This past week has been crazy. Last Wednesday I became a aunt for the first time. My brother and his wife had a little baby boy. He sure is a cutie. I have been trying to catch up on housework and laundry (yuck!), but I got to finally sneak away to Target yesterday. I got some pretty good deals. I got 27 items and spent $26.36. So that is less then a $1.00 for each thing. Not bad. I am assuming that they are having the big toy clearance this week so I am getting ready for that. I just want to be able to get Christmas presents for my little one, little brothers, and of course my new little nephew without having to break the bank. So I am getting excited and hoping that I can find some awesome toys and such. I will post what I bought at Target when I find the receipt...lol.

Now that I have a blog I have been looking at so many other awesome blogs out there. Mine is no where near any of them, but maybe it will be someday. I came upon a blog today that sells these fantastic totes. They are so cute. It is called Twintastic Creations. The owners are twin sisters and they do an amazing job at creating these totes. Right now they are having a give away. You could win a mini tote. How cool would that be? So I encourage you to go check out what they have and sign up for the give away.

I also made a trip to Dollar Tree yesterday to see if I could find anything good. In fact I did. Maison ran out of shampoo and he needed some. Lo and behold on the shelf was bottles and bottles of Loreal kids shampoo. So I snatched up a bottle. I am thinking that on pay day I will go back and get a few more to get a little stockpile going. They also had one of Maison's favorite snacks the fruit loops cereal straws. Normally I would pay well over $2.00 for this stuff. In fact we went to Aldi's for our weekly grocery shopping and they had the cereal straws for $2.84. So I saved $1.84 getting them at the dollar tree. Yay me! If you haven't checked out the store yet, go once and see what you find.

Well I went to Target yesterday to get a prescription refill and picked up what I think was some pretty good deals.

Glade scented oil tin candle $2.99 - $2.00 coupon = $0.99
Glade scented oil tin candle $2.99 - $2.00 coupon = $0.99
Glade scented oil refill 3 pack + 1 extra $2.99 - free with purchase of glade candle = FREE
Olay in shower body lotion $3.49 - $2.00 coupon = $1.49
Degree body mist $3.64 - $2.00 coupon = $1.64
Colgate total toothpaste with travel size & coupon booklet $2.49 - $1.00 = $1.49
Kotex 16 count panty liner x 2 packs $2.04 - $1.50 coupon = $0.54
Nexcare bandaid travel size x 6 packs $5.82 - 6 $1.00 coupons = $0.18 overage
T-shirt for Maison $1.00 on clearance
Toy football for Maison $1.38 on clearance

TOTAL = $10.95

Well that was my first trip buying only what was on clearance/sale/had a coupon for, not bad. I hope I will get better though.

Sites I use to help me

There are a few sites that I use that help me in SO many ways. The first one is Money Saving Mom. Her site is so helpful. She posts about free samples, awesome deals you can get at your local stores, printable coupons, and did I mention that she is married with 3 kids and their grocery budget is $40.00 a week. Yeah you read that right! She really does it to. Sometimes even under the budget. How amazing is that? I also use Hot Coupon World and A Full Cup. These websites help a lot with coupon match ups with sales at just about every store imaginable. They are bigger forums so you have lots of people helping you save money. Those are the 3 that I visit everyday (ok maybe even more than once a day...I can't help it...they are just so addicting!).

First & Foremost

I have been really trying to save our family some money lately. We have our taxes due the end of August in the tune of $1400! Yeah that is right we have to fork over $1400! Ack!
So I have vowed to shop only clearance & sales, and do our regular grocery shopping at Aldi's. The only exception to this rule is if I have *coupons* (have I mentioned how much I love coupons?) that makes something super cheap or free.
That is why I am going to start this blog. To help me be responsible for everything that I/we spend. So here we go...