My money and my life

On How I became a Stay at Home Mom

2012-02-16T19:27:00.000-06:00

I thought about calling this post "How TO Become a Stay at Home Mom," but you know what? That really didn't work for me.

Because it isn't true.

I know that the reason I was able to become a stay at home mom has a lot to do with my husband's job. And frankly, that didn't happen by accident, and I didn't marry money. I married a graduate student, and I worked two jobs while editing everything he wrote and taking full care of the house for three years. Then he graduated and he made more money than the two of us had ever made combined. I put in my time, and I helped to make his earning potential what it is.

But I still know that I am fortunate. Many people live in a situation where it is simply not financially possible for a family to live on one income. It makes me sad when I read sites that imply that if you JUST did this one extra thing (clip coupons, make your own laundry detergent, use a certain kind of savings vehicle) you SHOULD be able to live on one income.

There aren't any one size fits all solutions. Some people have to work outside the home, even if they don't wan to. And if that's you, and you're reading this, I don't want you to feel judged or criticized. You are doing what you must for your family.

But this is my story.

As I said above, I worked two jobs for the entire three years my husband was in grad school. We lived in fairly small apartments, we ate at cheap restaurants with coupons if we ate out at all. We lived on less than we made, and we were always putting money away.

The year my husband graduated and we moved, I tried hard to find a job. It's not easy to find a teaching job, particularly when you have to move after the school year begins, but I hustled. I picked back up my part time job, and at the peak of it, I worked 19 hours a week at it. At the same time, I was applying to teaching and subbing jobs, cleaning up my resume, and making phone calls, and eventually landed a long term sub job that paid the salaried rate for the last three months of the school year. And every chance I got, I would write online or take advantage of some other money making opportunities.

During that time, I made our monthly budget so that it counted only my husband's income. This was pretty easy since he made more than we'd ever made before, and we still lived in a small apartment. Anything I made either went to pay off student loans, or went into a savings account. We were piling up money for both emergencies and for a down payment on a house.

So, we started trying to get pregnant. And succeeded on almost the first try.

We shopped around for houses for a while, and finally settled on one. Before we bought it, though, I wrote a new budget, taking into account our new house payment and all the added expenses that would be involved with living in a new house. We made sure we had 3 months of expenses saved and could still put down 5% on the house (I would have liked it to be more, but oh well). We included items in our budget to save every month for recurring expenses like insurance payments, and small savings for things like Christmas, travel, and improvements to the house. And all this had to work within DH's paycheck.

And it did.

It's close, though, and I have to be a lot more careful than I ever did. In my head I know that we are not really falling behind, that if the budget got closer I could just stop saving for Christmas or vacations for a few months. But when I run the numbers, and I see the margin getting smaller and smaller, it's hard.

And I still do work part time, although the 19 hours a week isn't happening with a one year old in the house. I work 3 hours or so most weeks, and that money still goes either towards debt reduction unless we have a specific savings goal we are trying to meet. The progress is slower, but for me it's worth it.

And I do plan to go back to work full time again, and if we haven't accomplished our financial goals yet by then, we should hopefully be able to make a lot of progress very quickly. And until then, I'm rocking my baby girl, and we're doing just fine.

$20 Gift card to CVS for $10 from Living Social

2012-02-10T13:21:00.000-06:00

Today's daily deal at Living Social is for a $20 gift card to CVS for only $10. If 3 people sign up with my link I get the offer for free.

Please feel free to leave your own link in the comments! Once I have my 3, I'll edit this post to tell people to use your links instead.

Thanks!

Free meal planning software from Food on the Table

2012-02-10T12:55:00.002-06:00

Right now, you can sign up for Food on the Table, a meal planning site for FREE. This is not a free trial; if you use the link above and the code FEBFREE your membership will be free forever.

Food on the Table uses local sales at your stores to help you plan meals that are in your budget. The free membership includes 3 meals a week. For $5 more you can upgrade and receive more meals.

This link is an affiliate link.

