busy week

My employer had a big sale over memorial day weekend and that made/makes for a busy week for us employees. Good because our checks will be nice. We are paid overtime for hours over 40 a week and also for anything over 8 hours a day. Today I got one hour of OT pay. Sweet! Tommorrow I will have another hour of OT and Friday I will have one or two hours of OT and won't have to pay a sitter because my mom offered to take the kids all day. Hooray. That saves me about $40 maybe more if I work OT. Thanks mom! It is bad because we have to work extra hours and while I like the extra money, it is a bit tricky finding someone to watch the kids if I need to start before 7am. My sitter's husband has recently started a new evening into early morning shift and he is sleeping when I drop the kids off. It is not a big deal on nice days, the sitter takes the kids to the park and downtown for doughnuts and shopping for a few hours so her hubby can sleep but on rainy days, like today, she has a hard time keeping the girls quiet. I always feel so bad when I have to ask her to take the kids early. She says not to worry about it but I do. That is just how I am. Hopefully his shift change will only last a month or so, like the last shift change did, and then we will be in the clear once again. Sometimes I think how much easier that aspect of life was when I SAH but that is just not an option at the present time. I thought about finding a different sitter but then it doesn't pay for me to work because I would be paying so much more in childcare.

R and I have discussed me quitting work and staying home once my car is paid off and we have an emergency fund of $1000. We already have more than that but I want to add another $1000 after my car is paid and then stay home. But then I think about how much he dislikes one aspect of his job (not that it is a big portion-just one guy that is constantly belittling and degrading R and that pisses him off in the worst way. Not that he would quit over it) and I think I should stay working even when I don't need to just to relieve some stress from him. He says it would relieve more stress if I were home but IDK. We have $1700 on my car and $1000 in savings until we have to make a decision.

took a little break

I haven't had much in the way of thrifty news to blog about lately. We have been busy. Over the last week so much has happened:

• My new neice was born
• My dad scored the kids a wooden swingset with a platform, slide, 2 swings, a glider, and rings for free. He took it down where it was located and hauled it here. R and dad spent a good part of Saturday setting it up.
• We had a cookout on Saturday for our anniversary and R's birthday
• Sunday we went to my brother's to pick up a Barbie jeep he got the girls for free!
• Today we had a cookout at the in-laws
• our neighbor's MIL had seizures and I was asked to watch their granddaughter but I had to work
• I worked a whole lot
• I got a bunch of stuff done it the yard
• R tried to mow lawn Friday and the pushmower wouldn't work and the rider was cutting lopsided so he gave up. I managed to finish up with the rider and then Saturday we got the pushmower fixed and finished the curb area and between the bushes.
• Sunday the kids and I went to the outlet mall. I am not wearing shorts to work this year as my psoriasis is getting progressively worse and spreading on my legs. I am not ashamed or embarrassed by my psorasis but I hate the stares and questions so I avoid them by not wearing shorts in public. People look at me like I am either a freak or contagious or maybe both and it is just not worth it to try to explain it to 100 people a day so I avoid the situation. Well because I am not wearing shorts, I needed to get some yoga pants or athletic pants that are light enough that I won't sweat a ton yet comfortable enough that I can constantly move in. I had a $10/$50 coupon for Old Navy. The outlet had a ton of sales, $3.75 or less for kids shirts, $4 for kids shorts, $4 for men's plain tees, and most everything was 50% off. I ended up getting 4 shirts for K, 1 pair of shorts for each, 1 shirt for O, 1 shirt for R, 1 shirt for me, and 2 pairs of yoga pants for myself. Then we went to Childrens' place. Holy Sale! I could have spent all day in there. The racks were so full I had a hard time pushing the umbrella stroller with O in it without running into something. I only ended up spending $4.21 there. I did not have enough time to look at all the racks as the store was super crowded, O was getting tired, K was getting hungry and bored and I was getting annoyed at all the people practically tripping over O in the stroller to try and beat me to a rack. The employees were restocking the racks as the shoppers were in there and the people were running to the newly stocked racks. I happened to be at one of those racks, browsing for gifts for my new neice when it was restocked. WOW people! It was a 99 cent rack but geez the people were insane. We ended up getting a shirt for O for $1.99 and 2 shirts for our neice (here on out called S) for 99 cents each.

busy busy. I haven't been doing much at all in the way of coupons. Heck, I haven't even been in Walgreens in a couple weeks. I went to the grocery store last Thursday and used some coupons to get Lawry's marinades cheap and a few other things for good deals but for the most part we have stuck to home and not done much at all.

I am trying to thriftily come up with a way to put something on our deck. The railings rotted and broke. It annoyed me so I took off the railings and had R help me put up some lattice. The idea in my head is not what we ended up being able to do and honestly, I hate the way it looks. I think tommorrow night, after the kids are in bed, I am going to take it down. I know R will be annoyed that we spent so much time on it this weekend but it looks stupid. Maybe once it was finished it would be ok but right now it looks stupid and we don't have the $$ to put into it. I could have put the money I spent on clothes this weekend into it but I didn't and we need more money than we have available to make it right. We would have to add some (about a 2 1/2 ft by 4 ft section and I would like to add a bench as well) to make it "right" but I don't have even the slightest clue how to do that and with R doing weekend "work" (he has to go in on evenings and/or mornings on weekends to check the machines. They run 24/7), he doesn't want to start something and not be able to finish it.

On a side note, have you seen the "sale" price of bush's baked beans lately? This is one of the very few things we are brand loyal to. They are on "sale" here for $1.50/can for the big cans. CRIPES! I remember with DH and I were first married (6 years ago last Saturday) they were 88 cents a can at Walmart. I was able to get the big cans at the bent and dent for 60 cents just a year ago. Now I can't even find them for under $1 anywhere, even the bent and dents. Normally price at my local store is $2.09. It sucks because O loves baked beans but she gets them all over and I hate opening a big can for just her.

So anyway that is what's new in our world

uber cheap bras at Lands end right now

Lands end has a bunch of bras in the overstock section as low as $3.99 each. I have one use left from a free shipping promo I got in my email. If you look and are interested, I will gladly share the free shipping promo code. -gone

It actually worked out to be cheaper on these for me to order as a non employee. Figure that out! Employees are not eligible for the free shipping (or any other promos) so it would have cost more to order them with my discount. I ordered 5 for a total of $23. I have 3 LE bras currently and I love them. They are the most comfy bras I have ever bought and at $3.99 each I can't pass up the deal.

enjoying my new (and not exactly thrifty) phone

We came to the end of our cell phone contract in February. We did not renew and get new phones at that time because R was laid off. I have had my same phone for 2 or more years and it was showing its age, numbers sticking, not dialing, not exiting programs, not picking up calls, etc. The old girl is tough though. She went through a lot of abuse including but not limited to: a fall from the top of my car, being driven over, being frozen with some groceries in the freezer, left in the blistering sun of my car, left in the frozen tundra of my car in the middle of winter, left on top of the stove while I was baking, numerous falls from my hand to the concrete, dropped from the stroller and stepped on, being dunked in the toilet, and being left in the fridge at work with my lunch. Not to mention numerous spills, splashes, throws from kids with temper tantrums, and juice spilled on her numbers. Yeah my Nokia was a tough old bird but she has been retired now. To a drawer just in case my new phone (yet to be named-K names items) decides it does not like the abuse.

My new phone has an MP3 player and a camera. I stepped up. She is metallic purple. I love her. I hope she is as dependable and tough as old bird was.

I got R just a cheap camera phone. He wanted something simple but then he started playing with my new phone and really likes it so I am going to exchange his tommorrow for one like mine....in red.

Dinner on Conagra tonight

A couple weeks ago I was emailed a survery from Conagra foods. I took the survey and received a coupon for a free box of banquet chicken, any size. Armed with that coupon as well as one from Vocalpoint for a free box of Kashi Waffles, I headed to the store. I picked up some AA batteries on sale as well. Saved 84%. We had the chicken for dinner with some mashed potatoes. DH basically lived off Banquet chicken before we started living together. I never buy it so it was a nice treat for him. Even the kiddos enjoyed it.

