Record Bowls

Spend an afternoon turning old records into unique bowls

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Last week for the craft show Matt and I spent some time turning these old vinyl records into amazing bowls. I picked up the records at goodwill and we were able to transform them in an evening. I liked picking out the labels while centering the bowl and Matt enjoyed forming them after they were melted. It was a good project to do together for the weekend. Cheap too. I found the directions at thrifty fun - HERE.

We used different styles and sizes of pans to make the various bowls. These are great and can be used for almost anything, even planters. If you plan to store food you only have to add an acrylic base spray for safety.

I hope to list a couple of the bowls on my etsy page (Greencycle) in the near future. I'll let you know when I get them up.

Save - A - Lot Giveaway

Stop on by Mommies with Cents for a chance to win a Save-A-Lot Giveaway!

I haven't shopped at Save-a-lot in many years but it helped us save a lot of money when we did. Maybe I'll start back up again. There are a couple of products I'm pretty brand loyal to (mac n cheese, peanut butter, etc) but many others I could substitute with store brand products.

Sweeps for Week 9/29

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
~ National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes - Until 9/30
~ Johnson’s $5,000 - until 9/30
~ Subway Scrabble Game- Ends 9/29 More HERE
~ Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind until 9/30
~ Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility until 9/30. More HERE
~ Colgate until 9/30
~ Red Robin - until 10/14.
~ Lysol "fact or Fiction?" Until 11/3
~ Ban - How I chill - until 11/15. More HERE
~ Oreo Double Stuff until 12/1

Just Plain Sweeps
~ Circuit City - Ongoing
~ Pilgrim’s Pride - until October.
~ The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve until 10/1
~ Woman’s Day Magazine. - Many Ongoing
~ Home Magazine - Many Ongoing
~Enter the Redbook get everything you want Until 1/15. More here

One time Entry
~ MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

October Coupon Giveaway

As previously stated I want to do one coupon giveaway a month... and this is it for October.

I have no idea how much the coupons are worth, I stopped counting at $150 so your guaranteed at least that much. They include some from this months P&G insert of course.


This month there are Three times to enter for three times the coupons.

1. Leave a comment in this post with the favorite freebie you've received lately

2. Post about this giveaway on your blog or other site. After return to this comments section and leave a direct link to your posting so I know you've entered.

3. Subscribe to this blog through the RSS feed or email subscription. Once again after you've subscribed make sure to leave me a comment letting me know you've done so. If your already a subscriber just leave me a comment letting me know.


You have until Thursday, October 2nd at 3pm (est) to enter.
I will randomly select and contact a winner that evening.


Last month there were quite a few posters who forgot to leave an email or blog address. PLEASE please please make sure to leave some form of contact information so I can get a hold of you when you comment.

No Sunday Savings

No CVS or other Sunday savings for me today. I spent the afternoon at a craft fair in town. I was able to bring a few more items to the show today; although, not as many as I had hoped. It was a good day, we sold some items and I learned a lot to use for next month. See some crafts on the table that I haven't posted about yet? Keep reading they'll be coming up soon.
And even though I didn't stop at CVS today I did do a quick stop at Meijer to pick up the paper and while there rolled over my Johnson's soap catalina and used our last free kraft item. I wasn't able to use my last $2/10 but I hope others out there were able to pick up some good deals on the last day.

Free History trip

Today was free admission to any Smithsonian museum. I've wanted to visit the Detroit Historical Museum for quite some time so Matt and I used this as our chance. We woke up semi early and made the drive to Detroit in order to visit some history. I have a human resources background but I specialized in Labor Relations so any type of union related history gains my interest. Sadly the museum located in one of the most exciting cities for labor history wasn't as in depth as I had hoped. They did have a revolving exhibit entitled Hero or Villain? which was pretty interesting. I won't bore you with labor history like I do Matt, but lets just say the real story of Henry Ford is much different than the one displayed in most museum exhibits.

Anyway, while we were there enjoying our free admission we decided to walk across the road and visit the Detroit Institute of Arts as well. We had already made the drive there and it was only $8 to get in so we went for it. I know its hard to believe but if you notice this painting is of an assembly line in an early manufacturing plant. Who would have guessed I would pick something like that to display? The mural is from a revolving exhibit in the middle of the museum. The exhibit contains a few small pieces of the mural but it has a big presence.

All in all we had a great day for much cheaper than we would have been able to do it without our free day pass.

