My Amazon Prime just ran out so this is fantastic. Add this book to your cart and select the 2 day shipping. You will be prompted with an Amazon Prime thing about your 3 month free trial and how to cancel. Make sure you check out.

I finally figured out a written budget.  I’m only figuring in Dave’s income based on just 40 hours per week.  He will have holiday pay in January and he is hoping to work a little overtime.  I’m also not including any income from my ebay sales or my Thirty-One Gifts since neither of those are guaranteed income.  Hopefully I’ll make good money with Thirty-One but I’m not relying on that money yet.  So here’s the plan:

• $20 per week for gas As long as prices don’t go up this should be ok, however I have a feeling if we travel anywhere it’ll be more.  If we plan on doing anything extra we are going to have to make that extra money with either overtime or ebay.
• $60 per week for groceries.  This is a little high and with the pantry challenge this month I don’t plan on using this much this month.  This will let me have extra each week if there is some good deals or great rebates, whatever is left from this at the end of the month will also go into my ING account.
• $20 per week for fun.  I almost always make at least this much from my ebay account so it will be funded from there, if I don’t make that much then we won’t spend it.  Since this is the biggest splurge it will come out of the ebay money.
• With all the other regular bills that doesn’t leave alot left over but we will plan on putting $200 a month into the ING account.

I’m hoping to make more money with ebay and Thirty-One.  If you haven’t heard of them please check it out and let me know if you are interested in anything.  I’m also considering setting up an Etsy account, I have a very crafty side and it helps me relax.  I’m going to check it out and maybe start crafting and possibly sell some of my items.  I make jewelry, scrapbooks, paper piecings, knit projects, sometimes crochet, sewing.  What can I say growing up I had a mother who could do lots of crafts and I have crafting ADD so what she didn’t teach me the internet did.  Plus I have some income from this blog and Swagbucks and if all else fails I’ve been considering a part-time job.

As you can see I really want to put away more money to move.  I hate the apartment we currently live in with a passion, the hatred grows everyday and Dave and I plan on not putting the Christmas tree back up here.  So we either move and rent a house or buy a house.  I’m not fussy either way at the moment.  LOL

So how is your budget coming?? How do you plan on making a little extra? 

This is a great way to start the year with a personalized calendar and one for a family member too.

If you follow many blogs you’ve no doubt seen this logo and lots of people talking about following along with this challenge.

I’ve decided that along with Precious’s Money Saving Challenge I will be joining this challenge as well.

Here are some guidelines they have set to help get started:

• Reduce grocery spending. We're talking about reducing grocery spending this month, not eliminating it. Set a goal that is lower than your regular food budget and shoot for not exceeding it.
• Take stock. Take an afternoon and empty your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. Ditch what's gone bad and make a list of what's left. Knowing what you have will make you less likely to buy more.
• Use what you have. Check your pantry before you meal plan or head off to the store. Develop meals based on what you have rather than buying new.

Now here’s what we are going to be doing here.

• Starting January 1st we will be reducing the spending.  I will have to buy fresh fruits, milk and some veggies every week.  I will also be getting any free foods or foods under .50 that we use regularly.  I will be couponing all that I can to reduce those costs.
• I will be going through the pantry at some point in the next 2 weeks (after school starts again) and donating the things that won’t be used if they are close to expiring to the local food pantry.
• I don’t meal plan, I’ve tried and failed several times.  I’m trying to focus all my frustrations I mean energy on following a written budget so I won’t be attempting the meal planning this month.  But I will be preplanning what I can.
• We are going to make a big effort to eat every meal at home for the month of January.  Honestly the only draw to eating out is not having to clean up, most of the time I know I could make better food but I don’t want to be bothered.

We have no family coming up this month (that I know of) so we should be able to stick to this very well.  The money we save will be going into the new account I just opened with ING for a down payment someday on a house.  If you are thinking about opening an account with them please let me know there is a referral bonus and I’d love to send you the link, they have a good interest rate for a basic savings account (1.3% vs .25% at my bank)

Drop me a comment if you are planning on joining on to this challenge.  I’d love to hear how you are doing.

I think I have the comment problem fixed, thanks Precious for emailing me to let me know.  The easiest fix I could find was to just make the comment a pop up window so if you can’t leave a comment check your pop-ups.  Again please let me know if this is a problem or difficult, I was amazed that it was so easy to fix.

If you come across anymore kinks please feel free to let me know.  I’m new to all this kind of stuff so I will most likely screw up a few times.  LOL

Have a great night all!!

You have more than likely noticed a big change in my design.  I’ve been looking for awhile for something more fitting and decided with the New Year and the new challenges I’d start fresh with a new blog face.

If you have any trouble viewing anything please let me know so I can change things and make it easier for you.  Thanks for sticking around during the growing pains.

It’s time to print your Holiday Photos and any other ones you might need to print off.  Go to Walgreens.com and start uploading, they are currently offering 9 cent photos as long as you buy 50 or more.  You have until 1/2/10 to order all your photos so get going. 

This fits in really well to my frugal budget as this is about as cheap as I will find them.  I plan on printing as many as I can this week and hopefully I can find a nice deal at Wag’s with RR’s and pay for the photos with them.

Check back next week I’m going to start to tackle my New Year’s goals and keeping my money in my account and not anyone else’s.  What are your goals?  I’m going to try and get a budget in writing and pick an amount that we’ll spend every month and once that money is gone it’s gone.  We’ll see how it goes.  LOL

As I sit here thinking about all the things I should be doing I thought maybe I’d start thinking about next year at least till it warms up in here.  I don’t want to wash dishes or vacum, I’d like to stay under the warm blanket.  LOL

So here’s a few things that we are hoping for next year.

1. Get back on the money saving wagon.  I’ve done well at the grocery store the past month thanks to a full freezer but of course there’s lots of holiday shopping.
2. Start drug store shopping again.  I’ve been pretty burnt out at CVS and Wag’s, I have lots of stuff and little room to store it but some of my stash it starting to dwindle and I want success at my next yardsale.
3. I want to lose some weight.  DH and I both want to lose a few extra pounds so we’ll be helping each other stay motivated.  I just got into the Jenny McCarthy houseparty that came with her new Wii game and I’m getting a few Wii fitness games for Christmas to help.
4. My biggest goal is to increase our savings account balance.  Dave and I want to move and are hoping that we can afford to buy a house in the next year otherwise we’ll hopefully move into a rented house.  We have outgrown our little home and it’s hard for Shawn to have friends over since it gets crowded quick with more than one 5 yr old running around.
5. In order to obtain that goal we’ll be spending less and I’ll be looking for more ways to earn money.  I’ll be back to religiously clicking all the emails, tracking rebates and ebates for everything we have to buy, selling stuff we don’t need, and I will be devoting myself to selling my Thirty-One gifts.
6. Of course I’ll be getting back on track with blogging as well.  Blogging here helps me save more and be more accountable.

