Pink Together Giveaway!

If you are a woman, or you know women, then you are bound to have Breast Cancer affect you at some point, in some way, during your lifetime.

My mother had 2 breast cancer scares with tumors that turned out to be benign thankfully.
But I do have a few friends who have battled and are survivors of this disease.
Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, one of my online friends lost her 5 year battle.

So when MyBlogSpark asked me to post about the 2011 Pink Together Campaign I was more than happy to oblige.

Visit PinkTogether.com to share your personal story and messages of hope and read about others’ personal journeys. To encourage personal connections, General Mills will donate $1 to the Komen organization for each Message of Hope that is sent to someone who has shared their story on PinkTogether.com (up to $25,000) during October. This is in addition to a $2 million donation General Mills is making to the Komen organization.  This year, for the first time in its five-year history, at PinkTogether.com consumers can choose how $1 million of this donation will be shared between two important Komen programs: the Treatment and Assistance Program, which assists women in securing care they otherwise may not be able to afford, and Prevention Research, which helps unlock the keys to preventing breast cancer. Visit PinkTogether.com from September 19, 2011 through April 14, 2012 to make your choice. Results will be announced on Mother’s Day 2012 – Sunday, May 13. Meet the 2011 Pink Together Survivor Ambassadors, and hear their amazing stories of courage and survival on PinkTogether.com and the Pink Together YouTube Channel. General Mills will also be turning the packaging of participating products pink in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October.

I have been supplied with a Prize Pack as part of my participation in this Pink Together Campaign.
MyBlogSpark has also supplied an identical Prize Pack for a Giveaway to one Lucky Don't Read This; It's Boring! Reader.

WIN IT!

Here is what you can Win...

Your prize pack will contain:
• A 16 oz. box of Total cereal
• VIP coupons valid for one box of Cheerios and Multigrain Cheerios cereal and one cup of Yoplait yogurt
• Betty Crocker Living with Cancer Cookbook Pink Together Edition, which includes a collection of more than 150 delicious recipes with complete nutrition information and a 32-page Pink Together Survivor Ambassador bonus section that shares inspirational personal stories of survival as well as recipes
• Water bottle and removable silicone awareness bracelet
• Drawstring sport backpack
• Rhinestone ear buds

And Here is Your Mandatory Entry.....

•  Leave a comment about "How you have been touched by breast cancer".  Be specific or be vague, whatever you are comfortable sharing.
 

For additional entries....Go to PinkTogether.com and check it out.

•   Then leave a comment on "How you have interacted with the community on PinkTogether.com" for one additional entry.
• Leave a comment about what you find most inspiring about the Pink Together community for another additional entry.
• Leave a comment on which Susan G. Komen program you feel most passionate about at PinkTogether.com for another additional entry.
• "Like" Pink Together on Facebook then come back and Leave a comment that you did that for one additional entry.
• "Follow" Don't Read This; It's Boring! by clicking on the FOLLOW Bar on the righthand side bar, then Leave a comment here for one additional entry.
• Post about this Giveaway on your own Blog or a Message Board/Online Community then Leave 3 separate comments here for three additional entries.
• Follow me on Twitter.  Here I am.  Leave a comment on this post that you are a Follower with your Twitter name/id for an additional entry.
• Tweet about this Giveaway on Twitter.  Leave a comment on this post with your status link for an additional entry.  This entry can be done once a day for more entries.

There you go.....11+ ways to gain entries!  Do one, do them all or something in between.  It just depends on how much you want to win this. ;-)

This Giveaway will be open from the moment I hit the publish button until Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 11:59pm ET.
On October 16th, I'll borrow some extra fingers and toes to tally up all the entries and use Random Org to pick a winner.

And this is open to those with US mailing addresses only please.

Here is the Legal Mumbo Jumbo.....“ The Pink Together prize pack, information and coupons have been provided free of charge by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.”
I have not been paid to promote this campaign or feature this giveaway, but I did get some cool prizes.

So get busy and Good Luck!


Sluggy

The Frugal Weekend Report

Let's see.....what did I do over the weekend.....

