If you are in the Northeast area of the country, you might want to check out Harris Teeter this week.
Kraft Dressing (8 oz) is Buy 1 Get TWO Free! If you have three of the $1 off of 2 coupons from a recent paper; you can buy six dressings for only 10 cents per jar!!! That's a price worth stocking up on. Kraft Barbecue sauce is also Buy 1 Get TWO free; but I didn't have coupons for that. Toaster Strudels, also Buy 1 Get TWO free, are about 59 cents per box if you the $1 off 2 coupon and buy six using three coupons. (even though four are free, you can use the coupons...)
Jul. 15, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday! -- Free Kids Meals at California Tortilla
For those in the North East part of the United States, today only (July 15, 2008) you can get two free kids meals with the purchase of one adult meal at California Tortilla restaurants.
Also, Pepsi brand soda is on sale 4 12 packs for $10 in my area at Giant. Be sure to stock up, if you missed the 4th of July sales. The next time we can expect 5 for $10 will be around Labor Day.
As the first day of Cub Scout camp was winding down, we parents discovered something very important. Our boys were not interested in drinking plain water all day! They ended the day very thirsty, and overheated. As parents, we had no idea that the camp would not be providing alternate drinks, at least at lunch time! I was the only one who sent some Gatorade with my son, but only two small bottles; not enough to keep him hydrated the whole day. While we are dissappointed with the camp, we had to come up with a solution fast. So last night at 9 p.m., my husband drove to the local grocery and picked up those Propel pack singles that you just dump in water and shake. Talk about expensive!
Before he went to the store, I scoured the cupboard for a pack of Kool-Aid; since I was pretty sure I could make my own Kool-Aid Singles. Alas, I found none. However, I did find this great recipe for homemade Kool-Aid Singles which would have saved us a ton of money. I plan to make some of these up for our coming Cub Scout hikes and camping events; since water from the tap is so much cheaper then Gatorade or Propel Singles!
This week I was able to pick up 2 quart containers of lemonade for $1.50 apiece with a coupon and sale combined. (Tropicana Grovestand Lemonade flavors at on sale at Harris Teeter grocery store, coupon in Sunday paper.) $1.50 is more then a package of dry lemonade, a cup of sugar and 2 quarts of water; but it also tastes better! We took several of the lemonade quarts and froze them in ice cube trays. When they were frozen, we moved the small cubes to ziploc baggies. Now, when we want an icy drink (like the icees at Target), we just put a bunch of lemonade ice cubes in the food processor, turn it on and watch it chop up the ice into tiny little pieces, add it to a glass and top it off with some of the un-frozen lemonade, and drink. Yummm! This method is way cheaper then buying those frozen drinks at Target, and if you wanted to mess with mixing your own, you could get it even cheaper. Enjoy your ice!
If you want to see more Tightwad Tips; check out Canada Girl's blog..
Jun. 15, 2008 - Tips and Tricks for Using Paperbackswap
I recently had someone tell me that paperbackswap just wasn't worth the time, or the gas money involved in sending books. I have a shelf full of books convincing me to stick with it; and I would like to give you some general hints about how this works.
For about 50 cents more then postage and gas, you can print the postage on the book wrapper at home and mail the book from home. You can figure out your gas costs to the post office when you are ready to print the wrapper.
I spend about $2.50 per book, including gas. Ask yourself if you can get the specific used books you want more cheaply.
I found out I was 67 down on the waiting list for a certain book when I added it to my wish list. Four weeks later, it was in my home because no one else had saved credits, purchased credits, or even still wanted the book.
Sometimes, you have to wait a while for the books you want to become available. Don't give up!
Every time you see a book recommended that sounds interesting, go put it on your wish list. If more then one edition is available, put every single edition of the book on your wish list. Most people will just wish list the first copy listed on their search. Wish listing multiple editions gives you a greater chance of getting the book.
Use the tag function to find books in a set quickly. Let's say you are looking for all of the books used by a specific curriculum. Pick one of the books on the list, and enter the title into the search field. Choose All Books instead of just Posted Books for your search. When the book shows up, look at the tags. If one of those tags is the curriculum name and grade; you can click on the tag and quickly see all the other books in the system tagged with that same name and grade. If the book doesn't have a useful tag, you can add one (helping others out) and then search for another book on your list until you find one with the tag. Finding a tagged book and looking at all the other books with the same tag dramatically reduces search time as compared to entering each title separately in the search box. I am hoping they will soon add the functionality of searching by tag.
