$0.07

These are my deals from my shopping trip to Walgreens:
A Laurell Hamilton book,
Off Misquito repellant
Almay Eyeshadow
Almay Mascara
Covergirl Lipstick
6 packages M&M's.

How much did I spend? Well, after manufactuers coupons, sale prices and register rewards....my out of pocket expense was $0.07. Isn't it great?

Utah Beauty

As a spur of the moment thing, Mark and I decided to go hike up Rock Canyon one evening. So we packed up the dog and left. We had so much fun! Rock Canyon's Trailhead is only about a five minute drive from our house, Yet, I had never been more than a few hundred feet up the trail. I was amazed at beauty we found as well as the wide variety of activities. We saw people camping, backpacking, repelling, para gliding and rock climbing. Mark had to join in on the rock climbing. If you look close you can see his green shirt at the very, very top!

Mark even eventually convinced Mazie-dog to climb the rocks with him, we couldn't get her to look at the camera though!

We even explored a little shallow cave

We want to go back when we are a little bit more prepared, and do more rock climbing and playing!

I would die for that

Another Mother's Day has come and gone, and rather surprisingly I didn't fall apart this year. I was content with hope I felt towards trying fertility treatments again, but the hope has fallen short. The insurance options available to me at my new job will not cover anything for fertility treatment, not even diagnostic testing. I feel like I am slowly dying inside. Mark and I talked about it, and we could always use credit cards, and loans, even a second mortgage in the hopes of concieving. Yet, what would that accomplish? We might or not have a little one, and we would not have ANY financial security. I think we may just have to look into foster care more seriously.

My Favorite Money Saving Tools

I have been dabbling in coupons and Walgreens shopping the last couple weeks and I LOVE it!
Walgreens has this neat thing called register rewards that is basically free money, it's great! Walgreens also has a mail in rebate catalog every month where several items are free after rebate. Which if you combine those with a coupon, you can actually make money by taking the item home!!
Also today I went shopping and saved $24.60 in coupons for items we will use. I even ended up getting a few items FREE!!!! The problem with trying to shop this way is needing to have a little wiggle room in the budget. That way when I see that an item is on sale and I have coupons for it I can buy several months worth, without before forced to eat nothing but ramen for the rest of the month. Also, I need to be less brand loyal, in the past I have been big on finding the least expensive product that will do the job, (usually store brands), but now I need to keep in mind that with sale prices combined with coupons the national brand will most likely be cheaper.
I think I love the thrill of the hunt!!

Bah hum bug!

As I'm sure you can all see, I have been attempting to do Meal planning Mondays for the last few weeks. I think I am going to say Bah hum bug to the entire experiance! I would so much rather decide what to make on the fly, relying on a well stocked pantry to get me through! Plus, I have noticed that our meals tend to be healthier and better thought out when I make them with out a plan (go figure). I also like the flexibility of saying, "okay, we have leftover such and such, let's have this for dinner to usse it up." I think I am going to keep a list on the inside of my cupboard door (I hate things being stuck to the fridge!) that just states all the meals that we like to have. It just seems that there are always a few meals that we have rather infrequently, but really enjoy when we have them.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Speghetti and meatballs, tossed salad
Tuesday: Chicken and stuffing casserole
Wednesday: Sloppy Joes and tator tots (we didn't do them last week)
Thursday: Pork chops, salad and pasta
Friday: Chicken broccoli and rice casserole
Saturday: FFY (I'm working late)
Sunday: Hamburger helper and veggies (Mark is cooking)