I have a confession to make. Sigh...this is hard........ I don't coupon. I don't enjoy couponing. I cut out all these coupons and then forget them at home or in the van. Whenever they pass the coupon notebook around during MOPS I get rid of it quickly before I get sucked into it. I don't get the thrill of buying a cart full of cat food when you don't have a cat, just because you got it for 1 cent. It just doesn't compute with my "hate clutter" brain. I know some people donate the stuff they buy but where do they put it until they do that? It would drive me insane to have 12 bags of cat food in my house or van. I would have to immediately get rid of it. And what if I drove all the way over there and they said they couldn't take it?!?! The horror!!!! Do I really have time as a wife, mom of three, teacher, maid, MOPS coordinator, etc, to buy a million cans of cat food and drive it all the way to the shelter?
Yesterday I was on Facebook and I saw a link to a page called "Couponing to Disney." I was intrigued so I clicked on it. It had a link to this woman's blog. Her family of four goes to Disney every year by saving money she gets from rebate offers, money she saved from couponing, gift cards, etc. Last year they needed $3,200 to go and she ended up with $3,500 saved up by doing this! She was able to put the leftover into the fund for next year. It has inspired me to give it a try. She has a video link on her blog of their "stockpile." I couldn't watch it because if it looked like an episode of Hoarders I would've called the whole thing off. I want to coupon responsibly. I told Brett about it and his thought was let's just try to do it to save money in general. I would love if I could figure out how to do it and get the stuff we actually need. That seems to be the biggest problem. Coupons are always for things we don't buy. I don't want to buy stuff just because I have a coupon.We usually do store brand or cheaper alternatives to what we need.
So, to my couponing friends: help me! How do I do this and just get things we'll actually use? What are some other money saving tips you know of? We don't have a cat so no cat food coupons please. :)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Lots of love this week!
On Monday Austin asked me what we were going to do for Valentine's Day. I hadn't really planned anything because last week we did a Valentine's party with my mom (complete with making Valentine shoe boxes and passing out cards!) He looked disappointed so I thought I would put together a little something. Then I realized Brett and I hadn't really planned anything because we are trying to save money and we didn't really want to eat out. Just because we don't want to eat out, doesn't mean we can't have some romance at home!
I decided to make the boys Valentine breakfast with cards and decorations. My goal was to make a big breakfast but I have a head cold so I ended up doing toast with jelly in the shape of a heart, an oatmeal cream pie, a granola bar, and chocolate milk. :) Here are some pics:
I decided to make the boys Valentine breakfast with cards and decorations. My goal was to make a big breakfast but I have a head cold so I ended up doing toast with jelly in the shape of a heart, an oatmeal cream pie, a granola bar, and chocolate milk. :) Here are some pics:
For Brett I decided to to get him to help me put the kids to bed early and have a picnic in the living room. We were having spaghetti on Monday night and as I was cooking it, I thought "Man! This would've been perfect for tomorrow night!" (I was thinking of Lady and the Tramp!) I knew we would have leftovers so I just decided to go with it. I sent him an Evite at work about our picnic. My sister called me a little while later and said she could take the boys because her boyfriend had to work. Score! I changed the info on the Evite and he replied "Yes" and "I wouldn't miss it for the world!" :) Kara dressed the boys up and took them out on a "date" and I got ready for our picnic. I decorated the coffee table and when he got home we had spaghetti, bread, and tea in wine glasses. We watched Netflix streaming and ate Valentine candy. It was perfect! Kara brought the boys home right before bed bathed and in their pjs so we had the whole night off. I love spending time with my husband even when it's just leftovers and couch time. I'm thinking of making it a once a week thing. We can put the boys to bed a little early and have some alone time. We can eat and have adult conversation!
I signed Austin up for HEARTS this week. (Seems kind of fitting for Valentine's week!) We decided to wait a semester to get used to the homeschooling schedule. I only signed him up for one class for now since it's during Logan's nap time and we have soccer practice that evening. He's going to take Olympics. His friends Allie Grace and Annie will be in the class too. I know he needs to learn how to control his talking out of turn and "wiggles" so I'm hoping HEARTS can help with that some. I've been making him practice standing still and not interrupting while I talk to him. I always wonder if he would be in trouble all the time if he had to go to school! He is such a wiggler and LOVES to talk! Next semester, we're hoping to take 2 or 3 classes. I think he is going to love it!
