Managing coupon related e-mails

One of my first big coupon hauls.

I've had a personal e-mail account for over a decade now. During this time I've always had more than one account, be it a student account, work, or now, an account for couponing. If you haven't started a separate account for coupons, I highly recommend it. I receive so many coupon related e-mails on a daily basis, so it's nice to have that separate from the rest of my world.

Holiday Food Planning

Yum! Ginger Crinkles! Have you started planning for the holidays?

This past week the Thanksgiving and Christmas items came out in full force at my local stores. Decorations were on one side of the Target seasonal store space and Halloween clearance on the other. I picked up cookie dough, Ziplock bags and plastic containers, and a few food items with my coupons.

After I came home and took a look at my pantry I decided I better start my holiday food planning, so I don't buy more than I need. I have a holiday food planning form to share with you here. It's a Word document that you can download and tweak to meet your needs. I'm hoping the holidays will be more enjoyable and less expensive if I plan out the food needs for the season. No more running into Hy Vee at the last minute to buy an overpriced fruit tray for this girl!

Also, go here to snag some Ziplock coupons. (You'll have to set up a username/password, but it's an easy one!)

What can I do with...

Leftover bread machine bread?

Cut it up, add a few seasonings (or not!) and store it in the freezer.

Here's a great recipe to use stuffing in. It's quick, easy, and delicious!

How can I volunteer with two little ones?

I've had the itch to volunteer/help out in some way since one Sunday this past spring. At the time I was teaching 4th grade and being a mom before and after school hours. At the time the easiest way to help was to open up my check book.

My volunteer efforts.

 Now that I'm staying home with my boys and we're living off of one income, the last thing I want to do is write out a check! I haven't found a way to take my boys with me to volunteer, so I needed to find something that I could do at home and I came up with baking. Our church has a cookie & coffee time between the two services each Sunday morning and goes through a lot of cookies.



I signed up to bring five dozen cookies and made a batch of Ginger Crinkles and Snickerdoodles earlier this week. Then I spotted the above cookie dough mix at Target. Of course, I had a coupon for $1 off of 2 bags and each bag was priced $1.79. So for $2.58, plus two eggs and two sticks of butter, I was able to make almost four dozen cookies.



I'll be experiementing with volunteering outside of the home with my boys on Friday, December 2nd. We'll be ringing a bell at one of our local Hy Vee grocery stores on the behalf of  The Salvation Army and the local food pantry our church supports. At least 60 families in my community are fed at this pantry every single day. This statistic opened my eyes and my heart to look at the little red kettle a in a different way. I never thought I'd be volunteering with The Salvation Army, especially not with a 4 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. It should be interesting!

I had 80 cookies and then my sweet boy asked for one. How could I resist?

Free shipping from Amazon!

Have you taken advantage of the "Amazon Mom" program at Amazon.com? A dear friend told me about this program earlier this year and I'm so glad she did. If you typically purchase items like diapers, wipes, vitamins, and such from Amazon, you can enroll in the "Amazon Mom" program and for every $25 you spend on qualifying items, you can earn free shipping for a month. This has been really helpful when I've needed a birthday present or other item and didn't want to have to pay shipping. Go here to read more. Please be sure to read the fine print!

When in doubt, always ask!

I recently ordered this coat from Land's End. I stepped out of my comfort zone and ordered "Berry" instead of "Black". Well, it came in the mail and unfortunately it just didn't work. So I had to decide whether to pay for shipping it back or go to the nearest store, which is about an hour from where I live.

Can you guess which I chose?

An opportunity came up for me to have most of a day to myself, so I opted to return it at the store and I'm so glad I did. My oldest just happened to need a new winter coat, so that was part of why I was able to rationalize spending the gas money to drive that far. Plus, how often does a mama get a day to herself to shop on her own???

Henry loves his new coat!

Monday must have been my lucky day because not only did the kind sales clerk at the Sears Land End store exchange my coat for the same price (40% off!), I also spotted signs for 30% off outerwear. Henry's coat rang up at full price and I asked if it was supposed to be on sale. Guess what? It was. Yay for saving money!

During my transaction I also noticed hanging signs for "$20 off a $75 purchase". Well, I had more than two coats in my pile. Three long-sleeved t's, a turtle neck, a hat, gloves, a fleece pullover and a vest made into my arms, so yes, I was past the $75.

I asked the sales clerk about this deal and she was more than happy to tell me it was $20 off every $75 I spent. Woot woot!! So next time you're out and about shopping, make sure to ask when you aren't sure about a sale. It never hurts!

Organizing school papers on the fridge

Halloween is over, but if you'd like a good scare, just take a look at the outside of my fridge.

It's covered, head to toe, with Henry's preschool papers, pictures and magnets.

The bulletian board isn't looking much better.

So what's a mama to do with all of the preschool papers and artwork?

 Well, I took out my handy dandy teacher stamp and stamped each item with the month & year.

Then I sorted everything into three piles; Henry, Jack and other. My piles will go upstairs to the containters I save papers in.

Now the fridge and bulletian board are ready for November's papers.