The Great Coupon Debate

So with this upcoming baby, hubs and I have been discussing the fact that we need to start really buckling down and using coupons, especially because we just added ANOTHER monthly bill to our outgoing income because we had to buy me a new car (check back here for article on car buying later!)  So on this beautiful Sunday morning, when the humidity hasn't hit the part of PA we are just yet, I decided to do some legitimate research about extreme couponing with the plans to give it a serious try.  While doing this, I came up with some pros and cons, so if any of you are possibly trying to be frugal and save money, here's my own findings.
***I do actually plan to try out couponing to see how much we may save, but I also see some major negatives with it, so don't just assume I'm saying screw couponing***

The Pros of Couponing

1. When done correctly, couponing has promised to save me money on my monthly grocery bill every time I go shopping, to the point I may get free toilet paper and paper towels.  If it will also get me free diapers for this baby that I can also possibly donate to a women's shelter or something, I consider that a win-win.  Who doesn't love free stuff?

2. By doing a "stock pile" I will run out items less frequently, and will be able to save money on further shopping trips because I'll be able to say, "Ok, we have enough toilet paper to last til next week, when I can buy MORE toilet paper on sale, and with a coupon" rather than going, "shoot.. we're out of toilet paper" and having to pay full price.  I don't mind paying sale price, but if I can get it for even cheaper, AWESOME.  Having a small stock pile for certain every day items my husband and I use will also help me not have to take as long of grocery trips, or as frequently when the baby comes, and that will be very helpful.

3. You can possibly write off your couponing on your taxes IF AND ONLY IF you donate enough of your items to charity.  Like I said above, if I can get a bunch of diapers free and donate them to a local women's shelter than may have mothers with babies, that's a win-win.  I'm getting free diapers, AND I'm helping someone else who is having a more difficult time getting diapers for their baby get diapers.  Same goes for canned goods, and other items that you can take to a food bank or homless shelter.

That was literally all the pro's I came up with for using coupons.  The cons apply to people in general, not just myself.

The Coupon Con's

1. While doing my research, several articles suggested researching different stores sales, and NOT doing your shopping like on the TLC show "Extreme Couponing" where you see a mom with about 4 kids walking the store with her, each having a cart, then they get the register and your biting your nails for whether she's going to get her $300 bill down to $25 using her giant binder sized stack of coupons.  Successful couponers are suggesting you go to various stores for your stock pile.
       FOR EXAMPLE:
          If you get your weekly newspaper ads and find Walmart has toilet paper on sale, and you've got coupons that will drop that price even more, BUT tooth paste isn't on sale there, BUT IT IS at Acme, you should go to Walmart, get your toilet paper, then go to Acme and get your toothpaste.

This is all fine for someone who has the time to go to separate stores for various items, but now you are having to take into account the gas mileage you are using to get these items, just to save money, and if you haven't done your research right, you just drove to another store for nothing.

2. Many of the successful couponers warn that couponing requires a good chunk of your time just to keep yourself organized so you can save money, and you need to be focused.  Someone who doesn't work, and has children who are angels may possibly be able to do the organizational portion of this easily.  Put on a nice long film for your kids, and do your coupons while they're entertained by Mickey Mouse, or the Octonauts.  Someone who doesn't work, that may be doing night classes and is couponing to save for college may be able to easily coupon.  HOWEVER, someone with four kids under the age of 6 that is a single parent, might find it more difficult to fit this and shopping at different stores into their daily schedule.

3. Purchasing JUST the inserts is possibly the worst "money saving" tactic I read.  Hubs and I live just outside Philadelphia, SO we can get the Philadelphia Inquirer each Sunday from our local Newsstand, or have it delivered.  When I started looking for insert subscriptions so I could get JUST the coupons, the different venues for that were priced at 9-20 dollars depending on how many different inserts you got in a week.  When we did the math, it was still the same price IF NOT CHEAPER to simply buy the Newspaper, rather than have it delivered.  One had shipping costs at almost 7 dollars to send me JUST 8 inserts of coupons, PLUS the price they were charging for the coupons.  Another site wanted 11 dollars for shipping but claimed the coupons were free.  I'd rather just walk to Wawa and buy an Inquirer... get some sunshine and exercise while I save money.

