Lookout For Coke's New Iconic State Flavors #Beverages #Soda

Coke State Flavors

Some time ago, I received an email from the Coca-Cola Company touting its new Coke variations, based upon iconic State flavors. There were like 4 flavors in the first batch which were mentioned in the email, but of course, the only two I recall are Georgia Peach and California Raspberry, my dual home states. I have yet to see any of them in-store, but then again, I seldom go out to shop Brick & Mortar any longer. I'm almost exclusively an online shopper.

A friend recently spotted some of these sodas in the wild -- quaintly, he still shops in physical stores -- and was kind enough to text me a shelfie of Georgia and California side by side. I'm curious to try them. Apparently they contain natural fruit flavors and pure cane sugar like "Mexican" Coke.

What other flavors should Coke include in the line? Have you tried any of the flavors already available? What did you think?

VUDU Sale, Score! #VideoDownloads #BritishHumor #PBS

Come Fly With Me SE01

VUDU is having a MASSIVE sale and folks on a movie forum that I frequent have been discussing the best deals to be had. Someone there mentioned that the full First (and only) Season (6 episodes) of a show called Come Fly With Me was on sale for $3.99 and then said he'd recommend the show to anyone who likes British humor. The person ended by saying the show was done by the same guys who did Little Britain. In response, several others on the forum posted to say that it was quite a good show and getting the entire season at this price was a great deal.

I hadn't heard of Come Fly With Me, but I knew Little Britain because a friend of mine had recommended it years ago. (This friend knows that I grew up watching old British television serials rerun on PBS, so dry British humor is actually my default.) Luckily, VUDU had recently given me a $3.00 gift credit to thank me for being a good customer and I'd also won a "20% Off Your Next Purchase" code in a partner sponsored contest. I decided to purchase the show as a blind buy.

Score! I was able to stack the two discounts and buy the full First Season for ONLY $0.19! I'll probably download Come Fly With Me and check out the show over the next week or so, time permitting. I figure how could I go wrong at 19-cents.... Thanks, VUDU!

My #Tester Philosophy #AlphaTester #TryB4UBuy #GotItFree #Couponer

I'm a curious sort. I enjoy trying news things and while I may not go out of my way to grab the "new-new" merely to say I've tried it, I do tend to be aware of new products and consumer trends --- so if I find a good deal that allows me to try something new or updated for free (or very cheap) then all the better.

A lot of new products and services don't rate a mention unless it's in complaint, but when you find something wonderful, you've got to share the information. We're all searching for things that work as they should (and we hope to be warned off when they don't).

I guess you could say I'm an adventurous consumer and an early adopter, but I will call companies out when they drop the ball. This is what makes me great at Quality Assurance and highly proficient as a tester/reviewer. I also like to break things to see how they work, then piece them together again.

The Pressure Cooker Comes of Age, Not #InstantPot #KickAKitchen #QuickCook #HomeChef #SYWR

I'm certain you've heard of Instant Pot, a brand so dominant in its market that its name has become synonymous with "digital electric pressure cooker." In other words, Instant Pot isn't the only brand making these seemingly useful small kitchen appliances, but you wouldn't know this from all the brand's "free advertising" segments appearing on all the mainstream health, cooking and general interest TV shows and blogs touting the product. Instant Pot pretty much owned the 2017 small kitchen appliances market. But I didn't rush to jump on the bandwagon. My curiosity was peaked, however. So I investigated. Here's what I found....

First, do you actually need an electric pressure cooker or, more appropriately for these appliances, multi-cooker? This is why research is important. Don't run out and buy the "in thing" only to have it sit on a shelf collecting dust and eventually be relegated to the junk pile. (Please donate or recycle.) You should start by determining if this appliance will actually be useful for YOUR OWN NEEDS. Pressure Cookers of old (those manual, stovetop contraptions) were great kitchen appliances but required a lot of diligence to use. They were prone to exploding, and so were quite off-putting to any but the most dedicated cook. As technology progressed so did the pressure cooker. It became electric --- just plug it in --- then digital with clear LCD displays and eventually adding "smart" technology via micro-computer controllers --- with each iteration stabilizing the cooking process. Today's appliance is not your grandmother's. Safety innovations and task automation have transformed this appliance into a "must-have" kitchen gadget for many. Sturdily constructed aluminum or stainless steel pots with built-in pressure gauges & valves and lipless seals have all but removed the threat of explosion. And there's no need to slave over a hot stove watching the pot boil. Today's pressure cooker offers "set it and forget it" convenience, you toss the ingredients inside, pick a setting and allow the machine to do the hard work while you go do something else. Like read a book.

