Money Saving Mom

Remember I told you that Erin from 5DollarDinners and I had a special treat for you this week? Well, welcome to our week-long series, Thanksgiving on a Budget.

There is great temptation to feel like you have to prepare a ten-course gourmet feast for your loved ones for Thanksgiving. It seems almost everywhere you go right now, you are bombarded with images of elaborate spreads of gorgeous stuffed turkeys lined with rosemary and oranges surrounded by all the trimmings.

While these images might be beautiful, more often than not they can make you feel that unless you recreate such an extravagant affair for your Thanksgiving feast, it just won't be good enough. The reality, though, is that most of us do not have the time or the money to pull off a magazine-like Thanksgiving spread.

And we're here to tell you that that is perfectly okay. In fact, we'd like to encourage you to make your Thanksgiving celebrations simple and economical this year. Erin from 5DollarDinners and I will be teaming up to share some of our favorite frugal Thanksgiving recipes. Whether you're an experienced cook or a novice in the kitchen, we hope that our recipes, tips, and photo tutorials will inspire you to pull off your own "Thanksgiving on a Budget".

We've also solicited the help of Monica from TheHomespunHeart for some inexpensive Thanksgiving decoration ideas which you'll not want to miss. And after we've shared our favorite recipes, we're going to be enlisting your help on Friday.

We'll open up the floor here with a Mr. Linky and encourage you to post your favorite frugal Thanksgiving recipes or ideas on your blog and then come back here to share your link with everyone else. We look forward to reading all your frugal recipes, tips and ideas for making this Thanksgiving both frugal and festive! 

It is our desire that this series will help relieve some of the "pressure" that is placed on you to create the perfect meal on Thanksgiving Day. And we hope you are able to instead focus more on what Thanksgiving is really all about--taking time to give thanks for all of the blessings we have been given!

**********************

Note from Money Saving Mom: By the way, if you are not a regular reader of Erin's blog, 5DollarDinners, may I encourage you to head over there right now and add her feed to your reader?

Erin feeds her family of four every night for, you guessed it, $5! And her recipes are not only simple and delicious, they are also quite healthful. Her menus serve to clearly dispel the myth that you can't feed your family healthfully on a budget. Read more here about Erin and how she feeds her family for $5 every night.

Our shopping trip today:

We had a great shopping trip today at both Aldi and Dillons (Kroger). I especially enjoyed the Dillons trip as we were about to get two big bags of apples marked down to $1.49 each along with some skim milk marked down to $0.73. I just always love the adventure of spotting mark-downs; you never know what you might find!

I also discovered, much to my delight, that the Goody Ouchless ponytail holders were on sale for $2 so using this $2/1 coupon, we were able to get five packs free. And just in time as we somehow lost almost every ponytail holder we own when we moved (how does that happen?!). I'm guessing these are on sale at all Dillons stores and maybe some other Kroger stores so be sure to check.

Before coupons and sales, our total was around $105 at Dillons. After coupons and sale prices? $26.76! Gotta love those deals; who would ever pay full price for this stuff, though?

I ended up spending a few dollars more at Dillons than I was originally planning to so I took a few minutes before going into Aldi to cross a few things off my list that I didn't have to get this week and also took a quick inventory of how much leftover grocery money I had stashed away from staying under budget in recent weeks.

At Aldi, we picked up a few staple items we needed, 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes for $0.99, and some fruits and veggies to round out our menu. Our total there was $15.07.

So all totaled, we spent $41.83--a little over our $40 budget, but using the extra cash from the past few weeks that we've stayed a little under budget, I didn't have to have them take anything off my order! Yay! And next time, I'm going to plan a little better and make sure I don't get carried away on deals at Dillons like I seemed to do a little of this week! :)

Here's our menu for the week (As always, this is using ingredients purchased this week and ingredients we've stocked up in past $40 shopping trips. We didn't buy any meat or many veggies this week as our freezer is still stocked with those from past sales.):

Breakfasts
Pumpkin apple breakfast bread, yogurt
Whole-wheat pancakes, yogurt, juice
Oatmeal with bananas, flaxseed, and brown sugar
Cranberry wheat muffins, fruit, milk
Banana peanut butter smoothies, toast
Granola over yogurt with fruit
Healthy Harvest Muffins, yogurt, juice

Lunches
Egg salad sandwiches, carrots
PB&J sandwiches, pears
Cheese quesadillas, grapes
Salmonettes, muffins, apples
Steamed veggies over rice
Rice cakes, yogurt, carrots

Dinners
Enchilada casserole, green rice (I'll have to share the recipe for this sometime soon; it's a family favorite!), broccoli
Goulash, homemade bread, veggies
Church dinner--I'm bringing scalloped potatoes, apple pie, and banana bread
Chicken broccoli rice, homemade bread, grapefruit
Homemade pizza, fruit
Steak stir fry over brown rice, homemade bread
Dinner out

Snacks--Muffins, yogurt, apples, carrots

For more menu inspiration, head over to Organizing Junkie.

