We don’t have dental insurance – and I imagine many other families go without this too – however, dental care still is a must. I’ll admit, I don’t even like having my teeth cleaned much less a cavity filled.  We’ve handled the “no dental insurance” in 3 different ways on various occasions.

1. Don’t go. (My favorite position, seeing I don’t like dental work anyways.)
2. Go to the local technical college where the dental hygenist students work on you. We’ve been to Stark State College and I love! their set up and the atmosphere (and the price… under $10). The drawback is that because they’re learning and their work has to be reviewed (not a bad thing though) they tell you to prepare to be there for 3 hours.
3. Go to clinic where they use a sliding fee scale.

Okay so, let me tell you. I had my reservations about going to a “clinic”. There’s just this “thing” about it that gives people (or is it me?) the impression that its just not going to be as good as going somewhere where I have to shell out lots of money or swipe that credit card and go into debt for a little while. Its a stigma that I’ve  allowed to get in my way for a long time.

Well, it may be okay for me not to go to the dentist (at least for awhile ) but my kids have to go.

And so we went.

And I learned a lesson. A lesson I already knew.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

In spite of the fact that the dental clinic is obviously for those who can’t afford to shell out hundreds of dollars in dental care and they share a building with other low income services and yeah, it looks like a low-income clinic…

We had a great experience! My kids got their teeth examined and cleaned without tears. They even got a few goodies at the end of the visit. There is a minimal $20 charge and then it can go up from there. Still very affordable.

And next month, its my turn.

*By the way, I am NOT opposed to low income services. In the past we have used WIC and currently, even though I don’t think you have to be low income for this, my youngest is under BCMH (Bureau for Medically Handicapped children) due to being born with a partial cleft soft-palate

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Last year we purchased a family membership at the McKinley Museum here in Canton, Ohio for about $49.  Doing so not only got us into McKinley for free but since McKinley is part of the ASTC reciprocal program we could get free or discounted admission into many other science museums around the US and the world as well. But then I started learning about memberships in other places that included zoo and science museum reciprocal privileges. The two I learned about were  Boonshoft near or in the Dayton, Ohio area (family membership $79) and Coyote Point Museum in California ($65).

Several weeks ago I purchased our new family membership from Coyote Point. Now, we don’t have any plans on ever going to California (though I was born there) but the price was better.

Before I bought though, I called a few places here in Ohio to see what admission would be. We will get free admission to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Akron Zoo. I think Cosi and McKinley may also be free. Now we can get into a variety of science museums AND zoos for FREE or discounted admission! Since I’m homeschooling now, this is a great thing

Today we broke-in our new Coyote membership by visiting the Akron Zoo for free but paid $2 in parking. My favorite exhibit was the jellyfish and the touch pool /kids play area near the jellyfish.

Do you have or know of a membership to anywhere special that the Hall of Fame Moms readers would benefit from knowing of? Please share in the comment section.

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I haven’t said much lately about my great coupon shopping trips because I’ve had a dry spell. But thats good because it gives me a break on searching for and cutting up coupons, time shopping and spending money.  However, just this weekend a few things came together for me and I saved a lot of money yesterday (Saturday).

I got everything  in this picture for a grand total of $6.27. I made two separate transactions and used a lot of coupons. Here’s how it came together… (oh yeah, and I haven’t even told you about the toilet paper I got today)!

• First- I check my favorite coupon matching website which happens to be CouponAllies.com (NE/Central Ohio) because they are local to me. Also see my post on Baby Steps to Couponing.
  

• Second- go through my coupons pulling out what I wanted to use.

• Third- off to shop at Giant Eagle where they double my coupons up to.99 (which will equal $1.98 off).

Giant Eagle was running a special where I would get a $3 off coupon to use on my next visit if I bought $10 participating Dole fruit products. I had a bunch of .50 or .55 cents off 2 cans of Dole fruit. My plan was to buy $10 worth of Dole in one transaction so I could get that $3 off “catalina” coupon to use on everything else in my second transaction.

First transaction (I think everything was on sale) :

2 (16oz) bottles of liquid Coffee Mate Creamer…used (2) .75cent off printable coupons which doubled to make these both FREE

2 (1#) bags of California River Rice…used (2) .50cent off coupons that doubled to make these both FREE

3 (10packs) of Bic Silky disposable razors ($1.69ea.)…used (3) $2.00 off coupons making these FREE

10 cans of Dole pineapple & mandarin oranges ($1 each)…used  (4) .50 off 2 and (1) .55 off 2, doubled to $5.10 off making these $4.90 for 10 cans PLUS getting a $3 off coupon at checkout to use on my 2nd transaction.

Total: $4.27 cents

Second Transaction (Again, everything may have been on sale) :

2 (10 packs) Bic Silky disposable razors (same deal as above) = FREE

2  (12oz) packages of Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon…used (2) .75cent off coupons doubled to $1.50 off each making them $1.00 each.

1 Pizza Lunchables meal kit for my boy who really wanted one because a couple boys at school get to make their own pizzas at lunch time    (And he carried it around with him in the store, he was so happy!)   I did have a $1.00 off coupon for this.

USED the $3 off my next transaction (catalina coupon from the Dole purchases).

