Category Archives: DITL

Shopping with Kids

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I will be the first to admit, I prefer to shop alone, especially when I am using coupons. The reason sound logically, at least I hope they do. I can’t give my whole attention to the transactions when I have to keep an eye on the kids.  At best, if I go to the store with more than one of the little kids, Matt is always along.  But today, that all changed. I realized this morning that we needed to go to Walmart to get ink. I have been working on organizing and catching up with coupons all week (10 minutes) at a time, so I had in the back of my mind to check out some items. Matt had a dentist appointment this morning at 9:30am and since he has missed 2 because of my scheduling, I was determined not to have him miss another one. The four of us, Matt, myself, Kendall and Zach, headed out the door just after 8am. We were able to get gas and find everything in Walmart, even managed to check out with coupons and not need a manager!  But the time was going too quick for us to hit CVS…so I got brave..dropped Matt at the dentist and headed to CVS with Zach and Kendall. Surprisingly enough the trip was much easier and less eventful than I had envisioned. Zach did manage to set off the panic alarm on my car, as well as dart 5 feet in the parking lot just after I explained to Kendall why holding on to the car was important.   I also had to stop and go back to the register because of forgetting about ECB from a rain check but that was actually easy as well.

So here is what I managed to do today… spent $7 and saved $15, 63%. I had 5 different transactions,using 2 CVS cards and a rain check. Overall this is not a great saving % but I consider anything over 60% a success especially with the slim picking from CVS and coupons lately.

An Educational Afternoon

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I mentioned that on Sunday, I began to work out a plan for our square foot garden this year. One of the new things I want to try is to grow broccoli. The main reason is that it is a “cool weather” vegetable. Meaning it can be planted early in the spring and then again in the fall with several harvest each time, this would significant increase my use of the gardening box. I went ahead and ordered some seeds on line. They arrived today, I was home around 2:30 and decided to turn this afternoon into a learning opportunity for the younger kids.

We first all watch a video on how to make paper pots from Budgetsavingmom.  Lily was in charge of searching the newspapers to find some without color, each of the 3 little ones got to tear apart the newspaper pages as well as “help” make the pots. Lily actually made her second one alone. Zach and Kendall were learning about positions (before and after) as well as turn taking. After finishing the pots we went out and filled with potting soil. Lily was given 2 word problems to keep her on top of things. Next we all planted the seeds and I watered. Hopefully they will sprout in around 10 days and we will be planting outside the first of March.  I am going to keep an eye on the weather and maybe getting all the plants outside by the first week of April?. But alot will depend on when the estimated last frost is, I have been reading that this can vary as much as a month in our area.  Finally after putting the pots in a cardboard box for easy transportation, Lily was able to use the calender and write the date we should have sprouts by followed by Zach and Kendall working on their names by signing their names. The total time we spent on this mini project was about an hour. But it provide the most teachable moments that I took advantage of in a while. It felt awesome to just be a mom but also know that I was spending quality time with the kids this afternoon.

Productive Free Weekend

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We once again had a weekend with no major things to accomplish or events to attend. Haley left on Friday for Winter Retreat with her youth group, Amanda was at school and work and Lily did have a skating party on Saturday afternoon. Lily loved trying to skate and actually got around the rink a couple of times.

On Saturday, I was able to get FREE toilet bowl cleaners at Walmart. I had read about this deal on several website, and decided to try it. I asked to “price match” a sale at Family Dollar for $4 and then had a $4 off coupon. We actually got 2 of these and they are really working great. I was disappointed to find that they were out of the 3 other free items on my list. Also on Saturday,I cooked the 10lbs of chicken I purchased earlier in the week. I was able to freeze 10 cups of shredded chicken as well as 22 bags of chicken broth.

