Vons trip

While my husband was gone, I spent a lot of time going to various stores. Now that he is home, and the kids are home...well they are totally cramping my style!

The other day, I was able to sneak out for a bit and get some deals. I had my two oldest boys with me and so it took me a lot longer than I had planned.

This wasn't the most planned trip but I was still really happy with all that I got!

Total before coupons was $255.39 and after $135.xx

My boys put together a castle of my groceries although it does make it a little harder to see what I got!

So here are just a few things...
10 boxes of mac & cheese
10 cans of tuna ( I normally buy packages but...)
4 boxes of Brownie crunch cereal
4 Safeway brand pizzas
4 Nancy's quiches that were 50% off
4 boxes of popsicles
4 boxes of Foster Farms great bites
2 Ben and Jerry's
10 Powerades
4 Suddenly Salads
2 boxes of Ritz
5 wrap kits
2 pints of strawberries
5 lbs of cuties
4 Hersheys candy bars (chocolate is a necessity after shopping with boys!!)

How did you do on your weekly trip?

stockpiles

My little stockpiling cutie!!

I am always telling my husband that our kids are just like him. They do things all the time that remind me of him or something that he would do.

After listening to my son yesterday, my husband said, "yeah, right they aren't like you at all!!" lol

My 10 yr old has been at Cub Scout Day camp for the past 2 days. I put a few pieces of candy in his lunch as a treat. He also had a dollar to spend at the Trading Post at camp. Basically a place for them to buy little treats and such.

I went to pick them up and found out that he had 1) kept all the candy that I put in his lunch and 2) used his money to buy more candy.

When I asked him why he didn't eat it, he told me..." I am building up my candy stockpile!"

I guess now is a good time to talk to him about stockpiling NEEDS. (:

Ok, ok...I admit it. Yep I have candy in my stockpile also!

So who knows, maybe he is a little like me!!

Happy Homemaker Monday

Guess who hasn't participated in a Happy Homemaker Monday for a loooong time? Yes that would be me! So let me get back in the game!!

Weather in my neck of the woods: sunny and warm! I live in So. Cal so the weather doesn't change much (:

Things that make me Happy: celebrating my anniversary with my sweetheart

Books I am reading: Oh gosh, nothing really! Isn't that awful?!

What is on my tv today: catching up on DVR and a funny episode of Psych

On the menu for dinner tonight: marinaded chicken, potato salad, rolls

On my to do list: organizing my coupon binder, planning out shopping lists

New recipe I have tried or want to try soon: tonight I am making Nutella cresants with heath bits. I don't know what the recipe is called but I will share when I make it.

In the craft basket: a new chore chart for my son (using my cricut and velcro)

What I am looking forward to this week: my boys being at Cub Scout day camp (:

Tips & tricks: We just got back from a camping trip. When packing for 6 people, there is a high probability of forgetting things. So I pack full complete outfits and put them in a gallon size bag. From socks and underwear to hair things for my daughter. Also, if there will be an activity that they need "special" clothes for (like swimming) I put those in a seperate spot. Besides making sure that they have everything they need, it is easier to unpack without dumping a whole bag out for what you need. I don't throw the bags away, I use them for dirty clothes or wet clothes on the way home. Or...well for anything.

My favorite blog post this week: see below

Blog Hopping: I found this blog a bit ago and love all the advice and inspiration!!  Check out Organizing Made Fun

No Words Needed: favorite photo from this week >>>>>>>>>

Lesson learned the past few days: patience is a virtue!!

On my Mind: my family reunion next week

Devotionals, Scriptures or spiritual thoughts: Something that I have been trying to keep in mind is that " no outside success can compensate for failure in the home"

Lucky 13

Today is my 13th anniversary!!

I was only 14 when I met my sweetheart. We were at a church dance. The moment I laid my eyes on him...well being that I was only 14 I would have to say it was lust at first sight.

After being friends through out high school, we finally started dating during my freshman year of college.

I got married when I was 19. My husband was 20. I had my first child when I was 20.

I was young, immature and totally in love.

And I still am. OK well in love. Hopefully I am not still immature! lol

So while some people get jewelry or flowers for their anniversary, I got something a little different.

A shelf in his garage for my stockpiles. (:

Now if that isn't true love, then I don't know what is!!

