Another couponing adventure

So. . . as I'm sure all of you lovely followers are aware, I made my first couponing attempt a few weeks ago when I saved a whopping $40.00 on my entire bill totaling about 23% savings. Now, as I mentioned previously, certain grocery stores offer certain days in which they will double all manufacturer coupons. Well I searched my Rainbow ad far and wide and found on the back in little print that on Saturdays they do this! So. . . I dragged my husband out the Saturday before Easter (which wasn't as unpleasant as it sounds) with a handful of coupons and a strategic game plan. I ended up only getting the necessities and sales items, but my greatest save was $.75 off organic eggs, doubled making them well under a dollar for a dozen. We ended up with a cart full of groceries and a bill of only $74.00. We saved 34% on our entire bill! Don't act like your impressed from my SECOND couponing attempt. Also, I want to share a website my lovely mother-in-law reccommended: pocketyourdollars.com. Tons of printable coupons, directs you where the sales are and it's super user friendly.

Happy couponing ya'll :)

Antiquing

I have been dying to share this with you all! One of my super cute and trendy co-workers informed me about this little house in Minneapolis that they stage and fill with antiques for sale. It is called the cottage house and was easily the highlight of my weekend. So, the house, which you can find at: www.thecottagehousempls.com/ is open 5 days a month and foes from a Wednesday to a Sunday. The selection completely depends on who contributes and what they have at the time. This month was the Spring Fling and the selection consisted of dressers, light fixtures, vases, pictures, garden tools, garden decor, and any other antiques you can think of. My mom, aunt and I trekked out on Sunday, which just so happened to be their discount day! I am constantly on the look out for 'things' for our house: tables here & there, new light fixtures, a dresser- you know, standard obsessed home-owner decorator. I left with an immense amount of self-control and promised my husband I'd behave. Well I happened to score some wonderful items:

This adorable maroon-ish, red end table

Matches perfectly and looks great next to our colorful chair. Ummmm and did I mention it was $10.00!

We have since re-arranged our living room too. . . pictures later!

I also picked up a cute little pot of wheat grass, which Luke has been dying to find.

And this adorable plaque

So that was my first cottage house experience and boy was it a memorable one! I'll let you guys all see how a simple furniture re-arrange completely opened up our living room and made it a separate space. Happy Tuesday!

The Importance of Relationships

So, I have received some questions recently about my lack of blogging, and well- I really have no excuse as to where I have been for the past week and 1/2. I guess life just kind of wrapped me up in all its glory and I happened to forget to share my endeavors with all of my wonderful followers. So here's a little re-cap. I spent last weekend up in Northern Minnesota with 13 other girls celebrating a bachelorette party for one of my best friends. It was like a Gustavus reunion (that's where I did my undergrad) because I was surrounded by my old roommies from college. The way we click and the way we interact really got me thinking about relationships in general. Some of the girls I had just recently seen, some I hadn't talked to in weeks, but we all managed to pick up where we left off and have the time of our lives.

I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by healthy relationships. I have a wonderful relationship with my husband, my husband's family has become my own, and I really can't imagine having anyone else as my in-laws. My entire family is my world. My immediate family serves as my rock- they are so supportive and have shaped me into who I am today. My extended family is amazing. I find myself constantly laughing and having fun with them (I really wish I wasn't always so busy so I could spend more time with them). My friends, ugh my friends. . . Until I reached college, I never knew how rare my strong friendships from childhood were. I am fortunate to have a handful of friends who have been there through thick and thin since my days in middle school (I know, crazy since I am 25!). Now, people change. That is inevitable, but sometimes we are fortunate enough to experience these changes with our loved ones and allow them to influence our changes in a positive way. In this way, we grow and change together. Stay connected, and remain friends. This is how these long friendships have become what they are. It seems as if I have found one of the rarest, and most important pieces of life, and that is keeping my friends in my life and in my heart. I know, it's cheesy! But I have been thinking a lot about this. Wishing that there were more hours in my days so I could show and tell each and everyone I love how much they mean to me. My husband hears it every day, My family hears it extremely frequently, but my friends just have to know. So I hope they know.

I'd like to finish this post with a quote about relationships I found:

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same." ~Flavia Weedn

Couponing

Okay so this post is perfectly timed, as this new "Extreme Couponing" show started on TLC. . . Now, now, I am not currently being paid to promote this show, but I found it absolutely enticing. Not having had seen the show before this evening, my husband and I headed out to Rainbow for our bi-weekly grocery endeavor (Well typically it should be bi-weekly, but we were slacking a bit. . . our cupboards were pretttty bear). Anyhoo. . . I had been doing a bit of coupon research online and decided to take advantage. I mean, we get ads at our house once every couple days and I figured I'd dig a little deeper. Turns out, those ads we get in the mail, SmartSource, or RedPlum are just advertisements with manufactures coupons. I found that these are different than store coupons, but can be paired with store coupons for even greater savings. There are also a bunch of websites like http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ and http://www.couponmom.com that break down their entire couponing process. With a simple coupon printer download, you can print off coupons on all these website, along with http://www.coupons.com. I also learned the term "doubling." What, might you asks does that mean? Well it means that some coupons enable you to use multiple in one transaction (hence, why we see some people actually making money on an item). For example, if we find a coupon in a RedPlum advertisement that is $1.00 a glade plug in and the coupon does not state that only 1 coupon per item, or no doubling, you can gather up all the $1.00 glade plug in coupons you can find and they will all apply towards your transaction. I haven't gotten merely as ambitious as some of these ladies, but I clipped, and paired the coupons with in-store sales, and came out pretty well.