4.  You can't be loyal to brand names.  Brand names go on sale less often than store brands apparently... and you also will get less coupons (so I've been told...).  This means that if you have special diet needs, then your coupon usage starts being restricted, or if you are someone who is stuck on your brand names, it won't work for you.


NOW with all that said, you can use "coupons.com" and other printable coupon websites on top of buying the newspaper, or getting coupons from family and friends (I will take all coupons family and friends are willing to give by the way...) so that you can try couponing yourself.  It's something to try if you want to start stocking up on laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc, but foods that are going to expire, my husband and I have found that doesn't work well with coupons, since there is only 2 of us.

I still plan to give coupons an actual try, but I don't expect to be on Extreme Couponing anytime soon, or that it will be saving it me thousands and thousands of dollars each year.

Pregnancy Posts

Well, its official, I have finally had to go through all of my clothing so I am not digging through laundry each day trying to find an outfit for work.  I've had to buy 4 shirts, 2 skirts and 2 pairs of jeans so that I can go to work each day and I'm pretty sure I'll need to buy more shirts as the bump continues to grow.  I'm proud of myself that from a change in my diet so I am as healthy as can be for this baby, and slightly increased exercise (you know not just sitting on the cough each day...) I've been able to wear most of my clothes because I have lost fat as I've gotten more pregnant, gained weight, but definitely lost fat.
But DUDE buying maternity clothes is tough!  Even having gone down slightly in my jean size, it was very difficult finding pants that fit.  Basically the rule for buying clothes when you are pregnant is to simply buy the same size you were BEFORE you became pregnant.  For example: you were a 2 when you got pregnant, despite the large round belly on the front of you now, you are still a 2.  I wear a 16 currently, but apparently pregnancy clothes manufactures and myself have different view on what a 16 really is... thus it was very difficult for me to find clothes for myself,  I went to Motherhood Maternity and the girl (who was very nice and helpful) said, "maybe you need a bigger size.." and it was in reference to the seam of the pants not coming up as high as I wanted them to.  They fit everywhere else, but typical maternity clothes hit BELOW your waist because your waist is now holding an incubator for a tiny human, so no one in their right mind makes pants that the seam is at your waist and I felt like they weren't sitting where I needed them to, thus I bought everything else but pants on that first trip...  Now I finally can't wear my leggings, jeans, sweats, basically anything that't not pajama pants on a regular basis, and I've become one of those people who have to drive with their pants unbuttoned because I feel like I'm squishing my poor baby!
BUT! THE OTHER DAY after going to Macy's, Marshalls, Kohls AND Target in search of jeans to wear to work (I can't wear the same like 4 outfits to work each week...) I went to Old Navy after a search online told me they might have something and I lucked out!  Not only did I find multiple styles of clothing to buy but I found multiple pairs in my size, in the multiple styles, AND they actually fit.  I ended up actually going DOWN a size in the one pair I bought, and if I hadn't thought about the fact that my belly is going to keep growing, I would have bought the second pair in a size lower than I typically would buy.  It was a win win kind of day for me!  Baby is happy he isn't being squished all the time, I'm happy to wear something other than skirts to work, AND I'm thrilled that I am possibly a pants size down since I got pregnant.  Now to just keep this healthy eating thing up and get myself down 2 sizes after I have the baby.

I did, in my search for clothes for bigger pregnant ladies, find a website called "Yours Clothing" and its a plus size clothing site, that has MATERNITY CLOTHES, and like, CUTE maternity clothes for curvier mommas.  It goes from 12-34 and has everything from shirts to underwear.  Their website does carry bathing suits, but not in their pregnancy line, which was slightly disappointing, BUT I now know when I've had the baby I can buy a bathing suit top from them that might actually fit my chest and be supportive, so I've got that going for me!

https://www.yoursclothing.com/maternity

there is their website for everyone out there, specifically their maternity section.  Check it out.  They're not a US based company though so everyone in America will have to pay more for shipping, sorry...

Thats my rant about pregnancy clothing... now onto my next adventure, finding a pregnancy bathing suit that will fit, and won't cost tons of money.  HERE WE GO!

