All about your nuts!

It’s important for Men to know themselves well enough to be comfortable performing a Testicular Cancer Test at home and realize that (if left untreated) Testicular Cancer causes serious illness. So, if you feel like laughing out loud, sneering and elbowing your friends in the ribs like you’re in fifth grade health class, feel free to get it out of your system now. Testicular cancer is very serious and one of the more deadly forms of cancer. 

Testicular cancer can strike Men at any age, however it occurs more often with young Men prior to reaching their early thirties. You might think it’s embarrassing or feel uncomfortable with the subject of checking yourself, but you need to get over it and just go ahead and learn how to do it. It could save your life. It is therefore very important for Men to begin screening themselves early and often, and you can learn how to test yourself in private.

Your body and you

So, here’s a little anatomy refresher. The illustration above is an anatomical graphic of our wedding tackle. It’s all part of being a Man, so take a moment to familiarize yourself with the proper anatomical names. First, we have the scrotum, the sack of skin that contain our external reproductive organs. Located within our scrotum are our Testicles, the actual organs that produce our sex cells (spermatozoa). When Testicular cancer occurs, it typically strikes the Testicles themselves (well, duh) however it can occur in the other structures (vas deferense, etc.).

You might ask yourself, well why in the world do we have such important organs located outside of our bodies? Ever take a blow to the nuts? It hurts! My god, why do we have to risk life and limb to protect our nuts from the outside world of high speed baseballs, well aimed karate kicks, or maybe just sitting down too quickly? The answer to that is that sperms are the smallest of all cells produced in the human body, and they do not develop nor survive well in normal body temperatures. They actually prefer to be a few degrees cooler than our basal temperature of 99 degrees f.. So, nature in it’s infinite wisdom, relocated our organs to their current home, outside of the body cavity.

Checking yourself is actually pretty easy. You can do it at any time, however most Men prefer to do it after they’ve warmed up the area. Warmth will make your scrotum relax, so take a nice hot shower and perform the check while you’re in there. The check is easy, just take your index and thumb and very softly press against each Testicle along the length from end to end. Do it very softly. You will notice that your Testicle feels spongy to the touch. What you are feeling for is any hard spot. It will feel like a small bean, or a pill, or similar hard spot in the natural spongy-ness of your Testicle.


If you feel anything remotely like that, don’t panic. It just means that you need to have a urologist check it out. There are some conditions and problems that can produce a benign nodule, so it’s no reason to freak out. Simply arrange to be checked by your physician or make an appointment to see a urologist right away. The sooner you catch any potential problem, the quicker you can put your mind at ease or treat it if it is indeed a problem.

Great Tip: If you’re a Man in an intimate relationship, why not ask your partner to check you out casually during foreplay from time to time. Talk about it with your partner and let them check you while you check them. Think of it as a backup check in case you’re just not doing it right. My Fiance is my Nutty Buddy, and i’m her Bosom Buddy.

Free jewelry alert!

Who doesn’t like free jewelry, right? With valentine’s day right around the corner, you might still need a quick gift for your loved ones. Why not browse the selection at this merchant, who will send you free jewely for just the low cost of the postage. This is the perfect way to keep within your budget and still give your sweetheart a nice gift. Quite an extensive selection of semi-precious stones and freshwater pearl gifts.

Let the word be known, Target is no longer accepting manufacturers coupons in certain North Florida Target Supercenter locations. Being the fantastic couponers we are, my fiance and I participated in a Nabisco promotion for their new golden oreos with double stuff; a superbowl-style promotion involving Peyton Manning of the Colts and Eli Manning of the Giants NFL teams. We’d heard about it from another wonderful blog called Common Sense With Money, where we get a lot of updates on coupons and promotions. It’s a wonderful blog and is updated constantly with some of the best deals on the internet.

