Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest! Follow along and share the deals!

by Kate  on: November 14th, 2012

Hi! Are you on facebook, twitter, and pinterest?  Check out our links – there is all kinds of different info on each social media outlet – check out all the ways you can follow us and we’d love to connect!

1. Subscribe via email – this is completely free & makes you eligible for our giveaways! - you will get one email each day, I never sell, share, or use your info for any other reason – it is simply to make sure you never miss out on a great deal! Check out the subscribe via email option at the top right of the blog.  Add SanDiegoDealsandSteals@gmail.com to your safe sender list.  Make sure to verify your subscription – you will get an email asking you to verify that you in fact requested the e-newsletter and  you were not spammed & the next morning you should start getting a once daily newsletter! Make sure to verify your subscription! If you don’t see your verification email within 24 hours check your spam filter – we have hundreds of subscribers that are not yet verified – I always want folks to get the email!

2. Follow me on Twitter -  Join my 2600+ Twitter followers!  Also please feel free to retweet anything you think your followers might enjoy!  I’d love to retweet great deals you find too!

3. ‘like’ me  Facebook - This is also a great way to get links for FACEBOOK FREEBIES, coupons, and more! We cannot share EVERY deal and free event here on the blog, but I often share sweet, last minute deals there!  This is a great way to interact with lots of other deal loving friends!  We will never run ‘comment’ or ‘post a pic’ type giveaways – we don’t want our page shut down for inappropriate use – we will always use the APP so make sure to check back often!  See what 2900+ fans are buzzing about! If you are already a fan I hope you will suggest to your friends! We are getting SOOOO close to 3000 fans and I sure would LOVE to hit that number this year – I just think it would be really fun!

4. Follow me on Pinterest – who here LOVES Pinterest?  I do! This is such a fun way to share ideas!–  I would LOVE for you to check out our boards! Lots of great info from our blog and also many others all categorized and easy to use!

5.  Follow me on Instagram – just getting started – but this is SO fun!  We share more photos on Instagram than we may with the blog, so this is a fun way to stay even more connected.

At San Diego Deals and Steals I love to share Library events, free community festivals, giveaways, value in stores in our own community, daily deal awesomeness, and share fun ideas on saving money while having lots of fun in our beautiful city (although you could apply a lot of these ideas to any area ;-) )

Share with friends and family too! Most of my readers have heard about http://www.sandiegodealsandsteals.com/ ‘through the grapevine’  – do you have a friend that might enjoy saving money around San Diego or on the web? Please pass it on! There is an easy to use ‘share’ button at the bottom of every post – it really makes my day when I see someone share!  You can also simply hit the ‘like’, ‘tweet’, or ‘pin it’ button at the top of each post – It truly makes my day to see information shared!  Thanks so much for helping my little page grow!

Remember I update daily!  Subscribing to our daily e newsletter is the BEST way to make sure you never miss a deal.  I promise I never share your email with anyone, and I never send more than one email a day!  Most of our giveaways are for our loyal subscribers!

Thanks for reading & thank you for sharing!  As many may understand, this little hobby of mine has morphed over the years into a nearly full time job.  It really is so much fun!  I truly appreciate you helping me grow.  If you ever find an article or post to be interesting, please know I truly appreciate you sharing and helping spread the word about MY little business.

Enjoy ~
Kate



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Stoke Box- great way to trade items you don’t need anymore for the things you need!

by Kate  on: October 8th, 2012

Have you heard of Stoke Box?  I am REALLY excited to share about this new business!  Stoke Boxes are an awesome way to save money and share with a network of families – pass along things you don’t need anymore, and get things you do need in exchange!

Stoke Box was the idea of a local momma.  She had a boy and was pregnant with a little girl.  She thought it would be very easy to find someone to swap with.  It is a great idea right? Well guess what?  She found after months of trying to find a swap buddy on Craigslist it was not as easy to find as she originally thought.   And Stoke Box was born!

