DIY Couponing...Let's call it Couponing 101 The Basics!

     Welcome to Couponing!!! I am going to be doing a series of blog posts on this topic to help those who are NEW to couponing and even those that are already couponing! They say if ya don't learn something new everyday then your not living...so it's my goal to try to help us ALL learn something NEW each day! I know for a fact that doing this series on Coupining will also help ME personally gain some crucial and helpful knowledge. So perhaps this is a selfish posting series??? I don't know! I DO KNOW...that I am HOOKED on couponing!!! I love FREEBIES...and Great Deals too! SO in this blogging series on Couponing I will also be sharing some of those things with you too! After all...if it helps us all save some money....it HAS to be a great thing..right? I thought so! OK...so let's get to the basics! PLEASE KNOW...this is NOT EXTREME COUPONING like you see on TV....what I TRY to do is EFFECTIVE Couponing! What works for MY family! What you see on TV takes DAYS to plan and a lot of people to set up and prepare...although the show can be fun to watch...I personally will never use 66 bottles of mustard!!! I also do NOT condone or promote falsifying coupons! You can do this in an honest way and still save TONS OF MONEY!!!
     I've had a few of my girlfriends ask me "How do I even get started?" So I thought we could start with that!
     Gather Coupons! Great place to begin is with your Sunday Paper! I follow a few great pages on Facebook that post AHEAD of time and let everyone know which coupons are coming out...are they Red Plum...Smart Source etc. So I personally gauge HOW MANY papers I will be getting that Sunday from that info I get from them!  Sometimes its 2 and sometimes it's been 5 Sunday Newspapers!! It all depends on what I think our family will be needing and USING! Now, I gather coupons not just for our family in this house...which is My husband Steve our youngest daughter Taylor and myself...but I also try to get coupons for Our oldest daughter Kaylen and her family...her Hubby and 3 daughters....then I try to get a few for our middle daughter Rebecca and her Boyfriend. So as you can see...I make a huge attempt to collect for all of us!
   Another GREAT way to gather coupons is online! There are a LOT of Free sites like Shopathome.com,  Coupons.com and MORE! All ya have to do to find THESE is google "Coupons"!! THAT EASY! You can typically print up to 2 times of each coupon. The next place I grab coupons from is Target.com and the COOL thing about printing out Target coupons is that you can STACK them with Manufacturers coupons. A Manufacturers Coupon is one that you typically get in the coupons in the Sunday Paper. Say you have 1.00 coupon for Fructis Shampoo and Target has 1.00 coupon for the same item! You just saved 2.00 on that item!!! You can also do this with CVS and Walgreens and other places like this. You can ALSO find sites that you can purchase coupons, you can purchase particular coupons that you are in need of or purchase entire inserts.
     So now you have all these coupons....HOW are you going to organize them??? Well there are a few different methods and you could try a few of them to find which works best for you. I personally use the Binder Method! There is the coupon organizer that could fit into your purse. It is an accordion style organizer and if you don't use a LOT of coupons this might be the method for you. Some like to just keep the coupon inserts whole and file them away by the date until they need particular coupons from them. I have tried a few other options and again...I love the Binder Method. I have a double ring binder that zips up. I have it filled with baseball card holders...you know the ones that have 9 pockets on them?? Ya...those! I have dividers for Categories that fit the needs of our family. The coupons that I have separated into category are on the left hand ring of the binder. On the right hand side of the binder I have it organized with tabs to Stores. CVS...Target....Walgreens etc. If you want to try the binder method.....I have an awesome source for you to help get a binder system going a bit quicker.... Loaded Couponbook.com They can help get you off to a GREAT start with your binder, they provide inserts with their kits which is part of their Instant System to help aid in getting a jump start with couponing. They are on FB AND they have a website!!! Amazing people to work with and fast shipping too!
     When I get my coupons I separate them into stacks first from the inserts. I take the inserts apart and put all the same coupons together in each pile. This makes cutting the coupons SO MUCH EASIER! When I started...I was going through one insert at a time and then having to go back and find the other 2 or 3 coupons that were the same and then file them in my binder! UGH!! Such a HUGE waste of TIME! So take them apart and cut them all at once! Trust me!
  I also follow a LOT of great pages on FB for Coupons, Deals and FREEBIES!!! YES you read that right...FREEBIES!!! I have a drawer and a cupboard here at the house FILLED with them. The girls know to always go there first for deodorant...toothpaste and even laundry soap!!! We have even gotten FULL cans of powder formula...THE BIG ONES!!! FREE!
  Here are some of the GREAT Pages THAT I personally follow on FB for these great deals and helpers! If you have trouble finding them...PLEASE let me know and I will help you find them!
Blessings N Couponing
NiftyThrifty Savings
Coupons
Coupon Divas
The Krazy Coupon Lady
Centsible Girll  (yes 2 l's girll)
Coupon Sammi
Xanders CouponMommy
Coupon Gmama
Rockin Coupons
Freebies GreatDeals
Coupons SaveMoney
This is just a SHORT LIST!  Use your Facebook to it's maximum potential!!! Just type in COUPONS or FREEBIES in the search bar and you can find TONS of great resources on there!
     You can also write to companies for Coupons! I am going to work on a list that I have going of Companies that I just wrote a simple email to...told them what I thought of their product and they sent me coupons in the mail! It was AMAZING! Some of them were HIGH DOLLAR COUPONS!!! Like 2.00 off Tide!!! So I will work on the list and fine tune it and use that in another coupon post for you all!
     I think this is a great start! I would LOVE to hear if you personally organize YOUR coupons in another way that works best for you! Perhaps you have another source for coupons?? Let us know and we will share it with others for you too!
     I hope this helps you get started on your couponing! You can save SOOO much money with coupons! Oh and PLEASE DON'T TOSS your expired coupons! The expired coupons can be used by our military families for 6 months after the expiration date! On my next post I will do my best to have some addresses as to where you can send them to!
Until next time...Happy Couponing!!!!

