part one of a 5 part series

on saving money when you don't have the "good" stores. Read it here

28 cents a gallon for gas

Yep you read that right. We are going to pay 28 cents...possibly less...per gallon next time we fill up. I have almost maxed out our Fuel Rewards card at our local grocery. I got some more cat litter coupons. We use 10-20 lbs a week of cat litter so I took advantage of the coupons and the fact that cat litter is on Fuel rewards until 3/1. I got a few more bags today and our fuel rewards balance is up to $1.56 which at the current price of gas, we will pay 28 cents a gallon up to 15 gallons.

While in line at the store, I freaked out. The lady in front of me had 23 cents off with her purchases and she would not take a fuel rewards card. I told the cashier you can scan mine if you want, I will take the discount. LOL. I know they can't do that but I cannot believe the lady refused it. I mean geez... they were trying to give her $3.45 basically. Wow! I thought maybe she didn't drive but nope I saw her when we were leaving and she got into the driver's seat of a car. hmmmm whatever..but it seemed kinda foolish IMO. I could understand if you had a form to fill out or give them personal info but you do none of that. You get a card, they scan it and when you fill up you put the card into the card reader on the gas pump and it rolls back the price per gallon however much you have on your card. Simply really.

What I can do with $60

I budgeted $60 for the week of 3/8 at Walgreens. Mainly because I wanted to stock up on the diapers but as it turns out, it will work out pretty well. Here is what I plan to get for $57 + tax that week...seems like a lot:

6 packs huggies diapers
3 packs wipes refills
1 colgate toothpaste (only getting because it gives overage after coupons)
1 glade sense and spray (also free)
4 garnier (also free and going into my brother's girlfriend's postpartum care basket)
2 right guard deodorants for R (99 cents each after RR and I need a filler so this will work good)
12 12 packs of diet coke.

How is that for $60?!?!

Preview Sunday's coupons

here

everyone has a point where...

ENOUGH is enough is enough!

I did inventory today. At the advice of our insurance agent I needed to take a monthly inventory of my stockpile items for insurance purpose. Because we have replacement cost on our insurance, should something happen I would be given the cost to replace these items at full value. This could be a bundle of money so I need to keep it up to date otherwise should I add anything I would not be given the value of whatever I added.

our inventory...just the basement. This does not include food or what we are currently using or what I have upstairs for backup (like dish soap and laundry detergent which is 1 or 2 bottles of each)

13 boxes of tampons 10 ct-36 ct
3 bottles contact solution
4 regular pain relief 50 tabs Walgreens brand
6 pm pain relief 50 tabs Walgreens brand
3 pn pain relief 150 tabs Walgreens brand
11 toothbrushes
14 toothpaste
3 4oz ibuprofen for the kids
9 cans oust
16 glade and renuzit fabric sprays
6 toilet tabs
7 carpet powders
6 lysol toilet bowl cleaners
9 various brands dish soap
25 purex laundry detergent
2 drain cleaner
3 snuggle
65 Shampoo and conditioners
4 bodywash for me
5 leave in conditioner
1 style putty
3 mousse
13 deodorant for me (small trial sizes mostly...not full size...trial size was free)
2 hair spray
5 handsoaps
2 oven cleaner sprays

R's shelf
10 shampoo and conditioner
5 Tag body spray
2 Bod body spray
4 deodorant
4 fusion razors
7 body wash
4 packs of 10 disposable razors
2 edge shave gel
1 crest prohealth mouth wash


So with that inventory in mind... I have decided to take a break after the diaper deals on 3/8-3/14. I cannot honestly or in good conscience justify bringing anything more into this house. I would like to build up R's shave gel and deodorant stockpile but it will have be a super amamzing deal...like the Right Guard that I am hoping is Free after coupon & RR the week of 3/8. Other than that I cannot believe there is anything I could possibly need coming in the near future. After talking with R tonight, he says there is no way you are going to quit. I said no, but I am not going to chase the deals so much and just let it be for awhile. I think doing this will help me concentrate on my car more. I have not been sending as much as I should because I have spent time and money chasing the deals. I need to stop and as you can see by my inventory above...I do not need to worry about running out.

my oldest daugther's HUGE heart

My K is such a sweetheart sometimes and other times she can be a giant brat. Today was one of the sweetheart days. First she tells me I am proud you are my mommy. You can always be my mom. Then at the store there was a woman in a wheel chair trying to reach something high up. People were just walking by her. K noticed and said mom see that lady? can we help her? I grabbed the stuff down that she wanted and she said "God bless you and your little girls." K said I hope you have a wonderful day. I love my little girl's heart. I hope O grows up to be as caring about others as K is.

a testament to what I have done

I find myself opening up more and more about my shopping habits. I am very careful about WHO I am open to and WHAT I open about. But lately, I find more and more people who are interested in "my way". It is a blessing that I am able to help people but also a curse because I am always asked "do you know of any deals on ......?" or "can you tell me where is the best place to buy....?". I love that I am able to help but after a while I just want to shout, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!!!

Today at work I was taking with J, a lovely older lady who is widowed. She is old enough to be my Grandma yet sassy enough that I would love to go out for drinks with her sometime and see her in a non-professional environment. I see J all the time and talk to her in passing but I rarely get the chance to have a full on conversation with her. Today I got that opportunity. We were talking about the project at work, which BTW is going on hold again for a couple weeks, and what we were using the money for. J is starting her Christmas shopping early. I told her that I had as well. She asked what I have gotten so far and I rattled off what I could remember of the list and who it was for. She said holy smokes girl! Are you done already? I started laughing and said yeah pretty much. If I see something I know someone would love at a great price, I will pick it up but for the most part yeah I am done. I also told her it covers birthdays and stuff all year too. She was pretty amazed. She asked how much I spent and I told her and she couldn't believe it. She asked how and I told her and she said geez how do I do that. So I gave her the site I get the coupon codes from and I told her about signing up for email from the store she shops to get discount coupons and codes. I also told her that Mid-January seems to be the BEST time to get clothing discounts. I also gave her some other hints. While we were talking another lady asked some questions about how I find out about deals etc, so I shared. I talked about couponing and watching sales and stockpiling as well and I told her how far in debt we were and how much we currently owe and how we have climbed out in just 18 months. I love to talk about it when I have a receptive audience. J was telling a lady on break about my ideas and that lady asked too. J said I should teach a class. That made me laugh. I told her I don't do anything special. She asked If I would be interested in teaching others to do what I do and I said maybe, IDK, it isn't that hard. She said she wanted to talk to her Pastor and see if I could come teach a class about couponing and financial stuff at her church. WOW! Wouldn't that be something? I hear quite often that what I do is amazing or questions on how I do what I do but I never really thought about teaching others or even though my girl Tori tells me often that it is, I don't think it is amazing. So anyway...That was my day. I have an ego the size of the house right now. LOL...not really.

