Cami's 1st Birthday

On Saturday Cami turned 1, so being the incredible parents we are we threw her a birthday party that she won't remember and where she didn't really know what was going on. Basically a weeks worth of work for a 3 hour photo op, but what a great photo op! We had a small party with just family (If you can consider a Rowe family gathering small) Her cousins came over and we had games, and cake, and presents, and a good time. I've decided that kids parties are a lot like fireworks, lots of time and expense in making it happen for about 15 seconds of pay off. Still, she seemed happy and we hope all the kids enjoyed themselves. Here's Cami on her Birthday morning. One year older and wiser too!

Her Birthday party theme was " A Bookworm Birthday" Carrie made the book with the worm cake herself ( very good) and I frosted the cupcakes ( Very bad)

Cami, just figuring out what this Brithday Cake and singing thing is all about.

Here she is enjoying a well smashed cupcake.

We cleaned up the basement and had games downstairs. This is my niece Ashlyn taking her turn on "Pin the Bowtie on the Bookworm" With Claire, Aubrianna, and Ethan looking on.

Story time during the party. BTW, we asked the kids to dress up as their favorite character from a book. Nice outfit Mom Rowe!!

Blog Therapy

A few hours ago I just watched Penn State's football season go down in flames. I'm trying to look on the bright side, because they will still probably win at least a share of the Big Ten title and go to a BCS game, most likely the Rose Bowl, which has a great time slot on New Year's Day. But, mostly I'm completely depressed and I'm thinking I might not see them win another National Championship in my lifetime. No matter how hard I root, or how much stuff I buy, no matter how good recruiting or what ever is...it's just not ever going to happen. I get a few highlight films from the eighties and that's it...I love my Lions, but It's hopeless, I just can't think about it anymore.

So in an attempt to lift my spirits I'm trying a little blog therapy, just a few short bursts on anything not related to football, just to remind me there is more to life. So here it goes.

1. I've lived in a lot of different places and been fortunate enough to travel all over this country during my lifetime. I mention this because I'm sure that I can say without a doubt the state of Kansas has more vanity plates per capita than any other state in the union. I don't know if it's cheaper here, or if it's a weird cultural thing that I haven't realized yet, but every other car in this flippin place has a vanity plate. They aren't even significant things like last names or college affiliation, mostly it's stupid stuff like , "IGOT12" or "2Fst4U" . It really is crazy, has anyone else picked up on this.

2. If that's Eggland's best then Eggland really has to step its game up.

3. I know that Barack Obama's daughter is allergic to dogs. I still don't know what he means by Change.

4. If Crusoe doesn't figure out that he has everything he needs to build a raft and get out of there within the next 3 episodes I'm out. If he gets caught in a storm, or they come up with some other similarly stupid reason to keep him on the island, whatever, just make the attempt or I walk. This is my final offer.

5. In the Cook vs. Archuleta "who has the better career" contest I am awarding round 1 to Mr. Archuleta. His song , "Crush" isn't in my wheelhouse, but it is very catchy and the sort of thing he should be doing. David Cook's new song sucks. It sounds like he found a guitar riff he liked and then made up some words as he went along. It's truly garbage, but his voice sounds great recorded and I have high hopes that he'll get a better song to work with in the future.

6. This Christmas, "High School Musical 3" is holding the handgun and parents everywhere are emptying their pockets and putting their hands in the air.

7. I live within 2 miles of the best Red Robin in the United States. On a Friday night they were properly staffed. We got our food fast and fries Red Robin hot, "If you've been then you know Red Robin fires have their own level of hot, with the crispy outside and the insides the just about to burn your mouth, but they don't quite burn your mouth so you talk yourself into eating a few more with some Campfire/ Fry Sauce thinking they will soon cool down but they never do and you wonder if they are too hot or not for the first 15 minutes of your meal." Good service, and they even let us take a few cups of the campfire sauce home because we like it so much and we were willing to embarrass ourselves slightly by asking. Great experience, and I'm glad we've got them so close by.

