Freebie Friday & Happy Halloween

ENJOY ALL THE GOODIES YOUR KIDS GET TONIGHT, THE ULTIMATE FREEBIE HALLOWEEN!

Here are some freebies and a photo of the freebies I got in the mail this week:

Get a free Schick razor
http://www.schicksamples.com/



Get free samples of sun silk hair care. You can sign up to receive all 5 varieties.
http://www.sunsilk.us/samples.php



Girls, we can all use some of this! Get a free sample of Garnier Nutritioniste Ultra Lift Deep Wrinkle Treatment. I love this stuff!
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid56658.aspx



Our Monthly Visitor Samples, I love the descriptions on these "Experience Ultimate Comfort" "Make Every Move Your Best Move"


Always http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid48802.aspx

Playtex http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid45424.aspx

Stayfree http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid52472.aspx


Bath & Body Works, free aromatherapy or true blue spa item with $10 purchase

http://f.e.bathandbodyworks.com/i/34/528207786/081020_coupon_8272.html

I need your help!

I need your help! What would you like to see on Thursdays? I would like to feature blogger giveaways but when they are not being offered I would like to have a regular posting. Here are some options I've thought of:

• Meal Planning for the next week. I usually go to the grocery store on Friday mornings.
• We feature a blog reader and how they are saving money too
• Have question and answer like a "Dear Abby" but for money saving questions.

Let me know what you would like to read more of! Tomorrow is Freebie Friday! I've got a big list already!

Wasteless Wednesdays

Here are some tips to cut back on your monthly budget and stop wasting your money. These ideas were given to me by my "Frugal Friend January". She is just as frugal as me if not more :) We always discuss being frugal together.

• Do you have a gym membership you don't use? "Get Real" about either going or cancel your membership. For me this is my monthly splurge I go 5 days a week to my gym. The kids love to play in the kids area it is my daily babysitter. This is something that I don't waste I get all my money's worth. Find out about your gyms activities and kids area. Also check out the classes, try a new one and see what you think. My favorite is Kickboxing!

• Consolidate your errands and shopping trips. Make a list and do all of them at once instead of wasting gas and making too many trips.

• When you eat out share a meal with someone or put half of it in a to-go box and eat for lunch or dinner the next day. When me and my frugal friend recently went to dinner we drank water, skipped the $8 margaritas, shared fajitas, and loaded up on the free salsa and chips. Afterwards we went next door to Market Street and shared a pre-sliced piece of cake Yum! I think we each spent $8 total for a girls dinner!

Taco Tuesday

Go to your local Taco Bell and get a free taco today! Here is the info: http://www.tacobell.com/stealabasestealataco/

Motivating Mondays

Remember that "Want List" from last week.

• Prioritize your list and estimate cost


• Budget it in, don't just go and buy it, set up a savings account for big household purchases


• Pass on the 0% interest credit cards for so many months offers to purchase it


• Just try and pay cash for it don't charge it

Remember my items: Here is my plan

• Haircut for me- well still hasn't happened. It is budgeted for next month I just need to commit to a style. I have long hair and want to cut it short. Any tips?


• New winter clothes for me - well this is not budgeted in yet my husband and I are having discussions about the course of action. Basically I need a new wardrobe last year was post maternity. I do plan to get some new jeans I will have to blog on my personal site about my shopping trip I refuse to buy that size.


• Granite counter tops- we have a home savings account that we deposit money into each month. We have a priority list of home projects. Unfortunately last month we had to replace the fence which too a huge amount away from my counter tops. So hopefully in the next year I will get them. But my husband also thinks he has some big items on that list like a man room

Freebie Friday

Welcome to freebie Friday! If you find any freebies for me to post on Fridays let me know. Also comment when you get some of your free sample in the mail. Don't you love getting free things in the mail?

This is the best freebie if you have kids! A free custom letter from Santa. I already signed up for my kids. http://www.santaclausmuseum.org/_vti_bin/shtml.dll/FLFS%20Pages/SubmitLetter.htm

Here is another freebie contest from glamRbaby http://glamrbaby.blogspot.com/
Post in her comments area when you sign up you found her from Frugal Fabulous!

