Sisterly Savings

Today’s FREE Redbox Rental Code is 2MNC92.

New to Redbox? Go to www.redbox.com

We are rapidly approaching the holidays and money continues to be tight. If your holiday gift list is stressing you out, consider scoring some free gift cards. Here are some creative ways to get free gift cards. You can either spend the card and buy a gift, give the card itself, or buy yourself something special!

Look around for local bank promotions. SunTrust Bank has a promo going for a free $50 gift card when you open an account with $100. You don’t have to close your existing account an move everything, just meet the criteria to get the gift card. I did this promo and you have to jump thru a few hoops – fill out the online redemption form and use your debit card – but I got the $50 card. Click here for the SunTrust promo. FlagStar Bank has a similar offer, but you have to have a direct deposit going into the account to qualify. Click here for the FlagStar Bank promo.

Donate blood. The Red Cross often has local promotions to encourage blood donation. I’ve scored free movie and food gift cards this way. For example, click here for a recent promotion in Daytona, Florida for a free grocery gift card when you donate blood. Watch your local newspaper or listen on the radio for local blood donation promotions. You will be helping out your community and getting a freebie!

Be active on Facebook. You can find all sorts of freebies. Sears recently gave away a $5 gift card to the first 10,000 Facebook members who became a fan of their site.

Want to know more? Click here for a list of 10 ways to get free gift cards – no investment (except your time), and no long internet surveys required!

Steven emailed this nice freebie:

Go to www.drpepper.com register & get a free 20oz Dr Pepper

by mail, today only.

Hurry and get your Free Coupon!!

Thanks Steven!!!

Friday, 11/28 only (Black Friday) Old Navy will be giving out a Freebie to the early birds!

Be one of the 1st people to get in line for their Black Fridays Deals where you’ll get 50% off Select Styles denim,performance fleece and sweaters.

Get a Free Samsung Pebble MP3 Player ( a $39.99 value) with a purchase of $20 or more (while supplies last) to the 1st 50 to 200 people in line! The MP3 Player has a 250 Song Capacity with 13 hours of rechargable listening!Doors open at 5 am!

Right now Kellogg’s is offering a $1 off coupon good for any Kellogg Cereal. You can download it from www.kelloggs.com through the end of December and use it at stores through the end of July 2009.

And, because most Kellogg cereals are less than 50 cents per serving, including milk, your family’s first two bowls are on Kellogg’s!

Barb sent us an email with this great find!

DirtDevil just posted a 2008 Guide to Online Shopping Shortcuts. It has the best list of daily deal sites I have ever seen. And it has some neat tricks for finding promo codes. The guide can be downloaded as a pdf. Check for the link on the home page www.DirtDevil.com.

Once on the site, Click on button that says “Over 250 Links, Tricks & Clever ways to Save Online” on the right hand side (its a small button!). When you reach the landing page, scroll to the bottom where you will find the Handy Holiday Guide as a PDF Download!

I was impressed with the all the great tips! They give you a complete listing of where to find the Black Friday Ads, Some Great Deal Sites,Cyber Monday Websites and much more! I printed out a copy as this guide will come in handy not only for this year!

Do you know of any more Great Holiday Guides? We would love to know as well as our readers!!

There is a new coupon out for T.G.I.Friday’s B1G1F deal. Expires 11/30.

Link to coupon image
Link to larger scan of bottom of coupon

T.G.I. Friday’s® restaurants has a little treat for you today! Attached is a special offer for you, your friends, family and co-workers…from us.
As a “Thank You” for your valued partnership this year, we are giving you an exclusive Buy One Entrée, Get One Free coupon that you can forward on or print off as many times as you like for use through November 30th. We have also included a reminder to join our new Guest Recognition program, Give Me More Stripes™, to get more free stuff from Friday’s, like appetizers and desserts.

Thanks Maylin for the tip!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be away this weekend with no internet access so I won’t be available by email either. I am taking a much needed break away from the ‘puter so please take the time to visit some of our fave sites listed on the sidebar!

We will be back Monday with regular posts! I hope everyone has a great weekend:)

Target has a Coupon in this week’s ad for a Free $10 GC with a New or Transferred Prescription at their Pharmacy.

