Clipping Those Coupons!

One of my newest goals is to see how much money I can save and how I can best spend our money. The hubby and I are pretty good with money and also savings. However, we do not have a budget per say and I think we can spend too much on things like groceries and eating out. I am trying to be better with our money and also doing whatever I can do to help reduce costs so we can put more into savings each month and also paying off things like our vehicle and student loan.

I have cut coupons for awhile but a lot of times I forget I have them or we are out and decide to go to the grocery store and I don’t have my coupons. Well I have found that couponing can save you a TON of money, especially if you match your coupons to store sales. This has been my recent quest.

Over the weekend I was visiting my cousin and his wife started putting her coupons into a 3 ring binder. I have seen this before and remember thinking to myself that those people were real serious couponers. I got behind one in line about a month ago when Kmart was having their double coupon weeks. The lady ended up spending right over a hundred dollars when her original bill totaled to around $270.00 (I can’t remember the exact costs). I was in coupon envy! That’s a lot of money!

So I decided that I was going to make a coupon notebook. You use:

· 1-3 ring binder
· plastic baseball card protector sheets (as many as you think you will need; each sheet has 9 slots
· dividers

(note:  my notebook looks like this but this is not mine-it is a picture I found on google to give you a visual!)

I divided all my coupons out into categories and then started filling my protector sheets. Each slot got one coupon. If I had multiple coupons I would use the same slot. I then put dividers between each section (heath/beauty products, cleaning supplies, frozen foods, baking, etc). It is a nice visual of the coupons you have and it makes it so easy when trying to look through ads and seeing what is on sale and matching it to your coupon.

I happened to have everything on hand so I didn’t spend any money out of pocket!

I am also considering doing the envelope system where you put a certain amount of money in an envelope for things like eating out, groceries and gas and you only spend what is in that envelope.

Any other money saving ideas?
November is a new month and I am going to see how much extra I can save!

MIA

So life has just been crazy and I have been a bad blogger recently.  It has been between 8-9pm before we have had a chance to eat dinner all this week.  I also think when it gets dark earlier it makes the day seem so much shorter!

Not much is going on here.  We are traveling this weekend to vivist my cousins and Aunt and Uncle in Cincinnati, OH.  My cousins have 3 children so it is always busy and fast pace in their household.  I think my husband and cousin are going to take the 2 older children to a hockey game while his wife and I take the youngest and go shopping!

Well off to get some homework done before my lunch break is over.  I have class tonight but am having Mexican first with one of my best friends-YUM!

Vacation Cont.

So onto Day 5 of our cruising adventure.  We had a 8:00am arrival in Antigua.  The hubby and I slept in just a little and when we got off we decided to take a tour around the island.  A cheaper way to do this is with a local taxi driver.  I think we got a 3 hour tour for like $15 a person.  We went with about 6 other people in a 15 passenger van.  We got to see some of the sites and then he stopped at a beach and the hubby and I took a jet ski out (however, I have no pictures of this).  I have been several times before but Jeff had never been.  I drove and I don't think he was a huge fan!

A view from the side of the road

A resort along the beach-do we say PARADISE!

Me and the hubby on the beach

And at 5:00 we were setting off to our next adventure-St. Maarten!

When you arive at St. Maarten you have to take a water taxi in order to reach most of the action.  The first thing we did was find a place that was renting segways.  And man were they fun.  They take a little getting use to but we did a tour along the boardwalk and had SO MUCH fun!

Don't be jealous of our yellow hats!

Segway + Beautiful Background = FUN

No hands!

Like my outfit?

After the segways we did some shopping and had lunch.  If you are looking for some jewelry it is a great place.  There had to have been over 75 jewelry stores on one street!  It was a laid back day but lots of fun!

The last port of call was St. Croix, US Virgin Island.

In St. Croix we took a taxi to the beach and did some walking around the pier.  Again, another kind of relaxing but nice day.

The water is SO clear.  You can be in the water up to your shoulders and still see your feet at the bottom!

Hubby enjoying a cold drink

Me and the ship

Pretty beach

After we left St. Croix we headed back to San Juan for departure. 

Cruise life has 2 sides-the port side and the ship side.  I have showed you some of our adventures in each port, my next post will include a few pictures of our ship life!

