Extreme couponing and a new family member?

Who knew couponing could be fun?

Really.

I've never watched "extreme couponing," and to be quite honest, in the past I have gotten annoyed when the lady in front of me at the check-out line has some forty coupons and requests "price matches" from ads from other stores. (By the way, Walmart in Marion does that).  I get especially annoyed when the cashier and lady in front of me get into an argument about prices or the fact that she can only use a certain number of the same coupons in one visit.  It's even worse when I'm crunched for time, or when my sweet, precious Nater starts to get fussy.  <--Yes, that does happen.  My baby is just like yours; he cries.

But today I may have to join the couponers; I have experienced the "thrill" of saving money with coupons.  I saved a whole $2.40 with coupons on my weekly grocery budget, and probably about $20.00 more by grocery shopping at my least favorite store--Walmart.  I've found that when I go shopping with Nate I spend more money.  Partly because he's strapped to my body with the Baby Bjorn and I loose some range of motion necessary for strategic grocery shopping and partly because I am afraid if I take too long I will face the stares of all the other shoppers when Nate starts to cry.

To be honest, since Nate has been born I have not been very good at sticking to a budget.  There's cute clothes to get (he is almost out of his 6 month onesies, and he isn't even 3 months yet!) not to mention diapers, wipes and all the other baby necessities.  Also, I have been spending money on thing to make our house look cute for the open houses and then there is my desire to buy stylish clothes since I have not looked cute for the past 9 months.  (Who am I kidding...I wouldn't wear stylish clothes even if I had them.  I live in jeans and sweatshirts!)  But now that I am only going back to work part-time--16 hours a week--I need to do better about sticking to a budget.  So I am going to focus my next few posts on my journey to frugality.  We will see how this experiment goes.

But in other news, there is another male living in our house...our garage actually. (Although he is well-behaved enough that he gets supervised house privileges).  Here is Jag, our "trial dog:"

Jag, 5 months, looking at Austin (who is standing in the corner).  Jag has really taken a liking to Austin!

Jag and Austin.  Austin says it's strange being around a dog that doesn't need to be "tazed" in order to behave.  Just in case anyone is going to call the humane society on us, the tazer is an e-collar and it's not harmful. 

And just for fun, here is a picture of Nate from this morning while I was doing my quiet time.  Isn't he a cutie?