Everyone needs a TREAT!!!

Even though most of us are trying to save money, it is nice to have a treat from time to time.  Here are two of my favorites right now:  
McDonald's has a coupon out right now for $1 off their new Frozen Lemonade, Fruit Smoothie, or Frappe.  We were able to get medium Frozen Strawberry Lemonades for around $.89 each and they were wonderful on a hot, Summer day.
At Starbucks from 3-5, it's Happy Hour!  You can get 1/2 priced Frappuccinos trough May 15th and they have a new coconut mocha flavor that is quite yummy. 


I saw these deals at The KCL. 

Stamp Out Hunger!

This Saturday is May 14th and it is national Stamp Out Hunger Day.  It is estimated that there are 37M people in America that are left with little or no food.  I have only been coupoining since January of this year, but already my closets, shelves, and cabinets are overflowing with food!  Our family is so blessed and we plan on giving generously to this cause and the best part is that it won't cost us much money, if any and it won't hurt our stock pile in the slightest way!  It will help others and make more space for me to restock the shelves.  I love what bargain shopping, coupons, and blogs have done for my family!  Visit Stamp Out Hunger for more information.

Walgreens week of 5/8

Following is my plan for Walgreens this week.  It looks like it will be a pretty slow week compared to last week, but there are still some pretty good deals to be had.

I have (2) $3RR left from last week, so I will be trying to roll those this week:

(1) Sun Burnt Gel $3.99
(1) Carefree Pantiliners $.99
- (1) FREE or $1 off Carefree 5-8SS
(2) Reach Toothbrushes 2 pack $6.00
- (2) $2/1 twin pack Reach toothbrush 5/8SS
(1) W candy $.49
- $6RR
OP: $.48 + tax
RR: $3.99 + $2

(4)Nabisco Fig Newtons $2.50
- (4) $1/1 any Newtons 10-14oz 5/8SS
- (1) $1/2 Newtons 10.5-16oz IVC (should multiply)
(2) BOGO Clean and Clear Morning Burst Body Wash
- (1) BOGO Clean and Clear Body Wash 3/27SS
-$3.99RR
OP: $.01 + tax

This will leave me $2RR to start next week with.  Getting the Newtons may not be the wisest way to use up RR, but my kids love them and they have to have incentive to be good in the store while Mommy shops.  If all goes well, this will be a pretty good haul for only $.49!  Wish me luck.

Garden 2011 - Planting the carrots

We planted carrots this weekend!!!  Carrots are one of the more fun things for kids to plant as long as you aren't concerned about nice, straight, even rows.  This year we are experimenting a little.  We have several 3x4 foot garden boxes, one of which will be our carrot box.  We all "worked" at getting the dirt nice and loose, and then sprinkled the carrot seeds all over the top of the dirt.

 

We then gently swirled the seeds into the dirt and watered it down.  I heard that this would work and my garden center confirmed it, so we will see.

Last year, we planted in rows, but of course, the carrots all came up way too close.  This was GREAT because when we did thin the carrots, we were able to have a tasty snack while we worked and the rest were left to get bigger.  One nice thing about garden boxes is that there is less soil pack which allows root veggies to grow nice and straight and they pull easily.

King Soopers and Safeway deals end 5-10

I just heard about this juice deal and I wanted to try it out, and it worked!  Here's what I got at both stores.

Safeway Transaction #1
3 boxes Capn' Crunch $1.88 ea
(3) -$.55 off one box 4-17 SS
4 Welch's Essential Juice $3.49 ea
(4) -$1 off one 5-1 SS
-$4 Safeway juice promo
2 Oreo Fudge Dipped $2.50 ea
(2) -$1 off one 4-17 SS
One celery bunch $1.23
three tomatoes $1.79
2 lbs strawberries $3
(1) -$1 off $5 produce purchase (may still be available if you "like" Safeway on FB)
-$5 CAT from buying 3 cards for Mother's Day
Total Spent:  $8.55
Total Saved:  $36.68
82% savings!
(The Essential Juice does not have anything marking that it is included in the sale, but it did work!!!  $.49 each!!!)