Now, given my new choice in eating habits, a lot of the coupons coups didn't directly apply to us, but we saved quite a bit! We came home with a longer than usual grocery list

And came out saving over $40.00!

Not to shabby for a first timer, I'd say! Is anyone else a part of this whole couponing revolution? I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts.

Becoming granola

So. . . As a few of you are aware, a great portion of my childhood adolescent was spent as a complete vegetarian. It all began when my uncle rung a gooses neck because it had broken its leg and was suffering. Now when you're 11 year old, its traumatizing and you don't really understand the reason why this was the most appropriate action. Now, it didn't necessarily need to take place in front of me but it did, and it began my little stint of vegetarianism. It began with me eating no meat, and slowly transformed to fish, chicken, and then the full monty. It took up about 3 years of my life. I look back on that and kind of giggle. Not only was a stubborn at 11 years old, but I also developed a little animal rights activism. I never would've imagined that 24 years later I am in a similar boat.

So through some intense research, talk with friends and family and an eye opening viewing of the documentary Food, Inc., I have decided to completely transform my diet. Here's a link to one of the few websites that opened my eyes .

This whole food 'thing' was initially brought to my attention because "organic" has become such a trendy thing to do. You see celebrities talk about their decisions to only eat organic, and only shop organic. I started thinking: what does that really mean? Well as far as the meat industry, organic basically means that there are no antibiotics, and no hormones added to the animals. In the fruit and veggie industry it basically means that the fruit isn't shipped from hundreds of miles away unripe, and ripened with methane gas or calcium carbide when it arrives ever so perfectly at our grocery store. Doing a little investigating and conversing, I learned that this happens to almost all of our fruits and vegetables along with genetically modifying the structure of our so-called fruits to yield a meatier and more filling product. Next time you're in the grocery store, take a look at the size of organic produce and remind yourself, this is how nature intended it to be.

Now, I'm not going to be "granola," as we all refer to those people as, but I have made a decision to eat only free-range, grass fed meat with no hormones and no antibiotics. Now, I like meat. I would like to do organic veggies, but we all know organic is spendy! I like all meat, beef, pork, chicken- you name it, I'll eat it. I don't, however like meat that comes from animals that have suffered their entire lives, has been genetically modified, added to a meat filler that contains ammonia to prevent E-coli, and produced by 1 of the 13 slaughterhouses that exists in our nation. Now I love food as much as the other, but I think its important that we all know what we are eating. I mean, think about how much of our life revolves around food. Morning, noon, night, snacks, we eat for energy, we eat for strength, we eat to exist. Why not exist as healthy as we can!

Showin' some local love

So as a young, married couple my husband and I greatly enjoy our free time and treating ourself to fun activities. Recently, these activities have included supporting our local and lovely home state, Minnesota in a number of different ways.

Last Saturday, Luke and I went to the Minnesota History Museum. Oddly enough, we have lived in St Paul for a year & 1/2 and have not gone once. They have an exhibit there currently called The Greatest Generation, and it is a collection of stories, toys, and different items from local individuals who were born, raised, and lived through the Great Depression. It was really interesting to see because for some reason we read about history and it never really seems like it occurred at a local level. It was also very eye opening. Another highlight of the history museum was George Washington's teeth. A little boy asked his dad "What are these, dad." Dad responds, "Those are George Washington's teeth." Son's response: "EWWWWW. GROSS!" Very true little man, incredibly gross.

So today, we decided to attend an event that my co-worker brought to my attention: Savor Minnesota. It was a wine-tasking, food-tasting event that consisted of over 30 local vineyards, locally grass fed meats, etc., etc. We had an absolute blast. We tasted probably over 30 different wines, my favorite for the day was a Black Truffle red wine from Forestedge winery in LaPorte, MN. They also had a delicious blueberry wine, and a rasberry rhubarb wine. Different but delicious! We also tasted some locally grown produced cheese that has been sitting in a cave for 75 years. Nothing like 75 year old bleu cheese to pair with a glass of wine. The day also consisted of tasting chocolates, different Summit's, strudels, honey, bloody mary's, and this weird Turnip Cake made by an asian restaurant in Minneapolis. We walked out of there purchasing some hot honey, bloody mary mixes (honestly the best and spiciest I have ever tasted) and some locally made jalepeno honey mustard.

We had an amazing time and are so happy to be showing love to our home state :)