Is religion as big a deal today as it used to be? Weigh in with the Red Clay Readers

Thanks for joining AL.com's Red Clay Readers on the second week of a five-week journey into "To Kill a Mockingbird," the beloved book by Monroeville native Nelle Harper Lee.

At noon today, you'll see a discussion story of the seventh and eighth chapters of the novel led by AL.com's Kelly Kazek, accompanied by a video of famed author Fannie Flagg talking about the Southern classic.

But, like last week, we want to jump into the week with a discussion question:

In the first chapters, Lee called going to church "Maycomb's principal recreation." Is that still true for towns and cities throughout the state? If not, why is religion or attending church not as big a On Sales as it was then?

Take our poll, and use the comments section below to share your thoughts, opinions and insights.

Remember that to comment, you must be signed up for a free AL.com account. If you've never commented on our site before, go to the top bar on this page, click on the "Sign In" icon and scroll down to "Register now for free." If you get stuck, email me at jsawyer@al.com and I will help you.

AL.com's Red Clay Readers, in partnership with the Alabama Center for Literary Arts, is a book club designed to take a fresh look at a southern classic with the help of our readers. The first version of the club, which focuses on "To Kill a Mockingbird," will culminate with a panel discussion at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville on April 25. Click here to get 20 percent off your copy of the book at Books-a-Million.

Design personalized gift coupons

It is the most time-honored way to send a gift without having to whip out your wallet. All you need is a creative idea for a Discount or an IOU, and GoodFor will help you make a gorgeous coupon that will make anyone in your life feel extra special.

Do you want to surprise your girlfriend? Create a coupon that is GoodFor "One free back rub." Does mom have a birthday coming up? Use this app to create a coupon GoodFor "Breakfast in bed." Are you short on cash and needing a great gift for your BFF? Use this app to create a coupon that is GoodFor "One free house cleaning." The possibilities are endless.

The idea behind GoodFor is to give you an easy way to create and share personal IOU coupons with your loved ones. Just download the app, and select a background. Pick from their featured illustrated designs, or pick an image from your camera roll. Customize the design by choosing your own border, font and other decorative flourishes. Make them funny, heartfelt or as snarky as you want. When completed, send your GoodFor via email or SMS.

Whenever you send someone a GoodFor, the person receiving it will almost certainly give you a big hug! Also, you are now officially in debt. The GoodFor recipient can cash in their coupons WHENEVER they want! Although, these coupons are not "real" coupons (like the kind you would find for retailers in the SnipSnap app) and they cannot be redeemed for cash, they are valuable and represent your word; therefore, they should be binding.

Send them to your mom, your boyfriend and even your boss. Above all, make sure you are giving that someone special a promise that will bring a smile to their face . . . and that you are prepared to keep.

Join me on Facebook, search Coupon Clippin' Cuties and add yourself to our group. Discover that the perfect gift for that "hard to buy for individual" starts with a creative coupon!

Sandra Dulakis is a nurse, mother, wife and founder of Coupon

Clippin' Cuties.

couponclippincutie@gmail.com

Banana Republic Accidentally Lets Customers Stack Coupon Codes, Notices, Cancels Orders

Rules are rules, and getting some special deals requires playing by the rules. If a company's website lets you use multiple Deal Now together, then that means that the codes can be combined, no matter what the coupon fine print says, right? Well, no.

Using multiple coupons together is a practice that veteran bargain-hunters call "stacking," and e-commerce sites generally don't let you do it, because then the deals would be too awesome. The Gap family of sites does, but it isn't allowed on all codes. One handy code that gave customers 40% off two regular-price items could be stacked with a 25% off coupon code, and online deal-hunters rejoiced. Then they stopped rejoicing when Banana Republic started canceling their orders.

The experience of one Fatwallet poster was typical:

I never received any emails (checked both inbox and spam) since Friday, so I called. I was told (after waiting for about half an hour) that my order had been cancelled because using more than one promotion at a time isn't allowed. Apparently, even though the website allowed it, it was mentioned somewhere in the fine print.

