Buying Bigger is Not Always Better

This is taken from "A Thrifty Mom" blog: http://athriftymom.com/

One rule to getting a good deal with coupons is to buy small. I know this goes against everything we have been taught, that the family value pack is suppose to be the best deal right? Once again this brings us back to the point that anyone can match a coupon with an item. The real key to saving the big bucks is, learning a few simple rules. One of those rules is to to match a high value coupon up to the smallest and lowest priced item. Let me explain, if you have a $2.00 off Chinet paper plates coupon, and the coupon says it is for 36-72 count packages. If you look at the price per plate, the larger package will normally give you the best price per plate. So it would seem like that one would give you the better deal.

If you buy the 36 count plates they are $2.50 that makes them about 7 cents a plate. The 72 count plates are $4.50, that makes them about 6 cents a plate. But if you use the $2.00 off coupon on the 36 count package it now makes them only .50 cent, less than a penny each. If you use the coupon on the larger value pack it makes them only $2.50, or 3 cents each. So matching the high value coupon with the smallest package is the best deal. Using a high value coupon will save you money but, learning how to use it to your advantage will save you even more.

Morning & Bedtime Routines

Daddy has to be gone all day at work, so his special time with Emma is broken up into segments. He is in charge of her bedtime routine. Once dinner is over and the table cleared, they head off for bath/bed time, as this is not a rushed affair! On a bath night, he is the resident "shampoo guy". They have pretend tea parties and splish splash.

This is followed by jammies and reading. Emma will let you read as many books as she can get, so at bedtime we have to set a limit. Usually it is two. Occasionally she can sweet talk her Daddy into more.

(She is holding her bedtime blanky, that she has taken to calling "nonna", but we have called "Boo Boo" all along. She can't make a "B" sound yet, so it will be interesting if it remains "nonna" or changes to "Boo Boo" later on. Not sure where or how she came up with it's name, other than she can say "nigh nigh" when it is bedtime.)

They have a favorite book they read most nights called "Amazing Ants". Martin has been reading it to her since she was super small and has it memorized.

Daddy is also in charge of Emma's wake up routine. Yep! The whole diaper duty and all! :) Here she is at the sink, using her new step stool for the first time. (These were taking the morning after the "nigh nigh" pics. Didn't intentionally do it that way, but clever aren't I???)

She thinks she is big stuff now that she can climb up and reach the water all by herself! Brushing teeth is something she loves to do! Good thing Santa is bringing her a new tooth brush and toothpaste! :)

Martin needs to feel connected to Emma, as much as she needs to have him as a daily part of her routine, so Martin doing the morning & bedtime stuff works for them and it gives me a bit of a break since I have her to myself the remainder of the day. Oh, and he LOVES to hear her say "Dah-dee"! :)

VNA Air Show 2009

Guest blog written by Daddy Lovejoy.

Today was a daddy & daughter day as Dee Dee was busy with a cropping party and the annual Stuart airshow was in town. Well, I wasn't going to miss that opportunity to have some fun for a day acting like a big kid so I thought I would take Emma along to see if she would share her daddy's interest in all things flying. As it turned out she had a real blast and had some real tomboy fun on these big boy toys.
As always, the weather for the airshow was just perfect and I thought it was quite cute how her sunglasses resembled a pair of old fashioned flying goggles. Emma was right at home with all these large planes gathered at the Stuart airfield and was not bothered by all the sights and sounds throughout the day. Here she is next to the engine of the dc-2 and I could tell she was just ready to jump out of that seat and start running around the inside of these static display aircraft.
This was one of the hurricane hunters that was open to walk around the inside of it. Emma was just having a great time running up and down the loading ramp under the tail section. Being so small she was weaving in and out of all the other adults and crew members without getting knocked over. These planes are built tough and were still in one piece after hurricane Emma had finished playing with it.
Along with all the planes they had a large number of helicopters to check out and this is where she really showed her wings. Once Emma climbed into the pilot seat she looked like she was ready to take off as she instinctively held onto the controls like a pro. I was very impressed how comfortable she was playing in these big toys.

