Cheese, How I love Thee

I was just told about a great deal from a fellow grocery hound (beccainbaltimore). She sent me here for an opportunity for some free cheese. Now of course I went over there immediately, because, like chi-annie , I like cheese. And I like all kinds of cheese. We eat a lot of cheese in our house. It is easy to take with you and easy to eat, and enjoy.

So if you like cheese, get over there, and enter!

I Could Hound Last Night

I got my van back last night. That is super duper. I have been without a running vehicle since Wednesday last week. So I took my expired as of the 22 EB to CVS to see if they would let me use them. They would and so here is the deal that I got at the first store:

1 colgate toothpaste 2.29 sale .88
1 cvs High def face wash 8.49 sale 5.49
4 cvs cotton rounds .99 each total 3.96
2 gillette shampoos 5.99 each total 11.98
1 nesting jars package 3.79 total 3.79

I used the following q's:
.75 off any colgate
4*$1 off cvs beauty
1*$1 off cvs High defining
$5 off $25
$2 and $10 EB

My total was 3.67 cents and I got back $12 in EB! Not too shabby with a savings of 88%! I can handle that!

The second store had the gillette gamer razor so I got that and a bag of jelly beans, used $4 off gillette razor, and a $2 and $3 Eb and paid tax of 18 cents. I got $4 of EB back, so I lost one in the deal, but am okay with that as I love jelly beans and really wanted some.

Kmart Doubles

I went to Kmart with my mom last night. I had to go with someone, because I still do not have a vehicle that runs. I did not have a super duper deal, partly because I had to buy antifreeze. I bought two gallons because apparently my van did not have any antifreeze. No wonder it was overheating. The guy that is looking at it will try putting it in and see if it leaks out anywhere to see if that is why I did not have any in the radiator. He thinks that the last folks that I had look at it just did not put enough in because there was no evidence at my house or his that the van was leaking. Antifreeze is really expensive. It was on sale for $10 a gallon, and I needed two! So that is part of my expense at Kmart last night. Here is what else I got:

2 Secret deoderants at 29 cents each= 58 cents
3 Sure deoderants at 29 cents each=87 cents
7 bags of Goodlife at 79 cents each==$5.53
3 bags of Goodlife at $1.69 each=$5.07
1 valentine candy at 89 cents (splurge but just needed it last night)=.89
1 Kotex pantyliner FREE=$0
4 boxes fruit snacks at $2.00 each=$8.00
2 boxes fruit by the foot at $2.00 each=$4.00

The last two sets of items should have been cheaper but my coupons stuck to the inside of my box and I did not realize until I got home which q's were missing. I counted 15 when I gave them to the cashier, and she scanned 15, I just did not notice the fruit snack ones were missing. I plan to go back tomorrow and see if they will let me price adjust and add the q's if I get my van back. I buy the fruit snacks and fruit by the foot because my son and drama girl both love them.

So my total was $51.14 of which $4.82 cents was tax and $20 was antifreeze. I also had them price adjust because on my reciept it said the goodlife cat food was $4.99 and it should have been $4.79. They made a mistake in refunding I think because I wound up with $2.80 back. Also, if I can get them to take the three extra q's I had for the fruit snacks it will save another $3.00. I can only hope.

And a final total of $51.14-$2.80=$48.34. Certainly not one of my better trips. Drat those car repairs.

EDIT: I also got a $3.50 cat oyno! I may go shop doubles again.

The Falls, Update

Well here is a brief update for all you concerned pals. I certainly appreciate the concern from everyone. I propped up my knee and iced it for a long time last night. Today it is much much better. My sister has been back to work now for a couple of days. She is still sore some from her shoulder down her back a bit and on her bum. The baby does not care much for the cast, but has figured out if she hangs on to solid furniture, like the couch, she can walk a little ways. Of course if she lets go of the couch or chair, she falls over, but she has not gotten hurt from that. She is also getting lots of hugs and kisses for all her troubles which she does like. She is a kissy and huggy baby. She is also getting carted around too. Drama girl seems to be just fine now. She will probably talk about this for months, but she does not seem too distressed about it now.

