New Year, New Goals

I don't normally make a lot of New Year's Resolutions, but do take some time to look at my goal list and tweak it a little bit.  I do more of that in August, when my birthday rolls around and school starts.  So a lot of the goals I'm working on are from then.

Here's a list of the things I'm currently working on:

Focusing on my health.  I have had several relatively minor health issues for a while, but a lot of minor issues can create some problems.  I've been on a gluten free diet for just over a month, and it seems to be helping some.  I do plan on doing some other things for my health now, too, though.  The big one being actually sleeping more, and realizing that I don't really NEED to be busy doing something for 18-20 hours a day. :)

Getting rid of debt.  My husband got a huge increase in his BAH this year, plus a regular raise because he's been in the Air Force for 8 years now.  That gives us a pretty big chunk of extra money each month to put toward debt.

Saving for a basement remodel.  My little sister is moving in with us next month.  We are all very happy about that, but it means some rearranging and decluttering.  This spring/summer we are going to remodel our basement and put a big bedroom down there for us, along with an office.  That will give my sister my current bedroom, and make things more comfortable for everyone I'm sure. :)

Spending more time doing the things I like to do.  My husband gave me a Cricut for Christmas, and Elliott and I have been having so much fun with it!  We haven't actually used it yet for scrapbooking, but we have made a chore chart, thank you cards, and some fun stuff that Elliott just wanted.  I also just started working on Elliott's birthday party invitations on the Cricut, and we love the way they look. :)  I can't wait to use it on some scrapbook layouts. 

Lose some more weight.  This one goes along with the first goal of getting my health under control.  Due to a couple of the issues I do have, losing weight is hard.  I'm working on it, though. 

Spend lots of time doing fun stuff with Elliott.  I've had a lot more trouble adjusting to  kindergarten than Elliott has.  I really enjoy our time together in the evenings and on weekends.  We already do a lot of fun stuff together during those times, but I've noticed that some days it just seems like I have too many other things to get done.  We only have 3.5 hours from the time he gets home to the time he gets in bed  (and that has to include, dinner, bath, prayers and stories, etc), so I'm working on ignoring anything that he isn't helping me with during that time.

So those are my main goals for this year.  Only one of them has a real deadline (the money for the basement remodel needs to all be saved by summer so we can work on it then).   I'm hoping to make progress on all of them, though! :)

Old Navy Clearance Deals

Yesterday my guys and I decided to go do some after Christmas shopping.  We got a $100 Banana Republic gift card in the mail just yesterday morning from mypoints.com, so we decided that Old Navy was definitely on our list of places to hit.  In case you didn't know, you can use any Gap family giftcards at any of the Gap family stores and online.  Banana Republic and Gap are both usually better deals than Old Navy on sites like mypoints, so I always order accordingly.

Because I haven't spent much time at all online since Elliott's Christmas vacation began last Tuesday, I didn't even realize that Old Navy was running a Super Cash promotion right now.  if you aren't familiar with the promotion, it's pretty basic.  You spend $20, you get a $10 off a $20 purchase to use during a specific week or two a few weeks out.  You can get up to a $30 coupon off of a $60 purchase by buying more than $60 in one transaction.  The current promotion runs through January 22, and the coupons can be used January 27-February 8.

I started out in Old Navy by myself, because my husband said he didn't need anything.  He wanted to go to the Radio Shack nearby, and took Elliott with him.  It didn't take long for me to find enough stuff for Elliott that I wanted him to come check it out and make sure he liked everything, so I  called Carl to tell them to come on over.  They finished up their shopping and came on in. 

We quickly had a cart full of stuff that was mostly 75% off.  Other than a shirt that was clearanced to $2.99, a pair of shorts clearanced to $.47, and a pair of jeans for $10, everything we bought was 75% off. 

We ended up splitting our shopping into 2 transactions to take advantage of the Super cash promotion, and so we could use all three giftcards we had.

I ended up buying a coat for myself for $19.98
a pair of jeans for Elliott for $10
a coat for Elliott for $12.48
a fleece pull over for Elliott for $3.73
a glove, hat and scarf set for myself for $2.50
3 waffle shirts for Elliott for $3.23 each
a belt for myself for $3.73
and a short sleeve football shirt for Elliott for $2.99

With tax my total was $69.66, and according to my receipt I saved $165.97, but that didn't include the savings on the shirt that was $2.99.

I used a gift card that had $11.20 left on it, that I had cashed in my cash back from my credit card for.  Then I used $58.46 of the $100 giftcard from mypoints to pay for the rest of it. I got a $30 super cash coupon to use on a $60 purchase, too.

