IHOP stacks for donation

February 24th head to your local IHOP from 7am-10pm for a free stack of pancakes!

They do this yearly to raise donations for the Children’s Miracle Network. We rarely go out for breakfast, so when we went last year we all REALLY enjoyed our pancakes! The girls will be so excited to go again!

*As always with deals like these, call your local establishment to make sure they are participating.
Thanks to Denise at The Centsible Sawyer!

Printable Coupons vs. Newspaper Coupons

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:

• $1/1 Reynolds Wrap foil (doubled this should make for some cheap or free foil!)
• $1/2 Yoplait Kids
• $1/1 Cascadian Farms product
  
• $1/1 Pert Plus (if you need shampoo, this would make it cheap!)
• BOGO Welch's AquaJuice
• $1/2 Tree Top Products (think juice boxes for summer picnics or school lunches!)
• $1/2 Atkins Advantage single bars (doubled should make them free)
• .60/2 Pillsbury Italian meal breads (pair these with a sale for $1 crescents or biscuits)
• $1/1 Del Monte refrigerated glass jar
• $1/2 Del Monte 8 oz fruit cups
• .75/1 Shout (combine with $1 rebate at Walgreens)
• .75/1 Chex
• $1/1 Quaker Oat Fiber Bars
  

Another source of internet printables is bricks coupons. I usually find out about them from other "shopping blogs" like Money Saving Mom, Freebies 4 Mom, or Deal Seeking Mom, who are all listed on my blogroll on the right side. I also just found a list of the current coupons here. Some coupons that caught my eye:

• FREE 2-liter or 20 oz bottle of Dr. Pepper!
• $1/1 Muir Glen
• $1/2 Juicy Juice products (more juice boxes! I can't wait until summer!)
• $1/1 Aquaphor (this works the best for chapped winter cheeks)

I've started something new for organzing my coupons. I take the ones I know I will use at my grocery store and sort them by expiration date. This way I won't let some of my valuable coupons expire before being able to double them at the store. And if I have room in a transaction to double another coupon, I can grab one from that pile. The rest of my coupons (like the ones from the Sunday paper) get filed in my coupon binder. I've been getting lazy, though, and my binder needs a SERIOUS overhaul!

What coupon tips do you have?
What organization system has been working for you?

Toothpaste Project Update

Would you like to use your couponing to reach out to others with the love of Christ?

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?

If you don't have any extra, would you be willing to go out and get a tube or two for better than free after ECBs this week at CVS? Colgate Total is $2.99 this week, and you get $2.99 in ECBs back. Use this printable $1/1 coupon, the $1/1 coupon from the 2/1 paper, or the $1.50/1 coupon 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.

*Please note that Joan (my missionary contact) prefers the 4 oz size, not the larger 6 oz size. Understandably, when she is carting 1500 of these (which is their goal), the weight will make a difference.*

If you'd prefer to send some directly to Joan, let me know and I'll give you her address. If you are unfamiliar with how the CVS ECBs work, let me know and I'll help you out! Thank you so much for your help!

Kids and Missionaries

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:

• William Tyndale, the man who risked his life to translate the Bible and make it available for all people
  
• John Bunyan, a pastor from England who was arrested and wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" while in prison
• Jim Elliot, a missionary to the Aucas who was killed by the people he was trying to reach with the gospel
• Eric Liddell, the Olympic runner who was featured in Chariots of Fire and was also a missionary to China (I never knew that!)
  
• Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China who led over 100 orphans to safety on foot, by herself, through a war!
• Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor in Romania during WWII who stood firm in his faith in the face of great persecution

They are currently working on the stories of Perpetua, a third century martyr, and Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India. These are wonderfully done, 30 minute animated videos summarizing the stories of these heroes of the Christian faith. Our family has thoroughly enjoyed watching them, and our kids ask to watch them over and over. I love that it is exposing them to missions and shows them how REAL people have stood firm in their faith. Through these missionary stories, our kids are seeing that being a Christian doesn't just mean calling yourself a Christian and going to church on Sundays.

Filing your Taxes for cheaper

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!

Doodle 4 Google Contest

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!

Free Redbox Codes

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ted and I went out to eat at a new restaurant ALONE today! It was so nice not to have to cut up anyone's food, clean up spilled drinks, or be interrupted every two minutes. And we actually got to eat our food while it was still HOT! Ahhh. . . the good life!

What did you do for 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:

BREAKROOM or DVDONME.

According to to Deal Seeking Mom these are ongoing codes that can be used once per credit/debit card, so you don't have to use them tonight, you can use them anytime you want a free movie. Thanks Tara!

Kitchen Helpers

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!

Starting out with CVS

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!

Coupons! Get your coupons here!

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!

Garbage Helpers

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!

Free Movie Monday!

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!

Are you addicted?

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

You can click on my results above to take the quick quiz yourself. Come back and let me know how addicted you are by leaving a comment!

I found the quiz on Jenn's blog! Thanks, Jenn! Fun, fun!

Yogurt Update

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:

• Milk
  
• Plain Yogurt

That's it! I think it's creamier without the gelatin. I also tried using more than 1/2 a gallon of milk, to see if I could make a bigger batch at a time (about 3/4 of a gallon fit in my crockpot), and I only let it sit for 9 hours. It still thickened just fine!

Here's the steps again, just in case you want to try it:

• Heat 1/2 gallon of milk on the stove for about 10 minutes, stirring almost constantly so it doesn't scald. You want it to reach 190 degrees, or just about boiling.
  
• Put the pot of milk into the sink filled with cool water and let cool for about 10 minutes. The temperature needs to get down to 105 degrees so it won't kill the yogurt you mix in.
• Mix in 1/2 cup of plain yogurt (this is your starter).
  
• Put in a warmed, UNPLUGGED crockpot, (or just leave it in your covered pot). Wrap it in thick towels and blankets to keep it warm and let it sit for 8 hours.

I've made it with 2% and 1% milk. I don't know if skim would thicken well or not. I also don't know about soy or lactose-free milk. If any of you have tried any of those, please let me know.
I really want to know if anyone's been brave enough to give this a shot. Please leave a comment! I've made it several times, and M, H, and I eat it frequently and no one has gotten sick. I've even given small amounts to baby F and she's been fine, too. We just mix in a couple tablespoons of honey to sweeten it up (no honey for the baby, though). You can also mix in fruit, jelly, or even flavored applesauce. You might still want a little honey for sweetener, so play around with it. Try it! You might like it!

Do you want more crockpot recipes? Check out the Crockpot Carnival!

On the Move

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!

Free Movie Tonight!

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.

Creativity!

"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!