Oh how I love getting a great deal!!

I made my first Craigslist purchase tonight and I'm so excited! I found a couple selling a brand new Baby Bjorn carrier - in the box - for $25!!! I had registered for the exact same one - which costs $79.99 - at BabiesRUs.

So while Mike is at the movies watching Terminator with some guys, Shelby and I headed down Cedar Road to pick up the Baby Bjorn. The couple selling it was really sweet and it was in GREAT shape! So then to top off the good find of the night, we stopped by Bruster's Ice Cream where I got a Maple Walnut Waffle Cone and Shelby enjoyed her free Doggie Sundae! I even got a call from Elsie and got to hear all about how she and Jocelyn are doing. I may not have had my feet propped up like the doctor said, but it was a fun night and now I'm going to go pop in a chick flick, prop up my fat ankles and call it a night!

Oh, and for the quick doctor's appointment update: Apparently my cervix is soft but closed. Well... since my doctor thought 1 cm last week, but the other doctor thought closed this week... I'm somewhere between closed and 1 cm. A bit of a bummer... but really, these things don't even mean anything. I could still go into labor tonight or sometime in the next 5 weeks. :) Stay tuned...

FREE McAfee Virus-Scan

All the details on how to get McAfee VirusScan Plus for FREE are here on Faithful Provisions Blog. I just ordered this from Amazon.com myself and will get the $50 rebate, making it free!! Yep, it's for real! :) Just be sure to follow the instructions listed on the blog so you order the one sold directly from Amazon and not one from a 3rd party seller. Here is the link to the correct product on Amazon.com. You just have to purchase it for $50, select free shipping, and then fill out the rebate form. We desperately need this for our laptops at home!

Free Food = Happy Pregnant Woman!

Arby’s is offering something FREE every Wednesday for the whole summer!! There is no coupon necessary for these deals as long as your local Arby’s is participating.

Here is the Calendar:

June 10th - Free Roast Chicken club with any soft drink purchase
June 17th - Free Regular Sidekicker with any sandwich purchase
June 24th -Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase

July 1st - Free Regular Beef ‘n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase
July 8th - Free Orange Cream Swirl shake with any sandwich purchase
July 15th - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
July 22nd - Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
July 29th - Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase

August 5th - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
August 12th - Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
August 19th - Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
August 26th - Free Regular Beef ‘n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase

CVS Deals

On several of the Bargain Shopper blogs that I frequent, I always see these great deals and freebies you can get at CVS, but we've never had one anywhere nearby. I noticed a new one out at Hilltop last week, but that's still too far out of my way to make it worthwhile. Yesterday, we noticed that they tore down an old gas station on the corner of Volvo & Kempsville and there is a sign saying that CVS is coming soon!! That's within walking distance to our house! So... in a few months, I'm going to start trying to get good deals like this!

All done!

Waddle or not, I managed to save $59.80 (spending only $18.12) at Harris Teeter, make my returns at Target, stop by Michaels to find thread (and run into Aunt Debbie & Isabella) and swing by my house to drop off the groceries and let Shelby out! I was proud of myself! :)

Kraft Salad Dressing - FREE
Kraft BBQ Sauce - FREE
Lawry's Marinade - FREE
Mentos Fruit Gum - FREE
Mentos Mint Gum - FREE
Reach Dental Floss - FREE
French's Large Yellow Mustard - FREE
McCormick Vanilla Extract - .14
McCormick Large Garlic Salt - .24
French's Fried Onions - .24
Ragu Spaghetti Sauce - .35
2 Dole Mandarin Oranges - .54 each
2 Green Giant Broccoli & Cheese - .63 each
Wishbone Balsalmic Spray Dressing - .64
Oscar Mayer Deli Creations Sandwich - .74
Degree Deodorant - .75
YoCrunch 4 pack - .75
Lean Pockets - .99
Heluva Good Colby Jack Cheese Block - 1.00
Duke's Squeeze Mayo - 1.00
Texas Toast Cheesesticks - 1.24
Pillsbury Pizza Crust - 1.29
Oscar Mayer Deli Meat - 1.74
Claussen Pickles - 1.75

(and for anyone who is counting... I had 3 items over the 20 item limit, but she just rang them up in a second transaction for me... sometimes I think the pregnant belly gets me a little special treatment... and that's fine by me!) And because getting free or super-cheap food is so gratifying... I think I'll stop by Farm Fresh (where they double $1.00 coupons on Wednesdays) and see how I fare there too!

Change of Plans

Well, I had planned to do other things during my lunch break today, but then I learned that Harris Teeter is offering Triple Coupons AGAIN...and I do have a bunch of coupons... so I guess that's where I'm heading instead! If anyone wants a "cheat sheet" for how to score the best deals...there is a shopping list here that makes it much easier (if you have been saving coupons).

And... if I didn't have to waddle slowly everywhere I go, I could probably manage to grocery shop & still do my Target returns and pick up some brown thread, but moving fast is not an option for me lately! LOL. Oh well!

Happy Friday!