Target should read their own coupon policy

As participants, we were mailed coupons directly from Nabisco which were printed on Veri-Fi anti-fraud security paper. They were very nice coupons for a free box of golden oreo double stuff cookies, a value of $2.99 each. We didn’t think anything of them being we don’t usually eat cookies, but my fiance volunteers with the local girl scouts organization, and they occasionally need snacks and drinks for the girls. So, off went our coupons to our local target supercenter.

When attempting to redeem the coupons at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, February 5th, 2010, (Wells Road Target Super Center, Orange Park, FL, 32073)the clerk attempted to scan the coupons and they were not found inside of the computer system. As these weren’t coupons issued by any of the big three coupon sites (RP, SS, P&G) the register popped up with the “item not found” link, and asked the clerk to enter a coupon amount manually. The clerk couldn’t remember the amount of the golden oreos, and called over her manager to help. The manager didn’t even bother to look at the coupons and explained to my fiance and I that they would not honor any internet printable coupons, especially internet printables for free items.

Now, you’d have thought we were attempting to commit fraud. There was a line full of people behind us and we felt them gaze over us suspiciously as if we were hardened criminals intent on stealing free oreos with bogus coupons. When we attempted to explain that these coupons were mailed to us directly from Nabisco, we were rejected with the Manager explaining quite coldly and blankly that they would not honor the coupons. When we asked them to review the Veri-fi paper and attempted to assure them that these were legitimate coupons, we were still rebuffed.

So, you should know that when shopping with your internet printables or direct mailing coupons from P&G or, god forbid, coupons mailed to you directly from product manufacturers that certain Managers in Target SuperCenters in North Florida will not honor them.

Spread the word. This isn’t the first time Target has failed to honor coupons at this location. The last time we had a problem at this store, it was with one of Target’s very own online coupons printed directly from Target.com. They put gerber baby bottles on sale for .99 cents and had a coupon out at the time for 1.00 off all gerber baby feeding products. Essentially, the baby bottles would’ve been free with a one penny overage, which made the store registers beep. That same Manager refused to adjust the value of the coupon down by one cent for us, and we had to resolve the problem with Target’s customer service regional Manager. This was one of Target’s own store coupons that they didn’t honor.

Quite frankly, our family is sick of being treated like con artists for using perfectly legitimate coupons. We will be attempting to resolve the issue AGAIN with this Manager through customer service. However, if they think that we’re going to continue to shop at Target locations and be looked upon like crooks, then perhaps we need to take our wallets elsewhere.

The good news was, we went to a nice Food Lion right down the street that did honor them. High marks for Food Lion!

Here’s some great advise for making money selling cheap yankee christmas candles and retired scents on ebay!

One of the most popular items in malls across the country are Yankee Candles. These wonderful little candles come in jars and are available in hundreds of scents. Many of these scents are limited productions, available for limited times only and/or were retired because their popularity wained or didn’t sell well. Even if they didn’t sell well, there are still thousands of people all around the country that could potentially love that one particular scent of candle, and are willing to pay extra for them when the supply runs out.

 The great thing about yankee candles is that they can often be found in clearance areas of retail stores such as CVS, Walgreens, Tuesday Mornings, Burlington Coat Factory and many many others. Garage sales and thrift stores are also great places to find them. Look for dust free interiors with clean (never burned) wicks inside the jars. Several of the scented candles are very hard to find and sell well for online retailers and on ebay.  Some individual scented candles sell in excess of $30.00 each online. If you can find them cheap enough, for a few dollars or less on some of the retired scents, you may be able to flip them for a good profit.

Here are twenty two of the retired or limited production scents:

• Aloe Vera
• Blue Jack Frost
• Chocolate Truffle
• Evening Primrose
• Fireside
• Ginger Citrus
• Hazelnut Coffee
• Iced Herbal Tea
• Juicy Watermelon
• Key Lime Pie
• Lotus Blossom
• Mandarin Cranberry
• New Zeland Wildberry
• Oatmeal Cookie
• Peony Petals
• Queen Anne’s Lace
• Rice Milk
• Salt Mist Rose
• Tropical Guava
• Vanilla Oak
• Willow Breeze
• Xmas Tree

A more complete list of retired and limited production yankee candle scents is available for a small fee. For a mere $2.00, you can purchase my eBook of  hot Yankee Candle scents which has well over 220+ retired and limited yankee candles. The yankee candle list is one chapter of our new comprehensive eBook of great items to sell online. We update the yankee candle list each quarter for new additions and revisions of resurrected scents, always keeping it as up to date as possible. The eBook is available in .PDF format and will be emailed to you upon completion of the purchase.