Planning our thrifty family summer fun

In the past couple of days, R and I have begun our talk of summer plans. The goal is to spend as little OOP and still do things the kids will enjoy. Some of the things on our list are:

*riding a local tourist attraction-we got a coupon in the mail for 1/2 price admission for adults and the kids will be free
*visiting a local science exploratoy. $3 admission with coupon (kids are free again I think)
*a ski show ($3 admission for adults and free for kids with coupon)
*trip to the free zoo-about an hours drive but well worth it. We pack a lunch (or sometimes go out to eat) and make a day of it.O will enjoy the zoo this year. Last year she was kinda small for it and only really saw the giraffes from her seat in the stroller but she did like them.
*hiking trip to a not so tourist place that we took the kids to last year. They loved the view from the top of the bluff
*R wants to take K fishing
*We also have 4 tickets for a free ride on a steam train. It takes a meandering track in the hills around here. K is in love with trains. I think she will enjoy it.
*we plan on attending fireworks for 4th of July, the festival parade (which can last 1 1/2-2 hours!!), and the festival celebration in our town. In August there is another parade and fireworks in a nearby town that we hope to attend.
*a tentative on our list is the Circus. We drove past the grounds a couple days ago and K was so excited. She really wants to go so we will try to make that part of our summer plans.
*and a first for the kids...the county fair. I have yet to take the kids to the county fair and I want to so hopefully we can fit that in this year.

My story is featured

Katherine from becentsable (link below in the links I like section) has posted my story this weekend. I shared with her a few weeks the story of my husband and I. Check back on her blog later in the week for my guest post on bartering. Unfortunately my brother and I will not be bartering much in the near future as his girlfriend is currently in labor. Their first child should be making her appearance any time now. As he adjusts to life as a new dad, his time will be spent in more important ways than working for me but I will continue to barter with my neighbors and our kids' sitter. Our sitter is actually working on a barter of her own right now. Her car needed some work and she is bartering for it. I am so proud of her.

My brother's girlfriend is receiving a new mommy basket from us with items from the stockpile. She is pleased. She enjoys my stockpile as well.

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We have some big plans this weekend, aside from seeing our new neice.
*We need to do the first weeding of our garden (weather permitting).
*The radishes we planted in the old garden spot are ready for thinning out.
*cleaning the garage so I can begin prepping for our garage sale (date TBD)-I have already started pricing my items but it is much easier to take stuff out to the garage and work a little bit each night after the kids are asleep.
*I hope to stop at a few garage sales this weekend. This is city-wide garage sale weekend and I was unable to go to any today with work and then checking on my brother's girlfriend in the hospital. I had planned to go after checking on her but I had a fainting episode in the hospital and once I recovered I decided that I should just go home.
*Ridding the garage of the collection of aluminum cans. We had an amusing trip last Saturday. My brother came over with the truck and trailer. We loaded up all the aluminum cans from my parents' house and our house and took them to the site that collects them and pays per pound. We arrived and there was no one there. Then we saw the sign "no longer accepting aluminum cans on Saturdays". Oh man! So we thought we would just go to one of the two local grocery stores, where a truck comes to collect and pay out on Saturdays. No such luck at either store. So we drove back to my house and unload all the cans. My garage currently looks like a recycling facility but once we receive the cash for those cans, it is worth it. The cash from the cans goes into the kids' savings accounts. K likes to tell me that she is going to get rich from cans. She is so into the money aspect of the cans that when we go for walks, she will pick them up and put them under the stroller after she crushes them. We have started taking along a bag for her cans. We are working on the recycle and good for the environment aspect of picking them up but at 3 1/2, the only real concern she has is feeding her "piggy".

This weekend we decided that we would drive by the store first and make sure the truck is there BEFORE we load up the cans yet again.

This store is either gonna hate me or love me

I was able to get more Kelloggs coupons for the deal my local store is running this week, 5 boxes of Kelloggs for $9. I ended up getting 11 more boxes of cereal tonight for a grand total of $8.80. Savings of 75%.




Earlier this afternoon the kids and I went there and got the cat food with savings of 100% (which I posted previously) and in a seperate transaction, I saved 62% on bagelfuls (which we LOVE), 2 boxes of Kelloggs raisin bran, and 2 loaves of bakery fresh white bread (so good! and was on sale for 50 cents per loaf!).


So either this store is going to
A. Love my business
or
B. Hate me and my coupons

so far it seems to be neither. They don't bat an eye when I use a bazillion (k's word for the amount of coupons I had today) coupons. They shouldn't, they get reimbursed but tonight I went to a different Walmart than I one I went to earlier today and the cashier scrutinized every coupon. She was so into my coupons that she forgot to remove one of the items out of my bag that I said I didn't want. She said the coupon was not valid on the size I had selected so she handed me back the coupons. I told her to void off the items and I would just take the rest of my transaction ( I knew it was ok but I was not going to argue. I will just go to the "nice" Walmart sometime and use them there). Well she removed 9 of the 10 items but voided off 10. So I got one free. I didn't realize it until I got home and was putting away the stuff so I called the store and told them what happened. The manager asked for the bar code on the item and then said just keep it. Don't drive back. I wasn't planning on it. I intended on returning the item next time I was at a Walmart and taking in my receipt and telling them what happened.

the coupon master

I recently ordered some coupons from thecouponmaster.com. They arrived today. I ordered on Sunday and they were mailed on Monday. I am pleased with the service I have received from thecouponclippers.com but from where they are located to where I am located I will not always receive my coupons in time for the sale. It is not their fault and I have received excellent service from them as well. I have been looking at other coupon clipping services because I sometimes need the coupons ASAP so I need a closer service. This one seems to fit the bill. I am pleased and will definitely order again.

Savings of 100%

Check it out! 100% savings. Wow! My best ever! So proud of that! .83 for $15.12 worth of cat food. .83 was tax...that is all I paid. Sweet huh?!?

Walmart deals today

The kids and I went to the park/zoo in the next town over to enjoy the nice weather. Since we were already in that town we made a Walmart trip. I got some pretty good deals.


8 packages of Oscar Mayer weiners $1.50 each
6 kraft BBQ sauce .98 each
4 cases of pepsi $5.48
Huggies wipes .97
popcorn chicken for our picnic $1.96
6 potato wedges .67
ranch dressing for the chicken .58
1 bottle of diet pepsi for me 1.25

used 4 $1/2 Oscar mayer coupons (made them $1/pack)
used 5 $1/1 Kraft BBQ sauce coupons (free plus .02 overage on 5 of the 6)
used 1 .75/1 Kraft BBQ sauce coupons
used 1 $1/1 huggies coupon (free and .03 overage)
used 4 $1/1 pepsi case coupons
got the diet pepsi free. The vending machine said please make selection when I went to put my money in. I hit the diet pepsi button and out popped a bottle of diet pepsi. I didn't have to pay for it. IDK...must have been my lucky day. There have been plenty of times I have lost money in vending machines either from it not giving me my change or not reading that I put money in and not giving me that money back so this freebie was probably actually not free but it was today. LOL.

Total before coupons was $45. After coupons I paid $30. Awesome!

free samples

check them out here

thrifty landscaping

is all about reusing (at least to me). I am currently in the process of making our lanscaping less high maintenance.


The trees in the backyard~I have always had big rocks making a border around the base of each of three trees and then I would fill the area with mulch. The next year I would add more mulch and the third year I would take out all the mulch and start fresh. It sucked. It was not hard to maintain but required at least a couple hours of labor every year. That is not really much when you don't have kids but now with kids, work, the garden, the dog and everything else on my plate those 2 hours have better places to be spent so this year I changed the landscaping. This year I am only boardering 2 of the bigger trees. I am filling in the area of one tree with larger and smaller rocks (pull or spray roundup on the weeds and go-my kind of landscaping and maintenance) and around the other tree I am placing white marble rock that I am digging out from my current "rock garden".






I am taking the pavers from the edge of my rock garden and making a walkway to the front porch (which K and I are going to plant some flowers around later-we got a big bag of seeds for free from the sitter). We used to have stepping stones surrounded by mulch and big rocks. It looked nice but was kind of a pain to maintain. I think the mail carrier will like our change. I am pretty sure she was tired of stepping on wet mulch after a rain. One year I got this bright idea to use cocoa bean mulch. I could not stand the smell after a rain. My rock garden is going to become lawn again. Bet that will make the meter reader happy. He has to step in all the rocks to read the meter.




In front of the front porch we have 4 hostas which are surrounded by lava rock. We are taking out the lava rock (edited~I decided to leave the lava rock) and filling in an area that will never grow anything (besides hostas) and making that look pretty with big rocks and will put some sort of lawn ornament over there. We are taking out 3 flower beds (which only grow weeds) and making them part of the lawn once again.




three flower beds I took out today




I am stumped on what to do on the other side of the house. We have a couple hostas and lillies of the valley there and the central air unit. It needs work but it is mostly shaded so I am still deciding.



As you can tell from above, I am reusing everything that we already had to redo the landscaping. Nothing will go to waste (except for the old mulch from the front walkway). All the big rocks in the rock garden will go around the trees in the backyard. The edgers become a walkway. Whatever marble is not used will fill in potholes in the driveway. Yep, I reuse everything possible.

