...keeps trying to trip me up! I swear she thinks I'm ripping the place off!
Has it really been 2 weeks since I blogged last? I need to catch up here. Things are starting to settle down around our home. Through the month of September and first week of October, Clint worked 2 weekends and I worked 12 hour days on Monday and Thursdays - that's a LOT of overtime for the two of us, and the checks were/are nice, but talk about EXHAUSTING. This week has been nice though, our babysitter's kids got sick, so I took Monday & Tuesday off to stay home with the girls - a MUCH needed break - and Clint took Wednesday off - so we had a nice little week of seeing what life was like when things weren't at a breakneck pace and how happy a family could be when it's properly rested! Very nice :)
Let's see what has happened these past couple weeks:
Well, Annie can now sit up by herself! Whoot! Whoot! It seems like she got really strong and grew a ton last week. She's eating fruits now. Have done nanas, pears and applesauce on her cereal. And, hey, don't even think of giving her plain cereal now - she will SCREAM...
Grace - in the grand tradition of Madison Hammond, also attempted giving herself a haircut. Yup - we caught her in the bedroom, she had found Gramma's spray bottle and scissors and did everything perfectly right - sprayed her hair soaking wet and began snipping. Fortunately for us she started with strands underneath, and didn't get very far - actually layered the one side up a little bit and I think it looks kind of cute! Ha! A subtle difference. So - I guess that's one perk of having hair cutting genes.
Was TOTALLY stoked yesterday to find that my WAGS rebate had come - only 2 1/2 weeks! That's not bad - I opted for the gift card loaded with my rebates (19.50) because they give you 10% extra for loading the rebates on to their gift card. Yeah - I've already used 12 dollars of it. This afternoon I ran to Wags on my lunch break and got 1 Cross Action Toothbrush toothbrush (for 4.49), 3 boxes of Kotex tampons (9.00) -just call me the Kotex Queen, and 4 Glade Plug-Ins. This all came up to about 22 dollars before coupons, I think. So I hand the cashier who doesn't like me, the coupons (3 $1.00 Kotex coupons, 2 B1G1 free Glade Plug-in coupons and 1 $3.00 RR from last week) and knocked my total down to 12.00. Swiped my Wags card and out spits 7.50 in RR :) whoo whoo - 4.50 for the toothbrush and 3 dollars for the Kotex. I'm also going to submit the Glade Plug-ins for rebates for October (that will make them free) so -in a manner of speaking - I really only paid $3.00 for the Kotex! Ha ha!
Everytime I have Wags Woman ring me up - she tries to say I did something wrong - "you won't get your rebates if you use a coupon, you can't use more than one IVC coupon, etc..." and today it was you can't use 3 coupons on 2 boxes of tampons. And I look confused at her, so she spells it out very slowly for me and I reply - "I have 3 boxes in there"
"You do?" says she. "Oh! My brain is fried"
Yeah - she's trying to trip me up. Does she think I don't know what I'm doing??? Come on - now, she's rung me up about 6 times now and everytime I'm doing it right. See - there are a lot of couponers out there who don't play by the rules, but I PLAY BY THE RULES, dude. And I'm thorough, so "Humph!"
I don't know why she can't be like Wags Boy who works nights - he gets a kick out of my and my 13 tubes of FREE Crest - you read that right. AND my 7 MASSIVE bottles of dirt cheap Fructis.
Just you wait, Wags Boy - just you wait - more to come, more to come.
