I Spy: {Home Edition}

i spy...

My basket of crochet headbands that Sophie thought she could hide my bottle caps in.


A row of my shoes that are hanging out in my office. Why?! Don't ask me. {I wear flip flops 97% of the time}


My cuddlebug that is neatly tucked away behind my printer. I bought this convincing every one that I needed it. {Isabel has used it more than me}


A map of all the places I have sent bows to.


A Thank You card I received from a customer <3


Sophie's potty she doesn't use sitting in the bathroom.


Isabel's ugly walls we painted 3 years ago. Yeah, it's time to paint the house.


Little Ninja's {Sophie} Alphabet Mat. She insists that "O" doesn't belong.


A necklace with a picture of Mommy & Daddy that Iss use to wear 24/7, but every since Little Ninja starting walking she snatched it from her and now she wears it 24/7.


Sophie's second potty {yes you heard right, second potty. I thought she would be a tinkle bot apparently} that she doesn't use and sits in her room...?


Initial Coat hangers


My version of iced coffee....{needs sugar free caramel BAD}


a purse I bought a Kohl's not even 2 WEEKS ago that is already broken...!


NEW RIBBON!!


Green Tea air freshener. Doesn't smell to good but it is very strong {& that is why it's in my bathroom..}


Ice cold water.....


A Mexican feast. {yes that's my mac book, I carry it around like a 3rd arm. What? I like to work}


What kind of things do you have in your house?

I know my house is boring...don't rub it in too much...

I have a confession....

It's a BIG one....



I went grocery shopping today




& I didn't take my coupon binder....


{sing it sister}

Couponing- How i got started

I don't know about you,
but I like to keep my money in my wallet.
You will rarely see me
trying to buy something too expensive,
or that I don't even need.
(okay, you may see me break this rule when it
comes to my little ones, but hey...I can't help it)

I have been on this "gotta save money" kick for a while now (ever since Sophia was born :2 years) & the only thing we did was limit ourselves.

*At the end of my rant on why I'm so frugal, I will let you in on some secrets on how to do these things and spend less*

• Shopping: I love Old Navy & since I hate my self for not losing all of my post baby weight I spend all of our shopping money on the girls. So of course I go to Old Navy. I grab what I want to buy, walk around the store, check the clearance sections, and spend way too much time in there than I should. BUT for good reason. By the time I am ready to check out I always do a once over of what I have in my cart. And when I get to the items that are FULL PRICE (scary word, i know..) I look at them & honestly think "Does Sophia really need this $14 shirt????" NO.

• Getting out of the house: I don't like to go anywhere. Why you ask? Well first of all I'm a home body. I think it is the best day ever if I get to relax at home watching movies, maybe doing a puzzle, or just hanging out organizing my office. Now, it's not that I don't like to be seen out in the world with my little family cause don't get me wrong, I love taking the girls on adventures...I just don't want to pay for them.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS
This stuff can still be done without living off of bread & ketchup for the rest of the week! ;) (wouldn't that be gross? But I bet i would lose this post baby weight!)
So, shopping....cause there is NO WAY to get around buying clothes. I mean your little one grows so much, you NEED/HAVE to buy them new clothes right.?.?
HELL NO!
First off, like I stated above- they grow so much- why spend FULL PRICE on clothes they are going to 1.get really dirty or stain & 2. only wear for a little while? I'm going to let you in on a little/big secret. It's only little if you have been living in a closet & don't watch the news or drive around your town much.
JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS
www.jbfsale.com
This is huge, & a big money saver! I spend hundreds of dollars here on clothes & toys, & I come home with trash bags FULL of stuff!

As for getting out of the house, I'm still venturing into this but one thing that my family loves is the drive inn. Tickets are $6 a person and you get to watch 2 or 3 movies. You can bring your own food, so you spend even less at the concession stand. Its fun and nicer than being in a stuffy theater. Another thing we love is going to the arboretum. It gets kinda costy if you pay per time. I would recommend getting the year membership for $100. The girls love it and it's so gorgeous.

OKAY, sorry back to couponing... ;)

So those were the things I was doing thinking we were saving money. I always thought no matter what I HAVE to buy groceries, so maybe buying "great value" would be the cheapest way. NO, and gross. So after I found out about couponing & after the days of calling myself an idiot for not thinking of it this whole time.

I started my binder!

(In case you're wondering it weighs 5 pounds exactly right now)

This was the first major step I took towards couponing. If you are serious about this then you should invest in a binder as well. 3 inch binders are good. I would buy one that zips closed cause i HAVE dropped mine (in Target) & coupons go everywhere!

