Right now on the Dove site you can get a free sample of Dove Heat Therapy Defense or Intense Damage Therapy shampoo and conditioner! Click here to get yours!

1 Year of Parent's Magazine is now $5 - was $42


Blackberry Leather Phone Holder - was $29.99, now $6.49



There are many more things that have been extremely reduced - see for yourself here, scroll to the bottom of the page and search from Highest to Lowest percentage off

Print your coupon for a free bottle of Steaz Zero Calorie Tea here. These are available at participating Whole Foods and other natural food stores. There is a limited quantity of these coupons, so hurry and get yours!

Costco publishes cookbooks and hands some out at the stores each year for their members, but not many people get them since they run out pretty quick. I found out that Costco publishes all of the books from last year and earlier as an ebook on their website - go here and they are on the right side of the page. Bon Appetit!

Don't forget to set your clocks back 1 hour before you go to sleep tonight!

This coupon has been out before, but it let me print it again today - get your's here!

If you are a MovieWatcher member, check your email, because there will be a coupon for a free small popcorn with a drink purchase on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. They are having "technical difficulties" with their website and didn't want to cancel this week's newsletter so they issued the coupon.

$1/1 Fast Fixin' product

$1 off Coffee-Mate Creamer

$1 off any Buddig Original Tub (lunch meat)

Some areas have a $1.50/2 On any TWO packages of Keebler® Cookies and there is a Target coupon you can stack here (listed as Chips Deluxe cookies) to get an even better deal!

Coupons to Landry's restaurants - pdf book with lots of coupons!

I don't know about you, but I have a huge list of books I want to read. If I were to go to the store and buy every single one for retail price, I would end up broke rather quickly.

I want to introduce you to a few places I use to find some free or cheap reads:

Free eBooks. There are a number of sites that offer free eBooks, but this site has listed the top 20 sites to choose from.

PaperBackSwap - Trade your old books for new ones! See how it works here.

Swagbucks - Earn Swagbucks by searching the internet and redeem for Amazon.com gift codes and purchase books for free or cheap there

Cashcrate - I complete a few paid surveys here and there and will sometimes use the money that I earn toward my next purchase.

Half Price Books - I cannot reccomend this place enough! They usually have what I am looking for at a great price, and they will also buy back your old books!

Garage Sales - There are a few places to find advertised garage sales. Check your local paper for listings, Craigslist usually has listings, and you can also use these websites: Garage Sales Tracker, Gsarl.com, Garage Sale Hunter,

Check the Craigslist free section or book section, 2nd hand stores, ebay and finally the Library are all good places to find great books inexpensively.

There is a coupon for 40% off 1 regularly priced item at Border's with this coupon. You can also get the sale on their site by using code BRE1129H

I have 115 My Coke Rewards Codes to give away! This giveaway will be open until 11:59 pm CST, Nov. 5, 2009. One lucky reader will be announced on Friday, Nov. 6th

How to enter:
1. Leave a comment telling me what you are saving your points for
2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed, and leave me a comment in the form telling me you did!
3. Blog about this giveaway, and give the URL to the page where you blogged about it




Disclaimer: This giveaway is not sponsored by Coca-Cola. The codes that will be given away are ones that I have either won or collected.

The winner will be notified via email and have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. The winner will randomly be selected from all elegible entries using Random.org. Each person is allowed up to 3 entries into the giveaway, any additional or duplicate entries will be deleted. The winner will be emailed the codes, and I will mail the game pieces to you for your records.

The comments to this post have been closed, if you have any questions please send an email to shining.light.webmaster @ gmail . com (remove spaces).

As you may know, we will be moving pretty soon into our house (it's almost finished)! I thought it would be a good time to bring back a post I had on my old blog:

You can see the original post here

I will be moving this weekend within the same city, and I decided I wanted to list some things that I have done or will be doing in order to cut down the expense of moving.

• Once you are certain that you will be moving, start asking friends and stores you shop at for boxes. Find out what days the store gets their truck, and see if they will save you boxes. Also, use Craigslist in the free section to find boxes.

Paying for boxes is one expense that can cost greatly, using free boxes is the easiest way to cut the cost.

• Before you pack everything you own, go through your clothes, shoes, closets etc. and see what you have that you don't want, need or use anymore. Have a garage sale, sell items on Craigslist, donate to friends, family or Goodwill, use freecycle or throw it away.

