I am writing to you from our cabin in the Smoky Mountains. We have a GORGEOUS view! The picture doesn't even do it justice. I'm in awe of God's creation. We've lounged around for a good bit. We got here Saturday afternoon. We went shopping some yesterday and out to lunch. The lunch was horrible but oh well. I got some good deals at the Carter's outlet for Corgan. I went out and bought myself some clothes today. Marshall gave me a limit of money to spend and told me to buy me some clothes. I bought 5 shirts and 2 pairs of pants. I then bought Corgan a few more pieces at another Carter's outlet....there are 3 here and they're having a GREAT sale! When I got back I made us some supper. I think we're going to drive over to Cades Cove tomorrow. I hope Corgan enjoys it. Hopefully we'll see some deer and get some good pictures to share.

Oh....Corgan popped tooth #16 yesterday! He got in the hot tub with daddy today. He's been wonderful on vacation! I'm so proud of my little man!

I haven't done many trips shopping for groceries lately. We've been eating off what we already had in the house. That needs to be done every now and then. It frees up space in your pantry, fridge, and freezer plus saves you money. I have a LOT of coupons that expire soon. I need to look through them and see what I can use before they expire. Otherwise I need to pass them to someone who will use them.

I'm getting really excited about our vacation! It's finally almost here! We leave on Saturday morning!!!! Pigeon Forge here I come!!! I have a good bit of cleaning, straightening and packing to do in the next two days to get ready. I need to make sure that we have everything we need for Corgan. We'll be gone for a week. I'm just hoping and praying that he sleeps and is in a good mood. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make the drive and time up there a happy time for a 15 month old?

Here are pictures as promised!

This is HEAVEN to me right now! Lots of fabric to choose from! The cow print is no-pill fleece. The rest of it is flannel. My favorite thing to do now is look through the clearance fabric and finding flannel people didn't want for 50% off. It's a deal to me! hehe I made one baby wipe last night with double flannel. I like it so far. I'll see if I can make a few more with the flannel scraps from making diapers.

I'm not only frugal in my grocery shopping. Lately I've been on a sewing kick. Sam, you'd be proud of me! I'm quite proud of my handiworks. Right now I've mainly be working on making cloth diapers for Corgan. I want some come up with some things I can make with my scraps from that. I'm looking towards making some baby wipes or unpaper towels. It's leftover flannel so either of those would work great! I plan on trying to make a Mei Tai baby carrier soon too. I need to buy the fabric for it. I'd like to get that done before we go on vacation next month so we can use it. Not sure what all else I'll make up. I need to get pictures of my diapers so far so I can share.

We went to visit Marshall's grandparents yesterday. We took our cooler and got it filled with frozen veggies and fruits. We also got several canned items and then cans of pork and beans and green beans for Corgan. I did a quick trip last night to Publix to get some meat, cereal, pasta sauce (for my Bertoli pastas that were .49 and .19 last week), and maybe a few other odds and ends. We'll be eating meat and veggies for the next couple weeks. This will save me a LOT on groceries as well. We may save some for our vacation next month.

I've scored lately with my groceries. Kroger has had some really good deals with the Nestle Instant Rebate. When you buy $20 worth of participating items you get a $5 instant rebate.

On Friday I went to Kroger with Jenny and got 8 bottles of Juicy Juice. I used 7 coupons for $1 off.
OOP: $9.60

Then last night I went again and got some odds and ends and spent $33 I think.

Today I met up with my mom at a different Kroger than usual. I was not happy with them though since they wouldn't take my competitors coupons. So on the way home I called my Kroger store and they said they'd take them. They gave me $14 cash for my coupons.
Here's the rundown:
*12 boxes of Lean Pockets - used 10 $1 off coupons from Target plus $5 instant rebate
*10 boxes of Lean Cuisine - used 3 $1.50 off coupons plus $5 instant rebate
*box of Puffs tissues for my snotty nose boy - used $0.25 coupon doubled
*1 South Beach pizza - used $2 IP coupon
*4 boxes of South Beach Tide Me Over Drink Mix - used 4 $2 off IP coupons (earned $3 catalina - used on this transaction since I paid for the SB stuff first)
*Sobe Water drink (FREE with catalina coupon someone left last night hehe)
OOP: $18.41 Savings: $57.20 (may be a little off cause I couldn't find my SB receipt)

We have PLENTY in our deep freeze now! We're going to get frozen veggies from Marshall's grandparents' house tomorrow to add to it. This will help me even more in the next couple weeks for groceries.

I'm not sure of the technical name. It's my nephew Cody's recipe. Basically it's just spaghetti wrapped in cresent roll dough. YUM!

