Monthly Archives: May 2010

DITL- Thursday May 13th

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So it I was wondering what to blog about today and decide it would be neat to do a Day In The Life post and try to keep updating it all day long. Unfortunately it is already 10:30 before I start so I will go on memory for the first part of the morning!
I heard Zach start waking at 5ish this morning but it was 6:15 am before I realized that Haley had gotten a shower and had brought him to our room. Kendall was also awake so I started with the morning diaper changes. Breakfast was cereal for the kids and I finished the gravy from my breakfast Sunday(Mother’s day) morning. I did spend some time off and on on the computer printing coupons and reading my coupon blogs. I drove Haley to school and Amanda was in a hurry because she had a court date today for a speeding ticket. Amanda left right after I got home around 7:50am. This morning the kids have been playing in different rooms. I folded 2 loads of clothes, washed sheets, towels and a load of Zach’s clothes. Lily and Kendall decided to go outside and play for almost an hour while I was hanging out the sheet and making some phone calls to pay bills.

After coming inside the girls watched about 10 minutes of TV while I finished ordering ink on ebay. For preschool today we did our calender and then worked on puzzles. Kendall was able to complete a 8 piece insert puzzle by herself several times. She tried to work a harder “duck” puzzle but after 30 minutes of puzzle and snack she was too tired. Lily is working on “small”/tiny fairy puzzle from the Dollar Tree. I knew this was too hard but it was the one she picked so she is going to work on it for an hour. The puzzle is 50 pieces and for ages 5+, with moderate assistance it took her an hour and 5 minutes to complete. I am helping her along between writing and telling Kendall to leave Zach alone! For snack while the girls were working on their puzzles, I made Celery boats with peanut butter. They were a hit and I had to clean both Kendall and the puzzles afterward. It is now 11am and I am finishing the puzzle with Lily. The girls are watching Clifford and Dragon Tales while eating lunch which is hot dogs by Lily’s choice.

Naptime-my favorite time of the day! Today was a success, EVERYONE including me got an hour of at least an hour. The little ones slept almost 2. I had 4 phones calls and Lily joined me after the first 45 minutes but still i slept. So we got up had snack and head out to get Haley! Opps forgot I have folded another load of laundry this afternoon!

First Walmart Coupon Trip

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A little back ground is necessary before I actually tell you about my trip. First of all, I live in a small town. The only “grocery stores” in town are Food Lion, Aldi, Save A Lot and Super Walmart. I regularly drive out of town to go to Harris Teeter for any of there special events or for a really good sales week. Food Lion does not double any coupons EVER or accept competitor coupons or even stack coupons. So basically both Food Lion and Walmart make it difficult to save on my grocery bill. I have been consistently couponing for around 3 months now. I decided yesterday after my EXCELLENT trip to CVS that I would attempt a trip to Walmart. Matt was out of coffee creamer, which he is brand loyal and Zach was running low on baby food. I couldn’t find a sale worth driving to for the baby food so I thought lets just see how I do. I have heard from several people in the past 3 weeks that Walmart is no longer accepting printed internet coupons so I decided not to even take one in. I did look at the list on Couponing to Disney to find out some dollar deals. I was actually pleased when I checked out and spend $40 and saved 17 or 29%. The saving were only from coupons as it does not show you or give you as way to figure in “roll backs” or sale prices. I was able to pick up Diet Cokes for 0.98 each and other sodas for the kids for 0.66 so overall this would be considered a successful trip in my book. I will never be able to save over 40% realistically at my local grocery stores so for a first trip with the whole family it was not bad!

Monday Menu Post 5/10

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We stuck to our plan last week for every night except for Friday. I actually ended up working 4 hours so Matt was at a lost of what I had planned for dinner. So he made Kielbasi with rice. It is one of the recipes he remembers his mother making so it is like a comfort food for him. We are both disappointed with the Kielbasi from Angelfood as it was rubbery but it got eaten. Because of our van troubles it is going to be even more important that we stick to the menu plan this week. I will be working on both Wednesday and Friday night so those have to be quick or prepared ahead items. I am seriously thinking that we may re-arrange the meals but stay with the basic 5.

