Freebie Find - Holiday Printables From Balancing Home

My friend from college, Megan, writes a home decorating blog, Balancing Home. Megan and her husband are very talented at graphic design, and they are very generous in sharing their creations with their readers.

Visit Balancing Home, become a follower, and like their Facebook page, and you'll have access to some fantastic, and FREE, holiday printables (under the printables tab). The blog shares pictures from Megan's home, which would give you ideas for how the printables could be used in your own decorating. I have already printed a few and plan to frame them for the holiday season! Yay for thrifty decorating!

Durham Favorites Friday - Hope Valley Square

This Friday's "favorite" is not one specific spot, but rather an area in Durham. If you were to do a drive by, you wouldn't have any reason to guess that it's one of my Durham favorites.

Hope Valley Square, located on Shannon Road, near the 15-501 Target, can best be described, appearance wise, as a strip mall. There are no retail stores, though, but I'm not really sure what you call a strip of businesses, located in one long, continuous building, that really isn't a mall. A gigantic post office is plopped in the middle of the strip, and the businesses face out to a big, ugly parking lot. So what is it that I like about this area??

What I Love:

• THE RESTAURANTS - Hope Valley Square is home to some of my favorite quick, cheap eats in town, Only Burger and Pop's Backdoor Pizza, as well as Rick's Diner (which I have yet to try). A fourth restaurant, Bull Street Gourment & Market, has recently opened. I haven't been yet, but have read that it's a market and restaurant, serving breakfast and lunch.

• THE FROZEN YOGURT - Crazing an after dinner treat? Tutti Frutti is an inexpensive, self serve frozen yogurt shop. I love that I can walk there after my burger or pizza.

• THE LOCATION - Ok, I wish it was closer to my house...and walking distance, BUT, it is located across the street from the Southwest branch of the Durham County Library. This makes for a convenient breakfast (eager to try Bull Street's Nutella/Strawberry Croissant), lunch or treat stop before or after book browsing/story time.

• THE FAMILY/PET FRIENDLINESS - If you visit Hope Valley Square, be prepared for kids. Lots and lots of kids. The restaurants serve kid friendly food, and Pop's even has a kid's play area. The outdoor seating at the restaurants also welcomes dogs. I've brought Cooper a few times and even had wait staff bring us bowls of water for him.

• THE OUTDOOR GRASS AREA - This is by no means the nicest outdoor dining area that you'll find in Durham, but I do like the grassy area of picnic tables, located across the parking lot from the strip. Take your food or fro-yo to go, and dine on the grass. The kids and pets can be loud and move around. This is also a good option when the restaurants are crowded.

The Down Side:

• POPULARITY - Many Durhamites like Hope Valley Square as much as I do. The restaurants aren't huge, and if the weather is too crummy for outdoor dining, it can be crowded.

• THE VIEW/AMBIANCE (or lack of) - I've already mentioned, this is a strip. Outdoor dining faces a very large parking lot.

The Details:

710 Shannon Road, Durham, NC

Holiday Shopping - Ebates

With less than four weeks to shop before Christmas, I wanted to encourage you, again, to check out Ebates, a website that awards you cash back for purchases made at hundreds of online retailers.

Begin your online shopping through the Ebates website. Search for your desired store, and Ebates will present you with any available coupon codes for that store, then track any purchases you make using a tracking ID number. You will never give any credit card information to Ebates. Within a few days, a percentage of your purchase amount will be credited to your Ebates account, say 10% back for shopping at Barnes & Noble. Cash back is paid quarterly, in the form of a check or Pay Pal payment.

I have to admit, that I was first skeptical about the concept, but I've quickly become an Ebates believer. I received the promised $10 gift card for making my first $25 purchase (available to all new users), and I've already accumulated almost $8.00 in cash back. So, for making purchases I was going to make anyway, buying gifts for Christmas, I've earned back $18. Not bad.

Interested? Check it out.

Dining Deal - $2 Subs at Subway

December is Customer Appreciation Month at Subway Restaurants, and as a 'thank you' to customers, they are offering six inch cold cut combo and meatball subs for just $2.00. This price is valid on only these two varieties, only during the month of December.

The website does not state a limit on the number of $2 subs one person can purchase, so this could make for a very inexpensive family lunch or dinner!

Printable Coupons - Reset for December

Be sure to check out the Printable Coupons tab at the top of this page. New coupons are added and some reset at the beginning of each month. If you have already printed the International Delight coupon, it has reset and you will be able to print again. Also, there is a coupon for $0.75 off any Muir Glen tomato product. When doubled, this scores you free or cheap products like tomato paste and canned tomatoes.

Printable Coupon - $0.75 off Coffee Mate Creamer

I'm hooked on coffee creamer. Until recently, I took my coffee black. No cream. No sugar. Nothing. After a trip home and cups of coffee with Caramel Macchiato Creamer, though, I realized the error of my ways and have been indulging ever since.

At three to five dollars a bottle, regular price, creamer really can seem like an indulgence, as it's an extra hit to your grocery bill, if you use it often. It doesn't have to be, though.

Creamer coupons and sales are abundant. Watch for sales and combine them with coupons, preferably at a store that allows you to stack coupons (Target) or doubles them (Harris Teeter).

Like Coffee Mate on Facebook, and you'll have access to a coupon for  $0.75 off one creamer (click Print a Coupon on left side of page). It doesn't expire for a month, so hold on for a sale, double that coupon, and you'll likely score creamer for less than a quarter.

Freebie Find - Bare Minerals Primer

If you're a fan of Bare Minerals makeup, and plan to visit the mall between now and Sunday, you'll want to print out this coupon for a FREE travel size Bare Minerals Prime Time Foundation Primer, redeemable at any Bare Esscentuals store (print the page that comes up, or bring it in on your phone).

The coupon expires on 12/4, no purchase necessary.


*Thanks to Southern Savers