I Just Won 3 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

I Just Won 3 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

Swagbucks is a search engine (like Google or Yahoo) that you can earn swagbucks (points) for searching. You can use your swagbucks to earn prizes, from gift certificates to books, music downloads, and much more. Only 45 swagbucks will buy a $5 amazon.com giftcard. I've already earned 2 of them, plus am only 6 away from getting another one.

Use the following referral link if you want to try it out! (I earn matching swagbucks for anyone who signs up under me, up to 100.)

http://swagbucks.com/refer/JennyPlus4Kids

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Five Months

Ollie is five months old today. He's almost sitting up by himself. He's holding onto toys and putting them in his mouth. He laughs a lot when people make faces or be silly with him. He's a lot of fun! And big--the sleeper he's wearing in the picture is size 12 months!

Super One Highlights

Grocery stores usually run good sales around holidays, and Memorial Day is no exception. I spent a little more on meat than normal, but I wanted to try the Lloyd's baby back ribs. They were on sale for $9.99 and I had a $1 coupon. The regular price was $17.59--I would NEVER pay that much! But for $8.99, it was cheaper than getting them at a restaurant. They tasted good and were easy to prepare. The pork loins were buy 1, get 1 free. One was $9.99, and I used 2-$1 coupons, so 2 for $7.99, or $4 each. They are 1.7 pounds, so it works out to about $2.35 per pound.

I printed some good coupons at coupons.com recently and used some of them yesterday. I got:
Shredded and block cheese: 5/$10-$1/2 coupon=$1.50 each
American cheese: $2.29-$1 coupon=$1.29
Ritz crackers: $2.50-$1 coupon=$1.50
Wheat Thins: $2.00-$1 coupon=$1.00
Wheat Thins: Free w/purchase of Ritz crackers
Triscuits: $2.00-$1 coupon=$1.00

And a few more deals:
Post Trail Mix Crunch:$2.88-$2 coupon=$0.88 each
Hunt's ketchup: Free w/coupon that came in booklet from Con Agra foods in the mail
Kraft BBQ sauce: $0.99-$0.75 coupon=$0.24 each
Ken's dressing: FREE with coupon
Ortega taco seasoning: $0.75 each -$1/2 coupon=$0.25 each
Candy bars: $0.44 each-2 buy 1 get 1 free coupons=$0.22 each

Saved 40%, or $101.91 overall.

At Pamida, I bought Luvs diapers on sale for $16.99 (usually $19.00), used 1-$1 coupon, and they had a deal for free wipes (regular price $5.69) when you buy diapers, so I got 2 of those since I bought 2 boxes of diapers. Overall savings: 33%, or $16.40.

$5.00

I was going to make some peanut butter cookies this afternoon, but I was out of eggs, so I loaded up the kids to go to Zup's. I got all this for only $5.88, but it only cost me $5 because I used $0.88 on the cash card I got in a box of cereal.
Eggs, 18 ct.: $1.19 (too bad Remy grabbed the carton when we got home, spilling and breaking 12 of them)
Peanut butter: 2/$3.99, used $1/2 coupon, got $1.50 off bread
Bread: $1.99-$1.50 for buying peanut butter=$0.50
Hot dogs: $0.99 each-$1/2 coupon=$0.49 each
BBQ sauce: $0.99 each-$1.00 and $0.75 coupons=$0.23 for 2

Raina-Preschool

It's a little quiet around here today. Raina's last day of preschool was Monday, with the picnic on Wednesday. Today the kids who will be in kindergarten next year get to go to kindergarten for the day. She rode the bus this morning, will eat lunch at school, have P.E., and ride the bus home again. The preschool teacher took a lot of pictures through the year and gave each child a CD with pictures of them. Here's a look at Raina in preschool (by the way, she gained 2 pounds and grew 1 inch through the year):

First day of school

Cleaning out a pumpkin

Playing in birdseed

This was made into a card for our Christmas gift from Raina

Painting (her favorite activity)

Tower of blocks

Pajama and pancake day

Ollie visited the class

Making brownies

The whole class

Playing in the sand

At the picnic, playing with the parachute

At the end of the year picnic

Done with preschool!

