I scored a great deal on a $25 gift certificate for our local Chevy’s Tex Mex restaurant that my husband and I plan to use for a date night! The $25 gift certificate cost me $2! Yep, two bucks!

I also received a $15 “floral reward” from FTD  that I might have to pass that on to my husband! Hint, hint!

Here’s the deal: Save 80% off Restaurant.com $25 Gift Certificate orders and receive a $15 FTD® Floral Reward. Use code HEART and Pay $2 thru 2/14/10.

Visit Restaurant.com to claim this deal….remember to use coupon code, HEART to get the discount!

Hot deal alert!

Stop by CVS.com and register for their photo service and you’ll receive 50 free photo prints with free pickup at a local store! These prints are 100% free as long as you have a local CVS store for pickup.

What a great way to get those holiday pictures off your camera and developed for Grandma and Grandpa!

http://www.cvsphoto.com/account/register.aspx

Enjoy!

  This is probably the best deal I have seen yet on the famous, “Entertainment” coupon books, so pay attention!

Right now, you can get a FREE 2009 Entertainment Coupon Book if you reserve a 2010 book! What a great deal!

I don’t know about you, but summertime is the time of the year I tend to use most of these coupons anyway, so there is plenty of time to get your money’s worth before the coupons expire in November! Besides the 2 for 1 dining coupons, there are coupons for national chain stores, online stores, car washes, gasoline, dry cleaning and more. Add in the great deals on movie tickets. amusement parks, museums, local kids’ attractions and more and well, let’s just say keeping the kids busy this summer won’t be as expensive as you would think!

Coupons and offers vary by region, so your book my vary, but I have purchased an Entertainment coupon book every year since I was about 21 years old and I have always made my money back and then some on the savings inside. Getting a 2009 book for free is a really fantastic deal (and I almost wish I had waited a bit to get mine!).

To claim your FREE 2009 Entertainment coupon book with a 2010 reservation, visit Entertainment Coupon Books now! This is a limited time offer and I’m not sure when it may expire!

 If you’ve been waiting to purchase your 2009 Entertainment coupon book, now would be a fantastic time to do so!

All books are now just $15 (regularly $35-$50) and can be sent to you with free shipping!

I don’t know about you, but I love the Entertainment book for all of the “buy one get one free” coupons for restaurants, coupons for family attractions and deals on fine dining. I usually wait to purchase mine until the Spring because, quite frankly, we don’t go many places in the winter in the Midwest!

Get yours just in time for all of the fun that spring and summer are sure to bring! At just $15, using just a couple of the coupons can pay for the book easily!

Get your 2009 Entertainment Coupon Book for just $15 with free shipping!

I mentioned a few months ago about a great easy personalized gift and thought I would post a little reminder about Mother’s Day coming up on May 11th. There’s still time to order your own personalized engraved cake pan for Mom, Grandma, the New Mom in your family or even for yourself.

Here’s the original post, but I plucked some more graphics from the CaptainPantastic.Com site that are specific to Mother’s Day for you:

    A basket pan filled with flowers would be great for any Mom!  These pans come in bold colors to match kitchen decor as well as the raw aluminum finish.

    Each pan also has the name engraved on the bottom of the pan     itself to make it easy to match lids with pans at a potluck!

    I really like this pan! The inscription says, ”Made with Care…and Made to Share” 

   You can also get this one without the heading at the top, and   instead have just the first name engraved in the lower left corner.

There are even more great pans perfect for Mom on the site…

 
What I love about this gift idea is that it’s SUPER easy, but it looks like you went through a lot of trouble. It’s as simple as filling out a form and the pans are on their way!

So if you plan to purchase one for Mother’s Day, order SOON to make sure you get them in time!

Technorati Tags: Mother’s Day gift, Mother’s Day, easy gift ideas, personalized cake pans, engraved cake pan, personalized engraved cake pan, last-minute gifts

I’ve been talking with some Moms (and Dads) out there who are having a hard time managing their finances in these tough economic times. I know that we’ve personally cut back on some things due to our impending move to a larger home. I know that once we move, with a mortgage payment that is nearly double what we pay now, that some permanent changes are going to have to be made.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to have a regular feature here on AutomaticMoms that will highlight some of the tips and resources that I’ve come across that might help you manage your money more effectively, save money, or even make some extra money.

