A couple of quick deals I had to share!

I have to start with saying that I'm sorry I haven't kept up on my end with blogging deals and sales I find...life has become so busy it's all I can do to get to the store and buy food for the week! I will try to be better.

There were a couple of good deals I grabbed yesterday that were too good to pass up. Hopefully the prices are still as they were yesterday, sales re-set on Wednesdays, so no gurantee that it's the same.

The first one was for the new Knorr condensed stock tubs. I use a lot of chicken and beef stock in the winter for soups, stews, pastas etc. I try and make my own stock when I can, but having prepared stock on hand is always helpful on busy nights. Knorr just came out with their new condensed tubs of stock that you dissolve in water. A 4 pack of these retails for $3.99. Currently Dillons has them for $2.99 on sale and with the recent $2/1 coupon that was, it makes these $.99 for a 4 pack! Each tub makes about 3 1/2 cups of stock, so $.24 per 3 1/2 cups is a great price. I have tried these in a couple of recipes and really liked the flavor from them!

The other great deal happening at Dillons is the buy 10 items get $5 off at check out. Some deals we got were honey nut chex on sale for $1.99 (with this sale, buy any 10 mix and match items). Paired with a $.50/1 box coupon that doubles to $1/1 it made these boxes $.99 each. "Go-Gurt" and other yoplait kids yogurts are part of this sale for $1.49/pack. Paired with coupons that come from the paper or printed online for $.75/2 (doubles up to $1.00/2) it makes these yogurts $.99/each. Yoplait 32 oz yogurt containers are also $1.49 with this sale and with a $1/1 coupon, these become $.49 each.

There are many other great deals out there right now, but with two kids in tow and rapidly approaching dinner time, I didn't shop to the fullest extent. I will probably be going back tonight and will update any other good deals I find.

Happy shopping! Enjoy this lovely fall weather!

A few good deals and freebies!

There are a few good deals and freebies happening right now that I wanted to update everyone on!!

Snapfish - For printing pictures there is a GREAT deal going on through snapfish. From now until September 10th, you can get up to 500 prints per order for $.01 each! When you select your prints, go through the check out steps. When you get to the coupon code, put in the code "penny094u" and hit apply. This will make all of your prints a $.01 each. With shipping etc I got 493 prints yesterday for around $25. Not a bad deal! Normal cost I would have paid closer to $70. You can use this code up to 5 times I believe!

3 Spoons Frozen Yogurt - Back to school Bash! On Thursday, September 8th, any student can get free yogurt at 3 Spoons from 12 noon until midnight!! What a fun way to treat your family and kids to some yummy self serve frozen yogurt (with tons of toppings to choose from) in celebration of back to school!

Hastings Books and Entertainment - Hastings has TONS of DVDs for super cheap (as low as $.01, $.99, $1.99, $3.99 and up). They have been running a promo for buy one used DVD, get the second for $1. I was surprised how many current titles were marked down super cheap. I was able to get 6 fairly recent movies (3 for me, 3 for Mia) for under $15.

FYI - http://www.coupons.com/ has some pretty good printable coupons out right now that were just released at the beginning of the month. My favorite right now is the $.35/1 bottle of Dial hand soap.

Happy Shopping!

Grocery Deals this week!

A few grocery deals this weekend that I scored!

Dillons is having their Mega Cart Buster sale right now. This is a great time to find match ups with sales and coupons and build that stock pile!

Dillons:
Farmland bacon - $3.99/package. If you "like" the Farmland page on facebook you can instantly print a -$.55/1pkg coupon, which doubles up to $1 off of 1, making it $2.99 for a package! If you sign up for newsletters from Farmland you can also get emailed printable coupons from time to time.

Hamburger Helper - These are on sale at Dillons right now for $1/box. With your coupon for $1/3 boxes, it makes these $.66 per box. We don't do hamburger helper often, but it's nice to have it on hand for crazy busy nights that I don't have time to cook otherwise! My husband likes to make these to take for lunch at work as well.

Pasta Salad - 4/$5 ($1.25 a box) right now. Dillons mailed out coupons a while back with a $1/3 coupon, making these $.92 a box.

General Mills Cereal Treat Bars - on sale for $2 a box. With a $.50/1 coupon doubled to $1/1 coupon it makes these treats $1/box.

Gatorade - $.79 each

Toaster Strudels - on sale for $1.79 a box, with coupons for $1/2, it makes these $1.29 per box

Crest and Oral B indicator toothbrushes are still on sale for 10/$10. If you have coupons you didn't use, it makes these free for the toothpaste or $.50 each for the toothbrushes.

Degree deodorant - on sale for $2.99 each right now. With the BOGO coupon (buy one women's, get a men's free) plus the $.75/1 coupon (makes it $1/1 after doubling), you can get 4 women's and 4 men's deodorant for $7.96 each (or $.99 a piece)

School supplies are still on sale!!

Hy-Vee Deals
Tuesday Sale - 12 pack Coke or Pepsi products for $2.79 (limit 1)

Midwest Country Fare Frozen Veggies - $.59 per bag (16 oz) on peas, corn, cut green beans or mixed veggies

Natural Fresh Value Pack split chicken breast - $.88 per lb

Lunchables - 10/$10

Ragu Pasta Sauce - on sale for $1.77. When you purchase 2, you get a free 2 lb bag of HyVee elbow macaroni or spaghetti. There is also a coupon for $1.25 off of 3 jars Ragu, making 3 jars of sauce plus a bag of pasta $4.06.

Buy 10 participating Kellogg's or Keebler products, save $5! Mix and match various products.

Charmin Bathroom Tissue - Ultra Soft or Ultra Strong 9 roll for $4.48. Use $.25 coupon, get it for $4.23

Bounty 2 huge roll paper towels for $4.99

There are a few other match ups that I haven't put together at HyVee yet, but I will post them as soon as I get them together!

What deals have you found this week??

Back to School Clothes for Kids!

It's back to school time and kids clothes for Fall and Winter are on sale! There are great deals to be had right now. There are also great clearance prices on summer stuff that I have been buying for super cheap and putting away for next summer!!

First things first, when starting on your back to school shopping, having an idea or list of things you need plus a general budget for what you are hoping to spend is always a good idea. Take into account clothes you already have, clothes that will still fit this year and don't forget to add essentials into the clothes budget, like socks, underwear, coats, hats, gloves etc.

My budget this year was $150 per kid, so $300 total for fall and winter clothes. I bought ahead last year in preparation for this fall/winter, so I already have quite a bit of clothes ready. I sat down a few weeks ago and sorted through the clothes we already have and wrote down what was there. Then I made a general list of things I thought we needed.

Example:
M's list for this year (age 5)
4 or 5 pairs of Jeans
3 pairs of Yoga Pants
2 pairs sweat pants
3 Pairs of leggings (various colors for under dresses/skirts)
3-4 Dresses
4-5 sweaters
2-3 zip up sweatshirts/hoodies
10 long sleeved shirts (various types)
Socks
Underwear
Rain Jacket
Winter Coat
3 night gowns
4 leotards for cheer/gymnastics.

This is my "master" list of how much I think she needs. Because I bought several items ahead last year for super cheap (many things less than $1 a piece from Old Navy and Gap), she'll usually have more clothes than this. But this is a decent idea of how much she NEEDS to have so I'm not doing laundry every day during the school year. I bought everything on this list and paid just a little under $150 for all of it

O's list is a little different since she's a baby...but same concept!

Here are some of the deals I've gotten or seen:

Carters - up to 50% off on their long sleeved onesies and pants (mix and match) plus online you can get a 20% off of a $40 purchase or more coupon online to use in store. I got several long sleeved tops and stretchy pants for Olivia, plus a couple of clearanced sun dresses there for both girls. If shopping online, there is a $6 flat shipping rate right now!

Old Navy - all of their kids jeans are $10 (normally $19.50) from now through August 7th. They also have it in store that if you spend $40, you get a $20 old navy bucks to use at the end of the month. So I got $40 of Old Navy bucks to use later. They had a lot of good stuff on clearance as well, we stocked up on swim suits and summer clothes for next year (most were like $3.99 and under)

Gap (regular store, not outlet) is having their Friends and Family 30% off right now through August 7th. If you mention "Circle of friends 30% off" when you check out you get 30% off your entire purchase. You can also "like" their page on facebook to get this deal. If shopping online, use the code "300ff" to get your 30% off (if you have a gap card you can get 35% off using "35off") I got some cute long sleeved tops and zip up hoodies for both girls at the Gap store here in town, as well as some cute skirts and dresses. The nice thing with their dresses and skirts, is that they can still be used this fall by adding leggings and a cardigan sweater. Their GAP logo zip up hoodies are favorites in our house! You also will get a survey when you check out that gives you 20% off of one single regular priced item on your next shopping trip.

The Gap Outlet at the Legends is also having their "everything kids" sale (as of last Friday anyway) that had a lot of stuff from 20-40% off plus tons of summer stuff clearnaced out.

Stride Rite has BOGO 1/2 off at their outlet store right now plus tons of sales on kids shoes.

Gymboree - I didn't make it to Gymboree this time, but I've been told by a few that they had several bins of marked down items there, if not for this year, buy big for next year. Right now they are advertising $5.99 back to school sale on Graphic Tee's, leggings, polo's and more. They are offering up to 60% off on all kids clothes! I'm not sure if they are doing gymbucks right now or not, but that's always nice too! Gymboree clothes are a tad more expensive than others, but hold up well.