feeling good...feeling great

IDK why but I feel really good tonight. Happy, content, etc.

I came home to a happy husband, clean house and dinner done. Hooray!

IDK...I am just happy!

Good deal...at JCP

See Crystal's blog here for details. I did this just a little bit ago and got a shower curtain and a pair of sleep pants for R for $8 and change including shipping and tax. Nice! If you have looked at shower curtains recently, as I have, they are expensive. R is very sick of the pink abyss that is the Dora shower curtain. With our small bathroom, the shower/tub covers one whole wall so you can probably imagine the shock of walking into to a bright pink giant Dora on the shower curtain. He is pleased!

coupon users...do you ever?

look at the retail price of something and balk? Like at Walmart for instance...

I went tonight to use up some Q's that were expiring for things we need. I got a few things but not even 1/2 of what the coupons I had. I figured I didn't need it that bad and would just go with the generic at Aldi VS using the coupons and paying "too much" They had a bunch of Garnier fructis on clearance for $2.50 and some that the normal price was $2.50....BEFORE I started combining coupons and sales I would have used my coupon and paid the $1.50 now that I know I can get it FREE in a couple weeks at Walgreens I just walk away. There were a few other things. Nothing I can really recall off the top of my head Razors I just left the coupons on the shelf by the razors. I didn't NEED them right now so I thought I would spread the love and to me is was still too expensive. Oh yeah and they had tons and tons of clearance toys and clothes some of which were good deals but nothing that I needed so I didn't buy except a new pair of fleece pj pants for me...originally $9 on clearance for $2.25. R is always complaining that I never buy myself anything so I did even if it was on clearance. They are super comfy too. I put them on as soon as I got home. I have become a price snob.

When R was still working and I was working full time I thought ugh coupons...who has time for that crap? I bought mostly generic everything. Once I started working seasonal and now part-time and actually figured out the couponing/sales/Walgreens thing and have time for it, we actually have more name brand stuff and some better quality things and I am spending a TON less than I used to. And that makes me, R and our checkbook happy ;)

Whew!

The final leg of the move is complete. Moving the gift stockpile from the upstairs closet to downstairs is done! YAY! What did I do with it? I had an underbed storage container that I put a bunch in. I had a box I put more in and then I had some of those zippered bags like bed sets come in (I get them free at work!) and I put the final things in them. They are all stored under my bed. I would like to get one more of the plastic containers for storing the ornaments which I currently have stored upstairs in the hall closet.

our project is done...at least for the downstairs

I am in the process of reorganizing the entire house. It is a job and a half. I put R to work putting up a cabinet in the laundry room and a spice rack in the kitchen. This freed up room for me to use for stockpiling. I will take some pics in a minute or two and post them. The results are amazing and I have a lot more room for stockpiling now. Now if I only had the money to do more. LOL

Walgreens 3/8-3/14 plan

4 bottles of Garnier for free. 99 cents after ESQ and I have 4 $1/1 coupons.

I might do the huggies RR deal Spend $25 get $10 RR. I am waiting to see the deals the following week before I decided though. If there is nothing to spend my RR on then I will probably skip this deal.

Revised plan for 3/8:
I received two home mailers from Huggies last night with diaper and wipes coupons in them. I also found the same coupons stuck on the shelf with the Huggies diapers last night at our local grocery store. Someone had left them so I snagged them. Because O needs "better" diapers at night, I decided to go ahead and do this deal...multiple times, because one of the things my brother has on the baby registry is wipes. I will put in the Walgreens Diapers and 2 of the 3 packs of wipes in with their gift. They are also getting a what to expect the first year book, a baby monitor, and 6 custom designed onesies. I am designing 3 and letting them pick out the graphics for 3.
Transaction #1
$10 huggies diapers
$10 huggies diapers
$ 6 huggies wipes
$ 3.49 colgate total advance
$ 7.99 glade sense and spray kit (mom loves these things)
$ 2.99 garnier fructis conditioner
_____
$40.47
- 1.50 Q huggies diapers
- 1.50 Q huggies diapers
- .50 Q huggies wipes
- 2.50 ESQ on colgate
- 1.50 MFQ on colgate
- 4.00 ESQ glade sense and spray kit
- 4.00 MFQ glade sense and spray kit
- 2.00 ESQ garnier fructis
- 1.00 MFQ garnier fructis
______
$21.97 and get back $10 in RR

Transaction #2 two times
$10 huggies diapers
$10 huggies diapers
$ 6 huggies wipes
$ 2.99 garnier conditioner
_______
$28.99
- 1.50 Q huggies diapers
- 1.50 Q huggies diapers
- .50 Q huggies wipes
- 2.00 ESQ garnier fructis
- 1.00 MFQ garnier fructis
______
$22.49 and get back $10 RR

Transaction 3
$ 2.99 Garnier Fructis
$13.00 4 diet coke 12 packs
______
$15.99
- 2.00 ESQ Garnier
- 1.00 MFQ Garnier
______
$12.99
use $10 RR from Huggies
$2.99 OOP and get $3 back in RR

Transaction 4 (if I have nothing else to use RR on)
$13.00 4 diet coke 12 packs
-10 RR from huggies
______
$3.00 get back $3 in RR


A few other RR deals I might do if they are free after coupons and RR:
Right guard deodorant for R $2.99 get back $2 RR
Irish spring body wash $4.49 get RR for free one after purchase
Crest Prohealth toothpaste $2.49 get $1 RR
Skintimate or Edge Shave gel $1.99 get $1 RR

and if all else fails for using my RR
Axe Shampoo FAR
Walgreens brand Extra Strength pain relief quick gels FAR
use RR to pay for these items and get the money back + 10% on my gift card.

