{Weekend Bargains}: Recent Finds

One thing I pride myself in is being a bargain shopper. As a mom on a teacher's budget (keep in mind I work in one of the lowest paid teaching states) I just can't make myself pay full price for an item. Especially one in which I don't actually need. So what do I do? I hit up weekend sales and clearance racks. And ladies, you'll be surprised with what you will find. Over the last few weekends I've scored big on some items. Just check them out...

Here's the run down of my bargain savings...

White Tee: $3.58 at Belk (Originally $11.97 at Belk)

Black T-shirt: $3.58 at Belk (Originally $11.97 at Belk)

Royal Blue Tank: $2.55 at Gap Outlet (Originally $23 at Gap)

Black White Stripe Colorblock top: $13 at Belk (Originally $36 at Belk)

Simply Southern Bowtie T-shirt: $17.95 at Tiki Jims (Originally $21.95 at local boutiques)

Simply Southern 'Tie that Binds' T-shirt: $17.95 at Tiki Jims (Originally $21.95 at local boutiques)

Teal Nine West Shoes: $14.00 at Nine West Outlet (Originally $59 at various shoe stores)

Elephant Print Scarf: $12 at Bjuju (Similar styles $30 and up at boutiques)

Nike Free 5.0 v4 Tennis Shoes: $100 at Finish Line (Originally $140+ on Amazon)

Black Ankle-Length Pants: $10.98 at Gap Outlet (Originally $55 at Gap store)

Elephant Print Pants: $20 at Belk (Originally $36.00 at Belk)

Black Leggings: $14.98 at Gap Outlet (Originally $29.95 at Gap)

In the last few weeks I've spent around $230 and saved almost $250. I'd say that's bargain shopping at it's finest ladies! You should seriously try it :P

Weekend Bargains: Maternity Edition

It's been quite a few months since I've done a weekend bargain post but after the bargains I snatched up this weekend, I had to share with you ladies...especially you preggo ones! Over the weekend, I broke down and purchased some of my first maternity pieces. I was hoping to make it to the spring without buying any maternity clothes because I knew if I waited to the spring, I would have enough clothes that could serve as maternity pieces (i.e. knit dresses, maxi dresses, and super loose shirts and blouses) to get me through my pregnancy. Unfortunately, over the last few weeks, I've noticed my jeans have been getting snugger and snugger and I knew that I wasn't gonna make it to warmer weather without purchasing a few pairs of maternity pants to hold me over until dress and skirt season. So when Saturday rolled around, a friend of mine and I headed to Greensboro to do a little shopping. My plan was to go to the mall but after passing the sign for Target, Brittni and I decided to stop there first. Thankfully we did because I scored big time and bought a bunch of items for practically nothing! I saved so much that I was able to splurge on some bigger items at other stores!!! (: Win-win!

Here are my Saturday weekend bargain purchases (: 

Coral V-Neck Tee: $7 (Target)

Gray/ White 3/4 sleeve tee: $9 (Target)

Blue long sleeve tee: $9 (Target)

Burgundy blouse with gold beading:  $6 (Target)

Royal Blue Dress: $10 (Target)

Gray Dress: $!0 (Target)

Magenta Dress: $10 (Target)

Black Pencil Skirt: $7 (Target)

Black Bootcut Dress Pants: $35 (Target)... These weren't on sale but I loved them so I had to get them since they were an absolute perfect fit and they only had one or two pairs left in my size!

Black Fleece Lined Leggings: $5 (Ross)

Urban Fit Skinny Leg Jeans: $40 (Motherhood)... I decided to splurge on these because they were the perfect fit as well! I also chose to buy skinny leg jeans because I could cuff them to be ankle pants or capris so I figured I'd get more use out of them in comparison to a regular pair of jeans. 

