PROTIP: Use Secret Codes to Save Money on Online Purchases

Relevant shopping related rage comic.

Have you ever filled your online cart on a website and wondered if you really were getting the best deal?
Well, most online merchants provide a place during the checkout process to enter a "promotional code."

In this box, you can type in a code that will significantly save you money! A code that can give you a certain percentage off or even free shipping!

These codes work just like tangible coupons and gift certificates you would use in actual stores.

The thing is, you have to do some searching the web for these codes, fortunately for you I've listed some great places to find these awesome codes.

www.dealcatcher.com 

www.currentcodes.com

www.dealhunting.com

http://www.edealfinder.com/

Of course you can always do a more defined search, for example I use to shop at Hottopic.com a lot. On the site I noticed that as a member I would get a big discount for my birthday month. I kind of "gamed" the system for a while by creating multiple accounts with a fake birthday for every month of the year, that way I would be able to use the birthday discount code whenever I wanted! I saved a lot of money by doing this, however I don't think you should completely exploit it the way I did! But hey, who is stopping you?

The birthday discounts I received ranged from percentages off, to $5-$10 off a purchase, and free shipping!

The next time you purchase something online and notice there is an option to enter a code, search around the web for a while for a code. It could save you shipping, tax, or even shave off a few dollars from your grand total!

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Bigger bacon, quicker bacon, and bakin' bacon.

Here are 3 things you should know so you can get the most out of your bacon eating experience. 

Get bigger bacon:

• When a strip of bacon is cooked in a frying pan, it shrinks and shrivels up into a tiny bacon.
• To reduce shrinkage, rinse your bacon under cold water before frying.

Want quicker bacon to satisfy those moments when you need it immediately?

• Cook a large batch of bacon using the aforementioned method if you want.
• Freeze the delicious pieces inside plastic sandwich bags individually or in pairs, trios, or whatever your heart desires.
• When your bacon craving arises, grab a bag or two of bacon from your bacon hoard and microwave for a few seconds

Bakin' bacon if you want to cook a lot of tasty bacon:

If you're making a dish that needs a lot of bacon, or is made up of a strong bacon base, use your oven.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 F.
2. Use a large rimmed pan, make sure the sides are high enough so the grease doesn't leak out.
3. Line the pan with foil and evenly space the bacon so they have room to cook.
4. Place on the middle rack of your oven for 6-7 minutes for thin-sliced bacon and or up to 9-11 minutes for thick-sliced.
5. You don't have to flip them, or turn them like some kind of primitive aborigine cooking a wild boar in the middle of the woods.
6. Drain them, serve and enjoy! 

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Some cheap "punny" costume ideas for that clever personality of yours.

"I need a costume for a Halloween party but I don't have enough money for one!!"

The "Darth Knight."

Sometimes in your college career, you don't always have time to think about the perfect Halloween costume for any parties you might get invited to. Halloween costumes bought from the store can get really expensive, and you're only going to wear it a few times out of the year.

You can turn heads at the next party you go to with these "punny" costume ideas that will literally cost you under $10 or less! 

And you can even find the items you need for these costumes right in your dorm/apartment/house!

"Cat burglar" 

• Dress in all black with a beanie/ski mask on your face.
• Carry a loot bag full of stuffed animal cats.
• Act suspicious at parties and if people ask you what you are, look them in the eyes and say "I'm a cat burglar."

"Quarterback"

• Scan a quarter, or blow up an image of a quarter and print it out on paper or a board.
• Attach it to your back, you may dress normally if you'd like.
• Carry a football with you and pretend to throw it at people.

"Snake pit"

• Attach 3-5 rubber snakes under one of your armpits.
• You may dress normally if you'd like, or you can wear green or whatever snakes are colored...
• Add a "weird factor" to your costume by hissing at passerby party-goers. 

"Babysitter"

• Attach a baby doll to your butt. Sit.

Jim Halpert from "The Office" inspired costumes:

"Three-hole punched version of yourself"

"Facebook or 'Bookface'"

"Reverse Psychology"

• Wear a sign that reads "YGOLOHCYSP"
• Use it against people.