A non landscaping project that is going to require R and my brother is replacing the railing on the side porch. It is loose and broken in spots.( It broke completely off one side today so I put a piece of lattice there temporarily until R can fix it) I came up with an idea and they are um.....well.....less than thrilled. I want to take the white lattice (that I already have! it is just sitting in the garage BEGGING to be used) and have them make a frame around it with 2 X 4's and then mount that to the sides of the stairs and the small deck. It would be very easy to decorate for holidays and on the back side it would make a really nice area for my morning glories to climb. R is not so thrilled about morning glories climbing that because he is afraid it will bloom on top and bring the bees. I agree BUT I also said that the morning glories are right there anyway. They grow up the side of the house and frame the picture window in the kitchen. They do that every year without any direction from me and the picture window is right by the deck. It is no different than having the lattice there. And a benefit for him is that the dog will no longer be able to jump off the side of the deck and get tangled so he has to go out and untangle her. The sheets of lattice that I have are actually big enough to frame in the whole area, sides up to the roof. I have an idea in my head of how that would look but R's idea is that it would look stupid. I think it would look really nice in the summer with the morning glories climbing it but he says no. I will let him win that battle since he will be doing most of the work. LOL

the railing that broke today

looking through my local grocery ads

there are no deals I want to take advantage of this week. Of course, the week that I am only working 2 days and would have lots of time for "deal getting". Figures. But that just means extra time to spend with the kiddos and working on the yard.

Poor K

Ok here's the deal. This morning the neighbor's granddaughter (L) came over and asked if K could come over and play. I let her. I was outside I could hear them and I know the grandma was watching them. K plays ok with L, the one that is just a couple months older than her but H (the one that is 6 ish) and K do not get along at all. So anyway, this afternoon H and L came over and asked if K could come play. This morning went really well so I said sure. Grandma was out in the yard over there so I yelled across that I was going to clean the house some and would open the window and listen but wouldn't be outside. Grandma said ok I am just cleaning the garage so I will watch them. Well K was there less than 20 minutes. I went outside to take out garbage and K comes running down the sidewalk, BAWLING. I went across the street and brought her home. I got her calmed down and she told me H was bossing her around and would not let her play with anything. I believe it because H has ran her over with her bike before when K was about O's age. And I have seen her pushing her sister down and just general meanness. I don't like K to play with her but I let her play with L. So anyway K is still snivling and saying I don't have any friends mama. Why are those girls mean to me? I am thinking H was being mean because there is another girl over there too, one I don't know. How do I tell her that she was just being a showoff? How do I explain that some kids are just not fun to play with? I gave her some extra hugs and kisses and told her that if H is mean well then K doesn't have to invite H to come over and play with her on the swingset or in the yard or let her ride the 4 wheeler only L can. K likes that idea.
IDK what exactly happened and IDK if Grandma stepped in the house for a minute or something but K was coming home by herself. Which I don't like. I do not like her crossing the street by herself. It is a really quiet side street but still. So anyway, later on K and I are going to talk about crossing the street by herself. Thankfully I was right there when she started coming. She knows to check for traffic but still...... Maybe later I can find out from the grandma what happened completely. I am not going to go off all bitchy but my daughter came home bawling this afternoon and this morning she was fine....the only difference is H is there. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Well K is better now. She just asked O to be her friend and O said uh huh and they hugged. They are sitting on the floor together right now. K has her arm around O and O rested her head on K's shoulder. Gonna try to get a pic. I love how resilient K is. It just sucks that she has to deal with all the nastiness in the world (well her world anyway). I hate seeing her so sad and saying I don't have any friends Momma and why are those girls so mean to me? Makes me sad.

Later Grandma stopped and she told me what happened. Basically from what she could gather, the other girl told H that she did not want to play with babies and H was trying to get rid of K and L. So we got it worked out.

deal of the day

6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal for $4.80

2 fruit loops
2 apple jacks
2 frosted flakes

My fav local store had them on sale for 5/$9-or $1.80/box
Total before Coupons $10.80
Total after Coupons $4.80
used 6 printable coupons from coupons.com for $1 off each box. Total was .80/box for cereal that the kids love for snacks. Great deal!

Contest Winner

was Jenera. Thanks for entering everyone. All the answers were good but we really liked the following:

I ALWAYS cruise through the clearance sections at Target because I can almost always get the things I use regularly for almost free when I use coupons too.

I try to buy in bulk for a our staples in groceries. I also do not buy any prepackaged food with the exception of spaghettios here and there for when I don't want to cook for Aidan. I try to make everything from scratch if I can.

My mom's day gift from K

Our local store does a cake decorating day for kids. They get to decorate and bring home a cake for Mom for $2.99. Kait and I went today and she made the masterpiece above for me for Mothers' day.

Yesterday I got a picture handmade by each of them. Pinecones and leaves and rocks glued to construction paper. Beautiful!!

Garden fence is done.

It works pretty well to keep the littlest gardener out but it upset her as well. She was so mad when I planted the cauliflower and she could not get in by me. I explained to her why I put the fence up but she does not care. At least the investment will be protected. I will let her come in the garden later, when the vegetables are growing so she can see them and learn but while the plants are so fragile it is best to keep her out.

A pic of the fence

garden fencing

is not cheap! $12 for a 50 ft roll of 2 ft high poultry fence. While I do not really need to fence the garden from animals, I do need to provide some proctection for our crops from little gardener feet. My littlest gardener is obsessed with the garden and really wants to be in it at all times. That would be fine except my littlest gardener has no idea that she is not supposed to step on the plants. Sigh. Better to spend the money on a fence than on produce, right? We need about 24 more feet so back to the store we will go after the littlest gardener wakes up from a nap.

free 8 X 10 photo at Walgreens tommorrow 5/6 only

use code mother during online checkout to receive one free 8 X 10. I am really excited about this. I need an updated pic of the fam for our wall.

The garden and more!

The garden is almost all in. Tonight K and I will plant the potatoes and this weekend we will do the onion sets. Next week we will do the cucumbers and decide if we will plant more tomatoes OR more cucumbers or something else. Then we are set.

We worked hard today. We planted 3 tomato plants, 3 green pepper plants and the rest were seeds, green peppers, green onions, carrots, radishes. We could have used even more room and I thought 6ft by 10 ft was good. HA! Dad knows me better than that and did it bigger than I wanted and now I am glad he did. I had more seed packets than I thought. We should have a nice harvest this year. My hope is to make homemade salsa, preferrably using only stuff from our garden! What a treat that will be!

Here are a few pics of my oldest little gardener (AKA hippie as R calls me and them) and the garden. Click on the pics to enlarge and check out the expressions on her face.

And for comparison's sake...the radishes from this year and what last year's garden was. You can't really tell the complete size because of the weeds but it ran the length of the garage and as far out as it is currently. Small huh?...yep, we expanded.

and this years garden

and finally...K and the tree we planted when she was less than 18 months. I have a pic of her by that tree last year and when we planted it but I can't find it right now.

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I picked up some ground beef on sale today. I also got 3 bottles of BBQ sauce $1/bottle and 5 jars of salsa $1/jar. I will repackage the ground beef tonight for the freezer. I also stopped at Walgreens and purchased the last 15 cent deodorant I had a coupon for. The cashier tonight was the same one from the other night and I mentioned that I sent a compliment in on Walgreens website about how well I thought she handled the situation. She was very appreciative of that and also told me that the lady apologized to the manager for her behavior but did not apologize to the cashier. Go figure!
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R got stung by a bee yesterday afternoon. Luckily it was in the calf because he is very allergic. He was able to go to work but came home early. He complained of dizzy and just generally not feeling well. I was scared when I got the call because I know how allergic he is and he would never carry an Epi pen before. Now he does. I made him an appointment with our family doc today and he got an epi pen...finally. After 6 years of marriage and nagging him to get one, he finally relented. It took a lot of pushing from me and his parents and this incident to make him decide that he needs one. I feel much better about the situation now. I was so scared last night. Had he been stung higher up on his body, he could have died. He has stopped breathing because his throat will swell shut after a sting. In our 6 years of marriage, this is only the 2nd time he has been stung. Last time was about a year ago. He was stung by a small bee and not even 5 minutes later, was swollen and had a nasty rash. That still did not convince him to get an epi pen but this last incident has and I am grateful!

Walgreens tonight-rude customer!