Khakis: $27 (Motherhood) I purchased a pair of khakis at Target but tried these on at Motherhood and chose to purchase these and return the ones from Target. These fit much better and seemed to be more of a khaki color in comparison to the ones at Target. The ones from Target were more of a brownish gray. It didn't help that they were also $8 cheaper! 

Royal Blue Pencil Skirt: $7 (Target)

I had no intention of buying maternity dresses or shirts but when I saw that they cost practically nothing, I couldn't talk myself out of it. I mean, who could blame me?! haha  Anyone else have any luck scoring any good deals on maternity clothes lately? 

Tax Free Weekend!

As many of you ladies have noticed, when I got out of school in May, my blogging became pretty sporadic. My weekend recaps, weekend bargains, and OOTD posts came to an abrupt halt. The reason for that is pretty simple. The fact of the matter is that I have done nothing but rest and relax all summer and frankly, I've loved every minute of it! My weekends were spent laying around on the couch with the hubby and my outfits consisted of nothing but t-shirts and athletic shorts. So I really didn't have anything exciting for you guys to read or look at. However, that's about to all end because tomorrow marks my first official day back to school. So I figure I might as well start back with my series of posts. So tonight I'm going to start back with my weekend bargain series. After all this past weekend was "Tax-Free Weekend" so it really couldn't be any better of a time! (:

Over the weekend, I found lots of cute goodies for work!

Cognac colored flats! (Target for $14.99)
Navy & Gold Bracelets (Target for $6.00)

                                          

3/4 sleeve silk blouses! (Marshalls for $12.99 each)

Denim trouser pants (Target for $16.08)
Red cropped pants (Marshalls for $19.99)

Guess dress (Marshalls for $15.00)

What did you ladies end up finding this weekend?!

Weekend Bargains

So I did a little shopping over the last week and I just have to share my bargains! Enjoy ladies!

$12.99 @ Marshalls

$8.49 @ Rue 21

$12.49 @ Rue 21

$13.99 @ Rue 21

$10.00 @ Rue 21

$6 at Rue 21

I also bought a pair of black dress pants from New York & Company for $18.19

Overall, it was a successful shopping weekend! All the stores had excellent buys!

Weekend Recap & Bargains

Yes, I'm aware that according to blogging etiquette you should only post once a day but I'm going to have to ignore that little rule for the next 30 days as I share my wedding memories. So on to my weekend and my fabulous weekend bargain finds!

Friday

After work Friday, the girls and I headed to High Point for the annual Spring Buckhead Betties sale. Our goal was to work out after we got back home but we had a slight change of plans. After spending nearly an hour at the sale, we opted out of our Insanity workout to go grab some frozen yogurt at Feeney's Frozen Yogurt Bar. It was worth each bite. However, I did regret not getting my workout in... but I did walk alot at the sale. Does that count? Here are my amazing bargains! I spent a little over $70 for all of this! 

When I got back home from our shopping and yogurt adventure, I headed out to dinner with the hubs and group. As usual, dinner was full of stories and laughs. 

Saturday

Saturday was such a productive day! As a teacher one of the things you have to look forward too is waking up bright and early...even on the weekends! I woke up around seven and cleaned up the kitchen, swept the floors, and did the laundry. Around 8:30 the girls came over and we did our Insanity workout. After our workout, I headed to Reidsville High School for the Go Far 5k. Each of the school's in the county participated in the race. There were over 400 runners! It was alot of fun! 

One of my teammates (:

Central Elementary's King Cubs

After Go Far, I headed to the nail and tanning salon to treat myself to a spa date. A girl needs those every now and then. By the time I finished, it was lunch time so I decided to surprise the hubs and took him lunch at work. We hung out for about an hour on his break then I headed home to finish cleaning the house. 

When the hubs got home from work, I fixed dinner then we headed to Greensboro to watch the Lucky One with my best friend and her boyfriend. It was an awesome movie and I could seriously go watch it again. However, if you hope it's just like the book, you're going to be disappointed. But it's still worth the watch!

