Monthly Archives: April 2010

Club 254

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Last night the kids club at church had a coffee and desert social for the “seasons citizens”. The theme for the night was 50’s. My friend N was so awesome in offering to make a skirt for Lily. I am not a crafty person and sewing is definitely not my thing. So I was so willing to let her make Lily a skirt. Otherwise Lily would have worn rolled up jeans!
Lily really loves going to clubs and I could not be more thrilled that they are teaching the kids from a young age that we need to be serving others. In November they did a veteran’s appreciation and they are also collect items all year to pack shoe boxes for Samaritan’s purse at Christmas. Lily loves the idea of giving and she is learning alot in the process!

Triples….

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So I made it back from Harris Teeter triples. I ended up spending around an hour actually shopping. I went to my favorite store in Salisbury and it was the busiest that I have ever seen it. And for the first time ever at a Harris Teeter, I loaded my own groceries in the car. But I am still going to return again the next time they have either a triples or super doubles. I was not impressed yesterday as I got my list together and was even less thrilled when I arrived and found that 4 of my 12 free items were either not carried at the store or already out of stock. My initial plan was for 2 trips this week but after today, I have no need to return. I did load my car and go back inside to claim my free loaf of bread and $1.00 off meat.

The details, I spent 32 and saved $66 for a total saving of 67%. Not to bad especially considering that I have 7 coupons that did not triple, four were for a $1.00 each and 2 additional Harris Teeter coupons that don’t triple as well as a free item that did not triple.

Highlights- Earth’s Best Baby food was on sale BOGO, this is regular priced at 0.89 a jar, I had in my binder 2 coupons for $1.00 off 10 jars so that bought the actual price to around 0.35 a jar. I also purchased boxes of Baby cereal for 0.99 each using both manufacturers and HT coupons. Matt really liked the fried cheese sticks that I purchased 3 packs of for FREE!!

Harris Teeter usually has a “Theme” to their sales. This week it was Mexican I ended up buy chips, salsa, taco sauce and meat today so I am going to change my menu plan and have Mexican instead of steaks.

Budget wise for the month I am currently $60 UNDER budget!!!! YAY!!! This includes a huge stash of diapers and some baby food!! I am excited!

Wordless Wednesday

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These are from a party that Lily went to on Saturday. It was at the gymnastic building that she goes to for Parents time out. Princess Tiana was the hit of the party. Matt said she was very patient with the kids and they all just ran up and asked her questions. Lily was so excited to know that she is living at “Mickey’s house.” She also remember that Tiana’s green dress was dirty that is why she had on white.
I am really impressed that these are from Matt’s cell phone. I was at home with the babies for nap!

Monday Menu Post 4/26

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Matt and I discussed yesterday how nice it is to have a Menu plan for the week. He is great (Ok) with the idea that on the weekends we grab something quick and easy from the freezer or he is in charge of cooking :)!
Spring including warm, pleasant, not to humid weather has arrived and that means we will be using the grill ALOT!

Monday- Hamburgers, Chill cheese fries sounds great as well today!
Tuesday-Chicken-broccoli-rice-cheese casserole. (My plan is the make enough to freeze one dish for the summer!)
Wednesday- Steaks
Thursday- Taco Rice Nachos (Making a double batch of Taco Rice to freeze for the summer)
Friday- Spaghetti

Paid to Shop at CVS

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So I didn’t get a picture of this trip but here is what I bought at CVS today:

1 6pk Scott Paper Towels $4.99 on sale, $1.00 coupon
2 packs of “fake nails” one was $4.49 and the other $5.99 but I found a coupon on a pack for $2.00 off the second package
1 Resse Dark chocolate pack, 1 regular Resse cup and 1 Caramello bar, $0.89 each, $.55 off the Dark Resses and B2G1 sale
2 Oral B Cross Action Toothbrushes $2.99 each used $1.00 off coupon and B1G1 coupon for these.

I also used a $5 off 25 coupon from Rite Aid and $10 ECB from last week. Total out of pocket was $2.47 (2.01 tax) and I received back 6 ECB ( 2 from the toothbrushes and 4 from the nails)

CVS paid me $3.03 to take these items home!!! I am so excited and I still have 3 ECB from last week as well!

Random Thoughts for saving money

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As I was sitting here thinking I need to blog, it occurred to me that I really don’t have much I want to blog about right now! So I thought I would share a couple of the “coupon codes” I have been using this week.
I order 2 hydrangeas shrubs from Silver Hill Nursery for free and paid only the $12.95 in shipping. I have wanted a couple of this plants for several years and just decided to order and I will figure out where to place them when they arrive.

There is a code FREE4MOM that you can use at CVS to order 4×6 magnets. I have to admit I messed up one of my orders and ended up ordering 2 on the same order so it will cost me 6.99 for the 4 magnets that I ordered but my plan is to pay using ECB so it should be ok :).

