I love hump day. Wednesday is a messenger telling me that the weekend is coming, wonderful. I can see whites of their eyes!
Okay on to real stuff, someone asked me via FB where I get my coupons, and I wanted to let everyone in on the scoop!
I follow several blogs online that tell me when there are specials, when to use my coupons to get the most bang for my buck, when there are freebies to be had, when and how there are other ways to earn money and save money, and other tips to make the most of a lifestyle on a budget.
Here's the list:
Common Sense with Money: Live Well for Less
Becentsable: Time, Money, Resources, Community
Moms By Heart
The Frugal Girls - Living Well with Less
Money Saving Mom: Helping You Be a Better Home Economist
Baby Good Buys - Bargains and Advice to Save Big on Baby
Savvy Spending...Because Paying Retail is for the Birds!
Coupon Geek: Where Saving & Spending Meet
Also I purchase All*You Magazine from Walmart each month or you can purchase a subscription; there are always GREAT coupons in this magazine that you can use virtually at all retailers, and it has wonderful articles about living within a budget and common uses to household items that you wouldn't think about (example: vinegar and water instead of pricey weed killer).
Every Sunday I purchase a copy of the Dallas Morning News and Denton Record Chronicle (usually comes in a 2 pack), and I just cut up and organize the coupons in a wipes container (there are tons of ways to organize your coupons once you get started), and often my mother in law who doesn't really use coupons gives me her leftovers, and that is FABULOUS!!! It's great to have multiples of coupons because it saves you even more money in the long run.
I also shop primarily at Walmart, Target, Kroger, CVS, and Walgreens, taking advantage of their weekly deals, Extra Care Bucks (CVS) and Register Rewards (Walgreens). The websites above should help you along with the process of playing the Drugstore Game!
Here are the online sites that I print coupons off from:
Coupons.com
Redplum.com
Target - Under the coupons tab at the bottom of the website
And there are tons of other sites to get them from but this is where I started, and I followed the blogs to help me find others :)
Also I'm no stranger to a bargain, and I refuse to pay full retail for my Scrappin' Habit, so here are some wonderful deal a day sites to buy Scrapbook Goodies for 40-90% off:
Crop Chocolate - One Sweet Deal at a Time: This site also has multiple deals a day, so there are lots of ways to save big here!
Scrapbook Steals: It's not just a deal, It's a steal This site is a sister site to BabySteals.com and KidSteals.com also great sites to save money on kids/baby stuff daily.
Peachy Cheap: One Day, One Peachy Cheap Deal This site also has sister sites like Scrapbook Steals; there's are a Side of Peaches and Peachychic: DIY Kits.
Crafty Steals: Each Day One Hot New Steal, Grab It Before It's Gone...
Daily Scrapbook and Papercrafting Deals This deal a day site is actually a blog that you can follow. It's great. She is VERY cheap, the cheapest of all the steals sites, and she charges super cheap shipping! Also her website hold auctions once per month, and I usually win stuff for pennies on the dollar, even less than the wholesale price! Great site!!!
Flowers to Flourishes Just another fabulous deal a day site dedicated to us papercrafters!!!
I'm trying to think if I left anything out, just remind me, and I will make another post, feel free to ask questions, and I will find you an answer :)
Tuesday... Mmmm.
Just finished a lovely dinner of chicken rice with corn and sweet peas. It was quite delicious. Harper is doing the cutest new things everyday. Right now she is mastering sprinting across the living room. She loves how her shoes sound on the tile, so she stomps around on the tile too. She likes to kick her legs out when she walks, and she likes to gurgle went she is drinking from her sippy cup in the car. These may seem like small things to most folks, but to Harper and me they are a really big deal. She is showing me everyday how intelligent she is. She catches on very quickly to things we show her. She is just a little sponge. Right now we are trying to say words. Harper is very chatty, but it's nothing very intelligible. On occasion, we hear the No, Uh-Ohs, Mama, Dada, Night-Night, but nothing else that we really understand. We get the picture though because she is very good at showing us with her hands things she wants.
She is just so smart, and I am so proud of my little sponge-girl.
Today I got some really good deals are Target. I picked a pack of Luv's diapers, Pampers daipers, 3 pack refill Pampers wipes, 4 corn husks, scrubbing bubble power sprayer, Cesar's doggie treats, and Glade fabric and air freshener, 2 packs of pepperidge farm buns and a bottle of water, all for $17. That's excellent if you ask me. That is the cost of diapers, on sale with regular (not stacked) coupons. It's like I paid for diapers and got everything else practically FREE!
I love this new couponing thing I'm doing. Granted it is very time consuming but I'm saving my family so much money, and well WE NEED THE money. I hope that my review for FA doesn't go badly. I really need FA to pay for school and to help us out a bit while we get regular again with our spending. We start paying on Gavin's medical bills this month and that is a lot on our plates, and it's hard to think about it but we spent over a $100 a week in GAS because of Gavin's shitty car and because of his LONG ASS commute. I wish that we could write that off at the end of the year, that is $5,200 a year in GAS at least!!!
Hm, can you write off Gas? I will check on that.
She is just so smart, and I am so proud of my little sponge-girl.
Today I got some really good deals are Target. I picked a pack of Luv's diapers, Pampers daipers, 3 pack refill Pampers wipes, 4 corn husks, scrubbing bubble power sprayer, Cesar's doggie treats, and Glade fabric and air freshener, 2 packs of pepperidge farm buns and a bottle of water, all for $17. That's excellent if you ask me. That is the cost of diapers, on sale with regular (not stacked) coupons. It's like I paid for diapers and got everything else practically FREE!