Sunday

The hubs had to work this morning so I joined my parents at church. After church, I headed over to Mom & Dad's for our usual Sunday lunch with the family. Mom fixed chicken salads. They were amazing! When I left there I swung by RUE 21 and picked up two super cute shirts. Both of them were less than $9!  I then went to the grocery store and planned out lunch and dinner for the week.

Now I'm curled up in front of the tv watching Hallmark movies. Ahh, I'm addicted! When the hubby gets home, we're going to cook spaghetti and cuddle up and watch a movie. That's my kind of night!

Here are my new shirts!

Shirt 1!

Shirt 2!

I love it's back!

Hope you ladies had a great weekend and an even better week!

Weekend Recap

Is tomorrow seriously Monday? Have I mentioned before how much I HATE Mondays...with a passion?! Ughhhh. Here's to hoping for lots of snow tonight and a delay or cancel in the morning!

Friday

Since Kevin had to work Friday night, Brittni asked for me to come keep her company at her school's art show. I figured I had nothing better to do and since she always comes and keeps me company, it was time I paid her back. So I got myself together (in bum clothes!) and headed to RCC. Little did I know this was the All County Art Show and every school in the county was represented. So yes, you guessed it! While there, wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and old shoes, I ran into lots of students and parents from my school. I was quite embarassed! But hey, it was a Friday night and I was ready to be comfortable. 

After the art show, Brittni and I headed to Santana's to meet her family for her uncle's birthday party. It was the first time I had met all of her family but I felt like I fit in. Her family had me cracking up with all of their jokes. I felt like I was sitting with my own crazy family. 

When we left, we headed to Ruby Tuesday to meet up with the guy Brittni is seeing and some of his friends. They were hanging out at the bar watching the game. We spent a couple hours there talking with them until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and we had to leave. By the time I got home, I CRASHED!

Saturday

The husband surprised me by bringing breakfast home on Saturday morning so I woke up around 6:15. We ate together (something we don't do much of these days) and caught up on each other's weeks. Around 7am we headed back to bed. I didn't think I'd be able to go back to sleep but apparently my body was still exhausted and I fell back asleep only to wake up at 9:30! Something I never do! Having slept that long, I felt sick when I woke up so I decided to lay around and do nothing.

Around noon, I started getting hungry so I decided to head up town and grab a Pete's burger. If you've never been to Pete's and you live in the area... Shame on you! You have no idea what you're missing. You're talking about the best burger you've ever had in your life! Mmmm mmm good! Nothing can ever touch it! Anyways, back to the task on hand.  As I waited in line for my food, I got this random idea to head to Danville and do a little shopping. Mind you, I had not showered and was wearing the very shirt I slept in and with the pair of jeans I wore the night before. But figuring Kev would sleep till 3:30 and I'd have to be sitting around the house making no noise, I talked myself into going. And boy am I glad I went! I picked up some awesome finds!

New pillows for the bonus room!

Khaki Calvin Klein cropped pants

White Oxford

Denim dress (It looks black in the picture though!)

Loved the beading... I have sandals that match perfectly!

Navy Summer Dress

I loved the floral applique!

While in Danville, I made a trip to Target to price some items for the many projects I have in mind for the house. I found so many things that I liked that it took me nearly an hour just to price it all! But when I left I was so excited and anxious to get home and share all of my ideas with Kevin! 

About the time I arrived home, my future sister-in-law called and asked me what my plans were for the evening. I told her I planned to clean the house, organize some stuff, and clean out my closet. (I don't know about you but when I get in a decorating mood, I also get in a clean freak mode!). When I asked her what her plans were she said she wanted to go do something since it was the first Saturday in forever that she'd gotten off before 9 and of all Saturdays, the biggest game of the year was on so my brother-in-law had plans to watch the game with his buddies. I felt bad, so I told her to come on over and we'd do something. So I postponed my plans and got myself in the shower...finally!

