Being Better Moms

How do you celebrate Easter?

2010-03-24T10:03:00.000-05:00

Every year for Easter we dye eggs on Saturday ~~and clean up dye for 3 weeks after~~ and then on Sunday morning the kids are allowed to eat candy for breakfast (but not too much). Oh my goodness, did she just admit that? Yes, I did because they are kids and I think they should enjoy being kids. We then get cleaned up and go to church with the rest of the family. Most years we go to my husband's grandfather's house for a crawfish boil and the kids hunt the afore mentioned Easter Eggs and eat even more candy. It is a simple yet stress free way to spend the day with family. Pop has a lot of land and the kids run around and burn off all the sugar from the candy that they have been eating since the crack of dawn. Head on over to Kingdom First Mom and check out her Easter Eggstravagnza for more ideas.

Grocery Store Envy

2010-03-24T09:17:00.002-05:00

I have grocery store envy. It is not something that I am proud of, but I do. I see posts of great deals at stores like Kroger and Aldi, but you know what? We don’t have those stores where I live. It’s sad I know. :) We have Wal-Mart, (don’t like the meat as much, but the prices are the best we have around), Winn-Dixie (better meat, BOGO sales, but the prices tend to be higher) and we have Oak Point (AWESOME store, but only a 2 store chain some prices tend to be higher, but worth it).

Let me tell you why I am ok with my newfound envy. I have Oak Point. This is the BEST store I have ever shopped in. Their motto is “Love where you shop” and I DO! Have you ever stood forever in a line while there are a lot of other registers sitting there and not being used? That doesn’t happen at Oak Point. Don’t you hate it when you ask someone where something is and they have no clue even though they work there, or worse you can’t even find someone to ask? Not at Oak Point, I swear you can’t turn a corner without someone asking you if you need help and don’t think you can get near the register without one of the smiling cashiers asking if you are ready to check out. Does your grocery store meet you at your car with an umbrella when its raining and then walk you back out so that you stay dry? Mine does. There are never buggies in the parking lot because they are always putting them back up and SANITZING THEM. Yes they sanitize the buggies for you. The bag boys are all willing to help you load your groceries in you car, too bad I can’t bring them home to carry them inside too. :) But, my favorite thing is the bakery, oh the bakery. There are yummy cakes and cookies galore and they have shrimp dip to die for.

So why am I going on about my favorite store? It does something that I had only heard about from my grandparents in a time gone by, they take care of their customer and they appreciate them. It saddens me to know that it not the norm anymore, but the exception to the rule. If you get a chance to go by and check out thier website please do. I was not compensated in any way for this and all opinions are my own.

Why do you keep going to your favorite store?

General Mill Grains of Goodness Giveaway

2010-03-24T08:55:00.002-05:00

I have another great giveaway from General Mills and My Blog Spark. This time is to announce the effort from General Mills to get more whole grain in cereals. You can check out all that information here. This is what you will get:

· 2 Free Product Coupons

· Big Cereal Cup (or coffee)

· Fit and Fresh Cereal Bowl (I LOVE THIS!!!)

· Reusable Grocery Bag

· Info Sheet

· Magnetic Board To Keep Track Of Your Whole Grain Intake

· Dry Erase Marker To Use With Your Magnetic Board

Leave a comment saying that you want to win and get a second entry by blogging about the giveaway and link back to this post. Not enough giveaway for you? Run on over to Smockity Frocks and see what Connie is giving away. Comments will close on Saturday March 27, 2010 at midnight CST.

Coupon Giveaway Winner

2010-02-28T09:05:00.000-06:00

The winner of the 2 free General Mills Cereal Coupons is:

heresthediehl said...

Hi Heather! I just got your sweet comment on my blog...thank you!

We eat a LOT of GM cereal in our house. One that we always have in the pantry is Multi-Bran Chex...they're so good, and even a little sweet so my boys will eat them!

Winner chosen by Random.org. Please contact me at aktmommy(at)hotmail(dot)com so I can get your address to send you your coupons.

