Shopping

Ok - I preface this post with the understanding that I am 1/2 step closer to my self-defined crazy couponer. But, I'm in the mood, so I'm posting this anyway! And it's only 1/2 step because I did not lay all my purchases out neatly and take a picture of them to post. I'm only posting about my shopping trip today.

I finally got to Wal-Mart this week. Wednesday is my usual day, but I've been under the weather for a few days. End of the month shopping trips are usually the worst for me because I'm trying to see if any of my soon-to-be expiring coupons are worth using. Luckily I had two VERY well behaved kids today and the store was not that busy. And it was pretty well stocked. I ended up with a sub-total of $93.03 - AFTER price matching. I price matched 50% of my items (which is low for me, but I knew that 40% of those I didn't price match would end up being free after coupons!) After coupons my subtotal came to $56. That's 60% of the first total. Pretty good considering my cart consisted of 9 boxes of cereal, 6 lbs of various cheeses, 5 bags of Tyson chicken, Electosol gelpacs, 3 Crisco oils, 2 milks, 6 rolls of packing tape, 3 packages of floss, 4 packages of marshmallows, and LOTS more!

However, the downside of all this was that I had to use my debit card because I'd already used all my allotted cash for the week! However, I can explain myself on that as well! I scoured the clearance shelves at Big Lots last week and used a 20% of coupon to get Steve a new wheelbarrow, birthday party presents for the whole year (probably), and more. I also used the money on new contacts, 6 packages of Huggies and Pampers diapers, 2 jumbo packs of Cottenelle TP, Hamburger Helper sale at Maceys, etc. I also have a few rebates to send in, so I will be getting some of that money back!! So, I'm still couponing. My plan is to have a "Pantry Challenge" this July. That month (and maybe August as well), I'll challenge myself to eat only from the pantry. Oh, I'll have a small allowance for milk, produce and other necessities, but it will be fun to use what I have. And those will be good months to do it because I do not get any income those two months. We may be eating a lot of cereal and hamburger helper and noodles, but, oh well - the kids like those!!

Family update

Our family has been busy getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas break. I sure enjoyed the break and was actually sad to send Emily back to school. She and Ella can really entertain each other during the day. (Some good, some bad!) I got to put Christmas away by myself this year since Steve was slaving away in the bathroom again. Well, Ella can really be a good little helper. With the baby swing, nursing chair and Christmas tree out of the room - our living room seemed really big again! I actually avoided putting the coffee table back in the room for a couple of extra weeks! We've left the new play kitchen upstairs for the time being, and the girls LOVE pretending they are Princess Tiana working in the kitchen.

Steve:
**Gave up on the bathroom, had several contractors out to give us bids, decided to try again, decided to give up again. Hired a contractor that didn't show. Got encouraged by Dan to try again. Will possibly work on tiling this weekend. (80% chance that it will go on for a few more weeks, 20% chance it will get done, 100% chance that he will hear some nagging about it.)**Had a good yearly review at work. Told his bosses he'd rather try to become an estimator than an appraiser. Anxiety level decreased about 125% in one day.

**Got his early birthday present right after Christmas. Actually loves Eden enough to let her chomp on his head for awhile.
**Gave a talk today in church on God, the Father. Did an excellent job. Was probably asked to speak in church because his Primary teaching partner praised his teaching skills up and down last testimony meeting!

**Had strep throat for the first time last weekend. Finally went to the doctor on the 4th day - I'll bet he goes the 1st day next time now that he knows what it feels like!

**Has been giving me one night a week to myself. He's so wonderful, except this is an example of what I come home to...**Still loves his girls and each one has him wrapped around his finger! The older girls won't go to bed without a horsie ride from daddy. They also get up with him at the crack of dawn for a few extra minutes of daddy-time in the day. Is planning on taking the girls to the annual carshow tomorrow. (However, mommy is thinking about ducking out again this year!!! Kohls - here I come!)
Kim:
**Been couponing and Craigslisting up a storm lately.
**Is wondering why she's been getting such TERRIBLE customer service lately - from dentists, to cashiers, to contractors. And also VERY proud of herself for acting civil to each and every one of them!
**Has actually done the Wii Active workout 6 times the last 2 weeks!
**Spent all day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. Still not done...
**Taught RS today. Actually enjoyed preparing for and teaching the lesson. Went well.
**Is still constantly overwhelmed by the messiness of the house. Just can't keep up with my 3 little hurricanes.

Emily:
**Just joined Up With Kids - a non-profit musical theater program. Super excited to be in a play called, The Wonderful Witches of Oz!
**Still excelling in school. Still loves having her mom volunteer every Monday, then stay to eat lunch with her.
**Is growing out of all her clothes (length, definitely NOT width).

