Friday, November 27, 2009

Black Friday

I haven't logged in for a few days. It's been busy here getting ready for the big Turkey Day!! I had to do my last minute shopping for fresh veggies and bread for the stuffing. I bought a pre-made pie in the bakery department so I didn't have to make several pies homemade.

I went to Jazzercise on Wednesday. Our center wasn't open yesterday. I should have gone today, but I slept in and my hubby and grandson were here so I had to make a better breakfast than the cereal I usually eat on Friday . Next week I will really try hard to get there 3 times.

Yesterday's dinner turned out good. The food was very yummy. I limited myself to one helping of everything. I started out with a salad to help fill me up. I only had pumpkin pie for dessert instead of the usual several thing to pick from. I enjoyed a slice of pie with fat free cool whip. I didn't have anything after dinner even though we had an early dinner. I was wondering what the scale would say this morning. I only gained a 1/2 pound. Not bad after a Thanksgiving dinner. We will have leftovers today so I hope to do just as well today.

I don't do the Black Friday shopping in the stores. If I really want something I order it online. Most of my shopping is done anyway so I'm going to spend the day relaxing and maybe rearranging my bedroom. I need a change. I also have to switch out my winter wardrobe for my winter one. It was snowing today.

How did everyone else do with yesterday's meal?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Sporty Saturday

I went today to watch my oldest grandson in his first ever wrestling scrimmage. It was so hard to watch him be tossed around like a rag doll. He just decided last Sunday that he wanted to join the team. All the rest of these boys have been doing this for a lot longer from the looks of it. My grandson is a tall skinny boy. He's 16 years old and weighs 110. There is skin on his bones and that's about it. He texted his mom and told her he had a busted lip and is bruised up but, he was OK. I just wanted to go over to him and wrap him up in his baby quilt and carry him out of there. I'll have to wait to hear what he has to say about it himself.

Not much else going on today.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Friday not Fryday

No Jazzercise today. I wanted to go, but I have a killer headache.. I did make it 2 times this week and I will try and make it there 3 days next week. Our center isn't open Thanksgiving Day so I will have to work around that.

I did go to the grocery store today. I had to get my turkey so it can thaw. Even with my coupons, I spent too much. Eating healthy is more expensive that eating junk food. I'm going to have to really watch for specials on fresh fruits and veggies. Of course, I did get more stuff because of Thanksgiving dinner, so that didn't help.

Here we are the weekend again. Last weekend wasn't too bad so I'm hoping to stick to the diet again this week.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Tasty Thusday

I made it to Jazzercise this morning. One more class and I will make my goal of 3 this week. It was a good workout!

I just got back from Pizza Hut for lunch. I had a nice salad and 2 slices of thin crust pizza. I asked for water even though I really wanted a Pepsi. My hubby is going to a Men's Club fish dinner so I'm on my own for dinner. I'll have some homemade veggie soup.

It's still raining today. It's just a drizzle. I wish we would just have a downpour and get it over with. The temps are going to be in the 50s the rest of the week.

Survivor's on tonight so we will watch that while we enjoy our WW pie. A nice way to finish off the day.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Wet Wednesday

I ended up sleeping in this morning. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. I didn't go to Jazzercise today. That means I have to go tomorrow and Friday in order to get 3 days in.

Not much else happened today. It was drizzling rain most of the day, so nothing to do outside. It's getting colder too. I afraid winter's on it's way.

Dinner was good. I made wheat pasta with left over plain sauce. We had a nice salad I since I don't like chicken in tomato sauce I put my chicken in my salad. My hubby had his chicken thigh in the sauce with mushrooms. No cheating again today. The only problem I'm having is getting all the water in. I'm doing better, but not good enough. I'm still working on it though. I'm not giving up.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Terrific Tuesday

I was afraid of how I would feel after Jazzercizing yesterday, but I don't feel too bad. I'm a little sore in the shoulders, but I will live. I didn't go to class today because I wanted time to heal. I will go tomorrow. I think I might go for a walk later on this afternoon. Today is weight in. I'm down 4 pounds. I feel good about it. I will continue to do what I did last week with the Jazzercise thrown in so hopefully next Tuesday I will show even more of a loss.

