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Here's What's New 
Here are the best gluten-free coupons and deals, thanks to Janelle from Gluten Freely Frugal: 50 Free GF Christmas Cookie Recipes: Amazon currently has 50 Gluten-Free Christmas Cookies Recipes available for $0.00 (down from $2.99). Download it while it’s free, then get to baking your Christmas cookies! Remember, this is the Kindle version, but you do not need to own a Kindle to download, store, and read this free book! Gluten-Free Coupons: $1/1 Canyon Bakehouse product, 2 SOYJOY Bar coupons, $0.75/1 Organic Valley Cream Cheese or Sour Cream, $1/2 Chex Cereal, $0.75/1 Pillsbury Gluten-Free Dough, $1/1 Box of Ronzoni Gluten-Free Pasta, 35¢ on any Flav-R-Pac/ Westpac product, $1/1 Rudi’s Gluten-Free Stuffing, $0.75/1 Package of Nabisco Rice Thins Crackers, $1.25 off any 12 oz Bag of Seattle's Best Coffee, $1/1 Bag of Crunchmaster Crackers, $2/1 Zevia Soda 6 Pack, $1/2 DeBoles Pasta products, $1/1 Schar product, $1/1 and $3/2 Sunbutter products, and $1/1 Minute Maid Juice or Drink Box. 
Save 64% on a 3-Month Taste Guru Subscription: Gluten-Free Saver has a new deal this week: Save 64% on a 3-Month Taste Guru Subscription. This was posted last week but there were site issues, so you have another chance! The Taste Guru team finds, tastes and evaluates a huge assortment of gluten-free food from all over the world just for you. Every subscription plan is a great value at a minimum of 20% off retail value. All products sent by Taste Guru are certified gluten-free. Every month a box of delicious gluten-free food will be delivered directly to your door. Oskri Date Bars $0.82 Each Shipped: Amazon Warehouse currently has the Oskri Bar, Date, 1.9 Ounce (Pack of 20) priced at just $16.44 and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping! That equals out to approximately $0.82 per bar. This is a Warehouse deal, so quantities are limited. 
Save 50% on Spicely Organics’ EcoShakers: Gluten-Free Saver has a new deal: Save 50% on Spicely Organics' New EcoShakers! Choose any of the following four sets for just $24 ($48 value): Kitchen Essentials, World Spices, Herbivore, or Baker's Essentials. All products are certified organic, non-GMO, fair trade, gluten-free and kosher. This makes a perfect gift option for the upcoming holiday season! Shipping is included in the value of this deal, so you don’t need to worry about extra shipping charges. Janelle is wife to Brad, who is celiac, and mom to 2 sweet girls, one of whom is celiac, and the other showing signs of gluten intolerance. She blogs about the gluten free life on a budget, including coupons, deals, recipes, and other money-saving tips at Gluten Freely Frugal.
The post Gluten-Free Coupons & Deals appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.    Related Stories    
New Coupons (Note: The links in this post are affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.) The post Printable coupons: Starkist, Carmex, Kraft, Angel Soft, and more! appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories- Printable coupons: Pepperidge Farm cookies, Ritz crackers, Dawn, WONKA, Nivea, plus more!
- Printable coupons: Seattle’s Best, Capri Sun, Brilla, Holiday Candy, plus more
- Printable coupons: Pepperidge Farm, Skinny Cow, Milky Way, Mr. Clean Magiv Eraser, plus more
Today only, you can get 40% off your purchase of men’s Converse, One Star, Merona, and Mossimo apparel at Target with this Cartwheel coupon. This offer includes shirts, sweaters, pants, sleepwear, and outerwear. This Cartwheel coupon expires today, December 17, 2013. Limit 1 item per guest. Thanks, For the Mommas! The post Target Cartwheel Coupon: 40% Off Men’s Apparel appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories 
Ebates is offering you the opportunity to earn $50 for referring two friends to their program! Here’s how it works: ::Sign up for an Ebates account (if you don’t already have one). ::Grab your unique referral link and share it with friends via email or Facebook. ::If two friends sign up and make a $25 purchase through Ebates by December 31, 2013, you get a $50 bonus.