When you buy your binder you are going to want to buy baseball card holders (lots of them! you can never have to many) & clear plastic sheet protectors. Now I made my own categories because I know stores vary & this way I am more comfortable with where everything is in my binder

but if you don't want to do that just yet you can download categories here: http://thekrazycouponlady.com/beginners/

I also keep all of the sales ads for the week in front of my binder just in case I need them when in the store.


First couple of pages in my binder:

Monthly sale items:
Every month has certain items that always go on sale. Jan-Feb is healthy things, July is bar b que stuff and drinks...and so forth. So I like to keep this in front for reminders when a new month is coming.


I haven't had to use this yet, but I have heard stories of rude cashiers (& store managers) that don't even know the coupon policy. So carrying store policies is a "better safe than sorry" tactic.


Stores you are going to get the best deals at for personal care are CVS & Walgreens. So in order to keep track of what ECB (Extra Care Bucks) Or RR (Register Rewards) I have gotten, I keep these in file in the front of the binder for easy access.

CVS:

Now, I know what you're thinking. Why do you have 3 CVS cards? When CVS has a deal such as
Gillette Power Razors-$9.00 with $5 ECB *Limit 1*
& I have a $4 off Gillette coupon. That would make the razor free after ECB!
(which means after you buy it you will get a little receipt like the ones I have up there for $5 off another purchase)

Well your CVS card holds that *Limit 1* so if I buy all 4 with that one CVS card I will only get 1 $5 ECB. After you buy something that has ECB with it on the bottom of your receipt it will say "limit reached"

Don't forget to number your cards! I had to search for mine this morning, and it made it so easy knowing I has already found card 1 & 3 so all I needed was card 2!

*Don't be greedy about the number of cards you have. I have 3 because I have a family of 4 so I need to at least stock up on 3 or 4 items. But in no way am i saying you need to get 15 CVS cards. Leave something for other shoppers!

Walgreens:

Walgreens is a lot different than CVS. You don't have to use a card to get Register Rewards!! But the way Walgreens works is that a RR is rang up like a coupon. And you can only use one coupon per product. So if you are buying 1 thing you can only use a coupon OR a RR. The way around this is with "filler items" Finding really cheap things in the store like candy or pencils are a great way to be able to use both your coupon and your RR. Another way you can use both is if the store is have a sale on 2 for items, such as "2 for $5".

Okay so last but not least is my actual binder.









This is how i organize it. Each coupon has it's own little spot. (like I said you will needs TONS of baseball card holders.)

If you are planing on getting most of your coupons out of the newspaper.

Here is a great rule of thumb...

Buy one newspaper for every one person in your household. If you have 4 people in your home you will have 4 of every coupon. Making it easier to stock up!

Also, make sure that your newspaper has the little plastic sack in the middle. This is where the coupons are! And yes people do take these out of newspapers. So just make sure yours has this plastic & its not opened. =)

Wow, this is a long post! My next post will be more about using coupons and how to get the best savings!!

Feeling like a Coupin Virgin again

I use to be the person who would stand behind someone in the line at the grocery store rolling my ignorant eyes because they had all of their coupons out and ready! But I am also the kind of person that see's something and before I'm done watching it I am already on google with about 9 windows opened up. So when I saw Extreme Couponing with Joanie Demer I had to find out more. After having 2 kids I have become very frugal and hate spending money (which if you knew me a couple of years ago, money was something I use to throw around) so I really wanted to look into couponing. I mean if I'm going to be buying this stuff anyways why in the hell wouldn't I WANT to spend less money or even get it free? So I started couponing, got my binder, organized it, started getting good supplies of coupons and even "dumpster dived" a time or too.

Okay off the subject but dumpster diving is totally funny and makes it fun, plus you don't really get in. You just stand next to it and sort through it. Oh and did I mention it's not a dumpster its a newspaper recycling dumpster. I think that makes a big difference. =)

So yeah I'm a couponer. Damn proud of it! But I have to say I am a little ashamed of myself. I haven't been organizing my time lately, and my coupon binder is the one that has been suffering.

There is sits in my office lonely. I stare at it every once in a while but don't ever give it the time of day.


Well that changed last week! I am officially couponing again and I feel so lazy for not continuing in the first place. I absolutely love it. I went to the store today and am going back to two other stores tomorrow morning. I already have my lists ready to go!

