Wednesday, May 30, 2007

WFMW -- Another Target deal!


Since my brain is filled with thoughts of emptying boxes and lots of clutter due to our recent move I am borrowing this deal tip from my favorite deals website -- Vickys Deals.

If you love the Bertolli frozen meals, like I do, this will be a great savings. And if you haven't tried them, print these coupons, go to Target and get some yummy, cheap and simple food!

In my part of the country we do not have Super-Targets, which I think is just horrible, so I am not sure if the "regular" Target stores carry these, but I plan to go find out.

Here is a link to a $2 off Bertolli item.

And here is a link to a Target $1.50 Bertolli item.

Th Bertolli meals are about $6.14 or more. With the $3.50 in coupons, you can get them for under $3.

However, one of the members of Vickys Deals said that their Target had some of the meals on clearance so they were able to get a meal for 68 cents after coupons.

Hopefully, this will work for me and all of you. For more Works for Me Wednesday tips by visiting Rocks in My Dryer.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

I need clean clothes!

Well, we are moved. All of our belongings are now in our new home. Many of the belongings are still in boxes, but we are getting settled.

With much thanks to my mom, who came to help, we have unpacked several boxes and cleaned the former home site, which was in a very nasty state. Let's just say I am surprised we did not all die from dust inhalation.

One lessons I learned from this move is that moving washers and dryers stink. Our washer's hoses would not stop leaking so we purchased new ones. Once we got those hooked up and working yesterday we discovered that our dryer plug is not compatible with the plug here. This means purchasing a new plug and having it rewired. Now I am an ambitious soul, but I am not sure that I am up for rewiring a dryer plug. That may require someone who has actually done this before.

I need to get back to unpacking and rewiring (ha!). Hope you all have a great Memorial Day!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

It's a poo poo contest!

Awesome Mom is having a contest for your best kid poop story.

The prize...no, not poop, but a $20 iTunes gift card. Did you know that you don't have to have an ipod to use iTunes gift cards? You can download music on your computer. Great, huh?

I am submitting this story which I blogged about a couple months ago. Go read it...it's a good one! And if you like it, go vote for me!

Works for Me Wednesday -- Saving money with coupons at Target


I am so excited to share this with you all. I love to save money and I am so excited about this deal!!

I visit this website which I read about in Parents magazine several months ago and I joined immediately. I have been following along in the forum daily to learn how other people save money, trying to learn for myself. The forum is mostly women (actually, I've never seen a man post on there) and a lot are stay at home moms. The purpose of the forum is to list deals you discovered and several people trade coupons. In recent weeks I have discovered some fabulous deals at Target using this website.

Here is the big deal. Target has coupons on their website and also here. Often they will have great coupons good only at Target stores. For example, there are currently coupons, which expire 5/31/07 for $5 off $20 purchase of several different items (one of them includes Pampers items) and $3 off coupons when you purchase both Pampers diapers and wipes.

Target allows you to use one Target store coupon and one manufacturer coupon per item, which in coupon terminology is called "stacking" coupons.

Last week Target had their Pampers diapers on sale for $8.50 (regularly $9.54) and this was the deal that people used last week to get 5 packages of Pampers and 5 packages of Kandoo wipes for $2.50. Yes, you read that right, $2.50!!!!

Feel & Learns 5 @ 8.50 = $42.50
Kandoo 100 ct 5 @ 3.74 = $18.70
Total $61.20 -$15.00 Homemade simple coupons
= $46.20 -$18.70 Kandoo WYB Coupons
= $27.50 -$15.00 --> (5) Target $3.00 off diapers and wipes coupons
= $12.50 -$10.00 --> (5) Pampers $2.00 coupons
Total $2.50 plus tax of course. For 5 Mega packs and 5 Kandoo 100 ct wipes.

In order to get this deal you needed to have the printable Target coupons (those are the Homemade Simple coupons mentioned above...which are on the second link above), 5 of the manufacturer coupons to buy a package of Feel and Learn and get a Kandoo product free, plus 5 manufacturer coupons - $2 off Feel and Learn.

Now, I unfortunately did not do this deal last week as I did not have all the coupons; however, it was also figured out that you could get the same deal if you bought only 2 package of Pampers and 2 Kandoo products at the same price. What is great is that you did not have to buy just Feel and Learn products, but this works for the regular Pampers diapers...and all the coupons worked just the same.

Well today, even though the regular size package of Pampers diapers were not on sale and back at the regular price of $9.54, I decided to go get a good deal. Prior to going I figured out that the Pepsi 12 packs were also on sale 4/$11. The Target coupon generator above (the first link) had printable $1 off a Pepsi 12 pack. I was able to print 4 of these coupons, plus used all the coupons above. My deal was as follows:

2 jumbo packs of Pampers (not on sale)
1 package of Pampers wipes
1 package of Kandoo wipes
4 12 packs of Pepsi

My total before coupons was $34, after $12.

I used
1 - $5 Target coupon
2 - $3 Target coupons
2 - $2 off Pampers coupons
1 - Free Pampers wipes coupon
1 - Free Kandoo Coupons
4 -$1 off Pepsi 12 pack Target coupons

Target had a couple coupons in some newspapers this Sunday, so if you have those coupons, go print the other coupons you need for Target and get a great deal.

All of the printable coupons expire on May 31. I plan to go back again if I can accrue enough free coupons (which I have traded for on the website above). It's always great to stock up...we all know how much these diapers can cost!

Target coupon clipping works for me...for more Works for Me Wednesday posts go visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Monday, May 21, 2007

I'm oh so busy...packing and saving money!

