Still Figuring It Out

My friend Amanda is now selling her homemade diaper cakes on Etsy. Check them out! She'll customize them however you like, too :)

I just can't stop talking about the awesome deals that Toys-R-Us / Babies-R-Us are having lately on Fisher Price infant toys. Most people either abhore TRU/BRU or love them. I'm tickled pink in love. I've NEVER had a bad experience with their customer service but I do know they are usually more expensive than other retailers of the same items (Wally World, Target, Amazon, etc.) but TRU/BRU offer coupons routinely unlike their competitors and have always happily stacked coupons. So if you shop the sales and work the coupons, TRU/BRU is back in the competition and leading the pack.

TRU/BRU is having a 30% off all Fisher Price infant toys sale and a free $10 pack of Fisher Price diapers with any $25 FP infant toy purchase. So, we have us a double whammie of savings here folks. Today, their 15% off one baby item coupon went into effect....so we have us a triple whammie now :) On top of all that, Fisher Price just sent out $20 off of a $100 purchase from their Laugh & Learn and Go & Grow line of toys (which are the ones on sale for 30% off). WOWZA.

I, gulp, confess that I bought Eli's Christmas present (Stride To Ride Lion), his birthday present (Laugh & Learn Home), 3 stand-up/walking/development toys for Eli (I swear he was in need!) (Crawl & Cruise Jungle, Activity Table & Walker Shopping Cart), our new baby niece and our baby nephew's Christmas presents (these are a secret) and Eli's BFF at daycare's 1st birthday present (Stride To Ride Lion). All with a coupon, or double coupons and 30% off and the diapers to boot. WOOOOOT!

Here is the low down: I spent $206 on 8 sizeable toys and got $80 worth of free diapers. The sticker price total on everything was $458. AMAZING. All of this was purchased with cash from stuff I sold on Craigslist that either I didn't use anymore or Eli stopped playing with.

I feel like I cheated on Craigslist with TRU :) Oh, let me not forget one more prop for TRU...I bought the crawl & cruise jungle right before the 30% off sale started, and they gave me a credit for the difference. They didn't have to do that. So nice. So I included that purchase with the total for the shopping spree this week.

EDITED TO ADD: The 30% off of all Fisher Price infant toys and free $10 pack of FP diapers with $25 FP infant toy purchase at TRU/BRU was good through Saturday, September 19th. The current 15% off one baby item coupons are good through 10/1 (one is 9/18-9/24 and the other is 9/25-10/1 and these are in the same booklet from TRU/BRU) and the $20 off of $100 FP coupon is good through December 1, 2009. I wonder if TRU/BRU will mark down their FP infant toys again before Christmas? Hummm. Since I'm new to this baby business, I'm clueless as to what the trend has been in the past.

Eli getting busy at daycare a few weeks ago. Rusty was dropping him off and he crawled as fast as he could to his friend Cameron (who is 2-3 months older) to start playing at the table. So today, I got to see Eli walking while pushing the exersaucer (which is in the background of this picture--one leg of this thing is stationary and the other two roll in a circle around the stationary leg). My lil man is growing up way too darn fast.

Publix has Immaculate Baking cookie dough on sale this week for 2 for $4. I've never seen them before but then again I usually am looking the other direction intentionally. These things are fantastic. They use organic flour and sugar and all natural ingrediants. Super yummy flavors too although our Publix only carried the chocolate chunk, oatmeal raisin and sugar. We tried the chocolate chunk and they are just perfect. A bit crispy on the edges and gooey and soft in the middle. One package has 24 cookies. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Now I'm off to bed with a lingering chocolate chip cookie scent in the air...aaaaah.

Check out the website to see what stores near you carry them and give them a try. Definitely worth it. http://www.immaculatebaking.com/

Edited to add that I accidentally just found the biscuits and blueberry scones at Whole Foods at an end cap. 2 for $7 I bought 'em and can't wait to try 'em out :) Yummmy. I'll be sure to post an update after we've tried them.

Rumor has it that there may be up to 5 coupon inserts in this Sunday's paper...so don't forget to clip clip clip :) You really can save a lot of money if you use 2 manufacturer's coupons in conjunction with a BOGO deal at Publix or on the the 10 for $10 deal at Kroger (for you Southern shoppers :)

To my sister the coupon virgin: Mandy--don't forget to buy a Sunday paper (or two but check to see if the coupons are worth your while before you buy any additional). I can just picture you now sitting at Looney Bean with your paper and scissors. It could be your weekly get-a-way :) Love you and miss you HORRIBLY.

I left the camera battery charger and cord at my sister's. Whoops. I am really going to try to get better at blogging in the future. Hum, maybe this is a good excuse to buy a new camera. I do definitely need one anyway...

Also, I added a live feed for the sole purpose of making sure people with bad intentions don't frequent my blog. Somehow over Labor Day weekend, this blog registered 11,500 hits. Not sure what is going on, and I'm positive the hits are NOT legit, but I do want to make sure those disgusting child porn sites we keep hearing about that steal blog photos aren't stopping by :) Maybe its just that the counter thing-a-ma-jig is on the fritz but I still need to make sure creepy folks aren't stalking my baby. Sooo wrong.

Here is a pic of Eli licking his Jack's Harvest apples and cinnamon out of the bowl last night. He didn't believe me that it was empty. This was after he also scarfed down some butternut squash and sage.