Big (little) news!!!!

Delaney Addison was born yesterday! December 22, 2009 @ 3:59pm weighing 6lbs 15oz and 19" long. She's lovely and perfect and I love her! Pics soon!

Benefits of thrifty shopping

This week is a killer busy one. I've done a few VERYYYYY thrifty shopping trips to Farm Fresh, seriously impressive stuff but I'm running out of free time so I won't be posting pics or breakdowns right now but I just wanted to jump on here to brag a little...

Because of the thrifty way I shop, my grocery list for the rest of the month:

Walgreens:
Kleenex - .79c ea x 3 = $2.37 - .50c/3 = $1.87
1 pack of straws = .39c
Walgreens honey roasted peanuts .99c ea x 2 = 1.98
Total: $4.24

Rite Aid:
3 cases of Mt. Dew $7.99
2 cans Lindsay olives .99c ea x2 = $1.98 - $1/2 = .98c
Quilted Northern 12 roll $6.49
Total: $15.46 - a rebate check for $6.50 = $8.96!
PLUS I participate in Rite Aid's gift of savings and this total will put me over into the next savings bracket so I'll recieve a $10.00 gift card in about a month! I'm alright with that!

Wal Mart:
a Christmas ham
4 cans Pringles (have a $1/4 coupon)
ranch dip mix
veggies for a veggie tray
10lb bag potatoes
5 lbs ground turkey
there's a meat/cracker gift set in the ad this week for only $9, I might get that for hubby

So yeah, this shopping trip shouldn't cost me more than $40-$50 and I wont need to go again until prob Jan 5?

Walgreens 4 Day Sale scores!

Walgreens is wrapping up their special 4 day sale todayso you still have time to go make some great deals happen! I didn't take advantage of many of their Register Rewards items because I really had no use for most of the stuff they were offering but I did get some good deals and some $5 RR's for spending $25 before coupons!

I did this in 3 separate stores, good thing I live in a heavily populated (by Walgreens stores) area, they were all relatively close to me so it wasn't an issue.

The first store I went to was out of the $1.99 Stayfree pads so the manager offered to substitute the Walgreens brand for me but I couldn't use my $1/1 coupon or get the $2.00 RR's for it but I'm having a baby like, any day now so I NEED pads asap so I took him up on the offer, still a good deal @ $1.99 even without a discount.

Also, I plan on breastfeeding but I like to have some formula as backup just in case. My friend just passed along 3 checks for Nestle Good Start formula for $8.00/1 so I hurried over to grab 2 cans of the $12.49 ones. They're having a special, if you spend $25.00 BEFORE coupons, you'll get a $5.00 RR printed after you pay so my total before coupons was $26.97 so I scored one $5.00 RR!

Breakdown:

1 pack W brand pads: $1.99
2 Nestle Good Start formula: $12.49 ea
- $8.00 ea
=$10.97 OOP (out of pocket)
I used a gift card balance I had from a previous return -$3.14
= $8.55 OOP
+$5.00 RR back

The second one I did was everything pictured above:

Breakdown:

Stayfree pads: $1.99 -$1/1 MQ = .99c
Nestle Good Start formula: $13.49 - $8.00 check = $5.49
Chex Mix: .99c each x 6 = $5.94 - 6 .50c/1 MQ's (see prev post to find these coupons) = $2.94

Hershey's Kisses - 2/$5.00 - $1/2 MQ = $4.00

Total before coupons = $26.42

Total after coupons OOP= $14.13
PLUS I made a $5.00 RR for spending over $25.00 BEFORE coupons
Plus I made $3.00 more in RR from the Kisses and the pads for a total of $8.00 in RR in this transaction!

Last transaction!

I had to go back a few hours later to do a 3rd transaction because my hubby was flying late and I needed to not bring the kids because my whole point in doing this was to get a few things I needed and use the RR's for the toy sale they're having. Sadly, I went in so late that the toys were a bit picked over. Luckily I found a few decent ones on the next isle over on the tippy top shelf still in boxes.... yeah my 9 month pregnant self hopped up there and grabbed what I needed. haha!

So here's the breakdown for the final transaction:

A "sock em' boppers" type of toy for my son, this might be a little young for him but there wasn't much else to chose from for boys so I think he'll like this when his friends come over.
WAS $9.99 but the 4 days sale is discounting them down to $5.99

Littlest Pet Shop art set for my daughter $5.99

3 more Chex Mix (I know! Insane amount of Chex @ my house but the kid will be out of school for a few weeks and we'll have family coming when the baby arrives, easy snack!) .99c ea - 3 .50c/1 MQ = $1.47

4 boxes of Fruit Loops which were $1.99 each = $7.96 - $5/4 boxes Kellogs cereal on Target.com's coupon section (it's an MQ but it prints a Target logo on it, still valid, I've used it twice) = $2.96 for 4 boxes!!!

