Gotta Love It

Don't you love it when your kids actually listen to advice?  Oldest is trying to be frugal and is really watching his pennies since he is looking for a job.  He called a while ago to tell me how well he did with his grocery shopping this week.  He went to Aldi for most everything and  will only stop at the pricey store for just a few things to round out his needs for the week.  I am happy that my frugal ways are being followed.  Keep it up oldest!

Eleven and Counting.

I have been away from home 11 nights in a row.  I will be gone tonight.  The thing is, there is not one thing on that list of outings that I would sacrifice. I have been with my girlfriends, my high school girls, my church small group, best friends, visited my former college to see our friend's son play in his senior game, been with my boys, and with my husband. In reality I am grateful that my life is so full.  

Last night we celebrated oldest son's 25th birthday.  His actual birthday was on Thursday, and we did see him that night briefly, but last night we went to the town where he lives and took him, our youngest son, and 3 friends out to supper.  It was yummy, and we had a great time. 

The downside of all of this. I am old. 

My body and my house have taken a huge toll while I have been out having fun.  Most of my outings have required eating out, and a just few times in a row can play tricks on your hips!  Also, I am just tired. Last night in the car I thought I would sleep all the way home.  I think I did sleep a little, but not restfully.  Oh boy, this morning I guess I made up for that.  I got up a few minutes with husband, and then went back to bed.  I slept until 10:00 am!  That is unusual for me.  Even on weekends I often get up at 6:00 or 6:30 and stay up.  My body was surely craving this sleep.  

Now, on to my house.  It is not completely filthy, but if you are like me, when you are in and each evening things don't always get put back where they go.  I have spent about 30 minutes just picking up and returning things to their homes, and have much more to return.   Laundry has been a  huge  issue all week so that will have to be resolved at some point today.  

I am NOT complaining.  As I said, I love the events of the past week and a half.  It is just that so many hit all at once.  I do have the power to say no, but chose not to .  

Tomorrow however is another day...we plan on attending church and then I think we will lock the doors, throw away the keys to the house and car (we will be forced to stay inside that way) and STAY home.  Actually most of next week is looking promising to a homebody like me. 

Yummy Yummy!

You might remember that a while back I took advantage of the great deal on chocolate covered macadamia nuts at Walgreens.  Well, I have used regular macadamia nuts with white chocolate chips to make cookies and had thought about using some of these chocolate covered ones for the same purpose.  

Low and behold...one of my favorite blogs beat me to it!  You can click here to see what I mean.

(You will love her blog by the way, it is fascinating.  She starts the year with an $800.00 budget for herself and 3 girls.  This $800.00 is her total budget for all food, toiletries, dining out, and more.  She is far superior to me when it comes to obtaining coupons and getting the big deals.) 

 

  Anyway, back to the cookies.   I decided to go ahead and instead of using her recipe, I  just used my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.  They are amazing if I may say so myself.  I also made some of my husband's favorite "chocolate chip cookies, without the chocolate chips".  Basically, we call them a brown sugar cookie and he loves them.  I just make a few cookie sheets full of these before adding the chips.  They are pictured as well.  

I still have at least 5 more bags of the macadamia nuts, so we can have yummy cookies again and again.  These cost just 50 cents a bag, which are much cheaper than even the cheapest chocolate chips, and so much more yummy!  

I am Impressed

I do not give too many product endorsements, basically because no one pays me to do so.  

I must say though that I am impressed with these "green bags".  I purchased them with some of my Extra Care Bucks at CVS, so they were at no cost to me.  I figured that way I didn't have anything to lose.  I have used them for most all of my produce and have been pleased with everything.  I am most pleased with the fact that I am not throwing away a single banana!  They are staying perfect for at least a week. I ate the last one from a bunch after 8 days.  

So if you want a frugal tip that really does seem to work, buy these or get them free and stop throwing away food. 

Moment of Truth

After bragging about my cheap week, I decided to go ahead and make a Wal-Mart run.  I had some very good coupons for pet items and Quaker Rice snacks, plus some other coupons that I did not want to waste.  I spent $36.00 (started at $73.00 before my coupons).  Plus, I will get $7.00 back from my sister for pet items I bought for her cats.  Those coupons expired today and that was a main reason I went ahead and did the Wal Mart run this week.  So I still came in under $50.00 total for household spending.  Not bad at all.  

I just needed to get that off my chest...

I've Hit a New Low

For weekly spending that is!

My out of pocket spending for this entire week has only been $20.37 !   

