My 12-yr-old brother is doing a very cool service project that he just emailed me about. I think it is a very good cause, and worth donating too. I do not have a lot of money to donate, but recently I have gotten a lot of great toy deals, and I cannot think of a better place for those toys to go than to this project! Please read this post through and if you are willing and able to donate, please email me at beckeesdeals@gmail.com and I will let you know where to send donations! Thanks you for reading this and considering a donation! Here is the email from my brother:

Hi everyone:
I am doing a service project for Hope of America, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club.

I have decided to collect items for the Kidstar Program at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Hospital. This is a great place that helps kids who are having trouble with depression and other emotional things. Kidstar is the school program for kids younger than 12. Some of the kids stay at the hospital all the time and some just come during the day for school. I have a friend who was helped a great deal by this program, and his mom said they really need some things for the kids at the school.

The items needed are (appropriate for 3-12 years old): legos, toys, puzzles, board games, dress-ups (boys and girls), and dolls. If you have any of these things you can contribute, either new or gently used (please make sure all pieces are there), I would really appreciate it. If you would rather send me a gift card or cash donation, I will turn those into one or more of these items.

If I am able to collect enough card/cash donations, I am going to buy some roller blades, which is a special physical activity reward given to kids staying in the hospital.The kids don't get to keep the roller blades, but they use them in the gym at the hospital.

If you can help, please respond to this email, and I will arrange to pick up the items, or tell you where to send them. I would like to have everything collected by April 18 so that I can deliver by April 28.

Thank you very much for any help you can give.

Sincerely,
Spencer

Every once in a while I like to post about the great mail I get. I figure it might show how the feebies and deals really do work and come and maybe it will help you to be as excited as I am about the things I post!! Also, when I get things in the mail that I posted about, I go back to that post and put stars by them so you can see that I have actually seen that deal/freebie!

That being said, I can tell you that when I got home from a week long vacation, I had a TON of coupons, deals and freebies to go through (with hardly a bill in sight!). I did not keep a list of all those, but I am about to go mark the posts with stars again.

TODAY in the mail, besides a bank statement (yes I still get those in snail mail) and a Netflix movie, I got a lot of things I have written about. I got 2 coupons from Lofthouse cookies for $1 each, my coupon for FREE Clariol Natural Instincts hair color, my FREE Cosmo magazine (from my free subscription), and a bonus exciting freebie!! Kohl's sent me a $10 gift card good toward the purchase of ANYTHING in the store between April 21 and May 1! WOWSA!!! I am LOVING that!!

Check you mail carefully and maybe you too will get this (or another) great surprise! 

This is really neat! April 17-25 is National Park Week and to celebrate that, the National Park Service is waiving entrance fees to ALL 392 national parks!! Please see details here. Also, some of the national park concessioners are offering special promotions as well. You can see those details here.

Let me know if you get to take advantage of this great offer!!!

Some of you might remember that I never got my Oreo cookies from the Facebook fan giveaway even though I signed up on time and registered. They had some issues with that giveaway, and in fact, people (who felt entitled to their freebie) wrote some nasty things on the Oreo Facebook fan page. I felt frustrated and sad that I did not get the Oreos, but I feel like freebie is a priviledge, not something I am entitled to. I never EXPECT a freebie. But at the same time, I DID sign up for it so I really wanted those free Oreos.

I had a choice, I could leave nasty messages on their wall (like MANY others did), or I could try to go about it another way. I decided to try to be an adult adn I decided to email the company directly and thank them for doing the giveaway, and let them know that I was among the number of people that signed up, got confirmation that I was getting a free box of GOlden oreos, but them never got it. I explained that I was a bit frustrated by this and wondered if there was anything I could do to get at least a coupon.

I did not hear back from them...not until this week when I got a very nice letter int he mail with a coupon for ANY free Nabisco cookie or cracker box up to a $4.19 value! Wow-better that the original coupon where I could only get the vanilla Oreos (I am a major chocolate girl when it comes to Oreos)!

WHat is my point? Two things really...One, you really DO catch more flies with honey, and 2 NEVER be afraid to contact a company and let them know about what you think about their product or customer service, or whatever! Just be honest and polite (even when you are complaining be as nice as you can handle).

Consider these as Beckee's tips of the day! :)

I do not know how many of my readers are in New England, but I thought it was worth posting this, even if only one reader out there gets to use it!

If you become a fan of Hood on Facebook, they will mail you a coupon for a FREE Hood Sour Cream!

Only good in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont!

Thanks Mojo Savings.

Sometimes I get more than a little frustrated at how great the deals are other people get. Don't get me wrong-I am so glad to be getting my own deals, and I am happy for my friends (and fellow bloggers) that get amazing deals. But sometimes it grates on my nerves to see over and over again all these people getting "paid" to shop when I was feeling great about paying only $40 when I saved $80. That seems great to me!

Well, if you, like me, ever feel frustrated and wonder why you cannot be that person getting paid time and time again, you should go read this post over at Mojo Savings. It has some good points to remember. Go check it out!!

I have mentioned Citydeals.com to you before as a great site for discounts and deals. They seem to have a lot of great deals in Salt Lake, and in other cities (sadly not Omaha at this point). Anyway, I got an email about their current deals (and reader Andrea also emailed it to me) right now you can get an extra 15% off their already diacounted prices by using code SPRINGCLEANING at checkout. Please click here to check out the deals.

Thanks Andrea.

We are major readers at our house (my 7-year-old is almost done reading the 6th Harry Potter book). One of our favorite annual summer traditons is to participate in the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program for kids. It is AWESOME! School Aged kids (it says 1-6 grade this year-I think it means the grade you are going into) that read 8 books and bring back their filled out "passport" to Barnes and Noble get to pick a free book (from their list). To read the rules and to download the form/passport, please click here! Bring on the summer reading!!

Go here to request your free sample of John Frieda Root Awaking from Walmart!

Thanks Combat Clippers.