Happy New Year, dear readers, and I hope you like the new word I am using. Frugalicious is the term for living the lifestyle of the rich and famous on an ordinary person’s budget, and we’re going for it big time in 2009. But first, a confession: I am so embarrassed — in the frenzy of the holidays I went to the supermarket and paid full price for everything! I felt like I was cheating you guys by not living the lifestyle I am teaching you, but I guess the lesson there is that sometimes, time and sanity win out over bargains and thriftiness. (Not always, not often, but sometimes!) Anyway, sorry for being off track, and watch in the next few days for my special report on starting the new year with some great new money-saving habits. Wishing you all a happy, healthy, prosperous 2009. See you soon.

So, in honor of the 10 shopping days till Xmas, we offer 10 Great Holiday Gifts that give back for 2009:

1)Get a $5 gift card from Amazon when you purchase a magazine subscription as a gift.

2) L.L.Bean: Spend $25 or more in-store or online and receive a free $10 gift card. Deal ends December 24.

3)Marriott: Receive a 10% bonus with the purchase of any $50 or greater gift card. Plus, Marriott Rewards Members and Marriott Visa card holders can receive 10 points for every dollar spent when you enter your Marriott Rewards number on your gift card purchase or pay for your gift card with your Marriott Visa. Deal ends December 31.

4) Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar: Receive a free $20 gift card with the purchase of every $100 gift card. This applies to all OSI Restaurant Partners including Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s, and Roy’s. Deal ends December 31.

5) Morton’s Steakhouse: Receive a free $50 gift card when you purchase a gift card of $300 or more. Or get a free $100 gift card when you purchase a gift card valued at $500 or more. Offer expires December 31.

6) Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse: For every gift card purchase of $250 or more, receive 10% back in bonus cards. Deal ends December 31.

7) Free $5 gift card with $25 gift card purchase at Boston Market.

8 ) CVS Pharmacy will give a $5 rebate for a $25 gift card purchase, with kickbacks up to $30 for larger denominations.

9) Buy a $100 gift card at the Container Store, get a $25 bonus card for yourself, up to five $25 e-cards.

10) Now is the perfect time to join Restaurant.com — and  Take 70% off Restaurant.com $25 Gift Cert. orders! Use code SNOW and Pay $3 thru 12/17/09. Get some for yourself too!

Coming up soon,  some great ways to give a gift that keeps on giving to others.

Meanwhile, for more ideas on discount shopping, click here. Happy Shopping!

Thinking like that, one of the most valuable gifts we received for our wedding was a $100 gift card for the local movies.  For that $100, my hubby and I were treated to four evenings out, including popcorn.  And we always thought of the the nice relatives who gave them to us, every time we went out.

This year, frugal is in, but does it extend to gifts?  In our humble opinion, give the value, not the gift.  That is, don’t worry so much about how much or how little you’re spending, but think instead of how much the recipient will value it.  Know Your Giftee!  In our humble opinions, the best gifts for Holiday ’09 should replace the little luxuries that people have given up cause they’re cutting back.  Give a massage gift certificate, or one for a manicure or pedicure.  For couples and families, think movies, travel or dining out.  Hotel room certificates can be bought with any cash-back or hotel points you’ve been hoarding, and many restaurants are giving generous rebates.

You can buy discounted cards at PlasticJungle.com, GiftCardsAgain.com, or GiftCardRescue.com.

Special restaurant deals include Red Robin, Chevy’s, Buca di Beppo , Bonefish Grille, Outback Steakhouse, P.F. Chang’s, Yard House, Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s.   Also, Sports Authority is giving 10 % off of the purchase of the giftee and the gifter gets a coupon for $10 off of a $50 purchase from Dec 26, 2009 to Jan 31, 2010  and  Barnes & Noble is offering a free $10 gift card for every $100 gift card purchase through Dec. 6. The $10 GC may be used as of Dec 26, and is effectively a 10% discount on gift cards. $20 for $200, etc.

