Thanksgiving on a Budget: Share Your Links, Recipes, Tips, and Ideas!

Erin, Monica, Jessica, Amy, and I hope you've enjoyed the ideas we've shared this week for the "Thanksgiving on a Budget" series. Our main goal was to show you how you could create a simple Thanksgiving celebration for your family without spending a fortune to do so.

To recap, here's what we shared:

A Hassle-Free Method for Cooking Your Thanksgiving Turkey

My Favorite Dinner Roll Recipe

Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Almond Pecan Pie

Eye-Pleasing and Inexpensive Food Presentation

Setting a Beautiful Table and Cultivating a Thankful Heart

While I'm sure not all of the recipes or ideas would be something you might use for your Thanksgiving celebration, we hope what we've shared will inspire you as you seek to have a memorable Thanksgiving celebration for your family this year.

I'm positive we've only barely scratched the surface when it comes to Thanksgiving ideas, though, and that's why today is the day for all of you--my wonderfully creative readers--to chime in with your own ideas for celebrating Thanksgiving on a Budget.

The floor is yours! Share your favorite recipes, helpful tips, ideas for simplifying the Thanksgiving menu, decorating how-to's, or special traditions your family has. If you have a blog, post about it on your blog and leave the direct link to your blog post below. If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave your ideas in the comments section.

Thanksgiving on a Budget: Table Decorations and a Grateful Heart

Monica over at The Homespun Heart has an excellent post up today on setting your table beautifully on a budget as well as cultivating a thankful heart. I guarantee you will be inspired by her post. Go read it here.

Free Thanksgiving Downloads: Crafts, Cookbooks, more

I've posted a number of different Thanksgiving freebies over the last few weeks and I wanted to feature them all in one post in case you missed any of them. There's a wealth of ideas shared in these free resources. Enjoy!

Go here to download a free ebook with healthful Thanksgiving Recipes in it. I just downloaded mine and was impressed that there were some new and creative ideas as well as recipes using good-for-you foods. (Note: You'll want to sign up with an extra email address and click "No Thanks" on the offers.)

Download a free ebook here with 30 different Thanksgiving-themed craft projects including home-decorating and gift-giving projects and ideas as well as fun crafts to do with children.

 Download a free ebook here which contains 30 different Thanksgiving recipes.

Go here to download a free Holiday Hosting Guide from Paula Deen.

Go here to download a free copy of the Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Hotline Recipes cookbook.

Access the digital edition of the October/November Taste of Home magazine here. It features many Thanksgiving recipe and photos of every single recipe.

Go here to download a free Holiday Idea book from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. There are loads of craft and educational ideas and even some freezer meal recipes!

Want some fun Thanksgiving ideas to do with your children? Check out the links and ideas here. (Thanks, Deborah!)

Go here to download a free copy of the Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Hotline Recipes cookbook.

Access the digital edition of the October/November Taste of Home magazine here. It features many Thanksgiving recipe and photos of every single recipe.

Go here to download a free Holiday Idea book from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. There are loads of craft and educational ideas and even some freezer meal recipes!

Want some fun Thanksgiving ideas to do with your children? Check out the links and ideas here. (Thanks, Deborah!)

$1/1 Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats, Corn Flakes, and more

Go here to print a coupon for $1/1 Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats Mini Bites and Kellogg's Corn Flakes With a Touch of Honey.

There are many more $0.75/1 and $1/1 Kellogg's coupons available here. (Thanks, Dealightful Savings!)

*HOT!* $0.50 to $1/1 Driscoll berries coupon

Here's a very hot coupon which likely won't last long! Go here to register with Driscoll's and then you'll be able to print a coupon twice for $0.50 to $1/1 any Driscoll berries (it appears different zip codes might have different coupon values). Pair this with a sale and you'll have a great deal on fresh fruit!

Thanks, Kansas City Mamas!

Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Learning Through Failure (Part 3)

Last time in our Becoming a Work-at-Home Mom series I shared how I had to stop working as a mother's helper due to my pregnancy and while that was a huge cut in our income, it also was what lit a fire in my belly to learn everything I possibly could as fast as I could about earning money from home.

I began with small things, like taking surveys, mystery shopping, getting paid to read emails. Once I became proficient in those, I started scratching my brain for more ideas. 

One idea I had was to teach creative writing classes out of our home. I'd always loved writing and thought that probably homeschool moms would jump at the opportunity to enroll their children in creative writing classes--especially if they were very inexpensively priced.

I spent hours writing up advertisements to place in homeschool newsletters and had visions of at least 40 children signing up. I excitedly strategized how I could break the classes up and handle a large number of children and I eagerly calculated numbers and was expecting a good earning potential from these classes. All in all, I was stoked.

Problem was, instead of 40 children signing up as I'd hoped, only 4 signed up. So much for my big plans!

