Which makes me totally annoying, because here I am with another announcement of another website.  First there was Fantabulously Coveted, then The Thirty Project, and now there’s Fantabulously Frugal in Chicago.

For the record, this is the last new website announcement I’ll be making for a good long while because as much as I’d like to make it happen, there just aren’t 30 hours in the day, of which I could spend 20 blogging. Hopefully this makes me just a tad less annoying!

Fantabulously Frugal in Chicago is exactly how you’d imagine it would be – deals for the Chicago area.  I’m pretty excited about the site because it is part of the Chicago Tribune’s blogging network, ChicagoNow.  The site is still written and maintained solely by yours truly but it is surrounded by myriad other Chicago-based bloggers.

If you are a Chicago dweller, I hope you’ll check it out!  I’ll be updating it far less than I do this site – my goal is only two posts per day, one of which will be a daily rundown of all of the daily deals available in Chicago.  {Like the sample sale posts I do here.}  Some posts will be duplicates of those you see here, though my goal is to really expand to include as many local boutiques, stores, restaurants, as possible.  And then, we’ll see where it goes, I guess!

If you work at or own a Chicago-based business, or know someone who does, or work in PR in Chicago, or are just really excited about Chicago I’d love to chat with you about getting store updates, specials etc.  Please send me an email to LisaChicago@fantabulouslyfrugal.com

Anywho, if you made it to the end of this post, thanks!  You Rock!

New Site: Fantabulously Frugal in Chicago is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

Dear Friends -

I’d like to formally introduce you to one of my newest blogs – Fantabulously Coveted.

I have been working on Fantabulously Coveted off and on through January, and some of you may have seen posts popping up on Twitter, or even in the links section of this site.  I haven’t mentioned the site before because I didn’t want to say anything about it until I felt the site was totally ready for its big introduction.  Well, something insane happened last week to push up the launch date.

Let me walk you through it …

I did a little bit of work on the site on June 10, and even added a couple of posts.  I’m prone to leaving all of the pages open on my computer screen so later that night I got really confused when I looked at one of the posts about a pair of P*aris H*ilton Pink Crocodile Pumps and saw that it had been retweeted 67 times, shared on Facebook 25 times, and had 24 comments.  {I didn’t have my email set up yet, so I wasn’t receiving notification about the comments.}

A little bit of snooping lead me to realize that the reason this had become the single most popular post I have ever written in my entire life is because of this:

A little tweet by Ms. Hilton lead to site stats that look like this:

How insane is that?!  I am flattered that Paris found the post about her shoes and retweeted it.  More importantly, though, her tweet reminded me to get my act in gear and launch this site already.

So, friends, I hope that some of you enjoy Fantabulously Coveted.  It isn’t going to be anything other than a catalog of “stuff.”  There’ll still be a focus on girly items, but there won’t be a focus on finding the best discount to snag those items.  While bargain shopping is my #1 love, I spend so much time window shopping online that there are *so many* things I want to share with all of you.  Now I’ll have a forum to do just that.  I can’t wait!

xo,

Lisa

Introducing … Fantabulously Coveted is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

I keep getting comments that look like real comments and appear to be from real people.  What’s weird is that the comments have nothing to do with the post, but link to various -and legit- websites.

Is this for SEO purposes on behalf of the companies leaving these nonsensical comments?  Do you want me to write about your company?

I am getting so many of these random comments that my policy is going to be to treat them as spam and delete them immediately. If you’re a company and you’d like to chat with me about coverage on FantabulouslyFrugal.com, then I’d love to talk with you. Send me an email and I’ll get right back to you!

I welcome comments from readers, and love each and every one of them.  But if the comment doesn’t make any sense and you’re linking to a website instead of a blog, it’s going in the trash can.

Has anyone else had a problem with this?  Can somebody out there explain it?  I am getting multiple comments like this per day and they’re driving me crazy.

Edited to Add: Just wanted to add here that I am only referring to comments left on blog posts.  I love when people/companies post on Fantabulously Frugal’s Facebook Wall!  And like I said – I love comments from actual readers!  And I love comments from companies, too, if it’s a real comment.  But a fake comment on a blog post in an attempt to get a link to a site via the comments is not cool at all.

Confused? is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

Luckily this is the last time you’re going to hear from me today!  I have a HUGE favor to ask of all of you…  if you wouldn’t mind, could you please fill out the very quick demographics survey below?  I have posted this a couple of other times because sometimes companies like to know who’s reading!  I obviously do not ask your name or email address.  Also, I’d love to know your favorite store and what stores you wish I posted about more often.

No question below is required – please feel free to answer a few or answer all.  Every little bit help!

Thanks so much for taking the time!

xoxo,

Lisa

Brief Survey is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

I just want to take a moment to apologize to those of you that may have received an email claiming to be directly from me this morning inviting you to join an iPad testing program.

If you receive this email – DO NOT OPEN IT.

Unfortunately, I am not actually inviting you to such a program, though I would if I could.

This is, unsurprisingly, one big scam.

I received what looked like a legitimate email this morning from a very trusted source.  I opened it and the email said she was inviting me to an iPad testing program.  This didn’t strike me as odd because I’ve received other such opportunities – legitimate ones – from this same source in the past.  I clicked through and completed the steps to join the program without giving it a second thought… until it told me I could invite friends.  It prompted me to enter my email password, which I did, thinking it would be like so many other programs that let you pick and choose the friends to invite.

