South Sound Jem's

So awhile back I played a game on Office Depot's website, and I won a $30 gift card.  It kind of ended up seeming like it was a skeptical deal, but when I checked the mail yesterday there was my gift card!  I am SOO excited to score some great deals at Office Depot.  I was in need of some coupon-ing gear anyhow!!  YIPPEEE!!!

Today's Groupon deal in Detroit, Michigan is great for those of you that have, or may have just gotten, a Keurig.  You can get the refill cups through this groupon deal.  The deal is $10 for $25 worth of products from Coffee Wholesale USA, and shipping is included.  On their website they sell 24 cups for just $11.95, so you could get 48 cups for just $10!  That's a smoking deal.  Groupon will let you get up to 3 of these per person, so you could really get approx.144 keurig refill cups for $30.

So here's what you need to do:

I found this REALLY easy but SCRUMPTIOUS recipe online.  I decided to make it for my company coming over on Christmas.  Even though I hit a slight bump in the road, it's practically impossible to ruin.  So give this recipe a try, you will be glad you did!

You will need:

First of all preheat oven to 350 degrees. Next cover a cookie sheet with foil, and spray with non-stick spray or grease the foil.  Then line the cookie sheet with saltine crackers in one-layer (side by side).  Melt the sugar and the butter together, bring to boil, while stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.   Pour the sugar and butter mixture over the crackers.  Put the cookie sheet with crackers and sugar/butter mixture into the oven and cook at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle the crackers with the entire bag of chocolate chips and cook until the chocolate melts.  Let stand for 5 minutes, then spread the chocolate evenly.  Refrigerate until hard.  Then remove the foil and break into pieces and ENJOY!! mmmmmm!

Just go here and enter your email address to print your Buy Any Hot and Ready pizza and get one for (equal or lesser value) free!  So with their $5 pizzas this deal will get you two pizza's for just $5!  only valid until 12/28 so you must use this soon.  What a great excuse though to take a break this very busy holiday season! MMMM

 So if you are stationed stateside or overseas, please go HERE to get your FREE military care package. 

So here is another great daily deal site!  I just scored 3 Stila lipsticks for $2 after my $10 credit for joining.  This this link to join and get your $10  HERE

If your credit doesn't show right away you may need to click on my profile at the top, and then click redeem gift card on the left hand side and enter P1070.  You can then invite your friends to join and earn more credits!! 


UPDATE:  You will have to put enough items to have at least $20 worth to activate your $10 credit...but once you activate it you can remove the items!

There is a coupon found HERE for a FREE avocado!  Hurry though, it's only while supplies last!!

MMMM... :)

There is a great coupon for Yankee Candle lovers HERE.  Would make a great deal for gifts as well! 

Yes, yes it's true!  And you can get this deal too!  If you live where Safeway delivers you can score $50 worth of groceries for as low as a $1.  The first requirement is to go to Safeway.com and enter your zipcode to see if they deliver to your address.  The second requirement is that you must be new to Safeway.com delivery.  So if this is your first time using the delivery service LISTEN UP...  

First of all go to ShopAtHome.com and set-up an account.  You will get $9 cash back from using this site to do your shopping at Safeway.com (as well as many other rebates/discounts or other online stores),AND a $5 sign up bonus.  So just go here ShopAtHome.com and either login or sign-up.  

           **If this is something you are not interested in signing up for you can still get a heck of a deal with Safeway.com alone.  Your total will just end up being more like $10 though.

Once you have logged in at the top of ShopAtHome.com click on Online Stores and under "S" find the Safeway link they provide.  After you have arrived at Safeway.com there is a "Free Delivery" link on the right-hand side that you need to click on.  You will then have to set-up or login to your Safeway.com account.  

After you are through all of those steps, its time to fill up your cart.  Click on the Online Savings tab on Safeway's website. Once you have arrived you should see a link on the left-hand side that says Buy One, Get One Free (BOGO), click there.  You will then need to add $50 worth of BOGO items to your cart.   Make sure they are only the BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE items.   After adding those items proceed to checkout, when prompted to enter promo codes input CJSAVINGS.  This code will give you $15 off and FREE DELIVERY!

So in the end you will be receiving:  $50 WORTH OF BOGO

Please note that ShopAtHome will not directly come off of your Safeway receipt, it's a rebate site and you can cash out at least $20. 

