Where does the time go?

Really??? It's sad that I post more on my "craft" blog then my personal life. It's not because things aren't happening because they are. It's just I get a little behind and it seems impossible to catch back up.

So the last few months have been great! Chase got a contract doing the same thing he was doing. Only now he gets benefits. Because of that though his hours changed a little so he had to drop one of his classes. Blessing in disguise, he was able to sign up for another one that was online. So he is taking 3 online classes this semester.

He is still biking around. Unfortunately a few months ago his nice road bike that his Cousin gave him was stolen. We used our tax return to get him a decent hybrid bike. So he is back to biking. He was going to do the Tour de Mesa, but it is $115! Can you believe it??? So I told him to just make is own Tour de Chase.

As far as I go things are unbelievable! The craft blog has been so so. I have very few followers (If you don't follow me please do, you'll probably know more about us from that then this). So I am planning on doing a craft fair in November. One of the things I wanted to sell was a carseat cooler.

Since it is hot now I decided to give it a try and sell them on a facebook group called Mesa Consign. One of my friends saw it and asked it I wanted to sell them on a deal a day website she co operates. So if things go well I'll be selling them on this site all over the country! So I'm going to be popping these out like crazy trying to make as many as I can! So I feel like everything else has been put on hold because of this. This weekend I'll be getting the fabric to get it started! So exciting!

So with this experience I wanted to be able to have a business sounding name so when they describe my product it's not just Courtney, a mom.

SIDE NOTE: I did the top a week ago. Had to stop because I heard a strange noise outside. Went to check it out and Ella had her puppies! Well at that point she only had one. Over the next several hours she ended up with 5 healthy puppies!!! (1 unfortunately didn't make it). So if you are looking for puppies in like 6 weeks let us know!

So as I was saying  wanted to get more in the business mode. So I came up with my business name... Ryderbug! It is one of my nicknames for Ryder and I love how it fits! So my Brother Bryan said I should call my carseat cooler a Cool Ryder! LOVE IT!!!

Now onto Ryder. He is a smart little boy! Loves being outside and TV (kind of opposites). We recently took him to Toys 'R Us and let him pick out a toy to buy with his birthday money. He had the best time! He's walk around examining each toy. He ended up getting a Batman and Joker little people and 2 train cars. Not bad for $10! Technically he owes us $.44, but we'll let it slide:)

Tonka & Ella still like to escape the yard. Ella had 5 puppies as mentioned earlier.

Mother's & Father's Day came early this year. I got a Kitchenaid mixer and Chase got a grill! So much fun!

Shopping this week wiped me out!

I felt like I spent the whole day shopping! I'm hoping the deals I got and the money I saved makes it worth it.

First off, here is my stockpile. I was going to post this at the end, but this is how the pictures came up. (On a side note, blogger makes doing pictures so hard. I wish they game you a bigger window to work with. I hope you understand what I mean.) So here is my STOCKPILE. Kind of exciting for me to see.

Wipes
I have about 20 packages of wipes:)

DIAPERS

Water for this hot Arizona desert!

Here is my real stockpile. It's not a whole lot of room so hard to really organize it. Tried my best though.

Here is my shopping trips I did. It was a total of 6 stores, YIKES.
OS= On sale
MC= Manufacturer Coupon
SC= Store Coupon
Store #1- Safeway: (All coupons were = to $1)
Fruit Snacks SC making them $1.49 ea- 2 MC- $1 = $1ea
Granola Bars SC making them $1.49 ea- 2 MC- $1 = $1ea
Brownie mix SC making them $.98 - 1 MC-$1 = FREE


Store # 2- CVS:


Chicken Salad OS for $.88
Tuna Salad OS for $.88
Dawn Dishsoap OS $.99 - MC $.50=$.49 ea
Huggies Diapers ON 2/$18- SC $4.00 - 2MC $3.00= $8.00

Savings= $24.04***

***This ended up being wrong. The diapers were only 2 for $18 If you bought 2 of the one kind and my SC was spacific to the jean diapers so I returned them.
Plus it says I saved $1.31 on each of the salad kits, but really only like $.20 cuz they are $1.12 at Walmart at the normal price I've boughten them.


Store # 3- Albertsons:





Hunts tomato sauce OS .77 ea when you buy 13

Frito Lay Products OS $1.57

Mars single size candy OS .29

Snickers OS $2 - 2MC $1= $1 ea
(stocking up for Halloween already)

According to reciept
Total Spent= $19.06
Total Saved= $16.90


Store #4- Walgreens:
I did 3 transactions because of "register rewards" I should have done them in a different order, but I thought I was getting register rewards for the toilet paper.

Trans #1:
Contact Solution $8 get $8RR

Trans #2:
Toilet Paper $5- 2SC -$1= $4 ea

Trans #3
Mini Wheats OS 4/$10- 2MC-$1=$2ea and $5RR

Plus with the Cereal I can enter codes online for $5 concession gift card to use at AMC.

So really it was "like" being $2 moneymaker.



Store #5 Target:

Milano Cookies $1- 2MC- $1= FREE
Zyrtec 5ct $5.29- MC -$5= $.29
Ziploc 120 ct OS 2/$5- 2MC- $1= 1.50 ea (not the best deal, but seemed good at the time.)









Store #6- Fry's: (Not pictured) All coupons = $1
I bought a bunch of Kroger frozen veggies that were $.88 each.
Michellina frozen entrees $.88 ea
Crest toothpast OS $.98- MC= FREE
Edwards frozen dessert OS $2.79- MC= 1.79
Toaster Strudle OS 1.79- SC = $1.29 ea

Total Spent=$17.43
Total Saved $14.39

Kelloggs cereal couponing...

So I did my first major couponing trip! Thanks to my sister-in-law Stephanie I learned about this deal! Thanks again:)

Prior to trip I joined Kelloggs.com and was able to print off a bunch of coupons.
Here is what I purchase at Safeway...




I bought 2 of each kind of cereal. I had to do 2 different transactions and used 3 coupons in each.

Transaction # 1 I payed $10.45 saved $11.60
Transaction $ 2 I payed $10.45 saved $11.40
Total Payed $20.90 saved $23.00

Savings of 52%

Ontop of saving more then I spent I also received what couponers call catalina. This is coupons that print out based on what you purchase. So on each transaction I received $12 towards to movies. (Buy 5 Kelloggs products receive 1 more ticket). Also, 4 of the boxes of cereal I bought have codes on the inside. 4 codes= either $5 movie concession money or for a $5 gas gift card. We are choosing to do the concessions. Yay free date!!!

Also, I noticed on the Crunchy Nut Cereal there is a $1/2 coupon to be used in the future. So I got 2 of those. I hope this cereal is good because I have it all to myself:) (Chase has a peanut allergy)

This is just what I needed to get me pumped for couponing! And Chase was with me so he saw how great it was. So not only did we get more back then what we spent, we also have cereal to last us awhile. This is awesome!

Not bad for a beginner, not bad at all:)