Get a FREE 8x10 Photo Book ($19.99 value)

I was browsing today, and came across a coupon code for a free 8.5x11 Classic Photo book from Walgreens.  They have a bunch of different designs and a lot of different layouts as well.  The coupon code is CREATEBOOK.  If you live in the Las Vegas or New Orleans area, you can pick it up in store for even more savings.  Otherwise, shipping is $6.99.

I don't have any personal experience with this particular photo book, but the smaller, cheaper ones, I've ordered in the past have been nice, and they always do a good job on pictures as well, so I imagine these books would be high quality as well!

But hurry!  The code is only good through midnight tonight, July 9th!

Halfway Through the Year, How's the Debt?

I know I didn't go over a total amount of debt at the beginning of the year, but I have all the numbers saved on my computer.  At the beginning of the year, we had $75,769.96 in debt, including our house, our 2008 Uplander, student loans, and  credit card debt.  Now that the year is half over, we've actually added a little bit to our debt, and now stand at $77,942.00. The reason for that is that we built up our savings account a little bit to give us an emergency fund, and then we bought a second car (2005 Impala) since we're going to be needing it when Elliott starts school in the fall, since I plan on driving him every day.  We had planned on saving for a second car, and buying one that we could pay cash for, but we ultimately decided that since winter is COLD here, and I will be driving 17 miles each way twice a day, and my husband drives 20 miles each way to work, we should get one a little more reliable.  So we just put $2000 down on the Impala and financed the rest. 

Getting Back To Normal

Well, the worst of the flooding in Minot is over now, and there's a second route between north and south Minot.  We still have a really long road to recovery, but we're moving in the right direction now.

The city of Minot is under a boil order and conservation mandate, but they still have running water, which is pretty major, all things considered.  We've been extra busy at our house because we still have clean tap water, so I've done some children's laundry for friends that aren't so lucky.  Minot actually supplies the water to a pretty big part of north central North Dakota, so there are a lot of people with dirty water, but as far as I know, everyone does have water now.

Preparing for the Unexpected--Minot, ND

I'm sure by now that a lot of you who had maybe never even heard of Minot, ND, know where it is now.  We're having MAJOR flooding right now, and it's expected to get much worse than it ever has in recorded history.  I actually live 30 miles north of Minot, so I'm not affected in the aspect of having to evacuate or anything like that, but that certainly doesn't mean we aren't affected by the flooding at all.

If any of you have ever visited my part of the world, you know that it's very rural.  North Dakota, as a whole, is a very low population state.  Minot is the fourth largest city in the state, and still has less than 50K in it.  But it serves a much larger area than most cities do in a higher populated state.  Just to paint a quick picture, the town I live in, is 30 miles north of Minot.  As far as businesses go, we don't have much.  To get groceries, we have the option to drive over 15 miles to a tiny locally owned grocery store, or to drive the 30 miles to Minot, assuming you don't have base privileges (the Air Force base is located 20 miles south of here).  The people that live 15 miles away from me in the town previously mentioned, live over 40 from Minot, and still have to go to Minot for anything not offered at their tiny grocery store, or to go to the mall, Target, Walmart, etc.  And that's pretty much the norm in every direction.  Also, people from Canada (I believe that it's a little more than 50 miles from Minot to the Canadian border) frequently drive into Minot to shop and for entertainment.

Stretching Money by Signing Up For Samples-Includes Links!

I used to spend a few hours every week looking for new samples to send for, and would usually end up getting a lot of great ones.  Nowhere near all of the ones I sent for came, but I still got enough to keep me happy.  Somewhere along the way, things got way too crazy, and I quit looking for them quite as much.  I do still order samples, but now mostly just stick to a few sites that I know will send them out, or occasionally manage to get one or two from facebook or something.

At first glance, it might not seem like looking for samples is worth the time, since they are usually pretty small.  But a lot of them come with coupons, too, and then they become more worth it.  Also, sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised and find a pretty big sample, or even full sized products (we've received full size deodorants, air freshener, and several nice razors over the years).  We've also found several products that we probably wouldn't have tried without samples, so it's working for them as well.  In fact, my son's newest favorite cereal was found through a sample box that came in the mail in April.

New Pampers Gifts to Grow Codes

I saw a post on Twitter today (follow me @carlaabt) with a new Pampers Gifts to Grow code only good for today.  After I saw it, I decided to look around and see what other codes I could find.  Even if you don't have children in diapers, signing up is worth it.  There are a lot of codes out there, and they are released fairly frequently.

