And the winner is.....

The Buki Family! We've spent right at $1,600 over the last 12 months for diapers. I should note that our guys are partial to Pampers. We have tried many other brands, but Pampers work the best for us. I have hopes that Pampers will just send me some for free, but no such luck. I'll keep dreaming.... We go through about 25/day!

I will email the winner and send your prize. Thank you all for the GREAT responses! There will be more awesome giveaways to come soon.

Weekly savings - giveaway

My new goal is to post at least once a week about our family and once a week about our weekly savings. I am finding out more and more that I am really enjoying researching the best bargains out there. I've always been somewhat of a bargain shopper, but since I've been blessed with a healthy hungry husband and 3 hungry little boys I have found that I really don't have a choice in the matter. I am just thankful that this is something that I enjoy and that I feel comfortable sharing with all of you.

I would also like to say that we can NOT wait until the boys are out of diapers. Whew, those things are expensive - we go through A LOT! That being said, I did not post an earlier shopping trip where I stocked up on dog food, diapers, and milk. We are also having to buy 2 kinds of milk right now, Regular and Soy. We have a suspicion that one of our guys has a milk allergy. We'll know for sure next week.

Would any of you readers care to guess how much money ($$$) we spend on diapers in a 12-month period? Leave a comment on my blog page and I will randomly pick the person who gets closest without going over. The winner will receive a pack of 6 of my handmade Daffodils & Dragonflies greeting cards, shipped to you FREE anywhere in the United States. So, come on leave a comment let me know what do you think?


I should note that some of my items in this photo were a gift. (Thank you, you know who you are.) Most of these were items that we needed to have and I believe that every item I purchased was on sale. My Super Sweet Deals
High efficiency Laundry detergent ~ $3.24
4 containers of organic juice ~ $.50 each

This trip was probably my favorite, most of the items in this photo were given to me as a gift as well. (Thanks you, you know who you are!) My favorite part is that I got the 4 containers of ORGANIC juice for a total of $.45 - that's $.11 each people!!! These normally sell for $3.99 each, but they were on sale 4/$5. These were not ringing up right, so by the time the cashier discounted and used my coupons I only had to pay 45cents!!! It was AWESOME!!!

I did not pay full price for any of these item, but here are my Super Sweet Deals:

2 Lysol spray, 2 wipes ~ $.50 each

2 shave cream ~ $.99 each

2 travel body wash ~ $.10 overage

1 toothpaste ~ $.75 overage

Total savings this week (includes only items shown in photos):

Retail value: $88.10

Total spent: -$23.30

Total savings: $64.80

Don't forget to leave your comment for the greeting card giveaway! Winner will be chosen Saturday, June 27 by 7:00pm.

All about the pictures

We've been having a great summer! Clay, Paul, and Seth are growing up so fast; it's so hard to believe that they are almost 18 months old. We took them for their last shots about 2 weeks ago and our pediatrician is very pleased with their progress. They are right where they should be in their growth and development, it's hard to believe that they were born 2 months early! We are preparing to take a short vacation next week to FL. We are so excited to introduce them to Shane's Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother and cousins. I can't wait to see how the boys react to seeing the ocean and beach for the first time. It's going to be a hoot for sure!

The boys playing in the dirt at a friend's house. They were having the BEST time! I should note that our friends have 3 year old twin boys, so our little guys felt right at home.

Your truly, feeding the boys lunch at a friend's house. We love their wagon, it's a easy way to contain and entertain the boys.

Paul, making a mess with cookies.

Clay, making a mess with cookies.

Seth, making a mess with cookies.

Our first picks from our garden. Aren't they pretty? I have NO idea what I'm going to do with all the peppers. I'm sure I can come up with something. I welcome any suggestions.

My new hobby

Since the “Kesler Crew” is on a super tight budget, I have begun clipping coupons and searching for the best bargains. My new goal in shopping is to purchase items, only when they are on sale. This week I snagged some great deals at Walgreens.

All of the items that you see in the photo:
2 Schick Quattro razors
2 packages of Schick Quattro Refills
1 Reach toothbrush
1 Dry Idea Deodorant/antiperspirant
3 Right Guard Deodorant/antiperspirant
2 cans Maxwell House Coffee, ground

All of these items retail for $64.12. Wait for it…I paid $14.73, that’s a savings of over 77%!!! I saved $49.39 by waiting for deals and using coupons.

This week I also went to Kroger and had some pretty significant savings. I was able to purchase $71.33 in groceries for ONLY $34.29, which is…. wait for it…. $37.04 that I was able to save waiting for deals and using coupons.

This is one of my new hobbies; it’s like a game. I love clipping coupons and researching where the next “deal” will be. What do you all think?

PS – If you have any coupons that you don’t use, especially from your Sunday papers, please feel free to send them to me. The more I have the happier I am! Feel free to contact me if you need my address. Thanks!

Time

I have no idea where my times goes these days. Oh yeah, my time is spent chasing these 3 sweet boys around! :)

Clay, Paul, and Seth are all walking. Actually, they are running every where. They are also climbing on to everything! Their new favorite past time is moving furniture around so that they can crawl on to it and turn "on" and "off" the light switches. It's pretty funny to watch because they work as a TEAM to move whatever furniture they may need.

These guys are keeping us on our toes for sure. We went through a "biting phase" where they were biting each other to get toys that they wanted. Clay was probably the worst about it, but they just kind of stopped. I asked around to get some advice about how to stop the biting and just about everyone that I talked to said that we should just bite them back. Well, we didn't really have to bite them back they just kind of stopped one day. Although, a few days ago we caught Clay biting Paul because he wanted Paul's toy, so Dad just bit Clay pretty gently and that was the end of that. So far, no more biting!

We've been working with the boys to teach them sign language. So far, they know how to sign "eat" and "drink" we will work on "more" next. It is obvious that they want to communicate with us and we can tell that they are getting frustrated. They are very good at pointing at things and sometimes they will try to repeat things that we say. I am sure that I hear them say "Chester", "dog", "hot", and "fan". They know their Mom and Dad too. As soon as their Dad comes in from work they run to him and say, "Da", it's the cutest thing.

They also understand what we are saying very well. If we ask them to bring us a certain toy, they usually can. For example, if I ask for the blue ball they will bring it to me. If I ask them to give me a hug and kiss, they will. Our biggest problem now is getting them to understand "NO". It seems like when we tell them no that they do the exact opposite. Maybe we should just start telling them "yes" and see what happens?? :)

I have some new pics to post soon, it just takes a while to down load them on to our site. We have got a HUGE garden going this summer, we hope to have a lot of produce to chose from. The boys have been having a big time outside while we work on our garden. They LOVE to be outside!!! We are VERY fortunate they we don't have picky eaters. Thank goodness these guys take after their Dad in that respect; you all know how picky I can be! Clay, Paul, and Seth will eat just about any veggie that you put in front of them. I can't think of anything that they don't like.