Extreme Couponing

And my family and some friends thought/think I'm crazy for carrying a 3-ring binder full of coupons in base ball card holders. Not to mention, fully equipped with scissors, pens, envelopes, and a highlighter. Who knows when you may run across a store coupon and need to cut it out.

I sometimes thought I was a little overboard on some days and stores (Bi-Lo) with my couponing. Sometimes so bad that John would not want to be seen with me in the store!  :)  All of this is before my sister called me last night to tell me to put it on a show on TLC. The show?  Extreme Couponing

I can no longer say I am a good couponer. Not after watching the show last night. One lady, a retired RN, walks around her neighborhood every Monday to get the neighborhoods discarded, unused coupons and papers.  She then takes these coupons clips them and uses them for her own shopping.  During the show, she and a friend went to the store to do some shopping, with all her coupons in tow. She spend over $600 dollars in groceries and ended up actually paying around $6.35!!!!!  That's around a 93% savings!!!!

The next person on the show, a male, and the last person on the show was wwwaaayyy overboard.  He spent over $5,000.00 in groceries and actually ended up paying a little over $500.00.  He had a savings of around 95%!!! In this visit, he purchased 1100 boxes of cereal and only paid $150 for them. He purchased them to donate to his churches food bank.

After seeing this show, I now know that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to couponing.  A good thing though is that my sister wants to learn now. So even if I can teach her what little bit I currently know, maybe she too can start saving some money and quit paying full price for everything!!! 

Do any of you have any helpful hints, tips, etc that you use and wouldn't mind sharing? I'm up for all kinds of learning saving now!

Happy Shopping and Couponing!

Yahoo cooperated today

This is the other picture I wanted to post of Blay last night.  This is him and his daddy in the snow trying out his BIG present from Santa. Unfortunately, the new tires didn't like the fresh snow so he got stuck and had to be 'pushed' to the driveway.

This picture is taken around 815 or so. As you can tell, we had a good bit of snow on the ground and it was still falling pretty good.

White Christmas

It was white all right. Had close to an inch by 7 am and by Sunday, about 7-8 inches!!!

We left town after Santa came and while the snow was pouring out of the sky to go see our out of town family for Christmas. It's probably good we did though because it was too cold and wet for any of us to be out in the snow, since we were all sick and medicated. Two of the three of us still are.

After John and I got up and got ready for our trip, we sat waiting on Blay to get up. Around 7 am, his little head poked from around the corner of his bedroom door into the living room. He wanted my hand to see what Santa had left. Santa left the presents at the fireplace, and not the tree. So, when Blay saw the tree and nothing there, he kind of stopped, then started walking again and finally saw where 'Santa' left the presents.

The smaller presents were loaded in the back of his BIG present. As you can see, it's already been put to good use!

I think the picture is funny! The snow was falling so fast that everytime Blay looked up, snow would hit his eyes and he said 'It's freezing my eyes'!  So funny.

I am trying to get another picture on here of him in the snow in the yard but apparently, Yahoo isn't cooperating tonight!  :)  And, since most of our capturing of Christmas was done on the video camera, I unfortunately don't have but two pictures of Blay playing on Christmas day at our house.   The ones taken at family will be loaded to Picasa soon.

And so will all the family vacation pictures! So keep an eye out.

Yes, we still have some snow, more on the porches and in the woods but it is melting more and more every day! I'm glad we are going to be having some warmer temperatures at the end of this week, even if it is coming with rain!

And, it's past my bedtime so I'm going to sign off and try to post the other picture tomorrow!

Good night my friends! May God continue to bestow blessings on you!

Lots of love!

Christy

Ice!!!

That's it. A few flurries yesterday, then some sleet, then nothing. I leave WalMart in the cold, with Blay in tow, pick up dinner, and head home.

Get home, feed Blay, go outside, it's sleeting so I bring the dog in.

I go outside an hour later and about bust my hind end on the driveway! SOLID ICE!!! John's truck, SOLID ICE!!!

Wednesday night is usually church night but I made the executive decision (since I was alone) to not go to church since we were out late on Tuesday night. I am glad I did not attempt to go or I would of been in trouble when I started up our mountain home!!!

Fellow friends have had some falls in which one ended up with a broken wrist.

I would much rather have the soft white stuff we had on Sunday and Monday. And in fact, still remains in our yard and woods. NO ICE! Just stay away ice because you make the day no fun!

As promised, see some pictures below of Blay outside on Monday when the weather was FRIGID! (But no ice!)

Here we go again

Again with what? More snow, ice, rain, and wind.  We still have snow and ice on our yard, sidewalks, and porches.

I love the snow but twice in one week. I don't think I can handle much more of it this week. Let's wait until Christmas. Can we please!

I'll post some pictures of Blay from Monday's 3 inch snowfall soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Lots of love-
Christy

It's beginning to look...

Like Christmas at our home. Finally! Since we decided to leave at 3 am on Black Friday for our vacation, the tree was not bought nor the decorations removed from the attic until this past week. 

Blay picked out our tree with John this year while I was at home sick. It's a pretty tree. Blay says it's 'beautiful'.  As a surprise, he's already received a present. After the lights and beads were placed on the tree last night, Blay was given a present. The present was his ornament for this year to hang on the Christmas Tree.  He gets a special ornament each year.

This year, I kept up the tradition from the past two years with Hallmark.  This ornament (click on word) is the third one he's received. Last year I took a picture of him holding the #2 ornament. I will do the same this  year when I get the tree completely decorated and Blay in his Christmas pajamas.  I don't have the #1 in the series because he got two or three different ones from grandparents on his very first Christmas. Because of this, I am going by his age with the ornaments! I like to be different!  :P

Once all the decorating is done, I will take pictures and show off some (not all because I need more stuff) of our home. I am super excited about the nativity tea light scene I got from Dayspring for free (just paid for shipping) thanks to my friend and fellow blogger Mandy!  More to follow about how this happened with pictures of course!

Well, I guess I should get back to work. So much to do!!!

TTYL- Christy

PS - Jill, fried mushrooms sounds ABSOLUTELY DELISH!!! I've actually been craving some!  Just give me some fFried mushrooms and fried pickles and I'll be happy!!!

I wonder...

why sometimes I try to keep up with this blogging thing for many of reasons:

1. I'm not good at it like my many counterparts (see below left)
2. I'm not consistant
3. Should all this really be on the internet

What do you think? Should I keep up with the ever so random blogging posts or just stop? I love to blog, love to read blogs, I just don't always have the time or energy for it.

BTW - I will be uploading the vacation pictures to a new Picasa site I plan on creating this weekend so don't forget to check back. I'll have the link on here like of do of Blay's monthly pictures.

Lots of love!

Christy