Keeping in Teutsch

Have you ever, in the midst of cooking a new dish, just thought "this is going to be bad, really bad" and "oh man, I'm wasting money and no one is going to eat this and we're going to all be eating cereal for dinner." Well, that was my thoughts tonight as I started cooking dinner. By the time I put it in the oven I was POSITIVE it was going to be a disaster. Thankfully, I can now say, that it wasn't bad, although it wasn't a pretty dish, which is why I didn't take a picture. So, if you are feeling brave and this sounds good to you, give it a try. I promise you won't have to eat cereal for dinner!

It's official! I'm addicted to couponing! I know I may have lost some "cool points" in saying that--and if not, I'm definitely going to lose them by posting these pics--but I can't help myself. I'm super excited about saving money!

It kinda all began when I started doing most of my grocery shopping at Albertsons not too long ago. Albertsons has some awesome sales...better than I ever saw at Brookshires or Super One when we lived in West Monroe and every week my mom can attest to the fact that I call her to tell her how much I saved at Albertsons. Usually, it's at least $25. I think the highest it has been is $40. In the back of my head, I always kept thinking to myself that I probably would still spend the same amount of money on the same items if I went to Wal-mart, so one day recently I did my grocery shopping at Wal-mart (just like I used to do back in West Monroe) and actually went to the trouble of writing down prices to see how they compared to the sale prices at Albertsons. Guess what? Albertsons is better! So, after that little revelation, it dawned on me that if I were to use coupons on the items that are on sale at Albertsons, than I could get some stuff for super cheap, which is really just the basic rule behind couponing and getting the most out of them...I'd just never paid much attention!

So, just like my personality, I started doing some "research" and started reading some blogs that pertained to couponing. And, then I got hooked on trying to find good deals at any store, not just Albertsons. So, if you are looking to maximize your coupons, I recommend you check out the following:

Totally Target -- the go-to place for all deals at Target
Money Saving Mom -- the place to go for finding out the deals at any other store
My Coupon Hunter -- the place to go to buy coupons for mere pennies. I know that sounds silly, but for not much more than the cost of a Sunday paper, you can choose just the coupons you want from the current Sunday's inserts and you can order multiple of each coupon. And, you get them fairly quickly...usually within the week.

Although, I've been raving about Albertson's great sales, ironically, the pics I have below aren't from any trips there. Here's the best deals I've gotten this week:

This is what I purchased at Target for $3.40. If I wouldn't have had coupons, it would have cost $8.15. With the coupons, the Kandoo wipes (for toddlers) were 65 cents, each thing of kids Crest toothpaste was 42 cents, each thing of cream of chicken was 52 cents and the noodles were under a dollar too.
This is what I purchased at Walgreens. I found the Pantene on clearance for $2.54 each and had a coupon for buy 2, get $3 off and the eyeshadow was buy one, get one half off and I was able to use a $1 off coupon on each of them. Without coupons, it would have been $14.70, but I only spent $4.31.
This is what I got at CVS. A lot of people play the "CVS game" and are able to get stuff for free or practically free with CVS Extra Care Bucks. I just got a card today and am going to try it out. The thing is you have to spend a little money to get going, so I bought some body wash for $5.50 today and now have $4.50 in Extra Care Bucks to use next Sunday. (The new sales start each Sunday at the drug stores.) Going forward, I should only have to spend pennies or at the most a couple of dollars to get whatever I want. (Some people are so good at playing the CVS game that they can get $60 worth of stuff for just a few dollars.) If you are interested in learning how to play the "game," check out the Money Saving Mom's blog. She has links to each store and details on how to "play."

So on the above picture, the cereal was on sale for $1.88 and I had a buy 2, get $1 off coupon and the eyeliner was half off and I had $1 Cover Girl coupons, so I spent $7.76. It would have been $22 if I wouldn't have had coupons or wouldn't have found the good sales.

I also tried a new recipe tonight called Wild Rice Soup. It was pretty good! Here's the recipe if you are interested.

Whew! It has been a crazy, busy, tiring, but fun-filled weekend and I'm glad I have tomorrow off to recover from it!

It all started on Friday when my parents and my sister and her family drove down to spend Easter with us. They'd been planning this little visit for a while now and I was told to plan some excursions for everyone, so our first stop was Avery Island--home of the Tabasco factory. Here is a picture of the Tabasco Country Store there where you can buy anything and everything with a Tabasco logo on it or with Tabasco in it. You can also sample a variety of Tabasco items, including not only their sauces, but salsa, pickles, coke!, ice cream (it was interesting) and more. (Juliette took about three bites of the ice cream before realizing it had Tabasco in it!) Avery Island is also home to the Jungle Gardens, which have a variety of birds as well as beautiful scenery, which I'm sure is in full bloom right now, but we had to get back to Lafayette to pick Matt up from the airport, so we only did the Tabasco tour.

Here is Juliette and my dad sitting on a rocker on the porch of the country store.

