Tidbits for Thursday!

• I'm just going to get this out of the way first ;) "No Spend September" was not as big of a success as I had hoped for. I did save some extra money and I did get our savings account up but that is where the positive ends. My last total I had put in was $531 and since then I have put in $65.70 so that gives me the grand total of $596.70! Not awful, that's almost $600 in savings we didn't have this time last month but I didn't meet my goal. I am thinking about trying again after the first of the year.





• Is anyone else watching Sister Wives!? O my word that show is like a train wreck waiting to happen but for some reason it still intrigues me why these women want to share a man and more so why on earth a man would want to deal with more than one wife! Wow!





• Busy Busy week this week Monday I was at the salon for 2 and a half hours, Tuesday I had my school board meeting, Wednesday is nursery night, Thursday I am hosting bingo for my bingo club which consists of 17 ladies yikes, Friday evening we are having dinner with family, Saturday I "plan" to rest while Brent is at the racetrack ha, and Sunday we are going to a local fall festival! Wow! I am already exhausted! I wonder if I will even be able to get up on Saturday!





• We kind of got off ship with eating good this last weekend, with the fair and the air show there is just no way to eat good at those events but other than that we have are still doing very well. I haven't had "fast food" in ages! And I made a cake the other night with Sprite Zero instead of using the eggs,milk, butter, and oil and it was really good! It was still considered a splurge but nothing like what it could have been!





• Well I got my hair colored for the first time in 5 years on Monday night! It's blonde! I was really nervous but excited before I went to the salon but I am in love with the way it turned out! What a fresh change! And to top it off Lucas said "You have yellow hair just like me!" He thought that was pretty cool, what a sweet little guy to want to be just like mommy! O these days.....

• Poor Luke I got him all dressed up for picture day at school only to find out that it was the next day! Here he is in his picture day outfit.

Gah he looks so big! If he wasn't holding a sippy cup I would say he was 4! But he is just the cutest thing I have ever seen! Biased maybe? O well that's part of the fun!

Life as We know it! Part duex.....

Haha! Duex always reminds me of that show "I love the 80's" Love that show!!

Anywhoo

With eating better inevitably comes higher grocery bills so for coupons I am thankful!!

Call it a coincidence but right about the time we decided to change our eating habits I jumped on the coupon-ing bandwagon full force! I don't even know what got me thinking to do it. I had always used coupons but never paired them with ads and certainly never thought about driving all over tar-nation to get the best deal.

I remember my first trip to the grocery store to buy "good for you" food, my bill was $60 more than my usual budget, yikes! But I am happy to report with coupons and ad matches my bill this week was lower than my usual budget, with buying lots of fresh fruits and veggies and healthy snacks and drinks! What a proud moment!

Ok here's what I do....

I do not claim to know it all about this coupon-ing business, I still have a LOT to learn and I find myself making mistakes from not paying attention all the time but I will share what I know, I feel it's only right.

First I subscribed to our town newspaper with the $20 a year, yes a year, you get every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday paper! The two important papers for couponers is Sunday for coupons and Wednesday for food ads, so you get both of those for a great price and it comes to your door step- awesome!

On Sunday mornings I clip all the coupons my family uses then I check the Walgreens (we'll go with Wags for short), Wags is always first, and see what they have on sale. A lot of times they have stuff on sale that the coupon company's put out coupons for. And Wags has things called "Register Rewards" which is basically like cash you can spend in their store on anything! After I check Walgs I will check Target to see if they have anything worth ad matching, sometimes they do sometimes they don't. Target also has coupons on their website to print out and you can combine them with manufactures coupons pair those with your redcard for 5% off and you can have yourself a steal of a deal, I for one haven't got to do that but I hope to soon! ha!

I refuse to run all over town to get better deals, call this a downfall or not doing it "right" but working full time and a 2 year old I just don't have the time or energy so if I can't get it at Wags or WalMart I usually ask myself is it really that good of a deal. I will occasionally run to Target, doesn't take much for me to talk myself into a quick trip there I love that store but I don't want to have to make it an every week thing and this week I am going to Toy's R Us for a good deal but I don't want to have to run around if I just don't have time.

Ok so I have been going to Wags on Sunday afternoon with my ad and coupons and any register rewards I have occurred from last week. An example of what I scored this week:

Two packs 28 count Previcad heart burn meds

Two packs 3 count Shick Quatro razors for me

Colgate Sensitive toothpaste

Two medium bags of pretzel m&ms

All of this would have cost me $80.68

But after sale prices, coupons, register rewards, and rebates I got it for $11.12!

And I got back $5 in register rewards for my next purchase and $6 in Previcad coupons.

Pretty cool if you ask me! That is all stuff we use every single day, well maybe not the m&ms but I was planning on getting some for 100 calorie packs anyway.

