It's Been Awhile...

As you very well know, it has been some time since my last post. I never intended to neglect my blog, but the inevitable does occur sometimes unexpected. As the days pass, I find myself trying to find the time. As I am sure you all experience on a day to day basis, as our babies grow, our time schedule shifts and you find yourself more and more engulfed in the lives. I guess what I am saying is, the blog is being put on hold because I am just having too much fun being a mom and not having to worry about blogging every day. However short lived it was, this clog did get me through the times of being bored while my baby slept, I can't bare to take any time away from him now. He is so active and I would rather watch and play then steal those moments for my blog. Who knows, we may find as Independence grows, I will have more time to myself, but for now, these moments are too precious.

It's Been a Dry Couple of Weeks

I am just writing to let everyone know that I am still here, just with less enthusiasm. I haven't really been out there cashing in on any great deals lately. Everything just seems overwhelming and my energy level and enthusiasm just hasn't been there. The only great deal I cashed in on this week was one I talked about a couple of weeks ago. I did take my JC Penny $10 coupon and picked up a great pair of shorts and an awesome top for just over $2 out of pocket. Other then that we have just been home enjoying not having to run all over. That is except for the supplies we needed for the Tropical Storm, which was an all day event in itself. But as I always promise, things will pick up soon, hopefully. I have been watching the sites to see what is going on and everyone seems to be in the same rut. With back to school and the summer coming to an end, I think we all just needed a little break!

I Have to Laugh...

So I just posted about the Redbox code and when I clicked over to the blog to make sure everything looked OK, I had to laugh out loud. See, I recently added google adsense to the content area of my blog. Don't ask me why, I don't make anything to speak of off of it. I think year to date I have made $.38, HaHa....But I laughed because there was this ridiculous ad with this guy saying "I'm Better than you, I'm rich. You're not." How far from the truth when you come to my blog. The whole reason I write this blog is because I like to share my attempts in finding ways to stretch a dollar, because we are far from rich, except in our lives themselves! For those of you who come to my blog and get the opportunity to see this ad, please laugh with me. I will be attempting to remove these ads soon. Now I just have to remember how...

Redbox Code for Free Rental

OK, I promised I would bring you free codes for Redbox. So far, for the new one in St. Cloud you can use the code Walmart. You do not have to be a new user for this code to work. This code may also work at other locations, so feel free to try. As of today it was working perfectly. I will keep you posted on more codes. Oh how we love free!

Redbox Makes It to Orlando Area!

I have been so jealous of those of you with a Redbox in your area. I hate nothing more then to pay $3.99 to rent a movie. Half the time I end up falling asleep half way through and then we have to return it the next day. Not any more! $1.00 movie rentals sound pretty good to me...And we finally have Redbox's in our area. I signed up online and received my first movie rental free, which was super easy to pick out and return. Best of all, I can now participate in the free rental codes they put out sometimes. I missed yesterday's code, but I will be posting them as they come out from now on. FYI for those of you in St. Cloud, the Redbox is located at Walmart on the grocery side when you first walk in.

Moth Online Contest

What better way to open our new Online Store than with a contest! Get your hands dirty in spreading the word! This is your chance to spread the love and get your hands dirty by telling all you know about our online store! The rules are simple...The 50th visitor to Moth Creations who makes a purchase will receive a free Apple IPod Nano of their choice and color. The IPod will be engraved with our website so you can show all that Moth is something you believe in! Good Luck to all and as always, Much Love and Respect.

Offered from your friends at Moth

Moth Online Store Now Open

For those of you who know us, you know that we have many adventures currently going on. My husband is an amazingly talented Graphic Artist who already has as extensive clientele list. He has taken on a new adventure to get his artistic vision into the hands of others. This is his specialty. If you are interested in groundbreaking fashion check out Moth Creations. Our long awaited online store is now open to the public. Be sure to check out our latest designs and our new women’s apparel section, all available now for online purchasing.

Free Gift from JC Penny

Be on the lookout for the Catalog that came my mail today. It is for Back to School Clothes but inside is a $10 off a single in store purchase of $10 or more good August 11 - August 19. These are a great way to pick up a few free items or that adorable outfit you have been eyeing for the baby. And as long as you stay at $10 total, it will be free! And I love free!

