Tonight's Project

I love this menu planning calendar.  As a full time working mom and a wife to a husband who is also in school and working full time, meal organization is tricky.  So when a friend of mine introduced me to this system I was thrilled.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time or the energy to make one myself over the last several months.  

Luckily, Rachelle decided to take on this project herself.

Here's how it turned out.

And, yet even after seeing both of these amazing projects, I  still haven't worked up the true desire to try one on my own.  They look incredible but they also look complicated.  

So here is what I'm working some more on tonight:

Until I can actually take time to make my own board,

I will use these standard magnets for my fridge.

Follow this tutorial to make some magnets for your own fridge!  

All I needed for this project was:

1) printed recipes titles

2) background paper (we used scrapbook paper from Michael's)

3) glue or double sided tape

4) small magnets (found for approx $3.00 at Michael's)

5) laminating paper (found for under $5.00 at Walmart)

These magnets are simple, inexpensive and have been a wonderful solution to managing our busy lives while still reminding us to eat.

Thank you, thank you again to Rachelle for getting me started on this wonderful project and for inspiring me to work on it myself!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

Celebrating 1 year of calling Denver our home.

One of our favorite family traditions has become snuggling in bed together in the mornings.  Here we are snuggling, reminiscing over the past year and talking about our goals for the upcoming year.

Love this family. Love this life.

The Perfect Focal Point

THE perfect focal point is....this puppy!

Searching through design blogs tonight and I happened to come across this photo on alifesdesign.  The decor in this home wasn't what stopped me in  my tracks...but it was this beautiful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  JB and I have been dreaming for years of someday owning our own Cavalier.  I've never been much of a dog person but when I see one of these pups I absolutely swoooon.  We have a name picked out and an under the Christmas tree gift scenario for how we would love to present this puppy to Mack.  The "when" is the only thing yet to be determined :)

Let's Talk Coupons

Let's talk coupons.  As I've stated in my "Living For Less" link, I am in no way an expert on coupons.  I'm still learning with the best of you.  If make a statement regarding coupons and policies that are wrong please comment and correct me under this post.  

With that said...one of the best ways I have found to save money using coupons is to know the tricks to stacking coupons. What I didn't realize when I first began couponing was that you increase your savings by combining manufacturer's coupons with store coupons.  

Here is a deal currently going on in which you could use this method and get cheap ice cream at Target:

Breyer’s Ice Cream 1.5 Quart  - $2.99 (Sale thru 5/28)
$1.50/2 Breyer’s Ice Cream 1.5-qt. Target Web Coupon STACK with
$1.50/2 Breyer’s Blasts Ice Cream
Final Price: $1.49/each

Find more Target Weekly Deals here.

Thank you to one of my favorite thrifty bloggers Bargain Briana for this particular deal scenario.

Make sense?  This one wasn't too difficult.  However, this deal doesn't give you a free item which is what everyone really wants.

Here's an example of a scenario that my husband and I recently did to get free toothpaste:

Colgate Toothpaste-  on sale for $2.99 at King Soopers (aka Kroger)

Colgate Toothpaste  - $2.99
$1.50/1 manufacturer's coupon STACK with
$1.50/1 Store Coupon
Final Price: free

*I should mention that the key to getting this coupon FREE was buying a kind that was already on sale.  We had our choice of several different kinds of Colgate but we knew that if we wanted to walk out with a free item we had to choose the particular kind that was on sale for $2.99 and not regularly priced at $3.50.
So, we walked out of the grocery store with free toothpaste...which was great because we were just about out.

There are many more variations of stacking that will save you money.  Wait until you hear about stacking "buy one get one" items.  Now that's when it becomes fun ;)

For now, that's all I've got for tonight.  Hope this made some sense and that it was helpful to those of you who are just starting out on your coupon adventures!  Please comment with any questions or remarks! 

More to come as I find the energy and time :)  

Potty Training 101

We've entered the world of potty training.  I'm really now sure how we got here so quickly.  I hadn't planned on trying to potty train until later this summer.  But, somehow here I am with my 23-month-old dragging me by the hand so she can sit on her little green potty multiple times a day.  I'm not in any way complaining.  Heck, this kid has been a piece of work to parent so far.  This morning JB and I exchanged looks and questioned to one another, "It can't really be this easy...can it?"  I will update as this new phase continues and I'm sure I will have questions that need answered.  For now, I am counting my  blessings!

Living For Less

Two years ago, one of my closest friends Amy introduced me to a life of frugality and couponing.  Don't get me wrong-- I've always been cheap.  My family has teased me for years about my penny pinching tendencies.  And, no matter how much money I have saved our family, my husband still rolls his eyes and laughs when I become giddy over finding lost change in a store parking lot.  The way I see it money is money-- even if it's just a lucky penny.  I have good ol' Ben Franklin to thank for that. 

While I still consider myself somewhat of an amateur compared to some couponers-- I smile a little bit when I remember days that my husband and I have walked out of our local grocery store with cart loads full of free (name brand) groceries.  Can anyone really argue the coolness of that?  It takes some work, and some education but in my experience even as a very busy, working mom-- saving the money has been worth it when you are working to put your husband through grad school while also saving for your first home.  Absolutely worth it.



Recently Amy posted a blog with a list of items that you should NEVER ever have to buy once you become a couponer.  I can attest to the truth of this list.  So here it is.  If you want to save a ton of money on staple household necessities here are some freebies you can stock up and eliminate out of your budget.  
What We Don't Spend $ On

1. Shampoo, Body wash, Conditioner, toothpaste, floss, and deodorant (thank you CVS!)
2. Bottled Water or drinks at a restaurant  (thank you tap water and reusable water bottles)
3. Car Payments (all of our cars have been given to us and we plan to buy all future cars in cash)
4. Cable or Netflix (thank you hulu and redbox)
5. Texting Joel's employer pays for his texting & I use the texting app (it saves us $240/year!)
6. Starbucks (Joel packs his own coffee when he has work meetings there)
7. Green Beans and Tomatoes (my grandparents and my mom graciously cans these for us every year from their garden)
8. Gym memberships (we both like running which is practically free)
9. Interest we have zero debt
10. Magazine Subscriptions who needs to pay for them when companies offer them for free!
11. Lunch Out We are brown baggers...or reusable lunch container packers--we try to be green.

For now, here are some blogs that have helped me out tremendously since becoming a bargain shopper.

Mashup Mom- For my Chicagoland friends

Denver Bargains for my Denver area friends
Savvy Spending for my Michigan Friends

Bargain Briana

Money Saving Mom

So here's to living frugal, to saving money and to putting those extra pennies somewhere worthwhile.  I hope that the tips and ideas from me (and my blogger friends) in the coming days can be as helpful to you as they have been for me. 

Chasing Dreams

Our Little Mountain Family!

Last summer we packed up our tiny dodge neon and filled an ugly yellow moving truck with seven years of city life memories.  We then voyaged cross country leaving behind the steel skyscrapers of Chicago for the majestic mountains of Denver, CO. This past year has been a roller coaster ride of change.  Every day brings a new adventure-- some days messier than others.  However, I can say for certain that there is no where else I would rather be and no one else I would rather be with. Follow me as I venture through life with my feisty "mini me" toddler and my stud of a husband.  This is what my dreams are made of.