Fun Free (Cheap) Things to Do with Kids this Summer

Summer is just right around the corner and one of the biggest challenge for all the parents are 'what to do with our kids for the next 10 weeks'.

I am on the same boat. Last year, we signed them up for Summer camp for most of the Summer. But this year, we will have limited fund to do the same. So I have to come up with some creative and cheap activities for them to enjoy their Summer.

Here are things we have lined up in the Q family.

1. VBS school - This is a great way to engage kids in bible study without boring teaching. There are plenty of churches around our area so I am able to find a few weeks of VBS (with different themes). Most VBS program runs half day for a full week. Think of things you can get done in that timeframe. :) Plus the fun the kids will have. Last year, we went to First Redeemer Church and Bridgeway Church; the program and the planning was so amazing. It was a blast for them.

2. Family Movie Day at AMC - Every Wednesday during this Summer, kids can enjoy family friendly movie at participated AMC theatres for $1.

3. Free Family Move at Movie 400 - Every Tuesday and Thursday, Movie 400 in Cumming will show free family friendly movie. Plus you can get free drink if you bring a canned food for donation.

4. Fun Hiking with REI's Passport to Adventure program - Introduce kids to hiking and challenge them to win prize with REI's passport to adventure. Download the journal, check out your local hiking trail, fill out online form to get a certificate of completion and a special prize. Who doesn't love free gift?

5. Summer Reading program with Barnes and Noble - Kids can earn a free book with they read 8 books this Summer. Join Barns and Nobel Summer Reading Program this year. Download or pick up the Summer Reading Journal to earn free book between May 26th & Sep 7th.

6. Pick up free movie from Redbox every Monday - Ok. Guess you will see a theme here at our household. Movies are big here. So how about one more day of free movie. But this one you can enjoy it at the comfort of your home. Every Monday, check out the Redbox code for free movie and you will be able to have Monday Movie night or Tuesday movie at home before you have to return it before 9pm on Tuesday. Did I mention that it's FREE?

DC on a Budget

I know you guys probably have had enough for DC trips for a while. But I can't help to post about how we did this trip on a budget. It's probably one of my best trip that I have planned everything and think about budget and try to stick to it. Most of our other trips were just wing-it type.. We planned and then we went and then we came back to pay the price later. So here are some of the things we did to give us a fabulous vacation without breaking the bank.

1. Accommodation - Using Priceline for hotel : This was my 2nd time I have used priceline. Everytime, I feel very nervous. It's hard to be calm when I don't know what hotel I will get. But overall, I was very happy with our bid. I got a 3.5 star hotel (Sheraton Crystal City) for $80/night during the busiest week in DC - the Cherry Blossom week. Typically, we love to stay in an apartment or hotel suite with kitchen. But this trip, after I did the price comparison between a condo in downtown DC versus a hotel across the river, I found that we would save over $500 (even after adding the cost of eating out for staying in a hotel) over a week stay.

2. Transportation - Using public transportation aka the Metro : The Metro ride was actually one of the highlighted during this trip for Mr. Z. So needless to say, it's priceless and very budget friendly for us. We stayed in the hotel that only a few stops from the Mall. I checked out the fare in advance and compared to the 7-day pass. I found out that it was cheaper to actually buy individual tickets rather than the pass. Because normally, we planned one museum per day so we just took the metro to our destination and we walked around.

3. Transportation - Drive to DC : That's another reason why we chose DC for our Spring Break vacation. Flying for a family of 4 could easily cost over $1000. In order to save on traveling fee, we opt to find a vacation spot that within a driving distance. DC is about 10 hours from Atlanta. It wasn't bad thanks to portable DVD.

4. Food - Check out cheap eat : I am a big fan of TripAdvisor forum. There are great posts about where to eat on different budget. I also checked out Washingtonian for their cheap eat list. It was a great source to find out where the locals are eating without breaking a bank. We did spurlge one night for a fabulous dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill.. All I have to say is.. Yummo!!

