Single! June '09

single!

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F O N M Y O W N N O W M I N I S T R I E S

k JUNE

/ 09

Young Christian Women

I Love My Job! I Love My Job!

(Repeat as Needed)

Parental Love

And Other Mysteries

Crazy Asian Stir Fry Dear Gabby

My Best Friend Stole my Thunder

With your makeup:

Are you a Monet or a Picasso?

Always the Bridesmaid

...Without going broke!

w w w. o n m y o w n n o w. c o m

in this

issue...

Straight Talk from the Proverbs: I Love My Job, I Love My Job! (Repeat as Needed)

o

by Donna Lee Schillinger

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Moving Out ... Settling In: Parental Love And Other Mysteries

by Kimberly Miller

Reba Ray's Down Home Healthy Cookin': Crazy Asian Stir Fry

by Reba Ray

Dear Gabby: My Friend Stole my Thunder!

Fashion DIVinA:

With your makeup: Are you a Monet or a Picasso?

o

.4

by Gwen Schumaker

Spare Change: Always the Bridesmaid ... Without going broke!

by Paola Segnini

.8 .10 .12

.14

o Fridge-worthy.

We see high drama in the movies all the time, but in real life, big acting does not win awards.

Straight talk from the proverbs for young Christian women who want to remain pure, debt-free and regret-free. “In this interesting and thought-provoking exploration of the book of Proverbs, Schillinger takes young women along a journey that will help them to make better, safer, and more sound decisions.�

Cheryl C. Malandrinos The Book Connection blog Now Available at www.onmyownnow.com, at Amazon, B&N and a library and bookstore near you.

straight talk

I LOVE MY JOB,

I LOVE MY JOB!

N

(Repeat as Needed)

The sluggard buries her hand in the dish; she will not even bring it back to her mouth!

Proverbs 19:24

Do you ever con-

template a harder life?

Do you ever think about what it would be like, for instance, to be a dairy farmer? There are no holidays for a dairy farmer. You can’t tell your cows to go milk themselves, or hold that milk for a long weekend and you’ll be back with them on Monday.

Every day without fail, you’ve got to get up at 5 a.m. (why so early?) and milk the cows. And if you’re sick, you’ve got to find someone to do it for you.

What about a life in which you would have to work to be able to eat every day? When I wake up, the first thing I do is make a pot of coffee. Later, I cook a couple of eggs or have a bowl of cereal. I just open my refrigerator and it’s there. What if I lived an existence in which I had to harvest my breakfast every morning – go out looking for eggs or berries or nuts? There are still many people who daily harvest their food. There are many more who have to elaborately prepare it just to eat breakfast – hours of chopping wood and starting a fire, grinding, pounding, mixing and baking before they get a bite to eat.

Truly, we are blessed if we can start out the morning by opening a refrigerator. Oddly, once we be-

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by Donna Lee Schillinger gin to have a taste of leisure, we crave it more and more. Once we get the eggs, milk and bread sitting in the fridge waiting for us, we begin to dream of ways they could be already made into pancakes or French toast – just waiting for us. Whereas 25 years ago, I would have to mix that up myself, now, I can buy French toast sticks and pop them in the microwave and my gourmet breakfast is ready in two minutes – during which I can be reading the newspaper or petting the dog. What’s next?

How can I make getting breakfast even quicker and easier? I bet there’s some inventor working right now on a way to program the refrigerator to automatically send the French toast to the microwave. The microwave will be pre-set so that at precisely 7:15 a.m., when I’m ready to eat, “DING.” Breakfast is ready. Won’t that be great?

I’m not kidding! I know that sounds facetious but there really is nothing wrong with efficiency and having to put forth less effort toward the same end.

If we can whittle fixing breakfast down to a five-second task (without compromising nutritional content), why shouldn’t we? All the time in the morning that I’m not baking bread, churning milk to make butter and hunting for eggs in the henhouse is time I can and do use in other types of work.

