Archive for February, 2010
Even though I’m mentioning a Valentine’s Day present, I really did take this picture today. I found this great 8×10 frame that matches our bedroom decor for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. [It's becoming my new favorite decorative store.] Then, I found a coupon for a free 8×10 photo collage at Walgreens. But more than saving money, I really like what I made for Kevin. He likes that I took the time and effort to get all the pics together. And I like Kevin a lot, in case you didn’t know. Happy End of February and look out March, here we come.
February 28th, 2010
I went to Houston today for a handbell festival with my handbell choir from church. There were 40 choirs and almost 500 people ringing handbells together.
February 27th, 2010
Colby’s school had I love Mommy day today. I brought him Chick-fil-A and he made me a cute necklace and we ate cupcakes and he sang me a song and he gave me these purple flowers and I loved I love Mommy day. What a great kid.
February 26th, 2010
Sometimes Colby gets to play games on my iPhone. Sometimes he’ll take pictures. Here is one from today.
February 25th, 2010
Just sittin’ on the floor, eatin’ a nanna. Want some?
February 24th, 2010
I have never seen snow in my hometown like this. I was like a kid in a candy store, glued to my window to watch the best white stuff I’ve seen south of the Red River.
I actually got excited when the outside looked like this. It was snowing! And sticking to the dirt.
The kids enjoyed watching too [one of my fave pics I've taken.]
BUT THEN.
I think the final count was 2 inches. That’s pretty unheard of where I live. And when you consider that 2 days ago it was 75 degrees. [Then 2 days after it was 60 degrees.]
My kids built a snowman and then jumped on the trampoline with Kim. Pics on Kevin’s camera coming hopefully soon.
February 23rd, 2010
Guess how much I paid for this? $1.84 At Walgreens.
It should have been free, but I’m still learning the ropes and my girls decided to scream like banshees and Kennedy was jumping in the cart and the checkout guy was a mistaken commentator [you know the type - the one when I present the coupons says, "Oh, let's see, Excedrin? Do you have any Excedrin? Okay, Menstrual Complete, yes you do!" *groan*] I’m glad I wasn’t buying anything any more, ahem, personal. And, I’ll be visiting a different Walgreens location from now on.
February 22nd, 2010
…A-Kennedy in a basket.
February 21st, 2010
Colby played in his first career soccer game. Here’s the warm-up.
Part of the yelling section [er, "cheering"]
And, the paparazzi.
February 20th, 2010
Ok I took a bit of a hiatus… but instead of giving up, I’m going to jump back in. I’ve got some backlogged pictures, but I’ll catch up on those later.
This is my “Soccer Man”. This is Colby’s first year to play soccer, and today was his first game. This is him on the way to making his first goal. It was great, so exciting, I’m proud of my little dude. Not that I was keeping score or anything, but I think his team won something like 8 to 1. Whoop!
February 20th, 2010
The Hoovers came over for dinner tonight. Chris & Christine, Landon & Colton [Madison was at a tennis tournament.] A great way to end a very busy week.
February 19th, 2010
AlphaBits cereal rocks! [Colby did this and took the picture, with permission.]
February 18th, 2010
Kiddo swap was at our house tonight. This was by our back door, on the way out to the trampoline.
And, it was also Colby’s first soccer practice today. Check out Those shoes.
February 17th, 2010
Remember Kim who made snow? Today she was a buffalo. Apparently it’s catching.
I love Carlee’s face and eyes in this one.
February 16th, 2010
I had a lot of people ask me about my couponing success (and past failures). I wanted to take a break from the photo blogging for a day and give some clarifications on what I do personally and what others do. You can call this the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Shopping. Just kidding.
1. I am not an expert. There are literally hundreds of blogs that people have started (most of them stay-at-home moms) to find the best sales and the best coupons and match them together to make the best deals. I would consider them experts. On these blogs, there’s quite the terminology you have to learn in order to decipher these couponing techniques. I am still learning.
2. These blogs give out all the deals for the week. It might list something like “buy 5 sticks of deodorant for $5 and get $20 back” (which would be awesome if you ever snag that deal, let me know!). YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY EVERY SINGLE DEAL. Like my friend Melissa, I don’t need 5 sticks of deodorant. These couponing bloggers say that you can save the extras for donating, but I see that as a waste for someone who really needs deodorant to be able to get it, if you’ve already taken it off the shelf from them.
3. Also, my family has a lot of allergies. We are allergic to some forms of: milk, diapers, bath soaps, laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving cream, lotion, some snacks… So you can bet that there are coupons for the things we are allergic to but we can’t use them. We don’t want to try and buy those things just to get the discount – again, wasting products. We do buy organics and there’s not a lot of coupons out there but we do use them.
4. The couponing blogs give out deals for all kinds of stores. The ones we have in bcs are Kroger’s, Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreen’s. (There might be others.) The ones closest to me are Kroger’s, Target, Wal-Mart, and Walgreen’s. Do I visit them all in one week? No way, Jose. I don’t have time and I use the time that Colby is in school to do all my shopping – with my 2 girls in tow. I can spend all week shopping or I can spend an hour or two with prepared coupons and get a few great deals.
5. The time spent to coupon is actually not as much as you might think. Just as when you learn a new skill or task, it does take a little more time and effort at first, but eventually you get used to it. And, you can do as much or as little as you want. If you’ve ever heard of The Grocery Game, I did that before [read: past failure] and eventually got tired of paying for a service that wasn’t worth it to me. I ended up trying products that either I was allergic to or I felt like I had to buy but didn’t like. But I do know a lot of people who have had much success with it. I think one of my problems was needing more than one store to look at – I only looked at Kroger’s. Here’s an article with some helpful info I found about The Grocery Game.
6. I might have already said this in some form, but it’s worth repeating. You don’t have to hit every sale or buy every single thing with a coupon. It’s nice to save money and it feels great to know that you have made some really great deals. But sometimes those couponing blogs seem a little cult-like, with the way they follow sales and obsess over the next time something will go on sale. Life will go on, whether you use coupons or not.
7. If all else fails, I use Wal-Mart for my go-to. Everything is usually cheapest at Wal-Mart, unless you find those good deals.
8. (Okay, 8 habits) – Kroger doubles and triples some coupons. That is why I shop there sometimes. Otherwise their prices are definitely much higher. But sometimes you can get items for free at Kroger’s just because of one 35cent coupon from the newspaper. BUT keep in mind that if you print coupons (usually from coupons.com) there are capital letters up at the top that say “DO NOT DOUBLE OR TRIPLE.” Keep that in mind when you want to print out a 40cent coupon and it really is worth only 40cents, not 80 like you originally thought.
My friend Tiffany blogs about couponing. She sent me to a website called Southern Savers. I also found Coupon Geek. The last 2 blogs do a great job of linking to other couponing blogs with the best deals for that week, the coupons you can print out, the freebies you can grab, etc.
February 15th, 2010
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