Another awesome giveaway!

This time it's for Bod Cami's. I love these because my shirts always get cut too low. I wear tank tops practically every day!

Click here for more info!

You can also sign up for these giveaways available until May 2nd right here!

Another awesome giveaway!

Want to win more free stuff? How about a $100 credit to Eversave.com?

Visit here for details.

Great giveaways!

One of my fave websites, Cuckoo for Coupon Deals, has a wonderful Mother's Day! Please go ahead and check it out and enter yourself! Winning things and getting stuff in the mail free always brightens my day!

Mother's Day Giveaway

Old Navy Dress Sampling

If you haven't visited Old Navy this spring to update your wardrobe, you should! There are some great new dresses (and even cute little complementary jackets if you still feel a chill) available. In fact, I had a hard time deciding what to take into the dressing room!

As member of the Old Navy style council, I received a coupon for myself and three friends to receive a free dress. I gave two of the coupons to my boyfriend's mom and sister and we all went shopping together! Not only was it fun, but I enjoyed getting to see what Old Navy has for sale and help other people choose their dress! I am a member of this program as a result of Crowdtap. Have questions about that or want to get involved? Leave me a comment!


Pictures above are of us redeeming our coupons and John's sister Jennifer off to her sophomore tea in the dress!!

Frank Beamer Award

Last week I got a major surprise. I was traveling down to Virginia for Omicron Delta Kappa (the national leadership honor society) initiation. We left in the morning because the drive to Blacksburg was a long one. We actually made it to the campus just 15 minutes before the ceremony started! It was already such an honor to be nominated and accepted into ODK, so imagine my shock when they announced the Frank Beamer Award for Exceptional Community Service...I was the winner!

An even bigger surprise was that legend Frank Beamer himself (coach of VT football) actually came to give the award and congratulate the winner! I was honored and excited to meet Coach Beamer and have a photo taken with him!

Laura's CVS Haul

Great deals at CVS this week. I wanted to keep my bill as low as possible, so using coupons I got:

1 full size essence of beauty hand sanitizer
1 starburst
1 Gain dishwasing liquid

Total $.06

Extreme Couponing... No good news?

Why Extreme Couponing could be bad:

1) Real couponing is about getting what your family can use before it goes bad. Whenever I stockpile, I only get nonperishables. Things that don’t go bad for months- boxed dinners, frozen food, canned goods, etc. It’s stupid to buy 35 bottles of medicine- if you’re really using that many just in your family, you need to visit a doctor. Seriously.

2) The ONLY things I buy cheap or free to stockpile more than others is deodorant, toothpaste, cat litter, and shampoo. Why? Because my church’s cold weather shelter needs the toiletries for homeless people and a local animal center uses the litter. Why not get it and give it to them when it’s no cost to me? Otherwise, I’m just taking products off the shelf that I know won’t be used in my house. We only have two adults- the only things it makes a ton of sense to stockpile is razors, toilet paper, body wash, trash bags, etc.

3) I don’t want to be a hoarder. I feel like this show could be giving a bad name to people who are fairly trying to use coupons to save their family money. The money I save allows me to have a bigger budget for fun things, paying bills, or acquiring perishables like milk on a more regular basis. I don’t want to have a basement stocked with stuff that we can’t ever use. I’m sorry but even with a big family there is NO way those people are using that many products. They simply have to be giving it away.

4) If the show has cut out the part where these people are giving it away, that’s a shame. It’s really wonderful to use coupons to acquire products for those in need, but I also feel like it’s a travesty to empty grocery store shelves. Your neighbors might need some of that product, too! Why get 50 when it will take you five years to use that? If you’re not giving it away, you are WASTING PRODUCT. End of story. You’ll also waste product by sending the message to the company that tons of people are buying this product and so they need to make more. That means more wasted product sitting on the shelves next month because you’ve contributed a bizarre supply/demand message to the company.

5) I’m afraid stores or companies might realize that there are some crazies out there just simply buying too much and abusing the system. I’m personally grateful that certain stores like Rite Aid and Target have awesome policies allowing you to stack manufacturer and store coupons, which can be great on a buy one get on free deal. But in this economy do we really need to encourage these companies to be more frugal with coupons?

