Tonight we decided to give the family well most of the family a treat by taking them out to Steak N Shake at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas. We being a party of 8 were seated within 10 minutes which was great even though it was a Wednesday at dinner time. We were given an extra large booth with a chair on the end. I had the Triple Burger with Fries economically priced at $3.99. My husband had the Double Cheeseburger with bacon and fries at $4.59. Two of the kids had kids meals and the rest had burgers. We were waited on right away given drinks when ordered and offered more time to look at menu when needed. Our food was hot. I was surprised at how skinny the fries were but they were good. We were told we had to try the shakes so I had a penut butter cup shake which was very good, my husband had an interesting shake where half was orange and half was vanilla, very good he said. Each shake ranged from 2.99-4.25.
Overall great low cost place to take a family when you want better than fast food prices combined with old school charm.
This is a blog about living with 9 kids, a fabulous husband, 1 dog and 3 cats. With so many family members we have lots of fun. To make things interesting I have become a coupon junky. Our children all wrestle even the three girls. Our children range in age from 7 to 22. One of our children is vision impaired but gifted; one has a heart defect; and the youngest is allergic to the cold. I am disabled so playing mom is sometimes passed off to dad.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
More Items for Free or Next to Free
Went shopping today. My big scores included 15 bags of Chex Mix from Walgreens at .15 each after Register Rewards. Also shopped at Smith's at bought 3 more bottles of Old Spice Body Wash at .49 each; 6 Old Spice Deodorant at .49 each; 3 bottles of Herbal Essence Conditioner for .79 each. Next trip was at CVS where our entire shopping trip was $4.36 and we purchased 1 Clairol Hair Dye, 2 bottles of CVS Vitamin D and a gallon of milk. Went to Walmart and got paid .24 to buy 12 packages of floss and another .30 for 10 packs of pens.
Everyone asks me how I do it. The key is stocking up when the product is low and everything goes down at some point in the year. When the price is Dow, way down purchase what your family would use in 6 months, possibly 1 year on some products which will be discussed in my upcoming book and videos soon to be posted to You Tube.
You also need a supply of coupons to make it happen. Keep reading, become a fan follow my blog for updates on book and videos.
We have a family if 11 and we cut our grocery cost down from $350 a week to way under $100. If we are running low on money we don't spend anything that week and only eat what's in our stockpile. Stockpile, still another video.
See you soon.
Mommy of 9
Everyone asks me how I do it. The key is stocking up when the product is low and everything goes down at some point in the year. When the price is Dow, way down purchase what your family would use in 6 months, possibly 1 year on some products which will be discussed in my upcoming book and videos soon to be posted to You Tube.
You also need a supply of coupons to make it happen. Keep reading, become a fan follow my blog for updates on book and videos.
We have a family if 11 and we cut our grocery cost down from $350 a week to way under $100. If we are running low on money we don't spend anything that week and only eat what's in our stockpile. Stockpile, still another video.
See you soon.
Mommy of 9
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Going Shopping 4 Free
I will begin posting a blog entitled Shopping 4 Free. Here I will highlight what items I will be picking up for free. There may be more than one post a week as I will post the blog entrees as I discover the items. After all we all want to score something for free.
This week I will be getting Schick Disposable Razors priced at $1.97 using the $2/1 coupon at Walmart. I will be getting lots of razors, after all I have 9 people in my family that shave.
Also from Walmart, I will be getting free dental floss. Oral B Floss 55 yd is free after the $1 coupon from last weeks, 01/01/12, newspaper
I will be getting free boxed macaroni n cheese from Target using a printable Target coupon.
For upcoming sickness in our home I will be getting Triaminic Fever Reducer. Free after the $3/2 mfr coupon and $5/2 Register Rewards.
Other free items from Walgreens include:
- MuscleTech Smart Protein Bar Free after $1.99 Register Rewards
The keys to remember is that store ads run in cycles so when something is free you should aim to get a 3-6 month supply of that item for your family as long as it is not perishable. Anything more than that is taking a chance on your family not being able to use it because the product may lose its quality.