Second, merely because a brand dominates a market does not mean it's the only viable option. There are numerous brands making "digital electric pressure cookers." In fact, many recognizable small kitchen appliance brands have their own version. Performing a quick search for "electric pressure cooker" on a site such as Macys.com or Kmart.com returns items from brands like Presto, NutriChef, Pressure Pro and MegaChef to name a few. Yes, Instant Pot has the name recognition, but other brands options garner ratings that equal or surpass those of Instant Pot. (NOTE: Several well regarded cookery sites ranked other brands better than comparable Instant Pot cookers in tests.) As with any potential purchase, shop around. Evaluate your personal needs. For instance, think about for how many people do you typically cook meals? in order to determine the size gadget you'll need, as these appliances range from ~3QT to 10QT cooking vats. Pick a product that works within your budget --- while most versions are "$100 or less" there are, of course, pricier versions that may add options which you may find useless. Make a list of what features are important to you and then match it to any appliances at or around your price point.

As a vegetarian who hasn't met a grain she dislikes, the idea of a "digital electric pressure cooker" is exactly on target. I LOVE rice, quinoa, spelt, etc. I love stir-fry veggies. I love soups, and don't get me started on legumes.... Basically, anything this appliance is touted as being able to cook perfectly and effortlessly, I eat almost daily. So I figured getting one could change my kitchen routine in a positive manner. (It has been said that this appliance is a fast "slow cooker" --- and I live by my crock pots.) I wanted one! I decided I needed one. As a savvy shopper, I desired the BEST deal, I wished for a well-rated appliance with a decent amount of preset functions that would cost me as little OOP (out of pocket) as possible. I shop for quality and value. Brand is almost always an afterthought. Gone are the days when buying a specific brand automatically insured you purchased the best option. In today's marketplace, there are almost always many options and often "no-name" brands equal or surpass the known ones. So do your research and pick what is best for YOUR NEEDS. (I can't stress this enough.)

After deciding I could genuinely benefit from acquiring an "instant pot" --- I thought an "electric pressure cooker" would make a great Valentine's Gift to myself --- I looked at my budget and evaluated payment options. When shopping, I always look to use accumulated "purchasing power" like gift cards, rewards certificates, etc. FIRST and cash OOP as a last resort, of course. As a result, I buy a lot of things from Sears/Kmart. (I have discussed this before.) I am a long-time Shop Your Way Rewards (SYWR) member and this rewards program is still very good (it used to be insane). Though I worry about the ability of the company to continue to operate, I'm still "getting while the getting is good." So I started there, searching Kmart.com for "instant pot." I quickly discovered that Kmart doesn't carry the Instant Pot brand. It was available via third-party marketplace vendors, which would allow me to earn rewards points for the purchase, but not to redeem any points I had accumulated in my account. (One can generally only redeem rewards points on items sold directly by Sears or Kmart.) Preferring to use my rewards on an item from Kmart (or Sears), I next searched for the more generic "electric pressure cooker" --- and because Kmart's search function is temperamental to say the least, I also searched for the lowest common denominator term "pressure cooker" to be safe. Both searches returned items for which I could redeem rewards points. I refined those searches ranking the lowest price points and the best customer ratings in turn and came up with a short list of "electric pressure cookers" that were well rated, within my price range (based upon the amount of rewards points I currently had available) and that allowed for redemption of said rewards points.

Pressure Pro 4QT Electric Pressure Cooker

I refined this list further by evaluating cooking pot size and listed features, and decided that Harvest Cookware's Pressure Pro 4QT Electric Pressure Cooker (Model 20512) should well meet my needs. It had a list price of $59.99 on Kmart.com. I added the item to my cart to "hold" as a potential purchase and continued my research. I never fully trust online reviews, especially on shopping sites that I know can be easily gamed. As a result, I always read reviews across multiple sites and "average" the feedback. So I travelled to Amazon.com, to the manufacturer's own web site and to a couple of other shopping sites to see what was being said about this product. I generally pay more attention to "verified purchase" reviews and longer, more detailed reviews. I look out for features listed on other shopping sites that have potentially been omitted from Kmart's product description. (I don't know who handles data entry for the Kmart/Sears catalogs, but I've found this person often "shortlists" products, leaving out important details, so I'll go check to see what the manufacturer says is included, etc. on its own website.) Overall the item I selected fared well. It had a number of solid reviews across the various sites I checked. It also had a lower list price on Kmart.com than Amazon.com, and to boot, by the time I'd finished my fact-checking, Kmart.com had put kitchen appliances on sale for Valentine's Day (by the way, knowing when special sales will occur can be beneficial when shopping), so the price was now listed as $54.99 in my cart.

