Misleading Labels?

Dieters beware!! The food at many popular chain restuarants and in the freezer section of the supermarket may contain a lot more calories than advertised. Click here for the entire story.

Natural Ways for Gorgeous Teeth

Here are a few tips to help you keep your dazzling white smile in good shape. Click here for the tips.

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

I was thinking that since this is the first Thrifty Tips post of the New Year, I would tackle learning something new for this month. For myself, one of the things I am trying to do is learn to be a little more organized in my life. I have jumped full force into Menu Plan Monday at I'm An Organizing Junkie. I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing feeling it is to come home from work and not be stressed about what is for dinner or leaving work and knowing that I can't go straight home because I have to pick up something for dinner. It is total bliss!

LEARN SOME COMPUTER ONLINE

How about a little free computer education? HP has free online classes at the HP Learning Center. These classes are free and available 24/7!

Here is just a sample of some of the classes:


Linux 101: a beginner's guide (Ideal for me. I just learned to not call it Linus).

Adobe Photoshop CS4 for photography

Organize, archive and retrieve your digital photos (quick lesson)

Facebook and Twitter: getting started (quick lesson)

There are many others. Give it a browse. Some lessons very nicely explain things to those of us who are simply not that savvy. Some help you get started with simple things that you might not know how to do or who to ask.

LINK: HP Learning Center


MAKE THAT BATH BEAUTIFUL

Home Depot's Free Do-It-Herself Workshop on Bathroom updates will be held on Thursday, January 14th from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Some of the following subjects include installing a faucet and installing a toilet. They will go over some brands that can help you save money too!


KIDS GET PENNY WISE

Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics for kids are featuring a cool bank your kids can make. This is a great way to get them extra enthused about saving. Get in touch with your local Lowe's to register. This activity takes place on Saturday January 9th from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. Remember the clinics are recommended for children in 1st through 5th grade.



On January 14th, your kids can learn to make their own Tic Tac Toe board. This is so cute, and something that they can keep for a long time. The clinic runs from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. The link below will take you to a where you can sign up for one or both clinics.


LINK: LOWE'S BUILD AND GROW CLINICS


RECIPES!!!!


Because Safeway has a very nice sale on Fresh Whole Chicken, I thought it would be nice to go over some ways to stretch that chicken out for a few days to really take advantage of their 47 cents a pound savings. The main thing to do when you are planning on stretching out that chicken is to plan what you are going to make in advance. This way you can focus on what parts of the chicken you are going to use for each meal. My family is a white meat chicken kind of family, but I have noticed that you can totally use the dark meat in other recipes when you are adding other ingredients and the flavor is pretty sweet! That is sweet as in awesome not as in sugary. :)

Roast Chicken with Lemons by Marcella Hazan Knopf
This seemed like a great and fairly inexpensive way to start things off. You need a 3 to 4 pound chicken, though I would go higher for the stretchability, two lemons, and pepper. It says fresh from a peppermill, but I don't think it HAS to be peppermilled. then again, you can purchase that fairly cheaply at Ross.

Garlic Chicken Lettuce Wraps (recipe from Thrifty Fun)
Really I think there are many ways you can work this out. It all depends on the items you have on hand. The recipe calls for butter lettuce, but you can totally get away with inexpensive iceberg lettuce for a decent cup and maybe line it with green leaf or romaine for more nutrition.

Crock Pot White Chicken Chili (recipe from the Recipezaar)
The cool thing about the chicken chili is you can just add whatever chicken is left at this point, and it is kind of nice to do something different from the usual chicken soup. This is a great treat for this time of year.

I have also used left over chicken to make chicken enchiladas, burritos, tacos, and stir fry (great when you have any random frozen veggies on hand). Certainly, the options are quite limitless. The above recipe links are good because you can pretty much make any of them with limited additional shopping.

FREEBIES!!!!

I love getting a little freebie here and there. Here are just a few.

If you are a Sam's Club member you can get in on a freebie for a sample of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. This is definitely a good time to have those on hand. A nice thing about a free sample like this is you can pop it in the car or in your office desk to have on hand rather than a bulky container.