Cheap candles here: 20% off any purchase @ CandleBay.com using code CB2020.

Selling items on ebay for fun and profit is a great way for any Dad to raise a little extra spending money. Most people will go through their homes and look for items that they no longer need or use and either sell them at a garage sale or even on Craigslist for a little pocket change. But, did you know that many of those very same garage sale shoppers that buy your items are re-selling them on Ebay? It’s true. There is a whole market of people around the world that are willing to pay good money for your spare and unused items if you’re just willing to take the time to post them up for sale and ship them when the auction ends.

Turn about is fair play, too. You can make a modest income by being the early worm and going to neighborhood garage sales and finding some items that typically sell well on a regular basis on ebay. How do you know if it sells well on ebay? Simple. Search for that same item on ebay like you were a buyer and see what they’re selling for. A great resource for this is to use a link on the left hand side of any ebay catagory that says, “Completed listings.” This is a link inside of ebay which will just show you the completed listings and you can actually see which of those listings sold recently (or if they didn’t sell) and how much they sold for. This is a powerful tool for understanding if an item will actually sell if listed on ebay, and a rough gauge for what you can expect a similar sale to bring in (so you don’t overpay).

Items that sell well:

• Mens designer clothes (Ralph Lauren Polo, North Face Jackets, etc.)
• Rugby & Soccer Team Shirts (Australian and British Rugby teams, World Cup Soccer Teams, etc.)
• Sports Equipment (name brands, newer the better) for Kids and Adults
• Moisture wicking athletic gear (Under Armor, Dry-Tec, etc.)
• Professional Sports memoribilia and Apparel
• College Sports memoribilia and Apparel
• High end designer suits and sports coats (Burberry, etc.)

This is just a small portion of items included in our comprehensive e-book on how to turn garage sale finds into ebay dollars. Check back soon for the link to our e-book!

The first step in treating any addiction is admitting it. I have a serious addiction to a little bean first discovered in Africa. This exquisite little red berry (yep, they’re red when ripe on the bush) is known the world over as…

COFFEE

You know it, you love it, you probably drink it. Some of us like to make all kinds of special coffee drinks and concoctions like half-caf soy lattes, mocha java mugs and you name it. I’ll take just a regular cup of Joe, with one creamer and two splendas as part of my morning wake up routine. With the rising costs of everything these days, there are some ways that you can save on your favorite breakfast beverage of choice. Here are some tips on saving money on everything from your next espresso. Good to the last drop!

Coupons: If you’re not already in the habit, raid a Sunday paper for coupon circulars like Red Plum and Proctor & Gamble. They often contain coupons for your favorite brands of coffee. Just save the coupons in a 3″ ring binder in a clear plastic pocket sleeve every Sunday and then check out the coupon databases at websites like www.hotcouponworld.com and others. You can go to the coupon databases and punch in keywords like “coffee” and it’ll tell you where your coupons are located in the flyers.

Sales: Coffee has a finite shelf life, and stores do put coffee on sale pretty often. They usually do this long before the coffee goes stale to make room for new shipments with longer shelf lives. There can be two for one sales, double coupon sales, stacked coupon sales (using a store coupon along with a manufacturers coupon) and other promotions. If the expiration date on the coffee container hasn’t already expired, it should be perfectly drinkable. If you do the shopping, search the bargain aisles near the rear of the store for coffee on sale when you go shopping. If you don’t do the shopping, have your S/O do the looking. The best time to find bargains on the bargain aisles is in the morning when the store first opens.

