A New Blogging Issue for Me

 First off, let me say that I never started this blog with the intention of having it be a moneymaking  proposition.  And if you've been hanging around and reading me for awhile, you know that I'm not review/giveaway/promotion central.  And you can guess that even though I've put some google ads on the blog, I am NOT seeing any income from this blog.

But the day has finally come.
The day that I was contacted out-of-the-blue by a company to promote their business on my blog.
Ok, I am a member of BlogSpark, and they sent me soup to try and review once....and nifty bowls for my trouble to keep and cherish forever. lol
But this blog isn't a revenue generator.

But now I've been emailed by a business's "social media representative" to talk up a certain business's new, I'll use the word "gimmick" for lack of a better term at the moment.
Basically, they want me to do their advertising for them to my readers.

Oh, and they didn't offer me anything in exchange for my "services" if I do, nor did they offer me anything to offer to my readers(free product or a giveaway prize) to get ya'll excited to listen to the shpeel.

Publicizing or advertising or writing a review for a company or a product is work, it's not fun.  And if you have ever written reviews or promotion shpeel, you know that already.
So unless I am getting something(either free swag, cash, coupons, etc.)I really don't feel inclined to do someone else's work for them.  Do these advertising reps do their job for free?  I think not....

OTOH, if I have a personal experience with a product or business and feel compelled to write an unsolicited review or opinion just because I want to without any expectation of compensation, I will...and I have.

So what would you do? 
Or if you have a blog and review/promote stuff, what do you do?
Do you insist on compensation for promoting a business when a company contacts you in hopes that you will promote them? 
Or do you promote products/businesses out of the goodness of your heart....or in hopes that one day their media consultants see you mention them favorably in your blog and send you a 'thank you' for giving them such good publicity?

I don't want my blog to become a giveaway central or a strictly "here's the deal or the hot coupon".
There are tons of blogs out there that do that already.
My blog is more personal experiences and thoughts with the deals, hot coupons & giveaways thrown in.  It's just a part of what I do and who I am.  I don't want to lose the humaness of it all here.

I just don't know what direction I should go in from this point forward.
Any feedback or ideas would be appreciated.

Sluggy

Weis Unilever Catalina Deal Scenarios to Use UPDATE

IF YOU CAN FIND THE ORGANIC RAGU PASTA SAUCE Jars at your store use them in your Scenarios. 
Why?
Because the Reg. Shelf price is not $1.89 like the regular Ragu jars, it's $3.55!
You will need less product to get to the reg. shelf $20 minimum threshold to trip the Catalina Q.

Try this scenario...
3 x Ragu Sauce  Shelf $3.55=$10.65/Sale $2.00=$6.00
2 x Lipton Tea  Shelf $3.39=$6.78/Sale $2.50=$5.00
1 x Vaseline Lotion  Shelf $3.69/Sale $2.99
   Total Shelf=$21.12/Sale=$13.99

Use Coupons
1 x $1.25/3 Ragu=$1.25
1 x $1/2  Lipton=$1.00
1 x $1/1  Vaseline=$1.00
Coupons Total=$3.25

$13.99-$3.25=$10.74
Use the $7 OYNO Catalina you got from the last deal and your total becomes $3.74 OOP.
And you get another $7 Cat to roll this deal again.

Sluggy

Weis Unilever Catalina Deal Scenarios to Use

As promised, here are some Weis Unilever Catalina Deal Scenarios using the manu. coupons that were in Sunday's inserts.  I didn't figure in any products that there aren't coupons for...like the Slimfast.  Since it's Weis, it's not an amazingly low OOP in the end, but it's pretty good.

But hurry, this sale ends tonight!

To do all 4 Deals, you will need these Coupons...
7 Skippy Qs
2 Lipton Qs
3 Ragu Qs
2 Hellmann's Qs
1 Vaseline Qs

#1-LOWEST INITIAL OOP(do this Scenario 1st if you won't have a $7 Catalina Q to start with)
6 x Skippy PB  Shelf $2.49=$14.94/Sale $1.67=$10.00
2 x Lipton Tea  Shelf  $3.39=$6.78/Sale  $2.50=$5.00
                 Total  Shelf  $21.72/Sale   $15.00
Use 3 x Skippy $1/2 Q=$3.00
Use 1 x Lipton $1/2 Q=$1.00
Coupon Total=$4.00

$15.00-$4.00=$11.00 OOP & get a $7 OYNO Catalina Q.
**If you have a $7 OYNO Catalina Q from rolling this deal this week or from a deal from last week that you can pay with, your total becomes $4.00 OOP instead.

