Even Better

So after being thrilled about my savings at Albertsons yesterday, I think I did even better today! I happened upon an auction in the Walmart parking lot in Meridian. Turns out it was a fundraiser for the Special Olympics, and Hubble Homes had donated the furniture/accessories from all their homes. Well, I was in search of a twin mattress set since we are now a family of 3 and I"m ready for Luke to be out of my room and into the crib...thus, Avery needs a bed. We've talked about bunk beds, but we really don't know who to put in what room, who would do best sharing and how to preserve all of our sanity...

Anyway, I'll spare you the boring details and get to the point. I ended up with two complete twin mattress sets (mattress, box spring and frame) for $20 a piece!!! They were never used, only for show purposes. One is a Simmons, the other a Spring Air. I also got a Nautica twin bed set - comforter, bed skirt, 3 pillows with shams and two throw pillows for $30. Finally, I found two curtains to match the bedding at $10 per panel. Crazy that the curtains cost more than the beds! They were negotiating a little here and there, but buy the time I got to the curtains, I felt I got such a good price on the mattresses that I shouldn't bother negotiating. Besides, it was for a good cause. Great bargain day for me!

I set one bed with the bedding up in Caden's room. His bed set is actually the same company, just a different patter. I think they go quite well together.

The bed on the right is the new bed...the one on the left is Caden's.
The new bed and bedding

Krazy Couponing

Guess how much this cost me?
About $45....saved$75


And this?$25...saved $93

I have to say I'm officially addicted to couponing!!! And I love it when someone else does all the work for me! I've added new links to my sidebar for some of my favorite money saving sites. My latest favorite is the Krazy Coupon Lady. It is a group of girls from my area who find great deals and post them. The best part is they will search through ads, find the best deals at grocery stores, and then post what to buy, where to buy it, links to coupons, etc. They save you so much $$$.

For example, last week Albertsons had a crazy sale...you basically could buy 3 packs of Pampers Diapers for $4...not $4 each, but $4 total!!! Looking back, I should have bought way more than I did! The problem was, you couldn't find them on the shelves anywhere in town, and when they were on shelves, people were clearing off the shelves and buying like 50-60 packs of diapers!

Anyway, I spent $177.89 on groceries and saved $261.90! So, I got $439.79 worth of groceries for $177.89.

Here's my list:

Pampers 10 packs
Rice A Roni 8 boxes
Kellogs Protein Water 36 bottles
Hamburger 7 lbs.
Potatoes 10 lbs.
Dasani Water 24 .5 liter bottles
Fiber One Bars 2 boxes
Cascade Dish Soap 2 boxes
Go-gurt 6 boxes
Yoplait Yogurt 20
Chicken 8 lbs.
Eggs 2 dozen
Charmin Bath Tissue 36 rolls
Cereal 11 boxes
(Cheerios, Kix, Chex, Cinnamon Life)
Granola Bars 6 boxes
Oatmeal 4 boxes
Popcorn 1 box
Cheese 4 lbs.
Milk 1 gallon

The Protein Water, Hamburger, Chicken and Cheese really brought my cost up...those 4 things alone were about $65 of the $177. This was my first time really trying to coupon shop and make it work, so I know many have done way better...but it was a lot of fun!

Restaurant.com

Have you ever heard of Restaurant.com? Me neither. But I got a discount code and tried it out, and now I'm hooked! DONT PAY FULL PRICE EVER AGAIN when you go out to eat! So here is the deal:

• Go to Restaurant.com
• Enter your zip code
• Choose the gift certificate amount you wish to buy, click checkout
• Enter the word EXCLUSIVE (good through 1/19/09)
  
• Be amazed

Example: So I clicked on purchasing a $100 gift certificate to the Melting Pot downtown. It regularly would only cost me $40 on this site. Thats pretty dang good. But I entered my coupon word EXCLUSIVE and my cost dropped to $16.00. WHAT? SERIOUSLY! Awesome.

**Note the small print: Each gift certificate is to be used on a minimum amount...so, the $100 Melting Pot certificate is for a $200 purchase. You could buy a $50 value for $20 instead to be used on a $100 purchase ($8 with the discount). That's $100 to the melting pot for $8!

If you're in Meridian, the 83646 zip code doesn't work...try 83642,

You can also view menus and make reservations from the site.

Isn't she beautiful

I just had to post this...isn't she beautiful?

Christmas break in McCall

The day after Christmas, the whole Yorgason family went to my parents cabin in McCall. We usually go twice a year as a family, more if we can, and we always look forward to those times. We weren't sure what the snow would be like up there, but it was perfect the whole time. We usually went out each day and rode snowmobiles, tubed behind the snowmobiles, built snowmen, made sledding hills, played snow football...it is so much fun. Their yard is perfect for all for these things. I think it's the only place on the lake you can snowmobile from...the water drops low enough that there is a huge area to ride out into the lake area. New Years Eve is fun b/c we usually get the kids dressed in their gear and head out around 8 or 9 and spend a few hours out there. It's something we all look forward to each year!

One of the funnest things the kids did was ride from the steps at the cabin on a tube, all the way through the yard down the hill into where the lake was. It was slippery enough they could do that, and then Ryan would pick them up on the snowmobile, he'd carry their tube, and they'd ride behind the snowmobile back to the cabin. They did this for hours and Ryan was so good to drive all the grand kids, and even a few of the "big kids" around.

Avery with her cousin Brooklyn - they are the best of friends
A lot of the gang out enjoying the snow
Avery doing what she does best in the snow - eating it
Avery getting her first haircut from Andrew's wife Kelli


Avery tubing behind the snowmobile with Grandma Yorgason.
View from the cabin
Greg wearing his gag gift from Dave and Lucy...footed pj's
Caden and his best buddy/cousin Gabe
Caden and Avery ready to ride the tube

Avery riding with crazy uncle Greg...it's like he's from Chicago or something wearing those shorts with Sorels
Caden and Max