My #disneyside party #1!!

I was so excited when I was picked to host the Disney Side party. I LOVE Disney and everything it stands for. The kit they sent me was so much more than I had ever expected too! So generous!! I shared it on my personal facebook page, but didn't really get a chance to do that here. Sorry, not sorry, my life is currently insanely busy.

So, I had originally planned on throwing my #disneyside party with my FAST (families and schools together) program, but it got cancelled because of a giant ice and snow storm we had. It was really bad, I live in the country, on the bottom of a big hill, I was literally trapped in my house for four days! The FAST program is currently on hiatus, so using my connections at the literacy council (I volunteer there, mainly doing taxes through the VITA program) I found another group of children. TWO actually. It was very quickly thrown together and as my work schedule is very random, kind of last minute. I did today's with an afterschool group ran by Ms. Barbara's church, next week I am doing another small one with another group of children.

The children came in, did their homework, ate a meal (with a few things added I provided, like salads). Then I handed out tickets and did a drawing for "big" prizes I had. One was a doc mcstuffins backpack I got half off from my work, the others were puzzles I got from Dollar Tree. I got tons of prizes and supplies from the Dollar Tree using a giftcard I won from another blogger.

Then we played a quick game of Bingo, using the bingo game and cut up construction paper, I let each child (that had not won a prize in the drawing) that won pick a prize out of the prize basket. It was very fun and kind of quick.

Then I pulled out my game of Eye Found it, which, again, I won from another blogger. The children had a TON of fun with that game. I cannot recommend it enough. You can see it here

I was super super busy, wrangling these children, my child, setting things up, even with help, so only got a few photos taken.

Oh! I also made strawberry and chocolate cupcakes and served them on the Mickey Mouse plates and napkins! I had some left over prizes and left them with the person who runs the program, to use in the future.

Party #2 is next week! Super excited to host it!

Wow!

I have been SUPER busy lately. I started a new job, which has taken up a lot of time. I am going to try to set up another low entry giveaway post and post some items to it later. I have been throwing up links on my FB page as I find them though, I have just been lazy about posting them here too. *click click* Yet another freaking mommy savings blogger.

Kroger Skillet Meals

I am currently a part of a BZZ Campaign for Kroger Skillet meals. The focus is on holidays and saving time during them on quick meals. Although honestly, most family's are ALWAYS busy and can always use a quick and nutritious meal time short cut.



They have a wide variety of flavors available, mainly Italian flavors, but they also have Asian and Mexican varieties. I really want to try the Chicken Fajita one! You can cook them in just TEN MINUTES and each skillet meal contains at least two generous portions. I tried the Penne with Grilled Chicken and it was DIVINE, especially with the Kroger brand garlic bread and fresh salad kit that BzzAgent also so generously provided me coupons for.

If you live near a Kroger store, I highly reccomend these, they are cheaper than other brands of skillet meals, the quality and taste is top notch, and they are so easy to make! So whether you are too busy, too tired, or just don't like cooking, these make a great meal for the family. I am definitely going to pick up some other varieties of these the next time I am at Kroger.




FCC compliance thingy, I got coupons to try to Kroger Skillet Meal (plus a salad and garlic bread) but all opinions and words are my own.
#gotitfree

Low entry giveaways

Starting a new post as I don't know how to bump up posts

Kids-

Super CUTE Chattering Phone Talking phone game (SUPER CUTE!) 27 entries as of 11/25 14 days left

Pampers prize pack 32 entries as of 12/5 ends 12/6! 

Pampers prize pack 84 entries as of 12/5 ends 12/6




Home- 
 Rite Aid Photo Gift  Canvas wall art and photo cards 34 entries as of 11/21 ends in 16 days


Yonanas maker, 32 entries as of 11/22 ends 12/2


MISC- 
 Aveeno Beauty Set 34 entries as of 11/30 ends in 18 days

Gift Cards- 
$250 to craftypie (stationary and cards) 13 entries as of 12/5 ends 12/10 

$25 to petite lemon (customizable kids clothes) 161 entries as of 12/5 ends in 5 days.

I am getting so excited!

I have been checking out all the black friday ads on bfads.net my favorite stores so far are Rite Aid and Dollar General. There are a few things I like at Walmart and Target though, mainly movies and board games. I can't wait to see what other stores have to offer. Amazon always has great deals too, all the way up until Christmas and often matches up other stores deals. I will be glued to that Amazon deals page during it's hours of operation.

What Black Friday deals are you most looking forward to? Are you boycotting the stores that are opening it up on Thanksgiving?

Selling Gift Cards

I recently got an email from Giftcardrescue.com to talk about their service on my blog. As it is something relevant to me, and probably some of my readers, I agreed. This is all my own post and own words, it was written by me, for you.

I enter a lot of sweepstakes and sometimes I end up with gift cards I cannot use or maybe I need money more than whatever it is that store sells. A lot of people get giftcards as presents that they can not use or really are not interested in the items the store is selling. That is where Giftcard Rescue comes in. It is amazingly easy to use. You can Sell Your Giftcards Online! Depending on the store you can get up to 90% cash back. You get more back if you pick an Amazon giftcard over a check, which is under Gift Card Trade, so if you don't need money for bills you can pick that option, you can buy pretty much everything on Amazon and it really comes in handy around Christmas time, they always have amazing deals for the holidays!  I checked on figures for a few different stores and ammounts. For $100 Zappos giftcard I could get $80 cash or $84 Amazon. A Southwest Airlines $500 giftcard would get me $425 cash or $446.25 from Amazon. A Target giftcard would get you $44.50 cash and $46.73 Amazon, that is pretty amazing! It is so easy to get Cash For Giftcards! Other sites take up to two weeks to get your cash from your giftcards and Gift Card Rescues turnaround time is 48 hours!!

It isn't just for selling though, you can also BUY giftcards and save some money. I searched for the same cards, they do not currently have any for Zappos to sell, but you save 6% the value if you buy one of those. Southwest Airlines you will save 5%. Target save 3%, which isn't a ton, but it is still less than full price, a $20 giftcard is listed for 19.40, you could buy one for a gift and the recipient wouldn't even need to know you didn't pay full price for it! The savings from giftcards are between 3-40%!  Also, if you buy a gift card from them, there is free shipping, that is always handy. I think I may have to purchase my son's teachers gift this year from gift card rescue.

I have used other card selling sites in the past, and have recently been looking around on them, the amount giftcard rescue is offering is slightly higher than others have offered for certain giftcards. The Target one is AMAZING.

I have decided I am going to sell a giftcard today, I will report back on how it works out for me, I am sure it'll be simple and I will be happy. I really have a $100 Zappos giftcard that is just collecting dust, I do not need any shoes or clothes, but I can always use cash!

ETA: I sold my Zappos giftcard and had a check for $80 within a week!

FTC Disclosure-I wrote this post on behalf of giftcard rescue in exchange for helping me increase exposure. I however am using all my own words and opinions.

Tis' the season.

I think I might be getting a handle on this being an adult thing, FINALLY. I usually don't even start my holiday shopping until the end of November, and this year I am already nearly finished. I also have already begun my shopping for Thanksgiving food items for preparation, usually I wait until the week of and cry because a bunch of stuff I want is all sold out.

How are you at adulting? A planner that gets it all done, or a procrastinator that is stressed to the max? I think I may have found a happy middle point here.