Grocery Deals 101

I've been asked by many people to share my grocery shopping secrets so I thought I'd share the nuts and bolts with you all here. I'm by no means an expert but I can certainly point you to the blogs and websites you'll need to add to your bookmarks in order to be a successful couponer. So bear this in mind, and know that you can certainly be more or less hardcore and still save money!

The first thing you'll need to do to begin couponing is to get coupons. Where do you get them? Glad you asked. Start by buying multiple copies of the Sunday newspaper. I buy at least one copy each Sunday and if I know there are coupons I will definitely use I'll buy 2-3. Around these parts you can get the Sunday Statesman Journal at the Dollar Store or Walmart for $1. Sometimes the Oregonian has more/better coupons and I pony up and buy it instead. And don't worry if you don't get to the store on Sunday, I often buy my Sunday paper on Monday or Tuesday!

Aside from the obvious newspaper coupon inserts you can find coupons in a zillion other places. There's a ton that you can find online and print from home. Most online printable coupons can be printed twice per computer, so make sure to print the maximum you can! You can also check out the websites for brands/products you like and find coupons there. Lots of grocery stores give away coupon booklets now and then (Safeway and Albertsons both have one out right now I believe) and when you cruise the aisles keep an eye out for the coupon dispensing machines can take as many as you like. I normally take 3-4, unless it's a really good coupon for something I know I'll buy and then I might just sit there taking coupons from the machine until the cows come home! There are also coupons attached to lots of grocery products (called peelies) and coupons inside the packaging of items you buy. I also sign up for lots of coupon booklets online and have received a multitude of coupons that way. Another trick is to email the companies of products you purchase and ask for coupons. I contacted Tillamook and received a bunch of $.50 off cheese coupons which I never would have gotten otherwise.

Online Sources for Coupons:

• Coupons.com
• Redplum.com
• Smartsource.com
  

So once you have a ginormous stash of coupons how do you store them? I use a binder that zips closed and fill it with plastic baseball card sheets that I bought at Walmart. Then I put my coupons in the baseball card holders and have everything organized by category. I love that I can see all my coupons easily and it's super easy to find what I'm looking for. It is a bit of work to set up but for me it's been totally worth it.

The next variety of coupon I'd like to talk about are e-coupons. Even if you don't want to go through the hassle of cutting coupons you can use these. They are SUPER easy. Basically you sign up and link your store card number to your account and then save the e-coupons to your store card. E-coupons can stack with each other, with the regular paper manufacture's coupons, and also with store coupons. Check out Cellfire, Shortcuts, P&G e-Saver, and Safeway's own E-coupon Program.

Now that you know where to find coupons and how to store them it's time to talk about how to effectively use them! The best deals are usually found by combining a combination of a sale, store coupon, manufacturer's coupon, e-coupons, and/or rebates and then stocking up. It's a lot of work to look through the ads every Sunday but there are so many people out there that do it that you can cut to the chase and read other people's blogs where they've done all the work for you. There are lots of blogs out there that list what's on sale and what coupons to combine to get a good deal.

Here is a list of some of my favorite coupon blogs that do all the work of finding the deals each week:

• Frugal Living Northwest
• Krazy Coupon Lady
• Abundant Food Savings
• Money Saving Mom
• Fistful of Coupons
• Discount Queens
• Baby Cheapskate
• Coupon Mom

I have them all in my Google Reader and I check them several times a day. They often post links to online coupons, links to coupon books to be mailed to you, links for freebies (which often come with coupons), as well as grocery/drug store deals.

Once you find a good deal you stock up! Part of how I save money is by buying a lot of something that's a good deal so that I won't have to buy it full price later. There's a sale cycle for just about everything and the longer you coupon the better you'll know how often items go on sale. Some things go on sale frequently (cereal anybody?) and other things go on sale very rarely. If you are brand specific then you really need to pay attention to how often your brand goes on sale and then buy enough to last you until the next sale cycle. Our family is brand specific in shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste but I still manage to get good deals. I don't pay over $1 for any of it, but if we were not brand specific I would probably never pay for those items. In fact I buy hygiene products for free all the time and donate it to the food bank. We are less brand specific for cereal and now I won't pay over $1 for a box of cereal. It's not hard to do.

I hope this helps some of you out. Later I'll go in detail on what stores I shop and some of the specific strategies for shopping them.