Thank You for The Awards!

This post is a little delayed due to family illness and recovery...

I've received an award from 2 awesome readers...Tasha over at Comical Coupon Cents and Angie at Wylie Mom...Many Thanks! I appreciate your thoughtfulness and the dedicated readership. Expect much more in the future as we are all recovering and will be back to full time blogging shortly!

Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.

3. Nominate at least 5 other blogs.

4. Add links to these blogs on your blog.

5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

I nominate these great bloggers.........

Cassie at Homeschooling Four

Lisa & Colette at Way More 4 Way Less

Angie at Thrifty Florida Mama

Marin at Frugonomics 101

Megan at Mommy Minded

Congrats to all your hard work...You deserve an award!

CVS $2 off $10

Check out Deal Seeking Mom to find out how to get your $2 off $10 coupon that is good until September 28, 2009! Yeah...More CVS Coupons!

Have You Been Missing The Centsible Sawyer?

If you guys have been missing Denise over at The Centsible Sawyer just have a little patience. She has not disappeared but her blog has been locked by those infamous Google Robots who thought her blog was spam!!! Her temporary blog is located HERE with her latest deals. Hopefully she will be back to normal soon!

It's a Sale...A Money Saving Sale!

Ok, for those of you in a rut or just starting out with the savings ritual, I have found a great resource for you. I have been referring you for months to the Money Saving Mom, as you will see her link on the side bar of my page. Her site has literally saved me hundreds of dollars. Well, she is having a sale on her eBooks. TODAY ONLY you can get an incredible ebook package from MoneySavingMom.com--over $100 worth of money-saving ebooks, homemaking helps, and encouragement for only $5.97! This is a great price and I'd highly recommend you run over the to check it out. Click Here to see what she has listed.

What makes this deal so good is that this ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101--this course alone is worth much more than $5.97 and will teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. If high fuel and food costs are discouraging you and leaving you strapped for cash, you definitely need to buy this ecourse. You'll learn how to cut your grocery bill by up to 50% or more and have fun saving money at the same time! There are also ebooks on homeschool info and much more. This is some really great reading for the price of less then just one ebook!

Click Here to read more about this huge sale! Hurry, though, the price goes up tomorrow--get this money-saving ebook package at a ridiculously low price while you can!

Happy Birthday Addison

Happy Birthday to our beautiful baby boy. I can't believe you are already 1. Time goes by way to fast. Mommy and Daddy love you so much and hope that all of your dreams will come true. Happy Birthday Boog Boog!

Prepping for the Big Party

As many of you know, last week was a slow week for blogging around here. We were all busy prepping for the big day...Addison's 1st Bug Birthday BBQ. Here are some pictures of how everything turned out. We opted to make everything instead of buying generic decorations. We finished all of our bugs, even if they didn't turn out as planned. It worked out perfect. Everything was so adorable and my mother made the perfect Pin the Bug On the Frog's Tongue. Our version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Thanks Mom! Here are some pictures of our homemade decorations.

Our Bug Decorations. There were too many to include in one picture so here are just a few. They were on all the tables, in the plants and all around the party.

Pin The Bug On The Frog's Tongue.

The Bugs for the Frog Game.

The Frog Cake and Ladybug Cupcakes.

In Need of Maternity Clothes?

Are you in need of Maternity Clothes? I came across some too good to be true deals on Maternity Clothes so I scooped them up. Now I am trying to pass the savings along to some of my friends and readers. Check out the eBay link on the top of the page. There are also a couple of non-Maternity items as well. I will be adding more in the next couple of days so keep an eye out. All are brand new, never worn items and some still have the original tags attached. Like I have said before, I LOVE to pass on a great deal!

Free Prints from Shutterfly

I received an email this morning for 15 free prints from Shutterfly. Super easy. Check it out:

Summer travel means a million memories and almost as many pictures. Make the most of your recent uploads with 15 free 4x6 prints.

*Enter code 96SUMMER in the shopping cart.Offer ends July 31, 2008.