Safeway Transaction #2
2 Welch's Essential Grape Juice $3.49 ea
(2) -$1 off one 5-1 SS
2 Welch's 100%juice $4.49 ea
(2) -$.75 off two 4-17 SS
1 Welch's Grape Jam $2.99
-$4 Safeway Juice Promo
(1) FREE w/purchase of 2 100% juices found on tear pad near juice
Total Spent:  $4.82
Total Saved:  $15.49
78% savings!
(For some reason, all the varieties came up at different prices and none of them are marked clearly on the shelf.  The best deal appears to be buying the Essential variety, but I didn't have enough coupons to get another four.  It's still a good deal averaging $.96/item.  I'm happy anytime I get juice for under $1.)

King Soopers
4 Old Orchard Frozen Juice $1 ea
(1) -$1 w/purchase of 4 printable or printable
3 Ivory Bar Soap $1 ea
(3) -$1 Ivory 5-1 P&G
3 Ivory Body Wash $1 ea
(3) -$1 Ivory 5-1 P&G
Mega Event Purchase
4 Ronzoni Pasta $.49 ea
(2) $1 off w/2 printable or printable or printable
1 Boulder Chip $.99 ea
(1) $1 off one, (may still be available @ coupons.com area code 90210)
2 Mom's Best Naturals Cereal $.99 ea
(1) $1 off one printable
3 Quaker Rice Cakes $.49 ea
(1) $1 off three 5-1 Pepsi (regional)
Total Spent:  $6.02
Total Saved:  $36.40
87% savings!

The above picture cost me $19.39 and whatever time I spent researching the deals, gathering the coupons, and hitting the stores and saved me $88.57.  I would say it was time well spent.

Daily Bible Reading 4-29

Today we will read Genesis 46-48.  This reading has a lot of genealogy, which my kids enjoy.  They like to hear all the funny names and laugh.  This is OK with me.  We also see that the very young Israelite nation now numbered 70 people.  God's promise of making Abraham a great nation is being fulfilled.  Point this out to your children; God's promises aren't always instant.  


Another lesson that is worth talking about is the example of Ephraim and Manasseh.  So far we have seen a lot of sibling rivalry: Cain & Able, Isaac & Ishmael, Jacob & Esau, Joseph & his brothers, to name a few.  Now we come to the son's of Joseph and see the example of brotherly love.  There is no mention of them fighting.  In fact, when Jacob blesses them, he blesses the younger first and then the older to emphasizes the lack of hostility that these two had for one another.  As parents we could hope for nothing more than that our children would love each other unconditionally.  

Psalms 133:1 

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is 

for brethren to dwell together in unity! 

What works for you?  What things have you done to help encourage the sibling bond rather than rivalry?

Daily Bible Reading and Memory work 4-28

One thing my Grandpa taught me was that a keen  understanding of the New Testament begins with the knowledge of The Old Testament.  We have been reading two or three chapters from the Old Testament and have just gotten to the part where Joseph saves his brothers from the famine.  Today we will be reading Genesis 43-45.  This being the case, we will also begin memorizing the 12 tribes of Israel.  We will try to get this done within a week, but will most certainly take longer if necessary.   Feel free to copy, past, print this picture so you can take it on car rides and work on memorizing all week.  I found it helpful to keep a 3x5 index card box in the car for each child to keep current and past memory cards in.  Car rides are a great time for memory work because everyone is strapped down, mostly quiet, and sometimes sleeping!  Don't waste this time!!!

Today in our reading I tried to emphasize to the kids that Joseph wasn't angry at his brothers or God for allowing him to be in Egypt and enduring the hardships of his young life.  Rather, he was grateful to God for bringing him to Egypt so that he could prepare the country for the seven year famine and in doing so, save his own family.  He saw that he had a temporary sacrifice in God's plan and was rewarded greatly for it.  Remember this story and watch for times to remind your kids of it.  Whenever they feel sorry for themselves, remind them of Joseph's attitude.  Have them read Genesis 45:5-8 anytime  the pity party starts.  This will be a teachable moment.  Another good way to get this story ingrained into their memories is to let them watch it and then act it out.  Putting on skits is great fun!  You can follow this link to watch the Joseph story Joseph reveals himself.  Dig around on this youtube channel because this guy has several really good Bible stories to watch.