I realized that I post quite a bit about my pregnancy woes... and I hope I don't come across as a complainer or ungrateful... I've been trying to keep this blog updated daily, and sometimes there's not too much else exciting going on! I am so thankful that God has blessed us with this baby, and while it's been a much tougher pregnancy than I expected, I know it will all be worth it when we finally get to see our son face-to-face! I know women who have just loved being pregnant, and others whose struggles were so tough I'm almost embarrassed to mention mine. It's a crazy journey but it's a pretty miraculous process, no matter how challenging it may be. I've definitely already gained a greater appreciation for my grandmother, who had 3 babies in just 28 months & my mom who had my sister and I only 19 months apart. Crazy ladies! :)

Anyway... all is well. Tylenol helps my pain significantly and it's really worst at work. My boss is on the hunt for a better chair for me, so maybe that will help. I had my breastfeeding class last night at the hospital. It was very informative and overwhelming :) but I'm glad I did it. I even managed to score a great deal while I was there. I had been planning to purchase a SlingEZee brand sling online after Suzanne highly recommended it. Well they are $60-75, but apparently well worth it. As I was browsing the hospital's selection of nursing gear, I found that they carried the same slings in every pattern I loved and they were only $45 with a 15% Mother's Day discount! So I got one for $38! Nothing like a good deal to make my night!

Bargain Shopping

Coupons are a bit of a pain, but I think it's worth the effort most of the time. I spent my lunch break today at Harris Teeter grabbing all the good Triple-Coupon deals I could. I'm not nearly as strategic as some coupon-ers I know, but I have learned that the best deals are usually gone by 5:00 the first day the sale starts. So I sped over there at lunchtime and managed to find the shelves still (fairly) well-stocked.

I spent $13.80, saving $36.18 with my 20 coupon limit for the day! Not too shabby. A few of my good deals were:

Nestle Chocolate Chips: $ .54
Kotex: FREE
3 Spaghetti Sauces: $1.10 each
All Small & Mighty: $2.64
French's Yellow Mustard: FREE
French's Spicy Mustard: FREE
McCormick Spices: $ .74
Viva Paper Towel Roll: $ .04
Duke's Mayonnaise: $ .09
French Fried Onions: $ .24
Eggo Waffles $ .54
4 Knorr Pasta Sides: $ .28 each
2 Lipton Hollandaise Mix: $ .59 each
2 Lipton Onion Soup Mix Boxes: $ .67 each
2 McCormick Grill Mates Seasoning Packs: FREE
Breakstone Sour Cream: $ .34

So that should totally make up for the fact that I also bought some new summer maternity clothes on OldNavy.com today. Besides... I got 20% off my whole order, free shipping AND I had a $10 off reward coupon that expires tomorrow. :) And how could I resist this cute little hat for BabyW:

Welcome Home Aunt Stiney

...or Justine, as most of you would know her :) My sister, Justine, made the cross-country drive from Denver to here last week and got home Saturday night! She'll be here at least through September, which is great since Baby W. will definitely be making his arrival sometime between now and the end of July... hopefully on the later end of that range! We wish Justine could stay longer, but oh what a pity...we'll just have to go to Hawaii to visit her! She will likely be joining a team of staff to start a new YWAM base on the island of Kauai later this year.

We were loving the beautiful weather this weekend ~ we've had the windows open for over a week now! It's been so refreshing! We got up early on Saturday, and Mike's mom joined us to stand in line for a local Baby Consignment Sale... that was lots of fun! I might have to get there even earlier for the next one to really get the good stuff...I'm all about bargain shopping! Mike also painted our thrift-store-find glider on Saturday and now I just have to find fabric to recover it. There are a few things we splurge on, but for the most part, we have no problem with hand-me-downs and bargain finds for this little boy.

Style & Sports

Mike and I pretty much make all of our bigger purchase decisions together. I tend to be the one with stronger opinions when it comes to style, and I do like to research the heck out of stuff to make sure we're getting a good value, but it's important that we both feel good about our decisions. And while sometimes I do just want what I want, and I'll go to great lengths to convince him why something I picked out is really the best option, if he hates it, we don't get it, and vice-versa.

It really does go both ways... if you think I've sucked him into my world of modern design and shopping... you have to know that 3 years ago, I didn't even know what March Madness was and I'd never seen a college football game in my life! Now I find myself staying up late to finish the games and see how my bracket is doing, and I hate scheduling Princess House parties on Saturdays in the fall because I miss out on the Michigan games! So we both rub off on each other, and I think it's great.

So this weekend when we saw the exact stroller we'd decided on, just in a different color than I'd picked out, and found out we could get $50 off, the decision was surprisingly easy. Mike said he actually preferred this color over the blue/green we'd seen online... and it was ME asking him if it would bother him that it was Ohio State colors (Michigan's rival)! Yes, I even think in terms of sports now when picking out baby gear! He said no, and he thought we should just get it! So we walked away with a stroller that we both LOVE, we got a significant discount AND it's already put together! I think we do pretty well together! :)

Bumbleride Stroller

We have researched our hearts out for a great stroller. We'd like to have something that will not only be nice for this baby, but hopefully for future kiddos as well. A few priorities have been: quality, manuverablity, comfort, lightweight, style, longevity. After reading countless great reviews, we've settled on the Bumbleride Flyer and have registered for it in the color "Seagrass" and we are really excited about it! Today I found a contest to win one in "Spice" so I'm entering... and if you want to enter too to try to win it for me, that would be GREAT! :) Here's the LINK TO ENTER THE CONTEST. You just have to leave your first name, email address and a quick comment saying why you want to win. :)