Joan’s Boomer Blog

Group buying websites have exploded this past year, with sites like Groupon, Eversave and Living Social gaining in popularity. The idea behind group buying sites is that different businesses offer daily deals in your city, such as $50 worth of food at a restaurant for $25 or unlimited yoga classes for one month for $20. When and if enough people buy the deal, it “goes through” and everybody gets a coupon to print out.

The daily deals are all different so you never know what will pop up. You sign up for free with the various websites and they email you the deal of the day. If you want it, all you do is click and buy. Some of the daily deals are also Online stores, for instance I got $30 worth of tea for $10 from a site where I just ordered the tea and used my coupon code.

More and more people are using clipping coupons these days and group buying websites are just an updated extension of old fashioned coupons.

I’ve gotten the aforementioned yoga classes, several restaurant deals, $25 worth of popcorn for $15 at the Popcorn Factory and various other things. I’m lucky that I live near 2 large cities so there are plenty of deals for our area. If you live in a smaller area, group buying may not be available yet. But they are constantly adding new cities and areas to Groupon and Eversave.

I’ve signed up for several of the group buying sites, although Groupon is the one I buy the most from. Here’s a run down on them:

Eversave - Get $5 credit just for signing up. Gave a $10 credit for the holidays too. Also offers a related coupon website for checking out coupons and printing them. Eversave offers more than one deal a day and you also have more than one day to get the “daily deal.”

Eversave tends to have more Online deals than Groupon. Today I got $30 worth of

Groupon - Groupon was the first and is currently the largest group buying website and is in 91 cities and 23 different countries. Recent deals include massages, tickets to college football games, lots of restaurant deals. Besides the daily deal for your city, there are also deals for nearby cities and, while most expire in 24 hours, they are beginning to add new ones with a few days to purchase.

Seize the Deal - Some of their recent daily group buys include massages, tickets to the Nutcracker ballet, restaurant deals and tickets to the Texas Motor Speedway. Some of their deals are up for several days before closing. I haven’t purchased anything from this one yet but I like seeing what they offer every day.

Urban Dealight - is newer on the group buying scene. I haven’t bought anything from them yet either. Their deals seem to be fewer and farther between at this point but they will probably grow over time.

Living Social is in 89 cities. This one is new to me and I haven’t purchased anything here yet.

Dealster is in 50 cities in the US. I just recently signed up for this group buying site but some recent deals are as much as 95% off what you’re purchasing.

With each of these sites, when you click on the daily deal, it gives you a link to the website and describes in detail just what the deal covers. You also have an account so all of the daily deals are stored there and you can either print them out and mark them as used or keep them until you’d like to use them. You can also purchase them as a gift for a friend.

These days, I like to save money any way I can and I always love a good deal. Group buying sites are here to stay and offering more and more great deals all the time.

Lots of women have wanted to buy Avon or sell Avon at one time or another. My first experience with Avon was as a kid growing up in the 50’s and 60’s. My aunt could always be relied on to give me Avon jewelry or perfume for Christmas. Those fragrances, Imari, Sweet Honesty and Timeless are still around after all these years and they’ve been joined by dozens of new fragrances as well.

I’ve been an Avon Representative off and on three times over the past 20 years and usually only quit when we relocated. I always seem to gravitate back to Avon as a home based business. Nowadays, with Avon websites available, it’s possible to reach even more customers than it was back then.

In the current economy, everybody is looking for a good home based business to make some extra income and Avon offers the added bonus of having products you and your family can use too - products you can purchase at at great discount, depending on the size of your order.

These days, everybody can use more income and an Avon home-based business can provide full or part time income for retirees, working or stay at home moms, or just about anyone.

As a home based business idea, selling Avon has lots of advantages:

1.  Low sign up fee - It only costs $20 to become an Avon Representative, which includes your first 2 campaigns brochures.

2. Low Cost or Free Website - These days a home based business needs a website and Avon offers each representative a personalized website at very low cost - the website is even free if your customers place at least a $25 order through your site.

3.  Products have name recognition. Avon is known for its Skin So Soft line, quality make-up, jewelry, wellness products and more. Their Anew line of anti-aging products has expanded in recent years to provide a great selling opportunity for Representative.