I decided to make a chicken for dinner. I used Mrs. Dash for the seasoning instead of the salty rub I usually use. I'm sure my hubby won't even know the difference. He didn't with the baked meatballs last night, which turned out great as a matter of fact. I have a recipe for baked in the oven potato fries , from the DASH diet, that I think I'll try too. I'll also roast some asparagus and have a garden salad. Boy I'm hungry already. Guess it's time to put a bowl of my homemade soup on to cook.

I'm getting my hair trimmed tonight so I don't look like a saggy dog, then dinner then later we'LL watch Biggest Loser while we eat out Weight Watcher pie that I make with jello, yogurt and cool whip. A low fat dessert that doesn't taste like it. I'd better get busy and make the pie so it has time to get set up.

Till tomorrow!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Relay For Life



I just joined a team for Relay For Life. It is a family team. My 2 daughters and grand-daughter are also on the team. My daughters are co-chairs. I've participated the last couple years. My brother is a colon cancer survivor. If you would like to help with the cause and donate please use the link above so I can get credit and hoepfully raise more money than the rest of my team. ;-)




Thursday, July 2, 2009

Swidget 1.0 13

Swidget 1.0 12

Use the registration code - CASHISKING - and you will start out w/5 FREE swagbucks!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

New appliances on their way

We decided to check out Lowe's before we headed out to HH Gregg's. Since I really need the washer asap and I knew that Lowe's delivers next day I thought if they had any good sales they might be the place to get at least the washer. The salesman said that he could give us the 10% off all the appliances and we could also get the 12 months 0%. My new washer and stove is being delivered tomorrow morning. I will have to wait for the refrigerator since it was not in stock. That is OK.

I'm going to list my old stove on freecycle to a needy family. The oven and 2 smaller top burners work fine. It would be a great stove for someone that doesn't have one. I'll list the refrigerator when the new one is going to be delivered.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Personal Life Is Getting The Way Of My Playing Here

It's been a busy time lately.

Over the weekend I took my dad's ashes to his favorite lake. A word to the wise, make your final resting place easy for the ones left behind. I won't tell where I took them, I have to tell you if you are planning on having your family members take your ashes please make it easy on them and keep it close to home and easy to do.

I have been having pains and numbness in my right arm. It doesn't seem to be getting any better. I thought if I stayed off the computer it might get better, but it's not. I think I'm going to have to give in and go to the doctor and have it checked out. It seems to be getting worse. It just starts to tingle for no reason and hurts all the time.

I was doing the laundry today and my washer started making a strange sound. It sounded like the washer was full of marbles. Since I don't have children that would leave mables in their pockets I couldn't figure out what the problem was. I had to take out all the heavy wet towels and it still made the sound. When my hubby got home from work he took the inners out and the tub is just flopping in the machine. Looks like I might be needing a new washing machine if he can't fix it. So I wonder if I can get a good deal if I buy a washer, stove and refrigerator? My stove is down to the 2 small burners and the refrigerator sweats and freezes things inside during the summer. I'm going to go to HH Gregg's outlet store and see if they have any good bargains on their scratch and dent items. I don't care if they are perfect. Who see a washer in my basement but me and the refrigerator will be between the wall and my pantry so who will see the sides of it. We have a credit card for HH Gregg's so should be able to get the items for no interest until 2011. Of course we will pay it off before the deadline so we don't get hit with the back interest.

My hopes are to get back into my couponing and reading the blogs.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Planting veggies

It is beautiful out today. I had cleaned the square foot gardens out the other day and got all the weeds out so today I was ready to plant. I put up my strings to make my squares. I made my plan on where I was planting each kind of veggie. I am using what were horse shoe pits as my raised beds. Today I planted, beans, corn and a few herbs.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

White Cloud coupon




I got an email this morning offering a $1.00 coupon for White Cloud. Here's the link .

