Cyber Monday Deal

Okay, I haven't really had the time to actually do as much shopping online as I thought I would today. Since I had a few minutes I decided to cheat and head over to Couponing to Disney and see what Kristin found. I was very smart to do so because she has a tip for Restaurant.com, they are offering $25.00 gift certificates for $2.00 a piece today only. Of course I had to hurry over there. I found a new restaurant in my area that was offering gift certificates for $3.00 a piece. I ordered two of those and two from a restaurant called the Ounce, which is fabulous by the way. I got to the checkout and typed in the code (SAVE) that she gave, and whaa-la...my total was $5.64 for $100.00 dollars worth of gift certificates. Dang that girl is good! Kristin, you rock! On top of all of that I went under the "find a restaurant" tab and there was an advertisement for a free $25.00 gift certificate if I signed up for another offer. I went with the Vista Print offer, since I needed business cards anyway, and got 300 cards and a website for 5.90 shipping. Then I qualified for the free gift certificate and got that one free as well! I had to tell my sister about the deal. I'm thinking about getting all of my family and friends gift certificates for restaurants and be done with all my shopping tonight;)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I LOVE Thanksgiving! It's my favorite holiday. Here's ten things that I'd like to give thanks for on this day: 1. Waking up this morning. 2. My beautiful family. 3. Turkey and dressing. 4. Football games (to keep my husband from bugging me). 5. Video games (to keep my children from bugging me). 6. Bravo's "The Real Housewives" series (to keep my mind from making "to do" lists). 7. Positive attitudes, which kept me from killing the dog after chewing up my patio cushion. 8. Having dinner with friends. 9. Close fitting, V-neck shirts (to accentuate the positive and take the attention from my waist). 10. Getting to sleep early for Black Friday sales (even though I shop online;). What are you thankful for???

Toluna

I joined a new survey site to earn a little extra cash, Toluna. I've received several emails that offer anywhere from $1.00-$5.00 for surveys that take about 10-20 minutes. Sounds good right? The problem is everytime I go to fill out a survey, they already filled their quota for the survey. I signed up with the company about a week ago and just thought that I was getting to the survey's too late. I might get a survey in my inbox and not see it for an hour. But yesterday I was already in my mailbox when a survey came in. I got super excited because it was a $3.00 survey. I clicked on it and can you guess what happened?....that's right...they had already met their quota. I was pissed! I'm going to keep trying with them but I must admit, I'm getting frustrated already. If someone knows the secret to actually getting to complete these surveys, please share.

Building My Empire

Today I signed up for a couple of mystery shopping companies. I was reading over at Money Saving Mom, that a few of the girls that have been doing this for a while make pretty decent money. Especially for going out and doing things that we normally do anyway. I had actually done a couple of shops long time ago, when we first moved here to Texas. I got away from it because it was just one of those "gig" type deals and I felt that I needed a "real" job to pay some bills. I can't remember which company it was that I was signed up with but, I remember that I was new to the company and my first shop was at Bennigan's. I LOVE Benningan's! Of course, I was more than happy to take the shop. After my hubby and I had a wonderful meal together. I had like a one page report to do and that was it. The questions were simple enough for me, they were things that I look for in a resturant anyway. They asked about cleanliness, customer service, that waiter or waitresses name, did the manager come by during the meal, etc. I actually enjoyed it. The best part was that I received a check in the mail a few weeks later, for a dinner that I ate and enjoyed! It was great! Anyway, I was trying to get a feel for which company's are good about paying the reimbursements back. I'd heard that some of the company's are not so good about paying sometimes. If you want to read about it go here, you'll have to scroll down a ways to get to the mystery shoppers section but I recommend that you read the comments of the other ladies (and some men) that have been shoppers before. The two company's that I applied for are Trend Source and National Shopping Service. The application process for Trend Source was long and tedious. They even make you write a paragraph about a good or bad experience that you may have had with a healthcare provider. I guess I had to do that because I checked "yes" when I was asked would I like to do healthcare shops. If you've had a different experience with them, please let me know. Then they sent me a confirmation email stating that I'm not technically a Trend Source field agent just yet. They said that won't happen until a shop comes up in my area, then I will be activated. The process for NSS was short and sweet, the way I like it. I'd heard a long time ago that some company has mystery shops for cruises and amusement parks. Those are the ones I'm interested in. I'll keep you posted on how it goes with these mystery shops and I would love to hear about anybody else's experience.

