6 weekends more to go!

Oh gosh, it’s almost Dec 17 and I haven’t done anything. Syet I am such a procastinator now I don’t know how to handle them all! Even though, I’m busy I need a breather so I’m making a list on what to do on my “available” weekends.

Starting this weekend
Week 1:
- Organize Caleb’s pix, so I can finally have the invites, explosion box and tarpualin made up. We finally had a semi-decent pictorial last weekend and it was not easy with the little boy running away from the make-shift studio.
- Go to Target and buy toys using their Toy Coupons. Will make great pasalubong and great holiday gifts.
- Go to Rockaway Mall (& Walmart) to buy clothes for Caleb and some random pasalubong. Caleb is growing up sooo fast, his pants are almost “baha” and I just bought them 2 months ago! grrr!

Week 2:
- Make a list of people to give and list for Caleb’s guest list.
- More shopping, this time TJ Maxx and dollar store. Pacquiao game will go to a friend’s house for this.
- Start packing balikbayan box.

Weekend 3:
- Shopping again! Penge money beh? yearly swiss army sale.
- Stop by outlet store.

Weekend 4:
- Thanksgiving week. What else? SUPER MAJOR Shopping !!!!! Look for super cheap items.

Weekend 5:
- Shop for Caleb’s party giveaway.

Weekend 6:
Last minute to do’s. Pack clothes, caleb’s brand new toys(to make him survive the flight) and finalize b-box and then we will be set!

* It might seem that I’m doing shopping all weekends but remember this is Claire the thrifty so I’m hoping I won’t exceed my holiday budget of $500 so help me God!!!! I’m cheating because I’m starting the money counting this week even though I’ve bought some items for b-box.

Basil = Pesto

On impulse, I bought a basil plant last friday because I’ve been hankering for some pesto pasta for the longest time. Let’s just hope it will stay alive for yummy pesto in the future as I know nothing about planting. I have a green mind but not a green thumb boo hoo! I already weeded out the wilting leaves and the plant doesn’t look too happy. Of course, I used the wilted leaves and it produced yummy pesto!

Shoes..shoes..shoes

I am suppose to go grocery shopping because we don’t have bread and other staples anymore but I got tamad and instead swear to do it tomorrow.

I’ve been a bad,bad girl..since I can’t do actual shopping I’ve veered my frustrations towards Online Shopping! I swear 2-3x a week we get some kind of package. I’ve received one yesterday, one today and I’m expecting another tomorrow mwehehehe! Bad for the pocket tsk! I was suprised when I arrived to received such a big package, I couldn’t remember ordering something at all. When I opened the box I clapped with glee because inside were four pairs of sandals and shoes. Yes you read it right, 4 pairs but it’s not all for me of course. Last week there was a crazy sale at 6PM and I also got crazy ordering the darn cute shoes. Original price for these shoes were from 75-100+ and and and and (can you feel me bursting with excitement) there were on sale for 4.99 each! Syet!!!! Naloka dyud ko, it didn’t help that the sizes and styles were going fast so I was pressured to order quickly. Nonetheless, it was the best $26 that I’ve spent (4 shoes + shipping).

Killer heels these shoes have

The little boy and the exhausted mom

You know I haven’t blogged for a while here although I’ve blogged on my other site . I’m just tired right now, I am without social life so I’m a little bit cranky nowadays.

The little boy is proving to be too much for us, eating is a challenge, sleeping all night is a challenge and shopping and eating out is another thing. We have foregone eating out as it was such a hassle for us, he’d make a mess of our table, he shouts and wants to roam around the resto and I’d get frustrated on why we have such a challenging child so we gave up on that and only eat at filipino restos as they are more understanding of a makulit boy and fastfoods aka burger king, kfc etc. Shopping gaaadd, I haven’t shopped peacefully for a while, the last time I tried I couldn’t choose properly because 1) he wants to be carried and 2) he wants to roam around. Discipline is another thing, it’s something that have eluded us for now. We can only shake our head and say “Ngano ning enter man ta ani (Why did we get into this?)”. Other times he is darn cute that we forget about how makulit he is. Sigh, the ups and downs of being parents, no?

Ok I’m going to post some of little boy’s antics as I might forget them.

1. Yesterday, we were having dinner, he was getting fussy and wanted to sit on my lap. So I told him “you sit” and like a parrot said to me “You shi”. Hayyy..

2. Everytime after bath he forces himself to pee on the carpet. Arg! He likes to see how the wee wee goes out of his peepee and he touches his weewee while doing it! tsk! tsk!

3. Last Sunday at the church, he wanted to go out of the children’s room so he said ‘outside’ grabbed my hands and said “go go go”. We had to laugh at that, silly kid.

He is very bulol and yungit so his words are not clear.
ae-pen – airplane
kaah – car
baba – baby
baba – bath (different intonation)
ow shoo – outside
te-ten = ten- ten
cho cho – totoy ( o yes we are teaching him that! lol!)
bo-bow – rainbow (it took a while for us to “get” this)
a-poo – apple
afu (used to be aff) – open

I know there were others but this tired Mom has forgotten.

