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Happy Frugal Family Night (or Frugal Date night)!

Take this code and pick up a movie rental today from Redbox, absolutely FREE!

89ZQJ3

This code expires at midnight tonight.

Be sure to check

 yesterday’s Smart Source

 insert for the

FREE Hall’s 30-count

 cough drops coupon! 

 It expires May 31, 2009.

Time to make your plan of attack to score the best deals this week.  You’ll need the coupons from the Sunday inserts (preferably in twos for the best deals on BOGO sales). Buy extras and ask friends and family for any coupons they won’t be using. Any coupons you don’t use this week, save. (You may need them for a deal next week or the week after.)  The more of each coupon you have, the more you can buy of that item at that great deal price and stock up (and less likely you are to pay full price for it in two weeks).

Check out the linked sites for the stores near you, make your list, and pull the matching coupons. The coupon matchups are pretty much done for you via these links, which saves you mucho time & effort!

Now – get clicking, writing, and saving!  Then come back and leave a comment about the deals you score this week.

COUPONS

A Full Cup Coupon Database

Coupons.com Printable Coupons

CVS Coupons

Kingdom First Mom: coupons & weekly inserts preview

The Coupon Clippers

WEEKLY BABY DEALS

Baby Cheapskate

CVS

A Full Cup

Coupon Cravings

“Deal”icious Mom

Deal Seeking Mom

HCW

I Heart CVS

Kingdom First Mom hosts the CVS $5 Challenge

Money Saving Mom
The Centsible Sawyer

WALGREEN’S

A Full Cup

Cherry Picker

Deal Seeking Mom

HCW

Mommy Snacks

Money Saving Mom

Thrifty In The Cincy

RITE-AID

A Full Cup

Deal Seeking Mom

PUBLIX

A Full Cup

”Cents”ible Sawyer

Fiddledeedee (#1 for Publix deals & coupon matchups!)
- Fiddledeedee’s Publix Super Savers (link in your great buys!)

Homeschooling Four
Hot Coupon World

WINN-DIXIE

A Full Cup

Homeschooling Four

HCW

TARGET

A Full Cup

Attention Target Shoppers

“Cents”ible Sawyer (Target coupon policy info)

Money Saving Mom

WALMART

A Full Cup

“Cents”ible Sawyer

Deal Seeking Mom

COUPONING / DEALS FORUMS

A Full Cup

Hot Coupon World

We Use Coupons

FRUGAL BLOGROLL

BeCentsAble Grocery Gathering

Coupon Center

Couponing 101 - CVS, Walgreens, Kroger (TX), Albertson’s (TX), and Brookshire’s (TX).

Deal Alerts

Frugal RI Mama - CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, surveys, saving & making $$ online

I Could Use A Deal

The Freebie Blogger - Free Samples, Coupons, Rebates & more

Thrifty & Chic Mom - CVS, Walgreens, Meijer & Kroger

Thrifty Jinxy – Freebie Friday, Deals Online and @ Brick & Mortar Stores

If you have a blog that focuses on frugal shopping, frugal living, getting deals, etc & would like to have your blog listed here, email me with the following info:

Blog Name

Blog URL

3-4 Keywords (stores you cover, special features, etc)

YOUR TURN

Did you post a good deal for this week? Did you score an awesome bargain at the store, yard sale, etc? Share your link or story in the comments!  

Good Morning!  I’m starting my day off with the new Banana Nut Cheerios – yum!  Cheerios has always been a family staple with us.  For as long as I can remember, I saw my dad start every day, almost without fail, with a bowl of Cheerios and the newspaper (and to this day, he still loves his Cheerios!).  In fact, he often added slices of bananas to his, so I suspect he is really going to love this newest selection from Cheerios!  When my son moved past pureed baby food and on to more solid foods, Cheerios was (and still is) our top snack choice. 

