Thursday's pircture perfect deal...

The picture...

We have a section of yard that is all wild flowers and one of the first to open was the beautiful Wall Flowers.  I love the bright orange color in the spring and snapped this after a light rain.

The deal...

For those of you with youngsters or grandchildren this is an amazing deal from Eversave.  You can get an 11 piece Sesame Street book set geared towards children ages 2 to 6.  These are designed to help them learn numbers, colors, shapes and letters.  The books are usually $54.89, but they are marked down 51% for the next four days making them only $27.00 with free shipping.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!

C.Q.

Wednesday's Learn and Earn...

~WORD OF THE DAY~

maffick \MAF-ik\  ~  verb

DEFINITION: to celebrate with boisterous rejoicing and hilarious behavior

EXAMPLES :Fans mafficked for hours outside the stadium, celebrating the team's dramatic victory in the division championship.

"In half an hour, after the mildest of mafficking, the last visitors of the exhibition's last day had gone out of the gates and the staff began their final acts of closing up shop." — From an article in The Guardian (London), October 1, 2011

DID YOU KNOW? "Maffick" is an alteration of Mafeking Night, the British celebration of the lifting of the siege of a British military outpost during the South African War at the town of Mafikeng (also spelled Mafeking) on May 17, 1900. The South African War was fought between the British and the Afrikaners, who were Dutch and Huguenot settlers originally called Boers, over the right to govern frontier territories. Though the war did not end until 1902, the lifting of the siege of Mafikeng was a significant victory for the British because they held out against a larger Afrikaner force for 217 days until reinforcements could arrive. The rejoicing in British cities on news of the rescue produced "maffick," a word that was popular for a while, especially in journalistic writing, but is now relatively uncommon.

Find more great words at Merriam-Webster.

~THE REBATE~

Tyson always seems to have some great rebates and this one is no exception.  From now until September 30, 2012 when you purchase Tyson Chicken Tenders and at least $5.00 of gas Tyson will send you $5.00 back.  Just fill out the rebate form and mail it in with your original cash register receipts from the grocers deli for the Chicken Tenders and from the gas station for the gasoline purchase; the receipts need to be dated between 5/28/12 and 9/30/12 with the purchases circled.  There is only one rebate allowed per household and the requests need to be postmarked by the 9/30/12 date.

I hope you are all having a great Wednesday!

C.Q.

Saving a bundle on your bundle of joy...

I found out this week that one of my friends is going to have a baby and she asked me if I knew of places to find coupons, discounts and free baby items, and while this isn't my specialty area, I am going to give it my very best shot this week.  So, here is what all I found, if you have more items to add and share please feel free to post them for everyone.

Coupons for babies are pretty easy to find and I was able to track down; the Gerber website offers a sign up for their coupons as well as special offers, articles and tips for you and your little one.  Registering at PlanningFamily.com for free will get you into the site to use the interactive tools and download coupons.  Diapers.com is a site designed very much like Alice.com except its for babies, right now they have a few great coupons, the first is for 30% off diapers for three months using coupon code BCDIAPERS30PCT, the other is for 10% off anything on the site using coupon code BC10PERCENT.  The great thing about this site is that they offer everything you could need and deliver it right to your door, no fuss no muss, you can save that part for baby.

The next thing I got to thinking about was the diapers, I did a little research and found that the cost of using cloth and cleaning them at home saves a ton of cash.  I found a great comparison at Baby Cotton Bottoms and I was utterly stunned at the cost difference, not having kids myself I never realized what a gargantuan expense this was!  For those times when disposable is the only way to go I was also surprised to see that Huggies has a reward program, all you need to do is enter the codes from the packages on to the web page and they track your points for you, you can redeem them for a bunch of things from the reward catalog.  As long as you're visiting the Huggies site, why not enter to win free diapers for a year in their sweepstakes?  Pampers also has a program called the Pampers Village & Gift and Grow.  To sign up you just need to enter your information on the web page and then enter the codes from Pampers products.  You will also get a free kit with $329 of offers as a welcome gift. Need a cute little nursery bag for organizing the changing area?  Every day at 11:00 Central time Nursery Water puts up an number of bag they give out for free, just be one of the first to click and they will get one out to you, if you miss it that day check back tomorrow, they reload this every day.

Another big expense is the car seat, with so many companies out there offering different models I really can't tell you who's to buy and who's to avoid, but what I can tell you is that no matter which one you ultimately pick be sure to register it with the manufacturer, that way if there is ever a recall you will know right away and can keep your child safe.  In looking at the many models out there I also found a few sites that said to check with your health insurer to see if they will cover the purchase of a car seat, I was surprised to see that some of them will.

If you plan on using formula you can register to join the Enfamil Family Beginnings.  By filling in your information on their web page they will send you gifts up to $250 which includes up to $60.00 in Enfamil savings as well as samples of their products.  The Similac Strong Moms program is similar, just sign up on their web site for up free offers, samples and coupons. 

