Okey so it’s only in the 60s here but in Texas that means sweater season! Actually I checked and our low is 44*!! I love not having to choose to crank the A/C or sweat my hiney off. This weather is going to be great on my electricity bill which equals more money in my pocket. Right now I’m baking some chicken on 250* for tonight’s chicken noodle soup, JP requested it for dinner. I’ll also bake some biscuits. I love feeding people, it’s just a great feeling. And it’s so efficient to cook your own dinners, for example this dinner will cost me less then $5 to cook. Annnd I’ll have leftovers from it for tomorrow’s lunch! I think that’s pretty darn good for a delicious homemade dinner! JP loves having a wife that can work from home & create yummy dinners for him on a daily basis. I’m glad that I am so blessed, especially during this pregnancy & how the economy is. I couldn’t imagine having to commute to work, take time off for my doctor’s appointments, still try to get a healthy dinner on the table, etc. I just believe I have to be truly blessed to be able not to have those extra stresses in my life. Oh and one more great thing about not having to have a job out of the house is that I haven’t had to go overboard on buying pregnancy clothes!!

I really, really need to get some new glasses the lens in mine popped out quite a few months ago (pre-prego) & I think I’m getting tension headaches from not wearing them. Do a lot of you guys wear eyeglasses or opt for the ever so popular contacts? My eyes are so small that I really can’t fit a contact in without it being a huge hassle. Oh and if you do wear glasse you should check out that link, they look like they have some awesome deals on glasses..only if I didn’t have to get examined again.

Oh and I apologize for how random this post is. My pregnancy hormones have finally got to me & I’m a bit emotional today. Good grief I hope these emotional roller coasters calm down. I cry for happy, sad, stressed, and even for them bagging my chicken & cheese in the same bag…

This post is mainly for those located in the United States. Sorry but I have no idea about couponing in other countries

So anytime I twitter about couponing or a great deal I got that day I get bombed with questions. Really it’s not a secret on how to coupon and be successful. Success = very little money out of pocket! And in this economy that is crushing so many & leaving so many to either pay for groceries or a car note I thought I would try my best to guide you guys through my coupon world. I started off looking so hard for great deals and just becoming really frustrated with all the information out there (like a lot of you). But I found this cool site called The Grocery Game & it is a lifesaver! But I did make a few mistakes in the beginning & would like to flip that around to help everyone else! Listen to my advice and you’ll be hooked on saving money (and eating might fine)! By the way TGG (the grocery game) costs $1 for the trial but after that it depends on how many lists you have, I currently have 2 lists & pay $15 per 8 weeks (I save WAY more then that a week).

What I paid is highlighted in yellow, highlisted in green is how much I saved!

How-to Coupon with TGG!
- For a week or two prior to signing up to TGG collect 1-2 newspapers per person living in your house by either buying your weekly paper, getting inserts from friends & family, etc
- Sign-up for your $1 trial (which is SUPER easy to cancel if you don’t like it, I promise!!)
- Each week you’ll login to your account to find your lists & it’ll tell you exactly how much you’ll save on each item, how great of a deal it is, etc.

Tips on making Coupons a Success:
- Buying multiples of papers gives you multiples of your coupons & that is great for when there are great sales on that item (or when they end up FREE!)
- Stockpiling is key when couponing, sure it seems crazy to buy 15 boxes of your favorite cereal but at $1 or less a box, it’s worth it so you won’t have to buy it full price later!
- Check the expiration dates when stockpiling & if you can stockpile until the expiration date.
- Try to stockpile 3-4 months in advance, it’s really great to not have to worry about food & necessities when you get sick or lose your job.
- If it’s free I ALWAYS get it (if I don’t use it I can give it to someone around me or to the needy)…I’ve only not gotten ONE free item & it was this past week…. pimento cheese (ew!)
- HotCouponWorld (HCW) is a great source to help couponers but takes a bit more time then TGG because you have to search for deals put your math to good use, etc
- One forum I always frequent on HCW is the CVS board because they have fliers before hand so I can see what coupons I might want to order extras from on ebay.
- When ordering coupons on ebay pay attention to the price & you can almost always get the best deals with Buy It Now. And you don’t have to linger around hoping you win or get into a bidding war. When ordering coupons do the math to make sure it’ll still be a super deal in the end.
- Oh and don’t say you don’t have time. You go grocery shopping? You have time. I would suggest strongly TGG for those of you with “no time”. It takes maybe an extra hour to get your lists, prep your coupons, print your lists each week. If you save just $50/week…wouldn’t you say it’s worth it? You just paid yourself $50 for a hour of grocery prepping!
- If you are apart of TGG or even if you are thinking to join, you should go sign-up to the forum that is linked with it! It can be of great help!

