Snow Day Freebies

It looks like most of the country is being hit (or will be soon) by a large winter storm. May as well get a few freebies while you are stranded in your house. This is the view out my front window of about 3 inches of snow out of our expected 8-12. After we get all that snow, mother nature is sending in the wind to blow it into giant drifts.

So, enough about the weather! How about some freebies? Remember, these can go fast if enough people catch wind, so act fast if you want them. Some may last for months, so go ahead and check the old threads. It's worth a try.

• Free ebooks from Sesame Street.
• Free Stacey's pita chips when you friend them on Facebook.
• I just got another great freebie from Vocalpoint. That one's over, but they send them out all the time. They send out samples of a lot of products, plus tons of coupons that they want you to share with your friends. Nothing wrong with that. Sign up for Vocalpoint HERE so you're ready for the next freebies.
• Free samples from Splenda.
• Free knee pain guide.
  
• Free earplugs from 3M.
• Free Gettysburg visitor's guide.
  
• Free sample of personal lubricant.
• Free glucose meter, but then you'll get tons of junkmail from Quality Health. Some people like them, I don't. Use a spam email if you don't.
• Oooh, a free scented bookmark for reading your trashy novels. What could be better?
• Free hot beverage from 7-11. Wish I had one closer, because looks like you could print as many as you want.
• $3 coupon for GE Holiday Lights.

I had another good mail day, worth slogging through the snow to get $15 in SC Johnson rebate checks (you can still try for these, very easy), $35.70 from Inbox Dollars, $5 coupon from Toys R Us, and 3 $10 off coupons for JC Penney.

Freebies from Amazon

If you're there buying those Wii games or finishing up your last minute holiday shopping, you may as well get some free music and books, right?

Amazon is doing a free download a day on their site. It's almost all Christmas music, but I see some pretty popular artists on there. Check HERE every day till Christmas.

They also have a lot of free books for the Kindle Reader. I don't have this, but it certainly looks like a cool way to read your books. The free book list makes me think you could read a lot before you have to pay for one. If you look at that bestseller list, you'll find the free books are high on the list.

Good Shopping Weekend

I'd like to show an example of how you can stock up on items for little out of pocket. Remember that Band-Aid deal I showed earlier? I went to Walgreens to take advantage of some of their weekly RR deals.

In their weekly ad, they had:

• 8 packs of Sharpies, normally $8.99, marked down to $3.99.
  

• Scotch tape was buy one get one free. $1.79

• Band-Aids, regularly $3.99, on sale 2/$3.00. Used the $2 off coupon from the Children's Activity book. I bought four packs, and it either adjusted the coupon to where I saved $1.50 per box, or the limit was for 3 items. $1 RR.
  

• Toothpaste and toothbrushes were 4/$10.00. I used a manufacturer's coupon for $1 off 2 brushes, another one for $1 off 2 toothpastes. I used the Walgreens coupons for $1 off from the Childrens Activity book. $5 in RR.

So, for those items, total before sale and coupons=$44.49
Total paid=$9.78
Register Rewards received=$6.00

Total actual cost=$3.78.**

Then I went to Target to get the big Christmas gift for our family. We decided earlier in the year that we wanted to buy a Wii. I set about saving to make sure that we could get it. We got a bonus right off the bat when Nintendo lowered the price from $249 to $199. I saved up my rewards from MyPoints and had $100 in Target gift cards, and bided my time for them to offer a gift card with purchase of the Wii. This week was the week, and as luck would have it, they also offered a coupon on their web page for a free Nunchuk with purchase of a Wii. A friend called and offered a coupon she had received for $15 gift card with purchase of $150.

So for about $100** out of pocket, I got a Wii console, a nunchuk, and $35 in Target gift cards to use when I need them.


**I did not take sales tax into account on either of these shopping experiences, because tax differs from place to place.

Some Good Cooking Resources

I do enjoy cooking, though some days if we're running 10 different directions, it's great to be able to pull something out of the freezer to eat. The great thing about once a month cooking (OAMC, though I don't really do it once a month) is that when these meals are prepared by you, you know what ingredients were used. Every family has different dietary restrictions and preferences, so you can also personalize the recipe or adapt a family favorite for freezing.