::Trip Cost::
Parking: $4
History Admission: $0
Patch (for Matt): $2.50
Smooshed Penny: $ .51
Admission to Art: $16
Pin (for Me): $ 5.50

Total: $28.51
Not bad for a day worth of site seeing and checking two things off our to see list.

What did you do with your free passes today?

There’s No Free Lunch or Money

While organizing my bookmarks tonight (I have a tendency to bookmark every craft) I found an old article from one of my favorite blogs, Freakonomics. The article, posted back in July (its been a while since I did link housekeeping) is titled “There’s No Free Lunch or Money” and as you can assume chronicles how you can’t get anything for free. The author, S. Dubner discusses how pedestrians didn’t stop to take $5 from a man offering free money because they figured there was a catch somewhere. Dubner contends that there is a price for anything, your time.

I have to whole heartedly disagree with Dubner. I’ve gotten many things for free in the last few months, my biggest being an $80 pair of Adidas shoes and my favorite a full roll of toilet paper. Yes, obtaining these items may have taken a little bit of my time but they’re well worth it.

And its not just free items, I’ve also gotten free lunches. Well dinners really. Matt and I eat at Applebee’s for free, paid for by Speedway points (for gas we’d buy anyway). Tomorrow we’re visiting a museum for the 50 seconds it took to print the free pass. Well worth my time.

Now I will admit so far I haven’t received any free money, but you can guarantee if someone wanted to hand me five bucks, I’d take it. Even if it meant I had to give a few moments of my time to gain it.

Look what followed me home....

These books contain the wallpaper samples displayed at home improvement & paint stores.

While I was shopping the other day they were being taken off the table to be thrown away. I quickly offered to take them off their hands and the manager gladly agreed.

I have one Nickelodeon, one metallic, and a country sample book.
Here's a look into some of the pages...

I have some BIG plans for these books, not only will they make some great bows and beads, but I was able to save them from just becoming more trash.

Holographic Dollhouse

Holographic Dollhouse by Charlotte Lawrence is an interesting book full of mystery and magick. This book, however, is not my typical style for reading material. It would obviously be a better read for those interested in and with a small amount of knowledge about magick. It’s a tale of friends on a quest to find a missing father, solve the mystery of a family dollhouse and a bunch of other stuff I really couldn't follow. The book is a little slow to start and didn’t pick up until at least half way through. I probably wouldn’t have finished it but my book OCD doesn’t allow me to stop reading once I’m within chapter II. (This rule does excluded Black Beauty – the only book I’ve never finished).

There is also apparently another book in this series, but I don’t plan to read it. I’ll be ok not knowing the rest of the story.

As for my rating system: You can find this book listed on

Recyled gift bows from magazines

I’m always keeping my eye out for great upcycling projects so you can imagine my excitement when I found this great tutorial at Craftster on how to make gift bows out of magazines. Now that I’ve learned how to get lots of free magazines I need a way to make sure they get fully recycled, and this is a great solution.

I bought cute little flower and star brads from JoAnn’s at 100 for $2.99. Since the magazines were free and I can make 100 bows from each box each gift bow cost me about three cents. A much cheaper solution than the options available at Wal-Mart and these are homemade.

Just beware they are quick to make and quickly become an addiction.

Update on No Spend Weekend

Matt and I had our first No spend weekend from September 20th & 21st. You can read more about it HERE. As I sit here writing about it I have to say it was a success.

Technically I did spend money… but I had a good reason, really. Saturday after getting out of work I spent seventy-five cents on an exacto knife. It was marked down and exactly what I need for an upcoming craft. I had purchased a different knife at Wal-mart for almost $6 earlier in the week. Since I haven’t opened the knife from Wal-Mart yet I plan to return it this week. So in a way by making that 75 cent purchase I saved our family about $5.

Other than that Matt and I successfully spent NO money what-so-ever this weekend. I didn’t get half the things done that I wanted to, but that’s pretty much how all my weekends go. We did get a few crafts done, picked up a little, and took a nap on Saturday.

- For our first No Spend Weekend – Success & $50 Saved –


Our next no spend weekend will be October 11th & 12th.
I’m really looking forward to it and hope others out there might join us in keeping our money in October. If you plan to do a no spend weekend let me know. I’d love to hear how everyone else does.

Sweeps for the Week 9/22

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
~ National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

~ Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Enter once a day until September 30th.

~Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Ends 9/29/08
Read More HERE

~ Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind until September 30th

~ Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility play until September 30th. More HERE

~ Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

~ Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

~ Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

Enter the Lysol "fact or Fiction?" Instant Win daily until November 3rd for the chance to win $50 gift card (5 each day).


~ The Ban - How I chill instant win and sweepstakes is giving away 136 great prizes (below) until November 15th. More HERE

Just Plain Sweeps
~ Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

~ Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away great stuff. Register until October.

~ The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.
~Sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times.

~Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

~Enter the Get everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009. More Details here

One time Entry
~ MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

Unlimited Free Johnson’s soap at Meijer

Ok really close to free anyway at nine cents a piece. Currently at my Meijer if you purchase any 3 Johnson products you get a Catalina for $3 off your next 3 Johnson’s Products.

Purchase 3 Johnson’s Buddies soaps for $1.09 a piece and use the $3/3 coupon in the insert a few weeks ago. Then go back and purchase 3 more soaps using the $3 Catalina for another 3 products and $3 Catalina. Just keep rolling it from there.

No idea how long this deal will be going since there isn’t a final date on my Catalina or a tag on the shelf, but I plan to take advantage of it

I foresee a lot of Buddies soap in my donation box very soon.

CVS 9/21

Good day at CVS today!


1 Adidas Deodorant $4.99
~ $1 Coupon
1 Nivea 4 Men $4.99
~ $2 off any Nivea (Internet printable)
2 Crest ProHealth (2.99 x 2) $5.98
~ (2) $1 off crest

$2/10 CVS coupon

Total: $8.96
ECB: $ $6.99
OOP: $1.97

Earned: $12.99 in ECBs ($4 Adidas, $4.99 Nivea, $4 ProHealth)

In total I made $4.03 for shopping at CVS today.

Martha Stewart Blog Contest

Don't we all love Martha Stewart? I know I do.. jealous too

Right now Martha's blog is having a contest for all the other bloggers out there. All you need to do is visit her site HERE and read THIS post on entering.

She'll be highlighting her favorite blogs from the list of those submitted.


There is also some great information on how to get started with your own blog and others who are running blogs you might find interesting.

But now I'm off to spend more time reading her blog. I always have time for more crafts.

Mail Call 9/20

4 Magazines
Scott Toilet Paper sample
Febreze Pet Pack
Jungle Pilot book
Cascade sample
Mr. Clean sample
Dove coupons

Visit Mommies with Cents and Freebies 4 Mom to sign up for your own free samples.

What did you get in the mail this week?

No Spend Weekend

Once again smallnotebook.org has inspired me – she’s amazing. In July her family had a No Spend Month. A time they decided not to spend any money besides the essentials ($250). I love this idea and as much as I hate to say it I don’t think there’s any way Matt and I could do this, not for a whole month anyway. We still have a long way to go on our frugality. Thinking about just how far we have to go kind of discouraged me but then I realized we don’t have to have a no spend month.

Even a weekend would help us save money and make us realize we don’t need to eat out all the time (our biggest money spending issue). Besides my two required night shifts each week we spend most our money on the weekends, eating out pretty much every meal. I figure if we go for even one weekend without spending any money on our regular vices we’ll save about $50.

I calculate it as follows:

Saturday/Sunday: $10 Lunch, $15 Dinner (each) = $50

This calculation doesn’t include any spending on movies or Goodwill shopping which we tend to do during this free time. Because of this it’s probably safe to assume we’ll save more than $50 but I wanted to keep it simple.

If we did a no spend weekend once a month (a very doable task) we’d save a minimum of $600 a YEAR! That’s a big Savings.

So it’s decided from September 20th until the 21st Matt and I are celebrating a no spend weekend. No movies, no craft purchases, and no fast food. The only money leaving our pockets will be for groceries on Sunday. And crazy as it is I’m really looking forward to spending a quiet weekend at home using up some craft supplies and spending time together.

Wish us luck!

Because I have frugal and upcycling on the mind lately I wanted to bring you a frugal organizing craft. **Ignore the messy desk**

Last week at work I was getting frustrated because the square pieces of scrap paper I keep at my desk were starting to get messy. One of our employees suggested I head to Wal-Mart and get a little box to put them in, but I didn't want to spend money on that. So to save money and a trip to Wally world I decided to make my own. We sell votive candles where I work and they come in the boxes pictures. Once the candles all sell we recycle the boxes, I decided to take it a step further and upcycle two boxes I found into something better.

