My Plans for a Frugal Christmas & Holiday Ideas with TwitterMoms & Staples

I started out half the year thinking about how to be more frugal with Christmas given we have five kids and three sets of parents. I was losing track of the ways I was going to make this an inexpensive yet nice Christmas so I went to Staples, picked up a cheap handy journal to keep my lists of money making opportunities ranging from surveys, buyer advantage programs, bank debit programs and other opportunities.  TwitterMoms and Staples has put together a challenge for moms to share how they are saving money.

When I think of Staples, I always rememeber my step son taking the "That was easy" button and blasting it in my ear last year for Christmas.  Staples is another great place to pick up some of those high tech gifts or even office supplies or furnishings.  An avid printer might appreciate a big supply of cartridges.  A hopeless direction finder would love a new GPS (my sister for example)!  Not only can you get your presents but you can order wonderful personalized cards, calendars and one of my favorites, gift card holders.






Deals for Busy Moms This Holiday Season Check out This Week's Deals!

About this TwitterMoms Blogging Program

Looking for more creative ways to save money?  Zazzle, if you are creative, is a great venue for making items with no costs out of your pocket. I started in the political arena and ventured into other areas such as business cards, children's products and invitations. Not quite a year later, I've made over $2,000 which has been handy for customized photo gifts and cash. This will definitely take care of a few gifts.

My latest real time frugal Christmas deals/buys.

Customized Wine Labels:

Use these to customize and accompany the wine to explain the vintage, type and other wine maker notes:

Mypoints.com is a quick way to make points to turn into gift cards and more. If you buy a lot on the internet, definitely use this site as the points add up fast! They also offer other incentives to earn points ranging from surveys to games to referrals. The points accumulated will amount to one gift off the book for Christmas in a Macy's gift card! 

My bank offers debit card rewards so whenever we click that debit button, we add on more points. Utilize those cards especially if it's via a free account! These points will knock off two more gifts in the form of two gift cards from The Gap for those hard to buy for teens:

I'm trying the survey route as many bloggers note are worthwhile along with Swagbucks but I haven't quite got the hang of that one so I'll keep moving along as a snail's pace.

Take advantage of cosmetic type freebies if you use products such as Clinique or Lancome. They have nice free items that can add up to a nice gift basket:

My employer also provides thank you for a good job points to spend with a company in exchange for gifts.  It's been a good year and here is what I'm purchasing as gifts:

I know that one isn't necessarily fair as not everyone gets a perk such as that from their employer but it's to show an opportunity that I could spend on myself but am choosing to use towards making the holiday more frugal.

My Coke Rewards points can add up quickly if you an avid Coke fan as we are.  Thanks to TwitterMoms, I took part in an earlier opportunity where I received an additional 500 points which quickly bumped up our Coke addiction points.  Not sure what I'll purchase yet but it's looking like a $50 gift card.

This year, I will also bake to save a little from purchasing some of the higher priced YET very good baked items.  I posted previously about some really simple but elegant looking from AllYou.com.

CreativeGiftWrapping.Com has very elegant and sophisticated packaging to add the final touch to your gifts.

Have you ever noticed how many bloggers have giveaways? If you have the time, enter! There are some really nice giveaways and given the volume, you are bound to win something eventually!

More Christmas Ideas: Customized Wine Labels, Santa Postcards & More

I always enjoy making or at least partially making my own Christmas gifts or personalizing them to make them more special or unique.  This year is no exception but the hunt for new ideas or creative ways is harder.  I usually pay quite a bit of money for personalized wine labels but I can get a sheet of six for only $5.10.  Here are some of examples:

Black and Silver Christmas Wine Labels by jbranam
Shop all other stickers available at zazzle

Santa on Gold Customized Wine Labels by jbranam
sticker printing from zazzle

Gold Christmas Tree on Red Background Wine Label by jbranam
Design custom stickers at zazzle

For Santa letters, I'm using this postcard version and instead of paying for postage, I'll just sneak them into the mailbox and give to the girls.  It already has the Santa postmark on it.  I can use it to acknowledge the girl's letters to Santa or just to remind them to be good.

Customized Santa Dear Child Postcard by jbranam
Post cards made online at zazzle.com

Here are some shirt/onesie options:

Mommy/Daddy's Liltle Reindeer by jbranam
View more Reindeer T-Shirts

Dear Santa Please Define NAUGHTY by jbranam
Make customized tshirts at zazzle

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Zazzle $25 Halloween Gift Certificate Giveaway - CLOSED - WINNER

CLOSED - CONGRATULATIONS

LYNN

AN E-MAIL HAS BEEN SENT

PLEASE RESPOND IN 48 HOURS

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

Enter the $25 Zazzle Gift Certificate!

