Where has the time gone?

My baby girl turned ONE yesterday! We had her pictures made Saturday so I'll be posting some of those when I get them, but for now I have three I can post.

The photographer is someone a co-worker found on Craig's List of all places, but she is an amateur that takes pictures better than most professionals. We had a photo shoot back in February of both Seth and Abbey. I'll post some of those later (better late than never!) when I get the rest of Abbey's 1-year pictures.

Shoplifting?? ME??!

Today we went to Kohl's. I love Kohl's. I really do. Until we got ours here Gainesville last year, the only time we had been there was when we picked up or dropped off Hollis in Macon, GA. After our first time there, we made it a habit to stop every other time we could just to see what they were giving away. Yes, giving away. Everytime I go in there, I find something that's been marked down so much that it starts talking to me "... you know you want me... I am such a good deal that it'd be a sin to walk away from me... that's right, put me in your buggy and take me home..." Seriously. Now don't get me wrong, I know they have some pricey items, but I don't know if I've ever gotten anything at regular price there. I go for the deals.

Today my main goal was to find Abbey some footed sleepers (insert my disappointment with Walmart here). She's outgrown all but one of hers and that won't last but another few weeks at the most. While there, of course we'd peruse the other sections for great deals. Their clearance items were already marked down like 70% off regular price and for today only they were taking an additional 25% off. Um, can you say DEAL? I just had to share a few of the items we stole from them today.

• The CD boombox: originally $39.99 - it was marked down to $11.99 and we paid $8.99. Such a good deal that we got two of them!
• The Carter's shoes for Seth: originally $29.99 - marked down to $8.99 and we paid $6.74. For Carter's brand!
• The Skechers for Seth: originally $44.99 - marked down to $8.99 and we paid $6.74.
• As if those weren't awesome enough deals... here's the best of all. The Skechers workboots for Allen: originally $100.00 - marked down to $20.00 and we paid $15.00!!! For waterproof workboots - we could hardly believe it!

I did find a couple of sleepers for Abbey and got some other oh-so-cute summer separates for her and Seth. We also replaced/upgraded our George Foreman grill for a better model - one with removable trays... so much easier to clean than the one we had. Overall we paid 43% of what our total bill would have been without the sales. That almost falls under the category of shoplifting in my book!

Publix savings

While most of you really could care less, I had to share my savings at Publix yesterday. I know the new sales started today so none of you can take advantage of these now, but mainly I had to pat myself on the back for saving some money. This trip wasn't full of necessities, but I did pick up some pretty cheap snacks for our family. Here's a run-down of some good deals I got:

• Quaker chewy granola bars: $2.99 BOGO / got 2 and used a $1/2 Q (manuf.) and two $.50/1 Q's (Target) = paid $.99/2 or $.50 each


• Stacy's pita chips: 2/$5.00 / got 2 and used two $1/50/1 Q's (manuf.) = paid $2.00/2 or $1.00 each


• Pretzel crisps: $3.19 BOGO / got 2 and used two $1/1 Q's (manuf.) = paid $1.19/2 or $.60 each


• Chex mix: $2.63 BOGO / got 2 and used one $.60/1 Q and one $.50/1 (manuf.) = paid $1.53/2 or $.77 each


• Pepperidge Farm goldfish: $2.19 BOGO / got 2 (no Q's) = paid $2.19/2 or $1.10 each


• Velveeta cheese: $3.59 BOGO / got 2 and used one $1/1 Q (manuf.) and $1/1 WYB 2 cans of Rotel = paid $1.59/2 or $.80 each (plus the cost of the Rotel)


• Cole's garlic bread: $2.79 BOGO / got 2 (no Q's) = paid $2.79/2 or $1.40 each

Had to get a few other items like formula for Abbey. In case you are out of touch with today's prices, a can of that stuff is $25.49 each. Luckily I had 2 Q's I could use towards that: a $2/1 (Walgreen's) and a $5.00 manuf. check so I paid $18.49 for that.

