The Thrifty Couple » thriftyal

Roundup of Amazing Deals Including FREE Tax Return Preparation Offers

thriftyal — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:08:11 +0000

This has definitely been the week for FREE tax preparation offers – probably because the end of January has come and gone and now you should have all the paperwork you need to file your taxes! Are you done yet? If not, then you might want to check out the offers from both H&R Block and Turbo Tax. As we mentioned before, this might be a good time to create your FREE account and lock in the deal for your FREE taxes.

Plus, don’t miss this week’s share on making your own laundry detergent – this time the scented version. Thank you for your kind comments regarding our sensitive skin laundry detergent and mentions how it has worked for you! We’re glad you love it and love the scented version just as well!

We have gone through each of the following deals with a fine-toothed comb so you can know these deals are still available (some prices may have changed a bit but are still close to the original posting price)! Make sure to check the list twice so you don’t miss anything this weekend!

Baby

Grocery/Drugstore Deals

Natural/Organic Deals

Retail/Office Store Deals

Freebies/Samples

Restaurant/Entertainment

Household

Price Drop on Black and Decker Food Processor For Only $28.98 Right Now and Shipped FREE

Photo Deals

Apparel/Accessories

Amazon: Designer Inspired Gold (Silver too) Heart Charm Toggle Bracelet Only $2.17 Shipped (Perfect Affordable Valentine’s Gift)

Tax Preparation

Money-Saving Tips and Articles

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent with Scent Like Tide and All Surf

Fun Fabulous Friday: Win a $10 Walmart Gift Card

thriftyal — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:40:55 +0000

It honestly seems like it was Friday just a couple of days ago and doesn’t seem right to be back to another Friday. With that, we are offering another $10 Walmart gift card for this week’s Fun Fabulous Friday!

Over the last two weeks we have shared our homemade laundry detergents – both our detergent for sensitive skin (for our son with eczema and baby) and the detergent we use for the rest of our family’s needs. We would love to find out (as your optional entry this week) which other household products or foods you would like to learn how to make from home. We love making different cleaners and recipes from scratch as we can usually get some amazing savings over buying the same products in the store.

And like last week, if you like us on Facebook you can also get an extra entry just by checking the box in the form below. We post extra deals and information on Facebook for our readers that you will not find on the site here.

Join the Discussion on Facebook

Please fill out this form to enter!

The giveaway will run through February 3, 2011 at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be selected randomly and notified via email. Must be 18+ to enter and reside in the United States. This promotion is in NO way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. The information collected is utilized for entry into this giveaway only. Comments left on this post, Facebook, Twitter or other posts will not be counted as an entry to this giveaway. Plus this giveaway is sponsored solely by The Thrifty Couple.

If you cannot view the form, please click here to fill it out!

Freebies Around Town Includes Candy and Medicine

thriftyal — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:43:42 +0000

Here’s all the FREEBIES for this week. As you use this list, please be aware of your local store’s ad expiration as this will affect the time these FREEBIES are available.

This week you won’t want to miss the great deals on Phizer medicines, including Robitussin, Dimetapp, Advil, etc. When you use their rebate that just came out in this weekend’s newspaper you can even make money on the purchase! Find out more below by checking out CVS. And while you’re there don’t forget to get your FREE candy as well!

Plus, don’t miss the new printable list feature (see below). Make sure to click on “Display All Matchups” to show the full list. We hope you love it and that this makes your FREEBIES shopping easier this week!

Walgreens (through 2/4/12)

Walgreens TRUE2go Blood Glucose Monitor - $9.99
Submit Mail in Rebate: TRUE2go Blood Glucose Monitor $9.99 Mail-In Rebate on Package
Final Price: FREE considering rebate
Blink Tears Eye Care .33 or .5 oz - $8.00
Receive $8 RR (limit 1)
Use $1/1 Blink Tears Lubricating Eye Drops or Blink Gel Tears Lubricating Eye Drops, any
Final Price: $1 overage considering RR
Pur-Absorb Iron Supplement 28 ct - $10.00
Receive $10 RR (limit 1)
Final Price: FREE considering RR
St. Joseph Enteric Aspirin 36 ct 81 mg - $2.00
Receive $2 RR (limit 1)
Final Price: FREE considering RR
Walgreens TRUE2go Blood Glucose Monitor - $9.99
Submit TRUE2go Blood Glucose Monitor $9.99 Mail-In Rebate on Package
Final Price: FREE considering rebate

Rite Aid (through 2/4/12)

Theraflu Warming Liquid 8.3 oz - $4.99
Use $2/1 Theraflu Warming Syrup or Warming Caplets, any Submit Mail in Rebate Theraflu Warming Relief Syrup or Caplets (excluding trial size) - Get $5.00 Gift Card to CVS, Kroger, Rite Aid or Target, exp 3/31/12
Final Price: $2.01 overage considering rebate
Combination of Cold/Flu Resources
Note: We know not every product will be FREE, but some will be and others will be a great deal!

$10 Reward, Buy $25 of participating items (limit 4)
Advil Childrens .5 to 4 oz - $4.99
Use $1/1 Advil Childrens product, any, exp 2/11/12 (RP 12/11/11)
Submit for Mail in Rebate: $10 Pfizer Rebate Offer when you buy any (3) products, exp 3/30/12 (RP 1/29/12)
Final Price: Varies, as low as FREE

Dimetapp Cold Liquid 4 oz or 20 ct - $4.99
Use $2/1 Dimetapp, any
Submit for Mail in Rebate: $10 Pfizer Rebate Offer when you buy any (3) products, exp 3/30/12 (RP 1/29/12)
Final Price: Varies, as low as FREE

Robitussin Cold Liquid 4 oz or 20 ct - $4.99
Use Robitussin product, any
OR Use $1/1 Robitussin Product, any, exp $2/4/12 (RP 12/11/11)
OR Use $1/1 Robitussin Product, any, exp 2/4/12 (RP 11/13/11)
OR Use $1/1 Robitussin Product, any, exp 2/25/12 (RP 1/1/12)
Submit for Mail in Rebate: $10 Pfizer Rebate Offer when you buy any (3) products, exp 3/30/12 (RP 1/29/12)
Final Price: Varies, as low as FREE

ThermaCare Heat Wraps 2 to 3 ct - $4.99
Use $3/1 ThermaCare HeatWraps, any 2 ct or larger
Submit for Mail in Rebate: $10 Pfizer Rebate Offer when you buy any (3) products, exp 3/30/12 (RP 1/29/12)
Final Price: Varies, as low as FREE

CVS

Get one of the following for FREE
Earn: $0.87 ECB on one of the following (limit 1)

Cadbury Egg - $0.87
Final Price: FREE

Cadbury Mini Eggs 1.5 oz - $0.87
Final Price: FREE

Hersheys Milk Chocolate Bunny - $0.87
Final Price: FREE

Reeses Single Egg 1.2 oz - $0.87
Final Price: FREE
Buy 2 of the following products and earn a $4 ECB
Sample Transaction (we'll let you do your own for your own needs):
Buy 3 Advil $4.49 * 3 = $13.47
Use $1/1 Advil, any 40ct or larger, exp 2/11/12 (RP 12/11/11) = $10.47
Received $4 ECB = $7.47
Submit for $10 Rebate = $2.53 overage