DIY Decorating Paper Mache Letters

Hi Everyone!!!
This was one of my all time FAVORITE projects!!! I think I have found a NEW Hobby!!!! This was so easy and fun to do! Didn't take much time at all! I thought it would be much easier if I posted the Video for you to watch! If you have any questions or comments PLEASE feel free to let us know!
I hope you enjoy the video and HAVE FUN making some of these yourself! I would love to see what you create with this technique!!!

"Random Mommy-ism" Boogie Man and Other Things That Go Bump in the NIGHT!!

     Time for another of my "Mommy-isms". I was reminded about this the other day when our girls were reminiscing about the things I used to do when they were little. The little tricks...that at the time made me their HERO but now they realize were just that...little tricks!
     All of us along with our children...and for some of us...even our Grandchildren now have at some point or another been fearful or afraid of something or another, especially at night! Mostly it's at the young tender age of between 2-8 yrs old...some even beyond that age...but we have all felt it at one point or another. It typically begins with our little ones doing there best to convince us that there is a "Boogie man" or "Monster" in their closet or under their beds. We relentlessly make every attempt to convince them that there is nothing there! Well when our youngest...Taylor who is now 15, was little....she had a HORRIBLE fear of Elephants!!! ELEPHANTS of all things!!! She was so little she called them "FEE FEETS" Ya I know...Fee Feets! But that was her word for them! I had tried EVERYTHING...taken her to the library and showed her pictures....showed her them on TV...it just made her fear STRONGER! IT was the oddest thing I tell ya!
     Living here in the Reno-Sparks Lake Tahoe area we have a LOT of casinos...so we even took her to a local Hotel Casino that at the time had Elephants for a huge show. During the day they would take the Elephants outside and give them their baths...have play time etc. They would also make it so that the public could SEE and even interact a bit with them! The older kids thought it was awesome...but ohhhh boy! One day we were driving by on the freeway...and they were outside in their play area...the Elephants not my kids...haha...so I beelined it OFF the freeway and I thought...MAYBE this will do the trick! So we all get out of the car and I have Tay in my arms and we start walking up to where the Elephants are playing in the water inside this huge gated area. I am walking slowly...and stopping here and there...talking to her about the Elephants. I feel her grip getting tighter around my neck...I keep talking really calmly to her...telling her how cute they are...and OHHH look they are taking a bath Tay...just like you do....you know...the silly things we say to our children. So just when I think...THIS MIGHT BE WORKING...she tightens her grip even more and makes every attempt to climb to the top of my head and SHE PEES ALL OVER ME! So this...we will call a FAILED attempt!
     So we get home...and now that I have traumatized my child...I begin thinking she will never sleep in her own bed...EVER!!!! She is forever going to be convinced that there is a FEE FEET under her bed! So it hits me...I have a light bulb moment like NEVER before....this is SURE TO WORK......
     My next move is to the kitchen....I grab the spray bottle that I use for spritzing the plants and ok...ya I admit...the kids! I then go and find one of the kids books that has an Elephant in it...and I make a copy of it on the copier. I taped it on...and I found a red sharpie and drew that big ANTI circle on it with the line through it!!! She couldn't read so what did it matter??? It was the principal!! HAHA!
     I go and find Taylor and I show her WHAT MOMMY HAS FOUND!!!! FEE FEET GO AWAY SPRAY!!! I give her the bottle of what she then called FEE FEET SPRAY and of course its just filled with water...and I take her to her room...and we SPRAY EVERYWHERE....she says FEE FEET GO AWAY....we sprayed under her bed...in her closet...she went nuts. And I let her! She giggled...she laughed...and she sprayed away!!!! We did it that night before bed too!!! JUST in case we missed one! Ya know what??? IT WORKED!!! We had to keep the spray in her room...on her little dresser...but ya know what??? EVERY TIME she even thought of an Elephant...or Fee Feet...she would get her trusty spray bottle and spray away! For me it was a giggle...but for her...it was comfort in a spray bottle! Her very own Anti Elephant Spray!
     I have shared this with friends who had children and Boogie Man issues...and this works great! I know it sounds so silly!!!  But IT JUST DOES! It gives them a little bit of control in their fears....and us...a peaceful nights sleep! So next time your little one has a Monster in their closet...grab your spray bottle and draw a funny monster on it...let them go crazy! And then...you...go get some rest!
Let me know how this works for you! I'd love to hear your feedback. OR things you have done to help your little ones through their fears!

