{Money Saving Monday} - Coupons by Mail

Probably the most obvious way to get coupons is by subscribing to a major newspaper.  If you live in a city you more than likely get coupon inserts in your regular mail along with your weekly ads or a monthly envelope of coupons to local places.  Since none of those options are available to me living in a tiny town if I ever use a coupon it's usually one that I've printed online or requested off facebook but recently I've received a bunch of coupons by mail for baby items.  Some of these offers I registered for and some I did not but many of them have come in handy for much needed items.  If there are some big ticket items you are needing you may find that there are some high dollar coupons you can use on them to get a better deal.

{Favorite Things Friday} - Kindle Fire

I don't know what I'd do without my kindle fire. It's been a lifesaver for me. So many times my newborn falls asleep on me and as much as I enjoy holding him it's nice to be able to do two things at once. I've been trying to keep my kindle fire handy lately so in case I am trapped under a sleeping baby I can still check facebook, look up the weather forecast, listen to some music, watch a movie via netflix, play a game or read a book. I love it!

{Thankful Thursday} - Freezer Meals

I'm so thankful to all the ladies who brought over meals after I got home from the hospital.  Several people brought soups so after we enjoyed them for a night or two we froze the leftovers in small containers.  When I don't have much time to fix something for lunch I can warm up a serving.  It has really come in handy on several days when time has slipped away from me.

{Whatever Wednesday} - the claw

Originally I bought this in AZ to pick up pieces of cactus that fell off the plant in the backyard since they were dangerous to pick up with your bare hand.  I retrieved it from the garage during my last month of pregnancy to help me pick things up when I dropped them or when I came across something that shouldn't have been on the floor.  The last couple of weeks it's been handy as I'm recovering from my c-section it's been painful to stoop down and pick things up off the ground.  I found it from Ross in a "as seen on tv" package.  I think they are marketed to elderly people but really are great for all sorts of projects like getting hard to reach trash out of the bushes which needs to be our next project now that the weather is warming up and we've been doing some work in the yard.

{Tutorial Tuesday} - Trash Sack Holder

While my mom was here she sewed up this trash sack holder to hang on the changing table.  Brilliant!  There's nothing worse than needing a bag when you are changing a yucky diaper and not having one handy.  I didn't take pictures as she was making it but it's pretty easy so I'll do my best to explain.

1.  Cut a piece of fabric about the same size as a kitchen towel.

2.  Turn over the short ends 1/4" twice and sew to hem the top and bottom.

3.  Sew elastic just under each seam across the top and bottom.

4.  Sew the long sides together.

5.  Attach a piece of ribbon or ric rac or seam binding to the top to tie it on the rail of the changing table.

This comes in handy every day!  I'm so glad she made it!  I wish I had thought of this when I had a babysitting job in AZ last year.  It would've been so nice to have some trash bags right there instead of having to run to the kitchen to grab one each time I needed one.

If you have a baby shower to go to this could be a unique gift for the mom to be!

{Money Saving Monday} - Frequent Buyer's Club

If there's someplace you go often, one way to save some money is to check if they have a frequent buyer's club.  Many places have them to encourage repeat business knowing that many people will not follow through and complete the card and redeem it.  About once a month, we make the 100 mile round trip journey to Cody to go to Wal-Mart and a few other places to stock up on necessities.  Most of the time we pick up a Papa Murphy's pizza on the way out of town to cook for dinner when we get back to the house.  As I've been here a year now, we just filled up a "Take 'N' Bake Club Card" and was able to pick up a free Family Size Pizza on our last trip there which was on Saturday.  I have to admit that even though I've had lots of club cards in the past it's rare that I've stuck with them long enough to fill them up and receive the free item.  Knowing that we were going to get a free pizza was extra incentive to make the trip this past weekend and we enjoyed every bite.  We miss having a Papa Murphy's right around the corner from the house like we had one in AZ but are glad that at least there is one accessible.  I encourage you to analyze where you frequently shop or dine and see if they have a similar program to take advantage of.  Every little bit adds up.

{Whatever Wednesday} - One Month!

This little night owl kept me up till 1:30 am this morning and as a result I didn't get a blog post up yesterday.  Daddy is watching him right now so I can make a quick post.  I found these month stickers online here and printed them out today and took some pictures to commemorate my baby's first month milestone.  He's growing so fast.  I couldn't get the onesie to snap so I just tucked it in these pants which are marked 3-6 month but barely fit him.
My mom made the quilt he is laying on.  I just love 30s prints so she collected a bunch of baby prints and made this quilt for him.
In some ways I can't believe a month has passed and in other ways it seems much longer.  Even though I'm not getting as much done as I used to how I can I complain when I have this cute face staring at me much of the day?

{Money Saving Monday} - Make Do

Sorry about the 4 week hiatus but shortly after my last post I went into labor and let's just say that life is much, much different for me now.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get things done and take care of my newborn at the same time.

I've seen this on several blogs and wanted to post it:

Growing a baby is the ultimate act of creativity!

While I'm still recovering from the delivery and trying to figure out how to get an adequate amount of sleep I'd like to start blogging again so we'll see how it goes.

Since today is "Money Saving Monday" I wanted to talk about "making do".  Amazingly, even though our infant is 4 weeks old now we still haven't spent any money on him yet.  Thanks to the generosity of family & friends so far we have everything we've needed.  Sometimes it might be tempting to go out and buy everything you think you could possibly need but it isn't necessary.  Just have a little patience and take some time to figure out what you really need and wait to see if you get it.  We're still receiving presents almost daily.  Between brand new items that we've received and the hand me downs that are continuously passed on to us we've been doing fine.