I crossed a line.

I just bought coupons.  Do you hear me?  I BOUGHT coupons.  I spent $4 plus shipping at a site where a woman (?) charges for her time to clip & sort.  I bought a bunch of whole inserts and a few single coupons.  It felt a little dirty.  And a little saucy and dangerous.  I'll let you know how it works out.

This is why I go to Rite Aid a lot.

I was heading grocery shopping, and my youngest needed Pull Ups to sleep in.  They're normally around $11 a pack.  Now I could have gotten them at the grocery store and paid full price.  I could have just bought them at Rite Aid and used my +UP Rewards that I have saved up.  But with a little more work, I got all this:

I paid with $19 in +UP Rewards and .65 in cash, and got $18 back in +UP Rewards.  So if you count +UP Rewards as cash, I spent $1.65 for Easy Ups, 4 bodywashes, 1 deodorant, 1 computer mouse, 1 toothbrush and 1 box of cold medicine.  How much of this stuff will I keep?  Well, the Easy Ups... the mouse will get donated to Charlie's school, I'll put aside the bodywash and toothpaste for my brother, and the deodorant (and any other bodywash plus most of what I got earlier in the week) will be donated to either the town food pantry or the homeless shelter.  

If you have the time,  you can work out your shopping trip so that you get your needed item cheaply, plus a bunch of extras to pass along to those who need it.  It feels good!  And it's a little addictive, too!

Rite Aid trip 12/26

Today, my friends, I did it right, and I rocked it.  I had 3 transactions, and ended up walking away paying $5.63 in cash and pocketing a $10 +UP Reward after I rolled my other rewards.



Here's what I did:

Transaction #1
2 Gillette Fusion Proglide Power Razors, regularly $12.99, on sale $9.97
- 2x $4 off MC
2 Flexamin bottles, reg. $14.99, on sale B1G1 free
- $5 off MC

-$5/$25 coupon
- $16 in rolled +UP Rewards
----------------------
.99 OOP
earned $12 in +UP Rewards

Transaction #2
1 Dawn Handcare 9.5 oz.  reg. 1.99, on sale .99
-$1 off MC
4x Gillette Deodorants, reg. 4.99, on sale 4.00
-1 b1g1 free MC
-2x $2/1 MC
1 Gillette Clinical Strength deodorant, reg. 9.99, on sale 7.99
- $3 MC
- $3 RC
1 Crest Proshield Whitening, reg. 4.49
-$1 RC
-$.75 MC
1 Old Spice Deodorant, reg. 5.49
1 Old Spice Bodywash, reg. 4.79, on sale 4.00

- FREE WYB Old Spice Deodorant MC

-$5/$25 coupon
- $12 +UP Rewards from transaction #1
----------------------
1.06 OOP
earned $12 in +UP Rewards

Transaction #3
7x Nivea Lip Balms, reg. 2.99, sale 2 each (one of these is filler to get to $20)
-2x $2/2 MC
-b1g1 free MC
1 Nivea Bodywash, women's, reg. 5.99, sale 3.99
-$1 MC
1 Nivea Bodywash, men's, ref. 5.49, sale 3.99
-$1 MC
Advil 50 ct.. 5.99, with WR discount 5.39 (filler we needed at home)
-$1 MC

-$5/$25 coupon
- $12 +UP Rewards from Transaction #2
------------------------
$3.37 OOP
earned $10 +UP Rewards

A really fun chat with Amazon.com customer service.

First, I explain the issue. 

Me:I paid for overnight shipping, via FedEx, and the package didn't arrive. I called FedEx and they said it never left the local sorting location and it'll hopefully arrive tomorrow. Is there anything I can do about the fact that I paid for overnight and it didn't arrive?

Nishant :Hello, my name Nishant. I'll be happy to help you.

Me:Hi Nishant :)

Nishant :You will receive it by tomorrow. Really?  BY tomorrow?  Will FedEx show up at 11:59 tonight?

Me:I will receive it tomorrow, but it was supposed to be delivered today.

Nishant :I'm so sorry about this. I will issue a $10 promo as a delay to you.

Me:okay... You'll issue what as a what to me now?

Nishant :Is there anything else I can do for you today?

Me:So, just to be clear... will I receive a $10 Amazon credit?

Nishant :Yes.

Me:Will this credit appear to me when I log into my account?  I used to do online tech support for AOL, so I know it can be repetitive... but if someone's offering me a $10 credit I'd really like to know how to access it!  I was trying to help Nishant along by just guessing what the heck he or she was talking about.

Nishant :That's a promo. It will apply for future order.

Me:So the next time I order something $10 will magically appear? At this point I'm giggling and reading the conversation aloud to my husband.

Nishant :Not magically, automatically. You have to click on the apply promo option.

Me:And where will I see this apply promo option? Come on Nishant, bring your A game!

Nishant :While placing the order under payment option.

Me:OK, so there is no code or anything that I will need to use when placing an order? Please, Nishant, just give me a code.  Or SOMETHING.  I'm a bit wary of the promo delay fairy.

Nishant :Not at all.

I will send you a email confirmation as well.

Me:Thank you very much, I appreciate that.

Nishant :Is there anything else I can do for you today?

Me:Nope, that's it. Thank you.

Nishant :Thanks for visiting Amazon.com. We hope to see you again soon!

Happy Holiday to you and your family in advance.  Snort.

This is why I like spreadsheets.

I have a google doc spreadsheet that totals up my grocery spending and savings each week.  I like to see all the numbers laid out in front of me- the instant gratification of putting away the groceries and then inputting my totals in the spreadsheet is the kind of thing I live for.

I went shopping to prepare for Christmas dinner today.  We're only having 8 people total, but we'll be serving Christmas breakfast AND dinner since everyone will be staying here the night before.  I went shopping today with specific items in mind, things that aren't a normal purchase for me (sprigs of fresh thyme?  a 16 oz. package of breakfast sausage?!?) so I spent a little over $100, which is way over my normal total.

It felt good to enter that into my handy-dandy spreadsheet and find that I still saved 32% on this oddball trip.  In fact, I've only been keeping this spreadsheet for 2 months now, but I've already saved a total of $363 on groceries!  What a good feeling, to see exactly what my efforts have done for us, and that's groceries alone.

I should start a separate spreadsheet for drugstores- that one would probably blow my mind!

quick morning Rite Aid run

I went back at 8 am when the store opened, coupons in hand, to try to snag a couple more of the 50% off Clearasil items.  Unfortunately they were all sold already!  I left my cut out coupons on the shelf, and hopefully they'll help someone else.

I also hit up the As Seen on TV section to try to get the buy $30 of items/get $10 back deal.  the fun thing about this deal is that everything is either 4.99, 9.99, 14.99, etc- making it close to impossible to pay only $30.

I ended up with a Children's Snuggie (14.99 -$2 VV coupon), a Micro Touch groomer ($9.99 -$1 VV coupon) and a pack of Cami Secrets (which I guess also have a $1 off VV coupon but I didn't have it).  I combined these with a $3 off $20 VV coupon, a $1 off VV coupon, and my $20 GoS reward.  I paid $8.28 in cash and received $10 +UP rewards.