Halloween Facts

Cami's first Halloween was a great time, made better because it fell on the same night as the Rowe family fall festival. Here are a few pictures, followed by a list of things I've determined are facts.During the Rowe family fall festival Carrie's Dad gives hay rides around the yard with his tractor. Cami was a little worried at first, but once the hayride started she absolutely loved it. She stood and clapped for the last few minutes so you could tell she was really impressed. ( For those who don't know our sweetheart, standing and clapping really isn't as dramatic as it seems. Those are two of the four or five things she does when she gets really excited, so she wasn't so much moved as she was very joyful and trying to find a way to let it out. She also stands and claps for "When you're happy and you know it." )So after the hay ride was over we had to snap a few family photos because she was in SUCH a good mood after being in SUCH a bad mood the hour before. Who knew a cart full of hay could bring someone so much happiness.

Here Cami is trick or treating in her stroller. She rolled along with her cousins as we went around in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood. Which brings me to my list of random and unrelated facts.

Fact: I have absolutely no problem going up to a house to trick or treat when my daughter is less than one and both myself and the owner of the house know the candy is really for me. At the first few houses we went to this sense of slight awkwardness / shame didn't come into play because we hit the door at the same time as the 13 other cousins, so it was mass panic and we were able to "smash and grab" without the homeowner thinking twice. However as the older kids pushed ahead at a faster pace, and we were left with the younger children in the back of the pack, we would have to go to door individually, and caught and evil eye here and there. I will endure that evil eye and any snide remark they may share with their spouse for a piece of candy. Everyone has their price and now at least I know mine.

Fact: BBQ is a right not a privilege. On Wednesday night I had a sudden thought that grew into a mild obsession ," I need a rack of ribs." Needless to say within 24 hours I had my ribs. Maybe it was that I was trying to eat a little less and the forces of BBQ would not let me go on a pseudo/secret diet for one second longer. Maybe it was the great deals we got on Soup and Hot Dogs that causes me to choose to have Soup and/or Hot Dogs one to many times. Either way, I haven't had a fix'n like that in some time. In the end we ended up getting some of " Big Bubba BBQ" a smoke shack 3 blocks from our house because We've wanted to try it and Gates was too far away at the time of said BBQ attack. Overall a quality rib, not quite as juicy as gates but with a nice smokey flavor. Their pulled pork and smoked sides were good as well. Overall a solid meal that took care of the craving.

Fact: You should never blog about food on fast Sunday

Fact: Obama is going to win. I've moved past the ," Oh please don't let this happen" stage of the election and moved on to the ," I wonder if I should take out my 401k to invest in guns and food storage" stage. You know you've got some great candidates for office when your biggest concerns stop being the economy and abortion and start being " Is my tent big enough" and "How much generator do I really need". What makes this year's election so tough is how the media has just out and out stopped serving the people. There has alway been bias...but this bad? They have gone out of their way to make Sarah Palin seem stupid and underqualified. They have drooled over Obama because of his good looks and his ability to speak. Getting a report on how the election is going from any media outlet is like asking a Ford dealer which Chevy to buy. I usually end up choosing Fox news because if the media has deciding to be bias then I might as well choose the bias that I like right? It's a dangerous road we're on, an unquestioned dictator, media that serves only as propaganda, and culture that doesn't allow the questioning of leadership. Prop 8 loses in California and we're heading for really tough times. Just Saying.

Fact: Penn State is playing for the national championship if it wins out. Look, it's a bad system. However it is working out for my team for once so I don't care. Yup there are some really good teams that have one loss in the Big 12 and SEC, but they will not leapfrog and undefeated PSU team no matter what the computer polls do because the human polls will never deny Joe Pa one last chance. There are some people out there that think this is a point to be argued, it's just a fact and if you don't like it it's too darn bad. Folks that argue that it should be th BIG 12 champe vs. the SEC champ no matter what Penn State does are like little kids at bedtime. They may complain, scream, try to bargain , but at the end of the night they're in their room at eight. Sorry Ohio State ruined you on the Big Ten, but that's just too bad because you're going to get the Big Ten in the championship game again. Argue all you want, Facts are Facts.

For the record: Penn State, Florida, Alabama, Texas, USC, and Oklahoma are all probably good enough to win the title this year, but on any given day any one can beat any of the others. Too bad we don't have a playoff to sort that out for us. At the end of the day, Texas beat Oklahoma and Florida plays Alabama, so that takes that out of the mix. If the system was tweaked even a little bit we'd have a four team playoff that included the Big 12 champ, the SEC champ, Penn State, and USC. That's all the playoff I'd need, that's a true national champion. I don't ask for much.

