Look whos digital again

Guess who is digital again? I can now post pictures again on this blog Yay!

My dear sweet hubby bought me my Nikon D8 for Christmas this year. He paid way to much, but hey, I am just glad to have it. It was on sale the week before he bought it and we missed that sale. I am so excited. I am so excited that I can't even take pictures with it. I am waiting for the perfect picture opportunity. I know that sounds stupid but I can't help myself. When things settle down a little I am going to jump right in and start taking pictures of everything.

Here is a picture for those of you who have forgotten what my new camera looks like. My hubby also bought me a zoom lens which hasn't come in yet.

Swag Bucks

I have started using Swag Bucks. This is a search engine that pays you bucks to shop. You can then turn in the bucks on the website for gift cards to many different stores. I am going to give it a try. I need all the money I can get. If you have used the Swag Bucks please leave a comment. I would like to hear the good, bad and the ugly.

p.s. I am also going to put a link on my web page here. I think I will earn swag bucks if you use my link. So please use my link.

thanks

Another Surprise deal

I got another deal today, this one was unexpected though. It is kinda a long story but I will make it quick.

Monday my kids and I went into Applebees for lunch. We waited and waited and no one came to help us. We waited about 10 minutes and no one even came for our drinks. Ten minutes may not seem like a long time to wait, but for Applebees that was an eternity. We ended up getting up and walking out. Today we were out shopping with my mom and wanted to go to Applebees for lunch. I was a bit apprehensive since we were going to go to the same one that I had walked out on on Monday. In we went, sending all apprehension on vacation. Today we had great service, no problem. To my surprise the manager came to our table and asked how everything was. Here is where I saw my opportunity to vent. I told the manager what had happened to me on Monday. He apologized and did not say anything else. To all of your surprise, I'm sure, I did NOT ask for a discount I just let it go. We were getting ready to leave and the waitress brought out bill. The manager had given us a %50 discount. Yay!!

Another great tip!

I found another tip the other day. I was at the mall and saw a friend, she showed me a coupon book that she got. Surprised, I asked, "Where did you get that!" She told me that the mall information booth had them. What this book was was a coupon book with coupons for almost every store at the mall in it. I headed straight away to the information booth. When I got there the lady told me that they were out. I was bummed. The good news is now I know they have this little book of gold I will get mine next year.

Thanks Tracy.

Great news

I posted the other day about how we live on one income and how God has faithfully blessed our family. Just when I think that God could not possibly do anything else for us He always gives more. I found out the other day that one of the Krogers that is only 2 miles from my house is opening a fuel center. How great is that? Using my Kroger card is really racking up the gas points for us. I filled up my car last Friday for $1.06 a gallon. That was a .3o off per gallon savings.

Shopping Tip

I came up with another shopping tip as I was in the store tonight. My tip is, get to know your Kroger manager. Most of them will be so helpful and friendly.

I have 5 coupons for free Einstein milk. I have had these coupons for a couple of months now and am unable to find the milk. Tonight I went to my Kroger manager and asked him if he could order them for me. I asked him a couple of months ago to order 6 cases of Johnsons Buddies for me. He has seen me so many times that now he says, "Hey how are you?" He has that hey I know you look when he sees me. He took one of my milk coupons back to his office and looked up the company that sells the milk. He came back to me a few minutes later as I was shopping and gave me a whole print out about the company. He even gave me a suggestion of where to find the milk (not a Kroger store). I LOVE MR. T. Thank you Mr. T.

My My

O.k. this post is a little unsettling. I am a bit shamed as I sit here and type. This story starts back to this past Saturday. My poor widdle baby woke up with sore ears. We rushed to the doctors office to find out that my widdle one was suffering from a double ear infection. After the doctors, we headed to Kroger with prescription in hand. I have a coupon for Kroger, see. For every new or transferred prescription they add $20 to your Kroger card. How can I pass a deal like that up? Please understand that I do not want my babies sick so that I can make money on prescriptions, but if it happens, I am pleased to know I have a coupon. My prescription cost me $10 and then Kroger add the $20 to my card. I did'nt do any shopping so there it sat on my card.

Tonight I headed to Kroger and totally forgot about the $20 until I was in line to check out.

*****Here is where the shameful part comes in.*****

I did four transactions because of the General Mills cereal deal. Krogers has their cereal on sale 4/$12 then General Mills has a deal for every four cereals you buy you get back $4 at the register.

