Monday Update

Soooooo tired! Natalie doesn't sleep well at night AT ALL anymore it seems. I had to take half a day off work to take a nap. But of course I didn't even get to nap because there was too much to do. So I stumbled around in my fog and I am hoping for an 9pm bedtime!!!

The car is packed and ready to go. We are going to try to leave at 4am so that Natalie will sleep going over the mountain.

Cute picture time!
Do you want fries with that?


Muwah! My regards to the chef!


Corn Casserole makes me happy!

Crazy bath hair.

I don't have a laptop but the hotel has computers. I'll try to post some cute beach pictures of the kiddo. Bye!

Corn Casserole Goodness

Ok, I can not communicate through this blog how yummy this corn casserole is:
(not my pic, mine isn't this pretty because I scraped the top off of it while it was cooking and ate it because I couldn't stand smelling it anymore!)
INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, drained
• 1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn muffin mix

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, cream style corn, sour cream and melted butter. Stir in whole kernel corn, cheese, onion and chilies. Stir in the corn muffin mix until just moistened.
3. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 75 minutes; or until an inserted knife comes out clean and the top is golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

It calls for butter, next time I would leave that out. Next time I'd also use frozen white corn instead of the regular canned corn. I bought a cheap can and it was a little tough. Mine is a little wet too, I forgot about the chickpeas but that would of been the perfect thing to grind up add to it for protein to make this a one dish meal. Healthy? No! Yummy? Oh ya! :)

Let's talk about the food crisis that is suppose to be happening soon. I know in the past I've mentioned I am going to stockpile some things before they went up. Well I didn't and now rice has doubled. Hello! We eat rice all the time. And the good chewy brown rice is way way more. So today I am headed to the dreaded Walmart to stockpile $100 worth of dried beans, rice, pasta, sugar, flour and some canned items. Food is increasing more than the measly 3% I am earning in my ING account.

I've also reevaluated my finances and where all my money sits. I took out a Heloc a couple of weeks ago (now I'm like most people, hooray for mortgages - not!) to pay off my margin account with etrade because the interest was too high. My Heloc is 5.25%. My ING account earns 3%. I can pull cash off the Heloc whenever I want to by internet or phone. So does it still make sense to have a lot of cash sitting in the ING account earning 3% when I could be paying off a debt at 5.25%? I say no it doesn't and cancel out the ING accounts. Anyone else have a different thought?

Natalie is quickly approaching the terrible twos I think. All you hear around the house is "2 minutes!" When she flips out and tries to do a tantrum she gets put in her crib for her 2 minute time out. Sometimes she flips out because she is tired. Sometimes it is in response to my "NO", she must have delicate little feelings. Natalie Elizabeth will set her off in a split second! lol Today she woke up at 7, had a bottle and played on my bed with me for an hour. So at 8, we get up and work in the kitchen for an hour. At 9am, she flips out! Timeout time. But instead of popping up when the microwave timer goes off (she can hear it from her room) she is asleep! How much do your kids sleep? She slept 11.5 hours last night then has to go down for a nap just 2 hours later? It is so hard to do anything on the weekends because she is always asleep!! It sort of hurts my feelings lol She doesn't sleep this much at school, mommy is boring!

This weekend is tax free in TN. I am resiting the urge to buy anything because it's all stuff we don't need. Do I want a new PC? YES YES YES Am I going to buy one? Not right now, maybe for my 35th Bday. It is very tempting.

Bye for now! - Kim

Saturday Catch Up Post

Hellooo!

First, sorry to those who left comments this week, I managed to hit the wrong button when dealing with a spammer and rejected a bunch :( so sorry :( I had a tag in there, please resend! I love tags! :)

So here is our summary for the week...
Monday - Natalie was bitten twice at school during lunch. Once on the side of her face, once on her hand. The same kid did it both times. That kid now doesn't get to eat with the other kids. I was told Natalie was the only kid in there that didn't bite. Fantastic.


Tuesday - Hmm can't think of anything that happened on Tuesday! The weather was nice and the bite was better!