February 24, 2010 4:47 PM

Fake Febreze

2010-02-24T10:06:00.000-06:00

I LOVE the smell of Febreze, but it can get expensive even with coupons so I took a hint from my mother-in-law and made my own. I just use and empty spray bottle, liquid fabric softener and water. I add 1-2 caps of liquid fabric softner to the bottle and fill it the rest of the way with water. Give it a little shake and you have your own fabric refresher. I love the way clean laundry smells so even if I haven't tackled the laundry, my house still smells like I have.

I am linking up to Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family. You can check out all of the great tips by going here

General Mills Free Product Coupon Giveaway

2010-02-23T08:39:00.001-06:00

I was provided 4 free product coupons from General Mills through My Blog Spark and I and giving away 2 of them to a lucky reader. We used 2 of them and our favorites are definitely Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Don't forget that General Mills has pledged to reduce sugar to single digit grams in cereals for kids 12 and younger!

To enter please leave a comment telling me what your favorite General Mills Cereal is. The winner will be chosen on Sunday, February 28.

When Life Gives You Chicken, Make Chicken Salad????

2010-01-20T11:44:00.001-06:00

So my wonderful husband and I have decided to get debt free! Part of that includes not eating out for lunch while I am at work, pair this with the challenge from our Pastor at church Sunday to try to be cheerful all week long and you have recipe for DISASTER.

Last night when I was putting away leftovers I packed my lunch for today-yummy rice and gravy, mmmmmm. This morning after the kids tried their hardest to make me scream and yell by not being ready for the school bus by our normal time, I won I didn't yell. I calmly told them ~~1,000 times~~ reminded them what time it was and they got ready. I didn't even get mad when my precious daughter forgot something in the house and had to go back in. While she was ~~taking forever~~ getting her wallet the bus came and I asked the bus driver to just pick her up on the way back out. I had succeeded! I left for work with my "rice and gravy" safely next to me in the passenger seat, although it seemed a bit watery.

I made it work and put my food in the fridge and realized that I hadn't brought rice and gravy I brought the leftover chicken. I kept myself calm and I thought to myself that I would have to go and get lunch somewhere, but then I had a flash of brilliance (ok, it was more like a flicker) I would make chicken salad! So, I got the mayo and mustard out of the fridge and even found pickles! I thought I would have some crackers to eat with it, but they were less than fresh, so chicken salad it was.

I know that this isn't a huge deal, but it was a test and I passed and I wanted to share it with all of the world!

Love,
Heather

General Mills High Value Coupon

2009-12-11T09:16:00.000-06:00

Kudos to General Mills for announcing this week their commitment to reduce sugar levels in cereals for kids 12 and under to single digit grams. They have already been reducing sugar and increasing key nutrients such as Vitamin D and calcium while providing whole grains. You can go here to print a coupon for $1.00 off one of 4 cereals!

**Please note this was provided to me by General Mills through My Blog Spark**

Coupon Binder

2009-11-06T10:36:00.006-06:00

Ahh, coupons! Is there another thing as wonderful as coupons? Okay, so maybe I have an unnatural relationship with coupons. They are great and I do love them, but there are so many of them out there and what do you do to keep them organized? I have seen several ways to keep up with them, but only one works for me. I will lay it all out and let you decide what works best for you.

Some people only cut out the ones they know they are going to use. These are usually the people who keep them in an envelope or a coupon organizer and just throw it in their bag so they always have their coupons when they need them. This is great, there is nothing worse then knowing you have a coupon for something and not actually having it with you when you need it.

Some people save the whole coupon insert and only cut out the ones that are going to be using on a shopping trip. These are the people who look at the ads and see what is on sale and match coupons to get the best savings. The only coupons brought are the coupons to be used on that trip. For this style of couponing you could either go through all of the inserts before you go to the store or you could use a service such as Deal Seeking Mom Coupon Database. She also has a place for you to keep track of your personal coupons.