5. Food - Restaurant gift certificate : I admitted that I just recently discovered restaurant.com. It has been such a great site to give us permission to eat out without breaking our budget. Then I realized that I can do the same during my vacation. All I had to do was a little bit of planning. I first checked out what restaurants were available in the area that we will be in or visit during our trip. Then I checked out the review from travelling forum like Tripadvisor. In the end, I opted for the more familiar restaurants that we knew well. I got gift certificate for Ted Montana Grill and Z Pizz. Also to add more to the saving, wait when restaurant.com runs their 80% off promotion to buy your gift certificate. I got $10 gift certificate for $0.60. During our trip, we had great dinner for less than $40 for a family of 4.

6. Shopping - Set price for souvenir : This might not be an issue for everyone but for us it was always the one area that nudge us way pass our budget. So this trip, we had set the limit on the souvenir per kid and it was much easier to shop. There wasn't whining about wanting that $50 toy because they could read the price and saw that it's over the budget.

7. Activities - Find free or cheap activities around town : Granted DC was easy to do cheap activities because most of the museums are free. But this can also be applied to other cities as well. We actually went to Baltimore for a day to visit the Children museum. I know that doing museum everyday will probably bore Miss J and Mr. Z to death. So a little break from that was a big welcome on this trip. We were able to save money on the Baltimore trip because we had a national wide family pass that the Port Discovery is a member. So we didn't have to pay for the entrance fee. Be creative and find a way to have fun without breaking a bank!

What other ways do you do to help saving on your trip? Please share! :)

Around the Blogosphere

This week, I haven't been around blogosphere much. Here are the carnivals that I participated in this week.

1) Delicious Baby presented Carnival of Cities: The best way to get to travel around the world without leaving your house.

2) Living Almost Large presented Carnival of Money Stories: The Cartoon edition is very clever and fun. You have gotta read all the cartoon. It will lighten your day from all this financial crisis news.

3) Fix My Personal Finance presented Money Hacks Carnival #33th: The Octoberfest edition is filled with goodies for your finance, investing, saving, retirement and career. Just drink responsibly.

4) Dollar Frugal presented Festival of Frugality #146th: The Benjamin Franklin edition has great round up for overall financial advice from wall street to main street.

Around the Blogosphere

Last week I was featured in a few money carnivals. Each carnival has such a great post. It took me a while to check them all out. Sit back, relax and check out all the posts.

1) The Financial Blogger presented Money Hacks Carnival # 32: The Have You Ever Edition featured my Coupon of the 21st Century.

2) Funny About Money presented Carnival of Money Stories #78: With the delay, you get twice the stories this week. So it's a great place to read about various money stories ranging from trying to have a baby, buying a house, getting rid of the house and living on the road, cooking on your vacation and even green cleaning products.

3) Value For Your Life presented Festival of Frugality #145: The Gratitude Edition has a great round up and provides a new perspective during this turmoil time, to be greatful with the positive things in your life.

4) Trip Delivery presented Carnival of Cities: I love this carnival. It gives me a chance to go around the world without even leaving my house. Check out trip from Chicago to Washington DC down to Atlanta. Then cross the Atlantic to London, Amsterdam and around Europe.

13 Ways to Save on Gas

We are on the national news for the gas shortage. It's mind boggling to think that we will be in this situation when we are no where near where the Hurricanes went. But here we are running out of gas. So here are some ways to help save these precious black gold during this crazy time.

1) Consider carpooling - In Atlanta, not only you will save money on your own gas, you might get a chance to win free money each month.

2) Combine trip to avoid excessive driving.

3) Clean up your car especially your trunk and remove all the junk that causes more weight on your car.

4) Check your tire pressure regularly.

5) Maintain your car with regular maintenance and tune up schedule.

6) Fill up your gas tank during the coolest time of the day.

7) Don't top of your gas tank. Too much gas will leak out.

8) Buy regular grade gas when possible. Only buy premium if it's required by car manufacturer.

9) Utilize cruise control on a long distance driving. Maintain steady speed will help minimize the gas consumption.

10) Slow down... Driving too fast will consume more gas.

11) Travel smarter by checking out your route and look for the shorter, safer, straighter route.