All I did was make the cute “Notes” tag and throw in my precut scrap paper. Best of all my paper now smells great from the left over candle smell. I used another one to organize the small stuff in a desk drawer as well. Now every time I open my desk it smells like cucumber melon. Being able to upcycle something and having a good smelling desk is enough to brighten any bad day.

Everyone liked them so much the next time I find more of these boxes I’ve been commissioned to make organizers for my fellow managers.

Lysol Instant Win

Enter the Lysol "fact or Fiction?" Instant Win daily until November 3rd for the chance to win a $50 gift card (5 each day).

Meg

Bangkok Dangerous

I guess Matt and I are having a bad movie year. We added another not so great silver screen show when we saw Bangkok Dangerous this weekend. Actually to be fair it wasn’t horrible. I would watch Bangkok Dangerous again five times before watching Tropic Thunder. I just feel bad because I really like Nicholas Cage as an actor, I just feel he’s just made some bad movies.

I actually liked this movie and would have given it a B+ but the end ruined the whole thing for me. The imdb.com synopsis pretty much sums up the film with “A hit man who's in Bangkok to pull off a series of jobs falls for a local woman and bonds with his errand boy.” I would tell you just how bad the ending was but I don’t want to give too much away. You can read up as much or little about Bangkok Dangerous as you’d like on the imdb.com link. I just can’t believe test audiences were satisfied with that ending and the film makers kept it.

Thank goodness we were able to see this movie for free – thanks to the Indiana Jones & Dr. Pepper Promo earlier this summer. It was actually the very first sweepstakes I ever won and as you know it led to my obsession.

For those of you who have seen Bangkok Dangerous what did you think?

Paper Beads

So I’ve done a lot of talking about upcycling and how much I enjoy it but I haven’t shown any projects I’ve completed. In reality my “to make” list is somewhat extremely larger than my “completed list”, but I’m working through it slowly. I figure this winter will give me a chance to be super productive as I tend to hibernate during Michigan winters. Expect to see many more project post in the winter to come.

My most recent project has been these little beads. They are made by rolling strips of magazine pages, newspaper, junk mail, even pages from the phone book. I received the idea one night while shop gazing on etsy.com. I actually remember one Christmas I received a machine to help you make paper beads like these. I spent the next few weeks rolling all our used wrapper paper. While the process is the same I used a crotchet hook to roll these beads and a little glue around the outside to help seal them. Even though the beads are technically sealed they’re still paper and shouldn’t be wet.

Making the beads is easy and fun. I do them while we watch TV or Matt plays Zelda on the Wii. It could even be a fun activity to do with older children or school groups. I plan to take these beads to the craft show I’ll be attending at the end of the month and I will list some on my Etsy shop. Yes that’s right I have a shop. You can visit me at GreenCycle on Etsy. It’s a little sparse right now but I hope to get some things added soon. I’ll make sure to update when I do.

If your interested in making some of your own paper beads I found a great tutorial on WikiHow.com HERE.

Sweeps for the Week 9/15

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
~ National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

~ Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Enter once a day until September 30th.

~Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Ends 9/29/08
Read More HERE

~ Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind until September 30th

~ Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility play until September 30th. More HERE

~ Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

~ Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

~ Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

~Enter the Back to school Back to savings sweepstakes for your chance to win a Laptop computer and printer or one of three $1000 shopping sprees. You can enter once a day until September 29th.

~ The Ban - How I chill instant win and sweepstakes is giving away 136 great prizes (below) until November 15th. More HERE

Just Plain Sweeps
~ Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

~ Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away great stuff. Register until October.

~ The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.
~Sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times.

~Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

~Enter the Get everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009. More Details here

One time Entry
~ MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

~Enter the Roomba Sweepstakes at Redplum. One entry per person until September 15th. More infor HERE


Last week I won a free Dole Salad. What have you won lately?

Meijer Money Maker

You can get FREE Glade PlugIns Scented Oil Starter Kits and get paid to shop at Meijer until 9/28.



Yesterday Matt and I were able to score these five Glade Oil Warmers and Meijer paid us $5.24 to do it. Until 9/28 you get a $2 Catalina for every Glade oil warmer you purchase. I’ve heard this is working at some stores on the gels as well but I have no confirmation of this.

