In order to make myself less nervous, I am going to post a not so well kept secret of mine. I *hope* that this does not jinx my chances but here goes:
With R's unemployment set to run out in 2 1/2 months and no job prospects in sight, I have been applying for other jobs. I want to stay home with the kids and only work part-time but I need to be able to support us should he not be able to find a job right away. With that in mind, I applied last week for a leadership job at a local company. I thought it was a long shot, figured they would have a ton of more qualified applicants. Not that I am not qualified. I do have a business management degree, I have 5 years experience in Quality Assurance as a (unofficial) shift lead, and almost 2 years as an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant. I have the experience they are looking for, especially the Quality aspect of the job, but I figured with the ecomony the way it is they would have a lot more applicants more qualified than me and they probably do but I got called today and will interview tommorrow for this job. It would pay all of our bills after taxes but will not leave much left over but my main concern is paying for the roof over our heads. Anyway this job would cover that and everything else. It seems like a very good fit for me so hopefully it works out. I will keep you posted.
$22 of which I can use on Coke this week. Which I will have to do 2 transactions on. Those two transactions will get me another $6 in RR I will have $9 left to get pullups for K next week and then we are set! Let the spending end! LOL. While I will still be collecting my coupons, I intend to only to go Walgreens for free or moneymaking items. I will continue to get grocery items on sale with coupons but I intend to only get free or moneymaking HBA items.
After reading Carrie's post I got to thinking. We really need to start planning out our garden this year. You see, our small starter garden last year was ok but not located very well and flooded out. We are still planning to use the same spot for a few of our vegetables but we want to plant more this year and since the previous spot is behind the garage which is only 5 or so feet from the property line we have to replan this. We have a couple spots in mind but first we need to decided exactly what to plant, how much of each, etc. Some other spring things I need to accomplish:
restring the clothesline
replace the rocks and mulch around the trees in the backyard
figure out what to do beneath the swing set
rake up the rest of the leaves
Of course I think of this now, after we got freezing rain then snow. I did see some grass yesterday in spots. GREEN grass. Wow! I had to check a few times, just to make sure it was not my mind playing a trick on me. It wasn't. There was actually grass but now it is covered with snow once again...ah the joys of a Wisconsin spring/winter. The teasing and tormenting that Mother Nature plays on us Wisconsinites is just not right, even downright cruel at times. Sweatshirts outside one day to full winter gear including hats, gloves, boots and winter coats the next. Mother Nature can be so vindictive sometimes...(I need an eyerolling emoticon....seriously!)
As I have gotten older it seems that Winter lasts longer. I know that it doesn't but it seems to. I am not quite 30 (and I have more than 6 months to go until I am...thank you!) but when I am outside in the cold for more than a few minutes, my feet start to ache, well my toes start to ache, my fingers ache, I have wondered if this is what arthritis feels like. For someone with almost 200 ft long driveway that requires nine passes with the snowblower to clear, 2 porches, a sidewalk spanning a lot and a half, and a snowplow driver that can only seem to plow his piles into the end of MY driveway, never the neighbors driveway or even onto the treebank in front of the house, this is not a good feeling. Clearing us out takes about 30-45 minutes usually then I also clear the sidewalks for our older neighbor lady which takes 10-15 minutes. I think I now know why my parents always said they could "feel the cold in their joints". UGH! yet another reason to move from this cold climate.
I have told R if we were move, there should be at least 2 Walgreens in the town we move to. That should be a requirement. I have a lot of them for a different house. 2 full bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, a basement that can be finished but preferrably already is, first floor laundry like we have now, a kitchen with counter space and cabinets, a step saver kitchen would be ideal, an open but not too open floor plan, LP (or the ability to have an LP) cook stove, lots of storage, a decent yard, and privacy. Not picky at all am I? LOL There are other things I would like 2 1/2 car garage-detached (I do not like attached garages, I am wierd like that), no fruit bearing trees, room for a garden, and the list goes on.
I have to work 4 days this week and hopefully some things that are in the works will happen this week. If they are meant to be they will. More on that to come though. I am too tired now to continue.
Stockpile a little while ago
stockpile now: (excluding the freezers and cupboards...not much as changed in them)
Call me crazy...go ahead...I get it all the time from R. But when it comes to needing something he is more than happy to use something I got for free and never have to pay full price for. I love me some FREE stuff! Even if I have to "work" for it by using coupons, multiple trips to the store, waiting for sales, etc.
