Hardworking Mommy Blog Award

I have received an award from my blogging friend Gianna. Thanks!

My role is now to pass this on to 7 hard working mommy bloggers and grant them the award.

I think these are some of the top hard working mommies I know (and there are plenty others of you out there!)

Chelsea @ vicariouschelsea
Becca @ Our Crazy Boys
Julie @From Inmates to Playdates
Eileen @ The Short Life
Lainie @ her blog
Jerris @ The Brown Beauties
Kendra @ Family Fun

Here are the rules of acceptance:

If you are awarded the "Hard-working Mommy Blogger Award" you need to pass on the love to 7 other Hard Working Mommy Bloggers.

Accept the award (by leaving a comment on the original award post)

Post about the award on your blog (include the image of the award) together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and her blog link.

List 7 other Mommy Bloggers that you want to pass the award along to (no backsies). Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

My Buddy

I got to go visit my longtime friend who lives about 2 1/2 hours away yesterday, there and back, and a six or so hour visit, all in 12 hours. It was THE BEST!
Here she is with some great food!

We had great food, great conversation, a pedicure for me (french w/ a cute little red flower-in honor of my new blog):
manicure for her, and some shopping, all for my son. I had the time to really look through some neat toys and pick a few out for him that he'd get excited about this summer and be able to travel with on some trip.

I also never get uninterrupted time on the phone so I was able to call a great friend I met when we were pregnant together, on an online site, who I've grown closer to over the years, and with kids, and careers, while we do find time to write quality emails, never are able to talk on the phone. Straight highway driving it GREAT! Thanks for making the time to chit-chat my friend. It was so nice having some personal time.
To great day off with my hubby today before heading back to work on Monday. Have a great weekend yourself!

BFF

Tackling Walgreens

This week I tackled Walgreens at their sale items, after also hitting up CVS this week. I was able to attempt this with a couple of days off this week. I'm not sure this would be something I could normally do on a weekly basis, but I thought it was the perfect week to try.

Here's what I bought:
-4 Nature Valley granola bars packs at $1.99 each. I had a .40 coupon, a .50 coupon, and a .75/2 coupon, so they came to $6.31 or $1.58/box.
-2 Kotex items at $3.49 each.
*I then received $2.50 in register rewards and a coupon for a free Playtex item up to $5.00

I went back to buy Puffs tissue, something I'd forgotten my coupon for. They are regularly $1.49 each. The coupon was for .99 each, for a limit of two.
I used that coupon to get them at .99 each, applied my $2.50 in register rewards to that, so I only spent .50 on the tissue, AND I got a free Playtex item.
I spent $1.10 ONLY for all of that on my second trip!

I feel thankful that all of this worked so well. I still question (questioning is healthy, right?) that while I'm buying items I will use, I don't necessarily need them now. How does that affect my monthly budget? I do know that I don't need to buy much meat this month, so maybe if I make sure I limit my expenses in this area, maybe I'll be fine.

What is hard is, I want to take advantage of sales, but without:
-going over my budget
-going crazy looking over so many ads and coupons and websites
-losing quality time for my family or myself

My husband reminded me: "There will always be sales."
I also heard from someone the other day: "You can save yourself broke."

I know the balance is up to me, and finding what works for me. I don't want to go so overboard it isn't fun any more, or like I said, takes too much time.

Your suggestions?

Question of the Day: mint.com

Question for any readers out there. Do any of you use mint.com, and if so, what are your thoughts? It sounds appealing, but I'm concerned about security, what with having to input all your account numbers and such.

I currently do all my tracking in Excel and would like something easier, without paying money for a program.

Any thoughts?

Making Your Life Easier

I just found this GREAT blog (a series actually) on Streamlining Your Life at Life as Mom, a super blog I found. Of course, as streamlined as my life actually is every morning, I skimmed a lot of it, but saved it as a bookmark to dig through later.

Today is one of my days off this "summer" (it is a pretty short break in our school district) without any family member to be seen, and what am I doing? Looking at great blogs! Who can resist, right?

One of my main goals today however, is to do some long-deserved and awaited scrapbooking, as well as a big Target trip and a trip to the consignment store to do some trading and try to find some shorts for my son that he'll just outgrow really quickly. All that, in really, 8 hours. Crazy, but I'm appreciative of the time and quiet, and downtime for me. I find it easier to just wait for a day off to scrapbook so I can spread out my things. It is also easier to do shopping alone, so I can think and make good decisions.

What are some things you do to make your life easier?

WILTW: First CVS Experience

I want to thank Gianna, a new blogging friend, who suggested I go to www.pocketyourdollars.com
to find good deals. At this site, you can click on CVS, Target, and a variety of others stores and find their best sales matched with coupons.

There is even a link to a "How to Get Started Using the Extra Care Program", which was really helpful. I didn't know there was another coupon printer at the store, and I learned the main focus is to go after the Extra Bucks and try to use coupons on those too.

So, I just returned from my first ever, planned CVS "true shopping" trip (meaning it wasn't just a stop for a prescription or something I needed last minute like flour).

Here's what I got:

$15 worth of Hallmark cards = $3.00 Extra Bucks
*There was a link on the above website for a $1.00 off coupon for Hallmark too, which I left at home. :(
3 Suave body washes 4/$3.00 sale = $2.00 Extra Bucks
Ban deodorant $2.99 sale = $2.00 Extra Bucks
Neutrogena sunblock $7.99 sale/buy $15.00 worth = $5.00 Extra Bucks

side item:
2 Sally Hansen nail polish (the cheaper, $2.99 one) Buy 1, get one 50% off

So, I spent $58.26, but I have $12.00 to use on my next purchases. Did I do all that right, CVS shoppers?

I did realize, in leaving, that I forgot a greeting card for my sis-in-law, but I'd reached the $15.00 already, so I may as well wait for another sale to earn extra bucks and stock up on future cards then, including hers (her b-day isn't until July).

Here's a question I have though, if anyone can help.

How do you balance buying what you need for the month and using sales, where you stock up for the future, all within one month's budget?

Does it eventually balance out? For instance, I now have enough body wash probably through 2010, but it all came out of this month's budget. We've sometimes "carried payments" into future months' grocery budgets if we weren't using them until that time.

For more of What I Learned This Week, go see Julie.