My kids are (surprisingly) yogurt eaters. Even my picky 8 year old son! They don’t care what kind of yogurt they get, but their preference is the kid friendly brands that have fun flavors. As a result, I not only buy store brand vanilla for myself, but Yoplait Kids for the kids. Right now, you can go to the Yoplait Kids website and get a coupon for a free sample of Yoplait Kids yogurt. Yoplait offers drink-able and spoon-able yogurt and it’s free of artificial flavors and sweeteners!

Old Navy has been good to me this week!

Monday night I stopped by the store with my 8 year old son in tow. He had torn up the knees in his last two pairs of school pants, and with the temps dropping into the 30’s this week, he definitely needed long pants. He’s terribly hard to fit, being that he’s tall and skinny (hmm, wonder where he gets that from?) and the pants that are long enough for him are always too big in the waist.

To my surprise, we found that a 7 slim in the Old Navy boys khaki fit him, and even better, they were on sale for $10 each! Better than that, they had three 7 slims left in the color we needed - score!

Last night I went back and found a fleece for my 10 year old daughter. The price tag said $12.50, which is a great price, but it rang up for $7 since they were on sale. Another score!

I also snagged flip flops on their website at a clearance price of $.99 each - perfect for stocking stuffers for all of my kids!

Overstock.com is running a huge Christmas promotion, and they’re giving away huge prizes! You can win a prize a day, up to $1000 value, and YOU get to pick the prize! I just picked out diamond studs for myself, but you may find a new laptop or a plasma TV or some furniture…the sky is the limit. Well, actually, $1000 is the limit, but that’s a nice budget to work with!

Did you venture out on Black Friday, or during the Thanksgiving holiday? I did, but I was still sleeping in my bed early on Friday, when some were out trying to grab the best deals. My best deals so far include Guitar Hero III (with 2 guitars) for $89 at Target. I purchased it for $109 earlier in the week, and noticed it was on sale Friday, so I got the difference back after a short wait at guest services.

Another great deal was at Beall’s, which is a department store chain in Florida. All of their clearance merchandise was 50% off the original price, plus another 50% off that. I got my oldest a pair of Roxy shoes for $8, and Roxy t-shirts for $4!

What was your best deal of the weekend?

Is it any secret that I love a bargain? Stores where you can find closeouts from other stores, especially high end stores, are a favorite of mine. I love knowing I have the same name brand and designer items that other people paid a lot more money for. It’s a bit of a rush! The thrill of the hunt, and all that, you know? I also love buying deals and stocking up my gift closet. I can give someone a great housewarming gift, or something for a birthday, and it will only have cost me a few dollars…but the value is much higher! There’s a store in Tampa that is a closeout store for a big linens catalog, and they have amazing deals. I never knew where to find deals like that online though…and I’ve often wondered where the people who sell on eBay get their cache of goods from. I’ve seen sellers listing tons of items from catalogs like Victoria’s Secret. I now know the answer - I found this store offering closeouts online! It’s one of the best kept secrets on the internet. The store features clothing, shoes, electronics, toys and all sorts of products that are from name brand manufacturers. Those eBay sellers are obviously buying here, since they have products from Liz Claiborne, Vanity Fair, Victoria’s Secret, and even Oscar De La Renta. You can find things from department stores and catalog shopping companies. I’m having a great time just browsing and trying to figure out where products came from!

Despite bitching earlier this week about JCPenney, we did end up there tonight. They were having a big buy 1, get one for $1 sale on kid’s clothing, so the boy ended up with new jeans, and my oldest got new jeans and new shirts. I got a few new shirts, too! Long sleeved, of course, so that I’ll have something to wear on our vacation in a few months.

When we went to checkout, the cashier scanned a $20 off coupon, so we saved even more cash. I wish I had more time to shop, but the kids were hungry and antsy…

I got coupons in the mail for JCPenney today. (Why is it that I always want to spell it “JCPenny”?) They’re having another gonzo clearance sale, and I’ve got coupons to save up to 70%. If we had a store in our town, I’d consider going there this Sunday to check out the deals. We have a store under construction, but it won’t be open for months. The closest JCPenny is a good 30 minutes away, and I’m just not that hot for their deals.

I also get irritated by their clearance sales, specifically the sales in the juniors department. The racks are always so jammed with clothes that it’s hard to find anything, and they cram extra racks onto the sales floor so that you can’t even move around.

