Snapfish Deal

New Coupon code for Snapfish. Take $10 off any order with code WOW10OFF. I just got a $10 photo notebook free (they are $9.99) plus $2.99 shipping! Great deal!

Also, Old Navy has their Maternity and Baby sale on! Make sure to check it out.

We just went to the Jacksonville Zoo today! Lots of fun. But the best part is we got more then 50% off by buying tickets on Groupon. Make sure to sign up for the groupon for your city - GREAT bargains. Just have to look and see what daily deal they are offering - eventually something you want will come around!!

Sales, Sales, Sales

Big sales this week!!

• Children's Place - additonal 50% off on select items (priced as marked)
• Semi-Annual Sale at Crazy 8
• Semi-Annual Sale at Gymboree

And a few freebies!!

• Free 8x10 collage at Walgreens. Use code GOBIG8X10 thru June19 on Walgreens.com. Make sure to choose pick up at store and you don't even have to pay shipping!!
• Dove Therapy Shampoo & Conditioner - leave Costco number blank
• Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce Samples

So I'm the worst blogger ever...

Okay so I start a blog and then don't post anything for four months... oops... Sorry guys! (I know you were so dissapointed). :) Anyways, I'll do my best to start posting regularly again! At least once a month!!

So what's new? Lot's going on in the "thrifty" world! Here's a couple things to keep your mailbox full:

• Friend Shutterfly on Facebook and get a free 5x7 photobook on Shutterfly. You have to fill out a survey and then can claim your code (make sure to copy it down). You have till June 30 to redeem it (2.99 shipping).


• Walmart has some samples out right now: Cottonelle, Playtex Gentle Glide, Crest 3D White


• 3 Free 5x7 Folded Cards on Shutterfly with coupon code CARDS4DAD - but you have to login and go to your account (at the top right), then click on "Enter Special Offer Code."

I also found this cool site - www.thesoftlanding.com - their clearance section has some really cool stuff - and some favorites for cheap (Avent Bottles for $4.50). I haven't bought anything from them yet, but plan to soon :)

And, of course, an update on the Jakester! He's changed so much since February!! He's crawling and getting into everything!! He's eating big boy food and absolutely loves it. Yesterday, he ate an entire banana - for dessert! He's been saying Dada for a few weeks now - but no Mama yet!!

Contest, Sales & Free Music

I just cannot believe how big Jacob has been getting! In the past month or so, he's become so much more active (and fun!!). He suddenly has a huge interest in his toys, smiles when you read a familiar book and LOVES (I mean LOVES) the tv! He also has the most adorable laugh - I'm trying to get it on video to post, but no luck yet :) His favorite toy is the Cheez-it box - figures.

Looking back over the past 7 months (can you believe it's been that long?) - there is one thing I have to say - "Never say NEVER." I remember the naive comments I used to make like "I won't let Jacob watch tv until he's like 2," or "I'm not going to give him any sweets," or (my personal favorite) "he will never sleep in the bed with me." And while good intentioned, you just never know what will happen. Parenthood is a lot more trying than one might expect. Within the first week Jacob was sleeping in the bed with me - because I didn't know any other way to make him go to sleep. Luckily that habit has stopped, but I just laugh when I think about how I swore it would never happen...

Fun Freebies and Deals for the Day:

Fan World Market on Facebook and be entered to win a Trip to Greece! Contest ends 2/28

Need a baby gift? The Bump is having a sale on baby items - they have cute tub puppets for only $7.99 and an adorable personalized giraffe blanket and animal for $11.99. Use coupon code VALDAY for 20% off a $100 or more purchase. (coupon ends 2/14, sale ends 2/22)

Thanks to BabyCheapskate.com for the heads up on the Nickshop.com 50% off sitewide sale - get all your favorite Nickelodeon Shows on DVD for like $7.20. Plus characters, toys, etc.

Ann Taylor Loft is offering an extra 50% off clearance items (online & instore) ends 2/10 - so hurry! Limited selection online...

Did you know Amazon.com has over 1,000 free MP3 songs? Thanks to Freebies 4 Mom for sharing this free album - The Amazon Groove dance mix

Need some pictures of your little one? Print coupons at JC Penny Portraits - 40% off purchase on Mon - Thurs, and more!

Magazine Subscription Deals

Thanks to The Frugal Girls for the tip on the FREE year subscription to Surfer Magazine with FreeBizMagazine. Jimmy's just ran out - so this will be a nice surprise for him!!

