Caring for My Chaos

It's that time again! The time of year that all the parents look forward to and all the kids cringe! Back to school. And a lot of states are doing the tax free weekends again. This can save you a bit of money, especially if you have a few kids! This is a list of when the tax free weekends are in most states, but check with your state to find out what is tax free. That changes from state to state. Like here in VA, clothing, footwear and school supplies are tax free. There are also limits on the prices. Like here, it's clothing and footwear under 100$ and school supplies under 20$. So, check with your state and get ready to do some major shopping! Arkansas August 5-6 Connecticut August 20-26 Iowa August 4-5 Maryland August 13-19 Massachusetts August 12-13 Missouri August 4-6 New Mexico August 4-6 Ohio August 4-6 Oklahoma August 4-6 South Carolina  August 4-6 Texas August 11-13 Virginia August 4-6

Well, I'm a little late on posting about this, but if  you go here  each day, you get a new coupon you can load to your card! The last few have been-- MICHAELS: BUY 1 GIFT CARD, SAVE $5 Save $3.50 on PRIVATE SELECTION™ CREAM PIES Save $2.00 on CRACKER BARREL CHEESE So, go now so you won't miss anymore!!

Right now at Kroger, they have the Green Mountain coffee 36 pack on sale for 15.99! That's .44 a kcup! Of course, I got the Dark Magic which is my favorite. They still have the Buy 3 Save 3$ mega event going on too!

I did not know of this until this morning! Go here to unlock  today's savings! It's a different one every day! Mine was a 3.00 off Dentastix or 10$ off 2 American Eagle gift cards! Go check it out!

Schoola.com is a very cool website that is like a consignment shop. But, the difference with Schoola is that instead of you getting credit for the clothing being sold, the school that you choose does! 40% of proceeds of any clothing you send in goes to the school you choose to help fund arts, phys ed and foreign languages in schools. Isn't that a great idea? And when you purchase from there, whatever you by, 40% goes to the schools that have been chosen by the people who sent in the clothes! They have kids clothes from preschool on up and even womens'! And when you send clothes in, it's free shipping! If you use any of the links in this post, you get 15$ free! Free shipping today!!I have gotten a few batches of clothes from there and they send you free codes if you are a loyal customer!

This is our new cordless phone. Our old phone would not hold a charge to save my life. I got really tired of it going dead after about 15 minutes, so I went online to see what kind of prices the cordless phone packages were at WalMart. You know, the ones with more than one handset, but only one is hooked to the phone line? Well, on the site, this particular model pictured was 24.99. I checked and it was in stock at the Walmart I go to so I went this morning. When I picked it up, they had it listed for 33.99! Me being cheap, pulled out my phone and looked it up on the site again and compared the serial number. Sure enough, it was the same one. I took it to customer service and she fixed the price for me! But, if I hadn't done the homework first, I wouldn't have saved almost 10$! So, this was just a PSA to check prices on the websites before going!

So, I decided to go grocery shopping today since they are calling for snow Friday here and I knew the grocery stores would be madhouses tomorrow.

Go here and sign in to load this coupon to your card today! Remember, today is the only day that you can load it to your card, but the coupon is good until 2/1/15!

So, I stumbled on more clearance today.

Now, I am very particular about what kind of fragrance I wear.

Isn't this apron adorable? I have been wanting an apron forever but couldn't find one I liked. Today on Groupon, you can get it free! Sign in and look through the clothing and find something under 10$. Use code TAKE10 at checkout and it will be free, just pay shipping. So I got this apron for 3.99! Which is a good price to me! Go see what you can find!

Today, Doodle and I went to JCPenney and got fitted for bras. Have you ever been fitted?

Hubby and I went on a Christmas shopping trip tonight at Target and I have had a bad cold for about 3 days now. It's a doozy too. All in my head and chest. Well, we stumbled across this deal at Target. Now, it's not limited to the ones we bought, they have name brands too, but the one we did was 2 Up and Up Cold/Flu Relief Daytime gels for 4.59 each and you get a 5$ gift card when you buy in multiples of 2! And we always need cold meds around here. Go check it out!