I was able to print this coupon twice by using the backspace and refreshing. White Cloud is not my favorite toilet paper, with a dollar coupon the price is right.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Saturday Mail Call

Not much happening around here lately. The weather is beautiful today so I played in the dirt. I got the garden beds all ready to plant. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the carrots, beets and lettuce planted. I wish I had some onion sets so I culd get them going. I did find a couple onion growing in the garden from the sonion seeds I planted last year.

In today's mail was:
A free Self Magazine

Sunday, April 5, 2009

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane!

My flight leave tomorrow morning. I'll be back late Friday night. We'll be spending 5 days in Vegas. It will be so nice to get away and be in some warm weather.

It was depressing when I got out my summer clothes and I found that my tops didn't fit. I had to go to Walmart and buy some new tops to take with me. I knew I put on some weight but it really hit home when I tried on last years clothes. It will be back to exercising and watching the portions when we get home. Of course we'll have the typical Easter meal and left overs. We will start back on eating healthier the week after Easter. By then all the bad stuff will be gone and I can start planning a better menu. I want to lose this weight before summer. I've gained 10 pounds so now I'm up to having to lose 30 pounds to get to my goal. I will commit to going to Jazzercise at least 3 days a week and will try to go even more than that. I'm hoping for nice weather so I can start walking outside. Until the weather gets warmer I will walk on the treadmill. Now that've written it down I will be more likely to do it.

I also want to get back into using my coupons on sale items and not going over budget on groceries. That is my goal for when I get back from my trip too.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Thursday Mail Call

The only thing I got in the mail today was some free Preen gardening gloves from an online survey I did. Now I just have to wait for it to get warm enough to get out in the dirt with them.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

MIA

Sorry to be MIA. Things here have been CRAZY! I've been having a bout of depression. I feel better today. My sweet Hubby is taking me to Vegas for my birthday. We leave on Monday and get back of Friday. I really need to get away.

I want o catch up on my mail call. Since my last post I've gotten:

Pepsi deal coupons from a rebate.
Domino Sugar recipes with 2 sugar coupons
$5.00 gift card from Save a Lot from the Fuel Your Family for Free promotion. I wasn't in the promotion area so they sent me a gift card.

That's all I can remember.

I have to go through all my coupons today and take out all the expiring ones. I have to see if there's anything that expires today that I don't want to miss out on.

I have to go to Target to take advantage of the Pepsi sale. I'm going to buy 5 12 packs for $15.oo. I have 5 $2.00 coupons. This brings the total to $5.00. If you buy 5 packs you get a $5.00 gift card so I will actually get the Pepsi for free. My grandaughter wants Sierra Mist so I'll probably buy that since I still have Pepsi left from the orginial promotion.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday's Mail Call

Today I got:
Living the Country Life magazine
Body + Soul magazine

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Thursday's Mail Call

Today I got:

2 coupons from Slimfast
An eat better america coupon book
Free Woman's day magazine
a Coupon train

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Wednesday's Mail Call

Today I got:
2 free back issues of Martha Stewart Living magazine.
1 Everyday with Rachael Ray (a cheap subscription)

Bill from State Farm for our van insurance.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Tuesday's Mail Call

Today I got my Dairy Queen gift card for posting the value meal menu on my blog. Yippee! I now have $5.00 toward my next blizzard fix.

I also got my electric/water/trash/cable/internet bill. These are all combined into 1 utility bill. Thanks for the short month it was $94.00 cheaper than January's bill. It's $31.00 more than lst year. The rates have gone up and this winter has been so cold.

OH NO!!

I was making some turkey salad for my lunch...

I had cut up some turkey from last nights dinner
I added some green olives and celery.
I went to the refrigerator to get out the mayo.
OH NO! There was only a spoonful left. I scraped the jar clean.
I went back to the refrigerator to get out the Mircle Whip.
OH NO! Less than a spoonful left.
I scraped that jar clean too.
The turkey salad turned out just right, but now I'm out of mayo and Miracle Whip.