Deal Alert: Sesame Street Board Books

2012-02-09T08:31:00.001-06:00

There is a great deal on Eversave today that I wanted to share.

$12 for three Sesame Street board books and CD sets, plus free shipping!

Debt reduction resources

2012-01-21T13:37:00.000-06:00

I've been asked for some resources to help with debt reduction. I'm sure more will follow, but here's a good place to start:

You can subscribe to a free Dave Ramsey podcast on Itunes. I don't always (okay, often) agree with his politics, so I like the podcast so I can fast forward.

There's a free Debt snowball calculator over at What's the Cost.

Read about how to get lower interest rates from Wise Bread. If you have credit card debt, I think this is a MUST DO step. It can lower your payments and get you out of debt faster. Also, Wise Bread is probably the best personal finance blog out there right now.

Learn about Snowflaking from I've paid for this twice already. I love this technique. It's what I do.

This may be overwhelming but 73 Great Debt Elimination tips from Zen Habits. Love him.

10 common debt reduction mistakes from NCN at No Credit Needed. His blog is really inspiring.

Free hot chocolate k-cups

2012-01-11T10:12:00.001-06:00

Right now, you can get a completely FREE 12 count box of Green Mountain Hot Chocolate K-Cups by liking their Facebook page and filling out the form on the tab that says "Cafe Escapes Giveaway." Some people are having trouble getting the page to load, but it worked just fine for me in Firefox. I do love free!

Diaper deals on Amazon

2012-01-10T09:34:00.001-06:00

Pampers Baby Dry diapers are $37.75 after Amazon Mom discount. (You do have an Amazon mom account, right?) You should also be able to scroll down and add a $1 coupon, bringing the price down even more. (The link is for size 4, but there should be similar deals for all sizes.)

Huggies Snug and Dry diapers come to $24.40 after discount and $2 coupon. That's less than 19 cents a diaper for size 4's!

Just remember to cancel the subscribe and save after your order ships if you don't want to keep getting them - and since prices rise and fall, that's probably wise.

Disclaimer: All Amazon links are my affiliate links. If you use them, I will get very rich. Or at least be able to buy some cookies. Please feel free to go straight to Amazon, or use your own links. You deserve cookies too.

Photo deals from Snapfish

2012-01-04T20:23:00.001-06:00

Right now, Snapfish has some coupons going on that I wanted to share with you.

Free shipping on $30 order Coupon: FSJAN30 1/01-1/31/2012

Year-End Clearance Sale - Up to 65% off select items Code:YEAREND65
12/28-1/04/12

Year-End Clearance Sale - Up to 65% off select items Code:YEAREND65
12/28-1/04/12

Disclosure: The links above are my affiliate links.

How to Get Free Stuff: Word of Mouth marketing

2012-01-02T09:00:00.001-06:00

For the new year, I'm going to start a series on ways that I get free stuff. The first, and best, way to get free stuff is to sign up for word of mouth marketing companies. These companies send you free full sized products in the hopes that you will share them with your friends and get the word out.

She Speaks has a variety of test and try programs aimed at women. Once you sign up, just log into your account and fill out surveys to qualify for free products.
BzzAgent has probably the most comprehensive word of mouth marketing program. When you qualify for a Bzz campaign, they send you products to try and coupons to share with your friends. You can also earn reward points for telling people about the products.
Vocal Point sends out free full sized products on a first come first serve basis. These products usually go fast, so when you get an email or see a mention you should sign up quickly.
Kraft First Taste offers free products and coupons for Kraft products. You simply need to log into your account every once in a while and request the samples for which you qualify.
Psst from General Mills will send you free full sized General Mills Products. You don't really have to sign up for the products, they almost seem to come randomly.

Do good Challenge: Week 2

2011-12-14T09:17:00.002-06:00

So, I know I'm a little late with this linkup for the week, but it's never to late to do good, right?