Sunday in North Carolina was rainy and COLD. The temperature was around 35 all day. So to get things warm, I decided to start planning for my “Square Foot Garden.”  We have been debating on how big or small to make it this year. I also wanted to stick to items I know we will use. I had purchased several packs of seeds 2 years ago and want to try to start from starch again this year. The good news is that I actually got myself organized enough that this should be possible and if not then I can always purchased at the right time for growing. I did order broccoli seeds to start right away as well as some green chili seeds to try my hand at. I will also be raising some tomatoes this year as well. Otherwise, I hope to purchase enough corn to freeze as well as we will be participating in the Food Coop again. I am excited that I actually am ahead of the game this year instead of waiting to the last minute to start. I also hope this means it works and produces enough for freezing.

Finally on Sunday, Matt and I got all the tax papers together. I am currently waiting on 1 more W-2 then I can spend 3-4 hours filing online.

Sounds relaxing right?

Where did it Go?

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Seriously where did this week go? My usual excuse is work but this week I know that is not the case, work is actually really low at the moment but I just can’t seem to figure out where my time went. So maybe list will  help?

-took down the snow village. I am so sad doing this. But the good news is that we were able to store much better this year so I can purchase a  couple of new pieces for next year maybe 🙂

-Thursday was spent between doctors and IKEA.

  •      Lily has a infection on her face, there is a 60% chance it is MRSA. We decided to stop at the peditricians office on the way to all the kids eye appointments in Matthews (1.5hours south). She missed school on Friday and is on a strong antibodic. We are praying the infection clears quickly otherwise we have been warned that it might require surgery, because of it’s location and size.
  •     Zach has decent vision. There is a slight concern that he may be far sighted but it will be a mild case and currently will just wait a year!
  •     Kendall can stop with patching now. Her vision is unchanging at this point. She did get a new presciption but we were told we could wait a couple of month before switching.
  •    Lily’s vision is improving. She still has extremely poor dept perception, we have to continue patching 4 hours daily and her prescription also changed.  The hope is that her corrected vision becomes 20/20.

-IKEA- we joined the “family card” program for free. It allowed the girls to stay an extra half an hour at the play place, Matt got a free cup of coffee and we also received a free ice cream cone as well as saved 0.50. Not bad for a free card.
          – we purchased a new frying pan, new lights for over the kitchen sink, and several differenet shelves. I think this will be the last shelves needed for the house in a long time. I am excited to have enough storage space and a home for most things now!
         – we daydreamed about purchasing a new living room and kitchen. Never hurts  to dream.

-I have been able to keep up with the goals I established for the year! I am excited to be losing weight slowly and keeping on top of devotions!

A Day of Shopping

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I am really interested in the way people shop, especially how you shop if you have a large family. Yes, I know we have a large family but I am often curious if I am doing it right? Can I do it differently, smarter or better? This is one of the reason that I watch TV shows about people with large families. So I thought since I haven’t done a post about a day in my life in a long long time, I would share today.

Preparation- This is the most important part of the trip for me. The more prepared I am the less chance of missing something in the store. I also really dislike running to the store to pick up one item at a time. We usually will start to notice that we are running low on things, look at the calender and decide we need to make a trip to Costco. At that point, I usually place a list on the fridge to add things as I realize I need them. This list went up last Saturday. It also serves as a reminder to me to check out things that we might be running low on.  Next on the list of preparation is checking out the Costco coupons. Are there items we usually buy that I will definitely get  because there is a coupon? Because we simply can’t purchase very thing at Costco I usually have a second list for Aldi or Food Lion. This week happens to be “Super Doubles” at Harris Teeter so I have spent around 2 hours gathering coupons and placing 2 separate orders for this. Matt took the kids and picked up the first list yesterday.  After discovering they did not give me credit for any of my coupons, I spent another 20 minute on the phone and decided to use up some of the value and place an order for today.  In the category, I put things like making sure the cooler is in the car as well as getting all my coupons and list in one spots so I don’t forget them. We also usually take a small cooler with drinks just because someone is always thirsty.

