To Coupon?

If you are all wondering whether you should coupon or not, my answer is hands down,

YES!!!!!

Do you really understand how much you save? Last night and this morning I went out to get some great deals. This is what I came home with!

Many people think that couponers go out and end up spending more money than they would JUST because something was a good deal. Some may, but a lot of them dont. All of these items were things I would have bought anyways. All of this stuff that you see in the picture was $71.64 before tax.

I only spent $13.31.

I just ran out of shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant. So this month I would have been going out and getting those three things and spending about $15.00. Well, instead, I got those three things AND 27 other items as well. Talk about AMAZING! Here is a break down of what I got:

2 Snuggle Dryer Sheets
3 Snuggle Fabric Softener
1 Dove Shampoo
1 Dove Conditioner
6 Dove Deodorants
4 Velveeta Shells & Cheese
3 Candy bars
5 Clean & Clear facial scrub
5 Halls Drops

So I got 30 items for less than what I would have been spending. Instead of getting 1 deodorant, I got 6. This all breaks down to about $0.44/item

Can you believe it? Please everyone, start couponing! You will save so much money and really stock up and get your food storage. Who doesn't want to save money?

Another question people have is where to get coupons? I got a newspaper subscription here in Utah County with the Daily Herald. I get 5 copies of the Sunday paper each week for just $18.75 a month. Just these 2 trips to the store, more than paid for my entire month of the subscription. Call around and see what deals you can get in your area. If you only get 1 sunday paper, you will only be able to get 1 item for the good price, so make sure to get multiple sunday papers. I recommend 2 papers per adult and 1 paper per child in your house.

I follow coupon blogs and hear about all the great deals. Don't get me wrong, it does take a good amount of time to organize your coupons and go shopping, but to me, it is TOTALLY worth it.

Enjoy!

Senior Health Care Solution

So you're a senior citizen and the government says no health care for you, what do you do? Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot 2 senators and 2 representatives. Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get 3 meals a day, a roof over your head, and all the health care you need! New teeth, no problem. Need glasses, great. New hip, knees, kidney, lungs, heart? All covered. (And your kids can come and visit you as often as they do now). And who will be paying for all of this? The same government that just told you that you are too old for health care. Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don't have to pay any income taxes anymore.

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?

Free coupon Inserts

Hey everyone. My friend has this AMAZING blog. It is a coupon blog and she gets the most amazing deals ever. Please start reading her blog. It will really help you learn how to coupon and save TONS of money. She is so amazing.

She is having a give-away right now for free coupon inserts from the sunday paper. Go HERE and enter!

Dear Package,

You arrived today. Oh how I have been waiting for you. I fell in love with you the moment I first saw you. The mail man thought I was crazy because of how excited I was. Thank you for your safe arrival my dear Ravioli rolling pin!

I am going to use you right now. We will have a blast together!

If you want to fall in love too, please watch!

Ouch!

So tonight I was trying to be a good wife and make Allen empanadas. (I posted the recipe tonight by the way) He loves them. However, when I was placing them in the oil I wasn't paying attention. I ended up putting my fingers in 375 degree oil. This was hours ago...and they are still burning bad. AHHH! I am so stupid. Who puts their hand in hot oil? Who does that?!?!?! Ahhhh....

I'm not smart...

Exciting news everybody!

Allen and I live in this apartment that I just love. It is just over a year old and just REALLY nice. A nice apartment in Provo is hard to come by. Well, the complex was in foreclosure and the bank owned it. A couple months ago, someone finally bought the complex. Well we just recently found out all the changes they are making here. We ALL have to fill out an application to live here. Is that insane? I think it is stupid that I have to apply to live here, when I already do and have for 6 months. There are all these income restrictions and qualifications. We also would have to pay a new deposit and sign a year contract. Sounds stupid! Allen and I were frustrated. Then we invited some friends over to hang out.

So Aubrye was my roommate and really good friend. We just love her and her husband Grant so much. They are moving in just over a month to southern California (I may or may not be kinda jealous!) and their place is going to be empty. They live in a townhouse. It is really nice. I mean, its not brand new with granite countertops like it is here, but its not junky either. It is 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, formal dinning room, TONS of storage, BACKYARD (especially like this so Riley can run around in the yard and play in the summertime). It is really nice...and is less than we pay here. So it is going to SAVE us money. Happy, happy. So they called their landlord and told him they had some friends who would love to move in when they move out and he said, "Okay let's do it!" So happy! We are moving into a townhouse. I am just so excited that we can paint there and everything and just feel like we are living in a home. I am so excited you can't wipe this smile off my face. However, I am dreading moving again. It was a lot of work and I feel like we JUST moved, and really dont want to take apart the furniture again and stuff. Bummer. We have less junk now though, so hopefully it will be better this time. So yay!

