I couldn’t track down any new freebies this week so I’m just grouping them all together below. If you have the inside line on freebie information, send it my way, OK?

Miscellaneous Freebies

• McDonald’s is also getting on the free Wifi bandwagon.
• Live in Southeastern Pennsylvania/Central New Jersey and need a job? Then register for the free job search workshop being held on February 1st.
• Kids eat free every at Perkins Restaurant and Bakery between 3 and 10 p.m. daily. The catch (which isn’t much of a catch all)? You get one free kids’ meal with each adult entree purchased and your kids must be 12 years old or young.
• The free Taco Fresco deal at Taco Bell still seems to be going on, as in the online coupon still shows up when you click this link to the Taco Bell site. So download and enjoy while you can!You can download a free “The Biggest Loser” workout mix “tape,” courtesy of Subway. (That’s to Miami FL on the Cheap for a lead on this deal.)

The 10! Show in Philadelphia has asked me back again to offer additional frugal-living tips. The show broadcasts at 11 a.m. on WCAU–the NBC affiliate. As soon as the video is available online, I’ll post a link. I’ll also share my tips at that time, in a separate post.

I’m a FlyLady fan. There, I’ve said it. Not familiar with FlyLady? She offers a virtual community to help people who are living in CHAOS (can’t have anyone over syndrome) start to get their lives back on track. It is because of FlyLady that I’ve learned that I can do anything in 15 minutes and why I rely on a timer or the alarm clock on my cell phone to get so much done in a single day.

Yesterday, one of her messages (she sends out multiple ones a day, plus tweets her suggested tasks) was about how being organized can help you save money. Here’s a summary of what she said:

1. Decluttering 15 minutes a day. In doing this you can uncover items you forgot you even owned and get rid of stuff you no longer need–either by selling it on Craigslist, giving it away to charity or throwing it away (those are my suggestions–I’ve got “cash for clutter” on my brain because of my new book deal). According to FlyLady taking back control of your clutter can save you about $20 a week. You save $1,040 annually.
2. Organizing your morning the night before. The notion here is not only about laying out your outfit and making sure your bags are packed for an easy getaway in the a.m., but also that your kitchen is picked up enough so that you have the time and ability to make yourself breakfast and coffee in the morning. This will help you save the $5 or more you spend each day doing drive-through breakfast. You save $1,300 annually.
3. Planning your meals weekly. You’ve heard me give this advice before and for a simple reason: when you know ahead of time what you’re going to feed your family for dinner at night, you won’t be tempted to stop on the way home for a pizza or take-out food, which is sure to bust your budget. Just one take-out meal a week could set you back $25. You save $3,900 annually.
4. Getting dressed to your shoes. OK, so this “rule” takes some getting used to–especially if you were raised to take your shoes off at the door. But here’s where the logic comes in: if you wear shoes, you won’t break your toe or cut your feet. Because if you do and you have to go to the doctor or the emergency room, then you have to lay out a co-pay–assuming you even have insurance. FlyLady says that one broken foot, paid for in full, could cost you more than $1,500.
5. Paying your bills online and on time. One late fee on one credit card bill could set you back as much as $100. Do it monthly because you can’t keep track of your bills or don’t know where your checkbook is and the money quickly adds up. Spend time getting your bills organized so that you can pay them automatically, and you won’t have to worry about late fees like you used to. You save $1,500 annually.

These five tips could potentially save you a little over $9,000 a year. What’s not to love about that?

Here’s another misnomer for you: cooking pasta in a rice cooker. That’s like my making stir-fry chicken in the Crock-Pot instead of a wok.

And while this notion of making pasta this non-traditional way gives my Sicilian stepmother pause, I just had to share with you how easy this was.

1 1-lb box of pasta (we used penne)
1 26-ounce jar of sauce
26 ounces of water

I dumped it all in the rice cooker, put the top on and “cooked” it for 20 minutes. Enough of the water boiled off as steam so that by the time the pasta was al dente, the sauce had thickened and we had delicious penne. My kids don’t usually eat pasta with sauce by choice but they asked for seconds.

You can bet I’ll be trying this recipe again. Next time I might add frozen meatballs.

What non-traditional things have you made in a rice cooker?

We started thinking about our summer plans this week–probably because camp brochures started showing up in our mailbox. At the same time I started querying magazine editors with my ideas on how to plan a frugal vacation, beyond the typical “check with AAA for discounts” tips. Here are 7 of the money-savers I think everyone would want to know about when planning a vacation on a budget:

1. Fly out of second-tier cities. If you’re flying to your destination, you can usually find cheaper fares outside the big-boy cities. One family found round-trip tickets to Florida for $45 per person, just by choosing to use the airport located further away from the nearest big city. I know that if I need to fly to Maine, I always choose to fly into Manchester, New Hampshire rather than Portland, Maine. Sure, I have to drive a bit farther but I always save hundreds of dollars on my airfare.
2. Use social media to your discounting advantage. Many hotels, resorts and chambers of commerce are using social media to attract customers–and rewarding Twitter- and Facebook-savvy folks with deep discounts. Just today a company told me that if I entered the code TWEET when I booked my stay, I’d save 15%!
3. Think local. This isn’t just about staycations. This is about helping you to plan day trips to places that other people plan entire vacations around. Draw a circle on a map within a 100-mile radius of your home and see what kinds of tourist attractions fall within that circle. Your local convention and visitors bureau might even be able to set you up with discounts to places you drive by on a daily basis and likely never thought of making part of your vacation plans.
4. Take a volunteer vacation. According to Sheryl Kayne, author of Volunteer Vacations Across America (September 2009), there are a handful of farms and good causes that will provide free room and board to you and your youngest volunteers in return for your sweat and elbow grease. For example, Kane says The Big Dipper Eco Farm in Michigan accepts families with children of all ages, including infants and toddlers, and will find age-appropriate organic gardening tasks for all the mobile members of your family.
5. See if your memberships get you free or discounted admission to places where you’re traveling. If you’re a member of your local zoo or museum, find out if those institutions have reciprocal agreements with other zoos and museums. For example, National Aviary members receive discounted or free admission at a long list of zoos, with which it has reciprocal discounts or free admission. You might just find yourself with free entertainment to enjoy during your time away.
6. When you do travel, stock your own minibar. Don’t be tempted to pay $5 for a candy bar in that hotel mini-fridge. Instead, visit your favorite warehouse club to stock up on goodies that your kids can treat themselves to during your trip and won’t bust your budget in the process.
7. Rent a house, apartment or hotel room with a full or partial kitchen. This will help you to avoid paying for the $6 bagels in the hotel restaurant when you order breakfast. You can go through organizations that specialize in vacation home rentals or timeshare rentals, or even check places like Craigslist or the back of your college alumni magazine for ads for vacation rentals.