Wednesday - Went with Chelle to Applebees. The baby was cute as snot. Did you know they have $1.99 kids meals if you buy a meal? If you have a party of 2.5, you can get a burger, a half priced app and a kids meal for about $14. I think that is pretty good for 3 people and there is enough for leftovers.

This is from Sunday, she wasn't impressed.

Thursday - Ford stock rallied at their report of a profit for the first quarter. I sold it all, not for as high as I could of (woulda coulda shoulda) but it was ok. I set the price before I went to work not thinking it would get anywhere close to what I set it for (and it shot like 60 cents over that doh) I am now a very small amount in the hole which I feel lucky about because I know people still 50K in the hole with their stocks! Now I am in the position of being able to buy 5-10,000 shares of cheap stocks and just hold them for 3-10 cents and sell them quick. Ideally I'd set it to buy one day and set it to sell the next. 2 good trades a week would make me very very happy :) 5 good trades a week and I'd quit my job! lol

Did you know with our corporate discount I can get a Focus for 12K? It is in my top three. I am not actively looking for a car, but the time will quickly approach since my car is 8.5 years old.


Friday - Ford stock dropped almost as much as it went up. Feeling SO much better about my sale. I could rebuy my entire portfolio and spend 1500 less than what I had in it (which I will do with a little bit of $$, not all of it).

Dancing in her first skirt outfit! Look at that crazy hair!
She doesn't get the "ladies don't pull their skirts over their heads" thing yet. This is another Bonnie outfit, thanks Bonnie! :)

Today, we did the Heart Walk and it was a bust. After you walked there wasn't anything to do so we just left. Natalie got her picture taken by the online version of our newspaper:

We ate Chinese then crashed for a 2 hour nap. Natalie has become super clingy which I kind of like. Before she wouldn't snuggle and she'd kick or wiggle her way out of your hold. Now she wants to sit on my lap and be carried and held all the time. She likes to snuggle up in the morning when I let her sleep with me (when she wakes up at 4 all ready to go!)

Tomorrow is the last day of this month's budget. I am over about $150 lol I am still putting away the $$ amount I wanted every month into savings but I did want to keep some of the padding from my paycheck miscalc for fun stuff.

Has anyone already spent their stimulus check...before they even got it? :) I gave some to March of Dimes, some to my dentist and some to Lane Bryant. What did/are you all going to do with yours?

Bye for now!

Meal Plan Week of April 21st

I am not sure why I keep doing these meal plans lol. Out of all the meals last week, we did red beans and rice 2 nights, sandwiches, french toast, Arbys and last night we actually had peas and cheerios. Yup, peas and Cheerios for dinner - what the baby wants, the baby gets! Tonight was at least a good meal, the spaghetti turned out pretty good :)

Ok so let's try again. Here are the seven meals for next week:
Cheesy chicken breasts - recipe from http://thehappyhousewife.com/
Taco Bake
Stroganoff
Perch
Soup beans and cornbread
Corn Casserole (going to puree a can of chickpeas to add to this for protein)
Hummus and wheat crackers

My shopping list for the week will be...
Milk
1 can cream-style corn
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
2 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies
2 boxes of corn muffin mix
2 cans of chickpeas
1 can olives
1 garlic clove
parmesan cheese
2 onions
wheat crackers

I have fresh fruit and meat already. I have $25 left in the grocery budget, I think I can buy what I need for that. I also have 22 $2 off any Ken's dressing coupons that I will be cashing in. I paid $12 for them off of ebay so it's like paying 55 cents a bottle.

March of Dimes Day

So today was the walk. I got up at 6 and managed to get us to the event at 8 or so. It rained off and on all day.

Now when you sign up for a walk and it says three miles, do you comprehend the three mile part? Now three miles on a track - easy. Three miles up and down the hills of TN.... ECK! We didn't do the whole thing but I think we did at least 2 miles. Shoot I think I did 3 miles even before the walk started chasing the baby everywhere. What a stinker!

So the walk starts and here we are trekking through the neighborhoods that surround the fairgrounds. And what do I see? A GARAGE SALE! WOOOHHOO

So of course I left the hundreds of people walking to run to the sale. I made Carla go too hehe I got the baby a fun riding toy for $4 :) Even with stopping, we weren't the last ones to finish haha!