LINK: Clorox Disinfecting Wipes - Sam's Club

If you adopted a dog in 2009, you can sign up with Pedigree to get free dog food for a month. This is a limited time deal so get on it right away. You need to fill out a form that you can link to on their web page. They also need copies of all the important adoption documents including receipt for fee or donation receipt. They need to get this form by February 2010. What an awesome thing to do for people who adopted shelter dogs!

LINK: Pedegree Adoption Drive

Until March 31st or while supplies last 3M has free samples of their Post-it durable tabs. I have never had a tab stay nice and it would be nice to try these out and see how well they work. I have a new planner for 2010 and I would love to try these to separate the sections.

LINK: Post-it Durable Tabs

I love Emergen-C products. They are a great way to get a little vitamin C boost, and right now you can sign up to get a free sample of Emergen-C fizzy drink mix. I don't know how long this will last so check it out at the link.

LINK: Emergen-C Fizzy Drink Sample

I am sucker for recipe books and right now you can sign up for a free breakfast and brunch recipe book from Gooseberry Patch, Post Raisin Bran and Sun Maid Raisin and dried fruit. With my new goal of keeping a menu planned, I think this would be ideal for weekend meals.

LINK: Free Gooseberry Patch Breakfast and Brunch Cookbook

FREE MUSIC -

Amazon has tons of free music downloads. Here is a link to 13 free Christian song downloads including songs by BarlowGirl, Rachel Lampa and Big Daddy Weave.

LINK: Amazon Free Christian Music Download



Free CCM's download of the week is from the Catalyst Music Project and includes song and cord chart for “What A Savior” performed by Laura Story and written by Jeremiah Jones.

Learn a little bit more about the Catalyst Music Project here: Catalyst Music Project

LINK: Free CCM Download Of The Week- Catalyst Music Project


Parachute Festival 2010 has more music downloads for you! These are songs from this year's line up. The Parachute Festival is this amazing music festival in New Zealand centered on bringing Jesus Christ to people through music. You can learn more and sign up for your downloads at the link at the bottom. First, check out the music:

One - Rapture Ruckus
Count Me In - Leeland
Shout it out - Parachute Band
Streams Of Woe At Acheron - Falling Up
No Reason To Hide - Hillsong United
Dance Or Die (The Secret Handshake) - Family Force 5
Mess Of Me - Switchfoot
Writing On the Walls - Underoath

LINK: Parachute Festival Free Music

I picked up this link from the awesome Homeschool Freebie of the Day. It was for January 5th, but it still works now so go check it out. They have a sister site called Homeschool Radio Shows, just head over there and you can download The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is a little radio drama from 1950 and very well done. They also have The Blizzard of 1888 and Sgt. Yukon. The titles make me chilly, but I love listening to audios of stories and radio shows. I don't know how long this will last so check it out at the link below:

LINK: Homeschool Radio Shows


ON TO GROCERIES-

Fry's -


-- Sweet California Clementines 3 pounds $1.99
-- Truckload Case Sale (many items are on special sale in this event here are a few)
Libby's canned veggies 50 cents each
Valley Fresh canned chicken 99 cents
Spam $1.88
-- Roast Sale - Many of Fry's roasts are on sale at a buy 1 get 1 free. This averages to around $2.49 a pound. It is a little over my limit but it may not be over yours.

Recipe you can use for Valley Fresh canned chicken -

Easy and Tasty Chicken Tortilla Soup (from AllRecipes.com)
Buffalo Chicken Dipping Balls (an appetiser from AllRecipes.com)

Albertsons

-- Russett Potatoes $1.88 for 15 pounds
-- Tilapia, Catfish, Swai or Pollock Fillets $2.88 a pound
-- Lots of items are also 10 for $10, but really you can by one or more.
Bar S Jumbo Franks
Half Gallon of Milk

Safeway


-- Rancher's Reserve Boneless Beef Top Round Roast $1.77 a pound
-- Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit 2 for $1.00
-- Safeway Fresh Whole Chicken 46 cents a pound (limit 6) --Dont forget to check out the recipes above for stetching that bird!



See you next week!

High Priced Fish

A giant bluefin tuna fetched 16.3 million yen ($177,000) in an auction Tuesday at the world's largest wholesale fish market in Japan. Click here to read the entire story.

