Last Post was October 2011 – until TODAY!

Hello any followers I have left! haha. To say I took an unplanned hiatus is a bit of an understatement. I really had no plan on abandoning my blog but God had a different plan. In early October 2011 I found out I was pregnant with our 2nd child! We were so excited, but then that excitement wore off within days when the morning ALL DAY sickness kicked in…bad. In addition to the oh so common “morning sickness,” I got a sinus infection/cold that didn’t go away for 2 weeks. It made functioning incredibly hard. My throat was swelled up for almost 2 weeks, making it impossible to swallow pills. This made it impossible to take my prenatal pills and without those little pills my hormones and emotions went topsy-turvy and I got really depressed. It took a good month to really get my mental state back to where it should be, but the all day sickness continued. So with the holidays, a very happy but attention-needing toddler who only naps once/day and a very early bedtime thanks to that growing fetus inside my belly, this blog wasn’t on my to-do list.

BUT the good news is that I’m almost 17 weeks, have regained my energy and lost most of the sickness, and am going to attempt to be posting again

That’s the biggest update in my life. Little Miss Charlotte is almost 19 months and is as cute as ever. She’s running all around, coloring on everything, dances whenever she hears music and enjoys making music with her daddy in his studio. She’s also talking a lot and communicating with us so life in that sense has gotten a lot easier.

Hubbie is doing great – working at the same job and going for more certifications. He’s been doing a lot of studio work and is releasing his first full length album in just a few months! In addition he’ll be going back to Ottawa (sans family this time) to play 2 gigs in 1 night So exciting!

With the holidays my couponing seemed to have slowed down but I’m happy to report that the budget wasn’t broken too badly and our family is still completely debt-free, including car payments! We’ve even started saving for Charlotte’s college…something we didn’t know would be possible on 1 income but that’s God for ya! Such an amazing way to live life!

And as for God in our lives, well He’s definitely been working hard picking up the slack that this pregnancy has caused. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that in September I became a Sunday School teacher at my church for the 4-5th graders and love every minute of it. They’re full of ideas and energy but aren’t to the point of being jaded with worldly confusion and opinions…it has really been a wonderful experience. I have 2 high school aged assistants who make my life 10x easier and I’m so blessed to have them in my life (and classroom)!

So I think you’re all caught up on my life. Hope your holidays went well and I hope to be posting a bit more frequently, at least until the new baby arrives in June

Me & Charlotte

Christmas 2011

Last Post was October 2011 – until TODAY!

Hello any followers I have left! haha. To say I took an unplanned hiatus is a bit of an understatement. I really had no plan on abandoning my blog but God had a different plan. In early October 2011 I found out I was pregnant with our 2nd child! We were so excited, but then that excitement wore off within days when the morning ALL DAY sickness kicked in…bad. In addition to the oh so common “morning sickness,” I got a sinus infection/cold that didn’t go away for 2 weeks. It made functioning incredibly hard. My throat was swelled up for almost 2 weeks, making it impossible to swallow pills. This made it impossible to take my prenatal pills and without those little pills my hormones and emotions went topsy-turvy and I got really depressed. It took a good month to really get my mental state back to where it should be, but the all day sickness continued. So with the holidays, a very happy but attention-needing toddler who only naps once/day and a very early bedtime thanks to that growing fetus inside my belly, this blog wasn’t on my to-do list.

BUT the good news is that I’m almost 17 weeks, have regained my energy and lost most of the sickness, and am going to attempt to be posting again

That’s the biggest update in my life. Little Miss Charlotte is almost 19 months and is as cute as ever. She’s running all around, coloring on everything, dances whenever she hears music and enjoys making music with her daddy in his studio. She’s also talking a lot and communicating with us so life in that sense has gotten a lot easier.

Hubbie is doing great – working at the same job and going for more certifications. He’s been doing a lot of studio work and is releasing his first full length album in just a few months! In addition he’ll be going back to Ottawa (sans family this time) to play 2 gigs in 1 night So exciting!

With the holidays my couponing seemed to have slowed down but I’m happy to report that the budget wasn’t broken too badly and our family is still completely debt-free, including car payments! We’ve even started saving for Charlotte’s college…something we didn’t know would be possible on 1 income but that’s God for ya! Such an amazing way to live life!

