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Save Time, Money, and Your Sanity this Holiday Season

Perhaps you are feeling foolish not to have finished all of your holiday shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Well, you aren’t the only one who wasn’t ready to be pressured by the entire marketing buzz. We have a slightly longer-term strategy that should save you money, time, and sanity this holiday season.

  • First, compile a list of all of the people to whom you would like to bequeath gifts this holiday season, and how much you have budgeted to spend on each. This way there will be no surprises when the bills come in January.

  • Decide on a few signature gifts that can be given to multiple people. Some suggestions are blankets, hats and scarves, a beautiful coffee table book, etc. Our family also makes something each year to give as hostess gifts or to friends and neighbors. Some ideas are bath salts, limoncello, jams, and fudge.

  • Save yourself the time and aggravation of running around from store to store by researching the best selection and prices online before you head to the stores. And remember to check coupon sites for extra savings.

  • When it is time to actually go shopping make sure you eat a healthy meal or snack before you head out. This way you will be clearheaded, full of energy and not tempted by unnecessarily caloric and extravagant holiday treats. With your list in hand, you will be more efficient and avoid impulse purchases.

  • Wrapping is the fun and easy part. Set aside an evening, gather friends or family, put on a movie or some holiday music, and get ready to “wrap up the holiday season”, or at least the gift giving part.

Happy Shopping! Hope this takes the stress out of this time of year.

Julie Arnheim and Darcy Ratner
RubbingNickels.com

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Categories: Ms. Nickel

Free 7 Day All-Club Pass

Come in and check them out. Try any 24 Hour Fitness free for one week, no stings attached.

Access all their clubs with one pass!

Pass is good for 7 consecutive days, beginning on your first day of usage at a club. Pass good at multiple locations. User must not have been a guest or member of 24 Hour Fitness within the last 6 months. Local residents only. No other discounts can be used with this offer. Must be at least 18 years old (19 in NE) or 12 with parent. Personal Training available to members only for an additional fee. Kids Club, Pilates Reformer and class reservations available for additional fee. Incentives offered for memberships. Facilities and amenities vary. Not all clubs open 24 hours. Not for re-sale or transfer. No cash value. Offer may expire without prior notice. See club for details. By providing your phone number, you are authorizing 24 Hour Fitness to call you. ©2010 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc.

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Categories: Free

A Rubbing Nickels Thanksgiving

Well, you know it’s almost Thanksgiving when Best Buy starts their Santa and the Elves T.V. promos. Though this year I think they started the ads around Halloween. I am going to travel to my mother’s house without my kids this year (it’s a long story) and we are having a Thanksgiving dinner for four. That should keep our costs down nicely. In that vein, we have some tips for you on how to stretch your dollar this holiday season, starting with Thanksgiving.

Take your foot off the gas – I know we all drive places for Thanksgiving but we wanted to remind you that driving 60 MPH vs. 80 MPH can save you a lot of money on gas, especially if you’re going far.

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Categories: Ms. Nickel

Personalized Romance Novels

  1. Tell us about your business:

    YourNovel.com can put any couple into their very own personalized novel. We currently have 30+ novels and eBooks set at exotic location around the globe available for personalization. Our service lets customers input 26 details like their names, eye and hair color, best friends’ names, home town, place of work, type of car they drive, perfumes, places of work and more. The information is sent through a customized computer program that generates a book – either a paperback or hardback with or without a photo added on the cover, and here’s a fun part: each books comes in a “Wild” or “Mild” version, so the customer gets to choose how spicy the romantic interludes are. (The books are titillating yet tasteful, and not graphic, and 90% of the readers choose “Wild.”)

  2. Why did you start this business?

    Back in 1992, Kathy was attending a public relations conference and Fletcher tagged along to keep her company. She was on a panel and the icebreaker question was: “What would people be surprised to find out about you?” She answered that she had written a yet-to-be published romance novel, which got an appropriate response. One of the women, a friend, at the lunch table said, “Wouldn’t it be great to read about yourself in one of those romance novels?”. Well, everyone at the table laughed and kidded around about it. Then, on the four-hour drive home, we looked at each other, and the proverbial light bulb went off. We said, “You know, we could do that!” and actually started outlining our first book, “Another Day in Paradise”, on the back of a manila folder on the drive. We started writing it the next day.

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Categories: Cottage Industries

Chicken Pot Pie

rubbing nickels



Really easy to make and tastes fantastic!

Crust:

  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2/3 cup of shortening
  • 5-7 tbsp ice cold water

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Place one cup of flour in the bowl. Next add the teaspoon of salt followed by the second cup of flour then add 5-7 tablespoons of ice water. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently press mixture into a circle and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling:

  • Meat from one small roasted chicken, shredded
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 8 oz of button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 4-5 red potatoes, diced
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 1/2 cup of frozen peas, thawed
  • 4 cups of Chicken Broth
  • 4-5 tbsp corn starch
  • Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
  • Thyme, to taste

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Add the potatoes and carrots to 3 cups of broth and boil for 10 minutes. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add onions and sauté for 3 minutes then add sliced mushrooms. Cook for an additional 4-5 minutes or until softened then add minced garlic, stirring constantly for 60 seconds. Remove from heat and set aside. Add the chicken to the skillet along with the carrots, potatoes, broth and peas; bring to a boil. Mix the cornstarch with the remaining cup of broth and mix thoroughly. Once the filling is boiling, add the cornstarch mixture along with sea salt, pepper and thyme. Stir well. Taste and re-season if needed. Remove from heat. Pour filling into a large baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out. Place dough on top of the filling, pressing to the edge of the dish. Cut 4-5 slits in top of crust to allow steam to escape.

Cover the edges of the crust with tin foil to prevent burning. Bake for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy.


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The Title: Chicken Pot Pie
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Categories: Like to Cook

AAA – Money Well Spent

This summer, my poor husband had to endure my love affair with AAA. Quite honestly, I don’t even know what the triple A’s stand for, Automotive, …? However, I do know that AAA’s $45 membership dues pay for themselves many times over.

Roadside Assistance – Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at 10:00 at night, we heard a strange thumping noise. We pulled off at the very first exit to discover that we had a flat tire. My husband grumpily rolled up his sleeves and prepared to jack up the car to change the tire with our spare, while I calmly called AAA. They arrived in 15-20 minutes, before he even had figured out how to get the spare out of the trunk. Cost: $0.

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Categories: Ms. Nickel

Kids’ Night on Broadway – Kids Go Free

On Kids’ Night on Broadway, young people age 6-18 can see a participating Broadway show for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult.

Kids’ Night on Broadway 2011 in New York City takes place on February 6-10. Tickets go on sale at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Use special discount code KNOB2011.

In addition to show discounts and great parking and restaurant deals, kids are invited to free pre-theatre events. Check back this winter for more info.

On Kids’ Night on Broadway in NYC, kids get to dine for free at many fabulous Times Square restaurants, and parents get discounted parking rates. More details will come soon.

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Categories: Free
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