Crazy Busy Week But I'm Back

Whew!  I'm glad last week is over!  It was a crazy week where I was at work more than I was at home (by a long shot!) but it's over!  I've been pretty silent over the past week, but I will have more time to find and post deals now that last week is over!

I'm a bit exhausted today, so I'm not sure what I'll get posted today, but you'll get a few things, I'm sure!

Hope your weekend is going great!

Happy couponing!

FrugaLori.com Is No More

Well, I made a serious go at doing my blog on a hosted site, but the fact is that I can't keep it up!  Since I am frugal by nature, I decided that I needed to stop paying the hosting fee for a site I'm not going to maintain.  I have started doing some homeschooling with the Little One (he's 3 years and 5 months old!!!) and it's been taking up quite a bit of time.

I'm afraid that I won't be posting here very regularly, either.  I will still share deals that I can't bear to keep to myself, but there are far better people out there who are putting up coupon matchups.......and they take so long to put together!  I never realized how much work went into just one!  Kudos to anyone who puts them together regularly.  You save me lots of money!  :)  I'll also try to point you in the direction of any particularly good coupon matchups so you can save money on your groceries/toiletries as well.

Sorry I'm not a better blogger!  :(  It takes all my energy to just be the best mommy I can be....and that's where my priorities are right now.  Thanks for supporting me and following or friending me.  I'm not going away - I just had to take a minute to be honest about this.

It's Time to Unveil the New Blog!!

Okay, this is it!!  My blog is now *officially* located at www.FrugaLori.com!!!

I've owned the domain name for some time, and I've spent about the past 3 weeks getting it ready to use since I've been paying for it and not using it.  Not very smart for a frugal blogger!!


All posts from this blog have been imported to my new site, so you can find everything that was here over there.  Come on over and take a look!  This will be the last post on this blog, but I'll leave it up so people can find me at my new home.


I really hope you like the new design - let me know if you see something that either isn't working or could work better.  Or if I've left something out somewhere.  I can't wait for everyone to see it!!  :)

Made It Back Home

I spent most of the day yesterday driving back to West TN from Knoxville.  Since the Interstate was (and still is) closed in Nashville, I had to drive down to Chattanooga and then across the southern part of the state (for 7 hours!!) to get home.

I really didn't see much flooding while I was driving back until I got into Jackson and then I saw standing water in several places - even cars sitting in a giant pool of water.  But there wasn't any flooding along the southern edge of the state.  I'm so sorry for anyone in Nashville who was affected by the storms.  It was a crazy weekend here. 

So sorry for the extra long delay in deal postings - I'll try to get some stuff up here.  I haven't even made my monthly menu yet - it's been a crazy start to May!  I'll get that done and posted as soon as I can, too.

I'm Stranded!!

So I came to East Tennessee for the weekend, and after the weather we've been having in West TN for the past two days, my sweet hubby thought it would be best if I stay away from the roads around Nashville for at least the next day! :( I'm glad he was thinking of my safety, but I miss him and the kiddo!! But 'tis always better to be safe than sorry, so alas, I'm here in East TN for at least one more night. I'll have to see what the roads and weather are looking like tomorrow before I re-address whether or not I can go home tomorrow.

It's been a good evening, though, with a friend, so I can't complain TOO much!

Luckily, I have access to a 'puter, ,so I'll see what kind of deals I can post while I'm stranded!! Hope you're safe!!! :)

Bad Blogger!! Bad! Bad!

I've been a very bad blogger lately, and what's worse is that I know it.  And what's even worse is that I have to go out of town for 4 days, so it's not going to improve over the next few days.  But I promise that I've been working on the new blog - adding functionality, tweaking the look, etc. and it's not that I've been ignoring blogging altogether!!  I've just not had much time to post deals on this blog. 

Please, please accept my heartfelt apologies and don't run away!!  I'll be a better girl, I promise!!  Just not before this weekend is over.  :P

Seriously, though, please hang in there with me.  You're gonna love my new blog!!  I hope, anyway!  I should know at the beginning of next week when the launch date of the new blog will be.......I'm so excited for it!

Like the last time I went out of town, if you find a deal, please post it on my Facebook Fan page here.  Thanks, and I'll see you on the other side of the weekend!

