Saving money even on Halloween! My cute little Minnie Mouse!

So tonight I took Jenna out in the hopes of finding a Minnie mouse costume for her. I had seen a sale ad on said costume at the local party store, only to find out when we go there that 20 bucks was their idea of a sale on Minnie Mouse costumes! So, after searching 2 other stores for minnie mouse costumes and finding nothing, I decided to go back to the party store and compromise with Jenna and get the 5 dollar minnie mouse ears that they had for sale separately. When we got home, we did some searching through her closet and found the rest of the costume perfectly!! I think she is the cutest little Minnie Mouse ever! And the costume we came up with is way better than the 20 dollar one! So, now I know why my mom always sewed our costumes for Halloween, and I'm continuing in her thrify footsteps! (this year I lucked out and didn't have to get the sewing machine out!!)

My new hobby (finally a new blog post!!!)

After a long hiatus, I'm finally writing a new blog post woohoo!!!

I thought I would write a little blog post about my new-found hobby--saving money!!!

Some of you probably know that we are big Dave Ramsey fans and have followed his teachings (well, its really the Bible's teachings) about finances. I have since gradually become more and more thrifty when it comes to grocery and toiletry items. About a month ago, some friends turned me on to a couple of websites that have since turned my thriftiness into a hobby:

The Grocery Game (grocerygame.com), has saved me 50% off my groceries in the past month. I used to despise coupons because I would always take the time to clip them and forget to use them and they'd just expire, and I really thought I was saving the same amount of money buying generics (wrong!!). When you sign up for grocery game (its 5 bucks every 4 weeks), you choose the grocery store that you want to shop at and each week it prints up a list of rock-bottom-priced items. It also keeps track of all the coupons in the paper and tells you when to use them--no more expired coupons. This has drastically changed the way I grocery shop as I used to plan my meals for the week and go to the store and get what I needed for the week (at non-sale prices!!). Now I stock up on what is on sale that week, gradually building up a stockpile in my pantry from which I draw my meals from each week. You can see in the above picture that my stockpile is already growing (I scored a free can dispenser at the grocery store when they were changing them out one day. They were just going to throw them away!!)

Afullcup.com has introduced me to the wonderful world of Walgreens!! I used to avoid walgreens at all costs because I just thought they were an overpriced drugstore. Little did I know that they had these lovely little things called Register Rewards!! Register Rewards (RR) are little coupons that print out when you buy certain items. The coupons are like cash (you can only use them at walgreens, though!). Let me give you a little example of how you can actually be PAID to shop at walgreens and get all kinds of freebies!! This week walgreens had a sale on Theraflu--buy 3 bottles of Theraflu at $4.99 each and get $8 back in RR, so you're paying $7 bucks for 3 bottles of Theraflu, right? Nope, combine that with 3 $2 off coupons as well as a walgreen's store coupon ($6 off 3), and you actually get PAID 5 bucks to take three bottles of Theraflu!! Amazing! It gets even more fun as you can use the RR you get to buy other stuff that gives you RR and go on and on....The above picture is just a few of the freebies I've gotten from Walgreens in the past month! Granted, this coupon clipping and internet research for the deals and trips to walgreens take time (you only get 1 RR per product in each transaction so you can't buy like 9 theraflu's and get $21 back in RR), however, the payoff (free stuff that is normally pretty expensive to buy) is incredible! So, I'm really enjoying my new hobby!

rescued!

The heroic rescue!

Kaela stuck in the bathroom

So, last week on one of the 2 days that we were home between christmas and new year's, I was afraid that I was going to have to call the fire department. I should have known that something was up when I was actually able to take my shower uninterrupted. I finished my shower and realized the house was quiet...perhaps a little TOO quiet. I checked on the girls, Jenna was silently glued to the tv watching cartoons, but where was Kaela? I finally heard noises coming from the other bathroom. Jenna must have left the door open after she went to the bathroom (a major no-no in our house as that is how we keep Kaela from pulling all the toilet paper off the roll), and Kaela was in there playing. I pushed on the door to open it, expecting a room full of toilet paper, but the door would only open a crack. Kaela had managed to close the door, then open the drawer on the vanity, thus barricading herself in the bathroom. I tried to stay calm and politely asked Kaela to "close the drawer" several times. She proceeded to close the door of the bathroom which was open only an inch, not knowing the difference between "door" and "drawer". I decided a pair of needle nose pliers might do the trick, carefully I placed them through the door and clamped them down on the drawer runner. This seemed to work, at first, then Kaela thought it was a game. Each time I got the drawer halfway closed, she pulled it open again. Finally, after trying several different methods, I called Matt at work for help. I'd had a bad head cold and was too sick to think of anything else. Matt came home to the rescue and was able to close the drawer using a hanger that he bent just perfectly, and we didn't have to call the fire department!

New Year's 2008 (or 9, which is it?)

We enjoyed "2nd Christmas" at grandma and grandpa Kriete's house this year. The girls enjoy going there because they are thouroughly spoiled and don't have to compete with 7 other grandkids for attention from grandma and grandpa. We again enjoyed Wii competitions after the kids went to bed. Grandma and grandpa bought a Wii so they could stomp us in bowling, who would have known 2 60-year-olds would have a higher Wii fit age than 2 20-somethings!? Matt and I enjoyed a nice anniversary date/trip to St. Louis while grandma and Grandpa babysat. We will be married for 8 years on tuesday! In an attempt to help Jenna learn how to ice skate, we took her roller skating at the rink that is just down the street from grandma and grandpa's house. It was a lot of fun, and it brought back many memories of when I used to go to Leo's Roller Rink every Friday night, good times....

Christmas 2008

The doll beds Mammo made

Kaela doing yoga on the Wii fit

Ice skating with Katie and daddy

The swimming puppy Jenna got from santa claus

The bouncy horse kaela got from santa claus

Christmas Eve with Zoey and Emma

We had a great Christmas again this year. We had lots of fun playing in the snow and ice skating at the farm (Jenna got new ice skates for Christmas) and we learned how inbalanced and out of shape we are by playing on Zoey and Emma's Wii Fit (I'm still sore from hula hoop).

My mom continues to amaze me as she and my dad made the most incredible doll beds for all the granddaughters' American Girl dolls. They were complete with homemade quilts and pillows. She also made the most beautiful purses for all of us. I hope to someday be as talented as her. I started off this month hoping to make some things for the girls for Christmas but I quickly realized that I am most definately not in that stage of life right now. I really enjoy being mommy to 2 busy little girls, but I really have no time to take on projects any more! Oh well, maybe I will enjoy that again someday!