Saturday Savings - Coupon Free Shopping

I know, I know. Today is Sunday. Yesterday I had very important business to take care of though, so didn't have a chance to blog. The important business? Scrapbooking! I'll share a few of my favorite layouts from yesterday later this week. For now, lets discuss how much food I bought this weekend for only $18.70 out of pocket cost. (Holy blurry picture! Sorry 'bout that. I was in a hurry and didn't double check to make sure it was ok. Lately, I've been using a lens that doesn't auto-focus.)

HyVee:
Ice Burg Lettuce
Jennie O Deli Turkey - 1 pound
Banquet Pot Pies - 5
Whole Wheat Pasta - 2 boxes

Price Chopper:
Ground Beef - 2.7 pounds
Bread
Grapes - 2.5 pounds
Shredded Cheese - 3 bags
Eggs - 2 dozen

Target:
1% Milk - 3 gallons

The Deals: So how did I get all that for $18.70 out of pocket? Well, the deals I picked up at HyVee and Price Chopper were pretty good as it was, but then to buy the milk at Target I cashed in one of the $10 Gift Cards I earned by filling a prescription there. I like to save those cards for times just like these: the end of the month is here and so is the end of my monthly grocery budget, but I'd really like to pick up enough stuff to get us through to the next weekend.

At HyVee the lettuce was .59 (65% off), the pasta was .77 a box (51% off), the Jennie O Deli Turkey was $1.49 a pound and the pot pies were .39 each (60% off). At Price Chopper I picked up the ground beef for $1.49 a pound, grapes were .97 a pound (72% off), eggs were .88 a dozen (41% off) and shredded cheese was .98 a bag (48% off).

The below figures takes into account that I got my milk for free. Those gift cards are almost like a giant coupon, but technically speaking, I shopped yesterday and didn't use one coupon. That's the first time in a looooong time that's happened!

Price before sales, tax and gift card: $48.78
Price after sales and gift card: $17.29 - 71% savings

Winner and Changes

This morning this tired mama slept in. I only intended to sleep until 8ish because we have some fun planned for this morning. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly woke up at 8:45! Whoops! And truth be told, if I hadn't had somewhere to be later this morning I totally would have rolled back over and fallen asleep again probably.

So anyway, all that being said I depended on Random.org to draw the winner for this contest. In my attempt to print the screen so that you all would see this was on the up and up, I messed something up and lost the screen that had what number was drawn. You all will just have to trust me this wasn't rigged... The winner was commenter #8.

 

I've decided it's time for a change on this blog. Nothing massive really, but the pictures in the header are out of date by 8 months and I'm feeling like my blog is getting cluttered. I've got Hilary at ScrapBlog Designs working on changing out my pictures and changing some formatting around on the blog to clean things up. I'm excited about this little changes! Look for them early next week! For now, I'll give you a sneak peak at the pictures going into the heading and also some other adorable shots I got of the boys the other day.

 

Jackson

 

Tyler

 

Chase

And now for a few other cute shots I got, including probably my favorite picture so far of 2010!

 

  

  

  

I would just love to get a huge blow up of this shot and hang it on my wall, but I think Chase and Jackson would be sad they weren't up there too!

If You Like Free Stuff...

I love free stuff. What mom doesn't though? Whether you're out in the working world trying to make ends meet or are staying at home trying to get by on a budget, free stuff is always welcome! In the last year I've become quite adept at finding freebies. Whether the freebie is a sample of the newest Kashi bar, a box of cereal, gift cards or cash I love it!

Today, one of my favorite ways to earn freebies is having a birthday celebration and new sign-ups earn bonus points today! I've mentioned SwagBucks before, but let me really break it down for you...

