Re-Gift Halloween Candy?

This is my plan for Halloween this year. I'm taking my kids out Trick or Treating early and when we get back, I'm going to sift through their candy, take out what we want, and then I'm flipping on my porch light and handing out the rest. I have three kids five and under so I think I can get away with this. I was telling a friend at our church's Halloween party last night and she said, "So you're going to re-gift Halloween candy?" I didn't think of it that way, but if you are already OK with re-gifting then maybe you will be OK "re-gifting" Halloween Candy too.

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I don't know how well this will work. Last night at our church's Trunk or Treat (people decorate the trunks of their cars and pass out candy as kids go from car to car), my kids got nothing but good candy! I think we were probably the only ones that passed out the cheap stuff! My husband and I didn't want to throw anything out! Except for the candy we gave out! So we'll see how this works tonight. We might not even get back home in time to pass anything out.

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What do you think of this idea?

Homemade Gift: Single Serving Pie in a Jar

Aggie sent this homemade gift idea to me today and I love the idea! It's so different. It's single serve pies in a jar! I might do this for my daughter's teacher (and the student teacher that's in her class this semester) and maybe a couple of neighbors. You can find the complete directions at Our Best Bites. She also has a link to Amazon for the jars to use and if you've been doing SwagBucks you can get the jars for free!

Thanks Aggie!

Do you have a homemade gift idea?

Email me at

kouponkueen (at) gmail (dot) com.

Harry Connick Jr CD giveaway

At Loca Loba

I Need Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas!

Last year we were really struggling with money. So I decided to make Christmas gifts for my mom and dad, my husband's parents, and his brother and sister in-law (I'll do a post on it later). I had so much fun doing it and I was more excited about giving the gift. So I think I'll do it more. This year I want to make Christmas gifts again. Unfortunately I can't post what I decide to do because I have family who read this. And I only have one gift I've done. Soooo.... I'm asking you if you have any ideas. What have you done in the past? Or what are you going to do this year? Email me at kouponkueen (at) gmail (dot) com. Send pictures and step by step instructions or a link to the idea.

Can't wait to hear your ideas!

Email Me

I've taken this info off my side bar to make room. I felt like there was too much information on there.

kouponkueen (at) gmail (dot) com

>If you have any questions, just ask. I'll do my best to answer. If I can't, I'll post your email and see if others know the answer.

>If you have show offs you would like to feature, just email me, and I'll try to post as many as I can. Just send a picture, what you spent and how much you saved.

>If you have a frugal idea, email me and if I like it, I'll post it. (usually I'll try it first. The point of my frugal ideas is to filter all those ideas and then tell you how I like them to give you a better idea if it is something you want to try)

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Kerrie-Koupon Kueen (in training!) has the right to use any image and/or any content of emails. Your email address will not be given out to a third party or stored in my data base unless I have your permission to do so. If content of emails are published you will be given credit for the information you send, so be sure to include at least your first name.

Old Navy Coupons Giveaway @ EADFL

Have I really only done two posts since EADFL's last giveaway? I'm such a slacker! I'll do better next week. I guess with Halloween this weekend and trying to finish kids' costumes, I've been pretty busy this week. My kids will be wearing their costumes three times this week! It would have been four if we went to this party last night. Crazy week! And it's only going to get crazier as is gets closer to Christmas. Fun times!

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Engineer a Debt Free Life (EADFL) is giving away a $25 off $100 and two 20% off coupons.

Kodak $15 gift code Phase Two

Kodak is giving total of 300,000 $15 gift codes over the course of three phases. Once the codes are exhausted in any given phase, a 40% off discount code will be given away in its place. However, if you’re the recipient of a 40% off code, you’re still eligible to snag a $15 gift code in the next phase!