I haven’t always made the healthiest choices for myself though. I like lots of flavor and have quite the sweet tooth (shhh), so I was very excited to try out the new Banana Nut Cheerios.  It certainly doesn’t lack in the “full of flavor” department!  I’m now torn between the Multigrain Cheerios (which I also love) and the Banana Nut Cheerios (but since I usually stock up during “buy one get one free” sales, I’ll probably just get both!). 

Banana Nut Cheerios® combines the whole grain goodness of Cheerios® with the great taste of real banana - a breakfast your whole family will love! Even better, Banana Nut Cheerios® cereal is a good source of calcium and Vitamin D, and is made with whole grain. It may reduce the risk of heart disease as part of a heart healthy diet.* Visit Banana Nut Cheerios for discount coupons, great recipes and additional information.

 

*Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.

General Mills sent over a box of Banana Nut Cheerios, two cereal bowls, a fruit basket with banana tree, and a loaf pan for making banana nut bread.  I’ve pretty much polished off the cereal, lol, and will be making use of that loaf pan very soon (we love banana nut bread! Anyone have any great recipes?). 

I want you to do a taste test of the newest Cheerios flavor… and General Mills does too!  They have generously provided three gift packages as a giveaway! 

To enter, simply leave a comment.  J

For extra entries, share a banana nut bread recipe or link to one, Subscribe to the RSS feed, tweet this giveaway, and/or Stumble this post.  Comment separately for each action as each comment = one entry.

Contest open to US residents only (as the coupon is a U.S. coupon).

DEADLINE: Monday, April 6, 2009 @ 11:59 PM EST. 

Winners will be chosen at random and must respond within 72 hours of announcement or another winner will be chosen.

Be sure to check out the weekly Frugal Deals Roundup to find the best deals on Cheerios and all your grocery & household needs (sales + multiple coupons = creating a stockpile to maximize your savings!).

The P&G Give Health coupons will again be available in your local brandSAVER on Sunday, April 5, 2009. For every coupon redeemed from the April 5, 2009 issue of P&G brandSAVER, P&G will make a donation toward the cost of water, vaccine administrations and puberty education for people in need around the globe.

You can visit PG Give Health for additional program information.

Find a newspaper near you that carries the P&G brandSAVER (just click & enter your zip code).

You may also want to check out online coupons & samples from P&G (also available in Canada).

If you need a little help with menu planning, you should check out The Six O’Clock Scramble.  Every week they send a newsletter with a great article and five meals for the week, including a grocery list.

I had the opportunity to try it out and love it.  I haven’t been menu planning and we got to the point where we were getting takeout much too often, simply because it was “easy” and I had nothing in mind for dinner. 

The Scramble makes it easy to plan and prepare great meals – especially with the ability to customize your menus.  It allows you to select meals from their database of previous weeks, so if the current week’s selections aren’t all to your taste, or you want 7 meals instead of 5, you can make it work for you.  After creating your custom menu for the week, you can print all recipes and a grocery list.  Simply mark off items you already have on hand, head to the grocery store, and pick up everything you’ll need for the full week of meals.  If you want to plan & shop for two weeks of meals at a time, you can do that too!

One of the new meals I tried from The Scramble, tilapia in a curried tomato sauce, has become one of my favorite dishes (I’ve already made it twice – yum!).  I don’t do spicy, plus the toddler was eating it too, so I dialed down the curry and skipped the cayenne.  The Milanesa is another new-to-us meal that was even a hit with my very particular husband.

The Six O’Clock Scramble® is an online dinner planning service.

AS A SUBSCRIBER YOU’LL RECEIVE EACH WEEK:

 

A Weekly menu plan with five family-tested, healthy, delicious and quick DINNER RECIPES THAT TAKE 30 MINUTES OR LESS TO PREPARE

 

An ORGANIZED GROCERY LIST so you can grocery shop just once per week

 

A SEARCHABLE DATABASE where you can customize your weekly dinner plan

 

Your own personal RECIPE BOX where you can save your family’s favorites 30 minute meals

 

A newsletter with USEFUL TIPS for easier mealtimes, snacks and lunches

 

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION for each family dinner recipe to help you take charge of your health

There is a special promo going on right now, thanks to this review opportunity The Scramble offered through TwitterMoms (expires Tuesday, March 31, 2009):

Save $5 off a 6-month subscription ($24.50 after discount)

OR

Save $10 off a 1 year subscription ($44.50 after discount)

Use code TwitterMoms for the discount.