Generics: Compare the sales prices and coupon amounts vs. generic or store brands of coffee. Your basic coffee is 100% arabica beans. Most national brands of coffee are 100% arabica, so if all you want is a basic cup of coffee there’s no reason why you can’t go with a generic. Do a little math and I bet you’ll find the cost is a lot less on the generic version, sometimes even against the sale coffees. This is especially good to do when looking at the two for one sales on coffee as often the stores will jack up the prices on the coffee on sale, and the generic might be cheaper. If you want specialty beans or a different type of bean or roast, you might be out of luck when it comes to generic.

When you find a deal on coffee, stock up. Coffee is usually vaccum sealed and keeps very fresh on the shelf right up until the expiration date. Enjoy, and drink to your health!

Steak is good!

Beef steak is absolutely delicious. Unless you were raised by sasquatches (What is plural for sasquatch anyway?), you’re probaby a ravenous carnivore like me. You don’t have to be a guy to be a carnivore, either. Put a slab of tenderloin down in front of my girlfriend and she’ll rip into it faster than an eye blinks. Learn how to cook one well like I do, and you’ll both be licking your plates and begging for more. They’re tender. They’re yummy. They’re filling and you can totally feel a sense of caveman bravado for mastering the king of meats: Beef steak.

First, you need to learn how to properly pick out a piece of cow flesh for cooking. Various cuts of meat are suitable for pan fried steak, and some aren’t. Here are some I recommend: Porterhouse, T-Bone, Sirloin, Strip Steak, Tenderloin and Chuck. Look for steaks that are marbled with small veins of fat running through them (rather than big globs of fat). These steaks are usually slightly pinker than red in color. A well cut piece of meat for pan fried steak are trimmed to about 3/4″ to 1″ thick.

How do you like your steak? Rare? Medium Rare? There’s a real art to being able to tell when your steak is cooked to your liking. The best tip I know for new cooks in the kitchen on how to tell when the meat is to your liking is to do it this way: First, hold your index finger and thumb together on your left hand in the classic “OK” sign. Take your finger on your right hand and press it to the pad of your left hand near the base of your left thumb. That’s the way a rare steak should feel when you press into it, just like the pad on your hand. Now, switch fingers and make the “OK” sign by touching the tip of your middle finger to your thumb, and re-feel. That’s how a medium-rare steak should feel when pressed. Ring finger for medium well, and finally pinky finger for well done. Got it? Good. If not, practice makes perfecto.

What you’ll need to cook: A pan, a spatula, two tablespoons of butter, a little table salt, some black pepper. Turn the eye of the stove on to medium high heat and add the butter. Let it melt and then once melted and sizzling away, add the steak to the pan. Let the steak sear in the butter on each side for about 30-45 seconds, then reduce the temperature to medium on the stove eye. Press into the flesh of the steak to test it’s level of done-ness. Another trick, if you like your steak medium rare like I do, when you first start to see the steak “sweat” a little blood, its cooked to medium-rare. Test with a knife if you’re not sure by cutting into the steak. Once it’s done, salt and pepper each side of the steak with a small pinch of each to taste and put on a plate.

Side items: You can use the remaining butter over medium heat to also sautee (fancy French term for “cooked in butter”) some vidalia onions, peppers or even your favorite kinds of mushrooms for a wonderful steak topping. Pan fry them turning often to prevent them from burning.

Drinks: Steak takes well to a good stout beer, a strong red wine like Cabranet or Merlot, or even a coke Zero.

Bon-burp-itite.

Romantic Valentines day ideas like Valentines day dinner and Valentine’s day getaways don’t have to be expensive. Here are some budget minded romantic suggestions that will save your wallet.

Love is in the air...

O.k. guys, put down the remote, stop playing Madden 2009 and listen up!

