Patchouly's 29th Birthday

It's my birthday month!  

Food

Free drink (ANY drink!) from Starbucks (and doesn't expire until 3/31!) - I received this by registering a Starbrucks giftcard at starbucks.com

*Free Like It Creation at ColdStone (I tried Cinnamon with chocolate chips - yum!)

*Red Robin - Free Gourmet Burger (I got a free sundae too!)

Fuddruckers - Free 1/3 lb. burger

*Moe's Southwest Grill - Free entree (I got a Joey Bag of Donuts (big burrito!) with chips and salsa!)

*Burrito Bay - Free Runt Burrito (this was for being a Kiss fm vip!)

Ben and Jerry's - free scoop of ice cream

Orange Julius - Free 16 oz. drink

Great American Cookie Co - Free Cookie Cake Slice (oh how I wish I could get this) 

Weinerschnitzel - free corn dog 

Fazoli's - free dessert 

Friendly's - free single cone with any purchase

Free dessert at TGI Friday's (expires Feb. 28)

Free Messy Sundae at Sammy's (re-gifted to Emily!)

Joe's Crab Shack - free appetizer with purchase of entree

Dairy Queen - BOGO Blizzard

Boston Market - free dessert with meal

Buffalo Wild Wings - free dessert

Arby's - free swirl shake when buy roastburger 

BOGO free pretzel at Auntie Anne's

Friday's - free dessert with purchase of entree 

Souplantation - BOGO when buy 2 drinks (this is the same as their normal coupons so not super exciting)

Other

Free gift from Sephora - looks like they changed it up this year!  Sephora Collection Beautiful Eyes Kit: Mascara, Eyeliner, and Eyeshadow (my Sephora still has the lip gloss kits from last year so I'm waiting until they get the new ones in)

*$10 off at Victoria's Secret (I was able to use this with another coupon to get 2 pairs of underwear for 52 cents!)

Delia's - $10 off $25

Dave and Buster's - $10 free game play

* = the coupons I actually used

Free Olay Lotion

You have a few more days to purchase 2 Olay Quench Lotions and get BOTH for FREE!  Just purchase the lotions by Jan. 29 and mail in this rebate form by Feb. 12 - if you purchase these at Rite Aid, they will also count towards the P&G rebate 

**Update:  I have heard that you can actually submit 2 rebates, in the same envelope, for a total of 4 FREE LOTIONS!  

Free Movie Ticket!

Become a fan of BE OUR MOVIE CRITIC! on facebook - if you are one of the first 200,000 fans (right now they are at 2500) you will get one free  movie ticket to any AMC theater, to be sent out Feb. 25 - March 7!

Free Disney Tickets!

Last year Emily and I both took advantage of Disney's deal to get into a park Free on your birthday.  This year they are offering a free Disney day if you give a day volunteering.  Last week Rob and I (you can sign your whole family up if you want and they each get a ticket!) delivered sample bouquets and sales kits to local schools and businesses for Hospice of Buffalo's annual flower sale - despite getting lost and one wrong delivery, we had a great time helping such a good cause (my mom currently works for Hospice in Wisconsin and I volunteered at an Ohio Hospice in college) and it was definitely worth the free Disney ticket!  You have to sign up through Disney, you can't just volunteer for whatever you want - but go HERE and see what's available in your area, there are lots of great organizations to help out!  We are planning to use our tickets to go to Disneyland (you can choose any park) when I finally make it back to CA!  Emily's event got cancelled due to all the rain in CA right now, but she is rescheduling and will hopefully do her volunteering soon!  

Random drugstore deals that I never posted...  trying to find receipts!

You know you are obsessed with deals when you get up at 7am on a Sat. to stand in the Buffalo cold to get a free $10 gift card to Dollar General!  For their grand re-opening they also gave away a bag, cup, and Tshirt (shown above).

I entered a contest to win a trip and instead got a mixer set, haha!  I did need a pitcher though!
There's an Ulta in Buffalo now!  For the grand opening they gave away goodie bags!

Summer 09

All my mail after coming back from San Diego last summer!

Sample box of Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal – coupon for free full size box, $1.50 coupons

Nexcare bandaids and coupon

Full size roll of scott toilet paper, sample pack of wipes and coupons

Biore skin preservation dual fusion moisturizer full size + 2.00 coupon

Coupon for free package of Pillsbury simply… cookie dough + 1.25 coupons

Totally Light 2 Go drink mixes – 4 ct.

Signed Miley Cyrus poster from Glamour mag

Sample of viva paper towels + coupon

Sample nivea body wash for men + coupon

Tampax pearl tampons 3 + coupon

Playtex sport tampons 3  + coupon

Sample oxy face wash

Crest pro health toothpaste

Great value strawberry cereal bar

Burt’s Bees Natural acne solutions bzz kit – full size bottles of targeted spot treatment and purifying gel cleanser + lots of samples

$10 rite aid gc

$25 rite aid gc

sun care sample tote + coupons for full size face sunscreen $8.29 and lip chap ($2.49)

Magazines

Martha Stewart Living x 2

Oprah x 2

Fitness

Time x 4

TV Guide x 4

Mine x 2

More x 2

Smithsonian x 2

Woman’s Day x 3

CBS Watch

Marie Claire x 2

Glamour

Coastal Living

Allure

Psychology today

Seventeen

Teen Vogue

Interview

Shape x 2

Ready Made

Rebates

$2.99 reynolds wrap

rite aid july $44.67, august $29.69

physician’s formula $9.95

Universal Studios update

Last year around this time, we won tickets to Universal Studios from a Super Bowl promotion - we ended up using our tickets in October, when it was extremely hot in Florida!