Absence On Your End, Productivity On Mine

I'm so sorry for my absence on the blog for the past couple of days.  Well, I say absence, but it was anything but an absence for me.  I've been frantically working on customizing and developing a blog on Wordpress.  I have owned a domain name for some time, but I was having a hard time customizing it to my liking.  I decided a few weeks ago, though, that since I'm paying for the domain and hosting, I might as well use it!  Here I am, FrugaLori, wasting money on something!  Agh!  So I've been feverishly working on getting that blog ready to roll out.  I'm going to have a launch when I'm fully ready - I hope you like it!

Another reason for my absence is that I'm currently in Memphis participating in a Handbell Festival.  It's fun!  :)  And yet another reason for absence is that Little Man woke up the other night with croup.  That's not fun! 

I know, excuses, excuses.  I'm getting excited to unveil my new blog.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to just direct this site to the new address and there won't be any change for people who are used to going to frugalori.blogspot.com, but I'm not completely sure about that yet.  If that's not the case, I'll definitely enter a post directing you to my new blog so you can bookmark it!  :)

Have a great (rainy - if you're in the West TN area) day!!  And a great weekend! 

Short Break in Deal Postings

I have to go out of town until Sunday evening, so I won't be able to post any more deals until then.  If you find a deal and want to let others know about it, please go to my Facebook Fan page and post it on my wall so others will know about it.

I'll be back in a few days!  Go get some great deals while I'm gone and let me know what you get!  And don't forget - the KMart Double Coupon Event is almost over!  Tomorrow (Saturday) is the last day for it!  If you need to know more information about the event, check out this post that I wrote before the event started.

Have a great weekend!

Back in the Saddle and a Quick KMart Note

I took a little bit of time away from the computer the last couple of days to focus on spending time with my family and enjoying Easter.  I'm back today, and I know I've got my work cut out for me!!

I ran to KMart yesterday.  Call me skeptical, but my luck with KMart hasn't always been the greatest.  Anyway, I wasn't sure if the whole Double Coupon Event thing was actually going to work at my neighborhood KMart, but it did!!  I was very pleased!  I ended up getting a DVD for $1!!  It's called The Pebble and the Penguin.  I found an online coupon for $2 off the movie the other day (get the coupon here) and it was in a $5 bin!!  Since they doubled my $2 coupon, I only paid a dollar for it!  We've never seen it (or even heard of it) but it looks like a cute little animated movie, and hey, it was only a buck.  So if we hate it, no biggie.  I'm gonna head back over there today to score some cheap deodorant.  I did pick up some Pull-Ups yesterday, but even with a doubled $2 coupon, I still paid $.23 per Pull-Up, which isn't a fabulous deal (Walgreens will run promotions where I can get them for $.17 or $.18 each) so I don't think I'll pick any more of those up.  Did you go to KMart?  Find any deals that everyone should know about?  Leave a comment!

So sorry for my absence......

I was all set to look for some great deals this past weekend, when Little Man started running a fever.  On Saturday morning at about 9:15, I decided I had better see if the Dr. could fit us in - Little Man has had a cold and hacking cough for about 2 weeks now.  So, they said they could see us at 11:20 that morning and we went.  Poor Little Man has strep throat!  He was pretty puny from the middle of Saturday morning until the evening on Saturday.  Then, when we woke up yesterday morning, he started throwing up!!  Poor little guy.  Poor mama, too.  I don't handle vomit well.  Although, I have to admit that I was pretty proud of myself this time.  I handled the whole situation much better than I ever have.  I must be growing up!  :P

After we went to the doc on Saturday, we had to get a prescription filled, and we headed to Walgreens.  Without my coupon book.  I'm such an avid couponer that I almost suggested that we come home first so I could get my coupons (my MIL was with us)!!  But I didn't suggest that - we just went to Walgreens without them - and bought things at RETAIL!!  Aaaggghhh!!  I guess you can't always be on your best couponing behavior. 

New Logo

What do you think of my cool new logo?  My awesome brother-in-law designed it for me!  Thanks, Scott!!!

