My Shutterfly House Party...Plus a Giveaway!

Friday, November 11th, I was able to share my love of Shutterfly with my closest friends by hosting a Shutterfly Holiday Card party with House Partry.  House Party is a great website to sign up to share new products for companies in the comfort of your home.  It is completely free, and they always send great party packs with free samples, coupons, or products for your guests.   I was sent a party pack complete with balloons, sample holiday cards, Shutterfly catalog, and lots of freebies to hand out to my guests.

We had a great time looking through the holiday cards and sharing our calendar ideas. We love the fact that the cards allow room to write a short letter updated friends and family about our children.  We also love how many different pictures you can put in the cards now.  Here are a few of our favorite cards:

I wanted to share the excitement with my readers, so I am giving away a Shutterfly House Party Party Prize complete with promo codes for: 1 FREE Photo Calendar, 15 FREE Photo Cards, and a $10 Credit to Plum District.   

To enter all you have to do is follow my blog via Google Friend Connect and leave a comment saying that you did so!  Giveaway ends November 30th at 11:59 p.m. EST. I will choose a winner Thursday, December 1st via random.org.  ***For an extra entry, subscribe to my blog through email.*** Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  Thanks!

Black Friday: Double Cash Back at Ebates

 



Many of you are probably out fighting the crowds today on Black Friday.   I am at home in my comfy sweats checking out the deals online, which are looking to be pretty good today!  I just got on Ebates and noticed that they are having double cash back at many stores today only.  For example, Kohls is 10% back instead of 4%...looks like I am going to doing some shopping online today!  Don't forget, if you are a new sign up to Ebates, you will earn a $5 credit.  

A Very Frugal Christmas!: SWAGBUCKS=FREE Christmas Gifts

How would you like to pay for Christmas gifts with gift cards that you earned for free?

About a year ago, I was introduced to SWAGBUCKS.   Basically, it is an online search engine similar to google that rewards you with points (or swagbucks) for various searches.  For example, about ten minutes ago I search for "Huggies points 2011" and I received 10 swagbucks for my search.  Once you get a good amount of points, say 450, you can exchange them for giftcards, prizes, or even donate to your favorite charity.  450 points will get you a $5 giftcard to amazon.com (my new favorite online store).

Does it work?  YES!  I have earned at least $50 in Amazon giftcards in the past six months. I have around 880 pts. ready to be redeemed at this time. It takes 7-14 days to receive the gift card or code once it is submitted, so don't expect to have it immediately.

How do you sign up? Simply visit this link and fill out the information.  Be careful, there is only one account per household.  If you sign up with two and they figure it out, they will cancel your membership. While you are signing up, please enter SBPAYSFORME as a code on the second page of the registration to get an additional 80 for a total of 110 swagbucks right away.  This is only good through November 17th.  


How do you earn Swagbucks?  There are several ways to earn swagbucks. The first and easiest way is use their search engine.  Many times I won't get the swagbucks on the first page of results, but as I click to the second or third, my swagbucks will show up.  You may also do surveys, play games, watch Swagbucks TV, complete offers, print coupons & use them, and a variety of other tasks to earn Swagbucks.  I would suggest downloading the toolbar so you can remember to search using Swagbucks. 

You can be guaranteed 5 Swagbucks a day by doing the following:
Click on NOSO and Skip Offers — 2 Swagbucks
Take the Daily Poll — 1 Swagbuck
Login Via the Toolbar — 1 Swagbuck
Click on Trusted Surveys — 1 Swagbuck

In addition, follow Swagbucks on facebook and the Swagbucks blog to keep updated on free codes or contests.

Whatcha Eatin'? Monday, November 14th

Back to menu planning!  It makes my life so much easier when I know what I am making each night.  I am still on my special low carb/high protein diet, so I will be sharing what I am making for everyone else! :-)  I basically eat cottage cheese, applesauce, grilled chicken & veggies.  Super boring...let me know if you know how to spice things up!  Here is what the rest of the family is eating this week:

Sunday:  We had Steak, Baby Red Potatoes, Green Beans & Rolls

Monday:  Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken, Mac & Cheese, Veggies & Dip


Tuesday:  Hamburger Vegetable Soup, Salad, French Bread

Wednesday:  BBQ Chicken Quesadilla (using leftover Chicken from Monday), Carrots, Applesauce
  
Thursday:  Spaghettie Pie, Corn, Garlic Bread

Friday: Cheeseburgers (My husband makes the best on the grill!), Baked Beans, Cheesy Potatoes (on the grill)

Saturday:  Pizza!  Frozen...of course! :-) Chips, Veggies & Dip

I am starting to do Crock Pot Mondays and Soup Tuesdays...so if you have any great recipes send them my way!

I've been hiding in my basement...

Okay, so maybe not hiding, but I have been super busy going through our "junk" in our basement.  Do you remember what my basement looked like in August?  Here, let me refresh your memory...

Well, I am happy to present...Ta Da!  Our uncluttered, almost clean, stress-free basement...

Big Brother is very happy to show it off...can ya tell? 

So we had to hang on to a little junk, but I did manage to get rid of 14 boxes/totes of stuff. 

Now, I can relax and start enjoying some other things, like blogging, stalking on facebook, and Christmas shopping!  (okay, so I don't really stalk on facebook, but I need to catch up on my friends' profiles).  However, I am in the organizing mood, so who knows what I will tackle next.  What project are you working on? 

Halloween is Overrated...

Well, this year for Halloween the boys wanted to be farmers.  I pictured cute little boys in overalls and straw hats. So...I spent an entire week searching Ebay and the local Goodwill stores for inexpensive overalls.  I even checked our Farm N Fleet and Big R for overalls and contemplated spending $25 on them.  Then, I happen to find one pair of 3T overalls for Little Bro for $2 at a consignment shop.  I went home tried them on Little Bro and he threw a major fit and screamed to have them off.   So I decided to skip the overall idea and just go for flannels, blue jeans, straw hats, and worker boots.  I bought a couple of "flannel looking" shirts at Goodwill for $2.50 each (I wouldn't have paid more than a quarter for them at a garage sale.), borrowed some straw hats from my mother, purchased a pair of worker boots for Big Brother at Payless, and we were set to trick or treat.  Halloween night I struggle getting the boys dressed in their outfits all while Baby Sis is screaming to get the itchy, uncomfortable little lamb costume (that I purchased used from ebay, but still paid $15 for) off her little body.  I throw the kids in the car and we visit Grandma & Grandpa down the road.  We then head back to our house to trick or treat in our neighborhood.  We go next door and our great neighbor gives the boys full size packs of Starburst.  On the way to the next house Big Brother says "I'm done, Mom.  Can we go home?"  So we "made" them go to the neighbors on the side of us, then we headed home with a handful of candy.  Lesson learned:  Halloween is overrated. One piece of Candy and they were happy.   At least I got a few pictures...

All Three of my Sweethearts

Our Sweet Little Lamb 

Our Little Farmers and their Big Tractor