Marketing Monday is a weekly feature that showcases a cool company, individual, or application of internet marketing. Got an idea? Send it to me!

So a completely serendipidous and slightly odd opportunity came over my Facebook feed this week. A couple who happen to be my friends own Barkwheats, a Maine-based organic grain-free dog biscuit company. Their newest flavor treat involves blueberries so they had an opportunity to buy bulk organic Maine blueberries at $2/pound. The price, however, would be even lower if more boxes would be bought so he passed on the opportunity to his Facebook friends.

The catch? The berries came in 30 pound boxes. Mission still accomplished. We bought enough so the price ended up being $1.75/pound. But how?

Daniel Scocco, author of Daily Blog Tips, is running a group writing project on his blog called 2009 in Review. I thought it was a fun idea so here are my best and worst ways I saved money in 2009.

Here are some of the best lessons I learned in saving money over the past year:  

Asking for something if I need or want it.  

When I moved into my house, I couldn't help but notice my neighbors left a cool looking bookcase outside in the rain.

Maybe they were putting it outside while they moved furniture around or were giving it to someone else. Really though, I didn't ask at first because I was worried I'd look like some cheap vulture.

I hopped onto the Ikea website to look at pricing some options. The cost was $69 for a Billy Bookcase... and $250 to ship it. Even my cheap local options still involved similar costs and the hassle of transport and assembly. Was my pride really going to get in the way of saving $100 or more? 

The good and cheap wedding series was a hit based on feedback I've gotten (though I hope more people will eventually leave it on the blog and not just tell me but hey, I'll get feedback wherever I can get it!). I learned a few new ideas from every couple, even people I thought I knew really well already.

Here were a few of the common themes:

1. Churches and town halls will hook you up.
They aren't looking to make a quick buck; they just want their folding tables back. I had no idea that for $0-$100, one could reserve a room as long as it gets cleaned up afterwards. Nice!

I've always wanted to do a series about inexpensive but great weddings and since it's a busy end of the week, I thought you'd appreciate getting to know a few more cool people. The following three days will feature three couples and how they had the day of their dreams without sticker shock.

The Happy Couple: Cherie and Michael
Location of Wedding: Jordan Pond, reception at Hulls Cove Schoolhouse (on Mount Desert Island, Maine)
Date: October 4, 2003
Total Cost of Wedding: around $3000

Tell us about your wedding day. (How many people were there, what was the ceremony like, overall impressions, etc.)  We got married outside on the lawn at the Jordan Pond House, with about 80 people watching.  The wedding was officiated by the Deputy Town Clerk using our own twist on a traditional secular ceremony.  We chose October with the hopes that we would have good foliage (we were actually a little early for it that year, but it was still pretty).  We didn’t have a wedding party, so we picked our witnesses by drawing random numbers (we had numbered everyone’s programs).  We purposefully kept the ceremony short and personal.  I wore a simple blue silk dress; Michael actually agreed to wear a suit--which we had to buy because he didn’t own one.  That was actually the second most expensive part of the wedding. 

So I have in the past prefessed my love for Hannaford's edamame salad but my love has since turned to their seven bean variety. (Hannaford is a New England grocery chain.) But at almost $5 a pound, what's a personal finance blogger to do?

I bought half a pound of my seven bean salad and took it home for a little doctoring up.

Starting material: 8 oz. ($2.72 worth) of seven bean salad (extra vinagrette please!)

I like to preface this by saying I resisted getting an email address until I was almost 18 years old. I actually even had a pen pal through high school, you know, the old-fashioned kind involving stamps and (in our case) elaborately decorated envelopes.

But now, I am an email girl. I like things in writing (especially things promising me money). I like issues communicated to me when it is most convenient for the other person to send and when it's best for me to read. I can use the search function to find correspondence I know I have and I can access it all from anywhere. It is the way of today, and of the future as far as I can see.

So why does Time Warner, a cable company with a state of the art website, send postcards to call them?

At the inn, we have a policy about not offering discounted room rates. When your business is the only open four months of the year and you have to pay shorefront property taxes, it is completely understandable to me.

We do, however, have different types of rooms available at different prices and a few available "packages" for off-season visitors (our "season" is Memorial Day to Labor Day).

That said, people have been calling to make reservations asking about discounts other than ones I mentioned. I have come up with a good explanation script that I've been working from:

This week, after realizing I overspent my grocery budget, I decided to not to go to the grocery store and live exclusively on what I had in the house.

Additional observations (see yesterday's post for part one):

I waited a little too long to update my budget spreadsheet this month only to discover on Tuesday night overspent my usual grocery allowance by $36. And I still had a week left in the month. D'oh!

Rather than panic, I decided to take the Not Go To The Grocery Store For A Week challenge. Usually when I do this, I plan to head so this time, I thought I was really going to have to rough it. (Warning: do not attempt this without a moderately stocked pantry.) I kept a notebook in the kitchen in here are some of my observations:

My friend HK used to use the term "forage" for what she'd do in our college cafeteria. Like any cafeteria situation no matter how good, you end up having to look around and create meals yourself with what's available... you know, unless you like having the same hot meal in rotation every three weeks.