Its time...

for another shopping post. Its been a good while since I've posted one, so today is the day. I'm super excited about the deals I got. Today I hit up Rite Aid and Target. Couponing in Washington is SO different than couponing in Utah. Its Saturday, the last day of the Rite Aid sale and several days into the deals at Target I was after and I was able to get almost everything I wanted. Things weren't completely wiped out on Monday... weird. Even stranger, I had absolutely zero trouble using my coupons. The cashiers scanned them all, no questions asked, no register beeps. Its was awesome.

Anyway, here's my Rite Aid take:

8 Herbal Essesnces Products
-4 Free (store BOGO promo)
-3 BOGO coupons (P&G insert)
-1 Free product coupon (fro a Facebook promo, no longer available)

=All 8 products for FREEEEEE!!!! I paid just $1.50 in tax for all 8 products. I love free.

In case your Rite Aid gives you trouble, this is totally allowed and is specifically addressed in the Rite Aid Corporate Coupon Policy. Print your own copy here and take it to the store with you, just in case your store isn't very well informed.

At Target I was able to get everything I wanted except Glade Holiday Scented Oil Candles. My Target had the tins, but not the pretty glass holders and no holiday refills. So I passed. The gift card deal on it (buy 5 holiday scented Glade products and get a free $5 gift card) goes through Christmas, so I'll just wait and try another day. The other Target near me had what I wanted when I was there on Monday, but they wouldn't take my coupons so I walked away. Next time I go I'll make sure I have my Target coupon policy with the Guest Relations phone number on it.

Anyway, here's my Target take today:

• 4 Tubs of Up & Up Baby Wipes - $0.57 each using $1 Up & Up Target coupon
• 2 Up & Up travel wipes - $0.47 each using the same Target coupon.
• 2 Kraft marshallows - $0.62 eash using $1/2 Target coupon
• 1 Santa Potato Head Spud Bud - $0.99 using $5 coupon at coupons.com
• Up! on BluRay/DVD combo pack - $9.96 using $10 coupon available from Disney

Total spent: $17.89, which is less than the sale price of the DVD. Pretty awesome. I love Target.

All Target coupons are available here.

I also got diapers at Walgreens earlier this week... no pictures, but I got 4 packs of diapers for $20 plus tax using $2 Huggies coupons from coupons.com, a $1 Huggies Walgreens coupon found in a children's coloring and activity book (they sell for 99 cents in the store) and the $5/$25 purchase Walgreens coupon.

Oh, and Mr. Potato Head... I got 2 of those at Fred Meyer. They were on sale BOGO, so I bought 2 and used 2 $2 off Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head product, so I got both of the for $3.50... Christmas for Allison. But I might return them for 2 of the Potato Head Silly Suitcases instead... we'll see.

Its been a good week for a good deal...

Halloween and such...

Yes, we are still alive. And now that Halloween has come and gone (and I'd discovered that my dad's computer has an SD card reader) I have something to blog about that doesn't involve discussing how much I dislike unemployment and job hunting.

Halloween was fun this year... Allison went as Cinderella (her favorite princess) and Carter was a guitar. I got to make both kid's costumes and I loved how they turned out. Carter's didn't end up exactly how I thought it would, but I ran short on time, and what I managed worked out anyway. We took the kids to a 2-ward trunk-or-treat at the stake center. It was huge and it was a good one. Allison thouroughly enjoyed herself and has periodically been asking to go trick or treating again. We have yet to oblige her on that point, but I do let her wear her "halloween dress" around as she sees fit.

Allison. Isn't that dress (and the girl in it) too cute? Best part, it was totally free. The blue fabric was left over from decorating for my wedding. Mom donated the starry fabric and the little trim... tiara was one hanging around the house from our pagenting past. Oh... wait... I lied. I did buy a little dollar store princesses bracelet to steal the Cinderella "gem" from. So this costume cost $1.

Allison up close, with the dress all done.

Apparently Carter was the devil baby guitar... I had intended this to go on his front, but then decided it would look just as good on his back and bug him less. He was happy to just be held during trick-or-treating... no candy required for this kid.

Beyond Halloween, life has mostly been revolving around trying to find a job (which I'm beginning to think might not happen before the first of the year) and trying to help my mom accomplish as many projects as possible for Emily's wedding on the 21st (note to self: hire a wedding planner to do all the projects for Allison's wedding...).

