Venus Embrace Coupon!

There's a giveaway going on over at Bay Area Mommy-Nomics! Hurry over to enter!

Safeway deals 11/19-11/27

Although there is no "48 hour sale" this weekend, Safeway is extending these prices through Thanksgiving Day, so keep that in mind as you plan for your meal.

Safeway or Manor House Turkeys up to 16lbs. are $5.99 each. Over 16 lbs. are $7.99. *You must have a minimum $25 purchase to get the turkeys at this price. Limit 2 per transaction.
If you prefer the Honeysuckle brand turkeys, get one up to 16lbs. for $7.99 each. Over 16lbs. are $9.99 each. Get a coupon for $1 off at smartsource.com.
Beauregard or Garnet Yams are $0.69/lb.
Celery, $0.49 each
Clementines, 5 lb. bag: $5.88
Pillsbury Crescent or Cinnamon Rolls: $1.75 each. Use with $0.35 off Crescent Rolls printable coupon (coupons.com) or $0.35 off Cinnamon rolls printable coupon (smartsource.com) to get them for $1.40 each. {These also are part of the Home for the Holidays promotion, which is that you get a $5 reward coupon when you spend $25 on participating products in one transaction, or a $10 reward coupon when you spend $40 on participating products in one transaction.}
Organic Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith and Red Delicious apples are $1.29/lb., which is less than the price for their conventional counterparts.

Hawaiian Vacation

I'm back! Overall, it was a great trip...despite Husband being sick the entire time and me catching his cold halfway through. Oh, and the rain. But a great trip nonetheless.

We stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu. Normally we wouldn't have been able to afford to stay there, but I got a great deal through Expedia. North Shore is more secluded than Waikiki and Honolulu and we had a great view. The drawback to being so secluded is that going out to eat or to the grocery store is at least a 20 minute drive.

We bought food at the grocery store to eat for breakfast and lunch and then ate out every night. We had breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe (in Laie) one morning (very inexpensive, especially considering how prices in Hawaii are so much higher than even the Bay Area). Husband was dying to stop at one of the Shrimp Shacks that dot the side of the road near Kahuku. It was expensive, but the shrimp was juicy and delicious!

We went a little over our $100/day budget due to an extra trip to the store for cold medicine and other paraphenalia to make me comfortable. Expedia did not include a $20/day resort fee in their package price, so that was extra. I don't think we did too bad, budget wise.

The bonus to booking through Expedia is that I got 1% back from Ebates. If you aren't clicking through Ebates before you purchase things online (including trips!), you're missing out on some serious money saving. (Also, right now Ebates is offering DOUBLE cash back on hundreds of retailers. I always check Ebates before I do my Christmas shopping.) If you want to join Ebates, click here. You'll get a $10 bonus just for signing up (it's normally $5). (I'll also get a bonus for referring you, so thanks!)

I'm so glad we went, but I missed my babes terribly. Next time I think we'll stay a little closer to home.

Could have been a spoiled trip

Husband has always been a saver. Lucky for me, because when I met him, I was your typical spender. Of course, I'm reformed now (mostly), and often grateful for Husband's ways.

One of the things that is important to him is buying a car with cash. Instead of making a car payment (at outrageous interest rates), he makes the car payment "to himself". He would take $300 a month and put it into a special savings account just for his car. That way, when the time came to buy a new car, he already had the money saved.

This account has come into play not only as we have purchased our last two cars with cash, but also when a big car repair cost rolls in. We don't have to dip into our emergency savings to cover the bill.

I'm particularly grateful for that now as Husband's car sits in our driveway with a gas leak. We found it the night before we left for our trip, just after returning home from dropping off our babies at my parents' house. We quickly made arrangements for a shuttle service to take us to the airport and plan on taking care of the car trouble when we return home.

Had we not had that car account, I might have worried about it our whole trip. I'm grateful to say that I didn't have to worry about that one bit.

I'll be back tomorrow and can't wait to share my trip with you!

Funny Name...

When I came up with the idea to start writing a blog, I had no idea what to name it. I sat and thought...but nothing came to me. "Savvy Star Baby" came up one day as I was feeding my baby girls their breakfast. I thought it conveyed that the blog would be about things related to baby (clothing especially) and that those who read it were savvy themselves.

As my blog is evolving though, I'm realizing that the name doesn't really fit. It doesn't tell people right off the bat what this blog is about and who it is for. After much thought, I've decided to change the name (and web address) of my blog.

The new name will be "Bay Area Mommy-Nomics" and you can find it at http://www.sfmommynomics.blogspot.com/. I'll make the transition gradually, posting on both blogs until the end of the month.