Last weekend was one of my favorite frugal activities of the year.
One of the local churches holds a little festival, composed of a flea market, bake sale and then a country auction at the end of the day.
I go to this each year as it's a great place to round out my eating out options for the year.
Along with all the fine second-hand items donated, the ladies at this church get a load of gift certificates to local businesses to auction off as well.
Mostly the certs are for restaurants but they also have auto servicing(inspections, oil changes, etc.), hair cuts and other salon features, gas for the car, fuel for the home, et cetera.

I am a big spender at their auction and they always love to see me coming. 8-)
Not only do they like the cash I drop at this thing but I do a fair share of bidding other folks up.
Yes, sometimes certs will not be going for a fair price, so I'll jump in and start a bidding war so that the church actually makes a few dollars holding this thing.
It's one thing to get a good deal, but if you are walking out paying $2 for a $20 gift certificates over and over again, not only will they stop holding these(which I can't have happen!lol)but it's not charitable either.
Most certs go for about half of the value but the sought after ones go higher.  And since it's for charity, I will bid as high as the full retail price if it's an establishment that I would go to anyway and spend full retail at....like Mickey D's for #2 son for example.
But I don't like to make a habit of paying full price.....

Here is what I brought home.....

Mostly it's eating out certs but we snagged 2 barbershop haircuts for $5 each this year.
We enjoy eating out and this is one way I round out my eating out budget frugally.
Not only that, it supports this fine church group(though I am not a member)and because we often spend/eat in excess of the value of the certificate when we go to redeem it, it also helps support the local businesses.

While Hubs is still upset he missed winning a couple of used leather laptop cases, I did snag a food processor(used once!) and a swing arm lamp to mount on the wall next to my dungeon-like computer corner(it even still had a light bulb in it!lol)

In the end we won $300 in gift certificates, the lamp and food processor for under $200.
I always round up what I pay them to an even amount, so I cut a check for $200.

Winning!

On Sunday afternoon Hubs and I had a date.  We still had a gift certificate we won last year at the auction to a restaurant we enjoy that serves Greek food.  It's quite a distance from where we live so we decided since we had the day free to take a drive there and use this cert.
I scoped out and found that 2 different from what I usually shop at grocery stores were down the street from the restaurant so after scarfing down Moussaka and Spanakopita, we went to GiantPA.

I checked out the flyer online before we went and saw a small Deal I wanted to get there.  They had a "Buy 10 products, Get $5 off Instantly" Promotion.  Since it's a store I don't shop at regularly, in a town not nearby, this sort of instant discount promotion makes more sense for me than a Catalina one, where I would have to return to the store again to get the discount.
So I jumped on this deal since we are addicted to Brownies around here......

10 x Brownie Mix on sale 4/$5($1.25 ea.)=$12.50
The instant discount....$12.50-$5=$7.50
I also had 2 x $1/2 any Pillsbury baking item ManuQs...$7.50-$2=$5.50 OOP

This meant my brownie mixes cost me .55¢ each.
I can't buy the ingredients to make 10 batches of brownies for that cheap so I am happy paying this price.

I also picked up some inexpensive chicken breasts while in Giant.  Since Hubs doesn't enough wandering around the grocery store checking things out like I do, especially when he is full of Greek food and just wants to nap, I didn't do a whole lot of reconnoitering at Giant.  I did feel that the prices were a bit high and the sale prices weren't that great on the things I usually buy.
But then again, Weis is no great deal anymore either! 8-(

We also harvested the last items from the garden this past weekend......

My two last surviving pumpkins.  They weren't quite fully ripe yet but with it raining EVERY DAY FOR TWO WEEKS, I was done with waiting and chancing they would rot in the mucky, soggy yard before the rain stopped and they got the last dose of sun they needed.
They are now happily orange through and through and awaiting my skillful hands(skillful?...maybe....)to turn them into full-on yummy-ness. ;-)

So there you have it!

A weekend choked full of...
Buying Local
Buying Second-Hand
Buying At Discount Price
Growing Your Own Food
Can't get a much more Compact and Frugal Weekend than that, huh? 8-)

Sluggy

Guess Who Went to Rite-Aid Last Week?

Why, yes I did!

I know I said that I was on a break from Rite-Aid pillaging but I had 4 free item coupons that expired Sept. 30th.

