Thanksgiving and Find & Save

We had an untraditional Thanksgiving this year.  My older brother and his wife and their three kids were felled by the flu.  They were to be our hosts and as Jenny put it, they waved the white flag for this holiday.  We got the news on Wednesday evening.  I came up with Plan B to hang out at Mom’s and planned a day of fun.  We hoped Paige and Eric could join, but Paige was helping her Mom cook.  Eric joined us on our walk to the secret garden.  My first time and his.  It’s a garden.  It’s secret.  He met Mr. Glug Glug.  It’s a fish pitcher.  It goes “glug, glug.”  He filled the small pitcher again and again so he could pour it again and we could hear the noise.  We are easily amused.  We were drinking water with our homemade gluten free apple pie- delicious! We broke out a new game and had lots of laughs.  It looked like Eric was going to crush us, but then he had to be towed and got sent back behind me and I reigned victorious.  We laughed about many things, especially when Eric really wanted to roll a 1 or a 3 on the die that only has letters on it.  Mom and I colored, watched The Fault in Our Stars and Into the Woods, looked at old photo albums, and did a puzzle. Traditions! Our lovely evening meal consisted of salmon and sweet potatoes (and green beans for one of us). I still have drinks, cranberry sauce, and olives, guys.

I have a new favorite app and I’ve barely used it.   It’s called Find & Save.  I’m not sure how much of this is Black Friday hoopla, and how great the app will still look when the dust settles, but it does have great reviews in the app store. It’s sort of based on spending to save.  This could get dangerous, folks, so hold on to your hats and glasses.  From what I can see from poking about, there are spending minimums in order to qualify for the cash back.  But who goes to Costco and doesn’t spend $30?  (Okay, I have on several occasions, but that’s the exception, not the rule.)  Come home, snap a pic of your receipt, and see the rewards add up.  These are time limited offers, aptly named, “Cash Dashes.”  So if you have some business at Payless or Michaels or Sephora, for example, it makes sense to strategize and go when you can maximize your savings.  The standard minimum I saw today was $30, except for Sephora, which was $75, and Starbucks, Peets, and Dunkin Donuts were $5 or $6.  Occasionally there are other conditions, like you must buy a drink.

There are sweepstakes for submitting any receipt and I think it automatically deposits to PayPal at $25.  It’s new to me and I haven’t used it much, but I think it looks awesome, so I wanted to share. If I hadn’t just washed my hair and put on my PJs, you would have found me at Old Navy because there’s a spend $5, get $5 deal on here!  Ah, heck, I still might get up and go out.  You know me.  But my blankets and kitties are warm, so probably not…