Well, This is the first time I have posted my monthly spending totals. These totals only include groceries, hba, household. This does not include any expenses from my trips, monthly gas expense or the like. I do not eat out unless I have a gift card or I take my son on my trip (occasionally) so there is no eating out to include. So without further ado:
Total merchandise value: $462.06
Total amount spent: $119.56
Total amount saved: $342.50
This is a total savings of 74%. I am super excited about this as I have never had this high of a savings when I include my groceries. I did not have to do a lot of food shopping this month as I have quite a bit stockpiled, but did go to the store a couple of times. I am sure it will not be as good next month as I will need to get more food items this month than last, but at least I am getting there!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
WAGS & CVS
I wish that I could remember to take pictures of my haul!
Here is my deal from wags:
1 softsoap $3.99
-$1 MQ
Total: $3.30 and rec'd a free softsoap q.
I used the free q for a second bottle and paid tax of $.31.
I got another free bottle q. I then went out to my van and counted out 31 cents *4. Then I went back in and got four more bottles. So for 6 bottles of softsoap I paid $4.85, and I still have one more free bottle q left. No more rolling, but at least I will get one more.
Last night I went to CVS. I bought a bit of stuff and paid $1 OOP. Here is how it went down:
M&M's 2*1.5
jelly beans 4*.88
Glade S&S 1*5.99
glade spray 2*1.89
cvs wheat crackers 1*1.99
johnsons buddies 6*1.19
total $25.42
-$5 5/245
-$6 EB
-$4 glade S&S
-$3 johnsons wyb 3
-$2 johnsons wyb 2
-$1 johnsons buddies
-$1 cvs crt glade
-$1.89 bogo glade spray
-$1 m&m's wyb 2
My reciept however says that I saved $32.31 instead of the $25 that I ordered. I guess that is because they are counting the actual sales savings as well.
Subtotal was 53 cents then add 47 cents tax for a total of $1 OOP! I only got back $2 of EB. But I have a lot that are expiring and need to get used. Hopefully we get some good EB deals soon. Come on CVS.
My mom did really well too. She got about $16 or $17 worth of merchandise for $1.58 and got back $1 of EB.
Here is my deal from wags:
1 softsoap $3.99
-$1 MQ
Total: $3.30 and rec'd a free softsoap q.
I used the free q for a second bottle and paid tax of $.31.
I got another free bottle q. I then went out to my van and counted out 31 cents *4. Then I went back in and got four more bottles. So for 6 bottles of softsoap I paid $4.85, and I still have one more free bottle q left. No more rolling, but at least I will get one more.
Last night I went to CVS. I bought a bit of stuff and paid $1 OOP. Here is how it went down:
M&M's 2*1.5
jelly beans 4*.88
Glade S&S 1*5.99
glade spray 2*1.89
cvs wheat crackers 1*1.99
johnsons buddies 6*1.19
total $25.42
-$5 5/245
-$6 EB
-$4 glade S&S
-$3 johnsons wyb 3
-$2 johnsons wyb 2
-$1 johnsons buddies
-$1 cvs crt glade
-$1.89 bogo glade spray
-$1 m&m's wyb 2
My reciept however says that I saved $32.31 instead of the $25 that I ordered. I guess that is because they are counting the actual sales savings as well.
Subtotal was 53 cents then add 47 cents tax for a total of $1 OOP! I only got back $2 of EB. But I have a lot that are expiring and need to get used. Hopefully we get some good EB deals soon. Come on CVS.
My mom did really well too. She got about $16 or $17 worth of merchandise for $1.58 and got back $1 of EB.
Monday, March 30, 2009
What a Weekend
I had a really good visit with my son this weekend. We had a lot of fun together. He was also especially funny this weekend. He had a lot of jokes and also had a lot of amusing comments about our situation. He is totally looking forward to coming home. (Me too!) We played some board games, card games, and made up games. We watched a bit of tv. We played Deal or No Deal on our dvd player. He had lots of fun telling me which case to pick, then letting me pick my first six. Then he would say that I took the deal the first time around which of course meant that I won little bitty amounts of money (compared to the million that you try for). I obviously lost each game, and usually had some of the big amounts in my case that I lost out on. He just thought he was funny cuz he would play two rounds and take the deal. That means he always beat me. Usually by a lot. The turd. It was sure fun! Then when it was time to check out, I was unpleasantly surprised by how cold it was outside. We had planned on going to the park to play a bit of basketball, except it was super cold and windy. No playing outside for us. So we drove to the park and parked by the pond to watch the ducks. It was fun laying around in the back under a sleeping bag just cuddling together. I got to sit and rub his head like I used to do when he was little and trying to go to sleep, and he got to eat jelly beans and cuddle with mom. Then I told him I needed to get gas in the van, did he want to go now or we could wait and I would get gas after dropping him off. He said to get gas now. It would be just like when he was home and we would go get gas together in the mornings or on our way home from work/school. So we got gas and he stayed in the van and peeked out the window at me while I froze my butt off in the wind. Then we played more deal or no deal and of course he picked for me and I lost.
