Planner

We have names picked out for Baby Turner, 1 first & middle name for each gender. We are ready to find out what we're having so we can put a name to our first child. We actually had the names picked out before I got pregnant! We are not going to tell the name right away maybe not until the baby is born. I have a strong feeling that our families will like the name we've picked! We were very mindful of possible nicknames, initials, and weird spellings. The names we've picked are not super popular, but they're not strange or unique either. We don't want our son or daughter to be 1 of 3 Ashleys or 1 of 4 Michaels in their class, but we also didn't want an extremely hard name to spell or pronounce because they would get annoying for them and for us. I'm so ready to find out what this little one is!

Everyone knows that having a baby is expensive! Adding another person to our family is exciting though! With a baby comes the cost of diapers, wipes, formula, clothes, shoes, shampoo, soap, and all the other necessities to make baby healthy and happy! I have already been asked if we are going to do reusable, cloth diapers. My answer is no, because we are on well water our concern would be having to flush more often and wash clothes and diaper inserts could be problematic if we were in a drought and I also don't see a need to do cloth diapers since I'm able to use coupons and score major deals! If N were to lose his job again, God forbid, then we might consider it. Since I knew we would one day start a family, back in January I started picking up diapers along the way with coupons. I'm not sure how much I've spent in total, but I can tell you that I have never paid over $5 for a pack of diapers. I typically buy diapers at 8-11 cents per diaper. You might be wondering where I get diaper coupons and how I'm able to get them so cheap. Well I get my diaper coupons from - 1) the back of Cheerios boxes $1.50 off Pampers, 2) coupon blinkie machines on the shelf at grocery stores, 3) my coupon swap group, and 4) Sunday's paper. I have found the best deals at Target, CVS, and Harris Teeter. With Target I've been able to stack a store coupon with a manufacture coupon to save the most money. At CVS, same kinda thing - I've used Extra Care Bucks with a store coupon $5 off $25, plus a manufacture coupon. At Harris Teeter twice now they have had select Pampers diapers for $5.99 each for eVic members and then I've used a digital coupon with a manufacture coupon to get diapers for cheap - $2.99! Coupons may seem overwhelming at first but once you get your system down and you see the savings, it's so worth it! For the first month we have Baby Turner we won't have to worry about buying diapers and we haven't even had any baby showers yet!!

Can you tell that I'm a planner??!!

Never Underestimate the Value of Rain checks or Gift Cards

You can really save money by getting a rain check! Whenever there's an awesome sale price on an item we use all the time I get a rain check on the last day of the sale so I can come back later and buy more.

Here are 2 examples of how I've used rain checks to score some major savings!

1. I got a rain check for Lays 20 Variety pack on sale for $3.97. These normally retail for $6.99-$8.99 each. My rain check was for limit 2. I waited until we were out of chips and I had a coupon for $1 off 2 Lays chips. I was able to get 2 packs of 20 chips for $6.94 so basically the cost of 1.
2. I got a rain check for Huggies Slip On diapers at CVS. The rain check sale price was for $8.99 each, limit 4 and get a $10 gas gift card when you buy 4. I got the rain check because every CVS I went to was sold out the week they were on sale. It was such a great deal I got a rain check. I waited until I had 4 coupons to get 4 packs. With 4, $3 off manufacture coupons and $5 in CVS coupons, I was able to get 4 packs of diapers for $21.25 and I got back $10 in Extra Care Bucks since they were no longer doing the gas gift cards. So with getting $10 back in basically store credit, you can look at it as paying $11.25 for 4 packs of diapers! I saved $14.71 by using coupons!

The point of me sharing these examples is to encourage you to get a rain check the next time you see an item at an awesome price. That way you can buy it again when you need it.

