Thursday, April 30, 2009

cvs this week: day 1

- one package of 6 plastic easter eggs.... 12¢
- six Command hooks.... on sale for 2/$5.00 ($2.50 off x 6)

PAID: $0.13

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

parrot walking

Last week I saw a man and woman taking their parrot for a walk- I almost ran off the road.

The parrot was sitting on the man's right shoulder and flapping its wings all around enjoying the sun and breeze. If I hadn't had my daughter with me, I might have stopped to take a picture. Oh well, maybe next time.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

on monday

On Monday afternoon Husband insisted on shampooing the carpet. Why? And why all of a sudden? I have no idea.

So Daughter and I left.. even though we had nowhere to go. I got some lunch and she watched me eat it. I got the mail at the post office, I got coffee, and we walked around Target for a little while. 

When I got back to the house everything smelled disgusting.. like when my parents dogs would have a bath at the kennel before they came back home. Semi-wet doggy having just had a bath with kennel strength soap smell- yum.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

one red paperclip

I decided to buy One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald. And I was lucky enough to find a 25% off coupon online for Borders.

I bought this book yesterday afternoon, spent time with family, drove home, did home things, and then sat down to read around 10 or 11pm. Before I knew it I had read over a hundred pages. And when I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I had to go to bed, I stopped reading at 142 pages. 142 pages! With a baby no less. I haven't read 142 combined pages in the last year, never mind of one one thing in one sitting!

Needless to say I am really really enjoying the book. The story is so interesting and it's so well written. Each page I read I have to turn to see what happens, and then what happens, and then what happens, and then what happens, etc.

It all started on Craigslist I guess. There is a barter section? It all seems so easy to start.. and yet I'm a little wary of Craigslist currently.. and I'm sure many people are too. Not that I am a "masseuse", but still..

Thursday, April 23, 2009

tresemme savings at cvs

One of the offers at CVS this week is on Tresemme products; they are 3 for $10.

I had a $4 off $20 beauty coupon and then a combination of ECB and coupons totaling $10.99. So I paid $5.29 for one 32oz bottle of shampoo, three 32oz bottles of conditioner, and 2 bottles of styling spray. If you are keeping track that works out to about 88¢ an item! Plus I got $10 ECB back.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

what to do with $3.16

Shopping trip at CVS on Tuesday..

- ACT mouthwash $4.99, get $2 ECB ($1 off coupon)
- Claritin 24hr 10/15 ct $9.99, get $2 ECB ($7 off coupon)
- 2 Oral-B dental floss $2.88 each, get $2 ECB each
- Edge Infused shaving gel $2.89, get $2.89 ECB
- 1 issue of Good Housekeeping $2.50

USED: $5 off $25 coupon and $10 in ECB (plus the $8 in coupons)
PAID: $3.16

Sunday, April 19, 2009

How to stretch 10¢

How to stretch 10 cents on a Saturday night..

CVS #1
- 2 Sobe at BOGO with BOGO coupon
- BOGO Purex raincheck
- "free" toothbrush raincheck
PAID: 0.10

CVS #2
- 2 Sobe at BOGO with BOGO coupon
PAID: 0.00

CVS#3
- $3.99 toothbrush (got $3.99 in ECB)
- $0.75 starbucks chocolate
- BOGO Purex raincheck
USED: "4.49" in ECB (it said 4.49, but it seems the value was 4.99)
PAID 0.00

Friday, April 17, 2009

and today at the park..

Daughter and I went to the park today. And every SAHM in a 20 mile radius took their kiddies to the park too. I had to drive around looking for a spot for 10 minutes just to take a 20 minute walk. Arrg. Who knew going to the park was so stressful?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

did you know..

1. I had rats as pets for a few years. Lexicon (Lexi), Cheesecake, and Anna- all girls. They were very interesting little creatures- really clean, organized, and cute.

2. I lived in an apartment that my neighbor set on fire (and destroyed) while I was at work one day. The fire department chopped down my door and ripped open the roof. Thankfully my cat survived.. just scared and smelling like he had been at a barbecue all day.

3. I won a car when I was 17. It's true. It wasn't brand new, but that is still pretty cool for a 17 year old.

4.  I saw The Ramones in Connecticut.. a few years before they broke up for good. They played with White Zombie.. actually I think they opened for WZ.. which seemed weird to me. I was so close to the stage, if I had reached my arm out I would have been able to touch it.

