Shutterfly & TinyPrints

I love Shutterfly and TinyPrints!

Ever since I checked out Shutterfly's website a few years ago, I've been hooked! Now, there is a new division, called TinyPrints. You can check them out at www.tinyprints.com. They offer beautiful and personalized cards, invitations and announcements.

Periodically Shutterfly or TinyPrints will run promotions where you can get free items. A couple of days ago I received an email offer for 10 free thank you cards from TinyPrints. I went online to check the offer out today and noticed I could upload my own photo to use on one of their cards. I decided to give that a try.

I had recently taken the picture above and thought it may look pretty on a card, so within minutes I had it uploaded and my own thank you card designed. It looks pretty good. Online anyway :-)

I put the order in for my 10 free cards and shipping totaled $3.50. Not bad, given that I could spend $3.50 on one card alone. Ten for that price is a bargain! If you haven't checked them out, you may want to. They offer pretty good prices, great promotions and the ability to create something special and unique. Enjoy!

(PS This is just my personal opinion because I felt like sharing. I don't get anything special for letting you guys know about this.)

Our New Electric Toothbrush - Phillips Sonicare Healthy White!

 (Photo Credit)

Our 10+ year old electric toothbrushes died last week.The brushes had more than outlived our expectations. It was time for something new. After scouring reviews, I decided on a Phillips Sonicare Healthy White Electric Toothbrush (shown above).

This brush is different than the one we previously had, which was an Oral B. This one actually has a full size toothbrush head, compared to our old one which was just a round brush which only covered one or two teeth at a time.

We've been using it for about a week now and our teeth have never felt so clean! (Sorry, I just sounded like a commercial there for a moment.)

Although I shopped around for the best price I could find, I still had a hard time when it came to actually paying for these. They ended up being around $70 each. That's after a $20 rebate that I still need to send in. My mind started calculating out how many manual brushes I could get for that price. Believe me... it's a lot! But (isn't there always a "but"?), both the hubby and I have had some dental issues in the past and it's really in our best interest (healthwise) to take really good care of our teeth and gums, as they've gotten progressively worse as we've aged. I truly believe this brush will help us do that. We'll see how the next visit to the dentist goes later this year!

Question? : Have you purchased something that you knew was "right" but it still kinda felt so "wrong"? What was it? 

Fun (and cheap) weekend ahead!

I'm excited about our weekend! 

We are doing great with staying on budget and now we have two different fun and FREE events to look forward to. As I shared yesterday, we got two free movie tickets and a large popcorn through Groupon! It's supposed to be HOT in San Diego, so I'm thinking that we'll go to the beach tomorrow and then head to our free movie on Saturday night for a date night.

Then, my husband got EXCELLENT free tickets from work to see the Padres on Sunday. I love baseball and as he pointed out, it's a great chance to take some good pics with my new camera, so I. Am. In!

P.S. I know I said I'd try to post only my own pictures, but when it comes to logos and stuff, I'm going with the real thing! ;-) Have a great weekend y'all!

Groupon!

Have you heard of Groupon yet?

It's a pretty cool website that offers you great deals at a hefty discount. I had been checking out their advertised deals for a while but was always too gun shy to make a purchase. (Plus I was being super strict with my budget, of course!)

Well, they had been sending me $10 coupons to use on my first purchase but the coupons don't last long and often times the deals sell out before I'm ready to buy.

Then, they upped the anty this week and they sent me a $15 coupon! I quickly went to their website (www.groupon.com) to see what deals were available and I found 2 movie tickets and a large popcorn at a theater down the street from my house, for $15! Sweet, I quickly decided to make the purchase and got the voucher for a free movie! If you know me, you know I love movies, so this is a terrific and free treat. I'm looking forward to having a fun date night with my hubby.

If you haven't checked them out, you may want to. I think if you sign up, they'll send you coupons too, so it may be worth it. Enjoy :)

Goodbye Weekly Money Check-Up

So, I guess My Weekly Money Check-Up has come to an end.

My Pretty Pennies typically published it every Monday but she hasn't since August 20th. I just looked back and read closer and on that post, she mentioned she was tiring of it. I guess it's run it's course. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in her weekly post. It made me consciously check myself to see how I did the previous week. I suppose I could continue on my own or start something new, but I'm ready to move on too.

As the picture above says, I'm ready for some new adventures!

We're in a pretty good spot financially. This month we will finish paying off all of our miscellaneous credit card balances that aren't listed on the side bar. Then, starting in October, we'll start banking money for a down payment on a house. Assuming we stay on our plan, we'll have about $13K saved up by the end of the year. That should help us with buying a home. We'll likely go the FHA route and only need 3.5% down, so we should be okay.

One of the new things I'm doing is getting back into photography. I love taking pictures! The hubby and I recently went on a trip and decided to purchase a better camera. Nothing too spectacular, but something nice that I feel comfortable with and proud using. I think photography can be a fun and inexpensive hobby for me.

I have decided to try to use only my own pictures on my blog going forward. I really should have listed photography in my 12 goals for 2012 but I didn't think to. (That reminds me that I need to update my goals list soon! I can't believe the year is more than half over.) I took that picture above this weekend. I went out on both Saturday and Sunday and took lots of great pics. I look forward to sharing them :o)

So, I say farewell to the Weekly Money Check-Up. Thanks for keeping me on track when I needed it the most.