So after some cold BBQ and hotdogs and a lot of playing on her new toy we came home. I am pooped. She isn't because she slept during the walk and on the way home. Must be nice!

Pictures from the day...

Quick Friday Post

It's all about me tonight!

Went to Lane Bryant and got a lot of stuff on sale. Two pairs of jeans and 6 tops for $104 plus tax (like $113). I think that is pretty good, especially with jeans thrown in there! I got...
Two pairs of faded boot cut jeans $80
a thin hippie red sweater that I can wear all year long $10
the same sweater in turquoise $10
a pretty spring green thin sweater with 3/4 length sleeves that I can wear all year long $20
a chocolate brown hippie shirt with short sleeves $15
a plumish blue long sleeved sweater with bell sleeves $10
a black hippie looking long sleeved sweater that has a fake shirt underneath- it sort of flairs out $10
The order was $320. With the markdowns it was $154 (the jeans weren't sale at all but badly needed). Then I got $50 off of $150. So I got some nice work sweaters for just $6.66. You can't beat that :)

And sad to say I think that is it for the day. Tomorrow is our March of Dimes Walk for Babies and I am charging the camera batteries now. I am going to put her little cowgirl shirt and her ragged on purpose faded jeans. Oh and hot pink squeaker shoes! :)

Come back tomorrow for pictures :)

Lots of Tuesday Ramblings

Thanks for all the well wishes about the DD#2 post :) I've decided just to focus on what I need to do before I have a second baby. That means being more creative with $$, getting on a better cleaning and cooking schedule and getting rid of a lot of clutter. I'll figure out the race part later on, right now I am just focusing on my todo list...you know..the one I was suppose to finish up before Natalie got here :) And thank you to the other mom who shall not be named until she decides to tell everyone herself, for all the info on the different agencies. It didn't take long at all to decide to go for it :)

Spring is trying really hard to come to TN. My toes are green from mowing the grass tonight. Crazy how weeds look JUST LIKE grass when they are only a couple of inches tall :) It is warm during the day and freezing at night. I can't wait until I can turn off the heat and have those two months of $15 power bills!

Speaking of bills, I had a nice surprise today. My car insurance dropped again. Ready for this? $93. For 6 months. Yup...sometimes driving a small car and NOT ramming it into other cars really pays off! :)

And then listen to this dummy moment I had yesterday morning. I get paid twice a month. In Jan my paychecks didn't have daycare coming out pre tax. In Feb, I was shorted on both checks. March, I was given my adoption credit and paid for those extra days. So for someone on salary, I didn't know how much I was getting lol So I get my March 30th paycheck and it is $120 more than what I thought it was suppose to be. Hmm then I get the SAME amount on April 15th. Holy cow! I miscalculated my paychecks by $240 a MONTH. $2880 a year. So I am putting a little of that into the budget and the rest is going into the baby fund woohoo

Ok, so it's time for my monthly Pay Per Post totals. If all my referrals come through, my total is $960.48 :) But some of the sign ups are old and if I had to guess I am closer to $800-850. My ads have really slowed down because they do not load as many at night and I am at work now during the day. But that is ok, if I can still make $100 a month putting up the ads (and ya'll are willing to read/skip them) I will be a happy camper. If you want to make $20 and start getting paid to put ads in your blog (the 50 word one below took 2 minutes and was $8) you can click on the purple box to the right and sign up :)

Sometimes when I put Natalie to bed she'll lay there talking to her feet (I think the child is double jointed, she can pull her foot way past her head, do back bends, splits and front rolls). It sort of goes like "lorlloooloooloo bbbbpsssttt looloolooloolooloo cabbage!"I've been a big slacker with picture taking so I ran in and took a few :)

With her new bear, it has angel wings, it is super cute (thanks Darla!)

Hi Mama! (look how long her hair is!)

Ok I'll sleep now, night night!

A Good(ie) Day :)

I got a goodie packet from Disney :) I applied to be on their mom panel but was rejected :( (<--this is me weeping).

This is the best kind of goodie, one I didn't expect at all!

