I can't live without coupons!

I am linking up for a Thursday blog party about things you couldn't live without.  I definitely could never live without coupons!

I post some of my hauls/deals on instagram or facebook and occasionally people say "Teach me!" or "Explain!"

I had tried couponing many times in the past and could never understand it, or figure out how to make it work.  When Hannah was born and breastfeeding didn't work out, I became obsessed with trying to get formula as cheap as possible. From there I began to figure out deals for diapers, cleaning products, and other grocery items.  It can be very overwhelming at first, but with a little bit of dedication, it can become second nature.  I stumbled across a local couponing group in my town that was very active.  People posted deals in stores that were near me, and what coupons they used and I began to follow along and copied what they did.  Then the admins of the group offered a class that I went to and then after that I was officially hooked.  Now I find myself answering the questions on the page instead of asking them.  I honestly don't think I could ever live without coupons now!

Lotion for .64?  Yes please!

It is hard to boil down everything about couponing into one blog post but here are some basic tips to get started saving money:

1. Get your hands on some coupons.  Buy a Sunday paper.  I get one paper delivered to my house and my mother gives me her inserts.  If it is a good week I will buy more papers.  I also print a lot of coupons.  The best website is coupons.com.  Other good sites are redplum.com and smartsource.com.  These websites will have a limited number of times you can print certain coupons.  You can get around that by printing from different devices.  If there is a really hot coupon I will print it at work, from my laptop, from Ryan and Isaac's ipads.  I have also written to and called companies for coupons.  A great place for local PA people is Turkey Hill.  You can call every month for more coupons.

You can also just google coupons.  Ryan and I literally don't buy anything without checking to see if there are coupons first. A simple search brought up coupons for our zoo membership and oil changes.  Retailmentnot is one we check for stores and restaurant coupons.

Giant will double this coupon, making the sugar free.

2.  Know which stores double coupons and what their policies are.  Around me the stores that double coupons are Giant, Weis and Wegman's.  Stores vary a bit-- not all grocery stores are the same, and even my local Giant may have a different policy than the Giant by my mom's house.  For example, my Giant will double coupons for less than a dollar.  So a .75 cent coupon will save you 1.50 but a 1.00 off coupon will not double. Wegman's will double up to 4 like coupons, whereas Giant will only double the first of multiple coupons.  Target, CVS, Walmart, etc. do not double coupons.  Coupon policies can take a while to get the hang of, so it is easiest when you are starting out to just focus on one store.  Just be patient and persistent.

3. The most important part of couponing is matching the coupon up with a sale.

 This can be tricky but there are lots of websites that do the work for you.  Some of my favorites are thekrazycouponlady.com and forthemommas.com.  They will have the whole breakdown for you: what coupons to use and where it can be found with a link if it is printable.  I use my phone and take a screenshot of the breakdown to refer to later.

My favorite deals are Giant frequently offers "buy XX amount of certain products, save XX dollars instantly".  For example, last week they had a deal to buy 4 General Mills Cereals, save $6 instantly.  You could stack coupons on top of that making cereal about $1 a box.  I did the deal three times.  Another great way to take advantage of sales is CVS which prints out Extracare bucks for buying certain items. These are essentially gift cards that can be used on a future purchase. They print on the bottom of your receipt and look like this:

You can use the Extracarebucks on deals that generate more bucks and pay pennies out of pocket.  Again, there are literally whole websites dedicated to match-ups to help you learn the ropes.  You will need to get the store savings card and you will want to make sure they have up-to-date email and mailing addresses.

4. When you see a good deal, stock up!  Couponers who stockpile have reputations for being looney, but that is the best way to save money.

I have over 20 containers of laundry detergent that I got for less than $1 a piece.  Now I don't have to budget for laundry soap in my weekly grocery budget and I can afford to hold out until the next time I can find it that cheap.

One of my shelves of stockpiled items.  We just bought this one for about $30 at Costco. 