#2
6 x Ragu Sauce Shelf $1.89=$11.34/Sale $1.50=$9.00
4 x Skippy PB  Shelf  $2.49=$9.96/Sale  $1.67=$6.68
               Total Shelf  $21.30/Sale  $15.68
Use 2 x Ragu $1.25/3 Q=$2.50
Use 2 x Skippy $1/2 Q=$2.00
Coupon Total=$4.50

$15.68-$4.50=$11.18 & use the $7 OYNO Cat from the previous deal above and your total becomes $4.18 OOP.
And you get another $7 OYNO Catalina Q.


#3
4 x Skippy PB  Shelf $2.49=$9.96/Sale $1.67=$6.68
2 x Mayo Shelf $3.69 or $4.25=$7.38or$8.50/Sale $3.00=$6.00
1 x Vaseline Lotion  Shelf $3.69/Sale $2.99
       Total  Shelf=$21.03 or $22.15/Sale=$15.67
Use 2 x $1/2 Skippy Q=$2.00
Use 1 x $1/2 Mayo Q=$1.00
Use 1 x $1/1 Vaseline Q=$1.00
Coupon Total=$4.00

$15.67-$4.00Qs=$11.67 & use the $7 OYNO Catalina Q you got from the purchase before and your total becomes $4.67 OOP.
And you get another $7 OYNO Catalina Q.

#4
2 x Mayo  Shelf $4.25=$8.50MUST BUY THE $4.25Mayo/Sale $3.00=$6.00
2 x Lipton Tea  Shelf $3.39=$6.78/Sale $2.50=$5.00
3 x Ragu  Shelf $1.89=$5.67/Sale $1.50=$4.50
     Total Shelf=$20.95/Sale=$15.50
Use 1 x $1/2 Mayo Q=$1.00
Use 1 x $1/2 Tea Q=$1.00
Use 1 x $1.25/3 Ragu Q=$1.25
Coupon Total=$3.25

$15.50=$3.25Qs=$12.25 & use the $7 OYNO Catalina Q you got from the purchase before and your total becomes $5.25 OOP.
And you get another $7 OYNO Catalina Q.

After making these 4 purchases you will have....

14 jars of Skippy Peanut Butter
4 boxes of Lipton Tea Bags
9 jars of Ragu Sauce
4 jars of Mayonnaise
1 bottle of Vaseline Lotion
Products with a regular retail value of $85.00.

It will have cost you $25.10 Out of Pocket or $18.10 Out of Pocket if you used a $7 OYNO Catalina on the first deal.
And you will have a $7 OYNO Coupon to get $7 of free food next shopping trip or use to roll into another Catalina producing Deal in the next week or so before it expires.

Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday...November 15th Edition...Quick and Easy Week

I am late again with the menu this week....sigh.  Oral surgery & painkillers will do that to a person.

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...

Everything but the Shrimp Alfredo and Hot Dogs were served.  Not in the mood for that shrimp dish this week, so I'll go with a different seafood meal this week and I'll move the hot dog meal to this week(we had it last night actually).  I also didn't make the apple pie as we had so many other dessert type foods already.  I'll make that pie later this week with some of the tons of apples I still have here.
Hubby made steak, scalloped potatoes and butternut squash on Sunday.  I appreciated the day off from cooking and he did a great job!  He has offered to make dinner again this Sunday.  Now, how could I refuse an offer like that?  ;-)

Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week....

MONDAY--Hot Dogs(freezer), Beans(stockpile), Carrots(root cellar)
TUESDAY--Chicken Parmesan(freezer), Salad(fridge), Spaghetti(stockpile)
WEDNESDAY--Beef Pie(freezer/stockpile)
THURSDAY--Lasagna(stockpile/freezer), Swiss Chard(end of garden!)
FRIDAY--Grilled Pastrami Panini(fridge), Soup(stockpile)
SATURDAY--Leftovers
SUNDAY--Hubby Surprise...I get the day off, hubby is cooking!

