If you’re new to Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed for updates in your favorite feed reader or by Email. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss out on any great discounts on my templates! You can also follow me on Twitter and “Like” me on my Facebook Fan Page! Thanks for visiting!It’s now 5:37 am, and I have been awake since 1:14.
I awoke just before 1:14 am when I heard a clock alarm blaring from the across-the-house-and-upstairs (empty) …

Today at my Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group, we had some round table discussion about menu planning: Do you do it? Do you plan for one week or one month? What works for you? The responses were all over the board. Some gals are proud non-planners, some gals plan and shop for the whole month all at once, some plan for the week and make multiple trips to the store.
Before I tell you what I do, let me tell you what I USED to do before I discovered budgeting …

Today was the great Quaker Oatmeal Stock-Up of 2011!!
Okay, so you know how I gave away two sets of coupons (ten, total)? Well, I found another 6 coupons. On top of my 20 that I got from ebay. Crazy, I know.
I bought this at Albertson’s today:

I ended up with 25 boxes/canisters of oatmeal. 10 canisters and 15 boxes of instant. Since you had to purchase in groups of 5 to get the good Albertson’s price, I gave the extra coupon to a lady with only one box of oatmeal …

I haven’t been posting my couponing deals lately, but that would be because the ol’ cash envelope ran out of money. Ugh. Hate it when that happens. As a result, I didn’t do a whole lot of couponing last week.
However, last week I took advantage of the FREE items. Colgate toothpaste was free at Safeway, so now we are stocked up for the year, PLUS I “bought” a bunch of packs of free Oil of Olay 2-pack bar soaps throughout the week. I know that some of you might be …

Winners have been chosen and notified!! Thanks for entering, everyone!! Happy Couponing!

Ladies and gentlemen, the ginormous Albertson’s Quaker Oatmeal Sale has arrived!! Or, it will be pretty huge starting on Friday, anyway.
As you all know, I’m typically a Safeway shopper. If I had a Safeway and an Albertson’s close by, I’d be the luckiest couponer out there, but I’m pretty content with what I have. Besides, I am more than willing, and it’s totally worth it to me, to drive ALL the way (25 min) to my closest Albertson’s …

That terrible, wonderful $10 off a $50 purchase coupon came this week. Oh, how I love/hate that thing!!!!!! My grocery cash envelopes are empty for the entire rest of the month (which begins again on the 15th or 16th) and I totally overspent on groceries this month (due to last minute runs to the store to pick up quesso dip makin’s for New Year’s, etc . . . junk food!). Well, okay, so I didn’t TOTALLY overspend (only by $7.81), but I did have to use my debit card at …

I did a quick little last minute Safeway trip with Cole this morning. I’m thinking ahead to Valentine’s Day, and thought I should stock up on practically free fruit snacks for the boys’ classmates while I can.
This is what I picked up:

Have you ever seen “Simply” Fruit Snacks before? I read about them in the comments on a coupon blog and thought I would try to find them in my local store. There was only one variety (Wildberry), but according to the ingredient list, they are definitely more natural and …

It’s a play date day at the Ratzlaff house!! This is just a little way that I keep my sanity while the boys are out of school. Yes, I said keep my sanity, because if you have ever had a play date (with well-behaved children, mind you) then you understand how nicely they occupy one another. The television stays off, boredom does not have a chance to set in, and all they really need is periodic snacks. So nice. It’s a bonus when the guests are nice to the little …