Headline: Halloween Over, Time to Plan Holiday Travel!!!

Date: Nov 8
LG Savings to date: $373.25
New this week: No new activity – me and the friends & family very quiet on the shopping front. And returned some clothing bought online so total is less than last week.

OK, Halloween was great. Boys costumes were adorable (photos to come) but unfortunately never got around to getting the digital camera. The stills taken from the Sony DV are fine, but pretty low res. Saw some lovely Canons.. might have to put them on *my* holiday list, along with the Roomba that (gasp) WASHES THE FLOOR.

And yes, it is holiday time. According the article posted on the Little Grad site, a thoughtful contemplation is the key to avoiding stress. You can read the article in its entirety at www.littlegrad.com, and scroll down the right side to see all articles and look for the 5 tips to Reduce Holiday Stress. Of, if you're pressed for time, check out the major ideas:

Visualize your holiday. Get on top of the following items….

Travel. For us, if we are to do a ski trip between Christmas/New Years, now is the time to book. If we end up staying at a hotel, booking through any of the major services (expedia, hotwire, priceline, etc.) will net us either 1% or 2% savings.

Nice things for Grandparents/Aunties. Making the list, checking it twice!

Nice things for those that enhance my life. Yoga teachers at the Y, my babysitters, the boys teachers.

These nice things will usually bring a nice rebate of 3-15%, so planning ahead and considering the rebate IS worth my time…

I have found that the early listing, visualization really will help me to come up with gifts that do convey the emotions behind them!

On the spending front, I had budgeted to get the boys some new sweaters (Gap or Old Navy – 5% rebate) but its been so darn sunny and lovely. And we have some nice ones from friends – hand me downs are great!

More next week!

Halloween Fun and I Start a New Program for Little Grad

Date: October 25
LG Savings to date: $374.36
New this week: $14.03 (Football uniform for my mini-Micheal Vick from ESPNstore.com – 3%. The rest is coming from my family/friends’ online activity… wonder what they’ve been up to?)

I love Halloween! For months the little people in my household speculate, plan, and change their minds about what they want to dress up as. What a treat to see their little creative wheels spinning.

After great deliberation, Tyler, my 5 year old, has picked the Falcon’s speedy quarterback as the one NFL player he wanted to dress as. Why Micheal Vick? It has in large part to do with the uniform being red… ESPNshop.com has seriously cute mini uniforms.

Matthew, my 3 year old, at the last minute decided NOT to be a football player, and instead wanted to be a Little Einstein. I did a search for a costume that would enable this, and found it at Disney's online shop. He’s lucky it is so darn cute (it’s Rocket, and it has suspenders that go over his shoulder and you see the whole little crew in the windshield!) because the online Disney store is *not* yet a contributor to the Little Grad program, and its my personal policy to reward the retailers who do participate in college savings with my business! But… letting Matthew have his choice of costumes is, as they say in the credit card commecials, priceless. And I did get 25% off by waiting til this relatively late in the costume buying season. I’m quite lucky it didn’t sell out, as many costumes do.

(In case anyone is curious, I will *not* be wearing a costume as we trick or treat.. nothing inspired me… maybe next year!)

Amidst all this excitement in the homefront, my beloved company Little Grad rolled out our School Rewards program this week! Having been forced by various groups and schools to join fundraising programs which were offered by our competitors, I knew we could craft a better option. Little Grad's program lets parents continue to earn money from their online shopping AND raise money for the school at the same time.

We go out with press release next week about School Rewards and will try to raise awareness on the PTA websites for this new option. Being involved in crafting the strategy, execution and creative on this program has been awesome. If you get the chance, check it out at www.littlegrad.com/schoolrewards and tell me what you think.


Check in next week to hear about our trick or treating and Little Grad's move into the 'official' holiday shopping season!

Happy Birthday, Little Grad!

Date: October 18
LG Savings to date: $360.33
New this week: $11.50
(School Uniforms from Target.com – 5%, B-day flowers for my sister from 1800flower.com – 10%, birthday mug from Shutterfly.com 7%.)

And finally… after 5 years of being a blogosphere spectator… I’m jumping in.

Brief history. After 7 years of post MBA big company life, I quit to have and be with my two adorable little boys. After a few years of hanging with them, I was offered the chance to be part of a team building Little Grad (www.littlegrad.com) a new, dare I say very cool, saving for college service that opened for business one year ago. Simple concept – sign up, get rebates for online shopping at all the top sites, which then go automatically into your college fund..

My goal with this blog is to reflect on the little milestones, both with kids and company, and to keep track of how our everyday activities add up… in college savings… in memories, in personal growth.

So, happy birthday to Little Grad, growing, doing exciting new things and fun place to work! And in my personal savings… this week I finally got the kindergarten uniforms (so cute!) and remembered my sister Kristin’s birthday (Aunty Piston, as my 3 year old calls her).

Read along with me… write me your thoughts and suggestions… join me in the fun game of seeing college savings add up. Coming next week – Halloween stuff…