Grace's Eye Appointment

Grace visited the Casey Eye Institute up at OHSU on Monday morning and we met with the doctor that will be performing her eye surgery this summer. My Mom was gracious enough to let us spend the night with her on Sunday night which got us at least an hour closer. The appointment was at 8:30am which meant that I got the kids up at 6:30am in order to eat and get there without rushing. Mom was a life saver! She drove us up to OHSU and dropped Grace and I off while she kept Ethan for me. That let me concentrate on Grace and her appointment which I sooooooo very much appreciate. That and not having to figure out OHSU parking pretty much made my day!

The doctor met us in the waiting room and was very good with Grace. He's not specifically a pediatric eye surgeon so I wasn't sure how he would handle her. We went back to an exam room and Grace performed the eye exam by reading letters for the first time. Last year I think we used shapes and the times before that they determined her vision by having her look at moving toys across the room while they looked into her eyes with a variety of prisms. He determined that she has 20/40 vision in her right eye (the one with the ptosis) and 20/30 vision in her left eye. This is the first time there's been a difference between the eyes, which makes me feel that the surgery is definitely coming at a good time.

The eye doctor somehow managed to measure her eyelid muscles and determined that Grace does have some muscle in her right eyelid which is a good thing. Then he explained what the surgery would consist of and what the expected outcome will be. The surgery will basically put permanent stitches in her eyelid muscles to help keep the muscle taut. The downside to this is that her right eyelid won't match her left eyelid when she looks down because it will be pulled up. Apparently she's destined to have mismatched eyelids! At least this surgery will give her the ability to look up without moving her entire head. Since there are still a few more years of brain/eye development left she will benefit from doing the surgery now.

OHSU only does pediatric eye surgery on the second Tuesday of the month which gave us three dates to choose from this summer. Both June and July are out due to the rodeos so August it is. The big bummer for Grace will be that she can't put her head under water for a month after the surgery so swimming the second half of the summer will be out. I'll just have to make sure that we do swimming lessons the first half of summer!

I don't plan on really talking about the surgery with Grace until the week prior. I don't want her to dwell on it for six months or have time to get scared of it. Anyone who has experience with a preschooler having a surgery I'd love to hear how you handled it!

A Dress Loving Girl

Grace loves to wear dresses. She's worn a dress almost every day for a year and a half, only deigning to wear jeans when I insist on such occasions as: camping, going to the pumpkin patch, picking out a Christmas tree, and that's pretty much it. Last year the dress obsession caught me by surprise and I quickly got tired of the five knit dresses she wore in rotation. I was also annoyed that 75% of her closet didn't get worn because she wanted nothing to do with pants. This year I was prepared and I bought one pair of jeans and a multitude of dresses. Lots of dresses. Since this was the first year Grace was entering into preschool I made sure to buy plenty of cheap knit dresses that would survive paint/glue/markers and anything else preschool could throw at us. As it turns out it didn't really matter because Grace is pretty careful and has only come home with something on her dress twice this year.

I shop consignment stores pretty often. While I was in Portland a few weeks ago I decided to stop by a consignment store that I somehow found on Twitter called Mama's and Papa's. Everything was 50% off since they were cleaning out their winter stuff. I didn't find a thing for Ethan but I did find a nice Hanna Andersson coat that will fit Grace next year and this dress. Usually I'm not one for animal prints which is why I passed by it at first. Then I noticed the ruffles. And the bows. I finally pulled it off the rack and Grace took one look at it and immediately wanted to try it on. She was sold hook, line, and sinker and didn't want to take it off. I looked at the tag and decided that for $4 she could have it. The very kind store owner let her wear it out of the store and we did an impromptu photo shoot around the block.

I'm glad I got the dress for her because it's become a favorite. It fits her really well and she obviously loves to wear it! These dancing photos were taken yesterday afternoon when we were taking advantage of the winter sunshine. She wanted me to take pictures of her in her pretty dress. She also wanted to dance. I'd say I killed two birds with one stone.

Cubbies, Popcorn, and Naps

I haven't posted here in awhile, probably because I've been sharing a photo a day on my Project 365 blog. I don't want to repeat it here and now I've been neglecting sharing what's going on with our family. So here's a small catch up.

Since I've had the camera out more often I've been getting more spontaneous and even more mundane moments. I found myself taking photos of Ethan as he settled down for his afternoon nap one day this week. I figure that the time will come sooner then I'm ready for when afternoon naps will be a thing of the past and I want to remember how sweet he is when he snuggles in with his multitude of stuffed animals and babies. His current crib cohort includes: Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Baby Boy, Blue Baby, Purple Baby, Pink Baby, Mickie Mouse, two Elmos, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Ernie. Oh, and he also insists on having the baby cradle's pillow and blankie in the crib for his babies as well. There's really very little room for Ethan after he stacks his babies up next to him!