Justice - Justice for Girls has everything in store and online 40% off right now! If shopping in store there is no coupon required, if shopping online at www.shopjustice.com  use code 760 or 779 to get the 40% off. If you shop through www.shopathome.com, you can also get 10% cash back on Justice purchases.

So there are a few deals to get you started with back to school shopping. My goal this year was to not pay full price on anything for fall/winter clothes! I have managed to do that so far!! :)

Happy Shopping!

More FREE and great deals :)

Ok I have spent my ENTIRE day today working on my coupon binder. I organized, cleaned out old coupons, clipped a billion from this weekends papers/Internet and just now got started on my grocery list for tomorrow. I normally go on Saturday mornings...so you can see I'm a little behind if I'm just now making it on a Tuesday. Don't forget that all of the Internet coupon sites re-set today because it's the first day of the month!! Hurry and get the good coupons that are out there!!

So even with all of that work, the exciting news is that there are SO many great deals and coupon match ups right now! I posted yesterday about a few great deals I got, but here are a few more!

One that I'm excited about is Knorr Pasta and Rice side dishes. I usually prefer making more "from scratch" types of sides, but the reality of my life is that I'm pretty busy. I try to cut myself some slack...My husband works as a nurse in an Emergency Room and also Same Day Surgery...so he works some strange hours and I'm home with the girls by myself about 95% of the time. So there are nights that pre-packaged side dishes are faster and the only thing I can do. I try to look at it as it's still better than ordering out or picking something up. So, that being said, I like these because you add milk, water and/or butter and in a few minutes you have a nice pasta or rice side dish to go with almost any kind of meal. These are included in the 10 for $10 sale at Dillons right now (they normally run $1.50ish-$1.90ish).

If you click here: http://www.couponnetwork.com/printable-coupons you can print coupons for $.75/3 and $1.85/7 Knorr Pasta and Rice Sides. This makes these around $.71/bag. Pretty good price! We will be stocking up on them for sure! These coupons were going fast so make sure you get to them quickly!

Another great deal is the Ivory Body Wash. With the $.50/1 coupons that were in the 7/31 P&G insert they will double to $1/1. Since The Ivory Soap and Body Wash is included in the 10/$10 sale, it makes these totally FREE.

Axe Body Wash for men is another one that I bought this week. These normally run between $4-$5 a bottle. They smell FANTASTIC on men, but at that price I usually stay away. I recently got two catalina coupons from a different purchase for $2/1 bottle of Axe for Men. I also clipped the BOGO coupons from the P&G insert yesterday. So I got 4 bottles of Axe body was for Men for $4.98

Gillette Men's body wash is also on sale for $3.50/bottle (normally $4.00). The P&G insert had coupons for $2.00/1 bottle, making these $1.50 each. My husband is going to be smelling wonderful with all of these body washes we now have!!

Another deal I posted yesterday but urge you to look at again is the General Mills Cereal and Nature Valley Granola Bars for $2.88. If you buy 4, you get 2 gallons of Dillons milk FREE! And there are several coupons in the paper and online for money off of GM cereals. Which means you can get boxes of cereal for as low as $1.88 PLUS Free Milk!! In my next post I will go over my meal plan for the next couple of weeks and describe how I plan to use my 6 free gallons of milk (yes I know, you are so excited you can't stand it!!)

Coupon sites for cereal:
http://www.couponnetwork.com/printable-coupons
http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.smartsource.com
http://www.cellfire.com

I've had several people show interest in having a coupon class to learn how to coupon. I'd be happy to schedule one if it seems like enough people are really interested in learning the art to playing the coupon game! Please leave me a note or email me if you are interested in getting together to learn!!

Happy Shopping and stay cool :0)

Shopping for FREE today! Great deals and how to get them...

So this morning after I got my papers and started clipping coupons I instantly put together a few great deals and dashed off to the store to grab them! I love any kind of good deal...if it's under $1 I'm thrilled, if it's FREE I'm even happier!

Dillons is currently having their 10/$10 sale on various items. 2 items included in this deal that I LOVE are Crest Toothpaste and Dawn Dish Soap. With the $.50/1 coupon that came out in today's P&G insert it made these totally free. The coupon doubles to $1 and you can use 4 like coupons per shopping trip. So we have 4 bottles of Dawn and 4 tubes of Crest Toothpaste that were all free added to our ever growing stock pile in the basement. At the end of my transaction I received another $2 off my next purchase coupon from Crest. So I basically got paid $2 for 4 tubes of toothpaste!

Another great deal is on the "Beggin' Strips" for dogs. These normally run $3.99 a bag. Right now they are buy one get one free at Dillons. If I use BOGO coupons with a BOGO sale, I get both bags free. With 3 coupons, I got 6 Free bags of dog treats! If I had paid retail for these it would have been $23.94. I paid nothing. This is where the coupon game gets really fun!

A deal I didn't do today but will be getting tomorrow is the buy 4 of any general mills cereal or 4 boxes nature valley granola bars, get 2 Dillons brand gallons of milk for free. These usually retail at $3.08 a gallon. If you have little ones who drink lots of milk, this is a great sale. When you add $1/2 boxes of GM cereal or $1/2 boxes granola bars, this makes it an even better deal!

Gillette Men's Body Wash is currently on sale for $3.50. If you use the P&G BOGO coupon it makes them $1.75 each. My husband uses their body wash and likes it (It normally runs over $4 per bottle at retail price!)

Dillons still has their school supplies cheap...$.25 for 24 pack crayola crayons (limit 12 per purchase), Crayola Markers for $1.50, $.15 pocket folders, $.75 packs of notebook paper, $.15 1 subject spiral notebooks and more!

For those in the KC area, Stride Rite outlet at the Legends has TONS of great deals and buy one, get one 1/2 off deals going on right now! Stride Rite shoes are awesome shoes for kids and are the most durable you can buy. Mia is pretty hard on shoes and most don't last her long. Her stride rite shoes from last year are still going strong (though they are getting snug since she's growing so fast!) This is a great time to get some shoes for the school year.

Other good retail deals right now are at Old Navy with their stock up sale. Lots of shirts, bathing suits, summer items etc are clearanced and $4 or less. Girls Yoga Pants were $6, Leggings for under dresses were $5 and basic t's and tanks were all $4. A lot of these essentials are nice to have several pairs of when it gets cold outside! I found a few long sleeved onseies in Olivia's size for $4 also. I picked up bathing suits for next summer clearanced for $2.99 for both girls.

My organizing this weekend went full speed ahead and we got a TON done! Thanks in large part to my sister and her new husband for taking my 5 year old for a sleepover last night...and my sweet husband for helping haul things around the house! It helped having the house somewhat to myself last night to really dive in and get "back to school" ready. We got the extra bedroom set up nicely, and I spent 7 hours cleaning, organizing, sorting and decorating the play room and all of the toys! I was shocked to see that we actually DO have carpet in there :) I also added some cute flower decals to the walls (clearanced at Target for $4.98 a  pack...regularly $19.99 each) and made it somewhat more baby friendly for Liv to go in and play. Target has some great deals right now on back to school organizational kinds of things. Lots of fun bright colors and cute ways to organize almost any room of your house! Back to school season is a favorite time of mine at Target!

There are more deal/coupon match ups that I haven't gotten to yet and will post soon - but these are the biggies that I was super excited over and wanted to share! Let me know if you have any other great stock up deals :)

Overwhelming moments as a mama and how to organize them!

So I admit...while I have it together about 95% of the time, there is the other 5% where I lose it. I feel overwhelmed, I feel lost and I get grouchy.

I sat down a couple of days ago to figure out our schedule for the upcoming fall and realized how organized I'm going to have to be to not only pull it all off, but to enjoy it in the process. I know I can do whatever needs to get done...but I don't want to to do it in a grouchy or unhappy way. I want to enjoy myself along the road so I'm not missing out on my kids growing every day, so that I'm not missing out on these moments that we won't get back. Time keeps speeding up and I want to be along for the ride.

So I'm going to attempt to be super mom this year...I'm so excited to start watching two precious little kids (a boy and a girl) this fall a couple of days a week. It's great for my kids to have other kids to play with and it's a little extra spending money for me. Plus it's helping a family who needs childcare but have not so average work hours (something we are VERY familiar with in our house with Tim's crazy work schedule) Add to that, Mia is going to kindergarten (yikes!), is doing cheer leading and gymnastics plus maybe girl scouts (according to her I'm leading her girl scout troupe...we'll see about that one...) keeping up with my couponing/grocery game, my blog, the house work, jazzercise, weight watchers AND I'm attempting to take classes online...12 credit hours that I have to find a way to squeeze into my schedule when I can. I actually find a jam packed schedule like this is helpful because it forces me to stay organized. When I let us have too much down time I get lazy. So if I can manage to get enough sleep it should be a fun and exciting semester!

So with that, my organizational goal for this week is to finish getting the rest of the mail sorted and important papers into folders for quick access. I hate admitting it, but mail is my one thing I can't ever seem to stay caught up on. It never fails that we get the mail, shuffle through it and toss it into the basket. I need to be better about sitting down daily and going through it before it turns into a massive, house over-taking pile.

So here is what I've done:

I have a basket next to my purse on some book shelves that holds the mail when it comes in. I've been trying to sort it as soon as we get it...tossing things we don't need right away and then sorting into two piles: 1) important papers we need (ie: school forms, dance forms, pay stubs etc). These are things we don't necessarily need to do anything with, but that we need to hang onto and know where they are at and 2) Bills that need to be paid.