Advil 20 to 50 ct - $4.49
Use $1/1 Advil, any 40ct or larger, exp 2/11/12 (RP 12/11/11)

Advil Childrens 24 ct, Liquid 4 oz or Drops .5 oz - $4.49
Use $1/1 Advil, any 40ct or larger, exp 2/11/12 (RP 12/11/11)

Advil PM 16 to 20 ct - $4.49
Use $1/1 Advil, any 40ct or larger, exp 2/11/12 (RP 12/11/11)

Caltrate Soft Chews 60 ct (excludes Caltrate Gummy Bites) - $6.99
Use $2/1 Caltrate Product, any, exp 2/26/12 (RP 1/1/12)

Centrum Silver 80 ct, Adult 100 ct or Kids 80 ct - $6.99
Use $3/1 Centrum or Centrum Specialist Multivitamin, any
OR Use $3/1 Centrum or Centrum Specialist Multivitamin, any, exp 2/26/12 (RP 1/1/12)

Dimetapp Childrens Liquid 8 oz - $6.99
Use $1/1 Dimetapp Childrens product, any, exp 2/12/12 (RP 1/1/12)

Robitussin Liquid 8 oz - $6.99
Use Robitussin product, any

ThermaCare Heatwraps - $5.99
Use $3/1 ThermaCare HeatWraps, any 2 ct or larger

Safeway (through 2/7)

Pom Wonderful Juice 8 oz - $0.99
Use $1/1 Pom Product, any, 3/31/12 (SS 12/4/11)
Final Price: FREE

Walmart

Aquafresh Extreme Clean Toothpaste .8 oz travel size - $0.97
Use $1/1 Aquafresh Extreme Clean Toothpaste, any
Final Price: FREE
Just For Men Haircolor - $6.97
Use $2/1 Just for Men Haircolor, any Submit Mail in Rebate: Just for Men Haircolor or Color Gel Product, Get $9.50 Mail-In Rebate with purchase, exp 12/31/12
Final Price: FREE
Reach Floss 55 yd - $0.97
Use $1/1 Reach Floss Product, any
Final Price: FREE

Please click on the “grey” button that says “Display All Matchups” to see the ENTIRE list with Store Matchups – this is just a snippet!

Fun Fabulous Friday: Congratulations to our $20 Amazon Gift Card Winner

thriftyal — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:42:26 +0000

We can’t believe it, but after almost two weeks of sickness we can officially say that we’re sick-free! We still hear lingering coughs around the house but from what we’ve heard these could last for a few weeks. Thank you to each of you that shared with us your home-remedy/methods to treat the sickness and help us and our kids feel better! We do know this has been quite the year for sickness and noted that many of you have shared with us that this year has been bad for your families as well.

But with that we need to award our $20 Amazon gift card for our Fun Fabulous Weekend! Can we get that virtual drum roll please?!

Congratulations to Lizette (Towerslizz@) for winning the $20 Amazon gift card!

Keep your eyes open as we’ll be starting some other fun giveaways soon!

Cheap Diaper Deals Online Week of 1/29: Great Deals at Babies R Us, Walmart and Amazon

thriftyal — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:34:44 +0000

Due to some of the changes with Amazon Mom, we added a HOT Babies R Us deal for those that no longer have an Amazon Mom account.

This is your online source for the best online diaper and wipes deals for those of you that prefer to grab cheap diaper deals from the comfort of your own home. We show the final price in two different ways, the price per diaper and the price per jumbo pack equivalent to give you more information to help you determine what the best deal is!

The benefits of buying cheap diapers online is:

The prices are decent (better than stores and stores with coupons many times – except in cases where a store is offering sales and promotions – see our current stores weekly diaper deals HERE).
They ship FREE from most retailers.
You can combine online ecoupons, sales and additional discounts such as the 20% total Subscribe and Save discount offered for Amazon Moms members (it’s FREE!).
They are often times less complicated than buying the diapers from drugstores and your out of pocket expense is usually lower in those cases.
You get to shop from the convenience of home!

Here are the deals on diapers and wipes (the highlighted text is a link to the deal – just click on it and it will take you right to the deal!):

Amazon

A few notes when buying diapers on Amazon – each deal listed below is for the Amazon Mom’s 15% discount and the additional 5% off for subscribe and save discount for a total of 20% off the sale prices. Additionally, the following deals all qualify for FREE shipping for everyone!

Please note, Amazon is not accepting new Amazon mom applications, so your price will be 15% higher than what you see listed below (current Amazon mom members will receive the prices below). Even with the additional 15%, the price you pay will still be lower than many in-store deals and you can shop from comfort of your own home and receive FREE shipping! :)

Luvs Super Club packs on sale for $30.39 after Amazon Mom’s Subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normal price of $44.58) = as low as .10 each diaper. Choose each size from the drop down menu!

Size 1 300 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.81 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 258 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.81 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 234 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.19 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 204 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.16 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 168 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.55 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 136 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.96 each jumbo pack equivalent

Huggies Snug and Dry Super Club Packs on sale (depending on size as low as $0.16 each diaper) after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save (normally $41.69). You will also want to clip the $2 off ecoupon to see the final prices we are showing!

Here’s a breakdown of the sizes and prices to find it easy (Please note: you will need to select your size and the correct package size that we have listed to see the prices we are showing!). Each of these deals is with the 20% Subscribe and Save discount found in the top right. You will need to be an Amazon Mom’s member to get these prices (it’s FREE):

Size 1 100 ct. for $17.18 = final is $8.59 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 92 ct. for $16.39 = final is $7.48 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 156 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.86 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 140 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.62 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 120 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.72 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 100 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.84 each jumbo pack equivalent

Huggies Little Movers $26.87 – $31.19 (depending on size)
after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save (normally $38.99).

Size 3 128 ct. for $29.78 = final is $7.21 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 112 ct. for $31.19 = final is $7.52 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 100 ct. for $27.09 = final is $6.23 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 80 ct. for $26.87 = final is $6.72 each jumbo pack equivalent

Here’s a great deal on Earth’s Best TenderCare Chlorine Free Diapers. After Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount for $8.44.

Size 1 176 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 160 ct for $35.99 = final is $9.00 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 140 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 120 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 104 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 88 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent

Here’s a great deal on sizes 3 and 4 of the Seventh Generation Super Jumbo Packs. After Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount for as low as $15.99.

Size 3 76 ct for $16.79 = final is $16.79 or $7.73 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 64 ct for $15.99 = final is $15.99 or $6.75 each jumbo pack equivalent

Pampers Easy-Ups Club Club Box sale for $24.07 (depending on size as low as $0.24 each easy-up) after Amazon Mom’s Subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $31.34) plus the $1.00 off coupon that you can clip that looks like this:

Here’s a breakdown of the sizes and prices to find it easy (Please note: you will need to select your size and the correct package size that we have listed to see the prices we are showing!). Each of these deals is with the 20% Subscribe and Save discount found in the top right as well as the $1 off ecoupon! You will need to be an Amazon Mom’s member to get these prices (it’s FREE).