If you do any online shopping at all, I highly recommend signing up for Ebates. When you shop online, go to Ebates first and then click through to the store you're shopping at and you'll get cash back (usually 3-8%) for shopping online! This is a great way to maximize your online shopping dollars and to earn a little extra money just for doing what you were already planning to do — shop online! Thanks, Moms By Heart! (Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.) The post Ebates: Earn $50 for referring two friends appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories There aren’t a lot of things in life I loathe… but the stomach flu is definitely one of them. Dealing with vomit on any level is just, well, one of the last things I’d like to spend my time doing. So when one of my children complained of their stomach hurting on Saturday morning, I was concerned. And my concerns proved to be warranted because later in the day, this child walked into my room looking terribly queasy and then proceeded to throw up all over our bed, our blankets, and the carpet. I felt terribly for this sick child and immediately set to work cleaning them all up, getting them changed, and making a bed for them on the bathroom floor. Then, I went back to face the room strewn with vomit. The scene was almost more than my weak stomach could handle. But Jesse was gone, so I didn’t have many options other than just diving in and starting on the clean-up. As I contemplated the best method for tackling this mess, I quickly realized that my bad attitude was only going to make things worse. So I challenged myself to come up with as many things to be grateful for as I could about the situation. It was amazing how this changed my perspective! Here were a few things from my mental gratitude list: - A washing machine — I shuddered to imagine what it would be like if I had to wash all the throw-up covered bedding by hand.
- Running water — What if I had to go haul water from a well to bring into the house to clean the carpets and then wash the clothes?
- A cheerful child — Even while feeling really miserably, this child had a happy demeanor and was even able to find humor in the situation.
- A willing helper — One of my other children donned rubber gloves and volunteered to pitch in right beside me. Their servant’s spirit blessed me so much.
- A carpet cleaner — Investing in a carpet cleaner a few years back has proven to come in handy time and again. Today, I was once again very grateful for how it sped up the clean-up process.
- That the episode did not repeat itself — While the first episode took a significant amount of time to clean up, I was incredibly grateful that no vomit ended up on the carpet or bedding the rest of the night.
- That only one child was sick — If all three had been sick at the same time, I can’t begin to imagine what that would have entailed!
- That we were home — This could have happened in the car, at someone’s else house, or at the store!
Looking for things to be thankful for made the clean up go so much more quickly and it helped me have a much more pleasant attitude about the whole thing! I know that a stomach bug is a very minor thing in comparison to what many of you are facing today. But can I challenge you in this? No matter what messes or struggles or difficulties you’re facing right now, choose gratitude in the midst of it. It might not change your circumstances, but it will certainly change your outlook! The post Being Thankful — Even When Dealing With the Stomach Flu appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories 
At the beginning of every week in 2013, I'll be sharing a different way you can save $100 this year. If you do all of these things, you'll be able to save over $5,000 this year alone! Many of these things will likely be things you're already doing, but hopefully all of you will pick up at least a few new ideas or some inspiration from this series.
Since we’ve been married, we’ve saved thousands of dollars alone just by packing sack lunches. While Jesse was in law school and we were living on a beans-and-rice budget, brown-bagging it was a must as there was no way we could afford even eating off the dollar menu on a regular occurrence. But even though we brown-bagged it out of necessity, we found lots of ways to make it easy and yummy — so it really didn’t feel like a sacrifice. Plus, the money we saved made it every bit worth it!
How Much Can You Save? If you’re willing to put in a little time to plan ahead so you have the necessary food on hand and then to take a few minutes every evening or morning to put together a sack lunch, the return on this small investment of time can be quite remarkable. In fact, I figured out that most of the lunches I’ve packed for my husband cost anywhere between $0.75 to $1.50 each (remember, that’s mostly because I’ve shop the sales, used coupons, and stocked up on items when they are at their lowest prices!). A lunch at a fast food restaurant is likely going to cost at least $4-$5 at a minimum. Based upon these calculations, it is very safe to say that packing a lunch has saved us at least $3 per day. Over the course of the year, that’s $750 saved! And that’s a low figure. If someone is eating out at nicer restaurants most days and spending $7-$12 per lunch, the savings are significantly higher! In addition to the savings, there’s also the added benefit of homemade lunches also often being much more healthful for you as well–especially when compared with fast food meals. Amber emailed in and shared how they were saving $200+ per year by packing lunches: We save $200+ a year by packing my son's lunch for school. The daily lunch at our school costs $2.15, so for the 180-day school year, the cost of buying lunch is $387.00! I have found that I am easily able to pack my son's lunch including a healthy entree, salty side, fruit and "treat" for no more than $1 a day. I'm blessed that he prefers his filled water bottle to a more expensive drink, however, even adding a drink would still have significant savings over the purchase price. This year we will save about $200 (I'm figuring there will probably be 10 lunches that will end up being purchased over the course of the year). Yahoo! Given the potential savings, I decided I would purchase a thermal entree container to send his favorite leftovers. It will be a $3.99 well spent.