Get a free reusable tote bag free! A girl can never had too many bags!http://www.naturesbounty.com/totebag/index.aspx

Free sample of Tide total care. I used a sample of this product it was the best smelling detergent ever! I think it was refreshing rain smelled like a day spa.
https://tidetotalcare.safeprocessing.com/Offer.aspx?sw=1&utm_source=identitysite

Get a free sample of granola. This brand is yummy!
http://www.bearnaked.com/postcards/sample.asp

Wal-Mart is having events this weekend with freebies, and tips for your family. Find out if a store near you is participating. (Thank you Coupon Mama for this freebie) http://www.allyou.com/static/yesyoucan/index.html

Wasteless Wednesdays

As a mother of 3 children I love hand me downs or clothes swap especially for my younger kids. I love to shop at kids resale shops. A few in the DFW area are:

• Finders Keepers for Kids (sign up for discount coupons) http://www.finderskeepersforkids.com/
• Kid to Kid http://www.kidtokid.com/
• Plato's Closet for pre-teens and teens (maybe even some moms) http://www.platoscloset.com/

My very favorite way to get clothing is swapping! Madeline has recently gotten some great hand me downs from a few of my friends. It is like Christmas morning for mommy opening up the bags and seeing what we've got then trying them on the kids. So much fun! Thank you Shannon, Brandi and Jodi!!!

Ways to find clothing swaps, do you participate in a playgroup or have co-workers with children maybe a year older than yours? In exchange for some clothes why don't you make the other mom a batch of homemade cookies or a casserole dinner. Many moms simply give their old clothes to goodwill or sale them at a garage sale they are probably sitting in their closets or attics and they would love to pass them on and free up some much needed space.

Here is a photo of Madeline in one of her new outfits!

Tuesdays Tips

Bakery Outlets!!! We have a Mrs. Baird's Bread Bakery outlet near our house. We take a trip out every week. I purchase extra bread and put it in the freezer. The kids love to go because I buy them a big bag of powdered donuts. They huge bag is over $3 at the grocery store but only 89 cents at the outlet. Same for the bread only 89 cents a loaf. Mrs. Baird's sells for about $3.50 a loaf at my grocery store. If you spend more than $6 you get a free product. Here is what we got last week. My favorite is the big fat Texas Toast! I spent $6 and some change for all of this:

Motivating Mondays The "Want List"

We are going to start slow with being frugal. If you are new to this too much too fast will be overwhelming. I know it was for me. I want you to write down on a piece of paper or your blackberry (we will get to that later) a WANT list. Let's keep the list short the 3 most important things you think you want you probably think you need them. These would be things like a new purse, clothes, shoes or things that you think you must get and look great.


Here on Frugal Fabulous I am going to help you get things you really want but, we are going to get there a better way then just plopping down the credit card at the overpriced department store or boutique. I want to have nice things and live within my means and we will get you there too. It is all possible. We ALL have those wants for nice things and they motivate us to save or do more to get them. I will help you overcome the trap of buying them if you can't afford them.


Keep the WANT list handy and always in your purse we are going to address this list on MOTIVATING MONDAYS and have goals to get you there. Post a comment and tell me some of your wants.

Here are my 3 WANTS:

1. Granite counter tops for my kitchen



2. New winter clothes (jeans that fit)



3. A new cute short hair cut.
   
   We are getting ourselves motivated by looking at our WANTS now we will get closer to getting them and getting them at the right time not being impulsive!
   

Tomorrow, I will post Tuesday Tips, a quick easy way to save money!

Freebie Friday #1

This is the first listing of freebies. Almost all freebies require you to sign up or register at their site. So that you do not get bombarded with spam email create another email free from http://www.yahoo.com/ . I will be photographing all my freebies I receive in the mail each month! I have registered for all these freebies so I know they work!

Free Cappuccino at Barnes & Noble (thank you Coupon Mama for this one) just print and take to your local store
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav.asp?mid=850620-2-0-ARTICLE-0&r=1&r=1%2C+1%2C+1&PID=24816



This is a great organization system from mom agenda. Here is a link for some freebie sheets!http://www.momagenda.com/printable/index.html


Get your free sample of new Dove hair therapy system
http://content.dove.us/dovehairmsn/free_sample.aspx?source=dove_s



Get a free samples of Aveda products. Join the birthday club and get a full size sample on your birthday worth $25.
http://avedabday.com/more



Get a free sample of John Frieda Hair product from Wal-mart.com
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid50150.aspx



Get a free sample of Seattle's Best Coffee
http://www.startsampling.com/sm/100198/captureAddress.iphtml?item=100198&source=&p=



Join Proctor & Gambles Everyday Solutions site and get free samples of their products. This month is free Tide laundry detergent.
http://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com/pgeds/en_US/jsp/EDS_Page.jsp?pageID=HP



Get a free sample of Quaker granola bars.
http://startsampling.com/sm/100462/captureAddress.iphtml?item=100462&source=



Get a free sample of fruit roll ups and sign up to support box tops at your child school.
http://freesample.myfruitrollups.com/MyFruitRollUps/Default.aspx?source=284

ENJOY!!!

