How do I get such great deals?

Well, the best answer is...I have TIME. (for another 2 weeks at least:)
I didn't get that much free stuff this week, but I will show you how I got the deals I did.
First Stop... Staples.

The pencil holders were on sale for 1 cent each. I got 2 (but since I am a teacher, I could have gotten 25). Bic pens were on sale for 99 cents. I also had a coupon for 1.00 off 2 Bic items. You can find that here. You may have to click through to the "next page" at the bottom to find the right one.
I was planning on getting some nicer pens and an electric pencil sharpener (both free after rebate), but I came to late in the week and they were gone. I wasn't really that surprised, because I know to get those deals you need to hit the stores Monday.
Total purchase: 1.01 (plus tax)

Next stop...Target

Olay body wash (2 bottles and a bonus puff) on clearance for $3.15. I had a coupon for $2.oo off, so my final cost was 1.15 for 2 (57 cents each)
Suave body wash (large bottle) on clearance for 1.27. I used a 75cents off, and a BOGOfree. (I wasn't sure if they would allow both coupons, so I tried it and it worked with no problem.) Final cost for 2, 52cents. (26 cents each)
Colgate Maxfresh toothpaste (3 tubes (6.oz)) on clearance for 3.50. I had a 50cent coupon, so each tube was a dollar. This is a pretty good price for the big tubes, and I was willing to pay a bit more, because this is the toothpaste that John loves, and the only kind he will use. Final cost for 3, 3.00 (1.00 each).
Quaker Granola bars (regular size) on sale for $2.00. I used a target coupon for .50, and a Manufactures coupon for 1.00 (from the paper). You can use both a target coupon and a Manu. coupon for each item at target. I print most of my target coupons from here. Final cost .50.
Colgate Total Advance toothpaste (1 6oz. tube and 2 trial size tubes) On clearance for 1.58. I used a 1.00 target coupon (that I had from the package of a previous purchase) and a 1.00 manu. coupon. Total cost 0.00. Overage: .42
Total cost at Target before my splurge: 4.75

My Splurge at Target was something for my classroom at school.
A large canvas painting of the solar system . (It wouldn't even fit in my cart!)

Originally $39.99, on clearance for 5.04. I have been continually looking for classroom decorations, and this is about the same price as a poster. Isn't it cool!
I'm going to a few other stores today, UPDATE:
Walgreens Deals:

At Walgreens today, I was pretty excited about rebates, and the $5 off a purchase of $20 coupon I found at the Walgreens website for today only.

Ultra tuff trash bags. 4.99 each (Sale for BOGO) and easysaver rebate for $5 off 2. Final price 0.00

Biofusion, Jane mineral makeup, light bulbs, and vaccum seal bag will all be free after rebate. Nevia lip stuff 2.99 (used .50 walgreens coupon and .50 Manu coupon) and I will get it free after rebate. Total cost 0.00, overage 1.00.

Walgreens purchases (after rebate) 0.00 Overage 6.00 (5.00 off coupon, and 1.00 from lip stuff)
of course I did spend some money on my FAVORITE candy bar (PB twix), and I often do SPEND money there (instead of making it:)


Rite Aid

Irish Spring Soap on sale for .99, had a .35 coupon.

Lady speed stick on sale for .99, coupon for 1.00

Biore cleansing face wash on clearance for 3.49 (coupon for 2..00 off that I got from a tear-off pad by the makeup section) final cost 1.49.

Garnier Fructice melting mask (for hair) 2.99 with a 2.99 rebate. I used a 1.00 manu. coupon and a 1.00 riteaid coupon. Overage 2.00

Garnier Fructise conditioner 2.99 with a 2.99 rebate. I used a 1.00 manu. coupon. Overage 1.00

Hershys bliss chocolate on clearance for 75% off. I had a 1.00 coupon that I printed from HERE. Price after coupon 0.10.

Rite aid final purchases: Overage .77

Catching up...

Wow, I have been so busy lately, I haven't blogged at all.
First order of business...Hanging out with John's family on a Sunday in recent weeks. The niece and nephew are SO cute!