Vacation-Next Stop

Our next port was Castries, St. Lucia.  We LOVED St. Lucia.  So pretty!  I had booked a tour prior to leaving for our trip.  I was a little nervous about it because it wasn't through the cruise line, I had just found it online but the reviews were good.  I was not disappointed because it was one of the best tours I have ever been on.  We did and saw lots of neat things including stopping at a banana plantation, going to a local waterfall, driving and stopping at a drive in volcano, eating some of the local food and going to a small beach for people who wanted some time in the beautiful waters.

Here are some pictures of this beautiful island!

Tasting a local grown banana

A banana tree.  They bag the banana bunches to keep them from getting bugs.

Walk in volcano

Pretty beaches

Next stops Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Croix.

Vacation

So I am FINALLY getting a chance to recap on our cruise last month.  My husband, Jeff, and I left out of Puerto Rico for a 7 day Southern Caribbean cruise aboard the Adventure of the Seas.

We had a tiny little room with a balcony on the ninth floor.

Bad picure but you get the gist.  The opened door on the left is the tiny bathroom.

Bed.  Door to the balcony is on the other side of the curtain.

We spent the first full day of the cruise at sea.  After a day of traveling and very little sleep we spent a lot of the day relaxing.  We did attend a cooking demonstration.  It is amazing what they can make out of a watermelon.

Carving away!

A bunny!

Along with a buffet style dinning room on board, Windjammer Cafe', and the main dinning room, the ship also had 2 other dinning efforts to include a fine Italian dinning option, Portofino, and an American favorite, Johnny Rockets. We tried them both out throughout the week. On the first day we went to Johnny Rockets. We had a great server and the good was great!

Big burgers!

An even bigger burger

The first night ended with formal night so we got all dressed up!

Me and the hubby

When we got back to our room we had a towel bat waiting.

It was a great first day. 

Next stop is a 8:00am arrival in Bridgetown, Barbados. We spent the morning in Barbados by taking a taxi downtown and looking at some of the shops.  During the afternoon we took a tour to a local beer distillery rum distillery.  The tour included samples at each location including the local favorite, Rum Punch.

First stop was to Banks Beer.

Second stop was Mount Gay Rum. 

Overall Barbados was not our favorite place.  Maybe it would have been a little better if we got to go more into the island but sadly the negative thing about a cruise is you only have a limited time at each port and by 5:00pm we were sailing to St. Lucia.

More to come on our vacation soon!

A Good Read

I LOVE to read, however, I try not to read too much while I am taking classes because I have a hard time at putting a book down once I get started.  I took a few books when we went on vacation to read during the plane ride and down time.  One of those was the new release from author Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song.  I absolutely love his books and have read them all.  This one was no different, it was a great book.  But warning it is sad so you may need some tissues. 

The book is about a teenage girl named Ronnie from New York who is going with her brother to stay with their dad in Wilmington, North Caroline for the summer.  Ronnie, who tends to find trouble, was not looking forward going to stay with her dad who she hadn't talked to or seen in years.  As the summer evolves friendships are built and troubled, relationships go through trial and error, a family is bonded back together and love is found.

You will have to read the book to find out more because I don't want to spoil it!

Also this book is being made into a movie starring Miley Cyrus to be released April 2, 2010.

Pumpkin Pie With A Spoon

So I mentioned before that I love fall. One of my favorite things about fall is the food that comes along with the season. For example apple butter, apple dumplings, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pie and pumpkin ice cream! While I was at the store last night I was looking in the frozen section for something that looked good and wasn't a gazillion calories. Well I found pumpkin ice cream by Edy's. While I have had many different brands of pumpkin ice cream before I never had this particular brand. So I thought I would try it out last night for a little bed time snack. And man is it good and tastes like a pumpkin pie and a great filler for your sweet tooth!

So now go get you some!  If you like pumpkin pie you won't  regret!

Busy Bee

I am really looking forward to this weekend. First, I get to leave work early on Friday and am going to our local Pumpkin Festival. It is filled with lots of crafts and homemade items. I am doing an all snowman tree this winter (in addition to my other Christmas tree) so I am looking for some more ornaments. I also love country decor and it is usually a great place to find some good stuff. When the husband gets off work we are making the 6 hour drive to my home town. I have a work event to attend all day on Saturday while Jeff and my parents are going to a golf tournament outside of Baltimore, MD. Sunday we will make the trip back home with a stop to see Jeff's parents. It is a nice break because it is about half ways and that way we get to fit in both families. I like living where we do but it is just so far from our parents. Maybe one day we will move closer. When we do have kids someday I would like them to be closer to their grandparents.

So things just keep getting busier without slowing down! Maybe some day I will get caught up on my to-do list.

Have a great weekend!