Nothing Tastes Better Than Free Food!!!

We couldn't resist the Chick-fil-a deal today, so we dressed up like cows and earned ourselves free food!! I talked my mom and cousin into coming with us. We got 4 full free meals--I had a lemonade and after weeks and weeks of drinking nothing but milk and water, it was heavenly!!!

My little calf.

Mom & LeAnn
Note the cow necklaces.

Jack & Me
I had spots all over me!

I love free food!!


He didn't cry at all....until Carli was scared!

My Best Day Yet

Screams and does a little dance:


3 Transactions in one day at 3 different CVSii (the plural of CVS) in 3 different towns--I AM A MACHINE!!

Transaction 1--Shelbyville:
4 Colgate 360 Toothbrushes
2 Tums Quick Packs

2 $1.00 off toothpaste coupons
$3/15 coupons
$19.99 ECB
OOP $0.51
ECB earned: $25

Transaction 2--Franklin:
3 Aquafresh Toothpaste
3 CVS Brand Clariton
1 Playskool Teething Ring

2 Aquafresh Coupons (thank you, photo album coupon storage)
$3/15 Coupon
$19 ECB
OOP $2.68
ECB earned: $20

Transaction 3--Whiteland
3 Adidas Deodorant
3 EOB Giftbags
1 Gallon of Milk

$3/15 Coupon
$17 ECB
OOP: $3.26
ECB earned: $20

So, I started today with $25 in ECB, and ended it with $40 in ECB plus a ton of stuff that we need now and/or will use in the future and/or will use to bless others. In fact, I already gave my mom Tums, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and the CVS Brand Clariton.

So thank you to God for introducing me to the right people at the right time, to Suse again, and to Crystal and the world of MoneySavingMom.com.

P.S. Be sure to check out my new Vera Bradley place mats that my mom picked up at the Vera Show on Wednesday. Also, it took me nearly 5 minutes to figure out how to spell "place mat."

Thank Heaven for Little Boys

How did we go from this:

And this:

To this:
And this:

And this

in 10 short months???

Thank Heaven for little boys, eh?

There is just nothing more fun than this!!!

Oh, friends.

There is just nothing more fun than this.
In three, yes, three I am addicted, transactions this weekend I purchased:

(items not pictured yet because I left the camera at my parents' house)

4 bottles Herbal Essence Shampoo/Conditioner
1 bottle Organix Shampoo
1 12-roll package Cottenell toilet paper
9 Essence of Beauty gift bags
1 Mennon deodorant
2 Glucose Monitors

I spent:
Approximately $12 OOP, however about $7 will come back to me via rebate on the Organix.

I used:
2 $3/2 Herbal Essence coupons
1 Mennon coupon
And about $40 in ECB

I have:
$25 ECB for next time

I gave:
1 glucose monitor to my dad who will donate to someone that needs it at his nursing home
1 glucose monitor to my father-in-law who is diabetic and now loves having a back-up


I know that there are nay-sayers out there, but thing is this: THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST! I love coming out of CVS with a couple of bags of goodies for myself and others and hardly paying anything. I love the challenge of scoping out the best deal, and I LOVE using the products. I would have never bought Herbal Essence or the Organix, but it's just fun. The other cool thing is that it really curbs my shopping desires. I get my little shopping fix and get some treats for my family and I don't need to go spend a bunch of money anywhere else. And that, friends, is a HUGE savings!!

SO:
If you've never tried it before, this is a great week to get started.

:)

Super Savings Saturday with SUSE!!

As we all know, I adore my friend Suse. I'm crazy about her for a lot of reasons: she holds me accountable in my walk with Christ, she would support me if I decided to grow out my hair/cut it all off, she's very generous with products that she can't use, she's always willing to talk to me, I can ask her anything, she really thinks before she answers my questions, she just "gets me, she loves shopping at New York & Company, antiquing and the outlet center.................and she introduced me to the fantastic world of couponing/CVS/Walgreens. How could I not love this woman????

