Tips for Tuesday - Valentines Yummies

Happy Valentines Day everyone. I wanted to share with you some things I made all my sweeties today to let them know how much I love them. On this special Love Day.

I made sure everyone had a heart filled breakfast. With Strawberry heart shaped pancakes and heart shaped bacon. Nothing says "I love you" like bacon!

I have been loving these cute ideas for bento boxes lately. This is a hard heart boiled egg. It is more work than I think I would want to do on an everyday basis, but it is a cute idea for special days. You can read how to make heart shaped eggs on Anna's site. I did mine a little different, since I didn't have a milk carton, I used the brownie box below and cut the corners off to make the V and wrapped the corners with plastic wrap. It still worked great!

Here is a sandwich I made for Little Miss and Little face this morning. Heart shaped scalloped bread with the heart shaped eggs inside. She loves egg sandwiches. I forgot he had a party today at school and didn't eat his sandwich. I just brought it back and put it in the fridge. He can have it on Thursday.

I even made the cheese heart shaped. I put it on the sandwich and forgot to take a picture, so I took it off and it has some Ceaser dressing on it. Oops!

And finally I made Chocolate Strawberry brownie kisses for my sweeties. This tastes like Chocolate covered strawberries, since I used strawberry puree instead of water in the recipe. I will post this recipe at a later date. 

Now what am I going to do for dinner?

Did you do anything special for your sweeties? Leave a comment or link, I would love to see what others did today.

25 Days of Christmas - Blog Share Day 9

25 Days of Christmas

December 9, 2011

Featured Blog – Pounds4Pennies

I am so happy to be able to participate in this Blog Share with so many other bloggers. I love Christmas time, because it was always about spending time with my family. It is the one time of the year where we all try to make an effort to get home to mom and dad’s (nana and papa’s) house to enjoy time with each other. When I was a single mom I was able to purchase a set of 3 trees of different heights for my Christmas tree. We now use these trees to put in the three kids rooms. These are their Christmas trees to decorate how they choose each year. They get to place their handmade ornaments on it each year. In order to count down to Christmas we make a paper chain advent calendar for them to put on their trees to count down to the birth of Jesus. Here are some variations on this easy frugal advent calendar.

One thing I want my children to remember is, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus. I make sure we read the Christmas story from the Bible each year. I enjoy reading Luke 2 verses 1-21. For each length of chain you could write one verse and read it before you tear it off. If you started on the first you can use a few verses from the book Matthew about the birth of Jesus.

If you decide to make only one chain and each child gets a different color to add. They can write what they like about other siblings on their pieces of colored paper and they get to read their day and that is the day they get to tear off. I like coming up with ideas to promote fairness to every child.

The really crafty person can decide to make the chain and decorate each link with their own personality. I find using decorative scissors or punches are fun to do if you have those from scrapbooking. You can sequins, glitter, ribbon. If you make a wonderful masterpiece and don’t want to rip it every day, you could use a marker such as a clothespin to mark the day. Of course you would decorate the clothes pin to match your garland.

There is still time to make an advent calendar. It is a great way for children to enjoy the countdown to Christmas. Here are the simple instructions of how to make this chain calendar.

You will need glue, scissor and paper in different colors.

1. Let your children pick the colors they would like to use.

2. Cut small strips of construction paper across the short end of the paper. Use a pencil and draw lines to make straight cuts on the paper.

3. Take the construction paper and make a circle and glue the ends together to make a circle. This step is good if you have a couple of helpers. Continue until you get to the end.

4. Once you are at the end you can place something special to signify ONLY ONE MORE DAY until Christmas. I used a star this year and placed it near the top of the tree.

5. Hang the garland on your tree or where ever you want. Make sure you enjoy the Christmas season with your Children.

Money Saving Monday - Christmas Budget

Christmas is time for giving gifts, but don’t get into debt by giving. There are a lot of ways to start saving for Christmas by using a budget. One thing I like to do is to have a budget for each person and keep a total on how much I spend. This way I know I am being fair to each person.

If it is difficult for you to keep a budget for each person, you can make individual envelopes and put the dollar amount you want to spend in each envelope and only spend that amount on that person. Keep your receipts and gift receipts in the envelope of that person after you have spent the money. When it comes time for Christmas you can take out all the gift receipts and had it to them, in case they need to make an exchange. When the money is gone there are no more gifts to buy. It helps you get to that stopping point. This is hard when you are shopping for someone who is easy to shop for.

Also try shopping all year round for people on your list. I have quite a few people to shop for and I said I was going to do this in 2011, but once again I did not. Next year in 2012 I am. I now have a better understanding of sales cycles work, and how to stretch my dollar to the maximum. Everyone will be crossed off by November next year. I will keep you guys updated on how this goes.