Stickers, a big magnet, a mouse pad, a planning DVD AND 2 Tinkerbelle trading pins! I love trading pins but do not buy them because those little suckers start to get expensive. :)

I decided this morning that Jenna will be a domestic adoption. I am going to use an agency in UT. I know another single mom that is doing the same thing. I thought about it for a couple of hours and it just seemed like the right way to go :) I am not sure yet what sort of referral I am going to ask for (they call it situation, which I think is odd so I'll stick with referral!). I am undecided if Jenna will be Asian so she and Natalie will share a common background. Or do I let them choose a child for me like China did (and did SUCH a good job!) and not worry about matching race (which sounds odd too)? And really, who is in charge of matching anyway, it's certainly not a "person". Something to also think about, Natalie has a large China support group locally. If I let the agency choose, I can be matched with another little girl in about a month. If I go that route I would like to wait until Natalie is almost/is three.

So I am in savings mode. If they match me, the cost will be about 15K. I should get 3K back from my health insurance and another 3K back from my company. I will also get to use part of a 10K tax credit.

And I've called her Jenna for a few months now, but what do you think of Nora? Is that too serious next to a name like Natalie? Funny how I am more worried about the name than the process :)

Night!

Meal Plan Monday - Week of April 14th

So my goal in April was to eat up as much stuff as we could so that in May when we came back from the beach, I would try new recipes and restock the freezer and pantry with new and exciting items. To say we are in a rut...well that is an understatement!

So in the fridge we are down to 2 pounds of butter, three blocks of hard cheese, eggs, milk and grape juice. Heck I don't even have ketchup. Oh wait, I am pretty sure we have mustard and mayo too. In the freezer we are down to one veggie medley, like 5 pounds of frozen peas (they were on sale!), 3-4 pounds of chicken breast, 2-3 pounds of assorted seafood and a bag of chicken stock. The pantry is pretty boring too. We have lots of cereal, dried beans, canned beans, canned tomatoes, soy milk and rice. And peanut butter, like 8 of them, almost free from CVS. So with that in mind, here is our meal plan for the week :)

I've not made red beans and rice in years. I have the dried beans soaking now. I'll cook the rice tonight to save time. I will keep all the ingrediants separate until we eat them so I can use them for more than one meal. I'll need to pick up a few items after work tomorrow to last us the week. I'll mark those in red just for fun :)
Monday - red beans and rice (beans, rice, tomatoes, ground beef, onion and garlic)
Tuesday - chicken fried rice (chicken, veggie mix, rice, 5 spice, eggs)
Wednesday - red beans and rice but this time I'll make it with sausage to change it a little. Any leftovers will be frozen for my lunches.
Thursday - chicken and dumplings (chicken, broth, peas, and flour)
Friday - Hamburger pizza & peas (pizza dough mix, tomato sauce, cheese, hamburger)
Saturday - spaghetti and more peas (tomatoes, hamburger, onion, garlic, pasta)
Sunday - tuna noodle casserole and carrots (and you thought I'd say peas!) (tuna, pasta, soup, onion, carrots and peas)

For breakfast we'll rotate scrambled eggs, bananas, string cheese and oatmeal with frozen peaches. For lunch I really need to step it up, I haven't been taking one and I've eaten a lot of junk. I am going to take my non lettuce version of salad, cold peas, raw carrots, raw broccoli with Italian dressing for some days. PB on wheat for others. We also need fresh fruit for snacking.

I'd like to introduce my "new" pan! I have learned, if you find a great deal on a pot/pan that you love, always buy a second one right away. This pan was from Belks, $100. 3 quart, 4 inch tall anolon. It was marked down to $50. Then there was a big sale on markdowns and I got it for $18.

Pan #1 lasted for 5 years until I steamed sweet potatoes in it and the sugar goo bonded with the coating and burned and caught fire. Who knew potatoes were so flammable? Needless to say the pan was toast.

So now I have pan #2 and I am happy again. Stored away for 5 years in it's original box in the cabinets under my cooktop. Now happily cooking brown rice as I type this. You can get a similar one on Amazon right now for $89 with a different handle. All together now..what did I pay? $18, yes that's right! hee hee heeee

The baby was super cute today. She sat on my lap for over an hour (will wonders never cease?) looking at the Disney website with me. I showed her all the fun things we were going to do and read the menus to her. We looked at the Value resorts and played all the videos we could find. I also played the Disney videos I have on the blog (ever seen those? they are at the bottom!). She is so ready to see the mouse! :)

No baby pictures and she is asleep. Here is my pan missing the glass lid (which btw fits my crockpot which makes me happy too).

