New Obession/Play Day

I must tell you guys about my new obession.....its bad....I have got to back off a bit.......I have became obessed.... with coupons and saving money!! (were you thinking it was going to be something awful?!)

Its a good thing but also a bad thing when you are constantly thinking about it and going to different stores (as you pass them) just to get 1-2 items because they are next to nothing. Yes, as you pass them, so far I haven't specifically left the house just to go use my coupons, well of course I do have my grocery shopping day usually on Monday.

This is my coupon book: (yes, there is dividers for different sections of the store and they are in baseball card holders)

It all started a couple months ago when several girls at church were talking about how much money they saved on groceries. I have gone back and forth with coupons; using them half the time when I would think about it. I have also seen several plugs on morning shows for the coupon craze. I now use a site called grocerygame.com and have been saving probably about $250 a month on groceries which totally makes up for the $7.50 a month the site cost. There are several others websites I look at, too. It gets time consuming, but I love the feeling when you leave a store knowing you just paid at least half the price for items you would normally buy!

My latest savings are huge, Kmart is doubling, and even in some areas, tripling coupons up to $2 this week! SO you know I had to go. 3 coupon friends from chruch and I met one day and spent toooo long there, dealt with the unprepared cashiers and saved lots of money!! The cash registers were not set up for the doubling and neither were the cashiers operating those cash registers, lots of confusion on the policy. BUT I saved $60.10 just in coupons and $14.88 extra on sale items. I paid $27.28, when if I didn't use my coupons it would have been $87.38. WOW! I love to look at the receipt over and over, just to take it in! We are talking name brand stuff, too!

I can only imagine this is what gamblers, alcoholics, stunt men, etc. must fell like after getting a fix of their addiction! Thats when I feel sad and want to modify my time spent on this couponing thing. I know God doesn't approve when we let things become the center of our attention over Him. Now, I don't want it to look like I am crazy, I don't constantly think about coupons, but it lately has been consuming me more than I think it should.

This is a pic of all the stuff I got

Just in case you can't tell its:

2 bottles lotion

1 hairspray

1 pkg swim diapers

3 bottles shampoo/conditioner

1 lip gloss

1 pledge duster

3 air freshner sprays

2 lysol/oust disinfectant spray

1 nail polish

2 pkgs ziploc containers

1 pkg bandaids

5 pkgs dog/cat treats

3 spray bottle cleaners

1 shout bottle

2 instant rice packs

1 baby wipes

1 pinesol bottle........thats 31 items for $27.28!!

So my cleaning supplies are full and my pantry is pretty full, too, from other shopping trips. I did go back the next day and buy some things I needed right now, but weren't neccessarily $1 or less after coupons. I saved $31.35 in coupons that day and spent $36.74.

The play day fits in to this in that, I felt bad lugging Garyn around yesterday to a couple differents stores. (He was at mother's day out the first time I went) Today has been his day....I took him to the creative discovery museum and concentrated soley on him! He got to play in the water (and get completely soaked) and played with whatever he wanted to play with after; ate a pb & j for lunch.........heaven for a kid, I think. Great thing is, as soon as we left (spent 2 hours there) he went to sleep in the car and is still asleep now.

(see side note about this pic at bottom)

Here are some picks from today and the last time we went to the creative discovery museum.

(not from today, but his favorite thing to do now)

(also from last time we went, digging dino bones up)

The picture of him asleep is not his bed, I am pondering when to change him to a big boy bed. I bought the rail the other day and put it on this bed in our extra bedroom to see if it would work right. He normally sleeps in our bed at naptime (he sleeps twice as long in our bed). But he does good at night in his bed, so I don't need to move him into a big boy bed I guess. My only reasoning for it is that I have decided the pacifier will go when he turns 2. I read in a magazine that 2 should be the limit and we have gone back and forth with it all ready. SO I was thinking if I went ahead and moved him while he still had his passie it might help the transition to the big boy bed. I am worried that when we lay him in it at night, half awake, he won't stay in the big boy bed. What do you guys think? So far for this nap he hasn't even noticed he is in it.