I had $6 more in +UP Rewards I could have used, but once I hit the register I forgot that I had $10 +UP coming to me, so I opted to hold on to them as a safety net.  That was dumb!  Oh well.

THAT was easy... a simple Rite Aid moneymaker.

This week at Rite Aid (12/19-12/25) you earn $2 +UP rewards every time you buy a Clearasil facial care item.  There's are 2 Rite Aid Clearasil ads in the flyer: one for $2 off any Clearasil Facial Care item, and other for $5 off any Clearasil overnight facial care item.

I walked into Rite Aid tonight and saw this:


Clearasil Overnight, normally $10.49, marked down to $5.24.  With the $5 off in-flyer coupon, this item becomes an almost $1.50 moneymaker.  Combine that Rite Aid coupon with a printable $2 off Clearasil coupon here or here, and it's a $2 moneymaker.

(The Clearasil Gel Cleanser shown at 50% off would also be a moneymaker when combined with the $2 off Rite Aid coupon and the $2 off printable).

Hope this works for you too!

Yankee Candle at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

I brought the Buy 2 Get 2 Free Yankee Candle coupon to Bed, Bath & Beyond today.  It's only valid on large jar or tumbler candles, which are normally $24.99.  The bad news is I couldn't combine the coupon with a BB&B 20% off mailer, but the good news is there was some mysterious 25% off promo code that came off the order.  I'm not sure exactly now, or where, or why, but I'm not complaining!  3 of the candles ended up ringing in at 11.66 and the 4th candle rang in at 8.75, for a pre-tax total of $46.46 or  $10.93 each plus tax- a GREAT price for a 22 oz. Yankee candle.

today I owned Rite Aid.

My last couple of Rite Aid trips have been fails, but today, my friends, I had a win.  A BIG win.  You see, my local store had plennnty of $1.49 b1g1 free get $2 +UP back tape left.  Also, the peeps in my town who cleared out the cheap EcoTools products on Sunday clearly missed some poofs that were located further down the aisle and priced $1.99, b1g1 50% off, and oh yeah buy any 2 EcoTools and get $5 +UP back.  Do you see where I'm going with this??

Transaction #1

1 box Q-tips, $3.29 (we needed them and I had a coupon but apparently it was a Target store coupon and so it didn't work and I really don't even care!)

2 EcoTools bath poofs, total $2.98

6 rolls Rite Aid invisible tape, total $4.47

-------------------

subtotal $10.74 + .36 tax, paid with $5 rolled +UP rewards, final price $6.10 OOP

earned $11 in +UP Rewards

Transaction #2

1 EcoTools Bath Glove, $2.99

1 EcoTools Poof (only one left), .99

6 rolls Rite Aid invisible tape, total $4.47

-----------------

subtotal $8.45, paid with $8 rolled +UP rewards, final price .45 OOP

earned $11 in +UP Rewards

final totals: spent $6.55 OOP, and I have $13 of +UP Rewards to roll forward!

Looking at it another way, Rite Aid paid me $2.45 to take 12 rolls of tape, 4 bath tools, and a box of Q-tips off their hands.

also... we had 2 parties in the last 4 days.

Mia turned 3 and we had an open house for all of our lovely church family.  6 kids at the birthday, I have no idea how many at the church party, but both parties were a lot of fun and I had a good time making most of the food!

The Christmas party...


I baked alll yesterday morning and made most of the items on the table... gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, blondies, cheese straws, pita chips, hummus, guacamole, and there was also brie en croute that isn't pictured.

The birthday party was a make-your-own pizza party so I made dough in the bread machine and the kids put together their individual pizzas.

and the "cake" was really a sugar cookie topped with Nutella, yellow candy melts for cheese, and then gummi bears, marshmallows, and sprinkles for toppings.

budget wise I did well for the birthday party, mostly because our theme wasn't typical "birthday" so the supplies we needed were cheaper.  I had all the ingredients for the dough and I didn't need too many extras.  Kids got water or juice to drink.  We did order a couple pizzas for the grown ups but that was a luxury!

The Christmas party cost a good deal more, but I think it was worth it!

decent Rite Aid trip... but I messed up again.

I was planning to head to RA at some point today, but when Charlie woke up with a fever and a bark-y cough I decided to go out at 8 to grab her some cough drops & cough syrup.

There are lots of quirky deals running right now where the price of the item you buy is cheaper than the +UP rewards you earn, so I was hoping to grab some of these. I got 2 small packs of Revlon nail files for 1.47 each and then used the $3 off any Revlon nail care RA printable. I got 2 packs of RA tape that were b1g1 free, so I paid $1.49 and earned $2 in +UP rewards (you get $1 in reward for each package of tape you buy). I added gum filler to get to the $25 level for the $5 off myriteaid.com coupon to work.

Unfortunately, I messed up on the AirWick deal and ended up buying $9 worth of product instead of $10, so I didn't get the $5 +UP reward that would have earned me. Darn it!!

Anyway... here's my final total. I really think I'll head back later to roll my +UPs for more tape, you can't ever have enough in the house and they had PLENTY left.

1 kids' natural cough syrup

2 bags Halls cough drops

1 pack Orbit Mist

2 packs Revlon Expert nail files

1 Airwick Warmer

4 Airwick Oil Refills

2 RiteAid gift tape rolls

---------------------------

retail price after sales was right around $25, I paid $13.49 after coupons and got $5 in +UP rewards to roll. Not bad since the cough syrup was $7 (not on sale) and I was in need of some more air fresheners for the bathrooms!

How to fail at Rite Aid shopping.

1. Forget that your local Rite Aid takes two days to get the sale hang tags on the shelves.

2. Decide that you were somehow wrong after all, and the Pull Ups you needed aren't actually on sale.

3. Gather 2 packs of Pull Ups and one Kit Kat bar as filler to hit $25, so you can use your $5/$25 coupon.

4. When you get to the register, and it turns out you were right all along and the Pull Ups AND the Kit Kat bar are on sale, making your total under $25, freeze like a deer in headlights.

5. Don't bother asking the cashier to close out the sale so you can re-group. You could have gone back, grabbed another pack of Pull Ups, and dumped the Kit Kat filler, but you didn't.

6. Use all of your rolled +UP Rewards in a desperate effort to make the scenario come out better for you.

7. Spend $16 for 2 packs of Pull-Ups and a candy bar you don't need, when you MEANT to have spent $17 for 3 packs of Pull Ups.

8. Cry.

Pfft.

I was poking around various blogs and links today and I came across this article: Can a family eat on $100 a week? Now, without even reading past the headline I knew that the answer is yes, of course so (something that would have shocked me 3 months ago). My past 4 weeks of grocery shopping have ranged from $71 to $94, and even adding a milk run (2/$5 at Stop & Shop) we're under $100 weekly.

But as I read the article, it sure seemed like the author was turning up her nose on frugality. With a family of two adults and two children (one of which is a toddler) she normally spends $250 a week on groceries. Her $100 budget doesn't include cleaning supplies or paper goods because "there's no room". Really? She claims that she had a hard time providing her family with healthful meals on $100, and she complains that if she wanted a dessert, she had to make it herself. Poor baby!

