The CVS $5.00 Challenge: Update!

Well, for those of you who might be checking in here to see what's up, I'm still working on the whole process of shutting this blog down and adding the best of the content here to my other blog.

I won't lie to you (it just wouldn't be me!); I've done very little on this project other than think about what I want my main blog to be and how I can best present my content online.

That, and chase my three children from 6 am to 9 pm every darn day -- ahhh, summertime. Is it August yet??

So, this site will stay up for a while (school starts August 22; just kidding - I hope) as I work through the changes. To those of you who've clicked over to my other blog and left a hey howdy hey along with your input/ideas, thanks ever so much!

No matter what happens, however, the deals do go on!

For this reason, I'm handing over complete control and (hopefully) serious linky love of The CVS $5.00 Challenge to my blogging buddy, Alyssa, at Kingdom First Mom.

Go give her a visit if you haven't already and be ready with your best $5.00 CVS dealios, m'kay?

Also, just a reminder: the FREE $25 from RME is over and done. You can, however, still sign up for a new account for free, then earn the $10 referral fee on anyone who signs up for a free account using your referral link or button. To those of you who have done so over the past week using my button, thank you very much and I wish you much luck in gaining your own referrals. If anyone's used their RME account to buy/sell on eBay or elsewhere, comment with your experiences -- was it easy? Or a hassle?

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Walgreens just released yet another $5/$20 coupon good only on Friday. Go visit my good friend Andrea's post at MommySnacks to print your own coupon.

Just like the last one released by WG, this coupon is good only for one day (6/27) and your total must be $20 after ALL other coupons and discounts, meaning you'll spend at least $15 oop. But this is a good Register Reward week at WG so you can still stack up some great deals on RR earning items, then take those RRs and use them to buy June Easy Saver FAR items.

As always, I wish you happy savings and thank you for reading TNFM and W-M!

What Will Happen to The New Frugal Mom?

Hello to all of you who might still be catching my feed in your reader or via email!

I just wanted to let you know what will happen as I shut down this blog because I'm still very much online here at my personal blog.

I plan on importing much of the best content from TNFM over to W-M beginning this weekend. I also will continue to post about frugal and financial ideas. If you'd like to chime in with a comment on this post, you can let me know what you'd like to see me continue to write about/offer to my Frugal Faithful readers.

Blogging at two blogs with very different purposes and styles was like living a double life -- with double the work! I intend to blend those purposes and styles into one blog at W-M. I fully believe that the benefits of free information via blogging are too important to just abandon the effort to help others.

Thanks for your readership, your kindness, and your support. All of you ROCK!

And, let me pass this email message on from kind reader Krystal regarding the RME $25 sign bonus which looks to be kaput. But it sounds like you can still get the $10 referral from people who sign up under you, so it might be something you want to consider.

I certainly don't want anyone to feel misled; I just found this in my inbox this morning.

I just signed up for the RME account using your referral link, but it looks
like the $25 sign-up bonus is gone. I did not get any kind of sign-up
bonus and nothing is listed in my pending amounts. I know that you are
shutting down your blog (best of luck to you, although it's a shame for your
readers!) but I wanted to let you know this in case you want to edit your latest
post about it on your site. I understand that you have no control over RME
deals, but thought you would want to know so you can potentially avoid having
readers use your link and be in for a disappointment when they find out the only
payment made is to you as the referrer. Looks like new users can still earn $10
referral bonuses, though.

Thanks for your readership and bloggy friendship; I'll keep you updated through the changes ahead!

Thank You and Goodbye

After much thought and consideration, I'm ending my blogging efforts here at The New Frugal Mom and will close down this blog in one week's time.

Blogging takes a great deal of time, especially when you as the author strive to bring quality content to your audience. Beyond the writing, there is a great deal of behind-the-scenes work that must be done including research, design elements, and communications to name just a few of the many tasks.

I spent Monday at Girl Scout Camp with my daughter and I was reminded of how important it is to enjoy simple day-to-day moments. When blogging becomes a "job" rather than a hobby, it's harder to be fully present in the lives of my children, my family, and my community.

I fully intend to keep blogging at my personal blog. I also intend to move some of the more valuable posts I have here at TNFM over to my personal blog and add them in a separate section I'll create just for this purpose.

I will keep posting weekly Kroger (Cincinnati) Deals as part of Be CentsAble's Grocery Gathering at my personal blog. Look for the Kroger Deals post on Monday mornings.

To all of my readers and members of the Frugal Faithful, I thank you so much for your time and comments. You've been inspiring!

And I will still be visiting these fine frugal and personal finance blogs as I'm still on my own Frugal Journey; I urge you to visit them if you have not had the time to do so yet.

