My April Freebies…

There are multiple pictures….I just couldn’t fit them all into one photo.

These are all freebies from the net.  With the exception of one item that I got for free with coupon.

These HAVE to be my favorite freebie this month…

• Free Diabetic cookbooks Set of three. –No, I am not a diabetic. However, it never hurts to cook healthy.  I did have a grandfather that was a diabetic.
• Two Free Goose Berry Patch Cookbooks

• Free Food Pyramid—I gave this to Aimee

The Crest Freebies were made through Wal-mart they might still have them available.  The trash bag was made through Sam’s club and I believe has ended.

• Crest whitestrips advanced Seal-received a $10 off coupon and one sample strip.
• Crest Pro-Health Enamel shield toothpaste .85 ounce tube.
• Glad Force Flex trash bag

• Breathless Bethany Buttercup–I gave this to Aimee as well.  There is a really good chance that Zachary has asthma.  Asthma is what this book deals with.

• Keep Moving Free CD and Pedometer (this is from Tylenol) This one is another one of my favorites.

I don’t know if these are still active or not. I was disappointed in the Celine Dion fragrance sent sample.

• Space camp dvd/CD, double sided poster and info about space camp–This was given to Daniel
• Celine Dion fragrance sample

• 2-Pose samples –I got these at a “ALL YOU” booth in Walmart this past sunday.
• 2 -sample packages of schick slim triple razers. (I had already tried one)
• Cottonelle sample
• Goodnights sample

All of these samples have expired or been filled.

• Betty Crocker Warm Delights Minis-Molten Chocolate Cake-I am fixing to make this for David
• True Delights quaker chewy granola bars–Eric Gets this
• Sample of Quaker snacks.  These are gone.
• Gillette Shampoo and Body Wash
• Glade Angel whispers scented candle—This one I got free with coupon!

WHEW!!!!!!

That Took long than I had hoped it would!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thursday.

Take Care.

Busy, Busy Week….

It always seems that every year around this time…it is SUPER busy for our little family of 6.  And this year is NO different.

May is just a busy month.

There Are birthdays:

• Shawna (my sister)
• Grandma Coats (my sister and my grandma’s birthday are on the SAME day–How cool is that!!!)
• My mother in Law Betty
• My step-Dad Joe
• My best friend Deanna’s birthday
• And My Birthday

Then we have 3 June Birthdays:

• David’s birthday falls on June 1st!  He will be 5 this year!
• Brock (Eric’s Nephew.  Brock and David Share the SAME birthday which is REALLY COOL!  No we didn’t plan it that way…..it just happened.)
• Jason-My brother in law

And of course there is:

• Mother’s Day
• Aimee’s Graduation
• And Aimee’s 6th grade 3 day orientation at the end of May
• And David’s dental appointment

This week we are going shopping-AGAIN for Aimee a Graduation Dress…UUGGGHHH!  Some of the boys in the 5th grade classes are wearing TUXES!!!!!  This is only a 5th grade graduation and where they hold it—it get’s HOT!!!!  So Aimee decided she wanted to ‘dress’ up just a little more.  I don’t blame her one little bit.

She likes to shop at Target and Kohls.  Which is good because I have a $5.00 gift card to Target and a $10.00 gift card to Kohls.

First we will hit Target….and if they still have this….Then we will not go to kohls…

And This…

Then all we have to do is find her some white or black Strappy sandals or ballerina flats.  She also wants me to make her a coordinating headband.  So we will have to make a run to the fabric store.

Keep your fingers crossed that we are able to find that dress and shrug.  Aimee has her heart set on them.  If not, it is to Kohls we go.

Speaking of there ‘graduation’, they are no longer allowed to call it a graduation.  They are to call it a “Promotion Celebration”…which I think is STUPID, I mean silly!  Aimee’s teacher even thinks it’s silly.

Yesterday, I ventured out to Walgreens.  Now, I don’t normally shop there but felt I had to as I was looking at all the good deals a lot of people get at walgreens.

Anywho, Everyone who knows me just a little bit knows I love my house smelling awesome.  I love candles.  I collect them….and I love all sorts of fragrances.

I also love spray scents and such, as Glad, Febreze and Air Wicks.  Yes, I am a tade OCD when it comes to my house smelling good.

I just couldn’t pass up these deals…and I still have a few coupons left so I can go and pick up a few more later this week.  Crossing fingers that they still have some left.

I went to two different Walgreens.  I purchased  The two candles at one and the I scents kit at another one.

I bought Two Lumin Air Candles for $4.99 each (they were on sale…regularly, I believe they are $9.99.  I had 2-$3.00 off coupons making them $3.98 for both of them.  In total I paid $4.93! For both of them.  My total savings that trip were $17.50.  I also bought two more items with coupons!