If you have a prescription that needs to be filled, this is the time to do it and get a Free $10 to use for Gifts!

These Gift certificates are by far my favorite! I always buy at least 2 to have on hand as they make quick gifts or even a nice inexpensive nite out for myself.

This promotion is for 80% off when you use Code Surprise so its an even better deal! That’s a $25 Dinner for only $2!!

Hurry and get yours!!

80% off Savings on $25 Gift Certificates. $2 when you use code SURPRISE.Now thru 11/24/08.

Enter the Comcast Rush to the Rose Bowl sweepstakes, where you can enter daily for your chance to win 4 tickets to the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, CA, complete with free airfare and premium hotel accomodations!

You can enter once a day, as many days as you like, for unlimited chances to win. And you can enter daily until December 7th–the lucky winner will be announced on December 8!

For your chance to win, enter here.

I was introduced to Travel Zoo awhile back from The Bargain Shopper Lady for getting great travel deals.

With the the upcoming Holiday Season being the most traveled Holiday out of the year, I thought I’d share some of the top 20 Travel Deals.

Its Free to sign up and you are under no obligation to purchase anything, you can just “Window Shop” like I’ve been doing! You can also sign up for their newsletter and get the best Travel Deals delivered to your inbox for Free!

Get The Top 20 travel deals of the week. Check out the Travelzoo Top 20 List!

PS…Travelzoo is running an “Instant Win” contest where you can instantly win one of their Top 20 trips. You can visit www.top20instantwin.com for a chance to win! One can always hope:)

I have read MANY reviews on making your own laundry detergent and there seems to a vast majority of different recipes as well as different opinions as to whether it really does work and if it really does save you money.

The only way to find out was to try it for myself! I found a few articles on how to make your own and they all pretty much consisted of the same ingredients:

• Naptha Fels Soap
• Borax
• Washing Soda

Well of course, my local stores did not have the Naptha Fels Soap so I decided to look online. I found this AWESOME site, Soaps Gone Buy, where they have all these different types of hard to find soaps and cleaners that are all purpose and from way back when! The site was very informative & helpful even offering recipes & tips for some of their well known products. But my FAVORITE part about the site was that they offered a Make Your Own Detergents Kits section!

One of the 1st steps to making your own laundry is to grate the Naptha Fels soap, and I don’t know about you, but I do not have a specific grater just for soap, nor did I (after reading so many reviews) want to grate my own as it seemed to be a real hard task for some and I like easy to say the least. With Soaps Gone Buy Laundry Kits, you have the option of purchasing  pre grated Soap! WooHoo! And a kit, what could be easier??

Stephanie, owner of Soaps Gone Buy was more than happy to send SisterlySavings a Kit to try out and I was ever so anxious to get it! I specifically saved laundry day for the day it would come!

The Laundry Kit came neatly packaged in a box with all of the ingredients I needed packaged securely in plastic ZipLoc Bags (Great job Stephanie!). She also was kind enough to send me a package of Powdered Homemade Laundry Soap that she had made. Off to the laundry room I went armed with all my supplies as well as my recipe.

First, I had to decide whether I wanted Liquid or Powder. After reading and seeing how the liquid form looks I decided to go with powder as it was all a matter of measuring the ingredients and placing them in a container:) I did mention I like easy right?

I tried the whites first with this new Homemade Version with 2 tablespoons and then I did a batch with my regular 1 cup  laundry detergent, Gain.

Conclusion: Amazingly enough, they both came out about the same! Two differences I noticed:

1. With the homemade version, there is no scent. Just clean clothes
2. An AMAZING SOFTNESS like you would not believe!

Now let me talk some more on the softness issue as I was really loving the feeling of my clothes. I’m talking about the kind of softness that you get when you have a well worn favorite shirt that is worn till its so soft! Know that feeling or am I the only one? I never got that kind of softness even with my Snuggle Fabric Softner!

Ok, now on to the color clothes, this time I added a little softner to the homemade version for scent purposes (Ok, I’m a glutton for the fresh, clean smell of the towels when I come out the shower!). Still no difference in overall cleaning compatibility. Both the homemade version as well as the store bought version worked the same in my opinion.

