New Blog

Okay, I've let this blog go. There are just too many other blogs like this one, but much better. So I stopped. But I've been toying with a new idea and it started today.

My new blog chronicles my experiment to spend $40.00 a week to feed my family yummy and healthy food. My budget includes food, toiliatries, and cleaning supplies. I'm going to be posting not only what I'm buying for my $40.00 but also what I'm making. I want everyone to see that it is possible to make really good food for really cheap.

I hope anyone who has read this blog will continue on with me to the next. I think it will not only be a better blog, but my hope is that it will encourage you to challenge yourself to spend less.

The new blog is located here:

http://fortyaweekmom.blogspot.com/

Changes

I'm slowly going to be doing changes to the blog to make it a little more user friendly. Since this is my first blog and I'm not entirely computer savvy this might take a while. :)

The first change I've made is to add share buttons to the bottom of each post. This will allow you to share individual posts via email, facebook, blogger, ect.

The changes will be gradually coming. Please comment if there is anything specific you would like to see on the blog, I would love any and all suggestions!

Redbox

My family recently switched to Redbox for our DVD rentals. So far we love it. We rarely have to pay for a movie, because it seems like there are always free rental codes available. For those not familiar with Redbox just use the kiosk (at most grocery stores) to select a movie and it is yours until 9 p.m. the next night for only $1.00 (unless you use a free rental code). If you don't return the movie they will charge you another $1 for each day you have the movie. We use Redbox and the library for our rentals and we've been saving a lot of money.

If you want to try Redbox here are some free rental codes:

DVDONME
REDBOX34
REDBOX (for new customers only)

AMC Movie Deal

AMC Theaters are offering a special promotion this Sunday July 25th.

All popcorn and soda are only $1.00!!

To get this deal you have to "Like" them on Facebook and print out the coupon found there.

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/amctheatres?v=app_128583860513353

Target Deals

Today the kiddies and I went to Target in search of some good bargains. We left with more than I planned on! They have baby and toddler (up to 5T) shirts starting at $0.75 and shorts starting at $1.00. My daughter has been saying she wants some more tanks so I was able to get a few for her. My oldest needed a bathing suit cover up, and we got one she loves (Hello Kitty) for only $3.25. My oldest is in the older girl section and they had some great deals there too. And my favorite deal of all was in the shoe department. They had all sizes up to 75% off. My oldest was able to get a pair of shoes she's been eying for only $3.24!

So if your looking for some good back to school clothes or shoes bargains for your kids, you may want to head out to Target. :)

Let me know if you find any great bargains!

Meijers Deal of the Week

This week, this month actually, Meijers has a great deal going on. Purchase $10 worth of Kelloggs, Keebler, or Eggo products get $10 off instantly on 3 Fruit of the Loom items (includes socks, underwear, and undershirts). Your $10 worth of products is before coupons so this can be a great deal.

I purchased 3 boxes of Kellogg's Fruit Snacks and 2 large boxes of Kellogg's Poptarts for a total of $13.00. I used a $1.00 of 2 Fruit Snacks coupon and $1.00 off 2 Poptarts coupon. I also used $4.00 in bottle returns.

I bought 3 6 packs of kids Fruit of the Loom socks at $3.99 each. Total 11.97 (Minus $10.00 instant, 3 packs of socks were only $1.97)!

My total including tax was only $7.97. Of course the bottle returns helped, but this is still a great deal. Especially if you're like me and tend to lose socks all the time, or have children whose feet keep growing!

Snapfish Freebie

Snapfish is offering a free 5x7 Custom Cover photo book to all new customers. The offer expires July 31, 2010. You do have to pay shipping, which is I believe $6.99.

I have ordered these type of books from other sites, and they have turned out great. Unfortunately I'm not a new customer so I can't take advantage of this great offer.

Printable Coupons

One thing that I've recently started doing more of is using internet coupons. I do a quick google search for the coupons I want and about 50% of the time I find what I need.

My example: This week Kroger has Horizon Organic Milk Boxes (3 packs) on sale from $1.99 down from $4.29. Well if you become a member at Horizon's website (for free, and it takes all of 1 minute) you can print several coupons. I printed a .55 cents off 1 3 pack and used it at Kroger, the store I went to doubles up to and including $1.00, so my milk was only 90 cents. Not too bad, especially since I really needed these.

So my tip of the day is, use Google. You can print coupons for exactly the product you want. It's especially nice when looking for some harder to find coupons. I love it for finding coupons on gluten free items, since that is harder to find in newspapers.

Rewards Update

This week has been a good one for online rewards for me. Yesterday I requested a $10 check from Opinion Outpost and ordered a $5 gift certificate from Amazon through Swagbucks (and I'm only 30 points away from another gift certificate from Amazon). I also made a about 300 points on mypoints, which puts me that much closer to my goal.

The rewards add up slowly, but it sure is nice to see some results from just a few minutes of "work."

Sorry for the long absence

So I've been neglecting this blog for a while now. Mostly out of necessity since my computer pretty much died, we moved and didn't have internet for while, ect. Yes, a lot of excuses, but I'm back. And hopefully now that I have a new computer things will go more smoothly. I know there aren't a ton of readers out there, maybe there are none left, but I do plan to be back with the best deals.

