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??
Saturday, August 6, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, August 1, 2011
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)
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)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
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 :)
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 :)
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
Monday, May 9, 2011
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!!
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!!
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