“AutomaticMom’s Money” is a new feature here, and I encourage you to sign up for our RSS feed so you can be alerted immediately of some of these time-sensitive resources and tips. Some of these alerts will be short-term resources that you might need to jump on to take advantage of. So please stop by regularly, or consult the feed for instant notification.

In the first ever, “AutomaticMom’s Money” I have a tip for those of you who plan to use your 2008 economic stimulus check (for those of us in the US) that should start arriving in mailboxes in about a month or so. If you are like me, you plan to try to parlay that check into more money either by making an investment or by paying down high-interest debt. If though, you were planning to do some home improvements, this little tip might help you stretch that check a bit further:

Sears stores will be offering a bonus to customers who convert their economic stimulus check into a Sears or Kmart gift card. The bonus will equal 10% of whatever your economic stimulus check is. So if you are like my family, we are receiving $1500 (two adults, one child) your bonus would be $150!

The gift cards will not have an expiration date, so you could conceivably live off that little bonus for quite some time. Kmart and Sears are the same company, so you could use it interchangably at both stores. You can also use the card at Lands End and the online site for LandsEnd.Com and Sears.Com.

Check out the story on CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/15/news/companies/sears_stimulus.ap/index.htm

Here’s where it gets interesting…Kmart…not my favorite store, but they have baby supplies, diapers, food, housewares….use the card only when things are on sale or clearance and you’ll get even more bang for your buck. And don’t forget about coupons to make it stretch further.

And the economic stimulus check…that’s $300 for each child, so each child represents an additional $30 in bonus under this program.

I’m not sure that I will personally do this, since the check will be arriving around the time that we are hoping to move, but I can see how this would be a wonderful way to stretch that check further. If you were planning to just put it in the bank and use it a bit here and there, this might be a better deal for you because you are receiving 10% guaranteed return on the check rather than the ever-dwindling interest rates on deposit accounts. But I stress, this is a good deal for someone who planned to spend it anyway…if you need it for something else or if you don’t have any money set aside for emergencies, you would be better off creating a financial cushion instead.

The CNN article also mentioned that this may start a trend among retailers….maybe other stores will follow suit? In that case, wait until as long as you can before trading it in to make sure you are getting the best deal for you and your spending needs.

I have MANY, MANY more tips like this….grab the RSS feed now so you’ll hear about them first!

Technorati Tags: economic stimulus, Sears, economy, saving money, budget, budgeting, shopping, discounts, coupons

I’m all shopped out…between the holidays, weddings, new babies and those beginning-of-the-year birthdays, I’ve shopped so much that I can’t even bring myself to go to the mall anymore. And now, with Easter and Mother’s Day around the corner, I find myself looking for special gifts that really make an impact for not a great deal of money.

So I’m taking the easy route and ordering gifts online, even personalized gifts, because it seems like the people in my life have everything already anyway! Here’s a really cool and easy gift for ANYONE (and I mean literally anyone…Moms, Grandmas, Daughters, Dads, Teachers….anyone you find you need to purchase a gift for and have NO idea what to get them) and it makes a huge statement while also being incredibly affordable!

Have you seen these? Personalized engraved cake pans? These are so fun and unique! The base is a standard rectangular cake pan, and the cake pan lid is engraved with a personalized message and design! Imagine your Mom taking cookies or bars to a potluck and being able to show off a beautiful pan like this:

These pans are from the premier pan engraver, Captain Pantastic and he makes dozens of designs in four different colors and even engraves the owner’s name on the bottom of the metal pan so you can easily match up the lid with the right pan bottom at a party or a picnic. I have two of these pans and they are just stunning…brilliant colored pan tops and crisp and beautiful engraving. I’ve seen these pans sold by other retailers online, but truthfully, no other engraver really does the work that he does. I found many of the other designs simplistic and rather rough, but the pans from Captain Pantastic are flawless!

Here are some of the sample pics I swiped from their site for your viewing pleasure…..

So if you’re looking for an easy (and visually stunning!) gift that will really knock someone’s socks off this Easter, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, these pans can’t be beat. You just order online, select the personalization and they are engraved and shipped directly to you. No shopping, no lines and no hassles. What every Automatic Mom appreciates right?

These are from Captain Pantastic…..click here to order…..

Technorati Tags: Easter gifts, Mother’s Day gifts, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Father’s Day gifts, wedding gift, baby gift, shower gift, personalized gift