Fun in the Sun!

We've been having terrible, rainy, dreary weather most of the week. It's gross. Yesterday I went into the basement to discover water gushing in through one of the corner walls and a small river running through the basement. Thankfully our basement is not finished, so nothing got ruined. Even better is I figured out what the problem was (after dashing out into the pouring rain a couple of times) and my quickly becoming handy husband was able to fix it last night. We've had even more rain today and I'm proud to say there is no new water in our basement! Hooray!

Anyway, all this rain had me reminiscing about the GORGEOUS weather we had just last week...

Last Thursday I met my sister and my friend Wendy and her son William at Deanna Rose Farmstead for some fun. The boys had a great time as always! We spent some considerable time at the little playground within the farmstead. I'm pretty sure the boys would have stayed on these "horses" all day if I'd let them!

Jackson is in gray, Tyler in blue and Chase in orange

Wendy had brought her stroller for William to sit in, but William didn't want to sit in it - he wanted to run around. The boys were fascinated by this single stroller and it's steering wheel! As soon as one boy jumped out the other two were trying to climb in.


Pray this terrible weather moves out by the end of the weekend! The March for Babies is on Sunday and we want nice weather!

Video Clip if the Week - March for Babies

This week's video does not feature my little monkeys, but it does feature an organization that is close to my heart. Team Three Cuties (made up of myself, the boys, my sister and two of my friends) will be walking with thousands of others this coming Sunday in downtown Kansas City.

My fund raising efforts have suddenly picked up momentum, which I am so grateful for. There are still hundreds of followers of this blog and hundreds of friends on Facebook who have yet to give though. Could you spare even just $5? If so, please click on the button in the left hand sidebar.

To remind you why I'm marching, please watch this video that was shot at the Los Angeles March for Babies just last weekend. You will likely cry (I did), but keep in mind that this story is all too common all across the world.

Serious Spring Cuteness

The boys seem to be entering a phase where they actually enjoy having their picture taken. They even will giggle and say "cheese"! The other day I grabbed my camera to try to catch pictures of them blowing on dandelions and every time I tried to put my camera back they would all yell "more, more!" until I took the camera back outside and took more pictures of them. As a result, I snapped 104 pictures in about 30 minutes. Yikes! Don't worry, I'm not going to show them all to you - only some of the best :)

Speaking of pictures, I'm seriously considering buying a Digital SLR camera. Those of you that are hard core about your picture taking - what camera do you have and why do you love it? (I'm leaning towards the Canon Rebel.)

Jackson in Green, Tyler in Stripes and Chase in Brown

A Letter to Moms of HOM

Dear Moms of Higher Order Multiples,

Now this may ruffle a few feathers, but I'm tired of hearing, witnessing and reading (5/2 - note by "reading" I am referring to activity I've witnessed on certain message boards, not individual blogs) your whines and complaints about how terrible the general public is to you. Do you honestly not understand what joy your children bring to others?

When someone asks you if you have triplets don't sigh, roll your eyes and answer "yes" like it's the worst thing in the world to have triplets (I know that's not your intent, but it's how it comes off). I actually had a fellow mom of triplets do those very things to me last week when I ran into her and her triplets and asked (looking for confirmation) if her kids were triplets. I saw the slightest hint of regret when I then pointed to my own triplets (one on my hip and two at my feet) and joyfully said "Me too!".

Perhaps because you are too preoccupied with avoiding questions, stares and photo ops to care that someone may be asking because they have triplets themselves and are just looking to make a connection with another mom. Or because they are a triplet themselves (I met a grown triplet at The Children's Place last week and I could tell she was hesitant to say something to me likely because she'd had her head bitten off by other moms in the past). Or because you simply have made their day by having your adorable children out in public.

I find the majority of people who run into me and hold me up briefly from whatever errands I was running merely want to gush because they're excited. They should be! My kids are pretty darn cute and pretty special! I think it's wonderful and totally appropriate for people to get excited when they see HOM (Higher Order Multiples). If you recognize their genuine excitement for all that it is (just excitement) perhaps you could return their smile with a smile of your own instead of sighs, rolled eyes or even flat out ignoring them.