Monday, April 13, 2009

so it's come to this has it?

Soo.. I have a baby. And I signed up for pretty much every reputable offer I could find before she came (and a few after).

What this means is that I get coupons and offers in the mail many times a week. A lot of it is for brands that I am not using. For months I was just throwing them out.. but then I started to wonder how I could find someone else to use them. For example, I decided to go with Similac, but I was also getting Enfamil coupons (one was for $11 off).

[Amusing side story: When I say "I decided to go with Similac" I mean I picked a brand without too much knowledge of the differences. Then, when I was recovering from surgery, drifting in and out of consciousness, and the nurse told me my baby was hungry and asked me which brand I wanted her to be fed.. I could hardly remember my own name never mind what brand of formula I wanted my baby to eat. She rattled off a list, I said something like "what's the difference".. the response was "nothing", so I guess I repeated the only one I could remember.]

And apparently it has come to this..

I signed up for some baby coupon swapping nonsense. Ya, that's right. I seem to now be collecting coupons and trading them with people via the usps. 

But it's kinda neat if you think about it. I've already gotten a few emails and at least one woman wants to send me $7 worth of similac coupons for a couple of Johnson's and Pampers coupons I know I'll never use. Spend 42¢, save $7.. sounds good to me.

First it was being inspired by families of 4 and 5 with insanely low grocery budgets. Now it's collecting and trading baby coupons with strangers. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Or something.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

how did you find this blog?

I think having a counter on one's blog is kind cool. What's even cooler though is if the counter company you are using can give you all sorts of other info too. For instance, the one I use tells me about the search terms that brought visitors to my site. 

I wrote a about how I came to know The Ting Tings not through the radio, Apple advertising, etc, but through watching Yo Gabba Gabba with Daughter. I called it something like "how to promote your band".. well many people were probably disappointed that they didn't learn anything about promoting their fledging bands by reading my blog.

There was "Animated Tazmanian devil avatars"- and before right now I have not ever used even one of those words in this blog. Ug.. now I'm going to get 100 animated tazmanian devil avatar fans reading my blog. Well, that's alright.. welcome ATDA fans!

The best one that I've seen so far is "do they use skullcandy headphones on ghost hunters". Yes, yes they do.. and that was confirmed for that searcher when I talked about my history of desire for a pair one day. A pair of skull candy headphones that is, not ghost hunters.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

seriously?

I was watching an episode of Oprah recently. (I can't believe I just typed that. Oh well.) I am trying to remember what it was about..

Recession proofing you marriage, I think?

Anyway, Dooce was on briefly. I swear she said she makes $40,000 a MONTH from the advertising on her blog. Maybe I misheard, but I'm like 90% sure that's what she said. She went on to say that her husband quit his job, and that her blog is the "family business."

I wish I had a blog that was the family business and we didn't have to worry so much about financial things. I'd be ecstatic if I made $40K a YEAR from a blog, never mind a month.

Friday, April 10, 2009

or not

I emailed someone with a couple of questions I had about the potential job. The email address of mine I used was in gmail. 

If you have a gmail account, you know how you can see the first line or so of the email even before you open it? Well, the response I got started with the word "unfortunately".. so you can figure out the rest of how that went.

I was a little sad, I'll admit. Okay, more than a little. But on the bright side, I'll still get to spend all my days with Daughter. For now anyway. Too bad no one sends me a paycheck for doing that.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

money not spent

I have come across some crazy blogs recently where people have committed to only spend $1200 or whatever on groceries (food, toiletries, diapers, etc) for their entire family for the entire year! Seriously. And I mean crazy in a nice way, I think. I say "crazy" because as a general concept it seemed impossible to me.  But once I started reading more and more of the blogs and the endless lists on them of the sales, coupons, and savings.. it actually seems possible. And I'll admit it.. I've gotten a little swept up.

While I'm miles away from committing to any budget, never mind a $1200 or $1500 one, I have started scouring the Sunday flyers for deals and sales.

I found a buy 1 get one free coupon for Kleenex at Walgreens- so I bought two. A couple of days later, I received a register coupon for 50¢ off Target brand tissues (which are normally $1.29 or something). So now there are 3 boxes of tissues in my stockpile.

