Disneyland

We spent the morning and afternoon at Disneyland on Thursday. Our family hasn't been there in at least six months. Some of you may think that sounds like a recent trip, but for us it has been eons. We loaded up and headed out ready for tons of fun. Sydney finally made it on Space Mountain. Calvin stood as tall as he could but came up an inch too short. He is determined to eat extra vegetables in order to grow just tall enough before the Summer ends. Upon exiting Space Mountain I asked Sydney if she wanted to go again. Her response: "Um, I think maybe when I am six or maybe seven." I guess it was a little out of her league. She is happy to stick with Gadget"s Go Coaster for her present age of five. It seemed a quick trip but we enjoyed ourselves. Baby by the end was falling over with exhaustion. She actually fell asleep in The Tiki Room! One second she was clapping and dancing all around, the next her head flopped back onto my shoulder and she was out. Even amongst the singing birds and flowers and chanting tiki poles. She is a funny one. Oh the ease of the third child!

Super Savings Saturday

Not pictured due to consumption or my forgetfulness:
Three more chocolate bunnies, one more bag of hershey's bliss chocolates, three bags target brand fruit snacks, one more tube of aveeno, one more gallon of water, three boxes of tissue, one frozen popsicle maker and four bottles of sobe life water

So this week I feel like I got way more for my buck, but I did go over a bit. Only $1.81 though! Not bad. It has been fun keeping track of what I am spending. Before coupons, sales and extra bucks my grand total was $283.56. My total out of pocket expense was $81.81. That is a savings of 72%! Now my goal, in conjunction with saving money on groceries, is to plan a weekly menu that I can stick with. Right now I am planning my menu for the following week based on what I have in stock and what I picked up during my shopping this week. Still working on that one though. Have a great week! Anyone else have any super savings ideas they want to share? Please do. I am always looking for new and helpful ideas!

Baking Day Part 2

Calvin enjoys the "manly" part of baking. Kneading the dough is hard work and he wants to be a part of it. At some point I think he may have been using his head in the kneading process, totally unauthorized by Mom. But, I guess you do what ever it takes to get the job done! So we can say today was a success. Rolls and muffins were baked and enjoyed.

Baking Day

On Tuesdays the gardener is here most of the morning so a few weeks back I decided to make it our "baking day". So far it has gone well. Interesting though as I have three very willing "helpers" who think they are seasoned professionals. None the less, we enjoy ourselves, the kids learn a little something, we bond and our efforts yield delicious results.
Today our plan is to make whole wheat dinner rolls and a special muffin recipe I found on another blog. If by Gods amazing grace we have a day without arguing, fighting and whining ( and this is completely by Gods grace :) ) we may add a couple of things to the list! I'll post about our progress.

Super Savings Saturday

Adopted from Moneysavingmom.com, I am attempting to shop for groceries on a tight budget. So far the plan has not been nailed down but today I think I hit my goal and I am on the right track toward stretching our dollars. I have been mentioning to friends and anyone who will listen that I have taken on a new system for getting my grocery shopping under control. Moneysavingmom.com's coupon shopping methods plus wisely shopping certain stores sales and "special" programs have allowed me to seriously change things up. My goal is $80.00 per week. That is for everything including diapers, toiletries, cleaning products and paper products. Today I spent $57.62. My total before coupons, sales and extra bucks (cvs special coupons, just like cash) was $183.55. I plan to create a menu with the things I purchased as well as what I have on hand for the next week. We will see how it goes . I'll let you know how it went this week and hopefully I will be successful again as I try to stay under my $80.00 per week budget next week.

Summer fun can't come too soon!

A day at the beach is always a treat for us. So we indulged just before the weather turned cool again. We ended up spending about six hours there soaking up the suns rays and playing to our hearts content. It was great! Calvin and Jaclynn crashed extra early that night and Sydney followed shortly after. I was actually able to get them all to run out of energy by the end of the day. An evening like that is few and far between!

Finding more ways to save!

Click on the link in my CHECK THIS OUT! section.

I heard about this site called Swag Bucks from another bog and I am very excited about it. It takes practically no effort and you can earn points that give you gift cards to some pretty great places. For instance, earn 45 swagbucks and you will receive a Five dollar amazon gift card. 50 swagbucks and you get a Five dollar Starbucks gift card. Now who couldn't use free Starbucks? It is simply another form of search engine that racks up your points as you use it. It took me less than a minute to sign up. Give it a try!