Took a Day off to Visit with Family

Sorry for the delay in frugal-ness yesterday!  My mom, step-dad, and nephew were visiting from IL and I spent some quality time with the fam yesterday.  I'm back to deal-hunting today, though!  I'll be posting my shopping list for Kroger pretty soon.  I always make my weekly run to the grocery on Monday, so I'll let you know what I'm going to get this week and what I already have for the weekly menu.

If you see any great deals, let me know about them!  Send me an email or comment on a post!

Toaster Oven Crisis Has Been Averted

As I was pondering what I was going to do about my toaster oven crisis (I know that's kind of a strong word for what the situation actually was, but I'm trying to grab my reader's attention right off the bat and weak words just don't do that!), I found an email in my inbox from Kohl's.  They are having a sale this weekend and sent out emails to all people on their mailing list letting us know about the sale and giving us an additional 15% off!  I went to the website to see if it was even worth my time going out to the store to see what they had in the way of toaster ovens.  I found several models that looked promising at a not-to-ridiculous price tag.  So I printed my coupon and the kiddo and I headed out.

We stopped by Big Lots first, because I wanted to see if I could get something acceptable for a reasonable price there.  They had two Black & Decker toaster ovens, but both of the boxes were opened and the models were basically the bottom of the line and still priced at $32 - a little high for bottom of the line at Big Lots, I thought!  I would have saved 20% by being a member of the BuzzClub, but that would have still been about a $28 purchase for a sub-par TO.  Suffice it to say, I decided that coming back to Big Lots would be my last resort if I decided I couldn't wait two weeks to have the TO from amazon.com shipped to me.

When we got to Kohl's, we found the TO's but the prices were really hard to find!  I have to say, it wasn't the easiest shopping experience I've ever had there.  But I did find a nice TO (it's actually the exact some model I was looking at on amazon.com) and it was on sale for $39.99.  I know that's $10 more than I would have paid online, but don't forget that I was armed with my 15% off coupon!  That made the oven more like $34, which is definitely reasonable.  I hemmed and hawed and finally decided that it was worth $4 to me to have the toaster oven now instead of waiting 2 weeks for it.  As I was walking out, I remembered that I had seen a deep fryer in the online Kohl's ad that I wanted to take a look at in the store.  The hubs has been asking me to make sure we have one before we make our yearly trek down to the beach this summer so we can deep fry our own shrimp (we make sure we can take a vacation every year, but it takes some money-saving shortcuts like cooking all of our own meals to make it happen).  Well, I found one that was originally $39.99 on sale for $19.99 AND I had my 15% off coupon!  That made it $17!!!!  I was SUPER stoked about that find!

When I checked out, I had spent $55 - not too bad on a fairly nice TO and a deep fryer!  And since I spent over $50, I got $10 in Kohl's cash!!!  I have to admit, though, that I was a little bit skeptical about whether or not I was going to use that Kohl's cash.  I know it's basically the same concept as Register Rewards at Walgreens, which I get really excited about.  But there are lots of things that I need at Walgreens that I can use my RR on, whereas the things that are at Kohl's are not really things I need.  Or are they?

A few weeks back, we scored a free coffee-maker from Gevalia (you've seen all of those great deals, right?).  The only downfall to it was that it requires you to purchase the cone-shaped Melitta filters.  Well, guess what!  I saw those at Kohl's!!!!  I can go back and use my $10 to buy as many cone-shaped Melitta filters as I can with that money!  I might end up spending a couple of bucks, but I'll most likely get 200 or 300 filters for that!  Score!!  All in all, I think I got one heckuva deal at Kohl's when all's said and done!

Teeth and Toaster Ovens

My financial planning for 2010 is going alright, but I keep getting wrenches thrown in my plan!  I went to the dentist about 2 weeks ago for a checkup and was told that I had 3 cracked teeth!!  Luckily, one isn't bad enough to do anything about right now, but that meant that I needed to have two uncomfortable procedures done and then pay for half of two crowns!!  Ouch!  Luckily, I went to a dentist that is covered by my dental insurance, or I'd be paying a whole lot more than that.  But the $800 to $900 I'll be paying for my portion of the crowns is bad enough!!  What do they make those things out of?  I thought they were porcelain, but I don't remember my huge toilet costing that much!!  Think about how many crowns it would take to make a toilet!  Hmm...it's funny that crowns are made of porcelain, just like toilets, and sometimes toilets are called "The Throne."  What is it with porcelain and royalty?  Anyway, I digress.