Just because you’re living close to the bone, doesn’t mean that you have to skimp in keeping yourself and your loved ones happy. One of the main reasons why I live as frugally as I do is so that I can save my pennies for the finer things in life, and keeping things fresh and invigorating between you and your partner is most certainly it’s own reward. Here are some ideas for how to keep the flames well kindled in your relationship:

• Romantic Getaways: There are bargains all over the place in the travel industry right now. Check out websites like travelzoo.com and cruise.com for some great inexpensive vacation getaways that regularly go on drastic sale. For a quick romatic getaway, do a little research over at tripadvisor.com for reviews on hotels and bed and breakfasts from the people who actually stay there (peer reviewed) and then contact the management directly and ask about specials and last minute reservations. Haggle for a better price. There’s no harm in asking for 30-40% off the usual reservation price if it’s last minute, and the hotel/B&B has vacancies. They’d rather fill the room in many instances and just might accept the price. If you’d rather do it electronically and don’t care where you stay specifically, Priceline.com is another option. You can pick your place, pick your price and pick your rating (two star, three star, etc.) at participating hotels /B&B’s. The only catch with priceline is that you’re committed to accepting the reservation IF the hotel/B&B’s ACCEPT YOUR OFFER. So, haggle low. Try 50% off. It could happen.
• Coupons and Freebies: Alright, let’s get over our hangups about coupons. They’re a “Guy thing,” too, and here’s my way of proving it to you. There are coupons for all sorts of things out there, and all you need to do is look. There are even coupons for family planning and sexual health. You can find some great coupons for condoms over at trojancondoms.com and they’ll also send you a free sample. You can find coupons for some great new massage oils and personal lubricants over at k-y.com and I would highly recommend the yours+mine product. It’s a faaaantastic way to spice up your fun in the bedroom and it often goes on sale at CVS and Walgreens.

Dinner in: Even if you don’t cook, it’s a pretty sweet idea to treat your partner to a nice quiet dinner in. You can find some tea candles and candle holders over at your nearest everything for $1.00 store or even thrift shops for a romantic setting. If you like to cook, break out the pots and pans and whip up her favorite meal and she’ll love you forever. Cooking shows you understand her needs and that you care. If you can’t cook your way out of a paper bag, check out coupons at places like restaurant.com and ask them if they’ll honor the coupons and gift certificates on take out orders. Usually, they will.

Video night: Redbox often offers free movie rentals and you can usually find them located in front of walmart and other major retail chains. Check commonsensewithmoney.com for codes on free movie rentals from redbox, enter the code, and get your free rental. If you have coupons for snacks like candy bars and popcorn, even better. Pop up some popcorn and M&M’s and mix them together, snuggle up, and smooch. I’d recommend picking up “PS: I Love You”, “When Harry Met Sally” or “The Notebook.”

Sunset Walks with Style: Being outdoors at sunset, hand in hand, is often magic itself. Pick a new romantic spot and take a little walk and breathe in the beauty of a nice sunset. The beach, a hiking trail or a quiet little romantic lookout spot might be all you need for a little together time. Bring along a little totebag filled with a single rose, snuggle blanket, two wine glasses and a bottle of your favorite beverage (white wine, champagne, etc.) makes for a loving nightcap on a perfect twilight. Don’t forget the corkscrew, big guy.

In the last issue of hoarding basics, we learn how to create a space for the items you use on a daily basis. Now, let’s learn how to stockpile items and actually make money doing it.

The first thing you need to get into the habit of doing is going through your Sunday newspaper and saving the coupon inserts. The biggest ones to look for are called Redplum (RP), P&G (proctor and gamble) and Smart Saver (SS). Mint magazine is also great for goods and services coupons like oil changes and restaurant discounts. Find a local paper that carries all of them if you can and get yourself a three ring binder and some cheap clear plastic page holders and stick a couple dozen in there.  See if you can find the page holders with a tab on them and you can organize them by date. Any coupons you find for places like Sears, Office Max and other places you can also store in your binder by date. Organization by date is crucial as it can be overwhelming to try and remember what coupons you have.Other places already do that for you on the Internet, so why make your head swim.

