August '08 Budget

I spent a little (ok, alot) more this month than I usually do, but I stumbled across some GREAT meat & pop sales and of course, the Kellogg's rebate deal! Here's how I did:

Total OOP (out of pocket): $319.99 (YIKES!)
-$40 in Kellogg's MIR
=$279.99
Total before coupons: $574.79, so I saved $294.80 this month :)
I'm stocked up until December on cereal,snacks for lunches/breakfast, pace salsa, pasta sauce, dawn dish soap, 12 packs of pop and paper towels.

So, for 2008 I've saved $1,372.58 combing coupons with sales.
Of course, I've spent $1,555.45

How'd you do this month?

Homeland on 8/30

I spent close to $45 for all of my groceries this week. Here's all the goodies I got at Homeland: The best deals were:
$2.99 milk w/ raincheck from last week
2 FREE pasta sauce pouches thanks to the printables I found today :)
2 FREE dawn dish soaps (rainchecks from last week + P&G coupon)
Free ronzoni pasta
Free Easy Mac (www.smartsource.com, I actually got paid .40 to take these out of the store)
Free Peter Pan PB

I just love couponing :)

1st game of the season.......

GO POKES!

We can't wait for the 1st home game next weekend, but watching the OSU Cowboys on TV is pretty close....

and for your viewing pleasure, Leia is now into giving kisses :)

great printables!

$2.25 off any Silk milk (mom & dad- print this one off!)
http://www.silksoymilk.com/drtv/



$1/1 Bertolli Pasta Sauce Pouch
http://www.villabertolli.com/registration_pastasauce.aspx

It's been awhile!

I just realized that I haven't updated this thing since Sunday!

I've been slacking on my daily photos, I need to start taking my camera with me more.

This week was pretty quiet, and I loved it!

It was a pretty 'normal' week at work- no big paperwork surprises like there was last week. I'm getting to know my speech kiddos better, and I really enjoy working with them!

I've been borrowing workbooks and materials from my mentor SLP and from others in the district. I have copied/printed off at least $400 worth of supplies- it's such a blessing to be in a position in which I can really build up my speech therapy supplies without breaking the bank!

Alot of these books I borrowed had CD's of the actual workbook, so I made a few copies, legally of course :)

Here's a cute photo sequence of Brandon and Leia playing:

Brandon had to start wearing a winter glove on his hand when playing with her- her teeth are just too sharp now!

We're looking forward to a quiet weekend and the 1st OSU football game of the season!!!

playdate

We kept our nephew on Friday night and Leia just went nuts! She had someone her size to play with! :)

Homeland :)

Last night Karen and I went to Homeland to check out there 3 day sale.Total spent: $34.26

Total w/out coupons & sales: $68.05

I received rainchecks for the dawn dish soap (free with coupons) and $2.99 milk.

Here's some of the highlights:

3 lbs of top serloin and chuck steak (for my crockpot meals)

chinet cups- $0.48 ($1/1 printable)

puffs tissue- .50

2 4 pks of pudding cups- $0.25 a pack

2 Blue Bell ice cream bars- free & $0.99

Hamburger helper for 1-$0.66 each

Assorted Old ElPaso products for about 50% off

busy

Monday: I pulled up to school, and this was waiting outside the building! Talk about really sticking with a theme! :) It was my 1st day with my full caseload, and I feel like I'm handling it really well. If only I knew how to write IEP's, I'd be set. That'll come with time though.......hopefully........

Tuesday: Our season football tickets came in the mail! It's strange to have 'real' tickets, we're still so used to the cheaply printed student ones.

Today: Brandon turned 26 today! He took off work a little early to take Leia in to get her shots, and then we headed over to mom & dad's for his birthday dinner. As we were leaving, we saw this beautiful sunset. It was almost cold out- it sure doesn't feel like August or like Brandon's actually 26 years old!

growing puppy!

Little Leia is growing! She loves to bite now, and is still resistant to the leash....we're working on that this week.

Another printable

$1 off any box of Duncan Hines Carrot Cake
$0.50 off Duncan Hines cream cheese frosting
http://www.duncanhines.com/carrotcake/


And, they double! So, this should make for some free carrot camke and icing! :)

Office Depot

Tonight I ran to Office Depot to pick up some supplies for my room. My dad saves all of his old ink cartridges from work (he owns his own business) and I usually take them up to OD or Staples to cash them in for $3 off coupons.

Well, at Office Depot, you can use up to 3 $3 coupons at a time- so $9 off your purchase. Tonight I checked out twice, and for $2.24 I got:
100 file folders
2 sets of A-Z dividers
2 desk trays

It's also pretty green- recylcing your ink and then it's frugal getting something in return :)

1st day!

