Extreme Couponing + Krazy Coupon Lady= My Little Obsession

Ok, so some of you know I've started, du du du, Couponing! And I don't know if its the athlete in me, or maybe I really do like a challenge, but I'm kinda obsessed. Not to the point where I've walked out of the story with a cart full of groceries for $20- but I feel it comin! And I can't fully break it down because I'm still a "Coupon Virgin" BUT I did want to share some of my favorite things that have been super helpful so far.
Ok, first of all, if you're really serious about becoming a Krazy Coupon Lady, get this book: Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey. Its by the Girls who run the Krazy Lady Coupon website. I've had the book for over a month and just started reading it last week. It's VERY helpful. It breaks everything down and makes the whole "Coupon Process" so much easier to understand. You'll definitely want to make a Coupon Binder, this is the key. I use to have my coupons in an accordion file thing and sometimes I'd have it with me, sometimes it was at home, sometimes in the car, rarely where it needed to be when I needed it...there's a whole chapter about why you really need a binder. It's all about being organized so that when you're in the store and see a sale you can get to your coupons easily.
The key about Krazy Couponing is Stacking. You want to stack a Manufacture Coupon with a Store Coupon while the item is on sale. Although you don't always have to do this. You can still get good deals with 1 coupon + a sale.

For Example :)
The other night I went to Walgreens for Swim Diapers.
Originally they're $9.99
They were on sale for $6.99
I had a Manufacture Coupon for $2 off one pack of Swimmers
I also had a Walgreens Coupon for $2 off one pack of Swimmers
That made my total $2.99
AND the day before I bought 2 packs of diapers that gave me a $3 Walgreens rewards (its a coupon that prints off when you're finished paying and its good for your next purchase.)
I used the $3 "Catalina" (that's what these type of coupons are called. Ya know, like when you're at Albertsons and they hand you your receipt with some long coupons that print of with your receipt-those are called Catalinas)
Soooo, I walked out of Walgreens with the Swimmers for Free! (Well I had to pay about 40cents in tax, but that's fine with me!)
Also, the website is VERY helpful. They break all the stores down and highlight good sales and hot items. They also have a facebook page and if you "Like" it, the hot items constantly pop up in your news feed. It's very helpful.
One of the hot items that I saw in my newsfeed was "Similac for Free"
So I read that there were $5 Coupons for any Simliac item and the Ready-Made Formula that's usually $6.99 was on sale at CVS for $4.99. So with the $5 coupon it would be free! Well I didn't have any of those coupons-because I'm just starting out and still need to work on getting 4-6 sets of coupons each Sunday :), but you can buy coupons in bulk from eBay. So I found someone selling 10 of the $5off coupons. I bought those for $10. And it was actually a really popular listing. There was like 10 different listings for the same coupons, they were going like hotcakes!
So I got my coupons but didn't make it to CVS before the sale was over. No problem, Ralphs had them on sale for $5.99, so I had to pay 99cents a bottle, which is still a steal! And I heard Walmart has them for $5.49, so I could've gone there...
At Ralphs I bought 10 bottles, used 10 $5off coupons and got all of them for $10(plus the $10 I spent at eBay, so I really spent $20 but I got $60 worth of formula). When I was there they also had a bunch of colgate toothbrushes and toothpaste on sale for 88cents and I had a couple $1off coupons for them so I ended up with 2 toothbrushes and 2toothpastes for free! FYI- the SoCal Ralphs doubles coupons. Awesome!!

