Walgreens Wednesday

I am NOTHING like those extreme couponers you see on t.v., but I have been learning a lot more than I ever thought about coupons.  After watching Extreme Couponing it made me want to figure out how to save more money for our future family.  So my goal is not to have massive stock piles of things that I am not going to use anyway but I have found that it is really easy for the average person to cut the cost of what they spend on necessities like groceries and toiletries.

I wouldn't say I didn't use coupons previously but I also wasn't as diligent at it as I am now.  I would forget the coupons I had at home, I wouldn't always watch the sales, etc.  Now I have my coupon binder and my sales ads ready and I love scoring good deals when putting the two together.  Because of this new adventure my new favorite store has become Walgreens.  I used to run in there every once in a great while when i needed something I forgot and didn't want to park a mile away to go back to Target or Walmart.  Now Walgreens has become my number one place to score great deals.  Again- I am not coming home with 5 shopping carts full of items, but each week I have been able to come home with items that I would normally buy somewhere else for much cheaper.

Here is this week's Walgreens' run:

6 boxes of Hot pockets, 4 cans of Arizona Tea, 3 bars of Dove soap, 2 bags of chex mix, and one bottle of Dawn dish soap

And here is what I paid: $3.21 for the three bars of Dove soap so that I could use the $6.00 Register Rewards I received for it on the next transaction where I paid $3.31.  So my total for all items was $6.52.   If you look closely at the receipts my total savings equals $29.71.  Not bad huh?

I am not an expert by any means but I am happy to share my couponing tips and trips with you so check back friends to read more about them!

My Festival Treasure

So my mom and aunt came to visit a few days ago.  We took them to a huge festival that was going on over the weekend and when I say huge I mean it took us two days just to cover everything.  It was extremely hot but as a lover of all things crafty, this festival is worth it.  The crafters were from over 30 states and totaled over 300...and that didn't even include the food vendors.

So what did I find?  Well I picked up a few soup mixes and dips.  It is hard for me not to get these when they have all of them out for you to sample.  I also got a cotton bag that is supposed to make baking potatoes a snap in the microwave.  But my favorite treasure is the one that made me laugh.

If you are a scrapper too, then you know why I just had to get this to hang in my scrapbooking room :)

New Kid on the Blog

Hey everyone and welcome to my little piece of the internet world!  I have loved reading the blogs of my friends and cousins and am excited to be starting my own.

Here is a little bit about me:  I grew up in a suburb of Chicago where I fell in love with my best friend Bill.  I was a senior in high school when we met and the long distances of college and me in NY for a while just made us know without a doubt that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.  We married in 2004 and I love being his wife.  One of my greatest passions is for movement which I express through dance and Pilates.  Bill's job moved us to the St. Louis area in 2008 and we are very happy living here with our two dogs, Kahlua and Oreo.  I am currently a Pilates Instructor in St. Louis.  The past few years have been a trying time for us.  Our most desired dream is to become parents.  Bill and I have experienced infertility and a miscarriage in the last three years.  It has been the most difficult thing we ourselves have experienced but it has made us grow together in so many ways.  Our faith has been our rock through the roller coaster of emotions that comes along with infertility.  It is what led us to look into adoption and what is sustaining us through our current wait.  We are in the process of a domestic adoption and are awaiting "the call" to tell us that we have been matched.  We hope and pray it is not too far away!

I have found that hearing others' stories on blogs, chat groups, support groups etc. has helped me a lot on this journey.  I consider myself quiet by nature, but feel that if telling my story can help even just one person then I want to be heard.  So follow along with me as we dance in uncertainty!