Shutterfly Coasters are here

I admit I am a junkie for Freebies..... I opened up that shutterfly acct and got all the freebies I could (i blogged about it 2 weeks ago) including my photocoasters. The value is $24.99 +tax and shipping. I paid 5.99!!! As soon as I get back to the house, I'll take a pic and show it on here.

http://www.shutterfly.com/

I wouldn't use these as customer sales, however, they are awesome and cheap for me!!! They do have great quality stickers as well!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe new year!!!

Deal of the Week!!!!

So Today I went to Walgreens and CVS didn't do to bad.

At Walgreens got all of the below Items and paid 39.81 out of Pocket - when it was all said and done, I left with all of those items  - a Mail in Rebate for $15 and $14.50 of register rewards. So basically it was like paying $10.31 for all of it!!!!
But I also got a free coupon for tide up to $8.99!!! So really for less than $2! I used a coupon for Everything!!! 3 Pepto - 2 Pampers Jumbo Packs - 2 boxes Tampax - 2 bags pads - 2 Olay Regenerist Wow Retail Value is appx $70 - so I watched for sales and deals and matched with coupons and oila!!

Then I went to CVS and got two bottles of Dawn and 2 Ivory 3-pack of soaps for $1.64 out of pocket (that includes tax) . We don't use IVORY, however, I had 2 coupons for $1 off each and they were 99cents on sale so they were free. I only really paid for the dawn. I have been making care packages for a friends grandson who is in the military and stationed in IRAQ. I am always getting free Saline Contact Solution and I don't use it so I send it over there. I always get the free items with my coupons even if we don't use them - grocery I take to the food bank and non-perishable goes to military care packages.

In the new year  - I will be splitting my blogging efforts to two blogs! One will be money saving and my new journey as a SAHM (stay at home mom sort of - still doing my photography on the side) and the other will be my photo blog. As soon as I have the web address for the new money saving blog will share it with you:) I'm very excited about this new adventure I am about to pursue!!!

One of my new places of Interest!!

Here is RowNine... They have designer boutiques open for a small period of time with savings up to 80%.... Mark Jacobs (my favorite) is coming up in the next couple days.

Click here to sign up (FREE) so you get the email alerts

Today I felt like a rockstar (plus a great deal at the end:)

Now that I am a mom, I must say I have really been struggling with getting everything done. My whole life I have always stretched myself thin, but now with one more responsibility - that girl who once had it all together can some days can't break even with the to-do list and the done list.... Today was the exception - I proofed and ordered all 3 Xmas sessions and placed my model call order, I called and changed our car insurance, caught up on all my emails, did 4 (yes 4) loads of laundry, made an awesome healthy dinner, went to work from 6-10 for a meeting, ordered our Xmas cards (I know last minute tsk tsk) Caught up on Clickin Moms and Bstudio, Cleaned the house (believe me it needed it), Sent in my mail in rebates, Caught up on my google reader, made it to the gym to swim, took little man for his therapy session and I even ate breakfast and lunch which usually is a luxury for me!

These are little victories but now at 12:12 EST I am going up to bed. I feel like I handled a whole week in this one day!!! Mission Accomplished. 

PS Walgreens has cheap collages 99cents each for an 8x10. I am using it for grandparents as a filler gift. The coupon said 1 per offer, however, I ordered 5 of the same collage and it took it. I did pay on line with the pick up at store option in case the store gave me a hard time about the coupon..... I'll see the quality as I usually use Millers or WHCC, never ordered from Walgreens before.

If you are interested the code to enter at checkout it is   COLLAGE99

So here are some pics of my little man.....Using My xmas tree, The IKEA blanket I talked about in a previous post, and a faux antique sled from Hobby Lobby (I think I paid $9 for it after my 50% off coupon). It was a tight fit, but he made it in:) I'm saving it for next year for Xmas Mini sessions.