Having less stuff to move will lighten the load in the truck, using less gas and eliminating the need of multiple trips.

• Organize your boxes by labeling them. Write what room they belong in and which ones need to be opened first. Your time does equal money, and if your using a rental truck, every hour you have it is costing you also.Pack things you will need right away into the boxes you open first. Having to go to the store for things you can't find right away adds to the expense.

Pack things like toilet paper, your shower curtain AND hooks, toiletries, a change of clothes and pjs. The things you will need first will vary depending on your family's needs.

• Pack breakables the right way. Having to replace dishes and glassware are not inexpensive things to do. Use bubble wrap, packing peanuts or other items to pad breakable things. Greensheets are a good source of paper big enough to wrap fragile items in, and if you are like me, you should have a pretty big stack of newspaper. I buy 2 every week at the dollar store for the coupons and recycle the rest of the newspaper. You can even use clothes to wrap things if you run out of the other materials.

• Do you really need a moving company? See if friends and family can help you move instead of paying movers.

• If you don't have a truck or a friend willing to let you borrow one, you will need to rent a moving truck. There are a few companies to choose from. I have had very good experiences with U-Haul. The deck of the truck is the lowest to the ground vs.the other companies trucks, and have had the lowest rates. Consider moving during the week, the rates are lower and there are more trucks available then. Pack the truck as best as possible, utilizing all the room you have. You have to pay for the gas you use in these trucks so make as few trips as possible and try to rent one from a location close to you, and find out if you have to return it to the same location you rented from (most likely you will have to unless you are going across state lines).

Don't wait until the last minute to reserve a truck, or you might end up paying more than you wanted. Also, if for some reason you need to cancel your reservation, don't wait until the last minute or you will still get charged for something you didn't even use.

• Plan an easy dinner for your first night in your new place. Before you move from your old place to the new one pack a cooler with what you will have for dinner that
night. More than likely, you will not want to make a complicated dish that involves a lot of time and need dishes that are still packed in boxes. Sandwiches or frozen pizza are easy and quick ideas for the first night.

You could always order pizza or get take out, but this post is about moving as inexpensively as possible. If your internet is working on the first night, consider ordering pizza online, and looking up coupon codes on Retailmenot.com

If you decide to eat out that night you might want to have a backup plan. As one of my friends found out when she moved into her apartment, the pizza places in that town stop delivering to all apartment complexes after 7pm.

• When setting up your electric, phone, cable etc. try using a website to compare prices. I used movehouston.com and now I will be getting a fantastic rate on my electricity, everything was done over the internet, and I am getting a $25 visa gift card for using that website.

Using a site like this, you can compare the rates of all the companies that serve that area, you can see the contract length, if there is one. You can see the cancellation fee, the price per Kwh, the company, and if it is a renewable source of energy all side by side to help you make the best choice.

These are just a few of the things that I do to make moving easier and less expensive.

Your turn: Do you have any tips for moving inexpensively? I want to hear your suggestions and stories from past experiences.

Glade B1G1 free soy based candle

$1/1 Dreamfields Pasta or $1/2 Dreamfields Pasta

$1/2 Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta

$1 off Barbara's Organic Cereals

Progresso Panko Crispy Breadcrumbs $1.10/1

4 $1/1 Bumble Bee Coupon (1 will be emailed per week)

ConAgra Foods has a game here that you can play and it will let you print these coupons:
$.50/5 Banquet Dinners
$1/2 Marie Callender’s Frozen Meals
$.50/1 La Choy Product
$1/3 Hunt’s Products
$1/3 Manwich Products
$.50/2 Chef Boyardee Products
$.50/1 Reddi Wip Product
$1/2 Orville Reddenbacher Products

Click here to sign up for a free sample of PowerBar's Energy Gel Blasts

Right now through 10/31 you can get 30 4 x 6 prints for only $3 + tax (choose in store pickup to avoid shipping fees): Use code BOOPRINT to get this offer. This code can be used 5 times per account!

Click here to request a free sample of Tropical Breeze Fragrance.

Did you know that Amazon.com had hundreds, if not thousands of free songs available for download? Check them out! (Click the box above)

They also offer a pretty good variety of albums for only $5. Either one of these options would make a great gift! If you planned on getting someone an MP3 player, why not put some great music on there too!

There is a $1 off coupon for Laura's Lean Beef here. This has been out for some time now, but I was able to access the coupon today. Use offer code 09LLB02 to get this coupon!

