We finally have a Goodwill relatively close to us! For years, they seemed to be everywhere except where we have lived.  Many of my friends across the country have shopped there for their families.

I finally got to visit one (I do visit a lot of other thrift stores in the area too) for the first time a few weeks ago.  I purposefully went looking for shorts for our kids.  We seemed to have a shortage and I just wanted to find cheap ones for outdoor playing and for the summer.

I honestly have struggled finding any great selection at thrift stores as the kids clothes are so picked through and hard to find anything good, I am not sure if this is just a problem in our area, or if that is the case everywhere! So it is always nice to have another thrift store in the area to help with more selection.

In the end, I did find a couple of pairs of shorts for some of our kids.  I wasn’t horribly impressed with the prices, but they were still much cheaper than buying them even new at Walmart.  Their prices were actually compared to ThredUp, and I love ThredUp as it is all gently used high quality clothing and it is easy to find the style, size that I want and I know it is good quality.

I wasn’t even going to bother looking for things for myself, mostly because I had tired kids that probably had not much time in them left before melt down and watching mommy sift through clothing was probably going to bring a fast roaring melt down.

But….. we passed the shoes.  I have to admit, I have a shoe fetish and it has absolutely drove Alex nuts in the 14 years we have been married.  I have gotten significantly better since our journey to become debt-free because there was no room to buy extra shoes.  since becoming debt-free, we’ve had 5 kids and now I am up to my ears in buying shoes for all 7 people in my family. So it practically feeds my obsession now when I buy 7 pairs, they’re just not all for me anymore

Well, as we passed the shoes, I instantly spotted a pair of boots which were exactly like what I had been wanting! I rushed over to them and saw that they looked practically new! I am not sure if they were ever worn as they had the original tags on them!

I was so excited because they were $9.99!  I haven’t been able to find anything close to this price.

I love these boots and they go many places with me Here’s pictures of my boots walkin’ around the zoo!

They are very nice and I love them and I love that I got a good deal on them!

Here we are at the bird show… kids are in the front row and that is my sweet Miracle Baby Josiah (if you haven’t read his story yet, please do so… he will be 2-years old soon!). He is sitting next to his brother who is wearing a shirt from ThredUp online kids thrift store and a pair of shorts that I bought at Goodwill!

Since this was my first time to a Goodwill, this has been the most exciting find there for me so far

What is the best treasure you have found at a thrift store? 

Have you been to a Goodwill and how does it compare to other thrift stores you have been to?

This is a very rare opportunity for All You Magazine, but it has been so popular this month that they have extended this Mother’s Day sale through May 31st! .  This comes out to be only .83 per issue, which is virtually un-heard of!

If you have tried to save money or live a frugal life-style in any way, then you have probably come across one of the most popular magazines for couponers and frugal thinkers alike – All You Magazine.  It is one of our favorites and one of the best magazines out there for the money-savers.  But, you may have also noticed that due to it’s high demand and popularity, it rarely goes on sale!

Well, for a short time, there is a super deal on this magazine! This deal is such a good one, that it is an opportunity to give it a shot and see if the coupons and ideas are a good fit for your budget and family?

First, if you don’t know, we share posts throughout the year on how to save on products using coupons inside of the ALL YOU magazine, plus these coupons matchup with deals in stores your area and finally, these coupons are also listed in our coupon database. This doesn’t even consider the fact that each magazine is packed with great tips on saving money and living on less!  Make sure to check out more information on what each issue of ALL YOU contains! We often find most coupons are higher value than other coupon sources and most are exclusive to All You Magazine as well!

So here’s the deal, All you sells exclusively at Walmart for $2.49 each issue, you can subscribe for the online promotional price of $20 for the year.  But, you can get it for 50% off the lowest subscription price with their 2 for 1 sale.  You can get 2 subscriptions for at the promotional price of 1.

So what this means is 4 things: (Please note, you should also be able to extend any current subscriptions on this deal too)

1. Get double subscriptions for double the coupons for your own family, or
2. Give a free gift to your Mother, friend, or anyone else that would benefit from this magazine, or
3. Split the cost with a friend who has been wanting to get this magazine and each of you will get a subscription for only .83 each issue!
4. If you already have a subscription, you can bless two other people for the cost of 1 with a gift subscription!

Click HERE for your 2 for 1 Subscription Deal to ALL YOU Magazine

Disclaimer: We receive a commission for All You subscriptions purchased through the link above, but we only post a deal on this magazine when we honestly think there is one. Thank you for supporting our site if you choose to order this magazine deal through our site.

Are you doing any retail shopping this week and weekend?  If so, we highly encourage you to spend an extra minute or two but save a lot of money by searching for a printable in-store coupon to save on your total purchase!

Full-List of Newly Available Retail Store Coupons for the 5/10/13 Weekend:

• Aaron Brothers Coupon – 25% Off Entire Purchase (exp: 5/18/2013)
• Aerie Coupon – 20%, 30% or 40% Off Purchase Mystery Coupon (exp: 5/19/2013)
• Aeropostale – Facebook Exclusive 25% off purchase Exp 5/19
• Aeropostale - $10 off $50 Exp 5/31
• American Eagle Coupon – 20%, 30% or 40% Off Purchase Mystery Coupon (exp: 5/19/2013)
• Banana Republic Factory Store – 10% off $100+ purchase Exp 5/21
• Big Lots – 10% off purchase for Armed Forces – Valid 5/18
• Big 5 Sporting Goods Coupon – $10 Off $50 Purchase (exp: 5/20/2013)
• Bonton/Carson’s Coupon - 25% Off Sale Price Apparel + More Coupons (exp: 5/19/2013)
• Cacique - $25 off $75 Exp 5/22
• Carter’s – Facebook Exclusive 25% off $50 Exp 5/19
• Children’s Place – 15% off purchase Exp 5/25
• Chico’s Outlet Coupon – 10% Off Already Reduced Clearance Items (exp: 5/28/2013)
• Famous Footwear – 20% off purchase Valid 5/23 – 5/27
• Gap Outlet – 10% off $75+ purchase Exp 5/21
• GNC Coupon – $10 Off $20 Purchase (exp: 5/31/2013)
• Goody’s - Various Coupons
• Hobby Lobby - 40% off regular priced item Exp 5/18
• iParty Coupon – 20% Off Entire Purchase (exp: 5/31/2013)
• JoAnn Fabrics - 40% off regular priced item Exp 5/18
• Kirkland’s Coupon – $10 Off $50 Purchase (exp: 5/19/2013)
• Lane Bryant - $25 off $75 Exp 5/22
• The Limited – $15 off $30 Exp 5/22
• Lord & Taylor – 15% off purchase Exp 5/20
• Macy’s – 25% off $100+ purchase Exp 5/19
• Michael’s - 25% off purchase Exp 5/18
• New York & Co – $50 off $100 Exp 5/18
• Office Depot – 20% off one item Exp 5/18
• Office Depot – $15 off $75 Exp 5/20
• Office Max – 20% off purchase Exp 5/18
• Old Navy – $10 off $50 Exp 5/19
• Old Navy – Facebook Exclusive $5 off $25 Exp 5/22
• OshKosh B’Gosh Coupon – 25% Off $50 Purchase (exp: 5/19/2013)
• Party City – Various Coupons Exp 5/19
• Party City - $5 off Custom Banner Exp 6/2
• Payless Coupon – 20% Off Entire Purchase (exp: 5/19/2013)
• P.S. from Aeropostale – Facebook Exclusive 25% off purchase Exp 5/19
• Radio Shack Coupon – $10 Off $40 Purchase (exp: 5/17/2013)
• Sherwin Williams Coupon – $10 Off $50 Purchase (exp: 6/30/2013)
• Sports Authority Coupon – 20% Off Entire Purchase (exp: 5/18/2013)
• Target - Various Coupons
• Toys R Us - Free $10 Gift Card with $40 purchase Exp 5/18
• ULTA - 20% off single item Exp 6/1
• Walgreens – Various Coupons in the May Coupon Books (found in-store)
• Yankee Candle Coupon – $20 Off $45 Purchase (exp: 6/2/2013)

• Bath & Body Works - Sign up for email newsletter for Coupons and Discounts
• Bed Bath & Beyond - Sign up for email newsletter and get 20% off coupon
• Burlington / Baby Depot - Sign up for email newsletter and get 20% off coupon
• Carter’s - Sign up for Carter’s Celebration Station for Coupons and Discounts
• DSW – Sign up for the DSW Rewards Program for various coupons
• The Container Store - Organized Teacher’s Program 15% off each purchase
• Express – Sign up for their Email Newsletter and get 15% off your next purchase
• Footlocker – Join their VIP Club and get a $10 off $50 coupon
• Gap Outlet – Free Coupons when you sign up for their email newsletter
• Goody’s - Coupons when you sign up for their email newsletter
• Gymboree – Get Gymboree Rewards for signing up
• Kohl’s - $5 off any purchase
• Naturalizer - $10 off any purchase
• New York & Co -  Get Offers for signing up for their Email Newsletter
• Payless Shoe Source - Special Offers and Coupons for signing up for their Email Newsletter
• Shoe Carnival - Special Offers and Couponswhen you sign up for their Email Newsletter
• Tanger - Get Coupons for your Tanger Outlet Mall
• Things Remembered - Special Offers and Coupons when you sign up for their Email Newsletter 

Finally, be sure to visit our Online Retail Coupon Codes Database HERE for hundreds of online retailers to save even more online! And if you want to be sure you are getting the best deals, don’t miss our post HERE where we teach you how to score the best deal every time!

Thanks to Your Retail Helper and Surviving the Stores

Here are the Eating out deals and coupons for this week of May 2013!

First don’t miss these other resources available on our site:

• How to save money at the restaurant when you don’t have access to coupons
• Our Deep in Debt to Debt Free Series, including Our Seven Debtly Sins of Eating Out.

Now on to the specials available for this weekend!

Restaurants:

Many Local Restaurant Coupons/Discount Gift Certificates: get $25 for $10

Right now you can purchase $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10. Head over to Restaurant.com here to see what’s available in your area!