Happy Mothers Day

taxikab

Adulting Level 2: Yard work, bills and babies

Good Evening Blog readers!  Its Monday, I'm waiting for my soup to finish cooking on this slightly dreary weather Spring day.  Yesterday was amazing weather, but didn't stick.  It was good it was so nice out though, because our lawn was looking atrocious and my husband and I FINALLY bought a lawn mower.  I wish I could have been the one using the nice new outdoor toy but alas I was stuck with just using my nifty orange weed whacker BECAUSE.... we are having A BABY.

Check out my little cutie who's ultrasounds look like most other baby ultrasounds!!

Besides the fact that we are having a boy... my husband keeps informing me that I was warned about the possibility of a big baby, and low and behold, he was 1.5 pounds at his last ultrasound.  The tech put him in the 65th percentile for other babies that are 24 weeks... Tomorrow he will be 25 weeks, but still, lol.

Due to our little bundle of joy coming late this summer (hopefully not sooner...), hubs and me have been working diligently to get the house ready through cleaning constantly, organizing different parts of the house and getting our bills in order so that if I end up in the hospital on bed rest, or possibly can't manage our finances for whatever reason (be it baby exhaustion, or just plain laziness...) hubs can manage everything.  Currently I handle making sure all of our bills get paid on time, and am thankful for automatic bill pay.  Most of our bills are automatic bill pay just so I don't have to worry about it.  The downside is, then you forget the password and username for things, and you need the account number, your Social Security number, the promise to give them your first born just to get that damn password reset...  SO!  Hubs and I came up with a system so that if anything ever happened to either of us, we can easily make sure our bills are still being paid and we have the account number for each one.


Ready for this posts project? 

You will need the following:
1. A printer
2. A binder
3. 1 or 2 packs of page dividers
4. Any bills that are already printed.  

**I used a pack of dividers that were pocket dividers to hold stuff related to that bill in it.**

1. Figure out how many bills you have, and how many dividers you may need.  I labeled ours in general sections such as "Utilities" and "car".  We currently only have 1 car payment, but eventually will have 2, just like our Utilities are our water, oil and electric are currently 3 separate bills.
2. Label each divider how you see fit.  As i've already said, I did ours as general things specifically because I was too cheap to buy 2 packs of dividers, BUT some people need more dividers than we did.
3. Sort those bills!! If you don't have paper copies of all of your bills, this is where your printer comes into play.  Go online and print your bills.  Even if you are signed up for paperless billing, whoever you own money to, or holds your money should have a statement online that you can easily print out.  Now, give each set of bills there own little section so that you can easily be reminded of when things are due.  I went so far as to create a little calendar chart so I know when everything is due and don't miss one.  (I know I'm slightly obsessed... its okay)

Now you have a copy of all of your bills in one place.  Now if you are like some other people I know that are lucky enough to have a filing cabinet to put there bills in, AWESOME, you can put away as many paper bills as you need and be super organized.  But I suggest having this binder as well anyway, because then you don't have to go find the most recent bill just to get 1 account number.

I know this posts project wasn't a very typical craft project, but hey, still took some time to do.  I suggest getting brightly colored binder dividers and a fun binder, because fun binders just make bill paying more fun, as opposed to now where you simply watch your money fly out the window...

Happy Crafting readers!!

taxikab

Slow Cooker Nachos

So anyone who knows hubs and me pretty well know there are a few staples that much be present in our home at all times, or we believe we can't function.  Those include, but are not limited to,

1. corn chips
2. salsa

NOW I know its not super healthy, and I am okay with this, as it is super delicious.  We love burritos, and tacos (in most forms) when you use the McCormick taco mix packs (that are literally like 80 cents at the grocery store...) it takes you no time to make tacos.  Got a crazy night that you don't really feel like cook much?  Tacos.   Want a meal with a basic ingredient everyone will eat? Tacos.  Got a husband who loves Mexican food?  Tacos.  Tacos will always be the answer.

We have tried making them with ground turkey, chopped chicken, ground beef, skirt steak, you name it, we've probably tried it.

Recently we had a day that we knew we would be home all day and I could use my crock pot (my favorite lazy day tool) and I went, "HONEY! We're having tacos tonight!" and used my crock pot to make the food because then I could do all the cleaning and packing I needed to for that day and not worry about browning meat in a pan, or mixing ingredients right.  Also, THERES NO WAY TO GET THIS WRONG!  You can literally do whatever you want with additional ingredients and it will probably still taste good even if it looks absolutely disgusting (my husband told me our mixture looked like dog food, and guess what? he ate all of it so he must love dog food...)

