Finals

How many of you got to take some finals early? Some of my teachers posted them early and I got to finish them up. I was really excited when I took 2 finals last night and got A's on both of them. What a relief! I get really nervous when taking tests. I actually get test anxiety which makes it worse for me and sometimes I get not so good grades. I'm happy to announce I did pretty well this semester with all of my tests.

I really enjoyed blogging this semester. I enjoyed even more reading everyone's blogs. I liked to hear about what was going on in all of your lives and enjoyed reading about the interesting information you put on your blogs. I feel like this blog did help with my writing skills and I enjoyed the assignment. I will honestly probably take a break in blogging, but I will keep doing it. I will start again after my husband has back surgery. He goes in on December 29th. It's going to be a long healing process, and I'm excited for him to start feeling better. It will be nice to have my husband back. He's been in so much pain and I hate seeing that. he also can't wait to play with the kids again. He loves to be on the floor wrestling and playing with the kids. He has missed that so much. It will still be a few months before he can do that again, but I know he is counting down the days. The boys cherish story time with their dad so much at night time, because that is the most he can do for them. That used to be my job, but I let him do it now so he can have that time with the boys.

I enjoyed reading all of the blogs this semester and I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Semester is almost done....

I can't believe that this semester is already almost over. I'm happy though. I'm need of a break. Although it won't be much of a break since the hubby is having back surgery in December. Hopefully that will give him some relief though. I need help with the kids again. It gets overwhelming having to do everything and to keep up with school work. I'm very grateful that he will get this surgery so he can heal and feel better. I feel horrible having to watch him in pain everyday. It's not fair to see him like that. He's always so strong. He's still been extremely strong through all of this. His doctor said he's shocked that Jon is doing as much as he is.
I'm not ready for finals in one class. I have to watch a bunch of lectures for psychology and I'm not ready for it yet. I still have a little over a week, but I wish there was a little more time.

I very much love the Christmas season. I love the decorations, I love the spirit of Christmas that I constantly feel around my family, I love that I have such a wonderful family to spend it with, and I love being able to provide a good Christmas for my kids. I also like to be able to help other families during Christmas and the Holidays to teach my children about giving and that they need to give also. It is not always about receiving. They are still learning about that, but it's a process I'm willing to work at. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and remembers the true meaning of Christmas. It's not all about gifts.

Until next time.....

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a wonderful week! I'm so grateful for my family, and I'm truly blessed for what I have. What a wonderful week to remind me of the blessings I have. We had 3 thanksgiving feasts with family and they were all fantastic. I love the time I get to spend with my family. I couldn't ask for a better family. They mean the world to me.

I did black friday shopping and did pretty well for myself and family of course. People get a little to greedy of course. I had a lady literally take a lego box out of my hand because it was the last one on the pallet and I was grabbing it. I just let her have it because I didn't feel my children needed something that much to fight over. She was very greedy and I didn't want it to upset my day. I told my mom about it and she went to her walmart and found the legos. So it all worked out and there was absolutely no need to be greedy. I went to Old Navy after walmart and was able to get my children about $300 worth of clothes for $150. I was pretty excited about that. It was awesome.

My favorite shopping trip was of course walgreens. They practically had everything free and with coupons I made money on a lot of items. My trip was the best one I've ever done. I got $538 worth of stuff for $7.32. BEST DAY EVER. That included 12 bottles of laundry detergent, a bunch of toothpaste that i'm donating, lip gloss, toothbrushes, shave gel, face wash and the list could go on and on. I'm to the point where my husband is finally going to have to buy me shelving. I'm pretty excited to be building my stockpile. It's great to be able to feel the comfort of having enough food and personal needs items if something were to happen. I love to be able to donate as well. I can't always donate money, so this makes me feel better to donate all these items I can get for free with my coupons. Whatever my family doesn't need, I always donate. In fact, I took my neighbor a little bag with 2 tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, body spray, and lip gloss. She was so excited. I love being able to share.

