Odds and Ends

Things have been pretty busy around here so I have not updated for a few days. 

This past weekend we went to Tennessee for our nephew's wedding.  It was a nice little get away for us and we had a great time with family.  I cannot believe that this "little" boy who loved transformers and Michael Jackson could be getting married.  I guess time flies.

Last night I hit Walgreens hard and it was quite an amazing trip.  I did not take a picture, but I  should have.  I did MULTIPLE (14) transactions and ended up getting $118.00 worth of stuff for $21.00.  It was such a wide variety of food items and health and beauty and that is always a good thing.  My Walgreens is so easy to work with, and just so you know, I ALWAYS step aside and let people pass in front of me.  I never want to anger their other shoppers, or the clerks for that matter. My 14 transactions were during 3 trips to the store, luckily they are really close. 

Today at the end of the school day I was able to share the ins and outs of shopping at Walgreens with a couple of teachers.  That was fun.  I really do intend to host some coupon classes in the future.  I just need to get my materials in order. If you read my blog and are local, please comment sometime and let me know if you would be interested in attending a class in the future.  I need to do this.  I feel this has been such a blessing in our lives and has cut our spending way down, and I need to pass this knowledge on. 

I WON AGAIN !!!

This is my lucky week !  I won another give-away!  I have gone FOREVER and have not won a single thing, and now I won two prizes!   I love my blogs that I visit and I just found out that I won a Nature Valley gift pack from Mrs. Buys More and Mr. Save A. Lot!  This gift pack is awesome!   Look at what I won!    You need to check out this blog because she is great about posting links to printable coupons.   She keeps my printer humming, and my wallet happy!

I WON !

I RARELY win anything to speak of.  I was delighted to find that I had won a prize from one of my favorite blogs.  The blog is titled: Stretching a Buck, and Marcy chose me in her recent "Couponizer" give-a-way!  I am so excited about this product and have been wanting to try one.  It will be perfect to hold my clipped coupons.   I love her blog and have had it listed in my sidebar for a very long time.  Not only is she great for helping me spend wisely, she was even thoughtful enough to give me words of encouragement on my blog when I was going through my health issues.  Stop by her blog and stay a while!

Plus, you should really check out getting a "Couponizer" for yourself. 

One of Those Nights

I am so sleepy right now.  it is 7:37 p.m. as I type and there is no real reason for me to be so tired.  After school today I did just a few errands, but I ran out of steam so fast.  I sat for a while, and hubby came home to me still sitting, and to me having no clue as to what to fix for supper.  Finally I got my act together and made quite a good supper in my sorry state.  I went rummaging through the house and found some chicken in the freezer that I had roasted, picked off the bone, and froze a while back.  I knew I had some heavy cream and a block of parmesan that I needed to use, and some fresh broccoli in the fridge.  Before you know it I whipped up some delicious (and very fattening) broccoli / chicken  fettuccine alfredo. Check out the sauce recipe here. 

Maybe that is why I am so tired. I really did not eat a large portion, but it is rather rich. Other than doing a load of laundry, filling the weekly pill containers, and cleaning up a bit in the kitchen (hubby is helping) I do not plan on much else for the night. 

I guess we all have lazy nights once in a while. 

Monday Mail Call

I love it when my mailbox holds surprises.  I guess that must be the kid in me.  Today I had 2 nice items. The first was a box from Pssst, a word-of-mouth, product sampling web-site from General Mills.  In the box was a full size sample of the new Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters.  Yummy stuff, I might say. Pssst will send you great products and coupons that you can share with your friends.  You then  get an email to take a brief survey.  It is a pretty easy way to get great coupons and try new products. Go here  if you want to sign up.  The next item was a $4.00 coupon for a Pace product.  That will translate into a pretty big jar of salsa. Pace has an instant win game, and although I thought I would never win, I finally did   Go here to play. 

Little things make me happy.

Sweet Deal

What do you do when you are able to purchase $2.49 Ghiradelli Luxe Milk Chocolate bars for around .20 cents a piece?   Buy lots.  

Then what do you do?  Eat them all in one sitting with a Diet Pepsi?  Tempting, but no.

Break some up and make cookies!  I made 4 batches of Ghiradelli chocolate chunk cookies. 

Due to the perfect combination of deals at Walgreens, and having the right coupons, I snagged 40 bars of milk/dark combination chocolate bars.  (Not all of them posed for the picture.)   

The math went like this:

 The grand total for 40 bars was around $7.50, this was for a total of 120 ounces of chocolate.   120 ounces could be translated into 10  bags of chocolate chips, 12 ounces each.  This would be like paying .75 cents each for premium bags of chocolate chips.   Pretty good deal, I'd say.  

Now, the most fun thing about it all, is that I made a double batch of cookies just for the staff at my Walgreens because they always welcome my crazy coupon habit!    (CVS needs a treat soon as well, because they are great also.) 

The majority of these chocolate bars will go in the freezer.  I used 6 bars total today for 4 batches of cookies.  

Happy Anniversary to me...

It's an anniversary of a different sort.  Today I am cancer free for one year!   This is a date I will take note of each year.  It is a good day for me. 

Kmart Double Deals

I could have spent just over $22.00  on these items, ($5.99 each for the Northern, and $5.29 each for the Clearasil)

But...thanks to Kmart double coupons, I spent just over $22.00 for everything in the bottom picture (t.p. and Clerasil included!)  That's what I call smart shopping.   If you notice, we will have happy pets in our house!  
I love the variety of items too.  I have cleaning products, food items, pet treats and food, mascara,  other health and beauty items, plus batteries and playing cards.  Great way to round out the stockpile.   I am loving my coupons!   The word is out though that Kmart is suspending all double coupon events until the end of the year.  I guess we all better take advantage of it this week.