Make sure to select the exact size described as the “similar” size is not on sale nor does it have the coupon. For example, select the “Size 4 S2T-3T” instead of the “2T-3T”:

Girls:

Size 4 S2T-3T 100 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.98 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 S3T-4T 90 ct. for $24.07 = final is $6.15 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 S4T-5T 78 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.60 each jumbo pack equivalent

Boys:

Size 4 S2T-3T 100 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.98 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 S3T-4T 90 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.88 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 S4T-5T 78 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.60 each jumbo pack equivalent

Pampers Baby Dry Super Club Packs sale for $36.75 (depending on size as low as .11 each diaper) after Amazon Mom’s Subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $52.66) plus the $1.00 off coupon that you can clip that looks like this:

Here’s a breakdown of the sizes and prices to find it easy (Please note: you will need to select your size and the correct package size that we have listed to see the prices we are showing!). Each of these deals is with the 20% Subscribe and Save discount found in the top right as well as the $1 off ecoupon! You will need to be an Amazon Mom’s member to get these prices (it’s FREE).

Size 1 276 ct. for $36.75 = final is $6.66 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 246 ct. for $36.75 = final is $6.27 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 222 ct. for $36.75 = final is $5.96 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 192 ct. for $36.75 = final is $5.93 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 172 ct. for $36.75 = final is $5.77 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 140 ct. for $36.75 = final is $6.04 each jumbo pack equivalent

Pampers SoftCare Scented 10X Wipes 720 Count sale for $20.00 after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $25) = as low as .03 each wipe (0.028 exactly)

Seventh Generation Free & Clear Baby Wipes, 350 count sale for $9.51 after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $14.99) = as low as .03 each wipe (0.027 exactly)

Huggies Natural Care Baby Wipes, Refill, 184-Count Pack (Pack of 3) for 648 total count wipes sale for $16.95 ($5.65 each) after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $26.97) = as low as .03 each wipe (.026 exactly)

Please Note: Amazon states that you can cancel subscribe and save at any time, including right after the order has shipped. So if you do not intend to continue having them automatically delivered, cancel the subscribe and save soon after your shipment arrives so you do not forget! Do not cancel before your order ships though as it will cancel your current order!

Babies R Us

We wanted to give you a head’s up that both Babies R Us and Toys R Us is offering their big pack version of the jean diapers design for only $12 right now.

Head to the Babies R Us site HERE
Then search for this phrase: Babies R Us baby blues diapers
A number of options will appear, and you will need to choose to add to your cart.
Then choose in-store pickup for FREE shipping to your local store (they are out of stock online, but you can pick them up in-store).
Complete your checkout and secure your order and then pickup when it works for you!

Final is Only $12 for a Big Pack of Diapers which is equivalent to $6 each jumbo pack!

Walmart

Parent’s Choice Big Pack Diapers sale for $13.97 plus shipped FREE with $45 order = as low as .14 each diaper (or equivalent to $6.99 jumbo pack)
Parent’s Choice Big Pack Wipes refill 700 ct. sale for $11.97 with $45 order = final is .02 each wipe (.017 exactly)

Right now Walmart is offering a FREE bonus baby and beauty pack with some extra goodies with purchase of many different diaper deals. Walmart claims this is a $35 value but we think that is a little steep of an estimation. However, when you consider the good diaper deals already – this bundle is a GREAT VALUE whether this bundle is as much as a $35 value or not! Here’s what is included in the FREE bonus:

Pampers Cruisers 3pack diapers (Size 3)
Olay Total Effects Body Wash (2 fl oz)
Always 10 pack of Dri-liners
Crest 3D Whitestrip 1ct samples (Pro Strip + FREE Toothpaste) with $11 in coupons
Secret Lavender Scent Expressions Deodorant (1.7 oz) (Full-Size)

Diaper Deals including this bundle:

Luvs value pack of diapers for $15.97 (equivalent to $5.98 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Baby Dry Diapers Super Pack for $24.94 (equivalent to $8.31 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Swaddlers Diapers Super Pack for $24.94 (equivalent to $8.94 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Cruisers Diapers Super Pack for $24.94 (equivalent to $8.57 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Splashers Swim Diapers for $9.97 ($0.42 – $0.45 per diaper)

There are a couple of shipping options for these diapers: .97 to ship to your door or will your order will ship FREE with a qualified order of $45 or more – so you can do the above deal 3 times in the same order (as it is such a good deal)!

Target

Target Up & Up Jumbo diaper packs are all $6.29 – plus they ship free when you spend $50 online.

Diapers.com

Diapers.com sells name brand and generic diapers similar to store prices (with sales here and there) and will even let you attach coupons that they provide like the ones that are in the newspaper (coupons are listed with each item that have them, jsut check the box to apply the coupon). Shipping is FREE if you spend $49 or more.

There are three ways to save on diapers right now at Diapers.com:

$10 off your first order over $49 with coupon code – this applies to the value pack diapers: BESTDIAPERDEAL
Then you will receive $5 off each additional case up to 5 there after with coupon code – this applies to the value pack diapers: BESTDIAPERDEAL
In addition, many of the name brand diapers also include ecoupons with similar values as those found in the newspapers that you can apply to your diapers.

As the name of the site is Diapers.com, there are literally too many options to post here. From our years of experience, your first order with the $10 off ($49 or more) and the ecoupons, you will come out with prices right around the same as Amazon. But after that initial $10 discount, Amazon still runs the best deal regularly!

Head to Diapers.com here to see the deals!

See this week’s best diaper deals around town where you will find some good deals in-store.

See more Baby Deals

Keep up with the baby deals updates throughout the week on our baby deals category to not miss anything!

Roundup of Amazing Deals Including a Meringue You Won’t Want to Eat

thriftyal — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:05:31 +0000

Plus, don’t miss the homemade laundry detergent recipe we mentioned this week! We know that many of you were excited and have been making the detergent! Don’t forget that one of the steps is a great science experiment for the kids – but no matter what it looks like, don’t eat the meringue-looking ingredient. You better check it out to see what we mean.

Have you been noticing that we reference ALL YOU coupons for many of our store matchups but at the same time knew the $19.95 annual subscription price was a bit high to “try a magazine”? The good news is ALL YOU is offering their magazine for a 6-month subscription at $1 per magazine for just a few days longer!

Baby

Grocery/Drugstore Deals

Natural/Organic Deals

Retail/Office Store Deals

Freebies/Samples

Restaurant/Entertainment

Thrifty Date Deals For The 1/27/12 Weekend: Restaurant and Entertainment Coupons and Deals
Red Lobster Printable Coupons for $4 off Dinner and $3 of Lunch
Panda Express Coupon: FREE Firecracker Chicken Entree Today, 1/23/12 ONLY – FREE entree coupon still good

Household

Toys/Kids Books

Photo Deals

25 Super Cute Personalized 4×8 Valentine’s Day Photo Cards (Just Pay $3.19 Shipping)

Apparel/Accessories

2-Pairs Waterproof Kids Ski/Snow Gloves with Thinsulate Lining Only $4.99 Each Shipped

Money-Saving Tips and Articles

Fun Fabulous Friday: Weekend Sick Edition with a $20 Amazon Gift Card

thriftyal — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:28:43 +0000

This giveaway is now closed and is no longer allowing entries.
With a late start to Fun Fabulous Friday, we want to turn this into the weekend edition to give everyone a chance to enter! If you remember, we mentioned that we’ve been having a few rough days of sickness here which is probably the worst we’ve had in 4-5 years. We just hit a week total of sickness in our house today and as of this morning there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight – and with that we would love your help!

