a simple tip: price matching made simpler

Ella's birthday is in a few day. We always have a family party the Sunday before the big day. Ella decided she wanted ice cream for her special treat, so we'll be setting up a hot fudge sundae bar with my amazing homemade hot fudge sauce. I recently found a great big ice cream dish, and she's pretty excited she'll be the first to use it.

Breyers is by far our family's favorite store-bought ice cream. At $4 a half gallon, it can be a little pricey to feed my crew. I price matched at Walmart today and got if for Ream's price, $2.49 a half gallon instead. Love that! At that price, I stocked up.

I'm excited to see even more of you joined Deals to Meals this past month. (For more information, see my post Simple Solutions: Deals to Meals.) You're going to love it! (BTW, there's an option to search by item on the DTM site, so you don't have to go through the entire list of deals in order find just one item--like ice cream.)

Here's a brilliant little tip for price matching at Walmart. I've been doing this for awhile now, and not only will it have the checkers singing your praises, but it will save you even more time.

I have a clipboard I keep my Deals to Meals list on. I attach a small pad of post-it's with double stick tape to the board. (The brighter the post-its, the better. That way you or the checker won't miss one.) When I purchase items, I simply write the price on the post-it and attach it to one of the items I'm price matching. When I get to the checkout, I don't have to go through my list again to find the prices. The checkers just look at the price on the post-it and key it in. They LOVE it.

I also attached an envelope to my clipboard to hold any coupons I might use.

Have you found any smokin' deals lately? Deals to Meals or not, I want to hear!

For more information on Deals to Meals and to see why I love it, read my post Simple Solutions: Deals to Meals.

simple tip: choose a theme for gift giving

Our little grandson turns two today. Happy Birthday, Karson! He is a very active little guy and one hundred percent boy. Lynn calls him "Tank." :)

I have three granddaughters--Madilyn, Piper, and Lilah Jane. Karson is my only grandson. 

I think boys are harder to shop for. But choosing a theme to his gifts, made it so much simpler! Karson is in a cars/dinosaurs phase, so I searched on Amazon. Momma suggested books and puzzles. We are the grandma and grandpa who always give a book as part of a gift, so it was perfect. To make things even simpler, I had everything shipped directly to our "Tank." 

I Am A Dump Truck

Cars (Disney/Pixar Cars) (Read-Aloud Board Book)

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (tons of great reviews on this book)

Melissa & Doug Construction Site Peg Puzzle 

Fun stuff. I think he'll enjoy them.

simple tip: christmas books

Jumping in for just a minute to share a little tip.

I've been packing up our Christmas decorations. I know many of you count down the days until Christmas with a special story each night. We do too. (Looks like a few of the "grown up" books made it into the pile in the photo.)

I had some leftover wrapping paper and decided to wrap up our books before tucking them away. I did it while I was watching TV. I can check that off my list for next year and we'll all be surprised when the packages are opened.

Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story

Mortimer's Christmas Manger 

P.S. We added these two books to our collection this year and love them both.