Not nearly as good as the sale they ran on meat back in October, but here's the link for a coupon!

For all you Food Lion shoppers, here’s a coupon you don’t see too often! Just go here to print a Food Lion coupon valid for $3 off an $8 purchase in the meat department. I am definitely putting this coupon to use!

Spring and Couponing

It doesn't feel like it today, but Spring is here in North Carolina. It actually felt almost like summer last week with highs near 80 and wonderfully warm sunshine! But it was just a tease, now we are have rainy, cold days. Later in the week when it finally stops raining, all the trees should be green! yay!! I always remember going into the hospital when Levi was born, and coming out and everything was green and fully bloomed!
One of the really wonderful things about our new house is all the time the previous ownerns put into landscaping and gardening. Below is a picture of the beginning flowers in our strawberry patch! yahoo! This is the 3rd season for them and they are in a raised bed w/ a closed, hinged cover to keep the birds away, so the strawberries should do well from all that I have googled :-) Hopefully we'll have our first fruits in another month or so. The previous owners also planted 2 blueberry bushes, but last year was the first year, so they are looking a little small right now. We'll see.
And if we weren't going to PA for the whole summer, I would have planted a vegetable garden in the compost rich soil that the previous owners have been turning over for the past few years! We are blessed.

I have been going back and forth as to whether or not couponing is "worth it" for our family. I don't deny that some people save lots of money by couponing, but it does take alot of time. Not just time to cut out the coupons, but the extra trips you have to make to specific stores to get certain sale + coupon match ups. But anytime I think about "quitting" couponing, I end up getting some awesome deals like the one pictured below.

got all of this for $2 b/c of Harris Teeter's sale + super doubles (when they double coupons over $1). I have never done this well b4, so I had to post the pic! :-)
The cereal was FREE (on sale for $2, and had 4- $1 off coupons which HT doubled), the laundry detergent was $1 (on sale for $3, and had a $1 off coupon which HT doubled), the salad kit was on sale + coupon too.

Diapers

First of all, it just makes me sick that I'm still buying diapers for my youngest boy child who is all of 2 years and 8 1/2 months old!! ahhh! But the only way that we have had success with potty training is if he goes around the house with just a shirt on...no diaper, no underwear, no pull-up, no pants. Then, and only then does he stop himself from "going" and then proceeds to yell, "Mommy the pee-pee is coming". Then we rush to the bathroom and he goes immediately. No accidents. But it's the middle of winter, and even though we are in the South, it's been in the teens over night and only up to maybe 40 degrees in the day. Just a bit cold to be running around with just a shirt on. So until it gets warmer or we have a break thru in another potty training "technique" (and believe me, I've tried it all), he will be wearing diapers for awhile longer. Sigh. Sadness. Frustration.
But if we have to spend money on diapers, I'm at least going to get the best price around (or try too!!!)
We LOVE Luvs around our house!! It's the cheapest brand-name diaper and always has a coupon or promo code going on!! I've tried all the store brands, but both my boys leaked thru them all. When we just had one baby in diapers, we loved Pampers Swaddlers and Cruisers, but the budget didn't allow for that "luxury" once we had 2 kids in diapers both under the age of 14 months old! Thus, came our LOVE for Luvs!
I just bought 120, size 6 (yes, my kids both maxxed out at the largest size before they were 2 years old)...so 120 diapers for just $17.99 shipped TO MY DOOR. TOTAL!! Including tax and S & H...$17.99!!! (but really there was no shipping charges in this case!)
How???
My FAVORITE...Amazon.com + a coupon!!
They have their 120 count, size 6 diapers on sale for $35.99. Use the Subscribe and Save option to save an additional 30%. If you have an additional 20% coupon located in Parents magazine (I'll post next about how you can get a 3 yrs subscription to this magazine for just $5.99), this will bring your total to $17.99 with free two day shipping. You can't beat that for diapers delivered to your door for under $20! Don't forget if you use the Subscribe and Save option, to cancel the membership once your item has been shipped or you will continue to receive these diapers each month. Membership is free and you can cancel at anytime.
All the other sizes of Luvs are on sale too. I have done this "Subscribe and Save" option before and as soon as they were delivered, I went into my Amazon account and canceled the membership.
So while my son who talks like a 4 year old is still wearing diapers, I'll be trying to get the best deal until this expenditure goes away!!