I went to the computer to look up Hellmann's to write and tell them how much I loved their product in hopes of getting a coupon from them to help with my next purchase. Lo and behold they are offering a $1.00 coupon for mayo on their website. I was able to print two coupons by using the backspace and refreshing the page. Now, I hope Walmart has a good price on the Hellmann's mayo since Giant Eagle doesn't take internet coupons.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Monday's Mail Call

I hated to open my front door today. Someone must have run over a skunk becasue it really stinks outside. It started smelling bad in the middle of the night. PHEW!!!

Today's mail:

Coupons from Mrs. T's Pierogies
Martha Stewart Living magazine (free subscription)
Last copy of Taste of Home Healthy Cooking (a paid subscription) I won't be renewing. I liked the magazine, but if it's not free I'm not subscribing.

February's Totals

I ended up $91.38 under my $400.00 budget for February. Here's the final numbers.

$312.85 OOP
629.18 Shelf
168.86 Coupons, EBC & cats used
304.71 Total Saved

This is a 48% savings. I shopped Giant Eagle twice last week. I went on Wednesday to take advantage of the sale that was ending that day. I went back on Thursday to shop this weeks sale and to use the coupons that would be expiring in February. I shouldn't have to go shopping this week unless I go to CVS to take advantage of any good sales that I can't live without.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Saturday's Mail Call

Today I got a coupon for a free Kashi Frozen Entree. Click here to get your free coupon.

I also got a catalog from Spring Hill. Looks like it's time to start ordering my spring plants.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Free Spaghetti Dinner from Save-A-Lot




Save-A-Lot is giving a free spaghetti meal to everyone that visits their participating stores on Saturday, February 28th. You will need to be there between 8am and noon. Here's the area you can get your free meal at: (If you are not in this area fill out the form anyway. I did and I got an email offering me a $5.00 coupon to use at Save-A-Lot).


Coupon requests

I recently started emailing companies commenting on their products. I've been getting some really good coupons back from these companies. Here's a link to my spreadsheet in case you would like to have a list of who I've sent to. I have the name of the company, a link to their page, and what I've received from the company. If you know of a company that is not listed let me know so I can add them to the list.

Yesterday's & Today's Mail Call

Today's

Coupons:
Ocean Spray
Eucerin

Coupon train

$3.00 check from Pinecone Research from doing a survey.

Yesterday's

Coupons:
Hostess
Bigelow Tea
Smart Balance
Uncle Ben's Rice

I also received a test product from doing a survey. I will be testing this product from March 3rd through March 9th. this is a great product that I already use so I'm loving that I got this product in the mail. I'm going to have to start keeping better records of surveys I do and what they are for. The package came from Consumer Insights, but I don't think that's where I did the survey.

Home with a sick grandson

My 15 year old grandson stayed home from school today. When he's sick, he likes to stay with me, so I can spoil him. Poor baby must not feel well. He's running a low grade fever and he says is throat hurts. He's couching a little, but not too much. He's asleep on the couch right now, when he could be playing on his Xbox 360. He's waiting for him mom to bring his laptop over.

I have some stuff that needs to be done today anyway so I don't mind having my grand son here. I have to cut out a zebra costume. I have to get it in the mail. It was ordered last week and I just can't get in the mood to make it.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009







Have you been to DQ lately? They've launched a new permanent value DQ sweet deals menu. For $4.00 you can have a whole meal including dessert.





For more details visit the DQ site . Be one of the first 250 bloggers to link to their site you can even get a gift card. You gotta love Dairy Queen. Good food, a good value and a gift card, what more could you ask for?

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Red Plum Coupon Inserts

Are in on one of the areas that the Red Plum Coupon Inserts are no longer available? I am lucky in the sense that my local Akron Beacon Journal newspaper still has the Red Plum Insert. I also buy the Cleveland Plain Dealer at the store on Sunday so I can get extra coupons. The Plain Dealer has better and more coupons in it so it is worth the money. When the coupons are extremely good I will buy more than one Plain Dealer.

