Thrifty Thursday #9

Coupons. Oh wonderful money saving coupons. I love you...

Coupon Geek, Frugal Racing Fan Mommy , Coupon Clippin' Mommy , The Coupon Scoop, A Thrifty Mom , Stockpiling Moms showed me that I could sign up for a Betty Crocker $10 coupon booklet that will be mailed to me within 6-8 weeks.

Coupon Geek, Moms by Heart also showed me that Wal-Mart is offering $17 worth of savings in a ConAgra coupon book that will also be mailed to me within 6-8 weeks. I love coupons, so THANK YOU Coupon Geek.

Now, I'm done with the having babies part of my life, but I have family members who have new babies and who are currently expecting new babies. And maybe some other readers could also find this useful. I found on A Thrifty Mom, an excellent link to sign up for FREE baby stuff and money-saving coupons for diapers, magazines, and formula.

I am excited that my Kroger is having its Mega-Sale event this week. Buy 10 participating sale items and get $5 off at check out. I'm so glad that CincySavers has the coupon match ups done so I can save the most money possible for my family. Other sites also did match ups, but I saw it at CincySavers first.

Oooh. My hubby loves Toaster Strudles, and Nickles-n-Dimes just showed me where to get $1 off 1 box. That's awesome. This makes for 2 possibly FREE boxes. Yay! And guess what happens to be in the Mega-Sale???

And according to Facebook, I will be getting a coupon for FREE oreos. I became a fan of Oreo and stalked their page until the contest opened at 3pm on Monday. I got mine! Did you get yours?

Now, I am a sucker for making my kids' birthdays all they can be, so I ordered WC's invites and such from Birthday Express. I didn't want to order, but I looked at Target and Party City with no luck for his construction theme. But Birthday Express was so nice to me. I ordered online, and applied a coupon code for 10% off. I also entered a code for free shipping on orders over $25. Of course I noticed after checkout that the free shipping didn't come off. So I called them and learned I could not double up the coupons. However, they are crediting my card the $5.95 for shipping this time. Isn't that nice??

I have signed up to get free bags before, and so far, I haven't received any yet. Hopefully this deal found by Freebies4Mom and Nickels-n-Dimes will come through. Thanks!

Now I know my FREE sample of Playtex Gentle Glide really isn't saving me all that much money. But I do know that I need "supplies" every month and every penny counts!
Thanks to CouponingFor4 for showing that deal to me!

But the best thing I did by far, I found through A Thrifty Mom. I donated 16 pounds of food to Americans with help from Oscar Mayer Good Mood Mission. And all it cost me was about two minutes of my time. That's it.

AND - I have just been notified that I am the WINNER of a giveaway hosted by CouponingFor4 for Dinners In the Freezer cookbook. I am so looking forward to freezing more meals for my family, to not only save money, but to save me some time, too! Thank you!!

So that's how I've been thrifty this week. What have you been doing??

PS-I received my FREE pair of Lee Jeans that I won this week! I love how they make my booty look! Bonus!

Wednesday's Wishes #6

We all know how addicted to coffee I am, and how much I jut love drinking that stuff. Well what better giveaway to enter than one for a $25 gift card to Starbucks? It's like it's calling out to me! So, I wish to win this giveaway offered by A Day In The Life.

Be Your Best Mom is hosting a giveaway for some great natural products by Three Sisters Herbals. These items would make for a wonderful relaxation gift to either myself, because I deserve it, or to some one else. I hope I win!

Post It Note Tuesday #2

Post It Notes provided by Supah Mommy

The Godzilla Within

My son is less than a month away from being 2 years old. However, his "terribleness" has been going on for what seems like years. He has the cutest face and sweetest smile, neither that will ever be seen on my blog for personal reasons, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
But everywhere he goes, chairs call out in fright...

bathrooms and rolls of toilet paper quiver....

laptops cry out warnings....

toy bins scream in agonizing pain...
clothes (and unfortunately sometimes diapers) peel themselves off of his body to get away...
and toys group together praying they have the same camouflage techniques zebras have.

And even though there are always signs of destruction in his path, I feel so lucky and blessed to have him in my life. After all, he's teaching me patience (an answer to my prayers, I'm sure), making my fingers stronger since I have to press as hard as I possibly can to get the "a" button on the laptop to work, helping me shed unwanted calories by having to always pick up toys and chairs, and showing me how to NOT sweat the small stuff. Thanks, WC. Mommy loves you.