The third expensive item I tackled was clothes.  I think kids grow a full size in a day when they have growth spurts so clothes are always in demand.  I found a wonderful site called thredUP, they understand that kids grow, clothes don't so they have a program where moms can swap clothes and toys on line.  The program costs nothing except what it costs to ship the clothes to the new mom, in turn your box is mailed to you free from another member.  This is a wonderful idea and with the price of children's clothes could possibly save the equivalent of a semester at Harvard, OK, not that much but you know what I mean.

A few sites I stumbled on that I felt were worth checking out and joining for coupons, freebies, tips, tricks and networking were Zulily which offers discounts kind of like Groupon, except for children's needs. Planning Family which offers free baby stuff, sweepstakes and contests as well as access to professional advice videos.  Baby to Bee which has savings on diapers and formula as well as a nice area to print coupons.

Have a great weekend everyone!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

This holiday season why not let your iPod and Smart Phones make your shopping a little easier?  There are some really great cool apps available that can help get your shopping done in short order so you have more time to relax and bake those cookies for the office cookie exchange.

First lets start with know how much you can spend, you can use Mint to help you with a budget, its available for free download to both the Android and iPhone, if you don't want that information on your portable device they are also available on Yahoo.com.  When you have your budget set you can stretch it using application such as Coupon Shurpa, it offers coupons to over 5,000 stores from your home computer, or download the free app and it will send coupons to over a hundred stores directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Need directions or store information?  One of the best apps available is YPMoble, this is not the Yellow Pages of your childhood, now it is super charged with a search feature, driving directions, web links, reviews and a way to save your contacts or favorites lists. YPMoble is free and available for your iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Android, Palm and Blackberry.  Now that you have made it to the mall and parked in the sea of cars, will you ever find your car again?  You will if you download Carr Matey, this app is available for the Android and will help you find a place to park, let you enter parking garage information,and remind you when your meter is set to expire.

Well you made it, look out shoppers your off to the races!  But which direction do you need to go?  With Mall Maps Mobile you can find your way around almost any mall with ease, its great for finding new places that have just opened or when you are traveling and shopping an area you are unfamiliar with. This free download is available in the iTunes store for the iPod, iPad, and iPhone.  Now that you have found your favorite store are you getting the best deal on your purchase? Used to be you had to run all over town to find out, now you can just use an app like Shop Savvy 4 by using the camera on your iPhone or Android camera to scan the bar code and compare prices with other stores and on line.

Ahhhh, almost done but where did you put all those reward membership cards?  With an application like CardStar you can keep all that information together in one spot.  With an ever growing list of merchants that are supported as well as the ability to add your own this is one of the easiest and most beneficial apps available, epically since its free and available for the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows phone.  All you do is find the card info and show your phone to the cashier, no more extra plastic cards to carry around.

I hope you all have a rewarding shopping experience this holiday season!

C.Q.

Old fashioned holiday saving...

Have you tallied up your Black Friday sales purchases yet? Planning on shopping on the highest grossing day for retailers, Cyber Monday?  What about a budget?  If your like most shoppers this time of year its easy to get carried away in the frenzy of deals and overspend.  With the recession a lot of consumers have changed strategies and started using only cash, that way when its gone you stop spending and don't end up with that dreaded January bill from your credit card company.  A great way to have some extra cash for the holidays is the Christmas Club, a tried and true method of saving that was devised during the Great Depression and is seeing a resurgence of use.  Its simple, you put away a little bit of money every month starting in January and in October or November you can take it out for your holiday needs.  If you save as little as $10.00 a week starting in January and go through October you would have $420 at the start of November.  You can earn interest compounded on many of these types of accounts as well because you are not allowed to withdraw your funds until a specific date for the holidays, its kind of like a mini CD.  Some Banks and Credit Unions offer these accounts (be sure to ask since its usually not advertiesed), but if not you can also consider short term CDs that will offer a higher yield than your general savings account will, the down side is that you may need a higher amount down to open an account for a CD than a Christmas Club account. 

If you run into a problem finding a bank that offers a Christmas Club, or the CDs terms are too high consider opening an account with a group by pooling your money together. If you require that two signatures are needed to withdraw any funds it would cut down the temptation to take anything out early. Its also fun at the end of the term to get together with that group of family or friends to get your cash, have a little lunch, get caught up and then shop together to kick off the holiday season with a smile.

Another option that is super easy is simply saving all your ones over the year and then bundling them in groups of $100.00.  This is something that my husband and I do at usually at the end of the year we have between $500.00 and $600.00 for shopping or a vacation.  Its fun to watch the cash grow and the bank will convert it to larger bills for free when we are ready.  You don't earn interest but because its so easy we both do it every time we shop with cash.  My husband laughs because I don't call them One's any more, I call them "Fun's".

I hope you all have a relaxing Saturday!

C.Q.

Finding quality and savings at the farmers' market...

