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!!!!

Why We Should Give Thanks In All Things

WHY WE SHOULD GIVE THANKS IN ALL THINGS

We know that God is the highest form of good and righteousness ever known. His very existence is pure Righteousness . Nothing surpasses the goodness of God! Because of that fact and the powerful work of Christ on the Cross, there is nothing that can be more wonderful than a relationship with the Almighty through faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. On the other hand nothing can be so horrible and tragic that the goodness of God can’t overcome it. Therefore there is no situation or circumstances that we can’t give thanks for, because all things work together for good because of His powerful goodness. Nothing can separate us from God’s Love! Thank You Lord!


ROMANS 8:37-39

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

Happy Thursday! First of all, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been taking the time to sponsor a child through this Thursday and Friday's Shine4Kids to Shine to Shine God's Love in Guatemala through Food For The Hungry. One of the reasons we try to save money in our home is in order to give more to those in need.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and there are some families and individuals out there may not be able to afford to have the traditional Thanksgiving at home or may not have anyone to share it with. Communities and churches have been stepping forward with Thanksgiving celebrations for those who might not otherwise have the opportunity. These dinners offer food, fellowship, and the opportunity to share time in celebration with one another. There are two I'd like to mention here. If you know anyone who would be blessed by dinners such as this, check out my list below:

Chino Valley:

TUESDAY 11/24---- Word of Life Assembly of God is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on 11/24 at 4:00pm to 7:30 pm. This is their seventh annual Thanksgiving At Our House Free Community Thanksgiving dinner. Anyone is invited to come on down, spread the word and bring friends!
Address: Word of Life Assembly
590 W. Road 1 North
Chino Valley, Arizona

WEDNESDAY 11/25---- Sprngs Church will be providing Thanksgiving Dinner to the residents of Spring Valley, Cordes, Mayer and the surrounding communities. The dinner will be served at the Mayer High School from 4:43 pm to 7:30 pm,

Address: Mayer High School
17300 E. Mule Deer Drive
Mayer, Arizona

More Money Saving Tips---

Sandwiches-- Making your sandwiches out of meats from your butcher department is really a smart way to save. Think about it. Cook's Spiral Sliced Half Ham is on sale this week at Fry's for 1.47 a pound. It is already sliced up. This is definitely a deal over lunch meat prices. If you buy your chicken, roasts and ham on sale, and make sandwiches out of your left overs...we are talking huge savings.

FREEBIE UPDATES---
I have an update for the 50 free photo cards from See Here is now limited to 4 x 8 cards. The shipping is still free and the end date is November 30th. Again, a HUGE thank you to Freebies4Mom for spreading the word on this great deal! Once again, the coupon code is freebies4mom-1109. Linky: See Here

FREE SAMPLES---

Kashi TLC Chewy granola bar! These are absolutely delicious! Get clicking while supplies last!
Linky: Kashi TLC Chewy Granola Bar

Another big thanks to Freebies4Mom for that little deal!

Amazing pile of free samples at Vive Mejor! Right now you can get samples of Hellman's and Best Food's Lite Mayonnaise, Caress Skin Care, Ponds Rejuveness, and New Degree Women Fine Fragrance Collection. Get them while they last! Link: Vive Mejor

BARGAIN PRICING!

A few weeks ago there was a plethora (at least I think plethora is an adequate word) of great magazine deals at Amazon.com! There is a really awesome one right now. You can get or give TWO years of Redbook for just $5.00. That is because right now, Amazon has it for $10.00 with a special deal today for an additional $5.00 off. This would definitely make a great and inexpensive gift! I think this is just for today so you definitely want to act now. PS on this one...the one year is $8.00!!!!
Link: Redbook Magazine 2 year sub

GIFT IN A JAR RECIPE OF THE WEEK!


This week's gift in a jar recipe is for Snow Ball Cookies.


Snow Balls Mix

A favorite recipe to share with friends.

1/2 C powdered sugar
2 C all-purpose flour
1 C chopped pecans

Combine the confectioners sugar and flour and place into a 1 quart canning jar. Put the chopped pecans on top.

Include the following instructions with your gift:


Snow Balls Mix

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Grease cookie sheets. In a medium bowl, cream together 3/4 cup of shortening and 1/4 cup of margarine. Stir in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extracts. Add the contents of the jar, and mix well. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool, and roll in confectioner sugar. Makes 4 dozen.

Another great freebie I love is printable gift tags. My son and I are especially fond of the Suessville gift tags. We have been using them since he was quite young. One of the things we like to do as a craft together is print them up and then color them with colored pencils. I have looked around for some others you might want to try out.

GIFT TAGS:


Suessville - Great gift tags you can color that are lively and fun. You can use a hole punch to add a ribbon or just tape them directly to the gift. Again, these are black and white which really make for coloring fun.

Mint Printables - These are in color. There are Santas, snowmen, angels, and more. Again, just pick and print.

