Been Busy

Merry Christmas a bit late! Hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends. It's so nice because Chris's work slows down in the winter so we have a lot of time together as a family. He did have to go to work today but he may be off the rest of the week =-)

I wanted to share what I'm thankful for. It seems we can lose sight of what is really important. So here goes...

• The Lord!!!!!! I cannot believe that he died to save me! 'Ole wretched me that doesn't deserve a thing. Wow. I continuously say out loud "I cannot believe how good God is!" We had a rough time earlier this year and God was so faithful. Everyday I am amazed at his love and grace. Everyday.
• Chris!!!!! He is all I could have wished/prayed/hoped for and more!
• Lily and Aidan!!!! Love those kids bunches muches crunches as Lily would say!
• A loving extended family that welcomed me even before I was officially a part of there family!!!!!

I hope you all take the time this year to thank The Lord for all that you have been given.

On another note I found an awesome blog! http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ I am always looking for ways to use my crock pot more. I seem to get stuck on soup and beans....I may throw a roast in every once in awhile. Stephanie used her crock pot EVERYDAY in 2008! She has a ton of tasty looking recipes on her blog which will definitely help me expand my crock potting. MMMMM can't wait. She also wrote a book. How cool! Here are 2 more websites I LOVE and frequent. I love http://www.hip2save.com/! It is a great site to find great deals on everything from groceries to deals at retail stores and online! Another site I go to daily is http://www.couponingtodisney.com/. Her site is also a deals site. She saves $2000+ dollars a year to go to Walt Disney world! Awesome! If you have a fave website/blog please share!

Just wanted to stop in for a minute and say hi! See ya in the new year!

Bummer

I have been planning this great post on saving money and Walgreen's deals. It was going to be something fantastic. OK probably not that great but I have been looking forward to doing it but....the flu has been wreaking havoc on our family. First is it was Chris, then Lily, then Aidan, now me. I really wanted to snag these deals this week at Wags but I'm not up to shopping and Chris doesn't want to even with my detailed map/list. Humph. I don't know why? I will post what I *was* planing in case someone cares =-) OK.
First of all I have 12 dollars in RR from last week plus I have a 1.50 off Huggies coupon.
With those I planned on buying 1 Complete contact solution for 7.99 (Get $8 RR)
1 pack of Huggies 8.99 (Get $2RR)
A filler item because I have 3 coupons and only two items so to use them all I have to buy a cheap filler.
I figured this transaction to be about $5 out of pocket + the 10RR.

My Next transaction would be another contact solution. 7.99-2RR=5.99 (Get8 RR)
5.99+tax OOP + 8 RR

With my 16 RR I was going to buy 2 more Huggies 8.99x2=17.98-16.00=1.98 OOP (Get 2 RR)

So for about $13 I'll have 3 packs of Huggies diapers and 2 bottles of contact solution. Pretty good I think =-)
The problem with Walgreen's is if you wait until later in the week then there is a good chance they will be out everything. If I'm better I'll probably try to go later in the week and give it a go. I'll post about it if it works out =-)

December 1

Wow it is already December! Wow! Hmmm let's see what's been going on?

• Chuck and his family came up for Thanksgiving. We had a nice visit. It was too short but we were glad we got to see them =-)
• Chris is sick and has been since Thanksgiving day.
• Lily may be getting sick....not sure yet.
• I am almost finished Christmas shopping. Wow huh?
• Aidan is taking steps now. I'm happy/sad about that.
• I just found out you can borrow video games from the library! What?! Why didn't I know about this? =-)
• I'm excited to get the Christmas stuff put up and get our new couch! It'll have to wait until Chris feels better.
• I'm waiting not so patiently for my Biggest Loser workout DVD from the library!

Guess that's all for now! Have a great day!

