Cats and Coupons

I have a bunch of membership tags on my key chain. Some are for stores here, one’s for a store in Florida when we go to Walt Disney World and yet another is for a store in upstate New York when we go camping every summer. It’d be great not to worry about carrying all of them all of the tine. I’d love to see all grocery stores use one common club card. They could still run their sales and people would still be able to take advantage of specials, but it would make it easier on the customer. But since that day isn’t likely to happen soon, a site like Just One Club Card is a useful one for people like me.

Just One Club Card allows people to enter card membership numbers for up to eight stores. It’s free to use. After you enter your numbers you print a new card that contains the numbers for all of the ones you entered, allowing you to carry only one card to all stores. He’s even made it possible to add in pet store cards, and other stores. The guy that thought of this had a great idea!

I noticed when I went online this morning that my grocery store is now offering the ability to shop online. After shopping you can have your order delivered (in some areas) or you can pick it up at the store and have your car loaded. I am one of those people that goes down almost every aisle when shopping, because every once in a while I see something that didn’t make it onto our grocery list or something that there’s an unadvertised special on. If I were buying online I think I might end up spending less, because I wouldn’t be buying things that I hadn’t planned on buying. But then, who can resist a good unadvertised special on things like shampoo or the best acne treatments? These are the kinds of things I stock up on. What do you think of online grocery shopping?

I found a new site that helps people try to save money. It’s the TheGroceryGame.com.  TheGroceryGame tracks product pricing at many grocery stores in a database, as well as manufacturer coupons and supermarket specials. Users can log in and get a list that matches up coupons with sales and shows that week’s good deals, great deals to stockpile, and free items available at their grocery store. TheGroceryGame offers a free first month trial. After that they charge a nominal fee of $10 for every 8 weeks, which breaks down to $1.25 per week. If you save more than that it becomes worth it to join. Let me know what you think of it if you try it.

If you’re always on the go and never seem to have enough time in the day, Menus4Moms is a site you’ll want to check out. Menus4Moms is free to join and offers many time and money saving resources. Some of the features on the site include free weekly dinner menus, recipes and cookbooks, menus, meal planning, FDA recalls, calendars, organizers, planners, tips  and shopping list software. Many of the features on the site are free to use. I receive their weekly menu plan email and although I don’t follow it precisley I have gotten many great ideas from it. The well stocked lists for pantry, refrigerator and freezer are wonderful too. Anyone who cooks on a regular basis should take a look at the Secrets Of A Busy Cook section, you’ll be glad you did.

Did you ever notice that energy drinks are expensive and they’re never on sale? I don’t drink them, but my twelve year old TJ had one over a friend’s house and liked it. He’s a little upset with me because twice this week I wouldn’t buy one for him. I explained I don’t see any reason why a healthy, growing, athletic twelve year old like himself needs to drink that stuff. He likes Monster Energy Drink best. I checked their website and they don’t even list how much caffeine is in the can! He needs to drink those about as much as he needs diet pills. (That means he doesn’t need them.) Monster features sports figures on their website. Why are these companies making products with spokespeople that kids look up to when the kids shouldn’t have the product in the first place?

I never knew there was a National Cheesecake Day. That in itself is surprising since cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts, if not the most favorite. Eli’s Cheesecake is offering 25% off of any one item ordered online before 08/01/08. COUPON EXPIRED. Eli’s Cheesecake is online at http://elicheesecake.com/. Yummy!

THIS POST WAS EDITED A COUPLE OF TIMES TODAY DUE TO EMAIL I RECEIVED FROM ELI’S. IT SEEMS I MISUNDERSTOOD AND THE PTB AT ELI’S HAVE GIVEN ME THE GREEN LIGHT TO LEAVE THE COUPON CODE UP. ALTHOUGH THE MISUNDERSTANDING COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED I MUST SAY THE LEVEL OF RESPONSIVENESS FROM THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM ON THE SITUATION WAS OUTSTANDING.

EDIT 2 - 08/01/08 - The coupon has expired so I have taken it down.

There are tons of sites on the internet offering free recipes for people. No Cans is a website put together by a family that wanted to find safe foods to feed pets after all of the pet deaths and recalls of 2007. The site offers recipes for making homemade pet food and pet treats for both dogs and cats. The cat category is split into different sections including kitten forumla and milk, kitten food, meat cat food, fish cat food, meat cat treats, fish cat treats, no meat cat treats and food for sick cats. The dog category is split into sections as well, including dog food, meat dog treats, vegetarian dog treats and dog treats from broth. All recipes include a list of ingredients and contain easy to understand instructions. It’s quite an interesting site. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do you collect points or codes from soda products? How many soda manufacturers have these programs? I know Coke has offered My Rewards for quite a while now. I have a My Rewards account, but half the time if I have a code I can’t enter it because the printing isn’t clear enough to read. Today, I went on a quest looking for contests for an xbox 360. My son’s been really wanting one for a long time. Anyway. While searching I found out that Mountain Dew also has a program to collect codes from their products. Not being a soda drinker I don’t know if they do theirs the same as Coke. Are their codes legible? Just wondering. Sometimes I think that the codes are purposely made hard to read so less people win.

