Excited For Upcoming Trip

Yesterday, when I was changing the sheets on all the beds I discovered a marker in my 9 year old's bed. I had no idea why this was in her bed. Then I removed the pillow and discovered a piece of paper marking off how many days left until we leave for Disney World. We are members of the Disney Vacation Club and we are going for the girls spring vacation week.

They are pretty lucky kids. We take them almost every year, but they are always excited. This year my 9 year old told me she is finally going to try one of the roller coasters. She has been very afraid of them. We are going to tackle Thunder Mountain and move on from there. I'm excited as well because that means I get to go on. I always stay behind with her because I'm the mom.

I just found it so adorable that she had a count down. When she came home and found I had changed the bed she told me she was putting her count down back. I told her okay and gave her a big hug. I'm glad she's excited and I am too. I need a vacation.

Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Fun For All

I never got around to taking my girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel when it was in the theaters. It's just hard to see every movie that comes out and not to mention it's very expensive. It seriously costs us about $50.00 to see a movie at a matinee and get popcorn. It's just ridiculous.

Anyway we rented the movie as soon as it came out today from Netflix. I have to say it's absolutely adorable and both my girls, 13 and 9 are totally enthralled. The music is really fun and they just love the Chipetts.

I'm disappointed now that I didn't buy the movie because it is just so cute. I know they're going to want to watch this over and over again. I can see why it won the award for best movie at the Kids Choice Awards on Nickelodeon. This would definitely be a favorite for both boys and girls. Really nothing, but a good time. So if you have kids and haven't seen it trust me you'll want to check it out.

The Return of 10 Things I Hate About You

Tonight after a very long hiatus 10 Things I Hate About You is returning. My daughter is so excited. This is one of her favorite shows and I have to admit that I enjoy it as well. She set her cell phone calendar to remind her that it's on. Personally I think she just likes to play with her phone. It's rather cute how everyday she gives me an update as to how many days until it's return.

It's a cute show about two sisters. One wants to be popular and the other doesn't. Silliness always ensues when they try to reach their goals. When the show ended the older sister Kat took off on a motorcycle with cool guy Patrick after protesting uniforms in school. These two have been fighting their feelings for a while.

In the previews for the episode they showed Kat and Patrick kissing. My daughter squeed so loud she scared my dog. How adorable is that?

Now if you've never checked out the show before you have a chance to catch up. They are reairing all the episodes starting at 3 today followed by the new episode. If you have the time give it a whirl. It's really a lot of fun.

Grease is The Word

Oh, how I love this movie. Grease is just one of those feel good movies that makes me smile. I know all the songs by heart and I'm happy to say my daughters do as well. It's just a fun movie. Olivia Newton John and John Travolta will forever be Danny and Sandy. I still have my original record album of Grease. It's in pretty ruff shape from all the play, but I can't bare to part with it. Too many memories.

Grease was on the other day and all I could do was plop myself down and watch it. Oh and wouldn't you know Grease 2 came on right after it. I know it's not as good, but I just can't help loving it as well. It's just so cheesy good. I just love those Summer Nights

So tell me what you think do you love both movies or just the one or maybe you just can't stand them? Oh and can you do the hand jive? My girls can.

Extra Special Earnings ... Swagbucks

As you've most likely seen ... because of the current economic conditions in America ... we are doing lots of extra things to try and save more money.  So far, this has led us to use pretty drastic measures in our food budget.  Implementing these have had AMAZING results on our emotional well-being.

Imagine getting essential supplies for free - every week, and what that can do for you emotionally.

Now, however, I have also uncovered another extra little source of earnings.  This resource is not something that I would call income.  I would call this program a perk of being thrifty.

What are these extra special earnings I am talking about?

It's a service called Swagbucks.com.


Ok, Chris ... since you are going to talk about this crazy new program ... tell us ...
What is Swagbucks?

Alright, since you asked ... I will tell you.

Swagbucks is a search engine tool, like Google.com, or Bing.com, or Ask.com.  However, unlike just a standard search engine, you also earn bucks for doing searches on Swagbucks.com.   The more searches you do, the more bucks you can earn.    Over time, you trade in your points for actual prizes and gifts offered by Swagbucks.

What are swagbucks?
When you do searches at Swagbucks.com, some of your searches earn you points.  Basically, they want you to do natural searches, like you would normally do on other sites.  These points are called Swagbucks.   That is, essentially, how you earn your Swagbucks points when you are first starting out.  You can get banned for several hours, if you just keep searching, and searching, and searching, without actually visiting the sites you are searching.   (I don't suggest this)

My Swagbucks Suggestion:
I suggest using Swagbucks to search those sites you visit often - facebook, your email accounts, the Speer Family blog, twitter (if you like that), and maybe Youtube.   Just use this engine to find those sites, instead of going straight to them.  For example, in the morning, I usually search my favorite sites until I get points.  This is usually about 3-5 searches.  Then, you can do the same in the evening.  Of course, you can do more searches throughout your day - but this strategy makes it more reasonable for those with normal lives and jobs.


Swagbucks prizes:
Over time you earn more and more bucks.  Once you have collected enough Swagbucks, you will then be able to trade them in for high-quality gifts and prizes.  This is the reason I call this 'extra earnings', and not income.  In a way you are making extra money.  But the payment of this money is in the form of gift cards, gifts, or digital payments which you can use personally, or for your family or friends.