Check out this list of books I received through paperbackswap in just a few short months. Read about how paperbackswap works here.
Jun. 12, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday! -- Dockers, Gas, and Movies -- Amazing Deal
I have never posted a TIghtwad Tuesday deal on Thursday before, but I just found out about this amazing deal and you only have until Saturday to make it happen. You need to live in a location with a Kmart, and a Sears. This is worth a bit of a drive! Your total out of pocket cost will be $15. You will get 4 movie tickets, $75 shell gas card, a $10 Sears gift card and $100 worth of Dockers. Here is how it works. Go to Kmart. Buy 2 $50 gift cards at the register. (not customer service). Four movie ticket codes for Hulk will print out. Take your gift cards and drive to Sears. Buy $100 worth of Dockers, using your $100 in gift cards from Kmart (they are part of the same company and accept each other's gift cards). Pick up the rebate form. Mail in your receipt and receive a $75 shell gas card and the $10 Sears gift card by mail.
Happy Shopping!
You can check out more Tightwad Tuesday deals from last Tuesday at Canada Girl's Blog
Homeschool Freebie of the Day is a new resource brought to you by the folks at Homeschoolradioshows.com. You will not want to miss these freebies! They are only available for one day, and then they are gone!
After my last post about eating more healthily, this post should make you laugh. If you go to McDonalds on May 15, you can get a free Southern Style Chicken Sandwhich with the purchase of any Medium drink. You can go in the morning and get one on a biscuit free, and then return later and get one on a bun for free. You can treat your whole family to lunch for the cost of 1 medium drink and 1 medium fry apiece. Unless you happen to have a gluten free girl like I have. The Southern Style Chicken is most definitely not gluten free; so Anna and I will be splitting a grilled chicken salad. :) Still, a super good deal! If you only treat your family to McDonalds once in a while, this Thursday would be a good day to do so. (I got this in an e-mail directly from McDonald's, so I know it is true.)
Also, if you could use a free $25, be sure to read this post.
And, if you want to read more ideas for saving money, be sure to check out CanadaGirl's Blog.
May. 9, 2008 - WOW! PAYPAL ALTERNATIVE PAYS YOU $25 to SIGN UP!!!!
Revolution(ary) Money Exchange
This is a really cool paypal alternative, and you get $25 FOR FREE if you sign up now! This is for real, I already have the money in my account. You can keep the money in your account, have it transferred to your bank account, or request it as a check and cash out. I already have several friends who have done this!!! It does work, and it is an easy $25 for you!!!
In the interest of full disclosure, Everyone who signs up through this link is a referral for me! Referrals are worth $10! WOW....
***Updated: Thank you so much for accepting my invitation! If you signed up through this link; please be sure to tell me in the comments! I have no way of seeing my referral's e-mail addresses; so I don't know who you are! Thanks again,
****Updated 5-19-2007 It would appear that the free $25 ended on May 15, 2007. If anyone has signed up since May 15 and still gotten the free $25; please let us know. I did get another referral today, and still got paid a referral fee...
I feel like I am taking baby steps towards becoming a true tightwad, if that is even my goal! I'm not really a Tightwad at all, but I love saving money and getting bargains. But, I don't throw my tights in the freezer just so they will last longer or anything. (I've heard that works!)
Anyway, one thing we have noticed lately, (again) is that our eating out is just getting out of control. I am only supposed to take the children to fast food place once a week; but there are just so many times in the week when it is handy! SO, today, on the way home from the library we decided it was the perfect day to stop at the park; but we hadn't had lunch. I had to stop in at Whole Foods to pick up a bunch of gluten free goodies for Anna anyway, so I spent about $15 on picnic food and we had a picnic. Since I usually spend $25 at Burger King; this was a significant savings. I also brought home half a bag of tortilla chips, and half a container of guacamole, and half a package of salami.
If I had only planned ahead (like that ever happens), we had the makings of a picnic at home too.
Picnics save money over eating out -- any day.
