What to get the Med Student in your life for Christmas

Finding perfect gift for Medical Student in your life is not an easy task.   Instead of a generic gift, I got the low down on what they actually use on a scary normal basis.  And their tastes are expensive!  Because its all last minute, I haven't found many stellar deals that I'd normally buy but considering these products don't go Super Sale anyways these are pretty decent last minute prices.

If you get to Rite Aid today there is a 2 for $3 sale on Red Bull.

And starting Sunday their will be a BO50 sale with $1 UP reward on Emergen C.  No coupons but for another time you can request a free sample at http://www.emergenc.com/

If you head to CVS tommorrow, they have a 2 pk of Five Hour Energy on sale for 2 for $8.  I personally cringe at $2 a small bottle being a good deal but if you still have your ECB's from Black Friday not a bad way to burn them.  It makes me super glad I got those free samples in the mail from my earlier post.

I put the Subway card because of their hectic schedules and lack of access to balanced meals.. SUBWAY is the easiest thing for them to pick up and a way to ensure they eat something somewhat healthy.  And I got a great gift card deal from Saveology a few months back.

I personally am going to add Eye Drops to my list because of all the eye strain from computers and studying.  And if you still have your Health Savings Account balance its great way to burn those funds before you lose them.

How I'm using my Stock Pile for Gifts (Tween's, Teens and Gals)

Look at what I got suckered into buying recently !! Trust me everything is super tiny and they get away with charging $19!!!!! This is why I think Sephora is genius and I try to stay away at all costs.

Anyways, lesson learned.  My mistake inspired me with great Stockpile Gift Idea!!  If you browse stores right now, a lot of the beauty sections are advertising as a free gift for their expensive beauty stuff CHEAP CHEAP free clutches and tote bags.  OR you see all these gift sets that are marked up because they put them in cheap cosmetic bags or boxes with NICE bows.  It really gave me an idea this year to do them myself because I got lots of extra stuff in my stock pile and its super easy to make.  

Clutch Full of Beauty Essentials 

What you'll need:

Beauty related things

Clutch/ Mini Purse/Cosmetic Bag

Bow (this is why I save all my nice bows from gift sets)

To make this look nicer you can get an even fancier bow and put a cute gift tag with thoughtful note

For the Tween: 

 Sample of Fragrance in those little glass vials {FREE}

Lip Gloss (easier because you don't have to worry about picking shades) {FREE}

Revlon Nail Boards {FREE}

Cover Girl Blush {FREE}

Cover Girl Concealer (this is only because I have tons and I know their skin color) {FREE}

Cheap Clutch (mini Purse) {Valentines Clearance from Target Dollar section $.25}

Retail Worth $15

My Cost $.25 !!!!!! 

For the Teen 

You can add like Breath stuff and Advil for PMS and even Tampons.  What I love about this gift is you can really just add about anything.  I'm focusing more on my freebies from couponing.

For the Adult 

This is more tricky because some ladies only do name brand stuff. For makeup it really depends on the personality.  But who doesn't need aspirin, panty hose, breath strips, nail clippers, nail polish to play with and chapstick?  And who doesn't have lame company holiday party coming up that will require extra tiny things?

End of November Financials

Previous observation is canceled out too much stress and poor eating leads to freaking COLD and near mental breakdown!! Fortunately, I have Flex Spending and a huge stock pile of cold medication. I hate this recession, I really do companies just put too much stress on workers.  Now I really need another vacation! 

            Money to be sent to Online Savings account        $     893.16  

Total Saved toward Goal $  9,379.66   

Actually this is super exciting, if I weren't just completely beat up and exhausted.. I'd be jumping up and down.  It means that even though I have 2 more paychecks left, I only need 1 more to meet my goal.  And I have just enough for a vacation.  Assuming Christmas gifting doesn't completely ruin it for me.  It means that I'm almost there and I've finally almost completed a substantial goal I set for myself.  It means all the sacrifices will have been worth it!!!

