Those are the stores we hit last night. Target still hasn't restocked any of the free goodies with their coupons, but I did get a bunch of trial sizes free after coupon. We're having our yard sale this weekend so that will be good to have!

Walgreens: Got 11 bottles of Palmolive dish detergent, a canister of Ajax, 3 12 packs of Mountain Dew for DBF, and 3 drinks for the kids (they'd been in the hot car for awhile and were thirsty as heck!)...all that for $16.09 and will get back a $10 gift card via rebate.

Kroger was a hit...20 boxes of pizza rolls (DBF takes those for lunch sometimes) for .20 each, 2 boxes of free mrs. Smith's pizza slices, 14 packages of hunts single serve pudding (4 in each package) for .65 each (another lunch thing), they had sirloin steak for 2.99 a lb so we got 6 steaks (thats a GREAT price around here), and I just realized we had a ham sliced and forgot to pick it up!!! CRAP!!! Well, I guess we didnt pay for it, so oh well, I just feel bad!

Also, on the way home saw a 12 pack of toilet paper laying in the middle of the road so stopped and picked that up. Someone dropped it I'm sure, but no one else was stopping. so that was free TP.

Save a lot has Cottonelle on sale this week for $1, and I have $1 coupons so that will be more free TP. Gotta love it!!

So I decided if I want to meet my goal of having the invitations go out this week, there was no way I could make them all by hand without staying up 24/7. So we were at Target last night, and found BEAUTIFUL invitations to print at home for $30. Much better than $200 to have them done by a printer! So I'm going to get those all done today and sent out.

So I was blogging along last night since I was up with a cranky baby, just goin along. After I went to bed I realized my post didn't make alot of sense! LOL!

I was reading on the boards how most people probably don't blog about their splurges, so I was going to talk about mine, but got off track talking about school starting.

Last night we took the kids to Pizza King (I think it's only in Indiana). They adore trains, and this one has your drinks delivered by an electric train. My kids about died!!! They thought it was the coolest thing ever. We spent $38 for dinner for 5 of us, plus enough leftovers for lunch today. So really not too bad, but we do that about once a month dinner out for all of us. So that's my splurge!

I decided to wait to go to the store until DBF got home from work, so we could go out for a family night. I try and be frugal, really I do, but sometimes I just want to treat the family! We don't have a house payment this month, just the $200 to his grandmother as repayment on the loan. So that went out today. Leaves me with $700 of my child support. I've budgeted $200 for school supplies, clothes, etc. for the kids, but when we registered them for school they gave us backpacks (new), with all the school supplies inside they'll need to start the year off. I had already bought a few things at the cheapo back to school sales, so those items went into storage for later in the year. Also, went through the boys' dressers and discovered they really dont NEED any clothing for school. My middle son got a pair of new shoes (not really needed, as the child doesn't grow I swear lol) on clearance for $7, that he ADORES, and seeing how he's starting kindergarten, how could I say no? My oldest does probably need a pair of shoes, he grows like a weed, and is hard on shoes. He has to have wide width shoes, so those will probably be about $40, plus we agreed to get them one new outfit a piece, then buy as the need arises or the sale arises. They each picked out a shirt while at Target tonight, each was under $6, and we have $30 in credit for Kmart which I'll use to buy them each a pair of pants. When we spend that credit on Levi's we'll get another $10 GC for later use. The $30 was from buying my engagement rings, so that's found money, and rolling it over into another $10 GC is just yet another bonus!! My personal question...who thought up buying a whole new wardrobe to start school with anyway???? I think it's ridiculous, but to each his own right?

OK, so I know I'm way late in the game on this one, BUT it all works right?

I just transferred $20 over to savings to start off my challenge. There is actually now a balance there of $47. So my starting challenge balance is $47.

My additions will be based on:

1> 10% of all coupon savings on regular weekly shopping trips (not my trips to get freebies lol).

2> All rebate checks.

3> $1 for each day we stay home and don't go anywhere.

It's a start!

I've decided I need to write down my goals and hold myself accountable for them as well.

Since this will be my first full month as a SAHM, I think all of that will come into play as well. These may be modified as the month goes on, but most will be the same!

1. Design invitations for our wedding
a> go through scrapbooking supplies and see what all I need to buy to get them done and out ASAP.

2. Spend 15 minutes a day in each room of my house (anyone else follow flylady? lol).

3. Spend 15 minutes morning and evening working on my coupons and rebates so that I miss fewer deals due to lack of organization.

4. Start a master list of chores for B-the household things I cannot do due mostly to lack of handyman skills on my part lol.

5. Arrange rentals for our wedding.

6. Start the $20 challenge TODAY!!!!!