Self-Motivation

I think we all understand how easy it is to begin something, continue to work on it for awhile, and then eventually forget about it and leave it as a never-to-be-completed work in progress. I couldn't even tell you how many times I've done this. Books, drawings, projects: all worked on to an extent, only to be scattered forever amongst all of the other unaccomplished ideas.

I had a feeling this is where my blog was going for a little while. But this is where a little bit of Self-Motivation and extra effort come into play! Now I won't deny that I've been a little bit distracted with all of this getting-ready-for-college stuff, and it might still have an impact on my ability to write future posts. But I will definitely be sure to put aside a little extra time to keep everything updated.

And in other news, I am officially leaving TOMORROW for Fresno Pacific University! I am beyond excited to start a new journey as I finally begin the life of a college student! Woohoo! :)

$10 Worth of Free Items PLUS Free Shipping!

Here's an offer that's impossible to pass up. When you sign up for Vitacost, you get $10 to spend on their website!! And now through April 12, you get free shipping on your entire purchase as long as you add their Vitamin D3 Capsules ($4.99) to your shopping cart, leaving you with just over $5 to spend on whatever you want with NO shipping costs! They have a lot of awesome products to choose from: shampoo, conditioner, vitamins, food, baby products, soap. Too much for me to list here! I decided to use the remaining $5 I had on an 18 oz Nature's Gate Pomegranate and Sunflower Shampoo and Superior Bee Flower Rose Soap!

And also be sure to add two free samples to your cart. Remember this promotion ends on April 12! But even if you do miss the deadline, you can still sign up to get the $10 code. Vitacost is constantly having free shipping promotions like this, so even if you miss this great deal, save the email you received with the $10 code and keep your eyes peeled for their next free shipping promo!

Calling All Gamers!

I know that guys are usually the ones known for playing video games, but I do play my fair share of video games too. Gog.com is offering a free PC download of Fallout today and tomorrow only!! This game has 5 star ratings btw! Add the game to your account here. If you don't have an account, registration is free and easy and they give you 6 additional games just for signing up! Their site also has a great selection of games at reasonable prices, generally $10 and under.

Companies to Contact for Coupons

How is everyone doing with their savings so far? Some of you may know that I said I was going to be compiling a list of companies that you can email to get even more savings, so here is the beginning of what will hopefully be a very long and useful list of companies that will send you coupons if you ask them nicely.  


                      My successful endeavors

                                                                                 

•  American Italian Pasta Company                
• 1 Coupon for .55 off and 1 Coupon for a FREE Package
•  Kellogg's                                                    
• 3 Coupons for $1 off various Kellogg's brands
•  Sara Lee                                                    
• 3 Coupons for $1 off Sara Lee Brands
•  Bays English Muffins                                  
•  2 Coupons for .75 off Bays English Muffins
•  Best Foods                                                 
• Coupon Booklet with several AWESOME coupons
•  Birds Eye Vegetables                                  
• 3 Coupons for .35 off Bird's Eye
•  Bob Evans                                                  
• 4 Coupons for .50 off any Bob Evans Product
•  Boboli Pizza Crust                                     
•  2 Coupons for $1 off any Boboli Product
• Bob's Red Mill                                            
• 4 Coupons for .55 off any Bob's Red Mill Product

In case you're wondering what to include in your emails to these companies or any others you contact, here's a sample email that I sent to Azteca Foods (of course I never got a response from them, but this is generally how I structure my emails).

Dear Azteca foods,

My family and I love to eat tacos, burritos, and tostadas for 

dinner all the time. Deep-fried bean and cheese burritos are 

actually one of my favorite dinners as far as taste and 

simplicity. Normally we purchase La Rosa tortillas, but I'd 

love to try out your brand to see how we like it. If you had 

any coupons that you could send me, I would greatly appreciate
it. 

Thank you very much!
Allisha Gold, Burrito Enthusiast

 Good luck with your emails! I'll be sure to update the list of companies as I get more coupons in the mail!