So! Here is one of the easiest recipes you are ever going to make for one of those busy "I'm stuck home all day" days.

This recipe will feed about 3-4 people if everyone has no serving.  It also makes a really good party dip with just chips scooping individually.

Ingredients:

1lb ground meat (we used beef)

1 can of chopped tomatoes (you may also chop and toss in your own if you are anti canned goods...)

1 package of chopped peppers (that "sauteed vegetables" package in the veggie aisle, or you can chop your own)

1 packet of McCormicks taco seasoning.

   Use packet for water amount instructions, do not add additional water.

Whatever else you enjoy in your tacos!

Plus one or all of the following depending on your tastes.

Nacho chips

Tortilla Wraps

Taco Shells

(these can all be homemade or pre-packaged, on a lazy day I encourage packaged...)

Slow cooker times: Low heat will take about 6 hours.  Or you can cook it at high heat for 3 hours and switch to low heat for the last hour and then it takes 4 hours.  I should have done the 6 hours, because it was on warm for about an hour after it was done as it was finished cooking at like 430 and we don't generally eat at our house until 6...

Easiest instructions ever, ready?

Prep:

Chop the peppers

4 hour cooking

Set slow cooker to high and add peppers, tomatoes and meat.  I placed the tomatoes on and around the meat.

Wait an hour.  Stir, because it will start to brown in places, and this will allow all ingredients to mix together nicely.

Add the taco seasoning and water.  Stir.

Wait 2 more hours (you can occasionally stir during this, I did because I enjoy stirring food...)

After 3 hours, switch to low and give it another stir.  If you have anything else you'd like to add to the mixture, do it now.  I added about a quarter cup of cheese, just to get it cheesy, but hubs and I like tacos with cheese so...

pre-seasoning tomatoes and meat!

finished product! Yum!!

If you are ready to eat after 4 hours, SERVE THAT UP!!  if not, switch your crockpot to warm, and wait until you're ready to eat.  Give it a good stir before serving and eat it however you want.

With Chips: Put some chips in a bowl, put the mixture on top, add any other toppings you like

Burrito, lay it out flat, stick it in, add other stuff, fold it up.

Nachos!

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!

For 6 hours, add the water and seasoning at hour 5, or simply add about 10 minutes before you plan to serve, so the seasoning and juices can blend together or it might not taste the same...

If you do feel like making your own chips, you can slice up some tortilla wraps, add some drizzles of oil, and all purpose seasoning, bake at 350 for about 10 minutes (or until your chips are kind of crunch, but not burnt...) and eat with those!

Happy Cooking!

taxikab.

Adulting Level: Home Owner

Good Morning Everyone!!! 

(because apparently theres people actually reading this now... I'm still shocked.  Leave some comments people!)

**If you just want the home buying tips and general care tips, you can just scroll down I won't be insulted :) **

So, #adulting is a thing currently, and how much "adulting" people are doing is measured by how many adult things you do in your life.  Hubs and I pretty much say that we're getting pretty good at this "#adulting" thing seeing as we 

     A. continue to be happily married (not an exaggeration, we're pretty freaking happy with our lives right now...)
     B. after many long months (almost a year) have FINALLY bought a house.  *cue golf clap*

We are currently in that stage of "ew these carpets are gross" and "when can we move in?" and are slowly taking over things that can be moved for the new carpets.  We purchased a home that we can grow into, and is slightly older, so we've come across some general home maintenance issues but we are slowly fixing them one step at a time.

When we bought the house we had a long list of things that needed to get done before we moved in

• replace oil tank to above ground
• new carpets
• paint the random crummy paint job spots
• clean the kitchen
• switch the cable/internet to new house
• fix the shed
• purchase lawn care items
• Fix the dryer

Currently the list now looks like this

• replace oil tank to above ground
• install new carpets
• paint the random crummy paint job spots
• clean the kitchen
• switch the cable/internet to new house
• fix the shed
• purchase lawn care items
• fix the dryer

We currently are just waiting on the carpet people to install the new carpets (next weekend, WHAT WHAT!) and my dad has offered to see if he can fix my shed door as currently it does not hang right and I'd like to not keep my lawn care items in my living room...

