Coupon Commotion with the Cones

Well today was a fantastic shopping trip to the grocery store! I usually try to do a big shopping trip every 2-3 weeks. In between we just get the essentials like milk that we go through like water!

Publix was having a great BOGO sale along with other sales, and I had a TON of coupons this time as well. It was one of those weeks where a lot of what I needed was on sale, I had a coupon and had a competitors coupon. It took awhile since I had all three kids with me, but my parents came along as well so my Dad watched the kids while I shopped and my Mom helped me. I ended up with 2 grocery carts FULL!! I think that's a record.

Some good deals I got were: Huggies Diapers for half price. I bought 2 pkg and had 2 manufacturers coupons and 2 Publix coupons. Band-aids were not on sale, They were $2.39, I had $1 off manufacturers, and $1 off Competitors coupons so I got a box of 60ct Band-aids for 39 cents!! Strawberries were 2 for $4, I had a coupon for $1.75 off the strawberries if you bough a SaraLee pound cake, which was 50% off on sale. Yummy dessert!! I had a lot more great deals too but those were a few of them.

My receipt is about 4 1/2 feet long, not kidding almost as tall as me. The breakdown of 2 grocery carts full of stuff:
Total before savings/coupons: $359.18
Vendor coupons: $43.03
Store Coupons: $18.64
Special Price Savings: $92.72
Grand Total: $204.79 (this was my out of pocket)
My Total savings: $154.39

I SAVED MORE THAN HALF!!!

The sweet deal of the day was the Dunkin Hines brownie mixes were BOGO, well at the register they didn't ring up BOGO. So they checked the price in the aisle and I was right so I got 1 of them for free and still got the other one for free because it was BOGO!! Sweet!!

The funny story of the whole trip was my Dad works at the Publix part-time. He said he was in the break room one day and talking to one of the cashiers. She said you come shopping with your daughter here right? He said, "Yes." She asked, "is she the one with the 3 little kids?" He said," Yes she is." She replied back, "Oh the coupon lady. I get her in my checkout line a lot!"

Oh Warranty

Well good thing we purchased the warranty with our new washer and dryer, een though a 1 yr came with it. I went to wash our cover for our mattress, same size as our king size comforter I just washed. Well I guess it got caught on the rubber gasket that hangs down in the front and shredded the rubber gasket and the pillowtop mattress cover. So I am out a new washer, pillowtop mattress cover and clean sheets till sometime Tuesday!! UGH! I will have a hard time sleeping tonight and nights to come without that pillowtop.

So weird that one fit and the other didn't. I hope that the repairman that Whirlpool is sending will do a great job. I already miss doing laundry...never thought I would say that!

Well I better go and finish cleaning other things around the house. Then have to head out and buy new pillows since ours have hit the dust after 7yrs. Man guess the heavens above don't want me getting any sleep tonight.....what's next?

New Look!

Well it was time for a change so yes I re-did our blog as you probably noticed. I will be tweaking it some more, but did the biggest overhaul today while not feeling well. This layout is easier on the eyes, easier for me to update theme-wise, as you know I love changing it for each holiday!

Yesterday was such a gorgeous sunny war day we went and got Easter/Spring pictures taken at Hollis Gardens. You can see a lot of the pictures at the slideshow at the top of the blog. Michelle from Hill's Milestone Photography too these wonderful pictures!! Be sure to check out her website at: http://www.hillsmilestonephotography.com for pricing and to see her work or schedule your wedding or family sitting. She also has a blog at: http://www.hillsmilestonephotography.blogspot.com where she does giveaways sometimes too so be sure to become a follower!!!

Well time to go have some crackers I think for this darn stomach bug I have or maybe food poisoning, not sure. Thanks for checking in!

Spinning Around....

Well I am very excited and I think everyone else is too! We were able to work it out to get a new washer and dryer! Much needed around here to help save money on water and electric with Energy Star and HE!! We sold our old washer and dryer within 1 hour of posting on Craigslist too!

Here is a short video of our adventure....

Fun family day!

This is a week old but finally getting around to posting it. We went to DAK on March 7th for a fun family day, without Daddy :( We took Nanny and Gramps and a picnic lunch and so much fun!! We met up with our twin family friends from the Tampa area, walked around with them and also saw Festival of the Lion King show. It was one of the first warm, beautiful days in FL in a long time.

Here is a video of our day, enjoy!

Valentine's Day weekend and Big Girl Bed!

Well a little late in posting this but here we go....

The day before we took the kids to the local pottery place, Plaster Cottage in town and had a lot of fun. The twins each painted 2 things they got to take home. Bella chose a seashell and a car, and Quinn chose a car and Spongebob. Brinlee just watched of course. Jay and I painted letters for their names. Uncle John and Aunt Michelle met us there too to have some fun.



Afterwards Bella and Jay had a dinner date night at Chik-fil-A. So darn cute. They were seated at tables that had linens, and their orders were taken, and even got a desert and a Free picture! (I'll have to scan that one in at a later date). They had a nice little Daddy-Daughter date while Me, Brinlee, Quinn, John and Michelle at at Steak-n'-Shake, Quinn had no problem with that for sure! Brinlee had a lot of fun with the stickers at SNS!!!



Valentine's Day was a fun day. Jay had to work so it was me and the kids. We decided to go ahead and change Brinlee's bed into a BIG GIRLS BED!! I don't think she knew what was going on but sure did have some fun, here are some pictures.