Media Mondays

The house is quiet. My husband is back to work. The kids are going to be awoken soon because this week is Cub Scout day camp.

While I was doing my morning "computer errands" (checking email, facebook, checking bank balances, and reading favorite blogs) I came across this post. It really spoke to me, because it sounds just like my husband and I.

Now I realize that my blog is supposed to be on couponing or saving money, but there is always so much going on inside my head that I want to share. (: So you will just have to deal or stop reading! lol But I hope you will stay!

It is a really good reminder to me, to make sure that my priorities are in line. But I would like to share something when it comes to media and my marriage.

My husband is a prankster. He is constantly teasing, laughing and playing jokes at work. Remind me sometime to share the story of the boiled eggs!

Anyway, while we were living on Guam, some of the younger guys he was working with, were looking for some "dirt" on him so that they could tease him back.

So they found out that I have a blog. I have been keeping a blog for almost 7 years now. They decided that this would be the perfect time and place to dig some stuff up.

After hours and days of reading my blog...they found nothing. Nothing that they could use "against" him.

That made me so happy. That no matter what had happened in the 7 years of blogging, I had never once betrayed my husband  on my blog. I try to be really careful aboutwhat I share and I encourage you to do so also. Don't be the one who provides "dirt" on your husband.

I'm baaaaack

After a vacation with the fam...I am home.

Our house smells like campfire, Mt. Washmore (aka laundry) is piled up everywhere, there are brown rings around the tub after my kids took baths...

I have lots to do but I am hoping to be back soon. Spending the day cleaning, organizing...and airing out my house!!

Oh yeah...

Oh yeah, I have had a GIVEAWAY going on. Please forgive my delay. My husband came home from his deployment and life has been...CHAOTIC. So, because of my total lameness, I decided to draw 2 winners instead of one.

And they are...

Mama of 3*Apryl

and Beth F.

Please email me via facebook or my email hecimommy at gmail dot com with your addresses. I think I have your new one Beth (: A new post it note anyway!

I am going out of town tomorrow and so am going to try to convince my husband to stop at the P.O on our way out. But I will get it out to you as soon as I can!!

"uhm Mom..."

You just know he was pretending it was a gun!

Pop quiz: how many of you can tell what this is?!

helping me clean it up (:



the cute lil' culprit



Please tell me that I am not the only one who cringes when they hear that phrase?

One day I was ignoring working hard, when I heard a noise I didn't like.

I shout to my 6 year old, "hey kiddo, what was that?"

"uhm Mom, you do not want to know!"

Then from my husband I hear, " ugh that is why I hate those things!"

Immediatley I knew what it was. My Scentsy. Ivan had knocked it and wax was all over my table runner, wall, floor and even on my husband's ipod arm band.

I was getting ready to get an upper arm work out scraping it all off when I decided to see if I could "google" an easier way. I heart google.

I found a video on You Tube video where it showed an easy way to clean it up. I know that mmost people already know, but if you are like me, and not up on everything...it really was way easy!

Get your hair dryer. I used it on the high setting and placed it really close to the various spots. It melted a bit and then I simply wiped it off with a paper towel. Easy shmeezy!

Then I got a cute little helper to finish the rest (:

Not really a money saving idea but totally a TIME saving idea. And who doesn't want to save time?!

Ahhh

My house is quiet. My husband is back to work. My kiddos are all still asleep. Ahhh a rare moment of quiet in this house.

When I was at college, I knew a guy who was trying out for the wrestling team. Every day he would work out, he would watch the movie Rudy (you know the one with Sean Astin?) to get himself pumped.

Well that is what I do with all my dvr'ed episodes of Extreme Couponing. While I have mixed emotions about the show, I do love seeing people get good deals. It gets my blood pumping (:

So I put together a great trip. Before coupons my total was $295.26 and after...$126.xx

Here were a couple of my favorite deals:

Odwalla products were on sale. The drinks were 2/$4 and bars were 10/$10. My hubby loves these and usually the drinks are around $3.99. I had 2 coupons good for .55/1 drink and 8 coupons for .35/1 any Odwalla product. Now normally I would have used all 8 for the bars as they were cheaper. However, I decided to spoil my husband just a bit.