Laura's List of Cheapies

Here's a list of things, that if combining coupons, store discounts, sales, and buy one get one free, you should never pay more than half price for: Shaving cream Soap Body wash Body lotion Face wash Razors (do not buy cartridges unless they are a major steal) --> (This is one of my favorite tips, we never buy razor cartridges and just buy new razors on sale) Deodorant Eyeliner Hairspray and all hair products aside from dyes Toothpaste Mouthwash So this is probably the majority of your toiletries, right? I regularly get the brand names I like from CVS or Rite Aid extremely cheap or free. When there's a deal, I maximize the savings by getting as many as allowed and rolling register rewards from week to week. For example, let's say I earned $10 CVS Extra Care Bucks last week buying Almay Foundation. This week Old Spice Body wash is buy one get one free. I can use a coupon on Old Spice plus those ECB's (which are like cash in this sense) to purchase the body wash. I add the bodywash to my stockpile in my upstairs closet and we get it out as we need it. That means once I stockpile something I dont have to buy it for 2-6 months (depending on how much I bought) and I saved the maximum amount on it! Keep your eye out for weekly circulars. Although people often think drugstores are overpriced, you will do the BEST at these stores by rolling rewards, weekly coupons from the store, and adding coupons to sales. Trust me!

Swing Dancing at Glen Echo

I'm a few posts behind where I wanted to be, but I wanted to share a new and exciting activity for couples to do. We've been looking for more ways to incorporate physical activity into some of our dates, and this one turned out really well!


Over the last year in graduate school, I've noticed that if I make a wrong turn on the way home I end up at this strange place that looks like the set of a 1950's horror movie. On a trip home from DC, John was curious about what this place was, so we decided to stop and check it out. While the rest of the park was silent, many people were filing towards one building, so we followed them. As it turns out, this was Glen Echo park and there is swing dancing with live music every weekend! We sat and watched for about twenty minutes, noting how good some of the people dancing at the front of the ballroom were. We decided to come back at some point and try it for ourselves.


This last weekend John's family came to visit so we all went swing dancing. It was great! They provide a one hour lesson that teaches you a 7 step combination beforehand, and the live music was wonderful! We all had a great time and will definitely be returning! We danced for about three hours, so this is definitely a workout!

Great Spring Cleaning idea!

Spring is almost here! Looking to get rid of stuff? I know that after our move last year, I am dying to unload some of this stuff for when we inevitably move the next time! Plus, we've (and mostly me..) have accumulated a lot of clothing and items over the years that I'm sure could be put to good use. We get these mailers at our house all the time and I'm jumping on the chance to donate (easily) to the Vietnam Vets of America. They come and pick up all your stuff outside your house, leave you a tax receipt, and you're done!! Just schedule a pickup. So much easier than dragging it to Goodwill, waiting in line for a tax receipt, etc.


Head on over to http://www.vvapickup.org/ today to schedule your pickup!!

My birthday

My wonderful boyfriend took me out for my 25th birthday and we had a blast! We have several upcoming things on our calendar that I'll share later, but here is a photo from my birthday this year!

Miss America

Well, I haven't posted in months. And that's certainly because over the last several months my schedule has been a nightmare, and within that time I've realized a lot of things that are important to me- along with realizing some things that need to be completely trashed. I'm in the process of making some major changes to my life, but this week I felt like coming back to blogging because a very dear friend, Katie Uze, is currently at the Miss America pageant.

Over my years in pageants, of course there are a few "bad apples" (and that's the case in any group of people) but Katie is truly one of the most genuine and lovable people out there. We first met competing together our very first year (2007-2008) and ended up sharing a car partner at the Miss Virginia pageant. Katie is incredible on and off the pageant stage, and it's easy for me to feel genuinely excited for her as she works towards a dream this week. She's very deserving of this entire experience and is, in my mind, the ideal Miss America: relatable, fun-loving, carrying a strong message, smart, funny, and sweet. If she doesn't win, it's fully Miss America's loss.


Miss America can be a total crapshoot. You can work your butt off and it's just not in the cards for you. It's the same way I view Miss Virginia: it's impossible to feel like you failed when you accomplished so many other things along the way you will cherish for a long time. However, only one girl each year can have that experience and the timing just might not be right. I'm proud of Katie no matter what (although I highly suspect she will win a swimsuit award in Las Vegas) and feel lucky to have become a friend over our time in pageants together.


Go Katie!