I set up a portable "office-in-a-box" system with files that are labeled - the files are "Medical Bills" "receipts" "Pay Stubs" "Insurance Papers" "House Papers" and so on. I then got a pocket folder to put the bills that need to be paid into. I keep the file folder and the pocket folder right next to the basket of stuff which holds the mail. So far, this is working for us! Once the bill is paid, I remove it from the "bills" folder, and file it away into the important papers folder in the box. By having everything all in one spot it eliminates the need to run around searching for papers.

My goal next week: I'm going to attempt to tackle the play room. It's a scary scary room that I avoid at all cost because you can't always see the floor in there...I'm going to have to get very creative on that one!

My biggest long term goal is to have everything in the house organized how I want it so we can start the school year off with a bang!

What are your favorite areas of your house that are organized? What are areas that, despite your best intentions, can't seem to stay organized? I'd love to hear some feedback! I'd also like to know what areas of organization can be most helpful to people...coupons, deals, home, budget, health....? Let me know so I can try to get more posts going on topics that are helpful!

Enjoy the day and STAY COOL! :0)

Weddings, Birthdays and Kindergarten, Oh My!

Ok, so for about 6-8 weeks now I haven't had time to blink, let alone get any sleep, keep up on my couponing/shopping or blog. Thank the Lord for my stockpile, because without it we might have starved! In June we had 5 bridal showers to attend, 3 Family birthdays (Me, My sister and Olivia) and Fathers Day. And now, as of Saturday, July 9th, my sister is officially married and my duties as the sister of the bride/matron of honor/mother of two flower girls is OVER! While I enjoyed the events and loved helping with it all, I'm glad to be back to a more normal place in my life. A place filled with coupon clipping, meal planning, kid raising and finding new creative ways to use my label maker (I love my label maker more than I like to even admit!) Yes, this is where I'm comfortable at in life!

So how is it possible that I was so wrapped up with it all that I glanced at my calendar yesterday, only to notice that there is only 5 weeks left until school starts...that's right, 5 weeks! I admit, there is a tiny piece of me that has been ignoring the back to school sales because for once it actually applies to me. My baby, my first born little girl is going to be in kindergarten. I can't believe it. It's a bittersweet feeling...while I'm so excited for her (and for afternoons to myself everyday) I just can't believe we've gotten to this point so quickly. As I watched her coming down the aisle fulfilling her flower girl duty I got teary eyed...because I'm so proud of her, I'm so amazed at how much she's grown and because I can't believe she's so big. Any last bit of baby that was left in her is gone. She has these long legs, slim body and a personality that I can't keep up with at times. As I was standing there watching her walk down the aisle to come stand with me, I realized how little time we get with her. Yes, she's only 5...but I guarantee my dad was thinking "how did we get here?" as he was getting ready to walk his last baby down the aisle. He blinked and we were grown. I know it won't be long before I'll be standing there as the mother of the bride, rather than the mother of the flower girl.

So yesterday we did what we needed to do...we started our back to school shopping. First on the list: the Pottery Barn Backpack that Mia wanted so badly. They finally went on sale (with FREE SHIPPING!) so we ordered the pink polk-a-dot monogrammed backpack with matching lunch box. No, she won't need the lunchbox this year, but my hope is that we'll get a few years out of a nicer (much more expensive) backpack and next year she will need the lunch box. So Pottery Barn Kids is having a huge summer sale on lots of things including their backpacks and luggage. If you are a PB fan, this is the best way to buy their stuff if on a budget. The free shipping is always a plus as well!

Another great sale that I was super excited about came at Dillons...their 24 count Crayola Crayon Boxes are marked down to $.25 per box! These normally retail for $1.99 each. So I stocked up! We bought 20 boxes. This might seem like a lot, but at that price it's a great stock up item...at $.25 each I paid $5 for $40 worth of crayons. I use them to put with birthday gifts for friends throughout the year, Easter baskets, backpacks for car rides with new coloring books, stockings at Christmas etc. You can never have too many crayons! Along with the crayons I bought a bunch of single subject wire notebooks. Mia will color for hours on a blank notebook and at $.15 each, you can't beat it! I have always done this and it has cut down tremendously on birthday gifts for classmates of Mia's throughout the year. I have a storage tub that I keep it all in down in the basement so I can pull them out as needed.

Other good deals on school items were their markers and colored pencils, normally $3.15/box, marked down to $1.50.

I've also pledged to myself to do one major organizing project each week. This past week was rounding up and organizing all of the different chargers we have for our various electronics. I was shocked at how many phone chargers I found for phones we don't even have any more! I took one bin on my shelves and designated it as my charger/electronic accessories bin. I put different stuff in different labeled zip locks in the bin so it's easy to find what I'm looking for, and even easier to put them back after we are done! This was a project inspired by the 3 days we spent looking for the charger to the video camera. So now we have a bag for video camera charger/accessories/information booklet, as well as bags for ipod stuff, blackberry stuff, camera stuff, portable DVD player stuff, and a random bag for random chargers that go to other various things. It took me a while to round up most of these items, but having them all in one place and labeled is already making a HUGE difference!

My next project: Sorting mail and keeping up with it! I'll let you know when I find a good method for this :)

Now I'm off to finish dinner and work on next weeks meal plan. I will attempt to be better with my blogging and keep you posted on deals, coupons, meal plans etc so you can continue to stay organized!!

My goal and challenge to myself is to get back to my pre-pregnancy/pre-illness weight by January. If we decide to have more kids, I'd like to be at a healthy weight and feeling better about myself prior to another gruelling pregnancy...because lets face it, more kids = more chaos and less mommy time. Better to do it now than later on down the road. What I'm realizing more and more is that I can't get my body into shape unless my life and schedule are "in shape" too. It's sort of a domino effect...if one area of my life is chaos (ie messy house, no meal plan, budget is off etc) then nothing flows. So I think the key to my life is to get everything in it organized so my life can flow smoothly and I can reach these goals I have set for myself and my family.

Happy Wednesday!

Erica

Setting up your household budget and cash flow

I have had several people ask me recently how we set our budget. How do I know what to spend each week on groceries etc. So I thought I would share our system and explain how and why it's working for us. Every family is different, so I think you have to find a way that works for you and stick to it. But it's always good to have different ideas on managing money.

The first thing we did was enlist the help of a super-smart Financial Advisor. She's one of the smartest people I think I have ever met in my life. Shes worked with my parents for several years and has done a fantastic job for Tim and I as well. She oversees what we are saving, how we are saving it, retirement etc. Any  big purchases that we make go through her :) It's nice having an un-emotionally involved opinion when making a big purchase or financial decision!

Our day-to-day budget is set up like this:
We have 2 checking accounts and a savings account all with the same bank. The savings account is pretty self-explanatory...it's there for savings :)

Our main bank account is for fixed expenses which are our "bills"...these are bills that don't change and have to be paid whatever amount that they are.

Our second account is our flexible spending, or our discretionary money...which includes things like gas, groceries, clothes, entertainment etc. These expenses aren't fixed, we determine how much we spend on them.

So the process goes like this: Tim gets paid weekly on the same day of the week each week. His checks are automatically deposited into the main account or the "Bills" account. We went through and added up all of our fixed expenses. We subtracted that from the total that he makes monthly. Whatever was leftover after all of the bills, we split between living expenses for the month and savings. We figured up a baseline of what we needed for living expenses each week and whatever the difference was we set aside for savings.

So on his pay day, his check goes into the account. We have automatic transfers set up for a specific day each week that automatically transfer a set amount into savings and the amount we set for weekly living into our second checking account or our spending money. By keeping our bills separate from our spending money, it forces us to stay on budget each week because there is no cushion in our spending money (except money left from the week before, which happens almost every week). With all of it automatically done it's sort of "out of sight, out of mind". We forget that it's there, it continues to grow and ensures a great future for our family!

So the next question I get a lot of is "How do you determine how much you need weekly??"

Well, this totally depends on your family size and lifestyle. With the recent increase in gas prices (and Tim commuting to work at KU med 3 days a week) we've had to increase our weekly spending money quite a bit just to cover the extra in gas he is spending a week. Here is a breakdown of our spending money for our family of 4:

Gas: $75/week between the 2 of us
Groceries: $100/week (this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, dog treats, toilet paper etc)
Misc Spending: $85/week - this goes for play dates, dinners out, birthday gifts etc.

Some weeks I use the extra $85 to put some more into groceries or adding to my stock pile, but for the most part I try to stick to this budget amount. I almost always have money left over at the end of the week, which is a great feeling!

Now, there are other expenses that come up, such as car repairs, clothing, special occasions (like a sisters wedding) etc. These are all things we discuss with our financial planner to help set a reasonable budget and stick to it. This generally will come out of Tim's paycheck and we transfer it with our regular weekly money, take it out as cash and use only that. Cash is a really easy way to ensure you are sticking with your budget because you can't spend more than you have.

I will admit...I LOVE to shop. I enjoy shopping more than anything else to be honest. Nothing is more fun to me than going to Target, buying whatever I want and then coming home and organizing yet (yes I am a strange person who loves organizing things!) But the reality is that we (as in, the United States) are in a tough economic state right now. And I'm blessed to have the ability to not work and stay home with my kids. So by stretching our money as far as I can, I know I'm doing my part to try and give my girls the best possible advantages later in life. As much as I enjoy shopping, I enjoy seeing our savings account grow every month even more...there is no better feeling than not having a panic moment when something goes wrong. It's no longer a crisis, its merely an inconvenience. So I challenge everyone to get a budget in place and stick to it!