My husband went through and bought

a coat  for $19.98
a pair of shorts for Elliott for $.47
a pair of fleece pants for $6.23
2 thermal shirts for $4.98 each 
and a fleece pullover for $6.23

All of the stuff he bought was for himself, except the shorts. With tax he spent $45.87, and paid using $5.03 on a giftcard that we got through our savings account for Christmas shopping, and the rest of the $100 giftcard from mypoints.  It had $.70 left on it, so he got that back in change.  According to his receipt he saved $127.30, but once again, that didn't include any savings for the shorts that were only $.47.  He got back a $20 Super cash coupon off a $40 purchase as well.

We had planned on using most of the $100 giftcard on school clothes for Elliott for this spring and next winter, but  we are still very pleased with our purchases.  We had put back money for coats for ourselves anyway (we usually buy every other year or so in January), and ended up spending less than we had saved.  We can use that money with the super cash coupons and stretch it to more than $100 anyway for school clothes. :)  I also put it into our savings account, and will cash it out on Gap giftcards to get 10% cash back as soon as it clears, to save us even more money.

Saving for Christmas

My family tends to go way overboard at Christmas time.  I'm not sure if I should admit this, but our Christmas presents take up a over half the floor space in our living room on Christmas morning.  While they are still wrapped and stacked.  We only have one child, and yes, all the presents on Christmas morning are his, my husband's mine, or the three little (furry) girls' who live here.  My living room is small, but still...

Cyber Monday: Is It Worth It?

I've seen a lot of posts today and received a lot of emails about cyber Monday deals.  In my opinion, most of them haven't been that great.  I've seen several "deals" that are actually not good at all, from companies that offer better discounts on a fairly regular basis anyway.  So even though I've been to several different websites today, I haven't ordered a single thing, although there are still a few things I'm looking for to finish up my Christmas shopping.

To get the best deals, you have to do your research all year long, or consult someone who has.  For instance, a store offering 30% off everything available online might seem like a good deal until you realize that several times a year they offer 40% off everything.  A movie for 50% off retail price might look like a good deal, until you realize that most stores sell it for about that price anyway, and run their own sales on it sometimes making it even cheaper.  That same rule applies to a lot of things that have a suggested retail price that is often much higher than what you would pay somewhere like Target, Walmart or KMart.

Do a quick search before you buy, especially if you aren't 100% sure this is a bottom price.    One of the big craft store websites has their Cricut cartridges on sale for Cyber Monday.  Since my husband just bought the Cricut Expression for me for Christmas on Friday, I'm not really familiar with what is considered to be good sale prices.  I saw one that I liked priced at $39.99 (retail price $89.99) and thought that might be  a good deal.  A quick search on Amazon let me know I could get the exact same one for just under $25, and shipping would be free with a $25 purchase.

Finding Great Deals at Old Navy

I know I haven't posted in a while.  The group I volunteer with has had a bunch of extra stuff going on, so I've been incredibly busy with that.  Putting in 50 or more hours some weeks, plus all the other regular stuff I do (including volunteer work elsewhere) means that a lot of stuff has been moved to the back burner.  Unfortunately the blog had to be one of the first things to go.

Saving Money Without Coupons

Normally I'm definitely a coupon shopper, but yesterday I needed to get groceries, and didn't have my coupons with me.  I had left them in the car Friday, and yesterday my husband took the car to work, leaving me with the van.  I have stuff going on tomorrow, and the commissary is closed today.  We were completely out of milk, and almost out of bread, plus out of a few other, less important things.  It had been over 3 weeks since we had been grocery shopping, so I decided that Elliott and I better go yesterday, even without my coupon binder.

We went to the commissary with a grocery list and two coupons.  Our list was pretty long, because we hadn't been to the commissary in three weeks (we had picked up fresh produce at the farmer's market, but that was all we had bought),  and we were out of, or almost out of, a lot of other things that we normally stock up on to last us for a few weeks to a few months.

Kindergarten is Harder Than Anticipated!

My son has been in school for close to two months now.  It's been a lot harder to make time for things than I had anticipated.  My husband has been on second shift this month and last month, so when I pick Elliott up from school, I generally don't want to do anything but hang out with him until he goes to bed.  And since my husband is home with me during the day while my son's at school, that means I hang out with him instead of doing stuff I should be doing online or around the house.  So  between 815 (Elliott's bedtime) and midnight (when my husband gets home) it's a mad dash to get the house clean, work done online, and anything else I can cram in.  Which means my blog has been the first thing to go.  Sorry guys!

Finding Motivation

Apparently my motivation for almost anything online has disappeared in its entirety this month.  My husband's working an off shift, my son is in school,  and I'm too tired to do more than I have to do.  Normally my husband is pretty good about helping out around the house, and does most of the dishes that get washed in the dishwasher, and totes laundry down to the basement for me to wash, and then back up the stairs for me to put away.  He also helps with random other stuff sometimes, like cleaning up after dinner, vacuuming, etc.  Right now he is working 12 hour shifts at work, though, and has had a huge number of EMT calls, so I'm lucky if he manages to even remember to put gas in the car.

