Buy Free Stuff and Donate It

Back to School sales have begun, and now is the time to think of your favorite local non-profit or school, especially if you have no kids at home to school shop. All it takes is a little organization.
1. Check the sale flyers and advertisements at office supply, technology, and department stores and websites.
2. Buy things that are free (or pennies) after rebate.
3. Fill out the rebate forms (online when you can and save the postage).
4. Donate the supplies to your favorite house of worship, school, homeless/family shelter, or other non-profit organization.
5. Get your rebates sometime in the next 4-12 weeks.
You have spent nothing (or pennies) out of pocket and have made a gift-in-kind difference to an organization that you ca use it.

Last week, Staples had a sale on copy paper. Buy up to 2 reams at 6.99, submit a rebate slip for a rebate of $6.74. Total cost: fifty cents for 2 reams. Our synagogue buys by the case and probably spends $5/ream, so my donation was realized at a $10 savings off the budget bottom line on a consumable supply that is used. Imagine if even 10 or 20 congregants or friends made that same 50-cent donation of two reams of paper. It adds up. Add in the two 10-packs of Bic pens that were a penny each and it helps all the more.

Shop early in the week to make sure you get the sale items. Quantities are limited and there is generally a limit per household.

This week:
Staples
8.5 x 11 writing pads, limit two, $.01 with any $5 purchase. exp 7/21 (reg $1.49)
Insertable 5-tab dividers, limit two, $.01 with any $5 purchase. exp 7/21 (reg $1.49)
1" 3-ring binders, limit two, $1.00 with any $5 purchase. exp 7/21(reg $2.99)
FREE after rebate Mechanical pencil 5-pack, limit one, $4.29 with $4.29 rebate. exp 7/21
Multipurpose paper, $6.99-$5.99 rebate, limit two, exp 7/21
other sale items include: 2 pack pens, pencil cases, pencil sharpeners, memo-size clipboard, rulers,


OfficeMax
4-pack yellow highlighters $1, (reg $3.29)
Office Max also has a number of deals for free or near free after rebate, but their rebate is in MaxPerks dollars you need to spend back at OfficeMax. If you shop there regularly, it's certainly a good deal.

Culinary Oxymoron: Drunk Lobsters

I found myself thinking about lobsters today, and remembered that my grandmother had a peculiar method for preparing lobsters. Bringing home the live lobsters, she would put them on a baking tray and pour in some wine. The lobsters would drink the wine. We were told that the wine made the lobsters drunk, so they felt no pain when being plopped into a pot of boiling water. We were also told that the wine made the lobster meat more tender and flavorful. As a kid growing up in Boston, that is what I remembered. I was never a lobster fan myself.. in fact my mom reminded me today that when the family would go out for lobster, the order was four lobsters and a grilled cheese for me.
But back to the oxymoron. As I recalled my grandparents' house and habits, wine was never part of the usual  or special dining experiences, No one would just "have a glass of wine." There weren't bottles of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon in the pantry next to the ever-present box of Swedish Fish. No wine with dinner...except of course on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. And the wines of choice for making kiddush?  Mogen David or Manischewitz, both in their odd square bottles--that's all there was back then.
And the lobsters? Well, they spent their last moments getting drunk on Manischewitz Kosher Concord Grape Wine.
Oxymoron, indeed.