Jackson is 10!

Jackson in his new baseball gear, and Joe Mauer jersey from Abby.

Jackson's birthday was Sunday, and he's now in double digits. He had a baseball birthday party on Saturday with some boys from his class. You would think a birthday party in May would come with decent weather, but it was COLD! (in the 40's) and windy. The boys didn't mind, and still played baseball outside.

I served hot dogs, chips, fruit salad, veggie tray and juice boxes. I also made an ice cream cake shaped like a baseball. The kids were pretty well-behaved, and Jackson had a fun party.

Fourth grade boys like to "dogpile."

Pamida Double Coupons

Pamida had double coupons again this week, and since I had to get some groceries for Jackson's birthday party, I stopped. Some coupons doubled for more than their original price, so the overage went toward other things:
Suave deoderant--$1.29-$.075 coupon doubled=$0.21 overage
No Nonsense nylons--$0.67 on clearance-$1.00 coupon doubled=$1.33 overage
(They aren't even my size, and I really don't wear nylons, but I can either donate them or sell them at a garage sale, if Pamida is going to pay me to take them!)
Trident gum--$1.19-$.075 coupon doubled=$0.31 overage
Vitamin water--$1.39-$1.00 coupon doubled=$0.61 overage.
I also bought two SoBe Lifewaters at $1.49/$1.59 and used 2 $0.50 coupons, making them $0.49/$0.59 each, and a tub of Pampers wipes for $4.19!!!-$1.00 coupon doubled=$2.19.
All of the above, plus 12 $0.99 packs of cards for Jackson's birthday party, and a couple of game prizes, totaled $17.62.

I only saved 28% at Super One this week because I had some specific things I needed (not on sale, had no coupon) for the party. I also spaced out on a couple of coupons I could have used. I did remember to get back the $5 I was overcharged last time when the cashier rang two boxes of cereal twice.

Monday's Menus

What we're eating this week:
Sunday (Mother's Day)--Grilled pork chops, potato salad, corn, angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream
Monday--Pork tacos (made with leftover pork chops) and Mexican rice
Tuesday--Vegetable soup
Wednesday--Chicken burgers, homemade fries, baby carrots
Thursday--Stir fry with brown rice
Friday--Friday night pizza
Saturday--Jackson's birthday party: Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, veggies and dip, cake and ice cream

Monday's Mail

In the mail today:
A sample of the new Huggies Natural diapers--3 diapers plus a mini-tote
Coupon for free Fruitabu product
3-50 cent coupons for Whole Fruit bars
Coupon train coupons

Another Thumbsucker?

For a few weeks now, Ollie has been sucking on his hands all the time. The last couple of days, he must have discovered his thumb and has been sucking it. I don't know if it will turn out to be a long-term thing or not, but it sure is cute!

Kid Pics

Grocery Highlights

Took a little trip to Super One today. I'm getting the hang of shopping with little kids: Ollie goes in the carrier, Remy in the cart, and Raina walks. I bring a snack for Remy to keep him occupied so he doesn't want to get out and run around. Ollie usually falls asleep.
FREE after coupons:

Ken's dressing
Buddig ham
Kashi cereal
On Cor family meal
Michelina's frozen meal
Hunt's BBQ sauce--free with purchase of 2 Banquet chicken items
Hunt's Snack Pack pudding--free with purchase of 2 Reddi Wip

Other good deals:

Chinet plates, 36 count lunch size: On sale for 2/$5, used 2-$2 coupons, so $0.50 for each pack.
McCormick Grillmates seasoning: Buy 1, get 1 free. Were $2.69 each, used a $1 and a $0.50 coupon, so they were $0.60 each.
Nature Sweet cherry tomatoes were$1.50, used $0.55 coupon=$0.95
Earthbound Farms organic kiwi were $1.88 for 1 pound bag, used $1 coupon=$0.88
Yoplait yogurt was on sale again, 12/$5 and used 2-$0.40 coupons=$0.35 each
I saved $117.15 today, or 40% of my original total by buying on sale and using coupons.
We also bought 10 packets of seeds for $2.00. Hopefully we'll get some things to grow, and have a fun summer project for the kids and I.