This whole home buying experience has been one heck of a journey and a MAJOR learning experience, AND I HAVEN'T EVEN MOVED IN YET.

STOP! ITS TIPS TIME!!

These are tips for before closing.

1. Talk to your friends and Family.  If you have friends or family who have recently purchased a house, TALK TO THEM.  I have a couple who hubs and me are friends with who I told them I would suggest a realtor and mortgage company, and they didn't take my advice.  Their pitfall? their mortgage rate is NO WHERE near ours, because they weren't aware of all the benefits of being a first time home buyer and having an amazing realtor and mortgage broker like we did.  They went to a random bank they saw an ad for and frankly have expressed they aren't really happy with their mortgage... I'm not surprised.  SO lesson to take from this, shop around before picking one person.  Ask friends, ask family, search the internet, DO YOUR RESEARCH.  This is a major expense you will have for the next 15-30 years.
2. Be honest with the mortgage broker.  Another individual I knew got all the way to the closing table, was about to sign the exceedingly large amount of documentation you are required to sign, and THEN everyone found out the individual had a student loan they failed to tell ANYONE about, thus causing them to lose their financing amount and in the end losing their beautiful dream home.
3. Read the sellers disclosure THOROUGHLY and ask questions.  Hubs and I bought a house that the seller listed they were unsure of the condition of the underground oil tank.  Well this became a huge problem because if the soil around the tank was contaminated, then you have to keep checking the soil to see how deep the contamination went, and if it hits the rock bed, you're looking at 40k or more in fines from the EPA.
4. Check your county's taxes and policies for homeowners.  I was so excited that I didn't have to buy trash cans, then my best friend explained to me that the trash cans are assigned to each home and how the trash collection works in the area as she grew up not far from the house we purchased.  (Friends are a fountain of knowledge!)  I also learned that the township I purchased my home in did not require a check of the oil tank before selling.  GUESS WHAT we did it anyway and learned that there were issues with the tank and it would be beneficial for us to replace it and had to negotiate with the sellers to figure out how to do it because it was still their house, not ours, so not our problem.
5. Do a pre-closing table walk through I was very lucky and had the best realtor I could ask for who was honestly looking out for us every step of the way (thats what I get for choosing someone I've know my whole life!).  We were able to walk through the house one last time before closing, with our realtor and the sellers to check for any changes to the house and be sure that no one trashed the place before closing that we would then have to deal with.

ONTO AFTER CLOSING TIPS!!

These are tips for after closing:

1. Trust no one! I can not stress enough the importance of changing your locks after you close on a house.  I got lucky and my father had an old door handle and key from when my brother lost his keys and he felt the need to change all the locks at our house.  I did however go out and buy a lock set because I was not comfortable with the bolt lock being the same still and my dad did not have one of those...
2. Replace the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors this, and replacing the locks was the best advice we got from our inspector.  He told us you never know how old the detectors are, even if they look new.  Yes, you are spending money to replace them, but you'll spend a heck of a lot more if your house burns down from faulty detectors.
3. Check the electric  and ask questions.  My husband and I have this one light switch in our kitchen that we had NO CLUE what it went to.  Finally figured it out yesterday, its the switch for an outside light over the driveway (not sure what possessed them to put it next to the oven but whatever...)
4. Make a spare set of keys and give them to trusted individuals.  I told Hubs I didn't want EVERYONE having a key to my house so we picked a small select few to have spares to our house incase we ever lock ourselves out.  I'm not a fan of keeping keys under the mat or in the garden so its beneficial someone else have keys that are close by.
5. Check your hot water we had no clue our oil was off when we moved in, and the installers had to turn it on for me... made me look very dumb.  Run the water in the house and check everything.
6. Paint.  You do not want to get brand new beautiful soft carpets, then go paint your bedroom.  If you are not in the rush to move in, paint the places that need touch ups and THEN get new carpet, then you don't have to lay down tarps and everything and it won't matter that you got paint on the rug.  You're tossing it out anyway.
7. Clean up the floors.   No use cleaning the floors before you paint if its a carpet you plan on replacing, but if you have tiles that seem slightly dirty and you plan on changing the color schemes, clean that floor, you never know what dirt may be hiding!

List always make me feel better, how about you guys?  Simple and to the point, right?