Last Saturday she took me to Kroger and showed me how to do this:
That's right, folks, over $60 worth of product for only $13.68.

My dad asked me if I was going to frame the receipt. I told him if I could find one for free, I might.

So, to Suse, and all the other ladies out there who can't keep quite about saving money and helping their families, I send you my love, affection, and adoration. You're the best! I love you!!

How do you do it?

So, I go to CVS the other day, find the "essence of beauty" toe separators, grab 3, and think SCORE! I go to the counter, they ring up for $3-something, I pay with a $2.99 ECB and somehow end up not owing anything. Awesome, right?

Even though I'm positive that I had the right brand of toe separators and I made sure to buy three like the instructions said, the $5 ECB don't print out at the bottom of the receipt. I ask and they aren't coming. There's a line behind me, so I walk out of the store, $3 poorer, with a purse full of toe separators, that upon further inspection, aren't that nice and that I don't need.

Without warning, I think to myself, "I'll take them back. I'll tell the clerk that I'm hosting a bridal shower and that the co-host and I got mixed up and we both bought pedicure supplies, so I'm returning mine. I'll get my money back and everything will be fine" Then I think to myself WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU????? You aren't hosting a shower. Why would I feel the need to lie to the clerk? Why can't I just admit that I tried something and it didn't work and now I'd like to return these perfectly unharmed toe separators ???

The problem that I'm having isn't that I wanted to return a product that I didn't need. It's that my first instinct was to lie to someone that I didn't know to make myself feel better about returning the toe separators. Like that person actually cared why I was returning them. I really need to pray about this.

On a happy note, I did return the toe separators. I had to practically fight myself, but I did not lie. I simply said "I'd like to return these," handed them over, and returned them. And, of course, I was questioned because there was some sort of problem with the receipt. BUT, I did not lie. And tonight, that's something.

Am I the only one out there that feels the need to lie about stuff like this???

I figured it out!!

After falling head-over-heels in love with coupons, I was left with one colossal problem: how do I sort them. Okay, two problems: sorting & storing. You see, in my coupon infancy I used this:
And it worked.....sort of. You can see that I labeled the sections, but things like "hygiene" were soon crowded with about 50 coupons. Sifting through all of these was annoying at home and next to impossible while shopping. I try to plan out what I'm going to buy before we leave, but I usually see at least one thing on sale and think, "Oh! I have a coupon for that!" Or my husband says, "Did I mention that I'm out of razors/deodorant/soap?"

So, what's a girl to do??

I looked online and found several good ideas:
The Money Saving Mom had some good ones and
Out of the Over Flow really impressed me, especially because she used a binder. I LOVE binders.

But-I had gotten used to carrying all of my coupons with me all of the time. That way, if I was in the town I work in, I could check out their CVS/Wal-Mart/Kroger as they were usually less "raided" than mine. It also has worked out a couple of times that I had my store coupons with me in my purse (that's how I got my free panty at Victoria's Secret), so I didn't want to lose that.

I'm now in the 'wobbly toddler" phase of couponing. I've been at for about a year now. I remember them when I go to the store every time (it took a while to establish that habit), and I found moneysavingmom.com to help me use them even more effectively. But I, as I started clipping more and more (and USING more and more) I found myself sifting through piles of coupons at the store while trying to entertain my 10-month old, tell my husband what aisle the Excerden is in and talk to my mother on the cell phone. It was time to reevaluate my organizational system.

It took me a couple of weeks and a lot of thinking, but I finally came up with a plan:
What's that, you ask??
$1.99 Photo albums!

How do they work?


I labeled each page with letter stickers I found for $0.99 (I had to get creative when I started running out of letters). I only used one side of each "page" (they have a slot for a picture on each side) because I thought that they would fall out as I flipped through.

I purchased two books--one that I'll keep with me all the time and the other that I'll only keep with me when I know we'll need it. The first one has all of my CVSesque coupons in it. The other has food, restaurants, and specialty stores (Best Buy, New York & Co., etc) that I would be making a special trip for anyway. I am thrilled with this new system. I have 18 slots per photo album, which is enough for me right now. I will reevaluate in a couple of months to see if I need to make any adjustments.