If you want to see more Tightwad Tips from people who are way better at it then I am, hop on over to Canada Girl's Blog.
I have mentioned this so many times, I feel like a broken record! However, I was able to save $6 again this weekend because I took the time to find some coupon codes! Here is another site working to save you money by finding coupon codes: Best Online Coupons. They have tons of different coupon codes listed, for instance here is one: save money and lose weight with discounts on meal replacement diet plans.
This coupon code is not one I have personally used, but there are many others! This is just one example!
I was especially excited to see this coupon code for Family Christian Stores and these links for various free shipping codes at Target. In fact, I am thinking about staying home from Target today and just ordering everything I actually need on-line. Every time I go to that store, I find an extra $50 worth of things I didn't come for!
Check it out, and see what you can find! Never shop on-line without a coupon code! Recently, I spent about $65 at Lands End plus shipping, only to find a $25 off a $75 coupon code in my e-mail box three days later! That hurt. Next time, I will wait until I have a coupon code to order!
May. 1, 2008 - Book Give-Away! You can get a free book from me!!!
Book Give-Away!
Finding Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson
The publisher accidentally sent me three copies of this book for reviewing! I paperbackswapped the first two; (after reading one of them of course!) and then the FIRST director said, "why not have a contest for one on your blog?" I thought that was a fantastic idea! If you would like to win a copy of this book, just sign Mr. Linky, AND leave a comment here! I will run the contest until May 15th. Please feel free to announce this contest to your friends!
Apr. 22, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday! -- Used Bookstores
Used Bookstores
I was reminded again yesterday why I love so much the used bookstore my children and I frequent. I found one gem -- a living picture book about Abraham Lincoln. That was all I found for our family library this time! But, it was beautiful and only cost me $5. My children each picked up one book apiece for under $2 and my daughter chose to buy a second book with her "own money". We were exchanging books we no longer wanted, so we had a credit and I told my children we had to come in under the credit. In the end, we had to put a few books back as they had each picked up two and they didn't accept all of my exchanges. That is when my daughter decided to buy her own. Still, we got the Lincoln book, a copy of My Side of the Mountain, a copy of The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion Returns, and we only paid $3 cash after our credit! Pretty good eh? As I was browsing around, I found several beautiful hardcover copies of books used in the Sonlight PreK Core. They were a fraction of the original price. These kinds of books are the reason I frequent this bookstore! I already have all of the Sonlight PreK Core, as I bought it all full price from the vendor when we first started homeschooling. But, these days I am always looking for great, living books at used bookstores because I am trying to afford homeschooling four children instead of one! A few weeks ago, we picked up a beautiful full color coffee table book on Van Gogh for $5. Bookstores like this are worth their weight in gold. Even more weeks ago, when my Mom was visiting, we went to a used bookstore a little further away called The Book Nook. I found one book I had been wanting, a hardcover copy of The Millionaire Next Door for $3. My Mom found eight or so hardcover copies of Gilbert Morris books for $1 apiece! Be sure to check out the used bookstores near you! My plan for this summer is to pick up nice hardcover books at yardsales for 25 cents from my piggy bank, and turn them into $1 or $2 credits at the used bookstore. Some books have even gotten me $5 credit!
If you like the idea of saving money (and who doesn't?) check out other TIghtwad Tuesday posts over at Canada Girl's Blog!
Apr. 15, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday! -- Name Brand Sodas On Sale
I have this sneaking suspicion that most of the people participating in CanadaGirl's Tightwad Tuesday do not purchase soda. Sorry Girls! However, this is too good a deal not to mention. I did this same deal last year; and stocked up on enough sodas to last all summer -- my son and I take sodas to the pool every day so that we aren't tempted to use that machine. My girls prefer water! Here's the deal. Target is running a special, 5 twelve packs of Pepsi products for $15. That by itself is not that great of deal! However, at checkout you will get a $5 gift card. Taking the gift card back in, you will get your next 5 twelve packs for $10, and another $5 gift card! You can do this as many times as you like; and whenever you choose to stop; you will still have one $5 gift card left! So, you are getting 5 Twelve packs for $10! In several years of coupon shopping, this is the lowest price I have ever seen in my area. It usually only happens around Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. So, I try to stock up on those holidays enough to make it to the next big sale!
