Saving Money at Target

The girls and I made a quick trip to Target this morning for a few good deals. Here is the breakdown:

• Two boxes of Pampers Cruisers were $34.99 each ($69.98 for both) and one box of wipes was $1.97. I had two $2.00 off manufacturer coupons for the Cruisers, one $2.00 off Target coupon if I bought both Pampers diapers and wipes, one $0.50 off manufacturer coupon for wipes, and one $1.50 off manufacturer coupon if I bought both Pampers diapers and wipes. And, I got a $15 Target gift card for buying two boxes of Cruisers.
• $69.98 + $1.97 = $71.95 - $2.00 - $2.00 - $2.00 - $0.50 - $1.50 - $15.00 = $48.95 (or $0.20/diaper). I usually pay around $0.16/diaper, but I literally had less than 10 diapers in the house so this was a great deal for a purchase that wasn't planned out very well.
• Two Reach flosses were $0.92 each ($1.84 for both). I had a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off the purchase of two.
• $1.84 - $1.00 = $0.84 (or $0.42 each)
• Two Head & Shoulder Shampoo's were $4.99 each ($9.98 for both). I had a Buy One Get One Free manufacturer coupon and two $1.00 off the purchase of one manufacturer coupons.
• $9.98 - $4.99 - $1.00 - $1.00 = $2.99 (or $1.50 each)

Retail price: $83.77 + tax
After coupon price: $52.78 + tax
Savings of: $30.99

That's not a bad savings for an unplanned trip. Honestly, I was only going for the diapers, but I decided to skim through my coupons before heading to the store to see what others items I could purchase for my stock pile while I was there. Money saved & mission complete!

Cookies vs Carrots

I workout. I run. I try to eat healthy. I love my family. I work hard. I go to church. I finish what I start. I am competitive. I can multitask like nobody's business, but ...

Sometimes I:

• Let unfinished projects sit around the house for months
• Forget to print family pictures that are stored on the computer ... for over a year
• Wear a sports bra and comfy clothes to run errands instead of dressing somewhat "nice"
• Pick up dinner on the way home from work instead of cooking my pre-planned meal
• Lose my temper with my kids
• Lay in the recliner all evening instead of running
• Fall asleep while praying at night ... like 95% of the time
• Buy things that aren't in the budget even if we don't have the money for it
• Put off cleaning the house until tomorrow, or next week
• Tell my kids "no" because it's easier than saying "yes"
• Eat cookies instead of carrots

All of these things are true. Sometimes I fall off track and it's ok. Afterall, life is short, so we need to enjoy every day that we have whether it's a day of good choices (eating carrots) or a day of not so good choices (eating cookies). And, if it happens to be a day of not so good choices, then you better enjoy every single bite of those cookies!

Ephesians 6:3 - “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

More than Milk

Before couponing, I never would have known that the Borden milk at CVS was priced lower than the exact same brand at Wal-Mart. With three small kids, we go through two gallons of milk a week so this was valuable information. Each week, I look at the CVS deals to see if there is anything that I can pick up on my weekly milk run. On my last stop, I bought three boxes of Puffs tissues and two Disney Gummie Vitamins. Here is the breakdown:

• Milk $3.49 each with $1.00 each (limit 2) back in ECB's (Extra Care Bucks). The ECB's are shown in the picture, and can be used on my next purchase towards anything. $3.49 + $3.49 = $6.98 with $2.00 ECB's to use next time.
• Puff's tissues retail for $1.99 each ($5.97 for all three), but were on sale for $0.99 each, and I had a buy three, get $0.25 off manufacturer coupon. $0.99 + $0.99 + $0.99 = $2.97 - $0.25 = $2.72
• Disney Gummie Vitamins are $7.49 each ($14.98 for both), but CVS had them on sale for Buy One Get One Free, and I had two $1.00 off manufacturer coupons and one $2.00 CVS store coupon that printed at the kiosk near the front door. $7.49 + $0.00 (free one) = $7.49 - $1.00 - $1.00 - $2.00 = $3.49
• I also had a $3 off coupon that was emailed to me.

Retail $27.93
I paid $10.19 and got back $2.00 in ECB's to spend on my next trip!

It's that easy!

Weekend Fun

We went on a quick family vacation this past weekend with my parents and we had a blast! Let's face it, you never know how overnight trips are going to go with three kids ages 5 and under (and a total of 7 people), but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the nice break from reality.