Well that seems like a hefty list.  I’m also working on setting up a weekly budget for next year that will hopefully let us save even more.  You might not see me much for the rest of the year since life is hectic with Shawn home everyday and of course preparing for the holidays but I will be back and better than before very soon.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

I just got my party pack for the Fun Fit Guilt Free party from houseparty and am so excited. I got this game:

I just was able to order 1 Zhu Zhu hamster online through Walmart.com  head over there and search for them.  I put a 2 pk of them in my cart and it gave the option to buy just one at the top in the other customers bought section.  I added one of them to the cart got rid of the 2pk because we only really need 1 and am getting it shipped to my home.  They are only $8 at Walmart but act fast they may be gone soon.

for a decent price!!!!

Is your little one worried about what to get the family pet for Christmas??  Mine was and then I saw what the Lowes project was for this weekend, a Pet Treat Keeper.  I’ll be taking Shawn over but SHHHHH!!! don’t tell Belle (the dog) he doesn’t want her to know what it is.  Don’t ask how we are going to wrap this without the dog seeing. LOL

Could it be any cuter??  Head on over to the Build and Grow site and sign up before it’s too late.  While you are there you might as well sign up for the one on 1/9 here’s a pic of that one to.

So I've been super busy and really bad about posting the free songs that amazon is offering everyday. Add that to the fact there have been a few that I just don't care for and I haven't posted most of them so here's a link to take you straight to the page that has them all listed.

Free Amazon Songs

Enjoy!!!!!

I won't be posting the daily freebie song from Amazon today because it has language in it that I wouldn't want my son to listen to. You can find it on their site but I did find 2 other free songs that you might be interested in that seem to be much cleaner.

There are all sorts of great free events to take the kids to tomorrow. We are going to be very busy running from here to there.

Lowes event this weekend is a Gingerbread house. Their event runs from 10am to 11am. You might want to head over here and sign up now since they fill up quickly.

Home Depot is also having a building event this weekend. They are building this cute little wagon. The event runs from 9am to Noon, there is no preregistering here.

Michaels will be having a Sant'a’s Workshop with 3 free Make and Takes for the kids. They can make a Holiday Card, a Stocking or a Trinket Box. This event goes from 10am to 1pm.

And just in case you have any energy left you can head over to Bass Pro Shops and your kids can make a very cute Reindeer Hat from Noon to 5pm and get a free photo with Santa while they are there. We went a few weeks ago and there was lots of fun stuff for the kids.

Have a great weekend and try not to run around too much.

Here's today's free music download it's Snow Angel by Tori Amos

Amazon is having a promo for you to get some more free mp3 downloads. Click the link below everyday to see what the new free song of the day is.
Free Holiday Downloads

Today's pick is Joy to the World by Casting Crows. Check back tomorrow and I'll post the next freebie.

I posted the other day about Staples free 20pk of Duracell but thought it deserved another look.

I’ve worked out a way for you to get your free (after rebate) batteries.  Don’t forget that your rebate will be in the form of a Staples Rewards Check that can be used only at your Staples store.  But to be honest we all need paper and ink to print coupons.

Anyways here’s my super easy scenario.  First go here and sign up for ShopatHome and search for Staples through them.  This will give you a 3% rebate (it’s not much but every little bit helps) order your Duracell Batteries make sure that it says special buy on the screen and pay $25.98 plus tax.  Select ship to store and pick them up at your local Staples at your convenience.  The 3% will help cover the tax and remember you can do this twice a week through Christmas. 

Oh and when you go to pick up your batteries make sure you take your rewards card and any extra used ink cartridges you may have laying around since they are worth $3 each.

If you don’t have a Staples Rewards Card already sign up for one here.

Here's a list of some Free Christmas Song downloads that I've come across, I hope these help you get into the holiday spirit.

God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing [feat. Aygun Beyler and Mahsa Vahdat]

O'Carolan's/Welcome Christmas

Why Can't It Be Christmastime All Year

Christmas With A Monkey

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

Good King Wenceslas

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Remastered 1997)

Deck the Halls

O Come, All Ye Faithful (Digitally Mastered May 1990)

Panis Angelicus

Silent Night, Holy Night

Pat A Pan

Christmas Tree

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

Silent Night

That'll Be Christmas

What Child Is This?

Why Can't It Be Christmastime All Year

Make sure you click the preview button beforehand as there are some songs that may not be for everyone.

If you didn't find enough there to get you in the Christmas mood check out these 2 sites for some more music.

Christmas Music #1
Christmas Music #2

Since I had no energy yesterday for Freebie Friday it’s a day late but since there are lots of freebies out there I have to share.

Always Infinity Sample

Pampers Extra Protection Sample

Prilosec OTC Sample

Huggies Little Movers Sample

Garnier Nutritioniste Sample

Aveeno Nourish Sample

Dove HairCare Sample

Dove Conditioner Sample

Head & Shoulders Sample

Tropical Breeze Fragrance Sample

Burt's Bees Acne Solutions Sample

All American Stetson Fragrance Sample

L'Oreal EverPure Sample

National Law Enforcement Ornament (the ornament is free but they do accept donations)

Golden Tea Samples

Free Christmas USB Flash Drive

I hope you enjoy all the great freebies today.  I’ll be posting some free Christmas music downloads in a little bit so get your MP3 players ready and check back later.

At Michael’s on Dec. 5 from 10am to 1pm they will be holding a Santa’s Workshop Event with 3 Free Make and Take’s for the kids.  This would be a great time to have your kids make something for a loved one.  The make and takes are a Christmas Card, a Stocking, and a Trinket Box.  You can view all the info here. 

And while you are out leave a little earlier and stop at Home Depot so your kids can make a wagon.  The building clinics are from 9am-Noon and my son just loves them.  You can get that info here.

Our plan of attack is to leave earlyish and get to Home Depot just before 9am and then head straight over to Michaels.  Maybe I’ll even be able to find some coupons and make a good day of it.

If you’ve got your black friday ads spread out around you then take another look at the Staples ad (which was left out of my paper picture me hmphing here) LOL

Anyways on the bottom of the first page you’ll see a spot that says free batteries.  You can purchase 2 20pk Duracell AA/AAA batteries a week until Christmas for $12.99 a pack and in January you will receive a Staples reward for the total amount.  Combine these batteries with other great rebate sales at Staples and a Staples coupon and you can have a really great deal.  Besides who doesn’t need an endless supply of batteries??