When we left my house, we had no idea what our intentions were for the evening. Somehow, after riding around, we ended up in Danville again! Neither of us were hungry at the time, so we messed around at the mall for a while and then headed to Olive Garden for dinner. It was delicious! We had a blast! Though I must admit, betweeen our conversations, I was continuously checking ESPN mobile for the score of the big game. Go Heels!

When Brooke dropped me off shortly after eleven, I headed straight upstairs and went to spend some quality time with my pillow (:

Sunday

This morning, Kevin woke me up when he got home from work and we laid in bed and talked for a while. Around 7, I fell back asleep. I figured I'd wake up around 8 so I didn't bother to set my alarm. Little did I know how wrong I was. When I finally woke up to Rimshot attacking me with kisses, I rolled over to see 10:07 glaring at me on the clock. I shot out of bed like a firecracker on the fourth of July! I had to be at church by eleven so I was rushing like a chicken with my head cut off! But it paid off and I made it to church by the time the announcements started rolling on the projector screens. 

The service we had this morning was indescribable. Bill and Oksana Brower, two missionaries to the Ukraine, shared about their ministry overseas. The two of them focus on ministering to orphans. The stories they shared were overwhelming and heartbreaking. I felt extremely blessed to have been born to two wonderful parents who made sure my siblings and I had all of our needs met, that showed us love everyday, and that made sure we were always happy and healthy. As the service neared an end, our Pastor reminded the congregation that we'd be taking a mission's trip to the Ukraine in January. As soon as I got home, I talked to Kevin about it. He is all for it! So it looks like maybe next January, we'll be overseas loving on all of those precious babies that have no families. I pray that this is something God has in store for us and will open the doors for us to go with my church.

After church, I headed to Mom and Dad's for our usual Sunday lunch. My birthday is this coming Tuesday so Mom had a cake made for the occasion. It was yummy. I brought half of it home and now, there is only about a fourth of it left thanks to my hubby! 

After an early dinner, I started cleaning the house. I feel pretty productive. I reorganized our bathroom's linen closet, organized our bathroom cabinets and drawers, cleaned the bathroom, swept, scrubbed the floors (by hand!), and caught up on some laundry. 

Now, here I am, blogging before going to bed. And I can tell by the way my eyes feel that I'll be calling it a night in a few minutes. So with that said, good night ladies and hope you're weekend was great! 

Weekend Recap

This weekend I did absolutely nothing and you know what? It felt great! Back in January, my best friends and I had planned to take a trip to the beach this past weekend but having just arrived home from Tennessee four days earlier, I decided I wasn't very anxious to hop in a car and make yet another four hour drive to the beach and come back two days later. On top of that, Olivia is leaving for Disney World on Wednesday so she felt the same way and decided it would be easier to go later so that we all would have more spending money for all of our many shopping adventures! So we postponed our trip for another long weekend.

Usually the group all goes to dinner on Friday nights but because it was Emily's birthday, she and Daniel were going to have dinner with her family so our Friday night ritual was given a detour. Since Kevin was working, I asked Brittni if she wanted to do dinner together. Of course I knew her answer would be yes! So she came by the house around 5:15 and picked me up. We headed back to Eden and had dinner at Ruby Tuesday...only because we were craving their killer salad bar! Which was worth every penny of our meal. After dinner, we headed to Lowes Foods to redbox a movie (and yes, I'm using redbox as a verb!). We decided on "I Don't Know How She Does It". I was unsure if I was going to like the movie or not, but after watching it, I decided I do like it. Though it was extremely hard for me to see Sarah Jessica Parker as a mother after watching EVERY Sex and the City episode. But she played the part well.

Saturday morning, I got up and met Brittni at PG's for breakfast. Following breakfast we headed to Belks to see what new stuff they had in the store. I found these amazing items that will now be on my bargain shopping watch list! A girl can never have too many shoes and dresses...right?

