Did you set any goals for the month??  How did you do?  I’d love to hear because after going through my post history I realized I never set any goals this month.  See I told you it was crazy!  So I guess I’ll start fresh this month with some new goals and see how we do.

I’d really really like to stop eating out.  I know that Friday may end up being a challenge as far as that goes but for the rest of the month I’m going to do my best to make everything we eat.  We do plan on spending a day at Disney this month but I will make sandwiches and bring lots of snacks in my thermal totes so that we don’t have to spend any extra money.

I’m really hoping that by the end of the month we have started the house buying process, we’ve been in the looking process for far too long.  We should be hearing soon on a house that we like so here’s hoping.  So I have some goals related to this:

• We need to put away some money for moving expenses.  Every extra penny at the moment will be put towards an account for closing costs, moving truck, boxes, paint etc to get the apartment cleaned up and out and to get the house ready to move in.
• I will most likely be putting off another yard sale until after we move as we don’t have a garage and it’s incredibly difficult to hold a sale away from the house in no shade in July/August.  But I still will be packing things either in yardsale boxes or moving boxes and will be hitting the sales hard to have lots of stockpile stuff to sell.
• There are some things that will sell better on Ebay/Craigslist then at a yardsale so I need to get those listed now and just get rid of them.  I’m hoping as I pack up stuff we don’t need now I’ll find more things and that money will go towards moving.
• With yardsale on the brain there is a lot of stuff that we just don’t need and that needs to go.  I don’t want to move clutter and disfunction so hopefully I can fill lots of yardsale/ebay boxes.

Unrelated to moving I would love to start and get my photography business off the ground and running.  I’m trying to learn about websites so I can build one for this business and explore ways of advertising on a shoe string budget.

I really would like to sell one item (at least) on Etsy this month.  That means I need to get all these ideas out of my head and turn them into a real thing.  Crafting calms and centers me so it should be good for my mental health.

My last goal for this month is to host 2 Thirty-One gifts parties.  I really need to use the opportunity to increase our savings and haven’t been.  The hostess deal is great this month and with a new catalog coming out next month I’m hoping to get 2 qualifying parties in.  I’m going to have a blog post on that probably tomorrow explaining all the details but if you are interested please let me know.

Please feel free to share your goals or add a link back to your goals I love reading what others are aiming at doing.  I find it very inspiring so please share.

I swear I blinked and it was gone.  It seems like just last week Shawn was graduating from preK and now it’s almost July.  What happened I know I couldn’t have slept through it because I’m exhausted.  I’m fairly sure I shopped and probably spent too much but who knows it seems like it was a blur.

I’m determined to actually see July go by.  LOL  On the calender so far for this month is every Saturday we’ll be at skate lessons with Shawn from 11:45 to probably after 2.  Lessons aren’t that long they are only 45 minutes but public skating starts at 2 and it’s included in his lessons so that he can practice.  Since these lessons are about 30-45 minutes away I’m going to be doing some research as to what shopping I could do out there and we’ll be packing a lunch each week to eat.

We are also going to the Nationwide race in Daytona this Friday.  I got a great deal on tickets on Groupon we’ll be there for most of the day on Friday so again we are taking the cooler and my Thirty-One Thermal Tote bags so that we can save some money.  You don’t even want to know the prices they charge at the track but you can take small soft coolers with whatever you want in them so we’ll be bringing our own drinks, snacks, beers, etc

I have been talking to Dave and I am going to try my best to make every meal we eat this month.  Friday may be the only exception depending on where we have to park we may be forced to eat one meal out and carry one meal in the totes.  If we can park close to the track then we can go back to the car between the practices and the race.  Most of the time we end up eating out because I’m too tired to cook or I didn’t get anything out so I’m going to make sure we have spaghetti on hand for those days.

I’ll also be putting my new camera to good use and hopefully get my photography business off the ground.  I’ve been wanting for years to take family/kids photos and to sell my own personal photographs.  I have some beautiful photos and I would love to start selling some prints.  I figure why not make some money off something I’m really good at and am doing anyways.  In the next few months I’m also going to start listing some of my homemade goodies on Etsy in an effort to help bring some more money in to fund our savings. 

In the meantime I seem to be here floating along and keeping my head above water.  I’m hoping at least the electric bill is lower since I don’t remember keeping the AC too high.  So how have you been saving??

on Thirty-One Gifts.  Until Saturday you can purchase the Thermal Lunch Tote in Navy Breeze or the Thermal Tote in Brown or Multi-Dot for only $5!!!!  The normal retail is $12.50-$14 so this is a great savings.

Aren’t these bags great??  I personally love the thermal totes and they work great.  Don’t forget the customer special

The Cinch Sac is available for $18 with free embroidery!!! So while you are stocking up on Thermal Totes for Christmas, Birthdays, and other holidays be sure to check out these totes.  I’m ordering one for my son’s sports stuff. 