In the past week, here are a few of the things I've done

Cleaned out some clothes and a few household appliances that we don't use anymore and donated them to the Red Cross.
Went through the canned goods in my cabinets to find some to drop in the food bank bin.
Supported some good causes, like the Army of Women, by retweeting their requests for help.
Bought 2 board books to donate to the Children's Hospital through my MOM's Club service project.

And here are a few easy ways you can donate online without spending money.

For each like on their Facebook page, Leap frog will donate $10 to Toys for Tots.

Donate meals to the World Food Project by taking or sharing this quiz.

Subaru will make a donation to the cause of your choice for every like on their Facebook page.

For every virtual cookie you send from Glad's cookie exchange, they will donate 10 cents to Pediatric Cancer research.

And there's still time to donate through Kidfresh or Huddle to Fight Hunger

Happy Do gooding! Please link up!

Menus and freezers and budgets, oh my! (Part 2)

2011-12-08T12:35:00.000-06:00

Okay, so in part 1 I said that next time I would talk about how I shop. But I also said I'm not good at sticking to a plan. So today instead, I'm going to talk about how I cook to freeze. There are three main strategies I use, and they work well for different things.

1. Freezer Day

The idea here is to block out a day (usually a weekend) and to just make a whole lot of food to put in your freezer. Some people call this Once a Month Cooking, and actually make 30 different meals in one day, but I have never managed to do anything like that. Usually I just choose one thing to make a lot of, or a few things that have common ingredients.

For example, this past weekend, my husband and I made 15 pans of lasagna. This honestly isn't much harder than making one or two pans of lasagna. Mixing a ton of filling isn't any harder than mixing a little. We just made the sauce, cooked some ground beef, then assembly lined the lasagna in disposable foil loaf pans. We had extra sauce so I froze that in Tupperware containers for easy spaghetti nights.

I find that this method works really well for me for most casseroles, where cooking the ingredients is really the most time consuming part, and having them pre-assembled means a super easy dinner. I don't pre-bake them; I just bake them on the day I plan to eat.

The problem with this method is that it takes a huge time commitment. Especially with a toddler running around, it's hard to block out that much time. My husband and I ended up doing the bulk of the prep after bedtime, and were up until 11:30 cleaning up. Boo.

2. Just make extra

This is actually the method I prefer. Instead of trying to make a month or a year's worth of something, I just make a little extra. Since it's just the two (and a half) of us, and most of my recipes are for four, I usually have extra anyway. Sometimes I go one step further and double it. Then after dinner, I pack up the extra and freeze it.

This is so easy because it doesn't take any extra time at all in my dinner prep, and gives me fully cooked, microwavable dinners for nights when I don't have time to cook. I like to do this with chili, sausage and peppers, shredded meat for tacos or sandwiches, stews, or anything that might require a long cooking time the first night.

3. Prep and freeze

Some things are just better if you make them the night of, but you can make your life easier and save money by doing the prep work ahead of time. For example, I keep a bag of diced carrots, onions, and celery in my freezer. I can dice it during naptime and then just grab a handful when I need it. I also buy bell peppers when they are on sale (because holy crap they get expensive), cut them into strips, and freeze them in freezer bags. You can even cook your meat ahead of time for recipes that use cooked meat. Browning an entire 3 pound package of ground beef doesn't take any longer than browning a single pound, and then you have some options for fast cooking dinners. Baking a whole bunch of chicken breasts ahead makes life easier too - just defrost as many as you need to make quick enchiladas, salads, or sandwiches.

Some people will even prepare and measure the ingredients for a specific recipe into a freezer bag. For instance, you could freeze sliced peppers and onions along with a chicken breast in a bag for quick, no prep, fajitas. Just dump the whole bag into a pan and sautee it up. I don't have much experience with this, but it's something I'd like to try more of.

Do Good: Give 30 (or more) meals

2011-12-07T09:03:00.001-06:00

Just in time for my Do Good Challenge, I found out about this awesome initiative from Kidfresh.

