Once And For All by Sarah Dessen (Signed Copy and Freebies!)

I absolutely love Sarah Dessen and all of her books so when I heard her newest book would be released at the beginning of June I was super excited!

I decided to not only order it on my Kindle so I could read it right away but I also decided to order a signed copy from Sarah Dessen's local book store Flyleaf Books. 

This was my first signed book and when it arrived on Wednesday I was bouncing up and down.

Once and For All is a novel about a girl Louna who is a pessimist when it comes to love. Her mother and the only adult male "father" figure she has ever known run a wedding business where they create dream days for their clients but are all pessimists about how long the marriages will last.

I found this book extremely witty and an easy summer read. I have enjoyed every one of Sarah's books and how they all focus on family relationships but also have a love story.

Sarah even wrote it out to me specifically! I am so unbelievably thrilled. When I opened my package I was surprised to find a complete Sarah Dessen set of products (completely free with my order).

If you've been reading her books you'll recognize the CBY sticker as a Colby sticker (the setting for many of her books), a button with Hey Dude (from Saint Anything) and the key necklace from Lock and Key. Also included were sunglasses, a candle, candied almonds, stickers with Once and For All on them, and a postcard with a quote from Saint Anything.

What awesome items to receive with my book purchase! I highly recommend ordering books from Flyleaf Books in North Carolina. They are a dream to work with and go above and beyond to make sure your order is amazing. 

What books have you been reading lately? I have been terrible at updating my recent reads but I will try to catch up with that again soon....

CVS Couponing Week of 5/18/17

On Tuesday I took a trip to CVS to score some of their weekly deals....

2 Tide Detergents
on sale 2 for $11.88
used $1 off $6 laundry CVS coupon
used $2 off household CVS coupon
Paid $8.88 and received $3 ECB back

2 Oral B Indicator Value Pack Toothbrushes (2 count) $4.99 each $9.98 total
Paid $9.98 and received $6 ECB back

2 Ziploc Bags
on sale 2 for $6
used $1/2 ziploc from coupons.com 
Paid $5 and received $3 ECB back

My total before coupons would have been $27.86 for these six items.
I used 9 coupons total....
$1 off $6 laundry CVS coupon
$2 off household CVS coupon
$1/2 ziploc from coupons.com
$6 ECB
$5 Beauty Club ECB
$5 ECB
$4 ECB
$3 ECB
$2 ECB
$1 ECB
25% off CVS coupon (only taking off 44 cents)

I paid $1.78 out of pocket and received $12 ECB to use on my next trip to CVS.

There's still time to head out and get these deals- they run though Saturday! I highly recommend CVS as an amazing place to coupon because rolling rewards week to week allows you to get so many things for free!

Happy couponing! :)

Life Lately!

Happy Monday! 

Just popping in to share some pictures of our life lately. I love these posts because they update everyone as to what we've been up to but they also serve as memories for me to look back on. I'll always have this little corner of the internet and be able to see all the things we've done!

After work one night Tim and I headed to Ruby Tuesdays which is not my favorite restaurant. It had been a really rough day at work so I decided to have a nice dessert. Tim was nice enough to split this with me, well, not really... I ate most of it...it was delicious!

Last Sunday we had Tim's sisters graduation party. Brittany's party ended with a fire in their backyard firepit which was super nice. I can't wait until we have a backyard and have an area outside to hang out in! :)

This boy is my best friend in the entire world and I am so lucky to have him in my life! We always have fun when we are together.

My mom brought me some gorgeous peonies last week.

They brightened up my office and smell amazing! I think these are my favorite flowers of all time and hate that they're only around for a short period of time each year.

This past week we had several family events. On Wednesday night Tim had a softball game and I chatted with his brothers girlfriend Danielle the entire game. On Thursday night I went to a ladies lobster night with Tim's family. On Friday night Tim and I had dinner at Outback and fell asleep before 10...

On Saturday we attended Tim's grandfathers memorial service and then went back to Brittany's house for lunch. Later on Saturday night we went to the beach house Tim's family has been renting and hung around with his extended family and drank some mudslides.

Isn't my Photo Booth creation cool?! I found an app called Insta Booth where you can turn photos into photo booth pictures which I think is super cool. Especially if you take a ton of selfies together they come out very neat :)

On Sunday my brother Dan and I took my dad out to breakfast at a local restaurant Hungry Haven.