My second trip I purchased the Air Wick I-Scents…

It was on sale for $4.99 cents.  I had a coupons for $4.00.  Making it $0.99! with Taxes I only paid $1.46!!!!

I have one more coupon left for each item.  I am hoping to get these in the next couple of days.  i would love to be able to pick up 3 more of the candles to keep in the bathrooms…I just don’t know if I will be able to.

I hope you all have had a wonderful start to the week.

Take Care!

Wal-Mart Finds…

I got all this FREE! By using coupons.

• 4 Tubes of Toothpaste
• 3 bottles of Vitamin Water (Eric took one to work with him)
• 2- sticks of deodorant

All the above were a $1.00 each.  I had $1.00 off coupons for each one of them.

Not Pictured

5-2 liter bottles of Dr. Pepper.  I had free coupons for each one of these!

I only had to pay sales tax.

I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday.  It is HOT here.  We still have our air off with our windows open and our fans running.

Take Care!

$57.60

That is how much I saved yesterday at the grocery (commissary) store!  My total bill without coupons would have been $162.27!!

With coupons I paid $104.64 that is with a tax/surcharge of $7.73 cents.  I wanted to keep my grocery bill under $100.00.  Without the surcharge, it was $96.91!

I just hope this lasts us a week….we shall see.

Just some of the items I purchased

• 3 Gallons of Milk- One of them was free!
• 5 pounds of beef
• 4 pounds of chicken
• 3.5 pounds of pork chops
• 4 packages of Eggo Waffles
• 4 packages of flavored instant quaker oatmeal
• 3-2 Liter’s of Dr. Pepper-All of these were free!
• Nestle’s Quick Chocolate powder Milk Mix-FREE
• 1 pound of buddig Turkey Deli-Cuts-FREE
• 7 packages of Bar-S wieners-FREE (I froze 5 packages of them)
• Colgate Total Toothpaste with free toothbrush. I paid $0.63 cents for it.
• 4 Big Boxes of Kelloggs Cereal.  I bought 2-Corn Pops for $0.37 each, Strawberry mini-wheat’s for $0.50, and Blueberry Mini-wheat’s  for 0.50!  These are the Good box cereals…NOT bagged!  However, I buy those as well.

I was in the store about 2.5 hours.  It was very well worth it.  I am still trying to figure out a good method of ‘buying’ my items.  Since I try to stick to a budget.  I always calculate it all out with tax/surcharge when a item goes into my cart.

So with this shopping trip it brings my To Date savings to $223.42!! Since March 16th!!!!

I am really kicking myself for NOT starting with coupons sooner.

The lady in the checkout behind me was amazed at my savings.  I think of coupons as tender!  It is cash given to you by the companies!  Why not use it???

I also received several comments about my binder. I can’t wait to go and pick up a newspaper tomorrow.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Take care!

Bargain Bin Friday #5

Freebies….

• Free sample of Nivea Happiness Body Wash
• Free Sample of Prilosec OTC
• Free Notepad and pen
• Chance to win Sharpie marker or Uni-Ball 207 pen-To the first 300 daily entrance.
• Free 1-2-3 Preschool projects sample pack.

Note: Freebies are a hit or miss kind of deal.  If it is a Walmart freebie, you will get those.  And pretty quick as well.  Like I said, it is just hit or miss.  You really have nothing to lose.  And remember when you sign up for freebies to use a ‘junk’ email account so you aren’t bombarded with spam mail.

My savings to date (using coupons since March 16th) is:$165.82!  I am having a lot of fun searching for good deals.

I spend about 30 minutes to an hour Monday-Friday, No time on Saturday and Then Sunday I spend about an hour…maybe a little over an hour.  Aimee , David, and Zachary help me clip out my coupons.  When Eric sees coupons he picks them up for me.  It really has turned into a family ‘thing’.

Plus, it is teaching our kids how to spend wisely.

I have got the lawn to finish mowing, Grocery shopping to do, have to dismiss Aimee from class early…(thankfully, she will still get credit for being there a full day), and come home and start my weekend chores! Boy, I  lead an exciting life! LOL

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday.

Take Care!

My Target Trip….

This evening Aimee and I ran to Target.    I got all this (the candles alone cost $8.79 Each) for $14.42.  That includes $2.53 in tax!

Here’s a little run down.  Not everything is pictured that I purchased.

Not included in the picture is:

• A Earthfriendly Target Bag $1.49
• Water Balloon Toy (this is for David’s birthday which is coming up) $1.00.
• And rainbow hankie…$1.00 Anything Rainbow Aimee just has to have!