The only downside to the weekend was my total lack of sleep. I only got a few hours on Friday night from driving down there. Then I usually get a pretty good nights sleep on Saturday. This time however, I (and the whole floor of the hotel) got to be serenaded to by the lovely sounds of an angry cussing drunk. He followed a group there that plays music at a local bar a couple weekends a month. He followed them up to their room and started banging on the door, while cussing out his girlfriend. They (the band/group) let him in. Then he got even more beligerent so they made him leave the room. This drunk man proceeds to stand in the hallway and yell and cuss everyone to hell. He is so drunk however that standing alone seems to be a problem. So where does he decide to lean? At my door. Then he starts banging his head against the wall right next to my door. I was so mad I actually started looking for something to take out there and hit him with it. I had only been asleep for maybe 3 1/2 hours. Fortunately for everyone involved I had no "dangerous" objects with which I would be able to knock him out with. Then there is a huge crash. I go and look out the peephole. The chair the drunk had with him is now sideways on the floor, and what do you know? The drunk is on the floor too. Finally the cops arrive. The group/bands' room folks come out to tell the cops what had happened. They apparently did not know the drunk, just recognized him from the bar. They let him in hoping it would quiet him down so as not to wake the whole floor. The guys said at that point he became incoherent and started yelling more at his girlfriend so they told him he had to leave. He got out the door but would not go any further than that. The hotel staff asked him to leave and he was rude to her so she called the cops. At this point the drunk is passed out. The cops try to get him to stand and tell them who he is and he will not cooperate. The drunk yells at the cops, his girlfriend (who is no longer around) and anyone who will listen. Then pleads with the cops to not hurt him. Then yells and cusses them out some more. Then pleads please don't hurt me. Then cusses them out again. Finally the cops tell him all he has to do is comply and he won't get hurt. All they want him to do is stand up. I think that he was unable to stand because I eventually heard a crash against the wall then the sound of handcuffs. They drag him over to the elevator and two of them take him outside while the third cop collects the mans shoe that fell off and his wallet and asks a few more questions. I had a birds eye view of them once they got outside as they cop cars were directly beneath my windows. The cops had to sort of push the drunk into the car. I think he was so out of it he did not even know where he was at that point. He just laid there on the seat and they had to push and tuck his legs in because he was not helping them at all. After all of this, I could not get back to sleep. I was up until after five a.m. trying to wind down. I did sort of fall into that twilight sort of sleep. I was not fully asleep but did rest more at least. Then it was up to get my son. Then when I got home last night it was almost 2 am before I got to go to bed. Then at 5:02 am, the friendly neighborhood crows sat outside my windows to sing to me and my kitties.
I can't wait to go to bed tonight. (here is me nodding off at my computer........)
The only downside to the weekend was my total lack of sleep. I only got a few hours on Friday night from driving down there. Then I usually get a pretty good nights sleep on Saturday. This time however, I (and the whole floor of the hotel) got to be serenaded to by the lovely sounds of an angry cussing drunk. He followed a group there that plays music at a local bar a couple weekends a month. He followed them up to their room and started banging on the door, while cussing out his girlfriend. They (the band/group) let him in. Then he got even more beligerent so they made him leave the room. This drunk man proceeds to stand in the hallway and yell and cuss everyone to hell. He is so drunk however that standing alone seems to be a problem. So where does he decide to lean? At my door. Then he starts banging his head against the wall right next to my door. I was so mad I actually started looking for something to take out there and hit him with it. I had only been asleep for maybe 3 1/2 hours. Fortunately for everyone involved I had no "dangerous" objects with which I would be able to knock him out with. Then there is a huge crash. I go and look out the peephole. The chair the drunk had with him is now sideways on the floor, and what do you know? The drunk is on the floor too. Finally the cops arrive. The group/bands' room folks come out to tell the cops what had happened. They apparently did not know the drunk, just recognized him from the bar. They let him in hoping it would quiet him down so as not to wake the whole floor. The guys said at that point he became incoherent and started yelling more at his girlfriend so they told him he had to leave. He got out the door but would not go any further than that. The hotel staff asked him to leave and he was rude to her so she called the cops. At this point the drunk is passed out. The cops try to get him to stand and tell them who he is and he will not cooperate. The drunk yells at the cops, his girlfriend (who is no longer around) and anyone who will listen. Then pleads with the cops to not hurt him. Then yells and cusses them out some more. Then pleads please don't hurt me. Then cusses them out again. Finally the cops tell him all he has to do is comply and he won't get hurt. All they want him to do is stand up. I think that he was unable to stand because I eventually heard a crash against the wall then the sound of handcuffs. They drag him over to the elevator and two of them take him outside while the third cop collects the mans shoe that fell off and his wallet and asks a few more questions. I had a birds eye view of them once they got outside as they cop cars were directly beneath my windows. The cops had to sort of push the drunk into the car. I think he was so out of it he did not even know where he was at that point. He just laid there on the seat and they had to push and tuck his legs in because he was not helping them at all. After all of this, I could not get back to sleep. I was up until after five a.m. trying to wind down. I did sort of fall into that twilight sort of sleep. I was not fully asleep but did rest more at least. Then it was up to get my son. Then when I got home last night it was almost 2 am before I got to go to bed. Then at 5:02 am, the friendly neighborhood crows sat outside my windows to sing to me and my kitties.
I can't wait to go to bed tonight. (here is me nodding off at my computer........)