So far, we have been using our points to amass $5 Amazon gift cards, which we will use to buy things on Amazon, during upcoming gift giving seasons ... like Christmas, or birthdays, or any special event.

For example, you can see in this photo that I have saved up 344 bucks towards my next prize.  Currently, the $5 gift card takes about 450 bucks.
You can get a maximum of 5 - $5 Amazon gift cards per month. 
I was able to get all 5 this month, plus I'm still collecting points.

Here are some other Swagbucks Prizes you can get.  As you can see ... there are a LOT of options.

• Starbucks gift cards
• Southwest Airlines gift cards
• Paypal money deposits
• Apple (store) gift cards
• Target gift cards
• iTunes store gift cards
• Restaurant.com
• Barnes & Noble
• Lowes
• Nintendo
• REI
• Bass Pro Shops

** ONE Super Important Note **

Only one account per household. 
If you have more than one, they will deactivate your account,
and you will lose all the points you've gained.

How to get swagbucks?
Well, we've already talked about the basic idea of Swagbucks ... you search, and you earn.  Additionally, you'll get 30 swagbucks just for starting up your new account.  However there are other ways for you to earn Swagbucks as well.

1. They also have Swagbucks Swag Codes.  These are codes released throughout they day, by Swagbucks.com.  When you find these Swag Codes, by following the clues, and hunting down the codes, you can plug them in at Swagbucks.com and earn extra points. 
   
   Typically there about 2-5 extra Swag Code hunts per day.  You have to keep your eyes peeled for these, because they are like a treasure hunt giving you extra spending power everytime you find one.
   
   
2. Additionally, if you ever buy or order sample products online, you may be able to earn extra Swagbucks for buying online.  Up to now, I have not made any purchases through Swagbucks like this, but many people make their purchases this way so they can earn those extra points. 

Finally, I wanted to show you my proof, because many of my friends are asking ...
Does Swagbucks work?

Obviously we all are going to have different results, because no person will have exactly the same searching, buying, and time strategies.  But, since I joined Swagbucks in January, I have earned $50 Amazon gift card dollars that Al and I are planning to use for Christmas gifts for the girls this year.  Actually it's $60 now, since I've started writing this article, but $10 of them are still waiting to show in my Amazon account.

If you are at all interested in joining Swagbucks, and you have any questions, I'll be glad to talk with you about it.   You can email me at Chris  {at} ScrapbookRadio {dot} com.

Talk soon!
Chris

No One Wants To Be Left Out

Yesterday my 9 year old came home a little sad. Now she is a very happy easy going kid. Nothing usually gets her down, but I guess being left out is going to happen to everyone. She told me that at recess a group of her friends were playing a game and she asked if she could play too. A few of her good friends said of course she could, but 2 other girls said she couldn't there was no room for her to play. The other girls argued, but apparently these 2 rule the school yard. My daughter was crushed and walked away. She didn't know what else to do.

My heart totally broke when I heard this. How can kids be so mean? Luckily she was able to find a few other girls to play with and ended up having a good recess, but it definitely stung being told she could play.

It really makes me so made. I've always taught my daughter never to leave anyone out so she doesn't understand why they didn't want her to play. I had to tell her that some kids are just mean and those two girls are not her friends. She did the right thing in finding someone else to play with. I've been where she is and I wasn't as strong as that. I would have sit down and cried.

It really is sad how these things start so early. Girls can be so mean. Lesson learned and heart broken.

Close But Not in Time

My 9 year old has her music class in school every Thursday. They are learning to play the recorder and we all had to purchase one for their use. They need to bring it to class every Thursday. Well this has only been going on for a couple of weeks. I always try to have everything ready for the next day the night before. Well I got a little off track because they didn't have any homework from the testing. I completely forgot about the recorder and so did my daughter.

Well I went for a walk with a friend after the kids went to school so I didn't notice till I came back. The recorder was sitting on her windowsill. I couldn't believe it. I looked at the clock and thought she had it in the afternoon so I could get it to her on time. Wrong. I raced it down to her only to be told by the secretary that they had music first thing in the morning because of the standardize testing. Ah, I couldn't believe I went all the way there and I was too late. I saw my daughter through her classroom window and I showed her the recorder. She just shook her head and mouthed "We already had it."

When I picked her up I asked her if I got and A for effort and she said, "No." Oh well sometimes I'm unappreciated. I can take it. If I got it there in time I would be a hero, but yesterday I guess I was a zero. That's how I felt anyway.

Art Class Volunteer

Every Wednesday I volunteer in my 9 year olds art class at school. Usually I would share the time with other mothers, but for some reason I'm the only one who volunteered this year. I think it's because most moms work on Sunday. Well this year I'm not working so I'm able to do this with my daughter and I love it. I love seeing all the wonderful things the kids create.

Now this week they got to work with clay. What a mess. The project was to create a Celtic medallion. They designed it the week before and this week they were to recreate it with clay. The kids were really into this project. I don't blame them. I was itching to get to work myself. It's so much fun to work with clay. It really gets the stress out. They don't always need my help, but this week my name was being called in all directions for an hour. The teacher and I were very busy helping them work the clay the way they wanted. When they were done they were given these plastic jewels to glue on them which made it look really cool. Next week they'll color them gold. I thought this was a very cool project.

