An open letter to Catalina Marketing

If you participated in the Your Bucks program at Jewel, you'll have by now received the following email:

Dear Valued YourBucks Member,


As the company proud to bring you high-valued savings, we want to express our appreciation for your participation in the YourBucks test pilot.

This test is designed to reveal the unexpected. Meaning, if the YourBucks program is rolled out nationally, we want to deliver a flawless, exceptional experience for our members.


Unfortunately, during this period of learning, some offers are being abused by a very small group of shoppers which is forcing us to modify the following three offers:


From
- Buy any ONE Ragu Pasta sauce 26oz or larger - $2.00
- Buy any ONE Suave® product excluding trial or travel size - $2.00
- Buy any ONE Degree® Anti-perspirant/Deodorant item excluding trial or travel size - $2.00

To
- Buy any 1 (One) or more Ragu Pasta sauce 26oz or larger - $1.00
- Buy any 2 (Two) or more Suave® product excluding trial or travel size - $1.00
- Buy any 1 (One) or more Degree® Anti-perspirant/Deodorant item excluding trial or travel size - $1.00

Please know this is not a decision we take lightly. And, we apologize that you are being impacted due to the questionable actions of so few.

Ultimately, our intention is to secure the long-term viability of the YourBucks program, and to continue to offer you and your families high-valued savings. Again, thank you for your participation and patience as we work to build a solid, lasting YourBucks platform.


If you have any additional questions, please connect with us at http://tv.catalinamarketing.com

Sincerely,
YourBucks Customer Service.

To which I replied:

I am completely APPALLED to receive an email this morning stating that I indirectly abused your Your Bucks Promotion catalina offer that is currently at Jewel grocery stores. This program produced catalinas at checkout for the purchase of select items. I would suggest that you contact your client and tell them that in no way did consumers "abuse" this program. The Catalina marketing/promotions department responsible should have determined well ahead of time (as in three WEEKS ago when this program started) that offering $2 back on an 89c item, for example, would cause consumers to buy tons of this product. And per the terms of the Your Bucks promotion: "Quantity Limits: There is a limit of one YourBucks Award for any particular Program Award per transaction. You can participate as often as you wish during any Broadcast period." You never limited the number of transactions a consumer could do, nor limited the total quantity an item that could be purchased. How is this the consumer’s fault?

Is it the consumer's fault that you had such poor programming of items that you allowed trial sizes and well as sizes not stated on the advertisements to qualify for Your Bucks? As the consumer, is it MY responsibility to double check YOUR math and quality control YOUR program?

Is it the legitimate couponers fault that you implemented a program which allows Your Bucks to print BEFORE the consumer paid, opening yourself to those unscrupulous people who stole from you? You could have reprogrammed the system in hours to fix this but were you asleep at the wheel?

It seems to me that declaring the consumer, who did nothing wrong, somehow abused the system which Catalina implemented, is ridiculous at best and a poor example of customer service at worst.

You should be ASHAMED! You owe everyone you sent that email to an apology!

Reynaud's Syndrome

It's a slow news day here apparently....


I was driving home on this cold, dampy day when my fingers went white. I've had this happen for years and years now when my hands get cold. It's worse in weather like this: chilly, damp and about 50 degrees. The entire sides and tips of one or two of my fingers on my left hand (rarely my right hand) go completely white and numb. It's a very odd sensation, but no particularly frightning or anything that extreme. It's a nuisance really. It takes about 15-20 minutes for this blood flow to return to my fingers. Only a few years ago, with the advent of the Internet and my ability to search such things as "white fingers on cold days" did I learn that I have a rare condition called Reyanud's Syndrome, and affects approximately 3% of the population.

The Mayo Clinic describes it best:

Doctors don't completely understand the cause of Raynaud's attacks, but blood vessels in the hands and feet appear to overreact to cold temperatures or stress:

-Cold temperatures. When your body is exposed to cold temperatures, your extremities lose heat. Your body slows down blood supply to your fingers and toes to preserve your body's core temperature. Your body specifically reduces blood flow by narrowing the small arteries under the skin of your extremities. In people with Raynaud's, this normal response is exaggerated.


-Stress. Stress causes a similar reaction to cold in the body, and likewise the body's response may be exaggerated in people with Raynaud's.