And while I'm on my soap box - chill out about the pictures. Honestly, it's not like the picture could in any way be taken as innapropiate. What are you so worried about? Most of us have blogs and plaster the web with our own pictures anyway! If the sweet old man wants to take a picture with his cell phone so he can show his wife, let him. It's probably making his day and will make his wife's. No need to be so rude.

Basically, just think twice before you respond rudely to people. If you force yourself to respond with a smile perhaps you'll truly begin to respond joyfully to people. Believe me, venturing out with your little zoo is a lot more fun and a lot less stressful when it's done with a joyful heart.

Sincerly,
A Mom of Triplets Who Actually Enjoys Talking To People

Saturday Savings

The deals to be found this week were a little on the sparse side. That was ok with me though as I have a pretty good stock pile to work from. My shopping this week is not yet complete as I foolishly left a couple of key coupons at home yesterday (gah! I couldn't believe it either!). Today I'll be stopping at Hen House where I'll snag 2 boxes of Multi-Grain Cheerios for .99 a box which is 78% off (on sale for $1.99 and I have two $1 off coupons) and a box of Cap'n Crunch for $1.48 (60% off).

All the stuff you see to the right cost $30.79

Whole Milk - 3 gallons
All Purpose Flour
Flour Tortillas
Bananas - 1.25 pounds
Red Delicious Apples - 3 pounds
Peanut Butter
Bread
Hunt's Ketchup - 2 bottles
Dill Pickles
Marshmallow Fluff
Charmin TP - 9 count
Van Camp's Pork and Beans - 3 cans
Taco Seasoning - 3 packets
Kraft Mac 'n Cheese - 4 boxes
Canned Pasta Sauce
Pretzels
Sherbet

The Deals: Kraft Mac 'n Cheese has become a lunch staple in this house. The boys can scraf down a whole box in no time so I get excited when I see it for only .48 a box (52% off)! Thanks to my husband putting ketchup on just about anything, the boys are now addicts of the red stuff so we fly through the bottles. I was able to pick up a couple of bottles (the limit was 2) at Price Chopper for .78 a bottle - that's 48% off the regular price. The Charmin was also a nice deal at only $2.77 or 53% off.

Some of you locals may be wondering how I got the Charmin for $1 less than the sale price... I had a dollar off coupon, which are hard to come by! This is where paying attention to coupon book offers comes in handy. This past winter Proctor and Gamble ran a deal where if you spent $100 (I think that was the number) on Proctor and Gamble products over the course of 6 weeks, and sent in your receipts with their items circled, they would send you a coupon book. This was a piece of cake for me as Pamper's is a Proctor and Gamble brand and we spend about $100 a month on diapers alone! The coupon book they sent me has been fantastic. Usually P&G coupons in the Sunday paper aren't that great (.25 on Bounce sheets?! What a joke!) but the coupons in this book have been fantastic - most are for $1 or more off items.

You don't always have to track receipts and spending in order to get specialty coupon books. Watching sites like Money Saving Mom, Frugal Freebies and Deals and others can help you find coupon opportunities. Just yesterday I received a coupon book from P&G that I signed up for online. It has over $30 in coupons (mostly for cleaning supplies) and even has a coupon for Free Cascade Crystal Clear Rinse Agent.

To give you an example, here's a link to a coupon book from Simple & Delicious - it includes a coupon for a free bottle of ketchup! Keep an eye on those sites I listed above (better yet, subscribe so you don't miss anything) and you'll find other offers like this one!

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $45.37
Total After Sales and Coupons: $28.27

For those of you interested, I will be presenting my grocery saving tips at a free event at my church in the Kansas City Area! To register (so that they have an idea who is coming) or to check out the other seminars in the Simple Living Teaching Series, click here. I speak on Saturday, May 9th.

Happy Birthday Super Dad!

My wonderful, amazing husband turns 29 today! I really can not say enough good things about the man, after all he:

• Insists on letting me sleep a bit longer in the morning while he gets the boys up, dressed and fed.
• Insists on taking on the harder of the nightly clean up duties - the dreaded kitchen and dining room!
• Insists on being the one to clean the bathrooms. (He's been like that since we got married.)
• If I'm feeling the slightest bit tired or sick or have just had a hard day, he insists on doing all of the night time clean up while I relax on the couch.
• He has yet to miss a doctor appointment for all three boys, and if the appointment is only for one child he lets me drop the other two off with him at work so that I can focus on just the one.
• If I'm having a terrible day or am sick, all I have to do is call him and he'll come home to help me.

