Being Real

When I started this blog I said I had no real format and I would be blogging about real life and being frugal. Well today is a real life topic that God has been impressing upon my heart for quite a while. Being Real. What does it really mean? I just feel as I christian and a mom I sometimes struggle with acting like everything is perfect and I never have anything going on. That simply is not true. Real life happens!! We need a close circle of a few people that we can truly be real with. We also need to pray for guidance to be that type of friend. We need to have compassion and be people of substance. We need to call people and be there when we since they need encouragement even if they aren't yet willing to share what is going on. Just to say I love you dearly, I am here for you and I praying for you. I am really trying to be this type of friend and praying for more friends I can truly be real with. We all need that girl friend we can call and just talk about real life no judging, no sharing with anyone else, just being real! Today I want to challenge all of us to seek God and be this type of friend and if you need this type of friend don't hesitate asking God for it he cares! I am going to take this time to pray for myself and others.

Dear Jesus,
How I thank you for all my blessing! I am truly blessed beyond measure even when life gets hard help me hold fast to this. Lord I really want to be real with the relationships in my life. Give me disinterment and understanding for my friends. Help me be what you have called me to be. Help me show your love. Help me cleave to you in everything for understanding and wisdom. Lord you know what is going on with me right now and please comfort me and help me hear you. Lord I also pray that you send to me the type of friends I can be real with. All of us women need someone to be real with. Lord while this is on my mind it also relates to my child. Please help her grow into this type of woman. Help me be the mom she needs me to be at every stage. When she is grown help me be the mother that can be real with my adult daughter. Let the moms that are reading know how important this can be for us young adult daughters. Let them know we need our moms for support, Godly example, and friendship. Lord Help me seek you each and every day in all my decisions. I love you dearly! Lauren

Delight yourself always in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your hear. Psalms 37:4

My Shopping Sunday (Walmart and a Walgreens Deal)

I went to walmart with a list to buy quite a bit of stuff. I trying 5 brand new dinners this week so I bought some stuff out of the norm. I did not take a picture of my wal mart trip but my total was about $100 before coupons and price matches and I got it down to $65. This is not great but I needed a lot of non coupon items (like for instance carrots, potatoes, cream cheese,cheese, and so fourth) You get the idea! :) I will try to post pics next week though! :)
In case any of you were wondering what my menu will be this week I will share! :)

Monday- Broccoli Chicken Casserole
Tuesday-Taco Avocado wraps
Wednesday- Overnight Stuffed French Toast, Cheese Grit Casserole (from grits box), Cream Cheese Danish (from friend) I am having the in laws over
Thursday- Tasty Taco Bake
Friday- Country Potato Chowder
Saturday- Dinner with friends (cooking out)
Sunday- Eat a late lunch out after church so we will snack for dinner
* Unless noted the recipes can be found at http://www.tasteofhome.com/

Ok moving on really quick before I have to go get Kaylee ready for bed. I don't usually shop at Walgreens but I always look through all the paper inserts on sunday. They are having BOGO on Glade Plug Ins and my paper had a BOGO for a glade plug in. I love plug ins but with our new budget don't usually buy them. But since they were bogo and i had a bogo coupon I only paid .71 for both plug ins!!!! (that is the sales tax in case you are wondering. ) Well I must go put my daughter in the bath and say prayers. I will be back soon! I hope you all have a great shopping week and please share your stories and advice with me. :0)
To find other great deals and enter for a chance to win a coupon binder visit http://thecouponcoup.blogspot.com/2008/08/happy-birthday-to-me.html

My Shopping Sunday CVS

I have decided on Sunday to post my shopping experience and money spent and so fourth for the week (since i always do cvs on sundays and usually most of my grocery shopping as well).

My first stop for today was CVS and I apologize as I don't have my receipt right here so my totals may be off my a few cents but nothing major.

