FMLA for Pre-Deployment Needs

Check out this article by Military Family Central.  I think every military family with a working spouse needs to be aware of this federal protection.

According to the article:

"Exigency leave is designed to help a service member’s family deal with the logistical problems that arise with a transition to deployment. Military-sponsored functions, organizing financial and legal arrangements as well as finding childcare all qualify as exigency leave that is covered by the federal government.

Parents, spouses and children of active duty or reserve service members are allowed to take up to 12 weeks out of any 12-month period to solve these issues on leave without fear of losing their job."

This is a fairly new provision and employers might not yet be aware of what they need to do.  Sometimes things come up before a deployment that requires a spouse to miss work on little to no notice and they should not be penalized for this.

Military Spouse Job Hunting Help

I recently read that the unemployment rate for military spouses is around 25%, while the rest of the general population is under 10%.

I just went through my first PCS (permanent change of station = forced move for you non-military readers).  I met my husband in Tucson and we lived there for almost 8 years before this happened.  During that time I finished my Masters and spent nearly 5 years building a great career with a company I was sure I would be with until I retired.  I thought since we hadn't received orders to move at this point, maybe we could just stay in Tucson until he retired.  Or I hoped if we did relocate, it would be near one of my company's offices.

How stupid naive of me.

Now here I am, in the middle of no where with no job, no portable certifications or training, really specific job experience (that doesn't readily apply to anything up here), and really no clue where to start.  All the jobs I am finding are either entry level that pay half what I was making and would barely cover daycare, or are for physical labor out in the oil fields or driving big rigs.  So far I don't mind Minot, but I hate feeling this helpless and hopeless.

Can you say STRESS???

I know I'm not the only one going through this.  I am thinking about staying home with our son for now and getting certified as a financial counselor/adviser/whatever but I am still looking to see if any jobs catch my eye.

Here are some resources I have come across to help in your search:

1.  Military Spouse Corporate Career Network
This might be the most awesome help I have seen.  You upload your resume and register then an "applicant specialist" contacts you and works one-on-one to help with your job search, practice interviewing, answer questions and more.  You get 5 hour-long sessions!  I haven't done this yet but I will after vacation.  They also have a huge database of job openings.

2.  Milicruit Virtual Career Fair
This looks pretty cool!  It is for military and spouses only and it brings them together online with employers actively looking to hire veterans and military spouses.  You make a profile and upload your resume then you can speak with recruiters at these companies via an online job fair!  Of course there is hardly anything showing for my town but others should have much more success.

3.  National Military Family Association
This has a lot of links and looks like some good information.

4.  DoD Civilian Job Listings and Federal Government Job Listings
To look for government jobs on and off base.

5.  Military One Source Spouse Career Center and Military Spouse Employment Partnership
LOTS of info to read through and job searches.

Burpee.com seed coupon code!

Check out the blog Frugal Coupon Living for info on a coupon code to get $5 off a $30 purchase or $10 off a $50 purchase.  Perfect timing and I always heard Burpee was a good quality seed.

Click here to view the coupon code info.

Follow Me on Pinterest!

So I finally got sucked into the abyss that is Pinterest.  And you know what?  It is just as awesome as everyone says!

Follow me on My Pinterest Page

I have pinned a lot of cool things that aren't on my blog yet but hopefully will be some day.  Total awesomeness like how to freeze beans and how to make butter.  I know, earth shattering stuff.

Online Printable Coupon Sites & Tips

I hear from a lot of you that either you don't get coupons in the Sunday newspaper or your area has a problem with coupon theft from the newspapers (how sad is that?!?).

If you have this problem, or if you are just looking for more coupon resources, check out these sites and tips!

Note - most of these sites require you to install their printer software - I haven't had any problems with them affecting my computer, in case you are concerned.

So here is the coupon site list:

1.  coupons.com
If you only use one site, use this one!  It has the most coupons and new coupons are added all the time.  TIP - I have heard that if you use zipcode 12345 you will get all the coupons in the database, but if you use your own zipcode, only coupons meant for your geographic area will show, causing some to not appear for you (coupons are often regional).

2.  swagbucks.com
If you aren't using swagbucks yet, get on it!  I have earned and redeemed $60 in Amazon gift cards in a little over a year!  No joke.  I will write more about swagbucks and how to easily maximize your swagbucks earnings another day.  But for coupons - they have almost all the same printable coupons as coupons.com AND for each coupon you actually use to make a purchase, you get 10 swagbucks (like 2 months later but you still get them).  You only need 450 swagbucks to get a $5 Amazon gift card!

3. Redplum and Smartsource
These companies put out most of the coupons you get in your newspaper - you can also print many of the same coupons directly from their sites!

4.  couponnetwork.com
The cool part about this site is it has coupons, but it also lets you know about catalina deals running at your grocery store (catalinas are those coupons that print at the register after your receipt prints) I have found a lot of unadvertised catalinas on this site for Frys in Tucson leading to FREE stuff!

5.  Pillsbury and Betty Crocker
These sites don't just have coupons for unhealthy boxed food, they both also have non-food coupons like medicine, beauty and cleaning products plus diapers and wipes.

6.  Proctor & Gamble and Walmart
Two more sites to print lots of manufacturer coupons.  You can also often request free samples from these sites - free samples of beauty products are great for travelling!

7.  If you have a certain product you always buy, go directly to that product's website - often they have a coupon/promotions page to print coupons, and/or a newsletter you can sign up for that will send out coupons.  I often get Driscoll berries coupons during peak season this way (see, you can get coupons for healthy food too!!).