Friday, March 27, 2009
This week in Time Savings
This week on Sunday I made a vegetable stock, then froze part of it, and used the rest for soup. I made enough soup to freeze some, and put some in (spillproof) dishes to bring for lunch at work. I ran out of containers, so one bowl just filled and some aluminum foil on top and stuck in the fridge. I will eat that on Tuesday night after running my errands. This way all I have to do is microwave my soup, and as they say: Soup's On! I should have enough soup for lunch every day this week. If I don't get tired of it that is.....
I also have packed all of my bags for my trip this weekend. All I have to do now is add food to the cooler on Friday after work and I will be ready to go. I will get gas probably on Wednesday to avoid the rain that we will be having on Tuesday and Thursday, and I do not want to wait til Friday.
I will pack as much of my bag for work the night before. I put in my diet pepsi, crystal light, any dry snacks, plasticware, and my book to read at lunch if I stay in. This way in the mornings, all I have to do is add in the cold part.
I will lay out my clothes to save time in the morning. If I decide at night what I want to wear I can usually seem to decide faster. It always takes me a really long time to decide what to wear in the mornings.
That seems to be all I did for time saving and preplanning this week. Not a whole lot for sure.
I also have packed all of my bags for my trip this weekend. All I have to do now is add food to the cooler on Friday after work and I will be ready to go. I will get gas probably on Wednesday to avoid the rain that we will be having on Tuesday and Thursday, and I do not want to wait til Friday.
I will pack as much of my bag for work the night before. I put in my diet pepsi, crystal light, any dry snacks, plasticware, and my book to read at lunch if I stay in. This way in the mornings, all I have to do is add in the cold part.
I will lay out my clothes to save time in the morning. If I decide at night what I want to wear I can usually seem to decide faster. It always takes me a really long time to decide what to wear in the mornings.
That seems to be all I did for time saving and preplanning this week. Not a whole lot for sure.
This Week in Savings
So far this week, I have saved money in these ways:
1. Thanks to Annie, I have been charging my cell phone in my car.
2. I bought my own car parts, and had a friend put the front end parts on my van. I saved about $800 doing this.
3. I got my van aligned. This may have cost almost $90 (monday), but will save my tires and allow me to get full use out of them instead of replacing to early due to uneven wear.
4. When I had dinner at my friend's house, I picked up mail so I do not have to make a special trip (I get my mail in a different town than I park my bum each night).
5. I ran all my errands and shopping trips after work to save gas on an extra trip into town.
6. I washed my clothes in cold water and hung them to dry. I just put them on hangers and hang on them on the shower rod.
7. I did not eat out this week. I brought my lunch everyday from either leftovers from dinner or the soup I made on Sunday.
8. I got a coupon from CVS for a free bag or a free roll of paper towels. Since I have several bags already, I opted for the free paper towels. I went with my mom and she drove so I did not use any gas either.
How did you save money this week?
1. Thanks to Annie, I have been charging my cell phone in my car.
2. I bought my own car parts, and had a friend put the front end parts on my van. I saved about $800 doing this.
3. I got my van aligned. This may have cost almost $90 (monday), but will save my tires and allow me to get full use out of them instead of replacing to early due to uneven wear.
4. When I had dinner at my friend's house, I picked up mail so I do not have to make a special trip (I get my mail in a different town than I park my bum each night).
5. I ran all my errands and shopping trips after work to save gas on an extra trip into town.
6. I washed my clothes in cold water and hung them to dry. I just put them on hangers and hang on them on the shower rod.
7. I did not eat out this week. I brought my lunch everyday from either leftovers from dinner or the soup I made on Sunday.
8. I got a coupon from CVS for a free bag or a free roll of paper towels. Since I have several bags already, I opted for the free paper towels. I went with my mom and she drove so I did not use any gas either.
How did you save money this week?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Super Duper I Love My Wags Trip
I had a wonderful super duper trip to wags last night. Let me tell you, if this is how my Wags trips are going to go, it totally makes up for crappy grocery store selections! Sorry the pic is so blurry, I am not so good with a digital camera yet. See one of my kitties in the back?
Here is what I bought:
4 * 12 pack diet pepsi
4 * Glucerna Cereal
4 * Glade sense&spray (raincheck-he wrote $3.99 instead of $7.99)
2 * Reynolds aluminum foil
2 * bag of jelly beans
2 * bic soliel razors -they did not have any refills
The absolute best part was my total. Are you ready for this?
$7.23 AND I got a $7 rr for my next trip! YIPPEE! I did the happy dance all the way home. I was actually so excited I forgot to go to the grocery store to look for shelf stable milk!
My wags will apparently allow overage to the max! I used the wags 7 day q's for the foil, jelly beans and the free 12 pack wyb three. I used two bogo free glade's. I used the rain check to get the glades for $3.99. I used the esc q's for the bic, glade (I was really surprised she allowed this! I did not think she would), and I used mc for the foil-2*$1, the bic-2*$2, and the glucerna-4*$5. Then as she was done scanning those before I actually gave her the esc to scan, the cat machine spits out a q for $3 off my next purchase of glucerna, so she scans it! I did not even know what it was for until she had already scanned it and entered the price manually because it beeped! So my total went from somewhere around $80 to $7.23. She was just as excited as I was! Then I had to get a rain check for the sambucol because they were out. She said she could not put more than one on a single rain check, so she gave me two separate ones. This was one way cool trip. I paid less than the cost of two cases of diet pepsi for all this stuff! Happy dance, Happy dance!!!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Update
Wow, the hounds on the Grocery Challenge were busy pups this past weekend. I myself was again without a car. I took it in for an alignment and came away with more work to be done. Fortunately my dad was able to give me $200. He took it from his "bail money", although lately he has been bailing me out more than ever. I also got $200 from my mom. That bought the parts and paid for the labor, and I only paid about one third of what I would have paid for the original shop charges. I found a friend that was willing to give up his weekend for a little cash. Now it is back at the tire shop for the alignment. I also discovered that my antifreeze is still leaking. I do not have any puddles where I park at work or at home, so I am leaking while I am driving. I can't afford to fix that right now, so I will just buy some antifreeze in the morning and keep fillin' her up!
