PAWS Walk Chicago

Last Sunday we went to the PAWS 4K Walk in Chicago. Our friends Nick, Tara and Boston and CJ and Fergus joined us. We had a blast even though it was a little cold and really windy. All the fur babies loved the agility course, the bags of treats/goodies, all the free butt sniffs from other dogs, and running around in the sand.

Fergus loves the tunnels!

Boston in action!

Boston protesting the tunnel. Ha!

Fergus loves the freedom! :)

Tovi got let off leash at the dog beach. He made some new friends.

It was a bit windy.

Can you hear me now? Good....
(AT&T bars anyone?)

Tovi got the buzz and was running around Steve in circles. Ha-ha!

Tovi was pooped when he finally got home. Then we went on a little bike ride later that afternoon and he ended up passing out in our bed all night long. It was a first! I loved it, Steve tolerated it. :)

xo m.

I'm His Coupon Bunny

Today was another crash course for me in couponing. I collected two papers, the Chicago Trib which I purchased, and the NW Herald that my mom gave to me when she was finished with it. I figured out what items I needed, what items that were a good deal that I may need in the future, and the items that were FREE! :)

Here is the low-down.

$120.78 worth of items that I got for $46.69.
Yep, a 61% savings right there! :) I’m learning because last time I only saved 50%

Here are my TOP savings out of this bunch.

Emergen-C Vitamin C = FREE
This will go in my donations box.

Hyland’s Cold ‘n Cough 4 kids = FREE
This will go in my donations box.

Select Harvest Soup = 4 cans on sale at $1, I printed out 4 coupons for $1.00 off one can = FREE

Playtex - On sale with coupon = FREE

Crest Pro Health Toothpaste = 0.99 each

Kraft Cream Cheese = 5 at $0.25 each
On sale for 4 for $5.00. I had a coupon for $5 off 5 Kraft items.

Ramen was on sale 10 for $1.00
These will go in my donation box as well.

Ritz Crackers = 4 boxes for $5.52
They were on sale for $1.88 each and I had 2 $1.00 off 2 boxes.

Lucky Charms = 4 boxes for $5.96
They were on sale for $1.99 each and I had 2 $1.00 off 2 boxes.

Bounty Paper Towels = 1 pack for 5.24
On sale for 6.49 and I had 2 coupons, $1 off and $.25 off.

So I’m getting the hang of this a little each time.

I was super over whelmed with clipping the coupons, figuring out how to use them, and where to even put them once I clipped them. So I am trying to figure out a system for my house and then a systemfor when I actually go to the store and need to bring those coupons along for the ride. Today I believe I had a total of 29 scanned coupons, and had about 50 on me. So as you could imagine, I was all over the place when pulling those cut pieces of papers out from my purse to make sure those where the right coupons I needed to scan for my purchase. So once I figure it out, I’ll share.

You may be wondering if Steve is going along with the madness, and he just smiles at me and says he loves his little coupon bunny. He really is a great husband and how well he puts up with my crazy coupon cutting and wanting to make our dollar go even further. The crowning moment was when he text me to see if I could get a coupon for RV Antifreeze. I told him I could see what I can do, and *ting* we are now saving a dollar on each gallon that we need to purchase (8 in total). So I’ll continue to wiggle my tail and hop on to my next coupon saving item.

xo m.

Riding The Clouds

Typically when people get married both the bride and groom get a bachelor and bachelorette party. Steve and I felt that these ‘parties’ were not necessary for us and we decided that neither of us wanted one. Well my MOH (maid of honor) really wanted to do something for me because she was going to be the one to plan the bachelorette party. So she had something up her sleeve and finally broke down and told me that she was going to be taking me on a HOT AIR BALLON RIDE!!  (Check that off my bucket list!) Woooo hoo!!  Now this was going to happen before the wedding and then it turned out to be after. Then with all the weather complications for flight take off, it kept being pushed back. 8+ scheduled flights later it happened and it was wonderful.














Did I mention how amazing it was? It was awesome! Thank you CJ for being the best friend/big sis ever!
xo m.

Kitchen Sink

As promised.

Oh and where the sink is mounted is 'make-shift'. So once all the cabinets are made we will remove the faucet so the real counter top can be installed. Just a lil FYI.



And boy o boy... our sink is going to come in handy when we want to wash the kids in there, it's huge! :)

xo m.

Cooking with the Bach's

With limited kitchen resources, we have been making out pretty well for ourselves in the whole breakfast, lunch and dinner portions of our lives. Our guest bathroom has turned into our kitchen and no one is allowed to use it for obvious reasons. But here is a little peek at what I have been making for dinner.