So let's hope tomorrows trip is a breeze...

Just in case you were wondering, here is my receipt from today =)

Not much of a savings but i only went for a couple of things to help myself get back into the swing of things.

Don't laugh! But this is my stock pile so far. I wanted to take pictures of what it looked like from day 1 so I can hopefully take pictures at the end of the year and see where I have gotten.

McDreamy.McSteamy.McDrama.McLife

I'm such a bad blogger =) I have neglected my Grey's update duties...But believe me i HAVE been watching it non-stop. So the first season was just mainly a whole bunch of sleeping around. Good juicy stories but nothing too important. So then Addison shows up. I don't know what it is about her, but when she first showed ugh i hated her. The show just made her a character you couldn't like. But then again I didn't like Burke either so when he got with Christina I wasn't too much into that section of the show.

*I'm watching this as i write and Denny just left Issy a note before he died!! OMG tear*

back to the story. So Addison came back & even though Meredith did the "pick me, choose me, love me" he chose Addy. He chose Addison, Meredith slept around, Christina & Burke moved in together, Alex & Issie were doing stuff while Alex was sleeping around, and George was pining over Meredith and caught syphilis from Alex. Again Alex+sleeping around. The second season was better than the first. Bomb blowing up the O.R kinda good. Well Derick finally chose Meredith and he is divorced blah blah blah. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY Denny came into town! Oh Denny...He could have made me fall in love with him too. Dying or not! I've seen this episodes, I knew Denny was going to die but still...i cried. i couldn't believe it. He got a heart, he had a second chance....and he died. Out of no where, and so fast. I don't know how Issy got through it so fast. I would still be on the floor in the bathroom or in that empty ICU room. Oh McDenny.....you will be missed. Oh and he gave Issy 8 million dollars. Damn her! ;)

Right now, McSteamy & McDreamy are working out there friendship and McExWife is sad which she deserves. Issy is trying to find out what to do with her millions, and Burke and Christina are hiding the fact that he perform surgery anymore. (oh yeah he got shot, but like i said blah blah blah right?)

Just got into season 3- Epi 6. So lets see what happens....I promise I'll update sooner cause trust me i left lots out! ;0) But it wasn't important.

So tired i forgot to name this damn post! =)

Okay so I haven't been able to post on here lately because I have been just a tad bit busy =)

Craft fair:

I attended a craft fair a couple of weeks ago, and thinks went very well. Sold lots and made some new friends and had a couple of people want me to attend a craft fair coming up in May. It was a lot of fun, but UHHH the getting up at 4:30 a.m. killed me!! I was dead by 5 but thank goodness that was when it ended.

OH & this awesome little shop was there called
"Da Bomb fried pies & guacomole" and it WAS da bomb!! The whole time they played oldies like the jetsons theme and i love lucy and such. too cute =)


Something New: POM POM Necklaces...

I KNOW!!!!!! TOO FREAKIN CUTE!!!!!

I am going to make these as necklaces & headbands and I can't freakin wait!!!

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3


So again I am getting things ready for another craft show on May 7th. They emailed me about it and really want me there. It is for a school and our name is going to be on the shirts! YAY!!!

So thats it for wooork.... I know it doesnt sound like I have been that busy but I promise you! I have been very blessed with non stop orders and I love it!!

So when i work, I always watch some sort of tv (abc.com, fox.com, netflix) & now since i am all caught up "Private Practice, "Modern Family", "Bones", "Lie to Me", "House", "Desperate Housewives", "Cougar Town", & "Grey's Anatomy" I have decided to go on a Grey's marathon. Season 1 to Season now and blog about it. I use to watch this show all the time and i miss it. So i want to recap and post about the things i love about it =)

So as of now April 29th 10:00 p.m.-
I am on season 1 episode 4 & so far: I hate Corev (sp? i dont care), I think Derick is the perfect guy, oh yeah and Burke...i hate him right about now too. Issy is too nice and cuddley so i kinda hate her a smidge. Christina and Meredith are normal tell the truth cause we dont care about your feelings kind of characters right now which i love because that never changes in the course of all of these seasons. Plus me and my friends are the same way so i can relate.

I just love this show. Makes me want to be a doctor but I can't even wake up at 6 so there is no way in hell i could practically LIVE in a damn hospital.

Well Im still watching epi 4 and nothing good is happening yet so i guess ill just watch. Catch you up on it later! =)

Oh and im DEF going to put together a Greys soundtrack. I forgot how good the music was .....