Free Printable Gift Tags - There are too many to even described. These again are already colored. They have a number of tags you can print out for any occasion.

MAKE YOUR OWN GIFTS


Well, really you aren't making your own. You are making them for others. I found an absolutely fabulous craft in Family Fun magazine for what they call Snowball Soap Surprise. This is sooooo easy and a great craft for the kids. I also found it at several other blogs. Here are the directions:

Snowball Soap Surprise

What You Need:
Food processor or cheese grater
4 (4.5-ounce) bars of Ivory soap
8 tiny plastic toys (you can get some little action figures, toys at a thrift store, little rubber balls, or toy rings. Really there is no limit to what you can pick up for this suprise).

1. Use a food processor fitted with the grater attachement to shred four bars of Ivory soap (you can also grate the soap with a hand grater). Pour all the pieces into a large bowl.

2. With your hands, mix in about a half cup of lukewarm water, a little bit at a time, until the mixture is squishy and claylike.

3. For each snowball, scoop up a heaping handful of soap and mold it into a ball. Poke a deep hole n the center with your finger, insert a toy, and refill the hole. Lay the finished snowballs on a cookie sheet and let them dry thoroughly.

Once they dry they even look kind of flakey.

I have seen some variations on this idea. Aunt Pitty Pat soaks her soap bars over night and has the kids form them into balls with no suprises but a really cute poem. Link: Aunt Pitty Pat Snowball Soap. The New Unschooler uses pretty much the same recipe. She adds 1/4 cup of water per cup of grated soap, puts a toy in and has the soap dry out in the sun.

Felt Finger Puppets
These are adorable and I have found crafts that you can sew or glue. These are simple to make and easily will make the kids smile. I found two sites that really had some awesome ideas, but trust me, there are plenty out there.

Make and Takes has an awesome craft to make felt Star Wars finger puppets, and they are darling! All the directions are at their site. Link: Make and Takes

eHow also has a great set of instuctions for finger puppets that require a little bit of sewing. Check it out at their site: Link: eHow


GROCERIES

Don't forget to load up your loyalty cards with the new Cellfire coupons. They are up now! Link: Cellfire

What is for sale?
This week I was pressed for air time so I only have a top six. That is two for each store.

Fry's--
(Manufacturer coupons all value at $1.00. Accept competitor's coupons)
-- Jennie-O Frozen Turkey 37 cents a pound
-- Cook's Spiral Sliced ham $1.49 a pound

Safeway
-- Broccoli and Cauliflower Crowns 68 cents a pound
-- 10 pound bag of Russet Potatoes for 97 cents each

Albertsons
-- Asparagus and greenbeans 99 cents a pound
-- Betty Crocker Cake Mix or Ready to Serve Frosting 69 cents each when you buy 5

Lastly, if you are having Thanksgiving in your home and are going to have children at the dinner, you may want to check out this awesome website I found. It is the Thanksgiving Page from Holiday Zone. There are loads of printables from cross word puzzles, word searches, coloring pages, and a Thankful list.
Link: Holiday Zone - Thanksgiving Page



Have a great weekend! Since I wont be back for two weeks, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving too!

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

AN OOOPS NOTE: For some reason the link to Freebies4Mom went to a free song down load and not Freebies4Mom sooo I fixed it and here is the linky here too: Freebies4Mom Sorry about that.

Can you believe that it is already November 12th? I am amazed at how quickly this month is going by! That means there are a lot of reasons to really focus on your budget and saving for the holidays.

In the past, I use to shop according to how much money I had. I just took the cash and spent until I had no more to spend. I didn't overspend this way, but I also spent every dime I had. For the past few years I have operated on a budget for Christmas. This typically involved simply writing names down on a paper and how much money I was going to spend on each person. Thanks to All You, I have a new site to go to that will keep me organized for Christmas AND help me keep to a budget. Check out Organizedchristmas.com! They have this section full of printables and downloadable forms to keep you on track for the holidays. One of the things I jumped on was the Holiday Budget Planner. The Holiday Budget Planner goes great with the Master Gift List. In fact, they have a whole Christmas Countdown Planner that you can look at and pick and choose the printable pages that suit your needs. We are talking right down to the cleaning chores!

We also talked about buying discounted gift cards for gift card presents. I had mentioned selling your unused gift cards at plasticjungle.com before to get money for cards you do not use, but I didn't mention using this fabulous site as a place to purchase some awesome gift cards at a discount. These are all verified gift cards. The value of the card is listed, the price for the card is listed and even the discount you will be getting by purchasing the card is listed. I have seen the percent discount to be about 10 to 20%! There are gift cards for dining, clothing, activities, and more. If you like to buy gift cards, this could be right up your alley!

Another way to save money is saving on shipping. If you are ordering gifts online, you definitely should check out freeshipping.org. This site will supply you with coupon codes for free shipping from many online retailers. Search around and see what you can get.