Mid November Financials

I figured something out, when I'm super stressed and working like a dog.  I just have no energy to shop or look for deals.. and I just stop buying.  I just want to go home and be a couch potato and then go to sleep. Granted.. I eat a lot of cereal/oatmeal, ramen, junk food and smoke way too much.  It's interesting because I didn't really even stop to think that I was using my stockpile. I have a feeling this is going to come back to bite me because I really didn't do any prep for the holidays.  We'll see.

I finally got off my ass and got back some money makers, have been on my to do list for ages.

      

Total to be sent to my high yield Online Savings account: $1480.54

Total Saved toward goal: $ 8,486.50

End of October Financial Results

Total to be sent to my Online Savings account  $  565.07 

Total Saved toward goal:  $  7,005.96

Just been super swamped and busy, I finally got down to my numbers from vacation.  Notice there were no Money Makers this period, too busy at work and catching up with errands.  I've also gotten much more slacker like, I think it's the post vaca mindset.  No one said being responsible is easy.  

Target Sweater Deal

Starting today they have the plain Vnecks and Turtlenecks for $8.99

If you were to print the below sweater coupon for an additional $4 off , you can score a sweater for $4.99.  Great deal for yourself or as a gift.

Depending on your store, you may have an even better clearance selection to choose from!!

Outback Steakhouse Gift Card Deal

This is a great deal an opportunity to save almost 20% at Outback Steakhouse.  You can even create custom gift cards! Regular shipping is $1.95.  The downside is the $20 bonus gift card you have to use by feb 10.

McDonalds Deal!!!!!!!!!!

OMG is all I have to say, MCDonalds is my favorite food of all time!! But it's super expensive, it's gotten ridiculous.  So this deal is the most awesome ever!! They never expire so you can take your time even.  You can give these away  as gifts if you can bare to part with it lol what teen doesn't eat at McD's.  Basically you get a book of vouchers kinda like coupons in a way, and inside will be 5 for Big Macs and another 5 for Large fries!  Making it $1.30 each + tax!!  It's a lot cheaper than even than BOFO coupons that occasionally come out .

Here's my link to the deal:  https://share.livingsocial.com/deals/190802?ref=conf-jp&rpi=38417644

Hurry $10 Target Gift Card deal

Hurry, if you can get to Target by Dec 3 this is awesome!!!!!!! Spend $50 and get a $10 gift card thats like automatic 20% savings sorta.  Or best deal yet for Target anyways go to their Facebook Page  ; then click on link below picture and it will take you to the coupon page, select and click print!!

Basic Yeast Dough for Dim Sum Steamed Buns (Mantou)

I finally have found the perfect Bun Dough Recipe for Chinese Steamed Buns!!!!!!!!!
Its near perfect match to the ones I used to buy in Chinatown as a kid, perfectly soft, chewy, great sweetness ratio and super easy to make!!!!

Mantou (no filling buns), this is the basic dough recipe you can use for the ball versions filled with your ingredients of choice and the disk version used to make yummi Taiwanese Hamburgers!

What you'll need :
Bamboo Steamer

Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoon Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast
3/4 lukewarm water
2 tablespoons canola or veg oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (Pillsbury)

Mix yeast with Flour dry.  Then in separate bowl mix liquid ingredients with rest of dry ingredients.  Then add to flour mix.  Then for about 5 min knead and stir till resembles ball.  Lightly oil, bowl and put in your kneaded mixture.  Cover tightly with knotted bag or plastic wrap and store in draft free place.  In about 45 min to 1 hour, mixture should have doubled.

Take out the poofed mixture and you can need or roll into shape you want.  I shaped mine into log and cut with knife.  Then put in Bamboo Steamer and let rest for 10 min.  In the meantime, boil the water first and when its ready put steamer on top of your steam source.  Make sure you don't over crowed the Steamer because these will poof and expand a second time in the steamer.

Steam for 15-20 min, and your done!

These also freeze super well! Just re steam when you want to eat warm.

*** My original mistake was not putting the steamer on top of a pan that fully covered the steamer and not waiting for water to boil first before putting steam on top.  Also, I made a huge batch so to avoid drying out dough after it poofs, work in batches.

I like to cut mines up into plain logs, because sometimes I'll cut like loaf of bread and make it an fried egg and cheese sandwich. Which sounds gross but its super yummi combo of sweet and salty!