Right now I'm just happy to have something that fits in my purse that is easy to use...and it's pretty!!

Spring Break--Woo!

Top 5 Reasons to teach:
1) June
2) July
3) August
4) Christmas Break
5) Spring Break

Seriously, how many professions offer built-in vacations AND sick/personal days. I am so blessed by my job. Sure it's hard to leave my boy every day--he's cared for (read: spoiled all day long by) a family that home schools their girls--it's him and one other baby, and from what I can tell, they just play all day long. He loves them and they love him. And me? I get to go and bless the lives of the 18 children in my homeroom, 21 children in my math class, and 20 more in my science class. That's something like 60 lives that I get to touch, bless, and pray for every day. What an incredible opportunity. Not to mention working in a largely Christian environment with the opportunity to bless and be blessed by my adult co-workers every day. The decision to work outside my home was never really a decision for me. I'm a born teacher. I am passionate about public education.

Regarding bargains, my biggest one this week saved me, oh about $2,000!!! We traded the bedroom suite that Matt hated (that had belonged to my late grandmother) with my cousin. She and her husband had one that they were...over for personal reasons. So, we have a practically brand new headboard, matching side tables, and a dresser with a MIRROR!!! Awesome.

And the free Softsoap at CVS rocks my world!

Presents for my boys!!

My beloved cousins, Hayley & Chris came to visit today and we decided to go down to the outlet mall to see what we could find.

I found this:
3 polos for Matt to wear to work from Banana Republic ($30 a piece, originally), 3 sleepers for Jack from Carters ($14 a piece originally), and 3 summer outfits for Jack ($16 a piece originally) for............$48.73!!

2 polos were $3.60
1 polo was $6.80
3 sleepers were $5
2 summer outfits were $6

Would have cost $164 originally! For $48.73! That's a 70% savings!!!
I am totally pumped!

A few months ago at my Bible Study I was given an incredible opportunity. A local clothing store, Cato, had given my leader, Kim a huge number (think a car load) of brand new clothes that had been marked down 3 times, so they gave them to her to give away to people. She calls it "blessing" people. These were mostly adorable shirts for summer--which is coming right up! We were all encouraged to take as much as we wanted, and even though I felt like a glutenous cow, I ended up taking a whole garbage bag full home (we all did). It was such a blessing!!! And every time I get a compliment, I just say, "Thank you, it was a gift from my father." One of my students said to me "Mrs. Dilley, you sure do have a generous dad." I just smiled. I've had so much fun wearing my clothes, but I felt bad for Matt because he didn't have anything new. It gets old wearing the same old thing, day in and day out. This made me particularly excited to bless him with a few new shirts to wear to work.

Also, Matt had been sort of freaking out that we didn't have a lot of clothes for Jack in the next sizes up. He's been so slow in growing that we've always had a "bumper crop" of clothes waiting when he gets to the next size. Well, that was about to run out. We have a few 6 and 9 month pieces (yes, you read that right, my soon-to-be 10 month old wears 3-6 month clothing), but not enough to keep me from doing laundry every few days. My friend, Carrie (yes, I have a friend named Carrie) was given a bag of adorable girl stuff that had a few boy pieces in 6 and 9 month sizes that she gave me last week, and then I struck gold at Carters, my FAVORITE baby store. It was so nice to add really nice, way cute stuff to his clothes--we are so blessed!!!

Also, I got this deal few weeks ago, but then our internet went down and blah, blah, blah, I didn't get it posted so here it is:

OOP: $3 (could have been free if I had remembered my ECB, ugh)
ECB: $5
Not bad, eh?

Today's Savings

Today's Savings:

1) CVS--

• plastic eggs (no photo, donated to church) $1.98
  
• Maybelline Lip gloss $8.99
• 25% off coupon (entire purchase)
  

Paid with $8.00 in ECB, $0.06 OOP, $11 ECB in return!!