Another easier example would be:

Two 32 load bottles of Purex laundry soap

Two jars Ragu spaghetti sauce

Two boxes of Nature Valley granola bars

One bottle Dawn soap

All this came to $10.01

Using sales and coupons only no rebates!

See it's easy, and fun!

It has been a complete learning experience and I am learning to buy all kinds of stuff with coupons!

Example:

Cute pair of boots from Kohl's

Brent bought a pair of tennis shoes and got $10 Kohls Cash and I remembered they had sent a flyer advertising the new "Grand Opening" in which they included $10 gift cards. So I have $20 in "coupons" to use, being the smart cookie I am ;) I checked the dates and for 2 days the coupons overlap- score!!

So a pair of boots that would cost me $55 I will (hopefully) get for $35 on Friday if they have my size!

I use MoneySavingQueen.com for weekly match-ups to make sure I don't miss anything.

And the most valuable tool in all of this has been having other ladies you can chat with that do the coupon thing too. They may see something I miss or vise versa.

Example:

Toys R Us had an $8 off coupon for diapers or wipes and Elizabeth let me know about it, I would have completely missed this good deal if it hadn't been for her!

I also go grocery shopping once a week and get what we need and like I'm not eating/cooking pertaining to what's on sale, yet. But I keep my coupon pouch with me and if I have a coupon for certain things than great and last week I did! I saved $10 in coupons with stuff I would have bought weather I had a coupon or not!

It really isn't hard I watch the extreme couponers show and think wow wish I could do that, and while I'm no where near that, or will ever be. I am so grateful I can save my family money for things we need.

Any questions ask.

Any tips do tell!

Tidbits for Thursday!

• I am in such a blogging slump right now, we've had a lot going on I don't know why I haven't felt like writing it down.




• I have really jumped on the coupon-ing band wagon lately! I am having so much fun with it too! I am going to keep track of my spendings at the grocery store so I can see how much I am saving a month!




• We are still on board with our healthy eating, Brent is down 10 pounds and I am down 6 as of yesterday! I have started substituting almond milk for regular milk when cooking it's cuts the calories like you wouldn't believe! But oddly enough it makes things spicier, a little strange but I can handle that! I also made us up some home made 100 calorie packs! ha! For 100 calories you can have 2 Kebler Fudge Striped cookies or 6 Kebler Vanilla Wafers (both bought with coupons! yes!)

• Speaking of healthy eating this is not on the plan but I'm not looking to loose the weight Brent is so I still have treats! ha! Starbucks Via sounded like a great alternative to a frappe in the morning but it didn't taste that good to me, it was really strong, maybe next time I will add more water and try it iced.....

• I also got my corrected Erin Condren planner this week! They messed up my first one and I was pretty aggravated but they fixed and shipped the new one right away so I was happy again! I am loving this thing!! The only thing I think will start to bother me is how heavy it is but maybe (hopefully) I will get used to it.

• I've done well with not spending any un-necessary money. I went to the Kids Sale last Saturday with $50 and only ended up spending $37.50. I think I am really teaching my-self not to spend money. The only thing that comes to mind that I bought and we didn't need was a glass container at Wal-Mart (have you seen those Versa Glass containers from Zip-Lock? Pretty neat!) but I will say I had a coupon......ha! So as of today I have put $531 into our savings this month alone! The month is half way over and I am over half way to my goal! I will say I have a running list of what I "need" to get come October but it's not as big as you would think it would be, I have on there today -Luke jeans, hand soap and candles from Bath and Body, and a shirt for myself.

• Another thing I will be spending money on in October is getting my hair lightened up! I've already made the appointment for October 3rd and I am so so excited!!

• Brent and I have decided that next year about the first of September we are going to go to go on vacation to the beach! We don't know which one yet but I can't wait!! I know it's a year away but I don't care I am already looking forward to it!

• We have a full weekend coming up that I am ready for too!

No-Spend September!

I am going to give myself a HUGE challenge starting September 1st! I have thought about this for a while now and I think next month is a good month to do it!

For an entire month I will not spend any money on un-necessary things! So that means no new clothes, no new hair products, no new books, no new toys for Luke, no craft supplies, nadda, nothing!
I am going to set aside some money for the Growing Kids Sale that will be here in September to get Lucas some clothes but I am only going in with a certain amount and cannot go over that!

Here's the thing we don't NEED anything, and since Brent went back to a steady income I have been spending money like a mad woman, Brent calls it "spoiling ourselves because we haven't got to in a long time", I call it crazy! I'd just like to see for a month how much I can put into savings if I didn't spend a little here and a little there on non-sense!

I will continue to give myself my "pocket money" but for food ONLY! And what ever I have left a the end of the week goes into savings!

To hold myself accountable I will post each week and tell where I am at with this! Might tie it in with my "Thursday Tidbits"

So wish me luck and if you would like to join me let me know so we can comfort each other when all the super cute new fall lines come out!! O dear, is it to late to change my mind ;)