Cow Appreciation Day 2013

So I'm finally getting back to my blog, it's been a busy end to our summer and I am still getting caught up around the house. On top of that we have sick children. So I am behind. Back in July we enjoyed coming home from a week of camp and dressing up like cows for free food at Chik-fil-A! They are so polite and fun and generous! The kids loved the concept this year of dressing like a cow. So enjoy!

No Spend July

We decided to try something new this year and take a month and try not to do any extra spending then what we absolutely had to spend. This was to show how much money we spend on a daily basis and be more aware of spending. We are also able to save a little bit of money. We are also gone for a couple weeks at camp so it makes my life a little easier. So here is what that means:

• We still have to pay rent, utilities, gas
• As for food I decided to just lower the amount we use per month because I don't normally stock pile too much--I normally buy what we need for the month.
• As for transportation we are cutting back on any extra trips. So we are hanging out around home a lot.
• As for eating out, unless it is a mystery shop where we are making money we are not eating out--this can be hard because we find we are used to stopping and getting a drink when we are on a trip or just eating out when we are tired or busy. Our eating out money normally comes from money we make from mystery shopping so it doesn't really come out of our budget.
• No miscellaneous money (used for postal, and general miscellaneous things that don't fit a category)
• No household money (this means paper goods, dish soap, things that are consumable.)
• No relationship money (we use this money for date nights--eating out, etc.) We had a nice date night doing that photo shoot at the beginning of the month and will be creative otherwise.
• No clothing money
• No gifts so if a gift comes up I will have make do with something I already have or make something. Thankfully there is only one birthday and I already had pre-ordered the present. 

This has been a rather challenging month I find. I  have noticed how many times I have wanted to spend money online, sales, etc. How many times I tell myself I need something but I have found out that I don't really need it and I just learn to make do.

Last Saturday I was working hard in my garden and found that my tomato plants were growing along the ground and desperately needed to be staked or have tomato cages. Well, knowing I couldn't spend any money I did what any resourceful person would do and went searching in the woods for the straightest sticks I could find. And guess what, they work just fine.

Great deal on Chicken Breasts

I wanted you to all know about a really good deal on fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts...it is fresh and it is $1.79 a pound. The catch is you have to buy it in 40lb increments. So if you know someone you can go in with its a good deal. This sale goes on twice a year and they deliver it to local towns (we have one close to us). The upcoming one is April 10th and you just order online and pick it up on that day. We bought some 6 months ago and it was really good tasting chicken. Anyway here is the website where you can see their meat and how to order...https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf93820

Here is some about the chicken:
Our Trademark Event

• 100 % natural chicken with no added hormones, additives or artificial ingredients

• Comes directly from the processor and has never been frozen

• Sold by the case — 40 lbs in each case

• Case dimensions—18 in wide x 12 in deep x 7 in tall

Gift Giving on a Budget: Making Your Money Stretch

I am starting a series on gift giving and am very excited because I LOVE to give gifts! Some posts will be on gifts you can make and give and some will be gifts for under $10 but I thought I would start it off with some money saving and making tips! Please let me know if you have any questions!