Ella:
**Can't WAIT until her birthday (5 months away...)
**THINKS she has a boyfriend in preschool. She invited him over to play the other day and apparently they BOTH got dressed up special for each other!!
**Often makes me bust out laughing... She put too much lotion on the other day. I told her to rub some on her legs. She said, "Oh, I wish this was the kind of lotion that wipes the hair off your legs, arms and lips!!" (Apparently too many infomercials at the neighbor's house!!)
**Also declared one day, "There's two kinds of tutus. The kind from your bum and the kind you wear."
**Decided to WASH our expensive, can-only-order-online remote the other day. Was surprised to find it wouldn't work when she was done. (Luckily we have a handy daddy.)
**Is growing out of all her clothes (height and width!:)
Eden:
**One week until her birthday!!! (Which means mom's gone almost a year without going insane...yet!)
**Never stops moving. (And people keep commenting on that at church!)
**Can stand by herself for a few seconds at a time. (Although, I find it hilarious that I often see her practicing standing with a pillow in front of her. Really, she's too smart!)
**Other smart moments: One day I decided to just heat up a recent bottle instead of making a new one. I wondered why she wouldn't take it. Then she reached for the formula can and started banging on the top. She thought I'd forgotten it! After I pretended to add some formula, she finally accepted it! Also, she often thinks I forget to blow on her food for her so she'll blow on it herself before she eats it! I'm REALLY in for trouble with this one, aren't I?
**Already has 8 teeth. That's 5 months of HARD-CORE teething!!!

Few random pics:

Healthy snacktimes!

They ate a WHOLE baby watermelon in ONE sitting!
"Mom, can't we just eat the chocolate chips???"
The 3 Dancing Princesses!

Why I coupon...

I've been thinking about writing this for awhile. Mostly to have all my reasons written somewhere when I begin to feel overwhelmed by it all!

***I've ALWAYS been a bargain hunter. It's just kind of a thrill knowing you got a good deal and feels like I'm not letting those big, impersonal stores get the best of me!!
-I don't think I've ever bought clothing either NOT on sale or not at a discount retailer.
-I've always tried to buy generic food and the cheapest toiletries.
-I LOVE garage saling and cannot wait until spring every year to see the signs pop up!
-I've done the drive from store to store trying to find the best deal.
-I've written down the prices of items I normally buy at Wal-Mart and compared it to Costco's prices. I've even created a spreadsheet with that information to consult when checking weekly ads.
-For most of my married life I've been clipping coupons and checking all the grocery store ads weekly to find the best deals and then price-matching at Wal-Mart.
-I've returned recently purchased items to stores if I found an item cheaper at another store (or the SAME store!)

***But recently, I've upped my game. My friend really got into this couponing craze called Savvy Shopper. She was telling everyone she knew about it. She would occasionally call me and tell me about a good deal I should take advantage of. I thought it was wonderful that she was all excited and that she was making money, but I also heard about all the time she was spending cutting coupons from multiple papers, researching her shopping trips, and shopping at multiple stores to get it all. Her husband was unemployed at the time and so this was able to help them in a stressful time. (He also was able to take care of the kids while she did her lengthy deal shopping runs.)
-Finally I attended a class she and another friend were hosting. A lady from the GrocerySmarts website taught us about using multiple papers and their website to save 50 - 75% off your shopping totals. That inspired me to order 3 more copies of the Sunday paper (4 total.)
-At first I started clipping any coupon that I might ever possibly need. My old organizing system (a small accordion file) just wasn't cutting it anymore. My coupons started piling up everywhere.
-Later, I finally took the plunge and decided to make a coupon binder. I pulled out one of my old 4 inch binders and purchased a large pack of baseball card pages. I spent all of conference weekend making binder labels and organizing and inserting my coupons.

***I don't consider myself a full-fledged couponer. I don't run to stores to buy thing I don't need just because I could get a rebate or a catalina and possibly make money on the deal. (Also, I've never come home, laid all my purchases out neatly, took a picture and blogged about it!) I just took baby steps from where I was to where I am now. Here's my weekly routine:
-Sunday: I clip all coupons for items I routinely buy, items I'm in need of, high-value coupons, and items I know go on sale a lot. I try to get them filed that day - but often it's left until Tuesday. I also go through all the ads. I've begun saving them all for a week because Target requires the entire ad to price-match. I separate the food and non-food ads.
-Tuesday: I try to get all ready for Wednesday's shopping run. I go through all the food ads and write down the store name and items that they have for a good price on the back of my shopping list. I go through my coupon binder to find matching coupons for the items that are already on a good sale (that I've listed on the back of my shopping list.) Mostly I shop at Wal-Mart and price match everything. But every now and again Target and Walgreens has their own good coupons that I need to use in their stores.
-Wednesday: After I drop Ella off at dance, I do all the little errands I need to do. After I pick her up, we do the big Wal-Mart run. I have my list, coupons (in the same order I walk through the store), occasionally my binder, and WIC booklet all ready in a ziplock bag that I just pull out as I enter the store. If I buy an item that I have a coupon for, I stick it back in the baggie. If I decide not to use a coupon, I stick it back in the front of my binder. In theory, this should all work perfectly. But in reality, I'm often one-handed pulling my cart behind me and trying to keep Eden from grabbing my coupons and list and shredding them. When I get home most of the items are for my storage, so I dump them in our storage room - to be shelved at a much later date...by this time, I'm exhausted!