Be CentsAble

Frugal Hacks

iMommies

Handprints on the Wall

Keeping the Kingdom First

Mommy Snacks

Money Saving Mom

Paid Twice

Sense to Save

Sisterly Savings

The "Cents"ible Sawyer

Thank you again for reading and I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to become a more informed and effective frugal manager of your household.

Happy savings and may God bless all of you!

Bloggy Day Off

For those you tuning in for Kyle of Rather Be Shopping's weekly guest post, I hope you're not disappointed in finding just me.

:)

Kyle will be back next week.

As for me, I spent yesterday at Girl Scout Day Camp with my daughter and four hundred other Girl Scouts from our area. It was wonderful to be completely unplugged from technology while I roamed the woods and went creeking with my girls.

For more about why I believe so strongly in Girl Scouting, read this post at my other blog.

I'm taking the rest of the day off to catch up with blogging friends in person. I had the pleasure of finally meeting up with Andrea of MommySnacks this morning. She's just as wonderful and sincere in person as she is on her blog. Go visit her soon if you haven't yet, m'kay?

And I'm on my way to meet up with my old buddy Em this afternoon; she and her cousin Jenny write MomminItUp! No one does CVS better than Jenny!

I'm hoping to begin attacking this Kick the Clutter project tonight...

It still looks about the same, minus the cereal bowl and HSM Microphone. Real life for me means putting the kids before clutter.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

HELP: Why I Started This Blog

Blogging is not an easy endeavor no matter what your blog's subject topic is.

Blogging takes:

• Time
• Honesty
• Research
• Tech-Savvy
• Dedication

and, let me say it again:

• Time

So why did I start this blog when I already blog here about trying to find time to write while raising my three children?

Simply put: I started this blog to help others learn more about saving money through couponing and making more frugal choices. But most of all, I started this blog as a place to help me.

The level of personal accountability I have for my family's finances is amplified by writing about how I manage them here. Add to that all that I learn reading my fellow frugal blogging buddies posts and this blog becomes a great tool for me to use on my own Frugal Journey.

I share this with you, my Frugal Faithful, because it's important that I'm honest with you about who I am and our financial picture.

I am not a financial planner or expert.

I am not a die-hard Dave Ramsey fan (haven't read his books yet, but already think I disagree with a couple of his strategies as I've seen them explained in the blogosphere).

I am not coming under my grocery budget each week (although I'm doing much better than I was before I started serious couponing).

And, I am a very lucky, hard-working stay-at-home mom, married to my best friend. Because of the income/benefits he earns, I have always been at home with my children. This is a huge blessing, but one that hasn't just fallen into our laps unaided.

We've always saved, we've always invested, and we've always tried to stretch our dollars. But we've also been people of faith who are willing to take risks and assume some debt if it will get us to where we wanted to be - namely, here in SW Ohio, where my husband has a career he loves and where we can raise our children among family.

So, why do I share this?

Because I want you to know that while I'm blogging deals and ideas here, I don't have all the answers and would never assume to tell you how to best manage your family's finances.

Because, like PaidTwice's excellent post here, we sometimes backslide on our debt reduction journey, too.

Honesty in blogging matters; why should I expect any of you fine readers to drop by if I'm saying one thing but doing another, right?

So, here's to honest bloggers like PaidTwice and my blogging buddy Denise over at The "Cents"ible Sawyer - she just posted her story about trying to create a budget. I admire all of you who so bravely share bits of your financial life.

And to my fine readers, those of you have grabbed this feed and who drop by every day, thanks for coming over to my blogjoint for a while. I appreciate every single one of you even if I don't always get back to your emails or comments as quickly as I'd like.

Thanks for reading and keep pushing forward!

After Much Thought and Prayer...

I mentioned a week or so ago that I was contemplating closing down this blog.

Why?

Well, the world that is frugal/deal blogging is a demanding and time-sensitive one. You, kind readers, want and deserve the freshest information on the hottest current deals.

And I, kind readers, am finding it difficult to keep up with the pace required.

May, the month that tests me each year with the sheer number of scheduled events for our family, is coming to an end. While I am hopeful for the respite of summer vacation, I should mention that my children are the ones who get the break from their normal routine, not me. Summer for me means three hot and oft-cranky children from dawn until dusk with precious little peace for writing.

As I've worked so hard here to create this blog and do believe that I still have much to contribute to the frugal blogosphere, I have no plans to shut this blog down entirely. To do so would be an act of over-tired and thoughtless impatience on my part.

But I've been thinking and praying about what I'm doing with this blog and with my other blog and ultimately, what motivates me to blog at either place at all. Why? Why be another voice out there blogging deals when so many others do it far better than me? Others like Andrea, Alyssa, Denise, and Crystal. And what do I really hope to accomplish as a blogger?