Phase Dates:

Phase 1 (Oct. 20 – Oct. 28): Minimum 100,000 $15 Gift Codes

Phase 2 (Oct. 29 – Nov. 5): Minimum 100,000 $15 Gift Codes

Phase 3 (Nov. 6 – Nov. 13): Minimum 100,000 $15 Gift Codes

Frugal Tip: Dessert Party

I was reading this frugal book that someone found for me at the library and and it suggested a dessert party for frugal party ideas. It reminded me of the dessert parties we used to have. It was so much easier than having a group over for dinner. And we had a small house, so if we had a dinner party, we had trouble finding places for people to sit, plus their kids. So we could only ever invite one couple at a time. One night we did an impromptu dessert party. We had a chocolate fountain (like the ones you see at weddings), so we would provide the chocolate and asked friends to bring something to dip. Cookies, fruit, cake, pretzels, etc. It was our favorite thing to do. You could also just do cakes, cookies, brownies or whatever if you don't have a chocolate fountain. We haven't don't one in a long time. Now that we have moved to a new area, we need to do one.

Old Navy Coupons Giveaway @ EADFL

Engineer a Debt Free Life (EADFL) is giving away a $25 off $100 and two 25% off coupons. It's not as good as previous weeks. There were no $75's, but they added the $25's. And I think most people in the chatroom had a hard time getting their page to load up. I know I did. All the $50's were gone by the time mine loaded up. But if you are going to Old Navy anyway, why not have a coupon?

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I won't be posting anything today and through the weekend. I'm going to a conference this weekend and I still need to pack (although, that won't take long) and I need to clean my house. Someone from church is coming over to watch my kids for a couple hours until my husband comes home from work. And just cleaning the living room isn't going to work this time! LOL! Have a nice weekend.

70% off Restaurant.com Certificates

Use code PUMPKIN to get 70% off certificates on Restaurant.com. Pay $3 for a $25 certificate. Not sure when this expires though.

BOGO Snapfish 8 x 11" Custom Cover Books and other codes

BOGO 8 x 11" Custom Cover Books

Code: FALLBOOKS09

expires 11/6/09

30 % All Ornaments

Code: TRIMEARLY

expires 10/31/09

Free standard shipping on all cards

Code: SLIMSHIP

expires 10/31/09

Redesigned Recital Costume for Halloween

Do you have this recital costume?

My daughter wore it at her recital in May 2008. Last year I transformed it into a Minnie Mouse (black and white version) costume for Halloween! I paid $50 a piece for her two recital costumes and I was going to get my money's worth. I was just going to put her in it and that was it, but then three days before Halloween, my daughter was sitting on the couch with her Minnie Mouse and the idea popped into my head that I could make her costume into a Minnie Mouse costume. I was very proud of myself. It cost me a dollar or two to transform it to this....

I cut off the pink ribbon and added a black ribbon to the back for a tail (although you can't see it). I even sewed (by hand) lace to the leg openings to make bloomers (which you can't see, so I wouldn't bother with it). Viola! I had a Minnie Mouse costume! I put a black shirt underneath, she wore her white gloves that came with it. She later asked me where the three black lines were. It took me a while to figure it out, but then realized that all Disney characters have three lines on the back of their gloves. To do her hair, I put her hair in pig tails and then pulled it through half way. She had a ton of hair then, so I just pinned the extra to the back of her head. I stood up the "buns" with pins and fanned it out to make ears. Then I sprayed the front part of her hair black. I also sprayed glitter on top. You need some kind of glitter for girls on Halloween, right? Then I pinned the bow (which came with the costume too) to the top of her head. Then I tied the laces from her tap shoes to her shoes.

We went trick or treating on a hayride and someone else who was not with us who was passing by on a different hayride saw her and noticed she looked like Minnie Mouse! I was very proud of myself!

**Updated 10/26/09-I just tried this on my five year old and it still fits! It's a little snug, but she can still wear it. She was fitted for this costume almost two years ago! So I'm so surprised! If you have it still pull it out and try it on your little girl!

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Home Made Simple $35 coupon book AGAIN!

Home Made Simple is giving away coupon books with $35 worth of coupons again. If you got the last one, you should be able to do it again. I just signed up and it didn't say anything.

Thanks to April from April's Savings!