Feature Blogger Contest

On Thursdays I am going to post online contests by other bloggers. The first one is my FAVORITE child clothing designer, Noelle at glamRbaby. Her stuff is FABULOUS!! She has a giveaway contest for a free Halloween onezie for the little ones or a t-shirt with a Halloween design on it. Here is her link to the contest http://glamrbaby.blogspot.com/

Here is an example of her Halloween outfit: Here is a photo of Madeline's custom Disney Outfit she made for us. Of course I have to add a FRUGAL TIP, bartering, if you don't know I am also an artist. I have a website http://www.smilecustomwalls.com/ I painted some custom chairs for her and I got a FABULOUS outfit for Madeline. I love to swap services, where you both benefit and share your talents. Below is a photo of the chairs I did for her.

My Madeline's Custom Outfit:
The Chairs I did for glamRbaby:

Come back tomorrow! I will feature Freebie Fridays, lots of great freebies for you!

Wasteless Wednesdays!

I am late blogging today. Me and the kids were busy at FREE story time at our public library this morning. That brings me to the tip for today. Why waste money buying books when you can rent them for FREE! We have a great new public library, the kids love going to check out books. If you do have to purchase books go to Half-Priced Books or the Barnes & Noble sale section.

We also got 3 FREE MOVIE RENTALS, at the public library. We canceled our subscription to the online movie rentals which was about $10 a month and now rent movies at the library. They even have new releases! Today we checked out The Animated Transformers, Bob the Builder and for mom and dad the Astronaut Farmer.

Check out your public library, lots of free fun! We even made new friends today:) Here is a photo of Will with our FREE MOVIE RENTALS!

Tuesdays Tips Plus an almost freebie!

Tuesdays Tip: Grocery Shopping

• Go to the grocery store on a full tummy, if you go hungry you will buy more.
• Set a time limit to be in the store and make sure you wear a watch. Next time you are at the grocery store notice they have no clocks. The longer you are in there the more you spend.
• If possible leave the kids at home, little hands grab and add items secretly to your cart. If you bring the little one's make sure you bring a small bag of snack foods like chips or cereal this will keep those little hands busy and their tummies full.
• ALWAYS HAVE A GROCERY LIST!!
• I will tell you in posts to come about how I meal plan and ways to find savings.

Almost Free Product:

To reward you all for visiting my blog here is an almost free product, carrots at Target some of you might actually get them for free! My Target has the advertised price at $1.29 and would not accept the 99 cents coupon from the online store but I got them for 29 cents! Print this online coupon for $1 off carrots. http://sites.target.com/site/en/supertarget/page.jsp?title=coupons_specials

Motivating Mondays "Looking for List"

Keep a LOOKING FOR LIST. What is this? Write down a list on paper or any electronic device you keep with you. This list will contain small inexpensive items you are on the lookout for. For example my looking for list has: a lamp for Kate's room, jeans for Will and fall smelling candles. If I have a birthday coming up I put this person on my looking for list.

The reason for this list is when I am out and I happen to have time to run in a store (discount store like Target, TJ Maxx etc..) I will look for these items. I DO NOT get away from this list no matter what other "cute" or "sale" items I see. Because those other things are not on my looking for list and will most likely be put in a closet or forgotten. Just because you find something that is a GREAT DEAL, it doesn't mean you have to buy it!

Try a LOOKING FOR LIST this week and see what happens. I bet you save money by not buying other little items that come your way. When you leave the store with only the things you are looking for you will feel GREAT, you will have overcome the temptation to impulse buy and have no regrets later :) Plus you will have saved money, which means more money in the bank for important purchases, which we will talk about next week on Monday!

Tomorrow will be Tuesday Tips! This is a quick easy tip we can all use to be FRUGAL FABULOUS!

Welcome to Frugal Fabulous!

Welcome! This is my first official blog on Frugal Fabulous. I will be writing several times a week with quick and easy tips to save money. A little about myself. I am a recovering extravagant shopper, I am now known as very frugal by by friends and family. With the recent events and the trend for people to live within their means I thought this would be a FABULOUS time to share my insights and tips. The road has been bumpy being reformed but our family has so much more freedom being frugal. I want people to understand it can be FABULOUS to be FRUGAL. We even went to Disney World and on the Disney Cruise this summer so being frugal isn't about cutting off all the "wants" it is about balance. I hope you enjoy this blog and forward it on to friends. Tomorrow on Monday I will posting my first tip. Monday blogs will be called, "Motivating Mondays".

Here is a photo of my Frugal First Family!