OMG this lady was absolutely horrid. I know she owns her own business and she lost any and all potential business from me with the way she treated a cashier at Walgreens tonight. It was absolutely horrible. So I went into to get milk and 2 right guard deodorants. Planning on doing 2 seperate transactions back to back. No big deal. I checked out whom was cashiering before I grabbed 2 (there is one cashier, not the one tonight, that gets really wierd when I want to do multiple transactions in a row and gets flustered so I usually just do one when she is there or do one and then go to my car and come back. I never do 2 big ones back to back..just one or 2 items and I almost always let other customers go in between). So anyway, I grabbed my stuff and went to the register. This cashier is always so nice. Never questions my coupons, knows everything I do is on the "up and up" so she never has issues with me at all. Any this lady is standing at the front screaming at her. "This is not customer service! I want a manager now! I am so pissed off at this store right now. This is an outrage." I hear the cashier page the manager and I am just hoping it is the b****y manager because this lady is being obnoxious. I tell the cashier I would like to do 2 transactions if possible, shifting my eyes toward mrs. loud and obnoxious and the cashier says sure no problem, she needs to speak to the manager so I will have time. I said ok. and mrs. loud and obnoxious says VERY loudly "damn right I need to speak to the manager." I said "excuse me, I do not think you are part of this conversation. I am trying to conduct my business and do not appreciate the yelling." Mrs loud and obnoxious shuts up because here comes the manager around the corner...not the one I was hoping for. Mrs loud and obnoxious proceeds to tell the manager that the cashier was so rude to her. She was overcharged for whatever and the cashier said ok and called for a price check instead of checking the price herself. Then Mrs loud and obnoxious tells the manager this is the worst customer service she has ever seen and this cashier deserves to be fired, and blah blah and she wants a refund and DEMANDED a gift card for her "troubles". She was checking out when I walked in the store. It was not like she had to drive home and come back . The lady was screaming at the manager as well. So anyway when the manager walked away to check the price, I followed the manager and told her that the lady was screaming at the cashier when I walked up there and I thought the cashier handled the situation very well and that I have never had any issues with that particular cashier. I wanted her to know that it was not this cashier's fault that the lady is such a witch. I can't believe how that customer treated the cashier. It is not like she could leave her register to check the price of something when there are other customers there. Does she expect the cashiers at Walmart to do that?!?! I hate when someone is rude to "my" cashiers...the nice ones...that make my shopping experience at Walgreens good. I just sent in a comment about this particular cashier last month so I didn't know if I should again or not but I am glad I said something to the manager at least...letting her know the whole story.

I did end up sending a comment via Walgreens website about the incident. No obnoxious B*tch messes with MY cashiers!! Not the good ones!!!

Walgreens trip today

2 transactions

$2.99 right guard deo.
-1.00 coupon
___
$1.99
.016 tax
_____
$2.15 OOP got back $2 rr

Did that twice. 2 deodorants for 30 cents. I have 3 more coupons so 45 more cents. Sweet! With the deodorants I got yesterday, R will be set for many months!

I will use the $10 RR I get this week for Pepsi that is on sale in a couple weeks.

The weekend

Not only did I have the trip to Walmart yesterday, we stopped at ET foods (will detail that trip later), had a cookout, R helped my brother switch out engines on a lawn mower, and I did 2 loads of laundry that I hung out to dry. Today is even busier with a deep housecleaning scheduled, grill cleaning, more laundry, a trip to the inlaws, a Walgreens trip or 2, and stockpile inventory.

Yesterday ET foods trip:

5 boxes of 20 count fruit snacks $2.25 each (the kids love fruit snacks and for a normal box of 10 count packages it is $2.25 at my local store)
3 boxes Eggo waffles .75 each ($2 something at my local store)
3 packs oreos $2 each ($3 at my local store)
OB tampons $1.50 (these are so great for work!)
3 bags Ore Ida fries $1.75 each (2.75 at my local store)
1 box captain crunch crunch berries $1.65 (not sure what it is at my local store but I KNOW it is more than $2/box)
1 box of cookie crisp $1.65

I love going to et foods. I know I have said that before. I love the surprises everytime I go.

total $28=paid $10

Mom and I took the kids and went shopping yesterday. I was able to walk out of Walmart paying only $10 and got 3 bags of items.

8 buddies bars (had $1/1 coupons for johnson's baby items making these free)
2 small bottles of Johnson's baby lotion (had $1/1 coupons for these as well making them free)
6 trial size bottles of irish spring body wash (clearanced for 50 cents each and I thought my coupons would make them free plus overage but I read the coupon wrong :( but I bought them anyway because they smelled so good!)
1 container of juice for $1
1 hair detangler spray for $1.17
2 deodorants for R (had 2 coupons for free deodorant)
6 boxes of mac and cheese (50 cents each)

$2 of my transaction was tax. Geez!

don't forget to enter my contest

$50 amazon gift card contest

Enter to win here...May 3rd is the deadline

a really awesome contest

here. Enter for your chance to win a $100 Home Depot gift card!

quick grocery trip tonight~saved 92%!!!!

I ran to the grocery store tonight (ok I drove but still...it was a quick trip) after the kids were down for the night. I forgot how nice it is to go shopping by myself. R got done with work early the last 2 days because he had to start earlier. It has been nice having him home in the evenings :)

I got 13 cans of stored brand canned fruit. They were on sale for $1/can except the pineapple, that was on sale for .89/can. I also got 4 boxes of purina cat food, a small box of store brand sandwich bags, and 4 boxes of cereal. I had coupons for the purina (free~I was hoping for the overage...the coupon was for free up to $2.19 and the cat food was $1.89/box. I was hoping that they would just scan the coupon and it would take $2.19 off but no such luck but hey free is free!), and the cereal. Kelloggs cereals are on sale for $2/box at my local store and I had $1 off coupons for each box. Kelloggs cereals are normally $3.79/box at this store so even $2 is a good price but $1 is awesome. So between the cereal, the free cat food and the fruit, I made out with a 92% savings on my shopping. I know the pineapple is normally $1.09-$1.19/can but I am not sure the regular price on the other fruit. I forgot to check but I think it is $1.39 or $1.49/can. The kids and I love fruit as a snack. We all prefer fresh but hey...we'll take what we can get.

Don't forget to enter my contest. Details are in a previous post. I need more entrants! Keep the ideas coming!!

CONTEST DETAILS

Because I met my goal of saving $1000 this year by shopping at Walgreens using coupons, sales, rebates, etc. I am holding a contest.



To enter the contest you can answer one of the two following questions. Answer both if you wish but you only need to do one and two will not get you a second entry. Please post your answer in the comments to this post.



the two questions are (pick one):



What do you do to save money with a brief explanation? (shopping wise; using coupons, watching sales, thrift stores, bent n dents, etc or cloth diapering, gardening, freecycle, etc).





or



What finance lessons do you hope to instill in your children and how do you plan to do this? (for example mistakes you made, getting them to save more, etc)



Easy right?!?



and the PRIZE is a $5 Walgreens gift card. Contest runs until 5/8/2009. R and I will pick our favorite answer and post the winner here on 5/9/2009. Good luck.

EDIT~ if you do not have a Walgreens nearby and would still like to enter. I would be willing to send you a $5 bill if you are the winner. Just let me know (if you win) that you would rather have the $5.

Another Angel got his wings today

A childhood friend's son passed away today. He was 2 1/2 years old. He was diagnosed not quite a year ago with an aggressive childhood cancer. He lost his fight today. I hugged and kissed my kids extra tonight before bed. It is a sad day :(

my story

I submitted our thrifty story for consideration to be published on a blog. Most of you already know it but I am going to post the whole thing I typed up. Read it if you want...if not, skip this post :)

When my husband and I were first married we were both working full-time for the same employer. We had great pay, decent benefits, and as much overtime as we wanted. We bought a house and started planning our family. In November of 2005 our first child was born after much difficulty in conceiving. Life was great. We were able to buy what we wanted when we wanted. The baby was always dressed in name brand clothes (from garage sales and thrift stores if I had the time to shop but otherwise, the baby always got new outfits and toys). We spent money as we pleased and didn't worry about debt. We were pretty secure. Our jobs were really secure and the pay just kept going up. The first 4 years of our marriage, our average gross income was $70K-$75K (which is a lot in this area). In November of 2006, our baby turned one and we started talking about a second baby. This time the pregnancy happened sooner than we expected.

In May of 2007, I was let go from my full-time job during my pregnancy with our 2nd child. I was able to get short-term disability from the company as I was let go due to complications with my pregnancy. We were doing ok. We had $30,000 in vehicle loans, $4,500 in credit card debt, and a mortgage but my husband picked up extra hours to make up the difference in pay. I started to shop more at discount stores and grocers. I bought more generics and we were doing alright. We paid ahead on my car and paid off 1 of our 2 credit cards. I started cloth diapering to save money as well. Just one week before our child was born, my brother in law was killed at work. That turned our little world upside down. My husband saw so much of himself in his brother, always working, never much time for the family, more than enough money to live on but not enough time to spend any. When our child was born, my husband vowed to change his life around. Just one month after she was born, he found a different job where he would be home in the evenings and on weekends. It was a big paycut but we ran the numbers and we would just have to tighten our belts a little more and we could make it. That winter I took a part-time seasonal job to help make ends meet. Life was harder than we were used to but better in so many ways.

