Winner! Winner! Cake for Dinner!

Ok. So we didn't really have cake for dinner. 

But I did win all this cake loot from a contest over at Cookie madness!!!!

The cake is not a lie.

The package contained: two boxes of Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix, Devils Food Cake Mix, 4 tubs of frosting creations, and a packet each of strawberry shortcake, orange cream, cherry vanilla and chocolate marshmallow frosting mix ins.

I haven't had time to make anything with my cake-y loot.  I can't decide what to make first.  It's hard to think clearly when you are dancing around singing a song about free cake.

I Won Eggs!

So I entered this contest at In Katrina's Kitchen where you can win all this stuff from Eggland's Best.  And guess what????  I won!  Wanna see what I won?

A coupon for 2 dozen free eggs, a coupon for 6 dozen hard boiled eggs, an apron, a reusable grocery bag, a whisk, a spatula, egg timer, 4 little ramekins, and a plush little egg.  Pretty neat eh?

Incidentally, Blockette LOVES the plush egg.  She has named him Eggy and insists on sleeping all snuggled up with him every night.  What a nut!

You say it's your Birthday...

Do you know that a lot of companies give you free stuff on or around your birthday??? It's really great since Blockette and I have birthdays so close together. We get to do lots of free things together. Here are a few of the things Blockette and I have gotten on our latest "free spree."

My mom came to visit last weekend so Mrblocko and I got a chance to go out for dinner by ourselves. I chose to eat at Houlihans. If you sign up for their email club, you get a free entree on your birthday.

After we go out to eat, Mrblocko and I like to hang out at the book store. He reads graphic novels/comic books while I check out what ever magazines strike my fancy. We usually get some sort of drink while we peruse, so it was great that I got a free coupon for a small coffee or tea from Borders Rewards. This works out great for me because the peppermint tea at the cafe is one of the only things they carry that is decaffeinated and sugar free.

Blockette just got her shots for Kindergarten the other day. I told her if she was good we'd go out afterwards and do a bunch of fun things, including eat out for lunch! Well, she was as well as can be expected for little miss dramatic. So we headed over to the mall. Signing up for Orange Julius' Quench Club gets you a free small smoothie.

After our palate was "quenched" we headed on over to Toys R Us. Blockette is signed up for Geoffrey's Birthday Club. This club gets you a $3 off coupon when you spend $3 or more. You can also get a paper crown and a balloon. Blockette for some odd reason did not want her balloon. I was sure Blockette was going to pick a Lego mini figurine for her treat. (I told her she had to keep the cost around $5.) Instead, she chose 2 hot wheels cars and a container of mini M&M's. This was pretty awesome as I only paid around $0.70 out of pocket.

By this time, we were starved so we went down the street to Noodles & Company. Last year I signed up to get Noodlegrams and they sent me a coupon for a free large bowl of noodles with any one add in. I was hoping I'd get a similar coupon this year, and I was not disappointed. The small noodle bowls are a perfect lunch size for both Blockette and I. A large noodle bowl is exactly double the amount of food as the small bowl, so this works out awesome for us. We both like the Pad Thai with Chicken so we don't mind sharing.

Right down the street from the Noodles we ate at is Cost Plus World Market. If you sign up for their Email list they will send you an email with a coupon for $10 off when you buy $10 or more. I got some soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles), a pair of earrings, and some Ginger chews from a company called the Ginger People. (Seriously addictive if you are a fan of ginger. Even Blockette thought they were spicy, but tasty.) I went over my $10 by $0.17.

By the time we got done at Cost Plus, Blockette and I were tired so we headed home. We still have coupons for each of us to get a bowl of ice cream plus one add in at Cold Stone Creamery, an ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins, a free breakfast at IHOP.

Some other email clubs that provide freebies are:
Club Veg at Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation- buy one get one free coupon on your birthday. (This one isn't as big of a deal as signing up for this list gets you a BOGO coupon every month.

P.I.G. Club at Famous Dave's - mystery coupon for your birthday that you don't find out exactly what it is until you get to the restaurant.

CPKids at California Pizza Kitchen- Free kids meal around your kid's birthday

Blizzard Fan Club at Dairy Queen- Birthday Coupon for Buy one get one free Blizzard

Club Mongo at BD's Mongolian Grill (I can't remember what they sent this year, but they do send some sort of coupon via email for your birthday.)