We left town on Saturday morning and headed to OKC. Our first stop was the bombing Memorial, which I had not seen before even though I remember that day well. We didn't give the girls a lot of details, but they do know that something bad happened, and that we rose above the tragedy. The below pic on the left is of the reflecting pool (which is very tempting to little kids), and the pic on the right was a coed Boot camp that stopped to do push ups while carrying backpacks and an American flag. I was impressed with their dedication in the heat so I gave some of them a high five and a "good job" on my way to take the big girls to the restroom. Sometimes a little encouragement is all that we need to keep going!

Our next stop was Toby Keith's Restaurant in Bricktown. Even though there's one in Tulsa a few miles from our house, we've never been there. It only seemed fitting to drive two hours to finally see what all the fuss was about. I love the below pic of Lou, Parker, and my dad. So sweet! In the bottom pics, Parker is yelling "hi guys" to everyone eating on the other side of the wall, and Lou is doing .... well, I'm not sure what she's doing so I had to take a picture. Silly girl!

After lunch we got tickets to ride the Bricktown River Boat. Lou was petrified of the boat and got herself all worked up while waiting our turn so Greg carried her onto the boat and she quickly calmed down and LOVED it, of course! The ride was hot and sweaty, but fun. We met some new friends and two girls that were from Fayetteville, AR. We found out that they are frequent shoppers of my brother's store, The Mustache Goods & Wears. Small world ... especially since my dad and I were both wearing mustache shirts. Below is a pics of our Boat passes.

After the boat ride, we went to our hotel (the Hampton Inn in Bricktown) to check in and cool off. My parents picked the hotel since they had stayed there before. We highly recommend it if you have young kids. The pool is a lot of fun, and our rooms overlooked the baseball field.

Once we were cooled off, we headed to the outlet mall for some Tax Free Weekend shopping ... with everyone else in OKC. While pulling into the parking lot, we made a deal to drive around one time and if we couldn't find a parking spot then we would leave. Wouldn't you know, we find a front row spot right next to the mall entrance. Shopping heaven! I'd like to say that we shopped til we dropped, but in reality, we hit 3-4 key stores and then left before anyone got grumpy. It was nice!

Since it was getting later in the evening and all of the fancy restaurants were packed, we chose to hit the hotel pool and have food delivered to us. The girls LOVED the pool! I'll be honest, I kind of liked it myself!

Once the kids were water logged, we headed up to the room to eat dinner. We put on our PJ's, grabbed our food, and huddled by the windows to watch the baseball game. I must admit, it's pretty awesome to watch a game in the A/C with good food and a clean bathroom just steps away. The OKC team won 24-5. After the game, we all crashed and slept great!

On the way out of town Sunday morning, we drove past the Capital building so the girls could see it.

Then we were off to Stillwater! Once we got in town, we parked and showed the girls the campus (our old stomping grounds). I loved seeing all of the improvements to the school. Since Eskimo Joe's was packed (no cheese fries - so sad), we decided to eat at the original Hideaway Pizza and then do a little shopping next door at Chris's University. There's nothing like hitting up your Alma Mater and deeming it necessary to buy all three of your girls Hello Kitty OSU dolls. We realize that brainwashing school spirit starts at a very young age.

Above is our family pic in front of the school library. Yes, I would say that was a VERY successful weekend trip. When do we go again?!

Buy Low, Sell High

One of my favorite events of the year is just around the corner ... It's the Rhea Lana of Broken Arrow children's consignment sale! If you don't know about RL, then you can check out the entire site at http://brokenarrow.rhealana.com/. The Fall event will be held at 121st & Elm in BA (near Wal-Mart) from Sept 8th-14th. Questions? Just ask me! This is my fifth sale to participate in as a seller/buyer. You can also email the owners (Debbie & Kristin). These ladies are phenomenal!

Buyers:  RL has it all - clothes, toys, strollers, books, shoes, high chairs, etc. You name it, they have it. All of the items sold at RL are brought in by mom's/dad's just like you that are willing to sell their gently used items to a new home.

Sellers: RL is a GREAT place to make some money. Just look around your house. I'm sure that you can see toys that don't get played with, or you know of clothes that don't get worn. Maybe there are unused items in your childs closet? Maybe they are in tubs in the attic? RL is looking to sell those items ... and plenty of local moms are looking to buy them. Sellers also get extra perks for volunteering their time, helping to advertise, etc. If this is your first year to sign up, please tell them I sent you.

