Busy times!

Well, we spent ALL day yesterday working on our yard. My wonderful mother-in-law and I moved bricks, plants, flowers, mulch, rock...you name it! It looks fabulous! BUT that meant not a lot of deals yesterday. Sorry about that.

Probably the same story will be true today. It is our oldest son's 5th birthday and I have a cake to decorate, presents to wrap and a house to decorate. My in-laws are leaving after the party this afternoon. So today is going to be a blur!

Have fun finding bargains without me.....I'll be back tomorrow! =)

Happy Mother's Day

We are having a GREAT mother's day. So thankful for my husband's mom and my mom...AND that we could all be together today! Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there!

K5 Graduation time!

Hey, Everybody...what a fun day we've had. So much excitement both on the blog and in our house. :) My in laws just arrived today because Riley (our 6 year old) is graduating tomorrow night from Kindergarten! So, we are going to be pretty busy around here. I will try and update the blog as much as possible, but if it's quiet for a while at least you know why.

Phew....what a weekend!

Sorry I've been missing in action. My husband and I run a Teen Rally each spring at our church and that Rally was on Saturday. We also had the speaker, Evangelist Dave Barba, and the men's quartet from Camp Joy with us both at the Rally on Saturday and then in our services on Sunday. So, we were basically at church from after school on Friday until last night (Sunday night)around 9pm. (coming home to sleep, of course!) I wouldn't have spent my weekend any other way. It's a joy to serve the Lord! We were excited to see many teens make decisions for Christ!

So, that being said, I will do my best to get "caught up" on here over the next couple of days. :)

Rainy day + Left over ham = Soup for dinner! :)

This has been our view all day today! I guess we're supposed to wake up to 1-2 inches of snow on the ground in the morning. Hard to believe yesterday was sunny and in the 60s! Ah...spring in MN! :)

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner with the little bit of left over ham from Sunday dinner. (We did ham sandwiches yesterday) Then I remembered this soup recipe that my mom put in our family cookbook several years ago. I don't make it often, but it's a big hit around here when I do.

Byerly's Wild Rice Soup

(Byerly's is an upscale grocery store up here in MN)

6 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups wild rice, cooked (I use a mix of wild rice and brown rice)
1/2 cup ham, minced
1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped or grated
3 tablespoons almonds, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup half and half

Directions: Melt butter in sauce pan; saute' onion until tender. Mix in flour and gradually add broth. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Stir in rice, carrots, ham almonds, and salt. Simmer about 10-15 minutes. Stir in half and half cream. Heat and serve.

Figured I'd pass the recipe along in case you have left over ham at your house too! :)

FREE online learning games for kids

Just thought I'd share my two favorite websites for kids' learning games. They are both free and very educational! :) My four year old knows how to get to the "bookmark" tab on the computer and then get into either one of these sites. That tells you how much we love them around here!

Spring Break Time!

We are off on a mini vacation to spend some quality time together as a family! I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to just getting away for a while!

I will be back to posting awesome deals on Saturday! Have a great rest of your week! =)

"Mr. Total $avings"

Mr. T$, my husband, is my right hand man when it comes to coupon shopping. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret....I HATE using coupons! Can you believe it? Are you shocked?! It's true! That feeling of panic sweeps over me when I'm headed to the check out lane with my full stack of coupons. I look around for the right cashier, try to keep the small talk going, but the whole time my palms are sweating and I'm willing every single coupon to just go through..."no beeps, PLEASE!".

That's where Mr. T$ steps in! When we shop together I go around the store and get everything into the basket. Then, when it's time to check out I head for the door with the kids and go get them situated in the van while he faces ...dum,dum,dum, dum......THE CHECK OUT LANE. He knows all the ins and outs of the policies for the stores we shop at AND if there's a problem he will talk to management or whoever to get it straightened out. And the most amazing thing? He doesn't get one-bit-nervous OR embarrassed!

What he doesn't know is that each time he goes through the check out lane for me and each time he just goes to the store by himself with my stack of coupons and list of deals....I love him a little bit more. :) (don't worry everyone...this is as mushy as I'm going to get!)

Here's some of his "conquests" that he found on his own shopping at Walmart over the weekend.



Boy's 3 piece outfit reg. $18 - $3.00!
Boy's 2 piece outfit reg. $10 - $3.00!

2 Iron Man toys: $3.50
Use two $3/1 coupons 4/10 Playsaver
Final cost: $.50 each!

So, total before coupons and clearance: $35.00
Total after coupons: $7.00
Total savings: $28.00!

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Now, while he was there he checked out the clearance end caps. AND EVEN took pictures for me so we could see if there were coupon match ups. :)

We found the following deal:


Tide Stain Release powder in-wash booster: $3 (clearance price)
Used two $3/1 coupons (from coupon inserts inside specially marked packages of Charmin)
Final Cost: FREE!

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So, this post is my shout-out to Mr. Total $avings! I'm glad that on top of everything else we do together that we've now added couponing to the list! Not all husbands would do this..somehow I just lucked out! He can face THE CHECK OUT LANE for me. What a guy. =) Thanks, Mr. T$!!

Happy Monday?

I woke up this morning feeling better and anxious to dive back into the wonderful world of couponing. Walked into the kitchen and saw my husband tearing apart the cabinet underneath the computer. The problem? Our monitor will not turn on. It is as though there is no power getting to it...he tried unplugging and re-plugging (is that a word?) everything, but still NOTHING. So, I'm at my mom's with the boys working on her computer hoping to get a few things on the blog this morning. What a way to start the week!

Bad news: Mommy has a fever, Good news: Daddy is still okay!

Okay - so now I'm down for the count. I started running a fever this afternoon. So, I'm not going to be on my blog for a while...I'm so sorry!! Hopefully I'll be better in the next couple of days. My daughter was the first to go down with it on Sunday night and as of 30 minutes ago her temp is 99.8 :( We are praying that it's out of here by next Wednesday because we had big plans for spring break! Anyway, happy bargain hunting without me....keep your Friday "Total Savings" and we'll tally them up next week! And don't forget to "like" Total $avings on facebook so we can do our super-fantastic giveaway next week!

~Rach

No Garage Sale :(

Well...three out of four kids are still sick at our house. We decided tonight to just cancel the yard sale. Hard for me to do since all the stuff is sitting out on the tables at my parent's house. But it was getting too complicated trying to figure out how we were going to sit at the sale and take care of sick kids. So my husband will be boxing it up tomorrow night and we'll put it away in the garage for a few months and try again later.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping everyone sleeps well tonight and that we have a happier day around here tomorrow....Good night! :)

My FREE 8x10 picture! :)

I love getting all kinds of freebies and good deals, but pictures are my FAVORITE! :) I got this picture developed free from Walgreens last week and today I finally had time to hang it up! Love it! :)