Taking Internet Use to New Heights

In the old days, we used to meet our friends and spouses through school, church and social face-to-face gatherings. In the old days, we used to go down to the store to buy our food and clothing or to the dealer to buy a new car. In the old days, we had to stop at a pay phone or friend’s house to call home about something. Funny thing is that those “old days” weren’t even 30 years ago! How times have changed. Now you can get everything via the Internet!

I’m a 30 something (ok, so VERY close to 40) who deals with a technology driven society every day. I work in the Internet business. So, yes, I have embraced the Internet. How much? Let me tell you… We all know that you can shop on the Internet, no big deal right? Well I like to joke that my husband and I have taken it to a whole new level! Living in the country has helped to facilitate our Internet shopping habits. It’s at least ½ hour to a town big enough for a Walmartand almost 2 hours drive to find decent shopping malls with a little variety. So the Internet is our connection to the world! We often shop online stores and love the bargains to be had on eBay. We’ve bought clothes, boots, cameras, electronics, hunting supplies, dog and horse stuff, etc.

But we don’t stop at Internet shopping for the normal “little” stuff either! We’ve now bought several vehicles based on Internet listings as well. Our last was our used diesel truck that I put a deposit on so the dealer would hold it until we could drive the 2 hours to see it. But, at least the dealer was willing to refund the deposit if we didn’t like it.

We did buy our first horse trailer based on Internet photos and phone conversations only, finalized and sent the payment and then drove 6 hours one way to pick it up. The deal went smoothly and now we are again working with a trailer manufacturer to build us a new trailer and deliver it….sight unseen!

And finally our biggest online deal?!…I met my wonderful husband online. Yep, you heard me right! We met through a dating site (I won’t say which one). We dated and married within 8 months from the time we met and have been together happily for over 6 years.

15 years ago most of us had never heard of the Internet and who would have ever believed you could do so much with it! Now it’s just a normal everyday part of life. Just ask me, I can tell you what it’s done to my life!

Kristin Noble works for MVTV Wireless in Granite Falls, MN. Kristin truly embraces the variety small business allows. She handles daily customer service: fielding incoming calls, trouble shooting customer issues and scheduling technicians’ workloads. On top of that Kristin is charged with the more creative side of things such as website design for customers, local tradeshow exhibiting, print ad layout and writing and tracking MVTV’s social media. You can find her blogging at MVTVWireless or on her personal blog Noble Training and Supplies. Visit her on Facebook at Keeping Rural Areas Connected or on Twitter (RuralTechnology)

photo credit: goforchris

Wordless Wednesday: Lincoln Logs

I loved Lincoln Logs as a kid, so I couldn’t wait to buy them for my oldest. When she out grew them, I saved them for the next child.

My daughter constructed this for her hamster. Unfortunately, she forgot that he wouldn’t sit patiently while she built it. Buddy got bored and wandered off.

We spent the next hour locating buddy.

Top 10 Indications You Are Coupon Crazy

I blogged a while back about taking a couponing class, and now it seems I’m coupon crazy. The whole thing started out as an oddly intriguing thing. Then it quickly became a hobby, and now it’s more like a frugal frenzy.

 I think I’ve gone coupon crazy. The following is a list of items that I believe apply toward my coupon craziness. Can you see yourself?

Top 10 Indications You Are Coupon Crazy

 

1. My browser home page is now set to TotallyTarget.com, trumping Facebook.
2. I usually check out coupon deals in the morning, prior to having a cup of coffee. Craziness, I tell you.
3. I have been known to spontaneously scream out when finding coupon deals that lead to free stuff. I’ve startled my kids and made my friends laugh.
4. I have emailed my husband things like: I just bought $60 worth of groceries at Target for $7; not including any other lead-in or follow-up messages.
5. My husband has offered to come up with “The Perfect Cheer” for us, SNL-style. Now that is over the top!
6. I’ve actually considered taking pictures of my good deals, which means photographing my groceries.
7. We have a lifetime supply of cereal and shavers in our basement.
8. The kids call our basement “Our Store”.
9. I send bags of items home with family, who leave scratching their heads and carrying bags of pasta, body wash, and popcorn.
10. A friend and I enjoyed some time off, shopping “Double, Double Daze” and skipping through the isles carrying toilet paper and gleefully pointing at things.

Not Again

I’m really open about our family, adoption journey, and my love for my kids. I’ve even written and published several articles on this site. I’m very tolerant of questions, even from strangers who mean well or simply are curious. I have amazing patience, usually. And then there are times…

Does anyone else have a family of special circumstances? Adoption? Inter-racial? Disabilities? If you do, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. That day when a question just hits you wrong. Maybe you sense something off. Maybe a stranger approaches you during a family fun day for which you paid a ton of money for admission, but sucked it up in the name of family fun, only to ask you one more time something very personal when you’d rather wave and encourage your child spinning out of control on a ride she just mustered the courage to try?

