Cindy Loo Who would be happy

I like the Kohl's Cares for Kids program--they offer books and toys for $5 each, and the net profits benefit children's charities.

Right now, several Dr. Seuss books with matching toys are being sold. We bought How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the Grinch stuffed animal, for a total of $10. I generally don't ever buy stuffed animals (since they quickly seem to multiply and take over the house!) But this one was so cute; I expect we'll keep him around a long time! (I suspect this may be the Grinch after his heart grew three sizes.... He looks way too nice to be the mean Grinch!)



Dr. Seuss books remain popular and tend to remain pricey too, so I was thrilled to get this one for $5! I know There's a Wocket in My Pocket was also available, and at least one other that I wasn't familiar with. They all have matching stuffed animals too.

Disclosure: Once again...not a sponsored post!

Buy One Get One Free promo--today only!

My wonderful sister-in-law Betsy makes FANTASTIC-smelling soy candles. She also makes lotion, lip balm, and scrub with herbs grown in her own organic garden--how cool is that?! Since her company sells such earth-friendly products, she has an Earth Day promo going on. It's today only. (Actually, it ends at 6 AM Pacific Time tomorrow.)

So check out her website, Earthly Resources! I ordered some Rosemary-Citrus Scrub--I can't wait to try it! (By the way, her shipping cost is VERY reasonable.)

Short break, and a deal on photo books

I may not be around for a few days. I'm working on a project for Anna's family--more on that when it's complete!

The project will be printed at Winkflash--they have a fantastic deal on photo books right now. They're offering some really great prices for photo books of any size up to 100 pages! If you want to make a long photo book, this is an incredible deal. Click here for more info, and be sure to use the code "ITSBACK" when checking out, to get your discount.

See you in a few days or so....

A good, healthy(?) debate

Every day Amazon has a special Gold Box deal--a bargain good all day or until it sells out. Yesterday the deal was for YummyEarth Organic Lollipops.

Yum!

But then I saw that the "Comment" thread (available for all Gold Box deals) was, as of mid-afternoon, well over 100 comments. Most products draw under 30 comments, so my curiosity was, naturally, roused.

Well, it turns out lollipops bring out the crazy in people. Here are examples of just some of the debates that raged yesterday. (I'll use initials in place of names.)

Debate 1: Allergies

JPS: Allergen free...that's what I look for in my Halloween candy.

Give me a break! If some little doofus is going to choke on certain treats then he/she may as well celebrate the sheltered Halloween as provided by his or her mother. It isn't on me to provide your squaling brat with some "San Fransisco" style goodies just because you gave birth to a freak!

OA: Golly, J, what a grouch you are. These lollies look like a great bargain for folks who prefer not to feed their kids the toxic brew that's in too many Halloween treats nowadays. These days I would certainly not advise letting kids eat anything given to them by strangers though. Better to have a Halloween party with friends at home.

JPS: I'm a razor blade filled apples kind of guy myself, thank you very much.

You can have my "No" vote too, as you pass out your soy-based, organic, post-consumer content candy bars.

For crying out loud, what's so wrong with Snickers? Can't kids have normal candy anymore? Why push the freak -pops?

PM9: I have a child with severe, life threatening food allergies and I take HUGE offense to your insensitive, cruel, uneducated comments, JPS! SHAME ON YOU for insulting CHILDREN on amazon or anywhere else!!! What is wrong with you that you feel the need to bully kids on the internet? FYI, my child doesn't have a "sheltered" Halloween, he had a SAFE Halloween, and he DOES trick or treat like everyone else!

Yikes!

Debate 2: Red40 & Snopes

NE: I bought a whole bunch for the kids, I do not like to give them the bad stuff, like RED40 which is basically colour of fleas.. from the cactusses. (In case you wander where the red colour comes from) That's why red m&m's are not kosher.

MS: WHAT?!? Come on don't go spreading misconception about things you have no knowledge of. People please make sure to read up on info and don't blindly take some off the wall crazy post from here as the truth.
Just to clarify, New Era was talking about Cochineal. See snopes here:
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp

SD: Snopes?

Why do people cite Snopes as if it were a legitimate source of information?

It's a website run by a married couple in California. That's it. No research team, no independent verification of information. Just some guy in his underwear, typing away while his wife does Pilates in the other room.

MDM: That's absurd. Plus, it's definitely not true, that rumor was debunked by Snopes.

Debate #3: Mexico

F: This crap is made in Mexico.

Never ever EVER buy candy unless it's made in the U.S.A., whether it claims to be organic or not. Lead is also "organic" and is found to be in most candy made outside of the United States, plus even friends of mine from Mexico laugh and say they would never believe anything from Mexico is actually "organic".

