Next to Newsletter: Next to Newsletter -Monday, November 29, 2010

Good morning everybody!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know the Glazers certainly did!

Let's do the Wild Card Sale again this week. Pick a card to find out where your 30% off discount is. It could be pants, menswear, shoes and bags, infant wear, dresses and sets, even storewide...who knows?

And we believe in do-overs. If you don't like your first card, feel free to draw again!

and don't forget...

Friday, December 3rd

10 am- 8 pm

Storewide! Half off original price

unless already marked less.

Cash, credit/debit or check only please. You can use your store credit but the discount won't apply.

My husband, Arthur, and I each write twice-a-month columns for The Times here in Gainesville. His deal with computing and technology issues. Mine deal with whatever strikes my fancy.

Arthur's latest was published on November 27th. Click here to learn about bargain shopping for technology online.

My November 26th column is about Black Friday, doorbusters and holiday gift-giving. Click here to read it.

Restaurant.com is the leading website for restaurants and restaurant gift certificates. It connects restaurant seekers and food lovers to savings at more than 9,000 restaurants nationwide. Restaurant.com’s Feed It Forward program is donating $30 million in free restaurant gift certificates – over 30 days. It allows you to treat friends, family, and colleagues —anyone—to a $10.00 savings on a great meal out.

When you Feed It Forward, you simply choose whom to give to, and the site takes care of the rest. Each person who receives a gift through the giving site can help Feed it Forward, by giving free restaurant gift certificates to others. You can give one certificate each day. The program runs through Christmas. Click here to check it out.

Win a Wreath!

Here's your chance to win a gorgeous Fraser fir and holly berry wreath crafted at the Optimist Club Christmas tree lot by N2N's own Teressa and Cheryl. Simply click on the LIKE button and become a N2N Facebook friend by Sunday, December 5 at 9 a.m. We'll pick a number and the corresponding Facebook friend wins the wreath! Not ready to sign onto Facebook just yet? That's okay- just drop me an email at next2new@aol.com and I'll add your name to the list!

The Gainesville Evening Optimist Club's 54th Annual Christmas Tree and Wreath Fundraiser is going full force. You'll find beautiful trees of all sizes and hand crafted wreaths at the tree lot on Browns Bridge Road next to Gallery (Wolfman's) Furniture.

The Gainesville Evening Optimist Club is dedicated to serving the kids of our area and your tree purchase helps further that mission. Stop by the tree lot any time...if there's no one there, you can just pick out your tree and drop a check through the "Honest John" slot in the door. How's that for easy?

How Wedding Cakes are REALLY Made

I hope you love claymation animation as much as I do. Click here to see a wonderful cake- themed animation (compliments of the inimitable Cake Wrecks blog) set to the music of Vivaldi's "La Traviata."

Getting the Jump on New Year's Resolutions

Molly's using this online tool and swears by it: Mint is fresh, intelligent online money management. Not only is Mint free, it saves you money. While existing personal finance software packages require hours to set up, a passion for accounting (is that possible?) and hours of weekly maintenance, Mint is virtually effortless.

With Mint, you can achieve better online financial management in less than five minutes. After that, revolutionary, patent–pending Mint money management software does the rest, with virtually no more work required. It automatically pulls together your bank, credit union and credit card data, and provides up–to–date and amazingly accurate views of your financial life from the big picture to specific details, in a friendly and intuitive way. Plus, Mint makes it faster & easier to achieve your goals. With their new Goals feature, you can set and track your progress towards goals—like buying a house, getting out of debt or taking a vacation—or create savings goals of your own. They even give you next steps and actions you can take to reach your goals more quickly.

Mint is safe and secure online money management: they never know your identity and they provide bank–level data security.

Mila's Daydreams

Rachel sent me this link and it made me smile. During naptime, Mila’s mom sets up a photo shoot around her. She guesses what Mila is dreaming about. Go see.

French Toast Casserole

Molly was home for Thanksgiving and on her last morning here, I fixed French Toast Casserole. Although the ingredients are similar to bread pudding, the texture is more like a souffle. Serve it with syrup or, if you're really ambitious, a nice hard sauce.

Ingredients

5 cups bread cubes

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup white sugar, divided

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon margarine, softened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.

Line bottom of pan with bread cubes. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over bread. Dot with margarine; let stand for 10 minutes.

Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. Bake in preheated oven about 45 to 50 minutes, until top is golden.

Wise Words

"Remember that children, marriages and flower gardens

reflect the kind of care they get."

--H. Jackson Brown, Jr. author of "Life's Little Instruction Book"

Weekly this 'n' that

N2N wants you to like us...on Facebook! Click here to go to our fan page and click "like" to join up. We post great deals when we find them during the week and link to other great frugal sites. We have the Deal of the Day and Hot Flashes...you sure don't want to miss out on that!

We'll be doing more drawings for credits and other goodies on a regular basis, so be sure to get in on the action!

It's heartwarming to see how many people step up to help others during this season of giving. We get lots of folks in shopping for needy families.

May I make a suggestion? Why not give a N2N gift certificate as part of your Angel Tree gift?

I've discovered that often those who would most benefit from resale shopping don't know about us. They spend their meager clothing budget at cut-rate discount stores where the clothing is poorly made and wears out in no time. The same money goes MUCH further here at N2N and the items are well-made name brands and mall brands that are far more durable and (IMHO) cuter, too.

We'll be glad to convert some of your store credit to a gift certificate or sell you a credit to use as part of your Christmas giving. You'll know the recipient will be able to find great fashions and learn about the many benefits of resale shopping at the same time.

Now, that's the gift that keeps on giving!

Remember to bring in your plastic grocery bags to recycle and register to win a $25.00 store credit.

Get a $5.00 store credit any time you bring us a new shopper. It's easy. Just bring in your friends who've never tried N2N shopping. When they check out at the register, we'll give YOU a $5.00 credit to use on your next visit.

Let's work to get the word out: friends don't let friends shop retail!

...and don't forget Senior Discount Day- each Monday, everyone 55 and over gets 30% off their cash purchases.

Computer Problems?

Arthur says that if you have an old computer- whether a desktop or laptop- and you have data on it that you'd like to have removed or copied, he can do that for you.

If you've recently changed computers or plan to soon, he can extract those photos and documents you may have thought were lost for good. Well, they are not lost and your computer may even be salvageable. Let him take a look at it. He can also replace a small or defective hard drive or add a second one if you've run out of storage space.

He reminds you that just as with your car, your computer requires periodic tune-ups, usually twice a year. He can clean the junk from your system, check it for viruses and malware and make it run faster. Even if you think yours is running fine, he can make it run faster. His rates are reasonable and he stands behind his work.
Call Computer House Calls at 770-540-5100 or email him at arthur@glazerthepctech.com. Your computer will thank you.