Now this is an amazing deal that I found out about thanks to one of my favorite websites freebies4mom! Heather has swung an ideal deal for 50 free 4×8 or 5×7 photo cards with FREE shipping from SeeHere by Fujifilm! Use the code freebies4mom-1109 before Nov. 30. Your total should be free. Heather can give you all the skinny by following this link: Freebies4mom

Other freebies today.

STICK IT -- Protection One Security has a deal for Pet Decals. These are those little stickers you put on your windows to alert others that you have pets in the home in case of emergencies. I use to have these in my old apartment, and I definitely want to be sure to prepare are home here in Arizona. Linkage: Protection One Security

MUSIC -- iTickets has two free downloads this week. Get your Christmas music collection started with "Adore Him" by Kari Jobe from the Christmas CD Worship And Adore. You can also hook yourself up with Josh Wilson's "How To Fall" from CD "Life Is Not A Snapshot." Don't forget that you do need to register. Linkage: iTickets music

BEVERAGE IT UP -- I am a huge fan of Dunkin' Donuts. If I ever stumble into a big pile of money...I am so getting my hands on a franchise. For now, I have to be content with making there coffee at home. If you have not tried their coffee yet, you simply MUST go to the link ahead, because you can get a free sample sent directly to your door. It is soooo worth it!
Linkage: Dunkin' Donuts Coffee


JAR RECIPES-

Today I have two tea jar recipes for you.

Spiced Tea Mix in a Jar - This is directly from Allfreecrafts.com




Ingredients:


--1½ cups of orange breakfast drink (like Tang)
--¾ cup iced tea mix
--1½ cups white sugar
--2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
--2 teaspoons ground cloves
--1 teaspoon ground ginger

~ Makes about 4 cups ~

Instructions:
1. Stir all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Pour into the quart jar (a funnel is useful for this but not absolutely necessary) and cap with a screw top lid, firmly screwed down.

2. Print the Spiced Tea Mix label shown above and cut it out (with fancy edged craft scissors, if you have them). Use a paper punch to put a hole in the top right hand corner.

3. Cut the lace trim to fit around the jar lid, adding an extra inch. Glue lace in place around the rim of the lid, overlapping the extra inch of lace at the back. Alternatively, you could cover the lid with a circle of lace or pretty fabric tied in place with the ribbon.

4. Tie ribbon around the lace on the jar lid, then tie the ribbon around the cinnamon sticks so that they appear at the front of the jar. Thread ribbon through the punched hole on the label and tie in place with a bow.

Allfreecrafts.com also has instructions on how to decorate the jars and a little tag that you can copy to print up and put on your gift.

Linkage: Allfreecrafts.com Spiced Tea Mix



Spicy Raspberry Tea Mix - I picked this one up at 7thspace.com

Ingredients

3/4 cup instant tea, unsweetened
4 (.23 ounce) packets raspberry-flavored unsweetened drink mix
2 tablespoons lemonade drink mix
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Stir all ingredients in mixing bowl with wire whisk. Transfer mixture to 1-pint wide-mouth jar. If jar is full, gently tap bottom of jar on palm of hand to settle mix. Seal jar.

Decorate jar and attach the following instructions on a gift tag:

Spiced Raspberry Tea

Makes 1 (6 ounce) serving.

1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons Spiced Raspberry Tea Mix
6 ounces boiling water
Fresh raspberries (optional)
Fresh orange slice (optional)
Sprig of fresh mint (optional)

Linkage: 7thspace.com Spicy Raspberry Tea Mix

Lastly my top ten sales. There are truly a lot of great deals out right now. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, I have kept my eyes open and looking for baking deals. I saw some excellent deals on sugar and baking needs at Fry's. Okay...on with the savings.

Safeway -
All manufacturers coupons are worth a dollar. I don't know how long that will last so take advantage while you can! :)

-- Green asparagus 99 cents a pound
-- Hass avocados 88 cents each
-- Green Giant canned veggies 39 cents

Albertsons -
(10% discount to all military personnel active or retired until 11/17 i.d. required)
-- Honeysuckle white premium turkey Grade A frozen 43 cents a pound
-- USDA Bottom Round Roast $1.88 a pound
-- 93% Lean ground beef $1.67 a pound (5 pounds or more)
-- Chex cereal $1.50 each when you buy 3 (totally ready to make that Chex Mix now!)

Fry's -
(All manufacturers coupons $1.00 and competitor coupons accepted)
-- All natural boneless skinless chicken breasts $1.57 pound
-- Bananas 39 cents a pound
-- Farmer John bacon 2 for $4.o0

Seriously there are a lot more great deals out there so be sure to check them out. And again, don't forget about all those coupons you can download to your loyalty cards with cellfire, P&GeSaver, and Shortcuts.


Have a great day! See ya next week!

Strollers Recalled

Stroller maker Maclaren has voluntarily recalled one million strollers due to safety issues. Read the entire article here.