So if I was REALLY good I would've gotten that all for Free, but I will as I get better! If you're really serious about couponing, get the Book, get on the Website and Like their Facebook page. The first few weeks are a little overwhelming, but its just cause its a lot of information. So if you get frustrated or overwhelmed just stop for the night. No big deal. Eventually you'll only spend about an hour or 2 getting all your coupons together and saving lots :) It took me a good month to really understand everything and feel comfortable. Now I'm a little Sales Scout. Lol. Its fun trying to figure it all out to see what I can get for Free. My biggest focus is getting my groceries as cheap as possible. Its easy to get beauty supplies for cheap, so I need to get better at the food side of couponing. Although, anytime I can get a free nail polish I'm all over it!
Sooo, if you have any questions feel free to shoot them my way. I can't promise I can answer them, but if I can't we can work together to figure it out because I'm sure its one I need to know the answer to too!

Monthlys- 4 Months

I haven't posted any of Kallen's Monthly pictures yet...so I am now :) I did the same thing with Raya and was so glad I did. I wish I can remember who gave me the idea. I think I saw it on a TV show. But I remember when I saw it I was like, "I HAVE to do this when I have a baby!" And it was way before I was even thinking about having babies. I think Kallen's are going to be a little better because I have him in the same chair so I'll be able to see how big he gets in comparison to the chair. For both of them I used/am using a 12month onesie so I can see how they change and grow each month. I also used a stuff animal so I can see the size comparison. It's so easy when they're under 7 months to get a good shot. Lol. I remember by the time Raya was about 8 months it was almost impossible to get a picture of her with her bear next to her. Haha. I also take one of Kallen and Raya to go along with Kallen's Monthly. Ah man and I'm just now thinking how cute if I had used a white onesie for Raya and then I could've used the same one for Kallen. Dang! That would've been so cute! Oh well :)
Here's Kallen's so far:

MONTH 1- 2.3.11

MONTH 2- 3.3.11

MONTH 3- 4.3.11

MONTH 4- 5.3.11

I'm still debating on which one to use for his 4month. I like the first one but I feel like you can see how big he is better in the 2nd one. I do think he's changed a good amount. I didn't realize it until I started looking back on these. He's clearly lost about half of his hair :) Its thinned out alot. Raya's did something similar. His is growing in a bit lighter and is starting to curl on the ends...crazy to think that a year from now it will be so different.
Here's Rayas:

4.22.09

1 MONTH- 5.22.09

2 MONTHS- 6.22.09

3 MONTHS- 7.22.09

4 MONTHS- 8.22.09

 5 MONTHS- 9.22.09

 6 MONTHS- 10.22.09

7 MONTHS- 11.22.09

 8 MONTHS- 12.22.09

 9 MONTHS- 1.22.10

10 MONTHS- 2.22.10

 11 MONTHS- 3.22.10

 1 YEAR- 4.22.10

The bear didn't make it to this picture. I'm sure she was throwing it off the bed and I gave up :)

I was much better at doing Raya's on the 22nd of every month. With Kallen I do it as close as possible :) Lol, but it may be a week or so off. Oppsies! They're still showing his changes though, so I know he's growing! Right now Kallen weights the same as Raya does in her 1 year picture. Geeze! They're so different.

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Sibling Love

I haven't blogged in almost a week?!?! What the? It seems like the nights have flown by lately. And I don't have much to report...All is good here :) But ya betta believe I have pictures. Lol. Raya's still loving being a Big Sis. She's clearly a natural. The past week or so she'll wake up and then not so quietly tell me "Shhhh" and point to the baby sleeping, but of course that wakes him up and then she loudly tells me, "Awake! Awake! Awake." Then she crawls over to where he's sleeping and sits next to him and says "Hi, Boy" and kisses him. Its cute. Its early! But its cute. Both kids use to sleep in until at least 8, usually 8:30 but this past month Raya's been waking up at 7. I was able to keep her quiet so that Kallen could keep sleeping, but the last 2 mornings he's woken up at 7 on the dot. Bummer. 

