Pregnancy Update

Finally I know!! This poor baby girl has no photos of my growing belly or info about how the pregnancy is going. Which I'm sure she really cares about! :)

Well... we found out that Baby #3 is a GIRL back in January! Sorry it took me so long to announce it but I'm pretty sure everyone already knew that from Facebook. Here are some cute pics of our little baby girl!

This is her yawning. She is such a wiggly little thing! She wouldn't stop moving during the ultrasound and between her moving and the ultrasound tech pushing all over my belly I was sore after the ultrasound. 

Just some random facts about this pregnancy that I don't want to forget 

• I don't have the dark line on my belly. It's weird not having one. I had a really big dark one with the twins. 
• I felt her first move at 16 weeks and Cody first could feel her kicks at about 20 weeks. 
•  I crave junk food. Anything and everything salty, crunchy, sweet, and fattening.
• I've been able to exercise this pregnancy and it feels so weird that I'm not stuck to a couch. 
• I've had crazy pressure and pain since 20 weeks in my pelvic bones. She is sitting really really low and I can definitely feel it.
• I guess I need to do more kegal exercises cause when I sneeze oh man... TMI I'm sure. 
• I have the worst sciatic nerve pain. I will get up from sitting and I'll practically fall to the ground cause my right leg doesn't work.
• I love apples and pears and strawberries right now. Pretty much fruit. Veggies aren't really cutting it for me this pregnancy. I want everything to be sweet and more sweet.
• I'm hungry all the time. I dream about food and I think about food all day long. It's craziness!! It's worse when I exercise so I wonder why even exercise if it makes me eat more. Hmmm 
• I have had a cold this whole pregnancy. Not a horrible one just runny nose and congestion sometimes.

 And here you go... the dreaded belly shot that I look so tired and chubby.

28 Weeks

The Nursery Board made by the amazing Annie Webb!!

My parents are coming down in a week and we are going to put up the board and batten. I'm so excited. Cause once that is up we can start decorating the nursery.

We have a couple names picked out but will wait to name her until we meet her which is scheduled for May 24th!!! Thank goodness for my OB inducing me at 39 weeks! Awesomeness!

!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!

This little beauty is in for a treat today because it's Amanda-day and she's one SPECIAL girl. Nobody like her. Nope. Nobody.

Wow.

If you think the outside is stunning you should see her heart. Simply beautiful.

Lucky me.

!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!

Cinco de Mayo

5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

It works perfect that we were married on Cinco de Mayo! We both love Mexican food! 

I can't believe Cody & I are already at the first milestone in anniversaries. The big 5 year!! We are celebrating by going to sunny Cancun with no kids for a week. I seriously can't control my excitement! Not because of where the destination is but because I get Cody to myself for a week without kids, church, or work distractions. Okay who am I kidding... work will still be with us but only for 30 minutes a night so Cody can check emails. He also has an international phone which I'm making him put in the safe and only allowed to look at for those 30 minutes. We'll see how it goes.

I could get all mushy on here and tell you how amazing my husband is but it's not his thing! He knows how I feel about him and I'm pretty sure you all do too! So here's to an amazing 5 years and to a whole lot more. Okay more like eternity! :)

Love ya Tody! Thanks for loving me!

On a side note: I tried on this yesterday!! 

And it still fit! Awesome! I'll try it on again at the 10 year anniversary. Hope I'll at least be able to get it on. Maybe not tie it :)

Rite Aid Deals 101

I've gotten a lot of responses to my coupon deals and it seems couponing is a little confusing for most of you. I remember when I first got into couponing I spent a lot of time trying to find tutorials and blog posts from the blogs I read to help me out.

I thought I'd help you out and do a Rite Aid 101 post with step by step instructions on the deals I did this week. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to explain further.

First: Rite Aid & Couponing Lingo

MFQ - Manufacture Coupon
RAQ - Rite Aid Coupon
BOGO - Buy One Get One Free
RAV or RAVQ - Rite Aid Video Value Coupon
SCR - Single Check Rebate
MIR - Mail in Rebate
OOP - Out of Pocket Cost
(#) - The number of items you buy for a certain item
RP - Red Plum coupon inserts - In Utah, only The Daily Herald has Red Plum as far as I know. Deseret News does not carry Red Plum. Not sure about other states.
PG - Proctor & Gamble coupon inserts - Comes once a month and my FAV insert
SS - Smart Source coupon inserts
GM - General Mills coupon inserts - Comes randomly
8/15 - RP - Date of the coupon insert and the name of the coupon insert
WYB - When you buy

Second: Where to Get Coupons

Online: Redplum, SmartSource, Coupons.com, Upromise, Facebook, and brand websites. Make sure and print each online coupon TWICE by hitting the back button after the first one prints.
Paper: Sunday paper subscription or buying them on Sunday at a grocery store or gas station. I've heard that you should buy the number of papers equal to the number of people in your home. I only get 2 currently through subscription and buy more when the P&G inserts are in the Sunday paper. I'm pretty brand loyal to P&G.

