Birthday and Basketball

Jackson on the left, #40

Jackson's been playing basketball this winter with other 4th-6th graders from his school. He was excited that he scored 4 points in his first game, and although he didn't score in the second game, he did play well defensively and had several rebounds. The kids and I watched his game in Two Harbors. I think Ollie wanted to take a nap instead.

Remy turned 4 on February 16. He picked chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. He was thrilled to get some new Super Hero toys (and shirt from Grandma).

The temperature soared to 55 degrees on his birthday, so we took a walk around the block after lunch. It was a much needed respite in the middle of a long winter!

Recent Shopping

Super One recently had a General Mills deal to buy 10 products, save $5.00.
I bought two Pillsbury crescent rolls: $1.69-$1/2 coupon-$0.50 promotion=$0.69 each
Two Pillsbury Sweet Moments brownie bites: $2.49-$1.00 coupons-$0.50 promotion=$0.99 each. I've been wanting to try these, but not at the regular price of over $3.00. They were sooooo good that I can not buy them on a regular basis--too much temptation!
and six Green Giant Steamers: $0.99-$0.50/2 coupons-$0.50 promotion=$0.24 each.

I also bought Snack Pack pudding on sale for $0.99-$0.60/3 coupon=$0.79 each

Ragu on sale for $0.88-$1/2 coupon=$0.38 each

Hunt's tomatoes on sale for $1 each-$0.45/3 coupon=$0.89 each, plus got free chili seasoning

Swiss Miss hot cocoa mix was FREE for buying two Reddi Wips.

The next week Super one had a few $0.25 deals:

Betty Crocker pizza crust
Hunt's tomato sauce
Land O'Lakes yogurt

And at Pamida I found winter coats on clearance. I bought a size ahead for Raina ($10), Remy ($10) and Ollie ($6, plus $3 for pajamas).

2011 Goals, February Update

I set my 2011 goals a month ago. I've found some goals easier to attain than others.

Spiritual Goals:
I started reading Proverbs. I only got through chapter 4 in January. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so I hope to get to the end by the end of February.
I haven't done anything specific with the kids. I guess I'm overthinking, wanting to pick the right devotion book or readings, but I just need to pick something.

Marriage
It's Barry's busy time of year for work, so I don't see a weekend getaway in the near future. Probably in the summer, when I can send the kids to grandma's for a night or two!

Family
We haven't had a family game night since I posted my goals. I guess tonight's the night!

Personal
Still working on my 40 by 40 list. Hopefully more on this soon!

Financial
I set aside my coupon savings for January, and have $32.78 as of 1/31.

Health and fitness
I exercised 10 days in January (plus shoveled snow on a couple days), a little short of my goal of a minimum of three times per week. It can be a challenge because while Ollie sometimes likes to "exercise" with me, he also likes to use me as a jungle gym.

I did not lose any weight.
Still working on the sweets.
Have been eating more fresh fruits and veggies.
Losing weight is hard anytime, but it seems especially hard in January, the dead of winter, after the holiday excess.

Cleaning/organization
I followed the JustMommies task calendar and in January I wiped down kitchen chairs, wiped down baseboards in the living room, kitchen and bathroom, cleaned the kitchen sink area, replaced the furnace filter, vacuumed the insides of the couches, cleaned my oven, dusted the light fixtures in the living room, cleaned my refrigerator and microwave and washed out the trash can.

Super Bowl Shopping

Go Packers! Okay, I'm not a big football fan and we're not having a big Super Bowl party or anything, but a lot of the sales at Super One this week were based on food for the big game. I save 39% or $117.84 by shopping the sales and using coupons. Here are the best deals I found:
Lot of snacks,Like crackers--
Triscuits and Wheat Thins, $1.99-$1/2 coupon=$1.49 each
Wheatables, $1.66-$1/2 coupon=$1.16 each
Planters peanuts, $2.50-$1.00 peelie (coupon on product in the store)=$1.50
M & M's, $1.99-$1/2 coupon=$1.49 each
Chex Mix/Bugles, 3 for $5 used $0.50/2 coupon=$1.50 each

Cereal--General Mills cereal, $1.66-$0.75 off Golden Grahams=$0.91, $1.66-$1/2 Cinnamon Toast Crunch=$1.16 each

Ortega products--Taco shells, $1.67-$0.50/2=$1.42
Green chiles and refried beans, $0.99-$0.50/2=$0.74 each
Taco seasoning, $0.75-$0.50/2=$0.50

Dole canned fruit--$0.99-$1/3 coupon=$0.66 each

Printable coupons--Filippo Berio olive oil, $3.99-$1.00=$2.99
Gold'n Plump drumstick, $3.33-$1.00=$2.33

Lipton/Knorr sides-- 10/$10-$0.50/2 coupon=$0.95 each. Raina's class collects food for the local food bank, so some of these will go to school with her.

