Plum District: Hot Deal on Target & Restaruant.com Gift Certificates

I haven't posted about any daily deals in a while but this one is pretty good so I thought I would throw it out there! $25 buys you a $25 Target Gift Card AND a $50 Restaurant.com gift certificate!

If you aren't a member of Plum District yet, go HERE and sign up for your free account, you get a $5 sign up credit!

After you sign up go HERE and grab up this great deal! Enter the code: fabulous at check out and get an extra 10% off your purchase making the deal only $22.50 if you already have an account or $17.50 if you have that $5 sign up credit too!

You can buy multiples of this deal as well and the extra 10% off should apply to all the deals you buy. The Restaurant.com certificate code is available right away but you have to wait up to 3 weeks for your Target card to come in the mail. And they don't expire so you have plenty of time to use them!

Its not a super amazing can't live without it deal because the Restaurant.com certificates go on sale all the time for super cheap but if you shop at Target a lot then you might as well save a little on the money you'd already be spending.

They also have a referral program, if you refer a friend and they buy something you get a $5 credit on your account, if you have 3 friends buy this particular deal then your's will be free!

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels: Kid Friendly Christmas Treats!

Who doesn't love a good chocolate dipped pretzel?! Here are the instructions to a fun and frugal gift idea for neighbors, teachers, friends and pretty much anyone else! Best part? Its easy, minimally messy and the kiddos can help you!

What you need:

- Pretzels - any kind, I got a big 1 lb bag for $2

- Almond Bark - 1 package chocolate flavored, one package vanilla flavored (These were a little over $2.50 each at Walmart)

- Christmas sprinkles - I have had these for years and can't remember how much they cost!

- Microwavable Bowl + Small bowl for sprinkles

- Foil or Wax Paper

- Treat Bags & Ribbon

Start by breaking off about 3 squares of Almond Bark and microwaving for a minute. Take out, stir and then microwave in increments of 15 seconds until its completely melted. You can also use a double boiler on the stove but if you are working with your kids, microwaving is best because they aren't by the stove. I don't recommend doing more than a few squares at a time or you'll find the almond bark starts to harden and isn't dippable anymore.

Naomi had fun dipping!

Take a pretzel, dip it in chocolate.... or vanilla.... or 1/2 and 1/2 would be cool too!

Immediately dunk in a bowl of sprinkles to give them some Christmas cheer!

Lay out on wax paper or foil to harden. These dry so fast, probably only about 15 min total before they are ready for bagging! Much better than melting chocolate chips, they seem to take forever to harden up, this whole process of doing chocolate and vanilla took only about 40 min from start to finish. Perfect for a kid craft because they don't lose intrest!

Scoop up some chocolate, then vanilla, then chocolate and so on to make sure you get even amounts in each bag. Nothing worse than getting a bag full of vanilla with only 3 chocolate!

Tie the bag with some fancy dancy ribbon and pair with a cute Christmas ornament or add to your gift baskets this year and everyone will be in Chocolate Pretzel Heaven! My daughter had so much fun giving a bag of these to her teacher at preschool yesterday along with a card that she helped to write out!

Moody Sisters Organic Skincare Review + Special Offer!

I got a special treat in the mail the other day! Whitney, of the Moody Sisters on Etsy, sent me a couple of samples of their Fabule$$ organic skincare products to try out and review for the blog. She sent me a bottle of their Refreshing Daily Toner and some Almond Lotion Whip!

First off, a little about their products; the two sisters from here in Washington State decided to develop a skincare line of their own because of their different "moody" skin types. Their products have been designed for difficult skin types and are 100% green and vegan which means free of chemicals, preservatives and animal by-products! Safe for you and the environment - I love it! You can also email them with your specific skin needs and they will create custom products specifically for your skin type!

Since I had my baby back in July and have been breastfeeding the past few months I am looking to put as few bad things in my body and on my body as I can so that I can have the purest, healthiest nutrition for my baby. I have also been all out of whack as far as hormones go so I have been breaking out a lot more and I loved using the toner because not only was it refreshing, but it made my skin feel less oily and much more clean when I used the toner after washing my face.

And the lotion whip is awesome! It smells delicious, I love anything Almond, but it left my skin feeling very soft for a long time. Plus, I feel good about letting my daughter put some on too because its chemical free! She is in that, gotta do everything mom does phase, including make up and everything else I put on! I think when I make an order I want to try out their deodorant and diaper rash cream!!

So the Moody Sisters have a special for all of you, my Fabule$$ readers, since we are all about saving money around here, if you make an order within the next week (12-13 to 12-20-2011) you can enter the code FREESHIP in the comments section at checkout to receive free shipping on your order!

Now please know that since the Moody Sisters products are created fresh within a week of your order then you may or may not receive your order by Christmas. I recommend ordering ASAP as their last shipping day before Christmas is a week from today, 12-20-2011! Remember if you have any special requests, contact them on Etsy before placing your order so they can set up a custom listing for you or answer any questions you have.

Oh and when you are fresh out of your products, you can mail the clean bottles and jars back to the Moody Sisters and receive 10% off your re-order! There we go tying in the Green Living - Trash Diet theme again, isn't it great?!

Make sure you also "Like" them on Facebook so you can stay up to date on specials and giveaways!

*Disclosure* Moody Sisters provided me the two samples photographed above for my review; no other compensation was received and all opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Wordless Wednesday: 5 Months Old Today!

Can't believe my little man is already 5 months old and almost sitting up all on his own! He loves to eat his toes and he can roll from his tummy to his back but not the other way yet. He hates rice cereal and is smiling most of the time! Love you Mason!