Enter any code from Diet Coke on 10/28 lon MyCokeRewards.com and you will receive double points!

Today must be the day for good deals!

Let me show you how to get the best deal on this:

First you will need to go to Ebates and click to shop through Clinique.com on their site. Then click this Clinique.com link(must use that link to get the offer, you will have 2 windows open) and choose your 7 piece gift first, then add $21.50 or more of products to your bag. Now go back to the 1st window you opened (from Ebates) and click on your shopping bag in the top corner) and it will pull up all the items in your cart. Enter code FSEMAIL at the bottom of the page for free shipping and proceed to checkout like normal. This ensures that you will get the 4% back that Ebates is offering right now.

When I added the items (I selected 2 of the Mild Clairifying Lotions $11.50) to my cart, a couple other items showed up for free in there too: a Pink Ribbon Pin and a bookmark. My total was $23 + $1.90 tax.

UPDATE:
Mr. Rebates is offering 5% cash back on Clinique, so you could do the same deal above through them and get even more back on your purchase!

There is a promo code for $10 off a $10 purchase! This will make for some very inexpensive items. Use SWEETS4U at checkout!

We are looking to buy a new flatware set, so I looked at what they have on their site - I was excited to see a 45 piece set on clearance for $39.99 (was $119.99). With the $10 off coupon it is now $29.99 + you can shop through Ebates and get 3% cash back, or use Mr. Rebates for 2% cash back. Shipping was $6 to my local store + $3 tax - but even at just under $40 for this isn't a bad deal at all!

I'm sure there are tons of things on the site that you could get very inexpensively with this coupon and shopping through Ebates or Mr. Rebates.

.75¢ off a Del Monte Gold Pineapple

.50¢ off any Starkist Pouch Product

$3 on Huggies Pure & Natural diapers

$1/1 Wet One's Canister or Singles - IE or FF

$5 off the following Hasbro games: Clue Secrets and Spies, Game of Things, Guesstures, Picktureka!, Flipper, Cranium with Bonus Family Pack, Connect 4x4

You can print any coupon that is offered by Coupons.com on my sidebar!

Are you curious if Sam's Club prices really are cheaper? Or do you just want to go there once in a while to stock up on a few things, but cannot justify the membership cost? Well there is a new One Day Pass - good from 10/27/09 - 11/7/09. There is a 10% fee on any purchase you make, but that may be worth it for the cost savings on some items.

Click here for the pass

From what I have seen, baking items, especially yeast are very good values per ounce/pound, etc. I have been told that cheese, milk, eggs and several other items are a good value. You will have to determine what is good for your family though. If your family will not eat the product or consume it before it goes bad (or cook it in a way it can be stored), then it is not really worth buying in bulk.

There is a new code that can be used to get 80% off on Restaurant.com. This will make a $25 gift certificate only $2-$3 or a $10 gc only .80¢.

Use the code TREATS during checkout to get the discount.

Please make sure you read any restrictions, minimum purchases, etc. before you buy these so there will be no surprises later.

There are several books on Amazon.com right now that have been drastically reduced -

$700 Billion Bailout by Paul Muolo is only .87¢!

Starting Out in the Evening by Brian Morton is only .73¢

Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali is only $1.41

The Golden Compass: Movie Storybook .81¢

Unchecked and Unbalanced $1.98

You can get free shipping if you are an Amazon Prime Member or spend $25. You could also redeem some Swagbucks for Amazon gift certificate codes. These would make some very nice, inexpensive Christmas gifts!

$1/1 I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Cooking and Baking Stick Product -IE or FF

.75 off any 1 I Can't Believe It's Not Butter - IE or FF

The following printables can be found on RedPlum

$1/1 on any Success Rice Product

$1/1 Sara Lee Frozen Dessert

.50/2 on Domino Sugar

.40/1 Domino Sugar

.65/2 C&H Sugar

.45/1 C&H Sugar

Right now through Jan 10, 09 you can download holiday music from Glade here.

Some UPC codes are listed below. The free downloads are limited to one song per fragrance per day. So it seems like you can go back everyday, with the same UPC's and download them all!

Bayberry Spice 046500708633

Homemade Gingerbread 046500709715 or 046500709654

Peppermint Crush 046500708466

Hollyberry Wreath - 046500708657

The artists that you can choose from are: Diana Krall, George Strait, Julianne Hough & Mannheim Steamroller

Click here to get a coupon for a Free Fall maintenance check at Pep Boys. This checkup includes lights, wipers, coolant system, battery, starting and charging systems. This is a $29.99 value!

