My Birthday

Another birthday has come and gone. My birthday started out as a normal day. Got kids ready for school and brought them all to school. I decided to treat myself to a drink from Swig so that I would have enough energy to do all the things I wanted to do that day. First I went to Macey's to get some groceries, then I went to JC Penny because I had 2 $10 off coupons. I love these coupons. I get them every couple of months and I ALWAYS use them because it's free money! I usually shop the clearance section so that anything I buy with the coupon will end up being very little money. That day I was looking for some shoes for my kids. I wanted to get some cheap boots for next winter. I found some for Sophie, but I was too late in the season to find any for my boys. The boots for Sophie were on clearance for only $10.80 so after my $10 off coupon, I only paid $0.84 for the boots!! I also found some Sketcher shoes for Monson for next year. They were originally $50, on clearance for $24 and with my coupon I only paid $14 for them. I only had about 30 minutes until I had to pick up Monson and Sophie from preschool so I rushed over to Kohl's to use a $10 off coupon I got from them for my birthday. I needed some tights for Sophie, they had a pair of 2 for $9 so I walked out of the store with those for free after my coupon. I love getting good deals! Good Deal Girl strikes again!!

I picked up the kids and then saw that Café Rio had given me a $5 off coupon on my app for my birthday. So we went there for lunch. I also had some credits on my app so I got our lunch for free. Just outside of Café Rio is the Utah College of Massage Therapy and they were having a little promotional day by giving away popcorn, chips, hot dogs and free mini massages. The kids really wanted some popcorn and chips so they got those and I got a free massage. This day was going so well so far! If you know me, you know I love free stuff and good deals and they were just happening over and over that day! I had only eaten about half of my burrito so we went to Anthon's work to bring him the other half for his lunch. He was starving so he was happy to have it. He has also been trying to lose a few pounds so I figured only giving him half a burrito was good portion control. :)

It was nice to see and talk to Anthon for a few minutes and then the kids and I ran to the bank and then home. I put Sophie down for a nap, Monson did his online preschool, and I did some yoga. I have been having some back pain and problems ever since my car accident 2 months ago so I'm trying yoga to see if it will help. My brother John told me about how it has helped his back so I thought it was worth a try. I've done it twice and I think it is helping already. I have less pain and more flexibility already.

After yoga I took a shower and got ready for my date. Anthon and the babysitter showed up at 5pm. Anthon first gave me my presents. He got me a new workout outfit, which was perfect because I was wanting some new workout clothes. He also gave me a gift certificate to do a water relaxation thing. I've never heard of it before, but it sounds nice. We left the kids with Rachel, our babysitter, and headed to dinner. Anthon likes things to be a surprise so he wouldn't tell me what we were doing until we were there.

We went to a sushi restaurant, which I love. Then we went to the movie theater. He wouldn't let me see what movie we were seeing and even covered up the sign the showed the movie as we walked into the theater. We sat in D-Box seats, which I had never been in before. I figured it was going to be some kind of action movie because of the seats, but didn't realize what movie it was until it started. It was Black Panther. The movie was ok. Not great. But the seats were kinda cool. They move and vibrate with the movie. Some parts make you a little motion sick, but you can turn down the intensity.

Overall it was a great birthday filled with a lot of my favorite things: free stuff, good deals, presents, sushi and a movie date!

New Dishwasher

A few weeks ago our dishwasher stopped getting our top rack of dishes clean. It was the same dishwasher that we put in when we moved in 10 years ago, so it had a good life and it was time to get a new one.