Here’s what we did

5 Glade Oil Warmers @ 4.69 = $23.45

(4) - $4 off Glade Oil Warmer
1 – B1G1 Free Glade Oil Warmer
Total coupons used: $20.69

Cost out of pocket: $2.76
Earned: $8 to use on next order & 5 Glade Oil Warmers

CVS 9/14 - 95% savings

We only did a small trip to CVS this week, but we ended up with some stuff we’ll need especially come allergy season.
















2 Cover Girl Outlast Lip Color (2 @ 5.99) - $11.98
~ B1G1 Free Cover Girl Lip Color
~ $1 off any Cover Girl Product
1 Aleve Sinus & Headache - $3.99
1 Excedrin Extra Strength - $3.99
~ $1 any Excedrin product


$4/20 CVS coupon

Total: $21.15 (including tax)
Less coupons: $7.97 ($11.99 in coupons)
ECB Used: $7
OOP: $1.51 (.54 cents tax)

ECB’s Earned: $9.99 ($3 wyb buy $10 in Cover Girl products, $3 on Aleve, $3.99 on Excedrin)

$32.46 in merchandise for $1.51 - CVS paid me $1.48 to shop there this week, that’s always nice.

Year to Date Savings: $321.68

Visit "Cent"siblesawyer for more cvs savings.

Book Sale Finds!

Obsessed with reading like I am? Sick and tired of paying too much money for a book to read it once and then leave it on a shelf? Me too. I love books and finding new authors when I can, but I hate paying over $20 for a hard cover book or even $10 to $15 for a paperback. Luckily as consumers we do have options. We can always visit the library and borrow books for free. Or course with this option you have to give them back sooner or later. We also have the option of I told you about it HERE. If your like me you and enjoy owning a good book you can combine the two for the best results. I read a book from the library and if I wish to own it I’ll request it on . It’s a nice system, that’s working for me.

Another way Matt and I get cheap books is by visiting our local book store’s big 4th of July sale. We discussed it HERE.

So how in the world did I get all these books for $6? Shown on the left is our most recent Library book sale haul. Matt and I picked up 80 books for $6, that’s a little more than three cents a book. What a steal! We did so by visiting our local library’s book sale on the second day, $3 bag day. All the books you can fit into a bag for $3, its enough to make me tremble with excitement just thinking about it.

These types of sales allow me to find books by new authors I wouldn’t normally buy, some older but popular books and on occasion a book that’s been on my to buy list for a while but hasn’t been purchased yet. On average I normally find one of these books per sale.

Or course someone as OCD as me can’t just visit a book sale and pick up books, I fill my bag in layers with a well thought out system. I start the sale out by filling my bag with any book I see that I know I want or one that looks like a good read. If my bag isn’t full I head to the craft section and look for books I can get projects from or to sell online. Lastly I top off the bag with young children books (box car, babysitter, Goosebumps). We don’t have young children but I’ve found these books are great to list on for easy credits and I give any duplicates to co-workers with the appropriate aged children. They always seem to be appreciative and it only cost us a few pennies.

A sampling of what you’ll find in our stash this trip.
Bottom layer – My books: Left Behind (1 through 3), Bridget Jones Diary, Air Frame
Middle Layer – Craft books : Martha Stewert Great Parties, A family circle book from 1988
Top Layer – Filler: Goosebumps, Boxcar Children, Baby-sitter Club, Girl talk

Looking for a sale in your local area? I use Book Sale Finder to figure out when we have upcoming sales. You can also visit your libraries website directly to learn about sales they are hosting. Happy book hunting.

Our next sale is at the end of October at our second favorite library in the area. I can’t wait to see what we find.

Tropic Thunder - Movie Review

I won a free movie ticket to see Tropic Thunder so Matt and I cashed it in during our anniversary vacation. There’s nothing like buying two movie tickets for $4 and we were lucky because had we paid full price I’d really be upset. This movie was bad, as in not good at all. I didn’t expect much considering it had Jack Black & Ben Stiller starring, but it was so much worse than I expected. I was ready for dumb, even stupid comedy, but this was also unnecessarily gory. I’ll admit there were some funny scenes and even a few lines I’ll remember (I'm a rooster illusion), but I’d like to forget most of it.

Tom Cruise was my favorite character if I had to pick. The best part of the movie is trying to figure out who he is. If you don’t heed all my warnings and see this anyway make sure you look for him. And please under no circumstances take your children to see this film. When we were at the theater there was also a small child (7 or so) with his father. The first five minutes of this film has enough swear words and inappropriate content to fill three movies. I kept thinking the father would remove the child, but sadly no luck, not appropriate.