Here's a list of current codes that I found today.  They were all current as of today, but please let me know if any of them are expired so I can remove them.

50 Prints for $5, Includes Shipping

Right now Snapfish has 50 prints for $5 in honor of Father's Day.  $.10 each is my price point that I'm willing to pay, and it's past time for me to order some Disney prints from our trip in March.  I've ordered some for my parents and in laws, but haven't ordered any for myself yet.  Now is the time!

Use the coupon code DADDYPICS to get your prints, through June 27!

Finding Extra Money to Put Toward Debt

Paying down debt now is really important to my husband and me.  We have a mortgage, two financed cars, two student loans, and 2 credit card balances, plus a store card balance (but we're only paying $40 a month on it, and it will be paid off in November, before the no interest period ends in December).  That's just way too much debt for me!  So we're working on getting rid of it.

One thing we've really struggled with is trying to find more money to put toward the debt.  Everyone suggests you cut out things you don't need, drop your cell phone minutes down, cancel cable, etc.  We already have the lowest number of cell minutes, and can't give it up totally because my husband's an EMT and on call a lot.  Our cable only costs $3 more than what our internet would be without it, and I need internet for my job.

Refinancing For a Better Rate

We bought our Chevy Uplander in May 2008. It was a program car, so pretty new (2008) and we got a decent deal on it. Unfortunately, we were upside down on our current car that we traded in, due to a really bad deal that my husband got on his truck in tech school. We had originally wanted to go ahead and pay off the car before we traded up, but decided that it just wasn't going to work that way after all. We were in Missouri, and had just traveled over 1000 miles with a 2 year old, 3 dogs (2 weighed over 50 lbs, and the other about 20), and a cat. It just wasn't a comfortable ride, and since we are stationed over 1000 miles from "home" it's a trip we frequently make. We decided to look at minivans, and if we could get one with a lower payment than what we had on the car, we would take it. We ended up getting a payment about $20 lower a month, so we took it, even though it added 2 years to our loan (since we had been paying on our car for 2 years). It was obviously worth more than our older car, and seems to be holding it's value better as well. We ended up with a terrible interest rate, though, because we were upside down, had recently bought a house, and had some credit card debt.

Walgreens Freebies EXPIRED

A great way to save money on presents is to take advantage of any freebies offered by different companies, and save the good ones for gifts.  Right now Walgreens has a great freebie, but only this weekend.  You can get a completely free 8x10 collage print for Father's day, by entering the code 1freebie at checkout, but hurry, it's only good until June 18!  They also have regular 4x6 prints  30 for $3, a coupon code for $10 off $20 or more of photo gifts, and a BOGO offer on 11x14 collage posters.  Pick up your prints in store, and save even more!

Planning For a Possible Move?

My husband put in for a base of preference transfer recently and we are waiting to hear whether or not we get to move. We've been here his entire career so far (he got here in August 2004), so we definitely feel like it's time to move on. Waiting is hard for me, though, especially with so much up in the air. We should find out whether or not this BOP gets approved before Elliott starts school, but that still seems so far away. We also have a lot of different plans and ideas, depending on whether or not he gets it, and when we get to go.

Planning Early For Christmas and Birthdays

I'm a big planner, no matter what the occasion. I already admitted to spending a year planning our vacation. I also spend most of the year planning for Christmas and birthdays as well. One of the ways that I've found easiest to do this is to have my husband and my son both keep a current Amazon wishlist. It's a lot harder to keep my husband on top of this, but my son loves it. He lists toys that he sees on TV, or movies that he would like to see. He also usually has a fairly extensive list of books. I check the lists fairly frequently (since my son is only five I help him make his anyway), and watch for sales on Amazon. That also reenforces the items on the list, so that if I see something on sale at another store, I can grab it when I have the chance.

A Discount Vacation to Disney!

My son never missed a chance to meet Goofy!

My husband deployed last May, and was gone for six months. Before he left, we decided that while he was gone, I was going to plan for, and save for a Florida vacation in March. We had been kicking the idea around for a while, but didn't have a set time or plan until that point. He put in for leave, and I started looking for great deals.

Crazy Busy Here

We went on vacation in March, for almost the entire month. There was some stress in February, trying to figure out if my husband's shop was even going to let him go, so other things got pushed to the side.

