Just Heather
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“I hate how fake Hollywood is.”
Apr 09, 2005 | Filed Under: Checking Out, Media Matters, My Biz

On Thursday I hosted a CBS News crew in my home. They interviewed me about my coupon use and my business, filmed me with hubby and the girls, and followed me on a shopping trip. I think it went well. Who knows what it will look like once they edit the 2 hours of film down to a short Consumer Alert segment, but it was fun anyway.

It was a strange experience. Sometimes I took direction from the producer. Sometimes the reporter chimed in. Surprisingly, a lot of times the cameraman had his own ideas. I had a great time working with all of them, though I’m pretty sure the sound guy knows a bit more about me than he wanted to.

The shopping trip was a kick. They had approval to film, but once we got there we were told we could only film down the one aisle they had prepared. Too bad I didn’t need beans. We did talk the manager into switching to the promotional aisle since it had the sale items I actually needed, but we had to wait for them to clean it up and face all the products. The store also gave me my own special checkout, cashier, and bag boy. Funny how nice and helpful everyone was once the camera was rolling!

It should air on Friday night during the CBS Evening News if you want to tune in and check me it out. I think he said it would be on around 6:30.

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3
Today’s Post a la Oprah
Mar 24, 2005 | Filed Under: Checking Out, Mommyhood, Picky Eater

5 Things I’m Grateful for Today:

  1. Long toddler naps.
  2. Wendy’s employees who do not need a lesson on the fact that “ketchup only” is not equivalent to “extra ketchup.”
  3. Parents willing to travel 3 hours with chicken livers since I can’t seem to find them here.
  4. Yesterday’s triple coupon groceries are already put away courtesy of my new pantry door racks.
  5. And—as always—long, hot bubble baths.
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5
But it was on sale!
Jan 11, 2005 | Filed Under: Bleeding Heart, Checking Out

Last week was triple coupon week. If you came to my house today, you would know that. My kitchen table is still filled with bags of groceries I can’t seem to fit in my pantry. I donate loads to the food pantry, but sometimes I just feel strange carting in 37 tubes of toothpaste.

I sent 6 bags of groceries home with my sister, for the grand total of $15. What is left are things I use regularly, but I have more than I’ll use in 2 months. This made sense—at the time—because they were free (or close to it) and I likely wouldn’t have seen that great of a deal again before I need it. Still, where am I going to put 6 bottles of vegetable oil?

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2
Thank Heaven for awesome teachers
Jan 05, 2005 | Filed Under: Checking Out, Media Matters, Mommyhood, My Biz

I have said several times recently—due to local events—that I really should start watching the news. Yet I still can’t bring myself to actually do it. It hasn’t affected me too badly so far. I get all caught up at PTO meetings fairly quickly. However, I might have seriously regretted it today if not for Stacia’s wicked cool teacher.

Today is the last day of triple coupons, which means I need to get my lazy butt in gear and pick up my free groceries. It is, afterall, my job. The plan was to clip coupons and take off after lunch, which is in about 5 minutes. Change of plans. Her teacher just called to let me know they were dismissing early due to the freezing rain. Stacia will be home in about an hour. And, now, so will I.

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1
Day 3
Dec 03, 2004 | Filed Under: Family Fun, Family Ties, Hectic Holidays, Living Inexpensively, Music Notes

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: a synopsis of our trip to the Magic Kingdom! I got my butt up at 5:30 in the morning to pick up a few of the items on my Christmas list first. Target had it all on sale for Black Friday, and I wasn’t about to miss it! I was back before 8 with a trunk-full of presents. I walked into the hotel room to find my entire family sound asleep! Never mind that I had called 20 minutes earlier, spoken to Spencer, and asked him to have the girls up and dressed. The plan was for me to breeze in, get myself ready, fix the girls’ hair, swing to the food court to fill my eleventy hundred dollar souvenir cup with coke, and make it to the bus stop by 8:30. He’s damn lucky my sister called a few minutes after I freaked out to say the bus wasn’t leaving until 8:45. Otherwise, I might have seriously freaked.

The band was having breakfast at Fantasia Gardens and—since it was free with our package—I wasn’t about to miss the buffet! We rode the band bus over to breakfast to give the girls some time with Hayley. This was her big trip so she wasn’t much a part of the whole family vacation thing.