Instead, the site never loaded, I closed it out, and realized immediately it was a scam.  However, it was too late at that point as the system instantly sent emails to all of my contacts!

I’m very sorry to any of you that received this email.  There’s a chance that the email could have gone to your spam folder, and if this is the case, leave it there!  If it’s sitting in your inbox, don’t open it – spam it.  If you already opened it and entered personal information, you should change your password immediately!

You know that if I have your email information from winning a giveaway or whatnot that I have never contacted you in an unsolicited manner.  It is the same today – I’m so sorry.    Stay Safe!

xoxo,

Lisa

iPad Reviewer Scam is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

This year I would like to host the same event, but would like to open the floor and offer all of you the opportunity to have your goods featured!

Do you own an Etsy shop?  Do you own a boutique?  Have your item featured as the Giveaway of the Day sometime during the month of May!  Each giveaway will be open for one week, giving you and your shop lots of exposure!

I only have 3 very basic requirements: Nothing can be “used.”  This seems like a given, but I’d rather spell it out here lest I be sorry later!  Second, the value of the giveaway item should be at least $20.  Third, this site is geared toward women, as such, the giveaway should also be geared toward women.

To make sponsoring a giveaway even better, one of the *required* giveaway entries will be that entrants must visit your site / Etsy boutique.  The best way to get business is to first get ‘em in the door, right?  Sponsoring a giveaway costs you nothing other than the cost of the giveaway item + shipping.

If you’re interested in participating, shoot me an email and let’s chat!  You can find me here: Lisa@fantabulouslyfrugal.com

31 Days of Giveaways: Looking For Giveaway Sponsors! is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

1. Beginning tomorrow morning I’m going to post a list of all of that day’s online sample sales at 8:30 a.m.  You’ll see some new sample sale sites on there that I haven’t posted about before, and should write more in-depth posts about in the near future. I will continue to write more in-depth posts about sales I’m really excited about, but this will be a good way to post about brands that I’m not necessarily familiar with {though you may be}.

A small side note about online sample sale sites – I’ve again been seeing a large number of them appearing!  I thought they were starting to taper off, but oh, was I wrong.  Curious about what’s new?  Check out the sidebar on Fantabulously Frugal.  I’m keeping a running tally of them there, though I promise to do posts about each site in the near future.

2. Heading to the grocery store?  Check out my new page that’s dedicated to printable grocery coupons.  These coupons update themselves quite often, so you’ll always find something new.  I swear each company offers different coupons, so you’ll want to check out all of the links.  It never costs anything to print coupons and you’ll always end up with grocery savings, making printable grocery coupons a true win-win situation!

Minor Site Updates: Online Sample Sales & Printable Grocery Coupons is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

Thanks for sticking with me on this project!  Since I’m no techno-wiz, sometimes it just takes a few hours to sit down and really learn how to do something.  With the boyfriend and Bacon out of town this weekend, today was that day.

If you want to sign up, the sign-up form is located in the sidebar on the right.  Happy Reading! 

Weekly Email Newsletter *Finally* Up & Running! is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

As I’m sure you can imagine, I didn’t even think about saying no.

Tomorrow and Thursday I will be joining some fellow bloggers in New York City for what I’m sure is going to be a kick-a$$ immersion event.  I don’t have any clue who else will be there, nor do I have any idea what they’re going to have us doing.  However, I will be in my favorite city on the Amex dime, so I don’t have any complaints.

The new card that Amex is releasing is called the Zync Card.  The card is customizable and comes with many cool perks and features.  Perks and features that I will know much more about in the coming days.

I will most likely post about this card, and they are encouraging us to Tweet about the next couple of days, so if you suddenly see my Twitter account {@fantabandfrugal} go crazy, that’s why.  I’ll share with you the nitty gritty of the card and give my honest opinion of it.  I will not, however, ever encourage any of you to obtain a credit card from Amex or anywhere else.

If you don’t hear from me too much over the next couple of days, this is the reason why.  I can’t wait to fill you all in on the fun.  And hey, if you’re going to be at this thing, please let me know.  I’m dying of curiosity!  I’ll be back in NYC in August for the Blogher Conference, but this will be my first big blogger meet-up.  I’m so excited!

Fantabulously Frugal is Temporarily NYC-Bound! is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.

Hey there all of you lovely readers residing in New York City!

I was just contacted by a PR Company that’s looking for avid coupon users and especially Coupons.com users that live in the Big Apple.

Is this you?

Here is all of the information I have about the project, though even this little bit of information sounds awesome!

We are currently looking for very avid coupon users (preferably Coupons.com users) in the New York City area and I was wondering if you could help me out. Do you know of any really active coupon users in NYC? We have an opportunity with a national cable news program and would love to find Coupons.com users to participate.

If you fit the above description and are interested in hearing more about this project, please send me an email that includes your name and email address.  I will pass your information on to the PR company.  How fun would it be to have one of you involved?!

My email: Lisa@fantabulouslyfrugal.com

NYC Friends: Do Any Of You Use Coupons.com? is a post from: Fantabulously Frugal.