Transaction #1

1 Kotex liner 1.49 1.00 printable http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=rbdhcjf66756477&bt=wi&o=50465&c=KT&p=9UjIsJNW

1 tampax sport at 4.99 1.00 printable http://www.playtexsport.com/default.aspx thanks to http://http//www.couponcravings.com/

1 zipfiz at 5.99

1 cotton swabs at .99

I used a 2/10(while I had said i wasn't going to use this i had 2 already printed and was expecting a 4/20 from cvs in my inbox which I never got so I just used these and will throw away that coupon if it comes in the next day or so)

1.00 of kotex

1.00 off playtex sport

6.00 ECBs

Spent 3.02 OOP and got 10.48 back in ECBS

Transaction #2

1 zipfiz at 5.99

1 milk at 4.49

1 bibs at 3.00 (for my daughter's prize. she loves real baby stuff for her babies)

1 paper towel .99

2 Ajax 1.79 (BOGO)

1 softener at 2.99

1 Arm and Hammer Detergent at 3.49

Used:

2/10 coupon

$1 0ff Arm and Hammer

10.48 ECBS from above

$12.00 oop (more than I would have liked to spend but i bought Kaylee a prize and a few things we really need)

I will have $5.99 ECBS for next week though!!

Be sure to visit http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/ for more great deals

Cvs

Hello. I got an email about CVS and although I am new to cvsing I would love to explain how I do it.

First and for most go into cvs and sign up for an extra care card. It takes about 5 minutes and then you can begin your saving.

You can then start buying things and earning ecbs. *Tip* So i didn't have to spend money out of pocket I transferred a prescription from rite aid to cvs and got a $30 gift card. I found an ad in the paper for a $30 gc for transferring a prescription to ride aid and my cvs honored the coupon. So that is how I started cvsing a few weeks back. I have $5 ECBS from last week and will probably have to spend about $2-3 out of pocket this week to get about $6ecbs back. I am going to start taking pictures of my weekly cvs trip and explaining what i spent and what i got every Sunday or Monday.

Here are my scenarios for the week of 8/24
Kotex 16ct are going to be on sell for 1.49 with 1.49 back in ecbs
Rimmel makeup is on sale bogo
Arm and Hammer detergent is on sale for 3.99
Playtex gentle glide sport is 4.99 with $3ecbs
CVS hand sanitizers are buy 2 get 1ecb

so here is my plan
1. buy 1 pack of kotex @1.49
2.buy 2 rimmel eyeshadows *see bottom note*
3. Buy 2 CVS hand sanitizers @1.59 each
4. Buy 1 playtex gentle glide @4.99
5. Buy arm and hammer detergent at 3.99
Coupons I will use:
$1 off kotex from all you (august issue) btw this is an awesome coupon magazine
Use BOGO Rimmel eyeshadow to make both eye shadows free (now the coupon says for
walmart but I am going to see if cvs will honor it)*
Use $1 off Arm and Hammer detergent ( I printed it from arm and hammer online)

The final verdict: I will spend $6ecbs and about $5 oop to earn 5.49 back in ecbs to use next week!!
*I could not buy the detergent and hardly spend any money oop but I could use the detergent and that is a great deal at 2.99!

*Note there is also a pdf file of Richmond parents with a printable 2/10 at cvs and I could use this but after reading the wording on the coupon I feel that I am being dishonest by using the coupon so I will not be using it*

I hope this is not ultra confusing for anyone and like i said at the beginning i am new to this as well but please email me with any questions and I will do my best of better explaining

BTW my email is kkbugsmommy0306@yahoo.com

Coupon Giveaway Winner!

I want to congratulate Katie on winning my coupon giveaway! Thanks for participating and I hope you enjoy your coupons.

Sisterly Savings: Couponizer Giveaway!

Sisterly Savings: Couponizer Giveaway!

Coupon Giveaway!!

This is my first time doing one of these since i am new to all of this. I would like to giveaway some pampers and huggies coupons and a few others that i will not use before they expire. I will close the bidding on August 21 at 9:00 cst. Thanks so much!
The coupons included are
.55 on thermacare 8/31/08
1.00 on ban 9/15/08
Huggies 1.50 off diapers x 2 10/03/08
$3 off lunch and $4 off dinner at red lobster 9/4/08
.50 off mr.clean wipes 8/31/08
1.50 of pampers 8/31/08
1.00 of luvs 3/31/09
1.00 off oaly quench hand and body lotion or mouse 8/31/08
1.00 off 2000 flushes automatic toilet bowl cleaner 11/30/08
2.00 off huggies little swimmers sun care product 10/03/08
1.25 off little swimers 10/03/08
15% off at children's place 9/2/08

Also be sure to visit http://newlyweds.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/25-cvs-giftcard-giveaway/ for an awesome $25 CVS giftcard!! I would love to have that wouldn't you?
Also visit http://savinmaven.typepad.com/the_savin_maven/ for another chance to win a $25 cvs card!!