10.16.2008
10.03.2008
*Smile*
I read a rumor online that you should never buy toothbrushes or toothpaste at full price because you can almost always get some for free or next to free. Well, it's proving true so far. I've got a toothbrush and four tubes of Colgate in the "stash" that cost me about 2 bucks altogether. This upcoming week, I'm going to amp up my dental stash:
Next week at Wags there is a deal on Crest - 6.4 oz tubes for 1.99 - they have a $1 off IVC coupon. Most Wags all you have to do is have 1 of these IVC coupons and it takes $1 off each item of that kind that you buy - the one in Sturgis did - who by the way has an awesome cosmetics counter cashier! Heather :) - the one in Three Rivers, I'm not sure if it does it or not...anyhoo - doesn't matter, you can print off 10 of the coupons online. In the Gazette this past Sunday there was a PG insert with some awesome coupons - 3 of which are for Cres! One is get $1 off any Crest tube 4.1 oz + and the other is get a $1 off of 2. So - I went online and there are lots of people selling this particular coupon! In bunches of 10 or 20. So, I emailed the gal I bought the Fructis coupons from and asked her, since we live fairly close, if I could send her 2 bucks in cash and she could mail me 10 of the $1 off coupons. She agreed and by this time next week I'll have 10 of those babies, plus 3 of my own. That's 2.00 off a tube of toothpaste that's on sale for 1.99! I figure all I'll have to pay is .12 each for the tax. Ba dum dum. That's 12 tubes of toothpaste for 1.44 dude + 2.00 for the coupons + .42 for the stamp...comes out to be .32 cents a tube!...and I won't have to buy toothpaste for about 4 years, I'm thinking... Grace will be SEVEN by then and in the first grade! ha!
Now my big decision - do I bite the bullet and get them all at once...or spread it out...hmmm....
Go on do it...try it for yourself!...you know you want to!
Next week at Wags there is a deal on Crest - 6.4 oz tubes for 1.99 - they have a $1 off IVC coupon. Most Wags all you have to do is have 1 of these IVC coupons and it takes $1 off each item of that kind that you buy - the one in Sturgis did - who by the way has an awesome cosmetics counter cashier! Heather :) - the one in Three Rivers, I'm not sure if it does it or not...anyhoo - doesn't matter, you can print off 10 of the coupons online. In the Gazette this past Sunday there was a PG insert with some awesome coupons - 3 of which are for Cres! One is get $1 off any Crest tube 4.1 oz + and the other is get a $1 off of 2. So - I went online and there are lots of people selling this particular coupon! In bunches of 10 or 20. So, I emailed the gal I bought the Fructis coupons from and asked her, since we live fairly close, if I could send her 2 bucks in cash and she could mail me 10 of the $1 off coupons. She agreed and by this time next week I'll have 10 of those babies, plus 3 of my own. That's 2.00 off a tube of toothpaste that's on sale for 1.99! I figure all I'll have to pay is .12 each for the tax. Ba dum dum. That's 12 tubes of toothpaste for 1.44 dude + 2.00 for the coupons + .42 for the stamp...comes out to be .32 cents a tube!...and I won't have to buy toothpaste for about 4 years, I'm thinking... Grace will be SEVEN by then and in the first grade! ha!
Now my big decision - do I bite the bullet and get them all at once...or spread it out...hmmm....
Go on do it...try it for yourself!...you know you want to!
10.02.2008
Things that just are not right...
Things that just are not right:
WaMu credit card applications in the mail...are they serious??
Clipping coupons in your sleep...stay tuned for a post on how to obtain 10 tubes of Crest toothpaste for 27cents a tube
Working 12 hour days...I'm almost done with this
Grace decorating the toilet with stickers...yup...Dora flowers...
Discussing "The Office" with former 4th graders of mine...this one makes me feel old!
Taking pictures of poopies...That's right...sick, I know, but that's just how excited I was this morning when Grace announced that she had indeed pooped in the toilet! I may or may not have also made up a song to the tune of Super Why's "Hip, Hip Hooray"...I believe there were also "Potty Candies" involved
My 3 year old rolling her eyes at me about all the fuss I was making over her morning poop.
It is also not right that this completely made my morning!
WaMu credit card applications in the mail...are they serious??
Clipping coupons in your sleep...stay tuned for a post on how to obtain 10 tubes of Crest toothpaste for 27cents a tube
Working 12 hour days...I'm almost done with this
Grace decorating the toilet with stickers...yup...Dora flowers...
Discussing "The Office" with former 4th graders of mine...this one makes me feel old!
Taking pictures of poopies...That's right...sick, I know, but that's just how excited I was this morning when Grace announced that she had indeed pooped in the toilet! I may or may not have also made up a song to the tune of Super Why's "Hip, Hip Hooray"...I believe there were also "Potty Candies" involved
My 3 year old rolling her eyes at me about all the fuss I was making over her morning poop.
It is also not right that this completely made my morning!
9.29.2008
All growed up...