The kids were also excited because they got some cards in the mail from Aunt Marlene and Uncle Dan. They each got $1 and the first words out of the twins mouths were "Let's go to the dollar store!" And of course we did. Quinn bought a box of DOTS CANDY, Bella bought a blue baseball bat and Brinlee picked out a pink calculator. Well Quinn's dots were eaten up fast, big surprise there huh?! Brinlee decided to eat off 5 of the buttons within 5 hrs, and Bella still has her bat to play with.

They also got really cute cards from Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie. They were so excited to get even more mail!! They each got $5 which they wanted to put in their piggy banks.

Here are some pictures:

Then I was going to make Creme Brule for Jay as a V-Day gift but after buying the ingredients I realized it had to sit overnight, ugh. So I made a nice dinner and made KeyLime Parfait. I made my own recipe: Juicy Chicken and Delicious Dill Potatoes. You can find them on my recipe blog called Yummy Tummy Eats. Link is in the sidebar on the right!! Try it you'll love it! Here are some pictures.

The Man Rules

Thought I would post this for fun, got this in an email from my Dad, too funny!!

(I MUST ADMIT, IT'S PRETTY GOOD.)
WE ALWAYS HEAR " THE RULES" FROM THE FEMALE SIDE.... NOW HERE ARE THE RULES FROM THE MALE SIDE.

THESE ARE OUR RULES!
PLEASE NOTE.. THESE ARE ALL NUMBERED "1 " ON PURPOSE!
1. MEN ARE NOT MIND READERS. (FIRST & FOREMOST RULE)

1. LEARN TO WORK THE TOILET SEAT. YOU'RE A BIG GIRL. IF IT'S UP, PUT IT DOWN.
WE NEED IT UP, YOU NEED IT DOWN. YOU DON'T HEAR US COMPLAINING ABOUT YOU LEAVING IT DOWN.

1.. CRYING IS BLACKMAIL.

1. ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT. LET US BE CLEAR ON THIS ONE: SUBTLE HINTS DO NOT WORK! STRONG HINTS DO NOT WORK! OBVIOUS HINTS DO NOT WORK! JUST SAY IT!

1. YES AND NO ARE PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE ANSWERS TO ALMOST EVERY QUESTION.

1. COME TO US WITH A PROBLEM ONLY IF YOU WANT HELP SOLVING IT. THAT'S WHAT WE DO. SYMPATHY IS WHAT YOUR GIRLFRIENDS ARE FOR.

1. ANYTHING WE SAID 6 MONTHS AGO IS INADMISSIBLE IN AN ARGUMENT. IN FACT, ALL COMMENTS BECOME NULL AND VOID AFTER 7 DAYS.

1. IF YOU THINK YOU'RE FAT, YOU PROBABLY ARE. DON'T ASK US.

1. IF SOMETHING WE SAID CAN BE INTERPRETED TWO WAYS AND ONE OF THE WAYS MAKES YOU SAD OR ANGRY, WE MEANT THE OTHER ONE

1. YOU CAN EITHER ASK US TO DO SOMETHING OR TELL US HOW YOU WANT IT DONE. NOT BOTH. IF YOU ALREADY KNOW BEST HOW TO DO IT , JUST DO IT YOURSELF.

1. WHENEVER POSSIBLE, PLEASE SAY WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY DURING COMMERCIALS..

1. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DID NOT NEED DIRECTIONS AND NEITHER DO WE.

1. ALL MEN SEE IN ONLY 16 COLORS, LIKE WINDOWS DEFAULT SETTINGS. PEACH, FOR EXAMPLE, IS A FRUIT, NOT A COLOR. PUMPKIN IS ALSO A FRUIT. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MAUVE IS.

1. IF IT ITCHES, IT WILL BE SCRATCHED. WE DO THAT.

1. IF WE ASK WHAT IS WRONG AND YOU SAY "NOTHING," WE WILL ACT LIKE NOTHING'S WRONG. WE KNOW YOU ARE LYING, BUT IT IS JUST NOT WORTH THE HASSLE.

1. IF YOU ASK A QUESTION YOU DON'T WANT AN ANSWER TO, EXPECT AN ANSWER YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR.

1. WHEN WE HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE, ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING YOU WEAR IS FINE... REALLY .
1. DON'T ASK US WHAT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO DISCUSS WHAT’S FOR DINNER.

1. YOU HAVE ENOUGH CLOTHES.

1. YOU HAVE TOO MANY SHOES.

1. I AM IN SHAPE. ROUND IS A SHAPE!

1. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS. YES, I KNOW, I HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE COUCH TONIGHT; BUT DID YOU KNOW MEN REALLY DON'T MIND THAT? IT'S LIKE CAMPING.

PASS THIS TO AS MANY MEN AS YOU CAN -
TO GIVE THEM A LAUGH.

PASS THIS TO AS MANY WOMEN AS YOU CAN -
TO GIVE THEM A BIGGER LAUGH.

Learning Fast

Well the kids have been talking about school so much. They love seeing the school buses go by and always asking about going on it and to school. I've been doing some research online for things to do with the kids at home, like a school setting. I have started the process for VPK, but have read that the funding is quickly running out, so if we can't get them in we will home school them this year and see how it goes. They are like sponges right now and want things to do.

My mother helped me re-organize our family room with our FREE bookcase and the kids toys, I'm going to save up some money for learning tools for the kids, and hang up so they can easily learn things. Bella has been asking to learn the alphabet and she really wants to learn how to write. Quinn already knows how to recognize his name on paper and last night tried to spell it in the dishwasher with the letter magnets!

On the website www.education.com I found some great worksheets and activities that you can do with your kids. They range from all ages from preschool to High School. I added a widget in the left sidebar of our blog for preschool activities. However if you visit the website you can find great information and pages and pages of ideas!!

I hope to get started with the twins within the next few months, and I will post their progress too.