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Thursday, March 31, 2011
Lowe's: $10 off $50 Online or In-store via Printable Coupon
we could probably make use of this one...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Montana RadioShack Gives Away Guns With New Dish Network Subscriptions
yes, THAT hamilton montana. the one we almost moved to.
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
via The Consumerist by Chris Morran on 3/28/11
A RadioShack in Montana is making headlines -- and doing a brisk business -- by offering free guns to new Dish Network customers.
"Protect yourself with Dish Network. Sign up now, get free gun," reads the sign over the door of a Hamilton, MT, RadioShack. The promo has been running since October and the store's owner says it's tripled the business in that time. It's also made the store a bit of a local landmark.
"We have people literally stop in to take pictures of the sign," the Shack's manager tells local paper the Ravalli Republic.
To qualify for the deal, customers have to sign up for Dish service and installation and purchase a certain amount of related equipment from the store. They are then given a gift certificate for a local gun store where they have the option of a Hi Point 380 pistol or a 20-gauge shotgun.
The gun store runs the proper background checks on all customers before giving out any firearms. "We're not just giving guns to felons," said the Shack manager.
If the customer doesn't want -- or doesn't pass the background check for -- a gun, they can receive a $50 Pizza Hut gift card.
The store owner says it took some convincing to get Dish on board with the free firearm idea: "They've never had a gun promotion before, so they're a little nervous about it."
The promo has been so successful that the store plans on doing the same thing next month for new DirecTV customers.
The RadioShack's marketing approach is the opposite of the Alabama adult erotica store that recently handed out free sex toys to customers who got rid of their guns.
Hamilton Radio Shack offers free gun with new Dish Network service [Ravalli Republic]
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
CamelCamelCamel
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
via Cool Tools on 3/22/11
This site allows you to track price history and has price drop and price watch alerts. Ever since I discovered it a few weeks ago, I've looked at it before I bought anything on Amazon just to make sure I was at or near a historical low. The price charts are intuitive, and allow you to see highs and lows for the past year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month. You can set your tracker to include just Amazon.com, 3rd party sellers, or Used. The best part? It's absolutely free.
If you need something immediately, there's not a whole lot this can do for you. But, for example, I've had my eye on the MEElectronics M9P headphones. It's currently $15. Hopping on CamelCamelCamel, I can see that historically, it has run at about $23 until early December, took a dive to $15, a dip all the way down to $10 earlier this month, then popped back up to $15. I don't want to pay 50% more than what it was a few weeks ago, so I'll set up the Tracker to notify me by e-mail when it gets back down to $10.
While I've found some bugs, such as hours-behind updating, and while I wish it incorporated shipping costs, it's still allowed me to save cash. More than that, I learned a long time ago I get a great deal of satisfaction from knowing I got a great deal.
CamelCamelCamel give me the data I need. If used car salesmen could hand you data-rich, neutral third-party charts like this every time they told you you were getting a steal, it'd go a long way to negating that sleazy image.
Alas, we can only dream, as it only covers Amazon.com and Newegg, BestBuy, BackCountry and Zzounds.com through sister-sites.
-- Doug WongCamelCamelCamel
Free
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Monday, March 21, 2011
Store Bulk Grain With Free Frosting Buckets From Your Grocery Bakery
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via The Consumerist by Ben Popken on 3/21/11
So you're a savvy shopper and you're saving by buying food in bulk and cooking a lot of your own meals. But how do you store all that food, especially grain? Your wallet isn't the only one who likes a big stash of wheat, so do mice and other critters. To solve this problem, Laura over at the Heavenly Homemakers blog likes to hit up the bakery department of her local groceries and ask for their empty 5-gallon buckets of frosting.
She says most were overjoyed to get rid of their buckets and only one of them charged her a dollar a bucket. Even at that rate that's still cheaper than those nice buckets with the gamma seal you might get online for around $3.99.
To get rid of bugs, one of her commenters says what she does is put down some dry ice in the bottom of the bucket and lay a piece of paper over it before pouring in the bulk food. "It displaces the oxygen in the bucket and even if there are bugs or eggs, they won't have any oxygen to survive," she says.
Two five gallon buckets will handle a 50-lb bag of wheat. "I now have a big stash of white frosting buckets full of hard white wheat just waiting to be turned into bread, tortillas, muffins, pancakes, cakes, pies, cookies, pretzels, donuts, buns, bagels...the possibilities are endless!" writes Laura.
How to Store Bulk Grain [Heavenly Homemakers]
How I Store Bulk Food [Heavenly Homemakers]
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Historical Thursday: Tressa Prisbey’s Bottle Village
how did i never hear about this before? almost as cool as the underground house in fresno.
