Baby Fat, Baby Parts, Baby Bliss

CVS Diaper Deal!

This week at CVS, if you buy $25 worth of participating baby products, you get $10 Extra Care Bucks. Great deal for us, we have 2 in diapers full time and one wearing one to bed! Here is how I made the deal work for me...only paying $1.10 out of pocket and earning 12 extra care bucks!

transaction #1...

1 excedrin 1.99 (monthly deal)

2 cvs gel caps 3.99 each (monthly deal)

1 cvs baby wipes 2.50

1 jumbo pack of huggies 8.99

Coupons...

1.00 off Excedrin (printed on a previous receipt)

2.00 off Excedrin (manufacturers coupon)

1.50 off huggies (manu. cpn)

2.00 off Huggies (cvs printable)

CVS $4 off $20

Paid with 8.00 Extra care bucks and $.96 in change

Earned 7.98 ecb for the cvs gel caps and 1.00 ecb for exedrin

transaction #2

1 excedrin 24 count 1.99

2 huggies jumbo packs 8.99 each

Coupons...

(2) 1.50 off huggies (manufacturers coupons)

2.00 off huggies (cvs printable, above link)

2.00 off excedrin (manu. cpn.)

1.00 off excedrin ( another receipt coupon from cvs)

CVS $4 off $20 (link above)

Paid with 7.98 in Extra care bucks from first transaction and .14 cent in change!

Earned 10 extra care bucks for huggies plus 1 ecb for excedrin for a total of 12 extra care bucks earned from both deals.

Super Savings Saturday

The first four pictures are of my four orders at CVS this week. I am very pleased with these purchases. I was able to buy things that are very useful and not a lot of "extra that we already have in the closet! Here's just a quick run-down...I did four separate orders purchasing what is in each picture, but these are the bottom line totals...

Total ...$93.06

Total spent in cash...$0.76

Extra care bucks for next week...$24.00

This table full is from Kroger! They had a great sale this week that will carry over into next week also. If you buy ten participating items, you get an $5 off your bill. After sale and coupons I spent $58. Twenty dollars was for chicken and another $5 for bananas...can you believe the price of bananas?! .74/lb.!? I have ordered more coupons from the Coupon Clippers to use this week at Kroger for this sale also. I like their site for good stock up sales like this one! Read more from Crystal here.

Technical Difficulties

I may be the only person on the planet that doesn't know what "the blue screen of death" is when it pops up on your computer. Well, I do now. Thankfully, I did not lose any treasured pictures. Yes, I am one of "those" that have not backed up the last year or so of digital pictures. Well, I am in the process of doing so now. I am very "computer challenged" and hope to get better organized with the whole picture thing. Until then, I am not doing much else on the computer.
Maybe by the first of next week I will have all photos copied to discs and will feel safer using the computer. I am looking forward to posting about baby Rose (it has been a while since doing an update on her) and a great recipe I want to share. I also want to post on Wendy's 4th birthday and our trip to Maryland to see my new nephew!
'Be back soon.....

Frugal Friday

I love the frugal Friday posts at Crystal's blog. I have learned so many neat things from all the creative women that participate each week.

I have a simple tip that helped me this week. I made two pans of lasagna one evening and the directions say to bake them covered with aluminum foil. I have not had any foil for a while now. I normally pick this up at the dollar store. It's one of those things that I would rather not spend money on. Instead of foil I covered the two 9x13 glass pans with two cookie sheets and it worked great! The lasagna baked up perfectly. Like I said, simple, but I was happy not to have dry lasagna! I will share this recipe soon too, because one of the ingredients is one of my new favorite things!

The Beauty of Spring

I love the change of seasons. This is the time of year to open the windows and enjoy the crisp air and birds singing. The grass is getting greener and the buds on the trees will soon give way to new life. And I love going barefoot and just needing sandals to go out! We can pack away mittens and hats and gloves! Did I mention that I love this time of year?

I came across this website for kids today. There are poems with printable coloring pages and craft ideas for children. I copied this poem and coloring sheet for Wendy and Lily today.

These verses came to mind today also. I am thankful for the beauty of the season and God's promises in these passages.

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; and they toil not, neither do they spin:

And yet I say unto you, and even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed?

(For all of these things do the Gentiles seek) For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God , and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:28-33

Making Your Home A Haven

I thought about letting the kids have a break from school this week, but I think now is not the time. We have just recently got into a pretty good routine since having Rose. We will attempt to fit in some Spring Cleaning this week though. Nothing too major just some basic stuff. I am going to make a list of just a few things to accomplish this week. If I think too much about all the cleaning that really needs to be done I will just get grouchy. No one needs a grouchy mama:0)!! So keeping it simple, here's my list...

1. Monday-Laundry- tommy's clothes, clean out refrigerator and freezer, make a grocery list and menu for this week ( attempt to stay within budget for the rest of March), go to grocery store.



2. Tuesday-Laundry-Wendy, Lily, and Rose, deep clean bathrooms, we have four so this is more than enough for one day!



3. Wednesday-Laundry-Abby and Anna, sweep/vacuum and mop all floors



4. Thursday-Laundry- Jacob and Samuel, wash windows so we can see more of all this pretty spring sunshine! Start packing for a trip to Nana and Papa's house next weekend, we are excited!



5. Friday-Laundry-whatever needs washing! Pack and prepare for our trip!

I will update with some progress, hopefully! Have a great Monday and visit here for some cleaning inspiration!

Monday Update:

Monday's list is done! I am so glad I made this list. It gives more of a sense of accountability and I usually lose a paper list or just forget about it in the business of the day! Here are a few pictures: Before:


Lots of help wiping out the refrigerator:

Doing inventory:

After:

Now the fridge would not pass a strict white glove test, but it is a huge improvement and we know what we have. We made the menu, a list, and got groceries! One more load of clothes is in the dyer that we will finish this evening. I hope the rest of the week is as good! I will continue to update!