We won 7 day Park Hopper tickets!  Our favorite ride was definitely the new Rip Rockit Roller Coaster - you pick your own music to dance to on the coaster!  

Emily's parents came too, since her dad also won a free ticket!  Her parents got us a great deal on a hotel, with the best free breakfast buffet!

One of my favorite free things to do at any park is take pictures with as many characters as you can find!
We were there during Halloween Horror Nights and decided to check it out (Emily's parents got us a good deal on tickets through FL AAA!) - it was definitely a super scary experience to remember!  
If you go to the Blue Man Group box office (right outside Universal) the day of the show and show a student id you can get 2 tickets for $25 each - these tickets are usually $85!!!) - and if you go back later, you can get 2 more student tickets for your parents!  We had great seats and it was definitely a good time! 

Free Books

If books are more your cup of tea than movies, check out Read It Forward which allows you to request Free copies of books periodically!  Also, if you're still in school, see if your college offers a reading program - last year I picked up The Soloist for free!  

Jan/Feb Food Deals

On Tuesday Jan. 26th you can get any size coffee for 85 cents at Tim Hortons

Buy one get one free corn dog from Weinerschnitzel (expires Jan. 26) here

Buy one get one free entree from Smokey Bones (expires Jan. 30) here

On Feb. 5th you can stop by a Starbucks to try a KIND granola bar for free (also, if you have a Starbucks giftcard, register it online at starbucks.com and you will earn points each time you use it and most importantly, get a Free drink on your birthday!)

On Feb. 20th stop by Auntie Anne's between 10am - 3pm to get a Free Pretzel

And Feb. 23rd is once again National Pancake Day - celebrate by going to IHOP to get a free short stack of pancakes from 7am - 10pm

Patchouly Free Movies!

Last summer Emily and I discovered Advance Free Sceenings - it turns out you can get tickets online to all kinds of movies before they actually come out in theaters - and it's free!  We became quite obsessed with this over the summer, and honestly, that is probably what we were doing instead of blogging!  It's a pretty time consuming process (you have to check lots of websites every chance you get), you have to go on certain days, and you have to get there early to make sure you get a seat (they always give out more tickets than there are seats) - we're not talking 10 minutes or even a half hour early here, we're talking HOURS!  But if you don't mind waiting in line (btw, you can do all kinds of things in line, like get your dinner super cheap with coupons and eat in line, bring your free magazines to read, and catch up on your phone calls!), you can see lots of great movies for free!  

When I came back to Buffalo I thought my free movie days were over - but they actually have advance screenings here too, who would have thought!  Emily of course has seen WAY more than me, they pretty much show everything in San Diego, but I've been to quite a few since I've been back.  So I have decided to keep a list of all the free movies I get to see, as well as give my own personal rating on them - enjoy!  

Movie Ratings 

* = Thank goodness it was free!   

***** = I would actually pay money to see this!

Summer 09 San Diego

Julie and Julia *****

Funny People *** (too long)

GI Joe (Red carpet event with the stars!) ***

The Goods * (love Ari and the manband but not my thing)

Post Grad **** (Rory from Gilmore Girls and Matt from Friday Night Lights, need I say more?)

The Time Traveler's Wife ****

Adam ****

Paper Heart ***** (at least until I found out it was all a sham!)

Buffalo 09

Extract **

9 *** (not a fan of the ending)

The Blind Side (twice!) *****

Invictus **** (too long due to excessive rugby playing) 

Whip It *** (underwater makeout scene - so unrealistic, come on! but loved Ellen Page and Kristen Wigg)

Zombieland **** (surprisingly hilarious with a random cameo)

Buffalo 2010

The Lovely Bones *** (creepiest movie - ever)

The Book of Eli ** (oh hi Mila Kunis, why are you here?) 

Extraordinary Measures ** (Keri Russell tried to make up for Brendan Fraiser's bad acting but even Felicity can't perform miracles) 

Crazy Heart **** (loved the music but The Wrestler was better)

When In Rome *** (funnier than expected and great wedding dress at the end!)

Dear John *** (points for being pretty acurate to the book) 

Valentine's Day **** (I saw this twice for free bc I also won tickets thru The Melting Pot!  Taylor and Taylor are hilarious!!!)

Shutter Island ****  (good twist, suspenseful and creepy!) 

January Patchouly

Ok so we have obviously taken a very long break from the blog, for no apparent reason!  In an effort to get started again, I am starting slow with daily (hopefully) mail reports...

1/19

Coupon for free bag of Stacy's Pita Chips (now if only I can actually find them! update: they have them at CVS!)

2 Target coupon books, one for SuperTarget and one for Target (all the coupons in this one are for ANY brand, such as $1 off any brand deterget - very fun!)

Address labels from a Children's Hospital

Popular Science magazine 

1/20

Shape magazine

1/22

Allure magazine

Fitness magazine 

1/23

Time magazine

1/25

Coastal Living magazine

Conde Nast Traveler magazine

1/28

Buy 2 Hallmark cards, get 1 free coupon

1/29

Kohls 15% off Jan. 31-Feb. 9 and Feb. 5-Feb.7

1/30

Woman's Day magazine

Time magazine