We got our paint on Saturday! I'm so excited to get started but we have to wait another weekend. We're doing a yard sale this weekend. I'm kind of over having yard sales. The first one we had was awesome and we make over $200. Every yard sale we've had since then has been a bust. I feel like it's a ton of work for nothing. Brett really wants to have one so I'm trying to get the word out. Whatever we don't sell we're going to donate to Joanna's Team in Training Yard Sale they're having the next weekend. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot... :( We may try to start some painting after the yard sale. Next weekend hopefully we can get the baby's room done. I'll post pictures as we get it done!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Home improvement
The boys are still in bed so I thought I'd blog. They have to go get shots this morning at 10:30, so I'll be kind and let them sleep in. Poor, little buddies! I've done my quiet time, put a chicken in the crock pot, made a list of housework to be done and now I'm drinking my coffee in silence. Sweet!
We're starting to do some home improvement projects around the house. We rent from my in-laws. We knew the house needed updates, but we kept thinking we were going to buy a house and not be here long. Well, Austin was about 8 months old when we moved in and he's 5 now, so I think maybe we should start fixing this place up! We're probably going to be here awhile! The house is very roomy and has a lot of potential, but it's not in the best part of town. We've had our Ipods stolen (our fault, didn't lock our car doors) and there are just some strange looking characters that hang out around here. They found a dead body last year near us and then the next day a man was stabbed. I wanted to get out of here ASAP! It turned out the man who they found was probably drunk and something happened (hopefully naturally!) and the man who was stabbed, was stabbed by an angry girlfriend. It made me feel a little better. We decided recently that it's just time to face the facts and stay here. We could probably afford to buy a house but here we have a little more financial freedom. I really don't want to leave paycheck to paycheck. We're wanting to be one of those weird couples who pays cash for stuff! So far, we do okay but we want to do better. We'll stick around here for the time being.
The house needs paint (badly!), new carpet, baseboards in the kitchen (don't ask....), new tile in the bathrooms, and some work done on the back room. It also could use exterior paint and new doors. We're hoping one day soon we can have all that done. We have a baby coming this summer, so I'm not sure how much we'll get done but Brett is done with Men's Fraternity until the fall so hopefully he can spend some Sunday afternoons working. Maybe I can be faithful with blogging our progress and posting pictures! Brett was not excited at first about doing all the work, but I told him to think about how proud we will be when it's all over. He has been more excited since then. He works so hard for us and now we have a house to restore to it's original glory. I sure do love that man!
This weekend we started a few projects. He put new magnets on the kitchen cabinet doors. Whenever you turn the fan in the kitchen up move than low (which is pretty much anytime I turn the oven on), our cabinets will magically float open. He bought new magnets and replaced all the old ones and now they stay closed! We also undertook a huge thing we've been putting off; cleaning the grout in our kitchen ceramic tile. Whenever they put the ceramic tile down, they didn't have a chance to seal it. I'm 27 years old and have never really done any home improvement projects, so I didn't realized how bad the tile looked. Isn't the grout supposed to be black? ;) Well, turns out it's supposed to be white! Brett found some grout cleaner and started scrubbing away with a tiny brush. I sat on the floor next to him and wiped up the mess with a rag. We got half done on Saturday and finished yesterday after church. It is a very tedious process, but our floors look so great! After we finished that I mopped the floor really good. We let it dry while we were at church last night and then after the boys went to bed, Brett started spraying a sealer on it. Hopefully the sealer will work and we won't have to do that for a while! Here's a picture of what I'm talking about:
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The white is obviously been scrubbed and the black is what it looked like before.
Next weekend, we will be buying paint and getting ready to paint all the walls. The nursery will be first. Right now it's the boy's playroom. It will be the easiest room to paint because there is no furniture to move, just toys. Hopefully, Brett can start patching holes in the walls next weekend. Whenever we finish the nursery, we'll start the kitchen and then go from there. I'll try to post before and after pictures!
We're starting to do some home improvement projects around the house. We rent from my in-laws. We knew the house needed updates, but we kept thinking we were going to buy a house and not be here long. Well, Austin was about 8 months old when we moved in and he's 5 now, so I think maybe we should start fixing this place up! We're probably going to be here awhile! The house is very roomy and has a lot of potential, but it's not in the best part of town. We've had our Ipods stolen (our fault, didn't lock our car doors) and there are just some strange looking characters that hang out around here. They found a dead body last year near us and then the next day a man was stabbed. I wanted to get out of here ASAP! It turned out the man who they found was probably drunk and something happened (hopefully naturally!) and the man who was stabbed, was stabbed by an angry girlfriend. It made me feel a little better. We decided recently that it's just time to face the facts and stay here. We could probably afford to buy a house but here we have a little more financial freedom. I really don't want to leave paycheck to paycheck. We're wanting to be one of those weird couples who pays cash for stuff! So far, we do okay but we want to do better. We'll stick around here for the time being.