She still randomly walks by him and kisses him on the head. She's so good to him. Oh we did have our first "Sibling Issue." I was changing Kallen's diaper and he was laying on the floor. Raya was standing right by his head. She loves to dance over him, kinda like Ellen does at the end of her Audience dance when she straddles her coffee table (I don't encourage her to do this. I usually stop it ASAP. Every once in awhile I let her because its hilarious, but I try to keep it to a minimum.) Anyways, I told her to be very careful because she was very close to his face. Well she steps right on his forehead. On purpose. So she got her very first time out. And to my surprise she sat there and didn't even try and get up. I explained to her that she hurt the baby and she had to be gentle and it would be very nice of her to give him a kiss where she hurt him. Well she was upset and didn't want to move from time out. But when I walked out of the room she got up and went over to him and kissed him on the forehead. Melt my heart!

PS- I don't know why my 2 year old is the one with the pacifier in all of the pictures. She's clearly very much attached to it, but I promise she doesn't have it in her mouth 24/7. And yes, I still let her have it and haven't even thought about taking it away. Its a saving grace for us at times and its still very soothing to her, so she'll probably be potty trained before she lets the p-fi go.

What I'm Loving WEDNESDAY!!!!

Linking up with Jamie at This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday. I love ALOT of things :) So I can't pass up an opportunity to blog it up!

I'm l♥ving Magenta!
I can't get enough of this color right now. The picture of the nail polish doesn't do it justice. Its much more of a pinky-bright purple then what its showing up. It looks fabulous on!! And cute on little 2yr old toes too :)

I'm l♥ving pictures with my iPhone. Its no surprise it takes great pictures...I have over 3,000 on my phone :) but I can't get enough of the photo editing Apps. I used ColorSplash to bring the color back to his eyes and then used Instagram to put a filter on it. His eyes are still a dark slate grey, so the sun reflected beautifully in them. Possibly my favorite picture of him to date.

I'm l♥ving Jenny Craig. So weird, I know...but I've been thinking about doing it for about a month and yesterday on Good Morning America it got the best reviews and then this morning it scored highest in the taste test. Oh and Oprah yesterday was all about weight loss, so I can take a sign :) Haha! Oprah was about 100+ lb weight loss...I'm only looking to lose about 15. My goal is to be able to wear my old favorite shorts. We shall see!

I'm l♥ving headbands on little blond heads. She hates things in her hair, but she wore this long enough to get some cute pictures.

I'm (kinda) l♥ving couponing. It's definitely getting much easier. I started "doing it" about 2 weeks ago. I've only really saved about $10 each trip, but hey, as my mom would say, "It's better than a kick in tha a$$" lol. I was hoping I'd spend like $0.67 for 2 weeks of groceries, but I'm learning that would probably only work if I bought all hotdogs and toothpaste. I did buy the Krazy Coupon Lady book, so I need to read that asap. If you "like" the Krazy Coupon Lady on facebook they post all kinds of great deals throughout the day. And their website/blog has been the most helpful for me. And yes, the Extreme Couponing show on TLC is being DVRed :)

Finally, I'm l♥ving the beautiful weather we've been having!!! It's been Sunny and 70 for like the last week (ok, so it may or may not be like that 90percent of the time here, but still). Its been GREAT! We've had time to be out in the pool and in the yard. Lovin it!

Ps- If you're a New Follower please leave a comment with your Blog link (if you have one ;) I LOVE new blogs!!!

Mother's Day 2011

Soooo, the weather was PERFECT! All I really wanted was breakfast from my new favorite place up the street from us, a long walk on the beach and a delicious dinner...and thanks to Gentry and my Mom, I got it all! It was a perfect day <3 And for the first time I really felt like a Mom. Haha, it only took 3 Mother's Days for that to kick in! Our walk was so sweet because strangers passing would wish me a Happy Mother's Day. They'd cruise by on their beach cruisers and shout it out. How cute is that?! And I can't really explain how I felt, but it was definitely a different feeling. Maybe I felt a little bit famous? Or maybe like it was my birthday? HAHA. I know, random, but either way the people and world around me made me feel Special :)

Nothing Else Matters...