12) Watch out for the heavy foot. Slowly accelerate will help save gas.

13) Bigger is not better. If it's time to get another car, look for more fuel efficient car. Smaller car will cost less in overall.

I just have to share

Normally, I don't post about my grocery shopping trip since I figured I'm still a newbie in this coupon thing and it will be boring. But tonight I just have to share my best shopping trip yet.

Publix has a really great sale this week! Mr. Rojo has been asking for his oatmeal for a really long time. Poor man, he can't have breakfast till I can find sale and coupon. :) So here we go.

Purchase:
- 8 Green Giant Frozen Veggie ($1.00 ea)
- 2 Campbell Select Harvest Soup ($1.20 ea)
- 2 Dannon Yogurt ($0.50 ea)
- 8 Quaker Oatmeal ($1.90 ea)
- 2 Pillsbury Cake Mix ($0.85 ea)
- 8 Hamburger Helper ($0.80 ea)
- 4 Chex Mix ($1.28 ea)
- 2 Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta ($0.90 ea)
- 1 Back to Nature Granola ($2.50 ea)
- 1 Tomato Cherry Vine ($2.50)
- 1 Asparagus ($1.91)
- 2lb Apple Gala ($2.44)
- 1 Donut Glaze ($4.49)

Coupons Used:
- 2 x $0.60/2 Green Giant (IP)
- 2 x $0.50/2 Green Giant (Sunday coupon)
- 6 x $1.00/1 Quaker Oatmeal (IP)
- 2 x $0.50/1 Quaker Oatmeal (Sunday coupon)
- 2 x $1.00/1 Chex Mix (IP)
- 2 x $0.50/1 Chex Mix (Sunday coupon)
- 2 x $0.40/1 Pillsbury Cake Mix (Sunday coupon)
- 2 x $1.00/1 Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta (Sunday coupon)
- 1 x $0.50/2 Campbell Simple Harvest soup (Sunday coupon)
- 8 x $1.00/1 Hamburger Helper (GM Peelie)
- 1 Free Back to Nature WYB 2 Danon (Publix coupon)
- 1 x $1 off 1lb Apple (Target coupon)
- 1 x $5 off $20 purchase (Walgreen coupon)

Total OOP: $14.46
Total Saving: $85.34

I have to say this was also one of the most stressful shopping trip for me. The cashier was not so friendly at all. When I handed her a stack of coupons she sighed so I knew that I might have a hard time. Sure enough, she refused to take Target coupon with manufacturing coupon. So I asked her politely to ask the manager. The manager confirmed that they can't do that. So I don't want to fight that battle. Plus Mr. Rojo started to move away from me further and further. I was afraid he will just go wait in the car. hehe.. I just help them sort through the coupons and pulled back Target coupons that I planned to use. But if they did take all my coupons, I will be paying less than $10!!!!

Five Finds for Friday: Coupon Sites

Recently, I have been sharing my little knowledge about coupon with my friends. Whenever, I found a great deal I was too excited to keep it to myself. I'm not a coupon expert by any mean. I consider myself a beginning couponer. These are my top five go-to place whenever I plan my shopping for the week.

1) Fiddledeedee - Yes, I chose her for my money and mommy blog a few weeks ago and I chose her again. She has a great easy-to-follow list of Publix deals(my favorite grocery store).

2) Southern Saver - I just discovered her site recently. She has all the stores that I shop regularly including Kroger, Walgreen, CVS and Publix.. All in one!

3) Hot Coupon World - I think most of the mommy saving moms out there know about this forum. The master of all coupons. I have learned a great deal from this site. The information can be overwhelming but if you just pick one store and take it slowly you will learn it eventually. I'm still learning of course.

4) A Full Cup - Another coupon/deals forum with great resource. The information is similar to HCW however they do have printable coupon for Food Lion which is considering competitor to Publix. So you can save even more using their coupon in Publix.

5) Taylor Town Preview - A great site to show you what Sunday insert coupons you will get for each Sunday. You can check before the weekend to help you determine whether you want to buy the newspaper that week or even if you want to buy extra copy that week.

