The purples are here....finally!

The purple crocuses are always the last to come out, but finally, they have started! YEAH! I have noticed this year I even have some "mutant" colors of yellow in the crocuses. Yeah for spring starting to arrive....FINALLY! Minus the dumb hailstorm this morning...please be strong daffodils. You can survive to bloom!

Couponey news for March 21st

This week I went to one of the day old bread stores. I'm excited to say I got all this bread, plus some animal crackers Collin ate while in the store for about $4.50. YEAH! I also went and volunteered at the Deseret Pasta Plant. Granted, I don't have a picture, but I got some cheap pasta there as well. Our family eats a lot of pasta. Noodles is the one thing Collin does like sometimes.

Got the above at Wags for free and will make a couple bucks on it after sending in for the Oil of Olay rebate. YOu can still do this this week, use coupons and you can get the smaller lotion for free this week on sale...so two things for free and moneymaker!

Again, love Rite Aid. Got all of the above for basically $3.00. Five candy bars, 2 things of diapers, and 2 fancy hair products and a fancy cleansar. YEAH RiteAid!

Thanks to my dear neighbor Jenny, she told me about this great find that at the Fresh Market up the street, these sausages were on sale for 10/$10, plus there was a coupon, so I got both of these for $1.00 total. Now, I'm looking for a good recipe.

That's all the coupony news this week.

He likes peas!

Many of you know Collin is not a huge fan of eating... other than chocolate :)

Last night I attempted to try peas. I had tried them awhile ago and I couldn't remember if he liked them or not. How EXCITING to see a child POUND some peas. Seriously, they were going so fast in his mouth at one time, I was wondering if he was trying to eat a record.

I also was honestly wondering if the reason he likes peas and kinows their name is due to one of his favorite books, What are you so Grumpy About? There is a hilarious page about gravy touching peas and Collin points to all the peas.

But, hey, who cares? This boy actually pounded some food!

Riverton Poop

So, last weekend, some friends of ours had mentioned they were going to get "Riverton poop" for their garden and I was interested. They get it super cheap from the Equestrian Park in Riverton. These friends grew AMAZING corn so I'm always looking for some way to get ours to grow better. Three years and running and if we get more than 4 ears, it's a miracle. I asked my friend if we paid her she could bring us some....Last Saturday afternoon, they brought some and it was warm enough outside, the fam decided to watch Daddy work hard at moving it, smells and all.

Though Collin had to be trapped in his stroller (I did NOT want him playing in the Riverton poop) he quite enjoyed the movement.

We had to borrow a wheelbarrow from our other nice neighbors and Ryan went to work. You can see the "outside working hat" in full gear. He bought that on Cruise 2 on the beaches of Mexico. I thought it would never see the light of day, but ironically, it is a summer staple now.

Collin intently watching his milk, between watching the poop.

We got enough to cover all of our garden area and now it looks all fancy schmancy, despite smelling a bit :)

This made all of us VERY happy....the strawberry patch is starting to green up! YEAH!

Here's to hoping Riverton Poop will bring the O'Berry garden into its full glory! Thanks so much Cyndi and Ryan!

Couponing for week of March 15th

Well, I have come up with a new way of posting all my good deals. I know this is mostly for my benefit, but it may help some of you. Granted, I know by the time I will post, many of the deals, can no longer be had, but that's why I have all the "frugal" links on the side of my blog. THOSE people, they blog, a LOT and they are GOOD, which is why I won't post all the specifics of that. My favorite bloggers are hip2save.com and lately utahdealdiva.com and my sister-in-law, shannasteals.blogspot.com. Anyways.....humor me people. I want to be accountable to myself.
When I first started "couponing" as I call it about 18 months ago, I started signing up for free samples, coupons, etc. Now, the mail is AWESOME because at least a couple of times a week, I get free stuff...and coupons, and gift cards, so. Here is some of what I got in the mail today. Free sample size Oil of Olay body wash (from Wal-mart, yes I never shop there, but I do request freebies). I also got a couple of free diapers, and my $10.00 Kmart gift card from buying some candy awhile ago.