Apr. 13, 2008 - Why I Like The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
Why I Like The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
I love the day that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine shows up at my door. I enjoy taking the time to break away from my computer and my duties and read an actual print magazine on my favorite subject! I love reading the articles, and also enjoy looking at the advertisements for all the new products. I hear they have completely revised the magazine production team so that the next magazine will be completely different. I can't wait to see what they have changed! I recently subscribed to the digital version; and that is a ton of fun to look through and a great price. If you can subscribe to the print version during the promo though -- it is such a great deal!
If you decide to subscribe, please consider using my affiliate link from this graphic.
Apr. 13, 2008 - The Old Schoolhouse Subscription Promotion
The Old Schoolhouse Subscription Promotion
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Spring Promo is in full bloom. Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive
25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550!
The Winter Promo sold out, don't miss out on the free gifts this time!
The HSB Front Porch is having a contest
and you can win a $50 gift certificate
just for blogging about the Spring Promo
before midnight April 30, 2008.
Click HERE for details.
They are also giving away a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. All print subscribers (new or renewing) between April 3 - 30, 2008 will be automatically entered into a drawing. No purchase neccessary to win. To enter without subscribing, please send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and email address to: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo Contest PO BOX 8426 Gray, TN 37615
This banner is not an affiliate link! To use my affiliate link; please see my second post... Thanks So Much!
Apr. 8, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday: Free Things for Children
I found out about this web-site last night, and was just sifting through ordering free things for my children. The on-line book (free stuff for kids) is free; and you just page through it and find the offers you want to send in for. Some things are totally free; some things require a s/h fee. Personally, I am ignoring the offers that require money and only requesting thing that are truly free. So far, I have sent in for pencils, posters, stickers, bible lessons, coloring books, and a few other things. Do you remember doing this as a child? I sure do! I would stick my four quarters in an envelope with a SASE inside; and wait anxiously by the mailbox. Free Stuff For Kids
To see more Tightwad Tuesday posts, visit Canada Girl.
Nothing is cheaper then free right? I have posted about Freecycle before, and I am just reminding everyone to sign up. You pick the group where you live or work and sign up at freecycle.org. The groups are yahoo groups; and e-mails come straight to your in-box. No one is allowed to offer anything for sale! All items must be free, no strings attached. If you have something to pick up and are uncomfortable meeting someone at their house; you can arrange to meet at Target or some other well populated place. I have seen some amazing things come and go since I signed up for freecycle. Just two days ago, someone gave away a complete futon with mattress! My sister has gotten a complete dining room set; and an above ground swimming pool! Of course, that is the fun flip-side! You get to give things away. The reason Freecycle works is because people are so generous!
Do you shop on-line? I love to find great deals on-line, and I save money on gas and find great prices. I spend a little time comparing prices, and searching for coupon codes. I can almost always find on-line coupon codes for free shipping or 10% off or something. I only order on-line when I can get great prices, and I always factor in the shipping costs to make sure I am getting a great deal. Here is one place where you can find the codes for on-line coupons.
How it works:
Usually, the place to enter your coupon code is towards the end of the checkout procedure. This always makes my husband nervous. Don't worry! Basically, if you get to the button that says "finalize order" or "confirm order" and you haven't entered your coupon code yet, don't click that button! You need to back up and look for an entry box. The entry box often appears on the payment page, or with the shipping page information. Just copy the code you found using control/c, and paste it using control/v. (Both keys held down at the same time.) This is super easy! Don't ever shop on-line without looking for a coupon code!
I saw this on another blog; and thought I would enter, even though I never win anything . To enter you have to paste the following paragraphs on your blog, and then leave a comment at the blog linked at the end. So, if I can't win, maybe one of my friends can .
Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.
This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!
Mar. 18, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday! -- Use Those Catalinas!