That is all for now.
Happy Couponing
Mommyof9
This week I will be getting Schick Disposable Razors priced at $1.97 using the $2/1 coupon at Walmart. I will be getting lots of razors, after all I have 9 people in my family that shave.
Also from Walmart, I will be getting free dental floss. Oral B Floss 55 yd is free after the $1 coupon from last weeks, 01/01/12, newspaper
I will be getting free boxed macaroni n cheese from Target using a printable Target coupon.
For upcoming sickness in our home I will be getting Triaminic Fever Reducer. Free after the $3/2 mfr coupon and $5/2 Register Rewards.
Other free items from Walgreens include:
- MuscleTech Smart Protein Bar Free after $1.99 Register Rewards
The keys to remember is that store ads run in cycles so when something is free you should aim to get a 3-6 month supply of that item for your family as long as it is not perishable. Anything more than that is taking a chance on your family not being able to use it because the product may lose its quality.
That is all for now.
Happy Couponing
Mommyof9
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Halloween Disappointed Kids Come On Vegas
All day Brendan and Logan could not wait to put on their costumes to go Trick or Treating. I told them as soon as my husband aka Dad got home they could change. They were just so excited about Halloween. Then I started readin online how many towns across the Northeast cancelled Halloween, boy wouldn't my kids be upset about that. That's like canceling Christmas to some kids. I can remember being young and my parents spending weeks making me the perfect costume. Imagine how upset those parents are.
So finally they finished all their school work for the day and their dad came home. Emily wanted to be dropped off at a friends house a half hour away. I was just like no way. Then I realized we were missing a member of the family. Dylan was going to a Halloween party. Everyone was getting ready to leave just as the phone rings. It's Dylan and he needs to get picked up right away. I was thinking this is rediculus, this holiday is mainly for Brendan and Logan not the oldest kids.
So my husband was off for and hours drive to pick up Dylan. I had my 22 year old TJ start taking them around the neighborhood before it got dark.
The weather was great, nice and warm. Meghan, my 15 year old daughter who has a vision impairment fell while going door to door and cut open her toe, luckily it wasn't bad enough for stitches but it sure was bleeding.
As soon as my husband got home he picked up Logan brought him home as he was tired. The kids were all very discouraged as they had been down several streets and most homes had their lights out and even those that did have lights on we're not answering so even to get even a small amount of candy took a great amount of effort.
At our house Logan sat in front of the door for about an hour waiting for any Trick or Treaters but no one ever came.
I am just wondering if this trend is just in my neighborhood or elsewhere too?
Let me know!
So finally they finished all their school work for the day and their dad came home. Emily wanted to be dropped off at a friends house a half hour away. I was just like no way. Then I realized we were missing a member of the family. Dylan was going to a Halloween party. Everyone was getting ready to leave just as the phone rings. It's Dylan and he needs to get picked up right away. I was thinking this is rediculus, this holiday is mainly for Brendan and Logan not the oldest kids.
So my husband was off for and hours drive to pick up Dylan. I had my 22 year old TJ start taking them around the neighborhood before it got dark.
The weather was great, nice and warm. Meghan, my 15 year old daughter who has a vision impairment fell while going door to door and cut open her toe, luckily it wasn't bad enough for stitches but it sure was bleeding.
As soon as my husband got home he picked up Logan brought him home as he was tired. The kids were all very discouraged as they had been down several streets and most homes had their lights out and even those that did have lights on we're not answering so even to get even a small amount of candy took a great amount of effort.
At our house Logan sat in front of the door for about an hour waiting for any Trick or Treaters but no one ever came.
I am just wondering if this trend is just in my neighborhood or elsewhere too?