DIY Haircut...Little Girls Long BOB

We did our Granddaughter Jazzy's haircut today and posted hers on YouTube as well and thought it would make another great tutorial! She has a LOT of that fine baby soft curly hair on the underneath layer of her hair and it was becoming a huge pain whenever we tried to pull it up or do anything with her hair! It was time to give her a cute litte...or I mean BIG girl haircut that she could brush out and begin to learn how to do her hair a little bit on her own from time to time. So we gave her a long bob haircut with a bit of framing around her cute little face to show off her dimples...well that and to blend in what someone else had done to her with a pair of scissors and NO knowledge of haircutting!!!
So grab your scissors...YOUR SCISSORS FOR HAIR...not your sewing scissors or your pinking shears! HA! And take a peak at our latest video...Starring Jasmine!!!

DIY Little Girls Haircut At Home

Just a few years ago...Geeze...I guess more like 10 almost now...I was a licensed Cosmetologist...I loved it but decided it was time to move on to something else...
Ok so ENOUGH about ME!!!
I thought that since this is a DIY blog and it's about saving money and family....and our Granddaughter Sammy needed a REAL haircut...that I would...well...Share it with all of YOU!
This is a super easy hair cut...the key to this hair cut is keeping your little ones head TIPPED in the OPPOSITE direction of where your cutting. This will automatically put the hair in position for whats referred to as an UNDERCUT. Basically what that means is the layers of hair will fall into position to give it a really soft and subtle bend UNDER. This works GREAT on just about all hair types, lengths of hair and it's not just a tip for little ones...it works great on all ages for people who want that soft bend at the end. Oh...and the boys that want that Justin Bieber look! HAHA!
I hope you enjoy the video...we will be posting another one here really soon with my other Granddaughter Jazzy. Also...we will be doing a Video showing how to do a fade with Clippers!!! Lots of stuff planned here at The DIY Family!!!
Have fun with this haircut! Oh!! Don't forget to use haircutting scissors!!! No dull scissors or the scissors you use for your sewing room...or for Pete's sake YOUR SCRAPBOOKING scissors!!! No Funny EDGE Scissors!!!! LOL
Here's the Video...Hope you like it!!!

