Another BOM finish and a New Hobby

Ta Dah! I finished the January Sue Spargo BOM last night by appliqueing the little red circles around the center of the flower.
The little wool circles are only a quarter of an inch across. So how do you cut such little circles? With a hole punch!
Hopefully the pictures are much less blurry today than yesterday. I tried really hard to focus!
In the last couple of weeks, I've picked up a new hobby. The best thing about it is that it doesn't cost anything! In fact, it's a hobby that saves me money. What could be better?

Daughter 2 has a friend who got her started with couponing for groceries and personal care items. I really didn't think much about it at first. The thought of spending hours clipping coupons and organizing them to save a few cents here and there has never appealed to me. BUT, the more I heard stories of how much she's been saving, the more intrigued I'm become. There's a great website (more on that in the near future) that guides you through the process at any given grocery store or drug store. It takes minimal time to get organized and start saving big bucks.

I'm just getting started, but I'm amazing at what I can do already. Yesterday I went to Walgreens - not for medicine, but for a few items they have on special this week. I didn't even use a coupon! Here's my receipt:
You can see that I spent $14.36 and my savings were $14.37! I saved more that I spent! Plus I came home with a $3.00 coupon for my next purchase there.

I bought:
2 Arm and Hammer Laundry Detergent (buy one get one free)
1 Deoderant (on sale)
1 box of Kellogg's Raisin Bran (on sale)
2 packages of gum (on sale)

I think that's pretty darn good considering how expensive dry cereal and laundry detergent have gotten.

Don't worry - we're not hurting for money or anything like that. But why not save when you can? It's really rewarding to come home from a shopping trip knowing that I saved so much on items I needed to buy anyway. And I figure that saving money is almost like making money.