St. Michael Daze & Knights Parade

FINALLY!!!

We took Cody to his first parade today. We have been trying to go to a parade all summer, but it just never seems to work out. Either Cody is sick, or teething, or crabby, or the weather is bad, or the time is bad, or, or, or...

So, finally we made it to the St. Michael parade this morning...not without some drama, but we made it. Cody loved it! He stayed in his stroller the whole time & watched all the parade entries go by. He really scored on the candy & goodies too! I remember getting candy at the 4th of July parade as a kid, but it was never that much and you just had a few pieces to eat and maybe a few to take home. The other kids around watching the parade went home with half-full grocery bags of candy! We even scored a nice little stash and we weren't even trying :) (I wanted to run after the salt-water taffy laying helplessly in the street, but I resisted.) Cody enjoyed a couple freezies & a sucker (his first ever!) as we watched. Cody enjoyed it, but didn't care too much for a few of the firetrucks & ambulances that were really, really loud. There were tears. I felt so bad, but I admit I was laughing too...poor little man didn't know what in the world was going on.

We had a good time & saw my friend Wendy (fellow Mom & couponer/deal-er extraordinaire!) after the parade and got to chat for a few minutes. Our little family then checked out the carnival grounds and hastily ate a quick lunch of fair food. Cody was in the car for, OH, maybe 45 seconds before falling asleep. When we got home, I took his socks & shoes off, carried him into the house, took his pants off & changed his diaper, all without waking him up. Hmm, think he was tired??! We deprived him of his morning nap so we could go to the parade, so he was preTTy darn exhausted, to say the least.

Here's a few photos from our morning fun:

Waiting for the show to get on the road (literally)...

I really loved this!

First sucker - that I'm aware of, anyway...

Mmmm....!

Nearing the end...getting tired...God Bless America...

Edited to add...I forgot I had this picture of our "haul" - not too shabby for not even trying to get candy and goodies, eh? I like that free popcorn coupon, wish we would have got more of those!

Walgreens Deals

Okay, really. I need to stop shopping. You should see our bathroom 'pantry'!

That said, I couldn't resist getting some good deals at Walgreens on Friday afternoon. Up until about 6 months ago, it had probably been about 10 years since I had been in a Walgreens store. Isn't that wild? I just always bought my drug & toiletry supplies at Target and the like.

Anyway, they had a deal at the end of this week that if you bought $25 worth of stuff before coupons, you got a $5 Register Reward coupon to use toward your next purchase. This was a breeze!

Here's what I scored:

• Angel Soft toilet paper - 12 double rolls - $5
• 2 tubs of Huggies wipes - $6.60 less $4 store coupons-$1.50 mftg coupons=$1.10
• 2 scotch bubble mailers - free after coupons
• Orajel teething medicine - free after coupon (had an issue with a previous product & the manufacturer mailed me a free product coupon; it pays to complain!)
• 3 packages of Bic Highlighters - 39 cents each less $1.00 coupon = 17 cents for all
• Motts applesauce (6 pack) - on sale for $1.67 less $1 coupon = 67 cents
• Softsoap bodywash - $4 (got $4 reward to use next time, so ultimately, free)

After all coupons, I paid $8.64 plus got $9 in reward coupons to use the next time. I also bought another Softsoap bodywash in a separate transaction which was free after register reward. I try not to do multiple transactions, but if they have something like this that I know I will use (we go thru a lot of body wash here...showers=bliss), I am not shy to ask to do a separate transaction.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself...

Target Deals 8/20

I had a chance to run to Target tonight & of course I found some deals. I also found a shortcut to one of our nearby Targets that involves pretty much NO traffic, so that must be the best deal of the day!

Here's some highlights of my trip:

1 bag of Skittles - they paid me 48 cents to take it (overage from coupon)

2 boxes of Cinnabon bars - 50 cents and 75 cents each

2 tubs of Hillshire farm deli meat - $1.04 and $2.04 each

4 bananas - 9 whole cents!

2 Dove deodorants - 29 cents each

1 can Skintimate shave gel - they paid me 26 cents to take it (thanks Wendy for the coupon!)

1 Head & Shoulders travel size shampoo - paid me 3 cents

1 roll of Bounty paper towels & 1 travel size TP (don't ask) - 24 cents

1 Kotex pantyliners - paid me 30 cents

8 bottles of Renu contact solution (travel size) - $6 for all (which I will submit to our work reimbursement plan for 80% back or $4.80 - so net cost to me will be $1.20

1 Hungry Hippos travel game - $1 (save for Cody or gift)

Those are the highlights! Too much fun, don't you love when the store PAYS you to take their things?!?

I spent a total of $39.33 (bought other regular things too), used a $5 Target gift card I had from a previous purchase so out of pocket expense was $34.33. Total savings was $38.37. Love when I save more than I spend!!!

Basement Framing - Progress Photos

Here are a few progress photos of our basement project! I am thrilled to see clear definitions on rooms and spaces.

Heading downstairs to see the progress.

Doorway leading from the family room to the bedroom/office.

Family room. The TV will be mounted on drywall in the middle part on the top, with a custom-made cabinet below to hold all the components & hide the wires.