Friday night, we took everyone to Prejean's (pronounced pray-johns with a little French accent) for some authentic Cajun cuisine that proved to be mostly too spicy for everyone! :)

Saturday, we headed out to Baton Rouge with plans to go to the zoo, the state museum and the capitol. We ended up leaving later in the morning than we wanted to and we ended up staying longer at the zoo than I thought we would, so we didn't make it to the state museum, which is a shame because it's brand new and I'm told really nice.
At the petting zoo area, Juliette took up with this little gray goat. Here she is trying to "herd" him into the stable with the sheep.
Although, we were exhausted from the zoo and the sun (it all of a sudden decided to feel like summer down here this weekend and we were sweating all day), we still made a short stop by the state capitol since only a few of us had ever been there and the rest wanted to see it. My dad may or may not have hidden his pocket knife in the bushes outside the handicap entrance so he could gain access. :)
I was driving my dad's truck, so I wasn't able to take a picture of the governor's mansion, which looked beautiful with the azaleas and other flowers and bushes in bloom.

My sister and her family left Saturday night to head back home since my brother-in-law had to work today, so my parents and us were left to celebrate Easter today. Here is Juliette with her goodies from the Easter bunny this morning.


After hunting Easter eggs this afternoon, Mom and Dad and Juliette headed to North Louisiana. Juliette is spending this week (her preschool is on Spring Break) with Matt's parents and will be sorely missed.

Hope everyone had a great Easter celebration today with their families. Happy Easter! He Is Alive!

March has been a slow month for us and not much has been going on. We haven't had any visitors and we haven't been anywhere, although I did go to New Orleans for a night last week for work (and got to see my friend Jaime's super cute--and super new--baby boy Cash!).

We're about to get busy, though! Matt is going to St. Louis next week for a conference and so I get to have an excuse to take a little time off since we will be babysitter-less. My parents and possibly my sister, nephew and brother will be coming down for Easter. They'll be here for a long weekend, so we'll be doing a little sightseeing while they are here. Then Matt and Juliette have Spring Break the week after Easter and Juliette will spend it with Matt's parents, which I hear have plans to take her on a train ride and to the zoo! Meanwhile, I still have two trips to take for work--a one-day one to West Louisiana and Southeast Texas and then a two-day trip to Baton Rouge, West Mississippi and North and Central Louisiana.

The end of the spring semester of classes--for both Matt and Juliette--are just a little over a month away and Matt is planning to take three classes this summer. We're hoping we can get Juliette into the university's daycare this time around since she has been on the waiting list for a while now. Since the summer semester is shorter than a regular semester, Matt will have to be in class everyday for a few hours each day and so it would be best to just have Juliette in an all-day, all-week daycare.

And, we got confirmation today that we will most likely have an apartment ready for us at the family housing complex at the end of June (when our lease is up on the house we are in), so I'm VERY much looking forward to being able to loosen the "purse-strings" and have a little extra money each month. In the next month, though, I'll be doing a bunch of cleaning out and getting lots of stuff together for a garage sale in May at my aunt's house. I cleaned out when we moved into this house last summer, but really and truly there is SO much more we can get rid of that we haven't used in forever, so my goal is to get us down to the bare minimums...I just have started feeling so clastrophobic with all our "stuff" and just really want some simplicity and minimalism.

Here's my answers to the questions for week 10 and 11. Week 12 question should be up soon since we are behind (I think!):

Kelly's Korner has a blog carnival every Friday and this Friday the topic is "A Day in the Life." I rarely participate, but I thought I would today, just to give you a little glimpse into my typical work day.

I usually wake up around 6:20 and am out the door around 7:20 with a Diet Coke and Fiber One Strawberry Pop-tart in hand. I have to be at work at 7:30 am and our house is only two miles from campus. Some mornings, though, Juliette wakes up at the crack of dawn and joins me in the tub and then wants to watch Curious George and eat Cheerios, while wrapped in a blanket (she's very specific!), so on those mornings I usually don't leave the house until almost 7:30.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I try to not take a lunch break and just eat at my desk--either a frozen Lean Cuisine or Chick-fil-A from on campus. Since we are only allowed 45 minutes for lunch breaks, I do this so that I can take one hour lunch breaks on Tuesdays and Thursdays (since I pick up Juliette from preschool on those days) and so that I can leave around 4:50 on Mondays and Tuesdays (since Matt has a 5:30 class on those days).

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I leave work at 11:20 to pick up Juliette across campus (well, not really "across") from preschool and take her home where I fix her lunch and scarf down some lunch for myself before the babysitter arrives at 12.

Once I get home from work, I change clothes, look through the mail and start on dinner. We usually eat around 6 or 6:30, depending on how long it takes to cook. After dinner, I clean up the kitchen and then play with Juliette and spend a few minutes checking Facebook and email and reading some blogs (or blogging myself). I try to have Juliette in the tub around 8 or 8:30 and while she is in there, I usually straighten up the house. Juliette goes to bed around 9 and then Matt and I catch up on our DVRed shows. I usually am in bed around 10:30 every night, although if I'm really tired I'll go to bed when Juliette does.

So, nothing too exciting here during the week...just your typical, normal routine!

This past Saturday, we went to see Curious George--live on stage--at the Cajun Dome here in Lafayette. Juliette has been patiently waiting for him to "get out of the TV and come to that big round building" for a month or longer. Of course, as I do with everything else, we had to coordinate with the theme! This shirt is actually a size 7/8 and it was the only one left at Walmart and it was on clearance for $5, so I snatched it up and just made it into a little mini-dress by pulling the sleeves up with ribbon.

There's the monkey! Juliette didn't notice--or didn't comment--on how big he was! She was really quiet for most of the show and I wasn't sure if she was enjoying it or not, but afterward she asked me if we could go back and she's been singing the theme show for days on end now, so I think she had fun.