Greetings All and Merry Day After Christmas! :)

Sorry for being MIA. Dh and I's internet service was temporarily down for the last two weeks. Since most of my blogging was while I was at work - this posed a bit of a problem when I went on my three week vacation.

That's right folks, three weeks PTO. Started the 15th of this month and I wont be returning to work until January 5th. Let me tell you, I am savoring every minute with my daughter. It is so hard for me to be a WFHM. And with DD being a ton more fun now it will make it even harder for me to return back to the office. For now, I'm just going to enjoy my vacation with her and make a ton of memories.

I'll update more in a bit but for now I wanted to pop in real quick and let you all know what's going on. DD is waking from her nap so I must tend to her...be back later with Christmas updates and more......oh and before I go a real quick "Hello!" to all my new blog followers! :) Sure feels great to see I have a few visitors. I appreciate my visitors and hope you'll enjoy your stay here in my little piece of the blogsphere! :)

She is so cute with her newly found " i'm sticking my tongue out at you" action. Yeah, I think it's more like she saw Mommy doing it to her so much that she had to learn to repeat it herself. :0) Love you BooBoo-Bear!

You've read about me tightening up our budget and becoming frugal with our money. Now, I bring to you a new adventure....tightening up my body.

Tomorrow marks Day 1 on the Tight Curves Transformation Challenge. From Wednesday, December 10, 2008 through Saturday, February 28, 2009 I will be dedicated to tightening up, trimming down and overall becoming healthier and more fit than I have been since before I had DD.

Pre-DD days (12 months ago), I was a pretty happy, healthy, fit chicklette. Then came the news of our upcoming arrival. That's when I packed on a whole 82 pounds (at 5 foot tall, this is pretty huge). I'm using this challenge to regain that pre-pregnancy body and maybe even have improved upon it - if just a little bit.

My BFF, Genie, will be coaching me along on this endeavour and i'm uber excited!! It's going to be a lot of fun (remind me later that I said this) and I'm sure I am going to do great. We plan to start off with a rather aggresive plan that's pretty darn strict. It wont be no walk in the park but hey, for 6-10 days, well, I can easily hack it.

The hardest part that I can forsee being a challenge is the getting up and moving part. Now, I am by no means a stranger to the fitness world but when it comes to getting back on that saddle - girl, let me tell you. It's ROUGH! It is the hardest three months (this is the average length it takes me to find my groove). I'm going to welcome this challenge and say "Bring it On."

So, today marks the last day of my "bad food indulgences" for the next few months. You'd think I would have a really juicy list to share with you but the reality of it is, I dont. It was a fairly normal food day. I would say a typical 1520 calorie day - moderate level health food choices. The only bad thing is peanut m&m's and even those weren't all that great. I would have liked to have chinese (General tso's chicken) for lunch but those greedy little people wouldnt deliver to my office building unless the minimum order was $13+. yeah, sorry buddy. I'm not ordering that much. I ended up settling for my Fit and Active Pepperoni Stuffed Sandwich that I bought from Aldi's during our weekly shopping trip this past weekend. Dh and I will have a "dirty" dinner (you know, all that bad, fatty stuff) and I might even indulge in that cheesecake sitting in the fridge. After that folks, it's BYE BYE BAD FOOD! (well, aside from Saturday afternoon's pizza and cake for my Daughter's FIRST Birthday Party)

Stay tuned as I continue to write about my adventure during the Tight Curves Transformation Challenge.

Want a $4.00 off of $20.00 coupon for CVS that is good through the rest of the year? It's at
I heart CVS or HERE.

Remember, you can use this WITH all other coupons and ECB's that you may have.

Here is my list of the best coupons that Coupons.com has to offer this week. Support my site by printing these coupons out straight off of my site by using the Coupons.com widget on the right under Print and Save.

* $.75 off Betty Crocker 17.5oz or larger cookie mix.
* $1.00 off any Success Rice product 14oz or larger.
* $5.00 off a Kodak Picture Movie DVD.
* $.50 off any size and flavor Tabasco pepper sauce.

Target has their Airwick Lumin Air's priced at $4.99 each*. There is a $5/1 coupon for this in the 12/7 insert to get it for FREE. There is also a $3/1 printable coupon HERE.

Also, Target has a deal going on this week where if you purchase 5 boxes of select Keebler or Sunshine Crackers or cookies you will get a $5 Target Gift card back. Some of these crackers and cookies include Fudge Stripes Cookies, Club crackers and Cheez-it crackers! Their final price after the gift card is taken into account is $1.50!!


*These may be a regional offer only, so check your ads before you head to the store!

Denise over at The "Cent"sible Sawyer has a giveaway for a $500 Walmart Gift Card, sponsored by Nickelodeon and Walmart.