I hope this will help you in saving on your grocery shopping. Let me know if you have your favorite sites that I haven't discovered yet.

Coupon of the 21st Century

Coupon as we used to know is a bunch of paper coupons from Sunday newspaper. Then we have Internet Printed coupons from various website. Recently, I have seen a big promotion for Cellfire which is yet another way to help you save money. Cellfire is the coupon on your phone. Basically, you register on Cellfire with your cell number and you will be able to save coupon on your phone via text message or application for web-enable phone like iPhone. I don't really know how it works on non-iphone. But I can only tell you about my own experience from iPhone point of view.

It's amazing! There are various stores that are part of cellfire coupons. It's might not be that many yet but I'm sure once there are more users there will be more offers. So far I have used cellfire with my grocery card. You can load the coupon to your card and it will automatically apply your saving when you purchase the product. Another beauty on this is that you can use this coupon in combination with your traditional paper coupon. For example, if you have $0.50 for a 4-rolls pack of Cottonelle from Sunday newspaper and also you loaded the $0.50 for a 4-rolls pack of Cottonelle to your grocery card, when you buy that toilet paper, you will save a total of $1.00. Easy, right?

I just came back from lunch at Arby's that I tried my coupon for the first time. I wasn't sure if they will accept it. I walked in and asked if they accepted Cellfire coupon, sure enough they do. I just show them the screen of my coupon code for the cashier to enter those code and I got my free sandwich!

I think this is a great concept. We have cell phone with us all the time. But how many times that you forget your coupons either in a car or at home? So check them out and see what other offers they have in your area. Now, pardon me as I head to Caribou Coffer to get my large drink with $1 off.

Around the Blogosphere

I have been featured in a fews of the great carnivals this past week. Each of them has a great list of posts. It's worth to check them out.

1) Living Almost Large is hosting Money Hacks Carnival #29, The Food Haven.. Check them out after your lunch or dinner. Otherwise, you might be drooling all over your computer.

2) Frugal Babe is hosting Festival of Frugality #142. Check out posts ranging from food, recession, saving, shopping, frugal living and everything else in between.

3) Family Travellogue is hosting Carnival of Cities. A great carnival with a lot of great posts of 2 weeks worth. Give you a chance to travel around the world from US cities like my submission of Chattanooga trip to Pattaya, Japan and London.

4) Georgia On My Mind is hosting Georgia Carnival #44. If you are Georgia blogger or plan to visit Georgia, this is a place to check out. Great round up of anything Georgia.

Five Finds for Friday - Mommy & Money Blogs

I haven't done Five Find for Friday for a while but I will get back to do it more often. I have found several or ton of new blogs since I started blogging. But one of the blog that gets me started in this blogosphere is the mommy & money blog.

Here are my finds of those mommies who give us all the tips and tricks to save more money for your family.

1) Money Saving Mom - No need to say another word. This is one of the most popular money blog out there. Crystal has great information for grocery and coupon shopping. She also provides useful article on saving, living frugally and spending wisely on the regular basis as well.

2) The "Cent"sible Sawyer - Another great money blog with all the details for deals and freebies. I check her blog weekly.

3) Fiddledeedee - I love Sarah's blog because she focuses on Publix. I love to shop at Publix. Also she has a lot of deal for organic shopping which is what I am trying to do.

4) Penny Pinching Parent - I just recently discovered this blog. I love that she gives weekly deals on kids stuff like diaper will detail break down to price per diaper. A great info indeed.

5) Common Sense with Money - Another great money advice site. She provide not only grocery deal but various tips about saving money! I truly enjoy reading her blog.

13 Painless Ways to Save $100

Inspire by Money Saving Mom I have come up with my own 13 Painless Ways we save $100 this year.

1) Pack our own lunch: We have cafeteria in our office but that still costs a lot more than packing our own lunch

2) Pack Miss J lunch: Last year I had Miss J bought lunch at school. But after a few months, I decided that I can give her better lunch and I can also see how much she eat. Plus packing her lunch has saved $$$ along the way.

