Bargain Huntress!

Due to our choice of professions (teacher-me/Youth Pastor-my hubby), money will never be flowing. But we did not choose these jobs for the cash and love what we do! The trade off is that I have become a bargain huntress! I am still learning but I have some basic tricks that I would love to share.

One of our teens from our youth group's mom wanted to know how I did it. Kelly had been telling her about the savings that I have had grocery shopping. I take her along to hold my coupons:) She loves it! I got the idea that maybe others would be interested in my findings and would like to share some of theirs! So here goes....

I shop at a Super Target for my groceries now. They have their own set of printable coupons. You can use them along side of the manufacturer's coupons. Go to the Target website and click on the See More icon. Then you can click on the coupon button. It is organized well and you can check the ones that you would like.
http://www.target.com/

Smart Source, Red Plum, and Cell Fire are the best for manufacturer coupons. Again, click and print. They often change once a month and add to them once a week.
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.redplum.com/
http://www.cellfire.com/

I also love a great deal. Recently,  I bought a sweater at Victoria's Secret for $19.00. It came with a free scarf (worth $12) and free lip gloss. Along with that I received a card for at least $10 off my next purchase. I get these deals from sites like fatwallet and slickdeals. Both have deals, coupons, freebies, and black Friday info.
http://www.slickdeals.net/
http://www.fatwallet.com/

Freebies!!!!!!
I love free stuff and samples. They are available everywhere on the Internet! I have gotten free laundry detergent, signed actor's photos, hats, and other items at no cost to me. Every day is like Christmas when I get home from work to see what I got for free today! Check out the previous sights or Google "free stuff"!
Try to avoid the survey ones that want you to purchase a credit card and the ones that are too good to be true!
http://www.google.com/

My daughter and I love to shop! We do not leave the house to go to the mall without  printing the coupons for the stores we love first. I just Google "Printable coupons for ....." whatever store you go to and there are many sites for this also. If you love to shop on the Internet, just put in "coupons for....." and you will get ones that you can use on the computer.
 http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/
http://www.couponcabin.com/printable-coupons/index.htm

One new thing that I get the opportunity to try is a House Party! I am holding a party for Kraft. I will let you know how this works and what it is like. Check it out!
http://www.houseparty.com/

I know that I have just scratched the surface and would love to know what everyone else has found! Hope that it helps the newbies!

Make it a great day!

I Have a Voice!

I am so excited about this blog! I am just an ordinary woman that loves raising her family but struggles with the demands of juggling it all. I know that there are other women out there that are the same.

We have four preteen to teen aged kids. All in sports! Basketball season is here and it has begun. The  IT I am talking about it the craziness. You know what I am saying! Practices, all day tournaments, working tournaments, 2 in the same day, deciding who goes where with whom, and the money for the concessions stands! Haha! About February, I am close to a nervous breakdown so I plan a "Girl Getaway Weekend" with my friends. It is this or a crazy mom. My family chooses a weekend away for me. They have seen the crazy mom and still have nightmares. :)

My husband and I have been married for 16 years. I love him more today than the day I married him! This has also not been an easy road but God is good and has brought us through the hard stuff to give us an amazing relationship. I am very thankful for this. He is a Youth Pastor and has been for 10 years! We love it but is has its rough spots too! I am very good at cooking for 150 teens now! It is also different now that we have teens in our home. There is no escaping a teenager now! Good thing we love them! I work full time, which is new for me as I was home for 15 years and I am taking my last class to be a High School/Middle School English Teacher. I used to love Shakespeare until I took this class. UGH!

You will also notice that I talk in exclamation points a lot! That is how I talk and hope that you get that through my writing. Just apologizing ahead of time:) I am also working on a blog for teen girls. My hope for that is to give them a safe place to have questions answered and give them positive, clean info on being a teen. http://chicksforchrist.wordpress.com/

I hope that this blog is about sharing stories about kids, husbands, and extended family. I will use it to share my love for getting the most out of your money and give you my hints on how to do that. My goal is that we can encourage and support each other through this thing called life!

This is my favorite family pic! Notice my nephew in the back and only one person notices it.

I think this will be our Christmas card this year!