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

This is my last post before Christmas! Can you believe that Christmas is soooo close?! I am excited! I hope you are too.

Don't forget that today is Free Shipping Day! Not all stores are participating, but quite a few are getting into the free shipping spirit today! For more details and stores, go to www.freeshippingday.com. You can enter the name of the store you are looking for or even look according to category.

LINKY: Free Shipping Day


COUPONS

I am starting to focus on saving money via groceries again, and I have been looking for any place I can get coupons. I found some awesome printables at Campbell's website Campbell's Kitchen . Head on over to Campbell's Kitchen to see what is cooking. Oh man!!!! Can you believe I just typed that?

Here are just a few of the printables:

Campbell's® Cooking soups --Save $1.00 on any four (4) Campbell's Condensed "Great for Cooking" soups.

Pepperidge Farm® Cookies--Save $1.00 on any one (1) Pepperidge Farm Cookie Collection, Holiday Cookie Bites or Pirouette® Rolled Wafers.

Campbell’s® Chunky™ soups--Save $1.50 on any three (3) can or microwavable bowl varieties of Campbell’s Chunky soup.

Campbell’s® Select Harvest® soups--Save $1.50 on any three (3) can or microwavable bowl varieties of Campbell’s Select Harvest soup.

V8 V-Fusion® Juice--Save $1.00 on any one (1) 46 oz. variety of V8 V-Fusion Juice.

Pepperidge Farm® Frozen Bread--Save $1.00 on any two (2) packages of Pepperidge Farm Frozen Bread.

V8® 100% Vegetable Juice & V8 Splash®--Save $1.00 on any two (2) 64 oz. V8 100% Vegetable Juice or V8 Splash beverages.

Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Turnovers--Save $1.00 on any two (2) packages of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Turnovers.

Campbell’s® Select Harvest® soups--Save $1.50 on any three (3) can or microwavable bowl varieties of Campbell’s Select Harvest soup.

LINKY: Campbell's Kitchen Coupons

Fry's main page also has a wonderful link for printable coupons as well as links to my favorite sites (Shortcuts, Cellfire, p&g eSaver) where you can download the savings right to your card! I love the chance to get the most bang for my buck.

LINKY: Digital Coupons

With the end of 2009, I have been thinking about ways I can up my savings quotient. I read in a magazine recently that more families waste money by grabbing items for dinner on the way home after work. This makes sense to me. You are most likely tired, in a hurry, hungry and probably not feeling at your creative best when it comes to whipping up that meal. I have to say, I have experienced that. I don't rush off on the way home and purchase a prime rib, but I definitely am not as price savvy as I am when I hit the grocery store for my weekly shopping romp. I am also usually toting my son along with me at this time, and really, he is hard to shop with. The kid knows how to get me to buy things I normally wouldn't like donuts and chocolate milk!

I have seen many blogs involved with Menu Planning Monday, and I thought this would be a great idea to embark on! I really have struggled with the whole motivation to sit down and do this and the worry of where the ideas will come from, but there really is no need to worry. Organizing Junky hosts Menu Plan Monday every week for bloggers to link up with their ideas. This is a great place to get a little inspiration. I am going to do some serious research in the next couple of weeks, and then I am going to dive in! I am pretty excited. It will be nice to see how much we can save. Check out Menu Planning Monday for yourself at Organizing Junky.

LINKY: Menu Planning Monday

DEALS:






Arizona Snow Bowl opened today. If you like skiing and you have a birthday during ski season, you should definitely head on over for free skiiing on your birthday. You have to have the proper ID with you. Follow the link for more info.

LINKY: Snow Bowl Free For Birthdays!


FREE MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC:

Free track "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" from MercyMe Christmas Album "The Christmas Sessions" at Free CCM. AND!!!!! They are also giveing away an entire album for free on their website IF you sign up for their newsletter.

LINKY: FREE CCM LINK "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear"

LINKY: MercyMe 10 Live




FREE MAGAZINE:

Do you have a golf lover in your family? I don't, but if I did, I would sign them up for this freebie from Rewards Gold. I get several magazines totally free from Rewards Gold because of doing littler surveys. This freebies is for Golf Digest Magazine. If you have a golfer friend, this would be an awesome hook up for them!