Blog Giveaways

Why pay for something when you can get it free? Blog giveaways are great ways to win free items, gift cards, or even cold hard cash! In this past month alone, I've won 4 different giveaways being hosted by bloggers themselves, and this was pretty much the first month I've ever entered blog giveaways! What's so fantastic about giveaways that are hosted on blogs is the fact that your chances of winning are usually pretty high. Most giveaways range from just a few hundred entries to a few thousand; compare that to the sweepstakes held by large corporations that can have hundreds of thousands of people entering. And what's even better is that almost all blog giveaways allow you to earn multiple entries, making your odds of winning even higher! So now that we've been talking about blog giveaways, I say it's time to announce our first blog giveaway!! Enter through the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift code. This giveaway will end on April 7 at 12 AM EST and is open to the U.S. ONLY. The winner will be chosen through random.org and will have 48 hours to respond to my email. You must follow my blog through Google Friend Connect to be eligible to win and I will verify the entries. Good luck! (:

Bored? Get a FREE $20 Game Download!

Free entertainment! Woohoo! Paradox Interactive is offering free downloads to their Cities in Motion game! All you have to do is complete their survey about video games, which should take you at the most 20 minutes. It actually froze on me when I was almost finished with the survey, so I had to re-take it for it to finally go through; but even with me basically doing the survey twice it still took me less than 20 minutes. Hopefully it will work the first time for you! You can take the survey until March 31st and they will email the download to everyone a few weeks later.

SheSpeaks

Great news! Just a couple days ago I was selected to be a tester for another product testing site called SheSpeaks. In the next 2-3 weeks, I'll receive full-sized bottles of Pantene Nature-Fusion Shampoo and Conditioner in exchange for just sharing my opinions with them! I joined SheSpeaks on February 14, so it only took about a month for me to be picked to test a new product on the market. Definitely join if you'd like to receive free products in the mail!

And be prepared! I'll be posting something in the next week or so that I know you'll absolutely love!

Product Testing Websites

We all love trying out new products, and what could be better than getting to try out new products for free? Over the past 3 plus months, I've been joining a number of product testing websites and other various websites. However, because I am only posting about websites/tips that I can personally vouch for and have had the opportunity to try, I can only tell you one website I have actually been chosen to test a product for. Swaggable! I joined this site on February 29, merely 3 days ago! What's so great about it is the fact that this is the only site I've ever been picked to test a product for, but at the same time it is the most recent site I've joined. I get to try out Chai Now, an alternative to regular tea and coffee. When I get it in the mail I'll let you know how it is!
They have a HUGE variety of different things you could be selected to try, and several other people I've talked to also quickly received an invitation to try out a product after joining. So I definitely recommend signing up, all they ask is that you write a review about what you thought of their product.
Unfortunately, a lot of sites can take up to a year before they choose you to test out a product, it all has to do with demographics. I'll post on the other product testing websites as I get picked to try out more products!

Not Just Coupons, FREE Coupons.

This is more of an expansion on my original coupon post. We all know that coupons can save you hundreds of dollars a month when used the right way. But, have you ever seen a coupon for a free item?

Yes! These extremely valuable coupons really DO exist, and I've even used several of them and currently have about 5 free item coupons on hand. There are a few different ways to receive these coupons: firstly a few companies let you request the "sample" as I mentioned before and they send it to you in the form of a Free coupon. For instance, Kraft Mac and Cheese is giving away Free Macaroni and Cheese coupons to the first 200 people every day through March 4 who enter in their information at 12 PM EST. But just FYI, you have to be really quick to enter because all 200 are usually gone in less than a minute. The best method to win this one is to already have the page up before the time it starts, and just keep refreshing the page until they open up the giveaway. Auto-fill add-ons or Roboform make it a lot easier to get your entry submitted in time since they fill out the form for you within seconds.

The other two methods of receiving free coupons involve contacting companies directly by either praising a product or sending a complaint. Generally speaking, if you're complaining about a product you're much more likely to be sent a free coupon as a form of reimbursement for whatever problem you had with the product. Make sure you keep the receipts to items because you'll most likely be asked for the UPC of the item you bought as well as proof of purchase if you email a company with a complaint.