3) Join CVS game: Before learning the CVS rope, we typically spent close to $800/month for our grocery and Health&Beauty products. But now we have saved probably more than $200 from learning and utilizing CVS program

4) Cut coupon for grocery shopping: Cutting coupon not only help reduce the cost of grocery but I think it forced me to be more vigilent in our spending habit. I admitted that in the past I don't even look at the price of the products we bought for our grocery. But now, I will only buy if it's really on sale and I have coupons for them.

5) Change our life insurance and save $1000/year: We have had our term life insurance for several years now. But lately I read that the life insurance price has come down. So I figure I will try to see what kind of the quote we will get. Surprisingly even though we were older (than when we first got the first policy), we pay less for the same exact coverage. So I spent about 30 minutes online to fill up the form for both Mr. Rojo and myself and now we saved $1000/year.

6) Drive our smaller car more often: We have 2 cars. The Hyundai Sonata is our regular car that we used to use on the daily basis. And we also have Totota Corolla. Lately, we have been using the Corolla more because it has better gas mileage. Sometimes I will miss my leather seat in the Sonata but I think the saving is worth it.

7) Change Blockbuster Online plan: After reviewing our entertainment budget and how often we watch the movie, we decided to switch the blockbuster plan to a cheaper plan but still allows us a few movies per month.

8) Use water filter pitcher for water instead of buying bottle of water.

9) Get books from library instead of buying books

10) Use homemade cleaner (aka vinegar) instead of buying chemical cleaner for general purpose cleaning

11) Make my own pancake: Ok... I'm not that good to make it from scratch yet. I still use Bisquick for pancake but it sure saves us a lot more money than buying Eggo frozen waffle. If I can do it, anyone can too.

12) Start herb garden: Well, I can't really take a full credit on this one since anyone who knows me know that I can't keep any plant alive. My MIL has been a big help in getting us started. I bought the seed and she nurtured them and now we enjoy our own basil on the patio.

13) Read all saving blogs to learn about deals/freebies.. I can't thank you all money saving bloggers out there enough how much they have helped me save hundreds by posting about deals they found.

13 Uses for Vinegar

Since I started to try eliminate the chemical cleaner and save on the money we spent buying cleaning products, I have been looking at using vinegar. Here are a fraction of uses for vinegar. This edition I will focus on the cleaning in the Kitchen.

1) Clean the microwave by boiling a solution of 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of water in the microwave. This will loosen splattered on food and deodorize.

2) Clean the grease buildup in an oven by wiping with a cleaning rag that has been moistened in distilled vinegar and water.

3) Clean the kitchen faucet and remove hard water stains by put vinegar on a cloth and let it sit on the back of the kitchen faucet.

4) Clean the coffee maker by fill the reservoir with vinegar and run it through a brewing cycle. Rinse thoroughly with water when the cycle is finished.

5) Clean the dishwasher by running a cup of vinegar through the whole cycle once a month to reduce soap build up on the inner mechanisms and on glassware.

6) Clean wood paneling by using a mixture of 1 ounce of olive oil and 2 ounces of distilled vinegar in 1 quart of warm water. Moisten a soft cloth with the solution and wipe the paneling. The yellowing is then removed by wiping with soft, dry cloth.

7) Clean a teapot by boiling a mixture of water and vinegar in it. This will wipe away the grime.

8) Clean and deodorize the garbage disposal by making vinegar ice cubes and feed them down the disposal. After grinding, run cold water through.

9) Get rid of cooking smells by letting a small pot of vinegar and water simmer on the stove.

10) Freshen a lunchbox by soaking a piece of bread in vinegar and let it sit in the lunchbox over night.

11) Clean the refrigerator by washing with a solution of equal parts water and vinegar.

12) Clean stainless steel by wiping with a vinegar dampened cloth.

13) Remove stubborn rings caused by wet glasses being placed on wood furniture by rubbing with a mixture of equal parts of distilled vinegar and olive oil. Rub with the grain and polish for the best results.

So what other ways you use vinegar in your household?