It’s a pretty simple concept.  Your kids outgrow stuff when it is still in great condition or you took up a hobby that you simply don’t have time for any more (ie – I don’t have time to scrapbook anymore but I still have TONS of supplies) – you pack it neatly into a Stoke Box (one of three sizes).  Shipping is prepaid and you simply mail to someone who’s family needs/wants your stuff.  It is REALLY easy!  Once you have shared an item you get a Stoke Box Token – this is needed to buy a box.  Boxes are $10, $15, and $20 (plus a token) and that includes shipping!  You can see pictures of the Stoke Boxes online with clearly labeled contents.

There are new baby item, clothing for kids, knitting supplies, craft supplies, books, baking supplies, shoes, maternity clothes and more all listed right now!  Dozens of boxes are available, but more are added every day!

I just love the idea of being able to be a part of a network that shares at a pretty minimal cost.  The cost of course covers your shipping but also the listing and marketing of the box you want to buy.

I think this SO much easier and much easier than chasing after Craigslist ads – only to find they are already gone – ugh!  It is much less expensive than buying off of Ebay – sometimes auctions start low, but people get really excited and bid those lots way up!  I like that this is one set price.

Using the items you don’t need anymore to get tokens is really SO much easier than trying to sell on Craigslist or Ebay too.  I just like that it streamlines the whole process!

Check out my box – 266

Check out the other awesome boxes too! Do you have stuff you have been hoping to sell or simply pass down but just haven’t found the time/don’t have a friend who needs your stuff? Join the Stoke Box network – clear out your stuff and get what you really need!

Follow Stoke Box on Twitter for live box updates – it is new now, but as Stoke Box grows you are gonna want to be the first to know when new boxes are listed!

Follow Stoke Box on Facebook too!

Enjoy ~ Kate

*Disclosure – I am excited to be working with Stoke Box to help get the word out about their new business.  I was compensated, but all opinions are my own. You can always check out my disclosure policy HERE.*



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Kids FREE San Diego all October!

by Kate  on: September 16th, 2012

 Mark your calendars!  October is the month to get out and discover San Diego with the kids!  Dozens of museums, theme parks, and restaurants are offering free admission for the kids! *happy dance!*  This is not just for San Diego residents, so those of you reading who have been thinking of vacationing to San Diego – try to come and see us in October!  You will save a bundle! Here are just a FREE of the San Diego Kids FREE deals….

  • Kids get in FREE to Sea World with a paying adult!

free dance, theater, and more! (click above link to see everything – WAY too many to share!)

Birch Aquarium at Scripps

Coronado Museum of History & Art

Heritage of the Americas Museum

La Jolla Historical Society

Living Coast Discovery Center

Lux Art Institute

Marston House Museum & Gardens

Mingei International Museum

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Museum of Making Music

Museum of Photographic Arts

Oceanside Museum of Art

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (galleries only)

San Diego Air & Space Museum

San Diego Archaeological Center

San Diego Automotive Museum

San Diego Botanic Garden

San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

San Diego Museum of Art

San Diego Museum of Man

The NAT (San Diego Natural History Museum)

The New Children’s Museum

USS Midway Museum

and more!

 

Make sure to click the above links to check out more info and other places to see around town!  Make sure to take advantage of all San Diego has to offer!

Enjoy ~ Kate



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Can you do me a big giant favor?

by Kate  on: August 15th, 2012

First off – thank you so much for coming to San Diego Deals and Steals today, or as I like to call it – my “Little Site that Could”. ;-)

I wanted to ask our loyal readers if they would be so kind as to share our page today with someone they think might enjoy it.  We have lots of ways to share!  You can see we have Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other share buttons under our posts – we also have a little email icon too.  If you ever seen an article that you think a friend could benefit from, please do not hesitate to share!

