Project of the Week (POTW): Wine Glass Charms

Do you like drinking wine with friends but have a hard time remembering whose glass is whose?

Wine glass charms solve this problem. Just attach a unique charm to each person's glass and you'll never get your drinks mixed up again. Not a wine drinker? They work on any stemware. You can get generic ones that are different colors, or ones with a theme, or you can personalize them to your friend's personalities.

This week I made Luck of the Irish themed ones. Pictures are below. They are really crappy because I took them with my phone. I think the kiddo hid my camera. I'll take better ones later.

I'll be making more charms soon that will be available in my shop. I'm holding off on officially opening my shop until I have a bit more of a selection. If you'd like some charms and want a particular theme, comment this entry and I'll let you know if I can get charms for your theme.

Keep on keepin' on,

The Lucky Mom

Getting to know you

The soda cake ended up being perfect. It was a hit at the party. We'll definitely be making cakes like that in the future.

I got my name labels in the mail. I'm still working on the review process, but preliminary results are looking good. They've withstood a couple of washes in the laundry and the dishwasher, depending on what I labeled. We'll see if they continue to hold up. A formal review is coming soon.

I wanted to get to know a little more about my readers. So I have a quick poll for you.

1. Do you have kids? If so, what ages?
2. Do you do any crafting? If so, what medias?
3. Do you coupon?

And for added dynamic...
4. Who is in charge of managing the bills in your house?
5. Who cooks the majority of the time?
6. Who cleans the majority of the time?

I will answer my own questions.
1. I have one son, age 1.
2. I paper craft, I sew, I do modge podge projects, and I repurpose things
3. My family has used coupons for a while but just started really using them for deals in the past couple of months.
4. I have been in charge of managing the bills. All of our money goes into joint accounts (we do not have separate ones) but I'm more organized so it was natural for me to take it over. Now that my husband stays at home with our son, he's starting to take over more of that responsibility just because he has more time to be able to call places and organize the mail.
5. My husband cooks most of the time as well. That's largely due to the fact that I never learned to cook. I've been cooking more recently and we've actually been cooking together a lot as well.
6. My husband and I clean different areas. He's more likely to clean the kitchen and bathrooms. I'm more likely to vacuum and organize the clothes, clean the rooms, and do the laundry. The only time he does that more than I is when I'm working long days and he can accomplish it while our son is napping.

Soda Cake

Need to bring a dish to share to a get-together and don't want to spend a lot and only want to use what you have in your home? Why not bring Soda Cake?

I recently found out that you can bake a cake with literally just the box of mix (which is about $0.50 if you use a coupon) and a can/12oz of soda.

Just mix the 12 oz of soda with your cake mix and pop in the oven according to the directions. Some people say to bake for an additional 5 minutes to make sure all the liquid is absorbed into the cake, but it doesn't really matter.

I have one baking in the over now that I'm taking to a Wii Bowling league get together. Not bad for having to feed several people for less than $1.

Review in Progress

I got my labels in the mail this week from Oliver's Labels. I plan on thoroughly testing them out for the next week.

For those who don't know what it is, Oliver's Labels makes lables to adhere to personal items. You can use them on cups, bottles, eating utensils, shoe soles, clothing, etc. They are reportedly dishwasher and washer/dryer safe. This week I'll be testing them making sure they get plenty of wear so I can report back to you.

Great Deal on Living Social Today

Who doesn't want an Amazon gift card for 50% off?

Today only, Living Social has a $20 Amazon gift card for the purchase price of $10. It's limited to one per customer but if 3 of your friends buy it, your deal is FREE! Sounds like a great deal.

Here's the link:
Living Social Amazon Deal

Not a Living Social subscriber? Go to the link above and sign up. It's FREE and you will get local deals delivered to your inbox.

I've used Living Social and other sites like it to get great deals at my favorite ice cream place, a furniture store, a jewelry store, the aquarium, and MORE! It's worth the extra mail in your inbox to score deals that save 50%-90%!

Update on Coupon Score: figured out the TRICK

So I tried to do my coupon deal again tonight. This time none of the coupons would scan. After dealing with the manager for 10 minutes, I finally figured out that it was because all of my boxes of pasta were for $0.85 whereas the night before I had gotten some that were $1.00 in addition to the ones for $0.85.

Apparently, you have to get at least one box at more than the coupon value otherwise the coupon will give the cashier an error that says the coupon cannot exceed cost of item. The work around is that as long as one item is the same or higher price of the coupon, then all the coupons will work even if the rest of the items are less. And that is how you get your overage.

Needless to say, because the manager was present when we figured this out, she would only let the cashier key in the coupon for $0.85 instead of scanning them for $1.00 (as they were finally scanning at that point).

So the trick is, get 1 pasta at $1.00 or more and then get the rest at the $0.85 and then all of your coupons will scan.

Upcoming Reviews and a Giveaway

We've been approved to review two different products. One is a children's label to meet all of your daycare or camp needs or even if you just want to keep your kids things organized with their own names. The other is for some children's books.

Stayed tuned for the reviews. And one of the items is being given away.

Are you as excited as I am?

- Lo

The Lucky Mom has Lucked Out!

My wonderful hubs and I have been using coupons for years for discounts on items we usually buy. When we moved to SC I met some really frugal ladies at our church who explained how to use coupons to get things FREE and to even make money with them.

I had my first experience with that this week. I have over 100 boxes of pasta in my truck (most of which is being donated to the food pantry) that I didn't pay a single cent for. In fact, at one store we not only got the pasta for free, but the difference in the coupon versus the price actually earned us some of our other groceries for free as well.

I went to http://www.muellerspasta.com and registered my email. Then I went to their coupons and promotions page. From there I printed several $0.55 and $1.00 of one item coupons.

Bi-lo has several types of pasta on sale for $1.00/box so I went there first and got a ton of boxes there. But then I noticed that Ingles had lasagna 5/$5.00 which wasn't one of the ones on sale at Bi-Lo and they had boxes of spaghetti for $0.85.

I bought 10 boxes of the items that were 5/$5 at Ingles and 18 boxes of spaghetti for $0.85 and uses my $1.00 coupons. My 10 items were free and I actually EARNED $0.15 x 18 for my boxes of spaghetti. I had no idea that Ingles allowed you to keep the difference when the coupon is worth more than the item (Bi-lo doesn't). So we ended up getting a few dollars off our other items.

Needless to say I'm goning to be printing more coupons tomorrow and head back to Ingles for more spaghetti. Then maybe I can get some fresh produce for free with the difference!

Finally Settled and Ready to Roll

There have been a lot of changes for my family in the past year. We completely relocated to SC from VA on a hope and a prayer. I started a completely new career path. We bought our own home and moved in 2 weeks before Christmas. We had our son's first Christmas and first birthday party a week apart. We've had several guests come and stay. I've been so busy my head was spinning.

But now comes the calm. And with the calm comes more time to update... and time to dedicate to expanding my page.

I can finally turn this site into what I originally envisioned.

I will continue to do tutorials and showcases of crafts. But I will also transform this into a go-to place for moms and crafters. I will talk more about my family so you can get to know us. I will review products and host giveaways. The giveaways will be of both my own creations and of others. I will try to include some information on my newest adventure: couponing.

I hope you can come and enjoy the ride with us.

Please like us on Facebook at our Lucky Mom Creations Page there.