The CSR offered to apply the 40% off promotion, but when I had her break down how much each item would cost, the base prices were higher than when I originally placed my order, so that even 40% off was really only ~30% off for some things. Totally not worth it.

We've discussed in the past how companies aren't liable for pricing errors, and that also applies to errors in their system that let customers get away with things that they normally can't. Does that mean that Gap should have canceled all of these orders because the customers got too good a deal? In some cases, customers claim that the extra savings they go through using both coupons was only a few dollars, so the cancellations were automated or executed on principle.

We contacted Gap about this coupon mess, and will let you know what they have to say if they get back to us.

Get 40% off your on-line purchases with code @ Banana Republic [FatWallet]

Coupon inserts expected on Sunday, March 16

How many Discount inserts will we receive on Sunday? There should be 2 inserts including 1 SmartSource and 1 RedPlum!

You can see the coupon preview at www.sundaycouponpreview.com HERE for a list of many of the coupons we should receive this Sunday. This list is not exactly what we will get here, but many will be the same.

If you buy the paper at a store on Sunday (instead of getting a subscription), make sure you buy it INSIDE the store, not from the paper boxes. You want to make sure your paper has the coupons in it before you pay, which you can't do if you are buying from the paper box.

Happy shopping everyone!

This post contains affiliate links and I appreciate your using them!

Famous Smoke Shop Releases New Cigar Promo Codes

Famous Smoke Shop is the Internet's leading online distributor of discounted premium cigars. The company has currently launched a new slate of cigar promo codes to help save customers money when they buy from Famous Smoke Shop.

Easton, PA (PRWEB) March 03, 2014

Famous Smoke Shop is an online distributor of discount premium cigars specializing in offering the web's widest cigar selection, best prices, and expert customer service. The company has just announced its release of new cigar promo codes they will offer. Each Deal Now is applicable to any order made through Famous-Smoke.com or over the phone at 1-800-564-2486

Starting now, Famous Smoke Shop will be extending coupon offers to all of it's customers to take advantage of free products and instant cash back off their order through the middle of this month. Some of the coupons available are $20 instant cash back on any order over $200, free 6 pack samplers and 5 packs with an order of $125 or more. There are also bonus 5-packs, bonus ashtrays, and even free boxes of cigars with an order, as well as other bonus items. No matter what a customer wants to order, they are able to use a coupon on it to either save money or get free product ranging from La Floridita to Arturo Fuente.

Each order allows customers an opportunity to receive instant cash back of bonus items and every order may be able to include a coupon. This allows customers to customize their orders and get more for the money they spend.

Since the coupons were released, there has been a big splash at Famous Smoke Shop by customers rushing to take advantage of the deals. All of these deals and coupons are available not only on the web but through phone orders as well. People interested in learning more about Famous Smoke Shop's cigar promo codes can call 1-800-564-2486 or log on to Famous-Smoke.com. Customers should be advised that restrictions may apply on particular items. Full restrictions can be easily viewed on the company's website.

About Famous Smoke Shop
Famous Smoke Shop is the nation's #1 discount retailer of premium cigars online, offering one of the largest selections of handmade cigars, machine-made cigars, cigar humidors and accessories. Famous offers the web's lowest prices on a wide selection of cigar brands including Acid, Davidoff, Macanudo, Romeo y Julieta, Ashton, Padron, Oliva and Perdomo cigars, and many more. Famous offers their customers the best prices on all premium cigars as well as friendly and knowledgeable customer service.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/famous-smoke-shop/cigar-discount-codes/prweb11635426.htm

Printable coupon alert: $1/1 Progresso soup & .50/1 Pillsbury Grands Biscuits!

There are some super new coupons available for $1.00/1 Progresso soup and .50/1 Pillsbury Grands biscuits on coupons.com right now at zip code 77477!