I'm also planning on some giveaways as the holidays get closer, so stay tuned for that!

Thanks for coming along with me this far. Things are only getting better!

Culture at a price you can swallow

Where can you get some great entertainment for an even better price? That's the question the Mercury News posted to its readers earlier this month. Some of the suggestions for an evening out that won't break the bank:

• The MOMA in San Francisco has free admission on the First Tuesday of the month.
• The San Jose Museum of Art is free every day, and many of the surrounding galleries have free admission as well.
• Check out your local bookstore for their schedule of book readings. You can meet some of your favorite local authors and mingle with the learned at stores like Kepler's Books in Menlo Park.
• Did you know that the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra performs for free? Their schedule for 2009 is now online and they feature some performances geared for a younger audience, to introduce them to the world of classical music.
• And don't forget that your local library is a great source for books, DVDs, and CDs...all for free.

You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to enlighten your mind! Share your ideas for entertainment for cents on the dollar!

Prepping for Hawaii

Hawaii is now only a plane-ride away. As I've been getting ready for this trip, I've taken some steps to save a few pennies here and there:

1. Checked out some books from the library, both guidebooks and pleasure-reading.
2. Bringing snacks to supplement our lunches on the trip. Grocery prices in Hawaii are even higher than California.
3. Talked to friends who know the area really well to let me know which restaurants are a good deal and which are worth splurging on.
4. Saved the magazines I subscribe to for the last few weeks so they are new to me when I read them on the plane. This way, I won't buy a magazine at the newsstand in the airport.
5. Parking our car in long-term parking away from the airport. This is the first time we've done this, so I'll let you know how it goes. (I'm not paying $22 a day again!)

Although I'll be in communicado for the next few days, I'll still have posts up and I'll have lots to report when I get back! Aloha!

Safeway deals 11/12-11/18

The 48 hour sale this week (Saturday and Sunday) has two deals you can make even better with coupons:

• Nabisco Snack Crackers (selected varieties, limit 4), 7 to 10oz.: $1.88. Use with $1/2 printable found here and get them for $1.38 each!
  
• Progresso Traditional Soup (selected varieties, limit 8), 18.5 to 19oz.: $0.97. Use with $1.10 printable here to make some money!

Other sweet deals:
Fuji or Granny Smith Apples, 88 cents per lb.
Wesson Cooking Oil, 48oz. $2.49 each. Use with $1/2 printable here to get them for $1.99 each when you buy 2!
PopSecret Microwave Popcorn, 3ct.: Buy one, get one free. Use with $0.50/2 coupon from 11/09 SmartSource to get them for $1.50 each!
Nabisco Ritz Crackers, 11 to 16.5oz.: Buy one, get one free. Use with $1/2 printable here to get them for $1.64 each.
Safeway Brown or Powdered Sugar, 1lb., $0.79 each

Baking season is upon us, so check your pantry to see what you need to stock up on. When the sales hit, you'll be ready!

In-home salon

I'm coloring my hair this morning. (Funny how the things you always meant to do start to line up as NEED to do right before a trip!) I have been coloring my hair on and off for awhile now, so I feel totally comfortable coloring my own hair.

Before I started clipping coupons and planning my shopping around sales, I would buy whatever haircolor was on sale...and the cheapest I could usually find was about $7. Which still beats the salon, right?

But I've picked up two boxes of hair color in the last month...one for $2 and one for $1. By combining store coupons, mfr. coupons, and store sales, I'm able to stock up on something I need for a much better price! This leaves more wiggle room in my budget.

Now, as I plan my weekly and monthly budgets, I try to leave a little room in them to buy the things that I'll need to stock up on should they go on sale. {Another one in this category is diapers!} It's so empowering to choose the price you want to pay for something, isn't it?

Good-bye Blockbuster!

A few months ago, I noticed a big red box near the entrance of my local Safeway. Taking a second look, I found that it was a DVDPlay kiosk.

If you haven't heard of DVDPlay, listen up: you can rent new releases for only $1! That's right...$1! You get the movie until 7pm the following night and additional nights are billed to your credit card at $1 each. Rent 10 movies and get the 11th one free.

I'll pick up a movie at the DVDPlay kiosk on Saturday after my grocery shopping and then return it the next day. It has made our movie night much more fun because we don't spend an hour wandering around the Blockbuster, trying to find something we both agree on.

Here's a deal for you: from now through November 13th, DVDPlay is letting you rent two movies for the price of one! So rent one for the kids and one for you, for just $1. It can't get any better than that, right? Just enter the promo code VOTE at checkout. Find your nearest DVDPlay kiosk here.


Say good-bye to $5 per DVD rentals and say hello to DVDPlay!

