I've been finding that I use printable coupons a lot more than coupons from the newspaper these days. Why? Because the printable coupons are almost always higher value than the ones found in the newspaper. I usually redeem at least 5 printable coupons a week at my local grocery store. My favorite coupons are the ones that are $1/1, because my store doubles those on Wednesdays, taking $2 off the price of a product! I've been able to score many free or nearly free products with these valuable coupons, especially when paired with a sale.
So where do I find my precious printables? Coupons.com has a lot of good coupons on a rotating basis. You can click and print these right from my blog from the blue bar above (you'll have to click through to my blog if you are subscribed via email or reader). Some of my favorite coupons right now:
I started collecting toothpaste and toothbrushes in January to send to women in Peru for an outreach project. Thanks to some friends, so far we've collected about 50 tubes of toothpaste and 50 toothbrushes! But as you can see, I still have room in the box for more! Do you have a tube of toothpaste you'd be willing to donate?
in the March All You magazine to get a couple of tubes for better than free after ECBs. The limit stated in my paper for this deal was 2, but on my receipt it said limit of 3. If you'd like to donate toothbrushes, there was a round package of 6 toothbrushes for $1 in the dollar section of my CVS. Multi-packs of toothbrushes are fine, since Joan will be packaging a tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a tract in a bag to give to the women.Ted and I took a class last semester about Church History, from the time of Acts to the present day. It was extremely interesting to see how the church developed, learn more about some of the good things and bad things that have happened during The Church's History, and see how many of the denominations were formed. In another very interesting section of the class we learned about several missionaries.
The class included quizzes every week, which prompted us to study and actually remember the things we were learning. (What a concept!) When we were learning about the missionaries, there were so many names and countries and we knew we would have to keep them all straight. We went to our church's children's library and found a treasure trove of materials!
We've enjoyed checking out books about different missionaries and reading them to the kids, and we've also discovered an animated series of DVD's called The Torchlighters: Heroes of the Faith. So far there are 6 DVD's:
Eric Liddell, the Olympic runner who was featured in Chariots of Fire and was also a missionary to China (I never knew that!)
Some of you may be on the ball and have already filed your taxes. If so, GOOD FOR YOU!! :-) Give yourself a pat on the back! For the rest of us who haven't quite gotten that far yet, I thought I would pass along some cheaper alternatives for doing your taxes.
I suppose the most frugal way to file your taxes is to do them by hand and mail them in. However, some of us aren't good at that or don't like to do it that way, and prefer some help or at least some software to walk us through it. But do you have to spend $50 to buy TurboTax or TaxCut software? Isn't there a better way?
For years, we bought the TaxCut software. We would watch the sales ads for weeks, waiting for the best price. A few years ago, we found a more frugal alternative. For the past few years we have used TaxACT online. It walks you through questions, just like TaxCut does, so it is easy to do. You can e-file your federal taxes for FREE! There are no restrictions based on age or income. You can also do your state taxes, which is $13.95 and includes the cost of e-filing.
Another option I've heard about, but haven't used personally, is TaxSlayer. It looks like you can choose a $9.95 or $14.95 option, which includes federal and state e-filing.
If you have any questions, or if you have used either of these or another cheap alternative, leave a comment! Good luck on your taxes!
Google is hosting a Doodle 4 Google competition for kids in grades K-12 to play around with the Google logo for big prizes! Their theme this year is "What I wish for the world" and they are encouraging kids to think big and dream big!
Kids can only enter through their school, and you can do a search for the schools that are registered in your area here. If your school isn't registered, bring it to their attention! Only 6 entries are allowed per school.
HOWEVER, homeschoolers are eligible to participate, too! (Yay, Google!) Just go here to register your homeschool. 2 entries are allowed per homeschool (one per child).
What are the big prizes? The National Winner will win a $15K college scholarship, a trip to Google New York, a $25K grant towards the establishment/improvement of a computer lab for their current school, a laptop computer, and a t-shirt with their Google Doodle printed on it. Their doodle will also be displayed on the google home page for one day. How cool is that? The finalists will all win a laptop, a trip to Google New York, and a t-shirt with their Google Doodle.
Hurry, registration ends March 17th, so get doodling! Thanks so much to Annabell for sharing about the contest!
Happy Valentine's Day! 