San Diego Deals and Steals is kind of a hobby that got out of hand.  I originally started writing as a way to keep my calendar in order – my calendar became the San Diego Free Events Calendar.  I didn’t really think anyone other than a few of my friends would read it – honestly.  I had no business plan, strategy, or understanding of the internet or how blogs worked.  I just needed a free hobby and this is what my husband suggested.  I put a couple ads up (that didn’t make any money) and a swagbucks link hoping to add a few dollars into our adoption fund.  Little did I know that nearly 3 years later we would have a nice audience of deal seekers in San Diego – and beyond!  Little did I know how many hours my little hobby would take up!  But I also did not realize that after the better part of three years it become the job that I knew I would have to go back to eventually.*Please note – I don’t make very much money, certainly not as much as a ‘real’ job would provide, but I have found more ways to stretch a dollar so it is working for us, at least for now.*

Anyway, I really appreciate being able to write about saving money in San Diego!  It has helped keep my family accountable to our finances during a pretty crummy economy, but still have some fun!  My thoughts are – if I am writing it and it is FREE – we may as well have like a million more people reading it right?  Our page will always be free and we will never spam anyone who visits it!  We offer giveaways, update daily with free stuff to do all over San Diego, exclusive sales, as well as internet and national freebies!

I just wish more people knew about it!  I would LOVE for you to share!  Easy Peasy ways to share…………….

  •  forward your daily email to a friend who you think might enjoy it
  • use the share bar below a post you think might be interesting to someone
  • follow us on FACEBOOK – but also comment and use the ‘share with a friend’ options there too! Sooo Close to 3000!
  • follow me on Pinterest and feel free to re pin (pretty please repin!)
  • follow on Twitter and feel free to Retweet!
  • Just tell a friend if your conversation is about saving money!

I really appreciate every reader and still get very excited when we have a few extra visitors and when more people sign up for our newsletter (did I mention it is free? ;-) ).  Anyway, I love our community here and I just wanted to encourage others to check us out!

Thanks so much!

Kate



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“The Low Priced Leader” – Nu – Uh!

by Kate  on: May 13th, 2012

I received a fair amount of ‘push back’ during my Whole Foods on a Budget Challenge last month.  People think it is so expensive – it isn’t ‘cheap’ by any means – you can go to some places and buy some things cheaper, but not as much as you would think.  I just had to share this example with you.

One chain grocery store close to my house claims to be the “Low Price Leader”.  Their prices were only OK in my opinion to begin with – certainly not anything I would call the “Low Price Leader.”.  They used to allow double coupons which made for lots of great deals if you were willing to do the work with coupons – which I was.  Well a few years ago they got much stricter with their double coupon policy – and now they don’t allow double coupons at all. That’s lame.

I had sworn this grocery store off several months ago.  However, last week we got some pretty awesome coupons in the mail from them – free diapers, wipes, baby puffs, and a couple other freebies – total freebies – no purchase necessary.  Well, I’m not one to turn down free stuff my family will actually use – so I decided I would give this store a try again.  I wrote out my shopping list of things I needed and while I knew it wasn’t the cheapest store – I wasn’t going to go to two this week so it would have to do.

So I started with my freebies – put those in the cart and then moved on to a couple other things.  Shopping at Whole Foods Market Encinitas on a strict budget made me hyper aware of prices and guess what?! The Low Price Leader was more expensive in MANY areas!

Milk – less expensive at Whole Foods

Greek Yogurt – the brand I bought was not organic – and it was MORE (yes MORE) than the organic yogurt I purchased at Whole Foods in the same size.

Eggs – the lowest priced eggs at WF are the same price as the lowest priced eggs at this other store – but at WF they come from happier chickens.  Now I know that isn’t important to everyone.  Honestly, we have to be careful with our budget and not everything we buy is free range and organic – BUT – when I can, I like to be as animal friendly as possible.  And wouldn’t just about anyone buy the more humane option if it was the same price?!

Kashi Crackers – $1 more at the ‘LPL’ than at Whole Foods – no joke.

Baby Puffs – they didn’t carry the organic Happy Baby Puffs we give our little girl.  They did have several other brands that were about 50 cents cheaper but they were smaller containers – AND – when you apply the case discount at Whole Foods – the larger container of organic puffs with less sugar are cheaper! In addition to that we use the BOGO coupons for Happy Baby from RecycleBank (the other sub par puffs do not have this kind of coupon available) – my point is – puffs were more expensive at the LPL.

