With Valentine’s Day just a couple of days away, here are some last minute ideas to make the day a little more fun for you and your children.

Free and Frugal Valentine Ideas – I love this post! It’s one I wrote as a brand new blogger last year and has lots of fun ideas that my kids enjoyed when they were younger.

Free E-Book with Valentine Desserts – Easy Valentine’s Day Dessert Recipes

Valentines Day Music Sampler – If you like Karaoke, (it amazes me how many brave souls do!) then you can download free Karaoke Valentine music from Amazon.

Cute and Inexpensive Valentine Ideas – Jenn at Frugal Upstate has a fun list of Valentine crafts and ideas.

Printable Valentine Crafts and Activities – geared mainly toward young children

If you are snowed in or want to save money by eating at home this weekend, check out this free eCookbook that contains 27 Secret Restaurant Copycat Recipes.

A little creativity goes a long way!

Have fun,

There is just something about going out to eat that makes a regular day a little more special. One-on-one dinners, such as a date night for Mom and Dad or an afternoon out for parent and child, can create special memories. Each of my children have a specific restaurant they prefer to visit when it’s their turn to eat out with mom. The simple meal out can allow for much needed conversation and smiles that may not be as easily found in the day-to-day business of the household.

Restaurants.com has come to my attention a couple of times lately. First, as a Christmas gift, a co-worker gave my husband a gift certificate to a local Hibachi grill that was purchased through Restaurants.com. Then, I saw Restaurants.com show up in the JuiceBox Jungle ad widget on the right side of this page. They are sponsoring the ad, which I thought was a clever move. Moms usually love to visit restaurants and tend to love bargains even more. You might remember this post I wrote about how I earn money on these inexpensive restaurant certificates.

When you visit Restaurants.com, which is updated often, you will be able to purchase gift certificates to specific restaurants in your area for about 80% off. Usually, you can get a $25 gift certificate for about $10, but I can often find them for $2 or $3. If you enter code CHEER or SANTA, you will receive further discounts.

It gets even better though. Ugh, I sound like a TV commercial! If you visit Restaurants.com through Ebates.com first, you will get cash back on that purchase. Each purchase may not equate to much, but I’ve accumulated over $80 in about 14 months. (Plus you get a bonus of $5 from Ebates when you sign up and make a minimum purchase at the store of your choice!)

I’m looking forward to using my Restaurants.com certificates and they will fit beautifully into our budget for the New Year.

Do you have any money-saving ideas for eating at restaurants?

When my children were much younger, they delighted in making gifts for my husband and myself. Christmas was no different until they started noticing people talking about shopping for just the right gift. They wanted to be a part of it. They still loved making treasures for us but they wanted to give more. While I loved their workmanship, I could understand their request. Being on a budget though, I was the one who now needed to be creative.

I had an idea and packed up the children to go shopping. They were so excited and feeling very grown up. When we arrived at the store, I instructed them that they could pick out anything in the store for their dad. Yes, anything. They eyes lit up and they started their hunt. Giving them complete freedom to pick out anything meant I could see my child’s heart. They carefully considered what their dad needed and what he already had. They talked about how he could use various items and both of the children took their purchase very seriously.

There were lots of interesting gifts that came from The Dollar Tree when my children were very young, but the memory of watching my them, unrestricted and thinking of others was priceless.

Now that my children are older, the Dollar Tree no longer holds the same fascination. How do you help your children shop for others?

Through the years, I’ve found a few ways to save on the clothes without my daughter feeling deprived.

• Check the American Girl website throughout the year and look in the “sale” section. I have found outfits, for both doll and daughter, at unbelievable clearance prices.

• Craft stores like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby have been my favorite resource for doll clothing. In the bear and doll-making section, you will find clothing that fits the 18″ dolls. You can almost always get these on sale by either the weekly ad or the 40% off one item coupons that the stores often publish.

• Target’s Our Generation dolls/clothes/accessories are fairly priced. I have heard from a reliable source however, that while the clothes fit the AG dolls, they can be a bit snug.

• Amazon has a collection of doll clothes from a few companies I have not heard of but they are adorable! The prices vary widely. If you have been saving Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks, (like I talked about in this post) the clothes could be free!

• Etsy is like a mall of handmade products. Do a search on their site to find unique doll clothes.

Do you have any other places where you have found the clothing or accessories at good prices?

I assembled this dish without a recipe so I cannot give you exact amounts. Just add a little of the spices at a time until it smells/ tastes right to you.

Sauteeing the veggies and meat

Ingredients:

1 lb or more elbow macaroni – I used almost 2 lbs

1 can undrained diced tomatoes – I used the “chili ready” variety.

1 small can tomato sauce

2 cans beans – I used one can kidney beans and one can chili beans

Left over meat – I used about 3 slices of pork tenderloin and some meatballs, chopped into smaller pieces.

green pepper, onion, celery  – 1 each, chopped or sliced

cumin

chili powder

2 Tablespoons butter

Directions:

Cook elbow macaroni according to package directions, but do not cook all the way through. Set aside.

Saute green pepper, onion, celery in a little bit of olive oil. When the vegetables start to become tender, add meat.

When meat is warm and vegetables are tender, add butter, cumin, parsley, chili powder, salt and pepper to meat. Stir until they are well-coated.  Add tomatoes, sauce and macaroni to the meat mixture.  Cook about 30 minutes.

Top with a little hot sauce and cheese.

Enjoy!