Until Next time......

Fall Festival

So my kids have a fall festival/carnival tonight at their school. They have all types of games, an auction, and all kinds of fun stuff. They sent home a note with the kids yesterday saying they desperately needed desserts made because they hadn't been recieving any. Needless to say, I got to work. I made a cake and a pan of brownies last night, and then today I've made another pan of brownies, 2 cakes and 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies. Hopefully it will help a little bit. They are having a cake walk, so I made the round cakes for that. It was a lot of fun. I've been so consumed with homework recently that I havent had time to bake much. I love to bake.

My kids also get to do a performance for each of their classes. I'm excited for that. My littlest Logan who is 1 year old is under the weather, so hopefully his cold won't effect him too much to where we have to leave early. Maybe he and the hubby can go home since my hubby ins't supposed to do much anyway. I'm still loving my new car. Why wouldn't I? It's so smooth riding and it's just pretty. Well I'll be back later with pictures from the fall festival.

Until Next time.....

Disbelief

I can't believe how fast this semester has gone. I'm kind of shocked that we are into week 13. I'm very glad though. I'm ready for christmas break. Well, you are going to see a lot from me this week. I forgot to blog last week, so i'm going to blog 4 times this week to make up for it. Even if I don't get credit for it, I still do the assignment that was assigned.

So my local grocery store, Summerfresh, had a great deal going on Saturday and Sunday this last week. They were doubling coupons up to $1. That never happens. So I got all of my coupons out and went to the store Friday night to map everything out. There were a bunch of other people there as well, so I knew I would have to get there early. I got there about 20 minutes early and luckily I was the first person in the store. I only ended up not getting one item. 2 girls decided to completely clear the shelf of some uncle ben's boxes of rice that I was going to get for $.49. I asked if they could spare a couple and they said no. I moved on and got everything else I wanted. It was a great grocery trip. I ended up getting $150 worth of groceries for $35! Needless to say when I walked in with bags and bags and my hubby found out how much I spent, he was so excited. I love my coupons.

My husband is starting to get a little relief. He has been going to a chiropractor about every other day since the neurosurgeon hasn't scheduled his appt yet. He can walk a little straighter and is feeling a little better.

Some also very exciting news.....Since I've started couponing I've saved my family a ton of money. For my hard work and effort, my husband bought me a brand new Toyota 4Runner. I've never had a new vehicle in my life and I'm so excited about it. The payments aren't too high because we had a lot of equity in my other vehicle.

Until next time.....

Husband

So my husband got his MRI results back this morning, and he has a vertabrae out of place! How ridiculous is that?? They are now sending him to a neurologist. They said it will probably be a month before he can get in. How can they expect a person to be so immobile and not do anything about it? He's having such a hard time. Hopefully they can get him in sooner. It get's hard for me to get everything done and take care of him like I would like too. He deserves my constant attention and I can't give it to him with the kids and school.

I'll write more in the morning

Until nex time......

What a week...

I have never seen a hospital so much as I have this last week. As I wrote before my oldest son was in the hospital, and then my husband had to go to the hospital on Sunday. They did a cat scan on him and he has 2 bulging discs in his back. They could rupture at any moment which would mean back surgery. He has to go back for the 3rd time tomorrow and get an MRI. So not only has he already been to the hospital twice already, we have to go back tomorrow. We have to drive to Fayetteville because he is a Veteran and has to go to the VA hospital, which means we drive about 3 hours round trip each time we go. Luckily, my father-in-law came down here for vacation before all this happened and we have had his help. I don't know what I would have done without him here.

It has been hard to do all of these hospital visits, get homework done, take care of the house and kids, and my husband. I'm so burnt out. I'm not  getting any sleep because I'm acting as a full time nurse to my husband. He hasn't been sleeping at night and so I don't sleep either because I'm so worried about him. I keep praying for him to get better and that we don't have to do surgery.