Then I went to lunch with my mom's side of the family to celebrate my Papa

Pretty nice selfie right? My mom wanted a picture of all of us and this is the best we managed to get.

Now we're on to another week and I am excited about all the up-coming summer events we have planned! I will keep you updated on all of them- have a great day everybody!

My Morning Pickup Routine

Happy Monday everyone!

Today is a happy monday for me since I am using one of my vacation days :)

Since I had the day off I decided to set up the tripod and take some pictures of my morning pickup routine to share it with you! 

Every morning whether I work or not I try to get three things done before I leave my apartment. Let's get real though...sometimes these things don't happen. Our apartment is not always perfect, it's not always clean but when I get these three things done before I leave for the day I know I'm walking in to a picked up apartment.

1. Make The Bed

The first thing I do is make our bed. Sometimes Tim will help me when we are getting ready in the morning. We basically just pull all the blankets up. I don't like to feel tucked into my bed, I prefer to have the sheets loose so as long as it looks neat I don't get fussy with it!

I also fold my pajamas and place them on the bed. This way I'm ready to get in my comfy clothes when I'm in for the night.

2.  Pickup The Living Room

It doesn't take long for us to make a mess of our living room. The pillows get out of whack, the throw blankets end up where they don't belong, and junk just gets left on every surface.

So much junk.

I have a specific order I like the pillows and how I think they look best so I always put them back in their places.

Folding the blankets is a quick way to make the space look better and organized.

This table tends to collect all of our junk. There is always trash waiting to be thrown away, stuff I haven't put away, water bottles, etc..If you can't tell Tim bought me Beauty and The Beast this weekend! Love that guy :)

Once everything is put away though, it looks so much better!

Doesn't that look way better? Much nicer to walk into that after a long day at work then the mess I started with!

3. Dishes

Even if there are only a couple of things in the sink I try to do the dishes before I leave. If I get them all done and in the drying rack it just makes the kitchen so much cleaner looking. 

So, those are the three parts of my morning pickup routine and the three things that help me keep a clean apartment. It usually takes me less then 10 minutes and is such a quick thing to do which has such a big impact.

How I Store My Couponing Stockpile

Today I wanted to share with you guys how I store some of my stockpile from couponing. I mostly focus on household items like laundry detergent, toilet paper, and beauty products. Those have the longest shelf life and I don't feel rushed to use things up immediately. 

So let me show you around a couple of areas in my apartment where my stockpile lives. 

Our hall closet houses the majority of my stockpile. In this closet I have my paper products; including my toilet paper, paper towels and tissues. I have reams of printer paper I picked up from Staples awhile back down on the bottom. In the bins I keep full sized shower gels, full sized lotions, extra items for Tim (any guy items) and laundry items I am currently using. Behind them I have extra cleaning products and extra laundry detergent.

I also keep quite a few items in my Alex 9 Drawer Unit.

This drawer is filled with mini-shower gels (including the one I picked up on Sunday) and toothbrushes. As you can see I have enough toothbrushes to last a long time so I will probably only purchase them if I can get them free or less then a dollar in the coming months,

This drawer holds my lip products mostly (my chapsticks are hidden in the blue box) but in the back I keep all my mini lotions. As you can see I have a ton shoved in there and keep bringing in more!

This drawer is pretty much a disaster but holds shampoo, conditioner and all the other hair products. I love when we get cheap shampoo and conditioner because neither of us are super picky about what we use in our hair so we both will try pretty much anything!

Those are just a few places I store my couponing stockpile. Someday I hope to have a stockpile room or some sort of shelving that I can hold all of my items on. For now however there is no room for that in our apartment so I will keep shoving my stockpile into every nook and cranny!

At some point I'll share my entire stockpile but for now I hope you enjoy this sneak peek!

Couponing Week of 6/4 CVS, Target and Bath and Body Works

I decided this week to really get back into couponing! Our stash was running a little lower then I like it to be so I've decided to start back up again. I hate paying full price for household items so that is what I prefer to focus my couponing on. 

For this particular haul I went to CVS, Target and Bath and Body Works.

Here is everything I hauled today...

Since the majority of it is from CVS we will start off with that breakdown.

Garnier Fructis Shampoo and Conditioner $7
used two $2/1 coupons ( from coupons.com or newspaper)
Paid $3 and got $3 back in ECBs 
FREE!