The house needs paint (badly!), new carpet, baseboards in the kitchen (don't ask....), new tile in the bathrooms, and some work done on the back room. It also could use exterior paint and new doors. We're hoping one day soon we can have all that done. We have a baby coming this summer, so I'm not sure how much we'll get done but Brett is done with Men's Fraternity until the fall so hopefully he can spend some Sunday afternoons working. Maybe I can be faithful with blogging our progress and posting pictures! Brett was not excited at first about doing all the work, but I told him to think about how proud we will be when it's all over. He has been more excited since then. He works so hard for us and now we have a house to restore to it's original glory. I sure do love that man!
This weekend we started a few projects. He put new magnets on the kitchen cabinet doors. Whenever you turn the fan in the kitchen up move than low (which is pretty much anytime I turn the oven on), our cabinets will magically float open. He bought new magnets and replaced all the old ones and now they stay closed! We also undertook a huge thing we've been putting off; cleaning the grout in our kitchen ceramic tile. Whenever they put the ceramic tile down, they didn't have a chance to seal it. I'm 27 years old and have never really done any home improvement projects, so I didn't realized how bad the tile looked. Isn't the grout supposed to be black? ;) Well, turns out it's supposed to be white! Brett found some grout cleaner and started scrubbing away with a tiny brush. I sat on the floor next to him and wiped up the mess with a rag. We got half done on Saturday and finished yesterday after church. It is a very tedious process, but our floors look so great! After we finished that I mopped the floor really good. We let it dry while we were at church last night and then after the boys went to bed, Brett started spraying a sealer on it. Hopefully the sealer will work and we won't have to do that for a while! Here's a picture of what I'm talking about:
.JPG)
The white is obviously been scrubbed and the black is what it looked like before.
Next weekend, we will be buying paint and getting ready to paint all the walls. The nursery will be first. Right now it's the boy's playroom. It will be the easiest room to paint because there is no furniture to move, just toys. Hopefully, Brett can start patching holes in the walls next weekend. Whenever we finish the nursery, we'll start the kitchen and then go from there. I'll try to post before and after pictures!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
2012 so far!
I haven't blogged since 2011! Shame on me! :)
This year has been going well. Lots of down time with my boys. I've felt an urge to spend more time at home and not running around, being pulled in a million directions. One of the reasons I wanted to home school was to be able to spend as much time as possible with my children in the short time they are kids. They grow up in a blink of an eye! I'm thinking of dropping MOPS next year (as much as I hate to do that.) We may just do HEARTS and play Upward for right now. Maybe we'll join a home school group. We haven't been able to establish a schedule this year. It's our first year homeschooling and I know it will come, but I feel led to have more routine in our day. Now, we just do school whenever we have time. We used to say a prayer, the Christian pledge, and the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. We haven't done it in a while and Austin reminded me about it the other day. Next school year, I plan on being more organized and stick to a routine.
Brett was ordained as a deacon last month and I'm so proud of him! He was so honored that they asked him. It was an emotional ceremony. His grandfather came and prayed for us. He was Brett's pastor growing up. He baptized him and married us. He also started playing in a bluegrass band at church and is having a blast! They have two gigs coming up. His mom and I got him a drum set for his birthday and he's excited about learning how to play drums. He wants to put Austin in music lessons soon. He really wants us to be a musical family. I hope the children will be excited about learning music!
We're waiting on our tax return so we can buy next years curriculum and other things. I'm so tempted to say "Let's go to Disney again!" but I'm sure Brett would say no! Plus, we'll have a baby so I guess we should wait! We want to either try Christmas 2013 or January 2014. Austin will be 7, Logan will be 4, and Katelynn will be 18 months. Logan was under 2 when we went this year and he did okay. When we came back, I said I would never do it with a baby in diapers but I changed my mind! It wasn't THAT bad! :)
Katelynn's due date in June 10th but I'm betting she'll be born in May. I always go a week or two early. I've lost a lot of weight since I had Logan so I've been trying to keep my weight down this pregnancy. At 21 weeks I still weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with Logan. I feel huge though. I've been walking and trying to eat better. This is the best I've eaten with all three of my babies! Brett and I decided a while ago to stop eating out as much. We made a budget and try to stick to it. We only allotted ourselves $100 a month to eat out. Last month we were $4 under budget! :-D With both the boys, we ate out a lot. We used to go to El Saltillo every Friday for lunch. We haven't been in ages. I'm glad we made the decision to do that, especially since it's helped me keep my weight down this pregnancy!
