Money Saving Monday: Texas Tax Free Shopping Weekend

Our Tax Free Shopping Weekend for Texas is this weekend, August 21 - 23.  This provides an excellent opportunity to save even more on the end of summer clearance sales, school supply offers, and necessary back to school shopping.

New This Year

School Supplies are included this year.  According to the Texas Comproller website, these items are included:

* Binders
* Book bags
* Calculators
* Cellophane tape
* Blackboard chalk
* Compasses
* Composition books
* Crayons
* Erasers
* Folders; expandable, pocket, plastic, and manila
* Glue, paste and paste sticks
* Highlighters
* Index cards
* Index card boxes
* Legal pads
* Lunch boxes
* Markers
* Notebooks
* Paper; loose leaf ruled notebook paper, copy paper, graph paper, tracing paper, manila paper, colored paper, poster board, and construction paper
* Pencil boxes and other school supply boxes
* Pencil sharpeners
* Pencils
* Pens
* Protractors
* Rulers
* Scissors
* Writing tablets

If you don’t have the money to buy all of your back to school items at once, you are now allowed to place your items on a layaway plan.

Backpacks are also exempt from taxes this year.

Qualifying Clothing, Footwear, and Backpacks:

* Baby clothes
* Backpacks for use by elementary and secondary students
* Belts with attached buckles
* Boots - cowboy, hiking
* Caps/hats - baseball, fishing, golf, knitted
* Coats and wraps
* Diapers - adult and baby
* Dresses
* Gloves (generally)
* Gym suits and uniforms
* Hooded shirts and hooded sweatshirts
* Hosiery
* Jackets
* Jeans
* Jerseys - baseball and football
* Jogging apparel
* Neckwear and ties
* Pajamas
* Pants and trousers
* Raincoats and ponchos
* Robes
* Shirts
* Shoes - sandals, slippers, sneakers, tennis, walking
* Socks (including athletic)
* Shorts
* Suits, slacks, and jackets
* Sweatshirts
* Sweat suits
* Sweaters
* Swimsuits
* Underclothes
* Work clothes and uniforms

Restrictions

All items must be priced less than $100.  If you are ordering online, this includes shipping.

The following clothing and footwear are not exempt and will be taxed regardless of price:

* Accessories (generally) - barrettes, elastic ponytail holders, wallets, watches
* Backpacks - unless for use by elementary and secondary students
* Baseball cleats and pants
* Belt buckles (without belt)
* Boots - climbing, fishing, rubber work boots, ski, waders
* Buttons and zippers
* Cloth and lace, knitting yarns, and other fabrics
* Dry cleaning services
* Football pants
* Golf gloves
* Handbags and purses
* Handkerchiefs
* Hard hats
* Helmets - bike, baseball, football, hockey, motorcycle, sports
* Ice skates
* Jewelry
* Laundering services
* Leather goods - except belts with buckles and wearing apparel
* Pads - football, hockey, soccer, elbow, knee, shoulder
* Personal flotation devices
* Rented clothing (including uniforms, formal wear, and costumes)
* Roller blades and skates
* Safety clothing, glasses
* Shoes - bicycle (cleated), bowling, golf

Will you be taking part in the Tax Free Shopping Weekend?  Leave us a comment and let us know your plan!

Where to Find FREE or Cheap Books

FREE Books

Did you know copyrights run out on books? Most of the classics you buy in the store are available to download on the internet for free. Websites like Project Gutenberg and The Internet Archive are excellent sources for downloading books that have entered the public domain. If you aren’t into classics, you still need to check out these sites. Many books with copyrights prior to 1964 were not renewed and books printed without a proper copyright prior to 1989 are already in the public domain.

Some of my favorite public domain books include:

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

Many authors release their books for free over the internet. Some do it because they love writing and want to share their works. Some authors, like one of my favorites - Douglas Clegg, release their books for marketing purposes.

Publishing companies will run promotions offering free books for marketing purposes as well. We recently told you about one of these offers here.

It’s worth your time to visit the websites of your favorite authors and publishers to look for special promotions and to sign up for their newsletters.

Random House
Harper Collins
Douglas Clegg

FREE Books (+ shipping)

If you read a lot, you probably have a lot of books you no longer need. There are several websites you can use to swap your books with other readers.

My personal favorite site for swapping books is swaptree.com. I have had tons of success getting books I want through this site. The biggest advantage of this site is you make a direct swap. You don’t let go of your book until you are swapping for something you want.

Other sites like PaperBackSwap are great, but they work on a points system. I like to read fairly rare books and since I run the risk of sending out books and not finding the books I’m looking for, I don’t use these sites as often. If you read popular, mainstream books, you should definitely check it out.

SwapTree
PaperBackSwap
BookMooch

Used Books

Books are one of the best things to get used. The story is the same no matter how many times it’s been read!

Garage sales are the best resource for finding used books. This past weekend I got my son some excellent books for $.10 each! Most garage sale books run $.25 - $.50. A real bargain!

Goodwill, Half Price Books, and local used bookstores are places you can find real treasures for your library.

Some online sources of used books include:

Ebay - Don’t forget to shop through Ebates to save even more!
Half.com
AbeBooks
Alibris

Bargains on New Books

You can find lots of great books in your bookstore’s bargain section. Make sure you peruse this area first when you enter the bookstore.