This person approached me wanting to share her family story, which I could relate to. Again, I’m so used to this. When we’re not in our home community, it’s almost a sure bet that I’ll get approached. While I’m happy to talk about my kids and help other people understand the reasons for our decisions, please respect the fact that my kids can hear you and/or are in need of my attention too.

photo credit: ruthieonart

A Profound Moment

Do you have profound moments? You know the type of experience where you are able to be 100% in the moment, on the outside looking in? I had one last week in Worthington, MN. I traveled there to present a two hour workshop on using social media to aid early childhood educators and child care providers (and related fields) in their work of reaching people and accomplishing goals. While everyone who participated had wonderful attitudes and embraced the materials, my profund moment is related to arriving at the class.

I grew up in Southwest Minnesota, have friends in Worthington, and have traveled there many times. I was aware of the diversity of the community, but had never taken the time to let reality wash over me like it did on Friday. Having a trans-racial family myself, I am accustom to looking past differences to see similarities. That’s not to say we don’t celebrate differences too. I guess I am saying that I didn’t realize how diverse Worthington had become, and how amazingingly “welcomed” I felt driving up to the facility where I was scheduled to teach.

The building was a buzz with activity, families, and kids. Since it was a facility that housed Early Childhood and Family Education classes, it made sense that kids were all over. I arrived at lunchtime, so kids and parents were chattering over dinner. There were many other collabratives housed in the facility as well. The front door was a popular place as people made use of the facility more than any other public place I’d visited in a long time. Everyone was friendly and seemed to know each other by name; even if they didn’t speak the same language.

The halls were adorned with posters and artwork that reflected the idea that everyone was welcome. I snapped this photo with my phone, as I loved the little painted faces each child had created of themselves. While it was art created by children, it was truly a breath taking piece of artwork that represented diverse cultures and celebrated differences. Even though I was working, I couldn’t help but wish my kids were with me to experience the inviting warmth I felt.

The class I tought shared space with a really nice computer lab used for ESL classes. I felt bad making people wrap up their lessons so that we could use the room. Across from where I was standing, I could see men waiting to meet with what I guessed to be a employment consultant. One man had a young child with him, holding his hand. They looked to be Laos. The little girl looked like one of my little girls.

After I was done teaching, I asked about the local Asian grocery store. I got directions and headed downtown. What a vibrant downtown, full of people running errands. Since I cook ethnic food at least once or twice a week, I needed quite a few supplies. I spent over an hour in the store looking through their vast options. It was the largest ethnic grocery store I’d ever been in, with dozens of brands new to me.

Since many of the Laos people fled to Thailand before coming to the US, many picked up Thai language and foods. Therefore, there were many Thai food options. The clerk spoke English and had a wonderful sense of humor. I enjoyed my time there, and again felt welcome. Before I left, I was told to try the sticky rice from the deli in the back. Another bilingual patron helped me order, and I left with the most delicious sticky rice topped with hot chili/fish sauce I’d ever tasted.

I went to Worthington, MN to teach and left having experienced a very profound moment that is hard to explain. I love to write, but I’m having a tough time reducing the day into written words.

Couponing 101: Local is Key

I promised to blog about a recent couponing class I took in my own town, Hutchinson, MN. I have been very interested in learning more about how those “crazy” women do it that I see on the news. You know the stories; $200 of groceries for $1.57 or some amazingly small amount.

I have also been watching other moms who blog about coupons and savings, but it all seemed overwhelming and quite frankly, incoherent for me.

I am happy to say that the couponing class was amazing, and I learned a ton. This is MY version of what I learned and what I feel is key to saving massive amounts on groceries.

1. It’s not about shopping sales or using coupons. It’s about finding as many “match-ups” as possible. This means that you look for sales or price cuts of items, find store coupons, and manufacturing coupons for the same product. Then buy as many products as possible.

• For Example, this week Cashwise had cereal on sale 4 boxes for $10. They then offered an “in store” coupon for 4 boxes for $6. Then I found manufacturers coupons for each of the four boxes I had to buy to meet the requirements, and I paid less than $3 for 4 boxes.

2. It is really important to get to know your local options rather than focus on what you don’t have in town. In my town, my options are Cashwise, Econo Foods, Target, Walmart, and Shopko. I have found very good deals at each one. I use the weekly ad/sale, as well as websites that announce sales. I then work to find manufacturer coupons for those deals, and again stock up on as many as I can.

• For Example, this week Target had a temporary price cut on band-aids. They also offered Target Coupons, and I found manufacturer coupons, so that when I left the store with $14 worth of stuff, I paid $1.98. If you factor in that I used a gift card that I earned on a previous shopping match-up, I paid nothing.

3. Buy more than one Sunday newspaper on Saturday. The inserts are in there, the newspaper is cheaper when it’s an early edition, and the more coupons you have the better the deals later.

4. Find some other people willing to do this with you and share their “finds”. We started a local couponing group and now I get an email or Facebook post about a local find.

• For Example, a friend told me about a recently clearance cart of salad dressing at Cashwise and pointed out that we all have multiple $1 coupons that make it free, after purchase.