Let me know!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
TLC Extreme Couponing Guests Making Couponers Look Bad
Last nights TLC Extreme Couponing featured their youngest participant ever. He was a high school student who from what I got from the show was saving items for college. He had the usual laundry detergent, deodorant and body soap. They this is when it got interesting. He laughed about having this huge supply of maxi pads and not knowing what the wings were for. Then he showcased a mammoth supply of baby formula and bragging how it was free.
My question is why isn't he donating this to a local food pantry. There are thousands and thousands of needy families across the United States who have problems feeding their infants. Food pantries have a hard time keeping stock of baby formula and its not like he can keep them for when he has kids there are short expiration dates. He makes it look as though extreme couponers are hoarders. This is what gives us couponers who are just trying to save money a bad name.
Now you may not know this but I am an extreme couponer. You will not be in line behind me with a $700 transaction because the reality of the regular couponer is that they do not have transactions that large. I just started couponing about a month ago. You would not believe what I have accomplished in that short period of time. Going into couponing I did not expect some peoples reactions to be so strong. Some people will come up to me asking advice others will sneer their nose up and will say "oh you are one of those coupon people". When I was shopping at a local grocery store, I was told of a new coupon policy. I was trying to use 6 of the Free Dr. Pepper 10 coupons and was told that I could only use 5 at a time. I asked about this "new" policy and was told that it was because the of the Extreme Coupon show because people "like me" will buy hundreds of the product and will clear the shelves leaving nothing for everyone else. First, I only had six and second aren't the stores in business to have their shelves cleared isn't that a good thing can't they just order more? Well you know what I mean. They went on to say "you people" hoard and don't even use your merchandise we are saving it for people who use it.
Yes, I have a stockpile, a very small one so far that consists of 5 different kids of cereal, maybe 5 boxes of each; 10 boxes of pasta; 6 jars of pasta sauce; 10 tubes of toothpaste; 6 shampoos; 3 conditioners; 10 Snack Packs of Chips; 20 bottles of soda; fruit snacks; 8 boxes of granola bars; 20 boxes of Hamburger Helper and 4 mens/ladies deodorant. For a family of 11 that is a small stockpile. It may be small but I am already saving money. Week one I save like $30, weeks two through three around $50-80 and this week I decided to shop from my stockpile as we needed all our money for a trip we are taking this weekend. So this week I spent $65 on our groceries down from $250 a week. Quite a savings, eh? I am not in couponing to hoard merchandise that I will not use. One week I got a bunch of razors that I brought in to a local food pantry. That is what most couponers do. They either buy extra for food pantries or they just buy what they need. We are not hoarders.
Come on fellow couponers let's stick together and put out the good word about what we are really about.
My question is why isn't he donating this to a local food pantry. There are thousands and thousands of needy families across the United States who have problems feeding their infants. Food pantries have a hard time keeping stock of baby formula and its not like he can keep them for when he has kids there are short expiration dates. He makes it look as though extreme couponers are hoarders. This is what gives us couponers who are just trying to save money a bad name.
Now you may not know this but I am an extreme couponer. You will not be in line behind me with a $700 transaction because the reality of the regular couponer is that they do not have transactions that large. I just started couponing about a month ago. You would not believe what I have accomplished in that short period of time. Going into couponing I did not expect some peoples reactions to be so strong. Some people will come up to me asking advice others will sneer their nose up and will say "oh you are one of those coupon people". When I was shopping at a local grocery store, I was told of a new coupon policy. I was trying to use 6 of the Free Dr. Pepper 10 coupons and was told that I could only use 5 at a time. I asked about this "new" policy and was told that it was because the of the Extreme Coupon show because people "like me" will buy hundreds of the product and will clear the shelves leaving nothing for everyone else. First, I only had six and second aren't the stores in business to have their shelves cleared isn't that a good thing can't they just order more? Well you know what I mean. They went on to say "you people" hoard and don't even use your merchandise we are saving it for people who use it.
