weekend pickthrough- extra litigious edition.

i’ve already expressed my displeasure with the 3 day weekend. well, just to even things out a little, i would like to discuss my equal disdain for the 4 day week. 4 day weeks are a waste. schedules are thrown off, and nobody even really knows what day it is… but all are hyper aware of the unfairness that they are no longer on vacation. spaced out, phoning it in, like everyone in my life (including me) was stricken with a 4-day case of ADD.  needless to say, it was certainly not my most productive week ever.  the icing on this crazy short-week mental derailment cake is that someone actually threatened to sue me. of course it was a baseless accusation (and a whole lot of posturing), but disruptive and distracting (ok, and mildly amusing). but it pretty much took down what was left of this week with a stun gun and rendered it completely immobile. here are the few things i managed to filter out of this otherwise limp and unmanageable 4 days:

portland trash bags are getting more expensive (as if $7.50 for 10 trash bags wasn’t pricey enough!), load up now before they go up to $10.

pinkies out! the subtle etiquette of dumpster diving.

check your shaw’s flier! this week’s dollar doublers make this a kick ass week for crazy coupon ladies.

i might use “too many commas”, but at least i don’t use “unnecessary quotation marks“.

apparently, chunkys don’t hold up very well under extreme heat. the oven test determines the sturdiest beach candy.

bitch is lucky she didn’t get shanked.  don’t you EVEN get between a girl and her coupons.

yeah, i heart wood too. (in both the dirty and not dirty way)

i wonder what will happen to the bayside apartments if they blow out as student housing? love hotel? haunted house?

there’s a great deal on fiber one stuff at target this week. too bad it’ll make you wicked farty.

**UPDATE** according to the wonderous @jjdactyl over at gluten-free win, resistance is futile with the portland trash bag rate increase. apparently when the new bags come out, they’re just going to stop taking the old bags, and you’re just screwed. so ignore what i just said, and definitely don’t stock up! she recommends that we get a second recycling bin (ooh what about composting?!) to defray costs (both environmental and financial).

weekend pickthrough- stale peeps edition.

i won’t eat them, but i can certainly still enjoy a good peeps show.

how dare they present this as a comprehensive list of venn diagrams, when they’ve omitted the king of them all?

some interesting ideas about coupons and class. (via the portland penny pincher)

in honor of our recent visit from the POTUS, a little lesson in teabonics.

is it possible for couponing to go…TOO FAR? (outrageous!)

videoport jones may be unmasked, but he still has good things to say.

finally! a budget style magazine that is actually stylish (sorry all you, but your wal*mart pedigree REALLY SHOWS).

it is the meaning of life after all, 42 lessons from frugal bloggers.

ohmygod it’s a going out of business sale! what do i do?

finally, after much deliberation, i’ve decided not to host the gelatin yogurt giveaway. i was going to give away the robe, but then i heard about this. sorry suckas! seriously though, the company has graciously offered me another giveaway that is both environmentally responsible and entirely meat free (and not too lame according to the pcitures). details forthcoming.

p.s. look to your right. you might notice a new sidebar item over there. even though they don’t have anything to do with brokeness, they have everything to do with 207. i present for your pleasure a list of my favorite local blogs (of all varieties). did i miss any?

corrections/retractions/apologies

one of my very favorite frugal blogs (and local no less), the portland penny pincher, has a little thing she calls frugal fuck-ups. ok, actually she demurely calls them frugal f-ups, but we know what she’s talking about. basically, it’s any attempt at saving money gone horribly wrong. a while ago, i informed her that the next time i had a really serious couponing cock-up, i would be giving her a little shout out. well, today is the day.

so several days ago, i had a big ole boner about the $.96 zyrtec deal. i had it all plotted out. i would go to the 2 peninsula rite aids (both sketchy as hell) on alternating days, completing my mission, and spreading things out enough so that the rite aid cashiers don’t think i’m making crystal meth or something.

day 1. grabbed the wrong zyrtec coupon (the $2 instead of the $4 for the liquid gels), and i actually needed the pills that night so i had to go through with it. $18.99 minus $3/$15 and $2/1 zyrtec coupon. $13.99 OOP.

*got sick in here somewhere and didn’t make it to rite aid again until thursday*

day 2. had all the coupons this time, just in case. good thing. terrifying west end rite aid didn’t have any of the 25 count liquid gels. gave myself a quarter sized blister walking a mile across town to get there, and refused to leave empty handed. $18.99 minus $3/$15 and $2/1 zyrtec coupon. $13.99 OOP.

day 3. back to my neighborhood rite aid with the drunks (well, the familiar drunks). finally, they have the 25 count liquid gels, and i have the right coupons. sort of. as it turn out, the $2/1 from the rite aid video values site is for the 40 count only. damn. also, i’m hungry so i buy a too expensive granola bar (fullbar) $2.39, and a bottled water $.99. $3.38 for the snack plus $18.99 for the pills, and minus $4/1 zyrtec coupon and a $5/20 from the rite aid video values site. $13.39 OOP.

