July 2011
{drumroll please} announcing….PrintHotCoupons.com
I hinted yesterday that I’ve been busy working on a BIG new project. (And yes, I do know that I’m always working on a project or ten. But this one really is exciting!) It’s a NEW website! Because 2 just weren’t enough, ya know? Call me crazy if you must, but I can’t help be a little giddy about this one. If you follow SWSL in addition to LWSL, you are probably already familiar with our daily “Coupons to Print Now” posts, which provide an easy-to read daily list of links to the day’s hottest coupons. Basically we do all the work of hunting for the best coupons so that you don’t ... read more
thursday shopping 7-28-11 {& weekly shopping linky}
Today’s shopping trip was another chaotic & rushed affair. This week has been a little crazy (more about that later!) and this morning I realized that I had completely forgotten a commitment that had to be completed asap. Needless to say, making my shopping list and gathering my coupons got pushed to the bottom of the priority list, which meant another week of winging it at the store. I seriously need to pull my act together! Sigh. Oh here I go, whining again, after I promised not to for a long long time. Sorry. In any case, it was still a pretty good trip and I even remembered to get ... read more
The Beginner’s Guide to Savings {Week 3}: Save on the Big Things
Part 3: Save on the Big Things After spending the last week sorting out your budget and then recording all your purchases, you hopefully now have a fairly clear idea of where your money is going. Over the next 6 weeks be sure to keep those worksheets handy–you will need to adjust your amounts as we work to lower expenses in the various categories. Be sure to also continue recording all your purchases in the expense tracking worksheet too! (If you are new to my blog or missed out on the last two weeks, you might want to start at Week 1: Stop Spending before starting this week’s assignment!) This week we ... read more
Party Inspiration: Princess Tea Party
***UPDATE: See the actual Princess Tea Party photos here*** Princess is a girl who knows what she wants. She has been asking for a princess-themed birthday party pretty much since the moment her Crafty Pool Party ended last year. I have to admit, I have had a hard time mustering up a lot of enthusiasm for this theme. I’m. Just. Sooooooooo. Sick. Of. Princesses. Here in GirlWorld, otherwise known as the Soukup household, we are glued to the the APATT (All Princesses All The Time) network 24 hours a day, with the occasional commercial interruption for fairies and mermaids (though rest assured, they are usually fairy and mermaid princesses.) If ... read more
sunday shopping 7-24-11 {video}
Thank you all for your sweet comments on my last post. I could definitely feel the love! I promise to try not to get all whiney on you again anytime soon. I had a lot of fun shopping yesterday. Back-to-school deals rock! I just love all the fun freebies & rock bottom prices that pop up this time of year & yesterday was definitely no exception–I scored some awesome deals on printer paper (yeah!), pens, glue sticks (double-yeah!), scotch tape, & more. I was so excited about all the fabulous back-to-school savings I decided to make a little video. I almost forgot to swing by Publix to take advantage of the 2-day ... read more
one of those days…
I don’t have a stockpile recipe for you today, and I apologize in advance for this terribly whiny saga. But yesterday was just one of those days. It started with major website issues and a problem that no one knew how to resolve, least of all me. I really hate problems I don’t know how to fix. It feels so helpless. Most of you were exceedingly nice about the whole thing, and you have no idea I how much I appreciate your patience. Amid all the kindness, however, there was one nasty little email and, being human, of course that one bit of meanness was all I could think about. ... read more
thursday shopping 7-21-11 {& weekly shopping linky}
I’ve gotta be honest with you, I’m having a heck of a time getting settled into this new school-centric-drop-of-pick-up schedule of mine. On the one hand it has been great to have a few hours to myself each day, but between the morning rush of getting ready, then picking up one child at noon and another at 3, I feel like my day has suddenly been chopped into bite-size pieces, none of which I’m managing very well. Change is hard. Needless to say, I was a little crunched for time this morning and decided to try & “wing-it” at the grocery store. I wanted to first swing by Walmart to ... read more
The Beginner’s Guide to Savings {Week 2}: Create a Budget
