Thrifty Threads: My Couponing Outfit

I don't just coupon to save money on grocery items; my first love is shopping for clothes. Even then, "if it ain't got a #sale sticker on it, my money ain't buying it"!! I went couponing today in my clearance ChuckTaylors that I scored from Target when they had the smoking hot $5 off Converse coupon out. I got them for only $6.98. Believe it or not, the t-shirt came from Dollar Tree-check out the other t-shirt that I scored from there in this post. Last but not least, my boyfriend shorts were on sale for $5.99 a couple of seasons ago at Aeropostale. Talk about dressing on a budget. Yeah, I'm totally about that life!!

 I'm thinking of making this a regular feature here on the blog, which I've totally abandoned lately. Please forgive me. Would you all be interested in reading?

Follow along on my Instagram page as I post most of my hauls and deals there. You can also like my FB page to stay updated on other freebies and deals. 

Thanks for reading!!

Spring Cleaning with Kroger...

***Product coupons were provided by BzzAgent***

One thing I can't stand is a nasty house! I will take clutter and disorganization any day, but filth...I.CAN'T!!!

What better time than Spring Break to get some necessary cleaning out of the way? That's exactly what I did with my time off. I especially love to shop at places like Kroger for my cleaning supplies because not only do they offer great deals and prices but they also allow you the opportunity to earn Fuel Points towards your gas by using their rewards card. 

If you're unfamiliar with their Fuel Points system, it allows you to save $.10 per gallon of gas for every 100 points that you earn and redeem from your rewards card. Currently, they are running a promotion wherein you can earn 4 times the normal amount of fuel points for purchasing participating products.

Products that you would normally purchase such as this Clorox Cleaner + Bleach. 

Let me tell you....there's nothing like the fresh smell of bleach to signify a cleaning job well done!!! Especially when it's damn near free AND gives you points towards discounted gas! Double WIN!!!

No....let me take that back!

It's a TRIPLE WIN for me because it cleaned my bathtub like no other. Check out my before pic here...

I know what you're thinking!

I promise you all that I'm not a filthy chic but I had to make sure to let the dirt buildup in the tub enough so that you could visually note the difference in the before and after pictures. Otherwise, this whole post would be pointless.

See...it's not as bad as you think!

But take a look at the end results-AMAZING!!! 

Even better news is that BzzAgent has sent me 5 extra sets of coupons to share with my friends so that they can take advantage of the 4X Fuel Points Program before the promotion ends. 

Please feel free to email me to let me know if you are interested in receiving a sheet of coupons.

Here's what all I purchased with my set of Kroger coupons..all for under $5!!!

Cleaning products are super expensive so great, high value coupons always come in handy.

Again, let me know if you would like a set!

Thank You for reading.

XOXOXOXOX

Savin' Maven: DIY Valentine's Day Mail

Hello my loves.

Listen, I know I'm late as hell; please forgive me as I'm still trying to get accustomed to life with a newborn. Its like my days are literally stuck on fast forward. Seriously though, every waking moment that I have is spent on my lil one. 

I did however want to stop by today to share a quick,  easy, and fairly inexpensive holiday DIY project with you all. This project can really be done for any occasion bit since my family just recently had Valentine's Day pictures taken we will roll with that. 

Alls you need are some fancy scissors, a few pieces of solid color printing paper, and some washi tape.

I started by searching for a nice quote online and creating a Publisher document that would allow me  to print several of them on one sheet. i decided upon a nice quote about friends and family and since it's Valentine's Day I chose red paper.

Next,  I used the fancy scissors to cut the 'quote cards' out. All of the scissor designs were so pretty.  I ended up going with the 'Sculptured' pair for nice, frilly edge. 

I added washi tape to the outside of the envelopes just for character. After using my coupon the tape was almost free, $.05, from Target. I figured this was a great way to use it.

So there you have it-a quick and easy way to spruce up your holiday mail. By the way,  I love how great our family portraits came out. The JCPenny's portrait studio did an awesome job. See how we saved a ton of money on them by viewing this post. 

Until next time-thanks reading!

XOXOXOXOXO

Savin' Maven: How To Save Money on Family Portraits

Happy Monday my loves. 

I hope each of you had a great weekend. 

Mine was pretty awesome. I spent Saturday shopping with my Mom and on Sunday my honey and I went on an outing with our little Peanut to get family photos taken. They came out great! I can't wait to pick up the finished product.

I'm such a picture fanatic however, I'm always surprised at just how costly professional photos are. Like what exactly are they charging you for? 

I've noticed some downright outrageous sitting fees since I began getting professional photos done for my lil man. Seriously though, must these companies charge a full fee for a child who hasn't even reached 2 months old.  Clearly this has to be against the law.

