I needed to pick up a few things for a Father's day BBQ we are having on Sunday. So of course I needed to find the best deals I could.
I got the things that I needed plus a few pantry type items. A couple of super scores were first the Nivea Men's body wash regular price 3.04 minus $1 off target coupon and $2 off manufacture coupon made it .04¢! Next was the Bull's-Eye BBQ sauce which is regularly $1.52 minus $1 off when you buy 2 target coupon and two .50¢ off manufacture coupon which makes it .52¢ each.
All in I paid 20.84 for everything. I heart coupons!!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Target Grocery Trip
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
This Week's $20 Challenge is all about cereal

Cereal, cereal and more cereal. There are some good deals on cereal this week at many grocery stores and when you can match that up with coupons it makes it even better. Now I did go 73¢ over my $20.00 this week, but I will recoup that in a rebate.
These 10 boxes of Kellogg's Cereals have 1 code each in them for a promotion for Cars 2. Every 4 codes earns you a $5 pre-paid visa card. So each box is worth $1.25 to me on top of the sale and coupons. Plus I already had 2 codes from boxes that we already had in our pantry. In 6-8 weeks I will recoup my 73¢ overage plus the other $14.27.
16 Boxes of cereal
Retail about: $55.00
Out of Pocket: 20.73 (or 1.29 per box)
Savings: $34.27
Rebate: $12.50 (I can't count the 2 codes I already had)
Total Savings: $46.77
Final Cost: 8.23 (or .52¢ per box)
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Remainder of $20.00

1 Quilted Northern 12 double rolls
1 All laundry detergent 32 load
4 Full size tubes of Crest toothpaste
1 Pk of Bic 4 blade Flex razors
Retail $30.45
Out of Pocket $9.23
Total Savings: $22.22
Total for $20.00 Challenge
Retail: $71.39
Out of Pocket: $19.96
Total Savings: $51.43
I think this was pretty good for my first try at my challenge. I am excited to start planning for next week. If you want to know about where I get some of my deal info, check out www.couponing101.com. It is a super easy blog to follow and has deal info for lots of different stores.
Monday, June 6, 2011
More Savings
I continue to explore this new adventure of couponing here is my most resent deal:

Walgreens
2 Old Spice Deodorants 3.25oz
2 Old Spice Body Wash 16oz
1 Bic Comfort Shavers 6pk
1 Gillette Fusion Power Razor
2 Morton's Salt 26oz
Total Retail including tax $40.94
Paid Out of Pocket $10.73
Total Savings $30.21 or 74%
I am giving myself a $20.00 per week challenge to build up a reserve of these types of necessities. It is hard not to want to buy everything because it is such a "good deal" but I am sticking to my guns and only getting the items we like and will use.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Couponing
No I will not soon be featured on the TLC show "Extreme Couponing" but I have decided to take up couponing again. I am only focused on coupons and deals on things that we buy regularly or things I can get for free.
Here two of my recent savings (Sorry if this is hard to follow)
Purina One Dog Food 34oz bag
We buy this twice a month, so I bought 2.
Reg. 21.99 each
On Sale 18.99 each
Coupon $2.00 off (I had a coupon for each bag)
Catalina $3.00 0ff (Store cash from diaper purchase)
Total Cost:15.49 each
Savings on 2: 13.00
At check out I got a $5.00 off coupon for my next Purina purchase. I can combined that with another $2.00 off manufacture coupon, plus the sales price and purchase a 3rd bag.
With my combined savings, each bag cost $14.32 (plus tax) with a total savings of 23.00.
My Second Savings Deal
Huggies Diapers Size 1, 40ct (Thought I should start getting ready since we are having a baby fairly soon)
Reg. 9.33 each
On Sale 8.99 each
Coupon 3.00 off
Total Cost 5.99 each
When you buy $15.00 worth you get $3.00 store cash (that is what I used on the dog food) so I bought 2 and used a $3.00 coupon for each.
Total Saving on 2: 6.68, plus $3.00 toward my dog food purchase
Retail Cost: $84.63
Total Spend:$54.94
All in, I think saving $30.00 on something I already am buying is totally worth the small effort.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Pre-Easter Weekend with Grandma Olson
Here is Sophie standing with Grandma and Grandpa Olson in a cave near the lion exhibit. The exhibit was closed that day because they were introducing new lions into the habitat.
This Peacook was super close to us and was showing off its feathers. Sophie did not want to be near this bird at all, but it was pretty cool how long it held it stance.
Sophie helped me take this picture of the elephant.
Grandma Olson and Sophie posing with the baby elephant statue.
In the meerkat area there was little cave/tunnel to crawl through. As you can see, Sophie's boot was not keeping her from enjoying this part.
Of course grandma had to take Sophie on a carousel ride. Sophie is a little bit of a chicken when it comes to rides and the like. She was concerned that there was no seat belt on the horse.
I swear, catching the smile on camera is hard. They either smile before or after the picture snaps.
I think she really like this penguin exhibit because it was easy for small kids to see and enjoy. She liked that the penguins would swim right up to the glass.
After checking out most of the animals we headed over to the Zoomazium. It is an indoor play/discovery area inside the zoo.
Sophie drumming away.
This girl loves her blocks. It is one of her favorite things to play at home too.
Climbing up the rock area heading toward the slide.
She went down the slide probably 10 times. All in all, it was a great day at the zoo. After the zoo we headed to mommy's favorite place, Fuji Teryaki!!! Mmmmm...
After waking Sophie up from her 4 hour nap, she and I went to my friend JoEllen's house to visit and play with her son Benjamin. He is almost exactly 6 months younger then Sophie, so it was a prefect playdate.
The next day Sophie had her first experience coloring Easter eggs. I wasn't sure how this would pan out, but Grandma was more brave then I. I could just picture egg dye spilling and semi-permanently colored fingers. But to my surprise, it worked out rather well.
Sophie likes to do artistic projects. Especially having full attention from Grandma Olson.
Such a precious girl. I love this little face!
Here Grandpa and Sophie are playing blocks.
Later on Saturday we had some of our friends over for a little Easter party. Cara, Eric and Brooklynn along with Cara's parents, Roxie and her Eric, Randa, and my cousins Karl, Amy and their son Tyler.
What a cute Easter Bunny!
Discovering there is candy inside.
Tara and I made the skirt Sophie is wearing. It was a lot of work but totally worth it. I love it! I was to sew ruffles to everything now.
One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting together with these girls! Such great people and friends. Love you all!
Just us 5 girls! When the baby is born, Sophie will be about 3 and Brooklyn will be 1.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Fortune Cookie
Remember three months from this date!
Your lucky start is shining.
Ummm...I am nearly three months from
my due date, July 10. I guess this means
that I won't have the baby until July 15.
We will see. Hee Hee.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
So is it Broken or Not?
On Thursday Sophie slip/jumped/fell from a ladder at the playground about 18 inches to the ground and rolled her ankle. By that night, she still would not put weight on it, but it was not really swollen or discolored at all. We iced it and said if it wasn't better the next day we would take her to the doctor.
By the next morning she was about the same so I decided to take her just in case. After a couple x-rays, which Sophie was perfectly cooperative for with me not being able to be next to her because of the baby, we headed back to the room to wait for the dr.
The dr came in and said, well she doesn't have a sprained ankle (me sighing with relief), she continued, she has a broken leg. What?!?!...A broken leg. I was in complete shock. The dr said she had a tibial fracture about two inches up from her ankle and because of where the fracture was Sophie would need to be cast by an orthopedist next week. Next the nurse came in and put a splint on and wrapped Sophie's leg.
That evening we got a call from the dr. office saying that the radiologist had taken a look at the x-ray and did not think it was broken. (Now I was really confused). On Saturday I called back the radiology tech and they confirmed that it was for sure not broken and to go ahead and take off the splint. Basically, see how she does and if she is not getting better, follow up with her primary care on Monday.
I am happy to report that she is getting better. Still hesitant to put all her weight on it, but at least she is using it. It is very sad when she bumps it though because she just bursts into tears again. I think all in all she is on the mend.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Girls' Room
I first took painters tape and marked off the room to see if I liked the idea that I had seen online. Once I laid it out and knew it would work, I started painting.


I love that you can buy little samples of the colors instead of just relaying on the swatch. I decided to go with green, despite my initial thought of wanting to go pink. I just realized that all my fabric and decor was pink and it would just be pink, on pink, on pink.



I am so happy with the way it turned out! So Cute!!
I think Sophie really likes it too.
The only thing left is to sand the joints that
I filled and paint the modeling white
since it is only primed right now.
Love it