I am anxiously awaiting the next weeks preview ad so I can decide what to do with all the RR.

I will obviously be making multiple Walgreens trips this week. SIGH...set me up a tent in the parking lot. LOL.

Walgreens 3/1-3/7 plan

I plan on getting a couple of the free after RR toothpastes and some of the diapers. This is how I plan to work it.

First transaction: 1 toothpaste/1 pack of diapers
$4.50 for diapers
$3.29 for toothpaste
-1.50 coupon for toothpaste ( I will have to find my coupon though :( )
________
$6.29
-3.29 for RR I will receive
______
$3 + tax

2nd transaction
$9 for diapers
-3.29 for RR
________

$5.71 + tax for 2 packs of diapers



I have heard reports that there is a diaper coupon out when you ask at the pharmacy about the prescription savings club plan. I have not verified this yet and some people have said their pharmacy does not have it. If there is a coupon available then it will take $2 off each pack. Holy smokes! Super cheap diapers that way. I am going to try to get one next week.

I might also do the pepsi deals this week. I am getting low and am not seeing great sales and don't expect any until closer to Memorial day.

Diaper coupon is not valid on "promotional pricing" so using that is a no go.

After much thinking and planning for the following week, here is my revised plan for the week of 3/1:

$8-2 diet pepsi 12 packs get $3 RR
3.29 colgate toothpaste get $3.29 RR
$9-2 packs Walgreens diapers
_____
20.29 each transaction
$6.29 back in RR each time

not sure how many times I will get the toothpaste but free after RR is pretty good especially since I can use the RR next week to save some OOP. I want to get 6 packs of diapers, 4 for us and 2 for my brother's baby shower. The week of 3/8 is a big week for me at Walgreens. I will probably do the toothpaste once or twice and do a third transaction sometime in the week like this:

2 dt pepsi $8
2 diapers $9
______
$17
$-3.29 RR from toothpaste
______
$13.71 get back $3 RR on dt pepsi

This would leave me with $9 RR to use the week of 3/8

and that is the way I shop!

I told R that when we left Walgreens this morning.

I got 2 20ft rolls of aluminum foil normally $1.69 each. They were on sale for .89 cents each and I had 2 $1 off coupons. So -.11 for each.
Also got the kids a clearanced Valentine's candy thing as a filler for .37
20 free prints from the other day $0.00.

My total OOP was 27 cents. Yep 27 cents. We got in the car. I showed R the receipt with how much I saved ($4.92) and I said and that is the way that I shop. He laughed and said...free is good.

what a day!

Coupon preview is here

We moved O upstairs and moved the master bedroom downstairs...Geez. What a Pain! I still have things to move but the necessary items are moved.

I made a great Hamburger Gravy to go over mashed potatoes for dinner. It was wonderful. I browned 1 lb of hamburger and dumped a 16 oz can of cream of mushroom soup over it and added a dash of milk. I seasoned it with pepper. It was delicious and filling. Even K (aka miss finicky as of late) enjoyed it and had seconds and thirds. WOW! it was good if she was asking for more.

We are in the process of decluttering, yet, again, still, always. It is difficult to declutter when you want to garage sale the stuff but can't store it in the garage yet. It is too cold out. So we have a corner of O's new room designated as the "garage sale corner". I hope to get that cleaned out as soon as it is warm enough out to move it to the garage. I need a day without anyone home so I can just crank the stereo and get stuff done. Probably won't happen but oh well. I can work around everyone here. I do a bit at a time and eventually it will get done.

Check it out

The "vent and dent" has a website

quick trip to the "vent and dent"

K calls my favorite store the "vent and dent". LOL it is so cute. Anyway, I got a few things. I was pretty pleased once again. I got everything I went for and a few more things. I spent $22 but came home with a bag and a box of food.

narrowed the search

we are down to 2 companies for our homeowners insurance. I have just a couple questions to ask the agent and I will decide tommorrow. Either way we are sticking with our current vehicle insurance as the agent could not get us a cheaper rate with any company. I did get one cheaper rate with esurance but after reading reviews for many hours, I decided against switching to them. It seems everyone who had a claim had an issue getting a representative, finding a body shop that would deal with esurance, etc. So we will stick with what we know. I know our current company has been good to us. I had a hail damage claim in 2006 and they were here the very day I called to assess my car. They even came to my job and did the assessment there. I was very pleased. The same company we have for auto is one that I am considering for homeowners but their rate is slightly higher than what we currently have but the insurance seems better. I am going to talk the the agent about it tommorrow.

called our agent

and I got her butt in gear about our insurance. she is emailing me the quotes today. Hooray! plenty of time to make a decision

FREE PRINTS at Walgreens TODAY

20 free 4X6 prints. use code ONEDAY. you have to order 20 or more. I tried to just do 17 but it wouldn't take the code. Funny. you would think if I only wanted 17 they would allow that but guess not...oh well.

shopping around for insurance sucks!

