I took advantage of the Amazon deals these last two months.  Check out the post here.

I’ve saved $495.40 so far this year.  I’ve spent $356.35 this year.

Click HERE to see my chart in Google Documents.

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Life has been a little crazy around my household.    As I’ve mentioned before I work full-time outside the home and then I get home and do my best to take care of my family.  My daughter is now active toddler who wants “Mommy” and “Daddy”  constantly in the evening and since she gets a good nap time during the day her bedtime has been extended to 8:00/9:00.  After getting her to bed, it is pretty much time to go to sleep myself so my blog has been neglected, even my email and my reading up on deals.

This comes to my next point.  It is wonderful to have a stockpile!  I am so grateful for frugal shopping because I’m able to have that freedom of not having to run to the store for a full shopping trip.

Well off to sleep!

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Thanks to Laura from FrugalFriends for the advance notice.

So many friends have been talking about the Super Double coupons at Harris Teeter that I had to mention it.

I hope to create a list tonight and go tomorrow!  Woohoo!

Here are some places that have some great matchup lists for Harris Teeter:

Madame Deals and HERE

Southern Savers

Mrs. MoneySaver

WeUseCoupons.com

HotCouponWorld.com

The Coupon Challenge

What have you found at Harris Teeter?  Or what do you hope to buy? I love to hear what you got.

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How are you doing on your 2010 Financial goals?

Now that my toddler is a toddler I haven’t had the chance to write as much about this as I originally planned in the beginning of the year.   Before I lose track I wanted to quickly post our savings challenge and our update to it.

Check out the category from earlier posts this year.

Our goals that will take most of the year to complete:

1. Note a new situation: Switching our daughter into a different daycare.  We made the decision to switch her to a more expensive daycare that we felt fits our needs and she is so happy and learning so much.

Increase in childcare expenses.

2. Investing: It looks like we will reach about 50% of our goal this year.

3.  Save towards landscaping our front yard.  We need to get a couple estimates to figure out how much we need to save. We plan on doing some of it ourselves and having someone come and help too.

Similar to this post I haven’t had a chance to update  Gardening 2010 as much as I hoped.  The deer ate the square foot garden back in May and my plants are just recovering now.  At least I have some experience from this!

We are having some landscape lighting done later this year and we have planned and budgeted for it.

4.  Pay taxes or save taxes:  We got taxes back!  That has helped out a lot in our saving goals.

5. Save towards remodeling our master bathroom.  Our bathroom is fine for now but it needs some tile work and we’ve thought long and hard and realized that it needs a good makeover and we plan on getting some estimates.

We have enough now in our savings thanks to the taxes (goal 4) we got back and other savings that we can go for this goal this year thanks to cutting back on goal 2 and 3 above.  We just got our first estimate.  Now we have decisions to make.

Goals we are continuing to do successfully:

1.  Continue to pay off credit cards each month!

Of course. Note: Make sure you use your credit cards at least twice each year to avoid any non-usage fees and then PAY them off.  I’ve learned that some of my banks are including this fee now due to the changes of the laws. I have to check each of my cards and make a decision if we want to keep them all.

2.  Try to spend only $40 a week on groceries and try and spend less on eating out.

I want to stay on track and do meal planning each week.  It hasn’t gone as well as I hoped but we are trying.

3. Max out our retirement accounts.

Maxing out will be done this year but we aren’t going to look at saving in other options because of other goals in mind this year.  This one is being moved down.

4.  Continue to save each month into our daughter’s 529k plan.

Yes, this is continuing each month with the other goals we have we won’t be increasing it.

What are your goals for 2010? Have they changed during the course of the year?

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I love getting the mail.  You never know what you might get.   I got CVS coupons including two $25 new or transfer prescription gift card and a $5/$30 coupon.  Talk about “Excellent!”

Did you get CVS coupons this week?

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Several of my friends are having babies in the next couple of months and I thought it is time to show them how to get stuff for FREE!

