As 2009 draws to a close, I’m reminiscent of all the awesome things that happened in my own life and on my blog.  While I didn’t save up to pay cash for a house, I did however have an incredible year of savings!

The Best of Blogging and Life Changes

- I provided healthy and organic foods for my family for under $40 a week.

- I stepped out of my comfort zone and taught my first couponing class.

- I was named one of Savings.com’s Top 30 Deal Pros and was flown out to San Francisco for an exclusive event with other bloggers.

- My site traffic more than doubled.

- I launched Forums and a Chat Room on my site.

-We cut out our home phone bill by switching to Magic Jack, and haven’t looked back! Phone service now only costs us $20 a year!

-We cut our Cable TV, but still are able to watch all of our favorite shows for under $10 a month.  More will come on this later.

- I personally scored a FREE Wii and Wii Fit, and dropped two pant sizes by working out!

The Best Freebies

Disney Pixar’s UP for free on Blu-Ray and DVD, Disney’s Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure for free on Blu-Ray and DVD, Free Chick Fil A Sandwich, $10 in free gas at Shell or Jiffy Lube, $10 in free food from Swan’s, Free subscription to Woman’s Day magazine, $25 in free groceries from Kraft., Glade Soy Candles, 3 lb. Bag of Organic Honeycrisp Apples, Full Sized Bottle of Old Orchard Juice., Free Lunches at Ted’s Montana Grill., Free International Delight Coffee Creamer and More International Delight Coffee Creamer,  Free EOS Organic Lip Balm, Free $15 Credit on Shutterfly, Stacy’s Pita Chips, Coupon for a Free Quik Trip Sandwich, Salad or Wrap (you know, I think this has reset again!), $25 in Free Sharpie Products, Seventh Generation Laundry  Sheets and Seventh Generation Dish Soap, Free Organic Hand Sanitizer, Free Organic Steaz Tea, Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce, Free Hot Beverage at 7-Eleven, Free Box full of full-sized Boiron Homeopathics, Free Starbucks Coffee and More Free Starbucks, and even more Free Starbucks, Free Sweetfire Chicken at Panda Express, Free Bounce Dryer Bar, Free Bare Minerals Make-Up and Brush from Sephora, Free Quart of Glidden Paint, Free Beach Umbrellas at Rite Aid, Free Dagoba Organic Chocolate, Free Tropicana Juice, Free DiGiorno Flatbread Melts and Again!, Free Chocolate Fridays, Free Burt’s Bees Lip Balm, Free $10 Gift Card to the Mall of your choice, plus a ton of Mall freebies!, Free Burger’s at TGI Fridays, and even More free burgers, Free Honey Bunches of Oats, Free CFL Light Bulb from Home Depot, Free Thomas Train at Toys R’ Us, Back to Nature Macaroni and Cheese at Whole Foods and a Free Bottle of Suave.

The Best of Deals

-$5 off any purchase of $5 or more at Hallmark, $5 Huggies Coupons and $5 Luvs Diaper Coupons, $10 Honey Baked Ham coupon, Free Laura Mercier Primer, Burt’s Bees Grab Bag Deal, Buy One Get One Free Egg Coupon and Again., Personalized Photo Stamps for .40 cents each,  $40 in Free stuff at 1-800 Flowers, Organic Maple Syrup for $11-$13 shipped on Amazon (free with Swagbucks), Old Navy Online Coupon Hunt,  Veggie Tales DVD for $2.99 shipped, Eco-Friendly Shoes for under $10 Shipped, Space Chimps Wii Game for $5.89 Shipped, $20 in free plants from Spring Hill Nursery, Free Car Rental from Hertz, $1 Hotel Rooms, Hickory Farms Gift Sets Were 90% Off. This happened in January last year, so hopefully we will see this deal again in 2010!!, $25 back when you joined Sam’s Club, Quick Books Simple Start Free or Better at Office Depot, and a $5 Jennie O coupon, which made for free meats!

The Worst of Deals (Ones that Didn’t Go so Well)

Many companies still do not realize the power of viral marketing, and how quickly deals spread across the internet.  Here are some of the deals that did not go so well in 2009.

-Korres Free Gift with any purchase:  While the company wasn’t able to fulfill our orders, they did in fact send us all some great free samples.  They made the best out of a bad situation.

-Gevalia coffee pot deal:  Sadly all of our orders were canceled.

-$10 Free Credits on QVC: QVC offered everyone free $10 credits, but then backed out and removed everyone’s credits. Not cool QVC!

-Free Cranberry Squares on Amazon: Amazon canceled everyone’s orders, admitting there was a pricing error.

-$10 Sears Junior Fashions Coupon: Sears started rejecting the coupon across the board, even though the coupon was still available on the Sears.com website.  They shamefully wasted a lot of people’s valuable time, when they could have easily removed the coupon from their website.

-Free Rotisserie Chicken and Flowers at Whole Foods:  Unfortunately the coupon went viral way too quickly, and Whole Foods had to retract it.

-KFC 2-piece Meal Coupon: Another example of a company underestimating the power of the internet.  Everyone started getting turned away, and finally KFC refused to accept anymore coupons.  You could get a raincheck if you went in and picked up a form to fill out and mail in. Did anyone do this?  Not me!  I was done with them at that point.

-Free Stuffed Animal and Baby Blanket: This was apparently a scam site that duped many of us, including myself.

I don’t know about you all, but I am definitely looking forward to the deals to come in 2010.  I hope you will all stick around and enjoy the savings this following year.  If you’ve followed me at all this year, then you know that this list barely even scratches the surface of all the deals we uncovered together in 2009.  I’m interested to hear what your favorite deal from this past year was.  And I’d also love to know if you have any positive feedback in order to make 2010 a fabulously thrifty year on TheThriftyMama.com!