Saving Money: Menu Planning

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an overly organized person.  I do go through my pantry every 6 weeks or so and look for things that will expire in the next 2 months and move them upstairs so I can plan meals around them. Otherwise I'm not real great anymore at knowing exactly what I have in my pantry and how many of them I have.

In an effort to save money on groceries, I decided it was time to get to work on meal planning.  This ensures that I use the things that are close to expiration, and also helps me to know exactly what I need for the next two weeks, instead of just winging it every day, and possibly sending my husband to the commissary for the one ingredient I'm missing.  An added bonus is that if I know what I'm supposed to be cooking, it makes me less likely to say "I'm not in the mood to decide on dinner and cook, so let's get something from the cafe," or "Why don't you stop at the food court on the way home and pick something up?"

A Night Out: Spy Kids 4:All the Time in the World

My family rarely goes to a movie theater to see a movie, because it's just too expensive.  In June I bought a Living Social deal that included 2 movie tickets, though, and had planned on using them to see Cars 2.  Stuff came up and we didn't end up seeing it after all.  The promo code was set to expire on September 9, so we decided we better choose a movie and see it this weekend.

Unfortunately there weren't very many choices for movies playing this weekend that my family wanted to see.  My five year old is easily scared, so that ruled out pretty much all of them except The Help and Spy Kids 4.  So of course, he chose Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World.  It was only playing in 3D at a time that would work for us, so we bought the tickets on fandango (using the promo code and a giftcard I had won last summer), and off we went.

Good Deal on Appliances at Menards

So as I mentioned in my last post, I got a new cooking range for my birthday.  My last one started acting crazy and pulling massive amounts of power.  Last week when I made zucchini bread, it ended up costing me approximately $100 for a double batch of bread/muffins.

So on Saturday we headed to Menards to find a new one.  Luckily Menards is having a big bath and kitchen sale now through September 5.  Major kitchen appliances are all on sale.  Energy Star ones are at least 15% off, and regular ones are 10% off.  Plus if you spend at least $299 on qualifying purchases and put it on your Menards big card, it's interest free as long as you pay in full within 6 months.

A New Stove For My Birthday

So my birthday is Monday, and I'm dreaming of shopping.  I was planning on going shopping for myself, all by myself, in an actual store today or yesterday.  Unfortunately my cooking range went all crazy sometime recently and started pulling insane amounts of power for everything.  My last electric bill was about double what it normally is, and considering Elliott and I were gone for 2.5 weeks of that time, I knew something was up.  I noticed it when I looked at it online to get some other piece of information, and it was only 3 days past when it had been read.  Normally I don't even look at it until I get ready to pay it 10 days or so after it was read, so we really lucked out there!  Anyway, so on the 4th day after it was read, my husband went outside to look at the meter, and make sure they read it right.  It turns out that in those 4 days we had already used more electricity than we normally do in a full month!  But the meter was barely moving, so we were fairly certain it wasn't just the meter going crazy.   So down I went into the basement, while my husband stood outside staring at the meter.  I flipped each of the circuit breakers off one at a time to see if there was any change.  And when I got to the range one, I had a sudden realization that it was almost certainly it going bad.  For the last few weeks it has been randomly heating up the oven when I have one of the burners on, but a quick hit to the oven knob usually turns it off.  My husband decided it was probably a switch and has one ordered, but apparently we don't need it now after all.

First Full Day of School

Today was Elliott's first full day of school.  Yesterday the kindergarteners got out of school early, to help ease them into the year.  Yesterday was also full of a bunch of other stuff for me, so even though I didn't have Elliott with me, I was busy most of the day.

Today I had planned on running errands and getting some stuff done, but I had a headache, and the idea of driving the extra 70 or so miles just didn't appeal to me, especially after all the driving I did yesterday.  I drive 75-80 miles a day anyway, just to get Elliott to and from school (bussing is an option, but he would only be home and awake for 1.5 hours a day then-less when the roads are bad, and I don't think either of us could handle that).

Good Deal Alert on Bambi 2 DVD/Blu Ray

Bambi 2 comes out on DVD/Blu-ray tomorrow.  We actually had this one on DVD, but it disappeared in our move into our current house in 2007.  I've given up on finding it now, so I think we might be buying it this week.

If you are interested in buying both Bambi II (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray / DVD Combo) and Bambi (Two-Disc Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo), there is a good deal on Amazon right now. Bambi 2 is on sale  for $24.99, and when you buy it you can save $8 off the price of the Bambi Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.  It's priced at $20.99 right now, so you get both of them for $37.98 total, which of course has free shipping as well.

Bambi 2 is priced at $14.99 on Amazon for just the DVD.

