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Katelyn Cole

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Archive for the ‘my life’ Category

Peddling your wares

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One of the best ways to spread the word about your business is by giving away promotional items that has your business logo and name on it. One of the most common freebies that I get from a business is a pen, and those are all well and good (and I use them) but I also tend to get a lot of promotional bags given to me.

My favorite freebie bags are the canvas ones that are sturdy enough to be used to carry groceries home from the grocery store. I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of plastic bags that I bring home from stores, and sometimes a store will give me a five cent credit for bringing my own bag to use. Using the bags as often as I do keeps the advertiser’s company name in my line of vision several times a week, and I think that is a good advertising procedure!

Another one of my favorite freebies is a water bottle. I especially like the kind that are insulated, so it helps to keep your water cold. I like to buy the individual packets of Crystal Light or some other brand of ice tea like the Arizona brand of green tea with ginger and use them to flavor plain water. The packets are easy to slip into my purse and the water bottles get a lot of use. I used to just buy bottled water and put the flavor in those bottles, but I have heard so much publicity about how bad plastic water bottles are for the environment that I really prefer to get something that is re-usable. My sister re-uses the plastic ones and fills them with water, freezes them and then takes them out of the freezer and lets them thaw so she can drink ice water, but I’ve read that doing that is actually unhealthy for you to do.

Slipcovers

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One of the things that I like to do is change the looks of the throw pillows that I keep on the sofa. Years ago I was given a set of decorative throw pillows that were a Christmas theme. When Christmas was over, I decided that I really did not have a good place to store them, so I made some slip covers to put over them. That way I can continue to use the pillows year round, and if the pillows get soiled I can just take off the slip covers and throw them into the washer and dryer.

Where has the southern hospitality gone?

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Last night I have to travel on business to a different state about 5 hours away from home. As I check into the Sheraton Hotel that I’m staying in the desk attendent does not offer to help me, I have to ask her for help. She asks me if I’m trying to check in, and I reply “that would be nice.” I give her my name, and my credit card, and a few moments later she hands me my room key and tells me what room I have. She doesn’t ask me if I need directions to the room, so I ask her how to get to the room and she tells me directions to the elevator.

I thank you and take the key, and turn to go to the elevator. I was anticipating some kind of farewell greeting from her, something like “you’re welcome” or “have a good night” or “thank you for staying with us” or ANYTHING. Not a sound. Very surprised. If I was secret shopping, she would have flunked for sure.

Coupons help me save a lot of money

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Do you use coupons? Most of my friends are avid coupon clippers. From time to time they will post a picture of their latest great bargains that they purchased and brag about how much money they have saved. They talk from time to time about the television show called Extreme couponers (or something like that) and about how much merchandise these people buy and how little that it costs them. I have never seen the television show for myself, in fact I don’t even know what channel it is on or what day (or night) of the week that the television show is on, but I just cannot imagine anyone having enough time in the day to collect all of those coupons and redeem them and still have any time left over for a job or a social life!
To tell you the truth, I subscribe to the Sunday newspaper simply because of the coupon inserts that come with the paper, and I’ve been thinking about the fact that now that those coupons are available over the Internet, free for the printing and clipping, that maybe I should just cancel that newspaper completely because the remainder of the paper just goes into the recycling pile.

Recently I joined a couple of new shopping websites that offer really fantastic shopping deals. Some of them you order the merchandise directly from them, others will give you a coupon code to use to buy the product at a different website. Still others just will send you an email list full of offers and coupon and discount codes. Some of the websites donate money to charity, others deposit money into a savings account for someone’s college 529K savings plan. Over the past couple of years I have saved hundreds of dollars through using these shopping websites. Still other companies will give you a loyalty card to shop at their store, and if you register that loyalty card with the company’s website, you will be on their email list and you’ll get special offers through your email account.

Just this morning I knew that I had to go into town to run some errands and I knew that I needed to buy my tax preparation software, so before I left the house I went online to locate a coupon code to see if I could get a bargain on that. And you know what? I found a coupon for 25% off a purchase at Staples! I printed it off, and I’ll be taking that with me when I go.

Hit or miss

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Ever since my girlfriend told me about all of the great nomorerack insanity deals I have missed, I’ve been trying to remember to go online to their website to grab some for myself. All of the nomorerack reviews I’ve read indicate that it is a fun and cheap way to get merchandise online. So far I’d have to agree that the bargains are outstanding, and what adds to the excitement of it is the fact that you never know whether you are going to score a great bargain that day or not. Kind of like a hit or miss type of deal. Don’t get me wrong, everything is a bargain there, what you don’t know is whether you are going to be able to scarf up one of the insanity deals, or even better one of the free deals!

This afternoon I went online around one hour after they put their deals up online and saw that their free deal was already sold out! Darn it, missed it this time! I’ll have to try to remember to go online at noon to check out the new deals and hope that they have something great then!