Hello co-op. This week was the first time I went to the site in West Jordan. It didn't appear to be as much stuff (it only filled up half the laundry basket this time), but still very good. I'm most excited to find out how to eat the weird purple stuff that I don't exactly know what it is and the little orange kumquats. One of the coolest things about the co-op is it has helped me try new things. I also got to meet some very nice, but tired, firemen today since I went to the wrong place in the beginning. Overall, I still think it is great to just go and buy all your produce for 2 weeks at one place. YEAH! This week we got:

Veggies:

2 asparagus bunches (HELLO! I already warned Ryan more of the TO DIE FOR carmelized bacon asparagus coming up this week)

1 celery bunch

1 yellow cauliflower

1 romaine lettuce

2 bunches green onions

1 purple leaf thing (yet to be identified :))

Fruits:

2 mangoes

1 pack of strawberries

7 bananas

10 roma tomatoes

2 appearingly "regular' tomatoes

17 little apples---not sure what kind these are

16 kumquats---which I"m anxious to try :)

I think in my search for good deals this week, I went to the most stores I have been to in awhile. Kmart...I NEVER go to Kmart, but my sister-in-law (shannasteals.blogspot.com) scored a great deal on toilet paper there. After the coupons, rebates and catalinas, all of this toilet paper will basically be about 2.00 for a 12 pack! WAHOO! And it is the NICE kind :)

Also at Kmart score on super cheap diapers. Granted, the coupon that processed these I don't believe is out there anymore (see hip2save for details) but I got these packs for about 2.50 each. Someday, we will move out of size 3. I have a lot of size 4 stored up, but Collin just hasn't got there yet :) I NEVER pay full price for diapers and I have never bought diapers at Wal-mart. I truly believe you can get cheaper diapers elsewhere :)

Earlier this week, I went to the Smith's Megadeal promo...as some of you may know, our family (mainly, read Ryan here) can go through A LOT of cereal. I'm actually trying to be better about making homemade breakfasts on weekends so we can have more variety), so I had to go. I'm lamenting the Albies cereal deal this week since we no longer have Albies around where you can get a TON of cereal for FREE but alas... I paid a little more than I like to for these boxes, but they were HUGE and most of the boxes I got had $5.00 worth of coupons in each box, which was AWESOME! They are all high value coupons and some is even off of bread, milk, fruit, etc. for future deals I want to do. I ended up paying for all of this $47.00 and it ended up being basically averaging less than $1.00 per item. It put me over my budget this month (I think), but I stocked up on pasta basically for the next year, and also got a lot of cereal that will hopefully last us longer :) The Smiths mega promo continues through Tuesday.

I also went to Rite Aid the first part of the week. I am lucky that where I live, all of these stores are within 5-10 minutes of my house, so it is not a big deal to go there. Collin and I have our little "outing" each day. Rite Aid I got some cheap stuff for my mom, some cheap candy, and though they were out of tissues and diapers, still got all of the stuff below for around 8-9.00. The cool thing about RiteAid, is instead of just depositing my SCR (single check rebate checks) I am totally geeky and cash them and put them in a ziplock bag in my purse so then I just keep
"reusing" that money so it's less OOP (out of pocket) for me. It has actually been REALLY cool to have my budget for non-food stuff go way down because I reuse my "free" money. I'm acutally going to start doing this with all my rebate checks now. I just get out my little ziplock bag and pay away, in cash. I'm so geeky.

Also went to Wags, Walgreens, for the first time in awhile. Since Collin and I have had REALLY bad colds this week, I got a ton of tissues to resupply all the tissues we used.... I got all of this for basically less than $6.00. I saved more than $35.00 on that trip. Plus, I got some fun seeds to plant in our garden, if SPRING ever shows up!

This came free in the mail this week. Vocalpoint.com. Join it people. I have gotten so many cool free products and coupons by randomly signing up for stuff. This was totally free, super cool packaging and BRAND NEW Pantene fancy shampoo. My hair will be thanking me. I have also got free tuna fish, Kashi cereal, cheap fruit snacks, by joining vocalpoint.

Whew! I believe that is the longest post I have ever done. But, I just wanted to share all my great deals with myself (as an accounting thing :))

GO COUGARS!

Those of you know, at the O'Berry home, we celebrate GO COUGARS! I swear Collin said it for the first time today. This is Collin celebrating going to the first overtime....

This is Collin celebrating the Cougars making it past the first round in the NCAA tournament. Seriously, he kept saying "GO GO GO!"

This is Collin when I turned my back on him to do the dishes after the game ended. This is another favorite, taking off the heater vent. See that mischievous smile? Oh yes, it's there.

But GO COUGARS!

Latest Collin's favorite things

Recently, Collin has been discovering some of his favorite things.... The mouse on the computer...oh yes, he knows how to click and open tabs like the best of us.

Sometimes drinking milk.

Giving you the staredown....again, only sometimes with this one.

Smiling, when he has spiky hair.

When I say "Collin" he runs into this little space in our living room.... thinks he is hiding, little does he know his mommy is on to him.

Playing at Tiny Tim with daddy.

Going to the park. It is now so bad that if I saw the word "park" he has a fit if we don't go. Same with "outside", so I have to start spelling words now.

