My Stay at Home Job!

I've had people tell me that I find the "best deals" and asked how I find them. Well, let me tell you, I don't have a magic fairy that just tells me, I search for them daily. While I don't have a magic fairy, I do have a few magic websites. Today, I am going to introduce you to my top 10 websites:

1) Pinching Your Pennies

I have to start with this one because it is the site that started all this craziness. Two years ago my friend, Crystal, lead me to their sister site, Grocerysmarts, and I've been addicted ever since!

Pinching Your Pennies has a section for different states to discuss the deals that are specific for them. Love finding out that I don't need to go to Smith's in SS because they are out of the good items. They also have sections for online deals to share!

2) GrocerySmarts

I mentioned them above, but you got to love a site that will provide you with a grocery list of all the sale items to all the grocery stores, let's you customize to your needs, and then print it! It also tells you if there is a coupon that goes along with the sale items that week!

3) Totally Target

I've blogged about this site before, but I love Target! This blogger writes posts specifically about good deals at Target. We don't have a grocery store in our local Target, but my mother-in-law's Target does, so I grab the grocery deals when I visit her. And, did you know that you can print coupons on the Target website that are Target store coupons that can be stacked (added to) your manufacturer coupons? This blogger let's you in on all the secrets!

4) Money Saving Madness

I found this site through a friend's blog. It's a lot like other good deal blogs, but for some reason, I like this one the best. This blog is how I was finally convinced to join Swagbucks (wrote about this a few weeks ago and will probably talk about it again before this post is finished).

5) Freebies2Deals

My friend, Jackie, introduced me to this site. The best thing about it is that this blogger is from Utah (really close to where I live), so although she blogs about good deals, most of the time they are applicable to my area. Head over there today and enter the giveaways she has posted! I probably won't win anything (horrible luck with give-aways), but I'm sure Jackie (she has amazing luck with winning things!) will and you may, too!

6) Common Sense With Money

Another great deal finding website that is like the others. I am just putting this one up because they are also doing some cool give-aways this weekend and thought I would share (but if you win, you have to share the prize with me - ha ha)!

7) City Deals

City Deals is amazing! It gets you discounts to lots of stores, restaurants and activity places. Because of City Deals, we have been able to try some of the local places for cheap! A few weeks ago we bought the "Pass of All Passes" that will get us into Seven Peaks, Trafalga Lehi, Tragalga Orem, Utah Flash and Orem Owlz games until next Labor Day for $40 (or less)! We've also gotten gift cards for Pier 49 pizza, retail stores and the ever addicting Smoothie King (which I pair with the b1g1 free coupons in the Hometown Value magazines)! Today I got an email saying that they are clearing out some of their gift cards so there's extra savings on many places. You can even get gift cards to Chili's and Bath & Body Works for 20%!

8) Screaming Daily Deals

This is the first "deal of the day" website I signed up for. They come out with one deal of the day (today's deal is 50% admission to Wheeler Farm's Fall festivities) for activities, services or restaurants in the area. We have painted a plate at "Color Me Mine" for Father's Day, rode the Heber Creeper railroad, and tried pie shakes at "Sammy's" in Provo because of this site.

9) Groupon

Another great "deal of the day" site. Groupon seems to be in more locations than Screaming Daily Deals and has deals in other cities that can be used for online shopping. I have bought two gift cards from here for Hapari (modest swimwear) and Love Stamped (a cute etsy shop that makes the stamped into metal jewelry and such). I'm tempted to buy the deal for New Jersey today which is a one-month subscription to a book supplier (think Netflix for books) for Richard. It's only $5 (usually $25), but I don't think a month would be long enough for Richard.

10) Swagbucks

And, last but not least, Swagbucks! Okay, it really isn't a deal site but what you get from it is a deal! I wrote about it a few weeks ago, but I'm going to write about it again because I love it! Basically, it is a search engine site (you can download their toolbar to make it easy) and you earn swagbucks (points) through searching on it. You will earn between 5 and 12 (sometimes more!) typically when you win randomly. It's really is hard to explain, but it works. I usually earn about 50 points a day. Then with your points you can "shop" in their store which has lots of stuff and gift cards. The Amazon gift card is the best deal (450 swagbucks), and Amazon has everything on it. So, I can earn a $5 gift card in nine days. Not bad right? Especially for doing nothing more than searching the web. And, I'll give you a tip: all of the above site I search for through Swagbucks and every day I earn points from their searches.