I love in this picture how they both have beautiful blue eyes, but neither one of the looks that excited about a picture:)


Here is what I got trying to take a nice picture of JT and Johnny.



Also, Thank you to Jack and Cherry (and Davina) for letting us come down there and for the amazing meal.

A roof over our head...

Because of the hail damage during the tornado, everyone in our housing development is getting a new roof. We got it figured out with insurance, and hired our contractors...and they showed up Monday to give us our new roof.
Side note: on Monday morning, I went to the dentist for a crown, and it was NOT a fun dentist apt. (2 hours-lots of drilling). Needless to say, when I got home, I just wanted to take a nap. That was impossible because I heard a lot of BANG, BANG, BANG, POUND, POUND....break....POUND POUND POUND POUND from the roof.

I didn't really look at what they were doing much, but when I was leaving for track practice at 4:00, they had over half of the new shingles put on. John came home a few min. later, took one look at it, and said "that's the wrong color shingles". It was kind of an ugly orangey color. (We had asked for the same color as last time). So...we called the main guys (and hoped it didn't rain for 2 days while we are without shingles) and apparently they are taking care of it today. (More pounding and banging on the roof:( = I'm going shopping:))
It's not SO bad by itself...

...but when you see it in comparison with ALL the other houses on our street, it sticks out pretty bad.

Fun with J.T.

John and I hung out with Davina, Cherry, J.T. and Camille on Saturday. We went to a little kids amusement park type thing. The reunion between J.T. and John was priceless...J.T. got this big smile on his face and wanted to get out of the stroller. Then he said "Johnny...Johnny":)
They hung out a lot at the park.


Have you ever tried to take pictures of a kid on a carousel? I was pathetic...

Here is a cute picture from Davina's post.

Camille was a great baby hanging out in the stroller and watching all the rides from there.


I have to admit...my personal favorite was old fashioned SKEEBALL!
I was pretty amazing...for the first couple of rounds:)

Scrapbooking

A little bit of what I have been scrapbooking about this summer:
This layout about the tornado was fun because I used 3 new techniques. First, I used a small roller (and a small round thing) and tempera paint to give the first layout some personality. Then I added metal objects to the side. On the other layout I used an ink jet transparency (and a scanned in newspaper photo) to get what I wanted.


These are pages that I left sitting around half finished since this winter, and when I got felt letters at a garage sale for 25cents, I knew I wanted to use them on this layout.

4th of July and other random thoughts

Lori has a great post about their 4th of July outing.
I will illustrate our 4th of July in details using as few words as possible:)
Because it was...

We decided to play original

My favorite games were:

and excite bike.

We also grilled

It was an incredibly relaxing, super fun 4th!

OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS:
1. We are avoiding grasshoppers like the plague. (pun intended)
Apparently we have a grasshopper infestation. I only mainly notice when I go out to water our flowers and 10 grasshoppers jump out as I water the plant. When I was coming in the house the other day I spotted this beautiful one. Check out the details.


2. I'm not a great speller, but I think people who manufacture scrapbooking products should be able to spell. See for yourself:


3. Now that I'm into coupons, I often look at the details and exclusions. When I got this one from Qudoba I noticed it said "Limit one birthday per year". Who comes up with this stuff?


4. I admit it. I am a "neurotic obsessive compulsive frugal shopper." (quote taken from Centsible Sawyer) I am addicted to free stuff. I was unaware of how bad it was getting until this Sunday when the paper delivery guy put in 3 Target adds and NO COUPONS! It ruined most of my day. Seriously. As I organized my shopping list, a good number of things that i could have gotten free with coupons were out of the question because I didn't have the coupons. I'll stop the story there so you don't think I'm that crazy:)
Oh, but here's my free stuff from last week:

"where's Caleb" madness

This video is dark and sideways...but it is oh so fun to listen to. My mom plays this game with Caleb all the time...and he LOVES it every time:)

Flowers

Our backyard looks pretty amazing these days...thanks to all of John's hard work. (I really can't claim any of the work as my own). You may see one purple flower that found it's way into the other color, but it adds character:)

On the other hand...I did buy some gloves so I can pull more weeds...and do some of my own outside work.


And...I got my first flower to grow from a seed! Yippe.