Giveaway: $100 Visa Gift Card from Cheep!

by Mandi on May 31, 2011

cheep! toolbar

This giveaway is now closed! The winner is Holly Minion (ohioholly@…)!

In the next 10 days, I will be entertaining not once, but twice. Now, for anyone else, that might not seem like a big deal, but entertaining doesn’t come easily for me.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the idea of having people over,  serving the perfect foods, creating beautiful place settings, etc. And if I had more time, money and cooking talent, I might actually enjoy it.

But the truth is it tends to stress me out, and I have to work really hard not to let it, which means not getting caught up in trying to create the perfect theme or meal.

That said, I’ve spent the last couple of days dreaming of summer entertaining ideas and playing with Cheep!, a social shopping toolbar that helps you find the best prices on whatever you’re shopping for.


Here’s how it works:

  • Download the Cheep! toolbar.
  • Start shopping. At the bottom of your screen, the Cheep! toolbar will help you comparison shop by showing you accurate price comparisons from around the web.

Summer Entertaining Ideas

So, for example, I’m dreaming of these adorable cheesecake-in-a-jar from the free Backyard Barbecue ebook we released a couple weeks ago. I searched Amazon.com for 4 oz. canning jars and found these Ball mason jars for $14.54. They’re eligible for Super Saver shipping, but Cheep! showed me that I can get them for even less, just $13.70 shipped, from Meijer.com.

Because we live in the boonies, right between a horse ranch, a working farm and the wetlands, we deal with our fair share of bugs, so getting tiki torches for our porch area is a no-brainer. We’re worried about the kids running into them, so these tabletop tiki torches seem like a better option. They’re priced at $14.95, and Cheep! saves me the hassle of price matching by showing me that Amazon’s price is the best on the web.

I love ceylon pitchers, not just for making iced tea but also for flavored waters (like cucumber water, my favorite!). Amazon.com has a 50-ounce ceylon pitcher for $19.99, but Cheep! pointed out that Bed Bath & Beyond has one for just $14.99, but with shipping it’s more expensive, and I’m sure I could find something else to get me to the $25 Super Saver minimum for free shipping at Amazon.

What I really love about the Cheep! toolbar is it makes it so easy to price compare. There’s no extra searching required, and the toolbar hangs out unobtrusively at the bottom of the screen so I can look at it or ignore it.

With Cheep, you can also add reviews, bookmark your favorite items and more so that the entire community benefits from each members shopping experiences.

Enter to Win

This week, Cheep! is giving one lucky Life Your Way reader a $100 Visa gift card!

To enter, tell me what’s on your wishlist for summer entertaining. If your wishlist is empty, tell me what your favorite item is for entertaining!

For extra entries, tweet your favorite item to @getcheep on Twitter (i.e., Would love these tiki torches for summer entertaining, @getcheep and @mandiehman! http://amzn.to/m91OIv) and include the link to your tweet in the entry form below.

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This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, 6/3. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well!


  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1741641854 Linda Petersen

    Don’t hate me, but I got the exact same 4oz from my grocery store for $7 and some change. That was a couple weeks ago, when I made cupcakes in them (FYI, they need 8 or 9 minutes extra in the oven). I’ve told friends about this spectacular find, so hopefully I can still find another dozen of these jars at the same grocery store. If you have one nearby, sometimes old-fashioned hardware stores also carry them.

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      That’s awesome! I haven’t seen them in-store around here, but I’ll have to
      look!

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      That’s awesome! I haven’t seen them in-store around here, but I’ll have to
      look!

  • http://twitter.com/JoeyfromSC JoeyfromSC

    Entered via the form! thank you for the chance to win!!

  • http://livingthebalancedlife.com Bernice Wood

    I appreciate this post as it helps me to think more about my usage of paper in our household. I am curious, and this is in NO way meant to be argumentative at all. Is the recycled label sometimes just a marketing ploy? Are there regulations monitoring what % of product has to be from recycled products, etc? I guess a concerned shopper would need to some research about the company they were buying from, as with any product. 
    Again, thanks for making me think!
    Bernice
    Eating for more energy and better health

    • http://www.liverenewed.com/ Emily @ Live Renewed

      Hi Bernice,
      I think that is a very appropriate question because I’m sure we’ve all seen how products have been “greenwashed” to make them marketable to a somewhat concerned, but less informed or knowledgeable, consumer.  The term “natural” on many food and personal care products is a big one these days. 

      For me, when I buy recycled products, like paper towels or TP, it says right on the package the percent of recycled material that the products is made from – usually 100%.  I think you are right that if you are really trying to make different buying decisions you’ll need to do a little research to make sure you’re actually getting what you think you’re getting.  Thanks for bringing up an important point!
      ~Emily @ Live Renewed

  • http://joyceandnorm.wordpress.com Joyce and Norm

    Awesome list!

  • Kathy

    If you interact with a fantastic service/customer service person, call their boss and let them know.

    Send a friend an email (or leave a voicemail) with something you love or find inspirational about them.

    Give up your seat on the bus/train for someone who looks like they could use it.

  • Lori

    Great list! I love doing things like this. And just yesterday I was the recipient. I went to the store with my two kids (2 & 5) and it started pouring rain. We got into the store and I was going to have them wait while I ran to the store’s nearby cafe to get towels to wipe down us and the cart. A woman and man came up with some paper towels before I could get any and wiped down the cart for us. People do appreciate the small things like that!

  • http://joyceandnorm.wordpress.com Joyce and Norm

    All the libraries in our area have a ton of fun stuff for the kids during the summer including free movies every other week. The summer reading program is a great way to get some freebies for the rest of the year. In completing the program at our library, my girls get tickets to the science museum, fairyland, pizza, hometown buffet, fresh choice, children’s art museum, legoland, and togo’s. The local farm is great, and going to the lake is always fun. We also have a nature center that is free unless you want to take one of the classes. There are lakes nearby that we haven’t been to yet. Or just a playground tour (visiting different playgrounds/parks) every so often is fun too.

  • http://www.liverenewed.com/ Emily @ Live Renewed

    We have a regional (midwest) store that has store brand recycled paper products and they are much more reasonably priced than the name brands!

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