Some Q's for my Fellow Couponers

Ok so I've been couponing for about 6 months now but some things still confuse me or I still have trouble finding certain deals on things. So I thought I'd ask YOU how you do things with your coupons! Here's a few questions I have!

Do you shop at one store every week or will you shop at several stores to get the best deals? 


Are there certain things/brands that you will buy even if you don't have a coupon or do you only buy it if its a great price with a coupon?

How much do you typically spend a week on groceries, toiletries, household items, etc? Do you do this by a strict budget or just go in and get what you need? (you don't have to answer this if you don't want to)


What store do you usually find the best deals at? 


Do you consider it a good shopping trip if you save more than you spend or if you just don't spend as much as you planned? OR What do you consider a great shopping trip??


You can answer these in a comment or email me if you like! I feel like sometimes I do great and sometimes I don't do so hot. Like at Kroger I can never seem to save more than I spend but I do get good deals and I get the 10 cents off per gallon of gas by shopping at Kroger. At Publix I can save way more than I spend but they don't always have what I need/want on sale. I am trying to budget $100 a week on groceries, toiletries, everything. Sometimes I do great, like last week. Sometimes I don't do so great. Idk I just feel like at this point I should be able to get better deals, more free stuff, etc. I want to start stockpiling if I can.But haven't really been able to stock up on that many items at a time. Any tips for that?! Any tips at all would be soooo appreciated!!

Mom Blog Monday Blog Hop!

Are you a Mommy blogger? Do you blog about your kids? Do you blog about great things for Mommies?

 Do you wanna meet other Mom Bloggers?

This blog hop is hosted by Sippy Cups and Cloth Bums, The Not-So-Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom , and Luxury Living Frugal Style!

Rules?

All we ask is that you follow Sippy Cups and Cloth Bums, The Not- So- Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom, and Luxury Living Frugal Style.We are the first three on the linky!Then follow spot #4 which is the featured blog! Be sure to leave us a comment so we can follow you back!

We would LOVE it if you'd grab our button and put it somewhere on your blog or in a blog post! This would help us spread the word. However, you aren't required to.

Each week we choose a random blog via random.org to be the featured blog! This week's featured blog is...

What Makes Me Different?

My full name is Wendy Leanna Kelly-ann and my Muslim name is Liyana.  Most of my friends call me Kelly-ann, Kelleh, LeeLee or Lily.  My names are derived from Britain and Israel.  I'm Muslim, very social and open-minded.

I live in a little country known as Trinidad and Tobago, in the beautiful Caribbean sea with my mum, oldest brother and step-dad.  

I love to write to my blogs, read just about anything (mainly biology and crimes), sing, eat, dance, practise yoga and bake!

I want to be a family lawyer and child caretaker.  I'm an Army girlfriend to an amazing US soldier, who's currently deployed in the Middle East. Can't wait for R&R!!

I'm studying a B.Sc. in Business Computing from London Metropolitan Uni.; part-time studying two vocational courses: Auto Electrical and Bread, cakes and pastry and I'm job-hunting.  In my spare time (or most of the time) I write to my blog:http://lean-soldier.blogspot.com/" What makes me different>.  I started my blog because I needed something to do while my bf was being deployed and I was out of college.  Now it has transformed itself into more than my diary.  I write about my personal life, family, friends, blog-hops, recipes, health and sometimes Military.  

Fluffy Cheeks & CJ's Butter Review and Giveaway!! ***CLOSED***

Do ya'll remember a few weeks ago when I posted on my Facebook page looking for a cloth diaper friendly rash cream for Noah? Well I have found one I am in love with and I'm going to tell you all about it!

While I was on the hunt for a cloth diaper friendly cream, I found another awesome cloth diaper store online, Fluffy Cheeks! Fluffy cheeks sells cloth diapers and cloth diaper accessories and even offers free shipping on cloth diapers! They are located in Virginia and have amazing customer service! I was able to get a quick response via email each time I wrote them!

Now to the amazing product I got from Fluffy Cheeks!! They were awesome enough to send me some CJ's Butter to review and I am in love!!

CJ's Butter can be used to help relieve:

• eczema
• rashes
• dry/chapped skin
• rug burns (sore crawler's knees)
• hang nails
• even a small amount rubbed into your hair can work as a leave-in conditioner!

There are even more ways to use CJ's butter! Its literally amazing! It's been called a "Miracle in a tube" by some! It comes in all kinds of different scents too! And a little goes a long way so it will last a long time!

