Rain seriously foiled my plans to hit yard sales, so I scoured the Craigslist ads to find out if there was anything going on in the thrift store circuit. There was! One of the local shops does a 50% off everything in the store event once a season.

Time for another giveaway, frugal friends!

This one is for a pack of (5) $1.35 off coupons for Fiber One yogurt. The generous folks over at Pssst... gave me a bundle of these to share. There will be two winners chosen for this one. Couple these valuable coupons with sales/in-store coupons and you could be scoring some of this delicious, nutritious yogurt for free or next to free.

To enter, please leave a comment telling me what your favorite high-fiber food is. That's it! Two randomly selected winners will be announced on Wednesday evening.

The randomly selected winner of an Amazon gift card is:

Congrats! Please email me so I can get your mailing address and send those right out to you.

*Peanut butter oatmeal, milk

*English muffin, cream cheese, tomato juice

*PBJ, carrot sticks, popcorn, fruit

*Tuna sandwich, veggies with dip, fruit

*Health shake, trail mix, fruit

*Grilled cheese, soup, fruit

*Chicken soup with rice, bread and butter

*Chicken parmesan, spaghetti, side salad

*Cuban black beans and rice, skillet corn

*BBQ at new coworker's home (no cooking...yay!)

*Tuna cakes, cole slaw, balsamic tomato salad

*Waynesboroughs, tomato juice

*Creamy chicken burritos, salsa ranch salad

*Multigrain chips with salsa

*Popcorn

*Triscuits with cheddar slices

The randomly selected winner of a pack of coupons for Bounce's new dryer bars is:

Congrats! Please email me so I can get your mailing address and send those right out to you.

Work at Home Mafia recently compiled a list of 84 (yes, eighty-four!) companies to sign up for product-testing and review opportunities!

Have you tried any of these?

It's Frugal Friday!

Do you notice prices creeping back up again? Gas. Groceries.

And yet somehow while everyone else is hiking up prices, Aldi keeps lowering theirs. How is it possible? I don't know and I don't care! But I am officially back to shopping there.

You have to love their new lower prices. And as a diabetic trying to improve my health, I have to love their bigger-than-ever selection of Fit & Active items. Aldi is a simple shopping experience. Simplicity and frugality are two of my goals in life, so the decision to switch was easy!

*I did not receive any compensation for the nice things I have said about Aldi here today. I just think they are a fab company and wanted to share with my frugal friends!

My freebies have been piling up in my in-bin, awaiting me to show them to my frugal friends! Here is what I received last week while I was internet-free:

As I said yesterday I am jumping on the meal planning bandwagon with The Happy Housewife. Yes, I have been meal planning for a long, long time. But this past year I have been trying so many new recipes I've seen around the blogosphere that I have gotten away from some of our old staples. So much that I had to sit down and ask my family what they loved most.

The first task was to list 15 Favorite Meals. Next Toni is asking everyone to add 5 more meals to their list of fifteen and jot down some side dishes. So here we go...

Free 2 Be Frugal is also on Twitter! Follow along for special offers, freebies, and more.

Can you believe there are people who don't menu plan? I could not even begin to function without one every single week (I did have one this past week but was sans-internet so I didn't post it). But sometimes even a devoted planner runs low on inspiration. Enter The Happy Housewife.

She is working on a series on Menu Plannng 101. This isn't just for menu plannin' newbies, but for veterans too! Maybe you have been trying so many new recipes that you have lost touch with family favorites. Maybe you are stuck in a menu rut. Maybe you want to organize better, say a month at a time instead of weekly. If so you are going to want to tune in for the series. The Happy Housewife is giving assignments each week, and even though I am a little behind the times I am jumpin in now!

Here are my family's 15 favorite meals:

If you live on the East coast then you know how disgustingly humid and icky it has been for the past few weeks. Not yard sale weather by any means. What does that mean for me? Lots more trips to the thrift shop! I did go a few times in the past month, but I didn't take pics of my scores because they were bunches and bunches of books for my classroom library. Not exciting stuff. Nothing to write home about. Used books can be a dime a dozen. Not literally (unfortunately), more like 3 for $1.

Anyhoo...

This past weekend I headed over to the Goodwill with a mission. Operation find black pants! And I did succeed. I knabbed three pairs of the essential bottoms, all new with tags. And all three together were still cheaper than buying one pair from a department store.

• Amazon.com
• Starbucks
• Target
• itunes
• Cash via Paypal
• Cash via prepaid Mastercard

Click here to sign up today. And once you join up you can refer friends and earn even more Swagbucks. How great is that?

It's Frugal Friday!

Our family has killer allergies. There seems to be no miracle meds for it so it seems that one of us is always ailing. This past week it was my poor son. Most days his Allegra provides relief. Sometimes we need to use a nebulizer, too. But sometimes he gets a persistent cough. And last week was no exception.

