Shopping Name Brand For Less

I am not a pro by any means when it comes to saving money. 

It is something I personally work on every single day. There is never a day where I feel like I can not work on saving money. I don't save money because we are poor, my husband doesn't make enough money etc. 

I do it because I really enjoy saving money and seeing the numbers in our saving account get larger. 

One of the ways I have found to save money. 

It is all about timing! 

 I am a huge fan of store that give away discount codes!

My kids are like every other child out there. The want to wear nice clothes and we want them to be dressed well. 

We believe in children representing their families well. 

( I have an up coming blog all about this ) 

However I do not like to spend $100's of dollars on my kids clothes in what seems like a never ending battle. 

Shopping when store such as Crazy8 , Childrens Place, P.S  Aeropostale are our favorites. Though I will say that Crazy 8 is my personal favorite place to shop. 

On the average year I have a budget for $600 to $800 a year on clothes for my kids. $300 to $400 for the spring/summer months and the same amount for the fall/ winter months. I know that that is A LOT of money compare to some other families out there. 

 ( Though we do donate clothes my children have out grown before we bud any new clothes ) 

I like to wait until the online stores have the 60% or more off on there clothes and then on top of that. I normally use a 20% off my whole order discount code. ( yes those things really happen and I love seeing that I get normally a goal of 80% off my order. ) 

When it comes to deals like that I normally spend more money than I plan to. Lucky for me, I always tell my hubby I am going to spend more than I really will. That way he always feels that I am doing great and saving money.... yes I tell a white lie to him. I admit it and I have told him that so times but ya know he is a man and doesn't care much about shopping. 

I know from watching these kinds of sites that May/June , October , January is when I see the best sales going on. That is when I shop for the next season to come or sometimes if the deals are really good like these $2 or less tops or play shorts. I love to stalk up and I will buy items a size up for the next year or even for Christmas. 

It might sound crazy but if I can buy my kids name brand clothes for less than I would spend if I bought their clothes at walmart or a used clothes store. Then YES I will bust my butt to get those good deals. 

You don't have to spend a ton of money to buy name brand clothes!!

Everyone who knows me, knows I am always shopping. 

They all make comments to me about my kids clothes and how they always seem to have new clothes and guess what this is my secret! 

I  buy clothes a year in advance or a few months in advance. 

I store the clothes I buy normally in my closet or in my basement because that seem to be the " catch all " places.

This year adding a new baby to the mix and I already have started to shop for next summer. 

Yes I got each item ^^ for between $1 and $2.99 and my youngest son already has a nice collection of summer clothes for this coming spring/ summer.  

I am by far not a pro at saving money but I am learning more and more every day. If you have any tips to help save money in any area of life. 

Feel free to share!

4 Months Into The School Year

Anyone who has kids and home schools or better yet anyone who has kids. Knows that having kids is hard enough with out fearing that your child will not love school. Learning is so important but how do you know if your children really love there school? 

Has it really already been 4 months since we made the switch?

I promised that I would post an update on my kids moving to the Seton Home Study Program. Yet I never thought that it would be how great it has been for us. I can honestly say that I heard a lot about this program. The good, bad and ugly of this school came out of the wood work. 

Things like....

"There is a lot of book work."

"You can't keep up with the lesson plan day by day."

"The kids love this program, it's unlike any program I have seen. "

" You can customize the program for each of your children."

" You child will do more work in Seton than in any public school I have ever seen. "

Well it's all TRUE!! 

This program is not for those who want to ' unschool. '

After a few months of craziness and doing this program. It is honestly the best thing we could have done for our kids. I know when you go down the list for this program grade by grade. It does look like it will be a lot of book work for the kids. However once you dive on in and see what they are doing in the classes it really is not. 

Here is a look at how my kids get things done every day. 

I am big into writing check list and making it clear what will be done and when. However with Seton we have decided to allow the kids to have the list of what needs to be done for the day. So they can learn time management on there own. They both really do love being able to be free to get things done on there own. 

It's not a perfect picture, its not a commercial grade picture. 
It is just real life  and for us it is what works the best. 

