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 :)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
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)
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)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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
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
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