One, Two, Three

First of all - BIG, BIG News today - Folks, Jack slept in HIS crib, in HIS room last night for the first time!! Ahhhh, my baby is already such a big boy!! After many nights of flipping a quarter with Brian to see if he would sleep with us or in his bed and a lot of convincing, I put him down for bed in his crib. He looked so peaceful! Of course, I was up every hour checking on him...trying to see if he was still breathing or if he was comfortable or if he was too warm/cool! We made it though! Jack slept until 6:30 this morning!

Secondly - Jack will be THREE MONTHS tomorrow! I can not believe it has been 12 weeks already! He is such a great baby, too! I know that I have said this before, but he really is! He is talking...well, oohing and ahhing so well. Jack loves to eat his fingers! Any opportunity that he can to get his hands into his mouth, he will! The best part is that he will practice making sounds with his hand shoved in his mouth! It's adorable! It is almost as if the hand helps him to talk! Oh, and he is sooo strong! At the end of three months a baby should be able to keep his or her head level when pulled to a sitting position and Jack has already accomplished this! Well, not every time but he sure is good at holding his head steady! I'm so proud of him!

Thirdly - I made it to Publix today for my first adventure in the world of trying to save money! Here are a few conclusions I have made:

1. If you are new to finding good deals at the market place, make sure you have PLENTY of time to thoroughly comb through each isle! I, unfortunately, was VERY pressed for time. I had my parents watch Jack while I went to the grocery store and then to get my hair cut. (I would have taken Jack, but I wanted to be able to focus all of my attention on my coupons and such!) Anyhow, by the time they made it over and I left for the store, I only had 45 minutes to shop, check out, return home, unload groceries, and leave for the hair salon. Not good. I managed though and made it to the salon on time. The biggest downfall was that I had to knock off a few things from my grocery list! I couldn't use all of the coupons I had hope to and I felt very confused about if I was truly getting my money worth!
2. It is seriously important to get to Publix as soon as they release their newest sale items and BOGO (buy one get one) deals. I couldn't even get the free dog bones I had wanted to because they were out of stock! I know that I could have gotten IOU from the store, but I didn't know how and didn't have the time! NOR did I get the BREATHE RIGHT STRIPS!!! AHHHH I just remembered that!! I gave them my coupon and I didn't even get the PRODUCT! oh my goodness. what a mess. I can't believe I just remembered that I forgot that! Ok, so this is disappointing.
3. (just added) Make sure you know what your buying and PULL the coupon out of the pile to give to the cashier if you did not use it! man... this just supports conclusion #1.
4. I don't know if this is a conclusion or something I should just work on...but how in the world can I figure up if I saved or not. I know that my receipt prints it, but without being so product oriented...how in the world can you tell??
5. Stock piling REALLY is important. I can just imagine the money I WOULD HAVE saved if I didn't need sooo much!
6. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! I'm not giving up just yet!!! And I have big dreams, people! Once I get this down...I'm moving to CVSing!! You just wait!!!

OK, so what was my total savings???? $60.11!! not bad right??
I'm pretty sure my total before the coupons was around $200.00 and after it was $147.83!!
I know that this is not the savings a pro would make...but I'll take it for now.

Until next time....