Great website for deals on baby stuff:
Babycheapskate
Free samples from Walmart

I am a big believer in breast feeding and I did buy my fair share of formula and there isn’t anything wrong with using it.  My daughter LOVED it.  Before baby comes it is a great idea to have formula available.  If you don’t need it you can always give it away or donate it to a mother shelter:
ParentsChoiceFormula Free Sample
Enfamil Free Sample and Free coupons
Similac Free Sample and Free coupons
I strongly recommend Member’s Mark because it is a great deal! Last I checked it was $20 for a very large can.  A small can of Enfamil is about $25.
MembersMark Formula Free Sample

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Magazines.com is currently offering several magazines with a special $5 discount including Ladies’ Home Journal so that is only $7 for 12 issues or $0.58 an issue. In addition,  it is FREE shipping and no sales tax.  What a perfect gift. This special offer expires on September 30, 2010, so take advantage and save $5 now.

To get this deal, which is only on 295 selected magazines, follow these instructions:

1.  Click HERE for $5 off Magazines

2. Select the magazine you want to purchase.

3. Enter coupon code FAVES during checkout to get your $5 discount.

4.  Always FREE Shipping and no sales tax!

Enjoy!

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Source: dinnercakes

I’m a huge fan of Georgetown Cupcakes.  My sister-in-law introduced them to me a couple years ago and whenever there is a special occasion I ask her or others for at least one.

This evening we spent some time over at a friend’s house and I offered to bring over some desert so I tried at my stab at a yummy cupcake and icing.

I found this really good Allergy Free cake recipe – no dairy, and no nuts – called Wacky Cakes I made it with cocoa and they turned out so moist.  I used Cake Flour not all-purpose flour and I think that helps a lot.  I even used the Kitchen Aid mixer and poured all of the ingredients in the bowl to make it super easy and fast.  The batter is watery so I poured it from the mixer into a measuring glass and it was so easy to pour into the cups.   My toddler even helped and had a great time learning about how the mixer worked.  I baked them for 20 minutes.  When they came out they were a little crumbly when I inserted the toothpick which meant that they would be moist.

Then I created the icing.  This wasn’t allergy free by any means but it was close to Georgetown Cupcake’s Red Velvet cream cheese frosting thanks to Delleicious DC for the information. The icing recipe comes from Martha Stewart.  You can find the recipe HERE.  I highly recommend following the recipe to the letter – sift the sugar and make sure the ingredients are at room temperature.  I used the Kitchen Aid mixer for this too.  I love my mixer!

After the cupcakes were cool I then iced them by putting it in a plastic ziplock bag creating a hole at the corner and pumping the icing on top.

They turned out great. They weren’t too rich and not too sweet.  Yummy!

Sorry I didn’t take a picture but next time and I’m sure there will be a next time I will take a picture.

What type of cupcakes do you like?

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It seems I get my grocery ads in the Washington Post supplement on Fridays now so I don’t get them before the sale starts.

If you got your ad it is interesting this week because they have a new promotion at Shoppers to get you in the store on Wednesdays.

Introducing Starts Wednesday, July 28th – Double Ad Wednesday Limited Time only only at Shoppers.  Once a week.  Twice the savings.  Now every Wednesday you can shop the first day of this week’s circular as well as the final day of last week’s circular all on the same day!  * Includes all ad items. Offer good for a limited time only.  That’s up to 100% more specials and TWICE the SAVINGS – all in one shopping trip!

Deals this week!

FREE 2 lbs Dole Bananas Instantly when you buy 2 1lb Dole Strawberries – 2 for $3!  What a great deal!

Sweet Yellow or White Corn 10 for $2

All Varieties Canada Dry or ZUP 2 Liters $.69 each

Coca-Cola Pepsi or Canada Dry 6 pack 5 for $10

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The Newseum is located at Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Hours of Operation
The Newseum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Beginning July 1 through Labor Day, the Newseum will waive its admission price for all youth visitors age 18 and younger. (Up to 10 free kids with each paid adult admission.)

“Family Fun Deal” tickets, like all Newseum tickets, are valid for two consecutive days.

More information can be found HERE.

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