Back to School Savings Tips

 We only have one little guy in school right now and back to school can be very expensive and even more so when you have more than one kiddo in school so I wanted to share a few of my Back to school savings tips with you so I'm linking up with Twittermoms here for a Back to School Savings Tips contest.


1. Shop ahead if you can. Shop out of season and buy your clothes, supplies, etc. when they are clearanced. This is when you can get the best deals. Buy their clothes a size up, stock up on crayons, markers, erasers, pencils, etc. when they are clearanced, it'll save you a lot.

2. Coupons! You know I love me some coupons and yes you can save on clothes, and school supplies with coupons. There are coupons out there for pens, notebooks, etc out there.

3. I didn't shop ahead last year so this year my little guy needed a whole new wardrobe for school. I love to shop online for clothing deals, I had a percent off code to The Childrens Place plus they were having a mega clearance event that I matched the coupon with, I also shopped at kohls online and had a code for that as well plus they were having .99 shipping. I NEVER shop without a coupon code online or at least free shipping. ( you can see the deals I got pictured below )

4. If you have to buy everything shop a little at a time all summer long, for instance if you go to the store once a week grab 2 things off the supply list each time, then by the end of the summer you should have the supplies covered.

5. In store coupons - Old Navy, Jcpenney, Kohls, etc. They are always mailing or emailing coupons to save a percent or dollar off when you shop in stores. I received one last week for Jcpenney for $10 off a $10 purchase which I will use for the little guys backback, last year I put it towards new sneakers. It helps!


6. Sign up with your favorite stores to receive their emails, find their facebook pages, etc. They are almost always running a promotion. Right now their is a link to a coupon for 10% off your Old Navy purchase here on their facebook page. Kohls I believe sends out a coupon after you sign up to receive their emails. American Eagle/77 kids is one of my favorites to shop online, they are always emailing codes and specials. Staples is always having sales, they also do a lot of rebates which can make your items free after the rebate!

7. We don't reuse much of his school stuff as he is pretty hard on it, what is usually salvageable is the pencil box, and gym shoes ( not a whole lot ) if they still fit. If you can reuse.

8. Shop Goodwill or Craigslist. I will be honest I don't buy to many clothes at Goodwill, nothing against it I'm just to busy shopping over in the home area :) but a good thing to look for at goodwill is jeans, shorts, etc. I have found some nice name brand shorts in the kids clothes and I never buy more than a couple of pairs of NEW shorts for school as they don't wear them long. Craigslist you can find some deals as well, I've seen a lot of ads on ours for new shoes. It always varies for each are though.

9. Newspapers- Watch your newspapers every week around back to school time and go through all the ads, make your lists of where and what they have at each store that you want to check out. Plus there is often coupons for stores in the papers to combine with the sales they are having.

10. Another great way to save if your shopping online is there are a few different websites that if you shop through their links to all the stores you earn a percentage back on your purchases. It varies from store to store how much but my favorite site is shopathome.com

 Here is my back to school loot, the clothing part anyway. I got everything above pictured for under $40 which includes shipping to my door AND a pair of pjs that is not pictured. That's 9 shirts, a pair of shorts, and pjs for under $40! Pretty Awesome in my opinion. That's 3.63 an item!!!!

 All of this was bought online at Kohls for under $30, the Adidas basketball shoes were marked down to $19.99 plus I had a coupon code for 10% off plus it was .99 shipping. Awesomeness!

So what's your back to school savings tips? What deals have you scored?

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Staples
blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more
information on how you can participate, click here.”

An easy Christmas Ornament....

Remember me? Before I get to some super easy ornaments, let me bore you with the details of my week. First my tooth, grrrrrr...I was in so much pain Monday and Tuesday because of it, seriously it hurt. Can't get the work done on it until our ins. kicks in, Great, right?