I use a variety of resources for cooking, though not too often do I get out an actual cookbook. I have learned a lot from my perusal of the 'net, so I will share some of my bookmarks.

• Crock pot or slow cooker cooking. There are a ton of recipes out there, but no one has the variety of A Year of Slow Cooking. She cooked a different recipe in her crock pot every day for one year, and there are so many delicious options.
• Good everyday recipe finder. One of my favorite online cooking resources is Recipezaar. They let you search for recipes by ingredients, or even by not having a certain ingredient. If you need a specific recipe, you can bet it will be there. The recipes also have reviews, so you can sort by what has the best review.
• Once a month cooking. There are a few good choices here. I love 30 Day Gourmet. They have a fairly extensive free section, or buy their freezer cooking manual and have access to everything. I also will browse Recipezaar by typing OAMC into the search area.
• Budgeting and meal planning. I love the Hillbilly Housewife. She has menus for every budget, tips for saving money on about anything, and lots of good information on cooking from scratch. Be sure to check out her emergency meal plans for when you have only a very limited amount to spend on groceries.
• More menus than you can imagine. There's nothing like browsing other people's meal plans for finding good ideas. I know I often hit a brick wall trying to decide what to cook for the week. One person would eat steaks and potatoes every day, one would be happy with mac and cheese, and when I ask for help with planning, I get very little. That's why I love I'm an Organizing Junkie. (I know I am not.) She not only has her own menu plan for the week, but links to lots of other people's blogs with menus. It really helps when you get into a cooking rut.
  

I Spy Bags

I've been working on some I Spy bags to donate for our church's busy bags for kids. My first one actually went pretty well, though I had a mishap with the photos that I took while making it. I must say to preface this: I really want to be a crafter. I have good intentions, and I try hard to plan well, but I always make mistakes. Since I'm donating them to the church rather than selling them, I feel like I should be allowed a few errors.

I Spy bags are beanbags made with little toys/buttons/beads inside and a small viewing window to find all the little toys inside. The child manipulates the bag to find all the items inside. It's a great quiet activity to keep little ones sitting tight for a little while, keeping hands busy doing something positive.

When I researched for directions, I found that some people make them about 4 inches, which seemed way too small, and others made them about 7 inches, which seemed about right. I made a 4 inch one to start with, figured I would make it for my little girl and get the kinks out on that one.

I used a small remnant of polar fleece, and put in a few small items and the letters to spell out the little one's name. I thought a circle would be easier to sew around and i wouldn't have to worry about getting it set squarely in the middle of a fairly small square. I was wrong there, and I also lost my photo with all the pieces inside for making the label for things to look for. She's 2.5, so she really didn't mind.

Here's a close-up of the viewing window. I've since washed off the marker I used to draw the circle, and trimmed a little closer, so it does look slightly better, if not entirely circular now.

Below is the finished product. I stitched around the outside and used pinking shears to trim the edges. I think this made it a lot easier to make, without having to turn it and hand stitch the opening closed. This one turned out ok, though I think the sharp-edged screw was probably a bad choice for a pre-schooler's toy.

The next project I tried was a 7-8 inch bag. I think I cut the fabric at 8 inches, but with 3/8 inch seams all around. I used some fleece for a local sports team and tried to get the logo in. Since it had an argyle pattern, I decided to use one of the little diamond shapes as the viewing window. The first one, I stitched around three sides of the bag, then remembered I hadn't done the viewing window first. I went back and did the window without it stitched together. It's tough to see here, but the whiter square is where I've sewed the plastic in and cut away the fabric on top.

Next I chose the items to go inside. I used mostly beads, and some buttons from the craft store, along with a few random things to fill out the bunch. The letters spell out "Go Hawks."

I stitched the two sides together, filling it with the filler items and poly pellets, then again cut around with pinking shears. I thought I would like the larger size better, but it seems that the smaller size is better suited for little hands. The big one is also pretty heavy and I think it could easily stretch out the fleece and become misshapen. I think I'll go smaller in the future. Here's the picture of the finished project, do you spy a soccer ball?