No me gusta Babies R Us

Ugh!  I'm SO frustrated with Babies R Us.  Right before I got pregnant with The Princess, a Babies R Us opened up about a mile from us.  I thought it would be heaven.  I was WRONG!  When I first went to register there my SIL who was 6 months ahead of me with baby #1 cautioned me that their customer service could be difficult.  Well it wasn't my only registry but I was excited and did it anyway.  It took FOREVER just to get someone to show up at the registry desk to get us started.  That was my first experience there.  Then every time I've gone into the store, out of the 10 check stands that they have, none are open and you must go to the customer service desk.  So you end up in a line with everyone else who is returning, etc.  Pain in the booty!  So my last straw came last week.  After The Princess's 4 month Dr. appt. we needed to get her some liquid vitamin D.  We still have credit to Babies R Us and I had a coupon (don't even get me STARTED on all of the exclusions on their coupons but it does sort of play into this story) so we went there.  I had read every exclusion on the coupon to be sure that our vitamins would be covered.  No exclusion on vitamins.  Perfect.  Not so much.  When I went to checkout, (at the customer service desk of course) the girl couldn't get the coupon to work.  Mind you-it's from THEIR store on one of THEIR receipts.  She finally calls someone.  Together they determine that since the vitamins are made by a formula company that they are considered formula.  Uh...no.  They are not.  Just because my washing machine is made by GE it is not also a refrigerator.  So I came home and contacted their customer service.  They emailed me back wanting the store number and I got a canned email back.  No attempt to try to rectify the situation, just a "Thanks for your email. Sorry it happened." email.  I felt that they should have at least offered to honor my coupon and send me the couple bucks it would've saved me, even if it was store credit.  Am I out of line on this one?  Are all Babies R Us stores like this because I haven't heard much in the way of "good" regarding them?  Thankfully between SuperTarget across the street and Amazon.com I can get The Princess's items elsewhere as soon as I use up our credit.  I'd like to hear what others think.

Here's the email from customer service if you're interested:

Thank you for contacting the "R" Us Family.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. We value your opinion and as a company, we work hard to ensure appropriate Customer Service is provided into all aspects of our business, especially at the store level. We are disappointed when we learn we have fallen short of our goal. We would like to offer our apology and please be assured, your comments and suggestions are extremely important to us and will be shared with the appropriate department in order to rectify the situation.

Thank you, once again, for contacting the "R" Us Family.

Gift Cards Are My Cryptonite

I must say that I am thankful for every gift card/certificate I have received. The giver was thinking of me and blessed me by using their own money to show me love.  I have never been ungrateful.  That may be my problem.  You see, when I have a gift card in my wallet it stays there for a ridiculous amount of time.  I never want to "waste" it.  I treasure them so much I don't want them to be used for nothing-ness.  Lately my husband has taught me a valuable lesson.  He had gift cards to home improvement stores and since we have been scraping to make ends meet, he used those gift cards to buy things we needed at the house (light bulbs, etc.).  He even had CostcoCash that we used for groceries.  These were presents given to him over the years.  They belonged to him but used them for our family.  I felt awful.  He looked at me and said, "When we get into a better financial state, I can use regular money for what I need or want.  Right now this is what we need to do."  That was so selfless of him that I really treasured it.  Being one to always look for the bargain, I have been shopping around for "The Baby Whisperer" book.  The best deal I could find was on half.com including shipping.  However, I have gift cards for Amazon.com (I loove Amazon).  I didn't want to "waste" them by paying more for the book.  Then I realized that by using the gift cards I am still getting a book for me (not really that selfless) and not taking any money out of our family funds.  Yes I paid a few dollars more, but in reality I paid nothing.  Sometimes the things Hubby says are really wise.  :)