5. Use Facebook and follow blogs for immediate notice of offers. This week I was online when two great offers came through. Many have a time limit or a print limit, so you have to use the tools available to you to get in on the deals.

6. Organizing is key. I have chosen to organize my coupons by subject. I have been able to do very fast match-ups this way, but most couponing sites like TotallyTarget.com will reference publish dates (i.e. Sunday paper they came out in)

Do you have some additional tips you can share? Maybe something doesn’t make sense. Please share your thoughts. I’ll help if I can. I am new at this and have plenty to learn.

photo credit: MissMessie

The Garden is Planted

I can’t believe the unusually warm spring weather we’ve had here in Minnesota, but I’m not complaining. I love warm weather. The hotter, the better.

Last week I got our garden tilled, planted, and fenced with the help of the kids. We made some changes from last year, as we had a slug infestation that caused much of our garden to rot. We switched some things around, spaced the rows out, and reduced the plants so air and sunshine could make conditions worse for the slugs. (If you have them bad, I’d love to hear from you.)

We planted green beans, carrots, parsnips, onions, cilantro, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. We also decided to focus more on our high-yield items; the items that grow well for us in our garden.

I was so proud of the kids for sticking with it and not getting too bored. The main thing: It’s in! And then it rained.

photo credit: photogirl7

Can You Eat Volunteers

I’m not talking about people, silly. I’m talking about voluntary vegetables in the garden. I don’t do a fall tilling, so the dried up plants are still there. Yesterday, I noticed that my brussel sprout stalks have all sprouted leaves and are growing really well. Given that last year’s growing season sucked and I didn’t get ONE brussel spout off these plants, you can imagine how excited I was to see the progress.

However, I am only a recreational gardener. I put stuff in the ground, water it a little, weed it (not so much) and eat what comes off the plant. I do remember my parents telling me that I couldn’t eat voluntary veggies, but I don’t remember why. Can anyone clarify this for me?

I have a bunch of parsnips that are beautiful too. I must have forgot a few last fall, and they are at least 6-8 inches tall and green right now.

photo credit: tombothetominator

Saving Money with Coupons

I consider myself a fairly frugal person. I like to save money and be as practical as possible. If there’s a coupon available, I’ll use it. However, I have never gone out of my way to locate coupons for specific products, nor have I strategized about using multiple coupons (web, in-store, and manufacturing) for the same product. I guess I have just never taken the time to learn how to do this; thinking it was probably too complicated for me.

Then two things happened. First, I was invited to attend a “couponing class” where I learn more about using coupons and saving money. I am really looking forward to this class next week, as I have a friend who already took the class and loved it. Not only is she saving money, but she’s practically making money. Really?

The other thing that happened is that I connected with a couponing site online called CouponChief.com They were featured a while back by Mashable.com , a social marketing site I trust very much. I figured they would make a great “first” online couponing site that I could go through and discover what I’ve been missing.

I’ll admit that when I have gone to any coupon-type site, CouponChief.com included, I have been a bit overwhelmed. I liked the fact that they included a tab in the upper-right corner titled “How It Works”.

The instructional video guided me through the process, and I realized that the site is heavily focused on coupon codes. I already knew about coupon codes and was using them; however, I didn’t know there was an organized place to find them. My method of madness usually included searching Google, and then wading through results.

CouponChief.com is devoted to helping people save money with codes prior to checking out online. I love the ease at which they make this available, but from what I can tell, they don’t have coupons for offline transactions or groceries. The vast number of online stores and codes they index is amazing though, and I was able to search and find dozens of opportunities I’m sure I’ve missed on recent purchases.

I have added this site to my Delicious account and will return each and every time before I make an online purchase to see if I can save money before I check out.

I will blog again after my couponing class next week to let you know how that goes as well.

I was asked by CouponChief.com to review their site, and compensated for my time

photo credit: Matt McGee

Bulk Cooking and OAMC

I have posted before about freezer cooking and OAMC (Once a Month Cooking) which I continue to do. I always field questions about how I do things or for more ideas. Today I was inspired to post a couple pictures of the dish I was making for our upcoming freezer trade.

I found a recipe for Savory Pork Chops, which is pork chops dredged in a flour and dried mustard mixture, slightly browned, and then marinaded in a sauce (mustard, orange marmalade, soy sauce, onion). Since we have four families in our club, I wanted to average about eight smaller portions per family. Pricing out pre-cut pork chops was spendy. I decided to buy a very large pork loin on sale for $12.00 and cut my own. I ended up with eight, good sized-fairly thick chops per family. This means there maybe leftovers and more than one meal out of this one dish. When you break that down, it’s $3.00 for a family meal. Most of the ingredients for the sauce I had, but I bought a jar of orange marmalade and then used part of it for a different recipe (Orange Ginger Chicken).

Not only is the meal inexpensive and tasty, all that is left to be done is dump it from a bag into the oven or crockpot!

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