We came home the first weekend in April, to minor flooding in the basement. As the month progressed, we had more and more rain and snow melting, and ended up down there cleaning out water for almost the entire month! In May, our nearest "big" town had a lot of evacuation going on because of flooding. So needless to say, there has been way too much stuff going on.

Things Have Been Crazy!

Things have been super crazy for the last two weeks, so I haven't had much time online at all. My son's birthday was on the first, so we spent a bunch of family time together, and I ignored my computer for the most part. Now my husband is working 12+ hour shifts, and things are always crazy then. We haven't had any super awesome trips lately, but we've had a few decent ones. I'm going to try to post a few of the current deals I've been able to score recently within the next few days, though!

And hopefully I'll be making another really awesome trip before the month is over. Next month we will be on vacation for almost the entire month (Walt Disney World here we come!), so we're trying to keep our spending pretty low this month. I have some pretty awesome coupons, though, so I should still be able to get some good deals on foods that we can eat in the car, or in our hotel room.

Saving Money by Shopping Around

I'll be the first to admit that I don't do a lot of shopping around when it comes to grocery purchases. I live in an area where there just aren't many choices. I can buy groceries at the commissary, a tiny local store that charges A LOT (which I still use occasionally because I like supporting our local economy), the four or five stores in Minot that are owned by the same people, or the Super Walmart. There are a few groceries available at Target, CVS, and KMart, and that's pretty much the extent of my options. I DO look through the ads of every local store on Sundays or Mondays to see what the best deals are, and if it's a really good deal, I try to stop by whichever store when I'm in the area. Or I send my husband to the store with a specific list (there's something he thinks he needs at Menards almost every week anyway, so he's already in Minot regularly).

Make Money With Beezag!

This weekend is a great time to join Beezag if you haven't already! When you join Beezag you get paid to view short video clips. They also offer discounts and other savings to members, based on what you like. You do earn a 10% commission on everyone who joins under you, so if you are interested and would like to use my referral link, I would greatly appreciate it. You can check it out HERE.

My First FREE Trip!

On Wednesday morning I got a call that the special order my husband had placed was ready to be picked up at the commissary. I had already spent a bunch of time the week before planning my trip and sorting coupons, so I was ready to shop! I asked on the phone if it would be a problem to break up my special order into two different shops, and they assured me it would be very easy. I LOVE my commissary!

My husband had taken the van to work on Wednesday since he's having trouble with the windshield wipers on his truck, so I spent even more time checking prices and printing coupons. By the time he got home from work, my son and I were ready to shop! I have a coupon binder, but haven't bought the inserts yet to put it together, so I'm still working with an expandable file folder. So I sorted out coupons I knew we would use for sure in one envelope, sorted another of ones I wasn't sure about, and left the others right where they belonged, so I could use them on an unadvertised deal if I found one.

Big Coupon Savings

Friday I had to meet my husband after he got off work so we could run a few errands. We wanted to hit the 75% off clearance toy sale at Target, and since I already had to go on base, I decided I should run to the commissary for a few things we needed. My four year old son was hungry anyway, so off we went. When I got there I was surprised (and happy!) to find that one of the things that was on my list for Target was actually on sale much cheaper at the commissary. I had 14 $.75 off Snuggle coupons that I was planning on splitting up between the commissary, Target and Walmart, since the commissary had the best price on the dryer sheets, Walmart had the best price on the big bottles, and Target carried my favorite scent. Well, this weekend the commissary had a huge display of the 32 load Creme Jojoba scent bottles marked down to $.99 each and a bunch of the peach blossom and sunshine dryer sheets marked down to $.89 each! I couldn't pass that deal up, so I ended up using ten coupons on the liquid and the other 4 for the dryer sheets.

Extreme Couponing

So, I've always used coupons, at least casually, since I first moved out of my parents' house. I haven't always done as well as I should with them, though. Last year my husband was deployed for several months, and during that time we ended up accumulating some extra debt due to poor communication, overspending, etc. So one of our biggest goals this year is to use more coupons, and watch sales more closely. I've managed to keep our grocery budget under $300 a month for quite a while anyway (we're a family of 3 with two dogs), so now my new goal for the first half of the year is under $200. If I can attain that, I'm hoping to drop it to around $150 for the second half of the year, and leave it there.