The thing about efficiency and ease is that it, just like every inanimate thing, they can be used to good ends or bad. The person who makes the best of modern conveniences is more productive as a result of them. The person who misuses them becomes lazy – and laziness is a slippery slope that ends in a pit so low we can’t even feed ourselves! Isn’t that crazy? Seems impossible someone

could sink so low. But are we so far from that extreme when we won’t watch television if we can’t find the remote? We won’t get up to change the channel, but will instead continue to watch something we don’t even want to watch because we’re too lazy to walk to the TV and press a button. Honestly, I think some people wouldn’t even know how to operate a television without a remote control.

Last night my husband and I both got in bed before we realized the overhead light was on – just barely, it was dimmed. Neither of us wanted to get up to turn it off. He said I was closer. But he was sitting up and I was already tucked in.

So we decided we could sleep with the light on. It was a playful stalemate because neither of us can actually sleep with the light on. He got up to turn it off (hee hee). That was all in fun but it illustrates just how ridiculously lazy people can be.

We all need rest and leisure time and God is a great advocate of rest. God created one day a week specifically for that purpose, though very few people actually take advantage of that anymore. God also commanded vacations and holidays. God goes over and over the details of these built-in periods of rest and recreation in the Old Testament. Anyone who knows their Bible knows that God is all for us having time with the family. Did you know that God commanded that Israeli newlyweds get a whole year off of work for the husband to make his wife happy? Check it out – Deuteronomy 24:5. Our God is a reasonable, even generous God who does not require us to work ourselves to an early death.

(including me) don’t seem to want to accept that fact. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished my “to-do” list were empty and that for even a week, I would have nothing to do. I sometimes fantasize about walking around the house thinking, “What can I do? There’s nothing to do.” On the longer term, I already have my sites set on age 70 when I plan to retire. My days will be filled with visiting friends and family, crafting, gardening, reading, travel, cooking – all my hobbies (some of which resemble my present-day work…). Having that retirement date ahead of me actually helps me to stay motivated today – even though it’s the better part of three decades away – I know a rest is coming.

Though these daydreams get me through a day of work, they reflect a wrong attitude. (Bad Donna!)

The right attitude, which I am actively cultivating, is to be thankful to God that my “to-do” list is full and that God has given me meaningful work that glorifies God and pays my bills. I want to express my gratitude for that work by cheerfully sitting down to the task each day and applying myself fully to it. I also gratefully take advantage of the days of rest that are built into the calendar to refuel and make deeper connections with my family and friends.

Hold this thought: Thank God I have work to do and the ability to do it.

On the other hand, when we’re not observing a divinely mandated holiday or Sabbath, God wants us to do the work each of us has been given to do, and not just do it, but do it as if Jesus Christ Himself were our direct supervisor. “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).

God designed life to include both work and leisure, but the sad fact of the matter is that there’s a lot more work than leisure in the design. I know that’s no earth-shaking statement, yet many people

And that propensity to slip further into laziness? I fight it and call on the strength of Jesus to resist it – just like I do with other temptations. Rest is good and God commands it; we must also recognize laziness for what it is – another way we can separate ourselves from God’s will. There is an entire society trying to get us to take it easy, cut out of work early, enjoy ourselves more and work less. Being an industrious woman of God is an upstream swim, whereas becoming less and less productive is as easy as drifting with the current. Keep going with it and you’ll go over the falls into a pool of absurdity.

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w moving out

PARENTAL LOVE and other mysteries...

Recently, we celebrated Moth-

er’s Day and Father’s Day is just around the corner. My parents came to visit a few weeks ago, in part to watch the commencement ceremony in which Boyfriend became Dr. Boyfriend, and in part so we could all be together on Mother’s Day. Wait, what? My parents came to visit me to sit for four long hours to watch someone else’s kid graduate; and they came to see me so we could be together on Mom’s day.

These parental units of mine have a tendency to be freakishly selfless.

My mom is one of those people who, when you listen to them talk about their kids, you know there’s

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nothing in the world they’d rather talk about, think about, pray about or care about. My dad is a little less conversational about it, but his love for me is obvious in other ways. He’ll work to exhaustion for his family, only to sit down for a many-hours-long conversation about life, love

there is nothing in the world they would rather talk about, think about, pray about or care about.

by Kimberly Miller

and other mysteries (to borrow a line from Point of Grace).