To enter, head over to The "Cent"sible Sawyer and leave a comment with how to make your favorite holiday appetizer. There are 4 other ways to enter to win.

Macy's want to offer you an exclusive offer to enjoy Macy’s special Friends and Family discount 20% off!! – the same as Macy’s employee discount – that’s taking place from 12/10-12/15.

This coupon is redeemable in-store and online!

Prices at Amazon are continuing to go down while some stores they continue to go up. I love that Amazon is not only continuing to offer us some HOT deals but also the free shipping December 18th that guarantees delivery by Christmas Eve.

Here are some of the deals you'll find at Amazon:

Jakks Pacific Cupcake Maker down to $11.99
Playskool Busy Ball-tivity Center $10.99. Reg price $34.99
Playskool Cherry Blossom Market down to $20.99 from $59.99
Playskool Rose Petal Cottage $33.99. This one seems to b a hot toy right now.
Baby Alive Learns to Potty $19.99 a dollar higher than last week but better than the competition:
Little Mommy Gotta Go Doll $26.99 from $69.99
Barbie My House $13.99

All of them are eligible for free shipping with $25 purchase.

December 18 is Free Shipping Day! Target, Kmart, Amazon, and quite a few others will offer free shipping for last-minute shoppers with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. Details on just what kinds of free shipping deals will be offered are yet to be announced. Get the scoop and see the complete list of participating sites. I learned about Free Shipping Day at Consumerist.com.

*15% off your entire purchase code: DECEMBER15

*Expires 12/8 at 4:00 pm MST

Combine with these codes:
Free shipping on any order with Kohls charge MVC886 - exp 12/9/08
Extra 15% off (no Kohls charge required) DECEMBER15 - exp 12/8/08 only
15% off w/Kohls charge with code HOLIDAY15 - exp 12/15/08
15% off w/Kohls charge with code KCCARD15 - exp 12/31/08
10% off order with code HOLIDAY7879 - exp 12/10/08
Free shipping on $100 after any discounts. No code required. Valid thru 12/8/08.

Today's Redbox code is 23MJT7. This code can be used all day until midnight at any Redbox location.

Side Notes:

- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.

- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, "Rent with Promo." Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.

Aldi doesn’t accept coupons, but their low everyday prices make them a great store to consider when making your weekly shopping list.

Thanks to Katie at Cincinnati Cents for compiling a list of the best deals to be found at Aldi this week.

Produce -
Red onions (2 lb. bag) - $0.69
Cauliflower head - $0.79
Head lettuce - $0.49
Del Monte bananas - $0.45/lb.

Meats -
Spiral sliced honey ham - $1.49/lb.
Brown sugar spiral ham - $1.99/lb.
Shrimp ring (16 oz.) - $5.99
Extra Jumbo cooked shrimp (16 oz.) - $6.99

Dairy -
Shredded cheddar (12 oz.) - $2.99
Cream cheese (8 oz.) - $0.99
French onion or ranch veggie dip (16 oz.) - $1.29
Egg nog (32 fl. oz.) - $1.69

Just got a lovely little message in my email box. Paypal has a neat little offer for us PayPal users. Use PayPal when you checkout at Walmart.com and we'll give you $20 cash back on your order of $50 or more.*

*Receive $20 cash back on a single purchase of $50 or more excluding tax and shipping. ("Offer") Offer applies to transactions on Walmart.com when you use PayPal as a payment method. Offer begins December 5, 2008 and ends December 15, 2008. The maximum amount of cash back per PayPal account is $20USD. The cash back will be deposited into your PayPal account by January 15, 2009.

There will be a Red Plum (RP) coupon insert in this Sunday's paper. For a preview of the individual coupons included, please check out The Coupon Clippers (Link Button to the right of my blog) Click on 12/7 in the calendar, and you can see what coupons are available in the insert. You can even order extra coupons directly from The Coupon Clippers website.

Deal Seeking Mom lists an entire month of FREE SUNDAY REDBOX MOVIE CODES on her site.

Week 1 – 11moms4uS (good Sunday 12/7 only)
Week 2 – 11moms4uA (good Sunday 12/14 only)
Week 3 – 11moms4uN (good Sunday 12/21 only)
Week 4 – 11moms4uT (good Sunday 12/28 only)
Week 5 – 11moms4uA (good Sunday 1/4 only)

A Suggestion ~ Copy this list and put it in your wallet. This way the next time you are out shopping or celebrating on Sunday, you'll be prepared to stop at a Redbox on the way home to pick up a movie to relax through when you get there.

What I enjoy most about using Redbox is you can pick up a film at a box outside your neighborhood - wherever you happen to see a box and you don't have to return it to the same box. The Redbox that you pass the next day or the one closest to you is good enough.

