On the Move!

Matthew is quite pleased with the new addition to the living room furniture ...

Definitely beats using the kitchen stool.

:o)

This Moment ~ Puppets ...

make Matthew laugh :o)

I love your laugh, Monkey!!

Thirfty Thursdays ~ Keeping Coupons

Since most of the questions directed my way have concerned couponing, I'm starting Thrifty Thursdays with a simple series on couponing. This is not going to be a comprehensive evaluation of every method out there. This is going to be "The Jenny Version" of couponing. :o) It's what works for me. And you're probably going to need to tweak it if it's going to work for you--because you're not me. :o)

So here we go. If you're going to coupon, you're going to need a means of keeping those valuable pieces of paper organized and accessible. (The day coupons go digital will be a blessed day!) You can start small, but if you get serious about couponing, you're probably going to graduate to something larger.

I originally tried the photo album/baseball sleeve method. It did not work for me. It took too long to put the coupons in the slots, I had blank spaces when I pulled expired coupons, and it was expensive to buy more holders as I grew my coupon stash. Enough said. Based on articles I've read, some people love it, so it might work for you. (In fact, I think that's the method Jenny at SouthernSavers.com uses.)

What does work for me is my black box.
I can put all the categories I want for my coupons in it, it's SUPER easy to file my coupons, and all I have to do to find a coupon is pull the folder and flip through a small pile of clipped coupons. And when I pull expired coupons, my pile to flip through simply gets smaller. A good thing.

And for what it's worth, even though I usually put the tabs for hanging files on the back of the folder, for my coupon box, I put the tabs on the front. It makes it easier for my fingers to quickly file the small pieces of paper. I rarely take my black box to the store or even in the van. My black box sits under my desk. When I'm preparing my grocery list, I pull the coupons I need and put them in my smaller pink holder. Since it has a limited number of sections, I simply consolidated my categories.

Have I ever missed a random deal because I didn't have all of my coupons with me at the store? Yes. And I'm okay with that. :o) Since I'm often shopping with three children, and rarely without at least one, I simply have not a spare hand nor room in my cart for my black box.

And now, for those who are interested, here are the categories in my black box:

• Food (the first folder for each section is the misc. folder)



• Beverages/Tea



• Breads/Cereals



• Canned/Boxed Goods



• Condiments/Seasonings



• Desserts/Baking Goods



• Frozen Food



• Frozen Veggies



• Meat



• Refrigerated



• Refrigerated Bread/Dough



• Snacks/Nuts



• Yogurt



• Health & Beauty



• Body Care



• Facial/Cosmetics



• Hair Care



• Medicine/First-Aid



• Tooth Care



• Household



• Air Fresheners



• Cleaning Supplies



• Kitchen Products



• Laundry Supplies



• Paper Products



• Miscellaneous



• Baby/Childcare



• CVS Coupons



• Dining



• Retail



• Coupon Fliers

Next week I plan to cover Clipping Coupons ... which coupons do I clip, where do I find them, when do I clip them, and how do I sort them?

What method of keeping coupons has worked (or not worked) for you?

When work is fun ...

You race outside at every opportunity to do it ...

And for a four-year-old who loves his shovel, it took no more than a mere nudge to get him interested in helping Daddy dig out the old oil tank behind the house.

And although he does enjoy it, it IS hard work, and he's working HARD.
This Mommy is very proud of her boy.

We love you, Buddy! So thankful to see you growing to be such a hard worker!

This Moment ~ The Artsy Princess

On a date with DaddyVisiting with Cinderella The "Art Teacher"
You make me smile, Sweetie! We love you!

Thrifty Thursdays

In honor of my 500th post (can you believe it!?!?), I'm announcing a new endeavour called ...

The Lord has blessed me with a multitude of friends who have been inclined to learn more about couponing and saving money. And while I am by no means an expert, I definitely strive to stretch my pennies, and I have loved the privilege of sharing with them, often by email, some basic tips on getting started. However, as I recently answered the third such email in the space of two days, I realized that

1. There is probably a more efficient way to share these things.


2. There are probably others who could be helped by the information.

So, my friends, next week I will launch "Thrifty Thursdays." It will basically be my place to share what I've been able to learn about couponing, budgeting, and just generally stretching pennies. Thanks for reading! I hope it will be a blessing!

What topics would you like to see included as a part of "Thrifty Thursdays"?

"I look handsome."

Sunday morning I had a nice comfortable polo shirt laid out for Peter to wear. But he asked me if he could please wear a tie.

"You'll have to wear your long-sleeve white shirt with a tie."

"I want to wear a tie, Mommy. My red tie."

(It was actually Daddy's tie from when he was little--Grandma had saved it.) So, for the first time ever, Peter got dressed up in a tie. And he looked SNAZZY, if I do say so myself. :o) And funny enough, he knew it too. He commented multiple times, "I look so handsome!" :o)

Since I had yet to get his "four year old" pictures, I decided to take advantage of his particularly cheerful spirit (and an uncommonly early start on Sunday morning), and we went outside to document the occasion of both 1. wearing a tie and 2. being four.

He cracks me up. :o) He's just sweet through and through. However, photo ops are generally not his cup of tea, so it can be hard to catch a genuine smile for "nice" pictures. However, we were having fun and it showed. :o)

Mommy's favorites for framing:

Discussing his tie ...

When did his legs get so long?

It is impossible to keep from laughing with him--he has such a genuine joy and enthusiasm for life. :o)

Yikes. When did he start growing up on me all of a sudden?

This is SO Peter. :o)

And so is this! :o) Oh Peter, we love you, buddy! So thankful for you!

Have fun being four!

Making Waves

We enjoyed the blessing of some pool time at a picnic hosted by Chris' manager this weekend. What fun! It was the first time our kids have ever been in a body of water larger than a kiddie pool or the bathtub, so it was definitely great cause for excitement. :o)


Huge personal blessing to Mommy--Hannah and Peter took to the water like fish!

Only one other family had young children, and since they also happen to be friends from church, it just made it all that much more fun. :o) The torpedo (A.K.A. Peter's "airplane") was a HUGE hit with all of the kids.Peter and Ella both navigated along the walls a good bit ...

But Hannah and Isaac were both tall enough to stand in the shallow end, so they really made full use of the water.

Yep. Peter was having fun. :o)

The intertube let everybody feel comfortable away from the wall ...

Shall we say "Daddy-powered tubing"??? :o)

So what about Matthew? Well, . . . his opinion of the water started out rather low.

"Haven't you figured out yet that I don't want to be in here? It's COLD."

"Finally. That took way too long."

However, after sitting on the edge and splashing for 15 minutes while the other kids were waiting for their dinners to digest, he started to decide that the water wasn't such a bad place to be after all.

Particularly since there was a ball available ...

And once he decided to hop in, Hannah thoroughly enjoyed pushing him around!

And there we go ... the smile returns!! What a fun afternoon!

Thanks so much Mr. and Mrs. W!