Here she is at the controls of a BlackHawk. Put some wooden blocks on her feet to reach the rudder pedals and this little flygirl is ready for some action.
Not just content with learning how to fly the heli she then moved on to checking out all the switches and buttons. She just loves to play with all our remote controls when we let her and she was just so happy to be let loose on the hundreds of buttons here.
This is the Aeroshell display team flying their T6 planes. This was my favourite part of the show, as I have been seeing them perform at every show I have seen over the years (only missed one year since I moved to Florida) and I never grow tired of them. They really know how to fill the sky with smoke and tight precision formation flying.

After the Aeroshell team had parked up they walked over to us and we got one of their signed team photos.

Here is my little aircraft grease monkey girl taking a rest in the shade where I realized just how dirty she was from playing on all the helicopters. It goes without saying that it was in my best interest to get Emma cleaned up from all this grease before taking her back to see the mama.
She just kept on playing all day on these display models and didn't need to stop for her usual afternoon nap. Why sleep when you play with missile launch buttons and ejector seats?
When Emma finally grew tired of the aircraft and helicopters she took some r&r driving a riot control tank around. This girl knows how to play hard.

After a fun filled day at the airshow without any break I knew she would not last long before crashing and this happened as soon as we started walking back to the car. Once there were no more big toys to play with she was asleep in her seat immediately before I was even at the car. After a quick cat nap she was recharged enough to tell mommy all about her wonderful tomboy adventure when we picked up Dee Dee from her crop.

It looks like I will have to show Emma some of my flight simulation programs for the computer now that she has shown a flair for wanting to get in the air.

Emma, the Builder

Emma loves to stack up and knock down. The older she gets,the better at it she becomes, of course, but she is learning about the stacking AND the nesting ability of these blocks. (these were taken Nov. 12th, I believe)

I had been sitting on the couch, not paying attention to her, and she got the blocks and stacked this tower all by herself! I was SO VERY impressed, as was she! You can see her hands are clapping!

She was SO impressed with herself, I think, that she couldn't bring herself to just tear it down! She had to take it apart block by block! Quite funny to watch when she LOVES knocking stacked toys down!


She is getting SO big! This month she weighed in at 21.5 pounds and was 33.5 inches tall, I believe. Growing out of her size 18 month tops ( but with her skinny butt, she will be wearing the 18 month bottoms for awhile) and her size 5 shoes... hmmhhhh... sighhhhhhh........

November Deal

This was a Target purchase. They had their own $1 cereal coupons and I had $1 Kellogg's coupons. I spent like $1.23 for all 4 boxes of cereal!! I had $1 candy coupons for the Halloween clearanced Kisses and the M& M's- making them free. The Wheat thins were $2 and I had a $2 Q. The Halloween marshmallows will still taste good in Hot Cocoa even though they are ghost shapes and they were clearanced at like 32 cents. Frugal living to the max, right here baby! Essentials (cereal) and treats (candy).

P.S. I used the marshmallows in a Coconut-Fudge Bar recipe I found on Kraftfoods.com. Melted, mixed with chocolate and you never know they were ghosties at one time!

TODAY'S DEAL

This is a picture of today's haul from Publix and CVS. Mom & I went out after dinner and putting Emma to bed. I have shopped with Mom the past 3 weeks, as I show her how to effectively shop at Publix, rather than "THINK" you are saving at Walmart.


I had already done my weekly shopping at Publix, and then found a few more coupons for items that were on sale, so I got a Cover Girl eye liner (2.79) and 2 Excedrin (2.00 each). I had two $2.00 Excedrin Q's AND one of the boxes had a $1 peelie Q, as well and I had a store $2 Cover Girl Q and a $1 Cover Girl manufacturer Q. This means that they would have paid me $1.21 (minus tax)to take the items home. I told Mom that I needed a "filler" item because they do not like having to hand you money! Instead we just added my stuff in with hers and the 'overage' was taken off of her total.
Then, off to CVS where I did 2 transactions. The first included all of the Gillette products ( Fusion razor, 2 body wash, 2 deodorant and 2 caramels and an Almond Joy ( the candy was all "filler" items-well, the Almond Joy was a peace offering to my dear hubby because I was gone for 2 hours!!). I had $16 in Gillette coupons, plus a $5 off a $30 purchase, plus $4 in extra care bucks from last week and this transaction cost me just over $9. When you bought $25 of Gillette they gave you $10 in extra care bucks to use on another transaction. I rolled them over onto the next one.