The next thing you need to do is to check out websites that track coupon deals for you. Two good ones are over at http://www.couponmom.com and http://hotcouponworld.com . Registration is free at both websites, although couponmom.com will make you jump through some hoops to do it. Just click skip or nextwhen prompted to do so on each if presented with signups for freebies. What you want to connect with are their coupon databases, which contain lists of coupons for each insert. It’s also useful to browse their forums for other tidbits from time to time on which deals are available in specific stores. Sometimes deals pop up that you can take advantage of if you know about it before anyone else does, and this is a great way to do it. Another great blog is at http://commonsensewithmoney.com, which lists great deals from places like CVS and Walgreens. There is also a website called thegrocerygame.com which will  track specific grocery stores that you shop at. It also helps you keep track of coupons and when to use them to get the maximum benefit out of each one, but thegrocerygame.com is a pay service. Personally, I don’t use it but I hear good things from those who do.

Now, here’s the meat of how to do this: As items go on sale, buy them using your coupons. Simple. Look for in-store coupons which will allow you to stack other coupons in conjunction with them, such as the store level coupons at stores like CVS, Walgreens, Target, Sears, JC Pennies, Walmart, Pep Boys, etc.. Even if you don’t need the items right away, if it’s at a good price (or free) then go ahead and buy it and stockpile it in your hoard stash.  With the grocery stores, watch out for in-store coupons in the circulars that specifically state “do not double” or “do not stack,” or language which would indicate that you can’t use them in conjunction with manufacturer’s coupons. If the store won’t let you use a manufacturers coupon in conjunction with the purchase, skip that store unless the item is basically free.

To make money:There’s two ways to get paid to buy items you use every day. The first is to participate in special programs at Walgreens and CVS. CVS has a special card called an ECB card(Extra Care card) that’s free to sign up for. Walgreens has two programs called Register Rewards and Easy Saver. Here’s how they work:

CVS: CVS offers it’s customers ECB’s (extra care bucks) when you use your ECB card for certain purchases. When you buy something at CVS that qualifies for ECB’s, you’ll get your Extra Care Bucks back on your recipt which work like a store credit for future purchases at CVS.  You’ll see in the weekly Sunday paper the flyers for items which qualify every week for ECB’s, and when you see deals that pay you back full price in ECB’s, it’s like THEY PAY YOU for purchasing those items. For example, toothpaste might go on sale at CVS one week for $2.99, with $2.99 back in ECB’s. You buy the toothpaste and they give you $2.99 in ECB’s on your receipt to use on a future purchase. In essence, you just got the toothpaste for free.

Now, here’s how to make money from it. If you have a manufacturer’s coupon for the item, then you can apply that coupon right along with your purchase. Have the cashier scan your card, scan the item so you’ll get back your ECB’s, and then hand the cashier your coupon. The coupon will subtract from the purchase amount, not from the ECB’s you get back. So, say that same tube of toothpaste has a coupon for $1.00 off in your Sunday paper. You give the cashier your CVS card, you hand them the toothpaste and they scan it, then you give them the $1.00 off coupon. You pay $1.99 and get back $2.99 in ECB’s, and you’ve just made $1.00 profit. Congratulations, CVS just paid you to buy toothpaste plus you’ve earned a $1.00 in overage.

For Walgreens: Walgreens works in a similar way except they have no discount card. With Walgreens, look for items in your Sunday circular that qualify for Register Rewards or for the Easysaver program. Register rewards are like an instant credit on items very similar to CVS’s Extra Care Bucks. When you buy something that qualifies for Register Rewards at Walgreens, you purchase it and get back those register rewards on your receipt for use on a future purchase. Say you purchase some aftershave for $5 and you get back $5 in Register Rewards for purchasing it now, you break even by getting back $5 towards a future purchase. Use a coupon, and they pay you to buy it. Often, Walgreens also has store level coupons in their flyer that you can use in conjunction with manufacturers coupons. This is called COUPON STACKING and can really save or earn you some money. Let’s go back to our example, the aftershave is $5, you get back $5 in register rewards. Let’s say there’s a $1.00 coupon in Redplum for that aftershave and a store level coupon in the Walgreens circular for $.50 cents off. You buy the item from the cashier for the Register Rewards, you scan the store level coupon and then the manufacturers coupon for an extra $1.50 off the purchase price, and get back $5 in Register Rewards on your receipt.  Congratulations, You’ve just been paid by Walgreens to purchase the aftershave a whole $1.50.

