Samuel A Clarke.com

I am always looking for the next great extreme couponing deal, and there is always a great deal to be had out there. The best way to get them is to be prepared ahead of time. If you have read my blogs in the past then you’ll know where some of the best places are to load up on great coupons are, just see my post ‘Coupon Sites and a free sample’.

One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning was turning down, or not bothering with getting coupons I did not think I could use. I am now ordering coupons all the time! You never know when you will have the perfect opportunity to use them. When a really great sale on something I have a coupon for begins – I am ready!

You can always find links to all my great extreme couponing deals in the ‘Maegan’s Deals’ section right here at SamuelAClarke.com, including the ones mentioned here in this article. Here are a few of my favorite extreme couponing deals that are on right now.

The ‘Kellogg’s Fibre Plus’ free sample and a $2 off coupon giveaway is back on for those of you who missed it the first time around (and second). You have to be quick if you want to get one of the free samples of either of their two flavours: Summer Berry or Harvest Brown Sugar. Both of them sound good to me! Don’t worry if you don’t manage to make it in on the free sample of cereal. Kellogg’s usually continues to give away the $2 off coupons for awhile after they have run out of the free samples. The lowest non-sale price for this cereal I have found is $4.97 for a 310 gram box at both Real Canadian Superstore and Walmart. Just recently, and unfortunately before I got my coupon in the mail, it went on sale at Walmart for $2.97. That would have meant with the $2 off coupon I would have paid $0.97 for a box! I’ll be hanging on to my coupon and watching for it to go on sale again! Which I am sure it will do.

Home Hardware has a great ‘door-buster’ deal on right now for Scott Shop towels at $1.67 with a regular price of $4.19. That’s an incredible price as it is, but if you use the printable coupon for $2 off that’s available right now – you get it for free! You have until Aug 27th to cash in on this extreme couponing deal.

The next big deal I like right now is on Dippity-Do Sport Gel. I have come across full size bottles at Walmart for $1.88. If you use the downloadable coupon available right now for $2 off, you get it for free! The coupon is good until Dec 31 of this year.

At Walmart right now, there is a special promotion on Purex 3in1 sheets. These are sheets that you put in the washing machine along with your dirty laundry and it doubles as detergent and stain remover. Then when you transfer your clothing to the dryer the special heat activated strip acts as a fabric softener. This is the coolest thing ever for someone like me who ALWAYS forgets to add my fabric softener. Normally Walmart sells a box of 24 for $5.97, but right now they have special smaller ’20 count boxes’ they are selling for $2.00. With the $3 off coupon that I hope all of you got with your mail-out Purex samples – the Purex 3in1 sheets are FREE! Are you beginning to see why I am a so obsessed with the whole extreme couponing scene?

Lastly, a drug store chain in Eastern Canada called Pharma Plus has Gillette Deodorant on for 2/$5. Using the coupon from P&G brandsaver, (save $5 when you buy 3 Gillette products) you can get them for only $0.83 each! If you are out west like I am, then you can hit up Pharmasave who has Gillette Satin Care or Shave Foam on sale for $2.49 each. You end up basically getting two for free when you buy three using the same coupon.

Go to ‘Maegan’s Deals’ for all the links and stock up on these extreme couponing deals while you can! 😉

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Just ‘a buck’ 😉

The PICAXE ‘X2’ series of microcontrollers, by Revolution Education Ltd., are Rev.Ed.’s advanced series of microcontrollers. The ‘X2’ series of microcontrollers are feature rich, and much much more powerful than Revolution Education Ltd.‘s previous microcontrollers. The ‘X2’ series consists of the 20X2, 28X2, 28X2 lv*, 40X2, and the 40X2 lv*.

The PICAXE ‘X2’ series of microcontrollers have many great new features. Features like almost every pin being configurable as an input or an output. Also the new PICAXE ‘X2’ series of microcontrollers have up to 3 pins that can be individually configured as hardware interrupt pins. The PICAXE ‘X2’ series of microprocessors have many more ADC channels available, support for touch sensing, and they also have an addition of two internal comparators that constantly compare two analogue values.

The PICAXE ‘X2’ series have much higher clock rates than before. Their default frequency is now 8 MHz as opposed to 4 MHz previously. This increase in frequency has greatly improving the processing speed of the PICAXE chips. The frequency also can be as high as 64 MHz!! The PICAXE ‘X2”s also have a much larger RAM, and up to 4 programming slots available on chip. In addition to the four internal programming slots, up to 4 other slots can be used by connecting an external i2c EEPROM chip – per i2c EEPROM connected! Since up to 8 different I2C chips could be used on the same I2C bus, we have a ‘theoretical’ 32 additional program slots available!