**This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.   'Tis the season for gifting! And ModCloth wants to help you find the perfect presents for everyone on your list with their 2014 Holiday Gift Gift . Shop using their handy categories, or check out presents inspired by trendsetting bloggers, including A Beautiful Mess, Oh Joy!, Girl with Curves. Utterly unique and endlessly fab.  This adorable  Madeline Tshirt is only 29.99! I know my daughters would  both love it. They both adored Madeline! And these  Into The Night Boots are just 54.99! They are just so cute! This And this When The Planets A-Dine set is only 44.99! I know a few people who would absolutely LOVE these! So, go check out everything they have up in the Holiday Gift Guide! I could really get in trouble shopping there!

Starting today, you can get All detergent 32-50 oz or Tide Simply Clean 40 oz for only 1.99! Make sure you download the coupons onto your card that are on the website and you can use the coupons up to 5 times in a transaction! I don't use All but I do like the Tide and since I can use it up to 5 times, I'll buy one for my in laws too! Go download your coupons now!

Aren't they just adorable? I found these this weekend while we were dress shopping for Doodle for her Ring Dance which is coming up.

As you all know by now, we have a Chinese Water Dragon named Rango. Or as I call him, Icky Thing. I am a reluctant lizard mother. I do not like it. But, as I have found, lizards are the most high maintenance pet we have. Which means they are the most expensive also. If you have ever had a lizard, you know that they eat bugs. Lots of bugs. Well, Icky Thing right now will only eat crickets. I can't even get him to eat his mealworms anymore. So, each week I have to go get at least 2 dozen crickets. Which I have to house. Well, this is the kicker. In the pet stores, they have "cricket keepers" which are little plastic boxes with air holes and a lid to keep them in. Kinda like the ones the kids used to have when they were little to collect bugs. These suckers start at 8$ and go up! Me, being the cheap-o I am, after our "cricket keeper" broke, started looking around to find something less expensive. This is what I found. Guess what department? The fishing tackle! It...

UPDATE: I entered a receipt from when I went grocery shopping and got 7.76 back! You can either save up and then have it go to an e-card or you can load it to the card at anytime!  Have you heard about this? I just saw a commercial for it last night and tried to download the app on my phone but of course, it's not compatible with my version of Android. But, you can just do it on your computer too. Go here and sign in with your Wal Mart account and either download the app so you can scan the barcode at the bottom of your receipt, or on your computer, you enter the TC# at the bottom of the receipt. And then after you submit it, they check the prices of what you bought to other stores and if there is a difference, you get a gift card for it! I just submitted my first receipt. You can submit 7 receipts a week. It said it takes 3-5 days to hear back though. But, I think this is a great idea! Go see if you get any money back!

Or is anyone else disappointed with the selection of backpacks for decent prices this year? We had a horrible time this year trying to find backpacks for a decent price. I didn't want to spend 30$ per kid. Normally, I can find them at WalMart for under 15$ but the selection of the ones under 15$ was pitiful! The kids didn't like them. Target was all too expensive, and normally I don't shop at Kmart but I had looked online and saw that they had them decent priced. We found Bubby a Sk8er Club camo backpack and they had them 15% off today too! Doodle didn't like any of the ones they had there so we went to Burlington Coat Factory and she found a black sparkly one that she loved because she can put her pins all over it and guess how much it was? 4$! So, now both kids are outfitted. We just have a few supplies we still need to get but we are waiting until after registration day because for some reason, the high school doesn't put lists online and we have to wait to get...

As you know, last year my oldest graduated high school. I have never planned a large party like a graduation party, so this was my first go around. I just thought I would share my tips to save your sanity and a little money! First, you have to have a venue that is large enough for everyone. This can be the most expensive part of the whole party. What we did was decide on one of the parks that is near our house and rent one of the pavilions. We reserved it a month in advance and it was only 25$! And with it being outside, there was more than enough room for everyone! We had about 100 people all together. Second, decorations. I hit the dollar store hard. They had banners, tablecloths, pictures to hang up, you name it. Even balloons. I think total I spent about 10-15$. Our highest expense was food, but we just did hot dogs, pasta salad, chips and of course cake. I'm lucky because I have a stepmom who does professional cakes so that wasn't an expense. But, I know Wal Mart and Foo...