We will always need cereal, deodorant, toothpaste, diapers, laundry detergent, etc. and I have the room to store it, so to me it makes sense to stockpile.  We are looking into a deep freezer so we can store more perishable items.  I have also been able to donate some food and hygiene items to local needy families, which has been awesome.

Couponing has helped me save so much money on grocery items.  Even if we hit the lottery, I think I would still do it, because saving money is such a rush and couponing is a fun hobby.

SIA and Snow

First off, I am participating in a fashion challenge Style Imitates Art. The idea is to put together an outfit inspired by a piece of artwork. I have participated in the past (here and here).

This is the inspiration painting:

Here is my outfit inspiration (disclaimer, it was really hard to get some decent photos with lighting, etc.  I tried bribing Isaac my ten year old to take the pictures.  He recommended a selfie stick. :P)

I thought of my new blue button down right away when I saw the painting.  It reminded me of her head scarf.  I am not usually a leggings as pants kind of gal, but for an afternoon of errand running, I thought it worked.

Check out the other outfits in the challenge here.

Other random noteworthy things:

1. Hannah has mastered calling me "MUM!" and calls for me about 119809832 times a day.  It's actually quite adorable.  In this picture she is randomly playing with a meat thermometer... cause.. that's how we roll these days.

2. Today we finally have some beautiful weather with temperatures in the 50s, which is long overdue.  I had three actual snow days from school last week.   Even Ryan got a snow day from work Thursday which was nice.

 Hannah liked running around in the snow but wasn't such a fan of the sled.  Isaac was a good sport and entertained her until she had enough.

Today I did my carline duty at school without a jacket, only four days after these pictures were taken.  Isaac was out playing cricket with the neighborhood boys (in a driveway, since the yards are still filled with snow and slush.

Happy Monday!

Goal update...

There is a crazy ice storm today.  Isaac had an early dismissal.  I made it home from school and the babysitter without too much trouble.  Ryan's commute ended up being three times as long as usual as he white knuckled his way home from Reading.  

I googled some March blogging prompts and found this list.   The first prompt asks how you are doing on your New Year's Resolutions.  Probably a topic that is not of interest to anyone but me, but I do like to take stock of where I am on my goals on my 101 in 1001 list.  I have made some progress on a few things.

Here are some things I am doing well on so far in 2015

1.  So I have been trying to make more of an effort as far as my appearance.  It's so easy to just throw my hair in a ponytail and mindlessly throw on one of the same boring outfits I have been wearing since I ended maternity leave.  I went shopping over the weekend and finally bought all new bras, underwear and pajamas.  Mine were literally falling apart at the seams, overstretched elastic, the whole nine yards.  I also got a few new outfits and a haircut (can you tell we just got our tax refund?) I've been blow drying and brushing my hair and wearing makeup most days.  It's a process, and sometimes it's easier to just not care, but I think I am doing better.

2.  Preparing things the night before.  I have been really good about signing the homework book, packing the lunches and Hannah's bag the night before.  It's actually one of the first things I do when I get home from work, is pack lunches for the next day. It makes things so much easier in the mornings.  

3. Money stuff.  Ryan is making a lot of more money at his new job, so that certainly helps to have more money to work with.  We have been doing well communicating about bills and expenses and getting on top of things.  Not that we are perfect by any means, but I think we are on a good path.  It's amazing how much stress is out of my life now that things are improving in this area.

4. Staying on top of the everyday stuff.  I am doing better staying on top of the dishes and the laundry (well, the washing and drying part, not so much the folding and putting away part).  

5. Reading.  I have actually finished a few books and have been doing better at keeping a book in the car or my purse for those times when I am waiting on someone and have a little bit of time.  I need to read more at night before bed and not just flip through facebook.

Here are some things I could improve on:

1.  Drinking more water.  I'm horrible about it.  Lunch rolls around and I realize I haven't had anything to drink all morning at work.   It's like, the easiest thing you can do to improve your health and I am so bad about it.

