Finally Some Good Shopping!

Okay, I must say, I haven't done a big grocery shop for a while, its usually things here or there because we have such a big stockpile, but Meijer had some good sale items as well as catalina items, so I was able to do a bigger shopping trip!  I'm sure its not big like everyone thinks, but its big compared to my standards of just 5 things at each store!  Here's my first picture on this blog!

Sorry I don't know why its so blurry, but here are the items I got.  I have to say hubby and son did come with me and they hardly ever do, but I think hubby just needed to get out of the house!  They cost us a few extra dollars, but it was alright, well worth it.  It was kind of  nice having them come for once. 

pig ear - .99 (extra item)

dog chain - 1.84  (extra item)

chicken bouillon cubes - 2.39

2 Tyson chicken thighs - 2.77 and 2.91

bread - 3.69 (I thought this was the one for the pepperidge farm deal but you can get the ones that are 2.49, live and learn)

cheese cake - 4.99 (free item for buying 2 viola meals)

beer - 17.19 + deposit 2.40

2 soup - 1.30

6 soup - 3.90

grapes - 1.87

kid soup - .99 (extra)

tonys pizza - 1.98

4 soup - 5.06

gummy worms - 1.30 (extra)

4 ziploc bags - 6.76

chips - 1.97 (extra)

2 eckrich sausage - 3.98

2 broth - 3.98

2 viola meals - 5.98

OJ - 2.29

snuggle - 27.93

The total was 108.xx - and I ended up paying 43.02.  We had about $7 in bottle returns so subtracting that off of the beer total, $12 or $13 was beer.  So for groceries it was $30 (I don't include beer in my monthly budget).  I also received a $5 OYNO cat  :)  I am going to go back tomorrow for the Super sale, which I swore started on Friday but apparently I was wrong!

We are going to the Cider Mill tomorrow and then to get a costume so that will be fun!

More Meijer Items!

So I finally had a few minutes to go over the Meijer ad and see what other good deals were out there, and I have to admit I am exited to do some shopping on Saturday (I try to get it all done on Saturdays as I don't have enough time in the week!).

Here are a couple more things that end up being great prices!

Campbells cream soups - .65
     Use $1/4 mealbox q and this $1/2 printable (or there is a coupon in the 9/27 SS)
     Free or very cheap
     ****Great to stock up - think of any holiday cooking you will be doing*****

Snuggle - $3.99
     Use $3 Q from 10/4 RP

Tyson Chicken (not sure if this is breasts/thighs/etc) - $1.99/lb
     Use .50 Q from 9/27 RP
     I try to find the lowest priced package to make it the cheapest

Campbells Harvest Soup (bowl or can) - $1.29
     Use mealbox q and coupon from 9/20 SS, 9/13S or 10/4 SS
     .39 for the bowls and .49 for the cans

There are a couple of Catalina deals that my friend Pubbler posts about.  I think I'm going to do the Ziploc and the Peppridge farm one this week, hopefully it will bring down the cost of the other groceries, or at the very least I'll be able to get some free Snuggle with the $5 catalina from the peppridge farm deal.  Not too shabby!  She also lists some great money making scenarios at Rite Aid.  I haven't tried my hand at Rite Aid yet, but she does really well with the rebates.  If you are diligent with doing rebates I highly suggest you check out her blog and start making some money on the things you need anyways!

We are heading over to the cider mill this weekend and then off to find the little one a costume.  We usually pick a big bag of apples and then try to make some good recipes with them so if you have any fun recipes you do with apples I'd love to hear them!  Also, my mom brought me a large bag of pears from my grandmas tree, so if there are any good recipes out there for that too, I'm all ears! 

Favorite Deals This Week

I haven't had too much of a chance to look through the papers, but so far here are my favorite deals (I'll update as I get through the papers):

Meijer

Snuggle (sheets and liquid) $3.99 - use $3/1 coupon from 10/4 RP
     Some people have reported seeing this at their dollar stores for $3 - I checked the Dollar General by me and they only have a 40 count dryer sheet box for $2.  I think the one at Meijer has more sheets in it, but I will see when I go later in the week.

Kroger

Kroger Block and shredded cheese 10/$10
     I know sometimes you can get the Kraft cheese with a coupon and good sale cheaper then this, but I'm out of cheese (oh no, say it isn't so!), so this is a good deal for me.  I bought a few packages at Meijer last week but they were out of stock, so I didn't get as many as I wanted.

CVS

Pumpkin Carving kit - $1.99 get $1.99 ECB

The Dreaded Dentist

Oyy I knew I hated the dentist for some reason!  Little background - me, my brother and sister always hated going to the dentist, I guess I don't know why exactly, but needless to say I still hate it.  I started going to a new dentist that my hubby goes to and raves about.  He said they all make you feel so comfortable and everything, so I gave it a shot.  I went about 2 months ago and took our son, it really was painless and quick, and the hygenists were so nice.  And the actual dentist was a real doll, I really like it there, I do.  Until they told me I had 3 baby cavitites.  Are you serious?  I brush, I floss, I hardly eat a lot of candy or sweet drinks, how did this happen?  Oh well I pouted for a couple days and just scheduled an appointment to get them all done (I think its the shots that I used to hate that freaked me out).  So I told them I don't like dentists, I don't like shots, etc.  They numbed me to no end with some minty gel stuff and they were so gentle with the shots, it really wasn't a big deal.  It only took about 45 minutes and I was done.  I thought, well this isn't so bad.  

Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago.  I was eating a crouton in my salad and my darn tooth gave me this awful pain where I had the filling done.  I just wrote it off as nothing.  A couple days later as I was drinking water (ice cold as usual) I got the same awful pain.  I knew I should make an appointment but I just didn't have the time to go, plus I didn't really want to.  Well since I was off of work with my hubbys surgery I figured I might as well just call to see whats up with the darn tooth.  Yeah well not so glad I did that, I now need 2 freakin crowns.  She said I must have had fractures in my teeth from grinding them and when they did the fillings the drill vibrations made the fractures worse so they only thing to do is crown them.  Well whoo hoo another $800 out of pocket.  I do have to say I am thankful for having insurance, but come on $800, that is a house payment!  Oh well, guess we can't win them all.  Anyways, I'm thinking of doing one at a time maybe one in November or so because its just very uncomfortable with the cold water hitting my teeth and then having to be careful what I chew. 

Well as I'm typing this our Tigers just lost the game to the Twins  :(  Now off to watch NCIS that I taped...mmm I love that show!

Christmas Ramblings

I know I know, its not even Halloween and I'm talking about Christmas!  I LOOOOVE Christmas more then any holiday, and if I had it my way I'd have a tree up all year round!  My SIL emailed the other day asking who was having Xmas and since we hadn't had it for a couple of years we offered to have it.  So I was thinking, I might as well list some savings idea for hosting Christmas as well as how I buy the Christmas presents on a budget.  With my husbands family we do Christmas on Xmas Eve with them and then we are with my family on Christmas day, its worked out well for the past 5 years, and we get the best of both worlds/families!

Christmas presents on a budget

We save all year so we have one less stressor while buying presents.  As if its not bad enough to not know what to get the teenagers and everyone else, I seriously don't need to worry about how I'm going to pay for it all!  We each put $40 a month away ($960 a year), and then some here and there.  Even if I have to spend more then $960, at least its not going to be a whole lot more.  I think last year we had about $40 or $50 left over, so that just rolls over into this years budget.  This year my lovely parents are taking us (me, hubby, son, brother, sister) on a family vacation for Xmas, and we're going Dec 13th - 20th.  So I will have to make sure all my stuff is bought and basically wrapped before we go!  I've been doing pretty good, I've already got a few of my nephews pretty much done, and I've gotten a lot of stuff for our son already.  We have 3 teenagers to buy for, and  I think they might be at the age where giftcards are just the best bet, so I might take the easy way out and do that (even though I hate that).  So how have I already started to get presents you may ask?  CLEARANCE!!

A few months ago Target and Kmart had a great clearance toy sale.  I was able to get our son a couple of Leapster games and LeapFrog books, I got my two nephews a couple of things and I got my niece a couple of clothing things from Kohls.  It may not be a lot already, but its a start!  I have ideas of at least what to get the little ones so that makes it a bit easier too.  I have a feeling there will start to be some good sales coming this month on things, so I want to try and see if I can get some lists from the rest of my family. 

Cooking Christmas on a Budget

Well luckily there are always good food sales on Christmas cooking items so I'm not too worried, but I would like to sit down in the next month and just figure out what we're going to have so I know what to look out for for a good sale and again, its one less stressor for me.  The one year we hosted it here for my hubbys side, we had made a sort of Italian dinner.  We did stuffed shells and I can't remember what else, but it was not the traditional dinner you hear of, and boy it was good!  We also bake a lot around the holidays and I have already stocked up on most of that stuff (.99 flour was an awesome deal!), but I just need to go to Costco and get a big bag of Chocolate chips and I need some more cocoa. 

Moral of this long winded post....Plan early and stock up!  What are your favorite Christmas saving tips?

Baking All Day!

Well since hubby had surgery on Friday, I decided to take today and tomorrow off to help him out.  You don't realize how much you really do use both hands until you can't use one of them!  He slept a lot of today and so did the little one, so I got a couple hours to just sit and enjoy doing nothing!  I know I know I should have been doing homework or something, but I'm so tired! 
After the little one woke up he wanted to make cookies (he found my cookie cutters and was all geeked).  So we made some sugar Halloween cookies, it was a good time!  I've been wanting to make these since I saw them posted, so I finally did it!  Ohh they were really good, I didn't do the chocolate drizzle on top, but I can only imagine how good it would have been!  If you get some time, make them, you won't be disappointed, I promise.

I'll post the deals at CVS and Walgreens tomorrow, looks like some decent stuff!

Monthly Totals!!

Okay drumroll please!  Here are the totals from August - remember this was the month we tried to do the stockpile challenge.

Items - 495
Retail value - $865.19
Coupon value - $662.88
Value on gift cards - $49.33
Total OOP - $167.67
Savings - 76.62%
Cost per item - .44

Whoo hooo!  I'm pretty pleased and I'm thinking I'll try again another month! 

I've been so busy the last week its insane!  My husband had shoulder surgery on Friday, so we were trying to get the last minute stuff done that he wouldn't be able to do for a while last week, and then our son got what we think was the stomach flu, and trying to work and clean and everything else, I didn't have a minute to do anything!  So I've taken tomorrow and Tuesday off to help with my hubby and get a few things done here, so we'll see how it goes!  I didn't even have time to grab a paper yet today so I'm not sure how the drugstore sales are but I did look at Meijer and I'm not impressed so thats good!  They are having their 10 for $10 sale on Meijer brand stuff so I think I'll skip it this week!