For the New Year

Some of my goals for this year:

1. to learn all the chord fingerings so I can continue piano lessons
2. cook more . . . and more and more . . .
3. listen to more music
4. not apologize so much
5. spend more time with my friends
6. pay off our last credit card and finally finish our baby emergency fund
7. take two college classes
8. write more articles
9. finish my NANO novel from 2009
10. start my other writing project
11. "10 in 10" reading thing my Mom and Grandma have did last year

The "10 in 10" thing is really neat. Pick 10 genres of your choice, as specific as you want, and then read 10 books in that genre.

My genres:
1. Financial books recommended by Dave Ramsey
2. The Narnia series (maybe not 10 books)
3. Christian-based books on marriage
4. Parenting books (mostly Christian-based)
5. books that Husband and the two other ministers at our church have on their recommended reading list

So far, that's all I got, but it's enough to keep me busy for a while!

Baby on Board

Josiah was born on October 26, 2010 at 2 something in the afternoon (2:31 PM?). He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and is now almost 11 pounds. He's in the 90th percentile for height and 67th percentile for weight. He is just the sweetest baby ever and I adore him.

I'm looking for a new laptop and found two pink ones on Craigslist, but haven't heard back from the sellers yet. I hate HATE hate PCs . . . but two programs that I need to use are Windows based and it is so frustrating to use the MAC with those programs. So . . . we sold my Mac Mini and that money is in our savings account waiting for me to find a computer I can use. Hopefully we'll hear back from those people.

Resolutions are coming up and I think that one of our resolutions is going to be to play games as a couple more. We play games through our iPhones but we need some face-to-face time!

I have some life goals but I'm going to put those in another posting. :)

Italian Beef Sandwiches

I love Slow Cooker Liners - makes cleaning up SO easy!

Justin bought me this cookbook from Publix. Super easy meals.

I got two meals out of this meat - great cut!

Add 1 tsp Italian Seasoning

Add 1 jar, drained, banana peppers

Add 1 tsp garlic

Add 1 jar spaghetti sauce

Mix ingredients by turning meat over. Cook on high 7 hours or until meat is done. I use a meat thermometer.

After 7 hours, the meat was so tender and juicy.

I didn't shred it completely - just took the big chunks out of the crockpot and served.

I love my toaster oven. I toasted Muenster Cheese on hamburger buns.

The finished product.

    Our spread! Fruit, corn nuggets, chipotle sweet potato fries and italian beef sandwiches.

Gift Card Magic

The best way to save money on items is to buy them on sale and use a coupon. The deal is even sweeter when the store offers you gift cards when you make a purchase.

This week, Target is offering gift cards when you make certain purchases.

For my business, I use HP ink. I'm not running low on ink, but I know I'll get the best deal when I buy on sale.

This deal was buy two HP inks, get a $10 gift card, and the ink was on sale!

$32.48 for the ink + a $10 gift card!

We have needed to replace our Brita filter for a while, but I never want to spend the money on the refills. The deal was buy a Brita replacement filter, receive a $5 gift card. I had a coupon, so I also took $1 off the price of the filter. 

$27.69 retail purchased for $26.69 + free $5 Gift Card.

Next deal, Gillette razors.

I would have preferred to buy the cartridges instead of the razors, but the cartridges are really expensive and I had great coupons for the razors. The deal: Buy 2 razors at $8.99 each, receive a $5 gift card (and as a bonus, there is an extra cartridge in each razor package)!

I had two $4-off coupons that I was able to use for the razors. So, I bought two razors at $8.99 each, minus the two $4-off coupons, making each razor only $4.99 each. Plus, I received a $5 gift card, making one of the razors free.

$17.98 retail purchased for $9.98 + a free $5 Gift Card.

I do love air fresheners, and when you can get a free warming unit with purchase, the deal is even sweeter. Each 2-pack refill was on sale for $4.54 and I had coupons for both, plus a coupon for the free warming unit.

$10.02 retail purchased for $7.08!!

The Mall vs the Wal-Mart

I've been on a mission for socks for Jedidiah. We bought socks at Wal-Mart that are too big for him, but he's been wearing them anyway. This grates on me.

I have priced socks - ankle socks - at Target, The Children's Place, Old Navy, GAP, and Wal-Mart. The socks Wal-Mart had were not really what I wanted, but they were priced 6 for $6.50. Not bad.  $1.08 a pair. 

I like my boys' socks to all be the same so I don't have to go crazy matching them! 

I remembered that The Children's Place (my new favorite place to buy clothes for my little guys) had a sale: 10 pairs of socks for $10.  That's a savings of $.08 per pair of socks. Worth it? 

It was when I matched their sale with their 15% off entire purchase coupon. Get yours here. Exp. 9/1.

Paid $26.34 for $45.99 worth of clothes!

I was able to buy 10 pairs of socks for Jedidiah, cleaning them out of the 12-24 month size in all white in the process. With my 15% off coupon, all the socks, normally $2.50 each, came to $.85 a pair. 

Wal-Mart price:  $1.08 per pair.  

The Children's Place:  $.85 per pair. 

Saved almost a quarter per pair of socks!

I also picked up another outfit for Jedidiah and a shirt for Jeremy. In all, my bill went from $45.99 to $26.34!!!!  I'm going back to get socks for Jeremy, too! (They even have the size on the socks so you can easily sort them. What a time-saver for me!)

My next stop was Bath & Body Works. They sent me two great coupons in the mail, so I had to use them! I got a free travel-sized body mist (perfect for sticking in my purse) and 20% off my entire order, including the sale items. 

The sale items happened to be 7 hand soaps for $20, or $2.86 each (normally $5 each).  Take an additional 20% off and you have a very happy customer. I purchased a car freshener (not pictured) as well.

Purchased $45 worth of product for $21.40!!!

I stopped at the wonderful Victoria's Secret to get my free panty (retail $8.50) and left the mall feeling very happy. 

My savings today was over $51!!

Welcome

Welcome to the new Mommy Mayhem site!!!

Thanks to Jill Lancour for designing and instructing me on how to use blogger, better. :)

Find her amazing inspirational site at www.jlancour.blogspot.com.

See you soon!