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With the holidays coming up, a lot of us will be taking desserts, dips, snacks and appetizers to parties. What better way to keep them warm than in a slow cooker. If any of you have eaten at Qdoba’s and love their queso, here’s a recipe for a lower-fat version of Qdoba’s 3-Cheese Queso.

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Don’t have a slow cooker?  Check out these from Amazon.  I’ve started ordering from Amazon more and more the past couple of years after realizing how easy and convenient it is.  And I nearly always find the best price on something at Amazon plus a lot of items qualify for free shipping which saves money! A lot of you probably figured this out a long time ago.

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I love saving money, finding bargains, and using really good coupons.  Just ask my family!  I am excited to learn about PromotionCode.org because here is a good way to save money and find coupons online.  It’s so easy!

Here’s what I did. I went to the website for Promotion Codes.org.  On their homepage is a section called “Newest Promotion Codes.”  That interested me because I wanted to see what the latest coupons were for Skechers.  So I went to the page for Skecher’s coupons.  I looked through the list and found a coupon that sounded really good.  Here are the details:

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• 40% off coupon
• Coupon last reported working 4/7/11
• 66% success rate for the coupon
• 22 comments about using the coupon

The comments were very helpful because I found out several things about the coupon from actual users.  The coupon is actually for 25% off which is still a great coupon for Skechers.  Also, you have to buy two pairs of shoes in order to use the coupon and it’s not good towards buying Shape-Ups.  As you can tell, the comments are really helpful.

The site lists a lot of categories, 25 to be exact.  There are a lot of coupons to look through as you can tell from the number of categories.  Quite a few appealed to me (and would to our daughter too), and here are some of them:

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• Clothing, Shoes, & Accessories
• Food & Drink
• Gifts
• Health & Beauty
• Hobbies
• Home & Garden
• Shopping
• Toys & Games (we have two small grandsons plus I’m a teacher)
• Travel

They also have several categories that would appeal to my husband, our son, and our s-i-l.  Computers and electronics would definitely catch their eyes as well as some other categories.  There are also categories that offer services such as automotive, financial & professional services, and telephone services.   These promotion codes definitely cover a wide range of products and services, and they help save people money.  I like that!

Inside this beautifully wrapped package were all sorts of goodies. There were things for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!


In my gift basket for “Halloween Happiness,” there were Spooky Lollipop Rings and Halloween Suckers plus a Halloween pumpkin. (Family Dollar has good prices on their candy for trick or treaters! Note the Lollipop Rings are just $2.) For Thanksgiving, there were several things: an apron (a bib apron with two large pockets AND with DuPont Teflon fabric protector to protect from stains), two holiday dessert recipes from the Family Dollar Holiday Recipe and Coupon Booklet, and a fall leaves bowl.

By the way, you might want to get the Family Dollar Holiday Recipe and Coupon Booklet to help with your entertaining needs and your budget.

The “Christmas Corner” included a Family Dollar Christmas Toy Book which has 24 pages of value packed Christmas toys, affordable for every family.  Our daughter (Christi from Frugal Novice) was visiting when I opened my Family Dollar “Fall Entertaining Toolkit” basket of goodies.  When she saw the toys they sent me, which are in the Family Dollar Toy Book, she was impressed and said that she would definitely be going to Family Dollar to purchase some toys for gifts.

They have $5 toys for kids of every age, and they feature popular name brands like Hot Wheels, Disney, and Bakugan.  In fact, they sent me a Bakugan toy.  I have to admit that I had no idea what that was, but our daughter was very familiar with Bakugan toys.  When I gave it to our grandson (Christi & Brian’s three year old), he was fascinated with it.  In the picture, you can see our grandson, dressed in his red pajamas, playing very intently with his new toy. He liked it so much that he slept with it that night, and even went to sleep with it clutched in his little hand.  It was definitely a hit!

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Family Dollar has everything from kids’ favorites like full-function Radio Control Kid Cruisers to $5 board games to Kidget clothing for newborns-toddlers to hot-priced electronics.  They have play huts for $10 such as the Disney’s Tinker Bell and Disney’s Princess.  They have something for everyone!  What is really impressive is their great selection of $5 toys and gifts.  Also available are wrapping paper and seasonal home decor accents at great prices. No wonder they’re one of the fastest-growing discount chains in the United States and also a Fortune 500 company.

If you visit Family Dollar.com, you can enter the Family Dollar Holiday Dream Dash Contest for a chance to win a 90 seconds holiday shopping spree in one of their stores.  You can enter now through November 19, 2020.  Be sure to go back and vote the week of November 22nd.

Note:  Family Dollar offers a 10% discount on bulk toy purchases of $100 or more, perfect for the charitable gift-giver!

This is a ready-made meal and would make a whole meal for us, but if you wanted to then you could get some frozen veggies and cook them in no time at all.  Here are the freebies for this week:

Buy this:

• Central Market Rotisserie Chicken

Get these free:

• Family Size Caesar Salad
• French Baguette

That saves you $7.68, and you can feed your whole family for the price of the chicken and maybe a veggie.

If you don’t know about this, you’re probably thinking, “She’s crazy!”  And I must admit it does sound crazy!  But hey, I’ll dress up partly like a cow for a free Chick-Fil-A entree on July 9th.  Everyone who comes dressed up partially like a cow gets a free entree, and for those who come completely dressed up like a cow get the whole meal free.  You can RSVP on Facebook if you want to, but you don’t have to.

