Project 365: Week 14

Another week has gone by already! Here's how it went around here…

Day 93 was a very long day at work, and this little girl was all riled up when I finally got home from work. As you can see she also desperately needed a haircut =)

On day 94 I took a nice long walk down the beach with my favorite puppy. It was extremely chilly but I always love a good walk down the beach! I am definitely a beach girl and need to be by the ocean all the time!

My parents came home from Florida and as a thank you for watching the house and taking care of the dog, they each brought me back a piece of jewelry. I love them both! The dragonfly from my dad reminds me of my grandma, and the bracelet my mom picked reminds me how lucky I am to have such great parents (the side says "you are cherished") and is prefect to wear with my Alex and Anis. A great surprise on day 95.

Day 96, we went for a nice ride around town which Roxy loved. It was nice to be out and about just driving aimlessly. My mom and I love to just take the dog for a ride and drive around!

On day 97 I had a big interview and was crossing my fingers for good luck. It was a great interview process, but that's all I can say about that one...

Day 98,  I ran over a huge rock and was extremely lucky to have my very talented brother waiting at home to change my slashed tire. He really is the best brother I could ask for!

After a rough day 99, I was happy to come home to this sweet face. =)

How was your week?

How To Save Money: How To Store Coupons

Welcome back to my How To Save Money Series!

Today I'm going to be sharing with you a couple ways to store all the coupons you gathered last week. Now first let me tell you that I don't discriminate between coupons, I keep pretty much every coupon that comes my way just in case. The only coupons I don't keep are for restaurants or stores that are nowhere near me and I will not be going to. Otherwise, I hold onto every last coupon that I find.

I have shared before how I organize my own personal coupons, so let's start with that.

The Binder Method

Once upon a time, I shared this post where I described and showed how I organize all my coupons.

I chose to use the clip right away method. I clip my coupons as soon as I get them and I find that it works better for me. I like that all my coupons are sorted by category and everything is ready to go when I make my shopping list. I don't have to worry about clipping after I make my list and finding all the coupons inside stored inserts. There are a lot of benefits to this method, however lets talk about another way.

The Insert Method

During this method, there is no clipping unless you are actually going to use a coupon.

source

I do see the beauty in this method, it saves you time to be able to just store all your inserts and then clip those coupons only when you find that amazing deal. I think this definitely works if you're someone short on time and you only are getting your deals from other websites. If you plan on making your own deals it will be hard to know exactly what coupons you have unless you flip through each and every insert. 

You could potentially use a binder to hold each of your inserts, just to keep them all together. I have also seen people use a file box to hold all their inserts, and of course people who just stack them up by date on an office shelf, to each their own!

Either of these methods will keep you organized and ready to get some great deals, but you have to get started making your own organization system right now!

Next Wednesday I'll be sharing how to plan your couponing trip and make your shopping list, see you then!

My Deodorant Story

Okay, so this is kind of a weird topic, but I honestly thought it was important to share my experience with you since it has been pretty difficult for me to find deodorants that I like. So here we go…

Over a year ago my mom mentioned to me that she no longer wanted me to wear deodorant that contains aluminum as an ingredient. She had recently read an article that stated aluminum is a contributing factor to breast cancer. If you don't already know, my grandma passed away in 2005 from breast cancer. She was a wonderful person and one of the most important people in my life so it was devastating to lose her. I still miss her everyday. Beyond just missing her, this also means that breast cancer runs in my family. It also tends to skip a generation, or so I hear. You can form your own opinions on what does and doesn't cause breast cancer and I encourage you to read as much as you can on the topic- but I know that if I can do something that may help prevent it from forming, I will. Changing deodorant is such an easy thing to change, I thought I would.

Every deodorant I had in my stockpile had aluminum listed as its first active ingredient. Dove, Lady's Speedstick, and so many others I already owned of course contained aluminum. Apparently aluminum blocks the pores that produce sweat, making it the perfect ingredient to use in deodorant. The struggle was finding ones that didn't use aluminum, so I started doing some research.

Here is a list of a few deodorants that do not contain aluminum.

Tom's of Maine
Burts Bees
Jason
Desert Essence
Weleda
Lavanila
Aubrey
The Body Shop DeoDry
Kiss My Face

There are plenty of others, but that is definitely a list to get you started.

I have tried out many scents in the Tom's line as well as two scents in the Jason line. I plan on trying quite a few others as well, but I will be sharing my thoughts on the ones I have tried with you right now.

Tom's of Maine

I have used the Tom's of Maine original deodorant in a few scents and also unscented. 

Unscented did nothing for me. I didn't think it dealt with sweat or masked the smell at all and I would feel like I stunk all the time. I work in a particularly active job and it's important that my deodorant stick around, which this didn't. At all.

Fresh Apricot was extremely heavily scented and I was not a fan at all. I thought that it was a disgusting scent really. If you like apricot, then maybe it wouldn't be so repulsive to you, but then again it might be too strong for everybody.

Wild Lavendar was actually a very nice scent. I usually don't like excessive lavender, but this deodorant made it smell nice. However, did it last? Not really. Bummer.

Jason

Soothing Aloe Vera I actually am one of those people who enjoy the scent of aloe vera, so that wasn't the problem with this deodorant. It was so sticky. I felt like my armpit was stuck together after putting it on. It was almost like applying glue. My clothes would stick to my armpits and that's just not attractive. 

