Huggies Sale at Walgreens

Huggies are on sale this week at Walgreens for $10 a pack. When you purchase $25 worth of Huggies products, you receive $10 off your next purchase. Coupons.com currently has $3 and $5 off coupons for Huggies and you can print them twice by using the back button on your computer. To access the coupons, check out the pink banner on the left hand side of my blog, towards the bottom. You can print them right from the blog.

I used this opportunity to stock up on diapers for the new baby. If you do not have a child in diapers, this would make a great baby shower gift or a donation to a women's shelter. I purchased 3 packs yesterday for $16 and some change(I had 3 of the $5 coupons thanks to catching them just before they reset for a new month). I also received the $10 back so that made 3 packs of diapers come to just over $6!

Tightwad Tuesday: Scrapbooking on a Budget

I am a huge scrapbook fan, although I rarely have the time to do this hobby justice. It is an expensive hobby though. I've learned a few things over the years though on how to keep it affordable and still fun.

Keep it simple: The complicated pages can be fun but not every page needs to be complicated. Simple pages are sometimes just as rewarding and beautiful and much cheaper.

Watch for sales: I will very rarely ever buy scrapbooking supplies unless they are on sale or I have a 40% (or more) coupon from Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or Joann's. Occasionally I will splurge on an item from an actual scrapbook store, but even then it is usually a sale item. I try to avoid those stores though because they are expensive and extremely tempting.

Share with friends: My friends and I are known for giving gifts to each other of leftover scrapbook supplies. I love buying the large paper packs but there are always several pages I know I won't need and they would be perfect for one of my friends. Sometimes I only need part of a sticker sheet but I know someone doing a page with a similar theme. I save these random things throughout the year and use them as birthday and Christmas presents. I love it when I receive the same gift too.

Another way to share with friends is to have a crop night. This is a great way to share supplies, tools, and ideas. I've found some great tools I never would have bought before thanks to friends and I've also learned of a few things I thought I wanted but realized I didn't after using them. Crops are a great way to get girl time in and finish a few pages.

Look for items around the house: I've been known to pull labels off products and use them in my pages. Office supplies make great embellishments too. Look around at your every day life and see what can be added to a page.

Use what you have: Most scrapbookers have way more supplies than they will ever use yet they keep buying the latest and greatest. When my husband had his hour cuts I quickly realized my little bit of spending money was gone and that meant no more new supplies. I challenged myself to use what I had and it was amazing some of the stuff I came up with. I used paper and embelishments I thought I would never use and the pages came out great. I've only bought a few items over the past year thanks to this challenge and I'm clearing out some of the clutter in scrapbooking stash at the same time.

Do you have any other ideas on how to scrapbook on a budget? I would love to hear your ideas.

Food Friday: Rotel Chicken Pasta

I realize it is no longer Friday but I figure better late than never. I'm happy to report our child is feeling back to his normal self today and I'm getting caught up on everything that didn't get done the past two days.

I found this recipe years ago off the Weight Watchers message boards. I do not follow the amounts on here but rather use them as a guide simply because I rarely cook a full portion for our small family. This is another way to Live on Less - cook half portions so you are not wasting leftovers. If you do not like spicy food, I suggest using the milder version of Rotel or simply a can of diced tomatoes.

Rotel Chicken Pasta

3 cups cooked spaghetti
8 oz Velveeta Light
2 1/2 servings Rotel (one small can)
1/2 cup cooked onions
1 item boneless chicken breast (I use 1-2 chicken tenders per person)
1 garlic clove

Saute onions and garlic in Pam. Add Rotel and Velveeta, heat until melted. Add cooked spaghetti and cooked shredded chicken, stir to coat. Put in casserole dish sprayed with Pam and bake at 325 for 30 minutes.

5 WW points per serving

Guest Post

I have a guest post up today at Momma's Blog on Living on Less with a Toddler. Check it and the other great posts that Momma has up.

Delay for Food Friday

Just a quick note to let you know Food Friday will be coming either late tonight or sometime on Sat as I'm home with a sick child today. He is much better than yesterday so hopefully we are on the mend.

Spring Fever

The weather around here lately has been all over the place but the few warm days we have had have given me a major case of spring fever. One of my favorite parts of spring is planting my garden. I'm hoping to slightly increase the size of my veggie garden this year and have been dreaming about getting it going. In order to hopefully save a little money and give me a jump start on spring, I'm going to try growing a few of the veggies from seed (maybe flowers too). I found a great blog,The Dirty Radish that is inspiring me to give this a try. I haven't tried seeds in years and I did no research the few times I tried so I'm hoping that armed with information, I can succeed this year. If you want to try growing seeds, here is her post on how to start seeds. For my zone, this is the ideal week to start seeds so I'm going to give it a try and let you all know how it goes.

Simplify: Part 2 - Decluttering

During the Christmas season I discussed how I was simplifing my life for the holidays and I promised to show later how I was simplifing my everyday life. This is another installment in the series and I will periodically post more throughout the year.

This time I'm focusing on cleaning out the clutter in our house. I'm a natural born pack rat but I'm doing everything I can to overcome it. If you look at my grandparents on both sides of my family, you will know where it came from. After cleaning out two of their houses in one year, I realized it was amazing I'm not worse. I've known this has been an issue for years and have been slowly working on improving my habits. I know it will be a lifelong journey but I can say I've greatly improved over the years.

With a baby coming, we have decided to move our toddler to the room next door. The baby will get his room since we have never redecorated it from the nursery. He is excited for the new room but it is taking forever because this was our catchall room. It started as a scrapbook room and a guest room but quickly became the dumping grounds for anything we needed to keep the toddler out of. I would work on cleaning it out a little at a time but never did that great of a job. Now that I'm trying to completely clear it out, I'm realizing just how much junk is in there and wondering why I've been keeping some of it all of these years. Of course, there are some things I want to keep and now I have to find a new home for those items. Needless to say, the majority of our house is being cleaned out at the moment. And the best part....it is very freeing.

We decided a while back to have a garage sale this spring. I made myself set a date on the calendar so that I have deadline. I've already filled an entire shelving unit in my garage with sale items and I have several boxes tucked in corners all over my house (I hope I remember where it all is when the sale comes). As I get little parts of my house cleared out, it feels wonderful. Just this weekend I commented to someone that it was nice to have cabinet space in my kitchen again. (Side note: we have a ton of cabinets but most of our stuff is only in the high cabinets due to a very curious child). I felt like I was bursting at the seams before but now I have room to grow. The amazing part is that I really only got rid of a few coffee cups and random wedding presents that hadn't been used since we moved in to the house 4 1/2 years ago.

My biggest tip for simplifying by removing the clutter is to take it one area at a time. If the kitchen seems overwhelming, start with just the junk drawer. If your child's room is too much, just go through their closet. Once you get one area done, it is much easier to keep going.

What are you doing to simplify your life? I would love to hear your ideas.