Would you like to know what we did that weekend besides go to graduation? My mom helped me work in the yard. She cooked a couple times, washed the dishes while I was getting dressed, and she spent many hours working outside in the chilly, drizzling rain to help me complete a few yard projects.

She also brought me curtains that she had found on sale, as well as a bag full of goodies from Goodwill, and we went shopping together to look for things for my home.

My dad looked over my air conditioner unit to make sure it’s in shape for the upcoming summer, and he also helped by re-installing

w a curtain rod that had partially come out of the wall. My mom said he hates taking pictures, but he sure took several dur-

and taught me everything I need.

When I don’t know enough about something, my dad stays on the phone while I work through my

I wouldn’t be any good at this being on my own thing without their upbringing. Not everyone has parents as loving as mine; and if

God is the Abba Father who is Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Best Friend, Counselor, Neighbor, Teacher -- all in all. ing Dr. Boyfriend’s graduation.

I don’t ever want to live with my parents again, and I am beyond happy about being on my own, but I don’t know how independent I could be without their help… ok, yes, I get the irony. My parents have enabled me, empowered me and imbued me with knowledge. They have given me

taxes; my mom shows me the best way to start a new African Violet plant; and they both do whatever it takes to keep my head on straight. I’d be lost without them.

We all know that the Bible says to honor our parents and whereas I may not always be very good at that, I hope they both know that

that describes you, I hope you’ll remember that God is the Abba Father who is Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Best Friend, Counselor, Neighbor, Teacher – all in all.

And for those of you whose parents are totally awesome: I hope you never take them for granted.

Word on the Street Is ...

“If you could put one book into the hands of every young woman you know, this should be the book. And if she applied a fraction of the wisdom contained therein, she’d be spared a mountain of tears. This is an amazing book and I highly recommend it.”

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Find out more at www.onmyownnow.com

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R Reba Ray “

What’s so crazy bout this stir fry, Reba?” ya say? Well,

by Reba Ray

nothing really, but would you be reading this right now if’in I had called it “Completely Sane Stir Fry?” Fact of the matter is there are a couple of ingredients in this here stir fry that set it apart from yur common sense stir fry and in my humble opinion, they make all the difference in taste – subtle as it may be. Here’s what yur gonna need: - 1/2 cup white rice - 1 cup water - ½ tablespoon of coconut oil - ¼ pound piece of fish such as tilapia or salmon - 1 teaspoon of orange marmalade or apricot jam or ½ teaspoon of honey - 1 teaspoon of olive oil - ¼ of a red pepper (or orange or yellow or green in a pinch) - 1 cup broccoli flowerets – fresh or frozen - ½ cup Julienned carrots - 1 cup cabbage - optional - 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, pressed - 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar - 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce - ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger or 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger - 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder - Salt and pepper to taste

Don’t get all concerned about the long list of in-

gredients in this dish. If you don’t own curry or soy sauce or vinegar or the jam or honey, you probably oughtta figure out if you think you’re gonna like this when it’s all put together before you rush out and buy those things. If you like veggies and you like fish and you like Chinese food, well, I’d say it’s a safe investment to purchase these ingredients with the understanding that you can make this dish about once a week for about six months and still have some ginger left. If yur just not sure, how about invitin’ some of yur girlfriends over for stir fry and “Memoirs of a Geisha” night. Ask one to bring the curry, another to bring the ginger and yet another to bring the soy sauce.

Have some fun putting this all together and then if you like it, confiscate the curry, ginger and soy sauce as the price of admission to the movie and yur set to fix it in the future! If yur girlfriends get all mad, tell ‘em they can come back next week for “Seven Years in Tibet” and some more stir fry.

So are you with me? Let’s go. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Dump the white rice (yes, I know brown

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rice is healthier – you just had to bring that up, didn’t ya!) in a small bowl or a measuring cup.