These are great props - the sled and the blanket. It was easy to travel with and set up at others houses and I think that the end result is tooo cute for babies/small toddlers:)

I will work on a tutorial on this for an example of lighting set ups. This was natural light with a dialed down flash with a diffuser. Easy set up:)

Seriously Cheap Adobe Elements 8 Under $30 & Free Vista Prints Items

Here is the link.... Remember there was a $20 Mail in rebate offer (double check it is still valid before you buy - so it comes to about $26 with the MIR. I have never used Good Egg but know a couple people who has so you may want to ask around your circle, but this is SERIOUSLY cheap and Adobe Photoshop is an awesome program, if you don't have it already, here is a chance to have the latest copy for next to nothing!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-SlickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16832105667

This is a tip from Slickdeals.net (you may want to add them to your RSS a lot of electronics/photo pops up from them:)


Check out Vista Print via my affiliate link on the right  - From what I heard the following items are offered Free there

Wall Calendar


Desk Calendar

Photo Flip Book

Photo Mug

Photo Notebook

Photo Tote Bag

Photo Magnet

Holiday Stamp

140 Address Labels

10 Folded Photo Holiday 5×7 Cards

10 Holiday Photo 4×8 Cards

250 Business Cards

I ordered business cards and they were good however, they do have Vista Print on the back of the free ones. If you want to remove - it was like $3.99 or something around that. Depends on if that bothers you or not:) Worth checking out:)

Giveaways, Marketing, and Freebies OH MY!!!

Don't forget to sign up for your shot to win the Sharper Image Digital Photo Keyring!!!! Find the post from last week and follow the directions....

I was having an issue with my feedburner and just had to ping so check back - we have had a lot of great posts - Marketing, Money Saving Tips, giveaway, etc:)

Hope you all are having a great Monday:)

Marketing Monday - a little early & Save $ on dinner out!

As the days are getting crazier decided to post this a little early:) Here is a quick Idea to generate new business. Offer a Restaurant.com gift card with a booked session. Send a note to your FACEBOOK, Myspace, Twitter, Email, Blog fans where the first 10 (you pick the #) people to book a January session will recieve a $25 Restaurant.com gift card or you can offer the card to all booked session however you choose. PS These gift cards will only cost you $10... I actually ordered them this afternoon because I got a tip that they are 80% through today. So I ordered them for $2 per card!!! So my promo cost me $20 for a potential 10 or more booked sessions. If the average session is $250 that is $2500 worth of business. You can always give them as referral bonuses or thank you for larger orders....You can even do a gift card a month giveaway... All sessions booked and finished in that month will get a chance to get a $25/$50/$100 gift card.... PS the $100 gift cards today are $8 OMG....

The customer then will go on the site to print out the certificate at the restaurant of their choice that participates.

 In our area 3 of my all-time fave restaurants are listed so today my husband and I did a dry run before I offered as a gift/promo. We eat at a place called the Blue Monkey - great Sunday football spot. Instead of buying a gift card. I purchased a $25 cert for the blue monkey direct for $2 (today only). I can then print it out. Some restaurants have restrictions - like has to be dinner or $25 cert has to be used with $35 or more purchase, most will have a set 18% gratuity - what we usually tip anyways. We called and checked because Sun they don't offer a lunch menu. They said we can really use the cert. anytime on the weekends. We got drinks, appetizers, 2 cheesesteaks, and desert and paid $19 for tax and gratuity and the difference of the certificate plus we had paid $2 for the $25 certificate. So basically we got a meal that would have cost us $40 + gratuity about $7 so we saved almost $30 by just going on and printing out first at this.

Check the restrictions on http://www.restaurant.com/ to see if it is for you or if the area you live in has a nice selection before you give to clients. If they can't use it then they will feel tricked and you want them to be happy:)

IF YOU ORDER TODAY, for the 80% off, Use the code SHARE  :) Enjoy

Tutorial Tuesday - a little different spin:) How to be a coupon Diva

Guys so sorry that I am messing up the order of our weeks. Since I have a little man who has decided to skip his last two days of his 2 1/2 hour nap, I haven't been able to finish the tutorial (my easy version) of how I do selective color. Below is an example...

So In the spirit of being a coupon diva, like I am, I have found this new website that I have to share with you. They have great "tactics" on getting sometimes free and seriously discounted items.

Here are my tips - so far, I am up to $923 in savings on my Giant Bonuscard for the year. Plus who knows how much in coupons. In the new year, since I will have a little more time on my hands, I would like to do each week a post on saving $ and time.