Just after Christmas 2007, I was laid off. It was ok. I got a little unemployment and got to be home with the kids. The employer wanted me to come back but did not have work for me at the time so I waited. In May of 2008, I stumbled onto a forum about couponing and my thoughts about spending money and shopping did a 180. I read as much as I could about couponing, started having family and friends save their coupons for me, and started stockpiling. In June of 2008, we experienced significant flooding in our town and my husband was laid off. I was concerned but knew we would be ok. I had been couponing for about a month and already had a pretty good sized stockpile of things that we used regularly. After 2 weeks, my husband was back at work and I received the call from my employer to start back to work. Life was going good. I was continuing to coupon and stockpile and save money. After just a month back at work, my husband was once again laid off. I paniced a little. Our fuel prebuy for the winter months was due in a month, our car insurance was due in a month, and life insurance premiums were coming due in a couple months. We had a savings that would cover those bills but that was it. After one month of being back to work, I was offered a year-round part-time position with my employer. I accepted. My husband's layoff kept extending from 2 weeks to a month to 6 weeks, and on. Finally after 11 weeks, he was back to work but it was shortlived. After being back to work just one month, he was again laid off. We lived off the stockpile. I was determined to not ask for money from family so I picked up extra hours when I could and saved money by couponing, buying only on sale items, and reusing everything and anything. Finally in March of 2009, my husband was offered a job with a different company. The hours are not ideal and the pay is less but we make it work.

During the last 2 years, even with the layoffs, we went from $30,000 in vehicle loans to $1800 in one loan, $4,500 in credit card debt to no credit card debt at all. We stayed current or ahead on all of our bills and never once fell behind or had to ask anyone for money. We went from making $75K-$80K a year to making less than $35K (projected) for this year and have less debt and a better life. .

We currently have enough food in the house for 4-6 months and toiletries for a year. All paid for very cheaply or even free after coupons. Should my husband or myself be laid off yet again, I am only slightly worried. I know we can handle just about anything that is thrown our way. I owe it all to couponing and watching sales. I hope to pass this on to my children. My oldest (3 1/2 years old) loves to sit down with Mommy on a Sunday afternoon and clip coupons. When I take a little hiatus to use up the stockpile, she is disappointed that we are not clipping coupons that Sunday. She gets excited seeing the blinkie dispensers in stores, and loves to tell the cashiers at various stores about mommy's cool coupons. Even my husband, who was very skeptical at first, asks if I have a coupon for something he is looking to buy now. He also asks where the best deal is on whatever it is. I get a huge smile when I hear him brag to his friends about how much better life is now for us than when we used to work all those hours and how it is because of me and my thriftiness.

baby shower leftovers

We were given about 5 lbs of roast beef, ham and turkey lunchmeat and 30 wheat and white rolls. They were leftovers from the baby shower yesterday. We are pigging out on sandwiches today and baby carrots with dill dip. O's new favorite snack. I like her taste. I love carrots and dill dip. YUM! Tommorrow I am starting a new exercise program. I need to lose the weight I gained back over winter and the rest til by goal. I am proud that I did not gain back a lot of weight but I did gain back some. I have not been real careful with my eating so I am working back in the exercise first and then the eating better. Eating better is not a problem for me, I like fruit and veggies. The problem is exercise. I love to go for walks and play outside with the kids but I have issues using my DVD's and strength training. The only gym around here with childcare is uber expensive and I could join one of the 3 24 hour gyms but ugh...to go work out AFTER R gets home just after 10 pm and then have to get up at 5:45 for work. Working out before work is not really an option, I cannot get up THAT early. So my plan is to do the DVD at least 3 days a week after the kids are in bed. I have a good 2 hours after they are in bed for me time and I am going to spend 1/2 hour of that time doing my Cindy Crawford and Kathy Kaehler workout DVD's. I read on a forum I frequent recently about the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I looked up reviews on it and I think it is something I want to try after I am bored of Cindy and Kathy. I believe the library has workout DVD's you can borrow for 2 weeks so I am going to try to borrow it first and try it and if I like it I will buy it (amazon.com has it pretty cheap). With getting out for a walk on the good weather nights and my days off and then doing the workout DVD at least 3 nights a week, and my ab exercises every night, I should be in pretty good shape within 6-8 weeks. At least my jeans will fit better again.

So starting tommorrow I am starting the working out, and within a couple weeks, I will start watching what I eat more. I am going to start that now but not as strictly. With my history of eating issues, I have to be sooooooo careful when I diet or change stuff, it is so easy to fall back into the calorie counting/limiting obsession that once ruled my life.

garage sale preparation

We are moving the date for our sale this year. We usually do it the weekend before Memorial day but with my brother's baby being due around Memorial day we are postponing it until later in the year. They are in the process of moving as well so they are sorting as they pack and unpack. They should have plenty to sell as will I. O is growing so fast and K had so many 24 months and 2T summer clothes that I am not sure O will be able to wear so I sorted them all out and threw them in a box for garage saling. I have that box right on top, just in case some of it will fit O. I put 3T and big 2T stuff in her dresser. Before I know it, the girls are going to be in the same size. Crazy!

I have 2 full huge boxes of clothes to price, 3 boxes of clothes that are already priced and ready to go, and 2-3 boxes of other stuff that is priced and ready to go. BIG sale this year....whenever it happens.

I hate going to the laundromat

HATE IT HATE IT! I went last night to wash our big comforter so I can put it away until next winter. I cannot wash it at home. $2 to wash it (not that bad but still) and 75 cents to dry. Should have only been 50 cents but the machine ate a quarter.

Anyway, I hate the laundromat because it is dirty and there are some really wierd people there. I mean really wierd. Had there been no one there I would have just left the blanket in the washer....it locks and won't open until the cycle is done (and I would have been back before it ended) but with the wierdos being there I decided to just stay. Speaking of wierdos, last night just as I was getting in the vehicle to come home, R called and said be careful coming home. Some guy in a truck stopped in front of our house, R looked out the window (because it is odd for anyone to just stop in front of our house (there is a house across the street but it does not face ours) and when the guy saw R he took off. He came back around the block and parked there again. Again R looked out and he took off. The 3rd time, the guy rolled up in front of our house and shut his vehicle off and was just sitting there. R looked out again, the guy looked at him, R flipped open his cell phone and the guy took off really fast. VERY odd happenings.

***************
I found Castile soap last night. I want to try making a batch of hypoallergenic laundry detergent, I think this might work. The sitter informed me that K has been complaining about her butt itching and the sitter thinks it is from my laundry detergent. Well she never complains to me about it so I don't know. I am thinking it might be the toilet paper the sitter uses, or it could be the detergent, IDK but why does she only complain about it at the sitters house....ploy for attention? hmmmmmmm I wonder. The sitter's granddaughter had an infection from scratching her butt and the sitter told my daughter so now she is worried about getting a butt infection and she talks about it at the most inconvenient times, like in line at the grocery store, when I am on the phone with someone at work, or just to random strangers in the grocery store. fun right?

When I take a "couponing break"

I don't actually take a break from using coupons, just from cutting and saving all the ones I might even have the slightest chance of using. When I take a couponing break, I still get my coupons, I just don't buy 2-3 papers. I order my coupons from here. In the little over a year I have been couponing, I have ordered from this site a handful of times. One time there was a mistake on their part, I sent a quick email and they sent out the correct coupons that same day. It takes on average 4 days for me to get coupons from them. If I order on Saturday, they will ship on Monday and I will receive them Friday. I rarely order for sales in the same week I am ordering from them because it does not give me enough time but I will order for upcoming sales or just because I know I will use the coupons regardless of sales. This morning I ordered:

10$1 off Johnson's baby products coupons (more free buddies!)
5 $1 off tidy cat cat litter coupons (makes it .97 for a 10 lb bag at my local Walmart)
3 free pouches or $2.19 off purina cat food coupons.

Each coupon has a handling fee (that varies depending on the face value of the coupon), a mailing fee of the current cost of postage, and a administration fee of 50 cents. my total today was $4.37.

The cost of papers to get the 10 Johnson coupons would have been $22.25. Kinda pointless to buy 10 papers for one specific coupon for a free soap, especially when buying 10 soaps would only be $9.70 + tax. (for the record, this is not something I have done-bought papers for $2.25 for the $1 off coupon but I have bought an extra one or two for a $5 off coupon, making the dog's food free) .I would have had a bunch more coupons too but I am taking a break. I figured I would have spent $4.50-$6.75 on papers this weekend for less "usuable" coupons. So I spent just under the cost of 2 papers for coupons I will use.