Click here to find out more about this movie
Click here to reserve your seats. Choose your city and then click the name of the theatre it will be showing at. Your tickets will be emailed to you.

Screenings are being held in several cities:
Austin - Nov 3rd
Denver - Nov 9th
Houston - Nov 17th
Los Angeles - Oct 28th
Montreal - Nov 12th
New York - Oct 28th
Philadelphia - Nov 10th
Salt Lake City - Nov 5th
Washington D.C. - Oct 27th

Click here to redeem your free points!

Yahoo News has reported that on 10/26 more than 5000 KFC locations will be giving away a piece of their grilled chicken. They promised that there will not be rainchecks this time. You can read the article in it's entirety here, and I would reccomend calling your local restaurant to see if they are participating before you go. Find a location here.

I love Kashi foods, and especially love when I can get it for free! Click here to get a free Chewy Granola Bar.

There is a $1/1 coupon here (log in at the bottom, or sign up and then click on Mission Extras) There is a very yummy sounding recipe that prints below the coupon - let me know if you try it out!

.75 off 32oz Santa Cruz Organic Juice - if you can pair this coupon with a sale, you can get some very inexpensive tasty organic juice!

$1/3 Heinz Homestyle Gravy

If you text the word "COUPONS" to 87415 you will get a link to $17.50 worth of very good coupons (see the list here, thanks Chris)

You can get a free sample of Lubriderm by texting MYSKIN to 467467

Go here and enter the word "HEART" for 50 points

If you haven't done so yet, enter the codes from this post for another 105 points!

$1/1 Muir Glen product, and here

$1/2 Kraft (Wheat Thins, Ritz, Triscuit) crackers

$1 off Banana Nut Cheerios IE or FF

.55 off Fresh Express Salad

$1/1 Pepperidge Farm Crackers

$1/3 Knorr Pasta Sides IE or FF

$1/2 BirdsEye Lightly Sauced Frozen Veggies

Restaurant Coupons

$1 off any purchase at Jamba Juice

$5/$25 at Buffalo Wild Wings

Free Burger & Fries wyb a Burger & Fries and 2 drinks at Dennys

Store Coupons

20 % off everything in The Container Store

20% off 1 item at Office Depot

10$ off $50 at Sherwin Williams

Here are some codes to get free 1-night-rentals from Blockbuster Express Machines

GE99A - expires 10/23

PTPX91X - expires 10/31

GER9A2 - expires 11/11

Lastly, if you sign up for their email newsletters here, you will receive a code unique to you for a 1-night-rental

_______________________________________________________

Click here to find a location

How do you use a promotion code?
"After you’ve selected your movie(s) at the kiosk, select “Check Out”. You will see an area to input your promotion code. Input the code and complete the rental. When you return the DVD, we will subtract the value of the promotion from the amount we bill your credit card." (source)

"What time of day does the rental need to be returned by?
The return cut-off time for the next day rental is 7:00 pm local time." (source)

Enter the following codes on the Disney Movie Rewards Site

Light - 10 pts

Tina - 20 pts

Gobloon - 30 pts

graveyards - 40 pts

EN9FNF93N2 - 5 pts

Also, if you haven't already redeemed it yet GOOFY is worth 50 pts

I noticed the other day that the ink in my printer is getting pretty low, which usually means I will be going to the local InkSell because I end up waiting until it's too late to buy them anywhere else.

Well, this time in my efforts to be proactive, I priced them on 123inkjets and they were cheaper - but if you shop through Ebates, you will get 16% cash back!! You can also use the coupon code AUTUMN09 to get 10% off, or you can use the code 20save (which the site says it expired on 6/1/09, but it still works) will give you 20% off your purchase.

If you are not already a member of Ebates, you can get a $5 bonus just for signing up!

If you are a new member, type "123inkjets" in the search bar at the top and then click the red "Shop Now" button. This will open a tracking ticket, and allow your ebate to be properly credited within 2-3 days.

In my spare time, I have been deal hunting for the large ticket items we still needed. I think I have done pretty good, although I haven't been able to cross everything off my list.