The Falls

Well, my family certainly had an interesting evening last Thursday. It was pretty uneventful during the day. I had a day off from work, I was cleaning, loading the van for my trip, playing with the kitties, just enjoying my day. I called to talk to my son. We did not talk long, he wanted to watch a movie that was coming on. About an hour later I called my mom to check on her as she had not been feeling too well the day before. She did not answer, but just moments after hanging up with her my phone rings. It is my sister. I answer and all I can hear is the two babies crying. Well, one screaming and the other crying. I do not hear anything from my sister. I immediately get up and start grabbing shoes and coat and purse. I have no idea what has happened but it must be bad. Then as I am gathering stuff, I hear my sister say something about falling down the stairs. Now, about a month ago, her three year old fell down the stairs. I ask her who is hurt and she says she is, she can't move. By this time I am already out the door and on my way, thank goodness I only two blocks away. She tells me the door is locked do I have my key? Yes, again thank goodness. She has those handle thingys on the door to prevent children from opening them, so her older daughter could not even get to the back door to let me had I not had a key. I get inside and the three year comes running for me at full speed and is sobbing she is so scared. She runs back in to her mom, who had made it as far as the bed before not being able to move anymore. She says her back and hip and leg and elbow all hurt. I call an ambulance, call my mom and tell her to call the in laws, and then call her husband to meet us at the hospital. The baby is on the bed with my sister and has a death grip on her clothes and will not let go. The three year old (Drama girl) has been attached to my hip since I got there. I picked her up as soon as we got into the bedroom and had been holding her since. The ambulance arrives. They come in to assess my sister and then go out to get the stretcher. I tell them we do not know if the baby is hurt because she won't let go of my sister. I ask if they want to take her too. They tell us that is up to us. I decide that since she is not currently crying, take my sister and we will look at the baby in the other room. Before they move my sister, I grab Drama girl in one arm, then grab the baby in the other arm and take off to the other end of the house so they do not hear my sister cry or moan when the emt's start to move her. I talk to Drama girl to occupy her and try to check out the baby and see if she is hurt in any way. She wants nothing to do with that and just clings to me. My mom arrives about this time, and the emt's start to wheel my sister out. It really freaks out Drama girl. We go over and give her a kiss. I give the baby to my mom who sets out to find pajamas for her. Drama girl is really upset and does not want her mommy to go. She is really scared about the neck brace. I tell her that is fine, we will just all go. We will have to drive separately in another car, but will meet mommy and daddy there. In the meantime, my mom found clothes and diapers and we changed the girls and decided to give them their medicine before setting out. My mom tries to put the baby down and she falls over, she will not stand. I run to the front door to see if the ambulance can take her but they have already left. I then call my BIL and tell him we did not call his parents yet, I cannot find their number, and that we are bringing both the girls in. The baby cannot stand. Drama girl is really scared but not hurt in any way. My mom and I gather all the necessary items and go to find shoes. While she is putting shoes on Drama girl, I take the baby out and put her in the car. My mom comes to the door with Drama girl and the diaper bag. I tell her to grab blankies, it is a little colder than I thought. She sets down the bag and goes back in to get blankies. It is a good thing that Drama girl followed her because as I am walking over to pick up the diaper bag to put it into the car, I fell. I tripped on the edge of the driveway. I immediately jump back up despite the pain because I do not want Drama girl to come out of the house and see me on the ground too. My mom comes out and says what did you do. I tell her I fell now to. She puts Drama girl into the car, and I tell her I better ride with her. I was hurting so bad I was nauseous. We get into the car and I am trying to catalog my pains. Hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, a finger, and mostly my knee. I look at my knee and of course it is bleeding. I get a wipe out and start wiping up the blood. We get to the hospital and my BIL was watching for us. He runs out the get the baby and takes her in. We take Drama girl and go find my sister. Drama girl is very relieved to see mommy as if she was afraid she would just be gone. I ask for a bandaid from the lady in the room. She never does come back and I find out she was just the intake worker getting insurance info and such. The nurse comes in and checks on my sister. My mom was with my BIL and the baby. I was with Drama girl and my sister. The rooms were across the hall from each other and of course the baby starts to cry which makes my sister cry. She keeps saying she should be over there. I tell her mom is over there and that is almost as good. Around this time is when I realize my finger hurts because a partially ripped off a fingernail. The nurse brings me a bandaid and some antibiotic cream for my knee. I put it on and keep trying to calm my sister. Which does not really happen until the baby finally stops crying. They come in and take the baby for xrays, then give my sister a shot for pain and inflammation before taking her off for xrays. By this time my whole body is aching from the fall. I can only imagine what my sister must be feeling like falling down an entire flight of stairs if this is how much I hurt just tripping.
The hospital staff brings everyone back. My sister has no broken bones, only really bad bruising. They give her some more pain medicine. The doctor says he cannot see any breaks on the baby but they are going to wrap her leg, and she needs to see her regular doctor tomorrow and an orthopedic doctor. We all get to go home at this point. The next day, the orthopedics doctor and pediatrician look at the xrays, the baby's leg is broken. Good thing they wrapped it the night before. My sister is up and about and able to move now. Drama girl has been extra clingy to her mommy, but okay for the most part. And the baby is trying to figure out what the heck she is supposed to do with cast. It is a full leg cast so she cannot walk, and can barely stand. Bad news for a 16 month old that is super busy and likes to walk everywhere. It is only for two weeks though so we are hoping that everyone makes it through with sanity in tact! My knee is still swollen and bruised, and I apparently strained a muscle in my shoulder and upper arm because I still have pain there although not as much as my knee. I am going to give it a few more days before I go to the doctor though, first off because I have no health insurance, and secondly because I am pretty sure it is not broken or dislocated or anything gory like that, just most likely sprained. I am going to keep it up tonight and put more ice on it. Strangely it seems to be more swollen today and more painful today than it has been so far. I think it is because I am at work and it was hard to keep it elevated like I tried to do this weekend. Plus it is about 85 degrees in our office and even with an ice pack it was hard to cool my knee down.

