Santa Cruz Coupons

Click HERE to get coupons for Santa Cruz organic peanut butter and Santa Cruz Organic Celebration Beverage. Thanks Coupon Geek.

Cashback Opportunities with Discover Card

There are a number of opportunities to earn extra cashback rewards from Discover Card through the holidays:

• Earn 2% cashback November 15 to December 31 when using your Discover Card for clothing, shoe and jewelry purchases made online or in department stores. Click HERE to sign up for the Double Cashback Bonus program. Combine this with Ebates for some big cashback rewards!
  
  
• Get 5% cashback October through December when using your Discover Card for groceries, dining out, and movie tickets and rentals. Click HERE to sign up for this program.

Be sure to sign up for BOTH programs. You will also need to sign up again when a new program is offered in January. I got burned on this before. I thought I just had to sign up once for the rewards program in general. I lost out on a few months worth of rewards because I didn't sign up again when they changed the program.

You can also earn from 5% to 20% cashback by shopping on Shop Discover. Featured retailers include Target, Barnes and Nobel, and Home Depot.

If you don't already have a Discover Card, you can get one now to take advantage of their current sign-on bonus of $100 cashback when you make $599 in purchases. The Invitation Code is DBYF. You can combine this with the other rewards that everyone gets. That adds up to a lot of rewards!

Good Deal on Non-Dairy Ice Cream at Publix

Purely Decadent non-dairy ice cream products are 50% off at Publix until Wednesday, November 11. Combine the sale with THIS COUPON for a great deal.

Purely Decadent has soy and coconut milk varieties. It has fewer calories and less fat than traditional ice cream. It's also made with organic ingredients. The cookie dough flavor is gluten free.

Thanks Thrifty Mama.

Ebates Success: Cheap Paper Cups

I don't do a lot of shopping on the internet. First of all, I hate paying shipping. Furthermore, I rarely feel like I'm getting the kind of deal I could get on a clearance rack at a local retail store. However, I'm starting to see how it can be possible to get good prices for everyday things online.

This week I needed to buy some paper coffee cups. Turns out I was able to get a better deal online than at the local party store. My first step was to go to ebates.com and type "party" into the search engine. It came back with Giant Party Store. There were no discount codes listed, but I would get 5% cash back on my purchase. That's a good start.

I found what I needed at Giant Party Store for a reasonable price, but I wasn't too excited about having to pay shipping. So I went to my search engine on my Swagbucks toolbar and typed in "Giant Party Store coupon codes". I found a code for free shipping. Success!

If you are going to buy anything online, it pays to do a quick internet search for coupon codes. The codes you find may not always work, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try! It's all based on word of mouth.

Of course, it also pays to go through ebates.com. I earned $1.19 on my purchase of $23.70 (for 150 cups). Plus, I didn't have to pay tax, like I would in the store. Combine that with the fact that the cups were slightly cheaper than they were in the local party store, and I made out pretty good. Plus, I didn't have to load my kids up in the car and drive around town to find them!

By the way, I know 150 disposable cups is not the greenest choice, but I recently learned that you can compost paper cups and plates. Although there are other negatives to disposables, at least paper varieties won't be sitting in a landfill for ages if you compost them.

70% Coupon for Restaurant.com

Enter discount code DINE at Restaurant.com to get 70% off restaurant gift certificates. That means you pay $3 and you get a $25 gift certificate! Plus, get a free $10 gift from The Fruit Company with every order. Offer expires November 9.

Visit Restaurant.com to see which restaurants are participating in your area. The restrictions vary for each restaurant, so be sure you are okay with them before ordering your gift certificate.

I've used Restaurant.com gift certificates twice now with no problem (Restaurant BT and Giordano's).

By the way, purchase through Ebates to earn cash back rewards. Also, use your Discover to earn 5% cash back on charges at restaurants through December.

20% Off at Office Depot

Click HERE for a 20% off coupon to Office Depot (expires 12/31/09). Staples has a price-match guarantee, so they should accept the coupon as well.

Thanks to the Rachel Ray Show and Mojo Savings.

Mother Earth News: Free Newsletter & 10% Off Online Store

Mother Earth News is an excellent website packed full of practical information about being healthy, green and frugal. The site offers tons detailed do-it-yourself guides that help you live greener and more self-sufficiently. For example, the site has a detailed article about how to make your own paint. There are also guides to organic gardening. The section on modern homesteading makes me want to pack up and move to the county.

Click HERE to sign up for the free email newsletter.

Mother Earth News also has an online store. Use discount code MMEEM9B4 to get 10% off select items through Sunday, November 8. Items included in the sale are a compost container for your kitchen counter, some beautiful recycled rugs (shown above), and more.

Publix Specials - November 5 to 11

There are a number of good buys at Publix this week, most notably in the Greenwise department. Click HERE to view the Publix weekly ad.