Thanks to Julia the Bargain Babe and her readers for some of these.

Most important, always ask for a discount.  Why not?

Happy Shopping.

PS: I put in an application for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida.  Will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, for some more good shopping advice, click here.

Are the savings really so great?  What drives people into the shopping frenzy?

I first pose the question to Therese, a Canadian ex-pat working at Diamonds International (the ubiquitous port of call jewelry retailers) in Costa Maya, Mexico.  “Let’s put it this way,”  she says.  “Would you wake up on a Tuesday morning at home and go shopping for a diamond?  It’s part of the cruise experience, and there is a great selection…but no, the prices are really not the best you can ever find.  But people enjoy it, and it gives them something to show when the trip is over.”

I next approached Phil, our charmingly English cruise shopping guide.  “Oh yes,” he said, “the prices really are so much lower, since everything is duty and tax free.”  He recounts the tale of many couples, newly engaged or honeymooning, who are dismayed to find that the rings they just purchased stateside are far less expensive in the islands.  But, he added, it’s hard to compare when your’e dealing with stones.  The proof, he continued, is in the prices of the branded items.  For example, if someone wanted to buy a Breitling watch, they could instead take a cruise, buy the watch in a port, and essentially get the watch for free, based on the list price compared to the actual island price.  I will, when I return home, do a little research on the validity of that statement, and will report back on my findings.

Diane, a frequent cruiser and former jeweler, loves to buy jewelry when she travels, although she is clear that the savings are not all they’re said to be.  But she buys anyway, citing unique designs and uncommon stones as her reason for purchasing.  Anna, another frequent cruiser, agrees.  But for every Diane, Anna and Therese,  there continue to be dozens, maybe hundreds, of uneducated, free-spending travelers who believe that they could never find such bargains anywhere else.

Besides, they say, it’s fun to tell people, when they admire the new pieces, that they bought them in Mexico, St. Maarten, or the duty-free shop on the cruise ship.

Me, I’ll buy a t-shirt.

Back to civilization this weekend, back to the search for Health Insurance on Monday.  For now, though, the jacuzzi awaits.

Meanwhile, for more on discount cruising, click here.

I am beginning to realize that one of the reasons I can live well on a budget is that I don’t care about shopping, and I have enough stuff.  What is it about shopping that gets people so excited?  And are there really such great bargains to be had by leaving the US?

My plan today is to ask my fellow passengers why they get so excited about shopping on vacation.  For me, it’s the fun of having something that no one else will probably have, and the excitement of saying, when I get a compliment on the piece, that I bought it in Wherever.  Are the prices really so great that they can’t be matched in the states?  Is the stuff so unique?  Is it status?  I’m truly curious.  Why do people spend so much money when they’re away? How many watches does one person need?

I go ashore to see the country, meet the people, and maybe find some cheap, unique Mexican silver or pottery gifty things to bring home to my friends and family, and a little something for myself, as a memory of this lovely trip. Tomorrow, Belize City.  I wonder what’s available there.

It occurred to me that there should be a list of tips, or questions to ask yourself, to nip that urge to buy impulsively right in the bud.  So I asked a bunch of my frugalista friends how they cope with the desire to shop when they really should not.  Here are some of their answers.  Write them down on on an index card and, whenever you’re faced with the urge to splurge, take it out and ask yourself the following:

Why would I want to buy this thing when I am actively trying to save money?

What benefit would I get from buying this particular thing at this particular time?

Is this something that I need, that will go with other things in my home or closet, and that I will actually use?

Is this something that I cannot ever obtain anywhere else?

Is it a good buy?

Why do I want to deplete my cash (or run up my credit card bill) anyway? (This is the insightful, psychological question.)

By the time you get through these few thoughts, two things will happen:

1) You will have determined if you really want and need the item, and

2) You will have passed the crucial impulse-buying moment and you’ll be thinking more clearly.

At this point, you can choose — either you walk away, or you make your purchase, love it, and be clear of all guilt.

Either way, you will walk away happy with your choice.