First I need to update my Grand Totals for September Single Check Rebate Period.
I only darkened Rite-Aid's door 1 time during that SCR Period.
You can just go HERE if you want to see my numbers for September.

I am starting October with no +Up Rewards at all.  It's still hard to wrap my brain around being +Up-less....lol
So into Rite-Aid I went on Thursday afternoon, the 30th, and came out with this.....

4 x Pantene Conditioner on sale $4=$16.00
1 x Cella cherry w/20% wellness discount=$.26
SubTotal....$16.26

Coupons Used
4 x Free Pantene item up to $4.99 ManuQs(homemailers)=$16.00
Coupon Total.....$16.00

$16.26-$16.00=$.26 OOP which I put on my Rite-Aid gift card.

THIS TRIP
Number of Transactions.....1
Total Spent....$.26 put on free gift card
Value of Items....$21.49
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$0.00
+Up Rewards spent.....$0.00
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$0.00
And I have $32.39 left on my gift card.

And now, the monthly totals so far.
Rite-Aid GRAND TOTALS--OCTOBER Rebate Period

Number of Transactions......1
Total Spent....$.26 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Number of Items purchased.....1
Value of Items purchased....$21.49
SCR qualified for....$0.00
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for September SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 9/6.....$0.00
+Up Rewards spent....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards left....$0.00  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

Analysis-- Obviously I needed to use these FREE Qs up before they expired.  I kept waiting for a Get X+Ups WYB XX Deal to come up at Rite-Aid involving Pantene during this time to get more bang for my(their) buck,  but it didn't happen.
Bleh.
I bought conditioner not 'poo.  I have tubs and tubs of 'poo.
Of course, because of this, #2 son decides he NEEDS conditioner for his hair.....of which I have none.
This lot of bottles hopefully will last until I can get more for free or he gets a job and buys his own, but I am not holding my breath on option 2 happening.  >_<

While I didn't need to buy that filler cherry thing, not having a $0 transaction at the register means managers need NOT be called to give me the stink eye and press a button to ok the transaction.  Throw in a cherry and everyone goes away happily flying under the radar. lol

Now I was perfectly happy with this transaction and not jumping back on the Rite-Aid Crazy Train until I saw THIS Rebate.

Everyone is using the $8/2 CoverGirl ManuQ that came in Sunday's P&G insert to get well on the way to the $50 worth of product to qualify for this by doing the "Spend $30 Get $10 +Ups Deal".  Buying tons of make-up doesn't stir my heart and Venus razors or so pricey, but........Pantene is also included in the Pink Rebate.  And the begin date is 9/1/11, which means the $16 in Pantene I just bought qualities for this rebate if I care to give it a whirl.
Hmmmm.....I only need $34 more and there is that "Spend $30 get $10+Ups deal" at Rite-Aid, but I don't have 4 of the $8/2 CoverGirl Qs, only 2.
Now my eye is twitching and I fall asleep amidst thinking up scenarios in my head....

Sluggy

This Old Blog

With my computer being rendered deader than Charlie Sheen's humility last week I lost all my FAVORITES.
ACK!!!

I'd appreciate it if anyone who reads this could leave me the addy for your blog in the comments section.

I feel like Bob Villa today with having to rebuild everything around here. 
Bob Freaking Villa I say.....but with less facial hair!

Sluggy

Is Blogger Weird or is My New Computer Possessed?

Either I am experiencing the problem everyone else seemed to have with Blogger this summer....the one about not being able to leave comments....or my new machine is possessed.

Not only am I not being allowed to leave comments on other bloggers-though I DID finally get to leave one on Judy's on Sat. and on SonyaAnn's this morning-but I can't even leave comments on MY OWN BLOG!LOLOL

I can't use my blogger/google account id to comment.  I have to comment under the Name/URL profile, preview my comment, word verification and then hit Post.
And then, get this.......my comment does NOT post to my own blog.
I have to go to my dashboard and moderate my own comment!LOL

What I don't need is ANOTHER LAYER OF CRAZY in my day!

I think I have come up with the perfect name for this new machine.
HAL



I am off to figure this out so I can get on with the usual f'ed upness that are my days....

Sluggy