So what is the overall price comparison calculations based on per load vs the the 2 different forms? I am not a mathemetician nor am I gonna sit here and try to figure them out for you. But you can get a real good idea from this article here that I found to be helpful with pricing the two and definitely made me rethink about buying vs making my own!

Here are the ingredients that Stephanie from Soaps Gone Buy uses:

Powdered Laundry Detergent (Her favorite)

1 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup 20 mule team borax

Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light or small loads, use 1 tablespoon. For normal loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons. Cost per load .15.

To make a large batch – grate 6 bars of Fels Naptha Soap and then add 3 cups of Washing Soda and 3 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax. Mix well and store in covered container.

Stephanie was also kind enough to share a few tips with us as well:

There are a couple of things to remember when using the homemade detergent:

1. It DOES NOT SUD! If you like to see suds in the washer, you will hate this detergent. It is a pure soap so there are little if any suds present.
2. A little goes a long way! If you are using the dry version, you only need 2 tablespoons per normal load. One tablespoon for light load and 3 if it is a really heavy load.
3. If you use fabric softener, you should reduce the amount by at least half. If you do not reduce it, your towels will become so soft, they will no longer absorb water. Most people eliminate fabric softener completely or only use a dryer sheet.
4. If you make the liquid version, SHAKE it up before you use it. A great reader tip is to put marbles in the bottom of the jug so it helps to mix it all up when you shake it. If the liquid becomes too thick, simply thin it with HOT water to the desired consistency. This will not hurt its effectiveness.

There you have it! My final decision is to stick with the homemade version and I plan on purchasing at Soaps Gone Buy for the added ease and practicality they offer:) But don’t take my word for it!

Soaps Gone Buys has graciously offered one of our readers a chance to make their own at home with a Make Your Own Laundry Kit!

Kit Includes:

* 2 Pounds of GRATED Fels Naptha Soap
* 76 ounce Box of 20 Mule Team Borax
* 55 ounce Box of Washing Soda
* 5.5 ounce bar of Fels Naptha Heavy Duty Laundry Soap

To enter, visit Soaps Gone Buy and tell us what  Recipe would best suit you or 1what product tip would benefit you!

To gain extra entries:

Blog about this Giveaway, then come back here and leave a second comment along with Link to Blog Post!

Has anyone tried making their own laundry detergen or uses it? Tell us about it an earn an additional entry!

Giveaway will end Sunday, Nov 23rd at 12 am EST and winner will be announced on Monday, Nov 24th. Winner will have 24 hours to claim prize before another winner will be chosen. Please be sure to leave an email so that we can contact you!

A well balanced and highly nutritious fall dinner from $5 Dinners!

*Be sure to stop by the “Thanksgiving on a Budget” series this week over on Money Saving Mom. Crystal and Erin have teamed up and will be sharing some of our favorite frugal Thanksgiving recipes and tips. You won’t want to miss it! Links to specific posts can be found at $5 Dinners in the sidebar.*

Become a fan of Clinique on FaceBook and get a Free Gift: A Free Trial Spray of Clinique Happy Perfume!

I just wanted to let all my new readers know about the “Choose Your Theme” option for SS readers.

We have installed 4 different themes that you can view Sisterlysavings in so that you can find your best viewing mode for SS that you feel comfortable with!

The choices are in the rt hand sidebar (depending what theme you are using it may be on top or bottom) in a drop down box. Just pick and choose how you would like to read SS in!

Also, please note that the Revolution themes are best viewed in Internet Explorer 7 and FireFox. Anyone using IE 6 may seem some wonkiness with the Revolution themes.

Lots of Freebies today!!!

JC Penny:

Bring the December 2008/January 2009 cover of Seventeen magazine or a printout of the Seventeen homepage to any JCPenney store to receive one free Flirtitude panty.

As an added bonus : for each one given away,  JCPenney will also donate $1 to the JCPenney Afterschool Fund (up to $25,000).

Promotion good thru January 6, 2009. One per person. No purchase necessary. While supplies last.

Free Starbuck’s $5 GC:

Fill out a short survey at Clayton Kendall’s  in exchange for a $5 Starbucks gift card.

I’m not sure whether this is valid, but for the short survey, it doesn’t hurt to try:)I entered my info, let’s see what happens!

Betty Crocker:

Sign up for their newsletter to recieve a free Betty Crocker 2009 Calendar!