And I spend spend here..spend spend everywhere

Expenses for this month have been piling left and right, I hate August! There is a bulk yearly payment for our condo back home and this time I completely forgot about this one so the check bounced, what’s worse is that my mom issued another check with the same amount and I had a double bounce *ouch*. FYI, they are charging me 2500 for every bounced check so darn #$$$%%*$ that simple mistake cost me 5000 php!!!!! It gets worse, since the check bounced I am charged a late fee of 800 from our condo developer and since my balance went beyond minimum, I will be charged for another 250 php. F##$%%#! ‘

You all know how much of a penny pincher I am so I am fuming mad with myself for forgetting the post-dated check *smoke billowing out of my ears*. You know that bad luck always comes in 3’s right? Well, Yiek’s mighty IMAC conked out as in null zilch nada die imac die zap zap zap, we had to day $95 to have it diagnosed and the result tsadang *800-1000 $$$$ to have if fixed*. We decided to buy a new one and this time it’s a tumatagingting $2k. Yiek decided to build his own pc and the parts are pretty much high-end. It better last longer than 2 years or I’ll be crying foul!

December is near ayayay, how am I going to cope up with the coming expenses of going home? I have not started pasalubong shopping yet but I’ve already psyched them that we will be bringing minimal of those. Wala ko gapala ug gold diri no!

Baby Steps Diet

This post was suppose to be posted yesterday but I accidentally hit the “x” button *pakshet* thinking I’ve saved it on my blog.

Ok, as of now I am 118 pounds. I want to go back to my pre-pregnancy (almost) weight which was 112. So, I have 6 lbs to lose! If successful I want to be at my first trimester weight which was 107 (yes, I lost weight on my 1st trimester!). It’s almost December and I don’t want to look like a FAT lady with bilbils everywhere. I don’t want to cringe looking at our holiday pictures.

So I’m planning to

1. Cut on my carbohydrates intake, which means no more rice in the evenings! See, I’m taking it slowly. NO matter how yummy the sud-an is i.e. humba swimming in mantika, I would have to say NO. Evening dinner should be light so no matter how hungry I am I’ll just munch on baby carrots (suprisingly yummy) and fruits. Will buy tilapia fillet and chicken breast and make a simple dish (Sprinkle breast/tilapia with lemon and salt seasoning and fry).

2. See, I don’t want to be overly ambitious, whatever I can’t eat for dinner I’m bringing it with me to the office as lunch. I don’t want to suffer too much! BIG lunch, light dinner. That will be my mantra.

3. No junk food snacking at the office/home, so I’m bringing over my baby carrots and fruits.

4. Take advantage of low calorie packaged meals (hello smartones, lean cuisine and healthy choice). This will be helpful during dinner and lunch. As long as it does not go over $1.50 each then I’m ok with that. Must look for good coupons!

5. Buy cold cuts i.e. smoked turkey, smoked ham, smoked oten and other delis to eat for breakfast. Whole wheat bread + deli meat + cheese + optional tomato /lettuce = 1 filling breakfast. They say breakfast is the most important meal so I’m testing this out.

Baby steps.. Baby steps..if all else fails, 3 weeks before Dec 17, I’m going on a crash diet *snickers*. Nyehehehe!

Target Horror

I’ve never been successful at Target because they are always out of stock with all the items that I want. Today, I decided to go since a) it’s saturday, stores are always well-stocked on saturday and b) there are so many good deals that I’d like to try.

So, I went my merry way and got all the items I needed and more, I chose a young cashier and then…… my story begins. First, she laid out all my coupons and grouped them per item, ask for the products that she has already finished scanning by the way for every coupon, she then proceeded to tell me that I can’t use 2 coupons per item and I argued that yes I can, I can use 1 target coupon and one manufacturer coupon. She then proceeded to tell me that I can only use one coupon for all like items (grrrrr!!!!), I said fine!  Now for a funny conversation:

Dumb cashier: You can’t use this coupon because this is not toiletry (coupon is $1 off any johnson toiletry)

Me: (In disbelief), isn’t soap toiletry???

Dum cashier: this says that it’s for big items

Me: No, it doesn’t it says ANY toiletry.

Dumb cashier: Ok fine, I’ll scan this it if doesn’t go then I can’t do anything.

The coupon scanned by the way! We then had an argument with a manager at that that I can’t use coupon on a free item because it’s already free, I have buy 1 candle get 1 refill free and I have 1.50 off refill Q. The also dumb manager supported her, gaaaahh! i can’t stand this so I argued a bit and finally gave up.

I then went to customer service and complained about them not accepting coupons, we discussed the coupon per ITEM again and she accepted them but she wouldn’t accept my candle coupon because I’m over my 8 coupons per transaction limit. If I had known that I would have split the transaction! I walk out of target upset, I’m planning to email corporate and get the REAL day.  I did save 20+ but the hassle is so not worth it!!!!