LINKY: Golf Digest


JAR GIFTS

This is my last posting for gifts in a jar. I love biscotti so I was pretty excited about this recipe. It looks very easy.





Biscotti Cookie Mix in a Jar


From: AllHomemadeCookies.com
This would be a great gift for Christmas or even a nice thank you gift with a bag of yummy coffee!



In a large bowl, combine the following ingredients:

2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

2 c. chopped almonds

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. dried lemon peel

1/4 tsp. dried orange peel

Place the mixture in a pretty jar or airtight container and include the following gift tag:

Biscotti

1 package Biscotti Mix
3 large eggs
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. anise extract
1 large egg, separated

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine Biscotti mix with the eggs, butter, anise, and extra egg yolk from separated egg. Mix on low speed until the dough is smooth.

Roll dough out into two 12-inch logs, about 3 inches wide. Place logs onto a cookie sheet and brush with remaining egg white. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Cut the logs diagonally, into 1/2-inch slices. Bake the slices on their sides for another 12-14 minutes. Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container




Blarney Stone Jar Cookie -
From Joyce's Fine Cooking





Blarney Stones Cookie Mix In A Jar

1 3/4 cups flour; * mixed together
1 teaspoon baking soda; * mixed together
1 teaspoon allspice; * mixed together
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup golden raisins
1 1/2 cups peanuts; salted

Use a one quart wide-mouth canning jar.
Stir together the flour, baking soda and allspice. Set aside.
Layer the sugar, the raisins, the nuts and then the flour mixture,
packing each layer well.
Seal, decorate the jar and attach the recipe tag to the jar.

Blarney Stones Cookies
You will need:
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
large mixing bowl
Yeild: 3 1/2 dozen cookies


Pour the contents of the jar into a large mixing bowl and mix the contents
thoroughly. Hands works best. Mix in the butter, eggs and vanilla until
thoroughly blended. Make teaspoon size balls and drop on to a greased
cookie sheet. Bake in oven at 375 degrees F. for 8 - 12 minutes until the
edges are lightly browned. Cool.


Lastly, there is an awesome book full of recipes and crafts for this holiday that you can download from Recipe Lion. I received several emails about this fabulous book. I just browsed it, and there are lots of great ideas!

LINKY: Mason Jar Recipes from Recipe Lion


I will be back to post the sales, but I have to head out now.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

There are a lot of things to cover today, and I expect it will take some time sooooo...I am going to post as I go. Be sure to come back, because as I type, I will be saving and updating.

Aren't you just completely excited about Christmas coming up? I am just thrilled. I can't wait to see my family who will all be gathering in Lake Havasu. Well...not everyone, but quite a few. THAT is probably my favorite thing about Christmas. It is nice getting the chance to see everyone. Don't forget to take lots of pictures on Christmas! It is a great time to start photographs for next year's photo calendar!

On to savings:

As I mentioned this morning, I was out shopping to pick up a few items at Walmart, and I decided to check out the clearance items. I was stoked when I found some very cool Rolling Stone cover art tote bags. They were regularly priced $12.00, and now they are clearance priced at $3.00! The coolest part was that they also had a tag on them for 12 free issues. You don't have to spend a dime for the subscription AND the card was already postage paid too. The fine print on the card for the 12 issues does say that it is an automatically renewable subscription at a low price, but that it does give you a 30 day notice before that. I could not pass this deal up!

This got me thinking of the things you can do with this tote bag. Tote bags make great gift wrap, and at $3.00 the price is pretty awesome! This tote bag in particular would make a great "Wait and See" gift. Because as Dave said, you can pop a Rolling Stone magazine in it, fill out the card with the recipient's address and mail it in, and leave a note with the gift saying that this is gift number 1 and there will be 12 more to come. :) You could also make it artist related according to cover, and put in CDs by the artist, DVDs, or books if they have them.

My main idea is to try to get creative with your wrapping and save money. Wrapping with a tote bag saves money because it is a double gift that can be reused.


Other wrapping ideas:




Reusable shopping totes - Yes...some of these are blazing with the store name, but for me that is a big "So What?" I like to use reusable shopping bags when I hit the grocery store, because of the environmental savings and some stores will take money off of your order for using them.