Happy 1st day of school! Our school has a racing theme for the year- I just love how they carry the theme throughout everything! (I also love the 8am lighting in this picture too!)

Tired Tuesday.

Today was day 2 of the 6:45am workout. Yesterday, I felt all energized from the workout, but today I'm just plain pooped!
I can't blame it all on the exercise- school starts back tomorrow (I don't have kiddos til Monday- thank goodness!) and I worked an extra 2 hrs today trying to get my 50 kiddos scheduled and IEP's printed. When I left work today, my desk was the cleanest it's ever been- look:

Even though I'm worn out- I love my job so far. The 6 yrs of school was totally worth it. I can't wait to start working with my kiddos! Today was 'meet your teacher day' at school, so I didn't expect too many people to stop by my room. Several kids and parents did- and they were all so excited to have a new 'speech teacher'. I guess the old SLP didn't make speech very fun, and most kiddos didn't like going. I'm excited to change things and help the kids enjoy speech and hopefully progress towards their goals even faster.

After work- Brandon's mom, sister and baby Asher came over for dinner tonight. Leia and Asher chased each other around the coffee table- here's Leia trying to hide:

I haven't had much time this week to look for any good couponing deals. I didn't see anything worth buying at Walgreens. My Homeland ad came in the mail today, but I haven't even had a chance to look at it. My mother-in-law brought me coupons from Dallas- so I'll cut those out tonight :)

Productive Monday

School doesn't officially start til Wed and I don't work w/ kiddos until next Monday, but I was still SUPER busy up at work today. I felt really productive because I woke up just a little earlier this morning and got 30 minutes of exercise on the treadmill squeezed in. Once I was up and out of bed, it was actually easier working out in the morning than it is in the afternoon. It just set the tone for the whole day.

I met my mentor teacher/CFY SLP supervisor today, and I'm so excited about this year. Our personalities are really similar. She reminds me of my friend that I interned under last fall.



After dinner, we caught Leia watching the Olympics:

Rainy Sunday

We finally got some rain around here! It was our Sunday to take snacks to church, and I wanted to spice up the Pillsbury Grands biscuits I bought on sale this week. I found this recipe on the Pillsbury website- and it was a HUGE hit!

Easy Caramel Sticky Buns

INGREDIENTS
Topping
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Buns
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 can (7.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

DIRECTIONS
1.Heat oven to 375°F. In ungreased 8-inch round pan, place 1/4 cup butter; heat in oven 3 to 4 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir in brown sugar and corn syrup until well blended. Sprinkle with pecans.
2.In small bowl, place 3 tablespoons melted butter. In another small bowl, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
3.Separate dough into 10 biscuits. Dip biscuits into melted butter to coat all sides; dip into sugar mixture, coating well. Arrange biscuits, sides touching, over topping in pan.
4.Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; turn upside down onto heatproof serving plate. Let pan remain 1 minute so caramel can drizzle over rolls. Serve warm.

This sounds alot like a recipe I tried a while back, but each biscuit was placed seperately into the holes on a muffin tin. After burning 2 batches, I stopped trying that recipe. This recipe didn't have the slightest burn- if anything, they were just a little undercooked- but oh so goo-ey!

.

Here's some photos from yesterday. Grandbob and Grandbe came to Tulsa to see our new house and mom & dad's new house.

And here's mom and her grand-puppy:

Puppy pictures!

Nothing too exciting has been going on around here, so most of my pictures are of Leia :) Here's some cute ones:
She's really started to become more playful this past week. She loves her chew stick and anything with strings on it.

Here she is taking her 1st real bath (at least with us)- she wasn't too happy!

Last night was our monthly scrapbook get-together. I was worn out from my 1st full day at my elementary school site, but I'm glad I went. I completed a few pages and made some cute thank you notes. Here's one of the pages:

New.

Once again, I'm the new kid on the block. Things are a'changing. I couldn't fall asleep last night, and when I did- I had nightmares about what today would be like.

Why was I so nervous? Today was my 1st day as a full time employee!!! 6 years of school + ALOT of hard work, all leading up to this 1st full time job as an SLP.
Today was a district-wide new hire meeting, and it was nothing like I expected it to be. Let's just say, I'm ready to be at my school and working with the kiddos! But, as with any job- you have to learn the ropes 1st.

I also found out today that I will be traveling- I will have 6 teenagers to work with at the I-High. I'm a little nervous, considering I can't be more than 8-1o years older than these kiddos, but I think it will be a good experience. I'll still be at the elementary school the majority of the week, only missing about an hour 2 mornings a week to speech path it up over at the I-High.