The new PICAXE ‘X2’ microcontrollers also have many more great features such as the ability to communicate with Microchip UNI/O EEPROM memory chips, the servo command now operates at 8 or 32 MHz, there is a new new doze low-power command, internal pull-ups, and many more great features. You can download the PICAXE ‘X2’ product briefing as a PDF from the link below.

(*lv = Low Voltage, 1.8v-3v Version)

Feature	PICAXE Command	20X2	28X2	28X2 5v	28X2 3v	40X2	40X2 5v	40X2 3v
PIC18F series		14k22	25k22	2520	25k20	45k22	4520	45k20
(V) Range		1.8-5.5	2.1-5.5	4.5-5.5	1.8-3.6	2.1-5.5	4.5-5.5	1.8-3.6
Firmware Version		C.0+	B.3+	B.0-B.2	B.A-B.C	B.3+	B.0-B.2	B.A-B.C
Max In/Ex Freq(MHz)	setfreq	64/na	16/64	8/40*	16/64	16/64	8/40*	16/64
Variables RAM	peek, poke @bptr	128	256	256	256	256	256	256
Scratchpad RAM	put, get @ptr	128	1024	1024	1024	1024	1024	1024

(* 32MHz [8MHz resonator with x4 PLL] is recommended for programs using serial commands as 40MHz is not an even multiple of 8 and so does not produce valid serial baud rates.)

See these other articles in the ‘Robotics:’ series…

• Robotics – Intro To Microcontrollers
• Robotics – Intro To PICAXE
• Robotics – Microcontroller ? Microprocessor ? or Microchip?
• Robotics – PICAXE M2/X1 Parts

Please leave your comments and sugestions for future articles in the series below. Thank you.

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Just ‘a buck’ 😉

Review article: ‘Robotics: Intro to PICAXE’

In my article entitled ‘Robotics: Intro to PICAXE’ I started out with a generalized description of the various PICAXE microcontrollers available from Revolution Education Ltd.. Here I would like to expand slightly and take a bit more In-depth look at the PICAXE microcontrollers. First starting with the ‘Standard Use’ class, then moving on to the ‘Advanced Use’ class after that. Revolution Education Ltd. has changed their previous categories from ‘Education, Standard, Advanced Use’ and combined ‘Education and Standard Use’ into one category. The M2 and X1 microchips are classified as the ‘Standard Use’ class, while the X2 series of microchips are classified as the ‘Advanced Use’ class of microcontrollers.

As of the writhing of this article, you still can purchase several of the older PICAXE microcontrollers, namely: the ‘PICAXE-08M Module’, ‘PICAXE-08 microcontroller’, ‘PICAXE-08 microcontroller (5 pack)’, ‘PICAXE-08 microcontroller (50 pack) [Only available to educational account holders.]’, ‘PICAXE-18X microcontroller’, ‘PICAXE-18X microcontroller (10 pack)’, ‘PICAXE-18M microcontroller (25 pack)’, and the ‘PICAXE-20M microcontroller (22 pack) [Only available to educational account holders.]’. I would suggest however that you stick to the the new PICAXE microcontrollers as they are richer in features, power, and cost LESS in many cases than the older discontinued PICAXE microcontrollers. (I am unsure how long the X1 parts will be available and would suggest moving up to either an X2 part or an M2 part instead)

In the table below you will see the stats for the standard class of PICAXE microcontrollers:

PICAXE Type	IC Size	Memory	I/O Pins	Outputs	Inputs	ADC	Memory(Data)	Polled Interrupt
08M2	8 pin	2048	6*	6*	6*	3	256(Shared)	YES
14M2	14 pin	2048	11*	11*	11*	7	256	YES
18M2	18 pin	2048	16*	16*	16*	10	256(Shared)	YES
20M2	20 pin	2048	16*	16*	16*	11	256	YES
28X1	28 pin	1000-3200	23	9-17	0-12	0-4	128+i2c	YES
40X1	40 pin	1000-3200	32	9-17	8-20	3-7	128+i2c	YES

(NOTE: the top speed of the M2 Series is 32MHz and the X1 series is 20MHz)
(NOTE: * Input/Output Pins are configurable as either)

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Just ‘a buck’ 😉

I remember the first time I saw TLC’s show Extreme Couponing and what my reaction was. It was hard not to be blown away by the sight of someone getting over $1200 worth of groceries for around $60! my first thought was, of course, “I am going to be the next big extreme couponer!” Well I am certainly not the only one who was blown away by the airing of the show. Within 48 hours of seeing my first episode, my chiropractor, dental hygienist and a neighbour had all asked me the same question, “Have you seen that new show Extreme Couponing?”