Needless to say, the turn out was very disappointing to me. I thought God had clearly directed me to do these classes and I was confident He was going to bring dozens and dozens of children to them. I worried about how on earth we were going to pay our bills since my big idea had pretty much totally flopped. I wanted to quit and throw my hands up in despair. But I couldn't because I'd already made a commitment to teach these children--all 4 of them--and I had to see it through.

When I look back at those classes and the measly four sign-ups, I realize that not only did that experience prepare me for some greater failures I'd have on down the road, it also taught me that it's okay if things don't turn out like we are expecting. We can still carry on and do our best whether we have four students or forty students or 400 students. Whatever the outcome of our efforts, what matters most is that we give it our best.

I've slowly learned over the past few years that failure of some kind is inevitable when you have your business or are trying to start working from home. Everything just isn't going to turn out exactly like you expected. In fact, much of the time, things will be a lot harder and a lot less successful than you planned or hoped or dreamed.

Contrary to what I thought in the beginning, I've come to realize that failure is my friend. I've learned much more through failure than I have through success.

The creative writing classes were only the start of my flopped endeavors and learning through failure. Next time, I'll tell you about a much bigger work-at-home failure and how it turned out to be one of the best things which ever happened to me.

To be continued...

Del Taco: Buy One Taco, Get One Free

Use this coupon at Del Taco to get a free Big Fat Chicken Taco when you buy another Big Fat Chicken Taco. This coupon expires January 5, 2010.

Thanks, Coupon Cravings! 

Free sample of True Lemon, True Orange, True Lime

This sample has been around ever since I first started blogging. It's still available and it's a good one so when Heather emailed it to me today, I thought I should mention it again for those of you who haven't requested it.

Sign up here for a free sample package of True Lemon, True Orange, and True Lime.

Free Philosophy Gingerbread Foaming Shower Gel sample

Sign up here as a fan of Philosophy on Facebook then click on the blue button that says "Go To Application" and you'll be able to fill out a form to get a free sample of Gingerbread Foaming Shower Gel from Philosophy.

Thanks, Moms By Heart!

100 Free custom Holiday Photo Cards from SeeHere: Have you gotten yours yet?

Guess what arrived via FedEx yesterday? Our Christmas photo cards from SeeHere--all 100 of them, including envelopes.

Guess how much I paid for them? $0.00

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a penny for shipping.

Y'all need to go jump on this deal, if you haven't already, as it's only good through November 30, 2009. If you're not planning to send out Christmas cards this year, you could use these as gift tags. Or use the codes to create birth announcements. Or come up with another creative idea for these totally free photo cards!

Here's how to get 100 custom photo cards with envelopes for free:

::Just go here to set up an account with SeeHere (or login if you already have an account) and then upload and create your photo card. Mine took me about 30 minutes to put together--but that's because I had to wade through photos and figure out which ones to use!

::After you've set up your photo card, be sure to save it. Then put 50 photo cards in your cart and go to the checkout and use coupon code newbaby and you'll get all 50 free with free shipping.

::Log back in and click on your saved items and order another 50 photo cards this time using the coupon code from Freebies4Mom here. Again, you should get 50 more free photo cards with free shipping.

And that's it! Mine arrived within 3 business days of ordering via FedEx. I was thoroughly impressed, to say the least!

Need some custom address labels to go with the photo cards? Order 140 here for only $3 shipped.

Thanksgiving on a Budget: Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Almond Pecan Pie

I hope you're hungry today because Erin from $5 Dinners is showing us how to make Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Almond Pecan Pie.

And lest you think you can't make things like that on a budget, be sure to check out her ingredient price breakdowns and suggestions for getting more expensive ingredients at great prices.

Free Degree, Hellman's, Caress, Pond's, Always Infinity, 2010 calendar

Go here to request a free sample from Degree, Hellman's, Caress, and Pond's. (Thanks, Mojo Savings!)

More freebies:

Free Oriental Trading Company 2010 calendar (with money-saving offers--Thanks, The Freebie Blogger!)

Free sample of Always Infinity (Thanks, Mojo Savings!)

$1.50/1 Wet Ones coupon = $0.38 at Walmart, $0.49 at Target

Take the Wet Ones Pledge here to stop germs and you'll be able print a coupon for $1.50/1 any Wet Ones (excludes trial size). The canisters of are reportedly $1.88 at Walmart and price cut to $1.99 at Target so they should only be $0.38 to $0.49 after the coupon.

Thanks, Thrifty Jenny!

Free sample issue of The Home Educating Family magazine

Go here and a pop-up box should come up offering you a completely free sample issue of the new homeschooling magazine, The Home Educating Family.

Thanks, The Homeschool Jungle!

Don't miss a Black Friday Deal!

Want to discuss Black Friday deals with other bargain shoppers or find out about some of the hottest ones available? Click on the link above to go to the special Black Friday section of the AFullCup.com forums.