After our trip to Belk, we headed to Extreme Tan to get our tan on. By the time we left it was almost lunch time so I went home and got ready. At 2, I headed to McLeansville to meet Kristy for a day of shopping. We figured if we weren't going to go to the beach this weekend, we could at least get together and make some memories (: Before I arrived at her house, I got a text from her saying she needed to let me know something that was going on before her family told me. A million things were running through my mind when I text her back and said ok. When she replied to my text I about fell over! She informed me she was dating a guy who I told her she should look into dating. Little did I know they'd been talking for over a month and neither of them told me! Ahhh! Little sneaksters! But I was extremely happy. I definitely approve of this guy, as I've known him for probably fifteen years! I'm so happy to finally know she's dating a good guy! This guy (who shall remain anonymous until their dating becomes facebook official.. haha) ended up coming shopping with us at Tanger and shockingly, we had a great time even though a guy was present! haha 

While at Tanger, I only purchased two things...at a store I have at home nonetheless. But regardless, I was proud of my purchases. I bought these two shirts for a total of $15.99 at Rue 21. I can't wait to wear them when it gets a bit warmer!

I didn't get back to Reidsville until around 7 so I decided to head over to my parents house to see what they were doing for dinner. They had planned to go out so Dad asked where I wanted to go. I was craving some good home-cooked vegetables so I chose Sanitary Cafe (again, the name makes it sound pretty bad but it truly is delicious...and cheap), I ordered Kevin a to go plate and took it to his work when I left. I ended up hanging out at Ball for a whole hour since it was Kev's break time when I arrived. When I finally left his work, it was almost 10pm and I was exhausted! 

Sunday morning I got up and got ready for church. We had an amazing service. It's amazing how sometimes the message seems to be aimed directly at you. It was exactly what I needed to hear.  After church, I headed to the parents for our usual family lunch. Then I did the traditional grocery run on the way home. This time though I talked Brittni into coming shopping with me since she needed to do a grocery run too! It's so much more fun to grocery shop with a friend!

When I arrived home from the grocery store on Sunday, I had all the plans to get so much accomplished. I planned to organize my bathroom drawers and counters, sweep all the floors, catch up on laundry, and do a little mopping. You know what I ended up doing? Getting on pinterest for three hours and pinning over a 100 pins! haha It's seriously an addiction! Though you know what, that was the most relaxing three hours I've had all week! Now I've just got to spend the rest of the week completing those chores and making up for that lost time!!!

Hope you ladies had an amazing weekend filled with nothing but pure relaxation!

Weekend Recap

Spectacular!!!!

That's the word I would use to sum up my weekend! It was nothing short of spectacular and let me explain why!

Back in November as I was looking at the school calendar, I noticed that we had two work days back to back. This is a rare occurrence but with our crazy North Carolina weather, these days were positioned this way so that in case of an event of snow, Friday would be a make up day and Monday would be a workday for the end of the six weeks. I knew that I had three annual leave days because the County had given me one for taking my ONLY day off first semester and sending me to a weekend staff development session in Cullowhee and I had received two for donating to the United Way. With these days burning in the back of my mind, I asked the hubstir if he'd like to take a weekend trip to the mountains. He said that would be great so we started looking into cabins. The more I thought about it the more I thought a trip with our family might be fun too, so I messaged everyone and asked them if they'd be interested in going with us and they were all game. So back in November, we booked this sweet cabin! It was complete with a jacuzzi and a home theater!

So last Friday, the day had FINALLY arrived! At 8:15, Kevin and I met Daniel and Emily at R & L and started making our way to the mountains. After a few stops, we finally made it to Pigeon Forge! We knew we couldn't check into our cabin for another three hours so we did what any rational people would do to kill time... We headed to Tanger Five Oaks to do a little shopping! And boy did I have a blast. The stores were having the most amazing sales! Let me share my purchases with you if I may...

