Broke

So tonight, as I was at the grocery store buying fresh fruit for my son, I realized I also needed cottage cheese, and eggs, and juice, and lunch meat....and pretty soon, I was spending $68 when I had intended on spending less than $20.

Healthy food is so expensive! And my son must be going through a growth spurt or something because I couldn't get him to stop eating today!!! It's the end of the month, and like most teachers, that means I'm broke. I can get through until Wednesday...as long as I don't have to gas up a car.

I watched the nice cashier ring up each item one by one. She made a joke (that reminded me of the "Target Lady" on SNL) about a "pair of pears". I smiled politely and reached for my wallet. After I swiped my card and received my receipt, I went to zip up my wallet. As if on cue (and as a reminder of my current financial situation), the zipper was stuck. I couldn't close it even halfway. I pulled and pulled. Nothing! Then I realized, the zipper was disconnected from the fabric. Gosh, my luck.

Needless to say, I will be hosting a Thirty-One party now in order to earn a new wallet. If you haven't heard of Thirty-One, you are missing out! Their products are a teacher's DREAM! I recently purchased a tote and a tote insert. I use the insert for my Mary Kay products and the large tote (turquoise) for the trunk of my car. It's perfect for grocery bags that tend to fall over, to take to the beach, or even for grocery shopping. I LOVE that the stuff can be monogrammed in cute fonts and colors! It was REALLY hard to choose the pattern. I stood around for about 45 minutes before I finally committed to what I bought.

 Here's a picture I sent to my Thirty-One consultant:

Adorbs, right?

Seeing as how I spent most of my money on my classroom already, I'm pretty excited to host a party next week! It will be the perfect way to remind me that school starts soon and I need to stay out of the pool and more time at work.

'Tis The Season for...Sales!

I'll make this short and sweet. I'm excited for Christmas. I'm working on some Christmas clip art that I hope to have done soon. I'll be participating in the Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Monday Sale, so stop on by! Save up to 28% on items you buy! Look for this sign:

Happy Shopping!

Holiday Shopping Secrets...shhhhhh!

Like most teachers (and mothers), I'm always looking for ways to save money. With Christmas right around the corner, I don't want to be caught unprepared. I also don't want to find myself standing in an eight hour line to purchase my groceries, no... the hottest toy umm...anything.

Last year I waited until Cyber Monday to do some shopping...that wasn't fun either. As you know, Cyber Monday falls on a...Monday. And having a tireless toddler means Mama didn't start her Cyber Monday shopping until after said toddler falls asleep. This in turn, means the Tuesday after was a no-fun-day at school for teacher (or students, I'm guessing).

Since I pretty much missed out on Halloween this year, I wasn't going to let Scrooge get me for Christmas. I asked my husband if we can decorate the tree extra early this year...like a few days before Thanksgiving. He actually said yes! I'm thinking it was the idea that he's going back to work soon and knows that having a toddler around makes everything trickier...or it could be the extra ice cream cone he had after dinner. Either way, I win.

Last night I was feeling pretty excited about having no school this week in honor of giving thanks, that the Christmas bug bit me pretty hard and wouldn't let go. How can I shop online to avoid stores, save money, and get all the presents before December even starts?

And then it hit me.

I checked my e-mail for any deals that might be happening this week. And sure enough....I had some Groupon invites. I also saw Amazon calling my name with it's "Gold Box" and "Lightning Deals". And even Living Social made its way across my screen. These are places that I rarely frequent, and after this epiphany, I'm wondering why?

I was able to buy a gift for my sister and her husband (to share), my brother (and 3 of his closest friends), my parents (to share), and my grandmother all for only $65! I am brilliant. I can make this holiday season stress-free and exciting! I was feeling so confident, that for an extra $8, I bought myself $16 at soap.com (one of my ALL TIME favorite sites). Tomorrow my mom will be watching my little man so my husband and I can head out to Walmart to scope out some deals for gifts from the "big guy".

So when you're feeling down about your shopping, start thinking outside the box to save money. Groupon and Living Social have experiences that usually are for two people, are local, saves the receiver space, and allows them to choose when to use it! It's a win-win-win-win situation!

 

In honor of saving money, Check out the cool free teacher stuff over at Classroom Freebies (I could spend hours on her blog)! The above clip art is yours free too!

The Fairygodmother of Organization Arrived!

Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, or any other office supply store are a dangerous lot. I immediately feel organized walking down their aisles. I want everything. You would think that having worked in an office supply store for over 6 years would have made me immune to the feeling, but it hasn't. If anything, becoming a teacher has made the pull toward office supplies even greater. Now I have an excuse to want everything in sight.

Now that the beginning of school is a mere week and a half away, I find the calling to shop for supplies   causes me to steer my car in that general direction. I purposely don't write down what I need just so that I can make another trip there for more supplies. Yes, it's that strong.

I recently went to Staples. I needed mailbox cubbies (since my old ones were being used as my new clip chart system) I was appalled at the prices for cardboard mailbox cubbies! $20 for 8! What a ripoff! I could use my Pinterest pinning skills that I've honed and create them out of cereal boxes, but who has the time or energy for that? Not to mention having 30 cereal boxes laying around. Not gonna do it. 

So I caved. I bought the darn mailboxes. 

As I was heading up to the front with my loot, I couldn't help but notice the "shiny shiny" aisle screaming at me to come check out its wares. It was the holy grail of office supplies. The mother of all organization. The fairy godmother of Pinterest. The Martha Stewart Collection.

I had never seen such a prettier blue. It was exactly what I told myself I needed. I neeeeeeed this. It will be perfect for my parent information wall. It will make the disappearing money I'm about to spend on cardboard feel so...much...better. $8 more loaded into my cart and I was on my way to the front.

BUT, Staples was kind enough to have a 15% off coupon (that I had to BUY for $10 last month) that expires in September. They call it a PayPass. It has paid for itself this week alone. So I left paying less and feeling only slightly like I had saved.