Recently the Plan Dealer no longer had the Red Plum Coupon Inserts. If you live in the affect area you can request for the Red Plums to be mailed to your home. I am not in the Plain Dealer delivery area so I will not have access to the extra coupons. Another drawback is the mailings will only have 1 insert so if you wish to purchase extra inserts you will no longer be able to do so.

If Red Plum gets away with this with the Newspapers it's doing it to already what's to stop them from going to the other papers. Eventually it will affect all of us if we don't take action. There is a website that has all the companies listed with contact info on it. Bring Back the Coupons There is a sample letter to email to the companies. The advertisers could change the Red Plums mind if they let them know that the consumers are not happy and in return they will stop advertising. Here's the link if you would like to help get the Red Plums back in the newspapers not getting the Red Plum and in turn help from getting them taken form your newspaper.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Today's store savings

I had some good sales I wanted to take advantage of today. I think I did pretty good.

Walmart
OOP 6.41
Shelf price 17.37
minus coupons and sale prices I saved 10.96

Rite Aid
OOP 4.29
Shelf 23.59
minus coupons and sale price I saved 19.30

CVS
OOP .28
Shelf price 7.96
minus coupons and sale price I saved 7.96 (I only had to pay the tax)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Free Olive Garden dinner

We went to eat at Olive Garden today. It cost 3 of us ZERO to eat. In August we had an issue with our meal and I wrote at letter. My daughter is a vegetarian and she always orders the lunch portion of penne with Alfredo sauce with no parsley. When the meal came it had CHICKEN!! There was also a speck or 2 of parsley so she knew that when the dish came pack without the chicken and the same couple specks of parsley that they had just removed the chicken and returned the same plate to her. We didn't say anything at the restaurant for fear that the horror stories of spit and other nasties that happens to returned food might happen to her meal. She picked around at the food and ate very little. When I returned home I wrote a letter on Olive Gardens comment page. I was sent a $50.00 gift card with an apology. It has taken me this long to get my daughter to return to Olive Garden. I must day the food was perfect and all went well. We had enough left on the gift card to even leave the tip so NOTHING OOP!!!

On the way home I stopped at CVS. I wanted to get the Bayer low dose aspirin that was on sale for $1.99. I had a dollar coupon. When I got there they had one package with 100% more free. WOW, that is 2 bottles for .99. I also got the Purina Dog Chow that was on sale for $4.99. I had 2 $4.00 coupons so I got 8.8 pounds of dog food for $1.89. If my husband hadn't picked up insoles I would have walked out owing nothing except for tax because I had a $3.00 ecb to use as payment.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Mail Call

Yesterday I got a $10.00 check from Bayer. I had sent in 4 upcs from One a Day vitamins in January and I got the check yesterday.

Today I got a coupon booklet from Home made simple. There was a lot of coupons in it. I cut them all out and have 2 piles. One for me to file and one for me to trade.

I also did a survey for Mindfield this morning and got accepted to do a product study. I will get free product for the study and I will get $5.00 at the end after I send in the diaries we fill out during the study. If you are interested in getting some extra cash while doing surveys and product studies use this link for Mindfield and get started. You can cash out after you have earned $5.00 in your account.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

We're going to a concert in March.


I just ordered tickets to go see Herman's Hermits and some other bands. The concert is March 28th at the Q Arena in Cleveland. We will be sitting in section 131 row 9 seats 5-8 . Two of my grandchildren love Peter Noone. We took them to an outside concert during the summer to see him and they loved it. That sang along to his songs. When I asked them if they wanted to go to the Moondog Coronation Ball they both said yes. I'm going to have to have then check out the other bands before we go so they will know some of their songs as well.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Had to go to the store today.