Today was grocery day, and when I got all finished my cashier was in shock. Why? Well, because they are always required to circle your savings and tell you how much you saved. My coupon savings was over $105!!! My total savings including discounts was $162! She was in shock because she had never seen savings over $100 before. (I am re-writing this post right now, because I looked at my receipt this morning and it was even better then I thought...) I'm pretty sure most of the girls participating in Tightwad Tuesday at Mary's blog already know about combining coupons with sales. At my store (Harris Teeter), the Buy One Get One Free items ring up at half price. So, you can use a coupon on each item. Today, I was excited to get cereal for 45 cents per box. In 2 years of using coupons I have never gotten a lower price! Okay, Okay, I admit I did miss a sale a couple weeks ago where I could have gotten cereal for 25 cents a box. That is because none of my children liked that cereal. Of course, I had to re-arrange my pantry to find a place to the boxes. But, we go through tons of cereal so I am not worried. I also redeemed my Buy One Get One Bertolli Olive Oil Rain Check from a few weeks ago. So, that was $24 of the savings right there.
Do you know about Catalinas? Catalinas are those little coupons that print at the register when you buy specific products... It's like a triple play! This week, every single cereal box I got for 45 cents triggered a catalina -- $1 off my next purchase! On anything in the store!!!! Also, every box of Orville Redenbacher's popcorn I bought (at 75 cents a box after coupon) triggered a 50 cents off catalina, also good on anything in the store. I used a $6 catalina from my last trip; and got $12 in catalinas for my next trip. Woohoo!
If you get catalinas, do you use them? Aye, there's the rub! I used to forget about them all the time, but not anymore (starting right now ). I have started putting them right in front of my handy dandy coupon holder as soon as they print. No more leaving them with the receipt to remember later! I use them at the very next shopping trip too, so they don't get a chance to expire! That's my tip for today. Put those catalinas in a special place and don't let them expire...
PS. I was really bummed when I got home and saw next weeks Giant ad, I just used all my butter coupons to get Land O Lakes butter for $1.89 at HT. Next week I could have gotten them for $1.45 at Giant with those coupons! I thought you might commiserate with me...
PSS. Do you use coupons and catalinas in other countries? I realized this might be a very US centric post. My apologies.
Mar. 11, 2008 - Tightwad Tuesday! -- Vegetable Puree
Using Vegetable Purees to Stretch Food and Add Nutrition
I've been reading this week, a new cookbook I now own called The Sneaky Chef, Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in your Kid's Favorite Meals by Missy Chase Lapine. It is all about how to blend vegetable and fruit purees, whole grains, and even sardine puree! into your normal foods so that you can double or triple the valuable nutrition in the foods your kids eat. I have no intention of being "sneaky" about it though; as my kids are pretty good about trying new things and eating healthy and I don't like the idea of lying about food. Only my oldest is picky. Anyway, I am making plans for stocking up on all the vegetables I will need for puree. I suppose I will have to wait until summer to get great produce prices? I am keeping my eye on berries though, as they should be cheap really soon now. I can't wait for Spring to hit Virginia full force!
So, one of the tips I picked up from this book was using baby food as your puree. She has a great list of baby foods that can be substituted for the purees. Her favorite brand is Beechwood; because she claims they have high standards for freshness and minimal pesticides, without being certified organic and hugely expensive. Making your own in season is cheaper; but not in the dead of winter.
A couple ways this helps your Tightwad plans. 1. Eating healthier lowers your doctor's bills. I have seen several Mom's talking about this recently. I can't wait to build up my children's immunity system with all these great vegetable purees. 2. Adding purees stretches recipes to feed more tummies, and fill tummies more too! 3. Using sale vegetables or baby food purees helps lower the cost of this really great nutrition boost. 4. Summer garden extras or weird coop veggies can be frozen and saved all winter in 1/4 cup purees!
If you are really interested in this idea, check the book out from the library; as she has a very thorough explanation of how to make this work. Some of the basic ideas are to match color as much as possible, blend purees as smoothly as possible, and add small amounts at first building up to the full 1/4 C. She includes lots of recipes, which I can't wait to try! I will post a Cookbook Review when I have a few more under my belt. See more Tightwad Tuesday posts!
Mar. 10, 2008 - Free Coupon Codes on Flowers for Mom
Free Coupon Codes on Flowers for Mom
Doesn't every Mom just love to get flowers? My husband gave me a beautiful bouquet of Tulips for Valentines Day, and every time I saw those flowers for two weeks, I felt his love. I will never forget the first time my son Jonathan brought me flowers, he was only four years old and we were going out on our very first "date". Now that brought a smile to my face. It's a well known fact, flowers make a woman feel special!