And as for God in our lives, well He’s definitely been working hard picking up the slack that this pregnancy has caused. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that in September I became a Sunday School teacher at my church for the 4-5th graders and love every minute of it. They’re full of ideas and energy but aren’t to the point of being jaded with worldly confusion and opinions…it has really been a wonderful experience. I have 2 high school aged assistants who make my life 10x easier and I’m so blessed to have them in my life (and classroom)!

So I think you’re all caught up on my life. Hope your holidays went well and I hope to be posting a bit more frequently, at least until the new baby arrives in June

Me & Charlotte

Christmas 2011

Friday Dance Video!

It’s a chilly Friday in NY so let’s warm it up with some hot dance moves! Okay, corny. But hey – it’s Friday. Enjoy the song, enjoy the dancing, enjoy the weekend!

Dancer: Marquese Scott, Booking: http://xceltalent.com/

Song: Pumped Up Kicks – Foster The People

I’m a Needy Friend

Friendships are tricky – let’s take a look at a timeline of how it works.

When we were babies - if you napped around the same time and your moms were friends, you were best friends and saw each other almost every day.
When we were kids - if you liked the same toy or had the same hobby you were best friends and played every day.
When we were teenagers - if you liked the same band or store at the mall you were best friends and hung out almost every day.
When we were single young adults - if you liked the same bars/clubs you were best friends and hung out every weekend.
When we were dating young adults - if you liked the same movies and restaurants you were best friends and hung out every few weeks.
When we were married young adults - if you liked the same board games and take out you were best friends and hung out maybe once a month.
When we were married young adults with children - if your kids got along and napped at the same time and work schedules aligned and there were no family obligations you were best friends and hung out every few months.

I can’t go any further because I’m not at those stages yet but I’m GUESSING until your kids move out of the house, it only gets more and more difficult to keep a best friend. And yet the bible talks about friendships so obviously they’re important…so how do we do it? As an introvert it’s something I’m working on and struggling through every day. I know there are people out there who just go to social gatherings, make a bunch of friends, casually get together with them and are completely happy and satisfied by those type of relationships…but that’s just not me. I’m a 2 good friends type of person. I love being a best friend, not an acquaintance. I hate forgetting people’s names so it’s much easier to only have to remember a few of them. I’m bad at remembering details of people’s lives so I’d rather know everything about 2 people than a little about 10. I like sitting down and talking for hours about everything, not talking about the weather and the kids and whatever else we can find to chat about. I’m getting better at doing it but it’s just not naturally who I am.

So why would God create me to be a certain way if it doesn’t fit in with the stage of life I’m in? I don’t know really. Maybe He’s pushing me to not be SUCH an introvert. Maybe He knows the desires of my heart but also knows that my lifestyle can’t handle such a “needy” friendship. Maybe He knows that there are a lot of people out there who would be great to have influence on my life and all of those traits don’t exist in just 2 people. And maybe there are more than 2 people out there who need something from me.

The thing I am learning is the timeless knowledge that you get what you put in. I have to constantly ask myself “what type of friend do you want?” “Well, then what type of friend do you need to be?” If you want to have a friendship with someone a lot of times you have to take the first step. Make the first move. It’s like dating all over again. Suck it up and ask her to coffee. Or to come over for a playdate. Maybe it’s just saying hi with a smile next time you see her. If we think back to dating and treat friendships the same way (minus the intimacy obviously), I think we’ll all develop some great, meaningful friendships that are a bit less than “best friends” but definitely more than just acquaintances.

And so the summer falls…

It’s officially fall again. Summer 2011 – gone. My first “real” summer as a stay at home mom. (I don’t really count last summer as we weren’t on a real schedule – we were on a newborn’s schedule.) And I must say, it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

I spent years sitting in a cubical staring out at the blue sky and green grass wishing I didn’t work at a M-F 9-5 job so that I would be able to enjoy the summer. I daydreamed of the tan I would have, beach I would frequent, books I would read and ice cream I would eat. But June, July and August would pass and I’d find myself welcoming fall as pale as ever saying “maybe next year.” Well, next year finally came and ya know what, I’m still pale, I went to the beach once (and it was a small lake in the area), I’ve been reading the same book for months and I’m back on a dairy-free diet. The moral of the story? The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

“The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.” ~ Robert Fulghum

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed my summer. I enjoyed not working. I enjoyed seeing every moment of my daughter’s transformation to todderhood. I enjoyed meeting friends at the park. I enjoyed a few non-dairy smoothies. I enjoyed iced tea and reading my Kindle in the sun. I enjoyed weekends outside. And I enjoyed my 1 visit to the “beach” (and I’ll never forget it! I was there when NY got a taste of what an earthquake is). But the truth is, planned life never turns into real life…so you have to learn to enjoy where you are and what you have.