Due to my SYWR membership (and possibly my extensive online purchase history), I'd been awarded $10.00 FREECASH Rewards Bonus Points to use towards a minimum $50.00 purchase at Sears/Kmart and also had $41.93 Rewards Points amassed in my account. Thus, I was able to put a total of $51.93 in rewards points credit towards a $54.99 item --- and would only need to pay $3.33 OOP (the total with tax included, after rewards credit). For this balance due, I used a virtual VISA Debit Card with an approximate $5.00 balance that I'd received as a gift from a nameless company's "Thank You eNewsletter Subscribers" promotion, so even the OOP part was "free" money, earned with little effort on my part. Because I (still) have a Shop Your Way Max trial membership, this order also qualified for free shipping and is scheduled to arrive here on Friday. So y'all, I got me a TOTALLY free "instant pot" for Valentine's Day! Hooah! I'm so excited. Can't wait to cook sticky rice, a fond memory from my college cafeteria forays. Of course, I can't say whether this appliance will work as advertised or whether these gadgets live up to the hype overall; however, having acquired one for FREE, I am willing to chance it --- and test it out in my kitchen. (Stay tuned for the results.)

The #WeeklyRewind 20/03 - 26/03: #MovieMania #FilmFan #Deals #Coupons #Shopping #Gardening #PetParenting

Over the last week I saw the movies Hidden Figures, Doctor Strange and Fences, and pilots for the TV series Taken, Murder Chose Me, and 24: Legacy. The only thing I liked was Hidden Figures, but as it's a movie about women who broke barriers in STEM fields this is hardly surprising. Fences wasn't badly acted or poorly done, but I simply didn't relate to it. It was flat. And it still seem like a staged play vs a movie and that wasn't my expectation, I guess. Everything else was lackluster and even bad.

I scored some fun shopping deals including a bottle of Colgate Mouthwash and a canister of Maxwell House Coffee (only $0.12 OOP for both), two bags of Brownie Brittle (by stacking a sale, coupons and rebates I actually made money on this deal), a jar of Tostitos Salsa (Kroger Free Friday Download) and a digital copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (movie app test freebie).

I took a couple surveys to replenish my "free" money stash, played SYWR sweepstakes to build up my rewards points balance and scheduled the pickup of the Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter that I ordered with my last round of SYWR points.

I also "pruned" my avocado sapling and nursed pup, who has a cold.

What a week! On to the new one.

Beware the #IdesofMarch It Comes for Thee Also Maybe. #WeatherGeek + #SYWR Score #Veggetti #Zoodles #AsSeenOnTV

Julius Caesar was betrayed and murdered on the 15th of March (the 15th day of the month is known as the "Ides" in the Roman era) and as a result, this day has henceforth been synonymous with misfortune. Beware the Ides of March!

Many have no doubt heard this warning, but might also be unaware from whence it comes. Because one dude bought the farm on this date eons ago, the rest of us are cautioned to tread carefully today. Yeah, right. Sorry, Caesar, perhaps you should have picked better friends or how about not be a "Caesar"? Dictators often fair poorly. Just saying.

Personally, I'm good with March 15th. In fact, any "Ides" is fine by me. Speaking of which, today is bear hibernation cold --- as was yesterday, and tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same before a warming trend kicks in on Friday afternoon --- but, considering the frigid and snowy weather conditions in the Northeast right now, we got off lightly down here.

The potential for blizzards was a major reason why I chose not to attend university in the Northeast. I do not love the cold. (Sorry, Ivies. If only, you would've moved to California. Oh, wait...) So pup and I are hunkered down again today. Though pup keeps trying to take meandering strolls outdoors --- just because she has a built-in fur coat!

On the house front, my Kick-A-Kitchen is continuing to develop nicely. As it was cold, wet and windy yesterday, after I finished work, I spent part of the afternoon browsing online looking for deals since I couldn't very well go work outside. The afternoon was not wasted. I scored an As Seen On TV: Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter [MSRP $32.98] for only $3.77 OOP.

Having researched "vegetable spiralizers" over the last year or so --- the gadget is was on my Future Shopping List, after all --- I knew that the Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter is well rated (earning approximately 4.5 out of 5 stars on both Amazon and Kmart), especially when compared to the handheld regular Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Cutter (which merely earns approximately 3.5 out of 5 stars on both Amazon and Kmart).