Cheeseburger Pasta

Fruit Salad

 

Chicken Nacho Bake

 

Sweet BBQ Chicken Kabobs

 

Chicken Parmesan Bundles

FYI we now have a kitchen sink installed with running water!!! I'll post a picture soon! I'm just so excited to think if I could make all those dinners (and more) in a bathroom, I think I am going to have a blast when making dinners in the kitchen. Woo wee! Praise the Lord for giving me an amazing father to can do anything. Thank you God for running water in the kitchen, and giving us the means to cook great dinners for two or three because Tovi is my taste tester. :)

xo m.

Serious Business

Lately I have been very conscience about spending. I've always been up for sales and deals, and I always save, but I never really thought about where my actual money goes. I kept hearing things about Dave Ramsey’s Finical Peace University and started talking to friends about it. Well my Aunt Sherry sent me the whole kit and I’ve been listening to the cassette tapes… yes you read right… cassette tapes, in my car and reading the book. So far I have learned so much and Steve and I are going to go on board to following his plan starting the beginning of October. Now, we are going to try and follow it as much as possible while re-doing our home/kitchen. But there are a ton of steps that we can do to make our money stretch even further! So just a little warning you might start seeing me talking about savings on groceries… cutting coupons… taking surveys for cash… and being REALLY excited about it.

So here goes nothing right? My first step I wanted to do was cut coupons. The kind of coupons what you find in the newspaper and online. Sounds good to me to save $.50 here and $1.00 here because it all adds up right? Well one thing led to another and I found out, by researching online, that there is a HUGE community of ‘money saving moms’ out there. My mother’s friends neighbor (did you follow that?) brought home 10 bags of groceries from Dominick’s and paid under $2.00!!! My ears starting ringing and I wanted to learn what she was doing and start this very moment. So I called her up got some information on the ‘coupon game’ and now I’m on board! It takes some time to understand and get a grip on how it works, but it’s all about playing the system of using coupons when things go on sale and buying those items in bulk. So I am going to start small and work with only one maybe two stores to get started.

First things first… purchase a newspaper with COUPONS! I have heard that the coupons in the Sunday Tribune are the best. So I purchased the Sunday Trib at the dollar tree (for a $1) on Saturday. Then I decided the one store I’m going to focus on is Meijer. So I got my game plan ready and was ready for the hunt on Sunday morning.

I didn’t end up going on Sunday, but here are the GREAT deals I got today…. and then there were a few items I NEEDED and had to get that were not on sale. Shame on me, but I will learn from this trip and keep my eyes open and my wallet closed until the next great steal... deal.

I got all of this for… $42.58 and without my coupon cutting deals on sale prices it should have cost me $86.10!! That's $43.52 in savings, just about 50%!

Here were my TOP deals were…
 Nivea Lip Care had a price drop and was .99 each. I printed a coupon of $2.00 off 2 items and my total for this was: FREE! +$.-02 back!

Suave Hand Lotion is always $.99 each so I bought 2 of them and paid $1.98
Then I got $2 off my next shopping trip at Meijer and so my total for these items were: FREE! + $.02 back!

Meijer Frozen Vegetables is a $1.00 and I had a coupon for $.50 off. Total: $.50

Kraft Items - Cheese. On sale at 3 for $6.00 and deli cheese 2 for $5.00 and cheese block 3 for $5.00. So I had a buy five Kraft items get $5.00 off and I had a $1 coupon for deli style cheese. So my total cheese bill: $4.17

Shick Womens Razor 4 ct.- On sale at 2 for $11.00. I had a coupon for $3.00 off so my total razor bill was: $2.50

So in today’s shopping trip I feel like I took a baby step. And I can’t wait to see what my next steps are. I do have to admit that I did not NEED the free items that I got, but they were free so that's a no-brainer right? Also my thought was why not donate them to the food pantry or to someone in need? I have been thinking a lot about how awesome that would be if I could somehow help someone else by the deals I get. So here is a start... if I ever find something that I can get for free... whether it is cat food, depends, lip gloss, salad dressing... if i can get it for free and can give or donate the item, then I'm doing it!

Adjusting

Tovi is adjusting.

For a month and a half of not living with his brother from another mother (max) and his grandparents (jimbo and suz), he has been doing great! He is still figuring out where he likes to sleep at night and during the day, figuring out where each vent is located in every room, and how to walk on hardwood floors. Here are a few photo updates of the places he enjoys most at the moment.

Oh and he got a few new toys. Here are a few with him and his octopus. :)

Just woke up in the morning look :)





Hanging outside





Let me inside Ma'






Watching friends from in the kicthen, and in a blink of a second he needs to see what's going in the front yard....












Just kids playing... take rest




Tovi likes this couch as well.




Snug bug in a rug.... or.... I spy a Tovi on a couch with big brown eyes and grey ears?!





All said and done.... I think Tovi is going to be just fine being the King of his Castle! :)

xo m