My daughter was really into it and surprisingly she never asked for my help. She did it all herself. I always itch to help her though I'm usually able to hold myself back. It's just the way a mom works they see their child working on something and they want to help make it better. I'm no different, but there are so many kids who want help it would be wrong to just stay their with my child the whole class. I've seen other mothers do that and I've vowed not to be one of them.

It's fun to watch the kids create, but others just get into so much mischief. There's one little boy who drives my daughter crazy and it's not really my place to discipline the kids I'm only there to assist the teacher. He was really tormenting her this week and I was about to let the teacher know when I saw that she was all over it. She moved his chair well away from my daughter and smiled at me. She knew exactly what was going on. I was thrilled to see this. The boy was being fresh. I'm glad the teachers are aware. Makes me feel good about this teacher and the school for that matter.

Well I look forward to the kids painting the medallion next week. Then they'll get to take them home and hang up their wonderful creations. I'm so excited.

Standardize Testing Week Hard on Everyone

There are both good and bad aspects of standardize testing week. My girls were informed a few weeks ago that this would be the week for testing. We get the usual notice about not doing anything different with their schedule and that they would receive no homework and no regular tests would be given.

Well on top of that my 13 year old got a speech on how important these tests are and that the schools they apply to for high school will receive the scores. My daughter went into full blown panic. She really doesn't want something like these tests to get in the way of her getting into the high school she wants. Now I have to say she has no need to worry. She gets excellent grades and she does the drama club and volunteers when the need arises. Telling her this did not calm her down on Sunday night when she couldn't fall asleep for hours after she went to bed. It drives me crazy, but she is who she is. My other daughter is only in third grade and she seemed fine on Sunday.

Now when they came home after taking the tests Monday they were both a little cranky. It's hard to sit and just take test all day. They used to let them have a lollipop or chew on some gum to help them concentrate during the tests, but they decided to only allow that if they got special permission. I got that permission so they can be more relaxed during the test. It just seems silly, but they have new rules about food in school. They really have to take the fun out of everything my daughter says. She may be right.

I felt bad for my youngest because she had division on one of her tests and she hasn't learned that yet. She was a little upset, but I told her no one else knew it either so not to worry. She felt better and moved on.

The only bright side that I can truly see about this week is that there is no homework and no regular test. Thank goodness. They put too much stress on kids at least without the extra work they're able to come home and relax and run around outside without additional worries.

I'll be glad when their schedules go back to normal in the classroom. I think this week really throws them off.

Bandslam Just Okay

Bandslam came out on DVD last week and we rented it from Netflix. The kids finally got around to watching it last night. Well I should say my 13 year old watched it because my 9 year old lost interest quickly and went to play in her room. The movie just wasn't interesting to her even though it stars Vanessa Hudgens. My daughter still loves all the High School Musicals, but this movie not so much.

The movie is about a boy named Will who I guess is considered a nerd in his old school and to make matters worse his father got into a drunk driving accident when he was younger and killed another kid so he is ruthlessly bullied about this. Like it's the kids fault. Moving along they move and he is befriended by the ex-head cheerleader played by Aly from Aly & AJ and Sa5m who is played by Vanessa Hudgens. She kind of keeps to herself. There is this contest called bandslam in which bands compete for a recording contract. Will becomes the manager of the band and he feels like he fits in until it comes out what happened back home. Anyway it is a good story about friendship and fitting in, but the story drags and can be sad and depressing. One of the girls father also dies. My 13 year old said it was okay she probably wouldn't watch it again. That's not a good sign for a movie. My daughter loves to rewatch movies. Bottom line I rented it and I'm gad I didn't buy it.

The best part of the movie was the music. Vanessa has a beautiful voice. I enjoyed the end when the bands competed though I found myself not that interested in the rest of the movie. I don't feel this movie is for the High School Musical crowd. It is definitely for older tweens and teens so keep that in mind if your child wants to watch. Basically I'm just not impressed with this movie.

Wild Child Just Another Fun Teen Movie

I stumbled upon this movie Wild Child while looking for things to rent on Netflix. It seemed like another typical coming of age story and it didn't disappoint. The movie is about a 16 year old Malibu girl named Poppy who is basically a spoiled brat. She's one of those obnoxious teens you hope your child never turns into. Her father decides to send her to an all girls British boarding school. It seems like the worst thing in the world to poppy then she discovers what real friends are about and who she really is. She also falls in love. What would a coming of age story be without a little romance?

The movie stars Emma Roberts as Poppy, the late and sadly missed Natasha Richardson as Mrs. Kingsly(the headmistress) and Alex Pettyfer. He's worth watching the movie according to my daughter. I would have to agree. The cast is wonderful and the movie is fun. Now it's rated PG-13 and that is very appropriate. There is some language that I don't care for my 9 year old to repeat so she hasn't seen it. My 13 year old really enjoyed it and I would recommend it to anyone around her age. It's not an award winning movie, but it is definitely entertaining. I enjoyed it.

Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover

This saying holds new meaning to me after the book I just read. I have really started looking into the young adult section of the book store because I find the fantasy stories to be very entertaining. I really enjoyed the Twilight series so since then I've decided there may be even more that I would enjoy out there. So when I look on Amazon.com I look in the recommendation section and see what there is.

