July Budget

I haven't done this well couponing since March!

In July, I spent a total of $268.54 on groceries, anything purchased at Wal-Mart and @ Walgreens.
Before coupons/sales- the total was $699.89
I saved $431.35!!!!

I usually keep my food/toiletries budget as close to $200 a month as possible, but there were deals this month that were just too hard to pass up! Granted, not everything I bought was for us- like the J&J deal. But, it was for baby shower gifts, which I would have been spending $ on anyways, just not out of this category our of budget.

How did you do this month? What was your most impressive savings/deal?

School-Before

This is my room/building up at work. Notice the lovely lighting and wood paneling! I worked on re-arranging furniture and putting up my supplies for about 4 hrs today......I'll post after pictures soon :)

ps- I've never been so excitied to get a desk and U-shaped table....we have great custodians at our school who really hooked me up!

Accomplishment

This may be a silly reason to feel accomplished, but it's 10am and I have already:

• walked 2 miles on the treadmill (at an incline!)
• watered the front yard
• prepared spicy mexican chicken for dinner, and it's cooking in the crockpot (http://onefrugalchick.blogspot.com/2008/03/spicy-mexican-chicken.html)
• made the bed
• completed 2 loads of laundry (ok, MA- you beat me w/ your 3 or 4 loads yesterday!)
• swept the kitchen floor

Now if I could just figure out how I'm going to manage my time and the house once I start working 8 to 4!

Walgreens trip

Here's how I did:

TUF Trash bags- on sale for B1G1 free
2 for 3.99
after $5 ES rebate- FREE + some!

Purina Puppy Chow- $3.99 x2
- 2 $4/1 manf printable coupons- take a quick survey to print 2 coupons(http://www.giveabowl.com/Consumer/brands/brandSelector.html?LI=1)
=Free

Hershey's Bliss Chocolate- 6 bags (I'm going to do 2 seperate rebates)
$3.50 a bag
- 6 $1/1 coupon from ES catalog
- 5 $1/1 manf. coupon from paper and here: http://www.hersheys.com/bliss/coupon_123.aspx
-$5 off any $10 hershey's purchase ES rebate
= Free candy after rebate! (If you have the B1G1 coupon from a while back, this is even better!)

Flower and veggie seeds on clearance for $0.12 x4

Makeup- B1g1 free special- 2 for $9.99
-2 $2/1 peelies found on product
=5.99

Total oop: $9.82 (I used a $5 RR)
will earn $15 back on my rebates!

7/29 photo

Pretty, huh? I don't know what it's called- but our climbing bush thingy started producing these beautiful flowers!

Nothing too exciting has been going on around here......I'm going to run to Walgreen's later on to try some deals, I'll let you'all know how it goes.

I'm also going to call the Gap's in town- there is a Friends & Family event this weekend and it's tax-free weekend! So, hopefully I can locate a coupon (usually 30% off your entire purchase) and score some great clothing deals for Brandon and I!

7/28 photo of the day

One of my favorite things about this house.

Another weekend gone....

We had a great weekend! I didn't take enough photos to document it all, oh well.

Friday- Brandon and dad finished painting over the yellow @ the top of the staircase angles- it looks great! That's the last of our painting for a while- it feels good to be done with that. The house is really coming together. Now, we are just saving up to by some newer furniture and a TV for the media room.

Mom and I ran to Linens and Things while they painted........I found a white valance for above the kitchen sink and 2 valances for my room @ school- all $4.99 and then 20% off since they were on clearance!

Saturday- Jocelyn and her parents were in town, and they spent most of the afternoon @ our house. I can't believe how much Jocelyn has grown in the last 2 months- she's going to mainstream this year at her local public school. Brandon taught Sonia and Jacob how to play Guitar Hero.......they loved it!

It was great visiting with them, and we'll get to see them next weekend too!

Sunday- We had our housewarming party tonight. I made homemade ice cream and we had a dessert potluck. We are blessed to have such amazing friends who helped us with so many of the projects around the house. (Chenelle and Jeremy came to the party as well- they had to leave before the picture though!)

Here's Ryan holding Baby Rylan! Erica- was this his 1st time holding a baby?!

Great Borders.com deal!

I found this great deal over @ Money Saving Mom.......

www.borders.com is having a special until Saturday night. $5 off any book! I had to switch to firefox to check out- but I purchased 14 books, originally $72.80 for $9.91! They will be delivered to my local borders within the next week, saving me shipping!

Go over to MSM and check this out!

