Oh baby!

So sorry to all of you that are following! I just had our little baby boy and needless to say things have been hectic so I have not had a chance to update the blog. I will try to be better though. We seem to have gotten into the swing of things so it should be easier. Things have been good and so far things have been good financially. People have been great to us and our family has been incredibly generous. We have had so many free meals and the meals last for two to three meals which is even better when you are strapped for cash. I cannot believe the kindness that others have shown us and we cannot wait until we are in a place financially where we can do this for other people. It is so nice to not have to worry about grocery shopping and cooking when you have a new one in the house.

Ta-ta to texting!

Well, on e way that i have figured out I can save money is to not have unlimited texts. Please understand how difficult this is for me as I LOVE to text. My hubby is at work all day and we are able to stay connected through text when we cannot talk. It is also great when I want to tell someone something before I forget and don't have the time to talk or I am in the middle of something. So, I cancelled my unlimited texting and that saves us an additional $15 a month. Wow! That is a lot of money. Trust me though, I definitely used it! So over a year we will have saved $180. Of course i have to be VERY careful about who I text and why. LOL. What a bummer! It is all worth it though because in the end we will be living like no one else!!!

Family

So one thing I have found since we have started having financial trouble is how wonderful family can be. Obviously, we love our families and feel supported by them but going through all of this has made us that much more thankful for everything our families have done for us.

When we moved from Arizona to Texas, we had no jobs and three homes in Arizona that we were struggling to pay the mortgages on. Luckily, my dad allowed us to stay in his basement with our two dogs (boxers) and two cats. That is a lot of animals. Add in the fact that my brother lived there as well with his two cats and, whew, we were always around some sort of furry creature.

We lived there rent free for about a year and I cannot tell you how much that helped us out financially. Not only financially, but our relationship changed a lot as well. It is strange to go back and live with your parents and siblings once you are an adult. The dynamics are so different. It was great for us though. I feel closer to my brother than I have ever been and so does my hubby. They have a bond that they never would have had had we not all lived together. We always had tv night and we would watch our favorite shows together. It was really nice and I actually really miss that. We were also able to spend time with my dad that I will always treasure. Kevin and him became very close as well during that time period which is so nice. Kevin was able to see the dad and know that I have always known. Obviously there were hard times, but overall it was so nice and I would not take that time back for anything.

Once my hubby got a job in the DFW area we were able to relocate but we still did not have a place to stay and no money since my husband had not started his job yet. Luckily, my mom allowed us to stay with her until we got all settled and squared away. Did I mention I was pregnant during most of the time I was living with my mom or dad? Talk about strange dynamics. When you are married and pregnant you are definitely not generally living with your parents. We had plans, but they did not work out in the way we expected them to.

That is the great thing about family. At least my family. I know that my parents had opinions about the decisions we were making but they would always show concern but in the end let us make our own decisions. I am so thankful for that. We have made our mistakes and our parents could see it, but they let us do it and never said, "I told you so". For those of you that know me, I am a VERY stubborn person and trying to convince me to not do something will generally make me do the opposite. I am not saying that is a good trait but I like to prove people wrong. That is why my parents let me make those mistakes. I have made them and now I have learned from them.

My parents have helped us out so much and that is invaluable. When my son needed new shoes and I was not sure how I was going to afford them my mom bought them and brought them over. If it was a change of seasons and my son had outgrown his pajamas, don't you know grandma had gone and purchased some without me knowing. None of this is stuff I ask for, they do it because they know we are struggling to get to a better place and want to help out in any way they can. This time, I feel like we are on the right track and they will not be disappointed when we come to them and say," WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!"

We could not do it without our parents and we will forever be grateful to them. I can only hope that we can be as awesome and understanding as my parents have been.

Consignment Sale!!!