It does. I hate every minute of it. The first quotes, which looked sooo good, turned out to not be accurate. The agent had "forgotten" to include a couple details and when she ran the final quotes to send to me to sign and return with a check, they were higher than what we currently pay...Did she think I would not notice?!? So I cancelled our dealings with her. I called our current agent and told her what we wanted and she is in the process of shopping around for us. I am running into a short window of time here to make a decision. Our auto policy is due for renewal on 2/28 so I have to get it sent on Wednesday of next week at the latest. The good news is that we can still get much better homeowners insurance for less than $100 more per year. I was talking about switching insurance with my parents tonight and Dad asked mom what their coverage is. She didn't know. They haven't changed it since 1995, when they got the new house after our house fire. Wow! that is a long time. Dad said they are going to look into it now too.

I was disenheartened yesterday to see the work schedule and only have 20 hours. I told my boss that I did not need the days off that I was given so if she needed me, call. I went to work this afternoon and TA DA....I am scheduled another day...a full 8 hour day...instead of the 5 hour shifts I have been given recently. YAY!

Sent another payment off the my car today. I am really working on it. I am another month ahead. It is getting sooo close to being paid off.

I bought something very unthrifty today...but it was necessary. Huggies goodnites for O. She has been waking up every night between midnight and 2 am, soaking wet. The Walgreens diapers just aren't cutting it for the nighttime flood. They were $10.99 for 27...talk about sticker shock, but if they keep her from waking up and waking us up...it is worth every cent!

been having thoughts again

IDK why but I get these "thoughts" in my head. It happened with the stockpiling, among other things. The most recent thought is not a good one however. The thought is that we need to up our homeowners insurance. We have not upgraded our policy since we bought the house and we have done some improvements to it since. We are insured for a bit more than what we need to pay off the mortgage but it is not enough to rebuild our house should something happen. I have recently become quite concerned about this and I am not sure why...could be the economy, or the fact the R is laid off and no bank in their right mind would give us another mortgage should we need one with our piddly current income. IDK but whatever it is, it has forced me to start shopping around and getting quotes for better insurance on our home.

The week ahead

My stores are not having much for sales so I am taking this week to send the extra I would have spent on groceries and sending it to my car. The just over $2000 I owe is really getting knocked down fast. Hooray! I need to get an oil change and I need to pick up the last of the cat litter and then I need nothing else for the week.

Yesterday I went to the Walgreens in my in-laws town and they were out of the drain cleaner I intended to buy so we ended up perusing the clearance candy. We got some suckers and a couple other things. They also had these heart shaped photo holding keychains. I ended up getting 5 of them for 75 cents a piece. I put pics in mine last night. It is great. I am giving one each to my brother, his GF, MIL and my mom. For my mom I am going to put in a pic of my girls and leave the other side blank for her to insert a pic of her newest grandchild, when she is born in May. For MIL I am putting in a pic of our neice and nephew and our daughters and for my brother and his GF, I am leaving them as is and giving them as part of their baby shower gift.

We also went by Kmart. They had an awesome clothes clearance going on. I ended up getting K a shirt and pants set for $3.50 and a shirt for the new baby for $2.40. K is odd for pants. She is so tall and skinny, that I need to get her a 5T or larger for lenght but her waist is more of a 3T, which is what O is in the waist but only 24months/2T in length. The adjustable waist pants are nice but sometimes for K they fit funny. AYE!

I find myself always on the lookout for gifts. Even moreso this year than other years. I think I find myself doing that because I know by the time fall comes around, we are not going to be in a position to be buying anything extra. It gets kind of annoying at times. I just should stop right? Easier said than done. LOL. If I find something that I think would make a nice gift, I dig out my list or go over it mentally to see if I already have enough for that person. Most times I do so I pass unless it is a super great deal. My brothers Birthday is in a little over a week. I need to decide which gift to give him.....a shaving set, a money clip, pj pants or the gift basket with shampoo, conditioner, a razor, shaving gel, bodywash and body spray in it. Those are the gifts I currently have for him. I am leaning toward the gift basket.

Walgreens 2/15

Here's what I got:

$8.99 pack of pullups for K for nighttime
$6.99 pack of pullups for K
$6.99 1 pack of wipes
$0.75 1 small box of Valentine Candy (clearanced)
$1.99 drain opener
$0.00 drain opener B1G1F sale
_____
$25.71
-$6.00 RR
-$6.00 RR
-$9.00 coupon from Weekly ad for pullups and wipes
______
$4.71
+ .92 tx
_____
$5.63 OOP

I decided to wait to get diapers because it is cheaper the week of 3/1 but I needed to use the RR and K needed pullups so I decided to get them instead.
Hopefully I can come up with some RR or something before diapers go on sale again. My rebates should be back by them so I might be able to get 2 free packs!

My Valentines' night

R and I aren't into holidays. We don't do the gift giving very often so instead of getting me a gift that I don't need, I took some alone time tonight. I went to Walmart to use up a few coupons and just be alone for awhile. I got a free + overage bar of soap for the kids, free can of dog food, b1g1f can of cat food, 2 palmolive dish soap for $1.24 (for both) after coupons, a new pair of pjs for me on clearance for $3.50, 2 boxes of fruit snacks for the kids (with a coupon), and some toothpicks and a few other small things that I can't remember offhand. I spent $14 OOP for all that.

On the way back home I stopped at our local grocery store and got 8 bags of cat litter. With the juice I got with WIC tonight the grand total on our fuel rewards card is 58 cents off 15 gallons and I still have 6 more bags of cat litter to get. The rewards expire in 1 month so I will have plenty more days to get that balance up. I would like to see me paying very little OOP for gas but I am still going to try to get the best deals to get those fuel rewards. I am starting to figure them in when I figure out deals because it is making shopping there rather than Walmart much more attractive.

WOW a great idea

I like to compare our local grocery store to Walmart to see if the deals and my coupons can make shopping there less expensive and sometimes it does...For example:

My local store
Tidy cat 10 lb bags of cat litter $2.12
(I have 22 coupons for this)
2.12 X 22 = $46.64
22 $1/1 Q -22.00
= $24.64
But they also have fuel perks on this item so 4 cents per bag at 22 bags is 88 cents per gallon off gas up to 15 gallons so 15X.88 = $13.20 off my gas or $11.44 for 22 bags of cat litter if I count the discount off the price of the cat litter.