What about you? How do you figure out money savers for your vacations?

This past weekend I treated myself to a rice cooker. For the longest time I thought this was an appliance that was a waste of money, but then we went to a friend’s house for New Year’s Eve, and I experienced a rice cooker first hand for the first time. And I was hooked.

When we gutted our kitchen and suddenly I was out a stove, I continued to make my rice in the microwave like always. But here’s what I found out: when you’re cooking without a kitchen, you’re using the microwave to cook many other things as well. The couple of times we’ve had rice with vegetables and something else, I would have to rotate when I cooked the rice, plus the rest of the meal in the microwave, and something always ended up cold.

So this past weekend, when I saw a Black & Decker rice cooker for only $25, I splurged.

Here’s the best part: I discovered that this rice cooker can do way more than just cook rice. It can also:

• steam vegetables
• cook seafood
• make pasta–as in heat it up in the absence of a pot on a stove, not actually “make” pasta
• act as a stockpot for making soup
• cook and steam dumplings

For as long as we are without a kitchen–and even after our new kitchen is installed–I’m feeling confident that this rice cooker will be a staple in my meal plans. And now I can’t wait to use it the next time I make stir-fry chicken in the slow cooker and want to serve it with rice.

Most magazines are pushing the “get organized” message in their January issues. And why not? Lots of people make a New Year’s resolution to go out with the old (clutter) and bring in the new (neatness).

I’ve seen a couple of magazines suggesting that one area of your home that probably needs decluttering is your bathroom, where you’ve likely amassed bottles of prescription medications past and present–some expired, some empty and never thrown away.

But before you get rid of those meds or toss those containers in the trash, keep this important information in mind:

1. Don’t flush unused or expired medications down the toilet. This water eventually ends up in our waterways, where trace amounts of your medicine can cause contamination.
2. Do figure out ahead of time if you can recycle your prescription bottles with your regular trash. Most of the “brown” prescription bottles are #5 plastic, which is polypropylene. The clear prescription bottles, like the kind you get from Target, are #1 plastic or PETE. This is the same stuff that soda bottles are made from. While many recyclers now accept plastic #1 through #7, not all do. So double-check that you can recycle the bottles with the rest of your household containers before assuming you can and tossing them in the bin.
3. Don’t trash prescription bottles if you can’t recycle them–reuse them instead. There are plenty of reuses for prescription bottles–after you give them a good washing, of course. I’ve heard of scouts who put matches in these bottles as a way of keeping them dry. I know crafts people who used them as mini containers that hold like items, such as push pins, beads or needles. You can even use them to make your own TSA-approved, travel-sized containers for shampoo, conditioner and lotion–though I would only do so after soaking off the prescription label first so you don’t raise any smuggling red flags at security. (Note my disclaimer here!)

Any other suggestions for recycling and reusing prescription bottles?

Months ago my supermarket had a super deal on pork loin. Like any smart frugalista would do, I stocked up. I had the butcher cut the pork loin into one-pound pieces, and I put a bunch in the freezer. Yesterday, we enjoy that last loin. However, since we currently have no kitchen–and therefore no oven–my only option was to cook it in the slow cooker.

Normally, I would do a pulled pork recipe with barbecue sauce in the Crock-Pot, but my daughter Annie hasn’t been feeling the pulled pork lately. So I decided to experiment.

Recently, I’d purchased a couple of bottles of discontinued salad dressing on clearance at the grocery store ($.50/bottle) and had one left–spicy Italian–and figured I could do worse with a “sauce” for the pork loin. So I got cooking. Here’s what I used:

2 T olive oil
1 pound pork loin (no need to thaw if frozen)
1 16-ounce bottle of salad dressing (whichever flavor you prefer)
2 cups of water

I coated the bottom of the Crock-Pot with the olive oil and swished the bowl around to cover the bottom surface. Then I put the rock-solid frozen pork loin in the bottom of the Crock-Pot and dumped the entire salad dressing over it. I added an additional two cups of water, then put the slow cooker on high for eight hours.

Fast forward eight hours and the pork smelled delicious and just fell apart when I cut into it to serve it.

We rounded out dinner with rice (made in the microwave) and Green Giant steamers (we had corn in butter sauce, which was delicious) also cooked in the microwave. (Hey, I had a coupon and did you know that, ounce for ounce, frozen vegetables are often cheaper than their canned counterparts? But they’re just as nutritious!)

Annie had invited a friend to dinner that night, and they both told me that they loved the pork. I think they had seconds and maybe even thirds. I would definitely make this recipe again and can’t wait until pork goes on sale in the future so I can!