I finished my Christmas shopping today, I think except for stocking stuffers. Stumbled across plastic drink bottles on clearance for .25 today. I grabbed them up, got some drink mixes in packets, and a little bit of chocolate and I'll fill each bottle with the mixes and chocolate. Total cost maybe $3 for each!. Dd got a tin of popcorn - she needed a new cute trash can for her desk area, and I figured the popcorn tin was nearly the same as the metal trash can she'd been looking at. So that'll be a nice gift under the tree. Did CVS today, and scored good deals on kleenex, makeup {Physicians formula} and soup. Unfortunately they were out of the soda I wanted, I'll have to grab it at HEB tomorrow. I'm switching to buying coke in small bottles - it's a little costlier, but I can get amazon gift cards {and others as well intermittently} so it balances out. Plus then I can ration DD to a bottle a day. Hffkj - My goal is $500 for the month too. That'll get everything covered until February.

Finished up pretty good here. The sales I've been making on facebook have really helped a lot - I'm hoping those continue this month. My next goal is getting $500 in an emergency fund / buffer.

Contact your state homeschool organization or HSLDA / similar. It's a pretty common issue from what I understand.

Seton is catholic and booklet based, I believe.

Bubble Bath or bath bombs. Lotion too. Or honestly just a gift card to have a night off from cooking.

Yup. I'd do removable "sides" attached with small magnets. You can hot glue the magnets to the truck.

$15 a month for unlimited, wireless modem. I have no idea the speeds though - but I don't think it's as fast as what you need.

I'm looking at getting one, I think {Y'all are converting me, and I like the metal insert}. Is it really worth that much more $$ to get a larger one? I'm considering the 5 quart one at Walmart. It's $50, and it looks like the 8 quart one is $110? Is it really worth it for the larger size? We are a family of 2-4, depending on how many kids are over. Heavily meat eaters, and I'm really not sure yet if I'll use the IP primarily for sides or more as a crock pot {I have a 6 quart oval crock pot that is plenty big enough for us with leftovers} fwiw, I don't care if it has the yogurt feature or not {we don't like yogurt}.

I went out to CVS and grabbed all the freebies this morning. Easy run. I'm debating Walmart. I'd like some of the cheap movies, the rubbermaid storage set, and the towels. But really not sure if it's worth fighting the crowds tbh.

Yep I agree - read the manual. I read the entire Texas DHS handbook over several days while caring for DD who was sick. Best thing I EVER did. For instance did you know homeschooling parents are exempt from work requirements in Texas for assistance? I definitely didn't. And neither did several other mom's who'd been kicked off the program locally. Caseworkers aren't used to dealing with it, so they ignore it. I'll warn you though - caseworkers HATE it when you start telling them "Well section xyz says this, so that needs to be put in the system".

If Xbox 360 works, and you have a gamestop nearby, they'll be doing one for $60 on blackfriday with a $60 mail in rebate.

I'm working on DD's now. I ordered a Funko Pop Harry Potter to fill a chunk of it. Only $7.50 on amazon, and I had a $5 coupon from no-rush shipping. I think I'll do the soda ornaments too

I'm very proud of myself right now. Over the last few days I've sold $394 of stuff, mostly kids books and toys. I used that money to deal with bills that were piling up. Including a property tax bill that was really looming over me {it's now on a payment plan}. I did splurge and spend $7 on a doll armoire at Goodwill today - it'll help dd keep her doll stuff neat, and the price was just too good to pass up. Since it was big and I didn't have any other option, it became an early Christmas gift.

It really depends on personal choice, tbh. I would ask him to confirm. Or pick another pie to be on the safe side.

Oh just remembered another one. When I took Government in community college, my older professor always wore long sleeves in class {in south Texas in summer}. I didn't understand why until one day I happened to go by his office unexpectedly and he had his sleeves rolled up doing something. Turned out he'd been a concentration camp inmate in Germany as a older child / young teen, and had the number tattooed on his arm still.

I was shocked growing up to learn that my g-g-grandfather had run a horse stop for outlaws in Oklahoma. Apparently Jesse James and his brother were good family friends! I would have loved to meet him - Sam was born in 1864 and died in 1969. The things he must have seen in his lifetime..... I remember my dad telling about life during WWII as a kid. He used to go to a local widow's house and do chore in trade for sugar cookies because she had extra sugar and his large family didn't. And things like the coffee can having a particular stamp that nearly matched the sugar stamp, so you'd cut it out and then you could have sugar with the coffee. And things like feed sack clothes for the kids. Ditto with things like the CCC camps of the great depression. Dad remembered them and all the family working there at the one nearby.

Long story, but I need to get a gift for a teen girl I know. The only thing I know that she's really into is SFX makeup - the gory hollywood special effect type stuff. I know NOTHING about this, other than liquid latex is used. Can someone more knowledgeable than me point me towards something on Amazon? I have a budget of about $10-$15.

Thanks for the heads up - I'll skip it then and plan to buy from Amazon in the future.

I know many of you swear by your Instant Pot. I'm considering buying one on Black Friday {Walmart will have a $49 one, and I have gift cards}. But I'm not sure yet. Why should I buy one? I already have {and regularly use} a crockpot.. Eat mostly GF leaning towards paleo. Would I really use it?

https://apps.facebook.com/genesforgood Go there, and it should be in the "your progress" box. Mine says "Your kit is #9,295 out of 9,899 currently waiting to be genotyped. It was sent to the lab on October 25, 2017. The genotyping and quality control process can take several months. Thank you for your patience! We release a new batch of results every several weeks; these numbers do not change every day."

I haven't gotten the G4G results back yet. I'm like #9200 out of 10,000. So I'm guessing it'll be a while. I was curious to see how they compared actually. And I'll be at CVS anyways and have extra extra care bucks so might as well right?

It's in store only. But the link to the ad is here: https://www.bfads.net/stores/cvs/ads/black-friday/page-4

FYI - CVS will have the basic ones for $30 on THanksgiving, with $20 back in extra care bucks {usable on almost anything in store}. Much better deal IMO. I did the genes for good ones as well but debating picking up a kit at CVS anyways.

Yup. We really should have a running thread of "Can anyone help me use up XYZ food item" I'm all ears on ways to use up giant cants of carrots or green beans :)

could I get the link for the allergy friendly MRE's? PLEASE! Planning a possible vacation. Dd and I both have severe food allergies. MRE's would be GREAT.