couponing - turn that paper into $

Where to find coupon?

Newspaper:

• Sunday newspaper has tons of manufacturer coupon inserts, but it's not always free. So grab them if you can get them free at local library because they do not come cheap where I live.

Online: Free manufacturer coupons but you need printer and a laptop/computer. Each laptop usually give you 2 coupons, my household has 3 which generate 6 copies of each coupon. To save on ink, I recommend brother's printer (their cartridges are cheap and can be refilled easily)

• Lozo.com is a great site that basically has every single coupon out there on the net.
• Swagbucks.com also has great amount of coupons, and each coupon used give you 10 swagbucks (equal 10 cent), once you reach 300 swagbucks you can start redeeming gift card. I've earned $140 up to this point using swagbuck
• 
• Couponmom has a very organized list of all deals out there, combining weekly ads with corresponding coupons.

Catalina:

• For fellow Kroger shoppers, I recommend KrogerKrazy.com since this site has info on current catalina deals (catalinas are awesome :D). In case you're new to couponing: catalina are coupons printed at the registers. When combining catalina, coupon, and Kroger Mega sales, a lot of household products are free (sometimes even generate extra cash on return).

Loyalty member:

• Pretty much all grocery store now has digital coupon. You can register on their websites and add coupon to your loyalty member card. Kroger, Publix, Dollar general, Walgreens, Target (has mobile coupon and cartwheel, which you can combine with manufacturer coupon) all have digital coupons that you can add to your account. These coupons are considered manufacturer coupons and can not be combined with other manufacturer coupons.

In store coupon:

• Kroger send coupons directly to your home if you are loyalty customer (means you shop at Kroger every month). And their coupons are great, I usually get free 1 dozen egg every 3 months, discount on frozen items ($3 off $15), discount on veggies, and many random stuff. Not to mention their fuel reward is awesome.
• Publix has new flyers in store every 2 weeks, they can be combine with manufacturer coupon and their Buy One Get One free sales. Publix also double manufacturer coupons if the coupon is $0.50 or less.
• Target has cartwheel (usually give you 5-10% off) and digital coupon. Cartwheel and digital coupon can both be combine with manufacturer coupon. Also their redcard can be use for additional 5% off. Personally I don't use their card since I can get Target giftcard at 10-15% off.

Peelies or Smartsource machine:

• Walk around isle and you will be able to see a bunch of peelies (stick on items) or coupon generator from Smartsource. I usually keep these and wait for that item to be on sales.

I usually clip my coupons once a week, and if Swagbucks has the coupon, I will print from there for extra saving since other sites don't give reward for coupon. And some of my common deals?

• Free colgate at Walgreens/Rite aid/CVS when combining manufacture coupon, register reward, and store sale.
• Free or very cheap toilet paper at CVS (I'm talking about less than 20cent a roll of Scott toilet tissue 1000 count, they also have good deals on Bounty/charming as well).
• Cheap detergent, Oxyclean - 45oz was on sale for $1 at Riteaid when combining coupon/store sale
• Recently I bought 2 Shout laundry stain removal bottles - and get $0.52 back at Kroger, combining store mega sale, coupon, and catalina

There are many good deals if you watch out for sales and match up coupons with these sales. Shopular is a phone app that updates new weekly ads, and Couponmom basically match all weekly sales with coupons (save you lots of time going through all the ads).

And if you notice, I barely mention Walmart on my post. Why? Because Walmart is actually more expensive (yes you read it right, more EXPENSIVE) if you know how to match coupon with sales at other stores. I rarely shop at Walmart nowadays because I hate how it's so crowded and the employees are just rude sometimes (Urgh this bring back bad memory of one time their employee stopped me and asked me to show my receipt, she thought I was stealing ><). These days I shop at Kroger and Publix mostly. Kroger mega sales and Publix buy one get one free when combine with coupons always have lowest price. And my usual saving is 30-50% at Kroger and more than 50% saving at Publix.