Now here's an example of how gift cards can pay off -

Target is running a special where you get a $5 Target gift card when you buy 5 Glade Christmas fragrance items - candles or sprays. So I bought 4 candles and 1 spray - all of which smell really good! Each item is on sale for $2.50 each, but I used coupons for each item to save even more money. With my coupons I spent $9.40 and I got back a $5 gift card. I used my $5 gift card to buy Huggies Little Mover diapers for only 96 cents!!! The diapers are on sale this week for $9.49, I used a $2 off manufacture coupon and a $2 off Target Huggies coupon, and then my $5 gift card, making it 49 cents with another 47 cents in tax. Gotta love sales tax! So basically I got 6 things for $10.36 which averages out to be $1.73 per item. Not bad considering the Glade items were $2.50 each and the diapers alone were $9.49! 

Waiting Game

I am 15 weeks pregnant! Last night I tried sleeping on my belly and as soon as I laid still I felt the strangest movement, it was definitely the baby moving inside me! It was so weird! I don't know if it was a kick, a punch, or just a spin around, but it felt cool. I told hubby when it happened (he was awake too) and he joked that baby must be trying to say, "mommy don't squish me!" Sometimes I wonder what it's like living and growing inside my belly! Like what does the baby feel when I roll over in bed or what does he or she feel when I laugh really hard? I bet it feels like an earthquake! Last night hubby asked me over dinner, "when are you going to get really big and round?" my answer to him was, "I don't know, my guess is around 18 weeks, but definitely around 25 weeks I'll be huge!" Having a baby bump has been interesting, I thought I would be bigger than I am now, but I'm glad I'm not. When most people think about being pregnant they think about having a cute baby bump and the reality is most women don't have that cute, round bump until 18-22 weeks, which is way later than I thought it would happen. I cannot wait until we found out if baby is a boy or a girl!! It's driving me crazy not knowing if there's a boy or a girl growing inside me! We really want to start calling the baby by their name! Starting this week the baby can hear so we're going to start reading books to him or her! My husband is a great storybook reader!!! I love listening to him read children's book! I'm sure the baby will love his voice and the way he changes voices for different characters in the story. Maybe hearing him read to him or her will make me feel more kicks or punches in the coming weeks!

We are still saving money as much as we can. We went to the State Fair on can day! We only spent $13.50 on food at the fair and only about $3 on 8 canned foods to get in. I was really proud of myself for not overindulging in junk food at the fair! Everything smelled so good though! Every corner we turned I would say, "oh that smells good! I want _____." I really practiced self-control. I wanted funnel cake, ribbon fries, and kettle corn, but I didn't get any of that. I only had a foot long hot dog, some fries, and some ice cream. Last night we went out to dinner for our date night. We had a delicious, filling dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. Believe it or not we only spent $17.07 and that included tip! How did we do it? Ruby Tuesday's has an email club called So Connected. I joined several months ago and it seems like every month they email me buy 1 entree get 1 free coupon. We don't go every time we get that coupon, but we've always enjoyed eating there when we've used that coupon! We could eat out more often or spend more money on date nights, but we would rather think about our future and make smart choices now rather than live it up now and regret it later when we have no money. In less than a year we could go down to 1 paycheck, depending on what I decide to do after the baby gets here so we're trying to prepare for that change.

Confessions

I really want Baby Turner to be a BOY!! I know that I have no control over whether baby is a boy or girl, but my heart really wants it to be a boy! If Baby Turner is a girl then God is going to have to change my heart and change it quick because we only have 5-6 more weeks before we find out the gender! So since I really want a boy first, my 2nd confession is that yesterday I bought Baby Turner an airplane crib set. In my defense I was not looking to buy a crib set. Since N flies remote controlled airplanes I periodically type in "airplane" in the search bar on Craiglist so when I typed in "airplane" on Tuesday night I saw this post for an airplane crib set. Of course I was curious so I clicked on it. I was pleasantly surprised to see an airplane crib set I had never seen before. We had already picked out an airplane crib set we liked at Wal-mart but this one was cuter and more adolescent looking and not baby-ish like the one we had picked out. And to make it even better, I could not beat the price! Here's what I got - 1 bumper, 1 bed skirt, 1 fitted sheet, 1 blanket, 1 mobile, 3 extra fitted sheets, waterproof mattress cover, and 3 receiving blankets are for $25! There's 1 sheet that I don't like because it doesn't match the set and another sheet is girly looking so I will have find a purpose for those, but I still have 2 fitted sheets to use. Everything was in great shape! The lady said she never used the bumper or blanket because she was afraid of SIDS and I can tell they weren't used, they look brand new! So if Baby Turner is not a boy then we'll still save this set in hopes of baby 2 being a boy. Now that you've heard my thinking and rational behind getting this set, tell me what you think of it!