I write subject that my children need to do on the board every night. Along with what they need to get done for that day. ( Yes there are things listed more than once but that is due to my children skipping over items. Then stating that they didn't see some items. So a mom has to do what a mom has to do. lol ) 

When one of my children complete something on the list for the day. They mark  with there color for the day to let me know that they have completed it. It gives them a sense of  accomplishment and control. As much as I know and they know that they are not in control most of the time. It is nice to let them be the boss of what they do and when they do it. As long as they get everything done before dinner they are free to do it in any order they want. 

My kids normally get all of there class work done by 2 pm every day. Then they are free to play, read or do what every they would like to do.

We have already seen the kids grow into these amazing smart future adults. They are loving there class work every day even on the days when they don't get the grade they should have. The big debate right now is that they want to add a class to the work load that they already have. 
So it is still up in the air if they will be allowed to add Latin to there work load this year or not. 
However to go from having children who where said to truly struggle with school. Who did not enjoy going to school at all other than to play with there friends. To having my son say his favorite subject in school is hand writing. When it use to be playing with his friends or lunch. My daughter says her favorite subject is now Science. Which was also her favorite subject in public school however she was learning " baby stuff ." In her opinion now she is learning about what she really wants to learn about. She plans to be a cardiovascular surgeon when she grows up. She loves having the chance to start learning about what is her passion in life. 

I don't know what the rest of the year has to offer but I can only hope that at the end of the year. They are happy and love there school. That they have learned more than they ever thought that they could learn. 

We will keep updating everyone on their progress. 
If you have any questions please feel free to keep emailing me or comment and I will try my best to answer. 

Expanding Into Vlogging

AHH! Here I go!!
Okay so As much as this scares me so badly. I have ( after my husband and best friends telling me to go for it. ) decided to go a head with my vlog on youtube of course. 
I honestly have freaked out big time about this issue. Simply because I am worried that I will get made fun of, no one will watch my videos, I will not be good enough at it or lord so many other crazy things going through my mind. 

I have always had a fear of  people looking at me. I would rather sit in the back of the room and do my work silently than to have someone look at me. I know that everyone who knows me personally knows I am a loud mouth opinionated woman. That is very true however I have a lot of fears about people looking at me and judging me. 

Growing up with a crazy family who puts you down every chance they have ever gotten. Makes me want to run and hide as I know that they will some how find out about my vlog and it will be open season on me. They have gone out of their way time and time again to try to mess up my life. I do not know what I have ever done to these people but I am just done being scared of them. I am done fearing that they will spread their lies and make me out to be trash. 

Most families do not act like this or treat any humans this way but its what I was born into so I guess to me it is normal. I have removed those kinds of people out of my life but still as any one knows who has been abused in the past. The fear is always still there that they will come and try to mess up my happy little life just because they think " they have the right. "

With that said ....  I will be posting post on here with my videos that I will make. I am not saying they will be the best thing you have ever seen. However its one step at a time with everything I do. I know I need to just jump in head first and not be scared of being myself. No matter what others might thank. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way and that will continue to support me on my next adventure. I could not do it with out  the support. 

- Stephanie 

That PCS Itch That Just Wont Quit

I know I can not be the only one who get it!

First off  for those newer to or not in the Military Life style.

PCS is Permanent Change of Station.

I guess I just love to move and explore some where new. 

Because I am going crazy and I want to move so badly.

It is like for real killing me!

I know that moving is stressful, annoying and it means that I will have to research where ever we are going and maybe even having to apply for command sponsorship. 

None of that matters I am just ready!

It has been almost two years since we have moved.... okay well not fully. We bought our house less than a year ago but still. For me I just love to move around and staying still is annoying.We have been wanting to move since well a few months after we got here. With not loving any of the wives at Fort Leavenworth. Not really enjoying it here until we moved into our new house. We have our list all ready for where we would want to move. Like every other Military wife out there .... or so I thought. 

I am an Army wife and the way the Army works is that your MOS ( job ) can go to select Army post. Some jobs can go pretty much any where but my husbands job can't.

