Making a list

 

 

Every year someone asks us for a list of gift ideas, either for Christmas or our birthdays. For years, I would scramble last minute to try and figure out what on earth I should ask for. It was pure craziness. What ended up on my list were things in the aftermath I would look at quizzically and wonder what I was thinking. So for the past few years we’ve been taking a different approach.

I know so many people still make hand written lists, don’t give gifts, make a board on pinterest, etc. but we utilize the list feature on Amazon. Each one of us in our little family of 3 have a list. And all year long I add to them things that we think would be good ideas for gifts. I love that I can delete and add at my discretion and it definitely makes giving gifts easier.

You might wonder, but what if something I like is not offered by Amazon? Well, I downloaded their “Universal Wish List” feature to my browser bar. With the click of a button I can add things to any of our lists from any website. That makes things so much easier. I also have the Amazon app on my phone so I can scan things in the store, see if Amazon carries them, and if they do add them to the list. If they do not carry it, I just snap a quick picture to add online later. And if I didn’t have the app, then like I did for years on end, I just snap pictures in any store of the items I want to remember and then come home and manually add them to the list. I do this all the time with books I want to reserve at the library!

Amazon is not giving me anything to talk about this…I just love it! Plus I love how almost everything is cheaper on Amazon than in the store. So we can give great gifts and save money. My parent’s love it too because they can get us things we like and have them shipped usually for free. When you send so many gifts to those out of state, postage can add up quickly!

Living far from family, I wish everyone made Amazon lists. It would make it so much easier to buy gifts that need to be sent and it would help ensure that the recipient would not receive duplicates. That’s a bonus to…when someone buys something, it gets removed from your list. How great is that!

So I’m curious as Christmas gets nearer by the day, how do you try and stay organized with gift giving? Do you use Amazon lists?

Who Can you Call?

Today via a favorite blog of mine I found out about a great deal for calling cards/blog cards/mommy cards.  After perusing the site I was sold and went for the great deal.  Basically Minted is having a great promotion right now:  They are offering 25 free cards + a holder to keep in your purse or diaper bag for the cost of shipping only.

I do have South Face business/calling cards made by the amazing Anne at Gaddere, but I didn't have any cards linking to the blog.  So I went ahead and put in an order for some since this is such a great deal.

The cards are super cute and fun, with vivid colors and funky designs.  Check them out!  Here are some of my favorites from Minted's website.






Happy Shopping!

wednesday’s deals

On Wednesday I hit up double coupon day at Rainbow.  If you haven’t visited a Rainbow lately please do.  I also proceeded to have my heart beat half out of my chest that maybe I did something wrong when I pulled up to the checkout, cart full of boxes, and proceeded to have to cashier do two check outs for me just so I could double 10 coupons.  Yup.  I was that person.  Good thing she was super quick and the grocery wasn’t crowded.

But I did almost loose my cookies.  I’m not sure why, I was just saving money, but it just seemed too good to be true.  I can understand slightly why those coupon ladies are so crazy.  I’m not going there.  But I am going to try and I just might find myself at the grocery on double coupon day again, on a Wednesday, not a Saturday.  We all know to avoid the grocery on a Saturday, right?

I don’t want to become that crazy person that always posts her great deals.  But darn it, I’m excited over how much I saved!  Hopefully this might help you too:) 

Wednesday Breakdown:


First Batch:
4 12-packs of Coke                                                            4@ $1.99 each
(Coke, CF Dt. Coke, Mr. Pibb, and Orange)
Cucumber                                                                                 $1.50
3 Bananas                                                                                  $.58
3 Kraft Dressings                                                                       $3.84 (coupon $1/2)
6 Boxes of Ronzoni Pasta                                                         $6 (coupon $1/2)
4 Frozen Juice Conentrates                                                      $4 (coupon $1/4)
(we drink a lot of juice and these don’t take up space)
1/2 Gallon of Chocolate Milk                                                   $1.25
TOTAL:  15.67 
SAVED $33.54

Doubled the above coupons.  I had 3 coupons for the pasta which means I got 6 boxes of pasta for FREE!