I really could not ask for anything more from Nick and neither could the boys. They love it when Daddy is home for the weekends and sometimes they get upset when he leaves for work. When he pulls into the driveway their eyes light up and delighted screams echo through the house.

Happy Birthday Nick! We love you!


(This picture is from last year and is a shot I plan to take every year I just haven't done this year's yet!)

Random Bits of Life

It's been a fun filled few days here and there's still more fun to come! I could have broken each "event" into it's own blog post but then you would have been hearing about this stuff still late into next week. Instead this blog will contain a mini (emphasis on mini) blog about each of 3 "events".

Forward Facing!

This week, at just shy of 20 months old, we finally switched the boys car seats to the forward facing position. Legally speaking we could have switched them when they turned 1 as they were all over 20 pounds by then, but after reading up on some research and watching a frightening YouTube Clip that shows crash tests for kids who are RF vs those who are FF we decided to keep them RF a bit longer than "the norm".

It's been a cramped 20 months for Nick and myself, as in order to fit the three seats, rear facing in the back of our Jeep we had to have our own seats pulled almost as far forward as they could go. This wasn't as big of a deal to me as it was to my 6'3" husband. Now that the seats are forward facing our Jeep seems huge and I'm not as desperate to get a mini-van (although don't get me wrong, if someone offered me one I'd take it)!

The boys are loving their new view! They are so mesmerized by all that is going on around them that they forget to eat whatever snack I just handed them. I also hear "Ba!" (Bus) and "Cah!" (Car) a lot from the back seat.



Mr. Potato Head

Yesterday morning I noticed the Mr. Potato Head set in one of our closets. The boys hadn't had the chance to play with it yet, so I decided to give it a shot. First lesson of Mr. Potato Head play: only keep it out for short amounts of time and then place the set up out of reach. The pieces were EVERYWHERE last night!



Picnic on the Deck

I love this warmer weather and the freedom to eat on the deck that comes with it! Yesterday I was impressed with how quickly the boys were eating their PB&J sandwiches. That is until I noticed this...

Video Clip of the Week - Family Dinner Fun

There's nothing quite like a nice, quiet family dinner. At least I think those would probably be nice. I can't say for sure though as our family dinners are anything but quiet...

L-R is Jackson, Chase and Tyler

My Mom Logic

Mom Logic can be a funny thing. I don't know this because my boys look at me funny when I do or say something, but because my husband does or because friends do or even because strangers do. Occasionally I will try to explain to them why I am doing or saying a certain thing, but often I'll just shrug their looks off and say "It's a mom thing".

Now Mom Logic is not a "one size fits all" type of thing. My Mom Logic is often different from other moms and has even know to be different from my own mother's Mom Logic. Sure having multiples brings in a whole new aspect to Mom Logic, and while I find myself often "in line" with other moms of multiples we do not have the same logic in all situations.

For those confused as to what on earth I'm talking about, let me break it down for you. (And for the record, when I say "Common Logic" I'm generalizing - I know not EVERYONE believes that, it just seems most people I come into contact with do.)

When it comes to Potty Training...
Common Logic: Wait until kids are 3 or 4 and show zillions of "readiness" signs.
My Mom Logic: Why wait? The boys can sign "potty" and I'm sick of spending $100 a month on diapers! Let's train 'em now!

When it comes to making bread...
Common Logic: Let your bread rise in the kitchen like normal people.
My Mom Logic: The guest bathroom is the warmest place in my house so why not let my bread rise in there! I don't have the luxury of waiting an extra hour or even two for my dough to finally rise. Don't worry, I make sure no one uses the bathroom while there's dough rising on the sink counter.

When it comes to using leashes on children...
Common Logic: That's terrible! Your kids aren't dogs!
My Mom Logic: Try managing a pack of wild monkeys by yourself and you may feel differently mister!

When it comes to insane coupon clipping and grocery shopping...
Common Logic: I don't have time for all that! My savings would never be worth all that time and effort.
My Mom Logic: I don't have enough money to NOT be a master shopper! Besides, I like to think of it as my "job". In the last 2.5 months alone (since Feb 1st) I have saved $558.94!