 

Hope this help and thanks for reading :)

Cashback on your shopping purchases

I was introduced to cashback site by a friend of mine 3 years ago, and since then I'm hooked, every time I shop, I check around for best cashback possible and I always keep check on when they have special cashback bonus. They give cashback on almost everything, from amazon to airline ticket, from grocery to clothing retail stores. There are many sites out there that give cashback for online shopping, but I use mainly 4 sites.

Cashback website:

• Topcashback: my favorite site, quick payout, direct deposit or check, if you want to get payment in Amazon giftcard form, you get 2.5% bonus.
• 
• Befrugal: also great site, but payout is a little slower than topcashback
• 
• Ebates: they pay check/paypal deposit 4 times a year, really slow but they sometimes double their cashback % for special occasion
• 
• Mr. Rebates: also pretty slow in paying
• 
• My most favorite: Topcashback (because their payment is very quick and their direct deposit is painless). Unless other site has a lot higher % cashback for the same store, I usually just use this one site. Their cashback percentages fluctuate a lot so before you shop, check to see which site give the best profit.
• Another tip: When I shop at store that has "online order, pick up in store" program, I make online order through these sites for cash back and pick it up. This way I save both time and make extra cash :) (but you can't use coupon this way). This works for many stores (like Homedepot which I shop at often, and sometimes Macys so I don't have to pay for shipping charge)
• If you sign up through my link, Topcashback give you $10 once you spend a certain amount, Befrugal gives $5, Ebates give you $10 giftcard upon signing up, Mr. Rebates give you $5 upon your first purchase.

Grocery cashback apps (need smartphone for this):

• Ibotta: I love ibotta, they give cashback on common items such as bread, milk, egg, pasta, common item that I buy every week. There are cashback on movies/restaurants/shopping as well.
• Receipt hog: this site gives cashback on your receipt, pretty much any receipt except gas/clothing retail store, if you sign up, use code PROH6063 for free spins (extra point if you win)
• Savingstar: great app with a lot of cashback deals on common household product
• 
• Snap by groupon: also has a lot of good deals but just not the stuff I use
• Checkout 51: also a good app, but not a lot of stuff I use
• So far I make most $ with Savingstar app, most of these apps give little cash back (like $0.25 to $1 per item bought) but every penny counts :)

Asian fruit cocktail or Che Thai

It's been getting really hot here in Atlanta, and it's also the best time of the year to enjoy my favorite dessert, Che Thai or Asian fruit cocktail. The recipe can't be simpler, all you need is can fruits (anything you like) and milk.

My list of ingredients (about 10-12 serving):

• Jackfruit
• Lechee
• Palm's seed
• Grass jelly (if you get the green one the color will come out prettier, but they taste a little different)
• Milk

How to:

• Chop everything up (to bite size), keep the syrup (we'll add syrup in later)

• Put Grass jello and fruit into a bowl
• Pour milk over it (roughly 1 1/2 can, but I kinda just eyeball the amount. It really depends on your taste, if you want it to be sweet, add more syrup and less milk)
• Add syrup from fruit can (I use about 1 full can of syrup) to taste

• Chill it in fridge and enjoy

Difficulty level: Super easy.

Time: 15'

Cost: $7.

Result: Yummy :D

Thanks for reading.

Homemade Vietnamese yogurt

Why should you bother making your own yogurt?

Because it's cheap, it's easy to make, it's good for your health (no preservative and probiotics effect), and it tastes supper yummy. Also because I grew up eating this and I'm not a fan of yogurts sold in US market (don't get me wrong, they taste good too, but just different).

Ingredients: condensed milk- 1 can, whole milk - 2 can, plain yogurt- 8oz, and hot water - 1 can.

First boil some water. While waiting, in a large prep bowl, empty the condensed milk can

Add 1 can of hot water (using the same can to measure hot water), stir it to dissolve all condensed milk

 

Add 2 can whole milk, keep stirring.