“Water” the grass that you’re standing on instead of wishing it weren’t dry. Make the most of where you’re at. Enjoy this stage in life, even if it’s a hard one. See the cup for what it is – whether it be half full or half empty. Just don’t miss this moment in your life. You’ll never get it back. Every second that passes cannot return so please take a minute, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think about your day. Remember yesterday. Take a glimpse back into last week, last month, last year…notice the different stages of life you’ve gone through. The good fly by and the bad drag on but all stages do pass. Enjoy the grass that your feet are planted on. And if you’re standing on concrete – go find some grass, that’s where all the nutrient-filled soil is!

Fun Friday Dance Video!

It’s Friday and that means it’s fun video time! Today’s bonus? I don’t think anyone in this video will admit they’re proud they were in it haha. Enjoy!

Thanks I’m Remembering and Everything is Terrible for posting this!

Couponing Made Easy with these Links!

I’ve mentioned it before but I think it’s worth mentioning again. There are many people out there doing the hard and tedious tasks such as finding coupons, finding sales, matching them up and figuring out how to get the best deal possible. You don’t have to do it yourself – you just have to follow the blogs of people that are doing it and doing it well! I save hours by subscribing to the feed of all of these blogs and just reading the posts of the deals I’m interested in. There are many ways to follow blogs, personally I use Google Reader. I can tell you more about that if you’re interested (just let me know in the comments below or on facebook). There are also some sites that I only follow on Facebook and that’s just because I’m an unorganized mess lately But if you’re a frequent facebooker that’s a great option too.

Coupon Blogs I Follow: (there are MANY MANY out there so don’t think these are the only ones!)

In alphabetical order:

So those are blogs I recommend. Now on to MANUFACTURER WEBSITES that I visit for coupons. All I did was spend some time going through my cabinets and fridge and made a list of the brands I buy often. Then I used google to find their website and looked on their site for a coupon page. I also looked at their facebook page and found that many, many manufacturers put out coupons that way. Another thing I’ve begun doing is emailing the company asking for coupons. It’s surprising how many responses I’ve gotten that my coupons will be in the mail!

Now on to COUPON WEBSITES. There are sites out there dedicated to providing you with coupons. Here are some of the ones I visit:

1.  Most people know about Coupons.com. But do you know that Coupons.com feeds into Swagbucks? So you’re still printing the same coupons but for every coupon you use, you earn 10 swagbucks! It’s really awesome. The link below will take you to see what I’m talking about.

2. If you’re not interested in doing Swagbucks, then there is:

Smartsource.com

And the last thing is COUPON SWAPPING. This is pretty new to me but there seem to be a lot of sites out there dedicated to coupon swapping! Does anyone have one they recommend? Currently I’ve been cutting out/printing coupons for friends & family and we’ll exchange but I would love to join a group that has more people or even start a small one here. Is anyone interested? Couponing really is about helping each other out so let me know your thoughts. We could easily keep an eye out for each other and mail out coupons. If you’re interested contact me or comment below.

Fun Friday Video!

It’s an allergy-filled, rainy Friday so in my house that means it’s a day to watch Yo Gabba Gabba! It’s my little girl’s favorite show and to be honest, I like it too. So we of course watched my favorite episode “New Friends” which had Jack Black as a full-episode guest star. I love Jack Black and can honestly say I laughed the whole episode. So for my friday video here is a clip of one of my favorite parts of the show!

Youtube won’t let me embed the video so click here to watch it!

Happy Weekend and don’t forget to enter my giveaway that ends tomw morning!

A 24 hour Giveaway!!! Enter Now!

I’ve never done a giveaway on my blog before but I’m looking forward to doing them in the future. This one is quick and simple. I have a coupon for a free John Frieda Precision Foam Colour (hair dye) ($12.99 value) that expires on 9/30/2011. So we’ve got to do this quick so whoever wins can use it before it expires!