We are moving in the last week of april! WOOHOO!!!

I love my husband!

Like I said in the previous post, my birthday started out terrible. After the car breaking down, finding out it was the alternator, and it was going to cost over $300, Allen turned that bad day around. When he came home from work he walked in with a pretty bouquet of flowers and some presents. It was so sweet of him. He gave me a food processor (that I have been REALLY wanting), the movie The Proposal (my favorite movie ever), a card, and the flowers. He took me and Riley out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. OMG MY FAVORITE PLACE EVER. We had never been before and it was the best food I ever ate. The steak was just delicious....everything was delicious. And since Allen knows how much I love Ikea, he asked me if I wanted to go and look around. So we went to Ikea and had a blast. It was so fun to walk around and look at things and talk. I had such a good night, and it was so fun celebrating with Riley. Thank you for a great birthday babe! I love you so much!

My 23rd Birthday

Yes, I am now 23. Seems so crazy to me. I bet you are wondering how my birthday has been going today. Well, today Allen woke me up before he left for work. He crawled back into bed and layed right next to me and sweetly woke me up and said, "Good morning birthday girl!" He gave me a kiss and said he was leaving for work. Great morning!

Well, then an hour and a half later he comes storming into the house. Come to find out his car broke down on the way to work, and he literally called me EVERY minute for an hour and a half. Well, since my phone was still in my purse from last night (and still on vibrate) I didn't hear it. He called his sister and asked her to drive him back home. So here he is finding my phone and putting it on the loudest sound setting. We hurry out the door and drive to where his car was parked. It completely died at an intersection and luckily a nice girl helped Allen push it through the intersection and park it on the side of the road. When Allen and I got to the car, we tried jumping it. It wouldn't work. We called our mechanic and were going to have to pay $50 to tow it to them. We scheduled the towing and then all of a sudden the car started. GREAT! So I hurry and call to cancel the towing. Riley, in the meantime is crying in the back seat because he is starving. I get in the broken honda and try to drive it to the mechanic. It was completely shutting down. Nothing was working. The car would only go about 5 miles per hour. It kept stopping and we would have to try and get it going again. Finally, we make it to the mechanic and dropped it off. Hopefully it isn't going to be much money. We are sick and tired of constantly putting tons of money into a car that is 20 years old. I love the car though, so we keep fixing it. So we will see how much that will cost us.

Allen drops Riley and I off at home and he takes the only working car to go to work. I am sad because I was excited for today. I wanted to get out of the house and go walk around the mall and go get In n Out. Who wants to be stuck at home on their birthday? Not me. So I get in the house and hurry and make Riley a bottle. He sees his bottle while I am filling it with water and he starts screaming because "HE WANTS IT NOW!" So I hurry and pour the formula in, shake it up, lay him down, and give it to him. We he is drinking his milk in the middle of the front room. In the middle of drinking his milk, he just rolls over and falls asleep. Hahaha. So here he is in the middle of the front room, on the floor, asleep. NICE!

It isn't even 11 in the afternoon. I wonder what else is going to happen today.

Happy Birthday to me! hahaha....

I need your help!

Okay, so Riley outgrew his car seat MONTHS ago. He is very under in weight, but with his height, we should have gotten a new car seat months ago. He is just too tall for it and doesn't fit comfortably. Allen and I are looking into getting a big boy car seat, but we don't know what to get. Do you have any suggestions on any good ones (or warning about bad ones)? Please let me know! We just need him to fit comfortably in his chair.

The Man Fort

Yesterday, Riley and Allen built a fort together. Okay, they just draped our comforter over the couch and chairs...but they had a lot of fun. I just love my two boys, and they have so much fun together. See for yourself!

I love WinCo!