And here's where it got cool. Another reader called the company, told one of the owners what was going on, and he came on to the message board to defend his product. He gave information about their manufacturing, and their voluntary lead testing. He continued to comment throughout the day. He provided his phone number, which at least one commenter used to call him. In the end, I was both entertained and impressed, and I bought a five pound package.

If Amazon gets tired of the distraction caused by these debates, maybe they should offer less controversial products, like automatic weapons or knock-off pharmaceutical drugs. Lollipops are just a little too over the top.

Mmm...cheap Dunkin' Donuts coffee

I was running an errand with the kiddos today and passed a Dunkin' Donuts.  It's funny to me that their new(ish) logo prominently features a coffee cup, not a donut.  Funny--and smart, considering that coffee is trendier these days than high-calorie donuts are.

Seeing that sign, the coffee craving lurking in the back of my mind came to the forefront.  So when I passed the DD shop again on the way home, I went through the drive-through and ordered a small decaf latte.  At $1.99, it's not a terribly expensive craving to indulge.

I got to the window to pick it up and was greeted with, "That'll be $1.08."  I said, "$1.08?"  And the friendly DD employee informed me that from 2-5 p.m. during the month of February, small (12 ounce) lattes are a buck (plus tax, of course.)  Nice!

So when you've got a mid-afternoon coffee craving this week, indulge it, for a buck.

P.S.  I hope this is company-wide...but I'm not sure.

What's that noise?

Must be the sound of wild rejoicing emanating from my driver's seat....

If you'd told me a few years back I'd consider sub-$2.00 a gallon gas a bargain I would have laughed (or possibly thrown up.)

It's been a great week with The Engineer's parents. Unfortunately, they're headed home this morning, but we were able to go out for a delectable dinner on their last night here. (Those of you who live in the same unnamed metropolitan area as me--e-mail me and I'll tell you about our surprising new restaurant find.) Our server was not only incredibly nice; she also took a very cute picture of the six of us.

Have a great Friday, and I'll see you here tomorrow!

Garage sale!

A lot of people hate garage sales. And I can understand why. The Engineer, for instance, doesn't see why he'd want to spend his time digging through junk that other people don't want when we have plenty of junk in our own house.

And sometimes "garage sale-ing" is frustrating. You can spend hours going to sale after sale, finding absolutely nothing worth buying.

Then there's days like today...the days that make me love garage sales. Chickie, Zoodle, doggie Hammer, and I went on our morning walk, which we usually skip on the weekends. I tucked a few bucks in my pocket, knowing we'd probably encounter at least one sale, and wanting to be ready just in case I found something good. We saw a sign, and headed in that direction.

I'd just like to say, people who understand garage sales--who understand that to get rid of stuff you have to price it low--are tops in my book. Especially when they have little kids. And especially when they take care of their stuff. We hadn't been at the sale for more than a couple of minutes when I realized I'd have to hit an ATM and come back with my car to take home my haul.

We got...

a bunch of books in great condition,


some random toys,


A real TEMPUR-PEDIC pillow (don't worry, the thick cover is washable, and it doesn't even look used!),


a double-sided easel, and a Sesame Street couch/futon thing...


all for $25.50. Score!!!

The Engineer was very impressed with the pillow ($2.) He and I already use TEMPUR-PEDIC pillows, and they cost an arm and a leg new. Think I'll eventually convert The Engineer to the cult of garage-salers?

Giveaway winner...and bargains galore!

Thank you all for the great participation in the bear giveaway, and for all the kind words! There were 30 entrants, and once again I used random.org to generate a winning number.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

30

Timestamp: 2008-10-10 19:02:21 UTC

The winner is #30, Jennypenny--proving that being the last in line can be a good thing! Congrats, Jenny! Please e-mail me at cbethblog (at) gmail (dot) com so I can send you pictures of some fabric choices. I'll post a picture of the bear before I mail it off to our lucky winner. Keep watching for more giveaways in the future!

***

Now, onto business...the serious business of bargain-hunting!

Yesterday I saw a JC Penney ad that screamed, "75 % OFF" and knew I had to check it out. They are cutting an extra 50% off all clearance items. My kind of discount.

First I went to JC Penney's website and clicked "Today's Store Ad" at the top of the page. The ads may vary from area to area; I had to enter my ZIP code to get ours. Hopefully you'll be able to get the same deals I got. There were printable coupons in the ad--$10 off a purchase of $50 or more, and $15 off a purchase of $75 or more.

We headed to the mall and went a little crazy. These were our finds:

For Chickie, I bought a shirt and a cute pair of Keds. The Keds were the only thing we bought that weren't deeply discounted...but they were on sale 25% off, and they pushed us above $75, which gave us the higher coupon discount.


For Zoodle, we had great luck in the clearance section. The three little rompers I bought him were our best deals of the day--$2.50 each (plus the extra coupon discount).


I had decent luck, adding to my wardrobe, too.


And even The Engineer came home from work with gifts awaiting him. Thankfully he liked both shirts and the Nike workout shorts.