Here's what I got in mine the last time I got this:

• Siffer Sweeper Vac Starter Kit $5/1
• Buy Swiffer Starter Kit, Get a Free refill
• Swiffer Dusters starter kit or refill $1/1
• Swiffer Dust & Shine furniture spray $1/1
• Buy a WetJet starter kit, get a Free Refill
• Febreze Air Effects $0.50/1
• Febreze Candle $1/1
• Febreze Fabric Refresher $0.50/1
• Febreze Flameless Luminary Starter Kit $3/1
• Febreze Scented Reed Diffuser or Febreze Home Collection Soy Candle $1/1
• Febreze Noticeables Starter Kit, Dual Refill Pack or Singles Refill $1/1
• Dawn Direct Foam Pump $1.50/1
• Dawn Direct Foam Refill $2/1
• Dawn Hand Renewal $1/1
• Cascade Pure Essentials ActionPacs or Gel $1/1
• Dawn Pure Essentials $0.50/1
• Cascade ActionPacs or Gel $1/1
• Cascade Complete All-in-1 ActionPacs $0.50/1
• Cascade Rinse Aid $0.50/1
• Mr. Clean Multi-Surfaces Spray $0.75/1
• Mr. Clean Multi-Surfaces Liquid $0.75/1
• Mr. Clean Magic Eraser $0.75/1

Kodak: $15 off code

Kodak is giving away a limited amount of $15 off codes. If you miss it, I think they are giving away 40% off codes too.

From Money Savin' Momma @ EADFL

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**Update:

Deal Seeking Mom just posted this:

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A total of 300,000 $15 gift codes will be give away over the course of three phases. Once the codes are exhausted in any given phase, a 40% off discount code will be given away in its place. However, if you’re the recipient of a 40% off code, you’re still eligible to snag a $15 gift code in the next phase!

Phase Dates:
Phase 1 (Oct. 20 – Oct. 28): Minimum 100,000 $15 Gift Codes
Phase 2 (Oct. 29 – Nov. 5): Minimum 100,000 $15 Gift Codes
Phase 3 (Nov. 6 – Nov. 13): Minimum 100,000 $15 Gift Codes

Old Navy Coupon Winners

I used random.org to pick the numbers and the winners are:

#7-Laura

#14-Loree

Laura, I will send you an email and Loree, I'll send you a message on facebook to notify you, but you need to respond within 24 hours to recieve your coupon.

Thanks everyone! I hope to have more giveaways in the future so keep checking back!

Check back at Engineer a Debt Free Life for another chance to win a coupon.

I'll be up until probably 10pm. If I don't get a response by then, I'll send it first thing in the morning (that is if you confirm first).

Giveaway: Two Old Navy Coupons $50 off $100! CLOSED

CLOSED

I was able to get two $50 off $100 coupons from Old Navy Weekly last night. Thanks to Engineer a Debt Free Life's chatroom! I love their site! They were my inspiration for my blog. They've been able to pay off over half of their $200,000 debt in just a few years! Learn more about Engineer and Money Saving Momma here. They are also giving away a coupon which ends today and they will be giving another one on Monday!

I went to use one today and so I could get 10% off and still use my coupon and not have to go back and grab something else, he just adjusted the prices to equal $50 off. So he didn't use the code on the coupon! The first winner will get the one I didn't try to use and the second winner will get the one I tried to use which should work anyway, but no guarantees.

How to enter:

• Leave a comment answering this question: Where is your man going to take you, wearing the Going Out Shirt (item of the week)? Or for the men: Where will you take your lady when wearing the Going Out Shirt? and/or...
• Blog about the giveaway. and/or...
• Post it on Facebook. and/or...
• Post it on Twitter. and/or...
• Put my header on your blog with the link. (Although I don't officially have a button, you can copy and paste my header and link it to my blog. I'm working on getting an official one. Can't figure it out.)

Up to 5 entries!

Sorry Lisa! No. You do not have to do every method. Each one of these is a seperate entry. When you do it, just post another comment letting me know you did it. So you can get up to 5 entries! (changed it so other wouldn't get confused too, Thanks!)

Make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry! Leave your email user name in the comment. I'll get the rest later.

Giveaway ends October 16th at 9PM Central time! Winners will have 24 hours to email me the rest of the email address, or the coupon will be given back to someone else. I will try to figure out a way to contact you personally. I will post around 9:30PM Central time tonight!