My other advice: Find a class for Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University"...it will change how you look at money forever! It was by far the best investment to our future I could have made!

Happy Planning!!

Walgreens, CVS and Kroger Deals this week!

Well today was one of the few times I have not had a great shopping day. Dillons was pure chaos with last minute mothers day shoppers, I was overly tired and had a headache...not a good combination! They have their big 10 event going on right now, where if you buy any 10 participating items, you save $5. This is usually a great deal because you can have more than one set of 10 in your transaction. For me, I had planned out 40 items (4 sets of 10 participating items) that all fit into this sale and matched up with coupons. I had my coupon binder with me, my detailed spreadsheet of deals+coupons=final price etc. I was on budget and doing well, I even stopped and added everything up at the end before checking out to make sure I had my 40 items. If you are missing even one item, then you pay the full price instead of the sale price on the other 9 items in that batch of 10. Well somewhere along the way one of my 40 items got added to the person in front of me...which threw off my entire total. Add to that, several of my coupons weren't scanning (everything was correct, not expired, correct sizes/items etc) but for some reason it was just one of those days. So I ended up with about $20 extra on my bill today. I finally got so frustrated that I just paid the bill and left.

Lesson Learned: I will not shop on a busy Saturday afternoon that happens to be a holiday weekend EVER again! But the good news: My stock pile is looking FANTASTIC again! I wiped out most of it during our recent move because I didn't have time to shop and didn't feel like moving it all to the new house. So a few months in our new home (with a fantastically big basement to house my stockpile along with several of Mia's big toys, YAY!) I finally am getting my stock pile back to how I had it before.

So, with a few frustrations I had a less than successful day (though I managed to still have a 40% savings...my personal goal is always 50% or higher...but I'll take 40%!). I did manage to enjoy the morning with my girls, walking around the Farmers Market and snacking on some yummy homemade Apple Cider Doughnuts, which are now a new favorite to both of my girls!!

SOOOO...here are a few deals I plan to snatch up this week. Some are deals I found, along with other deals I've seen posted on various websites/blogs. Walgreen's is a bit confusing, so make sure you totally understand their coupon policy before going (it took me a few months to get the hang of shopping there!)

Walgreens:
Clean & Clear Morning Burst Body Wash  (16 oz.)
Sale: Buy 1 at $5.99, Get 1 Free
Use Buy 1 Get 1 Free coupon from 3/27 SmartSource insert
Final Price: 2 FREE

Carefree Liners
Sale Price: 99 cents
Use $1/1 coupon from 5/8 SmartSource insert
Or use 50c/1 coupon from 3/27 RedPlum insert
Final Price as low as: FREE

Walgreens Photo {select link to deal}
12 cent 4×6 Prints – use promo code: MAYFLOWERS$5 off any $25 Photo Gift Order – use promo code: SPRING5

Colgate Toothpaste or Toothbrush {select varieties}
Sale Price: 2 for $6.00
Receive $4.00 back in Register Rewards when you buy 2 (limit 1)
Use $1/1 Total Toothpaste coupon from April All You Magazine
And use 75c/1 Toothpaste coupon from 5/1 SmartSource insert
Or use 75c/1 Toothbrush coupon from 5/1 SmartSource insert
Final Price when you buy two as low as: 12 cents each!

Palmolive Dish Liquid (10 oz.)
Sale Price using in ad coupon: 89 cents
Use 25c/1 Walgreens coupon from 4/17 SmartSource insert
Final Price: $.64

Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide Razor System
Sale Price: $9.89
Receive $5.00 back in Register Rewards (limit 1)
Use $4/1 coupon from 5/1 P&G insert
Final Price: $.89

Mitchum or Lady Mitchum Antiperspirant/Deodorant
Sale Price using in ad coupon: $1.99
Use $1/1 coupon from 5/8 SmartSource insert
Final Price: 99 cents!

Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaners
Sale Promo: Buy 1 at $2.99, Get 1 FREE
Use $1/2 Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaners Coupon
{register, then print coupons under ‘Special Offers’}
Or use $1/2 coupon from 4/17 SmartSource insert
Final Price when you buy two: $1.00 each!


Reach Advanced Design Toothbrushes {2-pk.}
Sale Price: 2 for $6.00
Receive $2.00 back in Register Rewards when you buy 2 (limit 1)
Use $2/1 Reach 2-pk coupon from 5/8 SmartSource insert
Final Price when you buy two 2-pk’s: $1.00 each!

Pantene Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styler
Sale Price: 2 for $7.00
Receive $1.00 back in Register Rewards when you buy 2 (limit 1)
Use $3/2 coupon from 5/1 P&G insert
Final Price when you buy two: $1.50 each
Nabisco Fig Newtons
Sale Price: 2 for $5.00
Use $1/2 coupon from Walgreen’s May Coupon Book
Also use $1/1 coupon from 5/8 SmartSource insert
Final Price when you buy two: $1.50 each

Fiber One Bars
Sale Price: $2.00
Use 4oc/1 coupon from 4/3 SmartSource insert
Final Price: $1.60

Dove Minis {8.5-11 oz.}
Sale Price: 2 for $6.00
Use $1/2 coupon from Walgreens May Coupon Book
Also use $1/1 coupon from 5/1 RedPlum insert
Final Price when you buy two: $2.00 each

Revlon ColorSilk Hair Color
Sale Price: 2 for $6.00
Use $1/2 coupon from Walgreen’s May Coupon Book
Also use $1/2 coupon from 4/17 SmartSource insert
Final Price when you buy two: $2.00 each

Coppertone Sun Care {select varieties, excluding lip balm}
Sale Price: $9.99
Receive $3.00 back in Register Rewards (limit 1)
Use $1/1 Coppertone Coupon
Final Price: $5.99

Pampers Jumbo Pack Diapers
Sale Price: 2 for $18.00
Receive $3.00 back in Register Rewards when you buy two (limit 1)
Use $1.50/1 coupon from 5/1 P&G insert
Final Price when you buy two: $6.75 each
CVS:
Carefree Body Shape Liners {20-22 ct.}
Sale Price: 99 cents
Use $1/1 coupon from 5/8 SmartSource insert
Or use 50c/1 coupon from 3/27 RedPlum insert
Final Price as low as: FREE!

Stride Spark Gum
Sale Price: $1.00
Use $1/2 coupon from 4/3 SmartSource insert
Final Price when you buy two: 50 cents each!

Colgate Total Toothpaste Sale Price: $1.67
Use $1/1 Total Toothpaste coupon from April All You Magazine
Or use 75c/1 Toothpaste coupon from 5/1 SmartSource insert
Final Price as low as: 67 cents!

Mitchum or Lady Mitchum Antiperspirant/Deodorant
Sale Price: $1.99
Use $1/1 coupon from 5/8 SmartSource insert
Final Price: $.99

Kellogg’s Cereal (select varietiesSale)  Price: $1.97 (limit 6) --This deal is also good at Dillons or Kroger, their Kellogg's cereals are on sale for $1.98 right now.
Use 70c/1 Raisin Bran Coupon
Or use $1/2 Rice or Cocoa Krispies Coupon
Or use $1/2 Corn Flakes Coupon
Or use $1/3 Kellogg’s Cereal Coupon
Final Price as low as: $1.27

Speed Stick or Lady Speed Stick {select varieties}
Sale Price: $1.99
Use 50c/1 coupon from 5/1 SmartSource insert
Final Price: $1.49

Sundown Fish Oil, Herbals, Vitamin D, B or Melatonin
Sale Price: $5.49
Receive $2.00 back in Extra Bucks (limit 1)
Use $1/1 coupon from 4/17 RedPlum insert
Final Price: $2.49

Sobe Lifewater {20 oz.}
Sale Promo: Buy 1 Get 1 Free {limit 8}
Use $1.50/5 coupon from 5/1 Pepsi insert

Dillons/Kroger:
Some of the items I liked in their $5 off when you buy 10 were:

Kraft BBQ Sauce (Select Varieties)
Final Price: $.49/each (I bought 10 of these to last the summer)

American Beauty Pasta
Regularly priced: $1.29, Sale: $.99, Buy 10: Final Price: $.49 each

Campbell's soups
Regular Price: $1.50
Sale Price when you buy 10: $.89 each (I bought ten of these)

Oral B Cross Action Toothbrush
Regular Price: $2.99
Sale Price: $2.49 when you buy any 10 items
Matched with Coupon for $2.00 off any cross action toothbrush
Final Price: $.49/each

Crystal Light Drink Mix
Normal Price: $3.29
Sale Price: $2.49 (when you buy any 10)
Buy Any 10: $1.99
Matched with store coupon for $1.00/2
Final Price: $2.98 or $1.49/each

Quaker Rice Cakes:
Regular Price: $1.29
Sale: $.79/each (when you buy any 10)
Coupon I had: $1.00/2 (I had 2 of these))
Final Price: $.29 each

Kroger Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, Tenderloins or Thighs
Regular Price for 3 lb bag: $8.48 (around $2.83/pound)
Sale Price for frozen 3 pound bag: $4.98 ($1.66/pound)
**I always try to have at least 1-2 bags of each kind of frozen chicken on hand. There are so many simple meals that can be thrown together with chicken! I always try to stock up when it's less than $5/bag.