Also, for crafting Ideas (because I know this was all about home renovations and care today) check out The Right Brain Bunch.  Theres many new recipes and crafting with your kids videos posted.

Finally, if you are moving, and looking for a slow cooker recipe that you can use while you are painting, waiting for your carpets to be installed, etc, check out Slow Cooker Nachos (the next post).  People have told me I basically made chili, but its nacho stuff :)

Happy Crafting!

taxikab

Each park has its perks....

So now to tips and comparisons of my awesome trip to Florida with Hubs.

1. Disney's water park was MUCH MUCH better than the one Universal Associates with.  WetnWild was a nice park, the people were friendly, but if you can manage it, go to Typhoon Lagoon.  The wave pool was amazing.  Hubs lost his hat in the water, and atleast 4 people tried to help us find it.  There was basically more personable people at Disney, and the "magic" was there.

2. Universal's park hopper was much cooler!  Hogwarts express to go between parks was AWESOME.  Disney has its bus system, because theres so many parks and so many hotels, and they're spread out, I get that.  But every time we wanted to go to a new park, we had to leave the park, walk to the busses, or wait for the Monorail, and you still had to walk like 10 minutes just to get to the bus, then if there were alot of people going back to their hotels or to a new park, you either didn't get a seat or you were waiting for the next one.  It was just nuts...

3. The magic.   I only had ONE person be annoyed about something at Disney, and seem slightly frustrated with their job.  Every single solitary person we encountered at Disney was extremely kind and into the fact that they were supposed to be the happiest people, and act like freaking cartoon characters.  Universal had a couple people who were really into their job, but most of them were like, "raise your arms for the bar.... please don't step out of line" monotone voice.  Disney people were like, 'HEY! you should be smiling!!!"  it was crazy.

4. Rides.  Universal's rides were NUTS.  We got on the Dr. Doom ride first second in on Wednesday and OMG it was AWESOME.  But then we got on the Simpson ride and frankly they could do without that stupid thing.  We waited in line for EVER and it was basically a short ride with alot of videos... it was the Line Ride from South Park...   HOWEVER it made up for it with stuff like Escape from Gringotts, and Jurassic Park, the Mummy, Popeye, etc.  Their rides were GREAT and the ones they had that were "meh" were still good.   As previously stated, they have MANY a ride with videos... I get motion sick easily when I have to focus on one thing, so videos and the whipping around motion of the coasters made me sick to the point I could not bring myself to get on spiderman again.
Disney had some good rides, and you had to wait a long time to get on them.  Their GREAT rides were awesome, but their "meh" rides were still "meh..."  The Space Invaders Toy Story ride actually broke down while we were on it, which was really weird.  My sister and her family were with us for that one and I could hear my nephew going "what happened?"

5. Food!!  We had the Disney dining plan which I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE if you enjoy trying new foods.  You still have to tip everyone, BUT you don't have to worry about the huge bill cost.  We got breakfast each morning, and a snack around lunch, then we had a big sit down dinner each night but Friday, where we had Wawa Hoagies which was AWESOME.  I love a little taste of home.  We didn't really eat in Universal so theres no contest here on that one.  I just wanted to encourage the Dining plan because it really worked well for us.  I had not done it when I was there with my friends back in 2006, and I preferred it this time.  We also plan on going back to the Biergarten next time too.  Hubs and me are both German and enjoy German foods and OMG WAS IT DELICIOUS.  You have to sit with other people, but still, its a buffet so its not family style, but it is...?


Complaints:
Don't stay at the lower cost hotels at Disney is you don't have to.  My husband and I were really annoyed that they hadn't changed the sheets more than once when we were.  We noticed because one of us had gotten something on the sheets, and stained it slightly, and it was still there 3 days later...  We also had an empty bag of chips under the bed at the end of the trip that was not placed there by either of us...
Finally on the first day we were there, house keeping knocked on our door super early and asked if we'd be wanting house keeping, when I said, "not right now... " seeing as it was 8am... she gave me an attitude and told me I need to use the "do not disturb" sign.  I'm sorry I was not expecting house keeping at 8am seeing as my hotel room wasn't even ready until 6pm the night before... and was supposed to be ready at 3pm....
Universals employees could use some pep in their step... a good portion of them were very blah about work.  I get it, its a job, but atleast PRETEND you enjoy working there like some of your coworkers... like the 5 we encountered....