On a side note, I called a friend of mine last night figuring I would leave a message and she was actually home and available. (She has three kids and a full time job so she is almost always busy.) I was really excited to be able to catch up with her for a bit last night. She said the same and said that the phone call was not long enough and that I needed to come over for dinner. So I am going tonight. We are having spaghetti as I still cannot really chew since my tooth fell out. She asked me what we should have as she had spaghetti left over or she could make italian beef. I am not really a fan of beef (which she knew), plus she thought it was kind of funny when I told her I probably could not chew an Italian beef sandwich! I told her I could just have some baby food with the baby!
I still cannot afford to fix my tooth right now. I did come up with the grand idea of buying some of that stuff I have seen at CVS for tooth repairs. It says it is for loose fillings and caps and crowns. I followed the directions and "re-inserted" my tooth on Saturday morning, and it stayed in all the way until Sunday evening. I tried to "re-glue" it but it just would not stay in. Then this morning as I was sitting at my desk, another portion of the tooth that was still left fell out. I think this is probably why it would not stay glued in. I am going to give it another try tomorrow to see if it works. Here is keeping my fingers crossed. And hopefully my teeth in!
The plus side to not having a vehicle is that I stayed home all weekend. No hounding, but boy did I get a lot accomplished on my to-do list. I am almost completely done organizing and purging the downstairs (which was part of my new year's resolutions). I have one corner of stuff left, and most of it goes upstairs. I just need to sort it to decide how much of it is trash, and take the rest on up. Then I will finish the upstairs, which is my son's room and playroom. Then I will be able to mark that off my resolution list as complete!
I have also lost five pounds. Since I cannot chew food right now, I am not sure how that will affect my weight loss attempts. I will just have to wait and see (hopefully less of me to see!).
I also plan on continuing my saving time and money posts this week.
On a side note, I called a friend of mine last night figuring I would leave a message and she was actually home and available. (She has three kids and a full time job so she is almost always busy.) I was really excited to be able to catch up with her for a bit last night. She said the same and said that the phone call was not long enough and that I needed to come over for dinner. So I am going tonight. We are having spaghetti as I still cannot really chew since my tooth fell out. She asked me what we should have as she had spaghetti left over or she could make italian beef. I am not really a fan of beef (which she knew), plus she thought it was kind of funny when I told her I probably could not chew an Italian beef sandwich! I told her I could just have some baby food with the baby!
I still cannot afford to fix my tooth right now. I did come up with the grand idea of buying some of that stuff I have seen at CVS for tooth repairs. It says it is for loose fillings and caps and crowns. I followed the directions and "re-inserted" my tooth on Saturday morning, and it stayed in all the way until Sunday evening. I tried to "re-glue" it but it just would not stay in. Then this morning as I was sitting at my desk, another portion of the tooth that was still left fell out. I think this is probably why it would not stay glued in. I am going to give it another try tomorrow to see if it works. Here is keeping my fingers crossed. And hopefully my teeth in!
The plus side to not having a vehicle is that I stayed home all weekend. No hounding, but boy did I get a lot accomplished on my to-do list. I am almost completely done organizing and purging the downstairs (which was part of my new year's resolutions). I have one corner of stuff left, and most of it goes upstairs. I just need to sort it to decide how much of it is trash, and take the rest on up. Then I will finish the upstairs, which is my son's room and playroom. Then I will be able to mark that off my resolution list as complete!
I have also lost five pounds. Since I cannot chew food right now, I am not sure how that will affect my weight loss attempts. I will just have to wait and see (hopefully less of me to see!).
I also plan on continuing my saving time and money posts this week.
Friday, March 20, 2009
It Never Ends, and I am Rambling On and On......
Well, just when I thought I was at the end of my troubles, I realize they are not ending, I just have a new set. Wednesday my crown fell off. I called the dentist and they will fix it, no problem. I just have to pay for xrays, the exam, and most likely more dental work as they did not put in a post and will have to put one in now. Sorry but that is not my problem. You should have done your job right the first time and the tooth would not need to be fixed again. I go no where with this, and they will not fix it without me paying to fix it. So I told them even if it gets fixed it sure won't be with them. I do not want tomorrow's appointment, thanks for your time. Last night I went to CVS and bought some stuff called Temparin and will repair it myself. I figure even if it only lasts for a month or so, and I have to keep gluing it back on, I am saving in the long run because the Temparin cost me $4.50. It would take a lot of $4.50's to equal the cost of the xrays and the exam. One day when I am more finacially off (or if I find a rich handsome nice guy to sweep me off my feet and take over all my bills), I will go and get my teeth repaired properly.