Need more Free Baby Bath Soap??? Look no further. A new oppurtunity has risen. A new coupon was released yesterday. Click here to print out a coupon for $3.00 off of 3 Johnson & Johnson baby products. These soaps are priced at $.96 at Wal-Mart and $1.16 at CVS. Depending on where you use the coupon, you could get free soap with overage or you will have to pay very little. This coupon can be printed out twice, so once you print it out the first time hit the backspace and print it out again. Hurry up and print this coupon before it is taken down. They only allow X amount of times for this coupon to be printed.

Go ahead, stock up! We all know how much we go through this stuff. Ha! Plus, it's FREE. Who can resist that?! ;0)

You can get a $2 off Huggies diapers coupon from our coupons.com sidebar at your right- there is a limit of two (just hit the back button after you print the first one). Get another $2 off Huggies coupon valid only at Walmart HERE. Three Cheers for diaper coupons!

Here's a printable for $3 off any Disney DVD or BluRay DVD!!! You can print multiples!!! This could easily help boost your DVD collection! I know it will forme. Movies like Narnia, National Treasure, WallE, etc! Quite a few came out recently.

Thanks to Cheapsk8 Mom!

This is one awesome find!

Print out this coupon for $1 off any one pack of alkaline Rayovac batteries and take it Target. You'll find Rayovac batteries in the Dollar Spot at Target for $1 a pack. I was able to get 10 packs of AA batteries and AAA batteries (a total of 20) for FREE.

The coupon only works on the Rayovac batteries in the blue package. The heavy duty batteries (in the red package) aren't part of this deal.

Special thanks to A Full Cup for pointing out this super great deal!

Bath & Body Works has a new coupon out that’s valid through December 24. Just spend $10 and get a free item up to $13 in value. Perfect for stocking stuffers! (Thanks, Coupon Cravings!)

Remember how I mentioned the HOT Amazon deal this morning on the Rose Petal College? Well, this is the latest addition to the Dream Town line.



Erika at Chic Shopper Chick let us in on the Amazon deal this afternoon on this little hot number. Right now the Cherry Blossom Market is marked down to just $35.99 with FREE shipping! She is also offering a chance to enter to win one of these adorable sets. I entered. I think this would be a item my daughter would thoroughly enjoy.

Ah! How cute are these?!?!?!







I was reading Monica's blog yesterday over at "The Homespun Heart" (Blog link located on side column to the right of blog). One of her real-life friends, Megan, is making them. I was going to give you the Linky Do for the direct post but unfortunately it's not available. I hope Monica doesn't mind but i'm going to c&p her post here so that other's can take advantage.

My real-life friend, Megan, has been whipping out lots of these adorable tea wallets! I was excited to order a few for gifts - I'm thinking nursery workers. Would it be terrible to admit that I'd be perfectly ok with one of them not being there the day I give these so I could keep one!?

Anyway, I'm pleased to support her craftiness and thought some of you might be interested too! I think they are very reasonably priced at $7 for one or $5 each for orders of two or more. Tea and shipping are included!

If you think they are as cute as I did - hop on over to her blog and let her know you'd like to place an order!!What do you give to nursery workers, Sunday School teachers and the like this time of year?

Aren't they just the cutest things ever?! I WANT THAT!!!!!! I love my coffee but I drink more tea than anything. I would get such use out of these things. GREAT idea, Megan! Thanks for posting and letting us know Monica. Now, off to tell Santa that I WANT THAT for Christmas. :)

Check this out "Deal Seeking Mom" is having a AWESOME giveaway. Go to this link:
http://www.dealseekingmom.com/ladies-who-lunch-giveaway-mario-batali-or-elle-lunch-bag/#comment-11010

Isn't this one adorable?! It's only one of three that is being offered. I'm definately entered. I'd love to be toting one of these around to work every day. They are so chic! You'd never guess they were a lunch bag!

What are you waiting for? Head on over there and enter for a chance to win one of these three bags. You'll be the hit of the office. :)

Hasbro Playskool Dream Town Rose Petal Cottage
Was: $79.99
Now: $29.99
FREE Super Saver Shipping

Product Features
*Rose Petal Cottage gives your little girl a house of her own to live in, take care of, and decorate
*Measures 42 by 37 by 18 inches (HxWxD); easily accommodates homeowner, her friends, and toys
*Charming and quaint appearance; fabric walls are soft and guarantee safety
*Comes with exclusive Rose Petal stove with opening oven door
*Playing “house” in the ROSE PETAL Cottage lets your little girl build her very own home – and her imagination – right in your living room!
UPDATE: Wow, that went really quick. You might keep checking back to see if they lower it again, but for now the price has been raised to $59.99.