If you didn't get a chance to go out (or even if you did), how about a cheap date night IN? Or even better, how about you make it FREE? Go to your local Redbox and use these codes for a free rental:
I've mentioned before some of the jobs I have our girls do to help in the kitchen, like emptying clean silverware into the drawer (a good sorting activity!), setting and clearing the table, wiping the kitchen floor, or helping with the trash. Amber also mentioned wiping the cabinets and the table. I usually didn't have the girls wipe off the table because crumbs just ended up on the floor, but that can change now! Ted got the GIRLS (not me--though I do use it!) a Dust Buster for Christmas so they could help me clean up crumbs under the table. I LOVE it, it opened up TWO chores they can help with! Thanks honey!
I was talking to my friend Jaci one night about how her oldest son L couldn't wait until his younger brother W was tall enough to reach the sink and cupboards so that W could help L out with some of the kitchen chores. W was just a little too short to reach everything, so I suggested getting a plastic step stool. You can usually find them for less than $8, and they're light enough to be carried around and have rubber feet so they don't slip. The next time she saw me she said they had bought one and L was THRILLED that W could now share in the chores!
Do you have any other ideas for making chores easier for kids? You may not think it is a big deal, but someone else may not have thought about it, so please leave a comment so we can all learn! It takes time and training to teach your kids to help around the house, but I suggest doing it as early as possible. They WANT to help when they are 2 and 3 years old, and this is when a lot of the early groundwork can be laid. Hopefully it will pay off later and maybe the "someday" when we can relax will come even sooner!
Are you wondering how to get started at CVS? Do ECBs and multiple transactions trip you up? Denise at The Centsible Sawyer just did two posts answering questions and detailing how to best play the CVS game. Go here and here to get your questions answered!
I was thinking about the hot dog concessions at baseball games ("Hot dogs, get your hot dogs here!"), can you tell? Maybe I'm ready for it to be summer, huh? :-)
Anyway, if you've clicked over to read on my blog, maybe you've noticed that I finally figured out how to get a coupon bar installed! If you see a coupon you think you might use, now you can print them straight from my blog! Just click on "Quick Print" and there you go. How easy is that?! You can also click on "scroll coupons" or "see all coupons" to see other ones that are available to you. If you have already printed a coupon twice, it won't show up on your list.
Thanks so much to Jenn for helping me out with that!
Last summer I posted about different jobs the kids could help with around the house, and some of you left some helpful comments, too! Amber had left a comment about kids emptying trash cans, and I thought that was an good idea I could implement at our house, but I wasn't sure how exactly to go about it. Then I heard a great idea from someone (I don't remember who, I'm sorry, so if it was you, please leave a comment!). After lining your little bathroom trash cans with a plastic grocery bag, put a rubber band around the top so the bag won't slide off. Now every week before trash day I can ask each of the girls to go grab a trash can and bring it down to the kitchen trash. They can easily dump the contents out into the big trash can and then put it back where it belongs! Usually the bathroom trash consists of kleenexes and empty toilet paper rolls, so it just falls out easily.
If you have other easy chore ideas you'd like to share, I'm all ears! Please leave a comment so we can all benefit!
If you haven't tried Redbox, today's the day! The free rental code for Monday, February 9th only is 25CH63. To find a local redbox, go here. If you haven't seen Fireproof, this would be a great opportunity to see it for free!
Thanks to Deal Seeking Mom!
Has anyone been brave enough to try making yogurt? Well, just in case any of you muster up the courage, I thought I would let you know that I've been playing with my recipe a little bit. I had been stirring in some dry milk and a packet of Knox gelatin to help it thicken, but wondered if it would work without it. So all it has is:
Baby F is on the move! She is definitely getting forward motion going. She gets up on her knees and scooches a little, then flops on her belly, then repeats the process. So it's not officially crawling, but she is getting around. On Thursday she figured out how to get from her tummy to a sitting position. She also has tried to pull up a little bit, so we decided it was time to lower her crib. Ted stood her up last night and she even balanced for a few seconds standing by herself!
Monday only, use the code D9P24G to get a free movie from Redbox! Most of our free movie rentals still come from the library, but sometimes there's a long wait for a new release we've been wanting to see. Free Movie Mondays to the rescue!
Deal Seeking Mom posts the free rental code every Monday afternoon, or you can subscribe to have Redbox text message it to your cell phone. For more details, read my post here.
"Scooch": To move or push a short distance
H has figured out a way to safely move F from room to room since she's not allowed to stand up and carry her. She sits the baby in her lap, crosses her legs over F's legs, and then scooches along the floor. Creative problem-solving!
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