Mama's Little Helpers
This just in Country Boy Appliances in Hyde Park going out of business sale !!!!!
First Choice Haircutters: register on line and they send you a 20 % off retail purchase or $1 off hair cut.
Wanda from @YMCBookalicious says there's a coupon for free Oasis juice on boxes of Oatmeal Crisp cereal right now and Metro is selling cereal for $2.99.
Kickin' clothes:
Superstore: $10 coupon off Joe clothing in flyer delivered this week. Purchase $50 of Joe clothing and get $10 off.
Gymboree: Gymbucks for redemption in January. Also $15 deals on cute jeans and winter vests right now.
See December Chatelaine issue for 15 % off Children's Place clothing.
Also don't miss Scholar's Choice midnight madness. Note: this is a good spot to buy a membership as it pays for itself quickly with the coupons they give you for $5 off two purchases. Midnight Madness second night is Nov. 27th. Free gift wrapping and 20 % off for members.
FREEBIES:
Mueller pasta. visit muellerpasta.com for excellent coupons and for a free menu planning guide.
Check out the new IPhone App called Storychimes. It's enough to make me want to switch my Blackberry. This app is a children's story series. For a ltd. time sign up on line for newsletter and they send you a children's tee. http://www.storychimes.com/
see my giveaway below to win a Rainbow Magic Pet Fairy book...

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com![]()
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Five Favourite Holiday Traditions a la Schuck Casa
Like my attempts at Spanish? Well so Twitter Moms issued a challenge and contest this morning and I thought what the heck I am up for it today as I am really procrastinating doing any actual work I am supposed to do. (For your chance to win a $100 Amex gift certificate visit http://www.twittermoms.com/ )So here without much fanfare at all are our five favourite things to do at Christmas.
1. Gingerbread House: Every year my girls love to build and sneak bits off the top of our gingerbread house. It is fun with a capital F and it is our tradition.
2. Get active: We love to sled or toboggan after the holidays on a really excellent hill in London called Doidge Park. Seriously excellent liftoff, but this year I will make my kids wear helmets for sure. We had one broken arm already this year. No more ortho clinic for me.
3. Skate: No year is complete without taking advantage of the annual Tim Horton's free skates. Tim Horton's sponsors several times and days over holidays where families can skate at local rinks free of charge. They do the same in summer at swimming pools. At New Year's we head to Victoria Park in London for the early skate and family New Year's celebration. We've done this probably four out of five New Year's Eves now.
4. A fun Christmas snowball fight or other backyard activity while turkey cooks. Seriously we have very active kids who need to burn off a lot of steam so we head outdoors as fast as we can. Sometimes we climb the snowy climber out back and fly down the slide into a huge mountain of snow. One year I slid so far I almost crashed into the fence and did some damage to my shoulder. Good times!
5. Letters to Santa, cookies and ornaments for the kids. (See cookies above. Love these Lofthouse ones. Oh sometimes we bake too, relax!) We love to build letters to Sanat each year and then take them to the parade and wait for the excellent letter back from the jolly old elf. Also of course we leave cookies and milk out for him. My favourite thing though is building up my daughter's unique ornament collection. They each have a special Rubbermaid container that sits in their rooms and we give them a new special and unique keepsake each year. When they leave home they will have enough ornaments to decorate their first tree.
Posted by thriftymomma at 10:52 AM 4 comments
Labels: Christmas, fun, holidays, traditions
Monday, November 23, 2009
Dinner With Princesses and Superheroes
Posted by thriftymomma at 8:13 AM 2 comments
Labels: children, costumes, creativity, dressing, growing up, sensory processing disorder
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Christmas Traditions
Posted by thriftymomma at 6:51 PM 3 comments
Labels: adoption, children, Christmas, jewelry, karate, ornaments, presents, sterling silver, traditions, trees
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Weekend Christmas Sales
Posted by thriftymomma at 7:41 AM 4 comments
Labels: Barbie, Crayola, Diego, Dora, Graco, Hot Wheels, Little Tikes, Playskool
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Dollar Stores deals I can't live with out for my family:
1. Birthday and other various event cards. $1.
2. Paper plates and birthday party supplies.
3. Adorable Dora, Hannah Montana and SpiderMan Ziploc baggies for lunches.
4. PlayDoh. It's the real deal unlike some of the other craft junk they sell there.
5. Wrapping paper and Xmas gift bags.
6. Sketch books and construction paper. My children go through this like it grows on trees. Get it?! I can hear you groaning. Enevelopes too.
