Posted by kim on December 9, 2009
This will be the fourth year I’ve hosted the “Sutter Christmas” (my mom’s side of the family) at my house. This will be the first year we have decided not to exchange gifts due to the economic recession.
Since I love how much fun we all have getting together and the opening of presents together, I decided to wrap up something* from my free room for everyone – all forty of us Sutter descendants – to put under the Christmas tree.** In fact, I have collected so much free stuff that I had enough to wrap two presents for everyone and still have a good supply***.
How do I accumulate so much free stuff?
Free After Rebate Items – online and offline
Free After Coupon Items
Free Samples
Promo items collected from conferences I attend
Products sent to me to review for my websites
Most of the men will be receiving tools and car supplies from Menards free-after-rebate while others will be receiving “gag gifts” such as stress balls, dandruff shampoo and condoms.
*I have not yet decided if I’m going to say the presents are from “Santa” or from our deceased Great-Grandma Sutter. Yes, it may sound morbid, but since grandma’s passing, our family (albeit demented) has had many laughs wrapping up grandma’s trinkets to pass on as gifts, namely an ugly chicken.
**After having 12 Christmas trees last year for the Holiday Parade of Homes, we only put up two this year – one from last year that I saran-wrapped from last year (pics here) and a small pencil tree that I let the kids decorate with family ornaments (shown above).
***This was an opportune time to clean/organize my free room. So I set up a table of free times (ie bags, koozies, keychains, tshirts and hats, shown below) that hopefully my holiday guests will snatch up.
Are you planning anything “free and fun” for your Christmas gathering?
Posted by kim on July 10, 2005
I didn’t feel like cooking lunch today, so the kids suggested going out to eat. Great idea, as then I could do a little shopping while we were there. In case you didn’t know, we live in a town of 1700 people, so the places to eat and shop are null.
Thank Goodness for the Internet, as that is where I do most of my shopping. But I still need to buy groceries and such. So, most often we venture to Norfolk, Nebraska which is fifteen miles away. Still not a big city by any means, but it has a Target, Super-Walmart, Walgreens and places to eat! If it only had a Chili’s (my favorite restaurant), it’d be perfect.
I had previously found this new site – Boodle.com – to print manufacturer coupons. I had clicked on Kearney, Nebraska, but you can click on any city listed, and the coupons appear to be a little different for each city. I had printed out coupons for Diet Coke w/Splenda, Betty Crocker Brownies and General Mills cereals. One of the grocery stores had all those items on sale, so I got some great deals!
At Walgreens, I had wanted to do the Diet Pepsi Deal (4/$10 – $10 rebate = FREE), but they were out of all the diet pops. You can do both the Walgreens rebate and the $10 rebate that was in today’s Sunday paper. (If you missed it, you can print it out online). I price matched the pop at Walmart to send in for that rebate. I’m acquiring a taste for the Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi.
Also currently at Walgreens, when you buy Suave Shampoo or Conditioner on sale for 99¢ each, you get a FREE Suave hair style product ($1.69 value). Plus there was a coupon for 60¢ off in my Sunday paper today. So for 39¢, I got shampoo and hairspray!
My last great find was at Target where all their Fourth of July items were 90% off. There wasn’t much left, but I managed to find some kids’ clothes (cute tank tops and shorts) originally $4.00, so I got them for 40¢ each! Plus I got some baby bonnets to use as gifts at 29¢ each. Good thing I have a few pregnant friends, as my baby stockpile is getting out of control in my “free room”.
I have a room in my basement for my stockpiles where most of the items were obtained for free or close to it (with coupons, rebates, clearance, etc), thus named my “free room.” My siblings love to come shopping in Kim’s Free Room Store. If any of you are passing through my town here in the middle of nowhere, you are welcome to stop by and shop yourself!