Bob Evans

• Bob Evans Coupon – Buy 1 Get 1 Free Breakfast Entree WYB 2 Beverages (exp: 5/24/2013)

Boston Market

• Boston Market Coupon – Free Large Side WYB Family Meal (exp: 5/20/2013)

Bucca di Beppo

• Buca di Beppo Coupon – $10 Off $20 Purchase (exp: 5/27/2013)
• $10 off any purchase of Two Buca Small or Buca Large Pastas, Baked Pastas or Entrees from the 5/5 Red Plum Insert (exp. 6-13-13)
• 10% off any Half or Full Party Pan purchase from the 5/5 Red Plum Insert (exp. 6-13-13)

California Pizza Kitchen

• California Pizza Kitchen Coupon - FREE Arugula & Quinoa Salad (exp: 7 days after printing)

Chuck E Cheese

• Number of coupons found in the 3/10 Smart Source Inserts (exp: 6/15/2013)
• Number of coupons found in the 4/7 Smart Source Inserts (exp. 7-27-13)

Corner Bakery Cafe

• Corner Bakery Coupon – FREE Avocado & Spinach Power Panini Thin (must reserve online)

Honey Baked Ham

• $5.00 off any size Bone-in Half Ham, excludes Mini Ham from the 5/5 Red Plum Insert (exp. 7-14-13)
• $6.99 Lunch Combo Sandwich, Side and Drink from the 5/5 Red Plum Insert (exp. 7-14-13)
• $3.00 off any Boneless Ham from the 5/5 Red Plum Insert (exp. 7-14-13)

Longhorn Steakhouse

• $3.00 off two Lunch entrees or $1.50 off each single adult entree from the 4/14 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-2-13)
• $4.00 off two Dinner entrees or $2.00 off each single adult entree from the 4/14 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-2-13)

Marie Callender’s

• Marie Callenders Coupons Buy 1 Entree Get 1 50% Off WYB 2 Drinks (exp: 5/30/2013)

Mimi’s Cafe

• Mimis Cafe Coupon – $5 Off $15 Lunch or Dinner Purchase (exp: 5/23/2013)

Outback Steakhouse

• Outback Steakhouse Coupon – $8 Off 2 Dinner Entrees (exp: 5/21/2013)

Planet Hollywood

• Planet Hollywood Coupon – $5 Off $20 Purchase (exp: 6/30/2013)

Red Lobster

• $3 off any two lunch entrees from the 4/28 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-9-13)
• $4 off any two dinner entrees from the 4/28 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-9-13)

Ruby Tuesday

• $3.00 off any entree before 3 p.m. from the 4/21 Smart Source Insert (exp. 5-21-13)
• Buy any Adult entree and get a second entree 50% off from the 4/21 Smart Source Insert (exp. 5-21-13)

Shoney’s

• $5 off $25 or morel (Exp 10 Days after signing up)

Souplantion

• Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes Coupon – 20% Off Entire Check (exp: 5/23/2013)

Village Inn

• $5 off purchase of 2 Entrees and 2 Beverages or $2.50 off 1 Entree and 1 Beverage from the 4/28 Red Plum Insert (exp. 5-17-13)
• $5 off purchase of 2 Entrees and 2 Beverages or $2.50 off 1 Entree and 1 Beverage from the 4/28 Red Plum Insert (exp. 5-17-13)
• 20% off entire guest check from the 4/28 Red Plum Insert (exp. 5-17-13)

Fast Food Restaurants:

Bruegger’s

• Bruegger’s Coupon – $2.99 Bagel Egg Sandwich (exp: 5/23/2013)

Carl’s Jr.

• A number of coupons found in the 4/14 Smart Source Insert (exp. 5-18-13)

Chevy’s

• Chevy’s Coupon – $10 Off $30 Purchase (exp: 6/15/2013)

Jack in the Box

• Jack In The Box Coupon – BOGO Free Chipotle Chicken Club Sandwich (exp: 5/31/2013)

Jack’s

• Jack’s Coupons Buy 1 Big Jack Combo Get 1 Free (exp: 6/3/2013)

McDonald’s

• McDonald’s Coupons $1 Egg White Delight McMuffin (exp: 6/20/2013)

Quiznos

• Quiznos Coupon – $2.99 Small Chicken Fajita Sub (exp: 5/22/2013)

Weinerschnitzel

• A number of coupons in the 4/28 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-1-13)

Desserts/Treats:

Ben and Jerry’s

• Ben & Jerry’s Coupon – Buy 1 Get 1 Free Small or Large Cup or Cone (exp: 5/31/2013)

Coldstone Creamery

• $3.00 off any Cake, excludes Pies, Petite Cakes, Cupcakes and Cookie Sandwiches from the 5/5 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-5-13)
• Buy 1 Like It, Love It or Gotta Have It Size Ice Cream or Yogurt, Get 1 of equal or lesser value for .99 from the 5/5 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-5-13)
• Like It Size Create Your Own (Ice Cream or Yogurt plus 1 mix-in) 2 for $5.00 from the 5/5 Smart Source Insert (exp. 6-5-13)

Dairy Queen

• Number of coupons in the 4/28 Smart Source Insert (exp. 5-31-13)

Jamba Juice

• Jamba Juice Coupon – $2 16 oz. Smoothies (exp: 5/20/2013)

Seattle’s Best

• Seattles Best Coffee Coupon – FREE Frozen Caramel Candy Latte (exp: 5/21/2013)

Starbucks

• Starbucks Coupon – $2 Off Starbucks Refreshers (exp: 5/21/2013)

Wetzel’s Pretzels

• FREE Lemonade

Movies:

RedBox Movie Rental

• Check out this list of Red Box codes. Many of the codes listed are 1 time use codes but if you use different credit cards or debit cards you can re-use a code.

Fandango

• Buy one get one FREE movie ticket Fridays for Visa Signature card holders

Also, be sure to check our “Best Deals on Restaurants and Entertainment” throughout the weekend as any more deals or coupons that we find, we will be posting there!

Email or newsletter signup freebies

Continual Restaurant Coupons with email or newsletter sign-ups (most of these will arrive via email within 24-hours after sign-up!):

Applebee’s

• FREE Birthday Special and other offers

Arby’s

• Join the Arby’s email list to receive a coupon for a FREE Roast Beef Sandwich

Baskin Robbins

• FREE Scoop on your birthday

Boston Market

• Join the Boston Market VIP club  and receive a coupon for $3.00 off a purchase of $6 or more.

Burger King

• Join the Burger King email club and receive a coupon for FREE Whopper with Purchase of another Whopper.

California Pizza Kitchen

• Join the California Pizza Kitchen email club for a coupon for $5 off $15 Purchase Coupon.

California Tortilla

• Join the email club for a  FREE taco

Culver’s

• Join the Culver’s Text Club by texting CULVERS427 to 50101 & you will receive a text for a FREE scoop of custard. You can also receive a B1G1 FREE value basket when you sign up for the Culver’s email club

Dairy Queen

• Join the Dairy Queen email club for a FREE Blizard with email sign up

Del Taco

• Join the Del Taco Raving Fan eClub  and receive 2 Chicken Soft Tacos plus receive a FREE shake on your birthday.

Flat Top Grill

• FREE Appetizer Coupon

IHOP

• Join the “Pancake Revolution”  club. You’ll get one free meal right now, one free meal on your birthday, and one free meal one year from signing up.

Joe’s Crab Shack

•  Get a Free Appetizer when you sign up on Facebook

Macaroni Grill

• Join the Macaroni Grill email club and receive exclusive offers including an initial coupon for $5 off your next purchase at the Macaroni Grill.

Macayo’s

• Join the eClub at Macayo’s and you will receive a coupon for a FREE Spinach and Queso Dip.

NYPD

• Join the  NYPD Pizza’s email club and receive a coupon for a FREE slice of pizza.

On The Border

• Free Queso or Sopapilla When You Join Club Cantina

Papa John’s

• Join the Papa John’s email club and receive a FREE medium cheese pizza with a pizza purchased at regular menu price

Rubios

• Join the Rubios Beach Club to receive a FREE Taco.

Texas Roadhouse

• Join the Texas Roadhouse email club for special offers.  You can also receive a FREE Appetizer by referring friends to the Roadie VIP Club!

Wendy’s

• Join WendyMail and receive a coupon for $1 off

Weinerschnitzel Club

• Join the Wiener Lovers Club and receive a coupon for a FREE Original Chili Dog.

Thanks to Surviving the Stores and The Cents’able Shopping for some of the above coupons

First, let me start off by saying WHEW!

This topic is blowing my mind.  Why?  Because at first glance, it appears as if we are suggesting using a highly toxic substance in our homemade natural cleaner recipes that we have been sharing.

We started off posting recipes using natural materials, but we had the question a few times about the safety of Borax from you!

Before using Borax, I thought I knew it was safe based on many things I read about it and based on many homemade recipes that are “natural” and “safe” that contain Borax.

So the first time I got the question, “Isn’t Borax toxic and why are you using it in your recipes?” I sorta freaked out a little.

Well, after this question the first time, I began researching again.  The very first thing I came across on many places online was this statement:

WHAT!! Borax IS Boric Acid?!

I am not only trying to be thrifty, but healthy too and I thought my home grown cleaning and cleaning products weren’t natural and safe like I thought.

Well, a few websites out there touted Borax and Boric Acid as the same thing and using the words interchangeably in their articles about this toxic substance.

THIS.DID.NOT.MAKE.SENSE.TO.ME. because on many “green” sites and many other books and resources, they rave about the wonderful natural cleaning power of Borax… which is why I started making my own recipes using it!

I then pulled out my 20 Mule Team Borax yet again to examine the box for the 1000th time, AGAIN, looking for this information!

There is of course the caution about avoiding contact with the eyes.  But we also shouldn’t put salt, black pepper, corn starch or anything else in our eyes! (You can also see the 20 Mule Team Borax FAQ HERE which answers some questions too!)

The only ingredient listed is Sodium Tetraborate.

What is Sodium Tetraborate?

According to the EPA, Sodium Tetraborate is essentially boron!  This is a naturally occurring element usually found in sediments and sedimentary rock formations.

Boron has been used to treat physical elements and taken as a supplement.  No way am I saying to ingest it, but just letting you know what this ONE ingredient in 20 Mule Team Borax is sometimes used for!

It is also used in skin lotions, detergents, cleaners, mouthwash AND (surprise!!) in herbal bath salts as a primary ingredient! This is the short list, but it is widely used in natural and otherwise cosmetics too!

So what is Boric Acid??