Lately Grace has been bound and determined to stay up past her bedtime. We have a pretty good routine: snuggle a bit on the couch in our jammies, go in to her bedtime, read 3 or 4 stories - depending on the size of the book! Then we (I) sing a song and pray. We've been leaving the lamp on for her for about a month now, and she reads herself to sleep. Grace has always been very good about bedtime - a parent's dream since she was 6 weeks old and sleeping from 7-7!
But she is going through some sort of phase lately - she is bound and determined to stay up as late as she can. She has figured out how to go to the bathroom and then come to me and say "I peed, Mama" this is the ONLY time she ever tells me that -so I know she's using it as an avoidance tactic - she does the same thing at daycare. She saves all her poops for naptime and let's go...I feel so bad for her DCP! Apparently it's quite the mess. So I KNOW she knows what she's doing. Darn her.
Last week Friday her babysitter finally got her to nap around 3pm and I picked her up at 4:15 - I almost had to pry her eyes open she was so tired and was in such a deep sleep. So I knew she was tired and was anticipating an early bedtime. We even rented a movie and everything! Well, it's Monday and we still have not watched that movie...
Friday night she was so funny! She was bopping all over the place - just bouncing off the walls. Smacking herself in the forehead, making funny faces, dancing, jumping on the furniture, spinning in circles, making nonsensical noises and just generally trying to be funny and make us laugh. I told Clint - I'm getting my first glimpses of what junior high life is going to be like with Gracie. She reminded me so much of a hyper junior higher saying "I'm hyper! I'm hyper!" You know how we used to be. Then it hit me - Gracie's not a toddler anymore. Nothing about her suggests "toddling" - Nope - she's a KID.
It was a sort of bittersweet realization, you know? But I have my sweet Annie coming right up behind her and I wonder what she's going to be like learning to walk and talk. It just came upon me all of a sudden that she needs to be starting to eat baby food this month. Wasn't she just born???
Pretty soon I'm going to have to start thinking about preschool and number 3..
Maybe just preschool~
But she is going through some sort of phase lately - she is bound and determined to stay up as late as she can. She has figured out how to go to the bathroom and then come to me and say "I peed, Mama" this is the ONLY time she ever tells me that -so I know she's using it as an avoidance tactic - she does the same thing at daycare. She saves all her poops for naptime and let's go...I feel so bad for her DCP! Apparently it's quite the mess. So I KNOW she knows what she's doing. Darn her.
Last week Friday her babysitter finally got her to nap around 3pm and I picked her up at 4:15 - I almost had to pry her eyes open she was so tired and was in such a deep sleep. So I knew she was tired and was anticipating an early bedtime. We even rented a movie and everything! Well, it's Monday and we still have not watched that movie...
Friday night she was so funny! She was bopping all over the place - just bouncing off the walls. Smacking herself in the forehead, making funny faces, dancing, jumping on the furniture, spinning in circles, making nonsensical noises and just generally trying to be funny and make us laugh. I told Clint - I'm getting my first glimpses of what junior high life is going to be like with Gracie. She reminded me so much of a hyper junior higher saying "I'm hyper! I'm hyper!" You know how we used to be. Then it hit me - Gracie's not a toddler anymore. Nothing about her suggests "toddling" - Nope - she's a KID.
It was a sort of bittersweet realization, you know? But I have my sweet Annie coming right up behind her and I wonder what she's going to be like learning to walk and talk. It just came upon me all of a sudden that she needs to be starting to eat baby food this month. Wasn't she just born???
Pretty soon I'm going to have to start thinking about preschool and number 3..
Maybe just preschool~
9.26.2008
Wags 9/26
Oh, I just tore it up at Walgreens during my lunch hour today! This weekend is what they call Double Dip Days - it means that it's the end of their September Easy Saver Catalog and the beginning of their October Easy Saver Catalog. The Easy Saver Catalog is a catalog that prints out - online and they usually have copies of it in their stores -these Instant Value Coupons that can be stacked with Manufacturer's coupons. The catalog also has all the store's rebates for the month. Well Double Dip Days are cool because for two days you can use one month's IVC coupons with another month's rebates and vice versa. See? And they were pretty good this month! Here's what I did:
The October Easy Saver Catlog had an Instant Value Coupon for $3 off a 25.4 oz Garnier Fructis Shampoo or Conditioner. September has a rebate that if you buy $20.00 worth of Garnier products, you get a 10 dollar rebate. So - to sweeten this deal up, I went on Ebay and there was a seller out of Kalamazoo selling Garnier coupons - $1.00 off any product. They sell in increments of 10 for 1.99 (shipping included) so I bought them early this week, they came in the mail on Wednesday -and now I'm getting $4 off each bottle. But the nice thing about the rebates is that they take the rebates off the price BEFORE coupons are added. So - I used 3 -$3 IVC coupons (printed off the computer) and 3-$1 manufacturing coupons from Ebay. They are regularly priced 6.99 and I got 3 of them for 2.99 each - 8.97 + tax OOP (out of pocket)...submit to Easy Saver for Rebate get 10$ back! Did they just pay me .49 to take 75 ounces of shampoo home???? Uh - I think they did!
