Random Thoughts

I find that other than bargain posts I just don't have much to blog about these days.  I have some things I have been thinking about of a serious nature, but I am not quite ready to put that into words as of yet.  I  am afraid though that soon those thoughts will have to get out. 

Things are just pretty normal around here.  Our house is quiet and our lives quite uneventful.  Both boys are gone, once again giving us an  empty nest.  Oldest is living with a roommate in another town, and he has a job interview tomorrow. (Pray please)  This would not be a dream job, but in this economy you cannot be too choosy.   Youngest is back at school.

Both of my boys are making me so proud with their "frugal" ways.  Oldest is learning to shop wisely, asking me about current deals, and going to Aldi for his groceries.  Youngest called to tell me about a major retailer of men's suits that is closing the store in his college town and he purchased a suit and dress shirt for under $50.00.  How about that?  All this frugal stuff and posting about bargains is helping my boys spend wisely!  If only I had know all these tricks when I was their ages!

Husband and I are enjoying a few quite evenings here and there and it is amazing how much easier the house is to maintain.  If I could only get all of my coupons in order I would feel really good! 

After all of my health issues we have finally returned to our work with the high school youth and are very anxious to see where God takes us with that!

So, there are my random thoughts for the day. 

Catch Up

I hit CVS and Walgreens and bought everything in the picture for $8.60.

I have not blogged for almost a week, so today I will probably post twice. 

 This one is a bargain post...next one may be more serious because I am sorting some things out in my head today. 

First of all, for those of you that are very observant, you might notice that I had added a new feature on my sidebar, and have since removed it.  It was a listing of things I have obtained free with coupons.  Oh boy.  I could not keep up with it.  I probably average 10 or more things every week that are totally free, then there was the dilemma about posting things that are free because of Extra Care Bucks.  I had not been posting them, and in reality, they were free to me.  So, instead of trying to catch up,  I just stopped all-together.  I will occasionally post pictures though so you can still get a taste of everything out there that is free for the taking.  Just don't take them before I do. 

These are my bargains for today:

At CVS I purchased 5 bottles of the Gillette Shampoo, each came out free due to coupons and Extra Care Bucks.  The cough drops were free due to free coupons that printed out with my card, and the Mr. Goodbars (husband's favorite) I  bought as fillers to make sure I spent enough real money to use the Extra Care Bucks I had in my purse.  I spent $14.58 in Extra Care Bucks, plus $1. 51 in real cash (mostly for tax) and earned $15.00 in new Extra Care Bucks.  

 I won't pay more than $1.25 for cereal,  and today Walgreens had these cereals for $1.99 each.  I had $1.00 coupons expiring today, so I stocked up.  $0.99 per box of cereal works for me, and  husband LOVES his nightly bowl of sweet cereal.  I also walked away with 4 candy bars that were free due to buy one get one free manufacturer's coupons and Walgreens weekly coupon.  

Summary:

7 boxes of cereal

2 packages of cough drops

5 bottles of shampoo

and 6 candy bars 

total:  $8.60 

Great day for the stockpile. 

MId Winter Vacation

Gee, 

I love having 5 days off of school in the middle of winter.  it sure forced me to do some necessary things in my house.  The bitterly cold wind chills forced our district to shut down last Thursday and Friday, add to that an already long weekend for Martin Luther King Day, and we have had 5 days off!

All good things must come to an end though, as today is our last day.  I am celebrating by spending the day with my sister.  She is coming up and we will play all day.  We will be bargain hunting and going out to eat with our brother.  Have I ever told you that I love my sister?  

Baby it's Cold Outside!

I know I am one of the fortunate ones, my school district cancelled today.  I do not have to go out in this cold except to open the door to let my dog go out.  I can stay hunkered down in my warm house and do whatever I wish.  

Today I am tackling some much neglected jobs.  I have to say that I am actually still behind in doing some of the things I neglected during my health issues.