Oh and a big myth of couponing is that the coupons are only for junky, carb filled, bad for you foods….uh NO. My husband would kill me if that’s all we had in our house, we have a bunch of organic frozen veggies (okey we have only corn because we enjoy raw veggies more) that cost .$69 each (usually $4/box), chicken & turkey in the freezer, fresh veggies, yummy cereals (mini wheats are my fav!) and not just the brightly colored super sugar cereals are cheap. We also have more shampoo, conditioner, razors, baby oil then we will ever know what to do with but I got because it was free.

By the way TGG & HCW didn’t pay for this post, this is a sincere post about how I do my coupon thang! Watch out for a post on how I organize my MANY coupons & stay sane!

I love Halloween and all the fun that comes with it but it seems like we don’t do anything for Halloween…like ever. So this year JP just wanted to have some people over, play rock band 2 (his bday present) & just have a nice time. And of course I oblige since it is HIS birthday. So I bought some cobwebs, pumpkin decor and fun things to help my place look a bit more Halloweenie for Friday. And I planned out the food I’m going to make which mostly will be just easy finger foods, some mummy dogs & hardboiled eggs eyes. The hardboiled eyes on the halloween treats area of this celebration website. My brother & sister are probably coming over so I can take them to trick or treat with my mom, so that should also be fun! Holidays make me want to be with my family even more.

Tomorrow I think we’ll be going over to my mom’s house to carve pumpkins with my little brother & sister, which is one of my favorite Halloween things!! I usually just do a classic pumpkin face…like the plastic buckets above but I’m going for something more this year! Hopefully I can remember to save the pumpkin seeds to bake up! Yum! Do you save the pumpkin seeds & if so do you add seasonings when you bake? I just add a pinch of salt but I want to hear what y’all do! Oh and share those pumpkin pictures with me, I want to see what your pumpkins look like!!

Little baby boy was kicking up a storm while taking my 26 week pictures…and I think he knows I’m typing about him because he’s doing some funny little movements right now! I’ll be making a Halloweenie party post in a bit, I need some help!! Ohhh and I put together a little belly galleryyou can find the link on the right hand side. I just thought it would be fun to throw together all the belly pictures from my flickr for those following my swelling belly, I would kill for my 12 week belly even though I was bloated (it was seriously just water weight because it would flex up and down).

So for this Halloween we decided to have a little get together considering it’s also JP’s birthday. Our last halloween as well just us two, next year we’ll start having family themed costumes (oh man that is going to be FUN) and all that fun stuff. But for now I need to figure out what the heck I want to be for Halloween… I’m pregnant and sorta uhhh huge. Okey we can scratch the sorta part. So I was thinking maybe a knocked up cheerleader? What is something amusing I could be? No pregnant nuns please, I really don’t find that amusing. I found some Halloween costumes that I really like including a cheerleader but I’m really just not sure. Help?? We are having a birthday / Halloween party on Friday and well I have yet to start shopping for the event. JP is turning the big well.. I won’t tell you because the number might scare you! LOL I have to go shopping for Halloween party stuff this weekend too, so if you have any fun decor ideas for the house let me know!! Oh and anything on the cheap would be great too! Alright I have to go run errands & shop with the hubby everyone have a great Saturday!

Baby books suck, yep that pretty much sums it up. At the beginning of my pregnancy I started reading quite a few books because well you’re “suppose to”. And it scared the shit out of me with all the horrible things that go along with pregnancy (gas, constipation, snail trails, weird cravings, sleep troubles..i could go on forever) & wouldn’t you know that I’m having a very easy pregnancy in my eyes for the most part. At the beginning I was horribly sick but I found foods I could eat without feeling sick & wouldn’t go out at night because I knew I’d be getting sick. And I was terribly fatigued & taking naps every day, thankfully that’s a thing of the past. Now that is all gone and I was just fine until a few week ago when the back pains kicked in, but I figured I’d have horrible back pains since I had them before hand & my body wouldn’t be use to the new weight so that wasn’t a surprise at all. The only pregnancy woes I really have right now would be my total body soreness which keeps me from falling asleep at night. But I think I’m blessed that my pregnancy has been so smooth and I’m not one of those women who get all those damn pregnancy woes. Back to the books…I feel like most of them were a waste of time & just scared the shit out of me for no reason. Let’s just hope my labor is as smooth as my pregnancy, right?

