I'm taking a day off from blogging today, but I'm pleased to announce Savvy Frugality's first-ever guest blogger: my wife! She explains how she makes gift card offers at one pharmacy chain work to her advantage:

As a self proclaimed coupon queen I’m always on the lookout for a bargain. Each week I search through the weekly ads for our local stores, and then match up the coupons that go with them. Sure it can be a pain in the butt, but you can’t beat that feeling of watching your grocery bill go from $100 down to $40 because of your coupon clipping.

Recently one of my favorite coupons came out… transfer any prescription to a CVS pharmacy from a competing pharmacy and get a free $30 gift card.

Being an unemployed domestic goddess, this is like free money to me. Every now and then I use these gift cards to buy my girlie things…you know, make up, body salts, etc… but this time around I had seven, yup seven prescriptions that I could transfer. However, there is a trick to this. You see CVS will only allow one coupon per person, per week, so I needed to be creative.

I contacted the closest store and had them transfer a prescription from my regular pharmacy, and then I asked them the price. To my shock and amazement the cost was more than five times as high as my regular pharmacy, so I asked them to match the price and they did.

Then I contacted another CVS and had them transfer my next prescription, and on and on and on, until all seven of my prescriptions had been transferred, and if my insurance didn’t cover the cost of the prescription, then I had them match the price of my regular pharmacy.

The best part was that once I got my initial $30 gift card, I could use it towards the cost of my next prescription. A few of the stores didn’t allow it. I think they weren’t sure whether or not it could be done, but several of them did allow it, and it saved me from having to spend the cash.

Since the coupons are good until October 27^th, I plan on transferring them to a local grocery store out here that takes competitors’ coupons and getting some free groceries next month.

At the end of the day, I used about $10 worth of gas driving from CVS to CVS, but I got $210 worth of free gift cards. What did I do with it? Well, I didn’t think it would be cool for me to ask my husband for money to buy him a birthday gift, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! You’re getting a gift from CVS!

During my own quest to be a millionaire I have so far managed to eliminate some debt...a few hundred dollars worth...get a raise at my job and also get some badly-needed health insurance. But, I am still far from being a millionaire. Then, as if from a gift from the gods, I noticed CNBC might have the solution: Their series called "The Millionaire Inside".

According to CNBC, this series features "some of the country's best money-makers who have made millions". Well, if anybody could tell me how to become a millionaire, then perhaps these mentors could.

Read more HERE.

TIVO has sort of become a generic term for any digital video recorder which allows you to record all of your favorite shows and skip the commercials…sort of like Band-Aid, or Kleenex. The brand you buy may not actually be Band-Aid or Kleenex, but that’s what we call pretty much any bandage or facial tissue.

So I used to have a DVR provided to me by my cable company, which we called our TIVO, even though it really wasn’t a TIVO, but it did the same thing. It was great. I didn’t have to worry about missing the latest episode of “Prison Break” or “Survivor”, because the TIVO…er, DVR…would take care of recording it for me.

Then I started taking a closer look at my monthly cable bill. Between equipment rental and the fee I paid each month for the service, my fake TIVO was costing me about $20 a month. Now, $20 isn’t really a lot of money, but over the course of a year that works out to $240. That’s a lot of money to pay for watching TV shows which are normally free.

In an effort to trim my cable bill, which I eventually did…from $130 a month to about $85 per month…I lost the fake TIVO. At first, it took some adjustment. I had to figure out a better way of staying on top of my television viewing (yes, I’m something of a couch potato).

That’s when I discovered that most of the major broadcast networks made full episodes of their most popular shows available for viewing online…for free! Now, when I miss an episode of “Bionic Woman”, I can just go to the NBC web site and watch it anytime I want. You can find a page with all of the network links here: http://streamingtvepisodes.com/

If you are a sports fan, you can even watch some games online. The NCAA March Madness games are streamed live online for free, and you can catch live audio streams of major league baseball games online, too…as well as recorded video, although there is a $9.95 charge for that service, but it’s still cheaper than TIVO. As far as I can tell, the NFL is not using a feature like this on their web site yet, although you can watch video highlights there for free.

There are now some computer programs and hardware you can purchase (rather inexpensively) to turn your home computer into a DVR…with no monthly charges. You can find a description of two different programs here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126104-page,1/article.html

For now, I’ll pick up the free video streams on the network web sites. After all, it doesn’t get much better than free!

I'm going to preface this post by saying I am not a financial expert. I am not a stock broker. I don't even know how to read the stock page in the business section of the newspaper. I do own a few meager investments...an IRA, mostly. I also plan to stash some cash into a high-yield savings account with an online bank, which pays a lot more interest than my local brick-and-mortar banks and credit unions.

So what do I know about picking the next hot stock? Well, to be honest...nothing. However, I do read...a LOT. Lately, I have read a lot of articles about people of modest means who leave hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to schools or charities after they pass away. I also chronicled the uncanny stock picking ability of Ed Crawley, a parking lot attendant who earns $20,000 and has amassed a small fortune worth half a million dollars.

What do they all have in common? They all picked good stocks, and held on to them for a long, long time. That's it.

I know, that doesn't sound very sexy, but really, that's all they did. And you know what? It worked, and it seems to work more often than not.

So how do you go about picking a "good" stock? Stock brokers and financial advisers like to make this seem like a very complicated process. They have charts and graphs and complicated formulas for figuring out when to buy and when to sell. Well, what if you don't have a stock broker, or know how to read those charts yourself?