If you are like me and didn’t receive an ad you can check it out here just look at the bottom of the first page for the details.

So I am challenging my household from Thanksgiving to Christmas to eat primarily out of the pantry and the freezers. My freezer is packed with meat and the pantry is full of goodies too. It will be nice to clean out enough to have a fresher start with the New Year it will also be nice to be able to save a little more money for the month. Here are the rules that I’m holding myself too, feel free to join in the challenge and let me know how you are doing.

1. I’ll only be shopping for the things I can get for free or nearly free. The one exception will be for Christmas dinner since I will have to buy a few things for that.
2. We will do our best to get creative with the items in the pantry and freezer. There is alot of food in there and it needs to be used up.
3. I will have to buy milk, fruits, and veggies but I’ll be checking for the best deals on those things so that I continue to save.
4. We are not going to eat out, over the past couple months we have eaten out a lot. We have had a lot of family in town and sometimes it’s just easier to eat on the go then it is to go home and make something.

Of course I will still be doing my Christmas shopping but I won’t have to spend as much at the grocery store. I’m hoping that Dave is on board with this challenge, I’ll be updating as we go through the month to let you know how we are doing.

Are you looking for a deal on the perfect item for your little ones or your spouse??  I’m offering up my deal seeking services for the holidays this year, so please if you are looking for something either email me at BelleMitchell702@gmail.com or leave a comment here and I’ll see what I can do. 

I know alot of you are looking for stuff and if you contact me soon we might be able to find you a deal for Black Friday or sometime before the holidays.  Don’t be shy let me know put my hours of searching for personal deals to use for you, you know I probably come across your wishlist items when I’m looking for my son’s wishlist.

Have you checked out all the great pre-Black Friday deals going on at Amazon??? They are meeting or beating the prices in the leaked ads on tons of great stuff and do you know the best part?? You don't have to wait in line and get run over trying to get your goodies, plus if you have any amazon gift cards from Swagbucks that makes for free stuff. Don't forget you can sign up for a free 1 month trial of Amazon Prime and get free shipping just remember to cancel in about 3 weeks.

Amazon Deals

While you are over there check out the other great magazine deals amazon has. They have $3-$10 off several different magazines.

So I keep meaning to post about the fantastic photo card deal and it expires today so go quickly if you haven’t already and order these great cards.

Go to SeeHere and you can order 50 5x7 folding cards and use this code freebies4mom-1109

and you can order 50 4x8 photo cards and use code newbaby.   Best of all there is no shipping charges for any of this.

Do you a want a Kindle?? Can't see shelling out all the money right now? Click the link to download a kindle for free on your PC Kindle

They have lots of books that you can also download for free!! You can check them out here: Books

This is a great way to try out the features of Kindle and see if you want to spend the money on more books or the portable Kindle.

We had a blast at the Farmer’s Market Holiday Bazaar tonight!!  I set up a table and had all my bags on display.  I handed out catalogs, got a couple orders and had lots of people enter the drawing. 

I’m not doing this blog for profit so please don’t think that, but I’d like to offer up the chance for anyone that would like to order to do so and be entered into the drawing for a $15 gift certificate from me.  Go here to visit my Thirty One Gifts site and if you are interested in ordering please click the My Events and then the Holiday Bazaar and you will be entered into the drawing.  I’m closing the show on Friday evening so you have till then.  Thank you for checking out my stuff and if you think you know someone that would enjoy the products please feel free to share the site, I would love to help any of you earn some free stuff through Thirty One.

On a savings note do you know that this is the 3rd week in a row that I haven’t received a CVS ad?!?!  It is soooo hard to plan out deals without the ad in front of me, I am a visual hands on kind of person and hate no ads.  I could just go to the store and pick up my ad but if I’m going in to the store I want to shop too.

Hopefully later this week I’ll have a post or two about some really cheap homemade gifts, but right now I am enjoying some time with my grandparents who are visiting.  I was reminded just over a year ago when my other grandma passed that life is short so I will be devoting my free time to spending time with them and letting them enjoy my son their great grandson.  I hope you are all having a great month and a great start to your holiday season.

This year there is more need and less supply for Toys for Tots and other charities.  There are a few companies that are giving if you do something simple and best of all free.  These companies make lots of money and I’m happy to see some of their profits going for good causes.  If you hear of any other please post here and share these with your friends and family.

Macy’s is donating $1 to the Make a Wish foundation for each letter to Santa they receive in store up to 1 million dollars!!  Be sure to drop off a letter next time you are in the mall.

Become a fan of Pantene on Facebook and they will donate .10 to the Beautiful Lengths campaign

Become a fan of Toys R Us on Facebook and they will donate $1 to Toys for Tots

So if you went out and picked up a couple turkeys at Walmart for .40/lb you may be wondering what to do with them now. If you didn’t go out you should go and ask when they will be getting more of the cheap turkeys in.  I bought 4 (2 different days) and I may want to go back for 2 more.

I thought I’d share with you some easy ways to cook and get the most out of your turkeys.  Yesterday I tackled turkey round 1 so I’ll share my tips with you.

I’ve had 2 of the birds in my fridge for a few days and they were finally thawed out so I took and cleaned them out and stuck them in the oven.  This is a must buy a box of reynolds cooking bags in turkey size I don’t care if they aren’t on sale you need them they make a great easy turkey.  Cooking 2 of them together took no longer than 1 and it only heated my house up once.  We had turkey meat and gravy for dinner last night and it was yummy!!!

I waited until the birds were nice and cool and got my hands dirty.  This is the part were if you are like me you just have got to suck it up and deal with the yuck.  I got almost every ounce of meat off the birds and bagged it in about 3 cup portions.  This is enough for most of the recipes I make and I put 8 of those bags in the freezer.

Today I took 3 of the bags of meat that I put in the fridge and made Hot Chicken Salad.  I cooked up a triple batch of rice and chopped the onions and celery x3 and mixed it all up.  Then I put 2 portions in the freezer and cooked up one for dinner tonight.

Tonight I am taking the carcasses and boiling them for a while.  I’ll be adding some of the leftover celery and onion and some carrots and 2 more bags of meat from the fridge and I’ll freeze that in single servings for lunches or dinners.  I plan on adding the noodles when the soup is thawed so that they don’t get mushy.

I’m guessing that those 2 turkeys will provide my family of 3 with almost 17 meals all for $12 for the meat.  I used things out of my pantry and spent maybe another $6 so each meal would work out to just over $1 for three of us.  You can’t do much better than that with decent portions of meat in everything.