We are obviously a bunch of clutz' in my family. You would think that we would learn to be more careful but after last Thursday, I guess not! At least we are all going to be okay. That is all that matters.

Weekly Savings List

Some of the ways I saved this week:

1. I did not eat out on my trip to see my son. I took food with me to cook and eat while I was down there. I did not eat out on the way down or back either. I had a loaf of bread, peanut butter (free) and some jelly (free).



2. I did not get pizza for lunch like I was craving and instead ate the lunch I brought for myself. The lunch was part of my batch cooking. The pizza is brought to several of the downtown offices by a delivery man and for a flat $5 you can get pizza. I resisited!



3. I turned my space heater back on while I was gone this weekend to guard against cold weather should it occur while I was out of town. I turned it back down this morning. I may turn it off again as soon as I find out just how cold it is going to get this week. I left the furnace at 60 for the rest of the house. I find that 60 degrees in the rest of the house is quite comfy for snuggly sleeping and if I want to watch tv, I cuddle under a throw.



4. This is not a new way of saving, but one I do always. I do not have a clock in my bedroom. I use my cell phone as an alarm clock, and have not had a bedroom clock for about two years now. I also find that I can sleep better, or at least get back to sleep better when I am not "clock-watching" in the middle of the night.



5. This is another way of saving that I do always: I do not leave anything "extra" plugged in. The tv, vcr, and dvd player are all on on extension cord. I plug it in if I want to watch tv, which is not very often. I think it has probably been at least a month since I plugged the tv in. My computer at home is not plugged in, and only gets turned on if I want to use it. I don't think it has been on for at least 6 months. I do not have internet at home, therefore, I do not really even use that computer. All appliances are unplugged until needed, except the fridge, deep freezer, stove and washer and dryer. The dryer is actually gas, and the washer plug is too hard to get to for plugging and unplugging.



6. I have a decorative tree that my sister used in her wedding that has a string of lights on it. They are clear lights and I put them on a timer to come on before I get home from work, and to stay on until morning (for use as a nightlight). I use this instead of turning lights on in the downstairs rooms, which consists of my bedroom, living room, and dining room. With strategic placement, it lights all three rooms enough to ensure I can see where I am going. I could read by these lights only if I wanted eyestrain though.



7. I did not intend to, but I carpooled this week for Thursday and Friday. I have a full size van that I use for my trips to see my son and a minivan that I use for local driving. They are both broke down right now. Just my luck. I will hopefully be able to find someone to work on the full size van this weekend so I can go down next weekend.

8. I only ate out of my stockpile and bi-monthly cooking meals.

I do plan to go get some groceries this weekend, depending on if I can get my van fixed at a relatively inexpensive price. I need some produce, but will wait to see what happens with my van.

So what did you do to save money this week? Let me know if you have any ideas to save money that I may not know about!

Savings!

Taking a leaf out of Precious' book, I am going to keep track of all the ways that I save. I will probably not be able to do this every day, but will aim for once a week.

This past week so far I have saved in the following ways:
1. I have only driven to work and home, no extra trips anywhere, since last week, no trips out over the weekend either.
2. I have only eaten out of my stockpile, no store runs for me.
3. I washed my clothes in cold water and hung several things to air dry.
4. I turned off the space heater in my kithchen/bathroom area, and left the furnace set to 60 degrees.
5. I made milk out of the powdered milk to use when eating cereal and cooking.
6. I batch cooked several meals and desserts to only turn on the oven once.
7. I used my crockpots to cook two different varieties of meat for future meals. I let them cool on the counter before putting in the fridge to cool completly before packing into containers for freezing.
8. I have brought my lunch to work (I usually do) and have not stopped for anything while at work -not even for donuts! Donuts are my weakness....I love donuts, I could eat them all day every day. I have banned donuts from my life for now in my attempt to lose weight!

I did send out some woofies last week, but do not count that as spending as I received some woofies in the previous couple of weeks that more than covered the cost of the stamps I used.

I love saving, and helping others save too! This is so much fun!