SNACKS/DESSERTS--Apple Pie, lots of stuff in the stockpile

This week is chock full of easy meals since next week will be the major league cooking marathon for Thanksgiving.  I'm giving myself a rest this week.

Last week I spent $84.49 on food and toiletries.  $16.57 of that was on Part 2 of the massive haul from Acme, talked about Here and the rest was stocking up on other Catalina Promos.  It would have been much less OOP on groceries last week except for the Acme Catalina Deals and both my local independent grocer and the regional chain grocery store here had Catalina Deals going.  I can't resist a Cat Deal it seems.  Now that I've gotten my Rite-Aid shopping done for the week I am trying very hard to stay out of the stores this week.  Except for weekly milk purchases, we require NO additional food purchases.  I don't have any RRs to roll at Wags and I have to check if my ECBs are expiring this week or next so I might be able to stay out of CVS too. I'm hoping this week turns out to be a Low Spend Week and I'm going to try for a No Spend Week next week. 

Food Waste Report....nothing wasted again this week.  All vegetable matter composted.

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week!

Sluggy

November Charity Challenge Courtesy of Acme

So I finally got all the Acme Booty gone through and rebagged up a load for the Food Bank in Teeny Tiny Town.  This friday is the weekly distribution and the last one before Thanksgiving so I am glad I got this up there when I did.  The shelves at the FB weren't bare but man, was there ALOT of empty space and boxes in the store room.
Here's what my donation looked like strewn across the minivan....

Pretty full, right?
But here is how small it all looked once it was unloaded onto a table....

Ok...it IS a big 8 foot long table and the shot is from a distance but still....
It didn't seem to make a dent in the need.

Here's the list of what's there....
27 boxes of Cereal
5 jars of Peanut Butter
1 jar of Jelly
14 packages of Pasta/Rice
2 containers of Bread Crumbs
4 sacks of Flour
4 boxes of Fruit Snacks
2 boxes of Cake Mix
2 jars or Frosting
1 box of Instant Potatoes
16 cans of Vegetables
3 boxes of Crackers
4 bags of Pasta
5 boxes of Pop-Tarts
3 jars of Spaghetti Sauce
8 cans of Soup
6 boxes of Mac & Cheese
1 box of Tea Bags

I also hauled up some medical stuff that can be used at the Free Medical Clinic there as well.  I didn't get a shot of the Glucose Meters and the bag of OTC medicines but those were included in this drop off of goodies.
The value of the food part of it was $361.71.

Because of a bit of work and time on my part and ALOT of Coupons and a really nice Sale at Acme last week, there are going to be a few people who otherwise don't qualify for any government programs getting a bit more to eat later this week.
And that can only be labeled a good thing.

In this Month when many are Counting Their Blessings, do you have an opportunity to show your thankfulness by sharing your Harvest with others?

Even if your food budget doesn't stretch enough to be giving what food stuff you purchase away, there are other ways to help the hungry that are painless.

Did you qualify for a FREE TURKEY or MORE than One Turkey at the grocery store this month?
Instead of jamming yet another turkey into your freezer, how about sharing one of those Turkeys with a needy neighbor who doesn't have one, either directly giving it to them or through donating it at your local Food Bank/Pantry or Soup Kitchen.

What about those 20 cans of whatever that were an amazing deal but your family won't eat that is languishing in your stockpile?  I bet your local food drive could put them into the hands of people who would really enjoy them!

How about inviting someone who has no family to gather with next week to your family Thanksgiving meal.  Surely, one more mouth to feed won't be much of an imposition or strain on your budget? And it could very well mean the world to someone who feels left out and islolated in this time of community and family.

Take a minute to make a tangible difference in someone's life this week.  Buy some food or write a check to your local program that feeds the needy.

If you can't swing a monetary donation to some good cause, give your time.
Better yet, do Both!

Check out the CVS SAVER to see what others are doing this month to make a difference in their small part of the world!

And leave a comment here to share what you are doing for others this holiday season.




Sluggy