My Latest and Greatest Money Saving Secret

Well, I guess it's not going to be a secret anymore. Here it is: coupon codes. You know how when you buy something online and there's that spot for a coupon code and you think, dang, I really wish I had one of those? All you have to do is a google search for one. For example, the other day I ordered two items from deseretbook.com. I googled "deseret book coupon code" and there they were. I found more than one for 25% off an item and guess what, I was able to use two different codes and get 25% off both of my items.

But wait, there's more. Do you ever rent movies from Redbox? Who doesn't, right? No one wants to pay $4 or however much it is at Blockbuster. Well you can get Redbox movies free! Google "redbox codes" and you will find codes for free rentals. I've done it twice now in the last week. Just make sure you look it up not long before you go rent your movie so the code will be current. It might not work if you find a code and then a few days later try to use it. Go ahead and try it, you'll thank me.

While we're on the subject of google-ing to save money, next time you go to Chuck E Cheese search for "chuck e cheese coupon." Skip over the ones from the chuck e cheese website and click on the next one down. There you will find one for buy 40 tokens get 60 free. That's $10 for 100 tokens. There's no food included, like there are on most of their coupons, but we never eat there anyway since their pizza tastes like cardboard. $10 for over an hour of entertainment for 4 kids sounds like a good deal to me.

December Highlights

We kicked off the Christmas season by finding the perfect tree (actually this was in November). We went over a river and through the woods to an awesome tree farm in the most beautiful, picturesque setting. There were Christmas trees as far as the eyes could see. It was cold but it was a beautiful sunny Saturday, unlike the following couple of Saturdays. We were glad we got our tree early. We saw Santa, had a wagon ride up to the trees, and had pit beef sandwiches (that was Carolyn's favorite part). To top it all off, we had a coupon for our tree. Leave it to me to buy a Christmas tree with a coupon. :)


Audrey's preschool had their annual Christmas show. It really should have been called The Audrey Show. She was the only one who did any singing or dancing. And may I say, she was AWESOME. She is going to be famous someday.


We had a blizzard. Almost two feet of snow. The big girls loved it. Emma was not a fan. I was so sore from all the shoveling. I used a kid shovel while Greg used the big shovel. We now have two big shovels.


Greg's parents and his brother's family spent four days with us for Christmas. We scaled back a little this year with the presents but I don't think the kids really noticed. We had a fun Christmas morning.