This week I bought some shampoo at CVS that was on sale for $4.99 and the brand was also promoting a "try it for free" mail in rebate. While I was at CVS I got $25 worth of baby products (diapers and wipes) that were on sale and got $10 back in CVS Extra Care Bucks. But I didn't really spend $25-  I had a $5 off $25 CVS coupon, $4.50 in ECB, $1.50 off diapers coupon, and 50¢ off wipes.. so I actually only spent $13.50 (for 80 size 3 Huggies diapers and 216 Huggies wipes). There was a pretty good deal on iTunes cards too.. if they had had the $5 versions available, but seemed to not- oh well.

I don't know, is CVS crazy? On one of the $1200 budget blogs I came across (midgetmomma), the woman gets such good deals with Extra Care Bucks, coupons, and sales that when she shops she very often gets gift cards back with the difference on them (as well as her bags of products)! Please take this 63 cents and $50 worth of products, have a nice day.. geesh.

At Target on Thursday I had a coupon for 50¢ off a Grande Pike's Place coffee at Starbucks. It wasn't really supposed to be for iced coffee, but the girl was nice enough to hook me up anyway. I also got another pretty good deal.. something like buy two of product X and get a $5 gift card, but then I also had a $1 off 1 manufacturer coupon and a Target coupon for $1 off 2. It was for a product I like, but wouldn't have bought otherwise because it's a little expensive. You gotta be careful of things like that.. you end up spending more money just to save. I guess it usually works out in your favor in the end though.

What a nerd.. I am looking forward to Sunday all week now!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

well, it's a job

I had a job interview this week. Well, I actually had two.. at the same place. I was called back for round two.. that's good right?

This is the first interview I've had since Daughter arrived in my life, which makes it 100 times more complicated. At first I was somewhat looking forward to playing"grown-up" for a few hours, but then I realized I didn't actually have any interview clothes that were in the house and not packed in boxes lost forever in the garage. Oops. 

Eventually I managed to put together a fairly decent outfit.. but when they wanted me to come back.. I had to go buy new everything.. and that was so much harder than I thought it would be having to drag Daughter along. Poor thing, but she did pretty well.

Anyway.. the initial sort of excitement started to go away after the first interview. And then it reeally started to go away as I prepared for the second interview and I realized having this job would mean not spending all my time with Daughter. And that started to upset me. 

I thought about spending 40+ hours a week at some office. I thought about driving for 10+ hours a week back and forth to some office. I thought about all the stupid grown-up clothes I would have to wear all week at some office. I thought about how this job was sounding more and more like the job I left a year ago for many reasons, including that I hated it and everyone I had to be around during it. 

I thought about all of that as I walked really really slowly back to my car after the 2nd interview. When I got into my car.. I just sat there for awhile. I thought about all that.. and then how much time I wouldn't be spending with Daughter.. and I was so very very sad.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

new bag!

ah! I finally, finally got a new bag. I have been carrying around the same (wintry) bag for like 2 years now. Don't get me wrong, I really really like it, but it is wool.. and that seems a little weird for the spring/summer. I also noticed recently that the bottom corners are starting to wear out a little bit.

Daughter and I went to Target on Friday (after her check-up) to buy her first jars of baby food! And on the way by the bags at the front of the store I saw there were new (Spring?) colors of those canvas Converse bags they rotate around for the last year or so. I have been looking at them for awhile.. every time new colors come out.. I have to look. I almost bought a blue one once, but when I saw the striped one, I had to have it- and now I do. It is a little lighter weight than the ones they have had previously, but I think that's another reason why I like it. Actually, I almost didn't buy.. just because.. I don't know.. that's the way I am. But then I was unsnapping the inside and I looked at what was imprinted on them.. and I took it as a sign. It said "orion" all over them.. my cat's name! He was sending me the "just buy the G**damn bag already mom!" message.

Friday, April 3, 2009

update: coupon contest

Okay, okay.. since the response to the coupon contest has been.. absolutely zero, I am changing it slightly. 

Leave a comment on THIS post (not the one from 3/29) saying something about why you would like the coupons. Anything is fine- like.. you love candles, it's so-and-so's birthday, you like saving money, whatever.. I'm just nosey. And I'll pick one person at random to receive all 4 $3 off coupons (I don't have them in front of me at the moment, but I'm pretty sure they're good for awhile).

Leave a comment by the end of the day on Monday, April 6.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

dragging daughter

When I drag Daughter all over the place - in and out of the car/carseat over and over.. I wonder if she hates it or loves it. Somewhere in between or a combo of the two maybe?