Yes, our kids are sick from the 8-month old to the 8-year old. All five are in differing stages of cold, croup and cough. We are using humidifiers, even had some of those Vicks wall plugins (either for FREE or cheap from many months ago – not sure if it helps though?) and still have some miserable kids as you would suspect. So in addition to our normal entries, we will give you an additional entry (optional) to share with us a great tip on helping our thrifty kids get better – or at least not be so miserable. Just let us know in the form below!

For your first entry, just enter your name and email address and you’ve fulfilled your mandatory entry. And for an extra entry, if you like us on Facebook just check the box in the form below. We post extra deals and information on Facebook for our readers that you will not find on the site here.

Join the Discussion on Facebook

This giveaway will run through Monday, January 30, 2011 at 11:59pm PST. Please fill out this form to enter!

This giveaway is now closed and is no longer allowing entries.

The giveaway will run through January 30, 2011 at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be selected randomly and notified via email. Must be 18+ to enter and reside in the United States. This promotion is in NO way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. The information collected is utilized for entry into this giveaway only. Comments left on this post, Facebook, Twitter or other posts will not be counted as an entry to this giveaway. Plus this giveaway is sponsored solely by The Thrifty Couple.

Homemade Laundry Detergent Powder Recipe Like Ivory Snow and Dreft Soap

thriftyal — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:53:25 +0000

As we have shared many times before, the next stage in our savings as a family is learning to make simpler, healthier, and more natural choices while still fitting within a tight budget. With that in mind, we have started making our own homemade laundry detergent. We have two powdered recipes to share, but today we are going to show you the first one which is a classic, perfect for sensitive skin and extremely easy to make. Make sure to reference our other recipe we use for the rest of the family, towels and bedding.

Not only are we trying to be more natural and healthier in all areas of life, but ease and simplicity with a busy homeschooling family of seven is also a very key element to many things we do. We love this recipe as it seriously only takes less than 10 minutes to whip up a batch – even faster than running to the store for forgotten laundry soap – a perfect length for our busy family.

This recipe is for powdered detergent that is equivalent to 80 light loads or 40 heavy loads of laundry. This is the one we make for sensitive skin as we have a baby (like Dreft) and a son with Eczema (like an Ivory Snow type detergent). We call this the “boy’s soap” for this reason.

I like homemade powdered detergent over liquid at this point in our lives – it stores better and and is extremely fast and easy to make. However, we are certainly willing to try a liquid if you have a recipe you recommend!

First, here is the ingredient round-up:

1 bar of Ivory Soap
2 cups of Super Washing Soda
2 cups of Borax

Step #1:

Microwave your Ivory Soap for 60-90 seconds – YES, microwave I hate grating – whether it is cheese or soap, I don’t like grating stuff. Plus it takes a long time to grate. The other benefit is that not only is it fast and easy – it is also a super fun experiment and project – your kids will love it!!
Although it looks soft and edible, it is actually an unexpected consistency – dry and brittle – and it will process very well in a blender or food processor without taxing your equipment (I also want my food processor to last a long time!).
Plus if any spills over off the plate, it is a way to get your microwave a bit cleaner – and the after smell makes your home smell like a clean linen smell. Very pleasant!

Step #2:

Put the 2 cups of Washing Soda and the soap (broken up) in your blender or food processor and mix until blended well
Then add the 2 cups of Borax and blend again until well blended

Your final product will be a nice fluffy white powder detergent that smells great and works well! We store it in a #10 can in our laundry room! This is a 40 – 80 loads worth of detergent!

Here’s how to use it:

Light Load – 1 Tablespoon
Heavy Load – 2 Tablespoons

Here’s the cost breakdown:

3 Bars of Ivory Soap sold for $1.00 = .33 per batch (we actually have a stash of the three packs we got for FREE with a sale and coupon means even cheaper )
76 oz. of Borax with average cost per box of $4 = $0.84 per 2-cups for each laundry batch
55 oz. of Super Washing Soda with average cost per box of $3 = $0.87 per 2-cups for each laundry batch

This makes the final price an average of $2.04 per batch or .03 -.06 per load (even cheaper if you get the above ingredients cheaper with sales or coupons)!

Here’s how Dreft and Ivory Snow stack up in price to this homemade equivalent.

Ivory Snow Powdered Detergent 24 oz.equal to 15 loads sells for $5 per box on average = $0.33 per load

Dreft 53 oz. Powdered Detergent equal to 40 loads sells for $12 per box on average = $0.30 per load

Our homemade laundry detergent is 90% cheaper than the store-bought detergent! Even with sales and coupons, you would need to purchase the name brands for 90% off to equal the same value.

The next recipe we will share is for the scented detergent for the rest of the family and our towels/bedding loads!

See more of our Daily Doses of Thrifty to save even more money in your household budget!

Disclaimer: Before using any homemade laundry detergent, please be sure to test it on a small piece of clothing first.

Panda Express Coupon: FREE Firecracker Chicken Entree Today, 1/23/12 ONLY

thriftyal — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:45:07 +0000

I have mentioned this before but Panda Express is one of my favorite lunch spots and today you can grab a FREE single entree and a nice FREE lunch! If you live or work near a Panda Express location, then you will want to print this coupon for a FREE Firecracker Chicken entree. This Panda Express coupon is good for today, January 23rd ONLY. No other purchase is necessary.

Forward this to your husbands at work so that they can enjoy lunch on you I use to love the FREE entree days while I was working in the corporate world. But although I now that I work at home, there isn’t a reason why I can’t go get us a FREE lunch today! It seems like it has been a while since they have had one of these offers.

See more Restaurant Coupons and Deals

Cheap Diaper Deals Online Week of 1/22: Huggies and Pampers Deals Plus Natural and Organic for Less

thriftyal — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:18:40 +0000

The benefits of buying cheap diapers online is:

The prices are decent (better than stores and stores with coupons many times – except in cases where a store is offering sales and promotions – see our current stores weekly diaper deals HERE).
They ship FREE from most retailers.
You can combine online ecoupons, sales and additional discounts such as the 20% total Subscribe and Save discount offered for Amazon Moms members (it’s FREE!).
They are often times less complicated than buying the diapers from drugstores and your out of pocket expense is usually lower in those cases.
You get to shop from the convenience of home!

Here are the deals on diapers and wipes (the highlighted text is a link to the deal – just click on it and it will take you right to the deal!):

AMAZON

Please note, Amazon is not accepting new Amazon mom applications, so your price will be 5% higher than what you see listed below (current Amazon mom members will receive the prices below). Even with the additional 5%, the price you pay will still be lower than many in-store deals and you can shop from comfort of your own home and receive FREE shipping! :)

Size 1 300 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.81 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 258 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.81 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 234 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.19 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 204 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.16 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 168 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.55 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 136 ct. for $30.39 = final is $5.96 each jumbo pack equivalent

Size 1 100 ct. for $17.18 = final is $8.59 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 92 ct. for $16.39 = final is $7.48 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 156 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.86 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 140 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.62 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 120 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.72 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 100 ct. for $25.40 = final is $5.84 each jumbo pack equivalent

Huggies Little Movers $26.87 – $31.19 (depending on size)
after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save (normally $38.99).