This is definitely one movie where I could have stayed home, but at least Matt and I are now even. Bad movie pay back for me making him see Shutter and The Ruins earlier this year.


“I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!”

Saving on souvenirs

Another way Matt and I save on vacations is by limiting the number of souvenirs we purchase. Sounds like an easy task but can be much harder than expected. Matt and I used to take vacations and I’d spend the whole trip worried about what I was going to buy for everyone back home. I’d load up on lots of cheap unnecessary plastic crap to bring back for cousins and such. Yes, I had a problem. Our home was is filled with all kinds of stuff from all over the world. Most of it we never look at anymore. Black cat carvings from Mexico, blankets from Tijuana, sand globes from the Bahamas. It took a while but I finally realized these plastic items don’t make us happy; memories of being on vacation with loved ones are the best souvenirs of all. To curve this habit now when we vacation somewhere we have a plan.

Matt collects and only purchases patches from an attraction and I stick to pins (picture). These items cost anywhere between $2 to $7 but they are small, easy to pack and sold at most places. Most importantly it’s something we enjoy and can display. Matt plans to display his patches in a binder with protective sheets and since my pin collection has grown so much I plan to make a display board for them soon. I’ve gotten pins at almost every play and attraction we’ve been to in the last five years. They take up so little space I barely know they are there.

We also now only buy gifts for our parents and the lucky person who is watching B.P. When we do buy gifts for others we make sure they are small and usable. No more coffee mugs or painted shells, we stick to bookmarks in the shape of rocket ships (Kennedy Space Center), tree ornaments made from fallen redwoods (Muir Woods) or something similarly meaningfully. These items are easier to pack, cost less, and are unique keepsakes.

Hobby supplies on a budget

We all have at least one hobby or collection but how we finance these extra activities depends on the person, budget and the activity.

These Wades are the newest additions to my collection. I always enjoyed playing with my Great Grandmothers Wade collection and started collecting Wades a few years ago myself. You can get these adorable figurines in boxes of Rose Red Tea. Sadly I don’t drink enough tea to make any kind of contribution to my collection and they can get pretty costly when purchased at antique stores or estate sales. Something I really can’t afford to do anymore if I plan to retire in five years.

I was lucky enough to be talking to a friend about what exactly my Wades were when she mentioned she drank that tea and just threw the figurines away. My amazing friend then offered to mail them to me when she had a small stash saved up. Now every few months I receive a highly anticipated envelope full of Wades. That little letter from New Jersey is always sure to make my week.

Now I do understand not everyone collects Wades or is lucky enough to have a tea junkie friend who mails them out, but if you have a collection or hobby that requires a certain item take the time to ask around and see if you can get it for free before spending money.

Often times you can find exactly what you need from a friend, co-worker, or your church. Just the other day I had an employee bring me in a bag of pine cones for a project I had been talking to him about earlier. I didn’t ask for the cones but he decided to feed my new upcycling obsession mission by bringing them in for me rather than mowing them over. You can also visit Freecycle.org and find others in your city willing to swap items for the best price of all…FREE. I’ve received mason jars and fabric from site members and have in return given away exercise equipment and a television to others.

Remember someone else’s trash might just be your treasure

Orville Redenbacher 100 Calorie Smart Cakes

In my last freebies post HERE I mentioned I received a sample 100 calorie Smart Cakes pack from Orville Redenbacher. Last night I was able to give them a try and I must say they’re good, especially for something healthy. I tried the cheddar cheese flavor and found them to be light, crispy, and definitely cheesy. Not dry or bland like so many other options out there.

I will be using the coupon I received with my sample to try some of the other flavors (chocolate and Carmel) and of course more cheddar cheese as well.

I believe this freebie offer has ended but if you visit the Redenbacher site HERE you can download a $1 off coupon for Smart Cakes or Naturals Mini Popcorn Cakes.

Has anyone else tried this new product? What did you think?

Free Mary Kay Signature ultimate mascara

Click HERE to receive your FREE sample of Mary Kay's Signature Ultimate Mascara. It is only a single application but I figure I'll throw it in my car or purse. You never know when you'll need mascara.

