Since I am not quite ready to take on a new big project I decided to just save my update photos for today’s Messy Monday post.   Last weeks project was a success!  I am happy to say that I have a much more organized pantry and I love it.  It is so nice to  know exactly what I have in there.

A few things surprised me as I was organizing.  One was that I thought I would find a lot more food that we had no interest in eating.  With the exception of a can of beets, some pasta roni, and a couple other things I feel like our pantry is filled with stuff we buy fairly regularly or will at least be able to eat before it expires.  The other thing I was quite surprised to see was how few canned goods we had.  The caned food we did have mainly included soups (which we rarely eat…note to self: don’t buy canned soup),  some peaches, a few tomato products, and quite a few canned beans (we eat lots of organic black and refried beans….made me wonder if we should soak our own).

Some things I did to organize the pantry:

• Put all the unopened foods and opened foods together so that we can clearly see what we have and not open new packages unnecessarily
• Put all loose snacks in a basket together to tidy up and make snacks easy to find.
• Put the things we use most in easy to reach places.
• Got the recycling under control.
• Took out things that we don’t use on a regular basis to store elsewhere
• Got rid of most of our water bottles since they aren’t BPA free and we haven’t been using them anyway (I have NO idea why we had so many water bottles).
• Organized my napkins and party-ware so that I knew what I had and could get to it. (I kinda love fun napkins….even though we rarely use them).
• Took all the pasta and rice and grains and put them in tubs.

It really is nothing increadible, but its an improvement and I am enjoying it!

Feel free to join in this week even though I have not selected our next area yet.  If you have a place in your home that needs some love just leave a comment with a link to your blog (if you have one) and the area that you will be bravely tackaling.  If you are so inclined you can also put a link for my post on your blog, so your readers can jump on the band wagon and see what everybody is doing.

-Thanks Deanna from Recycled Lovelies for joining in on the fun last week!

HERE is a sweet coupon for buy one get one free smoothies at Jamba Juice.  Sounds like the perfect bargain treat for Summer! Good through 7/12/09 and you can use one coupon per visit.

Thanks The Frugal Find!

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I was super excited to see that the Organic Valley coupons are still available.  Because the babies drink so much milk we think it is important to buy organic for them.  We purchase Organic Valley milk almost exclusively for our babies because we can sometimes find coupons like these.  Locally we buy this brand of milk at Roth’s, but if you are looking for some of their other products you may have better luck at a store like Whole Foods.

Like many printable coupons it looks like you can print two of each coupon per computer.  Choose the coupons you want by clicking the boxes and then print.  After they have printed hit your “back” button to print a second set.  They will likely expire 30 days from when you print.

Thanks Money Saving Mom!

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Go to Money Saving Madness to see how to order a FREE quart of Glidden paint (through July 2nd….although I would not wait too long incase they have a cap).  I am a big fan of ordering freebies that our family can use and this is one of the most fun ones I have seen lately.  I tried it yesterday and It worked great.  If you enter your information and it does not seem to be going through just try re-entering it and pressing “send” or whatever the button says again.   There are tons of fun colors to choose from!

Feel free to ask any questions you have about them.

Which of these deals are you doing?

I have a confession.  My children do not like wearing bibs and I have been a failure at convincing them that they are a good idea (and I am bummed because I have some really cute ones too).  I think some of the problem stems from the fact that for the first 6 or so months of their life feedings consumed my entire day and were the source of many frustrations and tears.  Now that there is no more pumping, nursing, and rotating between a small stash of tricky little bottles I am glad.  Glad for the fact that my days now consist of more playing, learning, jabbering, exploring and less hour and 15 minute feedings to try and get 3 oz down.  Now that they are eating a variety of solids at meals accompanied with milk feedings are more relaxed. After a few weeks of trying to keep them from ripping off their bibs the entire meal I realized that their must be another option. Many meals aren’t even that messy and a little food on their clothes is not a big deal.

On days when I am wanting to protect their clothes a little more, or they are diving into something particularly sloppy I just put one of my old t-shirts on them. The short sleeves hit them in just the right place to cover most if their arms and leave their hands exposed.  They also cover much more of their clothes than any regular bib would.  Because the shirt feels more like clothes to them they don’t fight them like they do bibs. I just leave a couple t-shirts downstairs on their shelf and after they have trashed both front and back I sometimes turn them inside out and then wash them when needed. It works for us!

Value Mags is offering a free 2 year subscription to Parents Magazine. Go HERE to sign up.  I have received a few magazines from them and have never had an issue before.  As always when signing up for offers online use an email address that you don’t mind giving out to companies. Act fast!  This deal will likely run out quickly.

Hint-I also like to get this magazine because they occasionally have coupons in them (maybe even a Gymboree one).

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Got any soy milk drinkers in your family?

Go HERE for a coupon for 8th Continent Soy Milk.  Sounds like it will print for people with internet explorer browsers. After it prints hit your “back” button and it should print one more time.