Then, I went in this morning to have my tires aligned. Supposedly around $60, could be as much as $90. I dropped off my car. I waited a bit for my mom. I called her to remind her (figuring acurately) to see if she forgot me. She did and was now on her way. I go to work. A short while later, the shop calls me-I need a whole new front end. If I want they can do it, to the tune of $1200. I say no thanks, I have a friend that can do this for a whole lot cheaper. I call to get the price of the parts and the parts alone will cost almost $200. I will still have to pay labor charges as well. But that is way way way cheaper than $1200. And what is worse is that the guy at the shop recommends I get this done before I make another trip. So I have one week to figure out where the heck to get this money. I plan to ask my dad tonight when he comes to pick me up from work and take me to my car after work if he can help some. I also need a new engine, new front tires and two new heater cores (as my van has an auxillary heating system that has a heater core). I just wish these troubles did not come all at once. One each pay period would have been better. Just one problem every two weeks, please. Sadly, I just got paid (today), and I already have no money left. I have $400 going to one of my loans, although this is the last payment for it. I will have no more loans after this payment(I had two). I will then have only the credit cards. I guess that means that I am meeting the resolution of getting bills paid off. I need $300 for my trip next weekend for my son, and the remaining $35 will go to the gas tank for next week. There is a super deal at Target this week that I will be missing out on as I will not have the extra gas (or money) to drive over there. Oh well there will be others. I would really like to be able to get all of my credit cards in one loan to have one payment, but unfortunately I have been late too many times on the cards to get a loan. I am really glad that my power bill is going down though. It dropped $100 after the $300+ ones I was getting over the winter. Hopefully it will just keep going down. That will help my monthly expenses some, especially as it keeps going down as the weather warms up. I just hope that the gas stays down and it gets warm soon for my trips so that we can start camping out. It really saves money doing that. I pay around $75-$80 for a hotel alone. Actually I just wish I could get my son home. That totally would save me some money. Even calculating extra food, utilities and daycare, I would still be ahead over what I spend on these trips. That of course is secondary compared to just having my son back.
Speaking of my son, he has book orders that he wants to order from, a book fair coming up, and school pictures. I want the school pictures because I missed out on the last ones and would really like some school pictures for him. The other ones, I think he is SOL!!! I used this phrase on him a while back and when I explained what it meant, he cracked up and thought it was really funny. He even asked to say it once! I let him, and got to see him just totally crack himself up and laugh his head off. Totally worth it. I can't wait til he is home so we can have these moments daily instead of every other weekend for a few hours.
Hopefully next week I will be back on track for my lists of time and money saving. I was a bit side tracked this week.....
Then, I went in this morning to have my tires aligned. Supposedly around $60, could be as much as $90. I dropped off my car. I waited a bit for my mom. I called her to remind her (figuring acurately) to see if she forgot me. She did and was now on her way. I go to work. A short while later, the shop calls me-I need a whole new front end. If I want they can do it, to the tune of $1200. I say no thanks, I have a friend that can do this for a whole lot cheaper. I call to get the price of the parts and the parts alone will cost almost $200. I will still have to pay labor charges as well. But that is way way way cheaper than $1200. And what is worse is that the guy at the shop recommends I get this done before I make another trip. So I have one week to figure out where the heck to get this money. I plan to ask my dad tonight when he comes to pick me up from work and take me to my car after work if he can help some. I also need a new engine, new front tires and two new heater cores (as my van has an auxillary heating system that has a heater core). I just wish these troubles did not come all at once. One each pay period would have been better. Just one problem every two weeks, please. Sadly, I just got paid (today), and I already have no money left. I have $400 going to one of my loans, although this is the last payment for it. I will have no more loans after this payment(I had two). I will then have only the credit cards. I guess that means that I am meeting the resolution of getting bills paid off. I need $300 for my trip next weekend for my son, and the remaining $35 will go to the gas tank for next week. There is a super deal at Target this week that I will be missing out on as I will not have the extra gas (or money) to drive over there. Oh well there will be others. I would really like to be able to get all of my credit cards in one loan to have one payment, but unfortunately I have been late too many times on the cards to get a loan. I am really glad that my power bill is going down though. It dropped $100 after the $300+ ones I was getting over the winter. Hopefully it will just keep going down. That will help my monthly expenses some, especially as it keeps going down as the weather warms up. I just hope that the gas stays down and it gets warm soon for my trips so that we can start camping out. It really saves money doing that. I pay around $75-$80 for a hotel alone. Actually I just wish I could get my son home. That totally would save me some money. Even calculating extra food, utilities and daycare, I would still be ahead over what I spend on these trips. That of course is secondary compared to just having my son back.
Speaking of my son, he has book orders that he wants to order from, a book fair coming up, and school pictures. I want the school pictures because I missed out on the last ones and would really like some school pictures for him. The other ones, I think he is SOL!!! I used this phrase on him a while back and when I explained what it meant, he cracked up and thought it was really funny. He even asked to say it once! I let him, and got to see him just totally crack himself up and laugh his head off. Totally worth it. I can't wait til he is home so we can have these moments daily instead of every other weekend for a few hours.
Hopefully next week I will be back on track for my lists of time and money saving. I was a bit side tracked this week.....
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Check this blog out!