Monday – Grilled chicken and steak. (My parents are coming over for dinner, my mother works full time so this is a real treat for someone else to cook.
Tuesday- Chicken ciccatore
Wednesday- Meatloaf
Thursday- Sausage and egg pie or pork chops???? ( yeap I am going to decide at the last minute)
Friday-Tator tot casserole with half frozen for another “summer” meal

Sunday Shopping and my soapbox

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As soon as the kids were all down for a nap today, I started getting ready to head to CVS. I had read on one blog that Cokes were on sale. I called my mother to check the ad because as I stopped to buy a paper yesterday, I realized I was one quarter short. I decided not to worry with the extra paper and will just use her coupons this week. Pepsi products are on sale this week not Cokes, (dang it). I was also hoping to get a 3 off $15 coupons that I had read were printing. Well I did get a 3 off $15 but it was for “facial care products.” Grrr but even tho it sounds like this would be a bust trip I was actually very pleased with the results:


I spent $2.66 and saved $34 or 93%. I actually left the store with 2ECB so that means total out of pocket was 0.66. I am really pleased with this trip I ended up doing 4 separate transactions and did start with 5ECB from completing a survey. The ThermaCare wraps were a raincheck from several weeks ago but but the other 3 transactions were all planned from SouthernSavers.

My first transaction was for the U Kotex pads and one tube of toothpaste. Total OOP was $1.01.
Second Transaction was the raincheck for the ThermaCare wraps. That I paid for the ECB and 0.39 tax.
Third transaction that I really didn’t think about or would have purchased another soda was a second tube of toothpaste and the pack of gum. I needed a 0.75 cent item and the cashier suggested gum. This transaction ended up costing me $0.66 OOP.
Finally I purchased the diapers and 2 soda costing me $0.59 OOP. The diapers were on sale for $8.49 and I had a $1.50 off coupon and exactly $8.49 in ECB to spend so without purchasing the soda I was losing money! I was really bummed at myself for forgetting my green bag because I would have earned another ECB and the trip would have been a money maker.

Now for my soap box, I am really pleased with the CVS trip especially paying 0.66 total OOP but do these items actually look like a value of $37?? The items I bought today with the exception of the wraps are necessities that would have to be purchased with or without coupons. I honestly don’t know how we could afford to live in the lifestyle we do without either my use of coupons or me returning to work at least part time to be able to buy toothpaste and diapers! I am going to post about my first real trip with coupons to Walmart either later or tomorrow so stay tuned!

Friday Facts

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I have been able to post to my blog every day this week! YAY me! Matt says that I have too much free time but I am thinking I am finally claiming me time to do the things I enjoy!

After crying SOLID for an hour, Zach is now crying in spurts of one to two minutes at 1 hour and 30 minutes into bedtime. 🙁

This week has been rough on me both physically, emotionally and financially. But I did survive and we still have food and shelter so I need to focus on praising God for what I have not whining about what I don’t.

Matt and I were joking in the yard about “The lawn mower is silent.” I actually didn’t want to let him finish mowing because I didn’t want to come in and hear Zach cry.

If you have read much from my older post or follow me at all on Facebook you know that sleep is a precious commodity around here. I was up last night 6 total time. This week I have not been able to get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time. So I am not thinking or writing logically at some points!

We are now officially the owner of 3 vehicles that are not driveable. My van’s transmission will cost up $1300 and take 7 to 10 business days to get fixed. Thank you to our friends who have loaned us their second van most of the week! I really really really appreciate it!

Zach is finally asleep at 2 hours into bedtime. The question is how long will it last?

Cheap is Good…. Free is Better

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DUH you say of course everyone knows this but let me clarify. I am talking about new or even slightly used items I have been able to gain over the past couple of weeks. When I say FREE, I mean with no out of pocket cost to me (this includes tax and shipping/handling). So I am really excited to report that I was able to get a Free Razor (New Fusion) for Matt just yesterday. On Sunday I picked up 4 FREE Magnets from CVS. I was not sure I would like these so I stopped ordering at 4 instead of the 6 I could have gotten. Now I am really disappointed that I didn’t get the other two because they are AWESOME! I order a photo collage today from Walgreens, my plan is to hang it in the new bathroom but if it is ugly then at least I don’t feel bad about throwing it away:). With Mother’s Day on Sunday there are several offers floating out there that I am hoping to take advantage off because FREE IS THE BEST! I have been able to “earn” 15 ECB during the past week just by taking surveys for CVS. I had signed up for the advisory panel over a month ago and these are the first 2 surveys that I have been sent. I really hope they continue to send them! They are easy and quick and I like being able to print my ECB right as I finish.