In the picture are:

• 2-Glade sprays $0.97 each
• Neosporin $3.89
• Transformer Band-aid $1.89
• Batman Bandaids $2.89
• Glade Soy Candle $8.79 x2=$17.58

I had coupons for all the items in the picture.  Six coupons Total!

And they had a promotion buy 2 glade Candle items get a free $5.00 Target Gift Card!  This I will use to purchase Aimee a graduation outfit since she doesn’t care for the one I previously bought for her…she likes it….just not to wear to graduation.

Aimee has had perfect attendance all year long.  She doesn’t know it but Tomorrow I am going to surprise her and pull her out of class at 1 and take her shopping with me.  She likes it and likes to help me shop.

Oh, I had a reader, email me and ask me where I was from.  I am from Oklahoma.  Born and raised.  However, I no longer live in that state.  But All my extended family including my parents, sister, niece, grandmother and tons of cousins and there family still live in Oklahoma.

I hope you all had a wonderful Day.  I mowed today…and let me tell ya…I am sore!  I still have about a hour or so left of mowing.  I am going to try and get it done tomorrow.

Take Care!

Lost Fish & Wal-Mart deals!

Hey Guys,

Well, first off….the fish we bought for David for Valentines Day….died suddenly last night.  I feed them once a day and it is at night right before I go to sleep.  Eric was up late getting a 8 page file paper done to turn into today…so I stayed up just a little later than normal.

I took out the trash and then went to feed the fish…This was approx. 11 pm.  Loxie was swimming around fine…ate….as well as the other ‘oxies’ (Roxie, Doxie and Moxie).

I went to make Eric a pot of coffee because I knew he would need it.  Came back to chat with him for a moment looked in the foyer (where are fish are kept) and noticed a orange thing just sitting on it side on the bottom of the tank not moving.

I went for a closer look.  Knocked on the side of the tank.  She breathed one time and then swam into the middle of the tank…where she died. And, the other fish ‘tried’ to get her up.

I decided, I needed to get her out of there and get the tank cleaned because this happened all within 10 minutes of me feeding the fish and her dieing.

I got her out, cleaned the tank…the ‘oxies’ seemed fine.  I just wonder what happened within that 10 minutes where Loxie was swimming around fine..to when I found her minutes later.

I told Aimee this morning when she woke up.  I thought for sure she would be upset….but to my suprise she wasn’t and she continued to ask me this, “Did you give Loxie to Baloo (our cat) to eat???”  I was amazed, she said that.  She adores animals.  Her reply to my amazement was, “What she is dead, anyway.”

I told her I couldn’t do that to David’s fish.  And that if it died from eating something it shouldn’t, or something was wrong with it…we didn’t want Baloo to get sick from it.  She agreed.  WHEW!

We told David this morning, that the fish need a bigger Tank.  And when we get a bigger tank, we will get him a new fish.  We are not going bigger than a 10 gallon tank.  I think Fish are pretty and they are calming to watch…but also a mess to take care of.  And a 10 gallon tank will be perfect for our ‘oxies’.

———————————————————————————————–

Now on to my Wal-Mart Deals…

• 2/Air Head Xtremes Candy  $1.28-Used 2-$0.55 coupons making them …$.18 cents for both!
• Kraft Marshmallows $1.00-$1.00 of coupon-making them FREE!
• Bar-S Hot dog wieners $0.88-Used $.025 coupon making them $0.63
• Purina Cat Chow Indoor Formula 3.5 pound bag. $3.98-Used a $3.50 coupon printed from here. Paid $0.48

Making my grand total plus tax…$1.97!!!! I did have to pay tax on the full price of the items.

I did buy more items, these items I did in a separate transaction just to see how it went.  In total I spent $22.00 in Wal-Mart.

I hop you all are having a wonderful Monday!

Take Care!

Bargain Bin Friday #4

Just a few samples for you today….
• Gillette Fusion Razor! *Giving Away 500 a day*
• Better Than Ears-Dog Treat
• L’ Oreal Paris Ever Pure Sample

Here are some Money Saving Tips that I worked for us….