Trip itself- We first window shopped at BabysRUs for a new car seat. We ended up purchasing one at Costco, it is a booster for Lily. Costco had a good deal on pork. Highlights of our purchase include: bag of chicken breast, 3 large pork roast ( at home I divided these into a total of 10 separate meal and froze each individually), 2 packages of pork chops ( these are divided into 2 meal each, we had one for dinner and froze the rest0 6# of hamburger ( I am planning a cooking day on Saturday, this should be 3 meals), 2 gallons of milk, 6 gallons of Apple Juice, 2 gallons of Orange juice and 7 dozen eggs. I did purchase a lot of meat today as well as staples that I have not been able to find cheaper through coupons.  We had lunch at Costco, ran over to Harris Teeter to pick up and then came home to put away everything. I did make a quick trip to Aldi for beans, rice and taco seasoning.

The End- I spent approximately half of our grocery budget this week. Just looking at the meat we purchased this should be the only large trip we make this month.  Since we don’t have any plans on Saturday, I am planning to cook  that day. Items on the list included chicken for stews, beans, 2 cheeseburger pies and 2 meals of Salisbury steaks. Today alone, I was able to divide up the pork roast and pork chops. On average we have enough of both of these items for 2-3 months! So that is exciting to me!

Coupons- A Day in the Life of

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One of the many things that I seem to have been behind in recently is organizing and managing my coupons. So I decided that I would spend today getting myself better organized and throwing away coupons that were expired and/or loading all the diaper coupons and a couple of others in a package to my niece in Alaska. One of the things that I didn’t count on was that Matt was needed at church to work on a backdrop for the kid’s program at church on Wednesday so I had the three little kids to help me! I am excited to say that not only did I get through all the coupon blessing coupons from church the last 3 weeks as well as all the printed coupons I have been snagging this week but I also have cleared out my storage case of expired insert through June of this year! I was also able to include the little ones in the process. Lily practiced her cutting by cutting out printables. Kendall and Zach were in charge of trash. I probably spent about 4 hours total today with coupons. I also plan out trips to CVS, Walgreens and Walmart. In addition, I made a trip to Walgreens and Walmart.

I had not planned on Walgreens but a friend called to let me know about a couple of great deals and after researching I spent around $12 on 12lbs of sugar, 4 medium size bags of M&Ms, a box of tampons and 4 large Tic Tacs.

In addition, I had an easy and 50% saving trip to Walmart. Matt and I ventured out after the little ones were in bed. I priced matched a raincheck for 0.69 Diet Cokes and used coupons for Orange Juice, free dishwasher tabs, Limeade and Lemonade, juice boxes as well as purchasing spreadable cream cheese. The cashier tonight was awesome and even explained to me how they had to “honor” competitor coupons. So I was able to get 2 free packs of gum using coupons from the Red box at CVS. This is probably one of the best trips I have even had to Walmart. My only disappointment was that they were out of the single serving bottles of Lemonade.

Tomorrow, we plan to make a trip to Costco. This will be a massive trip to stock up on supplies for lunches and other essentials that we are going to run short on in the next month. Hopefully, after this and the trips I made today. We can cut back on grocery shopping unless it is free or a really really good deal!

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!

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

My Thursday

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This is a typical day for me around the house with a couple of excepts. The first being that we did not have “Preschool” this morning. I can’t explain why but I just didn’t make myself stop and do it. I will mostly likely let Lily work on the “starfall” reading tonight on the computer. But I have loaded and unloaded the dishwasher because I wanted to clean the old food out of the fridge. But I knew that if I didn’t empty it first I would not have enough room. There is one load of clothes in the dryer. I have folded one load and organized Zach’s clothes. This means cleaning out and repacking his box of “too big” clothes. I did realize that he already has several pair of 12 month jeans and will mainly need shirts in the fall. I also packed up all the “winter” clothes that were left out and started moving all his clothes to his new dresser. (This dresser is a freebie that has been sitting in the living room since Sunday). I moved his hanging clothes to the laundry room and threw away or boxed up all the extra hangers I have. I want to be able to move the metal shelf to it’s final home this weekend so that was the reason for this change. I have gone thur 2 bags of clothes that Haley pulled out of her room yesterday. 3/4 of them will go straight to “Goodwill” tomorrow but I did find several to try and take to the consignment store as well. I have bagged up the Fisher Price jungle gym to go in the attic and decided to leave the boat out for Zach to sit and play in. I just realize I should also box the bouncy seat up as well. Zach is now dressed and playing in the floor and I just realized it is 1pm so I have to get dressed shortly and head out to pick up Haley. Where has the day gone?

