Ahhhhh....

Yesterday I jumped in the car with two other friends and went to Anna Maria Island!

It was so beautiful! 

We had the place to ourselves for about 2 whole hours!!!

All the birds kept putting on a little show for us.

We had such a relaxing time playing in the crystal clear water.

 The treasures we found...

 My sweet friend 'Mrs. P' is the QUEEN when it comes to finding shells and sand dollars!

One of the coolest things was all the dolphins that we spotted! A boat actually chased some toward the beach and we jumped up and ran after them to try and get a picture. They were gone by the time we got close enough but we had fun running down the beach anyway. The other neat thing that happened was no more than five minutes after getting out of the water the group off to the left of us spotted a manatee! We could see it moving but not clearly. We ran down the beach to watch as it headed toward a fisherman standing in the water. In the picture below the manatee is right in front of him! The guy said it came to within 5 feet of him. We would of probably passed out if we were still in the water!

He is actually looking down at the manatee in the water.

I had such a relaxing time yesterday. It was so nice to be with the girls and catch up with them.

Then to top the day off, Church last night was INCREDIBLE! I absolutely love it when the message "just happens" to coincide with my devotions. I can't wait to re-listen to it! And for the first time in a couple of weeks I fell asleep quickly without having to take anything! I credit that to a stress free day and a good dose of God's Word!

This morning I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle some of these chores that I have been putting off. Its amazing how a little break can make such a big difference. Now I am off to sort laundry... :)

~Joy

Blogs I Follow

Here is a list of the 'coupon' blogs that I follow. I use google reader which allows me to hit the 'next' button to go to the next post if the current post does not interest me. This helps me not to spend an enormous amount of time reading or scrolling through all the posts. The other nice thing about a reader is you can 'star' a post which allows you to come back to a post later. I use that option A LOT! :)

Why do I follow these blogs? I follow these blogs because these ladies find a bunch of unadvertised deals at the store and tell you about the coupons that match up with them. They also post other deals they come across, free sample alerts, great printable coupons that come out, and so much more. And sometimes its just nice to see how others are doing on their shopping trips. It keeps me motivated and helps me not to miss great deals!

This week their were several deals that I came across in my blogs: ***Free + overage Kikkoman Seasoning w/ a $.55 off of eggs wyb any kikkoman product (the 1/2 carton of eggs only cost me $.40) *** Buy Kingsford charcoal get Publix brand free w/ a coupon for $3.50 off pork wyb Kingsford and Kings Hawaiin rolls (I found a package of cubed pork for $2.66 which made it free and the $.84 overage helped to buy the $1.50 rolls) *** Yoplait yogurt is 2/$4 There is a coupon for $2/2 in the yellow adv. buy flier. I used a $.50 q and a free product coupon which made it free + $.50 overage *** Hot Shot $2.79 I used $1 off q in the yellow adv. buy flier and a $1 printable so it only cost me $.79 *** I missed the Pepperidge Farm roll deal but saw someone else buy it, it ended up being $1 for 2 bags of rolls.

I hope this list helps those of you who asked me about what blogs I follow! Have fun finding your favorites! :)

My Top 3 Favorite:

My Sweet Savings

I Heart Publix

Passionate Penny Pincher


Others I follow:

The Prudent Patron


The Krazy Coupon Lady

Hip 2 Save


Southern Savers

The Frugal Girls

Totally Target

Got Coupons?

Publix Shopping Trip

Spent: $28.65 (+$1.60 tax)   Saved: $101.91 or 78%

I also bought a gas card but I didn't include the cost or savings in my above totals. :)

My Dark Knight

Michael just got his puppets and costume for the summer in!

He is a ferocious dark knight! Campers and VBS kids BEWARE! 

Mother's Day Weekend

I just wanted to share a quick post about our weekend. My sister came up on Friday afternoon with her girls so we could all go to our Mother-Daughter Luncheon on Saturday.

The twins look ecstatic to get their picture taken, don't they?

This was my little family on Mother's day

I took this picture right after opening my gift and Josiah was a little intent on staring at my present.

They got me SHARI'S BERRIES!!!!!!! I am so excited! I love these things! The box that they get shipped in crack me up. Here are two pics of the sayings they have on the box.

You want to see what was in the box?

I warn you... my doors are locked and I refuse to share!

12 glorious chocolate covered strawberries. I think the white chocolate ones are my favorite but they are all so incredibly good!!!

Life is GOOD!

-Joy

Walmart Shopping Trip

Four transactions all together totaling...

Spent: $23.03  Saved: $53.68 or 70%

Those potato roll buns were not on sale... I splurged. I can't wait to have them tonight with my bbq beef!

And who can pass up $1 shirts? Or $.55/lb chicken? Everything else was free (minus the cards)! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Joy

Publix/Winn Dixie Shopping Trips

Publix

Transaction #1

Spent: $0.18  Saved: $18.77 or 99%

Transaction #2

Spent: $5.17  Saved: $16.78 or 76%

***

Winn Dixie

Spent: $25.71  Saved: $31.66 or 55%

I went to WD to use that $5 off $30 coupon so I can get the bogo roast. I picked up some stuff I needed and the canned stuff that was on sale to bring it up to $30. 

Guess what is in my crock pot for dinner tonight?

Josiah got spoiled today with all these stickers! Last week Publix was out of stickers and my cashier and bagger felt so bad that they couldn't give him one. Today I had the same ladies so each of them gave him one even before my groceries started to be scanned. :) And of course, the lady at Winn Dixie saw the Publix stickers and commented on them and then promptly handed Josiah a WD sticker. :-)

Don't forget there will be a free coupon class this Friday @ 6pm @ my mom's house (Let me know if you need directions!). All you need to bring is a side dish or dessert. I hope you can come enjoy some fellowship with other ladies as we discuss one of my favorite topics! :)