Even if you factor in the 1.99 I used to buy the coupons - I still paid 1.50 for 75 ounces of a GOOD shampoo! Whew!
Now, I still have 7 of those $1 coupons from Ebay left and the $3 IVCs are running all month long - so I'm going to wait it out and see if they put those big mammoth shampoos on sale some week and then really cash in :)
I also did this with Pert Plus - they have a September rebate for up to 4.59 and an October IVC for 2.50 off -plus I had a 2.00 coupon off of the 25.4 oz size and a 1.50 coupon off the 13.5 oz size. So I put two coupons with each bottle and paid $1.49 for the 25.4 oz size and uh - here we go again - they paid me .41 cents for the smaller bottle. That's 1.08 +tax for both. AND - I submit to the rebates for 4.59 so it's a 3.51 profit. See what I did there? Oh yeah...
My third and final rebate for September was this: they had a September sale: buy 4 bags (14 oz) of Halloween M&M's 4/$10 - buy 4 and get a $5.00 rebate. There was an October IVC coupon that was get $1 off 2 bags of Halloween M&Ms - so - I paid 8$ for 4 bags of yummy M&Ms and am getting 5 bucks back...that's not 4/10 baby, that's 4/3! And who doesn't like M&M's???
Walgreen's also puts out these coupons online every once in a while like get 10$ off a 40$ purchase, etc...this week it was buy 20$ (after coupons are tallied) get an extra 5.00$ off. So I used that and put in some filler sale items as well that I had coupons with.
Here's what I got this afternoon:
4 bags Halloween M&M's - 10.00
3 bottles of Garnier Fructis - 20.97
1 bottle of Pert Plus 25.4 oz - 5.99
1 bottle of Pert Plus 13.5 oz - 3.59
2 Mitchum Lady Deodorants - 3.98
1 Snuggle Fabric Softener Sheets - 3.59
1 Hall's bag of cough drops - 1.99
1 bottle Glade Pet deodorizer air freshner - 3.99
Total before coupons: 54.10 + tax
Coupons:
Garnier Fructis - $3 IVC
Garnier Fructis - $3 IVC
Garnier Fructis - $3 IVC
Garnier Fructis - $1 MQ
Garnier Fructis - $1 MQ
Garnier Fructis - $1 MQ
Pert Plus - 2.50 IVC
Pert Plus - 2.50 IVC
Pert Plus - 2.00 MQ
Pert Plus - 1.50 MQ
Mitchum - 1.00 IP (internet printable)
Mitchum - 1.00 IP (internet printable)
Halls Cough Drop - .99 7 Day Coupon (from Wag's weekly flyer) ($1 off RP)
Halls Cough Drop - .35 MQ
Glade Air Freshner - $1 IVC
Glade Air Freshner - $1.50 MQ
Snuggle Fabric Softner - 2/4 7 Day Coupon (1.89 off RP)
M&M - $1/2 IVC
M&M - $1/2 IVC
Total of Coupons: 30.24
Total: 25.29 ZING! 5.00 coupon!
Total Out of Pocket: 20.29 (that's what I paid! Crazy!)
Total Rebates Earned: 19.59
Difference: .70
ALL THAT FOR 70CENTS????? My math may be off a bit, but it's still an insanely small price for all that....!