Tips!!!

• Use the Disney Dining plan.  100%, I loved it.  We got a cup, we used them every day, it was great.
• Do the Disney park hopper and water park option.  We wished we had paid for that instead of WetnWild because we paid extra when we got there for Typhoon Lagoon (it was a mix up on my part...) and we loved Typhoon lagoon SO MUCH MORE.
• Stay at one of the pricier Disney hotels if you can.  We weren't thrilled in the end with PopCentury's employees.  
• Stay at the Disney hotels if you're going to Disney.  We watched people trying to park each day and it was NUTS.  You stay at the parks and you get transportation to every park, and you can go for "magic hours" they're special times they're open early or late for only their guests.
• Check your Disney Transportation and that they'll get your bags.  Somewhere their was a mix up with ours and we had to real quick get everything sorted before getting on the bus because somehow we weren't on the list for that... still had transportation, just they weren't getting our bags until we changed it AT the airport.
• Eat at Biergarten.  It was DELICIOUS.  And do atleast one disney character experience
• Check 6 months before your trip for doing Reservations of stuff.  I checked what I thought was advanced and I was a month late so it was harder for us to get the stuff we wanted, like Dinner at Be Our Guest.  Though we had breakfast and Lunch there so it worked out

All in all, Hubs and I agreed, Universal's rides were AMAZING and we loved them, BUT it lacked the magic that was going on at Disney.  Disney's ride were okay, but it was truly Magical being there.  The atmosphere was just amazing, and it was great seeing Disney and the "magic" from my nephews reactions.

Florida Part 2

So some people write 2 and 3 blog posts a week, I apparently write 2 or 3 a year... Its been slightly hectic in our house since we went to Florida and I haven't had any time to actually update the blog due to health reasons for my husband and sheer exhaustion on my part.
To start, Hubs had a seizure the week before Christmas and has been unable to drive since then.  It made last minute shopping slightly more difficult... but it all got done.  The past 6 months I have been his driver, and since he works 40 minutes in one direction from our place, and I work 40 minutes in the other direction, we had to get creative.  Basically I have been dropping him at a bus stop every morning to get to work, and then once his bus comes, driving myself to work.
We (and his boss) are very happy to say that he now has his license back and is getting used to driving again, not being the passenger.  Then we had some hectic stuff going on at my work, with new employees, yearly inspections, new clients, it was nuts.
SO! HERE I AM! Back again! to finish what I started with Disney, because we went to Universal and I never did the Universal post NOR did I give all my crazy tips for Disney.  Here we go!

Universal:
I am going to jump around with this, not like Disney because we just walked back and forth around the parks for this one.
So I have never been there and my husband had been there once with his mother.  We purchased Park Hopper tickets and I am SO HAPPY WE DID.  Let me tell you why!
If you purchase the park hopper ticket option for your Universal Studios Orlando vacation, you get to ride..... THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS.   That's right people!  Rather than walking all the way around Islands of Adventure to get back to Universal Studios, you can get on the Hogwarts Express and it drops you at Kings Cross Station in Universal Studios.


For those of you who have never been there, (like myself before I went in November) there are two portions of Harry Potter-ness to Universal.  There are 3 roller coasters in "Hogsmede" and some shops.  Hogsmede is part of Islands of Adventure, right by Jurassic Park (I'll get back to that awesomeness later!) but Diagon Alley is part of Universal Studios, and you have to have a park hopper to go back and forth between them.

Diagon Alley has more shops than rides, and unless you know here to look it was difficult for us to find.  Legit, we stumbled upon it.  I kept saying to my husband "I KNOW THERES MORE" and while looking for a bathroom in the rain, saw all these people standing by the entrance and went, "I wonder whats around these... OMG ITS DIAGON ALLEY!! WE FOUND IT!" lol.
You will never believe from the OUTSIDE how big it is once your there.  Diagon Alley is huge compared to what you think when you first walk up.

Now apparently you can go through the Leaky Cauldron to get in too, but I couldn't find it... until we were IN Diagon Alley.   I would have liked to have eaten there, but there was always this HUGE wait to get a table, and hubs and me were like "Meh... the food choices are okay..."  So we would snack on stuff instead.

I DID have Butterbeer while there.  I'm not a cream soda person, so it was okay... hubs loved it.  


