Feed it Forward

In an effort to empower the nation to celebrate the gift of giving this holiday season, the team at Restaurant.com once again brings you "Feed It Forward!" Restaurant.com is stocking its Feed It Forward giving site with $40 million worth of $10 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates. You now have the opportunity, every day for 40 days, to enrich the lives and satisfy the palates of those around you by giving these gift certificates to anyone on your holiday wish list. It is absolutely free to give and free to receive.

Why are we doing this? The feeling created by the gift of giving lifts spirits, spreads joy, and strengthens community. We bring you Feed It Forward to ensure everyone can experience the happiness that sharing a gift brings. So please join us! Give to friends. Give to family. Give to neighbors. Give to those in military. Give to teachers. Give to co-workers. Give to working moms. Give to those that would not otherwise make your holiday list, but most of all, give.

With tremendous pride, the team at Restaurant.com is honored to bring you our giving site so that you can join us and "Feed It Forward."

It's Cyber Monday

Today is the big internet shopping day. In the past I was never impressed but supposedly they are doing a better job this year. There are a couple of blogs keeping up on this stuff. Check Refund Cents Daily here, or Money Saving Mom here. They are doing a much better job than I am. Good Luck!

ING Direct free money for new checking account

ING Direct is offering $103 for opening a checking account and $25 for a kids account. Click here

• Open Electric Orange November 26th – 28th, and make a total of 7 purchases using your Electric Orange Card or Person2Person Payments (or any combination of the two) within 45 days.
• For example:  If you made 4 Card purchases and 3 Person2Person Payments within 45 days of opening your account, you’d receive the $103 bonus.
• Card purchases can be either signature or PIN-based.
• Your $103 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 50.
• Bonus only available for new Electric Orange checking. Only one bonus will be provided per household.

Best black friday deal today.

I have spent an enormous amount of money recently at the dentist taking care of years worths of problems. One of which was deep cleaning to remove built up plaque. The dental hygiene specialist recommended I get a sonicare toothbrush with the UV sanitizer. Rite Aid gave me an awesome deal. They had it on their website for $124.99 but the store price was $169.99, so I asked the manager if I could buy it for the same price. He asked me to bring in proof so I did and he gave it to me at the internet price. I then used my $10 coupon from the newspaper. Rite Aid is giving a $40 rebate and sonicare is giving a $10 mail in rebate bringing my price down to $60.99. Now if that wasn't good enough I qualified for the $20 gift of savings card from Rite Aid bringing my price down to $40.99. And that's not all, there is $29.99 in savings coming from Phillips for registering the toothbrush. I suspect it will be for other Phillips products but hopefully some of them will be for replacement heads. All in all an unbelievable deal!!!!!!!

Starbucks freebies and deals

In addition to offering Buy One, Get One Free Holiday Drinks this weekend, Starbucks is offering 12 Days of Deals beginning December 1, 2010.
To get the deals, you’ll need to have a data plan or text plan on your phone. Just text 12DAYS to 29943 and you’ll receive one Starbucks deal per day beginning December 1, 2010.

New Freebies

Tomorrow Nov. 16th you can get free tacos at Jack in the box after 2pm. No coupon necessary.
Vista Print has a ton of new freebies. 

Keeping Thanksgiving affordable

According to the radio I hear the average Thanksgiving dinner will be around $40 this year. That's double what is was a few years ago. With some good planning though you should be able to do dinner for a reasonable cost. Winco has turkeys at .39 cents a pound if you spend $50 which I suspect will be the best price on turkeys. Watch for sales for your other side dishes. I have seen bags of potatoes for $1, stove top stuffing for $1 and so on. Keep it simple, don't buy premade stuff, make things ahead of time so it's not so overwhelming. I'm planning to start several days in advance. Good luck!
Oh, and here are some recipes for under $1 per person. Click here.

Who's idea was it?

Ugh! I used to at least get a couple of hours sleep after thanksgiving before I went shopping on Black Friday. This year quite a few stores are opening as early as 3am. Even Macy's announced opening at 4am. Now I'm just going to end up staying up all night! I guess the good news is I should be home by 9am and can just sleep all day!

Home Depot Christmas lights

Home Depot is again offering a trade in of your old christmas lights in exchange for a $3 coupon towards the energy efficient LED lights. You can take up to 5 strands at a time, working or not.

Free coffee, every Friday, plus veteren day special

Each Friday in November at participating Burger Kings, you can get a free 12 oz hot Seattle's Best Coffee, one per customer during breakfast hours only. Call first to confirm your BK is participating. 
  * Applebees is giving away a free entree on Nov 11. Read about it here.
Applebees lists the ways to qualify:
U.S. Uniform Services ID card
U.S. Uniform Services Retired ID card
Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES)
Photograph in uniform
Wearing uniform
Veterans Organization Card
DD214

watch amazon today

Amazon.com is matching Walmart and offering a one-day electronics pre-Black Friday sale in their "Gold Box" section today. The deals will appear every 1-2 hours and be available until they sell out (which we expect will be within 1-2 minutes after being posted). We will update this post with more information as we receive it. Until then, we suggest that you keep an eye on their page because they should be releasing some really amazing deals today.