Zazzle produces many high quality, unique products from numerous sellers.  The range is almost unlimited and out of all the products I've ordered, I've never been unhappy.

The photo mugs are of amazing quality and you can choose the size of mug, type of mug and the color on some of the features of the mugs.  You can pick the usual type of mug or they have beer steins and the plastic/metal commuter cups.  I've ordered the standard mugs (I pick the largest size mug) as well as the commuter mugs and a clear beer stein which everyone who opened their gifts, were extremely pleased.

On my daughter's wall, I have a large print of my wedding in Hawaii of the two oldest.  It's a beautiful picture and Zazzle did a great job with the quality of the poster size print.  It was delivered in a protected roll container and had no damage.

I just ordered business cards of the Halloween theme to attach to my daughter's school bake sale in October as well as extras to place on the treat bags for the school's party. 

Last Christmas, I created and ordered my own customized photo cards for Christmas and they were the same high quality of any other place where you spend a lot of money.

When my husband returned from Iraq, I customized "Proud Daughter" t-shirts for the girls that had his name.  We wore them when he returned from the airport.  I also ordered customized horse t-shirts for my middle daughter.  All of our great quality and the printing was incredible.  The only thing to note is you have to watch the notes on the ordering page as they will explain if a shirt runs smaller than normal.  I'm not having problems with shrinking but they do tend to run small sometimes.

All in all, as you can tell, I'm a Zazzle fan and you can really create some great gifts with Christmas approaching.

The giveaway:

A $25 gift certificate to Zazzle.

To Enter:

Go to my Zazzle site and leave a comment here on what you product you would pick and follow my blog.  If you already follow, just add that to the comment.

Extra Entries:

1. Follow me on Twitter - leave a comment
2. Blog about this giveaway - leave a comment
3. Tweet about this giveaway - leave a comment
4. Leave a comment on another one of my posts and come back to this post and leave a comment

Giveaway ends 10/31/09 at 10:00 pm

Winner chosen by random.org

Good luck and thanks for entering!

Halloween Personalized Treat Bag & Tag Idea

This year for my daughter's school class Halloween party, I just made the personalized cards above via Zazzle in the business card size.  You can use the same template and change any of the words. 

They cost $16.95 for 100 so you have plenty left over for next year or if you have more than one kid, you will have enough.  If you are planning a party, it's a great addition to the party favors. 

It could also serve as a Save the Date type reminder by gluing a little magnet on the back to include in invitations.

I already have a small Stampin Up puncher and brads to use to fasten the cards to the bags.  You can use a regular paper puncher for the same effect and ribbon, yard or string.  This is a great project for your children to do to encourage creativity.

Before you purchase anything from Zazzle, always check to see if there are any coupons or special deals.

Cherry Blossom Wedding Ideas on a Budget

My sister was married this past July in my backyard.  The yard is big and gorgeous as it looks like a mini park.  We put up decorations and planted flowers.  I wanted to make it a special occasion so I created keepsakes from Zazzle.  This was a wedding on a budget so we looked for many ways to cut corners.

The first thing I made were magnets:

After still trying to decide which theme to keep, I made some stickers just for fun:

I made a matching bag to hold all of the things I made her:

Lastly, I made the invitations to coordinate with the rest of the items:

Even though no one other than our immediate family was able to attend since they were visiting from Indiana and we lived in Georgia, it was a nice event.  My husband was in Iraq so he missed out as well. 

I would have loved to have made the cake but I'm not that talented.  I was able to have a very nice retired Army spouse make a beautiful cake:

I also saved money by acting as the official photographer.

Sunday Cupcake Decorating

Yesterday, we made cupcakes in preparation for trying to master our decorating before Halloween for our big party!  This time, I baked the cupcakes and let her have free reign in icing and decorating.

She really loved having this opportunity to use all the sprinkles and other candy to make her own creations.  I like using picnik.com to add adornments and special frames to each picture.  picnik.com is free for basic features and is low cost if you want some of the premium features. 

One word of caution if you try to create a collage and use it via another website to order prints, be careful as the quality can come back poor if you started with not so great quality pictures.  I've used Zazzle to order prints which have always been top of the line.

Last year, we ordered the invitations from a seller on Ebay but for circumstances beyond our control, we had to cancel the party but I ordered them to occur either on a Saturday for 2008 or Sunday for 2009 just in case.  I'll scan and include an image as they are great!

Above is a sample of her creations!  She made many more and everyone, except me, is enjoying them!  I'm still on the Quick Weight Loss Center diet (for my review progress, look to the sidebar widget).

Special hello to her Granny in Australia!