Big Item #1 - The Fridge


I have had my eye on the Samsung Bottom Freezer Refrigerator for quite some time now, but couldn't bear the thought of paying $1200 +tax & delivery for it. (Freezer space isn't a top concern for me since we have a deep freeze - I'm looking for functionality.) After looking and getting the word out that I am in the market to buy one of these, I found one about 2 weeks later. The sweet lady I had been introduced to was being relocated for work and was selling everything in her house, and she had the exact refrigerator I wanted. She sold it to us for $500, and it was only 1 year old.

Big Item #2 - The Lawn Mower


Good golly, I had no idea how expensive these things could be! On top of that, I have very limited knowledge of what makes one lawn mower better than the others... We were browsing through Home Depot a few weeks back and my love pointed to a lawn mower and said "I want that one!" After I realized he was pointing to the $350 (most expensive on the shelf) one, I said "We need to look around more".

So, I started doing my homework by searching the internet, asking my father, and reading tons of reviews about each mower we considered. We figured out what features were most important to us and narrowed it down to just a couple of options. The final decision was made by what store I could get the better price at.

The mower pictured above is the one we decided on. It is a Craftsman 21" Front Wheel Drive Limited Edition Mower from Sears. (Orig. price was $399.99) During the Columbus 3 day Sale, they had it on sale for $289.99. I paired this sale with a coupon code for $5 off a $50 purchase, but it ended up taking $5 off every $50 - for a total of $25. I applied a $5 gift card I had received through AdPerk a long time ago - that brought the total to $259.99, and we picked it up from the store so we didn't have to pay shipping. I made the deal even sweeter by making the purchase through eBates, which right now is giving 4% back! All together, that $400 mower ended up costing $250.

FYI - this mower is still on sale for $110 off the original price! We have already tested it out and it is a great mower. I am very happy with the investment of our time and money we made into a quality machine that will last.

Right now through November 1st, you can get a free appetizer with a purchase of a beverage after 4pm or a $5 salad or sandwich at lunch with these coupons!

Back in July, Nick and his best friend were in the USBC (bowling) Nationals. This year it was held in Las Vegas and his best friends' wife and I went along too. We were only there for 3 1/2 days and it went by incredibly fast. We managed to get a decent price on our flight, we stayed in a timeshare (we only had to split the maintenance fee), used a coupon from the Entertainment Book to get a pretty good deal on the rental car, and bought some food and snacks at a grocery store once we got there.

We did set a limit on how much we were going to allow ourselves to spend on rides, eating out, & souviners. We ended up spending more than expected due to the insane prices on everything from food to a 3 mile taxi ride.

Overall we had fun, spent too much money & deffinatly didn't get a chance to see everything. Maybe in a few years we will get to go back for nationals again.

Here are some of the pictures that we took!

It's been quite awhile since I have been on here. Let me catch you up on why I have been so silent. Back in June, I had lost a loved one, got a puppy and was robbed at gunpoint (in the parking lot of my apartment complex on the same day), moved & had a birthday all within 3 weeks of each other.

I am thankful that God was watching over us that night and neither Nick or I were harmed physically and they (there was 2 guys, both with guns) just took our stuff and ran off. They ended up with our phones and my purse and had keys to both of our cars (which is a big reason we moved the next day), but they took something from us that no amount of money can replace - our sense of security. Everyday becomes easier, but it will always be in the back of my mind. I spent many days being sad, depressed, angry, etc. and let it consume my thoughts, but with prayer and my mother to talk to, I'm able to put most of it behind me now.

After we moved out of the apartment, we temporarily have moved into my FIL's while we continued looking for a house. We looked at so many homes and there was always something about them that didn't meet our requirements. One day we went to look at a house that was in a new development in a completely different part of town and absolutely fell in love with the area but that particular house was sold the day before. We went into the model home and found the perfect home that was considerably less than anything that we had been looking at over the previous 6 months. After builder incentives and lots of money saved, we are now in the process of building and buying a home.

Needless to say, I have had some of the hardest times of my life, some of the most exciting times & definitely the longest "character building" opportunity, that hasn't quite passed yet.

I'm sure some of you felt like I vanished off the face of the Earth, but as I put my life back together and let some of the fear go that I've hung onto the past few months, I have been able to get back into the nice groove I once had going on and that includes blogging again.

Part of me wanted to just give up on this & go about my daily life, but there is something satisfying about it too. Something I couldn't quite walk away from. Hopefully during the next week or so, things around here will be brought up to speed, and you will be hearing a lot more from me. Thank you for all of your patience.