"One Night Stand"

• Wear a lampshade on your head.
• Cut a cardboard box to look like a table that you can rest on your shoulders around your head.
• Attach "desk items" on top of the "table" such as papers, pens, a cup, box of tissue.
• Stand in corners of the party.

"Web Surfer"

• Cover your entire body in fake spider webs, (you can use real spider webs if you're a badass.)
• Carry a surf board.
• More power to you if you wear a body surf suit before covering yourself in webs.

"A Wizard badly dressed as a Muggle" for all you Harry Potter fans out there.

• Dress terribly, call everyone at the party a Muggle in your perfect English accent.
• Brandish your wand whenever you'd like.

"When Life Gives You Lemons Guy"

• Dress as best as you can and wear a name tag that says "My name is 'Life'"
• Carry a basket of lemons with you (if you happen to have an abundance of lemons)
• When people ask you what you are, hand them a lemon and smile.

"Cereal Killer"

• Dress as menacing as you can, and put on your best "mean look."
• Carry a cereal box around with a fake knife stuck through it.
• If people stare at you, stare at them back as you thrust the knife through the cereal box with gusto.

"Sim" From the popular game "The Sims"

• You'll need two green square paper sheets, headband that closely matches your hair color, and about 25 pipe-cleaners (those bendy wire things that are covered in felt.
• How to fold it into the Sims diamond "plumbob"
• More power to you if you learn how to speak "Simlish" and learn "Sim mannerisms!"

"Mozilla Firefox"

• Dress in all orange, wear fox ears, fox tail, and a blue rubber ball.
• You can get fox ears and a fox tail for cheap, or make them yourself if you can!
• When people ask who you are, curl your body around the blue rubber ball and say you're "Firefox"

"Snobby Butler"

• Dress in a nice black suit if you have one.
• Draw with a black marker a thin curly mustache on your face, and carry around an empty tray topped with empty cups/glasses as if you're a server.
• Walk around weaving in between crowds with a smug look on your face. 

"Waist of Time"

• Attach a bunch of watches and clocks to a belt, and wear the belt.

"Annoying Tourist"

• Find a tacky Hawaiian Shirt from the thrift store, and wear some khaki cargo shorts and sandals.
• Keep a state map in one hand and a camera in the other hand.
• Take pictures of everything, and ask people to take your picture as you pose with a peace sign. 

"Running Fridge"

• Find a white cardboard box that is able to fit over your upper body.
• Decorate it to make it look like a refrigerator, with magnets and A+ papers and what not...
• Do some running in place when people ask you what exactly you are.

"Boxer"

• Fit a small box that is big enough to fit over each of your fists.
• Ask people at the party if they want to "box" with you.

"Newsflash"

• Wear a bathrobe and slippers.
• Under the bathrobe, wear regular clothes but attach a bunch of newspaper articles to them.
• "Flash" people with news!

"Wear your own face" If you really just want to go as yourself, but still maintain a creepy and scary vibe about you.

• Print out a picture of your face, and wear it as a mask.
• Act how you normally would at a party as if nothing is different.

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"Gas costs too much at gas stations, what can I do to get the best deal on gas prices?"

Instead of constantly going to gas stations, riding bikes everywhere seems like a great idea, however there are those of us that HAVE to commute to get to work, school, and other places.

Unfortunately we are forever at the mercy of gas prices, and they don't seem like they're getting any lower.

However, there are ways to get better deals on a gallon of gas and here are a few fuel saving tips to consider the next time you need to fill up at gas stations.

Here's what you need:

• How the days of the week work
• Knowledge of when holidays happen (might need a calendar for this, unless you know everything)
• Your way around town

Here's what you need to do:

The way weeks work in a work week is that throughout the week there are work days (I didn't need to tell you that, but yeah.)

• When the work week is over, people sometimes like to leave town, therefore gas stations tend to raise the gas prices up for the weekend to capitalize on this fact. 
• (Sometimes Thursday)...Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are usually days that gas prices are at their highest.
• Tuesday and especially Wednesday are great days to fill up on gas. Wednesday is the middle of the week, and gas prices are almost always cheaper versus buying gas on the weekend.

When holidays happen, especially 3 and 4 day weekends, gas prices rise up.

• Keep an eye on your gas gauge, and your calendar. If you notice Labor day is coming up, you might want to gas up the Wednesday before it. Holidays like Labor day and Thanksgiving are the busiest road travel dates of the year so everyone is going to be gassing up.

