkin." The witch is responding to the summons of her familiar, or guardian spirit, which is embodied in the form of a cat. Shakespeare's "graymalkin" literally means "gray cat." The "gray" is of course the color; the "malkin" was a nickname for Matilda or Maud that came to be used in dialect as a general name for a cat (and sometimes a hare). By the 1630s, "graymalkin" had been altered to the modern spelling "grimalkin."

~THE REBATE~

If you have kids,  grand kids or are a kid at heart, this is a fun rebate.  Buy any Shrek, Shrek Two or Shrek the Third on DVD or Blue Ray  and a 6 pack 1.5 oz or 7oz mini boxes bag purchase of Sunmaid Raisins and get $3.00 back by mail.  Just send in the proof of purchase tab from the DVD or Blue-ray, the UPC from your 6 pack or bag of raisins, the cash register receipts (photo copies are OK) for the movie and the raisins dated between August 1st and March 31, 2011 with the prices circled and the original hand printed completed rebate form.

I checked for the lowest prices on the DVD version of the movie and found that Walmart was the lowest for the first Shrek movie at $8.32 plus shipping and tax that brought it up to $10.95.  For both Shrek Two and Shrek the Third the lowest price was at Movie Mars, both were $14.34 with no shipping fees.

I hope you are all having a good week so far.

C.Q.