Now because I liked Twilight they have been recommending the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. The first book being City of Bones . Now the cover for the book does not appeal to me in the least. I'm a mom so I don't want to be purchasing a book that has a half naked guy on the cover with tattoos on him. So I've pushed it to the side. I honestly didn't see myself going up to the register with this book in my hand. I have a thing about book covers. Now to an adolescent girl I could see why this cover would draw you to the book, but I'm not an adolescent.

Well a few months ago my step dad gave me an Amazon Kindle that he won in a raffle. He thought I would really like it so he gave it to me because I love books so much. I'm always reading something. Well I love my Amazon Kindle for one thing I can download a book and no one knows what I'm reading. Also the books are a lot cheaper. So here I was wondering about City of Bones so I purchased it on my Kindle. Well I loved it. It was a great read. I didn't want to put it down.

It tells the story of Clary a girl who lives a rather normal life until she observes something by chance. She she's shadowhunters getting rid of a demon. Shadowhunters are demon hunters. Now I've always been a fan of Buffy type stories so this caught me right up. It turns out Clare is a Shadowhunter and she soon finds her world turned upside down by the discovery. There is adventure, romance and suspense exactly what I look for in a book. I highly recommend it.

My only problem is I wouldn't have bought the book because I didn't care for the cover. Let me just say I won't be fooled again. If a book is really being recommended and I don't care for the cover the heck with it. I'm not going to miss out on a good read just because of the cover. Now a suggestion I have to the publisher of these books is they may want to consider that older readers are now starting to pick up young adult books. They could either release two different covers or have a more neutral cover. Needless to say I've gotten over it myself, but how many others wouldn't pick up this book because of it's cover?

Right On ... Target!

So ... Chris has been holding onto some coupons for several weeks.  She told me about this body wash about a month ago.  She saw it at the Target closest to us.  She went back later, and the washes were gone.   Since then, we've been watching and waiting for them to show up at our store.  So far ... no luck!  Zilch.  Zero. Nada.

But today, we made it over to the beach.  And on our way home, we passed by a Super Target.  I thought we were just going to cruise by, but Chris almost gave me whiplash ripping the wheel over, careening into the parking lot.

I tried to talk her out of it.  I told her the girls and I were exhausted after our day out.  But she wasn't hearing any of it.  She was a woman on a mission.

We spent a few minutes walking around the store, getting the lay of the land.  Finally ... after feeling like we might never find what we were looking for, Chris tracked them down. 

The best part of all ...

It turned out to be a truly killer deal for us.  I was so excited, she even let me join in on the whole process.  I'll let Chris give you all of the details.

**The above statements were based on a true story but have been embellished for your reading pleasure.**


Now on to a truer version of what happened...
 We had a great time at the beach! It is always so good to go and enjoy the place that we live.  On the way home I wanted to stop at a Target that I thought might have the things that I have been looking for, and not finding, at the Target by me. And I was in luck!
With the purchase that I made I actually came out of the store with more money than I went in with! And 16 items!
Now a note of disclaimer. The coupons that I had gave me overage. At Target I never count on overage because the cashiers are supposed to change the value of the coupon to the price of the item. You can get free items but not overage. But I got a ROCK'N Cashier and she gave me all the overage that my coupons would allow! And it was a lot!
This is what all I got...

I actually gained .96 cents in purchasing these items! And here is how.
The Gillette Body washes are $1.79 each and I used a manufactures coupon for $4.00 off 2 body washes. I purchased 8 of them and used 4 coupons. So that gave me a $1.68 overage for all of that.
The Gillette deodorant was also $1.79 each. the manufactures coupon that I had was for $3.00 off any 1 Gillette deodorant. I purchased 5 of them and used 5 coupons making for a $6.05 overage.
the Dial hand soap was $1.37 and I stacked a Target store coupon for $1.00 off one and a manufactures coupon for .35 cents off one. The final cost for each was .02.
The Kellogs cereal was on sale for 2.50 each, and when you buy 4 at one time you get a $5.00 gift card for use when next purchase. I did not have any other coupons for the cereal, unfortunatly, but it was still a good deal as we love this cereal.
So with all the overage from the coupons the total for the above was $4.04. I was given a $5.00 gift card for the cereals and I used a $5.00 gift card from the purchase earlier in the week. Leaving the remaining balance on that card .96cents.  Can you believe it!!
Not only was I excited to get the things that I had given up on getting, the Gillette items, for free But I actually gained money in this purchase!
This is truly something only God could have made possible for me to learn how to do.

I have a couple more purchases that I made during last week that I wanted to share as well.

The first is CVS and all these deodorants. I paid only $1.10 out of pocket for all of these.

They were all part of the Extra Care Bucks rewards that CVS has. making them all free after the coupons that I used and rewards received for the purchase. I also paid with Extra Care Bucks that I had so my out of pocket was very little. I was happy with this purchase because I was finally to get free deodorant that Al will use, He will only use the kind that is just deodorant and not antiperspirant. and all 6 of the Degrees are just that!

And here is a purchase that I made on Friday at Publix. I found a deal that would let me get FREE lunch meat buy combining an unadvertised store sale, a store coupon and a manufactures coupons.  So that made me want to go back even tho I had just been shopping there the day before. Free is a very good price!
The total savings for this purchase was $60.88 and my out of pocket was $3.34.