Register A Gift Card at Starbucks. If you have a gift card from Starbucks, register it to their website. You'll get a snail mail coupon for free drink on your birthday.

Birthday Club Kmart- Coupon for your child. $5 off when you spend $5.

Do you know any more great Freebie sites? Leave me a comment and let me know! I love free stuff.

Freebie fun from the weekend

Back in September our family participated in CROP walk (A 3 mile walk to raise money for the hungry, locally and globally.) Those that completed the walk got a gift certificate for a turtle sundae at an ice cream parlor a few towns over. We finally got around to using our coupons Friday. Little did we know that the Ice cream parlor was having a fund raiser for one of the area elementary schools. All you had to do was place your receipt in a bucket and a portion of the total went to the school. Even though we didn't pay for our dessert, we were still able to put our receipt in the bucket. It was like getting a reward for our reward.

Mrblocko was out with his friends on Saturday so Blockette and I went out for fun mommy-daughter time. I had a coupon for one of 3 different spice blends at Penzey and I let Blockette pick out which one we got. She had so much fun smelling all the herbs and spices in that store. It was hard to get her to leave.

Then, I had a coupon for a free cookie and small hot chocolate at Barnes and Noble. Blockette doesn't like to eat/drink anything that is above room temp and will scream like I'm making her imbibe molten lava. (Mmmmm...molten lava!) So, I did the only humane thing, I gave her the cookie and drank the hot chocolate myself. The sacrifices I make for the happiness of my child!

After we consumed our cookie/cocoa combo, we headed over to the mall and I used my coupon for a free pair of underwear from VS. I'm never going to have to wash underwear ever again because VS keeps sending me free coupons. Of course, I might have to wash my underwear more often if I ever actually changed it. (How often are you supposed to change your underwear anyhow? Every year? Month? I can never remember.)

Next, we went to Aunt Annie's and used our coupon for a free pretzel. Blockette thought it was super fun to share the giant pretzel. It was so fun in fact that she forgot about the fact that we left the Disney store without getting her anything Princess or Fairy related. Who knew Pretzels held that kind of power?

If all that wasn't enough free excitement, I brought the weekend to a fabulous end with a wonderful ear infection! For free! I didn't even have to pay for it. Isn't that awesome!!!! I'm so totally psyched!!!!! Can't you tell? With all these exclamation marks!!!! Now, could I get a free antibiotic at Meijer? No. Of course not. The kind I needed wasn't free. At least it was only $4 at Walmart. Yay Walmart Pharmacy!

Freestyle

I am freaky about free stuff. That's how I roll. The past 2 weeks have been crazy with free or insanely cheap deals. Here's how it all broke down:

April 19th: Free compact florescent lightbulb from Home Depot.

April 20th: Free sample of Glad garbage bag arrived in the mail.

April 21th: Ben and Jerry's free cone day (OK, I missed out on this one cause I was sick, but I was there in spirit.)

April 22nd: Free reusable shopping bag at both Old Navy and Walgreens. Sterling silver necklace at Kohls originally priced at $29.99, with the sale and $10 off coupon I payed $0.56.

April 23: Free sample of Quaker Chocolate Drizzle mini delights came in the mail.

April 24th: Free reusable lunch bag from Whole foods. I also used my coupon for a free Kashi frozen dinner.

April 25th: Rebate check for trying out Raisin Bran Crunch Extra arrived.

April 26th: Mrblocko and I helped out at our church's pancake breakfast and got a mountain of leftover sausage.

April 27th: KFC had their free piece of grilled chicken promotion. Blockette and I each had a piece for lunch.

April 28th: Found a coupon online for a free pulled pork sandwich at White Castle. Was able to get a free sandwich for both Blockette and myself.

April 29th: Dominoes had a lunch promotion for a free pasta bread bowl. Again, Blockette and I each got our own. The serving was so huge we had it for lunch the next 3 days.
Baskin Robins had a fundraiser for firefighters and a small cone was only $0.31.

April 30th: Meijer had a deal where you buy any 10 Kelloggs, Sunshine, or Keebler brand products you get 2 free movie tickets to the movie of your choice. All the products I bought for this promotion were on sale and I had a coupon for each item.

May 1st: Filled out a survey and got a $10 off coupon at Dots. As luck would have it I found a shirt and necklace that came to $10 exactly. whoohoo!

Pretty insane eh?