Joy of the Season

Yeah, I'm really bad about this blogging thing! The worst part is, I'm a blog addict! I visit about 5/6 blogs daily and here I can't even keep up on my own.

Before, in short detail, I introduced my online store:








http://www.thebumblebeebowtique.com/
I still have not posted any photos or cute logos or new deals/items.... but as of right now I'm taking a quick break from it all to enJOY the holiday season with my family.

Currently I'm also a couponing beginner. I've used coupons before, if I had them, and if I sat down to take the time to clip them... boy was I doing it ALL wrong! There is a whole world out there that I had no idea existed! I just sat down this weekend to figure up I'd spent $116 on about $275 worth of items! YAHOO!! I'm the type that goes to buy things when they run out and am trying to train my brain to buy 2 of an item when it's on sale or FREE (with sales and coupons) to just STOCK PILE! I follow these blogs for all the steals and deals:
http://www.stlmommy.com/
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/
http://www.bargainbriana.com/
http://www.iheartcvs.com/
http://www.couponing101.com/
You heard me right, I check these sites DAILY - sometime a few times a day. I subscribe to a few and get all the previous days entries in an e-mail each morning. They have all the coupon match ups for drug stores and grocery store, freebies, rebates, and internet/store sales. The savings really adds up if you take the time to organize.

Oh "organize"; here's another site I visit daily to: http://www.orgjunkie.com/
This lady has got me organizing my whole house! I seriously spent 4 hours the other night cleaning out the cabinets and medicine cabinets in BOTH my bathrooms! It needed it anyway, seeing as how we've lived in our home for 3 years now and it's never been done. But also it needed it so I could make room for my STOCK PILING!

Through all of this I feel like since I'm paying attention to our family spending I'm also doing a better job taking care of our health. With a slashed grocery budget, I've noticed we are actually eating better. I find healthy recipes that are under $5 (to feed the 3(4) of us (my husbands counts for two really), and we are having healthy hearty meals while still staying on budget. As of now we are allowing $50-$60 a week for all groceries (breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks/drinks). We've pretty well stayed right now. There are also some great blogs out there for these $5 meals.

Save is the name of the game. Amazon has been my best friend to for finding deals. Alyssa has a BIG birthday gift coming this May. Figured I'd save 60%/free shipping/no tax GET IT NOW! That's one less thing I'll have to worry about come spring.

Now's the time to worry about the holidays and that's going to be a busy one. We are pretty well packed everyday from now on through about the 4th of January. That's the reason behind taking a break from my online store. Orders can still be placed, but custom orders will just have to wait.

So with ALL that said, I'm going to ENJOY the Season and my family. Happy Holiday's to everyone!