4.  Avon brochures offer something for everyone. Some people like Anew products, some like Avon make up or Skin So Soft. Holidays are a great time to sell Avon. There are dozens of quality, budget conscious gift ideas for all those people on your list. Need little gifts for teachers, grandchildren or Great Aunt Sarah? Avon has it all.

5.  As a Representative, since you sell Avon, you can also buy Avon at great discount prices. The amount of your discount depends on the size of your order so even if you only sell enough to pay for your own purchases, you can save your family quite a bit of money by shopping Avon.

6.  Sales! Buy Avon by shopping the sales and save money. Every Avon brochure has great sales and you can usually get whatever you want at a discount on an already low price. You and your customers can order from the current brochure or the past one so you can compare prices too.

7.  For a Representative, Avon offers lots of local or online training and support.

8.  There is only a small minimum order required each 2 week cycle to stay qualified as an Avon Representative. Orders can be placed online to save time and effort too.

9. When you sell Avon, you have an enjoyable business. You get to know and like your customers and since Avon has a total money back guarantee, you can always keep your customers happy.

Click here to Buy or Sell Avon

As a retirement income, Avon is a natural because many retirees have grown up using or knowing about Avon products and they like them. Buy or sell Avon to make money and save money too!

You may have several senior citizens on your gift list and you want something special for Grandma or Great aunt Mary. Gift ideas for seniors can be challenging to come up with but the best idea is to make your gift personal. Does your elderly relative or friend have health issues or are they living in an assisted living setting? Even if they are living on their own, most seniors want a gift they can actually use and which shows some special thought.

Here are some gift ideas for seniors to get you started:

• Photo frames with family photos – While most seniors no longer want knick knacks sitting around, they will love a nice framed picture. Consider a new digital photo frame. This Pandigital PAN7000DW 7-Inch Digital Picture Frame is a mid-priced gift and you can personalize it by adding a file of family photos.

• Homemade treats from your kitchen. Be sure to check to see if your gift recipient has any dietary restrictions. Here are some tasty gift ideas to make in your own kitchen.

• Deliver a holiday meal if you live close enough. If you don’t, and your gift recipient does their own cooking, consider something like this New England Breakfast Gift Basket

• Holiday decorations - Make this idea even better by giving some of your own time to put them up!

• Plan a special outing with your senior relative. Take them to lunch with the family, to a movie or maybe to do some holiday shopping.

• Run errands for them. If the elderly person you know lives at home, offer to mow the lawn, cook a meal or go get groceries for them. If they live in assisted living, you can still offer to bring in special food, do some laundry or ask them what they need.

• Candy you ate as a kid® Wax Lips, Candy Buttons, Wax Bottles, Candy Cigarettes and more fresh candies from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. This retro candy will bring back great memories for seniors on your gift list.

• Large print books or audio books. Make sure they have a device to play the books if you get audio.

• Warm blankets, afghans, slippers and robes are always appreciated.

• DVD’s or videos of old movies or TV shows

• Audios of old radio shows like this one CBS’s 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows

Remember for many seniors on your gift list, the gift of time is the most appreciated. Either the time you spent choosing that special gift or time spent with them.  Think about them, what they like to do, listen to their memories. What old TV shows or radio shows did they love? What foods are their favorites? Is there any special restaurant they’d like to eat at or movie they’d like to see? The greatest gift idea for seniors is knowing you put a lot of thought into choosing just the perfect thing for them.

Want to go organic but don’t like the high prices? You can get organic food coupons for many of your favorite products to help save you money. If you know where to look, you can find coupons for organic milk and yogurt, organic meat, organic baby foods and more.

Organic food coupons.com offers links to printable coupons for everything from organic dairy products to organic pet food. The website also has a handy listing of local supermarkets so you can browse their ads for organic foods. Chose an item, like organic free range eggs, and get a list of website to find coupons.

MyGroceryDeals.com is another site where you can find organic food coupons and it also compares in store sales at supermarkets in your zip code. If you search for “organic food” and then go to “category,” it gives you choices such as bakery, fruits and veggies and juices. You can also clip and print coupons on this site.