In the last 8 months with SwagBucks I have earned the following:

$25 in cash (added to my PayPal account)

$10 Starbucks gift card

2 $20 pre-paid Mastercards

Not bad for just searching the web huh? Here's how SwagBucks works: instead of using Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc to search the web you use the SwagBucks search engine. To make life really easy for myself, I have the SwagBucks search bar right in my browser toolbar. At random times when you search you will be awarded SwagBucks (SBs). Build up those SwagBucks and you can cash them in for a variety of prizes! My personal favorite prizes are the gift cards and cash obviously.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up! The winning is easy and before you know it you'll be cashing in SBs for great stuff! Click HERE to sign up for SwagBucks!

Speaking of freebies - today is the last day to enter our giveaway from St. Eve Kids! Click HERE to enter!

Boom Chaka Laka - Video Clip of the Week

The boys love to dance. We've seen it before, but it never gets old for me! One of their favorite things to do (besides playing the dancing game on Wii) is to listen to music on the computer and dance to that. On this particular day we were listening to music from Phil Joel's website and the song of choice was Boom-Chaka-Laka! The boys learned some fun moves to this song in Sunday School and they love to sing along too. If you listen closely, you can even hear them trying to sing/say "Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faith and self-control" - quite a mouthful for two and a half year olds!

Chase is wearing red, Tyler in stripes and that's Jackson popping in at the very last second.

Must Be A Mom Thing

The other day as I grabbed a water bottle I had been neglecting for much of the morning and took a drink of the now room temperature water, something dawned on me. I used to think it was so gross that my mom could drink room temperature water! IF I was going to drink water, it had to be ice cold. Apparently I've now adapted fully into motherhood. It's like I've come to terms with the fact that my eating and drinking comes second, so if I don't have time to constantly be refilling my cup or water bottle, then I better take what I can get! Funny thing is, I realized that morning when I drank my room temperature water that the "taste" didn't bother me anymore.

Know what else is a mom thing? Crying at the silliest little things. My brother, sister and I used to tease our mom all the time for crying over commercials (both Hallmark and non-Hallmark commercials), movies and books. We thought it was so silly that she would cry over these things! Know what this mom did the other day? I teared up three times while watching The Tigger Movie. Yup. I cried over the story of Tigger wanting to find his family. As I sat there, realizing I was tearing up for the 3rd time I thought "good grief, what is wrong with me?!"

After doing some thinking I've discovered I'm much more of a crier now than I was pre-kids. I tear up when other people are crying, extremely happy, watching TV, reading a book, looking at my boys, etc. It's like my hormones have never rebalanced after pregnancy. Oh well, I'll just chalk it up to it being a mom thing. When my boys make fun of me for crying (I'm sure they will at some point) I'll just tell them it's their fault!

And now, for your general amusement, here are some random pictures. Some of these can be found on my 365 Blog as well.

 

Tyler

 

Tyler

 

Jackson - so peaceful!

 

Tyler

No sleepy shot of Chase because after I took this one of Ty, 

Jackson's eyes flew open and I bolted from the room!

St. Eve Kids Giveaway!

What a fun month this has been for giveaways! Hopefully I can get some more giveaways lined up so we can do this again soon. Now, it's time to kick off our final giveaway this month!

When the folks at St. Eve Kids contacted me about doing a review and giveaway of one of their newest kid's lounge items I said sure! The only problem was the item they were offering was pink. Hmmm... maybe that wouldn't work so well. St. Eve Kids compromised with me and sent us a preview item that releases to stores late this spring. That item was much more boy friendly...

 

The Travel Bud is a pillow that zips open and you can store the super soft blanket inside of it! I've been told those will be hitting stores in late spring. If we end up traveling this summer, I definitely will be buying two more of these. The boys LOVE this one!

Jackson and then Tyler "modeling" it for me.

  

So what's the pink item we're giving away? The St. Eve Kids Cozy! Think Snuggy, but less annoying name and made for kids. Oh, and can I just say the Cozy is so soft that I almost want to unroll it and see if it fits me! It says "One size fits all" but I'm pretty sure they mean all kids, not all moms who still look pregnant even though they're not.

 

St. Eve Kids stuff can be found at Bon Ton, Von Maur, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom, Belk, Kohls, Sears and JC Penney. The Cozy can also be purchased on QVC.com, and bonus - it's on sale there! The Cozy is recommended for ages 4 and up and does come in boy colors and prints too (look at the QVC link).