1. Turn your Thermostat down!  Our Electric bills were getting out of control last summer.  We decided to turn our thermostat up…and in the winter to turn it down.  We keep our Thermostat set at 65º during the winter.  During the Summer it is at 79º.  It may seem like a we would either be freezing in the winter and hot in the summer but we are not.  I live in a 3,000 square foot house.  Our electric bill last month was $190!  My neighbors, who lives in a 3007 square foot house was $500!!!  Both our heat and Air conditioner are turned off and the Air conditioner will NOT be turned on until June 1st.  We will open windows and use fans.  Hoping to save more money.
2. Wrap your celery or Lettuce in aluminum foil, it last for a long time. Just a note: Do not wash first.
3. Hand wash your dishes.  Using a dishwasher costs money.
4. Hang clothes to dry.  I hang dry about 40% of our clothing
5. Unplug appliances when not in use…this goes for lamps, dvd players, coffee pots…etc.  Even when they are plugged in and not in use it is using electricity.
6. If you use dryer sheets.  Cut them in half.  It works just as well as using a full dryer sheet.  Yet, you are getting double for your money.

I went too Kmart on Wednesday to see if they had some cereal left that was on sale (which I also had coupons for).  However, they were all sold out.

I usually don’t go into our Kmart because it is filthy, nasty looking.  However, I did this time for the sale.  After finding out it was sold out.  I took a quick glance at the kids clothes.  And notice they were having a $1.99 sale.  I went through the boys sizes first (because they need clothes worse than Aimee does).  I found NOTHING for them.

I then went to the girl section…JACKPOT!  Aimee asked for some new sweatshirts for next year.   I found one left.  And in her favorite color of Pink for $1.99.  Then I spotted a slew of HSM (High School Musical) shirts.   I found one kinda ‘vintage’/ ‘retro’ looking shirt that I knew she would love for $1.99.  They had more there but I had to get out of there…the store is just really dirty in my opinion.

She loves them both.  Yes, the sweatshirt is a big size….but she likes to be able to move in sweatshirts and likes them bigger.  My daughter also has long arms and the sweatshirt has longer sleeves then most do.

And here she is wearing her New HSM shirt.  She loves it.  She couldn’t wait to wear it.

And I think it is time to get her a new bike…she seems to be outgrowing this one….

I hope you all have a great day!

Take Care!

A touch of Bittersweetness…

Hey Guys,

I knew it was getting to that time of year.  A month left of school….And my daughter brings home her Middle school Jump start orientation!  It is so odd, even though I have Daniel that has already gone to middle school…it still gets to me.

I break down like this…

Of course I am going to be bittersweet about Daniel.  After loosing my first pregnancy to miscarriage and getting pregnant with him 3 months later.  I knew he was my miracle baby.

And since he is the oldest he paves the way for the other three.  Seeing him accomplish things is just amazing.  I get to experience EVERY first with him.

Aimee, she is the only girl.  She is a lot different than me.  She is VERY outgoing.  Very strong willed, She has a flare to her, she is eccentric, a person you just WANT to be around.   She is very smart and has a great wit about her.

Zachary…..with him.  He is just a sweetie.  He had a difficult start to life.  He was born healthy…weighed in at 10 pounds at birth.  However,  the day we left the hospital he started breaking out ALL over.  It took us almost 8 months to get the correct diagnoses…..He has severe Eczema.  We have to watch what detergent I launder his clothes in.  So I wash all of our clothing and bedding in something that will not break him out.  We have to watch what he eats.  Sometimes certain foods will not break him out and then other times it will.

He is such a sweet boy….that wants to be a Army ‘man’ (how he says it) when he grows up.  I know he can accomplish it.  Everything he does….he is good at. He is a daredevil and seeing things through is eyes is exciting.

And David…well he IS my baby.  He is always so full of laughter, joy and excitement!  It is so easy to continually have a smile on your face and a tickle in your heart when you are around him.

They all are so different but so much a like.  They are amazing!  And I know to there grandparents they are top notch!

So when Aimee brought home her orientation sign up….I got a weird feeling in my stomach.  I am SO happy for her.  She is so excited about her new adventure in learning.   But as my only daughter, I don’t want her to grow up so quickly….

Her graduation is going to get the better of me…and it is only a 5th grade graduation.  Pictures and video will be taken that day….

I will leave you with a picture of all my babies, taken when David was about 3 or 4 months old.    My how they have grown up…It was SO hard to get a good picture of all 4 of them together.  Shoot, it still is!

Take Care!

Paper News???

Is what David calls this….

The Newspaper….He thinks it should be called Paper news…because it is a paper that has news on it.  He thinks we have it backwards.

The above is a picture of my home state paper.

Tomorrow, said little boy has another dentist appointment.  This appointment is just for the routine cleaning.  Hopefully, they will not find anything to charge me for.

I actually ran into KMart today.  I am not a huge Kmart shopper.  However, I did pick Aimee up a pink sweat shirt for next year $1.99 and a High school musical shirt for $1.99.  I will post pictures of them on Bargain Bin Friday.

Not much else going on.  I lead an exciting life don’t I???

I hope you all are having a fabulous Wednesday.

Take Care!