Free Coupon Book from Betty Crocker!

Get your free coupon book here from Betty Crocker. You can also sign up to get great recipes and offers sent to your email box each week in a Newsletter.

http://freecouponbooklet.bettycrocker.com/BettyCrockerCouponBook/

ICM Halloween Party Tomorrow!

If you are still looking for something to do with the kids tomorrow in the Iowa City are and don't have Hawkeye tickets the ICM is having their Halloween Party tomorrow. Should be a good time with lots of activities. Some stores at the mall will handle out goodies too. This was up on the webpage:

HALLOWEEN PARTY!
Date: October 31, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: The Iowa Children's Museum
Description:
You and your little goblins, superheroes and princesses are invited to the best Halloween celebration in town! Have fun with costumed museum staff as you dance the Monster Mash! Visit the not-so-scary Haunted House for a thrill! Win Halloween prizes, play Putt-Putt Pumpkin Golf, Make a Pasta Skeleton and Create a Candy Corn Picture Frame. But that's not all ... play Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin, Skeleton Scavenger Hunt and more! Celebrating Halloween at your favorite place to play is great fun for all the little ghosts and goblins in your life! Join us from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 31st. All activities are free with museum admission.

For more details go to:
http://www.theicm.org/calendar/view_event.asp?CalendarID=3406

Happy Halloween!

PLACE Cash

In select stores now for a limited time. Spend $40 and earn a $20 off Place Cash Certificate!!!

Spend $40 before discounts and tax in a single transaction to earn a $20 off coupon good off your next $40 purchase during September 29-October 31st. The offer cannot be combined with other promotions but with all the great Fall Sale items at The Childrens Place it is an awesome deal! Plus, new holiday preview lines are out NOW in stores and the full holiday line will be out starting September 28th. So you can buy your fall essentials (which just had major markdowns!) and use the coupon on some great winter necessities like hats and coats or even holiday dresses!
Happy Shopping!

Happy 4th From Disney!

Disney's Store is having 4th of July Sale thru the end of the week (Sunday July 5th at 11:59 pm PT). Go to http://www.disneystore.com/ to shop and get 15, 20, 25, and even 30% off! Also, they have a special promotion for $5 shipping when you spend $89 or more.

A Sweet Treat for Baby

And its not loaded with sugar either! We just purchased this Swirlin' Surprise Gumball Machine from Fisher Price and the boys love it. It features 4 fun roll-a-round "gum balls" that roll and spin on the floor. When you pull the lever the machine drops them and plays music and flashes. Our baby boy enjoys catching the balls. Our older three year old loves it too and likes to help the baby put them back in again. It is sure to be a toy that stays around for a while. And even better, Fisher Price has a big line of Roll-A-Round ball toys that are compatible with the balls.

ToysRUs sells it for $22.99 here:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265240&CAWELAID=107524551

New Johnson's Baby Product

YAY for one bottle of soap for babies! Johnson's just rolled out a new 2-in-1 baby product that is both a bubble bath and a baby wash. It has that same wonderful baby smell and fills the tub with bubbles still. We used it last night during the boys bath and they loved the new bottle. In fact, our 3 year old loves that its BLUE bath soap. The baby however, was just happy to splash and play with the bubbles as usual.

Diapers.com Sale

Diapers.com is running a sale right now on TONS of items ranging from baby gear, clothing, formula and of course diapers. The sale ends July 2nd. And as always they offer FREE 2-day shipping when your order is more than $49.

Go here to check it out the special coupon codes and promotions they are offering.

http://www.diapers.com/semiannualsale.aspx?cm_sp=NVHP-_-Z2-_-SemiAnnual

ICM Pajama Party Saturday June 13th!

The Iowa Children's Museum in Coralville, Iowa is having a "Pajama Party this Saturday from 6:30-9:30 PM. This is a great activity for older children and a fun way for parents to get a little free time to shop or enjoy a dinner without kids. You have to register your child before hand so make sure to call by tomorrow afternoon.