Enter to win a Hawaiian Vacation Package and receive a free Vanilla Lip Balm here

Free Dora or Deigo Potty Training Kit here 

Free Sample of Baby Barn Body and Hair Wash and Lotion here

Use promo code FREE5x7JN to order a free 5x7 photo collage at RiteAid.  If you are like me and don’t have one local check out if your family does and load one for them with pics of your kids.

Free Desk Calender just pay shipping here

Murad Eye Lift Illuminator here

Ok that’s all I’ve got at the moment and if I don’t just post this now they’ll expire before I remember to get back to it.  I’ll try and be back with a money saving post this evening.  But now it’s time for lunch around here.

I get asked all the time if it’s worth it to do survey’s, clip coupons, buy stuff I may not need this month, etc.  So let’s look at each of those things and I’ll let you decide if it’s worth it.

1. Survey’s- Well lets see I’ve been doing surveys, paid emails and Swagbucks for months now and managed to buy this yesterday.  I paid less than $100 and that was out of my ebay money.
2. Clipping Coupons- In the past 3 years I haven’t paid full price (or nearly anything) for razors, toothpaste, groceries, etc.  Yesterday I bought 2 packs of blueberries, 2 things of raspberries, 2 razors, 3 yogurts, 6 bottles of dish detergent, ant bait, garlic bread, 5 bags of nuts and 2 packs of gasx for $3.20 So for me the little time it takes me to clip and organize coupons is definately worth it.
3. And the last one for today Buying things you don’t need- To be honest I don’t really need for anything right now but if I stopped buying things we need I would have to pay full price when we needed it.  I’ve bought things we’d never use (blood pressure monitors) and in return I have a wonderful tower fan and a topsy turvy tomato tree that cost me absolutely nothing.  I’ve also held several successful yardsales selling the extras and have been able to buy a Wii and lots of games to go with it plus lots of other things.  The next yardsale will raise money to buy paint and new things for our house.

So you’ll have to decide if doing these things is worth it for you.  Being a stay at home mom leaves you very few ways to make money but there are lots of ways to get the things you want or need for very cheap if you put your mind to it.  I’ll be composing a post to show some of the different places I’m a member with that help make money/gift cards but to get you started if you haven’t already go sign up for Swagbucks it’s one of the easiest ways to make free giftcards to Amazon or free money through Paypal.

I haven’t posted a freebie list in quite a while so here goes.

• Click here and “Like” Snikiddy Snacks and follow the link to receive a free snack pack
• Go here and see if you have a Regal Cinemas nearby for free Family Film Festivals all summer long
• Free Sample of Purina One SmartBlend
• Free Sample of Nivea Happy Sensation
• Free Sample of Bodycology
• Zantac Sample
• Starbucks Via Sample
• Purex 3 in 1 Sample

Ok there are some to get you started.  If I see anymore I’ll add them later.

Now through this Saturday go to Walgreeens.com and get a free 8x10 photo collage and 50 prints for $5.

Use code SHARE50 for the prints and GOBIG8X10 for the collage.  These are just in time for Father’s Day so go print out a few of Dad’s favorite pictures for him this year.

I had to Target yesterday.  It seemed half of my coupons beeped but my cashier didn’t care she just pushed through what ever had to be.  I paid $9.27 with gift cards from before and got back $20 in gift cards.  It was a great moneymaker day for me!!  So here’s what I got:

• 4 Johnson Johnson Cotton Ear Swabs $1.39 each
• -$1 mq and .75/2 TQ
• =.06 for all 4
• 8 Glade Fabric and Air Spray $3.49 each
• -$2 TQ and $1 mq
• =$3.92 total
• 4 Shout Trial Wipes .97 each
• -$1 TQ
• = FREE
• Grapes  $1.64
• Chef Micheals Canned Dog Food  .87
• -Free Coupon
• 4 Vanish Drop In Cleaners $2.14
• -BOGO MQ and BOGO TQ
• =FREE
• 4 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer $6.99
• -$5 MQ, $5 TQ Gift Card Coupon and 2 $3 TQ (beeped)
• = Better than Free
• 2 BandAid $1.82
• - $1 TQ (I think) and .50 mq
• 4 Benedryl Itch Spray $2.29
• -$5/2 mq
• Received 2 Free First Aid Bags

According to my receipt I saved $111.91.  If you have any questions please let me know I’d be happy to help.

I spent $13.51 at Publix yesterday and saved $38 according to the receipt.  It wasn’t the best shopping trip but it wasn’t too bad.

• Mickey’s Malt Beer
• 4 Mott’s Medleys BOGO -$1PQ and .50 mq
• 4 Schick Shave Gel  -$1PQ and $1 mq
• Marshmallow Fluff
• 2 Nestle Cookie Dough  -$1 IMQ
• 4 KoolAid Packets (needed fillers)
• 2 Ronzoni Pasta (no coupons)
• Crafts n Things Magazine (you should never wait for a phone call at the grocery store)

We really needed the Juice, pasta, and fluff and the beer and magazine were just random purchases but considering what I spent it’s not bad.