Albertsons: Fabule$$ Gift Card Promo!

I posted about this awesome promotion last time they had it a few months back but its back again and just in time for the holidays! Now a days it seems like gift cards are the way to go for a lot of people, the good 'ol days of racking your brain for that one perfect gift has seemed to go by the wayside and now everyone just gives gift cards. I personally am a big fan of the old fashioned way of giving actual gifts but there are quite a few people on my list this year that are getting gift cards and here is where I am going to buy them!

Buy $100 worth of participating gift cards and receive a coupon for $20 worth of FREE groceries!

Here is a list of gift cards that work:

Amazon
iTunes
JCPenney
Lowe’s
Macy’s
Regal Cinema
AMC Theaters
Sears
Cabela’s
DSW
OfficeMax
Kmart
Bass Pro Shop
Nike
TGI Friday’s
Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, Maggiano’s, On the Border
Outback Steakhouse
Applebees
California Pizza Kitchen

This deal is running now through 11/26.

Not giving gift cards this year? Where are you going to be shopping at? If you plan on buying any of your gifts at any of these locations why not buy yourself a gift card and buy the gifts with the card and then use that $20 in free groceries for your baking supplies, holiday dinner supplies or even some other gifts you can find at the grocery store like kitchenware or greeting cards?!

Fine Print: The $20 coupon will print at the bottom of your receipt and you can only earn 1 coupon per transaction. This means if you want to buy $200 worth of gift cards you need to split it up into 2 transactions to get $40 in groceries and so on. Also, the $20 coupon expires in 7 days so you need to be prepared to shop within that amount of time to get your free food.

This is an awesome deal for this time of year!

Great Wolf Lodge on Groupon!

Here is a picture of Miss Naomi on her 1st trip to Great Wolf Lodge earlier this spring! She LOVED it and still talks about wanting to go back there again. Only problem is this place is pretty spendy and discounts are few and far between!

WELL on Groupon today you can get a great deal for a stay at GWL! Only $219 for a 1 night stay for 6 people in a suite! This also includes all of your water park passes, a late checkout and a pizza dinner!

We seriously had a blast when we stayed there, the water park was too much fun, the hotel itself is full of kid-themed goodness and the rooms were cozy, there is even a Starbucks in the lobby! I am thinking this might be a fun thing to surprise Naomi with for her 4th birthday in February.

The Groupon is good for travel between 11-28 and 2-15-12, make sure you read all the fine print before you purchase!

If you are going to purchase this deal you can get an extra 3% cash back through Ebates!! Plus new members to Ebates get a $10 gift card!

Calling all Bakers! CHEAP Butter at Fred Meyer!

Sorry I don't have a photo of my butter haul tonight because I am out of town but I just couldn't pass up this great deal on butter at Fred Meyer this week and I wanted to make sure everyone knows about it!

Buy 2 Challenge Butter, 1 lb: $3.00
- use weekly in-ad coupon to make it $2.00 each {Limit 2}
- stack with $.75 off 1 blinkie box coupon available at the butter
Final Price: $1.25/lb.
Since it is a limit of 2 per transaction/customer, take a buddy with you to the store and you can each buy 2.

My stock up price on butter is usually $2.00 per pound so to get it for $1.25 this close to holiday baking season is AWESOME! I generally go through at least 4 lbs of butter each christmas with all the different cookies I make!

Here is one of my new favorite cookie recipes, I have been told they are like little pieces of Heaven haha!

CREAM WAFERS

2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
granulated sugar

Mix flour, butter and cream into a dough and chill for an hour. Roll out half at a time to 1/8" thick and cut in 1-1/2" rounds. Carefully dip both sides of cookie in sugar and place on ungreased baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Poke with a fork 4 times and bake 7-9 min. at 375 F. When cool fill with filling and sandwich together.

Creamy filling:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (or other flavoring such as almond or peppermint)
1/4 cup butter
food color if desired

Mix all filling ingredients until smooth, add a few drops of water if needed.

ALWAYS Check the Clearance Section!

Here is yet another great reason that you should always always always check the clearance section at your grocery and department stores! You never know what is going to be in those "Fabule$$" little bins! Fred Meyer and QFC here in Washington almost always have something I want or need and a lot of times I even have coupons for them!

Today I went to my local QFC in Redmond to stock up on some essentials that are on sale this week for cheap but I happened to stroll by the "Manager's Special" area and saw a bunch of the new Huggies Slip-On diapers that they just came out with recently. They must have had an excessive supply at the store because there were about 8 bags of diapers marked down to only $4.79 per pack! Even without a coupon these are a good deal at about $.18/diaper which is less than Costco's price on Huggies.

BUT - there just happened to be a $3.00 off any pack of Huggies Slip-On Diapers in the 10/23 SS inserts! So I got 2 packs of diapers (49 in total) for $3.58 or $.07/diaper!

Coupon Connections is reporting a Catalina that's printing as well on Huggies, although I did not get this to print today when I bought my 2 packs so I am going to be calling Catalina about it to get my $3.00 catalina making both packs essentially $.58!

Happy Halloween! Thrifty Style!

How was everyone's Halloween last night? I have always loved this "holiday", maybe because it's the day before my birthday and I used to have Halloween/Birthday parties every year growing up. Trick or Treating and dressing up was my favorite! We would always go to the best neighborhood every year to get the best candy and see the most decorated houses!

I also always love shopping the Halloween clearance sales every year! Last year at Target I got a bunch of decorations for under $10 so I was excited to have Naomi help me put all the new stuff out this year. She also loves Halloween which makes it that much better for James and I!