Freebie: Museum Day

Thanks to Sarah @ Fiddledeedee about this upcoming free admission to nationwide museum.

The Smithsonian Free Museum day is coming up on Saturday - September 27, 2008. So mark your calendar and download your free admission card here. There are hundred of museums participated nationwide. Check out your local museums and plan your fun free family day with your kids.

I know I will.. I plan to take them to the Center for Puppetry Arts this year. We went to the High Museum last year. It will be fun! I can't wait.

Around The Blogosphere

I know I'm late updating my Carnival around the blogosphere from last week. In the past 2 weeks I was features in a few Carnivals. Here are the rundown.

1) Stop the Ride presents Carnival of Money Stories: Check out the ABC's of Money carnival. After all, you will leave with 25 new ideas about money.

2) Student Scrooge presents Festival of Frugality: This is a great edition for Festival of Frugality #136 - Summer school Edition. A really great round up with over 60 posts of great tips and story about how to live frugally from Philosophy, Environment, Geography (Travel) to Extra Credit. And don't forget to check out the Honor Roll.

3) Can I Get Rich on a Salary presents Money Hacks Carnival: The 23rd Edition of Money Hacks Carnival features great round up

4) Georgia On My Mind presents Georgia Carnival: Check out posts about Georgia or from Georgia bloggers. It's nice to read my neighbor bloggers.

5) Credit Card Low Down presents Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness: The Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness Edition #52 is up. Make sure to check it out. There are 26 great posts out there.

6) Tip Diva presents Carnival of Tips: The edition has over 30 great tips ranging from Finance, Home, Relationship, Travel and Technology.

7) Quiverfull Family presents Carnival of Family Life: See what's going on in the family life around the blogosphere.

8) Not The Jet Set presents Green It! Carnival: This is the first time I have joined this carnival. I'm honored to be part of this great Carnival. I consider myself not-yet-green mom but trying to be as green as possible. It's such a great roundup that I enjoy reading other posts and learn a few more tips along the way.

13 Ways to Be Green and Save your Green ($$)

There are a lot of people including myself that thought or still think that going green equal spending a lot of money. But recently, I found out from my own experience that going green is actually helping to save your green bill in your own pocket. Here are 13 ways to go green and save your money.

1. Go for more fuel efficient car - Well, without having to explain it I think this one is a no brainer. Not only we help reduce the pollution but we will also help our own wallet. We sold our mini-van about 6 months ago and opted for a smaller and a bit better gas mileage. Oh.. how we glad we did that even before the gas price rises up to over $4/gallon.

2. Increase A/C temperature by 2 degrees - We use fan at night and set our thermostat to 78 degrees. In the beginning, I am afraid it might be too hot. But so far no one complains. Our electric bill remains the same even though the unit price has increased.

3. Wrap up our water heater - With the investment of about $15 for the water heater blanket, I will be able to save on our energy bill for that amount within a few months. Lower energy means less pollution and also saving on our high energy bill.

4. Change to CFL light bulbs - We started off with the most used room like our kitchen table, bathroom and laundry room. The saving has also shown. We still have a few more rooms to change as soon as I can get it together to do so.

5. Brown bagging with style - Packing your own lunch by far the most recommended way to save money. But if you want to pack your lunch with style why not bring your own utensils as well. Not only you will feel better eating from the real spoon and fork but you will help reduce the plastic consumption as well.

6. No more bottles of water - We bought Brita water filter pitcher. Just fill up with our water and put it in the fridge. Voila.. We have our own water without wasting on the plastic bottle. If we want to go out, we fill it up to our reusable bottle.

7. Forget the gym.. just run - After a few months of paying the gym membership that we haven't used, it's time to pull the plug. Mr. Rojo started running instead. With an investment of a great running shoe that costs about the same of one month of the gym membership but it sure will last longer than one month. We have saved on the gym membership and gas on driving there. I guess now I need to get my runnin shoes out and join Mr. Rojo.

8. Use cold settting for washing machine - We hardly use hot setting for our regular loads of laundry anymore. I find that our clothes are just as clean with cold setting. Plus it will use less energy when we forego hot water.