Paper bag Christmas wrap - If you have it around, definitely think of trying the brown paper bag wrapping. It is especially cool for grandparents if you have the grandkids color some fun designs on the wrapping paper. I know my son's grandma's always appreciated any of his artistic endeavors.

Fabric -

1---Wrapping presents in fabric can really go a long way for a crafty person or for the family. I have talked with several people who buy inexpensive fabric during sales at the fabric store and then use that fabric to wrap gifts.

2---The fabric can also be used to decorate boxes that you can reuse year after year for gifts (this works great with old shoe boxes and even Pringles cans). My aunt has a variety of beautiful boxes that she purchased that she uses for Christmas gifts every year. With some pretty fabric, you can make your own pretty boxes.

Tins - Get to the thrift store and check out the tins. Year after year, people make cookies and candy for the holidays for friends and family, and many times those emptied tins are brought to your local thrift store. Head on down and shop around. I usually pick up quite a few for anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cents. It is well worth the look. Make sure you clean them before you use them (I put ours in the dishwasher and dry them up as soon as they are done).

Baskets - Again, be on the lookout for baskets when you are shopping at local thrift stores or craft stores. If you have themed gifts, a basket is a great way to show them off.

Maps - If you have maps lying around the house, they also can be used as an inexpensive gift wrap. And if the gift is auto related, it will be even better.

Sheet Music - Now, I am not sure where you would get your hands on a bunch of sheet music, but doesn't it sound lovely?

Boxes from Christmas Past - This is something that I have to add in, because it is something my husband's family does. They reuse boxes from past Christmas presents. He told me that they have a wood burning kit box that has made the rounds for years. Isn't that cute?




GIFTS IN A JAR -

I have two gifts in a jar recipes to share today. I was thinking about how much I love getting fancy pumpkin spice coffee during the Christmas season, and I thought it would be pretty awesome if I could locate a jar recipe for something tasty like that. And yay!!!!! I found two!

Pumpkin Pie Creamer

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon allspice (optional)
1 cup non-dairy creamer

OR

3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups dry non-dairy creamer

Combine all of the above ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into pint or 1/2 pint jars.

Directions to attach to jar:

Pumpkin Pie Creamer ~ Use 1-2 teaspoons per mug of hot coffee, hot cocoa or tea.


Chicken Tortilla Soup in a Jar

Now this is something that I think you you might want to combine with a basket, because you add a can of chicken to the package and although the jar recipe doesn't call for it, the directions call for a 10 oz can of diced tomatoes and green chilies. I think it is better to have it all on hand, and think about it, if you get a cute little basket, you can add maybe a cute dish towel, pot holders, and maybe a ladle or some cute soup bowls in addition to the jar. Wow...I digress! Here is the recipe!


1 cup converted long grain rice
2 to 2-1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips
1 (5 oz.) can chicken

Seasonings: Mix the following and place in a thin zipper sandwich bag.

2 T. chicken bouillon granules
2 t. lemonade powder with sugar
1 t. lemon pepper
1 t. dried cilantro leaves
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. salt
1/4 cup dried minced onions

Size of jar: Quart

Place ingredients in jar in this order:

1. Place rice in jar first.
2. Place seasoning packet into jar next. Gently flatten bag so it is visible from all sides of jar.
3. Fill jar with tortilla chips.
4. Put lid on jar.
5. Attach can of chicken to top of jar.
6. Decorate jar.
7. Attach the following recipe to jar.



Directions to attach to the gift:

Tortilla Soup

1. Carefully empty tortilla chips from jar into a dish. Set aside.
2. Remove seasoning packet. Set aside.
3. Place rice in large pan. Add 10 cups water and 1 (10 oz.) can diced tomatoes and green chilies and seasonings from packet.
4. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
5. Add tortilla chips. Cover and simmer 5 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Makes 12 cups soup.






Inexpensive Eats Coupon!!!!

I love El Pollo Loco, sadly, I don't live near an El Pollo Loco anymore, but I know there are several around in Arizona. Sooooo check out the special coupon deal El Pollo Loco has from now until December 17th. They have a coupon for their citrus-marinated, flame-grilled skinless chicken breast meal with fresh steamed vegetables, a garden salad and fresh salsa. Using that combo is only 275 calories and the coupon is for $2.75!

