Finding harmony in family, finance & military life

It has been a crazy busy couple of weeks! I did not get close to posting so many of the great things I wanted to. Today I figured you would all enjoy a peep at our menu this month so that is what I am going to post. We are cleaning out the deep freeze so this menu may seem a little odd but hey it serves its purpose everyone is getting fed and the freezer is going to be much emptier by the end of the month. Veggies will be served with each meal I am just not writing them in since they will be whatever we pick up fresh at the farmers market that day/week. Turkey Chili with rice and tortillas Chicken Alfredo Tuna Helper Frozen Lasagnia Spaghetti with Garlic Bread Frozen Pizza Spiral cut Ham with Mac & Cheese and Corn muffins Homemade Chicken and Noodles Grill Night Hot Dogs Chicken Nuggets with Mac and Cheese Frozen Pizza Spaghetti with Garlic Bread Tuna Helper Homemade Pizza Chicken Nuggets with Crescent Rolls Pizza Rolls Homemade Lasagnia recipe taken from The...

Coupons!! There was so much information I was not able to cram it all in last time! Stacking can be done at a lot of stores and is a great way to really multiply your savings. Always check the stores coupon policy to make sure you can stack and as long as it is allowed this is how you do it. You can use a manufacturer coupon and a store coupon for the same item lets say in this example we have a manufacturer coupon for $0.30 off a bag of frozen veggies  and a store coupon for $0.25 off a bag of frozen veggies use both coupons for the same bag of frozen veggies to get a total of $0.55 cents off. Another way to stack that I actually used at Target recently is I had a Target Store coupon for buy two bags of candy get one free and I had two manufacturer coupons for $1 off one bag of candy I bought the three required bags of candy and used all three coupons. If I had another $1 off manufacturer coupon I could have used it as well but I only had two. Sometimes you can stack manufactu...

Last night I taught my second coupon class and it went great. I think I may be getting the hang of it and I know the prayer a lot of my friends and family were doing helped a lot. This class went much smoother then the first and actually took the full 2 hours. A lot of information was covered and a lot of great questions were asked. The questions I could not answer someone else attending the class could proving what I always say " everyone in the room knows something about coupons that I do not know". One thing I did realize is I really need to start writing down more information on the topics I want to cover in a class to keep it more stream lined so today's blog will be devoted to that. Maybe my next several blog posts will be devoted to that we will see just how long this takes. Consider this a personal class in couponing and enjoy the read. Hoarding vs. Stockpiling Just about everyone has watched the T.V. show Extreme Couponing and it seems that a lot of the feed ...

  On my second trip to Rite Aid I had the $10 in Plus Up from my previous trip plus I did the survey again giving me another $3 off $15 coupon. I also got a 10% shopping pass but I have noticed that they really do not seem to change the price.  On this trip I got  2 Arnold Palmer Ice Teas priced 2 for $1 my husband loves these and I got the last two. Purex Detergent 50 ounce $1.97 I used the $1 off coupon Venus products are currently buy one get one 50% off so I picked up 1 Venus Spa Breeze 2 ct disposable $10.49 I used a coupon for $3 off when you buy two disposables 1 Venus Breeze Razor sale price $4.99 I used a $2 off coupon 1 4count pack Venus Breeze Refill cartridges $14.99 I used a $2 off coupon 1 Venus Embrace 3 count disposable  sale price $5.99 I used a $1 coupon and this was the second pack of disposables to go with the $3 off coupon Total out of pocket on this trip $20.25 I had $22 in coupon savings! I am one very happy mama. 

I had to break my Rite Aid trip up today. So on my first trip I bought Always pads $5.99 used $2 off coupon got $1 Plus Up, Crest toothpaste $2.99 I used the $1.50 off coupon and got $2 Plus up, Oral-B Cross Action toothbrush $2.99 I used the $1.50 off coupon and got $2 Plus up, Neosporin Ointment $5.99 and Toy Story  Band-Aids $3.99 I used the $1.50 off coupon when you buy both, Cortaid Cooling Spray I used the $3 off coupon and for buying $15 worth of select products I got a $5 Plus Up Neosporin Lip health $5.49 I had a $1 off coupon but for some reason it did not go through and I did not catch it so that was my bad. I also used a $3 off $15 coupon that I had for doing a survey after a previous trip. I paid $22.44 total out of pocket and got $10 in Plus Up cash for my next trip!