I love this new couponing thing I'm doing. Granted it is very time consuming but I'm saving my family so much money, and well WE NEED THE money. I hope that my review for FA doesn't go badly. I really need FA to pay for school and to help us out a bit while we get regular again with our spending. We start paying on Gavin's medical bills this month and that is a lot on our plates, and it's hard to think about it but we spent over a $100 a week in GAS because of Gavin's shitty car and because of his LONG ASS commute. I wish that we could write that off at the end of the year, that is $5,200 a year in GAS at least!!!
Hm, can you write off Gas? I will check on that.
Saving money...
Ok so I've been saving Gavin and I money by being a cuttin' couponing fool, and now I'm going to try to save us more money on our childcare. Gavin and I take Harper to Fred Moore Day Nursery School in Denton, and it's very inexpensive. They charge you based on a sliding scale, and we are at the top of the scale paying $120/week for infant care, but that's CHEAP compared to most places. Now if we could afford for me to stay home believe me I would, but since we can't afford that, I don't :(
Well the University of North Texas is providing grant monies for childcare expenses for student (who are parents) at the university. There is an eligibility list, but I found that I am eligible on more than on count, so I am applying. We will see how this goes though. Gavin and I could use every little bit that we can get especially since his car is kind of going down the crapper one breakdown at a time, and we will be due to by a new/used car very soon I feel.
I still haven't gotten my letter in the mail about my financial aid, and everyone around me seems to get getting information about theirs very quickly. It sucks because these students have mommies and daddies who pay for their school/apartment/gas/insurance and all of their other shit (yet they still complain, I'm not getting enough hours ... to support my drinking habit after work, boo hoo) They can just shut their pieholes. Gavin and I make money, but we don't make close to enough. We have no money in our savings, and we are paying on a loan that consolidated our debt for the next 5 years, so suck on that. We need the student loans to pay for my school, text, and well emergencies when they come up, liking getting a 3rd transmission in Gavin's car!!!
Oh well. Life is wonderful with more happy moments than sad, and I'm over it. I am getting the help I need from UNT, whether they want to give it to me or not :)
Signing off!
Well the University of North Texas is providing grant monies for childcare expenses for student (who are parents) at the university. There is an eligibility list, but I found that I am eligible on more than on count, so I am applying. We will see how this goes though. Gavin and I could use every little bit that we can get especially since his car is kind of going down the crapper one breakdown at a time, and we will be due to by a new/used car very soon I feel.
I still haven't gotten my letter in the mail about my financial aid, and everyone around me seems to get getting information about theirs very quickly. It sucks because these students have mommies and daddies who pay for their school/apartment/gas/insurance and all of their other shit (yet they still complain, I'm not getting enough hours ... to support my drinking habit after work, boo hoo) They can just shut their pieholes. Gavin and I make money, but we don't make close to enough. We have no money in our savings, and we are paying on a loan that consolidated our debt for the next 5 years, so suck on that. We need the student loans to pay for my school, text, and well emergencies when they come up, liking getting a 3rd transmission in Gavin's car!!!
Oh well. Life is wonderful with more happy moments than sad, and I'm over it. I am getting the help I need from UNT, whether they want to give it to me or not :)
Signing off!
Ok...Swagbucks and other cheap stuff!
I'm changing things up a bit. I'm trying something new out. The last few weekends I've been a couponing fool, and I've been saving my family lots of money, but turning those coupons and time spent cutting into really CHEAP deals and even some FREE steals!
I'm doing more stuff online to make money as well like Swagbucks, E-Rewards, and Viewpoints.
If you are interested in earning points towards gift cards to stores like Amazon, Express, Macy's, Old Navy, etc feel free to email me at coupongabi at yahoo dot com, and I will give you the lowdown.
Swagbucks is super easy, just sign up here. Once you're signed up just use the Swagbucks search engine (powered by Ask.com and Google.com) instead of other search engines that you were normally use. I search for random stuff throughout every day, and I've made up to 125 bucks just in the last couple of weeks. It's great, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants a few more freebies in their life!
Also when you are sign up put me as your referral, and you'll be helping me earn a little as well :) - coupongabi
I hope all of ya'll jump on this bandwagon for free swag!
I'm doing more stuff online to make money as well like Swagbucks, E-Rewards, and Viewpoints.
If you are interested in earning points towards gift cards to stores like Amazon, Express, Macy's, Old Navy, etc feel free to email me at coupongabi at yahoo dot com, and I will give you the lowdown.
Swagbucks is super easy, just sign up here. Once you're signed up just use the Swagbucks search engine (powered by Ask.com and Google.com) instead of other search engines that you were normally use. I search for random stuff throughout every day, and I've made up to 125 bucks just in the last couple of weeks. It's great, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants a few more freebies in their life!
Also when you are sign up put me as your referral, and you'll be helping me earn a little as well :) - coupongabi
I hope all of ya'll jump on this bandwagon for free swag!
Bad about blogging....
I shall be better!
Off to lunch today I'm picking up a movie at the library and some books to read to Harper.
Then this weekend I am saving money at Wally World.
Off to lunch today I'm picking up a movie at the library and some books to read to Harper.
Then this weekend I am saving money at Wally World.