Getting ready for the Trip to BIG D...

Dallas, that is, to stay with our youngest daughter, Melanie for 3 nights, attend our oldest daughter's graduation from UT at Arlington, then head back to the big Friona on Tuesday.

My husband and I were gearing up for the trip tomorrow this evening. Michael our 22 month old, is not a very good traveler, so we procured our older son Kenneth's portable DVD player and that is being charged up as we speak. We are hoping that this makes it easier for him as well as us. I have several key videos loaded and ready to go. The only problem is that we do not have an adaptor cable for the player in the car and the instructions said the batteries only have a charge for about 3 1/2 hours. Our trip will probably take us about 7 1/2 hours...

So we are going to do what any reasonable parent would do and we are diverting our travel plans to hit Lubbock after about 1 1/2 hours on the road and will stop to pick up a new adaptor. I am sure there are alot of parents out there who can relate;)

We have been aware of Michael's aversion to traveling in the car from the first ride home after his delivery, it was an ordeal for a straight 1 1/2 and it really hasn't gotten much better since then. He's the sweetest guy, he just does not like the idea of being restrained and having to sit still for any amount of time.

It's funny how opposite your kids can end up being in their personalities, our older son Kenneth, has been an excellent traveler from day one. He always entertained himself and never had any issues. He and I would take several trips to do a 'hostage exchange' with his grandparents and he was quite content to be in the backseat and would play and play for at least 4 1/2hours non-stop. So different from our little guy...

Kenneth is already in Dallas with his band for their big trip!!! It was an exciting itinerary, even though it is only to Dallas, it will still be fun, just because of traveling with several friends. Then he will be back in town for about 1 1/2 weeks and then turn around and be headed out of town to San Marcos for his State Solo competition on the saxophone. After that we will be taking a trip to Austin for a Principal's conference with David and then the only other plans are to head to Moore this summer for a brief visit with my sister and Kenneth's band camp in July at WTAMU. I am sure there will be alot more that will be squeezed in the summer before it is all over with.

Amanda is graduating with her Bachelor in Education. She has been student teaching this past semester and is currently interviewing for her first position. It is hard to put salt on her tail, hope she has been able to procure a position. Her and her husband Donnie are on the go all of the time, I hope that with her teaching in the Fall that they will be able to get into a more established routine. Did I mention she is graduating Cum Laude!!! Wow...

Well, I am exhausted, I just finished cleaning the church. My son usually helps for 1/2 of the pay amount, but since he is gone out of town, I had to pick up the full load. It really is a two person job, so it was tough, but at least it is over. I am also tired because I covered for cooking the Wednesday night supper for the congregation, dinner for about 70. I made homemade lasagna (umm, ummm, good!!!) garlic bread (prepackaged and cut, I just didn't have the energy for homemade Italian bread like I have always done) Greek salad (love that Feta) and apple as well as cherry cobbler with vanillar ice cream (grandma's recipe just can't be beat). It took me about 3 hours to get it all cooked and out, it's a tough gig...They are not the easiest crowd to cook for, but so far so good. I have done this about 6 times in the last 3 years and my meals are always received really well. I love our church home and congregation, with all of our worts and all. Take a look at some of our goings on....http://www.fbcfriona.com/

Be sure to click on the photos, we are in the baby dedication photos and some of the Christmas photos, and who knows where else we might turn up...

Will write more later...Have a great weekend!!!

Kenneth's Pride and Joy

My oldest son is very happy with the results of his efforts with our irises. This is the second year of having them in the ground and they have turned out beautifully!!

This is a very easy care perennial flower, that he highly recommends.

He is inspired to transplant some of them to the backyard after they finish blooming. There are a couple of lone white blooms, that I think he is going to cull out and put in back.

Aren't they beautiful!!!

Michael's Product Recommendations

Michael might be only 22 months old, but he definitely can express his opinions, so mommy is helping him with his contribution to the blogging world.

As you can see Michael loves his little swing. He can stay in this for hours... He feels secure in the swing and can go just as high as he would like at the moment. He highly recommends this for a frugal family with a big tree!!!

We obtained this as a gift from his Grandma Newhouse at a local hardware store for about $10 and he gets to swing on this at his Grandma's home (p.s. the hardware for hanging, was from some spare hooks that my husband had around the house).

We have included a link for purchasing through Amazon in the sidebar, if you would like.

What It's All About

You know sometimes there is just a single, simple picture that seems to capture so much of your heart in a single frame. This is my favorite example of my 'TruJoy'....

Having way too much fun!!!:)

I bought three Sunday papers today and five 'All You' magazines at WalMart. My coupon binder is 3" thick and expanding rapidly.

My mom has been extremely helpful and is collecting coupons from her friends and my aunt in OK and is dropping them off in the mail.

Plus, I am starting to get large $ coupons from manufacturers in the mail. I received about $8 in coupons from Farmland. I got the idea from my frugal site reviews and scoped out all of our name brand products throughout the house. I made a master list of all of the items and then went to the Hot Coupon world coupon database and looked up whether there was a coupon listed on their site or a link. If not, then I conducted a Google search for their company site to see if I might be able to score a coupon. I went ahead and clicked the contact us link on the sites with no coupons and have gotten several in the mail within just one week!