Tomorrow, we head to upstate New York, the capital of fun, kitschy yard sale finds.  I’ll be armed with cash, and searching for bargains that rival my best one ever, a vintage Louis Vuitton overnight bag I bought up there for $2.50!

Spending update — Having shelled out maybe another $50 for food and drink on Fire Island, (definitely easier if you’re not a drinker), and including a generous (if we do say so ourselves!) gift to our hostess, and gas and tolls to get to the city, we’re now up to about $800 for both of us, after more than two weeks.  It’s good to have friends in high places.

For more how-to tips for drinking on a budget, click here.

Be back in few days from yard sale Heaven!

So far, the only expense has been a travel scale so we can also keep track of our waistlines.  Trip so far: $30

Now, for the freebies:

1) Free BOGO Sundaes on Mondays all through August at Ben & Jerry’s

2) Free Honey Nut Cheerios Sample

3) Free Lindt Chocolate Truffles

4) Free download NERO disc-burning software

5) Free Total Blueberry Pomegranate cereal sample

6) Two Free Tacos at Jack-in-the-Box (August 11 only)

And, if you have the patience, or are craving freebies on our off days, here are some sites that we use to find our best freebies:

Freeflys

Just Free Stuff

The Frugal Freelancer

Happy Hunting, Happy Weekend, and we’ll meet you further on the road.

I recently started reading a blog which often includes a weekly “Coupon Match”; that is, she cross references manufacturer coupons with store specials to help you get things for almost (and sometimes completely) free.  She does a lot of work and you may want to visit. The address is http://www.shoppingfrugal.net/ .

Meanwhile, a few tips for competitive couponing:

• Keep your coupons in an expandable file, by category.
• Keep the file in your car  or with your shopping list.
• Remember to take both the file and the list into the store.

If you’re really ambitious, you can cross-reference your coupons with your store circulars and really clean up.  For this process, check out The Couponizer. It’s one person’s way of being on top of all of it.

And here are some super websites for finding coupons on line:

http://www.retailmenot.com/

http://www.couponwinner.com

http://www.couponcraze.com/

http://www.couponcabin.com/

http://www.fatwallet.com/

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

For more ideas on discount shopping, click here.

Hope you’re all taking advantage of our money-saving tips and posted Freebies; today is the opportunity to get

FREE HOMEMADE Soap at http://is.gd/1oT0F

More good ideas for living large on a budget at http://www.ILoveAGoodBargain.com

50 Easy Ways to Save Money Now in FREE report — Download your report if you haven’t already, at http://www.ILoveAGoodBargain.com/welcome

although, truth be told, any astute bargain hunter will always BOLO for a BOGO.  BOGOs go where coupons fear to tread (or are forgotten).

I personally clip coupons, but rarely remember to bring them along when I shop.  (NOTE: I tried a new organizer tool called the Couponizer, and I really liked it.  You may also.  Check out http://www.couponizer.com/ )

However, faced with couponless time in the supermarket aisles, I go for the BOGO.  Shopping in a sort-of-expensive market, I was particularly impressed with the availabilities of these offers, from organic chicken to diet ice cream!  Long story short, I saved $20 on a $40 bill!

Today we received a comment from a reader in Asia with a few tricks of her own:  Bella says:

“Really great list for trade in websites. However if you go for few bargain and coupon sites you can also save money same as trade in items. Personally I use http://www.retailmenot.com/ (for coupons) and http://www.cheapdeals101.com/ (for deal hunting) & many more…hope this helps you…”

Thanks, Bella.  It will definitely help our readers, and here are some more sites that can get you all kinds of coupons, offers, freebies and more.  (Only a few, but guaranteed to keep you busy for a while!)

http://www.couponmom.com/

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

http://www.eversave.com/ (this one is a little work but GREAT values)

http://www.fatwallet.com/

And finally, a site where you get cash back on your purchases:

http://www.bigcrumbs.com/

For more info on saving on hundreds of items, click here.