Kidfresh is a company that makes ready to eat food for kids that it is both healthy and delicious. Since I am always interested in getting more real and whole foods into our lives, and especially into my daughter, this is something I would love to try. It's also a family run company, which makes me want to support them even more.

But what I'm here to talk about today is their initiative with City Harvest. City Harvest is a food relief organization in New York that feeds over 300,000 people a week. And until December 15, for every new like on their facebook page, Kidfresh will donate 30 meals to them. How amazing! And what an easy thing to do!

Because I wrote this post, Kidfresh will donate an additional 300 meals to City Harvest. If you have a blog and would like to do the same, let me know, and I will send you the details. Happy do-gooding!

Do Good this holiday season: A linkup and challenge

2011-12-06T13:47:00.000-06:00

It's the holiday season, and I know that for me giving and helping others is a huge part of what makes it special. So, I thought I'd go ahead and start a Do Good challenge here on my blog. I'm going to try to come up with at least one thing I can do every day to help others, particularly things that I can do without spending a lot of time or money, and share them with you. I may not post about them every day, but I'll try to get at least 5 of them up every week.

I invite you to participate in my Do good challenge also! Link up below any Do good posts you write for your blog this week. Link up as many times as you like!

So here goes, my "do good" task for today is to read a book on We Give Books

We give books is a great website where you can read digital copies of children's books for free. For every book you read, Penguin Publishers donates one new book to the children's charity you choose. I cannot think of a simpler way to enjoy giving, and teach your children to give, this holiday season.

Now get linking!

Menus and freezers and budgets, oh my! (Part 1)

2011-11-28T12:26:00.000-06:00

Anyone will tell you that meal planning is the key to saving money at the grocery store. As far as I can tell there are two main strategies for menu planning, as it relates to saving money.

The first strategy is to plan an entire week's worth of meals before you go to the grocery store. Make a list of all the ingredients you will need for your dinners, as well as anything you may need to make breakfasts and lunches. Buy only those things.

The idea here is that you save money by avoiding impulse buys, by avoiding extra trips to the store mid-week when you realize you forgot something (extra trips which inevitably lead to impulse buys), and by avoiding food waste when you buy something because it looks good but have absolutely no idea or intention of using it.

You can save even more money if you make your meal plan with your grocery ad next to you, planning the main ingredients around what happens to already be on sale. You end up with a little repetition of meat this way, unless you have a lot of great sales, but you can save big.

This is a great way to grocery shop. It is efficient, frugal, and can be very successful. But it's not what I do.

The buy ahead principle

Instead, my goal is to have everything I need for an entire week's worth of meals before I go to the grocery store. On Friday, before I go shopping, I survey my freezer and pantry and make a meal plan based on what I already have. Some of the meals are things that I've cooked ahead and stashed in my freezer. Some of the meals are quick cooking staples in our house, or easy crockpot recipes, that I just keep the main ingredients of onhand. But the idea is before I go to the store, I should be able to count at least 7 easily available dinners in my house. I double check all the extra ingredients and sides for each meal, and add any that I'm missing to my list, but it is a very small part of my weekly grocery list.

Why?

There are a few main reasons for this. The first is that I'm generally just not good at sticking to a plan. When I count my 7 meals of the week, I know I won't get to all of them. I'll probably have a leftover night. I may have a sandwich night. We may go out. DH or I may decide we don't want to eat anything I planned and just make a frozen pizza. If I bought only the week's worth of meals, I would lose that flexibility.

The biggest reason, though, is saving money. I try to buy things only when they are on sale. Other than fresh fruit and milk, which we buy almost every week, almost nothing enters my house that wasn't at least 50% off. This saves me big at the grocery store.

How?

The basic principle here is that you need to start small. Every week, you can add just one extra meal to your freezer stash. This way you won't go crazy overbudget or make yourself crazy with all the cooking.

Then as you start to develop a freezer stash, you'll be able to spend more of your budget on stockpile items and less on weekly need items. If I know I have 5 containers of chili, 5 containers of slow cooked taco beef, and 3 lasagnas in my freezer? Then each week's meals become very easy to plan.