Suave and some of the Garnier
R's stuff and some more Garnier..beside the garnier is Body wash for R
My body wash and dove
Tampons, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, contact solution, some lotion .... the orange boxes are the buddies for K
Pain relief, etc. You can't really tell but there are like 15 boxes/bottles total
OMG! that is a lot of diapers. That should get O through the rest of her diaper days or pretty dang close to it! 
B1G1F razors ($5 for 2 packs of 20 each)...emptied the packs for easier storage
My new (empty yet) shelves from Josh..the wood ones. The pet food bags are on the bottom shelf of the white shelves but is not in the pic.
Walgreens tour today went A M A Z I N G!!!
first store:
$3.49 Colgate
2.99 Garnier
30.00 3 packs of size 6 Huggies
_____
36.48
-1.50 huggies coupon
-3.00 huggies coupon
-3.00 huggies coupon
-1.00 garnier coupon
-2.00 Walgreens garnier coupon
-2.50 Walgreens colgate coupon
______
21.99
2.01 tax
_____
23.99 on gift card from mom got $10 RR back
also at store #1
13.00 4 packs of coke
7.99 glade sense and spray
______
20.99
- 4.00 Walgreens glade coupon
- 4.00 MFQ glade coupon
-10.00 huggies RR
______
2.99
1.15 tax
______
4.14 cash got $3 back in RR
Next store
20.00 2 packs diapers
6.00 wipes
2.99 garnier fructis
2.99 Right Guard deodorant
_____
31.98
-1.50 Huggies Q
-1.50 Huggies Q
- .50 Wipes Q
-2.00 Walgreens garnier Q
-1.00 Garnier Q
-3.00 RR from pepsi deal last week
______
22.48
1.80 tax
_____
24.28 OOP got $12 back in RR
Last store
$20.00 diapers
6.00 wipes
2.99 Garnier
2.99 Right Guard
______
31.98
-2.00 Walgreens Garnier Q
-1.00 garnier Q
-1.50 huggies Q
-1.50 huggies Q
- .50 wipes Q
-3.00 RR
______
22.48
1.76 tax
_____
24.24
-1.51 left on gift card
_____
22.73 OOP got back $12 RR
and my brother did this one for me
20.00 2 packs of Huggies
6.00 wipes
_____
26.00
-1.50 huggies Q
-1.50 huggies Q
- .50 huggies Q
_____
22.50
1.43 tax
_____
23.93 OOP
got back $10 RR
75.08 OOP total and came home with $36 in rr. so for $39.08 I got everything pictured below. The second pic is just a side view of the diapers.
with 75 lbs of red potatoes. We will be eating a lot of meals with potatoes in the near future. I foresee many meals centered around potatoes. LOL good thing we love the red ones!
I went on a reconnaissance mission to Walgreens tonight. Had to check stock on the diapers for tommorrow. While I was there I bought the last two pack of Walgreens Brand size 6 diapers for O in the premium type. Can't let them know why I am there ya know. And if I walk out empty handed...well, they have me pegged. LOL crazy? why yes I am according to R. With the end of the preview coming soon I will have to shop like everyone else and I just can't do that so while I still am ahead of the game, I gotta continue. LOL
oh yes I am. My "source" for the awesome Walgreens preview has been informed that she is no longer allowed to do that. So while I look for a new source for the ad previews, I won't be able to figure out my deals so far in advance. This kinda makes me sad...that is why I am crazy. I loved being able to figure out when the best deals were coming so I could get my coupons in order, trade for some if I needed and in general just know that if I could hold off for a week or so I could get whatever free or cheaper at Walgreens. I used to be shop and save money without this preview and I can once again but it will take time to get back into the swing of it. Looks like the week of 3/15 will be my last week of preplanning deals at Walgreens. :(
I was sitting here this evening, feeling kind of sorry for myself. Wishing R was working so we had more money, Wishing I was working more so we had more money. Wishing R was working so I could just stay home with the kids, which was how this was supposed to work out, a friend called.
