this week {11.15}

~ i worked from home two days ~

~ i had a hair appointment ~

~ i did 7 loads of laundry ~

~ spencer's class recognized veteran's day with a parade ~

~ spencer didn't participate in the parade because he is the 'roaming reporter' for the school news ~

~ i shopped at bi-lo, harris teeter, kohl's, food lion, at&t, and best buy ~

~ i watched castle, supernatural, smallville, lie to me, modern family, private practice, 2 1/2 men, law and order, glee, the mentalist and fringe (yes, i watch too much tv) ~

~ i learned that over 2 million children read the very hungry caterpillar as part of the jumpstart program. also, 275,000 books were donated. very cool. ~

~ i finally updated my profile picture on facebook (it was 7 months old) ~

~i paid child support for matt ~

~ i picked up mcdonald's for supper one night (matt's idea) and ordered pizza another night (my idea) ~

~ i ordered a new carseat for coleman ~

~ i put together notes and agenda for our first social committee meeting ~

~ i made jambalya and lasagna for dinner; matt made spaghetti and burgers ~

~ i sent emails to family with christmas gift suggestions; also got some needed gift ideas ~

~ i ordered free christmas return address labels from vistaprint.com ~

~ i finally took down the halloween decorations ~

~i attended our first social committee meeting...lots of awesome stuff! ~

~ as a result of above-mentioned meeting, i typed up a TON of notes afterwards ~

~ two different women in the same store approached me thinking i was someone else. weird ~

~ i had to do a personality profile thingy for work (it turned into an area of obsession for matt and scott) ~

~ spencer pulled his math and science grades up to As. Woohoo. ~

~ coleman had a bad, bad, bad bout of diarrhea ~

~ i realized how long three hours can feel when your baby is sick and you're waiting to hear from the stupid doctor's office ~

~ i also realized how awesome it is to have close friends/neighbors with babies too (particularly when their babies had "it" first and can tell you what to do) ~

~ spencer completed a tesselation project for school ~

~ matt got a taste of what it really means to have a *bad night* with coleman ~

~ the gamecocks lost (again) but held their own against florida ~

~ spencer forgot about the new rule of "no football throwing in the house" ~

~ scott and cameron came over to watch the game ~

~ christy came over and fixed my internet (again) ~

~ we had a last minute location change for our family photo shoot. however, it turned out to be a very good thing. i can't wait to see the shots. our photographer rocked! her work-in-progress website is here~

~ i only took 16 photos and 2 videos this week (below are a few) ~

cooper + coleman + matt

yes, i still take pictures of the dogs (sometimes). i tried to get one of rio but he wouldn't cooperate.

we brought another *christmas* present down from the attic. i'm not sure whether to be annoyed that my advanced buying has been ruined or proud that my child is more advanced than i expected. anyway, he took to this walking toy immediately. and there's cooper again.

this will entertain him for a ridiculous amount of time.

scott getting some practice in...

more savings {11.09 + 11.10}

I had to go to Bi-Lo because they were running a great Beech-Nut deal. Everything I got was on sale + I had a coupon for it all+ the deal gave $5 instant savings if you purchased $15. So, in total, I got $23.00 worth of baby food items (jars + juice + cereal) for only $4.61!!! Woohoo.

Summary of entire Bi-Lo trip:
Total at full retail = $69.62
Paid = $35.89
Saved = $33.73 (48%)

I went back to Harris Teeter to only get free/cheap items. Spencer's class is collecting "personal care items" for a local food bank this month so my goal was to make sure I got a few things in that area. I got tons of rice for free or super cheap (this is not "easy rice" so most of it will probably get donated...I'm just that lazy). For his class, I got two bottles of lotion, dental floss, toothpaste, bar soap. None of it was free, but it was all very cheap. Free muffin mix. I also picked up some baby food and formula. Was hoping for some super cheap wipes, but the coupon beeped and then a pesky manager read the "do not double" and they ended up not being such a steal. Definitely worth the extra trip (and I was able to do it on my lunch hour since I wasn't getting anything cold).