Here is what I got...
10 - Packages of Buddig lunch meat  FREE
2- Sundown Vitamin D  FREE with 2.00 overage
4- Bottles V8 Fusion juice  $1.00 each
2- Bottles salad dressing .69 each
That makes for 7.5lbs of FREE lunch meat!

If you are beginning to wonder what we will do with all these extra things I am getting. Fear not we are not turning in to hoarders. I will keep a stash of things that we will use. The rest we are putting together to donate to a local food pantry. It feels good to have cut our grocery budget by over half and to have our pantry and freezer full and to still have enough left over to be able to donate. And to have all of our personal care items included in that. Especially at a time when I am not working and bringing in the income that I used to God is still working and making BIG things happen for us. Because of His blessing to us we are able to extend that blessing to others!

If you have any questions that I can help with please let me know. I would love to help you get these deals too!
Chris

Girl Scout Cookie Booth Sale

What a great day! My daughter's Girl Scout troop sold cookies this morning in front of a local business. They had so much fun. It was a little early for us on a Saturday morning. We got there at 9 and we had a late night at the lip synch last night. My daughter did awesome by the way. I am a very proud mom.

Anyway the girls held up signs and yelled cookie sales. They shouted to anyone who walked by and many people were out and about this morning. It is a gorgeous day here in Massachusetts. The sun is shinning and it's about 70 degrees. It's a fabulous day. The girls loved watching all the people walking their dogs and many stopped and bought cookies. The booth was across from a fire station so the fireman all came over to buy cookies. They were so nice.

The girls did a great job selling and handling the money. There 9 so they're just learning multiplication. Everyone was very patient and helpful to the girls. Of course the moms were right there, but we wanted them to do it. One lady wanted my daughter to count the money back to her. My daughter did her best, but she got nervous. Another mom helped her and the lady told her she did a good job. She really put her on the spot. My daughter was not upset by it. I was afraid she was going to burst into tears. A few months ago she would have. Well I guess she's finally growing up. Now I'm going to enjoy the rest of this gorgeous day. My daughter has already headed outside to play. I probably won't be able to get her in until dinner time. I just love this time of year.

Lip Synch Night

Tonight at my daughters school they have Lip Synch night. My 9 year old is performing with 2 of her friends. They are doing Naturally by Selena Gomez. They are so excited. We've gotten the girls together for the past three weekends and they came up with the whole routine themselves.

They have performed it for me and the other moms many times and they even did it for their dance teacher so she could give them some advice. I am very proud of her for working so hard on this with her friends. They all added their own little touches to it and it is a very fun routine. Of course the most important part is that they have fun.

Now tonight they get to do it for their whole school. The girls are so excited. We even got them these sparkely black t-shirts. It will be adorable. It's also fun for them to watch the other acts. My older daughter is going as well and is looking forward to it. All the kids go and there's pizza. It's just a really fun event that the school has every year. The kids just love it and I like it too. I love watching my kids have fun with their friends. Really that's what it should be all about.

Thursday Publix deals!

I did really well at Publix today! It seems like for the last few weeks there just has not been much that was all that good that I wanted to buy. I still had great savings but just not a ton of things. But that was all different today! And not only that they had everything in stock that I wanted, I had a wonderful cashier and the ladies behind me in line where congratulating me on my savings. As well as being completely blown away by the final price that I paid.
Here is everything that I got. It filled half my dining room table!!

The total for all this before sales and coupons was $167.13. And after sales and coupons the total was$15.14!! A savings of 91%! Also I paid with the Gift card that I won, so nothing out of pocket again this week!  I have used a little over half of my gift card so far. I am excited when it is done to add up the totals and see how much I really got with that $100.00 gift card. I think it will be huge!! What a blessing from God! The Success rice purchase is part of a rebate offer, So I will be sending this receipt in for a $5.00 rebate.
And here is the list of everything I got and the final prices for each thing.

4- Bottles Welches Grape juice,  .99 each
2- Bottles Vitamin D,  FREE with 2.00 dollar overage
2- Boxes Success Rice, ..69 each
8- Boxes Uncle Bens Long grain rice, FREE
2- Loaves Natures Own Wheat Bread, 1.25 each
1- Sure Deoderant, FREE with .11 cent overage
2- Muller Whole Wheat Penne Pasta,  .15 each
4- Muller Whole Wheat Spaghetti ,  .15 each
2- Cartons College Inn Broth,  .24 each
6- Bags fast Fixin Chicken Nuggets,  1.00 each
2- Bags Tostitos Tortilla Chips,  3.00 each
2- Jars Tostitos salsa,    Free
2- Dove Shampoo and conditioner,  1.04 each
2- Dove Hair Mouse ,  Free
2- McCormick Spice Grinders, FREE with .10 cent overage
2- Bottles All Small and Mighty Laundry soap, .24 each
1- Box Kashi Granola Bars,
2- Boxes Kashi cereal,
3- Boxes Kashi cereal, 1.00 each
1- Yoplait Greek Yogurt,  FREE with .30 cent overage
 That is a total of 52 items!
If you are thinking that the math is off, I used a $10.00 off coupon in addition to all the other coupons. So That made for the total saving of 91%!!