Next I try to make gifts for those who I don’t have a budget for such as teachers, friends or someone else. These can be made for very little money and they always appreciate these gifts. I much rather do that then, buy something they are not going to use or need. I am planning on making peppermint cocoa as gifts this year. I got a great deal on cocoa at Tom Thumb last week. And this just sounds wonderful on a cold night.

Right now it is very cold here in Texas. We almost had snow today, but it started to warm up right before the snow line got to us. Some people got nearly two inches. That is a lot for us here in the south. It has been raining for three days now and I am a little tired of the rain. And to top it off we are all sick. I can’t talk right now because I have lost my voice. My husband posted on my Facebook page, “Finally some peace and quiet around here.” I just gave him a sneer.

Remember to have a budget and stick to it. I don't have all the answers, I just try to share some ideas that work for me. Find a system or method that works the best for you and stick with it. Now go and shop, shop, shop.

Money Saving Monday - Cyber Monday Shopping

This is cyber Monday today. I have listed several sites I recommend to get some great deals today. I love all my readers and to show me how much you care if you could take take one second and support me at Top Mommy Blogs that would be wonderful. It is very easy. One click = One vote. Thanks for taking the time to vote for me here. 


Coupons
New week = New Coupons be sure to print yours now. HOT $0.75/1 International Delight Coupon. PRINT NOW. This one won't last long.


Guys - Hard to Shop for
I find it is so hard to buy for guys in my family. I found this company last year and they have great deals going on right now on hundreds of items even for guys. I just Love, Love, LOVE this place.  I find buying something personalized for a guy is a great gift to give. Especially if it is something they are going  to use. My husband frequently travels, so I got him a small travel bag with his initials on it. He loves it and enjoys using it on all his trips. They have so many neat things to shop for here. I know you will find something for at least one person on your list. They have gifts for everyone. It looks like nearly everything is on sale, too!

 

Coupon Codes for Today ONLY! Order now!

PMALL5D - $5 Off Orders of $25 or More

PMALLSHIP75 - On-Site Deals - Today Only!

PMXMAS10 - 10% Off Holiday Orders

Gift Card Ideas


Here is a great site where you can shop for many different Gift cards at the same time and location. They will send you a bill and you can pay securely through your bank. You are not giving your account information to several different retailers risking your personal financial information getting stolen. This is a more safe and secure way to shop this holiday season. You can even earn up to 10% cash back on each gift card purchase. Then you can do a little shopping for yourself. Happy Holidays to you!

Friday Finals - Times 2

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We sure did. I did not do any grocery shopping this week, but I would love to hear how you did this week. I am also posting an additional link to see how you guys did shopping on Black Friday. 


Macy's had a great coupon for $10 off $25. I love the create your own sale coupons, since you can combine those with any other items already on sale. I even buy my coffee when I get these coupons.



First is GROCERY LINK UP:






BLACK FRIDAY LINK UP:

Tips for Tuesday - Black Friday

It is almost here, Black Friday. I really like finding out the history of things. Most people don't know why it's called Black Friday. This is the day of the year most retailers go from operating "in the red" (a deficit) to operating "in the black" (making a profit). Thus Black Friday. This is a big day for retailers, and I think it should remain to just Friday. Let the employees enjoy their thanksgiving with their families and not be so greedy to make them work on thanksgiving. Ok that is my two cents. If you agree please do not shop on Thursday.

Here are a few of my tips for surviving the day. Do your research on the items that are going on sale to make sure that is the item you want. Sometimes it is last years model at a deep discount to clear the shelves. The item may not be the quality you really want.

Just like grocery shopping, you should have a plan and a budget and stick to it. Start by planning which stores are open earliest and have the item(s) you really want.

If you can convince someone to go with you, divide and conquer. Have one person go to one store while you go to another to get the most out of the time limited deals.

Don't worry if you don't get the deal you wanted. Another deal will come along during the holiday season.

Remember to:

1. Research

2. Have a plan and budget and stick to it.

3. Divide and conquer

4. Don't worry if you don't get the deal, another one will come along.

I enjoy shopping online and staying with my family on that day. I really don't like the crowds, but I would love to hear from my readers and I will have an additional black Friday linky for you to share your great deals you find on that day. I can't wait to hear from you.

Great Gifts

I found the website Personalization Mall.com last year and I fell in love with them. They have gifts for every occasion all year round.  Their prices are reasonable. I ordered something for everyone in my family. I just love personalized gifts. It means more to me when the gift was picked out for me and it has been personalized just for me. 

Last year I ordered the Can and Bottle wrap for all the men in the family in their favorite teams color and put their name on it. To this day this is my husbands favorite can wrap and he uses it all the time. I also ordered a monogrammed cutting board for my brother that he loved!


What better gift to send than a personalized gifts this season. I am glad I can offer this great deal to my readers. There are also a couple coupon codes you can use:


SHOPEARLY before 11/20/11 for 15% off
PMALL15D before 11/20/11 for $15 Off $75


This may contain affiliate links.