Please feel free to share your ideas for Turkey, I might need more recipes if I decide to get more birds to go with the 2 waiting for their holiday premier with all the fixings.

If you are like me and said no way in heck am I getting up before the crack of dawn to fight for 10 Xbox’s at Walmart you still have a chance at getting one on Amazon for $199 with $100 credit.

Go here at 12 pst or 3pm est but go quick I bet they don't have too many up for grabs. I hope you enjoy your new game.

Well I finally dragged myself out to Target today to get in on the Wii deal.  I ended up with 3 $49.99 games and 3 $19.99 games, 12 jars of Skippy Peanut butter, 10 Glade glass candle holdres, 10 glade refills, 4 rice krispy treats from the bakery and 1 pack of transformer pencils.

Total spent was $131 but I had a $21 credit from a return and a few missed coupons so really it was only $110 and I got $20 in gift cards for the Glade.  My store had the toy coupon books out but don’t count on your store having them.  You can print out the $10/2 wii games coupon here and while you are there you can also get the $1 off bakery item for some cheap or free goodies in the bakery and the $1 skippy peanut butter coupon.  Skippy is on sale for $1.87 with the $1 tq and my .75 mq it made for some really cheap peanut butter.  That tq expires tomorrow though so hurry even without the mq .87 for peanut butter is a good deal.

I also stopped at Walmart on my way home and picked up 2 more turkeys.  On Sunday I will be cooking them together and making soup and freezing the rest of the meat for future dinners.  Even when you consider the bone weight I can’t beat that price for chicken so we’ll have lots of meal size portions put away so we can spend less in the next couple of months.

So how is your Christmas shopping going?  Please feel free to chime in and let me know.  I love hearing how everyone is doing.  I’m hoping to get back to my homemade gifts and will be sharing them with you as they get created.

If you have a Super Walmart check out the meat department.  I usually don’t buy my meat there but I couldn’t pass up this deal.  They have turkeys 10-16lb on sale for 40 cents a pound.  That’s right I said 40 cents.  My store has a limit of 2 per person but you can’t beat that price around here.

Hello my name is Tiffany and I have a problem….. LIFE!!!!  LOL  For the past 2 months or so I feel like I am endlessly playing catchup.  I’m on a treadmill and every time I get used to the speed someone turns it up, but I’ve decided something today.  I’m getting off the treadmill, that’s it I’m done.

There will be no more playing catch up.  There are things that I wanted to do, people I wanted to reach out to, sales I wanted to shop, and things I really wanted to organize around here but it didn’t happen.  Plain and simple life gets in the way and I’ve found that walking around with the weight of all the things I wanted or should have done on my shoulders is depressing and draining.  So starting tomorrow morning my slate is clean, there are things that have to be done around the house and that’s fine but I’m not dealing with the guilt of it not being done.

I have recently started a business and would love to start booking parties and that needs my attention and my excitement.  My mother is going through a rough patch and I need to get alittle more out of my head to be supportive of her and I need to do a better job supporting my family.  But there will be no more guilt about not posting, not washing dishes, not feeling like making dinner or whatever.  I feel that this new attitude will help me back to being me.  The lists have come down I’m not carrying anything into tomorrow other than we have family visiting, we haven’t seen them in 2 years and I will enjoy their visit and stop worrying.

I’m hoping that this release will let me get back into the deal and into blogging because I love connecting with all of you and I love reading your comments and emails.  With my new business venture I will setting a schedule and I will be penciling in time for blogging but it will be in pencil so if it doesn’t happen there’s always tomorrow.  I will be starting a new set of goals for the rest of the year and sharing them soon, I’m excited to start reading everyone’s posts and blogs again I can’t wait to here how your goals are coming and what you are doing to get there.  Please feel free to share your struggles and goals here, if you would like to have a guest post please feel free to email me anytime and we can set something up.

I hope you all had a great Halloween and are excited about November and the upcoming holidays!!!

Since I’m making a list of possible trick or treating venues to take Shawn to I thought I might as well share.  I’m working on getting back into blogging since life is starting to settle down a little.

Noon-3pm Toys R Us will have a parade with free reusable bags and candy along the way

6pm-8pm  Florida Mall will have trick or treating no toy weapons allowed

1pm-9pm Lake Buena Vista Factory Outlet will have trick or treating at participating locations

Noon-7pm Premium Outlet Mall will have trick or treating at participating locations.  They say you can get a list at customer service.

5pm-9pm Dowtown Disney will have trick or treating at 22 locations in West Side, Pleasure Island, and Dowtown.  The places are always marked with balloons and giant mickey pumpkin markers.

Starting at 5:30pm there will be a halloween character at Boardwalk (it’s usually Mickey)

6pm there is a small selection of trick or treating and crafts at Boardwalk

If you know of other great places to go in the area that are free please share with us.  I hope you all have a spooktacular Halloween.

Some days I feel like I’m running a marathon and never moving.  It’s just been one of those months what can I say but whew am I tired.  I’ve almost gotten the house back in order and I finally replanted some of my flowers, dug up the old, and moved the empty pots out of the way until spring rolls around.  It looks so nice and tidy outside now I’m so happy walking out the door and not seeing dead/half dead plants.

Of course there are about 1000 things going on around here on top of regular life.  But I have very exciting news on my front I have just signed up to be a consultant for Thrity-One.  You can check out the products and my site here.  I can’t wait to go down this road and hopefully help up the savings for a home.  It will also be a great opportunity for me to connect with others and share these great products.  I can’t wait to have my first party once my stuff gets here.  If you are at all interested please let me know I will be doing catalog parties as well as parties in home for people local to me.

Thanks for sticking with me through the down time on the blog.  I’m hoping that my life is going to settle down and fall into a routine very soon.  I haven’t been doing much shopping because of my overload but the cupboards are starting to show my lack of shopping.  So it’s time to get back into the game and start shopping.  I’ll be back to sharing my shopping feats very soon as well as all the great freebies and some homemade Christmas gift ideas.

Good until 3pm pacific time check the swagbucks swidget on my page.  Go quick HURRY!!!!!!  Just scroll down

If you are anything like me you have a computer/camera full of digital photos that you need to print.  I’m in the process of organizing all my photos on the new computer and lets just say I have a few to print LOL.  So I’m on a mission today to find all the great photo deals out there since I do have in theory thousands of pictures to print, I won’t be printing them all or I’d go broke.  So lets get started

• Walgreens has a promo running until 10/17 for 10 cent photos as long as you order 50 or more online just use coupon code EVERYLAST
• Get 50 free Photos for signing up with Shutterfly plus get free unlimited online photo storage.  Please email me if you would like to sign up and I will send you an invite (see below)
• Get 20 free photos for signig up with Snapfish.  They have in store pickup options to cut out shipping costs. 
• CVS.com also offers 50 free prints just for signing up.  You can get them delivered to the store for free.