If you are only interested in buying Bambi 2 and want the Blu-ray, I would suggest printing out the coupon available here.  It's for $5 off the blu ray/DVD combo pack, and combined with the $24.99 price at Target this week, it becomes a good deal.  The DVD by itself is on sale for $17.99.

For the current great deal on The Fox and the Hound and Mars Needs Moms check out my post here.

Great Deals on Disney Movies at Amazon- The Fox and the Hound and Mars Needs Moms

My son has a wishlist a mile long on Amazon.  A lot of the things he chooses are movies, because we do a lot of long road trips, and DVD's are sanity savers when you are in the car for 20 hours in two days.  We also enjoy watching a Blu Ray together as a family 1-2 times every week.  We watch the same movies over and over again a lot of times, so to us, it makes more sense to buy instead of rent, especially when we find good deals.  We love Disney movies, so we always look for good deals on them to add to our collection. 

Right now The Fox and the Hound / The Fox and the Hound Two (Three-Disc 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray / DVD Combo) is on sale for $24.99.  Plus if you buy Mars Needs Moms (Two-Disc Blu-ray / DVD Combo) for $22.99, you save $8 on The Fox and the Hound, so you can get both of them for $39.98, with free shipping through Amazon.  Plus, though the end of the month you earn 50 bonus points on Disneymovierewards.com when you enter the magic code for either DVD/Blu Ray!  This deal isn't quite as good as the deal that was available two weeks ago at Target, but if you missed it (like I did, because of my trip), it's still a good deal!

Semi-Annual Case Lot Sale at the Commissary

This weekend is the case lot sale at my local commissary.  We almost always try to make it to the case lot sale at least one day each time it happens, and since today we had to be on base anyway to get Elliott shots, we headed over to check it out.

Our base is pretty small, so it never has tons of stuff or anything, but usually I can find a good deal on at least a few things that my family uses.  I'm definitely a coupon user, but right now my coupons aren't sorted, and I have no idea what I have, because  I did NOT keep track of coupons very well for the three plus weeks I was in Missouri.  Today I didn't even remember to take my coupons with me shopping!  So I went in with a list that included bread, milk, eggs, fresh produce, and a few easy to eat, shelf stable fruit items for Elliott's snack bag for school.  Otherwise I figured we'd just buy what we found in the warehouse that was a good deal.

Time for School to Start

My son starts kindergarten next week.  It's hard for me to believe it.  He's slightly nervous about me leaving him somewhere else all day, but otherwise he's ready.  He doesn't have a school uniform, so buying clothes was easy and relatively cheap.  He also has a really short list of school supplies that he needs, so those were bought cheap, too.

I'm not looking forward to the start of school.  I can count on one hand the number of times he's been left with a babysitter since we moved to our current house, in July 2007.  He's done fine with sitters since he turned 4, but it's been short stints both times.  At least his first day of kindergarten is just a half day.

Back at Home

Elliott and I arrived back home  in North Dakota on Friday night.  We ended up staying in Missouri two more days than we had originally planned, due to weather and then a sick family member.   The drive home was fairly quick, and we didn't run into much bad weather, other than the intense storms that were going on in the Nebraska city that we stayed in overnight on Thursday.  We literally arrived at our hotel just in time.  It started pouring down rain as we were opening the door with our last load of stuff we wanted to keep in our room overnight.  There were tornadoes in the area, but none hit the town we stayed in, so I felt pretty lucky.   We had driven through Joplin, MO earlier and were on our way back to Minot, ND, so Elliott was pretty nervous about the bad weather, but finally calmed down enough for us both to get some sleep.   He's certainly glad to be back home and in his own bed at night now, and I am, too!

Clearance Shopping at KMart

Last week my mom was off two nights in a row (she works nights in a nursing home, so this isn't an every week thing), so we decided to go shopping one afternoon.  We called one of my older sisters to see if she wanted to go with us, and she decided to come along.  My mom needed new shoes, so we headed to Famous Footwear first.  I was in search of shoes for both myself and Elliott, but sadly couldn't find anything that I liked for me.  We only found one pair that Elliott liked (I wanted to get him two, one for school, and one for gym), and we had to move up a size in that brand.  He's now in a size 2!  Anyway, my mom and sister both found shoes they liked, too, so it was a decent stop.  My sister bought Elliott's shoes with hers, since they are running a bogo50 sale right now, and then I paid her about 75% of the full value of his shoes, so we both got a good deal that way. :)

Halfway Prepared

Apparently the lack of sleep over the two nights prior to leaving North Dakota caused me to be less prepared than I wanted to be for this trip.  When I'm in Missouri I always do a bunch of shopping and can usually find some great deals.  I brought my camera so I could get some pictures, but I walked off and forgot my camera cord, so I haven't shared any of the deals I've got.  I think I'm going to go ahead and share a few deals anyway, though, and then just add the pictures when I get back to North Dakota.