• Earn Giftcards—I used Swagbucks online as a search engine most of the time because as you search randomly you earn what is called swagbucks and once you reach 450 you can get a $5 amazon giftcard. Now there are other ways to earn swagbucks and there are other things you can earn but right now this what I buy with my swagbucks. I also will take the poll or when I buy a Groupon I got through swagbucks and I print coupons through them as well—all of those items help you earn bucks. Just a month ago I got about $25 in giftcards…helped me get my amazon Christmas gifts!
• Use Groupons—I find that when I want to give money for someone to go out to eat it’s nice that I can stretch my money or double it with a groupon. So it I have $15 and would like to give a gift of a meal out to someone it’s nice that they could possibly have $30 with a groupon instead of just $15. Or I keep my eye open for good deals on manicures or fun activities. Things that will help stretch my money for gifts.
• Giftcards--Also since most people ask for giftcards these days (me included sometimes) it’s nice to use store and restaurant deals that are offered around holiday times. Places like Kroger, drugstrores and restaurants offer all sorts of incentives to get you to buy giftcards from them. I know that Kroger will offer extra points towards gas, drugstores will offer to stretch your money in giftcards and restaurants will give you an extra card of amount if you buy so much. Last year I bought $100 in Outback steakhouse giftcards and they gave me and extra $20 card. That makes your money stretch!
• Coupons—if you collect coupons it helps you be able to get good deals for putting together a basket of items and you can usually get name brand really nice things for a lot cheaper. So if you were doing a spa/beauty basket you could get Olay or Old Spice, etc. for a fraction of the price and impress people who think you spent a lot more than you did.
• Samples—I request a lot of samples when I have time and someone tells me where to go—like moneysavingmom, etc. I get samples of beauty products, household items, food, baby items, etc. I use some of these right away, I save some and I put some aside for gifts. So later if I’m putting together a gift for someone like a newlywed—I can throw in some nice samples that come in handy or for a baby gift and I have diapers or desetin or lanolin I can put that in the gift. I am also putting together right now a basket for one of my sisters with spa things and will be including the Target beauty bag and some beauty samples. Small things put together in a nice presentation make a good gift.
• Giveaways—I like to enter giveaways although sometimes it feels like I never win there are occasional times when I do win something and if I don’t need it I save it for a gift. I won some really pretty hairbows a while back and I only needed one so I saved the rest to give as gifts. There are all sorts of giveaways from giftcards to kitchen items so if you have time it’s worth entering.
• Swaps—I have found it very beneficial if I have some books or movies I no longer want to post them on paperbackswap.com or swapadvd.com as I can swap them for something I would rather have or when a family member’s birthday comes up and they have on their wishlist a certain book or movie I can request that for free since I usually have some saved up credits. All it costs me is the price of mailing whatever dvd or book I wanted to get rid of which is way cheaper than buying it brand new. Also on facebook there are now baby/clothes/diaper swaps you name it and someone out there is trading or selling things a lot cheaper. So I have found I can sell surplus clothes or items I no longer need and put the money away for gifts or to buy clothes I need.
• Accumulating a Gift Bag—I have in my closet a gift bag which is where I keep items that I have found for a really good price or gotten free or something I want to re-gift and know I can use for a gift down the road. So I have baby clothes, chocolate, lotions and soaps, etc. Sometimes during the year you see things at yard sales or at the store that are just such a good price and so I pick the item up and save it for Christmas or birthdays. Also a few weeks ago after Halloween I picked up a ton of candy to put aside for Christmas for stockings and gifts…good stock up price $.50 a bag.
• Mystery Shopper—A good way to also pick up a little extra money is to become a secret shopper in your local area. I work for 4 companies off and on—you get to pick shops that fit your schedule and this helps supply money for us to eat out and give gifts. Ask me for more information on that. 
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Amazing Kroger Shopping Trip

So yesterday I had an amazing shopping experience at our local Kroger and the sales are just so amazing I had to take a picture and share! This is Gideon and Tirzah thoroughly enjoying going through all the groceries and building towers with the items! So I had to carefully plan out my shopping trip as I don't have a lot of time to spend at the grocery store and I wanted to do it just right. Kroger has a wonderful sale that consists of buying five specified items and getting $5 back, with coupons this made for even better deals where you could even make some money. Also some of the items had other deals going on inside the packages. Joshua dropped me off with Chloe and took the kids to the library so I could concentrate at the check out, which I had to because I had to do nine transactions as I rolled the $5 coupons I got by buying five items. I had a wonderful guy help me out at the self check out who was so patient with my huge stack of coupons! Some of my coupons were from the paper, some were from the internet and some Kroger had sent me--I had two free coupons. I think I had a coupon for everything except the garlic, milk, cake mixes and pizzas. Anyway, I strongly suggest you head out to Kroger this week and catch this sale and stock up! Here is a great website to help you out.

