Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Free Listerine

Mouthwash was on my grocery list this week as we're down to the last bottle and even that is only about half full. Thankfully Walgreens has a great deal on them! It's a monthly megasaver deal and honestly I need to double check the end date on it. I'll try to edit later with a date if anyone else is interested in trying it.

Right now the mega saver is the 500mL bottles of the cool rinse Listerine. It's the blue bottle and it's 3 for $9. Coupons.com has coupons that are $2 off 1 bottle and are good for this particular one. You can print up to 2 per computer so use more than one computer to get multiple sets! Using 3 $2 coupons will bring the balance down to $3.

Now if you have any prior register rewards, I had $3 ones from the aquafresh deal last week, you can use those to pay. You'll just need to use a small filler like the ramen noodle for $.29, so that you have 1 coupone per item. Then you only pay for the ramen noodles. I even check out the clearance rack for cheapo items. Last time I scored a bunch of pony tail holders for Monkey for $.20 each!

Even if you don't have a prior register rewards you can still get them technically for free. With this deal it spits out a $3 register reward good on your next purchase, not including another listerine deal. Meaning you can't roll that reward into another 3/$9 and get a 2nd $3 reward. Either way it's a good deal cause you'll either just roll the $3 reward into a new one or break even.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rollin' On

Most of my very close friends know that for the last few months I've been really stressing over Mr. X and him wanting to get out of the military. He was dead set on getting out. Ever since Toots came along he's wanted to be able to stay home and see hime and all his milestones. Thats a good thing, yes I know. However his paycheck is what pays the mortgage, his carpayment, cell, and insurance. We could not even come close to surviving off my salary alone.

I had thought his re-enlistment date was next month if he decided to stay in however it turns out it was today!! Two weeks ago he tells me that he's getting out and that the command is doing an awards ceremony for him. His honorable discharge/tour of duty and all that. He asks me to take the time off and join him.

I immediately start freaking out try to think of what we can do to save up to try and last as long as we can until he can find a civilian job. THEN.....I started asking questions and thinking. Yes...thinking.

Do they really give ceremony's to guys getting out??? He mentioned once needing new dog tags. Hmmm...why would he need those getting out. Oh and the braces. (yes he has them, we deal with it). I asked him about when they would come off and he said in the next month or two. They had to be off before he went on the boat. Wait....what boat?? So I talked to some other military wives and they all said it didn't sound like he was getting out. So I started to hope.

Today comes and I was seriously a basket of nerves. Before they started I thought I might throw up. The guy...can't remember if it was his chief or someone else....starts reading off about an award he got. Then I hear the word "re-enlist". I swear I thought my heart was going ot beat out of my chest and I might hyperventilate.

So the guy looks at me and says that he's under the impression that Mr. X told me I was there to watch him just get an award. And that they were going to just do this discharge. However he didn't want me to fall over with a heart attack so he would just skip that and swear him in. So I got to stand up and hold the bible while he was sworn in. I had to bite my cheek from crying.

He got his certificates for re-enlisting, his coin, his pin, etc. Then they gave ME a certificate. For my support and faith in his decision to re-enlist...yada yada yada. Sweet though you know?? After that we just had a BBQ, everyone ate, joked around and had a good time.

Some of you might wonder why in the world would I WANT him to re-enlist. If you haven't noticed our economy SUCKS. Like horribly. Our house was just purchased last year and we have 2 kids in the house. Yes, it's going to be crappy dealing with deployements. Yes he will miss things with the kids. But in the long run, in the big picture I see it as the lesser of 2 evils.

I'm not worried about being on my own for months at a time. It will stink not having him to turn to at night or even just to annoy me for crazy reasons. But I know I can survive. If nothing else, taking care of Monkey by myself for almost 4 years has taught me that. I can get through anything. So we will have lots of emails and care packages. I'll take lots of photo's and video's for him to watch when he gets home if he wants. We'll find a way to fill that void while he's gone.