Since we went to the Dominican Republic on our family vacation last week I didn't have a whole lot of time to plan for Halloween this year. I sold a couple of costumes on eBay before I left but I still had no idea what Naomi wanted to be or what we could afford. She had her heart set on Belle there for a while but everything I found at the thrift or consignment stores was too big. BTW - ALWAYS buy Disney store costumes when you find them for cheap! They re-sell for a minimum of $20 at Halloween so buy 'em up and save them til after Labor Day!

Mr. Mason was a little monkey, which is very fitting for him since we call him our little monkey! I found this Baby Gap costume for $2.99 at Value Village a few weeks ago! I should be able to re-sell his costume on eBay or at a consignment sale next year for around $10-15! Gotta love it when you can use something and make a profit on it too!


Now let's talk about my little drama queen, Miss Naomi Grace. Gosh I love my daughter to pieces but 3 years old - this is a hard age! She is in-decisive and for a bit there I thought for sure we were going to be going trick or treating in her ratty Sleeping Beauty costume as a Princess since we couldn't agree on anything else! Then we went to the good old thrift store a few days before we left for vacation and found a Disney Store Minnie Mouse dress for $2.99! YAY! She loved it and it had a good "twirl" too it so we were set! I just needed some ears... Luckily, my local consignment store had a pair in red and white for only three bucks! We had the red tights from last year's costume and the shoes from her flower girl debut this fall so the whole costume only cost $6.00!


The dress is obviously pre-owned but hey, for 3 bucks I figure she can play in it all year and we'll re-donate it next fall or I'll try and make a few bucks back on it at next year's consignment sales. If I sell it along with the ears I can probably make at least my $6 back. Win! Here is the same dress that recently sold on eBay.

I also didn't have a chance to coupon for any good candy this year, plus I am trying to avoid buying any candy as we just plain don't need it in our house! We took the kids to an event at my husband's work where they do trick or treating around the offices and they have pumpkin painting and a train ride. The people were literally shoving HANDFULLS of candy into Nay's bucket so we came home with a ton of candy and Naomi had fun when I let her "share" it with the few trick or treaters we got at our place last night.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of the candy besides eat gobs of it! Naomi's dentist office does a candy buy-back program that we might participate in. They will give her $.50 per pound of candy that she turns in and will donate the candy to our troops over seas, not bad for all that free candy and we don't have to worry about eating all those calories!

Wait... did I just manage to make money on Halloween this year?!

Thrifty Thursday: My Little Ponies!

Everyone remember back in the 80's when My Little Pony first came out? I swear I probably still have a few in my grandmother's attic somewhere! Either that or I sold them all for a quarter a piece back when I didn't play them anymore. Well, while out thrifting one day a couple of months back I came across a couple of very well played with MLP's from 1986! The hair was matted on one of them and they were both very dirty but I had read somewhere that some of these were super collectible and I figured that for $2.99 Naomi could play with them if they were worth nothing!

I actually took forever to get them listed, I bought them back in July and they have been sitting in my "To List" pile for months. I finally bought a Magic Eraser and cleaned the ponies up a little a couple weeks back and they looked pretty nice. When I researched their names and checked the completeds on eBay for these the blue one looked like it would for sure go for at least $10 and the white one I could probably get $5 for. "Better then looking at them everyday" I thought to myself so I listed them both at $.99 for a 1 week auction.

Within 2 hours I already had a bid on "Bright Eyes", the more collectible of the two. And by the end of day two I had 9 watchers on that one and 3 on the other! That's when I get excited!

Princess Tiffany - not as collectible ended up selling to someone in Canada for $4.25 + $6 shipping. Enough to "pay for" both ponies at the thrift store!

Bright Eyes - she was one of the twinkle eye ponies from the 2nd season or something and if you ever find her friend, Mimic, who is an orange unicorn you can guarantee at least $90 for her. Bright Eyes here is also collectible though and she sold to someone in Norway for $33 + $10 shipping! So glad I took a chance on buying these and next time I won't hold on to them so long!

Wordless Wednesday: Brother & Sister

Consignment Sale Re-Cap

I am so so pleased with my last two consignment sale experiences! Between the two JBF sales that I did in October I am coming away with a little over $400! Combine that with my checks from the two spring sales I participated in and I've made over $700 in consignment sales this year!

After I had Naomi I knew we wanted another baby so I saved most of her clothes, towels, blankets, hats and all of her toys. Then when we had Mr. Mason come along we were over run by pink! Luckily all baby toys are pretty gender neutral and all of our baby equipment like the swing and pack & play was all neutral colors as well so we are able to re-use all of that. I saved a few things to make a baby clothes quilt for Naomi's 1st baby someday but a lot of the stuff I decided to add to the sale.

So along with all of her old things plus about $50 in other items that I have collected from garage sales and thrift stores for really cheap I made about a $350 profit! I keep track of the items I buy for re-sale on a handy dandy spreadsheet that my husband helped me make a few years ago. That way I can keep track of what I spend vs. what I sell it for and how much my profit is for each and every item.

I found that grouping items together into outfits and packs and pricing them relatively low really helped. For example, I priced a group of 5 onesies at $5 with the option to go 1/2 price on the last day of the sale. Most of those sold at full price making me $.65 for each onesie! At a garage sale I would have stuck a $.25 price tag on each piece so I definitely raised my profit margin by doing the sale! I also grouped together towels & wash clothes or a bag of various bath toys. People like getting the most for their money.