Walmart
$1.97 X 22= 43.34
22 $1/1 Q -22.00
= 21.34 no fuel perks...and I also don't have to drive to Walmart to get the cat litter either....hmmmm sounds like a good deal to me. Definitely a better deal at my local store. Tonight I checked on the price of dog food and they were cheaper as well. Not by much just a few cents but still it saves me the walmart trip. Guess I will be stopping every night after work next week to pick up a few bags of cat litter. The fuel perks on the cat litter are only for the next week so I will have to get all 22 bags in the next week but no biggie. I store them on the side porch stacked up. But there is no way I am getting 22 bags all at once. LOL. I don't think I can fit them all in my car.

Weekend plans...

hitting up Walgreens for the diapers and drain cleaner that is on sale.
going to Walmart for a few things
cleaning the house
visiting the inlaws

I start working 5 days a week again on Monday so I need to get everything in order again for that.

LOVE/hate

There is an issue with my job that I both LOVE and hate. It is the flexibility, while I love being able to say "hey I need this day off, please don't schedule me", I hate that they can pretty much call at any time and want me to come in. Case in point today 11:30 AM, my boss calls, can you come in today? I went in because I had nothing else going on so I might as well right? Plus we need the money. Once I got there I found out why I was needed. A bunch of other people decided to use some personal hours as of this morning for this afternoon. So anyway I love and hate that benefit of my job.

I also love/hate bedtime. I love when the kids go to bed and I can enjoy a few solitary moments but I also hate bedtime because that is when I am able to do the majority of the housework and I don't get to bed near early enough.

No coupons this weekend

according to taylortown preview no coupons are scheduled for this weekend. Just a heads up so you don't go buy a paper if you don't want to.

today

Well UPS found my house. HOORAY! I do exist. LOL

The kids and I went to the bent and dent. Didn't get much, 2 boxes of bagelfuls $1/box, 2 giant cans of cream of mushroom soup $1.25 each, 1 box of 5 corn dogs $1, and 1 package of 12 mini double chocolate chip muffins.

Later we went to Pamida to scope out the double coupon deals and I only used 2 coupons. I got 2 cute snowman decoration things for $2.59 each. They are really neat wooden snowmen that hang on the wall. They were 80% off and I got 2 free bottles of Heinz Ketchup. I got coupons from the manufacturer. I love free ketchup, especially the good stuff.

I love pay day!

my check was small but I paid a bunch to my car. Hooray!

Don't touch my stuff!!

Let me just preface this rant by saying...I love my mom...I do BUT sometimes she irritates me.

I have a cigarette making machine. I have it set up perfectly. It fills the tubes precisely how I want them and makes a darn good cigarette. My parents also have the same machine. Well yesterday when mom and dad were here, I had the machine on the counter. They wanted to try one of R's menthol cigarettes that I have been making for him. So I made them each one. After I got done I set down the machine and stepped outside with them so they could smoke them. We came back in when they were done and Mom started playing with my machine. Oh this is not set up right..this screw needs to be tighter and this one looser and she proceeds to adjust the screws on my machine, which screwed it all up. I have spent about 15 minutes now readjusting it to get it back to perfect as I had it. I get upset when people mess up my stuff. It irritates me to no end. Don't touch my stuff! PLEASE!

Please no comments on how smoking is bad for me and the kids. I do NOT smoke around my kids, neither does my family. We step outside to light up and I feel as an adult that I know the risks and choose to have an occasional cigarette that is MY choice. I will not debate this. But I will say that we smoke cautiously and are careful about smoking in front of, near, or in the vicinity of our children. Thank you for refraining from comments. I appreciate that. I have tried to quit in the past and I know I should. I have quit during both of my pregnancies as well.

our day...I never left the house

The kids woke up just after 11 am as did I. O was up for quite awhile last night. I woke her up before I went to bed to change her because she has been waking us up at 6 am soaking wet, so by the time we get her pjs and diaper changed she is wide awake and whichever of us got up with her is not. I changed her hoping she would sleep in. Well she wanted to stay awake so I ended up putting her to sleep in the playpen in my room and she slept good in there. She watched TV until she fell asleep. I was already out when she finally crashed. We managed to get most of what I wanted to accomplish done today. Carpets shampooed, cookies baked, jerky dehydrating...well part of the jerky anyway, laundry done, and the house partially deep cleaned.

I am shopping around for new insurance for our house and vehicles. I am happy with our current company but felt we could probably get a better rate elsewhere so I shopped around and I am glad we did. We can get better homeowner's coverage for $70 more a year. The new policy would almost double our current coverage. The vehicle insurance was only $2 less per 6 months but the coverage is a little better. I am still debating on switching but I need to make a decision soon, our auto policy expires at the end of the month.

Walgreens deals 2/22-2/28

Would you/could you/can you believe that the ONLY thing I think I will be getting this week is.....reynolds wrap foil? Free after coupons...I have 2. That is it...that is all I need. Wow!

my house does not exist

according to UPS. UPS was just here YESTERDAY! and now today...incorrect house number...unable to deliver. WTF?!? I ordered something for FIL and it was supposed to be delivered here today and ummm yeah evidently the driver today is not very bright. IDK...UPS just called wanted to know my address so they can deliver the package. Ummm it's not on the box? yeah it is the guy says but the driver put down that there was no such address...ummm yeah there is! I live here! So the guy reads me the address off the box, it is my address. IDK so I gave the guy that called directions and he said...oh wait..I can just pull it up on mapquest! DUH! ya think? Anyway, it wasn't like I needed it right now or anything we will take it to FIL on Sunday but still they were JUST here! and my house is not hard to find...unless you are fed ex Twice a company has sent stuff by fed ex and twice fed ex could not find my house. Not good odds. But Seriously, I am only 3 blocks from one state highway and 2 blocks from another. I can see the 2nd one from my living room window...It is just across the yard and the neighbors yard. I can't be that hard to find....can I?

more about the Walgreens ESC program

This is an email that some people have received. Looks like the rumor is true.

