Yesterday morning was ver anti-climatic. I knew my 3-year anniversary of blogging was coming up so I looked at my blog archives and it turns the anniversary of my first post had actually come and gone.

Many things have happened since the start of this blog: we have added to children to our family, we have moved homes, my husband changed jobs and more. Yet one thing remains constant: our desire to save money so we can achieve our financial goals. Saving money is a lifestyle for our family. The one thing we have learned is that it’s important to do this with a purpose. Having a goal helps you stay the course. You will also find that with time these goals change. When we first started our main goal was to save money so we could survive on one income. Our goals have since progressed to saving money so we can save for our future and the future of our children, among others.

After three years I still call myself lucky to be able to share with others my passion. And while I spend a lot of time during the day doing this, it is still fun for me to do it so in any sense ever considered a chore. My goal is and has always been to help save YOU money as well. While not all of the deals that I share apply to everyone that reads this blog, I consider myself successful if at least one of you finds the information you find here useful.

While I may be late to my own anniversary celebration that doesn’t miss I should skip it entirely. So to celebrate and to thank you for your loyal readership I will be having a giveaway bash this coming Tuesday. I have a few goodies I want to share with you.

I just wanted to make sure you stop by the new Frugal Community Sponsored by Blogfrog and Ebates.  Getting Started is very easy and you do not even have to leave my blog because the community is hosted right here. You can use your Facebook login to connect to the community. if you don’t have a Facebook account or don’t want to use it, you car create your own profile with an email address. Plus guess what? As part of the launch there are lots of prizes to reward you for joining us and participating on the community.

So, come along and join us! We have some hot discussions going on:

Un-frugal spouse…what do I do?

Where is the best place to get shoes for the teens and kiddos?

What is Your Biggest Frustration With Couponing?

To find the community everyday, just click on “Community” at the very top right of this blog’s homepage or the button on the right hand side that looks like this:

Hey guys!  Just wanted to share with you that I am in NYC attending Blogher Conference and having a TON of fun.  I have had the good luck to meet some really great people like Heather from Passion for Savings, Keri Lyn from  She Saved, and Tracie the Penny Pinchin’ Mom!  If you want to know why we are wearing Santa hats and a snowflakes crown it’s because we stopped by the Hallmark booth and they were doing some promo for the holidays.  Then we stopped by the Just Dance booth where we danced to  Wake me Up byWham! and Hey Ya by Outkast.  I believe someone out there somewhere has a video of that, oh boy!  That Just Dance for wii game is a ton of fun by the way!

It has been a CRAZY day.  This morning I spent some time walking the expo halls and there are a lot of great companies represented.  Each giving out some little something.  But so far my favorite ones have been Eggland’s Best and Hillshire Farms because they were giving away coupons for free product.  Oh!  McDonalds is here too and they also gave me a coupon for a free frappe.  I could use it too, I am running low on energy.

Most people are just running around attending “parties” or the conference sessions.  Last night I had a chance to attend Blogger’s Night Out put together by Martha Stewart  Living.  It seems Martha was there, I didn’t see her.  This afternoon I was lucky to attend Getting Gorgeous.  I had a chance to learn about the Power Mat and Miracle Body Jeans, as well as Remington products.  I also dropped my business card for a chance to win a pair of skechers shape ups. Actually, I have been dropping my card for a lot of raffles so I am hoping I get lucky. But with 2400 bloggers in attendance maybe my chances are not so good.  I’ll let you know!

Right now I am headed for Robeez for Stride Rite Launch Party.  I have been a HUGE fan of Robeez since my oldest was born so I am excited about this one.  From what I understand Jonathan Joseph Star from Project Runway will be present, so cool!  Oh and speaking of celebrities, this morning I saw Bruce Jenner and Padma Lakshmi

Anyways, just wanted to touch base with you, lest you think I have gone MIA.  If you were wondering my dear husband is at home with the kids so please say a prayer.  From what I hear so far so good though.  but I still can’t help feel a bit worried and guilty.  Well, only two more days and then back to the grind.

Every week I get so many emails or Facebook wall postings from some of you sharing the deals that you come across, that I have been thinking of a way to reciprocate.  So, here it is!  Every week I am going to be giving away a $10 gift card to one person who has emailed me a deal.    This is how it’s going to work:

1)  Every Sunday I will select a random winner chosen among all of the deal emails I get during that week. BUT for your email to count you MUST contact me using this contact form.  Only emails sent that way will count and give you an entry for the weekly drawing.  I am even leaving a direct link to the form on the right side bar of this blog.  Just look for the square that says: “Email Your Deal for a Chance to Win.”

2)  Just email me your deal, free sample, special coupon you found, swagcode alert, any deal you come across and that you have not seen mentioned here.  The more deals you send the more entries you get towards the weekly drawing.  The only thing is that every email must be a different deal.  The same deal emailed 5 times won’t get you five entries.

