Extreme Couponing trial!

I decided to use my blog to try to keep track of my trials at couponing. I'm using 3 different sites as my references for finding deals:

thecoupongame.com
thekrazycouponlady.com
hip2save.com

There are a ton of blogs out there doing the same thing, but these are the ones I've chosen to use.

thecoupongame.com is the most user friendly out of all the sites. It allows me to cater which deals I want and what my bottom line will be. It also lets me comparison shop with 4 stores to figure out which has the most amount of deals in one shopping trip so that I can better plan!

Here's my first shopping trip:



This was at Von's. Now, my intention with couponing is to maintain or even decrease my grocery budget while stocking up on things we need.

My current budget for grocery shopping per week is $150. Now the $150 will be covering ALL shopping, toiletries, etc. Going into the couponing I am learning that there is no need to ever pay full price for a name brand item! You just need to wait until the product is at rock bottom price then have a coupon for it! AND for my friends who are also thinking of doing this, Pavillions (vons/safeway) will double coupons up to a $1. So a .75 coupon will be worth a $1 same as a .50 will be doubled to a $1.

My first shopping trip I used a total of 3.00 in coupons but saved 36.61 just by shopping only the sale items. Every item I put in my cart was either the cheapest on the shelf or I had a coupon and was getting it for almost free.

My next shopping trip will be at Rite Aid, they have great plants for sale from .99 to 1.99. Since I'm also working on my vegetable garden this is perfect! I will be posted my entire gameplan start to finish on my trip to Rite Aid soon!

Theresa

Ethan eating food!

Ethan has started to take interest in the food we eat! He gummed a watermelon until it disintegrated. I think it was from the teething. Here is a video of Ethan trying cereal for the first time!!

New New New!

So those of you that don't know--we finally found our dream home! After only a year of searching, rather I should say waiting we finally closed escrow on our home!


Here are some pics of the boys and pics of our new house!



Brotherly Love

Ready for a bath! Look at those rolls on his legs!







Helping me wash dishes while simultaneously washing his hair.

Apparently his brother had a cliff hanger...

Silly kid!

Bath mowhawk!

The Slacker

Yes I apologize for not updating! Two little boys manage to keep me pretty busy!

Ethan is now 3 months old! He is sleeping through the night and is now referred to as "Hank the Tank" because he's so big!



Here is the little man waking up from a nap. This blanket was given to me by the King family, I love it so much I might actually decorate his future room in those colors!








I took the boys by myself to the Discovery Science Center, there was a bubble show that put both boys in a trance! This place will definitely be more fun when the boys are a little bit older! This was one of my first big outings with both boys! I had already mastered grocery shopping so I decided I needed a challenge!







These are pictures from Pretend City! I got a little smarter and decided to go to an outting with my mom friends instead! This place is exactly what it says, Pretend City! There are houses where the kids go in and play with dishes, watch TV, then they can go play at the beach, or go to the Fire Station! This place was a little expensive but I'm glad Everett had the chance to experience it with his friends!




We went on a family trip to Calico Ghost Town! It was a fun-filled weekend camping!


Lil' Ethan hanging out at the cabin in Big Bear!


Ethan's first cloth diaper!







Hanging out





Sesame Street Live


Cody's graduation!

Juggling the Twins!

Ethan is now two months old! It has been quite an adventure since my last post. After the dust settled and all of my amazing family members went back to business as usual, I began to figure out how to juggle the "twins". I was anticipating chaos, but in actuality it wasn't that bad! I do have to occasionally remind Everett not to sit on his brother or stick stickers on his brother's head or hit his brother....the fun goes on and on!

Everett has begun to regress a little, which I was expecting. Now the 17 words he knew and occasionally used have changed into this awful sounding screeking and pointing instead. I lovingly refer to him now as my lil' caveman. I've started to pick up sign language again in hopes of gettin him back on track. We are also learning how to start to discipline him. Sweet lil' Everett needs discipline??!! I know, I know, it couldn't possibly be the same kid!

1 month old!

Ethan is a month old! We had a great little celebration and Aunty Le came from San Jose to celebrate. I didn't bring my camera, so I'm hoping to add those pics later when I get them from Aunty Le and Pops Benney who did take pics!

Ethan's personality is already starting to show. He loves to cuddle and loves to be held. Everett is a great big brother! He gives Ethan plenty of kisses which Ethan seems to enjoy! Here are some recent pictures of my boys!

Ethan Benney is Here!

Thursday morning (the day before my scheduled c-section) I was feeling overall cranky (more than my normal moody self). I started having some contractions and low back pain. The first couple I just assumed were my standard Braxton Hicks contractions that have been plaguing me for weeks. I started to notice that the contractions became more consistent and didn't seem to go away when I would walk around. After the contractions continued to be 5 minutes apart during the course of an hour, we decided to go to labor and delivery.

By the time we arrived, my contractions were 3 minutes apart. When we told the nurses we were here, they thought it was pretty funny because they weren't expecting me until tomorrow and of course Murphy's Law: they were packed and had one room available for a c-section. They asked if we could wait a few minutes while they put out some fires in order to get us accommodated.

By noon we were 3 centimeters dilated with super strong contractions every minute. The Anaesthesiologist quickly finished with one c-section to then give me an epidural. At 1 pm we got word we would be doing my c-section by 1:30pm.

I was whisked away to the operating room, everything seemed the same as the last time until the Anaesthesiologist began to inject all the drugs to prep for surgery into my system. Things get pretty foggy after than point. He kept reassuring me all the side effects I was feeling were completely normal. I felt like an elephant was hanging out on my chest. Shortly after that I started vomiting. My ears started ringing then he asked if I would like to see them take out Ethan. I nodded yes, (not feeling confident to speak without accidentally puking) I felt a ton more pressure(another elephant hanging out on my abdomen) then my son was out!

I heard him cry, then more side effects from the drugs had started to rear their ugly heads again. A combination of more ear ringing, gasping for air, panic, vomiting and shakes ensued. By the time I got to recovery I was chattering and shaking from head to toe. This misery lasted about an hour. I was so grateful that the nurses and doctors looked at me like they've seen these side effects all day every day and reassured me everything was completely normal. After an hour I was getting back to normal.

Now for the real reason you want to read all this!

Here are his stats!

Ethan David Benney weighing in at a hefty 7 lbs 15 oz and length of 20"