Yes, I have a stockpile, a very small one so far that consists of 5 different kids of cereal, maybe 5 boxes of each; 10 boxes of pasta; 6 jars of pasta sauce; 10 tubes of toothpaste; 6 shampoos; 3 conditioners; 10 Snack Packs of Chips; 20 bottles of soda; fruit snacks; 8 boxes of granola bars; 20 boxes of Hamburger Helper and 4 mens/ladies deodorant. For a family of 11 that is a small stockpile. It may be small but I am already saving money. Week one I save like $30, weeks two through three around $50-80 and this week I decided to shop from my stockpile as we needed all our money for a trip we are taking this weekend. So this week I spent $65 on our groceries down from $250 a week. Quite a savings, eh? I am not in couponing to hoard merchandise that I will not use. One week I got a bunch of razors that I brought in to a local food pantry. That is what most couponers do. They either buy extra for food pantries or they just buy what they need. We are not hoarders.
Come on fellow couponers let's stick together and put out the good word about what we are really about.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Worst Halloween Candy to Give Out
With Halloween knocking on our door I am already dreading the candy interrogation that my husband and I have at the end of the festivities. This is how my day will go.
First since Brendan and Logan are now home schooled I will have a little party for them. We will make mummy hot dogs for lunch, cup cakes and play a few games after all their work for the day is complete. See I am so mean. Maybe I should have them march around the yard in their costumes to make up for them missing their school parade.
When Tim, and the rest of the kids get home from school, they will hang around for a bit and then get dressed for the first part of the night that I hate. We will go door to door to door. I hate this part for two reasons. First, I feel like we are begging for food. Now we are asking for candy. Tomorrow we will be asking for boxes of cereal and milk. I also have a hard time walking even short distances because of my back trouble so even though I hate the concept of Trick or Treating after I am dropped off at home I feel as though I am missing their fun. My husband will continue Trick or Treating with them door to door to door. He will go with them dropping off one child at a time as they get tired. By around 830pm, the entire gang will be home. They will get undressed and the candy interrogation will begin.
The candy interrogation works one bag at a time. We dump the bag out on the table and begin by getting rid of all the hard candy. I might sound like a nut but I have this fear that one of my children are going to choke to death on a piece of hard candy so I just do not let them have it. I have that same fear with bone in chicken, but that's a different story. So hard candy is very bad to give out to children on Halloween because of the high choking possibility. Next, we remove all candy with a twist wrapper. This would include candy such as Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, you know what I am talking about. Does that sound crazy to you? I remove this candy because there is no way to tell if it has been tampered with, and I certainly not gonna take any chances. Sure I got extra kids but I want to keep them all, well on most days anyway.
So when out shopping for candy but candy that has a sealed package and don't buy hard candy! Till next time, Adios! I gotta go Extreme Coupon is coming on and I love that show.
First since Brendan and Logan are now home schooled I will have a little party for them. We will make mummy hot dogs for lunch, cup cakes and play a few games after all their work for the day is complete. See I am so mean. Maybe I should have them march around the yard in their costumes to make up for them missing their school parade.
When Tim, and the rest of the kids get home from school, they will hang around for a bit and then get dressed for the first part of the night that I hate. We will go door to door to door. I hate this part for two reasons. First, I feel like we are begging for food. Now we are asking for candy. Tomorrow we will be asking for boxes of cereal and milk. I also have a hard time walking even short distances because of my back trouble so even though I hate the concept of Trick or Treating after I am dropped off at home I feel as though I am missing their fun. My husband will continue Trick or Treating with them door to door to door. He will go with them dropping off one child at a time as they get tired. By around 830pm, the entire gang will be home. They will get undressed and the candy interrogation will begin.
The candy interrogation works one bag at a time. We dump the bag out on the table and begin by getting rid of all the hard candy. I might sound like a nut but I have this fear that one of my children are going to choke to death on a piece of hard candy so I just do not let them have it. I have that same fear with bone in chicken, but that's a different story. So hard candy is very bad to give out to children on Halloween because of the high choking possibility. Next, we remove all candy with a twist wrapper. This would include candy such as Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, you know what I am talking about. Does that sound crazy to you? I remove this candy because there is no way to tell if it has been tampered with, and I certainly not gonna take any chances. Sure I got extra kids but I want to keep them all, well on most days anyway.