Another way to find organic food coupons is to visit the site of the company which sells organic foods and see if they have printable coupons. For instance, Laura’s Lean Meat offers a $1 off coupon for organic meat and Stoney Field where you can get coupons for their organic yogurt, milk and ice cream.

Organic Valley organic milk also offers coupons on their website for their organic milk, half and half, cottage cheese, butter and more. Print them out and take them to the store with you to save big on these organic products.

Most of these sites require registration, but it’s free. You can sign up for newsletters and email info too if you’d like and many of the articles are very informative.

Coupons.com sometimes lists coupons for organic foods too. Print out several if it’s a product you like. Recently, they had a $1 coupon for Muir Glen organic tomato paste. Since one can costs $1.79, I got more than 50% off the can.

Compare prices on your favorite organic products at The Find.com. I just recently discovered this fantastic, money saving website. You can put in any search term you want, for instance Organic foods which found 8,651 stores with 242,098 organic food offerings. You can compare prices, whether or not coupons are offered, or if the item is on sale or has free shipping.

The Find also offers lots of money saving articles on many different topics as well.

Other places to save on organic foods without a coupon:

Costco - Costco is carrying a wider variety of organic products these days. Be sure to break down the price per unit to see if you’re really saving money, however. Just because it’s at Costco, doesn’t necessarily make it cheaper. If you can’t use a huge bin or organic lettuce and throw 2/3 of it away, are you really saving money? On the other hand, if you can freeze or preserve the leftovers, and you can use it all in a green smoothie, for instance, you would save money on that tub of spinach.

Walmart too is starting to carry more organic options. However, be sure to check for freshness. I’ve seen organic grapes and other produce at Walmart for a good price but because not many people are buying them, half the bag is inedible.

Eating organic foods is better for your health and the environment at a whole and now you know it’s possible to get more of these nutritious foods into your diet and save money with organic food coupons.

As I find more websites offering Organic coupons, I’ll add those too so check back frequently. If you have a good source for organic food coupons or can thing of other great ways to save money and eat organic, please leave a comment and we’ll check it out.

ZenniOptical is now the number one website online to order fashionable, budget friendly eyeglasses. Prescription eyeglasses are necessary for eye health, but ZenniOptical knows that eyeglasses are also a fashion statement. They provide a high quality product at affordable prices. Did you know that despite the fact that ZenniOptical is a bargain for eyeglass wearers, many opticians don’t want you to order your glasses online?

The reason opticians don’t like ZenniOptical is fairly obvious. They would rather you pay their higher prices, which does not benefit you.

How can an optician stop you from ordering bargain, quality eyeglasses online? They leave out one vital part of your prescription, the Pupillary Distance, or PD. The PD is the distance in millimeters, measured between the pupils of each eye, center to center. To get the proper prescription made for you, ZenniOptical needs that measurement. However, there is a growing trend among those providing your prescription to you not to provide it unless you ask specifically.

If you’re looking for fashionable, quality eyeglasses at bargain prices, try ZenniOpitical. It’s easy. Just put in the prescription and choose the features you want. You can get beautiful eyeglasses for as little at $29!

Read what other eyecare professionals are saying.

Joan’s Boomer Blog - More Coupon Sites for Deals and Freebies

I love getting freebies and using money saving coupons. Coupon sites are growing in popularity and I’ve found some new ones through reading ShopSmart magazine. Put out by Consumer Reports, ShopSmart contains no advertising so there is no conflict of interest in the products and tips they offer to help save you money.

In a recent article, ShopSmart offered these freebie and coupon savings sites. Although these aren’t strictly for seniors, seniors can certainly benefit from these money saving websites.

Coupon Savings.com

Coupons.com

Grocery Smarts.com

Beauty Product Freebies and Coupons:

These money saving coupon sites let you know when department stores are having product giveaway days - such as free gift with purchase. Search by brand name or retailer. You can also subscribe to these great websites so you can get updated on new deals and freebies.

GWP Addict.com - Keeps you up to date on best shopping days for freebies with products like Clinique. Also a coupon page for instore or online coupons, grouped by when they expire so you aren’t trying coupons that are out of date already.

