Coupons.com has a high value coupon up for formula users – Save $10 on any Enfamil large tub (22 oz or larger). You can also print a $5 coupon for Enfamil. You should be able to print each coupon twice per computer.
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Even though I started homeschool this year with our 2, now 3 year old, I have the benefit of doing this before with the older kids. I already know what I need now and what I will be needing in the future (like books and manipulatives). I am organizing the homeschool room now so everything from learning the ABC’s to American History has a place. That way, everything I currently own that I saved from the older kids can have a home. If I didn’t like it the first time around, it is either long gone or in a box waiting for the next homeschool sale.
For those who’ve read my posts before, we originally planned to homeschool in the play room. As I started moving into my office, I realized that having Ava Grey in here would be easier. This setup allows me to work some while she is coloring, painting, playing with homemade playdough, or making one of her many birthday cards. It also allows me to be upstairs more during the school day. The older children now do the bulk of their school work in their rooms and I don’t feel so distant from them up here.
When we first moved here, this room was the holding area for anything that had yet to be unpacked as well as much of the homeschool stuff, all of my business stuff, pictures, scrapbooks, gifts, etc. I did purchase 2 $15 metal shelves from IKEA for each side of the inside of the closet. They are still not organized but rather stuffed with photos, scrapbook stuff, and books.
Then I got this room all cleaned up (and I can’t believe I don’t have a picture of that!!!) but it would not hold that much so I headed to IKEA and bought 4 bookshelves ($25 each). The previous owner left a desk that fit perfectly between two shelves. I bought two extra $5 shelves to go above the desk (you’ll see what I’m talking about in a bit).
I could now hold much more in here but those many, many, many items needed to be organized. I bought 10 photo boxes over the break (and received a couple for Christmas – thanks Mom) and labeled them and filled them up. Using magazine holders from IKEA ($2 for a 5-pack), I organized many workbooks and other resources.
I still need to organize so much more - that is on this week’s agenda. To help motivate me to finish, I am posting pictures of what this room looks like today. (I started this post two or three days ago).
The room’s transformed a few times since this summer but here is what I started with this week. I can’t believe I’m showing any of these!
The closet is also a mess!
Once I finish in here, again hopefully this week, the plan is to have the following items organized in here so that if I need something, there will be minimal stress involved locating/reaching said item.
- All scrapbook items and photos that are not in a family album.
- Gifts – I need a clear way to store gifts so I can buy/make ahead and safely store the items until the holiday.
- All homeschool resources we own and all picture books.
- All messy toys like playdough, paint, and sand art. Ava has a high chair and mat in here to protect the floor and keep her contained during messy, indoor activities.
- All items related to Suburban Tree Hugger and my other adventures.
- All personal reading material and magazines.
- My laptop, external hard drive, webcam, ext.
- The family printer and all paper and ink materials.
- Rechargeable battery chargers.
- Recipes.
- Fabric, my serger, and my soon to own new sewing machine.
Now, I can tell you that this room already looks WAY better than the pictures I took earlier this week. I worked in her for hours today and found some pretty creative ways to utilize some of the space in the closet. I hope to have the final pictures up later this week!
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I want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Our family had a very busy 2011 and we are looking forward to a more productive, yet less stressful, 2012.
This week, the kids are all home and we have very few activities to attend. The kids and I are deep cleaning the house and eating from our fridge, freezer, and pantry as much as possible. We spent much of our two week grocery budget eating out last week when Brian was off work. We’ve had very few meals out the past few months so this was a treat. However, I now have about $7/day to get us through January 11th. Considering a pack of meat for one meal is rarely under $7, this might be a challenge!
I cooked yesterday so we have dinner for tonight (edit – errands ran late so we’re taking advantage of a special at a local restaurant combined with a gift card I forgot I had and then we’re on to our evening activities.) I made a list of the ingredients we have here and I am headed to the store now to see what I can make work. I really don’t want to dig into my weekly allowance ($10) for food this year. Since I am no longer hitting drive thrus for soft drinks, I feel that money should be for me to play with (books, ebooks, kitchen gadgets, the 2 Starbucks drinks I’ll buy this year, etc). Our budget has no room in there for fun stuff for Mom so this is it for me. I don’t want to going to buy food!