Then I remembered a story I saw on TV a few years ago. I used to be a TV reporter, so I got to see a lot of other reporters' stories, but this one caught my eye. It was about a woman and her husband who based their stock picks on TV ads.

The TV ads were not for stocks or stock investing software, or for a brokerage. She simply watched TV, and when she noticed a particular company was running an especially large number of commercials, she and her husband would buy some of the company's stock.

They didn't buy fly-by-night, infomercial type stuff. They invested in solid companies like Pepsi, Kellogg's, Levi's, Nike...companies that have been around, know how to market and were likely to be around a long time. This couple were doing VERY well with their investments. As goofy as this idea sounded, I saw that it actually made sense.

So I started looking around my house and taking notice of the appliances, services and products that I purchase on a regular basis. I like these products, I buy them often, I will continue to buy them...so why not buy a piece of the company that makes them?

For me, this would mean purchasing stock in companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, Whirlpool, Google, and CVS. These companies have all done quite well for themselves, and I've helped them with their profit margin through my purchases, so why shouldn't I make some money in the process, too?

Sure, these stocks will go up and down. All stocks do. But, if you pick stocks from good solid companies whose products and services you purchase, you will pick far more winners than losers. Just remember that you have to be in it for the long haul. These are stocks you pick and stick away for retirement, not stocks that you use for day trading. If you want to diversify and not pick all your own stocks, make sure your mutual fund or IRA invests in the kind of brand-name, household products or services that you use all the time. Warren Buffet, acknowledged to be the best stock market investor of all time, picks these types of so-called "boring" stocks...because they make money, and they do so consistently.

Some may argue this type of stock advice is what you might hear from "rich old white guys" who already have money. But, that's my point. They are RICH old white guys...and they have money. They must be doing something right...so why not do what they do?

Don't just pick a stock. Pick a company you LIKE, whose products you BUY, and will CONTINUE to buy. Preferably, it will be stock from a company which pays dividends that you can then reinvest.

Why let all the "rich old white guys" have all the fun?

My wife and I are flying to San Diego this month with our youngest son for a week-long vacation. Each year, we travel cross country for my Navy ship's reunion. Last year, we drove to Philadelphia from Oklahoma City. What a nightmare.

Immediately, I realized between gasoline and tolls, I was going to be spending a lot more money than I bargained for. It took us twice as long to get to Philadelphia than we estimated, mainly due to highway construction, and we broke down twice. The first time, we got a flat tire on the New Jersey Turnpike during a side trip to visit my in-laws, and the second time the water pump in my car died. It was a VERY expensive trip.

This year, I vowed things will be different. I priced the cost of flying the three of us to San Diego, and I priced the cost of driving. Flying won...easily.

I will save at least $300 by flying to San Diego rather than driving. The cost of three round-trip flights, departing from Tulsa (it's actually cheaper to fly out of Tulsa rather than Oklahoma City. Check nearby airports when you plan a trip) and purchased through Expedia.com, totals $498.

The cost of driving (round trip), meanwhile, looks like this:

Gasoline - $400 (if gas prices don't rise or fall)
Hotel - $200 (I'm figuring a one-night hotel stay each way)
Food - $200

Total cost: $800
Total savings of flying versus driving: $302

These are estimates of course, but there is also the added benefit of spending 5 hours on a plan rather than 17 hours in a car each way. That's worth something to me, too. For long trips, weigh the cost of flying versus driving, and you may find it's cheaper to leave the car in the garage.

I'm really not a "I told you so" kind of guy, but ever since writing my post "Bad Economic Times on the Way?", I have been noticing an increase in articles about the U.S. slipping into a recession, how 2008 is going to be a bad economic year, "how to prepare your portfolio for recession", etc. I came across this article, "How to Recession-Proof Your Finances", although I'm not sure when it was written.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not actually WISHING for bad economic times to befall the United States, but I can easily see it happening. The current state of the economy reminds me quite a bit of my life in 1991...one of the worst years of my life. I had no job, no income, and I didn't know where my family's next meal was going to come from more than once. Taking that into consideration, I'd rather spare my readers that pain.

Thinking back to that time, I see now that had I done a few simple things, such as the things noted in the articles reference above, I could have saved my family from going through such a tough time. Saving cash and preparing now is not just good in case the economy goes sour, it's just good advice in case some other kind of emergency hits your family or household.

SavvyFrugality.com is participating in the latest Festival of Frugality! Check out this great collection of blog posts on frugal living, including:

Matthew Paulson presents How to Compensate for Rising Grocery Costs posted at FinanceIsPersonal.com.

Nikki presents How to Get The Best Deal On A New Car posted at Daily Idea.

Fly or Drive: Which is Cheaper? (A Definitive Answer, Once and For All) posted at Frugal Panda.

Free and Cheap Food posted at 2nd Grade Teacher.

and of course, my post

How to Send Your Kid to College with no College Fund posted at Savvy Frugality.

Enjoy!

Once again, SavvyFrugality.com is fortunate enough to be tapped for a blog carnival. This time we are participating in the 107th Carnival of Debt Reduction. Aside from the usual savvy advice you find here, there is some other great advice on reducing your debt available from several other blogs. Here are a few that caught my eye:

• 10 Ways to Increase Your Credit Score posted at Millionster.com
• The Constant Tug: Should I Invest Or Should I Pay Off Debt? posted at The Simple Dollar
• Top 5 Money Mistakes! posted at FIRE Finance

So, check out these and the other great entries at the Carnival of Debt Reduction. There is some great advice to be had!