The Secret To Happiness

Is there a true Secret To Happiness?? Is this secret supposed to last a life time? A minute? A day?
I sometimes wonder if I am making EVERYONE happy?? By that I mean my husband Steve...our 3 girls...the granddaughters...the lady behind me in Zumba...well not really the Zumba thing... but you know what I mean...EVERYONE!!!
They say it's typically women that just do this...that we have all these proverbial balls in the air that we juggle and we are so busy making sure that everyone else is taken care of and happy that we sometimes forget about ourselves. We are worriers...it's true. Women tend to worry more than men do too... we worry and process things over and over so much more then men tend to do. Men have this crazy insane way of mentally filing things away in some odd and secretive compartment in their brains. Why women didn't get this fancy compartment I don't know...was it after market or are they born with it? I do know that if I had to choose to have envy over this after market magic compartment and the little thing called penis envy...I would be guilty of after market magic compartment envy!!! 
So how do we as women handle worrying and making sure everyone around us is happy! We WORK at everything every day...we wipe questionable things off of our little ones faces...and things up off the bathroom floor that we are convinced should be put into bio-hazard but in some odd way, but yet we just wipe it up and move on...we can cook with a child on one hip a phone on our shoulder while supervising another child with spelling words and homework. We are able to make 100 cupcakes at 9:00 at night the night before a bake sale because our children "forget" to tell us that their teacher gave them the notice 2 weeks ago. We have "magic" kisses that can heal almost any "boo-boo" or skinned knee.  We can settle a squabble between our children with just a look...and on occassion we are even actually able to do all these things in a day and still have time and energy not to mention piece of mind...ok maybe not the piece of mind thing...but we are still able to get cleaned up pull our hair up and be presentable enough to go out on the town with our amazing husbands.
So is this the Secret To Happiness?? The fact that God has blessed us with all these magical abilities to share and use on a day to day basis with our families and our loved ones??? 
I think if I had to make my own happiness...I couldn't come up with anything else that could make me THIS HAPPY!!! I think happiness is in perception...and its the way we choose to look at it.
SO for me...I Thank God for my Happiness...for today....for tomorrow...and for this year and my lifetime. I have been truly blessed. I had my Secret to Happiness right in front of me all along......

Easy Pulled BBQ Pork Roast

So it's no secret that I....Christine...am sooo NOT good in the kitchen department!!! So when I cook the kids always make fun of me and say that they know dinner will be ready when the smoke detector goes off! Ok Ok...so ya...that HAS happened a time or two...or umm more! Anyway...this is one recipe that I CAN do and it's a NO Fail for even ME!

Pulled BBQ Pork Roast
All you need is a crock pot and a pork roast for starters. So just take your pork roast and place it in your Crock Pot and turn it on high for about 2 hours to begin.Then turn it to low to cook the rest of the way. You can add seasoning if you want...but we don't! Just the Roast...THAT'S IT!
If it's still frozen a bit...leave it on high for about 4 hours! Depending on the size of course!

So let this cook for about 6 hours or so. You will know when it's "Done" when you can pull it apart with a fork. When it gets to that point pull it out of the crock pot and place it on a plate. Dump all the stuffies that have been left at the bottom of the crock pot out...get rid of that stuff....and leave the crock pot on low....
Take 2 forks and just pull the roast apart by kinda tearing at it criss cross style with the forks. Place the pulled apart pork back into the crock pot! At this point you can add your favorite BBQ sauce!!! My hubby is spoiled so we order this sauce from a place called Haywards in Kansas...we can't buy it here in Nevada. So grab a bottle of YOUR families favorite BBQ sauce and just add the whole bottle...well depending on the size of the roast! You can also leave a bit in the bottle for serving time if you prefer. The roast will soak this up though just so ya know! Let it sit in the crock pot in the BBQ sauce for half hour or more. The longer it sits in the BBQ sauce the better it tastes and this makes for a great left over for the next day for lunches as well!
You can serve this on hamburger buns or just on the plate with a salad and another favorite side dish of your families!!!

That's it~!!!! See??? So EASY even I CAN do this one!!!!