The reason I'm bringing the whole tooth situation up even though it happened 2 weeks ago is that last night, one of my temporary crowns fell out!  And I chomped on it!  Not good!  My coffee this morning wasn't as enjoyable, as I had to try to figure out a way to keep liquid only on the right side of my mouth.  (Just in case you're wondering how it works, the short answer is that it doesn't.)  And I brought tomato soup with me for lunch today.  I know - sometimes I'm not that bright.  I have an appointment to get another temporary crown on that tooth early this afternoon.  I hope they don't charge me even more - grrrrr.  I guess I'm also lucky that the crown that came out wasn't the one that's right at the front of my mouth!  That would have been embarrassing!  I really should count my blessings more often.

So I was bummed about having to spend money that we were hoping was going to go toward the Mommy-Mobile on my teeth.  Then, 2 days ago, our toaster oven went on the fritz.  What is it with bad things happening in groups???  Do they happen in 3's?  I don't even want to think about what's going to happen next!

Now I'm stuck trying to figure out what I'm going to do about our toaster oven.  I stopped by Goodwill last night to see if they had one, and they did (they actually had 2).  But they looked beat up and unacceptable.  Even at only $8, the savings there wasn't worth what my kitchen would look like with a piece of junk on the counter!  I'm really in a dilemma!  I want to get something that will last for a while without costing a fortune.  But what's a fortune when it comes to toaster ovens?  I've found a pretty good-looking Black & Decker model on Amazon.com (I'm SO glad they sell more than just books!) and it's less than $30 shipped.  I guess that's a pretty good deal.  But it won't ship until Feb. 9th, and then it will take 5 to 9 days to get here.  And I know that a toaster oven isn't an actual necessity, but it sure is convenient!  I'm just not too keen on waiting that long just to get free shipping on the thing.  And to add to my confusion and frustration, they make toaster ovens with lots of nice conveniences nowadays (like convection heating, rotisserie capabilities, etc.) and then I start thinking, "Maybe I should put a little bit more money into it and get something really nice."  And then I come back to the realization that we've created a pretty tight budget for ourselves.  Oh, the agony!

Do you have any suggestions for me?  Where you think I might find one that's good but cheap?  Recommendations on a good toaster oven that doesn't cost a fortune?  I know that the longer I wait, the longer I don't have a toaster oven, but I want to make a wise purchasing decision.  Blogosphere, help me!!

Back In Action

Okay, I think I'm back in the saddle.  I had to go out of town for work this past weekend, and while I was there, I got sick with the stomach bug that Little Man was sick with on Thursday.  I know I didn't post anything about that - I kind of freak out when that happens.  Don't handle vomit well - AT ALL.  Pretty much can't function regularly.  So, sorry for the long delay between postings.  I'm getting better - this little bug is really trying to hold on to me!  My Sweetie was sick with it, too, while he was home alone with Little Man.  It's been a weekend, I tell ya!

But I'm back in action now.  More posts coming soon!

It's a Jungle Out There

So I went out of town for the weekend (for work) and took my coupon book with me. I knew that I was going to have to do some grocery shopping because there was a Christmas Party pot-luck that I was going to, and I live 5 hours from the site of the party. So I knew that I wouldn't be making something at home and lugging it all that way. Therefore, the coupon book could possibly have been used. Unfortunately, it wasn't - I paid full price for a couple of things! Oh, well. It was for a good cause - FUN!!

The weekend was great - good food and fun were had by all. When I got home Sunday evening, I started talking to Little Man about what we were going to do the next day. Go to Kohl's to return a coffee maker that I bought on Black Friday (I didn't realize it at the time, but you have to buy the cone-shaped Melita filters for it, and I don't want to have to do that, even though I was only going to end up spending about $7 on the thing with a sale and rebate!), do our grocery shopping, buy a Christmas present or two.....you know, the usual week activities with Christmas shopping thrown in there. When we woke up Monday morning, we started talking about our errands, and lo and behold I remembered something crucial. My coupon book was in the back of the car. The car that Sweetie drives to work. Drats!