Now, in order to accomplish that I have used coupons, Extra Care Bucks, gift cards (that were free money for transferring prescriptions) and a Walgreens' Register Reward.  I also bought the groceries at Save A Lot, which sure helps the budget. 

Cool thing is....after my Walgreens' purchases today, I am getting back $29.67 in rebates that will be loaded to my Walgreens' gift card!  

So, in summary, everything pictured, plus 2 gallons of milk , 4 Glade Candles, and the items in my previous picture, were all purchased for $20.37 out of pocket.  

Now to be fair, we did have a supper of take out last night.  I have had a nasty cold brewing this week so husband picked up sandwiches and fries to bring home.  He spent about $8.00 total.  Even adding that into the total, we have done very well.

I even "grew" my Extra Care Bucks at CVS due to coupons and now have $32.00 in those sitting in my wallet.   I will probably use some just on milk this month to continue to keep my spending low. 

I have enough chocolate and cold medicine to get me through my current bug and I am set on most everything else.  I can sit back, enjoy the stockpile, and wait on the best deals to come to me!   

The Bucket List

Tonight husband and I hunkered down and watched a movie together. 

 I was really hunkered down, I was wrapped up in my Snuggie (yes, I have one thanks to my father in law) and another blanket on top of that one.  This nasty cold was making me freeze.  Another thing about this cold:  husband picked us up some sandwiches for supper (pizza burgers from a favorite restaurant), and I could hardly taste mine.  What a waste.

Anyway, back to my point of this post. 

 We watched The Bucket List.  I am not a fan of Jack Nicholson, in fact, I even avoid his movies. However,  I had heard from a few people that this one was good so we put it in our Netflix queue.   I must say that it is a good movie.  Made me sad though.  Also made me think about my own "bucket list", rather the fact that I don't have one.  That movie makes me wish I did though.  The last year makes you think about that stuff.  Now, I realize that I am not in the same boat (thankfully) as the guys in the movie, but I still wonder what I would like to do.  

I wonder, is that something you have ever thought about?

Wally is back

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you will know that two years ago the class penguin came to visit.  He stayed during Super-bowl weekend and we had some great adventures.  Well, he is back tonight and although we are not having any really big adventures tonight, he did jump in my CVS picture.  (What a ham).

I did do pretty well at CVS tonight.  I purchased everything after coupons and a $6.00 Extra Care Buck for $4.10.   That was put on a gift card that I still have from transferring a prescription (free money) so nothing out of my pocket.  I "made" money and earned back $12.49 in new Extra Care Bucks.  

My goal for February is not how much I save, but how little I spend and although this is only the 3rd, I am doing fantastic...I have spent NOTHING.  I have both CVS and Walgreens' gift cards so those will help me do some deals and not spend any real money.   We have quite a few gift cards right now from Christmas gifts and deals so I should not have to spend much at all if I choose to tap into those this month.   I am anxious to track my spending and see how far I can go on very little.  We will need a few things here and there, so I am not really setting a spending limit.  Things will come up, but I want to see how little I can actually spend out of pocket.  

Maybe "Wally" will learn something.

Sorry I have been lost...

in Facebook.   I know, I have seen it before.  Once you start on Facebook, you just get swallowed up and it sucks all your time away.  Seriously, it is keeping me busy right now because I am building my list of friends  and I am accepting, confirming and requesting friends right and left.  I am over 30 now in less than 24 hours.  I think the thing has a mind of its own and just kinda snowballs once you get started.

I am fine though with taking a bit of time to develop my friends list because after last year I am anxious to reach out to as many of my friends as possible to stay in contact.  Family and friends are our best possession and we need to keep in touch, and any new way to keep in touch is a good idea.  Youngest son wonders if this old mom can keep up with a Myspace,  Facebook, my blog, email, and well, life for that matter.  We will see.   I do have about 773 (just a guess, but probably more accurate than not) coupons to clip and file and probably as many to weed out that are expired so I admit I am a bit behind.  I already was behind with the coupons though.  

Now, to be fair to me, I have accomplished a decent amount of things for a Monday night.  

I have:

• emptied the dishwasher
• reloaded the dishwasher
• cooked supper
• cleaned up after supper
• folded a load of "whites"
• started a load of dark clothes
• hung a load of darks from the dryer
• washed a load of whites
• put whites in dryer
• paid bills, and caught up the checkbook
• washed chairpads from kitchen chairs and hung them to dry 
• taken a bath
• tried to watch "Jon and Kate Plus 8" (cable did something funky)

All of that , plus add about 30 names to my friends on Facebook.   Whew.  I just made myself tired.  

I really did want to pull a few coupons out for some of this week's deals, but that can wait until tomorrow.