Happy New Year

Four Inserts Today!

Just a reminder to make sure you go out and get a paper or two today.  There are reportedly FOUR inserts today:  2 Smart Source, 1 Red Plum, plus a P&G.  Let us know if you get all four and what your favorite coupon find is!  I've been getting lazy with my coupons, but plan to hit the deals hard in January so I am looking forward to looking through my papers today.

End of the Month Reminder - Print Your Coupons

Just a friendly reminder to print your favorite coupons before they reset on Sunday.  It's the end of the month and there are many coupons still available that will be gone soon.  

Quick Links:
www.coupons.com
www.redplum.com
www.smartsource.com
www.swagbucks.com (click on the coupon tab after you sign in)

CVS Match Up for 1/1/12 - 1/7/12

This week's CVS ad Match ups come to you with a big thank you from Passionate Penny Pincher.  It looks like there are a few things I'll want to put on my list this week.  Let us know if you find any other great deals we missed or if you get a coupon machine printable worth noting.


If you are new to CVS shopping, make sure you sign up for the Extra Care Card so you can take advantage of the Extra Care Bucks offers each week. Once you get started, this is one of the  easiest ways I have found to get things for free.  Make sure you also go online and register your card so you can take advantage of the e-mail coupons they often send too.


Here are the things that look most interesting to me:

Get $5 ECB wyb $10 Nivea products Limit 1 Nivea Lip Care $2.50 Nivea Body Wash 16.9 ozor Body Scrub 12 oz $4.88 Nivea Lotion 13.5 oz, gel 8.4 oz or cream 6.8 oz $6.88

$1.00 off any Nivea Lip Product
$1/1 Nivea body wash for men or women 8.4floz-16.9floz 1/1/12 RP
$2/1 Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite gel-cream, serum or Q10 Firming lotion 8.4floz-13.5floz 1/1/12 RP
$3/2 Nivea lip care products .17oz stick or .35oz tube 1/1/12 RP
$5/2 Nivea body lotions excluding Q10 Firming 8.4floz-16.9floz 1/1/12 RP
As low as free overage after ECB wyb 4 Lip Care products

Get $2 ECB wyb Oral-B Cross Action power toothbrush 1 ct or brush heads 2pk $5.99 Limit 2

$3/1 Oral-B battery toothbrush 1/1/12 P&G
As low as $.99 after ECB

Get $2 ECB wyb Bausch & Lomb Renu 12 oz, Bio True 10 oz, Boston 1-4 oz, Sooth 0.5 oz or 28 ct $9.99 Limit 1

$2/1 Bausch & Lomb Biotrue printable
$1/1 Biotrue Multi-Purpose Solution printable
$1/1 Bausch & Lomb Soothe and Soothe XP Lubricant Eye Drops printable
$4/1 Bausch + Lomb Soothe Eye Drops, exp. 1/31/12 (SS 10/09/11)
$4/1 Bausch+Lomb Soothe Eye Drops, exp. 1/31/12 (SS 11/13/11)
As low as $3.99 after ECB

Bumble Bee chunk light tuna 5 oz $0.59

Your Turn - What's on your shopping list this week?

End of the Year To Do List

I am so overwhelmed with my To Do list.  However, all four kids are home today and will be helping me attack this list.  I have not felt well for several weeks, and I'm wondering if there is too much dust or mold in my house, so I'll be deep cleaning all day today and into tomorrow.  I've made a list online before and crossed it off as I got them accomplished, so I'll be sharing this with you all day and tomorrow.

Ready...Set...Go...

Entry Way/Porch

• Wash windows
• Organize closet, bag up jackets/shoes/scarves to donate
• Scrub floor
• Organize shoe buckets
• Donate stroller - Posted it for free on Craigslist
• Donate carseat - Posted it for free on Craigslist
• Organize shovels or whatever else is out there
• Sweep porch

Living Room

• Take Christmas ornaments down
• Take Christmas tree down
• Organize top of desk
• Organize drawers of desk - one, two, three, four, five drawers
• Wash windows
• Make pile of boxes to burn in fire pit
• Organize bookshelf
• Water plants
• Dust
• Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum
• Put baby gate away
• Find a place for reams of paper instead of on the floor
• Organize/file away papers
• Organize toy drawers
• Organize diapers and wipes drawers
• Organize gaming drawer
• Fill in holes in wall/mud up, paint touchup

Kitchen/Dining Room

• Clean highchair
• Sweep floor
• Scrub floor
• Clean off table - EVERYTHING off the table
• Put purses away
• Hang my new fruit baskets :D
• Clean off top of 'frig
• Put all dishes away
• Wash all the dishes
• Wash stovetop
• Wash windows
• Water plants
• Wash cupboards
• Take garbage out
• Clean under sink
• Clean microwave
• Organize top of microwave/medicine cupboard
• Clean out 'frig
• Clean outside of 'frig
• Donate food

Hallway/Closets

• Organize presents in closet
• Organize wrapping paper
• Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum
• Organize bathroom hallway closet