Transaction 2 was the Febreeze and Swiffer items: Swiffer starter kit, swiffer cloths, Febreeze spray, Fabric refresher & another of those caramel "filler" items- for a total of 20.00. I had the $10 in ECB, another $5 CVS coupon and $5.50 in manufacturer coupons. I paid .84 cents for this transaction!!!! PLUS, I walked away with $9 in extra care bucks to use for next weeks purchases!! (Buy $15 in Swiffer/Febreeze and get $5 ECB)

Previously I have not had good luck with this kind of shopping at CVS and usually find better deals and items still in stock at Walgreens, but today was DA' BOMB!! I LOVE CVS!!!! I LOVE EXTRA CARE BUCKS!!

Now, just a side note for those of you who are interested in learning "The Drugstore Game", as they call it- you need to have the same amount of items as you have coupons/ECBs, so that the computer doesn't squawk at you. That is why you need an occasional "filler" item or two. Look for the clearance section ( I found .25 cents stickers there once)or the individually wrapped candies or even the 10-20 cent holiday pencils or gift bags ( if they have them), as these make low cost "filler" items.

Also, make sure you scan your CVS card each and every time you walk into the store, as it loads any "paperless coupons" AND will print out some type of paper Q. That is how I got one of my $5 CVS coupons. You can occasionally take a simple 3-4 question quiz online and then get a $5 off $25 or $30 purchase coupon, as well. This is how I got the other $5 Q. Answered 3 questions on Medicare and got a printable $5 coupon. GOOD DEAL!!!!

Grammy & Gramps Visit 2009

Here we are meeting Gramps for the first time. (At least that she knows of) They had arrived long after Emma had gone to bed the night before, so they were eager to see her!

She was very cheerful and happy to see them and within a few minutes she had a hug for each of them. We had been praying for them and their safety for weeks and when she saw them, she folded her hands, as if to connect the dots of praying for this Grammy & Gramps, seeing their photo AND actually seeing them in person. Such a clever little girl!

Getting to know one another. Grammy helped Emma with her breakfast that morning. That first day we had some grocery shopping to do and we ate out at Red Lobster and had All You Can Eat Shrimp!! YUMMO!!!

Sunday was church. We have been attending a different church these past 7 months and LOVE IT, BUT... it was waaayy different than what Mum & Dad are used to or had been to at Hobe Sound. But, Mum enjoyed the entire experience!! After church we found a local veg/fruit market and took some pics. at their punkin patch.

Grammy & Gramps Lovejoy with Emma. She had a cute outfit to wear for this day, courtesy of cousin Halie. :)

Check out the size of that LEMON!!! YES!! A lemon!! Never have seen one that big before!!

Playing blocks with Gramps. As you know, she loves to play build 'em up and knock 'em down!! She just took Gramps heart and wrapped herself right around it!!

I made dinner one evening and invited my parents to eat with us. We had pasta, garlic knots, salad and... Mom brought dessert.

I LOVE the fact that we got to take pictures of Emma with BOTH of her Grandpas and BOTH of her Grandmas!

Daddy & Gramps designed the table and Gramps took it on as his weeks project. We had bought her the chairs at a yard sale back in the summer, but she needed a table. Now, it needs some paint... She LOVES sitting at it and playing with her toys there, as well.

This 10 days was like a vacation for Emma and I, as well. We did some shopping, ate out on the weekends, cooked at home thru the week, and on this day we spent the morning at the beach. Emma was ok until that first wave splashed her and then the sand shifted under her feet!! She screeched and cried!!

