Blog time. This is what Claire does when she’s bored. I haven’t blogged about the deals that I got. Oh, I’ve been couponing but right now I’ve been VERY VERY lazy, I even forgot to buy newspaper last Sunday! ack! But no worries, I find the online coupons sufficient enough. I always wait for the last minute to do deals and move my fat ass like I did last night. I wasn’t planning to do some groceries but we were out of milk and eggs. And guess what, I forgot the eggs? Silly claire. I got caught up with some good deals like paying 16¢ for my sons favorite GOldfish crackers (must print more of this coupon) and hoarding B1G1 coupons for YoBaby Meals from the machine spitter (ok, I thought it was for a FREE one tub of youghurt didn’t see the fine print.)

I also got Centrum Ultra Silver Women 2 bottles for $14 from RiteAid, I could have saved more if they allowed me to use two coupons for one item (RiteAid Video Perks + manu. Q) but still it’s a good savings. Saved $9 on that. A special request from my Grandma “papalit imong lola ug centrum silver” – Tita Dit. Hmm I might be doing the deal again this time for Yiek’s lola, a hit for the oldies but ‘ll wait for them to be on sale.

..and the best deal last week was getting Toys on the cheap. Little People Discovery Airport for 50% off, my gift on Caleb’s birthday. He loves the little people, okay he throws them on the floor after getting tired of them lOL!. He loves pretending to make them sleep and climb up the stairs (someone gave us a 2nd hand little people pirates ship).

Leapfrog Tag for $9. Can you believe that $9! Original price is like $35. Of course I had to go to customer service because the register beeped but really they were nice about it. One of my nice trips at Target. I love that toy soo bongga, it has this scanner thingy that recognizes the drawings. The free Leapfrog Tag Jr book I got months ago is finally put to good use. I had fun last night while loading the audiobooks. It says “Hi caleb” “Bye Caleb” cute!

This evening I’m planning to go to Target or Sunday if I get tired to do some deals. I’m nervous, I’m planning to use a lot of coupons and I’m not in the mood to argue. My Target store is a hit and miss, they are okay with using 4-5 coupons but I don’t want to ran into a headache-inducing trouble again.

I would have loved to go tomorrow as is my days are booked. I have to go to the dollar store to look for Sesame Street items and go to TJMaxx to slowly buy pasalubong. I hate that they close on SUNDAY, I can’t go on weekdays, most deals from other stores i.e. Shoprite, CVS, RITEAId, Target have a Saturday deadline so I prioritize those leaving me no time to go there. I HATE HATE it! It’s been weeks since I promised myself to go to the Dollar Store and TJ maxx but something always gets in the way. My county has this BLUE Law, which means that only groceries/perishable stores are allowed to open.

Busy, busy day tomorrow starting with renewing our Driver’s license in the morning, a trip to Dollar Store and TJ Maxx during Caleb’s naptime and if time permits do the Cherrios deal at Stop & Shop. Then off to WillowBrook mall we go to claim my $10 gift card (they just emailed me out of the blue that they are giving one) to which I’m planning use to buy Original Cheesecake from Cheesecake factory to bring to our little gathering. Shop a little and then go to a friend’s house to have dinner and watch the pacquiao game.

They said that the chinese calendar was supposedly found buried in a Royal Tomb about 700 years ago. It is said to be 4000 years old and 99% correct *total crap*. My first attempt to try those automatic/pre-programmed application was a failure. It all said that my first baby would be a girl and look what I got a running, hyper and can-drive-me-crazy baby boy.

So, I did some research during my oh-gosh-I-am-so-bored moments. The chinese calendar does the age and month calculation differently. They count the babies 1st month to 9 months in the tummy. So by the time the baby is born, he/she is a year old and leap years do count too. Month is also calculated differently as they are based on the lunar calendar (29.5 days). Our calendar is gregorian and theirs is chinarian heh! A baby born on December 24, 2009, for example, will be 2 years old on January 1, 2010, because it will have traversed 2 years 2009 and 2010, whereas its Gregorian age is one week. It get’s more complicated, it depends on when the chinese new year is so you can be a year or two older than your age.

..ok after researching while writing this, it proved too much for this puny brain. No matter how I try all the darn calculations, Caleb’s chinese prediction does not ring true! I used this and he came up as girl. I also use this to get my age and lunar month and use this chart. I even attempted to do my calculations silly as I am but all that gave me massive nose-bleed. Where is the 99% accuracy? Darn it, why am I torturing myself.

Good thing, I came to this site and I finally got it right! My age is supposedly 27 at time of conception, we supposedly fucked made love and made the little boy on April. Charting, it says I had a boy. Pretty darn correct! So, ergo when I’m planning to conceive I will use both calendars for double accuracy and other methods out there such as douching my vajayjay with a vinegar. Vinegar yuck.. might as well use Tuba (Visayan alcohol), at least hubby gets a dose of alcohol. Lol!

Ok, I am bored out of my mind and I’ve have had it with deals and coupons. My head is spinning, although I still need to print some for my grocery trip tonight but still I could only read that much.

So, I thought about posting an interesting topic. Predicting a child’s gender! mwehehe. I so want a girl next time, it is so much fun to dress them up, brush their hair and put in ribbons. It’s like having a live doll! I so envy my cousin’s baby girl, see picture below, ain’t she a cutie? I’ll be buying her a cute dress this weekend.

So after much research I’ll be coming up with an entry about the chinese calendar. That darn thing is complicated as hell! Will be useful when we are ready to have baby #2.

..next: How to read the chinese calendar correctly

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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!

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!!!!