Boric Acid is created by mixing Borax with Sulfuric Acid.  And YES, this is TOXIC and it is NOT the product I have been including in my recipes and I HIGHLY suggest that you do not use it either! Don’t confuse it when you buy it as it would be unsafe. Borax alone is an alkaline substance, it becomes a toxic acid after the mixing with other substances.

Boric Acid is used to kill ants, roaches and as a pesticide.  It’s bad stuff, but it’s not the Borax by itself.

So now that we have nipped that in the bud, let’s get back to the topic at hand. Now even natural products have warnings.  I know of a fruit that is highly nutritious and kills cancer cells at an alarming radical rate and far higher than chemotherapy.  And it is NATURAL. But pregnant women should not eat this fruit or drink the juice as it can be fatal to a baby as the fruit is effective in attacking new cells that show up in the body.

So here’s a warning for you:

You may experience abdominal pain, coughing, diarrhea, shortness of breath and vomiting. This may also be accompanied by high fever. Other symptoms that are not common are shock seizures and metallic taste.

These symptoms sound SCARY and like you are ingesting a toxic substance.  Well, this is toxic in high levels… It is SALT.  The above warning is for table salt!

So why is it a good cleaner for homemade natural cleaners??

So in the end, the moral of the borax story is that it is about as safe (or safer depending on your expert) than salt, don’t eat it or ingest it, only use it in cleaning products and for possible skin irritation… wear gloves! And don’t let children or pets get near it, just like you would keep the salt away from them! It isn’t a good idea to give any of them access!

If you use it carefully and properly and for it’s intended use, borax is a good, effective and environmentally friendly cleaner.

I personally would be classified as a health nut and try to be very conscientious about what I am exposing my family to (again I need to write that story of why I strongly feel we needed to switch cleaners for health one day, I will get to it )!  So with that background, knowing what is in household cleaners that you buy at the store, there is no question in my mind that this is a safer option for my family.  I personally don’t have concerns about using Borax, especially with my exclusive use of it in cleaning products (many use it in cosmetic and personal care, which I don’t).  You can omit the Borax if you want from most all of the recipes, but I think that the addition of Borax is a good addition for healthier cleaning as it kills bad bacteria, which would seem more unhealthy to me to not do that. And by including it in your cleaning products, it enhances the cleaning power of the other products in your homemade cleaning products so that they will do an even better job!

I think that it is important for each household to draw their own conclusions.  You can also read more information about Borax on Herbanlifestyle site.  I found that article to be quite helpful too!

So for some fun information…. 20 Mule Team Borax is mined in the California near Death Valley and was carried by a team of 20 Mules by wagon train from Death Valley to Mojave in the late 1800′s!   Borax is from a few places around the world, but this is for 20 Mule Team (Sodium Tetraborate).  Here’s the proof too

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Picture of the ingredients for one of the 26 homemade cleaning product recipes.

Finally, you can check out our full growing list of Homemade Cleaning Product recipes HERE that currently has 26 different cleaning products, and some that do include the use of Borax if you choose to use it!

What are your thoughts??

Have you signed up for the Betty Crocker newsletter yet?  Well, newsletter subscribers get some great foodie perks! First, you get free samples every single month! Food samples are the most popular and so this is a great way to cash in on a food freebie.

In addition, you receive many other benefits, including free calendars, free cookbooks, $250 in annual coupons and more! Even if you won’t use all $250 in coupons, even using a few of them is more than worth getting these free enewsletters.  Also, they do have some great recipes to share as well!

Sign-up for the Betty Crocker Newsletter HERE to start your free samples, savings and recipes!

This Photo Tote Bag looks like so much fun. It measures 12×13.5, and it’s FREE.  You do need to pay the shipping, which is only $3.99.

This is a perfect bag for so many uses, including storing your coupon binder and couponing materials, to tote your home binder around with you or just as a reusable grocery bag.

It would also make for a great present for anyone special in your life as you can personalize it with your own pictures! Also, if you have a business, this could be a great way to make a logo based tote to advertise your business too!

Also, if you are a new member to York Photo you get 40 Free Prints!

To get this great deal use promo code: MYTOTE at checkout.

Head to the York site HERE to take advantage of these great deals and get your FREE tote bag.

See more Photo FREEBIES and Deals

It looks like Amazon is doing a Mom’s Appreciation Event again! The last one was in February and so it is a nice deal to go into the summer for any summer gear! We received the email and you may have too.  But even if you didn’t you are fine as the coupon code this time is not unique to each person, but a generic code for everyone to use and you may be able to use it multiple times during the promotion!

The coupon code is: BABY0513 and is good for an additional 20% off savings on hundreds of eligible baby products, up to $100 in total savings. If you are an Amazon Mom’s member, you probably received this email.  If not, you can still use the code since it is for everyone that is an Amazon Mom’s Member.  If you are not yet a member, no worries, you can sign-up (details HERE) for free and then in 24-hours from registration, you will be able to use the 20% off coupon code!

It appears like this code is good for your entire purchase in the qualified items baby categories, BUT a one-time use code per Amazon Mom’s account.  There are over 200 baby items that qualify (not as many as in the past, but still a good opportunity to save big).

With that, we wanted to share some ideas on how to use it! Unfortunately, it cannot be used on disposable diapers and wipes.  BUT, it is valid for some cloth diapering options, so you may want to look into that!

It is also valid for hundreds of items in the baby section on Amazon, but not everything! We have a link to make it easy for you to find the items it is good on.

Just head to Amazon HERE and it will take you to these hundreds of items that your 20% off coupon code is valid on.

Our suggestion is to think about items you have been wanting or needing, even items that rarely go on sale as this is your rare opportunity to get it for 20% off the lowest price on Amazon right now (which is typically the same or lower than any other retailer to begin with).

After you consider those items, here are some additional things that are rarely on sale or things to consider getting that 20% discount on.

• Cloth diapers, diaper covers, cloth diaper kits
• Strollers
• Cribs
• Moses Baskets
• Playpens
• Bassinets
• Car Seats
• Travel Systems
• Swings
• Other equipment
• Feeding essentials (formula excluded)
• Nursery Sets
• Rocking Chairs
• Snuggly type system
• Boppy
• Bumbo
• High Chair

Here’s also some extra things to think about:

Philips Avent BPA Free Classic Infant Starter Gift Set normally $39.99 on sale for $27.81.  With your 20% off coupon = final is $22.25 shipped free

Summer Infant Slim&Secure Digital Audio Monitor normally $49.99 on sale for $31.06. With your 20% off coupon = final is $24.85 shipped free

Deluxe Comfort Folding Booster Seat normally $22.99 on sale for $20.35  With your 20% off coupon code = final is $16.28 shipped free

Born Free 2 Count Deco Bottle 5oz. normally $21.99 on sale for $11.01  With your 20% off coupon code = final is $8.81 shipped free

Graco Pack N’ Play Silhouette Playard normally $199.99 on sale for $158  With your 20% off coupon code = final is $126.40 shipped free

As there are thousands of items included, we’ve only scratched the surface in regards to ideas and sales for using your 20% off code.  Please share in the comments what you found!

Plus you can check out all of the details of the Mom Appreciation Event on Amazon HERE.

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

Join us for our Spring Cleaning Challenge to Organize and Clean for a Thrifty and Healthy Home!

We have had many of you asking about our Natural Homemade Mold and Mildew Remover recipe and so guess what??  That’s what we are sharing today as we continue to share our 26 recipes for Natural Homemade Cleaning Products for $12!

One thing I want to mention about fighting mold and mildew naturally is that patience is required.  Remember, you are not using harsh chemicals and so it is going to take a bit more patience and persistence, but the rewards of a healthier home and hardly any money spent makes it all worth it!

As a second note, by using any of our homemade cleaners like the All-Purpose, Heavy Duty, Glass/Stainless Steel Cleaner, etc. all of these contain ingredients that help prevent mold and mildew in the first place.  But it still happens.  We have a bathroom that has no ventilation (none installed in this one bathroom even though the others have them… and it is a newer house!) and so because of that, mold and mildew will be tempted to build and grow in this room.  But between the cleaners and this mold and mildew remover, we can keep it at bay.

There’s only 3 ingredients needed:

• 1 TBSP Baking Soda
• 1 TBSP White Distilled Vinegar
• 5-6 drops of Tea Tree (Melaleuca) Essential Oil

Here’s how to make it:

Put the 1 TBSP of baking soda in a small bowl.  Then pour the 1 TBSP of vinegar into the baking soda.  A small reaction will happen, just stir it up until mixed.

Then add your 5-6 drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil and mix again.

You will then have a thinner/medium thick paste.  I apply this directly to the mold/mildew by either scooping with the spoon or apply with an old cleaning toothbrush.  Let this sit for a few hours on top of the mold/mildew.  Then come back and use the toothbrush to scrub away.  You may need to repeat the above steps a couple of times, but it will most likely eventually be cleaned up!

I am not even going to estimate price as it is literally less than .10 each batch.

If you get any of the items on sale, it would be even less!

Here’s a printable recipe that you can put in your home binder:

We also HIGHLY recommend that you put this in your home binder along with many more things we will be sharing! See all of the information on this in our previous post HERE about Put Together Your Home Binder with Free Downloads.

Finally, use this new thrifty and healthy cleaning product as part of our Spring Cleaning Challenge.

If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!

• Shopping list to be able to make 26 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
• And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.

This is quite cool! I am always looking for something to make my life easier and this new fee app could possibly be an extra easy way to help  me be more organized, stick to a menu and stick to a budget at the same time.

This new app lets  you find recipes and then it will create a shopping list for you by locating the best prices on those items in your area.  It also means that you don’t have to use coupons and still get some good prices.

Here’s a picture from their site showing how it works:

To me, it looks really cool.  I wondered if any of you have heard about it too??  I am really looking forward to trying it out.

Head to their site HERE to be notified to download this new money saving cooking app!

See more Free Stuff

Time to share our plan for this week 5/12 – 5/18/13.  How has your weekly planning going?  Are you accomplishing all you hope?  Well we hope this planner will help you to zone in on all areas of life and accomplish a lot each week with less time.   Be sure to see our Be Intentional Baby Steps for Whole Life Change.

This week is busy for us as we try to finish preparing our yard for garden, flowers and more landscaping.  For a birthday present from my extended family, I just requested that they help us finish up and so I am looking forward to having that project done! We are revamping and redoing many of our garden areas and so it’s been a bit of work!