Take note of the locations of gas stations, they really do affect the price of gas. Location, location, location!

• Gas stations located next to the freeway/highway have gas prices that are significantly higher than gas stations anywhere else in town. 
• But by all means, if the gas station that is the best deal is about 4 miles on the other side of town, just fill up at a gas station close by. Saving 3 cents just to drive 4 miles across town defeats the purpose of saving those 3 cents per gallon. It doesn't make cents/sense. 

Unleaded regular, unleaded plus, and Premium

• Many people think they're treating their car by using a "plus" or "premium" grade of gasoline
• They're wasting their money. Just stick with using unleaded regular, virtually all vehicles these day run perfectly fine on regular.
• Despite what the car, car manual, and/or car dealer says about using a higher octane rating grade of gasoline, unleaded is just fine.
• Using Plus and Premium is recommended for engines of new cars, but seriously unleaded regular won't blow your engine up. Your wallet will thank you if you keep these fuel saving tips in mind.

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"Cheapuccino" Make your own blended ice coffee drink.

Frappuccino? Why are you so expensive?!

Do you love drinking those blended iced coffee drinks from Starbucks and other trendy coffee shops? Do you hate that they cost a little more than a gallon of gas?

Well why not make your own using your own coffee, and you can also make as much as you want!


Here's what you need:

• Coffee grounds 
• Coffee maker
• Blender
• Ice Cube trays
• Plastic freezer bags
• Freezer
• Coffee condiments (sugar, milk, sweetener, etc.)
• If you have it peppermint extract, vanilla extract, cinnamon sticks, or other flavorings that you can get
• Whipped Cream (if you want to be fancy)

Here's what you need to do:

1. Make a very strong pot of coffee by using twice the grinds that you would for a regular brew.
2. Pour the brewed coffee into ice cube trays and freeze (DO NOT pour scalding hot coffee into ice cube trays, you wait  until it cools down so you're not melting stuff.)
3. Put the frozen ice cubes into a bag for storage.

EXTRA PROTIP: Break up a cinnamon stick into the coffee grounds before brewing for a cinnamon flavored coffee. This beats paying $10 on a bag of premium handpicked roasted 1st class priority imported genuine gourmet cinnamon coffee grounds. 

How to make your own blended iced coffee drink:

Time to get your blender ready.

1. Place about 7-8 cubes, 1 cup of milk, teaspoon or two of flavoring, and sugar/sweetener to taste in a blender.
2. Blend it, puree until smooth.
3. Throw some whipped cream on it, garnish it with a cinnamon stick or something.
4. Feel good that you can make this when you want, how you want, and as much as you want.

How to make your own gourmet coffee:

1. Just add peppermint extract or vanilla extract (or you can buy your favorite flavors) stirred into your regular cup of coffee.
2. Doing this isn't any different than what they do at coffee shops.

EXTRA PROTIP: If you do crave coffee but not a lot of it, there is a "secret size" called a "short" at Starbucks coffee shops. It is smaller than the Tall, but a lot cheaper! Just ask for a "short" size of whatever coffee you want!

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Got some leftover chicken? Make some delicious chicken salad with it, NOW.

Do you want to turn ordinary leftover chicken into a scrumptious feast fit for royalty?

Tired of eating chicken by itself like some kind of boring, ordinary chicken-eater? Make chicken exciting again by using the most basic of cooking techniques.

MIXING STUFF TOGETHER TO MAKE OTHER STUFF.

Make a chicken salad, you'll be egg-cited to know that most of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen already. No fowl play here, just follow the recipe carefully to keep yourself a-breast of how truly easy it is.


Here's what you need:

• Chicken, either bought from the deli, store, canned, restaurant, leftover, safely found, or killed by your merciless hands and cooked to your personal preference. Debone it and put it in a bowl.

• Celery, 1 or 2 stalks chopped into smaller pieces of celery. Yes, use a knife or ask a friend to help you with the knife. Put them in the bowl with the chicken.

• Mayonnaise, use as much as you desire depending on how much chicken you have. But obviously don't drown the chicken in mayonnaise. Would you like more chicken with your mayo?

