Sharing some links

So I'm not really the poster child for being frugal and saving money, but I have been trying really hard lately to be more mindful of what I'm spending money on, and trying to do a better job at looking around for the best deals. I've found a couple of websites that I really like, that help out all the mom's out there who are trying to save a dollar or two. I thought I'd share a few of these, you may or may not already know about them.

-Mom Advice , specifically the Motherload portion of her blog. The author gives out lots of informative and fun information, and I love her freebie Friday.

-Freebies 4 Mom, gives great links and resources to find the best free product samples (which are so fun to get in the mail) and great coupons, a lot of which you can just print off of your computer. Also regularly updates you on what you can buy for "free".

-Tips and Treasures, you'll find more good deals and tips, and the author also does a weekly recap of how much money she earned and saved for her family by finding good deals and using coupons. Very interesting.

-Money Saving Mom, one of my favorites because there are weekly and mid-week rundowns on all of the best grocery shopping deals broken down by store. They tell you which coupons to use and basically make it totally easy for you. Also other bloggers can update with their own local deals or finds. Very helpful.

-Frugal, Freebies and Deals, updated daily with new finds. Quick and easy to look through.

-BeCentsable, organized and easy way to look at store deals, coupons, and also has a section for printable coupons you might have missed.

-Home Ec 101 -What You Wish Your Momma Taught You, This blog is one of my favorite finds. It has kind of a retro throw back feel and has TONS of good information on pretty much anything you could think of.

-ebates -If you're going to be shopping online anyway, might as well earn some cash back in the process. This site lets you search by store and shows you the percentage you'd get back.


*Just for Fun*:
-Bloggy Giveaways features a new giveaway that you can enter almost every day. The prizes are really cool and feature some really neat companies.

-Mama Loves Giveaways also has some good prizes for you and your family. They usually post about one giveaway a week.

For those of you who don't subscribe to the paper to get all of the coupons that come on Sundays, you can go online to smartsource.com, or redplum.com and print a lot of them off. Also if you have a favorite product brand, try visiting their companies website to score some more discount coupons and join their mailing lists.

Also, when I'm ordering anything online, I always search for discount codes to apply to my order (i.e. Children's Place online discount codes). Sometimes it makes it just enough to cover the shipping, but hey that saves me an extra shopping trip, and added with the ebates cash back makes it a pretty sweet deal.

With the rising prices for food and gas, it's made me more aware of what I'm bringing into my home. Are they things I really need, or is it just more "stuff"? That can be the one trap about clipping coupons and hunting sales, is that sometimes you feel the need to buy things just because they are on sale or you have a coupon for them. That's not really saving money in my book. And I also don't run all over town to several different stores. Time IS money right? Although sometimes, you can't beat good grocery sales and there have been times where making a special trip to a certain store for a few things has been worth it.

I hope this post doesn't sound like I'm trying to be an expert in this particular area, (because I'm NOT) I just know I've scored some pretty cool freebies and deals and wanted to pass them along to all my friends so you could enjoy them too.

What' s your favorite money saving tip?