Sent to you by David via Google Reader:
via There, I Fixed It - Redneck Repairs by Not-So-Handy Andy on 3/10/11
Similar to the Cathedral of Junk, today's Historical Thursday involves beautiful structures made out of recycled goods. Jump in your kludge-mobile, strap in those duct tape seatbelts and join me on the drive to Simi Valley, CA to visit Tressa 'Grandma' Prisbey's Bottle Village.
Sitting on a 1/3 acre plot at 4595 Cochran Street lies Bottle Village, the most beloved landmark of this town northwest of Los Angeles. Its history dates back to 1956, but its creator lived a fascinating life which started in the 19th century.
Born in 1896 to a poor family in Minnesota, Tressa was married at 15 to her sister's 52-year old widower. By age 30, after giving birth to her 7th child, she left her family and started to head west. In North Dakota she made her living by waiting tables and participating in the local political scene. In Seattle, she worked as a parts assembler at Boeing before heading south and settling down in Simi Valley with her new husband.
Buying a small plot of land on which to park her trailer, Ms. Prisbey wanted to build a wall to block of their neighboring turkey farm. During a trip to the local dump, she found her solution. Glass bottles. Thousands of them. Construction began in 1956, and continued until 1981, when Prisbey moved to San Francisco due to her failing health.
Tressa passed in 1988, but her memory lives on through this remarkable creation. The village is currently under the car of the Preserve Bottle Village Committee, which has been updating and looking after Tress'a masterpiece since 1979 and helped reconstruct it after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
"Anyone can do anything with a million
dollars—look at Disney. But it takes more
than money to make something out of
nothing, and look at the fun I have doing it."
— Tressa Prisbey
Bottle Village is now a National Landmark. You can find more information or set up a tour through their official website.
Pictures and Information courtesy of: Agility Nut , Atlas Obscura and PBS.
As always, if YOU have an idea for a Historical Thursday, let me know at thereifixedit@gmail.com
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Glorious One-Pot Meals
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via Cool Tools on 3/8/11
Elizabeth Yarnell developed an interesting, easy, tasty, and fast method of one-pot cooking---more or less the opposite of slow-cooker cooking---that she calls "infusion cooking." She describes it in detail in her cookbook Glorious One-Pot Meals, which is more than likely available at your local library.
Although her recipes need a bit of spicing up, after making a couple of these you get the idea and improvisation is easy and (so far) always successful. The ingredients are layered in a 2-quart cast-iron Dutch oven, which is covered and placed in a 450F oven for 45 minutes. That makes 2 meals: for a couple or, in my case, for lunch and dinner.
She recommends an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, but after trying several different ones, I found the Texsport 2-qt Dutch oven ($25 at Amazon, less than $20 (not including shipping) elsewhere) to be my favorite, even though it's not enameled. It is, however, pre-seasoned and easy to clean and use. Most of the 2-qt Dutch ovens are sort of squat and short, but the Texsport is narrower and taller, which seems to work best for this method of cooking. Also, when filled to the brim, it's actually 2.5 quarts, and the extra room is useful when the meal includes leafy greens. If you want an enameled pot, I recommend the Staub 2.25-quart round cocotte ($100) over the Le Creuset dutch oven ($140) because the Staub is higher quality and better made.
I have found that if I turn the oven on to heat to 450F, I can put together one of Yarnell's meals in the time it takes the oven to heat.
-- Michael HamGlorious One-Pot Meals
Elizabeth Yarnell
2009, 240 pages
$25
Available from Amazon
Sample Excerpts:
To give you an idea, here's a typical recipe, layer by layer, starting with the bottom and moving up:
1/4 large onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 c uncooked converted rice (this makes 2 servings: for some reason in the book Yarnell consistently cooks a full cup---4 servings---of rice: too much for me)
2 Tbsp vinegar over the rice (sherry, rice, balsamic, Chinese black, whatever)
8 oz protein (I've successfully used lamb, chicken breast, tempeh, and a variety of fish---I cut the protein into bite-size pieces)
salt, pepper, crushed red pepper (just a little to provide some body), perhaps some herbs---with fish I usually squeeze half a lime over them and add some capers to this layer
4 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 bell pepper (green, red, or yellow), cut into squares
1 yellow crookneck squash, coarsely chopped
1/2 bulb fennel, cored and sliced
Fill the remaining space with your choice of: green beans, broccoli, red chard, spinach, or any other leafy greens.
2 Tbsp Bragg's vinaigrette
2 Tbsp sherry
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (I use homemade)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Whisk together in a small bowl, then pour over the top.
Cover and cook for 45 minutes in 450F oven. Serves two.
You will discover through experience the amount of liquid you'll need with different vegetables. With bok choy, for example, no additional liquid is needed. For the starch layer, I've also used: baby potatoes, quinoa, egg noodles, pasta, and the like. This method is terrific and generally will up your vegetable consumption without raising calories.
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