Random Ramblings... Christmas, is over, now what?

Well, now Christmas is over, and we are about to go on vacation. Much needed after all the hustling and bustling around! Now, I am blogging my blog, while my husband and his brother play the boys PS 3, now was that system for the boys or for their dad?

I am wondering, what is next? For the new year, I need to make some changes in my life for the new year. Like join Weight Watchers, for the last time. Save money like I have never saved before. What can I blog about? Save money, how to eat healthy on a budget? That would be a good one! Donate more, I was able to give several items to my friend who took my items to the local women's shelter. That was nice, I have all the stuff, the hard part is being more proactive in taking items to be donated!

Well, there is definately some great things to come on this blog, stay tuned for a wonderful 2009!

Take a Survey, Get $20 Gift Card.

Survey, get $20 Gift Card to Target or Walmart!

Click Here

Survey is rather long, if you take survey put shannon snow refered you, that way we both get entered to win the $100 Gift Card!

Update, I got an email saying they needed somemore people to do the survey, and I got my gift cards in the mail the other day! I hope you have taken the survey!

House Party, do you belong?

House Party, Click Here is a site where you can enter to host parties for companies, all you have to do is sign up and if you are picked, have a party on the designignated date, invite friends over and have fun. Check out the site, and have some fun! Right now they have velvetta, ziplock baggies parties.

I have hosted several parties before, all my guests have tons of fun and enjoy getting party bags at the event. Some parties I have hosted are Better Homes and Garden, Hershey's Bliss, and Margaritaville.

Target Deals, Cereal Anyone?

Oh, it has been so long since I have had a good coupon shopping trip! So, I got all my coupons out today and searched for my Target Deal!

Here is my list of what I got.

13 boxes of General Mills Cereal ($3 off 3 chex coupons, and Buy 2 get one free coupon)
2 packs of steak (for fajitas) (target coupon save $2 each)
2 packs of ham steaks (target coupon save $2 each)
1 broccoli (Target Coupon $1)
1 cauliflower (Target Coupon $1)

Total spent $9.80
Tax was $2.49 (OK has food tax)
Saved $32.88!

Here is my picture of my goodies!

Oh, how I wish it were spring.

Memories, of spring, summer and fall. Trips to the zoo. You know OKC has a great Zoo. They added a new exhibit called the Oklahoma Trails last year, and it is one of my favorites. There is a display of Turkeys, no big deal since we chase turkeys in my neighborhood, ok stop laughing, this is for real. No, I do not live in a tee pee, either.

Oh, more animals to tell ya about, there are deer, oh we see those too on our drive to school some mornings! Really... and then we see bats, none of those in my yard.

Oh, how I wish it were spring or atleast a halfway warm day here in OK. Our weather does change fast, so maybe just maybe we will get to go to the zoo again soon.

Is the food in your house disappearing faster these days?

You might be wondering about how your pantry is becoming bare faster than it was a year ago. I have the answer and it may surprise you. Manufactors are trying to cut costs without raising their prices on their products to drastically! For example, Dawn dishwashing soap, has a new shaped bottle out that says New Size now 10.3 FL OZ sounds positive I thought at first. Then I compared that bottle with my old bottle and here is the difference! The old bottle is 12.6 FL OZ, and the new bottle like it says in its positive phrase is 10.3 FL OZ. For the mathematically challenged that is 2.3 FL OZ smaller! Plus I do recall the price change was about .20 higher than before!

Now here are some tricks of the trade.

1. Plastic Containers like peanut butter will have a dimple in the bottom of the jar, that means less peanut butter, but you may not notice by looking at the container.

2. Cereal Boxes have become slimmer, that way they can stay tall, to minimize the weight differences.
Prices going up, sizes going down. Be on the lookout and shop smart!
These are just a few examples, but lucky for us manufactors still have to put the weight on the boxes. You will be able to shop smarter, if you shop with as few distractions as possible. You can turn this into a learning lesson with your older children, comparing prices and sizes of the boxes. As the saying goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Prices going up, sizes going down. Be on the lookout and shop smart!

What's New on my BLOG? Read to find out more!

First of all, I have been contacted by Buzzilions to do a cash giveaway, details to come soon! this site is fantastic! Here is a little bit about the company!

"We, buzzillions.com, are a product reviews site that features reviews from actual people like you and me who are verified to have purchased the products they are reviewing. Unlike other review sites out there, people are never paid to submit reviews on Buzzillions and the reviews are completely unbiased (that is we display all reviews – the good, the bad and the ugly). At this time, we have about 4,100,000 reviews on roughly 660,000 products (and growing by the hour). Melissa wrote up a nice summary of what we do, so I won’t go into too much more detail unless you want to learn more."

"I think your readers would be really interested in Buzzillions because it allows them to read reviews from people just like them. Our technology enables you to narrow your product searches to find all kinds of products including Jogging Strollers that are “Sturdy”, “Lightweight” and “Easily Stowed” and are best for “Infants”. "(Take a look at the left hand side that says, “by Owner Recommendations:” – http://www.buzzillions.com/4294967139_nz_baby_jogging_stroller_reviews

This info was provided by
Yury, with buzzillions.

Another new thing is my Fast Fixin's giveaway. This is another great company and I will be giving away free food for the new year!

Oh, gosh... so much is going on. Have you heard of well this company has vloggers, that do product reviews, and have lots of great help for new moms. I will be featuring some great product reviews in the next few weeks!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more happenings from the Coupon Princess! If you like what you read, please comment, I would love to hear from YOU!

Win $500 with Nickelodeon check out Frugal Upstate!

