Birthday Celebration!

Tomorrow I turn the BIG 3-0! I am still unsure how I feel about it yet.  I know it is far from old but at the same time I feel like I am officially a GROWN UP, even though I have been married for 6 years and have 2 beautiful redheads and adulthood has been around for awhile now. :)  To celebrate this momentous occasion my hubby and I are headed out of town to BOSTON!!! Back in the day (before kiddos) we would make it a yearly tradition to head up to Boston catch a baseball game and explore the city. It's one city that this country girl actually loves! Since having the kiddos sadly me and the hubs have not gone on an overnight trip by ourselves in the last 5 years! So needless to say we are in desperate need of some ALONE time. A HUGE THANK YOU to my Mom, Sister, Brother-in-law, and Mother-in Law for tag teaming the kiddos to make this trip happen for us!

I was reading this article the other day called "Turning 30: 30 Things Every Woman Should Have and Should Know" and I am glad to say I have done and know majority of the items on that list YaY! After reading it I was thinking about things I have learned in these 30 years and here they are...

1. Having a couple of AWESOME friends that you can count on any time day or night to be there for you (and vise versa) is so much more important than having tons of "Acquaintance Friends".
2. Sadly some people even as adults, will just never grow up and leave the high school drama behind. Accept that fact and move on to what is important in YOUR life.
3. Life is short. Make the relationships you have with people count and be worthwhile.
4. It's important to stop at times and take a deep look at the life you are living. Are you content and happy where your life has taken you? If not stop and alter that path to help lead you to the contentment and happiness we all deserve.
5. No matter how much you want to, you can not change someone. The only things you have control to change is yourself and your behaviors/actions in situations.
6. Living a simple life is not wrong. It may go against the grain of society and people might think you are an odd duck for not caring about the materialistic things in life, but it is NOT wrong. 
7. Finding happiness and joy is so much easier when you look at the simple things life brings you instead of all the other stuff.

That is all I got so far. All of these 7 things have been huge life lessons for me in the last couple of years and they are still work in progresses but I am getting there. 

What are some life lessons that you have learned along the way?

To celebrate my BIG 3-0 Birthday even more, Fabric Nerds  is having a HUGE one day only sale. Tomorrow, Fri July 20th take 30% off all orders $30 or more!! Use coupon code: BIG30. (Note: All orders placed on Fri-Sun will be shipped out on Monday)

Happy Fabric Shopping! 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend full of family, friends, and fun!

<3 Kris

World of Couponing

Yes I am one of those :)

Last week I posted a status on my personal facebook page about an awesome deal to get Big G cereals for .38 cents a box. I thought I was the only one who would care but was so excited I just had to write about it. To my surprise I got an outpouring of responses.  While I do not take couponing to an extreme, what I do, do majorly helps our family out in the finance department. 

We are a young family of 4 living in NJ and are a one income family. When we had our youngest Luke (who is now 21 months) my husband and I had a long talk about whether or not I should go back to work.  Daycare in New Jersey on the cheaper side near us would run about $1800/month for both kids, which was about what I was bringing in before we had Luke. It would have been a complete wash, so we made the decision for me to stay home. We told ourselves to give it 1 year. If we could make it past the first year we could do it. It has now been almost 2 years! (yay!) I am not going to lie some months are stressful in the finance department but we get through them together. We have had to change our way of living and thinking in many different ways but from doing that I have found my family and I find such happiness in simpler and littler things than we ever had before. 

My husband is not a doctor or a big CEO of a company to have made our decision of me staying home easier. We are just an every day blue collar working class family getting by. My husband works harder than anyone I know to provide for all of us and I could have never asked for a better man to call my husband. I can only hope that one day my daughter will find a guy who is as much a family man as a working man as her daddy is.  Being able to stay home with the munchkins has given me the opportunity and the time to finish up my Master's that I stopped once my daughter was born and has also given me the opportunity to venture into the world of business ownership. While I may have student loan debt that my great grand-kids will probably be paying for me and we can't take big fancy vacations right now. I can honestly say I am happy and content with every choice we have made and I see nothing but positive things for my family in the future. We have become a very close knit family already.

Now onto the savings!!

Just took a trip to Target & Shop-rite and shaved about 50% off my total. Here is how I did it:

Target:

Note: Target allows you to stack coupons by using a Manufacturer and a Target Coupon)

• Archer Farms Trail Mix is on sale for $2.99 -Target has a coupon for 1.50 off 2   (Knocks each bag down to $2.24)
• Right Guard Hair/Body Wash is $3.49.  Target  has a coupon for $1 off 1 (print x2) and Coupons.com (use zip 90210) has a coupon for $2.00 off 2 knocking the price down to $1.49 a bottle.
• Nabisco Crackers (I bought Ritz and Wheat Thins)  On sale for $2.00. Target has a coupon for $1 off 2 boxes and Coupon Suzy (type in zipcode 90210) has a coupon for $1 off 2.  Price per box is now at $1!
• Dial pump soap - $1.27  Target has a coupon for .50 cents off/1. Making total .77 cents
• Up and Up ibuprofen - .99cents/24 count   Target has a coupon for $1off/2. Total .98 for 2 bottles!
• Right Guard Deodorant $3.34  Target has a coupon for $2off/2  and  Coupons.com (use zip 90210) has $2 off/2. Total cost $1.34/deodorant!

Total before coupons: $26.89 + tax

Total after coupons: $13.89 + tax

TOTAL SAVINGS: $13.00!!!

Shoprite:

Note: Shoprite doubles most coupons which are under $1.00

• Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cereal (Caramel Nut) On Sale for $1.99 Coupon at Kellogg's (free membership) .50cents off/1  Total price: .99cents!
• Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cereal (Honey Nut) On sale for $1.99. Coupon at  Coupons.com (use zip 90210) .70 cents off/1 Total Price: .59 cents!

Total before coupons: $3.98

Total after coupons: $ 1.58

TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.40!!

For the little shopping I did today I saved my family $15.40 and everything bought were things we use and need.. no extreme 70 jars of mayo here! ;)

A lot of you are saying no way can I take the time to figure out sales and coupons and when they line up, right? Trust me with 2 young kids running around, school work, etc.. neither do I. But today is your lucky day because there are FREE websites to do that for you. check out Krazy Coupon Lady and Coupon Mom. They will match up sales and coupons, what the best deals are, and where to get the coupons, for grocery stores, big chains (e.g., Walmart and Target) and pharmacies.

I dare you to give it a try. I guarantee you will be hooked when you start to see the price drop at the register!

Happy Couponing Everyone!

<3 Kris
Fabric Nerds