I resisted a sale today...

Just thought I'd stop by and share my ability to pass up a sale today.


Today while shopping I saw one of the craft books I've been looking at for the last few months. I pass it every once and a while, flip through, sigh a little bit and put it back. It's $14 at Amazon and almost $18 in the store. Today it was marked down to $7. At first I was so excited I was finally going to get my book at a decent price, but after carrying it around a while I realized I've spent so much time just thinking about this book that I really didn't want it anymore. I never really needed it to begin with especially since you can find most projects for free online.

And you know what? It felt great to put the book back and walk off without it. Not only did I save $7 but I didn't bring any extra clutter into the house.

I figure if I can walk by a cheap craft book without buying it, anyone can do it.

Yankee Candle - 50% off

The after holiday sales are already starting.


Today Yankee Candle has started their Semi-Annual Clearance Sale!

You can get
Large Jar candles for $15 or 2/$25
Medium jar Candles $12 or 2/$20
Tarts and Votives for $1
Gift sets are 50% off
And there are some dollar deals for $12, $10, $7, $5, and $1
This includes those awesome beans wax candles for $3.

And if you buy right now shipping is $5 for all order under $100.

I purchased a lot of items during this sale last year and had some great gifts to give away this Christmas.

Just to warn you though last year in January this sale went to 75% off so if you don't have anything in mind or have spent 2009 stocking up on candles like I have you might want to wait for even bigger discounts.

15% off Hoover Upright

Had a quick deal to share with you mailed in from Barb.



You can get a new Hoover WindTunnel® Upright for $84.99 with free shipping if you act quickly.

Visit this LINK to view the product and add it to your cart.

For 15% off, use code TWinter
For Free shipping, use code TShipDeal


I just tried out the codes and everything is working wonderfully and yet you can use both codes.


Thanks for the tip Barb W.

Busy weekend

So Matt and I had a really busy weekend. We still have a few small projects to complete on the house and took the weekend to cross one off the list.

When we moved into our home they had carpet in the kitchen which smelled like grease badly.
Here are the kitchen floors after we riped up the carpet.




And here is the kitchen after we laid down the new tile.



We went with just a simple peal and stick. We really want to redo the kitchen in the next few years so we didn't see the point in paying a ton of money for real tile. I picked up these tiles on sale for $.49 a piece at Menards a few weeks ago so they were well within our budget. They aren't as thick as I would like but they are working fine and I think the floor looks really good.

Great Reads - Friday 18th

Jane from Makes and Takes has the recipe for Homemade marshmallows they look great.

After December 31st Kroger will no longer be accepting PG&E coupons, you can read the post at Mommies with Cents

Wise Bread has a great post up on Magic Jack and whether or not it's a scam.

Myra at Happy House Wife Life has a tutorial on making a candy cane chandelier.

These Homemade hot drink mixes from Money Saving Mom are book marked to use for next year.

Frugal Dad has an Affordable home security post up. Great ideas for the holidays.

Stop by Craftzine to see quite a few upcycled Gift Wrapping

2009 – 2010 Yearly Goals

Have you started looking back at your 2009 goals yet? If you’re like me you probably reached some goals but not others. And trust me that is 100% ok. This is a great time to ask yourself why. Did you set your goals too high, lose steam half way through the year or maybe you decided the goals wasn’t important any more. Any way you look at it you can learn a lot about yourself through analyzing what did and didn’t work for you in 2009.

I haven’t finished all my goal analysis yet and already I can see what did and didn’t work for us. I can then take this information and use it to set better goals next year.

Which brings me to my next topic: have you started thinking about your 2010 goals yet? You should be. I’ve been thinking of our since before Thanksgiving. Now I’m just working on the finishing touches and wording before I share them.

2010 is going to be a BIG year for us, how is it looking for your family?

Great freebies to look for...

Over the last few weeks I’ve received some great freebies in the mail all just because I filled out the online form.


For example Glidden paint offers up free colors at least twice year. This is the second sample I’ve received from them. You get to pick your sheen and color from any of their choices. This time I selected Robin Eggs blue, I think I’m going to paint a few shelves before hanging them up with this color.

Don't mind that all my pictures were taken on my stove, I'm running out of clean spaces with all the gift wrapping going on here.

I also received my See Here Christmas cards last week. After reading about the offer on another blog I decided to give it a shot. Since I got in on the deal a little late I did end up having to pay around $4 in shipping but even at that price they’re a great deal.


Many freebies are offered more than once allowing you to take advantage of them multiple times. So make sure to pay attention for when they’re offered again and keep checking onourwayonline.com as I’ll be highlighting my favorites during 2010.

The Tipping Point - Book Review

I read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell during my blogging hiatus. WOW! This book is really good. I’m classifying it a fun educational book, which are hard to find.

The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference, divulges into the theories of how epidemics of all kinds get started from the latest shoe trends to Columbine. Malcolm explains it all at great length without losing your interest. The Tipping Point is full of past psychological experiments which give us facts and a back story – having this makes believing the research so much easier. They aren’t just numbers thrown on a page you can get a full view of the situation from each mini story.

The cases and social studies span from the 1960’s until publication in 2000 which helps keep them interesting as well. Malcolm also describes the three types of people who allow these trends to grow salesmen, mavens, and connectors. Once you learn the roles of these catalyst you’ll have a much better understanding of how the cycle works.

If you’ve ever wondered how some trends take off and others plunder you need to read this book. This book is so good even after making my commitment to reduce my book collection I won't be re posting it on paperbackswap.com

Books Read in 2009: 30
Books to Read in 2009: 20

Free photo Book, Photo cards, calendar, or $25 gift card

Stop by Freebies for Mom to find out more about the American Greetings 20,000 people giveaway today.

I just received my code and can't wait to get started on a book.