Hiatius!

Not sure if I spelled that right, but oh well. I have not posted in a while. I must tell you, I think I am getting over the honeymooning part of couponing. The part where I have to hit every sale whether or not I need the stuff. I am to the point now, where I simply dont have the room to stock up any more without my house looking junky. I am quite sure we could live off the food I have here for a couple months less the produce, milk and bread. Might challenge myself with that. Hmmmmmmm

On a seperate note, have anyone else's kids been crazy? My oldest has been pushing the boundaries of independance and making decisions on her own that require my blessing. My middle one continues to injure herself. The latest is a nice roadrash from Alli -vs- the neighbor's tree. And the little one, not sure where to start with her. She has been lying, disobedient and informing me of peoples skin color in front of them in public. UHG! Kids!

I am making a goal of not eating out again until we visit the Ram next month. Really need to save myself for the Mud Pie. Oh, so good. It comes with it's own dish of hot fudge to dip the pie in, does it get any better? I think not. Working out has been great. I have had the accountability of working out with a friend each day. We try to hit the gym 5 days a week and while I have not been losing, I have not been gaining and I have been eating like a cow. Ooey gooey carmel brownie blizzards are my weakness.

I am enjoying re-reading the Twilight series. It started out that I wanted to prepare myself for the premier next month but a friend gifted me with the Breaking Dawn to read so of course I am doing that too.

Yesterday while at Costco, Lou and I spotted these petticoat tutuish skirts and I had to buy a couple. I know that is right up Alli's alley, and of course Lou needed a pink one. So we shall see those sometime after the 4th of July. They are so cute and I will post pics when I give them to the girls.

The above pics are 1)the girls playing on the tramp, 2) Alli bowling, 3) Leilani's 4th Birthday.

Would You Consider?

Entering my daughter Dani for some free braces? Last night I attended the super fabulous Mom's Night Out at Columbia Center Mall. I loved getting free stuff, entering drawings and of course "sampling" the PF Changs Lettuce Wraps. Is it still called sampling if you go back more than once? Im just asking. Anyways, in one of the goody bags that I received there was a card for Almond Orthodontics. They are having a "Smiles All Around" contest. Their card says:

Send a 100 word essay about why you or someone you know deserves free braces. Simply e mail your essay to almondortho@gmail.com or visit www.keyw.com for a link. Essays need to be emailed ot us by May 21st. We will announce the winners on May 28th.

You know the little flip my couponing heart did, right? Dani has recently become self conscious about her self proclaimed "buck teeth". Bless her heart. I know bad teeth come from my side. I know that eventually we will have to purchase these, but if my daughter could win them, wow, what a blessing that would be!

Anyways, I am really excited about the possibility of this. If you feel so inclined, please enter her into this contest. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number on the e-mail. Believe me, 100 words goes quick and it is really difficult to keep it under that. Thanks, Jaimie

All You Magazine

I wanted to let everyone know about the steal of a deal that the magazine All You is. It is chocked full of coupons. I am currently trying to get my hands on the April Issue but to no avail so far. I found this at Walmart for $2.49. Killer coupons in there too and I am just a magazine girl, so I love looking at the receipes, money saving ideas and meal planning. It was a big score!

I didnt see many killer deals this week looking thru the paper, but here are a few:

Safeway:
2lbs. Tillamook Cheese $3.99
Safeway Peanut Butter $.99 ****killer deal, stock up****
If I wouldn't have pillaged the free Capri Suns last week I would tell you to do the Safeway juice sale too. Buy 5 get $5 off. If you still had some of those capri sun coupons, this could be about $.50 a box. There are a lot of different juices that this include, check out fabulessslyfrugal.com to get all the details.

Albertsons:
Kleenex facial tissue $.75 with in ad coupon (limit 3)
Coffee mate creamer $1 (smaller size) **another killer deal**** coffeemate.com has a printable $.75/1 coupon that will make this $.25 if interested

**Sidebar** Tonight is Mom's Night Out at Columbia Center Mall. I am highly considering skipping out on hula to go and check it out. Lots of free goodie bags to the first 100ish moms, samples, coupons, vendors and my personal fav. pampering! 6-8pm is the time on this. Maybe I will see you there.

