Here is a great and RARE deal! Grab half price tickets to the Creation Museum in Kentucky from JBDollar Stretcher daily deal site.  You do not need to be local to get this deal, but if you are planning to go to the Creation Museum, then you might want to grab your tickets for cheaper now!

In addition, right now if you donate a canned good item, you will also receive a 2nd day FREE with your ticket at the Creation Museum!

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?

See more Hot Deals

Thanks Savvy Spending

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.

Thanks Living As Mom

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!

Happy 4th of July everyone!! We hope you are having a wonderful weekend filled with friends, family, fun, memories and great BBQ’S!

We wanted to share a couple of posts with you to have a fun and safe day:

• Firework Safety reminders and information by our friend Jennie from Bargain Blessings
• How to take quality pictures or video of fireworks from your smartphone

Please be sure to thank any of our military personnel walking about for our freedom – we are free because they are brave!

Have a wonderful, safe, and Thrifty Day!

From our family to yours!

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!

If you are wanting to travel near or far this weekend, here is an idea for a FREE family activity! FREE National Parks Entrance!

Starting tomorrow Saturday, January 15 – Monday, January 17th, you can visit National Parks for FREE.

Head to the National Park Service site to find out a national park in your area or one that you would like to travel a few hours too!

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).

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.

Thanks Chi-Town Cheapskate

Then don’t forget to take this coupon with you in case your tastebuds want more.

Also, you can purchase discount gift cards to Cold Stone (that you can then combine with coupons) to lower your out of pocket expenses even more!

City Deals is offering $20 Coldstone gift cards for $16.  See all of the details on City Deals site at this link HERE.

Sam’s Club is offering a FREE $10 gift card for new memberships that join by November 24th. You will receive your gift card that will be activiated after the 26th (after Black Friday of course!).

Please see the site for details.

Thanks Combat Clippers

If you have thought about buying a Sam’s Club membership then this might be the time with this gift card deal.

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.
• It is a great place to get freezers – for your awesome food deals – they seem to have lower and very competitive prices on new freezers
• 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!

Our Family at Our Yellowstone Vacation 2010

This is going to be a fun weekend to explore some historical and beautiful sites across this great country.

This Saturday, September 25, it is both FREE Museum Day and FREE Public Lands Day.

This means that you can go to many museums and many national parks 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.

We posted this on our other blog, but wanted to share with everyone here too.

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.

Thanks Money Saving Mom

Head to the National Park Service site to find out a national park in your area or one that you would like to travel a few hours too!

Here is a round-up of FREE things to do on Saturday August 14th!

First, Walmart is having FREE sampling of many products again for this weekend. Click on each of these to see if you local Walmart is participating (each store is offering different ones) and for additional details.

• FREE sampling Quaker LifeBar
• FREE sampling of Kellogg’s Bakers Treasures and Cinnabon Bars
• FREE sampling of Diamond Foods Breakfast on-the-go and Kettle Chips
• Dora’s 10th Birthday Celebration Event filled with FREEBIES

Lowe’s is having their next FREE Build and Grow Clinic for kids.  This time they are making a FREE Bug Box. Just head to the Lowe’s site to register your kids for FREE.

PLUS – your kids will also get a coupon for a FREE Wendy’s Jr. Frosty for attending! Thanks Mojo Savings

Thanks Savvy Spending

Sam’s Club is having an Open House this weekend – that means that anyone can go and shop at Sam’s Club just as if there are a member.

This is an excellent way to try out the shopping and see if it is something that would be useful to your family’s budget.  We do have a membership – but honestly shop there rarely!

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.
• It is a great place to get freezers – for your awesome food deals – they seem to have lower and very competitive prices on new freezers
• 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.
• 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.

Here are the details for the Open House at Sam’s Club this weekend:

August 6 – 8th anyone can shop just like a member would.  The best news is that there is no upcharge on your purchases – normally, if you shopped at Sam’s Club as a non-member, they would add a 10% upcharge to your balance – there is no upcharge this weekend! YAY! So check it out and let us know your thoughts on a Sam’s Club membership.

Also, see our previous post regarding a special deal for the College Student Sam’s Club memberships!

Thanks The Frugal Mind

Tonight (August 3, 2010)  is National Night Out – what that means that is many cities across the Nation are hosting gatherings for the community to sponsored by local businesses and attended by the law enforcement and public service groups to:

• Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
• Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;
• Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and
• Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

What are some of the activities that promote the above goals on National Night Out 2010? Well according to their website:

Along with the traditional display of outdoor lights and front porch vigils, cities, towns and neighborhoods ‘celebrate’ NNO with a variety of events and activities such as:

• block parties,
• cookouts,
• visits from local police and sheriff departments
• parades, exhibits,
• flashlight walks,
• contests, and
• youth programs.

NNO has proven to be an effective, inexpensive and enjoyable program to promote neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships in our fight for a safer nation. Plus, the benefits your community will derive from NNO will most certainly extend well beyond the one night.

It is FREE to attend your local National Night Out. To see if your local community is participating, just head over to the National Night Out website, click on your state and then a list of cities in your state will pop up.  Have fun!