J. Crew Trouser Jeans

Originally $69.99     Paid $14.69

Gap Long Sleeve Tee

Originally $21.99       Paid $2.97

Gap Top

Originally $49.99      Paid $7.18

Gap Boot Cut Trousers

Originally $44.99       Paid $13.19

Gap 3/4 sleeve Blazer

Originally $69.99      Paid $21.00

Gap Cardigan

Originally $49.99      Paid $10.19

Gap Sweater

Originally $39.99     Paid $2.97

Yes, I racked up! With deals like those, my hubby did not say one thing about my purchases! haha Anyways, by the time we finished doing some shopping, it was time for us to check in. We headed to Eden Crest, got our information, and then headed to our cabin! When we arrived we were all in awe. It was gorgeous! It was absolutely huge and had every amenity you could want or imagine (minus the indoor swimming pool within the cabin like Kev and I had on our honeymoon). We all unpacked and then decided to head to the Apple Barn for a yummy dinner! Check out all of this food!

This would be Daniel's chicken pot pie!

Kevin's Sugar Cured Ham

My Fried Chicken

Brother-in-law & Future Sister-in-law

 Me & the Hubstir

Here's a few pics of the cabin..

Our room

 Home theater

Living Room

Kitchen & Dining Room

Saturday began with a dance party in our pajamas. Yes, I'm not kidding and I have a picture of Kevin and Samantha dancing to prove it (see below)! It was a blast and we had alot of fun laughing at each other. When the dance party ended we all got ready and headed out to lunch at Chick-fil-a. When we finished eating there, the guys decided they were going to head to the arcade. Us girls didn't care to join so we decided to go out and do some more damage to their bank accounts :P haha And that we did! We shopped till we dropped! By the time we got back home it was almost 5pm and almost time for dinner. We ended up going to Mellow Mushroom for supper. When we returned we did what we did the night before... hit up the jacuzzi and then a movie in the home theater! Here are some pictures from the day...

Sunday morning, we all slept sort of late. We were all exhausted from a late night and to top it off, it was pouring down rain! When we finally all got up, we ate breakfast together and then decided to part ways and do our own things. The hubstir and I decided to go see a movie. We had planned to see Safe House but it started five minutes before we arrived so we purchased tickets to see our next choice... This Means War. I highly recommend it. It was hilarious! We laughed until we cried. I could seriously go pay and watch it again! When the movie ended, we rode around some and then headed back to the house. Kevin and I battled it out in a few games of pool and air hockey and then I left him with the guys while I went and READ! (I'm proud to say I read 2 books while I was away!) By seven, we were all starving and headed out the Old Mill to eat dinner. It was delicious as always and we didn't leave without purchasing two of their famous pecan pies! I also could not leave without taking a picture with the mural.. just like we did on our honeymoon! 

When we left the Old Mill, the snow was falling in huge flakes! It was gorgeous! I was so excited because I was afraid it was just going to rain all day. I have to admit I was a little jealous when I found out it had already snowed three and a half inches at home and it had done nothing but rain in the mountains! My thoughts were that that was just messed up! But despite the snow and the freezing cold temperatures, we decided to be brave and not head back to our cabin. Instead, we all headed to The Tomb. It's an adventure maze in Pigeon Forge. We decided to try it out. It was a ton of fun! You go through several different rooms and have to complete the puzzles to get out of each room. Your goal is to find Pharoah's body in the burial chamber and restore him to his casket. We had a blast! Here's our group after we finished (:

Today, we headed home. The view on our way home was gorgeous! It looked like a winter wonderland from all of the snow the mountains had received the night before! 

And now, I'm curled up in bed next to my little guy who has showered Kevin and I with a million and one kisses. I need to unpack our suitcases and do some laundry but all I want to do is play in the snow with my little guy! And yes, he does love snow!

Hope you ladies all had a *spectacular* weekend as well!!!