Ok so I normally don't post pics of the kids but wanted to share a couple. This little Bugaboo turned ONE on Wednesday :( Well he also had his year checkup the same day ( stupid me, I know ), I am not kidding hours after he came home from the Doc he was sick. His eyes are all messed up and yuck, he's coughing, it's so awful. I hate when the littles are sick especially when they aren't old enough to tell you what's wrong and what they need or want. You know? Anyway, he's not doing any better and will be heading to the Doc again today I am sure. His birthday party is Scheduled for Saturday and I thinking we have to cancel. Do you think anyone wants to hangout at my germ infested house?

Here's the little guy just a few days ago, isn't he precious? Ah I love this kid. It makes me so sad that he is already One, time flies.

See this Nut? That's the husband a few days ago. We were at Grams for dinner and he helped me do the dishes and of course I had to snap a picture. No he doesn't have a beard, nor does he parade around in a Santa hat, lol. I just signed up for picnik.com premium photo editor and have been playing around with it, have you tried their free version? If not do so now, as it's AMAZINGly Fun! Soooo many fun things to do with pictures. Anyway this guy is sick and has the same thing the little bugaboo above does. :(

Isn't he handsome? He's 7 and will be 8 the 3rd of December :( This kid is so Awesome, I love him. He's smart, hilarious, and so sweet. He has the biggest heart. He was actually sick a little under 2 weeks ago, he missed almost an entire week of school and guess what? He woke up tonight vomiting. Guess where he was sleeping? My bed. Yippee. Oh and guess what he said as soon as he finished? Does this mean I get to miss school tomorrow? Haha! He loves school but I guess he needed a little break, lol.

Am I sick too? Yup, not as bad as my guys though, just a cold, couch, sore throat, that kind of thing. Hopefully it stays that way.

I have two parties I am hosting this weekend, one Gabes Birthday party on Sat. the second is a Tastefully Simple/Bra party I am hosting on Sunday afternoon but it's not looking like either will happen. :(

So have I been crafting? Making anything cool? Finishing up the hundreds of projects I ramble on and on about. Nope. I just haven't had the time. Plus I feel like poo and just can't. Do you ever have soooo many ideas racing through your head and know exactly how you want to do it, what you need, you have it all, but you just can't get to it? It kills me people. I seriously lose sleep over it. It's awful. I want a vacation, but to go on vacation every single thing would need to be done and I can't see that happening.

Ok I have bored you enough, Aren't these cute? I found packages of chipboard cutouts at Big Lots in ornament shapes, you get 21 one in a package for $2, woohoo! I painted them white, brushed them with modge podge and sprinkled on the diamond dust. So easy and these are fun to do with the kiddos too. My oldest lovees to craft with me!

I love diamond dust, it's so fun! I think they would be cute with numbers on them and shabby them up a bit.

They are much prettier in person, promise.

Don't laugh. I was playing.

I tried to make one similar to this one. This was on Ballard Designs website here. No it's not near as cute but it was fun and simple. I cut out the stencil using my Cricut Expression. I love that thing.

I have been trying to coupon on the side, you know when I'm not taking care of sick people. I went to CVS and had a coupon for everything shown. I spent $19 and some change out of pocket and got back $11 in Extra Care Bucks to spend on whatever. Fun! I think I did good, 3 lip balms, 2 Covergirl makeups, batteries, and a Huge Bottle of lotion. Not bad.

Well, That's all I have, I know sad.  I won't be around for a couple of days again, as we all fight off the germs, But I have some posts scheduled for you :)

FREE paint is back!!!

The Free paint offer is back from Glidden, it's a bit different this time but still an awesome deal!!! Go here and pick out your color, fill in your info and print off the form, then you mail it in with a label from an old paint can and you get your quart of free paint in the mail!!! Wooohooo, I LOVE free paint!!! This won't last long so hurry to get yours!!! Thanks to Charlene over at My Frugal Adventures for sharing this deal!! If you haven't been to her blog, seriously YOU MUST! She is amazing and knows all the deals and where the coupons are!!