Please be patient with me. This is my first giveaway and I'm trying to figure out the best way of doing this since blogger won't let you post email addresses without the whole world seeing it. If you are comfortable leaving your entire email address you can. I will still contact you before I send you the coupon and you will still have 24 hours to respond.

Free Sample: Toddler/Baby Snacks

I'm mostly posting this for my sister who is getting into the whole organic food thing. Get a free sample of Little Duck Organic snack.

SwagCode 10/12/09

There's a new SwagCode out there! Read this blog. It expires 9PM Pacific (11PM Central). I got two when I entered it in, but not sure if that two is good up to a certain time, so just in case, enter it now!!

What is SwagBucks?

Find out here.

Don't have a SwagBucks account?

Sign up here.

Last Day for 80% Restaurant.com

Use code FOUR to get a $25 for $2

Ends today at midnight!

Frugal Tip: Phone Service

We've had the Magic Jack I think since about February or March. Although we are not totally in love with, it's still a pretty good deal. The jack itself is $20 and a year service is $20. So when you first buy it, it will actually be $40, which will include the first year's service.

We didn't have a home service before and use our cell phones mostly, but we were looking for a way to reduce our cell phone bill. We were looking to go into prepaid, but instead we just put mine and my husband's cell phone plan with my mom and we share the minutes. But so we don't have to use up all the minutes and hopefully my mom can reduce the minutes, we use our Magic Jack phone as much as possible. The problem is, that you have to keep your computer on 24/7 if you want your phone to work. But it's worth it. There are times when it will say it's not plugged in and I can't fix it, but my husband knows how. I'm just clueless when it comes to this type of stuff.

So I would recommend this to anyone. In my opinion it's not perfect. But I do know people who don't have any problems with it and totally love it. There is a 30 day trial period, so if you don't like it you can get your money back. We got ours at Best Buy, but I think you can get it off of Magic Jack's website too. Now you do have to have a certain speed for it to work. I think you need 2 of something (can't remember what they are called). When we first got it we had 1.5 and it worked OK for us not having the right speed. Now I think we have 8 and it works better.

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Oh and a couple of things I like about it: Your voicemails go to your email! You can even listen to them straight from your email! You can also take your phone with you! My friend who recommended the Magic Jack to me said her father in-law brought it to his camp and had his phone there.

Allowance Chart

It's so important to teach our children how to handle money and it's never too early to start. My sister and I were talking and I'm probably the best with money of my four siblings. And I'm not where I need to be. I wonder how much better I would be if my parents actually sat down and taught me how to budget, the importance of saving and things like that. I think most parents forget to pass their knowledge of money down to their children. Even if it's learning through our mistakes we need to teach our children.

Even though my husband and I will probably never be at a place where we can give our kids a nice size allowance, I wanted to give them something so I can teach them how to save and live within their means. I decided when KJC turned five this past year, I would start giving her a dollar a week. I had heard somewhere to give kids change for an allowance because it seemed like they were getting more. And I'm sure you can do the same with older kids who get more and use dollar bills. I made this allowance chart so she can divide her money herself......

I divided it up 10% for tithing, 10% for long term savings, 10% for short term savings, 5% for the family mission fund and the rest for spending. I'm not sure if I want to stick with this. But as I learn better how to save my money and put money aside for different things, I might change this.

I was looking for paper coins that looked real, but couldn't find any. So I had to use plastic. I put the coins I would give her up to the top and then divided those same coins into the categories. I made a color copy and stuck it in a protective sleeve. You can also laminate it if you have a machine or access to one. I made three of these. I'm weird, and I like to see change all mixed up (with dollars too), so that each bank wouldn't have all the same coins, I made three and changed the coins around. :)

I don't get good ideas very often. Usually when I do something, I found it somewhere else. I'm very proud to say this was all my idea. I'm sure someone else does this too, but I didn't find this and duplicate it. :)

And to explain the family mission fund, in our church people in their early twenties can serve a mission for our church. Instead of everyone saving for individual missions, I decided to do one big mission fund so anyone who wanted to use it could and everyone would be contributing to the mission. Maybe my husband and I could even use it to go on a Senior mission when we are ready to retire.

