Sunday Shopping

After church this morning my family grilled out steaks for lunch.  It was delicious!  My parents like to eat lunch real early though so by 2:00 I had to stop by Taco Bell for an afternoon snack.  My mom and I went shopping today.  We first went to Kohls where I bought 2 nice shirts and some linen spray for mom's birthday.  After my coupons my total was $26 dollars which I was very pleased with.   Here are pictures of the shirts I got (thanks Google Images). The plaid shirt was on sale for $17.99 and the solid belted shirt was on sale for $11.99.  I also used a 20% coupon and $5 off coupon for signing up for Kohls email alerts.

After Kohls we went to Harris Teeter to try our luck at Super Doubles again.  I didn't do as good as did the first day because a lot of things were sold out.  Here is a list of what I did manage to find.

Danactive Yogurt
Uncle Bens Whole Grain Ready Rice
Peter Pan Peanut Butter
2 Bottles of Vitamin Water
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Protein Bar 
2 Stoffuers  Frozen Subs

Total after coupons: $1.46


I didn't get much this time but for what I did manage to find I got for free or for just a few cents.  I'm ready for triple coupons now!
 

Back from Vacation

I just came home today from a short trip to Boone.  I visited my boyfriend for a few days which was very nice.  He cooked for me, went shopping with me and we spent some time at the parkway which was gorgeous.  It was nice to get away for a while before school starts back.  I am very excited about next week though.  On Wednesday, I start my student teaching experience by being apart of the staff development meetings.  I really am looking forward to the meetings and seeing exactly what it is like to be a teacher!

Now that I'm back in town the Felicia's and I are back to working on our business.  We all love being crafty so we are working on making some cute things to go into our store.  We have decided to change the name from Pampered Teachers to Tyro Tidbits.  We also made a website instead of using Etsy so that we get 100% of the profits.  There is a lot of work to be done but we all are enjoying making things for our new store.

Harris Teeter Super Doubles is this week.  Michael went with me Wednesday morning and we got a lot of great deals.  We ended up with two bags of groceries and household supplies for $1.64.  I lost the receipt or I would share what we got.  I will be going again tomorrow though so hopefully I will have time to post what deals I end up getting.  There will be 2 coupon inserts in this weeks paper.  There are a lot of good coupons in them, as well as some newer ones.  Hopefully I will be able to use some of them when I go to Harris Teeter tomorrow. 

Well, I have church early in the morning so I'm going to head to bed.  Goodnight & God Bless!

Free & not so free....

Yesterday morning my mom and I stood in line to get a free goodie bag from All About Education. It's a store on Main Street that carries all kinds of supplies for teachers. We got their about 9:15 and there were already probably 40 people in line and they didn't open till 10. While waiting in line The Olde Homestead, another shop on Main street, came by and gave everyone free Vera Bradley items. I got paper clips and a backpack keychain. I bought myself a cute lesson plan book in the store once we finally got in. Here is a picture of most of the stuff that was in my goodie bag. I also got a catalog and some other little books. It was worth the wait!

So while I like free things, there are also those things that I like to spend a little extra money on.  Me and both of my Felicia friends went shopping this weekend.  We went to TJ Maxx and all found Kathy Van Zeeland handbags we loved.  My cousin Felicia ended up getting a white leather bag and I ended up with a purple and white zebra striped bag. 

I have to work till 10:15 tonight which I'm not looking forward to.  I'm going to go to Walmart now and get some more beads to make some more jewelry with.  I should have a lot more up on my Etsy store soon.  Felicia is working on taking some pictures of her bracelets to put up.

Open for Business!

Me and Felicia opened up our store on Etsy.com.  We have a long way to go but I'm happy just to have the name and it opened up.  Right now we are only making jewelry but the plan is to make all kinds of gifts that would be ideal for a teacher.  I'm going tomorrow to the bead store that is opening up again in town.  I'm pretty excited about that. I spend too much money on making earrings and bracelets.  It is a lot of fun though and is a good way to pass the time by at work.