I plan to take advantage of it myself - $1 a week for customizable menu plans with grocery lists? Win! The time & effort it will save me is worth way more than $1 each week.

If you have pictures you need to get developed, now may be a good time! Through March 31 (Tuesday), you can get 50 FREE PRINTS, which is double what they usually offer for signing up! 

Hello friends of the interwebz! Have you started your Spring Cleaning? I’ll be sharing lots of great products, tips, and ideas throughout the Spring Cleaning and Organizing Series – including giveaways (if you aren’t getting the updates via email or your feed reader, be sure to sign up so you don’t miss a minute of it!).  As part of the Series, I am going to be doing the FlyLady Baby Steps during the month of April.  I admit I’m not much of a “Flybaby” but I think the baby steps are a great way to get a fresh start on housecleaning and getting yourself organized.

Each day in April, I will be bringing you a new baby step – it may seem small and silly, but after a full month, it can make a big difference.  So… who’s ready to go baby steppin’ with me in April?

I’ve “heard” about digestive yogurts, and to be honest, they just didn’t have a “yum” sound to it, so I admit I was a little leery of giving it a taste test.  Not only did I have concerns about the taste of digestive yogurt, but I was never able to eat a lot of yogurt in one sitting. 

I cautiously gave the new Yoplait YoPlus Blueberry Acai Yogurt a taste test…

I have a new midnight snack.

A healthy midnight snack. {Next step is not eating at midnight, lol.}  Not only is it very tasty, but they come in 4 oz cups, which I love.  In addition to tasting yummy and coming in a perfect size cup, they have many other wonderful benefits:

Yo-Plus contains special probiotic cultures and fiber to help naturally regulate your digestive health.

Yo-Plus is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin D, and calcium.

Yo-Plus has the rich, creamy, taste of Yoplait.

Each cup has 110 calories (only 10 from fat), 1.5g of fat, and 4 grams of protein. Score!

Don’t just take my word for it, though – try it for yourself!

Yo-Plus Yogurt, $1.98 @ Walmart

$1.50/1 printable coupon (You can print 2!)

Only $0.48 after coupon!

I also have THREE pretty awesome Yoplait gift packs to give away.  Included in the Yoplait gift pack is a zippered insulated bag (which would be great as a grocery bag for your cold items), a water bottle, a nutrition journal, and a coupon for a FREE package of Yoplait YoPlus Blueberry Acai Yogurt. 

To enter, leave a comment telling me about your current health goals (can be long term or short term) and how Yoplait YoPlus Blueberry Acai Yogurt can help you reach those goals.

Get extra entries:

Subscribe to the RSS feed

Follow me on Twitter

Tweet or Stumble this giveaway

Open to U.S. residents only.

DEADLINE: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 @ 11:59 PM EST

Winners will be chosen at random and must respond within 72 hours of announcement or another winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

{Thanks to Tara for the Walmart deal info}

Time to make your plan of attack to score the best deals this week.  You’ll need the coupons from the Sunday inserts (preferably in twos for the best deals on BOGO sales). Buy extras and ask friends and family for any coupons they won’t be using. Any coupons you don’t use this week, save. (You may need them for a deal next week or the week after.)  The more of each coupon you have, the more you can buy of that item at that great deal price and stock up (and less likely you are to pay full price for it in two weeks).

Check out the linked sites for the stores near you, make your list, and pull the matching coupons. The coupon matchups are pretty much done for you via these links, which saves you mucho time & effort!

Now – get clicking, writing, and saving!  Then come back and leave a comment about the deals you score this week.

