Coupons

Happy Friday everyone! I know I  haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would do some catch up.
First things first, spring break kicked my butt. My sleep schedule got completely screwed up due to Trevor working night shifts, I can never get to sleep at a good time those nights. The first week back to school was brutal. I am still getting over the no sleep thing and am slowing working my way to healthier sleep patterns. (Trevor's next shifts will be nights o.o) But with all of those sleepless nights, I was able to work on my coupons.

 Yes, you read correctly, coupons. I am not very organized with most things, but couponing is the exception. I make only 1-2 big trips to the commissary a month, because lets face it, going to the store with two boys is no fun.  How do I manage that? Well it took me a while to get a routine down, but now that I have one, its easy.

Step one Get organized.

This part is important. As I said before, shopping with two little boys is not easy, especially if you are touting a stack of coupons and trying to see what is what. For a long time I carried them in an envelope and paper clip, that wasn't efficient. Then I got a great tip from my sister-in-law Keena: use a binder with baseball card holders. This is the single most time saving tip I have received.  Each coupon gets its own slot. I organize mine by month of expiration and then by food/nonfood item. This makes it easy to find the coupon fast.

Step two: Make a menu.
I usually make up a menu of what I will be cooking each night for the next two weeks/month. This is the hardest part for me. I hate trying to think ahead and decide what we will eat. I have been known to cook some of the same things all the time, but I try to mix it up a little.

Step three: Make the list.
This step is easier. Look at the menu and see what ingredients will be needed. Also look around the pantry and stalk up on your staples (milk, eggs, bread, etc.)When I make my list, I put a star by the items that I have a coupon for, that way I know when to check it for any special instructions for use.

Step four: Clip those coupons!
Start clipping. I get my coupons from our local newspaper. I know that there are places online that you can subscribe to and they will send you coupons based on what products you use, but I don't have THAT much time to commit to it, but I've heard they are great if you have time. The thing you have to know about clipping is if you are being brand specific, you will lose out on some good deals. Bottom line, be flexible.

Step five: Go shopping!
Before I started couponing, this seemed like the most intimidating part. I didn't want to be looked at like the crazy coupon lady. It was slow going at first, but I finally got into the swing of things. Tip: As I find the coupons/food items on my list, I take them out of their protective slot and put them in the binder pocket, this way I don't have to hunt for them when I'm in the check out line.

Savings
I started clipping coupons because I wanted to save money. The most I have saved in a trip was around $35 (for a two week menu trip). I have an average savings of about $20-$25. We get the paper for $7.50 a month, and there are usually 1-2 bundles of adds in each paper.

I am by no means a pro, but I am glad to be saving money for our family.

 Tonight is the long awaited date night! We are going to see The Hunger Games Movie!:) Next week I will be making the official R2D2 cake for Dain's party, so keep a look out for a post on that.



Have a good friday!

--Ashley

Practice Cake!

Meet R2, Dain's practice birthday cake. He is all white and sitting on a rice crispy treat. This little guy took me 2 days to make. When it comes time for the official cake, he will be slightly taller and have smaller "legs". Oh, and have the right colors. I ran out of fondant half way through making this cake and had to break down and use store bought fondant--boo. But, practice makes perfect, so not to worry. I will hopefully be able to make a how-to post on the official R2D2 cake.


And just in case you haven't heard, The Hunger Games Movie is coming out Friday!!!!  Trevor is taking me to see the movie on the 30th. If you see it before then, DO NOT spoil it for me, ok?

(These little cuties were sitting at the front desk of the base library and I just had to snag them.)

Have a good week!!!

spring break

It is SPRING BREAK!

Monday night we went to Lubbock to do a few things and visit with Trevor's mama. We have been really surprised by her reaction to our move this summer, so we had to make sure she hadn't been switched out with an alien or something. We also dropped one of our cars off to be repaired at the auto shop where my brother works,visited my mom, picked up my wedding set from Samuels where it was being repaired, and saw my sister and her beautiful baby bump. The trip was short and sweet. We came back to San Angelo Wednesday afternoon. The rest of spring break will be spent reading (yay!), relaxing, and working on Dain's practice birthday cake.

 Yes, that's right, practice cake. I am trying to make him a R2D2 cake. His birthday is in April, but this is the only time I have to try it before the party. I usually make a practice cake to work out all of the kinks before the big day. This will be the first BIG 3D cake I have made, so I want to get it right. My only worry is that it will be too big of a pain to transport it the 200 miles from our house to Lubbock. I was initially worried about the "legs" that are made of rice crispy treats. I have never made them before, and thought that they would be hard to make. WRONG! They have to be one of the easiest treats ever, what a relief. It will most likely take me two days to complete this cake, so check back for the results.

Hope your spring break is good! 

--Ashley

Yes! I finally did it.

I decided to make a blog after finding out that we are moving to Ghedi, Italy this summer. I wanted to have a way to keep family and friends posted on our goings on and such, so this seemed like the perfect medium.

I want to start out by saying that we are very excited/nervous/happy/freaked out by the prospect of moving so far away from everyone and everything that we know and love. It was a total shock. Trevor always rolls with the punches and told me where we are going in a funny way.

Ten days ago I was sorting through my email while waiting on class to be over when I saw new official looking mail in my inbox. When I opened it up it said, "Congratulations on your PCS!" I was pretty excited. As much as we do like living so close to home, we still want to travel and see other bases. The email said to log in to the military portal at work to start on the out processing stuff. So I called Trevor at home and told him to get his butt to work so he could find out where we are going. He was surprised that he was getting orders, usually you have to be at a base for two years before going somewhere else, and we have been here for just over a year.

That whole afternoon I had a hard time focusing on anything. When Trevor picked me up from work I asked him if he found out where we are moving, to which he said "No, I will find out next week." Bummer. But we were very excited about going somewhere else. For the rest of the afternoon I was bubbly and wondering out loud where we might go. Later that day Trevor suggested we go to Olive Garden to celebrate out soon-to-be move. That should have been my first clue, he doesn't usually like to go there and we had been there to eat on valentines day, so I thought it was a little soon to go there again, but I'm not one to pass up on not cooking.

Dinner was tasty, but Trevor was very quiet. He was acting weird for sure. When I asked him about it he just said he was thinking about the move. I started talking about how good the food was to distract him. Trevor looked at me then, and asked: "could you get used to eating this more often?"
(with mouth full of food) "Yeah, why?" I asked.
Trevor then pulled a google map of Ghedi, Italy. I was stunned. I immediately started crying, right there in Olive Garden. I couldn't stop, or finish eating. Trevor asked what was wrong, and I said nothing, I'm just surprised and happy. He knew where we were going as soon as he got to work, he just wanted to surprise me. He's good like that.

We were really surprised. Both of us were really excited and happy to find out that we are going to Italy. But then we realized that we were going to have to tell our family. That totally brought us back down to earth. His mom took it well, which was shocking and my mom was thrilled that we get to go. Everyone else has been happy for us. I have never lived farther than 400 miles from home so I know this is going to be a big change for our little family.

There is a ton to do before the move. I plan on posting about the process and other things that are going on around here, and of course life in Italy. First thing on the agenda is Spring Break(thank god) and spring cleaning.


I hope that wasn't too boring for any of you readers (if there are any!), future posts will hopefully be more exciting/interesting:)  


---Ashley