FREE Father's Day Gifts at Vistaprint!!! (Just Pay Shipping) AND MORE!!

Thank you to my friends at She Saved, I was alerted to a deal Vistaprint has right now to get 6 Father's Day gifts FREE!
http://www.shesaved.com/2011/05/6-free-gifts-for-fathers-day-just-pay-shipping.html

When you go to www.vistaprint.com the website highlights the 6 Free products you can get on the first page. They include a mug, t-shirt, business cards, mouse pad, photo flip book, and desk calendar. I started with customizing a t-shirt.  That was pretty easy, although I had to type pretty slow.  Be sure to proofread very carefully! After that it gets a little tricky.  I could not get back to the first page that highlighted the 6 free gifts.  Very frustrating. I then went to type in the free products in a search box, only to find there was no search box.  I had to go to the homepage (which was different from my first screen) and click on the "Free Products" category both under "Business" and "Home & Family."  I managed to find the free desk calendar.  I could not however locate the free mug, mouse pad or photo flip book.  Business cards I found but I didn't want those.  I noticed that there were other free products available such as pens, invitations, rubber stamps, bumper stickers & checks.  So, in my first order I got a t-shirt, desk calendar, pen, and bumper sticker.  I paid $6.82 in shipping.  I then was able to start over again at www.vistaprint.com.  I placed a second order for a mug, pen, bumper sticker, and 10 invitations and paid $6.61 in shipping.  Not to shabby to get all of that for a grand total of $13.43.  I am using the t-shirt, mug, pens, desk calendar, 1 bumper sticker (for a craft) for Father's Day gifts.  I am using the other bumper sticker as a colorful way to label a notebook and the invitations I customized with a princess theme for my daughters 1st birthday.  Her birthday is not for a few months, but I did not want to pay extra shipping at a later time & I can still add all the details to the invitation very easily by myself & still have it look professional.  So get your creative juices flowing!

Downgrading Cell Phones, Upgrading Future

While it seems that everyone else is getting smart phones, we just downgraded to plain jane phones & pay as you go plans. This cut our bill in half from $80 to $40/month for 2 cell phones. It pays to evaluate how many minutes/texts you really truly need & are actually using & adjust from there. Our iPod Touches are fun to use where there is wifi, and those have no data charges. I personally find it liberating to not be connected all the time. Believe me, I get enough connectivity on my laptop at home! I guess I just want to focus more on being in the present & not being so connected to a screen. We also have an Ooma home phone (VOIP) which after paying for the unit, which we got at Costco, only costs under $4/month. This saves us approximately $35/month. I know some people need the smart phones for work obligations etc. I'm just putting this thought out there for some to ponder about . . .Remember when cell phones were for mainly for emergency use? Do you really need to be this connected all the time? I do agree that cell phones are handy to use if you're meeting friends when out & about etc., and I still plan to use mine for those purposes. Our savings by doing these things is $75/month or $900/year. Think about what you could do if you had similar savings. Pay off debt? Put it to a better use? If you have kids think about this: If you put that money in a savings account, not even adding in any gains on investments, you would have $16,200 in 18 years. Now that's a nice chunk of a college fund! Even after taking into consideration the costs of the units ($29 per cell phone, $229 for the ipod, and around $200 for the Ooma), the breakeven points are really early on & you start seeing the savings right away. I'm sure some people think we're a little crazy for cutting back like we have been lately, but doing without some of the little things that are truly wants for us and not needs can really pay off in bigger ways in the future. Thank you Financial Peace University for inspiring us! I hope some others out there are inspired to do things like this too :) It's so much fun to save!  As Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else."

A Week of my Favorite Blogs: iHeart Organizing

Hello!  It's been a while.  Sometimes life just gets a little crazy.  My 2 kids are amazingly napping at the same time right now.  This will probably be short lived so I am doing a short post.  I thought I would share this week some of my favorite blogs.  Today I will highlight iHeart Organizing.  I was recently introduced to this blog by a friend of mine (Thanks Jennifer T!) & absolutely love it!  Jen Jones is the author and has a house that is absolutely inspiring.  She even has an Etsy shop where you can buy customized checklists as well as an Amazon store with some of her favorite products.  Many of her DIY projects are very frugal yet stylish.  I hope you enjoy browsing it as much as I do - I will highlight other blogs I follow throughout the week.  I often turn to these as inspiration.  Enjoy!

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/