Storage area, think we need one???!?

Closet in the bedroom/office

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

And Cody, the little man is snoring, so I can write a blog post. Hooray!

What a wonderful birthday it has been!! I took the day off from work, which would have been enough in itself. I don't think I have ever taken my birthday off before. I sent Cody to daycare for the morning, and my friend Careen came over at the crack of dawn (read: 8 am) to go garage saling. Which is where the Title of this blog post comes in. It was raining the ENTIRE morning! We were completely soggy, soaked & spongy by the time our shopping was done. We had a lot of fun, and Careen took me out to a yummy breakfast/lunch at Emma Krumbees afterwards!

Nothing earth shattering in the garage sale finds today, but I did get some fun finds. We always manage to fill up the back of the car. That's never a problem.

Here's the loot:

* Wall clock - I think I have the same one in my office at work - $2

* Sesame Street Sing-a-long DVDs - 3 for $3

* Elmo in Grouchland movie - sealed/new - $2

* 2 pen/desk trays for my home office - $1.25

* Children's dictionary - $1

* couple of old "Sticker Fun" books, I remember having these when I was a kid and bought purely for the reminiscent value! - 75 cents

* new package of trouser socks - 50 cents

* Thomas the Train jammies - $1

* 2 shirts, 1 shorts, 3 pants for Cody - $4.75

* My Big Animal book - $1

* Monkee night light (will match Cody's bathroom to a T) - $1

* ink cartridge to resell - $0.75

* decorative glass plate - $1

* wipes holder for diaper bag - 25 cents

* bag full of books including 10 Little Golden Books, odd looking Wizardology & Piratology books and something called The Invention of Hugo Cabret - $2 for all

* Fisher Price portable booster/high chair in like new condition - $5

Photo doesn't include the DVDs or clocks. Stock photos of the booster chair is below - a similiar one sells on Amazon for $30 and the exact one with same colors for $70. I'm thrilled to have gotten it for 5 little dollars!

(I didn't even realize it folded up like that!)

All in all, it was a highly enjoyable day!

Basement Finishing - Before Photos!

It's official. We started finishing our basement last Friday. We are having our neighbor, Jon, do the work as he is a carpenter by trade and is currently not working a regular job. And he lives literally next door! They started on Friday and have already got so much accomplished! He is having a buddy help him out with the project, which he wasn't initially planning on, so it's going very quickly. Right now they are working on framing out all the rooms. My plan is to take before, during, and after photos to show the progress. We're excited about having the extra space, especially for the winter for more room to run for Cody (and yeah, I do mean run.), although I have to admit I'm not thrilled about more rooms to clean!

Here are a few before pictures, like REALLY before, before we even moved in!

On the left will be the bedroom/office, and on the right will be a storage area.

This will be the bathroom, which we are only framing up right now.

This will be the large living room/family room. Kind of hard to see how big this room really is.

I'm excited to show more progress photos as the project continues!

Good Deals, Good Times

Oh, neglected blog. You poor thing.

I had to come visit you today though, because I had to share in my fabulous finds today during my normal Sunday morning shopping trips. Lots of prep work, but the rewards were worth it!

In summary, Cub Foods paid me $16.50 to take home $81.19 worth of stuff! Yes!

Here's a quick recap of the goodies I bought...I mean, that Cub paid me to take home. No photos, I'm not going to start going down THAT route; I spend way too much time clipping, calculating & conniving as it is!

2 Digorno's Pizzas

9 boxes of various Ritz/Nabisco/Honeymaid crackers

3 packages of Jello pudding snacks

2 packages Oscar Meyer lunchmeat

6 packages Kraft cheese singles

1 Digorno flatbread melt

1 Oscar Meyer hot sandwich kit

4 Easy Mac cups

6 packages shredded cheese

Apart from possibly the Easy Mac cups and the hot sandwich kit, these are things we would buy anyway. We should be stocked up for quite awhile on items like cheese, crackers, pudding, etc!

I also scored a great deal on some Gold N Plump extra tender chicken breasts/tenders. These were on sale for $3.33, I had coupons for $0.75 off each, making them $2.58 a package. Bought 10 packages. Should last us a couple months at least. Thank goodness for our chest freezer, the best thing we ever bought (err, received for free).

I also got a free pint of Starbucks ice cream (using a Facebook promotion from earlier this summer), and an energy drink for my hubby for a whole 50 cents using a coupon I found at the gas station that had expired!

In addition, I also went to Walgreens and got some great deals there with sales & coupons & previous Register Rewards:

3 packages Huggies diapers - $7.50/package

4 small bottles of honey -$0.75 each (honey is expensive!)

Colgate toothpaste: FREE after $3 Register Reward to use on next purchase

6 packages of Bic pens - FREE

4 bottles toilet bowl cleaner - $1.00-$1.10 each

1 bottle Advil - $3.49

2 pkg of 3 pack gum - FREE

2 cans Campbell's soup - $0.29 each

2 bottles coffee creamer - $2 each

less $31 in previous Register Rewards

equals $10.06 for $90.86 worth of stuff...plus I got the $3 RR to use on my next trip.

Holla!

I love saving money!

Too bad it's so much work...