Other than that, life has been great! When you have such a big family, there is always something going on. Busy, busy, busy. I still manage to do some couponing too! I haven't done as much since I've been in school because it takes a lot of work, and I concentrate more on school then I do my couponing.

Until next time.....

Birthday party

Today we had my son's 1st birthday party! What a fun day. He has all hand me down toys since he was born. Getting new toys was an absolute blast for him. It was of course hard for his older brothers because they wanted to destroy his new toys. They are the destructors of all that is available to thier hands. My husband and I had to keep everything away from them so that he could play with something new. He made out like a bandit. I had about 30 people in my house and a bunch of little kids running around.

I was so excited to do the 1st birthday cake again, and he freaked out. He wanted nothing to do with his cake and got very mad at me for it. Later on I gave him some chocolate cake, and he was a little more happy with that. He actually unwrapped some of his presents by himself, but his brothers had to help, along with all the other little kids running around. The hubby, of course, prepared a grand feast for every one. They loved it. He loves to show off his mad cooking skills on his grill. Everyone always comes hungry to our house because they know they will get fed.

On another note, my older son is feeling much better after being on his antibiotics. We still have another week of them, but it's good having him back to his normal, mouthy self. My house wouldn't be the same if one of my children was constantly getting in trouble. HAHA! With a house full of boys, one of them is always up to no good.

Until Next time.....

Can't catch a break....

So my oldest son came home from his grandparents last night, and could barely breath. I took him to the hospital, and the verdict was pnuemonia. I felt so bad for my little guy. He was having such a hard time. I have to give props to McCune Brooks though, They got him in and out. We orginally went to Freeman and when we got there the waiting room was full and so we were going to be waiting for probably 3 hours and then who knows how long it would have taken to back in the room. My husband called me to see how everything was going and I told him about the wait. He called McCune brooks and called me back a minute later and told me to go there. I had absolutely no wait there. They took him back immediately, did a flu test, did his X-Rays and instantly had a diagnosis. They also gave him a shot of antibiotics while there so it could get into his blood stream faster.

I was so impressed with that hospital. If I ever need to take one of my kids at night again I will definitely be heading there. They were nothing but helpful and worried about getting Roman better. They were truely concerned about him. I can't thank them enough for all the help they gave us last night. We were in and out of there within 2 hours. That is the fastest I've ever been through an Emergency Room. Hopefully we won't have to go anytime soon, but if we do, I will be heading there. Roman is feeling a little better today, but still a little blue!!

Until next time......

Helping Others

It was a busy week this week. All my kids were sick again, including myself. It's always hard to take care of your sick kids along with your sick self.

Although it was a rough week, the end of the week was worth it. My husbands grandparents have a really old house, and we are constantly as a whole family getting together each year and fixing something. Everyone pitches in what they can afford and we fix it together. So this weekend we fixed their living room floor which had caved in it was so old. We completely tore it up and redid everything. Then we painted the room before the carpet was put in. Grandma and Grandpa have to wait until Wednesday for the carpet, but it was very rewarding to see how happy they were. My husband was there for 12 hours yesterday, and the kids and I were there most of the day today spectating. It's kind of like our very home extreme home makeover, except for 1 room a year and not in 7 days. We do what we can and It's enjoyable for the whole family. The flooring had to be done because Grandpa fell through it. That's how old it was.

How excited is everyone to see these 7 houses built in 7 days from extreme home makeover? It's pretty awesome that they are doing this. I can't wait to see everything and how it turns out. It's going to be awesome. I really want to be there for the reveal of the houses. I've been keeping up with them on facebook and the pictures they post. It's pretty awesome.

Until Next Time.....

Survey

So I just took a very interesting survey for my psych class!! Can I say it was the bes time to take it. It was all about character strengths. At the end of the 240 questions, it tells you about all your strengths through 24 of them. My top strength was Gratitude. I really enjoyed it, and hope that some of you as well have this course and get to do this assignment. It was really enjoyable. If not, I will post the link and you can take the survey. It was really neat. So, I guess maybe this is persuasive, lol! I think it made me feel a little better about myself to see some of the strengths that I didn't know I had. I will post all my strengths on the next post along with the link, and would love to hear others outcomes!!

