Columbus Mom Bloggers

I have this button on my sidebar and although it showed I was proud to be a Columbus Mom Blogger - it lead to no where.
As I was in my grocery store the other day, I had someone comment on my coupon binder. She was a coupon "fanatic" as her husband told me and saves them a lot of money. I asked her if she used any of the couponing blogs and she mentioned one that wasn't a blog. I told her about the 3 Columbus bloggers and she was writing them down on a Kroger flyer.
I realized I didn't have a good reference on my blog to my fellow Columbus Bloggers.
So I created this page of them. If you go to my sidebar now and click on the button above, you will get to this list.

1) Lacie from Peanut Butter and Pickles Reviews blog has great giveaways and lots of them! Lacie was the one who first oriented me to blogging. I saw her blog and all the sidebar buttons and spent the next several hours checking things out. But she was so sweet and helped me so much to learn how to do everything!


2) Thrifty and Chic Mom - Ellen has a blog that can help you find great couponing deals and freebies. She gives you a step by step on how to make a Coupon album also. (This is how I made mine)


3) Ali from Blessed Treehouse writes a very comical view on many things. She gives some great tips and ideas on how to do things "green". I met Ali on twitter and we ended up going to a blogging conference together, meeting for the first time when I picked her up to drive to TN.


4) Marcy from Stretching A Buck blog also has a blog that can help you save money, give you the weekly coupon deals and freebies. She appears on Ellie Merrits First at 4 TV show every other Monday to share the deals she has for that week.



5) Denise from Musings from Mommyland takes you on a journey of raising a premie baby. She has many links to other premie blogs. (Her son actually is turning 1 today!!)

6) Ellie from Elaborating with Ellie is the anchor newswoman for First at Four with Ellie Merritt. She is great! She had me on her show, doing a segment on organizing. She has had Ellen from Thrifty and Chic Mom on before. She also has Marcy from Stretching a Buck and Tara from Deal Seeking Mom on every Monday to tell the weekly coupon and freebie deals.

7) Christina from A Mommy Story has some great articles to read on her blog.

8) Tara from Deal Seeking Mom is on Ellie's news show every other Monday. Her blog is also a blog on how to save money and the great coupon deals you can get. She is a Walmart 11 mom and has had many wonderful opportunities come her way through her blog and Walmart.

Ford Invited Bloggers to the Columbus Auto Show

I was among 7 bloggers who were invited to the Columbus Auto Show to see their new cars and be educated about them. My invite came from Christina whom I would like to thank for thinking of me. You can read my post on my review site Organize with Sandy Reviews.
Please also visit the blogs of the other 6 attendees.

1) Christina - A Mommy Story
2)Ellen - Thrifty Chic Mom
3)Lisa - Condo Blues
4)Cheryl - Being Cheryl
5)Dan - Dan On It
6)Tara - Deal Seeking Mom
Ellen is on the left and Christina on right


From left: Lisa, Cheryl, Dan and Tara



Then onto the Hyatt for a lovely lunch.


Click on my Review button to read my full review on Ford.

Adventures in Couponing

For those of you I have discussed this with you know that I am getting into this kicking and screaming! I have tried using coupons in the past and my theory has always been that I can save more money buying generic than using the coupons.
After a meet up with some other Columbus blogging moms I decided I had to try it. See, one of our moms is Ellen from Thrifty Chic Mom. She is a couponing queen. But get this...2 of the moms who are going to try and come to our next meet up (this was our first) are both huge into couponing too! (I think it is a sign Sandy...you HAVE to try this). They are Marcy from Stretching a Buck and Tara from Dealing Seeking Mom.
Ellen told me, "I never pay for toilet paper, I never pay for toothbrushes." and she named a couple others...I was like, "What....How....huh????"

She gave us a little run down on how it works. (She has a tutorial on her site)
So I said I would try it. I knew I would have to make up a coupon notebook.(Kim from Crafty Mama of 4 did a guest post a couple weeks back about making up one, and Ellen also has one on her site.) That took me a most of Saturday to do. Make sure you get dividers that are wide enough to show past the edges of your baseball card holders. I also labeled my coupon pages at the bottom with a labeler to help divide them even better. Making it fast and easy to find your coupons will help in your over all experience.

Here are a few tips from me when you go on your first adventure:
* Do not take kids if at all possible (especially three 8 year olds! LOL)
* Do not pick a New grocery store to do your first adventure out because it is
bigger and has better selection (DH idea). I didn't know where anything was.
* Make sure you have it all planned out ahead of time. Do not try to figure out
what you are going to buy when you get there and then look for that coupon.
I did...and can't imagine if I had not had it planned out.

I am not sure how much money I saved. I mean I know I used about $15 in coupons that came off at the end. The receipt said I saved $67 (with Kroger savings). But I also know I bought things I wouldn't have. It will give us more food, for a longer time....so I guess that is good. I made sure things were less with sales and coupons than with generic. So that is all positive.
I still have to give this some time and feel like I get the system down before I can give it a full review. I have not tackled CVS or Walgreens yet. CVS seems even more confusing with the Extra Care Bucks.
We spent $199 (keep in mind we are buying for 7) which filled two carts (3 when bagged up). DH always likes to estimate what the total is when they are checking us out. He is usually pretty close. He guessed $280. (If you add that $67 he would have been close). He felt it was worth it. My decision is still out, but I will give it more time.
I am going to try and get some coupon resources on my site for you though. So watch for those. Coupon Queen I don't see in my future, but you never know. I have heard this is addicting.
The kids were trying to figure out why in the world I was taking a picture of the groceries! LOL

Columbus Blogging Buddies

Please check out my Columbus Blogging Buddies!!


1) Lacie from Peanut Butter and Pickles Reviews blog has great giveaways and lots of them! Lacie was the one who first oriented me to blogging. I saw her blog and all the sidebar buttons and spent the next several hours checking things out. But she was so sweet and helped me so much to learn how to do everything!


2) Thrifty and Chic Mom - Ellen has a blog that can help you find great couponing deals and freebies. She gives you a step by step on how to make a Coupon album also. (This is how I made mine)


3) Ali from Blessed Treehouse writes a very comical view on many things. She gives some great tips and ideas on how to do things "green". I met Ali on twitter and we ended up going to a blogging conference together, meeting for the first time when I picked her up to drive to TN.


4) Marcy from Stretching A Buck blog also has a blog that can help you save money, give you the weekly coupon deals and freebies.



5) Denise from Musings from Mommyland takes you on a journey of raising a premie baby. She has many links to other premie blogs.

6) Ellie from Elaborating with Ellie is the anchor newswoman for First at Four with Ellie Merritt. She is great! She had me on her show. She has had Ellen from Thrifty and Chic Mom on before. She also has Marcy from Stretching a Buck and Tara from Deal Seeking Mom on every Monday to tell the weekly coupon and freebie deals.

7) Christina from A Mommy Story has some great articles to read on her blog.

8) Tara from Deal Seeking Mom is on Ellie's news show every other Monday. Her blog is also a blog on how to save money and the great coupon deals you can get. She is a Walmart 11 mom and has had many wonderful opportunities come her way through her blog and Walmart.