Rediscovering Roswell

My daughter loves to dive into my DVD collection. The other day she did and discovered season 1 of Roswell. She brought it to me immediately and asked if it was something she could watch. I thought about it for a minute. It has been awhile since I even watched the show, but I remember enjoying it very much. I was shocked to find that it originally aired back in 1999. She had no idea what it was.

I told her she could watch and she is loving it and I have to say I'm enjoying it as well. Her sister has no interest, but that's probably just because her sister is enjoying it so much.

Roswell is the story of 3 teens in Roswell, New Mexico who discover that they are aliens from the famous Roswell crash. They have amazing powers. It's about them dealing with regular teen drama and keeping their secret from anyone who may want to harm them.

It really was a great show and I was very disappointed when it was canceled. It's nice to rewatch it now though I only have the first season on DVD. My daughter is in love with the show and wants to know why I hadn't let her watch it before and I told her I had forgotten about it. It really is fun to rediscover shows that I loved and share them with my daughter. She is a real scifi kind of girl just like her mom.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I don't know what it is about St. Patrick's Day, but everyone always seems to be in a good mood. The kids all wear green to school. Well except my oldest. She had to wear her uniform, but she did her part by wearing a green ribbon in her hair. My youngest is all about wearing green. Green is her favorite color and she was thrilled when the note came home that she could wear green to school.

Seriously though it's just such a happy holiday. I remember when I was in college they had green beer at all the parties and bars. I never really liked beer, but it was green and it was St. Patrick's Day. You had to have it.

Now today I was heading to pick up the girls when I saw this guy dressed up as a leprechaun waving people in to the bar. Yeah, it's a little early for that, but hey it's St. Patrick's Day. I couldn't help, but smile and wave. It was so cute.

I hope everyone can enjoy the day a little even if you're not Irish. You don't have to be Irish to enjoy the day.

Our TV Died

This is just a very bad start to the day. I got up at my usual time, put the dog out and flicked the TV on to check the news. It's been raining for days and the girls had no school yesterday due to flooding so I needed to see what was going on. The sound was working no problem, but when I turned to see the picture there was nothing and the little lights on the TV were blinking. It's done this before and my husband was able to fix it by replacing the bulb. I figured it was the same thing a nuisance for sure, but nothing major right? Wrong. I unplugged the TV and put it back on. The picture showed up for a moment and then it fizzled out. My husband sad it was bad. New TV bad. Now there's nothing wrong with a new TV if you have the extra money for one, but we don't right now. This is such a pain.

My girls got up and immediately they think it's the end of the world. The first words out of their cute little mouths were "Why isn't the TV on?" not "Good morning" or anything like that. These kids have their priorities and the TV is definitely up there. Now it's not working and things are going to get ugly. They always watch TV while they eat their breakfast. They were so not happy. I put the radio on, but it just wasn't the same. The little one bounced back and moved on, but the 13 year old was grumpy all morning. This isn't that unusual, but this time there seemed to be a reason for it.

Oh well things could be worse. It's just a TV right? Maybe I can get them to read more? Yeah, right.

Parenthood a Must See for Parents

I am all over this new show Parenthood that is airing on NBC on Tuesday nights. It stars Lauren Graham of Gilmore Girls fame and Craig T. Nelson who used to be on Coach. It's a phenomenal cast.

The story is about a group of adult brothers and sisters and their families. Their parents are also important to the story. The show is based on the movie Parenthood that stared Steve Martin. It's not exactly the same, but you can definitely see the similarities.

This show seems to give you different aspects of parenthood. One of the sisters is a working mom and she spends a lot of time working so her daughter is more attached to daddy because he's there more. The other sister is moving back home with her two teenage kids to start over. The kids are not happy. The brothers are dealing with their own issues. One of them is happily settled with his family, but discovers his son has Aspergers and his daughter has been smoking pot. Things are just not as wonderful as you think. The screw up brother has just learned he has a 5 year old son. I tell you the story is just wonderful. One minute I'm laughing and the next I'm crying. It's an emotional roller coaster. We have set this show for a weekly record on our DVR and I am really looking forward to watching this weeks episode.

Target Deals!

I will have to make a confession. I LOVE Target! I have for some time now. And in the past I have spent more than I should there. But never again. I still love Target just as much but now I see the adds and sales in a different way. And I make them work to my advantage. Today I had a fabulous trip to Target! They had everything that I wanted except for the eggs that were on sale. But a quick trip to the customer service desk and I was able to get a rain check for them. I will not miss out on that deal!
Here Is everything that I got today...

 So what do you think I paid for all of this? According to the receipt my savings was $73.29.  I paid a total of .71cents out of pocket for all of this! And I was given $15.00 dollars in gift cards for later use! Here is how.

The cereals are on sale this week for $2.50 a box. I got 4 because there also is a deal where if you buy 4 you get a free $5.00 gift card. I also used two printable manufactures coupons for 1.50 off of 2 boxes.  Making them $1.75 each box.

The Pop tarts (a big treat in our house as I never usually buy them) are on sale for $2.50 also and they have the same deal of buying 4 get a free $5.00 gift card. I used two manufactures coupons for $1.00 off 2 -12 count boxes of poptarts. Making them $2.00 each box.

The Dial hand soap was $1.37 I used a Target store coupon ( that you can print from their web site) for $1.00 off any dial liquid soap and I also used a Manufactures coupon for .35 cents off one Dial Nutri skin soap. So the final price for each of the hand soaps was .2 each! Also the awesome thing about this soap is that it is not antibacterial! We do not use antibacterial soap in our house!  I will be getting more of these for sure!