Here are some free coupon codes you can use to purchase some beautiful flowers for your Mom on mothers day at 1800Flowers.
Mar26 - Save $10 no minimum
Mar15 - Save $15 w/min $74.99 purchase
Mar25 - Save $25 w/min $99.99 purchase
Homeschool E-Store is becoming CurrClick; and you can earn a 10% bonus on all of your purchases next week during the Grand Opening! I don't know if you have ordered from Homeschool E-Store in the past or not. Be sure to check out their weekly freebie. If you sign up for the e-mail newsletter, they will e-mail a newsletter with the weekly freebie highlighted. I really enjoy using e-book products, so homeschool e-store gets a portion of my homeschool budget. Besides e-books from many publishers, homeschool e-store also carries audio books.
Have you checked out HomeschoolShare lately? I looked at the web-page way back when it first started, and was not impressed enough or excited enough to give it another thought. Recently, I was asked by a friend if I had looked at Homeschoolshare. I blew her off, because of my previous impression. However, she had assigned my son a special project for his science class (this is a friend with which I trade music class for science class). My son was very excited, and wanted to start right now! His teacher had given him the web address and told him they had a lapbook for his subject. So, today I had to go print all the information off for Eagles from homeschoolshare. Guess what? They have added so much, this is a really useful site now. The number of free, quality lapbooks is astounding. I remember not being impressed at all with the free lapbooks available when I first checked this out.
All this to say, you need to go check out HomeschoolShare. The materials are all free!! A ton of information and topics are covered, and not all are in lapbook form. You can also find unit studies, copywork pages, etc. You can even upload your own files to share with others! I am really excited about this free resource and wanted to share it with all of you.
Last week I mentioned the cheap meat I was able to stock up on; but how it all worked out was pretty cool. After spending so much money on chicken, ground beef, and chuck roast at the first store, I really didn't have enough money to buy all of the other great deals at the other store. I went anyway, and decided I would "borrow" from the next weeks grocery budget because these were such great deals. I thought it was a little odd when the first item I wanted ( buy 1 get 1 free hummus, which my daughter uses as a dairy substitute on tacos) was gone. I just thought, "Oh well, I'll get a rain check." and moved on. Then, the cube steaks were out of the size I would need. We are a family of six, so two packs are a bit cumbersome to cook with. Another rain check. I kept shopping, and found a few things to put in my cart. When I got to the Bertolli Olive Oil, which was Buy 1 Get 1 Free; they were gone! That is such a great price on Olive Oil and we use so much of it I was very disappointed and worried they wouldn't be able to get so many rain checks and would have to pick which ones to get. In the end, I was able to get four rain checks; moving a large chunk of my purchase to next week! Or, I can wait until a Bertolli coupon comes out to use that Rain Check, since they never expire at Harris Teeter. The last product was the PIzza Rolls I was going to get for 20 cents a box after coupons. So, this week I am going to the store and getting 6 Bertolli Olive Oils, 4 packages of Cubed Steak, and 2 packages of Hummus, and 10 boxes of Totinos pizza rolls at *last week's prices*. That's pretty exciting. I didn't have to go over budget, and I still get to stock my pantry! Don't forget those rainchecks ladies... See more Tightwad Tuesday links.
The bottom line is; We try not to insist on parent-led learning or gravitate toward child-led learning. We try instead to focus on God-led learning and ask for His input and perspective on every aspect of our home school. That way, when others fuss about what Dan and I are doing and make me second guess our decisions -- I can go back to our decision process and find God's fingerprints, reminding me that this is His way.
If you go to McDonalds on May 15, you can get a free Southern Style Chicken Sandwhich with the purchase of any Medium drink. You can go in the morning and get one on a biscuit free, and then return later and get one on a bun for free. You can treat your whole family to lunch for the cost of 1 medium drink and 1 medium fry apiece. Unless you happen to have a gluten free girl like I have. The Southern Style Chicken is most definitely not gluten free; so Anna and I will be splitting a grilled chicken salad. :) Still, a super good deal! If you only treat your family to McDonalds once in a while, this Thursday would be a good day to do so. (I got this in an e-mail directly from McDonald's, so I know it is true.)
, but there are many others! This is just one example! 