My first transaction went like this *Shame coming*
2 containers of Kroger grape tomatoes
1 gallon of Kroger ice cream
1-2 Liter of Coke Zero
4 boxes of Cheerios
1 avacado
1 bunch(stalk?) celery
1-12oz bottle of Diet Coke
1 Hershey candy bar
1 coupon for FREE Coke Zero
Total OOP .36
Here is the shame, my balance was -.15 which means they owed me .15. The lady asked me to buy a candy bar because she did'nt know how to do the negative balance. I bought a candy bar.

My next three transaction went like this
4 boxes of Cheerios

Total OOP $4.20 each transaction.

All in all I got
16 boxes of Cheerios
2 containers of Kroger grape tomatoes
1 Gallon Kroger ice cream
1-2 Liter Coke Zero
1 Avacado
1 bunch of celery
1 bottle of Diet Coke
1 Hershey candy bar

Total OOP for everything $12.96

UGH Crock Pot!

I emailed the Crock Pot company on November 30th. They have yet to get back with me. I know you say,"Its only been two weeks." Yes it has been two weeks but I emailed them its not as if I sent a letter and am waiting for them to respond.

A great Ebay deal for Magic Treehouse

I usually do not shop on Ebay. I quit shopping after I got my account stolen and a thousand knock off brand purses were loaded into my account.

This really good deal pulled me back in though. I am getting ready to teach a Magic Tree house class. For those of you who do not know the Magic Tree House books they are WONDERFUL! They are a series of books where a brother and sister are trying to become master librarians. They travel by way of a magic tree house through time and space gathering historical and geographical facts. They are a really fun way for kids to learn.

I went onto Ebay last week, with the help of Sherri, and I ordered books 1-28. These books cost $3.99 in stores. I was able to get all 28 books for $27 including shipping. Now that is a good deal!

Sams Club yesterday

I went to Sams yesterday and spent a ridiculous $216.00 Whew, I thought I might black out here just typing it. The only really good thing about going shopping yesterday was that I filled up at Kroger using my gas points. I had .30 off per gallon so I filled my car for $1.06 per gallon. The very best thing though was that I only needed a 1/4 tank of gas. I spent $6.

Another money savings for us is that I only fill my van every other week. When I go to Sam's Club is when I fill up.

Happy where God has put me

I thought I would share my life a little so that you could see how we live within our means. I live in a small city. It is large enough where we have at least one of everything, like a J.C. Penny, Home Depot, Sams Club, Lowes, Star Bucks recently we even got a Panera Bread. My city is large enough for this kind of stuff but still small enough that when you meet someone new if you talk long enough you will discover that you have a mutual friend. I really like the size of my city. My hubby and I moved here just over 10 years ago.

When we moved here my husband and I knew that I would not be working so we got a house on his income only. Its an old home, which we love and its only 3 miles from his work, which we love even more with gas prices the way they are. My house is centrally located where we are probably 2 miles from 3 different Kroger stores, a CVS and a Walgreens. We can walk to parks, the post office and the public library. We live in a nice area, I say that we are welfare row of the nice area. Sorry neighbors if you are reading this. But if you are my neighbor you have already heard me say this. You have probably laughed with me about it.

Since we live on one income there are some financial restrictions for us. We have two cars and both are paid for. Since my hubby works 3 miles away his car is very old. It is a 1995 so it has been paid off a long time. My car was paid off this past January, Yay!! We know that we can only handle one car payment at a time so we will always have a car that is paid for. I love not having a car payment! I LOVE NOT HAVING A CAR PAYMENT! We also do NOT have any credit card debt!

I know my house is not shiny new nor are my cars but what a blessing it is to be able to stay home with my kids. I am exactly where God would have me.

K-Mart

I love K-Mart when they do double coupons. Yes I know Kroger doubles coupons all the time. What makes K-Mart so special? When they do double coupons they double all the way $2. A $2 coupon becomes a $4 coupon. The temptation was too much to stay away so I headed to K-Mart yesterday with coupon binder in hand.

I am sorry to say I have misplaced my receipt but here is what I got.

1 Gingerbread house kit $5.99 (on sale-no coupon)
6 boxes of Rice Krispies cereal 4 for $10 + a $1 coupon that doubled
2 Soleil razors $6.49- $2 Kmart discount + a $3 coupon
1 bag of Reeses Crisp candy + $1 coupon that doubled
1 Dove shampoo on sale for $3.79 + $2 coupon that doubled FREE
3 big candy bars Hershey for stocking stuffers
3 bags of Life Savers FREE after coupon. These were on sale for $1.79 + $1 coupon that doubled

My bill before coupons was a little over $40.

I paid OOP $10.48