So 5 Odwalla drinks and 5 bars. The two .55/1 coupons were doubled to $1 making them a $1 each. The other 3 were $1.30 each. The bars were .30 each. Then I got a catalina back good for $4 off my next order. Subtracting the $4 catalina all 10 cost less than one drink at regular price

Next up was Nilla Wafers. There was an in ad coupon bringing the price down to 1.99 each. Well a few weeks ago I had found a coupon good for $1 off a box of Nilla Wafers when you bought 4 boxes (any size) pudding or gelatin. 4 boxes of Nilla Wafers at $1.99 each. Plus 4 boxes of pudding at  $1 each. Here is the math:
4 boxes of wafers @ 1.99 each
4 boxes of pudding @ $1 each = 11.96 total

$11.96 -$4.00 in coupons = $7.96

But there was a coupon on the boxes of nilla wafers good for free bananas when you bought 2 boxes of Nilla wafers. So I paid $7.96 for 4 boxes of cookies, 4 boxes of pudding and 2 bunches of bananas!!

Last was Kelloggs cereals. For every 4 boxes purchased you got $4 off. So $1.99 each x 6 boxes.
6 boxes of cereal @1.99 each = 11.94
Minus $2 off in coupons makes = $9.94
I also had coupons good for $1 off fresh fruit when you buy 2 boxes of Kelloggs cereals.

So for $9.94 I got 6 boxes of cereal, a 3lb bag of apples annnd each box had a code good for the Cars 2 Promotion. For every 4 codes you can earn either $5 concession cash or a $5 gas card.

Whew! What a fun trip. Gets my blood pumping for getting more deals! How about you, did you score any good deals this week?

yum!!

While couponers normally have a big stockpile of cake, cookie and brownie mixes...I wanted to do something a little different!

I saw these somewhere, however I have NO IDEA where it was. If you do know, let me know and I will update this post with that info and give credit where credit is due (:

This was a fairly cheap treat!

Strawberries were on sale for .99 a container so I got 2 of those.

 I used a 40% off coupon at Michaels  for the white chocolate (they were 2.99 a bag before coupon) and sprinkles (they were 3.29) My daughter was at Michaels with me, so she did a seperate transaction and used one more coupon (:

These were really easy and if I can do it well...
*melt chocolate, stir until smooth
*dip strawberries into chocolate
*while still wet, dip into blue sprinkles
*lay on wax paper to set

The end. Cute, fun and oh so patriotic! Did you make any fun treats to celebrate the 4th?

right and wrong

You know there is a right way and a wrong way to use coupons right? Right?! Well there is.

 When people talk to me about couponing, I usually hear something like, "well I use coupons all the time but I never save very much. What am I doing wrong?"

After interrogating asking nicely, I usually find out that the problem is that they bought something because they HAD a coupon. For example, I had a coupon for X brand of cereal so I got it. Not I waited until the cereal was on sale and THEN used my coupon.

Yeah, no. The only best time to use a coupon is when the item is on SALE. We don't just buy something because we have a coupon right? We

wait until it is a good deal. By waiting until it is on sale, and then pairing with a coupon, we are getting double the discount. Make sense?

Today my soon to be 12 yr old learned this the hard way. While at Target, she was flipping through my file and noticed that I had coupons good off of Lego sets and a Paper Jamz. She asked if she could go look in the toy section while I finished what I was doing. I said sure and off she went...

When I went and found her, she had a stack of Lego's and a Paper Jamz. Our conversation went something like this...

" uhm what you got there little lady?"

"These are the toys that go with the coupons."-Harmony

" Wait, how much are these?"
"I don't know. But you have a coupon for all of them."
"OK Harmony that Lego set is almost $50. Taking $3 off a $50 set is not what I consider a good deal."

"But you have a coupon and it expires on Monday. You wouldn't want to waste the printer ink that you used to print off the coupon would you?"

"Put those toys back right now. I will deal with the .01 waste of printer ink."

Eye roll, sigh, and stomping off to put things away..."well can I at least get a pack of gum?"

"Sure, the one that is on clearance."

"Mom, you are so UNFAIR!!"

Life lessons. Ugh. Do you ever deal with these kinds of issues? Do your spouse/kids/friends ever try to get you to buy something just because you have a coupon?