Giveaways

Before I get to the winners, I just want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey last week. You all gave me lots of helpful information. Hopefully I can use it to make the site better and more user friendly for you. Since there were some recurring themes in the comments, I thought I would address the most common concerns you have.

:: I Want HEB Matchups!

There are several reasons why I don’t cover HEB.

• HEB is not the most coupon friendly store. Per their coupon policy, they can refuse any coupon if they don’t like it. I frequently get emails from readers frustrated that they cannot use their coupons at HEB. This problem primarily occurs with internet printed coupons and not as often with the manufacturer coupons that come via mail or in the newspaper.
• HEB will not allow you to use a manufacturer coupon with their yellow in-store coupons. Most of their sales revolve around these in-store coupons and therefore finding sales that do not use yellow coupons is more difficult.
• HEB sales vary greatly by region. I live in the Austin area and San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi readers and others would not be able to find all the same deals at their store. The other stores I provide matchups for offer nationwide promos so regional differences aren’t as great.
• I actually don’t have an HEB near me! I live in a small town outside the city and I currently drive more than 30 minutes to shop at HEB. Since I have to drive so far to shop there, I usually find myself shopping at stores with better deals or ones that will take my coupons. HEB is opening a store in my small town in less than a week so I may be able to offer more frequent HEB deals.
• I always post any good deals I find at HEB on the Saving with Shellie Facebook page.

:: I Want to Be Able to Print Your Matchups!

I actually have a really cool print feature that I’ve had in the works since Christmastime, if you can believe it. I have been experiencing technical difficulties having it adapt to different Internet browsers. I hope to have it complete sometime this fall. I think you will be very pleased with it.

In the meantime, below each post is a “Share and Enjoy” option. The last icon is a print friendly option. If you click this icon, it will format the post into a more printer friendly version.

:: I Want a Coupon Database!

I actually have this in the works as well. Developing a coupon database is very labor intensive and is taking much longer to get going than I anticipated. I should have this up and running sometime in the fall as well.

:: I Want to Know How Many Coupons to Use and How Much Each Item Is!

Done! If you notice the matchups this week, I started letting you know if you needed to use more than one coupon in order to get the deal. I also started letting you know what the price per item is in addition to the total for all items. I hope this will help you with the math on the deals.

:: I Want My Emails Earlier!

I will look into changing the time my email goes out this week. Right now it goes out sometime between 7pm and 9pm. I will get with Feedburner and get things switched to the 5pm to 7pm option. This means you should get it about 2 hours earlier than you usually do. It may take a few days to take effect.

Those were the recurring concerns, but there were lots that were only mentioned by one or two readers. I’ll do my best to address those if possible. And as always, if you are having trouble navigating the site, can’t find an old post or just have a question, please email me. I’m more than happy to help!

Now, on to the winners….

The two winners of the $10 Starbucks gift card are Ana M. and Amanda S. I have contacted both ladies and they have 48 hours to provide me with their mailing address before I select a new winner.

Thanks again for taking the time to complete the survey and for reading Saving with Shellie. I’m so grateful to have such fabulous readers!

Febreze and My Blog Spark recently sent me some of the newest additions to their Home Collection: the No-Spill Wood Diffuser and the Flameless Luminary. I’m always skeptical of these type products because I don’t like to have my house get that overpowering sickly sweet smell.

I was pleasantly surprised though. Both fragrances I tested (Honeysuckle Orchid and Cherry Blossom) were light and airy. The scent wasn’t overpowering but wasn’t non-existent either. I loved the wood diffuser the best. It looked like a large men’s cologne bottle and use a dowel to draw up the oil into the wood top. It was very decorative.

I thought the luminary was nice as well. One good feature is that it turns off automatically after about 3 hours. The downside is that it doesn’t turn itself back on. I did find that it worked very well in a large room. I don’t think it’s appearance is as nice as the wood diffuser but I found it to work very well.

Well, Febreze and My Blog Spark would like you to try out these new products so they are offering one lucky Saving with Shellie reader a $15 Walmart gift card so they can purchase their own set of Febreze Home Collection Products.

Ready to win? There are 3 methods of entry:

1. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite Febreze Home Collection Scent is. Not familiar with their scents? Just check out their website and let me know which one you’d most like to try. I think the Pomegranate Mango might be interesting!

2. Subscribe to Saving with Shellie via RSS feeds, email or . If you already subscribe, leave a second separate entry saying you do so.

3. Follow me on Facebook and feel free to tell your friends about the giveaway. Be sure you leave a separate entry letting me know you’re a fan.

