Happy Father’s Day!

Myself I am thankful for a great Dad, a great hubby, and a great Step Dad, and two great Father in Laws!  Yes, I am lucky and have tons of wonderful Dads in my life! 

For all the guys that go to work to support their families, stay home with the kids, and play hours of baseball or Barbies, I hope you all have a great Father’s Day!

I am absolutely loving this idea!  I saw this over on Tallymomma’s blog and couldn’t resist sharing this with you.  It simply looks like a fun project to do with the kiddos this summer!

I am getting one this week – will update later! Anyone tried growing one HIS way?

Wal-Mart stores are testing out a new service called Wal-Mart To Go, where you order groceries and supplies from their website for home delivery.  Currently the delivery area is vary limited (San Jose only I think) but you can check your zip code.  If you are in one of the delivery areas they are offering free shipping, normally it is a flat $5!

OOOH this might be nice if they can incorporate the ability to use coupons as well. I could dig couponing from my couch.  What do you think?  Will you use it?  Can Walmart compete with Amazon?

Click here to check it out!

There are a ton of sweepstakes out there right now.  People do win these, so why shouldn’t it be you!  I have had quite a few readers win before, so take a few minutes and enter – you might get lucky!

AllWhites and Bettern’ Eggs
Enter to win a Year of AllWhites or Better’n Eggs! 

Australian Gold iPad Giveaway
Enter to win one of four iPads from Austrailian Gold on Facebook. Must Like them to enter!

Baby Depot Grand Nursery Giveaway
Enter to win a $1000 Baby Depot gift card, and other great gifts!

Casio Image Square Sweepstakes
Enter to win an all expense paid trip to NYC for the premiere event – worth $4,000!

Food Channel Fruits of Gailee Giveaway
Enter to win a Fruits of Gailee gift pack on Facebook.  Must Like them to enter!

JustLuxe – Luxury Vacations Giveaway
Enter to win an amazing trip for two! JustLuxe is giving away over 50k in luxury vacation giveaways to places like Vienna, Paris, New York, Hawaii and more!

OK! & got2b Sexy Singles Sweepstakes
Enter to win a glamorous two-night trip to Los Angeles!

The Perfect Guitar Giveaway
Enter to win a ESP Ltd EC-1000 guitar!

Can the average person afford a trip to Disney? Well Kristin at Couponing to Disney proves that they can. She started her blog to showcase how she is using money she has saved by being a smart shopper, by using rebates, by saving found money and by earning extra cash online to pay for her yearly trip to Disney World. Since June 1st, 2009, she has saved over $2600 and not one dime has come out of their paychecks! And she teaches that anyone can save for anything they previously thought was out of their budget. She has readers couponing to Germany, couponing to cheerleading camp and couponing to a new television! It doesn’t matter what you want to save for, she shows you it can be achieved.

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My name is Kristin and I am addicted to coupons. My coupon addiction feeds my other addiction, Disney. I have learned how to use the money I save by couponing to pay for my yearly trip to Disney World. Here’s how it all began….

When I found out I was pregnant with my daughter (now almost 6), I started making all these elaborate plans about a trip to Disney World when she was old enough to enjoy it. That was until I saw the price tag of a Disney vacation and compared our finances and those dreams were ended. There was no way we could afford a Disney vacation with our current budget.

In January 2008, my New Years resolution was to become more adamant about using coupons. I started learning everything I could about saving money. I learned how to combine coupons and sales, how to stockpile, how to use rebates and eventually how to save my family thousands of dollars a year.

I was a smart shopper for over a year before I realized we could now afford a Disney vacation. So I started planning and by May 2009, we were at Disney World. We had 8 wonderful, magical days at the parks and it was everything I had dreamed of and more. (You can read about that trip here.)

When we returned home, we decided we would start taking a yearly trip to Disney. But we didn’t have the funds to designate to another vacation. We had other things we needed to spend our income on. So I decided to challenge myself to save the entire amount we needed by being a Smart Shopper.

So I started racking my brain to figure out how I could save this money. I had a little less then a year to save.

The first and most obvious way to me was to start saving all our loose change. I withdrawal our weekly budget ($150 for groceries, entertainment, clothing, etc) in cash. Instead of making correct change, I always break a dollar and save the coins. The change goes into the Disney fund. It usually averages out to about $10 a week. That’s $520 a year! That’s 1/5th of the cost of our trip and it’s money we don’t miss!