I also just got a $15 year subscription to All You magazine on Amazon.com. I hear it has lots of coupons and deals in the magazine. Will let you know when I get my first issue.

Thank goodness it is weekend!! I'm sleeping in tomorrow and spending some time with the family over the weekend!!

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons

I haven't been able to get coupons in the Sunday paper lately (actually, I just keep forgetting to buy the paper) but I have been able to get several coupons online and order various ones to arrive in the mail. Here are some to consider:

I check these two sites pretty regularly:
www.coupons.com
www.redplum.com

Here are a few opportunities to get coupons in the mail.
Gain Coupons
Home Made Simple Coupon Book (from Dawn, Cascade, Mr. Clean, Swiffer)
Eat Better America

Wednesday Sample - Spark Energy Drink

BOGO is Great!!!

Each week Publix offers a variety of Buy One, Get one Free deals. They offer really great items with a wide assortment to choose from. Get even better deals by using a coupon with your purchase (or better yet two - that's right you can use a coupon on the free item). This week they had Texas Toast BOGO ($.50 coupons at coupons.com) and Earth's Best Stage 2 ($1 off/10 coupons at earthsbest.com). Happy shopping!

The deals go live every Thursday on their site - www.publix.com/bogo.

The New Year is Off to a Great Start

First day back at work in 2010 and I think we got a great deal to go through! Fingers crossed till all the proposals are signed, but things are looking good!! It was tough leaving little Jake again though - after being home with him for 4 days. But he loves daycare - he loves watching all the other kids and things are going much better with him and the sitters.

A Few Deals for Today:
New York & Company (only my favorite store ever) is having a 70% off sale.

Picaboo is offering a buy one book, get one free deal, until January 31. Code JANBGF - I LOVE their photobooks. They give you a ton of layout choices. I'm already working on Jacob's first year album...


And finally, why didn't I see this article about 6 mos ago. Of course, I read about it right when I'm about to stop nursing. But still good to keep on hand for the next kiddie - Convert a regular bra to a nursing bra

New Year's Eve Deals

A few good deals that end very soon!! (I'm talking like tonight...)

Oriental Trading has an awesome clearance sale on their Christmas crafts, decorations, etc. It's all like 70% off of their already CHEAP prices. I got some great crafts for Jake's Christmas party next year!! (I know, I know - I'm planning that far ahead)

Personalization Mall has a sale on ornaments (which you personalize - so you can simply change the year to 2010 for gifts for next year). Got Jake a First Christmas ornament, and a few gifts for next Christmas. Ends today though!

Finally, thanks to Freebies4Mom for the awesome lead - the first 10,000 people to sign up for www.mypunchbowl.com before the end of the year get upgraded to a Premium membership. I just did it - about 5 minutes ago and was upgraded ($29.95 value). It's pretty cool - party planning, e-vites, etc.

Happy New Year everyone!! We are heading over to Tampa today - for a fun New Year's celebration with my Mom and Brother!! :)

Christmas Update

So our first Christmas was a great success!! We went to Tallahassee to visit my Dad, Deb, and the kids. Jake did well on his car ride, sleeping the whole way (although it didn't make bed time very easy). It was a lot of fun. Jacob enjoyed playing with his aunts and uncles - and he LOVED the constant attention!! He loved looking at the Christmas tree too - which makes me feel bad that we didn't put one up (just too hectic this year...) Christmas Eve we spent with the family and Nana and Papa - which is always a lot of fun... and we eat stone crab claws for hours!! YUMMY!! Christmas morning was a bit overwhelming for Jacob. He enjoyed opening about 3 presents and then he had enough. He got fussy everytime someone put a wrapped present in front of him, but unwrap it for him and he loved looking/playing with the toys! All in all, it was a great holiday!

I had a lot of success with my day after Christmas shopping!! Kohls had 70% off most of their holiday items and Walmart had the usual 50% off. Target was a bit disappointing this year with only 30% off of their gift sets but the wrapping paper, etc was still 50% off. I got lots of presents for next year and a ton of wrapping paper, ribbon, etc. I also got Jacob the most adorable stocking (since we didn't get him one this year... I know, I should be ashamed!). Best of all, I got some placemats with matching napkins etc for only $4.50 for a set of four!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Looking forward to a great New Year!!