New Giveaway Customized Zazzle Kids Birthday Invitations

Congratulations suziethomas@yahoo.com!

I'll send an e-mail and you have 48 hours to respond.  If no response, a new winner will be selected.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

I have been using Zazzle for many of my personalized photo gifts throughout the year to include invitations. I love Zazzle as their are so many products to choose from and many possibilities to customize to fit any need.



I have ordered items that range from posters to shirts to invitations and have never been disappointed. The biggest con that Zazzle has are the shipping costs so I usually wait until they will offer free shipping or reduced shipping.


Zazzle also has a money back guarantee on any product you buy which is a bonus.



We all proudly wore our customized Welcome Home shirts when my husband returned from Iraq this week. My daughter wears her customized horse shirts and they do handle wear and tear nicely. I would strongly recommend Zazzle.



The giveaway consists of 20 customized invitations as noted above. You pick the style and provide the wording. It's that easy!



To enter:

1. Leave a comment as to which invitation you like the most.

Extra entries (leave a comment for each extra entry you completed):

1. Follow my blog.
2. Follow me on Twitter.
3. Blog about this giveaway on your own blog.

A winner will be chosen September 5, 2009 via random.org.

Planning for Halloween 2009

Check out my other posts for other great ideas!

How to Make Your Own Halloween Decorations

This year's costume pick: TRANSFORMERS BUMBLEBEE & LADYBUG

As I stated in my other blogs, everything I do relative to gifts is spent with a lot of thought and care.  This goes the same for parties and special holidays.  Granted Halloween isn't really a "special" holiday for me but it is for my kids and I have great memories and more to come!

In preparation this year, I started looking for everything to have in order to hold an incredible, fun kid's party.

I will have the kids make some creepy creature sucker molds. They are inexpensive at $1.99 for two of the same molds. My daughters loved making these in the past and they are so easy to do.

Cupcakes are another fool proof way of making your party a hit with the kids if you have the patience for cleaning up the mess.  You can choose from spooky rings or monster hand picks and then choose sprinkles that look like bones.

Either use traditional cupcake liners or try something new like a laser cut or wrap around paper to add a little more character to the cupcakes.

All of the above supplies can be found at ShopBakersNook.com.

Halloween Express has so many wonderfully spooky decorations that you have to at least take a look!

Special Halloween Express offer to my readers:

Coupon Code 1: TAKE5 (All capital letters with the number 5 at the end). Take $5 off purchases of $50 or more exclusive of shipping and handling.


Coupon Code 2: TAKE10 (All capital letters with the number 10 at the end). Take $10 off purchases of $100 or more exclusive of shipping and handling.

Note that all coupon codes exclude the Tom Arma costume line, gift cards, special orders, closeouts, contact lenses and personalized items. One use per customer. Not valid on prior purchases. Coupons subject to our coupon policy which can be found here: http://www.halloweenexpress.com/coupon-policy.php




If you have big money to spend, they have a new giant spider that would probably make me cry if I saw it and didn't know it wasn't real.  It's 3' long with adjustable legs and light up eyes.

They have tons of costumes and many new one's for 2009.  I think I just found my little girl's costume.  Yes, little girl who has boy tendencies about her.  She will love to be the Transformers Bumblebee.

Who could ever resist this one?

I used to make my oldest costume's from her very first costume until she became old enough to know that I was embarrassing her with what I made.  I'll have to post some of those photos!

Don't forget to check out what adorablebabyclothing.com has for costumes!  They are running a special right now of $20 off of $100 purchase until 09/20/09.

This is the start of planning for Halloween so watch for more to come!


I admit, I'm an early shopper and can't contain my excitement for Halloween because I know how much my six year old loves it! I also learned last year that you don't wait until the last minute to go to your local costume shop as I had no idea how many people actually do dress up. My husband decided we should dress up and we got our costumes but again, I learned you don't wait to the last minute to shop.

My girl, who loves boy's toys, first wanted to be Boba Fett. She was Darth Vader one year and a Clone Trooper another year but when I found the Transformer's Bumblebee costume, she HAD to have it!

This morning, I did a search on all the popular costume shops and found the best deal at Costume Express.

Then I had to get the gloves and the new type of trick or treat bags that helps the kids get treats without having to try to open the bag.

Once I had her set, it was time to find the perfect costume for the two year old.  I searched and searched and couldn't find anything that I really loved so I went with the ladybug costume:

At least that's one task out of the way! 

Now, time to shop for candy to give away.  How do other parents deal with handing out the candy when both want to participate in the trick or treating experience?

The free shipping coupon is:

Free Shipping on Orders of $75 or More!

Coupon Code: REK-993

Expires: 12/31/09

Invitation ideas are here.