Coupon Link: El Pollo Loco





MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

Don't forget to check out the 25 days of free at Amazon.com and get yourself some Christmas music. Today's song is Silent Night by House of Heroes.

Link: 25 Days of Free

iTickets.com has Noel (Glory to Your Name) by Sonic Flood

Link: iTickets free music

New Release Tuesday has a free download this week from December 8th to December 14th for Chris Tomlin's Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground) from the CD Glory In the Highest and they also have a free download of Nate Flowler's On My Way from the CD Wherever You Go.

Link: New Release Tuesday





GREAT BUYS!

Amazon.com again has some pretty awesome deals this week on magazine subscriptions. There are several available for just $5 and just to name a few: Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Country Kitchen, and Smart Money. There are more, so check out the link below! This sale ends on December 12th!

Link: Amazon Magazine Subscriptions $5.00

Amazon also has some great album downloads for $5.00. One of the albums up is Switchfoot's Hello Hurricane. There are quite a few in many different genres so be sure to check it out.

Link: Amazon Music $5.00 album downloads.




MORE FOODIE DEALS

Check out Restaurant.com's special Feed It Forward event!

Details from the site: Through Feed It Forward™, you have the opportunity to give from the heart and enrich the lives of people around you through the gift of meals and memories. Give a free $10 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate to 30 different people, everyday until Christmas. Simply choose whom to give to and we take care of the rest.

Sounds pretty nice!

LINK: Feed It Forward with Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com is also a great place to get great deals on gift certificates for dining out. There are a lot of restaurants who participate. Some provide $10 gift certificates for as low as $4.00 and $50 gift certificates for $20.00. It is very easy to navigate and see what you might like to purchase. You can also search by state, city, regions, and zip code.

LINK: Restaurant.com

Shopping AFTER Christmas - Don't forget that there will be many great sales after Christmas is through. But don't just hit the department stores. Check out all the awesome deals that are going to be at your local thrift stores. Lots of people will be cleaning out their closets and homes to make room for the Christmas presents they received. This is always a great time to see what might be arriving at the thrift stores.




GROCERY SALES

Fry's

-- California navel oranges 39 cents a pound
-- Hunts pasta sauce 26 to 26.5 oz 88 cents each
-- Fry's pretzels 12-15 pz $1.58 (don't forget that if you chop these up, they make a great breading for chicken and fish).


Albertsons

-- Hormel Premium sliced Ham $1.19 pound
-- Red seedless grapes 99 cents
-- Libby's canned veggies 2 for $1.00


Safeway

-- Rancher's Reserve London Broil $1.77 a pound
-- Whole Boneless Pork Loin $1.77 a pound
-- Lucern shredded or chunk cheese 6 to 8 oz 99 cents (limit 3)
-- Braeburn or Granny Smith apples 47 cents a pound


Thanks for dropping by!

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

Christmas is almost here! I have been majorly busy with planning out the holidays, I am sure you have been as well. I covered a few bases for saving money this morning, but let's go a little more in depth.

DECORATING -
December is a great time of year to save on decorations. You can stock up on the Fall decorations that are now marked down and after Christmas, you can rock the stores for all the fabulous markdowns on Christmas decorations. But...you can also do a little creative decorating on the cheap with things you have at home.

Reader's Digest Christmas Trees - This is a little something a teacher taught me years ago. If you subscribe to Readers Digest, great! If you do not, it is all good, because you can often pick some up at your local thrift store or get some of someone who already has a subscription. Basically you simply remove the front and back cover and the proceed to fold the pages together so that the top edge of the page rest against the glued binding of the magazine making a triangle. The overhanging part of the triangle should then be folded up into the paper to make it neat. But...rather than me fumble through it, check out the link I found AT Reader's Digest. I guess a lot of us did this in school!

Link: Reader's Digest Christmas Tree

I also found a cool yarn wreath made out of odds and ends (specifically yarn, buttons, scrubby pads, and what looks like the button part of a flannel shirt) on the cover of one of my other favorite magazines Ready Made. I have the magazine at home and plan to try it out.




