Ding Dong...

Avon calling.

That's right, I'm now and Avon lady! Who would have thunk it? Me? I'm not sure. I've always liked Avon products and I always thought they were a stand up company, I'm just not sure if I ever thought I would be a person to sell it. I'm not much of a face to face sales person, really. So it may be funny that I've decided to sell products for extra money. I posted on my Avon Facebook page all about why I chose Avon over other companies, but to summorize, it's a great company that's been around almost 125 years and they have great products! I also love that the products vary so much in price and so it's not a splurge to by their products. A lot of times, you can buy their makeup, skin care and bath and body products cheaper than you can at drug stores and big box stores AND they are quality items. When they have personal care items that have been consistant sellers since 1961 you know it's good stuff.

I don't ever want to be that annoying pushy friend who is always talking about Avon, so I'll keep it to a minimum. I just hope that people who haven't tried Avon products will look over the items they have available and give them a shot. You may find your new favorite lip gloss, fragrance or skin care product and it will cost just as much (or less!) than what you are paying now.

And, as always, if you are intersted in being an Avon representative yourself let me know. It only cost me $10 to start!

Preschool

So I've been looking over our childcare/preschool options here locally. I know it's almost time for Nora to start heading that way and even if she doesn't hit preschool this year (her birthday may be past the cutoff), I'd love to find a place to take her 1-2 times a week to get more interaction with kids.

As I'm looking through the places here in Strasburg I come across the daycare that runs through the parks and recreation district. This is the photo on their webpage...

Am I the only one bothered by this. I want to send Nora to a place to help her the interact with other kids and learn the basics before heading off into full flegged schooling. Is this what schools are like now? Computers in preschool? We don't sit and have storytime, or finger paint or use flash cards?

I think I'm an old fuddy duddy...

Free this week

I never thought I would be that person taking pictures of my groceries and writing about them (well, I did, but then I realized there are bloggers 100 times better at it than I am so I'll let them take the lead). However, I am always excited when I score free stuff so I have to share. If you want a heads up on the freebies every week, let me know and I'll either send them to you myself or point you to my favorite bloggers.

Here's what I ended up with...

From left to right: the Snikiddy snacks came from Babies R Us, was directed to a free coupon online and was able to print 2 of them. I didn't know B-R-U had them so that was a nice surprise when I went there today.
The marshmallows, graham crackers and Hershey's were from a Walgreens deal this week. The crackers and chocolate were $3 each and if you bought both of those items you recieved the Jet-Puffed for free. Then I had a $1 off coupon from this last Sunday's paper. They ended up being free for me because I had a $5 register rewards certificate so that paid for the 3 items.
The Grape Nuts also came from Walgreens. They are on sale for $1.75 this week and I recieved a $2 off coupon online. Normally they would probably price adjust that down to the $1.75 but the cashier didn't. Since they won't actually give you money back I had to buy one more item. I bought the Snaps (one of my FAVORITE candies) as a treat to myself. So, no, those weren't free but I paid $1.83 for all 5 items. :)

The last 6 items were from Albertsons. This week (ending today) they have a coupon in their ad for buy 1 get 2 free on the Finesse. Since you can stack manufactorer coupons with store coupons, I used a $1 off coupon, from this week's Sunday paper, along with the BOG2. AND, also in the newspaper was a rebate offer for $3 on Finesse. One bottle of Finesse is $4.00 so, if you do the math, that's BOG2 + $1 coupon + $3 rebate = 3 free bottles of Finesse!...and the rebate is in the mailbox today.
The Nivea body wash was on sale for $3.99 and I had a $4 off coupon for that (yes, they adjusted it down to $3.99 so I didn't make a penny on it).
The Flips were on sale for $1 and that was free with my .50 coupon that Albertson doubled this week. And the Marcal paper towel was free with a coupon from the newspaper as well. They have those coupons a lot but I didn't know Albertson's carried the single rolls so I hadn't been able to use one before (my King Soopers doesn't carry them).

So that was my free stuff from the last 2 days. Not too shabby huh?

M.I.A.

I know I've been M.I.A. lately. Seems like it's usually one thing after another. Then there are days that I feel like posting but I'm not near the computer. Then when I am in front of the computer I forget what I was going to write about. Then there are other days I don't feel like I have anything important, or witty, to say at all....like today. But here I am. :)

My family had our annual garage sale last weekend. I had boxes, and boxes, and boxes of items. I came home with $214 and boxes, and boxes, and boxes or items. I don't know how that happens. I figure I may have gotten rid of 7 boxes of things, but I still have about 15 here at the house. So, ya know, what can ya do? Well, I'm participating in another garage sale in about a month! Woohoo! I'm hoping to get rid of 7(or more) boxes of things. ;) After that we'll see what I can consign and what might be able to go on Craigslist.

Tomorrow 2 of my girlfriends and I are hosting a baby shower for a friend. It will be nice to have some "girl time". PLUS, the fun part about the shower...I was selected as a host for a Gerber Generations Houseparty. If you don't know about houseparties, you need to go to houseparty.com and sign up. I've attended one and been the host of 3. Anyway, the party is supposed to be held on the 15th, which matched up perfectly with the shower we're hosting. So, tomorrow I have boxes of goodies/freebies courtesy of Gerber, for any of the party guests that want them (or that can pass them along to their friends). How cool is it to have your baby shower sponsored by Gerber? lol

Off to make cupcakes...

Have I mentioned...

how much I love a bargan? I have? Well, I'm going to say it again. I LOVE a bargan.

Today I stopped over to JcPenney because I had a $10 off your purchase of $10 or more coupon burning a hole in my wallet. Now, ideally, I should have found something that was right at $10 and walked out with a free item, but I couldn't stop myself. I know that's the idea. That's their master plan...to get you in the door to spend more money. Well, today it worked. Wanna know what I bought? Don't care? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

I found 3 shirts that were on clearance at 80% off and a 10 piece set of Pyrex glass storage containers that was on sale for 50% off, priced at $19.99. I have been wanting some new glass storage containers, to get away from so much plastic and those are perfect. The big surprise was that I also recieved a $5 rebate from the Pyrex! I didn't know anything about it but it printed out with my purchase so I'm sending it in. If you need some nice glass storage, I highly recommend heading over to Penney's. At basically $15 you can't beat it.

My reciept is a beautiful thing...

For 3 (dressy, not just t-shirts) tops and the 10 piece Pyrex set, I spent $26.39 plus I'll get a $5 rebate back. Woohoo!