I spent some of my Christmas money to help further organize a few areas in our house. Our focus the past few years has been to simplify. This year is all about organization. I can’t stand for things to fall on me when I open a cabinet or try to get a spice or can out of the pantry. It REALLY bothers me. I have four areas in the house that hold the most stuff – the kitchen, the shoe area (we are not allowed to call it a mud room because that sounds dirty 
), Ava Grey’s play room, and my office/homeschool room. All the other rooms are fine and have ample storage due to the fact that we don’t have that much stuff (I’ll show you a picture of my closet later this week to prove this point)! This week I am tackling each area once again to ensure that clutter is a thing of the past! My plan is to post on each of these areas if time allows.
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Every year I try so hard to have a stress free Christmas season and every year I end up with the opposite. I am determined NOT to stress over Christmas this year. I’m not worried about having Christmas trees up with no decorations (our two smaller trees are still bare). Actually Ava Grey is having a blast decorating the tree we put in her playroom. We knocked out our Christmas card picture back in November. Brian has helped out tremendously. He helped plan one party (it was a party for his friends), made the Christmas cards, ordered them, and helped address them. He is also helping me with gift ideas this year. That is such a huge help – especially for some of the guy gifts. He get Ava Grey to bed last night so I could hit a couple stores without any little helpers. I don’t like shopping on the weekend this time of year so that alone was a huge blessing.
Today I am heading out to shop with only one child. If today goes as planned, I will have all but 3 gifts purchased by the time I pick the big kids up from school. The only thing left will be to prepare all the homemade treats (that can’t be make more than a day in advance).
On the to-do list:
- Map out all food items I will prepare for the holidays (dishes and gift treats). Purchase any non-perishable ingredients.
- Purchase the last of the gifts on my list (minus 3 that have to wait until next week).
- Print all photos needed for Christmas gifts.
- Order one more batch of Christmas cards and get them in the mail or ready to deliver.
- Finish planning the 6th grade Christmas party for the boys at my son’s independent studies school and buy all non-perishables.
We’ve also reduce the number of gifts we are giving (and thus receiving) this year. We’ve had some of this in place for a few years but added others this year. So far, no one has complained. Here is our plan.
- For cousins and siblings, we give gifts to them until they have children. Once they have children, we only give gifts to their children. As the oldest siblings, we’ve had children forever it seems. This was initially put in place to help our siblings out. We were buying them a gift however they were buying gifts for FOUR of us. The balance was way off.
- For the larger family parties, we either draw names or give to the children only. For one family party “children” are 10 and under. For another, “children” are high school and under.
- This year I am making some homemade gifts again (both edible and inedible). When we were first married, I used to make gifts for people and I enjoyed it. Not only did it save money, I felt like I was putting so much thought and love into their gift. I plan to make more homemade gifts next year.
I’ve also purchased two broken items at a huge discount. I bought a decoration normally priced $60 that I know a family member will love. I actually went to see if they had one that was not broken. When the cashier scanned it the discounted price popped up – $5!!! Several items had popped off but were still present. I bought it! Then I bought some $2 super glue. $7 for a $60 decoration from an awesome brand made my day. I’ll share a picture after Christmas as the receiver will likely read this .
At Hallmark, I noticed a picture frame that was perfect for one family member. The glass had a chip in it though. I asked if they had another and they didn’t nor did any other Hallmark in the area. I heard the manager tell the cashier to put it in the defective box. So, I asked if they would sell it for a discount. They sold it to me for 50% off. I used a $3 gold crown rewards gift certificate leaving my out of pocket cost only $5! I am stopping by Home Depot today to get a new piece of glass cut for the frame. I’ll share that picture too after Christmas.
As I mentioned above, I plan to make even more gifts next year. I’ll be spending some time on Pinterest this season searching for gift ideas for next year.
Have you made homemade gifts in the past? I would love to see your ideas. Feel free to leave a link in the comment section either to your blog or a website with great homemade gift ideas.
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I’ve had a change of heart about posting coupon/sale match-ups for Whole Foods. A new Whole Foods opened right along my often daily path and I figured that it would be easy to shop and note the unadvertised items on sale. That was easy actually. Even though I haven’t posted an update since early October, I’ve written down every sale they’ve had each Wednesday since they opened. I just don’t have the time to sit down and put that much content in a blog post on Wednesdays due to our family’s schedule. I am not able to work on it until the weekend and by then, they are halfway through their sale week.
I will still note great sales or coupons now and then but they won’t be posted each week.
If you would like to see what deals are out each week, Crystal at The Thrifty Mama posts Whole Foods Market Coupons and Deals each week.