Add about a cup of water to it and swoosh it around with your hand, dig in there, girls! The water’s gonna turn white – siphon off that starchy water and do this a coupla times more until the water is not so dern white. This’ll make for a less gummy rice in the end. Now put two cups of water in a small saucepan, dump in yur one cup of wet rice and add one tablespoon of coconut oil.

Now the first time you make this don’t use coconut oil – just use canola oil. But if you really like this dish, go buy yurself some coconut oil. I say this because coconut oil iddn’t cheap. You gotta know there’s something you like to eat that uses it before springing for a jar of coconut oil. But I hate to tell ya, that’s one of Reba’s special ingredients that really makes a difference in flavor.

Put the saucepan on a medium-high stove top until it boils, then turn the heat down as far as it will go, put a lid on that rice and forget about it for 18 minutes, after which time, you’ll take the lid off, make sure you can’t see hide ner hair of any water, and then put the lid back on and turn off the heat.

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Now move on to the fish. I recommend purchasing a bag of frozen tilapia or salmon that has four portions individually wrapped. I found mine near the fish sticks in my local Wal-Mart. It costs under $4 and that’s pretty dern cheap for fish. Line a flat pan, like a cookie sheet, with foil. Plop that thawed portion of filleted, skinless fish on it and coat the top of the fish with either orange marmalade, apricot jam or honey. Last time I made this, I used pepper jelly, so if yur great aunt gave you a Christmas gift basket with a small jar of pepper jelly in it and you thought, “What in world would I ever use pepper jelly for?” well, this would be it. Pop that fish in the preheated oven and set yur timer for 15 minutes.

Now while the rice and fish are doing their thing, let’s move to the veggies. You may have figured out that you could buy a bag of frozen stir fry veggies instead of getting all those veggie ingredients I listed. That will be just fine and might even be cheaper than buying all those ingredients. Either way, you want to start with thawed veggies, chop the peppers and julienne the carrots if you need to.

Juli –what? Julienne. I don’t know who the heck Juli is (well, I do have a sister named Juli, but I sincerely doubt this cut of carrots is named after my

sister!). A julienned carrot looks like a skinny little stick of carrot – about two to three inches long and about as wide as a chopstick. Now in a large skillet – or wok, if yur a weenie and own a wok – heat over medium-high the teaspoon of olive oil for about 30 seconds then toss yur veggies in the pan (or wok!) and churn ‘em around until they’re coated with the oil. Now add yur minced garlic and spices and agitate the mixture a little more. After about three to four minutes of aggitatin’ once a minute, add yur vinegar and soy sauce and agitate and cook for one minute more. OK, turn off the heat.

Let’s put it all together. Get a large bowl, like a soup bowl, and put in half of the rice. Now pile on yur veggies and by this time, that buzzer on the fish should be goin’ off. Plop that hot fish right on top and add chopsticks – or not! If you want to spice this dish up, sprinkle some crushed red peppers (the kind you put on pizza) on top.

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You may have noticed, I had you make twice as much rice as you needed. There was a good reason for that.

Check back on my Reba Ray page at www.OnMyOwnNow.com next week and we’ll fix us some healthy fried rice – yes, with week-old rice and yur gonna love it!

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Dear Gabby:

by

ter

s Gab

dear gabby: I am co-president of a club at school which recently raised a large amount of money for charity. It was a lot of work but we were all so excited with what we were able to do

together. My problem is that the other co-president is taking all the credit for herself. And her parents recently spoke to

the local paper to publicize our work and they only listed their daughter as president. I am angry and hurt and really confused. What should I do?!

- Bitter and Betrayed in Baltimore

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“See I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.”

Mark10:16

Dear B&BThis falls into the category Dear Gabby calls “baptism by fire.” And what Gabby means by that is that you have just experienced something that you will likely encounter many times over in your lifetime – otherwise known as “stealing your thunder.” But no matter what you call it or how many times it happens, it still smarts.