If I'd paid full price for all of these, with no coupon, with tax, I would have paid $371.18. Or, to be more accurate, I wouldn't have bought any of it! After all the discounts and the coupon, my total was a whopping $85.37. That means I saved 77%.

Head to JC Penney--they're practically paying you to shop there this week. Be sure to check the website first to see if the coupons are available in your area.

Lastly, there are a couple of great photo printing deals going on this week. Through tomorrow, you can get up to 50 prints for 1 cent each at Snapfish by using the coupon code FALLPENNY08. You'll still have to pay shipping. (Edited Saturday--this sale has been extended through Tuesday.)

Or order prints at Walgreens' website, indicating you want to pick up the prints in-store if you want to avoid shipping. Through Sunday, coupon code FALL4ALL will get you the prints for 10 cents each on orders of 50 or more. I've done online ordering with in-store pickup at Walgreens, and the pictures are ready in a matter of hours.

Happy shopping!

Look at these lips!

WARNING: This post is rated "E". That's not for "Everyone"; that's for "Estrogen". If you're one of my very few male readers, it's unlikely you'll find anything of use here.

That being said...

Girls, let's chat.

I am tired of being a mommy who all too often "lets herself go". Just because I don't often work outside the home anymore doesn't mean I shouldn't like what I see in the mirror, right? So I've been trying to put a little more effort into hair, makeup, even...gasp...accessorizing. (That one's a challenge for me.) I still get ready quickly; but a very few extra minutes can make all the difference in the world.

So I thought I'd steal a page from beautiful blogger Sasha and share with you my new favorite beauty product. It's AVON's Beyond Color Plumping Lipcolor in the shade Divine Wine. (I totally want the job of naming makeup colors.) Here's a picture of my smackeroos wearing this great lipstick:



Oh, goodness, don't look too closely--I think I needed to floss when I took this picture. Oops....

The lipstick is supposed to make your lips look plumper, which honestly I don't notice happening at all, but I really like the smooth feel of it on my lips, and it's got SPF 15, which is a bonus.

So, how can your lips look this great? Well, if you have an AVON Representative, just contact her. If you don't have one, send the business to Mamma, my maternal grandmother who has been selling Avon for over 45 years.

You can shop on her website by clicking here. The easiest way to see this particular product is to scroll down on the left side of the page and click the dropdown list "Shop by Product Line". Then choose "Beyond Color". I know it's scary to check out colors online, but everything is returnable if you don't like it--and hopefully you'll be just as lucky as I was.

Here's a little tip. This lipstick was recently on sale for $3.99, and for a short time you can backorder it to get that price. Find your color by following the directions above, but don't actually order on that page. Click "shop by line #" at the top of the page, then select camp. # 18. Enter "Beyond Color" in the search field, and you can find the product you want, click on it, and add it to your bag.

Be sure to also click "online brochure" at the top of the site; they always have some good sales, and it's fun to scroll through the catalog. (Their Glazewear Liquid Lip Color is on sale for $1.99 right now. It's a gloss I really like because it doesn't glue my lips together. It's nice to be able to actually open my mouth when I'm wearing a gloss without my lips making a smacking sound.)

And lastly, use the code FSANY for free shipping. I just bought another Divine Wine so I can have one for my makeup case and one for my purse. With free shipping, why not?

So, pucker up and shop!

$10 off Lisa Leonard Designs, today only

If you liked the Mother's Day Necklace that Jason got me, you may love some of the other gorgeous jewelry on sale at Lisa Leonard Designs. Today only you can get $10 off any order by entering the coupon code ilovesaturday. There's a nifty keychain on the "Something Extra" page that would be perfect for Father's Day though it probably wouldn't arrive quite on time. It's $32 before the discount. Shipping is always $7.

Happy shopping!

Costco rocks!

Remember the beautiful flowers The Engineer got me from Costco? Here's another picture of them, from yesterday:



That's one week after he bought them. I've gotten roses that didn't look that good on the day I received them! Some of the the petals are starting to discolor, but overall they still look great. They've lost one leaf and zero petals.

And best of all, The Engineer revealed the price to me.

For two dozen roses with greenery and baby's breath...

You ready for this?

Fifteen dollars.

Yep, fifteen bucks!! I said in my previous post that they were probably less than the industrial-sized box of diapers he bought while at Costco--in fact, I think the diapers were $40, so he could have bought three bouquets for just a little more than the cost of the diapers. Three bouquets--six dozen roses! (Yeah, that might have been a bit excessive. My week wasnt that bad.)

One last tip if you love good deals like we do. When buying flowers for others, I like to go to Ross or TJ Maxx to buy a vase. I can get a beautiful, unique vase for less than the cheapo florist vases. Now I know where to get the flowers to fill it--the Costco quality and price sure beat what I find at a grocery store!