Just So I Remember

Just so I remember...

-Easton took about 6 steps on his own multiple times today. He is officially a toddler.
-He cried when Dad left for a meeting for the first time. Tragic.
-He got his first ear infection this week. Mom and baby have been sick. (I sound like a man.)
-We made steak tonight with gorgonzola cheese on top. Who needs Z'Tejas? (We first had it there.)
-I had three online orders this week for belts!
-Soren let me sleep in several times this week while sick and cleaned the house before he left for work on Friday.
-Soren and I played Scrabble together today and had a blast. I totally beat him when I made a 32 point word! (Who knew QAT was a word?)
-Life is good right now.

Lights On

Easton has recently discovered how to turn on the lights in his room. His crib is right next to the switch, so if he sticks out his hand far enough, he can flip it. This is very cute in the mornings when I hear him moving around and go in to see him stretching for the switch. It is not so cute when he doens't want to go to sleep and turns them on. Several times now I have let him cry and fuss for a good 20 minutes before he falls asleep and sure enough when I go check on him, the lights are on. No wonder it takes so long! Just lay down and go to sleep kid.

Oh Spring!

I am in love with these flower paper balls. I have seen these made of real flowers, even fake ones, and always want to buy them. I really wanted tons of them at our wedding. These look just like the real ones, but I can make them! I think they are the perfect decoration for spring. Anyone want to make them sometime with me? Go here for the instructions.

Couponing Continued

In response to the comments on my last post, I thought I'd just make a second and answer a few inquiries. I stumbled upon couponing by accident and until I found the blogs I follow, I really didn't believe in it. How could name brand items be cheaper than the store brand? So I had resisted until I found the coupon blogging community.
I have been learning how to do it through the blogs and a lot of trial and error. Here are a few subjects you might have questions about.

TIME
It is very time consuming at first and overwhelming, but I think it totally pays off. I can't imagine not doing it now.
(Example: Last weekend we had a movie night at church. We were late, but I wanted some snacks so we stopped at the grocery store. I left my coupons in the car and went to an unfamiliar store. Big mistake. I stood stumped in the candy aisle for 5 minutes aghast at the prices. I just couldn't pay full price or even sale price for any of it. I just left and we had no treats. It was sad, but showed me how dependent on it I am now.)
As I get better and have picked the few stores I will focus on, my time spent has gone down by a lot. My new coupon binder has also helped immensely. I can now find my coupons and easily organize them.

SAVING MONEY
I don't think our grocery bill has gone down yet, but we have so much more food in our cupboards now- and thats one of the reasons to do it. For the same ammount of money I used to spend, I get twice as much and am building our food storage. As I get better at it I hope to slash our food bills by 50-90%, which is supposedly possible.

PROCESSED FOODS
Yes, a lot of the coupons out there are for severely processed foods. Luckily there are also other ones out there. At first I was just getting anything free I could find, but have since become more selective in which foods I get, whether they are basically free or not. Produce rarely has coupons so I supplement a lot of the couponing foods I get with other healthy foods. I do usually get great deals on yogurt, healthy canned soups, canned veggie and fruits, frozed veggies, lunchmeat, healthy crackers, healthy cereals, oatmeal, chicken broth, baby foods, house cleaning products, personal care products and diapers.

ORGANIZING
I previously was using envelopes with categories written on them, but have since switched to a 2 inch binder with baseball card organizers. I printed a PDF with all the categories and Table of Contents. Those pages are in sleeves. Then each item gets its own slot. Its big, but oh so worth it.

WHERE I GET COUPONS
I buy between 2-4 Sunday papers a week and then get the coupons that come in our mail. I also print them from http://www.coupons.com/ and Target's website. I also send off for free samples in the mail which usually come with a coupon.

HOW TO FIND THE DEALS
I use two websites for all my couponing. They cover everything and basically every store. They are http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/ and http://www.hip2save.com/.  The Krazy Coupon Lady is the best for learning how to coupon. She has awesome tutorials and resources. I'd look over there if you are thinking about starting.

That is all I can think of for now. I totally recommend it if you have the time to commit to learning the ropes and keeping up with it. Let me know if you have any other questions.

What a Deal!

 

So since September I have been trying to learn how to coupon. Each month I get a little better, but today I really hit the jackpot.  Everything pictured would have cost $162 dollars! Guess how much I got it for????

$15.98

This was a rare trip, and I owe a lot of it to my dear insider at Albertsons, Keilah. Hopefully there will be many more of these to follow!

What We've All Been Waiting For.....

Well, maybe just me, but I bet you'll be excited too. Last week a friend of mine, Amy, was so great to do a photoshoot for me. We FINALLY got pictures of babies and toddlers in our belts. I got them today and they look awesome! They totally changed the look of our website and Etsy shop- definitely for the better!

Amy is very talented (and very busy) so it was incredibly generous of her to help us out! Check out a couple here and then look here and here to see more. They are so cute!

Don't forget to enter our giveaway! 4 days left!

                                                                                         

Valentine's Day Giveaway!

For Valentine's Day I have a having a

BELT GIVEAWAY!

You have three chances to win. I am giving away two girl's fashion belts and one boy's leather belt raffle-style on Valentine's Day. Each belt will be your choice of style and size with free shipping. You can see styles here. To enter leave a comment on the giveaway post here with your e-mail address.

As an added bonus you can get a second entry if you post this giveway on your blog. Leave a extra comment here with the link to your blog.

The giveaway ends on February 14th at 7:00 pm. MST. Results will be e-mailed February 15th.

I really need all of your help getting the word out about our belts. We have them ready to go, now I just need to let people know about them. You can copy any of this post and use it in your's. Whether you need a belt or not, I will just be thrilled to have your support. Thanks everyone!