If you have been looking at taking your family on a Disney Cruise, you know that for most of them you now need passports. We learned that the hard way! Passports are one thing that most people do not think about when they make their travel budgets but the reality is that they can be a little bit expensive depending on how many you need and how fast you need them. My daughters are only 8 and 10 and we have already had to get them a second passport each because they expire in only 5 years when you are under 16.

Did you know that it can take months to get a passport depending upon where you go? We used to go to the Post Office but my friend Adam introduced me to VisaHQ.com and they have some really great alternatives for getting expedited U.S. passports. You can get them in as little as 1-2 business days if you need them quickly. They actually offer a range of services from passports to Visas and I was lucky enough to get a coupon code!

From now through September 30, you can use coupon code SUNSHINE10 to get 10% off of the service fees for passports purchased through VisaHQ.com. Even though we don’t currently have a trip planned, we went ahead and ordered new ones for our kids because we would rather be safe than sorry if an opportunity presents itself!

As the owner of a cash back and rewards site, I am often asked by people how the whole shopping rebate thing works. It seems like it must be too good to be true. Alternatively, you must pay more for the items if you click through a cash back site, right? Wrong.

In its most simplistic terms, advertising on cash back sites is just one form of promotion for merchants. They pay for commercials, newspaper advertisements, radio ads, and website placement. They can pay a flat fee for those or pay on a commission basis. For rewards sites, they pay on a commission basis. If I put up an ad for Amazon and someone clicks through it and makes a purchase, I make a percentage of that purchase. Simple advertising.

The reward/rebate site model just takes that one step further and splits that commission with the person who made the purchase. With some cookie tracking on your computer, I can tell what link of mine you clicked on, when you clicked on it, and how much your total purchase was. I don’t look at what you bought or where you sent it or your credit card number. I just look at the total purchase price. I figure your portion of the commission and credit you for it.

Of course, there are a lot of things that can complicate the transaction. 1) You may use a coupon from another site or the merchant directly and because of that the merchant doesn’t owe me a commission, 2) you might not have your computer set up to accept the cookie that tracks the purchase, 3) you might have a toolbar that overrides the cookie, etc. Although these are not the norm, they do happen in a small percentage of transactions.

That’s the quick and dirty on how cash back sites work. There isn’t any kind of trick involved or increasing of prices. It’s simply another method of advertising that allows for purchasers to have an opportunity to get a little of their money back. You can check out Sunshine Rewards if you want to see it in action.

I have to admit that I have never ordered Lobster online before. However, it’s awfully tempting when you see the kinds of deals that LobsterAnywhere.com is running. Check out this Lobster Anywhere coupon:

$14.95 off Sweetheart Cove for Two Gift Package from Lobster Anywhere, valid until 2/18, code LOB14

You can choose from the 6-7 ounce tails or the 16-20 ounce tails depending on your appetite. Each package includes New England clam chowder and heart-shaped truffles.

And don’t worry if this Lobster Anywhere coupon doesn’t work for you (either because you are ordering something else or it expires by the time you read this post) because you can get free shipping anytime without a coupon on select gift packages. Click here to find out which ones.

Group buying and daily deals are all the rage now. One of the newest is Mamapedia, a site dedicated to finding family-friendly deals from restaurants to children’s museums to spa days. Their list of cities is growing, and it is free to sign up for their updates. My city actually has four deals today. It also appears that a number of the deals are “national deals” so even if your city is not listed, you can take advantage of the online specials.

I plan on signing up for my own city as well as a few others that are within driving distance. It’s the perfect way to save money on mini vacations for long weekends like President’s Day or school breaks where we can’t afford a big vacation.

Check out Mamapedia and sign up for their list so you won’t miss any of their “Sweet Deals.”

School shopping is upon us and people are looking for Back to School deals more than ever this year. Between the clothes, shoes, supplies, and book rental, the first month of school is an incredibly expensive time. If you are sending a student off to college, it is even worse!

So I ask all of you, what is the best back to school deal that you have gotten or seen this year? I’ll share mine with you! I cashed out for $200 in Kohls gift cards from saving up my credit card points. (It’s a card I pay off every month, so no worries about the interest costing me more than the cards!) I then went to Kohls during their Power Hour sales and saved about 50% off of $500 worth of clothes. I then had a 15% off coupon on top of that. After applying my Kohls gift cards, the final balance was $37. And I got a voucher from the “Get $10 when you spend $50″ deal that I get to go back and spend $40 this week! It was almost like getting $500 in clothes for free.

Your deal may not be quite that big, but what’s the best you have seen this year? Let’s all share so that we can save on back to school together!

Although I have been hearing about Groupon for a long time (and hearing great things), I had never tried it. I signed up for the emails and have been watching what they have to offer on Twitter. Every now and again I would be mildly interested but never took the plunge. Today was my first time.