Bananas -a few cents cheaper per pound

Organic Carrots – more expensive than at WF

I needed a few other things – Oatmeal, Brown Rice, Black Beans, and popcorn.

I normally buy these things in a bulk bin.  Guess what?! No bulk bin at the Low Price Leader!  All of the above items are inexpensive even when sold prepackaged.  They are so budget friendly I bet many people don’t even think about how to find them less expensively.

Guess what?!  These items worked out to 50% more (or MORE!) at the Low Price Leader than at Whole Foods from the bulk bin.

Continue reading ““The Low Priced Leader” – Nu – Uh!” »



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Whole Foods Market Budget Challenge ~ total success!

by Kate  on: April 30th, 2012

It’s the last day of our Whole Foods on a Budget Challenge (brought to you by Whole Foods Market in Encinitas) and I must say – it was easier than I thought.  We had $600 for the month – for our family of 5 – basically $30 a WEEK per person!  Check out our posts about our Whole Foods Budget Journey HERE!

Here’s a little video of me talking about a variety of the ways we saved (I did misspeak – we spent $575 (I say $525) – we also bought MANY things in the bulk bin but we did not buy flour in the bulk bin – just wanted to clarify)

We came up with this number in a couple ways -

1) We took a poll amongst readers and found that this was lower than most paid for groceries per person – no matter what store they shopped at – yes, there were families that spent less – but this was lower than average.

2) This is BELOW the average for the SNAP program (if you cannot afford to buy food – the government will provide you with food via food stamps or the ‘SNAP’ program) – last year the average was $134 per person – this amount outraged many who said you simply cannot live on that amount per person.  I am living proof that you can – and you do not need ramen each night!  We ate grass fed beef, organic fresh veggies, fish, and some treats – all for LESS than that!

The rules were we had to buy all our food from Whole Foods Market in Encinitas in once per week shopping trips.  The only things we were allowed to use from our cupboards was spices and oranges/lemons from our neighbor’s tree – we didn’t actually use any oranges – but we used a couple lemons for flavor in several dishes.  The first trip was the hardest because we needed to buy a lot of the basics that we typically do not buy every month – we needed to buy flour, oil, butter, rice, pasta, ketchup, mustard, honey, coffee – etc in addition to all our regular shopping trip items.  We found that each week got a little easier.  We spent a little less each week and we bought a few more fun things each week!

Here are a couple ways we saved money while shopping at Whole Foods…………..

Case Discount – all Whole Foods Markets offer 10% off any item that can be sold by the case.  Whole Foods Encinitas currently offers a 20% discount through July 2012!

Coupons – you can find coupons for many of the brands sold at Whole Foods.  Whole Foods also has their own coupons online and in their Whole Deal circular.

Shop Sales – just like any store Whole Foods has a variety of sales items.  I noticed their produce is comparably priced to organic produce at other grocery stores – in many cases it is cheaper! (you gotta compare ‘apples’ to ‘apples’ – or more specifically ‘organic apples’ to ‘organic apples’ – you might be able to find cheaper lettuce – but you likely can’t find cheaper organic lettuce at another store – you know?)

Learn to embrace store brands – the store brand at Whole Foods is called ’365′.  We bought several of these items and it was great quality!

Bulk discounts on meat and produce – ask the butcher what the bulk discount is on meat and make sure to find the value section in the produce department – this was a GREAT way for us to stretch our budget!

Continue reading “Whole Foods Market Budget Challenge ~ total success!” »



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Things Baby C ate during our Whole Foods on a Budget Challenge – Slow Cooker Baby Food & More

by Kate  on: April 23rd, 2012

I wanted to share a list of the things our littlest member ate during our Whole Foods on a Budget Challenge.  While she eats the least amount of all of us, I really wanted her to have a very balanced, nutritious, and organic diet during this month – and here is what was on her menu………….

ORGANIC

Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Apples, Pears, Grapes, Mango, Strawberries, Purple carrots, Blueberries,  Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Asparagus, Celery – most of these were cooked in the slow cooker, Coconut Oil was added in our last two batches – please check out article about Slow Cooker Baby Food

Brown Rice, Black Beans, Quinoa

Happy Baby – multi-grain cereal, yogurt snacks, and puffs

 

Not Organic – but GMO free!