I have tried every OTC cough medicine there is for children. My final attempt was Delsym. People swear by this. And yet, for my son--no dice. In desperation I began to look online for homeopathic remedies. One called for a tablespoon of honey mixed with a tablespoon of lemon juice. I mixed some up right quick (we always have both of these on hand) and TA-DA! Worked like magic. The best part is that you can take it as needed unlike medications. And it worked fast. My son happily went to sleep without a hitch for the first time in a week.

Here's to honey!

Free 2 Be Frugal is also on Twitter! Follow along for special offers, freebies, and more.

Today I would like to share a tip on how to get some FREE supplies for your classroom...Ask and ye shall receive!

*Hard-boiled egg, toast, apple slices

*Rice cakes with peanut butter, banana, milk

*English muffin, cream cheese, tomato juice

*Lunch meeting at Indian Buffet (no cooking...yay!)

*Chicken salad on bed of lettuce, Triscuits, fruit

*Whole wheat pepperoni pizza, celery sticks, fruit

*Glucerna shake, Open-face PBJ

*Tuna on whole wheat bread, pickles, cheese, fruit

*Triscuits with cream cheese, carrot sticks, tomato juice, fruit

*Grilled cheese w/tomato on whole wheat bread, carrot sticks, fruit

*Dinner at In-Laws' (no cooking...whoo-hoo!)

*Chicken soup, garden salad, bread

*Beef and bean burritos, salsa and tortilla chips

*Roasted Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots

*Tuna casserole, peas

*Bacon and cheese omelets, toast, tomato juice

*Chicken Parmesan over pasta, salad, Italian green beans

*Leftover birthday cake

*Multigrain chips

*GORP

*Yogurt with fruit, nuts

*Chai tea with milk, toast

*Popcorn with nuts

Are you a child of the 80's? If you answered "yes", then chances are you will enjoy the Rock of Ages soundtrack. Rock of Ages is a new Broadway play starring American Idol finalist Constantine. Remember him? (Woo-hoo for a Jersey boy!) He rocks out in the rock 'n roll love story, covering a variety of 80's hits like "Waiting for a Girl Like You", "We Built This City" and "Here I Go Again".

As soon as I opened up this CD (generously sent to me by One2One Network) I knew I had to wait for my hubby to get home. Who else could share the 80's love with me better than him? And who would air guitar while I sang along to the tunes of Poison, Whitesnake, and Journey? Now I will tell you that the songs are recorded by the stars of the Broadway hit, not the original artists. Though the nostalgia was great, I secretly wished their was a Side B feature (wait, am I aging myself here with a reference to albums?) with the original tunes too.

The soundtrack left me and my hubby wanting desperately to go see this musical, which is HUGE because my hubby typically loathes going to see theatre productions. Two thumbs up, Rock of Ages!

Sometimes it is good to rest, ya know?

I am realizing more and more that my life is calling for more simplicity. And so from now on, Free 2 Be Frugal will be unplugged for the weekends. Sometimes a media fast is a good thing. I encourage all my Frugal Friends to take more time to rest and spend time with your families. It will make all the difference in how you face your week!

Fear not...the same great features will continue here during the week:

It's Frugal Friday!

This week's post is a cautionary tale. When you plunge deep into the world of penny-pinching it is easy to lose sight of what frugality really means. I remember the first time I ever checked out a dollar store. And the second time, and the third time, and the twentieth time. I could not believe the deals! I mean there was scads of junky items made in China, but there was also plenty of items I knew were worth way more than a dollar. But just because something is a "good deal" doesn't mean you need to buy it (or 3 or 5 of them, as it may be). If you are stopping by dollar stores and dropping $40 every week it is still spending $40. No matter if you leave with $95 worth of stuff! Money is money, no matter where you spend it. And dropping that kind of dough at any store (except for groceries) is silly when you are trying to live lean.

And what about all those drugstore deals? I know lots of ladies who play the drugstore game on a regular basis, snatching up "deals" on more toiletries than anyone will ever use in a lifetime. The only trouble with playing that game is that in order to make money, you have to put money out. I have been burned too many times on rebates that never came and registers that never printed out my credits/coupons. If you are low on funds, it is best to stay out of the game.

Frugality doesn't mean buying tons of stuff cheap. It means living within or below your means instead of beyond them. Being frugal is about focusing on what you need over what you want. It doesn't mean hoarding up stuff. Stuff is stuff, no matter how much you pay for it. And stuff will never make you happy. And you will never get out of debt or manage to truly save any money if you keep chasing stuff.

I'm just sayin'...

Free 2 Be Frugal is also on Twitter! Follow along for special offers, freebies, and more.