Project Sleep through the Night

Remember this post?

Sleep deprivation is the worst, isn't it? Thankfully, after writing that post, I had a change in perspective that helped me get through quite a few more sleepless nights. But my frustration about my son's sleep habits always lay right beneath the surface of my emotions, ready to pop up its ugly head at any given time (usually around 3 am).

Then a couple of weeks ago, I read an article about a couple with sextuplets. The wife talked about the point of desperation that they hit with their lack of sleep. (I can't even imagine!) She shared that when their babies were 4 months old, they simply turned off the baby monitor for two weeks and all six of them had learned to sleep through the night since.

Two things crossed my mind:
1) They can get six kids to sleep through the night and I am struggling with just one?!

2) Why haven't I tried that?

And then I remembered why I hadn't tried that. Our two boys share a room. And while, our three year old has amazed me by sleeping through hours of Lincoln crying, I could only imagine the drama that would unfold if mommy and daddy didn't come running if Griffin ever he needed us. There would be therapy bills to pay for sure.

Then it hit me. Wes had to go out of town last weekend. I would let Griffin sleep in my room for those two nights and kill the monitor.

So Project Sleep through the Night began once more--only I slept worse with the monitor off than I did with it on. Partly due to the fact that Griffin wanted to sleep on my head...and also that I couldn't hold myself back from turning on the monitor every hour or two. Oh, and going into check on Lincoln every other hour or two.

But I stuck with the plan of letting Lincoln cry when he did wake up. This meant no running at the first peep to give him his binkie. He had to learn to put himself back to sleep. No mommy intervention allowed.

It's been almost a week since the Project began. This past week, there have been several times that Lincoln has woken up in the night, fussed for a few minutes and then put himself back to sleep. What a good feeling.

The night before last, he slept 10 hours straight. And at this present moment, Lincoln is going on 11 1/2 hours of sleep. Straight.

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!! GLORRRRRRY?! HALLELUJAH?!

Someday I hope I meet that family with sextuplets. I plan on giving all 8 of them big fat smooches.

How We Got Here, Part 2: Kaley's Edition

You can read the first part of this series here.

I've always been a fan of the "This is Your Life" concept. If there were a made-for-tv movie highlighting all of the events in my life leading up to my current state of frugality, I think it might look something like this.

Cue soundtrack. Cut to slideshow of old family pictures. Begin voice-over of Kaley speaking.

The early years--I'm the one with the finger in my mouth

"I grew up poor.

Wow, that feels weird to say. I think I had no idea how poor we were. My parents worked hard to find creative ways to keep us from feeling poor. And rarely did we talk about money being tight.

But, the salary of a small country church pastor is small and our family was large, so we were definitely poor.

If I had to do it all over, I think I might grow up poor again. (Although I might choose to be filthy rich the third time around!) For a lot of reasons.

First of all, I learned how little I really needed. Cut to scene of young girl sitting contentedly on ugly orange carpet. I was the kid who wore her sister's hand-me-downs with pride, had no hate about the ugly orange carpet in her teeny tiny bedroom, and was completely unfazed by the fact that the guy she dated in high school had a brand new red sports car. And I promise I wasn't weird.

I also learned that I liked to save my money. At some point when I was younger, my parents gave us a set of three envelopes to keep track of our money. We labeled them Savings, Tithe, and Spending. I would separate any money that I earned into those three envelopes. My favorite envelope was the one for savings. Maybe I was secretly hoping to save enough to replace that ugly, orange carpet...I don't know.

Being poor also meant that I saw God provide for me a lot. When I was in college, my parents moved overseas to become missionaries in Korea. So our family's pay scale changed from poor to dirt poor. To be honest, I'm not sure how I was able to afford college. But, over and over, God showed His care for me in the form of financial provision.

Cut to scene of college-aged girl in line at the grocery store, searching through her purse. Whether it was the $.25 that I found on the day that all I needed was a quarter or the $100 bills that would show up randomly from a secret provider or the woman behind me in line at Kroger who paid for the rest of my grocery bill when I didn't have enough money--I knew my lack of funds was not a problem that was too big for God.