In the end she decides that while she can do it, she doesn't want to do it again. She sent more than ever the next week to make up for the deprivation she suffered in that one week.

Well... it's nice that you have a choice! It's nice that you can choose whether or not to save the money. If I had that choice, I don't know that I'd do all of this work either. It's NOT easy to shop sales, combine coupons, stockpile, and plan meals based on what's on hand first. But for us, it's so amazingly worth it. Our grocery savings have started to spill over into other categories- Tom needed a new coat and some other items, so we headed to Sears and combined a 50% off sale with a coupon and a gift card and ended up with a wool pea coat, a nice scarf, and a dress hat for $9 out of our pocket. All of the girls' Christmas presents this year (except for the American Girl Treat Seat and Bitty Baby sleeper) were on deep discount- to the point that I still have money to spend on Mia and I have no clue what else to get her.

Do I feel deprived? Not 99% of the time- only when I'm wiped out and I just don't want to cook dinner but I know I can't push that meal off one more day or my ingredients will go bad. But when I look at the bank account and we're not in the red, and all the bills are paid, that deprivation goes away fast.

Rite Aid Gift of Savings update

I'm up to a $10 gift card already! My total spent (according to Rite Aid) is around $56 so far. Once i hit $100.01 I get a $20 gift card, and you can bet I'll be cashing that baby in immediately. And extra $20 to roll towards freebies and cheapo things, like $1 cereal or Goldfish crackers? How could I turn that down?

5 items you shouldn't be paying for

Couponing can be complicated and sometimes messy- but it doesn't HAVE to be. If you're looking for a way to jump in to the fray, consider that the following items can almost always be "bought" at Walgreens, Rite Aid, or CVS for free. These stores allow you to combine coupons with store sales and cash back rewards, which can stack up to no cost for you! Here are the top 5 items that I can almost always snag for free with just a store card, one copy of the Sunday paper, and internet access to printable coupons.

1. Toothpaste and toothbrushes

2. Shampoo and conditioner

3. Dish detergent

4. Cold medicine and cough drops

5. Candy

LOTS of shopping today.

I had 2.5 hours to hit 5 stores, in 2 different towns, while my youngest was in preschool. It was birthday shopping, Christmas shopping, and some random drug store buys. Here's the breakdown...

#1 CVS

Bought 4 Zhu Zhu Pets, 3 of which were free. Paid with ECBs. Total retail $39.52, $0 out of pocket.

#2 Rite Aid

Not gonna type it all out, but did 2 transactions.

First, Goldfish, Airborne, Thermacare Wraps. Retail $23.97, paid $16.30 and earned +UP rewards.

Then candy and some other stuff. Retail $22.99, paid .49, got +UP rewards.

I went home with $5 in +UP rewards to roll.

#3 AC Moore

Got supplies for Mia's birthday party and used one 50% off coupon. Retail $57.69, paid $34.43.

#4 American Girl Store

Paid a lot of money and got no discounts :| That place.

#5 Target

Had to exchange a pair of pants I got for Charlie that had the wrong size on the label, used some board game coupons, picked up a few stocking stuffers. Ended up spending $17 on 2 board games and a few other little things.

I got home and put the girls' gifts on the spreadsheet I've been keeping. It helps me to track online orders and know how much I've spent on each girl. Anyway, I figured I was about done, but turns out I still have a good amount of money left to buy things for each girl. I'm very surprised!

So how did I do?

Stop & Shop went fairly well. I walked in and went "woah, they have a Dunkin' Donuts in here... I might never leave!" but I quickly realized that the caffeine affected the shoppers, and not in a good way. It might have been me shopping in the afternoon instead of my normal morning trip, but I had a lot of rude people cut me off or shove by me, or stand in front of the milk while chatting on their cell phone, not even moving when I tried to reach around. I ended up spending $84 and saving $36. I needed to spend around $85 for my catalina to work, so I was buying more stuff than I normally would, but it's getting to the point that I can't IMAGINE spending $150 (my weekly grocery budget) in one trip. I used to spend over $200 in a trip... what the HECK was I buying?!?

I've been keeping a savings spreadsheet since mid-October. At this point I've spent $698 on groceries and saved $312. I average a savings of around 30% per trip with my coupons. It's not great, it's not anywhere hear as good as the pros do, but as a normal mom who only gets 1 newspaper a week, I am VERY happy with it.

I was putting Rice Krispies in my cart today and I knew I was going to pay $1 a box, and I found myself mumbling "that's because I'm AWESOME." Then I realized I said it out loud, and I laughed, which made me look even crazier, but so what! $1 for Rice Krispies! GO ME!

Menu Plan Monday!

I don't normally shop at Stop & Shop, but I will this week. See, last week I headed there to pick up 2 gallons of milk (they have a 2/$5 promotion going on and once you buy 6 you get a free gallon) and when I went through the self checkout I realized someone else had left a $5.50 oyno catalina at the machine. I really can't turn that down, and along with dollar doublers this week, it just seems like a good plan. I've never done a full shopping in the S&S near us, but it's HUGE and fancy and I hope I won't get lost!

ANYWAY. Time for Menu Plan Monday! In mostly no particular order:

Monday: turkey grinders (that's subs, or hoagies, for all of you non New Englanders)

Tuesday: salisbury steak (rolled from last week)

Wednesday: taco salad/nachos

Thursday: mac & cheese

Friday: Pizzeria Mia (my 2 year old's 3rd birthday party!)

Saturday: pasta & meatballs

Sunday: chicken fried steak, gravy & potatoes (cube steaks are 2.99/lb this week)

Wow... lots of red meat this week. Luckily most of these are made with ground beef- everything but the chicken fried steaks- and what we have is actually half beef, half ground turkey. So there's SOME poultry in there...

CVS haul 12/4

My husband mentioned this morning that he could use some more shaving gel. Really, he should realize by now that comments like this send me into a drugstore tizzy, since I suddenly have a "real" reason to play the Rite Aid or CVS game. Today, it was CVS. Here's my results:

(sorry for the crappy cell phone picture!)

Transaction #1

Gillette Fusion Shave Gel, 4.79

-$2 coupon (P&G)

Gillette Fusion Razor Cartridges, 15.49

-$2 coupon (P&G)

G-Series Sensitive Shave Gel, x2= 6.00

- 2 $1 coupons (P&G)

-$4 off $20 or more CVS coupon

---------------

$26.28 retail total, - $10 in coupons= $16.28

paid most of it with ECBs rolled from my last trip

TOTAL OOP: 2.91

earned a $4/$20 purchase coupon, and $10 ECB

Transaction #2

Charmin Ultrastrong, x4= 21.32

- 2x $1 off 2 coupons (P&G)

Huggies Pull-Ups 13.49

- $2 off coupon (pullups.com)

-$3 off $15 or more CVS coupon

-$4 off $20 or more CVS coupon (I didn't realize you could use these together- I was distracted and hadn't noticed I handed him 2 but it worked!)

