Fall Break

I love the sun, the sand and a drink in my hand! And that adequately describes my entire past week; we went with about 15 of Brandon's classmates on a cruise to Progreso and Cozumel. We relaxed, snorkeled, played beach volleyball, played on ocean trampolines, sea kayaked, and got lots of sun. Oh did I mention, we ate...alot. Lastly, our new found AWESOME liberating activity...throwing plates off the back of the ship, amazing. This activity though must happen at approximately 4 in the morning the last morning of the cruise...it's let me repeat, awesome. Here are a few highlights of the trip that I have, unfortunately the camera went past its alloted 10ft in the water.

The Ship, The Carnival Holiday:

Brandon and Me before dinner, on the catamaran headed to snorkel and Brandon diving to see the coral up close:

Happy Fall Break!

We are now home and getting ready for work and the remainder of Brandon's senior fall break.

Pray for us over the next few weeks, we hope to find out good news regarding residency!

Getting Started

I have been in awe of these women recently who post on their blogs about $35 a week grocery budgets. I have read and read and read early in the morning and late in the night how these women do it some with children! I then read a post of Suzie's that said her local grocer had a seminar about how to save money and how we really should be good stewards of our budgets. Then I started feeling a little guilty about my random trips to the grocery store and coming out with $50 worth of junk. So I have decided to join the ranks of money saving women out there. Methods include printable coupons, purchasing multiple Sunday papers, AllYou magazines, only purchasing items that are currently on sale, meal planning, one day a month baking/cooking, organizing coupons, joining clubs, using toolbars, shopping CVS only, Walgreens only, Publix only, and the list goes on and on.

So I decided to start with...Walgreens, what a suprise right? Yeah, I work there; therefore I boost my retirement account, increase my profit sharing, see the great people I work with and, oh yeah, get an extra 15-20% off. So I went to buy a few items that are currently on sale and I have coupons for. When Leigha is ringing me up, I'm thinking I'm getting the hang of this couponing thing. I bought $110 worth of wonderful buys for $54, with $56 savings and tomorrow I'm going to buy more cereal since it's so cheap and I'll never get it that cheap again. (I bet I'll want to buy different cereal by December.) I also did not get my $12 RR so my wonderful manager will refund that to me tomorrow as well. Yeah for couponing!

Here are some of my favorites so far: Money Saving Mom, Saving Money and Living Life, and I Heart Publix!