I'm Back!

Saturday we flew to Texas for my husband's sister's wedding, and flew back home yesterday afternoon. It was a super quick trip, super fun, and I think we actually stayed within budget although I haven't had a chance to officially crunch those numbers yet. Our youngest had a pretty rough time, she was sick and was totally out of her element/her routine/her comfort zone, but she still managed to have a few good moments while we were away. We got a LOT of pressure while we were there from family and friends who want us to move back...it almost makes sense and is tempting in some ways...but I am not convinced we would be happy there. We still have a few months before we have to make any final decisions regarding our last big move, and knowing us we will waffle a bit before we see it through.

Old Navy $2 Halloween Event

Did any of you have any success today at Old Navy with their $2 Halloween event? I went early this morning and my store was packed, I couldn't believe it. I found out after I got there that they were doing several promos today including 50% off your entire purchase for the first 50 customers who used their Old Navy card, 30% off Stuff and Save, an additional 50% off all clearance items, and all their Halloween items on sale for just $2 (including costumes!).

We were hoping to score some costumes for $2, my daughter uses them year round to play dress-up in, but they were completely sold out. They did have a few dog costumes, t-shirts, pajamas, socks, and some random decorating items left for $2 each. We were unable to find the right sizes in anything that we wanted except a pair of candy corn peds for my oldest, which we paid $1.50 for. I wish we could have dug through the clearance items to see what bargains we could find, but we are totally out of clothing money this late in the month and I didn't want to go over on budget.

Walgreens Trip - $3.95 Money Maker!

Here is what I spent at Walgreens this week:

Glad Force Flex Trash Bags $5.99
Ziploc Bags - Gallon size $2.50 with in-ad coupon
Ziploc Bags - Quart size $2.50 with in-ad coupon
Kit Kat (filler item) .55

Subtotal $11.54
Tax $1.01
Total $12.55

used $1.50/2 mfr coupon on the Ziploc bags
used $9 in Register Rewards

New Total $2.05

received $1 Register Reward for Hefty Trash Bags
mailed SC Johnson rebate form for $5 back (go here to find out how to get yours!)

New Total $3.95 money maker!

First Field Trip = $5

Today was exhausting, but a happy kind of exhausting. Today was my daughter's first field trip, and little sister and I went with the class to a local pumpkin patch. Everyone had a lot of fun, but I could tell my kids were tired towards the end (a few tears were shed). Part of the field trip was that the kids got to pick a pumpkin to take home (which we donated $5 for a few weeks ago), and my daughter picked the tiniest pumpkin she could find. I just had to laugh because that thing would have cost me roughly .50 at Safeway! Oh well, it is more about the experience right?

Did You Get Your $15 Kodak Giftcard?

Today I made my dad a calendar on KodakGallery.com for his birthday using pictures of my girls. It was super easy! The longest/hardest part was going through all the pictures we have stored on the computer and decided which ones to use. Once I had picked the ones I wanted it took about 10 minutes to upload them, and then the rest was a breeze. The preview looked really cute, I can't wait to see how it looks in person.

Calendars start at $19.99, and I used my $15 gift card that I told you about here so my total after tax and shipping was $10.29. Not bad for a birthday gift!

Free Starbucks (Almost)

The other day I printed two copies of the coupon Barnes & Noble had on their website for a free cookie and kids hot chocolate, which was good today only. We went early this morning while it was still cool outside (who wants hot chocolate when it is 80 degrees?). I have roughly $22 in Starbucks gift cards so my husband and I ordered a Venti Pumpkin Spice Frappachino to split, only to find out after I ordered that the Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble doesn't take Starbucks gift cards. What? Really? So I ended up having to pay a little over $4 when I had planned to pay nothing. I guess when you think of it as each item being less than $1 (we had five items) that isn't too bad, and I now know that I can't use my gift card there.

My New Grocery Budget Goal

I have been feeling really frustrated with myself over our grocery budget lately. I keep having this feeling that we could be doing better, but I can't seem to shave any more off what we spend.

Currently we are spending roughly $115 per week for my husband, myself, our five year old, and our 17 month old (who is in diapers). Charlene from My Frugal Adventures was kind enough to email back and forth with me a little yesterday, offering some advice on what I might be able to do to trim our budget down some. Charlene is from the same area of the country that I am so we are paying the same prices at our grocery stores, she also has a kid in diapers (and even on formula, which I do not), so we should be spending roughly the same amount at the grocery store right? In theory yes! Charlene (and many others I have talked to/read their blogs) is spending between $50-$60 per week on groceries, toiletries, medicines, paper goods, diapers & formula, cleaning supplies, etc.

I KNOW I can do better! My new goal is to try to get our grocery budget, including all the things I mentioned above, down to $75 per week which is a $40 per week decrease. I am not totally sure how I am going to accomplish this, but I think my weekly menu is a good place to start.