The call made me feel guilty for my pity party. My friend is single, no kids, he recently was laid off, has a mortgage, all the normal bills, plus now as to pay his own medical insurance or go without. He is struggling. We are not. We have a little money left over, I can still get my deals at Walgreens when I want to. I am still able to put a little away each check, I am still able to feed my kids and even though paying our heat bill (thank you LP cost for dropping :) ) just about broke our savings account, we are doing alright. We have food in the cupboards, in the freezer, in the fridge. We have health insurance, we have everything we need, not what we want but what we need. Life is good. Anyway my pity party has ended, I have sent the guests home and I am happy once again and feeling pretty fortunate that even though things are rough (and this sounds terrible I know) there are people out there worse off than we are. It sounds bad to say that but it puts our situation in perspective a little more. I feel better now!
The kiddos and I loaded up and headed out to my dad's house. When we got there, he was just leaving to run an errand so the kids and I went to the bent and dent and Walmart while we were waiting for him to come back.
At the Bent and Dent we got some juice and oreos. Mostly we went to drop of some bags I have been saving for them. Then at Walmart we wandered a bit. Luckily I had my coupon binder with and they had 8 of the Johnson Buddies soap that K loves so much. I had coupons making them free and giving me 3 cents of overage on each one! Sweet! I got all 8 and made 24 cents on the deal. We also got a bag of cat food with a $3 off coupon making it $1.97 for the bag and we got a new brush for the animals because Sheena decided the last one was a chew toy. The brush was on clearance for $3. We also got a wedding card for the reception R and I are going to next weekend and a birthday card for our nephew. My total before coupons was $17 and I paid $6. Not bad!
K loves the Johnson Buddie Bars soap. It smells like cucumber melon and at 97 cents a bar it is cheap enough but Johnson puts out coupons for Buddies products pretty regularly so we get it free and I get a bunch when I get it so I never actually buy any. It is pretty cool. It has this meshy stuff on it for little hands to keep a grip on it and it lathers up like using a shower poof thing.
I would like to try making my own laundry detergent that is why I am stocking up on the bath soap. I found a recipe for it and I am thinking that it might be better for O's sensitive skin than the Purex I currently use. I plan to try a small batch on just her clothing and see if it helps.
We had a couple errands to run. I do what I need to during the first 2 days of a new ad and I spend the rest of the week using Walgreens money to get stuff I don't necessarily need but I can get free after all the RR and coupons are figured out. So that is what I did today.
At one store:
8 Dove bath soap @ 1.69 each= 13.52
1 Vaseline lotion @ 2.84
Minus 8*.70 (Dove bar soap in ad Q)-5.60
used Vaseline lotion Q for -1.25
used $3 RR from Pepsi -3
used $3.50 RR from Colgate -3.50
________
3.01 + .65 tax OOP
got back $12 in RR ($10 buy 8 Dove products get $10 and buy 1 Vaseline product get $2)
Then because it worked so slick I decided to go do it again at another store. But my plan was foiled:
My original plan:
8 Dove bar soap @1.69 13.52
in ad Q -5.60
Vaseline 2.84
Vaseline Q -1.25
$3.50 RR from Colgate -3.50(I had another one that I put away for the huggies deal)
_____
6.01 + tax
get back another $12 in RR
But here is what I had to do:
1 vaseline lotion 2.69 (same thing is cheaper at the 2nd store!)
1 Vaseline Q -1.25
2 pk Walgreens diapers 9.00
used $10 Dove RR -10.00
_____
.44 + tax
got back $2 RR from Vaseline.
So OOP today I spent $4.74 and came home with $4 in RR that I will put toward the Huggies deal and 8 bars of soap, 2 packs of diapers, and 2 bottles of lotion. I only count the RR when I used them rather than when I get them so my first transactions in a new week generally have more OOP than the ending ones. RR is only good for 2 weeks so if I don't have anything to use my RR on I will get diapers or FAR stuff so the money comes back on my gift card. I will be using the RR I collected this week ($3.50/Colgate and 2 $2 from Vaseline and using them toward the Huggies deals next week. I had planned to do the huggies deals 4 times but I have some coupons coming now and I was able to print a few so I might be doing them a few more times. I am not sure yet. It works out to being just slightly higher than the cost of Walgreens brand diapers per pack. I can use the RR to get Diet Coke which is also on sale next week and giving RR so I will probably use all my Huggies RR on Diet coke. I plan on doing the Right guard deodorant RR deal as well so I have plenty to roll my RR to and the following week Walgreens diapers are on sale again but there is really no other RR things I am interested in. I will save my Diet coke RR to use on diapers most likely but if there is another great RR week the last week of March I may hold off using all my RR on diapers and save some for the following week. Decisions, Decisions.
