Need something fun to do this weekend with your kids?

Do you need help getting together a plan to make your dinner preparations easier and less stressful? Could you use some coupons to help save you some money on those dinner ingredients?

Thanks to Kathi Lipp for this great book – What’s for Dinner Solution. One winner will win a copy of the book and a pack of coupons!

Read my book review here.

Just enter the giveaway here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I love entering sweepstakes and instant win games.  When I have down time on the computer, it’s alot of fun to do surveys, enter a few contests and dream about winning fun stuff.  I’ve actually won a few times too!

Any of the big magazines often have sweepstakes and giveaways:  Womans Day, Good Housekeeping…. just google the name of the "magazine and sweepstakes" and you will often find alot of options.

I also love to enter blog giveaways with low entries.  The odds are better to win these giveaways because you are in the running with less than 200 names rather than the thousands of entries for the big name sweepstakes. One place that lists giveaways that have low entries is Tight Wad in Utah.

I don’t generally post about the instant win games or sweepstakes because they are not a guarantee.  However, I know that some of you are entering – and winning!!!!  So have fun and good luck!

5 Things to Remember:

1. NEVER Give your credit card information!

2. NEVER Give your social security card number!

3. Enter as little personal information as possible.  I figure that anybody can find my name and address in the phone book.  So I don’t mind giving that out.  And I use a junk email account so that doesn’t bother me either.  But I am very selective when it comes to more invasive questions (birthday is ok sometimes to verify my age); but I try not to enter sweepstakes that ask for too many specifics.

4.  If something seems too good to be true…… check it out before you trust it!  It may be legit, but you want to double check.

5.  Never pay money for something that they say you won! 

What have you won recently? I’d love to hear!

This week I’m participating in the 5 Day What’s For Dinner Solution. Tonight I was asked to share my favorite go-to meal! When we’re running short on time, or need a meal that will make everyone happy, we choose breakfast!

We always have eggs, flour, milk and some potatos in the cabinet. I can fry down some potatos, make some biscuits and fry up some sausage or bacon out of the freezer in the garage.

You just can’t go wrong with a good breakfast meal for supper!

What is your favorite go-to meal? I’d love to hear!

I always buy batteries when I find them on sale, not when I need them. So usually, I am stocked on batteries. But last week I took 5 minutes to check the flashlights and battery supply and discovered that I was low on AA batteries.

I picked up a few extra packs of batteries and now I can check off another thing. Our flashlights are ready!

What about you? Have you checked your battery supply lately? Are your flashlights ready to go in an emergency?

LOWER YOUR ALEXA RATING!

Starting February 1 -29, 2012!

Are you a blogger who reads and reviews books, an author looking to promote your personal work, or a publisher who wants to get some advertising?

Book Bonanza Giveaway 2012 is for YOU!

Sign up form here.

We have a facebook page here to help us all communicate and stay connected as we plan and pull this together!

Last fall, I got the idea of pulling together a group of authors/bloggers and publishers who want to share their books with the readers and increase their facebook, twitter or blog numbers! We had over 35 prizes delivered to one lucky winner and over 10,000 entries! In just a few more days, we will have the opportunity to do this again – even bigger this year! A prize pack of books – delivered right to a readers mailbox.

Read more information here.

Just in case you ever wondered….

Real Life Deals does not post ads on every post. Nor do I have scrolling ads that run across the bottom and all over each page. That is by choice. I know that I could be making money by having these ads and signing up as an affiliate for every company and store out there. However, I have said for many years (way before I blogged) that if I don’t see something, I won’t be reminded of what I don’t have. If I don’t know it’s out there, I won’t want it.

Since many of you have a set amount of dollars to spend each week/month (just like me), I don’t want you seeing on my blog all the “wonderful” percent-off deals that are available if you are willing to spend money.

So, if you are looking for a blog that tells you about all the percent-off codes or free shipping offers available, keep looking. But if you are looking for ways to stretch your dollars and save money in real life, welcome and keep reading!

What’s my favorite kitchen tool? That’s the question of the day for the 5 Day What’s For Dinner Solution Blogger Challenge? I have thought about this for almost 2 weeks and can’t decide on just one. So here’s my top 3 “can’t live without kitchen tools”! The best thing about these 3 items is that they have a quick storage place that’s out of the way. As the book said “If it hasn’t earned its spot, it doesn’t stay in my kitchen!”

My can opener! Nope, not a fancy electric can opener. Just the simple hand held little gadget. This is easy to drop in my drawer where it stays out of the way but is ready when I need it!

A sharp knife I use it for slicing apples, cutting oranges, peeling potatos and cutting peanut butter sandwiches into triangle boats.

My plastic spatula This is all I need to scramble eggs, flip a piece of sausage or get cookies off the tray.

I’m pretty simple when it comes to my necessities in the kitchen. What’s your favorite “can’t live without tool”? I’d love to hear!

Recently I had to get a money order for a rebate offer for $2.95.  I checked with my local personal bank and was shocked to discover that there is a $5.00 charge to get a money order from my bank.

A helpful customer mentioned that I can go to Walmart and get one much cheaper.  So of course I checked and discoverd that you really can save money on just about everything.

Money Order at the US Post Office:
$0.01 to $500.00 …………………..$1.10 

Walmart
$0.01 to $1000………. only .60!

I’m sure there are other places that will sell you money orders, but once I found out that Walmart is only .60, I think I can safely assume that I’m not going to find a cheaper price.  (Unless of course you know of some place local that I can get one free?)