Another great game that does require some electronic stimulation is Scene it! You play it along with your DVD player and test your knowledge of all those mindless hours of TV or movie watching. There's different versions so there something for everyone. Such as:
And my favorite is having a cookie decorating contest with the kids. Bake up a bunch of cookies and gather some decorating things such as frosting, sprinkles, etc. and let the kids decorate up a storm. We've done the best looking, ugliest, funniest, and most unique cookie. The winner, well, the winner gets to eat his cookie! 
My mom taught me from an early age to check out the mark down basket. Sometimes you can even find items on clearance that you can use coupons with. Most of the time things are in the baskets because the package is marked up/broken or because they just bought way too many in anticipation of a big sale that didn't go over very well. Whatever the reason don't forget to check that little section out. You can really catch a good deal.
I've only been on it a few minutes and have already earned about 10 swagbucks. The site also gives points for turning in old cell phones and video games. That's a pretty good deal to get something out of those old useless objects laying around the house. The search engine so far seems comparable to Google so why not earn some extras while searching for things you do everyday anyway?
Take a look and tell him Gertie Sent ya!
Hello all! Sorry for the absence. The flu has landed at our home...well more like crashed landed in a blaze of glory! Not a very nice couple of weeks around here. I believe I'm on the mend; at least the walls coming in on me makes me feel like I'm on the mend. I haven't been able to get out and do any shopping which really has helped the budget quite a bit. ha! ha! The only thing I've been buying lately is NyQuil and Sprite. But I didn't want to leave you hanging without a tip or two for them. We've gone through a bunch of sprite this past week and I actually sat there and read the "See Details" part of the package. While I was running a bit of fever for most of the week, I did decide to join the Mycokerewards program. I went through the house collecting all the caps I could find. While you can get great coke stuff I also learned that you can donate the rewards to the school of your choice. This is a great idea if you aren't into all the merchandise items or you just want to help out a local school. There are also other great causes you can support with your Coke Rewards as well. During the month of March when you enter a 12-pack you'll earn an additional bonus of 3 points each day for the month of March. It will amaze you how quickly those little cap points will add up. So go grap a Coke/Sprite and a smile for all the good points that will add up to some great things or at least some great opportunity for a worth cause. 
One of the great things about the web is you can shop around to find the best deal without running yourself rigid. You can also save yourself a little more buy using coupon codes or promo/promotional codes. For those who aren't familiar with these, they are basically codes that you can put into your online checkout cart that will give you a discount. You can sometimes find them on the mailing label of a catalog or retailers you order from frequently may even send you a postcard with the special code. However, if you don't ever receive them or don't get the ones you could actually use, don't despair. As with all things virtual, you can find virtually any retailer's codes on the web. If you're going to buy online, do a little search (google's my personal favorite) for the retailer you're shopping at with the key words "coupon codes", "promo codes", or "promotional codes". i.e. shopping on Amazon.com I search for : Amazon.com coupon codes and end up with sites that have codes such as this one: 4DNW5Q89 FOR $25 off shoes sold by RoadRunner thru Amazon.com or 326465 5% discount on DVDs. Basically, you just look for a code that fits what you are looking for. Some of the places to look that I've found helpful are: 
1. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them nnected at the stem, they ripen faster.
2. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. (I've also heard that you can put a tsp of water on an egg when frying it to retain the yolk)
5. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
6.For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
8. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
9. Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
10. Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up. (This is also a great way for the kids to help in the kitchen)
11. Expanding Frosting: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
12. Reheating refrigerated bread: To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
13. Newspaper weeds away: Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and for- get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
14. Broken Glass Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
15. No More Mosquitoes: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. Plus, you'll smell oh so fresh!
16. Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
17. Flexible vacuum: To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in nar- row openings.
18. Vacuuming dust away: To remove dust from what-knots without a lot of labor, place an stocking over the end of the vacuum hose and dust away. No damage to the fine parts.
19. Reducing Static Cling: Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.
20. Measuring Cups: Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
21. Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
22. Reopening envelope: If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
23. Conditioner: Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
24. Goodbye Fruit Flies: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
25. Get Rid of Ants: Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
And finally a word about your clothes dryer:
If you clean out your lint filter you may think its clean but take it out and run hot water over the top of it. What happens? The water won't go through. Why? You use dryer sheets. Dryer sheets cause a film over the mesh that can cause the dryer to burn out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box .... well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it!
A dryer repairman said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it ... the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!
Then I put the actual gift box in the bottom of the box and threw all the other boxes, totalling I believe 12 boxes, in on top of the present box. I used every shape an size I could think of.
Then I wrapped it all up pretty and put a bow on it.
Now he'll have just as many or more presents to open. Hee! Hee! This was my frugal way of giving him a fun and good Christmas. I hope he enjoys it as much I did coming up with it!
Yesterday I mentioned Hotcouponworld.com in my quest for free toliet paper. I thought I should tell you a little about hcw. I stumbled across this wonderful virtual community by accident one day and have never turned back. It's a huge resource for the hard core couponer AND the beginner. 