Just ask me....LOL....I can justify ANYTHING!

line drying

I love the smell of line dried laundry. I hung out 2 loads today. They took 1/2 hour to dry. It is so windy and warm here today. K and I planted a very small part of the garden today. FIL (my local gardening expert) said it would be ok to plant onion sets soon and radishes. We did the radishes today. 2 rows. We are waiting until papa comes to till the new spot before we plant anything else for the garden. We also planted some Zinnia seeds today. K is very excited about her flowers, less excited about the radishes as she does not know what they are.

In an effort to become more green (and because the weather is nice and I need to lose weight) we walked to the grocery store tonight to get flour so I can make banana bread. I got 3 more reusable canvas bags on Earth day (free) and plan to use them exclusively if at all possible. I am working on that. I tend to forget them but I moved the stash to my car, passenger side floor, so it is harder to forget to use them.

a couple freebies and notes from Today

http://www.schickquattro.com/xmenorigins/#home/razor

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-free-samples.aspx

Today the kids and I went to a couple garage sales. Didn't find anything to spectacular. We got 2 Disney movies, Cinderella and Fantasia, a fisher price little people house (the OLD type-in MINT condition) that I can resell on Ebay and make some money from. I paid 50 cents for it.

We got a small laundry basket so we can put together the baby shower gift for tommorrow. We got that at Family Dollar. I was hoping to find a nice wicker basket but didn't see what I was looking for. Oh well...this will work.

trip to my fav store this afternoon

We made a trip to ET foods today. The girls wanted to go see Papa so we went to ET foods first:

I got a bunch of stuff for $16.95. Got more waffles for the kids for quick breakfasts.

met the goal!

Way back in January I challenged myself to save $1000 by shopping at Walgreens through the use of coupons, sales, rebates, etc. Well as of Today I have met and exceeded my goal. Check the tickers on the side. So because I have met my goal I will be announcing a contest shortly for my readers. Details will be posted soon! I have to decide on a prize yet. I am thinking that an Amazon gift card would be a good prize...considering I just won one with swagbucks and have nothing to really use it on. So watch for the contest...coming soon!

A "deal-icious" day!

What a great day I had today.

First off, I took the kids to the sitter and headed to my dentist appointment. They knocked $52 off my bill because I am a good customer. I laughed at that and am not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing. I mean, bad because I am there a lot OR good because I pay my bills early or on their due date. I assume the receptionist meant the latter. It was nice to have almost 1/2 of my bill knocked off. The reason is because ever since I started going to the dentist on my own I have gotten the nitrous oxide (AKA laughing gas). It used to be because I was afraid of needles. I am not longer afraid of needles, have 2 children by c-section (one of which was induced before the c-section happened) will do that to you. Now they give it to me because it relaxes me...and my gag reflex. I have a really touchy gag reflex and for some reason the gas will relax that so I am not trying to gag up on the drill and other dental equipment. Well, my new insurance does not cover the gas. The dental assistant never checked my new insurance so they found out when they ran my card that it would not cover it so they knocked that off my bill. They also knocked off the price of the base things I had to have. My cavities were pretty deep so they had to fill it in with a hardener before they filled it. So anyway that worked out really well.

Next I went to the outlet mall. I am tired of trying to find pants that will fit K in the waist and the length. She is a 3T in waist but a girls 5-6 in lenght. Almost impossible to find. I know Old Navy and Carter's have adjustable was jeans and I had coupons for each store! CHA CHING!
At Old Navy I got:

1 black V neck shirt for .82
1 blue perfect T for $1.68
1 red perfect T for $1.67
2 pairs of jeans for K ($8.49 and $8.50)

This was after the discounts...grand total was $23.33 Not bad for Old Navy stuff!

Then a quick jaunt into Carter's to check out the $5,$7,$9 sale.
While I only got one thing (a pair of shorts for k for $5) from the sale I found an amazing clearance sale.

I got K one pair of jeans for $7.80 and 2 pairs for $5.99 each. AWESOME! Grand total at Carter's was $26.27. I had a discount coupon for $10 off when you spend $50. I could have spent $50 if I got the kids some pjs (that they really don't need) and some pants (that O could wear now but she has all K's outgrown clothes to grow into.

After my mall deals, I had lunch with a friend. Awesome new Italian place that just opened in town. Good food and even better bread! Decent prices too.

After lunch, I had another appointment and R asked me to pick him up a new pair of jeans. His fav pair actually came from Walmart years ago (like before we had K so almost 4 years ago) and they are getting worn out so I wen tot get him another pair. They did not have the same ones so I got him another brand in the style he likes and I found a pair of Dickies work pants on clearance for $5. They are denim as well. I perused the rest of the clearance and found some pretty good deals. I got some fleece long sleeve nightgowns on clearance for $1 each, 1 for me and 1 for MIL for Christmas, I got 3 pairs of leggings (2 for me and 1 for mom) for $1 each. I love leggings for bumming around at home, doing yard work or whatever. They are especially nice for sleeping in. They had v neck Hanes t-shirts on clearance for $3 and while they are kinda shorter than I like they are a good layering piece so I picked up 2. I can never have enough t-shirts. My workplace is casual, pretty much anything goes, so t-shirts are a wardrobe staple! I used $4 in coupons and got some cat litter. Total was $48 and $30 of that was on R for his 2 pairs of jeans and his sub. He is in love with the subs from the Walmart Deli so everytime I go he has to have me pick one up. They are $5 but are HUGE and make 2 lunches for him.

I did 2 Walgreens runs today as well. They have a coupon out for today only to save 15% on items and 20% on Walgreens brand items and you get a free reusable shopping bag if you have this coupon. I had 2.
1st run:
bic lighter for the grill $2.12
excedrin back and body for R $5.94 (found a b1g1f package buried in the back!)
and 4 walgreens brand pain relievers $3.20 (.80 each)
total paid OOP after coupon and RR was $9.88
2nd trip:
3 walgreens brand pain relievers $2.40
Total OOP after RR $0.53


so all in all a good day :)

Pizza hut online

Order pizza hut online and use code IG (if you are a new customer) to get 20% off.

My new "toy"

I got a great big, giant 42 inch new toy today.



Can you guess what it is?





It is for use outside and not inside. So nope, not a TV. Guess again.















Ok I will just tell you. Acutally I will show you!

Check it out! It was FREE!!! and it works and it is full of gas! My Dad and brother got it dirt cheap from someone who said it didn't run. It sat unused for 3 or more years because the guy that owned it was going to fix it and sell it but never did so he just sold it to my dad cheap. It was only 3 years old when it quit working. So dad took it home, did some minor work to it and it fired right off. So since dad already has an almost new mower, and Josh has a nice rider and mine was junk, Dad and Josh brought it over today. I mowed the side yard in less than 10 minutes. It has a 42 inch mowing deck which is DOUBLE the size of the pushmower we have been using! I am in L O V E!!! Ignore the rest of the junk in the garage...I need to clean it out badly.

This week in sales

Not much. Chocolate milk for $1.99/gallon, The scunci deal at walgreens, canned mushrooms on sale at my local store. Have you seen the prices of canned mushrooms lately? Outrageous. When R and I first got married we could get 3 cans for a buck. Now they are .69 for the Generic ones at my local store and .55 at Aldi. My local store had them on sale for .50/can we ended up buying 48 cans this week. So I spent $24 on mushrooms BUT we go through then like crazy. We have a lot of steak in the freezer and what is a steak without mushrooms and onions!?! I would say that those 48 cans might last us all summer.

We ended up with 5 packs of Scunci ponytail holders. I used 3 of the $2RR to get cd's for R. He needed some blank cd's and Walgreens has 5 pks of colored ones for $2 so I only paid tax after the RR. I got 3 packs. I used to buy blank CD's in bulk because R and I went through a lot of them but now we don't. We use maybe 15-20 a year. Thank you Ipod!

In the next couple of months, I play to make a couple posts on Thrifty yard decoration.

couple K funnies

The other night we took dinner to R while he was working but he needed a few minutes to finish something before he could take a break so the kids and I stopped at Walgreens on the way. We walked in and there was a big display of lotion. K said oh look momma, I bet that lotion would be free with your coupons. The cashier (the mean one) glared at us. eh...whatev. K is so smart.

When we were at the store today, K walked right up to the discount cart (bent and dent items, close to expiring or expireds that they only have one off) and she started digging in. She found marinade for me for 50 cents. It is one day expired. I will use it this weekend. I am impressed with her eye for deals. Takes after her momma!

notes from our week

So far this week we have been pretty busy.

