Traveling, babies, couponing, OH MY!

Hello friends and family! This past few weeks have been very interesting. I made a trip to see my mama and sister in Tennessee, my friend and his wife had their first baby, and I have been a very busy couponer!

First, introducing the newest baby in my life, Kenlyn :)



She is cute as a button!

Second, I finally got the chance to travel back to Tennessee and see my mommy! Yay! This is the first time I've been back home in over a year and a half and I have to say I was very relieved to be home.

My airport experience on this particular trip was not the best. I almost missed my first flight due to a delay at the security check point, we had no gate when landing in Denver, I had to walk 40 gates to get to my next flight, had no gate AGAIN when I landed in Tennessee, and had a scare that they lost my bag (they didn't though). Again, not the best time. My mommy and I had a nice lunch together in the city before driving out to her house in the country. I was very happy to see my dogs, Nick and Sassy, and even more relieved that they remembered me!

My Sassy

My Nicky

Then the evening got interesting. While driving to meet my mom and I in Tennessee my sister was hit by a deer. Yes, I wrote that correctly. She was hit by the deer, not the other way around. The not so smart deer ran straight into her driver side and decapitated itself. I'm thinking it was suicide. That was an adventure in itself. After driving in the wrong direction for several miles my mom and I finally arrived to rescue my sister and have her car towed to the dealership. Unfortunately it was the middle of the night so we had to just leave it there until the morning. When we went back the next day, this is what it looked like...




*Sigh* Poor deer, poor car, poor sister.

The rest of the visit was very fun! There was lunches, shopping, resting, and laughing!




Yes, we're weird.

And finally.....COUPONING!!!!

My mama is a professional couponer so she shared some of her tips and tricks with me. She also made me my own binder to keep my coupons in. Today was my first day off since getting back from Tennessee so I went out and tried out my new skills. I think I did pretty good for being a newbie!



I got all of this stuff for under 40 bucks! I was able to get 2 bottles of bleach (which I will be donating to the Humane Society), 4 rolls of paper towels, 2 cans of shaving cream, a tube of toothpaste, two packaged of Sharpies, 4 things of tape, 3 cans of tomato sauce, 2 bottles of dish soap, 2 things of deodorant, 4 boxes of ziplock bags, 2 packages of pens (which I got for free), a bottle of conditioner, 2 bottles of body soap, foil, wax paper, and finally, two packages of hair bands (also free). My mom does way better, but I'm getting there!

So thats the latest scoop. More couponing updates to come!!

Extreme-ish Couponing!

I have a new goal. Save as much money on food as possible! I am following in the footsteps of the extreme couponers from TLC...kind of. I don't have a large family to feed or a large home to store a "stockpile". But what I do have, is time to do the best I can to save as much money as I can! And if I happen to get way too much to be able to keep at my place, I will donate it to the local food bank or other community charities. There! Problem solved :) I have started a new email address specifically for this purpose and signed up with all of the big couponing websites. So far I have only found a few online coupons that apply to my needs. But come this Sunday the weekly inserts will be out and I can start clipping! I even have a neighbor that is interested in doing it too, so I have a built in support system! I can't wait until I have enough coupons to go on my first mini-haul. I think I will do ok, but practice makes perfect! So, all you couponers out there...any good advice?
(Thanks for the image grocerycouponfree.net!)