Until next time.....

Hard Time....

So recently I've been kind of having a tough time at home. I realize i'm supposed to write a persuasive blog once a week, but I'm kind of hoping that I can get some results and some advice from my classmates. My husband is a disabled veteran and has been home since about April. Our relationship has always been working and not spending this much time together. I am also at home, because I'm a stay at home mom. We did great the first few months, and now we are starting to as you could say, get on each others nerves. The hard part is that I feel that he thinks it's all me. I would love some suggestions as to maybe what we could do to make sure that this doesn't happen too much. We try to each have some alone time, but I don't want too much. Right now, actually just writing about it is helping. I don't ever want to vent to my mom because I feel that it would upset her and she can't have that on her right now. My great uncle just died this morning, and my mom also lost a friend this week to cancer. So she has had an extremely rough week. I also found out this morning that not only did my uncle die, that a good friend of mine that is only 32, has breast cancer. I tear up right now because she is so young, with 2 beautiful girls, and a wonderful husband. I couldn't imagine those girls having to lose thier mother at such a young age.

As I said, I know that i'm supposed to write a persuasive and just a regular blog, but this week it is probably only going to be 2 regular blogs. I have so much pain in my heart right now that it's hard to even think about things. I'm staying on top of my assignments, but there are times where I just want to cry. I know I need to be strong and I am for my mom and my friends husband. But it is kind of nice to just be by myself right now so that I don't have to be strong for every one else, and I can just let go and let everything out and then be strong in the morning again.

Until next time.....which will only be a couple of hours so I don't get docked any points.

Family Night!

Tonight I was able to go have a nice dinner with my family, come home and play outside, and then come inside and watch a movie. What a fantastic evening it was!! I decide my last post of the week would be about the importance of family and the time that we should spend with them. I think it can be very rewarding for both the adults and the children. The children feel loved when they get that special time.

My kids think it's a big treat when we go out to eat, because we don't do it that often. They also love to play outsite, and it's been so nice lately. I've been reading lately that children actually have better behavior when they spend more time with thier family and do these types of things. You can read some great articles on http://www.parents.com/, http://www.americanbaby.com/, or you can just use a general search engine like http://www.yahoo.com/ to find some great articles.

I also recently came upon a great coupon for $4 off on some hasbro games!! Big Lots then had a sale for there hasbro games at $5. I was able to ad match it at walmart and get them for a $1 a piece. So my family is now going to have a game night once a week on Sunday! It will be a family night without friends and just us. I want them to understand the meaning of family, and that spending time together is important. I love my boys and husband so much, and can't wait for them to have families of thier own. OK, I guess I can wait a while. I still want all the time I can get with them and keep them to myself. It was be hard to share them when they get older.

I think children are the best thing that could have ever happended to me. My life would be empty without them. It is so hectic all the time, that I would be bored without them. They are just so much fun, and I need that in my life. They are absolutely my life. I suggest all parents on here reading this to start a family night if you don't already have one......

Until next time.......

Better Week

So this week has been a much better week. My kids are better. That makes me so happy. I've gotten a lot more accomplished with school and housework with my children feeling better. I was even able to help out the PTO twice this week. I love to be able to help out as much as I can at my kids school. I want to be that kind of parent that is involved in everything they do. My kids are my world, and I want to make sure they know that.

My husband has been doing so much landscaping lately! My house looks amazing....not to brag or anything. I am seriously so proud of him. He has been working night and day to make our house look amazing. I absolutely love having such a devoted husband who wants to have a nice house instead of a lump on a couch. My husband means the world to me and I'm grateful I have him. He is so handy when it comes to the landscaping. What he has done we probably would have had to pay thousands of dollars for. He knows I love my coupons, so I'm glad he's saved us money on that end of it as well.

