Check out Ideal Bite

I don't know if it's because I am pregnant or what but lately I have this strange urge to do more for the environment then I normally do. It makes me crazy to look at all the garbage my family throws away, knowing it will sit in a mountain with everyone else's mess for a very long time.

Ideal Bite is a free daily newsletter that delivers eco living tips to your email box. One of the neat things about this newsletter is you can customize to where you live. I am bummed that they don't have an Orlando section yet, but hopefully they will add it in the future. They have a mommy edition coming out in October. I can't wait to read it. I need all the help I can get.


Check it out. It might peak your interest too.

Free Samples

Hi All! Life has been crazy around here. Nesting instincts have definitely kicked in. This baby better come soon because I am getting sick of cleaning and organizing. I am ready to relax and just love her, if she ever makes her debut. The big countdown is on. Only 12 days till our due date. The doctor says it should be any day now. I am not very good at waiting. Its amazing how someone so small can be so consuming and she isn't even here yet.

I sat down today to surf around and try to find some new deals and free stuff. Anything to get my mind off baby for a little while. Here's what I found:

Remedylife is offering a 3 year subscription to Remedy Magazine.Click here to Join Today! They are also giving away FREE samples of Crystal Light, Purell, Blistex, plus many more samples from REMEDY Magazine just for joining RemedyLife.
Click Here to get your samples.

Dove is giving away free samples of Dove Shine Therapy or the Go Fresh Therapy for hair. They also have various coupons for different products.

Here's a rebate for the men in our life. Touch of Gray for Men is giving $8 rebates when you purchase a box. Do you have any men your life that could use this pick me up? They hate the gray as much as we do. Print the rebate form here.

Of course, I have to mention a baby freebie. Enfamil LIPIL® Formulas is giving away free samples. I signed up for the Enfamil Family Beginnings program a few weeks ago and they sent me two cans of formula, several $5 gift checks, plus a gift certificate for a diaper bag when I have the baby at the hospital. Now, you can print a gift certificate for free formula right at the website. Click Here. I am planning on breastfeeding but I couldn't pass up a free diaper bag. Plus, who knows what the future holds, even though I plan for one thing, other stuff always happens.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of these samples. Do you have any new samples? Leave a link to your website in the comments so we can check them out too.

Free Stuff at the Body Shop

As you have probably figured out, my daughter and I love free stuff from the mall. If its free smelly stuff like soaps, bubbles, and candles, it's even better. So you can imagine how excited we got when we received a coupon for $10 off any item at the Body Shop. You get it when you sign up for their mailing list. It expires 9/15.

The store has all sorts of fun stuff that is natural. We were able to pick up a wonderful cocoa butter body butter (I'll try anything to make those stretch marks go away.), Coconut Body Scrub, and a Pink Grapefruit Body Butter (Makes me hungry). Each item was $10 so we did not have to even pay tax. It was all free. They had lots of other items in the $10 price range. It's definitely worth the trip. It's a great way to stock up on stocking stuffers, teacher's gifts, and baby shower gifts for moms to be.

Publix for 8/21 - 8/27

This week wasn't a big shopping week. Because of Tropical Storm Fay hanging around, we hung out at the house most of the week except for doctor appointments. The rain finally let up for awhile yesterday so I snuck out to Publix. With this being the last day of the Kraft - JCPenny promotion, I needed to finish up my purchasing. I needed 5 products and $16 to reach the 3 card limit. So that was my main goal. Plus, with baby working on making an appearance soon, I needed some items for my boyfriend to cook when I was recuperating.

I didn't really do a lot of coupon research. I might go back after I put more coupons together later in the sale. I used 2 copies of the free Kraft products from the All You Magazine.

Here are some of the highlights of the shopping trip:

Free Products from All You:
2 Kraft Dressings (for JCP Promo)
2 Kraft Singles (for JCP Promo)
2 Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs (for JCP Promo)
2 Nabisco Wheat Thins
2 Crystal Light

Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs - BOGO -$3.99
- 2 All You Freebies
= 4 free packages (2 count towards the three products for the All You Promotion)

Juicy Juice 64 oz - BOGO -$3.49 (This is in Central Florida.)
- 2 $1 printable coupons
= 2 bottles for $1.49 or .75 each

Ritz Crackers BOGO - $3.69 (Counts towards the three products for the All You Promotion)
= 2 Crackers for $3.69 or $1.85 each

Seapack Seafood - 6 various types - BOGO - $7.29
- 3 $1 printable coupons + 3 $1 peelies found on boxes
= 6 boxes for $15.87 or about $5.29 a box

I used the Ritz Crackers, extra hot dogs, and Kool-Aid packets to qualify for the All You coupons.