Amazon.com offers an entire section of bargain bookson their website. You can find lots of great books for under $5.

A great resource I use on Amazon is their 4-for-3 promotion. If you select 4 qualifying books, you pay for 3 and get the 4th free. Thankfully the books we like are usually included in the promotion.

Amazon.com Bargain Books
4-for-3 promotion
Barnes and Noble Bargain Books
Barnes and Noble Bargain Books Under $5

Sam’s Recycling Program

Trade in your old MP3 player, computer, gaming console, digital camera and other electronics at Sam’s Club for a Sam’s gift card.

 Go here to see if your item qualifies, and to determine its trade-in value. If your item does not qualify for a trade-in Sam’s will still recycle it for FREE.

This offer is available to club members only.

Survey Site Profile: PineCone Research Panel

Great news - PineCone Research Panel is accepting new applicants.   This survey site pays you cash for every survey you take plus you get entered in bi-weekly sweepstakes to win even more money.  The only restriction is you have to be between the ages of 18 and 24.  If you qualify, you should definitely take part in this one.  Click here to join.

Update: Sorry, this survey site is no longer taking new applicants. (You have to be quick when signing up for some of these offers!)

For other survey sites profiled on Freeky Deals, click here.

Survey Site Profile: BigBuckSurveys

Sign up for BigBuckSurveys and receive a $20 Reward for taking a short survey. PLUS, be entered to win $50,000.

I just signed up for BigBuckSurveys and since I got free samples, sweepstakes entries, and opportunities to sign up for other survey sites that look promising, I wanted to pass the information along to our readers right away.

Click the graphic icon to sign up and take your survey.  I accepted the offer to get a free sample of True Lemon.  As a result True Lemon also emailed me a very simple recipe for Lemon-Lime Barbecue Chicken that sounds great.

After you take your survey, you will get additional chances to enter several sweepstakes ($3,500 gas card, $50,000…) just by taking short surveys.

To make your surveys even shorter, remember only questions marked with an * are required.  Any page that simply lists offers you can sign up for, scroll all the way to the bottom and click the SKIP button if you aren’t interested in signing up for the offers.

For other survey sites profiled on Freeky Deals, click here.

SwagBucks: Mega Bucks Day

If you are going to do any net surfing today, remember to use SwagBucks as your search engine.  Today is Mega Bucks day which means you can win much larger amounts of SwagBucks all at once.  It only takes 45 SwagBucks to get an Amazon.com gift card!

Click here for more information about Swagbucks or click here if you haven’t signed up yet!

Survey Site Profile: Surf Bounty

Taking online surveys is an easy way to earn some extra cash and prizes.  Each week I post reviews for survey sites I use.  I’m hoping this will provide you with some valuable information and answer some of your questions regarding survey sites.

Surf Bounty is a site that pays you cash to take surveys, sign up for promotions, and surf the net.  (There’s no better reward than cash, right?)  Right now they are offering a $5 instant bonus just for signing up.

When you sign up for Surf Bounty, you are registered to receive MyView surveys.  For each survey you complete, they will either deposit cash in your PayPal account or enter you in sweepstakes drawings for larger cash prizes.  As with other survey sites, you don’t always qualify to complete every survey.  My favorite thing about MyView, however, is if you don’t qualify to complete a survey, you are still entered into a great cash sweepstakes for that particular survey.

Surveys are an easy and often fun way to earn a little something extra for your family.  Last week I got to answer some questions about my favorite horror movie.  I’ll discuss that any day for free!

You can also earn money through Surf Bounty by signing up for samples and free stuff, playing games, shopping, entering sweepstakes, surfing the net, and more.

You can sign up here to check it out yourself (and get your $5 sign up bonus!).

Survey Site Profile: Ipsos i-Say

Taking online surveys is an easy way to earn some extra cash and prizes.  I’m going to start posting reviews here each week for survey sites I use.  I’m hoping this will provide you with some valuable information and answer some of your questions regarding survey sites.

Ipsos i-Say

Ipsos i-Say is a survey site that rewards survey takers with merchandise and gift cards.  You earn points for every survey you complete and once you’ve earned at least 50 points, you can cash them out for your choice of reward.  I personally use my points to redeem Amazon.com gift cards in order to lower my family’s gift budget!

You also get a chance to play a sweepstakes game at the end of each survey for a chance to win some high dollar prizes like laptops or HD TVs!

At the end of your first survey, you’ll be entered in a $5000 sweepstakes.

All surveys are completely optional and depending on your personal demographics you may get to test out products before they hit the market.

You can join the Ipsos i-Say program here.

Earn Free CASH by Surfing the Net

SurfBounty.com is seeking surfers who are interested in earning money by taking free surveys. It’s completely free, and they’ll start you off with an instant $5 sign-up bonus!

Swagbucks: Earn Prizes Surfing the Net

Earn gift cards and other prizes by surfing the ‘net!  Have you tried Swagbucks yet?  I use Swagbucks to earn Amazon.com gift cards by doing something I already do every day - using a search engine.

How Swagbucks Works:

1. SEARCH - Search the web using www.swagbucks.com and receive results from Google and Ask.com.

2. EARN - Swag Bucks are periodically awarded as you search the web.

3. REDEEM - Redeem your Swag Bucks for exclusive swagbucks.com products and more in the Swag Store.