Aren't they cute?
matt, stacy, graham, mason, elsie, emmett, & molly
2.08.2011
Graham's Blessing Day
This last weekend we had a lot of our family out for Graham's blessing. It was so great of them to come all the way down for Graham's big day. We had my mom and dad, my sister, Hannah, as well as my Grandma and Grandpa McKenzie. Matt's mom and dad came, as did his sister, Katelyn, and brother, Riley. Thanks everyone for making the long trip down. Matt did such a nice job with the blessing, and Graham looked extra cute in his special outfit: Chaps plaid shirt and navy pants, an ivory sweater ($4) from Children's Place, and super cute shoes. He looked like a little man with his cute outfit.
We had a barbecue the night before...
obsession: coupons and target
I started in on the coupon bandwagon while we were living in Provo. I tried to get some really good deals, but I didn't really have a system down and didn't really know how to get the really good deals you always hear about. When we moved here to Arizona, I got a little better at it. My partner in couponing crime, Brooke, taught me how she uses coupons, and I started to get the hang of it. Now that I'm home and have some more time, I have been able to get coupons online as well and find more deals that other people write about. But it has lead to an addiction: extreme couponing.
Have you seen this show on TLC? Extreme Couponing? It's insane. These people go the the grocery store and get carts and carts of stuff for only a few dollars. I watched this show one day while Graham was sleeping and I was rather impressed.
Obsession two: Target. We have a Target not too far from our house and I love it. We didn't go to Target much in Provo because it was so far away. Brooke and I have recently discovered the great deals we can get there with coupons, and sometimes without. Target has coupons on their website that you can print, but you can also use manufacturer coupons with the Target coupons. This last week I went and got dishwasher soap, two boxes of cereal, a package of peanuts, and cupcake wrappers for $3. The cupcake wrappers were $1, and I didn't have a coupon for them. I've also gotten free makeup, and lots of cheap dishwasher soap.
Anyway, I'm obsessed. I'm looking online everyday for coupons and coupon deals. Here are a few things to check out:
The Krazy Coupon Lady She updates her site multiple times during the day, so I find myself hunting for deals...which are mostly an excuse to go to Target.
Target Coupons These coupons are great at Target, but if you are as luck as we are here in Phoenix, our grocery store, Fry's, takes all competitor coupons, as well as all manufacturer coupons for $1. Glorious.
A while back, Brooke wrote a post about couponing. Since she is the one who taught me...here is her post. : )
Couponing 101
I realize this isn't the most Christmasey topic, but I've had a lot of people asking me about coupon tips lately. I've been meaning to do a post about it for some time and I'm just now getting around to it. This is more than you ever wanted to know about coupons... in a nutshell ;) I don't claim to be an expert, but in the almost two years I've been doing this, I've learned a few things that could be helpful to any potential couponers out there.So here's the deal--The key to couponing (yes it is a word as far as I'm concerned ;) is matching coupons with grocery sales. If you don't pair a coupon with a sale, you won't be saving that much which, like you said, gets frustrating really fast. I've been doing this for almost two years and I have a system down that really works for me and saves us lots and lots of money. Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Subscribe to a newspaper. I know lots of people who don't want to pay for a newspaper and so get their coupons online. This is fine, but you won't be able to get the full benefits of coupons if you don't have a newspaper coming to your house. The best coupons are usually in the newspaper. And stores are more likely to coupon match with a newspaper coupon versus a printed coupon. (For instance, here in Arizona, the major grocery store matches every coupon to make it a dollar. So a $0.25 off coupon is matched by the store with $0.75 so you're really getting $1.00 off whatever it is you're buying. Lovely! However, if it's a web coupon you've printed, no deal. They don't match it at all.)