Xtra Laundry Detergent $1.99
Paid $1.99 and got $1 back in ECBs
99 cents

Loreal Expert $8
used $1/1 coupon (from coupons.com, I would've used 2 but my printer screwed me over!)
Paid $7 and got back $4 in ECBs
$1.50 each 

Hershey King Size Bar $1.88
Pay $1.88 and got $1 ECB back
88 cents 

Dawn Dish Soap 99 cents
used 25 cent in app coupon
75 cents

 Colgate Max Toothpaste $2.99
used $1/1 coupon from Smart Source 6/4
Paid $1.99  and got $1 ECB back 
99 cents

2 Oral B Indicator Toothbrush 2 count $4.99
Paid $9.98 and got $6 ECB back 
$3.98 

Almay Lip Balm $6.79
Almay Mascara $9.49
Use buy one Almay product get an Almay eye product for free.
Paid $6.79 and got $5 ECB back
1.79 

2 Tide Pods $3.94 each
Used (2) $2/1 from coupons.com
Paid $1.94 each

2 Gold Emblem Abound Nut Bars 99 cents each
Used $2/2 CVS coupon 
FREE!

I also used a 20% off coupon, a $1 off $6 laundry care coupon, and $8 in ECBs.

I paid $25.21 and received $21 back in ECBs for next week!


Then I headed off to Target for a quick deal

Colgate toothbrush $1.97
used $1/1 coupon from SS 6/4
97 cents

You can never have too many toothbrushes right?! :)

While I was at Target I also picked up this pretty bag...

Only $26 which is great and I really wanted a neutral crossbody bag to carry this summer. It's easier to carry a crossbody bag when you are on the go all summer!

I also headed to Bath and Body Works because I had one day left on my free item coupon.

I've never tried the Pink Cashmere scent and each time I go to Bath and Body Works and get a free item I try to pick up a new shower gel. I don't need anymore lotion that's for sure but I can never pass up free Bath and Body Works products!

So that's what I picked up this week couponing! I am going to try to do this weekly so we can stay fully stocked on items.

On Wednesday I'll be back sharing with you how I store my stockpile in our apartment- so stay tuned :)

May Empties and Declutter

Another end of the month, another empties post! 

I finished a quite few things this month and pulled some things out of my drawers that I knew were expired and not okay to use any longer.

Dawn Dish Soap is what we've been using around here consistently because it always seems to have a coupon. I cannot wait until the day I no longer have to buy dish soap and can  just buy dishwasher tabs! Method All-Purpose Spray is a must-have in our apartment. The cucumber scent I have repurchased several times and really like it. There is a scent I'm enjoying more currently but I would definitely purchase this again in the future. Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner is not a super exciting product by any means but is certainly necessary. I always seem to come back to it  no matter what else i try.

BBW Pure White Cotton was a nice candle but not something I would need to repurchase in the future.  I did however love the Vanilla Bean Elixir Candle that I picked up in Home Goods last year. The vanilla smell was amazing and I would definitely repurchase this if I saw it again in the future.

Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Conditioner is one of my favorites. Anyone else always finish conditioner before shampoo? I have to change out my hair products regularly but I find this one to work really well. The Garnier Fructis Shampoo and Conditioner samples were just okay. I wouldn't purchase the full size but I'm always willing to give anything a chance. I found my hair to be awful dry after using these but I find that with any Garnier Fructis products.

Bioture Contact Solution is my favorite contact solution that I've tried. I have just been switched to daily contacts so I don't think I will be buying contact solution anymore but if I ever need it, this would be the one I'd buy. I always try to keep something scented in my car and these Car Vent Clips are the easiest way to do it. They keep the car smelling great and are in a nice out of the way location. The Himalayan Mask was interesting. I'm not a huge fan of these sheet masks because they just feel very slimy and I never find them to work super well.  

This might be the best thing I finished this month, Secret of the Islands Scrub is amazing. I've actually already repurchased it because I liked it so much. The Nivea Body Oil was super gross. I much prefer lotion to oil!

If you've been around for awhile you know I'm addicted to Cake Batter Chapstick and finish it up very quickly. I also finished up Nars Laguna awhile ago and decided to toss the rest of Nars Orgasm because it was getting all oxidized and gross.

I had hit pan anyways but this powder was definitely past its expiration!

Finally, here's what I decluttered...

I worked on my face masks and products. These were all past their expiration dates and the concealer had been around forever as well. I feel lighter every month when I toss expired products and use some things up. It's all helping with my less stuff=less stress life!

What have you used up or tossed recently?