Know what's really fun about St. Eve Kids? They have their own website: DramaU.com where your kids can watch little animated clips featuring the characters found on St. Eve Kids clothes! Even better than animated clips? The chance to win a year supply of pajamas! You can enter that contest at DramaU.com also.

While you wait to see if you've been chosen in the DramaU PJs for a Year contest, you can try to win a pink Cozy for the little girl in your life! Here's how to win...

1. Tell me who you want to win the Cozy for.

2. Become a follower or subscriber (or tell me if you already are)

3. Tweet and/or Facebook about this

4. Make a donation of any size to my March for Babies walk. If you've already donated, just let me know.

Don't forget to leave separate comments for each item you complete!

Contest will end at 10pm Thursday and winner will be announced Friday morning. Contest only open to US Residents. Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before an alternate winner is drawn.

Winner of Etsy giveaway

I had Tyler help me out last night in the drawing of the name for our giveaway from the Etsy Shop Little Happys. He also decided to pull our back up winner should our first pick not get in touch with me within 48 hours.

Congrats to Jen at What Really Matters! You have until 9am on Wednesday to claim your prize, or I will award it to Ann & Peter (the second name Tyler drew). E-mail me at threetimesthegiggles@gmail.com!

Are you terribly sad that you didn't win? See something in the Little Happys shop that you just have to have? Stephanie has generously agreed to give my readers a 10% discount between now and March 15th. All you have to do is enter the word "GIGGLES" in the message to seller section and Stephanie will refund you the 10% via PayPal.

I have one more giveaway to offer you this month! This one will be the perfect gift for the elementary age girl in your life. Watch for the post later this morning!

Just For Laughs

Yesterday I was forced to take my 3 munchkins grocery shopping. In the freezing rain. And snow. After just one store I decided we'd all had enough, so came home. I had a hunch things would be brutal and that I'd give up part way through, so while in HyVee I bought non-organic milk just to save myself yet another trip out. Not to mention, spending an extra $8 a week on milk is adding up and I need to watch my budget carefully to make sure I have enough cash to shop next week too. Later today I'll finish up my shopping solo.

Basically, I don't have a Saturday Savings post to offer you. Instead, I'll make you laugh and remind you're running out of time to enter this week's giveaway (a personalized cosmetic bag from an Etsy shop!).

 

Chase & Tyler showing off their new shades and their new slippers. 

 

Yup, Tyler's are upside down. And I'm not sure what Jackson was up to, 

but man does this picture make me laugh!

 

Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway! You only have until 9am tomorrow (Sunday) to enter. Winner and a new giveaway will be announced Monday morning! Click HERE to enter the Etsy giveaway.

Best $80 Spent!

I made a very wise purchase yesterday morning. I bought a 2010 membership to the zoo! I took the boys to the zoo a couple of times last year and they had fun. The most recent time we went was early last fall when my parents were in town and they really had fun then (of course Pop Pop bought us all tickets to ride the little train, so the boys thought that was super cool).

This week I started thinking about the zoo again (especially yesterday after I posted that picture of us in t-shirts at the zoo in February 2009) and realized it would be extremely convenient to have a membership to the zoo this year. After all, the zoo is only about 15 minutes away, the boys are getting to the point where they'd rather walk than ride in their Choo Choo (which is fine by me - hauling 100 pounds around behind me is no longer fun!) and our favorite petting zoo type place is going to start charging for out-or-towners (us) this year.

So yesterday morning at about 10 I looked outside and saw the sun shining. I looked on weather.com and saw a projected high of 45. I looked at my kids, slowly going crazy in the living room and then I had an idea.

"Do you boys want to go to the zoo?"

A chorus of "yeahs!" came back at me, along with some jumping up and down. We all quickly used the bathroom, put on socks, shoes and coats and headed out the door. We pulled in to the parking lot and I turned and asked the boys if they'd like to ride in the Choo Choo or walk like big boys. They all excitedly chose walk, which I was fine as long as they obeyed me and didn't collapse on the ground in a tantrum when I said it was time to leave. I told them that and they all nodded.