We did need some essentials from the grocery store, so I decided that we had to go. But I'm so not good at not buying everything we need when I go! So I looked through the Grocery Game (if you want more info about that, visit this link) and clipped a few coupons that were great deals, made a short list, and off we went.

At first, when I started carting around my coupon book, I felt a little bit awkward with it, kind of like it radiated light and drew attention to me, wherever I went. It does get a lot of attention, that little book! Anyway, yesterday I felt almost lost! You know the feeling, like when you realize you're out of the house and you don't have your cell phone. You have to come up with a game plan about how to survive this day without a phone. Which is completely ridiculous, considering all the time we lived without cell phones! Anyway, I digress. I had the same feeling about my coupon book! I also didn't have my receipts. I had a few too many in my billfold on my weekend trip, and decided to just put them all in an envelope so I could have extra room in my little, non-back-breaking-sized purse. And I threw that envelope in the back of the car with my coupon book. I had this feeling like I'd been thrown into a situation that could possibly fall under the term "cruel and unusual punishment," and I found myself planning out the day without those items. And it was a little bit difficult! We had to put off our outings until Little Man had taken his afternoon nap so I could regroup and have a formalized plan!

I did very well at the grocery store, though! We came out of there only spending $20!! We had enough food in the freezer to have dinner (probably for the rest of the week, honestly) and I only got the necessities (milk and bread this time) and a few low-cost, great-deal goodies (Cinnabon bars for less than a buck!). And I also bought several jars of peanut butter to donate to our local food pantry (something I do once a month). So, if I stick to my $75 a week budget, I still have $55 that I can spend when I make my second trip to the grocery store this week (with coupon book in hand, of course)!

As I said in my post last week, I'm going to work really hard to pay off our Mommy-Mobile, and sticking to my $75 a week grocery budget is a must! I'm sure I could get away with spending even less than that, but I still consider myself somewhat of a newbie at couponing, so I'm afraid to push it and feel the sting of failure. I'm pretty hard on myself when I set goals, so I want to make sure they're definitely achievable before I set out.

I'm hoping to finally start getting around to achieving the goal I have for this blog, too. And that goal is to list great money-saving and couponing deals in the West TN area. Lots of the great deals I read about in other couponing blogs don't work for me because I don't get the same coupon inserts as other places get. I just want to alert people to the deals that won't work here and possibly find deals that are working here so more people can save some money!

Well, that's all from me for now. It's a jungle out there - don't get stranded without your coupons like I did!! :)

FrugaLori
Your Go-To Fru-"gal"

The Work Saga

Well, my first week in cyberspace has been quiet on your end and loud on my end. I would have written sooner, but my head was swimming and I don't think I could have put together a cohesive post that made any sense to anyone but me! Here's a recap.

When Little Man was born in September of '07, we had two mortgages. I didn't want to work any more at all, but we couldn't stay afloat with two mortgages and one salary. The salary of a school teacher, nonetheless. So, I worked part-time at 20 hours a week. The reason we had two mortgages was that my Sweetie and I both owned houses when we got married, and we procrastinated about putting my house on the market. When I was about 7 months pregnant, we finally decided to get off our tuckusses and put the house on the market. It sold when Little Man was about 5 months old. So we made a huge decision, and I put in my resignation at work. I was going to be a SAHM!! It was what I'd dreamed about for years!

Then my supervisor (I'll call him Buck) calls me and says, "What if you only work 10 hours a week? I think that would benefit you and us." So, we made another huge decision and I decided to stay at work for 10 hours per week. We decided that the little bit of extra money would be good, and I'd get to do something "adult" for a little while twice a week. Success!

Several months later, 10 hours wasn't enough (for Buck) and now I'm working 14 hours a week. Never throughout the whole time Little Man has been here has the thought of wanting to go back to work full-time entered my mind. Then, last Tuesday, the f-bomb was dropped on me. No, not *THAT* f-bomb! The worst one - Full-time!! Buck told me over the phone that his hope for me was to be back up to full-time at work by January 1, 2010. I looked like a fish out of water, gasping. My mouth kept opening and closing, with no sound coming out at all. Buck thought we had been disconnected or something, but in actuality, I was as speechless as a person could be. My first reaction was to cry.....I did a few minutes later. I was told to think about it......over Thanksgiving. Nice.