Corn, Peas, Bananas, a wee bit of chicken, a wee bit of pasta

Also check out our You Tube Video where we show you how easy it is to make baby food in the Slow cooker ………….

 

*She also enjoyed breast milk and gas reducing formula (not from Whole Foods as stated at the beginning of the challenge)

It would have been much more challenging to buy her baby food in jars.  Most baby food jars were close to $1 each and sometimes she eats two per meal!  While I am sure Whole Foods sells the most nutritious jarred baby food available – it is just very easy and much more cost effective to make our own and this was a great way to find a few extra dollars each day in our budget.  I’m sure several of the people who scoff at the somewhat higher prices (on some) of the produce at Whole Foods also might have no problem putting little jars of baby food in their cart on a typical shopping trip.  Making her food exclusively from Whole Foods Encinitas fresh produce from scratch was much cheaper (and more Earth Friendly) than buying jars or little squeeze pouches from any store!  You can of course use these recipes with ingredients from any store – but I sure do enjoy the quality of the items I bought at Whole Foods!

Do you make your own baby food? What is your favorite combination?  I am always looking for fun combos for Baby C!  Please leave it in the comments section

Enjoy ~ Kate

 

 

 

 



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Whole Foods on a Budget Challenge – last shopping trip this month – under budget!

by Kate  on: April 20th, 2012

I wanted to share a quick video of our haul from our last trip to Whole Foods Encinitas as part of our Whole Foods on a Budget series.  Just as I predicted, it was down right easy this week!

The first week was hard because I started with completely empty cupboards other than spices.  By shopping trip #4 we already had a lot of the things we use already!  We still have honey, ketcup, salad dressing, oil, rice, flour, baby cereal, etc.  In a few short weeks we were already starting to build up a bit of supplies and were just buying perishables – so we were able to get LOTS of fun produce and even had enough to take advantage of the case discount!

If I could go back – I would have purchased a little more chicken or maybe some fish.  We have plenty of everything, and since we were under budget I just wish we had gotten a little bit more  – the chicken we got is actually for a meal with friends so it won’t go as far in our house as I had factored – but even still – we have plenty!  Other than that – I am very happy with our purchases – LOTS of beautiful produce, breakfast foods, snacks, and far more baby puffs than Baby C can consume in the next 10 days!

Quick clarification – I was shopping with three kids and the two oldest were totally over it by the time we got to the register – so I wasn’t really watching the register tick.  I say we spent $117 – BUT – I checked out my register tape and there were a couple oopsies that would have made it even cheaper had I been paying attention.  First – I had 6 bags but I only got one bag credit – ah man!  I also made sure to buy the organic green leaf lettuce because it was on sale for a $1 cheaper than the red leaf – oopsie – it rang up as red leaf – honest mistake!  And one other thing – I bought the case discount of Happy Baby Puffs – I got 8 but for some reason one was scanned twice – so there was a charge for $3.49 – all in all – it was a $5 difference!  All totally honest mistakes that I know can be resolved – I’m not complaining – I just want to point out that this shopping trip was actually only $112!  Had I purchased the correct bottle of wine it would have been $110! WHAT?!

At this point – the only thing that is keeping me from making Whole Foods my only grocery store is that is just too far from my house.  That being said – I could absolutely shop at Whole Foods at this point for $400 a month – I know I could – there are a few things that are more expensive – but most of those things I wasn’t really buying anyway (ie – fancy schmancy cheese ;-) ) Shopping sales, using their bulk bins, shopping in their value sections, and using coupons makes it down right budget friendly! Don’t believe me?  Check out the Whole Foods Encinitas Value Tour!

 

 



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Strawberry Scone Recipe ~ Heart of Cooking!

by Kate  on: April 19th, 2012

I got to play sous chef to Robin from The Heart of Cooking the other day and it was so fun!  I am of course looking for lots of great recipes to use with our Whole Foods Budget Challenge – and Robin has lots of fun and inexpensive recipes.  Another thing we are super excited about is the Vista  Strawberry Festival!  I asked her if she had a yummy and inexpensive (and fairly easy) recipe that involved strawberries and this is what she shared with us………….