If you’d like to sign up with Snapfish or Shutterfly please send me an email at bellemitchell702@gmail.com and I’ll send you an invite (they give 50/15 free prints for everyone you get to sing up and I could use all the frees I can get plus you can then send it on to all your friends).  As a special incentive you will go on my mailing list and receive any free photo promo codes I come across.  Thanks in advance for the help as I said I have literally thousands of photos to print.

I’ll be adding more as I find them so check back for more deals.

I hope you got out and took the kids to Lowes this morning.  We had a great time and Shawn is loving his ball toss.

Another fun thing that was going on today was a Pumpkin Event at Michaels.  For $5 we got a craft pumpkin and a bag full of stuff to decorate it.  Shawn made a cute little dracula pumpkin and had a blast.

While we were out that way we stopped at BJ’s and got some free food from the sample ladies and gas.  It was .15 cheaper there today than at the station across the street.  I imagine they’ll go down tomorrow but still alot cheaper.  We also stopped into the Walmart out there and found 3D Sidewalk Chalk on clearance.  They had packs priced from $2-$5 so go check them out, we picked up one of the big packs for Shawn for Christmas or his birthday.

If you missed the events this weekend don’t worry.  On the 24th Lowes will have a monster magic trick event (be sure to preregister) and Michaels will have 2 more events this month.  On the 25th from 1-3 they will be making Halloween TShirts all the decorating supplies will be provided by the store you just have to buy a shirt.  Then on the 31st from 10-12 they will be giving out free trick or treat pail plus free coloring stuff, a free crayola pencil topper demo and a make and take halloween frame.  There will also be free balloons and candy for the kids. 

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been or why I haven’t been updating at all this week I have one word for you LIFE!!!  It’s been repeatedly getting in my way.  UGH!!  But I love the freebies so here’s what I’ve found.  Remember sign up for these freebies and you’ll have treats in your mailbox and as I currently have you can have a basket of samples to use instead of buying full size products.

Mother-to-be or Father-to-be? Click this for a lot of FREE stuff for the coming baby.

Fully loaded with all your favorite casual games.  Unlimited play!  No purchase or registration required.

Win $1,500 in Groceries and Print $75.00 in Coupons for Your Thanksgiving Day Feast!

Enfamil LIPIL® Formulas. Free sample

Sign up for Quick and Crafty newsletter and receive free bonus 39 Low-Cost Kitchen Crafts eBook

Sign up for a free craft newsletter and receive the free bonus eBook 60 Cheap and Easy Crafts Click Here

Free Knitting eBook: Quick and Easy Knitting Patterns featuring 24 free knitting patterns.

Staying healthy has never been easier!  Start trying before you buy. Sample various brand name products.  Click Here

Sample GoodNights Underpants

Zyrtec Sample

Emergen-C Multi Vitamin PLUS Cherry Pomegranate Flavor and Emergen-C Pink Lemonade Samples

Prilosec OTC Sample

Garnier Fructis Shampoo Samples

Burt’s Bees Acne Solutions Samples

Free Toby the Train Coloring Book

Free Lego Magazine

Free Town and Country Magazine Subscription

Don’t forget about the Free Building Event at Lowes this weekend.  They are building a bean bag toss on Saturday from 10-11am.

You can't beat photo deals sign up for CVS photo and receive 50 free photos and get free shipping to your local store.

These offers are too good to pass up.  If you don’t drink coffee think Christmas Gifts.

Click here to receive a 1 cup coffee maker and 1 box of coffee for just $9.95

And go here for a full size coffeemaker and 2 boxes of coffee for just $9.95

Hurry and get in on these deals now they won’t last long and they will make great Christmas gifts for your loved ones.

I've used Pogo for years now and love their selection of free games. If you haven't signed up yet click the banner below and try it out you won't be sorry!!

I did separate transactions at Walgreen’s so that I didn’t have to spend much out of pocket.

Total OOP was less than $5 and total saved $50.48

I’m hoping to repeat these transactions enough times to use up all my coupons and restock for my Christmas gift baskets.

I know alot of people that are trying to figure out how to afford a Disney Vacation (cough…Laura lol) and it’s awfully expensive.  I’m sure you all know about the free admission on your birthday but that’s only good through the end of this year.  But Disney has an exciting new offer good for next year where you can earn a 1 day pass to the theme parks.

Starting January 1, 2010, Guests can go to www.disneyparks.com to search for volunteer opportunities made available through HandsOn Network and sign up for a day of volunteer service. As the nation’s largest volunteer network, HandsOn Network has 250 on-the-ground volunteer action centers across the country and connects volunteers to more than 70,000 nonprofit agencies that need their help. Many of the opportunities will be projects that entire families can participate in together.

Isn’t this exciting?!?!  For more details go here.  I’ll be checking out where we can volunteer as well.  Shawn won’t be six to late in the year and we have annual passes but we’ll still volunteer, it says that we can receive a fastpass for the family or a Ear Hat figure.

We depend very heavily on my car.  It’s the only one we have at the moment so we need it to get Shawn to and from preschool and Dave to and from work.  When you are driving home and the front driver side brake starts making some horrible obnoxious noise my blood pressure goes through the roof.

So off I go to Tire Kingdom (192 and 27 in Clermont) they gave me a quote of $500 for the brakes and rotors and told me I needed new calipers that quote would have been $900.  I nicely told the man that assumes I’m an idiot because I have boobs to put my tires back on.  He proceeds to led me down the gruesome path of what will happen if I drive my car home.  I’m pretty sure he was trying to paint a picture of my son and I horribly mangled on the side of the road all because 1 of my 4 brakes was in need of repair.  Why is it that slick haired morons think I’ll give them my life savings just because a mechanic that barely speaks english says I need to have everything replaced.  My family made sure that I knew a little about cars and how they work so that I' wouldn’t have to fall victim to men that think since I’m a woman I’m stupid.

