Looking for a tasty freebie? Fill out this form here and you’ll receive a free a Hummus & Pita Chips GoPicnic Meal!
Limit one per address. This deal may not be around for long!
fun
Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
I know it’s only Tuesday, but I wanted to let you all know that I’m working overtime today and and tomorrow to schedule Black Friday posts to go live Thursday and Friday!
I’m taking those two days off, but I don’t want you to miss anything good! All the deals I post will be online, no need to rush to the mall. You can shop in your PJ’s!
Great gifts for kids that won’t break the bank (or your sanity)
It’s that time of year, when friends and relatives start asking you and your kids the dreaded question.. The Holiday gift question.
First of all, if you don’t have kids, please do your friends WITH kids a favor: Skip the toys that make noise/require batteries. Many a night I was woken by a phantom toy mysteriously going off. This Stupid Fisher Price Dog was the main culprit.
This year, we’re skipping all the “hot” toys. Why? Well, we don’t have cable, so Lil’ Man doesn’t really know about what toys everyone else has or wants. We mostly watch PBS and Netflix. I’m trying to get away from “stuff”. We have so many toys and stuffed animals. We don’t need a lot more stuff. I’m asking for more “experience” type gifts. Here are a few things that are always welcome in any household:
- Groupon/living social/Amazon Local discounted vouchers or gift cards to places that kids love to go, but can be a little pricey. For us, that’s Urban Jungle, Kid Ventures, Boomers, bowling. Zoo tickets, movie tickets, and museum passes are great options as well!
- If you have a vacation planned, ask for gift cards. We have a friend who takes their family to Disney World each year, and she asks her family to buy the kids Disney gift cards to help offset the cost of their vacation (bonus- Disney GC can be used almost anywhere in the park- food, gift shop, even admission!).
- Accessories for toys or games the kids already have. We always need more train tracks for our Thomas the Tank Engine trains. Most kids could always use more pretend food (we like these and these from Melissa and Doug).
- Gift baskets that include experiences: I know I keep going back to experiences, but kids and families love to do stuff together. Movie baskets that contain popcorn, candy, redbox codes or GC for redbox is always a big hit here. We’ve given pizza night baskets that contain the fixins for a pizza (boboli crust, toppings, sauce) and a board game. Use your imagination!
- IOU’s/GC for dates or time with the kids: Lil’ Man and I have a special date every week. We go out to eat and do an activity together. Maybe you have a little in your life that you’d like to spend more time with? Give them the gift a a date! Ice cream feeding the ducks, exploring nature- all of these things are inexpensive for you and mean a lot to a kid.
- Craft supplies. The most popular gifts we’ve both give and received have been treasure boxes (usually a decorative cardboard box from Michael’s) full of craft supplies. Dollar Tree has a great selection of craft kits, glitter glue, stickers, feathers, pom poms, construction paper, water color paint, acrylic paints. Add in some wooden cut outs from Michaels (.50 or less EACH), and a few paint brushes and the kids will have fun for hours. The best part: for less than $20, they’ve got a cool box and tons of stuff to keep them busy and unplugged!
- Monthly Subscription Boxes: Kids love to get mail. Monthly subscription boxes like Kiwi Crate, Little Passports, Green Kid Crafts are a great option for kids to get a little something fun in the mail each month- and monthly subscription boxes aren’t that expensive! Adults love them too! BirchBox (makeup), UrthBox (snacks), and Dollar Shave Club (razors and shaving accessories for men and women) are all popular options!
Lovely Candy Co. Non-GMO, HFCS Free Treats!
The Lovely Candy Company makes premium, consciously crafted candies for consumers looking for indulgent treats which offer the best ingredients available.
Lovely candies are all natural, certified gluten free, tested non-GMO, certified kosher and contain no high fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients. They have Chewy Caramels, Fudgee Rolls(think a better Tootsie Roll), Fruit Chews with real fruit pieces, and Gluten-Free Licorice. A great treat for you and a fantastic treat for the whole family.
Live Life Lovely! Get your Lovely Candy for the Holidays TODAY! www.lovelycandyco.com
I’ll be posting a review in the next few weeks! I can’t wait to share these yummy candies with my friends and family!
Schoola: Two Deals- Two Ways to Save!
Right now Schoola has two ways for you to save big!
Now through 11/22/15, save30% off sitewide with code COZY30.
This code can be used as many times as you’d like up until 11/22. You can combine it with referral credit, but not with other coupon codes!
Looking for another way to save? Sign up for their email newsletter to hear about Black Friday deals and holiday steals. You’ll get a $5 coupon code to use right away. Already get our newsletter? No worries, you can still sign up to get the deal.
Wanna spread the love of Schoola? The Give $20, Get $20 deal is back!
When you share your unique Schoola referral link with a friend, they get $20 to spend on their first order. As soon as they make their first purchase, you get $20 in credit.
We’re doing our next batch of tie dying on Thursday morning, and thanks to Schoola’s amazing sales and prices, I’ve been able to amass 16 shirts and onsies in various sizes and styles to tie dye!
