Saving Money on Insurance

Even though this doesn't have much to do with coupons, it does deal with saving money, which I know we all love!  I received our auto and home renewals last week and thought the rates were fine.  The auto insurance actually dropped by a buck (whoo hooo) and the home went up a bit but I figured that was because of rates always going up and because we added water backup coverage (I think that was about $60-$80).  I wished the house was a bit lower but I figured there really wasn't anything I could do because I was not going to lower my coverage to save a few dollars.  I just chalked it up as one of the necessary evils of owning a home.  I had gotten an email from my agent a few days after I received the renewal notices and she said the premium had increased a couple hundred dollars from the year before and she had asked the company to run my insurance score to see if it went up for possibly a better rate.  Well guess what, it did go up!!  This lowered our premium by $233!  I am so super excited as its been a expensive month already and with hubby getting his shoulder done this week I was bummin at all the crazy expenses lately!  So lesson learned here, if you aren't thrilled with your rate, call and ask them if they can run your insurance credit score to see if it went up.  If not, you can always shop around for the best price, there are tons of companies out there who would love your business! 

What a week!

Well this has been quite a week let me tell you!  My boss was out all week on vacation and of course EVERYTHING just had to go haywire.  Worked some long hours and needless to say I've been beat all week!  My classes started last week, and I had stats on Thursday.  I have to admit the teacher is so awesome so I'm actually looking forward to the class.  He reminds me of a mix of Santa Claus and a class clown.  He actually makes stats interesting...if there is such a thing!  My other class starts on Tuesday, its some dumb business analysis class, and from rumors I hear the teacher kind of sucks!  I'm so not looking forward to it but at least I'll know people in that class, so we can be miserable together.

We decided to get carpet downstairs (we live in a quad so its not a REAL basement but its our sons toy room and our laundry room).  We lost power a few months ago for a couple of days and of course the sump pump stopped working (we didn't even think of that damn thing) and our basement was in a few inches of water.  We steam cleaned it and everything just to get it back together until we could get some quotes.  We ended up going with Empire Today, they had done our sons bedroom a couple years ago and we really liked them.  They will be coming out on Weds.  The price he quoted and the end price were over $500 difference, I can't believe how much they mark this crap up, it really infuriates me.  Hubby and I ripped up the carpet and padding yesterday and my parents came over to help move the stuff out today - they rock! 

Needless to say the house has been neglected and so have my coupons!  I did hit up Meijer on Saturday for some good deals, I'll post those with a pic later on.  Today Kmart started their doubles (up to $2, supposedly a limit of 10 coupons, but my Kmart doesn't care how many you have), and I just had to go there.  I have to say for once I wasn't really impressed.  None of the normal stuff was free after coupon or maybe it was just because I used most of my coupons the last two rounds.  Who knows.  I'm sure as I'm clipping them tonight while watching DH I'll find some good deals.  I did get 5 boxes of Hartz treats, 1 can of Resolve, 5 boxes of Kelloggs Special K (buy 5 boxes get $5 off instantly, combined with $1 off Q's made them free) and 4 boxes of Visine for $1.74.  Not too shabby considering I love this Resolve stuff and we're out and our son and my hubby LOVE Special K and I was just told last week we were out of it.  Meijer has some good deals this week too which I'll post later with my pic and totals.

We're still eating out of the stockpile but honestly I feel like I miss goingn to the grocery store or something, I'm sure its saved a good amount and I know I could do better, I'll post the totals later for so far.  Yesterday I made the broccoli cheese soup and was able to freeze two cans of it for another winter meal.  Tonight we are having turkey mushroom meatloaf.  This week we willl eat leftovers or sandwiches for lunch.  On Friday my hubby is having shoulder surgery so please pray his Aflac comes through and pays while he is off of work.  Anyone ever have any experiences with Aflac?  I'm just so nervous for some reason.

Favorite Deals This Week

Walgreens

Thermacare 1ct. - $2.49 - get $2.49 RR
Use $1/1 coupon
FREE + $1 profit!

Carefree liners $1.99 - get $1.99 RR
Use $1 coupon from 8/30 SS
FREE + $1 profit!

Target

Market Pantry single string cheese .40
Use $1/2 coupon
FREE!

Meijer

Del Monte veggies - .69 each
Use $1/5 coupon in last weeks paper and $1/3 from Meijer Mealbox here
Buy 15 to get the price for .16 a can - this is rock bottom and a great stockpile item

Crystal Light - $2
Use $2 coupon from 9/13ss and Meijer Mealbox

What are your most favorite deals this week?