And of course my version is the Frugal version.  So it's not super pretty. Plus with this batch, I mistakenly measured the wrong amount of baking powder which is why I think it's more spotty.

Normally I wouldn't touch recipes that require Yeast because its so expensive but if you go to BJ's or Sams club you can buy huge 1lb bricks of Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast for a lot less than those small individual packets that average a dollar each.  I forgot the cost because I got mine last year but its so worth it!!!!

The more pretty pretty versions use Cake Flour which is way more expensive than my $.99 5lb bag of Pillsbury Flour.  And not worth the extra cost if you consider this version tastes super yummi!!!!


I got the recipe for this via this amazing book I'm reading called "Asian Dumplings" by Andrea Nguyen.  She really makes the Asian recipes to those of us with limited access to Asian ingredients and does thorough kitchen testing with her recipes.

CVS starting 11/27

If you need to burn some of your ECB's earned from their Black Friday sale, here's a great deal to churn those ECB's.  Who doesn't need contact solution??

CVS Black Friday

So many freebies after ECB's at CVS this year!!!!

I would try not to get carried away if your not a regular CVS shopper because ECB's do expire about a month from generating.  Best tip if your store is not super crowded is to do multiple transactions so you are burning and churning the ECB's.  In my case my initial transaction because I was in rush to get to work was $11.10 and my two transactions after that came close to that initial amount.  I didn't have time to anymore grr hate being one of the few working on Blackfriday.

I especially liked the free Starbucks double shot, Listerine Breath Strips (limit2), Pepto (that never goes on sale); if your need Spa gift basket stuff (chill shots and lip soft is great addition), and free Chocolate for Movie  Baskets!

You can go to the official Circular here: CVS

Teddy Bear Gift

So if you have Teddy Bears from your stock pile, here's a possible suggestion.

So last year, Hallmark had coupon that I used to get a free Kiss Bear.  Alone, the Kiss Bear would have cost $5 so I couldn't just give that as a gift.  To make it more expensive, I had to add stuff without looking like I was being cheap and just adding stuff.  So since this was a KISS Bear, and I had free Listerine Breath Strips and Hershey's Kiss Candy...I came up with a theme of Kiss Bear in Wrap.  It was great because everything tied in with kissing theme.  The Candy, Listerine and Bear.  

DIRECTIONS

Step 1:  Cut the Net packaging off a bag of Tangerines since it was Red and I didn't want to waste Cellophane.

Step 2: Lay out Wrap and put Bear in Center, use the Listerine as backing so Bear has height and put Candy in Bears Lap.  Gather up wrapping and tie with ribbon.

Either way this was a decent attempt to use my Stockpile stash of freebies to make a presentable sorta expensive looking gift.  I think everything looks more expensive in Cellophane Wrap for some reason.  So I did have to buy Cellophane Wrap at dollar store for this project.


Warning: I am so not Crafty so I bet if I knew how to actually wrap well with Cellophane, it could have come out nicer.  And if I'd cut our more Cellophane, the Bear wouldn't have been so squished that it looked a lot smaller than it was.  Also, I think the inside could have been a lot nicer maybe with confetti or better wrap.

**This year at CVS's 3 day Black Friday event, they are selling the Listerine Pak for $2.99 with a $2.99 ECB making it free as well limit 2

Living Social and Groupon Black Friday

For those of you too tired from Turkey or stuck at work on Black Friday, check out the above living social deals!!!!!  If your a Sketchers fan deal lets you pay $20 for $40 worth of stuff.  And the FTD is great if you have a sick friend or will be needing to send flowers before Christmas!  New York City doesn't have convenient Office Max locations but if you live near one this would be a great score !  Hurry though deal amounts do run out and don't forget if you refer 3 people to a deal you buy, you get yours free!!!!

And Groupon has an awesome Old Navy deal if you shop there.

Thanksgiving Madness

I had the brillant idea of doing some last minute grocery shopping after work yesterday... and boy do I never want to do that again.  Pathmark was packed, I mean you could barely move.  On the plus side, since they ran out of Heckers 5lb Flour, the offered the Pillsbury version as a substitute for same price of $.99 !!!!!!!!