Size 3 128 ct. for $30.35 = final is $7.35 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 112 ct. for $31.19 = final is $7.52 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 100 ct. for $27.09 = final is $6.23 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 80 ct. for $26.87 = final is $6.72 each jumbo pack equivalent

Here’s a great deal on Earth’s Best TenderCare Chlorine Free Diapers. After Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount for $8.44.

Size 1 176 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 160 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 140 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 120 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 104 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 88 ct for $33.76 = final is $8.44 each jumbo pack equivalent

Here’s a great deal on sizes 3 and 4 of the Seventh Generation Super Jumbo Packs. After Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount for as low as $15.99.

Size 3 76 ct for $16.79 = final is $16.79 or $7.73 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 64 ct for $15.99 = final is $15.99 or $6.75 each jumbo pack equivalent

Here’s a breakdown of the sizes and prices to find it easy (Please note: you will need to select your size and the correct package size that we have listed to see the prices we are showing!). Each of these deals is with the 20% Subscribe and Save discount found in the top right as well as the $1 off ecoupon! You will need to be an Amazon Mom’s member to get these prices (it’s FREE).

Make sure to select the exact size described as the “similar” size is not on sale nor does it have the coupon. For example, select the “Size 4 S2T-3T” instead of the “2T-3T”:

Girls:

Size 4 S2T-3T 100 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.98 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 S3T-4T 90 ct. for $24.07 = final is $6.15 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 S4T-5T 78 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.60 each jumbo pack equivalent

Boys:

Size 4 S2T-3T 100 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.98 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 S3T-4T 90 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.88 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 S4T-5T 78 ct. for $22.99 = final is $5.60 each jumbo pack equivalent

Here’s a breakdown of the sizes and prices to find it easy (Please note: you will need to select your size and the correct package size that we have listed to see the prices we are showing!). Each of these deals is with the 20% Subscribe and Save discount found in the top right as well as the $1 off ecoupon! You will need to be an Amazon Mom’s member to get these prices (it’s FREE).

Size 1 276 ct. for $36.75 = final is $6.66 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 2 246 ct. for $36.75 = final is $6.27 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 3 222 ct. for $36.75 = final is $5.96 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 4 192 ct. for $36.75 = final is $5.93 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 5 172 ct. for $36.75 = final is $5.77 each jumbo pack equivalent
Size 6 140 ct. for $36.75 = final is $6.04 each jumbo pack equivalent

Pampers SoftCare Scented 10X Wipes 720 Count sale for $19.92 after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $25) = as low as .03 each wipe (0.028 exactly)

Seventh Generation Free & Clear Baby Wipes, 350 count sale for $9.51 after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $14.99) = as low as .03 each wipe (0.027 exactly)

Walmart

Parent’s Choice Big Pack Diapers sale for $13.97 plus shipped FREE with $45 order = as low as .14 each diaper (or equivalent to $6.99 jumbo pack)
Parent’s Choice Big Pack Wipes refill 700 ct. sale for $11.97 with $45 order = final is .02 each wipe (.017 exactly)

Pampers Cruisers 3pack diapers (Size 3)
Olay Total Effects Body Wash (2 fl oz)
Always 10 pack of Dri-liners
Crest 3D Whitestrip 1ct samples (Pro Strip + FREE Toothpaste) with $11 in coupons
Secret Lavender Scent Expressions Deodorant (1.7 oz) (Full-Size)

Diaper Deals including this bundle:

Luvs value pack of diapers for $15.97 (equivalent to $5.98 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Baby Dry Diapers Super Pack for $24.94 (equivalent to $8.31 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Swaddlers Diapers Super Pack for $24.94 (equivalent to $8.94 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Cruisers Diapers Super Pack for $24.94 (equivalent to $8.57 per jumbo pack)
Pampers Splashers Swim Diapers for $9.97 ($0.42 – $0.45 per diaper)

Target

Target Up & Up Jumbo diaper packs are all $6.29 – plus they ship free when you spend $50 online.

Diapers.com

There are three ways to save on diapers right now at Diapers.com:

$10 off your first order over $49 with coupon code – this applies to the value pack diapers: BESTDIAPERDEAL
Then you will receive $5 off each additional case up to 5 there after with coupon code – this applies to the value pack diapers: BESTDIAPERDEAL
In addition, many of the name brand diapers also include ecoupons with similar values as those found in the newspapers that you can apply to your diapers.

Head to Diapers.com here to see the deals!

See this week’s best diaper deals around town where you will find some good deals in-store.

See more Baby Deals

Keep up with the baby deals updates throughout the week on our baby deals category to not miss anything!

Congratulations to All Our Giveaway Winners this Week

thriftyal — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:28:21 +0000

This has been a crazy week of giveaways if you’ve been following closely! We thought we would award them all here and minimize the suspense for you. We want to thank you all for entering and making this week so much fun! So without more ado, let’s get the drumroll started…

Winner of the $10 Walmart gift card (Fun Fabulous Friday – January 13, 2012)
Michelle (leavitt1@)

Winner of the $10 Walmart gift card (Fun Fabulous Friday – January 20, 2012)
Debbie (rebbiedeed@)

Winner of the $100 Amazon gift card
Tracy (lsnedeker1@)

Winners of the The Money Saving Mom’s Budget
Janice (janicederington@)
Andrea (mahoorman@)
Roberta (bert34@)
Darlene (kingabcd@)
Jill (jgrossmann86@)

We will be contacting each of the winners with the details on how to claim their prize.

Roundup of Amazing Deals Includes Natural and Organic Deals and Online Diapers

thriftyal — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:23:57 +0000

We are pleased to introduce a new category on our weekly roundup – natural and organic deals! Although these deals have been present within our grocery and other categories in the past, its only this week that we are breaking them out as a separate category to make it easier for you to find them! So make sure to check them out below to see if there were any you missed this week!

Plus, we don’t want you to forget the changes upcoming to Amazon Mom this upcoming January 24, 2012. We’ll be updating the list later today, but in the meantime we encourage you to check out the cheap online diaper and wipes deals and consider placing some orders on cheap alternative brands and products (compared to your normal orders).

Baby

Grocery/Drugstore Deals

Natural/Organic Deals

Retail/Office Store Deals

Freebies/Samples

StayFree Ultra Thin with Wings FREE Sample

Restaurant/Entertainment

Electronics

Household

Toys/Kids Books

Books

Apparel/Accessories

Finance

Fun Fabulous Friday: Enter to Win a $10 Walmart Gift Card

thriftyal — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:01:56 +0000

This giveaway is now closed and is no longer allowing entries.

Last Friday everyone went crazy over the $10 Walmart gift card! We asked ourselves why we would mess with a good thing and give out another this week. Remember that this gift card can be used either online or in the store so it will be perfect no matter your preferred shopping method at Walmart.

If you noted yesterday, we just posted our next installment of our Deep in Debt to Debt Free series in which we discussed the event that woke us up to the fact we were in trouble. As we’ll be starting to unveil the tools and resources we used to work our way out of debt, we thought it would be good to poll everyone (this is definitely optional), if you are willing to share, on just how much debt you have outside of your house. Please don’t fear, the form is completely private, no one else will see it and we will simply use it to compile a quick graph of the overall statistics. But please know, in no way, shape or form do you need to do this to be eligible to win. However, we would love to know where you all stand as we strive to make 2012 a year to help you pay down your debt.

Join the Discussion on Facebook

Please fill out this form to enter!

