Frances | July 27, 2009

Silent Programs IV

We have noticed that there are programs (government and private) that no one seems to know about. If they do, they are keeping it quiet. Well, we are going to try and bring these programs out in the open in hopes that it will inform the people who really need it.

Click here to see the first Silent Program – FEMA 1835 – 1836 DR-AL

Click here to see the second Silent Program – Charitable Pharmacy

Click here to see the third Silent Program – Children’s Dental Assistance

For the forth issue of silent programs, the city of Fairhope has teamed up with the Nation League of Cities to provide Fairhope residents with a prescription drug discounts cards. These cards offer a savings of 20% off the retail price of prescribed drugs. The cards are available to anyone regardless of age, income level, or existing health coverage.

These cards are accepted at all major and pharmacies in Fairhope.

Not a Fairhope resident check www.caremark.com or 800-620-1749 or to find out where to get the cards in your area. Caremark services cities all over the U.S.

Thank you Baldwin Register!

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Frances | July 24, 2009

Thank you to a reader Dianne  for giving us a reminder of the difference between blogs and websites.

We have a lot of information posted on Frugal Fairhope and some of that content can expire in a month, week, or even an hour. We update Frugal Fairhope daily with new content, so to get the latest up to date information checking the site daily would be a “good thing”.

Here is our take on the difference between a blog and a website.

Frugal Fairhope is in a blog form and not “website” form, posts like this one dated July 24th are a blog post. Most bloggers will not go back and update previous posts even as far back as a month (unless there was a obvious mistake). Our understanding is that is the entire point to blogging. Getting your thoughts and ideas in a post and keep going.

If Frugal Fairhope was a “website”, we would constantly be updating and removing content in our posts. For example we would remove the drug store and grocery deals from last week that no longer apply.

The world is constantly changing and so is the internet, blogs are now a part of websites and websites have now added blogs. It truly is a great world we live in that changes are made to traditional ways of doing things. This is the reason we have added fixed posts listed on the right hand side of Frugal Fairhope.

We have found that some of the blogs that we frequent post new information every day sometimes twice a day. We have found that if we miss a day, we miss information. To avoid this situation, we have put a few pages that are fixed. These fixed pages are updated without the standard blog post and are just a simple one page list of information. We have placed these fixed pages on the top right to make it easier to find. These fixed pages are updated and will include the date of the update so that you can tell in one glance if there have been any changes.

Imagine if you were trying to find the Lever printable coupon link from two weeks ago, you would have to either search for Lever (which is sometimes painful), scroll through dozens of posts, or click on Master Coupon page and go right to the fixed page of coupons. The fixed page is a lot easier in our opinion.

Click here for How We Do Things Differently and check out more details of the fixed posts and the fun debate in our family.

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Frances | July 24, 2009

It is a huge honor to be a guest post for Tara at DealSeekingMom.com.

Please take a minute and click over to her site and check out the article How to Stop the Spending.

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Frances | July 23, 2009

Did you know that you can use your ECB bucks and ECB coupons when ordering products on line at CVS.com? Use your coupons and rewards when you shop online.

Here is the information from the site:

If you are an ExtraCare cardholder, you know just how rewarding it can be to use the card every time you shop. And now you can take advantage of your Extra Bucks® when you shop online. In your Shopping Cart, click on the Use Coupons/ExtraCare Rewards button at the bottom of the page to apply online coupons and/or ExtraCare Rewards to your purchase. Just enter the relevant codes and your ExtraCare card number in the appropriate section of the Rewards and Coupons page. The coupon value cannot exceed the total value of merchandise in your Shopping Cart.