7. Tiny character trinkets. Notepads with Hannah Montana, barrettes, wallets, pens and pencil cases. I stock up monthly and either send them to school as gifts for Francoprime store (the store at daughter's French immersion school. Kids are rewarded with tickets for speaking French and then they get to buy trinkets)
8. Craft kits. Wooden and seasonal sometimes ornaments too. My children love to paint, colour, mould and shape these things and fun for $1. Woohoo!
9. Decorations. Xmas and Halloween. For $1 it doesn't matter if they last that long.
10. Umbrellas. Honestly all of our umbrellas break whether they cost $10 or $1, so why not pay $1 and then draw on it or paint it with fabric paint and have a blast.
11. Kid's character hangers. Normal hangers don't hold children's items.
12. Mitts.
13. Bristol board for children's projects (school and Brownie's)
Oh and my smartest idea yet...lately I take my older daughter a couple of times a week and hand her a pile of change then tell her she can buy as much as it is worth. (typically less then $3 or $4. Naturally I help her figure the money calculations out as needed, but it's the best way I've discovered of helping her understand money. This also prompts discussions about whether we should waste $1 on another whoopie cushion when we already have like three. You get the idea...
Anyways, this giveaway is just in time for Xmas. Rainbow Magic Fairies are wonderful little chapter books for girls (and some boys) aged 5 to 8 or 9 at most. There are many different parts to the series in which two girls Kirsty and Rachel help solve small mysteries with the help of fairies. We started with the weather series when Payton was five or so and now her sister likes to read them to. The book at right here is Rainbow Magic Pet Fairies, Harriet the Hamster fairy, by Daisy Meadows, a Scholastic book. I got it free when I bought two other books, so I am giving it away to one lucky reader..
To win, leave a comment on thriftymommastips about what your best dollar store find is. Leave your email, blog or twitter ID.
Follow the blog and
Also follow me on twitter @inkscrblr.
I will draw this one on Random.org Dec. 1st.
Posted by thriftymomma at 8:35 AM 2 comments
Labels: Christmas, contests, Daisy Meadows, deals, fairies, giveaways, London, parades, Rainbow Magic chapter books, Random.org, reading., Scholastic, twitter
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Deals in the a.m.
Well here it is almost Monday morning yet again and I can't let these two excellent deals pass all you thriftymommas by. This morning McDonald's everywhere start free coffee again. Oh I will so be there lining up after school run for my coffee. (If you were at the Santa Claus parade on the weekend you may have heard parade participants from the McD's float yelling about free coffee. It is free for about one week, so get it while you can. Also today is Talize's 50 per cent off everything day. For those of you who don't know Talize, it is a slightly used and secondhand shop, sort of like Value Village only a bit cleaner usually. Prices are similar. I have on occasion bought my children books, toys and gently used clothing here. This deal is only good for one day so check it out. Also Talize typically donates profits from their store to some worthy charity. Don't know if it has changed but it used to be Children's Wish Foundation. In London Talize is at the corner of Highbury and Huron Streets.
Posted by thriftymomma at 6:23 PM 1 comments
Labels: deals, garage sales, McDonald's
Friday, November 13, 2009
Gifted
Posted by thriftymomma at 11:09 AM 3 comments
Labels: adoption, drama. Original Kids, gifted, London, Santa Claus



















