Toy Week

This week, to get ready for the holidays we will look for toy sales, discounts, coupons and freebies.

If you know of any please comment.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! May all you have a great Thanksgiving and remembering the good you have had now and or during your life. My favorite stories to share with children and to be grateful for are those wonderful persons I have met, even for just a few minutes. These people took the time to be kind and loving to others.

This is a great time to teach children and grandchildren about our life and about life and how to be kind and loving to each other and how each good thing we do can spread like a seed to make a new good thing with more seeds of good. Remember that good not just bad can multiply and help change others. This is especially important to know and to do in these difficult times. If things are hard and people are bad, how can there ever be good? We must try hard to find the good especially in difficult times and be grateful and multiply good to others.

Petsmart: Pet Holiday Items Sale

I received an email today that said,"This Friday only - 50% off PetHoliday toys, collars, rawhide, pet apparel & more."

For some people who do not have children, presents for their pets make them feel very happy to be remembered. Other people find this fun and nice also. It depends a lot on the person.

(Yes, I know I am supposed to be on vacation but I wanted you all to not miss out on fifty percent off sale.)

Vacation Week

No, sorry. It won't be a week filled with vacation coupons.

I will be on vacation this next week. Happy hunting for coupons and discounts!

Pet Insurance

Have any of you tried a good pet insurance program? If so, please comment.

Pet Smart

Pet Smart has a site located here:

http://www.petsmart.com/

They claim many coupons and online only discounts each month.

Petland

Petland had a nice website when I went surfing for this topic. They are located on the East coast. If you have tried them, please let me know.

Their website is located at http://www.petlanddiscounts.com/map.asp

Petco

Petco's site is located at http://www.petco.com

You can sign up for an email service.

They have an online circular which is a great idea so you can view the information on sales before you go to the store and even print it up.

Borders Books: Three Great Coupons for Three Days Only!

Borders Books has three great coupons with some exclusions.

50 percent off hard cover best seller

30 percent off a hard cover

20 percent off any one item

Pet Week

Welcome to pet week. We will explore various discounts and freebies for your pets. If you have a pet insurance, store, or online store that you like, please chime in with it. Thank you very much.

Submarines/ Hoagies

This category across the board for those I have signed up for, do not have any discernible regular coupons coming via the email. Hopefully there will be something good to report later.

KFC

If you use their click on coupon button, going online to hunt for deals is well set up by them. They have a variety of products with specials. I have not been able to compare the online coupons to flyers and do not know yet if they are exclusive to persons who sign up for their email service. I do know that regardless the coupons are well done and an incentive to chose them over another restaurant and to regularly visit the site.

Toy Coupons!

Target came out with toy coupons in the mail this week. I was told by Walmart staff that Walmart will honor the Target coupons. This included a ten dollar off coupon among other amounts.

Scooters :(

Scooters by far has the most disappointing sign up service that I have tried. Most of the offers through the email have been the same offers that everyone gets if you just visited them in person. The coupons that have come exclusively to those who sign up are very short lived. The net effect on me as a customer is that after signing up for their email service is that I want to visit them less.

Barnes and Noble :(

So far this proved to be the most difficult to use and evaluate. I sent an email to them and still have no reply.

Krispy Kreme Free Doughnut for Veteran's Day!

According to the email"

"Krispy Kreme will give away one free doughnut of any variety to all veterans and active military personnel who visit a participating U.S. Krispy Kreme store on Wednesday, November 11. This is a small gesture to thank the dedicated men and women who have served or are currently serving in the armed forces. We salute you! "

Borders Books

Borders Books continues to be the best at providing regular coupons via their newsletters. The best percent off so far I have seen is 40% off. Other promotions such as buy one get one free are very good to know of also but are not exclusive to people who sign up to be come members.

Marriott Hotels- $100 off coupon

Information for a coupon for Marriott Hotels for one hundred dollars arrived to day via their email newsletter.

You can sign up for their program here at

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/rewards-program.mi

Tabasco Sauce- 50 Cent Coupon

Tabasco sauce has a 50 cent coupon located here:

http://www.tabasco.com/specialoffers/couponsprep.cfm

They are promoting the idea of trying Tabasco sauce instead of crushed pepper on your pizza. This is the first time with all the newsletters that I receive where a company added a good coupon to an new idea or promotion like that. It was great job and a great coupon for a great product.

There are other great uses for Tabasco sauce also. I like to use it in my homemade spaghetti sauce. I add just a couple of dashes, depending on who is eating it. The sauce imparts some zing but not a lot of heat at that level when added during cooking.

Newsletter Coupon Evaluation Week

This week I will explore some of the best and the worst of the newsletter and email discount and freebies that I have been watching.

Interesting article on umami

The article, Molecular mechanism for the umami taste synergism, may be found below:

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/52/20930.abstract?sid=7455e80d-7dca-4325-a81a-66d05a4dbaad

MSG in the H1N1 Vaccine?

According to this website, http://www.truthinlabeling.org They stated " MedImmune’s H1N1 vaccine contains monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed protein gelatin, and various forms of phosphates. "

I do not know if that is true but if you should avoid MSG, it would be best to check out if the vaccine really has MSG in it or not.

If you do this, please get back to me and let me know what you have learned. I'd like to know how/why there would be MSG in a vaccine.

Another interesting MSG link

The below link gives the chemical formula, C5H8NNaO4 • H2O. It states that MSG is a glutamic acid and was first isolated in 1886.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) - Characteristics of MSG

MSG Links

Below please find, some links about MSG that I found on the Internet.

The first one was a surprise. It had good discussion and links to some really great sites on MSG. It also issued a warning that scientists are working on a MSG alternative for food. Whether that would avoid the side effects for those harmed by MSG or even if that is a consideration is not clear. Hopefully, since MSG can make some people extremely sick, an alternative would be discovered. Hopefully, companies see the benefit in health and in dollar profit for such a discovery and related research.

http://www.torahwomen.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=867:msg-chemical-replacement&catid=38:health&Itemid=100062

Here are the links from the above site that impressed me:

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/52/20930.abstract?sid=7455e80d-7dca-4325-a81a-66d05a4dbaad


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/umamichemistry

These describe what may be categorized as a fifth sense of taste, umami, whose receptors are tripped by MSG.

MSG Week

Hi, this week I will go a bit off topic and talk about MSG in food. One of my friends gets extremely sick if she eats MSG and others I know get sick also.

MSG stand for mono sodium glutamate. It is a flavor enhancer that can make some people very ill and not bother others the same way.

GO ALICE, an Internet resource from Columbia University, lists several other words to look out for incase you should not eat the MSG food additive. These are: hydrolyzed protein,
sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, autolyzed yeast and yeast extract. There may be other names as well.