UN-Important Favorite Things

I’m so excited because this is the first time I’ve been tagged in a post for a Meme, I think that’s what they call them. I’m relatively new in the blog world, so hopefully that’s right! Kerri over at Save at Home Mommy tagged me to participate in this post! I’m just starting this blog and it brings me real excitement that someone else would actually read what I have to say! Here are the rules.

Rules:
1. Mention the person who nominated you. Be sure to check out her blog.
Make sure you check out Kerri’s blog at Save at Home Mommy - It’s one of the blogs I follow daily.

2. List six unimportant things that make you happy. I'll try my best!

1.Peaches from the Farmer’s Market. I can’t wait until they are back at the Farmer’s Market, and although I try to be frugal, this is something, to me, that is worth the extra money! There’s nothing better than biting into a juicy peach!
2.In N Out - I know some areas don’t have In N Out, and you are missing out. I could eat a grilled cheese with grilled onions daily from here. Thank goodness I got a $50 In N Out gift card for Christmas. Only .33 left on it now though!
3.A bath - I love to take a long hot bath, but since our water always backs up, we have an old bath tub, and there’s always a dirty person in it, it’s hardly ever clean when I want to take a bath.
4.TV - I TiVo so many shows I know I will never watch.
5.This is so unimportant - but I like for my kids to wear nice clothes. I always shop at Macys for their clothes, but I shop at the end of the season for the next size up and store them in the closet until next year. This is a great way to get really nice brands for dirt cheap. Especially if you have a Macys card, you can get an extra 15% - 20% off during certain times.
6. Diet Soda - this is something that I stock up on when I can, but I know even though its diet, it’s not that great for you. I need to cut back, but I really, really like it.

3. Tag six blogs, state the rules and notify them with a small comment on their blog.

1. Ashley's Closet - I love this blog, the way she tells her life stories is so great, they always make me laugh.
2. The World According to Lawgirl - An old friend who I love, hopefully she’ll do this.
3. Manic Mariah- This is a blog I follow daily because of the great stories she tells about her family and I love that she just tells it like it is.
4. Frugal Freebies-I love to see all the Freebies she comes up with! And I like trying to find them before her, it doesn’t ever work though!
5. Marisa Gary - Someone who works with my mom that always has a positive attitude and good sense of humor. I’d like to think that my mom likes her so much because she’s like me and she keeps my mom entertained throughout the work week!
6. A Call to Higher Places- I just like reading about her finds!

Celebrate Moms!

Macys and Disney are doing a sweepstakes for Mothers day! Click here to enter! There is going to be a winner from each state! Good luck!

What's for Dinner Giveaway

Go here for a great What's for Dinner giveaway brought to you by Once upon a Qpon. We eat these Macaroni Grill dinners in our house all the time. I just started reading this blog and I'm already hooked, she has so many giveaways!

A great way to bring in a little extra cash!

Miles of Marketing, M.O.M., is a company I've been working for for about a year. This is a great marketing idea of having moms hand out product samples and coupons to their friends, kids schools, at play dates, or anywhere moms hang out. I've done about 4 or 5 projects for them averaging about $100 per project. It's normally for about 2 weeks of work, but it's not doing much more than you normally do. You just have to pass out a few fliers or coupons, and maybe a few samples as well as putting a magnet on your car. If you are interested you can go here to sign up, make sure you say you were referred by Stacey Launius. If you have any questions on the process you can email Liza at liza (at) milesofmarketing (dot) com, she will get back to you quickly. This is a great company to work for, and it's nice to get a $100 check in the mail every few months for not much extra work!

Free Crocs Giveaway at Deal Seeking Mom

Deal Seeking Mom is giving away 10 pairs of Crocs to 10 lucky readers on her blog here to celebrate the launch of the new Deal Seeking Mom Forums. This is a great place to share deals with other moms as well as more giveaways, promoting your blog, and finding exclusive Deal Seeking Mom coupon codes! Good Luck!

This is what I did tonight

We're doing a cake walk for my son's preschool party tomorrow for the kids. So I made these cupcake cake bites. Go to Bakerella to learn how to make them. They didn't turn out as well as I planned, but I'm sure they're good enough for some 3 and 4 year olds.

Freebie Friday

Go to Bargain Briana to see all the freebies available!

Vons trip

I had to make a quick stop in Vons to get some hot dogs for my son's preschool party tomorrow. I wanted to go to Costco because I had no coupons and wasn't sure what was on sale. My husband wasn't falling for that one, so he convinced me to go to Vons. I'm glad he did because there were $1.00 peelies on the Ball Park Angus Hot Dogs, which were 2/$5.00 AND were included in the Living Well promo.


10 - Ball Park Angus Hot dogs - $2.50
1 - Precious string cheese - $3.99
2 - Arrowhead water - $1.99

Coupons
9 - $1/1 Ball Park Angus Hot Dog - one package didn't have a peelie
1 - $2/1 Precious cheese
1 - $10 Living Well promo coupon

Total before club card and coupons: $66.37
Total out of pocket: $12.57
I didn't get any catalinas to print out. This happened to me last time too, hopefully I can get that back from catalina.

Free Total Sample

Go here to compare your current cereal to Total and receive a free sample!

Second trip to Kmart for Super Doubles

I wasn't able to use my $5/$50 coupon because the manager said you had to use it after coupons because it says after discounts, I tried to argue, but she was having none of it. I will be contacting Kmart and hopefully can get credit. She also wouldn't let me use the Huggies $1.00 off coupon on wipes, she said it was only for soap. So I didn't buy those.