The total of everything before discounts, BOGO's and Q's was $81.23 and my total OOP was $44.88 = savings of 45%!! Hopefully in the future I'll be able to post these earlier in their sales week so maybe you can take advantage of some of these great deals and Q's. Until next time...

Baby steps

A proud mom I am... so I had report to my large crowd (ha-ha) that Abbey is now 8.5 months old and yesterday she took her first free-handed step! She did it a couple of times so I know I'm not dreaming. In fact, one time she took 2 steps before tumbling. She's got Seth beat by a month on this milestone. He was taking his first real steps at 9.5 months and walking pretty well by 10 months. I suspect Abbey will have it mastered in a couple of weeks.

Wow.

Seems like yesterday I was big as the side of a barn carrying her (hey, no comments needed here!) and today she's a growing blessing. Allen and I know we're so blessed to have healthy happy kids. Ok, sometimes Seth isn't too happy but all in all, things are great.

New printable coupons

It's the beginning of a new month so that means new printable coupons at Coupons.com! Here are a few of the good ones:

Velveeta - $1/1 16 oz. or larger **It's BOGO this week at Publix so here's how it would work: grab 2 and pay $3.69, use two $1/1 coupons and you'll be paying $1.69 for 2! That's a great deal!!
Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Little Bites Cereal - $1/1 14 oz. or larger
Betty Crocker Brownie Mix - $.40/1
Betty Crocker Cookie Mix - $.50/1 17.5 oz. or larger
Betty Crocker Frosting - $.55/1
Nature Valley Granola Bars - $.60/1

There are a lot more so go check them out.

Remember, if you are getting these items on BOGO at Publix, you can use one manufacturer coupon for each item. If you are a Publix shopper, I recommend you bookmark Fiddledeedee. Sarah always has awesome BOGO/coupon matchups!

1200 free prints & 10 free photo books

Jenny at Southern Savers posted some great information this morning. I'll reiterate, but you can always link directly to her blog to read hers if you want.

Artscow, an online photo printing place, is running some great promotions. When you sign up with them, you get 1200 free* prints (100/month for a year). You can also use the code FREE10BKS to get 10 free 20-page photobooks (limit is 5 in a month).

Here's how: Sign up with them at Artscow and go to "My Account", click on the credits and discounts. Enter the code in the box, click validate and it will add the discount to your account. You have until 2/28 to order the first 5 and until 3/31 to order the remaining 5. You don't have to order 5 at one time, but you have to order the 5 within the time frame shown.

* Notes: You will have to pay shipping charges, but that's it.

Update - "Busy Mom" commented that this company is based out of Hong Kong. The products are great, but their ship time is slow, so don't expect a quick turnaround on the orders (a month or so).

What a great idea for anniversaries, birthdays, mother's/father's/grandparent's day gifts!

Free Stuff!

If you are a fan of free stuff, here's a couple of deals for ya.

Click on the link below and sign up for a free Diet Dr. Pepper. It's quick and simple to do - the coupon will come to your home address. http://www.freedietdrpepper.com/

Also, you can get a free 1-year subscription of Martha Stewart's Living Magazine. Go here http://www.rewardsgold.com/mags/ms_living_em/sg_ms_living_pg1.htm and take a quick survey to get your free subscription. Someone mentioned they were a little freaked about signing up for this "rewards program" and that they would start billing her later for something. The original blog poster replied with this: "RewardsGold is a program that rewards you with magazine subscriptions for taking surveys. I've been signed up with them for a long time and you won't ever receive a bill, etc. Membership is free and you can opt to take more surveys or not. It's totally up to you. Hope that helps!"

Finally... I think

I think I've finally made it into the blogging community. Still have no idea what I'm doing really. I started this because a friend and I have recently taken up the hobby of clipping coupons to save money on our groceries - mainly at Publix. We check out a few different bloggers' daily posts to see what's new and exciting in the savings world and see who has the latest insights on some good coupons (Q's). These people dedicate hours and hours to make certain their posts offer some genuinely helpful information for the benefit of the blog-followers. Looking at these posts daily made me realize it's a pretty neat concept... and so my humble blog was born.

Now if I can just figure out how to get it all set up...