When it comes to my husband doing more than his fair share of the housework and being great with the boys...
Common Logic: You're just lucky.
My Mom Logic: I guess, but shouldn't every man be like that? I'm determined to raise my boys to be the same way with their future wives.

When it comes to keeping our boys rear facing in their car seats well past 12 months of age (and 20 pounds)...
Common Logic: You're crazy! Don't you know you can flip them at 12 months and 20 pounds?
My Mom Logic: When reading recent research and seeing a crash test video on You Tube how could I not keep my boys as safe as possible? Today will be the first time they get to ride forward facing - they're just shy of 20 months old and at their doctor's visit almost 2 months ago were between 26 and 28 pounds.

When it comes to hair...
Common Logic: Either keep your hair nice and long so you can pull it back in a pony tail or cut it really short so that it requires no maintenance.
My Mom Logic: I'm lazy by nature and having three toddlers makes me want to retreat into that laziness even more. However, I don't want to be too lazy with my looks - jeans and holey t-shirts are good enough for me in that respect, so this past weekend I went with a short hair cut that will require me to actually blow dry and then flat iron my hair. Yay for style!

When it comes to having triplets...
Common Logic: So you must have used fertility drugs or had triplets running in the family, right?
My Mom Logic: Um, no. I like to think our triplets are the result of a funny joke by God and some Disney magic. (Before you think I've gone all TMI on you, the egg did all it's splitting while Nick and I were visiting Disney for a conference.)

When it comes to being seen in public with our crew...
Common Logic: Wow, you've got your hands full.
My Mom Logic: Yes I do, but my heart is full too and I couldn't be more blessed!

Heart Melting Moment

There are quite a few heart melting moments I experience as a mom. Watching my little "angels" sleep, watching them share a book or a toy, watching them share food and watching them with any extended family that happens to visit are just a few.

Few moments are more heart melting than this though...


Toddlers in PJs are just adorable anyway, but add in the fact that they're all crowded around Daddy for a story is just that much sweeter. Few things bring me more joy than watching my wonderful husband interact with our kids. He truly is Super Dad!

Saturday Savings

It was another great deal-finding weekend! This is two weeks in a row I've struggled to fit everything onto our dining room table. What a good problem to have! Everything over there to the right cost $66.86 and here's what it includes.

(For the sake of my local readers, I've decided to note what I bought where.)

Aldi:
Whole Milk - 2 gallons
Skim Milk - 1 gallon
Eggs - 2 dozen
Bread - 2 loaves
Tomatoes - 4
Flour tortillas
Bananas - 1.5 pounds
Cinnamon Graham Crackers

Hen House:
Dawn Dish Soap - 4 bottles
Quaker Mini Rice Cakes
Skippy Peanut Butter
Chex Mix
Nature Valley Granola Bars
Cascade Action Pacs

Hy-Vee:
Suave Shampoo/Conditioner - 3 bottles
Blue Bonnet spread - 2 boxes
Hunt's Ketchup
Tomato Sauce - 3 cans
Pretzels
Nabisco 100 Calorie bars - 1 box
Post Trail Mix Granola
80% Lean Ground Beef - 5 pounds
Head Iceberg Lettuce
Potatoes - 10 pounds
Jazz Apples - 2.5 pounds
Strawberries - 4 pounds
Chicken Legs - 20 pounds (yes, 20)

Price Chopper:
Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies
Kleenex - 3 boxes
Daisy Sour Cream
Colgate Toothpaste
Farmland Sausage Links - 2 boxes
Hormel Bacon

The Deals: Although I didn't snag as many freebies as last week, I did manage to snag a few! Dawn dish soap was on sale for .99 a bottle at Hen House. I had 4 coupons, 3 of which were for .50 off which meant when they doubled the Dawn was free! I paid only. 49 for the 4 bottles of Dawn. The other freebie was my bag of mini rice cakes - those were on sale for .99 and I had a $1 off coupon. Sweet! Other notables include Colgate Toothpaste for .25 (89% off!), 10 pounds of potatoes for $1.88 (62% off!), Skippy Peanut Butter for only .48 (80% off!) and Suave Shampoo and Conditioners for only .42 a bottle (74% off!).