Can I just tell you what an enjoyable experience yesterday was? They all held hands through the parking lot like I asked. They all sat in big chairs while I bought our zoo membership (which I paid $80 for and includes a guest with me each time and unlimited train, tram and carousel rides!). They all stayed with me when we were walking around. When I said it was time to leave one building and head to the only other indoor exhibit in the zoo they all willingly agreed. And there were ZERO tantrums!

We practically had the place to ourselves, which was great! We only stayed for about 90 minutes, but considering we have a membership now and can go whenever I wasn't worried about the waste of money like I would have been last year.

 

This monkey hanging on the glass made Chase pretty nervous!

Not Tyler though! He wanted to sit and chat with him.

 

  

  

L-R: Jackson, Chase & Tyler

 

  

  

 

This little monkey was extremely playful! He kept running back and forth along the glass and batting at the boys' faces. They thought it was hilarious!

 

  

  

I let them all "drive" one of these mechanical cars for the first time. Jackson went first and was a little concerned when it started to move!

 

Tyler

 

Chase

After their nice long naps, the boys woke up asking to go back to the zoo. Yup, the best $80 I could have spent right now!

Winter, I Cry "Uncle"!

I've had enough winter. It can stop now. I'd like to take the boys to the park, to the zoo and into the backyard. I'd like to open the windows and air the stale air out of the house. I'd like to not have to debate which type of coat the boys need when we go out, and do they need hats and mittens too.

I know, I know. I should be used to this. I grew up in Maine, blah, blah, blah. I've heard it all. Let me tell you something; living in Kansas City for the last 5 years has completely spoiled me. I've told people KC is the best place to live because you still get to enjoy 4 distinct seasons but winter is much shorter. Not only is winter shorter, it's milder than what I grew up with. When it snows, it only sticks around for a day or two before melting away, and we get random days where it's in the 50's and 60's. Not this year, and boy is it depressing!

Look at this picture. Study it. See the sun shining? The t-shirts being worn by myself and some children behind me? The fact that my own children are just wearing light-weight long sleeve shirts?

 

That picture was taken at the Zoo on February 10th of last year!

Where is my warm weather?! Huh? Huh? I want it and I want it now! The warmest it has been was when I was in MD for a wedding last month. It got up to 57 on the day I was gone. Other than that the highest it's been is the low 40's and that's only happened a handful of times since November. November, people!

My children are going crazy, which means I am going crazy. It doesn't help matters that we've been battling a lot of illness since Christmas. The other day I got desperate and pulled out a Christmas gift that Nick and I hadn't given them yet (due to the overwhelming number of things they were getting from others). Thank goodness for this Little People Castle! It's entertained them a lot the last few days...

Humans are not the only ones going absolutely insane this winter. Apparently the plant life is determined to come out now, whether it's warm enough or not! I've been seeing buds on my trees and lilac bush for a couple of weeks now and this week, despite temps being an average of 8 degrees colder than the normal high, my bulbs started pushing through. Crazy plants!

 

Please, oh please, oh please give us spring! We're ready and waiting! I don't want the snow that's forecast for tomorrow and when I continue to compulsively check the 10 day forecast, I want to see a warm day in my future!

Valentine's Day Bear - Video Clip of the Week

For Valentine's Day my grandparents sent us an e-card. Not just any e-card though... this one was personalized! Personalized to the extent of the bear on the e-card actually saying all of our names. While Nick and I are not overly impressed with talking, animated bears the boys sure are. Sunday morning, as they were finishing up breakfast, I set the laptop on the table and showed them the e-card. This is what happened....

We watched it no less than 10 times in a row that time, then 10 minutes later they asked to watch it again. I estimate we watched it at least 40 times on Sunday. And then some more on Monday!

Keep those entries into this week's giveaway coming! You can win your own personalized cosmetic bag from a sweet little Etsy shop! Click HERE!