Puppy Prep

Next Saturday, we are picking up our new puppy, Leia! Andy's (my friend from college) dog had 4 Pomeranian puppies. Brandon has always loved pom's and we have wanted a dog for a good while. But, we kept telling ourselves we needed to wait til we had a house and a big yard. Now that we finally do-we decided to take one of Andy's puppies. I let Brandon pick her name- he decided to name her after Princess Leia from Star Wars. Nerdy, I know!

Last night we went to Petsmart to gather up all the stuff we'd need for the new addition to our family. Today, I went to Ross and found this pet bed and food/water bowls for 1/2 the price!I love finding good deals outside of couponing. We also ordered her a crate online- we saved $20 doing it that way over Petsmart.

Did anyone else crate train their puppy? Any advice?

Sunday Insert Previews

Back on a frugal note.........

Have I ever mentioned this site? http://www.taylortownpreview.com/id64.htm

It's run by a lady down in FL, and she posts the upcoming inserts each week. Usually by Wed. or Thursday evening. Anywho- we don't get all the coupons/all the same amount off here, but it's a great way to predict how many papers/inserts to collect come Sunday.

Just a random couponing tidbit :)

More printables

Since I'm off for 2 weeks, I've had more time to spend on HCW. I found these printables:

$2/1 FarmRich Pizza Snack (Pizza Slices or Mozzarella Bites) - exp 12/31/08
http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=rgvragz86224386&bt=vi&o=53229&c=FR&p=Sx0rMbJT

Bic Back to School coupons
http://www.bicworld.com/inter_us/stationery/index.asp

Skinny Cow Ice cream- .50/1
http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=rgqnfez61366842&bt=wi&o=53018&c=SC&p=DYRU7ilf

It was like Christmas!

Today, I went to my elementary school to meet the principal and see if a nice janitor would let me peek into my future speech therapy room. When I got there, I met the Principal, secretary and school counselor (all of which were super friendly) and they even offered to give me my key to my room early! I couldn't believe it!

My Principal gave me a tour of the school, and then showed me my room. But wait, it's not really even a room.........I have my own stinkin' building! Ok, it's a pre-fab building. And, the entire inside is decorated in wood paneling. But still- it's my space for the year. My space to speech pathologize the heck out of.

She also allowed me to break loose and dig through all the boxes of materials left by the old SLP. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, but I was thinking "I wonder where the artic cards are?" and "Oh YES! They do have extra copies of the PLS forms!"

I spent about 2 hrs opening about 15 boxes and going through filing cabinets.

This is going to be a great year!

Day at the pool

This afternoon, I met MA's kids at the pool. I decided to play with some of the settings on my new(er) camera- check out some of the action shots:

ps- she just started a blog- go check it out @ http://msmysliceoflife.blogspot.com/

Free chairs!

I found these deals on HCW- and they work!

Walgreens has their outdoor, foldy chairs (w/ arms) for 50% off. In the July Easy Saver catalog there is a $5 off rebate offer for the quad chair, with no limit!

So, it looks like this:
Quad Chair- 9.99
-50% discount
=$5.42 (including tax)
-$5 mail in rebate- line 39 on the earnings sheet (remember, if you get it on a WG gift card, you get 10% more- so that would cover the tax!)= FREE!

I found the chairs by the registers at my store, but be sure and check the clearance aisles too!

Also- many Walgreens have the cucumber melon line of Johnson & Johnson on clearance for $3.59. (make sure and get the 27 or 28 oz ones!)
Purchase 3= 10.77
-$3 (easy saver coupon)
-$3 in manf. coupons from http://www.johnsonsbaby.com/specialOffers.do
= 4.77 plus tax oop
earn a $5 RR for your next purchase, meaning FREE baby stuff for all those baby showers I have coming up!

Walgreens this week

Here's how I did @ Walgreens tonight:1st transaction: (I have a TON of baby showers coming up, so this is for baby gifts)

2 packages of Walgreens Diapers- 5.99 each

1 Johnson & Johnson baby wash- on clearance for 3.59

-$5/2 diaper coupon from easy saver booklet

-$1/1 J&J coupon from ES booklet

Total OOP: $10.90

Earned $5 Register Reward

.

2nd transaction:

.59 paper towels

2 Comets- .50 each

2 Bic Razors- 2.99

2 Mitchum deodorants- 1.99 each

7th Generation cleaner- 2.99

-2 of the $2/1 Bic manf coupons from today's paper

-2 of the .75/1 deo. manf coupons

-$1/1 7th generation printable

-$5 RR

total: 4.28 (with tax)

A $1/1 mitchum deodorant manf. coupon printed from the RR machine! So, I picked up another one!

.