Today, on  my way to pick up some fresh seafood at the Chinese Market; I stopped by Rite Aid for their 3 day version of Black Friday sale.  And as I said before, this years sale kinda sucked... but the store was packed at 9am in the MORNING!!!!!!  I'm just posting this to give you a heads up on how crazy I think Black Friday will be tommorrow.  Because last Black Friday, when there were kick ass sales we only had maybe a few people lined up.  I think this year people are really much more sales and savings conscious.

That being said, I really wished I lived closer to a CVS because their SALE is amazing, so many freebies on useful stuff!  You can pull their ad, at their website to look but even the Manhattan stores are participating starting today.

Anyways, tons of cooking and baking to do!!!!!!!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lobster Part 3

I never finished my 3^rd Post about what I did with that one Lobster I bought this summer.  So the third dish I made was Lobster Potato Salad and it was Delish!  Not to mention a great way to stretch my Lobster.  So when I was doing this I tried something I’d never thought to do before.  I boiled my Potato with my Lobster Shell Stock.  And I did notice it added an extra layer of flavor to the Potato.

INGREDIENTS

Used all of body cavity meat and one small piece of pincher meat about deck of cards size after chopped

4 tbs mayo

Teaspoon Lemon Juice

Chives and Scallion

Salt pepper

Quarter of Red bell pepper

1 regular potato (boiled)

Alil soup broth, alil tomale from spoon (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Chop all Ingredients.  Toss Lobster in first and mix with Lemon Juice.  Then put in all the rest of ingredients and mix with fork.

Tip: I actually had some left over so next day, I added some red chilli paste and it was yummy (kinda like spicy tuna but spicy lobster potato)

Cost: Again everything aside from lobster, I already had on hand but if it hadn't been one potato and some Red Bell Pepper would have cost me less than $.50  Definately keeping this in my recipe book for future.

GW Supermarket Deals

GW has some pretty good deals too this week, which I don't really expect from Asian Markets during a holiday week.  But most notable is the AVOCADO!! I love some other staples are on sale too.  The $.98 for Potato noodles is pretty great deal if you love JapChae like I do and the Broad Beans rarely go on sale, so I'm totally going out to get me some to stock pile.

Target for Thanksgiving

I checked my Pathmark and Waldbaums ad's and their Thanksgiving sales are not so great.  Surprisingly, Target has the equivalent or slightly better deals for most of the mandatory ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner.  Although Waldbaum's does have cheapest generic frozen turkey at $.49/lb.

On my Target shopping list:

-Swanson Chicken Broth or Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup $.59 each

-Dozen Grade A Eggs $1.29

-$.55 wyb 2

----------------------

$.74 each 

Eggs Coupon

-Stove Top Stuffing is cheapest here too at $.89

-Celery $.99

-White Mushrooms $1.49

New JCrew Winter Looks released

Totally drool worthy, I really am getting inspired by color and patterns.  With the exception of the Harem Pants and shorter skirt in red coat ( hopefully the tights forgive the hemline) everything is work wearable.

Rite Aid Black Friday Ad!!!!!

I am kinda disappointed with Rite Aid's Black Friday Ad this year.  Not a ton of stuff, I'd get up early for but there are some good deals.  I'll probably stop but after my priority runs.  On the plus side Rite Aid will not be as crowded as the malls.

Freebies

The Revlon Nail Polish: You can go watch the VV now for $2 off making it a money maker after UP reward. And also if you still have your October Revlon Nail Polish VV coupon that could be used as well since the deal has a LIMIT of 2.

Cheap Stocking Stuffers 

I personally think $1.50 is a great price for fleece throw, I was eyeing these last year and $1.99 was the lowest they'd go.  My store didn't include these in After Christmas Clearance.  Plus they would make great gift basket additions (spa, movie night, dog set, Christmas theme).

I also love Cozy Socks and the dollar store is the lowest I've gotten them.  So 2 for $1 is a steal! Also, great gift bag additions.

The Snuggie for $4.99 is great gift for a Lazy Couch Potato friend and everyone noes retail cost is $10.

