Mom Purse

My newest love is what I fondly call my new Mom Purse.  I've been wanting to retire M's diaper bag for awhile now and what better way to do that than by paying a visit to my local Coach Outlet and upgrading to a more "Mom sized" purse.  Without further adieu, I now present you with my new side kick from the Ashley line at Coach: 

I must admit that I am not a fan of large purses. I don't have that much in my purse and it's awkward for me to carry them around. My biggest pet peeve with purses is when they slip off my shoulder because the straps aren't big enough (I am not a clutch girl at all). This purse is perfect as it comes with a removable shoulder strap or I can use the smaller straps which also fit over my shoulder.  The smell of the leather on this bag is so intoxicating and it is silky smooth.

My favorite part of this purse is the inside.  I love the color purple, but I wanted a more neutral purse that would hopefully last more than one season.  When I looked inside this one and saw the purple I think it called out, "Buy me! Buy me!".  Even M's eyes lit up when I showed it to her.  Ok, maybe that was just because she saw me and wanted me to pick her up, but the girl likes purse shopping.  I swear!  There are two zippered compartments and two larger pockets that close with magnets allowing any mom easy access to the contents inside be they wallet or cheerios.  It also has two pockets on one side 1) for my celly and 2) for M's sippy cup.  Could it be anymore perfect?!

You will find no buyer's remorse here!  The shoulder straps have been working great and while it is still a bit awkward for me to carry a larger bag around everyday, it's still a million times better than lugging a purse and a diaper bag.  I have two diapers, travel wipes, a couple bibs, toddler snacks (yogurt melts, cheerios, cereal bar, and mini fig newtons), a small tube of diaper cream, and travel size baby powder inside in addition to my usual essentials and there's still plenty of room to spare.  I hope to buy a Diaper Pod (perhaps a Ju Ju Be??) soon to actually put my diaper changing supplies in that can easily slip in and out of my new Mom Purse.  I puffy heart the Coach Outlet store and the extra 30% off I scored on this awesome bag. :)

Once-A-Month Cooking: Installment 2

Grocery Shopping Trip(s):

On Saturday, A.R. and I ventured out to buy the groceries needed on the list provided in the Once-A-Month Cooking book for Meal Plan E. We hit up Sam's Club to buy items needed in bulk especially the meat, produce, and frozen foods needed. I was going to purchase all the canned goods there as well, but the cans actually were too large and I worried about my ability to safely store any leftover food in a can that has already been opened. Our second stop was a local grocery store we frequent for smaller quantities of items including canned goods, frozen foods, and fresh produce.

Our Sam's shopping cart...not too bad, right?

The total shopping trip took us about 3 hours total both in-store and driving times and I was exhausted afterwards. I definitely have to consider the fact I'm in my 9th month of pregnancy this time around. I'm planning on figuring out if this new way of cooking will actually save us money or not. I'm thinking it will, but only if we actually eat the meals that I've pre-made and do not go out to eat or order take-out!! :) Here is the break down of costs so far (I've eliminated any household items like toilet paper, paper towels, etc. that we bought at the same time):




Sam's Club: $256.88
Local Grocery Store: 141.51 (includes spices I was missing & freezer storage containers)
Total Cost of food: $398.39

If you divide the total $398.39 by 30 meals in a month the total would be $13.28/meal, but since most of the recipes I have are for a family of 4 I think that I'll be able to make more like 40 meals which would be $9.96/meal. Not too shabby considering we'll probably even have leftovers that can be eaten as lunches, too. If we stick to the meal plan and don't eat out as much, there definitely will be some great cost savings to us each month.

Local Grocery Store Shopping Cart...

On the shopping trip I actually ended up eliminating two of the meals on the menu because A.R. informed me he hated ham. I thought I could trick him into trying it in a recipe, but he caught me red-handed. DOH! On those two nights we can heat up something else like a frozen pizza or a Bertolli's pre-made pasta dinner instead. I have already cooked one of the recipes in the book using my crock pot over night on Saturday. I made the French's Stew recipe and it's labeled and frozen in our freezer ready to go! It smelled DELICIOUS!

My counter with the canned goods ready for cooking

Next Installment: The cooking begins!

Shopping Heaven

First, let me preface my next statement by saying the truth hurts and no, I'm NOT normal. I hate shopping. HATE it! I'm a female and I hate shopping. I always get buyers remorse and there is nothing worse than trying on a variety of clothes and not finding one thing that fits my body shape right. Plus, the accountant in me prefers to save my hard earned money (you wouldn't know this looking at my savings account right now, though!) rather than spending it on a bunch of knick knacks. That being said I actually got a little excited with my recent shopping spree thanks to a leftover Black Friday sale and my preferred shopping method (on-line!) Cyber Monday.

I've only ventured out to the stores for actual Black Friday shopping once and we didn't even head out until after lunch time, so I guess it doesn't count. I hate shopping in crowds and just don't really see the crack of dawn all too often for anything more than an early flight to a warm tropical place. This past Black Friday I browsed the sales circulars posted on-line and found that a deep freezer we've had our eye on was on sale at Sears. We decided to wait and see if it was still on sale on Cyber Monday and take our chances. Long story short, we ended up going shopping on Saturday so I could exchange some curtain rods and get more fabric for curtains from JoAnne's and we happened to stop in at Sears. The deep freezer was still on sale at the Black Friday price so we got it and it will be delivered to our home this Friday.

Our new Kenmore 14.8 cu ft freezer

I hope to put the sucker to work right away after our next trip to Sam's to stock up. We'll no longer be limited with the amount of frozen pizza (DiGiorno's, of course!) we can buy or the amount of chicken breasts, hamburger meat, ice cream, pork, and other assorted frozen goods we can buy because they don't all fit into our regular freezer. I hope to also "nest" in the form of once a month cooking just before the baby comes, so I can stock up our freezer with some delicious, quick, and easy-to-heat meals before our little lady is born.

On Cyber Monday I happened to peruse our baby registries to see if any of the big ticket items we picked out were on sale. I was really hoping to purchase at least one piece from our furniture set and I hit the jackpot...our crib (Da Vinci- Parker in honey) was 20% off with a $35 shipping credit (I paid only $7 to ship it!) and I even found an additional coupon on retailmenot.com for $10 off a $100 purchase. We made our first big baby purchase on Cyber Monday and I saved almost $100 off the regular price. CHA ching!

I have to admit I was pretty darned proud of myself and my shopping skills despite the fact I hate shopping. And I'm a little terrified that this purchase kind of made the whole baby thing, although planned and deeply wanted, feel really REAL. Our litte girl is on the way and there is no stopping that...yup, I'm destined for motherhood and where half of me can't wait to see her sweet face and have her look up at me for the first time (I dream of this moment at least once a week), the other is terrified of what kind of mom I will be and what the heck I do with her once the nurses and doctors release us into the big, scary world. Hopefully, we'll adjust to parenthood just fine and I'm glad to say that our princess now has a place to lay her head at night even if we still don't have a mattress and she probably won't touch it for a couple months!