So Thanksgiving is coming up (for us Americans that is) and I was thinking that these salt & pepper shakers might make cute little gifts for when I go over to dinners this Thanksgiving. We go to usually 3 dinners, trying to cut that to 2 this year though. And I just thought it would be nice to bring something along with my usual pies…what do you guys think? They come in a green box with a clear top that I could easily wrap a pretty bow around for the extra prettyness factor. What do you guys think? Yay or nah?

CHEAP GIFT ALERT!! Okey so I’ll be adding my deals (and steals ) whenever I find great deals online. Christmas is coming sooner then you will ever believe! Put three of these Bouclé gift sets in your bag along with something else (I put this cheap sharpener because I need a new one anyways) and then use these promo codes (10BOUCLE & 08GLOSS) to add this beauty rush lip gloss set & bring the total WAY down. I only paid $9.xx for 3 of these sets, the lip gloss set and the sharpener! This is a great deal!  This deal is dead but look out I’ll be posting more great deals whenever I find them!

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My brother’s baby is almost 3 weeks now. The kid weighs in at 5lbs and some odd ounces at the moment, a preemie but he’s already showing to be strong. My brother brought his tiny bundle of joy over today and I couldn’t help but stare at his tiny face & fingers. And he was making some of the most adorable faces that had everyone cracking up. Congratulations to Tony & Jamie on their bundle of joy!

Everyone freaks out how hard my belly is, I have no squish in my belly.. everyone who pokes, pats, or rubs my belly goes “OMG you’re belly is hard!!” Yes that belly is baby not fatty girl donuts & cupcakes! *hides her 22 bags of candy* By the way one of my favorite things to eat right now?? Einstein’s Bros has a wonderfully delicious Turkey Club Panini, I had one for lunch and it sooooooo hit the spot! Okey I just had to share that because I just keep thinking about that darn panini! Everyone have a super day!

As my body grows and grows and grows (mostly the torso area, thank God!), things are becoming a bit more difficult to do. For example, sleeping is such a task because I just can’t get comfortable so it takes hours to fall asleep…and it doesn’t help when you have nightmares about ground human meat…let’s not talk about that though. But my hands and ankles swell up leaving me sore. I was hoping my hands wouldn’t swell enough to make me remove my wedding band, but alas just a few nights ago I removed my white gold band (with lots & lots of lotion and tugging at it) for the remainder of these blessed months.

On Wendesday morning I got a phone call from my doctor’s office telling me how my glucose test was just fine but my iron was low, so I would have to come in for more blood work & to pick up a prescription for my iron pills. I drive to my doctor’s office, give 5 tube things of blood (5!!! vampires i tell ya!!) and pick up my prescription. No problemo I thought I’d have a harder time but I was in & out. Thank goodness for quick visits! I still had to run a bunch of errands through the day but that easy visit brought a smile to my face! Well I have things to do, everyone have a wonderful & safe weekend!

I was wanting to do more updates with recipes, contests, household tips, photography, reviews and more content type of blog entries but I really can’t decide if I want to just expand this blog into that or just keep this blog for my personal life. I could keep this one and expand on it, it would be a personal blog along with helpful blog entries. What do you guys think? Should I just keep this blog how it is & open up another domain with the household goodies OR expand this domain with all the new things I want to do? If you are reading this, you’re a visitor…so please go ahead and put in some input! Thanks guys!!! Either way I have some GREAT stuff coming to a computer screen near you!

Congratulations go out to the wonderfully talented Tracey & her husband with the conception of their second child! Best wishes for your family! And that means even more adorable baby pictures for me to “aww” over!

I’ve been in such a cleaning mode lately & my roomba has been put to work overtime. Everyday it cleans up atleast two rooms. If anyone has ever thought of getting one of these…DO IT! Especially if you have pets, it picks up all that loose hair that is soooo hard to get with regular sweeping & vacuuming. Everyone knows how frugal I am but this machine is WELL worth the money! Alright I am up way to late and think it is just about bed time. Everyone have a great & safe weekend!