I'd love to hear it if you have any other good deals that you know about!!

For now: Happy Mothers Day and Happy Shopping!!

$.50/1 Driscolls Printable Coupons

If you haven't done so already, you can go here to sign up for a $0.50/1 Discoll’s Berries printable coupon. My computer let me print this twice!! I'm always on the hunt for good coupons for produce since that is generally the bulk of my money spent at the grocery store. The more I save with coupons in other areas, the more I can load up on fresh, organic fruits and vegetables...both at the store and the Farmers Market. These particular coupons state that they cannot be doubled, but regardless, it's great to have a coupon for fresh produce!!

Check out your Dillon's ad this week as well....they are having another round of their save $5 when you buy any certain 10 products. I used this sale last time to stock up on 60 bags of pasta that was down to $.49/bag! These deals are the best because you can stack coupons on top of these low prices for great savings!! It's the easiest way to get your stockpile really going! The way this particular sale works at Dillon's is that you have to buy a combination of any 10 items to get the savings. So if you buy more than 10 of any  of these items, make sure you do it in increments of 10 to get the good price. They will do multiple sets of 10 in one transaction which is nice!

Target Deals - We just moved baby girl #2 into her big girl car seat. Target has the Graco My Ride 65 car seat on sale for $100 right now (This normally goes for around $150). This is a good price for this particular seat, which is durable, comfortable and has tested extremely high in safety tests.

Happy Shopping!

FREE Ivory Body Wash at Dillons

At Dillon's right now the Ivory body wash is included in the 10/$10 sale. With the recent Ivory coupon that came out this past Sunday in the P&G Insert for $1/1, that makes these free :) I had 4 of these coupons so I got 4 FREE body washes!

Sometimes the sale will continue for 2-3 weeks and sometimes not, it just depends on the item and the specific store, so I don't know if the Ivory body wash will continue to be at that low price, so if you can, run to your closest Dillon's store tonight! :)

Happy Shopping!

The Best Bang For Your Buck: Minivan Shopping and 3rd row options for vehicles

I finally made the leap and officially joined the mom club...on Saturday I traded my sporty cross-over SUV -my Toyota Rav4 that I LOVED, for a Minivan. I'm not going to lie, I struggled with this in a big way! But the reality is that with two kids and a socially active 5 year old, we needed more space!! We ended up with a sporty 2010 Kia Sedona LX. It's black with tan interior and is about as sporty as you can get with a van :) So far in the 2 days I've had it, I really like it!

Here is what I found when shopping for a new vehicle, we drove several different ones and ended up with the Sedona.

Vans:
Our Top 3 choices on vans came down to what was ranked the highest in safety, reliability, features and price. The Kia Sedona, the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna were the only 3 vans I would look at based on safety and reliability reviews. I've always been a car snob and have never had anything except for Toyota (yes, people laugh when we are all gathered at my parents' house because it looks like a Toyota car lot over there! We ALL have Toyota's) The reliability and the history we have with Toyota has been nothing but superb (as indicated by the 1996 Toyota Camry that has survived commuting by my dad, me and now my husband. It has 270,000 miles on it and is still going strong!)

Because Safety, Reliability and Features were all equal on the three choices of vans, the next thing it came down to was price. We could get more features for a better price by going with the Sedona. Standard on the LX is the Sirius Satellite radio, MP3/USB hookups, 6 disc CD changer, Roof Rack, Rear Air/Heat, Back up Reverse Sensors, 2nd Row Bucket Seats, Stow-N-Go 3rd row with 60/40 split bench, power rear windows, security system, key less entry, extra cargo space, tons of extra storage cubbies and cup holders throughout and an overall nice design on the inside. Other options you can get include the DVD system, heated seats, automatic climate control, power sliding doors and windows and other luxury features found in both the LX and EX models. The Kia warranty is also the best out there - some are 5 year/50,000 mile bumper to bumper, all of the way up to 10 year/100,000 mile warranties.

Other Vehicles:
A few other vehicles we looked at were SUVs and Cross-Over SUVs with the 3rd row. The main problem I found with all of these is lack of rear cargo space and difficulty getting access to the 3rd row. With older kids this isn't as big of a deal, but when you still have car seats latched in, it's too much work to take the entire car seat in and out to fold up the seat just to get in and out of the 3rd row seating. Most of the 3rd row SUVs were not designed for car seats...meaning you can't even use the extra seating with smaller kids.

a few we looked at and liked:

The Honda Pilot: Very nice, loaded with tons of great features. Not great on gas mileage, but great safety reviews. 3rd row didn't have much leg room, was not equipped for car seats and took up most of the cargo space in the back. I couldn't fit a full sized stroller in, only a smaller McLaren stroller fit back there.

GMC Acadia - Liked the look of this a lot but it didn't get great reviews on reliability and it was very heavy. Decent cargo space even with the 3rd row, can have car seats in the 3rd row as well. Some models come with 2 captains chairs in the middle, which made access to the 3rd row much easier with small kids.

Chevy Traverse - By far my favorite of the SUVs we looked at. If we hadn't gotten a van or if our kids were older, this is what I would have gotten. Tons of interior room, great cargo and storage space. Good reviews on safety and reliability. So/So on gas mileage. Drives a little lighter than the Acadia. Still harder to get in and out of the 3rd row if you have car seats.

Toyota Highlander - I've always wanted a highlander, but would only do it if I knew we weren't having any more kids and only had the 3rd row for occasional guests. It's not functional for everyday use with 3+ kids. The 3rd row takes up the entire cargo area, I couldn't fit any strollers back there with the 3rd row up.

So there are a few ideas if you are in the market for a new car! I loved my Rav4 and highly recommend it if you are needing a sporty little fuel efficient SUV. But we are on to the more practical phase of life where the reality is that a minivan just makes like SO much easier with small kids :) Our find, the Kia Sedona offered the most "bang for our buck".

Good Deals and Coupons this week!

Here are a few quick deals I've found this week!!

Goldfish Crackers - right now at Dillon's (Kroger) these are 10/$10. If you go to http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/News.aspx you can print two coupons for $.75/2 bags of goldfish crackers. Since this would double up to $1, that works out to be $.50/bag. Not bad to get 4 bags of goldfish (any flavor) for $2!

Yoplait Greek Yogurt - $.99/1 right now at Dillon's. With my Coupons from the last few papers for -$.60/2, I was able to get these for as low as $.49/each. That's a good deal, normally the Greek yogurts retail for around $1.20-$1.30 each. I stocked up on 16 of these! These are great in the mornings and wonderful source of protein for before or after a workout!

Crest Toothpaste - part of the 10/$10 sale at Kroger right now. With -$.50/1 coupons that double up to $1 it made these totally FREE! I had 6 coupons for these, so 6 FREE toothpastes.

Kellogg's Cereals - Several Kellogg's Cereals are on sale for $1.98/each right now at Kroger. If you go to the Kellogg's website you can print off coupons for different Kellogg's cereals to stack with this sale price. I normally try to stay around $1/box, sometimes I'll go as high as $1.25 per box. For boxes that normally retail for $3-$4, this is still a great deal.

Some Target Deals I also found:

The P&G insert in this weeks paper had a Target Coupon that was good for $5.00 off one box of Pampers Diapers and one wipes. Plus, Target is offering a deal that if you buy these two items together, you get a $5.00 off gift card at check out. I bought a box of diapers ($19.99) and a pack of wipe refills ($6.99). With my $5 off coupon, plus a $3 off Pampers coupon stacked on top of it, plus the $5 gift card, it makes a box of diapers and a 3-pack of wipe refills $13.98 total.

Aquafresh Training Toothbrushes for Kids — $1.99
Use $1/1 Target couponStack with the $1/1 Aquafresh Kids toothbrush coupon from the 4/17 RedPlum insert (or use the $.50/1 Aquafresh coupon)
Free after coupons

Quaker Chewy Granola Bars – $2.50
Buy 4 – Get 1 Free
Buy 5 and use 2 $0.75/2 coupon from the 3/13 RedPlum insert
Stack with 2 $1/2 Target printable
$1.30 each after coupons
Tostitos Chips – $2.50
Use $1/1 coupon from the 5/1 Moments to Save insert
$1.50 after coupon

Happy Shopping!!!

Weekly Meal Plan and Challenge to myself!

With Easter and several other events coming up as the school year winds down, I am having to stretch my grocery budget more and more to account for all of the "extras" that come up this time of year. So my goal and challenge to myself for this week was to plan an entire menu for a week using only things I already had in my freezer/stock pile/pantry. I was able to do it (other than the fresh produce for a couple of meals) and devote my entire weekly grocery budget to adding items to my stock pile plus fresh produce and milk for this week!!

Here is my meal plan for the week:

Saturday - Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, *Caesar Salad, French Bread
Sunday - Easter Brunch -Out with the Family
Monday - Baked Chicken, Creamy Lemon Risotto, Mixed Veggies
Tuesday - Parmigiano Reggiano Crusted Chicken Picatta with angel hair pasta, Green Beans, Garlic Bread sticks
Wednesday - Texas Steak House BBQ Beef Sandwiches (meat was cooked and frozen, ready to throw into the crock pot for Wed night!) French Fries, *Corn on the Cob, *Sliced Watermelon
Thursday - Spaghetti Ham Bake (already in the freezer, ready to be cooked), Garlic Bread, Peas
Friday - Cornbread Casserole (1 lb hamburger for this already cooked and frozen), Cottage Cheese, Peas and Carrots.

