Coupons- are they worth it?

The subject of coupons was brought up on an email group that I belong to. I never bothered with coupons as I almost never purchase name brand products, except for Helmann's mayonnaise. BUT a few weeks ago I decided to start a coupon notebook because I found that there were stores(CVS especially) that offered certain items on sale and when combined with my coupons I could get them next to nothing.

I picked up a nice notebook with a few extra zippered compartments for .29 at a thrift store. I then purchased a few baseball card vinyl sheets. I can fit 12 coupons on each page (along with their duplicates).



Each page has it's own theme such as Medicine, paper goods, Hygiene, Canned goods etc. I put Medicine, hygiene, paper goods first as I use these weekly at CVS.



On Sunday afternoon or Monday morning Ella helps me clip the newest coupons and Emma begins to sort and put them into the notebook. It does take a while to do this but the girls have a lot of fun and I find it much easier to see what coupons I have and easily find them. I bring the whole thing with me when I shop.

For daily posts on frugal living and finding great deals at CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, etc take a look at MoneysavingMom's site.

I now have 8 tubes of toothpaste, a few bottles of nice hair care products, deodorant, and razors that I only paid pennies for. This is so much better than constantly running out like we always used to.

Eggtastic Basket

I found this cute basket a few weeks ago at a Thrift store. For us it was better to have eggs easily accessible and I can fit more in less space. Always a good thing :)



Did you know that eggs that are gathered fresh from the farm can be left out on the counter in a basket like this for a few weeks and still be good? As long as they aren't cooled and then allowed to warm back up again. Ours are from the store (already been cooled down and who knows how long they have been sitting at the store) so our basket goes into the frig.

SPOC (no not the one in Startrek)

I saw a really nice baby carrier (Ergo) in a children's shop the other day. I have never found a sling to be very comfortable and neither have my babies. But this one felt pretty good and offered the ability to wear the baby on the front, on the back, or on the hip which I thought was great. The bad part was that it was almost $100. YIKES. I don't think so. (Actually I did try to reason that it could be a good choice if I wore it every day. But logic rang through).

I even had a woman from freecycle offer her Bjorn to me but we are all sick and she lives about 20 minutes away. In the midst of this I also began to research different options that would be less expensive than an Ergo and found someone talking about a SPOC [Simple Piece Of Cloth].



BINGO! 5-6yards of material in 20"width wrapped in a variety of ways depending on how you want to 'wear' you baby. So a few days ago when I was at Walmart, Amanda and I picked out a slightly stretchy comfy piece of fabric for $1 a yard! wohoo... now that I can work with! 60" in width could be cut into three 20" strips. The cost was now only a few dollars for three wraps. We also found some really cute Winnie the Pooh Bear material and I plan to sew a square of that on that will be the part that wraps behind the Liam's back. Just to make it look a little bit cuter and babyish but I haven't bothered with that yet. It is SO COMFORTABLE and was perfect timing since Liam came down with the sickness and has wanted to be held way more than usual.

I looked at a video from hugabub.com to see how to wrap it and I found another site that had a dozen different ways to wrap a baby but can't seem to find that now...I'll have to keep searching.

Fabulous Frugal Finds

I must confess that I LOVE to find a bargain and am sure that lures me in to purchasing items that I should probably pass on sometimes.

Read what Meredith has to say at Like Merchant Ships (my favorite blog). Just "because there is great stuff out there, cheap, doesn't mean I have to have it."

Well I was thinking about what Meridith said when I came across this basket.

It was only a buck at the Salvation Army. I almost left it when I came to my senses.

One of my goals this year is to try to 'beautify' my home at very little cost. I decided this basket was a sensible purchase. It is unique and also fits my fruit themed kitchen (the fabric backdrop behind the basket is the curtains on my bottom kitchen cabinets). The basket is now displayed above my kitchen sink but I didn't take a picture there as the window behind it needs a good cleaning. :)

Goals for today: wash windows of course and organize the downstairs bathroom (which serves as a clothes closet/changing area for all the kids). And it would be really great if I could get through my ironing pile as well.

[will post sneak peek before and after pics again of those projects later today Lord willing]