Double coupon day at Rainbow

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A good week - with 11 coupons for Gillette items which were $4 off for 2 items each and each item was $1.79. I was able to purchase 22 items and I actually have $4.78 left to donate.

The other items are those that I suggested on my last post to donate to your local food shelf. My total spent for this was $3.84. Pretty good - I still have $.94 left to donate, if you're keeping track :)

This Saturday night my church will be preparing dinner for the men at Simpson's homeless shelter. What a great way to prepare for Easter - worshipping our God by providing for His people. I'm greatly looking forward to it.

Hope your Easter week is full of blessings!

Eradicating poverty one coupon at a time for under $5.00

As promised I will give you a weekly idea of how to use your Sunday's newspaper ads to help eradicate poverty. Additionally I'm going to set a maximum of $5.00 a week as my goal. So, if you're willing to commit $20 a month - what's that a latte a week - I think I can help you fill at least one bag of groceries/personal items to donate. What have you got to lose?

The main two coupon inserts in the paper are called SmartSource and Redplum. In addition every store has their own ads and sometimes coupons. So, in this weeks redplum insert there is a $1.50 off coupon for Dove hair products. It is $4.00 at Walgreens and when you buy it you will receive a register reward which is basically Walgreens money for $4.00. You can then take that coupon and either turn around and purchase something else, or use it next time - it will be good until mid-April. So, with your $1.50 coupon and the $4.00 RR - register reward you basically got paid $1.50 to purchase the Dove product.

Next you need to go to Rainbow - preferably on Wed. which is double coupon day. They will double up to 5 coupons which are $1 or less in value. In the Redplum insert there is a coupon for skippy peanut butter .75 off for 2. When the coupon is doubled they will be $.75 ea. Also in the Rainbow as there is a store coupon for Green Giant vegetables for $.38 per can - up to 6 cans.

So here is your total
Dove hair product - free
Green Giant Vegetables - 6 cans for $2.28
Skippy Peanut Butter - 2 jars for $1.50
Total - $3.78

I'd love if you'd post a comment - especially if you gave it a try. I promise it'll put a bounce in your step :)

Eradicating poverty one coupon at a time

Today was a fun shopping trip to Target. I had 9 coupons for Gillette body wash or deodorant which were $4 off of 2. The containers were $1.79 each and so Target paid me $3.78 to purchase these items. The real beauty is I got them all for Simpson's Homeless Shelter where our church serves a meal about 8 times a year. I can't wait to take them there next Sat. when we serve dinner.

I'd love if I could get others on this bandwagon. I've filled several grocery bags with donations for the food shelves and the homeless shelter with items above and beyond what I need for our family - which obviously consumes a lot. Just think what we could do if we all banded together. What an amazing thing that would be to fill the food shelves and homeless shelter with donated items that barely touched the family budget.

If you're interested, you have to start saving the Sunday coupon inserts and, if you can, beg them off of neighbors and friends. Then check out a site such as pocketyourdollars.com for the items that are on sale and what coupons you need to receive them. It takes a little time, but after you've stockpiled a few weeks of coupons it starts to get easier.

My goal is to list one item a week that you could purchase for next to nothing and donate to the food shelf or shelter. Everyone's gotta shop - why not feel good about helping someone else out while you're doing it.

Proverbs 22:9 - He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.

I'll post the item for next week on Mon. - wouldn't it be awesome if we could eradicate the needs of the poor one coupon at a time!

Mazel Tov!

This morning was going so well. Everyone got up and dressed on time. Mark is still gone, so soloing through the morning routine is tricky. Callie was a little off, had trouble falling asleep last night and woke early this morning which doesn't help. Ella and Jacob headed off to school and I put Shannon on her bus.

As I'm helping Christian get his shoes on in the dining room Callie passes me into the kitchen and I think - awesome she's going to get her shoes on. Then I hear a loud - smash - as she throws a juice glass at full force onto the kitchen floor. It spread from one end to the other of our very old and full of crevices and cracks hard wood floor. I immediately and firmly send her to time out and sit on the floor of the dining room. She starts her - that's wrong! Then spells it - W-E-D-R-N - WRONG! So, her spellings not so great, but she certainly understood it was wrong.

Clearly impulse control isn't one of her best traits. She just can't seem to stop herself, although after the fact can state that is was wrong. I swept and vacumned and shook out the rug, which I managed to finish before it was time to get Callie and Christian out to the bus. Christian seemed to understand I was harried and was well behaved - a nice side benefit.

After they left and I got my perspective back I thought well we should have just shouted Mazol Tov!

New to me

Over the past month Jacob has been tested thoroughly by school. He is coming upon his 7th birthday at which time the school must officially "label" him. His previous label was DD or developmentally delayed which Mark and I have disagreed with due to his incredible ability to verbally express his emotions. We have 5 other children that truly fit the DD label and none of them are as capable of expressing themselves as he is. Frankly, I don't think I'm as in touch with my emotions as he is. Not even sure I want to be.

The official label is now SLD - specific learning disability. This is determined by a gap between his intellectual level and performance in school. Was no surprise to me, but it is new to me. Although Conor likely would have received a similar label, we were homeschoolers at the time and did not have him formally tested. So, it is our first foray into the LD world of school.

Last week Mark and Jacob spent the day at the zoo. Mark was a little skeptical of taking him as the last visit ended poorly as Mark had to carry Jacob out from the bowels of the zoo to the parking lot with Jacob kicking, hitting and screaming at him the whole way. Ella was along and humiliated as well as angry that their zoo time was cut short. However, this trip was a great father son time and Mark thoroughly enjoyed it. When they walked in the door the first words out of Jacob's mouth were - "I was bad" - which was said at the same time Mark was raving about what a great time they had. Since they were talking at the same time Mark didn't even hear Jacob and I chose to ignore it and praise him for all the fun they had. This is one of the parenting hurdles with RAD - reactive attachment disorder - kids. We seem to be constantly trying to reassure him that he is lovable and awesome even when he is acting most unlovable and unawesome.

Mark told me later that he asked Jacob what animal he would most like to be. "A turtle," he said, "Why a turtle." "Because I could go into my shell for protection." Whew - he is so very transparent, which is helpful, but also makes me so very sad. How do you convince a wonderful child that he really is wonderful - warts and all? All I know to do is to keep reassuring him with the same kisses good night we always have - Mama loves you, Daddy loves you, but most of all - Jesus loves you. How very grateful I am that that is true and hopefully Jacob will some day believe it to the very depths of his soul.

To stop it - we must name it.

A friend of ours has been borrowing our truck for the past few months and today called to tell me she'd been pulled over by our local police. They said the first thing they noticed was the front license plate was obscured. Next they informed her the owner's license was cancelled.

Now what makes this frustrating, to say the least, is that neither Mark nor I have ever been pulled over in this truck due to the license plate issue, which is the same now as it always has been. Secondly, Mark's license was just renewed this fall, so that is also odd.

So, you might ask, why did our friend get pulled over as she has many times before by our local police for equally shady reasons. My daughter-in-law, another male friend, a friend's daughter - what do all these friends have in common? They were DWB - driving while black.

No, all police officers are not racist, but the proclivity with which this happens is, frankly, astounding. To stop it we must name it - to ignore it means it will continue and I'd really like for my children and grandchildren to be able to someday drive, but not be pulled over because they are DWB.