I do a little research and find out that I can buy all the parts including calipers for about $250.  For that much Dave can learn how to replace them and the rotors, since he already knows how to do the brake pads.  I pick him up and we head to the Advance Auto Parts store where we met a wonderful man.  His name is Pops and he’s a mobile mechanic, he’ll come to your house if you need him to.  Since Dave wasn’t sure about how to properly replace the calipers we decided to ask Pops for an estimate.  He told us to buy the parts (and let us use his discount) and he’d do it for a very reasonable price.  He also said just to buy the pads and rotors and he’d check on the calipers because he didn’t think they needed to be replaced.  This was at 7:30 at night.  He got his friends to bring his mobile truck to the store and fixed my car right there in the parking lot.  He looked at the caliper on the driver side and said it was fine, he greased it and put it back on.  I left there with new brakes and knowing everything was fine for less than $200.

So please don’t go to the Tire Kingdom they wanted to charge me $100 for brake pads which were $45 at Advance Auto $110 per rotor which were $33 at Advance Auto and $190 per caliper which are $83 at Advance Auto and I didn’t even need them.  If you are in my area and are in need of auto repair give Pop’s a call at 352-702-7065 or 352-277-2061  He also has a tow truck if you need a tow.

I’m not getting any incentive for sharing his info, I’m just a very satisfied customer who is glad there is someone out there helping those of us who can’t afford the crazy high prices at the chain stores.

Even though I’m behind and this is a little late I wanted to remind everyone that today is Building Day at Lowes.

I believe they are building a Fire Truck today and my little man is really excited.  It’s advised that you sign up before hand for these events but you can’t sign up for this one now.  You can however sign up for the next two, print the forms and it’s one less thing you have to do at the store.

Sadly Sweetbay doesn’t usually have deals worth mentioning or even going for.  But they are trying to drum up business so they sent out a mailer with a $10 off $40, a free Green Giant 5lb potatoes, free Hannaford Barbeque Sauce.  Since we are having a party this weekend I decided to stop in and get some stuff.  Here’s what I got:

• 1 AMP Tall Boy  $2.49
• 2 Glade Lasting Impressions  $7.99  free coupon
• Hannaford Barbeque Sauce $1.55  free coupon
• Mahatma Jasmine Rice $3.39  free coupon
• Mahatma Basmati Rice  $3.99  free coupon
• 3 Ramen Noodles .33 each
• 4 pounds 80% Ground Chuck  $7.96
• 2.7 pounds Boneless Pork Sirloin $4.68
• Sweetbay Italian Sausage $2.99  -$1 mq
• 5 pounds Russet Potatoes  $3.99  free coupon

Total Spent $9.41  Total Saved $39.60  So I didn’t do to bad and I got some meat for the party and some to put away.  I picked some extras of the potato coupons out of the recycling so I’ll be going back for more, we love potatoes here and I’m on the hunt for some ways to cook and then freeze them.  If you have a great recipe please share.

There aren’t many deals that jumped out at me this week but that could be because I only have had time to glance at the ads and I can’t even find the CVS one.

Wags

• ThermaCare Wraps single pack $2.49 with $2.49 (probably $2.50) RR
• Aussie Shampoo $2.99 with $2RR  I have a $1 off coupon from a mailer for this
• Roots of Nature Hair Care $6 with $6 RR
• Vitamin Shampoo is BOGO and some of the ones at my store still have the try me free thing on them.  I’m not sure when this expires so please let me know if it’s already expired.  But if it’s not you could get 2 for free

CVS looks pretty weak this week the only thing that looks good to me is the Crest/OralB deal.  If you find something great please feel free to share.

Alright I’m off to see if I can unbury my crafting corner and get to work on some gifts.  I’m going to get make to my Frugal Gift posts and I have an exciting giveaway that I’m working on.  Let’s hope I find the corner quickly though since Christmas is just 3 months away.

Huggies Pull Ups Potty Prints

Free Mars Chocolate Bar

Not free but a great deal  $5 off any $10 or more animal at Build A Bear.  The $10-$12 bears are great and Shawn loves them.

Bausch & Lomb Free Trail

Free Disney’s Christmas Carol Train Tour.  (Not coming here)

Science Diet Simple Essentials Treats

Free Picture Package through the Picture People

Knitting & Felting Pattern for a Pirate’s Booty Bag (great for Halloween)

Free Royal Canin Feline Health Nutrition

Sorry for this being so late and much shorter then the regular list but it’s been a long week.  Here’s to hoping this week is a little easier on me and I can get back to my regular life.  I’m off to bed, I hope you all had a great weekend.

I hope that starting tomorrow or Monday at the latest I can get back to my regular schedule of blogging.  I’d like to thank everyone that keeps checking in.  The yard sale was today and was very successful, I have some stuff to put away tonight or tomorrow and then I should be back to normal around here. 

Check back tonight or tomorrow for the very late Freebie Friday post and of course what the deals are for next week.

Here’s what we did this week to save money:

• Went to the Tampa Lightning practice so Shawn could watch and got free tickets to a preseason games tomorrow.  The boys are going to enjoy a free night out and I’ll get some time to work on the yard sale pricing.
• We walked to Lowes for the free Build n Grow clinic
• I used a giftcard we got at Publix for gas this week.  It was super cheap with coupons and overage a few months ago.
• The A/C has been used a little more this week but it’s because I’ve been working alot in the closets and it gets warm running around.
• We have purged alot of stuff for the yardsale and I’ve got alittle more work left to finish.  Tonight and tomorrow night I’m hoping to get everything priced so I’ll just have to set up Saturday morning. 
• We are still unplugging things around the house it took awhile to get used to it but now it’s second nature.
• I opened my paid emails, seached with Swagbucks, check my youdata account, and report all my BzzAgent stuff to earn alittle here and there
• I’m currently scouting out the best deal on sodas so Shawn has something to sell on Saturday.  He had a blast last time when he sold sodas and is looking forward to doing it again.

What have you been doing to save?  I love hearing all your tips.

I’ve been alittle out of the loop for the past few days.  I’ve just been very tired and overwhelmed cleaning and getting ready for the yard sale.  I still have a ton of cleaning, pricing and organizing left to do but I needed to go to Publix to stock up for a party next weekend.

• 3 packs of Bounty Napkins
• 1 Reusable Shopping Bag
• 2 Revlon Nail Clippers
• 10 TGI Fridays Appetizers (for the party)
• 2 packs of Sorrento Cheese Sticks
• 1 Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 2 Publix Sliced Deli Meat Packages
• 2.5lb of ground beef
• 1 Stuffed Flank Steak
• 1 Banana (not pictured)
• 1 AMP (not pictured
• 4 Glade Soy Candles
• 2 Cookie Crisp
• 2 Sunny D
• 1 Glade Lasting Impression
• 2 Mahatma Rice

Total Paid $16.28 Total Saved $118.21  Today is the last day for this possible deal so I didn’t add coupons used.  If I get out earlier for the next sale I’ll do the coupon matchups.