9. Don't buy books. Use the library card - I admitted I have never been to public library before in Florida. Until recently I didn't know how to get a library card. But now we check out children books from the library all the time. Not only we save money from buying the book, we are reusing the books so less trees will be killed to make those books.

10. Going slower - Gasp.. This will be one of the thing that Mr. Rojo probably never thought I would have done. Driving at speed limit. I have the thing for getting to my destination with the less amount of time possible. But lately, the gas price that clocks in at more than $4/gallon really got me rethink my driving. So I tried to drive slower.. really slower.. at around 65 mph. And guess what it does help me to get more miles from my car.

11. Grow your own organic vegetable - With the increase in the awareness about organic food, you can easily find organic herb and vegetable from the home improvment store. So it's not that hard (for people with green thumbs at least) to have your own organic vegetable garden. I did try and I think if I would have bought those plants instead of seed I would be more successful.

12. Use reusable grocery bag - If you shop regularly at Whole Food, you might already know that not only you will help the environment by using your own reusable grocery bags but you will get some money for using it as well. Whole Food gives back 10 cents for each bag your bring when you shop there. Not bad.. If the bag cost $0.99 it will only take 10 trip for it to pay for itself. What are you waiting for.. Go get your own bag. :)

13. No more birthday invitation card - I recently have been using evite for the kids' birthday invitation. It has so many benefits that I don't think I will ever go back and use typical invitation cards anymore. For one, it's Free. And we don't be wasting the paper to send the card. Also we typically get better response whether they will be able to make it or not. And it has so many designs that I can pick from.. What not to love!

Attention Organic Shoppers!

I have been shopping for organic food for a while. I think it started when I picked up coupons and see that the saving I have on my grocery budget allows me to be able to buy more organic food.

I learn a lot along the way on how to shop organic without breaking the bank. Here are a few tips I have learned.

Shop even at the unexpected place

If your area has Big Lots, I suggest you at least check it out. There are several organic items on sale consistently. Keep in mind that Big Lots is like Marshalls of all things. What you see this week might not be there the next week. Also check the expiration date before pick it up. I have found Organic Mac & Cheese that won't expire till 2009. For $1 per box of Organic Mac & Cheese, you can't beat that price

Check out online source for coupons
You don't need to be a price expert to know when it's a good price. Just let your finger do the work for you. Check out online forum or blog ranging from Hot Coupon World, Organic Grocery Deals, Fiddledeedee, Money Saving Mom, The Centsible Sawyers.. These are my main site that I check each week to see what deals are out there. They have done a great job in compiling all the information for you. Then match those deals with your coupons and head to the store to stock up on sale items. This week I paid $1.50 for a half gallon Organic Valley milk. That's $3/gallon for an organic milk.. You can't even buy that for a conventional milk.

Don't buy only brand name
With the push for more Green and Organic products, grocery stores come out with their own generic brand of organic food.. Good news for you! Look for those products when you can't find coupon for national brand.

Wait for sale and stock up

This week the organic milk is really a good deal for my area. I am experimenting in freezing my millk. I will let you know the result later.. If you have frozen milk before, please let me know.

You don't need that Organic Lollipop

It will be nice if we all can afford all organic in our pantry. But the fact is it's too expensive. So shop wisely and don't get caught up in all organic for those junk food. I mean come on.. do you really need that Organic Lollipop? If you can only afford one organic item, then pick the one that you eat the most like Milk, Bread, Poultry, or anything from the Dirty Dozen list. It will be different for each family so you should be able to take the list and see which one your family tends to consume the most.

How about you? What are things you know or learn along the way shopping organically?

Around the Blogosphere

This Monday I want to do a quick round up on my participation in the Carnival around the blogosphere.

Georgia On My Mind presents Georgia Carnival Edition #38.

Perceptive Travel presents Carnival of Cities. Check out cities from Seattle to Beijing.

Credit Card Lowdown presents Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness #49. With 22 posts participated in this carnival, you will learn great saving tips perfect for this economy.

