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by Alex on December 3, 2011
We are excited and honored to announce that we have been invited to speak at the upcoming third annual Family Economics Conference! We attended the first Family Economics where we were challenged and encouraged to be even more faithful with our finances as well as establishing solid economic and financial principles with our children and as a family. In fact, it was that conference that really helped solidify our vision to have me come home from my corporate job and work together with our family and develop our own family-based economic. We will be sharing practical ways and tips to help families save money and stretch their budgets in every area of life!
Are you ready to take your family’s economy to the next level? Is your family ready to start a family business, but you just don’t know where to start. Get your family equipped and inspired in Chicago at the third annual Family Economics Conference on March 8-10, 2012. This exciting event features a line-up of speakers who will equip your family’s economy for long-term success, including Kevin Swanson, Doug Phillips, RC Sproul Jr., Steve and Teri Maxwell, Dave Tucker, Erik Weir, Bill Roth, Don Hart, Alex and Cassie as The Thrifty Couple (that’s us! ), and more! In addition, you’ll be encouraged by the practical wisdom in the popular Q&A panels, where you will have opportunity to interact with the speakers. Just a sample of the topics to be addressed are:
Raising Sons to Provide
Household Budget Management
Marketing a Family Business
Household Chores and Time Management
The Duties of Dominion
Keys to Being a Successful Family Entrepreneur
Stories from Successful Family Start-Ups
A Special Proverbs 31 Track for Ladies
…and much more!
Also included in the price of registration is a family pass to the 2012 Annual Liberty Day Celebration on Saturday night after the conference (value of $59).
As a special for Thrifty Couple followers, you can save $20 off your family registration by using the coupon code ThriftyCouple when you register online. Click here to register now!
We have been wanting and planning to go sometime soon and can’t wait until we get to go (and we will go again when the Ark Encounter opens – so excited for this too).
Have you gone to the Creation Museum yet? How is it?
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by Cassie on September 19, 2011
This Saturday, September 24, is FREE Museum Day. This means that you can go to many museums for FREE! Whether you want to take a day trip to someplace fun or visit a site in your own town, it is the time to do so and a great opportunity for it!
For the FREE Museums, you will need to request your FREE tickets to any of the FREE museums listed on the Smithsonian site. You will be able to request two FREE tickets. Plus many of the attractions will let children 3,4,5, or even 6 and under for free without a ticket all of the time.
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by Cassie on August 5, 2011
Sam’s Club is having an open house starting today, August 5 – 7th where anyone and everyone can shop with no up-charge, just as if they are members. This is a great time to check out whether or not a membership would be worth it, or a great time to compare prices on big ticket items that you have considered and budgted for. Sam’s Club this weekend might be the time to get it. Please see the site for details. Thanks Frugally Thrifty
Also, we wanted to share our thoughts again regarding the value of a club membership. We find that we save more money in the grocery store or Target/Walmart with sales and coupons than we do for the shelf prices of Sam’s Club bulk items with the exception a few items listed below.
We have mostly used the membership for a few food items that we like that can only be found at Sam’s Club or things that are hard to get cheap at the store – we have consistently purchased these items at Sam’s Club. We usually end up going about every 3-4 months.
For example – these items (in our experience) seem to be the cheapest and hard price to beat at the store:
Fresh shredded Parmesan (the hard kind) is cheapest there
Hormel real bacon bits (these are quite pricey for the non-imitation) in the regular store and we use it in recipes and salads a lot!
French’s Fried Onions
Honey (although we have been able to get this in our local grocer’s case lot sales the last 2 years for cheaper)
There are some frozen bulk foods that can only be found at Sam’s Club that we really like too
When we do make our quarterly or so run to Sam’s Club – we often find great produce deals and will stock up to eat fresh or freeze for the future.
For a large item deal – we have found that Sam’s Club is a great place to get freezers – for your awesome food deals – they seem to have lower and very competitive prices on new freezers
Our most recent large purchase was a new t.v. that was last year’s floor model for over 75% off. They had it marked down by over 70% as it was last year’s model and the floor display and then we talked them down by another $55.
When you are not getting your digital photo prints for FREE and need some photo prints now – Sam’s Club has the lowest price at .15-.16 a print. It is also easy to upload them from your computer and pick them up in the store and even cheaper that way!
They can also have good deals on office type supplies and ink if/when you get in a bind and have not been able to get those items cheap lately and need them now. We mostly buy our ink with our Max Perks rewards – but have still needed to make a Sam’s Club ink run here and there.
With some exceptions – we will purchase the frozen chicken or fish if/when we run out and there are no immediate sales (see our explanation on saving on meat).
Finally, we go through batteries very quickly with our camera that is always on We cannot stock-up fast enough to keep up with our usage (after we run out of our awesome stock from the office store sales) so we get the excess that we need at Sam’s Club as they have the lowest everyday price.
So that is what we do with our membership. We debate renewing it each year, but have ultimately decided to renew because of the above list.
Please share your thoughts on whether or not you think a warehouse/club membership is worth the value and your experience!
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by Alex on February 1, 2011
We were invited last week to participate in an exciting event sponsored by Yoplait Original Yogurt. Nancy O’Dell, of “Entertainment Tonight” and “Your OWN Show, Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”, has partnered with Yoplait to commit to raising the awareness of the important of calcium in maintaining strong, healthy bones. We asked you to share with us any questions you would like us to ask both Nancy and Yoplait and we look forward to sharing with you some of those answers here.