This week also turned out to be a fantastic week to stock up on some meats. The 5 pound roll of ground beef was a decent price at $7.95. The truly great deal though was the chicken legs. Hy-Vee had the 10 pound bags (not frozen!) on sale for $3.90 a bag - that works out to just .39 a pound! I stocked up and bought two bags. These chicken legs are great in the crock pot and then used in casseroles and enchiladas.

One of the keys to really sticking to a low monthly budget is stocking up when the price is great. If you only buy what you need for the next week or two than you're bound to need to buy something for full price in the future. Sales run in shifts, so we probably won't see this chicken on sale like this for several more weeks at least.

Total before tax, sales and coupons: $126.90
Total after sales and coupons: $61.37

For those that are new to Three Times the Giggles, Saturday Savings is my weekly post chronicling my savvy shopping. Our family grocery budget (all food, paper products, toiletries and cleaning supplies - diapers are separate) is $310 a month. I utilize The Grocery Game and love sites like MoneySavingMom.com and FrugalFreebiesandDeals.com

Book Review - Multiple Blessings

Yes, this mom of active, toddler triplets has time to read. I don't know why so many people find that so hard to believe! I feel like I am a better and saner mom when I make time to do the things I love, and I love to read (and scrapbook but that's generally reserved for crop nights/days at church).


This past week I read Multiple Blessings by Jon and Kate Gosselin (yep, of Jon & Kate Plus 8). I saw this book in Target months ago and immediately came home and put in a hold request for it at my library. I was something like #186 in line to get it. Ouch! Thankfully the library system in my county had dozens of copies of the book, so it only took a few months for my turn to come up.

The book is an easy read and I was able to polish it off in only two naps (that's how I measure time now, in naps). The book starts way back when Jon and Kate first met and then takes you through the first two years of the sextuplets lives.

I found myself nodding along with many of Kate's complaints about being uncomfortable in pregnancy (and I'm certain her pain was way worse than mine!), her strong desire to have "just one more" child, her struggle with letting others into her home to help and giving up that total control and the thrill of watching your miracle children grow and thrive.

I appreciate her candid way of talking about bed rest, both at home and in the hospital. That wasn't something I ever experienced myself! Also scattered throughout the book is the obvious gratitude Jon and Kate have to God and all the people who had a hand in helping to provide the many things they needed, especially with the terrible time Jon had finding a steady job (several companies either fired him or flat out wouldn't hire him because of the fear of what the size of his family would do to the company's insurance rates).

I think this is a must read for any mom of multiples or mom to be of multiples. Fans of the show will enjoy it too and dare I say, people who despise the show just may not despise it so much if they read this book.

Now, a post wouldn't be complete on here without a cute pic of the boys...

Chase likes to get himself into tight spots...



The other day I walked into the boys' room to find Tyler like this!

Burritos!

We've found a new favorite food of the monkeys! Burritos!

What? You don't believe a 19 month old can eat a burrito? Just look!

Tyler

Jackson

Chase

I promise he's not choking here... this is just his oh-so-strange way of showing his excitement!


So there you have it. The boys and their burritos! We tried this a couple of weeks ago when Nick and I were eating bean and rice burritos and the boys were just eating bowls of beans and rice. The boys kept wanting pieces of tortilla so Nick decided to try wrapping small burritos for them. They loved it! Last night the three of them mowed through 3 whole burritos and they wanted more!

I finally looked at Jackson and said "No more! You've eaten as much as Mommy and your stomach is much smaller than mine!"

Thanks to all who nominated me for the MomLogic Mother of All Bloggers contest! I'm on to the next round now. You'll notice the badge now says "vote for me". It's a little misleading as you can't actually vote for me yet, but MomLogic said to put it up as soon as I got my 10 nominations and who am I to argue with the judges of the next round?

Video Clip of the Week - Toddler Talk

I was doubtful this video clip of the week would actually come together. The boys have some adorable ways of saying words and I desperately wanted to catch some on video, but as a general rule all cuteness stops when the video camera comes out.

I noticed a couple of things while filming the boys yesterday afternoon...

1. Jackson is a bit of a camera hog! You'll notice he's constantly moving into the shot...

2. It's no wonder Tyler doesn't say nearly as many words as his brothers... they don't let him talk!

Oh and to be clear, Tyler doesn't chew/suck on his blanket like Jackson does - he merely holds it up to his mouth and does this weird thing with this lips and tongue. I can't even describe it. LOL!



