Goodbye Again (For Now)

This is the final CVS trip in a while unless they decide to send me another survey to get more ExtraBucks! I went to the  store with $11 ECB to spend. I was actually looking for something in particular. I had seen on Instagram that the Nexcare tape was on clearance for less than $1.50, but it was still givinng $5 in ECB for purchasing one. That's definitely a great moneymaker! Alas, both stores I went to didn't have them any longer. I wasn't really expecting there to be any left since I did check about 2-3 days after the deal was first posted.

However, I did see that the regular price tape was $4.99, so I grabbed two rolls of that. I figured it wouldn't hurt to have it since I did just get a supermarket injury recently! I still knew I needed a little more to use the ECB, so I grabbed one of my favorite snacks that was on clearance - Pop Chips! That meant that when I paid at self-checkout, I just had to put in $0.47 in change. Yay!

I rolled the $10 i got from the Nexcare into my final transaction. Tums are on sale this week for buy one get one 50% off. I know that I can probably find a bottle cheaper elsewhere like at Target, but nothing beats paying pocket change. I chose two bottles of my latest favorite, which is the Ultra Strength 1000 in Peppermint. I can't believe all along I've only been taking 750 when 1000 works so much better. Each was $5.99, so that meant both would be about $9. I still had another $1 in ECB, so I picked up another bag of Pop Chips.

I actually waited on the line again for the second transaction since there were others waiting due to two people being super confused and needing help. I didn't mind because then I had time to carefully tear the ECB fro mthe bottom of my receipt. The transaction was smooth and easy although any time I have high ECB amounts, it needs to be approved.  With another $0.47 (yes, they both came out to that same number, haha), I was done. Woohoo! So basically I consider the change I spent on my recent CVS trips was spent for the sake of the Tums that can be rather expensive. Everything else was just extras!

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I just wanted to add that I thought it was nice to see there were still a few clearance blankets left for $0.99 when I was there that day. I know some people were able to get them for $0.39 elsewhere. If I had more ECB to spend, I definitely would have gotten some of these too. Couponers everywhere are picking them up because they're a great last minute small gift or good for gift baskets or for donations.

The Non-Instagram Photos of the Week (Part I)

Here are a few of the random photos I took this week. Normally, I use a series of photos in blog posts, but these are the "strays" that didn't really have a place or weren't as "worthy" to be on Instagram. 

This past winter, I finally bought boots! I have a few to choose from when I need to wear one on a cold day. It's funny because even when it was freezing out or raining, I have worn flats without socks when going to work or church. It's just something I was used to doing. The cold finally got to me so I picked up great boots from Payless, which I wore this week as I went to work to help with the proctoring. On the last day, however, I was getting a little tired of the boots so I risked it and wore flats and hoped my feet wouldn't get too cold, which would then make it difficult for the rest of me to be warm for the rest of day. I snapped a picture to send to Howard when I told him I chose to wear flats that day. I do very much love them though! They're from Kohl's, and looking back on it now, I really should have purchased at least another pair because once I find something I like, I pretty much like it for good. Oh well!

Ok, so I lied about the non-Instagram thing with this next picture, but I wanted to post it here too! As many of you know, Howard and I love trading Vinylmation! I make sure that we have some in the glove compartment of the car so that if we just happen to be going to the mall, they're there to pop in my bag. During my last trip, I traded for Emile from Ratatouille even though we already have a few of them. There's a clear trading box in Magic Kingdom's Frontier Trading Post that is Pixar only, so knowing that they have some boxes with strict rules, we don't mind getting extra Emiles to use for this purpose. I ended up leaving him in my bag to bring into the apartment instead of putting him in the glove compartment, but I forgot to take him out. When I was searching in my bag for lotion, I saw a little face peeking out at me and had to take a picture!

Yesterday mom and I didn't have lunch to bring to work, so we made plans to stop by Panera on the way to school to pick up some sandwiches. Mom insisted on treating me, so I I ordered the Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich, which is the one with gouda cheese in it. When I opened it up, I took a few bites and realized they gave me the Roasted Turkey & Avocado BLT! Haha, that's not a problem for me because the avocado was excellent! It was just huge pieces of it. It wasn't slivers or chunks, but like, almost full avocado halves! It made the sandwich kind of messy because it wasn't flat, but it was really tasty. The avocado made me a happy camper before moving on to finish the rest of the day with elementary school lunch duty following my lunch break. Thanks, Mom!

For the past couple of weeks, I have been searching for baby clothes since we had to go to Howard's cousin's baby's 100-day celebration tonight. I kind of vowed not to buy onesies for any babies since I know they will grow out of them so quickly, but this one below was super cute and on clearance at Target. I wanted to get it for my sister-in-law, but I decided not to because I know I can get something more worthwhile with the money. I did snap a picture of it to send to Howard though! Looks super simple. Maybe I really should figure out how to do something like this on my Silhouette!

That's all for tonight. I know Howard and I will be sleeping in late tomorrow after this work week and the dinner. Have a wonderful weekend!  

Out of the Mouths of the Kiddos

For 3 days this week, I went to school to help with the state test proctoring. Since the test is only in the morning, my afternoons were filled with a random assortment of classes as I made up preps that teachers missed due to the schedule changes. That meant that I actually had more uh, lovely opportunities to be with the younger elementary school kids. As I've mentioned before, it's not really something I prefer, but I have to say that the little kids also say the funniest things! I just had to write some of them down.