The sun is shining today and it is really nice out. We went for a long walk. We had to mail some stuff, pay some bills, and we stopped at the grocery store. Then it was off to the park for some play time. We came home and went to a couple garage sales but struck out. We only got a Cinderella book for a quarter. We stopped back at the grocery store and got some sand for the sandbox. The girls enjoyed that. I have been working in the yard. I have the backyard almost done. The squirrels really ate a lot of nuts this winter, there were shells ALL OVER the yard. I have never raked them all up before but I am so tired of not having much grass back there that I decided I am going to fix that this summer by actually really taking care of the yard back there. I always rake up the leaves in the fall but never really do much in the spring.

Wednesday I received my bonus check from work. It was not as much as I was hoping for but I am not going to complain. I also was able to sell my stash of cloth diapers to a friend. I am happy for the cash I got from that and I will use that to put toward some bills. I worked Wednesday as well. I started working in the yard Wednesday afternoon because I got home from work early.

Tuesday and Monday I worked and didn't accomplish much else.

so irritated today

I am in a pissy mood. My kids were terrible tonight. O somehow got my big purse down from the hook, pulled out my coupon binder and took out EVERY single page. I could just scream. It is in complete disarray I don't even have the energy to fix it. K was picking fights with me and her sister and not listening at all. I got them to bed and was hoping to enjoy some peaceful quiet time but no that just cannot happen. My stupid neighbor is home and has his bass cranked so loud it is rattling my windows, the kids are awake because of it and the police will not do a damn thing about it. I have tried. So there goes my relaxing evening. I think I am going to take a shower and head to bed.

Happy Easter

We had a good little Easter celebration at home. The kids found the Easter eggs the "Easter Bunny" hid last night. We went to the inlaws for another Egg hunt, O found the most, with a little direction from Momma. I would point and tell her where they were and she would walk over to where it was, laugh, pick the egg up and shake it. My mother in law hides real eggs, while we hid the little plastic ones. O was a bit confused as to why there were no "tweets" inside the eggs, but she got over it pretty fast. After Easter lunch with the inlaws, we headed over to my parents for a non traditional Easter Dinner. We had steaks. O and I took a nap while K played with the neighbor kids and R and my parents sat outside enjoying the weather.

We made a pitstop at Walgreens on the way to my parents' house. Scunci hair ties are on sale this week for $2 and are giving a $2 RR so it works out to $2.11 and then getting $2 back. Not too bad. It is only on the 18 packs. I have gotten 2 so far and plan to get at least 2 more packs before the end of the week. K and I go through a lot of hair ties. We both have long thick hair. Generally mine break because they make great teething rings (ask O about that), or they get stretched out because they double as garter belts (according to K, who insists that the extra 1 or 10 that she HAS to have need to go on her leg instead of her wrist like mommy). So between the bite marks and the stretching, they get abused and/or lost. We need to have more in the house. The dollar store ones just don't cut it for thick hair.

In case you haven't noticed, I am taking my blog in a bit of a new direction the last couple of days. I still plan to post my deals, etc but I am taking a bit of a couponing break. Not chasing the deals so much and just enjoying what we have. For one, I have been working a lot lately and not into the deals as much. Two: R's new job has slowed significantly and because I am a worrier I am going to be working on squirreling away some money. I wouldn't worry so much but if he were to get laid off again, his unemployment would not be much and would probably not cover our bills completely. I worry about. That also leads me into a predicament that may or may not happen in the next week but will most likely happen soon. I have a friend who has moved away. She still works in this town but is looking for employment where she is living now. When she does get other employment she wants me to take her job, in a small office. Because it is just her and her boss, she wants to leave her boss with a very capable employee. She talked to me a lot about the position and it is something I am interested in and my friend thinks that I would be perfect for it. Her boss would want someone to start ASAP and from the way my friend talks, she would hire someone based on my friend's word, rather than interviewing multiple people for the position. So in a nutshell, the job would most likely be mine, if I want it, which I do. The issue comes in because it would be more hours than I currently work but less pay. I would still be paying the sitter the same rate and bringing home slightly less than I do now. I would not see the kids as much. But on the otherhand, I would not work any weekends (I rarely do now except during the Christmas season), no overtime, and I would know week to week what I would be bringing home whereas now I do not know. I may be scheduled 25 hours, I may only work 8 of those hours because they are not busy and they cancel my shift, I may work the 25 hours, or I may work more, if they are busy and they call me in to work an extra shift or to come in early. It is chaotic and hard on the kids. Especially hard when I have a day off, but then I get called in. Nothing is in stone yet. My friend has another interview tommorrow and then I will know more but in the mean time I am sitting here wondering, what do I do? Do I go for less pay and stability considering R's employment or do I stay where I am and consider the money? If I do leave there is no going back until Christmas season. If a person leaves my current employer they do not hire another person to replace them, they just adjust the schedules of others to cover that person's shifts. That is why so many people work in multiple departments. So I am at a loss here. I am not sure what to do. I ran the numbers and they come out to just slightly less than what I make now and working more hours but the stability is what I am looking for, especially with the economy the way it is but really....is any job safe in this ecomony...that is the million dollar question.

Conversations with O

Having a conversation with O, 18 months old, is like understanding a foreign language.

O, What is your favorite song?
ei ei o

oh you like old mcdonald?
ei ei o uh huh

Can you say Kait?
hey hey (how O says her sister's name)

bubble=ball, rain, water (like a puddle after a rain), an actual bubble

wawa=water

jews=juice, milk

hup=cup, cop (or anything with lights and sirens, sometimes even trucks without lights and sirens)

peepees=peeps

meow=cat (mostly referring to Scooter, one of our 3 cats)

neee na bach bach=our dog, Sheena. O calls her "Sheena, bark bark". All dogs are called neee na bach bach. Doesn't matter if the dog even looks remotely like our dog or not.

bobbob square=spongebob squarepants

poppop=popsicle. A staple in this house, no matter what time of year.

tweet=treat

ahhhhhhhhhh (as she sticks her fingers in her throat)=she wants to brush her teeth...err chew on the toothbrush (good thing I get them free or dirt cheap with coupons!)

Ewwwwwwwwww=I pooped and I need a new butt (aka diaper)

nooooo hey hey dop= no Kait stop. Generally means:

• K took a toy and O is MAD
• K is trying to start a fight
• O is trying to start a fight with K and get her in trouble. O is an instigator.
  

When I think of it I will post more conversations with O.

the underwear around my knees dance

So K woke up about 11:30 tonight. She was screaming like a little banshee. R jumped up and went to help her. By help her, I mean bring her downstairs for me to deal with. Of course the Easter bunny had already stopped by and hid the eggs but forgot to bring the baskets out from the bedroom. R evidently forgot that part. Anyway, K said she peed in her pants. We are working on letting her sleep without a pullup and some nights are good, others are not so good. But Anyway, I took her in to use the potty because she had not peed in her pants...yet. There was one of those stupid ladybug looking beetles in the toilet. Evidently, they are butt biting bugs that will fly up (even though they are dead and just floating in the toilet) and bite K on the butt if she sits to pee with the bug in there. So I being the uber-brave mom that I am, flushed that bug down the toilet and told K to sit and pee.
Her response "it will bite my butt. I CAN'T pee in there."
"I flushed it honey. It won't bite your butt now."
"oh yes it will. It is MAD at you."
"oh for pete's sake. Fine I will pee first."
So I sit down to pee and while I am going, K decides that she no longer has to pee. Great (note the sarcasm). As she is pulling up her pj pants, she forgets to pull up her underwear first and is doing this tae-bo, irish jig, chorus line type move. I am not exactly sure what the point of the little dance was but I started to laugh, which in turn made K extremely mad at me. She said "don't you laugh at me" in the sternest voice her half asleep brain could muster, which made me laugh even hard and that made her yell even louder. R comes to see what the commotion is and walks into me, on the toilet, trying to pee but laughing so hard that I can't, K screaming at me and still doing her underwear-around-the-knees dance. He finds the scene rather comical and starts to laugh, which really makes K mad. She puts her hands on her hips and gives the two of us this look of total disgust, all while still trying to pull her underwear up underneath her pants. Gosh, I love my 3 year old. She makes me laugh at even the littlest things.

a pic of the butt biting beetle~evil looking huh?

ET foods trip

I just can't say enough good things about this store. I love going there. I love the element of surprise with what I will find. My finds for today:

Total $23.70-4 bags!