Some of this I already had prepared and in the freezer for busy weeks like this that I need some extra time that I would normally be cooking. And everything else (except for the few fresh produce items) I already had in the house! So my grocery budget went this week to stock up on produce, milk, eggs, yogurt, diapers, granola bars, more cereal etc.

Obviously I've been working on my stock pile for a while so this was possible. If you are just starting out you might not have quite enough to be able to do this. I challenge you to see how many meals you can make with what you already have in the house, or how many meals you can make without having to buy much for them!! Having this much set aside and ready for crazy months is a wonderful way for us to stay on budget and not worry about spending more money to eat out if I just don't have enough time (or hands) to cook.
Happy Menu Planning!!

Great Deal at CVS!

I always clip coupons that I think I *might* be able to use. And it often works out to be a great deal...even if it's not a product I normally buy!! I clipped 4 of these coupons from the 3/27 Smart Source insert thinking I could possibly use them.

CVS has a deal right now on their Dove Men+Care Deodorant. Normally these are $4.99 each. Right now they are on sale for $.99 at CVS...the sale price paired with my $1 off of 1 coupon I got these totally FREE!!! Yes, 4 tubes of Dove Men's Deodorant for Tim that normally would have cost me $20 retail,  I got for FREE and paid $.40 for tax. I'll take that any day!!

Dillons had some decent sales today as well, they are still having their buy 4 of certain General Mills products and get a $5 off gift card for your next trip. I bought 4 boxes of Fiber One Bars and 4 boxes of Nature Valley Yogurt Bars to get 2- $5 off gift cards. I had coupons for $.40/1 box for the Fiber One Bars (doubles to $.80/off per box) and then $.75/2 boxes of the Nature Valley bars (which doubles up to $1/2). Both brands were on sale for $2.79/box. Total retail for these would be $22.32 for the 8 boxes. After coupons the total came down to $17.12. If you figure in the $10 worth of gift cards that I earned, this brings the total for the 8 boxes to $7.12...which works out to be $.89 per box. These boxes are generally over $3 a box normal price, so to pay $.89 per box for healthy snacks that my whole family enjoys is a great bonus!!

Happy Shopping!

Meal Planning, Coupons and so much fun!!

Today was a fantastic day: I got to go grocery shopping TOTALLY ALONE. That's right, it was just me, my coupon binder, my list and the entire grocery store with no children to entertain and/or chase through the store. I admit, my kids are pretty well behaved when it comes to grocery shopping so I'm blessed that I can bring them if needed...but lets be honest, no matter how great they are at the store, my budget is always better when I'm totally alone and can focus.

One big deal I got today that I was super excited about was the General Mills cereal at Dillon's. We are big time cereal eaters in this house, so cereal is something I *always* have stock piled in the basement. Dillon's is offering a promotion that several of their GM cereals are part of a deal: buy 4 participating cereals and get a $5 gift card at check out. I already had 4 boxes on my list today (2 chex, 2 multi-grain cheerios). So, I ended up getting 8 instead (SOOOO glad I had my coupon binder with me...that way I could pull out more of the -$.50 off coupons I had to save even more for this particular deal)

Here is how the deal broke down:

4 boxes Chex: $2.99/box = $11.96
4 boxes Cheerios: $3.08/box=$12.32
Total: $24.28

Coupons I had: 6 -$.50 coupons (each of these doubled to be $1 off) plus 2 ecoupons from cellfire.com for -$.75/1 box.

Total after coupons taken off = $16.78
Now if you factor in the 2 $5 gift cards I got at check out to be applied to another purchase, that brings my total down to $6.78. Divided by 8 boxes of cereal,that works out to be about $.85 per box of cereal. I'll take paying less than $1 per box of cereal that normally runs around $4/box any day!!

So what are my plans with the $10 worth of gift cards I have??? DIAPERS!! I have a $3 off coupon for a box of Pampers Cruisers which are on sale at Dallon's right now for $19.99. So with my coupon it brings my total to $16.99 PLUS I have a -$1.50 store coupon to stack on top of my manufacture coupon, bringing my total to $15.49. With my gift cards, that makes a giant box of diapers $5.49 out of pocket :)

Another great deal I got today was on Suave deodorant. I actually made $.12 per tube today. I clipped 4 coupons for -$.50/1 suave deodorant (no size listed). Dillon's had smaller tubes on sale for $.88 each. Since my coupons doubled to -$1.00/1 = +$.12 each...which equaled +$.48 for the 4. I love to carry these in my gym bag, diaper bag, pool/boat bag etc because they are little and compact! And since they are FREE that's even better!!

Onto Menu Planning....with everything going on with my oldest child health wise, we've eaten out a lot in the last two weeks. So I'm pretty anxious to get back to cooking good, wholesome meals again! I'm trying to make meals that I can freeze for a second meal so that when summer gets busy I have food to pull out. So far in my freezer are 4 different pasta casseroles, 4 containers of spaghetti sauce, a few pounds of chicken and ground beef already cooked and frozen in 1 pound bags, a batch of pizza burgers, a batch of Texas Steak House BBQ for sandwiches and some shredded BBQ pork. All of these are things that I made big batches at one time to get 2, 3, and even 4 meals out of one cooking time.

My Meal Plan for this week to give some ideas: (I'm happy to share recipes if requested!!)

Friday (4/15) - Marinated Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes, Peas
Saturday (4/16) - Rotisserie Chicken, Macaroni and Cheese, Corn
Sunday (4/17) - Blue Cheese Crumbled Chicken Salad Sandwiches, French Fries, Fresh Fruit
Monday (4/18) Beef Enchiladas, Cheesy Rice, Chips and Salsa, Apple Sauce
Tuesday (4/19) Teriyaki Chicken Shish-Ka-Bobs on the grill, homemade green beans, Gnocchi, Brownies
Wednesday (4/20) Beef Stroganoff (crock pot), Egg Noodles, Rolls, Peas
Thursday (4/21) Greek Chicken over Orzo with Kalamata Olives, Mixed Vegetables, Garlic Toast
Friday (4/22) Orange Glazed Chicken with Lemon Risotto, Roasted Veggies, Strawberry Shortcake

Between coupons, sales and my stockpile, I'm able to make each of these meals for around $5-$7 per meal for the entire family of 4...much cheaper than eating out!

Some ways to cut down on cooking time for this particular meal plan:
*save half of the rotisserie chicken from tonight to use for the blue cheese chicken salad tomorrow
*Because Sundays are busy with church and lunch with family, I will make the chicken salad up tonight so it's ready for tomorrow.
*The chicken and vegetables for the Ka-Bobs are already marinating in a Ziploc bag that I tossed into the freezer. On Monday night, I will pull it out and let it defrost so that it marinates as it defrosts.

So that's what we will be eating this week! I always love to hear other people's meal plans...What are you cooking this week???

Until Next Time...Happy Couponing!!

Jack Pot on Summer Clothes Shopping for the Kids!!

There is no better feeling than getting both girls totally outfitted for the summer (including spring clothes and Easter dresses) for around $100 total. Yes, there will be a few items here and there that I will still need to pick up, but the bulk of their clothes are ready to go when the weather gets warm! I had a mission to prove that I could get quality, name brand clothes for the same price (if not cheaper) than cheaper department stores or places like Target/Wal Mart. I love Target and will probably buy a bunch of play clothes there, but I do love Carters, Gap, Old Navy and Children's Place for nicer clothes for things like church, dinners out, etc. So my mission yesterday was to buy the bulk of the girls' spring/summer clothes for around $100. I was so excited that I was actually able to accomplish this!

Carters Outlet at the Legends had some awesome prices! Right now on their website they have 2 printable coupons, one for $5 creepers for infants (1 piece outfits, normally around $12.00 each) and also a 20% off your entire purchase over $40. I happened to have a 25% off coupon that was mailed to me that I used instead, but 20% off is great too. Their Easter dresses are all 50% off right now, so when I added the 25% coupon equaled out to the dresses being 75% off each!! The two matching dresses I got for the girls were normally $32 and $36 each...after my discount I got them for $8 and $9 a piece...$17 for two dresses is an awesome awesome deal!! Everything I bought yesterday was mostly for Olivia since Mia has outgrown many of their clothes...but everything I bought was at least 50% off in store with my 25% off coupon...which added up to a whopping savings!! I also got another 20% off coupon to use for my next purchase at checkout. We will be making a return trip for sure!!

All girls pajamas are BOGO right now as well. We waited on those this trip, but will probably be going back for some new nightgowns for Mia. One nightgown at $26 with the second one free, plus 20% off works out to be around $10/nightgown for good, quality pajamas. That's a great deal.

Old Navy rounded out Mia's wardrobe with all of their cotton and knit dresses marked down to $8.50-$10.00 each. She LOVES dresses (anyone that knows her isn't shocked by this!) so if I can load up on dresses for the summer for her, it eliminates the morning fight of what we are wearing :0) Old Navy also had their Capri leggings on sale for 2 for $6 (normally $8.50 each). I grabbed a couple of pairs of these to throw under her dresses from last year that still fit but have gotten a little too short on her. This helped round out her wardrobe so she has more dresses to choose from without showing the world her cute little rear end while playing! Old Navy little girls flip flops are also $2.50/pair when you buy 2 or more. Of course we ended up with pink and silver. It looked like there were several great deals for Adults as well, however both kids were hungry and I bypassed shopping for myself.