So here is what I got:

• 5 Totino's Pizzas (send off for a $5 rebate)
• 5 cake mixes
• 10 boxes of potatoes
• 4 shake n pour brownie mixes (I've been wanting to try these out)
• 2 Old El Paso refried beans
• 2 refrigerated cookie dough (send away for coupon for free pizza rolls)
• 4 Cookie mixes
• 3 Chex Mix
• 4 Toaster strudel
• 2 Fruit snacks
• 4Fruit Roll ups
• 1 lindor truffle bag (free)
• 2 renuzit air freshners
• 1 ragu sauce (free)
• 2 bags of carrots
• 1 bag of tortilla chips
• 1 bag of doritos
• Garlic
• Milk

Grand Total: $21.61

Cow Appreciation Day

There is nothing like the fun of dressing up together as a family as cows (especially when your little ones love to say "mooooo") and heading to Chick-Fil-A for free meals! We definitely hit the three Chick-Fil-A's in our area for all three meals. Gideon actually enjoyed dressing up and wanted his cow "nose". Tirzah was just adorable. We met up with Joshua's parents and our sister-in-law with my little niece April. We also met up with my sister and two friends for breakfast that was fun! All the people at Chick-Fil-A were friendly and enthusiastic and happy to see us all dressed up!

Grandpa and Tirzah

My niece April

Grandma and Alaina

So cute, look at those eyes and ears!

Beth and Kelsey

Joshua and I

Gideon with his nose!

Andy and Michelle--my wonderful in-laws

Meeting MoneySavingMom

Last month Joshua and I had the opportunity to attend the Virginia Homeschool Convention for free and since we were already in town we decided to attend. I was excited because I got to meet and listen to Crystal Paine who runs www.moneysavingmom.com and Joshua was excited to listen to and meet Jason Lisle who is a very smart and famous scientist who works for Institute for Creation Research. He has written an amazing book called The Ultimate Proof of Creation and he has some great astronomy books that Joshua has been enjoying as well. I wanted to share a few things I learned from Moneysavingmom that were helpful to me:
Ways to get Free Coupons:

• Ask friends, neighbors, etc.
• Stop by Starbucks or McDonalds on Sunday afternoons and ask if you can pick up an inserts lying around.
• Trade coupons with friends
• Check your local library to see if they will allow you to have the coupons from their Sunday paper
• Look for coupons available in dispensers at stores
• Print them out online
• Write to the manufactureres of your favortie products and ask if they have coupons they can send you.
• Freecycle or Craigslist
• Gas stations sometimes give away their newspapers Sunday night or Monday morning

Isn't that helpful? I don't have an extensive coupon system but I sure do love learning more and more and extending my system. I had a great shop at Kroger yesterday and was able to use a lot of coupons, I appreciate people who leave coupons they can't use with the item at the store, I found a great one yesterday that was helpful.  Anyway, just wanted to share. Below is a picture of Crystal and myself, it was such an honor to meet her and listen to her wisdom!

House Party Box Arrived!

It's always so much fun when my box from Houseparty arrives with the green sticker that says "your party pack"! I love to host a houseparty and get the news out about new products. The way it works is you fill out an application for a party that appeals to you and if you are picked you invite people over for a party and then you are sent a nice big box of freebies to hand out and get the word out about the company. I've done a few in the past--one for SpinMasters games which was fun, I was sent the games Quelf and Logo and we played one and everyone went home with nice coupons if they were interested in buying the games. I've also done a Shutterfly one in which everyone learned how to make a photo book and then people got free photo book codes and free shipping, it was great! This houseparty which I am hosting tomorrow is to get the word out about Walgreens grocery items so as you can see they sent me some pretty great baking items...the ingredients to make Oatmeal cookies, some chex mix for the party and popcorn, some trail mix to give out, I also have coupons and free Redbox codes to give out, pretty amazing right? I'm combing my party with a get together I'm starting to host called a craft and chat, ladies bring whatever project they are working on to show everyone and to motivate them to work on it...so much fun! So if you're ever interested in hosting a house party just go out here: Houseparty

Tirzah helping me unpack

Yay, a box!

Great Deal on Chex Mix

I like to have snacks in the house that I can pull out to tie the kids over till dinner or Joshua and I can snack on in the evenings when we are relaxing. So I keep my eye open for some good deals. This week at Walgreens there is a great deal on chex mix. So in Sunday's paper there was a coupon for $.50/2 for chex mix or you can print them off in the following links. Walgreens has them on sale for 4/$6 and when you combine the $2 off coupons they wind up being only $1 a piece and if you buy 4 it also prints off a $2 register reward that you can use on your next purchase...pretty sweet huh? Walgreens $1/4  Chex Mix $.50/2 and Chex mix $.50/2

To recap: Sale is 4/$6-$2 coupons=$4 a piece plus $2 on your next purchase at Walgreens