This is the description off the ICM website. The description doesn't say what the age limit is, but typically these events are for children ages 5 and up. Go to http://www.theicm.org/ for more information or call the ICM to register your child.
_____________________________________________
ICM PJ Party!
NEW evening drop-off program for kids!
Saturday, June 13th, 20096:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Kids! Put on your pajamas and come play at The Iowa Children's Musuem without Mom and Dad! ICM staff will provide outstanding fun and games, as well as an evening snack!
Cost is $20/child
Members receive 10% off
Reservations are required
To register, please contact Lori at 319-625-6255 ext 209 or lkaemmerer@theicm.org.
_____________________________________________

Great Father's Day $10 Gift Card Offer at Target

Check out this week's Target ad if you are still looking for a great father's day gift idea. Target is offering a $1o gift card when you buy a pack of golf balls and any golf apparel item. This would make a great gift for any dad that loves to golf or would be great for anyone who just enjoys golfing. The offer is good thru this Saturday. Go to http://www.target.com/ and view your local ad for more information about this promotion.

North Liberty, IA Fun Days

North Liberty has their annual Fun Days Celebration this week Thursday--Sunday. The parade is Friday evening and the event will conclude on Sunday with fireworks. There are LOTS of family activities to enjoy as well as live music perfect to listen to on a warm summer night.

For a listing of events and more details visit this website:

http://www.northlibertyiowa.org/fundays/

JJ Cole Diaper Bag

Well it was finally time to retire the old diaper bag. It was stained, ripped and torn to pieces. We finally had to put it down. RIP old diaper bag, but we will not miss you.

At least we won't any way because I found a new one that I love. This JJ Cole Collection diaper bag clips onto your stroller or shopping cart. Plus the diaper changing mat has a magnetic clasp, so it folds back together very neatly with little fuss. How cool is that?

I got the polka dot pattern one but more styles can be found here.
http://jjcoleusa.com/mode-tote-bag

Homemade Yogurt Pops!

Every summer Thomas and I make our own popsicles from fresh seasonal fruits and yogurt. All you need is your favorite yogurt flavor, fresh fruit if you would like, something to use for the mold and popsicle sticks. To keep it super simple I like to use the yogurt containers, although you can even buy molds for super cheap at Target or Walmart. Just dice up the fruit into small pieces and blend with yogurt in a blender. You can also use ice cream, sherbert, juice or smoothie mixes and ice chips. Then pour your mixture into the cups, add a popsicle stick, and freeze until solid. Depending on how big they are, it shouldn't take more than 4 hours to freeze. Best part is, these make a guilt free snack that is perfect for a hot summer day! The bonus is they are budget friendly and kids love them too!

IPTV Kids Day May 30th at the Blank Park Zoo

I'm thinking of doing this with the boys in Des Moines this weekend. IPTV is having a Kids Day at the Zoo. Kids can meet Dan Wardell from the Kids Clubhouse and "Duck" from Word World from 10-4 PM. There will be other activities as well. It looks like it will be lots of fun, especially if the weather stays nice. Maybe we will make the drive out there and see some animals and have some fun!

More details can be found here at:
http://www.iptv.org/iptv_news_detail.cfm?id=3776&type=press_release

Awesome FREE Target $5 Gift Card Offer

Every once in a while Target offers a FREE giftcard with a select purchase. It usually isn't worth my time unless it involves Pepsi products or snack foods my husband and kids will eat up before I can tell them I bought them.

Well this week Target will give you a FREE $5 gift card when you buy any combination of 5 select Kellogg's snacks at $2.33. The offer is good on Cheez-it 9 oz pkgs, 12 ct Pop Tarts, and 11.5 oz Fudge Shoppe cookies. Since Cheez-It hands down have the least sugar I had to go for those. Not to mention how we happen to love them so much!

I happened to have a $5 gift card from a previous deal so that made each box roughly $1.33, plus I got another gift card out of it! Hurray for cheap snack foods!

Our Budget Saver of the Month: $40/week Groceries

As part of overhauling our family budget this month, I cut back at the grocery store.

For the first week of May, I spent $61.01. This week was a little higher than most because I was taking advantage of a big sale to stock up for the month. I also had to replenish a lot of our pantry items that were running low. Not a bad deal though, since I was able to completely stock up for the month at some very low prices at HyVee.

