Tid Bits

On Friday we went and had lunch with some friends. It was so much fun and both Caroline and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Caroline made friends with their little man and he kept kissing her in the window! J and I couldn't help but laugh!

Sunday morning we had a little visitor.



We were in the kitchen having breakfast and Aaron looked out the window and exclaimed, "Is that a turtle?" He headed outside and took a closer look, then came back in for the camera. Caroline was watching intently, so he took her out, only after he promised me he wouldn't let her touch it. It was actually a really friendly little guy and walked right up to them and didn't seem scared at all. Caroline really liked looking at him, but she would wiggle and try to climb up Aaron if he got too close!





As I mentioned in one of my other blogs, I've really gotten into couponing lately. It's so much fun! I'm just starting out so I'm not really good at it yet, but I feel like I've made a great start. Aaron made me a spreadsheet to keep track of how much I've saved. It's really fun to actually SEE the results. I won't go into a deep analysis of all the deals, but I am really enjoying getting a lot of fee items using the CVS extra care bucks system. When I set out to start couponing, I decided that I wasn't going to buy something we don't need or won't use just b/c I had a coupon, which is a mistake I've made in the past. I've also had to learn to let go of some of my brand loyalties. I think that's been the hardest thing for me. I've had a lot of luck getting things for my home and our personal care for cheap or free. I've got things like laundry detergent, toothpaste, paper towels, toilet paper, and other things like that really stocked up. I haven't had as much luck with finding deals on food items, and I'm pretty sure it's because I have "what we like" in my head instead of what we can get for better prices. I'm trying to do better about that! I have some monetary goals that I want to get my grocery bill down to, and hopefully once I've been working on the couponing for a while I can reach or even exceed my goals.

Another big part of my couponing has been signing up to receive free samples. Yesterday was a really fun day at the mailbox! I had 3 free samples and a free magazine waiting for me!



If you'd like to start couponing and receiving free samples, I high recommend Money Saving Mom's blog. She explains things in an easy to understand way and she posts about free samples and printable coupons daily.

Couponing is FUN! :)