Diapers

Yes, I know its too early to worry about diapers, but if its a good deal.....

I found a good deal at walgreens that happened to include diapers. So, I bit the bullet and bought our offical first package of diapers for baby greenfield. (Size two....is that good?)

Here's how it worked out:

Huggies diapers $9
3 Tomato sauces 3/$1
2 Lucky Charms $2 each
Cinnamon Toast Crunch $2
Fusion Razor $9

I had coupons for everything as well as $14 in Walgreens Register Rewards. After I had handed all that over, I only owed $2.12!!!! PLUS, I got back $11 in Register Rewards to use next time.

So, basically I paid $2 for some Huggies Diapers and got some free cereal and a razor in the process. :)

Yay for coupons!

More Baby News

Today I had my second doctor's appointment. It lasted a total of five minutes.... But, on the bright side, I got to hear little baby greenfield's heartbeat. The doctor confirmed that I haven't gained any weight (!) and she was okay with that. Hopefully we can stay on that track for a little while longer. I have another appointment in early January and then I am scheduled to find out the sex of the baby on January 25th. Fun times!

Baby Greenfield

That's right, I said Baby Greenfield. After an interesting couple of years and a little medicine, Matt and I are finally pregnant!

I had my first doctor's appointment today and everything looked great. We saw the heart-beat and even a little movement. And, the doctor pointed out the arm and leg "buds."

I am officially 9 weeks now. And, so far, I must brag that its been pretty uneventful. I haven't been sick once. Not once. How lucky is that? I'm hoping it will continue to be easy. My mom informed me that neither she nor my sister ever were sick so it looks like I'm predisposed to NOT being sick.

And, without further ado, here's a picture of the one we affectionately call "Bean."

Bagels

So, lately I have renewed my love for Bagels. Plain, with strawberry cream cheese. I had bought a package and made a plan to have one bagel every morning before work. There were just enough in the package for one week. My plan was working well and I was enjoying eating my bagel each morning while driving to school. All that changed when I came home from work on Wednesday. You see, when I left for work that morning, I had left the two remaining bagels (one for Thursday and one for Friday) on the counter in their little bagel bag. But, when I came in the back door Wednesday afternoon, the bagel bag was not where I had left it. Instead, it was in the middle of the living room...without any bagels in it. I knew right away what had happened to them: Daisy also has a love for bagels. (or anything of the food variety really). I cannot explain how sad my bagel-less drive to work was on Thursday and Friday.



New week: new bagel story:



Of course while at Kroger this past Sunday, I picked up some more bagels. This time, I opted for the mini bagels instead of the regular size ones. (Because the mini ones were free!) There were 12 mini ones in the bag, so I decided to eat one before I went to the gym, knowing that I would still have 11 left. That way, I would have enough to eat 2 (Mini!) on the way to work for the rest of the week. And, there would be one left over to snack on sometime later. What an excellent plan!

Upon returning from the gym, I find an empty bagel bag in the kitchen floor! I screamed at Matt, who had been home the entire time, "Were you not watching Daisy!?!" He asks why and I proceed to tell him that there is an empty bagel bag in the floor and 11 missing bagels. Daisy arrives on the scene before Matt and looks so pitiful. She's always so sorry AFTER the fact. I scolded Matt for not watching her and pointed out that she'd probably be sick after eating 11 bagels. And, reminded him how I already had my bagel-week planned out and now it was ruined!!

Then, he busts out laughing. He had rigged the whole thing!! He emptied the bag of the 11 bagels, re-bagged them, and stuck them in the fridge to hide from me. Then tore the original back and rigged it up in the floor, with some other dog items to make it look like Daisy had eaten the bag. All at my expense.

So, I'm happy to report that my bagels are fine. Well, 9 of them were fine. He had gotten his brilliant idea as he was eating two of them. And, that totally ruins my plan too! :)

Finally, a new post!!!

Things have been pretty uneventful around here lately. And, with going back to work, I've been super lazy. All excuses aside, I have decided to come back to the world of blogging....atleast for today. Hopefully it won't be another two months before my next post, but I can't promise anything.

I haven't been doing a lot of couponing lately, especially at CVS or walgreens. I still get the grocery game list for kroger and go there once every weekend, but I haven't been to CVS much lately and haven't been to walgreens in probably months....UNTIL TODAY. :)

I got the walgreen's ad yesterday when I bought my papers and I was excited to see lots of good deals this week! One I was particularly interested in was the A&W root beer deal. Four 12-packs for $10.92. Matt loves root beer, and that was a great price. They also had lots of FARR (free after register rewards) items that I was interested in. I decided with a little bit of effort I could get the four 12-packs of soda along with all the good FARR stuff for LESS than the $10.92....at least that was my goal. Here's how it turned out:

Walgreen's #1: 1st transaction: Vaseline Lotion $6.99 - $1.50 coupon = $5.89 after tax. Earned $7 register reward.

2nd transaction: Tooth flossers $2, Herbal Essence shampoo $2.99 - $1 coupon, Chapstick $2.99, tomato sauce $.99 (forgot to use the coupon to make it $.39). Paid with $7 RR from previous transaction, $.97 cash. Earned $3 RR, and two $2RR

walgreen's #2: 1st transaction: Gillette fusion razor $8.99 - $4 coupon, two tomato sauces $.39 each. (didn't forget the coupon that time!) Paid with $3RR and $2RR. $.77 cash. Earned $6RR

2nd transaction: Herbal Essence conditioner $2.99 - $1 coupon, Vaseline lotion $6.99 - $1.50 coupon, two tomato sauces $.39 each. Paid with $2RR and $6 RR. $.26 cash. Earned $2RR and $7RR

3rd transaction: Finally, the four 12-packs of root beer. $10.92 plus tax. Paid with $2RR and $7RR and $2.07 cash.

Total spent: $9.96

So, I got the four 12-packs along with two vaseline lotions, five tomato sauces, a gillette fusion razor, tooth flossers, a chapstick, and an herbal essence shampoo and conditioner for LESS than the price of the 12-packs alone.

:)

July 23, 2005

I just wanted to write a quick note to say Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Matt. The last four years have been great and I'm looking forward to MANY more!

Almost Free

I had an excellent trip to Kroger today that was blog-worthy so I thought I would share. Starting today, Kroger is doing their mega-event where when you buy any ten participating items, you receive $5 off your order. I bought the following items:

1 Dixie Paper plates 24 pack

2 Softsoap Hand soaps

1 large A1 steak sauce

1 Daisy Sour cream

1 Jif Peanut Butter

4 Sobe Life waters

3 Kleenex

2 Speedstick Deodorants

2 Chex Mix

3 Cat treats (no, I don't have cats, but free is free. I'm sure someone will take them!)

For those twenty items I received $10 off my order. I had coupons for everything except the Jif and the sour cream.

I had my card out all ready to pay when the cashier informed me my total was ONE CENT. So, I put the card back in my wallet, handed over my penny, and walked out with my loot. :)

Happy Shopping!

Vacation

Matt and I went on vacation this year to Orlando and Key Largo, Florida. While in Orlando, we stayed at the Universal Resort just walking distance from Universal Studios.

Our first day there we went to the Islands of Adventure theme park. They had two great rollercoasters, the Hulk and Dueling Dragons, and some other fun rides. We also went to see a movie, "the hangover," and had dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

The second day there it RAINED...all day. This was the day we went to Universal Studios, but we had to do it in the rain. Luckily, most of their attractions were in-doors so we did get some reprieve from the rain at times. They had a nice indoor rollercoaster, the Mummy. They also had some cool 4-D attractions based on the Terminator and some animated movied that I can't remember now. We also went through the Jurrasic Park water ride that was fun and I managed to stay mostly dry. (that was before the rain....)

Matt arm-wrestling Captain America!

Our last night in Orlando we had tickets to see Blue Man Group. This was one of the highlights of the trip. They were hysterical! I didn't realize it was going to be a comedy show....I was only expecting the musical stuff. It was a two hour show and Matt and I enjoyed all of it. I even got some light-up drum sticks that I know my kids at school are going to love!

From Orlando, we flew to Miami and drove to Key Largo. The one whole day we had there we spent at "Theatre of the Sea." They had all kids of "shows" to watch as well as informational tours. We first went on the bottomless boat ride where two dolphins came up and performed in the boat. Then we went on a nature tour around the park. They had lots of lagoons full of various types of fish, turtles, and sharks. I got to pet one of the baby sharks. They also had a "Parot Theatre" where they had about 10 trained parots that put on a show. It was interesting to hear that most of the birds were in their twenties in age!

I got to hold one!



Matt and me on the nature trail.

After that we went to the Dolphin show, which was so cool. They had two male dolphins, ages 11 and 12, that did tons of cool tricks.

On a side note, one dolphin trainer's name was Tessa AND one of the child volunteers from the audience was also Tessa....so there were three Tessas there for that show!

After the dolphin show, we headed to the sea lion show. We learned the differences between sea lions and seals (mainly the ears) and Wilbur the four year old sea lion was SO cute! He weighs over 350 pounds and is expected to be around 800 when he's full grown!

Some audience members got to throw rings for him to catch. Look at that face!

Wilbur showing us how strong his front arms were... (If you enlarge this picture you can see his "ear." Only sea lions have the little ear flap. Seals don't have outside ears...)

He loves to slide!

The main attraction was later in they day. I have ALWAYS wanted to get to swim with a dolphin but have always backed out because of the price. I told Matt I was doing it this year, no matter what. So, I got to swim with Nikki, a 25 year old female dolphin. It was worth every penny! I got to do lots of tricks with her including a dance, a hug, a kiss, and a few swimming tricks. I highly recommend it! I can now cross it off my list of things to do in life!!

All in all, this year's vacation was one of my favorites!

Free Hefty Freezer Bags

Here's a great deal everyone should be able to do. Wal-Mart has their Hefty Freezer bags priced for $1. There was a $1 coupon in the 5/17 Red Plum insert. So, if you have the coupon, free freezer bags!

You can get the 22 count quart size bags or the 17 count gallon size bags. Both are $1. The good news is that there's no particular rush on this deal. The $1 price seems to be the new "regular" price, not a sale, and the coupon is good through July 31st!

I went out and got mine today!!! Happy Shopping.

Ketchup

Anyone who knows me knows that I love ketchup and eat it on most things. While in alabama, I stumbled across something that intrigued even me.












Yes, my friends, that says "ketchup flavored potato chips." And yes, I tried them. I can now say potato chips are one thing I do NOT eat ketchup on. Ha ha!

Missing Money

Matt's brother, Brendon (or Bep), has been staying with us off and on this summer while he's out of college. He did some work for one of the guys Matt works with to earn a little extra money. He got paid $60 (three $20 bills) to dig some holes in Greg's backyard. When he came home, he put the money on the coffee table, under a coaster, and went out to eat with Matt. (Any normal human being would have put that money in their wallet, but not Bep. I think he thought if he didn't have it with him he wouldn't have to pay for dinner.....)

When he and Matt returned from eating out, the money was nowhere to be found. Now, for Matt and I, there was no question what happened to that money. You see, Daisy is notorious for eating money. We have learned that lesson before. You NEVER leave money out in this house. Apparently bep was not aware of such a rule. They looked for the money but, of course didn't find it.

That is, until a few days later..... Matt found it in the yard....shredded....hopefully you can figure out how it got there.

For those of you that need picture evidence:

Andrew had a rough couple of days....

HOT DEAL ALERT!!!

I'm so excited about this one!!

There's a deal at Target this week for the Venus Embrace Razor. (On a side note, I've tried TONS of razors, these venus ones are hands-down the best to me. But, they are expensive....at regular price anyway.)

At Target, the razors are on sale this week for $7.99 and when you buy two ($15.98 total) you earn a Target gift card for $10.

In this weeks (June 7) P&G coupon insert, there will be a venus coupon for $4 off any razor. Using two coupons on your two razors will bring your total to $7.98 and you'll still get your $10 gift card!!

So, you'll get two great razors and they'll pay you to take them!

HERE'S THE CATCH!!!!

The deal is only good THIS week (May 31st - June 6th) at Target. You'll have to get the early edition paper on Saturday and purchase the razors then. By Sunday, when the regular paper comes out, the deal will be over. It's SATURDAY only!

And, as a side note, these same razors will be free after extra bucks at CVS with the same coupon. So, if target is a no-go you can still stop in at CVS any day next week. :)

Hair Dryer

This morning as I was drying my hair, my hair dryer freaked out and nearly exploded in my hand (I think!). So, I was in the market for a new one and, luckily for me, this was the perfect week to get it!



Here's the deal:

In this weeks walgreen's ad, there's a revlon hair dryer for $19.99 and when you buy it you earn a register reward coupon for $10. So, in essence, $9.99 for the hair dryer.




Now, for the good part. The hair dryer doesn't actually ring up for $19.99. It rings up for $12.99!!! And, you still get the $10 Register Reward. So, all in all, only $2.99 for it! Not bad if you actually need it. :)

How NOT to spend a Saturday

Matt's brother, Brendon, spent a couple nights with us this week. He and Matt got up and went to the movies today at 11am to see Terminator. I wasn't invited. :) So, I was at home, with the dogs, having a lazy Saturday morning. I took a shower, got some cleaning done, had a little internet time.... When I went downstairs, I stepped off the stairs into WATER. I freaked for a second, as anyone would when expecting dry floor, and then started trying to figure out where it came from.

Long story short, it had come from the downstairs bathroom. Daisy's kennel is in the hallway that leads to the bathroom, so we keep the door closed and her bed sits against the door. The bathroom had flooded, but because her dog bed was in front of the door it had kept most of it in. I assumed whoever used the bathroom this morning hadn't realized the toilet overflowed. So, I started moving all of her stuff out of the way so I could clean up the water. I got out my nifty little wet-vac and started cleaning up the water. I did NOT mess with the toilet. I only looked at it to see that it was completely empty.

As I'm vacuuming the water up, the toilet starts to overflow again. Out of nowhere. Now there's twice as much water. I call Matt (apparently making him miss the last scene of the movie...) to find out how to turn off the water to the toilet. I wade into the BROWN water to turn it off.....and start vacuuming again. Then, with the water off, it starts overflowing again. I'm at my wits end at this point because the water is coming out faster than I can clean it up. I call Matt again. He tells me to do things like plunge it, or take the lid off and check something....I try to explain the house is flooding. He says he's on his way to "save the day." I start putting towels down to keep it from wetting the entire house.

Matt comes home with his brand new shoes on and heads to the bathroom. I told him he probably didn't want to go in there in those shoes. He clearly did NOT get the gravity of the situation. There was INCHES of brown water standing in there. He changes shoes. He plunges....nothing. He gets tools from Lowes....nothing. I vacuum up literally tens of gallons of water. He calls plumber.

The plumber arrives with some nifty tools to assess the situation. He finds clog....46 feet into the pipe. He clears the clog and sends a camera (one of the nifty tools) down the pipe to take a look around. His diagnosis? 46 feet into the pipe, the adjoining pipe doesn't line up properly. The solution? Dig it up, reset it. The cost? $1700. Yes, seventeen HUNDRED dollars.

Happy Memorial Day.

We did not let this little adventure ruin our plans for the day though. It just delayed them by five hours. The original plan for the day was to trade in the bimmer and get a new car! We got to the dealership one hour before they closed and I got my new car.

I'll post pics soon! (of the car....not the brown water)

Kroger Deals

I made a quick trip to Kroger today to take advantage of some freebies! Here's what I got:



2 Kraft BBQ Sauce ($1 minus $1 coupon....FREE)

2 Country Time Lemonade ($1 each minus $1.50 off two coupon)

3 Dial Hand soaps ($1 minus 35 cent coupon, tripled....FREE)

2 Velveeta Shells and Cheese ($1.61 minus $1 coupon on each)

1 Vitamin water ($1 minus $1 coupon....FREE)

1 Heinz Ketchup ($1.69 minus 75 cent coupon)





The total was $2.66. I had a "$2 off your next purchase" coupon from the BBQ sauce last trip, so that took off $2 plus 5 cents tax. So, I paid 61 cents.

Lemonade

I came across a great deal on Country Time Lemonade & Kool-aid at Kroger this week. The canisters (usually $2.99) are on sale for $1 each.






At www.coupons.com you will find printable coupons for $1.50 off when you buy two of either the lemonade or the kool-aid.

So, $2 for two canisters minus the $1.50 coupon leaves only 50 cents. That mean 25 cents per canister!

Holiday

I just wanted to make a quick post to remind everyone that, because it's a holiday weekend, there won't be any coupons in this week's paper. Save your dollar and prepare to stock up next week!

Thanks Kathrine!

Kraft BBQ Sauce

Here's a great deal on Kraft BBQ Sauce going on at kroger between now and May 24th. Depending on the number you buy, you get a coupon good on your next purchase (of anything) at Kroger. If you buy four, its a $2 coupon. Five, $2.50. Six, $3.00. Combine that with the great coupons that happen to be available and you've got a great deal. Here's what I did:



Four BBQ sauces: $1.09 each.






I had $1 coupons printed onine (http://www.kraft.com/ and http://www.coupons.com/ if they're still available) for each bottle. So, I paid nine cents each, or $0.36 total. And, for buying four bottles, I received a coupon for $2 off my next purchase.







There are also $0.75 coupons from the May 3rd Smartsource. If you have four of those it would look like this.



Four sauces @ $1.09 each = $4.36. Minus 4 x $0.75 = $3.00


$4.36 - $3 = $1.36 for four bottles and receive a coupon for $2 off your next purchase.



Also, keep your eyes peeled for the BIG bottles with 55% more.


Since I used the online printed coupons for this order, I will probably go back, get four more, use the 75 cent coupons and the $2 coupon I received for this order, and get MORE. Since its free and all.......

Happy Shopping!

Dog Pictures

I've taken some pretty cute pictures of the dogs lately, so I thought I'd share.







Who says big dogs can't be lap dogs?










This is Daisy's favorite place to hang out!










Maybe the best picture of Daisy ever!

If this one of Roxanne doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what will. It's the background on my new phone and I giggle everytime I see it. :)

Great Deal On Charmin

I read online that the 12 pack double roll charmin, in the red package, was being clearanced at all Texas walgreens. So, I had to check it out. The first walgreens I went to had a clearance sign up, but they were all sold out. :( At the second walgreens, there was no clearance tag, but there were tons of packages. I had read that some stores didn't have signs posted, but that it SHOULD be on sale. So, I had the pharmacy girl price-check it. Sure enough, it was on clearance from $9.49 to $2.39! The little pharmacy girls got even more excited than I did! Between the two of them and me, we bought ALL the charmin. Here's how it worked out.



I bought:


3 Charmin 12-packs ($2.39 each)

2 Scotch paper cutters $1.50 each)

1 Clearance folder (25 cents)






I had $1 coupons for all the charmins and the two paper cutters. My total was $5.81. I paid with a $5 register reward from a previous purchase. The balance was 45 cents!


The pharmacy girl ringing up my order got so excited about my total that she announced it to all the other pharmacy people!

Starbucks Frappuccinos

I found out about a great deal at CVS on the starbucks frappuccinos in a bottle. Now I do not like ANYTHING coffee, but Matt loves these things.

They are regularly $2.69 EACH, but they were on sale for $1.50.

AND, when you bought two of them, you got back $1 Extra Buck.

AND, I found a coupon for a dollar off. So, here's how it worked out.

I bought four:




So, $1.50 each times four = $6.

Minus $2 in coupons (all you can print.) = $4

And for each pair you buy receive $1 in extra bucks.

So, I paid $4 (in extrabucks) and got back $2 in extra bucks.

Total cost: $2 for four frappucinos. 50 cents each!


I'm not sure how long this deal is good for. There's a possibility it will end tonight since today is the last day of the sales week at CVS. It's an unadvertised deal, so there's no way to know until someone reports it no longer works.

Matt says we're going back later tonight to get more. :)

More Nivea

I stopped at walgreens again today to get another free bodywash. Here's what I got.

1 Nivea $4.99 minus $1 coupon

1 Campbell's Soup 59 cents with in-ad coupon

5 highlighters clearanced to ten cents each







I paid with my $5 RR from the blood monitor mentioned previously and had a balance of 8 cents left. I paid that with my walgreens gift card.


Received a $5 RR for purchasing Nivea.


Total Cost: $0.08

Happy Birthday To Me

For my birthday, I told Matt I wanted a new stove. He wasn't so sure, saying he couldn't see anything wrong with our current stove. (Of course he couldn't.....he doesn't cook.....) He agreed and we went to look at a few models. We found some we like and came home to make a decision. That was last weekend.....

On Thursday night as I was cooking dinner, long story short, our current stove freaked out. There was a loud popping sound and then the light was on saying the stove was on....but the stove was NOT on. It couldn't be turned off....even though it wasn't heating. About an hour later, the top was still warm even though it was off. I was afraid it might burn down the house or something, so we had to just unplug it.

So much for nothing being wrong with the stove.....

This added the needed motivation to actually BUY the new stove...

Without further ado....

Walgreens

There are some nice deals to be had at walgreens this week. Here is one trip I made today.

I walked in the store with a $2 RR (register rewards coupon) and a $5 RR. I left with:

3 12-packs of pepsi

1 Nivea Body wash

1 Rembrandt toothpaste

1 Double sided tape (for Matt)

2 Pens

1 Contour Blood Glucose Monitor

I paid $2.54 in actual cash because I forgot my giftcard and walked out with a $3 RR and a $5 RR.

Considering Matt's double sided tape was $3, I thought I did pretty well.

And for those wondering: No, I'm not diabetic. I had a coupon to get the monitor for free, and when you buy one, a $5 RR prints. So, I let them PAY ME to take the thing. My dad is diabetic, so he'll use it!

99%

More deals....

This week at Kroger is full of freebies! I had my best-ever trip today. Here's what I got:

1 Suave Deodorant

3 Angel Soft 4-packs

1 Steamfresh rice (not pictured)

1 Special K Cereal

1 Sierra Mist 2 liter

3 Pillsbury brownie mixes

I had expected my total to be about $1.50 because the only thing I was actually paying for was the cereal. Everything else was free with my coupons. But, for some reason, the cashier scanned some other coupon at the end for an additional $1 off (I don't know why) and then he told me that my total was FOUR CENTS! Can you believe that?? Four cents! At the end of my receipt it says "Total savings, 99%." That's clearly my highest ever!!!

Kroger has a limit of three like coupons (per transaction) that will double or triple and since I had more than three of most of those freebie coupons, I did make a couple different trips. Total, I got 4 deodorants, 4 brownie mixes, 4 steamfresh rice bags, and I'm up to 8 of the angel soft. I have a few coupons for the toilet paper left so I'll still be getting more of those.

Isn't free stuff fun!?!?

My First Trip to Randalls

I heard that Randalls had some hot deals for the GG this week, so I decided I would go ahead and sign up for a Randalls list in addition to my Kroger list. In the grand scheme of things its only an extra $2.50 a month....why not? And, if there are many weeks like this one it'll be more than worth it.

Here's what I got today. I'm so excited!!

4 Kraft Salad Dressing

3 Pudding 4-packs

4 Hall's cough drops

1 softsoap

1 Duncan Hines cake mix

1 Suave body wash

1 Vanity Fair paper plates

My total was $3.53 and I was a little confused because I thought it was going to be less than that. All the way to the car I was doing math in my head trying to figure out how I had messed it up, but I still couldn't come up with three dollars worth of stuff. So, after a careful look at my receipt I realized that only three of my FOUR $1.50 coupons for the salad dressing had come off. So, I went back in to customer service to have it fixed. Now, I realize most people might not go to that trouble for a dollar fifty, especially since I only had to pay three fifty for the whole thing. (and, that's probably what the CS lady was thinking too...) But, the dollar fifty was nearly HALF of what I was charged. If it was a fifty dollar order and you got charged $90, you'd go back, right?

So, long story short, she found my coupon that hadn't been scanned and rang it up for me. Ironically, I got back $1.62 for that $1.50 coupon. I guess tax or something? So, after that, my real total was $1.91!!!

Yay Randalls! I'll be back!

More Great Deals!!

Today has been a great day for shopping at CVS, Walgreens, AND Kroger. Its so great, in fact, that on my way to or from (or maybe both) a baby shower today I will be going by walgreens AGAIN. I'll explain why at the end.

Here what I've gotten SO FAR today between those three stores.

3 softsoap body washes

2 Quaker rice cake snacks

3 softsoap hand soaps (these weren't on the GG list, but they are free this week at kroger)

1 yogurt

1 juicy fruit gum

1 snickers candy bar

1 easter pencil

1 skintimate shave gel

2 chapsticks

1 bounty paper towel

1 johnson's travel size lotion

1 20ft reynolds wrap

1 sense and spray

2 softsoap ensemble refills

2 easter egg coloring kits

Total spent after coupons: 32 cents in real money. 72 cents on my walgreens gift card.

If you like softsoap body wash, now is the time to get it. There's a deal at walgreens this week: if you buy one (with a $1 coupon of course...so $2.99), you get a coupon for a free one after you pay. So, essentially buy one get one free. However, when you redeem your coupon for your free one, ANOTHER coupon for a free one prints. So, buy one get MANY free. :) It's not supposed to work that way, but for some reason it is.....so far. It may be stopped at any point, but I'm going to keep redeeming my free coupon until I don't get another one. :)

3 so far.....and counting.

HURRY.

EDITED TO ADD: As expected, the problem with the Softsoap promotion has been fixed. It is no longer printing the extra coupons. So, if you do this deal now, be aware, you'll only get ONE free one. You've gotta be fast to get the good stuff!!!!!!

Total, I managed to get eight before they stopped printing.

Hail Storm

This Friday afternoon the weather was so strange. It went from being sunny and cool to sunny and raining to HAILING. Matt was driving home and called me to tell me it was hailing and it was only a few minutes before it was coming down at the house. I watched in amazement! I've never seen hail like that before. It was hitting the ground and bouncing back up. Huge splashes were coming from the pool everytime one of those ice cubes would hit it. In just a matter of minutes, the entire yard was spotted with white dots of ice.

Here's a picture of two really big ones we found in the yard. My hands were FREEZING while Matt was trying to get the perfect shot! LOL

Spring Break

In past years, my mom has flown to Houston for spring break. This year it was me who did the flying. I flew to New Orleans where my mom, aunt and uncle picked me up and drove me back to my aunt's house in Gulfport, Mississippi. My mom had driven there to meet me. We treat it sort of like a half-way point, even though its not even close to being "half-way." My mom and aunt (dad's sister) LOVE to shop, and since I do as well, it works out pretty good!

I flew in Monday afternoon so we could shop Tuesday and Wednesday, and then I flew back home on Thursday.

We went to the gulfport outlet mall on tuesday as well as some stand-alone stores. I bought some clothes (for Matt, too) and some household items. On Wednesday, we went to the Biloxi mall and a few more stand-alone stores. I found some great rugs for my kitchen!!

I had packed up a suitcase FULL of "freebies" to take to my sister. And, since you can't take liquids on planes, I had to pay the $15 fee to check my bag!! I hated that, but I decided that my free stuff was worth well over $15 AND I had saved way more than $15 by "buying" it. So, all in all, I guess it wasn't too bad of a deal. Then, upon arriving in gulfport, I gave the freebies to my mom to take home to my sister which freed up a lot of space in my suitcase to bring home stuff that I was going to buy! I thought it was a great plan!

So, Wednesday night when I was packing up to come home I realized that I had bought so much I could barely fit it in, even in the place of all that free stuff. And, to top that off, my new rugs were the foam kind, so I had to be careful not to bend them because they could break. Clearly, they weren't going to fit in the suitcase. I had to roll them and carry them on the plane in a shopping bag. Haha! I was carrying my suitcase, stuffed FULL, the rugs rolled up in a plastic bag, and my purse. But I was determined to carry-0n all of it so I didn't have to pay that $15 again. It worked. After an hour delay at the New Orleans aiport and another half-hour delay ON THE PLANE due to fog in houston, I made it home. It was 2 hours late, but I made it.

Fun was had by all. :)

This Week's Deals

Both CVS and Walgreens had some good deals this week. Here's what I got:

2 small packages of Ritz

1 small Bleach

1 Bounce fabric softener

1 downy fabric softener

1 travel size Act mouthwash

1 Slimquick energy shot 2-pack (tried one of these --- GROSS!!!!)

2 Carnation Instant breakfast

2 Colgate toothpastes

2 Blink eye drops

2 Vaseline intensive rescue lotions

2 easter candy-eggs

Total after coupons: $2.01. Of course, that's not two dollars of REAL money...that came from my Walgreens rebate gift card! :)

I bought the candy eggs for matt. As I was writing this entry I realized Daisy was not here with me. When I called her she came SLOWLY up the stairs with her ears down, which tells me that she's been doing something bad. My mind immediately goes to the candy eggs that I left sitting on the counter. I rush down stairs and what do I see? ONE candy egg on the counter.....not TWO. I still haven't found any evidence of that missing egg. I guess she ate the wrapper too! I guess its a good thing she's a huge dog, otherwise I'd be worried about the chocolate intake. Hopefully one chocolate egg won't have an adverse effect on an 80-pound dog! And if it does, hopefully that package of peppermint antacids that she ate yesterday will keep her stomach calm.

Disclaimer: This photo was taken BEFORE daisy ate antacids OR the chocolate egg. She's not sick, just TIRED. She's never been one to sleep comfortably.

Air Fresheners

One of the rebate items at Walgreens this month is the Glade Sense & Spray air fresheners. If you have the right coupons, they can be free. I certainly didn't NEED anymore air fresheners, but for free I'll take them!

I bought four at $8.99 each. Total before coupons: $35.96

I used two Buy One Get One Free Coupons (printed from the Glade website) so that took off $17.98.

I also used two $4 coupons (from the 2/8 sunday paper) on the ones I was "buying," taking off $8.

So, my total was: $9.98. I paid that with my walgreens gift card.

Now I'll enter my receipt number online and at the end of the month the rebate amount, which was $4 PER item, will be added back to my gift card. So, I paid $9.98 and I'll get back $12!

Yes, if you don't have a gift card you'd have to actually pay the ten bucks to start with, but I had a gift card from previous rebates so it didn't cost me any real money.

On an totally unrelated note....

The camera batteries are charged now, hence the air freshener picture. So, I'm including one of the new aquarium. I know its not a good one, but its the best I could do. If Matt were to see it, it would definitely NOT be up to his standards! He'll ask me why it wasn't centered and point out that it is blurry. Oh well.... here it is anyway. :)

Free Diet Coke

It took me a while to plan it, but I figured out a way to work this week's diet coke deal at CVS. I'll save you all the boring math and just tell you what I got and how much it was.

SIX 12-packs of diet coke
2 Herbal Essence Shampoo
1 Gillette Mens Shampoo
2 Boxes of Macaroni and Cheese
2 Tubes of Colgate Toothpaste
1 Venus Embrace Razor

(As previously mentioned, camera batteries are dead....try to visualize)

I really just wanted the diet cokes (and the razor is nice too!) I just got the other stuff because it helped me get a better deal on the diet coke. I know that's hard to understand for all of you NON-CVS people, but just try to trust me!

Grand total: 75 cents!

YAY!

Updates

I know.....it's been forever!

This post will explain how things ALWAYS seem to work at the Greenfield house....

Matt and I decided to get a new fish tank recently. One that was larger and nicer than the old one. So, we head to petsmart and find just what we're looking for. And, wouldn't you know, we were lucky enough to get the very last one they had. We got it home and got started setting it up. It's a nice 36 gallon bow-front tank that has its own matching stand. We put it in the living room. (On a side note....did I mention how glad I am to have the old one OUT of my piano room?!?!)
Ok, back to my story..... I'm upstairs doing laundry when Matt calls me downstairs. He's found a crack in the glass of the brand new aquarium! So, we call petsmart, but of course, they don't have another one. The closest store that has one is on 45 in spring. We load it back in the truck and head out. When we get to that store we see they have three in stock. We check it out thoroughly and make the exchange, then drive all the way back to atascocita and resume the set-up process.

Matt tells me there's a crack in that one too! Then he says, "just kidding." But, he was SO believable. Maybe he should have been an actor! Later, he REALLY DOES see a crack! We were SO mad. We looked over every inch of that tank while we were at the store. How could we have missed it. Now we've decided that there must be some major flaw with this particular tank if we've had TWO that are cracked. So we don't even want the thing now!

Matt decides maybe its not a crack. He'll try to scratch it off with a knife. No go. What about some goo gone? Long story (semi) short, it was something on the glass, maybe a glue, and the goo gone got it off.
Now for the real kicker. We're sure that's what was wrong with the first tank. Not a scratch.....some kind of glue. And, we drove all the way to spring to exchange it!

So, we now have a nice UNcracked aquarium in our living room....NOT in the piano room! And, because the camera batteries were dead, I don't have a visual for you. Sorry.

I'll hopefully post another day about all the fish Matt is putting in the new tank as well as his plans for ANOTHER tank.......

This Week at Kroger

Kroger is having a "mega sale" (that's their term, not mine) this week. Certain items qualify and if you buy any ten of them, you get five dollars off your order. Here's what I got.


1 Kleenex - $1.59 - 50 cent coupon, doubled = 59cents

3 Rotel- 90 cents - 30 cent coupons tripled = free

4 Propel Waters - $1 each

1 Frank's Hot Sauce - $1.49 - 35 cent coupon tripled = 44 cents

1 Kraft cheese - $1.99

5 Rice cake snacks (not part of the deal) - $1 - $1 coupons = free

6 Reese's whips (not part of the deal) - 2/$1 - $1 off two coupons = free

1 dove beauty bar (not part of the deal)- $1 - $1 coupon = free

Total = $7.02



But remember, I get $5 off because I bought ten participating items. So my actal total was $2.02. Pretty awesome!!! I'll be going back and doing this deal (or something similar) numerous times this weekend!

Fishin'

Matt and I spent part of our day off today fishing on Lake Houston. I must be a good-luck charm because we had a pretty successful day! And, to top things off, not only did I catch the MOST fish, but I caught the BIGGEST one too!!!! I must give credit where credit is due though. Matt did tell me what bait to use and take my fish off the hook whenever I caught one. He fished in between all my needy moments and managed to do pretty well himself.

Here are pictures from the day!

10 white bass total. I caught 6, Matt caught 4.

Here's Matt with his largest fish.

Here's Matt holding MY largest fish. (We were already home and I was clean....and holding the camera.)

Just for comparison.....and to prove mine was bigger!



On a side note... Don't you love the silly faces Matt makes!!

And one more pic. Matt did win the award for the smallest fish of the day. Check out this little guy!!!

Beat It!

Ok, here's the video of the Mariachi "Beat It"


ENJOY!!

New Design

My friends have cuter blogs than me, so I copied them. This new design comes from http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/

Thanks Jenna, Kerry and Amber!!!

Holidays

I know its late, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Matt and I had a great couple of weeks off. He was actually off three weeks and I was off two. Even though we've gone back to the real world of work now, we had a nice time while we were off!

We went to Alabama for Christmas, WITH the dogs, and had a great time. Surprisingly Daisy did just fine in the car; it was Roxanne who was annoying. Daisy just sat on her pillow with a weird look on her face the whole time. Roxanne was all over the place. They were both in the back seat, but Roxanne wouldn't stay on one side. She was constantly stepping over Daisy, checking out what she could see from the window on the other side.

Our family Christmas was on Christmas eve with my parents, sister, and nephew. We had a great time opening gifts and then played our annual card game afterwards. On Christmas day my parents, matt, and I went to my mom's brothers house for lunch and then we all went fishing in my uncle's pond. It rained off and on, but Matt was the only one who caught anything. It was pretty big bass, but he put it back. :)

Mom and I went shopping the friday after Christmas while dad took Matt fishing again, this time in their neighbor's pond. I joined in on the fishing fun when we got home and turned out to be the only one to catch anything. TWO big bass!!! And, although I grew up fishing, I'm one of those people who doesn't bait their own hook or take the fish off when I get it in. When I caught the second one, which was larger than the first, Matt wanted to take my picture. I explained that I do not touch live fish. He insisted and reluctantly I agreed. So, it was my first time EVER to hold a LIVE fish!

Here's the proof!!!

The highlight of the Alabama trip was going out to dinner with some of my friends from high school. We went to the local mexican restaurant when they happened to have their mariachi band playing. I was pretty skeptical since I live in texas and have heard some good ones. Not to mention that I'm a trumpet player, so I tend to be a little critical as well. However, this was like no mariachi band I've ever heard! When we got there, we walked in and could hear the last few bars of, get this, "Hotel California!" As we sit down, Danielle rattles of a list of songs she's heard they play and I'm quite intrigued. So they come over to our table and ask for request. Then they list a bunch of songs, but not what Danielle wanted. She mentions "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and they play that! Matt told them to come by later for another song. As they left, I told everyone that I was pretty sure I heard them say "Beat It" when they were listing songs. (They did have a pretty thick spanish accent, so my dear alabama friends were having a hard time understanding!) We discussed how funny it would be if I was correct in what I heard, so when they came back we asked. Yes, I heard correctly. The mariachi band played "Beat It." I can not explain to you how hysterical it was! And, not half bad either, if you can imagine Michael Jackson with a Mariachi twist! Danielle videoed it, I'll add it if I can get her to send it to me. Send it to me, Danielle!

We made the 10 hour drive home the following day, with the dogs. The rest of our time off seemed to fly by. We didn't do a whole lot. I managed to do some serious damage to CVS and walgreens, and got some much needed rest as well.

Thanks for reading this insanely long post and HAPPY NEW YEAR!