$40 Extreme Couponing Challenge - Trip 1

So... my newest obsession hobby is Extreme Couponing a la The Krazy Koupon Lady.

I decided to give myself a little challenge to see how far my money could go towards purchasing things that I need and will use. (I don't want to hoard or just use coupons for the sake of using coupons.)

Here are the details of my $40 Extreme Couponing Challenge:
-$40 in an envelope to use until it is gone (or the end of April, whichever comes first).
- If the money runs out before the end of April, extreme couponing stops for the month!
- Money can be used at CVS, Walgreens, Target, or other drugstore.
- All purchases made at these stores must be made with the $40 (with the exception of diapers, since I'm working on Charlotte's stockpile).

Here is the picture from Trip #1
which shall be known as the "$2.61 trip plus $11.49 for prenatal vitamins"

TOTAL Starting in the envelope - $40

@ CVS
- Complete multi-purpose solution
- 7 Snickers Creme Eggs
- Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash
- 2 Oral B Toothbrushes
- 2 Prenatal Vitamins (200 count total)

@Walgreens
- Colgate toothpaste

@Target
- 2 Olay Face Wash
- 2 Kandoo packages of wipes
- 1 Degree deodorant

Left in the envelope
$14.50 (Really $17.50 from Register Rewards swap)
+$4.48 in CVS Extra Care Bucks
+$3 in Walgreens Register Rewards (I used this on a diaper purchase, so I put $3 in cash in envelope to make it fair.)
+$3.92 on a Target Gift Card

Total left - $25.90
Spent $14.10 on today's trip - which is considering the vitamins were not part of my extreme couponing (they cost $11.49), so it's like I really spent $2.61 on EVERYTHING but the vitamins!

Let me repeat that!!
Here's what I got for $2.61!!
- 1 Complete multi-purpose solution
- 7 Snickers Creme Eggs
- 1 Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash
- 2 Oral B Toothbrushes
- 1 Colgate toothpaste
- 2 Olay Face Wash
- 2 Kandoo packages of wipes
- 1 Degree deodorant

And here's what I got for $11.49!
- 200 prenatal vitamins (Next time, don't get close to running out of vitamins when giving yourself an extreme challenge.)

Christmas Collages

The Living Room


The Seven Trees
The Guest Room

The Dining Room

Tour of the House on Humphrey - Inside

I've decided there is no good way to order these photos to make you understand the layout of our house if you haven't already been in it. It would be so much better if MTV Cribs just came over and video-taped the tour!

If you come in the front door of our house, this is what you will see.
You are in the main living room, which connects to many other rooms.
On the wall on the left, we have an ornament wreath made by yours truly that is more oval than round... oh, well. Looks good from the side!
The bookcase on the right of the photo holds a Santa collection.

Move your eyes to the right, and you will see our real tree and train set! It HAD to be up before the conductor (my dad) came for Christmas.



The doorway beyond the real tree is our guest room/Matt's office. Below is a picture of the mantel and tree. The theme in this room is outdoor rustic. I am calling it, "Over the river, and through the woods, to Grandmother's room we go" because my Nana will be staying it next week!



Now pretend that you walk back into the living room, and were wondering what room was on the left of the living room. Well, this is it - guest room #2. This is the Ocean City-themed room. I am calling it "Life is Sweet in OC." The mantel has fresh tree branches from the real tree and clementines! The tree is decorated with blue and holds many OC-themed ornaments, including our two Cat's Meow of Gillian's ferris wheel.

Looking directly straight from the front door is this hallway. On the right, there are stairs that lead to Santa's Workshop. On the left is the master bedroom. (And yes, our kitchen cabinets are in the hallway, upside down, stacked in every empty space. That's how we roll on Humphrey.)

Here is a glimpse into the master bedroom, with its three trees. The two tiny ones on the dresser are the Furman & Georgia Southern trees. The large one in the corner was supposed to be the winner's tree from this year's game between the two, but I may have decorated too early!

Back in the living room, between the Santa display and the real tree, the doorway goes into this room - the dining room. Yes, you've noticed more cabinets not in the kitchen. Maybe soon they will be!

This is the mantel in the dining room... gingerbread! It was my hope to have this theme in the newly-completed kitchen, but I am glad that I used it in the dining room this year!
Yes, this is our kitchen! Looks great, huh? Can't wait to show the finished picture!

That's all - thanks for visiting!

Tour of the House on Humphrey - Outside

For those of you who will not be able to make it to Humphrey Street this year,
here is an outside tour!

We really tried to get those wreaths up before the Christmas parade, but it just didn't work out for us this year! But they are up now! :)

Come on up the driveway...

... and to our side door!
(Santa's on his way!)

The wreath on the side door is made with the branches that were cut off from our real tree!

Take a good look at that side door because this may be the last time you see it! We are getting a new one installed soon!

Our Real Christmas Tree

Growing up, we always had a real Christmas tree (just one) in our house at Christmas. When I came south for college, imagine my surprise when fake trees were more common and you had multiple trees in your house!
Here is the evolution of our real tree (just one... real one, that is!). On Thanksgiving night, after eating lots of food, we decided it would be a great night to put up our real tree (four other fake trees were already put up).

Here are the befores and after!

I love the way it turned out... and the smell! It is decorated with red balls and all the ornaments from Matt's childhood as well as mine. So many memories!

Remodeling = Better House

Our kitchen no longer looks like this...
but what it does look like, well... you will have to wait and see! Remodeling Guy's 15 Ways Remodeling Equals a Better House (especially #12) gave me a smile (and some hope for our kitchen)!

Monsters!

I got the Monster plates and candy dish from Target last year when it was on clearance after Halloween. The print in the frame is from here. I want use the Vampire/Edward printable from that site too!

I hoped that we could have a Monster Mash/New Kitchen Bash, but it won't be this Halloween! Hopefully the kitchen will be finished by next Halloween!