Get Out There & Stock Up For Next Year December 26, 2009

For those of you who don’t know (and I’m not sure where you’ve been if you don’t know!), today is the day that all Christmas stuff gets marked down! I suggest you make it your new year resolution to spend less on gifts in 2010 so get out there & start now!

Remember, have a place to put all your purchases that will help keep them organized! I also recommend keeping a list either on your PDA, phone, or something. This will keep you from buying 10 gifts for your mom, but nothing for your brother!

I always stock up on Christmas-themed gifts right now because I use them to make baskets to use as gifts next Christmas!

Do you plan on buying anything specific today?

Something for You, Something for Them, & Some Memories December 14, 2009

Something for you:

Free Disney Movie Reward points! Just go here & enter the code “AGENT”.

Something for them:

Sign up here to volunteer to be a bell ringer for the Salvation Army!

Some memories-

Here are some coupons to print out for Target Portrait Studios! I’m not sure about yours, but the Target around here actually does fantastic, not “run of the mill” portraits (which is high praise coming from a photographer, let me tell you!)

Christmas Gift Ideas for Anyone November 24, 2009

I start buying for Christmas in January. This is usually great, but when the calendar hits December and I’m not totally done with shopping- I start to panic. The most typical “hard to buy for” people are my dads, but sometimes there’s just someone who is hard to buy for. I’m going to try to do a little section periodically for the next month about “Christmas gifts for the hard to buy for”!

First idea is a photo book! They are perfect for anyone! I usually buy at least 20 books a year for various gifting reasons. There are lots of options:

• For kids- “All About Me”, “Alphabet Book”, “My Favorite Things”. For Bubba’s birthday, I made him a “Lego Book” of all kinds of Lego creations he had made this past year. I also make both of my kids an “All About Me” book each year.
  

• For family- My grandparents have everything they could ever need and more plus, the have very little room for more pictures. The perfect solution is a photo book! I put pictures from the previous year in a photo book for them. They love it because it’s portable (so they can show it off easier!) and it doesn’t take up a lot of room.
  

• For friends- It’s a great idea for friends to commemorate a special event- whether that’s a birthday, anniversary, graduation, party, girl’s night, or just a get-together!

• For anyone- you can take a series of pictures and put them together into a book! I have made a book with interesting pictures of clouds & landscapes. I also have some pictures of trees that I would like to make into a book for someone. Maybe I should get to work on that soon.

You can get photo books from many places: Shutterfly, Snapfish, Winkflash, PhotoWorks, even Walmart and Walgreens.

Keep checking back before Christmas & I’ll give you more ideas!

Joann’s Discount November 4, 2009

I’ve been thinking about making BabyDoll a little tiny sling for her babydoll’s for Christmas. I’m trying to find a perfect material for it & I stumbled on this coupon for Joann’s Fabrics. Now that all the local Wal-marts have stopped carrying fabric, it’s really hard to find a decent price so this helps a lot! It’s only available this Friday-Sunday so hurry up!

 

 

I Love Chocolate! October 9, 2009

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I love chocolate! I also love cookies and the upcoming holidays are already starting to beckon me. If chocolate and cookies have that same siren call for you, I recommend you checking this out! Hershey’s is taking applications to host cookie exchanges.

Now, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get accepted, but if you do it’ll be fun! They are only selecting 1000, but you’ll get all kinds of fun things if you win! You get a cookie jar, calendar, Hershey’s kisses, cookie dough, recipes, and bakery boxes! I’m thinking that even if I don’t win, I may have to host a cookie exchange anyhow!

Children’s Place Fall Sale September 16, 2009

Children’s Place just made even more reductions on their already sale priced Fall items! This makes some of these cute, fall items thrift store priced! And even better…you can get $5 shipping on any number of items! And it gets better! Use this coupon code (NEXTJ78) and get 10% more off your order!  I just got 16 items (including a few higher priced items) including shipping for $78!

I use these babies for everything! September 6, 2009

I’ve been a huge fan of IKEA since I lived 5 minutes away from one a few years ago. When I was that close, I could go browse every couple weeks and even have lunch in the cafe. Sadly, the closest IKEA is now 250 miles away, but I wanted to share a dirt-cheap IKEA product that I LOVE! 

The Frakta Shopping Bags are made from tarp material so they are very strong, lightweight and foldable. They have 2 sets of straps, so you can carry them by hand or sling them over your shoulder. I use these babies for everything! I’ve used them to clean out my car, clean the house (hauling toys from the living room to G.G.’s bedroom), bringing in groceries twice as fast, and so many more ways! My latest…and greatest…use has been laundry! It is so easy to carry loads of laundry with these! They’re so much lighter than those bulky plastic laundry baskets, they fold up itsy-bitsy when not in use and those genius straps make laundry so much less of a pain in my…back.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part! They’re only 59 cents!

I’m Obsessed with My Toilet September 3, 2009

Yep, you read that right! I have looked inside my toilet more times since yesterday morning than I have in the several months before that. See, I signed up at Right@ Home and they have all kinds of special offers. One going on right now is the Scrubbing Bubbles Gift Pack.

Mine arrived yesterday! I tried it out almost immediately. Now every time I go to the bathroom or my kids do, I’m in there checking out the little gel dot! It’s great! I don’t actually have to touch the gel or the bowl! And it’s not at all obvious because you put it right up by the rim. So unless you are staring at the bowl (like I have been…) you wouldn’t even notice that you are helping me clean the toilet! And each package lasts about 6 weeks! (Each gel disc lasts 7 days & there are 6 applications!) Pardon me now, I’m off to stare at my toilet some more!

Funding my Gaming Habit August 29, 2009

I’ve mentioned both that I like to game & that I love Swagbucks before I know, but this time they are related! See, one of the games I like to play costs money every month. What makes it worse is that my husband likes the same game. So it can get pretty expensive for “just a game”. However, I’ve come up with a solution to that conundrum! That solution is Swagbucks! See, I can buy “2 month game time cards” for the game via Amazon, but they are $30 each. I’ve found that I have been earning about $30 in Swagbucks every 2 months or so. That means that I can fund the DPH & I’s gaming habit for about 1/2 the price! I’m gonna try to search even more & earn more Swagbucks these next few months. Maybe I can get to the point where I can completely fund my gaming just by searching on Swagbucks!

If you are wondering what Swagbucks are, they are points you can earn just by searching. I’m used to using Google, but I’m really turning into a Swagbucks fan. You just go to their website (I have it set as a default) & search. Yeah, it’s that easy. You won’t earn swagbucks on every search, but it’s fairly often. I do have one bit of advice about it, though. If you look at the search, you’ll see the web address underneath. If it starts with “Sponsored by…” don’t even bother clicking on it. It’s just an ad. Otherwise, it’s a viable search option!

Wanna help me out? Sign up for Swagbucks here (because for a short time, I earn the Swagbucks that you do as well! But only if you sign up through here!). And it’s not completely selfish because you get Swagbucks, too!

http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=306808

My new favorite shoes! August 25, 2009

I picked up a really cute pair of shoes for next to nothing at Old Navy the other day and I just had to brag, because they are cute, comfy and cheap…my three favorite things in a pair of shoes.

I am in love with these Women’s Embellished Gladiator Flip-Flops! They are just as comfortable as regular flip-flops, my summer uniform shoes, but they are so much cuter and more put-together looking! I have a feeling I’m going to wear holes in these things as often as I’ve been wearing them, but for $7.50, I think I can afford a back up pair.