• Add dried cranberries, or if you don't fancy cranberries you can also use grapes.

• Garlic powder, paprika (if you want some extra Zazz), also some salt and pepper (you know what those look like). Use as desired, but not too much.

"I'm good on a lot of things."

• This is optional for an extra kick, Sriracha sauce.

Here's what you do:

MIX EVERYTHING IN THE BOWL. CHILL IT FOR LATER OR EAT IT RIGHT AWAY.

Enjoy it in a sandwich, on toast, by itself, or...in pita pockets?

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"I keep running out of printer ink! It's so expensive too!"

"I need to print some things but I'm running out of ink!"

Have you ever found yourself printing out an essay and all of a sudden your computer tells you that you're running low on ink?

Yeah, we've all been there and we all know how much printer ink costs. Sometimes it's even cheaper to just buy a brand new printer with the stock ink they come with, rather than buying new ink.

But in the meantime, you're low on cash and time. Here's some ways to stretch the ink you currently have.


Here's what you need:

• Ability to navigate through the options of your printer and word processing software (Microsoft Word)
• At least one arm, it doesn't have to be yours either.

Here's what you can do:

STRETCH THAT INK

• Before quickly printing out those documents, stop and look at the printing options that usually show up in a dialog box before you actually hit "Print."
• In these options, you can be able to use less ink and still have a finished and legible finished document.

Additional tips for Inkjet printers

If you're in the middle of a printing job and your printer announces, "LOW INK!" Don't fret. It's just a warning, and your ink cartridge isn't completely empty.

1. To buy yourself a couple more days of printing, remove the ink cartridge from the printer.
2. Firmly hold the cartridge in hand and shake it until you are satisfied that the contents are thoroughly shaken. 
3. Put the cartridge back

Additional tips for Laser printers

Just because your computer and/or printer tells you that the toner is low, the printer can still function fine for two to three weeks.

• Just keep in mind that you'll eventually have to replace the toner or purchase a new printer, but print your documents as usual
• Pay attention to the quality of the pages you print out, if they start to look choppy and degraded then it's time to finally replace the toner.
• So what if one print job is ruined, one page of ruined text is pennies compared to the dozens of dollars in cartridges thrown away that still have life in them

 

AND DON'T PRINT THINGS YOU DON'T REALLY NEED TO PRINT.

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"I love bananas but they don't last very long!"

"I bought bananas the other day, but when I wanted to eat one I saw that they were all over-ripened  and black. I'm sad."

Does this sound like you? Is this the face you that make when you realize that your fruit investment has been ruined by Father Time?


Well here are a few ways to make these curvy, yellow boomerang fruits last longer!



Here's what you need:

• Refrigerator and freezer
• The practiced ability to distinguish between colors

Here's what to do:

Where ever you buy bananas, you'll notice that many of their colors will range from yellow to green. 

• If you're planning on having an intense banana binge right then and there or within the next hour, then go with the tasty ripe green ones.
• However if you like to enjoy bananas every now and then, go with the really green bananas.

Once you get home, your bananas are usually in a happy bunch.

A happy bunch of bananas.

If you want them to last as long as they can, separate them.

They grew up together, but at least they won't suffer the inevitable together. Unless you're making a smoothie or something.

Once separated, put each banana in a different spot in your kitchen. In a bunch together, they will all ripen too fast but alone and on their own they happen to last a great deal longer. 

If you want your bananas to last even longer, you can put them in the fridge with the peel on.

• Sure they will turn black and ugly on the outside but on the inside, they are still the same banana. 

If you want to your bananas to last for a few more days, you can peel them and put 1-2 cut in half bananas in plastic Ziploc baggies and freeze them.

• They'll still taste the same, and you can even dip the frozen bananas in chocolate and roll them in nuts so your blood sugar levels will rise. 

Why does separating bananas work? It sounds so sad...

Random chemistry-ish lesson: All fruits and vegetables give off an odorless, tasteless gas called ethylene after they're picked. This gas speeds ripening up, especially if a bunch of ethylene gas producing bananas are all together. Separating bunches of fruits and vegetables and forcing them to live the rest of their lives solo will make them last longer. However if you want something to ripen faster such as an apple, you can surround the apple with a bunch of bananas to speed up the process.

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