Monday, June 6, 2011

Coinstar and Amazon

   I recently discovered that Coinstar machines offer eCertificates for Amazon.com. This will come off as a shameless plug since I've recently set up advertising with Amazon. I suppose it is in a way.

   Whatever. It's not like Amazon or Coinstar are giving me any money to post this. Take it for what it's worth...

   So I've known that I could take change to a Coinstar machine and get a gift card or eCert with no fee. Some years back my son and I began collecting coins. The family saves all of our change and my son and I go through it looking for coins we don't already have. As a result, we end up with a large stockpile of change every so often. I used to take it to Coinstar and get an iTunes certificate to buy music and such. At the beginning of the year we just held onto the change because we were committed to getting out of debt, but it turns out most banks (and credit unions) charge a fee to take change that has to be counted. So the change just piled up. Then I stumbled on the Amazon eCertificate.

   The wife and I compared wish lists.

   I got a bag for my new laptop. It has all the features of any good laptop bag, but also includes two concealed-carry compartments with elastic-band holsters. It's nice being able to carry everything I need for work or just out and about in one bag. Plus it looks pretty damn good.


   We also got some stuff for the kitchen. We are trying to eliminate as much plastic in the kitchen as possible, so my wife picked out some Pyrex storage/cooking containers. We got a baking mat to cut down on parchment paper waste. We've been getting decent herbs from the garden (the oregano not only kept going through the winter, it's going gangbusters now), so we picked up  an herb grinding mill to help with that.

   My favorite item should arrive tomorrow. I've had my eye on a food mill ever since canning spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup last fall. I can't wait to try this one out and report back. Hopefully it will make the processing of all those tomatoes (and more) much quicker and easier!

   The past couple days have been very productive. I hope to have a post on that in the next 24 hours...

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