Fabric.com

I can't rave enough about www.FABRIC.com

They're not paying/compensating me for saying any of this either, but I ordered all our wedding fabrics from them {Design Board HERE} and while 1 of the fabrics had to be back ordered, they promptly sent it to me before the original estimated ship date . They had great customer service and actually both called me directly and followed up through e-mail on the order.

I recently took advantage of one of their frequent sales and snatched up 8 different fabrics that averaged out to be $2 per yard. I also ordered a 9th fabric from the Premier Prints line {isn't that a designer favorite!} for nursery curtains and while I wondered if the very low quantity in-stock might mean it'd be backordered, I went ahead and added it to my cart because it was a fantastic price at $6.98 per yard and it also helped make my shipping & handling free {orders over $35 always ship FREE!}.

Long story short, this was indeed backordered; I had an e-mail asking me to confirm I still wanted the order, they went ahead and sent me 2.5 yards that they had on hand last week and today I received 5.5 yards, the full amount I originally ordered. I don't know if it was a glitch or a good gesture of customer service, but it's nice to have the extra 2.5 yards that was pre-shipped...maybe I'll make something else for Baby Duh-kah.

Here's the curtain fabric:

{and it coordinates perfectly with the pink in her Serena & Lily bedding}

I've been in Nesting Mode lately; last week was my Sewing Binge. Check out some of last week's creations on the Baby Blog {HERE}. I'm starting to get the hang of this!

Bargain Shopping

One good thing about a rough economy: it forces everyone to revisit finances, reprioritize, review debt, and find new ways to save money.

Thankfully there are simple resources available to help facilitate saving and being a good steward of your money in general. I thought our family was doing pretty well-I decided to shop mostly at Walmart and we are careful to limit our discretionary spending; HOWEVER, the past 6 weeks or so I've really delved more into couponing, searching for deals, and planning our meals and other shopping around current bargains.

• Check out Southern Savers {HERE}, this blog does an excellent job explaining couponing, stacking coupons, and combining offers in general to get the very best deals.
• Also Coupons.com and Redplum.com have manufacturers coupons.
• And if you're planning on shopping at a certain store/restaurant, don't forget to visit their site to see what specials/offers are available.
• If ordering Online, make sure to Google coupons, promotional codes. My favorite source is Retail Me Not {HERE}
• We haven't eliminated our Walmart trips; however I try and check for manufacturer coupons for items on our list first. I have a pink coupon book I keep in the car and that way it's always in close enough proximity for my shopping days.

Today when I went to Toys R Us and spent $12.34 on about $20 worth of toys, I decided to drag up those old receipts to share the savings {because who doesn't like to brag on their deals! =) } So here they are for the last 6 weeks:
Publix
Trip #1 spent $37.91, saved $27.70
Trip #2 spent $33.79, saved $27.31
Trip #3 spent $26.68, saved $22.95
Trip #4 spent $23.34, saved $41.71
Trip #5 spent $36.11, saved $48.14
Trip #6 spent $25.16, saved $37.46
TOTAL SPENT = $182.99, TOTAL SAVED = $205.27

And check out a JCPenney trip for Baby Du-kah clothes- spent $12.98, saved $98.09!