day 4. it’s saturday, and somehow find my way to the gorham rite aid, hoping to find more liquid gels. bunk. it is cleaner and with less people buying malt liquor, but they only have the 40 and 70 count liquid gels left. i dig out a $2/1 zyrtec coupon that i got from somewhere, knowing that the $18.99 price will be gone tomorrow. oh, and somewhere there’s some cadbury mini eggs in there. fuck. $18.99 minus $3/$15 and $2/1 zyrtec coupon, plus $.88 for the candy. $14.87 OOP.

total: $56.24 minus $25 J&J SCR, and $20 zyrtec allergy rewards= $11.24.

um… not exactly $.96.

still better than the $50 a month i was paying when it was a prescription…. but i really need to pay more attention next time! check minus, room for improvement.

weekend pickthrough- blackout edition

so the last 24 hours have been a complete clusterfuck. thanks to an evening of 60+ MPH winds, i was completely without power from midnight last night, to about 4 pm today (yes, that picture was taken from my porch this morning as two city workers removed a large tree branch from the cable lines leading into my condo). on the upside, i didn’t have to go to work. on the downside, i spent the majority of the day inside my impenetrable blanket cocoon curled up on the couch trying to stay warm. on the double downside, my phone wasn’t charged- and there wasn’t an operational wireless connection within a one mile radius. eventually i did wander down to starbucks to thaw out and plug in my phone, but it was a sad sad day. it’s official, i am technologically dependent.

anyway, i’m sorry for the delay. i’ve been kind of crap at posting this week, and hope to have the slack picked up in the near future.

i haven’t run more than a mile in over a year. also, i got fat. despite this, in a moment of demon possession, i signed myself up for the maine cancer foundation twilight 5k. oops.

johnny weir is officially too gay for figure skating.

part of me wants to tell american apparel to fuck off, part of me wants to order like 10 of these right now.

is that 3 week old spaghetti sauce still safe to eat? still tasty has the answers. (via saving your green– another sexy maine bloggess on the scene)

why free gift cards are rarely ever free, portland penny pincher style.

vintage denture mayhem from the strange maine blog!

it’s ok christopher, i blew out of the spelling bee too.

at least my sandwich party is guaranteed to be less lame than this house party. (i’m imagining some very inappropriate party games here)

yes i am a mother fucking pterodactyl. (congrats on your book deal oatmeal!)

weekend pickthrough- who’s johnny edition.

you may not have won the gold (or silver, or bronze), but you’ll always have my heart glitterpuss! i mean johnny weir! and thanks to a randomly high google image search ranking, the picture i posted of you a few weeks ago has since driven over 3,000 people to my blog (your powers are great).  on a semi-related side note, let’s take a moment or two to reminisce about johnny 5 with “who’s johnny” by debarge from the short circuit 2 soundtrack. yum!

i’m afraid of the christmas tree shop in exactly the same way i’m afraid of mimes and people in mascot suits. the lovely and fearless portland penny pincher takes one for the team and stakes it out national geo style. (spoiler- they accept coupons!)

will i ever grow out of having to give blow jobs? 3 portland foxes tell it like it is.

you give them $10, and they send you… um… something.

a giveaway blog that features things that i might actually want! (sorry christian cookbooks and diaper coupons… i just can’t.)

i got fleeced on foursquare by an imaginary monkey. also people, i can’t be the mayor of everything- get your asses playing!

here’s some double dipping that won’t end in tragedy! check out the oscar nominated short films of both the animated and non animated variety@ space gallery saturday & sunday.

in case your town isn’t lucky enough to have its own valentine’s  bandit, sam cousins documents it all (in the loveliest way possible).

void in maine.

wow, i’m an even crappier coupon lady than i had originally thought! thanks to tips from the much more together portland penny pincher and money saving maine-iac, apparently the the P&G coupon rebate is VOID IN MAINE. so much for me being rewarded for my laziness! i suppose that this is what i get for not knowing dick about rebates. apparently, the very sexy olay rebates are also void in maine. and after some hardcore googling, i realzied that most rebates are also void in maine. this is both totally NOT FAIR, and also very confusing.

what frustrates me the most is that there appears to be no information about WHY all of these rebates are void in maine, they just are. why are we being shunned? does anyone know? or am i going to have to write a sternly worded letter to olympia snowe?

weekend pickthrough- doing it myself edition

the coolest DIY project i’ve seen in a long time.

in case you missed the “make your own conversation hearts” link from my way too long valentine’s post.

a big long list of people you should probably know. (they’re making it happen, why aren’t we?)

when stealing is actually a really good idea. (thanks for the tip emily!)

surprise! a lot of wine isn’t vegan/vegetarian.

holy circuit city batman! have you seen the pictures of the new big-ass goodwill being built in south portland?

if i was ballsier, i would dig through people’s recycling bins.

j. crew, i think we need to talk.

please stop pooping in the tub.

i think i would choose different stuff, but the lesson is still the same.