Walmart Shopping Trip

After yesterday's shopping trip, I felt completely overwhelmed and frustrated. I spent $71.00 at Walmart for my groceries and only saved $7.35 from my coupons. And I still needed meats, which I had planned to pick up at HEB. It was a huge wake up call that I really don't know what I'm doing. I need more help! With this is mind I turned to couponing guru Kristin from Couponing to Disney. She has a series that she videoed on couponing for beginners. I sat down this morning feeling weary and watched all of the first week segments. I can honestly say that after watching the videos, I felt like getting up and getting back in the saddle (so to speak). Her first week goes over the basics such as common myths about couponing, the "code" names for specific types of coupons, where to find coupons, and how to organize your coupons. I noticed yesterday that I was completely unorganized in the way that I should have been. This took up a lot of valuable time and I think that is what frustrated me. After 2 and 1/2 hours in a store as big as Walmart, I can imagine the most patient person becoming frustrated and anxious (and patients is not one of my virtues). I did get a lot of groceries but they are not really cohesive. By that I mean, I don't really have a full menu planned out for the items that I purchased. This is another topic that Kristin talks about...planning your menu around what is on sale. Now I did read about this in my copy of Miserly Mom, but I think I forgot about this when I was doing my planning. Kristin suggests scheduling about 3 hours to really sit down and go over your sales ads, coupons, making your list and menu. This is something that I have scheduled into my limited time for Sunday, and hopefully I will do better this week. Heck, I better cause I'm running out of money for my food budget. I'll just pray that I got the stuff I need to have a decent Thanksgiving dinner.

Thursday Review: Starbucks Ice Cream

I've never fancied the idea of a coffee flavored ice cream, but I saw Starbucks on the label and said "what the heck." It was one of those nights when you just need to pamper yourself and feel like a woman. I decided to treat myself to the Caramel Macchiato flavor. Starbucks seems to have three different flavors, but I've only had the Caramel Macchiato so far.

After the kiddos went to bed, I grabbed the remote and my favorite cozy blanket to curl up on the couch with. After I found the girliest flick I could find, I opened the pint sized carton. I don't think I've ever said this about an ice cream, but it was beautiful! Creamy swirls of honey colored caramel drizzled throughout vanilla and coffee flavored ice cream. And the aroma! I began to feel like this was going to be one of those luxurious moments that make you feel like an aristocrat. I fell in love with the velvety smooth texture, and the taste of coffee is not over-powering at all. I think the vanilla ice cream really tones it down where as it hints at you with every mouth full. All I know is that this ice cream is sinfully good! If you haven't tried, I wouldn't definitely say grab yourself a carton. This is my new favorite.

So far the cheapest I've found it is at Walmart for $2.50 and there's a coupon for it here for a dollar off. Try it and let me know what you think;)

Field Trip to the Witte Museum

Yesterday was our field trip to the Witte Museum. Papa was home so he went to. The kids had a blast! We've been on several different field trips this semester all ready, but this time we did something a little different. I created some questions about the museum and some of the exhibits ahead of time. This way, I could measure what the children were grasping from the experience. I basically left it up to them whether or not to answer the questions while at the museum or at a later time. I did this as to not put a damper on their experience. I still believe that field trips should mostly be fun.

Let me digress though because I'm getting a little ahead of myself. As you probably know by now, I'm trying to live the frugal life. So I wanted to share this deal with any of my fellow San Antonians or destination bound vacationers. The Witte Museum is free of charge on Tuesdays between 3pm and 8pm. This admission price is good to see all of the exhibits except for the revolving ones. If you'd like to see the revolving exhibits, the admission is only $3.00 per person on Tuesdays only. The normal rate for these types of exhibits are $11.00 per person. Right now that exhibit is the Circus folks: Secrets Behind the Big Top gallery on display until February 14, 2010. Awesome deal!

We all had a great time, the kids loved the exhibits. My daughter's favorite is by far the HEB Science Treehouse. There they have all sorts of hands-on machines and gadgets. Some of the other exhibits include the Texas Wild Ecology area, and the Don Yena Art Gallery, which highlights painting of South Texas history. Also, the Colors of clay textile gallery, which displays pottery. The Ancient Texans Rock Art display, Mummies and ancient Egypt exhibit, the Waterworks and Little Treehouse environment, the Log Cabins and Historic Homes exhibit, and the Lonesome Dove photographic gallery. The museum also has an website that provides interactive

movies, quizzes, and activities for the kiddos. Take a look

at the site here if it sounds like fun.

Okay, back to homeschooling info. One of the things that

I implemented a few years back is school-year scrapbooking.

Although I'm a complete novice to scrapbooking, I love the

idea of looking back over the year and seeing what you have

accomplished. This year will be a real treat since my son is

now enrolled in our school. He has just as much fun as my 8 year old when we go on these field trips. I'll be happy to

look back at the end of the year and see his face in the pics

that we took. For our yearly scrapbooks, I have the kids

write a one-paged paper about the field trip the day after,

during language arts time. This way we can adhere the report which highlights what they enjoyed or found interesting about the field trip, to a page with pictures. It's a great project which really comes together at the end of the year. Feel free to let me know how you make your field trips more educational or enjoyable:)