I recently read an article that pointed out a large need that’s currently getting bigger. Many people are aware of the many overpopulated shelters. It costs money to run them. But some people don’t realize they can help. Obviously, one way you can help homeless pets is to adopt one. But another way is to help the shelter that is housing them. Call your local shelter and ask what they need. The shelter near us is always looking for things - old towels, old bedding, inexpensive toys, and food. Yes, your local shelter would probably be more than happy to receive a donation of food. That’s what they feed the homeless animals with, isn’t it? Of course it is. But there’s another reason. As the economy worsens, some people are having to give up their pets because they can’t afford to keep them. So in order to help, some shelters are actually giving residents in their area pet food so they may keep their pets. Imagine if the shelter populations only increased more as the prices of gas and the cost of living rises. There are too many homeless animals now. You have the power to directly impact this situation. Call your local shelter. Ask what they need. See if you have any of it in your own home. When you go grocery shopping, buy a couple of cans or a bag of pet food for the shelter. I’m pretty sure that if everyone gave what little they could the animals would be in an entirely different situation.

On the way home from the track meet today we stopped at McDonalds because TJ was thirsty and a little hungry and it was almost 6pm. Today McDonalds was giving away a free Southern Chicken sandwich with the purchase of any medium or large drink. They’ve been promoting this special for a week. So, we pulled up and ordered. TJ wanted a chocolate shake and a double cheeseburger. I went to the window to pay. I asked her why the total was so high and she told me it was because you had to buy a drink to get the chicken sandwich for free. I told her I had bought a drink, the chocolate shake. She told me the chocolate shake wasn’t a drink. I pointed out thatn is was listed with the other drinks on the menu, came in different sizes and required a straw. She actually had to call another cashier to the window to get permission to give us the chicken sandwich for free. Am I crazy or something? Isn’t a chocolate shake a drink?

Cats and Coupons is joining in the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Giveaway Carnival for the first time! I’m giving away TEN coupons for a free six pack of Yoplait Kids yogurt in a cup or yogurt drinks. Sorry, there is a little fine print, the coupons cannot be redeemed in California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota and Tennessee. (If you’re in one of those states and traveling out of state soon enter and pick up your yogurt there.) It’s easy to enter. To enter just leave a comment containing your name (at least first name), how old your child is and their favorite flavor of yogurt. Feel free to share if you’re participating in the carnival as well if you like. Please take a look around while you’re here and if you like what you see please feel free to bookmark my blog or subscribe to my rss feed. Hurry and enter now - comments close Friday 04/25/08 at 11:59 pm est. The winner will be selected using random.org and will be announced on Saturday 04/26/08.

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED.

My sons and I tried something new this week, Yoplait Kids Yogurt. This yogurt was designed especially for young children as a healthy snack. Kids enjoy the taste of Yoplait Kids while adults enjoy that it has 25% less sugar than the leading brand of kids yogurt and contains vitamins, protein and Omega 3 DHA which helps promote brain development. It is available as a yogurt drink or in a cup. If you live anywhere in the United States except for CA, ID, LA, NV, NJ, ND and TN you can request a free sample of Yoplait Kids yogurt just by filling out and submitting the request at www.yoplaitkids.com. I will be posting a review of Yoplait Kids yogurt on Val’s Views shortly.

Here’s some interesting little tidbits about the eating habits of cats that came across. Some I knew about and others I didn’t.
* Cats naturally eat between twelve and twenty meals a day. Wow! No wonder my cats are always neat the bowl asking for more.
* An average adult cat weighing ten pounds should eat about 275 calories per day. That’s as much as some humans eat in one meal.
* Cats are proven to be finicky so it’s suggested that new food be introduced gradually, mixing the new food with the old. Well I did know that but I’ve always believed in mixing foods together for another reason. It’s easier on the digestive system to not suddenly switch foods, because some animals will have upset stomachs or diarrhea when food is drastically changed.
* Giving your cat milk is not a good idea. After growing out of kittenhood most cats become lactose intolerant, which means they could have painful, dehydrating diarrhea. I had heard not to give them milk, but did not know it was because most cats become lactose intolerant.

Find the food outlets. On one end of the town I live in we have an Entenmann’s outlet that carries much of the Entenmann line as Freihofer, Arnold, Boboli and Thomas’ products. In the town directly next to us there is a Pepperidge Farms outlet. I can buy the exact same products in these stores that I can in grocery stores but for much less. The Entenmanns, for example (because they’re so yummy). I bought a box of cookies, a chocolate cake, a box of cinnamon danishes and a pound cake all for $5. Each of those items goes for anywhere from $2.50 to over $4.00 each in the grocery store. So, if you want to save some money, find out if there are any food retail outlets near you.