My Frugal Christmas Success "Purchases" To Date: $668.53 Total/$16.99 Out of Pocket

This is my follow up to "my frugal Christmas" to keep track for myself what I bought for Christmas this year either free or next to nothing.  Granted I'm using some ways that not everyone has access to such as bank reward card points and employee reward points but it all adds up as you look to whatever you can do to make Christmas cheaper. 

• I cannot remember who posted it, but another blogger posted an Amazon special where you buy two games, you get a $40 voucher for another.  With my $40 voucher, I bought my six year old MySims Agents for $6.99!  I used my $40 voucher and had free shipping! 

• My employer offers appreciation tokes in the value of exchange bucks.  With my work bonus of appreciation points, I ordered this which at Amazon (it's not where I ordered it from), it was $249.97:

• I participated in a TwitterMom campaign with VTech and by submitting my contest entry, received a discount on the VTech Bugsby Reading System.  If my memory is correct, I was able to purchase it for $10.

• This is my latest purchase but using my bank's reward points.  I was able to buy two for $0!  I have to buy two of almost everything to keep the peace!  As two budding artists, this will be loved!

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  Thanks to Freebies4Mom, I was able to get 50 personally designed beautiful Christmas cards from Fuji for FREE to include shipping!  That's a great deal so thanks to Freebies4Mom for the code and alert (freebies4mom-1109) at SeeHerebyFuji.  That was a $39.50 savings before shipping!  This expires November 30!
  
  
  

• Free photo book from Kodak priced at $9.99.

• I used MyPoints to trade in points for a $50 Game Stop Gift Card.

• I used the rest of MyPoints to trade in points for a $50 Macy's Gift Card.

• Today, I used my bank reward points to purchase this frame that was valued at $80.00.

I just bought a Tommy Bahama shirt from Rue La La's Thanksgiving sale for a total of $39~ including shipping and taxes.  The shirt is normally priced at $120.

Total Purchases: $788.53 (without tax/shipping factored)

Total Out of Pocket: $55.99 (without tax/shipping factored)

I'll have to inventory my Kohl's purchases of the gifts and non-gifts to "weed" out my Kohl's dollars I earned to make those fair.

Stay tuned for more of my purchases. Always remember to look for the deals and specials that are available to you.

Vote on the VTech Bugsby Writing Contest

Taken straight from Twitter Moms on a new VTech Bugsby writing contest:

"VTech, proud parents of the newly launched Bugsby Reading System (you might have heard of it through our RAMBO alert last week) is hosting Bugsby’s Great Adventures, an interactive contest that allows you and your child to write your own Bugsby story together. Know what’s even cooler? Three stories will be chosen for future publication – your child’s could be one of them!"

My daughter wrote her version of Bugsby saving the toys on the moon and even though I noticed one of the objects is blocking the bubble text, it's still good.

Please help her win the VTech Bugsby writing contest and vote for her book by clicking on this Bugsby link!

Thanks!!