The plan is to write part 2 about how I shop, and part 3 about how I assemble freezer meals, and possible a part 4 with recipes. But I'm not good at plans. Leave a comment letting me know how you meal plan, or what you would like to know about my meal planning and shopping, and we'll play it by ear, okay?

How I get deals at CVS

2011-11-01T20:13:00.000-06:00

Sign-up

In order to get the best deals at CVS, you need to sign up for an ExtraCare card. Once you have one, you should register and sign up to get CVS emails. When you do, you will also get coupons to use and even get surveys you can take to earn more extracare bucks.

You can also sign up for the CVS beauty club to get extra offers.

Read

Read a good deal blog that lists the weekly CVS deals along with coupon matchups. My favorites for CVS are Simply CVS and Coupon Katarina. They list all the deals and any coupons available to go with them.

Some of the deals will be cheap with just the coupon, but many of them are only cheap after extra care bucks. These are in-store dollars that you receive for purchasing certain items and can use on future purchases.

Roll

Once you've bought a few things and earned some extra care bucks, roll them onto future purchases. This is where the savings really comes in.

Tips

Always scan your card at the price scanner when you go into the store. It will print personalized coupons for you, sometimes for free items.
Extra care bucks expire, and some weeks have better deals than others, so if you can get something "free", it's often best to buy it to roll your ECB's, even if you don't really want or need it, just to extend the expiration dates of your bucks.
If you have a manufacturers coupon for an item that is already free after ECB's, you still get the full ECB value listed in the add, so you can actually grow your ECB's, essentially making money for taking home the shampoo or toothpaste.
When you have more than a certain number of ECB's (for me, around 5; some people carry over a lot more), it's best to spend some down by buying milk or some non-ECB deals that you happen to need. This keeps you from having a ton that you have to spend before they expire.
You can only use one manufacturers coupon and one store coupon per item, so if you have 2 $2 ECB's and want to buy a $4 item, you'll need to buy a cheap filler item.
If you can go more than once a week, or split your order into multiple transaction, you can minimize your out of pocket spending by only paying for the first item and using ECB's to pay for the rest.
You also get quarterly ECB's in the amount of 2% of your out of pocket spending. I now get almost nothing since most of my spending is coupons and ECB's.
Also get a green bag tag. It costs $1, but if you attach it to a reusable bag and scan it with your extra care card, you will earn $1 ECB for every four scans.

Make sense?

Free $15 credit to One King's Lane

2011-10-15T10:11:00.001-05:00

Right now, if you sign up for One King's Lane, a daily deal site, you get a free $15 credit. It looks like that might be able to net you a few free or cheap Christmas gifts.

And if you sign up with my link, I get a $15 referral credit, too.

Just call me the razor fairy

2011-10-09T08:11:00.001-05:00

About a month ago, one of my friends commented on how she really prefers to buy high quality brands of razors and deodorants, but she in trying to save money, she compromised quality a little and her skin started to suffer.

I told her, "Oh sweetie, I promise when I find free Venus razors, I'll let you know."

So, this post is for her. ;)

Right now, on Walmart.com, you can buy this spa gift set, which includes a full size bottle of body wash, a Venus razor, and either a can of shaving cream or a bottle of body mist. It costs $10, but it also includes a free subscription to Allure magazine.

However, if you don't want the magazine, you can send the card back and instead get a refund in the amount of $9.99. Making the gift set essentially free.

You do have to pay the shipping costs, which I think are about $2.39.

But, if you have an account at either Ebates or Mr. Rebates, you can also click through there first and get 2 or 3% cashback. (Which amounts to about 20 cents. But I never say no to free money.)

Disclaimer: The links to the cashback sites are my referral links. If you don't have an account and click through my links, I will get very rich. Or at least be able to buy a few cookies. Thanks.