Harris Teeter Summary (Tripes trip #2)
Total at full retail = $82.32
Paid = $21.66
Savings = $60.66 (74%)

savings saturday {11.7}

i went to harris teeter saturday morning for "triples" week. though i got some good deals, the bottom line wasn't as good as it should've been. instead of focusing on all the freebies or super cheap items, i focused on things we truly needed and use, for which i had coupons under one dollar.

Summary
Total at full retail = $143.99
Actually spent (with tax) = $88.76
VIC savings = $26.51
Coupons = $28.72
Total saved = $55.23 (38%)
If you take out the beer that I bought, I saved 47% :)

this week {11.1 - 11.7}

~ i uploaded 300 photos to flickr ~

~ i was very grateful for matt getting up early with coleman a few times so i could get a tad bit more sleep ~

~ my mom had a birthday! ~

~ i worked from home three days (monday, tuesday, friday) ~

~ spencer started using a new reading log at school ~

~ i signed up for a free class at Jessica Sprague's website ~

~ spencer had his last two baseball games ~

~ coleman loved the swing at tega cay (during spencer's game) ~

~ we ate at the white horse ~

~ i learned that PSE 8 was just released (after i just purchased PSE 7) ~

~ i sent a bunch of plastic grocery bags to school with spencer for some collection thing they were doing ~

~ spencer began his position as "roaming reporter" for the school news!! ~

~ i checked out shannon and jeff's wedding website ~

~ i learned our pediatrician's office was out of flu shots, then took coleman in for a cough and found out they did have some shots left ~

~ coleman weighed 20 pounds 3 ounces ~

~ i sent out envelopes for three rebates ~

~ i attended our first hoa board meeting and was elected vice president ~

~ i made cinnamon melt muffins ~

~ i learned that a little two year old girl in columbia (a friend of a family at aj's) had swine flu, was misdiagnosed and died :( ~

~ watched lots of ncis reruns ~

~ traded coupons with katherine in greenville ~

~ bo (my nephew) ran in the state cross country race ~

~ spencer pulled out the mythbusters kit he got for his birthday and did some experiements in the kitchen floor ~

~ spencer and coleman got a halloween card from aunt michelle ~

~ coleman and john michael played in the backyard ~

`
~ i took this SUPER cute picture of our neighbors, les + christy ~

~ the gamecocks got their butts kicked by arkansas (that's why coleman looks a little sad here) ~

~ scott and spencer played a ton of football in the hallway. this eventually led to my lamp getting broken. nice. ~

~ i got some coupons from sherry ~


~ spencer showed me his stapler power point presentation ~


~ we ate lunch at matt's parent's house ~


~ i saw phillip (matt's nephew) drive for the first time ~


~ we all went to spencer's end-of-baseball-season party at sayago's ~

~ i finalized the letter/bios that will be sent from the board to neighbors ~

~ our internet went out again (which is why this is getting posted a day late) ~

~ i uploaded a bunch of old photos from my phone (have to remember to include that in my weekly photo upload from now on) ~

~ i took a total of 45 pictures (most of which were on saturday) see them all here ~

{tumblr}

i recently learned about a new website (well, new to me) called tumblr. it took me a little bit of pondering to "get it", but i finally did and i think it's going to be an awesome resource for me. basically it's a blog, but a bit more standardized than the typical blog (like this one).

so, i started a page and it's mainly a resource for me. it's a place for me to corral all sorts of "goodies" found on the internet - home decor ideas, scrapbooking pages i like, tutorials i'd like to refer back to, etc. the posts are tagged also. so, if in a few weeks i think to myself "what can i do for spencer's teachers for christmas???", i can go to my tumblr blog and look at posts tagged "gift ideas" and sort through things that have recently caught my attention! or next year when i think "oh, i wish i could remember where i saw the idea of making mummies out of hershey bars"...voila! it'll be there on my tumblr page (tagged with "halloween").

i kept the same name over at my tumblr site for consistency. i don't expect anyone to hang out there, but if you find that you like the same things i do, you might find some inspiration there. also, my posts to this blog feed over there.