Then she settled down and had fun running around and collecting shells. She brought them home and has them on the porch and in her sandbox. She looks SOOO cute in her floppy hat and sunglasses!

I saw a crab skittering along several feet away and Dad went over to have a look, so I got a picture of it.

On this day we visited the park. Emma AND Gramps had such fun swinging, sliding, bouncing on the horses and climbing the different climbers. (we went shopping and found Mum some new clothes at Sears the day before. Her capris were different for her, but made her feel more comfortable with the heat.)

About 3 different times we visited the fountains. This pic. was from Indian Riverside Park. Emma was terrified when we first got there! The height of the spray was waaayy more than she was used to and the center one was enormous! After about 25 minutes, she finally settled in and had fun.

Here she is having a ball!

Halloween afternoon, we went to a local church's "Trunk or Treat" event. This is where the people of the church park their vehicle and use the rear end as their site. They decorate it in MANY varied ways!! This one is done up as "Daniel & the Lion's Den. (This family did Noah's ark last year and it was superb!!)

This one was a ship built around their trailer and it shot confetti from the cannon.

Stephanie and Halie went with us and Martin pulled them around in Emma's wagon. Here we have stopped in the shade to have a bite to eat. They were passing out bean burritos, popcorn, sno cones and hot dogs.

Here is Halie, the pink cowgirl. She had pink spurs, pink holster and hat.

I found Emma's ladybug costume for $3. It was her size and I never tried it on her before today.... OOPS!!! It just BARELY fit! With the hood pulled up, you can see it fitting snug around her head and neck. So, we put the hood up for pics. only! She has never really had candy and the one time she tried a lollipop, she did not care for it. Today she liked this chocolate tootsie pop tho!!! Don't get used to it, kiddo!! Mommy keeps the sugar and candy to an almost null level for Emma.

We ended the evening at Sonic, with Cherry Lime aids and 50 cent corn dogs. We had such a good time together!!

Their 2nd Sunday here, we went to Hobe Sound for church and lunch at Mom & Dad's. We got some nice pics. after church. Just wish we had someone to take the pic. for us so that ALL of us could be in the SAME one!


My parents, Pat & Phil getting dinner ready. Mum & Dad Lovejoy enjoyed eating Thanksgiving dinner with us 2 years ago, so we had a turkey dinner. Check out the beginnings of my Dad's beard!! First time EVER! He started it as a mustache -goatee, but Mom said "NO WAY! No Colonel Sanders! A full beard or nothing!"

The sun coming in the window messed up these pics, but I had to choose the better one. You can see Mom's decorated table and dining room and that Grandma D is there without Grandpa. (He had fallen and was very sore and couldn't move well)

Turkey, dressing, mashed taters & gravy, green bean casserole, biscuits, and more, but I can't remember it all!

After lunch and Emma's nap in Hobe Sound,we scurried home so that we could teach Mum & Dad how to play Corn Hole. We teamed up and played guys against girls. Who do you think won? Hmmmm.... not me!! I enjoy the game alot, but I have no consistency!
Auntie Sarah sent Emma this romper. We decided to use it as jammies. She looks cute in it, but when it was bedtime and the bones glowed in the dark -it kept her awake for about 45 minutes!! I was just about ready to go in and change her when she finally fell asleep!

Here is out 3rd visit to the fountains. Emma loves the water so much! I bought her swinsuit last year and the the water sandals this and they go together without planning it out.

Mike & Jean Lovejoy, A.K.A "Grammy & Gramps" at Tradition. We took pics. here last year, as well.

Taking the last few pictures before Emma's bedtime, the last evening of their visit.

We had forgotten to get a picture of Gramps building the table or of Emma and Gramps playing at it, so we took a group one. Emma is playing with Mega Blocks farm set from her cousins in England. She has kept it on that table ever since and plays with it daily! Daddy removed it to move the table at Thanksgiving and she had a cow! Carried it right back to the table and was trying to tell Daddy that he should not have moved it!
We had such a great time during their visit! Emma loves to point them out in her photo album and always folds her hands, still connecting those "dots". Now, I need to print some of these new photos and add them to her book.