Barbie® & The Diamond Castle Princess Liana Doll
Was: $29.99
Now: $11.99
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping



Baby Alive Learns to Potty
Was: $59.99
Now: $18.99!
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
UPDATE: Sorry this is back up to $44 now.




Jakks Pacific Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker
Was: $29.99
Now: $16.99
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping


Sorry folks, I would have provided the amazon.com links to the titles but I havent quite learned how to do that yet. Any tips would be much appreciated. ;)

One of the things that I really have come to enjoy is my DVR. I know that there are many out there that prefer to stay completely away from the television, but I rather enjoy the opportunity to relax and unwind while watching a little bit of television.

With DVR, I control the TV instead of it controlling me. I can record two shows at once. Tho, if the TV is on when I am recording two shows, I either have to watch one of those shows or something that was previously recorded. (This normally never really happens - thus far, in about a three year time span it's only occurred about four times.) If my show moves days of the weeks, the DVR knows. Ican elect to record all episodes or only new episodes. (I love the fact that I can skip the re-runs!)

Having a DVR allows me to always have a show that is appropriate for my daughter to watch available. She's not too into television right now and is more curious about the world around her however there are a few that catch her attention. Some of the shows we record for her are Little Bear, Franklin, Oswald, Sesame Street, Blues Clues and Curious George.

For me, the nice thing about the DVR is I can watch the shows I want when it is convenient for me and in a fraction of the time, because I can skip commercials. I can start to watch a movie one weekend afternoon and finish it the next morning. I can start watching a show 10 minutes late and finish at the regular time because I don't spend time watching commercials. It really is a lot more convenient for me. I've come to realize that the majority of one hour shows are usually full of about 10-15 minutes of commericals.

Now, it may sound like I watch a lot of shows, but really, I only watch about six shows - Prison Break, My Own Worst Enemy, Private Practice, ER, Greys Anatomy, Desperate Housewives. The rest of the DVR scheduling is all my husband and daughter. Truth be told, Dh has an extensive list of shows he records. (Tho he never really gets around to them all. LOL!).

Find more Works for Me Wednesday tips at Rocks in My Dryer.

It's the beginning of the month again which means a lot of the coupon websites have put out new coupons!! I have some new great coupons in my coupon printer right now and just wanted to remind everyone to make sure they take a look and see what coupons they can find.

Be sure to print them now before they reach their print limits. The best ones go fast, so don’t wait for a sale matchup if you see something you know you will use.

Some of the new coupons in my printer include:
* $2/1 Huggies diapers (this would be a great coupon to use at your local Kmart if they are participating in the double coupons days this week!)
* $5/1 Honey Baked Ham (YUM!)
* $5/1 any LeapFrog Game
* $5 off plus free shipping on Entertainment Coupon Book
* $1/2 Chex Cereals (Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, and Honey Nut Chex)
* $0.60/1 Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers
* $0.40/1 Betty Crocker Box or Pouch Potatoes
* $5/1 Kodak Picture Movie DVD

Plus a whole lot more including 9 different Pillsbury coupons, 4 different Betty Crocker and General Mills Cereal coupons, and 4 different coupons for Star Wars products!

You can click on the coupon printer on the right hand side of the blog to see all the new coupons!

Vicky's allows you to use up to three coupon codes per order. This is a good way to get a few nice gifts at a bargain price and maybe get something nice for yourself too!

The best deal is:
Free slippers with select sleepwear purchase using code: SLIPPER08
Free fragrance with select sleepwear purchase using code: FA814233
20% off your entire order using code: GET20

I was able to purchase a sleepwear set for $32 including S&H.
Sleepwear set $29.50
Slippers $19.00
Fragrance set $49.00
S&H 6.99
Subtotal: $104.49

Free slippers with code
Free fragrance set with code
20% off with code
Total: $32.12 (with taxes)

Not too shabby, eh? Now, what are you waiting for? Go nab your deal, too! :)

Go here to read how you can get 75 free photo prints and 30 holiday photo cards for $0.48 from Kodak Gallery! What a steal!!! (A tip - Make sure you chose the 5x7 cards option or the deal wont work) I scored mine and you better too before this offer is GONE!

UPDATE: As of 2:24PM, readers are reporting this tryus3 coupon has expired. See linky above for further details.

Woot! Just gave my new blog a bit of a Holiday Facelift. We've got a ton of my frequented links over to the right as well as a followers section, a subscribe to my feed option and a few other things. Hope you like it. Now that i'm knowing a bit more of ways around, I should be doing a bit more revisions as time goes on like photos and stuff. Should be fun! :)

Sorry I havent updated in awhile. I'll be back to update shortly....