Coupons? Yes please!

I can remember going grocery shopping with my mom when I was a little girl and she would pull out that infamous coupon organizer. Instantniously I would groan. Like it was a natural reaction. I vowed never to carry one of those coupon organizers to the grocery store.

Fast forward 18 years. My sister and I are no longer sharing toys or clothes (well she often didn't know that she was sharing clothes) and we are now sharing coupon sites and discussing how to get the most of out each of our shopping trips. Leave it to TLC's new show to throw us into the crazy conundrum of extreme couponing. 

I am determined to be the lady who gets $646 worth of groceries for $6.46. Ok, so maybe I'm not going to be that crazy but man that sure would be nice.

But this could get addicting. Take for instance my recent shopping day. Starting with Walgreen's I walked in armed with my coupons that were clipped from the Sunday paper and my weekly circular. I purchased $120 worth of items (including 3 things of laundry detergent, 4 bottles of shampoo, and razors for Griff) and walked out of there spending $63 with coupons totaling $11 off a future purchase. 

I instantly called the hubs and made him guess how much I saved.

Me: Hun, guess how much money I just saved at Walgreens?

Hubs: {obviously busy doing something else} How much?

Me: Just guess!

Hubs: $5

Me: What? $5? No guess again.

{silence}

Me: Ok fine...{jumping up and down in the parking lot}$50!!!!!!

Hubs: {still obviously doing something else} That's nice.

Someday he'll get just as excited as I did.

Albertsons (our local grocery store) was much of the same story. I purchased $100 in meat including pork, chicken, and steaks and only paid $50. And I'm talking like over 16 lbs. I didn't even bother calling home.


Needless to say, I'm hooked. So maybe my garage won't look like this

{How much BBQ sauce and tuna do these people honestly eat?}

but  I will strive for this

{$0 for cereal? Count me in!}

I guess I'll have to just eat my words about never carrying around a coupon organizer...maybe i can make mine really cute...

Well folks, I did it...

Please Note: This is not an April Fools joke. Everything that you will read from here on down is totally true.

Well folks, I did it. The big PWC (thanks for the acronym Em!)...the Post Wedding Chop. 9 inches of those long flowing locks came off last night and I have to say, it feels good! A little liberating and a little scary all at the same time. But it was time. So here you go...before and after!

BEFORE

{Long and flowing! I'd take back the Hawaii part of this pic, not the hair.}

AFTER

{Not a good pic since it was taken with my phone but it will have to do.}

I love it. It took me 10 minutes to dry it this morning and I even contemplated not using the flat iron. Imagine that. Now will I love it 2 weeks from now? We'll just have to see!

P.S.  I know. I need to get better at this blogging thing. I have a few things up my sleeve so I think this post just might have been the motivation to get back at it.

True Life: My Dog Has a Blankie

No I'm not kidding. And just like Linus, she totes that thing around the house making sure it's always in her sight. Don't believe me? See for yourself...

I'm not sure we'll be able to take this away like we might be able to take a blanket away from our future children. Then again, she is slowly eating it (yes, she bites off little pieces and chomps on them and then swallows them...I would hate to she what her insides look like) so we might not have anything to worry about.

For now though, we make sure that it is always in her kennel when she goes in there and she makes sure to pull it out of there when she comes out. It's quite amusing to watch actually.

Go ahead watch it again. You know she's hard to resist.

True Life: I Canceled My Gym Membership

Ah, New Year's resolutions. The time of year when the gyms make bank on the amount of new memberships while their loyal customers often drop off the radar for a month. It's not hard to see why. Waiting 15 mintues for a treadmill isn't fun, especially when you are watching someone walk at a zero incline and a pace of 1 mph.

I'm going to admit that at the time when my fitness regiment should have been at its all time high (the 6 months leading up to my wedding) the gym was just a faint thought in the back of my mind. But Griff and I wanted to start the New Year right and get back into our regular gym routine. After all, there was only so much of a hiatus we could take before the pounds started piling back on.

So what was the first thing that I did after the New Year? Why I canceled my gym membership of course. Ha, take that you over-priced health club. Ok, ok. I'm not like super woman. I still need to go to the gym but that gym wasn't helping my waistline and it certainly wasn't helping my wallet either. Instead, we now use the gym on base....FREE of charge. Number one, it's closer to our house and number two, I can almost promise you that it isn't as packed as the health club that we used to belong to was going to be.

So what was the second thing that I did after the New Year? I changed my workout time in my schedule. Hello 5:30 am. No, I'm not kidding. When I first moved here my sister started her workouts at that time. It was easier for her...I honestly thought that she was crazy. But now I see the reasoning in it. It was so easy to come up with an excuse for not going to the gym at the end of the day.

When I was in Connecticut, that was the best time for me to go. I didn't have a house to take care of, my mom was still making dinner for me every night and Griff wasn't there to keep me occupied. Now it's a different story. After work is the worst time of the day for me to go. And not only that, the gym is only filled with serious people at that time in the morning. No people staring at the equipment like it's a foreign object, no one sitting on a bike (not pedaling) just watching TV. And I have to say, I think it could become addicting.

So with just a few days under my belt, I have no complaints. Let's just hope I don't give it that two weeks and decide that sleeping in is more appetizing.