 

Want the break down and recipe? Yeah you do…………head on over to The Heart Of Cooking for the full recipe!

A special thanks to Whole Foods Encinitas and The Vista Strawberry festival for your support!

Enjoy ~ Kate

 



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Make your own fruit cup, and other non convience items – WAY cheaper – and better for you!

by Kate  on: April 14th, 2012

I’m gonna be honest – the first half of the school year my daughter enjoyed prepackaged fruit cups in her lunch box.  There is no denying they are convenient – but have you ever priced them out?  I would cringe every time I put them in my cart.  Why did I get them?  One reason only – I got a stack of FREE item coupons (not bogo, totally FREE) at a blogging convention in August for fruit cups – among other things.  Now it is easy to pop those things in a lunch box – and they were in 100% juice – there were worse things I could put in a kid’s lunch box for sure!

But those 4 packs cost around $3 each! – 75 cents a cup.  That may not seem like that much – but it is kinda crazy in my book.

I wanted to show how I made fruit cups all this week during our Whole Foods Challenge.

In this pic I cut up a reusable canister full of organic pineapple and one strawberry.  Organic Pineapple had been on sale at Whole Foods market that week – this is maybe 20 cents worth of fruit! It would have been more had it not been on sale – but it was organic and less than 1/3 of the price of a prepackaged fruit cup – and it is arguably a better quality fruit cup.  I simply put in whatever fruit is on sale.  I put in a little more than what is in a standard fruit cup and it is less expensive – and it does not really take much time at all.

She also brings her lunch in a reusable bag I bought on clearance at the Disney Store.  We bought reusable containers with a CircleBuzz certificate (no longer available) -they are pricey,  but the 50% off certificate made the upfront cost of the reusable items much more cost effective.  She also usually just has water in her reusable stainless steel bottle – buying disposable bottles is just kinda silly when decent water comes right out of my fridge pretty much for free. (I mean, it isn’t free – but it is less than those bottles that work out to about 50 cents a piece!

We also wrap her sandwiches in a Semilla Snack bag sandwich wrap we got nearly two years ago – same with the snack bag – they hold up GREAT!

Her whole lunch usually consists of a half sandwich, a cup of fruit or veggies, yogurt or a hard boiled egg, and some kind of crackers – sometimes we mix it up – but that is usually it.  Crackers are a handful from the box – not an individual package.

I can usually get a box of Kashi crackers for $1 (or less) with a Recyclebank coupon and it will last for her lunches and my husband’s lunches for a week or more – those little packages usually work out to about 50 cents a piece!  Plus they make the environment sad with all their excessive packaging.

Her lunch works beautifully into our tight budget of $30 per person per week – we’ve only got about $4 a person each day so we try to keep breakfast and lunch under $1 each while still being healthy – and without taking all day to make it.  Lunch packaged this way is usually right around a dollar – sometimes less depending on the sales and coupons I run into each week!

Anyway – just a little peak into how we are eating at Whole Foods for just a few dollars a day.

Enjoy ~ Kate



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Cream of Broccoli and Asparagus Soup – it’s awesome and it is easy!

by Kate  on: April 13th, 2012

So last week we WAY overshot on produce in our Whole Foods challenge – it is funny because we are spending LESS than the average polled and I still bought more than we could eat in a week – go figure!

So anyway – I had a lot of delicious and organic veggies still in our crisper this week.  I don’t know if this is weird, but when the weather report called for a big storm I got SO excited to make soup in my slow cooker. Seriously, excited.  I had left over organic broccoli and organic asparagus so I simply searched the internet for recipes that included these.  There are TONS of ‘cream of broccoli’ soups out there – but most use a canned cheese sauce – blech!  But I did happen upon this awesome recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking and then I modified a bit.

This is how my Cream of Broccoli and Asparagus Soup went down…………

Continue reading “Cream of Broccoli and Asparagus Soup – it’s awesome and it is easy!” »



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