Having done SYWR product catalog searches for "vegetable spiralizers" and "vegetable slicers," I also knew that both the handheld regular version and the pro version of the Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Cutter were carried by either Sears or Kmart, so I realized there was a good possibility that I would eventually happen upon a deal for one --- preferably the pro version.

The Back Story: Sadly, I no longer enjoy pasta. This has been a gradual, yet fairly recent, seemingly unexplainable change in palate, as I absolutely loved pasta when I was a kid. (Oddly enough, however, I did hate macaroni & cheese as a child, which I could not have explained to myself if I had been asked to do so, because separately I loved pasta and I loved (still love) cheese. WTF? But perhaps, this strangeness was a precursor to my current food preferences.) Over the last several years, I've progressed from hating Mac & Cheese, to hating all "big noodle" pasta --- I could tolerate Angel Hair pasta, for a time --- to disliking pasta, period. I like the "idea of noodles" --- just not the taste or consistency of pasta, apparently.

But I, of course, love veggies. (I'm vegetarian.) As such, I decided that what I craved was a noodle-like alternative to pasta. Enter "zoodles" --- or in this case, the ability to turn vegetables, like zucchini [zucchini noodles = zoodles], and fruits into noodle form. It's all the rage! I figured I could continue to enjoy "noodles" without my increasing distaste for water cooked dough (pasta) making me gag. Thus, I've been wanting a vegetable spiralizer or spiral cutter, the kitchen gadget which turns veggies and fruits into noodles, for a minute.

How'd I get this great low price? (Less than 1/8 of the MSRP.) Check the step-by-step breakdown:

1. I started at Sears. The regular price of a Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter on the sears.com website is only $19.99 (versus $24.99 + $7.99 p&h, which is the amount I would have paid by ordering one directly from the manufacturer's website, veggettipro.com). It pays to shop around and compare prices.

2. Sears was having a Friends & Family Sale on Sunday in stores (but the sale continued through Tuesday online) which discounted most small appliances by 10%. Thus, Sears regular price of $19.99 instantly dropped to $16.99 on sale.

3. Next, I used a coupon. I'd previously loaded a "Member Exclusive" coupon to my Sears account which offered "15% Off Any Item in the Home Department." With the coupon, the $16.99 price dropped to $14.44.

4. Then, I redeemed my rewards. I had rewards points in my account, accumulated from small sweepstakes wins over the last two weeks. This sweeps loot totalled $10.92, which brought the pre-tax item price down to $3.52 when deducted. (I could've opted to find an item that was $10.92 or less and in turn get said item totally free with my rewards points balance, of course. For instance, the handheld Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Cutter is only $9.99 at Kmart, so I could have bought it and paid zero out-of-pocket. However, being able to score the very well rated pro version instead is a big win on a useful tool I actually wanted.)

5. Finally, the tax was 25-cents. Making the total due $3.77. I selected Free Store Pickup as the order didn't meet the recently increased $30 threshold in order to qualify for SYWMax Free Shipping.

So while it will take a trip to the local Sears store to get my grubby hands on the Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter, I'll have spent less than 1/8 the cost of purchasing it online directly from the manufacturer, which makes this a great deal in my boo7k, in spite of having to pick it up at the store.

BONUS: I paid the OOP cost with my "free" money stash (discretionary income earned from taking random surveys online). Not a bad afternoon. Winning! This is like an early birthday gift to myself. Yay! I get to enjoy "pasta", again.

#WeeklyRewind: That's So Last Week! #Deals #Coupons #Rebates #Freebies

I love both quality and value and have little interest in brand name (without one or both of the aforementioned characteristics propping it up). My shopping is geared toward finding the best deals on things I want, will actually use or use as gifts for others. Toward this end, I scored several fun shopping deals over the last week, including 1-cents Folgers Ground Coffee (11.3 oz plastic canister), 79-cents Ocean Spray Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice (64 fl oz bottle), a free V8+Energy Drink (12 fl oz can), a free Starbucks Hearty Brown Rice Salad, nine free 12-packs of assorted Coca-Cola products, five bags of "Cooked Perfect" Meatballs (14 - 20 oz assorted varieties) for $3.86 total and a 13 oz jar of Nutella for 25-cents, in addition to the other deals (like a free coffee grinder and free toy bowling set) mentioned previously in my posts over the past week. Not a bad haul!

But today begins another week, so I'm excited to see what I can find this time around. Tomorrow is Pi Day, so perhaps some free or cheap pizza at the very least? The hunt for deals is such a fun pastime!