Spring Fashion Show

I recently went to Take2 to get Sam's summer wardrobe. For $65 (I'll admit, I went $5 over budget) I got the following (the sketchers shoes were from GoodWill for $3):

But who likes to see clothes laying on the floor? These clothes need a body!

Mommy has a jumper to match!

Believe it or not, her thighs are almost too big to get into this skirt!

Samantha calls this her "apron"

12- month dress used as a long shirt

4th Outfit

Handmade!

Easter Dress

Still had tag on it!

There was more, but I think she started playing with the wall...

Today I...

Enjoyed watching my daughter hear thunder for the first time

Made $.58 on a ream of paper

Discovered my child to be ASLEEP in the car when we came home from "buying" said paper
(before lunch, mind you)

Now has $34.99 in rebates coming in the mail in the next 4-6 weeks

Enjoyed our family's favorite pastime as a family for the first time in months
(grocery shopping!)

Bought groceries, which included 10 bags of my favorite brand of broccoli florets, 3 jars of our favorite pickles, 4 jars of my favorite jam, 5 loaves of my favorite bread, 4 bags of my favorite chocolate chips, and stayed under budget

Watched my daughter eat a slice of onion

Watched the same daughter spit out a raspberry and tell me strawberries were "yucky"

Heard the word "no" more times than I have in my entire life combined

Decided NOT to buy a yogurt maker

Decided to make yogurt in our crock pot at 7:30pm
(yogurt makers will know this means I will be up laaaaaaaaaaaaaate tonight)

Calculated the saving of making my own yogurt
(less than 1/3 of the cost of Yobaby!)

Savored a glass of locally made milk




What did you do today?

Adventures and Goofy Grins

Shopping has become a daily event here at our place, particularly because it makes for a very happy toddler. Here are a few steals from the past week:

$8.38

$3.86

$21.68

$20.98
($11.16 just for the stinking cheese- and it was on sale!!)

$13.76

$Free!

These were quite the ordeal at the counter as I had to convince the cashier that I wasn't trying to scam her. I was at CVS (where they are usually very up and up on the couponing thing). When the lady realized I had enough coupons to cover all the eggs she stopped scanning, picked up a coupon and said, "This is for the wrong size, these are all for 9 oz bags."
Thanks to this lady, I knew that it was on the coupon and searched the fine print myself to find it. After this, she scanned a couple more and then stopped again to read the fine print on the coupon, "You can't use all of these, it says 'one per purchase.'"
Amidst keeping Samantha from pulling all of the candy off the wall which was ever so conveniently placed at her level I replied with a smile (and inner pride for not backing down), "Actually, it means one per item purchased, not per transaction. So I can only use one coupon for each item." Still frowning, she finished the transaction.

And Sam still thinks they are just pretty toys!!

When a Late Walker Runs

First boo-boo

Time-Out

I recently decided Samantha was at a point where I could try time-out. Basically, I was tired of re-directing the same behavior over and over. The routine goes something like this:

Samantha is warned
Samantha continues anyway
Samantha is plopped down into time out and given an explanation why
Timer is set
Samantha gets up
Samantha is plopped back down without any verbal communication
Samantha gets up again
Samantha scrambles to get back into time out before mommy gets to her
Timer goes off
Samantha gets an explanation for the time out and what she is to do instead
Samantha says "Sorry"
Samantha gets a hug

After the first few times she caught on and 20 seconds into her 1 minute time out she'd be yelling at me across the room "Mommy! Sorry. Sorry! SOOORry! SORRY! HUUUUUUG!"

Today I thought I'd ask her to see if she could tell me why she was in time-out. She had been jumping on a chair and continued after I warned her. When I asked her why she was in time-out, she paused, smacked open her lips (a precursor to any question these days) and she replied,

"Jump, Chair."
"Very good!" I said in surprise.
"Sit." She told me with a stern face.
"Yes, we sit on the chair."
"Jump, Floor!"
"Yes, you can jump on the floor, can you show mommy?"

She may not care that she's in time-out, but I do have evidence now that she certainly knows when she's misbehaving!

Not actually in time-out, but kind of looks like it

The Benefits of Being Tiny

Playing IN the kitchen daddy scored for us for free

Deal Chasing- Plans vs Reality

I have to document, if anything, so I can track my improvement later!
I was all excited for the deals this week.
Jeremy is quite picky about his hair products (no Shaklee for him), so you can imagine my excitement when there was an awesome deal for BOTH of his hair products. The plan was to get 18 bottles of hair gel, but after I cleaned the shelf out, they told me there were only 5 left in a store clear across town.

Darn you, other customers!!


So anyway, I ended up getting just this:

$18.23

The next day the plan was to get 30 boxes of cereal and lots more free milk, however, they didn't have the cereal I was looking for for the hubbs (Crispix), so I only got 10. The pretzels were a $1 each and the banana was to make up for a -.01 balance while doing my last transaction.

$9.63

So then we headed on over to Target, where I was planning on getting free cheese (notice a pattern here?). Turns out that, after loading 10 boxes of cereal in the cart and 8 bags of cheese Target told me (well, the guy standing in from of me told the lady who was also standing in front of me in a "if I don't look at her then she won't talk to me" sort of fashion) that they do not match 2-day-sales. Let me just say, I'm becoming less and less of a fan of Target. They are just so cranky when I pull out coupons or try to price match- like I'm a bottom feeder or something.

Anyway, moving on...

We then went to Super Saver- where I was planning on getting cheese for .45/bag and Crispix. Well, the cheese had their own coupons tapped to them and the store price matched the Crispix!! So I got 8 bags of cheese for .18/each and the cereal for .88/each.

$18.66

The final trip was the next day to the same previous store (don't ask) and I bought 2 boxes of girl scout cookies for $7 (yes, that is almost a tenth of our grocery budget, but I just can't help myself- there are two types that are dairy free! It's for the children!)

Jeremy put away the groceries before I had a chance to take a picture (not complaining!!):
8 bags of Kraft Cheese
1 box Raisin Brand Crunch

for $4.31

So this week's total thus far is $57.83.

This is BEFORE a $20 mail in rebate for the cereals (I didn't pay close enough attention and bought 4 boxes of the wrong size, so I "borrowed" a couple upc's from my mom's recycling...still one short, but I'll find it!)

Now, I know you critics out there are saying- yeah, but how much did she spend on gas?
To be honest- a lot. I could have done better. But I am getting better. And my baby loves riding in the carts, "helping" mommy and greeting every shopper we pass. And the free helicopter ride at one store. And the "cars" at the other. And the free juice at the tasting sections...

You get the idea!