We have a new grocery store opening up in Orem here really soon. It is by far the BEST store, ever. You can buy everything there....and a huge selection of everything! They have one open already in Midvale. Allen found that out, so he told me that today he was going to take me there. So, this morning we woke up, and drove all the way to Midvale just to go grocery shopping. It was SO worth it. I was in heaven in the store. Everything is so cheap and it's just so much fun. So I put together a grocery list for the whole month and we got it all on this trip. Of course we will still have to go get a little produce in a couple weeks, but we have all of our groceries now.

So, if you live here in Utah, make sure to go to the store when it opens (or drive all the way to Midvale!) Hehehe. Or check their website here: http://www.wincofoods.com/ and see if they have a store by you. You wont regret it! I think Allen wants to go grocery shopping with me everytime now! They have the biggest meat section with ALL kinds of meat. Every cut you can think of...they have it. The best part is their bulk section. You can buy anything from candy, spices, baking ingredients, pasta, ect...anything in bulk. You choose however much you want and get it (as little or as much). For example: their flour is like $0.17/pound...and you get as much as you want. Isn't it so cheap? It's amazing.

So that was our fabulous morning. Now I will sit here and enjoy myself and not worry about grocery shopping until next month...when I drive down to Midvale again! hehehe.

My sick little baby

It's so sad when your little baby is sick. I just hate it. This morning, he just wanted to curl up in my arms. I sure enjoyed holding my sweet little boy...he is the best! Last night he wouldn't drink his bottle, and same with this morning. I called my mom because it started to worry me that he wasn't eating, and she said he probably had an ear infection and it hurt him to swallow. Poor guy. I gave him some Tylenol and tried giving him his milk through a syringe...that didn't help. He was choking on the milk because he wouldn't swallow it. We went and saw the doctor and he said it looks like the start of an ear infection, but we just need to wait and see. He still hasn't drank milk since dinner time yesterday, so I am sad for him. Hopefully he gets better soon.

Oh, and I am still sick too. This sure isn't fun!

A babies life

Riley is so funny! We have this huge wedding picture in our hallway. When we carry Riley to his room, he sees it...and when he does he reaches his arms out to us in the picture and gets so excited. Isn't that so cute? He just started doing that recently. He is a stud!

I can't believe that Riley is almost 11 months old. Where did the time go? We have officially baby-proofed our house. All of the kitchen cabinets are locked with the baby locks and we gated off our open pantry. Also, we removed all the DVD's and games from under the TV (since he was ruining them) and put his toys there instead. I LOVE that his toys can just be tucked away under the TV. It's so nice. We put some of his larger toys in his room...and now he goes into his room to play sometimes. I LOVE IT!

Riley loves eating the food we eat. He is starting to eat our meals with us more and has snacks all day long. He is growing up too quick. It makes me sad. He absolutely loves bread. The only thing I have found that he doesn't like are corn dogs. What kid doesn't like corn dogs? Oh well...I'm sure he'll like them eventually. He just eats whatever we give him and he loves it!

He isn't really into the whole walking thing. He knows how to and will walk a good distance and then just get on the floor and crawl the rest of the way. He knows that he can get somewhere quicker by crawling, so he would just rather do that. So we'll see when he decides to walk. He does so good...just gives up.

I am so excited that the sun is coming up here. It is so refreshing and happy. I am so excited! Here's to Monday nights at the park...WOOHOO!!!

Baking issues no more!

Remember back when I used to complain about my baking skills? How I could cook, but could NOT bake for the life of me? Well I am so excited to say that I can actually bake! GO ME! Hahaha. I can bake cakes, and cookies perfectly now. That is huge for me. I came to you guys about my baking issues and you guys fixed it. Now I am coming to you about pies. Do any of you have any great pie recipes and/or tricks? I only attempted making a pie once in my life time and it was a disaster. I am scared to make another one...but I really want to. Anything you guys have will be great! Thanks so much!

**Allen really LOVES dutch apple pies...so if you have a good recipe for one, let me know...but any pie will do!

If you haven't realized, I have been posting recipes again on my recipe blog. I have been posting constantly for a couple weeks now. If you want a good cookie recipe, I would recommend either of these two:


You can click on the picture for those recipes. Those are the best 2 cookies EVER! A couple more recent recipes that I posted that are my favorites are:


You can click on the picture for those recipes

YUMMY! I want them all right now. So yeah, if you have some good pie recipes, please share! :) Also, if you haven't left your email address, please do now because I am going private on Wednesday! I will delete your email address on here after I write it down!