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The Coupon Challenge

30 Nov

I am a lover of deals, a lover of coupons.  This is in sharp contrast to one of my brother-in-laws, who once told me he’d rather pay full price for something than suffer the embarrassment of using a coupon.

Not me.  I get excited about being thrifty.  I’m a big fan of Groupon, and of Restaurant.com for deals on dining out and other various services and retail expenditures.  I can’t remember the last time I made on online purchase without hunting for a coupon code.  If I don’t bring my lunch to work, I’m printing a Quiznos coupon or going in with a co-worker for a buy one get one value from the local cafe.

Basically, mama loves a deal.  I love the thrill of savings and also what it allows–more resources to give and to enjoy.

For whatever reason, I was not previously a huge user of coupons for my groceries.  I’d clip here and there, but I wasn’t focused on it.  Part of that was the single mom schedule of past–ironically, when I needed coupons the most, I simply did not have the time to schedule a menu and scour for deals.  It was all I could do to keep my head above water so Aidan and I could get through the day and I could finish college.

Thanks to a more relaxed schedule, I have the time now.

I spent a solid three hours planning a menu for two weeks and clipping companion coupons.  I didn’t change the normal grocery list much, but I focused on what I could save on.  I went out on Sunday, armed with coupons, info about specials and a very specific shopping list.  This was a full trip, the kind that requires laundry detergent, paper towel and a serious re-stocking of groceries (we were quite bare after the holidays).

I’m not sure what I was expecting my research to yield, in terms of savings, but I was rather blown away that I saved just over $57.

Fifty-seven dollars!

Now, we all have our own measurements of a lot and a little, but that is a lot to me!  So naturally I’m hooked.  I used the typical sources like RedPlum and SmartSource and I also visited the homepages of some of my favorite brands–Horizon Organic, Yoplait and General Mills, to name a few.

I’m asking for your help–what are your favorite sites, blogs and other methods to save?  Please share in the comments so we can all benefit!

THIRTY!

5 Oct

I’ll turn thirty in a little less than three years. Inspired by one of my closest friends, I made a 30 before 30 list.  It was much harder than I thought it would be, and I made lists of ten on three separate days.  The final cut, in no particular order:

1.) Visit Italy

2.) Go camping out west

3.) Go to Maine

4.) Run a 5K in under twenty minutes

5.) Have a short story or something else I’ve written published

6.) Visit  a couple of wineries and breweries with Kyle

7.) Have a BABY (after getting married to that man I love so much :) )

8.) Buy a new home or at least be paying down a plot of land to build on

9.) Take a class for something I’ve never taken before–photography, art, karate?

10.) Use Spanish skills for something other than work in a meaningful way

11.) Participate and complete NaNoWriMo

12.) Consistently make and follow a weekly menu for three months

13.) Randomly give $100 to a single mom

14.) Have green, luscious grass for a season

15.) Take my mom on vacation somewhere

16.) Throw someone I love a surprise party

17.) Have $____ in my savings account. (It feels too weird to publicly post an actual dollar amount!)

18.) Host Thanksgiving or Christmas for my family

19.) Be able to swim ten laps without stopping

20.) Learn how to style my own hair well

21.) Take my 92-year-old grandma out on a date

22.) Have a functioning garden where I can get a lot of my produce

23.) Sew something wearable or usable

24.) Purchase a really nice camera and learn how to use it

25.) Cut down a Christmas tree as opposed to dragging it up from the basement. (According to the boyfriend, this is a definite this year!)

26.) Get in the car with Kyle and Aidan, have bags packed for the weekend and drive with no destination

27.) Make a big life decision based on passionate, heartfelt goals rather than security

28.) Clean and organize my home so well it could be move-out ready in a week

29.) Buy myself a pair of shoes I love no matter the cost

30.) Visit a couple of bed and breakfasts in obscure places with Kyle

I feel like this is an obtainable, yet challenging list.  I always work best when there’s a bit of pressure under me, and the timing does that.  I’ll report back as items get checked off the list!

26 Taught Me

4 Aug

I’m making a pact for the month of August.  Inspired by hilarious author Tawna Fenske, I’m going to follow one of her blogging tips: Stick to a schedule.  I’ve never been particularly good at this, and it’s certainly taken a turn for the worse lately.  But in the month of August, I shall blog three times a week.  At some hour of the day on Monday, Wednesday, Friday–you’ll hear from me!  This makes me a bit nervous, as I’m not one of those bloggers who has a list of topics stashed somewhere.  We’ll see how I do.  (Also, if you’re not already following Tawna, you really should do yourself a favor and click her follow button now.)

As I wrap up my final days as a 26-year-old, I’d like to share a couple of the top things I learned.  I’ll turn 27 this weekend (provided there’s cake–Aidan has a hard and fast rule that no cake means your birthday didn’t really happen) and I’d like to think I’m actually a wee bit wiser this time around.  Top three things I learned while 26:

1.) Believe:  Believe in yourself.  I’d argue this has been a long time coming for me, but I finally got to the place over the past year where I believe in me.  I used to wait FAR too long for someone else to tell me I was good at something before I believed it myself.

