Friday Savings

Well, today I spent $67 at Walmart, and that includes an extra meal because my parents are coming over to dinner tomorrow night. The best deals I found today at Ralph's were $1 Reach floss which I received for free because I had a $1 coupon; .79/lb. green grapes which were such a good deal they were all out, so I had to get a rain check, which the clerk said was better anyway because that batch of grapes weren't very good; buy one get one free Hillshire Farms sausage; and .50 per pound onions. My shopping trip was only $5.00!

The best deals I found today at Von's was $1.50 for Prego pasta sauce; $1.88 for 12 pack store brand soda; and .49/lb. oranges. That cost a little more, because I bought 4 sodas, but I still saved 43% on my $15 purchase!

Later in the week, I will go to CVS and Albertson's for their sales. My 3 year old can only take so much shopping in one day! :)

Back to School

Well, my daughter was able to go back to school today! Hopefully she makes it through because she's still coughing a lot. My husband is now giving her the antibiotics when he gets home from work, because she fights me too much. Remember how I have to give it to my kids looking like an alien? Well, my 3 year old takes it just fine, but the first day I tried to give the medicine to my 11 year old daughter, it was not fun! She screamed and cried and refused to take it. I tried for 20 minutes, and by then I was sweating because of my face mask, and it started to fall off, increasing my risk to exposure of the antibiotics, and she still refused to take it. It was quite a scene! So, last night my husband gave her the medicine, and she took it just fine! Amazing!

Antibiotics and Aliens

I am allergic to several different antibiotics, so when my kids need antibiotics, I don't like it. This week, 2 of my 3 kids need antibiotics! My 3 year old has an abscess on his back and my 11 year old has a bad cold which the dr. said might be becoming bronchitis, so they're both on antibiotics. Well, since I'm allergic to both of the ones my kids are taking, if you looked in my house while I'm giving them their medicine, you might think an alien is in my house! :) I have to put on latex gloves and a white mask, and I try to hold the medicine as far away from me as possible as I shake it and retrieve the proper dose. I then, in a robot like fashion, bend over and give my son his medicine, who of course tells his dad when he comes home from work, "Mommy has to be funny when she gives me my medicine," and then he laughs. So, I will be glad when these 10 days are over and I can go back to just being Mom, not Mom who looks funny and like an alien.

Friday Savings

Well, my hard work is paying off. I think when I get done with all my shopping for this week, it will be under $100! Today at Walmart, for my weekly shopping trip, I only paid $66! Then for only $6 at Vons I bought broccoli, yogurt, spiral mac & cheese and tuna. At Ralph's for only $6.50 I bought lunchmeat, eggs for .99, and salad dressing.

All of this savings is great - I'm saving so much that I'm setting aside some of the things I buy on sale and will donate them to the people at my church who come to pick up their Angel Food once a month. Today I bought deoderant for .22, tuna for .50 and jello for .38 - all of that is going to the box in my garage set aside for my church.

Scary Incident

Last night on the way to my daughter's violin practice, we saw a car run a red light and hit a car, right in front of us! The victims are a 17 year old girl and her 14 year old sister; luckily the 17 year old wasn't hurt, and her sister probably only has a broken collarbone. The car that hit them also had teenagers in it - a boy and girl, and neither one of them were hurt. They are all very lucky because the car that ran the light was going around 50mph. I called 911 and tried to talk to the hurt girl, but as soon as the cop arrived, he told us to go on the sidewalk, because we were standing in the middle of the road. My 11 year old daughter was pretty shook up, but luckily she didn't actually see the accident like I did, just the aftermath. Needless to say, we didn't make it to violin lessons. We both just thanked God for protecting us from the accident(we weren't very far away) and those teenagers from being hurt worse.

Friday Savings

Well, this week I spent a little more at Walmart - $73.00, but I had $11 worth of coupons that I used. I also plan to go to Vons and Ralphs tomorrow because they're having really good sales on Hansen's apple juice(.99), cheezits(1.99), Country Crock margarine(2.49 + my .40 coupon), pop tarts(1.88 + my 1.00 coupon off 3), lunchables(buy one get one free), Betty Crocker cake and brownie mix(.69 + my .75 coupon off 2), Pepperidge Farms cookies(1.88), Gatorade(.69), Kraft bbq sauce(.69), Nestle chocolate chips(1.99), Minute Maid O.J.(1.99), and Ritz(2.19). I will also go to Smart n' Final on Monday for their General Mills Cereal for 1.50 + my coupons for .75 off 1 and 1.00 off 2; I also have a raincheck for .39 Dannon yogurt + 2-.25 coupons off 1and 1.00 off 6.

So, as you can see it pays to look at the fliers and compare the prices between all the markets because some have better sales prices on the same item as another store. Also, use your coupons that are found in your Sunday paper. Coupons combined with store sales make items very inexpensive.

Perfect Attendance

I went to the honor roll assemblies for my middle school kids this morning and I was amazed at how many kids got perfect attendance! My son has missed 15 days of school and my daughter has missed 1. Those other kids are either really healthy or they just go to school sick.

I have to admit, though, I did make perfect attendance myself when I was younger because the only time I ever got sick was over Christmas vacation. Of course! Luckily, I was usually o.k. for Christmas, I usually got sick close to New Year's. My poor Grandma would come and visit us, and she would always get stuck playing board games with me, because I couldn't do much else. Although, I bet she really probably liked spending the one-on-one time with me.

Not enough time

There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to get everything done! My 13 year old son was sick all of last week, so I didn't get to run a lot of errands. So, today I went to 4 different stores to try and catch up, but I still need to go to a couple of more! I just ran out of time because my 3 year old needed to eat lunch and take a nap before it was time to pick the other 2 kids up from school. In the meantime, I have lots of email, coupons, store sales(fliers), price updates, laundry, dinner, violin lessons, etc. to do. I try to do a little bit of each thing every day, but I never seem to catch up. Do any of you ever feel this way too?

Coupon Mom

If any of you haven't tried Coupon Mom yet, you should, it will save you lots of money. You can go online to couponmom.com and she also has a new book out. I have been trying her methods to save money at the grocery stores for just 4 weeks now, and every week I've saved 50-66%! In these economic times it's definitely needed. You can print coupons from her website and she posts all the weekly deals at the grocery stores, Walmart, and drugstores.

I'll give you an example of my savings today. I bought most of my weekly groceries at Walmart for $57.00. Then I used Von's sales flier and coupons to buy 2 Hilshire farms sausage, 2 Oscar Meyer hot dogs, flour tortillas, cream cheese, and 2 Dryers ice cream all for $10.74! I saved 66%!

So, as you can see, it's definitely worth it to check out her website and book. I'll post more about my savings every Friday.

Scary day at middle school

My children's middle school had a bomb scare today! Someone wrote on a bathroom mirror that a bomb will go off at 3:40. The teachers were handed a note in their classroom that told them to look around their rooms for any unusual objects. The kids were kept in their classrooms while the police searched the lunch area. Nothing was found, so the day went on like normal, except the after school programs are going to be dismissed at 3:20, just to be safe.

I can't believe these kind of things happen in middle school; I thought they wouldn't happen until high school, and of course I was hoping they would never happen.

My First Blog

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first blog post! I'm just learning how to do this, so I hope you will all be patient with me and will continue to follow my blog. I'm starting this blog for several reasons. First, I want to promote my Etsy business: www.brendashandmade.etsy.com. Second, I am interested in connecting with other parents, especially Christian stay-at-home moms. Third, I am just interested in sharing my thoughts with anyone who will listen and comment. Thanks!