And Illysa wrote and said she figured they were saving $225 per year by packing lunches: My children's school charges $2.75 a day for lunch. That works out to be about $495 each school year (per child). Since I've never been pleased with the school lunch options (a typical week at my child's school looks like this: tacos, pizza, spaghetti, grilled cheese, nachos… ugh!), I decided to make sure my kids had a healthy, delicious lunch packed for them each day. It takes a little extra time each evening, but it's worth it! Entrees: - Homemade pizza. An entire cheese pizza can be made for about $5. A slice in the lunchbox would cost about $0.60.
- Quiche Cup: (Can be made in a cupcake tin) A dozen eggs and a brick of cheese can make 12 quiche cups. The cost per cup is about $0.30.
- PB&J Sandwich: Costs about $0.35 to make at home. Sides: Organic baby carrots go on sale at my grocery store for $0.49 a bag. They run this sale about once a month. I always stock up, because one bag lasts me a week. That's only $0.10 a day! It's a perfect side item in the lunchbox! Crackers can be found for about $2 a box (without coupons). One box should last about 2 weeks. That's only $0.20 a day. Cheese bricks often go on sale for $2. You could slice it up and add it to the crackers. One 8 oz brick lasts me about one week. Only $0.40
a day. Yogurt easily found on sale for $0.50 each. You can easily put together a combination of these items for $1.50. And you can search through your stockpile to find items that might be even cheaper. At $1.50 a day, you'll save $225 over the course of the school year. -Illyssa 
Download a free lunch box planner printable from A Little Delightful.
Sanity-Saving Sack Lunch Ideas: One thing that has helped me in packing lunches is to divvy up serving-size portions of muffins and cookies in baggies and stick them in the freezer. Then, when I’m packing lunches, I can just pull a few of these baggies out to add to the lunch and round things out. Baggies of muffins and cookies are also great to have on hand for when we’ll be out and about running errands. Being prepared with our own food means we divert the urge to make a quick stop through the drive thru! I’ve also found that doing sack lunch prep the night before makes it so much easier. For some reason, I’m much more motivated and creative at nighttime than I am most mornings. Take a few minutes after dinner to figure out what you’ll be packing the next morning and even get as much as possible ready. You’ll never regret this in the morning! If you’d like to pack lunches for your kids, but just don’t have the time to do it on busy school mornings, here’s a great idea from KJ: I have four children, including a newborn. I drive my older two children to school so all of us need to be ready to go in the morning. In order to make the mornings go smoother, I wanted to have my two school-aged children pack their own lunches. I also wanted a variety in their lunches and not all cheese sticks  So I posted this on the fridge: - (1) sandwich/granola bar/bread or muffin
- (1) fruit/veggie/yogurt/cheese
- (1) drink
- (1) cracker
- (1) dessert
- Have your lunch packed by 7:45
- Pray before you eat
- Have a great day!
On the weekends, I will bag the desserts and crackers. I then put the baggies in a large bag labeled desserts or crackers in the pantry. I make the PB&J sandwiches (put in freezer), and bag the fruit or veggies. I will also make the granola bars or homemade muffins. There is also a shelf in the fridge that is "their shelf". That is where we keep the drinks, fruit, homemade applesauce, etc… for their lunches. I timed it once and that whole process from start to finish took me 20 minutes! Much quicker than trying to put everything together in the mornings. I like it because it is one less thing I have to do in the mornings. They like it because they can choose what they put in their lunch that day. It works well for us!
One quick & easy way we’ve sped up sack lunch preparations is by making up a bunch of Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches for the freezer. Looking for more make-ahead sack lunch ideas? Check out my Lunchbox Freezer Cooking series. Need some more budget-friendly sack lunch ideas? Check out the comments on this post.
Do you pack lunches? Why or why not? photo credit; photo credit The post 52 Different Ways to Save $100 Per Year: Brown Bag It {Week 41} appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories 
Breakfasts Oatmeal, Cereal, Eggs, and/or Fruit Lunches Mac & cheese, fruit
Snack-y lunch {veggies, cheese, yogurt, fruit, crackers, etc.}
PB&J, carrot sticks, apples
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks
Leftovers x 3 Snacks Fruit/veggies
Popcorn
Boiled eggs 
Dinners Pancakes, scrambled eggs, fruit
PB&J sandwiches, carrots, fruit (Jesse will be gone, so I’m keeping it simple!)
Mini Chicken Pot Pies (I’m going to make homemade biscuit dough for these), fruit
Ham & Cheese Pockets, fruit salad, steamed veggies
Chicken & Stuffing Casserole, fruit salad, steamed veggies
Dinner out
Dinner with extended family What's on your menu this week? Tell us in the comments or leave a link to your menu plan post. The post This Week’s Menu Plan appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories | | |
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it 
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