I spent $92.95 and saved $72.41. Love it!

Here are the best deals I see so far.

• Muir Glen Organic Pasta Sauce is BOGO. Click HERE to go to Muir Glen's Facebook Fan Page. There is a link to a $1-off coupon on the left-hand column. Click HERE to register on Muir Glen website and get a coupon. You can print both these coupons twice. Also, Muir Glen products often have peel-off coupons on the package that you can use right away.
• Clorox Greenworks Laundry Detergent is $7.99. Click HERE for a $3-off coupon. I also had a $2-off Publix coupon. I was able to use both for a final price of $2.99.
  
• Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain Bread is BOGO.
• Alexia All Natural Bread is BOGO. They are in the frozen rolls section. I got some ciabata rolls that look really yummy!
  
• Swanson Certified Organic Broth is $2.50. I'm excited about this sale. Organic broth is expensive and it rarely goes on sale.
  
• Kashi Cereal is $2.50. I couldn't find any printable coupons, but there have been an abundance of Kashi coupons the past few months. Hopefully you have some on hand. When I registered on the Kashi website, they sent me a bunch of coupons, including several $3-off coupons. I was able to get two boxes for FREE with a 50 cent overage for each.
  
• Tropicana OJ 2 for $6.
• Barilla Pasta is BOGO, but it does not include the whole wheat variety.
  
• General Mills Cereal is BOGO. Click HERE and HERE for a 55-cent-off coupon.
  
• Tostitos Tortilla Chips is BOGO. I have a coupon for a free True North product with a purchase of two Tostitos tortilla chips. I picked it up at Publix on the shelf.
  
• Orville Redenbacher Popping Corn (not microwave) is BOGO. Click HERE for a $1-off 2 coupon. You have to go through a silly (but funny) game to get to the coupon.
  
• Gourmet House Organic Brown Rice is 99 cents
• Loreal Vive Pro products are BOGO. Click HERE for a $1-off coupon. See Special Offers link at the bottom of the page. You have to register and fill out a survey to get the coupon. You may be able to go directly to the coupon by clicking or HERE. Either way, you can print the coupon twice.
• Organic Grape Tomatoes are BOGO

A few reminders about your next trip to Publix:

• Saturday, November 7 from 10AM to 5PM is Customer Appreciation Day at 3 Pulix stores in Lutz (Apex, Lutz Lake Crossing, and Northgate Square). The first 1,000 customers will receive a free coupon holder.
• Check your mail to see if you received a $5-off coupon in the mail this week from Publix. I've gotten one every week for 3 weeks in a row!
  
• Use your Discover card to get 5% cash back on groceries (through December). Make sure you sign up for the program first. Click HERE for more information.
• You can use two coupons on the BOGO items (one for each item). You can usually print the internet coupons at least two times.

Almonds $1.25 at Walgreens

Blue Diamond Almonds are BOGO (buy one get one free) at Walgreens until Saturday, November 7. Click HERE for a 55-cent-off coupon (you can print it twice). Combine the sale and the coupons to get two 6 ounce cans for $1.25 each (regularly $3.49). That comes out to 21 cents per ounce.

What to Do With the Leftover Pumpkin

This Halloween, we decided to decorate our pumpkins with crayons instead of carving jack-o-lanterns so that we could actually eat the pumpkins. Now that the holiday is over, I have pumpkin puree coming out of my ears. Making pumpkin puree is surprisingly easy! Click HERE for step-by-step guide with pictures.

Once you have the puree, there are a million things you can do with it. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Pumpkin Pie. Duh.
  
• Pumpkin Ooey Gooey Bars. My mother made a healthy version of this classic Paula Dean recipe this weekend using fresh pumpkin and an organic cake mix. Very good!
• Pumpkin Peanut Soup. I made this for dinner tonight. It was very simple and very tasty. It reminded me of satay sauce.
  
• Curried Pumpkin Soup. This recipe is a bit more complicated, but sounds (and looks) amazing! I found this recipe on Canary Girl, a great blog by an American mother of four living in the Canary Islands. She loves to cook and take pictures of her food. Her photographs are gorgeous!
  

If you don't want pumpkin every day for the next month, try freezing it. If you divide the puree into small measured portions, you can easily defrost only what you need for a recipe.

You can also freeze the puree in ice cube trays. I've done this with lots of different fruits and vegetables. Because the cubes are small, they defrost quickly. These are some of the ways I've used frozen puree cubes. It's a great way to sneak extra nutrients into to a recipe without dramatically changing the taste.

• smoothies
• pancakes
  
• french toast
  
• vegetable soup
  
• spaghetti sauce
• pizza sauce

Puree cubes are also great for baby food. Wholesome Baby Food an excellent resource for making homemade baby food.