Go HERE and HERE for some discounted paper deals

Third: Rite Aid Basics

1. You may want to read Rite Aid's coupon policy HERE to get a good handle on things.
   
2. You can stack only ONE MFQ per item with ONE RAQ with ONE RAVQ.
3. You need to sign up for a Wellness Card to get sale prices and +UP Rewards.
4. +UP Rewards is a monetary reward that prints at the bottom of your receipt which can be used on a future non prescription purchase. They are like money or gift cards but expire after 2 weeks.
   
5. You can only receive ONE +UP reward per household when you buy a certain item. However I've gotten two sometimes and others have gotten more. That's why I read the couponing blogs to find out.
6. I've learned that you need to invest about $10 in a couple of your Rite Aid deals to get a good stack of +UP rewards. That way you continue to use your +UP rewards on future purchases and less money comes out of your pocket.
   
7. Rite Aid has awesome $5/25 ($5 off $25 purchase or more) which you get for signing up for a wellness card and for the Rite Aid Video Values program.
   
8. Sign up for Rite Aid Video Values and watch commercials for RAVQs.
9. Sign up for Rite Aid Single Check Rebates which allows you to electronically submit for rebates on items bought during a rebate period.
10. If you live in Utah - Plan to go Monday or even Monday morning when they open to get the deals since the stores are usually out of stock by Tuesday morning. It's frustrating.
    

Fourth: DEALS!

I'm going to show you the deals you could be getting if you were an avid couponer and got the coupons from the Sunday paper. You'll have to change the scenario of the deals for the coupons you do have to determine if they work for you. Hopefully they make sense to you!

*Disclaimer - These deals are valid for Utah or Western Rite Aid Region. Go HERE to find your region's weekly circular prices.

1. Oral B Toothbrush = Moneymaker

• Buy (2) Oral B Toothbrushes
  
• Use the BOGO (Buy one get one free) coupon from the 8/15 RP
  
• Use the $0.75/1 coupon from the 8/29 PG
  
• Use the $1/1 Oral-B toothbrush coupon from the Rite Aid Flu Shot Coupon Booklet (Found in Rite Aid stores at the Pharmacy)
• Pay $1.24 OOP (out of pocket)
  
• Get a $2 Single Check Rebate #54 (this week only) Go to Rite Aid Single Check Rebates and sign up. Then submit your receipt information and allow 2-5 business days for the receipt to process. Only request your check once during a rebate period. For example September's Single Check Rebate period goes until Sep 9/25. If you want to purchase more things for the Sep rebate period, wait until the period is over to request your check.
  

So your transaction would look like this in most couponing blogs -
$5.98 = (2) Oral B Toothbrushes*
-$2.99 - BOGO MFQ
-$0.75 - PG MFQ
-$1.00 RAQ
=$1.24 OOP
- $2.00 SCR
= $0.74 Profit!
*This can be applied towards the Oral Care Single Check Rebate #556.(Spend $15 and get a $5 Rite Aid gift card or spend $25 and get a $10 Rite Aid gift card.)

2. Pampers Deal = $0.08 a diaper
Really though... how creative can you get with two boxes

$39.98 = (2) Big Pack Pampers Cruisers
- $5/25 RAV
- (2) $1 MFQ - 8/29 - PG
= $32.98 OOP - I had $13 in +UP rewards from my last week deals to bring this down
- $20.00 +UP*
=$12.98 for 152 diapers = $.08 a diaper! Awesome Deal!
*(2) $5 +UP for each box of Pampers and (1) $10 +UP for purchasing $30 or more of selected P&G product.

3. Mixed Items = $2 Moneymaker

$4.00 = (2) Playtex Gentle Glide or Sport Tampons, 18 ct
-$2 MFQ HERE
-$3 +UP Reward (word on the street is limit 2!)
= $1 profit!
*Or use this $1 MFQ for Playtex Sport to get them free

$3.99 = (1) Johnson's Babycare
-$1 Babycare MFQ (RP 9/12)
-$1 Johnson's RAVQ
-$2 +UP Reward (word on the street is limit 8!)
= FREE

$2.99 = (1) Reach Toothbrush
-$1 MFQ Reach Toothbrush HERE
-$2 +UP Reward (word on the street is limit 3!)
= FREE
*Qualifies for the Oral Care SCR.

2/$10 Cheer Laundry Detergent
-$1 +UP Reward wyb 2
-$2 MFQ Cheer (RP 9/12) x 2
= 2/$5

Total Price = 24.98 +tax
- $5/25 RAQ
-$11 total MFQs
=$8.98 OOP
- $11 +UP Rewards
=$2.02 Profit

For more of this week's Rite Aid Deals go HERE or HERE.

