Visit My New Site!! Please.

Hello everyone!

If you managed to find this blog somehow (by accident, by googling "strange cat pictures", or even on purpose) please head on over here to my new website, niconthenet.com!

I will no longer be using this site (minusthecats.blogspot.com) to post anymore. If you wish to keep receiving my posts, please make sure to update your feed readers and subscriptions by visiting my new site and subscribing there!

Thanks!

Re-Re-Repeat

So I've mentioned this once already here, but I thought it was worth mentioning again. Also, I write all these posts, so I can do whatever I want.

I was recently thinking about cancelling my Birchbox subscription because, after all, I am really cheap. Then I received this month's box and there is NO way I am cancelling now. For $10 a month, you get a little pink box in the mail, which is fun all in itself because who doesn't love to get packages in the mail?! That box is filled with a bunch of samples (sometimes full-sized!) of different beauty products. There is usually something in there that is not a beauty product too, like the snack bar and the earbuds in the photo below.

ALL of that stuff was in this month's box! Clockwise from the snack bar are: 

• a bronzer that helps me look like I haven't spent most of the summer so far in an office
• a summery nail polish the color of ocean water (but pretty ocean water, not Atlantic Ocean water - sorry, it had to be said)
• the cutest earbuds I have ever seen that were perfect for the Color Run 5K that I did the following weekend
• some facial cleansers and moisturizers made from natural ingredients
• a perfume sample that I actually liked because it's not flowery at all
• a hair mask that I desperately needed
• cards explaining the items and where to purchase them, along with some other tips and goodies

I'm still excited just writing about this! I hope everything here lasts me until next month when I get my next one. I'll give you one guess as to which one is already gone...

Giving AND Getting!

One thing I really love about having this blog is that my friends and family tend to think of me and email me with great deals that they find! Yesterday I got an email from a high school friend with the following deal, and it's a really good one! Incidentally, she's also a very good tour guide when you take a day off and end up spontaneously wandering around her town for the afternoon.

So I'm a little late in posting this, but there is still plenty of time to cash in. If there is a Shaw's near you, you have until Thursday to get a coupon for $20 off your next purchase when you buy $100 in gift cards. This may sound like a lot of money to spend, but think of all the possibilities:

• Headed to a wedding this summer? I'm sure the couple could use gift cards to Home Depot, Lowe's, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.
• Have a road trip planned? Stock up on gas cards and save money on groceries at the same time! In fact, this is a great idea without the road trip planned because you will always need gas!
• Christmas is only 6 months away (I'm really sorry to do that to you..!), so stock up on gift cards for friends and family now!
• Treat yourself! Is there a restaurant you like to eat at, or a store you shop at regularly? Buy yourself the gift card now, use it the next time you make a purchase, and get $20 off your next grocery purchase too!

Make sure you check the weekly ad to confirm that this promotion is available in your area. Had I known about this sooner, I could have taken advantage for Father's Day and my boyfriend's birthday this week (Happy Birthday, Favorite!). Then again, most gift cards do not expire, so I can always stock up for next year!

Please keep sending me all of your great deals! 

Do You Have Gas?

If you're running low (in your car, silly!), definitely check out this new game from Shell. You get to spin the wheel 3 times to try to score a discount on your next gasoline purchase, a free fill-up, or free gas for a year!! Be careful though - if you chose to spin more than once, you will lose your previous spins, so lock in once you spin the discount that you're happy with. I got 25 cents off on my first spin!! I'm not much of a gambler, so I locked that in and registered for my Fuel Rewards card right away!!

You can also use the rewards card to earn points for purchases at restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores, etc. Then you can use these points for savings on every gallon of gas! Just in time for summer road trips!

Date Night?

So now is definitely the time to ask out that cute, nerdy chick who likes Mexican food and wants to see Prometheus (who does this actually apply to..?), because you can treat her to both real cheap!

First step: Go here and print this coupon. Using this, you can get any entree on the Qdoba menu for only $5. The coupon can be used multiple times from now until July 8th. If you are really going to take my advice and invite a girl, may I suggest NOT ordering beans??

Step Two: From now until June 17th, if you go here and select two tickets to the movie you want to see, one of them will be free when you check out. You must go through this link though. Incidentally, the 17th is also Father's Day, so if the girl turns you down, you can always bring Dad.

I know some girls might think you're cheap, and using coupons might be inappropriate first date etiquette, but I am not one of those girls. So if she turns you down, you're more than welcome to take me and my friends instead.

Free Love! (but not the hippie kind!)

Today only you can get a free Valentine's Day card at Tiny Prints! They have the cutest cards and you can personalize the crap out of it. I made one for my mom before and it came out really great. You can add pictures, pick the layouts, and write your own text. May I suggest this:

Create your card and then enter the promo code "FBLOVE" (without the " ") to make it FREE! You will still have to enter credit card information, which I know discourages some people, but I have done this before and I can promise you that Tiny Prints will not charge you. If you ship the card to yourself, it will be $0.00. As in completely freaking free. If you send it directly to your spouse (who I imagine would live at your address anyway...), boyfriend/girlfriend, BFF, cat, or that guy whose windows you're always peeking into, well then you have to pay the cost of a stamp. Such is love. <3

I Like Loft.