What you do is make the spaghetti like you normally would.

I used the recipe creations dough by Pillsbury. 2 cans of it. I pinched them together in the middle to make one long sheet on the cookie sheet.

I then put spaghetti in the middle of it going from left to right.

Then from the top and bottom cut strips to kinda tie over the top of the spaghetti. I just really did my own thing there cause I couldn't really follow my SIL's directions to understand what she meant. haha

I cooked it on 375 degrees until the cresent was light brown. You can put whatever extra you want with the spaghetti. I just did whole grain spaghetti noodles with chunky mushroom sauce and hamburger meat. I added cheese over the top of it after it was cooked.

Did a good shop at Publix yesterday! They have great BOGO sales!

Here's the rundown:
*Bread
*2 Voila Chicken dinners BOGO plus $1 IP
*2 Pillsbury Creations Doughs used coupon
*3 cans of Chef Boyardee BOGO plus coupon
*1 box of Whole Grain Spaghetti BOGO
*1 jar of Publix Chunky Mushroom Spaghetti sauce
*4 boxes of Eggo Waffles BOGO
*1 box of Stove Top Stuffing
*1 Crisco Spray used coupon
*2 boxes of Mayfield Ice Cream 2/$6
*2 boxes of General Mills Cereal BOGO plus used coupon
*10 lb bag of sugar
*6 4 packs of fruit BOGO plus used Kroger Catalina coupons
*Reusable shopping bag - was penny item

OOP: $41.66 Savings: $38.01

We had one of the Voila Chicken meals tonight and it was pretty good. I bulked it up with some yellow squash and squacinni (it's a squash and zuccinni mix). Was a hit for all 3 of us. Tomorrow we're making my nephew's recipe for a Spaghetti Stromboli. It's yummy! I'm going to take pictures and share the recipe tomorrow. I'm going to try my first meatloaf this week as well.

We decided to work with a $200 budget for groceries and toiletries for a month. We have a stockpile of soap and deodorant so far. We're slowly adding to our stockpiles as we can get good deals. I have several sites that I keep an eye on regularly to get the best deals for our money.

I'm a little bummed! I bought 2 extra papers along with our regular delivery paper for Sunday yesterday with the hopes of the Kelloggs Back To School Flyer being in them. Come to find out my paper didn't even have it! I'm on the hunt to find them but too bad it'll be too late for the sales at Publix.

I've become a Walgreens shopper! I went in there yesterday to take advantage of my coupons for Olay Body Washes (Ribbons and Botanicals) before they expired. Plus because I spent $10 worth on them (they're 3/$10) I earned $3 RR (register rewards). Here's the rundown!

1 Botanicals (used $2 coupon)
2 Ribbons (used $1.50 and $2 coupons)
pack of straws
pack of bowls
2 boxes of Hawaiian Punch individual packets for H2O
Replacement heads for toothbrushes ($2 instant coupon in Easy Saver)
Large vacuum bag (will be FREE after rebate)
One Touch Ultra Mini in PINK!!! (FREE with coupon)

PLUS I used the $5 off $20.

OOP: $23.90 Savings: $36.46
Earned: $3 RR Rebate: $5.99

Okay first I have to say that I used IP (internet printable) coupons yesterday to earn a catalina. The coupon indicated that you'd get $3 off Planters when you buy 3 items from Nabisco, Kraft, or Oscar Meyer. I was only able to print out 5 coupons so here's what I got:
15 packs of Kool Aid - $0.19 each
5 cans of Cocktail Peanuts - $2.99 each/ FREE with coupon
So because of that I earned $6.50 off my new order. I used that tonight along with coupons.

Here's the rundown:
*Small bottle of Tide - saved extra $1 with P&G Buy 3 Save $3 plus I used a coupon that was doubled - total price: $4.29
*Pantene 2 in 1 Beautiful Lengths Shampoo & Conditioner - saved extra $1 with P&G and used $2 off coupon - total price: $0.34!
*Excedrin Back and Body 24 count bottle - used $2 off coupon - total price: FREE! PLUS I got a $1 off your next order catalina (So I got paid to buy it!)
*Pizza flavored Pringles Stix - saved extra $1 with P&G plus I used a coupon (ask me for some - I have a bunch from Tupperware) that doubled - total price: $0.79
*2 boxes of cereal - used $1 off coupon - total price: $1.49 each box
*2 boxes of Kroger brand cereal bars

Used $6.50 catalina along with coupons.

Total OOP: $7.42 Savings: $21.71

I'm totally amazed at how well that turned out! I'm trying to get my hands on more Planters coupons to earn more catalinas. Maybe I can get some by tomorrow before the promotion ends.