Here’s more info about where to download free printable cow ears, spots, etc.

If you can’t tell already, I’m a huge fan of Chick-Fil-A…our whole family is.  And would you like to know why? (By the way, this is not a paid post.   It’s strictly my opinion)  Well, let me tell you anyway:

• We really like their food!
• Chick-Fil-A’s food is top quality!
• They have awesome waffle fries.
• Their new spicy chicken sandwich is so good!
• They have a super fast drive-through (One time during the lunch rush, the line wrapped completely around the building and I was at the end of the line.  I timed it and it only took me 5 minutes to get up to the window to get my food.  They’ve always been consistently fast.)
• They’re closed on Sundays for faith and family.
• They give out an enormous amount of money every year in scholarships.

This is a great giveaway at The Frugal Novice because it’s a $25 gift card for groceries, and you get to choose where you want to buy your groceries!   All you have to do is sign up for a free trial at “Food on the Table,” but you are not committed in any way nor do you give any credit card info.  So it’s totally risk free!

The cool thing is that you have 30 days of using “Food on the Table” for free.  That’s one whole month free!

It’s so easy!  Here’s what you do:

• Enter your zip code
• Enter your favorite local grocery store
• Answer a few questions about food, “What are you in the mood for this week?”

Then, “Food on the Table” suggests recipes.  You choose which ones.  They tell you what ingredients are on sale at the grocery store you chose.  And they even tell you how much money you will save by buying the sale items!  Then they organize your shopping list by categories.  Wow!  It sounds like a lot of fun!  Remember, it’s free for one month, and you get to be in the drawing for a $25 gift card to the grocery store of your choosing.

This giveaway ends at The Frugal Novice midnight on 6/17/2010.

Before I tell you about this awesome $50 gift card giveaway here at Healthy Home Blog, let me tell you this.  Now that I’m “grandma” and have two precious little grandsons, I find myself looking at baby’s and little boy’s clothes if I happen to be passing by them in a store.  The younger grandson is nearly 14 months and the older one is two (nearly three), so I look in the baby’s section and the toddler boy’s section.  I love looking at clothes for them!

Speaking of children’s clothing, have you seen the new line of adorable and affordable kid’s clothes called “Kidgets” at Family Dollar?   I hadn’t seen them until recently when I was given the opportunity to review one of their Kidgets outfits for my grandson as seen below.

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I must say that I’m impressed with how stylish the three-piece outfit is.  It is really cute!  And the saying on the T-shirt is perfect for a two year old.  (If you’ve ever been shopping with a two year old who is having a “terrible twos” experience in the store, you know exactly what that means!)

Family Dollar’s “The Affordable Turns Adorable” Kidgets line of clothing for newborns through toddlers is perfect for this economy.  Many people have a tight budget but yet they still want to have cute clothes for their kids.  Look at what all Family Dollar’s Kidgets offers:

• Three-piece outfits for $8 and under
• Trendy seasonal accessories such as beach sandals (priced $4 & $5)
• Children’s sunglasses (priced $3)
• Foldable totes (priced $4)
• Hats (priced $4)

If you visit Family Dollar’s website, you can even print a coupon for $1 Off a Kidgets set of clothes for a boy or girl.  I use coupons whenever I can, so I think this is great!  And Family Dollar has a money back guarantee, promising a full refund to anyone who is not satisfied with items in the new Kidgets line.  This is a win/win situation!  Maybe that’s why it’s said that Family Dollar is one of the fastest-growing discount retail chains in the US.

Also, Family Dollar is hosting the Cute as a Kidget Photo Contest with a $5,000 cash grand prize and other great prizes.  Families can upload their cutest “Kidget” photos.  Family and friends will then have a chance to vote, and the winner will be announced on July 16, 2010.  Family Dollar is also hosting a “Cute as a Kidget Sweepstakes” for more fun prizes, and they’re having daily drawings for gift card giveaways.

Now, on to the $50 Gift Card Giveway.

WIN IT:

This giveaway is open to all US readers.
Family Dollar has provided one $50 gift card for giveaway.  Entries for this giveaway will be accepted until midnight CST on Sunday, June 27, 2010. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced the following day in a post.

HOW TO WIN IT:

Mandatory entry: Visit Family Dollar’s site and then leave me a comment below letting me know what you would get with the gift card if you win it.  In your comment info where you leave your name and URL, be sure to leave your email address (which will be private).   I must have a way to contact the winner by email.   The winner will be announced here on June 28th and notified by email.

BONUS ENTRIES:

(Mandatory entry must be completed first!)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry:

• Blog about this giveaway and link it back here (4 extra entries)
• Subscribe (2 extra entries)
• Follow me on Google Friend Connect (2 extra entries)
• Follow me on Twitter (1 extra entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway (1 extra entry per tweet; up to 2 tweets spaced out during the day)
• Put my button on your blog (2 extra entries)  (download it from my sidebar)
  
• Follow Family Dollar on Twitter (1 extra entry)

Note: This was not a paid post, and my honest opinions were provided. Family Dollar provided the Kidgets outfit for review and is providing the gift card for the giveaway, but I was not paid monetarily.