Book Giveaway

After my entry on the Amazon Kindle below, I also realized I have an offer for my loyal readers at Frugal Green Girl!

"The Penny Pincher's Club" by Sarah Strohmeyer, a new chick lit type book was released earlier this month, and I have two copies to give away to readers of Frugal Green Girl. Like "Confessions of a Shopaholic", it follows the story of a woman going through a financial strain and is forced to give up her material possessions to get her life back in order. Along they way, you'll learn some tips yourself on how to save money. I'm happy to trade one of my boring personal finance books for an adventure, and I hope to post more information on this book in the future as I find opportunities for it.

In the mean time, I will give readers until August 15th at midnight (Central time) to enter in the drawing for a copy of "The Penny Pincher's Club". Email me your name and a way to contact you (email address is fine) to frugalgreengirl@gmail.com. Join along with us, even if you don't get a free copy, and share the tips you find helpful.

Free Redbox Rental

Looking to rent a movie for the weekend?

Sign up for emails from Red Box and you'll be offered a promotional code good for one free rental.

After using my free rental code from Red Box, I got an additional free rental for signing up for emails. So, you might get two free rentals from Red Box when signing up for promotional emails.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! Luckily I have a beautiful day outside to watch from my office window to observe (I'm trying to be positive here).

Although I know its a little late in the day, there have been some awesome giveaways today that I thought I would share with you in case you still have some time. Reusable totebags seem to the popular giveaway, and I think you will find them quite useful. This information has been gathered from other websites, like inqusitr.com, and ehow.com.

• All Disney Stores are handing out free Mickey Mouse totebags today. Bring in three plastic bottles to any location to get yours.
• Head here to get a mail-in rebate form for Reynolds Wrap’s recycled foil wrap. Then, you can go buy a roll of it and get your money back (up to $3.99).
• Walgreen’s is giving out free recyclable tote bags today. All you have to do is print out the coupon here and buy anything in the store to get yours. The coupon will also give you 15 percent off most items in the store.
• You can get a free reusable tote bag from The Body Shop, too. No coupon needed — you just have to spend at least $30 and they’ll give it to you. The store will also donate $2 from all purchases today to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• Target stores are offering $2 coupons for GE Energy Smart compact fluorescent light bulbs for the first 1 million guests to check out in each store. They’ll also hand out free reusable tote bags.
• Check with your local Subaru dealer or Whole Foods store, but the two have been putting on a "eco-tour" for Earth day, where if you test drive a Suburu, you will receive a $20 gift certificate to Whole Foods, and a potential tote bag.
• Earthbound Farms is also giving away a free tote bag if you are the first 10,000 people every week in the month of April to request for it. You just have to read and do a little pledge.
• For our Canadian friends, Starbucks in Canada is offering free coffee on April 22, 2009 if you bring in a travel mug. They will fill it up with a complimentary brewed Pike Place Roast!
• Not to vote for more consumerism, however, Old Navy is one of my favorite places to shop due to moderately low prices and nicer clothes. They are currently running a special when you buy a $1 tote you will receive 10% off your purchase and may find more on ways to save (i.e. coupons) on their website.

There are more awesome deals for you out there, so be sure to look around at what is in your area!

Free Learning!

I recently have been taking on a great free treat, podcasts. I am a mac user, but those of you with windows can also use iTunes to get a vast directory with every topic under the sun in podcast topics. Take an astronomy class from UC-Berkley, learn daily Spanish, or subscribe to podcasts on learning how to be more "green". If you are into talk radio, this is another great outlet as well, since topics can be specific to your own interests. Also, I know in the case of my husband, he has a particularily long commute to work every day, so there is always room to take advantage during the daily drive to play podcasts on American civil war history (yuck!). There are also video podcasts available too, if you like to watch your speaker. I like to load up on a podcast before a long trip on an airplane or by car on our journey back home, it makes things much more enjoyable and time go a little faster.

You don't need an actual iPod to use "podcasts" either, any mp3 player can work just fine! Depending on the length of the podcast, you may also be able to burn them on to CDs, if you do not have a type of mp3 player transmitter to your car radio. Grow your interests with podcasts, its knowledge at your disposable, with entertainment on the side. The list of podcasts on iTunes is growing every week too, so check back every once in a while!

For the book lovers out there...

Thanks to Tom who commented on this article about using swaptree.com, which does not involve a point/credit system, and you can trade pretty much any media (books, DVDs, CDs, and video games). I tried it and I loved it, my first book is on the way!

I can't help it. I love books. I would like to say I finish (or have even started) all of the books I currently own, however, that is far from the case. Every trip to the bookstore is very exciting, a new learning opportunity on the horizon. Unfortunately, these trips are quite expensive, and leave me with a load of half-read books on the shelf. What's a frugal girl to do? Obviously, there is a great path I have taken with half.com, but another way which will also leave you just as satisfied, and maybe even more such, is an online book exchange.

I have been trying out Paperbackswap.com, and have also glanced at bookmooch.com, both are venues to search and swap books with others. Both work on a point/credit system, and both are a little bit different in the distribution. Basically, the more books you list to swap, the more points you will get to earn books from others. In otherwords, this is not another place where you can accumulate more crap! If you start an account with paperbookswap.com, after you list 10 books, you will get 2 credits for books (limit one offer per household). Obviously, you would also earn points/credits by the books you give to others, and lose some when you get books from others. Postage is not something you are paid for since someone will return the favor for you when you get a new book. You can also buy credits if you have nothing to give, but I doubt that is a reality for anyone :)

If books aren't your fancy, there is also swapadvd.com and swapacd.com, where you can swap DVDs and CDs you don't use anymore. Don't buy more, swap whats sitting on your bookshelf or closet!

Also, if you try out paperbackswap.com, note that it is not limited to just paperbacks, they have hardcover books available too. :)

Making that list of free activities

A great way to start some preventative ways of saving money is to have a list of activities to do in your area that are free. That way, when you feel like doing something, you have your list of things to do right there, and you know you don't have to spend money to have a good time. Most free things to do are maybe so obvious you have over looked them. Here are a few from my own area, and maybe they can inspire some for yours:

• Take the dog to the dog park and enjoy nature!
• Play at the Frisbee golf course
• Go to your local library and rent some movies or get some books to read
• Watch for "free days" at local museums
• Make a postcard for PostSecret
• Learn a craft or art you have been meaning to take up
• Read a book on your shelf that you havent read yet
• Walk downtown (but NO shopping)
• Start/write entry in blog!

So there you go, start your own list so that some day when you are bored, you can remember to enjoy the things in life that are free.