Like I said, I am in LOVE with this stuff! I received one 4oz tube in Pink Sugar to review as well as some samples of other scents! Every single scent smells AMAZING! Like so good I could eat the stuff! So now the big question, does it work?? It does! Noah has some patches of eczema on his legs and back. I started putting CJ's butter on the patches right away. Within a day the patches had lightened up and smoothed out a bit! Now they are barely there!! I have been searching for a product to relieve his eczema for months and months with no luck! Now I have found this amazing cream and won't ever switch again! It also works on his bum! And the fact that it is safe to use with cloth diapers is a HUGE plus! I always hated having to switch to disposables when Noah got diaper rash so I could use creams. Now I don't have to worry about it!

So yea, this stuff is amazing and I will never go back to yucky, smelly, non-cloth diaper friendly creams again!

Buy It

Visit Fluffy Cheeks and purchase a 4oz tube or jar for only $9.00! 

Win It!

Fluffy Cheeks is giving away three (3) 4oz tubes or jars of CJ's Butter in winner's choice of available scents!! 

**Mandatory Entry**

You must follow this blog via GFC and tell me one thing you think is awesome about CJ's Butter!! 

(This entry must be done before any other entries or other entries will not count! Don't forget to leave your email with every entry!)

*Extra Entries*

(1 entry) Visit Fluffy Cheeks and tell me another product they sell that you'd love to have!

(1 entry) "Like" Fluffy Cheeks on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name. (It would be great to thank them for the giveaway, but not required.)

(1 entry) "Like" The Not-So-Secret Confessions on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name. 

(1 entry) Follow me on Twitter. Leave your Twitter ID.

(1 entry) Tweet, update on Facebook, or blog about this giveaway tagging or linking back to my blog. Can be done once every 24 hours. 

(2 entries) Grab my button and post it somewhere on your blog or website. Leave the link.

(3 entries) Subscribe to my blog via email. 

Don't forget to leave your email with every entry!!

Giveaway will end on Friday April 8, 2011 at 11:59pm EST! Winner will be chosen via random.org and emailed. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen! Giveaway is open to US residents only! 

Weekly Publix trip and my first trip to Walgreens with Coupons!

So I've been reading up on how things work at Walgreens and been getting together a running list of some deals I wanted to get this week. It didn't go quite as well as I planned but I did do pretty good. I was able to get two Irish Spring Deodorants for practically free with RR. And Purex 50oz bottles of detergent for only $1.99 each. They were completely out of the FREE Right Gaurd deodorants but I am going to check out another Wags today to see if they have them. I couldn't find the Reach toothbrushes that were on sale so I gave up on those. So I didn't come home with much but for my first time I don't think I did too bad.

- Irish Spring Deodorant 2/$6 (Used $1/1 coupon for each and got $4 RR back) = Free
- Purex Detergent 33 Load/50oz $2.99 (Used $1/1 coupon for each) = $1.99 ea.

Then after Walgreens I went to Publix! I haven't shopped there in about 2 weeks because I was going to Kroger but this week Publix had better deals. I can definitely say I missed my Publix! I was able to snag some free veggies and pasta this week and some super cheap Philadelphia cooking cream! I didn't have coupons for everything and even had to get some items that weren't on sale but I still did really good!

- Total at Publix $29.98 Saved $44.10

All this for $29.98 (minus the two liters and the protein powder lol)

Fun With Food Friday- Hashbrown Casserole!

This is a new favorite in our house! The boys gobble it up so fast! Its one of those mix it together how you prefer kinda meals, so my ingredients are more estimates than exact amounts. 


-3/4 of a bag of tater tots cooked
-small container of sour cream
- one can of cream of chicken soup
- meat of your choice (we use 1lb of ground turkey)
-about one package of shredded cheese

While tater tots are cooking, cook meat as well. Also mix the can of cream of chicken (with can of water added) and sour cream under medium/low heat until mixture is creamy. Once tater tots are cooked mash them into the bottom of a casserole dish. Then layer with meat, creamy mixture, and then top with cheese. Cover with foil and cook for about 25 minutes at 350 and then about 5 more minutes without foil. YUM!!!

Visit Chocolate Mama for another great recipe!!

Please feel free to send me your favorite recipes so I can review them and share them with my followers! You can get FIVE (5) extra entries to any of my current giveaways for sending me a recipe! Please email giveaways to mommyferg02 at gmail dot com

Thanks!

Guess we're gonna give it a shot!

I got Noah some little toddler undies the other day and he seems to really like them, so next week while I'm home on spring break I'm going to work on potty training with him. I'm really clueless with all this but I'm going to give it a shot. He tells me every time he goes in his diaper and I even think he knows when he has to go because he goes and hides. Today he had the underwear on and went to hide to just go pee! So yep, we'll give it a go next week! Any tips will be GREATLY appreciated!

Noah in his big boy undies :) 

Wordless Wednesday- Babysitting my Niece