As always, before I share our weekly plan and our menu, you can read about each of these on these links as we encourage you to do the same to save time, money and sanity:

• Menu Planning
• Our Weekly Planner with free download

Here’s my plan this week:

T – stands for Thrifty – what are my thrifty goals for the week?

• Refill Handsoaps
• Refill empty/low cleaners

H – stands for Home – what are some things I/we need to do around and for our home?

• Finish rotating seasonal clothes
• Wash blinds and drapes
• Clean out garden beds
• Lay weed barrier and bark
• Build garden boxes

R – stands for Relationships – a place where I write down who I need to call, send a note to or remember a birthday/event.

• Call Leona
• Email Janice
• Email Jessica
• Alex call parents about upcoming visit

I – stands for Involvement – this is the part of my planner that allows me and my family to be involved in our community and church in small ways each week.

• Email about 2 meals for new moms at church
• Collect and set out donations for 16th pick-up

F – stands for Finances – What financial tasks do we need to complete this week: (also as we continue to find our 2% cuts each month!)

• Send books/movies to Amazon to sell for $$
• Deposit Rebate Checks
• Deposit Garage Sale Money
• Call on Service
• Put large items on classifieds

T – stands for To-Do’s- misc. things I need to do this week!

• Take Shirts Back
• Call on concrete bid
• Vitacost order
• Next essential oils order
• Finish Jo’s Birthday details and invites
• Find sitter for Friday date night
• Order book for cousin

Y – stands for You – what are some things that I can do for myself to de-stress and relax for all of the hard work!

• Birthday week (so there’s eating out, date night, and family time which is perfect for me this week)

Plus I have my developing shopping list and other tasks list on the right for those extras.

Here’s our planned dinner menu for the week!

Monday – Lasagna Casserole

Tuesday – Stir-Fry

Wednesday – Chicken Marsala

Thursday – Taco Night

Friday – Birthday Date Night with Alex

Saturday – Birthday Dinner out with extended family after family birthday earlier

Sunday – Roast, potatoes, carrots, celery and onions

And… no matter whether you make a menu or not, don’t forget about “dinner by 10.”

If you would like to print your own THRIFTY weekly planner, you can do so below. Alex designed it to where it requires very little ink and in fact you can print it in fast draft/grayscale to use even less ink.  But either one uses miniscule amount of ink! I would recommend printing or copy several as I often write plans a couple of weeks ahead too!

Please note, if you are reading this email in our rss feed or our email newsletter, you may have to click to the post HERE to print this download. 

<== Download your printable Weekly Thrifty Planner HERE

Please share in the comments below what your menu and plan is for the week!

We get this question all the time – in fact its one of the age-old, top asked thrifty questions whenever someone mentions they are trying to save by cutting down expenses: How do you save on gas? 

We’ve addressed a few points here and there throughout many of our posts here on our site, but we thought we would just put together a quick list with many of our tips in one post.  I say many – and not all – because as time goes on, we learn more, find more information and as we drive, experience more in this area.  So we can’t say that we know it all.  Some of these tips are tried and true and you hear them everywhere, but we hope that some may be unique and new to you.

Either way, pull up a chair, take note and save some money on your gas budget.  Our gas budget is higher than we would like due to long commutes, but I think as low as we can get with our trips.

Probably one of the biggest recommendations we have is a fuel efficient car.  Our commuter car is just that… a small, fuel efficient commuter car.  It is paid for and it is racking up the miles, but it saves fuel because its rated at a higher fuel efficiency.  So with the tips we share below, it just makes it that much more efficient.  But before we share those tips below, we want to look at some of our thoughts on what are referred to as “super high fuel-efficiency” cars.  Just how high of an efficiency is worth it – especially worth the ticket cost of the up-front cost?

Is a Hybrid Car worth it?

Now you may ask my thoughts on owning a Hybrid.  I have looked into this, granted it has been a couple of years, but at the time, I had determined that they were not saving you money in the end.  I saw many reports a couple of years ago that said that you only gain an average of 10-12% better fuel efficiency and so with the cost difference of a hybrid vs. regular fuel car (hybrids costing quite a bit more), it would take over 15-20 years to save that money in fuel.  And that isn’t factoring in the high cost of the replacement batteries you need to consider over the lifetime of the car.  But, things could be different now, I would be curious to hear what you have to say about these cars?

What about natural gas?

I really like the idea of natural gas.  But, before you go out and buy one realize this is not a widely available option for many car owners.  We happen to live in a state where there are actually quite a few natural gas stations and the current average price of natural gas is $1.49 per gallon! That is a significant savings… but unfortunately a few factors have to take place.

1. You have to own a vehicle that will accept natural gas. My father-in-law recently bought a bi-fuel truck. It is absolutely brilliant! Why?  Because when and where he can, he fills up with natural gas at that incredibly low price.  But if he travels out of state or to areas where there are not many natural gas stations, he can fill-up with regular fuel.  He also got a super deal on his used bi-fuel truck! That is the best of both worlds and an option that we are going to consider for our next vehicle when Thrifty Helena, who is approaching 200K miles, gives out.  You can buy conversion kits, but we haven’t researched this enough to be able to say whether or not it is worth it to do this on a current vehicle.  We do know that with where our trusty Thrifty Helena is, it wouldn’t be worth it because in her age (don’t tell her we said this) she’s not going to make it much further.

2. There needs to be accessible CNG stations close to where you normally fill-up/live. Some areas of the country have many options, and others not so much.  If you can’t easily fill-up on natural gas, it is not a viable option for you.  Here’s a quick view map with the orange dots indicating CNG stations nationwide.  You can use the CNG station locator on the site HERE.

3. The third and final factor is that we need to hope that natural gas prices stay low in future months/years.  At this point, I think it should, but you never know and can’t rely on the fact that the prices will stay the same.  We have seen very little price inflation on natural gas in our area in the past four years that we have been watching it.

So there’s my thoughts on other options for fuel.  So now on with what the majority of us face…. how to save on gasoline everyday no matter your current vehicle!

Here are our 15 Tips on How to Save on Gasoline

1. Don’t fill-up when the gas truck is there – This is a really good tip because you will get bad fuel when the truck is filling the tanks.  Why?  Well, as they are pouring the gasoline into the storage tanks, it agitates and causes the dirt in the bottoms of the tanks to mix into the fuel…which in turn gets pumped into your vehicle with the result of dirty fuel in your tank.  Dirty fuel will take a toll on the overall fuel efficiency, not to mention the maintenance of your vehicle.  If you see a truck refilling at a station, wait a while after the fuel truck has left for all of the debris in the tanks settles back down.  Try this experiment at home with your kids.  Put a little dirt/sugar/salt in the bottom of a cup and then pour water in, it takes some time for the debris to settle back down.
2. Fill-up on the slower speed setting vs. the fastest speed setting – I do not have definitive or scientific evidence that this makes a big difference, but this is something I practice (even if it is annoying to be sitting there a couple of extra minutes).  Several years ago, I saw this on the news with some decent results.  Supposedly the theory is that the faster fuel pumping option creates more air pockets in which fuel is wasted and therefore measured inaccurately.  Secondly, it splashes up and triggers the pump to stop indicating that it is full, when it really may not be.
3. I truly believe that is is more than worth the investment to get higher quality gasoline – I am more specifically talking about the brand of gasoline.  It is not secret that we fill-up at Chevron and the reasons why – and yes, we still just buy the regular there.  We may be paying slightly more for gasoline, but in the end, we feel as if we are saving a lot more on maintenance, care, and life of our vehicle.
   
4. Fill up early in the morning – The earlier the better.  Why?  Well it has been scientifically proven that when it is warmer/hotter outside the gas is less dense and evaporates and so that means that you are technically getting less gasoline per calculated gallon of gas.  The cooler it is, the more dense and the more gas you are technically pumping.  In fact, in Canada, they know this theory to be true because their gas pumps calculate temperature differences and adjust price accordingly.  Thankfully, we have the upper hand in the United States and so pumping at the right time of day can save you more money!
5. Keep properly inflated tires – It is a well known fact that tires at the most proper inflation will get you the best fuel efficiency.
6. Tighten/secure your gas tank cap – This is an easy way to save money! Why?  Well, if your gas cap is not on securely/tightly, your money is literally floating into thin air as the gas is evaporating through the cap opening. It is a simple thing to do.  Plus if your engine light comes on, before you take it to the mechanic, make sure the cap is on tight – you might just save by not having to go if the last person that filled up forgot to tighten the cap.
7. Start driving briskly, not abruptly and not too slowly – It seems like an art, but having a brisk start at lights and stops vs. a very aggressive abrupt start or even a slow start supposedly saves fuel.
8. Don’t top off your fuel at the pump – I used to top off my tank as I always wanted to end with an even amount of gas (like stopping on the dollar or .50) as it was much easier for budgeting/spending purposes.  But I was told that in the end, I am literally just wasting fuel.  Especially if you are pumping on the slow speed (see note above) when it says your tank is full, it is full! There is no need to pump wastefully!
9. Get regular tune-ups – Again, I wholeheartedly believe that good maintenance on your vehicle will save you the most money and get the most fuel efficiency you can in the long run.  From our experience, keeping our vehicles on top of their maintenance schedule has saved us a lot of money at the mechanic.
10. Change out fuel filter on a regular basis (as directed by the manufacturer) - This saves you gas with better fuel efficiency and keeps your vehicle running slick and happy.
11. Avoid Idling – This is a pretty well-known common gas wasting factor.  Minimize it as much as possible to save money on fuel!  We try to shut off our vehicle if we will be sitting for more than 30 seconds waiting – less than that actually takes more gas to restart the vehicle.
12. Use an app/website to find the best prices – Gasbuddy.com is the most common.  It really is smart to find gas stations with the lowest prices around you – even if you are looking for a specific brand of gas!  You can filter the stations when viewing the list of prices by clicking on settings and clicking on the Filter option.
13. Avoid gas stations  close to highways – They typically have the highest prices in gasoline as they are nabbing the travelers.  Going into town just a bit can save you loads of money.  But as we just recommended, you can eliminate the guess work again by using Gasbuddy.com to be certain!
14. Use a trip planner to map out your gas stops or avoid heavy traffic - If you are going on a long road trip, a trip planner can help you map out the best places to fill-up on your route.  Even for shorter trips or a commute, I use the traffic app on my cell phone every time before I leave home.  If one route is congested, I will go another way – I save time and gas!
15. Windows Down vs. Air Conditioner – There are many, many theories on both sides of the fuel efficiency equation that have opinions about this.  For a while, we thought it was best to have your windows down/no air conditioner for city driving and then using your A/C and windows rolled up for the faster freeway driving.   It appears as if the verdict is still out for many theorists out there.  But we did see an episode of Myth Busters that claimed that driving with your window down is the most fuel efficient by 15%! Here’s the video on that segment:

What tips do you have? 