3rd transaction-

Mitchum Deodorant- 1.99

-$1/1 coupon

Total with tax: $1.16

THEN- a $2/1 manf. coupon printed out. So my next trip to Walgreens will include a free deodorant! :)

.

Total spent: $16.34

Total saved: $37.18

.

Over on HCW, I found out that supposedly the Walgreens brand diapers will be free when the July and August Easy Saver booklets overlap. Check out HCW for more details!

Family Weekend

The inlaws headed back to Texas this morning, but not before taking a few photos. It was great having them here, and having a house big enough for guests! We had a great dinner Saturday night, I'll post my crockpot french dip sandwiches and potato casserole recipe later.

Here's Sebastian, ready to go home:And Brandon and I- our 1st picture on our front porch :)

Doggie Kisses

My inlaws are in town this weekend to visit and check out our new house. Brandon's dad brought all of his tools, so they've been working on fixing up odds/ends around the house.

The brought Sebastian with them- and of course, he has to kiss on Brandon:

Sharon and I also went to Walgreens to run the razor and shampoo deal one more time. (She brought me more coupons from Dallas!!!) I walked out of Walgreens with 2 packages of razors, shampoo and conditioner for $2.44!!

B1G1 Free Jamba!

Saw this over on MSM- print this puppy out! It's a b1g1 free coupon for Jamba Juice- it expires 7/30/08.
http://www.jambajuice.com/#/home/

it's on the right side of the screen :)

ps- their orange refresher, the drink they are advertising- is on sale for $2.95!

Today's photo + Homeland

Last night while Brandon mowed the lawn, I rid the fireplace of boxes and odds/ends that hadn't found a home yet. Doesn't it look great now? (This picture also shows off our new wall color)

Tonight, Brandon decided to run my grocery errands with me, since we are preparing for his parents to come spend the weekend with us. We went to Homeland, and this is what we got:
2 Eskimo Pie Ice cream treats- $2 each
- $1/1 manf coupon (doubled)= FREE!
2 Ragu sauce pouches- $1.75
-$.75/1 manf coupon= $.25 each
Smart Balance butter- $2.99
- $1/1 manf coupon= $.99
Beef for Saturday's dinner- on sale for $2.99/lb
Dole Salad- $1.89
-$.55/1 manf coupon= $.79
and a few other things I didn't have coupons for, but they had on sale or a decent price.

Total spent: $24.21
Total saved: $17.85

More deals :)

I saw some decent Target/Walgreen's deals over @ Money Saving Mom that I decided to stir out today.

1st off, let me reccomend to you to take what you read off any blog with a grain of salt, and when it comes to deals-consult your ad or look on HCW just to be sure. I went Walgreens to try the free candy deal that MSM listed....the deal wasn't a deal at all and it sure wasn't free.......so don't waste your time on that!

Anywho- I didn't get anything too exciting at Walgreens, but Target had some decent stuff. I spent $6.86 on this:

3 powerades- $0.77 each

-2 $1/1 and 1 .75/1 manf coupons= FREE + overage

3 electrasols- $2.79 each

-3 $2.25/1 manf coupons

4 Bic pen packages- $0.50 each

- 2 $1/2 manf coupons- printables from www.coupons.com =FREE!

Fruit cups- marked down to $4.24

The total before coupons would have been 16.92 w/out tax! They have started marking down some of the limited time value packs, so keep your eye on that :)

WFMW: renting ladders

I haven't participated in WFMW in a while, but I'm back! Make sure and check more WFMW tips out over @ www.rocksinmydryer.typepad.com

Did you know that you can rent ladders and other home improvement equipment from Home Depot?

We are almost done painting our new home, but we can't reach the top of the walls on the staircase and entryway from our 6 ft. ladder. Brandon called Home Depot tonight, and we can rent a ladder for the staircase for $24/day or $17 for 4 hrs.

So, Home Depot rentals work for me!

I heart google and amazon!

Back around Christmas, I added the google ads to my blog. It's a win-win situation for Google and myself. Google gets to post ads related to what I blog about, and I get a little bit of $$ for each time a reader clicks my ads. After you get enough clicks to earn $100, Google will mail you a check.......anywho- I checked my account today and I should be receiving a check shortly for $102! Easy money, huh?
Anywho- if you were by any chance interested, email me and I can refer you.

Also, I've been posting my old textbooks on Amazon for sale. Now that it's getting closer to school starting, I've sold 2 in the past 24 hours! So, if you have any textbooks laying around or any other books that you'd like to sell- check out Amazon.com to see if you could make any $ off of 'em!

I'm still fighting my sinus infection, so nothing too exciting is going on around here. I had my new hire meeting w/ the school district today- it's kinda crazy to think I'll be working full time soon!