Weekly Deals

I don't post these to "brag" but more to motivate you to coupon if you haven't started. It's no secret how to pay these prices, you just have to do it. It's so worth it.

Rite Aid 9/6 - $89.89 retail price, Paid $12.42, Savings of 86.18%

Rite Aid 8/31 - $55.87 - Paid $3.40! Savings of 94%

It took a very long time to get a picture where the boys hadn't removed an item. They do make cute models though!

New Hobby

Couponing! Yup I said couponing.

My friend Michelle introduced me to it about a year ago and I didn't really think about it again until a couple months ago. I decided to research it more and found that people were actually NOT paying for things like toothpaste, shampoos, cereals, and lots of other items. No one likes to go to the store and spend money on toilet paper and hygiene items.

I found a bunch of blogs that do most of the work for me so it's not that time consuming which I love! Although I do love creating my own deals. It truly is a great hobby since it does save money and it has sorta become a game to me. Each month I see how much I can save and how low I can get our grocery budget.

Below is a Walgreens deal I did a few weeks ago.

Walgreens Trip: Total Merchandise: $72.43, Total Out of Pocket: $15.95,
Savings: 77.97%

The cost of 3 pampers cruisers themselves retail price would have been $35.97. So this was a great deal!

ITEMS: (3) Pampers Cruisers, (3) Pampers tubs of wipes, (1) Complete Multi Purpose Solution, (1) Schick Hydro razor, (1) Schick Hydro shaving gel, (2) Playtex sport Tampons, (1) Dove body wash, (3) Dove Hair Care, (1) Alive Vitamins, (1) Crayola Crayons, (3) packs of pencils (filler items)

Pretty amazing huh? Cody is always in disbelief when I come home and show him the receipt. I wish I would have done this sooner because why pay full price for something when you can get it for practically free?

Some people think couponing is a lot time or there are only coupons out there for things you don't normally buy. Well, I hate to tell ya that you're wrong. Everything but (1) item in the picture above are things that we use everyday and are not even "generic" brands. I do get two copies of the Sunday paper and even sometimes get more copies if the inserts are really good.

I also have a spreadsheet that shows every item I have purchased and the coupons I used to purchase it with the savings percentage. I know I'm a nerd and Cody loves to make fun of me but I love it. I'm such a numbers person so to see my savings visually is fun. It's also nice to go back and see how much I saved each month. For example:

Here's July stats:

Original Merchandise Price: $516.47*
Final OOP (out of pocket) Price: $71.25
Total July Savings: 86.20%

*The total also includes grocery deals but the majority is personal hygiene .Now we do not normally buy that amount of personal items a month or even a quarter. But when I can get free items I do. It's nice to have a stock pile of personal hygiene items. Although our personal hygiene storage is starting to get bigger than our food storage. Cody likes to joke that if the the stores didn't get shipments, at least we'd look good. We'd starve, but we could at least brush our teeth.. haha

If anyone is interested in learning some tricks on how to get some of the deals I do let me know. I'm no expert but I can give you the links to the blogs I read and some things I've learned over the past 2 months.

Insert Cody's Comments Here — This is definitely your best hobby. I love that my brand-loyal girl gets her stuff at way less than frugal-husband prices.

I'm just wondering when the scam alert is going to come out or when the devil is going to come barter with me for your soul back. Something just isn't right about "a free lunch."

Happy Happy Birthday Amanda!

Your family loves you and wishes you a Happy Birthday. You are the roots of our tree, the drive in our go, the beautiful to our portrait. Have a Happy, Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Amanda

It's the Birthday Girl!

After enjoying one of her favorites restaurants, Cafe Rio, on Saturday night, Amanda woke up on Sunday morning to her favorite breakfast--Belgian waffles with strawberries and whip cream, bacon, eggs, and hash browns. She also opened the door to a special birthday greeting from Annie.

This birthday is brought to you by the number 5. I was a bad husband and didn't have candles for her so we had to improvise with a left over candle from my birthday. Shad/Brooke, Lant/Amy, and Haven joined us for dinner and a birthday treat on Sunday evening. Thanks again to Annie who came to help decorate the cake and finish up the food.

Happy Birthday Amanda--sure glad you were born. I hope you had a good birthday and that you like your new, overpriced diaper bag. Until next year...

Amanda Gradutwated

Can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since the last post. I guess we were taking a "blog break." Since then, the big news is that Amanda graduated in Marriage, Family, and Human Development from BYU. That's right, our little girl is all grown up (tear, tear, wipe, wipe)!

I am so excited to be able to spend time with my girl without hearing "I have homework." I'm not sure what we are going to do with our free evenings, maybe fly a kite. You think I'm kidding but I'll do it.