Well I found all the walls in my closet also known as the land where stuff goes to die lol.  But in the process we lost the bed, did I mention that the shelf in the closet that we hang clothes from gave way and ripped off the wall.  I installed a new system that I picked up at Lowes with my ebay money and got a lot more room in the closet.

Then I took a hard look at my clothes that are in the closet and got rid of half of them.  I don’t wear them and haven’t worn most of them in over a year so they are going to the yard sale, a friend or to the church’s thrift store that we found.

I’m happy to report that I have found the bed again and the closet is looking pretty good.  It’s not like any pictures anywhere but it’s better.  I put my wedding dress in a space bag and am amazed at how much less room it takes up.  This is my one sentimental ridiculous keep, I can’t bring myself to get rid of it even if I’ll never wear it again.  I also put some of our extra coats in a bag and they fit nicely under the bed now.  I have a few more bags and a space saver tote to put to use tonight so I’ll report back.

My yardsale piles are getting huge, I can’t wait till Saturday when I can get rid of all this stuff.  I’ve already promised myself that if it’s leftover after the sale it’s going straight to the thrift store’s donation pile, none of it is coming back in the house.  Of course the exception to this will be any of my stockpile stuff all the new stuff I get for free or better that’s left will come back in and be put away for possible Christmas gifts.

I hope your Monday is going well and not nearly as exhausting as mine is.

I know it’s not spring but down here in the hot lands we don’t usually do spring cleaning in the spring when it’s starting to get very warm out.  We do it when it starts to cool down and can finally open the windows.  We can’t open the windows yet but there’s a yard sale in the community this weekend so I’m cleaning out the closets and everything this week.  And since I’m at it we might as well just do it all.

So if you don’t hear from me for a day or 2 know that I’m buried in a closet somewhere in this house and that Dave is trying to dig me out.  I’ve had it with the clutter and it’s all going over the next couple days.  So here are a few of my tips about cleaning out the clutter.

• If you are cleaning and find something and say “I forgot I had this” THROW IT AWAY!!!!!  You didn’t know you had it you don’t need it.
• Start when you are angry, this sounds weird but if I’m in a good mood I look through everything and get rid of nothing if I’m in a “mood” I get aggravated and just purge.
• Look at the big picture.  If you are not going to use it and you don’t need it then give it away.
• When it gets too hard walk away.  Give yourself a few minutes/hours and come back if you get to fed up with it you’ll never finish.

Do you have any other suggestions for cleaning?  I’ll be in the closet for awhile so I’ll check in later.  But I’d love to hear how you guys get rid of the clutter.

If you are sitting leisurely sipping your coffee and reading this I will believe that you have already gotten your multiple newspapers for today.  If not don’t tell me but get up and run to the store… I don’t care if you are still wearing your pajamas as long as you have a shirt and shoes you are good.  By the way did I mention there are 5 yes 5 inserts in the paper today, so go what are you waiting for?  Stop reading already and find your keys….

…you’re still here, I said GO!!!!

Enjoy all the great coupons out today.  We are headed out to take Shawn to watch the Lightning preseason practice so I’ll be back later to update you guys on the sales I see for the week.

Today I received 2 Magazines (Parents & Motor Something)  2 Cesar Bistro Free Dog Food coupons, and Stamps.

These are my stamps from the $4 Picture It Stamp thing I bought on clearance at Walmart.  They are really cute and I’m very happy with my purchase.

I’ve been working on getting ready for the yardsale and was doing really good this afternoon until I ran out of stickers.  I think I might have some more but I can not for the life of me find them.  So until Dave gets home I’m just waiting now.  I guess I can do laundry.  I’m not walking over to Walmart again today we already walked to Lowes (in the rain) for the Build & Grow which is great exercise for me and Shawn but now it’s really really muggy out from the rain.

So what did you get in the mail this week?

Sorry I’m a little late with this but it seems like life is just getting in my way lately.

Below in red are the goals I set for use in this no spending challenge and in black are how we are progressing.

Keep almost all spending below $60 a week.

I kept all the normal spending below $60 this week.  We did buy some extra alcohol on clearance and a few other things but that all comes out of my ebay funds. 

Keep gas spending down as low as possible.  My gas bills are going to go up since I have to take Shawn to daycare everyday but I’m going to try and run all my errands when I’m out.

Again I’ve only been out shopping when I was already out.  I did run out of the way to Kmart 2 days in a row but the bonus was that I got some moving boxes to pack up stuff for the yardsale from someone on FreeCycle. 

We will not be eating out.  You spend lots of extra money eating out, the food is not better than you can make at home and you consume a lot more calories when out then at home.

This is sometimes so hard to do.  This week we ate out at Arby’s on Wednesday and got free sandwiches with the purchase of drinks.  My closest Arby’s says they are not participating this month but they let us do it this once.  I also bought a coffee at Dunkin Donuts and a couple at Starbucks (those coffees were paid for with a giftcard I got for my birthday)

I’ll continue shopping for the free/super cheaps at CVS, Walgreens, Publix, Target, and a few things at Walmart. 

I’ve done really good at sticking to this.  I’ve only been buying the frees or really really cheap stuff anywhere.  I’m still looking for a great deal on sodas for Shawn to sell at the yardsale.  We have popsicles for him to sell too and I bought a new cooler since our old one has a huge crack in it.

This week should be relatively easy to stick to the budget.  We don’t need much and I’ll be staying home to clean and get ready for the yardsale.  So how has your spending going?  Do you have a goal that you’ve set, feel free to share it here.

It’s better late than never.  Well here goes:

Cesar Entree

Free Keychain from Orient Watch

Free Town & Country 3 year Subscription

Free Metropolitan Home 1 year Subscription

Free Golf Digest 1 year subscription

Free Snikiddy Snack Sample enter “babybix sample” in the comments box

Secret Clinical Strength

Curel Lotion Sample

Huggies Little Movers Sample

Emergen-C Multi Vitamin Sample

Pumpkin Stencils

Dove Advanced Care

Tomorrow is Build n Grow at Lowes they are vuilding a really cute drum.

Free Coupon Books from Mambo Sprouts

Palmolive Sample

I love stupidly easy deals and this is one of them.  I did several separate transactions but the cashier didn’t mind at all.  I got all of this:

for I wish I could insert a drumroll here………$2.46

I had a $5 off magazine catalina so the Scrapbook magazine cost me $1.06

Then I got a catalina yesterday for $5 off a leapfrog purchase when I bought a tag book so I used that and got 2 Tag Books and the Cars puzzle.  I used 2 $4 off coupons for the books and the cat and paid .35 and got another $5 cat

Next I bought 2 more of the books, the matchbox playset and a box of crayons.  Again I used 2 $4 off coupons and the cat and paid .98 and got another $5 cat

The last transaction I bought the Fridge DJ used a $4 coupon and the $5 cat and paid .07 and again got another $5  cat just in case I decide we need more.