The Airwick motion things are on sale for $6.00. I used a Target store coupon for $1.00 off. And  manufactures coupons for $5.00 off any airwick kit. Final price was FREE!!

The Kids Crest toothpaste is on sale for $1.49 each. I used a Target store coupons for $1.00 off and a manufactures coupons for .50cents off. Making the final price FREE!!

And the Johnson's and Johnson's Buddie bars soap is a regular price of .97 each. I used a Manufactures coupons for $1.00 off any J&J baby product. Making the final price on these also FREE!!

I had a coupon that I got on a Target mailer the other day for spend $50.00 and get a free $5.00 gift card good for your next purchase. It is before coupons so I used that as my total was 54.something before coupons.
The total after coupons was $15.71. I had 3 $5.00 gift cards that I had gotten from other purchases in the last couple weeks. So I used them to pay making the final total left to pay just .71cents!!
And I was give 3 more $5.00 gift card to use later.  Because I purchased 4 kellogs cereals and 4 pop tarts I got 2 of the $5.00 gift cards. The other came from the coupon that I had of get a $5.00 gift card with a $50.00 or more purchase. So that is a total of $15.00 to spend later!!
And just to show you that I am not making this up here is a photo of the receipt and git cards!

 This was such a great trip for me. I have been frustrated because that last few times I have tried to shop at Target they have been out of stock of so many things. It can be a huge bummer when you go to a store expecting to get good deals only to have them out of stock of nearly all that you wanted. But thankfully this time that was not the case. They had everything except for the eggs and I was easily able to get a rain check for them. They are on sale this week for $1.00 for a dozen eggs. I have a buy one dozen get one dozen free so it will be .50 cents a dozen for me!! It may actually be better that I had to get a rain check because I can get the close to Easter now so that the girls can dye them! Unfortunately the grocery stores do not seem to have very good sales on eggs even for Easter.
But this will work just fine!

Pine Derby Payback

Last year, the Speer family did excellent at the AWANA pine derby races.  The girls took home trophies for best design and for speed.  You can check out that post here.  Both girls won trophies for both categories.

However, this year was quite a bit different.  The girls designed killer cars.

The cars turned out pretty cool.  At least the girls had fun designing and painting them.

However, we didn't end up pimping out the speed capabilities of the body or wheels.  So, you can see they ended up with some rather dismal results.

Thankfully the girls weren't too terribly disappointed.  Oh ... they were bummed out by losing so badly.  But, they were more bummed out that they hadn't won for design concept.  At the end of the night, the best thing they could say was ... 'at least we got to build them'.

And Kait has already set her mind determinedly on an innovative design for next year.  And she wants to enlist the help of my buddy (Tim), for some pine derby speed tips and tricks.  So, I guess, maybe they took losing a little harder than they let on?


Here's a little bit of the action from our night:

Talk soon!

Al

I Don't Want to Spring Ahead

I think my title says it all. I don't want to give up my hour of sleep. I woke up this morning and truly felt cheated. Where did my hour go anyway? It just evaporates into the cosmos. I'm not happy about this. My oldest isn't happy either. She made plans to go to a friend's house and work on their science fair project and she woke up feeling completely rushed. She needed that hour. Sure you think an hour is nothing, but you can get a lot done in an hour and I want it back.

My youngest, the cup is half full child, sees the good side of daylight savings. It will be lighter longer and she will have more time to play outside when her homework is complete. I understand and I do like that aspect of it. I just want my hour. I know it will come back around in the fall, but it doesn't do me any good today.

This also messes up my household for weeks. The kids have a real hard time adjusting to the new time. They're never going to go to sleep tonight for that matter I'll probably have a hard time as well. This all means I won't be able to get them up in the morning. Oh it's going to be an ugly week. The only good thing I can think of at the moment is it's almost baseball season. As I write this post my husband has just put on a Red Sox spring training game. Now I have something to smile about. I love baseball.

Fushigi Yugi

My girls have been digging into my anime collection. As I've stated before I am a huge fan of anime and manga. However, I haven't seen as much as I used to. I just don't have the time or the money for it. One of my favorite animes is Fushigi Yugi. It's an older anime that I just fell in love with. It's about a girl from Japan who gets drawn into an ancient Chinese book. Inside the book she becomes the Priestess of Suzaku. The Priestess has 7 warriors who protect her. She must find them all. She falls in love with one of them as well. There are of course bad guys they must fight along the way. It is a very touching and dramatic anime. It also can be very funny as most animes are.

My girls have been addicted to watching it over the past couple of weeks. It is a very long anime so it's going to take them a while to get through. There are a few episodes that I didn't allow my youngest to watch as they were a little too much for her. My 13 year old is loving it. I'm thrilled that they are enjoying something that I love so much. It can be such a fun and entertaining hobby.

Why Are the Shorts for Tweens and Teens so Short?

Seriously, I am so aggravated about this. We are going to Disney World during the girls April Vacation so I needed to get them some shorts. Well actually just my 13 year old as my 9 year old has hand me downs, thank God. Well I started looking at the mall and all the short are ridiculously short. I would say they're shorter than Daisy Dukes which I didn't think was even possible.