2. Making better use of my morning time.  I pick up Hannah almost as soon as I am allowed to leave work, and she has to tag along for any potential errands to be run after school.  More often or not Isaac has an evening activity.  Ryan usually gets home around bed time.  Our weeknights are full.  There isn't much room for "me time" on weekday evenings.  But Ryan gets the kids up and out the door in the mornings long after I have left for work.  Once in a while I will run an errand or something on my way to work, but that would be the perfect time for me to go to the gym or go for a walk, or get to school early to get stuff organized.  I think one morning a week would be a realistic goal to start.  I will try for March.

3. Getting to the less essential cleaning (bathrooms, floors, dusting).  It's not fun, so it gets put off and put off.

So I want to work on that stuff.  Other goals for March:

1. Date with Ryan-- no kids allowed!

2. Finish Mercy and start another book.

3.  Get my clearances in order for work (they need to be updated to stay at my current job and definitely need to be updated if I am going to get serious about applying elsewhere).

4. Get one more letter of recommendation together.  I have two that I have collected but I need one more.

5. Figure our renewing our family membership at the Y.  

Stream of Consciousness Sunday -- Job Woes

I am trying to blog more.  I really am.  I used to use this blog as a place to just write and write and now I feel like it is only used for weekly monthly posts about what the kids and I have been up to. I came across a link up where you set a timer for five minutes and just write.  No editing.  It's Monday but since I have a delayed opening at work, I decided to give it a shot.

So I have been stuck in an endless thought cycle about what to do about my job.  I am really unhappy there.  I don't feel appreciated or respected.  I am doing a job that was two teachers' job last year.  I don't look forward to going to work anymore.  I have always said if I am going to go to work 40 hours a week it better be doing something that I love and that makes a difference.

There is no doubt that I am burnt out from my current position but then sometimes I just feel so disillusioned with teaching in general.  There is a new law in PA that affects my teacher evaluation.  I work with some low functioning kids and if I can't get them up to a certain preset reading standard by the end of the year, I fail that portion of my evaluation, no matter what.  Add that to the fact that I will probably keep my same caseload next year and things look more and more grim.  I could be labelled a failing teacher.  I hate that I have to spend so much of my time with a timer in my hand: "How fast can you name this series of random letters?"  "How fast can you read these ridiculous made up nonsense words?" Now is the point in the year when we stop teaching science and social studies and start doing non-stop "test practice" for the upcoming standardized state tests.  I hate it and so do the kids.

Well, that five minutes went fast and my post was kind of a downer. I just scratched the surface of what could probably be a 45 minute brain dump, but at least I wrote about something not entirely superficial.   Happy Monday everyone!

and suddenly it's march

As the kid's at my school would say, "Haircut?  Or nah?"  All of a sudden it's my hair is past my shoulder blades.  After I took that picture I opted for "haircut" and I snuck away for a few hours Saturday morning and got it cut and colored. 

 It's hard to tell from the picture, but it is the lightest brown before the blond section of the little book of hair color samples.  It took about 45 minutes to process which meant 45 minutes of uninterrupted book reading, a luxury these days.  I am reading Mercy by Jodi Piccoult.  

I was happy with how it turned out and have plans next time to go even lighter.  

This little lady is officially 14 months and has been a handful lately--- into everything. She has taken to calling me "mum" but if I am out of sight she will holler "Eeeesa!!!" just like Ryan to find me.

 She continues to be a great eater.  We haven't found very much she will not try.  Recent favorites include sausage, pickles, and ring bologna.  Definitely her daddy's girl with those favorites.

I found these selfies on my phone.  I love my kids so much.

 Isaac is finally done basketball after being threatened with a technical foul in his last game for arguing with the coaches.  He had a great season and his coach recommended that he play on the travel team next year (we'll see).  Saturday he got called in as a sub for the winter soccer league (we opted out but the coach has been calling almost every game to have him as a sub) and another player straight up punched him in the face.



 We finally were able to go out to eat for his birthday dinner.  He chose Buffalo Wild Wings.  Noisy sports bars are not my favorite but it turned out to be a great place to take Hannah, since no one was bothered by her occasional screams and protests.   She has such strong opinions already and was so offended that she was drinking milk and Ryan was drinking lemonade.  