Blood vessels in spasm

With Raynaud's, arteries to your fingers and toes go into what's called vasospasm. This narrows your vessels dramatically and temporarily limits blood supply. Over time, these same small arteries may also thicken slightly, further limiting blood flow. The result is that affected skin turns a pale and dusky color due to the lack of blood flow to the area. Once the spasms go away and blood returns to the area, the tissue may turn red before returning to a normal color.

Cold temperatures are most likely to trigger an attack. Exposure to cold can be as simple as putting your hands under a faucet of running cold water, taking something out of the freezer or exposure to cold air. For some people, exposure to cold temperatures isn't necessary. Emotional stress alone can cause an episode of Raynaud's.

You're more likely to suffer from Reynaud's if you're a woman and live in cold climates (that would be me).

It starts like this. Half of one finger turns completely white.

After about 15 minutes the blood flow begins to return, from my palm towards my finger tip.

Then finally all the blood flow returns and my finger turns red (it never turns blue).

Sometimes I'll get this on my nose, or my left big toe (strange?). It doesn't hurt and the doctor doesn't think much of it since I've had it for a long time. If you develop Reyanuad's later in life you might also be suffering from autoimmune disorders and should have it checked out. Mostly it's just a sign I need to wear gloves and keep the heat set to 73 in the house.

Giveaway: Mambo Shopping bags

Are you ready to ditch the frumpy plastic bags and start sporting reusable ones! Enter to win one of 3 stylish starter kits or 2 chill bags from Blue Avocado by pledging how many plastic bags you’re willing to give up. Simply fill out the form below to submit your pledge! If you are a Twitter user, your pledge will automatically be posted on Twitter!



Go here: http://www.mambosprouts.com/contests-giveaways.php to enter

Enter by March 22nd! Winners will be chosen and notified by email, on or around March 23rd.

What's for dinner? Applebee's oriental chicken salad

Photo from Applebee's website

UPDATE: It was FANTASTIC! Everyone loved it (as usual) and my husband declared make this more than once per week. The chicken crispers made this dish for me, but broiled salmon or roasted chicken would also work well.

Yummy!  The secret to this dish is the dressing. Make sure you don't skimp on the ingredients.  I'll be adding some Tyson crispy chicken strips I got a great deal on at Jewel, plus some hard boiled eggs (the kids love those--I'll just eat the whites because my cholesterol is like 252--hereditary!)

Serves 4-6

15 wonton skins, cut into strips (or if you don’t want to fry: 1 cup fried crispy chow mein noodles)
oil for frying
1 head lettuce, leaves shredded or torn
2 cooked chicken breasts, meat shredded with your fingers
1 cucumber, sliced
handful snow peas, sliced on diagonal
11 ounce can mandarin oranges, drained

For the dressing a la Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad Dressing
Makes 1 cup (use half for the salad and store the rest in refrigerator)
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

To make the salad dressing, whisk together the honey, mayonnaise, mustard until very smooth. Then whisk in the oil and vinegar.

To fry the wonton skin strips, heat 1 inch of oil until 375F. If you don’t have a thermometer, just slide one wonton strip into the oil - it should sizzle immediately and turn light golden brown in about 30 seconds. Fry the wonton strips in several batches and drain on a rack or layers of paper towels. Each batch should take about 30 seconds to 1 minute to fry.

Assemble Chinese Chicken Salad with lettuce, chicken, cucumber, snow peas, mandarin oranges. Drizzle on salad dressing and sprinkle with wonton strips.

Is your home security provider robbing you blind?

Recently an old high school friend asked me my advice on home alarm systems. I let my resident home technologist (AKA the husband) write my very first guest post (thanks Honey!) And wouldn't you know it--the instant I hit submit EVERY Google AdSense ad in my sidebar is from ADT! I guess ADT doesn't realize this post is about how they are ripping so many people off!

The alarm business is dominated by a few national brands such as Brinks and ADT. Consumers don't want to pay a lot upfront for an alarm system. Alarm companies want to maximize their profits and the way they do this is through recurring monthly revenue.