I've honestly seen families stray far away from the traditional family photos in the recent years all because they are way too expensive. A lot of people have even taken it upon themselves to create their own photo shoots. In a world where Instagram is so popular almost everyone has become a photographer. Once I feel more comfortable with the settings on my 'big girl' camera I will definitely experiment more with snapping my own portraits. However, for those of us who love the cheesy poses and backgrounds at our local studios, there must be a way to lower the cost of these portraits. 

How, you ask?

You guessed it.....

Coupons!!!

I literally used to toss these picture coupons right in the garbage until my lil man came along. These things are lifesavers! They're like paper gold!! One of these coupons lowered the cost our Christmas photos by 70%!

Who wouldn't want to save 70%.?

Another great thing to do would be to sign up or register on photo sites such as Tinyprints and/or Vistaprint. If you place frequent orders with any of the online sites you sign up on they will automatically send you special offers and discounts in the mail.

These coupons and discounts will allow me to get tons of portraits of my little one at a fraction of the cost. That means we will be in the studio at least once a month. Because every holiday is like a special event in my family-especially when there is a new baby involved! 

What are some things your family does to save money on portraits?

I can't wait to hear from you!

And remember, think about how much money you can save before tossing the next batch of picture coupons that appear in your mailbox!

Thanks for reading.

XOXOXOXO

Savin' Maven Monday: No Fire S'mores

Happy Monday my loves!!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is off to a great start today. My weekend was pretty productive; I was finally able to sit down with my family and get invitations made out for my upcoming baby shower-that literally took all night and I'm still not even finished yet.

Before I get into my post, I would like to give a special 'Thank You' to all of those who have served or are currently serving our country-your fight for our continued freedom is very much appreciated.

I had recently taken a huge break from blogging in order to focus on preparing for my lil man but blogging just wouldn't escape from my mind. Though my posts probably won't be as regular as they used to be, I still wanted to make sure that I dropped in every now and again if for no other reason than to keep my writing skills fresh.

So today, I'm bringing you a quick and easy recipe that I've been craving lately.

No Fire S'mores!!!

Now, I looovvveee s'mores, however, I don't have a fireplace nor am I much of a camper so I had to find the easiest way to create this delightful snack without the use of the aforementioned things. So here's what an economically resourceful gal uses to make s'mores at home.

(All of these things were purchased while couponing, by the way!!)

As you may have noticed from previous recipes, I don't do measurements. I just use the ingredients as my heart desires. Here, I poured into a small cereal bowl a decent amount of marshmallows, approximately a tablespoon (or larger) scoop of butter, and milk chocolate morsels. You would obviously use more or less of the ingredients depending on the serving size you desire.

Place bowl and ingredients in the microwave for about 40 seconds-stopping every 20 seconds to mix and stir.

The consistency of your mixture should look like this when fully nuked...

Add your desired amount of Golden Grahams and stir, making sure to evenly coat all of the cereal.

You can eat these warm or you can place them in the fridge and indulge later. 

Whatever you do though, don't leave them sitting on the counter!!!!

What do you think?

Are you all going to try this recipe in the near or distant future?

I can't wait to hear from you!!

OHHHH....one thing before I go. 

Don't forget to enter my $25 Target gift card giveaway going on right now until the end of the week. It's super easy to enter-just visit this post!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Friday Favorites: Vol #33

Happy Friday my loves!!!!

I am sooo excited that it's the end of the week! Cheers to the freaking weekend already. I started back to work a couple of weeks ago so my days are dragging something serious. It's always a pleasure when the weekend rolls around. As I mentioned in this post, I'm super excited about THIS weekend in particular because I will be attending my very first blogger event. My goal is to actually attend one of the big conferences within the next year so we shall see how well that goes. 

I also love Fridays on the blog because once a month I share with you some of my favorite things that took place within the month. Lots of deals, savings, and all around good ish!!

Let's begin with Target's latest clearance sale which happened a few weekends ago. For two days, all of their summer clearance was an additional 20% off. I went absolutely nuts when I saw this because for one, I've never seen them have a sale like this; two, I had been eyeing tons of cute summer pieces waiting for them to be reduced; and three, Target is my all time favorite store in the whole wide world so it was only right that I partake in the madness. Speaking of madness, I recently collaborated with Target for a super sweet post about their wedding registry. See what all the fuss is about here.

FREE Restaurant.com gift cards that I won through a sweepstakes on Crowdtap. Crowdtap is a brand developing program that offers you a chance to sound off about your favorite brands and products through random surveys and various opportunities to share new brands through social media. They also offer sample shares every once in a while. A while ago, I was chosen to receive a sample share opportunity from Old Navy where my bestie and I both got to try their new denim for FREE.  

PS: Restaurant.com has a crazy sale going on this weekend...$4 for $25 worth of restaurant certificates. Um yes, I'll take them!