I had over 255 items in the system and ended up with about 75 items at the end. What to do with those 75 items you ask? Well I have already listed a few things on eBay at fixed price listings and the rest is going to my local consignment store. I get 50% of whatever the items sell for there and they are on the floor for 6 weeks and donated after that if they don't sell which I am totally fine with. Most of the time I use the money I make at the consignment store to buy other items for re-sale or clothes for my kids.

I have already started buying for the spring sales for 2012! Much to my dear husband's dismay I store the clothes and other items I find in bins out in the garage and then when the time comes I destroy my dining room for about a week with tagging and hanging all of my items! I can't wait for the spring sales! My goal is to take 500 items to the next sale I participate in and not invest more than $.50-$1.00 for each item.

Stay tuned for the next couple of weeks, when I get back from vacation I am going to do a post on how I dress both of my kids for "free"!

Winning!

Wow I can't believe there were so few entries for the JBF sale giveaway last week!

Congrats to Emily and Devon for each winning a $25 gift certificate to the sale!

Lucky Ladies!!

Thrifty Tuesday: John Deere ROCKS!

You know those grab bags when you go to the thrift store that are always filled with random crap whether it be a bunch of random toys or kitchen supplies? Well one day a couple weeks back I happened to be browsing through the toy section and came across a grab bag of John Deere tractor toys for $1.99. I almost didn't buy it because I wasn't sure how well or if they would sell at all and my son is not even close to being of age to play with tractors!

Well I am SO glad I bought it! I came home and it was a set of 20 pieces including model tractors and trailers with a farmer dude, a horse, a tractor crossing sign and three boulders plus a cool diecast bi-plane toy. After a couple quick searches on eBay for these things I decided to list the farm set and the airplane separately. I put the set up as an auction for a week with free shipping and the airplane as an auction plus buy it now listing.

After a week at auction this tractor set sold for $31.00 with free shipping!! An awesome profit on a $1.99 investment/risk!

But wait, it gets better! Remember the little plane that was in the bag too?

In the last 15 minutes of the auction with no bids this little puppy sold at the BIN price of $19.99 + $10 shipping to the UK!

When you factor in all of the ridiculous fees from Paypal and eBay and the shipping costs plus initial investment my profit for the $1.99 grab bag ended up being $40.49! As I said in the title, John Deere ROCKS!

Giveaway Extended & Sweetened! Win 1 of TWO $25 Certificates!

I can't believe only 2 people have entered the JBF sale giveaway so far!! This will be an awesome sale out in Issaquah NEXT weekend, October 14th - 16th and the owners of the sale have generously offered to add another gift certificate up for the giveaway!

So got to THIS POST here to enter the giveaway! TWO winners will be selected on Monday, October 10th at 5pm. The prize is 1 $25 gift certificate good toward anything at the sale! The winners will be able to pick up their gift certificates at the sale next weekend when you come to shop.

SO go now! Enter! Win! Good Luck!!!!

Just Between Friends Kids Consignment Sale {GIVEAWAY!}

So do you remember a few months back when I did the post about the JBF spring/summer sale and the $25 gift certificate giveaway? Check out my post HERE if you missed it! I made quite a good profit at that sale but not as much as I had hoped for; over the past few months I have been saving up as many items as I could and shopping for additional fall and winter items at garage sales and thrift stores as well. I just participated in a sale over the weekend and I took over 200 items to the sale! I am still waiting on my final sales tally but it looks like I should get a check for over $200 and that is so exciting!

For this sale I did have a lot of Naomi's old clothing and accessories from when she was a baby. Since we had planned on having another baby I never got rid of any of her clothes but when we ened up having a boy I had a bunch to go through and put in the sale. I also collect cheap name brand clothing at yard sales & thrift stores to put in the sale as well. For example, I found a 2 piece Gymboree outfit at a garage sale for $1.00 and ended up selling the outfit at the sale for $10! I get to keep 65% of whatever I sell so I will end up with a profit of $5.50 for the one outfit. You can put anything kid or maternity related in the sale; toys do really well as well as shoes and clothing!

You can also volunteer to work at the sale and make an additional 5% back on your items that sell but since I had gallbladder surgery over the weekend I wasn't able to work the sale this weekend. Prepping for them is quite a bit of work I will give you that. You have to make sure everything is hung on your own hangers properly, cleaned and tagged. I worked between feedings and preschool runs during the day and got everything done within a couple of days. I will make sure I post my final sales tally tomorrow and how it worked out with my out of pocket expenses!

Are you interested in consigning at a local event or just shopping at one for great deals on gently used items for your kiddos? Well good news for you!

The JBF Seattle East fall/winter sale is coming up in two weeks! It will be held at the Pickering Barn out in Issaquah, Washington from October 14th to 16th. Go HERE to check out the details of the event, sign up to be a consignor or their mailing list as well!

Once you check out their website and sign up for the mailing list, come back to this post and leave a comment letting us know you signed up or that you are already signed up AND let us know either what you will be looking for at this sale or what you are selling and you will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to spend on whatever you need or want from the event out in Issaquah!

Giveaway is open to anyone in Washington state that is planning on shopping this event and can pick up their certificate at the sale. One winner will be selected at random on Saturday, October 1st at 5pm. Must comment to enter and please only enter once.

Good Luck and I'll see you at the sale!

Disclosure: JBF Seattle East is generously sponsoring this giveaway. I have not received any compensation for this post and all opinions expressed are 100% my own.

New Directions...

Hi Everyone! Sorry long time, no see. I guess life adjusting to a family of four has been a little busier than I thought and sadly my blog has had to be one of the things to take a back seat. But isn't this little guy worth it?! He is my little chunky monkey and I am SO in love!

