Random Thrifty Thoughts & Cheap Family Night

Tonight my family went out together to hang out. We had $11.75 left on a gift card that had started to lose money that we needed to spend.

So we went to Whole Foods to spend it because that is where we determined we could get the biggest bang for our buck.

We got:

*3 Free kid club HUGE bakery cookies
*some bulk cinnamon sticks 1oz $0.40
*new lid/cap for my SIGG bottle $2.49--got charges $3.99!!!
*Annies Bunnie Cereal ($1 coupon) $2
*Organic Ice Cream 1.5 qt $5.99

Okay, so I'm kinda ticked that our night would have been FREE if they hadn't overcharged me. I was too busy playing with my kids to notice.

Anyway, while I was there I looked at the Vanilla Beans to see if they sold them in bulk. HAHAHA! No.
Whole Foods brand sells ONE bean in a GLASS JAR the size of a regular spice jar. It cost $4.xx!!! Or Frontier sells 2 beans in a tube for $11.99!!!

No thank you!

When I got home I looked at Amazon thinking about my Swagbucks. I have been able to "purchase" some Amazon Gift Cards with my Swagbucks.

The best deal on vanilla beans is 1/4 Frontier "certified organic" for $35 (no free shipping) or 1/2 pound of premium for $24.99 (no free s/h).

Then, I went to eBay since that was the last place I bought them. GREAT DEALS!!! I can get 1/2 lb of extract grade beans for about $15 shipped. I will be purchasing these to make my vanilla extract for Christmas gifts this year. I need to buy soon so the extract can do its thing all year.

See how much money can be saved by research?!? It amazes me! Plus, this means I can save my Amazon GC's for a better deal in the future.

Thank you for reading my random thrifty thoughts. I'd love to hear yours!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is sucha magical, wonderful time of year. I especially enjoy watching my children frost cookies and open packages and put up paper decorations on the wall.

We had a great Christmas this year. My daughter, Kelsey, has dubbed it "the best Christmas ever!" This isn't a surprise coming from her. She tends towards the dramatic and days are either the best or the worst.

We seemed to get everyone toys they like and will play with a lot. That is always good. I can remember years where we had several misses or those "must have" toys didn't last long before breaking.

THis year hubby and I went to Walmart at 4:50am on Black Friday. People were mostly very pleasant, things were in stock, but the line wrapped its way through the entire store. It was totally worth it, though! I ended up getting most of the kids gifts for really good prices. I even did a price match for a toy that was on sale at Kmart. Worked like a dream!

Here are the things we (and Santa) got the kids:

Jordan-12
Scooter ($15)
Basketball ($11)
RC helicopters ($18)
Bakugan Gauntlet (grammy)
Bakugan 7 in 1 toy (grammy)
Starter Warm up Suit ($3)
Socks & T-shirt (around $8)
DS Game (I dunno, Eric bought it)

Kelsey-5
Pink Guitar ($15)
Littlest Pet Shop sets ($10 garage sale)
Crayola Glo Board ($15)
Bucket of Pink Girl LEGO (grammy)
LEGO people set (grammy)
Princess & the Frog color & sticker book (grammy)
Danskin Warm up Suit ($3)
Pink Sweater (? sale at Kohls)

Salem-2
Manny the Motorcycle Guy ($17.50 price match!)
Wooden Tool Box set ($18 Target clearance)
Little People Amusement Park (grammy)
Parachute with beanbags ($25 Lillian Vernon)
Plush Pirate play set ($8 LV)
Crayola Color Wonder ($5)
Starter Warm up Suit ($3)

They each got some fun things in their stockings, too, that they really enjoyed.

Luckily, we have been paring down on belongings for awhile. We got rid of more right before Christmas to make room for the new. Even still, I now have a bin of Pet Shop toys and a bin of Little People toys. Dang, those toys take up a lot of room!

Now, Eric and I mostly exchanged DVD's and stuff like that. I did make him two homemade gifts. He got a pair of flannel PJ pants from me that I started last year. They are made out of Yoda fabric! I made the waist too big, though, so not sure what to do to fix it. I also made him some chocolate sandwich cookies. Mmmmm!

Making Glow-in-the-Dark Star Ornaments

On Saturday we made glow-in-the-dark star ornaments made from Sculpey. It was the first time I have ever used Sculpey, but it won't be the last.
Sculpey is a polymer clay that is pretty easy to work with. Just like most clay you have to work a little before it become malable. It was very difficult for the 4 year olds, but much easier for my 11 year old.
The hardest part was rolling it out by hand. It took a lot of effort and I would like to get a Pasta Machine for use with Polymer Clay for next time. That will cut the time and make it much more enjoyable!
After rolling out the Sculpey we used a star cookie cutter
to make stars.
All our projects were done on manila file folders. Once we had them roled, shaped and ready for the oven we just cut the manila folder to fit in my Pampered Chef jelly roll pan.
Then we just followed the directions for baking. A few of the stars did get baked too long, but they still look cute and glow-in-the-dark.

Christmas Spending

Well, we are having a low budget Christmas this year. I have spent $46 CASH so far on the 3 kids. I plan to spend about $20 more on a main gift for Jordan. Then I am done.
Usually we spend around $300 on everything. So I am "saving" over $200 this year. That is good since I don't have $200! LOL
We will be making handmade treats and trinkets for teachers and friends and parents.

The hardest part for me was missing Black Friday. Man, there were some great deals at Walmart. Pajamas for $4, jeans for $8! But, I know I would have spent over $200 on all the "great deals." So I am proud of myself. Discipline is HARD!

It actually is kinda nice to focus on the true meaning of the season-Our Savior.