2.) Bars: Bars are overrated.  I know it’s fun to have a night out on the town every once in a while.  But sometime over the last 52 weeks I became a bit of a homebody.  Why spend $30 at the bar when you can buy a six-pack of good beer for $8.49 on sale at the grocery store?  Exactly.  And you don’t even have to put up with unwanted creepy persons trying to chat you up!  Also, PAJAMAS.

3.) Metabolism: It does not matter if you’ve always been thin.  Your metabolism will slow down.  Now, perhaps your “magic” number isn’t 26.  Mine is!  I used to be able to log a handful of miles over a two-week time span and whittle that waist down.  Not anymore.  I’ve been running and taking Pilates for months now to lose one pound.  ONE.  Hmph.

Twenty-seven, here I come…

The Fever

8 Mar

It’s March and we’re sick of it.  Sick of being inside, sick of our same routines.  Aidan’s response to this is to drive me crazy in as many creative ways as possible (think sneaking cookies, refusing to wear pants and purposely turning up the volume to the point of madness while navigating Playhouse Disney on the computer).  My response to our spring fever is to clean and organize.  Like, the baby is coming in five days style nesting.  Except for that there’s no baby coming and my organizing has been in the kitchen, not the nursery.  Let me just get this out there before I go on:

I’M EMBARRASSED.

Embarrassed at the pictures I’m going to post and even more embarrassed about how First World I am.  I have so much stuff.  An insane amount of stuff.  I have at least 20 pairs of shoes in the house and I’m quite certain that I was annoyed on Friday night when I went out to dinner with my girlfriends because I didn’t have exactly the right pair of shoes to go with my outfit.  I straight up found baking stuff I didn’t know I owned while organizing.  A springform cake pan?  Really?  Maybe I should look up a recipe and use that thing!

I’m ridiculous.

Special thanks to Kim’s Kitchen Sink for motivation!

Without further ado, allow me to show you the absurd BEFORE nature of one of my cabinets:

And without too much work, the afterparty:

Now I’m on a roll!  Kind of.  It is becoming painfully obvious that I have no systems in place.  I like a clean, neat home.  But I tend to not pick up after myself, the house gets messy, I get annoyed, I do a big clean.  That’s my pattern, which I would really like to break!  If you would offer any suggestions you have to be better organized, any systems you may have in place or helpful hints for keeping things from getting chaotic, that would be awesome!

How do you deal with spring fever?

In unrelated news, I’m surprised and excited to report that I won a blog contest!  Thanks to Anne Riley for hosting the blog contest and for her kind words about my writing.  She is lovely.  You can check it out here if you would like!

Turn It Off! Just Once.

25 Jan

Some people get up within the first five pulses of insistent alarm beeping. Others reach out a hand, groping to quiet the combustion of annoyance mere inches away from what was a peacefully sleeping face, just one minute prior. And then they fall back asleep. And are equally, if not more, annoyed when the darn thing goes off again, eight minutes later. It’s almost more insulting the second time because they are just relaxing in to sleep again. So they slam down the button in fury and curl their body back into the warm comforter with tousled hair splayed against the pillow. This happens until the last possible second, when the final alarm goes off, the one that demands a flurry of activity if said sleeper is interested in keeping their job.


If the latter individual sounds like you, you’re a snoozer. I’m a snoozer.

Was a snoozer.

I have always known this is a horrible habit. The last 24 minutes or so that I allowed myself to snooze were always the kind of sleep that leaves you more tired than if you would have avoided sleeping altogether. In addition, my household has not been, ahem, the calmest of all places in the morning. Let’s just say Aidan and I do not have spare time where we’re tapping our feet in the kitchen and trying to fill the void before we depart for the day.

I have proudly gotten up when the alarm goes off for a week. Okay, the first day was to prove a point. The second day I did it begrudingly because, again, how could I make a statement that I am going to change something so very in my control and not follow through. Now? Now I love getting up when the alarm goes off. I practically bounce up! I am not kidding, it has only been one week and I’m falling in love with not being a snoozer.

Aidan and I had breakfast at the table last week. Leisurely breakfast. The kind we have on weekends with no plans where we chat and I actually have time to load the dishwasher afterwards. My hair has been dry and at least somewhat styled when going to work for the last week. I’ve been early to work every day. Not only do I not miss the snoozing but I actually feel more rested by avoiding the whole dragging myself back and forth between the contentment vs. exasperation alarm clock scene.

I was a snoozer my whole life. And I think I’ve permanently stepped over to the other side.

Do you get up when the alarm goes off?

(In full disclosure, I must admit that part of the reason I’m posting this is because I feel like I will owe you, Internet, and I will not snooze even if I feel like it. I can’t tell the Internet I’m not going to be a snoozer and then have to admit failure at getting myself out of bed!!)
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