My story

My house is quite (aka everyone is in bed but me) :) and I thought I would take a minute to explain what interested me on becoming more frugal. Jerry and I made the decision for me to work part time almost 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Kaylee. We knew this would be a drastic cut in our income but we knew the rewards of me being home with Kaylee and future children as much as possible would outweigh what we would have to cut in terms of material things. We knew we would start having to pay out HUGE premiums for family insurance (something foreign to both of us since our single premiums were paid by our employers) That on top of my income loss was huge and we thought we had a handle on it..........Ok fast forward 2.5 years to about six months ago and we realized over the past few years we had racked up some debt we wanted to eliminate. We also were not giving to others the way we once had and it was a huge burden on our heart. (we are still working to get where we want in the giving department) I think part of our problem was we lived so comfortably on two nice full time salaries and didn't realistically save for the cut in income. We were used to just taking vacations when we wanted and buying something (within reason) whenever we had the urge. We prayed and starting researching our options. #1 me go to work full time (neither I nor Jerry thought this would benefit our family especially since our plans are to get pregnant next spring) #2 Jerry get a part time job (again not a great option as he works so much as it is. In automotive management 12 hour days is about the norm) #3 get rid of our home( we don't have a big home but we love it and love, love, love having friends over and entertaining so this isn't something we wanted to do. So after much praying we looked for ways to cut our expenses in any area we could. Of course we couldn't cut the light bill or water bill but we did FINALLY find an option. We could make a conscious decision to REALLY clip coupons and be frugal on everything we spent. We felt this was our best option as it will enable us to have most of our debt paid off by the spring when we want to ttc again:) and it's something that didn't require huge sacrifice to our family. Now, I am not telling you we don't have lots to learn on this frugal adventure or there aren't things we choose not to give up. That would be simply a lie. I think every family no matter how frugal has things that they are not willing to skimp on. For us we ALWAYS go out to eat at least one a week (we have a $50/week budget unless we have a special occasion) Now I know this seems steep to be frugal but this is something our family loves doing together and we aren't willing to give this up. Also we like to take one nice vacation a year and Jerry and I try to plan at least a weekend getaway by ourselves. (income tax money helps off set these 2 expenditures) Wow! This post ended up being quite lengthily and I didn't intend that. However, I just wanted to share my true, real life story. Have a great night!

Lolly's

Kaylee will be spending the night with her lolly and pop tomorrow night. (aka my mom and dad) Jerry and I wanted a date night. However, since we are trying to stick to a budget we decided to forgo a nice restaurant meal that can cost us $70 or more especially with also catching a movie and stay in. Jerry wants to cook dinner (which I am super excited about since I usually cook) and watch a movie at home and have some true quality time. I have given him a budget of $35 (which will include a bottle of wine, whatever ingredients he needs for dinner, and a movie). While it is true we are still spending money it will defiantly save us at least half and will be something fun and different. While I am sure we will still dine out on some of our dates I am up for something new and it will be saving us money! :) Just thought I would share. Have a great night!

My shopping trip today

Today was my first day really tring to shop on my $50 a week grocery budget. I ended up spending 52.73 and went to two stores but all and all i was pretty happy with my shopping especially since I am so new at this. At wal mart i spent 31.50 and would have spent around $58 before coupons. I am tring to get all my household items at cvs (like toliet paper, detergant, tampons you get the idea) with my ecbs and hardly coming out of pocket. Kaylee was REALLY ill though since we went to lunch with my mom and skipped a nap. But other than that it all went pretty smooth. Well I need to put the bug to bed. But I will check in really soon.

New to all of this!

Well I know I am going to be learning a lot as I start blogging. I love to read blogs and I have been meaning to post my own for quite a while. I just am not the most creative person you will ever meet so I have been trying to think of some new and different things for my blog. I haven't got that far yet so I just decided to dive in and hopefully it will come to me along the way. If you are reading my blog bless you as this is going to be learning process for me. I also want this to be a place where I can post things about being a mommy and wife as well as my successes and failures at being frugal. By the way I almost forgot I am still learning all of this and I would love your comments and suggestions. Also feel free to help me become more furgual! Hang on I think this is going to be fun! :)