Am I out of my freaking mind here or what??? Please feel free to skip over Wags postings if you think I'm going a little psychotic, but this is SUCH a FUN game. I've got shampoo pretty much for all of 2009 dont'cha think? And next week Johnson's & Johnson's is on sale! And I of COURSE have coupons :)
The hard part about these are getting the exact items for the exact deals and coupons - they are VERY specific -coupons and rebates alike. The other hard part is the cashier's sometimes don't know what to do with all my coupons and things. Like this afternoon the cashier told me that I couldn't use three of the same IVC coupon (for the Pert Plus & Garnier) because it says 1 item per coupon. Well that's fine, but I had 3 items and I had 3 coupons - so I'm sorry - but it goes through! But, I just said - that's fine, just give me the one then and took the other coupons knowing that I can just come in tonight when my favorite cashier, Katie, is working and do my deal. So - she took off all the extra merchandise, and then it turned out that I had picked up the wrong cough drops, so she asked me if she wanted her to go and get me the right kind. I said "sure" (otherwise, no cough drops for Amy) - this is interesting because I knew the store manager was over by the cough drops stocking because I had asked him where the Snuggle was earlier. So she comes back and says, "You know what? I'm just gonna go ahead and let you take all that shampoo...etc..." Translation: "I asked the store manager and he said you can use as many IVC's as you want, I was wrong, you were right, but I'm not going to let you know that..." Sorry, Carol - I am ON to you! But who cares? You've got to be nice to the cashiers, giving them crap never gets you anywhere and I got my freaking boatload of shampoo. Not to mention 7 more bottles to come in the month of October...
Ah, it's the little things in life isn't? Do not dismay - a picture will come :)
The October Easy Saver Catlog had an Instant Value Coupon for $3 off a 25.4 oz Garnier Fructis Shampoo or Conditioner. September has a rebate that if you buy $20.00 worth of Garnier products, you get a 10 dollar rebate. So - to sweeten this deal up, I went on Ebay and there was a seller out of Kalamazoo selling Garnier coupons - $1.00 off any product. They sell in increments of 10 for 1.99 (shipping included) so I bought them early this week, they came in the mail on Wednesday -and now I'm getting $4 off each bottle. But the nice thing about the rebates is that they take the rebates off the price BEFORE coupons are added. So - I used 3 -$3 IVC coupons (printed off the computer) and 3-$1 manufacturing coupons from Ebay. They are regularly priced 6.99 and I got 3 of them for 2.99 each - 8.97 + tax OOP (out of pocket)...submit to Easy Saver for Rebate get 10$ back! Did they just pay me .49 to take 75 ounces of shampoo home???? Uh - I think they did!
Even if you factor in the 1.99 I used to buy the coupons - I still paid 1.50 for 75 ounces of a GOOD shampoo! Whew!
Now, I still have 7 of those $1 coupons from Ebay left and the $3 IVCs are running all month long - so I'm going to wait it out and see if they put those big mammoth shampoos on sale some week and then really cash in :)
I also did this with Pert Plus - they have a September rebate for up to 4.59 and an October IVC for 2.50 off -plus I had a 2.00 coupon off of the 25.4 oz size and a 1.50 coupon off the 13.5 oz size. So I put two coupons with each bottle and paid $1.49 for the 25.4 oz size and uh - here we go again - they paid me .41 cents for the smaller bottle. That's 1.08 +tax for both. AND - I submit to the rebates for 4.59 so it's a 3.51 profit. See what I did there? Oh yeah...
My third and final rebate for September was this: they had a September sale: buy 4 bags (14 oz) of Halloween M&M's 4/$10 - buy 4 and get a $5.00 rebate. There was an October IVC coupon that was get $1 off 2 bags of Halloween M&Ms - so - I paid 8$ for 4 bags of yummy M&Ms and am getting 5 bucks back...that's not 4/10 baby, that's 4/3! And who doesn't like M&M's???
Walgreen's also puts out these coupons online every once in a while like get 10$ off a 40$ purchase, etc...this week it was buy 20$ (after coupons are tallied) get an extra 5.00$ off. So I used that and put in some filler sale items as well that I had coupons with.