Ways I Try to Save Money!

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As I was hanging out clothes this morning, I was thinking about all the ways I am trying to save money and get this family on the right financial track. I thought it would be interesting to make a list of all the things, I am currently doing and then maybe look back next year and see how we are doing and if it was worth the work. So here goes

1. Currently and as a general rule, in the Spring and Fall if the weather is not predicted to be above 80 for 2 days in a row, then we turn off the A/C and enjoy the outdoors! For the last several days our house has remained rather cool even tho it was 78 yesterday and around the same today, we only have the kitchen windows and my bedroom windows open. In an ideal world we would not use the A/C until June but since we have already had it on 3 days I can hope it last at least a couple of weeks.
2. I am hanging ALOT (most of the laundry) out to dry. The exceptions are the towels and underwear. Today I have 3 loads on the line and have used all the clothes pins. I could wash and hang out Zach’s clothes but am going to wait and do it tomorrow. I have 87 more loads to hang out this summer before I “justify” the clothes line!

Since our grocery budget is the one area I seem to be unable to get a good handle on the next set of the items are a direct effort to buy less groceries. I will say that I include all cleaning supplies, laundry supplies and diapers in this total.

3. Zach is now on Soy Formula completely so I am trying to make some baby food. I grounded up leftovers last night from dinner and he was not all that happy with it but today I have made 4 containers of carrots and mashed an avocado . Either Lily, Kendall nor myself liked the avocado so I wonder if he will even eat it.
4. We are regular buying Angel food and I am making it a point to use all the food. Some of the items like carrots, cabbage and even apples have been wasted in the past but this month I have decided that nothing will be wasted because of it not being used in time. Along with making baby food it is taking extra time but again we need to get our grocery bill under control.
5. Couponing- I now have my stockpile underway so I am trying to only buy things at stock pile prices or things we absolutely have to have! This is the first month I have been able to do this and am anxious to see if we reduced our 700-800 a month down this month.
6. Square Foot Gardening- We have already got a box built and the dirt placed. Matt is going to make a vertical garden behind our box and we hope to plant and harvest veggies all summer long to help reduce our food bill and actually eat healthier as well.
7. Potty training for Kendall
8. Menu planning/ only eating out one time a week.

As I was typing/feeding Zach/eating my lunch I realized there were several other things I wanted to include so on to the rest of the list….
9. Switched to Digital phone and locked in pricing for 24 months.
10. Signing up and receiving Free items(today I got a reusable bag and a pack of gum in the mail)
11. Rebates.. I have completed 3 of these and only do ones that are simple and I get money back!
12. I am saving for Christmas with “points” currently I have accounts with Swagbucks, NCP (national consumer home panel), Huggies and Pampers. I use swagbucks as my search engine, by far the NCP is the most trouble but I am hoping that I will be able to cash in for a large electronic items in October/Novemeber for a Christmas present. I am planning to do the same with Huggies and Pampers and Swagbucks. My goal for this is to reduce my Christmas spending by half.
13. Recycling paper.. I have requested and received paper that has been used on one side from my church. I print coupons, Lily’s worksheets from the internet and the girls color and draw on this free paper.
14. Ordering ink in bulk from the internet. I like Clicks and 123ink. I got 7 ink cartilages for $35
15. Cheap Pictures.. I LOVE Pictures but have not paid over 9cent a print including shipping for pictures since October of last year. I have a lot more i want to print and hope to catch up with all my “free prints” again soon!
16. Yard Sales/Cosignments/ Ebay; These are my preferred methods for buying clothes and furniture. This summer I hope to be able to buy clothes for next winter without the dash I had to do in the Spring.

Any Ideas for me..Leave a commment