Thanks for this deal Couponing to Disney

Free breakfast at Chick Fil A this week

2011-09-07T07:43:00.000-05:00

Today, I am headed to Chick Fil A for free breakfast. I'm a little late to the party posting this, but it looks like a lot of locations still have "reservations" available for the remainder of the week.

Just pick your favorite chick fil a location, pick a time you can go, and then tell them what you would like to eat (you can choose from any breakfast entree). You will get a voucher in your email to print and bring with you, but when I've gone during previous promotions, they've also had my name on a list.

I will probably buy a coffee and sit and eat, as a nice way to get out of the house, but there is absolutely no purchase required. I have definitely gone in, gotten a free sandwich and left on many occasions. My Chick Fil A usually also gives me a goodie bag with coupons and other little treats.

So, enjoy!

$20 Chili's GC for $10 when you join Mypoints

2011-08-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

Right now, when you join Mypoints with my referral link (that's it, right over there, see?), you can buy a $20 Chili's gift card for only $10.

Mypoints is one of my favorite online rewards sites. Every few months, I earn a gift card just for clicking on links they send to my email. You can earn them faster by shopping through their links or signing up for email lists. Do use a spam email address if you sign up though because you'll probably get a lot of junk mail.

Disclaimer: This is my referral link. If you use it to sign up, I get 10% of all the points you earn. Cha-ching! Also, if 3 people sign up under me, I get the same Chili's gift card offer I just offered you. But no pressure. Really.

Do Good: Huddle to Fight Hunger

2011-08-26T07:29:00.000-05:00

It's that time again! Every year, Kraft hosts a fundraiser for Feeding America, the biggest network of foodbanks in the country. This year, all you have to do is like Huddle to Fight Hunger on Facebook, and Kraft will donate one free meal to a foodbank in your area. Then, play the 2 minute trivia game to donate even more meals.

Tip for the game: the faster you answer the questions, the more yards you gain (meaning you get touchdowns, and therefore meals, faster). I managed to donate 5 meals in my two minutes, but next time I'm hoping for more!

For more ways to donate to charity without spending money, also check out my lens on ways to Click to donate for free

Saving Money: Restaurants are my Kryptonite

2011-07-07T07:50:00.000-05:00

I love eating out. I love the food, I love the social aspect. I love getting out of my house, and not having to clean up or wash dishes. I thought once I had the baby I wouldn't do it anymore, and the budgetary problem would take care of itself, but then I had to go and have a happy, social baby who I could take everywhere. (I know, cry me a river, right?)

We eat out at least once a week. Usually more. I know, I know that the best way to cut down on this expense is just not to do it. I know. But it brings us both such joy that we don't want to cut it out entirely.

When we lived in a college town, it was easy to find cheap casual restaurants and to find coupons and deals for them. Here, not so much. So, in order to subsidize my eating out habit, I've had to get a little more creative. Here are some of the ways I'm trying to make eating out more affordable:

Drink water. Every single time. When a soda costs as much as a salad, it's just ridiculous. I'm not there for the soft drinks anyway.
Go to lunch. Honestly, with the baby, it's easier anyway, and a lot of the nicer places we go to have a lunch menu with lower prices for the same great food.
Split an entree. Okay, my husband isn't big on "sharing" (did I mention we really like food?), but sometimes if the plates are big enough he can be convinced to split one with me and get a salad or appetizer to go with it.
Get gift cards. I use my My Points and my credit card points to get gift cards for places we typically eat.
Get coupons. I have not had the greatest success with Restaurant.com or Groupon, but some people do. I have had success by signing up for email or mailed coupons from restaurants we regularly go to. I also sign up for frequent visit/stamp clubs.

I am so open to tips, as I need to fuel my restaurant habit. How do you save money while eating out?

The state of my money and my life

2011-06-20T06:19:00.000-05:00

Money

We are doing pretty well, better than we ever have, but we could do better. We make more than we ever have, and we save more than we ever have, but we spend more than we ever have too. We still have debt, and we need to work on that.

