So, I mingled a little; exchanged a few business cards and sat down at the bar area. Why do I always find myself at the BAR area? I was then informed of the “Martini Flight.” THIS is why I’m always at the bar area…got it. What’s even better? It was complimentary to the tweet-up! So, over these flavorful little yummies, I got to know Connie a bit better as we stirred up a few stories and shared a few laughs. After a while, she needed to go meet her company for dinner. Oh no! Don’t leave me here by myself again! As I finished my drinks, a lovely lady and her friend sat down at the bar to my left. They quickly introduced themselves and went on to talk about how they were just discussing their loves for making jewelry. Sitting closest to me, the woman pointed out that she had made the bracelet she was wearing. I, in turn, told her how beautiful it was…and that I loved the solitary red bead in the center. She turned to me and said, “I have AIDS and I put that red bead in there to represent AIDS awareness.”

That is when I first met…and immediately loved…a woman by the name of Rae Lewis-Thonton.

You see…Rae is the first, and only person, I have EVER personally and openly met with HIV/AIDS. Ever. I was immediately compassionately intrigued. Upon closer reading of Rae’s business card, I noticed she is not only an AIDS activist…but an EMMY AWARD winning AIDS activist whose story and ministry has been featured EVERYWHERE! Over the next hour, the three of us talked over a light dinner at the bar. That’s when Rae mentioned that she was organizing a charity event tweet up in July and said I should come. Of course! I didn’t even have to think twice; I knew I needed to be there. Eventually, we all hugged our goodbyes and said , “See you on twitter!”

And…we twittered and twittered and twittered…until it was time for the RLT Event. I can’t tell you how excited my husband and I were to be a part of this. It took place in the Encore Liquid Lounge in the Hotel Allegro in Chicago. You wouldn’t believe the generosity of the sponsors; I was blown away. Gift bags, food, venue, giveaways…everything was donated! Did I ever tell you that Kurt won a certificate for lap dancing classes? Um..er…and I won a $250 purse…amongst other things. *grin* Trying to explain how well this tweet-up went over wouldn’t even do it justice. It was an amazing success. And, as I understand…there may be another one coming up in February of 2011.?.?

It was during this RLT Event that we were made aware of the Chicago AIDS Walk/Run 5k, happening in October. My first thought? OOH…we should participate! My second thought? FIVE K??? Aww…who cares…we are DOING IT! So, we went home, discussed it a little further and signed the THREE of us up online. Yes, our 11 year old was taking part in the 5K as well. He’s in much better shape than we are anyway.

So, we joined Team Rae. I will admit, I am HORRIBLE at any sort of fundraising …but I do want to thank the few supportive friends that sponsored me for my very first 5k walk. Your donations are helping people with HIV/AIDS right here in Chicago…so thank you, thank you!

There it was, the first weekend in October…it had not rained in WEEKS.

It’s raining. Oh…wait…not just raining but cold, blowing AND raining. I kept thinking to myself, if Rae can do this, I can do this. There’s no turning back now.

Rae and I - I think we might have been twittering each other? LOL

Fighting the weather every step of the way, we all finished the race. I felt both blessed and honored to be there for Rae that day…and will always feel a bond with our “Team Rae.” and will never forget lunch at Manny’s either *wink*

If you don’t know Ms. Rae Lewis-Thornton…you need to. Her dedication and life-long selfless work has been more of an inspiration to me than she will ever know. On a daily basis, I think of Rae. Anytime I feel like I can’t make it through or can’t accomplish what I should…I think of her. When I feel myself creeping up on another brick wall…I think of her.

“If Rae can do it, I can do it.”

Today, I honor you. Thank you for friending me. My life is richer because of it. Much Love.

The Valparaiso Fire Department will receive 5% of all sales for the day.

Thanks in advance for helping Culver’s raise funds to help the local fire department.

(Culver’s is at 2101 LaPorte Ave., Valparaiso, IN)

Receive a 3 oz. portion of “Kate’s Creation” for free!

September 30th from 5 to 8 pm at your local participating Coldstone.

We went last year and had a blast! Can’t wait to try the Gold Cone Flavor of the Month – Carmel Apple Pie Ice Cream, mixed with  Chocolate Shavings, Graham Cracker Pie Crust and Apple Pie Filling. It doesn’t get much better than helping your favorite charity while having a great time (an estimated 85% of all donations in September will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.)

See you there!

I’m not sure how long this will be around…but it’s a hot one! (be sure to hit the back button and print TWO)

Coupon good towards (6oz. or larger):

• Kraft Singles
• Kraft Parmesan Cheese
• Kraft Natural Cheese (chunks, shredded, crumbles, sticks & cubes)
• Kraft String-Ums Cheese
• Kraft Cracker Cuts Cheese
• Kraft Deli Deluxe Cheese slices
• Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• Velveeta Cheese Product
• Cracker Barrel Cheese
• Cheez Whiz Process Cheese
• Breakstone’s Sour Cream
• Breakstone’s Cottage Cheese
• Knudsen Sour Cream
• Knudsen Cottage Cheese

I’ve “heard” Philadelphia Cream Cheese is marked down at several Walmart stores. By using this coupon, you can get FIVE FREE.