Freebies--Coke 2 liter, free for buying 3 Chex Mix/Bugles
Gold'n Plump chicken, free for buying 10 Lipton/Knorr sides
Oral B toothbrushes, $0.99-$1 coupons=$0.01 overage (these coupons came from a Proctor and Gamble coupon book I got for sending in receipts totaling $50 in P & G products. I didn't buy anything special to get this, just went through my receipts and found Pampers, Luvs, Dawn dish soap, Pringles, and Tide that added up to $50.)

Trying New Things

Left: Ugli fruit Right: Cara Cara orange

Last time I went grocery shopping Super One had some "exotic" fruit on sale, so I bought an Ugli fruit and a Cara Cara orange for us to try.
An ugli fruit is a hybrid of a grapefruit, tangerine and orange. The one we had was very juicy, but had a thicker membrane that was hard to chew. It would probably be easier to eat like grapefruit, cut in half and with a spoon. It was okay, but not our favorite.
The Cara Cara orange has pinkish fruit and is sweeter and less acidic than other naval oranges. We really liked this, and will look for it in the grocery stores again.

Left: Cara Cara orange Right: Ugli fruit

Latest Grocery Trip

A new year of savings ahead! My latest grocery trip I saved 40% (haven't seen that number in awhile!), or $97.70, by shopping sales and using coupons. Here are some of the highlights:

Organic celery and carrots: $1.19 each-$1/2 coupon=$0.69 each

Vitamin D (gotta combat the lack of winter sun exposure!): $4.19-50% off store coupon=$2.10 each-$1 coupon on each=$1.10 each

Used store catalina to get these Breathe Right strips for free!

Blue Diamond Almond Breeze: $1.99-$0.55 coupon=$1.44. I plan to use this in smoothies.

Birdseye frozen veggies: $0.99-$0.50/2 coupon=$0.74 each

Reese's and Kit Kat: 2/$1-buy one get one free coupons=$0.25 each

CoffeeMate creamer: $1 each, used a combination of coupons worth $2.30=$0.54 each

Honey Nut Cheerios: $2.49-$1/2 coupon=$1.99-$0.50 store coupon when you buy 5 GM products ($3 off 5, I bought 6 items)=$1.49 each
Pillsbury Grands biscuits: $1.59-$0.30/2 coupon=$1.29-$0.50 store coupon wyb 5 GM products=$0.79 each
Green Giant veggies: $1.29-$0.50/2 coupon=$1.04--$0.50 store coupon when you buy 5 GM products=$0.54 each

I also checked out Pamida's holiday clearance, where they were marking items down to 70% off. I found a wet/dry hand vac for $5.99, a red cloth tablecloth for $3.90, white LED lights for $2.99 and two snowman platters for $0.59 each.

2011 Goals

The start of a new year feels like a fresh start in many ways—time to recommit to better ways of living, to being intentional about how we live our life rather than just letting things happen. I sat down and made a list of some of my goals for the coming year.

Spiritual:
*Read/study the Bible more. I was terribly lax about this in 2010.

*Do family devotions with the kids.

Marriage:

*Plan a getaway weekend for just the two of us.

Family:

*Have more family game nights

Personal:

*Work on my 40 by 40 list (more on this later)

Financial:

*Save more. One way I'm doing this is by setting aside the amount of money I save by using coupons at the grocery store. I'll save up this money to use towards adding more healthy eating options, like gardening supplies and money for the Farmer's Market.

Health and fitness:

*Lose 24 pounds. A mere two pounds per month seems like an attainable goal if I--

Exercise regularly, a minimum of three times per week

Eat less sweets (my downfall!)

Eat more whole foods

Cleaning/organization:

*I do a pretty good job keeping up with daily tasks like laundry and dishes, but with four kids in a small house it's easily overrun by toys and other clutter. I printed out a cleaning task calendar from Just Mommies to give me specific daily and monthly cleaning jobs to do.