So what are we to do about it? Well, you have a couple of options. First, and the most frequently chosen option, is to do nothing. You can go about your day and do what you always do, confident that the people who really matter know the truth.

A job well done is still a job well done. Or, you can try to outwit your co-leader by contacting a larger paper that may be happy to run this fantastic human interest story. But then you have to decide if you’re going to play by her rules and omit her name this time around. Hmmm. And finally, there’s the old favorite of having it out with this co-leader. Gabby isn‘t referring to a slap match so much as a war of words. But before you choose any path in matters like this, Gabby first would like to ask: In two years, or five years, or ten years time, will any of this really matter?”

In Gabby’s opinion, the Gospel gives us a wonderful map for how to negotiate our world and still maintain our Christian ethics. In Mark, Christ tells us to go out and be disciples, knowing full well that we will be living like sheep among wolves. Disciples are told to repeatedly turn their cheek to offenses. This is a holy ideal but can also be problematic to implement. It’s tough out there! So even though these words

were given to us over 2,000 years ago, we can take comfort in the fact that Christ knew that and so He also warns us not to be doormats for the wolves of this world. Be smart about it, He says, like serpents in the grass. But like defenseless doves, never give up your innocence. What He means is that in the balancing act of life and discipleship, don’t become a wolf yourself.

With that advice to guide you, what Gabby suggests is a sort of buffet of responses to your current situation. Perhaps together with some of your club members, at your next group meeting, you could let your co-leader know of your unexpected disappointment over her public posturing. If there is a teacher-sponsor or advisor, perhaps she could help contain this discussion. It will be harder for your co-leader to enjoy her moment of glory if she knows that it is built on a false foundation. Then you could initiate another article with the proper information, maintaining your ethics and setting an example of what real leadership looks like.

Finally, you could refer back to option #1, which is to let it go. Forgive and move on.

You didn’t raise the money for the charity to gain recognition, did you? The good deed you set out to do was done well: mission accomplished. Forget the rest. Approached in that manner, the memory of the offense is likely to dim in a few years time, but what you will have learned and taught to others will last a lifetime.

- Gabby

Living a conundrum? Trying to make two wrongs a right?

Threw the baby out with the bath water?

Dear Gabby can help! Send your questions now to

thegabster@onmyownnow.com

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e e Fashi on DIVinA

Makeup is a huge part of the female lifestyle.

Since the ancient Egyptians, we’ve been painting our faces. Sure there are your granola holdouts – and good for them – but 90 percent of the girls I know wear make up, myself included.

And yet, I can’t help but wonder what God thinks about it. Imagine how Monet or Picasso would have felt if just after they stepped back from their masterpiece, some brush cleaner came along and said, “We could use a little accent here, and a little highlighting there.” Don’t you suppose that God made us just as He thinks we should look?

Whereas I have a hard time arguing that point with myself, I prefer to think of my face as a beautiful canvas and God has made me the artist – makeup being my medium.

Just like art – there are literally millions of ways to express ourselves with makeup, and just like art, our work can reflect our values. So if God gave us the canvas and we want to fill it with a work that reflects our appreciation of it and our love for Him, what do you suppose God would approve of in terms of artistic style? Personally, I think God

by Gwen Schumaker

With your

make-

up:

f r

would like us to paint our canvas in a way that accentuates the natural beauty of the canvas, rather than something that is hardly recognizable as human, such as raccoon-eyes. That would be about the same as that apprentice walking up to the masterpiece and drawing a big silly stick figure in the middle of Monet’s garden.

In fact, that raccoon-eye thang is one of my pet makeup peeves. Even the most beautiful of eyes cease to look human and instead take on the appearance of a nasty little garbage eater. A bigger problem is that raccoon makeup, calls to mind gothic and emo subcultures.

Are these the values you want to convey through your art? Are these the values you want to convey in a job interview? Besides the stereotype confusion, all that makeup around your eyes isn’t good for your skin!