Pumpkin Time

I had a garden for the first time this year. It was so fun and I enjoyed going out to tend my garden. But as the summer wore on, and my little ones got more mobile, my garden became a bit neglected. Nevertheless, I grew three gorgeous pumpkins that have graced my front porch since the beginning of October.

Halloween is over and the time has come for my pumpkins to move beyond their decorative stage and become food for my little family. Today I chopped up one of my pumpkins, roasted it, and pureed it. I got 4 cups of pumpkin puree (yes, just like the stuff you get in the can) out of my first pumpkin.

The Pioneer Woman has a great tutorial on how to make your own pumpkin puree. Although it was a little bit more effort than opening a can (okay, a lot more effort), I felt like it was worth it. As the other two pumpkins meet their maker, my freezer will be chock full of orange delicious-ness. And I think I know the first thing I am going to make with my pumpkin:

PumPkiN SPice ChoCoLate ChiP CookieS

1 box spice cake mix

1 small can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix, just the pumpkin) (or, about 2 cups of the homemade kind)

1 bag chocolate chips (about 2 cups)

Mix, drop and bake. (10 minutes at 350)

My sister introduced me to these cookies and they are so easy and so delicious! They are also relatively inexpensive if you can get the cake mix when it is on sale for $1 (which it usually is about this time).

Double Threes

Husband turned 33 last week. Our trip to Utah was his birthday present, but I still wanted his actual birthday to be special, so on the morning of his birthday, I gave him this:

{door images courtesy of Melissa at the Inspired Room}

Behind each door was a description of a birthday celebration: a special dinner, a treat, and an activity. Husband chose Door #3, which meant that we went out for hamburgers at The Counter. (Not really a budget-friendly place for burgers, but so good!) We also got a milkshake for dessert and then Husband got to pick out the rental movie.

We took the babies (they were so good) and the evening was a lot of fun. We didn't spend a whole lot, but by taking a few minutes to put this together for him, Husband's day was made a little more special. He loved it!

Two free mascaras...

I thought that Walgreen's might have a $5 off $20 coupon this week, but I haven't gotten anything yet. I did pick up my two free Almay mascaras earlier this week, though. (I didn't want them to run out!)

How can you get two free Almay mascaras? Well, Almay cosmetics are buy one, get one free this week at Walgreen's (ends Saturday). And Almay mascara is free after rebate this month. I also used a $1 mfr. coupon off each of them...so I made $2 on my free mascaras. Nice!

One more great deal I'll be picking up at Walgreen's is the Always Infinity pads ($4.99 this week). I just got my free sample with a $1 Walgreen's coupon. Combine that with the $2 P&G coupon from 10/5 (I think), get $1 RR and I get the pads for 99 cents. Get your free Infinity Sample from Walgreen's here. Visit Freebies 4 Mom to stay up to date on the latest and greatest freebies!

Safeway deals 11/05-11/11

The 48 hour sale this Saturday and Sunday only contains 3 items, but one those is Quaker Instant Oatmeal (selected varieties) for $1.67 each! There is a printable coupon for $1 off, which would make these a super great stock up opportunity!

Other good deals I'm seeing:

• Safeway Chicken Drumsticks, Thighs, or Leg Quarters are 99 cents/lb. {This is the lowest price I've seen for these.}
• Large Hass Avocados are 99 cents each. {Buy them when they are green and they will turn black as they ripen. No more squeezing!}
• Raspberries, 5.6oz., buy 1, get 1 free ($3.99)
• Tostitos Tortilla Chips, 9 to 13oz., buy 1, get 1 free ($3.79)
• Safeway Canned Fruit, 15 to 15.25oz., 10/$10 (or $1 each)
• Tree Top Apple Juice, 64oz., 2/$5 (There was $1/2 coupon recently)
• Gold Medal Flour, All purpose or unbleached, 5lb., 2/$3
• Wesson Cooking Oil, 48oz., $3.99 (Use with $1/2 coupon here)
• Organic Butternut Squash, 99 cents each (Grab a few of these because they will last for several weeks!)
• Organic Spaghetti Squash, 99 cents each
• Organic Celery, 99 cents each
• O Organics Gala Apples, prepackaged 3 lb. bag, $3.99 ($1.33/lb.)

Turkeys are now in the meat section at Safeway. Up to 16lb. turkeys are $5.99 each (for Safeway or Manor House Brand); over 16 lbs. are $7.99 each. I don't know if they will have any deals on turkey as it gets closer to Thanksgiving.

Sky high...

As I mentioned earlier, Husband and I are taking a trip to Hawaii this month to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We booked the trip through Expedia a few months ago. I had searched the internet for the best deals and we wanted to make sure that we got "just the right" trip.