I've been tagged by Angie at Wylie Mom!!

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you

2. Mention the rules on your blog

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

So, I have to tell you 6 things about me...

1. I can't bare to pay full price for anything. If I don't think it's the best deal, I will search around until I find a better one. The worst part is when I do find a great deal, it upsets me that the people I tell don't take advantage of it, even if it benefits them. Probably the reason I do my blog.

2. I love the challenge of making things myself. If I see something, I try to recreate it so it doesn't cost so much.

3. I love to rearrange our home. I get bored with it easily and hubby and I will spend an entire day figuring out a new way to lay out the living room to make it feel new again.

4. When I find something new, I get obsessed with it. Much like when I decided to be a SAHM, I began to eBay, Blog and figure out how to save money. If you would have seen me a year ago, it was a totally different story.

5. I can put up a good argument. I don't like to be told I am wrong when I know I am right. Sometimes this gets me in trouble. Other times this saves me some money.

6. I wish I were a super organized individual and often get jealous of those who are. I wish I had a place or just even room for everything. I know how much easier life would be if everything were spotless and in it's place!

Let's see.....

Cassie at Homeschooling Four

Angie at Thrifty Florida Mama

Nichole at A Call to Higher Places

Sheila at Frugal Georgia Mom

Erin at JANE4girls $800 Annual Budget For A Family of 4

Rebekah at The Coupon Bin

The Heat is On...

We had a wonderful 5 AM wake up call Sunday morning. I woke up and thought that the house didn't seem so cool. Typical because I always wake up hot in the middle of the night, but the air just seemed very still and stale. I got up to check the thermostat and it was blank. What? Yep, nothing there. I checked the breaker and nothing there so I went back to bed because I couldn't do anything until morning anyway. The next 2 hours wasn't comfortable sleep worrying about it. When I got up I had convinced myself we just needed a new thermostat. It must have went bad so I ran off to Home Depot. In the meantime, hubby went to the neighbors house since he is an air guy. Sure enough, it was more. So bear with me as we get this thing fixed. We spent last night as my in laws and will figure this out ASAP. I will be back to posting within a day.

My Friday Morning Steals

As many of my close friends know and I am sure many of my readers as well, I am not afraid of hand me downs or yard sale shopping. If I can put something to good use, it's new to me. I was so happy I decided to go yard sale shopping Friday morning. To say the least, the heat has been keeping me away (as well as having to take 2 kids), but my mom told me about a few sales with baby clothes. I hit the jackpot! I bought all of this great woman's boys clothes for just $25. That is a fraction of what I would have paid for them. Most are what Addison is going to be needing in the next couple of months and some are what we can use right now. I even received some things to pass along and stuff for my stepson. Too bad we didn't have any girls though. I was at another sale that was flooded with baby girl clothes. I wanted to buy some just so that I could hold on to them. My sis in law finds out next week what she is having and when I say they had tons, they had two six foot tables loaded with pink clothes. But, the better half said I will run into a deal again and hold off until we know what the baby is. Oh well, I may give in tomorrow morning and get a few. We'll see. So long story short, thank you for the great conversation, the information on your successes with Dave Ramsey and the amazing deal on those clothes. We really do appreciate it! And we will put them to good use.

We Got the Freezer!

So I mentioned yesterday that we were going to look at a freezer that was listed on Craigslist. Well, we got it. It's not quite in our possession yet, but we gave the extremely nice woman the deposit and we can pick it up on the 30th! I am so excited. The posting just seemed to good to be true. A used upright for under $200. Now it is gently used and not a crisp, white, prestine freezer, but they have kept in in really great shape and it is ice cold. It seems that she is in the process of moving and having her daughter's birthday so they are working through the food inside of it. But after next weekend, we are good to go! I am so happy and I think this is going to be a huge help with the stockpiling of great deals! Yeah us!

We Are Finally Getting a Freezer!

So, we have been on the hunt for a freezer and I think we have finally found one. I have been wanting a freezer for in the garage for some time now, but I did not want to go out and buy one new. I was being picking and only wanted an upright freezer. The chest freezers just seem like such a hassle and I can envision food making it's way to the bottom and never seeing the light of day again. So, I have been scouring the Craigslist ads and I think we found one. We are going to look at it today and decide. The seller is asking for $100, a new one was looking to cost over $300. I will let you know how it goes! Yeah I am so excited!