--------------

$34.81 retail total, -$11 coupons= 23.81 OOP

earned $5 ECB

GRAND TOTAL: $26.72 OOP (saved $61.09), earned $15 ECB

My plan was to use the $10 ECB from transaction #1 to help pay for #2, but the $10 ECB didn't print out. I wasn't sure if I hadn't purchased enough in Gillette products to earn the ECB, so after I did transaction #2 I stepped aside and grabbed a flyer to try to figure it out. One of the cashiers saw me and asked to scan my receipt- THEN the $10 ECB printed. So I still got it, but transaction #2 doesn't look quite as impressive as I'd hoped!

But again, considering that we needed all of these items, and the Pull Ups weren't on any particular sale, I'm very happy with this haul!

Gift of Savings

Are you curious about how your Gift of Savings dollars will be added up? Here's the detail from my latest Rite Aid trip, where I spent .15 for a bunch of stuff. This is the detail that shows on the GoS site about my transaction.

12/02/10 WELLNESS PLUS COUPON $5.00 1 ($5.00)

12/02/10 $5 OFF $25 NONPERSCRIPTION 1 ($5.00)

12/02/10 MERCHANDISE TAXABL 1 ($1.00)

12/02/10 WELLNESS PLUS COUPON $2.00 2 ($4.00)

12/02/10 RA MIGRAINE CAPLETS 50CT $4.94

12/02/10 Command Dsgnr Med Hoo 2 $8.44

12/02/10 DOUBLEMINT BIG E 60PC1 $2.50

12/02/10 Foam 3D Jewelry Box Kit 2 $4.48

12/02/10 ELMERS SCHGLUE STKS 2PK $1.79

12/02/10 Ra Invis Tape 2 $1.00

Doing the math here, that's $23.15 purchased, and then $15 in coupons, meaning they gave me credit for $8.15 worth of product towards GoS. As I said, I paid .15 for this transaction (the gum was filler!) so I'm not quite sure exactly what they're not taking off... but it's interesting to look at, isn't it?

menu planning... Wednesday.

Yeah it's not Monday. Sorry!

Wednesday- Rebekah's pork chops

Thursday- chicken stew with biscuits

Friday- Salisbury Steaks

Saturday- Christi's Wild Rice Soup

Sunday- chili w/ cornbread

Monday- chicken parm

End of November: How'd I do with the grocery budget?

In short: I did pretty darn good! Our total food budget is $600 a month, which is $500 for groceries, toiletries, and cleaning products, and $100 for eating out and fast food. We DID get fast food a few times this month. Due to a death in the family, we were on the road a lot and we did get fast food 4 times (2 Sunday afternoon pizzas, 1 trip to Popeye's, and a trip to McDonalds). I'm not real proud of that, but it happens, and I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Honestly... 1 meal out per week is still amazing compared to how we were eating even three months ago.

We ended up spending a total of $635 for the month for food. I'm very satisfied with that number, because I feel like I'm doing a great job of shopping smarter, and I can see the difference in our bank account. We only dipped into the red one time this month, and then were back out within a day or two. We used to hit the red within the first week of the month, and we pretty much stayed there all month long. So scary.

I'm also lucky that we didn't host Thanksgiving, so while I spent $25 on supplies for dessert I brought to the meal, and we spent another $35 on ingredients to cook my parents a meal while we were visiting, it's still probably less than we would have spent for the entire holiday meal. This price also includes a frozen turkey that I picked up for $3 the day after Thanksgiving, to use for Christmas which we WILL be hosting.

All in all, I'm very happy with the stockpile I'm building, and the prices I'm learning to pay for food and other items we use around here. I organized our bathroom stockpile and we have 3 bottles of body wash, 5 men's deodorant, 3 adult toothpastes, 2 kids' toothpastes, 1 bottle of shampoo, and some other odds & ends piled up for the future. I liked seeing it all together, and knowing that nobody would run out of body wash for a long, long time!

My Sunday Rite Aid haul

Let me just say... DRAMA! I realized that I didn't get the full P&G circular in my sunday paper, so I had to run to CVS and use some ECBs to buy 2 papers so I'd have the 2 circulars.

Next I went to Rite Aid and took a while to get my 2 transactions together. Once I checked out with my first order, only $2 +UP rewards printed. Uh oh... I very quickly realized I'd bought the wrong Gillete razors. UGH! That $10 in +UP rewards was worth fighting for, so I very apologetically returned the wrong razors and did another transaction.

After all that, here's my breakdown...

2 x Gillette Fusion Proglide razors, normally 12.99/for sale 9.99

-2 $4 off coupons

1 DayQuil & 1 NyQuil 24 ct., normally 7.49, sale $4

-2 $1.50 off coupons

-$5/$25 coupon

-------------------

$11.98

earned $12 in +UP rewards

then...

4x Gillette Clearshield Deodorant, normally 4.99, sale 3.50

- b2g1 free coupon

- $2 coupon (on stick #4)

---------------------

$8.50

earned $4 in +UP rewards

**I really SHOULD have done this scenario twice in one deal and used another $5/$25 off the order, making my total around $4 OOP. Oh well.**

Total OOP: $20.48

+UP Rewards earned: $16

TOTAL PRICE: $4.48

I'm not entirely sure how much of this goes towards Gift of Savings... I *think* it's computed by the sale price of your items, but your coupons and the +UP rewards you earn don't count. If so,

I believe that's about $41 towards Gift of Savings, which gets me $5 back. Seriously, this is nuts. How do they stay in business? I am guessing it's just that the people who pay no mind to sales or +UP rewards trump all the super shoppers who really work the deals.

ETA: Well that explains that... GoS this year looks to be subtracting +UP rewards and Rite Aid coupons and possibly manufacturers coupons too. It'll take a lot longer to get to those reward levels! Still worth entering your receipts though. You never know!

Know what was fun today? We arrived home from our lovely Thanksgiving at my parents' house, and my husband said "we need hand soap for the bathroom." I picked up the Rite Aid circular, checked my coupon organizer, and bam, Dial hand soap was on sale for $.99 and I had a $1 off coupon. You need hand soap? Here's some free hand soap. It felt strangely powerful.

If you have a Rite Aid near you, there look to be some good deals to be had starting 11/28 as the Sunday paper will have a Proctor & Gamble coupon insert, which combines with a promo at RA. Purchasing $30 worth of items gets you $10 off at NFLshop.com, and buying $50 worth of items gets you $25 off at NFLshop.com.

You'll also be able to submit your receipt towards Rite Aid's Gift of Savings, which nets you a $10 gift card, AND you can then submit your receipt to get a Proctor & Gamble coupon book. Check out the Krazy Coupon Lady for more info and some scenarios.

I give thanks to CVS today!

Good old CVS and their inexplicable ECB 3-day deals! Today I got:

1 Herbasine Shampoo

1 Herbashine Conditioner

1 Colgate Sensitive toothpaste

1 Old Spice Fresh deodorant

1 Eucerin lotion

1 Listerine 3 pocket pack

1 Twix king size

1 Carmex lip balm

1 Advil PM 4 ct.

1 Renpure (sp?) conditioner

All of these items were paid back 100% with ECBs, and with coupons, they ended up paying me $7.30 to take all of these items home. Also the Renpure (sp?) has a rebate peelie on it for a full refund, so once I get that I'll have made $12.29 plus got all of those items. And there were plenty more ECB deals I passed up. Woo hoo!