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

This Saturday, we took a family trip to Shaake's pumpkin patch in Lawrence to pick out some pumpkins. We had a blast and took some really cute pictures. They took us out on a hayride into the patch, where Cami had her first pumpkin encounter.Here is Cami with Mommy after getting comfortable at the patch. When first introduced to the pumpkin, Cami wasn't so sure she wanted to touch it, so Daddy helped her out a bit...

Then she patted it on her own, and finally, she plopped right down amongst the pumpkins, happy as a clam.

As we are planning on making a return trip next year, we thought it necessary to document how tall Cami was this time around, measuring just over 2 ft.

To wrap up the day, Chris launched a couple of pumpkins 100 yrds into the air... or so he says! As you see, he had perfect technique. Cami actually enjoyed watching him quite a bit.

You might have noticed his Penn State hat, which leads us into our next topic, where Chris will take over...

Thanks Carrie, actually there isn't much to report on the Penn State front other than that win was huge and if we hang on to these last three games we're playing for the national title. However, I would like to make an appeal to everyone reading who doesn't have a college football team or is perhaps a disaffected Cougar fan and doesn't have much to cheer for the rest of the year. ( Quick tangent. When they finally publish the long awaited book ," How to suck at your job" I'm positive that KC Cheifs GM Carl Peterson and Mountain West Commisioner Craig Thompson will be the co-authors. The worst BYU can possibly finish is 10-2 again and what will be their reward? Another fine trip to the ALPO Dog Food bowl, or something with even less prestige. If the Mtn. West is really almost a BCS league you've gotta have better bowl tie ins. Period.) I think you should start rooting for Penn State, if for no other reason than Joe Paterno. at 81 years old he's given his whole life to Penn State, given practically all the money he's made back to the university, has a hard time walking and getting from place to place but can still find the energy to coach a Major college football program. Now at the end of his career and probably near the end of his life he has a shot to win one last title. This isn't a season, it's a major motion picture..."Something for JoePA" I can see it now ( Those familiar with PSU or old movies probably get the movie title, if not then don't worry about it and just move on.) Anyway, I just wanted to put it out there that the PSU bandwagon is big enough for everyone and if you're waiting for an invitation then please hop aboard!

Other than that, Carrie and I Tivo'ed two episodes of the NBC show Crusoe..We watched them both this last friday after an exhausting night for shopping for Cami. Anyway, The point is I have never seen a show jump the shark so quickly. The Premier was alright, medicore action show, but the second show made no sense and was about finding somebody bones and putting them out to sea..crazy. Anyway, after two shows too much has happened to make me take this show seriously anymore. If Crusoe can build a sweet house and booby trap the whole isle you're telling me he can't build a ship can just sail off? Anyway, waste of time and I'm looking for a new action/drama to watch if you know of any good ones.

Chris posts again

I wanted to share some thoughts with everyone after my extended blogging hiatus. For starters I never wanted to stop writing, I feel a bit like a balloon that is so full or air that it either needs to let a little out or pop at any minute. I just had to stop blogging because if I was going to write it was going to be about sports, and if I wrote about sports I would be going on public record many, many times bragging about how good I thought my various football teams were, and if I did that then every self respecting sports fan knows I would be jinxing what I was considering the greatest start to a football season of my lifetime.

Let's think back to a week ago my friends...(Sorry, I've been watching too much politics and I've inadvertantly picked up several McCainism's in my everyday life. I've even started to catch on to the things I do everyday that might classify me as a Maverick. Taking a swig straight from the milk jug...Maverick! Sliding right behind a car that just pulled out to take a prime spot at the supermarket...Maverick!!) The Giants, BYU and Penn State were all undefeated and everytime I watched the TV, radio, newspaper, internet, podcasts ( I have a little bit of a football addication. I'm sure I consume between 3-6 hours of football related media on a weekday with much more on saturday. Some would say I need to re-prioritize my life and I would then tell some to JUST BACK OFF, I'M FINE!!! ) Needless to say it was a a month of perfect football bliss where I walked around with a bright inner smile and made a conscious attempt to not talk up my teams too much. Saying things like ," We're alright" or "there's a lot of season left, let's not go too far." When inside I'm thinking "We're going to win the national title." or " My team would likely smoke your team by 30 points if they played right now, I'm not even kidding." That's something you do when you're team is good, you try not to talk them up too much and do everything you can not to jinx them, like going on a brag-a-thon or writing a post that makes it seem like you're too confident.