Part Two: Create a Budget It’s been a week. How’s that no-spending thing going? Well, here’s the good news: You can start spending money again. Of course the bad news is that after today’s assignment, you might not want to. Hopefully last week’s exercise started you thinking about the reasons WHY you’re spending and also got you to start making a serious distinction between the things you want and the things you need. (If you are new to my blog or missed out last week, you might want to start at Week 1: Stop Spending before starting this week’s assignment!) Before we go any further, I want to make a ... read more
first day of school 2011
We had a big week last week. On Wednesday, Trouble started preschool. I’ve never seen a kid quite so excited to go to school. When we took the tour a few weeks ago, she was furious that she couldn’t stay, and when the big day finally came, she ran to the door to get her backpack and then marched out to the car. Her bravado faltered only slightly when she got to the classroom, but she dove into playtime and within 5 minutes of arrial, had already forgotten I was there. Princess was a little more subdued when it came to starting Kindergarten on Friday. (Yes, it’s early. Our school ... read more
sunday shopping 7-17-11
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I don’t know about you, but ours seemed to go way too fast! Although I did skip the drugstores this weekend, I did make a quick trip to Publix and Staples yesterday to pick up a few items that I would consider “needs” and not just “wants.” (A reference to last Wednesday’s Beginner’s Guide to Savings post, for those of you who haven’t been here in a while!) The funny thing about the Publix trip was that I actually had planned to buy a few more items, including Colgate toothpaste, Hershey’s Syrup, & Scotch scissors. Had all worked out as planned, I ... read more
Roasted Vegetable Pasta with Feta {Recipe}
After scoring lots of cheap broccoli & cauliflower this week I had a major craving for some roasted veggies. I figured it would pair nicely with all that feta which was also on sale at Publix. I briefly considered doing a roasted vegetable pizza on the grill, but I wasn’t really in the mood to make my own pizza dough. A quick peek into my stockpile pantry brought me to the most obvious solution: pasta (duh!) My cupboard is practically overflowing with it! The result was a nice simple dish with lots of depth of flavor. Husband wasn’t excited about the whole wheat pasta, but otherwise loved it. The girls ... read more
thursday shopping 7-14-11 {& weekly shopping linky}
I have been SO excited (and inspired) these past two days by your comments & emails! It was awesome to hear about your goals for your Savings Pledge, and I am beyond ecstatic that so many of you are committing to the 8 week Beginner’s Guide to Savings Challenge. You guys are awesome, you really are. For those of you who haven’t taken the Savings Pledge yet, I still want to encourage you to. It is strangely freeing to set a goal like that, even if no one hears it but yourself. Several of you also asked whether cutting out all spending for seven days meant also giving up coupon ... read more
The Beginner’s Guide to Savings {Week 1}: Stop Spending
Welcome to The LWSL Beginner’s Guide to Savings. My goal for this series is to guide you (and myself–yes, I’ll be following my own advice) through a series of assignments intended to put you on sounder financial footing. Basically it is eight weeks to a better budget. If you’ve already read & followed my last series, the LWSL Beginner’s Guide to Coupons, then the format of this series will be familiar to you. (And if you haven’t already read the BGTC, you might want to start there.) Each week we will tackle one specific area to work on and then complete assignments related to that segment of our financial life. ... read more
take the savings pledge!
I’m pretty enthusiastic about saving money. My personal savings philosophy is: Save on the things you need so you have more to spend on the things you really want. So I gotta tell you, I am SO excited to be a part of something BIG & I sincerely hope you all will join me. Today I was officially named one of the 2011 Savings.com DealPros and am thrilled to be a part of launching the Savings Pledge, with the goal of helping Americans save $1 billion. The Savings Pledge is, put simply, a commitment to being smarter with your money, to choosing quality over quantity, to making good choices, and ... read more
sunday shopping 7-10-11
I decided to skip the drugstores again this week in favor of something a little more fun: back-to-school shopping! I know for many of you, the new school year still seems far away, but here in our district, (year-round) school actually starts this week, and Princess will be heading off to Kindergarten on Thursday. Her school is a uniform school, which I love, but since we ordered her uniforms online (using Ebates, of course!), and didn’t get to have any mommy-daughter shopping time, I took her along yesterday for our back-to-school supply deal-seeking adventure. When it occurred to me that she was old enough to be a “separate customer”, she ... read more