Happy Thanksgiving to ME!

Mailing in some rebates today...

My mailman will be so excited!

$20 Olay rebate received check 12/16

$10 Sonicare rebate

$11.99 World's Best Cat Litter Money Back guarantee (I wanted to love this product, but the cats track it all around the house and I'm constantly sweeping it up! Ugh... but if you'd like to try it yourself, here's a link to get a free 7 or 8 pound bag) received check 12/14

Other Rite Aid rebates I put in on the site yesterday...

$20 Olay Regenerist SCR

$20 Sonicare SCR- Essence model

$2 Motrin PM SCR received 12/14

I'll continue to add rebates to this post and cross them off when I receive the checks. Hopefully I can track them better this way!

11/30- RenPure rebate offer, $4.99 (CVS 11/25)

Super Sunday Rite Aid haul!!

Olay Regenerist Microsculpting Cream 22 (reg. 29.99)

Olay Regenerist Nighttime Elixir 22 (reg 29.99)

Olay Regenerist Daily Cleanser 7.99

Olay Ribbons Body Wash 7.49

Motrin PM 20 ct. 4 (reg. 5.99)

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$63.48 (regularly $81.45)

-$19 in coupons

-$2 SCR (Motrin)

- $20 SCR (Olay)

- $20 PG or Olay rebate

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$2.28 OOP

Wahl hair cutting kit 22.49 (normally 24.99)

Sonicare Essence electric toothbrush 44.99 (normally 79.99)

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$67.48 (regularly $104.98)

-$19 in coupons and tier discounts

- $20 SCR (toothbrush)

- 10 Sonicare rebate

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$18.48 OOP (and I NEEDED the hair cutting kit, I wasn't buying it as a deal...)

So in final, the regular price was $186.43, sale price was $130.96, and I paid $20.76!

It's shopping day!

And you know what that means... I'm about to ramble on at length about how much MONEY I saved!

Every week I seem to spend less and less, and I love that. Today I hit 3 stores and spent under $100.

Rite Aid

I'm super proud of my RA haul this week, not because I got stuff free, but because I saved money on items I actually need this week. Most of these were on the week's grocery list, and by hitting up RA and stacking coupons, sales, and +UP rewards I did really well!

Rice Chex, normally $4.49

sale price: $2 each plus $1 +UP wyb2

minus $1 printable coupon

final OOP: $3 for 2 boxes ($1.50 each)

Glad trash bags, normally $8.39

sale price: $6.99

minus .50 VV rewards coupon

minus .75 man. coupon

final OOP: $5.74

Ziploc freezer bags, normally $3.99

sale price: $1.99 each

minus $1/2 manf. coupon

final OOP: $2.98

Pull-Ups Night Time, normally $11.99

sale price: $8.99

minus $2 off printable

final OOP: $5.99

Blistex lip balm, normally $2.99 and $1.69

sale: buy 2 for $3

minus $1 manuf. coupon

final OOP: $2

My math is a little wonky here, but I ended up spending $15.06 and getting $5 +UP rewards for next time, so I can count that as $10.06 for the trip! Total savings (not counting the +UP rewards) was $27.31!

Shaws

I spent $65.87, and I saved $17.70 with coupons and $15.43 with store sales. Total savings $32.53!

Sudbury Farms

I went here only to get some cheap chicken breasts ($1.99/lb) but then remembered that I forgot shredded cheese at Shaw's so I grabbed some. I spent $11.77 and saved $10.84.

Total money spent today: $92.70 ($70.68 saved!)

Menu Planning Monday!

Last week I KNEW we wouldn't be home for 7 nights of dinner. Knew it when I planned out the week. Yet I still managed to plan for 7 meals. So with that said, this week I'm only planning for 5 meals, hoping that'll work just fine. Here's my super exciting Menu Plan Monday breakdown!

Monday: weeknight chili (Cook's Illustrated slow cooker recipe)

Tuesday: macaroni & cheese (rolled from last week)

Wednesday: smothered pork chops (rolled from last week)

Thursday: chicken in wine sauce (Firefighter's Cookbook)

Friday: tacos

This was my set-up for meal planning and shopping planning this morning. Actually, set-up #2: the first set up included a spilled tea accident which explains why you're not seeing a tablecloth. Anyway, there you see scissors, the grocery list we add to during the week, my purple coupon organizer, my netbook so I can check sites for sales & coupons I forgot I had, this week's coupon inserts, my recipe/insert binder, store flyers for the week, and my hole puncher. Phew. Nobody ever said saving money was easy!

The second month of my budgeting adventure is teaching me that I am way, way off on some figures. For instance, gas. I budgeted $60 a month and have spent almost twice that. And Doctor bills... I just assumed that other than the rare office visit co-pay we'd have none, so I didn't budget it in. And this month alone we've spent $330 on medical bills. Oops. $400 for a unexpected flight to Florida to visit family in February... oh, yeah.

But as far as grocery budgeting, we're really doing well. So far this month, $294. Last month, $364. September... I don't even have the patience to do the math but I'm sure it was horrifying. So I can see it paying off, but we're not ending at 0 every month because of these bills I wasn't expecting.

After this month ends I'm going to see if $150/month can be adjusted downwards. Some days, I think we could do it.

It's Wednesday, or as I know it, Cheap Milk Day. Unfortunately, today is the last Cheap Milk Day because the long-range sale at the store (where every day is a big sale on one particular item) ends this week. Goodbye, Cheap Milk Day. I shall never forget you, nor your $2.29/gallon local milk, or your Double Dollar Coupon Tuesdays, or your 44 Cents a Pound Bananas on mondays. I will weep for the loss of you, my sweet pet. I can only hope that your owners choose to let you give me some OTHER great deal in the upcoming weeks... otherwise, I really have no reason to shop at your store.

Sniffle.

So Cheap Milk Day brought me in the store, and Women's Night Out at church kept me there. See, we're having a huge church fair this weekend, and tonight there's a WNO to have the ladies get together and price items and work on various booths. I had won a Sabra Hummus House Party, and I decided that the best use of my coupons and freebies was to bring items as snacks for WNO tonight. I purchased 4 tubs of hummus and 1 bag of Stacy's pita chips, all free with the coupons from House Party. I'll set these out along with more coupons for my church-y lady friends tonight, and I hope they'll love the hummus as much as I do, since it's my favorite brand.

I'm also baking for the aforementioned church fair, but I needed something I could prepare in advance and keep in the fridge, since we'll be out of town for the next two days. I currently have amaretto chocolate cake balls and mint oreo balls chilling in the fridge, waiting for their eventual swim in chocolate coating later today.

So $17.40 down the drain today, though only $7 of it was for my immediate family, and the rest was for church. Can't feel bad about that!

The lesser of... well, a lot of evils.