Thanks Money Saving Mom!

(Deal now expired)

Not much time to act on this, but I wanted to try and make sure it worked before I posted it.  Rite Aid has a couple great coupons out that can get you a patio umbrella for free or about $7.50 depending on which one you choose.  Head on over to thriftynorthwestmom.com to get your coupons and get to her hints on this SUPER deal!  We just got ours and put it up and I was surprised by how great it looked.  What are you waiting for? GO! (Only if you can use or need one though )

Today will be my first official Messy Monday post.  The idea behind this is that I find a place in my home that needs some love and I bravely take a picture and post it.  Then, later in the week I post an update to show my progress.  My goal is to have that area of my house cleaned or organized by the end of the week (although I know some weeks may get crazy and the job may only get a little of my time).

Join me for Messy Monday and post pictures of your clutter spot or neglected corner of your home on your blog.  Just leave a comment with the area you will be tackling and a link to your blog with a picture or two (don’t worry….you can join us and post pics at any time of the week.)  If you are feeling generous you can even put a link to my Messy Monday post on your Messy blog post.

I know that for myself, it can be really easy to get in a routine where I just try to keep up on the dishes and laundry and neglect the other projects.  Lets tackle one little spot in our home at a time and see what happens!

This week’s mess……THE PANTRY (in a deep and foreboding voice).

Please don’t judge me……join me!

Here are a list of some of the best freebies that are new out there right now.

• Go visit Moneysavingmom.com to get today’s Red Box code for a free rental.

• Moneysavingmom also had a post about signing up for a free Yoplait Whips coupon go HERE to see that post.

• Go HERE for a coupon for a free 12 oz beverage at Seattle’s Best at Borders (expires the 25th).

Coupon to print

• Go visit CommonSenseWithMoney.com to see a post that contains a coupon for $1.50 off a box of Kashi cereal or TLC bars.  If you wait for a sale you should be able to get some great healthy food for a good price.

A friend of mine was interested in how I use coupons to save money for our family.  I figured the best way for her to see what I do was actually show her, so we decided to make a run last night.  We met up at Starbucks for some pre-shopping fuel and to talk about how to organize, acquire, use and pair coupons.  After we chatted for quite a bit we headed over to target with a huge stash of coupons. To prepare for the trip I had spent quite a bit of time reading some blogs that outlined some of the deals for the week, and also printed off a bunch of online coupons.  You never really know how a trip will go till you see what products they actually carry, have in stock, and how good your checker is with coupons.  All in all it was a pretty successful trip! I was excited with what I came home with, and even more excited about how much I spent on it.

Full shot of the loot

Closer view

Closer view

Here is a rough breakdown of how much my stuff cost.

Cascade rinse agent-Coupon for free item

Cascade gel-$2.50 used store coupon(S.C) and manufacturer coupon(M.C)

Dawn foam-79 cents used M.C

Dawn hand renewal-$1.09  used M.C.

Kraft BBQ sauce-24 cents used M.C

(2) Morning star farms Spicy black bean burgers-$1.29 each after M.C and S.C

All Beef hot dogs-Coupon for free product

Dog teeth cleaning treats-$1.04 after M.C

Earths best-27 cents after S.C

Kotex 36ct-$3.54 after S.C. and M.C

Band aids- 27 cents and 77 cents after M.C and S.C.

Bryers on sale for $2.50 each and if you bought 5 you get a gift card for $5. so….like getting 5 for $7.50

Shredded Wheat-about $4.25 for the three boxes  (2)M.C. and S.C

Milk-Free when you bought 3 boxes of cereal!

Archer Farms organic tortilla chips-$1.33 each after S.C

Archer Farms organic mango peach salsa- Free when you bought 2 chips!

Total………..$33.26 minus the $5 gift card from the ice cream

=$28.26 WOO HOO

Total before savings $82.35!

We got lots of products we will use and a few to build up our stock pile.  Some are products we are pretty brand loyal to, and some are just things that I got for free or close to free I knew that we could use.  I love to have a small stash so we won’t have to pay full or even just sale price when we run out of something.

Stats:

Time preparing for trip–Sadly it took me a couple hours because I had not organized my coupons lately and spent quite a bit of time looking for and printing coupons online.  I had the time though because our trip to the beach with the youth group got rained out. I don’t normally spend this much time preparing for a trip.

Time spent in Target–couple hours. More than normal because we were talking about the deals as we went.

Checker–Male and great with coupons! (I would use him again)…as you coupon you learn that the checker is crucial. Some don’t know hot to ring things up properly, some don’t know their companies policies, and some are just mad that you are getting better deals than they do.

Location-Keizer Station

If I continue to post about some of my shopping trips I likely won’t go into so much detail.  I just know that I like to see exactly how people are getting their deals so I can refine my game.

Happy Sunday! Its a new week with new deals!

Let me know if you have any questions!