Out of that $150, I also save whatever is left at the end of the week. This inspires us to eat out less and not buy items we don’t necessarily need. And if I came close to spending money and I resisted, I add that to the Disney fund as well.

Next I save all our found money. Found money can be anything from $1 in the dryer to an unexpected gift from a relative. It could be money earned by having a yard sell or by selling your Aunt Irma’s spoons on Ebay. If we weren’t expecting the money, it gets applied to our trip.

One of the biggest sources of my fund is by using rebates. Prior to saving for Disney, I was not very diligent about using every rebate available to me and there were times that I would forget to mail in my receipt and I would lose out on the rebate. So I became more dedicated and organized about rebates and now they get deposited directly into the Disney fund.

There are also lots of ways to make money online. I participate in about 10 different survey and rewards programs. It adds up over time. I usually do them while I watch TV. And the more surveys you do, the more you can make.

I also have the Disney Visa by Chase. It rewards us with 1 Disney Dollar for every $100 we charge. So we use it to pay as many of our bills as possible. While it isn’t the best rewards card there is, it gives us other Disney perks as well. So it’s worth it to us.

I started saving for our trip on June 1st. We are going for 11 nights (May 22nd to June 2nd). We have 10 day park hopper tickets (2 adults and 2 children), the quick service dining plan (2 meals and 2 snacks per person per day) and will also eat at Chef Mickeys. The total cost of our trip is $3050. In 10 months I have saved $2675 and not one dime has been earmarked from our budget.

A Disney trip is not out of your reach if you are resourceful. As the great Walt said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

I don’t know about you guys but I think I get about 15 emails a day warning me that my toilet is going to explode, that eating bananas will make me blind, or that I have won $50 billion in a foreign lottery. There is always some nice little note with the email – “better watch out” or “I thought you should know”. My reply – You might want to check Snopes.com before you forward emails like this…LOL.

In case you don’t know, Snopes is a FREE online site that debunks urban myths. It has been around for many years and it is considered by most to be THE place to go to verify if something is true or not. The best part is they give you detailed facts on where the myth originated from and why it is/or isn’t true. So next time you receive any email (seriously try them all!) check it out on Snopes, I think you are going to be FLOORED by what you find out!

Here’s a few of the ones I checked out this week:

• 809 Area Code Scam
• Onion Contamination
• Cleaning for a Reason
• Cell Phone Directory and Telemarketers
• Facebook Shutdown
• Anthrax in Tide Samples

WARNING: the only bad thing about Snopes is there is a pop up the comes up when you enter the site. They do not charge for this site (its FREE!) so they use ads to pay for it. It’s annoying but not hurtful.

Click here to head to Snopes.com!

I have a TON of stuff left to giveaway so I though it would be fun to do a chat party and giveaway some prizes! I know a lot of you work and have kids at home, so I am doing two times tomorrow to try and make it convenient – 12:30PM and 8:30PM. These will each run about an hour and I think I will have about 10-15 prizes for each, possibly more!

Warning – this is trivia style and my questions are stupid and this will get crazy!!!

My chat room only holds 50 people so if you could RSVP by voting for the time you would like to go that would REALLY help me out so I know how many people to expect! If you plan to do both please post a comment!

Get ready everyone this is going to be fun!!!

Chat room is located on the left hand side of the site, look for the CHAT button. If you have registered for the SwagGrabber site it should log you in, if not then please register a name when you log in the chat room, it gets confusing when we have a lot of guests!

So I have been hunting deals all morning and so far I am REALLY disappointed! What do you think?

I was in tears over this! Enjoy!

I am bringing back the chat! CHAT PARTY 9/9 at 8:00PM EST!

All my regulars know exactly what I am talking about but my newbies are going “what?”. Did you know I have a chat room? Well I do and it is the funnest little chat room ever! Unfortunately the poor thing has been neglected all summer while we were off tending to the kiddos and and enjoying the summer but now that school is back in….the games are on!

Since it has been hard to “catch” people in the chat room, I thought it would be fun to schedule a chat night so tomorrow night at 8:00PM EST (after the kids are asleep) let the games begin. I will be there and I hope you will too!

Whether you have read this blog a day or two years we would love to have you there. It is a great chance to meet other readers just like you, ask questions, and win prizes!