Second Batch:
8 boxes of Crackers                                                                8 @ $1.99 each
(2 Cheeze-it, 2 Toasteds, 1 Club, 3 Townhouse)                    (3 $1 off coupons)
Sour Cream                                                                               $1   ($1 off coupon)
Eggland’s Best Brown Organic Cage Free Eggs                      $3.09 (.75 off coupon)
Eggland’s Best White Eggs                                                     $2.69 ($.50 off coupon)
Johnsonville Breakfast Sausage links and patties                  2 @ $3.00 each ($2 coupon)

TOTAL:  $20.20
SAVED $21.60

That’s a lot of crackers I know.  But hopefully we won’t have to buy them for a whole year.  That sounds good to me.  Spent $36.87 and I saved 60% ($54.22)

Then I headed to Walmart for some board games.  There are Hasbro coupons out right now for $2 and $3 off popular games.  I’ve been wanting to gather more games for when kiddos come to play so this was the perfect opportunity.  They had Operation and Candy Land for $5 each. 

Candy Land    $5
Operation        $5
Total:               $10
Paid:                $5.87

Best part, they came with mail in vouchers for Free Tombstone Pizza up to $7.  So not only did I pay basically $2.50/game but I will get 2 free pizzas for up to $14.  Not bad at all. 

If you are looking for coupons, I find so many at Target.com, by searching google, from the Sunday Newspaper, and from Brand sites.  Organic coupons can be found on the retailers website.  I buy our Organic Valley milk ALWAYS with a $1 coupon. Amazing.

Just a little work and you are saving money.  Hopefully I can keep this up.

What are your favorite coupon sites?

6 boxes of cereal for $3.74 + 2 Gallons of milk

In an attempt to try and lower our grocery bill a bit, I’ve gotten back into couponing.  Don’t worry I won’t turn Extreme! A few months back we started to get a Sunday paper again and not wanting that cost to go to waste, I diligently cut coupons. 

If you know me, you know that I strive to try and put fewer and fewer processed foods on our table. I figure in the long run it’s just better for us to eat food the way God made it and the fewer ingredients the better.  But there are exceptions for everything.  My hubby, well he has an love for Cheeze-its, crackers, fruit snacks, and soda.  As much as I try to make our meals have fewer ingredients, our snacks are the opposite.  What does cereal have to do with this?

Well, we’ve been eating more of it because of couponing.  Cereal gets so cheap it’s not even funny.  That being said, cereal is for the most part more nutritious for the hubs than Toaster Strudels and bagels, his breakfasts of choice.  And so much more CONVEINANT!

That brings me to the deal.  At RAINBOW FOODS this week General Mills cereals (Cheerios, Kix, Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix, & Multi Grain Cheerios) are $1.99 a piece when you buy 6 AND you get 2 coupons for FREE gallons of milk.  Quite the deal.  But it gets better, they’ll give you $3 when you buy 6 boxes.  Additionally there are coupons out for almost all of these kinds for between $.55-$.75 off/box.  Just google them.  I am certain about the Cheerios, Kix, and Trix.  Target has them on their website and they are MANUFACTURER COUPONS, meaning you can use them at Rainbow.

Here’s the breakdown.

Buy 6 @ $1.99 a piece   =  $11.94
Minus $3 for buying 6 =   -3.00
2 $.55 and 2 $.75         =   -2.60
                                         --------
Total after coupons           $6.34

If you have more coupons you get more off.  If you purchase this deal with an additional $14 purchase on other things like Ronzoni Pasta ($.50 after coupon) you can double your coupons.  Up to 10 coupons this Saturday can be doubled. 

If you double the above 4 coupons you pay $3.74 for 6 boxes of cereal and 2 coupons for FREE milk!  What a deal!

I definitely would have taken advantage, but we have 7 boxes of cereal in the pantry.  Oops!