Coupons are awesome!!

Our goal for 2009 is to save as much money as possible. One way for us to do that is by using coupons. In the past I would use coupons just whenever I saw a great deal. But oh no...not anymore. Now that I am at home I can really shop around for great deals on food and other necessities. This last week I found a coupon for $3 off any CVS brand item. That is how it all began. For my first purchase I went to CVS and they had kids body wash on sale for $1.50 each. I got 2. I used my coupon and the final price was FREE! I was so excited. With this coupon there was no limit to the number of times you could use it. So I went home and printed off more copies of this coupon. Then the real fun for me started. Here is what I scored:

2 kids body wash=FREE
2 adult boy wash=FREE
1 box gallon size storage bags=FREE
2 toothbrushes=FREE
1 baby shampoo=FREE
1 roll of travel wipes (fits in your cup holder)=FREE
1 aloe body wash (for when babies or kids have a cold)=FREE
2 tubes of lotion=FREE
2 bars of soap=FREE
1 pack of wipes=FREE
1 dental floss=FREE
1 roll of 140 wipes=$.31 (price $3.29)
2 packs of wipes=$1.08 (on sale 2 for $4)
1 shaving cream=$1.07 (price $3.99)
1 box of 20 trash bags=$2.15 (price 4.99)
2 bags of peanut butter filled pretzels to enjoy our savings=FREE

Our total savings was $55.27. We were able to get 23 items total. This was a great way for us to get a start on storage items. These were all things that we needed and we were able to get them for free. How awesome is that! It is totally a rush to walk out of a store with free stuff.

The day before I started my CVS trips I went to Walgreens. With all of my coupons I used at Walgreens I saved $37.19. Again, I was able to get items we needed like paper towels, shampoo and conditioner, toilet paper, toothpaste, and cleaning supplies.

I hope that I can stick to this and really save us money. It's kind of like a puzzle to me to see what coupons I can combine and get super cheap or free stuff. Happy savings to everyone!



Our loot from CVS. The only thing not pictured is the pretzels b/c we ate those of course.

Boys will be boys

Levi is now 13 months and we think he is going through his destruction phase. After we put Levi to bed we always clean up his toys. We have turned our dining room into his play room so every night all the toys go back in the dining room. Before we cleaned up all of his toys we noticed that everything is upside down. As soon as we turn something right side up, Levi will come right behind us and turn it over. Maybe it's just a game but it makes us laugh.

The Holidays Are Over

For Christmas this year we went to my parents house. We weren't sure if we were going to go home or stay here. Levi doesn't travel very well, which is kinda to be expected for a 1 year old. It takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get to my parents house. I ended up holding Levi for the last hour b/c he wanted out of his car seat so bad. Levi wouldn't take any of his toys or food. He just wanted to be out. So I crawled in the back with Levi and Macey and held him. It was good to be home although my parents house is very loud! There is not a quite place at all. We had a good Christmas all around. Levi doesn't get the whole present thing so he would start to open one and then get distracted. We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We had to figure out a way to keep Levi away from it or the tree would come crashing down. Along with all my pretty glass ornaments! So Matt and I put our heads together and came up with the Christmas tree fence. Our neighbor thought it looked like a Macy's display and told all of our neighbors about it. We hope everyone had a good holiday.