I know, I have been MIA, but I will be back tonight with some super fun projects to show you!! I have been playing with paper mache and LOVE it!!

Shopping the Sales and Saving Money...

Gap Outlet - Semi-Annual Baby SaleTwitterMoms Exclusive: Gap Outlet Semi-Annual Baby Sale Savings!

If you read my blog you know I am all about thrifty shopping, we are a family of 4 living on one income and need to save all we can. My husband and I have 2 boys, one 7, and one 10 months. When shopping for their clothes I don't spend a lot but that doesn't mean I skimp on quality and brand. I don't. I shop the sales, the outlets, when it's going out of season and it's being marked down I usually purchase it in the next size up for next year. It's pretty easy to determine what size they will be wearing a year from now. I do this every year, every season, and put it away. It saves SO Much money and really helps alot! I do the same thing with gifts for Christmas, birthdays, etc. I don't as much as I should but I try.


Now I do find it a little harder to plan ahead for my littlest guy, they grow so fast at his age ( plus he's a major chunk! ), so when I am shopping the sales and planning ahead for him I usually go up 2 sizes. Occasionally your little may not fit into something you bought off the clearance rack but you can also gift it, their is always a birthday, baby shower, or Holiday that you will need a gift for someone. It's so amazing the deals you can find when you shop the clearance and it's such a Great feeling when saving all that money, a coat off season for $5 or on season for $50? Just the other day I found my little guy super cute jeans for $3 a pair on clearance, they were 2 sizes to big but I bought a few pairs for later, He will always need jeans.


Also, use those coupons! They don't just put out coupons for groceries, you can find great coupons for savings on clothes! Right now you can go here and get a coupon for 10% off your Gap Outlet purchase!! The coupon is good September 11th through September 24th, during Gap Outlets Semi-Annual Baby Sale! You will be saving an extra 10% off some already great prices!


Another thing I find that really helps in knowing the sales, knowing when the markdowns are going to be is signing up for stores email lists. I get emails from all the stores I shop, including Gap, and they often email special deals to email subscribers, it's a Great way to be in the know with your favorite stores! Are you on twitter? Facebook? Most of your stores will have profiles and pages there as well where you can stay up to date with all the deals and sales. You can find Gap on twitter here.


So how about you, do you shop the clearance? Do you find it to time consuming? Do you plan ahead for next years wardrobe? Do you have any money saving tips when it comes to shopping for your kiddos wardrobes?


Are you a member of www.twittermoms.com? If not you should check it out! It's a great group for moms, right now there is a contest going on for bloggers, and you could receive a gift card for $20 at the Gap Outlet. Go here to learn more about the contest!

I went krogering.....Check it out!

I promise all, I will start talking about more than just couponing but just had to share my awesome trip to krogers with you! I went with my huge stack of coupons in hand, I bought 105 items total and spend $120. We are having the mega event this week and next week where you save $5 off your total for every 10 participating items you buy and you can do this as many times as you like ( check your store first just in case, some are different ) Almost everything I bought was part of this deal, I 90 items that qualified so $45 should of been taken off at the end, somehow I only got $40 taken off and we double checked but I am still happy as they were super nice. I also would of saved more but the lady was new and several coupons I used did not come off my total. I also did receive 2 coupons off my next kroger purchase totaling $5 so woohoo!




Before coupons my total was almost $300 after the $40 mega savings and coupons I spent $120.43!!! Awesome! I was so excited as was my husband, I could see the sweat starting to drip before the savings came off, hahaha! Now I couldn't take pictures of everything but here is some of my deals! I used about 60 coupons, and lots of them doubled and I was not expecting that as they said no doubling on the coupon, so double score!


The yoplait delights were .74 each pack, the other yogurts were different prices, some under $1 and some a little over $1!


The pilsbury biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and crescents were one of my fave deals! These ranged in price from .30 to about .60 each. The bags of frozen biscuits had a peelie coupon on them and were about $1 in the end!