What is Groupon? As best as I can describe it, it is a deal site that features one local deal each day that a certain number of people must commit to before everyone gets the deal. They aren’t really “coupons” per se but more like vouchers. I’ve seen them range from restaurants to oil changes to concert tickets. The deals are generally at about 50% off. It is a great way for local companies to get a lot of exposure very quickly. If a person wants the deal, they are going to tell all of their friends just so that the minimum number of Groupons are purchased for that deal. And one of the fundamental principles of marketing is urgency. By only listing the deal for one day, people feel more compelled to purchase.

I bought my first Indianapolis Groupon today for Holy Cow Cupcakes. My family tried them at Scotty’s Brewhouse a few weeks ago and we had been thinking about driving to Carmel one day to buy a dozen to try out their other flavors. I had even visited their website to check out flavors. So when I saw the Groupon, it was not only a reminder about the company but also the final push I needed to try it. The cupcakes are usually $24 a dozen but I was able to purchase a Groupon for $12. The checkout process was easy and within a few minutes I had an email allowing me to print off my Groupon. The only thing that would have made it better was if I was able to use PayPal to check out.

Have you tried Groupon yet? What was your experience? Talk amongst yourselves because I have some yummy cupcakes to go pick up!

It would figure that I went grocery shopping yesterday and today there are new coupons added at Cellfire! At least a few of them are things that I buy every single week. Have you checked to see what is in your area? Here are a few that caught my eye today:

• Betty Crocker Cake Mix and Frosting
• Yoplait Yogurt
• Cheerios
• Chex Mix
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Gardetto’s Snack Mix
• Pillsbury Grands
• Totinos Pizza Rolls
• Totinos Party Pizza

Remember that most of the time you can combine the Cellfire coupons with other coupons such as the ones from Coupons.com.

Click here to get signed up for Cellfire and grab these great grocery coupons and more!

I just got back from grocery shopping and saved $7 using just a handful of coupons that I printed off from Coupons.com for items that I was going to be buying anyway. As a disclaimer, I am not a very good coupon clipper. I don’t even get a newspaper. But I do like Coupons.com because I can just check off all of the boxes for what I want and then print them out. Here’s what I ended up buying this week. I could have used more coupons if I had wanted to try some different brands, but it was just a restocking trip for me to buy things that I use every week:

• Yoplait Delights Multipack (Lemon!)
• Yoplait Fiber One Yogurt Multipack (Key Lime)
• Three cans of Progresso Soup
• Kraft 100 Calorie Packs Cheese Bites
• Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers
• Fiber One Chewy Bars
• Sargento Deli Style Sliced Cheese
• Six assorted Yoplait Yogurt cups
• Wanchaie Ferry Sweet and Sour Chicken Dinner Kit

As you can seen, the average value of each coupon was about .80. The average item price was about $2.25. So I saved essentially a third. And that was on top of a few of them already being on sale. Yes, my family eats a lot of yogurt! I use the Delights as a “dessert” in the afternoon so I usually eat two a day.

Are you a fan of Coupons.com? Which coupons did you use this week?

Red velvet cake is one of my biggest downfalls. Especially when it has the yummy cream cheese icing on it. I can literally eat it until I get sick. However, it’s not really conducive to my counting of points on Weight Watchers. So imagine how excited I was when I heard that Yoplait now has a Light, Fat Free Red Velvet Cake yogurt.

I immediately began looking for it and struck out at both Marsh and Target. Fortunately, I was able to get it at Kroger today. I came home and made myself a sandwich so that I could quickly get to “dessert”–my new Red Velvet Yogurt. I am a fan in general of the Yoplait Light yogurts, so my hopes were high.

Let me say first to be careful when you open the container. You know how sometimes they kind of  “explode” a little yogurt on you? This yogurt is kind of a dark red, and I now have a spot on my blue shirt. Hopefully it will come out.

Next, onto the tasting. The flavor is absolutely reminiscent of Red Velvet Cake, including the cream cheese icing. The consistency is a little bit thin, but it’s not supposed to be one of the thick yogurt varieties. I think the red coloring actually adds to the experience because it helps your mind *think* that you are eating red velvet cake.

I was prepared not to like it because I knew it wouldn’t taste exactly like my beloved cake. However, it was definitely good and I plan on getting more. It’s more of a “dessert” yogurt than a flavor like peach or vanilla. That’s perfect for me because I love my dessert! At only 100 calories and no fat, this is a dessert worth splurging on. If you want to save a little money on your yogurt, Coupons.com actually has a coupon for Yoplait this week.

One of my favorite times of the day is getting the mail. I know it’s crazy, but I often get some really good stuff. Because I belong to a number of different survey and free stuff sites, I can expect to get something cool at least twice a week. Whether it’s a sample to try out myself, a coupon for something I use anyway, or a set of sample to share with friends, I always get excited by the mail.

I’ve been a member of Vocal Point since they started and am always excited when I see something from them. They are owned by Procter & Gamble and are a legitimate survey/coupon site. You get email newsletters as well as coupons and samples via snail mail. Most of the time you are then given an opportunity to give feedback about their products–whether they are new or just improved. You’ll also find recipes and little household tips (like the many uses for fabric softener sheets).

If you like getting free samples and coupons and are not already a member, you should definitely give Vocal Point a try. It’s free and will definitely save you some money.