Mommin' It Up!

August 30, 2008August 30, 2008

Clearance + Coupons = Happiness

I had some great savings at CVS this week and FINALLY got a good deal at the grocery too! Come see what I scored!

This transaction was SO fun for me. I walked into my CVS on Sunday only to discover with joy that they had TIDE on clearance 75% off! They had these 39-load jugs for $3.00! And I had $1.00 off coupons! Woohoo! Here’s how it broke down

2 Tide $6
Viva paper towels (OHH how I LOVE them!) $6.49
Zipfizz energy drink $5.99
Kotex $1.49
CVS hand lotion $1.49

Total = $21.46
Coupons:
$5/$20 Walgreens coupon (my CVS takes competitor q’s)
$2/10 CVS coupon
Two $1 off Tide
$1 off Kotex
$1 off Kotex Walgreens coupon
$2 off CVS skincare product (gave me overage on the lotion)
75 cents off Viva
$1.50 off Viva CRT (from a previous CVS receipt)
Total = 6.21
I paid with 6 ECB and just 14 cents tax and got back 5.99 ECB for the zipfizz, 1.49 for the Kotex, and 1 ECB for the Viva! So I actually PROFITED on that! Amazing!

Next, I got some of my FAVORITE Mountain Dew products!

Mountain Dew 4/$12
Sobe Water 5/$5
Milk $2.99
CVS hand lotion $1.49
zipfizz $5.99
Total = $27.47

Coupons:
Walgreens $5/$20
CVS $2/$10
Four $1 off Target Mountain Dew coupons
Four “Buy a 12-pk Pepsi product, get a free Sobe water”
$2 off CVS skincare

Total= $10.47
I paid with 10 ECB and 58 cents cash and got back 5.99 ECB for the zipfizz, 3 ECB for the Mountain Dew and 2 ECB for the Sobe. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 soooo HAPPY WITH THAT!

Ok, last one. This was a fun one. God is good. Before this week, we were down to about a box & a half of cereal. Thanks to CVS and Meijer this week, we now have TWELVE boxes!

Four boxes of Malt-O-Meal cereal $4
Zipfizz energy drink $5.99
CVS hand lotion $1.49

Total = $10.48

Coupons: $2/$10 CVS
four $1 off Malt-o-Meal printables
$2 off CVS skincare product

Total = $2.48

I paid with 2.49 ECB, adjusted down to 2.48, which made my total a perfect ZERO, and I got back 5.99 ECB for the zipfizz. YAY!

Ok, on to Meijer. I FINALLY got some good grocery deals this week after weeks of NO GOOD SALES. Shew! I made an impromptu trip on Sunday night with NO LIST and still did pretty well so I was pumped. I got allthis for $26.72:

The Cheerios were $1.67 and I had 5 $1 off coupons from signing up for the Cheerios Challenge. The Fiber One bars ended up being 88 cents after doubled coupons. There were tear pads with “buy 3 Kraft products, get free Wheat Thins” coupons (also Oscar Mayer hot dogs!) so I got a couple of those and bought the 20 cent Kool-Aid packets to use as my three Kraft items. I also had a coupon like this for the cheese, which I got from “All You” magazine. So, free cheese! Before Coupons my total was 55 dollars and change, so I was thrilled with this trip! Then on my way out, I noticed a sign by the door. They were having a promotion where if you bought $10 worth of Nabisco cookies or crackers, you could get $10 off three packages of Fruit of the Loom basics. Well, the FREE Wheat Things are part of this promotion, so I went back and got this!

All this for $9.59. I bought Kool-Aid packets to qualify as my 3 Kraft items to get the Wheat Thins and the hot dogs FREE. The Wheat Thins then took $10 off my three packages of socks (which were originally $4.59 EACH!!) I had $1 off coupons for the Lean Cuisine, which were on sale for $1.99, so I got them for 99 cents each. $9.59 for ALL THAT!? I was thrilled!

Allright, that’s all I got. Hope you did great this week too! To see more fabulous coupon action, check out CVS Superstars at the Centsible Sawyer and Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!

