Trying to keep busy here

So my man left for Costa Rica on Thursday morning and I have been holding down the fort here. Sniff sniff. I am counting down the days until he gets back next Friday morning, Feb. 26. He was actually very sweet and planned little activities and events for me to do. He organized it all in an excel sheet and he also has cards that he wrote special messages in it for me to read on specific days. Last night I went to MOPS during the day, spent the rest of the day at Mom's, then put Kira to bed at Mom's and went over to a nice restaurant nearby for Tom's grandfather's 80th birthday party. It was a really nice restaurant, I was allowed to order anything I wanted on the menu without thought to the cost of the food. We were all in a private room and there were waiters walking around with little finger foods before we sat down to dinner, and there was unlimited wine. I had one glass of wine and was told that the wine that I chose was $375 per bottle. A bottle a wine yields 4 glasses so my one glass of wine cost $93!

For dinner, everyone got a bread basket, a choice of Caesar or house salad and a pasta bowl. Then for your main course, you got to chose anything you wanted off the menu. I got a filet gorgonzola, an 8 oz. filet wrapped in bacon, drizzled with gorgonzola cheese, sauteed spinach and mashed potato. It was $35 just for my dish and there were probably between 30-40 people at the party so you do the math! But it was melt in your mouth good! There was also a musician playing acoustic guitar during the party who was really good. He had 5 different types of guitars that he kept switching depending on the type of song he played.

I got back from the party late last night so I just let Kira keep sleeping in Mom's pack n' play and spent the night there. I drove back home this morning but had lots of fun hanging out with Kristina, Tom's sister this afternoon. She brought me a pizza and I cut up celery and carrots for us to munch on as well.

We had fun playing with her this afternoon but I think she is getting ready to get a tooth or two. She hasn't been sleeping as well lately and has been a little fussy during the day so I think her mouth is bothering her.

Baby it's cold outside!

Just thought I'd share...her poor frozen face right after we came in from the storm!

And it is snowing again as I write this! Wow! Makes me kind of long for spring a little.

A real blizzard!

Well I don't know about all of you, but it was pretty exciting this past week...lots and lots of snow!! Tom had off from work Wednesday and Thursday so we got to enjoy the storm together which was quite fun.

Experimenting with my camera....
On the day of the blizzard, there was thundersnow (yes, a real word!) but not when we took her out. It was coming down pretty fast though.
Things like this don't happen very often!

Coupon Lesson #4, The art of stockpiling!

But don't worry, my whole post will not be about coupons. Here is just what I have been learning lately...

It is true you can cut your grocery cost down by buying items on sale and using a coupon. However, you can see your savings drop even lower if you start to follow the art of stockpiling. Stockpiling is essentially buying ONLY items that are either FREE after double coupons and rebates or 75% off price. Stockpile items to look for are usually such things as soups, cereal, toiletries, breads, meat, pasta...

I have seen our grocery bill go down a lot since I started but I think this additional piece would help keep our cost down even more. It takes me a solid 3+ hours to organize, cut and plan the shopping trip for the week but I consider that part of my learning curve. One coupon lady on a site I read counted her savings of roughly $8000 a year in groceries. If you consider it takes her an average of 2 hours a week, that would be like paying her $77 an hour. Better than any part time job I know!

Anyhoo, there have been other things going on besides couponing...(HA!). The little one continues to grow and be a joy to her Dad and I!

I am enjoying all the noises she is making now. She is definitely experimenting with her voice.

This week was really cold but I decided to take her on a hike with my friend Ramona at a park nearby. Ramona had the good idea of covering her mouth and cheeks with a ear protector. I had her dressed in 3 layers with a hat and this thing around her mouth. I think the "real feel" temp that day was 9 degrees but she seemed happy enough.

You can just barely see her face peeking out here! Haha!

Playing with Daddy! You should see her face light up when Tom walks in the door from work. She knows he is going to play with her and she gives him this huge grin, so cute!

Here she is using her voice...we did get it on video so maybe we will be posting that sometime soon!

Coupon Lesson #3

Well, since I got so many responses from the last post, I thought I would add one other thing...

Even if you think you can't save any money on food, you could certainly save money on toiletries! I have been corresponding with a fellow coupon woman from my church and she told me how she got 16 rolls of Bounty paper towels for $6.99. That works out to .49 cents for each roll! She used her coupons and got them when they were on sale of course. Another friend from church was able to get FREE batteries from shoprite, again following the weekly circulars and using her coupon. Yet another friend of mine was able to get 890 pampers diapers for the ridiculously low price of .07 cents each! I believe that is WAY cheaper than any store brand.