CVS Free Magnet Deal Gets Better

The CVS free magnet deal is even better than I realized! If you're creating a new CVS photo account you get a credit for 50 FREE prints. So I created an account, ordered 53 prints and 1 4x6 magnet for a grand total of..... $.57!!! You can apply the promotion code for the magnet (FREE4MOM) at the end of checkout and there is a box you can check that says to apply the 50 free print credit to this order. Click that and you're done.

It was really easy to do. I'm excited to see how the magnet turns out. I made one of my girls from our last Disney trip. They're going to love it!

This is really a great promotion, I hope you can take advantage of it!

Free Photo Magnet From CVS

CVS is offering a free 4 x 6 photo magnet! Create the magnet online and enter code FREE4MOM at checkout, select instore pickup to avoid shipping charges, and pick up your FREE magnet at your local CVS! What a great freebie!

20 FREE Songs From I-Tunes

Become a fan (or now a liker) of I-Tunes on Facebook and get 20 FREE music downloads of your choice from I-Tunes! I love this giveaway, I'm definatly doing this!

Orgins Earth Day Freebie

If you have an Orgins near you, bring in whatever you are currently using for skin care and they will give you a free full-size bottle of one of their cleansers. I don't know where one of these stores are, but if you do you may want to check it out! I think this is for tomorrow only!

FREE 6 Pack Sample of Nescafe Taster's Choice Coffee

Nescafe Taster's Choice is giving away free samples (6 pack) of their coffee. Go here: www.tasterschoice.com to request your free sample!

Organic Coupons

If you're wwwinterested in saving money on organic products defintatly sign up at www.mambosprouts.com. Mambo Sprouts periodically mails out coupon booklets, with TONS of great coupon in it. You will also receive a newsletter via email that also has coupons in it. Organic coupons can be hard to come by, and this is one of the only ways I know of to get good coupons that you otherwise wouldn't be able to find.

If you know of any other ways to save money on organic food pass them on here, I'd love to hear your ideas!

Clearance Finds at Target

Just back from a quick trip to Target. Of course they didn't have what I was looking for but I did get some great bargains for my kiddies. It's that time of year when you realize that none of your kids summer clothes from last year fit, and that they're going to need an entire new wardrobe.... I don't know why I'm so surprised that this happens EVERY year.

Anyways, my youngest daughter has about 4 short sleeve shirts, so I figured I better get looking. Target has 2 piece outfits on clearance for $3.70! Plus it was her favorite color...SCORE! I also picked up another 2 piece outfit for $6.00. And my best finds were in the shoe department. I bought my oldest daugter a pair of black dress shoes in the next size up for $2.49, oldest daughter also got a pair of dressy sparkly leather flip flops for $3.00, and youngest daughter got an awesome pair of black sparkly dress shoes with purple butterflies on them for $3.27! None of the shoes were marked these prices, they were all marked over $10, but a lady in the store said to scan them at the U-Scan machine cause they were coming up cheaper. I'm really glad about the shoe deals, since my kids feet are growing like weeds lately.

I spent under $20 for 2 complete outfits and 3 pairs of shoes. Can't beat that!

Pop Tart Rewards

One of my daughters favorite (unhealthy) snacks is a Pop-Tart. I don't know what she finds so wonderful about them, but she would pick a Pop-Tart over just about any snack. Pop-Tarts has recently started a rewards program. Just buy different flavors with the specially marked package and you can redeem them for various prizes. I plan to use my points for a free movie ticket (a movie ticket is 5 points).

I love when buying a product we frequently use can get me a reward, like a free movie ticket. I recently noticed that even 7/11 has a Slurpee Rewards program now. What a great way to reward loyal customers!

Swagbucks Rewards!

Just ordered my Amazon gift card through swagbucks! I won on 3 searches today!! I usually only win once or twice a day. Plus I entered the swagcode, so I made almost 60 Swagbucks in 1 day! I'm so excited, I'm getting closer to my goal! I want to get my daughter this book. Guide to the Magic for Kids. She will flip out over this book. She loves her Birnbaums for Kids book, but she's seen pictures of this online and this so up her alley. She, of course, loves Disney World and I know this book is perfect for her. It has pictures of all the attractions, stickers, an autograph section... pretty much everything a 5 year old Disney enthusiast could wan. It's $30.00, which I think is pricey for a kids book, but with my Swagbucks it will be free! Now I just have to get $15 more in the next 5 weeks so I can get it 100% free.

I love that Amazon participates in this program. Amazon.com is one of my favorite online shopping sites. They have everything, for great prices. I can even order my gluten free products in bulk! What more could a girl want....

My Money Saving (I hope) Organic Garden

As I've posted before I'm really trying to switch to more natural, organic eating and living. But organic food can be EXPENSIVE! To help with the cost I've decided to start trying to grow some of my own food! I'm actually really excited to try this. Today we started our seeds. We're starting small. My girls and I planted tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Since we have no actual place to plant these, they will be grown in planters (which I have to find... so any good deals post here please).

I really hope this works out. I would love to have organic veggies and be able to turn these into organic pasta sauces and salsa. Yum! Maybe I could even try pickles if I get brave!

Any tips? I'm a newbie to all this and I'm not so sure I have a green thumb!