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

If you are a mom, then there is a company that is looking to pay you for a few minutes of your time here and there by taking surveys related to things moms deal with.  By taking these surveys, you are offering your opinion so that companies to make products or provide services and can real world opinions.  They use marketing survey companies who then goes and recruits the survey takers.

You do get compensation for your time in the form of rewards and cash.  As we have mentioned many times before, you will not get rich taking surveys, but you can pay a monthly bill or two or save up for your next goal (like a vacation or paying off debt a little quicker, etc.).  If you were to sit down for just a few minutes each day, you can accomplish this! You don’t even have to do it daily, you can do it as little or as frequently as you want! Obviously the more you do, the more you  will earn, but it is all in your control.

It is a quick sign-up, not much more than requesting a free sample.  They will ask for your birthdate and ages of your kids so that they can find surveys more specific to your demographic and age.  It took me just a couple of minutes to get started.

Once you fill-out the form, you are not done – before they start your account, they want to make sure you are legit and send you a confirmation email that you need to click on.  Once you do this, then your account is ready and you can go in at any time and start working!

In addition, they do have an extra promotion by filling-out three 5-minute surveys (I already took them and it was only about 2-3 minutes for me), then you will be entered into a $5,000 sweepstakes.  So if you want to take a few minutes and do this too, then you can!

Head to the site through this link HERE to take mom related surveys for extra earnings

*Please note, we tell you about the legit survey companies when they are open for applicants, but they can close at any time.

See our master list of Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting

This is available again to get the extras with newsletter sign-up,  so we thought we would let you know about it again!

Have you signed up for the Pillsbury newsletter yet?  It is GREAT because you receive many benefits, including lots of freebies like real food samples, free calendars, free cookbooks and more! Plus they will send you coupons too! They send out about $250 worth per year, and you probably won’t use all of them, but even use a few of them is more than worth getting these free enewsletters.  Also, they do have some great recipes to share as well!

Sign-up for the Pillsbury Newsletter HERE to start your free samples, savings and recipes!

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

Join us for our Spring Cleaning Challenge to Organize and Clean for a Thrifty and Healthy Home!

Today I am sharing a super simple Homemade Laundry Stain Remover. It is quite effective and I find that it removes most stains.

But one thing I wanted to mention about stain removal (just like I mentioned on the homemade stain removal for carpets and mattresses), the sooner you can attack the stain, the better chance you have of removing it.  Especially when it comes to removing stains naturally and without harsh chemicals.

With that said, I did recently have a situation where I didn’t attack clothing stains immediately and to my amazement, my homemade stain remover did a beautiful job of removing it!

Our oldest was wearing this beautiful lace dress (that I bought from ThredUp online gently used children’s thrift store) and we went out to eat.  She dumped a whole bunch of ketchup on her dress; as it is very light in color and has 2-layers, I thought it was doomed.  I wiped it with a dry napkin, which just spread it more.  It was a busy day and so we didn’t get home for several hours, but not only that, she tossed it in the hamper.  It was there for a couple of days before I stumbled upon it and realized that the ketchup was sitting there for a couple of days now.

So I sprayed it with my solution and then let that sit for a couple of days (instead of washing immediately).  Then it was washed like normal (using my homemade laundry detergent) with the light clothes load and I had really forgotten about the stain when I put that load in to wash.

Well, a week ago, our daughter got it out of her closet to wear and she came running up to me to show me that I got the ketchup stain out!

This wasn’t my first experience with getting stains out with my homemade version, but it was the first time I was faced with set-in ketchup on a double-layer, delicate, light-colored fabric! So I was actually quite surprised because I didn’t know if it would do it.

I have examined this garment so closely to see if I could find any trace of it and NADA! It is completely gone!

This is a very simple spray version. I love spray stain removers like Shout and Resolve, but wanted a natural version

Here’s the very simple recipe and steps to make my Simple Homemade Natural Laundry Stain Remover:

There’s only 2 ingredients needed:

• 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

AND

• Lemon Essential Oil

Here’s how to make it:

For every 1/2 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide (I make it in small quantities as I don’t go through it very quickly), just add 5 drops of Lemon Essential Oil in a spray bottle!

That’s it!

Then just spray it directly onto the stain and let it set for a few minutes to a couple of days depending on how bad the stain is!

Wash your garment like normal after!

*Please note: I haven’t had any garments that have faded or ended up with a spot where this was used, however, you should always test an inconspicuous spot to be sure of color fastness.

The estimated cost per 4oz.

• You would be using 4 oz. of Hydrogen Peroxide which is .88 per 32 oz., so this is approximately .11 worth.
• Essential Oils – I estimate them to be around .01 a drop at the MOST, so in total, you are probably maybe using .05 worth

TOTAL per 4 oz. bottle = .16 – that’s a small price to pay to save your clothes!

If you get any of the items on sale, it would be even less!

Here’s a printable recipe that you can put in your home binder:

We also HIGHLY recommend that you put this in your home binder along with many more things we will be sharing! See all of the information on this in our previous post HERE about Put Together Your Home Binder with Free Downloads.

Finally, use this new thrifty and healthy cleaning product as part of our Spring Cleaning Challenge.

If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!

• Shopping list to be able to make 23 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
• And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.

This is a very rare opportunity for All You Magazine.  This comes out to be only .83 per issue, which is virtually un-heard of!

If you have tried to save money or live a frugal life-style in any way, then you have probably come across one of the most popular magazines for couponers and frugal thinkers alike – All You Magazine.  It is one of our favorites and one of the best magazines out there for the money-savers.  But, you may have also noticed that due to it’s high demand and popularity, it rarely goes on sale!

Well, for a short time, there is a super deal on this magazine! This deal is such a good one, that it is an opportunity to give it a shot and see if the coupons and ideas are a good fit for your budget and family?

First, if you don’t know, we share posts throughout the year on how to save on products using coupons inside of the ALL YOU magazine, plus these coupons matchup with deals in stores your area and finally, these coupons are also listed in our coupon database. This doesn’t even consider the fact that each magazine is packed with great tips on saving money and living on less!  Make sure to check out more information on what each issue of ALL YOU contains! We often find most coupons are higher value than other coupon sources and most are exclusive to All You Magazine as well!

So here’s the deal, All you sells exclusively at Walmart for $2.49 each issue, you can subscribe for the online promotional price of $20 for the year.  But, you can get it for 50% off the lowest subscription price with their 2 for 1 sale.  You can get 2 subscriptions for at the promotional price of 1.

So what this means is 4 things: (Please note, you should also be able to extend any current subscriptions on this deal too)

1. Get double subscriptions for double the coupons for your own family, or
2. Give a free gift to your Mother, friend, or anyone else that would benefit from this magazine, or
3. Split the cost with a friend who has been wanting to get this magazine and each of you will get a subscription for only .83 each issue!
4. If you already have a subscription, you can bless two other people for the cost of 1 with a gift subscription!

Click HERE for your 2 for 1 Subscription Deal to ALL YOU Magazine

Disclaimer: We receive a commission for All You subscriptions purchased through the link above, but we only post a deal on this magazine when we honestly think there is one. Thank you for supporting our site if you choose to order this magazine deal through our site.

We haven’t ever hidden the fact that Kohls is one of the places we go when we buy new items.  Why? Well, at the right times, the prices are amazing and the quality is better than many retailers for a discount department store price.  We can stretch our measly clothing budget quite far! In fact, the last one of these “do not miss” sales, was back before Christmas. Alex did an incredible job of buying me clothes for Christmas and he nailed it (which is quite amazing for any man to do!).  Not only did he nail my style, size and preferences, but he bought in-season styles and clothing and got it all for 68% off in total.  He paid far less than Walmart’s prices and even less or equal to thrift store prices…but they were new and high quality!

With that, this is another sale that is just too good to not tell you about.  Whether in-store or online. The just added a ton of clearance prices that are 60=80% off as they get ready for the next season.  They are clearing things out big time!

So what that means, you will get at least an easy 60% discount.  But if you combine these extra ways to save, then you will get in the 70-90% off range.

• Use you can use coupon code: FAMILY20 to take 20% off your entire order!
• If shopping online, you will receive free shipping automatically with orders of $75 or more
• Plus through 5/12, you will receive $10 in Kohls cash for every $50 spent (essentially a 20% discount per $50)
• Please note, they best time to do this is now through the end of the day on 5/12 – so you have only a few days, but selection decreases as time goes on this weekend too!

So if you have $75, $100 or more set aside in your budget for clothing needs, then we encourage you to spend at least that to get your Kohls cash and free shipping as additional ways to save!

So here’s how something like this could look.

Let’s say you bought $475 retail worth of stuff (a decent amount of items).  It is 60%-80% off for this clearance sale = $95 at 80% off.  Then use use the 20% off code = $76.  Then you receive FREE shipping for spending over $75 ($7.95 value) and you will receive $10 in Kohls cash to use in the future = final is only $66 for $475 worth of clothing with free shipping! It all amounts to around 86% savings!

As you can see, the same items at a place like Walmart will be lower quality and we would probably pay around $150+ for it. So you might be getting an idea why this is our “go-to” store when these sales hit.  We just save our clothing budget, Christmas money, etc.  A lot of our Christmas has come from Kohls or Amazon

Head over to Kohls site HERE and start shopping their Newly Added to and Marked at 60-80% of Clearance sale  and combine savings with the ways mentioned above!

*We also recommend shopping through Ebates for cash back and and if you are a new Ebates registered user (it’s FREE to join!) then you will also be able to pick a FREE $10 gift card to Macy’s, Walmart, Kohls or Target.  To get your FREE gift card, your first order placed through Ebates will need to be a minimum of $25. So be sure to not miss this on your first order! Please note, to get your cash back and FREE gift card, head to Ebates HERE and log-in or register and search for Kohls and click through to shop at the Kohls site and that is it as it will track your cash back rebate automatically by doing this! By taking the extra couple of mintues to do this, you could end up with 6% back and another $10 gift card to Kohls (or one of the other three options!).

