Obsession #2

Obsession #2 would be couponing. These are the goods from my latest shopping trip. I generally do my shopping at Smith's. If you watch for the sales and match the coupons up with the sale items, then you can get way better deals than shopping without coupons at Walmart or Winco. Plus they also have a sweet rewards program! If you use the rewards card each time you shop you will accrue a point for every dollar you spend. They also have double point items and 5 extra points for every reusable grocery bag you use. Then four times a year they send you a gold envelope with a coupon for the dollar amount of how many points you have. Mine this last quarter was worth $19! That is free money! If you really get to know the system, it can be your best friend. On this last shop I got some really sweet deals that I will share:

5 bottles of Kraft BBQ sauce for .14 (with coupon) each plus on the bottle there was a bonus coupon for $2 off a container of Kool-aid or Country Time lemonade which was on sale for $2 so it was free!

2 Freschetta frozen pizzas $4.49 each plus $2.50 off because of the coupons and then at the end I got $3 toward my next shopping trip for purchasing these. So the total cost was $3.48 for two pizzas!

10 boxes of pasta for FREE!

4 Reach Flosser started packs for FREE! (Because of the coupons I had, I actually was paid .50 to buy these.)

One of the boxes of cereal was only .24

4 cases of bottled water for $8

So, the total cost of this shopping trip was $53.73! I saved $98! I was so proud of all my hard work.

Another thing that I have been watching is the sales at Walgreen's. If you work at it, you can get some sweet deals there too. The weekly sales there start on Sunday, so I go at 6 am on Monday morning to get the best deals. I need to slow down though until we move because I am almost out of room to put things!

The Green Chair

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I have a new obsession (actually two of them, but this is just one of them). I love to refinish furniture. I found this blog called allthingsthrifty.com and it is awesome! You have to check out the site. She has the coolest ideas and is super talented! Anyway, I decided to start looking for things that could be redone. My mom has an end table in her family room and she so graciously let me totally change it. It no longer matches her family room but it looks awesome and I still need to take a picture of it. While I was in the process of changing the end table (in my parent's garage, because I don't have a place to do this hobby), I noticed that one of her neighbors was having a yard sale. I have been looking for a dresser that I can refinish for my girls to use. The lady doing the yard sale didn't have a dresser, but she had this chair. I wanted a chair for my small patio to dress it up a little and I couldn't pass this up. The best part??? She sold it to me for only TWO DOLLARS!! I just had to have it! I had visions of what it could be while I carried it back to my parent's house. I thought green would be a nice color for the outdoors so I bought some spray paint and some antiquing glaze and went to work. I love how it turned out! This whole project cost me less that $15! I am still on the lookout for that perfect dresser, but I need a bigger place anyway, so I must be patient!!

Easter 2011

My girls enjoying their indoor Easter egg hunt. It lasted all of 30 seconds...

The Easter bunny found our house this year and the girls were thrilled. I keep wondering when my older kids will catch on to things like this (and Santa and the Tooth Fairy). The Easter bunny always visits us on Saturday morning and leaves behind lots of goodies. This year he left new CTR rings for the big girls and little toys for the younger two. They also got the Tangled movie which has been viewed about a gazillion times since then.

David and I are very careful about Easter and try not to go overboard. We were raised to know that it is not a second Christmas for the family so we do very few gifts. By enjoying the festivities on Saturday we can then focus on the real reason we celebrate the holiday which is our Savior. We want our children to know that he made the ultimate sacrifice for us and we should always remember that.