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Here are a few of my favorite deals this week at Whole Foods. You can see all my sale/coupon match-ups on my Whole Foods Market Weekly Sales page. You can also visit my page for The Whole Deal Coupon Match Ups updated each time a new issue of The Whole Deal is released. These pages can be accessed from the menu above throughout the month.
Produce
Organic Seedless Grapes $2.99/lb
Organic Bartlett Pears $1.99/lb
Organic Sweet Onions $1.49/lb
Vegetarian
Nasoya Tofu 2 for $4.00
$0.75/1 Nasoya Tofu Product (IE) Printable (FF)
Stack with $1.25/1 Nasoya Product (from The Whole Deal August 2011 – Expires 9/30)
As low as FREE through 9/30
On The Shelf
Three Sisters Cereal – select varieties – 2 for $4.00
Garden of Eatin’ Chips 9 oz. – 2 for $5.00
$1/1 Garden of Eatin Product
As low as $1.50 each
Baby/Toddler
Earth’s Best Crackers – 2 for $4.00
Cold Items
Earth Balance Soymilk 1/2 gal. – 2 for $5.00
$1/1 Earth Balance Soymilk
stack with $1.00 off any ONE (1) 64-oz Earth Balance Organic Soymilk
As low as $0.50 each
Possible Halloween Treats
Endangered Species Chocolate Halloween Treats 8.4 oz. – $6.49
Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzels Snack Bags (1/2 oz each) 24 ct. – $3.39
Annie’s Fruit Snack Pouches 24 ct. – $7.69
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bloomspot is a new daily deal site working in select US cities:
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Houston
Los Angeles
New York
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
If you live in one of these cities, you can sign up with bloomspot to discover the best restaurants, spas, weekend getaways and more with Coupon Deals Daily. Once you sign up, share you link with your family and friends to earn credit toward bloomspot daily deals.
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Here are a few of my favorite deals this week at Whole Foods. You can see all my sale/coupon match-ups on my Whole Foods Market Weekly Sales page. Bookmark it for easy reference each week as the page is updated weekly.
Seeds of Change Rice (boxes and pouches) - $2.69-$2.99
$1/1 Seeds of Change Certified Organic Product
As low as $1.69
*Cascadian Farms Cereal – 2 for $7.00
$1/1 Cascadian Farm Product
Stack with $1.00 off any ONE (1) Cascadian Farms Organic Cereal or box of Granola Bars (from The Whole Deal August 2011)
As low as $1.50
*Earth’s Best Crackers – 2 for $4.00
Earth’s Best Rice Crisp Bars 6 ct. – 2 for $6.00
Earth’s Best Sunny Days Snack Bars 8 ct. – 2 for $5.00
$1/2 Earth’s Best Sesame Street Product
As low as $1.50 when you buy 2
Nasoya Tofu $2.49-$2.69
$0.75/1 Nasoya Tofu Product (IE) Printable (FF)
Stack with $1.25/1 Nasoya Product (from The Whole Deal August 2011)
As low as $0.49
Whole Foods Market Weekly Sales – Complete List of Deals
Whole Foods Market Weekly Sales
Since Whole Foods runs both weekly sales and monthly sales (or some that run longer than a week), I am devoting a page on here that I will update each week. You can bookmark this page for easy reference.
If you find that coupons are no longer available, feel free to let me know and I will update the page as needed.
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What’s On Sale: Whole Foods Market
I now have easy access to Whole Foods each week as a new store just opened up in our area. I have been shopping at Whole Foods (at two other locations) for the past few years so the store itself is not new. The new location though happens to be on the circle I drive almost daily taking kids to and from class and extracurricular activities. Since I often have an hour or so to kill each day, if not more, I feel I can easily add the weekly coupon/sale match-ups to my agenda.
Since Whole Foods runs both weekly sales and monthly sales (or some that run longer than a week), I am devoting a page on here that I will update each week. You can bookmark this page for easy reference. As soon as I can figure out why my categories are not working in the menu above, the link will be there too.
If you find that coupons are no longer available, feel free to let me know and I will update the page as needed.
What’s On Sale: Whole Foods Market
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Coupons
- Free Sub of equal or less value with the purchase of any sub and a regular fountain drink
- Free chip or cookie and regular fountain drink with purcahse of regular salad or sub
- 2 Meals for $9.99 – Two small subs, chips/cookies, and regular drinks for $9.99
- $1 Off Regular Sub or $2 Off Large Sub
If your family eats at Quiznos, be sure to print all 4 coupons before they are gone.
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