Ore Ida steak fries $1.50 bag (2)

Kraft marshmallow $.85 bag (2)

cookies .85 package (5)

Welch's frozen juice concentrate .75 each (7)

Pillsbury Toaster Strudel $1.25 each (4)

sally hansen nail polish $1

Corn on the cob $1 bag

Cauliflower $1 bag

Ben and Jerry's ice cream $1.50

total retail from a local store other than ET foods is $33.75. Saved $10.05. Awesome!

Free Huggies Sample

Click here. I signed up for my brother's new addition. Who can't use free diapers?

Lands' end friends and family discount

I have been given 20 coupons to give to family and friends so they can receive 30% off an order from Landsend.com from April 17-20. The code and PIN can only be used once. If you would like one, let me know. I have 18 coupons left. I can email you the PIN and code and you can use it only. It is also good at Lands end stores and Land's end in Sears stores, to use it in store, I will need to mail you a card so I would ask that you pay for the stamp. If anyone is interested let me know soon and I will set you up :)

I got my order from Lands end today and I love it! The shirts for me are on backorder but I got my shoes (so comfy) and I got the shirts for R.

Found it!

Fels Naptha soap...I found it in the oddest of places, my local grocery store. 99 cents a bar. I figured out a breakdown of my cost per batch of laundry detergent

.37 washing soda
.33 1/3 bar of fels naptha
.00 borax (got a giant box from my brother for free)
___
.70 per batch. 1 batch makes 2 regular (32 load size) bottles full and some extra. I am going to try this batch without adding anything. I will post how it goes. I am so glad I found the fels naptha and so cheaply and locally. Hooray!

so after letting the laundry soap sit

I decided that I do infact like it. I am still going to play around with the recipe some more but it looks like laundry soap. I think I did not let it cool enough before I put it into the bottles and that is why it looked so running before. It actually looks and smells good now so yeah! I need to get some more washing soda and I want to try the Fels naptha soap. I can find it at hardware stores after doing some research so after payday I am going to stop at the hardware store and pick some up for making my next batch. I hope to make my next batch next week. I do laundry every day so I should have enough empty containers for it. I think I am going to add some fabric softener right to the mix. I will give it a shot anyway.

lovin' it

I am LOVING the new position so far. I love the busy factor. I love seeing all the items I never get to see coming through. One of the good/bad things about my job is that I get to see the items first hand. It is nice because I may see something on the website for my employer and think wow that looks nice but when I see it in person I think ugh...no. But the bad part of that is seeing the items come through and thinking about how so and so (or myself) would really like that. I ordered some shirts for R tonight. He is in desperate need of plain t shirts for work. With my discount they were pretty cheap and I know they are of good quality so I ordered 3 shirts for him and 2 shirts for me and also a pair of sandals for myself. Regular retail would have been $69.50 and I paid $38. A substantial savings. It also helps that the items were on sale and I get a discount, even on sale items.

Solving one dilemma

I had a dilemma for the next couple of weeks. How to let the kids get enough sleep with my new hours yet still give them breakfast. I hate waking them up any earlier than absolutely necessary, yet I want to feed them before I take them to the sitter in the morning. They go to bed around 7:30 each night and usually sleep until 8-9 am. Putting them to bed earlier is not really possible. My new job starts at 7:30 which means I need to leave the house by 7. I could leave later but I like to be to work with minimum of 10 minutes to spare so I can get set for the day before my shift actually starts. So I made the girls some fruit smoothies tonight, frozen strawberries, a banana and milk. I blended really well. I will pair this with a baggie of multigrain cheerios for each kid and they will have breakfast on the run for at least a couple mornings anyway. Then I will have to try something else.

a thrifty birthday gift and more

So we (K and I for a bit and then just me later) went to a get together for Carrie. I knew about the get together about a week ago and I knew just what to get Carrie. We found a cute Easter basket and put some items from our stockpile in it. Things we figured Carrie could use. When we were putting together the basket, K wanted to know where the toys were and the candy. I told her that when you get older you don't get toys and candy for birthdays, you get things you need. She did not thing that was very fun at all. I gave Carrie the gift and she loved it. I put some Bodywash, Renuzit fabric spray, Toothpaste and Oust cleaner in the basket. Handy things. I don't know about everyone else but I LOVE getting practical gifts. Forget rings, necklaces and flowers if R does something like this or this, I am so ecstatically happy. Yep, I love to get and give practical gifts.

Made my first batch of homemade laundry soap Friday night. Yep, that is how I will be spending my evenings now that R is working 2nd shift. I am not very pleased with the results so I am going to play around some more before I post my "official" results. Overall, it did a good job cleaning but it was not nearly as sudsy or nice smelling as I had hoped for. I will still use it in conjunction with my stockpile of purex but I will play around more with it later. I figure I will do a 1/2 to 1/2 mixture of homemade and purex until the homemade is used up and then will try again. It smelled ok but I am thinking I need to add something, a dash of fabric spray, some essential oils, something not sure what yet though.

The girls and I did an Aldi run today. We spent $36 and came home with a box and 4 bags of groceries and 2 boxes of Ramen noodles. Since R is not eating dinner with us, the girls and I are eating more lunch type (read:fast) dinners. Both kids adore the chicken Ramen noodles. I cut down on the sodium by using only half a packet of seasoning. I will add some caulibrocliflower (K can say cauliflower and broccoli seperately just fine but in the same sentence they become caulibrocliflower) on the side with some cheese. The kids and I are going to be trying some meatless dinners a couple nights a week as well. A ramen noodle night, a soup and grilled cheese night, pancakes and eggs, etc. The kids don't seem to mind not eating meat as much as R would but I want to make sure they get their protein so we will have beans, eggs, peanut butter, etc.

I am excited to start my new position with my current employer on Monday. I have yet to hear anything more from the job I interviewed for so I am calling that a loss (on their side-I would have been great at that job, I am pretty sure) and sticking with my current employer. I do like working for my current employer. They are good to me and I love the flexibility that they offer. It is very nice to be able to take a day off without having to worry about having vacation time or unpaid time to cover it. Oh, you need a day off, let us know before the schedule for that week comes out and you can have it off (provided there are not a lot of other people taking that same day off but that has not been an issue yet). It is really great for someone with 2 young children. So after much debate and running numbers and countless hours of just thinking, R and I decided that even if I am offered the other position I should stick with my current employer. When he was still laid off, it was a no brainer, I needed to take that job but now with him working and me able to pick up a job in another department (thus giving me more hours) it is no longer a necessity.

~~Money stuff~~
$1900 until the car is officially paid in full. YIPPEE!!!

Out of R's last check I was able to put away over $200! That is so nice. We need to save $1800 by August at the very latest. August is when our car insurance is due again and Propane prebuy can be done anytime from now until October but the sooner the better. I have been monitoring the pricing on that so when it hits bottom we can prebuy. Some reports say June usually, others say late spring. Then of course in October and November are what we refer to as the "big 3", My life insurance, O's life insurance and R's life insurance. K's premium is due in March. the "big 3" runs us close to $750 a year, add in K's for a total of just over $900 a year. OUCH! Is the kids life insurance really necessary? That is debatable but I do think that it is considering what we went through just before O was born and the aftermath of all that, the peace of mind is worth it. For R and I, the life insurance is a necessity. We are covered enough so that if something were to happen, the house and any other bills are paid in full and there is some left over, not a lot but enough to get by for awhile. R is more heavily covered than I am. R has a policy that his parents took out when he was a baby and a policy through work (that they pay for). I only have the one policy. If something were to happen to both of us, we have wills in place specifying who gets the kids, who gets control of our assets, and a contingency plan should something in the plan of choice fall through. We also both have advanced medical directives set up as well. For those that do not know, R's brother was tragically killed at work just one week before O was born. After that happened, we decided that we needed to get this stuff taken care of. For easy will (and other legal documents) writing, check out Deluxe willwriter. This program is AMAZING. Besides wills and advanced medical directives, it contains any kind of form you might EVER need a lawyer for. All we did was completed the simple questionnaire included with the software. It put everything together for us and we printed them off and took them to our bank to sign and notarize. 2 hours total time and the cost was very minimal. If you have a large amount of assets or more complicated situations, a lawyer might be a better choice but for us this was the best!

a few updates on us

me first: I started a new position with my employer next week. I will be job sharing in a new department. I will be available 3 days in my current position and 2 days in the new one. For the next 2 week I am working Monday through Friday, everyday and then after that I will be splitting my time between the two departments. It should mean more hours. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because I will be making more money and able to pay off bills faster and build our savings sooner, but bad because I will not be able to be here as often with the girls and will be paying more for daycare. Such is life.

The girls are doing good. Not real excited about my new position next week but what can I do.

R is working his job. He is on 2nd shift now and loving it. It is an adjustment for the family but it is going ok so far.