We will be flying out of Oakland Airport, which is not that close to our house, and thought that maybe we should switch to one of the closer Bay Area airports. I called Expedia to see if this was an option. I was told that Hawaiian Airlines charges $150 PER LEG PER PERSON for any changes to the itinerary. That would be $600 to change it! Plus, it would have been about $200 cheaper to fly out of a different airport than Oakland, but Hawaiing wouldn't refund that money because it was a package deal.

Wow. Obviously I didn't change the flight, but it made me think. Should I have taken the risk that the hotel or flights would have been sold out and waited until closer to our departure date to make the reservations? We would have saved about $300 (or maybe more) if we had waited. Have any of you found a good rule of thumb for travel? Which works better as far as maximizing your savings: booking early or booking at the last minute?

Why I'm Blogging

I started reading blogs about saving money at the beginning of the summer. They all have great tips and each one is unique. As I flitted from one blog to another, I started to notice that there really weren't any bloggers from California (and, more specifically, the Bay Area).

I wondered why that might be and the first thing that popped into my head was that there are a lot of families in the Bay Area who fall under the category "DINK" (or Dual Income, No Kids). People earn high wages here and when both the husband and the wife are working, "saving money" is not usually a topic of conversation.

Well, I don't fall into the "DINK" category anymore. Upon the birth of my twin daughters, I became a stay at home mom. This is something that is important to my husband and me and we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices so that I can stay home with our girls. However, it does take some creativity and perseverance to make it on one income in this neck of the woods.

That's how "Savvy Star Baby" was born. I know, it's a silly name, but the purpose of the blog is to gather the tips and tricks that I find into one place. That way, those of you who might be in the same boat can have content that better relates to you. (Of course, I welcome visitors from outside California, too!)

So I'd like to say, welcome to my blog. I'm glad you're here and I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping in! (And don't forget to tell your friends to stop by, too!)

Great Deal on Victoria's Secret!

If you like Victoria's Secret's bras, now is the time to place your order! I just ordered two bras and one panty for $22,71 shipped! Here's how to do it:

First, head on over to Ebates to get 4% back on your Victoria's Secret purchase. (Haven't signed up for Ebates yet? Click here to sign up and get a $5 bonus. I'll get a referral bonus, too.)

Once you've clicked through to Victoria's Secret, go to the "Sale and Specials" section and then "Bras, 2/$40". Put 2 of these bras in your shopping bag, along with one of the solid color panties that are $7.50.

When it comes time to check out, click on the box to enter the offer code. On the next screen, enter 25PTY to get $25 off and a free panty. Not a bad deal at all.

Thanks to My Shopping Addiction via Common Sense with Money for sharing!

Ghoulish Gathering: Recap

For decorations, I needed to keep things on the low cost side. Read: basically use things from around the house (or that I could borrow!). I got some inspiration from Design Mom , Hostess with the Mostess , the Addams Family, and (my favorite) the Munsters for a "gothic glam" look.

I found the velvet scarf (on a trip to Utah!) and think it fits in perfectly. The King Tut bust is one I borrowed from my Nana. She also had the carved wooden box that I put a "hand" in. I borrowed some candle sticks from my sister and sprinkled some old jewelry on the candles. I used real glasses because I thought it added to the look.

The adults decided to dress up, too. I dressed as VP candidate Sarah Palin and Husband dressed as Sarah's husband, Todd Palin.

No matter who you are voting for tomorrow, I hope you had a great Halloween!

Budget Report--October

I went over on my October budget. : ( I attribute it to our trip to Utah (stocking up on hot chocolate and buying lots more milk for the babies than they would normally need) and some poor planning at the end of the month.

Even though Thanksgiving is this month, I'm trimming my budget by $20. (This is the first month I won't be buying any formula.) I'm also deducting the amount that I went over in October. (Harsh!) I know, I know, but I'm really trying to keep things in check. I'm trying to plan for November in it's entirety instead of just week by week. I figure that will help me to get a better view of my spending.

...And we are headed to Hawaii this month for a long overdue vacation (and to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary), so I know that will eat up some of my grocery budget.

I read an article recently (of course now I can't remember where) but the author was talking about budgeting and she said that even though she had a party planned for that month, she was not going to veer from her budget and make excuses because stuff like that always comes up. She's right: we always have someone's birthday or other celebration or someone gets sick or we just don't feel like cooking...things come up that we don't plan for and we can't throw our budget out the window because of it.

So yes, even though Thanksgiving is coming up, now is not the time to lose hold of your budget. I'm going to take a deep breath and do the best with what I've got!

What are your plans for keeping your budget on track with the holidays coming up?




{image via Country Living}