Two yummy and quick recipes

So here are two recipes that I really enjoy.  The alfredo one I made a couple weekends ago and we all loved it, we actually think that it was better the second day!  The other is a soup I made last year that I can't wait to make this year - they are both perfect for fall/winter recipes!  Most of this stuff you'll have on hand, which was pretty nice.  I never seem to have the ingredients on hand when I find a new recipe.

Crockpot Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo

Broccoli Cheese Soup

3 cups water
3 cups chicken stock
3 bags broccoli steamers (could use fresh if you have any left from the garden!)
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 package kraft american cheese slices
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup milk
1 cup light cream
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup all purpose white flour

In large saucepan, bring the water (3 cups) and stock to a boil.  Add the broccoli and onion; boil for 10 to 12 minutes.  Add the cheese, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until cheese melts.  Add the milk, cream and butter.  Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.

Add the water (1/2 cup) to the flour and mix until smooth.  Add slowly to the hot soup, stirring rapidly.  Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the soup is the consistency of heavey cream.  Serve with rolls.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA for a few days, but we've been preparing for our garage sale that started on Thursday and will end (finally!) tomorrow.  My aunt did one a couple weeks ago and I put a few boxes in hers and made $156 so I decided to participate in our sub sale to see if I could get more!  I put some stockpile stuff in there as well as some junk from our house.  So far I am at $130ish and we still have tomorrow to go!  I'm so happy because all of this will be going into our vacation fund for our cruise in December!  Its kind of tiring and overwhelming because all your energy and time goes into sitting outside (which has been gorgeous weather so I can't complain about that!) but my house is in some serious need of TLC. 

We've still been keeping up with the stockpile challenge.  I've been taking turkey sandwiches to lunch with some type of snack and my hubby has been coming home for lunch (as usual) and either making a sandwich or eating the leftovers from the night before.  Today we ran out of milk so I ran to Meijer and spent $25, I was kind of upset but there were some good deals on things that I didn't want to pay full price for.  I got milk, doritos (hubbys Sunday snack for halftime, don't mess with him if he doesn't have his Doritos), romaine hearts, 16 cans of campbells soup (for those lazy winter lunches/dinners), 5 boxes of Nabisco 100 calorie packs (ended up being about $1 for all of them and I like those for little snacks with lunches), 2 tombstone pizzas (I just knew I wasn't going to want to make lunch today while doing the garage sale, these were $5 all together, not too shabby, but a splurge, bad me!), sour cream, oatmeal (for oatmeal cookies in the winter) and I think a few other things.  I like to stock up on the baking stuff when its on sale because if I had to buy all that at once it'd break the bank!  Thanks to Pubbler for letting me copy her Meijer deals and being so patient while explaining them to me over and over this week....my brain is sort of mush this week. 

I found a few things at the other garage sales today, I got my son 2 computer games for a dollar each and 4 books for $2.  Then my SIL called and said this lady had a basically brand new trampoline (I've been looking for one) for $50!  So I got there and the springs look brand new and so does the jump part, but when I got it home I noticed there was a dime size hole in the jumping part, I hope its still okay, anyone know if this is fine or if I should take it back?  Anyways we are going to give this to our son for his xmas present, hope he likes it! 

Well thats enough rambling for the night, I'm going to read the little one a bedtime story and then hope I can make it up for SNL....haha.

Totals so far..

Well this is day 14 of eating out of the pantry/stockpile and I just thought I'd report my totals so far!  Below is for health and beauty stuff as well as food (its mostly food though).  I noticed we were able to mainly eat from the stockpile but as I was searching for recipes to make I found some really good ones I just had to try and that caused me to run to the store to get the few things I was missing.  All in all it was worth it....especially for the crockpot chicken fettucini recipe!  It was to die for. 

Drum roll....

So far $69.40 has been spent this month!  That's it!  Usually I'm in the $150 or $200 range by now!  I am pretty proud of myself but I do think I could do a little better next time, live and learn!  This has definitely taught me there are a few things I need to keep stocked like canned mushrooms, cream of chicken/mushroom and some other canned veggies. 

What are your most stockpiled food items? 

Just some randomness!

Well it looks like it will be a gorgeous weekend here in Michigan!  We are going to the bus races at the Flatrock speedway this weekend, its always a great time! 

Yesterday I had yogurt for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and we made egg salad sandwiches with chips for dinner.  I did go out to Aldis yesterday and got 4 cans of mushrooms, a bag of chips and some parmesan cheese.  It was about $7 dollars.

Today I wasn't feeling so good this morning so I didn't eat - hubby and son had cereal at home.  I had a sandwich for lunch and for dinner we are making steaks, potatos (from the garden) and salad (with fresh veggies from the garden).

I'm hoping to make a crockpot chicken fettucini alfredo this weekend one day (probably Sunday), which is why I needed the cheese. 

I'll have a bit of time tonight after we close the pool to put up a few deals that I see for next week...