***But I have learned a lot!
-I've found 5 thrifty websites that I check multiple times everyday!
-I've learned that there are websites for printing your own coupons.
-I've learned that you can stack coupons. Not only should you be only using coupons that are ALREADY on sale, you should be stacking manufacturer coupons with store coupons and stacking them with buy 1 get 1 free coupons if possible.
-I've learned that often I CAN get brand-name items for much less than generic.
-I've learned that there are some items you should never buy - only get them when they are FREE! Some free items I've gotten lately are lightbulbs, dryer sheets, batteries, bath soap, wipes, tacos, toothpaste, photo books, various types of crackers, cereal, marshmallows, hot chocolate, and more.
-I've learned that there are coupons for EVERYTHING! I used coupons to purchase most of our Christmas. We were able to have a lot more under our tree thanks to a lot of thrifty shopping.
-Restaurants also want to get in on the dealing. As well as frequent coupons, there's a website to purchase gift cards at 80% or more off the regular price. Also, they often have freebie days. Dennys and IHOP have free kids meals days. I've gone to Free Float night at A&Ws, free hot dog and ice cream day at Weinerschnitzel, and today I got a free Fresco chicken taco at Taco Bell!
-I've learned there's deals and coupons on the internet all the time. Luckily the websites I frequent let me know about them so I don't have to do the searching.
-I've learned you don't have to chase every deal. I've also learned that some stores and some employees are nicer and more helpful than others. I've TRIED to learn to let the not so helpful stores and employees roll off me.

***My food storage is growing.
-Like I mentioned earlier, most of what I buy every week goes straight to my food storage room. My weekly list of things we need or have run out of gets smaller and smaller every week. So I use my weekly grocery budget to stock up on the great deals for the week. As we need food upstairs, we go "shopping" downstairs. The girls LOVE to go shopping with me at "Kim's" - where everything is FREE!! I make a list of what we are short on upstairs and we go shopping downstairs. I give the girls a grocery sack each and fill it up with cans and boxes. They take it upstairs, unload it and come back for more!! Then I fill up the pantry and we are set for awhile!
-Unfortunately, I only have 3 shelves, an outside freezer and various other nooks to stash all my food. I'm doing my best though, and hopefully we'd at least get through a few months if there was a disaster.
-I do need to work more on more lasting food storage - those dreaded #10 cans and buckets of grains and powdered milk!

***So, that's why I coupon.
-I can't say I'll do it forever, but finding good deals is just in my blood (thanks mom!) I hope to show my own children to be frugal. I hope to show them that we don't need to always buy what we want right now - we need to wait until it goes on sale and we have the money for it. They're always asking me if the cereal they want or chocolate milk or something is on sale that week. They love clipping out the coupons I didn't clip out. Ella thinks that if she cuts out a picture of a toy she wants, that she can buy it because it's on sale!
-Steve was out of work for about 3 months a while back and then ended up taking a job that paid considerably less. We're working on being able to stay in the black every month, and I feel that this is just another way I can help the family budget.
-I've also found a few ways to give service while couponing. Not only was I able to share generously to the ward food drive, but I've also shared tips with others. Recently I've learned that the military stationed overseas can use coupons for several months past their expiration date. So at the end of each month, I gather all the expired coupons that I didn't use and mail them to a lady in Idaho that collects them and then sends them to the appropriate place. It's great to be able to find ways to serve that fit in my lifestyle!

So, wish me luck in continuing this deal-seeking journey.

One last Christmas picture

I'm going through piles today and found this in my "To Scan" pile. This is from our trip to Midway for their Swiss Christmas. They have the entire stake center filled with 1000s of nativity scenes. This is the girls' favorite part - dressing up!
In other news...I remembered why I gave up working out! I tried my Wii active game today and after avoiding stepping and jumping on toys, stepping around children and having Eden hang on my leg half the time, I was fed up! Guess there goes one of my resolutions!!

Happy New Year!!