Thursday, February 17, 2011

Tightwad life update: free hotels and big ebates!


Sitting here tonight at a Super 8 in Pennsylvania. And oddly enough, I am all by myself. This hasn't happened in over 20 years. Just dropped Abby off for a college visit--Grove City College. She is staying with a friend in her dorm room and they are, I'm just certain, having a college girl giggle fest. She has an interview in the morning, her 4th in 7 days. 3 were for scholarships---lots of free meals; colleges really know how to schmooze. So now the wait begins to see what offers she gets. Praying that God gives us clarity. It has been an interesting journey and I am thankful for every minute we have together. I am so blessed to have teenage children with whom I can have mature and meaningful conversations and of whom I am so very proud! More than anything I want them to be men and women of character who love God wholeheartedly and who serve others unabashedly. OK...off the mommy soapbox...

On the tightwad home front:

My two night hotel stay is FREE!! I dropped Abby off and went into the local Mickey-D's for the free WiFi (remember the days when we just stopped for the bathrooms???)  I planned to book a hotel on Expedia or Hotwire, but decided on a whim to check out an old Wyndham Rewards account that I have but no longer use. Generally, you have to book at least 2 weeks in advance to get free nights, but I decided to try anyway. Sure enough, I had enough points left to get 2 nights free...booked at McDonalds and walked into the lobby 10 minutes later where the receptionist printed off my ticket and told me the hours for the FREE breakfast. Nice! I get to enjoy a quiet night and no one will take the remote from me:).

The mail box has been overflowing lately with free samples and coupons...tonight I won a coupon for a free Stouffer's Entree. I spend maybe 5 minutes 3 or 4 days a week playing the contests at http://www.freebies4mom.com/ You'll see the link. I don't enter them all...generally just 4 or 5 of them. It's fun and free and most weeks I win at least a coupon for.  I've won his and her LL Bean mountain bikes, a cool teakettle, lots of coupons and, as many of you know, we won the Chrysler contest. It's fun to win and share the prizes...but you can't win if you don't enter!

Remember when I told you all about ebates?? I tend to sign up for these things and then get busy and forget about them. Well, I received my first ebates check for $95.00 this week...cool right? Totally unexpected. So what's the scoop on that? Ebates is a program that gives you cash back on nearly every online purchase. Almost every store in on ebates. You also get money for referring others, so to those who signed up...thanks!! If you haven't yet and you already shop online, I can tell you it is obviously worth it! It's like getting paid every time you shop. Here's the link:

Happy Dealing!

1 comment:

  1. Great post. You have spent great moments. You are sharing wonderful experience. Thanks for share.

    ReplyDelete