The betty crocker supreme brownie mixes were less than $1 and the cookie mixes were as well.


Lots of tuna and hamburger helper, not our faves but I do like the tuna helper and matching it with the 5 cans of free tuna I scored at kmart last week this makes for 5 nights of inexpensive dinners! These were about .60 a box!


The fruit snacks and granola bars were all under and around $1 a box!


My guys love these and they were about $1 a box each!


The cereal was another Awesome deal!!! Less than $1 a box!!! I bought 12 boxes plus have all the boxes another 8 from my kmart doubles!




So tomorrow it is reorganizing cabinets for me as we have no pantry for this, but I will make it fit somewhere as it's nice to have all this stock! It's so awesome saving money and we need to wherever and whenever we can!! If you have a kroger running the mega event now through next wednesday ( our ads end on wednesday and start on thursday ) and are new to this and have any questions I would love to try and help!! Also check out Charlene's blog My Frugal Adventures, you will learn so much about couponing there and she lists tons of great deals daily!

2 More Kmart trips....

I hit 2 different Kmarts today for doubles, I am wore out. I went to Kmart twice, Target, and Goodwill. I will show you my Goodwill finds tomorrow.


This is both of my kmart trips, Sorry I was way to lazy to break it all up and sort it. So here is the breakdown....

4 Boxes of Rice Krispies, 2.25 each and after coupons $1.00 total for all 4 plus I will get a $5 gift card back in the mail, So I am actually making $4.00 on the cereal!! Woohoo! Rice krispies for dinner, haha!

2 bottles of softsoap FREE, 1 bottle I bought without a coupon and it was clearanced for $2.00

2 packages of Bic triumph roller pens $2.99 each making them both FREE after 2 coupons.

The angel soft and sparkle paper towels were .45 cents total for the both of them together.

The 4 pack of Olay soap was on clearance for $3.50 and I had $1.00 off coupon making it $1.50

The canister of wet ones was about .25 after coupons, the package of them was FREE

The carnation breakfast mixes were 1.99 after coupon

2 bottles of softsoap hand soap were FREE

The tweezers were .25 after coupon

The bounce dryer bar was on sale for 5 something and I had $1.50 off coupon ( from vocal point, saving the others for target this week ) so it was 2 something after coupon. I couldn't wait, I am dying to try one.

The bounce dryer sheets were on clearance for 2.99, I have a .25 off coupon making them $2.50 which I thought was pretty good as it's a big box and them things are high.

The sobe waters were $1.00 for both after coupon

And the soft scrub pads were 2 something, no coupon they are new and I had to try them out!

The pantene gel was $1 something after coupon.

The arm and hammer detergent was 2 something ( or 3 ) after coupon.

Seriously Kmart was fun! Lots of Great deals with coupons! I could of done more but I was way to tired! There is talk of another doubles event coming up at the end of the month so get those coupons ready and if you want to know more of where all the deals and steals are as well as where to get your coupons I highly recommend checking out Charlenes blog over at My Frugal Adventures! She is AWESOME! She posts tons of deals daily as well as shopping lists of how to use your coupons for the best deal each week!


At target I got quite a few deals too, including the beneful for $1 something after coupon and the Purina one was 3 something after coupon. I also found 2 more boxes of my oranges for $1.24 each ( cheaper than I got them last week I believe ), I also found oshkosh jeans for the little guy for $3 on clearance. I used my pepperidge farm coupons and got 2 packages of cookies for 1.50 each, just what I need. Do you use coupons? Do you shop the Kmart Double events? I would love to hear your latest deals!

Thrifty timeeee!!!!!!

It's thrifty time! Head on over to Rhodas at Southern Hospitality and check out everyones finds for the week!!! It's so much fun seeing everyones goodies for the week, but it always adds to my list of wants and things to make, lol.