Today I went to the local farmers' market to get a few things to make soup with and I was struck with how much of a good thing there was in out area, we have an abundance of local growers with the freshest produce available every Saturday morning.  This got me to thinking, there are a few things about farmers markets that folks tend to take for granted.  First is that everything is fresh picked that day.  In fact, some things are picked through out the week and held for market, so just like the grocery store its important to check for freshness, also some growers don't care if the birds have pecked at their peppers or the slugs have slimmed the squash, so be sure to check for the overall quality as well.  When you are looking for the freshness of an items there are simple things to look for, beets, carrots, celery root and radishes should be sold with the top on, then you will know how fresh they are, if the greens are wilted they were not picked that day.  I found a really nice fruit and vegetable buying guide from the University of Tennessee that you can download and print out for future reference.  There is also a great app available at iTunes for $2.99 called Harvest, you can also watch the demo movie and get more information about the application at the developers site, I really like this app because it also gives you information on the pesticide levels in your produce.

The other thing a lot of folks assume is that buying at the farmers' market means its organic, as a matter of fact this is not the case at all.  Each state has requirements to be certified organic and in most cases if the vendor stall doesn't have the certification certificate then they are not organic. 

I am usually overwhelmed but the amount of great stuff and tend to over buy if I don't go with a plan, so here are some tips to help you save money when you go,  first and foremost, treat it just like going to the grocery store, make a list of the things you need.  Today I made home made Gazpacho so I knew I needed tomatoes, garlic, corn, onion, cucumber and leek, once I had those items then I could use the remaining cash I had for other goodies.  That brings me to the second thing, have a budget.  Most vendors are not equipped to take checks or credit cards so bring a set amount of cash and when its gone its time to go home.  Once you get to the market check out all the vendor stalls before you buy, remember, not all vendors have the same variety of goods or the same quality.  The final cardinal rule is to get there early, our market opens at 7:00am and if you get there at 8:00am things are pretty well picked over, also be prepared for a crowd, folks that frequent the farmers' markets know the early risers get the best stuff.  If you aren't sure if you have a local farmers market near you the USDA has a web page that allows you to do a search.

Once you get your produce home be sure to store it in the right areas, corn (wrapped in a wet paper bag placed inside a plastic bag), and peas are best in the front area of the fridge.  Artichokes, asparagus (after trimming the ends and placing upright in shallow cool water, then covering with plastic), beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chiles, cucumbers, eggplant, fresh herbs, green beans, leafy greens, leeks, lettuce (after washing and drying, rolling loosely in a clean kitchen towel inside an unzipped zip-lock bag), mushrooms, peppers, radishes, scallions, summer squash, turnips and zucchini are best in the crisper drawer.  Tomatoes are best placed upside down on the counter or on a plate.  Garlic, onions, potatoes, shallots, sweet potatoes and winter squash are best in the pantry, closet or basement (where it's both dark and cool).

Do you have any wonderful summer recipes using your garden's harvest or good stuff form the farmers market?  I would love to hear about them.

Have a wonderful weekend.

C.Q.

Wedding ideas for a budget...

Wedding season is fast approaching so I thought I would give some ideas on how to save some cash and still have a great wedding. Did you know that the average wedding in the US costs between $20,000 and $35,000? That's a LOT of cash!!

Saving money on the ceremony is pretty easy, first consider having your service at a public park or a friend or parents house, also, don't rule out other non-traditional sites, I have a friend having a Halloween wedding in October and she is having the service at a haunted house, so think outside the box. This will save you the fee for the church and if you have a friend or relative that is a justice of the peace or a minister you can save the fee for their services as well, if not check with the local court house and churches or seminary schools and compare all the rates.

One of the biggest expenses is the dress, the easiest way to save a ton is just to NOT got to the bridal store for a gown. Check your local 2nd hand stores, eBay, and be sure to scope out the stores that sell prom dresses. If you, a friend or family member are crafty you can find a great dress and add beads and/or sequins to make it uniquely your own. Don't be afraid of adding color to your dress either, black is very elegant for an evening wedding and red or gold looks stunning around the holidays.

Instead of a traditional sit down grooms dinner why not opt for a backyard BBQ where everyone can let their hair down and have some fun? Consider some lawn games like badminton or volley ball. If you make it more pot luck the expense will be even less and everyone will have a blast.

When looking for a photographer you will want to make sure you look over every one's work BEFORE you hire them. There are some fantastic photographers at the local colleges just hoping for a way to get a portfolio together, talk to a few of them and compare their styles. The feel will be well below a seasoned professional but you will get a "fresh" eye on your wedding.

Flowers can be a very expensive part of your budget, consider having just a few flowers in your bouquets and more green, and don't be afraid to use some little cute things in your bouquet like pine cones. For your groomsmen you can send a friend to a local florist and see if they have any broken stemmed flowers that they are going to throw away, bootiners need only about a 2" stem for pinning, just wrap them with some florists tape. Stick with flowers that will be in season, Tulips at Christmas are going to be a fortune. If you use some sort of Ivy in your bouquet you can take a clipping and root it so you will have a living reminder of your special day.

Finally, consider a destination wedding, it may not strike you as a budget wedding idea, but think about it. All expenses are covered for you and your guests (with the exception of airfare and your wedding attire). Not only that, but honeymoon expenses aren't necessary as the destination is the honeymoon as well.

Of course, the very best ways to stay on budget is to simply have one, Real Simple has a very nice printable wedding budget worksheet.

I am interested in hearing your ideas, please let me know!

Have a great weekend!!

C.Q.