Thank you for contacting us regarding our recent decision to evaluate the EasySaver program
in its current form. Walgreens is always looking into the future. For this reason, we are looking
at ways to revamp the rebate program to assist us in proceeding in an exciting direction. Although
change is always intimidating we feel that it is time to develop a new loyalty program so we can offer our
consumers new and improved services. You will continue to find the EasySaver Catalog in our stores
through April. Please look for future advertisement regarding our new programs to come.

We appreciate your patience during this transition and hope you will allow us the opportunity
to continue servicing your drug store needs.

Thank you,

(removed)
Supervisor
Rebate and Vendor Programs

Wow!

I have to share this post. It is truly inspirational. I do not consider myself religious by any means, spiritual yes, religious no, but this post is inspirational. Please take a minute or two to read this post.

Free mini magic eraser

details here

Got my uber cheap Victoria's Secret slippers today

wooooo! they are awesome! I am glad I decided to keep a pair for myself this time. With this purchase we have nearly completed the birthday/Christmas/Mothers' & Fathers' day gifts for the entire year! How is that for awesome?!? We have to buy a couple things yet:
Christmas for our nephew
Christmas for FIL
Father's Day for FIL
This is the first year I am done so early. I do enjoy being done with shopping for the entire year already but I know as the year goes on I will see something someone will just love. Oh well, if I don't, I don't have to worry as the gifts are already bought.
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As I contemplate our finances and how the rest of the year might play out, I tend to worry but today I had no worries. The sun was shining, we went for a drive to Walmart, we enjoyed each others company...all 4 of us....and I realized, even though I already know this it was realized once again today, as long as my two little girls are happy, healthy and have a place to call home, I have no worries. R and I will always make sure the girls have a place to call home, even if it is not an ideal situation. We will do our best to keep the kids happy and healthy and that is all we can really hope for. Economists are predicting the recession will get worse before it gets better. I think, how much worse can it get? I know it is not as bad as it could be but what will worse look like? Widespread hunger? homelessness? unemployment? Thankfully the kids are oblivious (or are they?) to the current situation. R tries to not read the news all that much and me? well, I don't share it with R much. We don't talk much about it. He says...."things always work out for us" and they do BUT that is because I really work at it. I try to find a way to make things work out for us. I don't know if he really realizes that.
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Rumor has it that the Walgreens ESC and rebate program will be ending after April. I don't know any more than that. Some say they will have a loyalty card. So I don't know what will happen with all of that but I hoping something because not having the easy saver program and the deals I am currently getting will make me not shop at Walgreens. I rarely if ever went to Walgreens before I discovered coupons and the ESC and rebates and I probably won't go again if there is no incentive to shop there. I bet there are a lot of people like me that will take their business elsewhere. I will update as I learn more.

BIG Plans for tommorrow

yep..we have big plans. A TOTAL house cleaning, cabinets, floors, toy boxes, drawers, dressers, EVERYTHING! It was R's idea. It started tonight when I decided to mop the floor in the toyroom and it progressed into a full blown spring cleaning. So R decided he has a couple things he wants to tackle and we will somehow try to keep the kids occupied while we clean.

Photo Giveaway

My friend Jenera is giving away one of her fabulous prints on her blog. check it out here

It's jerky time

at this house. Deer hunting brings a special time for the menfolk (LOL) but for the womenfolk of this family, the time proceeding deer season brings work, lots of work. Mainly for this woman. Every year after the holidays are over, FIL hands over 50ish lbs of vension to me for processing. He gets the venison ground and it is my job to turn the mound of ground bambi into a mound of beef/venison jerky. We use a 1/2 to 1 mix of ground beef to venison. Even the tiny womenfolk in this house love jerky. K loves to eat it and "help" me form it into strips for drying. This will be O's first year helping with the jerky tradition.

The jerky making starts tonight, with the marinating of the meat and continues for the next 2 days with dehydrators running around the clock dehydrating the gigantic mound of prepared meat. Fun, right?

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BOOO!
no Walgreens gift card for transferring a Rx for O. Our insurance does not require a co-pay for O's Rx so Walgreens would not give me a gift card. Boo! oh well, I can't be too mad at them because I did not have to pay for the Rx so I have nothing to complain about. I had a really great idea though. I was going to see how long I could make that gift card last and see how much I could get with it.
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Walmart
R, the kids and I went to Walmart to try to find some cure for the above mentioned jerky but the store didn't carry it so we bought the other stuff we needed.
I got
1 bag cat litter $1.97-$1/1 coupon
1 bag puppy chow $4.72-$1/1 coupon
2 cans of friskies cat food $0.76 each-B1G1F coupon
1 can Alpo $1.46 -Free to try coupon
1 bottle of vinegar $0.68-no coupon

I paid $6.50 not bad...not bad at all
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SALES!!

AYE! the sales this week at my local stores. WOW! Hamburger helper $1/box, Betty crocker potatoes $1/box, Pizza Rolls $1/box, sirloin steaks $2.99/lb. K and I took a trip to the store this evening. We got 4 boxes of pizza rolls 57 cents/box after coupons, 4 hamburger helper-no coupons :( but with me working until 5 it is really easy for R to make one of these for dinner, and 1 package of 3 sirloin steaks for $4.60. We skipped the betty crocker potatoes because we have sooo many of them.

Tommorrow I need to hit our local Pamida for double coupon week and check on the price of tidy cat litter. I bought (yeah but I am still saving $17 bucks (maybe more if I can get them doubled)by buying 20 coupons so it is worth it on cat litter) some coupons for the cat litter and if I can get them doubled that would be sweet, but I need to check the price there because it might be cheaper just to get it at Walmart, not doubled. We'll see.