I didn't want to go to the store all week, but when I decided what I was having for dinner tonight I didn't know I didn't have cheese to put on top before baking it. I made some baked rigatoni with the leftover meatballs and sauce from last week. I didn't have any cheese so I had to buy some today. That's all I bought and it was on sale. The sad thing about this is I got some coupons in the mail yesterday and didn't really look to see what they were. While I was watching TV this after noon I decided to cut them out and file them and some other coupons I've gotten from some trains. While I was cutting out the coupons there was one for free Kraft cheese. I had won the Kraft contest and forgot about it so I thought these coupons were some that I had requested on other websites. So if I had paid closer attention I could have gotten the cheese I bought today for free. A lesson learned.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Back to Jazzercise

I went back to Jazzercise today after taking a couple weeks off. Boy, am I out of shape. I hope I can get out of bed tomorrow. It felt good to get back to class.

I made up a menu for the week after I went through what I had left in the frige. If I stick to the plan I shouldn't have to get anything from the store except for cat food. That will be good since I went over my grocery budget last month.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Food Waste Reduction Challenge - February 2009

I just joined this challenge. I will begin tomorrow since it's too last to clean out the frige tonight. I will use up the leftover chicken for one night and the meatballs another night. Who knows what's hiding inthere that needs to be tossed. This is a good change to get the frige all nice and clean. I can wash the shelves and drawers while I have everything out of it.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Busy Saturday

After breakfast and a shower I went to watch my grand daughter play basketball. Her team won so that was nice. I stopped at Acme on the way to the game to take advantage of the 1 day sale. They had Smith milk on sale for $1.99. There was a limit of 4 gallons. I had 2 35 cent coupons and I knew my daughter would have 2 coupons so I stopped my her house to get her coupons. They also had Nickles bread on sale for 88 cents so I got 2 loafs. I spent OOP $9.72 and had a savings of $8.32.

After the basketball game I stopped by Target. I wanted to get the Coke that they had on sale. It was hard to just walk straight to the soft drinks and not look at other things, but I did it. I used 2 coupons that I printed of the my come rewards site. OOP $5.09 with a savings of $2.00.

This evening we are going to see the Black Keys. We are taking our daughter and 2 grandsons to see them. We saw them play at an Obama rally in Akron in September. They were the opening act for Devo. The drummer was great to watch. He really got into his playing. Since both of my grandsons enjoy playing in their own 2 man band I thought they would enjoy seeing the concert.

Surprise in the mail


Have you checked out http://www.houseparty.com/ yet? This is a site that let's you pick parties to host in your home to help introduce your friends and family to products. I've applied to host several parties and was picked for one. I hosted a Grey Poupon party last year. I got lots of free stuff and coupons to give to my guests. I applied to host a party for Alpine Lace. I did not get the party, but today I got a $1.00 coupon to use on a 1/2 pound of Alpine Lace Deli Cheese just so I wouldn't be disappointed for not being picked to host the party.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Ebay

I've spent the morning researching selling on ebay. I've bought things on ebay before and I'm selling things on half.com. I just don't know if I have the talent to take the pictures and do the write up on items that I have to sell. I would like to make some extra money and I think ebay might be one avenue to try. I do know that they've changed a lot of their policies and have raised their prices. My daughter sells her hand crafted Renaissance jewelry on ebay as well has on her website. She said it's not hard. She is a perfectionist and her photos and descriptions are great. I think I'm going to give it a try with some of the things I have in the basement that will be in the spring yard sale. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Snowed In

It's been snowing all night and it's still coming down. We're under a winter advisory until 4pm today. The schools have been canceled. I guess I'll be getting a phone call from one of the grand kids saying they want to come over today.

I hate driving in bad weather, so I know I won't be going out today, to spend any money. Now to decide what I'm going to do. I will probably work on the basement. My hubby finished the shelves so I can now stack the tubs of fabric on them so you can walk down there again. I still have a lot of boxes to go through and start pricing for the yard sale this spring. I want it all organized so all I have to do is set up tables and set the things out. Only problem is we don't rally have heat in the basement. When we had the new furnace put in they didn't put a vent down there so it gets cold. I will do a little and then take a break and have some hot tea or cocoa.

