Molly Green at Econobusters.com is giving away a free Menu Planning E-Book to everyone who signs up to receive their A Minute with Molly Newsletter. The Econobusters site is chock-full of ways to decorate, organize, plan meals and more, all while spending the least amount of money possible. You’ll love all the creative and innovative tips and ideas! You can read more about this free E-Book, which includes forms, recipes, and meal planning tips HERE.

Free Offer:  Easter Crafting and Recipe 144-page eBook, Hop into Spring

Hop into spring with this free eBook full of Easter craft projects and recipes. Find free Easter craft ideas to decorate your home, give as gifts and entertain the kids. Send homemade Easter cards to friends and families from our collection or find some different ideas for Easter egg
decorating.

You can get this eBook free here.

Find out How To Cut Your Grocery Budget In Half with this new FREE report from our friend Susanne at Hillbilly Housewife.

Today’s giveaway is for 2 copies of the book The Duggars: 20 and Counting.

I read this and just loved it!! I have always been fascinated with the Duggars and watched their shows from the premiere show 5 or so years ago.

What I find so interesting is that they are a very peaceful family. They don’t have all the bickering and fighting that the other shows have which is very refreshing.

When I saw the book had come out I was excited to see how they run life on a daily basis and how they are able to finance such a large family in “these hard times” (as the media loves to say:-).

This book shows how a family can thrive if they will just follow the “no debt” policy of frugal living. They didn’t do anything special or inherit a large sum to live financially independent. They worked hard “bought used and saved the rest”.

You can sign up below and we will draw two winners tomorrow for this great book!

Tawra

We have a winner for the Penny Pinchin Mama book and it is….
kat1249

If you have a giveaway you would like to share on your blog or website please feel free to link it here. The link must go straight to the giveaway and be family friendly.

Thanks everyone for entering! Tawra

From: Julianna J.
Thank you so much for all of your great advice, it has been such
a blessing to my husband and myself!  I saw that you were
beginning to collect baby furniture (I think I am due around the
same time as you, June 17) and I wondered if you or any of your
readers knew about the phenomenon called “craig’s list”.  They
don’t have it in all  cities, but here in Virginia they do-its a
website that people can post things for sale (or for free!) on at
usually some really significant bargains.

We have bought nothing for the baby so far, only things we have found off
craig’s list-and all in really nice shape.  Freecycle is another
website that is the same idea, only everything is free.  It is a way
for people to clean out their clutter and help others at the same
time.  Again, you may already know of both of these but if not,
they are real gems!

I get this tip all the time. I agree that these can be good places to find free or inexpensive items you need. I do have a word of caution because I personally hate Freecycle. I won’t use it anymore. After 2 years of being on there off and on I found it to be nothing but a headache.

Most of the people on there were trying to find things more than give them away so it was a bunch of WANT ads.  Secondly a lot of the people on freecyle have an “I deserve it” mentality. Many get down right rude and angry at you if you have already given the item away.

I had one lady chew me out on the phone one time because she couldn’t find a truck to haul an old washer I was giving away and I gave it someone else. I even told her that if I didn’t hear back from her by a certain time that I would do it. She then proceeded to chew me out because I had given “her” washer away to someone else even though it was over 24 hours later than the time I told her to call back.

And last but not least Freecycle can send you hundreds of emails a day. I personally don’t have time to mess with all that email but if you do then it can be a good source for some free items.

Craigslist is a little better. The ad is posted and then when it’s sold the poster is to take the ad off so you don’t waste a lot of time trying to buy things that are already sold. That’s the upside, the downside is that if you post an item for sale on there, there are so many ads now that your post doesn’t get noticed and you can’t re-post it for 2 days. Things just don’t sell as fast as they used to.

So those are the pros and cons. I do use craigslist but I stay away from Freecycle now.

Tawra

Ask the store if a coupon is really expired. A lot of stores like Bed Bath and Beyond will accept coupons that are expired. You can also use more than one coupon sometimes just by asking.

The other day I had two coupons for Bath and Body Works. I asked if I could use them both and she said sure we just need to do two separate transactions. For $2 I was able to get 2 bottles of travel size lotion and 2 bottles of bubble bath in my most favorite scent Moonlight Path!

Tawra

I found this hilarious shirt at Walmart and of course they were all sold out of every size but small.

It said:

“I do what the voices in my wife’s head tell me!” ROFL

Since I am the queen of projects I just knew Mike would fully appreciate it so I’m going to get it for him. There isn’t a week that doesn’t go buy that I don’t “dear, I think we should do (fill in the blank) to the house this weekend”. Of course I never keep my projects small as you can see from here and here.

The best part is I’m going to use my Swagbucks to buy it from Amazon so it will even be free! I have to say I love the Swagbucks!! They don’t spam you and you can all kinds of cool stuff with your gift cards. I am now a Swagbucks addict! LOL

Tawra

Well, we got the fence done over a month ago and I didn’t get a chance to put the pictures up for you to see.

I have to say we are so happy with it. I can’t wait to get the shutters up and plant some flowers. I have great cottage garden visions dancing around in my head. LO

I just hope I won’t be on bedrest come April. Since I was on bedrest at that stage of my pregnancy with the other 3 I may just have to keep the visions in my head until Baby K is born in June. Ok, maybe Sept. since it will be to hot to be in the garden by then. (Gotta love Kansas!)

I am waiting to do the shutters on the house until I get my $50 home depot gift cards from our credit card reward points. I have to say, that is a wonderful perk of using your cards and paying them off each month. Most of our points come from the business card and with this last purchase of books we will be able to get almost all the shutters. Yeah!!

I have had a lot of fun with the credit card rewards and gift cards from Swagbucks. It’s fun to be able to get things for free or nearly free! Free is a Tightwads favorite number! LOL

Tawra

Oprah has put together a free Christmas CD. She even has labels and a cover made for some almost free gift giving!

You can download it here but only until midnight Dec. 20.

Enjoy! Tawra