Don’t expect too much in the prize department as I am saving up all the good stuff for my two year anniversary next week (Yep two whole days of giveaways!!!!!!!!) so this is mainly a meet and greet with some fun games in between.

Want to join? Just look for the CHAT button on the far left side of the site (see image above). If you are registered for the site you will show up as yourself. If you aren’t simply click on the “Register” link at the very top right of the SwagGrabber site.

See you tomorrow night!

I was starting to feel my age a few years ago when I originally posted this article. I was turning 35 and I started noticing some differences in my complexion and skin. As Dolly Parton said in Steel Magnolias “time marches on and then you realize it is marching across your face!”

I have always moisturized and used great products (samples of course…Lancome, Clarins, Murad) but I started wondering if there were any REALLY good treatments you can do at home. I was looking for simple treatments and I was AMAZED at what you can do with simple products you have around the house!

Most of these are treatments that stars use to stay looking young, so I figured if it works for them…why not for me? I have actually tried a bunch of them and they are great for “spa at home” day! So enjoy!

Beauty Treatments – Thanks to Catherine Zeta Jones
To beat wrinkles she rubs honey and salt on her skin
Washing her hair in beer and honey makes it shiny
Eat certain fruits to maintain her pearly whites – strawberry, pineapple, & apple

My Mom gave me a starter mix of the Amish Friendship bread about a year ago and I made it every day for months. Then I got sick of it. Now I want it again but of course I have no mix left! I went looking for this post I put up about a year ago because it has the recipe in it. I thought I would share it so everyone could have bread. The best part about this recipe is that you end up with starter mixes to share with friends and family. Enjoy – this stuff is AWESOME!

For the Starter: – this is the part I got from my Mom
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/4 cup warm water (110*F – 45*F)
3 cups granulated sugar, divided use
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided use
3 cups warm milk (110*F – 45*F), divided use

For the Friendship Bread: – this is exactly the recipe I received with mine!
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 (6-serving size) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup starter
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I am starting a new thing on Fridays called – Frugal & Fabulous Friday! I thought it would be fun to review and share cheap purchases and freebies we have gotten and incorporate a little giveaway. I know I love to find new things so I thought you might too. Of course these will NOT be sponsored, these will be our reviews. If you have found an amazing deal or gotten an amazing freebie, email me at admin@swaggrabber.com and you could be featured here one week!

I am starting it this week with my favorite purchase of the month – a popsicle mold that cost $1.00 at Dollar Tree! My son is all of a sudden into popsicles and the fruit ones are expensive in the stores and I was dreading the idea of him eating sugar filled cheap popsicles.

I purchased the mold for $1.00 and have been using fruit juice to make popsicles, I figure a popsicle costs about $.02 each because I use only a little juice and mix it with water! He loves them, they are healthier, and I get to decide what goes in them! Not too mention I don’t mind him having a popsicle for breakfast as we make him special orange juice ones just for breakfast!

I also have been making them out of the new Mott’s Medleys juice (**Remember they are BOGO at Publix this week) because they have extra vegetables in them and I try to incoporate extra veggies anytime I can because I have a super picky eater.

So what do you think, like the idea of making your own or do you already do it? Got any great recipes?

Post a comment to win a $10 Dollar Tree gift card to get your own molds (or anything else)!

Contest ends 8/10 at 5pm EST! Winner will be randomly chosen from all entries! Gift card will be purchased and mailed by me. This is NOT a sponsored post!

Since I will be out of town this weekend I thought I would start with a forum contest to keep you all busy this weekend.

TO PARTICIPATE YOU MUST BE A REGISTERED USER OF SWAGGRABBER! No worries it is free! Simply click the register link at the top of the site! Once you do you will be able to post in the Forums.

Up for grabs are FIVE $5 Amazon gift cards and ONE $25 Amazon gift card!

The person that posts the MOST new posts in the forums will receive the $25 Amazon gift card! These must be new deals, coupons, coupon codes, or other deals. These must be NEW posts!

I will also randomly select the five winners of the $5 Amazon gift cards from all posts in the forums! These can be anything – comments, store deals, introductions….anything!

The contest will run until 5pm EST on 8/10 at which time I will choose the winners. So post frequently and have fun sharing deals with each other!

Watch the “Recent Forum Posts” sidebar widget to see all the new deals!