Night!

CVS Fun :)

Scooter in her cute little outfit, one of the many that Bonnie gave us :) Orange is her color - go VOLS!

Okie, I've not been to CVS in so long my ECBs were getting ready to expire. I had $18ish in ECBS and I did three transactions total. I liked this week because I was able to buy things I needed!

Transaction One
3 Essence of Beauty gift bags - $4.89 - paid OOP, I didn't know if the deal was going to work Got a $5 ECB

Transaction Two
12 Essence of Beauty Gift bags & two letter post its - $20-ish- applied $18ish in ECBs and paid about 50 cents OOP - got a $20 ECB

Transaction Three
3 jumbo packs of huggies and 2 more post its and one highlighter egg (easter) = $30.69 - $3 in huggies coupons - 25 in ECBs. I paid about 50 cents for this order too :) got a $10 ECB :)

So for under $6, I was able to stock up diapers, get 15 giftbags for all occasions, get 4 fun post its and a silly little egg (for 5 cents) that is a highlighter :) I probably could of done better but I was pleased with my totals since I'm totally out of my bargain groove!



Want to hear something funny (sad)? This is my stockpile, and I am not done gathering it all.
Toothpaste - 14
Mouthwash - 14
Toothbrushes - 16
Shampoo- 4
Hairspray- 25
Conditioner- 18
Makeup- 7
Bodywash - 10 (and some are huge!)

I got into the bad habit of putting it into my red cabinet in my bedroom, in the bathroom and in my closet. I am now putting it all in my kitchen closet (which was last months organizing project, I'll post about that later). I'll probably find more as I go (hehe) and it's really nice to have it all in one place now :) And it was worse, this is after I pulled out the brands that I didn't care for to give away or yard sale.

Now ask me why I have all of this? Because it was free or almost free. And you never know when the freebie programs are going to stop and you will have to PAY for toothpaste. I've not paid for toothpaste since 2001. To actually buy a tube now would feel really weird! lol

That is enough craziness for now. Thanks for all the comments on the bite. I put neosporin on it and the redness went away and it is a light bruise now. It looks a lot better but I still plan to get to the bottom of it on Monday!

Sigh

Natalie came home tonight with a bite on her hand. I didn't see it until we were home. On her daily summary page, there was no mention of the bite.

So I wonder, did they see it? Who did it? It had to be one of the bigger kids, there are a lot of teeth marks.
What would you all do about it? I do plan on printing this picture and asking why they didn't tell me about it.

I am also going to make full shirt bibs for her for meals there. I don't think they are using a bib on her, she comes home filthy on places that a bib covers.

I don't mean to sound down on them, but sometimes I feel like it isn't the best match. I guess I'll see what they say on Monday!

Here are some cute pictures after we did a clothing change and came back from a rummage sale...
Look how long her hair is getting. And the bridge of her nose is growing out a little, she is losing that little baby button nose....sniff sniff - lol

Disney has their free dining promo going on now!


OOHH I so wish we could go this year! I can find the money but vacation time is limited. Waaahhhh! lol (I put the link on the image if you want to see the details...if I can't go maybe someone I know in bloggy land can go!).

Thursday Mid Day Update

Warm enough for a summer dress :)

Hooray for toys!

Huh? What? Why are we home? Because someone went to bed at 7:15pm and woke up at 9am. No joke. I figured if she was that tired then she needed to sleep. I am pretty sure its her teeth. The last time she slept like that she also grew a whole inch! And she was up a lot last night crying and rubbing her poor little mouth. She is such a slow teether (she only has 6 teeth Tia has 14 or 16, I've lost track!) and her teeth take a month to come in once they decide to appear!

So here we are. I am cleaning and she is helping me. I put all her blocks in a pile in the living room and she takes them one at a time to her block bucket to tidy up :)

Not to scare anyone but the house is starting to look like a house! I am doing a detailed vacuuming..once again not to scare anyone, but I MOVED FURNITURE! I am going to catch up on all the dishes (hate doing dishes) and all the laundry.