An easy way to change the zip code is to go to the Coupons section on Swagbucks.com HERE (click on Discover and then Coupons). You also earn 10 Swag Bucks for every redeemed Best Buy you print through Swagbucks!

Then click on Local (look for the colorful coupons.com logo near the top and then look to the right of the logo to see Local).

Click on Local and then click on the zip code.

Change the zip code to 77477 then click Apply.

Finally, click on the word Coupons that is right about the zip code to get to the printable coupons. You can sort by Food to find the food coupons more quickly. we always get a lot of questions on how to change the zip code, so I hope that helps. Thanks to hip2save.com for the heads up on the coupon!

If you are not a Swagbucks.com member, see below for all the info on this super rewards website!

New to Swagbucks?

If you don't know about Swagbucks yet, it's the largest rewards website that gives people free gift cards for the things they do online. You earn points (called Swag Bucks) for online activities and then you can cash them in for gift cards to places like CVS, Amazon, Starbucks and many more options!

How do you get these super Swag Bucks? Each time you need to search for something online, use the Swagbucks search engine on their website (instead of Google). I actually have the Swagbucks toolbar installed on my desktop and it places a search box right on my screen making it super easy to search. Every once in a while, they award Swag Bucks just for doing the searches I used to do using Google. There are also a number of other ways to earn Swag Bucks including taking surveys, answering polls, watching videos, playing games, referring friends and more.

Swagbucks also posts additional bonus codes on their Facebook, Twitter and blog pages. When a Smart Shopper reader finds a code (usually one per day), they post it here on the blog so we can all get it. The codes are only valid for a couple hours usually. Once you find a code, you then copy and paste the code into the Swag Code box at the top of the homepage of Swagbucks.com HERE. . Look for the circle with the words Swag Code next to it.

New member bonus Swagbucks sign-up code!

It's free to sign up for Swagbucks and only takes a minute. New members usually get 30 Swagbucks when you sign up HERE but through the end of March, you can score an additional 70 Swag Bucks for a total of 100 Swag Bucks! To get the bonus Swag Bucks, click the text that reads "I have a sign up code" during registration and then enter the code: SMARTSHOPPER to get the bonus. Make sure you use all caps since it is case sensitive.

This post may contain affiliate links and I appreciate your using them!

Reddit: We Don't Know Where Gabe Newell Is...

This morning Gabe Newell was set to take part in a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). Gabe initially posted an announcement thread, and people posted questions in there. Reddit mods weren't too happy with that, and began deleting comments, with the hope that Gabe Newell would set up a new Reddit thread when the time came, but that hasn't happened yet. And no-one at Reddit knows what the hell is happening.

In an update posted on the AMA subreddit, the Reddit mods stated the following:

Hey everyone: just wanted to give you an update on the status of Gabe Newell's AMA.

Earlier this morning, he posted an announcement saying that he was planning to host an AMA later this afternoon (4 pm EST, 1 pm PST). The moderators responded with information about how to submit his AMA when the time comes, which we normally do with announcement posts. The thread was then locked the thread (disallowed new coments) and removed all other comments so that this information would be the only thing visible, making it easier for him to find.

Unfortunately, since then, no one has heard from Mr. Newell. We've been constantly monitoring his Reddit account, and the admins have reached out through their contacts at Valve. But unfortunately, after an hour of waiting, we have been unable to confirm anything. It is possible that he intended to answer on a different date (which does occassionally happen sometimes).

We'll keep you all up to date, but we know this was anticipated so we wanted to make sure you know what happened. When we do get in touch with him, he will either create a new AMA, or possibly will be added to our calendar, so keep an eye out both there and the /new queue. Just to be clear: there is no indication that the AMA is cancelled; just that we don't know when he plans to actually come answer questions.

Thank you all for your patience, and we're all looking forward to this AMA.

Hopefully the AMA will still go ahead. We'll update when we hear anything further.