Also, Kraft is combining this coupon with their Huddle to Fight Hunger: Feed America program. Every time one of these coupons is used, Kraft will donate five meals to Feeding America. You can read the fine print here.

Saving money and helping a charity…does it get any better?

Concerts. Festivals. Expo Halls. Mail. Stores. Parties. Hotel Rooms. Internet.

Everywhere you look, there are free samples.

You can’t help yourself, can you? Me neither. I HAVE to pick them up.

Why? Because I absolutely, need, can’t-do-without a little baby bottle of shampoo or lotion? Well, no…basically…because they are free (and sometimes really cute!) Believe it or not, free samples can actually be useful! Now, trust me when I say I don’t spend hours per day scouring the internet to sign up for tiny little freebie deebies (unless it’s Prilosec, which saves me money in the end.) A few here and there take no time at all. Periodically checking sites like Walmart Samples or P & G Brandsampler makes it very easy to sign up for several with little effort.

What are the benefits of free samples?

• More times than not, they will also come with a high value coupon
• Sometimes they will include other offers, like free music downloads or ebooks
• Good for traveling or to keep in the vehicle glove box
• Perfect for purses or diaper bags
• Great to carry on airplanes (I have found the PERFECT sample bottle – have been refilling it for YEARS)
• Use them as gift basket fillers
• Take along camping
• Save up and send to a college student (they’ll use ANYTHING) or military (like Any Soldier)
• Save them for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes
• Give them to nursing homes, homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, food pantries (which accept MORE than food, by the way) – when you have NOTHING, a sample is SOMETHING

Giving to charity WITHOUT affecting my budget is one of my favorite things to do in the whole wide world. SO many people do without the little things. Won’t you please help? It doesn’t take much.

What do you do with YOUR free samples? Give us some ideas on how they save YOU money.

More Thrifty Thursday at Coupon Teacher

Hurry, hurry! Start going through some of that “stock up” food and help feed some folks. You have no excuse not to donate – you don’t even have to leave your house!

Stamp Out Hunger is the world’s largest single day food drive…and they need you to help.
Here’s how:
1. Place non-perishable food products in a bag
2. Leave at your mailbox TODAY, May 8th.
3. Your letter carrier will pick up and deliver food to local food banks or pantries.

How easy is that? Want to help some more? Become a fan of Stamp out Hunger and Campbell’s will make a 1 can of soup donation to Feeding America.

What is a virtual Easter Basket and why am I posting about it?
Well, nothing pleases me more than being able to help a person or charity for free…and that is what this #BetterBasket program does.

Hershey has partnered with the Children’s Miracle Network for over 20 years. CMN is a non-profit alliance of children’s hospitals dedicated to providing state-of-the-art care, life-saving research and preventative education across North America.

For every blog post written and turned in, Hershey will donate $10 to CMN (up to $5,000.) How easy is that? Can you help? It won’t cost you anything except a minute of your time.

Here’s how:

• Participate to Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop of giving away virtual Easter Baskets by creating a blog post with specific rules described here.
• Hershey Company will donate $10 per each blog post to CMN, up to total of $5,000.
• One blog post per URL counts towards the donation, but you can give as many virtual Easter baskets as you want.
• The Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop will officially begin at 12 AM EST on March 18th and end at 12 PM EST on April 4th, 2010. Blog posts submitted to us before or after that time period will not be counted for.
• The blog post link has to be submitted to us for the donation to be counted.
• In addition copy and paste the following text in your blog post:

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

• Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
• Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
• Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
• Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
• Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

More Wordless Wednesday here and here.

A frugal shopper’s dream charity.

Are you familiar with it? A program sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, collects packed shoe boxes and ships them to the world’s needy children, sending them a message of love at Christmas time. I have headed this mission at my local church for four years now, and I must say it is one of my favorite things to do all year! If everyone takes part, it’s such little work to make a huge difference. Every year, our church has topped it’s collection record, with a donation of 80 boxes and over $400 for 2009! (as you can see above)

Interested? Click the OCC link – it will tell you the do’s and don’ts of packing a box, gives you trackable labels to attach to your box and will tell you where to take your donation. But hurry, this is “Collection Week” – so you don’t have much time! Though, don’t fret, you can always look into it, save all year, and give big next year <---that's where the frugal part comes in. All of those McDonald toys, mailer samples, free toothpastes & toothbrushes from drug store games or dentist visits, re-gifting, new clothes and shoes from garage sales or thrift stores, school supplies in August (when they are a dime a dozen), after holiday hard candy - save it all! You can even as shoe stores to save boxes for you; they are glad to get rid of them.

Basically, you can help this charity for FREE (or very little cost.) Some of these items may not mean much to you, but they may be life changing for another child, in another part of the world.

Won’t you show the love this Christmas?