Total before coupons = $30.91
Total after coupons = $16.41
-$13.00 in RR from other 2 transactions = $4.53 OOP

So all in all I spend a total of $27.21 on everything shown below. It doesn't sound as fantastic as I usually do but I got 2 large toys and 3 can of formula, those are almost $20.00 a piece each! So I think I did pretty well!

Next I'm working on some FABULOUS deals @ Farm Fresh, the savings I'm finding are mind boggling and that should be my last trip out and about before baby time!!! (Hopefully!!)

Navy Exchange $9.00 toy sales!

If you have access to a Military Navy Exchange, check out some of these sales!!!

First of all the Moxie Girls doll is an excellent price, I think they're $17.00 everywhere else. Hard to find though, they seem pretty popular. I tried to find one for my daughter yesterday with no luck.

The picture is quite pixelated but on the left of the $9.00 red dot is a Hasbro Mr. Potato Head Silly Suitcase.

On the right is a Hasbro Kota & Pals Hatchlings dinosaur toy.

Under that is a Playskool Swing N' Score Baseball toy.

If you go to www.coupons.com and click on toys, you should find a coupon for each of those (not the Moxie Girls, just the last 3 I listed) for $5.00 off each one bringing the prices down to only $4.00 per toy!!! Hurry and go get one! I'm skipping out on this sale because my older kids are too old for these toys and hubby doesn't want to store these for over a year until this new baby can play with these. I agree but I might pick up one to donate! (remember www.Toys4Tots.org)

I got next week's Navy Exchange ad mailer and it has a great diaper deal in it. If you're interested in tracking down the ad next week, the Pampers Big Pack is only $16.99! I plan on bringing in a $1.50/1 coupon and getting it for $15.49 plus I got a scratch off card thing with the ad so I can get at least 5% off (I'll know when I take it in and scratch it off at the register, might be more savings but probably not... I never win anything good :)) of the total of my purchase... maybe I'll get two boxes!

The home stretch

Today I'm 37 weeks pregnant! Officially at term and no longer at risk of delivering a premature baby! Both of the other kids were born around 38-39 weeks so I never had a huge preemie scare but I was induced for preeclampsia with them so when the symptoms of pre-e started creeping up on me with this pregnancy, my OB and I assumed I'd barely make it to 36 weeks so I'm pretty excited about this!

I'm not a "get this baby out of me" type of person, I don't make up reasons why I should be delivered early, I don't care if she waits until her due date, maybe even a day or so after because I know that she will not be in me forever, and it's easier to be pregnant than it is to care for a newborn so I'm okay with staying pregnant. As much as I'm excited to see her and to hold her, I'm equally as frightened to have her out. I HATE the first few weeks. The labor and delivery is great! I have no fear of labor or the pain that goes along with it, I can't stand the sleepless nights and the way I feel after I give birth.

As far as the pre-e goes, I'm experiencing symptoms but not all of them. I have major swelling (no shoes fit me.... none.) in the legs, feet, fingers, wrists, arms, nose, lips and eyes. (puffy and swollen lids) My blood pressure is typically 150-something/80-something which is no good. But the thing that seals the deal for pre-e is if you're spilling protein in your urine and I'm not so it's not technically pre-e yet. It may or may not happen but I'm having weekly blood draws and weekly 24 hour urine collections to keep checking.

So yeah, as long as she's healthy in there, I'm happy to stay pregnant! I can't wait to meet her though!

Chex Mix anyone??

Walgreens has Chex Mix on sale for .99c per bag in their weekly ad. Go here, here, here and here to print .50c/1 coupons to stock up on it! (Making each bag only .49c!) I'll be headed back there to get more tomorrow! P.S. Walgreens has different flavors on sale, not just the original ones. I got cheddar today, they also have Bold and a few others. Hurry, they'll surely sell out quickly!

Menu Plan Monday

I forgot that I'd like to start Menu Plan Mondays again. Except today is Tuesday so I'm already off to a terrible start. Eh well. Here we go!

Monday: Turkey tacos (still using leftover turkey from T-give) with spanish rice

Tuesday: English muffin pizzas, crescent roll garlic bread (unrolled, press seams together, brush with garlic butter, use italian seasoning grinder, add parm and shred cheese, bake 15 min @ 350
(making extra pizzas to freeze!!!)

Wednesday: Hot Pot (formerly known as Hamburger Hot Pot but I now use only ground turkey)
1lb ground turkey, browned. About 1/2 5lb bag potatoes chopped (uncooked). 2 cans cr of mush soup, 4oz sour cream. Layer half of the potatoes on bottom of crock pot, layer browned ground turkey, layer rest of potatoes on top. Layer c.o.m. and sour cr mixture on top, add 1 cup water. Medium crock pot 6hrs.

Thursday: Cheddar brats and french fries

Friday: Pasta alfredo w/ veggies

Saturday: Soup & biscuits

Sunday: Hubby will be on duty all night so we'll prob just do sandwiches and crackers and celery with dip.