I picked up a framing order from Michael’s Arts & Crafts store tonight, and I am SO pleased with it! The kids each created a really neat watercolor at art camp this summer, and I thought it would look nice to get them in matching frames with nice mattes and display them in the house. I took the 3 pictures to Michael’s, and even WITH my 50% a custom framing order coupon, each frame job was going to cost me $100.

Uh-uh!

I took some time out to think about it (all of 5 minutes - I think on my feet!) and noticed that the pictures would fit in a 16 by 20 off the rack frame…which happened to be on sale for 50% off. I had Michael’s create a custom matte for each picture (only $20 for each!) and they mounted them in the frames I purchased off the rack. Total? $100 for three - and they look fantastic.

Keep it in mind the next time you want a custom framed look, but you’re a cheapie like me!

Here’s a big sale and clearance on summer items like patio decor and decorative house flags and garden items for you to enjoy. It’s time for retailers to make way for fall and Halloween items, so it’s a great time to get some deals. I always love shopping the end of season sales. It gives me a chance to save some cash, restock my gift closet, and even find a few things as Christmas gifts!

We’re off to Disney this weekend, and I’m hoping we’ll have time on Sunday to hit the Prime Outlets off I-4 in Lake Buena Vista. I had good luck at the Gap outlet there the last time we visited, so I guess I’m looking to get lucky again. And now that I’ve discovered Ann Taylor, I’m wondering if there’s an Ann Taylor or Ann Taylor Loft outlet in the strip of stores. And our must hit store for the whole family is the Skechers outlet. Perfect timing, since my oldest is in need of new sneakers!

Why buy a new flat-panel LCD HDTV when you can win one?

5 Minutes for Moms is GIVING one of these little beauties away. For free! And all you need to do to be considered to win the big prize is to leave a comment on their blog, which I have conveniently linked up there for you. (How nice am I, letting YOU enter the contest that I plan to win??) I’d also like to thank Best Buy for sponsoring the contest for the TV I plan to win.

(Confident, much?)

About 7 months ago, I turned in the points I had earned through My Coke Rewards in return for 2 magazine subscriptions. It only just occurred to me that I never GOT the magazines. I realize magazine subscriptions are a notoriously slow prize to order, but 7 months worth of slow? I went to the Coke Rewards website to log in and complain, and noticed a little “details” link on my awards page. Apparently requesting the prize on the Coke Rewards site isn’t enough - you have to take a code provided by Coke Rewards and go to the magazine website to finalize your request. What a poor design! I never got an email with instructions!

I went to the mall on Sunday to return a few things (which is another blog post!) and found a HUGE clearance at JC Penney’s. And I mean BIG. Tons of racks of items for less than $10. I found a pair of denim shorts for $9.97, and got myself a few new shirts for $6 each. Most of the racks were 60% off, but there were also racks of items for 75% off - including clothing for $1.97! The clearance was spread out across the store, so I plan on going back with Catherine to do a little early back to school shopping for her. (The other kids wear uniforms to school.)

I like to shop, that’s not a secret. I like to shop and get free stuff too, which is why I use reward credit cards and coupons and that sort of thing. The uTANGO rewards program is a new way to shop and make money, because the money you earn is for retirement. For those of us who aren’t counting on social security (I’m too smart for that) this is such a neat concept. Kind of like uPromise for those of us who are already done with school, right?

Anyone can sign up and save for their “Life-Stage Cash Rewards” on uTANGO. (FYI, the $ is not limited to retirement use only - you can use it for other life stage expenses) Singles, engaged couples, and married people like me can shop and earn cash rewards up to $1 million! You can convert your TANGO bucks to major rewards at 10, 20, or 30 years, so this is a program for the long haul. I took a look at the shopping page on the site through the uTANGO rewards program and you can shop online at stores like Linens N Things and Circuit City, get your TANGO cash, and then pick up your purchases in person at the store. You can also buy gift certificates on the site to use whenever you feel like…or to give as gifts! That’s a lot of benefits for a program that is completely free to join!