Cheap Home Related Stuff

If you have to get some housewarming gifts or your own house appliances are running low or almost about to break, these are great stock up prices and you won't have to deal with crazy Mall Madness.  Typically Target might pull out their $5 deals on Coffee Makers this year but the $.99 is not worth Target Madness on Black Friday.  And I really hope the Home Depot Gift Card deal is as good as it sounds.  Need to investigate to find out what the terms are.  Otherwise it seems like 20% discount on Home Depot Gift Card.

Food Related Stuff 

No Freebies here, but if your going to be entertaining during Holidays there are some rock bottom prices here to consider.  I'll be on look out for M&M, Cereal and Soda coupons till the sale.

You can check out the Entire ad here:

Rite Aid Ad

Rite Aid Sale Starting Nov 13

The free Gum is a great way for you to roll your previous UP rewards.  It's a limit of 4.

If you buy Orbit Gum, you can use one Video Value coupon for additonal $.25 off 

The Crest Deal is also great because you get the funds from your previous ups back in Single Check Rebates.  All you do is pay for tax after Rebate.  Plus if you got the November P&G booklets, there's probably a coupon to make this a money maker!  I have one coupon saved from my free sample to use to get another $1 off, whooppee!

Also, if you are low on Peanut Butter they have Skippy on sale for 2 for $4.  Which is an okay price.  But if you buy $25 worth of stuff including the Skippy, you get a $10 UP reward back.  So as a scenario because I live on Peanut Butter, 13 jars for $26 and get back $10 Up reward, would make each jar cost $1.23!

Or you can head on to CVS there sale is even better! Its 3 for $5 on Skippy and they have a $10 gift card deal when you buy a combined value of $30 worth of select products.

Le Creuset Stock Pot on Amazon

I was super excited to find out this 6 quart Stock Pot from "Le Creuset" the creme de la creme of cookware was on sale from $80 to $35.98!!!!!!!!!  More than 50% off!! plus free shipping on Amazon!! I grabbed it as potential Christmas gift for my Mommy :)  the hardest person ever to shop for.
The best part, I used my Swagbucks e-amazon gift codes to pay for most of it!

Here's the link but note.. the one on sale is in KIWI but they picture the blue one on the site.
link

Pac Sun Sale!!!!

Gosh I love love Pac Sun reminds me of Calli days.  Today they have a pretty decent sale and the best part is free shipping.  If you don't like their clothes, I'd scroll on to accessories section.  I got a cute Fedora for $5 ! And I picked up some necklaces for $2.39!!!!!!!

And to top of the sale prices and free shipping....You can use this code to get an additional 10% off  
 TENOFF1104

Mid October Results

I've been lagging on my updates... sorry still in post vacation blues... 


So for Mid Oct, my numbers were really low partly because I was just swamped at work and too tired to do much.  And because I was prepping for vaca.. it really motivated me to just work through my fridge.  I didn't have any side money because I was just too busy.

Total to be sent to my high yield Online Savings account: $1,439.98

Total Saved toward goal: $6,440.89

Only 5 pay checks to GO for 2011!  

It's been crazy week!! Side note life is really precious and I just wanted to remind myself how grateful I am that I'm healthy and living.  There are people out there everyday being diagnosed with life threatening illness.

Free Stylist for the Frugal Fashionista

The dirty secret is that even our most famed, "I'm so effortlessly gorgeous, and low maintenance" celebs have a stylist. The Olson twins, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Connelly, Kate Beckinsale, Blake Lively, Jennifer Garner, Keira Knightley to name a few. Which makes sense finding and creating outfits can take time for some.  So why not pay someone with the expertise to find the best fits for your body and styles that will make others covet what you have.  And if were we all millionaires throwing down $4-6k a day for that service alone may not be ridiculous!!!!!


Finding the deal on pieces and translating it into an outfit can be fun for some but a huge hassle for others.  But its really important to do so otherwise your clothes will sit in the back of your closet till suddenly you can't wear it anymore because it maybe outdated.


So thats a Frugal NYC girl to do?? 


Fashion Blogs and Clothing Sites


It's like getting a free stylist, many sites now have stepped on the bandwagon of lookbooks and pieced together outfits.  In order to be productive in the outfits you produce.. you have to narrow things down.