you can link to my tumblr page here

thrifty thursday {11.5}

i went to walgreen's on my lunch hour...somewhere i haven't been in a while. i decided to go because there were a few "drug" items that we needed and they had the best deal on them this week. my biggest issue with walgreen's is that their RR's expire quickly and i have wasted some pretty big ones in the past.

so, to remedy the problem, i went in with a plan and then did THREE transactions. this allowed me to spend my RRs before i ever left the store. the cashier was relatively patient with me :)

what i got:
- (2) dayquil + nyquil @ $1.50 each
- (4) chicken noodle soup @ $0.40 per can
- (2) 165ct Motrin @ $6.32 each
- (1) Lubriderm lotion @ $2.33
- (2) Almay mascara @ $1.50 each
- various candy and some hot tea packs all 75% from halloween. nothing more than 99 cents.

spending summary
total @ full retail = $85.65
total spent out of pocket = $31.98
store savings = $32.27
coupon savings = $21.40 (includes $11 in RRs earned)
total savings = $53.67 (66%)

frugal friday {10.31}

i did some shopping last friday. here's a summary of my savings...

rite aid
two transactions - both using $4 off $20 coupon
total retail value = $61.80
saved 47% for out-of-pocket expenses
earned $11 in rebates
total savings = $43 or 70%
overall this is really good because i bought a few expensive baby items that weren't on sale or have an scr.

bi-lo
paid $97.90 and saved $68.07 (about half and half from sales/coupons)
that's only a savings of 41%...much less than i prefer. however, it includes 2 big cans of formula, a case of beer, and 8 bags of halloween candy. considering all that, not too shabby!

food lion
paid $ 32.98 and saved $20.79...only 39%
no great explanation for not doing better :(

triples week at harris teeter starts tomorrow!!

links {massive photo load}

i am happy, proud, excited to announce that i am caught up on photo uploads. i just added 300+ pictures to flickr. i included some recent ones in a post earlier this evening, but i'm not going to go back and do posts for all photos from the past month and a half... my goal is going to be to upload photos every sunday from the prior week and write a "this week" post like i did today. fingers crossed :)

below are links to all the sets, or if you want to browse all the new stuff, you can just click here.

pumpkin patches

pumpkin carving

halloween

bo's cross country race

spencer's biztown field trip

october 2009 (random photos)

september 2009 (more added)

baseball season (a few more added)

smilebox {halloween 2009}

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

{this week}

~ i purchased spencer's (over-priced) halloween costume ~

~ i picked up the keepsake ornament book from hallmark ~

~ i sent an email addressing my first "issue" as a hoa board member ~

~ i witnessed the most beautiful baby girl getting baptised ~

~ i worked from home two days ~

~ my whole family carved a pumpkin (well, we all helped except coleman who just played in the guts) ~

~ i fixed my hair with no product (not the end of the world, but definitely not the best hair day on record) ~

~ i spent two days in cleveland (which included an uninterrupted night's sleep) ~

~ i discovered that brown sugar is yummy on a banana ~

~ spencer got his report card (1 A, 3 Bs) ~

~ my flight home was delayed ~

~ i drank bud light (not a fan) ~

~ i tried desperately to get a cute picture of coleman in his "little monster" shirt with no luck ~

~ matt seriously impressed me by taking a photo of coleman watching the kelli pickler video ~

~ it rained on halloween, creating a last minute rearrange of the garage for the festivities ~

~ i made taco soup ~

~ i was glad that the dvr recorded 14 episodes from the ncis marathon on a fluke ~

~ coleman amazingly fit into his monkey costume ~

~ spencer decided he didn't want to trick-or-treat, so he chose to hand out candy instead ~

~ i made goodie bags for the neighborhood kids ~

~ the gamecocks got their butts handed to them by tennessee ~

~ my house had a 9' inflatable gamecock in the den (and frankenstein in the front yard) ~

~ coleman had his worst night of sleep (or lack thereof) yet ~