Let's Go Shopping!

Mother's Day is almost here and I must share one of my new shopping loves if you are looking for gift ideas. Holly K Designs makes awesome jewelry and beautiful decorative wall crosses.




This set is one I gifted to Maggie that I absolutely adore! When I ordered it, I asked Holly to design a full set based on the USC logo and school colors. She did not disappoint with this necklace, bracelet, earrings and ring.


For my own birthday last month, my mother-in-law gave me this garnet wall cross. It's so cute with a textured base and bronze leather covered cross inset bordered by marbles.


Also for my birthday, my sister gave me this leopard and marble cross. I was surprised that the crosses were so large and can't wait to see them on my walls.

Not only is Holly super talented, but she's also Daniel's cousin, and I love being able to support family members who are talented. She just recently released a new large line of jewelry you can see here and here. Happy shopping!

Deal Day

I promise I am not becoming a coupon blog, but I must share this week's deals. It's just too fun not too! I've had quite a few people ask me how to ultra-coupon, and I hope I've convinced other people that this is the way to shop. If not, you're crazy. Seriously, people, you're just throwing money away if you pass up on the chance to purchase at a discount. And, it doesn't have to end at groceries and toiletries. I had some Kohl's coupons that I put to use Sunday afternoon and ended up spending less than $9 and saving $193.86. Last week, I was able to get a KitchenAid mixmaster for $191. That's just nuts because it was regularly priced at $499! I can't tell you how excited I am to get into my holiday season baking with my new mixer. Woo-hoo! Bath & Body Works was another retail outlet where I spent just $3, and left with three anti-bacterial soaps yesterday.

Here's my Walgreens deals this week. I don't go there every week because they don't always have the best deals, but I did okay this week. This cost me $9.12, and was a savings of $27.07.

CVS had some awesome deals this week. After adding on all the Extra Bucks (rewards that you use as cash for the next 30 days at CVS) and scanning my coupons, my receipt was so long that I HAD to measure it. It's 5 feet long! All of this cost me $37.32 and was a savings of $119.49.

My favorite place to shop, Target, is always my best savings place. I got all of this for just $36.83 and saved $86.44. That was a fun trip: 12 bags of Chex Mix, 3 small Renu bottles, 3 4-packs of Activia, 3 4-packs of Danimals, 2 Gillete razors with cartridges, 6 Jimmy Dean scramble bowls, 8 Quaker granola bars, 2 Aveeno baby lotions (for charity), 4 jars of Skippy peanut butter, Stuart Little 2 DVD, and 3 California Pizza Kitchen pizzas.

I went to Randalls last night for some other groceries, and had a 67% savings. I usually do better, but they didn't have everything that would have helped give me overage (more savings than the item costs, giving you money to pay for other items on your receipt), but I'll go back tomorrow and probably be able to pick up those items and get that savings. My favorite item was the Surf detergent boxes that are 120 loads and only cost $7. Needless to say, we are definitely set for laundry detergent. That's a great deal, so I picked up two boxes!

I still have to go to Wal-Mart, but wanted to get this out to you and hopefully inspire you to check out some of the websites I mentioned last week. You'll find all the same deals I did and can get these deals through Saturday. Happy shopping!

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Shopper Gone Crazy

This is a safe place, right? I can come to you, my three readers, and confess my inadequacies and ask forgiveness for my inconsistent blogging, right? Ahh..., good. Please forgive me for not being here for you. I meant well, but just couldn't get my intentions and actions on the same page.


I've found a new hobby, and can't seem to pry myself from what has now become an obsession. I'm not sure if I should apologize or just offer to share my secrets in the hopes that you can benefit from my craziness. I've told you before about my Craigslist Crazy persona, and now I've added to the craziness. I'm now Coupon Crazy!


You may remember months ago when I set out to shrink my grocery budget. After awesome tips and insights from you, I came away with a smaller budget, a great spreadsheet to use for sales/coupon comparisons and confidence in my shopping! However, I recently discovered that I wasn't even coming close to the savings potential out there. I stumbled across a few blogs that I'm now using to aid me in my couponing, and my shopping habits have now changed AGAIN!


I have a few favorite blogs that I check on a daily basis starting with athriftymom.com. This site is great because she shares great deals (especially if you are an Albertson's shopper), but also links to other blogs that share the weekly deals at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Safeway (Von's, Kroger, and Randall's in other areas), and a plethora of other stores. Believe me, she covers it all.


I love CouponGal.net for the same reasons. The gives the run-down for awesome Target, Walgreen's and CVS deals. Plus, she throws in hints for great deals. Today, I grabbed three new Conair blow dryers for $5 each! Last week she showed me how to get a new KitchenAid mixmaster for $190 (regularly priced $500)!


DealSeekingMom.com is one of them that (I think) Amanda pointed me to. She's awesome at highlighting great retail deals at all the stores - Yankee Candle, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret, Wal-Mart, and anywhere else you can think to shop!


CouponMom.com is a bit different than these previously mentioned blogs, because it is a more in-depth site. I love to use her site because it is more like a spreadsheet and shows me which coupons to get along with the percentage I am saving. Plus, I can check off which deals I want to get and then print off a great spreadsheet that I take to the store for my list.


I've used a lot of other sites that I find through links on these sites, and I know there are many more out there. They all do the same thing in showing me where the best sales are and how to maximize my coupons, from newspaper inserts, magazines, manufacturer websites, online coupon sites, etc. I start off with four copies of the Sunday newspaper. I file away the coupon inserts, labeling them with the date they were distributed. I also print off the online coupon databases when they update at the beginning of each month. And, each day, I print off the max number of manufacturer coupons that are featured on each of the blogs previously mentioned.