I’d love to see what you’ve scored from Schoola!
Organizing your home on the cheap….
We have a lot of craft supplies. Henry and I do a craft 3-4 times a week. Plus we also paint, color, and draw.
Our Craft supplies were getting out of control.. I mean, check this out:
Yeah, It was sorta contained by two crates that weren’t the same size. They didn’t stack up and that bugged me. Plus we had a mish mash of family binder plus small craft totes on the desk. It was just cluttered and insane.
I’ve been wanted to get it a little more organized for a while, but organizational stuff can be expensive. Have you ever been to the Container Store? OY VEY!
I had organizing in the back of my mind when I got an email from Shop Your Way Rewards letting me know I had $5 in points for K-Mart. When I logged on to Shop Your Way Rewards, there was a pop up for a new sweepstakes where you can win up to $50,000 in points. I decided to play and I won $10 in points (usable at Sears and K-Mart).
Armed with my $15 in points, I started shopping. I found this great storage chest from Bintopia, and coordinating baskets. I checked my Shop Your Way Coupons and found 15% off anything in the home coupon!
I picked up three of the bins and two of the chests, and my mess became corralled:
The best part is that one of the chests is only half full, so if we come in to more craft supplies, we can stash them safely. Right now I have Christmas gifts for family stowed away in there.
I saved money by picking up at the store. After coupons and point redemption, I only paid $8.00. And I shopped through TopCashBack, so I earned 4% cashback!
The original mismatched crates have been relegated to Henry’s room, where they will hold misc. toys.
The Solution for cleaning up Legos…..
We play with Legos a lot, and that means that there are legos EVERYWHERE. I looked online to see what other moms do to combat the land mine field that stray pieces turn into late at night.
I found this Lego sack on Amazon, but I didn’t have any Amazon Credit, so I decided to improvise.
I pulled out a top sheet. Because, really, how many of us use topsheets on our kids beds? In fact, this top sheet was once part of a set that belonged to hubs as a child. The fitted sheet has long since passed on, but the top sheet lives on, since we never use it on the bed.
I poured out the box of Legos onto the sheet. After we played and built for a few hours, I gathered up the corners, so all of the legos were snug in the center of the sheet and deposited the sheet full of Legos into our 12 gallon plastic tote (like this one). It is the tote that has housed the Legos for a while.
Now when it’s time to play, all we have to do is lift out the bundle, lay it on the floor and spread out the sheet.
I am so glad that I no longer have to chase around stray pieces, and there are no more late night swearing sessions when we step on one in a darkened room.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! (Egg Free)
I had a can of pumpkin open the other day and I decided to make cookies. Part of the show that hubs is in has a scene where all the characters eat cookies on stage. They had been eating Madeline’s, which are super tasty, but high in calories.
So I opted to bake something a little lower in calories. I also made the cookies quite small (1 tablespoon, instead of two), to cut down on calories. I added pumpkin instead of the eggs and some of the fat to lower the calories and add fiber and fruit.
In keeping with the spirit of using up what we have in the house, I also used only brown sugar, as we were out of white sugar.Lil’ Man was a big helper- He added the chocolate chips and helped scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets. He’s going to be a Master Chef yet!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1/2 c butter (or use vegan margarine if vegan), room temp
- 1 15 oz can of pumpkin
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 1/2 c flour (I used AP, but feel free to use wheat or even 1 for 1 gluten free)
- 3/4 c. almond meal
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- dash salt
- 2 c. chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream the first 4 ingredients until smooth using a hand mixer on medium.
- Add remaining 4 ingredients until a soft dough forms, using hand mixer on low, or by hand with large wooden spoon.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-13 minutes.
Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.
Variations: This recipe is east to make as vegan, just sub out butter for the solid fat of your choice. To make GF, sub in GF flour of your choice. To make it nut free, omit the almond meal and increase the amount of flour to 2 cups.
Obol – The Champion of Breakfast Bowls
Hubs got one of these awesome Obol bowls a few years ago for Xmas, and they are super awesome! I can’t wait to get one and let Lil’ Man try it out!
Cereal Never Gets Soggy (important if you have kids and never get to finish anything in 1 sitting)!
Obol “The Original Crispy Bowl” made in the USA is the favorite for cereal
lovers around the world. Inspired by a playground slide, its Spiral Slide Design
changed the mundane cereal bowl into an everyday kitchen sensation. The
pleasure of eating cereal at the table, while watching TV or even is bed is easy,
just Swoop n Scoop!
Crispy cereal…your way, your pace.
Save 10% at obol.co Signup for instant discount code.
#obolco
Print Coupons From Your Smart Phone!
It’s finally here! Coupons.com is offering printing from your Smartphones! It’s easy!
You can print directly from your Android and iOS devices to a WiFi connected printer. Coupons.com will automatically detect a user on their mobile device and guide you through printing. Users will be texted an authentication code before they can print and must be connected to a wireless network with an AirPrint or Wireless enabled printer. Click here to get started!
Here are just a few of my favorite new coupons!
Hewes Family Fun 