Do you need a money saving tip this holiday, one of my favorites, is when you buy coke products, use the coke rewards to redeem for coupons to save money on your next purchase, $1 off 12 packs or the bogo free 12 pack coupons! It is easy to do. Go here

http://frugalupstate.blogspot.com/2008/11/frugal-holiday-tip-contest.html

to see how you can win a gift card to Walmart to buy all your favorite Nickelodeon items! Woohoo.. good luck!

Fast Fixin's Giveaway, Coming soon!

Fast Fixin's is a company that you do not want to miss. They prepare great quaility precooked frozen meals that you can easily heat in microwave or oven for that quick meal! I will be giving away product coupons to my readers! Stay tuned, my rules are still in the making. So check back often to see what you can win! Check them out Click Here

Another Playdate, this time it was Free!

Today my son and I met our super dee duper cousins out at a secret location! I cannot say, we do not want the news to get out about this wonderful place, as it will be bombarded by SAHM's! LOL.... Anyways, it was at a local Museum, they had an amazing children's center. There was a jail, bank, home, store, train station (with 2train tables), art center, animal center, and a garden area. You have got to see the pictures! Wouldn't that be swell, if I remembered my camera! Stay tuned to find out where we were, and what it looks like! We might just have to go back there next week!

Unpluggit My Fun day with My Toddler!

I went to UnPluggit, with my cousin and her 2 boys (1 and 3) and my son who is 2 1/2, got to get the 1/2 in because you know how much these kiddos change from month to month at this age! Well, this place, in my opinion was awesome! It was child friendly, with plenty of creative art materials for the children to play with. There was easles, smocks to keep clothes clean, and area to paint ceramics, make jewelery, and much more. In the other room, there was a sand table, a small place for 1 year olds to play and a huge play system larger then any playground we have in my area. This place was definately a blast for the cold December day! I enclosed some video of our time there! Enjoy.
Here is a brief Product Review from the play dough ice cream maker! Ok, at the begining of this film Braddock, 2.5 yo is playing with this ice cream maker by play dough. He loved it, played with it for oner and hour! That is a long time for any 2year old to play with anything, so that is definately a plus! I will be getting this product for him to have at home, or we will get back to Unpluggits and play with theirs! Unpluggits is located in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Teenagers in Todays World, I am Glad I am Not One!

I have been doing some reflection on the life of the teenagers these days. They have so many distractions, way more then I had in my teenage days, and I am only 33, (I can say that for 2 more days, then I will be 34) and I do not consider that very old. So the teens today have ipods with itunes, I recorded songs off the radio with a cassettes. VHS came out and the movies like Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, my mother forbid me to see that PG-13 movie... what PG-13 that movie would be rated G in todays world! Then there is the cell phone, what? not the big suitcase size that plugged in your car for emergencies (I did not even have that) but the tiny ones that take pictures, text message, and oh yeah... allow you to call your friends. Not to mention the ring tones, the internet, (oh, definately did not even have PC internet access until I was in my mid 20's!) And the video games played by all ages, even my husband and bro in law play the wii with the kids! Not like the Intellivision or the Atari back in 80's type video games!

So with all this said, why are kids so ADD? Unmoral, and confused on what is right and wrong? How come kids are getting into trouble with technology, and why do we even have to tell our kids that taking a nude picture is considered child porn, even if it is for "joking" purposes.

I heard about the teenage girls, who did this recently, took nude pics of themselves, how did they think this was not wrong,(I would be apauld if anyone saw me naked at that age anyways, let alone take a pic!) is what our children see in movies, prime time television, billboards at Abercrombie, Pictures hanging in Victoria's Secret okay to see? Just because others have supplied this for our eyes to see, does it mean it is ok to watch? NO! Just because it is on regular T.V. does not mean that is safe for Teens to watch, we are becoming way to numb even as parents in allowing certain things into our house, whether it be by phone, internet or television.

It is hard enough to be an adolecent during these times, make sure to monitor your childs facebook, myspace, telephone, etc. The world is not going to look after our children, that is our job as parents!

Child's Play, it is Important !

Did you know that playing with your child is an important learning tool. Children of all ages learn science, math, and reading through play everyday.

When children play with Blocks, they are learning about space, shapes and how to construct. Blocks are a very important part of play. The types of blocks that are best, are the natural wooden blocks. These leave for more of an imagination, and a more natural material with touch. A wide variety of shapes and sizes are important too. Children will learn how the blocks work through geometry, by how the blocks work together.

In a block center, children should be allowed to have other items intergrated with their blocks such as cars, animals, or people. Watch how the children learn and play, you will be amazed!

Product Reviews, Here I come... which product will I choose!

Okay, would like to begin Product Reviews, if you have a product, I will review it. One product I am interested in reviewing is the Soda Stream! Click Here for more information on this product. I have contacted the company and hope to be getting one of these products to review for my readers! I have 2 teenagers here at home that will be great reviewers and love to be on camera! Stay Tuned!

Homeland Shopping Week of 12/3 thru 12/9

Nestle hot choc $1.00 use $1 manu doubled get 2 free

Lipton tea family size 2/$3 use .75cent/2 doubled get 2 for $1.50

Campbells select soup 2/$3 use 50cent/2 doubled get 2 for $2

Juicy Juice 2/$4 possibly use $1/1 Nestle Juicy Juice Harvest Surprise doubled get 1 free

Coffee Mate 32oz liquid creamer $3.49 use .50 coupon doubled get it for $2.49

Pillsbury ready to bake cookies 2/$4 use $1/2 (printable from CQ site page 5) doubled get 2 for $2

Veg All steam Veggies, .79 coupon for .55 double makes these free w/ overage!

Ore-dia Steam Mashpotatoes $3 use $1 coupon doubles makes these $1, I did not care for the cheesy ones, but the other flavors are pretty good!

$3.99 lb for Rib-Eye Steaks, pretty good deal