It Was Late and We Needed Milk...

So what so you do when you are on your way to the airport to pick up the Hubby and you realize you are out of milk? You put together a CVS scenario and hurry out the door! Here was my Milk run from last night...

(2) Sally Hansen Nail Polishes= 1.98

(2) CVS 5 pack of Tampons= 2.98

(2) CVS Facial Wipes= 5.98

(1) Gallon Milk= 3.99 (seems to be higher in Florida then any where else)

Total= 14.93 (15.98 with Tax)

Used 3/15 CVS Coupon

(2) $2.00 off Skin Care

(1) $3.00 Sally Hansen Nail Product

Total Paid= 5.21

ECB Earned 4.98

$.23 for Milk in a Hurry isn't bad at all!

Macy's One Day Sale Deals

How many of you made it to the Macy's One Day Sale on Saturday? This is something we never miss around here. I have had many people ask why bother because their prices are so high, but guess what, the sale is just that good. We scored over 22 items, everything from jeans, to dress pants for hubby and new school clothes for my niece and nephews. The retail value of all of these items was $623.97 but we only paid $129.89. That is a $494.05 savings.

When Macy's has the one day sales, they typically have a $10 off $25 purchase coupon in the paper (the previous sale you could even find it online). With this coupon and separating all of your items into purchases for as close to $25 as you can get, you pay around $15 for the transaction. Now, for an even better savings, ONLY shop the clearance rack. I have mentioned this before, if it is not on the clearance rack, we don't buy it. Some of the shirts we bought my nephews we originally $28 marked down to $7 with an additional 50% off making them just $3.50. You can't but nice Polo's for boys at Walmart for that price! Another example were the slacks I bought hubby that were originally $79 marked down to $29 with an additional 50% off making them $14.50.

Now comes the good part. With those slacks and 3 of the boys Polo's and the $10 off $25 coupon, we paid just $15+tax. It was like getting the Polo's for free with the slacks at an amazing discount. This trip however was 90% for the grandkids back to school clothes (my mother went with me) with a few items purchased for ourselves (pants and shirt for hubby, shorts for me and a overall set for Addison).

FYI: Keep an eye out for Dillard's version of this awesome sale. It is much easier as there is no coupon and no exceptions to work around. They will have an additional 40% off all clearance sometime in August with the clearance 50%-75% off. I purchased most of Addison's clothes during this sale before he was even born!

Did anyone else make it there? What did you score?

Dont't Forget Your Penny Items at Staples

Don't forget to go get your penny items at Staples. Even if you don't need them I am sure someone in your family does. That's what happened with us. Hubby and I went to go pick up supplies for his work the other day and while I was in there I picked up the penny items for my niece and nephews. I know my sister in law could use the help picking them up since she has 3 1/2 kids to load up and I only have 1. So they will be on there way to you guys soon!

This weeks items are (thanks to Money Saving Mom for the List):

Office Depot Value™ Red Eraser Caps 12-PK - $0.01 each (normally $0.99!), limit 5 per customer

Office Depot® Brand Semicircular 6" Protractor - $0.01 each (normally $1.99!), limit 5 per customer

Office Depot® Brand 2 Pocket Paper Folder - $0.01 each (normally $0.29 each), limit 20 per customer

Office Depot® Brand Acrylic Ruler - $0.01 each (normally $0.59 each), limit 5 per customer

Also, there is a rebate for a 6-pack TOPS colored junior writing pads - on sale for $7.49, free after mail-in rebate.

Make sure to get there early! They will sell out quickly. No Rain Checks are being offered!

New CVS 3/15 Coupon

Make sure to print your CVS 3/15 coupon available through The Valley Breeze Newspaper. Check out Denise's post at The Centsible Sawyer to find out how. She explains how to print the coupon and why it is legit to do so. The paper is available to anyone online and you do not have to sign up for a free trial. It will provide some great deal making scenarios this week!