A big thanks to those who have nominated me already for the MomLogic Mother of All Bloggers contest! I still need 5 more nominations though by the end of the week! Please go to my MomLogic profile and write on my "wall" that you're nominating me!

Lessons Learned

This past weekend I spent some time looking at photos from the last few years. As I was looking through the pictures (on the computer) I began to gain some interesting perspective. I stated in my New Year's Resolutions post that I wanted to continue to lose weight on Weight Watchers.

At the time I thought I wanted to try to lose another 20 pounds, but now I'm thinking I may not need to lose that much. Here, let me take you through my train of thought...

(Warning, the following photos are pretty poor in quality and/or pretty unflattering!)

That picture of me is from 4 Easter's ago. Nick and I had gone on vacation to St. Louis and this picture was taken inside the base of the Arch. Lesson learned with this picture? I was skinny back then! I was a Weight Watchers Lifetime member (meaning I had met my "goal weight"), but I felt like I could stand to lose another 10 pounds. I never thought of myself as skinny. I was continually frustrated though by my inability to lose those 10 pounds. Perhaps it's because my body knew I didn't need to lose 10 more pounds! Crazy!


This precious photo was taken 5 or 6 months after the boys were born. Yikes. I know, I know... I'd just had triplet. Blah, blah, blah. Lessons learned here? First, wearing my husband's clothing is not at ALL flattering. Second, I've come a lot further in my weight loss than I give myself credit for!

Yep, I need to give myself more credit. I've lost approximately 34 pounds since I started back at Weight Watchers (6 weeks postpartum, but to be fair I didn't really lose weight until I stopped breastfeeding 2 months later) and 55 pounds since delivery day.

Up until this weekend I was thinking I needed to lose another 20 pounds in order to be healthy and skinny, but now after looking at pictures I'm thinking only 10 will do the trick! Here's the thing though, I need to chill out and stop stressing about how slowly the weight is coming off. I need to come to terms with the fact that I have a lot more distracting me now than I did when I first lost my weight 5 and 7 years ago (yep, there was a 9 month period in between where I fell off the wagon in a big way and gained all my weight back). Losing weight while juggling three toddlers and taking care of the family is a lot harder than it was when I was at work all day. It's a lot easier to just graze off the boys plates than to make myself a healthy lunch, which is a terrible habit to be in.

Overall Lessons Learned?

1. I look good!

2. I don't need to get down to that "magic number" I've been aiming for, for the last 7 years!

3. I'm far too hard on myself and need to learn to relax.

4. When I start to feel out of control I need to remember how far I've come and maybe "pack" a lunch for myself in the morning so that I'm not tempted to graze for lunch.

I hope putting myself out there like this has been an encouragement to my fellow moms who are struggling to lose weight!

Wiggle Worms

I love when Nick has an extra day off! Due to the Easter chaos at church this weekend (something like 15 different Easter services for the 20,000 people they were expecting) all staff gets today off. A day off for Nick means a day off for ME! I got to sleep in until 9:40 this morning. Ahhh!

Yesterday was a fun filled day for us. We let the boys "hunt" for plastic eggs in the living room. The eggs each had a couple of animal crackers in them, which excited the boys a great deal!


Then we let the boys each try a Peep. I love Peeps and I'm happy to report the boys thought they were pretty cool too! That's all the candy the boys got, which is just as well probably because they had plenty of energy on their own...


We attended church together last night and were kinda mean to the nursery staff... we dressed the boys alike! After the service we just let the boys run through the Narthax for about 20 minutes and they LOVED it. At one point we tried to have my sister take a picture of us and that didn't go well...


When will these boys stop being wiggle worms long enough to take a decent family picture?! Seriously!

We Have Hope

Christ Is Risen!

Because he is risen, we have hope.

Hope for the future in this world and hope for an even better future in the next.

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

If you don't have a church home and are looking for a place to worship and celebrate today, we invite you to our church home... You don't have to live in the Kansas City area to attend, simply log on to http://live.cor.org at 9am, 11am or 5pm (all times are CST time) and you can enjoy live worship with thousands of others from around the country. For more about the church, click here.

Saturday Savings - Free Stuff!

Who says nothing is free anymore? I'm swimming in free stuff this week!

