Money-Saving Tips

Lately I’ve been a little obsessed with Pinterest. Just a little.

So when I was looking for something to give my husband for Christmas, I found this amazing idea for a year of pre-planned date nights. And I knew it was something I had to try and recreate for him.

She not only planned each date, but also prepaid for many of her date night envelopes. Frankly, we didn’t have the cash around Christmas to do the same. So I just put together the ideas for all the date nights in advance. It’s the thought that counts, anyway, right?

I found an incredible box of Penguin books postcards – all featuring old, classic Penguin book covers. I fell in love with those postcards and I thought it would be neat to incorporate them in the gift.

So I had fun choosing a theme for each month, finding a postcard in the pile to coordinate and drawing up an invitation for my husband to join me on a date night. I also found a small travel-themed scrapbook kit (stickers and card stock) that was on clearance, so I grabbed that to add a little extra interest to each envelope. I thought the travel theme reflected “our journey together” nicely.

I tried to keep a relatively frugal eye to the date night planning. There were a couple splurges in there (namely, a concert), but for every splurge there was a frugal/almost free date night (i.e. a free book reading or a picnic).

Here are some ideas I came up with for our Year of Date Nights:

- Freezer cooking night. I know what you’re thinking. “Wow, how romantic, Alissa. Let’s get together and cook for several hours straight. Fun!” I actually started this themed night with the thought of taking a cooking class together – until I priced them out.

And I quickly realized there’s a reason we’ve never been to a cooking class together. Ha! It’s just not in our budget right now. So my wheels started turning and my thought was… you know, we can actually have fun doing mundane things together, if we’re in “date night” mode. So we’ll buy a bottle of wine (optional), turn some music on and have some fun getting some cooking done for the month. Not into freezer cooking? Just plan to cook a nice dinner at home! You don’t even have to pay a babysitter, if you want to feed the kids, put them to bed and plan on a later dinner together.

- The AMC Best Picture Showcase. It’s something we try and make it to every year (we had to miss the year our daughter was born within a week of the event – and even then we were tempted). It’s an incredible experience for movie fans: a 12-hour movie marathon that features all 5 of the Best Picture nominees. In a row. It’s one of our favorite dates all year, so you can bet it was going in the date night basket!

Here’s what the “invite” looked like:

- Roller-skating. Yes, roller-skating. I was trying to go for something active that was a little bit outside our comfort zone. I almost chose bowling, but thought that wouldn’t be a great idea, given my husband’s semi-recent shoulder surgery. I happened to find a nearby roller skating rink that was open on Friday evenings.

- Run a 5K together. My husband has expressed interest in running a 5K together recently… so I’m making sure we make those plans a reality. I scouted out a nearby race that happened to be both an evening race and which also raises funds for a disease that has affected his family, so it’s an extra special race for us. Plus it includes a get-together for all race participants at a nearby restaurant, so that’ll help round out date night!

What do you think? What kind of date nights would you include?

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Recently I teamed up with some fellow Savings.com DealPros to really test our savings know-how on holiday gifts on a budget.

The challenge: Come up with an awesome Secret Santa gift for just $15.

The background: We were randomly assigned names of other DealPros who were participating in the Secret Santa gift exchange. We were anonymously asked several questions about ourselves to give our Secret Santas some ideas about our likes and dislikes. We were also able to add a few items to our wishlist, if we wanted.

The process: Hit the ground running. Check Black Friday (and other) sales to see what I could score for just $15 out of pocket.

Here’s what I found for my recipient, Briana of Bargain Briana:

The book Cake Pops was on her wish list and was under $15, so I put that in my cart.

I then took a look around Amazon to see what I could add to get to that $15 threshold. There wasn’t much wiggle room. The Cake Pops book cost nearly $13, so I only had a couple dollars left to spend.

And that’s when I saw it…

The daily deal for Kindle books that day was The Glorious Pasta of Italy. The regular price of the book is $30 and the Kindle version is regularly $24. I scored it for just $1.99!

I knew she loves her Kindle and reads often. But better yet, she runs a Meatless Monday weekly series that focuses on finding new and inventive ways to leave meat behind for a night. I hope that The Glorious Pasta of Italy gives her some new options to try!

Total value of items: $49.95
Grand total spent: $14.92
Total saved: $35.03 (Woo hoo!)

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Aimee from The Coupon Diva sent me one of the things I’ve had on my wish list FOREVER! My kids and I love to make pancakes together on Saturday mornings. My sister has had this Pancake Pen from Williams Sonoma and I’ve wanted one ever since I saw it in action at her house last Christmas.

Of course, it wasn’t a necessity, so I kept putting off the purchase in favor of other, more pressing needs. (Sound familiar?)

I was thrilled to open the box and see exactly what I’ve been wanting for so long. We’ve already tried it out and it made getting into all those crevices of our pancake molds so, so easy. Thanks, Aimee!

I’d love to hear what great deals you’ve found on your holiday gifts! Please share them in the comments below.

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