Purifying Tea Tree So far this is the only winner. I love this deodorant. It smells nice, works great and keeps me from smelling sweaty. I am still working on this stick, but I would definitely repurchase it once I'm done!

To see Tom's of Maine products click here.

To see Jason products click here.

Next up, I would like to give some Desert Essence deodorant a try =)

Do you use natural deodorant? How do you feel about the aluminum in deodorant debate?

To read more about aluminum in deodorant click here  and here.

Weekly Couponing Wrapup

It's Friday everybody! Woohoo!

This week in couponing, I didn't do a ton- but I got a few free items which is always a great thing.

First stop was Bath and Body Works, I had another coupon to get a free soap so I chose one of my favorite scents, Caribbean Escape.

This soap is $6.50 originally, meaning I saved $6.50 getting it for free.

I popped into Macy's to get my free sample of Origins Vitazing. I've always been interested to try Origins products so I'm really excited to see how this works for my skin.

At Target I purchased a 7th Generation Dish Liquid @ $4.76
I used $1/1 manufacturer coupon, $1/1 target coupon, and 10% off Target cartwheel coupon.
I also received 50 cents back from Ibotta.
Amazing Deal!

At Walmart I had a few money makers I wanted to get so I would be able to get something I needed for  really cheap!

Schar Wafers @ $1.64
used $3/1 coupon
$1.36 Money Maker!

2 Zest Soaps @ 97 cents a piece
used $1/1 coupons
6 cent Money Maker!

Lint Roller @ $2.88

I ended up paying $1.80 for everything, less then the lint roller would have cost if I bought it alone, which is why couponing is so amazing!

How did your couponing go this week?

Project 365: Week 13

Happy Thursday everybody! It's that time again…time to wrap up another week of Project 365!

Day 86 was a GREAT couponing haul, which you can see here.

Day 87 I checked the weather and honestly, it looked promising. Rain is better then snow.

I headed out for some dinner and drinks with co-workers on day 88. The six of us headed to Applebees for dinner and then five of us went to a local bar called The Malted Barley for drinks. It was great to be able to chat with people I see every day outside of work.

On Day 89 I spent a relaxing morning doing some couponing then went to dinner with my friend Kristin.

I decided to post a picture of my latest tv show obsession on day 90. I started watching Veronica Mars on Amazon prime (for free) and I love it. I am also totally obsessed with Logan Echolls by the way, even though I frequently go from loving him to hating him episode by episode. Can't match his quick wit *sigh*

On day 91 I spent some time starting to clean out our garage, which I actually shared here.

Day 92: Usually on Wednesday's I attend a local trivia game with some friends. We ended up scoring 65 points for first place which was great. We frequently do well since it seems that all of us have very diverse interests and knowledge. If there is trivia in your area I highly recommend it, we always have a great time!

What did you do this week?!

How To Save Money: Coupons

Welcome to my new Wednesday series: How To Save Money!

Today for my first installment I'm going to be talking about coupons. Ah, those lovely little pieces of paper that save so much money.

Source

Coupons are these magical little pieces of paper that instantly save you money at the register. I tend to think of coupons being everywhere but the main question I get from friends and family is, where do you get all your coupons?

Newspapers

Each Sunday there is at least one coupon insert in your local paper. The three types of inserts are; Proctor and Gamble, Smart Source, and Red Plum. Each week there are previews released so you are able to see the coupons that are going to be in the paper and decide whether or not the paper will be worth your hard earned money.

Printable

I frequently visit coupons.com to print coupons because there are a ton of great ones. You are able to print each coupon two times per computer. This means that if you have more then one computer in your house, you are able to print more then just two. 

Printable coupons can be extremely valuable, and often they disappear quickly so if you do have a coupon you want to print I recommend printing it right away. 

Some sites you may want to visit to find printable coupons are; coupons.com, redplum.com, and target.com. You may also want to visit thekrazycouponlady.com and visit their coupon database because they list every coupon that is available currently on every website.

Store Coupons

Individual stores release coupons that you can stack with manufacturers (MFR) coupons. I often visit the red scanner machine in CVS in order to print the coupons they provide each week. Target has a ton of coupons on their website as well. Walgreens releases a coupon booklet each month and so many other stores release coupons in their ads or on their websites. These coupons, since they are combined with mfr coupons, can be very valuable and allow you to get items for free. 

Catalinas

Catalinas are coupons that print out at the register. You will often get these from the machine next to the one that prints your receipt. These coupons are often ones that relate to your spending, which means they are something that you might have already purchased in the past and may wish to purchase in the future. 

Blinkies

Blinkies are coupons that you find in the aisles of your grocery store. These machines have a blinking light on them (hence their nickname) and hold coupons that you can pull out one at a time. Often people pull the coupons and then stack them nearby if they aren't actually interested in the coupon meaning you can find tons of them around!

I find that it's so easy to get coupons and collect them. You just have to keep your eyes open!

I will be back next week with my next installment, How To Store Your Coupons.

Spring Cleaning: Starting Garage Clean Up!

This week my spring cleaning is taking place in the dirtiest location of all.

The garage!

This area of our home is literally the dirtiest place in our home. There were piles of dirt all over the garage, I spent some time this afternoon sweeping everything out, but there is still a ton to do before this area is sparkling! I will be updating as I clean this space out.

What are you working on spring cleaning this week?

If you are interested in seeing what I did to the garage last year, you can see that here.