So when out shopping for candy but candy that has a sealed package and don't buy hard candy! Till next time, Adios! I gotta go Extreme Coupon is coming on and I love that show.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Save - Mother Earth & Grocery Bill
Well with all the saving going on in the world with Extreme Couponing on TLC, I decided that with so many kids that I had to give it a try. After all who am I not to try something new especially if it involves saving money. I have $250 per week budgeted to feed our family. That may sound like quite a bit but it does not buy much except the basics. This means cookies only once a week, and ice cream maybe once a month and only if on sale. So I did some research and found out that to be an effective couponer you should be getting one set of inserts, the coupons found in the paper, for each member of your family. This number rises if you have teens. Well since I have 6 teens I should be getting many more than the 11 recommended copies. Since I didn't want to waste any money in the beginning I only started with 10 copies of the paper for the first two weeks. I went home and cut and cut and cut. I enlisted the help of my husband and older kids and we all cut. I discovered quickly that stacking them very carefully would get the coupons cut out much quicker. By the 3rd week I was getting 15 copies of the coupons.
So I joined the most popular blogs I could find, my favorite being Krazy Coupon Lady and right from the first week started getting free stuff. By the 2nd week I discovered Couponmom.com which actually tells you how much you are saving by percentage. I learned that the grocery stores work on a 12 week cycle and if something is 65 or 70% or higher off the regular price that you should buy how much your family needs for a 3 month period because that is how long it will take for the item to be that price again.
So we are at the end of 4 weeks and I have a small stockpile built. We have 20 boxes of cereal, 15 boxes of toothpaste (all free), 9 shampoo, 4 conditioner, 30 hamburger helper .........
This week we are going on a trip for wrestling so we need all the money we have for the trip. So I decided to shop from my stockpile for meals and you wouldn't believe how much our food is for this week - $65. That's right and we are only having hamburger helper twice.
So I decided to carry this money saving venture over to our utilities. Everyone including my children want to save the planet but never want to save us money, so they could not see through my motives. So I found some information on saving the planet online. So we had a family meeting two weeks ago and told everyone that we wanted to do our part in saving water for the planet and saving electricity too. So we asked the girls to turn off the water in the shower while waiting for their conditioner, and asked the boys to shorten their shower by 2 minutes. Everyone started off by timing their normal shower. Well it is already paying off. We got our first monthly gas bill and it is $25 less, yeah!!! Let's hope the electric and water bill has dropped too.
So I joined the most popular blogs I could find, my favorite being Krazy Coupon Lady and right from the first week started getting free stuff. By the 2nd week I discovered Couponmom.com which actually tells you how much you are saving by percentage. I learned that the grocery stores work on a 12 week cycle and if something is 65 or 70% or higher off the regular price that you should buy how much your family needs for a 3 month period because that is how long it will take for the item to be that price again.
So we are at the end of 4 weeks and I have a small stockpile built. We have 20 boxes of cereal, 15 boxes of toothpaste (all free), 9 shampoo, 4 conditioner, 30 hamburger helper .........
This week we are going on a trip for wrestling so we need all the money we have for the trip. So I decided to shop from my stockpile for meals and you wouldn't believe how much our food is for this week - $65. That's right and we are only having hamburger helper twice.
So I decided to carry this money saving venture over to our utilities. Everyone including my children want to save the planet but never want to save us money, so they could not see through my motives. So I found some information on saving the planet online. So we had a family meeting two weeks ago and told everyone that we wanted to do our part in saving water for the planet and saving electricity too. So we asked the girls to turn off the water in the shower while waiting for their conditioner, and asked the boys to shorten their shower by 2 minutes. Everyone started off by timing their normal shower. Well it is already paying off. We got our first monthly gas bill and it is $25 less, yeah!!! Let's hope the electric and water bill has dropped too.
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