Wonderling

Update!

I thought I would do an update on all of the new stuff I've been trying since it's been a few weeks. 

1. Free Online Samples: I posted a while ago about seeing if getting online samples really worked and if it was really worth it. A few weeks ago I started getting the samples in the mail (it works!), but they were only sample size....which really isn't that great. I also have started to get these magazines like Lillian Vernon and Handsome Rewards; mags for retirees. Most people would be irritated, but I've always liked looking at all the crazy stuff people will buy. 

2. Baking Soda everything! 2 weeks ago I decided to stop using store bought shampoo, conditioner and deodorant and replace them with baking soda and vinegar mixtures. 

For the first week the baking soda deodorant worked great, but once I started riding my bike to work it wasn't enough. I'm going to try this recipe and see if it keeps me "fresh" on biking days. At the very least I can bring it to work and reapply. 

The baking soda shampoo is wonderful. It doesn't strip my hair like regular shampoo, but it still gets it clean. With regular shampoo my hair would be totally limp (it's naturally fine and pretty straight), but it feels like the baking soda shampoo keeps some of the natural oils on my hair, so it's not all lifeless and dry. For the first time in years I can have a "good hair day" without using a pound of product. 

I haven't really used the vinegar rinse. I used it once, but I haven't had a problem with the baking soda drying my hair out yet. 

3. Biking to work. This one is really new. I have only ridden to work twice this week, but I already feel so much better. The first day was really hard. I realized how horribly out of shape I am when I almost didn't make it home without getting off my bike and walking. The great thing about biking though is that you don't really get sore muscles. I thought my legs were going to be too sore to walk the next day, but they were fine! I didn't go to work on wednesday and my neighbor was driving up here this morning for some pre-volunteer stuff so I hitched a ride with him today. 

I'm really looking forward to getting better at biking. Once I have better balance (how do people ride with both hands off the handlebars!?) I think my confidence riding in traffic will be much higher. For now I try to stick to non-trafficy areas. 

Recyclable Organization!

I've been looking for a pocket-sized accounting ledger to keep track of what I spend "on the go", but I haven't found anything smaller than letter size. I'm at the end of the week from hell and it's threatening to continue through the weekend, so I took a breather and decided to look for small ledgers again and this amazing little website called pocketmod popped up bringing a ray of sunshine to my gray day.

The best part is that you can make anything into a pocketmod booklet. I've seen tourist guides to Italy, Mac OS mini-handbooks and all sorts of other sites with pocketmodded cuteness.

How to get free stuff (and other money saving ideas)

It seems that free stuff is always too good to be true. That there's a catch. You have to sign up for something and call in 30 days to cancel or they charge your credit card, you have to visit 12 sponsor sites, your email inbox turns into spam central, etc. Well, I've spent the morning checking out some websites that are all about free stuff and here's what I found.

The good:

gogoshopper.com: freebies listed by category. The links usually take you right to the free sample page and none of the sites required you to enter credit card info. The only downside is that a lot of the offers had expired.

justfreestuff.com: a lot of the same deals as gogoshopper, but with occasional commentary about the link. Also broken down by category and also a lot of expired offers.

Walmart: yes, we are supposed to dispise walmart, but I think we can suspend our hatred just long enough to get some free samples every so often. These offers are current and ever changing. They are also extremely easy to get. All you have to do is enter your mailing info into the walmart site (not into all the different vendors sites)to get your samples.

mygrocerydeals.com: this was my favorite of all the sites I checked out today. I'm putting myself on a strict food budget and this will help immensely. You enter your email address and zip code, then pick your favorite grocery stores. When you log in the site displays all of the sale items from your "preferred" store with sale end dates and even the option to add items to a printable grocery list! It will also tell you if a coupon is needed to get the sale price.

gutenberg.org: project gutenberg is a website devoted to online books, as in whole, complete books. Not just snippits or sections, but the whole thing. There aren't a lot of new books in the database, but there are plenty of great not-new books to read. There are also audio books and even sheet music!

opensourcefood.com: if you haven't been to this site, you are missing out. It's full of amazing recipes that all have photos! I have a hard time wanting to try recipes that I can't see first (I'm a visual person!). You can browse other user submitted recipes or submit your own. Not only that but the website is really user-friendly and the recipes are fantastic!

The not-so-good:

startsampling.com: there were a few coupons. not anything I would have wanted to buy anyway and only one actual free sample of powdered lemon juice.

myfree.com: a lot of links to free stuff that you could find for free on your own very easily (recipes, "ideas", jokes, health and fitness tips). also sweepstakes notices....I'm really not a fan of online sweepstakes.

freebiesgalaxy.com: the freebies that I would have liked were all linked to "try 2 of these silver offers" websites.

There are endless "freebie" websites online. These are just the few that I took the time to try this morning. I have a "junk mail" email address that I used to register with the sites and I highly reccommend having one if you're going to delve into the world of online free stuff.