Quality Childcare

I have been babysitting my sister's kids for the summer. Partly to make some money (state pays me), partly to save her money(zero out of pocket), and mostly so the kids have somewhere loving and safe to go....or so she thinks.



Here is Kymberly up on the table eating Brody's leftover yogurt. She's having a great time! Now that is some good babysitting right there!

Saving/Spending Addiction

So my goal for the last 3 weeks in July was to spend only $50. Well, that didn't go so well. I have already spent about $75 and I am planning on spending $30 in meat before Friday. I just found this great rebate where if you buy $30 of fresh meat you get $10 back. I would say that is a deal that is worth ruining my already ruined budget for July. The offer ends Friday so I will be buying the meat real soon, probably Thursday. Oh well. I really did try! I just think that my stockpile isn't big enough to rely on yet.

So here is the amazing deal that I got at Target today.
7 Poptarts
1 Special K Blueberry Cereal
2 Keebler Grasshopper cookies
8 Twix bars

Total before coupons was $22.xx

Coupons used:
5 - $.55 of one Poptart - Insert from 6/7
5- Target coupon for $.75 off Poptarts from HERE
1 - $1/2 Poptarts - in the mail
1 - $1 off Special K Blueberry from HERE
1 - $1/2 Keebler cookies or crackers - in the mail
4 - $1/2 candy bars, Twix is our favorite
Total with tax - $9.12!!!


You think that is a good deal? Wait until you hear about the rebate from Kellogg's/Keebler. Buy 10 participating products and get a $10 rebate!! Basically I just got paid to go buy all that stuff! Pretty sweet huh! I am submitting my rebate form right now so that I don't forget.

Superman

This is the conversation between Brody, my 2 year old, and Arien, my 3 year old niece.

Arien sees a superhero on TV and says: "Is that Superman?"
Brody: "No, I am Superman."
Arien: "You are?"
Brody: "Yeah!"
Arien: "Oh."

Apparently it's totally believable that Brody is Superman and not really all that exciting. So funny.

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

Paid only $3.60!!!! How? Well at Albertson's right now they have a deal if you buy $20 in Dr. Pepper or Kellogg's products you get a $10 coupon to use on your next purchase. The 12 packs of ALL soda is on sale buy 2 get 2 free. Dr. Pepper 12 packs are just over $5 each so when you buy 4 it gets you over that $20 mark for the $10 coupon. Of course 2 of the packs are free so it brings the total to $10.90. Pay that the first time then get your $10 coupon (Catalina). Then repeat this transaction and use the Catalina and pay only $.90 for four 12 packs! So how did I only pay $3.60? Well my dad did the initial transaction yesterday and paid the $10.90 out of pocket. He repeated the transaction a few times and still had a $10 Catalina left over. So I stole the Catalina and did the transaction 4 times at 2 different stores. Then I returned him his coupon. :) He is going back for more today too. He drinks the Diet Dr. Pepper like crazy so this is a fantastic deal for him. Darrell is going to be moving to the Middle Of Nowhere, North Dakota this weekend and I would love to send a bunch of these with him. Haven't quite figured out how to do that yet though.

July Challenge So Far

I am fairly certain that I am addicted to shopping for a bargain! It's so hard to not spend money! I have spent about $33 so far, more than half of my budget. Oops. I still have two weeks to go on less than $20. I am not sure if I can do it, but I am really going to try. One thing that I spent a lot of money on this week was produce. We made fresh mexican food. So delicious, but not cheap enough to keep my total down. Oh well. It was worth it!

Here are a few of the pictures of the trips I made, but it's not all of them. I had a few small trips here and there too.






So what did I eat this week?
Breakfast:
Sun - cereal
Mon - banana bread muffins
Tues - muffins again
Wed - cereal
Thurs - mini bagels and cream cheese and homemade jam, boys had cereal
Fri - same thing
Sat - bagels and bananas
Sun - grapes, cereal
Lunch:
Sun - Chicken salad sandwiches, grapes
Mon - PB&J for the boys, chicken salad sandwich for me, chips
Tues - hotdogs and mac 'n cheese
Wed - Ramen noodles
Thurs - Chicken salad sandwich, chips
Fri - Lunch party at my moms work - Turkey sandwiches, fruit salad, baked beans
Sat - OUT TO EAT!! Mexican food, of course!
Sun - Chuck E. Cheese pizza
Dinner:
Sun - Boys had nuggets and mac 'n cheese, I had leftover chicken over lettuce and misc veggies left in the fridge
Mon - Chicken, rice, veggies
Tues - Leftovers
Wed - McDonalds on the way to pick up Darrell
Thurs - Tacos, beans, rice
Fri - Sloppy joes, pasta salad, grapes
Sat - steak tacos, fresh guac and pico de gallo. Mmmmmm!!!
Sun - a little bit of this and that left in the fridge
Snacks and Desserts:
Ritz crackers with cottage cheese
Grapes, cheese cubes, crackers
bananas and juice
bananas (multiple times)
ice cream
popsicles
cookies at the work party
Twix - I had a free coupon and the boys split it. Get your coupon every Friday HERE.
I feel like we ate pretty good for only spending $30+ bucks. I didn't count going out to eat. That comes out of Darrell's budget. LOL! That's cheating, I know, but we rarely go out so I am not counting it.