COUPONS

A Full Cup Coupon Database

Coupons.com Printable Coupons

CVS Coupons

Kingdom First Mom: coupons & weekly inserts preview

The Coupon Clippers

WEEKLY BABY DEALS

Baby Cheapskate

CVS

A Full Cup

Coupon Cravings

“Deal”icious Mom

Deal Seeking Mom

HCW

I Heart CVS

Kingdom First Mom hosts the CVS $5 Challenge

Money Saving Mom
The Centsible Sawyer

WALGREEN’S

A Full Cup

Cherry Picker

Deal Seeking Mom

HCW

Mommy Snacks

Money Saving Mom

Thrifty In The Cincy

RITE-AID

A Full Cup

Deal Seeking Mom

PUBLIX

A Full Cup

”Cents”ible Sawyer

Fiddledeedee (#1 for Publix deals & coupon matchups!)
- Fiddledeedee’s Publix Super Savers (link in your great buys!)

Homeschooling Four
Hot Coupon World

WINN-DIXIE

A Full Cup

Homeschooling Four

HCW

TARGET

A Full Cup

Attention Target Shoppers

“Cents”ible Sawyer (Target coupon policy info)

Money Saving Mom

WALMART

A Full Cup

“Cents”ible Sawyer

Deal Seeking Mom

COUPONING / DEALS FORUMS

A Full Cup

Hot Coupon World

We Use Coupons

FRUGAL BLOGROLL

BeCentsAble Grocery Gathering

Couponing 101 - CVS, Walgreens, Kroger (TX), Albertson’s (TX), and Brookshire’s (TX).

Deal Alerts

Frugal RI Mama - CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, surveys, saving & making $$ online

I Could Use A Deal

The Freebie Blogger - Free Samples, Coupons, Rebates & more

Thrifty & Chic Mom - CVS, Walgreens, Meijer & Kroger

Thrifty Jinxy – Freebie Friday, Deals Online and @ Brick & Mortar Stores

If you have a blog that focuses on frugal shopping, frugal living, getting deals, etc & would like to have your blog listed here, email me with the following info:

Blog Name

Blog URL

3-4 Keywords (stores you cover, special features, etc)

YOUR TURN

Did you post a good deal for this week? Did you score an awesome bargain at the store, yard sale, etc? Share your link or story in the comments!  

I mentioned earlier that I had Pandora cranked up & as I’m working away, “When The Sun Goes Down” (Kenny Chesney) comes on and reminds me that I am so overdue for a cruise. 

Note to self: PLAN ONE!!!!

I absolutely love cruises and as I haven’t been on one in a few years, I am desperately lost in withdrawals. We had one planned for earlier this year, but shortly after planning it, there were schedule conflicts and we had t cancel.  Looks like it is time to replan!!!

As I mentioned earlier, I started the afternoon of the first day of spring by cleaning the dust and mess off my desk.  I’d like to say it took A WHILE, but truthfully? Only a couple of minutes. I removed most everything, cleaned and organized and put it back. 

My tools: a stackable letter tray system, a penholder, a medium binder clip, and Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. 

The letter trays hold important papers, spiral notebooks (I have 3 main ones I use All. The. Time.), and blank printer paper.  The penholder obviously corrals a few pens, highlighters, and a pair of scissors.  The binder clip holds together loose papers so they aren’t all over the place. I’ve been known to get a little obsessed with binder clips, shhhh, but as for now I’m only using one.

And the Clorox Disinfecting Wipes? They made cleaning the desk effortless.  Seriously. And they have new, wide, decorative containers, so it isn’t such an eyesore if you want to leave it out.  Mine is on my desk for a quick wipe up at the end of the evening – something I was a stickler for back in my 9-5 days & a habit I want to resurrect. 

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes new Décor canisters:

 

* Come in eight unique color palettes to match any home décor

* Feature a sleek new shape and wider mouth

* Have a new effortless single sheet dispensing system

* Has the same disinfecting power of their namesake wipes

* Are fashionable enough to be left on the countertop

* Available at retailers nationwide

Don’t take my word for it though – try them for yourself.  I have TEN up for grabs! Enter to win by leaving a comment telling me how’d you use them (get creative!).