OK, I’ve harshed a lot on black eyes, but that’s not the only way to look unnatural. Let’s talk about foundation. Getting the right shade is important; if we don’t match our skin within a shade or two difference, our faces end up looking either underworld pale or “I fell

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monet or a picasso?

are you a

f

z

u

asleep on the tanning bed” dark – either way, a real mismatch with the rest of our bodies. If we’re going to wear turtlenecks and gloves all day, we can get away with that, but if we’re going to even show some ear lobe, we need to ask a friend we can trust, “Does my make-up match my complexion?”

Getting the right shade is the first step to laying a great foundation. There’s another biggie that a lot of women skip and it’s another one of my personal pet makeup peeves.

We can’t put makeup all over our bodies – we have to draw the line somewhere, and most of us do it on the jawbone, just where the face is ending and the neck is beginning.

That’s fine, but please, please, make sure that the line that separates foundation color from natural skin color is well blurred. Cosmetic wedges work well for blending. You can’t blend too much, and do it all the way around the face – we don’t want any hard and fast lines on the scalp either, right?

Lastly, go light on the foundation. Too much makes us look like Barbie – that is, plastic.

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Just like other things, makeup can be used for good or “evil.” Our works of art can accentuate our natural Godgiven beauty or they can make us look fake and creepy.

Let’s honor the Master when we paint on His canvas.

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K

Spare Change Being asked to be someone’s bridesmaid is truly an honor.

For a little while you feel on cloud nine, after all this is such a blissful occasion.

But then reality hits and you start to hear about the dress you’re going to have to buy and the shoes and the matching purse and the list keeps on growing. If you’re in a wedding this season, here are some ways to spend way less without breaching bridesmaid etiquette:

1. Shoes can be so expensive, I should

know since I’m kind of a shoe addict, but I always shop for them when they’re on sale and you should too. When I was in the bridal party for Alma’s wedding, my roommate from college, I went looking for shoes and was able to get a pair discounted at the low price of $24.99, and these were good shoes. You also have to keep in mind that these should be shoes that you get to wear more than once. I wore mine to my college graduation, another friend’s wedding, my mom wore them for my sister’s graduation, so you get the point: make the purchase worthwhile.

2. The dress is usually the deal breaker for

a potential bridesmaid. When I was in college I had next to nothing to live on and I was very fortunate that Alma paid for my dress, but once you’re working and on your own people might not be so gracious. Rather than worming your way out of the wedding, getting the bride to buy your dress or just waiting around for the bomb to drop when the bride finds the “perfect dress” at Saks Fifth Avenue, as soon as you’re asked to be an attendant, jump in and volunteer to help the bride find a good value in dresses; in this economy you’ll be doing everybody a favor. One store that has been a hit with brides for their variety in prices is J. Crew’s Wedding & Parties. However, the most economical option, though somewhat logistically challenging, is to hit the clearance racks at department stores after prom season or after New Year’s Eve. If there are six bridesmaids, this might not be feasible. But if there are just two or three of you, and you live in proximity to each other, kidnap the bride on a Friday night and hit the mall.

Again, like with the shoes, look for something that can be worn on different occasions. If the dress was a long evening gown, how about shortening it? I’ll also never forget the time I read about Renee Zellweger turning her Carolina Herrera wedding gown into a sapphire blue cocktail dress when her marriage failed after only four months.

That girl knows a thing or two about not letting a dress go to waste!

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... w

Spare Change columnist Paola Segnini (right) celebrates - on the cheap - with former roommate Alma Lyle.

K 3. If you have to travel to get to the wedding, consider

carpooling with other members of the wedding party or someone in the bride or groom’s family. Offer to share the gas expense. It can be fun and will save a ton of money over flying. And instead of rooming alone, bunk with other bridesmaids. If you’re the only single female that needs a place to stay, surely you can crash with wedding party relatives.

4.

When Alma was getting married we all met in the hotel room to get our While we were waiting for the stylist to arrive, we watched a marathon of “America’s Next Top Model” on TV. By the time the stylist got there, America’s next top Alma Lyle and her bridesmaids (left to right): Megan Tavenner, Michelle Fischer and Paola Segnini. model was about to be announced.

Photos courtesy of Paola Segnini.