Also tommorrow I need to go transfer a prescription to Walgreens and get my $25 gift card. I have heard reports that they are now giving checks instead of a giftcard. Damn. I really wanted a gift card so I HOPE they are still doing the gift card at my store. I don't think I can possibly spend $25 in one trip to Walgreens and spend it wisely. Well, next week I could stock up on diapers but we are to the point where I don't want to buy many more (we have 13 packs now plus I am using the cloth again) because O is starting to show interest in the potty. At least if I do buy more, my niece that is on the way can use them eventually.

I really really really need to buckle down again and start pouring out the money to my car. My next full payment is due in July, only 4 1/2 months from now. I really need to get that paid further ahead so I need to buckle down and get cracking on that. Our hours got cut once again at work and IDK when it will pick back up so I am going to budget my unemployment better and get cracking. I am fully prepared to cut out almost all spending and work diligently on my car.

We are sick!

all of us are not feeling well. I think I am the worst. I went to Walgreens to get another Razor and some Powerade (I had coupons for the powerade too...LOL). I spent $8.63 and saved $5 and got another $6 in RR. So I was telling R this is how it works..

I spent $14.11 OOP but I got back $12 in RR. So really if he looks at it his way, I spent $2.11 and got 2 bottles of powerade and 2 $10 razors.

The cashier said whoa! on my trip tonight. She stopped talking a minute, looked like she was thinking it through, and said we just PAID you to take that razor. I laughed. She said was that coupon in todays paper? I said yes. She said Awesome! LOL I love when a cashier is as excited about the deals as I am.

Getting paid to shop

It is not much but...I got paid today to "buy" a razor from Walgreens.

The math:
$8.99 gillette fusion gamer razor
-4.00 coupon in today's paper
-------
$4.99
0.49 tax
_____
$5.48 OOP
got $6 back in RR
So I got paid 52 cents to buy this razor. Sweet, huh!?!?! Especially since it is a nice razor that R can use or give as a gift.

I love when it works out that way...
As of today I have spent $210.94 at Walgreens and saved $423.06
If I add those 2 numbers together (what I would have spent for all this stuff), and divide by what I saved my savings percent is almost 67%. Not bad. It will be higher once I get back my rebates and use the RR.

Since we have so much stuff in our HBA stockpile, I am limiting myself to only getting free stuff lately. Like FAR or Free after RR/coupons stuff.

Coupon Preview

check them out here

DUH! not thinking

So I am not sure if I posted about the FAR contact solution or not but they are actually PAYING me to take it. Yep, it's true. Here is how it works:

$1.99 Contact solution
$0.11 tax
--------
$2.10 OOP
-1.99 rebate
-0.20 extra 10% for putting rebate on a walgreens gift card
(.09)...they are paying me 9 cents to take this off their shelves. It is something I need anyway so HOORAY!

Quality time ...... with my bro!

My brother and I took a little trip to the bent and dent today. R stayed home, the kids went to Grandma's. I got another $5 package of roast beef, thin sliced. Perfect for sandwiches. I also got the kids each a cute stuffed weiner dog for 25 cents each for Valentines' day and I got 2 boxes of tampons. Then Josh and I went to Walmart where I got 3 ring bolognas clearanced out for $1.60 each, 2 Disney Princess play cameras for $3 each (I have been waiting for them to mark them down from $5, which is what they were when I got one for our niece. They were originally $10 each), cat litter, cat food, dog food, 2 sponges that I have a coupon for and a battery pack thing for the Xbox for R. The Xbox thing was almost half of what I spent at Walmart...UGH! but they way the controller eats through batteries it was worth it. We are having steaks and cheddarwurst on the grill for dinner. My parents are coming over to eat with us.

No flaming allowed and random thoughts

Just wanted to preface this post by saying this is in no way, shape, or form derogatory toward anyone. This is based solely on my views from what I see in my neck of the woods and is probably not applicable to everyone else.

In this area recently, there have been numerous layoffs, plant closing, hours being cut, etc. So I was thinking about that today and I got to thinking....who is more prepared for an economic downturn? The poor because they already live poor? The rich because they have reserves? The middle class? The upper middle class? The lower middle class? Where do you think you fall on that ladder?

I think of my family (R, myself and the kids) as lower middle class, although by our current income level we are poor. I think we are more prepared for an economic downturn because we are in a really good position financially. We have been preparing for "the bad" for a long time. Something in my head told me to prepare and I did and I am ever so grateful that I listened to that. Do I consider myself poor? No. We have what we need and we can buy what we want. True, our wants have changed to come more inline with what our needs are. It wasn't always like this. Our wants were extravagant, our needs are basic. Now our wants and our needs are both basic. We still have a few luxuries but I wait to get those luxuries until we can afford them (or I have a good coupon...LOL).
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There was a recent poll on a forum I frequently asking why do you stockpile... I have touched on this in the past so I will not go back over it again here. But it was interesting to see why others stockpile. Many do it for the same reasons I do, others do it because they live so far from a city, others do it differently than I do, some do it the same. I do have to say I get a special kind of feeling when I go to my stockpile and get something out. A feeling of pride, accomplishment, happiness, etc. The same feeling that I used to get from a job well done at my old job. Now I get that feeling from saving money and getting a really good discount on something that I know we will use or someone in my family will use and love.
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It is so wierd to hear some of the women I work with talk about how much they spend on groceries each week. A WEEK?!? wow! I haven't gone shopping for groceries in months...I go all the time but my idea of grocery shopping is different....you have a list, you get your meals for the week that one day, that is my old way of shopping and I think that is how most of the U.S. does their grocery shopping. ME? well you all know how I shop. And it is odd to hear others talk about spending whatever they spent that week. When I think...hmmmm I only spent $20 this week on groceries, but then other weeks I spent a bunch more refilling the holes. IDK...it is just wierd to me. I know not everyone has the luxury I do of stockpiling and I usually don't talk much at work about my shopping habits because many just don't understand it and I don't want to get into it and be known as " that crazy girl at work that buys so much food". I have brought it up to a select few though and they were pretty intrigued by my grocery shopping habits.
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My MIL told me about a new Bent and Dent in her town that I want to check out. I told Mom and Dad too and as soon as I get a Saturday off, we are going to go. I am pretty unimpressed with working 6 days a week right now. I cannot complain because we need the money and it is only 5 hour shifts but it just doesn't feel right to work 6 days a week and not get anything extra out of it, like overtime. What really sucks is that working 6 5-hour shifts only gives me 30 hours of pay a week. That bites! It is nice to only work 5 hours but seriously 6 days a week is not fun. I just get up with the kids in the morning, do a little housework, make lunch and then off to work. I come home, make dinner, give the kids a bath, and then it is bedtime for them. Then I do what I need to on the computer, finish up whatever housework R didn't get done and then bedtime for me. I like having a day off to do my shopping, run to the bent and dent, etc. Of course it is not open on Sunday, my 1 day off. But all in all, I can't complain too much because I do need the money!
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Everytime I make payment to my car, I breath a little sigh of relief...just that much closer to debt free...then what will I blog about? I will come up with something for sure :)