You are probably wondering how the heck that worked well the Tag books I bought (I Spy, Spongebob, and Goldenpaddle) are on clearance and then an additional 20% off so they are $4.80, the Fridge DJ is on clearance for $8.80 and those other 2 toys were also in the clearance section.  For every transaction where you purchase leapfrog products you will receive a $5 off your next leapfrog purchase catalina.  As you can see as long as your leapfrog purchase is over $5 you can use the catalina along with your coupons for some really cheap gifts to add to your christmas/birthday gift stash.

Restaurant.com has good deals all the time but this one is a really great deal.  You can get a $25 gift certificate for just $1.

If you’ve never used them before be sure to read the small print before you buy a certificate.  Many of them have purchase requirements ie you have to spend $50 to use the $25 certificate.  They also may have time constraints but even with all that you can get a really good deal at a local restaurant so go check them out.

This is what we did this week to save some extra money:

• Stayed home alittle more to save gas and spending money
• Took Shawn to Home Depot for the free building workshop and made my last run to Kmart while we were out there
• We stopped at BJ’s and saved about .09 a gallon from the station across the street on gas.
• I used a coupon at CVS when we got Shawn’s prescription filled, it was only for a $10 giftcard but it’s better then nothing.
• We’ve been keeping the A/C around 78-82 and it’s starting to let up outside and cool down a bit.  Hopefully I’ll be opening the windows soon.
• I used the crockpot twice this week and made double portions which were reheated in the microwave to keep the house a little cooler.
• I’ve started getting ready for the yard sale, it’s slow going but I hope to get alot done today.
• Since they refuse to fix my dishwasher I continue to wash dishes by hand and I believe it' saves some electricity unfortunately it doesn’t save time.
• I continue to unplug everything at night and am surprised at how few things I actually turn back on during the day.
• I open my paid emails, search with Swagbucks and check my youdata account everyday to make a little extra.

So what have you been doing to save money?  I’d love to hear your tips and tricks to save alittle more.  If we all share tips we can all save more. 

Let me know if any of you are interested in a piece about the ways to make some extra money online.  Remember that none of these will make you rich but every penny helps and puts you one step closer to your savings goal.

I love these workshops.  The next one is Sept. 24th and it will teach you how to build your dream kitchen.

Now I live in an apartment and will not be building my own kitchen anytime soon but I’m still going.  I’m sure you’ll learn lots of tricks and tips on how to fix things in the kitchen which is sure to save money and stress.  Make sure you register here so you have a spot.  Also when you’re there be on the look out for money saving coupons, they always seem to have something for people attending the workshops here.

I found 3 of these hanging in the craft department at Walmart today.  They have codes in them for a book of photo stamps you go online and upload your photos edit them how you like and enter your code and they mail them off to you.  The normal price for a book of photo stamps is $19.95 (I think) the normal price for a book of regular stamps is $8.80 the price of this little beauty at my Walmart  $4.  They are on clearance but not marked with clearance stickers and where hanging on a clip strip on the end of a fabric rack.  Now if you shop at my Walmart don’t bother looking there were 3 there this morning and there are 3 on my kitchen table now.  LOL  But if you shop elsewhere go out and take a look!!

Don’t forget to dig out some sporting attire today and head to Chik-Fil-A for your free sandwich today.  We went and had lunch there today and it was really good and not to overly busy.

Now for my scum rant- Why are some people so evil/rotten/stupid?  A while back I bought a little picnic table for my son at a yardsale, I painted it blue and put some cute little mickey heads on it.  Well he’s pretty much outgrown it so I was going to put it in the yardsale in a couple weeks but I can’t do that.  Yesterday I was outside and I noticed something was missing but was in a hurry and just thought it was in my head boy was I wrong.  Some one stole my son’s picnic table!!!!  Now why on earth would you steal that??  Full well knowing that it belongs to a young child and how upset they will be, let’s not even talk about the completely insecure feeling he now has or the fight mommy is going to have to deal with to keep his bike outside.  So for the record I hate scum!!!!  I truly hope that they drop that table on their toes and break a couple that it gives them slivers and falls apart.  I also hope that someone does them the same favor so they can explain to their child that the world sucks and some people are down right mean.  Generally I’m not this harsh but you don’t mess with this mama bear’s cub or his stuff.

Ok I’m done ranting!  If I see this table outside of someone else’s apartment you can bet I’ll be banging on their door and taking it back.

Boy I did a lot of shopping today.  But I got a majority of it out of the way for the week.  This is another almost head scratcher of a Target trip, but it worked out very nicely in my favor.  My purchase today didn’t come out of my weekly budget because of what I bought.

• Dog Food Bowl (fancy feeder)  $7.99
• Dog Water Bowl (fancy waterer) $7.99
• 3 5lb bags of Chef Michaels Dog Food $4.98 each
• 1 1.5lb bag of Chef Michaels Dog Food $2.24
• Police Car Transformer $11.89
• Tag Pen $12.48 (used $10mq)
• 8 Chef Michaels Soft Food .84 each

Total Spent was $19.55 as I said this won’t be coming out of my weekly budget since the Transformer is a birthday gift for DS and the dog bowls I had planned on buying a couple weeks ago (Belle’s dish has tipped over for the last time) and the cost of those 3 items is less than what I paid.  I saved $48.94

I did 2 transactions in CVS today.  I was hoping I’d be done with them for the week but of course I may have to go do the Nivea deal but probably not.

First Trip (my card):

• Aussie Shampoo  $2.99  -$1mq
• Schick Disposables $6.99  $3mq
• 2 Schick Quattro Trimmers  $10.99 BOGO –(2)$4mq
• CVS trial Cocoa Butter .99  -FREE CVS coupon
• TG Lee Milk $2.99

I used a $4 off $20 CVS coupon and $9.99 in ECB’s and paid .20  I saved $39.67 and got $6 in ECB’s back.

Second Trip (Dave’s card):

• Tooth Tunes Transformers clearanced $2.25
• Schick Disposables $6.99  -$3mq
• 4 Schick Quattro Razors $9.99 BOGO –(4)$4mq
• CVS trial Cocoa Butter .99  -FREE CVS coupon

I used a $4 off $20 CVS coupon and $7.58 in ECB’s and paid .41  I saved $59.29 and got $4 in ECB’s back.