But don’t get me wrong cheap is good. For example my CVS trip this past Sunday I spent $30 and saved 77% or $102. I did start out with $2 ECB from the previous week and 10 ECB from a survey but I was excited about this trip. Highlights include Body wash for $0.60 a piece (3 total). Diapers for 0.07 a piece. With the diapers I really debated on purchasing and ended up buying a large size for Zach but the fact I had 2 coupons expiring I decided to use them. I also purchase both face cleaner and feminine products that should last between 3-6 months during this trip. Another cheap item that I have received is 2 “snowball” bushes. I have always wanted one or more of these in the yard. A nursery online was offering a $25 discount on a 25 purchase. So basically I paid 12.95 (shipping ) for 2. They arrived yesterday and we planted them at the corners of the trampoline, I hope they grow. They are suppose to have a life time guarantee with a minimum of 3 months prior to obvious growth so we will see?

Life

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So I didn’t even remember it was Wednesday until I saw someone else “wordless Wednesday”post.
I have no picture and really don’t feel like trying to find one. Instead, I am going to explain my blah mood and headache. This week is one of the weeks that I hate. For some unknown reason a lot of appointments have landed on this week as well as Angel Food which totally eats my Thursday. Monday I was scheduled to work no big deal I thought I only had 2 patients on my schedule. That changed when 2 new inpatients arrived that had to be seen. I ended up working 5 hours on Monday and Carol called with Zach having a 102 fever around 2 pm. I called and arranged a doctor’s visit for him. So basically I left the house at 8:15am on Monday and returned at 6pm. Tuesday was not too bad except for driving Amanda too and from DCCC. Haley had a doctor’s appointment, so the little kids stayed with Papaw and Granny. Today, Haley,Lily and I had a dentist appointment. I also planned several errors like a quick trip to Food Lion and to pick up the girls new glasses. Matt came home at lunch and we decided to order Chinese that I could pick up after again picking up Amanda at school. I already had a headache from all the dental stuff this morning. Here is where Life happened:

My van’s transmission stopped working in the parking lot. I called Matt and we moved 3.4 of the stuff from my van to his and then found a place to work on the van. This sucks.. I was so excited that we were going to finish the addition and have it inspected this month. Along with sticking to budget and some extra work I picked up we should have been able to enjoy the month. NOPE not now…. everything is upside down as we wait for the total cost of the repair as well as figuring out how to pay for it.

LIFE….. it HAPPENS and we will ADJUST!

Square Foot Gardening

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I still have not had time to sit down and blog about my trip to CVS on Sunday. I had hoped to do that today but I found some more exciting news this morning as I was pulling out of the driveway to take Haley to school. We have growing veggies in our square foot garden. The picture above is what it looks like from the road. The back should hold vines of cantaloupe, watermelon, and cucumbers by the end of the season. We decided to try it out this year and if it worked then expand (triple) for next year. I was worried about anything growing. I was even more concerned when something dug up my orka plants and now they both have die. But this morning I noticed green things sticking up threw the dirt. My green beans and squash have both sprouted! I also checked my plants on the back deck and so far I have cucumber, sage and basil to transplant in a few weeks! Here are the picture below.

Monday Menu Post 5/3

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So this week is going to be crazy with me working on Monday, Doctor appointments on Tuesday, Dentist appointments on Wednesday and Angel Food ordering on Thursday morning. My thoughts are to make quick and easy meals to keep us from eating out!

Monday- Spaghetti with salad and fried mozzarella sticks(HT freebie)
Tuesday- Breakfast casserole(Matt’s version, he plans to make it Monday night) with Pancakes
Wednesday- Taco Rice on burrito shells
Thursday- Grilled chicken with either pasta salad or left over salad from Monday!
Friday- Seafood of some sort from Angel Food

I am excited that Matt is getting involved with planning. He is doing awesome with taking over the weekend cooking unless I ask and now to help with normal week stuff will be great!