Deb Wallin who commented, “I have never tried them, but they sure look good. we usually eat shredded wheat,” and Denise who commented, “All my kids love Reece’s Puffs” are the two winners of the Cocoa Puffs Combos giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Like many things, cereal from a box has come a long way baby since I was a little girl.

Savvy Housewife was sent free coupons for vanilla and chocolate Cocoa Puffs Combos. One 3/4 cup serving has 11 grams of sugar, which is actually less sugar than the whole grain cereal bars my girls love to eat, which was a surprise to me. The entire Big G line of General Mills cereals, which includes Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Total, is made with whole grains.

What can I say? My girls are crazy about this cereal. Sometimes it’s like herding cats to get my girls to actuallyl sit down together peacefully at the kitchen table on school mornings, but the Cocoa Puffs Combos practically has them running to the table.

Two Savvy Housewife readers will win one coupon good for a free box of new chocolate and vanilla Cocoa Puffs Combos cereal. Simply visit the General Mills cereal website and tell me what brand of cereal your family likes to eat best. Two winners will be chosen randomly from all eligible comments left by midnight Monday, September 22. You don’t need a blog or website to enter, but you do need to leave a valid e-mail address so I can contact you, should you win.

Did you know that Mondays are giveaway days at Savvy Housewife? Next week’s giveaway is for a fabulous t-shirt from Chickatees Boutique. Be sure to stop back by!

I wanted to frame two favorite black and white family photographs, but inexpensively, for our hall bathroom, which I just recently painted a pale ice blue

So, where to start? I looked several places for plain black frames, from Target to TJ Maxx. I couldn’t find quite what I was looking for, which was a wide black wood frame with a white matte. Finally one day I was buying some cleaning supplies at Dollar General and I couldn’t believe it. I found 11 x 14 frames for $6 each!

I’d seen several very creative bloggers, such as The Nester, use scrapbook paper in non-traditional ways, so when I spotted a chic pack of black and white scrapbook paper at Target for $6, I snagged it. You can buy individual sheets for next to nothing at craft stores such as Michaels.

The 5 x 7 prints, which I centered on black and white polka dot scrapbook paper, were less than $3 total.

Are you with me? Here’s the breakdown:

2 11×14 black frames, Dollar General, $12

Pack of black and white scrapbook paper, Target, $6

2 5 x7 black and white prints, ordered online from Target’s photo center, $2.98

Here are the supplies (pardon the mysterious glare on the photographs.)

And here’s the finished product (I am no professional photographer, so I think the end result is much cuter in real life):

And one more:

The ultimate dress up day, Halloween, will be here before you know it! If you have little girls like me, you know they love anything twirly and sparkly. My oldest daughter started taking ballet this summer so the tutu factor is alive and well at our house.

Prissy Poofs, based in South Carolina, features the most fabulous line of tutus that any little girl would love. Their line of Spooky Poofs would be perfect for this Halloween. Even the tiniest little girl can wear a Prissy Poof as they come in sizes ranging from newborn to child’s large (7/8). They sent my girls each a poof and I have put them aside for Christmas since they are so adorable. I know they will love them!

Each week between now and Halloween, Prissy Poofs will feature a different poof on sale. This week’s featured poof is the adorable Lucky Pony Poof, which comes with a fun headband.

I also love the little devil poof. There are days, nay weeks, that this would be very appropriate for my 3-year-old!

Order an adorable Prissy Poof for your little girl now through October 15 and enter code SPOOKY at checkout for 15% off your purchase. And with the holidays just around the corner, be sure to check out their seasonal line. So what are you waiting for? Get your poof on!

Baba at Baba’s Farm Life is the winner! Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.

Soccer season is in full swing at the Savvy Housewife household. My 6-year-old had her opening game on Saturday (they came, they saw, they kicked some grass!)

I try to pack healthy snacks in our soccer game and practice day bag and granola bars are always a popular choice.

Quaker sent me a fun soccer theme sport bag along with two boxes of their new chewy granola bars with protein (5 grams per bar) to try and my girls loved them. I’ll admit I raided the chocolate chip bars a few times.

One Savvy Housewife reader will win their own sports bag from Quaker filled with some fun and practical items for activity-filled family days, such as a soccer ball and a water bottle, along with a couple of boxes of Quaker’s new Chewy Granola Bars with Protein.

To enter the giveaway, visit the Quaker Snack Bars website and take a look around. Come back to this post and tell us which of their products is one that you would purchase for your active family. A random winner will be chosen from all eligible comments left by midnight Monday, September 15. You don’t need a blog or website to enter, but you do need a valid e-mail address so that I can contact you, should you win. Thanks and good luck!

A commemorative website celebrating everyone’s favorite doll from the the 80s, the Cabbage Patch Kids, launched September 1 at CabbagePatchKids25.com 

Savvy Housewife was fortunate to receive one of these special Limited Edition 25th Anniversary Cabbage Patch Kids (which sell for $29.99). You may want to buy a special commemorative Cabbage Patch Kid for your own child soon as Christmas will be here before you know it and supplies are limited. Rumor has it that our little guy is awaiting his big reveal December 25 and is safely stowed away in Santa’s secret headquarters (the hall closet).

Look at this handsome fellow! He’s a specially released commemorative doll, made to be an exact reproduction of the original Cabbage Patch dolls that hit toy shelves and stole little girls’ hearts back in 1983. Each limited edition Cabbage Patch Kid comes with a commemorative play silver spoon and a commemorative silver-stamped 25th Anniversary Birth Certificate and adoption papers.