Walgreens also has a program called EasySaver, which is free to register for. Walgreens publishes an EasySaver catalog once a month that you can pick up inside any Walgreens store or find on their website. It contains a list of products that qualify for rebates directly from Walgreens. As you purchase items in the EasySaver catalog, you can submit your recipts for the rebate by the end of the month and Walgreens will send you a check for the rebates. You can submit them online at Walgreens.com or by mail. Often, these items go on sale in the store during the month, so watch the weekly circulars for when they go on sale. Use your coupons in conjunction with them and get even more cash back from Walgreens. You can set up one EasySaver account per physical mailing address.

Use commonsensewithmoney.com to help you keep track of CVS and Walgreens.

The second way to make money is by taking all of the free stuff in your stash and getting together with your friends, family and co-workers for a little bargain shopping. If you have friends that also hoard items, there’s no reason why you can’t offer them some of the items in your stash at a severely discounted price. Consider getting together with your friends and family once or twice a year for a little sell off, and purchase items from them at a discount to replenish each other’s stockpiles.

Note: The individual stores will have limits on purchases, so please don’t go crazy and abuse their policies. They are offering their items at a discount to you as a service, and their policies and limits must be observed and respected. There’s nothing that says your individual family members can’t have their own individual purchases, but don’t expect that you can walk out of a store, then walk back in, and immediately make another purchase. Be kind, and sensible, and treat the clerks and managers with respect.

Tip: Scan store level coupons first, then manufacturers coupons. Do not exceed the purchase price with your coupons and you won’t beep at the checkout line. Same with Register Rewards and ECB’s, don’t exceed the purchase price when using them and you won’t beep. If you do, you’ll need to purchase additional small items until you break even (or as close to it as possible). The cash registers won’t let you come out a negative amount, nor will they give you your change back in ECB’s or Register Rewards.

In today’s economy, you have to learn to stretch the allmighty dollar just as far as you can. Here are some tips on how you can maximize every red cent and fill up your hoarding stash at the same time when dining out:

Before you go: Times are slow for restaurant owners and vendors as well. With slowdowns in business, you’ll find there are a lot more advertisements for sales and coupons in your local paper and online for dining out. Websites like restaurant.com offer discounts on restaurant gift certificates (check website for useage instructions and restrictions, if any) which you can use. You can even search their database by zip code for participating restaurants. Score!

When to go: They say that the early bird gets the worm! In the case of dining out, this old adage is often true. Restaurants often offer early bird specials as well as happy hour dining specials. Call ahead and check what your favorite restaurants offer during these times. It might be worth it to eat in the bar area if it means saving a few extra dollars on appetizers and other items.

The Menu: Have a look at the whole menu before you make your decision. A lot of restaurants will offer reduced prices on smaller, a la carte, lunch, or “right” portion sizes. If you’re not that hungry, why not save cash and order the smaller portion. Look on the menu for combination meals, which offer you the ability to mix and match small menu items for an appetizer, main meal and dessert all at one low price. Usually, these are a good deal as they’ll offer you a filling meal at an overall price reduction if you’re really hungry.

Salad Bar: If the restaurant offers a salad bar or a dinner salad with the meal for a reasonable price, consider adding it. By filling up on salad, you’ll get that full sensation while getting all of the fiber and veggies that you know you need, and you can save the entree for later. Soup and salad bar combinations at some restaurants can help you save even more money. And remember, salad bars are usually unlimited trips.

To go boxes: Be sure to use them if you have leftovers. Don’t be afraid to put in some appetizer items such as bread, rolls, nachos or side dish items right in the same box with your main entree. Restaurants that have large portions on the menu often serve enough in one portion for two or even three meals.