Saving Time and Money

Something all of us are interested, right??
Well, I don't have anything profound or original, but just little things that I'm thrilled about that save me time and money, though not necessarily at the same time!
Let's start w/ Saving Time:
For those of you know me well, this is going to be shocking!! ha!
I stopped wearing eye makeup on a day to day basis. I still will put it on when going out for a Girls Night Out or Moms Night Out, or on a date of course :-)...which btw reminds me a funny Wyatt story...
We had a babysitter coming one night to watch the boys b/c Adam had an Open House at school and I really wanted to go to a Pampered Chef party my SIL was having. Let me preface this with, "We Rarely Get Babysitters". Wyatt said, "Are you guys going on a date?" (thanks to my parents this past summer, he does know what date is b/c we got to go out alot!!!). Adam said, "No, I have to go to a meeting at work". Wyatt said, "Well, then is Mommy going on a date?". We both chuckled and Adam teased me and said, "I don't know, Mommy are you going on a date?" ha ha!
Anyway, I finally realized one day that all I do is put on my eye makeup to end up taking time to take it off at the end of the day. And I'm always exhausted, and don't think that eye makeup really helps to take that look away! So I'll embrace the exhausted look, and save myself some time in the AM and PM.
And I stopped washing my hair too! well, not completely of course! But I only wash it every 3 days or so. Seriously! Don't worry, I do shower, just not the whole hair process. And believe me, w/ long hair, it is a "process". Got a tip from a college friend to use baby powder around where my hair meets my forehead and my temples (where it would be more greasy looking). And it works wonders folks!!
Maybe when my kids are older I'll have more time to wash my hair daily and wear eye makeup, but for now I would rather read them books, give them hugs and laugh w/ them. (and do all the dishes and laundry that they create :-)
Saving Money:
A few months ago, I was on a Saving-Money-Blog-reading-frenzy. But here lately, I'm on a Homeschool-Blog-Reading-Frenzy. I go back and forth where I get to spend my "free time". I love to watch for sales and pair them w/ coupons, and love to use websites that make it super easy like: Southern Savers, Money Saving Mom, and Hip to Save. But I'll save more of those details for another post. But one thing I must share was a tip from my friend Jill...
It's called: Whole Boneless Beef Sirloin Tip
It's on sale for $1.98 lb at Food Lion this week (and seems to only have this great sale every 3 months)
You probably won't even be able to find it right away (at least I couldn't) b/c you don't realize what it looks like. The best way to describe it, is that it looks like a HUGE whole turkey for Thanksgiving. It's in a vacuum sealed pack. it will be about $18 to $20 for the whole big ole thing! (that is the sale price I mean).
You put one (or 2 or 3) in your cart, and ring the doorbell for the butcher. Our store has butcher hrs of 8am to 8pm. Then you ask him to make it into....
I asked for some ground meat (it's just like ground beef, but technically called ground sirloin), and some steaks. You can also ask for a roast to be cut out of it as well.
Then it takes him about 5 to 10 min, and he will package it all individually, but then wrap all the individual packages in one big wrap w/ the overall price on it.
I had him cut up 3 of those big 'ole hunks of meat and got 10 trays(approx 1.3 lbs each) of ground meat, 11 steaks (1 inch thick and about the size of a dinner plate), and 2 roasts (approx 2.5 lbs each) for $52!! Our freezer is packed!! And I just use the ground sirloin in any recipe that I would use ground beef or turkey.
I don't have any pictures for this post. Guess I could put a clip art picture of a a cow since I feel like I just purchased half a cow w/ all the meat I have in my freezer! keep your eyes open for this great sale at Food Lion!! Sale Ends tomorrow night though.

Free Stuff!

I wrote a post about this awhile back, but I just have to mention something about it again. I just redeemed my 8th, $5 Amazon.com gift card. I have earned 8 of these since I started doing Swagbucks in January 2010. In 8 months, 8 free gift cards! All I do is use Swagbucks.com like I used to use Google or Yahoo for a search engine. There are other ways to accumulate Swagbucks, but I have only done the search engine. I would be earning even more if I used some of their other options, but I just don't have time. All that to say, that if I have "time" to use Swagbucks just as a search engine, then you have time too! :-) And if you have more time, you can go crazy and use it more and earn more!
If you have never heard of Swagbucks, it’s a search engine that awards you points randomly and in varying denominations. SwagBucks can then be redeemed for a variety of prizes, including great gift cards, as I already described.
For more details click here.

This week they are celebrating Back to School and giving out more than normal:
If you sign up between and Sunday at midnight, use the code BackToSchool. You'll receive 30 points at sign-up, and an extra 40 points for using the code.
To sign up click here.

It's so easy, and so worth it! And you can use multiple gift cards at once. I save my gift cards to use $25 at one time, so I get free shipping on Amazon.
Even if you don't sign up, now you know what you are missing out on and can't say you didn't know! :-)

And of course some pictures of the boys. They are very into there homemade juice popsicles!