I "Pink Puffy Heart" Target

Have you SEEN the toy clearance at Target this week?  It's fantas-mic!  Yesterday while Daphne (my car) was getting fixed (sensor was shorting out...thank God for warranties) the Mama came and picked up the Princess and I and we went to Target.  I went for a Cookie Monster for the Princess...and came out with a huge chunk of Christmas shopping done.  Have yet to meet a person who goes to Target and ONLY gets what they came for.  However I'm SO proud of myself.  I bought 9 presents (Christmas and birthdays), 4 greeting cards, a DVD for the Princess and I, AND her Cookie Monster.  And do you want to know how much this great adventure cost me?  $91!  That was fantastic!!!!  I'm so proud that I can't even believe I scored so well.  We only have a couple of birthdays left for the year that I didn't get presents for yet but one of them is going to be a pinterest idea.  Two things I'd be lost without...Target and Pinterest.  As I tell my Sister-in-law, "If you're not pinning, you're not cool."  :)  I'd love to know what you do to meet your budget for Christmas.

Working From Home

I think I must have 5 books on my Kindle about being a SAHM and bringing in money.  I am mildly obsessed with it.  When I got pregnant with our Princess we knew we'd need a smidge of extra income with me staying at home...THEN the bomb dropped on us.  The church where DH was a youth pastor had a bit of a shake up and let him go.  BOOM! (bomb dropping).  We were in the hole a lot more than a smidge.  I'm already a "coupon queen" (my extended family jokes that if there is a discount to be found, I can find it) and we live pretty frugally, so where were we going to make this up?  We pray, of course, that God will provide.  He always has. However, we believe that God also gives us the opportunity to better our situations; He doesn't just drop money into our laps.  So what are we doing?
I have made it even more of a priority to shop for only what we need and what we are going to use right now.  I use more and more coupons, I shop second hand for as much as possible (babies don't use clothes and toys for very long so I can often find virtually brand new items second hand), and I recently took on tutoring clients again.  Before the Princess arrived I was working at a tutoring center that was great and I have just started back with them this week but can I just tell you how tough it is to be away from the Princess for just that short time?  I'd much rather have students here at my home.  Soooo I posted on Facebook about my tutoring services and my FB is blowing up!  Woo Hoo!  I'm so excited!  We also decided to open our own little computer repair business through our home.  We had very little investment to start it up and we have years of experience so hopefully that will help us make ends meet too.  Yikes!  When I put it all down it sounds like a lot but it's all worth it for our little Princess to be with Mommy.  What do you to make ends meet when they just don't connect?

Great Date Night A.K.A. I Love Freebies

DH and I needed a reason to get out of the house; an excuse to have a date. Our excuse? We didn't have a main ingredient for dinner...so out we went! DH suggested a movie night and wanted to go out (gasp!) to the theater. Dollar signs went rolling through my head. A movie out? We have a Netflix rental sitting on the table. Tickets for a movie that is not a matinee? That's outrageous! AND dinner?! What would WeightWatchers say?! Well, I can't complain because I'm the one who was ready to crawl out of my skin because of being locked in the house. So we left and started driving. We had so much extra time we didn't really know what to do. You know what you do when you are killing time and have no money to spend? Window shop at Costco! We were planning on heading over there anyway to buy our movie tickets so we spent some extra time (and DH spent some of his graduation money) and enjoyed ourselves for a (nearly) free time. As I said, we picked up our movie tickets for much less than it would have been at the theater. Then we headed out to dinner, courtesy of my darling cousin and her hubby that came out to visit and gifted us with a little gift card. So that wasn't too bad either. Then we got a soda to smuggle in (I know..shame! But we planned on getting popcorn...that makes it better, right?) . At the ticket counter we gave them our movie theater rewards card and ended up with a coupon for free popcorn! Woo hoo! So our Great Date Night ended up being Great on the pocketbook too!

I must encourage anyone who even occasionally goes to the movies to check out any rewards programs that they have-they are worth signing up!

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags)!

So I have been to two different grocery stores in the last two days and BOTH have given me money off for bringing my own reusable bags. What a great deal! Reducing my trash as well as saving a little coin. I think my wallet feels a little bit heavier. :)

Free Kraft Foods

Hey ya'll! Money Saving Mom posted about this freebie on her blog and I thought I'd pass it on. You just need to click http://www.facebook.com/KraftFoods?v=app_10442206389, click Like, and then sign up! Woo hoo