The character hunt continued. Everyone had a fun time with that. Even Daddy since Jasmine is decidedly hot. Plus, her top kept coming undone. Since I was busy watching my girls, I didn’t notice. Spencer did. You’ll note Brenia’s not in the picture. She was hiding from the Genie who was also not in the picture as he was nice enough to hide from her so she would be. It didn’t work.

Next stop was Pirates of the Caribbean—my all-time favorite ride. The first time I went to Disney—when I was 5—I made my parents go on it 6 times. That was back in the day, when you actually could go on rides multiple times without wasting away in gargantuan lines. Stacia stopped on the way out to have her hair wrapped. Brenia was fascinated and wanted to be just like sis. I didn’t think much of it until the gal said she could do it. I would never have imagined that an almost 2-year-old could sit still for such a thing, but she was great! Now imagine my excitement over pink and blue hair wraps for birthday and holiday pictures. Did you know these suckers can stay for up to 2 months? Me neither, but I will admit they are too cute.

Brenia enjoyed the princesses a lot more than the big characters. The girls saw Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White. My sister had a great time with that too. Lexie has decided she wants to move to Orlando and play Sleeping Beauty. Right—my sister the princess. She’s got the sleeping part down pat. It’s the soft-spoken thing she’ll need to work on.

Of course, we can’t forget the reason for our trip. My sister’s band marched ahead of the light parade. It was really cool to see her coming down Main Street USA. Unfortunately just when Spencer had the camera settings figured out for the dark, the batteries died. We got them replaced in time, but the settings reverted back and he didn’t get that fixed until the end of the band. Which worked out nice for my cousin as her daughter was in the last row so we have a decent picture of Jasmine trying not to smile as my whole family woo-hoos

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1
free money
Nov 19, 2004 | Filed Under: Living Inexpensively

I just received $15 in gift certificates from ePoll. I was a bit surprised since they haven’t sent me a survey in a very long time. So I logged into my dormant account to see what was up. I had ordered these in 2003. Nice. Oh well, money’s money. I haven’t received a survey for more than 6 months. I guess they don’t much care to have opinions from 20-something stay-at-home mommies right now.

Once upon a time rewards programs were all the rage. I spent hours a day surfing my list of sites, clicking on affiliate links, and earning points which I would later redeem for gift certificates. This is why we never, ever paid for movies even though we rented them at least once a week. We stopped getting regular Blockbuster rewards about a year or two ago. That “internet bubble” everyone was talking about? Yeah, it seriously burst my pocketbook too.

There are still a few standbys that can be worthwhile. I have one favorite that still sends emails for simple click throughs, but most of the rest are shopping rebates only now. While I once averaged $25-50 a month, I now earn about that each year. If you want to sign up for any of them anyway and get free stuff like me, drop me a comment with your email. I’ll send you a referral link so we both win!

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1
Wake up, sleepy heads!
Nov 18, 2004 | Filed Under: Checking Out, Hectic Holidays

Do you have nightmares of missing the biggest sale of the year because you stayed in your deep, post-turkey sleep well past the starting bell? Fear not, my fellow shoppers! Target has the answer for you. I’ll be waking up next Friday morning to a phone call from Darth Vader. Lord Vader will use the power of the force to keep me from oversleeping, missing out on the Black Friday bargains!

Choose me and feel the power of the dark side. While the others are nestled, asleep in their beds, we’ll stock up on reasonably priced sale items, crush the Rebel Alliance, and rule over the galaxy with an iron fist. Trust me, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of this fight.

But wait—there’s more! Since there are apparently “certain secrets to shopping that only International Supermodels know” you can also choose to awaken to the voice of Heidi Klum. Who’s waking you next week?

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2
countdown
Nov 15, 2004 | Filed Under: Checking Out, Hectic Holidays, Road Trip

Everything hits at once here at casa de Sokol. Little one’s birthday is in 20 days. But first comes the wonderfully fabulous (read:free) family trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. Somehow I have to find out how to get to Best Buy and Bath & Body Works on Black Friday for the super duper sales. Then comes Christmas with all it’s travel-to-7-houses-in-3-days glory. 12 days later, another birthday.

For the next week or so, I’ll be super busy packing and shopping. I like to be done by December, but it doesn’t look like that will happen this year. One because I’m just so busy packing (and by that I mean I’ve had a suitcase in my room for 2 weeks). Two, because I’ll be out of town on my absolute favorite shopping day of the year. Do you think the happiest place on earth will have Black Friday sales? And, finally, because no one will do the freaking name draw thing so I don’t know who I’m buying gifts for, much less what they want.

I love the holidays. Truly, I do.

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