Mrs. Nespy's World present Money Hacks Carnival #17. A geat post with the Music of the '80s theme. Very great round up from Money Hackers around the blogosphere.

Mrs. Micha present Carnival of Personal Finance #158. The Vampire Slaying edition is a great carnival for Buffy fan and non-fan. Lots of great posts here about saving, frugality and money in general.

Here we are people. My round up for this past week. Thanks for including my post to these carnival. How about you? Have you been on any carnival this past week?

Catch a Reading Bug this Summer

Summer reading is one of the best and most frugal way summer activity we can do with our kids. All we have to do just go to the library and check out books for them to read. Now, the summer reading is not only good for their brain but will also be good for their pocket. There are several programs out there that created to motivate more reading for young children by providing incentive like free book or free pizza. Now how can they not read!

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading

B&N has launched this year Summer Reading. Kids can earn a free book when they read 8 books this summer. The program is as easy as 1-2-3. One read any 8 books. Two use the Summer Reading Journal to write down their favorite part of each book and have parent signs. Three bring back the completed journal to B&N store between May 29th to Sep 2nd. They will get a coupon for a free book!!! Check out more detail here.

Half Price Books

I found this on Money Saving Mom blog. Another great summer reading program for kids. Half Price Books has Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program for all their participating stores. Kids ages 10 and under can earn $3 Half Price Books shopping card or a Free Kid's Buffet at CiCi's Pizza! We don't have Half Price Books in our state but we sure have CiCi's Pizza. The nice thing about this program is you can do it every week! This can help our Pizza Friday night in our family.

Forsyth County Library

This is a local program in my neck of the wood. Forsyth County Library has 'Catching A Reading Bug' program this Summer. When you sign up your kids to the program, they will give you a log book. Just setup your own goal on how many books you want to read this summer and return the log book by the end of the summer to receive $5 certificate toward your book purchase at your school. Check out your local library for similar program.

What a great way to have a great Summer!!

Cruising on the Blogosphere

I want to post the Carnival Round up for this week that I have been honored to be part of.. It's fun to get to read other bloggers' posts and find new blogs. Come on.. kick off your shoes, get your coffee and enjoy reading!

Carnival of Travel Guide - Join Travel Hacker for another edition of Carnival of Travel Guide.

Carnival of Personal Finance - This edition is hosted at Money Under 30 with a lot of great posts.. You will learn a thing or two from this carnival.

Money Hack Carnival - This edition is hosted at Save and Conquer. Learn about personal finance ebbs and flows throughout our lives.

Mom's Blogging Carnival - This edition is hosted at Mrs Nespy's World. Read and learn from mommy bloggers from around the blogsphere.

Carnival of Family Life - Enjoy this edition at Write From Karen. With various topics ranging from Family Finance, Family Health to Family Humor.

Carnival of Cities - From the Bridge of San Francisco to the Shores of Mangalore at Leslie Carbone.

Carnival of Tips - Check out .. whatelse but a blog full of tips at Tip Diva and a whole caravan of the carnival..

Festival of Frugality - Join Four Pillars as we learn to save some money like the riches do.

BOA customer - Free Museums admission

In today's economic climate, it's hard to find good deals or freebies that are of any use. Fortunately, I found a bank that is willing to buck this trend.

I'm actually not a customer of BOA. I already have too many credit cards to count in one hand so I don't need another one to give me more headaches. Although, Bank of America does have a tempting offer.

As a Bank of America customer, you can take advantage of their promotion: "Museums on Us 2008". This program is sponsored by BOA to give you the opportunity to visit over 70 museums nationwide.

As for Atlanta, there are 3 museums as part of this programs. They have included: Atlanta History Center, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, and Atlanta Botanical Garden. Not bad at all. With May coming up soon, summer vacations are right around the corner. It's a good way to spend some quality time with your children instead of plopping them in front of the TV or video game du jour. Check them out and plan your weekend to take advantage of this free admission.

Just to clarify, you don't have to own a high interest rate credit card from BoA to participate. You can have a regular bank account with them to be classified as a customer and participate in these deals.

Thanks to Free 2 Be Frugal for sharing this great deal.