Allison has provided us with some recent excitement too... Thursday evening she pulled a 30 inch barstool down onto her big toe, splitting the toe nail in half, pulling the nail matrix out completely, splitting her toe open pretty well and chipping the bone a little. She got her toe numbed, nail replaced 3 stitches and a splint to keep her from pushing off with her toes when she walks... oh, and 15 stickers (we've been to the urgent care 3 times now... once for the injury and two wound checks). Hopefully we'll be able to get her stitches out next Thursday when we take her in again. And, heaven willing, then never go back.

Just in case you are wondering...

1) Yes, we are still alive. We made it safely through our move and are settling into a new routine pretty quickly. Allison's having a little bit of a rough transition, but really, not too bad considering how upside down her life just got turned.

2) No, we did not wreck our 24 foot moving truck. We did inflict minor damage to it and we did pay $34 to fix a Provo City street sign, but otherwise nothing is worse for the wear.

3) Yes... every muscle in my body and Brian's body aches. I never want to move again. Sadly, seeing as we're currently living with my parents, we'll be moving again at some future date. Then again, some of my aching muscles could be caused the the Zumba class I went to with my mom yesterday (WOW, FUN!)

I'll post again when I have the mental capabilites to figure out something worth posting...

Its an illness...

I've come to terms with the fact that I have an illness... its ODAD.

Obsessive Diaper Accumulation Disorder.

Yep. Diapers. Its almost like I collect them. You'd think that, given the fact that I have 3 unopened mega packs in the house, I wouldn't feel the pull to buy more. But thats just not the case. Yesterday I bought 2 more boxes of Pampers. I had to... my awesome $4 off a box of Pampers coupons were expiring yesterday. I firmly believe that letting a great coupon like that expire could cause me mortal harm. So 2 more boxes I bought... and they were a great deal (about 10 cents a diaper, if you must know).

For now, we're allowing this problem to go untreated. We'll look into getting some help if it persists once I have no more kids in diapers.

Its awesome when...

your 2 year-old comes running into the living room, wearing nothing but a shirt, saying "Mommy, I peed in the potty!"

The Perfect Costume

I found the perfect costume for Carter's first Halloween... nevermind that we have a perfectly good purple monster costume that that Allison wore last year and would fit him just fine this year. But I saw this one at Babies R Us the other day and we have to have it. Its $30, and I would never pay that, but I think it'll be pretty easy to make. What do you think?

Too cute, and too perfect, right? I think it'll be pretty easy to make my own... Black sweats & long sleeve onesie (good thing those are available at Halloween), little bit of red, white and black vinyl or something...

On another note, when discussing Halloween, Allison told me she would like to dress up as a princess this year (surprise, surprise!). When pressed, she informed me that Cinderella was her princess of choice. That sounds less easy. Good think we'll probably be living with the super-costume-sewing Grandma... she'll be great help. =)

Super Savings Saturday

Wanna guess how much I got all this for?

$1.82.

No joke. I've been wanting Lucky Charms since they were part of the Albertson's promo that ended on Wednesday, but I always throw away the coupons for sugary cereal thinking that 1) we get SO much cereal on WIC and 2) I'll never use them since we're not big sugary cereal people. And on that note, I'm wrong. I mean who doesn't like Lucky Charms? I'll tell you who... my brother-in-law to be, David... but he's the only person I've EVER met that doesn't.

Anyway, how'd I get it all so cheap?

• used 5 coupons for a free glade 2 oz candle to get all the candles free
• used a $1 off Archer Farms bread Target coupon to get the bread for free
• customer service price matched the Lucky Charms to $1.68 (Macey's advertised price) and I used a $1 off Target coupon plus a $1 off 2 manufacturers coupon to get them for $0.18 a box.

Of the $1.82 I spent, $1.10 was tax.

I also went back to Target later and got them to mark down two about-to-pass-their-best-buy-date whole chickens to half price for me. I combined that mark down with a $1 Gold N Plump chicken on each one I bought to get two whole chickens for $3.12, including tax. Which reminds me... I need to roast those today. I really do hate dealing with bone in chicken, but I'm willing to deal with whole chickens. I just roast them in the oven, let them cool until I can handle them and pull all the meat off, toss it into ziptop bags and freeze or refridgerate for later use.