Get extra entries for subscribing to the feed, following me on Twitter, tweeting this giveaway, and participating in a conversation about talking to kids.  Just comment on this post for each action, letting me know and getting the extra entry registered.

DEADLINE: Friday, March 27, 2009 @ 11:59 PM EST.

Winners will be chosen at random and must respond within 72 hours of announcement or another winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

Today is officially the first day of Spring. Here, it is cool & overcast – not too hot and not too cold.  The windows are open. Ahhhh.

We had a lazy morning – I love my husband’s schedule because it allows us to take “Weekends” during the week.  We relaxed, spent time together as a family, and watched a little tv (oh, yeah – Hubs got up with Lil Roo so I slept in = score!).  This afternoon though, not so lazy.   I’ve just attacked the dust and mess on my desk, getting this Spring Cleaning thing underway.  Hubs is out working on his truck, doing some Spring Cleaning of his own. The truck has sat for a while now, needing some TLC (and a bunch of other stuff that is all Greek to me). He was able to locate a donor truck and work some of the “Greek” magic (he tells me, but I really don’t get into all the techy stuff of vehicles, despite that I worked at a dealership for nearly a decade). He’s excited to be driving it again!

To celebrate the first day of Spring, I am kicking off the Spring Cleaning & Organizing Series today – great tips, product reviews, and giveaways. Woot! I’ve got Pandora on & turned up and off I goooooo…..!

How does the first day of Spring look (feel) in your neck of the woods?

If you are stopping by via the Ultimate Blog Party, let me welcome you to Shake The Salt!  I’m so excited you are here.  Be sure to sign my Guest Book (i.e.: Mr Linky) below so I’ll know you stopped by (this is not the official UBP Mr Linky) and I’d be especially thrilled if you leave a little comment, too.  If you don’t know what the Ultimate Blog Party is, go check it out and join in all the fun. (Pssst… there are prizes, wink wink… plus you’ll get to meet lots of great bloggers!)

I’m Christy! Nice to meet ya!!  Hubs and I have been married for 3.5 years (St. Patrick’s Day is our “half-anniversary date!) and have a 2.5 year old son, who I refer to around here as Lil Roo.  Our very spoiled 7 yr old Staffordshire Terrier / American Pit Bull Terrier, who we refer to as our daughter and our 12 yr old female tabby cat round out our little family.

I’m an Editor-In-Chief with U.S. Family Guide over our local guide. 

I’ve been blogging for a year now and this is my second Ultimate Blog Party.  I began blogging as Multitasking Mama last spring, then moved to Shake The Salt over the summer. 

I love frugal shopping and getting great deals – you can find the Frugal Deals Roundup here each week, a great resource for locating all the great deals of the week! {If you are a frugal blogger, email me to get added to the Frugal Blogroll}. 

I love offering product reviews and giveaways, and I’m currently working on my Spring Cleaning & Organizing Series, so be sure to check that out. 

I also blog at Simply Sensational Divas Review, and I’m working on getting the following blogs off the ground over the next couple of months: Sweet Posh Baby, Homespun Preschool, Making It A Home, Florida Fun Reviews, and I am creating a website for Forti-Cones Surfing Company.

Also? I need some desperate help with Photoshop Elements, which I purchased to do some basic graphics on the new blogs, yet feel completely stupid with the program open in front of me, not knowing what I should do exactly. I used Paint Shop Pro for a while (before I blogged) and managed it ok, but I’m at a loss with PSE. Anyone wanna take me under their wing & let me be their grasshopper?

I’d love to connect with you! Find me on Twitter & Facebook (when connecting, let me know you found me through the UBP), and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the great stuff here at Shake The Salt.

Prizes I have my eye on….

{OK, I’m still checking them out, but I’ll let ya know soon!}

Please sign the “guest book” letting me know you stopped by… this isn’t the official UBP Mr Linky, just an easy way for me to click over to your blog, LOL. I’d be doubly excited if ya left a comment too, heehee.