Today I received FREE samples from walmart for shampoo and conditioner. Perfect for travel.

Went to the mall and bought on clearance 2 sofee shorts my daughter wears that are usually $10 each for $4 each.

Took my DD2's broken glasses to Walmart and the nice optical man fixed them for FREE.

We are having subs tonight from Firehouse Subs (founded by firemen). I have two coupons for FREE medium subs. There is also buy a medium sub and get a kids meal FREE. There are 4 of us so I will take my DD1 and see if I can use the other one at the same time so I will only have to buy 1 sub for dinner.

Have orientaation for substitute teaching on Weds. They will do a drug test at the time and then I should be subbing a week after. So in 2 weeks I should be working and will get my first check at the end of three weeks. That will make all the difference. If you sub at special needs schools they will pay you $100 a day so I will try to work one maybe 4 or 5 times a month. Elementary school only.

My sis and neice and nephew come tomorrow from NC! for the weekend! My BIL works for the airlines so they fly free. We are all going to sleep at my parents house. I might make a breakfast casserole for Sun. morning. It is one that you assemble the night before and pop in the oven in the a.m. Actually called Christmas morning wife saver! Probably will cost about $6.

Not many good deals these days. Target's coupons are no good and the sale ads for the grocery stores the past two weeks have not provided much savings.
I really need to work however, these days find me staying with my dad after his ileostomy surgery. My mom has a job and she needs a break. I stay with my dad during the day and she has him at night. In a couple of weeks he should be better. I applied for sub teaching but have to go to the orientation. Don't have a date yet. Once I do that I hope to sub every day. We are in a situation now where there is no option of saving or paying down cards. I have to try to live with hardly any money. Thats why I need those good deals!

DD1 used to work over the summer. She had to quit once school started to concentrate on school work which is more important. So now it is back to financing her wants/needs. This weekend was Homecoming. She went with a group of friends and none of them brought dates. This is her third year going and I told her that she had to find a very affordable outfit or she could not go. She did very well with her dress and shoes. They were purchased at Ross for a total of $33. Last night for the game I gave her $5 for football game ticket. Today she used saved money to pay for manicure and pedicure and a friends daughter came over and did her hair and makeup. Then we gave her $40 for dinner and gas. Also they are now taking orders for class rings. For those of you with young kids, be prepared. If you thought diapers and formula were expensive wait till they are teens!

Went to my best friends house w/ DD2 this morning. We went jet skiing. Her DH cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. Free entertainment and food. Well not really. I paid about $5 in tolls and it is 45 minutes from my house so gas too. It was worth it though :-)

Well the last two days I have spent taking care of my dad so that my mom could go to work and get out of the house for awhile. As a result I have saved on gas & "not necessaries". I did give DD1 $5 for a new school ID and $15 for homecoming tickets. I have been cooking every night and we had leftovers last night. This is one of the biggest changes that I have made because I used to buy alot of takeout due to being sick and tired of cooking.

On sunday my MIL asked my DH and I to come over and see if there was anything we wanted before she sells it at a garage sale. I flat out told her that we do not need anything and that we do not have room for anything. (I knew that it was all junk)Then she said she would cook dinner for us so needless to say we went. Well what she had was nothing but pure junk. As she was showing me the junk I told her that I had that same type of stuff at some point in my 21 yrs of marriage and had taken it to Goodwill long ago and I did not want hers!

She did help me out with dog supplies. They had a dog that died and she gave me three tubes of Advantage flea stuff and I saved about $40 from that, and 1/4 of a box and an entire box of dog treats the kind my dog likes, AND some HartGuard that me dog uses also, so between that and a free dinner it wasn't a wasted trip.

Things are getting back to normal for me. My dad is home and recovering very well so now I can get back into the saving mode.

One day last week after leaving the hospital I went into Wal-mart and did my grocery shopping. I did not look over the sale ads or bring coupons. I spent $100 and did not seem to have much to show for it. Now I realize just how much money you can save when you look over the sale ads and compare and take advantage of the BOGO's and coupons.

My best friend took me out to Port Canaveral yesterday (where the cruise ships take off from)in Cocoa Beach for a bite to eat and a couple of drinks. It was a nice stress reliever and I greatly appreciated her generosity.

My sister who just moved to NC (Boo Hoo we have lived within 6 miles of each other our entire lives) told me that the buddy passes for the airlines (her DH works for US Air) are now $75 up from $40 due to oil prices. Sis offered to pay 1/2 but even so I do not think I can come up with $75 so soon (only DD2 and I would go). Maybe in 2 or 3 weeks. I will have to start a savings fund for visits to NC. Her and her DH and kids can fly here for free so we are expecting her to come see us often.