Sunday, April 5, 2015

Easter

Easter weekend has been a very blessed weekend.

 I love my family!
This is us after church today.

 We tried this photo a couple of times.  :)

 
My cousins- Jessica, Jennifer, and me :)
They came over for lunch.

 Cousins meeting.

 Sitting down to Easter lunch

Jennifer with Caroline




 Our Easter table

 Table setting

 After church- me and my girls

 
 After church- Ben and his girls

 Our big girl

 The Easter Bunny came for a visit!

 Elizabeth got some goodies

 Caroline got some goodies too!

 Ben and I also got goodies

 Ben and Elizabeth Easter morning

 Me and my little bunny

 Searching for Easter eggs

 Instead of using her basket, she made piles all over the house :)

Friday, April 3, 2015

Coupon Shopping for the week


Sunday's are when I do almost all of my shopping for the week ahead.
It's a good great time because Ben is at home and can watch the girls while I shop alone.

On Saturdays, I make up my grocery list for the week and plan where I am going to shop based on the sales and the coupons I have.

I usually go to Harris Teeter and BJs and sometimes CVS and the butcher.
I have recently added Aldi because their price on milk and produce just can't be beat.

Below is everything from my shopping trip on Sunday, March 29th:

The whole pile

 The left side of the pile

The right side of the pile

Here is my shopping breakdown:

CVS:
(3) Bags of Size 3 Pampers Cruisers diapers
(3) Bottles of Dawn liquid dish soap
(1) Package of Pampers wipes- 192 count
(4) Snickers eggs
(2) 12-packs of Coke Zero
(1) 12-pack of Sprite

Total spent: $31.69
Total saved: $41.47
Percentage saved: $57%
*I also got back $10 in extra care bucks

Butcher:
(1) 2-pound package of ground beef
(4) 1-pound packages of ground beef

I used a Groupon that cost $12.80 for $30 worth of meat.
I had to pay an extra $1.50 because my total was $31.50.
Total spent: $14.30 
Total saved: $17.20
Percentage saved: 55%

Aldi:

(1) Sophia the First plate ($3.49) (Easter present for Elizabeth)
(1) Bag of chocolate covered pretzels ($1.69)
(1) 2-pound bag of green grapes ($1.98)
(1) 1-pound bag of baby carrots ($0.49)

Total spent: $7.65

*Aldi doesn't accept coupons, but I compare the prices to Harris Teeter
The Sophia plate is $7.99 at HT, a similar bag of pretzels is $4.99 at HT, the grapes are $1.99/lb at HT, and the carrots are $1.99 are HT.
So I would have spent $18.95 at Harris Teeter for these same items


BJs:

(1) Extra large container of Similac formula
(1) 16-count package of Del Monte squeezies
(1) 36-count Keebler snack packs
(1) 3-lb bag of bananas
(1) 4.5 lb bag of Tyson chicken tenders
(1) package of Salami

Total spent: $62.64
Total saved: $17.45
Percentage saved: 22%


Harris Teeter:

(2) Containers of Gerber baby food
(2) Boxes of Kellogg's Poptarts
(1) Bottle of Pledge
(1) Box of Carnation instant breakfast
(1) Campbell condensed soup
(2) McCormick chili mixes
(2) Cans of Rotel tomatos and chilis
(1) Bottle of BBQ sauce
(2) Cans of Kidney beans
(3) cans of green beans
(4) boxes of Horizon Mac N Cheese
(1) 4-pack of bic razors
(1) 2-pack of Ink Joy pens
(1) Green bell pepper
(1) loaf of bread
(1) bottle of orange juice
(1) bag of shredded cheese
(1) 8-count box of go-gurt yogurt
(1) sour cream
(1) package of turkey lunch meat
(1) book of stamps
(2) boxes of special k bars

Total spent: $51.02
Total saved: $33.36
Percentage saved: 38%

Saturday morning, I had Ben run to Harris Teeter to pick up these deals before they were all gone.
(3) Bottles of Pantene conditioner
(2) boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix
(1) bag of Sargento shredded cheese

Total spent: $0.74
Total saved: $19.42
Percentage saved: 96%

So my totals for the weekend:

Total spent: $168.04
Total saved: $128.90
*I also redeemed $3.50 in deals from Ibotta and Checkout 51.
$12.80 from the total above was previously spent to buy the butcher groupon.
I received $10 in extra care bucks at CVS.


Tuesday night I ran to Harris Teeter to pick up these deals since they expired that day.

I grabbed:
 6 cans of Dole Pineapple (Elizabeth LOVES it) - 50 cents each
2 boxes of Little Debbie Easter cakes
(Ben LOVES these, they were FREE, and they will go in his Easter basket)
2 boxes of Horizon Mac n Cheese - $1 each
1 bag of Sargento shredded Mozzarella cheese - $0.99

Total spent: $4.99
Total saved: $17.10
Percentage saved: 77%

Good Friday to You!

It's Good Friday!

We love Easter around here and this year we have been really sick to do too much preparation for one of our favorite holidays.  

Elizabeth knows Jesus and loves him, but the concept of his death and resurrection is a bit much to explain to a three-year-old.  We are working on it...

This week, the girls have been recovering and I have been sick most of the week.

Here's our week:

Elizabeth had a port in her left wrist from the IV antibiotics on Sunday night.
She had another round on Monday night.

 Tuesday morning, she was a little peppy.

 She drank milk and ate breakfast :)
(She got the port out Tuesday afternoon)

 Caroline on Tuesday

 Just playing

And being cute

 Wednesday morning- sitting and smiles with my baby


 Wednesday is the day we normally go out for lunch.
Elizabeth requested McDonald's for lunch 
(Ben and I couldn't believe it because we never go to McDonald's)

 Thursday morning, sister play time



 Hey Mommy!

 Once Caroline went down for her nap, Elizabeth decorated eggs

 She has been asking all week to do this

 I got a smile for the camera!

 She. loved. every. minute.




 Lots of eggs!

She loved painting eggs!

 After Caroline's morning nap, I got her dressed up cute for Spring!

 This is a Vera Bradley outfit we gave her for Christmas
(9-12 months)


 My sweet baby

I love her so much!

That has been our week.
We want to wish you a very Good Friday and a wonderful Easter weekend.

Good Friday to you!