There were a few things that being poor did not teach me, however. Learning to be wise in my money management was one of them. Cut to scene of girl standing in the middle of a bank, crying. Loudly. The day that I stood in the middle of my bank sobbing uncontrollably because I had bounced my first check was one evidence of my lack of money sense. (I've always felt sorry for that poor bank teller.)

Cut to scene of girl devouring a pack of Twizzlers. I also signed up for a credit card in college because by doing so, I would get a pack of Twizzlers. By the time I was done with college, that was the most expensive pack of Twizzlers I have ever purchased. I had a good chunk of debt and little idea of how to get rid of it.

Then I married Wes."

To be continued...

Couponizing

I have a confession to make.

I hate clipping coupons.

I hate the mess it makes and the time it takes. And then, when it's time to look for my coupons, I hate searching through them all to find the one that I need.

So I use the simplest method possible to store and keep track of my coupons. I thought I would share it with you in case you are a closet coupon-clipping hater like myself. It doesn't get much easier than this.

First, a quick tutorial in case you are new at this coupon thing. I just started less than a year ago, and I promise it was all greek to me.

1) Sunday papers contain three basic sets of coupons: Red Plum, Smart Source, and Procter & Gamble. (Some regions also carry Valassis coupons, but mine does not.) Some weeks they carry all, and some just one or two.

2) There are tons of web-sites dedicated to matching up sales to coupons in stores nationwide. Rather than spending hours trying to do so on your own, why not let someone else do the work? Check out some of my favorite sites: Walmart, Price Chopper, Drug Stores, Other Grocery Stores...just to name a few.

And now for my system. I bought an accordion type file folder like this:


Then I labeled it like this:

PG=Procter & Gamble
RP=Red Plum
SS=Smart Source
MIR=Mail-in Rebates
All You=All You magazine (it's full of coupons)
CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens=my coupons for those stores
(These are the stores I frequent. Your list may be different.)

Each week, I take the coupon inserts out of my paper and I use a sharpie to label them with the date. Then I file them away, without clipping them.

As you look for the deals online, you will note that the sites use the name of the insert and the date the coupon was in it to indicate what coupons you should use. For example, if a coupon was in Procter & Gamble the week of March 1, the coupon will be labeled: PG, 3/1/09. So you can just open your handy dandy file folder, grab the 3/1 insert from the PG section, and clip the coupon that you need.

Isn't that easy?

But wait, it gets better! I know that some of you may actually want to know what coupons that you have, in case you need to use one that isn't listed on a site. Have I got a deal for you! I am going to post a weekly database that lists all of the coupons from the Sunday paper in alphabetical order. I will update it each week so that it is current and all expired coupons have been removed. So, if you need to know if you have a coupon for Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, you can just open the database, scroll down to the L's and BAM! your question is answered. Look for a link to the database on the right hand side of my blog for easy access.

HOLD THE PHONE!!! I just found out that there is an online database for coupons ALREADY. Just go here to register and then you can search for coupons to your heart's content. Their database will also list printable coupons that are available...SCORE! This is why I love the world of money saving bloggers...there is never a need to re-invent the wheel. THANKS, SHARON!

I would love to know if you have any questions. I really want to be a resource, particularly for those who are new to this whole coupon thing. It's easier than it seems!

Happy non-clipping!

Money-Saving Monday: Wait, there's more!

Remember these fabulous coupons? Well, they're BA-AAACK!!!
If you print out each of these coupons twice (hit the back browser after they print the first time), you should be able to print enough coupons to score as many as 16 FREE Buddies soaps. I've found them at Wegman's for $.99 and I think they may be about the same price at Target. They are usually $1.19 at CVS, but sometimes go on sale for $.99.

Note that I've listed links for both Internet Explorer and Firefox, depending on which browser you use.

• $1/1 Johnson’s Buddies (IE) (Firefox)
• $2/2 Johnson’s Buddies (IE) (Firefox)
• $2/2 Johnson’s Shampoo, Conditioner or Buddies (IE) (Firefox)
• $3/3 Johnson’s Products (IE) (Firefox)

I just printed mine and they expire April 1, so hurry up and print yours today!

Thanks, Deal Seeking Mom!

Update: I seem to be having a problem printing the last two coupons. Let me know how it works for you!

