Just an FYI here-I just stopped by my local Walmart and as you would expect, there are some GREAT sales on their Holiday clearance items. 24" Lighted Wreaths are only $5 right now, and many of the rolls of wrapping paper are around $1-$1.50. Christmas Candy is all 50% off and all the other Christmas stuff as well. I assume this is a nationwide thing. Check the Holiday clearance at your local Walmart and I bet you can score some great deals-I bought 3 1lb boxes of chocolates tonight for (are you ready for this) $3.75 total.

Now, here is the deal that may give my mom a heart attack...at my local Walmart tonight Rip sticks are overstocked from Christmas so they are selling them at (gasp) $49! Seriously good deal if you are in the market for one..

Are you looking at potty training any time soon? Get a free potty training kit from Pampers Easy Ups. Click here to sign up.

Want a free sample of Pampers Extra Protection diapers from Walmart? Click here to sign up! I am a Huggies mom all the way, but I am SO willing to try out a FREE diaper. I will let you know what I think of it when it arrives!

Enjoy free breakfast Saturday, December 26 through Sunday, January 3, 2010. Limit one per customer. Valid for one small breakfast (value 99¢) and one cup of coffee (value 99¢). Valid at participating US stores only. Hours may vary by store

First I want to say the my favorite website in Omaha to find steals and deals around town is http://www.momsofomaha.com/. I also get emails from a number of places around town, and check other websites as well as getting emails from my good friend Tausha about the free events she has found around town. But, most of the deals I find listed elsewhere are posted on the Moms of Omaha site. So, I just want to throw that out there. I will not be posting everything they list, mostly just free things, or really great deals I want to share. So, you can check out that website if you are interested in more ideas...

Ok-can I just note that I love Skatedaze right now? Seriously! In case you have not heard, they have FREE birthday parties going on right now for a limited time. The party includes about 45 minutes in a party room, hot dogs and soda, and free play in the playdazium (basically a giant McDonalds play land, a bouncer, and a ball pit) for up to 8 kids. The catch is that you cannot bring in cake so, if you want cake, you have to get a dozen cupcakes for $15. So, that part sucks, but it's basically $15 for a whole party and there is no mess at your house. We did it for Solace's birthday this month, and I am hoping the deal continues for Ender's birthday in April. Skatedaze also has FREE Mom & Me play for free play days in the playdazium Tuesday-Friday from 10 am-3pm. Note-this program is suspended until school is back in on Jan 6th. Please see details for both programs on their website at http://www.skatedaze.com/. They are listed on right side of the page. Check it out!

Amazon is currently offering a free $4 credit towards anything in their Video on Demand catalog, which includes thousands of movies and shows. Enter code AVODGIFT. The credit is good until 11:59p.m. January 3rd, 2010 (PST).
Instructions

1) Click the "Redeem a gift card or promotion code" link on the right side here .

2) Enter the claim code, AVODGIFT, in the pop-up window and click the Apply button.

3) Click the Buy button to complete your purchase.

(If you don't have an amazon log in you probably have to make one...)

Go sign up here for a free Aveeno sample bag (value $8). 

This one's for you mom!

I just signed up for this last night and I hope it works! Who doesn't love a free book? Well, you can sign up to get 3 free books from Crown Publishing here.

The other day I signed up for this free "weekender sample kit" from become.  It is free beauty supply samples.  It looks like a fun freebie. If you are interested, go here to sign up.

Seriously, this is awesome!! If you live in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, or Wisconsin, and are over 18-yrs old, you can enter to win one of 20 $100 gift cards at Hyvee. I LOVE Hyvee! I do most of my shopping at Walmart, but secretly, I wish money was no object so I could shop at Hyvee whenever I want to! This gift card would ROCK!!

Go here and enter DAILY to win!

OK people, if you have young kids like I do, chances are you buy a lot of Cheerios. Right now, you can sign up here to get 4 $1 off coupons by mail over the next few weeks, as well as a chance to win one of over 50,000 full size boxes of Cheerios. That would be nice...

OK, There is a whole thing out there about the drug store wars...there are often great sales at CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens, and combining them with whatever their store program is and manufacturers coupons, can save you a LOT! In fact, many of these frugal people get things free or "make money" on their drug store shopping trips. I have not looked into CVS or Rite Aid yet, but I have used Walgreens and scored some good deals so far (nothing free and no moneymakers yet, but pretty lots of savings). In fact, last week, I bought 3 12 packs of Diet Coke, 4 coloring books, 3 boxes of tissues, and 4 Snow Globes, and I paid $13 total for it.

Walgreens has a thing called "register rewards" which is how people get "money makers. A register rewards basically means you purchase something for the regular or sale price, and at the end of your transaction you get a register reward back (basically like a coupon for money off you r next transaction) for purchasing that item. So, on my shopping trip the other day, Diet Coke was on sale for 3/$11, and if you bought 3, you got a RR (Register Reward) back for $3.

Most Walgreens will also let your "roll over" your transactions, meaning you can do separate transactions so you can use your register rewards right away (I have heard about some Walgreens not letting you use them the same day thought it seems to be rare). So in the case of my transactions, I paid for the 3 Diet Coke 12 packs first. Then in my second transaction, I had coupons from my local Walgreens ad for the coloring books & tissues, and the snow globes were on sale. I used the 2 coupons and my $3 RR (the one I had just gotten for the Diet Cokes). So, I spend $10 in my first transaction (and got a $3 RR back). I used all the coupons, including the RR with the second transactions, and paid only $3 total for the 4 coloring books, 3 boxes of tissues, and 4 Snow Globes.

So, check out your local Walgreens ads and see what is on sale, what has RR, and what kind of deals you can get. Also, please check out the website http://iheartwags.com/ for the best Walgreen weekly match-ups (She will list the best deals to get using RR and coupons from the newspaper or online.) Give it a shot and let me know if you score any great deals!

Beckee

At the bottom of this blog, you will notice a "Swagbucks" widget/ad. Other frugal blogs I check RAVE about this site. It is essentially a site where you can search, purchase things, and earn points, aka swagbucks, with which you can buy gift cards to many, many places. Quite a few of the frugal ladies out there used their swagbucks points to pay for all or most of their Christmas this year. I have been on for a couple weeks now, and have only earned 15 points. I have not purchased anything using them yet, I have just earned those points by using their search engine (which randomly rewards points). If this is something you might be interested in joining and using, please use my referral link here. That will help me get a few more points I think.

I am just getting to use this site and figure it out, but I think it could be really good. If you have tried it or have more to add about how to use it or anything, please leave a comment!

Beckee