SwagCode 10/9/09

Find the SwagCode at the SwagStore. Copy it, and paste it at SwagBucks. Expires 5 PM Pacific (7 PM central). EXPIRED

What is SwagBucks?

Find out here.

Don't have a SwagBucks account?

Sign up here.

Mega SwagBucks Day!

Thanks April for reminding me!

Yes, it's Mega SwabBucks today. There are 10, 20, 50 and 100's out there. Happy Searching!

I almost have enough points to get my first prize (that I want anyway)! It's going a little slower lately. I've been slacking in the SwagBucks department lately. But I'm getting back in there.

What is SwagBucks?

Find out here.

Don't have a SwagBucks account?

Sign up here

SwagCode 10/8/09

There is a new swagcode out there. It's on facebook here. It's in their status at the top of the page. Expires 2 PM Pacific (4 PM Central). EXPIRED

What is SwagBucks? Find out here.

Don't have a SwagBucks account?

Sign up here

Recipe: Goolash

This is a Frugal Recipe!

This recipe was always my favorite growing up and one of the few that I actually learned from my mom. My mom went back to work when I was in high school and worked a lot of nights or was too tired to really cook when she got home. Going back to work after about 15 years and being on her feet all day I'm sure was really hard on her physically. Anyway! It's super cheap and easy!

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. elbow noodles (about 4 cups)
V8 Vegetable Juice (the big bottle or the big can will work. The can is a lot cheaper than the bottle, but when I can find the bottle really cheap I buy the low sodium)
1 can stewed tomatoes (optional)

Cook elbow noodles as per directions. Brown ground beef. If you are adding stewed tomatoes when beef is done cooking, drain the fat, then add stewed tomatoes. I cut them up with my spoon. You can also add some of the vegetable juice to warm it up while the noodles are finishing. When noodles are finished, drain noodles, put them back in pot and add ground meat mixture and rest of veggie juice and heat up.

We usually eat on this for two days and it goes great with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning! Yum!

You don't have to use V8. That is the kind I like after trying the Great Value brand. And I wouldn't recommend Tomato Juice either.

When my mom was on a diet she used to make up a bunch of noodles and for lunch or dinner she would put some in a bowl and pour V8 in it and put it in the microwave. No meat!

I've also heard of people adding corn to it.

We didn't grow up with the stewed tomatoes, but when my husband (who is the better cook) and I first got married and I made this for the first time, he insisted that we add stewed tomatoes in it. My feelings were really hurt. It was the first time I had cooked and I felt he thought it wasn't' good enough. I was telling my dad about it and I said, "And you know what the worse part about it was?...It was better!"

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**I'm making this for dinner tonight and hopefully I remember to take pictures and post them later. I'm know I'm a visual person when it comes to food. I can't really read a recipe and think, "Mmmm! That sounds good!")

Old Navy Thrusday

It's Thursday again! Be sure to keep checking back to Old Navy Weekly to try and snatch those high value coupons! I'll be in a chatroom at Engineer A Debt Free Life.

Check out M80 for the item of the week and what high value coupons are being hid this week.

For those of you who don't know about Old Navy Weekly, Old Navy updates this site every week with amazing coupons like $75 off $100 and $50 off $100. The coupons are hidden. You'll have to do things like click on the flying bird in the background or take the chapstick out of one modelquin's hand and put it on the other's lips. Best thing to do is practice on the old site, so when it updates you kind of have an idea on what to do.

No one ever knows when it's going to update. Typically it's been on Thursdays, but it's been on Frida before too. It's updated at 4pm on Thursday, but it has also updated 4AM on Friday! Just keep hitting that refresh button or F5!

Good Luck!

What is SwagBucks?

SwagBucks is a way to let you earn rewards just by doing what you already do, searching the web. Instead of going to Google, Ask or Yahoo, you go through SwagBucks. They use Google and Ask so it's pretty much the same thing. You can earn lots of different prizes but what seems to be the most popular prizes are gift cards. Gift cards like Amazon, Target and Barnes & Noble or get cash through Pay Pal.