I started out by looking online and trying to determine which dishwasher I wanted. I decided on a Whirlpool one and found the best price for it at Best Buy. When I got there they had GE dishwasher that was even a little better for a better price. It was normally $450, but it was on sale for $399. I asked the sales guy to ring it up for me, but when he did, he found out that it couldn't be delivered until May 22nd. That was going to be a 3 week wait, which wasn't ideal for our large family, so he kept looking to see if he could find one anywhere close. He ended up finding one in American Fork, but it was an "open box" which means that someone returned it. But because of that it was only $299. I decided it was worth checking out so I drove to American Fork. When I got there I discovered it was also in a little bit of rough shape. Someone had obviously taken it home, installed it, used it and then returned it. I asked if $299 was the best price they could do and a manager told me they could go down to $250. Because of that even lower price, I decided to give it a try. (They assured me I could always return it if it didn't work out.)

So we loaded up the dishwasher in my Pilot and I drove it home. The next day the Anthons took out our old dishwasher so they could install the new one.

Old one:

When Anthon brought the new one in the house, he was not impressed. It was a little dirty on the inside and had a couple scratches on the outside. When he tipped it up to look at the bottom he could see that the motor was loose and another part was damaged. We determined we should return this one and just order a brand new one. So I called Best Buy and told them the one we got was damaged and we needed a new one. I knew the new version of this one would be a 3 week wait so I asked if they had anything in stock they could give me a good deal on. He started looking through his computer and after a few minutes he said, "Oh wow. This is amazing!" He proceeded to tell me that he found a Samsung dishwasher that was originally $650 that had been marked down to $200! There was only one and it was in Sandy. (That's about 30 minutes from me.) I said, "I'm on my way to Sandy! Tell them I'm coming."

I hurried to Sandy and when I got there, the sales lady said she couldn't find the dishwasher. I was a little worried and told her I had just talked to AF and they said they would tell Sandy I was coming. She looked on her computer and in the back and she couldn't find it. Luckily a manager came over and said that he was the one that talked to AF and he knew where it was. Hooray! So we unloaded the damaged one and loaded the sweet new Samsung one into my car and I headed home. The next day Anthon installed it and it is beautiful and amazing! It holds so much stuff! I had to reconfigure the way I load the dishes a little bit, but it is way better than any other dishwasher I looked at. And it is way more quiet than our old one.

New one:

So I ended up getting a brand new, awesome dishwasher for only $200!!! Good deal girl strikes again!

Good Deal Girl

Anyone that knows me, knows I like a good deal. When I'm buying something, I don't want to pay full price. I want to feel like I got the best price I could get for an item. It's turn into kind of an obsession. I'm always on the hunt for a good deal. Some people think I'm a little crazy for it, but I'm proud of my good finds.

I found an amazingly good deal when I was having lunch with my friend Tionna the other day and she suggested I start a blog post about my good deal finds. I thought that was a great idea because I love telling people about the $2 pants I was able to get for my kids or the $1 pair of sandals I was able to get. So here is my first Good Deal Girl post.

Tionna and I went to Chic-fil-a for lunch so our kids could play while we chatted. First good deal: I buy a calendar card from Chic-fil-a every December because it give you free stuff every month for the next year. This month the free items were a large drink AND a free large waffle fry. Sweet! But that wasn't enough food to feed me and my 3 kids lunch so I needed to order an entree as well. I remembered seeing them advertise a chicken nugget platter on their sign in front of the store for $12. I couldn't remember how many nuggets you got for that price, but their largest nugget entree on their menu was 12 nuggets for about $6. I asked the cashier about their nugget trays. She didn't know because she was new, but the cashier next to her chimed in and said they had a 30 nugget tray and a 65 nugget tray. I asked her to check the price of the 30 nuggets. It was only $12!! You can get 30 nuggets at Burger King for only $4.50, but Chic-fil-a has good quality food and is run by good people. Their food is more expensive, but you get what you pay for. They also have extremely good customer service in their restaurants.

So I was able to feed me and my 3 kids lunch that day of a large drink, large waffle fries and 30 chicken nuggets for only $12! Amazing deal! I also have the Chic-fil-a app so I got points for that purchase which will go towards free food in the future. The nugget platters aren't on the menu so you have to ask specifically for them, but it's so worth it!

Good Deal Girl strikes again! Stay tuned for more good deals!