I have a really special treat for you this week that Erin from 5DollarDinners and I have collaborated on with a little help from Monica over at TheHomespunHeart. You won't want to miss it so be sure to come back later tonight for the first post in this fun series. Has your curiosity been piqued? :)

I don't know about you, but I do a lot of searching online. If I need to find the answer to just about anything, Google is my best friend.

So when Lavonne told me about Swagbucks--an online search engine that rewards you for searching online--I was all ears. Especially when she told me she had earned enough in Swagbucks in the last four months to receive hundreds of dollars in gift cards.

I did some investigation and learned that Swagbucks is very simple to sign up for. In fact, it takes all of about one minute. There are no fees, no credit card required, and no phone number or address requested.

After that, you are credited 3 points to your account and then download the toolbar and every day as you're searching online, you earn a few more points. After only 45 points earned, you can get a free Amazon gift card. Or at 50 points, you can get a Starbucks gift card. There are dozens of other prizes, too.

Now, you might be thinking, "What's the big deal if I only earn a $5 gift card every month?" Well, you're right, $5 isn't that exciting. It's something, but that's only the beginning. You see, your earnings will exponentially multiply when you refer others.

Do you know anyone else who searches online? I thought so. Well, tell them about Swagbucks, send them your referral link, and you'll not only instantly earn more points when they sign up, you'll also earn points for the searching they do online.

Tell lots of folks and you're well on your way to funding your entire Christmas budget with free gift cards from Swagbucks. I'm not kidding you, that's exactly what Lavonne did. See her post here with the details.

For those of you who have blogs, you'll especially want to jump on board with this. It's free, it won't take much of your time to do, and it could generate a nice stream of gift cards in your mailbox.

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty sweet to me! So what are you waiting for? Go sign up here.

photo by atconc

Guest Post by Mandi from Doodle's Place and Transcription Talk

If you've spent any time looking into working at home, chances are you've come across scams. The truth is that legitimate opportunities are highly sought after, and the scams take advantage of the number of women who desperately want to be work-at-home moms (not that there aren't other demographics of people who want to work at home, but that is by far the largest).

Here are a few things you should know as you search:

1. Run far away from anyone who charges you a fee for a list of companies who hire home-based contractors or who charges you to get started working for them. I can think of a few very exceptions:

2. Envelope stuffing jobs are not legitimate. You will NOT make any money doing this. The envelopes you are stuffing are to convince other people to sign up to do the same thing. Stay away!

3. Legitimate data entry jobs are very hard to come by. I actually have one of these that I applied and tested for over two years ago and was just able to start working. It's worth saying again--do NOT pay for a data entry job.

Don't be discouraged! There are legitimate and lucrative work-at-home opportunities out there. How do you find them? There have been a lot of tips and ideas shared on this blog such as selling things on Etsy and blogging for profit.

Another valuable resource for looking into opportunities to earn an income at home is to join the forums at WAHM.com or Work Place Like Home. Not only will you find job leads, but you can also ask the other members about the opportunities you come across so that you're not trying to sort through them all on your own.

As has been said here before, there are plenty of opportunities for you out there. However, it does take time, hard work and patience, and you need to use discernment as you consider your options!

Mandi Ehman is a work-at-home mom of three little girls, ages 4, 2.5, and 1. As the co-author of General Transcription 101: Your Complete Guide to Getting Started, she has helped hundreds of women get started in transcription and improve their skills and productivity. She also blogs at Doodles’ Place about making the most of every moment with her girls.

It's a fairly good week at CVS this week. Here are the best deals I see:

******ECB DEALS******

Buy 1 L’Oreal Age Perfect Pro-Calcium Radiance Perfector Moisturizer at $15.99, Get $15.99 ECBs (Limit 1)
Use $1/1 coupon from 9/21 RedPlum or 10/19 SmartSource insert
Free plus $1 overage after coupon and ECBs

Buy 1 Zantrex-3 at $4.99, Get $4.99 ECBs (Limit 1)
Free after ECBs

Buy $10 in Select Glade products, Get $5 ECBs (Limit 5)

Buy $20 of any Duracell Batteries at $5.99 each, Get $15 ECBs (Limit 3)

******NOVEMBER ECB DEALS******

Buy 1 Crest Pro-Health Whitening Toothpaste (4.2 oz.) at $3.49, Get $3.49 ECBs (Limit 2)
Use $1/1 coupon from 11/2 P&G insert
Free plus $1 overage after coupon and ECBs

See all deals with coupon match-ups for the month of November here.