Leia graduated this week too. She was Amanda's roommate in the apartments where we met. She has been a good friend ever since. Leia is headed off somewhere to manage a Buckle store. Amanda has several interviews as an accounting clerk this week, but what she really can't wait to be is a mother. We'll see what I can do about that? Any suggestions?

In the picture above is Arianne, one of Amanda's friends through school. I believe they are off to graduate school. Amanda has met and introduced me to some great people through her classes. A lot of them graduated last year and she really misses them.

Last but not least, we were very excited to have Amanda's parents in town. They like to have fun and take us along for the ride. We appreciate all that both our parents and family members do to show their love and support. My mom and dad came up after Haven's softball senior night to go to Ryan Averett's sealing with us, which was very special by the way. After the reception, my parents took us all out to dinner to celebrate graduation. Amanda got to choose where we ate. Where do you think she chose? For those of you who know Amanda you probably said Cafe Rio. Well we had already had that the day before for lunch. For those of you who said P.F. Chang's, you were close too, but we had that for dinner the night before. For the rest of you who have given up by now, the answer is California Pizza Kitchen. I should change her status to now being obsessed with BBQ pizza and salads.

To view more pics of Amanda's graduation go here.

P.S. (by Amanda) Thanks everyone for your graduation wishes! I really appreciate it!

Graduation Gift - early

I've been talking lately about this new hobby that I'm going to have after I graduate. I decided it's about time to actually post about it instead of telling you I'll post about it later.

So.... I'll tell you the story. I really wanted a Wii for graduation. I love video games or any other games. My dad pretty much brought me up in an arcade while my mom was shopping around the malls. Believe it or not, I was actually a tom-boy until Freshman year in high school. Crazy I know!

Cody didn't think a Wii was a very good hobby to have and that it was a waste of time, so he told me to dig deep and find a hobby that I would enjoy. I then decided to get into photography again. I took three years of Photography in high school and I was also a photographer editor for our high school year book for two years and I loved it. So... the Thursday before we left for PV I got a big box at my door and it was a Nikon D60 = Digital SLR = Really cool camera!

So far I have loved having this camera. I have a lot to learn still but once I do maybe I'll start taking pics for other people. Baby pics seem the most intriguing to me! Someone will have to let my practice one day. Cody is also very happy with my decision. I think he loves it almost more then me. Below is my favorite pic that I have taken with my camera so far. I love it because I didn't plan it on being a good pic, we were driving by when the sun was setting and I stuck my camera out the window and snapped a shot. This is what I got... Voila

Update - I graduate in less then two weeks! I'm so excited!

Not So Blue Eyes

Where did my blue eyes go? No those aren't contacts or a Photoshop trick, Amanda went to the eye doctor and they dialated her, already large, eyes. Freaked me out.

Birthday Weekend

So I am now officially 22 years old. I can't believe it at all! I feel so old even though I'm still just a baby. Cody made my birthday a blast with Blue Man Group last weekend and then on my real birthday, eating at Cheesecake Factory and going to a movie with our good friends the Redds. Cheesecake Factory was so good and everything I expected. They sang Happy Birthday to me and even wrote my name in chocolate on my dessert plate. Lots of FUN! Saturday, Cody and I went shopping for Miami and Puerto Vallarta. Can't wait to wear warmer spring clothes.

Cody decorated our apartment. Our good friends, Susan & Landry Redd. Below is my Lemoncello Cream Torte. Amazing!! Highly recommend it.

......Valentines Day Party......

Saturday we went to Annie's Valentines Day Party. She invited three other couples that we did not know which was nice because we got to know three really nice couples :) We had the best spread of food and played some fun games and Annie was the best host as always.

Upper left: Stephenson & Katie, Upper right: Brittany & Adam. Lower left: Megan & Matt, Lower right: Talon & Annie. What cute and fun couples.

Finally, my first picture with my amazing Friend Annie! I love this girl! And of course me and my amazing and loving Husband, Tody!

Happy Birthday Blue Eyes

Amanda's birthday is coming up this week. For her birthday I surprised her with tickets to see the Blue Man Group last night. The show was pretty cool. Sad to say, but it was the first concert I have ever been to. I have definitely got to get out more. The music was amazing and the blue men were blue...haha I'm so funny. The blue men were actually very funny. I didn't know I was going to a comedy, but it definitely was that. We had a good time.

I have a few more surprises up my sleeve (feel free to check if you want) to try and make Amanda's birthweek a special one. You see I have been informed that Budgetts don't celebrate birthdays, they celebrate birthWEEKs! Oh boy! I suppose I better get started..the event has already begun. She deserves it though; I'm a lucky guy. Happy birthday blue eyes.

I know the quality isn't great in the videos, I was just using our little camera, not a video camera.