Free Pizza:

If you sign-up to be a fan of Papa John’s on Facebook, you’ll get a FREE medium pizza, with any online purchase. All the details are here.  (Thanks Jaycie! )

Free Children’s Book:

Sign up here to get a Free Little Scholastic’s Children’s Book while supplies last.

Free Sample Kotex:

Pathmark is offering a free Kotex sample pack (no membership number needed). This is a new link so if you have requested this freebie in the past you can do it again. US only. (Thanks Wendi!)

Free Stuff @ The huggies Baby Network:

Don’t miss out on all the perks that come with being a member of the Huggies Baby Network. From the weekly e-newsletter to coupons, special offers and tools, all you have to do is enter your baby’s due date or child’s age and everything will be specially designed and tailored just for the two of you! If you’re pregnant you’ll receive a gift box full of samples and coupons. If you are already a mom you’ll automatically receive an activity book, Play It Up. (Thanks Wendi!)

Free $10 from Coinstar:

Classy Mommy has a giveaway for a Nintendo Wii going on until November 30th! Who wouldn’t want that, right? I know my kids want one but unless we can win one, they won’t be getting one as I think the price is a bit too farfetched considering our finances this year,lol!

You can help us win one with a single click at Classy Mommy’s Contest! You get to vote for the sites you like, but you can’t vote more than once for the same person , but you can vote for multiple people!

I voted for quite a few of my favorite Blogs listed and I just entered SS into it as well. We are way behind but you never know, it will still be fun to see how far we come along:) You can find us listed under SisterlySavings if you would like to place your vote with us.

If SS has helped you save money in any way this year save please consider supporting me in this vote!

You can vote here. I thank all of you in advance and I wish good luck to all!

PS.You can enter the contest yourself !

I have some great news! SisterlySavings has been nominated as one of the 10 Top Bargain Blogs over at The Coupon Cupboard so we need your vote to help us win!!

The spirit of this contest is really to show our thanks to those awesome deal finders we love to read! If you haven’t checked out some of these bloggers, they were nominated for a reason! Take a few minutes and go meet them, sign up for their feeds and get some great deals.

The other Nominees are:
Bargain Briana

Bargain Shopper Lady

Consumer Queen

Deal Seeking Mom

Freebies 4 Mom

Mommy Snacks

Penny Pinching Parent

Saving Sherry

Sisterly Savings

The Freebie Blogger

You don’t have to be a registered member to vote so please take a moment to visit the Poll and Vote for us!! The winner of the contest will recieve a $30 Amazon.com GC.

Which bloggers are you most thankful for? And You can pick more than one!

Wall Street is busted. Banks are failing. Automobile manufacturers are in trouble. It’s no secret that our economy is fragile right now, and everyone is cutting back everywhere they can. But what about the holidays? Can we really give up gift giving? Don’t panic, you don’t have to. Below are a few suggestions for getting free gifts to give for the holidays using tips from right here on Sisterly Savings!

Watch for free gift card offers from local pharmacies. CVS, Walgreens, Target, and CVS usually offer a gift card if you transfer a prescription. Watch the Sunday circulars for these offers. Think about your prescriptions. Anything need to be refilled? Are you willing to transfer it to get a $25 or $30 gift card to spend on holiday gifts? (I’ve done this deal twice this year and received a $30 gift card from Rite-Aid, and a $25 gift card from Walgreens!)

Use your stockpiled FAR items to create themed gift baskets. (You can pick up baskets at thrift stores for about $1.) For example, make a hair care basket, oral care basket, or food basket. Be creative!

Join FreeCycle. Visit and join FreeCycle.org. This is a trading site – the point is to keep items out of the landfill. You’ll need to join a local group (or many) since all of the trading is done in person, not through the mail. You can find both new and gently used items being given away. Good stuff goes fast so be sure to check the site daily for new items. Tip: Look for small items that you can combine into a themed gift basket.

Use points or rewards on your credit cards. For example, American Express has a loyalty program where customers build reward points all year long. Points are often redeemable for gift cards. For example, my boyfriend redeemed over $1,000 worth of points on his AMEX card last year for gift cards, and that covered his entire gift list.

Click here for more creative ideas for getting free gifts to give for the holidays!