And then we have Grace at Cubbies. She's been doing a very good job memorizing her verses this year. We had a difficult start in the fall but now she's got it down pat. They earn patches every month or so and I always ask if she wants Ethan and I to watch the Awards Ceremony and she always says yes. As you can tell by the second photo, she was very happy we were there! I can't believe that I won't have a Cubbie next year. Grace will be a Sparkie (yikes!) and Ethan won't be 3 by September.

And this last photo was taken last night after dinner. Ethan finished his dinner first (actually he inhaled it!) so he got to pick a movie to watch for Movie Night. He chose Veggie Tales. Once Grace finished her dinner (halfway through the movie...it was a struggle!) they earned the right for popcorn. David took a break from his busy work day to watch Veggie Tales with the kids and when they both curled up on his lap with the popcorn bowl I couldn't help but get some photos. Aren't my guys sweet?

Ethan's First Potty Success!

Late this afternoon Grace came running out of the bathroom exclaiming "Mommy! Mommy! Ethan peed in the potty!" which got me into the kids' bathroom in a hurry to see if she was telling the truth. Grace often lets Ethan in the bathroom with her while she uses the potty and every now and again he practices on the little potty with her. I found him completely naked and sure enough, he had used the potty. Actually he mostly used the floor but he's a two year old boy so I'm not exactly expecting perfection. The intent was obviously there and he was pretty proud of himself! Naturally today was the first day in over two weeks that David was actually working in Corvallis so we called him up on the phone immediately to share the joyous news. Ethan scored a chocolate chip cookie and we grabbed McDonalds hamburgers for dinner to celebrate. Grace was really great about the whole deal. She clapped for him and told me that she was so happy for Ethan that it made her smile. Having such a sweet daughter who is willing to help her little brother potty train makes this Mommy smile!

So now it begins. I won't kid myself into thinking he'll be potty trained overnight because I've been down this road before. Oh boy have I. (See Potty Training 101, Another Round of Potty Training Commences, and Advanced Potty Training) Of course this time I have a helper and Ethan seems much more willing to go potty for Grace then for me and I will take advantage of that with wild abandon. Grace knows that as soon as Ethan is completely potty trained we are going to have a No More Diapers Party complete with cake and presents. It's been in the planning ever since the long, drawn out potty training process we embarked upon when Grace was a toddler. It was David's idea and I have to say I'm fully on board. In fact I already decided that I'm going to gift myself with a new purse when Ethan potty trains because I will no longer need a diaper bag. As much as I love my diaper bag (remember my Ode to my Diaper Bag?) I've been using it ever since 2005 and I'm ready for a change. Something not made of vinyl would be nice.

Playing with Playdough

I've been picking my camera up a lot more ever since I started the Project 365 and in the 20 days I've been at it I can already tell a difference in photo quality. This past fall I took a bit of a break but now I'm going like gang busters! I've kind of reached the point where I'm feeling limited by my equipment, but have no funds to upgrade. I think I just need to win the lottery.

Anyways, back to the photos at hand. Grace pleaded to play with playdough when she got home from preschool but we had to wait until Ethan woke up from his nap because it's stored on the upper shelf in the kids' closet. Ethan had more fun with the playdough then Grace did! He had a blast rolling it, poking it, and using the cookie cutters. And yes, he also had fun trying to eat it.

And lest you think I only took photos of Ethan today (I can't help it, he's easier) here's one of Grace. I love how the window light makes her little face glow!

Sick Little Boy

Ethan seems to have a sixth sense for when MOPS is coming up and develops a nasty case of the crud the day before our meeting. This is the second time in a row this has happened and there's a very good chance I'll be leaving him home with Daddy again tomorrow morning. That is, as long as he doesn't have any super important meetings before noon.

My rules for bringing the kids to functions is that a clear runny nose that isn't too bad (i.e. a nose wiper isn't required every 10 seconds) is okay and a stuffy nose with thick snot means we stay home. If we stayed home for every sniffle we would never leave the house. I go nuts if we don't leave the house. Scratch that, we ALL go nuts if we don't leave the house.

Please note that Ethan is not sad in these teary eyed photos. He just woke up from his nap and was actually pretty happy with his special juice (orange flavored Capri Sun) because there was a basketball and a hoop on the front. The teary eyes are due to The Crud or whatever bug he picked up this time.