We're about to start painting our house! It's actually my in-laws house that we rent. We kept thinking we weren't going to put a lot of work into it because we wouldn't be here long. We've been here since Austin was about 8 months old so I guess it's time to stop saying that! It's a great house and has a lot of potential. It needs a lot of updates though. We're hoping the Lord will provide the funds we need to make it the best house it can be for us. We're going to start with paint and go from there. I want new carpets because the numerous dogs who have lived here have made the carpets pretty yucky. :( I think with a little paint and new carpet and bathroom tile, this house can be really great!
I also want to start sewing sometime this year! A lot of my friends who have girls have sewn some really cute stuff and I want to learn. With the boys, I never really thought I could sew something that would look right, but with a girl it seems like I could do some simple patterns and they would be cute!
Better go help Austin finish school so we can eat lunch!
This year has been going well. Lots of down time with my boys. I've felt an urge to spend more time at home and not running around, being pulled in a million directions. One of the reasons I wanted to home school was to be able to spend as much time as possible with my children in the short time they are kids. They grow up in a blink of an eye! I'm thinking of dropping MOPS next year (as much as I hate to do that.) We may just do HEARTS and play Upward for right now. Maybe we'll join a home school group. We haven't been able to establish a schedule this year. It's our first year homeschooling and I know it will come, but I feel led to have more routine in our day. Now, we just do school whenever we have time. We used to say a prayer, the Christian pledge, and the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. We haven't done it in a while and Austin reminded me about it the other day. Next school year, I plan on being more organized and stick to a routine.
Brett was ordained as a deacon last month and I'm so proud of him! He was so honored that they asked him. It was an emotional ceremony. His grandfather came and prayed for us. He was Brett's pastor growing up. He baptized him and married us. He also started playing in a bluegrass band at church and is having a blast! They have two gigs coming up. His mom and I got him a drum set for his birthday and he's excited about learning how to play drums. He wants to put Austin in music lessons soon. He really wants us to be a musical family. I hope the children will be excited about learning music!
We're waiting on our tax return so we can buy next years curriculum and other things. I'm so tempted to say "Let's go to Disney again!" but I'm sure Brett would say no! Plus, we'll have a baby so I guess we should wait! We want to either try Christmas 2013 or January 2014. Austin will be 7, Logan will be 4, and Katelynn will be 18 months. Logan was under 2 when we went this year and he did okay. When we came back, I said I would never do it with a baby in diapers but I changed my mind! It wasn't THAT bad! :)
Katelynn's due date in June 10th but I'm betting she'll be born in May. I always go a week or two early. I've lost a lot of weight since I had Logan so I've been trying to keep my weight down this pregnancy. At 21 weeks I still weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with Logan. I feel huge though. I've been walking and trying to eat better. This is the best I've eaten with all three of my babies! Brett and I decided a while ago to stop eating out as much. We made a budget and try to stick to it. We only allotted ourselves $100 a month to eat out. Last month we were $4 under budget! :-D With both the boys, we ate out a lot. We used to go to El Saltillo every Friday for lunch. We haven't been in ages. I'm glad we made the decision to do that, especially since it's helped me keep my weight down this pregnancy!
We're about to start painting our house! It's actually my in-laws house that we rent. We kept thinking we weren't going to put a lot of work into it because we wouldn't be here long. We've been here since Austin was about 8 months old so I guess it's time to stop saying that! It's a great house and has a lot of potential. It needs a lot of updates though. We're hoping the Lord will provide the funds we need to make it the best house it can be for us. We're going to start with paint and go from there. I want new carpets because the numerous dogs who have lived here have made the carpets pretty yucky. :( I think with a little paint and new carpet and bathroom tile, this house can be really great!
I also want to start sewing sometime this year! A lot of my friends who have girls have sewn some really cute stuff and I want to learn. With the boys, I never really thought I could sew something that would look right, but with a girl it seems like I could do some simple patterns and they would be cute!
Better go help Austin finish school so we can eat lunch!
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