I reviewed the slick deals website this evening and have printed off the discussions and instructions for rolling ECB to GC 101. If you have not reviewed this info, check it out.

Plus, I printed off some additional coupons from the CVS website for $4 off of $20 purchase. Enough to get me through about 6 shopping excursions in the next two weeks. I will be heading to Dallas on Saturday and will be returning on Tuesday, so hope to get in several jaunts to the local CVS stores near my daughters place.

My Blessed Husband

I have been really focused over the past 2 weeks in learning how to make our budget stretch even further. It would probably seem that I have become a little bit obsessed. I have made sure to review my purchases over the past two weeks with my husband and oldest son, especially from CVS'ing. My husband had to sit down and review the receipts item by item to really 'see' what I was trying to explain to him. He kept asking me, 'how much money did you actually spend'?

Tonight he said it all!!! I can't afford to ever have you return back to the workforce, you are saving me so much money and helping our family to benefit from your wise shopping. This is phenomenal!! He's still trying to grasp my Addidas example of being 'paid' to buy their product and being able to walk away with $15. I know it sounds unreal, but that is a perfect example of the type of savings that you might be able to procure with some friendly advice and feedback from your frugal friends.

My husband's statements have validated ever action that I am taking to reduce our expenditures.

I guess I started my savings tear about one month ago when I noticed that our car insurance and homeowner insurance increased 10% even though there has been no claims or change in our credit scoring. Our budget is tight and trying to make that kind of adjustment was just too frustrating for me, how in the world could I reduce our expenses anymore when everything seems to be going up in price.

So I started calling and calling around for some new quotes on auto and home. I couldn't find a better deal for our homeowner coverage, no matter how I worked the deal. But with our car insurance I was able to switch to another provider and saved over $75 per month without changing any of our coverage particulars!!!

That started me thinking that the next biggest budget area that I haven't been able to get an increase in savings or a decrease in expenses is the dry goods area (toothpaste, laundry detergent, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, etc) That is when I started stumbling on several websites and blogs and started to educate myself.

I have learned so much and can't believe how ignorant I have been for far too many years. I am looking forward to gaining more experience in this field and believe that I will be able to establish significant savings for our family and build up a stash without going overboard or becoming obsessive.

Bargain Hunting in the Big City

It's late and I am exhausted from a very busy day in the big city. We live in a small rural town in the Texas panhandle. Today we got up at 7:00am and headed out to the big city of Amarillo and scored several shopping deals.

Panhandle Salvage - $24.80
Purchased 12 - 8 oz containers of raspberry yogurt
6 - 1/2 gallons of Minute Maid orange juice - pulp free (oldest son can't stand to drink pulp)
10 bunches of 3 heads of onions
5 cartons of sweet yellow/red/orange peppers
2 boxes of cinnamon graham crackers
32 oz frozen bag of corn
32 oz frozen bag of peas/carrots
20 lbs. of potatoes

I love this store and wish I could justify the extra gas expense more often, but hard to justify since the deals can be unpredictable.

Target $14.68
12 Boxes of Lipton 'Tea to Go' in varied flavors, box has 10 packets to add to water bottle $1.94 each + $1 off Target coupon. Final purchase price of 94 cents each. (Kinda' pricey but my oldest daughter is graduating from college and will soon be a full-time elementary teacher and she loves her 'Tea' on the run, so a perfect little care package idea/graduation bundle)
2 Boxes of Eggo waffles $1.84 each + $1 off of 2 Target coupon. Final purchase price of $2.68. (Kinda' pricey but my teenager deserves a treat every now and then)

CVS
1st Transaction
2 Aquafresh Advanced toothpaste $4.99 w4.99 ECB + 2-$1 off q
3 Colgate 360 toothbrushes 3.99 w3.99 ECB + 3 - $1 off q
2 EOB facial scrub pads $1.49
1 Foot pumice stone $2.49 + $5 ECB w/purchase of 3 EOB items
-$4 off $20
-$3 off $15
-$2 off $10


2nd Transaction $1.48 ($0 subtotal so just 8.25% tax)
2 Playskools Large pack diapers size 4 2/$19.99
1 Georgia Pacific printer paper $3.99
-$4 off $20
-$3 off $15
-$2 Playskool q
-$14.98 ECB

3rd Transaction $2.39
1 HP printer cartridge $19.99
1 Wrigley Extra Gum $1.19
-$4 off $20
-$3 off 15
-$11.97 ECB

Ended up with still having about $7 in ECB for next week. Still on the lookout for Bic Soleil razors, have received my third raincheck and the Addidas deoderant. I will be going to my daughter's graduation in Arlington next weekend. I told my husband that I am determined to get the free Addidas and get paid $15 for purchasing their product!!

Walgreens
2 Breathe Right boxes $4.99 each (12 ct, but look for the boxes with the 14 count for the price of 12) with q for $3 off box in Monthly savings booklet + $3 manuf q from manuf website
6 Air Wick Decospheres on clearance for $2.15 (caught my eye when they had an immediate savings coupon on product for $1.50 off + had 2 additional manf q for $1.50 off
2 Air Wick Stickups on clearance for $1 each + 2 additional manf q for 50 cents off each