Add 8 ounce plain yogurt, keep stirring. It will be clumpy, sift mixture smooth:

Pour in small jars, and put jars in a large pot with lid. Boil some more water, wait for it to cool down a little, fill pot with hot water (it should submerge around 1/3 the jar's height):

Turn on oven to 350F, then turn it off, put the whole pot into oven. Let sit overnight, and you will have homemade yogurt the next morning. Pop them in the fridge and it will be ready to eat. You can also mix it with fruit, with shaved ice, or eat it frozen (my favorite).

If you want to make them again, keep one jar for you next yogurt batch instead of buying plain yogurt from store.

And let me know how it turn out if you tried the recipe :)

Thanks for reading.

New look for my bathroom vanity

Lets start out with how my bathroom shelves used to look:

So messy, so many random stuff lying around, and I didn't even utilize all the space up on the first shelf (too high for me to reach).

The wire shelf had to go out. I replaced them with wood shelves, prime and paint them myself. I got most of my material at Homedepot. If you don't want to mess with bare wood, they have primed board which is easier to paint. Each of these shelves (include hardware) costed me roughly $4 since I got used paint for cheap (like $3 for half gallon).

At first I just randomly put everything on these shelves without really thinking much. It looked better than those wire shelves, but still look like a mess. Things were just all over the place until I found a solution: Baskets. I got these baskets at Dollar General (like $1.5 each). They are cute, sturdy and just the best option to hide all my little cream and lotion jars. I did have to put some items that I used less often in cabinet under sink (and I will need to reorganize them later).

I put all of my stuff on the bottom shelf (cuz I'm a little short haha), his stuff on middle shelf, throw in some decors with flower and picture. I got the picture frame from dollar store and printed out a picture that I like from the internet. I used matte photo paper ($5 for a pack of 50 sheets from Amazon) and printing it myself saved me lots. I bought ink and refill cartridge myself as well, you won't believe how much refilling your own ink cartridge can save you, I really think it's a ripoff to buy new cartridge from retailer.

For the flower vase, it was just a tin can wrapped up in twine thread and secured with hot glue gun. The tin can was free, and I got twine thread at Target, it costed me $1 and was enough for 5 cans.

And guess how much this whole update cost me? Less than $30. I just couldn't be happier with the result:

Thanks for reading.

DIY lazy susan

This is a super easy DIY project that can help you organize your pantry closet

What you need: 2 round baking pans and any kind of beads (I just get bead necklace from dollar store, they sell a pack of 8 for $1).

Place the necklace in between 2 baking pans. That's it. And it works perfectly (a little noisy though):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acC4ne9Xx8k

DIY foam dish detergent

A quick tip on saving $$ using DIY foaming dish soap.

If you ever use foaming dish soap, you might notice that it lasts a lot longer than a same size bottle dish soap. But the foaming soap refill can be a little costly. Making you own foaming dish soap is very very simple and can save you a lot of $$ over time.

All you need to do is watering it down, my ratio for Dawn dish soap is 1 part soap with 2 parts water. If you use a different brand, you might need to experience with the ratio a little bit. If it's too thick, the pump will clog and if it's too watery, of course your soap will not be strong enough to clean.

You need a big container (I reuse my great value soap container), empty out Dawn soap leaving the bottle upside down (helps getting most soap out)

  

Then fill up the same Dawn soap bottle with water, pour water into big container, and shake it up a bit to mix it evenly:

Fill up a foaming soap dispenser (you can find these at dollar store and make your own foaming soap after you use it up)

I usually paid less than $1 or sometime I could get Dawn dish soap for free with coupons. With each Dawn bottle I could make 30fl oz foaming dish soap, the same 30fl oz foaming dish soap, same brand, would cost me $6 at big retailer. I basically save $5 making it myself. Sounds pretty good to me :)

This tip saves me lots of $$, I hope it would help you too.