B.P. is getting spoiled

This is our puppy B.P. ok so he’s not really a puppy anymore as he’ll be four this Halloween, but he’ll always be my little pup. Last week B.P. was lucky enough to win coupons from The Coupon Queen at Frugal and Fabulous. They arrived addressed to B.P. himself and I’ll be redeeming them soon. He'll be spoiled with seven (yes, 7) FREE cans of Mighty Dog including others coupons for Busy Bones and Moist and Meaty. Needless to say we'll have a happy puppy for a while.
Thanks Again!


Just more proof that you should enter all giveaways, you never know what you’ll win.
Check out the following giveaways for your chance to win something great

Bloggy Giveaways giving something away every day
Coupon Cravings is giving away 3 autographed copies of the Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom
Burpie Baby is giving away Surprise gifts totaling $20 and lots of new coupons
The Freebie Blogger is giving away a 2 year subscription for All You
Mommy Making Money is giving away 2 coupons for the free Bayer Breeze or Contour Meters (money makers at CVS)

Sweeps for the Week 8/8

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
~ National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

~ Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Enter once a day until September 30th.

~Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Ends 9/29/08
Read More HERE

~ Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind until September 30th

~ Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility play until September 30th. More HERE

~ Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

~ Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

~ Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

~Enter the Back to school Back to savings sweepstakes for your chance to win a Laptop computer and printer or one of three $1000 shopping sprees. You can enter once a day until September 29th.

~ The Ban - How I chill instant win and sweepstakes is giving away 136 great prizes (below) until November 15th. More HERE

Just Plain Sweeps
~ Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

~ Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away great stuff. Register until October.

~ The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.
~Sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times.

~Enter at All You Giveaways you can enter until 8/28. More Details Here

~Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

~Enter the Get everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009. More Details here

One time Entry
~ MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

~Enter the Roomba Sweepstakes at Redplum. One entry per person until September 15th. More infor HERE

Weekly Freebies

This is actually about two and a half weeks of freebies. I'm bad at taking pictures.



Lots of magazine subscriptions (I can't believe there was once a time I paid for them)
Stride Gum, 100 calorie pack, some planting seeds for next year, and my first Vocal Point mailer!

I think my mail man hates us but I love what he brings every day.

Vacation Savings

As posted earlier Matt and I went on vacation in August to North Carolina. This trip consisted of an eleven hour car ride (each way). While we couldn’t do much on the price of gas we did find other ways to save money. One of those ways was packing snacks and water for the drive. During the whole eleven hours we stopped one time for food at a Burger King where we only spent $4.99 on both of us. (A fast food feat for our household).
The rest of the trip we snacked on our Pringles, crackers, and water. These also come in handy at nigh rather than running for a snack.

In the future I may even take it a step further and pack sandwiches and larger snacking material. Because of my work schedule we were very rushed before this trip. I have no idea how much if any money we saved by doing this but it made me feel like we were so and that’s enough for me.

Has anyone out there done something similar and saved? I'd love to hear about what you do.

Coupon Giveaway Winner!

Gretchen at My Hour has won my coupon set.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I hope you keep stopping by, there are sure to be many more giveaways.

Unnecessary Expenses & New Finances

I will not be doing a budget update for the month of August. Mainly because we spent so much money I don’t even want to see the figure. Once it got so bad I just stopped keeping track, horrible I know. Matt and I made some totally unnecessary purchases in August.

In celebration of paying off our credit debt and our 1 year wedding anniversary (September 1st) we purchased a WiiFit for me and a new computer for Matt. He built the computer for much cheaper than we could have purchased one, the perks of having an IT guy around the home. Over all we spent about $400 on both of us. More than I would have liked but it’s a one time deal.

On top of these fun purchases we also spent money on some practical things. Things like a small trash can for our bedroom, white undershirts, 2 pair of jeans (I ruined my last pair on vacation earlier), and a new shower curtain. I mentioned most of this in my earlier post. I was so focused on paying off our credit card debt we often didn’t buy other things we needed around the house.

Also after much discussion we decided to take our extra credit card money and save for four months in order to finish remodeling our home. We will still save for the car and emergency fund only our retirement will have to wait. I hate putting it off, but I’d like to have a kitchen I can actually use, maybe we’d eat at home more.

Matt and I have two options we will either sell our home in October or as its beginning to look we will be living here for another 5+ years. We never actually put our house on the market but had an offer made earlier this year. The buyers are having trouble securing a loan with the new regulations and with declining home prices I’m not sure we could even get the agreed price at this point.

