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

Are you using Ebates yet? It’s a great resource– especially on Cyber Monday! Signing up takes a minute or two and then you can be on your way to getting up to 20% cash back on purchases you were already going to make! Today only they’ve doubled the cash back amount for hundreds of stores including:

Ann Taylor: 6%

The Body Shop: 12%

Gap: 10%

Lancome: 18%

Macy’s: 7%

Nordstrom: 7%

Old Navy: 10%

Piperlime: 10%

Victoria’s Secret: 6%

Shutterfly: 20%

Posted under Good Deals

Update your Christmas music library with some free downloads from the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Grab eight free songs including Jingle Bells, the Nutcracker Suite, and Angels We Have Heard on High. Just click here and download them to your MP3 player of choice. While you’re at it head to Amazon for $3 in free MP3 downloads. Select Christmas tunes, country songs or whatever your heart desires!

Posted under Freebies, Holidays

No longer is Thanksgiving a holiday where stores stay closed. It used to be that a handful of grocery stores and perhaps a drugstore or two would open up for a few hours on Thanksgiving, but this year many stores are opening up on Turkey Day. Is this a good idea or not? I like the fact that most stores are closed on Thanksgiving because it means more people can spend time with their families and it also means I don’t feel guilty sitting on the couch, relaxing or doing whatever I please! Either way, here are some of the stores that are opening up for Thanksgiving Day shopping:
Michael’s: Michael’s will open up from 5pm-9pm on Thanksgiving. Feeling crafty on Turkey Day? You’re in luck! Our perhaps you’ll get the urge to start decorating for Christmas.

Wal-Mart: Most Wal-Mart locations will stay open overnight on Thanksgiving. This is a safety move the company says after a temporary worker was killed last year after being trampled by a Black Friday mob.

Gap: For the first time free-standing Gap stores will be open on Thanksgiving. This includes some Banana Republic stores as well.

Prime Outlets: They aren’t open on Thanksgiving, but you won’t be able to go to sleep if you want to take part in the Prime Outlets Midnight Madness sale. It starts at midnight on November 27.

Posted under Good Deals, Holidays, News

While many were celebrating Halloween my husband and I were starting our Christmas shopping. We are buying gifts for his side of the family now so we can send them back to Ireland with my mother and father-in-law when they head back next week. That way we avoid shipping costs! So we did quite a bit of shopping this weekend (and not all of it was gifts!) but we accomplished a lot and saved a bundle– $259.78 to be exact!

Friday:

Publix (Groceries): Spent $18.88, Saved $73.96, Saving 80%

Payless Shoes (Two Pairs of Shoes and Two Gifts, Used Oprah Coupon): Spent $52.45, Saved $52.45, Saving 50%

Saturday:

Swoozies (Two Gifts, Used Mailer Coupon): Spent $28.55, Saved $9.97, Saving 26%

Lowe’s (Project Supplies, Used 4 Competitor Coupons in 4 transactions): Spent $136.70, Saved $30, Saving 18%

Off Broadway Shoes (Work Shoes for Husband, Used Coupon and Sale): Spent $54.83, Saved $18.17, Saving 26%

Earth Fare (Groceries, Pantry Makeover Coupon): Spent $0, Saved $5.15, Saving 100%

Sunday:

Publix (Groceries): Spent $44.86, Saved $56.13, Saving 56%

Walgreens (Groceries and newspaper): Spent $.25, Saved $6.62, Saving 96%

Kodak Gallery (Photo Book Gift, Used $15 Credit Offer): Spent 1.99, Saved $14.63, Saving 88%

Monday:

Kodak Gallery (Photo Book Gift, Used $15 Credit Offer): Spent $1.99, Saved $14.05, Saving 88%

BarnesandNoble.com (Gift, Used Membership Discount and Coupon Code Found Online): Spent $20.20, Saved $5.65, Saving 22%

This weekend we also called Charter to lower our cable bill after it shot up from $108 to $165. We are now back down to $83. We also called to cancel our satellite radio service which was $20 a month and they ended up giving us five months for free with no obligation to continue after that. So it was a great weekend for saving money!

Posted under Holidays, coupons

Since half of my family lives overseas, we shop for their Christmas presents early. My mother and father-in-law are in the states now but will be heading back to Ireland in mid-November so we like to send all of our gifts with them to avoid shipping fees. Since I know my husband’s grandmother and great aunt don’t have computers and won’t be reading this I feel safe in telling you that one of the gifts we’ll be getting them is a Kodak photo book. It’s such a great deal when you sign up for a free gift on the Kodak website. We both got a $15 credit on anything we want to buy so we decided to make them both small photo books which sell for $9.99. That means we’ll get them free and only have to pay $1.99 for shipping on each book. It’s not too late– you can get one too. Just fill out a short form and see what prize you win!

Posted under Good Deals, Holidays