Misadventures of a first time mom 1

Testing wordpress app via iphone so pardon the mispellings and grammar, typing is not that easy!

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Much as we love being parents, Yiek and I can’t help but be frustrated with how hard it is to raise a toddler. Picture this, we were shopping at walmart and he saw instant mac & cheese, of course we can’t give that to him because a) it’s uncooked and b)it’s not yet paid. He gets frustrated and screams his heart out prompting a lot of customers to stare at us, some even had the “oh you are a bad mom for having an undisplined child” look. It gets worse when we are eating out. Like tonight was THE worst dinner ever, he wants to do the spooning himself and screams when can’t get food on his spoon, he picks a spicy dish and screams because he doesn’t like the feeling. We were told by the waiter to control him and that makes it a very very frustrating to be told like that. I picked Caleb up and we went back to the car, Yiek had dinner all by himself and I ate takeaway dinner at home. I felt like pulling my hair in frustration, how o how do we discipline this crazy toddler? We can’t shop properly and now we can’t even dine without me getting on the brink of madness. Oh lord when is this going end? I might just go crazy.

2nd Birthday Party

Party party!

I initially wanted to plan a BIG party for Caleb this December but after weighing it out, I’ve decided to be simple and have a Jollibee party instead. A personalized Jollibee party that is. It is soooo much cheaper than what I initially planned and I just find it impractical to spend Php 50,000 (my initial budget) for a kiddie party which I might add, he will not enjoy that much. I will do that instead on his 4th birthday where he will ohh and ahh with magicians and clowns.

I’m planning to hold it at Jollibee Mango a day before Georgia’s wedding (sorry sis no other date.) 12-2 PM slot (I hope it is still open!). Birthday Theme: Elmo with the Sesame Street Gang

Jollibee’s party package is overly simple so I’m planning to

1. have a personalized tarpaulin which will serve as the background for his cake and lootbags.
2. personalized lootbag or loot box that is. Contents of the box will be bought here (hello dollar store mwehehe!)
3. Cute personalized Elmo cake/cupcakes that I saw on a local multiply site.
3. scene setters like this one
4. 2D invitations
5. balloons centerpiece and other balloon eklat.
6. personalized Guestbook

The Mommy is so excited! Overly excited, now where is that party city coupon that I kept on getting? Silly mommy got a little overboard, the details is more expensivo than the jollibee party *slaps forehead*

CVS – 8/27

Before I start working, let me post about my CVS run last night. I have less than 24 hours to get my Free 12 ECB so armed with a GPS I went to another CVS Store.

This store was bigger that my nearby CVS and their coupon machine is working. The machine spitted out my 12 ECB, $2 off Renu Contact Lens Solution and another coupon which is going to the trash bin. I was excited about the 2nd coupon (oh yeah my life is so babaw) because I’m almost out of contact lens solution. These eyes of mine is expensive! First off I’m almost blind as a bat if I don’t wear contacts, I hate wearing glasses and beats me how my grade progressed from 150 to 400 in 3 years! Buying a box of contact lens for $26 every 2 months is not fun at all from a thrifty gal like me.

Ok, back to my CVS run. I really, really wanted to do this deal because I found out that I am so hiyang with the shampoo after trying out the sample that they sent to me. At last I’ve finally found THE shampoo/conditioner for me. When I was in Pinas, I was hiyang with Lux but sadly that product is no longer avaible. I’ve tried Herbal Essense, L’oreal, Vibe, Pantene and Suave here but it all made my hair blah. I still have stocks of those at home, but I’m going to ship it off as pasalubong. I’m never going to buy another brand of shampoo again period.

Here is my loot:

- 1 Aveeno Shampoo $6 each
- 3 Aveeno COnditioner (returning back the 3rd and exchanging it for shampoo this sat)
- 1 Aveeno Moisturing Lotion $3.49 (Used 5 $2 Q for all Aveeno items)
- 2 Reese Peanut Butter Cup 2 for $1 (Used 2 $0.55 Q)
- 1 Carefree Pantyshield $3.49 (Used $1 Q)
- 1 Mini stapler $1

Total before coupon (an estimate): $36.47
Total after mfr coupons, 5 off 25 Q and $12 ECB = $5.08 and I got $13.49 ECB back.

They were out of some deals that I wanted to make but nonetheless, I don’t need those anyway. I just really wanted the Accucheck Sugar thingy because my Lola is diabetic but I’m sure they’ll get them on stock later (forgot to take a raincheck).

Funny thing was the $5 off 25 didn’t scanned at first saying I already used the coupon (which I really did), I was just testing the waters if it would scan and I told the guy cashier, “I have another one of that, can you check if it works?”, he scanned and it went through woohoo! I was sneaky all right, I brought 2 each printed from different PCs, my plan all along was to show the other printout if the other didn’t work. Heh!