I've been doing a lot of blog reading lately, mostly blogs about frugal living, or meal planning, or saving money as a family. Today I spent a lot of time reading through 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget. This family of 4 first set out on an experiment to eat only "real food"- no refined grains or sweeteners, no packaged foods with more than 5 ingredients on the label, no deep fried or "fast" foods, only locally raised meats- for 100 days. After that, they decided to re-pledge, but this time doing so on a grocery budget of $125 a week. The idea boggles my mind- that it can really be done that cheaply, and I wonder how far $125 would stretch out here in metro Boston.

Reading her blog got me thinking about the food choices our family has made in the past couple of months, since starting our budgeting journey. When I was growing up, we never had junk food in the house. A bag of chips was a VERY rare treat, and it was usually gone within 12 hours of the grocery shopping trip. My mother made all of our meals from scratch, and if we had a dessert, it was home made too. I was probably in my teens before I opened a box of cake mix- it's just not how Mom does things.

And so for the past 9+ years of my marriage, I have tried to avoid a lot of processed foods. But this whole budgeting thing has forced me to practically do a 180. A lot of the recipes I make include a can or two of condensed cream soups. I've been buying refrigerated Pillsbury type croissants, frozen pizzas... and many more boxed mixes. So while on one hand the four of us are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables than ever before, I wonder if what I'm saving in money, I'm wasting with "unhealthy" menu choices.

I was listening to a piece on NPR recently where they said "if you want a treat, you can have it, as long as you make it yourself." We've certainly driven down THAT road lately. We've made lots of chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread, and we've even started using the bread machine again. No more ice cream! No more donuts or Munchkins! No soda!

I'm on the fence. Are we OK where we're at, or do I need to balance the menu more? Sure, you can always make your meals healthier... but at this point, do I NEED to? Am I happy with how my family has been eating?

So many things to think about today...

Monday Shopping Day was a success!

I normally grocery shop on Tuesdays, but some appointments tomorrow meant that I needed to do it today instead, with Mia in tow. I was worried how well she'd do, considering that I needed to make 3 stops, but she behaved SO well. It's nice to have a positive outcome!

First, Bed Bath & Beyond for some k-cups (practically the last luxury I have!)

2 boxes of K Cups, with $5 off $15 or more coupon, and $1 off K-cups coupon= $14.98 ($6 saved)

Next, Sudbury Farms, where my biggest purchase was a 8.5 lb pork loin that the butcher trimmed into a roast and chops for me. That saved me an immense amount of $$ over the cuts in the butcher's case, which were labeled at $5.95/lb (and I paid $1.99/lb for the same thing!)= $21.01 ($26.98 saved)

Finally, Shaws, where I do the bulk of my shopping. I had a $5 off catalina from last week, and laundry detergent was Buy 1, Get 2 Free. I also earned my free turkey!! = $81.68 ($35.80 saved)

I still need to make a milk run on Wednesday, but for this week: $117.67 spent, $68.78 saved!

Menu Planning Monday!

It's Menu Planning Monday- let's do this! We have two grocery stores in town. Sudbury Farms (which is a Roche Bros. store) is having a meat stock-up sale, so I'll be heading there for 1.99/lb boneless pork loin, and .44/lb bananas today. The rest of my shopping will be at Shaw's as usual. I do label meals by day, but in reality, we switch them up depending on what's happening every night.

Monday- salisbury steaks (left over meal from last week, since I usually shop on Tuesdays)

Tuesday- bayou roast pork

Wednesday- frozen pizza (woot!)

Thursday- slow cooker weeknight chili

Friday- chicken marsala (e-mealz)

Saturday- smothered pork chops

Sunday- mac & cheese

Monday- leftovers

There were a lot of great coupons out this week, but not many that I'll be needing to shop, so hopefully my short shopping list will help with saving $$ this week. I'm also going to try to run to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up some Chai Latte k-cups that seem to be out of stock everywhere. Hopefully they'll have them... Tom's been mooning over them for a week! Wish me luck!

$66 for $3 OOP at Rite Aid

It's been a really rough week. I did end up buying a coffee & bagel at Dunkin' on Friday night... it was my dinner, and I needed the caffeine for the drive. But other than that and the pizza for lunch the other day, I think we're doing OK, considering.

Oh, and Tom ran to Shaw's to buy some stuff to make his famous comfort food favorite, macaroni & cheese, last night. I warned him I wasn't at all in the mood to cook and even though I suggested Chinese take-out, he cooked anyway. He's such a good guy.

After church today, I'm going to drown my sorrows at Rite Aid, where I'm hoping they'll end up paying ME to shop there. It happens! There are some great Rite Aid deals this week. In case you're curious, here's my plan:

Garnier $5 +up reward when you spend $15 on Fructis, Nutrisse, Herbashine, or Nutritioniste

Herbashine haircolor $5.99

-$3 printable

-$2 video values coupon

Herbashine haircolor $5.99

-$3 printable

- $3 coupon in Sunday paper

Fructis Anti-Dandruff Shampoo $3.99

- $1 printable

- $2 video values coupon

- $1 coupon in Sunday paper

OOP price: .99, earn $5 +up reward= moneymaker!

Nivea Bodywash $1 +up reward when you buy 1

sale price $3.99

-$3 off 1 Nivea Men's bodywash printable

OOP price: .99, earn $1 +up reward = free!

Osteo Bi-Flex $2 +up reward when you buy 2

sale price: b1g1 free

-$3 video values coupon

-$3 printable

-$4 coupon from this week's Sunday paper

OOP price: varies, earn $2 + up reward (and I'm going to roll all my other +up rewards to this)

ETA: I did it! I ended up sending about $5 out of pocket and walked away with a $2 +up reward and $69 worth of stuff, all stuff we'll use. So a total price of $3, $66 saved.

Want a free pack of Extra Dessert Delights Gum? Go to their Facebook page!

It's been a rough day. We got take-out pizza for lunch. Our first meal "out" in 35 days. Oh well.

Where we used to live, there was only a CVS. I could drive about 20 minutes to find a Walgreens, but I certainly didn't have a Rite Aid nearby. A year or two ago I heard of people playing "the CVS game" or "the Wags game" and using store cards, weekly sales, store coupons, and manufacturers coupons to get freebies. I was impressed by the savings I saw but I didn't try it myself.

Since we've moved, and have a Rite Aid right down the street, I've been paying way more attention to these kinds of deals. Yesterday I got a great deal on an 18 pack of Tide Stain Release:

$5.88 (sale price) -$2 manufacturer's coupon - $1 +up reward= $2.88 out of pocket

There are lots of sites out there that will do the legwork for you and tell you how to get the best deal at Rite Aid (or lots of other stores) every week by combining coupons and sales. I like For The Mommas and her deal lists for Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens. I'll warn you, though: just because it's cheap or free doesn't mean it's worth your time! Sure, I can use a clearance sale plus a coupon to get some Shakira perfume for only .50... but why would I?

Just a friendly tip for you tonight, since my dinner didn't go over well and my kids refused to eat it because "it looks gross" and it DID look gross! My poor, poor children.

It's shopping day!

I combed through the freezer and made a list that I posted on the fridge door. It made it a lot easier to plan meals based on the items I have on hand. At 2 stores I spent $91 and saved $25 with coupons.

