Become a Facebook Fan

If you have a Facebook account, you can become a fan of Saving and Giving. That means that the latest freebies, deals, and coupons will come straight to your Facebook account. Head over HERE to become a fan! Can't wait to see you there!

For Bloggers: Get A Sponsor

If you're a blogger and you would like to attend a blogging conference, you might be interested in Get a Sponsor, a blog dedicated to helping you connect with possible conference sponsors. Sarah Mae from Like a Warm Cup of Coffee and host of the upcoming Relevant conference held a Twitter party last night. The goal was to get people talking about conference sponsorships.

The party was co-hosted by Tommy Nelson, the children's division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. (If you love Hermie at your house, you're probably a big fan of Tommy Nelson!) Tommy Nelson is just one of many companies interested in partnering with bloggers to share their products with more people.

If you're interested in learning more, Sarah Mae will be posting much of the information from last night's Twitter party at Get a Sponsor. You can also read back through the conversation on Twitter (#getasponsor) or read the transcripts HERE.

Twitter = Mention on MSN Money

I've been a huge Twitter skeptic for the past year or so. I didn't really see much value in little snippets of conversation, typed in 140 characters. Who has time to follow that type of chatter?

Then I sat in on the Twitter party hosted by the Savvy Blogging ladies. It was interesting to interact with some of the bloggers whose sites I frequent, and I picked up some blogging advice along the way.

I have continued to check back in on the conversation, and I've connected with a couple of bloggers who were looking for guest posts. Amy from The Finer Things in Life was one of those bloggers. She was looking for a guest post so she would have some down time after the Blissdom conference. I offered... She accepted.

To my surprise, that posted landed on MSN Money's Smart Spending blog this past Saturday. You can read it HERE. I was more than a little surprised!

While checking Twitter, I've also connected with Shelly from Coupon Teacher. She was looking for someone to swap store deals with. Now I send her my Rite Aid deals, and she shares her Walgreens deals with us. It's a win-win!

Right now, I'm mostly just a Twitter lurker. I check in every so often to see if there's anything interesting being said. I'm not a big tweeter. But I'm starting to see the value in the connections that are made in 140 characters or less.

I just started sending notifications of my blog posts out to my Twitter account. If you're a Twitter user, you can follow me @savingandgiving.

Works for Me Wednesday: No Copycats

Kristen from We Are THAT Family has asked bloggers to share some blogging tips as part of Works for Me Wednesday this week. As I thought about tips I could offer, there was one issue that kept coming to mind.

Don't copy.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm a teacher. I think I've spent my fair share of time telling students not to copy from each other. Being an online teacher, I find that I'm forever telling students that copying and pasting from a website isn't allowed.

The same is true for blogging.

Sure, bloggers share deals with each other. In fact, bloggers don't mind if other bloggers "borrow" individual deal ideas (printable coupons, a great price on an item at a store, etc.). But I live by a few ground rules that are oh, so important:

1. Give credit. If I received the deal via email straight from the company, then it's mine. If I saw it on another blog, then it's not. Sure, I can post it. I just need to give credit to the site where I found it, and link back to that site as part of my post.


2. Don't copy word-for-word. If I'm going to post the same deal that I saw on someone else's site, I don't just copy and paste it into my own site. I try to reword it so that it's just a little different. I might even add my opinion.


3. Don't take entire store matchup posts without permission. If you've been hanging around for a while, you know that I recently started offering store listings for stores that I haven't been covering. These posts are actually created by other bloggers. However, I. got. permission. I emailed each blogger, explained exactly how I was going to use the post, and only used posts with the original authors' permission. In fact, a couple of them had special requests as to how the post was used. I was happy to follow their wishes. Using without asking = stealing.


4. Share. If I find an exceptionally good deal, I'll email it out to some blog owners who are part of my email list. I don't share every deal that I come across... just the great ones. For example, when I found the $.75 off Goldfish crackers coupon last night, I did email that out. Hey, $.24 Goldfish crackers are enough to make any blogger want to share the news!

There is still much for me to learn as I blog the deals. This one tip is the one that is nearest and dearest to my heart. Do you have any blogging tips to share?