Dinner will be something with the leftover chicken or spaghetti and meatballs. I haven't decided yet. I think I'll make some wheat bread in the bread maker. It always makes the house smell so good and like I've been baking all day.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Shopping results

I went grocery shopping yesterday. Lucky for me I have a store credit card. I went over my $40.00 that was left in the checking account. I ended up spending OOP $103.68 with a savings of $64.19 plus got a $3.00 cat to use at a later date. All in all I feel good about the experience. I will have to pay the card in full when it comes though. That's my rule with using the credit card. I can't afford the interest they will charge if I don't do this. I did get the chickens and the ground beef so I can use that meat for the rest of this week and next. They had a good sale on Skippy natural peanut butter and I had coupons so I did buy a lot of that. My pantry is now well stocked with peanut butter. They also had syrup on sale. I was out and wanted to stock my pantry with that as well. The added purchase were only to stock the pantry for later use. I think that is the trick to saving money is to have what you need on hand when you need it. I will have to spend a little more than I want to in the beginning until I get all my staples stocked up. That's my plan anyway.

My daughter called this morning and said she needed to go to the store today and asked if I wanted to go along. I did still need onions and oil so I told her I would go with her. BIG MISTAKE!! I ended up spending another $15.94. I decided to have a Mexican dinner tonight with some of the ground beef and I need to get the taco shells and things. These items were on sale and I did have a coupon for them which is one of my new rules. I should be set for the rest of the weeks and hopefully next. Except for going to Target and taking advantage of the coke sale and use my coke rewards coupons. That's all I'm going to buy while I'm there, even thought Target is my most favorite place to shop. I love their clearance items. My dilemma is, do I take my coupons in just in case there is good clearance or leave them at home and then be sorry when I see a good bargain?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunday Coupons & Meal Planning

Do the coupons seem to be uninteresting? I just can't find that many in the Sunday paper that I want to cut out and use. There has been biscuit coupons in every week. I got a new coupon box from Refunding Makes Cents and if I don't get coupons I want to cut out how am I going to fill it up?

I've been printing internet coupons, but I can only use them at CVS and Walmart. None of the other stores around here let you use them. The grocery store does double other coupons up to 99 cents. I'm looking forward to the next double at Kmart, but you can't use internet coupons there either.

I am on some coupon trains so I do get some coupons that are not in my local paper. This does help a little. I also get rid of many of the coupons I don't use this way. It also seems like the coupons are getting lower in value. Good thing for my double coupon store.

It seems like past years they've had specials on diet foods and good coupons for those items in January. I haven't seen this being true this year.

After I paid all my bills last week I now only have $44.00 to get me through until February 9th. It looks like I will be eating a lot of my stockpile these next 2 weeks. I will get the B1G1 roasting chickens that are on sale and will plan meals around them for at least a week. I don't have a free standing freezer so I don't have a large stockpile on meats. My husband thinks he had to have meat every night for dinner. Maybe a pot of chili would be a good choice. I can skimp on the burger and load up on the beans. They do have ground beef on sale for $1.99 per pound at the store also. I will get 2 chickens and a large pack of ground beef and live on them for 2 weeks. I will make spaghetti and meatballs one day and maybe a meatloaf one day. The chicken can be made into stir fry, garlic-chicken pasta and corn chowder soup after the first day of a traditional chicken meal. I can alternate the chicken and beef meals so it doesn't seem like we are eating the same meat every day. Sounds like a good cheap plan.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Cleaning out the closet today

Not much happened yesterday. No shopping. I had planned on going to Jazzercise in the morning, but I didn't really feel well so I decided against it. I had a headache all day. We decided to get a pizza for dinner so I didn't even have to cook. I had my veggie soup for lunch.