Follow Up Post

So my day yesterday was completely opposite to my last post. My poor little Bro-bro was sick yesterday. I held him pretty much all day, except for when he took a two and a half hour nap. I think that part of being a stay at home mom is to not just stay at home with the kids, but to be available for whatever comes up. I was home and available to take care of my poor little sweetie. I haven't watched that much tv all at once in a long time. :) He just wanted to be held and I was there to do it. I didn't have to take time off of work or find a babysitter for him. I was there. Exactly what he needed. I am thankful to be a stay at home mom. It's so important for the boys! I am very lucky to be able to have this choice to stay home. Yay moms!

A Day In The Life

Sometimes I get so sick of people asking if I have a job or if I work. Yes! I have lots of jobs: laundry, dishes, kissing boo-boos, giving baths, paying bills, planning activities, and the list goes on. You mamas out there know what I am talking about. Here is what I did yesterday just so you get a glimpse of what I do every day.
7:15 am Get up and exercise for about 20 minutes. I know there is no time for the gym today.
7:45 am Get the boys up, eat breakfast, get in shower.
8:30 am Get the boys dressed and make them look semi-respectable.
8:40 am Throw load of clothes in the washer.
9:00 am Drop Collin off at Stake Primary activity.
9:15 am Quick stop at Albertson's to get some free ice cream with double coupons.
10:15 am Pick Collin up from Primary activity.
10:30 am Meet friends at Library for story time. First time we have been at this library and the kids loved it!
11:45 am Go home to grab a quick lunch. Move clothes to dryer.
12:30 pm Go to my sister's house to babysit.
3:00 pm Collin has tumbling. Run him inside while 3 kids 3 and under wait/fight in the car.
3:50 pm Leave to go pick up Collin
3:55 pm Stuck at light 2 block from tumbling. Completely blocked and cannot move due to construction at intersection. Kids are of course perfect angels in the back seat....ha!
4:05 pm Finally pick up Collin and make him feel better. His feelings were hurt because I was late.
4:30 pm Fix afternoon snacks so no one DIES of starvation.
5:30 pm Get dinner ready for the girls.
6:20 pm Leave their house to run home and change into pjs.
6:30 pm Clean up puke off the bathroom floor.
6:35 pm Leave the house FINALLY to go pick up Darrell at the airport.
6:40 pm Snag some McDonalds. Discover Collin is asleep before the food arrives. (Totally recommend the Honey Mustard Snack Wrap.) Realize I am out of gas!
6:45 pm Put a few gallons of gas in really fast so that I can hurry. Already behind!
6:50 pm FINALLY leave town.
7:05 pm Darrell texts me that he has just landed. Oh good Honey, we will be there in at least 20 minutes!! Sorry, babe!
7:30 pm Pick up Darrell!! Yay! The hubby is home!
8:15 pm Get home. Put the boys in bed! Phew!
9:15 pm Eat that free ice cream from Albies! Yummy! Worth every cent. :)
9:30 pm Watch Man vs. Wild with Darrell. Special episode with Will Farrell. Pretty funny.
10:15 pm Crash in bed. ZZZzzzzzzzz
All in a days work. Three poopy diapers, one of each from the three little ones, boogers from Brody (the kid is always picking his nose), spilled water on the floor in the kitchen, and bugs, lots of bugs collected are just a few things we did all afternoon. Never a dull moment. So if you don't have a job, what do you do all day?

July Challenge

I am really happy with how I am doing with my food storage and couponing. I like to challenge myself to see how little I can spend. My new goal is to spend $50 for the rest of July! That is 3 full weeks! I think I will withdraw the money and just use cash for all my transactions. I will keep track of all my transactions and share them here. I do have a little bit of a jumpstart because I bought some groceries on Wednesday plus I have 3 coupons for free milk. Still, it's going to be a bit of a challenge. As usual this does not include diapers, but it does include all other household products including t.p., cleaning supplies, and other paper products. Wish me luck. I will really be relying on those Albertson's double coupons now! I am planning on baking some bread (I have everything I need so why don't I do this more?), using my brownie and cake mixes for our snacks, and just in general make more things from scratch. It can be done! I challenge you to use your food storage items more often for the rest of the month. It's a good way to rotate it as well as save money.

Christmas in July

Run, don't walk, to your local Kmart. They are having their big clearance sale to make room for their Christmas shipments. 50% off lowest marked price on clearance items! Get some great toys for CHEAP! Those cases have construction or police officer dress up play sets in them. $2.50, regularly priced $10. Those Barney dolls are $6, and they also have a video with them! I spent $157 and I have tons of my Christmas bought! We like to do a lot of Secret Santa stuff around Christmas so that's why I bought multiples of some of the items. Click on the pictures to see them in a bigger view.

Independence Day

I agree with Amber, too tired to blog. Enjoy the pics. Happy 4th!

Target Trip

I rarely go to Target, but I got a few great coupons in the mail from them so I decided to check it out. At Target they have their own coupons, which I had never even heard about until a couple months ago, that can be stacked with a manufacture coupon as well. They also had corn 10 for $1! Yummy! I have been craving corn all summer. I love it! My total was $63.07 for all that. You probably have to click on the picture to make it bigger to see everything. I got lots of meat plus I got a pack of pull ups, a pack of regular diapers, and a $7 bag of candy for Collin to throw at the parade. I feel like I got a great deal! I hope the rain goes away so we can barbecue this weekend.