They also have a lot of TOYS and really, really good prices and much lower than Walmart, Target and Toys R Us with this sale and additional savings! Shop for the household items clearances too.  Most everyone’s bedding, blankets, towels and bathroom accessories have come from Kohls in the past in our home!

And you know that when we post a deal like this, we really mean it is! The regular sales are decent right now, but it is the new clearance that is busting at the seams with savings to shop at this time!

If you would rather shop in-store, be sure to print this Kohl’s in-store printable coupon for 20% off too!

Are you doing any retail shopping this week and weekend?  If so, we highly encourage you to spend an extra minute or two but save a lot of money by searching for a printable in-store coupon to save on your total purchase!

Full-List of Newly Available Retail Store Coupons for the 5/10/13 Weekend:

• Aeropostale – Facebook Exclusive 10% off purchase Exp 5/20
• Aeropostale - $10 off $50 Exp 5/31
• Banana Republic Factory Store – 10% off $100+ purchase Exp 5/12
• Cacique - $25 off $75 Exp 5/22
• Carter’s – Facebook Exclusive 15% – 20% off purchase Exp 5/15
• Children’s Place – 20% off purchase Exp 5/12
• Coach – Facebook Exclusive 25% off regular priced purchase Exp 5/14
• dressbarn - 15% off purchase Exp 5/12
• Express – $25 off $75 Exp 5/12
• Famous Footwear - 15% off purchase Exp 5/12
• Goody’s - Various Coupons
• Hallmark Gold Crown Store – $5 off $10 Exp 5/12 — PERFECT for Mother’s Day!
• Hobby Lobby - 40% off regular priced item Exp 5/11
• JC Penney – $10 off $50 Exp 5/12
• JoAnn Fabrics - 40% off regular priced item Exp 5/9
• Kirkland’s – 15% off purchase Exp 5/12
• Kohl’s – 20% off purchase Exp 5/12
• Lane Bryant – $25 off $75 Exp 5/22
• Lord & Taylor – 20% off purchase Exp 5/13
• Macy’s – 10% – 15% off purchase Exp 5/9
• Michael’s – 15% off purchase Exp 5/11
• Office Depot – $15 off $75 Exp 5/13
• Office Depot – $20 off $100 Exp 5/13
• Old Navy – 20% off Women’s Women’s Plus & Maternity Exp 5/13
• Old Navy – Facebook Exclusive $5 off $25 Exp 5/22
• Party City – $5 off Custom Banner Exp 6/2
• Sears – Facebook Exclusive $5 off $20 Valid 5/10 – 5/11
• Target - Various Coupons
• Toys R Us – Free $10 Gift Card with $40 purchase Exp 5/18
• ULTA - $3.50 off $10 Exp 5/12
• Walgreens – Various Coupons in the May Coupon Books (found in-store)

• Bath & Body Works - Sign up for email newsletter for Coupons and Discounts
• Bed Bath & Beyond - Sign up for email newsletter and get 20% off coupon
• Burlington / Baby Depot - Sign up for email newsletter and get 20% off coupon
• Carter’s - Sign up for Carter’s Celebration Station for Coupons and Discounts
• DSW – Sign up for the DSW Rewards Program for various coupons
• The Container Store - Organized Teacher’s Program 15% off each purchase
• Express – Sign up for their Email Newsletter and get 15% off your next purchase
• Footlocker – Join their VIP Club and get a $10 off $50 coupon
• Gap Outlet – Free Coupons when you sign up for their email newsletter
• Goody’s - Coupons when you sign up for their email newsletter
• Gymboree – Get Gymboree Rewards for signing up
• Kohl’s - $5 off any purchase
• Naturalizer - $10 off any purchase
• New York & Co -  Get Offers for signing up for their Email Newsletter
• Payless Shoe Source - Special Offers and Coupons for signing up for their Email Newsletter
• Shoe Carnival - Special Offers and Couponswhen you sign up for their Email Newsletter
• Tanger - Get Coupons for your Tanger Outlet Mall
• Things Remembered - Special Offers and Coupons when you sign up for their Email Newsletter 

Finally, be sure to visit our Online Retail Coupon Codes Database HERE for hundreds of online retailers to save even more online! And if you want to be sure you are getting the best deals, don’t miss our post HERE where we teach you how to score the best deal every time!

Thanks to Your Retail Helper

Are you starting your Summer Vacation soon?  Well, we wanted to provide a list of ideas to help you, your family and your kids have some fun thrifty quality time the next few months!

We wanted to provide a list of activities that you can do for free or cheap this summer to enjoy the summer months and possibly even giving you more time together as a family!

Here’s a list of ideas and please add any ideas that you have in the comments section below:

1. Free fishing – Enjoy FREE fishing days in the month of June and other summer months all across the country meaning that you do not need a fishing license to fish!   Check out the list Free Fishing Days 2013 HERE to find out what dates are available in your area.
2. National Marina Day for some local water fun on June 8, 2013. Details are on the Discover Boating site HERE.
3. Find free roller skating across the nation – Wow, this brings back memories from our childhoods!  This is a new program and you can check out the list of roller skating rinks that are currently part of the Kids Skate Free program HERE that are participating now.  If there is not one in your area, they have a letter already drafter that you can send to your local rink to ask them to participate.
4. Summer Reading Programs – This is definitely a family favorite as Alex and I remember loving these reading programs at our local library!  They are available all over the country from your local libraries to some national chains. You will want to check the list of Kids Summer Reading Programs 2013 HERE for the full list!
5. Free bowling – There are many bowling great ways to bowl for free across the nation as part of the Kids Bowl Free summer program.  Check out the details and locations on  the Kids Bowl Free site HERE.
6. Free and cheap movies – Many theaters are offering their Summer Movie programs for cheap from the National theaters.  Check out Regal Theaters HERE, and Cinemark Theaters HERE. Plus, since there are hundreds of local theaters across the country, we suggest calling or going to the websites of the local theaters in your area for even more FREE or cheap movies this summer!
7. Free summer movies or concerts in the park for the community – Check in your local newspaper, your local city’s or county’s websites for the calendar of events for the low-down on the community movies and concerts in the park.  Plus you may see other ideas or activities going on in your area too!
8. Free museum entrances – There is a possibility that you have many local museums that are free in your area.  See our previous post on the topic of Free Museum Entrances HERE.
9. Free local attractions or even special summer discounted days – If you have special attractions in your area, check the websites of those attractions or the city, county or state sites calendar of events to easily find any discounted or free days available.
10. Lowes has their build and grow clinics for kids to build a fun activity – You can see their calendar of Lowe’s Build & Grow Clinics HERE.
11. Free or cheap kids crafts - Michaels has free or cheap kids craft projects and classes in-store all summer.  You can visit the Michaels site for the free kids craft project classes schedule.
12. Free kids building workshops - Similar to Lowe’s, Home Depot also has a kids free building workshops. You can see their schedule of projects on the Home Depot Kids Free Workshops site (they will add the kids ones as they become available).
13. Visit a National Park for Free – check the NPS.gov site HERE to see the days you can visit for free this summer!
14. Vacation Bible Schools (VBS) – VBS programs are an easy and fun way to enjoy some summer fun! Many local Christian churches will offer Vacation Bible Schools with different themes.  Call around or ask around on Facebook for the different ones going on in your area!
15. Summer camps from local fitness centers and YMCA – Check the websites of those attractions or the city, county or state sites calendar of events to easily find any discounted or free days available for sports camps or other fun active activities in your area.
16. Local church summer activities – Similar to Vacation Bible Schools, churches will also offer fair/carnival days, or other summer fun type activities.  Call around or visit the websites of the local churches to find out the calendar of events for churches in your area.
17. Join in the Pottery Barn Kids Activities this summer – Most are free and some are a small fee from crafts to exploring science and more!  See the Pottery Barn Kids summer schedule for events!
18. State and county fairs – Many fairs offer completely free admission or days in which there are free or discounted admission.  Our kids (and us!) love the fairs and especially love to see the animals!
19. Watch for free or discount days to local baseball or other sports events – Baseball games in our local area is a very fun and memorable family activity. Check the sports’ team websites for a calendar of events and you can see where to find discounts too!  Local to our area, local businesses (e.g., banks), companies and television stations will offer FREE or deeply discount tickets to the local sports event!
20. Visit the local or community pool on the discounted days or get a summer pass – Many community and local pools will offer a discounted day or a multi-visit pass for cheaper.  Call or visit your community pools sites to find those extra discounts.
21. Save on amusement/theme parks - If you are visiting a theme or amusement park, don’t miss our 25 Ways to Save on Amusement and Theme Park Tickets HERE.
22. Don’t forget movie night - If you or a friend have a projector and a sheet, schedule a outside movie night and invite your friends!  If you want to add a fun dimension to it, if you and your friends chip in you can rent a cotton candy machine; what kid doesn’t love cotton candy?
23. Schedule with your friends to have fun playdates throughout the summer – If you or your friends have a trampoline, pool and even a swingset it can be a fun way for the kids to get together and play while the adults enjoy some time of relaxing as well.
24. Go on a Staycation – we have done this many times and we encourage you to do the same! You can read about our Staycations HERE.
25. Go to the drive-in Theater – this is typically the most affordable way to see movies that just came out in the theater without paying 2 arms and 2 legs.  For example, our local drive-in only charges for 12 and up and it is only $6 for two movies.  So our whole family can see 2 just released movies for $12! We can also take our own concessions, which saves us even more!
26. Go on a backyard camping trip -Just like the real thing with tent and all!
27. Go on local hikes to explore the sites and nature in your own backyard - You can find a list of family friendly trails close to where you live on Local Hikes site HERE.
28. Make some extra income as a family or for your kids to earn too – Our girls are doing this this summer! They have started a scrapbooking business and will be selling at local craft and farmer’s markets.  Be sure to check out our Over 100 Ways to Earn Extra Income to help you get some ideas!
29. Go Geocaching- this is one of the most popular family summer activities.  We actually plan to try this out this year! See the details of all of the free fun on the Geocaching official site HERE.
30. If you have a membership to a local museum or attraction, visit the reciprocal attractions – For example, we have a membership to our local zoo.  Our membership gets us free admittance on certain days to other local attractions.  Check out what is included on yours and make plans to visit those other places too!  It can be challenging to do this during the busy school year, so summer is a perfect time!
31. Have some giant box fun – Go to Furniture and Appliance stores and ask for the big boxes that they will be throwing away.  Take them home and let your kids create their own playhouses with them! My parents did this when we were kids and it was some of the most fun and memorable summer activities we had!
32. Take the time to read out loud to all of your kids – We feel that this is a super important and beneficial activity that you can do this summer.  Several times per week, sit down with all of the kids and read out loud for 30 minutes! This encourages learning, a love of reading, quality time together and learning to just sit and pay attention

Also, consider summertime a great time to educate your children on the topic of finances.  Here’s some ideas:

• Complete the family financial focus worksheet and budgeting.
• Implement a Summer Be Intentional Challenges with your family so that you can make the most of your summer and start of the new school year with harmony, efficiency and happiness!
• It can be a good time to get them involved with couponing too!  They can learn everything from cutting and counting (for the younger kids) and organizing in groups and categories (for the older kids).  There are so many more skills even such as addition/subtraction practice and the challenge of getting as much as they can with the family’s grocery budget on items your family would eat (obviously for the older kids on this one!) while at the same time build those life application skills from preschoolers all the way through high school! Plus you will enjoy the help from coupon cutting to grocery shopping trip planning and implementing!