We only have a few places where we can go so we know our list and where on that list we would rather go. 

When the time comes we will get a list of open positions for his MOS and rank. From that he pretty much picks which one he wants and he " applies " to get that job at that duty station. That starts when ever they say it starts and then we wait. Either the higher ups say okay and he gets the spot or he gets told no. If he gets told no he either applies for a different spot or if there are no spots then we play the " Hurry up and wait " game. 

Which is what we have been doing for the past year, just waiting to see what his options are. 

Hopefully we can get some good options and get to pcs with in the next year. 

My best friend is a Air Force wife and I just learned from her. That the Air Force can not do that same thing. That they have to go where ever they are told they are going. 

That you can be kicked out of the Air Force for denying orders. However we are hopeful to get to maybe pcs to the same duty station. I just learned about the equals list and though I do not understand how it works fully. 

So this is a learning process with having my best friend marry into a different Branch of the Military. I am just so blessed that she explains the new things that are part of her life to me. So that we still stay connected. It doesn't matter what branch a wife is in because we are all Military spouses. 

I love knowing that I have friends who understand wanting to PCS. I know I am not totally crazy since other wives feel the same way. I think the wait to find out where we will be moving is the hardest thing about the Military wife life right now. Deployment would be so much harder but for my husband that is not an issue right now. 

I personally know that I would love to go to South Korea. That is at the top of my list right now and I wish we could get lucky enough to find out we got orders to South Korea. 

However the place that we have been stationed that I really loved was. Fort Bragg, NC . 

I know I know so many people say they did not enjoy Fort Bragg but I really loved it.... that could be because I am a NC girl. It could be because I had so many great friends there that even the bad times where pretty good. 

If you have a duty station you love or hate feel free to share you opinion with the rest of us. 

Saving Money .... Couponing Beginner Level

Money Saving Tips Part One

Do you love to save money?

Ever worry about how you are going to ever retire?

Maybe you just want to see the numbers in your savings account go up every month.

No matter the reason I am here to help. 

Let's face it we all at some point worry about the future and need to learn to start protecting our future.

I know all too well just how difficult it is to save money especially when you have kids. We all want our children to have nice things, be well dressed and maybe even have a few things they really want. But with Christmas, birthdays, clothes, shoes,  so many special occasions every year. Not to count school , books , sports and all the other things we pay for. How can you really save any money at all?

Well there are many ways to save money every month. But what about those mom's who don't have extra money, don't have help with paying bills and fear they will never be able to have any money in savings.

I have been there and I am not going to lie it's not easy. Every penny counts!

Start with cutting coupons.... yup you read that right. Those stupid pieces of paper are actually your new best friend. I know I know couponing is great for those who have time to coupon. But you can do it , maybe not like those extreme coupons but enough to start your saving account.

The first thing you need to do is buy a news paper on Sunday and then join a couponing Facebook group. I personally would sit in the parking lot and go through the coupon section. This way if you see some that you would really like more than one of. You can always buy another news paper before you go home.

You Don't Need To Buy 100 Of The Same Item To Save money. I know you see those people with huge stock piles and it seems like too much. I personally do not have a huge stock pile. Even if you only buy one news paper a week you can still save money. I'm not saying you will get rich but it adds up.

Here is my break down of one of my very first coupon trip.

2 liter Coke ( 2 of them ) 2/ $2.50

2 liter Fanta 2/ $2.50

2 liter Sprite

1 small pack of nuts $1

2 face mask

2 laundry soap, 34 loads in each bottle

1 small bottle of dawn dish soap

For a total of $24.42 

From CVS. I only bought 1 thing that was not on sale. That was the pack of nuts. 

Between things that were on sale and a $10 cvs coupon that we had gotten from my daughters coupon trip earlier that week.

We only paid $3.42 for everything!! 

I know it sounds crazy, hard and annoying even 

but anyone can learn to coupon. 

We will be posting more of our Coupon trips and telling everyone what we are learning about couponing. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer then I will point you to the awesome lady who is teaching us to coupon. She is honestly a pro at it!