I know someone who was able to buy a brand new laptop through Amazon by buying Amazon gift cards! There are other ways to earn SwagBucks, like through swagcodes. You find swagcodes through reading blogs, the downloadable toolbar, or through newsletters.

Find out for yourself here.

I'll try my best to post where you can find swagcodes. I've been kind of slacking in that department lately. I can't post the swagcodes. If I do my account will be deactivated. But I can lead you into the right direction and give you clues.

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10/16/09-As of today, I'm able to get two $5 Amazon e-gift cards (but I'm saving my bucks for later). That is in about a month's time. And there was a time that I wasn't even doing it. $10 for something I do anyway! Sweet! Free Money!

Frugal Tip: Homemade Stain Remover

I got this recipe from my mom a while back. I didn't post this sooner because I wasn't sure how I liked it yet. Until last week. One of JRC's blankets got caught up in our van door as it was opening. It had grease all over it. I kept forgetting to wash it. Three or four weeks later I finally wash it. I sprayed it with the stain remover and scrubbed it with an old toothbrush (I've found that scrubbing with a toothbrush is needed even for the best of the store bought stain removers). I washed it and viola! It was clean! You can't even tell grease was all over it! So now I'm convinced that this stuff really works.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup water
1 cup ammonia
1 cup dish soap (my mom suggested Dawn "it gets the grease out." If you use the concentrated kind you can use half a cup)

My mom said something about adding the soap last or something last because it will bubble up. I don't remember. I quadruple it and put it all in a gallon jug, so it doesn't matter to me. A little warning: This stuff really stinks! Sometimes I have to take a break from pre treating.

Originally posted on my personal blog May 2009

Since I originally posted this recipe on my personal blog, I have changed it just a little bit. I no longer quadruple it. I have found that it kind of loses it power after a while. And I now use about 3/4 of a cup of concentrated Dawn.

Our Story

This is just to let you know a little about my family and how we got where we are today.

My husband and I were married in 2003, we didn't wait long for our first child who was born 13 months after. We now have 2 girls and a boy, 5, 2 1/2, and 13 months. I stay home with my kids, so we have one source of income.

After my son was born, a lot of unexpected bills started to pile up. The hospital bills from his birth were triple what were expecting to pay. Our mortgage went up $150 (they needed money in escrow and has recently gone back down). My youngest daughter and my son were sick a lot and had to be brought to the pediatrician and to specialists. I think in two months time we had spent $300 at $25 a visit! My daughter needed tubes put in her ears, so that was more doctor bills. So at the beginning of this year were were struggling and our savings had been wiped out. That's when I started to look for ways to save money. I had tried couponing in the past (a few times) and failed miserably! Just recently have I started to get the hang of it. I started looking into things like making my own baby wipes and things like that. At the end of March I started to put together a plan to eliminate our debt. I was so excited. I was going to start with April's bills and then the thing I had been dreading happened. My husband was laid off from his job the last weekend in March. The funny thing about it, I had called him to tell him our tax refund was deposited into our account and I was really excited. We were going to pay off one of the credit cards and put the rest aside. He didn't seem too excited and I finally pulled it out of him that he was laid off and he was on his way home. Luckily that money didn't come in a couple days sooner because it would have been gone! Remember, we had no savings! So we had that and two weeks severance and a week of vacation. Oh and the week before he was laid off a drunk driver hit our HOUSE and we later got money from that and a friend who worked in the construction business said just to keep it, that the damage wouldn't effect the value of our house. So we had money from that, tax refund, and severance. A few weeks after that, my husband was organizing a huge service project with the mayor of the city we lived in and while they were organizing the final details, a city vehicle backed up into our car! Yeah. What else could happen? Luckily, I think that was it. But really, they were kind of blessings in disguise. If it weren't for the money from the drunk driver and the city vehicle we would never had survived this. My husband was out of work for two months. He finally was able to get back on with the same company he was laid off from, but in Nebraska (we lived in Louisiana), less money, and we had to move ourselves. So here we are in Nebraska. Just recently I felt comfortable enough to start back up trying to pay down our debt. Our goal is to live debt-free. Eventually we would love to pay for everything in cash, even vehicles.

