We have a new article up about the dos and don'ts about requesting coupons directly from manufacturers with some great common sense strategies that you might not have considered.

For example, "do not request the manufacturer to send coupons because your local stores will not accept internet printables" and "do not request the manufacturer to send coupons because you cannot print their coupons through an internet printable provider, such as SmartSource or Boodle"

Since coupons direct from the manufacturer are usually much more valuable than coupons you can find in your Sunday paper, following the rules will go a long way in helping you get the most from this source.

A couple of more coupon contact lists added to the Grocery Coupon Guide site:

Mars

Brands: Mars, 3 Musketeers, Combos, Cookies And, Dove Chocolate, Ethel M Chocolates, Kudos, M&Ms, Milky Way, Skittles, Snickers, Starburst, Twix, Uncle Ben’s, Flavia, Cesar, Pedigree, Sheba, Whiskas

I didn't know they made pet food...

McKee Foods

Brands: Little Debbie, Sunbelt Snacks, Heartland, Blinkz


Of course, big thanks goes out to Flash for all this information. We still have quite a few to go, but the list should be quite comprehensive once we've finished which should mean you can contact your favorite brands directly for coupons and promos.

I placed up a new article at Frugal Gardening titled Budget Garden Basics. The article highlights 5 points:

Start Small
Learn Some Basics
Don’t Be Afraid To Use Unusual Materials
Use Nature In Nature
Find Materials In Budget Friendly Places

All make good sense and a nice reminder article that gardening doesn't have to be expensive.

The first wealth coins that I sent out as a fun little project arrived in LA and Minnesota. The one that went to LA was taken to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and had photos taken there - kind of a cool way to start the project. Another arrived in Minnesota and will be going to New York.

I can't wait to see where the other coins travel to in the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to the hard work of Flash, we have six more contact lists for getting coupons from major manufacturers live:

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

Brands: ACT Fluoride, Acuvue, Aveeno, Balmex, Band-Aid, Benecol, Carefree Liners, Clean and Clear, Cortaid, Imodium, Johnsons Baby, Johnsons Buddies, K-Y, Lactaid, Monistat, Motrin IB, Mylanta, Mylicon, Neutrogena, OB Tampons, Pepcid AC, Purpose Skin Care, Reach Access, Reach Fresh and Clean, Rembrandt, Roc Skin Care, Shower to Shower, Splenda, Stayfree, St. Joseph’s Aspirin, Tylenol, Viactiv

SMUCKERS

Brands: After the Fall Juices, Crisco, Cross and Blackwell, Dickinson’s, Hungry Jack, Jif, Laura Scudders, Martha White, PET Evaporated Milk, Pillsbury Baking, Knudsen Juices, Santa Cruz Organic, Smucker’s

HORMEL

Brands: Always Tender, Carapelli, Chichi’s Salsa, Diamond Crystal, DiLusso Deli, Farmer John, Lloyd’s BBQ, Jennie-O Turkey, Spam, Stagg Chili, World of Foods

HEINZ

Brands: Bagel Bites, TGIF, Wylers, SmartOnes, Catelli, Classico, Farley’s, Greenseas, Jack Daniel’s Sauce, Lea and Perrins, Ore-Ida

KIMBERLY-CLARK

Brands: Block-It, Cottonelle, Depend, GoodNites, Huggies, Kleenex, Kotex, Poise, Pull-Ups, Scott, Neat Sheet, Viva

COCA-COLA

Brands: Barq's, Coke, Diet Coke, Dannon, Dasani, Evian, Fanta, Full Throttle, Hi-C, Minute Maid, Nestea, Odwalla, Powerade, Simply Orange, Sprite, Swerve, TaB Energy

By far the most email I get from people is concerned with timeshares and how to get rid of them. I updated

I have been asked by a couple of people to list what both Nate and I have been up to and I think that is a good idea. I'll try and write what I have been doing and what Nate has been doing too to keep everyone better informed of what is going on at all the sites:

Nate fixed comment emails - they should now allow you to go straight to the comment area on the post you made when someone makes a comment (this hadn't been working since we changed the blog URLs). This is definitely a happy fix for me

If you are good at saving money and do so with unique ideas (or know somebody that does), the Washington Post wants you for their Penny Pincher of the Year Award (cash prizes awarded). Seems like a great idea for many of you here - hope you take the time to enter.

Time to work a bit more on my challenge which I have greatly neglected with so much going on with the sites - eBay is having another $0.10 fixed and auction (your choice) price sale today (May, 9, 2006). I'll be trying to list 30+ items and some more for the challenge. We'll see how it goes. More information on the promotion