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

What ideas do you have for your family and kids?

If you are looking for a fun and rewarding summer reading program this summer for your kids, then check out this list of options below:

• Barnes and Noble Summer Reading: earn a free book between May 21 and September 3 when you read 8 books.
• Chuck E. Cheese – Earn 10 FREE tokens every time your child reads for 2 weeks in a row.  Just fill out the form and bring it in to claim your free token.
• Half Price Book Feed Your Brain: During the months of June and July, if a child reads or a young child read to for 300 total minutes, they could win a $20 gift certificate.
• H-E-Buddy: H-E-B Grocery Stores will send your kids a package of cool prizes after they read 10 books. You do not need to live near a H-E-B grocery store to take advantage of this.  Just fill out the form and mail it in. The package arrives in 3-4 weeks.
  
• Showcase Theatre Bookworm Wednesdays: Kid earn free admission to a movie just by reading and completing a short book report
• PBS Kids Summer Reading Challenge – This challenge kicks off on June 17th and includes a FREE four week reading program and the chance for your kids to win daily prizes for their participation.
• Pottery Barn Kids- Receive a free gift when your child completes their reading challenge
• Scholastic Summer Challenge: Offers a chance for kids to log their reading times into their system to compete for the World Record!
• Sylvan: Sylvan Reading Adventure is ongoing, so it’s not specifically a summer program, but it’s worth mentioning if it will get your kids motivated. Reading Adventure lists books to read, and when kids take short quizzes about the books, they earn points. The points can then be traded for small prizes, like temporary tattoos or eBook downloads.
• TD Bank: Young readers can earn a $10 deposit after they read 10 books.

Also, check with your Local Libraries for any summer reading programs they themselves might be having or for them to direct you to more local summer reading programs!

A picture of us reading at home out loud with all 5 kids snuggled around on the couch!

Of course, just sit down and read out loud to your kids! It is so rewarding for both you and them!

See more Thrifty Kids ideas!

Back in March, we shared about our 324 seedlings that we planted indoors.  We then shared an update in April and so now we are sharing our May (before planting in the ground) update!

These beautiful flowers and vegetables are growing and growing! We had to transfer them to new pots so that they had more room to grow.  We used old cottage cheese/yogurt containers (the big 32 oz. sizes) old flower pots and our own homemade biodegradable newspaper pots, all sitting on flats of cardboard from previous cans and food.

We do still have these 4 original seed starting trays that we haven’t transferred yet.  Three trays are the flowers and one in the top left is the broccoli, cauliflower and radish.  They will need to be transplanted soon, but they still seem to be okay!

Our tray of carrots, peppers and green onions are still in the original planting tray and I think they may be okay until we plant in the ground in a few weeks.

But as you can see, the rest have been moved to new pots.  It has been a lot of work to find and fit the fast growing ones into new pots and find space for them on the table.

This is the very top of the shelf with the roma tomatoes, green beans, peas (with the straw trellis!) and corn.  They are not under the light as it is the top shelf, which means we are rotating them since we are out of room under the light! But it all seems to be working!

So here’s a close-up of our newspaper pots. These are working very well and I wish I had known about them a few years ago to save money! I previously shared a different version of these, but ultimately decided to make the origami pots.  They are very simple and our 8 and 9 year old were helping out too!

I had a printed instructional on how to make them, but got frustrated as I couldn’t figure it out exactly.  So I headed to YouTube, just like we have suggested when you are wanting to learn something, and sure enough, found a video on it.  The video helped immensely and made it very easy!

Here’s the video on how to make them.  You can even start seedlings in these pots, not just transfer like we did!

Here in a few days, we will start hardening them off but placing them outside for a few hours at a time for them to acclimate to the outside temps and then we hope to plant them in the ground in a few weeks!

How is your garden going?

This is our go-to dressing as we are very picky about what we like to dress our salads with.  When it comes to the creamy dressings like Ranch and Blue Cheese – we can only eat one brand and that is Litehouse!  Litehouse is sold in the produce section of the stores in the coolers as it is also a fresh and natural dressing!

But it is also not the cheapest dressing, so whenever we see a discount, we are super excited! This Litehouse coupon for $1 off any 2  products is a great one to print!

The dressings sell for $3.78 at Walmart everyday = final is $3.28 after the Litehouse coupon. 

In addition, our local grocery stores (including our local Kroger affiliate) will put them on sale for $2.50 quite frequently = $2 each after the Litehouse coupon.

As this coupon is for ANY product, they also make a great fruit yogurt dip, a caramel dip (like for apples), a strawberry glaze and a veggie dip in addition to all of the many dressings that they carry!

The cheapest product that they have that we know about is the Strawberry Glaze for $1.74 everyday (even cheaper with a sale!)  = final is $1.24 after the Litehouse coupon. 

Print the Litehouse dressing coupon HERE. You can print twice for two products too!

Also, even better is the chance to make your own creamy Buttermilk Ranch Dressing and we share our secret recipe for our own version HERE for Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. This one tastes very similar to the expensive Litehouse version

See more Hot Coupons

We love Blimpies!! I remember growing up as a kid in Idaho and our eating out treat was often Blimpies (even though we hardly ate out!). So it is a place that has lots of warm memories! I hate to admit that I love their bread

Well, there is some great news as you can get a cheap lunch or dinner for two with this nice new coupon for a free 6″ sub when you buy a sub and drink! To get this coupon, you just have to join their email club (which usually means even more coupons in the future!).  The coupons will only be available in zip-codes with a Blimpie store. If your zip-code does not work, enter the zip-code of the nearest Blimpies to get your coupon!

I take the kids out to lunch once per week, usually on field trip day, so this will be perfect for us!

Head to Blimpies HERE to get your coupon!

See more Restaurant FREEBIES, Deals and Coupons

It is another day for a great coupon for fresh or frozen organic produce from Earthbound Farms.  This is the brand that is sold at Walmart and many other stores.  Walmart does have a good everyday price on these products, so that is a good place to use this coupon as it will yield a nice deal. Earthbound has been giving these coupons out every couple of weeks for the last year and it is such a blessing and one of our favorite coupons!

First,  head over to the Earthbound Site HERE and register or log-in.  For the coupon, just look at the options on the bottom and you will see the coupon from today that you can print! It says “$1 off 2 off Organic Strawberries” Once you print it, you will notice that the fine print says you can use it on any Earthbound Farms product, so if you wanted something fresh or anything else with the Earthbound Farms Organic label, then you can use on them, including their frozen organic produce…which we have mentioned is a good way to go for many produce items!

As always, we wanted to share the BEST deal you can get with this coupon for organic produce:

• Buy 2 Earthbound Farms fresh carrots for .74 – .98 each (this is the price range of these carrots across the country at Walmart and will depend on where your location is, but even at .98, this is a super deal!)

• Then use the $1.00/2 printable coupon = final is FREE .24 – .48 each bag

See more Natural and Organic Coupons and Deals

These are not only perfect for baby wipes, but as facial cleaning wipes, on the go wipes – essentially a replacement to Wet Ones wipes as well!

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

I know that we have had the Spring Cleaning theme and we have been sharing our 26 recipes for homemade cleaning products for $12 by sharing a few each week this Spring, but I am taking a slight bunny trail.

I mentioned that I make many of our personal care items too – not just natural cleaning items.  I also shared that this will be a theme in future months/seasons so that we can get through sharing our homemade cleaning products.

But…. I don’t want to wait to share this next recipe because I want to save as many baby’s bums as soon as I can!

I make my own baby wipes.  It is so ridiculously easy, so rewarding and so, so, so good for baby, baby’s bum and for general health!

I am going to share two recipes… a popular one that I see floating around and one that I developed which is my personal favorite and that I regard as much better for baby.  But I also believe that both are a much better option than any commercial ones anyway!

It took baby #5 and a lot of rashes and sore baby bums for me to figure this out.  You see, I have super, super sensitive skin, which means that our kids have super sensitive skin.  We very often would have to switch diaper and wipes brands because all of the sudden, one brand would cause redness, rashes and ultimately flare ups.  We would switch products, they would be fine for a while and they they would flare up again.  Then one day  I was sick and had been for a few days and thought I would use baby wipes to bring relief.   I grabbed the baby wipes and used them.  I started screaming!!! It was so painful!

I then just began crying and crying and realizing that my poor baby’s bums would get a little sore and rashy and then I was rubbing them with these commercial alcohol filled wipes… no wonder why they would scream… it was the wipes, not the rash!  I felt so bad!

I was determined to find a way to clean them up without problems.  One thing I did for a long time, I used Witch Hazel with a cotton ball to clean them up when they had a rash.  I then would dab a bit of diluted lavender essential oil (diluted in another carrier oil like fractionated coconut oil) on the rash.  This actually worked well and I still use it to this day for extra cleaning, but not on every diaper change.  I wanted a quick wipe that was comforting and nice for them to use everyday!

So I found a really popular recipe that used 2 cups of water and several drops of Johnson’s baby shampoo.  I am not opposed to this and think that it probably does well based on the popularity! So you can use this recipe if you want!