So how did you do shopping??  Any good tips??

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were crazy busy this week.  We spent Thursday and Friday at Disney all day plus I baked the cake for Shawn’s graduation.  Staying out late watching the parade and getting up early wears on a girl.  Saturday we had Shawn’s graduation and then a small party afterwards and today I spent most of the day picking up around the house and resting.  There was no money saving to speak of but I did manage to make the cake for the party so I saved probably $15 to $20 on that.

Here’s Shawn getting his diploma from his teacher.

And this is the cake.  It’s not my best creation but given the lack of sleep and time to do it I think it came out OK.

So what have you been doing to save some money??  Tomorrow I’ll be out shopping for the freebies this week and hoping to score a raincheck at the grocery store for some juice.  I’ll try and post my finds when I get back. 

from the FedEx man today.  The very generous people at Zhu Zhu and Mom Select picked me to host a Kung Zhu Party.  I forgot I even applied and they didn’t send me an email till after the box came today.  Thank goodness they sent something because I was losing my mind trying to figure out where it came from.

The boys will have a blast as soon as I figure out when to have the party.  Life is super crazy right now but I’ll do something soon.

 

 

 

 

Yes everything in those 2 pictures came in the box it was HUGE!!!!  They were gracious enough to send 1 of everything in the Kung Zhu line and enough hamsters and outfits for each child to leave with one.

Shawn has already claimed his hamster and is playing with it upstairs so far he loves it.  He had a regular Zhu Zhu pet but his new one is much more boy.  I can’t wait to share with you all once they play with some more of the toys.

 

I am not receiving any money for my review of this product but did receive product free of charge to test and review.

to stop eating out???  Do what I did on Wednesday and head out to Olive Garden for a late lunch of soup salad and breadsticks.  Immediately following go home and proceed to come down with some type of food poisoning.  Yup that’s right I went 3 days without eating at all and I have absolutely no desire to eat anywhere but home unfortunately for my family I have little desire to eat at all so I don’t want to cook either.  DH and I both got horribly sick either off the soup or the salad thankfully Shawn didn’t eat either so he’s fine.

I’m finally starting to get an appetite back and enough strength to move around.  I didn’t get back to the stores this week to get anymore deals but that’s alright since I didn’t spend any money.  Today I took Shawn out to Home Depot and Michaels and he made a foosball game and a little book for daddy for Father’s Day.  I spent about $5 on food because it sounded good (and that hasn’t happened for a few days).

So what have you been doing to save money??  Yesterday both Dave and I were feeling OK so we took Shawn to Star Wars Weekends and he had a blast.  Shawn got to go up on stage with Ray Park (the guy who was Darth Maul) and learn how to use a lightsaber.

Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you are doing to save and please don’t try my sure fire method of curbing your eating out.  LOL

 

They send great coupons and tips throughout the year.  Head over and sign up to receive savings right in your inbox.

I love Pogo if you haven’t signed up yet get on over there and check it out.  They offer tons of free games to play that are a lot of fun.  It’s a great way to save money since you can play for free you don’t need to buy games at the store and have an ever growing collection with the click of a mouse.

 

Sorry I haven’t been around much lately but the best laid plans seem to always go wonky.  Life has been crazy and promises to get crazier as we get closer to Shawn’s graduation but then once school is out and we can get into a routine life should calm right down until the end of August.  LOL

But just because life is hectic doesn’t mean I haven’t been trying to save money s till.  Doesn’t this look yummy??  Instead of spending a giftcard (earned doing surveys) on a pricey drink I bought this cup and a bag of ground coffee.  And today instead of spending $4.85 (yes I know exact prices because I’ve fallen victim too many time) on a coffee I made one at home for free.  I love this cup since it doesn’t sweat or spill and I can take it with me where ever we go.

The other day I went to check the mail and found a $5 bill just laying in my mailbox.  Ok so it’s not really a $5 bill but it’s just as good as one.  I live right across the street from Walmart so using this won’t even take me out of my way.

Over the course of the next few days you won’t even believe what I found.

That’s right I found 7 more free $5 giftcards lying in the recycling/trash bin down by the mailbox.  I love living in a wealthy neighborhood where people throw $5 bills in the trash where $5 isn’t worth anything to people.  OH wait I don’t live in a wealthy neighborhood.  Half of my neighbors work at that Walmart, I’ve heard many of them complaining about money and they all show up for free food at the block parties.  Yet they throw away money I tell you when we move I’m still going to visit the trash here.

As for the rest of my shopping I’ll try to check back in later to share the details and my monthly recap.  Right now I’m going to go have a talk with my coupons and coax all the expired ones out afterall using coupons is alot easier if they are organized.