If you just need help with casual wear, easiest thing to do is find a Celeb with your body type and look at what cuts they wear that are flattering.  Odds are they already have a stylist.  Then you pull out similar stuff from your closet or shop with those cuts in mind.  

Favorite sites for celeb styles:


Coolspotters.com : This site lets you search by brand or celebrity and even tells you what specifically their wearing.
People.com : You can just look at the celeb pics or visit their Style Section.  I love their "I really love my.." series.
JustJared.com : This is totally celeb site that constantly updates with pics.. you can even search by celeb

I personally think styling for work is the most difficult.  Mostly because I actually have a strict work dress code and in NYC you do a lot of walking in cold weather so you have to be practical as well.  (Sorry to break the illusion of Sex in The City Glamour but most regular working girls do not trek around in heels all day with no coats.)  Usually your outfit will have to work with flats or sneakers for walking and then heels if you want in the office.


You can look at celebrities for some work clothes inspiration but most outfits are couple inches short on hemlines and have way too low necklines and need high heels.  


JCREW: They are the site to go to for ideas on blending some color into your work wear.  Their stylists are so great a mixing color and they specifically have a Wear To Work Shop.  And their casual looks can be switched up to make work outfits too! Con: Models are too thin so some outfits are tailored more to slim boy body type


Banana Republic:  They also have a Outfits We Love Section which includes work attire.  I don't really love their stylist but work attire is work attire.  And the good thing about this site is not everyone is wearing heals and the models have a lil more meat on them. So their styling is more realistic for an everyday girl.


Net-A-Porter.com: This is the site that carries the most High-end fashion pieces.  It used to have amazing creative stylists but that changed as they tweaked the site to match their demographic better (think richer and older).  The stylists now play it very safe and because of that their pieced together looks are perfect for work and for more realistic body types.


Shopbop.com: They have amazing creative, stylists for all occasions! You can shop by designers, view lookbooks, shop by style and they have tons of stuff so lots of looks are displayed.


**If you see something you love, save it to your computer because when seasons change you will not be able to find the look again.


Fashion Magazines for INSPIRATION


Sure you can get ideas from fashion magazines, this is wheres some of the major innovators in the industry put their magic into photos.


I stopped doing it because a) they cost money!
                                         b) they take up physical space and its more to sort on Trash day
                                         c) these days 70% of the content is advertisements 


But...mostly because in reality copying High Fashion is not going to work for your day to day life and budget.  What Giselle and all those other super thin models put on is not necessarily going to work for 90% of the rest of the female population.

Rite Aid starting 11/6

Awesome freebie no coupon required ! Limit 4 per card.

And if you printed coupon I posted about the Keri lotion deal becomes Money Maker!

Buy 1 (limit 1 per card) Keri Lotion $6.99

- 2 MFC (prints no longer available)

------------------------------------

OPP: $4.99 + Tax

Get $6 UP reward

Total cost: $1.01 money maker!!

Hot Target Coupons

And the best part ....the coupons expire 11/26  so you can use on Black Friday!!!!

It looks to be slow week for couponing

It's raining, windy and cold in NYC... and this week looks to be pretty slow for deals as predicted.  So its actually a great time to just relax and recharge your batteries.  I'll probably be organizing and going through my closet to get ready for this cold weather. And getting stuff done for month end bills and errands before my vacation.

But get ready because after Halloween... there will be all the after Halloween Clearance and then Black Friday time!

$2 Chipotle on Halloween

If your going to be stuck at work like me on Halloween, then this might a a great opportunity to score cheap Chipotle.  If you dress like a Family Farm inspiration and go in after 6pm Monday, you can get a Burrito for $2!!!!!!!  I don't know how strict they are about enforcing costumes but its a great deal because their Burritos are huge and filling!

Cheap Flour at Pathmark

For all the crazy baking your going to be doing this coming holidays grab some cheap flour at Pathmark!!! Staring yesterday they have a 5lb bag at $.99 !!!!!!!!! NO limits, NO coupons necessary! Which is an amazing deal for that price given current rise in food prices, I'd been semi - stocking up with generic brands at $2.