Bathroom

• Organize under sink
• Clean toilet
• Clean bathtub
• Clean bathroom floor
• Organize the basket on sink
• Clean inside medicine cabinet
• Wash mirror
• Wash window
• Clean walls and ceiling
• Make more foaming handsoap
• Make bathsalts  - That was so easy and fun, I'll be making more :D
• Take out garbage

Kids' Room

• Wash all bedding
• Make all the beds
• Bag and freeze stuffed animals
• Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum
• Put all clothes away
• Pick up closet
• Figure out how to maximize use of the shelves in closet
• Clean top of armoire

Our Room

• Wash all bedding
• Make the bed
• Put all the clothes away
• Donate clothes/give away clothes
• Put shoe bucket back downstairs in storage
• Dust
• Wash mirrors
• Put mirror up
• Clean off dresser tops
• Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum
• Put laundry baskets back downstairs

Basement - Ugh, the worst part...

• Put all toys in right buckets
• Throw away all papers, broken toys, etc.
• Wash window
• Clean floor
• Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum
• Clean under sink
• Put playpen away
• Donate outgrown toys
• Clean top of dryer off/organize
• Fold all laundry
• Put all laundry away
• Organize movies
• Organize books
• Clean tv cabinet
• Clean fishtank - buy new fish?
• Wash walls
• Take out garbages
• Make a HUGE batch of homemade laundry soap

Odds and Ends

• Call for eye doc appt
• Make wish list for house
• Make goal list with Hubby tonight
• Get new site all ready to launch :D

To prove that my house needs to be deep cleaned and organized after all the chaos of Christmas travelling...I'll post pics once each area is clean too :D 

Entry Way Before

Living Room/Entry Before

Living Room Before

Living Room Before

Kitchen/Dining Room Before

Our Bedroom Before

Stairs Closet Before

Bathroom Hall Closet Before

Bathroom Before

Bathroom Before

Financially Fit Friday

"When real faith grips you, you develop a mind-set that looks for the best in everything, refuses to give up, finds a way around or through every obstacle, and presses on to victory."

- Norman Vincent Peale



Have you started a money makeover? What are you planning on paying CASH for? What bill are you paying off? Share a bit of your story! No story is too small to share! Real life stories keep Sister C motivated :D Catch up on Our Story to see how far we've come.

Emergency Fund - $1000 - STOCKED!

Tuition Payment - $1000 due on 1/25/2011

• Currently Saved $100 - 10% of our goal
• Whoa, this is quickly approaching.  I forgot about it, crap. lol

Fun Money - Not sure what to save up for. I'm toying with the idea of visiting my sister in Maine in June...

• Deposited $0 in fun money.
• Current Balance $117.72
• This account pays for my membership at Curves, for my ladies night out, and gifts for birthdays and Christmas. So I need to start saving for Christmas! Oh wait, I'm excellent at finding sales/deals, so I don't need much lol

House Fund - Goal $15,000.00 by 5/31/2011

• Took out the balance to pay off two loans this week :D  So, we'll be starting over. 
• Currently Saved $77.19
• In the next few weeks I plan to research out where to put our money to get the highest interest rate. I know it might not be much, but every little bit helps :D
• I also plan to call around to different banks and find out mortgage rates, down payment requirements for different purchases - such as 'regular' house buying mortgages, foreclosures, short sales, contract for deed, etc. Then we'll know what we are up against :D

The following are the other loans we currently have, but will put them on the back burner as we save for a house bigger than a 2-bedroom for our family of SIX :D We plan on keeping the duplex we currently own, and renting out the side we currently live in, thus earning more money each month that will pay these off for us :D

Hubby's Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $9395

• Outstanding Balance is $9,240.20

My Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $6480

• Outstanding Balance is $6,366.18

Bank of America loan as of 10/01/2011 - $2228.49

• Outstanding Balance is $0 ZERO :D
• We decided to just pay this loan off regardless of how little interest we were paying on it.  Hubby R was highly blessed with his commissions this month, along with a Christmas bonus.  I cannot tell you how happy I am :D  We were highly blessed this year financially.  We depleted our house fund to get rid of this completely, giving us nearly $200/mo back 'in our pockets' - aka our house fund.  By the time we're set to buy a home, the balance we took out to pay this off will have been replaced and then some.  So as much as I wanted to keep that house fund stocked, I believe this is a better route to go. 

Family Loan $3000 - Will be paid back with tax return

Family Loan $1000 - Will be paid back with tax return - We repaid this loan back two months sooner than expected :D 

Sunday Coupon Preview - No inserts this week

How many papers do you buy each week?  Is it the same number or does it vary based on what coupons you've heard might be in the ads?  If you want to know what to expect in the Sunday coupon inserts, don't forget to check www.sundaycouponpreview.com. They will tell you not only what coupon inserts to expect in your weekly paper, but which coupons you will find in each insert.  

This week there are no coupon inserts due to the holiday, but be ready next week - they should be good!