Just call me Mrs. Coupon

I have recently jumped on the coupon train. I have a friend who goes to church with us and lives like 4 houses down and she is a coupon Queen! She is one of those people that you hear about who gets 200 dollars worth of groceries for 10 bucks. Seriously, she is that good. She never buys anything at full price, ah-mazing!

So after CJ and I made out our budget last week I decided that I could save us even more money by using coupons! The other ladies in my Thurs night Bible study are all trying to budget and save two. Two of them are pregnant, B Scott with their number 2, and Laura with their 1st, and they are both trying to save money where ever they can.

Me at this point, well I am not pregnant, but we are trying to get to Nigeria and finish our "Bucket List" before we add to the Hoover Family Tree. Any who, so saving is what's on our agenda these days. We set a specific amount of money aside for weekly groceries, we just picked and number and are seeing if that works, and we got out that money for 1/2 of the month in cash and put in an envelope.

So every time we go to the grocery store we use the cash from the envelope. When that money runs out, well then we get no more food for the month. And that is where the coupons come in. I really want to save money, I think it's silly to buy name brand everything (I mostly buy nothing name brand) because the store brand taste just the same and I found out is a lot of the time half the price!

So to begin on my new coupon endeavor I fiddled around with some websites, the one I really like and printed out a billion coupons from was Coupon Mom. It lets you scroll through hundreds of coupons and  you just "clip" the ones you want and print them out! Again, Ah-Mazing!!

My next coupon go to place was the Dallas Morning News weekend edition. I fortunately had a slow day at work on Sunday with my sweet primary and so I got busy cutting out coupons. There were a ton of them in there, although some of them I realized I had printed out from my above mentioned website.
(CJ and I had bought a little check size file folder when we got married, I don't remember what it was for but it's a great coupon organzier!)

I called Kroger to figure out how they did their coupon things, because they double and triple coupons. The woman I spoke to was very helpful, I was a little nervous to call at first, and she talked me through how and what they honor. Then I made out my grocery lists, a very detailed list where I listed what I was getting, and what kind of coupon I had for it and if it could be doubled or tripled.

My plan was to go shopping as soon as I got off work that night, there is a Kroger in Mesquite not too far down from our exit. The only thing was I get off at 7 and then I had to be back to work on Monday, so I knew by the time I would get to kroger it would be 7:45 and then to shop, get home, shower, and then relax it would be well after 9.

Luckily, the Brookshire's in Forney is also doubling and tripling coupons right now! Score! It is right beside our bank and it's in Forney, so I wouldn't have to go out of my way to go into Mesquite and thought maybe even the Hubbs would meet me. Plus I knew my way around the Brookshire's which to me is always a plus.

So after a looong time at the store I ended up checking out and saving a little over 22 dollars! Wahoo!! Although I have to say, I will from now on be doing all of my shopping at the Wallie World because Brookshire's just marks up their prices way too much and does not have a wide variety or selection. I ended up having to go to Wal-Mart the next morning to finish up my shopping, luckily I was cancelled, and that's when I noticed how much Brookshire's increases their prices. I may go and try Kroger, but I know the prices are low at Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart even takes other stores coupons. So that is a plus, although they dont' honor BOGO's from other stores (Buy One Get One free!).

So far I spend a little under half of our money for the month, and I think we are going to actually do good with this system. We have cut out going out to eat and are also trying to save money in other ways, but that is a whole other blog.

If you are an avid or beginner couponer and have any suggestions for me please leave me a post below! All suggestions are welcome!!

Pray without Ceasing

"Rejoice always, Pray without Ceasing,"(1 Thes. 17) This a verse that has been on my mind since last night and as I sit out on our back patio it is the verse that is racing through my thoughts.

Wow, how little do I actually put this verse, so clearly written, into action. Sure I pray on and off throughout the day whenever things pop into my mind, or whenever Satan is trying to overtake my thoughts, but without Ceasing ,wow. 

CJ and I have felt the Lord calling us to Nigeria for the past 9 months. We have felt it in our hearts and know that this opportunity was presented to us for a reason, for His perfect plan. We sent out letters in January asking for people to pray and then to help us financially. 

We have had many generous donations from our family, who has always been there helping us follow God's plan for our life, and from our dear friends. We so much appreciate all that has been given toward our trip to further the Kingdom of God in a country where is love is not known. We know that God has amazing things in store for the Fulani people and for our lives as well.

Trying to figure out how to come up with the rest of the money has been a burden to me these last few months. Satan is sneaky and will take a mile if you give him and inch. So last night CJ and I went through our finances. We looked at what was coming in and what was going out. We cut some things out that we didn't need and realized we had a lot of money being wasted on stuff that, well just stuff. We were at a point where we thought, okay, we can do this. God has provided us both with jobs and almost no debt. We are His plan for us to get to Africa, we can do this!

And then right at that triumphant moment we forgot that we hadn't added a "tithe" column. Man, that was going to hit us hard, it took about half of our "extra" money we thought we would have a month away. How could we have forgotten, "tithe?" 

That was another, "Ah Ha" moment. What we "have" isn't ours in the first place. It all belongs to the Father. He graciously has given us so much and so often we forget that it is His. If we give to Him what is already His as a sign of obedience and love then surely our God will provide for us. 

"But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!"

Will you please pray that CJ and I will be obedient and pray without Ceasing? That we will give to the Lord what is already His and He will use it for His kingdom.And mostly would you please pray for the Fulani people, that God will begin to prepare their hearts to hear His good news? 

Bucket List

Do you have one? Well we have one but we don't officially call it our "bucket list" but that is what I am calling it. We have called it by many names but the latest one was, "Baby Ready". NO we are NOT pregnant but we have many things we want to do before we have a baby. We want to do things to our home, go on our mission trip, take one big last trip and make sure we both have solid jobs. The "things" to our home include finishing "the great wall of Hoover", painting almost every room in our home, which one is now done, fans in every room(we only have 1 room left to do), fixing up our backyard(we did some of that today) and finishing up with the remainder of the big furniture we need.

This is the wall before we painted, just got the tape up.....

Here it is after the paint is applied.....

And there here it is with the chair railing put up...

And so that is the "Great wall of Hoover"! We love it!! I am so happy we finally painted it and CJ is happy that we finally have more green to match the TV stand.

I will have to upload the pictures of our backyard later. We are slowly but surely getting things done that we want to do. You know, completing our bucket list.

So, do you have a bucket list? And what is on your list?