The second week of May I spent a whopping total of $21.79. I didn't have much to buy this week but took advantage a sale on bagels for $1 and some inexpensive meat and grilling items.

I skipped out on grocery shopping the following week. Our refrigerator was full of items still and this became our "No spend" week of the month. We also had lots of leftovers to use up.

This week I spent the most but I made it worth my money. I made a trip to HyVee and spent $33.01 on groceries. Not bad, since I had to replenish a lot of necessities from not shopping the week before. It was a great weekend to shop with all of the Memorial Day sales. There were some fantastic snack and pop deals at Walmart, Target, and Kmart so I took advantage of those. All together I spent about $20 on pop and $10 on snacks for our many trips to the park that we take in the summer. I also picked up some Organic Gerber baby food items at ToysRUs (BRU has the same deals). That totaled $10 but I won't have to buy baby food for a LONG time now.

Everything averages out to under $40 a week! Which is a HUGE change for us. We had been spending about $50-80 a week, sometimes much more if we were stocking up on items. And that didn't include pop. So we did a fantastic job this month. I will of course still be on the look out for this Wednesday's ads from Fareway and HyVee. I am hoping for some great sale prices following Memorial Day weekend. :-)

Pepsi 12 packs on sale at Kmart

Pepsi product 12 pks are on sale for 4 for $9 at Kmart through tomorrow 5/26. If you haven't already taken advantage of this offer and need some pop for the weekend, head on over to get some cheap pop. We stocked up on some diet pepsi, which we drink religiously around here!

Also, some Walmarts have Pepsi and Mtn Dew 24 packs for $4.98. Yesterday I picked up some for my husband. This doesn't beat the Kmart deal but if you can't get there before tomorrow's holiday you can try Walmart for inexpensive pop.

Pampered Chef Stoneware!

I'm so excited to cook with this! I got this covered baking dish from Pampered Chef. It can be used in the Microwave and in the Oven. Plus it comes in cranberry red which is my favorite kitchen color! LOVE it!

Link: https://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?prodId=13833&catId=9&parentCatId=9&outletSubCat=&viewAllOutlet=

Pop Your Own Popcorn!

Love popcorn but hating paying up to $3 a box on just 2-3 microwaveable bags? Get your own popcorn machine and save money! Our popcorn machine is a Waring Pro machine we got at Tanger Outlet at a Kitchen Store. The outlet has a coupon for 20% off any item in any store every month and we took the opportunity to buy ours at $99 and pay only $79!

If you do the math, each of those popcorn bags will cost you on average of $1 a bag at a bare minimum. To buy a 4 lb bag of kernels costs under $3 and to buy pour over butter costs no more than about $4, and will last you approximately 3 months. So buy the popcorn machine on sale and your cost over 3 months is $86. If you eat 7 bags a week like we do (we would normally pop 2 bags to fill up a large bowl) it takes you about 3 months to break even. And you still have a popcorn machine. So if you LOVE popcorn for movie nights like we do you can expect to save money around the 4th month into your investment. Don't eat that much popcorn but enjoy a couple bags a week? You will break even around 7 months.

Popcorn machines make a great gift and you can even shop for them online. Check out Amazon here at: http://www.amazon.com/Waring-WPM25-Professional-Popcorn-Maker/dp/B001G8Y2Y0 to check out our popcorn machine.

Bella Tunno Binkers!

These pacifier clips are so cute! They clip on to your child's clothing and come in TONS of different designs. We have two we ordered through Baby Gap's home collection. They start at $8 but are very well made and high quality!

Bella Tunno also sells a number of other baby products as well. You can check them all out at: http://bellatunno.com/products.asp

Fisher Price Precious Planet Jumperoo!

This jumperoo is super cool! We decided to try it after seeing how much my nephew Noah liked his. My almost 5 month old LOVES to bounce around in it! I'm suprised we never had one with our other son. We got it for 15% with a mailer coupon from BabiesRUs but Amazon and Target have it at decent prices right now too. Its great for newly mobile babies and has 3 different settings for height which makes it the perfect toy to "grow" with your baby.