My Gift with Purchase.com

To get coupons for beauty products, lotions and body care products, also sign up with company websites. Ulta.com has a free membership card where you can accumulate points toward gifts, plus they email you discount coupons for online or in store shopping. Other companies like Aveda and Oil of Olay also offer discount coupons for signing up at their website.

Forums where coupons savings shoppers swap tips:

A Full Cup.com

Moms View.com

Slick Deals.com

Some recommendations when using freebie and coupon sites:

Print only from reputable coupon sites. Make sure coupons contain bar codes and expiration dates.

It might be helpful to set up a separate email address just for all your coupons site sign-ups. This will help you avoid spam and keep all our coupons and newsletters in one place. I’ve had to create new email addresses over the years when old ones got too spam filled. I use these older ones for my coupon site sign-ups.

Crystal Singing Bowl

Seeking Inner Peace? Try a Crystal Singing Bowl

The beautiful Crystal Singing Bowl is used for many spiritual traditions, meditation, relaxation, well being and religious practices. Singing bowls are a type of bell, and the sides and rim vibrate to produce a haunting, lovely sound.

How do you use a crystal singing bowl?

A singing bowl produces its melodious sound by rubbing a wooden, plastic, or leather wrapped mallet around the rim of the bowl.

Many baby boomers are seeking fulfillment, inner peace and happiness in their senior years. The crystal singing bowl can be a powerful aid in meditation and relaxation, as well as being a beautiful addition to your home.

Where to buy Chia Seeds

The health benefits of adding chia seeds to your diet are astounding. Chia seeds are the new superfood and a very important ingredient to your daily regimen if you are interested in healthy aging. Are you looking for quality chia seeds to use in your chia seed recipes and gel? You probably won’t find them at your local grocery store but you can now visit our new Chia Seed Store on Amazon.com

For our Chia Seed Store, I’ve chosen the best brands of chia seed, books on chia seeds and their benefits and even some of the ever-popular chia pets and chia sprouting gardens.

Health Benefits of Chia Seeds in your Daily Diet

Among the benefits of chia seeds are their high content of omega3 fatty acids, which are beneficial in protecting us from high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, arthritis and more.

You can buy a pound of chia seed for about $12 and it takes only a couple teaspoons to make 8oz of chia gel. All you need is about 1/4 tsp sprinkled on yogurt, cereal or other foods to get the superfood nutrition.

Read more about the health benefits of chia seeds or pick up a book on chia seeds at Amazon.com. Many of the chia seed products in our store quality for free shipping if you purchase $25 or more on your Amazon order. I have a wish list of Amazon products so if I need something else to bring me up to the free shipping level, I go to my wish list and add something.

Have Fun and Earn Prizes with SwagBucks!

Want to have some fun and win some prizes? Swagbucks is almost a phenomenon these days. Sign up is totally free and everything you do helps you to win Swagbucks prizes. I recently installed the Swagbucks tool bar so it comes up each day. I can use the Swagbucks search tool, check the blog for the daily prize code, or shop using the stores on Swagbucks. Just about everything you do can earn you come bucks, which you can then spend on free prizes.

What Kind of Prizes can I win with Swagbucks?

One recent special offer was a $5 Amazon gift card for 450 Swagbucks. This was marked down from 1,000 Swagbucks and thousands of people took advantage of this one. Every day there are some special offers or you can just visit the Swagbucks store to see prizes like:

• Gift Cards for various online stores
• Tee shirts, hats and other fashion gear
• Magazine subscriptions
• Books
• Gift sets
• Video games
• Music

Here’s a great way to save money when dining out. With just 400 Swagbucks you can purchase a gift card for a $25 e-card for Restaurants.com. At Restaurants.com you can then buy $25 gift cards for various restaurants for just $15 - which would be free if you used your Swagbucks card.

There are 43 great gift card choices, including Starbucks, Target, Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Ticket Master, Lowes, Paypal and many many more. You’re sure to find a gift card that you can use yourself or give as a gift.

