Frugal Moms are Cool

This is one of my favorite commercials and it came to mind earlier today as I checked out of the grocery store. Since becoming a full-time parent, lots of things have changed regarding how our family spends money. Gone are the days of impulse shopping and last-minute grocery store trips! Each and every day I spend at home with both of my girls is a blessing, and over the past few months I've made it my mission to make sure our family thrives on only one income. Since a couple of friends have asked me how I save so much money I thought it would be fun to show it on a post!


My workstation...I usually spend an hour or two a week here on Sunday night with my newspaper inserts, store circulars and calculator. It is so worth it. Dagney's enjoying breakfast with Daddy in the background.


A close-up of my coupon binder. Those of you who know me best are not shocked at my meticulous organization :)


Today's steal:
Cost before coupons = $28.56
Coupons tendered = $22.63
Final out of pocket cost = $5.93
Even the cashier was impressed! Our next big purchase, however, is probably going to be a chest freezer for the garage!

Grace's Birthday

Little Grace turned 1 year old on December 20th and Dad, Mom, Dagney and Paige attended. Grace had a wonderful Mickey Mouse themed birthday party and Grace exhibited her charming smile and beautiful birthday dress.

Mom and daughter getting ready to have cake!

Grace thinking about eating cake...

Grace eating cake...

Grace now completely focused on her cake.

This was the first time Dagney was able to be an active particpant at a birthday party and she made the most of it by getting a finger full of cake just before Grace sat down. The crowd was aghast, but Dagney being the good listener she was ceased all cake-fingering activities and waited her turn. When she got her turn to eat cake, the took full advantage.

Old Friends

It has been a hectic month and we are going to try and catch up on some lost opportunities to blog.

A week before heading to Washington State for Thanksgiving, I had an old friend from Virginia Beach come visit, yes Justin Gartman. We were so excited for Justin to come stay with us, we watched the Redskins and the Cowboys game on Sunday night and Justin tried giving fatherhood a test drive. It was evident that Justin is more than qualified to be a father (don't get too excited Grandma Bev), though he is still being patient in finding the right woman. Unfortunately my fatherly responsibilities prevented Justin and I from trying to find that right woman for him over the weekend.

Justin, Paige and Dagney.

Justin exclaims, "This is cake!"

A Gift for Mom

Although I am a big supporter of PCs, much like 95% of all Americans, my wife has signed a deal with the devil and is an adamant supporter of MACs. I tried to help my wife see the light by pointing out all the shortcomings of a MAC, and even explain how to her that PCs are far more hip and superior. She would not listen. So I did some research and found this factual testimonial to give her a second, non-partisan opinion.

My wife would not acknowledge her oversight, which left me no choice but get her a new MAC for Christmas so she could learn the hard way. We expect her simpleton computer to arrive by Saturday, so expect blog updates to wane as we try to resolve all the 'technical' difficulties of owning a MAC.

Dagney's Special Gift from Dad

Well I [Daddy] could not wait to get a gift which I suspected was slightly outside of Dagney's age ability, but I could not resist after our trip to Ocean Shores in November.

Dagney was exhausted from opening gifts and I think she was slightly aghast that she had another gift. After pulling a little paper aside, it did not take Dagney long to realize this gift was a new riding toy.

Dagney jumped on top of her new Barbie trike...

and made a b-line for the front door, pajamas and all!

After quickly bundling up, Dagney was off to the races!

Merry Christmas Dagney!

Paige and Lauren

Brenda, Garry and Lauren came over Christmas Day for some turkey and here are some pictures of Lauren helping her cousin Paige open some Christmas gifts.

Paige started off opening her gift from Lauren. If you have recently spent time around Paige you'd know that Paige LOVES crinkling paper! To no surprise, Paige was fascinated with the blue tissue paper.

Paige and Lauren...

Relaxing with a full belly on Christmas day...

And back to gift unwrapping, Paige opens her gift from Daddy which was her first purse.

Christmas Morning, '08

This year we made a point to videotape Christmas morning for our far away family and friends who could not be here. The consequence, we learned, is that we took fewer photographs.

Paige was so excited to get her own lovie named "Bunny".

Dagney also got a rocking horse from Ohma. She took to it right away and had no problem climbing on top and rocking [picture missing, :-( ].

Dagney loves her Winnie the Pooh bean-bag chair. At first she loved sitting on Winnie but by the end of the morning she was dragging Winnie around as her new BFF.

Here is Dagney playing with her new play fruit from Santa. One could argue Santa has taken an interest in advanced occupational therapist oriented toys.

Ohma also got Dagney her own little Melissa and Doug play table with two chairs. Dagney must have sat at her new table with her BFF Winnie the Pooh and played with fruit for at least 45 minutes.

There are still more gifts to open so stay tuned...