The lady was so late that the bridal party went into crisis mode and we had to do our own hair to save time. It’s wasn’t plan A, but it did save some money. Why not search the Internet for styles you like and practice styling your hair. Then on the big day, just arrive with a knock-out up-do and say you decided to do it yourself.

done.

hair and make-up

5. I like the way I do my own make up

so I won’t go paying anyone for doing something I’m perfectly capable of doing for myself. Go online and find a make-up style you love and copy the look. If you need some colors you don’t have, pop for a new new eye shadows or lipstick (but don’t go buying the most expensive ones, remember my lessons for saving on make up) – it’s still cheaper than paying to have your make-up done. If you can’t afford even a new color, search for make-up tips using the colors you already have.

And nails shouldn’t be a big deal after practicing Sally Hansen’s 5-minute manicure.

So there you have it! You can be a bridesmaid without breaking the bank. It might be humbling, but do talk to the bride about your financial situation. If she’s like most brides, she’ll want to save money too, after all there’s not much room for bridezilla during a recession.

Always the bridesmaid

without going broke!k

by Paola Segnini

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Just What You

Need

I love the idea of saving money with coupons, but here’s the problem: I don’t get any magazines or newspapers that have them, I don’t want to spend time surfing the Internet to find them and print them out, I find it too inconvenient to locate the scissors in my house to clip them, but if I should happen to make it past all those hurdles and actually clip a coupon and stick it in my wallet, inevitably, I forget to pull it out and use at the store! If you can relate, you may also have concluded that coupons are not worth the time or mental energy in the already overburdened-with-details life we lead.

Ok, card in hand? Now register for Cellfire – the easiest registration process I have ever experienced – and Cellfire will tell you, based on the zip code you enter, what offers are available. In less than one minute, I loaded my card (just by inputting the number – a one-time process) with twenty-some coupons. I have to confess that I just selected all the offers and put them on my card, just because I was giving the system a run for its money. However, when it comes to shopping, I am not going to, and please don’t you either, buy something just because I have a coupon for it. For example, I use Scott toilet paper (too much information?) because it’s economical. Even if I have a coupon for Charmin, it’s very likely that Scott would still be less expensive. If I let the coupon influence me into spending 10 cents more on toilet paper so I can pamper my hiney with a brand name, I’m not saving money. So shop smart with those coupons.

Hassle-free Coupons

But don’t give up on coupons just yet – not until you’ve fully considered and given www.cellfire.com a whirl.

The prerequisite for use of Cellfire is that you have to live near one of the participating stores – fortunately, that will cover about 85 percent of Americans. I actually fall in the other 15 percent (yea, lucky me), so when I registered using my zip code, Cellfire basically broke out in hysterical laughter at the prospect of anything in life becoming more convenient for me. So I shut it up by looking in the phone book to find a zip code of the place where I do my shopping and I registered again with that zip code. “Oh,” it said. “Ok, we have one store you could work with.”

And I knew that already because I have a Kroger card.

Do you have a grocery store card? Well, that’s going to be your second step. First step is click through to www. cellfire.com to see if there’s one of their 17 participating grocery stores near you. If so, go to said store and get one of their savings cards – they are always free and you can use them the day you get them. The card gets you a cheaper price on random things in exchange for the slight challenge of keeping up with another card.

It’s not hard to remember to use these cards though, as all well-trained cashiers will chime in as you check out, “Do you have a [name of store] savings card?”

Off to the store I go with coupon-laden savings card.

I put half a dozen of the items in my cart and when I check out and the cashier swipes my card – which I will want her to do regardless so I can get the savings on those other random products – the coupons will kick in too, automatically. Now that’s the way to make a barcode work for you!

OK, let’s review: 1. Log on to www.cellfire.com and register to find the participating stores near you – use another zip code of a more commercial area if you live in the boonies.

2. Get a savings card from said store.

3. Before you head out to the grocery store to do your weekly shopping, log on to www.cellfire.com and load your card with all the coupon offers you might possibly use.

4. Save money on stuff you need.

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