Friday's Funny Phrases #6

After banging her toe on the chair, "Mommy. I hurt my pinkalicious toe." I guess she LOVES that book!

"Daddy, let's play hide-and-seek. You can hide anywhere you want. You can hide upstairs or in the piano room." - AZ

Thrifty Thursday #8

With my latest Kroger shopping experience, I saved 34%. Yay! I took the total from $172.16 down to $112.69. That's a savings of $59.47 this week. I got a FREE 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk and a FREE Gatorade. Felt good!

In the massive redecorating project of my bedroom, that's still in progress, I had to stop by Michael's and pick up a few picture frames and some mats. Using two coupons, I was able to save enough money that equaled one FREE 5x7 frame and two FREE mats. I love saving money!

Hopefully I can make it out to Target this week, too, because I've learned from Moms by Heart, Couponing for 4, and Luvin' Great Deals that I can get a FREE Nivea body wash using the $1 Target store coupon and the $2 coupon from the 1/3 Red Plum (as well as the ad for Big Lots from this week).

And while I'm at Target, thanks to Moms by Heart, Couponing for 4 and Nickels-n-Dimes, I can get some ALL detergent for just $.50 thanks to Big Lots ad, Target's price matching, and the $2 off coupon from the 1/3 Red Plum insert.

Another find for Target is from Moms by Heart and Coupon Geek for Huggies Pure and Natural Diapers. Now, I am not a Huggies fan, but how can I resist $5.50 savings on a pack of diapers? Short answer: I can't.

With the redecorating project still going on in my bedroom, I've learned that I need a few more black and white pictures for some of my frames. It's a good thing I learned from Moms by Heart and Coupon Geek all about the 50 FREE prints I can get from CVS. Yahooo!

Now this one is my absolute favorite - thanks to Frugal Mom Knows Best, I won Thomas Splish, Splash, Splosh DVD. WC is going to LOVE this when he opens it for his soon-to-be birthday, and I love that it was free to me! Thank you so much Frugal Mom Knows Best!

And what else goes along with birthdays? Decorations, of course. I'm so glad that The Coupon Scoop,Luscious Deals, and A Thrifty Mom each showed me a $10 off $30 purchase for Party City. Looks like I'll be headed there for invites and such for WC's 2nd birthday party. And if I have money to spare, I'll grab a few items for AZ's 4th birthday party, too.

My Inner Party Planning Goddess

The party planner within has taken over! I've been thinking about WC's upcoming 2nd birthday for a while now, and I think I've finally settled on his theme. I REALLY wish now that I wouldn't have made his theme last year trains because right now he's LOVIN' him some Thomas the Tank Engine. It turned out so cute, though, right?


So instead, I guess we're going with a construction theme this year. He equally adores his Tonka dump truck. He plays with this thing for what seems like hours. In fact, he and AZ will take turns riding in it and pushing one another. So, I think he'll like this theme. Here's my inspiration for his birthday cake and decorations this year.

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I am sure he's going to love it.

The next party I'm planning for is my sister's baby shower! And she's having a boy! After seeing cupcake towers and inspiration from Imperfectly Beautiful, a blog I highly recommend you follow by the way, I've been so excited about making one for the baby shower.
I love the ribbons around the boxes on this one...

and the colors in this one....

And why stop there? Something like this would be soooo cute for AZ's 4th birthday. I'm definitely thinking she'll have the Pinkalicious theme.

This is all going to be so much fun!

Post It Note Tuesday #1

Post It Notes provided by Supah Mommy

My New Drawers of Happiness

Now if you read my post from a couple of days ago about how my junk drawer has turned into my drawer of happiness, then you may be thinking that I've been doing some more organizing. Nope. These drawers of happiness are all thanks to Victoria's Secret. I had not bought pretty undies for myself in such a long time. I have been wearing old, and I mean OLD, Hanes Her Way undies for the last 10 or more years. Well I happened to walk by Victoria's Secret and saw that their semi-annual sale was going on. And now I love my undies, my lacy trimmed cheeky undies. These are my new drawers of happiness. And I haven't heard any complaints from my hubby, either.

Friday's Funny Phrases #5

While cleaning my house, I told AZ that I needed to go fold her clothes and put them away. She says, "Mommy, I'll help you clean your toes."

This is not a phrase, but I've learned that WC knows how to imitate squirrels. I had some Dove dark chocolate on the desk, forgot about them, got up, and walked away. He ran over to the chair, climbed up, and started eating those chocolates, foil wrapper and all.