The organizer or database may be best for you, just not for me. My way is the Binder Method. I have a 3" 3 ring binder full of coupons! It didn't' start out full, in fact I only started with 9 pages in it. I am now closer to 80 pages. I use the plastic baseball card holders to hold my coupons. You can fit 9 per page and most coupons will fit perfectly into the sleeve without any extra trimming. I have organized them in the order that I go through the store so I can flip through the pages as I go. I also keep paperclips in my binder and as I pull coupons I clip them together, that way when I am ready to check out I have only the coupons that I am using out and ready to hand to the cashier. When I make my grocery list I put a "C" next to the items that I have coupons for so that I know to grab it out of the binder. The Binder Method works best for me since the stores don't put all sale items in their ads and there will always be something that I want to get that I didn't know was on sale. It also works great for Wal-Mart's clearance aisles, I have gotten hair color (not that I have any grey-it's actually more of a silvery white) that was normally over $7.00 on clearance for $4.00 and I had a $2.00 off coupon in with me in my binder so I got it for $2.00! The Binder Method does mean that you have to put in a little extra effort to make it work. I cut out every coupon in the inserts with the exception of baby products since mine are out of that stage (sniff, sniff). While I am cutting out the coupons on Sunday afternoon I put them into categories on the floor such as frozen food, yogurt, cheese, cleaning supplies, etc. When all of the coupons are cut and organized then I put them into the binder, as I flip each page and check for any expired coupons to purge out of the binder. If you do go for the binder method be ready to change the order that your coupons are in. For example, I used to have one page for cleaning supplies I now have several- one for dish soap (sink), one for dishwasher soap, one for multi-purpose cleaning, one for laundry, one for dusting and one for paper goods (paper towels, tissues and toilet paper).

It does take a little time, but I am such a nerd that I actually enjoy it. I like sitting on the floor surrounded by my piles of coupons and then flipping through and seeing all of them nice, neat, organized and ready to save me some money!

Trying Out the Walgreens Thing

2009-11-05T11:18:00.010-06:00

Ok so I have been seeing the Walgreen thing and I decided to try it out. What do you know it works and I LOVE it! I didn't do a well as some of the seasoned vets but I don't think I did too shabby. Here is what I got:

1st one (no picture-it was my try it to see if this works transaction)

Almay foundation - $13.99 (was suppose to get the Pure Blends to get the RR, but I forgot which kind to get)

Almay Pure Blends Lipgloss - $7.99 but I didn't pay anything because it was on sale buy one get one 50% off but it is ringing up buy one get one free

Total before BOGO- $21.98

Spent - $15.31

Got Back - $5.00 Register Rewards from the free lipgloss (Coupon off my next order of anything at Walgreens)

Actual Investment - $8.31 for $17.98 worth of product

2nd one

Johnson and Johnson Gauze Pads - $3.99

Lubriderm Lotion - $6.99

Almay Pureblends Foundation - $9.99

Almay 1 Coat Mascara - $6.99

Used Coupons:

$4.00 off Almay 1 Coat Mascara (November Coupon Book)

$2.00 off Lubriderm Lotion

$2.00 off Lubriderm Lotion - Cashier scanned the lubridern 4 times, it should have only been 2 (Woohoo)

$5.00 RR from 1st order

Got Free:1-Almay Pureblends Foundation ($9.99)

1-Almay 1 Coat Mascara ($6.99) Notice that I only paid $6.99 for one mascara and used $8.00 worth of coupons

Total before coupons and BOGO - $59.25

Total after - $21.27

Got - $18.00 in RR back

Actual Investement - $3.27 for $59.25 worth of product

3rd one

Dulcolax - $7.00 (with a $5.00 mail in rebate on it)

Nyquil - $4.50

Dayquil - $4.50

Almay Pureblends Eyeshadow - $7.49

Aussie Shampoo - $3.50

Aussie Conditioner - $3.50

Hefty Zipper Bags - $3.29

Queen Anne Cherries (big box) - $2.50

Used Coupons:

$1.00 off Aussie Shampoo or Conditioner

$3.00 off Dulcolax (Bringing price to $4.00 and a $5.00 mail in rebate- made $1 and it has another $3.00 off coupon on it)

$8.00 RR (From the lotion and gauze pads on 2nd one)

$10.00 RR (from the foundation on the 2nd one)

Got Free:

1-Almay Pureblends Eyeshadow

1-Hefty Zipper Bags

Total before coupons - $65.09

Total after - $24.54

Got back - $19.00 in RR

Actual Investment - $5.54 for $65.09 worth of product

Total for all before - $146.32

Paid - $61.12 (saved 61% - Right?)

Got - $42.00 in RR (used $23.00 already but have the $19.00 from the 3rd one for next time)

Total actual investment - $21.12