Also note that I have PERSONALLY done this deal and it does work!  Please note that your confirmation email will say the entire amount of your bill.  It will not contain the promotional offers, or the BOGO free offers.  Have faith though it will come through on the final receipt, and the delivery man will personally show you the total. 

Thank you to HIP2SAVE and HOT COUPON MOMMA'S for the head's up on these amazing deals. 

I personally bought all lean ground beef and thin-sliced chicken breasts.  I got about 8 lbs of beef and about 4-5 lbs of chicken.  It came during the time they had allotted me and my bill from Safeway.com was $10.14.  Can't beat that folks!

NOTE:  This also works at Safeway's sister stores Vons or Genuardis.

Here is your daily reminder to please help donate water.  With each click P&G donate 2 liters of clean drinking water. So come back and click once each day!

http://changents.com; http://givehealth.changents.com;

Here is a link for some AMAZING Hasbro coupons, go HERE.  These coupons are good for $5 off one game and paired with sales going on right now, would make for great gifts.  If you are not in need of gifts these would make for great donation items!

HERE & HERE are some more links to Hasbro game coupons.

After recently stumbling across this daily deals website, I decided to make a few purchases.  One hot find was the rhinestone jelly watches.  Although I didn't get it in white like I have been wishing for, I was able to score three other colors.  These watches were individually $8.98 and that was including shipping.  I have seen the same exact watches retailing for $14.99-$24.95.  Quite a bargain if you ask me!

Borders is now offering up a great coupon.  It's good for 50% off of the list price of 1 item.  It is only good today through 12/16/10 so take advantage of this great offer SOON!

For the Borders coupon go HERE

One catch you must be a Border Rewards member, but that is free and can be done HERE

This SMOKING deal for Redbox movie rentals is still available through Groupon!!  Extended until about 9pm (PST) tonight.  Get THREE (3) one-night movie rentals for just $1.  Just go on over HERE to catch this deal.  If you don't have a GROUPON account make sure to go HERE to sign-up for one.  When you are done signing up come back here and click this link to find the Redbox deal (doesn't seem to come up any other way). 

*Limit one per person, but you can buy more as gifts! ;)

 I received my "new" printer ink cartridges in the mail yesterday.  Up until now I have always bought them brand new, usually from Target.  The cost of ink is phenomenal though; which is why, I think, they sell printers at such ridiculously low prices.  Last week as I was searching around on the best prices for the ink, I decided to give Amazon.com a try.  Much to my surprise I found a company in California that refills the cartridges.  I was able to purchase a two pack of black ink (#92) for $7.14, with shipping it came to about $10, that is close to a THIRD of the price of new ones.  I have currently been printing away with no noticeable difference whatsoever!  I will continue to keep you all posted on how it goes.  In the meantime if you want to give them a try for yourself, head over HERE.

You have a chance to help out our troops.   You can send a batch of cookies with just one click.  Go HERE click like and then press send off a batch of cookies!   So little can mean SO MUCH!!!

 So here's how it all went:

For the Glade products Target has them buy 5 get a $5 gift card. I bought six of them to fulfill my coupons.  They are priced at $2.50 a piece.  Recently there was a coupon in the newspaper RedPlum,which contained two $1 off of two (Glade Candles, and Glade Scented Oil Candles).   I also had $1.50 off of 2 Glade Premium Room Sprays (from RedPlum also).
Coupons found here:
  -$1.50/2 Glade Scented Oil Candles Products (use zip 90210) HERE

  -$1.50/2 Glade Premium Room Sprays (zip 90210)  or HERE

  $1/1 Glade Scented Oil Candles Decorative Glass Holder 12-5-10 SS or HERE

So with my coupons and and the gift card each Glade piece costed approximately .66 cents!

Airwick candles are $2.99 at Target (they were sold out in the aisle, but I found them on the end-cap of the aisle) with a $2 off coupon.  There was Air Wick Cherry Tart or Warming Fire

-$2/1 AirWick Candle 12-12-10 SS x1/23

-$2/1 Any Air Wick Candle – (Home Solutions) HERE

Travel Trouble-$4.99

-$5/1 Hasbro 12-5-10 SS x12/19/10 OR HERE

Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup 10.75 oz – .60
-.75/3 Campbell’s Cooking Soups Target Coupon PRINT
 -$1/4 Campbell’s Great for Cooking Condensed Soup HERE
-.25/4 Campbell’s Condensed Great for Cooking soups
-.30/3; .40/2 Campbell’s Condensed “Great for Cooking” soups
-.40/2 Campbell’s Condensed Soups 12-12-10 SS x2/15
= Buy 4,  and use a .75/3 Target Coupon and a $1/4 Manufacturer Coupon to pay .65 for 4 or .16 cents each 