I'm so excited to be able to get done with school. I really want to start teaching and watch these young minds grow. Children are so special and they all need to know it.

Until next time......

Rough Week

This week has been extremely rough!! 2 out of my 3 kids have been sick. One has been to the doctor twice and the other one has to go to the doctor on Monday due to extreme headaches. My pediatrician has told me that she will most likely be running a CT on him to make sure it's nothing serious. It sure is hard being a mom sometimes. There are so many benefitis to being a mom, but sometimes I just want to cry to my mom about these things. It's just not fair for children to have to go through this. I wish I could take all their pain away and give it to myself. I would do it in a heartbeat. This is going to be extremely short because I have gotten absolutely no sleep this week, and I need some! I will post more tomorrow.

Still Tired....But Feel a little better!

Obviously I'm still tired since I'm doing this late, which was not the plan. This week has just been a hard week. But late or not, I had an absolute blast this morning with my kids. We went to Lowe's and they had safety saturday and the build and grow clinic. Every 2 weeks they have a build and grow clinic where kids get to build whatever item Lowe's has chosen and they get to do it for free. It was so much fun. They got to build a fire truck, and there was a big fire truck there. They also got fire hats, shirts that say arive alive, and buckle up on the back. They had so much fun. I also got to put those Drunk Goggles on, which my husband video taped and it was quite funny. I've never had so much as a sip of alcohol in my life, so my husband thouroghly enjoyed seeing me like that. You can sign up to do this every week. You can either go to http://www.lowes.com/, and search build and grow, or you can go to this site http://lowesbuildandgrow.com/ChooseAClinic.aspx. It will tell you what they are doing the next time. I highly recommend doing this with children. It is so much fun. They also go to sit in the firetruck and I of course took a picture. I think what Lowe's is doing is amazing. There are some families that can't afford to buy there children new toys, and this is a good way for them to do something as a family and for the kids to get something too absolutely free. My kids love it, and I'm grateful that they can do it. I can afford to buy them new things, but I teach them that they don't always get what they want. It's fun for them to do this and have to work to get the new toy. They have to build it themselves and they really enjoy it. Enjoy the picutres below.....

Tired....

So I haven't been getting much sleep lately because my 11 month old feels the need to be like a newborn. It can be very exhausting. He must be growing. He wakes up all night long wanting his bottle and acting like he's never eaten a day in his life. Well, it catches up when I don't get any sleep. I've got so much going on in the next week. I have 2 events that I have to be at, one of which is a charity event. Both of them I'm a vendor. I have a PTO meeting. I have to start planning my sons Halloween party at school because I'm his room mom. The list could go on and on.

Somedays I feel like just laying around all day, but don't have that luxury with being in school, having children in school, and having children that need my attention a lot of the day.

I had a nice night last night. I got to hang out with a friend of mine and watch the premier of Grey's Anatomy. It was kind of nice to be kid free for a while and just hang out. We did our hair, snacked, and just had a fun Girl's night! Those are the kind of breaks that mom's need sometimes, but that we rarely get.

This is obviously just a general post since I'm exhausted and writing about miscellaneous silliness.

So, what are everyone's favorite TV shows? If you even get the chance to watch anything. I have a whole list of shows I enjoy. I have to DVR all of them and watch them when I get the chance. I enjoy watching Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Desperate Housewives, Entourage, True Blood, Dexter, The Sopranos, The News, Wheel of Fortune, Any Game show. I obviously don't have any time for all of this, and my DVR is constantly full of stuff.

Until next time.....

Still no keys....

