Every week before I do my grocery shopping I always check for coupons.  I cut coupons out of the paper as well as look online for coupons.  The grocery coupons that we get on the Internet save us a lot of money.  Today at Target my total was around $73 before my coupons and around $57 after my coupons.  I go to Target every week so multiply that savings by 4 and that’s a big savings each month.  And that is just Target- it doesn’t include my trip to our regular grocery store.

So?  My tip of the day?  Look online for coupons before your next trip to the grocery store.

Here is a collection of tips.  You may or may not have seen some of these before.  If you have any good ones to add please feel free to contact me.

Storing Bed Sheets
After drying my sheets, put both sheets and one pillowcase in the other
pillow case. Fold neatly in a square. Next time you change sheets, you just
take the one pillow case and all the sheets and pillow case are inside. No
need to look for matches. Great for when you have different size beds!  I really do this one and it’s a great idea.

Clean your glass shower
To clean the glass in your shower easily, apply lemon juice to the glass
with a sponge. Then, take newspaper and wipe the lemon juice off the glass.
It will be clean and sparkle with no scrubbing!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat
to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro
pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks
in a zip lock
bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients,
reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy,
squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done – easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your
mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more
cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per
serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them
in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the
food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet
newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover
with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening
plastic , but they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken glass pieces of glass–the
fibers catch ones you can’t see!

Squirrels Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne
pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t
come near it.

Easier thank you’s
When you throw a bridal/baby shower, buy a pack of thank you cards for the
guest of honor. During the party, pass out the envelopes and have everyone
put their address on one. When the bride/new mom sends the thank you’s,
they’re all addressed!

Bicycle Security
If you purchase a new bike for you or a
child, place their picture inside the handle bar before placing the grips
on. If the bike is stolen and later recovered, remove the grip and there is
your proof who owns the bike. You could also put a business card or index
card with address.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty
paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum hose. It can be
bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a
clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing
panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and — voila — static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot
water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry the cup. Next, add your
ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove
box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better
than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include
something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an
hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Ladies, use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s a lot cheaper
than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great
way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it
in your hair…

Good-bye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2″ with
Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it
“home,” & can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, esp.
if it rains, but it works & you don’t have the worry about pets or small
children being harmed from eating it!

Take baby powder to the beach
Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When your ready to
leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand
will slide right off your skin.

Do you have any upcoming out of the country trips you are planning?  There are several things to keep in mind if you plan to travel to a foreign land.

1. Get information from the country you will be traveling to about what immunizations are necessary.  Make sure your immunizations are up to date as well as your children’s immunizations.
2. Check with your insurance company to see what kind of coverage you will have while you are overseas.
3. Be sure to leave copies of your itinerary with family members.
4. Make sure everyone in your group has a passport.
5. Remember that personnel at U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad and in the U.S. are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens.

Have you decided yet who you will vote for in the upcoming election?  It is only two months away and I have honestly not made up my mind yet.  I am watching debates, reading the news, and researching on my own so that I can make an informed decision.

I found a great site tonight that I just have to share.  It’s called Obama vs. McCain and it offers comparisons between the two on all of the issues.  For example- education is an important issue to me, so I clicked on the education link and found very informative facts about the two candidates.  The site has everything you can think of- including complete biography information on Obama and McCain, the major issue comparisons and even trivia type information.

This site is amazing and I know I will be spending a lot of time reading what each of our candidates stand for on the issues important to me and my family.

Whoever you’re planning to vote for- just make sure you exercise your right and get out there and vote!

I believe that all pregnant woman should have the best medical care that there is.  I think it is in the best interest of the families to have screenings done of the unborn baby as well.  I will be very clear about this- I am 100% pro-life.  But, I still think that First Trimester Screening is good idea to do. 

Why?  If there is something wrong the unborn child then families will have time to adjust to the news as well as set up the best care that there is for the child.  If you know your child will have Down Syndrome then you can be prepared for that, rather than shocked at the birth of your child.  This is most definitely in the best interest of the child and parents.

I do not believe in abortion, ever.  Even if there is something wrong with your unborn child.  But, I do still recommend all pregnant woman have screenings done to check for any problems.  Please feel free to comment with your thoughts and opinions- even if you do not agree with me.

If you want some free stuff then I have a tip for you!  Start entering some blog giveaways.  I have done it quite a bit over the last year or so and I have actually won more things than I can even remember.  If you think about it- most blog giveaways only have 100 or so entries, more popular sites might get 300 or so.  But, even with that, those are pretty good odds of you winning.  So, here are some great sites to check out if you’d like to start entering some giveaways.

1. Contest Blogger
2. Prizey
3. Making Money, Keeping Money
4. Contest for Moms
5. Prize-A-Tron
6. Online-Sweepstakes
7. 5 Minutes for Mom
8. A Contest Blog

Those are some of my favorites.  If you have any good ones you are using please let me know!  It’s only fair since I shared all of my favorites with you.

So you need a car loan.  And our economy is in rough shape.  If you have less than perfect credit it can be pretty hard to get a Car Loan during good economic times.  But, imagine now- with these financial institutions failing left and right it might seem like it would be practically impossible to get a car loan.  Banks are in bad shape and many don’t have money to lend right now. 

First you should consider all of your options- maybe it would be a good time to put off buying a car while you save up some money and build up your credit.  If it’s possible find someone to give you a ride to work or take the bus.  If you absolutely can’t be without a car you can look into a Bad Credit Car Loan.  You may be able to find someone who will be able to help you.  Make sure if you do that- you pay your payments on time to build up a good credit score.  Be sure to consider all of your options before making a choice.

Before I became a stay-at-home-mom I was a teacher.  With school back in full swing I thought I’d share a few pieces of advice with you.  Of course, this is information that is purely my opinion- but I’ll bet a lot of teachers would agree although never say many of these things to your face.

1. When I call you right before school starts to introduce myself- call me back.  If you don’t you are making an immediate bad impression.  And I’ll remember that when I meet you and your child.
2. If you volunteer to help- show up and do it.  When you volunteer to help I count on you being there.  And if your child is in pre-k or a lower elementary level you might be asked to cut out some materials.  These things are important- and if you don’t like doing it- imagine how I feel having to do it all of the time every single day.
3. Don’t ask to talk to me when you drop your child off or pick your child up.  You can use that time to set up an appointment with me but I don’t have time to talk at that time.  Those are some of the most chaotic times of the day.
4. Even if your child is only in kindergarten make sure all homework is completed.  Let your child know it is important to do assigned work.
5. Be likeable.  If you’re not I probably won’t like your child very much either.

With the hard financial times that are upon us I don’t think there are many people who haven’t been affected in some way or another.  Fortunately for us we are not in the process of buying a new car or home as times like these make it hard to get a loan.  But I know there are many people out there who need a Car Loan or a Personal Loan even though we are in economic crisis. BestLeadingLenders.com can help out in these times by offering services such as Prepaid Credit Cards and no hassle loans without ever leaving your home.  Be sure to check out what they may have to offer you if you are in need of a loan.

I don’t usually post political stuff, but I think this is worth posting:

I was talking to a friend of mine’s little girl, and she said she wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, ‘If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?’

She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

‘Wow – what a worthy goal,’ I told her. ‘You don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the grass, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a new house.’

She thought that over for a few seconds…’cause she’s only 6. And while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ‘Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?’

And I said, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party.’

Her folks still aren’t talking to me.

See?  Funny, isn’t it.  But seriously- do you know who you’re going to vote for?  How did you think the debate last night was?