On Wednesday when I did lunch duty for the 2nd lunch period with the 1st to 5th graders, one of the 1st graders came up to me while I was standing there watching over the cafeteria. She asked me, "Do you have a baby?" I replied, "No, not yet." Then she asked, "When are you going to have a baby?" Haha, I wasn't sure what to say, but thankfully being in a Christian school, I was able to answer her by saying, "When God decides." She seemed satisfied with my response and went back to her seat.

I told her mom this morning since she's a teacher at the school, and she burst out laughing! She explained that recently her daughter had seen two pregnant women. Plus, she heard me being called by my new last name so her mom explained that I had gotten married. She must have thought that if I'm married, I must be having a baby soon!

During that same period, a few of the 2nd grade girls called out my name and beckoned me over. One of the girls is Chinese and gets all these great things for lunch, so she tipped her thermos towards me so I could see as she said, "Law bok go" (in English, it would be the pan fried turnip cake that you can get for dim sum). I said, "That's my FAVORITE! I love that so much; that would be such a great lunch!" My mom is a para in that class, so she must have told her I love eating it. When someone else asked her, "What is that?" the girl quickly replied, "Law bok go," which got my mom and I laughing that she answered in Chinese! It was just too cute.

As much as I love hearing the adorable things that they say, I still prefer middle school!

When We Said "I Do": Part II

There are many brides out there who look forward to their wedding day because they see it as their day and want to be the center of attention. I was the exact opposite of that. I was all for marrying my best friend, but the thought of everyone's eyes on me made me cringe! It's strange because although it makes me nervous, I love performing on stage and enjoyed having roles in our church's coffeehouse musicals in the past, but our wedding was different. Though we had a rehearsal, I didn't feel as if I knew everything as well as I could. Plus, I didn't know if I'd be dealing with a flood of emotions with everyone's eyes on me.

That's why one of my favorite pictures ended up being this one below.

That moment just between the two of us!

After Howard and I were pronounced husband and wife, we walked down the aisle and out the sanctuary. I felt so much relief to be out of the spotlight, and I could instead just enjoy being in a smaller group setting for a minute or two before heading back in for group photos. I leaned toward him, and he put his arm around me. I can very easily put myself back into that scene and remember the assurance I felt just standing there next to him.

I'm so glad that Dreamlite captured that brief yet memorable moment between us. Though we still had to walk back in and stand in the spotlight once again, I was given that little boost I needed to deal with the rest of the day.

(Read Part I of this series)

Couponing Ecards

I follow a few couponers on Instagram and also check a few hashtags while on the app, so I've come across a few of these when on the quest for a good deal. There are more than the ones I'm posting down below, but I find these particularly funny!

Thankfully, I've never had any one have an issue like this before. Well, at least not to my knowledge! I know that I've had a handful of people watch me especially at Target as I hand over a stack of coupons and then have mobile coupons and Cartwheel scanned on my phone. I've seen how they look at the cashier's screen too to see how much the final price decreases. It's pretty fun sometimes! Other times I see people in front of me check out for items I know have coupons, and I cringe knowing that they could get it cheaper. If I had them on me, I'd totally share, but since most of my coupons are internet printables, I only print what I use. 

I have definitely forgotten to use coupons in the past, but the only time I go back to get it corrected is if I haven't yet left the parking lot. I don't think it's worth the gas and time to go back, so that's why I watch the screen as the cashier scans each one and I check the receipt. In the supermarkets and Target, I usually check before I leave the store or if it's extremely detailed, I sit in my car and check it against my shopping list. 

This is definitely me! I like a variety of companies because of the coupons or the possibility of wins/prizes. Sometimes it's the best place to go for coupons for specific items. Recently, I was able to get high value coupons for Tribe Hummus, which is the only reason I tried the product. I've tried to convince my mom to sign up for an account solely for the connection to companies!

The last trip when I actually had time on my hands to check all the endcaps, I got so disoriented! Part of me still isn't used to the new Target because I really only go to certain areas. Any time I try to check the center aisles (more of the home stuff), I feel as if I get lost and have to figure out where the front of the store is, haha. The older Target is better with clearance though because I feel as if not as many people go there anymore. 

The other day I had a itsJudysLife vlog on where Julianna was pushing around a shopping cart in the kitchen. It reminded me of the cheap plastic red and yellow shopping cart I used to have when I was a kid and was telling Howard how much sturdier toys like that are nowadays. I also joked that our kids would push a cart around and pretend they're shopping, but I'd be like, "Okay, so you have the cheese and milk; do you have your coupons?" 

This last one is my FAVORITE! Haha, it's so true because coupons really are MONEY! Couponers always say that others pay with cash, and we just pay with coupons. That's why there's fraud with coupons because when people misuse it for the wrong products or don't put it in the couponing slot for self-checkout, it's basically a form of stealing. The store needs to submit the coupons to the manufacturer to be reimbursed, and some people just ruin it. Boo to all those couponers who do it dishonestly and make it harder for the rest of us. Anyway, it's pretty cool especially when you get high value coupons because it covers more of the cost of the product. Personally, I love $0.75 coupons on single items as I know they'll double to $1.50 in the supermarkets. That's a lot to save on one item, wouldn't you say?

If you haven't yet started, maybe it's time for you to give it a try! I feel that even if you don't do the "extreme couponing" route and instead save one dollar on each trip, that's still one more dollar you keep in your pocket instead of giving to the store. If you do grocery shopping once a week, that's $52 in a year! Pretty awesome deal, I think, just for using one or two coupons per trip!