Then this week happened. The Giants got blown out of the building by a sub-par Browns team that played like the '89 49ers. BYU didn't even act like it belonged on the field against TCU, and Penn State had a first half scare against Michigan that caused me to have some minor heart trouble before blowing them away in the second half. Needless to say, I don't have to worry about jinxing my season anymore, So I figured I could get back to writing and doing things I otherwise enjoy. (Quick note on the PSU vs. Michigan game. I actually watched this game on TiVo delay because Carrie and I went to the St. Louis Temple on Saturday. We already scheduled this trip in advance of knowing when the game would be on, but considering how terribly the football week was already going for me I figured there was no stronger anti-jinx action I could take to help PSU than to pretend football didn't matter for a saturday and go to the temple. I'm not sure if this is the type of attitude that causes me to lose all the blessings I gain from the trip or just proves I am mildly insane. The point is, on the way home I asked Carrie to look up the score on her phone and when she told me it was 17 - 7 Michigan in the middle of the 2nd I went into a state of shock. Carrie then spent the rest of the 4 hour ride updating me play by play as it was updated on her phone. I have a sweet wife and I would like publicly thank her for getting me through that tough time.)


Anyway, Since the unwritten laws of jinx offically allow me to write again here are a couple of things I've been thinking about lately.

1. Facebook - Some of you already know I started a Facebook account a couple weeks ago. This makes me one of the last 15 people my age to have one, but I figured better late then never. Anyway, totally different experience then I thought it would be. I figured it would be a nice little waste of 30 minutes on a day when I was feeling particularly under the weather. It's actually been like attending a huge reunion of almost everyone from your life and only having to talk to the people you actually want to talk to. I'm quite hooked.

2. Politics - You know, being a Republican right now is like being a fan of Nebraska football. Follow me on this one, about a decade or so we had a great thing going, great tradition , an old fashoned scheme we played to perfection, titles, everything you could want. Then we saw ourselves slipping a bit so we brought in new leadership to blow the whole thing up and start going about things a new way. The new way causes us to lose our identity, and now our leadership is so poor and our record is so bad we basically need to start over from nothing all while watching folks we used to beat easily destroy us. Confused yet? Me Too. the point is I am a conservative and the republicans have not governed like conservatives. When I think of What Bush has accomplished in the last 8 years, this is what comes to my mind. The Tax Cuts, The war in Iraq, Creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security, No Child Left Behind, The Wall Street Bailout. I only support 2 of those 5 things, and that's just not good enough. Republicans need to regroup, find new, promising, conservative leaders, and try to get back into the game in a couple of years.

In the meantime, I hope what republicans are left take a page out of the democratic playbook and whine, moan, complain, and generally make a pest of themselves for at least the next 2 - 4 years while the party reloads. That's how the Democrats treated the republican majority and that's how they need to be treated. What makes me more more mad than anything else it is the double standard in Washington. A corrupt Republican is quickly swept out of office, a corrupt democrat is put into party leadership. We should print calendars, articles, T-shirts and do everything we can to let everyone know how incompetant we think Barack Obama is ( and make no mistake, he is less qualified than Sarah Palin, He's just more ethnic so we look past it) Let's see how they like dealing with opposition that has not interest in doing anything constructive but being a pain in the rear. It will be a sad two years for public discourse but a fun one for those of us looking to have stupid fun at the democratic party's expense.

Our Little Lady(bug) & I LOVE this Country!

First off, I have to post a few pics of Cami and I at our ward Halloween Carnival. This was our first chance to dress our kid up for Halloween, and we can't help but think she's cute!

Next, I was listening to country music as I drove home yesterday, and I while I know it makes you – or at least me – more naturally nostalgic and emotional, or at least makes me wish I lived on a farm and went to county fairs, it got me thinking. I really love the USA. I mean I really, really do. This is a great place we live in – we have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the ability to provide and care for our families. We can be happy because our government doesn’t control our lives and we can choose our own destiny, for better or worse.

Well, as far as I can see, as we (the government, which is collectively using all of the money that WE pay in taxes) buy up shares in banks, mortgages and the stock market, things are changing pretty fast. I just want to yell, “LEAVE US ALONE! PLEASE DON’T HELP ANYMORE, REALLY!” Now maybe I am overreacting, as I’ve always been pretty passionate about politics. But part of me can’t see any outcome to this mess that makes us better off than we were before. My greatest fear is that we will be left in such a place/situation that people will start thinking socialized medicine could be a good idea too. What ever happened to freedom of choice and accountability for our actions? I know way, way more people called their leaders and asked them not to pass that bailout. I know they did anyway. I hope I am very wrong about what this will do to our free market capitalism system. All I am seeing is corruption, corruption, corruption.