And then... then I decided to pick up Toy Story 3, which came out today. I had an $8 off coupon for a specific version of the movie (BluRay & DVD combo) and I had to go to FOUR STORES until I found one that 1) had the version in stock and 2) would accept such a high coupon. I ended up getting it at Target for a total of $16.99, which was cheaper than it would have been at any of the other 3 stores, so it all worked out in the end-- other than the gas I used!

When I realized Tom wouldn't be home for dinner tonight, I changed plans and the girls and I are just having frozen pizza. We'll save North Country Stew for another night, and the recipe definitely looks good so I'm excited. I've also planned to make some pizza dough in the bread machine for calzones later in the week. I haven't used the bread machine since we moved from our house into the apartment last year, so I'm looking forward to getting it back out and getting fresh bread back on the table.

it's Menu Planning Monday!

Normally I pick & choose which e-mealz we'll do for the week, but this time I'm going to "shop from my freezer" and make recipes that rely on meats we've already got on hand. I'm thinking we'll be able to shop fairly cheaply this week, thanks to my awesome parents who brought a bunch of groceries with them on their visit this weekend. Between that and the well-stocked freezer, I'm crossing my fingers that the grocery bill will shrink this week.

Monday: chicken pot pie (defrosting right now)

Tuesday: North Country Stew, garlic bread sticks

Wednesday: Creamy Herb Pork Chops, mashed potatoes, creamed corn

Thursday: Slow Cooker Burritos, yellow rice, salad

Friday: Taco Calzones, salad

Saturday: I Ain't Chicken Chicken, roasted potatoes, some veggies

Sunday: Salisbury Steaks, sugar snap peas

We need a milk run today, but I'm doing the big shopping tomorrow... and gorging on Halloween candy in the meantime!

so... how did the month go?

It's the 30th, it's Saturday, and it's time to face the music. I know I have a bit of shopping to do today, but our accounts should be more or less at their limits for the month, so I'm sitting down with my mint.com account and taking a good look at how we spent this month. Did we meet the budget? Umm... no. We had a lot of expenses I hadn't budgeted for, including medical bills and twice as much gas as I thought we'd use. Looks like I'll be tweaking numbers for next month for sure.

But, most importantly, how'd we do on the food budget?

$762 groceries (includes health & beauty, household cleaners, toiletries, etc)

$5.67 Starbucks (hmm... apparently Tom snuck in a visit when I wasn't looking!)

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October's grand total: $767.67

I'd budgeted $600 for the month for food, including $50 a couple of meals out (with kids eating free of course). THAT didn't happen, but probably since I was looking it as "$150 a week" not realizing that the month was 5 weeks, not 4. But let's look at last month's food and grocery spending, shall we? Hold on to your seats... this is going to blow your mind.

$849 groceries (MORE than this month- and yet we still ate out. a lot. you'll see.)

$615 restaurants hooooooo-lee. But wait.

$288 fast food not restaurants! Different!

$49 alcohol & bars mmhmm.

$31 coffee shops I love coffee. No lie.

----------------

September's grand total: $1832 Please excuse me for a moment. I need to go have a heart attack.

OK. I'm back.

Ready for the final number of "savings"? And really it's the final number of "money that we spent that we never had in the first place, thus digging ourselves into a hole that will take us months to get out of".

$1832 - $767.67= $1064.33 "saved" on food this month.

I'll say it again... it's not like we have that much to throw in the bank. It's money we were spending that we didn't have in the first place. But that's $1k less that we're in the hole this month. I am so proud. I asked Tom if he felt like we'd missed out on $1,000 worth of food by me cooking all our meals, and he laughed. "$100, maybe. Not $1,000."

Today shall be known as pat-myself-on-the-back day. I doubt we'll ever have another month with such a big difference in money going out. It looks great on paper, and it feels awesome.

It's been really tight the past couple of days. We are still working to dig ourselves out of the hole we dug. My car is on empty, but we had to wait for a paycheck to get any gas so I've been using Tom's car. I hate feeling stuck.

Food for the past two days has gone well. The wild rice soup was delicious, though I'm not sure why it used Velveeta instead of cheddar (and the Velveeta was twice as much!). There was enough leftover for lunches for the grown-ups the next day, and I believe there's still one more serving in the fridge.

The Ritz cracker chicken... it smelled great, it tasted good, but the recipe felt really wasteful. I ended up making WAY more "bread crumbs" than we needed, and since I couldn't re-use them after putting raw chicken in with them, I had to toss the remainder. The recipe called for A CUP of melted butter. A whole cup! To dip the chicken in before coating it, and then to pour over the coated chicken pieces. Pfft. I used 1/2 cup instead and it worked out just fine TYVM. The chicken was super moist, and the butter was good, but from the great smell I was expecting more flavor.

This weekend is Halloween! I'm planning to bring the girls trick-or-treating at the Baptist Church and a shopping center Saturday, then they'll go door-to-door Sunday. I've heard we don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters on our street so hopefully when they go out, they'll find houses expecting kids. We bought our candy a month ago so we're all ready. We're having my family out this weekend, so it'll be interesting to see how well I can feed everyone, but I'm sure it'll work just fine.

Yesterday was grocery shopping day. I waited until Mia and Charlie were in school. I planned carefully with my meal list, staples list, store circulars, and my coupon binder. I worked REALLY HARD. My grocery budget includes household cleaners, health & beauty, etc. so I had some good coupons for various cleaning products that we use a lot.

I spent $27.72 at the first grocery store (they double 5 $1 coupons but you have to spend a minimum of $25) and got dish detergent, toothpaste, Windex, granola bars, and a $ bottle of hair spray. Then off to Shaw's, hoping to only spend $125 or less.

Unfortunately, I bombed. $141.87 for a grand total of $169.59- and I still need to pick up milk today (cheap milk day!). I'm frustrated. I guess my issue is this... either you can have a cheap weekly bill, or your can stockpile various dry goods and other items when they go on sale. But I don't think you can stockpile and end up with a low bill that week. So sure, I won't have to buy Windex again for at least a year... but that didn't make the bill look any better. I'm hoping that once I get a good stock of items, it'll start to show in my grocery bills.

Last night we had teriyaki chicken with pineapple, yellow rice, and salad. The chicken was a hit with Charlie and even my husband liked it. Mia preferred the pineapples! $11.08 for the meal, no leftovers but the salad.

Monday night we had delicious burgers & fries from a recipe we saw on America's Test Kitchen. Tom ended up paying just under $11 for the steak, potatoes, and buns he purchased to make the meal. It felt like a splurge (we haven't had burgers in almost a month) and it was SO good.

On another up note, we've both been losing weight since we've stopped eating out. Not a ton of weight, but I'll take it! I'm averaging about 2 pounds a week. What a great side-effect!

Unfortunately, we're still very much in the red for the month as we try to catch up from our habitual overspending. I need to take a look a mint and see if I can compare this month to last, to try to feel like we're making a dent, because often it just feels like we're treading water. It sure feels like we've been doing this for months, not weeks...

My hope was to have enough in the grocery budget to pay for 2 meals out each month, but that's not going to happen. Boo.

it's Menu Planning Monday!