2. Think about getting multiple copies of the newspaper I currently get 2 copies of the Sunday paper every week. When we were in Provo, I received 3. The more copies you have the more you can save. I suggest looking for the cheapest Sunday newspaper in your area which offers coupons and seeing what deals they have for buying multiple copies each week. Often there are deals for becoming a new subscriber. For instance, in our area, you can get the newspaper for $1 a week when you're a new customer. So, I signed up under my name and Troy's name :) We get TWO Sunday newspapers each week for $8 a month. If you're worried about another monthly fee, let me tell you this: you will always, ALWAYS, make back the money paid out for newspaper and this usually happens in one shopping trip. I easily save the $8 many times over with my coupon shopping deals in a month. I promise you, it's worth the price.The benefit of having more than one copy of each coupon is that when the item goes on sale, you can REALLY stock up. For instance, say you can buy your favorite cereal this week on sale. The cereal is on sale for $1.00 a box, but you have a $1.00 of two box coupon which means you're getting two boxes at $0.50 a box. Amazing! Look at you saving money :) Now if you have multiple copies of the newspaper, you'll have TWO or THREE copies of that coupon and so you'll be getting FOUR or SIX boxes of that cereal you love at the ridiculous price of $0.50 a box. Even MORE amazing!! Multiple copies of each coupon help you stock your shelves and stock them good. Right now, two copies are doing us just fine. I might consider going down to one copy in the future. But you just have to weigh the cost benefit for your individual family and see what you think. Maybe you want to start with one copy and then as you go you can add. The savings is exponential with multiple copies.
3. Find a FREE online coupon service. A coupon service matches the coupons with the grocery sales for you. This way your brain doesn't have to explode doing all of that matching yourself. The coupon service will also tell you just how good of a deal you're getting. Each item is usually given a rating depending on how much you are saving (how much % off.) This has helped me IMMENSELY with getting to know what's a good deal and what's not. That was something that was really hard for me when we first got married. I never knew if the price was good enough for me to start stocking up on something. Now, after looking at coupon service sites for a couple years, I'm pretty good at knowing when the items I buy are on a rocking sale and I should probably buy the whole shelf. (And sometimes I really do :)There are plenty of sites that will charge you to offer this service. However, if you're willing to sacrifice a little and work with a less pretty website, you can find just as many people who offer the same information for FREE. Free is always better.While we were in Provo I used Savvy Shopper Deals via the Daily Herald (Utah county newspaper). Amy is the one who runs it. She came to an enrichment in my ward and got me hooked. You can go there and watch some video tutorials that will be helpful to get you started. The best is the "shopping wizard" which is a super user friendly shopping list that you use to make your own personalized shopping list to keep you organized before going to the store. This site was great for P-town, and I still use it sometimes for national stores like Target and Walgreens, but for your every day grocery stores, I needed something else. Thus I found Grocery Smarts. It's the same idea and it's also free. The list is more ghetto than Savvy Shopper Deals, but that's okay, I'll take free :) It's also available in many states. I use this weekly to get me some awesome deals. Because I don't like the way this site prints your shopping list, I have created an excel file which I use each week. It's not very fancy at all. I just have sections with the stores I go to often. Then I look up each store individually on Grocery Smarts and copy and paste the items I want to buy into the excel list. Having all the stores and items on one page helps me be more organized, which is the next tip...
4. Get organized. Savvy Shopper Deals will tell you to cut out whatever coupons you think your family will use and then organize them into a coupon binder. I did this at first, but found myself cutting coupons for hours and hours and then later wishing I hadn't thrown away such and such coupon which would have gotten me something for free. So now I use a highly technical organization system which involves putting my coupons in a stack in the corner of a cupboard :) I use a sharpie to label the front of each coupon booklet with the date. (i.e. 12/5) and then stack them by date with the most recent coupons on top. Then after I make my shopping list from the sites above, I pull out my stack and then use the list to cut only the coupons I will use for that particular coupon trip. After a while, I go to the bottom of the stack and throw away the booklets which have expired coupons. I also know people who use a filing cabinet to organize their coupons by week. This is also a good idea, I just don't have enough filing space, so my current system works for me.So, once you have all your coupons cut out for the week, organize them by store into little piles. Then I take the little piles and paper clip them to the grocery ad they belong with. The coupons for the items I'm buying at Albertsons go on the Albertson's ad, etc. Then I take my printed shopping list and all my ads with their little coupons attached and head out to shop. I put all my ads in the car and I usually do all my shopping trips in one day. (Because when you have a grocery store monster in the carseat with you, you have to be fast :) When I get to Albertson's I pull out the albertson's ad and my shopping list and go into the store with those. I like having the actual coupon in front of me as I pull the item of the shelf because sizes and ounces are key with coupons and it helps my brain not to have to search through an envelope or a binder to find each coupon. There's just no way Jackson would wait for me to do that.
5. Be Patient. You can do it!Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's important to understand something before you get into couponing. It is frustrating at first, it really is. Being organized is key, but even if you're really organized, it takes some getting used to. I remember being so frustrated at the store with Jackson crying and thinking about crying too as I stared at coupons and cereal boxes and got a headache. Then, not too much later, things started to click in my head. I became more organized and learned a few tricks and I walked into the store and I bought ten boxes of cereal for $0.68. Yes, $0.68!!!!!! It was the most thrilling thing ever. Not every week is like that, but I still get excited about my deals and can't wait to tell Troy how much money I saved. So, I promise, you can do it. Just be patient.Amy, from the Daily Herald, told us at our enrichment you should plan on 2 months to get all your coupons on file from when you start getting the newspaper. (This is because coupons rotate. Most companies always have a coupon out for a certain product. When it expires, a new coupon for the same product will usually come out the next Sunday.) And four months for your shelves to be stocked. After those four months, you will be able to stop buying things that you need, and just buy things that are on sale. And this is how you will be able to cut your grocery budget down BIG TIME. It takes a few months to have your shelves stocked with spaghetti sauce and pasta so that you'll have enough to keep you covered until those items go on sale with a coupon again. Does that makes sense? Then you just rotate through your food as you buy new stuff. It's an excellent form of food storage. I definitely don't have a year's supply of everything, but for a few things I do. Coupons helped me do it!Also on the subject of being patient. I've found to get the very best deals, you have to go to multiple stores. It's a pain, but it's how you get what's on sale. Saving $1.50 on milk each week adds up. So will all the savings from everything else. If going to more than one store is overwhelming for you, start by shopping at Walmart or Target where they will price match from other grocery stores. Just be sure to take those ads in with you so they can see them. If you have the ad, they are usually more than happy to give you the sale price.
So there you go-- Couponing 101. If you decide to do this, you will learn little tricks that help as you go. Here are a few of the ones I've learned that aren't listed above:
1- Going at the BEGINNING of the sale. Most grocery sales run from Wednesday to Tuesday. Going on Wednesday or Thursday is going to ensure that you have good selection. When I first started, I would sometimes go shopping on Tuesday night. Not a good idea. ESPECIALLY if you live in an area with a lot of couponers. You will be much more successful if you start early.
2- Get Rein checks. Sometimes rein checks are available right in your grocery line from the cashier. When the cashier asked if you found everything okay. Say no and tell them you'd like a reincheck. Most reinchecks last 30 days. Then you can come back then next week when the cereal isn't on sale and use your reincheck to get the sale price, paired with your amazing coupon of course! :)
3- If it's a really good sale and your store is completely out of what you want, you might consider going to another store location. I've done this and found which stores usually picked over, which stores are busy at certain times, and which stores are empty. It's helped me in the long run. Phew. I think that about covers it. I'm sorry for the long, long post. I just wanted to be thorough. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. (I wish I'd had a "coupon mentor" of sorts when I'd gotten started. As ridiculous as that sounds! Ha ha.) I'm happy to help because I feel like coupons have really made a difference in our family finances.
Happy Couponing
Have you seen this show on TLC? Extreme Couponing? It's insane. These people go the the grocery store and get carts and carts of stuff for only a few dollars. I watched this show one day while Graham was sleeping and I was rather impressed.
Obsession two: Target. We have a Target not too far from our house and I love it. We didn't go to Target much in Provo because it was so far away. Brooke and I have recently discovered the great deals we can get there with coupons, and sometimes without. Target has coupons on their website that you can print, but you can also use manufacturer coupons with the Target coupons. This last week I went and got dishwasher soap, two boxes of cereal, a package of peanuts, and cupcake wrappers for $3. The cupcake wrappers were $1, and I didn't have a coupon for them. I've also gotten free makeup, and lots of cheap dishwasher soap.
Anyway, I'm obsessed. I'm looking online everyday for coupons and coupon deals. Here are a few things to check out:
The Krazy Coupon Lady She updates her site multiple times during the day, so I find myself hunting for deals...which are mostly an excuse to go to Target.
Target Coupons These coupons are great at Target, but if you are as luck as we are here in Phoenix, our grocery store, Fry's, takes all competitor coupons, as well as all manufacturer coupons for $1. Glorious.
A while back, Brooke wrote a post about couponing. Since she is the one who taught me...here is her post. : )
Couponing 101
I realize this isn't the most Christmasey topic, but I've had a lot of people asking me about coupon tips lately. I've been meaning to do a post about it for some time and I'm just now getting around to it. This is more than you ever wanted to know about coupons... in a nutshell ;) I don't claim to be an expert, but in the almost two years I've been doing this, I've learned a few things that could be helpful to any potential couponers out there.So here's the deal--The key to couponing (yes it is a word as far as I'm concerned ;) is matching coupons with grocery sales. If you don't pair a coupon with a sale, you won't be saving that much which, like you said, gets frustrating really fast. I've been doing this for almost two years and I have a system down that really works for me and saves us lots and lots of money. Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Subscribe to a newspaper. I know lots of people who don't want to pay for a newspaper and so get their coupons online. This is fine, but you won't be able to get the full benefits of coupons if you don't have a newspaper coming to your house. The best coupons are usually in the newspaper. And stores are more likely to coupon match with a newspaper coupon versus a printed coupon. (For instance, here in Arizona, the major grocery store matches every coupon to make it a dollar. So a $0.25 off coupon is matched by the store with $0.75 so you're really getting $1.00 off whatever it is you're buying. Lovely! However, if it's a web coupon you've printed, no deal. They don't match it at all.)
2. Think about getting multiple copies of the newspaper I currently get 2 copies of the Sunday paper every week. When we were in Provo, I received 3. The more copies you have the more you can save. I suggest looking for the cheapest Sunday newspaper in your area which offers coupons and seeing what deals they have for buying multiple copies each week. Often there are deals for becoming a new subscriber. For instance, in our area, you can get the newspaper for $1 a week when you're a new customer. So, I signed up under my name and Troy's name :) We get TWO Sunday newspapers each week for $8 a month. If you're worried about another monthly fee, let me tell you this: you will always, ALWAYS, make back the money paid out for newspaper and this usually happens in one shopping trip. I easily save the $8 many times over with my coupon shopping deals in a month. I promise you, it's worth the price.The benefit of having more than one copy of each coupon is that when the item goes on sale, you can REALLY stock up. For instance, say you can buy your favorite cereal this week on sale. The cereal is on sale for $1.00 a box, but you have a $1.00 of two box coupon which means you're getting two boxes at $0.50 a box. Amazing! Look at you saving money :) Now if you have multiple copies of the newspaper, you'll have TWO or THREE copies of that coupon and so you'll be getting FOUR or SIX boxes of that cereal you love at the ridiculous price of $0.50 a box. Even MORE amazing!! Multiple copies of each coupon help you stock your shelves and stock them good. Right now, two copies are doing us just fine. I might consider going down to one copy in the future. But you just have to weigh the cost benefit for your individual family and see what you think. Maybe you want to start with one copy and then as you go you can add. The savings is exponential with multiple copies.
3. Find a FREE online coupon service. A coupon service matches the coupons with the grocery sales for you. This way your brain doesn't have to explode doing all of that matching yourself. The coupon service will also tell you just how good of a deal you're getting. Each item is usually given a rating depending on how much you are saving (how much % off.) This has helped me IMMENSELY with getting to know what's a good deal and what's not. That was something that was really hard for me when we first got married. I never knew if the price was good enough for me to start stocking up on something. Now, after looking at coupon service sites for a couple years, I'm pretty good at knowing when the items I buy are on a rocking sale and I should probably buy the whole shelf. (And sometimes I really do :)There are plenty of sites that will charge you to offer this service. However, if you're willing to sacrifice a little and work with a less pretty website, you can find just as many people who offer the same information for FREE. Free is always better.While we were in Provo I used Savvy Shopper Deals via the Daily Herald (Utah county newspaper). Amy is the one who runs it. She came to an enrichment in my ward and got me hooked. You can go there and watch some video tutorials that will be helpful to get you started. The best is the "shopping wizard" which is a super user friendly shopping list that you use to make your own personalized shopping list to keep you organized before going to the store. This site was great for P-town, and I still use it sometimes for national stores like Target and Walgreens, but for your every day grocery stores, I needed something else. Thus I found Grocery Smarts. It's the same idea and it's also free. The list is more ghetto than Savvy Shopper Deals, but that's okay, I'll take free :) It's also available in many states. I use this weekly to get me some awesome deals. Because I don't like the way this site prints your shopping list, I have created an excel file which I use each week. It's not very fancy at all. I just have sections with the stores I go to often. Then I look up each store individually on Grocery Smarts and copy and paste the items I want to buy into the excel list. Having all the stores and items on one page helps me be more organized, which is the next tip...
4. Get organized. Savvy Shopper Deals will tell you to cut out whatever coupons you think your family will use and then organize them into a coupon binder. I did this at first, but found myself cutting coupons for hours and hours and then later wishing I hadn't thrown away such and such coupon which would have gotten me something for free. So now I use a highly technical organization system which involves putting my coupons in a stack in the corner of a cupboard :) I use a sharpie to label the front of each coupon booklet with the date. (i.e. 12/5) and then stack them by date with the most recent coupons on top. Then after I make my shopping list from the sites above, I pull out my stack and then use the list to cut only the coupons I will use for that particular coupon trip. After a while, I go to the bottom of the stack and throw away the booklets which have expired coupons. I also know people who use a filing cabinet to organize their coupons by week. This is also a good idea, I just don't have enough filing space, so my current system works for me.So, once you have all your coupons cut out for the week, organize them by store into little piles. Then I take the little piles and paper clip them to the grocery ad they belong with. The coupons for the items I'm buying at Albertsons go on the Albertson's ad, etc. Then I take my printed shopping list and all my ads with their little coupons attached and head out to shop. I put all my ads in the car and I usually do all my shopping trips in one day. (Because when you have a grocery store monster in the carseat with you, you have to be fast :) When I get to Albertson's I pull out the albertson's ad and my shopping list and go into the store with those. I like having the actual coupon in front of me as I pull the item of the shelf because sizes and ounces are key with coupons and it helps my brain not to have to search through an envelope or a binder to find each coupon. There's just no way Jackson would wait for me to do that.
5. Be Patient. You can do it!Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's important to understand something before you get into couponing. It is frustrating at first, it really is. Being organized is key, but even if you're really organized, it takes some getting used to. I remember being so frustrated at the store with Jackson crying and thinking about crying too as I stared at coupons and cereal boxes and got a headache. Then, not too much later, things started to click in my head. I became more organized and learned a few tricks and I walked into the store and I bought ten boxes of cereal for $0.68. Yes, $0.68!!!!!! It was the most thrilling thing ever. Not every week is like that, but I still get excited about my deals and can't wait to tell Troy how much money I saved. So, I promise, you can do it. Just be patient.Amy, from the Daily Herald, told us at our enrichment you should plan on 2 months to get all your coupons on file from when you start getting the newspaper. (This is because coupons rotate. Most companies always have a coupon out for a certain product. When it expires, a new coupon for the same product will usually come out the next Sunday.) And four months for your shelves to be stocked. After those four months, you will be able to stop buying things that you need, and just buy things that are on sale. And this is how you will be able to cut your grocery budget down BIG TIME. It takes a few months to have your shelves stocked with spaghetti sauce and pasta so that you'll have enough to keep you covered until those items go on sale with a coupon again. Does that makes sense? Then you just rotate through your food as you buy new stuff. It's an excellent form of food storage. I definitely don't have a year's supply of everything, but for a few things I do. Coupons helped me do it!Also on the subject of being patient. I've found to get the very best deals, you have to go to multiple stores. It's a pain, but it's how you get what's on sale. Saving $1.50 on milk each week adds up. So will all the savings from everything else. If going to more than one store is overwhelming for you, start by shopping at Walmart or Target where they will price match from other grocery stores. Just be sure to take those ads in with you so they can see them. If you have the ad, they are usually more than happy to give you the sale price.
So there you go-- Couponing 101. If you decide to do this, you will learn little tricks that help as you go. Here are a few of the ones I've learned that aren't listed above:
1- Going at the BEGINNING of the sale. Most grocery sales run from Wednesday to Tuesday. Going on Wednesday or Thursday is going to ensure that you have good selection. When I first started, I would sometimes go shopping on Tuesday night. Not a good idea. ESPECIALLY if you live in an area with a lot of couponers. You will be much more successful if you start early.
2- Get Rein checks. Sometimes rein checks are available right in your grocery line from the cashier. When the cashier asked if you found everything okay. Say no and tell them you'd like a reincheck. Most reinchecks last 30 days. Then you can come back then next week when the cereal isn't on sale and use your reincheck to get the sale price, paired with your amazing coupon of course! :)
3- If it's a really good sale and your store is completely out of what you want, you might consider going to another store location. I've done this and found which stores usually picked over, which stores are busy at certain times, and which stores are empty. It's helped me in the long run. Phew. I think that about covers it. I'm sorry for the long, long post. I just wanted to be thorough. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. (I wish I'd had a "coupon mentor" of sorts when I'd gotten started. As ridiculous as that sounds! Ha ha.) I'm happy to help because I feel like coupons have really made a difference in our family finances.
Happy Couponing
book page wreath
I've had a few people ask me about the book page wreath...I got the instructions on a blog called Living with Lindsay. Click here for the instructions!
2.03.2011
the adventures of Graham
On Monday, Graham had his two month checkup. Here are his stats:
Length: 23 inches (29%)
Weight: 12.14 lbs (50%)
Head circumference: 15 (25%)
Diagnosis: cute and chubby
Here he is before we loaded up in the car.
Look at those lips.
He's got a pretty tough jab.
Oops. We pooped on our church clothes. We realize this is gross, but this is his first blow-out. As new parents, we think everything he does is just great, including pooping on our new pants. : )
Now, Graham does a pretty good job about sleeping in his bed at night. But sometimes in the morning he'll wake up and not want to sleep in his bed. Last Saturday I got up early and went to the grocery store while Matt was still home and left Graham in his bed. When I got home, this is where I found Graham. Doesn't he look comfortable? He's a sucker for the pillow kingdom.
He still doesn't play with toys, but he looks pretty happy here with his little puppy, don't you think?
2.02.2011
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