Guest Post: Reusing Cereal Box Inserts

January 11th, 2011

Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy of Faylee!

Faylee

About The Author:

Faylee James is a Life Coach from Northeast Tennessee, who has an above average interest in people, cooking and living life to the best of her ability. She enjoys sharing her ideas and tips on savings with others. You can find more of her thoughts at www.HassiesKitchenTable.com or read her articles at http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Faylee_James.

We all have our favorite ways of finding small saving in our budgets, reusing or redoing things is one of mine.

I save the inner packaging liner from cereal boxes. I’ve used them as substitutes for plastic bags on occasion, but one of my favorite uses, is for pounding chicken cutlets. These bags are sturdy enough that I don’t break through the bag, and all the raw chicken juices are contained instead of being spread through the kitchen. When I’m done I just roll them up and throw them away, leaving counters or cutting boards to clean up.

As I live alone, I also divide my meats into personal servings, then I store those portions in my freezer. Each meat serving is wrapped, labeled, then placed into a waxed insert for extra protection against freezer burn, until I need it. A clothes pin can be used as a way of keeping the inserts closed. I use one for beef, one for chicken and another one for pork. That way I do not have to look through all the meat trying to find the chicken I need for a dinner recipe.

I use them for keeping my socks, undies and jewelry together when packing for a trip. I also, take a couple of different size empty ones in my suit case when traveling, in the likelihood I get something wet and do not want it up against my clean clothes. I simply place it in the waxed insert, fold down the top, holding the top in place with a piece of tape or a large rubber band.

I set a cereal box insert near my sink to place wet garbage into before placing it into my garbage can. It keeps flies and small animals from trying to get into the container.

The inserts can also be used as a means of transporting your leftover food items to your compost pile.

I save all sizes of these inserts and have come up with many ways to reuse them. They are durable, can be washed out and used several times before you have to discard them. Once you get into the habit of saving and using these inserts it will be hard to do without them.

Leavin’ On a Jet Plane

January 11th, 2011

Plane

As you read this, Jai and I are driving up to Seattle so I can catch my flight to England. I’m taking my laptop with me, so once I get over my jet lag I’ll be back to blogging and answering emails as normal. I have some guest posts scheduled to run while I’m en route that you can enjoy in the meantime. See you soon! 🙂

Shopping Trip, January 8th

January 9th, 2011

Since I’m leaving for England on Tuesday, I wanted to use up some good coupons that were going to expire during my trip and also pick up some supplies that I will need while traveling. First stop, Rite Aid:

Rite Aid - January 8th 2011

Total spent: $15.92
Total before coupons & discounts: $23.47
View receipt

Got:

1 Almay eyeliner pencil – the Maybelline eyeliner I ordered from Soap.com isn’t bad, but it doesn’t wear well on the upper lid – so I bought my usual brand and will alternate between them! Regularly $7.49, and I used a coupon for 10% off my Rite Aid purchase that I earned last time I was in the store. Final price: $6.74
1 bag of Gardettos – I broke the cardinal rule and shopped while hungry! 😉 Regularly $2.99, paid $2.69 after my 10% discount.
1 pair of slippers – Regularly $12.99, these were marked down on clearance to $6.49 (10% did not apply to sale items). I’m going to need a warm pair of slippers while I’m in England, so this should do the trick!

Next stop, Safeway:

Safeway - January 8th, 2011

Total spent: $17.61
Total before coupons: $57.58
View receipt

Got:

2-liter of Mountain Breeze soda – last time I was in Safeway, I received a catalina for a free 2-liter of Safeway soda, up to .69 cents. The soda was actually priced at .99 cents plus .05 cents deposit, so I paid a total of .35 cents for it.
1/2 gallon of half & half – price: $3.79
1 package of Dramamine – for the flight! Price: $4.59
1 bottle of Extra Strength Excedrin – regularly $3.99, and I used one free coupon that I received through one of Excedrin’s many recent offers – final price: Free!
2 bottles of Excedrin Migraine – regularly $4.29 each, used two free coupons. Final price: Free!
2 packages of Stayfree – regularly $2.99 each, used one “Buy One, Get One Free” printable coupon – the coupon deducted the full amount of $3.49, so I received .50 cents overage. Final price: $2.49 for both.
1 box of Garnier Herbashine haircolor – regularly $3.24, used one free coupon from a recent offer – final price: Free!
1 bottle of Alba shave gel – I bought this to take with me on my trip, because I need a non-aerosol bottle to pack in my suitcase and this is one of the few brands that I know I can use without an allergic reaction. Price: $6.39 (Ouch!)
2 bags of Tyson Any’Tizers (BBQ Wings & Chicken Fries) – normally $9.99 each, used two free coupons. Final price: Free! Tyson sent me these free coupons because we have a fun giveaway for Super Coupon Girl readers in the works. 🙂

Busy, Busy, Busy!