The good deals are back!

I love all these good deals going on right now! It feels really nice to be getting back into couponing.

I just got back from Target and spent only $11 on lunch meat, 4 pk of klennex (I have a sinus infection), bread, 3 cans of pringles and sour cream! I used 3 of the Target .50/1 pringles coupons, 1 .30/3 manf coupon, a sour cream coupon and a free lunch meat coupon from land o frost.
We swung by Office Depot tonight to get Brandon some ink for his printer- we used the max amount ($9) of the ink exchange coupons and cut the cost of his ink in 1/2! I used 3 of the coupons and paid $0.26 for a reem of paper, 500 stickers and glue sticks- all of which I'll use when school starts.

Earlier I was on HCW, and saw the Walgreens preview ad for next week. I saw that Seventh Generation cleaners/products are 25% off. If you go to this website and register, you can print numerous SG coupons. http://www.seventhgeneration.com/
(hint- Karen..since you love this stuff!)

Walgreens deals.....

Or should I say steals? :) ha! Look at all I got for $11.40 (it was 6.04 before tax):
Without the Walgreens Easy Saver booklet and my manf. coupons I would have spent $94.38!
Here's the breakdown:

• Loreal Vive Shampoo/Conditioner- Walgreens has it on sale for B1G1 Free, then I had 3 B1G1 Free manf. coupons, combine them together=6 FREE!
• Maalox chewables- on sale for 3.99, used the Easy Saver booklet coupon for $2 off each one, and then the $2/1 manf coupon from this past Sunday's paper= FREE!
• Garden tools on sale- .40 and .50!
• Schick Razors- originally $5.99; I used the $2/1 Easy Saver booklet coupon x6, then 3 of the B1G1 Free coupons from the Sunday paper= $0.99 a package
  

I went to QT afterwards to get more coupons from the Daily Oklahoman, but the paper lady had already picked all the old Sunday ones up :( So, unless my inlaws bring me some of the coupons from Texas, I won't be able to run this deal again......but I'm pretty proud of my coupon deal!

A productive weekend (& picture catch-up)

This weekend we got alot of the projects around the house completed. I can't believe the house has taken shape this fast- it really feels like our home now!

Friday I ran errands, had a lunch date w/ Chenelle and Erica and went to our monthly scrapbook night. I did find white thermal/blackout curtains on sale for $6.24 at Target, so I bought all they had (2 of 'em) for our media room.

Saturday we went to Chad's wedding and saw alot of our old church friends. Here's Liz and I:

and then Brandon and I:After the wedding, Karen, Will and the kiddos came over and we painted the media room, installed a ceiling fan and Audri even helped me with dinner! Brandon took this one of Audri- any kiddo who will play w/ an OSU football gets an A+ in our book :)It's such a blessing to have such great friends that are willing to help us with these projects. We are done painting for a little while, besides for some touch-ups and the trim @ the top of the stairs. I'll post pictures of the newly completed media room soon!

Tulsa area coupon deal

I ran this deal the other day @ Wal-Mart with my insert coupons, but I just found an online printable coupon that will work too!

All laundry detergent is on sale for $2.99 @ Warehouse market. I had Wal-Mart price comp it and then I used a $1/1 coupon (http://www.allfreeclear.com/allfreeclear/register/index.aspx). Paying $1.99 for 32 loads of laundry- that's 6 cents a load!

Pickens Plan

As many of you know, Brandon and I adore our Alma mater, OSU. A very wealthy oil man, T. Boone Pickens has made numerous donations to the school and athletic department. Thus, we like him too- he's making our school a better place (and hopefully a better football team!) through his donations.

Anywho- earlier this week I was flipping channels and I saw good ol' Boone on Fox and CNN News. (Wearing a bright orange tie of course!) He was promoting his new energy plan, the Pickens Plan. He's putting alot of $$$$ behind this to run ad's throughout the presidential race...anywho, check out the website:

www.pickensplan.com

Basically, he (the oil man) is saying that we are running out of oil, and we need to stop being so dependent on it. (duh!) He proposes using wind power to generate electricity. Wind is a renewable resource, throughout the plains there is plenty of open space to construct these wind farms.
He also proposes using natural gas to fuel transportation. This part I don't understand, but I think it comes after the wind power stuff takes off.

Anywho- I don't usually promote political stuff here, but I think it's great that someone is launching a huge campaign and has a 10 yr plan for reducing our dependence on oil. I just hope it works!

Before & After- Kitchen

Before (these are pictures from the realtor and ones I took when we were making our offer):After: We used the 'Koi Pond' color from Sherwin Williams, and we had to paint over the wallpaper! We started to take the wallpaper down, but there was at least 1 other layer behind it. We used a tinted oil base primer, let it dry overnight and then painted most of the day last Friday.