I am also gathering more things for Chelle's and my yardsale! We had one last year and I did great. I hope to make a lot more this time, I am slashing prices, everything must go! I still hope to have one sale in April and May at my house but we have reserved the community center for June 6&7th. I think one thing we'll do this time that we didn't do last was put a lot of big ticket items outside to draw people in.

I also want to go to the petting zoo that is on the mountain loop a few properties down from Chelle's grandparents. They have all kinds of animals, I want to take pictures of Natalie playing with them :)

In between those last two paragraphs she went back to bed. When she totally FREAKS out (I called for the cat and she went nuts) into bed she goes. Already asleep! Crazy!

CVS ECB Deals - Sales for Week 4/13/08-4/19/08

CVS ECB Deals - Sales for Week 4/13/08-4/19/08 (from Disboards)

---

Remember that if the deal is a monthly AND a weekly you will only be able to do the deal ONCE - no double dip I will be adding more to the other deals (not ECB stuff).

Be sure to check out ttp://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums...splay.php?f=62 and http://deals.families.com/cvs,f533 for a more thorough list of upcoming sales and a match up to coupons out there for their products!!

ECB Specials
$3 ECB WYB four (4) 12 packs of Pepsi products 4/$12.00 - Limit 1
$5 ECB WYB Amderma Cellular Renewal Emulsion $49.99 - Limit 1
$3 ECB WYB Shick Quattro Titanium or trimmer $9.48 - Limit 1
$10 ECB WYB Two (2) of these asst Stomach Remedies - Limit 1
Maalox, Gas-X, ex-Lax, Benefiber or Perdiem, asst types – PSA $4.99
$2 ECB WYB Claritin 24 hr Reditabs or 12 hr D 30ct $17.99 - Limit 1
$3 ECB WYB Clear Care twin pack, Zaditor, Gental drops $13.99 - Limit 1
$14.99 ECB WYB Ascensia Contour Blood Glucose Monitor $14.99 - Limit 1
$5 ECB WYB $15.00 of Futuro products PSA $6.59 - Limit 1

$5 ECB WYB $25.00 of skin affects products - Limit 3

$2 ECB WYB any new L'Oreal product shown $7.99 - Limit 4

$5 ECB WYB Anthelios SX Moisturizing Cream - Limit 5
$1 ECB WYB Chef Boyardee four pack $4.99 - Limit 5
$2 ECB WYB Two (2) 4 Packs of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese 2/$6 - Limit 5
$5 ECB WYB $15.00 of Neutrogena Skin Care - Limit 5
$5 ECB WYB Three (3) Essence of Beauty Bath Products - Limit 5
$10 ECB WYB $20 of Nexxus products - Limit 5
$3 ECB WYB Colgate 360 Micro Sonic Toothbrush $6.99 - Limit 5
$5 ECB WYB CVS/pharmacy One-Time-use Video Camcorder $29.99 - Limit 5
$5 ECB WYB CVS/pharmacy Digital One-Time-use Camera with picture preview 25 exp $14.99 - Limit 5

$5 ECB WYB $15.00 of Nivea for men or Eucerin Products - Limit 10

Buy ONE Get ONE FREE
CVS Jumbo Pack of Diapers
Colgate
M&M’s $3.29
Edy’s Ice Cream $5.99
Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent
CVS Wet/Dry Sweep Cloths or Deep Cleaning Pads
CoverGirl Clean or TruBlend
All L’Oreal Hip Lip, Eye, or Face
All Stridex
All L’Oreal Sublime Glow or Bronze
Osteo Bi-Flex Glucosamine Chondroitin
Life Fitness Vitamins or Supplements
Progresso Soup
CVS Alkaline Batteries

Buy ONE Get ONE 50% off
All Almay Cosmetics or Skincare
CoverGirl Face or All CoverGirl Eye, Lip, or Nail
All CVS Sun Care or Sunless Tanning
Befine Skin Care
Azzaro, Christian Dior, Elizabeth Arden/Taylor, Guerlain, Halston, Oscar de la Renta or Burberry Fragrances
Playskool Baby or Toddler Accessories
All One A Day, Citracal, or Flintstones vitamins
Doggers (like Crocs)
All Neutrogena Cosmetics
All Trim Beauty

