#SharetheLuv–diapers are a necessity! #spon #ad

A lot of our friends are living the diaper-free life, but we are not quite in that boat yet. I spend a lot of time (& I always have) trying to figure out which diapers are a) the best fit and b) the best deal so I feel as though we’ve tried them all many times!

I’ve been given the opportunity to try Luvs again (thanks, iConnect!) – they have made so many improvements since I last tried them.

Luvs are now softer and more absorbent than ever before and they feature large, refastenable stretch tabs – this is one of my favorite parts because anyone who’s ever diapered a wiggling, squirming kiddo knows that you don’t always get it right the first time! More than that, ensuring that right fit remains through toddler running and baby crawling is important too – the contoured Luvs shape really keeps a great fit adn the softness is gentle on baby’s skin.

The ultra-leakage protection (with Nightlock Plust^TM) is a great quality – sometimes we get busy and don’t get to that diaper change soon enough or sometimes (for those lucky parents….) they sleep a loooong time at night, so that extra protection is key to a dry wakeup!

In the spirit of keeping life as affordable as possible, Luvs is offering a $2 off any diaper pack coupon*. Print this coupon at home and use it any mass, discount or grocery stores where Luvs Diapers are sold –they come in size newborn to 6 with fun designs.  (you might even find some other useful coupons on coupons.com, too!)

 

Don’t just take my word for it, though – Luvs has the Luvs Money Back Guarantee – if you aren’t satisfied with the leakage protection of Luvs, they’ll refund your money – visit www.luvsdiapers.com fo rmore inforamtion. I had no idea they did that!

 

Find out more about Luvs Diapers at their website (www.luvsdiapers.com) or the brand social media channels

• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/luvsdiapers)
• Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/luvs)
• YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/luvsdiapers)

 

Check out Luvs (again, if you have in the past), use the coupon and report back to me if you find them to be a great fit for you little one – #SharetheLuv!

 

 

*excludes trial/travel sized diaper packs and coupon expires 30 days from the date printed.

This review was made possible by iConnect and Luvs. I was provided compensation to facilitate this post, but all opinions stated are 100% mine.

Cooking One Handed with Minute Ready-To-Serve Rice #LoveEveryMinute

I am in the stage of newborn-hood that involves a lot of forgetting.  Forgetting to brush my teeth (you’re welcome), forgetting to shower and/or change my clothes (you’re welcome again) and forgetting to eat.

I have grand plans of getting meals prepared ahead, using my crock pot and serving food to my family that doesn’t require a toaster.  But then you know, the baby doesn’t want to stop eating, or stop being held, or stop eating long enough to make those plans a reality.  And it’s okay, if you don’t mind eating waffles and pop tarts for days on end. (Gianna has not complained, in case you were wondering!)

Then I was reminded that there are other convenient, healthy and EASY ways to make dinner (or lunch).

Minute® Ready to Serve Rice has been a staple in my food pantry drawer at work for over a year.  There are more than 10 different varieties and anything that tastes good after only being in the microwave for 60 seconds is a winner in my book!  So I picked some up at the store when I was out this week. (I got mine at Target this time, but you can get it at any major retailer/grocer)

So I put my thinking cap on.

And my baby (because, really, she dislikes sleeping a lot unless she is laying on me).

And made some dinner.

I decided on the brown rice variety and some grilled chicken with teriyaki sauce.  I cooked the chicken on my handy George Foreman grill, so it took no time at all to prepare the entire meal.  (although, to be totally honest – I wanted to make this with fish that I thought we had, but didn’t! so rice and fish is a yummy, easy, combo also!)

Easy, fast and most importantly TASTY!

As I was cooking the chicken, I checked out the inside of the Minute Rice packaging – look at this you guys!

So many yummy, different ways to make this rice – what a great way to add some variety to what can be boring brown rice.  And how much easier can it get?

And, my favorite part, a coupon to go get MORE rice.  I clipped that bad boy right out of there and will be picking up some more next time I hit the grocery store.

Gianna made it very clear that she wanted to be involved in the food preparation. 

But not really the food eating (surprise surprise).

I give the Minute Rice Ready To Serve Rice two great big thumbs up – it’s easy, yummy, and I can easily eat it with one hand! 

Minute® Ready to Serve Rice is an ideal portable solution for lunch or breakfast because you can eat it on the go, straight from the cup. In just 60 seconds, you have fully cooked rice for any meal or snack. You’ll never get bored with your lunch since there are 10 flavorful and wholesome varieties. If you’re looking for a healthy option, Minute® Ready to Serve Rice provides easy portion control since it’s conveniently packaged in two individual single-serve cups.

Visit http://www.minuterice.com/ for recipes, including Minute® Ready to Serve Stir it Up recipe ideas and more information about the Minute® Rice family of products.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Minute® Ready to Serve Rice.

Just your typical tuesday night randomness

I have so much I want to write about lately but such little time to do it in. So bullet points will have to do for now.