To find out more about CVS and how to use those ECBs check out How Does This Work? Some key points to note about ECBs:

• One household can have two CVS Extra Care Card? You and your significant other can have a card. So this will double your savings.
• CVS ECBs will roll over. You can use a ECB to pay for a transaction and receive ECBs for the items you purchased.
• ECBs, store coupons, and manufacturer coupons can be stacked and used in one transaction.
• If the cashier has the time, you can do more than one transaction in your trip and use the ECBs to pay for the next purchase.
• CVS gives you back 2% on your purchases. Every quarter your ECBs will print after your purchase receipt.
• ECBs must be greater than the purchase amount, no change can be given.
• Always scan your card at the kiosk if your store has one. We got $5 off $30 ECB coupon and a $10 off $50 ECB coupon last week. If you store does not have a kiosk, the ECB coupons will print after you make a purchase.
• You can print your ECB coupons on your online account.
• CVS ECB coupons and manufacturer coupons can be combined.
• CVS.com has printable store and manufacturer coupons on their site.

Want to know how the clearance sales work at CVS? Check out this post, Interpreting CVS Clearance.

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Frances | July 19, 2009

And you think printing coupons can be frustrating when they wont print, try applying for the Home Made Simple booklet (expecting great coupons) and getting this

TWICE!!!

We just hope someone in the post office is putting these coupons to good use and not tossing the inside of this booklet (including the coupon for the Free Cascade Rinse).

We are writing to P&G Home Made Simple this afternoon in hopes they will send us replacements inside a large envelope this time.

We are not really upset about this we are just having a good time and this is our attempt at humor.

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Frances | July 17, 2009

Silent Programs III

We have noticed that there are programs (government and private) that no one seems to know about. If they do, they are keeping it quiet. Well, we are going to try and bring these programs out in the open in hopes that it will inform the people who really need it.

Click here to see the first Silent Program – FEMA 1835 – 1836 DR-AL

Click here to see the second Silent Program – Charitable Pharmacy

For the third issue of silent programs, we just got a notice that USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital and the Rotary Club of Mobile has opened a Rotary Pediatric Dental Program for physically and mentally disabled children. Here is the information from their site which is at http://www.southalabama.edu/usacwh/news.html.

Children with special needs requiring unique dental service delivery now have a place to which they can turn.

USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital, with support from the Rotary Club of Mobile, has established the Rotary Pediatric Dental Program, a dental care program to meet the needs of physically and mentally disabled children.

“Access to dental care for special needs children is crucial,” Kaye Cooper, Surgical Services nurse manager at USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital, said. “We are thrilled to be able to provide this important service for our community’s special needs children.”

A $15,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Mobile enabled the purchase of specialized dental equipment. “Children and health care are two priority areas to which we are deeply committed,” Jeff Zoghby, president of the Rotary Club of Mobile, said. “We’re happy that USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital shares that commitment.”

Dr. Maureen Baldy of Mobile Premier Pediatric Dentistry, the only board certified pediatric dentist in Mobile, will provide the professional services. “USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital has given me the unique opportunity to complete dental care on children who are either too young to cooperate in a normal clinical setting or who have special health care needs that require a general anesthetic to complete their dental care,” Baldy said. “I am thrilled to have this opportunity.”

USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital is among less than ten freestanding hospitals in the country dedicated specifically to the health care needs of children and women, offering Mobile’s only neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, pediatric oncology outpatient center and high-risk obstetrical care. For more information, please visit www.southalabama.edu/usacwh or call 415-1000.

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Frances | July 16, 2009

We have previously talked about this in another post but we thought we would refresh our memories.

We had issues this morning printing coupons from our site with a laptop. This is strange and I can not explain it, but once we rebooted our machine turned on and off the printer everything was working. We have heard there was a crash with a part of the internet yesterday so that could be the reason? Who knows why these things happen. It can be very frustrating at times.

One other tip we have tried is to leave the machine for about 30 minutes, and come back to it, especially if it is the internet that we are having issues with. Joe Billy Bob could have cut a line with his back hoe or like yesterday some fictional “gremlin” decides to play some jokes.

Now every time you have trouble printing you will think of Joe Billy Bob in a t-shirt or the little cute gremlin from the 1990′s movie. Good news maybe this will make you smile.