August 29, 2008

I Hate Building Train Track

I am the world’s worst train track builder. It takes me forever to build one, and I am always getting myself in situations where I have to undo a bunch and redo it…last week I actually got so frustrated I went to Toys “R” Us and dropped twenty bucks on adapter pieces of track because I can’t just BUILD A TRACK! Adapter pieces are the ones that have two “male” ends or two “female” ends. So you can use Thomas the Tank Engine to give your kids the “Birds & the Bees” talk one day or something.

Anyhoo.

I hate building train track. When Joshua asks me to build one, I do it begrudgingly and with much “harumphing”. I think about all the things I could be getting done while I am wasting my life away building this stupid track that he will play with for five minutes and then take apart.

But man, is it gonna suck when he stops asking me to build them. He can already build good tracks himself…but he still likes to watch Mommy and Daddy do it. One day, he’s not going to want to sit with me while I build a track. And another day, he’s going to be too big to want to play with trains anymore.

That’s really why I bought the adapter track, I guess. So I can hang in there with him a little bit longer. So I can watch him jump up and down while I build and listen to him tell me what a great job I’m doing. So I can see his little face light up when he gives that new track it’s first test run. So I can hear him make up his own story about Thomas “puffing down the line”.

Why do I hate building train track again?

I seem to have forgotten.

August 28, 2008October 13, 2008

I’m My Own Grandpa

A couple of weeks ago when I was on vacation at my parents’ house in Virginia, my mom approached me with a notebook. “I want to show you something interesting,” she said. What she showed me was not only interesting, but very enlightening, embarrassing, and well, hysterical. It was a chart she had made – a family tree actually – detailing exactly how it is that Emily and I (and our siblings, parents, grandparents, etc.) are related. And then related again. As in, inbred.

That’s right folks, the tree doesn’t branch too far in some places. As a matter of fact, Emily and I are not only first cousins, we’re also FIFTH cousins. My brothers aren’t just my brothers, they’re also my FIFTH cousins. Same goes for Emily and her sister. And my mom? She’s my fourth cousin once removed! Just like Emily’s dad is also her fourth cousin once removed. Here’s the chart my mom made to explain it to me:

So. Let me walk you through my mom’s little piece of family history. When you see people’s names starting to appear multiple times you know something’s a little out of the ordinary! It all starts with William Burns, Sr. He came out of the hollers of Eastern Kentucky and fought in the Revolutionary War. Thanks to him, my mom just got inducted into the Daughters of the American Revolution. (BOO-YAH! We may be inbred but we’re still THE awesome!) Then he went back to the holler and had a son, Andrew. We’re going to skip forward a little bit and concern ourselves with three of Andrew’s great-grandchildren, Ambrose, Florida, and Taylor. These folks grew up in the holler as second cousins. Things start to get a little sticky when Ambrose and Florida get hitched and have several children, one of whom is a handsome boy named Laton. Meanwhile, Taylor (second cousin to Ambrose and Florida) marries someone who is not his cousin (thankfully) and has a beautiful daughter named Kathleen. When they are teenagers, Laton and Kathleen meet at boarding school in Eastern Kentucky and fall in love. Never mind that they are third cousins. They didn’t meet until high school so that should negate their shared DNA, right??? They get married after World War II and have two children, Diane (my mom) and Dan (Emily’s dad). Although Diane and Dan are siblings, they are also fourth cousins due to the fact that their parents share the same great-great-grandfather.

Still with me?

This love story leads us to the aforementioned fact that Emily and I are not only first cousins but fifth cousins, and all that other freaky stuff I already told you.

The other conclusion that can be made from this is that a small amount of inbreeding is a good thing. After all, Emily and I are both geniuses who graduated early from college, are hilariously funny and talented writers, and have beautiful children. Right??

Try not to be jealous, people.

I’m just sayin’, the next time you go to a family reunion, you should totally scope out your kid’s future spouse. Just make sure they’re at least third cousins. You don’t want your grandchildren to have two noses, do you?