My brother wanted me to bring him some back but they don't bottle it... I tried to bring him Pumpkin Juice, but couldn't find the store at the airport that sells it to get it (yes, they apparently have a store at the Orlando Airport that sells the same Merchandise as in Universal)
I got a chocolate frog too... Rowena Ravenclaw was my card on the inside.  The Frog is freaking HUGE!!!








We went on every ride that was Harry Potter themed... the two indoor rides have screens and special effects.  I get motion sick easily... so they weren't amazing for me... made me want to vomit a few times, and you had to wait awhile to get on.

TIP!!! If you are like my husband and above the normal average person height (he's 6'4") TELL THEM AHEAD OF TIME for the Gringotts Ride.  We waited in line, then had to get OUT of line because my husband needed a special seat for the ride, and so we had to wait in the Handicap line because he needed to be in a specific spot.  There are like 3 rows that are meant for tall and large people.  Hubs just needed a little more room for his feet.  The rides are very much designed for the average height individual...


Onto more!!! Now that I've ranted about Harry Potter for awhile...
I LOVE the Jurassic Park ride.  I had seen the commercial for Universal Studios on television SO MUCH as a kid, and I went to Disney when I was 18 so I was very curious about this giant T-Rex jumping out at people at Universal.  IT WAS AWESOME.  Universal better never get rid of that ride or I will lose it.  I will never return.  I will also never return if they get rid of the Popeye Ride.
Due to us going on a Thursday... and in the rain, hubs and me got to ride the Popeye water ride like 6 times in a row.  There was no one in line and we just went, "can we just stay on?" and we did... until we were soaking wet and it was time to go home.  Ponchos helped with keeping our heads wet slightly.  Did not help with keeping the rest of me dry... it was great.
I must say I loved many a ride at Universal.  Next post I will compare the two parks, because thats a post in and of itself.  As well as more tips.

While at Universal, we had scheduled our Disney Dining plan accordingly so we had enough to last the week, and got to eat regularly, lol.  HOWEVER on Friday we went to Wet n Wild.  Hubs loves water parks...
We decided in the end, we both would have rather had the water park option for Disney instead of going to Wet n Wild.  We loved Typhoon Lagoon at disney and we were like, "meh..." about Wet n Wild.  If we go back we plan to not get this option from Universal.  It had some nice rides, but I wouldn't go back.  Sorry WetnWild....

On our way TO Universal, we spotted a WAWA!!!!  I'm from the part of PA where we have Wawa's EVERYWHERE.  Hubs and me are trying to buy a house, and distance to a Wawa is crucial... we can't really function without it...
SO we ended up A. making friends with an employee there because we were amazed by the Beer Cooler (we don't have that in PA, you have to go to Wine and Spirits or a Beer Distributor for that stuff...) and B.  We ended up getting Hoagies and taking them back to our hotel at Disney for dinner because we had scheduled lunch in Epcot for the next day.

But seriously if you're from PA CHECK OUT THIS WAWA.  Beer Cooler, SEATS OUTSIDE.  We were like kids in a candy shop...

Friday Night after Wawa, we did some laundry because the Laundromat at Disney was next to the pool (thanks for that Disney!) and swam in their "Hippy Dippy Pool" at Pop Century.  It was nice to not have to do Laundry when we came home (we pay for laundry at our apartment so it was the same as doing it at home...)

Packed up everything, and was ready for check out the next day.  While packing up I was not happy about the fact that I found a pack of potato chips under our bed... seeing as I didn't eat any chips while there in the hotel room... nor did I bring them back... and they MAYBE changed the sheets once in the week...  See next post for more on that!

Saturday we went to Epcot for rides and lunch.  We had loved the Biergarten SO MUCH that we ended up finishing our trip with Lunch there.  Disney held our bags while we went to the parks, and we just gave them to the bus driver when it was time to go home.  We hit up some more rides in the parks, and spent maybe half the day there before going home.

All in all it was a good trip.  I'm glad hubs and me got to be there together without children, so we could experience it together and then later take any future children with us.  Now we have a better idea of what to splurge on and what to say "forget that one..." like, we might not do Universal Studios next time, just do Islands of Adventure, though I really enjoyed that Hogwarts express... :)

Happy Living!
taxikab