Easter, Pictures, Savings and more!!!

Last week, I informed you that I was hopping on the "coupon train." Well, I just want to update you on some of my savings in the last week! It is so exciting! I love a challenge, and I feel like this is one big challenge for me...just to see how much $$$ I can save. I'm so competitive, it is ridiculous! Anyways, last week, I sat down with my ads and coupons. Boy, it puts a spin on shopping. I made my grocery list AFTER looking at the ads. My friend (www.couponqueendiaries.com) that I was telling you about has given me several pointers. She said the idea is to buy things only when they are on sale, but buy enough to last you until they go on sale again. That way, you never run out of things and have to rush out and buy things for full price if they don't happen to be on sale that week. She says eventually you get to the point that you are buying 2 times the amount of groceries for 1/2 of what you were originally paying to begin with. I like that idea, especially with teenagers over here all the time. So, I started my adventure.
It took me about an hour and a half to 2 hours with my ads and coupons, but I got my list and headed out. The other obstacle was having both Des and Riley. Whew! It was an adventure, but they were both so good. Back to the coupons: I first stopped at Publix where I spent $17 and saved over $18! Wowsers! Just a few of the good deals I got there were margarine ($0.60/tub), Cheerios (($0.50/box), salad dressing ($0.45) and yogurt ($0.25/cup). I forgot to take a picture once I brought it all home, but I will try to remember from now on. I then headed to Kroger - it is nice in our area because all of the stores are within a mile of each other. At Kroger, I spent $30 and saved $22!!! I stopped at a couple of other stores too...totaling out the day spending $68 and saving $47!!!! Let me take this opportunity to pat myself on the back. Thank you, thank you! So, I would say I did pretty good. I think that 2 hours of planning beforehand was worth it! That is like making $23.50 an hour! For this stay-at-home mom and strict budget cruncher, that's a great paying gig.
Moving on, Resurrection Sunday was this past week. We had a special invitation to join our "adopted" Nashville family for Easter dinner. What a lovely afternoon we had! We had an awesome meal and then headed out to take family pictures. Here are a few of them:
In this first one, Des looks like he has no neck! hahhahah!

I love this family pic

Best of friends!We are so blessed to have such great friends!

Watch this progression of photos...it is a perfect display of their personalities!


Mayer - "I didn't do it mommy, I promise!" ^
Des - "Ok, best friend, we can be friends again." >

GREAT EASTER celebrating our RISEN Saviour!
I also need to share with you a few of Desmond's 1 year pictures. I know there are lots to look at, but I'm sure you'd rather see these than read anything I have to say...here is our sweet Desmond:

There are plenty more and I will share them soon. For now, that's all folks! Happy Easter, happy couponing and happy Thursday!