Harris Teeter is going to be doing Triples again starting Wednesday. I am planning to make at least one trip and we will go from there depending on what is on sale. Speaking of Harris Teeter I went last Wednesday when we picked up the girls new swim goggles and was able to grab 4 packs of diapers at 2.99 each with coupons and I got a rain check for 2 additional packs because they were out of Zach’s size :).

Well guess it is time to stop of course Zach is hungry!

Reflections on His Birthday

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Listen…what is that sound…the dishwasher..the computer fan… the water running down the drain in the bathtub… what is so special you might ask? Well it is probably one of the best “gifts” that Matt gives me at on Wednesday nights most of the school year. Any clues yet? It is silence and time to just enjoy being me “alone” in the house. Let me define “alone” it does not mean no one else is home it means that no one else is home and awake. I know that I have probably another hour and half before Matt, Haley and Lily will return from church. Amanda is at work so this is my time. Tonight my plan included a bath and shave :), writing this blog post to post on Thursday and then watching at least one of the 7 episodes I am behind of All my Children. I had thought about several things to blog about today being that it is Matt’s Birthday. I first thought I need to record how we met, naa that will be for our anniversary but then I decide to reflect first on how luck I am to have met and married Matt and then to give you a glance at how we celebrated!

Traditionally we ALWAYS go out to eat on birthday. But since this is a Wednesday night it would have been difficult to go out and for them to get to church on time. Add in the money issues and cost and it was decided that we would either postpone the dinner out or just skip it. We did get lunch yesterday at IHOP, while running errands in Greensboro and I bought sushi for dinner so that is eating out enough for our budget. Today, I decided to use the grill and then fix some of Matt’s favorites to go along with it. After he left for work this morning, Amanda helped me dress and load the babies up for a quick trip to Walmart. He planned to come home at lunch so I fixed “buffalo wings.’ as his first surprise. His gifts this year were Dark chocolate candy(probably 5 different kinds) and black licorice and swedish fish and “Adult beverages”. I was able to surprise him with lunch and we had Jumbo shrimp cocktail, pasta salad, T-bone steaks, homemade bread and cake for dinner. Haley watched the kids after school so that I could get dinner prepared with no help! It was awesome. My parents came over and talked to us while we ate and held Zach!

I know that when we look back 40 years from now it will not be one of his “outstanding gift” years but I do hope he enjoyed today. We celebrated the way that was best and most fun for our young family.

I hope

Wordless Wednesday

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A friend from our church spends most Saturdays with her husband going to different yard sales, they find some awesome deals and usually share with a lot of people. Recently they have been finding some clothes for Zach on a regular basis. Last summer, she help supply Lily’s “dress up closet.” This past Saturday she was able to but 7 dresses and 7 pairs of dress up shoes for $3. Lily and Kendall both LOVE the clothes they spent most of Monday playing dress up for weddings and proms and just being “princess.” We promised pictures so here are a two (all blogger would let me post today)!

Kendall LOVED this hat/headband that was in the bag as well. She is wearing a “Belle” costume.

Monday Menu Post 4-19/ Week plans

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I am convinced that one of the reason that I am doing better with budgeting especially groceries is the fact that I am now planning our meals at least by Monday. This makes it much hard to say “Let’s just eat out because I know what I want to fix and we have stuff in the freezer for the rough days. This week in general should be fairly easy as I don’t have any time at work scheduled and it really doesn’t sound like I will get any and other than driving around Amanda nothing in the evenings. Tuesday we will be going to Greensboro to get the little girls swim googles, diapers at Harris Teeter and a small trip to Costco. Wednesday is Matt’s birthday so we will be making a cake during the day as well as going out to eat somewhere for his dinner???. I LOVE the grill in the spring and summer so at least 1 if not 3 of our meals will start being based on using it. We do have to get it filled so that is another trip!

Monday- Apricot Pork chops in the crockpot, maybe a broccli rice cassrole or maybe just a fruit and veggie.
Tuesday- Steaks on the grill and a salad
Wednesday – Happy Birthday MATT!
Thursday- Grilled chicken and pasta salad
Friday- Seafood night (probably grilled or steamed jumbo shrimp, deviled crabs) side dishes will be leftovers from the week or steamed corn on the cob!

Monthly Update (April)

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I am really excited about how this month is going that I am going to update in the middle and again at the end of the month!

So far this month we have had 4 “official ” preschool days and at least that many if not more of days where I am working with Lily on Reading and Math on the computer or in the van. So this is a definite improvement over the last several months.

In the area of budgeting we are making progress. This month our grocery bills have been WAY down. It is around half of previous months and I dont plan to spend more than another 200 for the month which would be under still! We also got our electricity bill for this month today. It is down by $100!! That is awesome. I am hoping to get it down another 50 and keep it this low for at least 3 months but we will see. Hanging clothes out seems to make a HUGE difference as well as washing less!

We hope to plant next weekend! I am busy reading and figuring out which plants need to go where! The side flower bed is mulched and looks cool!