Life

Things have been different around here lately. I've been a SAHM for 9 months now, and it hasn't been at all what I expected. I am both more at peace with my choices and more worried than I have ever been in my life.

I spend most days trying to come up with ways to keep the baby busy, struggling to keep the house clean, and sneaking in as much bloggy time as I can. I still clip coupons and shop sales. I have a routine for hitting the drug store deals. That's about all I have a routine for, LOL.

I don't have much figured out just yet, but I'm working on it, and I'm going to try to share what I have figured out in the hopes that we can all learn together.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ah, those blues

2011-05-18T07:35:00.000-05:00

It's raining here again. It's been raining for about a week.

Some mornings, after my husband leaves for work, I convince Baby Girl she wants to go back to bed just so I can go back to bed. On some of those mornings, I take a quick nap and then pop up and carry on with my day. Usually, though, I end up bringing her to my bed to snuggle and play because I have trouble moving or getting out of bed.

I know, know, that what I need to do is get up, get dressed and have a day. I know that I need to turn off my computer, read a book, exercise, get out of the house at least a little. But what I feel like doing and what I'll feel good doing aren't the same.

I'm reading again, which is good - although my last choice, The Last Time They Met: A Novel
, left me in a horrible funk that lasted for days. Next time, I'll look for something more uplifting. Reading, though, makes me feel more like me. It keeps the days from all seeming the same.

And Baby Girl, who is right now sleeping on my chest because when I put her down, she immediately woke up, turned to look at me, furrowed her eyebrows (she did!), and let out a little whimper that clearly said, "Mommy! This is not going to happen"? She can stay right here with me because nothing makes me feel calmer and stronger than loving her.

Things I've learned this week

2011-05-14T08:41:00.000-05:00

The Internet tells me there's an 8 month sleep regression. This in no way helps with the waking every 2 hours, but does assure me that Baby Girl and I aren't (too) weird.

When you sleep in 2 hour spurts, it's hard to maintain a train of thought longer than one sentence.

Coupon shopping is still fun with a baby if you go when the stores are empty. Not so much if you're in line behind 3 people with the world's slowest checker and it's lunch time. And nap time.

Coupon shopping is even more fun when it's for a good cause.

Social networking is fun and addictive.

8 month olds think that 3 year olds at the zoo are far more entertaining than lions.

Coffee makes me a better mommy.

The sun is in fact not a mass of incandescent gas. It's a miasma of incandescent plasma.

Bananas taste much better than peas. That's why they end up in Baby Girl's hair less.

Sunlight gives me energy. And gives my leaves their healthy green color.

Free stuff to donate!

2011-05-12T12:36:00.000-05:00

Are you getting geared up for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive? What's that, you say, you have nothing to donate? Here are some things you can pick up this week for free that your local food bank would love to have.

Walgreens

Carefree Pantiliners are on sale for $0.99.
Use $1/1 from last Sunday's Smart Source coupon insert.

Tylenol Precise on sale for $7.99. (This is either a cream or a heating pad and is not with the pain relievers in my store, so you know.
Use $5/1 printable coupon.
AND use the $3/1 store coupon from the Walgreens May Coupon Booklet (found in the front of the store)

Nature Made Calcium 120 ct is on sale for $5. This was not marked down in my store but still rung up for $5!
Use $5 printable coupon on the Walgreens facebook page

Target

Aquafresh Extreme Clean .8oz Travel Size regular price .97 (In the travel aisle)
Use $1/1 Any Aquafresh Extreme Clean Product HERE

Reach Floss $1
Use $1/1 Printable coupon (no longer available)

CVS
Similac Ready to Feed Formula (32 oz) – $4.99
Use $5.00/1 Similac Product from 4/3 Smart Source insert

Thanks to Coupon Katarina and Totally Target for finding these deals. If you have more time and more coupons, check out their awesome sites!

Don't forget to join the Facebook cause to ask Campbells to donate a pound of food and like Valpak to donate another $1