Brandon hung the roman shades for me last night- I just love 'em!

What do you think?

I heart FedEx!

Look what came in the mail today:Ok, all you can see are 2 brown boxes- but they are my roman shades that I ordered Sunday for my kitchen!! I ordered 6 roman shades from Linens and Things on Sunday, they were shipped on Monday morning. According to FedEx, they were going to be delivered on Friday...but they came early!!

Also, this afternoon, Mallorie and I went to Wal-Mart. Now, as you know, I really dislike that place. I'm much more of a Target/Homeland gal, but I needed to price-comp some items, and it just wasn't worth the gas to drive all around town.

Total spent: $42.29

Total saved: $15.59 w/ price-comping and coupons

Tuesday

Last night and tonight, I tried some new recipes from the crockpot 365 blog. Her Chipotle Chicken was AMAZING! We had it over rice- YUM!
Tonight we tried her broccoli cheddar soup- yuck. It actually didn't taste that terrible, it was just such a mess to clean up! All the cheese was super stringy and the soup had a strange texture.
I have a much lower calorie, better tasting version that I cook on the stovetop.....but I digress, you'all should try her chipotle chicken recipe. Here's the link: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/06/crockpot-chipotle-chicken-with-sweet.html
While Brandon mowed the lawn this evening, I re-arranged my pantry. Mom and Erica put everything in there for me last week (which I really appreciated!) but I added the white wire shelves and gave myself more room. I love having such a large pantry!

weekend work

This past weekend we finished painting the kitchen, formal dining room and we painted over everything that was yellow! Here's mom and Brandon having fun: Brandon, dad and Ryan worked on the yard, triming the overgrown bushes and such- look how great the house looks now:

The Lurvey's came down from Missouri, and brought us this beautiful piece of furniture that's been in the family for a LONG time. We put it in the formal dining room and we were so excitied to finally be able to display our wedding china!Finally, today I listed more of my old textbooks on Amazon. I've already sold 3 textbooks and should be receiving my 1st payment from Amazon soon! If you have any extra books laying around, be sure and check Amazon to see if you can make some $$ off of them! (Thanks Erica!)

Some decent printable coupons

I found some printable coupons over the weekend on HCW...figured I'd share:

60 cents off/2 Musselman's apple sauce: http://www.musselmans.com/Coupon.aspx?source=mmpromos

50 cents off/2 cups of yoplait yogurt- http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=re1uedz75148646&bt=wi&o=52819&ci=1&c=YL&p=AQ9T8yHC

$1/1 Honeynut Cherrios- https://honeynutcheerios.icmodus.com/Default.aspx?bhcp=1

$2/1 Just Bunches, Honey Bunches of Oats Coupon- http://www.kraftfoods.com/honeybunchesofoats (this is supposed to be under $3 @ WalMart making for some cheap cereal)

July 3rd photo

Goodbye dark green formal dining room! (I only got the priming done today, but that's still an accomplishment, right?)

Before & After- our master bedroom

Here's our master bedroom on move-in day:notice the blue carpet and the dark, splotchy (spelling?) paint!

Here's our bedroom 2 days later:

We purchased a remnant of stainmaster carpet and I painted the room all day yesterday while Brandon was at work! (I have this week off)

I'm trying to be as frugal as possible as we paint/fix up the new house. So far, these are the deals I've gotten:

tons of $$ saved by buying a remnant from a local carpet store- we carpeted the room for around $300!!!
Lowes- 10% off entire purchase and $10 off any $25 purchase coupons
Valspar paint's $5 rebate per gallon
$9.99 curtains at Target
& doing all the painting, taping, etc myself.

Today's photos and a side note

I had quite the experience this morning...to read about it, go over to my friend Karen's blog: http://karenluper.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/the-police-are-your-friends/



After getting my cable/internet hooked up and new carpet installed, Karen and the kiddos came over to steam clean the carpet upstairs! Have I mentioned how great of friends we have? Erica who helped us pack and she cleaned my bathrooms for me...Karen steam cleaning my carpets and even offering to help us paint this place during the next open weekend! Kathi and Mike (from church) even brought us by banana bread and offered to bring us dinner!!



Anywho, as everyone was leaving tonight, we found this little guy on our front porch:

And- to top it all off.....mom and dad brought us this cool housewarming gift :)

We're homeowners!

Here we are @ closing:and in our NEW house with our friends that helped us move! We are so blessed to have such great family and friends who are willing to help us move, scrub toilets, steam clean carpet, etc......