New to CVS-ing? Don't try to make heads or tails of this post because it probably won't make a lot of sense to you. Instead, go here where I explain the CVS program in full detail. Want to join in the fun and incredible savings? Then go here where I share more about how to make it work for you.

******Share Your Deals and Scenarios!********

Have your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your CVS deals post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your CVS deals post will be deleted.**

The deals at Walgreens looked pretty non-existent to Mercedes and me. Here are the few we came up with:

WEEKLY DEALS (Thanks to Nichole for spotting these!)

Skippy Peanut Butter-- on sale 2 for $3.00
Use $1/2 coupon from 10/5 RedPlum
$1 each after coupon

Deerfield Cheddar or Mexican Shredded Cheese (8 oz.)--on sale 2 for $3.00
(This is about $0.50 less per 8 oz. bag than the Aldi price and is definitely a pretty good deal on cheese. If you have room in your budget and freezer to stock up, definitely consider doing so since this cheese freezes well for up to a few months.)

French's French Fried Onions--$1.29 with in-ad coupon
Use $0.50/1 or $0.75/1 coupons from the 11/09 SmartSource insert or the $0.50/1 printable here
$0.54-$0.79/can after coupons

Chex Mix--$0.99
Use $0.50/1 coupon from 11/09 SmartSource insert
$0.49 after coupon

REGISTER REWARD DEALS

Buy 1 Just for Men Touch of Gray Hair Color on sale for $7, Get $7 in Register Rewards
Use $2/1 coupon here (Thanks, Thriftee Momee!)
Send in for full rebate here (Thanks, Nichole!)
Free plus a potential of $9 overage after coupon, Register Rewards, and rebate

Also, see the great deal Nichole cooked up on Suave hair care products here. Less than $0.01 per bottle!

NOVEMBER FREE-AFTER-REBATE ITEMS:

Almay One Coat Mascara--up to $6.99 rebate
Use $1/1 from 8/3 inserts
Free plus $1 overage after coupon and full rebate

L'Oreal Age Perfect Pro Calcium Radiance Perfector--up to $19.99 rebate
Use $2/1 manufacturer coupon from 10/5 inserts
Free plus $2 overage after coupon and full rebate

New to shopping at Walgreens? Start here.

============================
Share Your Deals and Scenarios!
Have your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Walgreens deals post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Walgreens deals post will be deleted.**

Go here and click on "Share the Love" to get a free Mr. Clean mini magic eraser. (Thanks, Sadie!)

More Freebies:
There are new freebies available from Great Books Foundation here. (Thanks, Savings Makes Cents!)
Free package of Pampers for those in the greater Cincinnati area (Thanks, Frugal, Freebies, and Deals!)
Free book from Little Scholastic (Thanks, Frugal, Freebies, and Deals!)
Free virtual children's books from Mobistories

The girls and I just did a simple shopping trip to Kroger (Dillon's) and Aldi this week:

Altogether, we spent a total of right at $40 for all the above groceries--right on our budget target. Yay! You can read more about this shopping trip here.

How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.**

Wanting to have a cash-only Christmas this year but struggling to come up with the cash?

Here are just a few ideas you might try:

1) CoinStar--Gather up all your loose change and take it to the nearest CoinStar machine to be converted into gift cards or cash. If you can come up with $40 worth in change, you can get an additional $10 bonus. Read more here.

2) Cash4Books--Look around your home and find used books you no longer need or use and sell them to Cash4Books. They pay promptly through Paypal so you can quickly have your money in hand after shipping off the books.

3) Turn your "trash" into cash--Sam's Club, Amazon, and Costco all offer programs of rewarding you gift cards for old electronics, cell phones, and so on. Read more details here, here, and here.

4) Etsy--If you're skilled in the area of arts and crafts, consider setting up a simple shop on Etsy and selling some of your handmade goods. Read this article here for ideas on getting started.

5) YouData--You won't make a lot of money off of this, but if you have some extra time to view some commercials online, you can earn a few dollars each week through YouData. Best of all, they pay via Paypal at the end of every week so it's a very quick turnaround. More details on this are here.

Those are just a few simple ideas I had for quick ways to generate some cash. I'd love to hear ideas from the rest of you--especially if it's something you are personally doing this year to help shore up your Christmas budget.