To be honest, pride has motivated me here (as in, Wow! So many people are reading this!). While StatCounter and Feedburner offer valid and useful tools, they also offer daily ego boosts via numbers. It's easy to lose perspective on what I feel blogging should be: communication, education, enlightenment, and support. All of these available at your fingertips, for free, via your fave blogging platform. It's mind boggling when you consider the ramifications.

And while I do my best to manage our finances, I am not perfect. This month, I've busted our grocery budget, going over by $50. Not critical, but still there, a reminder that there is always room for improvement. And while we're chipping away at our debts one day at a time, the cost of living has gone up and up over the last several months and seemed to explode with gas prices hitting $4.00/gal this month.

I'm proud of what we've done (continued building our investments/financial plan, paid off one debt, have our <2> children's tuition for the upcoming school year ready to pay in full - cash - come August), we still have a long way to go to be in the black. I'm hopeful, but I'm not perfect. I *gasp* used our remaining credit card this month and while those expenses will be paid from the budget at the end of this month, I did use it.

While we aim to be debt-free (minus mortgage) in twenty-four months or less, we will never back down from our retirement investing to eliminate debt (compound interest works best over the long term, not the short term), lower our life insurance coverage for anyone in our family (we carry for ourselves and our children), nor would we give up our children's Catholic education (and, therefore, required school tuition) to eliminate debt.

My point: while I consider myself frugal and financially prepared for my family's future, I by no means consider myself an expert or a voice of authority on all things frugal. I'm just another traveller on the Frugal Journey and I too stumble as I find my way.

As I continue blogging here, I'll post about my Frugal Journey and how we're succeeding with our debt busting plan. Will I still blog deals? Sure. When I can, I'll post those deals I use myself each week (Kroger, most notably). Will I hold myself to an unrealistic schedule (and therefore disappoint you kind readers when I fall short due to the constraints of time and space)? No.

There is this beautiful thing beyond the computer screen called LIFE. And I so love mine, and love the people that inhabit it, that I can say honestly that blogging cannot compete with the joy that is bubbles, chalk, and dripping Popsicles on a sunny summer day.

The FeedBurner chicklet - pride as HTML code available to all! - is coming down. Some of my weekly features will be scaled back. And I'll be posting those pesky details on Walgreens and Coupons before long, I promise for the umpteenth time!

And I will be here, kind readers, helping you I hope, to save a few dollars, stretch your budget, and most of all, to know that you are not alone in your quest for financial freedom.

And, lastly, for those of you struggling to find your way in our consumer-saturated culture, remember:

Happiness isn't found in a new dining room set or a new boat or even an armful of trinkets from the $1.00 bin at Target.

Happiness is found within your soul, in the simple choice to enjoy what blessings God has given you each day, no matter how humble those gifts may seem.

The freedom to blog is a blessing and so I will be here, kind readers, as LIFE permits!

I'm Here to Stay!

Thank you to everyone who sent a comment or email my way - your words of support mean so much!

As I've continued to clean up the blog a bit (bloggy housekeeping), I finally added a FeedBurner subscriber chicklet to the right sidebar.

Can I tell you I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the number of subscribers?

I had no idea that this little frugal bloggy venture of mine reached so many of you on a daily basis. I'm humbled. Thanks for reading.

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Upcoming posts:

Getting Fit Frugally by Kyle, at Rather-Be-Shopping's (his weekly online coupon roundup)

Going Frugal: Fun and Frugal Birthday Parties (I'm planning my son's 5th for this weekend!)

Kroger Deals 5/19-5/25: A Week for P&G eSavers

As always,

Happy Savings!

Fabulous Freebies and Temporary Link for MSM.com

I know, some break from blogging, right?

Can blogging be an addiction? And, more importantly, should blogging to help others be considered a good addiction to have?

Alas, those are questions for another day.

:)

Here's a quick freebie that landed in my inbox today. I love this product and know many of you out there would appreciate this sample:

FREE sample of Splenda No Calorie Sweetner Flavors for Coffee (includes *2* packets!); click here.

Get a $1.00/1 for Edge Shave Gel coupon here.

Print $1.00/2 Ziploc Bags, $0.75/1 OFF!, and $1.00/1 Shout Laundry Stain Remover here.

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Have you been looking for new posts from Crystal at MoneySavingMom over the last few days and wondered if she fell off the edge of the blogosphere?

Nope, she's still very much with us! She's just having some technical issues with Blogger (I can totally relate) and tending to her very sick little girl right now.

But because she is dedicated to bringing you the deals, she's set up a temporary MSM blog here. Visit and drop her a note of encouragement, would you please? She's done so much for so many.

+++---+++---+++---+++

I've enjoyed the last 24 hours of not thinking about blogging; thanks for your understanding, kind readers. May is a particularly over packed month for me and my family. Finding time to write quality posts and bring you good deals has been challenging.