This giveaway will end Tuesday 7/20 at 11:59pm CT and I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday 7/21.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by My Blog Spark and Febreze. Coupons, products and gift cards were provided for review and giveaway purposes. This post was not reviewed or edited by My Blog Spark or Febreze and the thoughts and opinions are completely mine. Others may have a different experience.

Have you taken the survey and entered the $10 Starbucks gift card giveaway yet? If not, head over HERE to read all about. The giveaway ends on Friday at midnight so do it now before you forget.

Good Luck!

In an effort to make improvements to the site and better serve you, I’ve but together a brief survey. The survey is short and should take you only about 5 minutes to answer. I’d appreciate if you would respond as truthfully and accurately as possible.

As a thank you for completing the survey, all responders will be entered to win a $10 Starbucks gift card. Two lucky readers will win a gift card. In order to be eligible for the giveaway, you must answer all of the survey questions and provide your name and email address at the end.

The giveaway will end Friday 7/16 at 11:59pm Central time and I will announce the winner on Saturday.

Take the survey now, HERE.

Thank you for your time!

Congratulations to Emily! She won the Wanchai Ferry Beef & Broccoli Giveaway. Here are her comments about her favorite Chinese food meal:

I’m a fan of Beef Broccoli and Cashew Chicken. Also, these meals are great for after a baby :) Since having my 2 month old, I’ve made these maybe once a week for a quick lunch for me and my hungry toddler.

Even if you aren’t the winner, you can still download a $1.60/1 Wanchai Ferry coupon to try out one of the meals for yourself.

Thanks for entering and as always, thanks for reading Saving with Shellie!

Don’t forget the Wanchai Ferry giveaway ends tonight at midnight. To read more about their new Beef & Broccoli flavor as well as enter the giveaway, just go HERE.

Good Luck!

A few weeks ago Stan and I got to try the new flavor of frozen entree from Wanchai Ferry: Beef & Broccoli. I’ll be honest, I didn’t eat much because I can’t stomach meat these days. So, since my opinion is jaded by pregnancy, I’ll give you Stan’s.

Stan thought the meal was delicious. We frequently eat Chinese food so he was a tough critic. Stan said it was much better than the Chinese food that we get when we order delivery. He said it was on par with the Chinese food we get when we bring it home from Firebowl or Pei Wei. But he said it wasn’t as good as going out to a Chinese restaurant and eating it there.

He did say that one bag might not be enough food though. The bag is supposedly for two people. I didn’t really eat any and he ate the whole bag. He said if he’d had to share with me, he would have still been hungry. However, my husband does tend to have a large appetite, especially at dinner time. So I’m not sure if everyone will have this problem. You could also pad out the meal with a yummy Asian salad.

The verdict: I will probably buy these in the future. Stan enjoyed it. He said the beef was a nice quality and the broccoli was crisp. It’s cheaper to purchase one of these than order take out or bring take out home. If I have to work late or go out of town, this would be a nice meal option for Stan. The meals have no added MSG and in addition to Beef & Broccoli, they have quite a few other varieties available like Kung Pao Chicken, Szechuan Style Chicken, Orange Chicken, Shrimp Lo Mein, Spicy Garlic Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken.

The folks at Wanchai Ferry and My Blog Spark would like you to be able to try your very own Wanchai Ferry meal so they are offering one lucky Saving with Shellie reader a coupon for a free meal and two tea sets.

Ready to win? There are 3 methods of entry:

1. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite Chinese food dish is. I like Sweet and Sour Chicken and Shrimp Lo Mein and I can never seem to turn down an egg roll!

2. Subscribe to Saving with Shellie via RSS feeds, email or Facebook. If you already subscribe, leave a second separate entry saying you do so.

3. Follow me on Twitter and feel free to Tweet about the giveaway. Be sure you leave a separate entry with your Twitter address.

This giveaway will end Tuesday 6/29 at 11:59pm CT and I’ll announce all winners on Wednesday 6/30.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by My Blog Spark and Wanchai. Coupons and products were provided for review and giveaway purposes. This post was not reviewed or edited by My Blog Spark or Wanchai and the thoughts and opinions are completely mine. Others may have a different experience.

The winner of the $100 Grocery Gift Card courtesy of Cellfire is Kory! She said her favorite Cellfire coupon this week is “$.40 off of 6 yoplait cups. I love all the yummy varieties!”

Congratulations to Kory and a big thank you to all who entered!

Don’t forget about the $100 grocery gift card giveaway from Cellfire. You only have through tomorrow (6/22) at midnight to enter. Go HERE to try your shot at winning.

And don’t forget to read about all the current Cellfire coupons available to load to your store card HERE.

Good Luck!