Nice Deal For Christmas

Amazon.com is having a great sale - only available through Saturday - for O, The Oprah Magazine. Only $5 for a year subscription!! That's only $0.42/issue and an 89% discount!! Great Christmas present 0r subscription for yourself! Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers Freebies 4 Mom for posting!!

On another note, Jake is feeling MUCH better. For those of you who didn't know, he came down with RSV last week... super scary. He was so congested and just plain miserable. We had to give him treatments with the nebulizer and suction out his nose - which as you can imagine, he just loved! But he's back to normal now - just a little wheezy. Now he's teething, which seems to be quite uncomfortable as well! But he started cereal last Friday and he really enjoys it!!

Off to do some online Christmas shopping... until next time :)

Babies, Babies, Babies...

This post is in honor of Baby Mia who was born yesterday (Thanksgiving) at 10p.m. She is 8 lbs, 15 oz, 22 inches, a full head of hair and as beautiful as it gets! Congrats to Elizabeth & Manny!! It seems everyone is having babies right now - I can think of 10 friends that are expecting!! So here are a few things that I wished I would've known about before I had baby Jake. :)

1. Stocking up on diapers - Most people who know me saw the insane amount of diapers that I stocked up on. I would wait till diapers were on sale and then use coupons. I paid on average $7-$8 per jumbo pack - and I had a TON of them. I bought in every size and brand (in case of allergies, etc), but only got one or two of the newborns in case I had a big baby. Here's a GREAT resource if you want to buy diapers ahead - http://www.babycheapskate.com/ (do a search for the article "using growth charts to predict diaper needs")

2. Baby Clothes - I had them all sorted in the closet from newborn, 0-3 mos, 3-6 mos, etc. What I didn't realize is that some brands are smaller than others. So when I moved Jake up to the 3-6 mos clothes several of them were WAY too small. Now I hold the clothes up to each other and sort them in order of actual size rather than what their labels claim.

3. Sign up for the baby programs EARLY! I'll try to post a list of the various baby programs you can sign up for by end of the weekend, just a few to mention www.gerber.com/register, https://similac.com/signup-similac, and www.publix.com/babyclub. Sign up as early as you can for these clubs. For some it takes a while to get the coupons. The Publix Baby Club coupons didn't get to me until Jake was already 3 mos old - and I signed up when I was like 7 mos preggo! The others, like Similac and Gerber/Nestle will send you coupons while you are pregnant too - that you can use when you see great deals (some times you can get the ready made formula for next-to-nothing when you use those coupons) then you can have a few kinds on hand to try out on baby when he/she's born.



Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! Ours was great! We had my cousins, mom & bro visiting as well as Stephen and Jimmy's mom & her husband. It was lots of fun! Jimmy deep fried the turkey - and caught it on fire - but it turned out delic anyways!!

Also, just an update on my Black Friday shopping experience. It ended about as quickly as it began! I couldn't go to any of the really good sales (Walmart/Target/etc) because Jimmy had to be at work from 5 am - noon, which is when most of them occurred. So instead I decided to try out the ToysRUs/BabiesRUs experience - as they had a few items I was interested in. I was SOOO naive in the whole ordeal. They opened at midnight, so at 12:15 I pull into the parking lot. The entire shopping center was packed with cars. So I'm looking around - no TJ Maxx is closed, no HH Gregg is closed, all the other stores looked closed. But then I realize there is a HUGE line outside of Ross. So I think to myself, "WOW Ross must have some great deals tomorrow..." NO actually the line for ToysRUS was just that long. It went about 10 stores down... They were at max capacity and would only let in as many people as had just left. So after about 30 minutes, I decided that no deal was worth that wait... Next time, if there is a deal I REALLY want, I'll be prepared (chair, coffee, etc). On a side note though, I went back at 4 pm today and still got all the deals I wanted (even the ones that ended at 1 pm rang up as the discounted prices). So I still feel like it was a success - and a definite eye opener!!

Black Friday

While I'm not usually a big Black Friday shopper, I am going to give it a shot this year. I don't know how accurate it is but http://bfads.net/ has all the ads ahead of time. Some good stuff! I tend to steer clear of the big ticket items - as I'm not willing to fight for them.I'm super excited about the Michaels, Walmart and ToysRUs ads in particular!! Just not sure just how early I'm going to get up...

Oh and Tradewinds Island Resorts is also doing a special for $25 room nights starting at 6 am if you follow them on twitter. I have NO idea how long they'll be offering it or what restrictions - but you better believe I'm going to try to get my hands on a CHEAP vaca! Follow them @TWResorts!