If we stay here we will need to complete the kitchen and bath, a task I estimate to be around four thousand dollars. We plan to do most the work ourselves or with help from experienced family. Currently our mortgage payment is low and we have reasonable utility bills.

If we sell our home we’ll have more freedom to move out of state if required and even a little profit to put in the bank. We would also down size for cheaper/equal rent and lower utilities.

I’m really ok with either option. At this point I just want to know which option we’ll be going with. Also if we save the 4K and do end up selling in October we’ll take that money as a security deposit on an apartment and put the rest in savings.

Anyway, September starts a new month and a new budget. Finally a budget focused on saving not paying. I’m sure it will take some adjusting.

Sweeps for the Week 9/2

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
~ National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

~ Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Enter once a day until September 30th.

~Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Ends 9/29/08
Read More HERE

~ Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind until September 30th

~ Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility play until September 30th. More HERE

~ Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

~ Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

~ Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

~Enter the Back to school Back to savings sweepstakes for your chance to win a Laptop computer and printer or one of three $1000 shopping sprees. You can enter once a day until September 29th.

~ The Ban - How I chill instant win and sweepstakes is giving away 136 great prizes (below) until November 15th. More HERE

Just Plain Sweeps
~ Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

~ Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away great stuff. Register until October.

~ The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.
~Sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times.

~Enter at All You Giveaways you can enter until 8/28. More Details Here

~Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

~Enter the Get everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009. More Details here

One time Entry
~ MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

~Enter the Roomba Sweepstakes at Redplum. One entry per person until September 15th. More infor HERE

Two giveaways at Mommies with cents

Mommies with Cents is giving away TWO great items this week.

The first a a craft box set called, Craft: The First Years. All you need to do is leave a comment HERE by Friday, September 5th.


They are also giving away back to school books from Candlewick Press. You can enter HERE but make sure to do so by Friday, September 5th in order to win.


And remember as with all blog giveaways don't forget to leave an email address when you visit their site to enter.

Military Coupons

Just a reminder that now is the time to send off your expired coupons to a military base overseas. Our military families can use them for up to six months after the expiration date. You can read more about how in my previous post HERE.

This month I’m sending mine to an Air force base in Spain.

Family Support Center
51st MSS PACAF
Unit 2097
APO AP 96278-2097
Rota, Spain

Last month it cost us eighty-two cents and less than five minutes to fill out the customs declaration to mail our expired coupons (All coupons are worth $0 until used). The process was so easy we’ve decided to do this every month. I hope you can join along.

If you’ve sent coupons to a US base this month let me know which one you selected in the comments section.

CVS 8/31

Here’s what I picked up yesterday at CVS
$98.34 in merchandise for 72 cents!



I did two transactions and used the coupons expiring the 31st. There was a product error and I had to return it, but I still ended up ahead for the day so its ok.

::Transaction One::
2 Colegate Toothpaste $5.98
~ $1 off Colegate
~ $1.50 off Colegate
1 Mitchum Deodorant $2.99
~ $.75 off
2 CoverGirl Foundations - B1G1 $7.99
2 CoverGirl Face products (1 power, 1 cover stick) – B1G1 $5.99
~ B1G1 Free Covergirl face product
1 Wet Slick $5.99
~ $1 off any CoverGirl product
1 Emerald Mist (3 pack) $1.99
~ $2 off CVS face product

$2/10 purchase

Paid: $7.28 in ECB (1.49, 5.79)
OOP: $4.61 - it was an extra high oop because they only took off $5.99 twice rather than one for $5.99 and one for $7.99 – Live and learn I guess.

Earned: $9.99 ($4 Colegate, $5.99 WetSlicks)



::Transaction Two::
1 Neutrogena mascara $5.99
~ $3/2 Neutrogena product – I was allowed to use this b/c I actually bought two but when the ECB’s didn’t print one was returned.
2 CoverGirl Foundations B1G1 $7.99
2 CoverGirl smoothers moisturizing tint B1G1 $7.99
~ B1G1 Free CoverGirl product
1 Emerald Soap (3 pack) $1.99

$2/10 purchase

Paid: $5.99 ecb (previous transaction)
OOP: $2.18 ($1.20 tax)
Earned: $3 ecb for Neutrogena & $6.35 on gift card (for return)


Overall Daily Totals
OOP: $6.79
ECB: -$.28 (Started with $7.28 & ended with $7)
Gift Card: $6.35
Difference of: - $.72