See all those bottles of new Emergen-C energy drinks? There are 48 bottles there as well as a big stack of BOGO coupons. Know what a paid for those? NADA! I came home Wednesday night to find those at the door. A few weeks ago I saw online that Emergen-C was looking to give away these "kits" in order to promote their new product, so I signed up hoping to be picked to participate. If you see me in the next couple of weeks it's likely I'll hand you a bottle!


See those 3 bottles of mustard, bottle of salad dressing, bottle of Vitamin Water and 2 bottles of Mentos Gum? Want to guess what I paid for all of those? If you're catching on with the theme here you would have said "Nada!". That's right, all of that was FREE! How, you ask? Well, Walgreen's had the Mentos gum on sale 2/$2. I had two $1 off coupons. Hen House had mustard on sale for .99. I had 3 .50 off coupons, which Hen House doubled. Not only did I get the mustard free, but I had .03 in overages. Hen House also had Kaft dressing on sale for $1.48 and I had a $1.50 off coupon, so it was free plus another .02 in overages! The Vitamin Water was on sale all over the place for $1 a bottle and there was a $1 of coupon in last Sunday's paper.

So all this stuff I bought at CVS. Want to guess what I paid for it? Nope, it wasn't free BUT it was pretty darn close! Regular retail for those 6 items was $39.18. Are you ready for this? I paid a whopping $3.20. 91% off!! How you ask? Well, to be fair I had a coupon for a free Jumbo pack of Pampers (perk of being a triplet mom is Pamper's will send you a one time package of coupons). But the Schick Intuition refills were on sale BOGO, plus I had a $4 off coupon. The Excedrin was on a great sale, plus I had a $1 off coupon. On top of all that I scanned my card at the new ECB kiosk in CVS and out popped $1 ECB (my winter spending reward) and a $5 off $25 or more coupon. Sweet!


And last, but certainly not least, is this mound of stuff... All of that cost $70.11. Here's what that included...

Whole Milk - 3 gallons
Skim Milk - 1 gallon
Fish Sticks
Granny Smith Apples - 3 pounds
Ground Turkey - 2 pounds
Tomato Sauce - 2 cans (8oz)
Tomato Paste
Diced Tomatoes - 3 cans
Pinto Beans - 2.5 pound bag
Bananas - 2.6 pounds
Elbow Macaroni - 2 pound box
Canola Oil
Parmesan Cheese
Raisins
Bread Crumbs
Eggs - 2 dozen
Mustard - 3 bottles
Kraft Dressing - 1 bottle
Wheat Thins Artisan Crackers - 2 boxes
Frozen Veggies - 7 bags
Mentos Gum - 2 bottles
Charmin TP
Orange Juice - 2 half gallons
Pretzels - 2 bags
Pop Tarts - 2 boxes
Grape Nuts Cereal - 2 boxes
Bread
Cream of Tarter
Vitamin Water - 1 bottle
Oscar Meyer Bacon
Bounty Paper Towels
Strawberries - 2 one pound containers
Sweet Potatoes - 3 pounds
Parchment Paper

Whew! That's a lot of stuff! I have to say, I impressed even myself this weekend. So besides the bargains already listed above in the "free" category, here are the best deals this week.

The deals: Wheat Thin Artisan crackers normally sell for $3.56 a box at Hen House. This week they were on sale for $1.58 a box and I had a BOGO coupon, making them only .79 a box which is 78% off. Hen House also had Eggland's Best eggs on sale for $1.49 (normally $2.46) but after they doubled my .35 off coupon I only paid .80 for the dozen, which is 67% off. Strawberries at HyVee are $1.18 a pound this week, which is 61% off. The Robert's OJ is .99 a half gallon, which is 62% off the regular price of $2.58. The Pop Tarts were only .98 a box when I stacked a manufacturers coupon with a Hy-Vee coupon.

(Below totals include my insane CVS deals)

Total before sales, coupons and tax: $167.56
Total after sales and coupons: $67.23 - 60% off!

For those that are new to Three Times the Giggles, Saturday Savings is my weekly post chronicling my savvy shopping. Our family grocery budget (all food, paper products, toiletries and cleaning supplies - diapers are separate) is $310 a month. I utilize The Grocery Game and love sites like MoneySavingMom.com and FrugalFreebiesandDeals.com