The buzz about the show was unbelievable! Within a very short time couponing seems to have become a mass phenomenon. I have heard stories from store clerks (who think that extreme couponers are going overboard) about people ripping the entire tear-pads off and leaving none left on the shelf for anyone else! There was even a news story the other day about a woman who was caught paying for one newspaper and then stealing the whole stack of papers from the machine just so she could get the coveted Red Plum and Smart Source coupon inserts.

As big as couponing has become it seems there is another way to make a fast buck on the rise. TLC’s next project is a new show, called ‘High Stakes Sweepers’, which focuses on another quick money subculture: People obsessed with entering sweepstakes. We will get the chance to follow passionate sweepstakes players as they spend their days and nights filling out contest entries in the hopes of striking it big. We will get the inside story on their strategies and surprising successes as these everyday people spend up to 60 hours per week searching for sweepstakes forms, buying products and testing their luck in thousands of sweepstakes in the hopes of winning anything from a tube of toothpaste to a trip to Italy.

So the big question is: are ‘extreme sweepstakes’ really worth the time and effort? Well if you ask one of the ‘stars’ of the new show, a woman who has won prizes worth more than $1.2 million, I’m sure she would shout a resounding, “YES!” but I will have to reserve my judgment for now. I guess I will have to shift some of my attention from ‘extreme couponing’ to ‘extreme sweepstakes’ and see what happens. Happy sweepstakes !

Check out the section ‘Maegan’s Deals’ for your links to deals, freebies, samples, and more…

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Just ‘a buck’ 😉

The topographical landscape of extreme couponing seems to be ever changing. I have been watching my wife Maegan venture out into this wild world of extreme couponing for the last several months – and though I haven’t been all that surprised by the sheer amount of work involved in tracking down and keeping track of all the opportunities to extreme coupon, I am surprised by the extent to which things have shifted out of paper and into digital over the last number of years.

I remember my mother sitting at the kitchen table clipping coupon after coupon. I half expected that to still be a large part of extreme couponing today. It isn’t.

Yes, coupons still come with the newspaper, but I’d say Maegan does 90% of her extreme couponing with a keyboard and mouse.

Extreme couponing digitally is a rapidly growing force that will likely take over as the primary method of distribution of coupons in the next few years if it hasn’t already! Companies like General Mills say they are moving more and more of their coupon budget towards digital coupons and away from news papers. Digital coupons boast higher redemption rates and often cost less to distribute.

Today the stigma surrounding extreme couponing and couponing in general is lifting, it is even becoming chic to clip coupons!

In todays age of economic turmoil more and more people from all walks of life are realizing that not only is extreme couponing fun, (There is no other feeling like getting 50%, 75%, 90% or even 100% off an item) but it is rapidly becoming absolutely necessary for survival.

Maegan will continue to post her finds in new articles and posts and list links to these treasures right here at www.SamuelAClarke.com.

Check out the section ‘Maegan’s Deals’ for your links to deals, freebies, samples, and more…

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Just ‘a buck’ 😉

For those of you who are huge free sample lovers, you are about to hit the jackpot! There is a new set of samples available from P&G Brand-Sampler. Every 4 months, P&G Brand-Sampler offers a variety of Proctor and Gamble free product samples for Canadians to try out! It just began a few days ago on August 8th but it won’t last long! There are usually about 6-10 different free samples in total to choose from.

Once you login or create an account at the P&G Brand-Sampler site, you’ll have to answer a short questionnaire about your product usage. It seems like the less products you say you’ve used or tried, the more free samples you will get! Also if you choose ‘Male’ in your profile you get a generic message saying your free samples will arrive in a few weeks, but if you choose ‘Female’ you get to hand pick which free samples you would like to receive.

In my free sample package, which should arrive in 4 to 6 weeks, I will be receiving: free Customized Pantene shampoo and free conditioner, 2 free Cascade All-in-1 ActionPacs, a free product coupon for a Febreeze Noticeables Single Warmer, an Oral-B and Crest Pro-Health free Sample Bundle that includes free toothpaste, free mouthwash and free dental floss. Also a free Olay 2-in-1 daily facial cloth, 2 free Pampers Cruisers and 1 free Always Infinity sanitary pad. There are also Oral-B, Crest and Scope free Sample Bundles in addition to an Iams pet food free sample. How incredible is that!!

You must be at least 18 years old to request a package of free samples, and there is also a limit of one free sample package request per mailing address per offer period. There are limited quantities of free samples, so hurry and go to Maegan’s Deals Page for the link to get your P&G Brand-Sampler pack now!

Check out Maegan’s Deals for more great Free Samples!

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Just ‘a buck’ 😉