Browsing at Amazon when you don’t have a particular item to buy in mind can be difficult. There are simply SO many things for sale there. I’ve found great deals, especially on half price items, at Amazon - but I had to work to find them. This new site for bargain hunters eliminates the needle in a haystack search at Amazon by posting all of the Amazon half price (or less) items in one place. It’s called Half Price Bargains and buyers can search by category or view today’s picks, as selected by the site editors. There are different areas of the site for visitors from the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, and the US, linking to their respective Amazon sites.

I’ve been told I have a lucky horseshoe attached to me because of all the things I’ve won and the unexpected good karma I’ve had lately. And while it’s true that I lead a charmed life, I work hard for a lot of what I win. However, this new contest at whogets.com is something that doesn’t require (hardly) any work, and it gives you a chance to win some neat-o prizes. Ask anyone - I like winning prizes!

The site is completely free to join, and once you do, you can enter contests to win prizes ranging from $10-$600. There are hundreds of contests, and instead of just picking a winner at random, there’s a twist. Seven entrants are picked at random to move on to the finals, and once that happens, each of those people gets a chance to put out a plea saying why they deserve to win, and the rest of the members of the site vote for their favorite contestant!

Here’s a new concept that sounds fun to try! A new site called bid4prizes allows you to bid on cool products. The highest bid doesn’t win in this case, it’s the LOWEST unique bidder that walks away with the goods! Here’s how it works - say there’s a TV up for auction. If 100 people bid 1 cent, and 1 person bids 2 cents, the person who bid 2 cents would win the TV. Neat, huh? You have to put in a total random bid amount and hope that no one else thinks of that figure, AND that you’re the lowest bidder. Did you see the Scion you can bid on? I’d take that for sure…and just hold on to it for another 4 years until my daughter is old enough to drive it…LOL! Now, if I won the 50 inch TV, I’d create raffle to let someone win it from me, and I’d donate the proceeds to my 3-Day fundraising efforts.

How many times have you purchased a movie, watched it once, and then shoved it to the back of the cabinet, never to be viewed again? I’ve got a CD on my desk that I’ve listened to once since purchasing it. My kids have boardgames that were oohed and ahhed over on Christmas morning, never to be played again. What a waste! Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a site where you could swap, barter, and trade those gently used items for something else? Sure, there are sites where you can auction off items, but that’s a lot of work, and you don’t stand to make much cash. Personally, I’d rather trade movies for movies. Residents of the UK are in luck, because at Hitflip UK you can swap games, books, movies, CD’s, and audiobooks with other HitFlip UK members. This is such a great concept. I just sold a ton of DVD’s at our last yard sale, and didn’t make much money from them. A lot of the movies I sold were things my kids had outgrown. I would have LOVED to have been able to trade those kid movies for something they’d enjoy right now, instead of making $2 on it at the yard sale. The Hitflip blog shows you how to get started, as well as proving updates on the company and what they’ve got planned for you. I can only hope that their plans include opening a branch in the US soon!

Have you ever been to one of those sites that has forums for people to talk about shopping, like FatWallet, or Slickdeals? You’ll find pages and pages of threads devoted to certain stores, and the deals found. I love them, because you can find some things that you wouldn’t come across otherwise. But on the other hand, I hate those forums, because things get buried quickly. Who wants to read through 20 pages of postings to find a coupon code or a great deal?

Dealighted is a new tool that takes the best deals from sites like the ones mentioned above, and identifies the best & most popular deals, and those appear on the top of the Dealighted homepage. They take over 650 user contributed deals a DAY, and narrow them down to get the best of the bunch - typically about 125 deals.

I visited the site and loved how the offer was highlighted right up front, like “2 Free Spider Man 3 tickets”, or “2 day sale at Air Tran”, and even “Free Idahoan Potatoes”! When you see a deal you’re interested in, you click on the link and you’re taken to the site where it was originally posted. A real time saver, for sure!

There’s also a search engine that lets you compare prices on products in retail stores. It also shows you any deals or coupons that may help you save a few bucks! How many times have you found something online to buy, but then had to go to another site to find a coupon code? Dealighted is saving you time and money by combining those features on their site!

This is a sponsored review.

Sometimes opposites attracted, but typically, you’re attracted to a potential mate because of what you DO have in common. When I met my husband and found out we both attended the same church, it was an instant bond. People are always searching for like minded singles to date, and that’s the reason that niche dating sites are so hot right now. There are sites where you can meet someone of the same religion, or sites that hook up black singles. You can join for free and instantly find people in your area to connect with!