I just don't understand what these stores and designers are thinking. I don't want my adolescent girls walking around with their butts hanging out. It is so inappropriate. It makes me crazy. It's not even like my girls want them. They know their too short. They're not comfortable wearing them.

I want the girls to fashionable, but this is unacceptable. I am going to have to check out some other places. I know that Bermuda shorts are around as well, but they're too long. The girls may have to deal with what I can find. If anyone knows where I can find a decent length jean short please let me know.

Yesterdays deals!

I am still not sure where the time went yesterday. There really was not a ton that we had to do and yet the time just was gone. And for what ever reason I never got around to posting last weeks trip either. So I am finally posting my grocery trip from yesterday.
We made two stops yesterday. The first being Publix. The total there before sales and coupons was $82.28. And after was $12.94. A savings of 82%. I paid with the gift card that I won so there was nothing out of pocket. And I will be submitting the receipt for a rebate on the sure deodorant of $2.00. 

This is what all is included.
1- bag of Publix salad mix
3- small tomatoes
1lb- Ground beef
4- boxes Delmonte fruit chillers
4- bags 8O'Clock coffee
8- boxes Whole wheat pasta
2- bottles Vitamin D
10- multi packs of Yoplait yoplus yogurt
1- Yoplait Greek Yogurt
1- Sure deodorant (rebate item)

And this was my trip to Winn Dixie. Now the cool thing about this is there is a promotion going on where if you buy $20.00 worth of selected Proctor Gamble Products you get a catalina coupon for $7.00 off your next visit. And if you spend $30.00 worth of Proctor Gamble products you get a $10.00 off coupon for your next visit. So the purchase that I made qualified me for the $10.00 coupon even tho I did not spend nearly $30.00 out of pocket!
The total for this stop before sales and coupons was $77.74. And after $15.46. And I got the $10.00 off coupon that I will most likely be using at Publix next week! Great deal!

This is what is here.
4- Swiffer Duster kits
4- Swiffer wet jet refills
8- Oral-B tooth brushes.
I had coupons for buy any Swiffer kit and get a refill free. Since both of these items are part of the deal I chose to get the wet jet refills free. I also used a $1.00 off any swiffer kit coupon for the dusters.
The Toothbushes were on a store sale of Buy One Get One and I had a Buy One Get One coupon that I used to get them all free! I love when that happens! What is funny is that the normal privce for these tooth brushes is $4.49 each. The cashier just about had a heart attach when she saw that price. She (and I) think that is a crazy price to pay for 1 tooth brush. But then I explained that I was getting them for free because of the store sale and the manufactures coupons that i had. She thought that was better!
Also there is a promotion going on with Proctor Gamble where if you buy $50.00 dollars worth of their products and mail the receipt in they will send you back $100.00 dollars worth of coupons. And the total of $50.00 os before sales and coupons. So With this one receipt I reached that amount easy and I will be sending it in for my coupons!
How great is that!
Chris

Another Easter Basket Filler

Easter is coming very quickly so now comes the time to fill the baskets. My girls have always like little things so this is an easy task. There are these Japanese erasers by Iwako. They come in lots of cute animal shapes. Apparently there another one of those fads. I think that makes 3 that are big in my daughters class right now. It would be nice if they could space these things out a little, but again they aren't very expensive. They cost about $1.00 per eraser and you can get them in sets as well.

They have these really cute hamsters, penguins and hamsters to name a few. I think these are the ones my girls will like best. They also have them in the shape of food though I think my girls will like the little animals the best. They will fit perfectly in those plastic Easter eggs. I can hide them all over the house. That really makes things fun.

These little guys will make school work more fun as well. I wish they had all these things when I was young. Oh well not much I can do about that. Though I can see why they're so popular. They're so darn cute.

Saddened by the Death of Corey Haim

I hadn't really paid to much attention to any of the entertainment news until just a moment ago. I couldn't believe it when I read that Corey Haim died of an accidental drug overdose. He was only 38. I am so sad. Having grown up in the 80s I remember seeing many of his movies. He will always hold a special place in my heart.

The Lost Boys remains one of my favorite movies to date. A real vampire movie. I haven't let my daughter watch it yet because it's rated R though I know she'll love it. Corey is just so good in it. I'm going to have to rent it now. I haven't seen it in a few years.

Lucas is another of his great movies. It's just one of those typical 80s movies that moves you. He's plays a typical nerd who falls for a new girl who ends up becoming a cheerleader so he tries out for the football team. Meanwhile she's too busy falling in love with Charlie Sheen. Oh the memories.

It's just so disheartening when something like this happens. He will always be remembered by the wonderful roles he played. He will be missed.

One Day in Oregon

Finally, I've thrown together enough time to go back through some of our pictures from Oregon.

Since we only had one day to get out and about, this was the extent of our outdoor adventures. I gathered together some of my favorite pics from the day. If anything, just getting this minimal taste of the Great Northwest again, has made both Christy and I want to get back outside again. Plus, watching the winter Olympics was like stoking my desire for cold weather.

We just started talking about camping again. It's been almost three years since we've been in a tent. Unbelievable! It's almost sickening to think about it.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share these pictures.

Talk soon!
Al

P.S. If all of the pictures seem to have snowy mountains in them ... well ... that's because I pretty much can't get enough of seeing them.  Love it!