Scott Tissue
-$1.50/1 Scott Bath Tissue ETS Target Coupon PRINT x1/1/11
-$3/2 Scott Bath Tissue Products, (Q in english & Spanish) – 11-07-10 SS x12/31
-$1/1 Scott Extra Soft Bath Tissue, 8-pk+ (Smart Source en Espanol) 11-14-10 SS x12/26
-$1/1 ANY Scott Bath Tissue or Towels (Click Get Special Savings at bottom right of Page)
-$2/2 (1) Scott Extra Soft Bath Tissue 8+ AND (1) Long Lasting or Mega Roll Towels 8pk+
= If your store will allow 2 Target Coupons – as low as .99 cents for a 4-pack after a stack if you got the $3/2

Listerine Kids SmartRinse
$1/1 Any Listerine Kids or Reach Kids Product Coupon

***Another good deal for a stocking stuffer***
Pictureka Card Game by Hasbro $5.24 – $5.99 (Regular Price)
-$5/1 Hasbro (Pictureka Game Included) 12-5-10 SS x12/19/10 OR HERE 
= as low as .24 cents each depending on price at your store

We really enjoyed the Lacey community tree lighting festival.  A local middle school choir sang Christmas carols.  The choir also helped flip, along with the Mayor, the Candy Cane switch to illuminate the park in Christmas lights.Which was followed by a local high school band playing carols and a visit from SANTA!

 Well its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  We finally have our tree (although its a fake this year) and it's assembled and decorated.  I have always looked forward to the joy of going out to a Christmas tree farm and picking out that "perfect" Christmas tree.  Unfortunately the time and cost was against us this year.  I really love the white though, and look forward to many different color combinations on this tree!

Did some savvy shopping at Target today.  Walked out of the store with 6 Glade products,  2 Airwick candles, 1 travel Trouble game, 1 Listerine Kids SmartRinse, 1 12pk of Scott's Tissue (not shown), and 4 cans of Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup.  So this is what about $17 dollars looks like!

 ***Check out my Target Breakdown to get an idea of how I did it; HERE.

The boys and I recently ventured down to the waterfront to enjoy a local event "Deck the Hulls". It was a chilly, clear night which made it perfect conditions to see the boats well. There were quite a few boats, all of them decorated to the nine's with lights and various other holiday decorations.  We love to enjoy the free festivities around town!

You can help P & G donate 100,000 days of clean water.  This is their statement:

http://changents.com; http://givehealth.changents.com;

PLEASE CLICK TO DONATE!  Your first click you will need to verify your email address, so please check your email.

With the holidays quickly upon us, I'm asking the question "how do you pay it forward"? There is the tried and true method of paying for someone else's purchase in line behind you; handing out blankets, scarfs, gloves to homeless people; maybe even serving dinner at a shelter.  With the many blessings in life, we can too quickly forget the "less fortunate".  Some of my family and friends recently visited more then a handful of adult living facilities and distributed donated gifts collected by the Salvation Army.   I have heard of savvy shoppers who have been using their abilities to pass on their savings/freebies to shelters or food banks.  My son's school held a holiday store, where donated items were all sold for .25 cents.  It gave the kids an opportunity to buy gifts for their family members, as well as raising some much needed funds for school activities.  My family and I have been putting together a bag for the food bank.  It may not be much, but every little bit counts!  I would love to hear what everyone else is doing!  Maybe we can inspire each other with ideas to help others.
....ready, GO! :)

For just a couple more hours there is a SMOKING deal for Redbox movie rentals.  Get THREE (3) one-night movie rentals for just $1.  Just go on over HERE to catch this deal.  If you don't have a GROUPON account make sure to go HERE to sign-up for one.  When you are done signing up come back here and click this link to find the Redbox deal (doesn't seem to come up any other way). 

Yes, yes it's true!  And you can get this deal too!  If you live where Safeway delivers you can score $50 worth of groceries for as low as a $1.  The first requirement is to go to Safeway.com and enter your zipcode to see if they deliver to your address.  The second requirement is that you must be new to Safeway.com delivery.  So if this is your first time using the delivery service LISTEN UP...  