Two posts in a row today! Does that make up for the weeks I've been....hiding?

Go to LOFT's Facebook page, "like" them, and fill out your name & email to get a coupon for $50 off $100 once they reach 1 million fans! They're getting pretty close so hurry!

Bet You Never Knew Vitamins Were THIS Good for You!!

So I've seen these "Get $10 free at Vitacost" ads for a while now, but I always ignored them because I don't buy vitamins. Well, that's not entirely true. I buy vitamins on a day where I think that it's going to make all my problems go away and let me live until 107, but then that wears off in about 3 days and results in multiple bottles of vitamins sitting on my shelf...

I just assumed that this site had nothing but vitamins on it, but I am SO wrong (ouch - that always pinches a little to say)!! They do have vitamins, but they also have tons of other things - food, pet supplies, makeup, books, baby food, medicines, etc. They are not all "no-name" brands either! I've only been on the site for a few minutes and I've already seen Burt's Bees, Atkins, Alba, Clean & Clear, and Larabar!

Ok, so back to the $10. If you sign up through this link, you will get a $10 credit to your account. Make sure you do it through the link though because you will only get the credit if someone is referring you (this link is me referring you!). Shipping is a flat $4.99, so you basically will get more than $10 worth of stuff for only $5. I say "more than $10" because the prices are already discounted off of the retail price - for example, a Burt's Bee's lip balm is only $1.50!

What are you waiting for?! Go buy some vitam....err....everything else!!

Have a Nerd on Your Xmas List??

Then I bet they will love getting a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble!! I only say this because I myself am a giant nerd and I could spend hours in B&N. Sometimes the smell of a new book is like crack. Ok, now I'm scaring you.

How's this for unscary though: you only have to pay $15 for the $25 gift card! Just go here and sign-up for the daily emails (if you haven't already) and then you should see it as the National deal. Only good through the rest of today, so hurry!!

$10 for a $20 Gift Certificate to Old Navy!

There are so many good deals today that I had to post more than once! I get excited, what can I say? And I'm saving you money, so DON'T COMPLAIN or else Santa will NEVER come because he is officially watching now.

 

Anyway...today on Groupon you can get a $20 certificate to Old Navy for only $10! It's good on sale items too!  You can't use it until tomorrow (11/26) but who wants to go to the mall on Black Friday anyway?! Bad things happen there:

How Much Did I Pay for All of This???

 

It's a trick question!! I paid absolutely NOTHING!! In fact, I actually MADE money from CVS for all of this stuff. 

Here's how (the really shortened version):

• I started with $19 ExtraCare Bucks from previous shopping trips.
• CVS's Black Friday ad was ah-MAZE-ing! So many things are completely FREE after ECBs
• I used some coupons to make the amount that I actually spent less than what I got back - making me money!!

The total retail value of everything you see here is $76.23.  I spent $2.38 in cash out of my own pocket, BUT in the end, I made $4 in ECBs after all of my transactions were done (I did 3 of them). So overall, I got $76 worth of stuff for free AND gained about $1.50.

You can do this too! The sale is good until Saturday 11/26. It's SO easy! If you're interested or have any questions about where to find coupons, just ask! The best part? You won't get trampled, bloodied, or bruised like you might at Best Buy or Walmart!

Happy Black Friday to meeeee!

A Quick and (Relatively) Painless FREE Way to Get a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Have you ever visited StumbleUpon? My boyfriend has used it a few times and we have learned how to get change from a vending machine even when you didn't put any money in (although I'm not sure this is legal...in which case, I did NOT tell you to try this). You can also find out how to make the elevator not stop on any floor but the one you're going to. Which reminds me of this commercial:

You can customize your favorites so that you "stumble" upon things that you are interested in all over the web. Cute puppy pictures, deals and coupons(!!), comics, weird trivia that no one else even WANTS to know, how to do the Running Man (go ahead, we won't judge). Right now you can also get a $10 Amazon Gift card for every 5 friends you get to join too!! I feel like I should put that last part in neon flashing lights or something! It's almost too easy!

All you have to do is go here to sign up for StumbleUpon, and then use your referral link to invite friends via email, Twitter, Facebook, or tin can & string telephones! Ok, that last one might not work, but the others all do. Then for every 5 friends who sign up for FREE using your link, you get a $10 Amazon gift card! So I hope you have a lot of nice friends who want to take 60 seconds to sign up and get you FREE money, and then they can pass it along to their friends and get some free money themselves!! In fact, I hope I have a lot of nice friends who will do the same (wink, wink). You could try bribery. This always works on me:

Need Something to Do After You Come Out of Your Turkey Coma??

   

Here we go again with the movie deals! I love these! We go to the movies a lot, so I'm always on the lookout for cheap tickets. I mean, you can buy the DVD for cheaper than some movies, and then you could watch it over and over again. Well, I guess I wouldn't really do that since the only movies I ever cared to watch more than once were Billy Madison and Halloween.

 

Wrong holiday, I know. So anyway, on Tippr for the next 5 days you can get 2 Fandango movie tickets for just $12! AND you get a $5 credit just for signing up! Which means you get 2 tickets for $7!!! That's like what they cost back in 1902 or something!! 

Now, the big dilemma is.... Muppet movie or Marilyn Monroe movie?? Or both?!