I just wanted to let you all know that I am probably going to be M.I.A. this week. We are scheduled to move on Thursday and I have just about all of our belongings left to pack. In addition to being swamped at home with work to do and a short time frame, I am also swamped at work because I have to get all of my time-sensitve work (which is all of my work) done so I can be off work on Thursday and Friday for the big move. That being said, I do plan to have a WFMW post pertaining to saving money, but other than that post I may not be around much this week. As for my WFMW post, I have been learning how to "stack coupons" from a website I visit and I will be sharing how I have been saving lots of money at Target. So stay tuned! :-) Have a great week everyone!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

#100, ok really #101!

Yesterday's Works for Me Wednesday post was my 100TH POST (cue music, balloons and confetti falling from sky...watch out for the falling music)!!!!

I have been trying to consider what fun thing I could post about for my 100th post and I sure did not think it would come this fast! I just began blogging in January, only 4 months ago. I know that I don't have THAT much stuff to talk about so I wondered how in the world I made it to 100 so quickly.

I looked at my blog history and I have to say that I am an contest freak! I love to win something, so I enter every contest under the sun, and a large amount of my posts have been related to such contests. And it all pays off, since I just recently won my first prize: Fruity Cheerios!! Yum, Yum!

I could subtract all the "bloggy business/contest" posts from the grand total, but I'm not gonna do it...Blogger counts it as a post, so I am too (plus that would take way too much time I don't really have since I am trying to pack up everything in my home and move it to another NEXT WEEK!).

In honor of this HUGE feat I am going to post 10 things I have yet to mention about myself (many of which may turn in to a post one day, so keep reading!). Oh, and if you think about it, 10 x 10 = 100, so here goes, in honor of post #100, here are 10 things I have yet to reveal to the bloggy world until today.

#1 -- My husband is a big time WWE wrestling fan and I have to admit I watch it too. We even went to a live RAW show on Valentine's Day 2005 (oh, how romantic!) when I was 5-6 weeks pregnant with Jake. Oh, there is so much more I could say about this, but I must save it all for the future (I have to leave something to make it to post 200).

#2 -- I have hit 4 cars in parking lots. 2 moving, 2 parked. Needless to say, I am not the best parker or backer-upper.

#3 -- I am a closet hypochondriac. Okay, so maybe not so closet, but I fret and worry about every little look, action or lack there of that Jake does (or my body experiences). I did so while he was in the womb and I do so this day. I will never stop, I am certain of it, after all it was my comment to the eye doctor that led to glasses, proving the point that a hypochondriac is not always CRAAAAAZY!!

#4 --Speaking of CRAAAAZY, I stalk people. Okay, not really, but I do like to know what people are doing, where their lives have taken them, etc. So if I fall out of touch with someone, you will find me doing a google search for them to see what is happening in their lives. This is one reason I started a blog...because I know everyone is searching for my name out there! Ha! Be sure to keep in touch with me or else your name will be a google search one day!

#5 -- I have lived in 4 states, 12 homes (13 next week...I hope that number is lucky for me), and 7 towns.

#6 -- I have worked for the same agency since I graduated college. Some days I would love to stay forever and work toward retirement at an early age (although, I will have no social security, so what is the point?) and other days I would love to run far, far away!

#7 -- I LOVE the fact that Jake has red hair and I hope he has freckles, especially on his little nose. I don't have freckles or red hair so I think it is all so cute...I am certain he will hate them both one day.

#8 -- When I was 4 years old my parents purchased an exercise bike. I wanted to ride on it and so did my 2 year old sister. My legs barely touched the pedals and as I barely turned the wheel, my sister put her hand in the spokes of the bike. At that very moment my mom turned around and saw this and sent ME to bed without dinner. That night as I laid in my dark room alone I experienced the first time my stomach growled. I had never heard this sound before (and seldom have since) and I immediately thought of my mom saying to me, "If you keep eating your stomach will explode." For some reason, my 4 year old brain told me the growling noise was the preparation of my stomach exploding (despite the fact that I had not eaten) and I began to fear that my stomach would burst open and food would fly out. Only, my little brain imagined food that you don't eat, like banana peels and apple cores. No, my stomach never exploded and yes, I remember this event to this day. I can see the dark room in my head with a little bit of light coming in from the hallway.

#9 -- #8 sure was long, but stemming from # 8 I will say that my memory is as sharp as a tack...or it was, since the baby my memory has been shot (along with a lot of other stuff). However, my first memory ever was when I knocked our car out of gear the summer I was 2 when I was jumping around in the front seat. My mom was 8 months pregnant with my sister and my dad was getting ice cream for us. We only rolled a few feet backwards, but I still remember it. My second memory was a month later when my sister was born. I don't remember holding her, but I remember going to the hospital and putting on Donald Duck pajamas (scrubs) and washing my hands in a dark room (the bathroom without the light on). My dad says this is exactly how I told the story to people for days afterwards...he doesn't believe in my sharp memory, but again, I can see the dark room in my head...funny how my mental images are always of dark rooms. Maybe it's not so funny...

#10 -- Since, I'm stuck on childhood memories, here's another -- my parents love to remind me of my promise to them that I would have 10 kids and live next door when I was grown up. I wanted to live next door so my mom could baby-sit all 10 kids when I went to work. Funny how things change, since now the thought of 10 kids sends me into a panic attack, but I would not mind living next door to my parents and not 100s of miles away.

So there you have it...Post #101 and counting!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Works for Me Wednesday -- Keeping window blind cord away from kids


My son is a curious kid. He loves to see what everything does and especially loves to look out his bedroom window. I daily open his blinds so he can view all the fun outside (and to keep him from breaking the blinds, we have already replaced one set). Just keeping the blinds open is not enough for a curious toddler and he also enjoys to grab the cord to the blinds. Now when I open the bedroom blinds each day I toss the cord to the window blind over the curtain rod to keep little hands off.

It works for me. For more tips visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer!