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.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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"! :)
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"! :)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
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.
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........
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!
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