I have been doing a lot less couponing as well, not because there aren't any good deals, there are always good deals but I just haven't had the motivation to go to the grocery store as much as before. I still collect and clip all my coupons but I have been trying to meal plan a little better and just go to the grocery store once per week and make my dinners based on the sale items or coupon items I get at that store. I occaisionally go out of my way for a "fabule$$" deal; like last week at Albertsons I actually had some time to do 3 transactions and get a bunch for free which was motivating but then I just didn't have time to come home and do a post about what I got!

I am thinking that if I am going to continue to blog, which I like doing, its a great outlet for me, that I may take it in a slightly new direction. I would still post about great grocery finds when I get them and those freebies we all love but I might dive into another area of my life that is frugal and actually makes me money.

For several years now I have been buying and reselling. When my daughter was born I was looking for various ways to make money for our family so that I wouldn't have to go back to work. Couponing was one and reselling my thrift store and garage sale finds on ebay was another. I did very well with reselling clothing for a decent profit for a long time and now I am starting to find other things that sell well other than clothing. My thought is to start posting some of the things I find and my adventures in thrifting and how those items end up selling. What do you think? I LOVE thrift store shopping and the way I see it is that I love to shop, I might as well make a profit on the money I spend shopping. I am going to try it out and see how it goes for the next few months; I hope its a new fun topic to blog about and you'll see me here more often!

Kashi: Free Sample!

Head over to Kashi.com and choose your kid friendly sample! You can pick either a dark chocolate peanuty granola bar or Cinnamon Harvest cereal.

Our Trash Diet: Week 3!

Hey Guys!

Sorry I am so behind on updating you on our Trash Diet progress! Adjusting to life with a new tiny person has been fun but challenging and unfortunately sleep has taken priority over blogging the last couple of weeks!

That doesn't mean that we have been slacking in the garbage department though! This past week we saw a lot less visitors so luckily our garbage production was reduced as well. We only took out our garbage and recycling bags once this week, which I think is awesome! Usually we empty both twice per week so once is wonderful. We filled our compost bin again as well and again it was super smelly but luckily the filter on our bin is so great we don't smell it at all when it's in the process of being filled!

We also emptied our diaper pail for the first time which is a garbage bag that ends up being about 3/4 full with used diapers. This was the first time we have emptied it since Mason has been born though so that is about once every 2 1/2 weeks. As he grows the diaper pail will fill quicker though so in a few weeks I do want to try cloth diapers part time to see how I like it. So if any of you hear about a good deal on a starter set of diapers please let me know! I know we can also buy them pre-owned from craigslist or ebay and just buy new liners.

Speaking of ebay and craigslist; this is another way our family greatly reduces waste and saves money. Most everything we buy in our family comes 2nd hand. Whether I find it at a thrift store, buy it on craigslist or even pick it up off a curb for free, we very rarely pay retail for anything! I also donate old clothing and household supplies to our local thrift store (which in turn gives me a coupon to shop with!), sell it on craigslist/ebay and take my children's items to a local consignment shop once per week. We save a lot of money this way and my kids are very well dressed little munchkins. I got a sideways look a few weeks back because my 3 year old was in 7 For All Mankind jeans, but little did they know I only paid $4 for them at Goodwill!

Here is a small list of ways you can reduce waste in your home and save money as well. Most of these things you probably already know but maybe you haven't seen one or two!

- Stop drinking bottled water. Our country is hugely dependant on bottled water but this creates a ton of waste and you are probably just drinking filtered tap water in the bottle anyway. You know that Fiji water in the cool square bottle? It comes from FIJI - think of the jet fuel that just went into the atmosphere from that plus if the bottle doesn't get recycled its even more waste! Our family invested a whopping $4 on a Brita pitcher deal a while back and I take a water bottle with me when I leave the house with clean water and no waste or money spent!

- Give up Starbucks, Brew at Home! This is a big one in our home. We used to go to Starbucks every morning - $4 per drink/$8 per day/$2920 per year plus that's 2 disposable cups per day! 2 years ago we decided to stop and start brewing at home. We still drink fancy coffee but its only about $8 per lb and that lasts about 3-4 weeks so we cut the cost of our coffee addiction substantially! We also use a gold cone filter in our coffee pot, which means we don't have to buy or use disposable filters! More savings! *If you can't give up the Starbies, at least take your own mug, they'll give you a discount if you do!

- Stop using paper towels. This has been difficult for our family and we haven't stopped buying them totally but we have reduced the amount we use a lot. A 6 pack of paper towels lasts us about 6 months in our home. We actually prefer to wipe the counter clean with a dish rag and some natural cleaner. Plus now the paper towels we do use can now go into the compost bin with our food scraps!

- Reuse your plastic grocery bags. I almost never get plastic bags anymore since I keep my reusable shopping bags in my car at all times, but inevitably we end up with a few every now and then. You can reuse plastic bags by lining small trash cans, using them as doggy doo cleaner uppers and even as packing material when you are shipping something! Or you can always take them with you to the grocery store and recycle them before you shop.

- Eliminate Soda from your diet. This will save you money, reduce waste and your waistline will thank you for stopping! If you can't stop the soda, at least make sure you recycle the cans and bottles.

- Take the bus, ride a bike or walk to run errands or go to work. You'll save on gas and if you can walk or ride your bike to and from the grocery store your body will get good exercise as well! Plus this will help you to stay on budget because you don't want to lug a ton of heavy bags up a hill! We are lucky enough to have 2 grocery stores and a Rite Aid all within walking distance from our home. If you don't have that option, limit your outings every week and bundle them all into one or two days. Hit up your grocery store deals, drug store deals and your trip to the bank all for one day and plan your route out! If you drive in a counter clockwise direction then you won't have to idle in your car waiting for a left turn signal; instead you'll get free rights on reds!