GAP outlet had some adorable outfits for girls but not great on the markdowns right now. We did get a few pieces because I can't resist GAP, but will be waiting for better deals there. Last year at the end of spring I was able to get winter clothes from $.99-$2.99 a piece. I bought bigger sizes and that's what the girls had for this year.

Stride Rite has some great deals on shoes (and if you haven't tried Stride Rite shoes for your kids you are missing out!!) These are GREAT quality shoes that hold up through anything. I got Olivia a new pair of Robeez for $19.00, cheaper than most places I could find them. We will be going back for Mia closer to summer because her feet keep growing and growing!

My greatest feeling yesterday was knowing that I didn't pay full price for anything, and most items I got were at least a 50% savings if not more!! Why pay full price when I can get the same items much cheaper??

This did take some planning/organizing. I spent the last week or two watching store websites/emails and writing out a list of what we have, what we need and where the best deals are. So I basically knew what I was looking for at each store before we went. This helped me to stay on budget and not go crazy...because lets face it, shopping for little girls is a LOT of fun!

Happy Shopping!

Coupons Part 2 - Organizing Your Coupons!!

So now that you have started clipping and organizing coupons, the question becomes "how the heck do I organize them so I don't spend a ton of time searching for them when I need them??"

There are several different types of organizational tools you can use to get your coupons organized and functioning for you. Here are the 3 most common ways that I know of:

1. A coupon binder - this is my favorite for me. It's a big 3 ring binder with tons of baseball card type holders to slip each coupon into. Each sleeve has a tab dividing them up into sections, ie: produce, beverages, meats, dairy, bread, canned goods, pasta/grains, cereal, snacks, home products, baby products, soaps/lotions/deodorants, cleaning supplies, hair care, dental, etc. This makes it super easy to flip to each section and see if I have a coupon for a product in that category. There are several websites you can order these binders already put together or you can make one yourself, whatever works for your budget!!

I always pull coupons out that I know I'm going to use and keep them in an envelope. I still bring my binder to the grocery store along with my calculator, grocery list, highlighter, pen/pencil, copy of the store ad and print out of my digital coupons already loaded to my Dillons card. Having my binder with me helps me check for coupons if I see an item marked down that I might not have known was on sale. I ordered mine from www.Thecouponbinder.com, however i have heard reports that she's not producing them right now. There are several other websites with the same concept though!

The other benefit to my coupon binder is that everything fits in one place. My coupons, Meal Plans, grocery lists, pencil holder with pens, pencils, and calculator and blank paper are all in one binder. So there is never a question of "what was I planning for that dinner??" when I'm at the store. I like having everything together so I don't miss items and have to make a return trip back to the store.

2. Accordion Style Folders - I started with this method but found it annoying to have to sort through stacks of coupons in the middle of the store just to see if I had a coupon matching an item. For the non-serious couponer however, this works well because they are generally small and can fit into your purse.

3. File Folder - I tried this method for about two weeks and gave up. You can get a file folder system and instead of clipping coupons on Sundays, you just file the entire coupon inserts into the folder. Then when you see a deal come up that is referenced by which newspaper it was in you can pull the entire insert out, clip just the coupons you need and go to the store. I missed a lot of good coupons by doing this so it didn't work for me. Many people have had a lot of success with it though!

So the best way to maximize your savings with coupons is to find a system that works for YOU! Just because it works for someone else, doesn't mean it's going to be the most beneficial to your style of organization/shopping.

If anyone needs help getting started with coupon organizing, I'd be happy to help set up a binder!! I've also been asked by many if I would ever do a coupon-teaching class. If there is interest I would totally be open to doing this! Leave me a comment and let me know :0)

Happy Shopping!!

Coupons: Part 1 - Types of Coupons

Ok, So I've been promising a quick overall coupon lesson so I'll do my best to make this as easy to follow as possible! I'm going to break these posts up to make it easier to follow (and because Olivia will only sit still for so long before she wants my attention...so I might not get everything typed all at the same time!). I will start today with going through the different types of coupons :0)

First I'm going to start off and say that it takes time, patience and a little extra time to really get the hang of this! I was so overwhelmed that I threw a fit that even my 5 year old would have been impressed with the first time I tried putting together sales and coupons. But the longer you stick with it, the better your results will be!

First, to get started you need to understand the types of coupons available to you. I will be honest, I used to view coupons as a pain and not worth the hassle. Then we came into financial hardship and I didn't have a choice but to cut back our grocery budget. I mean honestly, did we really need to spend $800-$1000 on FOOD each month?? That seems like such a waste. Pretty soon I couldn't believe that I used to shop without ever checking on coupons or sales!! All of this time I could have been saving SO much money and been able to cut our bills in half...for a family of 4 I spend around $400 a month now, down from my previous $800-$1000!!

A few coupon myths that I'm guilty of believing in the begining:
myth:"coupons are for poor people" - truth: coupons are for SMART people! If a company or store is offering you an item for $.50, $.75, $1.00 or more off for an item you buy anyway, why not take advantage of that??

myth: "I don't have time to clip coupons" - truth: "I don't have the time to NOT clip coupons" - Lets face it, the economy is tough right now. Trying to support a family with small children on one income isn't an easy thing to do. Because I'm so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids instead of working full time, then it's my job to make every dollar that my husband brings home stretch! So when I break it down, for an extra 6 hours of my time a month (usually an hour and a half a week) I save around $400-$600...that's like getting paid $100 an hour for doing this particular job :0) I'll take that any day!

myth: "coupons are only for junky, processed foods" - truth: "There are coupons for all kinds of things!!" - I will admit, there aren't many coupons out there for fresh produce, meat, dairy, eggs etc. I try my very best to buy the freshest, most wholesome food I can for my family. And the reality is that fresh, organic food is expensive! The bulk of my coupons that I use are for household items (toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergents, cleaning suppllies etc), health and beauty items (shampoos, soaps, toothpaste, toothbrushes etc), baby items (diapers, wipes, formular and other things) and popular food items at our house such as yogurts, cereals, breads, deli meats, granola bars, frozen veggies, crackers, soups and other various snack food items. Because I can use these coupons to buy all of these items for practically nothing and then stockpile them, the bulk of my grocery budget is left available for fresh produce, dairy, meats and other wholesome foods.

Coupon Types:
1. Traditional coupons clipped from the newspapers on Sundays. Generally every Sunday there are anywhere from 1-3 coupon inserts in the paper. Some weeks are better than others. During the first phase of couponing I would buy 4 papers every Sunday to get multiple coupons. Then when that item goes on sale, I have a nice stack of coupons to get several of those items at a cheaper price. People vary on how many papers to buy...I've known people to buy 6-10 papers while in "stockpile" mode (which can get up to a 90% savings!), or some people choose to work with just one paper a week (usually a savings of around 5-10%), it's totally up to you. I generally get 3 or 4 papers a week and that seems to be working for me (I'm averaging about 60% savings on my grocery bills with 4 papers a week)

Example: Last month featured a coupon for buy one "Old Spice" deodorant, get an Old Spice body wash free. I had 4 of these coupons which equaled 4 free bottles of body wash for my husband! The deodorants that I had to purchase to get the body washes were on sale for $1.99 at Dillons. I had 4 coupons for $1 off 2 Old Spice Deodorants. Add an E-Coupon onto my Dillons card to take even more money off and I was able to get 4 Old Spice Body Washes and 4 Old Spice Deodorants for around $2. Not bad!! If I had paid full price for those items, even on sale, I would have spent around $20 total. So an $18 savings was wonderful, plus I'm stocked on enough of those items for my husband to not need to purchase more until the next great sale/coupon match up happens!!

2. Printable Coupons from the Internet - I use these frequently as well! There are several sites that you can print coupons right from home on your own printer!! These coupons re-set every month and you are usually allowed to print 2 copies of each coupon until the coupons are re-set. The websites I generally use for these are http://www.dillons.com/, http://www.coupons.com/, http://www.redplum.com/ and any company website offering coupons (such as Kellogs, Kraft, Betty Crocker etc). You will have to install a "coupon printer" but this can be done in a matter of seconds!

3. Digital or "e-coupons" are coupons that can be loaded straight to your store loyalty card. For me, I load these e-coupons onto my Dillons card and they are applied while I'm checking out. One swipe of my Dillons card and any product I have purchased will automatically be deducted off of my bill. The nice thing with these is that they can be used on an item that you have a paper coupon for as well!! The sites I use to load my e-coupons are http://www.dillons.com/, http://www.cellfire.com/ and http://www.shortcuts.com/. All you do is sign up, register your loyalty cards and start loading them up with awesome savings!

4. Others - Magazines are another great place for finding coupons, though the only magazine I subscribe to specifically for coupons is "All You". Catalina coupons are the print-out coupons that the cashier generally hands you along with your receipt at the end of your check out. These can sometimes have great savings on them to apply to a future purchase of that item. Loyalty coupons are another great thing that stores are giving away now...Dillons will look over my review of the items I'm frequently purchasing using my Dillons card and will send me coupons for those items every few months. I love that I'm getting coupons for items I buy almost weekly anyway!