I ran across Scary Mommy and boy is she funny. Her kids are adorable, well they are not mine so of course they are adorable. I am sure that Jill agrees (most of the time) they are adorable too. Go check her out and subscribe. She is going to have some kind of breakdown I think if she cannot get her subscribers back up to 700. So go check her out for a good laugh and make sure to subscribe. Oh yea, she is also giving away a set of fancy earrings and you can get the opportunity for a lot of entries. She really is begging for people to subscribe, as she lost all of her subscribers when she went from blogger to feedburner. She NEEDS subscribers. Now go!!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
CVS'n
Well, I went to CVS last night. Twice!
The first cvs I stopped at is my favorite store. I usually do not have a problem finding the stuff I want in stock. The sales staff are super helpful and friendly. I had a vague idea that I wanted to get the Irish Spring, but that was about it. I also had $16 in EB that had expired a few days ago and wanted to get in and use them. I could not find my copy of the monthly catalog, so I grabbed one, scanned my card and started shopping. I did pretty good if I do say so myself. I got a 5/25 when I scanned and figured I might as well work from there. In the end I only used my $10 EB and not the $6 one. I asked if I could still use it later or did I need to use it right then, and she said no go ahead and save it if I wanted and I could use it up to a month after it expired. I do not know if this is for all EB at all CVS's or if they are just my new best friends now! Here is what I got! I am going from memory as I have misplaced my receipt. I am going to look on the counter where I was clipping q's and clipping my EB off the bottom of my receipt. I also showed to my sister after she picked me up to go with her to cvs. And yes I did another deal!
CVS store 1
1*4.99 Irish Spring
1*2.99 vitamin D
1*2.99 colgate toothpaste
3*2.99 dry idea deod
2*1.29 tissues
2*.99 tootsie rolls
1*6.29 afrin
Total before sales and Q's: $28.51
Q's used:
-5 5/25
-.50 Irish Spring
-2 dry idea
-2 dry idea
-2 dry idea
-6.oo try me free afrin
-.22 cvs candy on sale with card
-.80 tissues on sale with card
The original total left was less than my $10 EB so that is why I added the candy. The total after using my $10 EB was 42 cents!
And even better was I got back more extra bucks than I used and spent. I got back $4.99 for the Irish Spring, $2.99 for the vitamin d, $6.00 for the dry idea, and $2.99 for the colgate toothpaste! I love it when deals go together like they should!
Then on the way home I called my sister to brag on myself a bit, and she said she wanted to go to cvs too, but did not want to take the girls by herself. I told her to give me about a half an hour after I got home, come pick me up and I would help her with the sales and the girls.
So off to cvs again! This time to the store closest to our homes, not notoriously friendly, but we lucked out the manager on duty and the teen-age boy working were very friendly and helpful. My sister wanted to take advantage of the dove deal going on at cvs right now, but only had a couple of q's. Since I stopped on the way home from my trip this time and bought papers, I had plenty of q's for her to be able to use. She also got a 5 off 25 q out of the scanner so we started with that. She got one bottle of dove something, soap or shampoo, I don't remember, and two deo's. I had q's for all of them. Then she picked up one of the little bitty deo's to get to the $15 mark. She then said that she wanted to see if they had the Irish Spring which they did, and next I gave her a glade q for the sprays of BOGO and she got a $1 off any glade out of the scanner, so she got the glade. I know that she got something else but do not remember right now. In all, she got a little over $25 worth of merchandise for around $16, and got back $11 in EB of which she had none of to begin with.
I did another Irish Spring deal on my second card. I do not usually do too many deals on this card because I do not want to try to keep track of two cards all the time. I mostly use it for the really good deals with a limit of one. I used a Q and a $1 EB and paid $3.75 including tax. I then turned around and bought 3 boxes of tissues, and 3 bags of jelly beans, and 2 of the mini dove deos which I had a $1 off one for both of them. I had a total of 35 cents of which 3 cents was tax. Not too shabby for a day of hounding.
I was having a conversation with my new best friends at my favorite store last night. I was telling her how much I liked shopping at that particular store because they were friendly and did accept my expired EB for so long. She said they would be happy to do that for me. I told her that I would keep shopping with them at that store because then they get the credit for the sales. I may get good deals and not pay a whole lot, but her store is moving the products and getting the sales on their bottom line. She said she knew that too, and she was glad that we (meaning my mom and me) come there. I love friendly stores!
The first cvs I stopped at is my favorite store. I usually do not have a problem finding the stuff I want in stock. The sales staff are super helpful and friendly. I had a vague idea that I wanted to get the Irish Spring, but that was about it. I also had $16 in EB that had expired a few days ago and wanted to get in and use them. I could not find my copy of the monthly catalog, so I grabbed one, scanned my card and started shopping. I did pretty good if I do say so myself. I got a 5/25 when I scanned and figured I might as well work from there. In the end I only used my $10 EB and not the $6 one. I asked if I could still use it later or did I need to use it right then, and she said no go ahead and save it if I wanted and I could use it up to a month after it expired. I do not know if this is for all EB at all CVS's or if they are just my new best friends now! Here is what I got! I am going from memory as I have misplaced my receipt. I am going to look on the counter where I was clipping q's and clipping my EB off the bottom of my receipt. I also showed to my sister after she picked me up to go with her to cvs. And yes I did another deal!
