Need A New Car Seat?

We bought our current 5 point harness 4.5 years ago, at Wal Mart. It's a Safety 1st Vantage. I love this seat, and it has served us well through 2 children. But now that our youngest daughter is outgrowing it, we've had to get her a new seat. The Vantage only goes up to 40lbs/40" as a 5 Pt harness, and she is also too young to be in a belt positioning booster seat.

I did my research, and since we're on a budget, I decided to go with another Safety 1st Seat. I really like their products, and since this seat held up so well, I figured another one would. I purchased a new Safety 1st Apex 65 seat from Albee Baby. The ladies over at Car-Seat.Org were very helpful in giving me any sort of information I needed on this seat, including the height of the top tether strap (17.25"!!). So if you're looking for a good, AFFORDABLE seat, this one is available on Albeebaby for only 94.94, including UPS Ground shipping. If you buy it elsewhere, expect to pay upwards of $130 US for it.

What I love about this seat is that it puts the child in a 5 pt harness till 65lbs and 57" tall! I don't think I'll keep her in the 5pt harness till she is 57" tall, but at least till kindergarten. That's only 2 years away anyway! Right now she is 40" tall and 38lbs, and you have to get a new seat once your child has outgrown either of the height and weight limits. I don't think she'll outgrow this one for awhile. Once the 5pt harness has been outgrown, the seat can be used as a belt positioning booster to 100lbs. And it also uses a LATCH, which we have in our van. Our LATCH is only good for weights up to 48lbs, and after that only the tether can be used. And thankfully, we have both!

I know my husband thinks I'm a little crazy for wanting her in a 5pt harness still because she's 3.5, but I just feel safer that way. We didn't know any better with the older 3 kids, and put them in a booster quite early. His reasoning for putting her in a belt positioning booster seat was just because we did it with the other kids, so why not her? I don't exactly recall how old the twins were, but it was a lot younger than they needed to be. We didn't know any better. And with our middle daughter, she moved out of the current seat once she hit the height and weight limit, right around 3.5 too if I recall.

At least now I have peace of mind, and I'm happy with that.

The Yearly Yardsale

Ever year, for the last three years, the kids and I have gone to a huge yard sale at a local middle school. I love it, because I get a ton of stuff for cheap. It's run by the homeless coordinator for the school district, and she collects donations all year long for this huge sale.

So this week it finally happened. I look forward to it every year. This morning we got up bright and early and drover over to the middle school and gorged ourselves on deals.

I only spent about $7, but all the stuff I bought, I just rounded up to an even $10. I do that because the proceeds help the homeless students and families in this particular school district, so I don't mind giving extra. Sometimes I go more than once during the week, and I might again on Friday. I'm not sure yet though.

Prices at the sale are cheap, super super cheap.

Winter jackets were $0.25

Halloween costumes were $0.05

Jeans were $0.15

Tops were $0.10

Sweatshirts/Hoodies were $0.10

Shoes were $.025

Misc/Toys were $0.05

I came home with 3 winter jackets (one is a dark purple DOWN coat for my 3 year old), a Gap jacket for my oldest, a light weight Lands End coat for one of the girls, 3 pairs of jeans, 3 skirts, numerous hoodies (and I mean numerous, I have 4 kids to buy for), a few sweaters for each girl, 2 pairs of shoes, a few tops for the girls, about 10 different Halloween costumes for dress up and maybe Halloween this year. I got 3 tops and a hoodie for myself too. And we probably got at least a dollar's worth of toys/purses/stationary.

You know those big huge blue Ikea bags? I came home with TWO of those stuffed and bulging, plus two large reusable bags from Ikea also stuffed full. A few of the brands we came home with were Fox, Aeropostale, Gap, Lands End, Puma, Hurley, and Old Navy.

I love a good bargain!

I went to Target again!

I'm a coupon fool now! lol See my post from a few days ago. I was able to get the same deals again! I just print a new one out every time I go, I won't need to buy toilet cleaner for a really long time. ;o) I didn't go to Target just for free stuff, because that is a waste of gas. I actually needed laundry detergent, printer ink, and a few other random items. And it was almost 70 degrees outside, so the kids and I went to Mc Donalds for an ice cream cone. The baby sure enjoyed it, as did the rest of us.

Also picked up the Scotch Brite Tub and Tile scrubber that is listed on this site. Normally this product is $14.99 at Target, and it was on clearance for $7.48. I used both coupons and was able to get it for .50 cents!! I didn't see the re-fill kits, so I might print of the $2 coupon for the next time I go and see if it is on sale. But for now I have the starter kit, and I will test it out tomorrow.
I'll review it as soon as I can.

Freebies

Here are some good ones for ya

True Lemon
Huggies
Tide
Quality Health-you do have to sign up though and create an account to receive the offers
Start Sampling need to create an account, but they have some awesome freebies.
Colgate -use this in conjunction with Target, as they have colgate on sale for really really cheap now. Thanks to AttentionTargetShoppers
Scotch Brite -Thank you so much to Comical Coupon Cents for this one

That's all folks! Sorry I don't many more. I'm tired and don't feel like searching for more. lol My week has been so busy already and I am still battling this awful cold, and we arent even half way through yet!

And I am excited because I just saw my blog listed on Frugal Hacks!! yaaay!!!

Yaay for Deals

Since I signed up with Frugal Hacker, I thought I would do my part and try to find some good deals

Thank you to Sisterly Savings for these two tips

McDonald's Coupons

I actually bought these around halloween too. The coupons are awesome! They helped me out tremendously when i would shop with the baby. French Fries are a GREAT way to keep her quiet! lol

10 Ways to Save on Gasoline

I know we'll need this for sure this summer, as we are planning on taking a few day trips around the state, since a family trip to Disneyland is out of the question.

And if you want to get some free samples, Walmart.com and StartSampling.com usually have a pretty good selection. Startsampling lets you order one free sample per day. I've gotten all sorts of great stuff like magazines, food, and toiletries. And just recently I got a great sample of Vaseline hand lotion from WalMart, a perfect item for your purse.

And I made $45.00 today!!! I sold some gymboree clothes on craigslist. Score!!! The money I make on selling that stuff is mine to keep, so now I have money to save for a rainy day.