I've been collecting items for this sale ever since my youngest started growing out of her Fall/Winter clothes. Besides clothing, I will also put the following items in the sale: two high chairs, a large outdoor play item, toys, lots of shoes, socks, bibs, rattles, books, DVD's, etc. I just started sorting and tagging my items over the weekend so I have a lot of work ahead of me. Honestly, it takes work, but it's one of the easiest processes to go through. You know I'm serious when I say that since it's coming from a mom of three small kids with a part time job and NO free time. Trust me, it's EASY and WORTH it!

This is just a tiny sample of what I'm preparing to sale. Speaking of, I've got to get off of here because I have more sorting and tagging to do. Come to think of it, you might need to start doing the same!

Do Not Repeat

Today is one of those days that I don't want to repeat...

Hit #1) After a huge storm last night, we woke up to find three parts of our fence blown down and one of our chocolate labs was missing. Chewy was found on our neighbors back porch, but Squirt is still gone. We've had both of the dogs (sisters) since they were 2 months old and they are now almost 8 years old. They are a part of the family so we are heartbroken, but hopeful that we'll find our lost dog. Here is a picture of her in case you live near us and you see her roaming around.

Hit #2) When we bought our house a year ago, the fence needed to be replaced. We knew that we would eventually tackle this project, but last nights storm took out enough of the fence that we can't put this off any longer. Fences are not cheap ... and this is not in the budget.

Hit #3) After lunch, Parker climbed into a chair at our dinner table, turned around, and sat on the edge of the table. I was seconds from her, but you know how quick kids can be when you turn your back for even a moment. I quickly walked toward her to get her down. On my way, and all within a few seconds, she tipped the chair back, and it fell backwards to the ground with her in it. I couldn't get to her in time so she scraped her forehead on the backdoor and she got a pretty good cut. Thankfully, she landed on the small rug by our backdoor so that helped (a little bit). The only silver lining to this story was that, as I ran toward her, I tossed a bag of Frito's and chips went flying. I later found a Frito in the living room and it made me smile.


All of these events make me feel like my family is under attack, and I know that the Devil likes to attack when things are seemingly good and/or when we have something in line that He doesn't like. I was recently asked to speak at my church in August so I feel like the Devil is trying to throw these random things at us to bring me down. In the past month, we've been hit pretty hard financially. I'm still awaiting the bills for my unexplained finger surgery, last week we realized that both of our car tags were expired (we didn't get the notices because we moved) so we had to pay $200 in late fee's in addition to the cost of the tags, and now we've lost a dog and we need a new fence. Well played, Devil, well played.

Unfortunately for him, when events like this occur, they only draw us closer to God. The following verse came to mind this morning as I was dealing with the days events:

Romans 5:3-5 - "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

Then this evening I came across this verse:

Ephesians 6:13 - "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

After all of this, we are still standing. Hey Devil - YOU LOSE!


**ADDITION** The power of prayer will never cease to amaze me. Our dog was found within an hour of me writing this blog. GOD IS GOOD!

And I Quote...

Our girls are hilarious! After sharing some of their quotes with family and friends, my brother suggested that we start writing them down. So, for your reading pleasure, here are some of the things our girls have said (mostly from Bailey since she's the oldest) ...

• "Food makes me dance!"
• After being bit in the eyelid by a mosquito and her eye turning blue and swelling, I asked Bailey if she wanted meds for her eye. She said, "Yes, but let's put meds in my mouth and they'll go up to my eye."
• Parker started grunting in the car and Bailey said, "You're not going to shoot poop on me are you? Because that would be terrible!"
• Parker, Bailey, and I were in the recliner when 3 year old Bailey said, "Ow mom. Your elbow is on my booby."
• After sleeping with a hard plastic doll, Bailey said, "I can't sleep with this doll anymore. Her nails are scratching my knees."
• "My heart is beeping really fast." Aka - beating
• "Mom, you should have seen how big my poop was. It was bigger than dads!"
• Bailey asked if we could get Gypsy Ice (sno cones) after dinner, and I said no because her sisters didn't eat very much dinner. She said, "next time make a better dinner!"
• "That's the bestest thing I never did and now Lou's ruining it!"
• While driving, Lou said, "There's Taco Blano." Bailey said, "It's not Blano. It's Blanco."
• "I want cereal with full grain fiver." Aka - Whole grain fiber
• Lou said, "I have a bologna bottom." Aka - Bony bottom
• "Where's the Speed Lemon sign?"
• "Who wants cake? You want funella?" Aka - vanilla
• "That toot brought some pee-pee with it."

And that my friends, is a pretty accurate description of our everyday lives. We wouldn't change it for the world!