Our Life is Changing!

We are expecting our first child in April! Back in March during our 1 year anniversary trip we talked about when we would want to start trying to have a baby. We decided that getting pregnant in August, September, October time frame would be perfect so I could avoid being pregnant in the summer months. Well God's timing is perfect and He's in charge - we were only in our 2nd month, SECOND month of trying when I took an at-home pregnancy test and it was positive! I took the test at home on August 6th and then the week that followed I had a positive test at my OB's office. Every since then life has not been the same! We feel truly blessed to have gotten pregnant so quickly and when we wanted. The first few weeks we were in shock, it's still unbelievable at times to think it took less than 2 months to get pregnant!

We made it to 12 weeks!!! As of yesterday I am 12 weeks pregnant! 2nd trimester here we come! I have not had any morning sickness, no nausea, no cramps, and no spotting! I feel normal aside from having to pee more often, sleeping more, and eating more at times. At 10 weeks I think I felt the baby move. It's hard to tell since I've never been pregnant, but it was around 9:30 and I was laying in bed and just felt a flutter. It was a feeling I have never experienced before. Since then I feel flutters a lot mostly in the morning or late a night. Our next appointment is this Thursday, but it's only with the nurse so I'm going into it not expecting to find out much like the heartbeat, measurements, etc. Then the following week we get to the see the doctor and I'll have a full body exam done, which will be fun - NOT! I'm hoping we'll get to know the heartbeat or better yet have an ultrasound done which would make the exam worth all the pain.

Preparing for Baby Turner - we already have a TON of stuff! We have several packs of diapers that I've bought along the way with couponing. We have quite a collection of books - Dr. Seuss, Golden Books, and Disney stories. We also have some kid movies - Veggie Tales, Baby Einstein, and Disney. Our plan is not to buy anything until after all the showers. We realize that we may have to buy some of the expensive items but we're hoping to get some gift cards that we help with the cost.

Before Baby Turner gets here - We just had our fireplace cleaned and capped. We plan on getting estimates for tree removal and getting 3 trees removed which will be expensive! We put vent flow directors on all the vents downstairs in hopes of keeping our house warmer this winter. We are enjoying time together and continue to make our marriage top priority. We know that once Baby Turner is here we will focus all of time and energy on him or her and spend less time on each other. We will still go out and spend time together we just realize it won't be the same. Right now we can be selfish and go out whenever we want, stay out as long as we want, and do whatever we want without having to think about finding a sitter, when baby will wake up, and how often baby will cry while we're gone. Yesterday we went out on a date. We saw Courageous and we went out to dinner. We only spent $18.50 on dinner and a movie!!! Yes, I still use coupons! Going out doesn't have to expensive. We had a lot of fun. The movie was really good! We both cried! And dinner was fun, we flirted with each other from across the table. I spun an unwrapped straw on the table acting like it was spin the bottle, it was fun!