I feel like I haven't posted in forever, I hate it but I have been so busy getting the little guy ready for school, cleaning and getting ready for company coming ( my dad ) tomorrow. He will be here til Thursday afternoon, So I will probably be MIA most of this week. I will try and get something up while he is here. No garage sales for me this week, remember my big sale I was waiting for this week that I told you about last week? Uh yea it was last week. I totally missed it. I seriously wanted to cry. Oh well. I went to GoodWill instead, not to great of a week but still found a few goodies to play with.

But before I get to my Goodwill finds, Let me share my Kmart trip. It's double time ( up to 2.00 coupons get doubled ) and double time is AWESOME! I love saving money and getting freebies! I got all 5 cans of the bumblebee tuna for $1.00 total, the 24 rolls of charmin was $5.00, 4 boxes of cereal ( only 2 shown ) for $3.00 ( which they overcharged me and I have to go in and get a refund but going back for more doubles anyway ), The aveeno baby wash was .79 cents each ( Awesome! ), the sharpie highlighters .19 cents, scrubbing bubbles toilet gel cleaner FREE, Softsoap FREE, and the diapers were from krogers and 3.00, I like huggies but for 3.00 hey, I'll take it! I also hit up CVS and they have the rinse agent kids mouthwash on clearance for 1.47, scope .75 cents, kids light up toothbrushes 2 for 1.00, I got 2 packs of huggies for 5.50 each ( got $4 in extracare bucks back on them ), I got a tooth whitening system for 2.47 on clearance, I got 4 12 packs of pepsi for 8.00 plus $4 in extracare bucks!

I liked the glass on this? Not real sure why I got it, but I did, eh.

Hanging basket for 1.00



The milk glass lamp was 2 something, the wood will get painted black, I think it will go nicely with the other one I found and showed you a couple of weeks ago. The little candle thingy for 1.00, and the pan thingy?

I got this big jar at Marshalls on clearance for 7.50, it's nice and big. The oranges were on clearance for 2.48 at Target and uh yea I need more. I also found moss rocks on clearance there for a box for 3.98. I also got a great set of sheets, nothing fancy at all, 19.99 for a set of king size and they are the jerzee kind and yes that is my favorite. I have the fancy kazillion thread count, though I am sure if I had tried them I would be in love. They also had some toys on clearance, pretty picked over but I found a few things super cheap to put back for Christmas, my son was with us and saw them though, bummer. So we probably won't make it til Christmas, by then they will be at the bottom of the toy box :( I got a few others crafty things from the target dollar section that was half off that I will show you later, can't wait!

This is my favorite! I love love love this big chunky thing, 1.00

Not the greatest looking keys but I will find something to do with them.

This is my second thingy like this, I wasn't sure why I bought it but if anything they will be great in the craft room for holding little things.

This was 3.99 and will be soooo pretty when I am done with it!

This was 2.99 I think, will make a great something. Chalkboard maybe, not sure yet.

This lovelyyyyyy I wonnnnnn! I love love love it! The wonderful Abi over at Monkey Tree Creations made this Beautiful stocking!!! Now I need to buy more so I have one for each of us!!! She has lots of cute things in her etsy shop here. I love the little dolls!!! Adorable! Go visit her and say hello! It came in the cutest little handmade package, I just loved it! Thank You Abi!!!

And what about this aodrable handmade flower pin? Isn't it cuuuuuuuuutttteeeeeee? I love it!!! I won this in a giveaway from the lovely Lisa over at kssnnikkel! I love it and have the perfect place for it! I think these are super cute pinned to a cute tote bag, or jacket, or basket! Lots of ideas for these! Check out her etsy shop here and see all her handmades! Thank You Lisa!!!!

Well that's all my lovelies! Don't forget to check out my website here and see all the new fall/holiday pretties! FALLLLLLL! I cannot wait!!!!! I cannot say it enough, really I am so excited for fall and winter!!! I have so much more to post about, hopefully I will have time this week, hopefully. We have school starting Wednesday, my dad and stepmom will be here, doctors appointments, etc. So much to do! Have a Great Week!!!!