Believe me, my shopping habits have changed dramatically. But, so has my budget! I still get a few deals at Sam's and Wal-Mart, but it's rare for me to go to each of those places. I did go to Wal-Mart last week to pick up a few bags of AirWick scented oil starter kits and motion detector fragrance kits for the house. Yes, my house smells awesome now! And, it will for a long time because I got 12 of these kits since they were on a great sale for $5 each. And, I paid $12 total for all of them! You may be laughing at me, because my family was laughing at me, too. But, then Daniel came to Target with me one day and saw me leave with 3 full bags of groceries and pay just 99 cents! He's so much on board that he made my weekly Target run for me last week. With an envelope of coupons in hand, he made my day by spending $30 and saving $84 for me! Now, that's a devoted husband who will even do my coupon shopping for me!


I think Target has become my favorite place for deals. Here's some of my sample purchases in the past month. On this Target run, I got these 20 cereal cups, a mini loaf of bakery bread and 6 bars of soap for the kids for free! I must tell you, that's not the only trip I took advantage of the cereal sale. Before the sale was over, I think I picked up about 60 of those cereal cups. (For the past few weeks, they've had cheesesticks on sale, and I think we have about 50 cheesesticks in our fridge - cheddar, swiss and pepperjack).

On another trip to Target, you'll see I got 1 gallon of milk, 3 pounds of bananas, 6 ears of corn, 1 loaf of bakery bread, 2 boxes of 12 Pop Tarts, toothbrushes, and a bunch of other stuff. You won't believe it, but I paid $6 for all of this. I'm serious!

This was a trip to CVS. There's the new Bounce dryer bars, 3 Dawn dish detergents, 1 Glade reed diffuser, 3 Downy fabric softeners, and 3 Softsoap body washes (their new Nutri-Serum is great!) all for $12. I'm not kidding!

To show that it's not just groceries I'm buying, here's my bounty from a recent trip to Victoria's Secret. I got a travel kit (priced at $25), a bar of (awesome) Pink soap ($5), tin of mints ($3.50), lip gloss ($7.50), and two pairs of VS panties ($17) and I only paid $9 in total! Now, that's retail therapy!

As you can see, I'm starting to get the hang of this coupon game and I hope I can put more attention back on my blogging now.

UPDATE: I used http://hip2save.blogspot.com/ for a slew of Wal-Mart deals tonight. Saved about $60 and spent just $31. Woo-hoo!

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Black Friday

Last year was the first time I've ventured out into the Black Friday madness, and it was well worth it. I headed out at 4 a.m. and was home by 7, but saved more than $400 on some big ticket items. I decided that I would have to add shopping to my annual Thanksgiving traditions.

This year, my sister joined me and we beefed up the list of stores and developed a strategy for our assault on the stores. We combed through the ads finding the items we were interested in. Then, Kelly Ann ordered the ads in a stack based on store opening times. We headed out at 11:30 Wednesday night to hit the large outlet mall a few miles from my house in Round Rock. I was shocked to see the parking lot already full and jumped in line at Gymboree and waited until the store opened at midnight. I still have no idea why there was a line because once the doors opened, the crowd converged in a not-so-orderly fashion. I assigned Kelly Ann to the girls side of the store and instructed her to pick up everything in a size 6 that I would be remotely interested in. I took the boys side. We met up at the back of the store, and KA took the stack of clothes we had gathered and jumped in the growing check-out line. I went back through the girls' clothing and selected a few more items and then swapped with KA. The line was very long and not moving so KA went to another store while I waited. KA perused the Ann Taylor store and made a trip around the entire mall due to getting lost before finally finding me still in line and in the same exact spot as I hadn't moved in 45 minutes. To give some relief, a store clerk gave us the option of leaving our items on hold and coming back in a few hours to check out. I quickly took that option and headed out to the other stores with KA. We perused the rest of the mall, snagging great deals in many stores, and then headed back to Gymboree at 2:30 only to find the line still very long. We stepped back out to grab some Starbucks (double shot, please!) and listen to the live band playing Christmas music. Then, I made the plunge at 3 a.m. and jumped back into the cazy moms line at Gymboree as I had no choice and had to get it over with. I waited another 40 minutes and finaly left with my purchases. 

We then headed to Georgetown where the nearest Kohl's is, about 15 minutes away, and couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the line waiting to get into the still-unopen store was a block and a half long. We didn't even look for a parking place but just drove around laughing at the people in line at the stores. The line at Best Buy had people seated in lawn chairs, Office Depot had customers waiting with their kids in a tent. I'm still wondering what the guy was itching to purchase at PetSmart that warranted waiting in line by himself.

We weren't interested in the Kohl's madness and turned back South and headed to Austin to hit Macy's that was opening at 5. We got sidetracked and stopped at an Old Navy and Family Christian Bookstore. How can you beat $5 Veggie Tales movies?! 

We did finally make it to Macy's around 6 and made the rounds at the Lakeline Mall, stopped at Wal-Mart and Ulta on our way home and picked up donuts to have breakfast with my family by 9. But, after KA had a quick power nap she was ready to head back out. My mom joined us and we picked up some deals at Tuesday Morning and Bed Bath & Beyond before sleepily making it back to the house. 

Of course, I was miserably tired the rest of the day, and jealous that KA got to sleep in the car as my family headed back to Odessa. But, I'll do it all over again next year. I can sleep all the other nights of the year.