Other deals
VO5 Shampoo/Conditioner $0.66
CVS Hydrogen Peroxide/Rubbing Alcohol 2/$1.00
Pledge Aerosol, Spray, duster plus starter #2.99
Gatorade/Propel $0.99
Kelloggs Cereal 2/$5

Don't forget!!! When in doubt and they are out, get a RAINCHECK! they can be used at ANY store and DO NOT EXPIRE!!!

Any questions regarding the ECB program please browse through our 1st thread at:http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1378963

Abbreviations:
ECB = Extra Care Buck
PSA = Prices starting at
CRT = Cash Register Tape
WYB = When You Buy

Helpful websites!!!
http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/extracarehome
http://deals.families.com/cvs,f533
http://www.terismessageboard.com/showthread.php?t=13237
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums...splay.php?f=62

All information is compiled from various sources - other forums, friends, family, personal experience, and the actual ads themselves. My location is in central MA as well as others are country wide, so keep this in mind when reading posts and be sure to confirm your local ad as well before actual shopping. Happy ECB'ing!

Wednesday Update

Lots of things to post :)

The car isn't as bad as the mechanic said it would be. I took it in on Tuesday morning and showed him the wadded up part. That isn't the motor, it is the regulator. He winced when he said it and I asked how much. He said around $300 for the part and $100 for the labor (it takes awhile to work in a tiny space and put a door back together). Well crap. I still can't really complain, this is the first thing to break, the other work was the 90K maintenance, the first set of maintenance I had done on the car lol So tho $400 wasn't great, it wasn't the end of the world. Soooo he calls me later on to tell me when the part would be in and says it is only $120! With tax and labor, about $229! And I saved $50 by taking the door apart myself! YAY! Why is it that $229 is SOOO much less than $400? Heck I can do $229, here's my check :) The part is in tomorrow and they are putting it back together Friday. Woohooo!

I got the baby's clothes from the online Walmart order. Unfortunately both of the little knit dresses are adorable and I need to keep them lol The pink sweater is a bad color so it's going back. I have to reorder the white one in a smaller size. The green track suit is CUTE! Its amazing what you can accumulate in returns for Walmart. I keep mine in the kitchen closet until it is enough to make the stand in line time worth it. Tonight I returned $65 of stuff! Holy cow! How did I manage to let that happen? I spent the $65 plus one buck tonight on stuff we'll use up this month. So that made me feel a little better. I got some groceries, the baby a bathing suit...

and more socks. Where do her socks go? I swear she is eating them or something. I also got other goodies, too boring to post here.

I was able to sell my 1300 shares of Ford stock yesterday at a small profit. This frees up my day trade moola. I am still siting on a lot of stocks that I bought right before the big drop. I think they'll go back up, I just need to give them time. The stock is the main part of my adoption fund for DD#2, so let's hope it recovers in time.

My beach fever is going strong!

Did you see I got to write TWO ads on Monday? Two! Yippee! $21.50! If you aren't writing ads on your blog...well why not? Click the pay per post logo on the right and sign up :)

In a truly frugal and responsible move, we are no longer cruising for 14 days starting in Nov. We've decided that is too long in a little cabin (we being me, my mom and the baby). So we are canceling the 6 day portion. I figured that would save me about $700 plus whatever fun things we were going to do. That $700 almost pays for Disney next year so that is a good move I think :)

Hmm I think that is it for now. For those who made it to the bottom of my boring post..I have pictures! :)


Half of an Easter egg..too bad you can't hear the giggle giggle snort snort when she does this :)

Hiney in the air!

Tonight, all pretty in green after her bath (someone (Natalie) smeared her lunch from head to toe). Ready to go to Walmart!

So tired, smearing myself from head to two with greasy junk food from daycare wears me out.

Ok, I'll go, but hippo has to come too.

I told you I was tired. Fell asleep in the car seat and just woke up long enough for a PJ change and a bottle. Night night!