$21

That is what I have spent this week. Two days to go in my spending freeze. I am doing pretty good.

My walgreens plan for 2/15-2/21

Diapers could be a good deal! $3 off coupon...

Also the B1G1F drain cleaner at $1.99 for 2 would be a pretty good deal if you need it.

I am going to get the grape jelly. I wrote to the company and got some coupons from them so I will be able to get them super cheap.

The bent and dent owners should give me a referral discount

HA! I wonder if that would work. But seriously, Today at work a couple ladies and I were talking about groceries and how even Aldi's is getting pricey on some things and I told them about the bent and dent...my favorite one. They were unfamiliar with the area it is in so I promised to do up a nice map and email it to them so they could go.

I was telling R about it tonight and saying they should give me a bunch of premade maps with a referral number on it and I should get a couple bucks off for every person I refer that stops in and buys something. Wouldn't that be great? Great for me, because I get a discount and great for them because they get more business. WIN WIN! hmmmm maybe I should approach them about that when I take MIL there later this week?!?

WWYD?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GM-Chrysler-offer-workers-rb-14230220.html

Read the article first.


My first thoughts are WHOA! $75K to leave the company and $25K voucher for a new vehicle. hmmmm that would be something to consider. $75K would more than pay off our mortgage. Then our bills would only be about $300/month. Nice huh? and we would have a new vehicle to boot. That would be a pretty dang good offer. But then I got to thinking and to not have the health care benefit when it is most needed would be terrible but also what would you do for a job?

Living on foodstamps blog

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/30/am.callebs.foodstamps.blog/index.html

seems interesting but I bet I could do something like that even better. LOL $176 for a single person. I could do $200 for a family of 4. Maybe that should be my next project. LOL

unclog a stopped up drain

pour some baking soda down the drain and then add vinegar. We tried it just today on our terribly clogged bathroom sink drain and it worked great!

I posted a couple articles yesterday

The one about more Americans saving money is great. I hope they are. I know R and I are really working on keeping our debt in check. We are not able to actually physically SAVE more money but we are spending less and paying down debt, which according to the article, is like saving. IDK but I do know that we are being very vigilant in watching what do buy, making do with what we have vs. buying because we want it. There have been a couple exceptions to that but for the most part we are taking great care to time our spending so we do not have to use our credit cards for anything. When we each had better jobs, we were lazy with our money. We had so much more of it that we spent more but we also spend foolishly, using our credit cards whenever. At one point I had almost $4000 on my card and R had $2000. OUCH! I know many Americans have/had much more than that but still that was a lot for us. We worked and budgeted to get that paid off. Currently, I have $40 on my credit card and R has about $200. That is new balance stuff...not left over from the previous high balances. I use my card once a month to make sure the account stays open as I have had problems in the past with a different card company. R has one thing that is a monthly charge that goes to his card and it is less than $10 but we pay that monthly. His current balance comes from a little splurge, he made less than 1 month ago. We filed our taxes yesterday and that will get paid off as soon as we get our refund. Mine will be paid off as soon as I get paid from work. Then we will be credit card debt free once again.

Welcome to Monday

I woke up to a very crabby K, I had her go back to bed, wait 15 minutes and then we "started the day over". I told her to think about why she was so crabby and then forget about it and we would restart our day. So far so good! She is in a much better mood. I hate when she wakes up whiny. O starts every day happy. She is just a happy girl.

I sent more money to my car today. I am getting very close to having it paid off. A little breakdown:

9 more months at the regular monthly payment-but I have been sending more so
just over 7 more months at what I am currently sending or if I can send just a little more, just under 6 months. At any rate 2009 is the year my car will be paid off! I could potentially have my car paid off by the end of summer. How exciting. I cannot wait until my car is paid off. The money I currently send to my car is going to a seperate savings account to save for a down payment on a new (to us) vehicle when the time comes or for emergencies. R's jeep has just under 60,000 miles and my car has just under 49,000, my thoughts are that by the time either of us needs a different vehicle, we will have enough saved to pay for it in full or only have to finance a small portion. I would like to not have to finance at all but we'll see how that plays out. Even if we do have to finance, we will be in a much better position because we have never been able to put more than $1000 down on a vehicle, not including a trade-in and we have always owed on our trade ins anyway. This time we will not owe on a trade in but because we plan to keep our current vehicles until they cost more to fix than they are worth we probably would not get much if anything for a trade in. I don't foresee us buying a different vehicle for at least 3 years, hopefully longer, so chances are good we will have quite a bit in savings when that time comes.

I did restart my spending freeze on Saturday. So far I have spent $2. I did not restart the ticker. It is Monday. Saturday I worked, Sunday I did not even leave the house and today I have a dentist appointment and some errands to run. I will probably send a little money today but I am going to try to keep it under $20. I have to work the rest of the week including Saturday so I doubt much money will get spent this week.

something to ponder...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090201/ap_on_bi_ge/savings_frugal_society

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319605956027285.html