Monday, July 26, 2010

getting the most out of name brand diapers...

I have to be honest, before Abram was born I vowed to use cheap diapers to save money. Of course we got diapers as baby gifts, thankfully. And I really got to see how wonderful name brand diapers were! They kept him dryer and held up a lot better. I fell in love with Huggies. A lot of my friends like Pampers better, but I am all about the Huggies.

So, I thought if I am going to pay more for better diapers, I am going to try to save on them every way I can. I started by signing up on their mailing list, they send me coupons about every other month. (You can do that online by going to huggies.com) Huggies also gives you a box top on every pack of diapers. Since I don't have school aged children, I clip them and give them to a friend and she gives me Huggies coupons in exchange when she finds them in the paper. Then I googled printable coupons for Huggies diapers and found lots of coupons online. I never buy a pack of diapers with out a coupon. I noticed that every once in a while they would put out a $3 off coupon, which is out of the ordinary. So when I find those, I buy several packs until they expire.

Then I noticed Huggies was advertising a new rewards program and I jumped on it. You can find it at enjoytheriderewards.com, it's awesome. You set up a profile and earn points by watching videos, answering polls and of course by buying their products. I have already won a $25.00 gift card to Disney, which we used on our vaca. And today I won a free pack of diapers! So, that is how I save a little money! And for your viewing pleasure, here is my little man sporting his Peyton Manning jersey and his Huggies diaper (He is about 8 months in this picture:)

painting the kitchen cabinets...

I have never been crazy about our kitchen cabinets. There is nothing wrong with them, just not what I wanted. When we first moved in the hardware that was on them was gold, and I knew I wanted that changed soon, so we bought new hardware and that has satisfied me for a while. These are the cabinets with new hardware, at Abram's 1st birthday party.

Sorry, not the greatest before picture, but you get the idea. Just plain, run of the mill cabinets in any speck house. Well, I knew that I was not going to pay thousands for new cabinets, so I started looking for DIY info on painting them. The young house love blog has a "how to" tab on their site. We did exactly what they recommended, and I am very pleased with the out come. It was a lot of work! Ben was ready to throw out the cabinets by the end of it, but now he agrees that it was worth it. I really have to give him credit, he did 90% of the work. He did an amazing job. Check it out.






I am really pleased with them. It looks so much bigger and open. It looks clean and fresh. Now I get to redecorate it :) Or should I say decorate it...since I didn't like the cabinets before I never could get inspired to do anything with the kitchen, but now I have all kind of ideas. Thank you to my hubby for working his tail off! And thank you Tonya for telling me about young house love. I am addicted. If you are interested in house projects and decorating young house love is a great blog to visit. I have a link on the side of my blog, check it out.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

trip to the zoo...

Over the long Fourth of July weekend we went to the Nashville Zoo. We decided at the last minute that it would be a great way to spend the day, even though it was sooo hot!!! Here Abram is checking out the Monkeys. He has heard us say to him a million times, "You see it?" that now he says, "You See?!" to everything. No matter how many times I hear him say it, it always makes me smile. I am sure that at the time of this picture, he was saying to his Dada, "You See?" He loved the Zoo, and Ben and I loved watching him love the zoo. I think one of the things I love most as a parent is seeing everything from his eyes. He notices the smallest details and hears things that I don't even notice any more. Like an airplane flying over or birds singing. He takes it all in, and is so happy from the simplest things. It's awesome. This is one of my favs of the day. Abram and his Dada. Two peas in a pod, for sure. If there is anything Abram loves in this world, it is his Dada...and ducks...and Buzz lightyear...

Stay tuned...we have been painting cabinets!!!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

saving money one yard sale at a time...

Last weekend was a bargain weekend. We went to some yard sales and found some GREAT stuff! I have been looking for Abram a play kitchen, but I didn't want to pay $150 for a new one, and the cheapest I could find was $40 for a used one. Ben made me promise not to buy a girly kitchen...it had to be boyish. Well, the first yard sale we went to there it was (cue the angels singing) A brown kitchen! And she only wanted 10 dollars for it! I acted composed and so did Ben, and he asked her if she would take 8, and she took it!!! Then at another yard sale we found a little cash register and food, wait for it...for 50 cents:) Yippee! Here is a picture of the loot! He also got a spider man for $1. Score.

Abram love, love, loves his kitchen. We cleaned everything, of course, and then I found a basket of food at Wal-Mart the next day for $4. He has been cooking everything for me and his Dada. The plastic grapes are very tasty.

Then, we finally decided to hang our TV. It is one of those things that we had been putting off because of the expense. Well, Ben's parents had watched a special on Dateline about how children were pulling TVs on top of them. So, that did it. We had to get it hung ASAP. Ben checked at Wal-Mart for all the goods, longer cords and a mount, for everything it was going to be $250. He tried Essex, an overstock store in town, and found all the stuff for $88 after tax! We were so pleased to have saved over $160, and the TV looks a lot better hung on the wall. All of this was accomplished on a Saturday :)

my first post...

I wanted to start out my first post about my family and what you can expect from me and my blog. I could go on and on about my family, but I will try to keep it short...hopefully.
I am married to my awesome husband Ben. We have been married for 6 years now. We met 8 years ago at a party, and have been inseparable ever since. I was still in college when we got married. I graduated in 2005 and we soon bought our first house. A modest 3 bedroom 2 bath, it is nothing special when other people look at it, but it is our home. We did a lot of cosmetic work upfront. Basic stuff...painted, added ceiling fans and shelves, new shutters, replaced the tile in both bathrooms. You will soon see that Ben is not only a great husband and Dad, but he is a great handyman. He also did new landscaping all around the house. It is a working progress, but he has it looking better every year.
We thought early on in our marriage that we didn't want to have kids, but our minds soon changed. After we had been married about 4 years, we were pregnant, and very happy to be. Ben wanted a boy so bad he could taste it, as many men do. Our ultrasound showed that he had a son indeed. Abram Cole Phillips was born on January 15, 2009. He was about 2 weeks early, but perfect in every way. 6 lbs and 11 ounces, 19 and a quarter inches long. Here he is 18 months later.

Now that you know a little history on my family, I want to share why I have chosen to start this blog. My main reason is to capture my sons life. My pregnancy and the first 18 months of his life have flown by. I am already forgetting so much, and I don't want to forget. The other reason is to share some of our DIY projects and how we save a little money. I have been inspired to be creative.

Well I am going to end my first post. I feel good, we will see if I can keep it up.