8.  Finally - use a coupon database to search for a particular coupon!  Try this database from the blog Money Saving Mom - just type in the brand name and hit search and it will show you a list of coupons and if any printable coupons are available it will give you a hyperlink that will take you right to it!  Pretty great for grocery list planning.

CVS - Where You Can Take Stuff Out Of The Store For Free Legally!

My favorite store has to be CVS - and luckily Minot does have a CVS!  Yay!

CVS is great mostly because of their Extra Bucks rewards program (called ECBs).  You have to sign up for a CVS card, which is of course easy.

Here is the basics on how it works:

• Each week CVS runs promotions on certain products and if you buy that product, an Extra Buck coupon will print on the bottom of your receipt - so do not throw away your receipt without first cutting it off!!!  Sometimes you will get multiple ECBs as well as CVS coupons (which can be combined with manufacturer coupons!).  These typically expire in one month but it can change to make sure to check.
• Then when making your next purchase - use your ECB coupon to buy another product that also gives you Extra Bucks back - this is called "rolling" your Extra Bucks.  This way you make the initial investment to get the first ECB, but from then on just use the ECBs to pay for the product instead of money!  This will only work if you discipline yourself to only buy products that give you ECBs back.  If you are tempted by any of the other sales or promotions, don't use your Extra Bucks to buy those!

This is what an Extra Bucks reward (ECB) looks like:

So here is an example.

Last week the CVS flyer (you can view it here, make sure to change to your zipcode) showed contact solution for the price of $8.99 but with $8.99 in ECB after purchase.  So had you purchased this contact solution and paid $8.99 out of your pocket, on your receipt you would have printed at the bottom an ECB coupon with a value of $8.99.  

You could then go back this week and purchase items that will give you around $8.99 back in Extra Bucks, then use your $8.99 Extra Buck and any coupons plus a little out of pocket to pay for your product.  So let's say this week razors are on sale for $9.00 with a $4 Extra Buck promotion and the flyer says the limit is 2.  Let's also say you had 2 coupons for $3 off a razor purchase. 

So the razors would cost:

• $18 price for 2 razors
• Minus 2 copies of a $3 coupon = $6
• Minus your $8.99 Extra Buck coupon from last week
• Pay $3.01 plus tax for 2 razors
• Get back $8 in new Extra Bucks to use on your next purchase.

So for the 2 weeks combined:

• Pay $12.00 + tax out of your pocket
• Get $26.99 worth of product
• Have $8 in ECBs to use on your next shopping trip

If you keep buying product this way, week after week, and work to keep your out of pocket spending to a minimum (I usually try to stay under $5 a week), you will end up with a LOT of product in your "stash" for hardly any money actually spent by you.  And if you hang on to coupons and use your Extra Bucks, you can often get things for FREE (they won't give you money back, but you can use that "credit" to get something else also for free).

Here is a picture of my savings from just 2011:

Yes, last year I saved over $1,000 by doing this!  And now that I am not working, my stash of products I got cheap or free sure is coming in handy.

I am not shopping at CVS right now since we just moved and I am about to go on a 5 week long vacation, but once I return I will start posting my CVS deals so you can do what I do!  There are other tips to earn ECBs even faster, I will share that with you later as well.

Until then, the blog Saving Cents With Sense has more info here and she posts weekly CVS deals, including hyperlinks to online printable coupons.  She lives in Phoenix so those of you in Tucson can also follow her Frys, Safeway and Albertsons coupon match-ups too!

How To: Make Neti Pot Solution

I have lots of allergy and sinus problems.  Lovely, I know.  And colds make me miserable.

What makes me less miserable?  My neti pots!  Here is a Wikipedia article in case you don't know what they are.  They can be bought at any pharmacy or grocery store, or Amazon.  Basically you pour a saline solution into one nostril and it runs out the other, unstuffing your nose.  It takes some practice, but once you get the hang on it (and get over the feeling that you are drowning!) it works wonders.  And best of all it isn't medicine and you can use it as often as you want.  Same idea as saline nose spray except the gunk gets flushed out instead of just snorting it further into your nose.

Nice mental picture, right? :-)  You are welcome.

To use the neti pots, you mix your own saline solution using warm water and little packets of salt stuff that comes with the pot.  You will eventually run out of the free samples though.  This is where they get you - that stuff gets expensive!  When I am sick or in the middle of allergy season, I might go through 5-10 packs a day (at least).  And what if you need to use it but you are all out of packs?

You can make your own for pennies with things already in your food pantry!  I have been doing this for a while now and trust me, it works just as well.

Gently stir together:

• 1 cup warm (not hot) water (I use tap water because I'm cheap and lazy)
• 1/4 - 3/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Adjust the amount of salt as needed - when you first start, you want to use less or it will H.U.R.T.  You can use more as you get used to it (I use 3/4 tsp).  

After a while, I got tired of measuring and mixing this every time - so this is what I did today:

No I did not become a cocaine dealer!  Ha.  (I made sure to explain this to Jeff, although I would have liked to have seen the look on his face when he found my stash had I not told him).

I measured out the salt and baking soda for one "serving", poured it into cheap plastic sandwich bags (without the zippers), taped them closed and cut the extra plastic off.  I put them all in another plastic bag with instructions for myself.  It took me around 15 minutes to do while watching tv.  Now I have 20 "servings" ready to be cut open and used, for probably 50 cents total!