• I may have mentioned how forgetful I am lately before. But it gets worse every single day.  I have recently: went to the bank to deposit checks, without the checks. Left my lunch on the counter for the 29118 time. Put the dinner leftovers in a container and left said container on the counter instead of in the refrigerator. Misplaced a roll of stamps.  left the oven on when I left the house (I remember when I got to the car).
• I am SURE Mike could think of more things I have forgotten, but that’s all I can remember right now.
• Gianna had a sleep over last weekend with her 2 BFF’s in the whole wide world. It was adorable chaos AND I got 3 three-year-olds to bed by 10:30pm. In the same bed.  Of course they were all up by about 5:30am, but whatever. They all had fun.  Pictures to come. Someday.
• I want to talk about my Bradley classes and how much it is helping us grow and learn as a couple. I need to make a point of it, actually.
• The to-do list is sort of, a little tiny bit, shrinking. We at least got 2 major things accomplished with about fourtybillion minor things left to go.
• What do you do with ALLOFTHETHINGS your kid brings home from Preschool? I’m not a keeper. I can’t remember to use the artchive app I downloaded, but I don’t want to toss everything.  There are a ton of cute ideas on pinterest to display your kids artwork – has anyone successfully, and easily, executed any of these?!  What do YOU do with all of your kids crafty things?
• It’s thanksgiving week, and I don’t actually  know how that happened. As in, how in the heck is November almost over? Wasn’t it just May?
• Speaking of ALLOFTHETHINGS we need to do a serious purge of toys to a) make room for whatever crazy stuff G gets for Christmas and b) make room for some baby stuff. But she really does play with everything that she has out right now, which is making it hard.  We just have such a small space for everything to fit in to.
• I haven’t really started any shopping yet for Christmas but this week have scored some awesome deals at Victoria Secret and on a new otterbox phone cover on Amazon.  I am so thankful for sites like Raining Hot Coupons who find out about and post about these awesome deals, it comes in really handy!
• Also handy, Amazon Prime free trial!
• There are some things going down at my work, that will be really good for me in the end – but right now makes me stress a little bit.  Mostly because I want the good things to start now, but I know and understand why they can’t start until after I come back from my maternity leave.  There is also a work from home (and/or work from a closer office)possibility. Which I am trying not to get my hopes up about, but still, would totally rock my world.
• I will be 30 weeks pregnant tomorrow. THIRTY. Unreal.
• Also Unreal: the state of the foot swelling.  It has been really bad this past week. But my wedding rings still fit, so I consider it a win.
• And on that note, I am going to bed.  Because I am tired and I forget what else I wanted to say tonight.

frugal. or something.

When I was unemployed I ROCKED at coupons. Seriously – I had a mad stockpile of tampons, razors and toothpaste. I would save more than $50 each grocery trip and generally felt awesome because I could get diapers for so cheap sometimes I felt like I was ripping the store off.  I was also awesome at meal planning when I was home to actually make a meal.

But using coupons and checking sales, it’s all kind of a lot of work. and I basically just ran out of time/energy/ambition to keep doing it when I started working full time again.  Meal planning has also pretty much gone out the window.  We were doing pretty good at first, but with the insanity that is our lives and schedules these days, it was the first thing to get forgotten.

Also, we discovered the magic of Aldi’s. So I was still saving on food but my razor supply quickly diminished. And we didn’t need diapers anymore, so that wasn’t a big deal.

But now we are out of razors, the tampon supply will need to be up and running again before I care to admit and we really should start stockpiling diapers & wipes again because we will be changing a little itty bitty baby bootie again in less than 90 days!

I love a good sale. And a coupon. But I don’t love the work that goes with preparing to use the coupons with the good sales.

Do you have a good method to this madness? A particularly quick and dirty way to match up what you need with what’s on sale and what you have a coupon for? I am mainly interested in toiletries, paper products, and baby stuff – food sales are always good, but you know, Aldi’s rocks so I rarely head anywhere else.  CVS is my usual go-to with RiteAide in second place. And Target on occasion (for this stuff, Target is not a rare occasion generally speaking).

And with Christmas coming up faster than I choose to admit, I will be looking for some awesome frugal gift ideas. And you know, any awesome frugal-ness that has developed since the last time I had a little itty bitty baby living in my house is also appreciated!  I also need to know how people keep up with the whole meal planning thing – we aren’t big meat eaters and frozen meals are not really our friends – which I suppose could be part of the problem with that whole process!

not-so-extreme couponing

Since about the 1st of the year I have been making a really big push to do my part in helping us save money.

I kept hearing all this hype about how people save hundred’s of dollars at the store by using coupons and to be honest, I thought it was a bunch of crap.  How in the world is that even possible?

So I tried it. And failed miserably at first.  The reason for my failure? I was so overwhelmed and disorganized that it wasn’t working.

I decided to regroup and get a newspaper subscription.

Then I did a little bit of research and found out that there are a LOT of people in the blog world who matchup coupons with what is on sale at pretty much every store you can imagine.  They take all of the stress out of the whole thing, they even link to printable coupons.

All I do is cut the coupons and look at the matchup’s after I make our menu for 2 weeks. I do take in to consideration catelina deals that offer coupons for cash back when you buy certain products, our local grocery store does these a lot.

I take out only the coupons I am going to be using and paperclip them together with my list.  I do take my little coupon holder with me, just in case, but I normally don’t deviate from my list. (helps me stay on budget and not buy Oreos)

I am that girl that will split up her transaction to get the most savings, so if I buy some toothpaste and earn $3 back, I buy that first and apply the $3 to my next transaction.  If I don’t do that, I forget about the cash back and it expires.

Typically I save what I spend, which is between $50 and $70 every two weeks on groceries.  Drugstore couponing is a whollleeee different ballgame, but I do the best at CVS – I usually walk out of there paying only tax (or slightly more) with cash back. It’s pretty freaking awesome.

My secret though is to only buy what I need, will use, and what I have room for. Just because something is free doesn’t mean I need to get it – especially because we do not have the space to store 1,000 tubes of toothpaste or 50 boxes of cereal.  I do have enough body wash, razors, toothpaste and toothbrushes to last us a good while – all of the extras I get I donate to a missions trip my sister is going on.

If you “coupon” (so weird that people use that as a verb these days), what are your secrets? Favorite sites? Organization tips?

I have heard, many times, that people don’t think it is worth it – and I didn’t ever think it was either until I HAD to start cutting back. To me, it is worth the hour a week I spend preparing. I equate it making about $50 an hour, since that is how much I am saving each time I shop. Hoping to get better and more efficient at it, but I feel like this is a good start!