How to Enter:  (each will get you 1 entry into the giveaway)

1. Leave a comment below telling me your favorite hair color (whether it’s real or fake!)

2. “Like” Proverb31 blog on facebook and leave me a comment here telling me you did so (or that you are already a fan).

3. Subscribe to the blog by either email or RSS Feed and leave a comment here telling me you did so (or that you are already a subscriber).

4. Send a friend to this post! Have a friend comment below saying that you sent them here and you’ll both be given an additional entry.

US Residents only. Giveaway closes Saturday 9/24/11 at 11am EST. Please make sure the email address you provide is the one you’ll respond to if you’re the winner!

Good luck!!

I saved $104 on groceries and spent $167 – here’s how!

As with many families on 1 salary (and most even with 2!) I’m on a budget when it comes to food shopping. I don’t decide “okay today I’ll go food shopping,” run into 1 store, buy a bunch of stuff that looks yummy, swipe the credit card and go home. My trips are planned by clipping/printing coupons, looking at circulars, calculating my budget, looking up recipes, making a list and then taking a day to shop at 3 different stores (carefully timed as my little girl still naps and can’t sit still for too long). Now before you say “yea okay! Who has the time for that?” and close your browser, please promise me you’ll read this whole post before making your conclusion.

Whether you’re a SAHM, SAHD, part-time worker, full-time worker, single parent etc – there ARE ways to save money every time you go to the grocery store. There are ways to save a crazy amount of money if you want to spend HOURS AND HOURS on coupons/shopping and you aren’t particular about what ingredients are in your food but that’s NOT me. As I’ve mentioned before, my husband has to eat gluten-free, I have to eat dairy-free and we eat almost all natural & organic foods. It’s not a cheap lifestyle but it’s what we make work and I want to show you how.

Thanks to following a handful of couponing blogs, visiting the websites of my favorite brands and buying the Sunday paper when necessary, my coupon collection is getting pretty big and it makes shopping prep very easy if you’re collecting coupons as you go rather than all the night before your trip. Tip: Clip and organize in your “free” time. It’s good to print coupons as you see them because some will disappear before you get to them if you wait.

So as to not repeat myself, I’m going to link to previous blogs I’ve posted about saving money and eating healthy:

Finding Coupons, Budgets and Eating Healthy, Easy Money Saving Tips and Special Eating Diets

Yesterday I shopped at 3 stores: ShopRite, Stop & Shop and Nature’s Pantry. All of these stores are regional but you can use the same methods/coupons in most stores (Stop & Shop and Giant are the same company actually).

Store #1: ShopRite. My morning trip/pre-nap time.

Why: I only recently added ShopRite to my shopping routine. It’s about 1 1/2 miles from my house which makes it the perfect “run to” place, they put out store coupons, they participate in their own savings programs as well as Cellfire, they double coupons up to .99, their gluten-free/organic aisle has a great selection, they carry organic produce at decent prices and are often putting items on sale that there are coupons for. At this time I use ShopRite as my mostly snacks/coupons for shopping but it’s possible that it may replace Stop & Shop with time.

Here was my trip:

Store #2: Stop & Shop. My after lunch trip.

Why: I’ve been shopping at Stop & Shop since I went food shopping with my parents as a kid. Then I worked there for almost 3 years in high school so I know the store’s layout with my eyes closed which helps. They have a great gluten-free/organic section which is never crowded, put a lot of food we eat on sale, have their own line of organic & natural foods (and meat), double coupons up to .99, have a program that every dollar spent goes to a discount gas program and put out bonus points in the circular every month (last month Chris used the points and got .50 off per gallon at Shell – that was $5 off!), and have low prices on Applegate products which we buy often. I’ve had recent problems with their organic produce going bad quickly so be careful of that.

Here was my trip:

Store #3: Nature’s Pantry. My late afternoon trip.

Why: Nature’s Pantry is our local alternative grocery store and I’ve lucked out – it’s minutes from my house, the prices are very good, they accept coupons and put out their own, the store is big and organized just like a regular grocery store (many natural stores intimidate me and ultimately cause my anxiety problems haha), the staff is amazingly friendly and helpful, they put items on sale for a month at a time so you can plan easily and the selection is great!

Here was my trip:

Fun Friday Video!

Chris and I have been watching episode after episode of Big Bang Theory so it only seemed appropriate to post a video of my favorite character saying his favorite word. Have  a great weekend!