Less Than $1 per item

Didn't do too bad at super doubles this week. I managed to take home $211.42 worth of groceries for only $60.14. This was not accomplished in 1 trip that would be impossible since you can only just 20 coupons per day. I feel like I've done better during other super double weeks. I did manage to spend less than $1 per item so knowing that makes it better. The best deal I got was 4 boxes of Fiber Plus cereal for $2.78, that's 69 cents a box! I also managed to score 2 cans of shave gel for free, Soft Scrub bathroom cleaner for free, Fiber Plus bars for free, 4 packs of Taco seasoning for free, and several things for 50 cents each.  Since I'm not the breadwinner, never will be, every time I save lots of money on groceries I feel I make a huge contribution to our family. We have a fully stocked pantry now that should last us at least 3 weeks so fingers crossed, this month our grocery spending should be under $130 for the month.

Here are pictures of my goodies from super doubles at Harris Teeter -

There are 2 things not in these pictures - 1 pack of chicken leg quarters and 1 bag of frozen potatoes. Altogether I took home 61 things for only $60.14 of my own money and used $151.28 worth of coupons! How did you save on groceries this week?

My tip for the week - You're not really saving money if you're using coupons to get things that your family doesn't like or won't eat. Everything you see in the 2 pictures above will be gone in the next 3-4 weeks! I skip over deals and even freebies if I know it's something we won't eat or use. Many new couponers make the mistake of using coupons just to use coupons. Instead save money by only buying items you know you'll use. It may sound like common sense, but you'd be surprised by the # of times I've read or seen someone post their deals and outright say, just wanted to grab this deal to say that I did it, no plans on using it.

Knowing Where Your $ Goes

Great news - my husband is not getting laid off again!!!! He received an email on Thursday morning letting him know that no one on his team will be affected by the lay offs. I was home that day and he was working from home so it was very neat to see each others' reaction to the news! Talk about a huge relief!!! Now we're just waiting to hear about my job, whether we received another 3 years of grant funding. I think we will receive funding, it's just a matter of when we'll hear the news.

Now on to other things, every month at the end of the month we put all of our expenses in a spreadsheet and then compare it to last month's numbers. We started this spreadsheet routine when we were engaged and wanting to keep track of wedding expenses. It's a great way to see where all our money goes! And we use it to set our financial goals and sometimes it has caused us to reevaluate our spending on certain items. The exciting thing about July is for the entire month, we only spent $136 and some change on groceries for the entire month!!! Isn't that crazy??!!! We use to spend $300-$315 a month so $136 makes me very happy!!! I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for super doubles! I have learned to stock up on things we eat during super doubles and doing that has made us not have to buy as many groceries during non-super double weeks. Super doubles for this month will start on Wednesday!!! So excited! We are almost out of tacos, Silk soy milk, and vegetables so I hope to stock up on those.

To give you an idea of the deals I get, here's what I bought yesterday -

2 cans of Skinimate shave gel for 89 cents each, 1 pack of Pampers Easy Ups for $1.99, 3 boxes of Lance Creations $1 each, box of pasta for 15 cents, 3 bags of Bugels 66 cents each, 42 pack of Poise pads for $1.75, FREE Tic Tacs, and FREE Crystal Light mix. Bought everything for $11.16, with 13 items that's an average of 85 cents per item!!! I try to hit at least 50% savings everywhere I go. Typically I'm able to hit 60-65% savings. I have my "buy" prices and my "not for that price" prices and I try to stick to those prices unless we absolutely have to have it.

My tip for the week - Know where your money goes. For us we work hard for our money so it's important for us to know exactly where our money goes every month. If you're not keeping track of all your expenses then you may not know that you spend $300 a month on groceries or $250 a month on gas. Maybe you're wondering how your electric bill could be so high. Well if you're able to compare it to last summer's bills then you can tell the difference to determine if your AC unit needs to be serviced. Maybe you think you're saving as much as you can. If you have a spreadsheet with a % break down every month like we do then you can tell how much of your pay check goes toward gas, electricity, groceries, cell phone, etc. At first it might be depressing to look at, but you set a goal and reach it, like we have done then it's fun! I really enjoy seeing our progress from month to month.