Here's what I got this afternoon:
4 bags Halloween M&M's - 10.00
3 bottles of Garnier Fructis - 20.97
1 bottle of Pert Plus 25.4 oz - 5.99
1 bottle of Pert Plus 13.5 oz - 3.59
2 Mitchum Lady Deodorants - 3.98
1 Snuggle Fabric Softener Sheets - 3.59
1 Hall's bag of cough drops - 1.99
1 bottle Glade Pet deodorizer air freshner - 3.99
Total before coupons: 54.10 + tax
Coupons:
Garnier Fructis - $3 IVC
Garnier Fructis - $3 IVC
Garnier Fructis - $3 IVC
Garnier Fructis - $1 MQ
Garnier Fructis - $1 MQ
Garnier Fructis - $1 MQ
Pert Plus - 2.50 IVC
Pert Plus - 2.50 IVC
Pert Plus - 2.00 MQ
Pert Plus - 1.50 MQ
Mitchum - 1.00 IP (internet printable)
Mitchum - 1.00 IP (internet printable)
Halls Cough Drop - .99 7 Day Coupon (from Wag's weekly flyer) ($1 off RP)
Halls Cough Drop - .35 MQ
Glade Air Freshner - $1 IVC
Glade Air Freshner - $1.50 MQ
Snuggle Fabric Softner - 2/4 7 Day Coupon (1.89 off RP)
M&M - $1/2 IVC
M&M - $1/2 IVC
Total of Coupons: 30.24
Total: 25.29 ZING! 5.00 coupon!
Total Out of Pocket: 20.29 (that's what I paid! Crazy!)
Total Rebates Earned: 19.59
Difference: .70
ALL THAT FOR 70CENTS????? My math may be off a bit, but it's still an insanely small price for all that....!
Am I out of my freaking mind here or what??? Please feel free to skip over Wags postings if you think I'm going a little psychotic, but this is SUCH a FUN game. I've got shampoo pretty much for all of 2009 dont'cha think? And next week Johnson's & Johnson's is on sale! And I of COURSE have coupons :)
The hard part about these are getting the exact items for the exact deals and coupons - they are VERY specific -coupons and rebates alike. The other hard part is the cashier's sometimes don't know what to do with all my coupons and things. Like this afternoon the cashier told me that I couldn't use three of the same IVC coupon (for the Pert Plus & Garnier) because it says 1 item per coupon. Well that's fine, but I had 3 items and I had 3 coupons - so I'm sorry - but it goes through! But, I just said - that's fine, just give me the one then and took the other coupons knowing that I can just come in tonight when my favorite cashier, Katie, is working and do my deal. So - she took off all the extra merchandise, and then it turned out that I had picked up the wrong cough drops, so she asked me if she wanted her to go and get me the right kind. I said "sure" (otherwise, no cough drops for Amy) - this is interesting because I knew the store manager was over by the cough drops stocking because I had asked him where the Snuggle was earlier. So she comes back and says, "You know what? I'm just gonna go ahead and let you take all that shampoo...etc..." Translation: "I asked the store manager and he said you can use as many IVC's as you want, I was wrong, you were right, but I'm not going to let you know that..." Sorry, Carol - I am ON to you! But who cares? You've got to be nice to the cashiers, giving them crap never gets you anywhere and I got my freaking boatload of shampoo. Not to mention 7 more bottles to come in the month of October...
Ah, it's the little things in life isn't? Do not dismay - a picture will come :)
9.23.2008
5 Little words I'm longing to hear...
"I have to go potty"
BEFORE actually going potty
*deep sigh* she's getting there...
BEFORE actually going potty
*deep sigh* she's getting there...
9.22.2008
Sweetness
I know I've had a verbal toddler for a couple of years now - (I can't believe Grace is almost 3!) But just this weekend, for the first time since November, 5, 2005, I thought to myself how beautiful the name "Mommy" sounds coming from a sweetheart of a little girl who just wants to be near me all the time.
Another thing I don't ever want to forget is waking up to the sound of Annie, in her bed, jibber jabbering away to her toy lambs. She does this every morning -for at least 20 minutes, just talks away. Inflections and everything. I so wonder what she is thinking about, but mostly I just love to hear the contentedness as I wake up --before the fussing for breakfast comes!
Another thing I don't ever want to forget is waking up to the sound of Annie, in her bed, jibber jabbering away to her toy lambs. She does this every morning -for at least 20 minutes, just talks away. Inflections and everything. I so wonder what she is thinking about, but mostly I just love to hear the contentedness as I wake up --before the fussing for breakfast comes!
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