I purchased:

1 - Water balloons - for my son's preschool party this weekend - $2.19
3 - Ban deodorant - $2.00 each
3 - Adidas Deodorant - $2.09 each
4 - Kotex liners - $1.29 each
2 - Bandaid - $2.79
3 - Herbal Essence Shampoo - $3.00 each
3 - Herbal Essence Conditioner - $3.00
2 - Nature Source Bathroom cleaner - $2.79
1 - Pull ups - $9.99
3 - pumpkin - $1.49 - not on sale - to make these Thanks Moms Need to know
1 - Lunchable - $2.50

Coupons:
3 - $.75/1 ban deodorant
3 - $1/1 Adidas deodorant
3 - $.75/1 Kotex
1 - $1/1 Kotex
2 - $1/1 Bandaid
3 - $2/2 Herbal Essence
2 - $1/1 Nature Source cleaner
1 - $2/1 Pull ups

Total: $69.40
Out of Pocket: $29.74

If I would have got my $5/$50 coupon my pumpkin would have been free.

Preschool Teachers

I just got back from an interview panel for a new preschool teacher at my son's school. Where do they find these people? I can't believe some of these people have ever had A job, let alone have worked with kids. Since when was it appropriate to show up for a job interview in an Angels T-shirt and sweat pants? When you're asked a question and don't know the answer, why would you make up the most ridiculous answer ever? Here's hoping, for my son's sake, we have some better prospects next week!

Free Dove Sample

Try a free Dove hair care sample here

Potty Training Freebie

After having the easiest child ever to potty train in my 4 year old, I'm having a bit of a tough time with my 2.5 year old. She pees constantly. I wonder where it all comes from, but as she's downing her 4th caprisun and it's only 10 a.m. I guess it's not that hard to figure out. I've either got to cut back her liquid consumption or sit her on the potty ALL day. Here's a free DVD from Huggies that may help!

Kmart - Super Double Coupons

Here's my first trip to Kmart this week, I plan on making a few trips. I went to the regular Kmart, but tomorrow I plan on going to the Big K to get some groceries free or cheap.



1 - Secret deodorant
1 - Secret Flawless deodorant
2 - Dove deodorant
1 - Herbal Essence Shampoo
1 - Herbal Essence Conditioner
1 - Nature Source glass cleaner
1 - Renuzit odor neutralizer
3 - Huggies wipes travel size
1 - Huggies wipes 64 count
2 - Huggies Pull ups
2 - Small Steps 4 pack toilet paper
2 - Scott 12 pack toilet paper
4 - Glade Carpet deodorizer
2 - Oust

Coupons:
1 - $5 off $50 purchase found here
1 - $1/1 Secret
1 - $2/1 Secret Flawless
2 - $1.25/1 Dove deodorant
2 - $1/1 Herbal Essence
1 - $1/1 Nature Source
1 - $1/1 Renuzit
4 - $1/1 Huggies Bath and Body coupon - found here
2 - $2/1 Huggies pull ups - found here
2 - $1/1 Small Steps
2 - $1/1 Scott toilet paper
4 - $1/1 Glade carpet deodorizer
2 - $2/1 Oust
Total: $29.81 - I probably could have done better if I would have kept my before coupon total closer to $50, but I was trying to make it quick as I had my 2 year old with me. I actually had the woman behind me tell me how she can't believe how much I saved!

Second Trip to Vons - Safeway for Living Well Promotion - 4/17

I had two transactions on my next trip to Vons, plus I took pictures:

1st Transaction:

2 - Pop Secret popcorn

8 - Bertolli Pasta Sauce

3 - Kotex Tampons

Coupons:
1 - $1.00/2 Pop Secret - mailer coupon

3 - $1.00/1 Bertolli - Sunday Coupon

2 - $.150/2 Bertolli - Sunday Coupon
1 - $.75/1 Kotex tampon - Sunday Coupon - doubled to $1.00

1 - $1.50/2 Kotex printable here

1 - $10 off Catalina from last transaction

Total: $16.30 and I received another $10 living well catalina and four $2 OYNO for the Bertolli sauce.

2nd Transaction:

1 - 8 pack of Gatorade

4 - All Small and Mighty Detergent

3 - Tropicana 50 Orange Juice

5 - mangoes

Coupons:
1 - $2.00/1 gatorade - peelie

4 - $1.00/1 All Small and Mighty from here - remember to print 2 on each computer

3 - $1.00/1 Tropicana 50 from here

4 - $2.00 catalina from previous Bertolli purchase

1 - $10.00 living well catalina

Total: $6.25 and I received another $10 living well catalina

First trip to Vons - Safeway Living Well Promotion - 4/16

Here is my first trip to Vons for the Living well promotion, sorry no pictures.

1st Transaction:

6 - 8 pack 20 oz gatorade
1 - Eating right lunch pack - on sale, but no coupon.
Coupons:
6 - $2.00 peelie
Total - $22.88 - and I received a $10 catalina for my next order

2nd Transaction

6 - 8 pack 20 oz Gatorade
1 - Eating right lunch pack
Coupons:
6 - $2.00 peelie
1 - $10 catalina
Total - $12.87 - and I received a $10 catalina for my next order

3rd Transaction

6 - 8 pack 20 oz Gatorade
1 - Eating right lunch pack
Coupons:
6 - $2.00 peelie
1 - $10 catalina
Total - $12.87 - and I received a $10 catalina for my next order

I did these at self checkout because then I can take my time and check all my prices. The coupons work there, but sometimes you have to wait for approval.

My First Post

My name is Stacey and I'm a SAHM of an almost 4 year old son and a 2.5 year old daughter in Southern California. Currently only having one steady income for most of the year, I have had to be creative in how we earn/spend money. I've been couponing now for about 6 months. I've recently started searching the blogosphere for couponers in the Southern California area and have had a hard time coming by any. So I'm going to start posting my savings as well as things in the area for kids to do for free/cheap. Please email me with any questions or suggestions.