But, I wanted something more simple, more natural and something that wouldn’t leave a residue on baby’s bum. I always figure that if you can find a way to make something homemade with the simplest ingredients possible – especially for baby- you have lowered your cost and have introduced less ingredients to your baby.

So, I am going to share the second recipe, which is very simple, very cheap, loved by baby with evidence of happy diaper changes, less rashes, and more subtle, clear, happy skin!

Here’s the ingredients:

• 2+ cups of filtered water (I didn’t want chlorine or anything else in the water)
• 15 drops of lavender essential oil…. I do believe that this is the BEST essential oil for baby and baby’s skin.  I have dozens of different essential oils for many purposes, but this is my #1 and only pick for baby wipes.
• Roll of paper towels and please note… the higher quality paper towel, the better baby wipe you will get.  I use all kinds of paper towels, including the cheap ones, for my homemade antibacterial cleaning wipes. But for baby wipes… I use the soft and high quality Viva paper towels.  Even though they are one of the most expensive paper towels on the market, you will still be able to make baby wipes for much less than the name brands! So invest in nice paper towels!

Now before I share the steps, I wanted to talk about Lavender Essential Oil as it relates to using it on baby’s skin!  Lavender Essential Oil as many health benefits including:

• Antiseptic
• Cellular renewal (which is why it is often used on burns, cuts, scrapes)
• Anti-inflammatory
• Helps to calm
• Helps with sleep
• Relieves pain

It is also on my list of the 7 Best Essential Oils for Cleaning, so if you have been following our Spring Cleaning challenge and taken the steps we recommend, then you probably already have this essential oil on hand!

Here’s the simple steps to make my Homemade Natural Baby Wipes:

• Cut the paper towels in half.  The best way to do this is by using a serrated knife.  The sharper the knife the easier too!

• Then set aside one half for a future batch of baby wipes and keep one for this batch.
• Place your half roll in a container.  I am using a Glad storage container, but anything will work including baby wipes tubs.

• Then add your 15 drops of Lavender Essential Oil to the 2 cups of water.

• Pour the water/oil mixture over the paper towels, turning the roll to cover it all in water.

• Let it sit and let the water soak in for several minutes.
• Then identify “dry” spots to pour just a bit more water in.  Most often, these will be on the ends.

• Add a bit more water to your measuring cup and just pour little bits over the dry spots.
• Let it soak for another minute or two.

• Then pull the middle cardboard roll out of your wipes.
• And then they are ready to use!

A few tips on usage and storage:

I use a Glad container and keep the wipes on their side.  Then when I change baby, I just unroll the roll and take off the wipes I need.  If we go somewhere, I have pull several of these off the roll and put them in a sandwich size ziploc baggie for diaper bag storage.

If you have any container tall enough and wide enough, you can pull your new baby wipes from the middle (sorta like we show on our Homemade Natural Antibacterial Wipes!).

If you are using an old baby wipes container, you will not be able to pull them from the middle (as you have manually unroll them to get them off), but BEFORE you pour water on them, you can unroll the entire roll and (keeping them all connected at the perforation) stack the towels going back and forth.  Then add the water.  With this method, it will be easier to pull them from the middle of the container opening.

I personally don’t mind unrolling as I go and being able to whip up a batch in just a few minutes, but it’s all up to you!

So now it’s time to discuss the cost!

Walmart sells 3 rolls of Viva paper towels for $4.97.

There are 63 sheets per roll and this will make 6 rolls.  Most wipes that come in the tub are 64 ct. so it is going to be about the same number of wipes that you are probably use to!

• 1/2 roll of Viva paper towels for .83 ($4.97/6 = .83)
• Essential Oils – I estimate them to be around .01 a drop at the MOST, so in total, you are probably maybe using .15 worth

TOTAL per tub of wipes  = .97 per 63 ct. of wipes!  If we told you that you can get a tub of wipes for .97, most of us would run to the store and stock-up!

If you get any of the items on sale, it would be even less!

Here’s a printable recipe that you can put in your home binder:

We also HIGHLY recommend that you put this in your home binder along with many more things we will be sharing! See all of the information on this in our previous post HERE about Put Together Your Home Binder with Free Downloads.

If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!

• Shopping list to be able to make 23 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
• And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.

Today we decided to get an organic basket of produce again from Bountiful Baskets.  As the springtime continues into summer, we will probably not be getting very many baskets from Bountiful Baskets co-op in the summer and fall months we actually find better produce values at the local farmer’s markets and even in the grocery stores that buy locally.  But until then, I was really excited to pick-up Rhubarb really cheap! We haven’t had Rhubarb for a long time.  My grandparents use to grow this in their garden and we had an abundance every year for many years.  I miss Rhubarb, and so does Alex.  He mentioned it a few weeks ago and I looked at the grocery store to only find it at $2.99 per lb.  I passed on it then, so I was happy to see it as a cheap produce option this week!

They have many options, but we just did the $25 organic basket and the Rhubarb for $32 plus the $1.50 fee.

I should have started Rhubarb seedlings, but I guess I need to get it on the list for next year!

Here’s what I ordered for Saturday’s pickup:

If you want to see if they are available in your area too, then…

Head to Bountiful Baskets HERE and choose your state and then a pick-up location closest to you from the drop-down menu.

If Bountiful Baskets is not in your state yet, either contact them to see what they need to start one or keep watching for them to open up in your state too! They are rapidly growing and rapidly opening other states.  We have been fortunate to have been the first state and so we have been able to do this for quite some time!

*Please note, you only have until tonight at 10pm PST to order your produce for this week for pick-up on Saturday at a local location!

Also, to fully understand what we are talking about, you do need to read this article HERE.

For more fun and informative frugal reads, don’t miss these posts:

• How to cut and freeze Pineapple
• How to re-grow the tops of pineapples to grow your own fresh pineapples
• 30 Ways to Save Money On Produce
• More Of Our Other Shopping Trip Results

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

Join us for our Spring Cleaning Challenge to Organize and Clean for a Thrifty and Healthy Home!

Our homemade laundry detergents are a popular post as they are really easy to whip up and very effective in gentle cleaning clothes.  If you haven’t seen this yet, we recommend checking out these two links:

•  Make Your Own Scented Laundry Detergent like Tide or All Surf

• Homemade Sensitive Laundry Detergent like Ivory Snow or Dreft

But one thing that I shared many moons ago when our site here was fairly new was the use of vinegar in laundry for fluffing it up, softening and essential being a good replacement for regular fabric softener or dryer sheets (you can read about using vinegar in your laundry here).  Well, since then, we have taken this concept much further and made our own fabric softener, fabric refresher and much more from this idea to use in every single load!

Here’s what it does:

• Makes the laundry soft and fluffy
• Removes odors
• Removes even more bacteria than just washing alone
• Makes them actually smell good (yes, the vinegar really does this…..)
• And it can also help to lessen the amount of color “bleeding” between fabrics (similar to a Shout Color Catcher)

So that is what we have done! You can make your own fabric softener with 2 ingredients and with 4 different variations! Let me share these easy ways:

1. We have previously shared our 35 Ways to Reuse, Re-purpose and Recycle your dryer sheets (you will want to read this too as there is also a free download to hang in your laundry room like you can see in the corner of our picture too).  Well, one of those ways is by taking your already used dryer sheets to make your own fabric softener by soaking your old dryer sheets in vinegar that has several drops of lavender essential oil. You will be able to do this several times before the dryer sheets break down and need to be thrown away.
2. Make reuseable dryer sheets by cutting up an old t-shirt into squares, then put them into a baby wipes or cleaning wipes tub, cover with the mixture of vinegar and lavender essential oil and throw in your dry for each drying load. Make a new batch after you use them all! These will last forever!!
3. Make a pre-mixed liquid version for the wash cycle by mixing vinegar with several drops of lavender essential oil and store in a container to use in your washing machine.
4. The fourth and final way to do this is actually what I do! Pour your vinegar in your softener slot on your front loader or top loader washing machine, then add a drop of lavender essential oil! This is the easiest way for me to do this and so that is just how I have been doing it!

Just add the vinegar and then a drop of Lavender Essential Oil in here!

So now matter which way you want to do it, it can easily be done and for a .02 per load too!

It is also a cheap and FANTASTIC addition to either of our two popular laundry detergents!

Finally, use this new thrifty and healthy cleaning product as part of our Spring Cleaning Challenge.

If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!

• Shopping list to be able to make 23 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
• And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.

This deal is even better than before because now there is a $1 off ecoupon that you can clip to make the cost that much less!

So, if you are looking for a toilet paper stock-up deal, then Amazon might be the place to go! Amazon has a great deal on Angel Soft 48- Double Roll pack for only .43 each double roll when you choose the subscribe and save option in the top right corner of the page and clip the $1 off ecoupon!  This is equivalent to .21 each roll regular roll, which is a nice stock-up price!

This deal is great too because you can shop from home and it will be shipped to you for FREE!

Here’s how to get 48-double rolls Angel Soft Toilet Paper for $20.50 shipped!

• Head to Amazon HERE to see the Angel Soft 48-double rolls on sale for $22.63 (down from $38.76).
• Then choose the subscribe and save option in the top right corner to save an additional 5% – 20% (the savings are greater for those customers who have made previous subscribe and save orders) – $1.13 to $4.53 = $18.10 – $21.50
• Then clip the ecoupon for $1 0ff which looks like this:

•  final is $17.10 to $20.50 shipped or as low as .37 each double roll or .18 each regular roll. This is one of the lowest and best prices we have seen for a long time! We are stocking up!!
  

Amazon’s prices can change at any time.

See more Amazon Deals

Please note:  the 5% -20% 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)!

It is a new month and so of course with that always comes new coupons! And for the start of May 2013, there are  many new coupons to print just from the coupon print site.  Again, we want to remind you that manufacturer’s place a limit on how many of each coupon can be printed, so these coupons may not be available all month.  If they run out of prints, then they disappear! We have seen some months where the coupons are released and are then gone in just a couple of days!

So print your favorites early before they are gone! Each one of the coupons is a link to it, so you can just click on it and get right there.

As always, we will also highlight some deals that we find, but honestly, the best thing to do as well is to print coupons for items you buy often, as well as any coupons that matchup with the grocery store deals lists found on our site HERE.

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 Have any of you made money doing this?  We would love to hear!

This may or may not be your thing, but we share well over 100 ideas and counting on extra ways to make extra income for every person, interest and skill! See our Over 100 Ways To Make Extra Income HERE.