Mama's Little Loves

Just a couple of goofy pics of Piper taken a little while ago. She found one of Natallie's pipes laying around, stuck it in her mouth--and she has never really taken a pipe--and proceeded to walk around with it for a while. And of course, she had her babies with her. :)

Surprisingly enough, Natallie did not even care. She just kept saying, "Piper has my pipe!" So cute. That is all for today. Very exciting stuff. :)

Labels: Piper pics

1. 3 bags of Lays Cracker Crisps on sale for $1.50 each
2. 3 Satin Care shave gel for $.99 each
3. 6 All 3X strength for $1.00 each
4. 1 Nice 'n Easy on clearance for $2.97

Total before tax and coupons was $16.44. After coupons and tax, I paid $2.16!!! Yeah!

Labels: deals

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY!!!

Go here to wish her a happy birthday. Hope you have an awesome fun filled day! :)

Labels: birthdays

Transaction #1:

1. 1 Contour monitor on sale for $14.99 with $14.99 back in ECB's
2. 3 Cheerios on sale for $.25 each
3. 4 mini bags M&M's on sale for .50 each
4. 1 Mentos for $1.19
5. 1 VO5 hair spray for $3.99 (not pictured)

Total before tax was $22.92. I used a $4/$20 CVS cpn, a $14.99 cpn for the monitor, $1.00 Cheerios cpn, $3.00 CO5 CVS coupon(expired on 4/6/06 but still worked). Out of pocket cash was .90, used no ECB's and got back $14.99 in ECB's!!! Woohoo!

Transaction #2:

1. 1 Freestyle Lite monitor on sale for $10.00 with $10.00 back in ECB's
2. 1 Mennen 24/7 deoderant on sale for $3.99 with $3.99 back in ECB's
3. 1 Skin Effect face scrub for $6.99 with $5.00 back in Ecb's

Total before tax was $20.98. I used a $4/$20 CVS cpn, $1.00 Mennen cpn, and $14.99 in ECB's. I paid $1.11 in cash and got back $18.99 in ECB's! Another great deal. :)
Transaction #3:

1. 3 CVS brand Q-tips on sale for $1.99 each with $5.00 back in ECB's when you buy 3
2. 1 CO5 hair gel for $3.99
   
3. 6 Zone Perfect bars for $1.79 each with $2.00 back in ECB's when you buy 3
4. 1 bag of gummi bears for $.88

Total before tax was $20.38. I used a $4/$20 CVS cpn, $3.00 VO5 cpn from CVS(again, it was expired, but worked fine), 2 $1.00 Zone Perfect cpns, and $10.00 in ECB's. I paid $1.38 in cash and got back $9.00 in ECB's. Not too shabby.
So in conclusion, that was $64.28 worth of product. I paid $3.39 in cash for all of it. I used $24.99 in ECB's. I earned $42.98 in ECB's! Yeah! Such an awesome trip to CVS! I couldn't be any happier with my deals. :)

Happy Hunting at CVS this week! And if you have any questions feel free to ask or go to Money Saving Mom...she is definitely an expert at CVS shopping.

Labels: cvs

I started the process of spring cleaning over here. Trying to rid the cupboards of clutter, washing down walls, touching up paint...the list goes on and on.

So far I have completed the laundry room--I washed down the walls, painted a small shelf that Caleb had built for me over the winter, washed the baseboards, and cleaned out the cupboards.

Garage--I am still in the process of that, I'll post pics later, but I am painting the ceiling and two of the finished off walls. One of the walls is dark brown paneling--yukkk!--and the other is brown cork board stuff. The ceiling was just brown drywall. I am painting all of that a cream/gray color that I found in the misting section at Seven's. I had one coat on the paneling wall and about 3/4 of the ceiling before I ran out of paint. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that matched exactly, but at least it will be close. About 25.00 for all 5 gallons of paint and the garage will look worlds better. Can't wait to be done with it! It already looks so much better.

Main Bath--washed down the walls--I used the wrong kind of paint in there and the humidity from the shower has made the paint run. So I am trying to get all the streaks off of the walls to make it look a little better. I really hope that I won't have to repaint it since I love the color, but I might have to. Washed the baseboards, floor, cleaned out the cupboards, and took the light down to clean it.

Kitchen--Retouch the cupboards then apply minwax to them to give them a little bit of shine and protect the paint a little more. Wash down the walls, baseboards, and cleaned out the cupboards.

Spare bedroom in the basement--washed down the walls--David moved out and there was...well, dirtiness... :) washed the baseboards. That is going to be our cardroom temporarily until either my other brother or sister move in. For now, I just have a folding table set up in there. It will give us extra room for the party this Friday--which I hope Caleb remembered to tell everyone about. If he didn't, consider yourself now officially invited. :) It is Friday @ 8:00 or somewhere around there.

That is as far as I have gotten so far. Hopefully I can take pics of the garage later. I am most excited about that--don't ask me why. I just love it when things look clean and finished off and that is what I am hoping it will look like when I am done.

So what Spring Cleaning projects is everyone else tackling? Any big projects? Any fun projects?

Labels: Spring Clean 2008

I LOVE going up to the gardens so we'll really have to consider getting another membership. They still give us free lunch (I used to work there about 3 years ago, maybe a little longer) when we go there. So very nice of them. I always bring money to pay, but Lynn (who is usually on cash register) just waves us through. If we would have had to pay when we went there, just to enter would have been about $18.00 and then for lunch would have been about another $15.00! It all adds up and we have more than made up our membership fee this past year with all of the visits that we made.
Maybe someone else would like to invest in a membership so we have someone to go with? Maybe? It is lots of fun! :)

Labels: The Gardens

Just a quick trip to CVS. Sorry, but I just didn't feel like taking a pic of everything.