You can also get Swagbucks widgets for your blog or website. There’s a group on Facebook to keep you up to date as well.

Another way to save with Swagbucks is to sign up for their free newsletter which lists the latest offers for your favorite stores or the latest Swagbucks news.

Sign up for SwagBucks today. Have some fun and win some prizes, all for just searching or shopping at stores you’d ordinarily use anyway.

Free Newsletters for Senior Discounts, Coupons, Freebies and Samples

‘ve scoured the internet for Senior Discounts and I came up with a list of websites which offer free daily or weekly email newsletters listing new discounts, coupons, freebies and samples. Many of these discounts aren’t just for senior citizens either. Anyone with a little time can save big on the many discount and coupon offers out there.

If you sign up for the free newsletters, you get a summary of new coupons and discounts and also, having  link handy in your inbox helps you remember who has the great money savers you are looking for. I can tall you that, with age, memory is the first thing to go-lol.

Here is a great list of online discount and coupon websites that offer free registration and a free newsletter, along with a summery of what they offer.

SeniorDiscounts.com offers a weekly newsletter with “hundreds of senior discounts,” opportunities to enter contests and more info on how to locate senior discounts. On their homepage is a list of featured discounts. There is also a paid subscription to this site but you don’t have to join to gain benefits. You can also submit any discounts you find to this website too.

These sites also have free newsletters with coupons and freebies and they aren’t just for seniors. You can save a lot of money each week with these great newsletters though.

CouponSurfers - Emails you a newsletter with about 10 of the weeks’ new printable coupons. They list nearly 300 printable coupons on their website.

Coupon websites abound on the Internet. Many have free newsletters or you can save the listing in a file and check them weekly for the best deals. You don’t have to be a senior to get these great discounts!

Printable Coupons.blogspot.com offers grocery, restaurant, retail, pet food coupons and more.

StartSampling.com offers printable coupons and samples and freebies. The only catch to the freebies is that you have to give your name and address so they can mail them to you. This can be good or bad. They can mail you samples and coupons if you don’t mind getting a little more “junk” mail.  I’ve gotten free magazine subscriptions through this website, including Parents Magazine for my daughter and Better Homes and Gardens for me - as well as lots of free samples.

CouponCabin.com offers a weekly newsletter with coupons to your inbox, plus a listing of coupons you can use on the internet. Great listing of printable coupons.

ValPak.com You may be familiar with the Val-Pak that is mailed out to you with great discount coupons but they also have an online version. You can sign up for their free newsletter, tailored to your zip code, with great weekly deals.

Costco If you’re a member of Costco, you can sign up for their free newsletter and find out about their latest coupons and sales.

My Grocery Deals.com newsletter with links to printable coupons. You can also put in your zip code and get deals just for your area.

Don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter for your favorite grocery store. I go to Kroger all the time and they offer a free newsletter and printable digital coupons on their website. You can fine tune it for your zip code too. Kroger stores also include Fred Meyer.

Another great tip for saving on groceries - take your weekly newspaper coupons and match them up to the sales at your favorite store. Most of the time, Kroger and Albertsons, for instance, will match their weekly sales to the weekly newspaper coupons, which doubles your savings.

Don’t forget newsletters for products you like also. I love Betty Crocker products so I signed up for the newsletter, which offers free recipes and over $16 in coupons in the last issue.

Here’s another hint for shopping on the Internet. If you want to purchase something, do a search for “product name and Promo code” to see what comes up. When I was purchasing domain names for my websites, I put in “GoDaddy promo code” and came up with a discount that brought my domain name down from $9.99 to $7.69 each. This works for just about any product if the coupon is out there somewhere.

If there is a store you frequent, sign up for their membership club or any newsletters they have. I love hobbies so I get an email newsletter from Joann’s and Hobby Lobby each week with printable coupons and all their latest sales.

You can also set up Google alerts to be delivered once a day to your inbox, keywords like senior discounts and you get a listing each day of blogs, websites and others which mention senior discount. I have alerts set up for baby boomer, RV Travel and Knitting, as well as Senior Discounts, which keeps me current on what’s being written on these topics each day.

Keep checking back for more senior discounts as I find them!