Just one thing:  There IS only one of me manning this blog, so if I don’t get to post your deal please don’t get offended or discouraged.  Your email will still count as an entry and it is of course deeply appreciated.

This is my way of saying thank you for taking the time to email me your deal.  I want to reward you for your loyalty and helpfulness and this was the only fair way I could think of doing so.  We will see how it goes during the first few weeks, who knows I may even revise the amount of the prize upwards.

Thank you again for your help!

You may have noticed that I have been having some site issues lately.  I just wanted to let you know that I am working to get the issue resolved completely by this week.

I also wanted to share with you some family news.  My family moved this past weekend from Wisconsin to New Hampshire.  Yes, it was quite the move and we drove with all three kids on Friday and Saturday.  I tried my best to keep things as normal around here.  But if you emailed me or left me a comment and I have not gotten back to you yet please email me again.  I know some of you offer Cetaphil coupons to me and I would love them, if you printed them for me.  I am thankful for such awesome readers.

So, what does my move mean to you?  Mostly, that this is just about to get better.   I am now able to shop at Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens.  So I am very excited about being able to share those deals with you. For my Wisconsin readers, nothing should change either since thanks to Minnesota Coupon Adventures and Rose Knows coupons I can still bring you Pick N Save Deals and now even add Piggly Wiggly deals.

As for me, I look forward to shopping new stores.  But in many ways I almost feel like starting over.  I have to learn how to shop at new stores plus identify “coupon friendly” stores and cashiers.  I am sure you know what I am talking about.

Finally, I am sad to have left friends and family behind.  A move this far is quite an adjustment for everyone.  There are many things that need to be taken care of.  Many of you may think, “how can she keep blogging?”  but doing this is actually a diversion, a break, for me, not a chore in any way.  I just want to ask for some slack if this week I don’t respond to your emails or comments in a timely manner.  Please feel free to ask your questions in the comments section and I have many helpful readers that are always happy to help.

As I mentioned Monday, I changed some things a bit (just a bit) to make it easier for you to find information around here.

The first thing I had added was a way to make it easier for you to choose a way get my updates:  Email, RSS reader, Twitter or Facebook.  You can subscribe to get my updates in as many ways as you choose.

Second, I added menus to make it easier for you to find Freebies, coupons and deals.  Below my blog logo you will find a navigational bar with main categories.  The first category is freebies where you can find every single free offer I have shared with you.  I looked at it and in the time I have been doing this it has over 700 entries.  If you put your mouse under the following tabs a drop down menu will appear to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.  Just click on the word and you will find it.

If that still doesn’t help you find what you are looking for, you will also find the search bar right at the top of the site.

At the bottom you will also find links to previous posts and  my shopping how-to guides:

There are still little things here and there that I need to iron out.  But as you can see most of the changes have been to make it a better working site for you.  This is a site for you after all, so this is your time to let me know if there is something that needs to change.  I am always appreciative of your thoughtful input.  I heard from some of you that the site was loading slower.  I have changed a few settings and hopefully it is loading faster now.  Please let me know.

You may have noticed things don’t look the same since yesterday around here.  I am working on making this site easier for you to use and navigate.  That’s hard to do while still keeping the site operational.  Please forgive if for a while some of the features that were previously available are not available or if links are not working.  Once the whole process is completed I will share with you the changes and how they work for your benefit.  My goal is to make this a better working site for you.

I just wanted to give you all a heads up that tomorrow at 2PM CST I will be hosting a giveaway of 400 coupons towards a free pack of Fiber One Yogurt.   The first 400 people to claim the coupon will get it.  Don’t miss this giveaway sponsored by Yoplait.  400 coupons is a generous offer but still a limited number.

Don’t forget! tomorrow 3/11 at 2PM CST, the entry form will go up. Be here sharp!

Sadness!  Unfortunately the free item coupon is void in the following states: CA, ID, LA,MN, NJ, ND, NV and TN.  I am sorry you guys!

If you are just getting started using coupons and shopping smarter, or maybe you have always wanted to know all the ins and outs of shopping with coupons, I have great news for you.  I have finally buckled down and created “How To Shop” guides for the stores I usually cover.  I will be sharing those with you this coming week.  However, I need your help on two things:

• I am looking for a reader (or a blogger) with experience shopping at Rite Aid that can help me write this store guide.

• I am also looking for readers (or bloggers) that have experience using survey and pay when you search sites to make money from home.  I am looking for current or past users that can “review” these earn money from home opportunities.

If you would like to share your own experience with any of these earn money from home programs and think you can provide objective feedback please enter your information below.  You will have my help writing these reviews.  I will provide you with specific questions to answer, to make it easier for you.  I hope there are some of you that can and are willing to help me and the rest of my readers with this. Thanks in advance!

Thank You SO Much!! You guys Rock!  Everyone that signed up please expect a follow up email from me this evening.