Transaction #1:

1. 1 stuffed pig for Ambry--she is a stuffed animal lover :)(90%off)
2. 3 packages of clothes pins (90%off)
3. 1 lg. rectangular storage basket (90%off)
4. 4 small rectangular storage baskets (90%off)
5. 1 pkg. safety pins (90%off)
6. 2 pkgs. Swiffer wet cloths
7. 1 gallon of milk
8. 2 Excedrins

Total before tax came to $20.44. I used 4/20 CVS cpn., 2 $2.00 Excedrin cpns., $1.00 off 2 Swiffer cpn., .50 ECB cpn., that was emailed to me, and $10.00 ECB. I paid $1.11 in cash and received back $7.00 in ECB's.

Transaction #2:

1. 2 packs of Huggies
2. 1 Johnson's spray in detangler
3. 1 Johnson's baby oil
4. 1 Johnson's shampoo/conditioner
5. 1 pk of Mentos
   

Total before tax came to $26.95. I used 4/20 CVS cpn, 3 $1.00 off Johnson's products, 2 $2.00 Huggies CVS cpn, $1.50 Huggies cpn, and used $14.97 in ECB;s. I paid $.91!!! And got back $10.00 in ECB's.

So that is $47.39 worth of product. I paid $2.02. I used $24.97 ECB's and got back $17.00 ECB's. I went through everything that I bought and if I would have paid full price for all of the stuff that I got, my total would have been $78.59! How crazy is that?!? I know CVS marks their products up a little higher than "normal", but that is a big chunk of change.

All in all, another successful run to CVS.

Labels: cvs

Just a little perspective on CVS...

I took all of my receipts (the ones that I kept) and added them up for the month of March. Not accounting for sales prices--I just went down the receipt and added up the products--I purchased $570.56 worth of stuff. I paid $41.65 out of pocket. I didn't add up the ECB's but needless to say, I think that is a phenomenal deal!

Labels: cvs

Lots and lots of stuff to blog about so this is going to be a little long. Sorry. :)

First, it was my birthday this Saturday. We got to go to a Detroit Tigers game and it was sooo much fun! I had never been to one and I thought it was well worth the long drive and crazy traffic and horrible detours.


Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for all of the awesome presents! This birthday weekend was such a blast!

Labels: birthdays

Just one last quick pic from our mini vacation. I thought this one was so cute of all the girls together. This was the first pic I took when we got to our room. Everyone was all dressed and ready to go down to the pool. Can you see how excited everyone is?

Just a funny side note: Mom made a comment to me while we were taking this pic. Can you imagine if we were blessed with another child and it was a boy? The poor child would be so outnumbered! Imagine...no boy toys, all pink and purple clothes..the horror! Seriously, we would probably have the most "feminine" boy around! (Although it would give me a GREAT reason to go garage selling! And I will take whatever excuse I can get to do that.)

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, vacation

Some more pics from our trip. I am so mad that I cut off Kasey's head on this pic--sorry Kasey!--this would have been so cute.

Seriously, who would have thought they would have so much fun playing underneath a table when there is a huge water park just down the hallway. Oh, the funny things kids can do to amuse themselves.
Rosie posing for a pic on the side of the pool...outside! They had the coolest pool just down the hall from us. There was a small indoor pool then it branched off to go outside. You swam underneath this little divider and then you were outside in a huge outdoor swimming pool. There were also 2 outdoor hot tubs that you could sit in.
Piper all tuckered out from a long day of running and swimming. She slept through the girls coming and going from the room and everyone talking around her. She never, never does that normally. Poor thing was sooo tired.
Piper and me by the indoor pool. If you look behind me, you can see the partition that you swim under to get to the outside pool area.

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, vacation

Here are a couple pics of our short and sweet trip up north to another water park. My mom took the girls and I along--THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!--and it was way too much fun. Here are a couple pics...there will be more later. I just didn't want to overwhelm you with too many all at one time. :)


This is my absolute fav pic of the girls together. I think they look so goofy with those goggles on. Poor Ambry looks like she is going cross eyed wearing them. Can you tell she doesn't normally wear goggles? If you look close enough, they are actually upside down.
There will be more pics coming of our little trip. Like I said, I don't want to overwhelm you with the huge amount of pics I could put on here of all of us. :)

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, vacation

Here is what I got on my trip to CVS:

1. 5 Windex @ $2.99 each
2. 1 Palmolive dish soap @.99
3. 1 Gillette shave gel @.99
4. 5 Soft soap body washes @ $4.99 each
5. 1 24/7 skin care face scrub @$15.99

I did this purchase in 3 different transactions. The first I bought the 5 windex, palmolive dish soap, and 1 body wash. Total before coupons was $20.93. I used $6.79 in manufactures coupons, $9.00 in CVS coupons, and 3.99 ECB's, and paid $1.63 in cash. And I got back 9.99 in ECB's.

The second transaction I bought the 24/7 skin care and 1 bodywash. Total before coupons was $20.98. I used $1.50 in manufactures coupons, $9.00 in CVS coupons, and $9.99 ECB's, and paid $.61 in cash. And I ot back $14.99 in ECB's.

The final transaction I bought 3 bodywashes, a Sunday paper(for extra coupons) and 1 Gillette shave gel. Total before coupons was $17.71. I used $5.49 in manufactures coupons, $5.00 CVS coupons, $6.00 ECB's and paid $1.52 in cash. And I got back $14.97 in ECB's!!

After all that my total product amount was $59.62. Cash amount used was $3.76! Can you believe that?!? I LOVE CVS! Also, I used $19.98 in ECB's but got back $39.95!!! Yes! Such a good shopping trip. And since I need diapers, I can use the overage next time I go back. :)

Labels: cvs