2) Victoria's Secret--

• 6 pairs low-rise cotton brief SIZE MEDIUM (thank you, elipitical machine) @ $8.50 each
  
• 5 for $25 sale
  
• 1 free panty coupon
• $10 off birthday coupon

Paid $15 OOP (this is a great deal there and the panties last FOREVER!)

No photos today for the following reasons:
1) I donated the plastic eggs to church before I could photograph them
2) I love you guys and I think you're all great, but I'm not showing you my underwear on or off my body. Even if they are size medium. For those of you who care about those sort of thing, they are mostly stripped and one pair has cool retro flowers. My husband is pumped ;)
3) Jack's already slobbered all over the lip gloss and it seems like a lot of effort to show one thing :)

Love to you all--

COMMENTS, COMMENTS, COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Music

Bebo Norman
Regina Spektor

For Jamie!

Hello!
Traveling with formula is no big deal, it's just about having the right equipment. The first thing I did was that I never fed my baby anything but room temperature bottles. Keep in mind, he was a summer baby, so it was hot outside. I've never warmed up his bottles!! It's not too late to switch your baby to room temperature if he'll take it!

The secret to my success is the formula dispenser.:
Obviously, it's gotten a lot of wear the past 9 months!! This one is from Babies R Us, and I really like it because I've never had one pop open! This thing is amazing--you pre-measure 3 bottles worth of formula into it, throw it into a diaper bag and go. When it's time to eat, I just dump in the formula, shake up the bottle and stick it in his mouth! I HIGHLY recommend getting two so that you can have 6 bottles worth of formula if you need to be out all day. We also send 6 bottles worth for him to go to the sitter. He's never drank more than 3 there, but I like knowing that he'd have enough to make it through a whole day if he needed it. Deo valente.

But, my dear, the formula dispenser isn't just for travel--fill it up before you go to bed and your night time feedings just got about a million percent easier.

Here's the formula we use.
You'll have to turn your head--I couldn't figure out how to flip it! Anyway, the one on the left costs $25 at Wal-Mart and the one on the right (which is twice the size) costs $20 at Sam's club. I take the formula out of the huge can and put it in the smaller one so that it fits in my cabinet. I do this using an old measuring cup (it took me months of dumping formula all over my countertop to figure that one out!). However, another secret is this:

It's the scoop from the more expensive formula. It just works better. I don't ask questions, I just go with it!!

Another little trick I've learned is having a "food" bag. This one hasn't been unpacked from the sitter today yet!! (And my nails need a fill, but whatever!) When I send him to the sitter or if we're going to be gone alllllllllllllllllllll day (like at Christmas) or over night, I don't bother trying to jam this stuff in the diaper bag. This is the cheap-o diaper bag that they gave us at the hospital. I put all of the bottles, formula, burp clothes, and now his pre-measured cereal and homemade baby food (I'll teach you how to do it--it's easy and you save a bundle), bibs, spoons, etc in it and away he goes! It's easy to pack and see what's in there because I don't have clothes/toys/diapers/etc in there. I would never take this bag to church or out to dinner, but it works great for through the week!
Last, I wanted to make another plug for the Dr. Brown's bottles. Totally expensive, totally worth it. The vent thing keeps the air out--no more slowly swirling the formula into the water, just give it a good shake and this bottle does the rest. They also have these awesome discs that you put under the nipple so that the water doesn't leak out when you travel. I fill up 14 bottles with water from the Brita pitcher that I keep on my counter (it's in the picture if you turn your head) once every 3 days or so. It saves sooooooooooooooo much time! Also, if you have a dishwasher, buy a cage for the nipples and USE IT! I hand washed bottles for months and it is sooooooooooooo time consuming! Our time is more valuable than that! Throw the dishes in the dishwasher and spend the extra time cuddling your baby (or husband ;)!!

That's all for now!!! Good luck! Keep me posted on how things are going!! Good luck!