I have been with my employer for almost 8 years, so I feel a strong sense of loyalty and obligation to them. They have been very gracious to me, letting me basically decide my schedule and all. There's been a pretty big change at work, and not only was I offered a full-time job, but a promotion as well. It was no small decision to make. The job that I was offered is pretty unique and requires skills and knowledge that I currently have, and has proven to be difficult to teach a new employee. Therein lies my sense of obligation. If I don't fill this position, who possibly could? Dilemma!!!

I decided that I'd have to fully know the financial implications of both possibilities. I guess I should mention that I was told that I could keep my current hours, if that was what I really felt was best. Again, I have a very gracious employer. So I made a spreadsheet. We've been wanting to move into a nicer house for some time, so we immediately felt that if I worked full-time, that wish would definitely become a reality. Here's what I found out.

I'm freaking stellar at managing money!!! We are way better off than we even knew we were. We're not the best people at keeping a really close eye on our finances. We know if we have money or if we don't. I know......you don't have to lecture me about that. Anyway, with the money I've been saving with couponing, we're very comfortable right now! We're actually saving a bunch of money every month, even though we don't make much at all! And if we really work hard and try to pay off the Mommy-Mobile we bought when I was pregnant, we'll be able to afford the house we've been hoping for! We can actually afford it right now, but if there was some sort of big money emergency, we might be in trouble. And if I take the full-time job, we'll only add less than $300 to our pockets each month! Of course, I've taken into consideration that we'll buy a house. But a new house and $300 doesn't make it worth it to be away from Little Man full time. Especially if we can afford the new house if we're sans a car payment! So our goal is to pay off the Mommy-Mobile by the time Sweetie is out of school for the summer. We have some money saved up (because I'm a fru-"gal!") and we're pretty sure we can do it. Then we'll buy our new house, and actually have more money in our pockets than we do RIGHT NOW!!!

I was so anxious about this decision that my chest muscles started hurting. Every time I would think that I might have to go back full-time right now, I could hardly breathe. But when I envisioned myself telling Buck no, I could breathe. That should have made the decision easy, but my sense of obligation to my employer was a driving force in my serious consideration of the job. My MIL helped me rationalize the situation. She told me that other job opportunities would present themselves to me, but Little Man will never be 2 or 3 again. She's so right! I was thinking that this job opportunity was the once-in-a-lifetime chance. But in reality, spending as much time with my son as I can when he's young is the true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

*Whew* So, there's a long version of a very difficult conflict I had to overcome. I'm so at peace with my decision. If you hung in there and read all of this.....sorry you lost about 10 minutes of your life! :P I'll try to do better about posting, even if I'm mid-dilemma. I wish you a wonderful weekend! I'll post again early next week.

FrugaLori
Your Go-To Fru-"gal"

My First Posting in Cyberspace

So, here I am with a full belly from a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, writing my first ever blog post. In the background, I hear a football game, my two-year-old watching the game saying, "Set, Doh, Set, DOH!!!!" (his version of ready, set, go), and feeling the wonderful feeling of spending time with my family and spending some much-needed down time. I have set out into cyberspace hoping to create a blog with information on how to save money with coupons and deals, as well as a little bit of my life. My son says some pretty hilarious things, so the entertainment there never ends.

There are several couponing blogs out there and they give a wealth of information. But I haven't found anything that gives information specific to where I live, which is West Tennessee. Jackson, to be specific. I have found couponing blogs that outline GREAT deals, and I get so excited, only to look for the coupons suggested and find that my circular doesn't actually include that coupon. So I'm on a mission to create a money-saving blog that will benefit everyone, including people in my relative geographic location.

I look forward to making many cyber friends, collaborating with other money-saving moms, and being in a great community of people who share information about the deals that are out there, just waiting to be found!! I wish everyone out there a Blessed Thanksgiving. May you be able to enjoy time with family or friends, eat a delicious meal (whatever that means to you), and relax a little bit......before setting out to get some fantastic deals on Black Friday!

Farewell for now,

FrugaLori
Your Go-To Fru-"gal"