Total:  $2.00 !

And then to top it off…I found 4 Marcal Small Step coupons at home that got me 6 (4 packs) of Marcal Toilet Paper at Marc’s for FREE (just paid sales tax) thats 24 rolls!  I haven’t had to pay more than sales tax for toilet paper in weeks or months. We picked these up today (Sunday).

Note: The Marcal coupons were for $2 off one pack of tp or maybe some of their other paper products (had 2 of these) and up $1.00 off  of the toilet paper (had 2 of these also). Marc’s doesn’t adjust down to make the coupon work for the one pack of toilet paper so they give you 2 packs for the $2 off coupon. The toilet paper is .99 cents regular price at Marc’s. That is how I got 2 packs with one coupon…6 packs total.

I hope I’ve broken this down in such a way that it makes sense to you. It really can pay to use coupons!

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Usually anymore I share THIS kind of info with my Facebook  fan-page friends instead of posting it here. I just figure there are already bloggers doing an excellent job of that particular thing and sometimes those kind of deals seem to be happening too fast and furious for me to worry about posting to my blog.  But I can quickly share a link to those deals on my Facebook page as I see them happening. {hint-hint…thats a good reason to join me on Facebook HERE}.

So, why today? Well, I’ll tell you. Today my baby Jack (who will be 4 on Sunday) and I went “shopping” with a bunch of coupons I’ve been collecting.

*I have him signed up on the Build-A-Bear birthday club and he has received a couple emailed gift certificate/coupons to use.

*I’m also on Victoria Secret’s mailing list and have had a coupon for a free pair of underwear (possibly my 3rd this year) waiting to be redeemed.

*On top of all that- and this is probably the biggest motivator… Aeropostale has a $10 off minimum $10 purchase that is only good THIS weekend!  But I DO want you to know about the Birthday Club too!-(btw- he also got a $5 off a purchase coupon too which we haven’t used yet).

I rarely buy anything from that store (Aeropostale)  but I found some C-U-T-E totes/bags on sale for $9.99  and up. I picked out the white denim-type front pocket tote (100% cotton) on sale for $12.99 (reg. price was $29.50) and paid $3.17 (w/ tax) for it. I’m thinking this may make a GREAT bag for carrying my discipleship notebooks and bible in.

Before coupons:  Victoria Secret’s PINK (brand) undies $7.50, Build-A-Bear “free” stuffed animal of choice up to $12.00 value,  Aeropostale tote bag  on sale for $12.99 = $32.49 value…BUT

This trip to the mall cost me $3.17 and I walked away with something from VS, a very nice tote bag, and a happy little birthday boy who got to stuff another bear 

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Build-A-Bear. You might have to go to the physical store to sign up for the birthday club.

Aeropostale $10 coupon-ONLY GOOD 4/23-4/25/10.

Have you heard of ZenniOptical?  I haven’t bought glasses through them…yet, but I just may be doing it soon. My husband, my kindergartner and myself all wear glasses for different reasons. Our insurance covers one free pair a year. My son was effective in getting his cracked and maybe scratched in less than 2 months  maybe.  Mine appear to have a scratch in them and I would not be surprised if my husband’s have a problem or two (because of the way he sets them down and where he leaves them unprotected).  I know that because I’ve never bought prescription eyeglasses like this before I’ve been reluctant to try it. However, after reading THIS article about one person’s experience using ZenniOptical I am encouraged to step out of my comfort zone and consider purchasing extra frames from them.

I just checked out their site and they have complete eyeglasses starting at $8.00 and shipping and handling is ONLY $4.95 per order, regardless of how many pairs you order!  They have women’s fashion frames, men’s classic, sunshade models and pure titanium- just to name a few.

The economy is bad enough without having to struggle to see or read clearly because you can’t afford eyeglasses! If you need eyeglasses, do yourself a favor and check out how ZenniOptical can save you money. Search their frames and prices, get your prescription AND measurements from your eye exam provider and then order your glasses from ZenniOptical.

I hope this post helps someone. Have you used ZenniOptical before or could you use a service like this?

Okay, I like never – well, its very very rare that I shop at Aldi’s. I’m such a big coupon user at Giant Eagle where they double my coupons up to .99 that I don’t pay Aldi’s much attention. However, yesterday I scored some great deals.  I spent $17.10 and that included buying 2 paper bags ($ .12) because I really only planned to pick up 2 items. Not pictured is the gallon of milk $1.89 , bag of cheesies and bag of tortilla chips (.99 cents each).

The wheat bread was .99 each, (2) bags of baby carrots .49 cents each I think, .39 cent bag of garden salad, bananas .39 #, big pineapple for $1.49,  bag of leaf spinach $1.49 maybe and (3) 1 lb. containers of strawberries for $1.69 each.

I will be separating the spinach into smaller baggies and freezing for my smoothies (they crumble very nicely into my single serve blender cup), freeze the strawberries and carrots too for smoothies. The pineapple and carrots will be an experiment for my smoothies. I’ll probably just add a few to my strawberry, banana & yogurt smoothie to taste test. Some of the bread has already been turned into pumpkin molasses french toast sticks – yum!
I’d love some more healthy ideas for making smoothies. Got one to share?

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