July 2009

Why? Because I’m not sure how much of a market there is to read about a mom wanting to wring her 21-year-old son’s neck.

Is he better than when he was from 15 – 17? Light years. He doesn’t even resemble that kid (thank goodness!) but he just doesn’t think two minutes ahead. I am a firm believer that people aren’t “normal people” until they are 25. By that I mean not only will strangers find you engaging and reasonable, but so will your family, especially your parents. Your friends go without saying that they find you reasonable long before 25 … they wouldn’t be your friends if they thought you were a jerk. I know I was about 25 before my parents had the epiphany that I was not longer a dumb kid. That just seems to be the golden year for most of the people I know.

So, that means I have four-more-years! Four-more-years! Four-more-years! That will become my new mantra replacing I-love-my-son, I-love-my-son, I-love-my-son, I-love-my-son, I-love-my-son, I-love-my-son.

Anyone that has experienced the teenage years of their children knows exactly what that means.

So, what did he do? He’s going on for his bachelor’s after graduating with his associates degree. The community college he went to did not send on his immunization record (no idea why). Two months ago (give or take a week) he was sent a packet that mandated filling in this record, and it required a doctor’s signature. He finally went to the doctor on Wednesday to have it filled out. They were surprisingly good about it, but he needed a booster shot so he’d have to come back Friday (today) to have the TB test and the paperwork filled out.

Guess when the paperwork is due?

If you said “today” you are a parent!!

I was going to drive him down there this afternoon just to bond, ok it was actually to ask the school some questions about what was included in his kitchen suite, so I tee-d up several posts for this afternoon including Walgreen’s and Rite Aid. I swear Rite Aid took me six hours to do! I felt confused and crammed, so if there are mistakes I apologize and please point them out so I can correct them.

So why am I crabbing?? I went to make sure he was up so he could go finish at the doctor’s, have lunch with his great-grandfather and then we’d head down south. As he is fumbling out of bed and he has the bright idea to call and see if the school would accept the records late! I swear he told me Wednesday he called them and they said he had to have it in today!?!?

Turns out he did call them Wednesday, but never actually asked if the form could arrive late.

*head bang*

And people wonder why I tried to sell him on eBay.

And that is the story of my wonderful son for today. There may be more as he is home for the next three weeks.

Is a giant countdown calendar too obnoxious?

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I ran a contest July 14 – July 16th. Given away were over $150 in coupons and gift cards. The “price” of entry was a frugal tip. Some were common sense, some were “wow, I never thought of that!”, some I disagreed with, and some were, er, umm dicey.

So, what I thought I’d do over the next month is take five of those responses daily and give you my take on the response. I’d love for people to add their thoughts and ideas too.

#56 Caitlin
Never buy any item of clothing at retail price, even at lower-end shops. Everything goes on sale eventually.

I’m not sure everything eventually goes on sale, but I do like the concept!

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#57 Laura
My favorite tip is stockpiling – you need to have a lot of space in your cabinets and elsewhere, but the savings makes it totally worth it.

Hey, whaddya know!? I like to stockpile too!

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#58 Lori S.
One tip that I learned a little late but early for the next baby is to never pay full price for formula. I can trade with other mothers to get checks so I never have to pay full price again.

I’d like to add, sign up for every baby offer out! There aren’t tons of them but they keep you on their lists f-o-r-e-v-e-r!
Baby Offers Page

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#59 Karen
I reserve dvd’s I’d like to watch from our local library. You’d be surprised at how many good ones they have!

Very true!

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#60 Carol
Use cloth napkins and towels, and save your change in a big jar. Its amazing how fast it adds up.

Next thing I know, someone will suggest *shudder* ironing!

But seriously, this is a very good tip. Not only does it save money to use cloth but it saves waste at the dump.

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Reader Tips 1-5 Link
Reader Tips 6 -10 Link
Reader Tips 11 – 15 Link
Reader Tips 16 – 20 Link
Reader Tips 21 – 25 Link
Reader Tips 26 – 30 Link
Reader Tips 31 – 35 Link
Reader Tips 36 – 40 Link
Reader Tips 41- 45 Link
Reader Tips 46 – 50 Link
Reader Tips 51- 55 Link

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Well, they are as good as they are going to be until Saturday. One thing I will say for certain, it looks like a lot of market variation this week. Denominations, coupons, everything seems different from one insert to the next! There are four (or five depending on how your Keebler/Kellogg’s insert shows up) inserts this week so extra papers time!

One coupon that Glenda has available is a free Beech-Nut Stage 3 Homestyle Fruit (value to 99¢). I’m sure those will go quickly so if you need ‘em, buy ‘em. I also encourage anyone that gets this coupon to trade it away if they can’t use it! Refundsweepers has a very active coupon trading board. I’m sure someone will want them. The other two Beech-nut coupons aren’t too shabby either: Beech-Nut Lets Grow Product B1G1 (value to $2.89) and Beech-Nut Stage 2 Jars $2/16. They are valid until 12/31/09!

A reminder that a ton of coupons expire tomorrow. Take a look through your coupons and see what the “must use” coupon is … then get out and us it! (if it makes economic sense that is).

2009 Coupon Insert Coupons

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