A Great Use for Expired Grocery Coupons

I'm calling all you coupon-clipping mama's to join my effort to help our troops and their families. It's super easy and if I can get you on board I'll do all the heavy lifting. "So what do I need to do?" you ask. Save your expired grocery coupons. That's it! Really!

Now, before you close this post and say, "I don't get the Sunday paper or clip coupons," WAIT!!! You can still help by getting a few printable grocery coupons online.


To make a long story short - some U.S. military bases accept manufacturers' grocery coupons as long as six months after the expiration date. It's a true example of "one man's treasure is truly another man's treasure." So before you crumple up all those expired grocery coupons and throw them in the trash save them. I'll collect them all and we'll send them (as a group) to the base that we decide to adopt.

Are you getting excited?? Are you wanting to read more on exactly how this all works and how you can help military mama's and their families?? Here's the full story.

To get our effort off the ground I need to get an idea of who's up for the challenge. If you're willing to save your old coupons Email me. Then I'll set a date for when the coupons should be mailed to me and I'll get the ball rolling to send the coupons overseas.

Now, for those of you who are really feeling up for the grocery coupon challenge here are a few more ways you can help:

** Clip all manufacturer grocery coupons that you won't use 

(even if they're not expired)

** Find printable grocery coupons online and print off the best deals (remember you can print more than one!!)

Some Help To Get You Started

Printable Grocery Coupons
The Best Online Coupon Sites Online
Overseas Coupon Program

Making Money Online: Building a Second Stream of Passive Residual Income

I've teetered with the idea for awhile, but I think I'm going to go ahead and make the jump and start calling myself a freelance writer. I've been doing lots of writing and making some decent money on eHow. Since I have that passive residual income coming in every month, I've decided to expand my horizons in the vast money-making Internet writing world.



I've started writing on Squidoo. It's a great website that basically allows you to create your own webpages or lenses, as they call them. In fact I got the grapic on the left from a wonderful lense about finding Squidoo Graphics. You can write about anything and everything. The best part is lensmasters (or writers) are encouraged to promote their other online work or websites. If you sell items on Ebay you can link to them or even make commission off promoting Amazon products that are related to your lense's topic.

Check out my first two lenses:

10 Baby Must Have Baby Products (+1 Bonus That Will Save Your Sanity)

The Best Printable Grocery Coupon Sites

Let me know what you think! I welcome the feedback since I really have no idea what I'm doing just yet. But I will and I'm hoping to create a second steady stream of residual income through Squidoo..

By the way, just like eHow, my Squidoo pen name is "NewMama".

Recommended Reading:
Making Money Online Writing for Ehow.com

How To Ehow

Baby Teeth are Everywhere

It couldn't have been more than two weeks ago when I blogged about my daughter finally getting her first tooth. I could feel it just below the surface. Not only has it popped through, (look real close and you can see it barely there in the picture??? ) but so have two others.


I feel like I've waited so long for that first tooth to pop through and now she's got three little chompers. It's amazing how fast they've appeared. Two appeared this morning (one on the top and one on the bottom) after a few days of hiding just below the gum. There are a few things I've noticed just before each new tooth appeared. I thought I'd share them with you to help you get through the teething period a little easier.

*Tired Baby: My daughter is normally good for at least 3-3.5 hours between naps, but the few days before each of her teeth broke through the gums she was extremely tired. Instead of going for her first nap around 9:30 am, she was showing sleepy signs around 8:30 am.

*Longer Naps: What are normally 1.5 hour naps (practically to the minute) turned into 2.5 or 3 hour naps the day before the new tooth appeared. For instance, on Sunday my daughter took a 2.5 hour first nap, a 1.5 hour second nap (woke up 'cause she pooped), then a half an hour later took a 40 minute nap in the stroller. Two new teeth appeared on Monday morning.

*General irritability: My daughter seemed to get slightly more fussy than normal. I can't say it was terrible, but I credit that to Hyland's Teething Tabs. I'd give them to her every four hours, at most, or whenever she'd get extremely fussy.

*Change in Poopy Diapers: I know there's debate over whether this is a sign of teething or not, but my daughter had one large very loose poop (I wouldn't call it diarrhea) the day before each tooth appeared. All other bowel movements were normal. Apparently, there's speculation the loose poop could be caused by excessive saliva caused by teething. While this may be true, my daughter has not been slobbering much, if at all.

Every baby experiences teething differently so I'd like to hear what symptoms your baby had while teething. 

Recommended Reading:

Hyland's Teething Tablets: A New Mama Must Have

Late Bloomer In the Teething Department

Motrin For Teething Pain: My Baby's Allergic Reaction

The Frugal Texter: Send Free Text Messages by Email

I admit, I am probably one of the last people with a cell phone to not have a text messaging plan. I just don't text very often...perhaps because I don't have a texting plan. But now, the frugal mama in me has found a way to send free text messages.


It's so simple all you do is type the text message like you would an email. Now, don't go crazy and type paragraph after paragraph (that's called a phone call), but you can type up to 160 characters. If you get a little long winded that's fine too. Just send another free text message! I LOVE THIS! Where you would normally type the email address type the person's 10 digit phone number and the wireless carrier's email text extension. Here's a little more help when sending to Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless and Cingular customers.

Send Free Text Messages to Verizon Wireless Phones
Sending Free Text Messages to AT&T Customers
Email Free Text Messages to Cingular Customers

Text away, Frugal Texters!!!

There Really is a Smart Pill (Okay, It's a Drink)

OMG!!! I just realized my daughter is 10 months old today. Where has the time gone? Wow!

She's become so curious about the world. I think it's so cute. But I'm wondering if her curiosity is getting in the way of mealtime. Olivia doesn't seem to be too interested in breastfeeding anymore. The last month or two she's refused to nurse before bed. I'm afraid if she doesn't take it she won't make it through the night. I've been giving her a small bottle (3 oz) sometimes she finishes it, sometimes she doesn't. So other than that she's down to three nursings throughout the day. Most of her calories now are coming from solid food. It's a little stressful for me since I KNOW it's important for her to get either breast milk or formula until she hits the one year mark.

This morning I got a little extra incentive to stick with the breastfeeding through the first year (my goal all along). I stumbled upon this article which links breastfeeding to a higher gpa and a greater chance that she'll go to college. What will they think to study next??? Anyway, I thought you'd be interested.

Recommended Reading:
Breastfeeding Linked to Higher GPA, Higher Education

General Breastfeeding Help

Increasing Breastmilk Supply

Why Milk Products, But No Milk?