Thanks Sarah’s Deals

It is time again for Walmart stores across the nation are offering a bunch a FREEBIES at different locations for the Walmart in-store events starting today, Thursday, July 29 and running through the weekend until August 1st. Many of the FREEBIES are new products that are “debuting” and so we all get to try them first at Walmart.

Stop by your local Walmart and pick up the following FREEBIES (click on each one to enter your zip code to see what Walmart locations are offering that FREEBIE near you):

Purina One

Coty Beyonce Heat Fragrance

Sun Crystals Keeblers and Tarts

Atkins Nutritional Bars

Dean’s Foods Swiss Tea and Fruit2Day

I guess these sampling events are quite the event!

Thanks Mojo Savings

Walmart stores across the nation are offering a bunch a FREEBIES at different locations for the Walmart in-store events starting today, Thursday, July 22 and running through the weekend until July 25th. Many of the FREEBIES are new products that are “debuting” and so we all get to try them first at Walmart.

Stop by your local Walmart and pick up the following FREEBIES (click on each one to enter your zip code to see what Walmart locations are offering that FREEBIE near you):

General Mills Bugles and Snack Bars sampling

Kashi Cereal and Blueberries sampling

Chelan Fresh Washington Cherries sampling

ACH Weber Tones Spice and Kraft Toasted Chips sampling

Gain 11 0z. sample bottle (Thanks Mojo Savings)

Wrigley’s Orbit Gum

Have fun this weekend as you pick up a bunch of FREEBIES while doing your thrifty coupon shopping.  I think that the Walmart stores will be hopping!

We are leaving at 4 am tomorrow morning (Thursday, July 8th!!) to hit the road and drive from Salt Lake City to Breckenridge, CO for the Savvy Blogging Summit! We are very excited to attend and to learn how to become better at our efforts with blogging! We do have many site changes coming in the near future that we are excited about!

In the meantime and for this weekend – we are still blogging and bringing the deals to you! PLUS there will be the following things that we will also have this  weekend:

• Our fourth part on Thrifty Travel Series and staying at timeshare resorts and condos!
• Our first part to our “Deep in Debt to Debt-Free – How it all started!”  series
• Also, there will be a big giveaway with the largest prize we have ever offered to a single reader of The Thrifty Couple!

That is a few of the exciting things going on this weekend here on our site so stay tuned….

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!! We hope you are having a wonderful weekend filled with friends, family, fun, memories and great BBQ’S!

Our weekend started on Friday when we had many close friends come over for a BBQ and fireworks, today was spent in the Utah mountains hiking and enjoying God’s creation then off to parades, fesitvities, fireworks and family gatherings  on Monday! Whew – it is turning out to be quite the weekend!!

Have a wonderful, safe, and Thrifty weekend!

From our family to yours!

Thrifty Al and Thrifty Cas

Denny’s is offering a yummy FREEBIE right now! Just head over to Denny’s on Facebook and “sign your Bill of Rights” which entitles you to a FREE order of Red, White and Blueberry pancake puppies when you purchase any entree or item from the $2 $4 $6 $8 Value Menu! You will need to print your Bill of Rights and as this is your coupon for your FREE pancake puppies.  You will have until 7/25/10 to use it!

We LOOOVE these things – we love to eat them as a dessert – when we have a FREE coupon of course Have you tried them yet?? What do you think?

Also, don’t forget that Kids Eat FREE at Denny’s on Tuesday and Saturday nights!

I saw this advertised a couple of day’s ago and I thought to myself “wow, that is a lot of work and a lot of money for a FREE Chick-Fil-A meal to come fully dressed as a cow!” But after talking to Thrifty Al – it is hard to pass up FREE food.  So he suggested just grabbing a white t-shirt and putting black construction paper spots and am sure that this will be sufficient as being dressed up like a cow. Dress the whole family and each of you get a FREE meal!

If you have ideas on how to make a cow costume for FREE – please share your ideas and pictures!! If you decide to do this – send us a picture of your costume and/or your costume and FREE meal and we will post it to share with everyone!!

To get your FREE meal, put on your cow costume on July 9th and head to your local Chick-Fil-A to snag your FREE Chick-Fil-A meal!

Thanks Savings and Stewardship for the reminder!

]]> http://thethriftycouple.com/2010/06/26/free-chick-fil-a-meal-on-july-9th/feed/ 0 http://thethriftycouple.com/2010/05/21/free-ice-cream-party-with-free-sundaes-at-walmart/ http://thethriftycouple.com/2010/05/21/free-ice-cream-party-with-free-sundaes-at-walmart/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 19:10:10 +0000 thriftycas http://thethriftycouple.com/?p=9114

Yay! FREE Ice Cream Party At Walmart for tomorrow, May 22nd ONLY!

Get ready for the Memorial Day weekend parties and yummy taste testing for the whole family! ENJOY!

WALMART’S FREE ICE CREAM SUNDAE EVENT DETAILS

WHAT: Walmart invites families to come have a free ice cream sundae* with Breyers new and exclusive flavors, and Blue Bunny Premium Ice Cream and new All Natural Frozen Yogurt topped with Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Reddi-wip, and Fresh Strawberries.  The “Free Ice Cream Sundae” event will give moms some sweet inspiration topped with even sweeter savings.

*While supplies last.

WHO: EVERYONE

WHEN: Saturday, May 22 – 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

WHERE: More than 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide