What can you get for a dime?

At Food Lion this week (9/23-9/29) you can get a box of Food Lion brand Macaroni and Cheese for a mere 10 cents. The sale is "while supplies last," so if you're interested, move fast!

Free on Facebook

Back when you were in grade school -- and friends were oh-so-important -- adults would tell you that you can't buy your friends.

Unless, of course, you're a major corporation trying to boost your Facebook presence.

Texas Pete is offering its Facebook fans a free coupon for hot sauce when they reach 100K fans. If you're a fan by then, then you're in luck.

Coupon Extravaganza

If you don't have a newspaper subscription, today's a great day to pick one up at the store.

There are five -- FIVE -- coupon inserts in today's paper! And some really good coupons to boot.

Still Swaggin'

One frugal habit I definitely maintained during my summer hiatus is searching the internet using Swagbucks. I'm just a few Swaggies away from the 500 mark!

What does that mean in real dollars? 500 Swagbucks is worth:

• $40 in Barnes & Noble gift cards (125 SB for a $10 gift card)
• $55 in e-gift cards to Amazon.com (45 SB for a $5 gift card)
• 33 new trees planted (15 SB per tree)
• $165 in gift cards to Fragrancenet.com (15 SB for a $5 gift card)
• $300 in e-cards to Restaurant.com (40 SB for a $25 gift card)

All that for an activity I'd be doing anyway?! Definitely works for me!

I'm still alive

And back in the frugal saddle. I took a graduate class this summer that took up all my free time plus some. It also made me very thankful for my pantry stockpile -- I was too busy to do much grocery shopping. Clipping coupons? That was out of the question with multiple reviews and papers due. But we were still able to eat well and well within out budget because I had an ample stockpile from previous sales.

Now that life is back to normal, I'm still in laidback coupon mode. Perhaps it's just that I've matured some in my coupon clipping methods (for me; to each his/her own). When I started, I clipped everything -- things I used often and items I'd never tried before. After all, I reasoned, you never knew when there was going to be a killer sale.

But when I look at my cupboards, now back to a "normal" level since we've worked to eat them down over the summer, I really don't want to go back to buying any and everything that's super cheap. Eating healthy foods is important to us, so I've started skipping over the coupons for highly processed junk foods. Simplicity is important to me, so I'm less likely to try something "just because" and have it take up space in the house.

But I'm still all about saving money, and getting the things I love for less. That won't change.

My father's frugal wisdom

This is a day late, but thanks to this wise advice from my dad, I'll never be a dollar short. :)

Once, in high school, I came home from my retail job rejoicing over a shirt I bought for $.99. "What a deal!" I thought. "Just 99 cents! I saved about $15 buying this shirt on clearance."

But Dad looked at it from another perspective: "If you buy something you don't need, you didn't save $15. You wasted $.99."

His wise words dampened my spirit that day, but they have bolstered my bank account many a day since. One of the greatest keys to frugality and financial prosperity is self control. If you need it, buy it, and try to get it for a good price. But if you really don't need it, it'll never be a deal no matter what the price tag says.

Thanks, Dad.

Love a product? Want a coupon? Check the website.

By now you know matching coupons with sales is one of the best ways to stretch a dollar.

But what if you don't have a coupon for a favorite product? Before you give up your quest, do a online search to find a product's website. Often manufacturers will offer coupons on the product's page that aren't offered elsewhere.

Case in point: I recently blogged about deals involving Cottonelle bath tissue and Bagelfuls. I'd found good sales on those products, but wanted to find coupons to sweeten the deal. And did I! A Google search (well, a Swagbucks search actually, lol) for "Cottonelle and coupon" netted me the $.50 Cottonelle coupons. I knew there was a Bagelfuls coupon at coupons.com, but a similar search for "Bagelfuls and coupon" led me to Kraft's Bagelfuls page and ANOTHER $1 coupon.

Woot!