I could go on and on, but here, in a nutshell, is why I am sad. I LOVE this country. I know that many people aren’t making positive choices, but there are still a lot of good people out there. But have we crossed that threshold? Are we to the point that the evil, or the confused, are going to get their way? I speak to so many who don’t even know what they believe – at least politically, and don’t know if the leader they favor represents their views. In my mind, you can’t trust most of our news outlets to tell it straight, so I don’t even know that the voice of the people could be heard if they wanted it to.

Okay, I’m not that great at articulating my feelings sometimes, and maybe this didn’t make any sense, but it does to me. I want freedom. I want to make my own decisions. I want accountability, even if it seems hard sometimes. I want assistance to be fair and moderate. I want human life and family values to be respected. Does anyone in Washington hear me? I used think we all wanted the same thing -Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives – we just disagreed on the right way to go about it, but lately I am starting to wonder. I don’t think we can afford to be cynical in these times, but I do think we can afford to prepare. We don’t have to be afraid, and we definitely should never give up, but maybe we have to stand apart a little bit more. I’ve never respected the political views of celebrities, but their petty hate-speech of late has made me realize even more that we have to be strong on our own, and let our friends and children know how we feel. That is not why I am writing this, more I just need to vent, but we can’t let the powerful make us feel powerless – and how funny that I don’t mean that in the traditional political sense. Okay, I need to clean my house now. If you think I’m crazy, you don’t have to let me know :).

How to Get Free Stuff & Some Great Deals

Okay, so a few of you asked how to get the free stuff. This is basically how it works by store. As to time, I would say it takes me at least 2-3 hours a week between clipping and filing coupons, planning purchases, and the actual shopping. Some of this stuff can be done by multi-tasking, like clipping coupons when you’re watching TV, but there is definitely time involved. Also, you need to get the paper – sometimes getting the neighborhood paper is cheaper , but just make sure it gets all the coupon inserts (Smart Source, Red Plum, & once a month P&G ). You will also need to get organized – I’ll post a pic of my coupon book at the end here.

If you decide to do it, it is great getting lots of free stuff, but you do have to discipline yourself as to how much time you will put into it, as you could get deals almost indefinitely. Last disclaimer is that some of the girls on these sites I will reference do things that I wouldn’t do and in my opinion abuse the couponing policies or try to scam stores (ex: copying and printing coupons sent to others and using them yourself, using more than one coupon when it states one per customer or getting more than one deal card at stores like CVS). I’m sure none of you would try to do this, but I figure if you’re going to put your eternal salvation on the line for some free stuff, you might be on the wrong track.

Here are the benefits:
- Save 90% or more on your toiletries and cleaning supplies. You will never have to purchase toothpaste or makeup or deodorant or shampoo again.
- Save about 50% on your grocery budget. If you still purchase fresh stuff, it’s hard to save much more than 60% total, because you can almost never get that stuff completely free. But paying half it still much better than full price.

Here are the basic ways to get stuff free:
1. Use the store special programs that usually advertise free stuff anyway, especially at CVS and Walgreens. Using a coupon on these items, you can actually make “money” some of the time.
2. Use a buy one get one free coupon on a buy one get one free sale. The store pays for one item, the manufacturer pays for the other. Most stores allow this.
3. Use a high value coupon on a sale item. Example: Toilet paper is on sale for 0.99 a pack. You use a .50/off coupon and the store doubles it. Your TP is free.

Store to Store
This is the way the stores work. Most of the obvious free stuff comes from the drug stores. Careful examining of grocery ads can get you great deals.

1. CVS: Roll your extra bucks (“extra credit bucks” or ECB for short) to get free stuff every week. You will have to put out $10-20 dollars to get started, but from there will rarely have to pay more than tax. For instance, they have deodorant on sale for 4.99, and will give you back $4 “extra credit bucks (ECB)” at the end of your purchase. You use a $1 dollar off coupon for the deodorant, and so it is free. These links explain it further:
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/03/cvs-101.html OR
http://forums.families.com/cvs-101-everything-from-eb-to-clearance-to-overage,t33611

A good site that matches up deals for you is www.iheartcvs.com. Again, practice honestly when referencing these sites. You can also match most deals up just by looking at the weekly ad (they also have a monthly ECB booklet).