A few days back I said enough is enough and I am going to hold to that. I am going to only get Free or Moneymaker items. Sometimes I think I have a problem. LOL
I cannot always get a deal on everything. Nope just can't happen. I did not get a deal on one thing I bought tonight. Sad huh?
Our order from JCP.com came today. The shower curtain I ordered I thought said fabric with vinyl backing. It was just fabric. I have always just got vinyl shower curtains because I hate the thought of basically having 2 shower curtains, a fabric one and then a vinyl one. Never made sense to me. So I put the new curtain up and the realized the error. I got online and rechecked and sure enough, it is just fabric. CRAP. So I had to go buy a vinyl curtain for a backer. I had to pay full price for something....oh the horror!!! LOL I got one for $3.99, just a cheap clear one. While I was at our local store, I saw they were having additional 40% off clearance clothes. I glanced quickly but I happened to find a small section of clearance swimsuits. K needs a new swimsuit for this year and I was just going to check them out at the thrift store but was thinking that I should just buy her a new one...stuff like used underwear, socks, bras, etc. freak me out but cloth diapers secondhand do not. Wierd huh? anyway they had a Barbie swimsuit marked down to $6.49 and I got an additional 40%. They also had some super cute 2 pieces but R is pretty sure that our 3 year old does not need to be wearing a 2 piece...and it looked like a bikini...not the boyshorts and fuller coverage top type that he would *probably* approve of. So for $3.89 I got K a new swimsuit.
Then I hit up Walgreens again for the diet pepsi and toothpaste deal. My brother is coming with me on Sunday to get the huggies deals so I won't have to travel to as many stores. YAY!
The best deal of the night came from my brother though. He and his GF recently bought a used bed set for dirt cheap and were getting rid of some of the other furniture they had. They had 2 nightstands that were seperate but could be stacked to make a tall shelving unit. He was just going to throw them away so I claimed them. I rearranged the laundry room again and tada! Even more room to stockpile. It is amazing what you can do in a small room to make the space more usuable. Once I get it cleaned up more I will take pics and post.
So I have been so Jealous over the women who have the nice coupon binders with the baseball card holders as inserts. But I couldn't justify spending that much money. $10 for 40 holders and another $3-4 for just a cheapy zippered binder. So I stuck with my coupon accordion. I mentioned to him how I wanted to do something different with my coupons so they are better organized, etc. Well tonight after he did dishes and I was still clipping away, he went into the laundry room and got down his boxes of OLD baseball cards and took some out of the holders and dug out some empty holders and said...would this do? OMG I am ecstatic right now. I got them all orgainzed and now just need to get a binder. I believe our local dollar store has them, just the plastic ones but that is all I need for now. Hoooray!
Also we used the fuel rewards card today. We ended up paying 33 cents a gallon because gas went up a bit. Still a great deal and I took a pick of the receipt to show you all. I also have a pic of my new imporved coupon organization to show off. It is so nice to know that hubby supports me in this! Because I want to keep his cards safe, some are older than he is, I am going to get a plastic tote he can put them in and keep them in a safer place, which also frees up more room in the laundry room for stockpiling! 
Transaction 1
2 dt pepsi
1 newspaper
1 candy bar (because the lady showed them to K and she just had to have one...UGH! I hate that!)
$11.42 saved $2.18 got $3 RR from buying the pepsi products
Transaction 2
1 Colgate maxfresh
$3.47 including tax
used $3 RR from diet pepsi
.47 OOP and got $3.50 RR for buying the toothpaste.
I didn't plan to get the toothpaste because we had a lot but when I found out it was a moneymaker I had to do it. I will use that RR to get another 2 diet pepsis and then I am going to save the $3RR from the pepsi for next weeks deals.
I am continue to refine my deals for next week to get the lowest OOP possible. My current plan is to get up early and head out to all the local Walgreens and get the diaper deal done early in the week. The buzz on this deal is HUGE so I want to be sure I get my deal done before it is unavailable. R was picking on me about it but he is the one who will have to get up with the kids that day because I plan to be at the furthest Walgreens when they open and then work my way home. Hitting 3 or 4 stores total. Crazy right?!?
