It's beginning to feel a lot like...

I'm not even going to apologize for not blogging - we've been BUSY! The holidays are crazy for everyone and for us it has been no exception. We've been all over the place - Wild Animal Park, Disneyland (multiple times, including tomorrow), friends, family, and R's ever juggling holiday party at work (is it this week? is it next week? Thursday? Friday? who the fuck knows!).

In an effort this year to be timely, we began decorating the week after Thanksgiving. Turns out having a new house totally threw off my mojo... considering I celebrated Christmas in the same house for ten+ years and knew how to decorate it. I still have two boxes of decor that are sitting in our garage that I've over - maybe I'll donate it, I don't know. Going from almost 2300sqft to 1630 AND having a very, very active toddler who can scale things (hence why we are now crib-free) has totally changed our decorating style. Everything is up, up, UP or behind a gate (like our tree).

This year, though, I've been more on top on our holiday shopping. Since I'm not battling PPD this year, I am really enjoying pulling everything together, matching up deals, etc. So far we're 2/3 done and have only spent 1/3 of our holiday budget (although if you total up retail prices for everything, we've spent 120% of our budget). Since so few of you actually read through this, I thought I'd share some of my favorite resources...

Slickdeals.net - the holy grail of general deals (for me). Between couponing, deal discussions, and insanity I have managed to hook more people onto this website than I care to remember. I've been turned on to more incredible deals, coupon combos, etc than I can even imagine. I would almost go as far to say that the reason why we were able to pull ourselves out of the six figure divorce damage, buy a house, and not incredibly alter our lifestyle was slickdeals.

Mastercard Marketplace - (Overwhelming Offers) if you have a debit card with the mastercard logo and have the opportunity to be at your computer (with a fast connection) at set times such as 10am, 11am, etc you can store some real steals. This year we've netted $40/50 Walmart purchase, $50/100 Toys R Us, $50/100 gift card for Vons, $50/100 for a Home Depot gift card and a bunch of others. Read the restrictions, follow the rules, and you're golden.

NoMoreRack.com - similar to the other deal websites but I've been happier with their selection, their flat $2 FAST shipping, and the fact that they have a makeup deal (Stila, Lip Fushion, MAC, etc), a handbag deal (Gucci, Coach, Prada, etc), a mens clothing deal,a womans clothing deal (Paige jeans!), toys, and a homegood deal in the same day. Sign up and get a $10 coupon towards your first $20 purchase.

KrazyCouponLady.com - a general coupon site. Great for CVS, Walgreens, etc...