2. Walgreens: Walgreens is a little more complicated, but uses these three things to help you save money.
Register Rewards (RR) - Like ECB, but with restrictions. Register Rewards print out of a little machine next to the receipt printer after your purchase. You can get them on certain promotional items. For instance, this week they had Reach toothbrushes 2/$5, and then $5 RR if you buy 2. So the 2 toothbrushes are free, and if you use $1 off coupons off each one, you can actually make $2 on the transaction. As to RR limitations, you can’t use your RR to purchase the same items over again, and you can’t have more coupons and RR combined than number of items you are purchasing. Also, ECB expire in one month and most RR expire in two weeks (though the Reach ones don’t expire until Dec. – odd.)
Easy Saver Coupons – Each month Walgreens puts out an Easy Saver Booklet, divided in half. The first half is coupons, the second half is rebates. These coupons can usually be stacked with manufacturer coupons for even greater savings. The booklet is at the front of the store next to the ad.
Easy Saver Rebates – This is where you make the most money at Walgreens. The second half of the booklet is where they list all the rebates. These can be mailed in, but the most efficient way to do this is online. You simply register on the Walgreens web site, and after you purchase a rebate item, you check what you bought off of a list, and enter the receipt number. They will give you back what you paid plus 10% if you choose to put in on a Walgreens gift card. The first time you do this, they will mail the gift card to you. After that, you can have the money loaded on your card each month. By doing this, you just spend your rebate money from the previous month each month, along with rolling RR, to get your free stuff. You don’t even have to pay tax out of pocket.

For deal matching at Walgreens, try www.iheartwags.com.

3. Target: Target is much more hit and miss, so I only end up there a couple of times a month. What you’re looking for in their ads is when they give $5 back gift cards on items. For instance, cereal may be 4/$11, but you get $5 back. So then it is 4/$6, and if you use coupons on each box, you can get it down to 4/$4, and a dollar a box isn’t bad for cereal. Given the right deal and coupons, I’ve gotten stuff free this way too. The key is to save those gift cards and “roll” them for the next deal (though if you’re already going to spend money at Target, you might as well use them).

4. Grocery Stores: I’m going to clump all of these together, because these are usually regional. Basically, all you can do is carefully examine the ads, match up your coupons with the best deals, and stockpile. For this reason, I get three sets of coupons each week (by subscribing to our local paper, this doubles my coupons – they drop an insert in Sat. & deliver the big Sunday paper too – at half the cost). So when salad dressing is really cheap, I can get three instead of one. I buy a lot of meat at the cheapest price (under $2/lb. for lean ground beef and fresh boneless skinless chicken breast) and freeze it, etc. The idea is to buy what you need at the price you deem reasonable. When you are forced to convenience buy, you are forced to pay higher prices.

Check to see if any of the stores in your area double coupons. I know that Hen House and Dillons do. This really adds up and often leads to the free items more easily. Never buy anything just because you have a coupon though, unless you really need it, because if it’s not on sale, you might end up paying more than at Walmart. Oh yes, how do you know you’re getting a good deal? If you can beat the Walmart & Sam’s Club’s prices, then you are. When I started out, I made a short list of items I buy a lot, and calculated their price per item (cost per diaper, roll of TP, oz. of Tide, etc.) and that is what I try to beat.

So, hopefully that wasn’t too confusing. Feel free to post any questions. Once you start doing it, it makes a lot more sense and requires much less thought. If you like getting good deals, it can also be great fun! Last thing, here is my coupon book:
(This is not a great pic - it is from the early days - and makes it look a little messy - but it gives you the basic idea. This is a zippered 3-ring binder.)
The first section deals with stores (I store ECB, RR, and gift cards by store, with a spot on top for the weekly lists). These are 4x6 photo pages I got at Office Depot. The sections after that are color-coded by area (toiletries, other non-foods, fresh, boxed/canned, etc.) and use baseball-card pages.

If you don’t have a lot of time, I have heard of some people who don’t clip and file, they just save them by date and match them up with posted deals online. This said, there are countless blogs and sites dedicated to this purpose. Here are a few:

http://www.hotcouponworld.com/
http://www.slickdeals.net/
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

Well, good luck saving some cash. This is a great way to build a storage, especially for those who thought maybe they didn’t have the $ right now. Just find what works for you based on your time and desire. Let me know of any great deals that come your way!