A few weeks ago I signed up for an account at HouseParty.com. I applied to host a Di’Giorno Pizza Party and I was selected! They sent me lots of great freebies and coupons to give to my party guests, plus six coupons for free pizza!

It was so fun to go to the grocery store and walk out with $48 worth of food without paying anything! About 20 people ended up coming to the bash.

They all got to try Di’Giorno’s new Pizza and Breadsticks combo packs and everyone seemed to enjoy the free food! I’ll gladly host more parties if it means I don’t have to cook!

Posted under Celebrations, Freebies, Home

How does getting a $35 discount on dinner and flowers sound for Valentine’s Day? Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way to a cheap date!

1. Head to Ebates.com. If you don’t have an account, create one. It’s simple and easy. Search for “Restaurant.com” and use the Ebates.com link to get to Restaurant.com. This will give you 15% cash back on whatever you buy.

2. Once at Restaurant.com, select a gift certificate for a restaurant you enjoy. Use coupon code “BLOOM” to take 60% off your purchase which means a $10 certificate is just $1.60, plus when you factor in your 15% cash back the price is brought down to $1.36.

3. Look in your inbox. After completing your purchase you will receive a link that will take you to FTD.com. That link will give you a $15 credit on everything on the website. The link is good until the end of March, but you can use it to get flowers for Valentine’s Day. The bouquet to the left is just $4.99, plus there are plenty of others that are $14.99. I also received ANOTHER email for a FREE Restaurant.com $10 certificate of my choice. Now that’s an affordable Valentine’s day!

Posted under Celebrations, Good Deals, Holidays, coupons

Christmas is quickly approaching and I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot going on! We’re organizing a Christmas party for some chronically homeless people in our community tomorrow night and this year I was in charge of planning the Christmas vacation for my side of the family. We’re headed to the beach for a week. So in order to be able to fully relax and spend time with the fam I’m working like a crazy person to get everything done! Which I’m sure it will… and just in case you have wrapping presents still on your to-do list, here are some free gift tags from EatDrinkChic.com. There are several styles and all you do is print them, cut them and attach for lovely Christmas packages! Love it! So I hope you have a Merry Christmas!!

Posted under Celebrations, Freebies, Holidays

I threw my neighbor a backyard baby shower this weekend. Because the guest list was fairly lengthy for a baby shower, I had to work hard to keep my spending down while making it as stylish as possible. Here are a few ways I saved money:

I decorated the tables with $.50 jewelry trees that I learned about on this blog. I also made tissue paper pom-poms thanks to Martha Stewart that were suspended from the trees.

I dressed the tables with wrapping paper runners. I was able to get two runners out of each roll. I made flower arrangements with fresh cut flowers I picked up at Costco. I got two huge bunches for $8.99 each.

The bibs were purchased in a pack of ten from Target for less than $3. I cut out letters from scrapbook paper to help decorate the space and to create a game where we helped the mom-to-be select a name for the baby.

The other game we played was the Baby Food Challenge. I made the playing cards using craft supplies I already had. I picked up the organic baby food on sale at Publix. With coupons it was only $.30 a jar which meant that the game cost $3.60.

The favors were made from $.20 flower seed packets I picked up at Walgreens and supplies I had at home. That means I made 30 of them for $6.

I made this little scrapbook for the mom-to-be and included one of the baby shower invitations. We also listed the gifts she received so she could reference it when writing thank you notes. I picked the scrapbook up at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon and the “Oh Baby” sticker came from Michael’s.

Most of the food was very simple. I planned ahead and tried to find items on sale at the grocery store. These ice cream cone cupcakes were made using a virtually free cake mix I got at Publix and frosting that was on sale for $1.

I don’t think any of the guests would have a clue that I pulled off the party without spending much money at all. In fact many commented that I had missed my calling and should have been a party planner!

Posted under Celebrations, Style