I am putting 2 blogs together so find me here instead. Thanks for reading!

http://kathryndrury.blogspot.com/

A tip to do fast food cheaper

Did you ever notice when you order a kids meal a hamburger meal is about $2.50. 20 cents more for cheese and if you order a chicken nugget kids meal it costs a dollar more than the hamburger meal? So since the restaurants know that kids 90% of the time(that is my guess) will order chicken nuggets they jump the price way up high. Did you notice that Mc Ds and BK both have chicken nuggets on their dollar value menu? SO I order kids meals for the kids and order chicken nuggets from the dollar menu then I/we eat the burgers and the kids get their chicken. Now I am not a fan of these establishments (see Super Size Me and you won't be either) but there are times you just go there. I am also glad that my kids are raised in the apple dippers and milk age instead of the fries and pop era. :)

I have found ways to get some discounts to some chain dining restaurants. I have found it so far with Logan's Roadhouse and Famous Dave's BBQ. Go to their website and sign up for their newsletter. They will send you birthday discounts and often times welcome gifts for signing up like a free appetizer or something.

ONE OF MY BEST DEALS EVER! I just paid 75 cents for an $118.95 LLbean clothing order -- NEW! and will be shipped to my very own home. Here is how I did it:
1. Had saved up cash back bonus on the Discover card ( had a huge purchase that we could have written a check for but I wanted to get $100 cash back instead and write the check a month late ! :)

2. Used my Cash back bonus with LLbean and for every $40 you redeem LLbean will give you $50.

3. I have an LLbean Visa that I only use for LLBean purchases so I can get free shipping, free monogramming and bonus points. ( saved 7.95 on shipping).

4. I had just received a $10 bonus for my previous purchases at LLbean.

5. Bought everything from the sale section of the website. (So it would have been 68.95 for the order even with everything on sale).

Yippee! Boy this is fun!

SAVE MONEY USING A CREDIT CARD ONLY FOR A MINUTE!

We are primarily an all cash home. I have envelopes for about 15 things which will be another post sometime. But I like to play games with these stores offering deals when they make you put your purchase on their credit card in order to get a percent off. This happened just this morning to me. I went to Kohl's ( I need new clothes now that I lost almost 85 pounds! :) ) and I had a coupon top get an additional 15% off my entire purchase if I put it on my Kohl's charge. So I did...then I walked back to the customer service area and paid it off with my clothes fund immediately! The lady told me that I can pay right at the register too. I told her that I just bought this and she knew that. It only takes one more minute literally to use the credit card to get the disount then turn around and pay it off with cash. Cool huh? Just don't get trapped or sucked into the tempatation of using the credit card and not paying it off immediately otherwise you are playing their game!

I have found that not all stores allow you to do this. My grocery store Meijer does not allow it last I checked for example.

A STAY HOME PARENT LOOKING FOR EXTRA INCOME?

This was a new idea I just heard from my friend Kristi today who is doing this herself. She made flyers and handed them out in her neighborhood advertising babysitting services. She sets the time frame (when convinient to her) and sets her fees and has these time slots where neighbors can drop off kids during that time. So if a mom has to run to the Dr. for an hour or get a haircut or even grocery shop alone, she can drop the kids off at her house on the way out of the neighborhood. I thought this was a great idea that anyone could just start today and start earning a little extra cash!

REMEMBERING THE CUTE THINGS YOUR KIDS SAY!

We always tell ourselves that when our kids say something so funny or cute that we will never forget that...but often we do. I heard a speaker at MOPS this morning that talked about this and it reminded me of the importance of writing these things down. I am glad I heard this tip when my son was only 1 year old and he only just began speaking. I bought a small spiral index card size notebook. I keep it in my little office where I work daily. In it I write down quick little things they say or funny things they do or a milestone. Some are just a word or two-- like I would write "guk" = milk that reminds me that our son called milk guk. It doesn't even need to be a sentence. If a funny situation happens I may just quick write down the story but no more than a paragraph. I keep one of these for each kid and I keep them all in the same place. A few months ago our son told us that when he grows up he wants to be a pastor and a superhero. That was written down in a hurry. So when he grows up and he becomes a pastor and a superhero remember you heard it here first!