Update time

So it's been awhile since my last post in September. Little Dude turned 2 1/2 on Feb 10th and I'm proud to say he's potty trained. I'm so proud of my son. We learned last week that when our lease on the house is up March 31st the home owner won't renew as they are moving back into it. So the search is on for a new house. Our renter in the home we own left Feb 1st due to a deployment. They are a military family. So our property manager has a hunt of her own as well. I'm trying to let God take care of it and believe it'll all work out, but come on. I'm a control freak. It's a real challenge for me. I'm hoping to tweak my grocery budget (since I have a feeling we'll be paying more in rent for our next place) so I'm going to try and post my weekly shopping trips and menu so I can get a better picture of where my money is going. But if you've read any of my posts I'll tell you right now to not hold your breathe. At least I'm being honest! Let see what Monday brings.

Little Dude loves to help mix

My little helper love to help, "mit it" when I'm cooking. Big Dude's birthday was recent and I made him a birthday cake while LD was napping. After the cake cooled I let LD help me make some chocolate icing for the cake.

 Helping me stir the icing.

CVS 9/15/13 and 9/22/13

I've been lucky enough to get $3 ECB emailed to me twice in a row these last 2 weeks. If I can wait to shop I wait for Monday or Thursday to see if my CVS emails have any discounts or ECB's for me. These surprise ECB's are making for some awesome deals.

9/15/13

Retail Value: $24.41

Oop before tax: $1.76

Where is my water bottle?

LD is at that magical age of two. He's more independent now and tries to do things himself. Now that he's two (and tall enough) I'm allowing him to help me do the laundry. One of his jobs is to take the wet laundry I hand him from the washer and put it in the dryer. Now there is a fascination with putting things in the clothes washer and dryer. After spending a whole day not able to find my water bottle I went to do some laundry during nap time. This is what I found:

Harris Teeter triples 9-18-13 trip #2 and #3

I made two more trips to Harris Teeter this week. My first trip I forgot my Cheerios and each time I went back they were out. Sigh. This is why I make a list. But I didn't this week. Oh well.
Any whoo.

Trip #2

Retail Value $25.08

Oop: $6.78 before taxes

way overdue cvs posts.

So I have been keeping track of my CVS deals and even writing them up. I haven't gotten around to posting them because I started working part time watching 2 girls (sisters, ages 4 and 1) and that has completely thrown off my weeks! There were time I was going to the store at 9 at night (sometimes even on the last day of the sale). I'm getting my groove down. LD is loving having his two friends come over and play with him. He was the main reason I was wanting some children near his age. I don't think it's good for him to spend so much alone time with just me. He's learning to share and take turns, something he's only able to learn with other children. He's also got a jealous streak if I'm holding the 1 year old. He immediately comes over and wants to be held too.

Here's 3 weeks worth of my CVS deals:
8/25/13 weeks deal was good. If I could have found a second bogo coupon I could have paid a penny before taxes. THAT would have been scream worthy. I used 10 ecb's from here and only got a total of 8 back (5 and 3) so you could say I "lost" 2 ecb's, but I found it hard to keep rolling the 10 into a deal that would give me 10 back. It'll be easier to buy things my family needs and will use if I have a smaller amount of ecbs to roll. I have to keep reminding myself that even if a deal is awesome, if it's not for my family, I don't need to buy it.

Harris Teeter Triples! 9/11/13

Harris Teeter had a triple coupon event this week! I scored some major deals!

Retail Value Before Sales: $48.89

OOP: $6.19!!

The breakdown:
(2) Martha White mixes $1.00 each
  -.55/2 coupon
(2) Hawaiian Punch $2.79
  -(2) .75 coupon
(1) Bisquick $2.69
  -.50 coupon and -.50 evic coupon
(1) Pampers $2.50
  -.50 coupon and /.50 evic coupon
(4) Dole Pinapple $.99 each
  -(2).50/2 coupon
(2) Colgate Total Plus $2.50 each
  -(2) .75 coupon
(1) Natures Own Honey Wheat $1.94
  -.75 coupon
(2) Kraft Fresh Takes $1.67 each on close out
  -(2) .99 coupon
(2) Yo Crunch $.60 each (Not pictured. They got eaten and were yummy!)
  -(2) .25 coupon

(3) Hamburger Helper $1.00 each
(1)Ultimate Helper $1.67
  -.80/4 coupon and -.75/4 evic. I grabbed a Ultimate instead of a regular Helper by mistake so my total is .67 higher than it should have been.
The cashier also forgot my .20 bag credit for my 4 bags and I didn't realize it till I got home. Oh well.