Blog Redesign

You'll be noticing a few changes on the site over the next few days. Please bear with me as I do a little bloggy facelift. I'm working toward that as one of my blogging goals for 2010. If you usually read my posts via my email summary, you might want to head over HERE to see the changes.

2010 Blogging Goals

The ladies from Savvy Blogging have asked us to share our blogging goals for 2010. I've been pondering that topic, and here's what I'd like to accomplish this year.

1. Cover the deals at more stores. I currently do CVS, Rite Aid, and Kroger every week. I occasionally do Target, Walmart, and Kmart. Those are the only bigger stores in my area, but I know that my readers are from all over the country!
   
   To help expand my store offerings, I'm starting to work with other bloggers who cover stores like Publix, Albertsons, Vons, and Giant Eagle. If you're a regular reader and have a different store that you'd like to see on the list, please leave a comment letting me know which one. Hopefully I'll have the deals from these new stores starting this week.



2. It's time for a blog makeover! I like my pink. I like my flowers. But it's time to do a little something different. Fortunately my husband does some fabulous graphic design work. He's going to be doing some designing for me as we work together to complete the facelift. My goal is to have that done by the end of March.



3. I know that I'm saving my family a ton of money by shopping frugally. I'd just like to have some concrete numbers to prove it. Since I've only shopped once at CVS and twice at Kroger this year (and have the receipts from all three trips), I plan to start my recording-keeping as of January 1. I'll be adding a section in my blog sidebar detailing my spending and savings in two categories, grocery stores and drug stores.



4. I have a few series ideas brewing, and I'd like to run at least three different series. So far, the only one I've done has been my Start Saving series for couponing newbies. I enjoyed that one, and I had a great response from my readers. So I'd like to expand into other series topics. If you have topics you'd like to see covered, feel free to leave your ideas in the comments.



5. I want to continue to do my weekly link-up feature A Time to Give. This is a great way to highlight easy, inexpensive ways to give. I need you in order for this one to be successful! Please be thinking about ways that you've found to give of your time, talents, or treasure. Then be ready each Thursday to come and share your giving ideas.



6. Facebook.... Twitter.... I'm familiar with both, but I haven't actively linked this blog site to them yet. I have the accounts created, and I'd like to use them both more. Any advice on this one is quite welcome!

So, there you have it. That's what you can expect around here in 2010. I plan to continue sharing the deals that I find and expand those offerings even further. I truly would like to have your feedback. If there's something specific that you'd like to see on the site this year, feel free to share your ideas in the comments section. Or drop me an email at savingandgiving@gmail.com. I love hearing from you!

Eating Out & Christmas Shopping

There's a poll in the JuiceBox Jungle widget in my right sidebar. The question.... Do you think you and your hubby get out to dinner often enough? At the time of this post, 72% of respondents said NO, and 28% said YES. I've got to agree with the people who've responded with a NO so far.

This is especially true for us around Christmastime. Between the busy-ness of shopping, activities, trying to enjoy some time together at home, and spending our cash on Christmas gifts, we just don't eat out much!

How about you? Do you still find time and money during the madness of the Christmas season to grab a bite to eat out somewhere with your hubby? Feel free to add your vote to the poll question in the sidebar. It will be fun to see how the numbers come out!

And if you're one of those people who answer YES, let us know how you do it. Where do you go? How do you find the time to get away? Do you take your kids?

Thanks to the great folks from Restaurant.com for sponsoring the poll question. I have a feeling that the NOs will outnumber the YES answers in this one!

A Tidbit for Fellow Bloggers

I just happened upon Blog Coach, a great blog-building resource today. Head over HERE to see the tips and helps that they have to offer. I'm looking forward to learning a little more about blogging from the experts!

Saving and Giving Reader Survey

I really appreciate all of you who take the time to stop by Saving and Giving! In order to better match what I post with what you want, I need your help. If you would be willing to take a quick three-question survey about this site, I would really appreciate it! Just head over HERE. It should only take a couple of minutes. Thanks!!

Monetize Your Blog

If you're a blogger who's looking for ways to earn a little bit of income from your blog site, head over to Logical Media. They're an affiliate company that I work with. They seem to have up-to-date, relevant campaigns that people are truly interested in. I'm very picky about what I promote on my site, and this company definitely fits. You can learn more HERE.