Free Classical Christmas Music

Go to Amazon.com here to download 5 free Christmas songs. I downloaded them last week, and they are excellent recordings of some Christmas classics.

Thanks to Freebies 4 Mom for this tip.

Sign up for EBates and Earn a Return on Your Christmas Purchases

Have you joined EBates yet?? All you need to do to join is go to the website here and sign up for your account. Each time you shop, via their site on the Internet, you'll earn a percentage of your purchase price in "free" money.

The great news is if you sign up now, you will get an automatic $5 credit on your account. I also like this program because Ebates mails you a check or pays you via PayPal, quarterly, if you have at least $5.01 in your account.

I ordered two Christmas presents today via Barnes and Noble and received 4% back in my EBates account. It won't make me rich, but it's nice to earn some money while I'm Christmas shopping via the Internet.

CoinStar Deal - Stretch Your Christmas Dollars

In our family we don't spend "coins". We save all of our change and put it into a clear old-fashioned milk jug. When the jug is full, we roll all the change and split the total $ amount among the 4 avid readers in the family. Then we make a trip to an old used bookstore and shop to our hearts content.

This year, in an effort to economize and further our adoption fund, we're going to turn our change into Christmas presents. So here's a deal....Take at least $40 change to your nearest CoinStar location. Redeem the change for gift cards (you can find a listing at the CoinStar website). There's no fee for converting your change to gift cards, i.e. $40 worth of coins will become $40 of gift cards.

During the Christmas season CoinStar is running a special promotion. You can see the details at the CoinStar Promotion link. They will send you a free $10 gift card for counting your $40 in change.

At our nearest CoinStar location, they offer gift certificates for Lowes, Amazon. com, Overstock. com and several other businesses. We're going to redeem ours for Amazon gift cards and then do Christmas shopping via the web.

That should help extend our holiday budget!!

Thanks to Money Saving Mom (my favorite coupon site) for spreading the word about this deal.

Restaurant Certificate & Delivered Flowers

Restaurant.com is having a special Thanksgiving promotion. If you purchase one of their restaurant certificates at 70% off, you will also get a $15 gift certificate to Pro Flowers.

I went to the Pro Flowers website and found the following arrangement for $19.99.

It includes a vase and the shipping begins at $6.99 (depending on the speed of delivery and the destination). This might be a nice gift for someone.

You can enjoy a meal out at an area restaurant and send a friend or family member a flower arrangement all for $14.98 out of pocket.

We've used Restaurant.com certificates and have been very happy with their service. Make sure you read the restrictions for each restaurant before purchasing. Some restaurants will only allow you to use the certificate on certain days of the weeks. Also, the certificates have minimum purchase requirements. My favorite certificates are the ones worth $25 with a minimum purchase of $35. That means you spend $3.00 to buy the $25 gift certificate and then only $10 more at the restaurant for $35 worth of food.

You can go to the following link and find participating restaurants in you area:

Take 70% off Restaurant.com $25 Gift Cert. orders + receive FREE $15 gift code from ProFlowers. Use code THANKS and Pay $3 thru 11/26/09.

The promotion ends on November 26th at midnight but the flower gift code doesn't expire until December 24th. This might be the perfect Christmas gift for that "hard to buy for" relative.

Do you need a Christmas present for a child, grandchild, niece, nephew, sibling, etc. who is in college? I know that when our daughter was at college, gift cards for food and gas were always a hit.

Chick-fil-A has a great deal just in time for Christmas. If you buy $20 worth of Chick-fil-A gift certificates, you get a 2010 calendar for free. The calendar has monthly coupons which can be redeemed for more free food.

What a great idea for a gift or stocking stuffer - gift certificates AND a calendar.

Check out all the details here. And thanks to at Frugal in Virginia for the tip.

Kodak Money Saving Deal - Hurry It Expires on Friday

Have you started thinking about Christmas gifts yet? I'm making a concerted effort to shop ahead and take advantage of all the specials and coupon-deals to maximize my savings this year.

One of my favorite deals so far is the Kodak free $15 gift promotion. Click on the Kodak link and sign up, using your e-mail, for a free $15 gift certificate redeemable for ANY item on the Kodak website.

Both my husband and I received a free $15 certificate. I used one of them to purchase a customized photo ornament for a friend. The cost of the ornament was $12.99. I applied my $15 and received the ornament for just the cost of shipping - $2.99.

I used the 2nd certificate to make a custom 2010 photo calendar with photos of our family. We're giving this to my mom for Christmas (Mom...I hope you're not reading this.) The cost of the calendar was $19.99, see the choices here, and then I applied the $15.00 gift certificate. $4.99 plus s&h is a deal for a personalized photo gift that will last all year long.

When ordering, don't forget to order through EBates. If you are new to EBates, sign up for an account, and you will receive a $5.00 deposit in your EBates account. The $5.00 is in addition to your rebates from on-line orders.

I am relatively new to EBates but am already impressed. They disburse rebates every 3 months in the form of a check mailed to your home, a deposit into your PayPal account or you can even chose to have them donate it to your favorite charity. The best part about it is they make pay-outs if you have $5.00 or more in your account.

Happy Christmas Shopping!