I'm not sure yet if I'm grocery shopping today or tomorrow- it's so much easier to do without a 2 year old jumping in and out of the cart- but at least I'm in pretty good shape when it comes to meal planning and coupon organizing.

Monday- Old Fashioned Burgers and Easier Fries (we've made these 3 times and even though it's not a budget meal, it's sooooo good and we deserve it after not eating out once this month!)

Tuesday- Teriyaki Chicken & Pineapple, yellow rice, and salad

Wednesday- Wild Rice Soup, pita crisps, cantaloupe

Thursday- Crunchy Chicken, thai pasta, sugar snap peas

Friday- Crab Melts, salad

Saturday- Jambalaya, french bread

Sunday- Stuffed Manicotti, salad, bread sticks

Last night's dinner was a labor intensive chicken stew from Cook's Illustrated. It was made primarily in a crock pot, but don't let that fool you- it took me over an hour of prep and cooking various ingredients before everything was settled into the slow cooker. But Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country is always right, so the stew was incredible right? Wrong. After all that work, it didn't taste like much of anything. What a disappointment.

Lucky (I guess) we had enough leftover to freeze one meal and put some in the fridge for lunch for the grown-ups.

Tonight's another e-mealz creation, called Slow Bake Burritos. The girls aren't fans of anything spicy so I'm not making it with the chilies in it. Unfortunately I realized last night that the bag of onions we had was past it's prime (and it was a couple of months old so I can't be too upset) so that's one more thing we don't have on hand for this recipe... maybe some Pampered Chef Onion Onion seasoning will make it so nobody can tell the difference?

I'm getting burned out on cooking all these meals that nobody is really enjoying. I hope tonight will be a home run, and I can feel like I'm doing something good for the family again.

In other news we got a new stove, woot! We'll be getting reimbursed for it so right now it makes our budget look pretty bad, but I'm hopeful that the refund for it will come quickly.

Tonight's dinner was... well... a hot mess. It sounded pretty weird, but I figured I'd give it a try, and let me just tell you, if you ever see a recipe that calls for crushed potato chips on top, RUN. Your kids will not be fooled.

I liked it, actually, but the girls wouldn't touch it once it hit their plates. Into the fridge the plates go...

Meh, today wasn't so hot. I looked over both of the circulars for the grocery stores in town and decided to do my weekly shopping at the higher-end store, since they were having a good sale on meat. Unfortunately I realized about halfway through the store that they didn't carry the brands I had coupons clipped for, and the prices on my staple items were more expensive than I normally pay. I ended up spending $150 for the week, which is the max of our budgeted amount-- and I still need to pick up milk (cheapest on Tuesdays so I buy 2 gallons then). I know I did OK this morning, but between that and only clipping 2 coupons from the Sunday paper this morning, I'm feeling a little deflated.

We had to run some errands after Charlie got out from school and got back at 5, when I was informed that "everyone is starving". I'd planned to do a beef & rice bake from e-mealz but I soon realized that it'd take about an hour. I ended up making frozen pizza (which we also had yesterday... ugh...) and still working on the main dish so I could pop it in the oven to finish up tomorrow.

Could have been worse... I resisted some VERY strong peer pressure to go out to eat. But I DID resist! We're now at 18 days of no outside meals, no stops at Dunkin', no nothing.

Long, complicated day today. I owe a baby sitter $10 so I'm not sure if, technically, we went the whole day without spending any money. Frozen pizza for lunch, and we took home finger foods from a party for dinner. I am starting to see church functions in a whole new (free food!) light.

Normally tomorrow would be my grocery shopping day, but I have a long appointment from 10:45-2:00, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to swing the shopping trip. I'm underwhelmed by the e-mealz menu for the week, too. I haven't gone through the sunday paper to cut the coupons yet... did I mention it's been a long day?

I thank you, Target.

This morning I needed to shop for presents for two upcoming birthday parties. I headed to Target, hoping I'd walk out of there without spending $100- my normal Target bill, even if I only go in for a few things. It's hard to resist all of those great prices, and they add up so quickly, you know?

With my newfound frugalities, though, I wanted to do better. I had a coupon for a b1g1 Littlest Pet Shop toy, so I picked out two of those ($4.99 each) and then a larger playset, figuring the three together would make a nice gift. I also grabbed a Handy Manny playset for the other party. Combined with .99 birthday cards and .48 white gift bags, I felt like I got some nice presents at a decent price.

Imagine my surprise when the Littlest Pet Shop coupon scanned in for $10 off instead of $4.99 off! Woo HOO! All in all I spent $43 on the above plus carpet cleaner, band aids, nail files, carpet cleaner, and a couple of other little things. It almost felt like Target was paying ME to shop there.

Once I got home I had the girls decorate the white gift bags- now they're cute and personalized and way more meaningful then a $2 or more printed gift bag.

Today was our 16th day straight of no restaurants or coffee places. Tom & I had leftover soup from last night for lunch, and the family had some defrosted meat sauce and some pasta I got for $1/box a couple of weeks ago. Cheap, yummy food once again!

I had to get gas today. Yuck. We waaaaay underestimated gas charges in the monthly budget. That'll change next month!

Lots of visitors today- my parents came for lunch & dinner and one of Tom's friends stopped in for lunch. I explained to my parents about the budget we're following, and even though I found myself apologizing over and over for not bringing them out to eat or feeding them a fancy meal, they're very proud of us and were happy to eat whatever we served them. Lunch was tuna pitas and some leftover Mediterranean chicken with couscous from a couple of nights ago. No complaints.

For dinner we had easy potato cheddar chowder with some modifications- I used tater tots because we had them in the freezer, and also fresh onions instead of frozen. It was good! I was surprised! With some garlic bread, it was a nice, comforting and cheap meal.

Today was shopping day! I went to 3 stores and spent $117 including all of our Halloween candy. Some of my personal faves were bananas for .44/lb and a dozen organic eggs for $2.20. Oh and the Halloween candy- it's the good stuff and I got 3 bags, normally $15.96, I paid $4 total.

I think the grocery bills will be better once I'm well stocked on pantry "staples" that I'm buying as needed now since I never had them around in the past.

I'll have to look to see what we spent on food on the 2nd week of last month. As for the past 11 days- still no take out, restaurants, or fast food.

So Oct. 1-7 we spent $137 on groceries including a $20 trip to the farmer's market. I'm pretty impressed by that! And honestly I can't tell you the last time we went a whole week without getting take out or eating at a restaurant. Really, maybe never in our whole relationship. Unfortunately we did run out of stuff after my first $105 food trip... fruit, milk, bread. Staples. But that was simple enough to make a run for that didn't break the bank.

Yesterday I signed up for e-mealz.com which is basically a menu service. You get a list weekly with 7 dinners, recipes, and a shopping list, that should average $75. It's pretty cool because you can subscribe to all these different lists (meals for people on WW, gluten free, low carb, meals for 4, meals by the grocery store you use, etc etc). It's $1.25 a week. Anyway my point is I printed out 2 weeks' meals and I got some really good ideas for the upcoming week so I'm feeling encouraged by this whole thing.