I'm praying and thinking about what God wants me to do, what I want to do, and what my family needs me to do.

I've been chatting via email with my fellow BBJ Mama Blogger, Andrea. And I mean no offense by that nickname for that photo - that statue is real, it's down the road from me, and I gotta be honest, it freaks my kids out when we drive past it. And no, it's not made of real butter; that's just one it's many nicknames. Anyhow, Andrea lives on the opposite side of BBJ from me and she and I are trying to find a time to meetup and chat deals and bloggy stuff in the near future. Andrea has such a positive attitude; it's hard not to catch her enthusiasm and rethink how I can keep bringing this blog to the masses. Thanks for your support, Andrea!!

I really do enjoy writing this blog and bringing you deals, freebies, and ideas on how to become more frugal in your life. With gas at $4.00/gal, food prices rising in kind, and home values stagnant or plummeting, now is the perfect time to examine your financial life with honesty and maturity. I like to think that this blog has helped one or two of you out there in finding ways to be more frugal and therefore find more financial freedom.

Again, I'm going to keep praying, thinking, and considering what comes next for The New Frugal Mom. More to follow...!

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CVSers and Walgreens shoppers: keep an eye open for hot deals over the Memorial Day holiday this Monday; check the upcoming week's deals (5/25-5/31) for CVS here (courtesy of SlickDeals - thanks!) and for Walgreens here (courtesy of HCW - thanks!).

Make sure you check your email for any possible coupon releases on Thursday from CVS!

And thanks for dropping by TNFM; I truly appreciate it.

A Blogging Break

My cup, both in real life and the blogosphere, runneth over!

I'm taking a bloggy break for this week while I consider how much time I can honestly devote to The New Frugal Mom. I'm not one to do anything half-way and I'm feeling as if that is what's happening as I try to juggle offering new content every day here with the needs of my family.

In the meantime - when you need your deals fix - go visit my fellow BBJ blogging buddy Andrea at MommySnacks. She is so good at blogging the deals that I know you'll find some great posts to help you save $$.

I'm considering taking some of the best posts from here and moving them to my personal blog, Writer-Mommy, and continuing to post some deals/frugal tips there.

No matter what I decide to do, I will keep all of you informed, kind readers!

Look for Kyle's guest post on Getting Fit Frugally to be posted here soon. He's got some great ideas!

Thanks for your understanding!

RME: FREE $25 Good Until Midnight; Bloggy Business

I've had one person sign up for the FREE $25 today (5/15) through RME; this deal seems to be good through midnight, 12 AM, but as to which time locality (EST/PST, etc), I'm not certain.

That being said, today is IT (expires 5/15/08), the last day to grab your free $$, refer your spouse for your $10 referral and their own FREE $25 - an easy $60 right there. Consider it a tank of gas for FREE.

Click my referral button above to get started; you'll spend maybe two minutes filling out your account information. To get your FREE $$, you can either link one of your bank accounts and have it transferred in (exactly like PayPal) or have a hard copy check cut to you for your balance (minus a $2.50 fee for the check) and sent via US Mail.

If you click through my referral button, I'll earn an additional $10 fee for your referral so I just gotta shout it...

THANKS! :)

I appreciate each one of you who has clicked through my link.

If this offer is extended again (it originally expired April 15 and has been extended once), I'll be sure to update you with the new expiration; even if you don't have a blog , you can refer you friends and family by email so grab your $$ today, email your contact list, and spread the green!

+++---+++---+++---+++

Bloggy Business:

I've had a note in my sidebar for a while that I'll be changing the blog format/design; May has been an uber-busy month for me and my family (with no signs of relenting until the school year is done in early June) and I've yet to attack the re-design.

Here's what's on my docket for the next few days:

*Re-design/re-organize blog elements

I'm planning on posting a run-down of how I do this for those of you looking for links/help in customizing your own blog. Both this blog and my other blog have been designed/customized by yours truly. Look for this post: Going Frugal: How I Designed My Own Blogs for FREE.

And FYI, while both of my blogs are hosted at Blogger and I'll discuss how to customize a Blogger template by altering the HTML, designing your own header/buttons is something you can do for any blogging platform.

*Finish my Walgreens: How to Save post and link it from the sidebar

*Write and post my Coupons: Getting, Organizing, and Using and link it from the sidebar

*Research and hopefully discuss/post how to start a Coupon Club.

Ok - it's a hopeful list of tasks to finish in the next few days, but I'm ever the optimist!

One last thing: I'd love to have feedback from YOU. Is there something you'd like to see more of here at The New Frugal Mom? Or is there something I can cut out entirely? Comment with your input and I'll try my best to make it happen!

Thanks so much for spending a few minutes of your day here! I appreciate it more than I can express!