We finally got Justice's behavior chart hung up. This awesome chart was made by my friend Casey from kidspiredcreations.blogspot.com Please take a moment to go check out her site!

With Blogger being down most of yesterday and today I had a lot of time to think about just how to write this post. Now that I am sitting down to write it I know just what I will do. I am going to wing it like all the rest. On Saturday May 7th we went to a cook out at a friends house. Nearly the entire K9 crew was there. A large group of rowdy guys drinking and having fun a small group of moms trying to keep track of the dozen plus kids running around. It was normal K9 comradery. Meagan was there with her three kids, her husband deployed just a few months ago. She mentioned to me that he was supposed to go "outside the wire" it was not the first time but between the two of us that term meant prayer. I raised my eye brows in acknowledgement and nothing more was said. The night went on and I left with my kids around 9pm. Shortly after 11pm I woke up to my phone. Brent was calling me and the words that came out of his mouth did not make sense. He must have been playing a cru...

I promised recipes  and I will get to them it may just take a little longer then I thought. At this time I would like to ask my entire  reader base to pray for our friends and K9 family Ben and Meagan Seekell. Ben was injured in Afghanistan and their lives will be changed forever. Thank you and God bless

Sorry I have not been posting it has been a busy week of trying to catch up on laundry! We wash everything that Brent brings home and I was already behind from all the spring break fun. As of right now I am still way behind but I wanted to get in a quick post about my Food Lion trip. My list was in my head I needed fresh veggies for last nights dinner and chips for tonight's cook out. I had a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase and a few good coupons left from the paper so my goal was to hit $25 after coupons so I could use that $5 off coupon. I went shopping! I walked out with 3 Ragu Pasta Sauce on sale for 3 for $5 2 1 LB packs of Smithfield Bacon on sale buy one get one free 2 bags of Lay's Kettle Cooked Potato Chips on sale for 2 for $6 1 bag of baby spinach Tostitos Dip Tostitos Chips Siera Mist Pepsi One  Gatorade G2 Gatorade Recover Gatorade Prime I watched prices and once I knew I was in the $25 range I checked out. After coupons I was at $25.05 so I only p...

Yesterday we kissed nearly $1000 good bye getting our heat pump fixed, I spent $5 at the commissary getting fresh fruit and veggies after my WIC voucher was used up and at some point I will need to fill the gas tank this month. Today I sat down balanced the check book and redid the May budget. Some days it feels like my life revolves around the money it takes to run this family. It has to be controlled and told where to go or it all disappears without a trace. Having a budget is a family affair so even when Brent was gone I would send him a copy of our monthly budget and keep him informed of changes made and money spent. Our children know that is takes money to do karate, buy gas and groceries and keep a roof over their heads. If keeping a budget is a foreign concept or something that you are struggling with then this is going to be a must read post for you because I am going to go over each part of our budget in detail. You start a budget the same way you start any worthwhile projec...

2 Raisinets Reeses Pieces Almond Joy Pieces 2 Dawn Dish Soap 2 Lysol Wipes 2 Secret Deodorant 2 Right Guard Deodorant with free body wash samples OFF family care OFF Botanical's Gillette Body Wash Gillette Deodorant 2 Gillette Fusion Razors and 2 Venus Divine Razors It was a great trip but checking out took forever!

                                                              Oh my GOD Brent came home!!! I think that pretty much sums it up, but I will give you all of the amazing details of my day leading up to this moment. On Sunday May 1st I had plans to take my crew to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, NC with a friend and her three kids. I got up early and got all ready to go before getting the kids up and at 'em. Getting Kady out of bed ended with her in the tub and me needing a change of clothes. She had a major diaper blow out all over herself, the crib and a odd handful of toys including two Bitty Baby's and a stuffed musical Lumpy. Yet somehow I managed to get the mess cleaned up along with Kad...