I have to admit that, shudder, I never owned a real Cabbage Patch Kids doll. By the time they became popular I was 13 years old and in 8th grade and, frankly, too cool to admit I really wanted one. So all in the name of “coolness” I lost out.

So did you have a Cabbage Patch doll? You can relive the special memories you have of your kid with everyone at the Cabbage Patch 25th Anniversary Website.  

Here is a wrapup of what some of my Camp Baby friends are up to this week:

Classy Mommy is giving away two pairs of Robeez to two lucky winners!

Jodi from The Mindful Moms explains how to create a balance sheet.

Christine at From Dates to Diapers and her family review a kick-butt vacuum.

Mom Generations is giving away two bottles of Essie “Cocktail Hour” nail polish.

Leeanthro at Soy is the New Black was stunned to see the new campaign claiming that HFCS is good for us.

Leopard top from The Children’s Place, GAP capri jeans, black Mary Janes from Walmart, and Green Dog brand leopard skort, all from Goodwill for less than $10.

One of my favorite places to go bargain hunting is at my local Goodwill. I usually go once a month on my lunch break to dig around for treasures. Typically I come home with something for my daughters. I’ve also picked up nearly new GAP jeans, Ann Taylor pants, and other name brand clothes for myself. Now I’ll wholeheartedly admit there was a time in my life when I would have turned up my nose at thrifting, but it can be addictive once you realize what bargains await.

Last week I hit Goodwill and the first thing I did was take note of what color sales tag was on sale for the day, as those items were on sale for half price.

My girls are cheetah/leopard crazy and my 6-year-old has been begging me for something leopard so I had to snag an adorable skort for less than $3. I also picked up a cute soft leopard swing top from The Children’s Place for my 3-year-old. Now she and big sister can be Cheetah Girls on the cheap! The GAP capri jeans in a 7 slim were a great a bargain and I was pleasantly surprised to find they fit my 6-year-old perfectly.

My deal of the day was a cute pair of George (WalMart) brand Mary Janes for my 6-year-old daughter. The bonus was I had no idea they were included in the “red tag” sale. The final price at checkout was less than $2 and they look brand new! How cute will these be with fun tights and my daughter’s school uniform khaki jumpers this fall and winter?

My total bill for these four items was less than $10! Shopping like this for children’s clothing can be addictive and I know it won’t be long before my daughters are label conscious and will ban me from picking up clothes for them second hand.

Here are some tips for shopping at Goodwill:

• Be sure to check out their monthly sales calendar. Each day has a different special promotion. Our local Goodwill stores also have a half-day sale the first Saturday of each month. The lines are long, though, so be prepared and you might not want to take small children.
• Sometimes children and toddler size clothes get mixed up on the racks, so don’t forget to flip through both sections if you have time.
• Check carefully for stains. Personally, if something is for “play” I don’t mind a small spot and many stubborn stains can be removed with a little TLC.
• Goodwill has an Internet auction site at shopgoodwill.com

Do you have a favorite local thrift store? I like shopping at Goodwill because the revenues fund job training and other services to prepare people for job success. What kind of deals have you snagged while “thrifting?”

After I wrote this article, Savvy School Uniform Shakedown, which I posted to give parents ideas on ways to save money when buying school uniforms and standard school attire, I was interviewed for an MSN Encarta article on saving time and money as part of an overall piece entitled “Do School Uniforms Make Better Students?”

There are some great tips in the MSN two-part series.

I am very lucky in that so far I’ve spent about $50 on my first grader’s school attire this year. Granted, it’s not yet truly fall here in the South so I haven’t had to buy any long-sleeve shirts for school, but I was lucky in that both her grandmothers bought her a few new jumpers and skorts. I am also the lucky recipient of hand me downs from my neighbor’s daughter, who is a year and a half older than my daughter. She let me go through her daughter’s outgrown items from last year and I picked out two jumpers and a skort. Basically I just needed to buy my daughter new shoes to start the school year.

How much do you spend each fall on back to school clothes?

Rick Smolan, the talented Time and National Geographic photographer behind many large collaborative photography projects for books such as Day in the Life and 24/7 turned his camera lens on home life for his 2008 book, America at Home.

The photos in the book were taken over the course of seven days last September by 100 photojournalists, as well as thousands of amateur photographers. America At Home also features gorgeous photos, evocative captions, thought-provoking statistics, plus personal essays from noted writers such as Amy Tan, Dominique Browning, former editor in chief of House and Garden Magazine, Dominique Browning, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and New York Times correspondent David Pogue.

What makes this book especially great for gift giving (think Christmas) is that you can upload a picture of your own to create a personalized book jacket. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes once you choose a cover photo (the digital file you upload must be high resolution.) If you already have photos in a Google Picasa Web Album or Phanfare.com photo album you can browse those albums from within their site and load them into their system. The possibilities are endless. You could choose an old black and white family photo, a favorite summer vacation picture, a picture of your children, your pets, or even your house.

Here are a couple I’ve created:

America At Home (including custom book cover) retails for $39.99.

Savvy Housewife is hosting an America at Home cover contest and one lucky winner will receive their own custom book! Upload your photo and create your cover at the America at Home website and then right click and save your cover and e-mail it to savvyhousewife at yahoo dot com by midnight September 18. I’ll narrow down the entrants to three finalists and hold a contest for the winner of the best cover; entrants must be U.S. residents.