- Grow your own! If you have a yard, grow a garden and maybe even start a compost pile for natural fertilizer! You'll save money on produce and your crops will be the sweetest thing you ever tasted. If you have never had a homegrown strawberry, you haven't lived! Don't have a yard? Do you have a window? You can grow herbs indoors year round and save on spices!

These are just a few options for going green and saving green! What things do you do around your home to save money?!

If you missed my first 2 posts about our Trash Diet, you can read them HERE and HERE!

Disclosure: The Glad Products Company has provided me with trash disposal products and a home visit from the City of Seattle to help with this program. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions posted here are 100% my own.

Target: Free Huggies Sample!

Target samples always go super fast, go HERE now to request your size 4 or 5 size Huggies Snug & Dry diapers!

Thanks Coupon Connections!

Our Trash Diet Update!

Hi All!

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted about our family's decision to go on a "Trash Diet"? Well you can read about all the details HERE! I missed updating you on our progress last week because I was in the hospital on trash day giving birth to my beautiful baby boy!

Even with being in the hospital and having lots of visitors I think our "diet" is going well so far! We have implemented a few new changes to our home to help us reduce our waste and also save money at the same time! We even got Grandma in on the process! She is from another area of the state where they don't have a recycling service yet. (By the way, I can't believe that, I know we would recycle less or not at all if we had to take our recyclables to the station ourselves. Central Washington really needs to get a recycling service.)

First off let me update you on our recycling progress. We were always very good recyclers before but with our home visit and some new knowledge about what is recyclable we have been sending even more to the recycle side of the trast vs the garbage part! I am happy to say that we only sent 2 full bags of garbage to our can this week and we FILLED our recycle can to the top! We did have a lot of boxes that we broke down but I think that we definitely made progress on that end!

We also have been sucessful in making sure that all of our food waste goes in the food waste bin and taken to the yard waste bucket! Before we would just toss the waste in our trash bin and send some scraps down the garbage disposal in our sink. I am making a concious effort to take all the peels and strawberry tops over to the bin instead of sending them down the sink. Plus now our septic system will be thanking us for this in the long run! But let me tell you, it took all week to fill our 2.5 gallon food waste bin and when my husband took the bag out to the yard waste can it was DISGUSTING and full of fuzzy goo! Luckily it has a filter on top and our house didn't smell bad from it at all. Plus it makes me happy that those food scraps are going to become useable compost material by the end of the process.

In the coming weeks I am going to look into ways to reduce waste and save money at the same time. I am interested to hear how you, my readers, do this in your homes. Do you make an effort to use fewer bottles or not buy paper towels?

With the arrival of our new baby I have also noticed that we are going through a TON of diapers already. Right now I am not motivated enough to start using cloth diapers on him but I am planning to look into part time cloth diapering for him in the coming months. They are a big investment up front but do save money and would reduce a substantial amount of waste going to the dump. Luckily I planned ahead before Mason was born and stocked up on hundreds of newborn and size 1 diapers because I knew that we would be needing them so I saved hundreds already in the process!

Stay tuned to our progress next week!

Disclosure: The Glad Products Company has provided me with the products you have seen above and the home visit from the City of Seattle to help with this program. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions posted here are 100% my own.

Please Welcome...

Baby Mason James joined our family on 07.07.11 at 2:04 pm PST. He weighed in at 8lbs, 1 oz and was 20" long. We did not find out what we were having but are overjoyed to have a little boy! He is very sweet and sleeps a lot and I can't wait to see his personality come to life.

Please forgive me for light posting over the next week or so as I'm recovering from my c-section and adjusting to life as a family of four! More pictures to come too!

Update to Staples TP Deal!

Remember yesterday's post about the cheap Charmin Basic at Staples? Well today they released this 20% off coupon so now that would make the deal even better! Your price would be $3.99 + tax vs $4.24 which makes it $.249/double roll which is right at my target price for TP. If I'm in the area today I'm going back for another pack!

How do you all like Charmin Basic? I tried it once and while it's only 1-ply I don't mind it because it's a thick 1-ply.

Happy Friday!

Thanks for the new coupon link Money Saving Mom!

Staples: Cheap Charmin TP!

If you are running low on TP then here is a pretty good deal for you! Staples has these 16 Double Roll packs of Charmin Basic on markdown for $4.99. You can pair that with THIS COUPON and get an additional $.75 off to make it only $4.24 + tax!

This works out to be about $.11/roll or $.26/double roll which is just slightly above my go crazy and stock up price but still lots lower than Costco! Since the baby is going to be here any day now and we'll have a lot of guests I decided to grab a pack since I was near my store and that will be one less thing to worry about when baby arrives!

When I got to my store they had it marked at $7.99, which is not a good deal, so I grabbed one and took it up to the register just to see what it rang up at and it was the $4.99 price! The only place it's advertised is HERE.

Thanks for the tip Coupon Connections!

Facebook: Free Downy Unstoppables Sample

This has been the week for free samples! Head over HERE and like Downy on Facebook, then head over HERE and request your free sample of Downy Unstoppables! Sample should arrive in 4-6 weeks and hopefully with a nice coupon to go along with it!

Free Sample: Honey Nut Cheerios!

Hurry over HERE and sign up for a free sample of Honey Nut Cheerios! Hopefully it will come with a coupon too! Samples like this go quickly so don't wait to sign up!

Thanks Coupon Connections!!