This giveaway is now closed and is no longer allowing entries.

The giveaway will run through January 20, 2011 at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be selected randomly and notified via email. Must be 18+ to enter and reside in the United States. This promotion is in NO way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. The information collected is utilized for entry into this giveaway only. Comments left on this post, Facebook, Twitter or other posts will not be counted as an entry to this giveaway. Plus this giveaway is sponsored solely by The Thrifty Couple.

Deep in Debt to Debt Free: The Baby that Saved Us Financially

thriftyal — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:58:11 +0000

If you’ve been following us through our Deep in Debt to Debt Free series, you have probably noted we’re getting closer to sharing how we worked our way out of the immense debt we built up. But before we do, we wanted to first share with you how we started to come to our senses and realize we were in trouble. It all started on Mother’s Day in 2003. And although it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, for us in many ways it seems like an eternity ago because of the years of pain and struggle that would come. Please know we would be amiss if we didn’t share just how excited we were that amazing day. But before we spoil it for you, we thought we would just share it from each of our perspectives.

Cassie’s Perspective

In our last article, we shared with some of the ways that we kept ourselves from even realizing we were this far in debt. It was truly a combination of each of the reasons given including our denial, our pride, our covetousness and our lack of knowledge. How did we wake up? What was it that caused us to start to see more clearly?

It was Spring of 2003. At this point, we had been married for nearly four years and we had been wanting to have a baby this whole time. The Lord finally provided and we found out on Mother’s Day 2003 that we were finally pregnant. This was one of the most exciting times in our lives and our family and friends rejoiced and celebrated with us. I want to be clear, although we’ll be sharing with you about the struggles to come, nothing could take away the joy that our little girl would bring. We truly know how much a blessing that children are from the Lord.

But…there is always a question that we are confident nearly every soon-to-be first time parent asks,”How much does a baby cost and how can we provide for this child?”

You see, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. This was always something we planned, wanted and anticipated pulling off with no problems. It was the heart’s desire for both of us since before we were even married. So here it was, Mother’s Day 2003 – the best Mother’s Day I had yet as it had a new meaning.

But after a couple of weeks of pure baby bliss came that night I will never forget. It was that night I was struggling with nausea and all the normal side effects that my mind started to race. How could we do this? Could I be a mother to my child and raise her as we had dreamed? I started thinking how exciting it was going to be to be a stay-at-home mom after all of this time! It was the plan all along, so why would those plans change? Well, I quickly reflected on a real conversation that Alex and I did finally have about our finances – I remember it vividly.

It was when we were sitting in a car dealership, just about one month after Alex got his new car. I was driving the old car (I could never and refused to learn to drive it after stalling the car in front of oncoming traffic) and decided that I wanted a new car too. Besides, I couldn’t drive his new car and I worked in a downtown law firm and it just seemed so silly for me to drive this thing to work as a professional; in other words, I had this mindset that the car was making me feel like less of a professional.

We were at the negotiating table with the salesman. Alex asked him to leave for a minute so that we could discuss this buying option. We were ready to sign on the dotted line and Alex looked at me and said “With this new car payment, you would need to keep your job.” I looked at him not quite understanding what he was saying. “Ok,” I replied without hesitation, still confused by his statement as I was in denial. He said it again but added an additional caveat, “We can’t afford all of the payments we have plus another new car payment if you quit your job. So what if we have a baby?” I understood where he was going with this now.

I sat there for a second, being a stay-at-home at home mom was my strongest desire, but it had already been some time and it appeared as if it was going to be a while before we were going to have a child. I assured him, “Well, we have at least 9 months before that happens, so I am sure we can figure it out in that time.” We discussed this briefly, then without much further ado, I had a new car.

At that moment that I remembered this, I was sitting on my bed. I had been throwing up all day from the first-trimester sickness (the most effective diet plan I have ever been on by the way ) and I was feeling even sicker than ever. My stomach hurt, I was scared, and I was starting to see clearly for the first time about our finances as I was laying there in misery……

Alex’s Perspective

I remember the night Cassie is recalling. I felt hopeless because my wife was experiencing morning sickness non-stop – why they call it morning sickness when it lasts all day and night was beyond my comprehension. But I felt even more hopeless because I knew we were in trouble.

As a husband, I already knew the stress and responsibility of taking on an additional financial responsibility when I got married. What do I mean? When I was single it was easy though it didn’t always seem that way. If I lost my job I could easily uproot myself and move to where I could find work. If I lost my job, I could live with myself by skipping a couple of meals if I couldn’t afford it. In other words, with myself, if I lost everything I could suck it up and make it work. But the day I married my beautiful bride, much of that changed. I knew that day that losing my job would mean more hardship because I wanted to provide for my wife. It’s one thing for me to miss a meal, but to see my wife suffering would be much more difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I know that the Lord still provides and that many have gone through hardships and survived. I’m not denying that. What I’m simply stating is how much more difficult it would be to imagine because I would be causing her pain by going through it.

So maybe you see where I am going with this. That night Cassie is referencing above is the same night that it occurred to me how much more responsibility that children would bring. I was no longer just responsible for myself, or even myself and my wife, but I was now responsible for this family. I pondered on the verse “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (I Tim 5:8) and started to realize just how foolish and selfish I had been. Because, if you’ve read the rest of our series then you know just how foolish and unwise we had been with our finances. Because of the debt load, it wasn’t as simple as just getting a couple of side jobs to cover expenses until I found something new. We needed every last penny of my corporate job – and hers as well – because we were already getting the payday loans. One lost paycheck would mean financial disaster for us. Just to be clear, I still remember the day (a few months before) that our Friday paychecks didn’t come until Monday because of a snowstorm and the stress that ensued that weekend because we couldn’t even make it financially an extra couple of days. Yes, we knew the pain of being a “slave to my creditor” (Prov 22:7) because of our foolish spending.

And I did think back as well to that ominous day in which we purchased the second car. But here’s the rub. While Cassie was struggling with that decision I knew there were two reasons why we got into that mess in the first place. As she mentioned, she couldn’t drive the first car we bought – honestly not caring too much if she ever learned to drive it because I wanted the car so bad. But what I was really doing was selfishly getting what I wanted. I was driving around the new car while she drove the junker. It was my selfishness that drove her desire for us to buy that car that day (when we had “the talk” about needing to keep her job to support it). But the most important reason it was my fault is because as the husband, I was officially responsible for the decision that day (and all up to that day). I had foolishly led my family into a life of pleasure and spending without considering the impact it would have. And that night, the weight of that impact was almost greater than I could bear.

We had just passed the $100K mark in our consumer debt (e.g., car loans, furniture loans, credit cards and student loans, etc). We knew Cassie couldn’t continue working full time, and especially after our child was born knew we had always dreamed of her staying home to take care of our child. But the numbers just weren’t adding up on how we make it all work. I knew we had to do something differently. But what?

A few days later we would start to form some answers to those questions (and its a secret until the next article). And although we will try to detail the struggles and frustrations, we want you to know that it will probably sound easier than it was. It will probably seem like we were working through our plan like clockwork and we could see it all unfold before us. But we don’t want you to be deceived. What we are about to detail is a summary of our lives and years of struggle, of tension and many times of “not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel”. The hours of struggle would turn into days, the days into weeks, and so on. So often the ink on paper (or electronic ink) just doesn’t do justice to the pain and struggle. But we at least want to warn you to look for it. We want you to know it is real. We want you to know that when you say “I just don’t see any way out” that we’ve said the same thing. We can’t claim to be where you are at, but we can claim to know how it feels. And how that feeling of dread can affect everything you do. That is part of why we write this.