My son has been eyeing shirts like these and they were only $2.50 each. I don’t know if you can see the labels, but they are American Eagle and Banana Republic. The retail prices are easily $40 and $80 respectively.

To find the best deals, be willing to drive to other neighborhoods, especially checking the more prestigious ones. Finding deals such as the ones I found, made the extra drive worth it.

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Pampers – Gifts to Grow, save points and earn rewards

Huggies – Pure and Natural, free sample

Huggies – Enjoy the Ride, save points and earn rewards

Baby to Bee – a variety of free stuff for the coming baby

Juicy Juice, free refillable bottle

Johnson and Johnson Baby – Many guides and coupons

Nursery Water – Free bag tag

Do you know of any others I should add?

I consider myself a very skeptical person. I think carefully about what my family is involved in as well as what I promote here on Just Doing My Best. Because of that, I have taken the time to research the following suggestions before promoting them to you. I have personally signed up with the following companies so I can accurately share with you the pros and cons of each. Long story short, the company’s programs mentioned below work, I love them and can recommend them to you.

Now for the fun stuff:

I have earned a nice little Christmas savings in just the past couple  months with SwagBucks and Ebates. I have some Amazon Gift Cards ready to use that I earned at Swagbucks and a little balance on a virtual credit card through Ebates.

SwagBucks is a search engine that will reward you with points. The points then convert to merchandise, PayPal cash, gift cards and more. The benefit is you can earn these points simply by searching the web as you normally do. There is no fee associated with Swagbucks; you only need to register. The cons are: the search results can sometimes be limited to larger name websites as opposed to smaller blogs. However, this is not always the case. I usually search first through SwagBucks and then through another search engine if I need even more results. SwagBucks usually gives the search results I need. You will not receive points for every search. The second con is it can take a while to earn points, depending on how much you search or how you use the website. If you are interested in learning all the ropes of their program, you can certainly accumulate many points.

Ebates is a portal that you click through before shopping at your usual big box online stores. When you click through the portal, you are given a tracking number that will provide for cash back on that purchase. I have earned over $50 by clicking through Ebates on online purchases that I was going to make anyway. The pros are its incredibly easy to use, no fees associated, and there is a huge list of stores in their program. The cash back, of course, is the best benefit.

I really cannot find any cons. I have had 2 issues with a Sephora purchase not being credited back to me, but they provided contact info and got back with me on what to send them to receive the proper credit. Also, not a con but important to know- when you sign up, Ebates will place $5 in your account. When you make your first purchase, if its within 90 days of signing up, it will be yours on their next pay out day.

To sign up, click here for Ebates and here for SwagBucks or any of the grey/brown company names  listed above.

These two programs have worked beautifully for me and I hope you like them as well! I am currently checking out a few other rewarding programs online and if they work for me, I will be sharing them with you.

Today I hit Walgreens and stocked up on some great sales while using my Register Rewards. Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup for .39 each was one of my best deals. (I got it by combining the store sale of .89 each with an Internet Printable for $1.00 off two.)

I also found an amazing deal on Domino Sugar, but unfortunately I did not have a coupon. I found one for you, so you can get an even better deal than I did.

My local Walgreens had 5 lb. bags of Domino Sugar for 80 cents. Yep, I thought it was a mistake too! I picked up two bags, anticipating extra baking in the coming months. Here’s a coupon where you can get an extra 30 cents off each bag, making 5 lbs. of sugar 50 cents. (If you hit the back button in your browser, you can print two.)

Domino Sugar Coupon Sign-up

I hope this deal works for you!

I recently stumbled across a great scenario that I must share. I bought 2 $25 gift cards for a Hibachi Grill and a Family Sports Pub type restaurant for less than $2 each. I also bought a $10 one for a Cajun fast food restaurant for only 80 cents. It was perfectly legal and legit.

Here’s how I did it:

1. I am a member of Ebates. Ebates acts as a shopping portal where you are assigned a tracking number and then are sent directly to the merchant’s website to shop and complete your transaction. When the item ships, you will receive cash back to your account. I have received over $50 so far on purchases that I was making online anyway. I have shopped stores like Target, JCPenney, Sephora, and FTD and received as much as 15% on some of them. In the past, Ebates has sent a check once a quarter but now they have issued me a virtual credit card and add to the balance quarterly.  I have a small balance sitting on the card now which makes it perfect for online shopping. There is no “catch” that I have found with Ebates and I can be quite skeptical. You do have to click through their site first to get your tracking number for credit on your purchase, but the purchase is finished with the merchant and not Ebates. They have a special now that when you set up an account and earn $5.01 in cash back before August 14, they will give you an additional $5. They have a huge list of stores they have partnered with and you will probably recognize most of the names. You can click this link to sign up.
2. I went to Ebates and clicked through to Restaurants.com. They are having a nice sale on their gift cards, and when I entered code NAPKIN, I got them for 80% off. Shipping is free since it is a paper certificate that you print at home. The only “catch” I could find is many of the restaurants require these certificates to be used with a minimum $35 order. This might be a great chance to try an appetizer or dessert to make the minimum, but then the $25 would come off that. That’s still a cheap meal!
3. I used my Ebates cash back to pay for this $4.80 purchase and still got another .72  back since Restaurants.com earns 15%. I bought $60 in gift cards for roughly $4 and paid with the free money that I had earned online.

I hope this works for you! I’m looking forward to trying a couple of new restaurants thanks to this deal.