Here are a few more tips that could help you print what you need.

• Download Firefox at this link. This is a free download. If the link will not work with Internet Explorer we copy the link to Firefox and it prints.

• Disable your firewall. If you’re running a personal firewall, the .exe file may not install properly. Follow the instructions to disable your firewall to install the coupon printer. Turn it back on when you’re installation is complete!

• Verify that you have administrator rights. You will not be able to install the coupon printer if you do not have administrator rights.

• Make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser. This is a good resource on enabling JavaScript.

• Turn off your pop-up blocker. If you use a pop-up blocker, you need to turn it off to print coupons.

• Did you know that many companies that use bricks will actually mail you the coupon? Where do you find the link to request to have your coupon mailed? Look for the little “help” at the bottom of the screen.

• By changing a few characters in the URL. Clicking on coupons.com/bricks links that they received in FireFox, will not work in Internet Explorer or vice versa. You get the “Please wait…” or “Please Install The Coupon Printer”.  See below for the tip:

Change 2 characters in the URL to make a FireFox link work in Internet Explorer and vice versa. The following is a FireFox link:

hxxp://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=ri3peuo59687503&bt=wg&o=53740&ci=1&c=GM&p=TyQrvJAY

note the “wg” in the URL. This link gives the repeating Please Install The Coupon Printer in Internet Explorer.

To make that link an Internet Explorer link we simply change “wg” to “wi” OR “vi” (in this case, both variations work, other coupons it may be wi or vi, trial and error):
hxxp://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=ri3peuo59687503&bt=wi&o=53740&ci=1&c=GM&p=TyQrvJAY
or
hxxp://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=ri3peuo59687503&bt=vi&o=53740&ci=1&c=GM&p=TyQrvJAY

If you want to print bricks coupons on a MAC with Safari, replace the “wg”, “wi”, or “vi” to “xs”. You can also do the reverse, take a Safari link “xs” to IE “wi” or “vi” or to FireFox “wg”.

We hope this helps you.

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Frances | July 5, 2009

Are you feeling a little guilty about using 30+ coupons every week when you go to the grocery store? Do you feel that maybe the store is loosing money when you knock 50%-75% off your grocery bill?

Did you know that stores make money when you use coupons?

Let’s get our magnifying glass out and read the fine lines on those coupons.  The coupon states: “Manufacturer will reimburse retailer the face value of this coupon plus $0.08 handling fee.” The manufacture will reimburse the store the full value of the coupon plus $.08! So the store makes money for every coupon used. If you used 30 coupons, the store not will not only be reimbursed for the full face value of the coupon but the store just made $2.40 for your shopping trip.

Did you know that a store makes even more money when you use a coupon for a B1G1 sale?

For an example let’s say that tuna is on sale for B1G1 $4.50. You buy two cans (B1G1) and use two $1 off coupons for each can. The store will be reimbursed $2 for the coupons plus $.16 handling fee. So the store has made $1.08 more than if you had not used a coupon.

And don’t start feeling sorry for the manufactures. They spend thousands  of dollars a year marketing to brand their products and get you to try them. They offer coupons to consumers in order create brand loyalty so their products will end up on your table.  They hope that by offering a coupon you will try their product and realize that you can’t live without it.

Everyone wins when consumers use coupons so be proud of yourself, you are helping the economy.

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Frances | July 1, 2009

Here are the facts on the Publix store.

• They will accept Target printable coupons
• Buy $100 in groceries and get free flowers
• Pick up a $5 Publix coupon at customer service (ask for them)
• Stop by Bruno’s (or check Wednesday mail for the circular) and get their $5 off coupon
• Print your Publix (“retailer”) coupon and the manufactured coupons.  You can stack these coupons for the same item in the same transaction.

Publix gets a thumbs up from Frugal Fairhope!

As we predicted this has changed our world on the Eastern Shore.

We are sure there will be more things to find out about this wonderful store.

We are making a prediction that you will see some major changes to other food stores in the area.

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