Shopping Smart This Tax-Free Weekend

In NC, you can shop tax-free from August 6th thru 8th.  I do plan to fight with the crowds early Saturday morning, mainly because crowds don't bother me too bad.  There are a lot of things to take in consideration if you really want to save the most money during this weekend.  First of all know that the stores are smart. They know you are going to come buy from them because it is tax-free weekend.  They will have lots of sales to draw you to their store also.  The key is knowing if it really is a sale or not.  For example, they may advertise jeans at JcPenney for $19.99 which is $10 dollars off the regular price.  Sounds great, but wait till the next week when they are are on sale for $14.95. You would only save $1.50 on tax.  Whereas, if you would have waited till the next weekend you would have saved $5.00.  This happens in almost all stores, I've seen it year after year.  So what can make tax-free weekend worth fighting the crowd? 

1. COUPONS!  Go online right now and sign up for emails from your favorite stores.  Most likely at least half will send you a special offer or coupon for this weekend.  Here are some of the coupons I can use this weekend that I got in the mail.  Some I can even use on clearance and sale items.  I will definitely be taking advantage of my Express coupon which is $15 off a $30 purchase.

2. Look for clearance items.  There will be a lot of clearance sections in every store trying to get rid of Summer merchandise to bring in their Fall stock.  Combine these items with tax-free and a coupon and you have a pretty good deal.

3. Shop around for school supplies.  If you are going shopping in a big city that has stores all in one area like Staples, Office Depot and Walmart then try and stop by each one to get whatever their weekly school supply deal is.  Walmart may have glue sticks for .25 while Staples is advertised a $1. Do your research before you leave home.

I'll try and post a list of good deals near the end of the week. Good luck!

Back again!

It's been such a busy Summer I haven't even thought to write on here. Sorry guys! I'm going to try and keep this up now, especially to remember my student teaching experiences. Speaking of which, I start when teachers do on August 18th. I will be in the 5th grade with an AWESOME teacher. I can't wait, I'm so ready to be back in the classroom.

So to recap my Summer, I worked almost 40 hours each week for the past month or so. I took American Literature online and just finished up with it. I started dating Michael Hamilton who is now back at Appalachian. Isn't it nice how when I'm at Appalachian I date someone back at home and when I'm back at home I'm dating someone at college. Just lovely, apparently it's meant for me to be 2 hours away from whoever I'm dating. Anyway, I am very happy and hope that we can make it together while he finishes up college.  Here is a picture of us at the beach. Excuse the quality of any recent pictures , I'm using my mom's old camera because mine died at the beach.

My best friend Felicia is finally getting an apartment. I'm so happy for her and John. I'm going to help throw her housewarming party at the end of the month. I can't wait to go shopping for their house. It will have to suffice since I don't have my own apartment anymore. =(

Felicia and I have also been making jewelry. I've spent too much money already on beads and things to make earrings and bracelets. We want to start selling some things but we are trying to figure out where we want to do that at. I hate ebay's fees, which for little things like jewelry doesn't make the profit very good. So we thought about having our own website to sale jewelry and other things. We will see how that goes. Here are just a few pairs of the earrings I made. 

I've been getting more involved in church this Summer also. I've done a couple of children's sermon, I helped in Vacation Bible School and now I'm teaching the 3rd and 4th grade Sunday school class. I definitely know that God has given me the gift of teaching children. I could not be happier with my career choice and can't wait to be a classroom teacher.

Outta Boone!

I haven't got a chance to post anything lately because I was so busy with finishing up at ASU. I literally had 20 papers to write and turn in last week.  I'm going to miss all my friends at ASU and it's going to take a while for me to get used to not having my own apartment.  I'm glad to be home with my family and old friends though.

I got my student teaching placement! I was so lucky and got placed at the school I requested, so I'm thrilled about that. I'll start August 23rd which is two days before the kids come to school so it will be so nice to see how the beginning of the year goes.

I just got home from church and the sermon was great.  He talked about how we should never make any compromises as Christians.  If you take one step toward the enemy then you will become more like them.  

I haven't had a chance to go to Harris Teeter for triples this week yet. I plan on getting everything together today or tomorrow so I can go at least once.  I also have to go to CVS to spend my ECB's so be looking for a new coupon trip to be posted pretty soon.