Misc Thrifty Ideas and Favorites

There are a few new freebies on the Wal-Mart sample page, so be sure to check it out and see if there's anything of interest for you.

If you are looking to save money by making your coffee drinks at home, get started with the recipes from Folgers! You can download this recipe booklet from Eagle Brand Milk to find a tasty treat to go along with it! (and be sure to invite me over)

Be sure to check restaurant.com for local restaurants in your area. The Certificates are 70% off right now, so you can buy a $25 dinner certificate for $3. Just be sure to read the rules/restrictions for each restaurant. These do work; we have used them ourselves!

One final thing: I love products that are kind to our environment and I found a great one yesterday. I purchased an Evolve showerhead and not only does it work, but it feels great too. I had looked at them before and got lucky and found one at our Tuesday Morning. I purchased the "tulip" for 24.99; it is listed for 79.95 on the website, so I feel great about the deal I got! It senses when the water is hot (95 degrees) and will slow down to a trickle to alert you that it is ready. This will save many gallons of water at our house because I turn the shower on and then work around a bit in the bathroom until I think it is ready. Now I know that it is and if I can't get in right away, the water is only trickling, not at the normal flow. The massage spray pattern feels great on my sore back, so I'm really appreciating my new purchase!

Friday Favorites

When I started couponing, I lost a lot of my love for Target. I would go walk around and shake my head at the prices. Now I have found that I can get some great deals there too!

This week they have a Quaker products sale going on; most of the cereals, bars, and oatmeal are 2.50 each. If you buy 5 of those products, you get a $5 Target gift card. If you are like me and have a binder full of coupons, you could use 5 - 1.00 MCs and only pay 2.50 OOP for 5 boxes of granola bars! I think that's a pretty good deal!

In addition, they always have clearance items scattered all around the store. I found Ken's Italian dressing marked down to $1.14; I had a 1.00 MC, so it cost me 14 cents. I LOVE clearance. I found some cute "thank you" cards marked down to $1. There are sometimes good deals to be found in the toiletries section too. It all depends on how much your Target is shopped; the less people shopping the more deals you'll find!

Other great buys:
Mott's Applesauce .64 after using a 1.00 Target printable coupon
Brita Water Pitcher $13 after $5 printable coupon (We needed this and it was on sale, plus the coupon)

Friday Favorites 12/26

For this week's favorites, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite blogs!

The Bargainist lists deals and sales from all over the internet. I have managed to find some great sales and free samples by having this blog in my reader.

The Consumerist has many articles about issues customers have had with various companies and services. It is a great place to get ideas on which stores/companies have good customer service and others that do not. I know it made me feel better last year to know that I wasn't the only person having issues with our cable tv provider and gave me the courage to switch to Dish Network.

parent hacks has parenting tips from real parents! It lets you search by age, so you can read only those tips that pertain to you if you are short on time.

If you love recipe blogs that include step-by-step pictures, check out Creating Post it Notes! Just looking at all the pictures makes me hungry!

Friday Favorites 12/19

I really can't say enough about coupons.com. I have printed out so many coupons and saved so much. If you don't want to go through the trouble of buying a Sunday paper but still want to get started saving money, go check them out. The coupons change frequently, so be sure to check back often.
If you are looking for some free magazines that are related to your job, go and see what trade pub has to offer. There are magazines related to almost every type of job and they are FREE! I have ordered a few science related ones in the past and never received a bill!
Swagbucks has become my new favorite thing on the 'Net. In less than 3 weeks I have earned enough to get a $5 GC from Amazon.com. I just use it as my search engine now and earn bucks as I search! I love it! (I love free stuff!)

Friday Favorites

Some of you who pass by my blog may not know much about me and my family, but to keep things short, we live in Texas and have a new little guy who is 4 months old now. I'm originally from Kentucky and all of my family is still up there, 18 hours away from us. Our son is the first grandchild for my parents, so the distance is hard for all of us now. One great program we have found to help out is Skype. We have downloaded the program and are able to make free video calls to my parents to let them see the baby on the webcam. It also allows you to make free Skype to Skype phone calls, so if you have someone you love to talk to, but hate using up your cell phone minutes or running up a long distance bill, you can avoid that with this program. I am very thankful for it when I hear the joy in my parents' voices when they see the baby smiling and cooing.

Another favorite blog of mine is Southern Savers. Jenny manages to find some great deals and help out with CVS and WGs scenarios, so be sure to go visit her blog!

Friday Favorites

I have been a member of several survey sites for a few years now and one of my favorites is MySurvey. I like the fact that I can request my rewards in money form, rather than gift cards or items I don't really need. If you like to take surveys and earn money, I encourage you to click on the logo and go sign up! You won't get rich doing it, but every little bit of extra money counts!



If you are pressed for time (I know we all are this time of year) please take advantge of the dinner made easy newsletter from Betty Crocker. The meals are simple and fast, but are still yummy. I know I am always needing new recipes, so I'm thankful to get this newsletter in my inbox!




Finally, if you need to save even more money than just regular coupons, try the Entertainment Book! It is $10 off right now with free shipping, so it is a great time to buy! It offers a variety of coupons, from local attractions, to restaurants, and many different stores. Click on the link and it will let you find the one for your area!

Baby and Child Favorites

It's time for a few Friday favorites!!!

I recently bought a few new toys for Eli and he is very fascinated with one of them. I really like it and may end up buying a couple more to link together. I like the Melissa and Doug line of toys and suggest you check them out!

One of the worries of parents is saving money for their child's college fund. One easy way to do this is by signing up at UPromise. You can earn money for your child for college just by doing your every day shopping. Many online stores contribute a percentage of your spending, so be sure you always go through the UPromise website when you shop online. There are also eCoupons you can link to your shopping cards...when you purchase that product, the value of the coupon gets deposited in the college fund. You can have friends and family members save too!

Friday Favorites

It has been a rough few days in the world of motherhood, so I'm a little behind in posting. I did want to share some of my favorite things on Fridays, so better late than never, right?

CouponMom.com is a great website for those who like playing the grocery game or need information on coupons. There is a searchable coupon database, so if you need a product and aren't sure if you might have a coupon in your saved inserts, you can go there and search and quickly find out. That is so much easier than looking through all those papers! It was a bit of a pain to register, but all the information available was well worth it.

I find so many of my bargins on DealSeekingMom.com. There are also links to other sites that you can follow to find even more!

Finally, if you need a good laugh, CakeWrecks is a super funny blog about cake decorating gone wrong. I like to look on there when I need a good laugh. :)

Oh, one favorite product! I recently bought a Crest SpinBrush on one of my CVS deals and oh my do I love it! It makes my teeth feel so much cleaner! I would highly recommend one! There is even a $2 coupon to help you out!