Couponing

I'm trying to get the hang of couponing. Between working 30 hours a week and being a single mom during most of the work week, I just don't have time to save a lot of money. Our weekends are packed full of getting groceries and getting things done around the house that we don't have time to do during the week. We also make it a point to spend a lot of time with the kids. We also have church, which takes up a lot of time because it's a bit of a drive for us. I'm spending my free time at work preparing the weekend grocery list and looking for coupons that will help us out.

This weekend, I spent about $152 on groceries and other household items, and I ended up saving about $42. A lot of this involved stockpiling BOGO items and items that were on sale. I'm hoping to shorten our grocery list in the future since we will not have to buy any of the items that I stockpiled. I still don't think I will become a coupon expert, but I can at least save some money.

Jule was a crab this weekend. We are guessing he is teething yet again because we can't find anything wrong with him. His ears are clear, and he doesn't appear to be sick. He is just crying often and loud. The thing that we find so strange about him is that he is usually distractable when he's in pain. While that is wonderful, we can only exert so much energy in distracting him before we are just worn out. He was great at church and at O'Charley's on Saturday night, but when we were home, we practically had to stand on our heads to get him to stop screaming. He went to bed at 7:30 last night and did not go to sleep. At 9:30, he started crying, so we got him up, and he was happy as can be. I think he went back down around 10:30 and cried himself to sleep. I really hope a tooth pops through soon!!! He has his one-year checkup with Dr. C on Wednesday.

Noly adores a stuffed kitty that one of the other children at the babysitter's has. She has always loved it, and we have searched and searched for one that is similar. Finally, we found one that she loves at Target this weekend. It meows, purrs and moves around. She named it "Mama" and said it was her baby. I'm not sure where her obsession with cats came from because we don't own one...we're both allergic. The babysitter has one, but it's afraid of the kids. Noly took her special new toy to the babysitter's today, and she was so proud of it when she walked in to show the other kids.

We ended the weekend with a delicious meal of Ribeye on the grill and rice pilaf. I hope Jule is good for the sitter today.