Nothin' New

I figured I should post something but I don't have anything really exciting to share. I'm trying to get the house organized because next week we'll be getting the tree out and the Christmas stuff. We have to rearrange our house to accommodate our tree so everything needs to be tidy. I finished Lily and Aidan's rooms so today I need to work on my room and the kitchen and a couple of drawers in the living room. I also have laundry to finish up. I plan on cleaning on Sunday because we are having Chris's brother and his family next week. I have errands to do but it keeps raining and I hate getting out in the rain and dragging the kids around so I'll probably wait. I am waiting on two books to arrive at the library so if they come this afternoon I'll probably go get them. They are essential to Christmas gift making =-) I have a book here that I got last week that I haven't even opened yet! I better get it started. It's called The Water Giver. "Both a medical drama and a meditation on motherhood, The Water Giver is Joan Ryan's account of her son's near fatal accident." It sounds really good but also really sad. I really enjoy reading but I never make the time to do it. We have been working on Christmas gifts. Chris has 3 of his about 50% done. We have some bought, some in progress and some ideas. We looked at our master list and he says we're doing good =-) I guess that's it for now! If I have time I'd like to do another post about the children later today =-)

Deals

Target

Target was having a buy 2 Wii games get one free sale plus they had a coupon in their toy book for $10 off two games. So we have officially started our Christmas shopping lol.

While we were at Target we saw that Halloween candy was 75% off and they actually had good candy left =-) While I was there a lady told me to print coupons for the candy off at the registry kiosk (or you can print at home from the Target web site which is what I did). All of the bags were originally marked 6.99 and I got them for 1.75 w/o coupon and 1.00 or 1.25 with a coupon. Mmmm yea! So I ended up with 6 shopping bags full of candy for $23. I bought enough candy for us for Christmas, Easter, and seriously probably the rest of the year lol! I also bought some for other people too =-) I love candy but even I couldn't eat 6 bags full!!!!

Walgreen's

I recently found out about the Register Rewards program at Walgreen's. Basically you buy certain items which you receive RR. The RR print at the end of your transaction and they are good towards your next purchase. It's like a coupon that you an use on your next purchase. Example: I bought an Almay foundation (received 10 dollar RR) and I bought a lip gloss (received a 5 dollar RR) and a mascara. It looked like this:
Foundation 9.99 -4.00 coupon I had = 6.00 $10 RR
Lip gloss 7.99 1/2 off store promotion = 4.00 $5RR
Mascara 7.99-4.00 in store coupon =4.00
So basically after my RR my purchase was FREE. My RR are good on almost any store purchase(except normal things like alcohol ,cigarettes, stamps, gift cards etc.) so essentially what you want to do is go back and buy something with your RR that gives you RR so you spend as little out of pocket as possible. As long as your buying things you actually need then you come out ahead. Luckily for me there are plenty of blogs that tell you what to do or I wouldn't have known about this deal! I'll post about my Walgreen's adventures next week =-)

Craigslist

I really love craigslist! If I had only known about it earlier =-) Heres what I've bought to date:

• dishwasher $35
• bumbo with tray $20
• Aidan's crib set (brand new) $15
• stroller/car seat combo with 2 bases for my SIL $35
• baby sling $10
• *free* little tike's gym

It seems like there is more but I can't think of anything. If I'm looking to buy anything I always look on craigslist first and I usually find what I'm looking for. If not I look at garage sales or thrift stores. For example I have been looking for a coat for Aidan for a while. I looked at several stores and couldn't see paying 30+ dollars for a baby coat. That's crazy to me. So I went to the thrift store today and it was 1/2 off day! I found a Children's Place coat lined w/ zip out fleece for $3.99 but wait! It was 1/2 off so it was 2.14!!!!!! So really I got 3 coats for $2.14. Not bad! It's in the laundry right now so I will post a picture later.

This and That

F.Y.I. Chewing gum while cutting an onion does not stop you from balling your eyes out. So mark that one off your list =-)

I have gotten started on Christmas presents! I wish I could post what I've done but you know who will see it.....

We have been looking at ways to save money this week and I wanted to share an idea. Call your phone company and Internet provider and see what they can do for you. Often times they want to keep your business so they will be more that accommodating. Just a thought. Also shop around for insurance. We did both of these things this week and actually saved quit a bit =-)

Exercise this week has been pathetic. I did my post pregnancy dvd 2 times, ran once and walked the zoo. It was our switch up week from p90x so I guess it was better than blowing it on a weight training week. That's what I'm telling myself anyway. Seriously though the zoo almost did me in. I was EXHAUSTED when I got home.....like go to bed at 6:00pm. Whew. But on a plus note the p90x is working. Chris tried to pin my arms over my head to tickle me and he couldn't budge me lol. Maybe I'm getting stronger and he's getting weaker!

Hope you have a great weekend!