Want to watch more videos? Click “Friday” in the tag cloud to the right!

Consignment! YES!

Since becoming a SAHM I’ve become an (almost) master at getting what I want in budget. I admit that I’m a *little* bit of a clothes snob so clothes has been a bit more difficult than food and diapers. Not that I need designer clothes, but I don’t like wearing clothes that everyone has or are on every rack. And I’m the first to admit that there isn’t much better than the perfect fitting, last all day without stretching out jeans. So what’s a girl to do? My mother-in-law and I have become consignment advocates. She also does well at the TJ Maxx/Marshall’s stores but my luck has really been with local consignment stores. You can find clothes that aren’t in stores anymore and styles that can be anything from vintage to just last season so it’s PERFECT for my quirky taste. For all of my local readers, my women’s favorite consignment shops are: What’s New Again on Route 9 on the Fishkill/Wappingers border, Simply Chic in the town of Fishkill and Blackbird Attic on Main St. in Beacon (near the falls). For my little girl, not much beats Once Upon a Child (locations all over the country!)…although there is a cute shop in Beacon that I’ve been meaning to try out!

So that’s buying…but my new game is selling! The only thing better than saving money is MAKING money without working!

I sold a few things at What’s New Again…didn’t get as big a return as I had hoped for but it was enough to cover about half of what I’ve spent there in clothes. Once Upon a Child is great because they buy your used clothes/gear etc. on the spot and give you cash. No waiting around to see if someone is going to buy it. And now I’m putting together all of the things I’m going to be selling at Be Green Sale’s Semi-Annual Kids Consignment Sale, held right here in Fishkill next weekend and Westchester to follow. I attended last year on Friday for the new mom’s special night sale and made some really great purchases. I highly recommend you make plans to go and get there early! It’s big!! And consider selling next time, you don’t have to be at the event AND you set your own prices – definitely not the “usual” consignment rules!

So that’s it for me…those are my consignment recommendations. Feel free to comment below and add yours!

I Recommend…

Every once and a while I take some time to tell my bloggy friends about some sites they might be interested in. These sites are never “sponsors” or scams…they are truly sites/organizations that I participate in and hope you will too.

1. Swagbucks. I post about it all of the time on facebook but if you haven’t joined Swagbucks yet then you’re really missing out on some free stuff! It’s a pretty simple concept with a pretty complex system. The basics is that you have all different ways to earn “bucks” (points). Then you trade these bucks in for prizes or gift cards (to date I’ve earned $50 in Amazon Gift Cards). There are daily tasks you can do to earn points (answer a daily poll, read a few ads, do a search using their search engine, play games), there are random ways to earn points (doing surveys, watching video clips, going to sponsor sites) and then there are special time-sensitive ways to earn points (special codes given out on FB and twitter, contests, collecting special bills on holidays etc). What you put in is what you get. You can spend minutes/day or week on it or you can spend hours on it. You also earn major points for referring someone (every time they collect points doing a search so do you!). Anyway, it’s really a fun and cool site. I enjoy it and so do a few of my friends. Consider it!

2. Recyclebank. Another program where you collect points and trade them in for prizes/coupons/discounts. This site promotes recycling, living a “green” lifestyle and ways to help preserve the environment. It’s a quick, fun way to learn and earn

3. Expired Coupons for Overseas Military. Have you ever looked at a coupon and realized it expired before you got to use it? Personally, I hate when this happens – but I hate even more that I just have to throw it out. Well, no longer! Did you know that military families overseas can use coupons that have been expired for up to 6 months? I’m so excited to finally put my expired coupons to good use! This group is in the states so for the cost of an envelope and postage stamp you can mail them your coupons and they’ll send them to military families who could really use them! You also have the option of “adopting” a family overseas and mailing them the coupons directly. It’s such a cool idea and I highly recommend everyone that “does couponing” consider participating in this program or one similar. Every little bit helps.

4. And of course I have to recommend deeflash for new music to add to your collection Sure I’m biased because he’s my husband but if you haven’t checked out his music yet please do so!

Funny Friday Video!

This one is for all of my crazy couponing friends Happy weekend!

Fun Friday Videos!

This week’s fun friday videos are joint picks by my husband and myself. If you haven’t seen Freaks & Geeks then you missed out on one of the best 1 season shows! Have a great weekend!