Last week, we finally got about 50 degrees and we went to said park. Little did I know there would be 3 dogs there, ANOTHER of Collin's FAVORITE things. He literally ran up and down the park chasing after the doggies.

These nice ladies with the dogs were so nice to Collin. They let him pet and play with the dogs.

Yeah, and they also gave him this dog "ball toy" thing...and he was NOT giving that thing up for nothin'. The ladies finally just said we'll come and get it before we go. I think he liked to think of it as his light sabre....or sword.

Watch out world!

Since we are both snotty-nosed lately, we do bubbles inside. Someday, we will get to play outside with the bubbles, I'm sure.

Collin gets SO excited when he pops a bubble.

Granted, I don't have a picture for his favorite favorite thing. "Chalklat", yes chocolate. This kid LOVES chocolate, he knows what it looks like, where it is hidden, and what it is called. Seriously, it's his fave.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Says this little Green-shirt, bigger size shoes, runny nosed little toddler! Love, Collin Ryan O'Berry

Bread dough

Please tell me someone who reads this blog knows how to make better "pizza" dough than I did this evening. Granted, it was basically a first for me, and granted, I did follow the recipe exactly, but yes, the grilled zucchini and chicken pizza was edible, but the dough?

Let's say it resembled Craters of the Moon more than "baby's skin" (which is what the recipe said it would!)

Anyways, on to my next cooking project :) HA HA

I love RiteAid!

So, it's been awhile since I have gone to Rite Aid and felt like I really "scored". Since I have been doing the coupon thing for more than a year and a half now, I'm amazed at what really cool products I can try or use for basically free! Granted, some of this is for my mom (who doesn't exactly know how to coupon without my help but believes in it) but basically after the rebates, this will cost me all of $2.00, less than the sales tax. It probably cost more than $50.00 regularly, so WAHOO! Yes, call me a coupon geek. But, now my hair and face will look amazing for my geekiness :)

Call me Julia Child--or the "weird" cheesecake maker

So, last Sunday, actually this whole past week, I have been wanting cheesecake....but I keep spacing to make it. So last Sunday morning was a little more calmer than normal, so I was determined to make it. Thus, into the pantry I went. Alas, no graham crackers for the crust. I saw Oreos though, and asked Ryan, what do you think about an Oreo crust? Sounds okay he said. Success!
I then went to look for the pudding in the deep places of the pantry....alas, I couldn't find any. My quest for the cheesecake was getting harder. (side note, this always seems to happen to me on Sunday, I decide I want to fix something, and don't have all the stuff, and can't go to the store)....anyways, I went down and frustratingly said to Ryan and Collin, I guess no cheesecake....we don't have the pudding.
But, I KNEW there was pudding in there somewhere. Because I am weird, I looked at my spreadsheet that showed I DID indeed have a pudding somewhere in the pantry...and I so wanted the cheesecake, so I went back into the deep throes of the pantry...and ALAS, no VANILLA pudding, but we did have banana creme. I thought to myself, I wonder if that would even be good? No matter, I went down and asked Ryan, what do you think of making the cheesecake with banana creme pudding? He said, "I guess. But, if the banana pudding doesn't work out, we could dump the cheesecake out and just have the Oreo crust, because you can't go wrong with Oreo crust." But, I also knew we had strawberries from the co-op so maybe we could attempt a banana strawberry cheesecake?
Anyways, now that you know the life story of the cheesecake, we came home and after dinner, broke out the "weird" cheesecake, oreo, banana creme strawberry. I honestly thought it wouldn't even be that good...but, needless to say, Ryan had 4 pieces of it. This is the most dessert I have ever seen him eat. Ever. Like ever. He also ate more dessert than me, also historic. And a half a cheesecake, and a little more was gone that night. Even as I was originally typing this (last Sunday), Ryan is pondering eating another piece....but he said he shouldn't cause it would go straight to his hips.

And the other little less than half, gone by Monday night. Yeah for inventive cooking!

I can sense summer coming

I know, another lame picture of co-op food, but I use this to show my family what I got. The good news this week was I can TOTALLY sense summer coming with what we got. I think this is my best week ever. Here is what I got for 15.50.
Fruits
5 pears
1 pack of strawberries (which are basically already gone!)
2 packs of blueberries (Collin was SO excited!)
9 apples
1 pineapple
12 bananas

Veggies
1 asparagus (Again, already gone, bacon carmelized asparagus anyone? YUM!)
1 huge thing of red leaf lettuce
1 cabbage head
1 head spinach
15 of mix of small zucchini and cucumbers

WAHOO for great fresh produce and cheap!