My Family is on a "Trash Diet"

Yep, you read correctly, a "Trash Diet", although not the kind of trash you would think. We are not going to be eating more junk food as a family but seeing how we can reduce the amount of waste that comes out of our home and into the landfill.

The city of Seattle has made a goal to divert 60 percent of its waste to recycling and composting by the year 2012; so we as a family have signed up to be part of the "Waste Less" blogger challenge and have partnered up with King County and GLAD products to learn more about where our trash goes and do our best to send less to the landfill and more to the recycling and yard waste/compost services!

The Glad Products company sent our family a great new garbage can that is motion sensored and divided so we can separate our trash vs. recycling more easily as well as a new compost/food scraps bin and a TON of various Glad products including trash bags, recycling bags and compostable bags to make our transition and goals much easier!

Check out our old garbage system below:

Just a can and a box or paper bag next to the can for our recyclables.

Now check out our new system!

I am so excited to start collecting our kitchen scraps into our little compost collector! This is always something I wanted to try out and now with our new bin it will be easy and not too stinky!

This program couldn't be coming at a better time actually. Where we live has just been incorporated into the City of Kirkland and our garbage service is changing over to Waste Management. We are very excited about this because not only is it substantially cheaper than our previous provider, they also will be collecting our yard waste and recycling on a weekly basis vs. a bi-weekly basis!

We also had a home visit from Tom Watson, who is a representative of the City of Seattle, the writer for the Eco-Consumer column for the Seattle Times and a green living expert on local TV stations!

Tom's visit was great. He took a look at our trash collecting set up and we talked for about 45 minutes on ways that we can reduce our waste as a family including: collecting our food/kitchen scraps for composting, what can and cannot be recycled, where our recycling and yard waste goes when it leaves our cans, where we can recycle our batteries and ways we can save money as a family by living green.

As I said before, I am excited to start collecting our kitchen and food waste for composting. Since I'm due with our 2nd baby any day now I am not ready to start my own compost pile just yet, but with our garbage service all we have to do is collect the scraps and put them in our yard waste bin, bag and all thanks to the compostable bags Glad provided me with! I was excited to learn that our yard waste actually goes to a company in Everett that does the composting for us!

Something I didn't know before was that we can actually put more than just fruit peels and egg shells into our collector. We can put meat scraps, bones, paper towels, napkins, paper plates and even compostable take out boxes into our yard waste.

I also learned that I can put my Starbucks paper and plastic cups into the recycling and that I can now take clean & dry Ziploc bags & any other plastic bags to my grocery bag recycling station at the grocery store.

Stay tuned over the next month as I post about how our families "diet" is going. The first time I emptied our new can our bags of trash and recycling were about equal size.

Over the next month I want to see if we can make the bag of trash about 1/2 the size as the recycling! I am also going to be doing some posts about how you can actually save money by living the green life!

Disclosure: The Glad Products Company has provided me with the products you have seen above and the home visit from the City of Seattle to help with this program. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions posted here are 100% my own.

Fabule$$ Free Samples: Crest Pro-Health + Coupons!

Hurry over to Walmart.com now and request your free Crest Pro-Health Samples! Looks like you will get 3 samples (toothpaste, rinse & floss) plus 4 coupons. These sample size oral care products are great for traveling!

This sample will go extremely fast so hurry and go now! Happy Friday!

Pampers Gifts To Grow: New Codes!

There have been several new Gifts to Grow codes out lately so I thought I would post a list of them so you can get the points added to your accounts!

New to Pampers Gifts to Grow?
If you are a mom that uses disposable diapers or wipes at all then this is a free rewards program that is a MUST to be a part of. Gifts to Grow allows you to enter codes from the packages of Pampers products that you buy (and sometimes other codes as well!) and earn points; then use your points to get rewards!

I recently traded in my points for a $10 Starbucks gift card! It's great to be rewarded for the things I am already buying! With our new little one almost here I have been stockpiling diapers and wipes for the past 9 months when they are on sale or I can get them for almost free so this points rewards system makes those cheap diapers and wipes that much better!

Go HERE to sign up for an account (you get 100 free points just for signing up!) and then once your account is set up make sure you go and enter the codes below to get some extra points!

Available GTG Codes:

TWITTERBOTLEPAC (5 pts) - expires 6/24!

WELCOMEGTGPTS10 - 10 points
GTGREWARDS4MOMS - 10 points
WELCOME2PAMPERS - 50 points
JOINNOW4REWARDS - 50 points
2BEGINEARNING50 - 50 points
GIFTSTOGROW4MOM - 50 points
CONGRATS2NEWMOM - 10 points
GTGWELCOME10PTS - 10 points
PAMPERSGTG10PTS - 10 points
PAMPERS4MOMSOND - 10 points
10PTSFREECODE4U - 10 points
PUNTOSPARAMI123 - 10 points
CAREFORNEWBORNS - 10 points
GTGCOUPONPOINTS - 10 points
WELCOME2VILLAGE - 10 points
GETSTARTEDNOW10 - 10 points

Make sure you follow Pampers on Twitter and Facebook so you can get a heads up on new codes available as well!

Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the updated list of codes!

Tippr: 1/2 off at Neighborhood Grill Locations!

Tippr Seattle is offering a pretty good deal today for 4 Neighborhood Grill locations around the area!

$25 gets you a $50 gift certificate to use at one of 4 locations (Crossroads, Eastlake, Lake City and Green Lake). You do have to choose which location you are going to eat at when you purchase the certificate.

Plus if you are new to Tippr you will get a $5 credit just for signing up so you'll get this deal for only $20! Go HERE now to sign up and have a great dinner out this summer!

Disclosure: This post contains referral links, when you use them you support this site, thanks!