It won't be long before we deal with it too. The boat he's going too he'll be deployed on almost immediately when he reports at the end of August. He should only be gone about 3 months that time. Given there are no extensions he'll be home for the holidays which is a positive. We may just have to have the kids birthay party in late August instead of the middle of September so that he can be here. See....there's always a way to make it work.

I gotta say there is something to be said about a man who will sacrafice his wants over his families needs. If only more men would do that. Maybe there wouldn't be so many broken families.

So...for now I will breath easier. ****Sight****

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Starting at Walgreens

I've been wanting to take advantage of deals at walgreens for awhile now but have been really kinda afraid too because of all the horror stories I hear. Walgrees does whats called Register rewards where you will get a money off your next transaction when certain items are purchased. This week there were some good ones on toothpaste and deoderant so I decided to jump on the wagon.

First is the Aquafresh Advance toothpaste. There is a $1 off printable coupon. The toothpaste is on sale for $3 and you get a $3 register reward.

Second is Speedstick Deoderant. On sale for $2.99 and you get a $2 register reward.

You can roll these rewards into another transaction. So I started out with the speedstick. Since I had no rewards to begin with I paid the $2.99 out of pocket. I then did another transaction for the tooth paste. Now with walgreens a register reward is considered a coupon and you can only use 1 coupon per item. So for the toothpaste I had to use a filler which I got one of those individual packs of ramen noodles for $.29. After the $1 off coupon and the $2 RR my out of pocket expense was $.45 and I got the $3 rewards back.

I just rolled that into another deoderant. Another thing is if your item is less than the reward you have to use a filler. Even by a penny. So I just grabbed another ramen, the cheapest thing I could find. So my out of pocket was $.44 and got $2 back.

Went back to the tooth paste and just kept going.

Now since you have to do each of these transactions seperately (ex: you cant use a toothpaste reward to buy new toothpaste)I only did 4 transactions at 2 stores. There are tons of walgreens just with in a few blocks of me so going to several really isn't that big of a deal. I'll just carry some change so I'm not charging less than a dollar to my card over and over.

I sitll have a $3 RR I need to use by july 5th. Not sure if I"ll continue the deoderant/toothpaste roll or not. I may use it to get Lysol stuff.

Right now Lysol spray is on sale 2/$7 and giving back a $2RR. There are $1 off 1 coupons out there. So if I use the $2 in coupons, the $3 register reward and get back $2 I would essentially get them for free. On top of that the stores here have the cans packages with the free 35ct wipes. Can't beat that!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Deals by Accident

Not all the grocery deals I get are planned for. When I go to the store I try to keep my eye out on somethign that is a great value and we'll really use. The big one is meat. We are some what picky about certain things like chicken. No dark meat for us. It's always the boneless skinless chicken breast. Are we spoiled?? Probably. But at the average $4.99lb regular retail it can be pretty expensive. So I only buy it when I get an awesome deal and then I stock up. Like the time I bought 20lbs of it for $20. All I can say is thank goodness for my deep freezer.

This morning was another accidental deal. I stopped by Food Lion on my way to work to pick up something for lunch so I wouldn't be tempted to swing by the drive thru. As I was passing by the meat department I noticed they had tons of it marked down! Now the meat is perfectly fine. It's just that they have to be used or frozen by the sell by date so when that date arrives or is very close the item gets marked out. I guess the stores figure it's better to get something for it than nothing at all when they throw it out. So here is what I picked up:

Boneless Ribeye Steak Reg $5.99 Paid $1.57
Sirloin Tip Reg $8.93 Paid $1.56
Chuck Steak Reg $7.21 Paid $1.63
Roast Reg $7.78 Paid $1.36
Roast Reg $6.89 Paid $1.54
Ground Chuck Reg $2.57 Paid 1.76
Ground Turkey Reg $4.99 Paid $.75 (got 4 of them)

Original total before tax would be $44.36. Total after mark downs $12.42. Thats a 73% savings!! On top of that I also had a $3.50 off your next order that I needed to use. So I really only spent $8.92. That means I paid for the sirloin and get the rest for FREE!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Target Deal

target Pictures, Images and Photos


Went over to Target cause I heard they had some gift card deals and I had a few coupons to use up. Picked up the following:

4 cans Glad spray-had 2 B1G1 coupons
1 bottle Renuzit- $1 off
2 Jumbo packs Huggies- 2/$3 off coupons
1 32count Scott toilet paper -$1off

Total before coupons $32.09
Coupons $10 total off
Had $10 giftcard I got from Visa rewards

Total out of pocket $12.09 + tax
Also received $5 gift card from huggies/scott tissue deal (buy 3 get $5) so really my expense was $7.09. Not bad don't ya think!!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Another Shirt

Following the idea of the bandana shirt I did yesterday I did this one today. It's not made of bandana material. I never made it out to get more of that. So I just used a square piece of fabric I already had on hand. Mr. X even contributed to the design of it. Honestly, I think it turned out adorable and while he's not a fan of the print I think it's perfect for a little girl in the summer. Again, Monkey was more than happy to model for you!
Front
Back
I did a double stitching around the edges just to give it something extra. The ribbon across the middle is sewn on to make sure it stays in place. The one around the neck is not to allow for adjustment and tightening the neck part if needed. so what do you think??

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Bandana Shirt / Dress

I had seen this online weeks ago and then when I was at Wally world saw this red/white/blue theme bandana and thought....hmmm perfect for July 4th!! And since we're going camping that weekend I want to have something cute but something I didn't pay a small fortune for either. So I did this. Now, I have another idea which I'll probably post in the next few days but for now....the bandana shirt.



It's made from 2 bandanda's and 2 strips of ribbon. It took me maybe 10 minutes to put together and I think turned out really cute. On my almost 6 year old it fits like a shirt. I can see where it would work as a dress though for younger girls maybe with some cute bloomers under it.

Monkey was happy to model it for you too!

Front

Rear



You can find specific directions for making this HERE. Total cost to make it about $1.50 as I got the bandana's 2/$1 and only used a small portion of the ribbon. Not bad! I'm gonna pick up more bandana's today. I have an idea for a halter style shirt and then I want to figure out something for Toots as well in the holiday theme. So stay tuned!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

On the down slope to 12

9 months! The 3rd marked the day and yes I'm running late on posting this. Things have been a little hectic lately. But we are on the downhill slope to his 1st birthday. The next times he goes to the doc (barring any major sickness) for a well check will be after his 1st birthday. ***Sigh***

Toots had a couple new experiences in the last month. First was mothers day weekend, we went to the beach for a photo op with Robyn. His first trip and man was he facinated with the sand. We could hardly get him to look at the camera because he was so focused on the stuff. It didn't matter either how many times he got the stuff to his mouth and realized it wasn't all that tasty. He just kept on doing it. Since he's mobile too putting down a blanket didn't help. He just crawled off and kept going.

Memorial day weekend we went camping so Toots got his first sleeping outdoors experience as well. It was tricky. The first night was rough. He didn't really want to sleep. New place, lots of noice, and just unfamiliar to him. For my baby who actually prefers to sleep in his crib it was a rough night. The 2nd night though it got better. Course we wore him out at the water park, yet another new experience, which helped a bit too. He loved it though. All the attention and being out doors. Not to mention all the food that came his way.
His well check on Friday went well. He's up to a whopping 16.1lbs. Definetely the lighter of my two kiddo's at this age but considering how mobile he is it doesn't surprise me. Even at the office he was cruising along the wall behind the table they lay him on to check him. The doc said he seems to be developing just fine. He even uttered those words I dreaded ot hear. That toots would probably be starting to walk with in the month! Geesh. Can a mom get a break here? We are so not ready for that!

He's just such a happy go lucky kid and is finally starting to sleep through the night. Even Mr. X hadn't realized it till the other day he asked me if Toots had been waking up at night. Nope. Blissful sleep! So for now he's going down about 6:30-7pm and sleeping till about 6am. Most times he'll eat then go right back to sleep for a couple hours. Ahhhh....it was a long time coming thats for sure.

Thats it for now though.

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