CVS store 1
1*4.99 Irish Spring
1*2.99 vitamin D
1*2.99 colgate toothpaste
3*2.99 dry idea deod
2*1.29 tissues
2*.99 tootsie rolls
1*6.29 afrin
Total before sales and Q's: $28.51
Q's used:
-5 5/25
-.50 Irish Spring
-2 dry idea
-2 dry idea
-2 dry idea
-6.oo try me free afrin
-.22 cvs candy on sale with card
-.80 tissues on sale with card
The original total left was less than my $10 EB so that is why I added the candy. The total after using my $10 EB was 42 cents!
And even better was I got back more extra bucks than I used and spent. I got back $4.99 for the Irish Spring, $2.99 for the vitamin d, $6.00 for the dry idea, and $2.99 for the colgate toothpaste! I love it when deals go together like they should!
Then on the way home I called my sister to brag on myself a bit, and she said she wanted to go to cvs too, but did not want to take the girls by herself. I told her to give me about a half an hour after I got home, come pick me up and I would help her with the sales and the girls.
So off to cvs again! This time to the store closest to our homes, not notoriously friendly, but we lucked out the manager on duty and the teen-age boy working were very friendly and helpful. My sister wanted to take advantage of the dove deal going on at cvs right now, but only had a couple of q's. Since I stopped on the way home from my trip this time and bought papers, I had plenty of q's for her to be able to use. She also got a 5 off 25 q out of the scanner so we started with that. She got one bottle of dove something, soap or shampoo, I don't remember, and two deo's. I had q's for all of them. Then she picked up one of the little bitty deo's to get to the $15 mark. She then said that she wanted to see if they had the Irish Spring which they did, and next I gave her a glade q for the sprays of BOGO and she got a $1 off any glade out of the scanner, so she got the glade. I know that she got something else but do not remember right now. In all, she got a little over $25 worth of merchandise for around $16, and got back $11 in EB of which she had none of to begin with.
I did another Irish Spring deal on my second card. I do not usually do too many deals on this card because I do not want to try to keep track of two cards all the time. I mostly use it for the really good deals with a limit of one. I used a Q and a $1 EB and paid $3.75 including tax. I then turned around and bought 3 boxes of tissues, and 3 bags of jelly beans, and 2 of the mini dove deos which I had a $1 off one for both of them. I had a total of 35 cents of which 3 cents was tax. Not too shabby for a day of hounding.
I was having a conversation with my new best friends at my favorite store last night. I was telling her how much I liked shopping at that particular store because they were friendly and did accept my expired EB for so long. She said they would be happy to do that for me. I told her that I would keep shopping with them at that store because then they get the credit for the sales. I may get good deals and not pay a whole lot, but her store is moving the products and getting the sales on their bottom line. She said she knew that too, and she was glad that we (meaning my mom and me) come there. I love friendly stores!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Saving Time
Everyone wants to find more hours in the day. Everyone wishes they did not have so much to do (at least most moms I know!). Just how do we fit all the things that we want to get done each day in? I am going to start a new weekly post here to list all the things that I do to get organized, save time, and in general create a better flow in my life. Join me on my journey of getting from here ( unorganized and poor flow) to there (organized and can find my keys!).
This week I saved time and streamlined my week by:
1. I did batch cooking on Sunday to eliminate the need to cook meals all week, and into next week. As I was cooking, I prepared my meals for the week for breakfast, lunch, snack (at work) and dinner. I put these into containers either in the fridge or freezer so all I had to do was grab the container when I was getting my bag ready for work.
2. I packed my bag for my trip this weekend ahead of time making sure I did not need to do laundry the night before I left for clothes for the trip.
3. I packed the tub that has dishes/utensils and dry/canned food for my trip this weekend to be sure I did not forget anything and have to make a run to the store at the last minute or when I get down there to see my son. This and the last one save me time on the night before I leave when I am loading the van. I cannot load the van early just yet because the night time temps still get below freezing, and I have already been down that road. (and it is a messy one!)
4. I did not save too much time in the mornings because of the switch to DST. This time change is the one that throws me for a loop. I like having the light later, but now it is dark in the mornings when I get up, and it takes me about a week or so to get back on schedule.
5. I will make a list tonight of all the things out of the fridge or freezer that I want to take with me so that I am not trying to figure it all out tomorrow as I am packing after work to leave.
6. I will get gas tonight as well so I can pick up a bag of ice and be ready for packing the cooler tomorrow. Getting gas saves me time and streamlines the process of getting out my door and on the road on Friday after work.
How did you organize and streamline today?
This week I saved time and streamlined my week by:
1. I did batch cooking on Sunday to eliminate the need to cook meals all week, and into next week. As I was cooking, I prepared my meals for the week for breakfast, lunch, snack (at work) and dinner. I put these into containers either in the fridge or freezer so all I had to do was grab the container when I was getting my bag ready for work.
2. I packed my bag for my trip this weekend ahead of time making sure I did not need to do laundry the night before I left for clothes for the trip.
3. I packed the tub that has dishes/utensils and dry/canned food for my trip this weekend to be sure I did not forget anything and have to make a run to the store at the last minute or when I get down there to see my son. This and the last one save me time on the night before I leave when I am loading the van. I cannot load the van early just yet because the night time temps still get below freezing, and I have already been down that road. (and it is a messy one!)
4. I did not save too much time in the mornings because of the switch to DST. This time change is the one that throws me for a loop. I like having the light later, but now it is dark in the mornings when I get up, and it takes me about a week or so to get back on schedule.