Favorite Companies + Social Media = Love Story!

Those of you who have been reading this blog and following me on Twitter for the last couple of years know that I LOVE Qdoba Mexican Grill. My husband and I have been eating lunch there with one of my best friends, Rebecca, every week (sometimes more!) for the past FIVE+ years!

One of the reasons I love Qdoba so much is because they have a wonderful customer loyalty program. You get random coupons throughout the year and you get a free entree for every 10 that you buy! I swear that between the 3 of us we have had over 100 free burritos over the past 5 years! You can check out their website HERE and next time you head to a Qdoba I would grab a card and register, you get a free order of chips and salsa just for signing up!

When Twitter got so huge a couple of years ago I started tweeting and following interesting people as well as other bloggers and companies I love. Of course Rebecca and I had to find out if Qdoba had a Twitter account and sure enough, they did! There are many local Qdoba Twitter and Facebook accounts actually, but we have followed @QdobaMexGrill since the beginning! (They sometimes do trivia for free entrees!) We started tweeting about our weekly lunch dates and posting pictures of our cute kids eating Qdoba and a unique relationship developed! One time they emailed us and asked for our loyalty cards so they could buy our weekly lunch this week just for being great customers! We were so excited that we lit up our Twitter accounts with how happy we were to be Qdoba addicts.

A few weeks ago we noticed some awesome t-shirts that the Qdoba folks had for a special event in Denver (the birthplace of Qdoba) and we all mentioned to them on Twitter how cool it would be to have one of those t-shirts for our weekly lunch. Sure enough, a short time later we each got a fun package in our mailboxes!

Lauren with Qdoba in Denver had contacted us for t-shirt sizes and addresses and we each got an I Heart Qdoba shirt along with a sweet hand written card thanking us for our patronage and a coupon for a free entree! We were happy just to have the shirts so getting lunch as well was a huge bonus! Our only requirement? A photo of the 3 of us at our weekly lunch wearing our Qdoba t-shirts!

We wore them proudly today and all the staff in the menu line LOVED it! I think the other customers in the restaurant were super jealous too! :) Our free lunch was delish and I was excited that my t-shirt actually fit over my huge 9 month preggo belly!

The point of this article is not to brag about getting something for free from the company, but really to talk about the benefits that social media can have for saving money. I follow many restaurants, stores and local companies on Facebook and Twitter. I can't tell you how many free products I've gotten from signing up for freebies on Facebook or printable coupons that have come up along the way! (Another favorite of mine is the $1 off coupons that Red Mango puts out when they have a new product!)

Yes, if you let Facebook and Twitter suck you in they can be a huge waste of time, but there are benefits to be had as well! Just don't let it take over your life!

Just wanted to send a HUGE thank you to Lauren and the Qdoba team for sending us the t-shirts and free entree cards. We love Qdoba and will continue to eat there at least once a week forever!

My Fred Meyer Trip Today!

My trip to Fred Meyer was pretty good today so I thought I'd share some of the deals I found! Mostly I wanted to tell you all about the Pantene deal that's going on this week. All three of those products in my photo (Shampoo, Conditioner and Styling Gel) were only $.99 for all 3 - yes $.99!

Pantene Products - on sale 3 for $10 with in-ad coupon

- used $3 off 2 coupon from 6/19 SS coupon insert

- used $3.00 off 1 Catalina coupon found in my store's coupon exchange bin!

Paid $4.00 OOP - received a $3.00 Catalina good for my next purchase!

You only need to buy 2 products to get the $3.00 Catalina. Ideally, if your store has a Coupon Exchange, and you get lucky and find 2 coupons for $3.00 off 1 in there, then you could actually get paid to buy 2 bottles! Use the in-ad coupon and your 2 coupons, pay $.66 OOP and get a $3.00 CAT! Fabule$$!!

My other purchases:

Clearance Meat - I have been stocking up on good cuts of meat when I see them in the clearance bin. I pop it straight in the freezer when I get home and this way I have plenty of meat on hand for dinners once our little one arrives! Today I got some chicken breasts and a nice looking beef roast!

Clearance Organic Yogurt - I found some Oikos on clearance for $1.09 each, used my $1.00/2 coupon from the 6/19 SS insert and only paid $.59 each! I also got a couple of Yo-Toddler 4 packs for $1.29 each. You can get some great Stoneyfield yogurt coupons HERE! If I had thought about it beforehand I would have printed a couple of $.50 off coupons to make the 4 packs even cheaper!

Challenge Butter - 2 for $6

- used $1.00 off Printable - sorry NLA

Final Price: $2.00/lb - great price for this time of year!

Tillamook Butter - 2 for $5 with in-ad coupon

- wish I'd have had a coupon but my husband loves this butter for air popcorn!

La Victoria Taco Sauce - $2.69 each

- used my 2 $2.00 off Printables - sorry NLA

Paid only $.69 each!

Goldfish Crackers - $1.00 each

- used $.75 off 2 printable that's NLA (but you can use THIS $.55/2 printable)

Got 2 bags for $1.25!

Naturally Preferred Organic Eggs - $3.49

- used $.40 off coupon from a Best Customer booklet that was mailed to me!

Final Price: $3.09

Plus my thrifty little daughter was happy to get a free coloring book after her free hour of daycare at the Fred Meyer Playland today! I am telling you, this is the best thing since sliced bread! She gets to go play with other kids and have fun for an hour and I get to shop in peace! GENIUS!! I go to Fred Meyer way more now that my store opened a Playland!

Frugal Chic Living has compiled a complete list of all of this week's Fred Meyer deals HERE - go check it out!!