I also bought $15 worth of produce for $9.00 using 3 $2 off $5 (and here) of produce from Food Lion.

I tried to use the $5 off $20 from Walgreens but the cashier wouldn't allow it. My other store would have, but I was already at this store, so I let it go. This coupon expires 8/23 so use it quick. There is also a $2 off $10 from CVS. It's good till 9/28. It's on page 30.

The Publix Brand Challenge is about this week. The dogs out there will be very happy. When you purchase the brand, you will receive Publix brand for free.

The products are:
Purina Bacon Flavor Beggin Strips
Milk Bone Medium Dog Biscuits
Pedigree Choice Cuts 22oz can

I also found several new Publix coupon booklets that I had never seen before:
Heinz Toss For Cash (Has $12 in store coupons)
Mypyramid.gov (Has $20 in store coupons)
Be Prepared (Has $11 in manufacturers coupons)
Smart Summertime Savings (Has $75 in store and manufacturers coupons)

So hopefully this will help you find some deals at Publix. I ended up saving $93.45 and used 21 coupons. I was able to fulfill the JCP requirements. Remember, it needs to be received by 9/5 so get it in the mail soon.

Monday Coupon Challenge Winners

I am sorry to have kept you in suspense for so long waiting for me to announce the winner of the last Monday Coupon Challenge. Life has been a little crazy with the storm that won't go away and a baby that won't come. I have decided to award all of the entries with the prize of 100 grocery coupons.

Frugality in the Making has some great posts about shopping scenarios for Stop and Shop and CVS. She saved $88.20 and increased her stockpile. Way to go!!!

My Precious Pennies blogs about how she completed her errands of $95.48 for only $10.15 Out of pocket. Great savings! Check it out to she how she did it.

Kimberly left a post in the comments on how she received all sort of free stuff using coupons at Wal-Mart. A girl after my own heart! I love getting groceries for free with the use of coupons.

Congratulations! All of you have 100 grocery coupons coming your way. Please email me at altland200@aol.com with contact information so I may send these coupons on their way.

Fay, Fay Go Away

Tropical Storm Fay has decided she likes Central Florida. It has been raining for 3 days and she doesn't seem to want to go away. Our neighbors to the South have had terrible floods. They have received over 30 inches of rain. We have been getting heavy rains for about 24 hours now, but our town has not flooded yet. They are predicting rain to fall till next week sometime.

Our power flickers off and on. We lost it for about two hours last night at bedtime. So the kids and I crashed in my bed with candles and quiet time. Luckily, the 2 year old was tired and went right to sleep. Thank God for small miracles. We woke up this morning to more rain but the power was on. Yeah!!! We are rushing around trying to get things done just in case we lose power again. Hot shower here I come!!!

Our little miracle has decided to not grace us yet. We are still patiently waiting! Maybe like us, she is waiting for the rain to stop too.

Sorry!!!

Hi everybody!!! I haven't forgotten about ya. Life has been extremely hectic this week. I don't know where to begin. My princess started school on Monday. We have been racing around trying to get her ready. She loved her first day. Because of the weather, she is now stuck at home for Tuesday and Wednesday.

To add to the craziness, we live in Central Florida. If you have been watching the news, you have probably heard we are getting a tropical storm/hurricane today and tomorrow. It hasn't hit us yet but its about 100 miles away. So its coming!!! I hope all of my Florida friends are safe and enjoying their unexpected day off.

As if I needed more excitement, I went to the doctor yesterday. She says baby is on the way. I am in the first stages of labor. This will make her about 5 weeks early. She doesn't think this is a problem since she is about 6 pounds from what she can tell. I am a small person so a big baby is a very scary thought. To make things more interesting, drops in pressure that come with hurricanes, bring babies. I thought this was an old wise tale, but the doctor confirmed it. So I might have this baby by the time the storm is finished. Will it be a hurricane baby? Only time will tell. We can't wait. We are very ready to hold and love her. If you have had any experience with hurricane babies, post a comment and let me know. I would love to hear your stories.

My plans are to get caught up with the blog today into tonight assuming the electric will cooperate. I will be announcing the Monday Coupon Challenge and last week's winner later today. I will also be posting the "Planning for the Holidays" segment and the "Pay it Forward" plans for this week. I also had a great Sunday of mall shopping and a profitable trip to Publix, so I am excited to tell you all about that. Of course, as soon as I have the baby, I will let you know too. If you haven't subscribed yet, go for it. That way you won't miss a thing.