Thanks for you patience with lack of posts! I have many, many posts and series I’ve been wanting to post on and some I’ve even already written, but for now I need to say no. I’ll be taking a break from Saving in Greenville through the end of August. At that point, I’ll come back and re-evaluate keeping up this site.

In case you’ve been curious…

• We did turn on our air conditioner in June. Electric bill doubled, but still not too bad, as it was quite low before. Once we turned it on, I was amazed at how much energy I still had in the afternoons, when I had been quite hot and miserable before.

• We bought our first pack of diapers! For $3.99, but we made it 17 months without having to pay for any. Right now we’re using BumGenius cloth diapers during the day and disposable at night and for traveling. (She’s also working hard to potty train herself, but we’ll wait one more month to work a little harder since we’ll be going through some major transitions in the next month.) We’ve used BumGenius occasionally since our daughter was a few months old (started out with only 2), but since I doubt I’ll be able to get lots of free diapers for our next daughter, I plan to actually invest in purchasing several more. I may also attempt to go do this. If you are wondering about “modern” cloth diapers, I highily recommend this brand!
• We are still loosely operating on our $750 annual grocery budget; however, my records were on a computer that “died,” and I need to take time to go through the receipts again and calculate everything. For now, I’ve just been keeping our weekly average to around $15/week or less and saving receipts.

There are a lot of great deals going on right now, and I’ll just link to a few:

• Free picture package (a rare thing for PP) from The Picture People (through July 25); also read about how to get portraits from The Picture People for less here, courtesy of my friend Kim.
• 80% off at Restaurant.com with the code NAPKIN (through July 28)
• Triple Coupons at Ingles (not the greatest coupon policy, but might still be some good deals)
• I use these cloth Swiffer wipes and use and rewash them. (We also use cloth napkins (from Old Time Pottery) in place of paper, and rags in place of paper towels, most of the time.)
• Swagbucks now offers Paypal as a prize option: 70 swagbucks gets $5 via Paypal. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can sign up here and earn 5 points just for joining by entering the code NEWBIE (through July 24). (Some other new prizes are cerificates to Bumkins (baby product/cloth diapers (!!)), restaurant.com certificates, iPods, and more…)

Deals in Greenville:

• Take a Wal*Mart receipts to Checkers at the Wade Hampton Taylors location, and get a free checkerburger (not sure how long this deal lasts).
• My friends Ashley and Natalie are hosting a “Here We Grow Again” children’s consignment sale July 29-August 1. I will unfortunately be helping and bidding farewell to my husband that weekend, but check out the details here.
• Yard sales are still going on! I have really found some great deals this year: $20 for a only $250 double jogging stroller, 50 cents for a $100 baby backpack carrier, $3 for a wooden kids desk/tool workbench, $3 for a $70 painting, and the list goes on, just in case you need inspiration. For the best info on Greenville area yard sales, I recommend checking Craigslist, especially Friday evening for an updated list of yard sale advertising. I also recommend visiting community/subdivision yard sales when possible, as they tend to have better prices and selection and many sales going on within walking distance. (Community sales have slowed down, but there should be a few more near the start of schools before the “season” totally ends.)
• Free haircuts in Spartanburg.
• Free ultrasounds for expectant mommies. (ongoing)

I may hop back on a few times to share a really good deal, so you may want to subscribe to this blog in order get updates rather than spending time checking back on the site. Feel free to use the forum to share deals, particularly those in Greenville. And, if you don’t already subscribe to/check Money Saving Mom and Southern Savers, I highly recommend doing so, the first for deals everywhere, and the latter for deals down “South,” particularly for Publix deals. Oh how I love shopping getting groceries for free at Publix (P.S. All the current ads/deals on right the sidebar are still going, and deals I’ve personally done and benefited from.)

If you have a site/blog about deals in Greenville, feel free to comment on this post or leave a note in the forum so local readers can keep up on deals.

Did you know that each year, the first Friday of June is celebrated as National Donut Day? To help you celebrate, Krispy Kreme will be giving away free donuts, one per customer, on Friday, June 5. Dunkin Donuts will also be celebrating, but to get your free donut there, you have to buy a beverage.

Get a $15 Papa John’s pizza e-certificate when you complete an offer from Trial Pay.

There are multiple offers, but what appears to be the best offer (least out of pocket) is to make a purchase through ShoeBuy. With ShoeBuy, shipping is free both ways, so if you don’t like the product you ordered, you can ship it back for free!

Once you check out with Shoebuy, an offer to sign up for a free trial membership of Great Fun and get a $20 refund should appear.  By signing up with Great Fun, you can get a $20 refund for your ShoeBuy order. Cancel your membership after sending in the rebate form (which will be e-mailed to you after your order is processed).  (In case you are wondering if this is legitimate, my husband has joined Great Fun and then canceled and gotten several items free-after-rebate through various sites this way.)

If you are planning to spend over $50 at Shoebuy, you can go here to get a $10 off $50 coupon e-mailed to you, and you should be able to use the coupon in conjunction with the deal.

Need that in a nice, bulleted format?  Here ya go:

• Go to TrialPay
  • Click on the ShoeBuy Offer
  • Sign up with your name and e-mail address in the window that appears.
• Purchase shoes through ShoeBuy
  • If you spend over $50, you can get a $10 off coupon here.
• Sign up for Great Fun membership once you’ve completed your order.
• Return to TrialPay window, and say that you have completed the offer.
• You should received your $15 Papa John’s gift card via e-mail within a few days.
  • It does say it will be immediate, but this seems to take a few days.
• Print your receipt from Shoebuy (you’ll receive this via e-mail) and mail it in with the rebate form from Great Fun (you’ll also receive this via e-mail)
• Wait for your shoes!
• Cancel Great Fun Membership by the end of your free trial month.

If for any reason, the deals don’t work for you (they should!), remember that you can return the shoes to Shoebuy at no charge.

Head to Bruster’s Ice Cream this Saturday, March 7, wearing your pajama’s, and you’ll be rewarded with a FREE single scoop waffle cone!  Go here to find nearby locations. (There are several in the Greenville area!)

Thanks to Melyssa for contacting me about this, and to Jessica for posting about this on her blog.

Yep, free food #3 for this week: Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle (I missed that one ), and now Bruster’s!

Jack in the Box has outdone itself by offering 2 freebies at once: go here to print your coupon for a free small fry AND fountain drink!

Good Tuesday, March 10.  Your choice of Natural or Curly Fries.  Yum. Greenville locations here.

If you’ve been following the free food offers at Saving in Greenville, we’ve been getting an average of 2 free food events every week!  Hope it continues!