Now unless you're a compulsive liar and have no integrity whatsoever, you most likely won't want to invent complaints to email companies just to get a few easy freebies. So the best route to take is to just ask the company directly. Tell them what you like about their product! Give them suggestions! Let them know you've never actually used their product before, but it looked interesting and you'd like to try it out! If you want, add to the end of your email that you'd really appreciate it if they had a few extra coupons they could spare. Some companies are nice enough to include a free product coupon or two. And even if none of the coupons they send are for a free item, they're usually of pretty high value, and hey! a coupon's a coupon, right?

The easiest way to contact companies is through the "Contact Us" option located usually at the bottom of a company's website. This way they ask you to fill out your information first so that you don't accidentally forget to include it in your email.

I'll be compiling a big list of companies that I've emailed personally that have sent me coupons, including companies that threw in FREE coupons. In the meantime while I work on my list, here's a company for you to email that sent me a coupon for free pasta. (:

Mail Call!

Mail Call!

A few months ago I started getting into requesting samples from companies. I noticed a lot of people on a Facebook Page constantly posting their "mail calls" on the page's wall about all of the free items they received that day in their mailbox. Yes, you really can get great things in the mail just from filling out a simple form on a company's website!
This picture is the mail that I had just from today! A bunch of different shampoo and conditioner samples, a pack of 5 towelettes, a cute pink beauty bag from Target, a cough medicine sample, and a bottle of 5-Hour energy! Usually these companies will only give out the samples for a limited amount of time or until their samples run out, but some companies will let you request a sample just about anytime. I've requested and received tons of different samples since December, including lots of haircare products, and even free cans of cat food and dog food, free Mac and cheese boxes, a free bottle of Activate flavored water, and a full pasta meal for 4 from Wise Food Company! In this economy every little bit helps!
To get you guys started on your quest for free things, here's a form for a "sample" meal from Wise Foods. Note, they will email you to confirm that you want the sample and they will also most likely give you a call, so be sure to provide accurate information or you may not receive your sample.
Most importantly when it comes to samples, BE PATIENT. Some will arrive within a week or two, while others may take up to several months to arrive. But if you're always requesting new samples you're bound to have a constant flow arriving in the mail in no time.

Coupons, coupons, and more coupons

If you're focused on saving money on a regular basis, there's one great way for you to get started: coupons. I can't stress couponing enough for you when it comes to major savings. I know, I know. You're thinking "couponing?? Pshh that's not for ME." And right about now you're starting to see images of that "crazy coupon lady" in the grocery store holding the line up for 10 minutes with her handful of coupons.

What you didn't see was the fact that the "crazy coupon lady" just paid $20 for $50 worth of items that she needed to buy anyway. Instead of paying full price for your groceries and other miscellaneous items, why not use a coupon to save money on something you would be buying anyway? And pairing these coupons with various store deals and coupons is when you really start to save money.
Let me give you an example of an unbeatable deal that I scored today. In the Redplum coupon insert from 2/12, there was a coupon for $3 off any full size Got2be hair product. Walgreens was having a deal this week, for a buy 1 get 1 free Got2be product for just $5.99. So, with 2 of these $3 off coupons, I was able to get 2 Got2be hairsprays for just $0.46 (sales tax) since both coupons covered the price of the products.

And THIS is why coupons can be a valuable tool for great savings. So go grab your weekly newspapers and start clipping!

 P.S. A great website to use for store match-ups is Hip2Save.

Newbie Blogger Here

Okay, so I'm not EXACTLY a college student yet... but let's face it; college is right around the corner and the Fall of 2012 is quickly approaching. As college students (or maybe even soon-to-be college students), I think we all need all of the support we can get. And THAT, my dear friends, is where this blog comes in.

I'm not gonna lie, I never really considered myself the "blogging" type. It was bad enough once I got myself hooked on Facebook. Blogging was just completely out of the question. Or so I thought.

Here's my goal for this blog: to provide college students and non-college students alike with the support to live the "Golden Life," even in this state of our economy. (Ahh so now you see why I chose this as the title for my blog.... I mean, besides the fact that it has no relation to my name whatsoever). *sarcasm*
I'll be blogging on tips, helpful advice, and other great websites that I know of that I'm sure will be of great help in earning/saving a bit of extra money. Stay tuned!