Dresser drawers for example.  Mine were a mess.  I was still fighting summer clothes and crowding.  I couldn't really tackle the jobs requiring a lot of usage of my arms so I put it off.  Then I went back to school and really didn't have the time for concentrated jobs.  Today I started that job early on and all 5 of my drawers are neat and tidy and uncluttered.  

I have also stripped the bed and have the bedding washing.  I will not remake it though because our mattress requires flipping.  Husband will have to do that this evening.  

After my bedroom is vacuumed and dusted I think I will move on to my kitchen and bake cookies.  Youngest heads back to school tomorrow for 2nd semester and needs some cookies to take back with him.  

After all that, I might be lazy for a while.  

I am wondering about tomorrow.  There is a chance things will be just as bad tomorrow and perhaps no school again.   I am sure I will find something to do. 

I'm Baaaack

Ah to be feeling well again.

Let me say this.  There are many unpleasant things in life, but puking has to be among the most unpleasant ever!  I am too old for that.  I think it should only be allowed if you are three or under.

  

I stayed home from school today and slept in until 10:30.  I am not usually such a late sleeper, but I knew my body needed it so I did not attempt to get up any earlier.  I feel pretty well now, although I still don't have much of an appetite.  Maybe I can drop a few of the pounds that found me during the last 8-10 months.  That would be a good thing.  

Yuck

I am sick.  At least this time it is "normal, not life threatening  sick"  But I wasn't so sure for a while.

Today started awful and got worse.  I woke up at about 7:00 am with terrible indigestion.  The only other two times in recent memory that I had morning indigestion were the day before and the day of my heart attack.   I put up with it for quite a while. I  took a chewable antacid,(which was terrible by the way)  and waited it out for a while.  Finally at 11:30 I drove myself ( I know, bad idea)  to the convenient care clinic to be checked out.  I was fortunate to see my heart PA at the clinic and he point blank told me to go to the ER.   Again, I drove over by myself.

Not a good day in the local ER.  A glazing of ice on the roads and walkways had already sent 30 people in for falls.  To my "advantage"  anything remotely heart related moves your position in the ER up significantly.  

After 3 hours, an  EKG, blood-work, a chest x-ray and a test for my pancreas, it was decided that I have severe gastritis and sent home.  I was home by 3:00, soon went to bed and by 5:00 was puking my guts out.  

Now I am in that limbo period where I am wondering if it is over or if it is just waiting to strike again.  

Husband went to get me something to drink and got food for himself  and youngest.  He is such a dear.  He even went on some coupon runs to use some very good coupons that matched some deals expiring tonight.  

So, I may not write much for a day or two, and deals might be put on hold... unless my husband was bitten by the coupon bug instead of the flu bug! 

Busy Week

Going back to school is rough.  I am tired. 

 It is almost 9:00, but I have an appointment with my treadmill, so I am cutting this post short.

This has been a tremendous week as far as bargains go.  I have probably purchased about $300.00 worth of stuff for about $50.00 out of pocket.  Other than the two pictured Walgreens trips, I have made about 3 other trips and about 3 to CVS.  I just keep reading about a deal online, finding the coupons for it and then I am off to repeat it.  I live VERY close to both stores so I can easily do that.  

I am enjoying myself.  Yesterday however, I did no deals.  I came home from school with a pretty serious migraine and was in bed by a little after 8:00.  

Well, I gotta go.  Treadmill is calling...

Walgreens Again...

I had to go back.  They forced me.  

This time though I actually spent some money.  Not much though because my receipt says I saved a total of $66.00.  I spent $23.00 out of pocket,but I came home with $10.00 in new Register Rewards due to the vitamin deal.  

 I used up the rest of my hair care coupons, bought vitamins (which we really really needed- we were on our last bottle and down to about 1 week's worth) when I found out the sweet deal going on.  I then  nabbed some more Cottonelle wipes, some Palmolive, and 1 more Softsoap that missed the picture.  

Have I ever told you how much I love coupons?  Okay, about 100 times, sorry.