Another tip for Swagbucks, Groupon, Screaming Daily Deals, and City Deals; if you refer your friends to them (through a unique code given to you on the site), you earn bonuses! The last three give you a credit to spend on their site. Swagbucks lets you win additional points through your referrals (I didn't know this until some of you signed up through me - thanks!).

So as you can see, I do get great deals but it really is like a part-time job. Is it worth it? You choose! I think it is (and so does Richard)!

And, one more tip: although all of these site are free to use, they send out a lot of emails. I recommend setting up an email account just for the sites to send to. Then you can check your deal emails when you want and they aren't all together with your personal emails.

One more thing, if you want to see pictures of my real stay at home job, check back soon. I have lots of cute pictures and stories!

Favorite Coupons

Here are some of my favorite coupons right now:

Kellogg's Fruit Snacks $1.00/1

You can find these for $2.00 or less at lots of stores. We love the Kellogg's brand fruit snacks because they come in all the Disney movie characters.

Keebler Coconut Dreams $1.00/1

These cookies are the Keebler version of the Girl Scout Samaos cookies. Yummy!

Kraft Cheese $5.00/5

You have to buy five packages of cheese/cream cheese but both freeze really well. Kraft cheese goes for $2.00/package right now at WalMart and cream cheese can sometimes be found for $1.00 = free cheese!

Frigo String Cheese $1.00/1

We snagged two bags of string cheese sticks at WinCo last month for $.67 with this coupon! We are almost out, so I think I need to make a trip back there. I also heard the WinCo has the Kraft cheese for $1.67 = $.67 bag of shredded cheese!

Libby's Canned Vegetables $.50/2

There was a coupon for $1.00/3, but it is out of prints right now. During Smith's caselot sale, they have Libby's vegetables (peas, corn & beans) $1.00/3. With the other coupon, it made it free. With this coupon, it still makes for some cheap canned vegetables!

Disneyland 2010!

We just got back from Disneyland last night. The boys are exhausted and are taking long naps, so I decided I better blog about our trip now. We had a great time with three of my siblings (sisters Lora & Mary and brother Kamron) and their families (eight nieces and nephews)! Wish it could have been a longer trip, but we will take any time we can get with family! Here are some of the memories:

The first ride we took Nelson on was Pirates of the Caribbean. Probably not the best idea since it's kind of scary. The rest of the day he was scared whenever we went into any dark space. Here are the boys on It's a Small World. You can see Nelson's scared face.

My first trip to Disneyland was when I was four-years-old. My only memory of it was going on the Dumbo ride. I, of course, had to take Nelson on it! You can only see the top of his head in this picture, but he was there and seemed to enjoy it.

Clive did pretty well for a four-month-old! He rode on all the boat rides and Buzz Lightyear ride and slept a good portion of the time there. He loved to hangout with Mom & Dad and had fun being held by aunts and uncles.

Here's one of the boat rides Clive enjoyed and Nelson appreciated the Jungle ride being outside!

Nelson loved being with his cousin, Macy. Macy & I have always been close (I lived at her house the first six months of her life & then lived across the street when she was two), so I was happy to see them develop such a cute friendship. He even felt so close to her that he had a potty accident on her (the last few minutes at the park - he was very tired and overwhelmed, I felt bad for both of them).

I love making fun memories for my boys! I hope Nelson can remember the time he had with his cousins and that Clive can look back at these pictures and know that he was loved and included from the very start. Disneyland... ahhh, what a magical place!

I May Be Famous...

So, we are going on a little trip to the "most magical place on earth" and meeting up with some of my favorite people ever (siblings & fams). I've been a little distracted getting ready for it, so I can't think of good deals for the week. Check out one of my favorite good deal blogs Totally Target and she will find you some at one of my favorite stores ever.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from last week.

Me (& Clive) with my David Bowie cheesecake!

Us cowboys at Richard's work party at "This is the Place" Monument.

Oh, and were you wondering why I might be famous? My friend brought to my attention that my picture was on a Utah-county famous blog. Do any of you read CJane (or her sister's blog NieNie)? Well, on Monday while taking my sister to lunch at my new favorite Provo spot (Sammy's Cafe), CJane & fam came in to interview Sammy (the owner). Well, I guess that I (and my boys and sister & fam) were in a picture her husband took. She posted it on her blog and wrote a few things I said to her and others. I may look super dorky (I'll blame the lack of makeup and every day glasses wearing on my allergies) and sound even dorkier, but, hey, I'm kind of famous now! Check out CJane's blog HERE.