Recap & a Reader's Gratitude!

'Hello everyone,

I hope you had fabulous Fourth of July celebrations yesterday and enjoyed time with your family and friends...I sure did!

I wanted to take a moment and recap on some of the events around here. I also had an email that I wanted to share.

First off, I want to say that I am overwhelmed by the response to this blog. Thank you to all of you whom have kind words or offered their saving savvy to make this site even better, or simply passed on this link to share the savings with your friends and family. The more people chiming in equals more savings for us all!

As you may have noticed, I have added some new features in the past weeks and hope to continue to do so, and as always feel free to share your tips, links, and information on deals, freebies, and other money saving methods. Also, if you have ideas and suggestions, I am open to those as well. So, please continue to send your emails and comments and I will try my best to answer/incorporate them all.

A note of gratitude from Candace:

I received an email from Candace about a month ago(we have been emailing back and forth for about a month now since she 1st came across my blog). She wanted to express her gratitude for this blog as her husband recently was laid off from work. She told me that not being accustomed to living on just one income with 3 children, she went into panic mode and frantically searched the Internet for some answers on how to save money. She said she finally found my site, but oddly enough not through a direct link to here, but from a search word that lead her to another blog, whom coincidentally had me linked in a post. She said she saw the word centsible in the title of my blog and after having been quite discouraged for pretty much the whole night, still decided to take a look (this was about a month ago). She wrote me again yesterday to say:

"Jamie,

I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do. Thanks to you I have learned to be more thrifty when my family NEEDS it the most. With the tips and links from your site, I am now using coupons and saving an average of $50 a week on groceries and using the the other coupons and tips to buy things from the other stores with significant savings too. I am also receiving lots of samples and other freebies too. My favorites are the magazines!

We have also lowered our phone bill and cut expenses as well. Living on one income is becoming easier thanks to you! I also want to say that a few weeks ago, was my son Aidan's birthday, normally it wouldn't be a problem to get my son something that he has asked for but with money as tight as it is my husband and I were worried that we wouldn't be able to afford anything on his list. So as I do daily, I visited your site, where you had posted 2 different coupons for free Thomas trains, (I had my mother and friends print some for me too) and store coupons for Toys-r-us. We were able to get my son 4 Thomas & friends trains free and with the other coupons, some accessories and tracks for a lot less. We only spent $18.00 for about $90.00 worth of stuff! Needless to say, my son was very happy when he opened his presents and I wanted to say thank you for that! You helped us make Aidan's birthday terrific! And I will definitely be stopping by every day as always. My husband, Jeff, told me to tell you that you rock! He likes the free magazine subscriptions too!

Thank you and God bless you,

your loyal reader & friend,
Candace.

P.S. I have told all my friends about your blog.I wanted to be sure that people in similar situations as myself or who are just looking to save money know about your site! "

Note: I am so glad I am able to help Candace's family! Do you know somebody who is having hard times making ends meet or simply would like to save money, be sure to share this blog with them as every penny saved helps!

Other Recaps

Award
I was awarded my very first award recently, which I was happy to receive. I still need to award 4 more blogs: (I awarded one last week).

I will be awarding one soon, so please check back!


Giveaway
I will be hosting my very 1st giveaway on Monday, July 7th, --I think most of you would like to have a chance to win---so please sure to stop by and enter!

Site Poll
The results for the shopping poll were:
66% of those who cast their vote said they only shop for necessary items
33% shop for fun, but not everyday!

I started a new poll (can be found in the upper right hand corner) about your favorite posts. Why bother with the polls you wonder? The polls are a great way for me to determine what kinds of deals I should focus on. It's my way of figuring out what those of you who read this blog want to see and where I should put the most effort! So if you have a second, please check your answer. Not too mention, they're fun to see the results as well!


Have a great weekend,

Jamie