Today my “baby” turned 6! Hard to believe how much he’s grown up already! We’ve been partying all day – or at least so it seems! We went to the matinee of Kung Fu Panda, ran a few errands including lunch out at McD’s (Kung Fu Happy Meal toys!), swimming at the pool using new pool toys, and then off to Grandma and Grandad’s for a hamburger BBQ, a Kung Fu cake with ice cream, and presents, of course! When he finally fell asleep, he had a tight grip on his Gecko Webkinz!
You never know what the kids will take pictures of when they get a hold of a camera. Taylor took of his glasses and put them on Buddy! Amazingly enough, his glasses remained intact and unscratched!
I couldn’t pass up on some more deals from Walgreens this week. They had Pepsi 12 packs for Buy 4 get 1 Pepsi MAX free which gave the final price of $2.20 per 12 pack. They also had cereal on sale 3/$7 with $2 back in Register Rewards. Normally I don’t buy that type of cereal but did you know that you can use your coupons for those as well? I ended up with a box of Fiber One ($1 off coupon), Honey Nut Cheerios ($1 off coupon), and Lucky Charms ($.25 off coupon) for $2.25. How cool is that?! In case you didn’t know about the Register Rewards, it’s basically a coupon that spits out when you check out that you can use on your next purchase. I used my $3 Register Rewards from another shopping trip and paid very little! There’s a great tutorial at moneysavingmom.com for Walgreens. If you have a CVS near you, you HAVE to check out that site! You can get soooooo much for next to nothing!!!
Yum, yum, yum! Today I tried the caramel one — FREE!!! It was definitely better than the SF one I had 2 weeks ago. I looked up on their website today how many calories one of those has – good thing I’d been to the Y before I went to McD’s! Their medium sizes boast 190 calories with 70 calories from fat. Even Jocelyn had one but after the first initial taste she decided she didn’t like it. I just couldn’t let it go to waste!
But boy, was it fun! Saturday morning Jocelyn and I left the boys to do the yard work and went shopping. My goal was to buy new towels for the freshly painted master bath but we came back with everything BUT towels!! Kohl’s yielded Jocelyn a new dress, 3 new t’s, and a pair of shorts along with 3 pool towels (hey, they were 70% off!) Then it was off to the mall to hit the Disney store before they officially closed their doors in Wichita. A long sleeve T for Wesley, a purple t-shirt for Jocelyn, a pair of skorts and a cardigan for me, and some little pirate bags later, then it was off to Build-A-Bear (Jocelyn had her allowance to blow.) Ken ended up calling to find out where we were!
After lunch we headed to the FOP lake. Ken opted not to go in and took pics instead but that didn’t stop the kiddos, me or Buddy from going in!
Buddy was really funny! He loved just standing in the water and watching us all. It was only after I floated out to the dock with Taylor did he decide to actually go swimming. I think he got a bit panicked and took off back to shore. Check out Ken’s blog/flickr page to see his version of our lake trip!
After a bit of a rest when we got back from the lake, we headed out to the Wingnuts game. It was a late night with the Wingnuts losing the game but we were treated with fireworks! Turns out we were a part of the largest attendance in over 10 years of baseball history — 8,225 people attended that night! We were happy to have gotten free tickets!
Sunday morning it was off to church, home for lunch, then out to the library, off to another park and then back home for dinner and a rest! We had an awesome weekend!
I try to be as thrifty as possible when it comes to feeding my family of 5 + dog + hamster. Our grocery bill didn’t use to be as large as it is now due to eating sensibly. Once Ken and I became South Beachers, our grocery bill actually went up significantly. It’s amazing how inexpensive processed foods are and how expensive fresh fruit, veggies, and whole grains are! But today I spent less than $200 for two weeks worth of groceries (I went to Aldi and Wal*Mart) and saved over $17 in coupons at Wal*Mart.
I get soooo excited when I save money! I’d rather put that money into something fun, like our vacation, or stuff for the house than on food. I got some products for FREE. Here’s what I got: Johnson’s Bath Buddies soap costs $.94 each but I had a coupon for buy 2 get $2 off. So I bought 4 and they gave me $.24. Yoplait Kids drinkable yogurt FREE because I had a coupon from signing up on their website. I had a ton of printed coupons for Cascadian Farm products. Their organic granola ($2.94 at Wal*Mart) and honey-nut cheerio equivalent cereal is really good. With my $1 off coupons I got each box for $1.94 — a rarity for cereal these days! Oral B dental floss was $.97 but I had a $1 off coupon. And that’s just the tip of my savings!!!
I’m a relatively new shopper to Aldi but wanted to try it out after a local blogger at livingonadime said she did most of her shopping there. I must admit, it’s addictive! Their ground turkey is much tastier than the Jennie-O version at Wal*Mart — and cheaper too ($.99 vs $1.56)! I got a 3 pack of zucchinis for $1.56 as well as onion soup mix ($.59 box) and the kids’ drinks for the pool (50% fruit w/a 6 pk for $.99). My favorite is the Benner green tea that I stumbled across last week. It was the best decaffeinated green tea I’ve ever had so today I bought 17 boxes (oh yeah, I’m sharing them with Mum!) For you Aldi shoppers out there, you probably already know that some of their stuff doesn’t last!
Anyway, I just wanted to share those savings goodies that work for me! Check out my sidebar for the links to the websites that I read regularly! I’m lucky I’m not working at the moment which gives me the luxury to chase down these awesome deals! Let me know if you’ve found other ways to save $ on groceries and the like!
Here are a few pictures from how Ken spent his day. I went out with Jocelyn while he was still sleeping (that in itself is a miracle as I’m usually the last one up!) to Krispy Kreme to buy breakfast. Later he planted his gift, two spiral-y trees he’s been wanting for the front of the house then we went on a motorcycle ride while the kids went to my parents’ house (Taylor was helping my Dad mow the yard.) Lunch, then off to Cowtown with hit-and-miss thunderstorms. Dinner consisted of Daddy Hinkle’s baked chicken with mushrooms, onion sweet potatoes, and peas with a special cake made by yours truly. After dinner I asked him, “so, was that worth having three kids?” He just laughed. Hmmm, was that a yes or a no?
Special Krispy Kremes for Dad!
In front of Cowtown with an ominous background!
After 15 years, our local Disney store in the mall is closing its doors. I used to bribe the kids with “if you’re good in (fill in the blank) store, I’ll take you to the Disney store to look around.” I’ve enjoyed shopping there over the years and seeing their outrageously priced Halloween costumes (come on, $89 for a toddler’s princess dress?!) They’ve since grown out of that but I really enjoyed the sale they’ve got going on right now! I got a huge bag full of stuff, mostly gifts for birthdays or to have in for birthday parties, and paid a little over $30 for all of it (tax included). I ended up with 2 fairy doll sets, 3 metal Dalmations lunch boxes (great for storage of crayons, markers, etc.), 2 Pirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow action figures, and 2 marker,sticker, coloring book sets. The doll sets alone would have cost $34.50 EACH. I’m fortunate I have the storage for all of it! Hmmmm, I wonder what store will take its place?
In an attempt to keep up with family across the pond, I’ve become a Facebook member. I’ve rapidly gone to 6 friends (!?) Is there anyone else out there that does Facebook? If so, tell me how you use it and if it works well for you. I saw the “poke” and “give a gift” stuff that I haven’t gotten into but I did put some pictures in an album and have kept in contact with a few people through it, some of which I haven’t seen since high school!
Were you as bored as I was with my old “rubric” format of my blog? These colors look vibrant and a nice change for summer! Let me know what you think!