5. I will make a list tonight of all the things out of the fridge or freezer that I want to take with me so that I am not trying to figure it all out tomorrow as I am packing after work to leave.
6. I will get gas tonight as well so I can pick up a bag of ice and be ready for packing the cooler tomorrow. Getting gas saves me time and streamlines the process of getting out my door and on the road on Friday after work.
How did you organize and streamline today?
Weekly Savings
Here is a list of things I did to save money this week.
1. I went to wags and got two bottles of Irish Spring body wash for the price of one with the sale of bogo.
2. When I ran errands this week, I took the shortest route or went to the stores on my way home, instead of the ones out of my way.
3. I did batch cooking on Sunday so that the toaster oven and crockpot were just used once. I made veggie soup in the crockpot and put some in a container for this week and filled two more containers for putting in the freezer. I made three kinds of chicken for different meals this week, and for this weekend.
4. I kept my errands to a minimum to save on gas. I drive a full size van, so any savings on gas really adds up.
Thanks to a tip from Chi-Annie, I will now be using my car charger more efficiently. I will use it more often to save on energy use at home.
1. I went to wags and got two bottles of Irish Spring body wash for the price of one with the sale of bogo.
2. When I ran errands this week, I took the shortest route or went to the stores on my way home, instead of the ones out of my way.
3. I did batch cooking on Sunday so that the toaster oven and crockpot were just used once. I made veggie soup in the crockpot and put some in a container for this week and filled two more containers for putting in the freezer. I made three kinds of chicken for different meals this week, and for this weekend.
4. I kept my errands to a minimum to save on gas. I drive a full size van, so any savings on gas really adds up.
Thanks to a tip from Chi-Annie, I will now be using my car charger more efficiently. I will use it more often to save on energy use at home.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Give-A-Way
If you like cheerios, be sure to check out this site. Over at Stretching a Buck, she is giving away a cheerios gift basket to try the new banana nut cheerios. Go and check it out, and while you are there, read all the other great posts! Lots of good info at Stretching a Buck!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Resolutions-Weight Loss
I have been making good on my resolution to re-organize my home. Now it is time to make good on my weight loss resolution. I begin my journey today. I weighed myself this morning at my mom's ( I do not have a scale). I weighed 185 pounds dressed for work. I will make sure I wear comparable clothes each week to make certain I am not claiming a greater loss than actual because my clothes were lighter. I had my boots on which I probably should have taken off for the weight check as I know they are heavy. I will follow the same diet that I followed a couple of years ago when I lost 30 pounds. I have since gained about 20-25 pounds back. So off it will go again. For some of my other resolutions, I am still trying to work on them as well. Time to get off the couch and start getting things accomplished!
Weekly Savings List
I did not have an opportunity to list anything for last week, but I will resume this week.
1. I hung my clothes to dry Monday night. I just put them on hangers and hang them up in the bathroom on the shower rod.
2. I went to bed early, thus turning off all the lights in the house. I was really tired from my trip and was in bed by 8:30 on Monday.
3. I waited until I got up on Tuesday to plug in my cell phone, even though it was on the red low battery mark. This prevented it from being plugged in all night long.
4. Normally I use my bath towels twice before I wash them. However this week, when I took a shower on Wednesday morning I did not get to save my towel for Thursday. I was standing in front of the tub with the towel sort of around my hair when it fell into the tub. I have this indent in the middle of my tub where water stands so the towel pretty much just soaked all the dirty shower water up. I decided to use a new one for the next shower.
5. I went to Aldi's to pick up a few groceries, and figure that my savings were somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.00 over the grocery store across the street from my work. (I only spent a total of $15.14)
6. By turning the space heater off when it was not needed in the kitchen (and because of warmer weather), my power bill was about $100 less this month. This is wonderful as it was over $300 last month. The power bills in my area are brutal pretty much all year though.
7. I sold my minivan, leaving me with no need to cover it with insurance for sitting in my driveway. I called to get it removed from my policy. I received the paper to sign and return yesterday and mailed it back. I did not even have to pay postage as the company gave me a stamped envie to return it in.
So how did you save money this week?
1. I hung my clothes to dry Monday night. I just put them on hangers and hang them up in the bathroom on the shower rod.
2. I went to bed early, thus turning off all the lights in the house. I was really tired from my trip and was in bed by 8:30 on Monday.
3. I waited until I got up on Tuesday to plug in my cell phone, even though it was on the red low battery mark. This prevented it from being plugged in all night long.
4. Normally I use my bath towels twice before I wash them. However this week, when I took a shower on Wednesday morning I did not get to save my towel for Thursday. I was standing in front of the tub with the towel sort of around my hair when it fell into the tub. I have this indent in the middle of my tub where water stands so the towel pretty much just soaked all the dirty shower water up. I decided to use a new one for the next shower.
5. I went to Aldi's to pick up a few groceries, and figure that my savings were somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.00 over the grocery store across the street from my work. (I only spent a total of $15.14)
6. By turning the space heater off when it was not needed in the kitchen (and because of warmer weather), my power bill was about $100 less this month. This is wonderful as it was over $300 last month. The power bills in my area are brutal pretty much all year though.
7. I sold my minivan, leaving me with no need to cover it with insurance for sitting in my driveway. I called to get it removed from my policy. I received the paper to sign and return yesterday and mailed it back. I did not even have to pay postage as the company gave me a stamped envie to return it in.
So how did you save money this week?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