Now, in case you are wondering.  I did purchase big city papers today and I have used about $25.00 worth of the coupons that were in those papers.  I spent $7.50 on 4 papers, but I think that I have more than made up for that.  Plus...I have many many more coupons from those papers to use.  

Walgreens probably hates me...

Today the deals to be had were at Walgreens!

I am sorry, but I just do not take the time to break down every deal as to what coupons I use, but I did go to two Walgreens, and do a total of 3 transactions to get the following items for the stockpile.  I used a combination of sale prices,  Walgreens' weekly coupons, Walgreens' monthly coupons,  and manufacturer coupons to get the best prices.  I also had $11.00 on a Walgreens' gift card due to a rebate from last month, and a few Register Rewards.  The combination of all these deals really helps the wallet!

Here is my haul:

2    Gallons of milk

4    boxes Kelloggs Smart Start (my favorite)

4    boxes Kelloggs Frosted Flakes

10  packages Russell Stover sugar free candy 

3    Softsoap hand soap

2    Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil

1    Electrosol ( I will get back $1.50 with a Walgreens rebate)

10  Garnier hair products (shampoo, conditioner, mousse, and hair spray)

3    Cottonelle Fresh Wipes

1    Ben & Jerry's pint 

Total cost out of pocket (that would be our hard earned moolah)

$ 10.69  (would have been over $130.00)

This is all stuff we use, and stuff we like but can't always buy. (Ben & Jerry's)

When I add all of this to the stockpile it sure helps in the overall budget!

Profitable Day

I wish I had pictures, but I needed to put stuff away to clear the clutter. 

I went shopping with my sister today and netted many free items due to good coupons.

These things were FREE:

7 packages of Cottenelle toilet paper 

3 that my sister gave me from her coupons, and 4 I had coupons for.   

( 99 cents every day at Kroger,  50 cent coupons DOUBLED)  they are the very small rolls, but hey, free is free. 

5 Air Wick  Lumin  air  flameless candles (rollback to $4.96 at Wal-Mart, $5.00 coupons)

1 bag of 9 Lives cat food (free coupon came in the mail)

1 box of Kashi cereal bars (free coupon came in the mail--VERY yummy!)

Plus some very good deals on other things.

The sweetest thing of all is I got a new Dyson!   ( no, not free with a coupon)  We received Christmas money from husband's folks and were thinking about a Dyson.  We have been watching the ads and noticed Sears had one for a pretty good deal. However,  Wal Mart had an even lower price on the  same one AND had a deal expiring today in which they gave you a $100.00 Wal Mart card!   Sweet!  Husband has already tried it out and either it was impressive or depressive which ever way you want to look at it.  Impressive with its power, but depressive at how much it pulled out of our carpets!   To think, we lived with that stuff trapped in there when we thought we were vacuuming sufficiently!   

It was a long day of deal chasing, but there will be more to chase tomorrow!

Today is the Day

We are packing oldest for his move to another city.  Due to the anonymity thing going on in my blog I am not telling exactly where it is, but I will say that it is a nice, growing town with many more opportunities in place for him than in our area.  He does not have a job to go to though, so he will live off of savings for a while until he finds something.  He will be much happier  because he has friends there,  and he will be moving in with a good friend of both of the boys. 

He is taking enough that we had to rent a truck.  Neighbors might do the happy dance when they see the truck pull up. They might think we are all moving. 

I am deciding what to do with the extra space...I am not sure what his room will become so I might have to wait until next weekend to set it up.  It will need a corner to corner cleaning first though and since I go back to school on Monday and will not be home tomorrow I might have to just shut the door for a week. 

He is also taking half of what is in our sun-room so I will get to re do that room as well. 

I better go, we are about 3/4 of the way ready and with all he has, that last 1/4 will be a chore.  (silly me, I started to say that the last 1/4 will be a "killer" , but since I had a heart attack the day after I helped pack up youngest to move home, I will avoid that phrase.)