I don't claim to know everything about being frugal and couponing, but I'm learning. So as I learn, I want you to learn to! It's been so fun to find new ways to save money. Never in my early twenties did I think I would get excited about making my own baby wipes or cleaning my floors with rags attached to my swiffer. But here I am. Being frugal and loving it!

April's Savings

This is a really good site to find deals! Right now this is where I get most of my information from. She posts at least twice a day and does at least 10-15 posts at a time. She's helped me save a lot of money. She can help you too!

April's Savings

I'll always have her website on the side if you ever need it.

Old Navy Trip

I went shopping Friday at Old Navy with my $50 off $100 coupon and my two and a half year old and my 13 month old! I thought I was brave, but as I was going into the dressing room, there was a lady coming out with a preschooler and twin babies! Suddenly I don't feel too bad about having to bring my two to the store.

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The key to my shopping trip was that even though I had this amazing coupon, I still shopped like I normally do. Well close to it. Usually I would try to buy off the clearance rack, but since I was looking for warmer clothes, there wasn't much of that on clearance. But I still didn't go buy the $25 sweater that I might have liked better, instead I stuck with the $15 sweaters. I was looking for pj's for my son, but they were $16.50! And at half off that would make them $8.25. I should be able to find pj's at around that price at Walmart or Target.

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Spent: $64.74 Saved: $53

45% Savings

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I went over the $100 a little bit and the extra $3 in savings I think was from buying two of something and I got a discount on them.

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I think they kind of expect people to go a little overboard when they get these coupons. But I tried to stay close to the $100. The shirt for JRC was an extra over the $100. Not too bad though!

October Produce

Buy produce in season to save money on fruits and vegetables.

Produce in Season:
Almonds ~ Peak
Apples ~ Peak
Artichokes ~ Peak
Arugula ~ New
Basil ~ Waning
Beans, Fresh Shelling ~ Waning
Beans, Green ~ Waning
Beet Greens ~ New
Beets ~ New
Broccoli ~ New
Brussel Sprouts ~ New
Cabbages ~ New
Cardoon ~ Peak
Celeriac/Celery Root
Chard ~ New
Chestnuts ~ Peak
Cranberries ~ New
Daikon ~ New
Eggplant ~ Waning
Escarole ~ New
Fuerte Avocados ~ New
Fuyu (Firm) Persimmons
Garlic ~ Waning
Haas Avocado ~ Waning
Hachiya (soft) Persimmon
Kale
Kohlrabi
Kumquat ~ New
Lemons ~ New
Lettuce ~ New
Orange, Valencia ~ Waning
Parsley ~ New
Parsnip
Pears, Bosc ~ New
Pears, Comice ~ New
Peppers, Hot ~ Waning
Peppers, Sweet ~ Waning
Pistachios ~ Peak
Pomegranate ~ Peak
Potatoes
Potatoes, Sweet ~ New
Pumpkin ~ Peak
Quince ~ Peak
Radish ~ New
Raspberries ~ Waning
Rutabaga ~ New
Spinach ~ New
Squash, Winter ~ Peak
Tomato ~ Waning
Turnips ~ New
Walnut ~ New
Yams ~ New
Zutano Avocado ~ New

Sales and Deals to look out for in October

Sales/Deals:
Halloween promos
Candy
Cookies
Baking season begins
Baking chocolate chips
Fruitcake/candied fruit
nuts

Fall promos
Apples
Pumpkins (fresh)

Pet products, food

Car care products

Clearance Items:
"last year" flavors of holiday foods-time to clear the shelves fro new products and packaging....

Occasions:
Columbus Day
National Children's Day
World Food Day/UN and UNICEF
Halloween

Other Promotions this month:
Adopt a Shelter-Dog Month
Fire Prevention Week
German-American Day
Pledge Across America/Reading/School Celebration
National Animal Safety and Protection Month
National Apple Month
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
National Chili Month
National Cookie Month
National Dental Hygiene Month
National Dessert Month
National Pizza Month
National Pretzel Month
National Seafood Month

Free Calendar

Get a free Memories Stitched With Love calendar filled with creative activities and inspirational content from Annie’s and KIWI magazine when you buy any Annie’s Homegrown product. Click here to sign up.