First we wanted to share how excited we were to even participate in such an event. We wanted to thank you (our awesome readers) for if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t have had this opportunity. We wanted a short clip of a video we took to share with you what we heard at the event. What you hear is Nancy’s commitment to spreading the news about bone health and how the newly reformulated Yoplait Original provides not only 50% of the Daily Value (DV) of calcium that women need but also provides 50% of the DV of Vitamin D which is necessary for your bones to absorb that calcium and build your strong, healthy bones.
We were especially excited because we were able to spend a few minutes with Nancy after she shared those facts with us. And we were able to ask her those questions that many of you gave to us:
You are a busy, active woman and mother of three children. How do you find the time to stay fit, eat healthy, and exercise? Nancy shared with us that one of the secrets to finding this time is through a combination of planning ahead (see next question) and choosing active activities when she spends that quality time with her children so that she is able to “stay fit” while enjoying that down time with her kids.
When you are so active, how do you keep the Yoplait yogurt cold? We truly loved Nancy’s idea here as she mentioned that her mother taught her a trick when she was little about she would freeze her juice boxes for her lunches – Nancy adopted that idea and freezes her yogurts (which involves the planning ahead) so she can take them with her anywhere she goes. Just two weeks ago at the Golden Globes she had her small bag of sliced apples and her frozen yogurt to enjoy as a snack – how real is that? Cassie and her seemed to connect at the joy of the frozen yogurt tasting just like an ice cream treat. We loved this tip for freezing the yogurt as its been a favorite of ours for many years!
Some of our readers saw you on The Talk last week and wanted to know – is Yoplait yogurt really your favorite snack? Nancy told us that sure, there might be some junk food snacks out there that she enjoys, but when it comes to a snack that she can love and love not feeling guilty after eating it – that yes, it definitely is. She shared with us (as she has in other places) that she loves the Key Lime Pie flavor – its her favorite! But she also shared with us another variation of eating it:
Nancy’s Key Lime Pie Yogurt “Pie”
Yoplait Original Key Lime Pie yogurt
1 graham cracker
A dab of whipped topping
Spread your Yoplait Original Key Lime Pie yogurt on to the graham cracker (which is low in calories) and add just a dab of whipped topping. Not only do you enjoy the bursting flavor from the yogurt but you get the consistency and sense of eating a real key lime pie!
Sorry for the focus issues – we’re not exactly sure what happened.
We love it – Nancy took the time to talk to us, share with us about things she learned from her childhood, gave us real examples in which she lives what she talks (she really loves and believes in this yogurt) and we swapped stories about our children. We were so impressed with how genuine and real Nancy was – and we heard many of her close coworkers affirm that as well.
But remember, you had some other questions for us as well that was more suited for Yoplait. We loved the fact that we met and were able to spend some time with a General Mills spokesman. We asked about their usage of artificial dyes and ingredients. What she shared with us is that the newly reformulated Yoplait Original does contain natural ingredients yet doesn’t contain any of those artificial dyes or high-fructose corn syrup – which makes the choice of Yoplait Original even that more appealing for yourself or for your kids. She also stated that Yoplait is committed to continue to offer more natural options and maintain their commitment to health. It sounds like Yoplait wants to continue to lead the pack in providing more natural, healthier options in the years to come – she also shared with us some great new products coming out soon like a newly updated formula for their Greek Yogurt (yum!) and others that should be hitting the market as well!
Don’t miss out on your FREE cup of yogurt!!
If you saw the video the you also saw Nancy encouraging you to go become a fan of Yoplait on their Facebook page! When you do, don’t miss out on requesting your FREE cup of Yoplait Original so you can find out just how delicious it is as well! But don’t take our word for it – go try it yourself!
Finally, we would be lacking if we didn’t thank Yoplait for inviting us and making arrangements so that we could take part in this event and celebration of Yoplait Original’s newly formulated yogurt!
And truly we had to throw in one last picture – we have been “Trading Spaces” fans and Paige Davis fans for many years. Cassie looked over and said “There’s Paige Davis!” I said, “No…..”. Well, guess who was wrong? Thank you Paige for taking all that time in letting us hang out with you while at the party!
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by Cassie on December 30, 2010
In case you haven’t heard, Toys R Us has a fun birthday club. It is FREE and so easy. Each child in your home can join. Once you join, a few weeks before your child’s birthday, they will send you a party planning kit and a great coupon (usually $5/$25!). Then, around your child’s actual birthday – they will receive a birthday card from Geoffrey with a gift card attached! In the past it has been $3 gift card ($3 off a purchase of $3 or more).
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by Cassie on November 16, 2010
Cold Stone Creamery is offering a FREE 3 oz. sample of their 8-layer cakes tonight (Tuesday, November 16th) from 5pm – 8pm at the locations nationwide.
Here’s how the cakes are described:
Cold Stone’s Eight Layer Cakes feature three layers of ice cream, three layers of cake and two mid-layers of mix-ins and finished with frosting and edible decorations. They’re available in two flavors: Cake Batter Layers and Quilted Coffee Caramel. Valid only at participating locations. While supplies last.
We suggest calling your Coldstone Location ahead of time to be sure they are participating.
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