Today I've made up my mind to get the closet cleaned out. I know there's stuff in there I no longer want. I still have summer clothes in there. I don't have drawers in the bedroom so everything I wear is kept in storage tubs on the floor of the closet. I really need to change out the season since it's already January. It will so much easier to do this once my husband finishes building the storing shelves in the basement. I will be able to store the out of season clothing in their tubs on the shelves instead of in the closet.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Soups On

I went back to store today and got the veggies and the beef for the soup. I was good and didn't get anything else except some wine coolers. I went to CVS and for the 4 12 packs of Pepsi and 3 Lays chips. I paid $21.00 for this purchase (I didn't have any coupons). I got a ECB for $10.00. I will send in for my $15.oo Pepsi rebate and will be $4.00 ahead on the deal. I had a second transaction at CVS. I bought some Excedrin (had a $1.00 coupon), 2 Dawn dish detergent B1G1(had .25 and .50 coupons), 2 Reeses cups bags, and 3 greeting cards (B3 get $3.00 EBC). After coupons and EBC''s I paid OOP $3.95. So far I've spent $115.61 for this weeks purchases. That is $15.61 over budget, but I do have$35.66 left from last week so I'm still good for the month.

I've got my veggie soup on the stove cooking. I was chopping the cabbage and cutting up the beef shoulder roast while I was watching the new president being sworn in. My pot is so full I have to have the meat and potatoes and some of the cabbage in a different pan until the veggies cook down enough so I can add it in with the soup. I love Veggie soup. It brings back the memories of when my mom used to make it. I would eat 2 and 3 bowls of it at a time. Oh my, as I just typed that I remembered that I forgot to put the barley in the soup. I'm off to add that important ingredient right now.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Today's grocery trip

I went to the store today. I had my list and coupons in hand. Of course, my husband added to my list. This doesn't help my budgeting. Usually he wants something that isn't on sale and that I don't have a coupon for. I did very well on my first transaction. They had a sale on Yoplait yogurt. It was 10 for $20 plus if you bought 20 you got an additional $2.00 instantly. I bought the 20 yogurts and used a $1.00 coupon on 8 and 2 $.60 on 6 (which doubled to $1.20 each). I also had a coupon for a free kashi cereal bar. I also had a catalina coupon for $3.00 from a previous shoping day. The total OOP was $3.91 with a savings of $7.58 That is a 65% savings.

I wish I could say I did as well on my second tansaction. There was only one yogurt deal per transaction so I had to split my purchases. I won't list everything I bought, but the end totals after store card discounts and coupons was OOP $68.82 with a savings of $ 36.82. That is a 35% savings. If I hadn't bought the Bigelow tea, Raisin Bran Crunch, and fruit snacks (that my grand daughter wanted) I wouldn't have felt as bad about the adventure. I didn't have any coupons for these items and they were not on sale. My plan is to not buy anything that isn't on sale. Maybe I'll have better luck next week.

Oh, I also forgot the 2 things I went to the store for. They had frozen veggies on sale for a dollar a bag and they had beef shoulder roast B1G1. I was going to make vegetable soup today. Guess what! Now I have to go back tomorrow and get these items. I will just walk in and get what is on my list and then head back home to start cooking. I also want to go to CVS and do the Pepsi deal and get the Lays chips they have on sale so I can send in for the $15 rebate.

My goal is to not spend over $100 a week. I will be coming close this week. The first week in January I went over my budget by $64.34. I didn't go shopping at all last week, so that helped with the monthy budget. So far I was ahead by $35.66 until this week. If I don't go too far over I will hopefully still come in at or below the $400 monthly budget. That is if I don't let my husband add to my list again.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Grocery Coupons in the Sunday Paper

I got 2 papers today for the coupons. My local paper doesn't have all the coupons that the bigger city paper does so I always get an extra paper. I have all my coupons cut out and I've gone through all the ads so I'm ready for my shopping trip tomorrow. I will go to a store that doubles up to .99 and offers a loyality card. Plus I have a store credit card that earns extra towards my gas. I always pay the credit card in full when the bill comes so I never have to pay any interest on the card.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Grocery Savings

I've following several blogs and would love to be able to save the money on groceries these ladies do. I've been couponing for ever and have been doing much better in the last several months. I've started a stockpile and am using my coupons combined with sales. I hope to use this blog to track my savings and share with others how I'm doing.