Way to save!

How did I save this week? I didn't go shopping! Mwah ha ha!! I've realized that we were spending money at the grocery store on food we weren't eating! We were buying a cart full every week and a lot of it was going bad in the refrigerator/counter/sitting in storage until it was gross. So, we didn't need anything...and we didn't buy anything. If that's not saving money, I don't know what is :)

I did go to Sam's club to pick up diapers & formula. We figured it out a few months ago that we save $100 off even the best prices each month we shop Sam's. Yes, it's true, and I'm sure you're all disappointed: I use disposable diapers and feed my baby formula. Honestly, it never occurred to me to use cloth diapers, so we've been getting them at Sam's for about $0.17 apiece. I haven't been able to beat that price anywhere. Regarding the formula, I had a breast reduction surgery 6 years ago that took my ability to breastfeed away. Honestly, I'm over it and nothing that anyone can say will change that. My baby and I are bonded and he's been really healthy. I know that "Breast milk is best" (believe me, I've had that crammed down my throat 24/7 for the last 9 months), but the fact of the matter is that it's not an option for everyone. In my case, it had nothing to do with selfishness or laziness, but the simple fact that the milk would not, could not, come out.

So there it is: My dirty little secrets all revealed:

1) I didn't breast feed
2) I use disposable diapers and never considered cloth
3) I work out side the home in a PUBLIC school

Can I still be friends with you guys??????

Lessons Learned

Wow! My first post got a few responses! That was more than I expected and very encouraging!! Thanks to all who commented on my first blog, and I hope to be making comments on others very soon!

We made a quick stop to CVS today and learned more than we saved. We'd reached the limit on the Excedrin, but still had a $2 off coupon, so all was not lost! Lesson learned: Remember what you bought. We did get $2 ECB from a Tylenol product, only $0.99 after ECB & coupon, and a free Tressame product, and when I looked at the receipt, I notice that if I spend $8.01 on other Tressame products I get $5 ECB (keeping in mind that I got the first one for free). Lesson learned: Study your receipts. When I got up to register, I learned that you can't spend ECB unless you spend ALL of your ECB, so the $15 one I had wouldn't work. Lesson learned: You have to spend you ECB all at once--should be a problem in the future :)

Learning to save!

I have been praying for God to bless us financially consistently for about 2 years now. I wasn't asking to be rich, just that God would make us good stewards of the resources He has provided us with. He has been faithful all along, but I feel that the true answer to all of my prayers came about two weeks ago: Matt decided to take over all of our finances.

Previously, I had been trying to balance being a wife, running a home, caring for a baby, being a 5th grade teacher, attending church and hosting a small Bible study in addition to paying all of our bills, taking care of our account, and balancing our budget. It all just got to be too much. Seeing this, my wonderful husband, after a conversation with a friend about the Dave Ramsey program, decide to take over the "scary" part of our finances. Hallelujah! My new job: to save as much money as possible off our grocery bill. Enter Crystal Paine and the blogging network of "Money Saving Mom."

ISN'T GOD AWESOME!?!

All I have to think about now is how to save money. I had heard from my nearest and dearest friend, Sue about "The CVS Coupon Lady" before, but I never tried to check it out myself. With a few clicks of the keys I had found her site, Biblical Woman and I was blown away. So many young moms out there already doing what I had been commissioned by my husband to do!! I began reading as much as I could on how to save money using CVS, Walgreens, and coupons. I had already tried coupons a little in the past, but had never taken it very seriously--who had the time with everything else I had to do? But God, through my amazing husband, gave me the gift of time! And knowledge!! How great is our God?!

The coolest thing is that I can do this. Could I pick out a credit card with a low interest rate? No. Could I learn how to pay off that credit card and build wealth on my own? No. Can I figure out how to get the products we need at a discounted or free price? Why, yes indeed!

Here is my first attempt:
Total spent out of pocket: $0.05

Not bad for a newbie, eh?

P.S. All coupons can be found on the site MoneySavingMom.com