If you’re new to the series or just want to catch up, we encourage you to check out our whole Deep in Debt to Debt Free series!

Please Keep Sites Like Ours on the Internet – Take 20 Seconds to Sign this Petition

thriftyal — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:29:08 +0000

Fighting online piracy is important. The most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding. There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs. – From Google’s additional information on the blackout

You may wonder at the “blackout” over our header on our site today and we wanted to share why. We encourage and urge you to find out more and sign the virtual petition (it only takes about 20 seconds to sign the petition). Although well-intentioned, SOPA and PIPA are provisioned to shut down sites without any due process of law upon the accusation of having copyrighted material on them inappropriately. While we do not encourage “stealing content”, we especially do not encourage legislation that will “shut down our site and others like us” without due process, lacking protection and ability to defend ourselves. Thank you for taking the 20 seconds to sign this petition.

Click HERE to find out more information and sign the petition!

Did You Receive the Amazon Mom Email Regarding Changes? Here’s What To Expect Now!

thriftyal — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:58:44 +0000

Many of you have mentioned an email that we ourselves received late last week – that as of January 24, 2012, Amazon Mom will be introducing some changes to their program. Obviously, some of you might not even know what we are talking about. Amazon Mom has been a program offered for over a year where you could receive a three-month trial of Amazon Prime FREE 2-day shipping plus receive additional discounts on products you need as a parent – especially the extra 15% discount offered on Subscribe & Save orders on diapers and wipes that we highlight each and every week in our online diaper deals!

But the changes have brought many questions and a lot of uncertainty about the future of the Amazon Mom program. Currently, when you received your FREE Amazon Prime 2-day shipping for 3-months, you could add a month to that by making a $25 purchase from their Baby Store – an easy thing to do especially if you are buying a large enough size box of diapers – all for up to a total of 12 months of FREE Amazon Prime. But what you also knew as well is that even if you didn’t make the purchase to extend your shipping benefits, you would still receive the 15% off of Subscribe & Save orders as a remaining benefit as an Amazon Mom member.

We have been researching these changes and communicating directly with Amazon to get the answers you need to understand the impact from the upcoming changes. We are going to compile some questions and answers below to help you. We need you to help us identify any gaps we are missing – if after reading this you still have a question, let us know and we’ll try to either clarify or get further resolution.

First, make sure to check out the Amazon Mom information page to learn more about the benefits as this is the source of much of the information here.

1. Do I lose my Amazon Mom membership after January 24, 2012?

This is probably the biggest change we’ve noticed. In the past, when your FREE Amazon Prime membership dropped off (either due to not extending your Prime because of not making the possibly $25 purchase or reaching the year total extensions), you would still receive the additional 15% discount for being an Amazon Mom. As of January 24, 2012, it appears that if you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership (either through extensions – see below – or just by purchasing Amazon Prime), you will not receive the 15% off discount. You will still receive their Amazon Mom email with exclusive Amazon Mom deals and promotions, but the 15% discount exclusively reserved for Amazon Mom subscribers will no longer be available to you.

2. Can I still receive additional months of Amazon Prime with a qualified $25 purchase at the Baby Store?

Our best and current understanding of this is Yes! The Amazon Mom FAQ actually states : “For every $25 you spend in the Baby Store, you earn an extra month of Amazon Mom benefits.” But as before, you can earn up to a full year total and you can check your status of how many months you can still extend your membership by checking your prime membership under the “Manage Your Prime Membership page” in your account. From our reading of this as well, because you are extending the Amazon Mom benefits by an additional month, you should still receive the 15% off discount reserved exclusively for Amazon Mom members for eligible diapers and wipes purchases.

3. How do I continue receiving the full benefits from my Amazon Mom Membership?

After January 24, 2012, the way you can continue receive your full benefits (especially the FREE Amazon Prime shipping and especially the additional 15% off discount for S&S orders on eligible diapers and wipes) is by continuing to make your $25 eligible purchase through the Baby Store or signing up for Amazon Prime for $79.

4. I understand that. Does The Thrifty Couple believe Amazon Prime is a good deal?

We understand the needs of each family will be different. However, you will probably note we post a number of Amazon deals on a continual basis. We will admit (you may have assumed or thought we were just making the $25 purchase for FREE shipping) we pay the $79 each year for Amazon Prime. We have found that the $6.58 per month ($79 spread over 12 months) has been well worth the cost because of the amazing discounts we find on Amazon, the additional 15% off discount for Amazon Mom members when purchasing diapers and wipes, and the convenience of doing it all from home.

We were just looking at one of our online diaper deals and discussing how much we are already saving solely from our 15% off discount:

If you bought just one box of diapers each month:

Huggies Snug & Dry Size 5 120 ct. for $24.80 = final is $5.58 each jumbo pack equivalent

The price you receive prior to S&S discount or Amazon Mom 15% additional discount is $33.50. The way we get to this deal is:

$33.50 – $1.68 (5% S&S discount) - $5.03 (15% Amazon Mom discount) – $2 (ecoupon) = $24.80

Plus, if also buy a box of wipes each month:

Huggies Natural Care Baby Wipes, Refill, 184-Count Pack (Pack of 3) for 648-ct wipes sale for $16.95 ($5.65 each) after Amazon Mom’s subscribe and save additional 20% discount (normally $26.97) = as low as .03 each wipe (.026 exactly)

$21.19 – $1.06 (5% S&S discount) - $3.18 (15% Amazon Mom discount) = $16.95

So you can see, if by combining the two discounts from Amazon Mom you just “earned” $8.21 towards saving which does exceed the $6.58 you need to make up the cost of your membership. We do know that this isn’t a totally fair assessment as we also buy our diapers and wipes in-store with our rock-bottom in-store weekly diapers and wipes deals, but when you consider our other savings throughout the year we fully believe we easily make up the cost of membership – we make a bulk of our grocery and household purchases through Amazon, not to mention our gift shopping for birthdays and Christmas as well.

We are not trying to convince each and every one of you to purchase Amazon Prime now merely to continue receiving your benefits. But you asked us the question (well, we did in our post but we have had many of you ask us) and we want to be honest with you. Its worth it to our family – even as and especially because we are The Thrifty Couple. Plus a little known fact is you can share your Amazon Prime membership with up to 4 invitees, so you can possibly share the cost of membership. And whether this helps you decide, an a full Amazon Prime member you can also loan a Kindle book each month for FREE (out of a selection) and stream thousands of instant videos as well for FREE. There really are a large number of benefits so we invite you to check out the Amazon Prime benefits directly on their site.

5. They are not accepting new Amazon Mom subscription. Because they might be losing some expiring accounts on January 24, 2012, will we be able to sign up?

We hope so. We have asked this question and hope that because of new slots opening up for membership that we might see them open it again.

6. Can I cancel my Amazon Mom subscription and sign up again in a few months to get the full Amazon Mom benefits?

Amazon is very clear that the FREE 3-month Amazon Prime portion of Amazon Mom is only available once in the lifetime of your account.