January 8th, 2011

Traveling

It’s been a quiet week here at Super Coupon Girl because I’ve been so busy preparing for my trip to England next week! I fly out on Tuesday, so I’m getting everything scratched off my to-do list before I leave. I have lots of of fun guest posts scheduled to run next week while I’m traveling; and I’m bringing my laptop with me, so once I get over my jet lag I’ll be back to blogging as normal!

It’s Back: Save .55 Cents Off Two Dozen Eggs – Any Brand

January 7th, 2011

American Egg Board

Remember the offer a few months back for .55 cents off two dozen eggs of any brand? Well, it’s back! Click here to visit Shortcuts and print a coupon good for .55 cents off your purchase of any 2 one-dozen cartons of eggs. The coupon is on page 2. Because this may be used on any brand of eggs, you can buy the least expensive store brand and then redeem the coupon to further lower your cost, like I did back in November. Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Anatomy of a Frugal Christmas Card

January 2nd, 2011

Anatomy of a frugal Christmas card

This is the frugal Christmas card I sent out this year! The festive stamps came from my Zazzle.com order, and I won the cute return address labels in a giveaway.

Envelope

I ordered 60 custom photo cards with envelopes from SeeHere.com for $4.32. The shipping was hardly “Overnight”, but it still got here in enough time so it didn’t really matter! I was pleased with how it turned out:

Our 2010 Christmas Card

The photos came from our engagement shoot earlier in the month. I bartered for the photo session, so it cost me no money!

My Frugal Stocking Stuffers

January 1st, 2011

Jai's stocking

This Christmas, I stuffed a stocking for Jai very frugally. It consisted of a 50-pack of disposable cups that I got through a review on Contest Corner, a little gift set I had won in a giveaway, and a 4 GB Santa Flash Drive and a Retractable Cross Over Cable which I got for $1.98 total after coupons on Mwave.com.

Stocking stuffers

Remember the Bluetooth Audio Transport that Mwave offered for free after rebate in November? Well, because I purchased it, I received a $1.00 gift coupon towards my next purchase. A few weeks later, they also sent me a $5.00 gift coupon towards anything on their site. The Santa flash drive was marked down to $4.99, so after using the $5.00 coupon I paid just .99 cents for shipping. I then used the $1.00 coupon for the Retractable Cross Over Cable, which was on sale for $1.99 with free shipping – so once again, I paid just .99 cents. Jai runs a computer repair business – and just loves gadgets in general! – so these were both things he needed.

I also gave the Bluetooth Audio Transport to Jai for Christmas, as well as the free-after-rebate LG Bluetooth Headset from NewEgg. These actually turned out to be nicer than I thought – the LG headset is wireless, making it much more convenient to use than his other bluetooth headset, and the audio transport came with some handy extras, like a universal USB charger and cool earbuds.

What frugal gifts did you give for Christmas? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2010

Happy New Year!

2010 is almost over! Whether you plan to go out to celebrate New Year’s Eve or opt to stay home (Like me! ;)), I hope you have a wonderful and safe evening. Enjoy the last few hours of this year – I’ll see you in 2011!

My Latest Amazon Order: Tassimo Coffee & Lipton Cup-A-Soup

December 30th, 2010

Tassimo Coffee  Lipton Cup-a-Soup

My latest order from Amazon arrived last night: Lipton Chicken Noodle Cup-a-Soup and Gevalia Black Iced Coffee for Tassimo Coffeemakers. I received two 16-count packages of the Tassimo iced coffee, 32 pods altogether, for $5.00 – that works out to .16 cents per cup. The Lipton Cup-a-Soup was $8.33 for a pack of 12 – each box contains 4 envelopes of soup, for a total of 48 Cup-a-Soup servings. This makes the cost .17 cents per bowl of soup.

Winner Wednesday: 100 Custom Postcards From NextDayFlyers

December 29th, 2010

Postcards

And the winner of the 100 Custom Postcards giveaway is…

Comment number 3, Kristy, who said: “I would use mine for invites for my daughters upcoming birthday!” Congratulations!