Here's some new things I'm looking forward to:

• completing home improvement projects with Brandon
• hanging out w/ my new friend Elizabeth
• getting to know the other teachers better- & hopefully making new friends there!
• fresh pencils
• elementary school smell- especially on the 1st day!
• meeting, then treating 55 kiddos in 1 week!
• Leia being potty trained (she hasn't gone in her crate in over 2 days!)
• wearing my new fall shoes :)
• a steady paycheck!!!!
• OSU season football tickets

Price comp's @ Wal-Mart

After running into Walgreens and not finding enough stock to qualify for the Kellogg's rebate, I decided to just price-comp the deal @ Wal-Mart.

If you don't know about this deal- it's great! Wal-Mart will match any competing stores price. I usually have the other store's ad with me, just in case the cashier asks for proof of the sale price. Most cashiers don't even blink or give you any trouble with this, but I've run into a few that do. I've found cashiers that I like & are coupon friendly, and I always try to check out with them. The Wal-Mart not too far from my house has great cashiers, so I never have much trouble.

Here's how I did today:
4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal- price comp to $1.25
4 boxes Nutrigrain bars- " "
2 Keebler cookies- price comp to $1.00
Glade air and odor elimator- price comp to $1.47= FREE after coupon!
bananas
tomatoes
9 Kool-aids- .20 each
Kraft salad dressing- FREE (coupon from All You- must buy 3 Kraft, etc products- Koolaid counts!)
Crystal Light- FREE (ditto)
Kraft sliced cheese- Free (ditto)
3 pencil pkgs- price comp to 0.09
Glade scented oil warmer- .87 after $4/1 coupon from Sunday's paper
Glade " " refills- $3.97 after $1/1 coupon
house plant and container for my room at school, glue sticks, butter, other groceries, etc.

Total OOP: $43.97
And I'll receive $10 back in rebate (meaning I paid $1 for all that Kelloggs!)
Total before coupons and price comp's: $81.42

I saved $37.45!! Now, I don't really like shopping at Wal-Mart, but you just can't beat the convience and ease of getting all these deals in one store.

Tuckered out!

Leia loves her new toy :)

Possible deals this week

Just some random deals I've noticed that I'd like to pick up this week.

Target:
For back to school, they have Klennex 4 packs for $2.99.
-$0.50/1 coupon from this Sunday's paper
= $0.62 a box!
Also, Target will clearance these after school starts- so you might save some coupons for that!

Walgreens:
*Free Glade Fabric and Aire Odor Eliminator spray when you use the Easy Saver coupon and this printable:http://www.cleanhomejournal.com/offers/200807-glade/?sid=coupon&cid=pfe200807c&RID=8663256
*Possibly the $5 RR when you buy 4 Kellogg's products.......last year MA and I used the Kellogg's rebate deal with the Albertson's sale instead. To receive the $10 rebate from Kellogg's, all 10 items must be on the same ticket, which is really difficult to do at Walgreens due to there lack of stock. But, we'll see.....remember, the manf. MIR deal doesn't start til Tuesday.
I'll definately post about this deal if I actually try it this week. I might wait and see if some other grocery stores run a better deal.
(ps- it's rumored over at HCW that you can get two $5 RR if you mix/match the cereal and other Kellogg's products!)
*Lifesavers are B1g1 free- and I still have some B1G1 free manf. coupons!!!

Food Pyramid:
Grapes- .88/lb.........I'm going to get this price-comped at Wal-mart

Flower girls and random tidbits

This afternoon, Brandon and I were Jocelyn's 'helpers' at her aunt's wedding. I am just amazed at how well early intervention and great parenting work! (and, God's grace!) 2 years ago, Joceyln was just learning how to draw a circle with hand-over-hand prompting, and had great difficulty with social situations. Today, she was walked down the aisle as a flower girl, sat through the entire wedding ceremony and lasted for 1/2 of the reception!


To answer some puppy questions- most Pomerianians don't really shed. Brandon had Sebastian for years, and he never shed. We'll have to take Leia to the goomer though for some trims!

Also- a puppy potty training question- Leia will go outside, but is hesitant to pee outside. We've even put a puppy pad out there, but she won't go on it. Any tips?

Leia is here!

After 2 years of waiting- Brandon and I finally have a dog!

After my cousins wedding, we headed over to Andy's house to pick up Leia. We get there, and Andy introduces us to the dog we picked out in the pictures. She was the alpha dog of the group, and after about 5 minutes, we realized (sadly) she didn't have the temperment that we were looking for in a puppy. She was a great dog- just too high strung and whinny for us. So, we played with the other pups, and brought the smallest gal home with us!

Leia did a GREAT job on the way home! As soon as we got out of the car, she started carefully checking out the house....

And quickly found her favorite spot- on the bottom shelf of our coffee table!

flowers

Even though it's 100 degrees out- my flowers still look pretty good :)

We are getting geared up to pick up Leia tomorrow- we can't wait to meet her!