Twice a year they have a HUGE sale in Fort Worth where literally hundreds of people come to consign their children's clothes. It is HUGE!!! I am talking MASSIVE and it is one of the biggest in the nation. I have gone every time since my little man was born and I have yet to be disappointed. One little tidbit to help all the newbies out there, VOLUNTEER!!! If you volunteer you get first dibs on everything and let me tell you, the volunteers always clean house. I estimate that I spent $200 worth of stuff and got about $800. Most of it was Children's Place, Gap, and Old Navy. A lot of the stuff still had tags on them! I got a ton of shoes for my little men and even got a little Huffy tricycle. The Huffy tricycle was $6 but it retails for $60. What a savings!!! I always love going to this sale and look forward to it every time. They have them all over the nation so check them out. They are called Just Between Friends. It is a franchise so I cannot guarantee that they are the same everywhere. I however, love the one here. Above is a pic of all of most of my goodies!

Product Whore

Yes, I said it. I am a product whore. I LOVE products and I am not ashamed to admit it. The problem is I am on a very strict budget and my $30 powder just doesn't fit in. Neither does my foundation, face wash, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, hair care products or any other makeup. UGH! What is a gal to do??? I mean seriously? I know I am being vain and there are much more important things in the world, but I have to have my product!

The hair care was an adjustment and I did cringe when I purchased it for $2 as opposed to my normal $15-$30, but I did do it. And yes, the body wash I got on sale and used a coupon for is more like jelly than a foaming flurry of bubbles. But that is ok, we all have to make sacrifices.

Tonight though, I had to buy makeup from Walgreens. Oh the humanity!!!! I know there are a lot of women that purchase makeup from drugstores all of the time and sometimes it is better than anything you could purchase in a department store, but I used to work for a cosmetic company and so I am VERY particular about what goes on my face. I guess you could say I am a product snob in addition to being a product whore. I don't mean to be, it is just the way it is. I tried to buy an eyeliner but I just couldn't force myself to do it. At least not at this point. Baby steps, right?

Super Stoked

Ok, so I decided tonight was going to be the night that I would go and use my "Register Rewards" at Walgreens and see how I could do. I had $22 worth of rewards and boy was I stoked when I walked out of Walgreens. Never in my life did I think I would go to Walgreens for grocery shopping as I always felt it was a ripoff. NOT TRUE!!! I just bought $45 worth of stuff for a little over $1 after I used my Register Rewards. Woohoo!!!! As usual, I took a picture as I was QUITE pleased with myself. I bought 4 boxes of cereal, 2 boxes of pop tarts, 2 things of Cottonelle moist wipes, 4 toothbrushes, one thing of mascara, and two jars of peanut butter. Do not get me wrong, once we are out of debt, we will not be purchasing some of this stuff, but for right now it is ok. My husband could eat pure sugar and still never gain a pound. The sugary stuff is for him, not me or my little man. So the trick to having a successful trip to Walgreen's is this, you HAVE to wait until things are on sale. The markup is ridiculous there, but when they have a sale it is actually a good price. Use one of their coupons if they have it and then make sure to find any manufacturer's coupons as well. Literally everything I purchased had a coupon in addition to being on sale. So far, the blogs I have really enjoyed have been afullcup.com, thekrazycouponlady.com, and couons.com. If you are not already friends with people on FB you should friend them. STL Mommy is great as is Common Sense Money. They leave status updates with the latest and greatest deals multiple times a day. Hope this helps guys!

Walgreens

Or Wags as the people in the coupon world like to call it. Ok, so I have NEVER been a fan of going to Walgreens to pick up anything other than prescriptions. I have always felt everything is overpriced so therefore I have never paid much attention to it. Well, looks like I am eating my words a lot lately. Who knew they had great deals at Walgreens??? The one that I thought was especially great was their Dove's Men Care. If you bought one men's face and body for $5.99, you received a $6 Register Rewards. I bought two and had to do them in separate transactions in order to get the Rewards twice. So basically, YOU GET THEM FOR FREE!!!! How AWESOME is that? Oh, and I had coupons for $1.50 off each of the body cleansers so I basically made money. I also had to get my hubby some Zyrtec because he has crazy allergies and they were on sell there as well. I was able to get $10 in Register Rewards if I bought two 30 day supply Zyrtec bottles. Oh, and did I mention I had a coupon for that as well??? I finally think I am starting to get the hang of this. So today, I spent a little less than $50 total on everything, but with the Register Rewards I received it came to $26.93. Let it be known that the Zyrtec alone would have been over $40. If I had not used coupons and sales, the total would have been over $75. This is pure craziness!