Another happy weekend.  I love when Isaac is home on Ryan's weekend off.  We already have a two hour delay tomorrow so I get to enjoy it a little longer...

A cold day at Chocolate World

It has been record breaking cold here. I know we are not the coldest or worst off in the weather department (like Boston-- eek!), but this has been out of hand.

Saturday Ryan took over with Hannah and I was to spend the morning under the covers with a good book.  I finished this one:

It was a quick easy book about an autistic man with savant abilities that my mom gave me.

Ryan surprised me by arranging for us to leave the kids with my parents Saturday night and go out on a date.  We haven't been out without Hannah in almost a year and it was almost eerie to  be in the car together and not have her with us. We went out to eat and when we came out of Panera it was snowing like crazy.  I was worried and thought we should just forget about the movie but Ryan was pretty determined that we were going to the theater.  When we came out of the movie the snow had stopped but the wind was howling and whipping our minivan all of the place on the back country roads of Leola.

We slept over at my parents house and had planned to go to church with them, but due to the extreme temperatures church was cancelled.  We still felt like getting out of the house, so we took the kids to Chocolate World in Hershey.  We decided to spring for their "design your own chocolate bar" experience.

It involved a LOT of waiting in line and hairnets for all, including Hannah.  But you got to custom make your own bar and follow it through the little minifactory, design the packaging, the whole 9 yards.  

Then we had cake and icecream with my parents to celebrate Isaac's upcoming 10th birthday.  How I am the mom of 10 year old!?

Snowy cold and wintery

Random school story: I used to wear dresses and skirts almost every day in the fall and spring.   This has been an especially cold winter and I have been wearing pants for the past few months.  I was unpacking an overlooked box of winter clothes from my closet and found a long sleeved cotton dress and decided I would wear that to school to show that I can make a little more of an effort in these winter months.  I am thinking I look pretty good and together, when one of my students tells me that it "looks like I am wearing my nightgown" to school.  Awesome.

We are trying to figure out the new normal around here with Ryan's new job.  He finally recovered from a week of pneumonia and has worked a few shifts.  His new hours are 1-8 which puts him home with Hannah half of the day which I love.  He is already making so much more money than his own job with the potential for his earnings to continue to increase.  It has been nice to have some breathing room in the budget to take the pressure off.  We are catching up on things and finally getting to things that had been put on the back burner forever.  Ryan was so proud to finally buy me a new fridge filter-- the "time to change" alert light has been as long as we have been together.   He even surprised me with a new laptop to help with my insane increased work load at school.   I was so surprised and grateful. 

Hannah continues to be, as her babysitter describes her, "appropriately destructive". She unloads drawers, she empties Ryan's wallet, dumps water glasses. She is always on the go.  The above shot was the best one I could get of her.  Most pictures I take turn out like the ones below:

She seems to be following in her brother's footsteps with hitting physical milestones ridiculously early.  Not only does she run now, she also jumps from both feet which is so cute it's ridiculous.   She has her own personality and opinions and is able to express them very well since she still only says "No!".  Like when we were eating nachos the other day and she had a fit because Ryan was handing her chips and she wanted to select her own chips.  She prefers her morning milk in a bottle, never a sippy cup.   She knows what she likes and she can let you know surprisingly well for someone who is still nonverbal.  (Yes, I have tried to teach her baby signs.  I know she understands them but she really can't be bothered to use them.  Sigh)

Isaac continues to be just an all round great kid.  He turns ten next week which blows my mind.  We are thinking about doing the Sixers for his birthday.  We continue to shuffle through after school activities for him which is a double edged sword.  He needs to get out the house.  He is a kid who actually cannot be cooped up within four walls for long periods of time.  The nights we end up without an activity he is bouncing off the walls.  But loading up Hannah and entertaining her while Isaac is at basketball/soccer/swimming/whatever can be torturesome.

That's about it for us.  Hang on, Friday's coming....