Manufacture VS Store Coupons
On the top of each coupon next to the expiration date it will usually say mnfc cpn or store cpn. The manufacture coupons are usually good at any stores because they come directly from the company that makes that product. Store coupons are usually only good at that particular store. A lot of stores will let you stack these and use a store coupon along with a manufacture coupon on the same item, which equals double the savings!! Every store is different though so you have to check with your individual store to find out what their specific coupon policies are. Target is one store I often am able to stack my store/company coupons to get great savings!

So that is a brief overview of  the types of coupons available to you. I have SO much more information to give but the baby is up from her nap :0) So I will post more later!!  When I do have a second later I will start in on the basics of organizing coupons as well as shopping with them!!

Stay Tuned....

Moms on the Run: Time Saving Meal Tips

It's always amazing to me how much time seems to speed up in the midst of every day chaos. After running to doctors appointments, pre school, dance class, swim lessons, jazzercise (one little thing I manage to get in for myself because lets face it...who doesn't love to dance AND burn a ton of calories all at the same time??) and juggling household chores, all of the sudden its 5:30 and I haven't started dinner yet. With my husband working night shifts I have to be organized to get dinner ready on time before he leaves for work.

One way I have been really successful with this is to plan and prep for the week. I already talked a little bit about the importance of meal planning from a budget/shopping standpoint...but it's also VERY helpful in making sure I'm on track throughout the day.

To keep track of my meals I have 3 pleaces I always have them written down: 1. The entire weeks worth of planned menues written down on a meal planning work sheet with which cookbook and pg to find the recipe, what side dishes to have with it, and what method of cooking (crock pot, oven, stove top, etc). 2. On my Daily "To-Do" list that goes into my household management binder and 3. on my monthly calendar white board in my kitchen. That one helps the most because I can glance up and see what I had planned for tonight and then my family knows what to expect for dinner :)

I generally do my grocery shopping on Fridays. On Friday or Saturdays I look over my weeks worth of meal plans and try to prep as much of the meal as I can, especially meals that are planned for busier days. I will cook up the chicken overnight in the crock pot, shred and freeze in zip-lock bags. I will also brown hamburger or slice meats and freeze those as well. Onions, Peppers and other items like those can also be prepped ahead of time and frozen.

I have played around with the once-a-month freezer cooking and found that it doesn't work for me as my main method of cooking. I LOVE to cook and try new recipes (yes this is still a shock to my mother who thought for the longest time I was a lost cause in the kitchen...which I was!), so cooking all in one day just wasn't a good fit for me. That being said, I do love having a few meals already put together and waiting in the freezer for a night that I get behind. One way I've been able to do this is to pick a recipe each week to that freezes well and double it, so I can serve that meal and freeze the other half for a later date. I also do this with breads, muffins, cookies, mashed potatoes and other items that take a bit longer to make from scratch. It's so handy to have those ready to go!

Example: Tonight I had to switch my menu plan around a little bit due to schedule changes. I had planned on Savory Beef for our dinner on Tuesday but ended up serving it tonight. So when I chose that recipe for this week, I bought double of everything and was able to "batch" cook tonight, meaning I made extra, served one meal for dinner and froze the other to pull out some night in the future when I need it. The even bigger bonus was that I was able to pick up the meat during Dillons' BOGO (Buy-one-get-one-free) meat sale a few weeks ago and freeze it until I needed it. So I got two meals for the price of one, which worked out to each meal costing about $4.50. That's an awesome price for feeding a family of 4!! (And yes, baby Olivia counts as the 4th despite being 8 1/2 months old...she can eat like a champ with her two tiny little teeth!)

The other benefit to having a few meals on hand in the freezer is for when things come up: A friend with a new baby, illnesses, surgery etc. It's nice to have a good, home cooked meal ready to bring over when someone needs it!

Cooking Ahead:
One of the most cost effective ways to use large amounts of chicken or meat is to not let them go to waste! I recently was able to buy a few bags of frozen chicken breasts for around $5/bag (an AWESOME price for giant bags of frozen chicken!!) I stocked up on these bags of chicken. I took one entire bag and tossed all of the breasts (still frozen) into the crock pot along with roughly 1/2 cup of water, a little salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cooked on low around 6-8 hours (overnight). In the morning I shredded half and cubed the other half and froze in one pound baggies. So anytime I have a recipe calling for cooked chicken, all I have to do is pull a bag out of the freezer and it's ready to go! No cook time required!

I also do this when meat goes on sale. If I can get a giant roll of ground round at Dillons for around $2/pound, I will buy 2 or 3 3-pound rolls. I will fry up 3-6 pounds of hamburger with some onion and garlic and freeze these in 1 pound baggies. These are great for throwing into soups, chili, tacos, spaghetti sauces, casseroles and other things called for browned ground beef.

Tomorrow I will try to put together some recipes/ideas for things that can easily be cooked and frozen in batches, saving you tons of time and money!! Happy Cooking!!

~*~ Erica ~*~

This book is a great addition to any cooks kitchen...This book started me on the basic concept of freezer cooking. It is full of TONS of great, healthy and affordable meals with a wide variety. I try to pick a recipe or two from this book every week to build up my freezer stockpile of ready-to-go meals. She lists out the recipe, the prep work, grocery list and even what containers work best for storing these meals. All of the work is done for you except for the cooking :0)

Great Savings at the Store Today!

I actually got an hour free to go to Dillons alone...yes alone, that means *NO KIDS* with me!! It's amazing how much easier it is to focus and follow my list without constantly being distracted and saying "don't touch that, stay here, watch out you are blocking the aisle, because I said NO" etc etc. So I took my time and went down each and every aisle...sometimes looking at things simply because I could stop and look at them.

In the end I managed to take advantage of my coupons matched up with the great Cart Buster Sale going on at Dillons (Sale prices are good through 3/15). In addition to getting my weekly groceries I was able to stock up on house hold items like toilet paper, Tide, Body Wash, Deodorant, Diapers, Wipes, Toothpaste and Toothbrushes.

When I got to the checkout with my overflowing cart I was a little nervous...and continued to be nervous as I watched my total climbing up up and up. There is always that moment of self doubt, wondering if I did my math correctly with my coupons. I had my budget set for this week to be $150. At the end of the check out my total bill was $255 (yikes!) She swiped my Dillons card and all of my coupons and I was able to get my total bill to be $143!!! So that was $112 savings on items I would have been buying regardless of sales or coupons. I don't know about you, but I'm perfectly happy to hang on to that extra $112!!

Now I know many people have been asking how to get started on Couponing. I plan to type it all out tonight for you. But for now, first step is to get a couple of newspapers and start clipping! Check back tonight or tomorrow for a complete lesson how to get started and organized with coupon clipping!! This week I will post daily on my routine for the day in order to be organized and ready to go shopping again on Friday!

~*~Erica~*~

Getting Started this week: Meal Planning!!

Weekly meal planning for the family can feel like such a daunting task! There are times I sit and stare at my mountain of cookbooks feeling just more than slightly overwhelmed at the idea of planning an entire weeks worth of meals!! But in the back of my mind I know that our budget (and waistlines!) will thank me for taking the time to plan before I shop for the week. There is nothing better than a home cooked meal and a family dinner to end the day! By being prepared I know that I'm feeding my kids the best food possible...and enjoying the very entertaining and somewhat random conversations at the dinner table from my very talkative 5 year old.

So my challenge to you this week is to get a meal plan in place and grocery shop for the entire weeks worth of meals! I plan my meals on Wednesdays and Thursdays and always do my weekly shopping on Fridays.

Here is a list of my weekly meals for next week to get you started and give you an idea of how I put together my menu.

Sunday: Herbed Chicken, Rice, Green Beans, Apple Sauce
Monday: Creamy Garlic Chicken over Pasta, Mixed Sauteed Veggies, Rolls
Tuesday: Savory Beef Tips, Egg Noodles, Peas, Cottage Cheese
Wednesday: Greek Chicken in the Crock Pot, Orzo, Mixed Veggies **Crock Pot Meal**
Thursday: Grilled BBQ Chicken and Shrimp, Fresh Green Beans, Pasta Salad
Friday: Lasagna Casserole, Garlic Bread, Peas, Cottage Cheese
Saturday: Tacos, Corn, Chips and Salsa.

Before I sit down to plan out my menu for the week, I do a couple of things. First I make a list of everything I have stockpiled, in the basement, pantry and freezer. If I have meats or things frozen that are needing to be used up I will find a recipe to use that particular item. For example, this week I need to use a package of frozen boneless chicken thighs. So I chose the Greek Chicken recipe to use that package up. Because it's a crock pot recipe I planned to cook that Wednesday which is our busy day with Play Group, Pre-School and Dance.

Another thing I do is pick up the store ads to look over them and see if there are any cuts of meat on sale for that week. I use this time to stock up on meat and incorporate that cut into my weekly meal. Last week Dillons had a great sale on boneless pork loin. I bought a 3 1/2 pound pork loin and was able to make 3 meals from it: BBQ pork sandwiches, pork taco cups, and bbq pork turnovers. I froze 2 of these meals to be able to pull them out on a busy night when I run out of time to cook. So my pork loin that I paid around $6 for works out to be around $2 per meal...a great deal to feed a family of 4! We'll get into all of that soon though, for now, go through your old cook books and recipes and start planning!

A fantastic website for downloading forms to use for menu planning and grocery shopping is www.moneysavingmom.com. Another website I enjoy using is www.saymmm.com.

Happy Planning!

Next Post: Making the Most of your menu planning: COUPONS!!!! Learning to clip coupons and stack them with sales can equal great savings and become a fun little game.