So what is likely to happen when you call ADT or Brinks is that they will have a "special" where you will pay $100 or so for an "alarm system." They will also have you sign a contract for $30-$40 per month for a two year term. This contract will also automatically renew for another year at that same rate, unless you contact them in writing between 30-60 days prior to the two year anniversary and ask to discontinue service. If you do discontinue service, you will also likely find that some of the equipment they installed is proprietary to that vendor and can not be reused if you change alarm service providers. The wholesale cost of providing an alarm service is around $5 a month, so this low upfront, high recurring charge deal is very profitable for them.


These national alarm companies typically will offer a very minimal alarm system which consists of a sensor on the front and back doors, a single keypad, a siren and a single interior motion detector. This is really not what most people should be using if they really want to adequately protect their house and their family. From their point of view, all you need is --any alarm system-- and they get their $30-$40 per month.


A good alarm system should protect the perimiter of the house via window contacts and/or glass break detectors. It should have several interior infrared motion detectors as a backup in case the bad guy gets past the perimeter. It should also detect smoke and automatically notify the fire department. A smoke alarm that goes off when no one is home to call the fire department won't keep your house from burning down. It is important to protect the entire perimeter of the house so that a burgular is scared off and never gets the chance to enter the house.

Most times the national alarm companies want to get in and get out fast with the installation. So they will use wireless components in a "lick and stick" installation. These components will be stuck to the interior of the buidling with double stick foam tape. Using wireless components costs a little more, but saves them the cost of having to run wires. Wires are preferable for the homeowner (if installed by a skilled installer) as it means better reliability and no batteries to change ever on sensors! Wireless installations will require service calls for battery replacement every few years.


So what would I recommend? I would recommend contacting a local alarm company not ADT or Brinks. You can find them in the yellow pages. Tell them that you want to pay for an installation, but that you don't want any monitoring service. Have them quote only the cost of the installation and alarm system programming. Tell them that you want them to leave you with the "installer code," which is the code that allows additional changes to be made to your alarm system. They may balk at this initially, but they do this deal all the time for new house builders. They really want to get the monthly monitoring commitment (and the recurring revenue it provides), but be firm. Pay their hourly rate for time and materials (or a quote for the job) and have them install a system that protects the perimieter, includes fire and includes motion detectors throughout the basement and first floor levels. Include an "alpha" keypad in both the entry areas as well as the master bedroom. (Alpha is important so that when the alarm goes off a 3 in the morning you can see "basement window alarm" rather than "Zone 12 alarm." Are you going to really remember what "Zone 12" is at 3:00 in the morning?)


So after you have the equipment installed, go to an Internet alarm service provider such as nextalarm.com or alarmrelay.com. They will be able to walk you through getting your alarm system conntected to their service. And now the best part -- their service will cost from $8.95 to $11.95 per month! These services will likely include additional features (e.g. we get a text message to the cellphone when anyone arms or disarms the system, also medical panic monitoring) that you would have to pay extra for with the big name companies. Very quickly the monthly savings will far more than pay for the extra upfront cost for the more advanced alarm system.


One final point -- alarm systems (especially wired ones without sensor batteries to change) require very little monthly maintenance. Don't sign up for a service contract. Just pay for repairs when they are needed.

Laugh out loud

All photos from icanhascheeseburger.com

Another day, another great trip to the grocery store! Saved 85%

When you can cut your grocery bill down from $103 to $23 and walk out with another $34 in store coupons towards your next purchase, you've done well.

I snagged another 11 boxes of hot chocolate for the church, free Sauve (plus overage), FREE bread (plus overage), FREE baby powder (plus overage), plus tons of regular stuff for cheap, and then got the salmon filets, organic snack bars, fresh vegetables, organic dairy, and meats we normally buy. The only difference is that I chose items to buy that while I may not use (like all that hot coco, shampoo, powder etc) I can DONATE these items to the shelter and apply the overage to my other transactions.

Overage is when they store gives me $2 on my next order for a 79c loaf of bread, for example.

My favorite moment was when the checker said to me in disbelief: YOU GOT A GREAT DEAL!

Total cost of everything I bought:

$153
- $49.78 in preferred card savings
-$78.50 in coupons (primarily catalinas from prior deals)
- $1 off the salmon store coupon
-------------------
I paid $23

Total savings 85%

You CAN DO THIS.  I work FULL TIME.  I do NOT spend hours and hours doing calculations and cutting coupons. Find a great website that has women all over your area who work out the scenarios and learn from them, edit and change to suit your family's tastes and needs.