Money-Saving Monday (Things that make you go Cha-Ching! Edition)

cha-ching: The sound that a cash register makes when its drawer is closed after money has been put inside. Used in conversation to indicate that the person being spoken about is going to or already has made quite a profit at little expense. (urbandictionary.com)

One of my favorite ways to save money is to take advantage of every possible offer that will let me earn money for little or no effort. I'm a sucker for 30 day free trials (and have only been scammed once...but that's a story for another time.) Last night, I signed up with Nielsen TV ratings to keep track of our tv viewing for a week for $30. Mail-in Rebates? I'm there.

The way I see it, by signing up for these offers, I'm earning free money. And who doesn't like that?

So for this edition of Money-Saving Monday, I thought I'd let you in on my favorite 'free money' sites. Sign up for these and you'll be saying, "Cha-Ching!" in no time.

MyPoints: Earn points by reading e-mails, signing up for offers, and shopping through their site. Then redeem the points for gift certificates from their extensive list of merchants. I've been a MyPoints member for years and have earned hundreds of dollars of gift certificates. Right now, I consider MyPoints to be my home furnishings savings for when we buy a home. Go to mypoints.com to sign up, or better yet leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will send you a referral and earn 250 points!

Swagbucks: I just signed up for this site, but am pretty excited about it because of all the buzz. It's an online search engine that rewards you for searching online. It's very easy to sign up for and once you download the toolbar, you'll start earning points just by searching the web. After only 45 points earned, you can get a free Amazon gift card. Or at 50 points, you can get a Starbucks gift card. There are dozens of other prizes, too. You can also earn points by referring your friends. You'll not only instantly earn more points when they sign up, you'll also earn points for the searching they do online. What are you waiting for? Sign up now!


Upromise: Sign up with your grocery or drug store card and save money for college as you shop. The savings are a little slow, but you can speed things up by signing up for monthly eCoupons and asking friends and family to sign up as well. Hey...it's free money!

Pampers Gifts to Grow: Earn points for every package of Pampers diapers or wipes that you buy. Use those points to earn a long list of rewards. Kind of makes me feel better about changing yet another messy diaper.
Coke Rewards: I like earning free stuff from products I already use. Since I happen to enjoy Diet Coke, I thought I might as well start earning something for it! Sign up for Coke Rewards or Pepsi Stuff, depending on your drink of choice. (Oh, yay! I just earned 2 swagbucks for googling Pepsi Stuff!)

There are so many more, but I think I'll stop for now. Leave me a comment if any of these sites make you say, "Cha-Ching!'

Seasonal CPS

Many of you are probably unaware that I suffer from a malady called Seasonal CPS. It seems to really flare up every year around this time. This past week I have suffered with an unusually bad case.

If you are unaware of the meaning, it stands for Seasonal Cranky-Pants Syndrome. And I've got it BAD.

Since I live in New York, I do my best to brace myself for the long cold winters. We try to be creative with our indoor time--reading, coloring, dancing, learning, lots of sesame street and curious george. We even occasionally brave the outdoors. At least long enough to get pictures--proof that I am a good mom.

But around about the fifth month of frigid temperatures and cloudy days, I start to feel a little loony. No. Scratch that. A LOT loony.

This week I decided that CPS must be genetic, because I'm pretty sure my son has inherited a case of it. The other morning, in complete desperation, I picked him up, threw a coat and some boots on him and tossed him outside with strict instructions not to come back in until I said so. Don't worry. I let him in before dark.

Well, today I am pleased to announce that Mrs. Cranky Pants has left the building. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the screen door is open and it's over 40 degrees! Do I hear an amen?!

In honor of this special occasion, Griffin and I celebrated with our annual first signs of spring activity:

Part of my euphoric state could also be attributed to the fact that I ran a St. Patrick's Day 4-mile race with my sister this morning.

Can we say endorphins?

PLUS...I went and took advantage of these deals yesterday.

Sigh...life is good. (I refuse to look at the weather forecast, but life is still good.)

The Next American Idol?

Take a look and then cast your vote!

p.s The girl in the background is our friend, Chelsea, who also
happens to be a super fun babysitter.