So far Couponing has been a great way to save money. We put away all of the money we save into our savings account so every penny saved is put away for our future. 

This is only part one and we have a few more parts to come to help anyone who need o wants to save money. 

Here We Go Y'all Resolution Time!

Do you do it?

Do you stick with it?

Well I am just going to be honest about this!

Yes I make a new year resolution list every year. 

However I NEVER  stick with it!

Heck I don't even normally try that hard at all to stick with it most of the time.

I have spent so much money on schools, classes to help me work towards the career I want to do.

I have pinned so many things on pinterest about getting healthy. Working out and doing crafts with my kids.

I have pinned recipes like crazy. 

And yet here I am at 29 years old , the mother of 3 awesome kids and happily married women. 

That has never , not once stuck with any of the things on my list for a full year. 

So I have decided to hold myself accountable this time around. I am posting my whole list on my blog. No matter how crazy, selfish or flat out stupid the things on my list might be. This is what I want to gain or do in the next year. 

And I am NOT waiting on 2017 to start working on my list!

so here we go!

1. write a blog 2 times a week every week for the next year. 

2. Work out 5 times a week,

3. Decide to have a 4th baby or not

4. Eat healthier

5. Be a better mom

You can never stop learning when it comes to parenthood in my opinion.

6. Take time out for myself

7. Complete my schooling ( for now )

8. Clean my house every day.

fly lady is my new best friend and Cozi I couldnt survive with out them.

9.  Get a Tiffany necklace

 My hubby brought it up a few months ago  when we were talking 

about my "push present." For our sweet little boy.

10. Work on my marriage

because marriage takes work every day not 

If you have started you list feel free to tell me one of or all of your list. Mine might not be the best list but it is a good start. 

Good Luck Yall! 

Motherhood is?

Motherhood is

Loving someone more than you ever thought you could. 

Cleaning up after your children. 

Giving birth to a baby / child. 

Adopting a baby /child.

Crying your eyes out at 3am because the baby will not go back to sleep. 

Walking around scared that the world would judge you.

Not caring if the world judges you. 

Playing in the rain.

Cleaning dirty butts.

Repeating  you self 100 times and still they don't listen.

Waking up early just to drink your coffee in silence.

.....

Motherhood is so many different things, it is everything, and nothing all at the same time.

Yet there is one thing that no one ever tells you before you have or adopt your baby/child. 

IT'S OKAY TO NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING!

I don't know what I am doing, none of us really know what we are doing. 

Lets be honest about it. We are all walking around blind as a bat. Searching for answers and holding our breathe hopeful that we are doing the right thing. 

We read all the books, ask every mom group we are in on facebook. 

Read every blog we can find and all for what?

To find out 

that we are in fact good parents. No matter how much the world tells us we aren't.

Our kids are clean, our house is .... " lived in " there is food in our cabnets, and juice in the fridge. 

Our kids aren't perfect by any means but they are ours. 

It doesn't matter if we home school, send out kids to public school/ private school. 

We see that they are crazy but are learning to be good people. 

We are tired.... no that's a lie honestly. We are beyond tired! 

We are....

Cleaning, cooking, baking, running every where, never getting a moment to our selves. Recleaning the whole house because the kids were playing. Laundry is every where, your hair is in a messy bun. Nanny paying, business running, yoga pants loving. Business suit wearing, nail doing, hair pulling....

Every single thing we do no matter how different we do it. 

It is all part of the crazy, fun, loving wonderful, beautiful 

MOTHERHOOD! 

It doesn't have to be the same as anyone else. How our children get there isn't what matters. 

It's that they become happy,  healthy hopefully productive adults. Now that is all that matters.

The tears of joy when they graduate high school or the rough nights where your sitting in your living room. Crying and questioning how you can do it on your own. 

No matter what stage of life you are in. It's all motherhood and you need to know that sweetie you are never alone. 

We are here for you, every single ones of us have been there at some point. 

Maybe not in the same way but that's what makes our journey our own.