So for those of you who read my earlier post, I still have not found my keys. I had to have my mom come and get me on her lunch, take me to Roper Honda, wait for me to get a practice key and then take me home. I then had to do some nonsense to my car to get it started and couldn't turn it off until I got back to Honda for them to program a new key for me. Luckily my husband used to work there and they were super nice and gave us the employee price so I wasn't paying $80 for a new key. Then my sweet and awesome mama took me out to dinner at Olive Garden to relieve my stress. It worked!! So I though I would talk about organization, and then I decided I didn't want to stress about reading about being organized when I obviously was so not organized at all today. So I'm going to do that next week. It will also be before Friday!! I think this week I will stick to the persuasiveness of making you all coupon. I know you love to read about it!!

So the best part of this last week was my trip to Wal-mart on Sunday. This is how my reciept looked:
6 Boxes of Cereal
3 Packages of AA Energizer batteries(8 Pack)
1 Gallon of Milk
16 Tubes of Crest Toothpaste(Don't Judge me Yet)

Walmart paid me $1.31 after coupons to leave will all of this. This is how I did it.
I ad matched Ron's IGA for the Batteries, Milk and Toothpaste. The batteries were $2.99, the Milk was $2.88, and the Toothpaste was $0.49. I ad matched the Kellog's cereal to walgreen's which was $2.00. I had many different coupons that I used. They are as follows:

(3) $1 off Coupons for Batteries
(2) $3 off 3 Boxes of Kellogs Cereal
(1) $2 Off 1 Gallon of milk with purchase of 5 Kellogs Cereals
(8) $2 off Crest
(4) $1 Off Crest
(4) $0.50 Off Crest

On the Crest toothpaste is where I made my money. I made $1.51 on 8 tubes and $0.51 and 4 of the tubes. The other 4 tubes were free. So with all my coupons and ad matching, I didn't have to pay for any of this and got paid to walk out of the store with it. If you are still confused, you can ask me, or you can try one of these websites to help you out, http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/, http://www.iheartwags.com/, and http://www.frugalfritzie.com/.

Just so you know, I did not keep all that toothpaste. My mom works in an administrative building, and yesterday I took my son with the wal-mart bag full yesterday and he went trick-or-treating with toothpaste. He gave everyone in her office a tube. They loved it and though it was so cute. He is 4 and absolutely loved it. I'm trying to teach him and my other boys about giving and donating. Anyime we can get something free or cheap that we don't need or only need 1 or 2 of I still get as much as I can and then we donate it. They love to help others in need.

Until Next Time.....

Scatter Brain!

Have you ever been so scatterbrained that you don't even know what to do with yourself? I am a very organized person, and I don't lose things. This morning has been the worst morning ever. I am an on time person. I don't like to be late. My son has to be at school by 7:40, and class starts promptly at 7:50. We get in the car at about 7:35 and I can't find my keys that I always put in my purse. At this point I start freaking out. I don't like to be late as I already mentioned, and I especially don't like to make my kids late. By 7:47 I call my mom to see if she can come get my son. Luckily, my mom works in the Webb City school district so it only took her a couple of minutes to get to my house. So, of course, my son was late to school, and I still haven't found my keys.

I don't know what is wrong with me, I'm not like this. My house may be a mess sometimes, but it is an organized mess. I always know where everything is. ALWAYS! I'm so upset with myself. My husband knows how I am about being late. I can't stand it. I don't even like to be a minute late.

I still can't find my keys. I don't have a spare set, because when we bought the car used, it didn't have the spare keys. I've had this car for 3 1/2 years, and that shows how often I lose the keys. I'm waiting for my husband and baby to wake up so I can look in the bedroom and i'm very much hoping they are in there. If they aren't, who knows what i'm going to do. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to leave here in 2 hours to go and pick up my good friends son for a sleepover this weekend. Why do these things have to happen on such important days??? I'm so frustrated right now. That is why I chose to take a break from looking for the keys in hope that it might calm me down a little. It has a little, but not much. I won't be calm until I find those keys.

I have a feeling my next post will be on organization, and some good ways to stay organized. I will probably be posting some sites that I find with those skills! Until next time......

Just a general post!