First of all go to ShopAtHome.com and set-up an account.  You will get $9 cash back from using this site to do your shopping at Safeway.com (as well as many other rebates/discounts or other online stores),AND a $5 sign up bonus.  So just go here ShopAtHome.com and either login or sign-up.  

           **If this is something you are not interested in signing up for you can still get a heck of a deal with Safeway.com alone.  Your total will just end up being more like $10 though.

Once you have logged in at the top of ShopAtHome.com click on Online Stores and under "S" find the Safeway link they provide.  After you have arrived at Safeway.com there is a "Free Delivery" link on the right-hand side that you need to click on.  You will then have to set-up or login to your Safeway.com account.  

After you are through all of those steps, its time to fill up your cart.  Click on the Online Savings tab on Safeway's website. Once you have arrived you should see a link on the left-hand side that says Buy One, Get One Free (BOGO), click there.  You will then need to add $50 worth of BOGO items to your cart.   Make sure they are only the BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE items.   After adding those items proceed to checkout, when prompted to enter promo codes input CJSAVINGS.  This code will give you $15 off and FREE DELIVERY!

So in the end you will be receiving:  $50 WORTH OF BOGO

Please note that ShopAtHome will not directly come off of your Safeway receipt, it's a rebate site and you can cash out at least $20. 

Also note that I have PERSONALLY done this deal and it does work!  Please note that your confirmation email will say the entire amount of your bill.  It will not contain the promotional offers, or the BOGO free offers.  Have faith though it will come through on the final receipt, and the delivery man will personally show you the total. 

Thank you to HIP2SAVE and HOT COUPON MOMMA'S for the head's up on these amazing deals. 

I personally bought all lean ground beef and thin-sliced chicken breasts.  I got about 8 lbs of beef and about 4-5 lbs of chicken.  It came during the time they had allotted me and my bill from Safeway.com was $10.14.  Can't beat that folks!

NOTE:  This also works at Safeway's sister stores Vons or Genuardis.

Tanner has turned 11 months!  Its hard to believe how fast the time has flown, but sure enough here we are.  Amidst the holidays and looking to plan a 1st birthday.  We have decided to wait until January to have Tanner's 1st birthday party because the holiday time can be stressful enough as it is.  We love Tanner and want him to receive the love and attention he deserves!   Tanner has begun walking, he loves to cruise around the house.  He thinks its really fun to pick up things (step-stool, pop bottle, wipe box) and carry them with him.  He has only gotten two teeth in, his front bottom teeth.  I can see his top two teeth are coming in and going to be giving us trouble any day here!   It's hard to believe that you go from thinking the days will never end with a newborn, to wondering where the time went with a toddling 11 month old!

I will start off by saying I am VERY excited to have FINALLY started my own blog.  I feel I have a lot of tidbits, or as I like to think of them little "gems", rolling around in my head that need a spot to be highlighted and put to good use.  I am so happy to be sharing them with all of you.  I have committed myself to becoming a savvy saver/shopper recently, and I would love to pass those savings I find on to you.  Its been tough getting by in this economy and we recently came to the conclusion, because we still like to enjoy life's little pleasures, we are going to have to do something to stretch our dollars.   We would also LOVE to take a family trip to Disneyland and in order for that to happen, we must PINCH THOSE PENNIES!   First things first though..

Let's start off with somethings about myself.  I am a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a wife.  I have two wonderfully amazing boys, and an equally (if not more so) amazing husband.  We reside in the south sound of Washington state.  Our life consists of all the crazy joys that come along with two boys, one of whom is 8 years old and the other is almost 1 year old.  The boys themselves provide us with hours of entertainment, but we also enjoy exploring parks in the area, going for walks, enjoying our neighborhood and neighbors, and visiting our local farmer's market as well as the local library.  We also enjoy being a part of our community and our son's school.

My husband and I have lived in Washington our whole lives.  Most of our family resides here as well.  My husband works in construction, which can be tough on all of us at times.  I have been blessed to be able to stay home to take care of our house and our two sons.  I have worked and gone to college until shortly before becoming pregnant with our second son.  Some other fast fun facts, I LOVE the color pink, all kinds of music, Elvis, candy, photography, Ford Mustangs, and vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia.  I am also a HUGE Huskies and Seahawks fan! 

I would love to hear feedback so please leave comments.   Let me know if there is something you would like to see here, or tell me how you feel about what you've seen.  Thanks for taking the time to read this and visit often!