I started clipping coupons about 10 years ago. My husband and I were just married without anything and more going out than coming in. I always got a Sunday Paper for the grocery ads. I started clipping coupons and watching sales and stocking up on sale items. I actually found it quite addicting. I would see myself saving 20% , 40% and one time my all-time best 75% and I would feel great. All I did was take about a half hour to hour of my time on a Sunday morning to organize and then the shopping time and off Iwent. Now as a mom, I never buy a diaper or formula without one. If it isn't on sale or I have a coupon for it I usually don't buy it until I do unless it is a necessity:)

Here are my tips:

1. Get the bonus cards for all the stores you shop. They are a deal and usually free.
2. Get the Sunday Paper, pull out the drugstore and grocery ads and the COUPONS (usually P&G, Red Plum, etc)
3. Organize your coupons. I usually clip them all (never know when you can double them up and get something for free. Even if I don't really need it, if it is FREE I can either donate to a shelter or friend/family who would need it)
4. Look through the sale papers you pulled and match the already discounted sale items with the coupons.

For Example.... This week Nyquil and Dayquil are 2 for $10 at Walgreens (this is a true example) They are offering $5 coupon for next order if you buy two. I have 2  $1.50 off one (which means $3 off two) so essentially I am getting 2 bottles of Nyquil for $2. That is ridiculous and took me about a minute to figure out. Even if you aren't on a limited budget, just do it anyways. Keep track of what you saved and make a donation in that amount to your favorite charity.

5. Sign up with companies online - like Coke, General Mills, Kashi, Pampers, Similac.... they either have free trial offers or will send you coupons for products in the mail or sometimes the manufacturers, when they have a new product may send you a free trial offer. It doesn't hurt. You can try freefly.com they tell you what companies are offering trial offers.

6. Go onto websites like Coupons.com . Beware though, some sites make you take a bunch of surveys and really don't offer you anything great. Coupons.com is pretty good.

7. If you are pregnant or a new mom (even if you think you will be breast feeding, just do it. I thought I could and ended up that I couldn't), sign up at all the formulas Similac , Nestle Good Start, and Enfamil They usually send you samples and coupons monthly for $ off the formulas. Similac was very kind for me.


Also, http://www.dealseekingmom.com/ is your friend. It will tell you how to get the most out of coupons at certain stores - including Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, etc. She also refers to other sites that helps her out, so you can bookmark them as well. Every week they go through the circulars at these stores at match up to their coupon stash and tell you where to get the freebies at. It is definately addicting:) Sign up for her daily email you won't be sorry....


TIP: Since all of these will probably be sending you emails, you may want to open a seperate email just for your coupon habit:) There are free ones at yahoo.com or hotmail.com . That way your family or work, or business email is not bogged down with a million emails. Then you can tackle coupons when you want. My time is on Sundays. My busy husband is usually not working that day and he likes to spend quality time with our son, so it is a perfect time for me to plan my trip... Sometimes I will go shopping right away or just save for my newly instated "mommy day" where my newly retired father in law comes to watch my son, grandmother, and aunt(who now both live with us due to illness) so I can get my errands done, get work done around the house and also schedule dr appts.

Thrifty Family tip

I was doing some figuring and realized that my family eats out way too much - at least 2 times per week for dinner and usually breakfast and lunches on the weekends. Like most of us, I have been looking for ways to cut back on expenses and saw a huge money savings.

I figured out a way to save myself about $1,300 per year. Every Friday we order pizza we get two large at the pizza shop and a two liter of soda (sometimes some mozzarella sticks) and it usually comes to about $30. in my effort to be thrifty, I found a way to save some big bucks on pizza night. I buy Longos sicilian pizza crusts(i am in Pennsylvania so I'm not sure if that brand is national, however, most grocery stores have pizza kits in the prepared section or shells in the refrigerated section).  There are two in a pack (and one shell is dinner and lunch the next day). I freeze one and use the other. I buy a small can of tomato sauce and a 8 oz bag of cheese. Sometimes we'll throw some sausage or pepperoni's. It's actually kind of fun, we take turns making your own section of the pizza with what you want:)

Pizza Crusts $1.75(for one)
Sauce $0.89
Bag of Cheese $1.99

For about $4.65 I fed four adults and it comes to about $1.16 per person

Pizzaria pizza $30 per week x 52 weeks $1,560 a year
my pizza $4.65 per week x 52 weeks $241.60 a year
savings of $1,318.20 a year - thats a vacation, down payment to a car or a new dSLR (depending on the model.... hehe;)

If we would cut back to 1 time per week and lunches on the weekends - we would save about 5,000 per year or more! Crazy.... and I like to cook... Imagine if you eat out every night how much you would spend.

Just thought I would share!