So it can be done. Yes, it does take some effort to figure out where the sales are but it is ridiculously easy with the invention of the Worldwide Web! Think how many resources for coupons and store information are at your fingertips and you don't have to even leave the comfort of your own home to find the deals!! Also, consider this, as a stay at home mom, we do a lot of things we never get paid for...laundry, cleaning, cooking, childcare and, last but not least...getting groceries for the family! A lot of people consider using coupons a job and if you think of all the money you are saving in the long run, it could be worth it.

Coupon Lesson #2

Wow, I have been having fun couponing lately! It is neat to read about all the deals out there. The icing on the cake is going to checkout and seeing your bill get lower and lower. This week, there is a deal at Target on diapers...buy 3 packs of huggies or pampers (jumbo size or larger) and get a $5 Target gift card! Well, Huggies and Pampers are on sale this week at Target, which means, now is the time to buy them! PLUS, Target had a $1.50 off huggies "store coupon" which you can stack with manufacturer huggies coupons! I had 3 manufacturer coupons for $1 off each pack so I shaved an add'l $2.50 off each pack of diapers! AND I got a $5 gift card! YES!!! I shaved almost $30 off my bill at Target this way. I also went to shoprite to stock up on Crest toothpaste (on sale plus I had coupons), coffee, cereal, etc. My bill before coupons and sales? $32.76. After all the coupons and sales? $12.36

There were also some good deals at Redners...one of them was buy 10 pillsbury items for $10 (of course, you don't have to buy 10 to get them for a dollar each). Now, I don't normally buy pillsbury items but we were hosting a dessert night at our house last night and I needed a number of desserts. So this was a good option since I also had coupons for pillsbury as well.

But I definitely learned a lesson this week though...watch the cashier like a hawk! The one I had at Redners yesterday tried to steal my catalina! Redners was running a deal on the pillsbury 10 for $10 plus I had coupons so I could get cinnamon rolls for FREE. Not to mention, if you bought 4 pillsbury products you got $2 off your next order (that's called a moneymaker folks)...so I went back yesterday and bought more, plus add'l groceries and used my coupons in addition to the $3 off coupon I got from Redner's the other day. While I was signing the keypad for my credit card, I saw the register print out my receipt and $2 off next order catalina. I saw the cashier (she probably thought I was distracted with signing my name) take my receipt and put the $2 off coupon on top of her register! Then she stood there with my receipt in hand, hoping I wouldn't notice that I was missing that high value FREE MONEY coupon! Well, I called her out on it, but acted like I didn't know she did it on purpose. She made up some lame excuse but I knew what she did. I left the store wondering how many people get scammed by cashiers b/c they don't know they can sometimes get more than just a receipt for their transactions if they buy promotional items. But it wasn't all bad... I walked out of there with $17 worth of groceries having paid only $1.87! And the $1.87 I paid is going to be reimbursed by the school b/c it was for our dessert night so I got groceries for free! Whahahaha!

Tom has been on my case for a while now, insisting that I need to have a hobby. I always thought singing was my hobby but this coupon thing may be my new one. It is so fun. Tonight I will be meeting with a friend of a friend to learn the "couponing" ways (HAHA!). This woman is a master...she has been doing coupons for a loooong time so I am excited to talk with her tonight and get some more tips and tricks.

The feeding experiment!

Yes, I know! It has been a while since I posted, but I really haven't had a lot to talk about! Things have been busy as usual, with Tom's job getting busy at this time of the year.

We are still having loads of fun with our little munchkin' though!

Here she is hugging Daddy!

AWWW! She loves her Daddy! He is such a wonderful Dad! He really L-O-V-E-S her!! It is so neat to see her face light up when he walks in the door from work.

I made a sweet potato puree this week and froze it in my ice cube trays. Then, this week I would just pop one out at a time and reheat it. I am thinking she is not quite ready for this though because she still has that tongue thrust reflex and just pushes the food out with her tongue.

She is such a happy baby...what a joy!

I think Dad is enjoying feeding her more than she is enjoying eating it!

The open mouth says it all...don't put anymore food in my mouth! This is weird!

She had sweet potato all over her face by the end!

Oh, and check out my FB account if you want to see the pics a little bigger!