We hope this helps you work through some of your questions you have regarding Amazon Mom. We remember the frustrations we all had when 20% off (and other) coupons were available in in the magazines and then it all stopped. But we also know that Amazon quickly came up with some great incentives and benefits soon after to get us all buying again.

Do you have any questions about this that were not answered above? We are compiling more questions for our contact at Amazon and would love to include anything from you we missed.

Important note regarding all other Subscribe & Save purchases:
Please note the 15% discount for exclusive Amazon Mom members is not to be confused with the 15% Subscribe & Save discount available for grocery and many other product categories. The Subscribe & Save discount for diapers and wipes was reduced to 5% in October 2011 (see the Subscribe & Save FAQ here for more details). Thus, everywhere else in the site you should still see a 15% Subscribe & Save discount. Only in the diapers and wipes will you see the 5% Subscribe and Save PLUS the 15% Amazon Mom discount while you are still eligible for it. Thanks Camilla for asking about this clarification!

Note: Please note the above information is our best analysis and assessment from all information provided to us. When an answer contradicts official Amazon policy, please understand our answer is in no way binding, nor is it from Amazon themselves. We are merely trying to provide you the best information possible regarding this change to the Amazon Mom memberships.

Book Giveaway: Win 1 of 5 Copies of The Money Saving Mom’s Budget

thriftyal — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:44:20 +0000

This giveaway is now closed and is no longer allowing entries.

A few weeks’ ago Crystal from Money Saving Mom contacted us and asked if we would like to review her new book The Money Saving Mom’s Budget. Before we talk about her book, we want to talk about our personal experience with Crystal and her blog. When we started our site, we were nearing the end of paying off our $100K in consumer debt. In doing that we cut our expenses and creatively brought in extra income (just to name a couple of steps we took) without any outside resources – we didn’t even know money-saving sites even existed. Shortly after we began our site one of the first blogs we came across was Crystal’s. Two years later, she is still a blog that we enjoy and appreciate reading because she does share many of the same financial principles that we hold to and yet her financial story is a story that we hope our own children can have – that of having a debt-free and frugal life from the beginning and not experiencing all those financial woes that we know all too well.

We enjoyed reading Crystal’s book. She walks you through developing your finances by giving you seven rules to live by and breaking them down each month to help you work towards your goals. She has very practical and common-sense advice that is very clear and understandable and easy to follow. One tip that we loved and hope to try is the following tip:

Buy lean cut bottom round roast on sale and have it ground at the meat counter. This makes excellent 90 percent to 95 percent lean ground beef and it’s usually quite a bit less tha you’d pay for high-quality ground beef.

You can buy the book at Amazon on sale for $10.99 (down from $14) and all of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Compassion International.

To celebrate Crystal’s new book, we are excited to give away five copies on our site!

Here are the ways to enter:

Please make sure to fill out the form below to indicate you completed that step!

The easiest entry is to fill out your name and email address (required)
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This giveaway ends on Thursday, January 19th at midnight MST.

This giveaway is now closed and is no longer allowing entries.

The giveaway will run through January 19, 2011 at 11:59 pm MST. The winners will be selected randomly and notified via email. Must be 18+ to enter and reside in the United States. This promotion is in NO way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. The information collected is utilized for entry into this giveaway only. Comments left on this post, Facebook, Twitter or other posts will not be counted as an entry to this giveaway. This giveaway is sponsored by Money Saving Mom.

Legal Bundle that Include Last Will and Testament and Living Will for Only $29

thriftyal — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:14:34 +0000

We all know there are things you just don’t want to think about – such as what would you need to do to protect your spouse and children upon an untimely death? You have probably heard horror stories of families that lost a husband and father and were almost financially destroyed because of not having a living will. Today’s daily deal from Mamasource can help. Here’s a set of Legal Documents from USLegal as promoted by Dave Ramsey which includes a last will and testament, power of attorney, living will, health care directive, estate planning worksheets, and personal planning information for 52% off! What is even better is when you can get a nice discount to protect your financial future while saving your budget now.

This is being offered through Mamasource right now and so this is a great way to go to get these items for this awesome discount! And as you download the full package of documents, there are no shipping charges which makes it an even better deal!

Check out the Legal Life Documents Personal Planning Package HERE

See more Daily Deals

Note: Please note we are not legal advisors and cannot provide legal advice. We advise you to contact your lawyer to ensure any legal planning is conducted properly and thoroughly. Yada yada…

Seventh Generation 70 load Natural Laundry Detergent $11.94 Shipped (for Standard and HE Machines)

thriftyal — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:28:36 +0000

Here’s a good deal on a 112 oz., 70 load Seventh Generation Natural Free and Clear or Citrus and Lavender Laundry Detergent at $11.94 a box shipped FREE! Also, this laundry detergent is for use in both Standard and HE machines!

Here’s how to get Seventh Generation 112 oz. 70 load box for $11.94 shipped!

Head to Amazon HERE to see the Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent deal
Choose the Natural Free and Clear or Natural Citrus and Lavender Laundry Detergent on sale for $14.05
Choose the subscribe and save option on the right and this will save you an additional 15% = final is $11.94 each box shipped!

Amazon’s prices can change at any time.

See more Amazon Deals

See more Natural and Organic Deals

Please note: the 15% discount is for the Subscribe and Save option. Amazon states that you can cancel subscribe and save at any time, including right after the order. So if you do not intend to continue having them automatically delivered, cancel the subscribe and save soon after so you do not forget (wait for your items to ship before canceling as it will cancel your current order)!

4 FREE Tom’s of Maine Natural Products (Soap, Toothpaste) – Just Pay Shipping

thriftyal — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:27:50 +0000

Here is a way to get a FANTASTIC deal on Tom’s of Maine products! We love the toothpaste, kids toothpaste, soap, deodorant and more!

First, you will want to claim a FREE $10 off $10 or more coupon from Vitacost! This will work for anything on the Vitacost site and they are literally a huge vitamin, supplement, natural and organic grocery and household online warehouse where you can find pretty much anything you may need in the natural health and organic category!

They will have some awesome sales and clearances and we have been buying from them for the past year for many of our everyday needs at their sale and clearance prices. Plus we get these great deals and shop from home, which is even better!

So you can head to the Vitacost site through this link HERE to claim your $10 off coupon on an order of $10 or more (essentially a FREE $10 gift card!) and browse their site.

Even better, they are having a Tom’s of Maine sale. With this sale, you can get 4 items FREE in this scenario. You just need to pay shipping, which is $4.99, which will essentially make these products $1.25 shipped FREE to your door! You can also get FREE shipping with an order of $49 or more, so you can apply your $10 credit to your total order combined with the current sales for stock up on your favorites too!

Head to the Vitacost site through this link HERE to claim your $10 off coupon on an order of $10 or more
Then search for the word Toms in the search box
Then all of the Tom’s of Maine organic and natural products will show up and you can add $10 worth to your cart. There are several, NOT just the two products we are showing.
You can add the following to get exactly to $10!

Add three (3) of the Deodorant Bar Soap at $2.21 each

Add one (1) Tom’s of Main Children’s toothpaste Orange Mango for $3.37 each

Then your cart will have exactly $10 in it!

Then just pay the $4.99 shipping = final is 4 Tom’s of Maine natural products for $1.25 each shipped to your door!

See more Organic Deals