September magazine subscriptions. All or most of these were FREE!!! I usually share the deals that I get on my Facebook page so be sure to 'like' the page by clicking here.

This week's library find. Such a great book with awesome shopping tips.

Recent thrift store finds. I love finding critically acclaimed self help books while thrifting. Great titles for only a small fraction of the cost!

I recently got myself back into couponing and I've been saving a ton since. It's very time consuming but so well worth it. This trip to Harris Teeter cost me $43.xx but then I received a promotion from Quilted Northern that gave me back $15 just for purchasing their brand and filling out a short survey for them. That took my total down to $27.xx for this shopping trip.

I love stocking up on paper products and a couple of weeks ago CVS was having a great special. I believe I spent $28.xx on this trip and got back $16 bringing my total down to $12.xx for this haul. I LOVE CVS...their prices may seem a little expensive but they always, always, always offer great coupons and money rewards back on featured products.

Now...on to the cute baby stuff.

My lil Peanut's very first pair of Timberland boots. Found at the thrift for $5!!! They're in such great condition too. Since he will be born in December, he can wear them immediately to keep his little toes warm during the winter months. 

So my local library has a 'FREE Magazine' box. I like to go there often just to see what they have in the box. And all of the magazines that I showed you previously, from my own personal stash, get donated into this box once I'm done reading and ripping out my inspiration pages from them. Recently I lucked up on a whole slew of old Parents magazines. I'm sure these have some inspiration gems hidden in them.

Another great find from the thrift. I saw this same book in Target for $20 last week and I got it for $1. I don't do full price.

My absolutely FREE pamper purchase from Amazon.com. This deal was too sweet to pass up on. They always offer great deals on diapers when you sign up for the Amazon Mom program. Like my FB Page for more in depth breakdowns of deals like this. 

Just in case you are a new visitor, the honey and I are having a BOY this December. We are completely overjoyed.  Read more about our gender reveal here.

What a way to end a post!!!

What were some of your favorite things this week/month?

I can't wait to hear from you.

Until next time. Have a great weekend.

XOXOXOXOXO

Friday Favorites: Vol #32

Hello and happy Friday my dears.

I hope you all are off to a fabulous start. We have made it to the end of the week and I couldn't be more excited. In an effort to get my home and my shop more organized while I have a few more weeks off of work, I've been totally neglecting my Friday Favorites posts.

NO LONGER will that fly!!

With that being said, here are some of my favorite moments over the past couple of days, weeks, and probably months!!!

THIS...is going down on Monday. I can hardly contain myself!!!

Coupons are my favorite. Seriously they are the equivalent of FREE money. And who doesn't like FREE. I sure as hell do.

Spending time with my goddaughter is so great and it gives me awesome practice in preparation of my little Peanut. She means the world to me! I can't believe how big she has gotten. It seems like only yesterday I was at the hospital swaddling her in a receiving blanket.

This makeshift shoe rack that I found while thrifting. I had been searching all over for something sturdy enough to hold all of the shoes I've acquired for my shop. This was perfect at a price point of $9.

Speaking of thrifting, I was able to visit a ton of Goodwill shops while I was vacationing in South Carolina a few weeks ago. Their selection was amazing too-every piece that I laid my hands on was a popular name brand.

Yummy breakfast-turkey sausage, egg, and cheese wraps with buttery blueberry muffins!!

Some great fireworks that I was able to capture on Fourth of July! They were so beautiful!

Studying style...my current library reads. I'm thee biggest bookworm in America. I have a full home library but still manage to check out books from my local library. There are so many great resources there.

These gorgeous Sam & Libby wedges that I found at Target. Someone had returned them from an online purchase so I was able to score them for 9 bucks. What a steal considering that the line has yet to be marked down. 

I'm patiently awaiting this FEED line at Target to be marked down soon. I'm totally swooning over this denim vest but I just can't fathom paying $30 for it right now. 

Another Target find was these Prabal Gurung sandals that I found when they were marked down. So glad I was able to get them. They are super sexy. I can't wait to post the full outfit for you all. Stay tuned. 

$2 Polo shirts are a MUST. These things retail for above $60!!! Major score.

Last but not least, this AH MAY ZING bubble necklace that I found at Dillards the other day. The deal was that all clearance accessories were an additional 40% for cardholders. The clearance tag read $20 which would make this baby only $12 after my 40%. Quite a deal considering these necklaces run about 30 bucks elsewhere. Well, would you believe that I only ended up paying $8 for it due to a glitch in their computer system. The manager was oh so nice and took an additional, additional 40% off of the $20 due to the inconvenience of me having to wait. SWEET!!

So tell me, what are some of your favorites from this past week (or month)?

I can't wait to hear from you.

Thanks for reading!

XOXOXOXO