Best Deals I see 4/28

While I dont want everyone to run out and take my cheez-its I thought I would share this deal anyway. About a month ago, Walmart had hanging coupons for $2 off two boxes of cheez-its. I grabbed several of them, naturally. I have been eagerly waiting for them to go on sale somewhere. Well, just as they are about to expire (4/30) Albies does not let me down. In today's ad they have Sunshine Cheez- Its on sale for 2 / $3. Put my $2/2 coupon on top of that and it comes out to be $1 for 2 boxes. That is a killer deal. I plan on getting plenty this evening. Hopefully you grabbed these coupons when they were at Wallyworld. If not, let this be a lesson. When you see hanging coupons, grab them, grab plenty of them.

Fiesta Foods has their "Big Coupon" and it is milk for .99! That is a fabulous deal. Yokes and Walmart will also honor this deal so take advantage.

Safeway has some great stuff going on but you have to wait till sat or sun for these to take effect.
Kraft Ranch Dressing $.99
cheez-it $.99 (my coupon expires before then otherwise it would = free cheez-its)
Starbucks Coffee- $5.99, use $1/1 (3/21 SS)

Red Apple While I dont usually shop here, they did have a couple great in store coupons.
Classico Pasta Sauce- BOGO use coupon from coupons.com $1.50/2
All laundry detergent-BOGO use (2)$1/1 (2/7 RP expires 4/30 so use it soon)

Ok friends, that is what appeals to me this week. Happy shopping

Bzz Agent

Ok, so I am a bzzagent. I have not called myself this before, b/c I have never been asked to participate in a campaign. Well, today I got my first campaign and it is for Covergirl Blast. They are sending me this product so I can use it and get the buzz started about this new product. If you have any opinion on Covergirl Blast products I would love to hear about it. Leave me a comment!

$2.59 are you otta your mind?

The other night, I went to Safeway and bought 6 lunchables for the kiddos. Some people ask, do you really use all the stuff you buy, my answer.....of course. I would not normally buy lunchables and in a sense I didn't the other night either. Confused yet? I went to the checkstand with 6 lunchables. I handed over 6 coupons. I left with 6 lunchables. I did not pay one penny. I did not have a member of the 50 chasin me down. Absolutely free! The cashier finished scanning the coupons and said, " your total will be.....nothing."

Is this legit? Absoluetly! There are ways to get cheap-free items. The average person does not take the time to figure out these scenarios. I was asked last week how much time to I spend couponing. I said a couple hours a week. After thinking about that more I think I spend more. It is fun, one might even say a hobby for me now. I am still in what I call the "honeymooning" phase of couponing. I go to multiple stores to get many deals each week. Admittedly, I am kept awake some nights thinking that I may not get everything I want from a sale because others might beat me to it. Silly, I know. I spend probably closer to 5-7 hours a week pouring over ads and scheming up ways to save money. It is not a chore but a challenge. I think that once I get crazy stocked up on everything I will be out of the honeymooning phase, but until then, Coupon On!

BOOM!

My favorite stores to frequent are Walgreens (mainly for non food items), Albertsons (grocery), Yokes (doubler action and fresh meat and produce). I included a pic of a recent trip to Walgreens while my friend Jen was in town. I was teachin her the ropes of couponing and spent $2.59 for everything in the photo.

3- dawn dish soaps

4- Starbucks Frapps

4- cans of Lindsey Olives

3- Crest Pro Health toothpastes

3- toothbrushes

1- pack of Rolaids

2- of the best candy in the world! York Peppermint Patties!

Quaker Sale

Ok peeps, Quaker sale starts today. Not supertastic prices, but $1/box is still great. Especially for granola bars that we seem to fly through. This sale is at Albertsons. You can obtain the manufacturer coupon necessary to make this work from the Wednesday Tri City Herald or pick up one of the Yokes monthly ad books. Free at customer service. You will need one coupon for every 5 items you buy. Check out fistfulofcoupons.com to get the low down.

Another great sale is at Safeway. They are running a sale for pop tarts, cereal and my personal fav. nut clusters. Those are so tasty in yogurt! Here are a couple scenarios:

Buy 5 Kellogs pop tarts= $1/each
use $1.25/3 (3/28 RP)

Total oop is $3.75 not bad if you like pop tarts

another scenario
Buy 5 Nature Valley Nut Clusters= $1.50/ each
use $1/1 (2/21 SS)
or $.40/1 (3/7 SS)

Totally oop is $2.50-5.50 depending on coupons you couple this with.

Ok, well now you know my plans for the day.....pillage the local stores. Have a good one!