Enough about coupons for a couple of blogs. I know that you all love hearing about coupons and can't read enough of it, but it can get monotanous typing a lot about and reading a lot about coupons when you do it all the time. I want to talk a little bit about my family since I've discussed coupons so much lately and persuaded you enough.

I've been married to a wonderful man named Jon for almost 5 years now. He served our country in Iraq for about 9 months until he got injured and was medically discharged from the Army. I met him about 5 months later. I couldn't imagine my life without him, and I tell him all the time that I'm very grateful he served our country, but I'm glad he didn't do it when I knew him. I don't think I would have handled that very well. I'm glad he never has to go back. Jon and I have 3 beautiful boys.

Roman, 6, is in Kindergarten this year and is going on 15 and knows everything. Just this morning I told him that if he was so old he better get a job. That made him realize his age real quick and said he couldn't because he was just a kid. He is in flag football and loves it. He's bigger than most of the kids on his team because his doctor says he is the size of an average 8 year old. He's my snuggle bug when he wants to be.

Jaxon, 4, in in preschool and wishes he was in kindergarten like big brother was. He likes to be the center of attention since he is the middle child and wants to make sure every one notices him. He is so loving and gentle hearted. He loves to meet new people, and when he does, he introduces himself as, Jaxon Lincoln Hart. He wants everyone to know his full name and is very proud of it.

Logan, 10 months, is our fat baby, at least that is his nickname. He gets into everything and has started taking about 4-5 steps at a time. He is the biggest baby out of the 3 of them and we assume he is going to be huge. The doctor thinks so as well. I love to watch him learn new things every day and get so excited about them.

My boys are my life. It's all I know, because that is all that is in my house. Even a boy dog. I don't know if I could handle girls! Well, It's time for psychology. More next week......

Questions About Coupons

I had a few replies wanting to know about coupons. The first question I will answer is where I get all my coupons. There are many places that you can coupons. The first thing you want to do, so that you don't overwhelm yourself, is get the Sunday newspaper. Every week, the newspaper has different types of inserts that come in them with coupons. The only weeks you won't get inserts are the holiday weekends, like labor day. I didn't get any coupons this last weekend :(. I will be ok though, don't worry.

The inserts that generally come in the paper are; Smartsource (SS), Redplum (RP), Proctar & Gamble (P&G) and sometimes we have special ones that come out like General Mills. The P&G only comes out once a month and it's my favorite insert. With that insert, I have gotten many free and cheap razors, shampoo and conditioner and laundry detergent. We go through a lot of all of those items. The SS and RP generally come out every week and they have great coupons as well. The best Sunday paper to get in this area is the Kansas City Star. They have way better coupons than the Joplin Globe, because they are a bigger region. You can get the KC Star at Dollar Tree in Carthage, or at any Walmart, and Walgreen. I highly recommend getting the KC Star.

There are many other ways that you can get coupons as well. Here are some websites that are safe and that you can check out:
http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.redplum.com/

You can also email or send letters to many companies and they will mail you coupons. For instance, I really like Luv Diapers. I've used them for all my kids. I wrote an email to the company thanking them for a good product and a great price. They mailed me coupons for $2.00 off one package of luvs diapers. They sent me 2 of those. I was extremely excited about that.

One last thing you can do to get coupons is if you checked out and joined the blogs I told you about from the last blog, is they constantly update where you can get free samples. When you fill out that information for those free samples, they generally send a coupon with the sample. I definitely don't want to overwhelm with too much information, so I will stop here and save some more for the next blog.

I love all the questions, so ask away, and I will do my best to answer them all!

Is Using Coupons Worth It?

Coupons, are they worth it? Is it worth your time and effort? Of course it is, not only do I clip coupons, but I save my family, on average 50-75% of our overall grocery and personal needs bill. What? You want to know more, I can tell you more.