While on the hunt for yarn wreaths, I also found the most amazing tutorial from Katie Runnels at The Constant Gatherer. This is so easy and beautiful. It is absolutely a wonderful way to make a pretty wreath you can use for Christmas decorating or any other holiday!

Link: The Constant Gatherer Yarn Wreath Tutorial


You can also decorate your tree with some old fashioned touches like strings of popcorn with or without cranberries. This is also a fun activity for the kids. I recall doing this at a friend's home, and I wanted to do it ever since! I have also caught some cool activities for homemade Christmas ornaments. Look around...you will be surprised at all the cool things you'll find.

DECORATE WITH CHRISTMAS MUSIC

As I mentioned this morning, you can also create a Christmas mood inexpensively by decorating with music. Amazon has made it ridiculously easy to spread the holiday cheer each and every day with free Christmas music. Check out these links:

25 Days of Free Christmas Music at Amazon - I loved that the first song was Casting Crowns "Joy to the World." It is still there as well as two other songs. I don't know how long the songs will stay up, but each and every day, Amazon will supply you with another new Christmas music freebie.

LINK: 25 Days of Free

Amazon has 28 FREE Christmas songs. You can totally pick and choose here. It is one download at a time. I was really excited to see such artists as Jars Of Clay, Big Daddy Weave, Point of Grace and Barlowgirl. Be sure to check this out.

LINK: 28 Christmas Songs

Also check out Sampler Claus at Amazon for more free music. You can find tunes by Frank Sinatra and Robert Goulet here.

LINK: Sampler Claus



JAR RECIPES
I have given you a jar recipe for gift giving every week, and since I had last Thursday off, I thought I'd share two with you this week.

Blizzard Bites
Bakespace.com has an awesome recipe for this yummy gift in a jar snack. This looks really pretty. Just click on the link for the directions.

Link: Blizzard Bites

Milk Bath
There is not much easier that this recipe. All you need is some powdered milk and essential oils. You can pick up essential oils at a health food store or natural food store like New Frontiers, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or even online. Use a jar that will hold a cup of the milk bath.

Mix 1 cup of dry milk (yep the stuff you buy in any grocery store) with 8 drops of essential oil (you can add more if you like a stronger scent). The essential oils are roughly $4.99 to $7.99 for a small bottle, and trust me, they go a long way! You can dress up your jar with ribbon, the directions, and even a cute little measuring scoop, spoon, or even a pretty spoon from a thrift store tied on with ribbon.

Tag Directions:

Directions: To use, add to running bath water.

FREEBIES

I found an awesome freebie for an Oriental Trading 2010 calendar this week thanks to one of my favorite sites Hey It's Free! You are definitely going to want to act on this quick, because the free calendars roll in and out FAST.

LINK: Oriental Trading Calendar 2010

Free Coffee:
Nestle's Taster's Choice has free samples of their coffee available right now. I have had these before, and they are great for a quick instant cup of coffee.

LINK: Nestle's Taster's Choice Samples


MORE FREE MUSIC

Free CCM has Todd Agnew's "Did You Know" as well as songs by Sarah Groves, Skillet and Phil Wickham.

LINK: Free CCM

Don't for get to check out the free tunes at iTickets. Right now you can get a free download of Jonny Diaz song "You Are a Storm" or "Beautiful Miracle" by the Sonflowers.

LINK: iTickets

GROCERY SAVINGS

My Top Ten

Safeway:
--Tropical Mangos 2 for $1.00
--Hass Avocados 2 for $1.00
--Buy 5 Kraft Singles, Shredded or chunk cheese, Philadelphia cream cheese, or Velveeta and save $5.00!

Fry's:
--California Cuties Clementines 3 pounds for $2.37
--Boneless 1/2 pork loin $1.77 a pound
--Many $1.00 sales are up at Fry's from Chef Boyardee to Hunts Tomatoes.

Albertsons:
--93% Lean Ground Beef $1.77
--Boneless, skinless chicken breasts $1.57
--Albertsons is also hosting a mix and match 10 for $10 sale so be sure to check it out and maybe pick up a 3 pound bag of navel oranges, Progresso Soup or Albertons buttter plus a whole lot more!

Have a great day!!!!