Random "Mommy-ism" ~ Nightmares and Little Ones

Along the years I have come up with what we in our family call "Mommy-isms"...meaning...goofy or silly things that I have come up with to help our kids or friends...or whoever needs it at the time...to get through the moment...or with three girls...THE TRAGEDY at hand!!!!
So this one works when your little one comes to you in the middle of the night and says "Mommy....I had a nightmare"
One night...I was just completely exhausted and...not sure where this one came from...told her to turn her pillow over. I told her she had her pillow on the wrong side!!! That she had it on the NIGHTMARE side! I told her to go and flip her pillow over and she would have good dreams!!!! Believe it or not this works like a charm!!!
It even became a night time ritual for our youngest daughter for a while...when tucking her in...she would have me make sure it was on the "Sweet Dream Side" She didn't come to my side of the bed anymore in the middle of the night...as a matter of fact...they all became self sufficient in this area and if they woke in the middle of the night....they would tell me in the morning...that they had to flip their pillow over...that they had it on the wrong side!!!
 For the past 20 yrs it has worked not only with our 3 daughters...but with our Granddaughters as well. It's fun to hear our Daughter and Son in Law use it on their girls now! We have passed this on to other friends and family as well and EVERYONE says it worked for them too!
So next time your little one comes to you and says..."Mommy....I had a bad dream" just tell them to flip their pillow over....to the good dream side!!! Everyone will have a better night sleep!

DIY Burp Towel Tutorial

So with our new Granddaughter due to be arriving any day...I decided that instead of my daughter purchasing a TON of adorable Recieving Blankets and using those as Burp Towels...that there HAD to be a better way. I think we found it!

Heres what you'll need:
Some Fat Quarters or other fabric of your choice in approx 10x17
Some Flour Sack Dish Towels (found ours at Wal Mart in the kitchen section)
Thread
Rotary cutter or scissors
Ruler
Iron
Sewing machine

Step 1  After pre-washing and drying your material and your flour sack cloths go ahead and iron them if need be. You will also notice that the flour sack cloths become more dense and compacted after the washing. Cut down your sizes of material to the size mentioned or to a size you prefer. There are really no wrong or right sizes here...it's more of a personal thing!

Step 2  Pin the right facing side of your material to your flour sack cloth. Sew around the edges at about the typical width...I always use the edge of the presser foot as my guide! But that's just me!! Sew all the way around LEAVING an opening of approx 2 1/2" ( this is for step 3)

Step 3  Time to clip the corners at a diagonal so that when we turn the towel right side out we can get a nice sharp point in our corners. Then Turn the towel right side out as shown in the photo with the Pink Monkey Material

Step 4  Press your Burp Towel with your iron and when you get to the spot we left open for turning just tuck those edges in to match the rest of the towel and press that spot really well too.

Step 5  Sew around the edge around the towel. This makes the towel have a really cute finished appearance and will hold the two pieces of material together a bit stronger.

There you have it!!! WASN'T THAT EASY??? These turn out sooo cute and would make TERRIFIC Baby shower gifts!!!! Stack a few of these and tie a cute ribbon around them for gifting!!!

OPTIONAL....you could do some additional stitching all around the towel to give it a "quilted" appearance. I did do this on a few of them and our Daughter Kaylen loved the look!!! Just don't sew any buttons or anything like that on these. A hard button is probably the last thing we want on our little ones face while we are cuddling up and trying to burp them!

I would LOVE to see what your Burp Towels look like!
Have fun...and remember...make some memories with YOUR family TODAY...we only get this oppurtunity today...this moment...this second. We don't get a second chance to get this moment in time back!!!!

DIY Burp Towels ~ Making the Video

Well today we made our first official DIY Video! How to make your own BURP TOWELS!!!
I have to tell you it made me nervous!!! YIKES!!!! I kept goofing it up and tripping over my words!!! I am surprised I didn’t get my fingers caught in my sewing machine!  We also took still shots so that I can create a step by step tutorial so that is in the works as well and I will get that up and loaded as soon as I can. I will be showing you how I used some cute fabric and some flour sack towels from Wal Mart and made some adorable and functional Burp Towels at half the cost of purchasing them would be!!! They were super easy to make and didn’t take long at all and I had 6 of them made!!! Had I not been stopping and starting and creating all the different steps for the video production I probably would have knocked out a whole dozen in no time at all. That’s how easy they are to sew and put together!!!!
Next project will either be these cute Decoupaged letters I am making for Addi’s room or the new baby blanket for her! We will see how that goes and which one makes it up first!!!

The DIY Family

Our goal is to share with you easy and fun ways to saving money by doing everyday projects in and around your home!!! Turn recyclables into gifts…or Decoupage a simple item and take it from drab to fab!!! We will be sharing videos and uploads of how to make your own crafts, from sewing to painting…jewelry making…yardwork tricks and tips…how to do the basic automobile maintenance along with recipes and how to save money on every day items. ALL whle having fun…and savin money….because if we can do it…so can YOU!!!