Best Buy pre black friday sale

Best Buy has announced their own pre-Black Friday sale that will take place tomorrow and Saturday (Nov 5th-6th), a full day earlier than the Walmart sale. This year they are featuring one laptop deal along with discounts on video games and electronics. The laptop is a Gateway/eMachines 15.6" eME442-V133 Laptop w/AMD V-Series Processor, Windows 7, 2GB Memory, and a 250GB Hard Drive for $279.99. For almost all of the products in this early sale, Best Buy says that there will be a minimum of two of each item per store and a limit of one item per person. Since it does not appear that the stores will be fully stocked, we suggest you shop online at BestBuy.com for a better shot at getting the deals tomorrow. Min. 2 per store. While supplies last. No rainchecks or substitutions. Limit of 1 item of each per customer.

Why I love Black Friday

Black Friday, the name sets my heart racing a little. I start planning weeks in advance. Why do I get so excited. Could it be going out at 3am? Or the long lines? The crazy people? The crowds? It's really the unbelievable bargains that get me out in the middle of the night. Yes, Black Friday is a lot of work, it's crazy, crowded, and I generally freeze my butt off sitting out in the cold, but I think it's well worth it for the savings. Here are some tips to get you started.

1. Plan carefully. Figure out what you are looking for in advance and list them in priority.
2. Go over each ad carefully and read the fine print. Some deals require rebates to get the lowest price. Don't depend on Black Friday websites. Sometimes the ads change so you want to be sure before you commit to it.
3. Stay within your budget. It doesn't do you any good to put the deals on credit in order to pay far more later. 
4. Research your items so you know if it's a really good buy or not. 
5.  Plan to have a great time. It's crazy, but it's also a lot of fun. Once you get hooked you will do it forever. My husband went for the first time last year and he's already asking about it now.

Walmart pre black friday sale

Walmart recently announced that they will be having a huge pre-Black Friday sale this Saturday November 6th at 8:00am in-stores and online. The deals they are offering include a $50 iTunes Gift Cards for $35, a Vizio 26" M260VA Razor LED LCD HDTV for $198, and a Compaq 15.6" CQ6-109WM Laptop w/Intel Celeron Processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 Home Premium for $288. The laptop is definitely on the low end, but for only $288 it's a decent value. From what we have heard, the online sale will begin before the in-store sale. Once the sale begins, we'll be sure to update this page and let you know.

Free Christmas budget speadsheet

Don't go into debt this christmas. Here is a spreadsheet to help you stay on track. Click here .

Black Friday News

 Thanks Black-friday.net for the following information.

We've just learned that Amazon.com will be having an early Black Friday sale each Friday leading up to Black Friday. Each sale will feature deals based on four different themes - connect, play, watch, and listen. The first sale begins today (at 12:01am Pacific time) and will run throughout the entire day. Keep in mind that when Amazon.com has an early Black Friday sale like this, the deals are amazing and products tend to sell out quickly. We suggest you keep an eye on the Amazon.com Gold Box to check for when new products will appear.

Target announced that they will be extending their Black Friday sale this year. Instead of starting online on Thanksgiving Day, they will be offering a separate 4-day sale beginning on Sunday, November 21 through the Wednesday before Black Friday which will feature more than 170 items. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, Target.com will host an online-exclusive one-day sale with deals not found in their Black Friday ad. The actual Black Friday sale will then be held on Friday and Saturday with special doorbuster deals. Also, on Black Friday, if you spend $100 before 10am, Target.com will give you a free $10 gift card.

Walmart has just kicked off their Amazing Online Specials section which is featuring a Viore 32" 720p LCD HDTV for $299.99. Right now there are 172 products in the sale. However, as products sell out, Walmart cycles in new items. As new batches of products are added, we will be sure to keep you informed.
In other sale news, Amazon.com is continuing their early Black Friday sales with a "Get Three Games for the Price of Two" sale featuring over 800 PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii video games. Also, Newegg.com is having a Black November sale where they will be releasing new deals, "Shell Shocker" items, and promotional coupon codes every day in November leading up to Black Friday. Finally, Target's Great Holiday Toy Sale begins today and it includes the same deals that you will find in the Target Toy Book.

The 30 day giving challenge starts today!

f you have a heart for giving, we invite you to join us from November 1 – 30, 2010 as we take giving to new heights, combining the efforts of thousands of people. We’ll be working together to bless our friends, family, neighbors, and complete strangers by making a conscious effort to give each day of November. And we’ll do it all for God’s glory! Click here to join.

Free Thanksgiving decoration downloads

Free Thanksgivng decorations to download. They are super cute too. Click here.  
Also click here for a free ebook.  Thanks money saving mom.