Thanks to my wonderful sister!

A few freebies

Thanks April!

SimpliStick Sample wall stickers
FisherPrice Halloween Greeting cards (as well as other occasions) I've done these with my kids for Christmas. Super cute!
Yankee Candles BOGO exp. 10/4/09

Target Clearance

I just got back from Target and they have a lot of bedding stuff on clearance! This is southeast Nebraska, but I'm sure they are on clearance everywhere. I went to find the $13 comforters they have on sale this week for my kids and I couldn't find them. All their college stuff was marked down and I got three twin comforters for $9.98 each! I also found sheets, pillowcases and cloth napkins (although there was only the one set of napkins). We're gearing up for our first winter here!

If you know of any great Target clearances that are going on right now, leave a comment and let everyone know (and what region you are in)!

I Got the 50!

My faith in Old Navy Weekly is renewed! After a couple of months of trying I finally got a high value coupon! I got the $50 off $100! I tried to get another one to do a giveaway or to donate to Engineer a Debt Free Life's giveaway, but they went too fast. I'm going shopping tomorrow!

This is sooooo stressful!

I kind of knew yesterday was going to be a bad shopping day! I didn't do too bad as far as the savings went, but not as much as I would have liked. I have to go shopping with my two year old and my 13 month old though. To find the best deals I have to drive at least 45 minutes. So I don't want to wait until my husband gets home and be shopping all night. Plus I'm usually exhausted by the end of the day and I don't feel like shopping. And I don't want to take up our Saturdays, so I'm stuck shopping with my kids. They drove me nuts yesterday! I was so tired when I got home and had a huge headache all night! Then I realized I forgot the $13 comforters for my kids at Target! We really need them now that we've moved to Nebraska (from Louisiana!)! I might have to go back. I didn't take any pictures of my stuff. I was too tired and had to deal with three kids!

Target

Spent: $130.10 Saved: $48.36

37% Savings

I think my best deal was the shaving stuff. I bought a fusion razor, three 4pk cartridges, gillete deoderant and fusion shaving gel. If I bought 2 fusion razors or cartridges, I got a $5 gift card. So I bought a razor and three cartridges. I had a $2 coupon for the razor and had a coupon for a free shaving gel with a purchase of cartridges and a coupon for a free gillete deodorant with a purchase of a cartridge. Then the deodorant had a free sample deodorant! I also needed conditioner and had a coupon that was going to expire for for two Pantenes. They weren't on sale, but I did find some that had a smaller bottle attached. So I got a pretty good deal on something I needed anyway. I got 4 skippy PB for $1.04 and two poptarts for $0.88 and 4 chex mixes for $0.49. I also bought 33.68 worth of diapers. I bought them in bulk because I didn't have any coupons and even though the jumbo packs were on sale, it was still cheaper to buy the bulk boxes. I also bought a few other things that I needed and weren't on sale, but needed. Not too bad though.

Baker's

Spent $70.67 Saved: $27.74

39 % Savings

I didn't do too well as I thought I was going to do. But my biggest score was half gallon whole milk for $0.75! It was a manger's special and wasn't advertised in the paper. Wish we had our freezer! I would have stocked up! I also stocked up on Kroger Veggies. They ended up being less than $0.42 a can.

Although I didn't do as well as I would have liked but at least I saved something!

Old Navy Thrusday!

It's that time of the week again. Another day wasting away on the computer, waiting for Old Navy Weekly to update! I'll be in a chatroom at Engineer a Debt Free Life if you want to join me!

For those of you who don't know about Old Navy Weekly, Old Navy updates this site every week with amazing coupons like $75 off $100 and $50 off $100. The coupons are hidden. You'll have to do things like click on the flying bird in the background or take the chapstick out of one modelquin's hand and put it on the other's lips. Best thing to do is practice on the old site, so when it updates you kind of have an idea on what to do.

No one ever know when it's going to update. Typically it's been on Thursdays, but a couple of weeks ago it was on Friday. It's updated at 4pm on Thursday, but it has also updated 4AM on Friday! Just keep hitting that refresh button or F5!

Good Luck!