I started to coupon about 2 weeks after watching my first episode of extreme couponing. I fell in love, and had to do it! I bought one of those big binders, and made my husband go out and get me a bunch of baseball card holders that I could put my coupons in. My binder is organized by sections. For example, fruits is a section, cereal is a section, and so on. I don't think I could live without my coupons now.

Why should you do it? That's so easy to answer. You can spend as little time you want clipping a few coupons, or be extreme and save a lot of money. A penny saved is a penny earned.

How do I start, you ask? Well, do what I did, I got on all the blogs and starting reading everything there was to know about how to coupon. Nicole, I don't know what blogs to read. No fear, I will give you those blogs.

The first blog I checked out was http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/. I learned so much from this blog. This is the blog that I chose to use her information on how to organize my coupon binder. You can go here http://thekrazycouponlady.com/beginners/ to find out all you need to know about beginning your life of coupons. I also like to use http://www.wildforwags.com/. Walgreens is the absolutley best place to go to get all of your personal needs items. They frequently have great sales and a program called Register Rewards which also frequently makes things free. The last blog i'm going to share (I have many more but don't want to overwhelm anyone) is http://www.hip2save.com/. A lady named Collin runs this site, and is fantastic. She knows how to get a beginner started.

Well, I hope this wasn't too much information, and I also hope by the end of this semester, I can convince some of you to use coupons.

The Coupon Craze

In this blog, I chose to talk about my coupons. I know it can be boring to others, but coupons are a part of my life. I am not extreme like the show, but I'm close to it. I love to use coupons for everything, and hate it when I don't have a coupon for something. I do this to save my family of 5 money. My husband and I have 3 boys, and they are very expensive!

Sunday is my absolute favorite day of the week. I get my papers and cut and organize my coupons, if time allows. The dollar tree in Carthage, has the Kansas City Star for only a $1, where it is usually $2 everywhere else. I usually get 4-10 papers depending on the coupons. My husband thinks I'm a nut, but of course brags about me anywhere we go and how much money I save. I generally save about 50-75% of our total grocery bill, and save about 90% of personal needs items.

My favorite store to use my coupons at is Walgreens. I never used to go to Walgreens until I started coupons. My store is very coupon friendly and loves to help. Walgreens has a program called register rewards, where if you buy a certain item or multiple of it, you can get a register reward back to use on another purchase. Last week, they had Diapers on sale for $8.49 and then I had $3 coupon, which made them $5.49. After paying that amount, I got a $2 register reward to use for my next purchase, so it was like paying $3.49 for diapers, which is awesome! They also had Hot Pockets on sale, 2/$3. My family loves them, but I don't buy them often. Walgreens also let's you use one manufacture's coupon and one walgreens coupon on the same item. So with their coupon, and my coupon I was able to get them for $0.66 a box. I definitely stocked up on those.

Coupons has made my families life a lot easier as we are now a 1 income household since I'm back in school. I'm very grateful for my coupons, and love to teach other people how to use them.

All about me!

Here is what you need to know about Nicole Hart:

I am the wife to a wonderful man, who because he fought in war for our country has made it able for me to go back to school. We will celebrate our 5th anniversary in January and I just can't believe it.

I am a mother to 3 amazing boys that I couldn't imagine my life without. They keep me extremely busy and always will i'm sure. My oldest son Roman, just turned 6 and headed off to kindergarten as if he were a grown man. My middle son Jaxon, just turned 4 and is off to preschool and wants to be exactly like his big brother. My last, but not least, little munchkin Logan is 10 months old and wanting to be just like Roman and Jaxon. These boys are my life and I would do anything for them.

I am a couponer. Sunday is my favorite day of the week because I get all my coupons. I love to save my family money and get free stuff with my coupons. I wouldn't call myself extreme like the show, but I would say that I am very good at it. I hate buying anything without a coupon.

I am majoring in Elementary Education with the hopes of becoming and Elementary Principal. I look forward to getting school done so I can teach all the little minds wanting to learn. I have 24 credits and can't wait to graduate.