Shopping Spree :)

Walgreens was easy.
7 packs of Trident gum. Reg. $1.29, sale 3/$2. Used 6 - $.75 manqs
14 packs of Extra gum. Reg. $1.29, used 7 BOGO qs, then sale for 3/$2
These are great because the 'sale price' is with an in-ad coupon, so if they are unaware of the 'sale' they give you full value of your man q's.
So 21 packs of gum were $.72 of my gift card. I haven't been to Walgreens since April 16th! haha. Thanks, Walgreens.

CVS had GREAT clearance finds! If you read abour something online, or even if it has a clearance tag, scan it!!
Reynolds Foil, 75sq ft, clearance tag said $2.50 but it scanned $1.25! I had 6 $1 coupons.
Ziploc twist n' lock containers, clearance tag said $1.58, but scanned $.92. Bought all 6 from the shelf, with 3 $1.50/2 coupons
One Glad candle, sale $4.99 used $4 q.
Spent 4.82 on GC :)

TARGET IS A PAIN. For pete's sake, they DO NOT understand coupons. They would not let me use a store and manq on one item. My Kashi coupons that say 1 per purchase he said was the same as one per transaction and he kept calling me ma'am and was firm but polite, but REALLY you have the rules wrong, buddy!! So I left everything there and called corporate and she told me I was definitely right. We'll see what good that does. So I went back after choir practice and picked up the same items. This time the cashier didn't like that the Target smartfood coupon said "item not found" and was wary of two coupons for one item. the Pupperoni also said item not found. Hey, I can't help it if yor registers are bad!!
Waffles: $2.54 and $2.28, used 2 $1.50 coupons
Pupperoni: $2.39 each, used 2 $2 q
Smartfood: $3 sale, $1 store and $1 manq
$4.06 cash. Almost not worth it, except I have like 4 more waffle coupons, and two more sets of popcorn ones. ARGH!!!!!!

At least I finally got the 3 $1.50 coupons for the milk! It was a rebate deal. That milk is SO GOOD.

A Feast!

I LOVE cooking, and not just throwing some cans and boxes together (although there is a place for that, too!). Monday night I whipped up some turkey burgers:





Yes, I use a scale for accuracy! Mixed in chopped red peppers and white onion. Spices...I think this time was garlic powder, black pepper, salt, dry mustard and some red pepper. Then a squirt of yellow mustard and one of caesar dressing. Yeah, that's how I roll!

Whipped up some sweet potato fries (peeled, 'chipped' as Yorkie would say, then olive oil, kosher salt and fresh black pepper, then paprika) and brewed some decaf iced tea.




YUM! We had some new 'cheese' from Borden - Cheddar with Applewood Bacon and you could really taste the bacon! I mixed mayo and ketchup on one side, then the cheese and lettuce on the other, toasted bun. Matt likes just cheese and ketchup.

One of the blogs I have started reading is Smitten Kitchen and she just has the BEST most gorgeous recipes, and she also hung out with The Pioneer Woman lately, another of my faves. But yesterday Deb posted a recipe for Raspberry Buttermilk Cake so I threw some lemon juice in my milk and got going!




What a great end to the evening!

And because we all want to be more like Bezzie, here's my own kitty thermometer:



It's over 80 here today (and yesterday, and tomorrow) and poor Jack is home without AC. Last year they didn't turn it on until sometime in June.... :(

Quick Stop and Coupon Fraud

hey hey! Jewel gave me a small gem today. All those Kraft printables have come in handy. Buy 4 Kraft BBQ and get $2 OYNO! yay!




So, BBQ on sale for $.89 = $3.56/4, used 4-$1 q's
Sour Cream on sale for $.97 = $1.94, used $1/2
Total: $.62 (.50 + tax) PLUS a $2 OYNO catalina, for when I need more milk :) love it!
I wanted Philly Cream Cheese, but they were out of the Neufatchel, so got a raincheck for 6 @ $.99 so when they restock I can use my $1/2 q's. The only stinky thing is RCs expire in 30 days. Sometimes they just plain don't have it in stock in 30 days, but this item they 'should.'

Also at Super Target yesterday I picked up two Kraft Deli Selects lunch meats on sale for $2.99 each. Used two $.75/1 manqs and a $1/2 Target coupon. $3.50 for two AND I can send in for a free Kraft tote bag. Sweet!

Now, for coupon 'fraud'....one of the blogs I sub to had a post about buying the 4-pack of Kraft Easy Mac single serve cups at Wal-Mart for $3 on Rollback (sale of sorts). They said to use 2 of the $1/2 printables to make it $1 for the pack because you are buying "four" cups. Sorry? I left a polite comment saying that a multi-pack with a unique UPC is one item and not four! Maybe other people commented because they later removed the post. I said that we shouldn't mislead people like this who truly believe you can use a coupon in that way, because then it makes all couponers look bad.

Sometimes I use a BOGO and a cents off q, but it still seems odd to me. However, Walgreens accepts it most times. To me the BOGO q applies to two items, much like a $1 off 2 coupon applies to two items. People take a lot of liberty with the wording on coupons, which makes shopping difficult as cashiers struggle to follow the rules so they aren't disciplined by thier managers. However, some wording just isn't understood by cashiers and no matter how politely we explain it we still can't use coupons!! ugh.

Lesson: Use coupons and deals in the correct manner!!

Living Healthy

I've been reading a lot of books lately, and thought I would share some thoughts on some good ones I had:


"The Skinny" taught me about calorie density and eating things that will fill you up, not out. You can only eat so many calories per day, and some calories will leave you wanting more while others will satisfy you. No one wants to be hungry all the time, so learning what to eat to stave off hunger for longer really helped me out! I eat 4 egg whites for breakfast maybe every other day. Other times I have 2 Kashi Waffles and a strawberry smoothie. I cut out sugar from the smoothie and added honey instead. Use less for less calories but same amount of sweetness. It's great!


"The World is Fat" shared much of the same thoughts, but also followed "case studies" of families from India, the US and Mexico, which was really interesting. It showed how basically our innovations in technology and food production have led to less activity and more calories consumed, which is definitely true if you look around, even at your parents' generation.


I bought this at the used book store for $5, which is great! (used a gift card) It speaks of flavors and how we can use our nose and just enjoy the first couple bites and after that, we don't enjoy a single food as much. If we all just ate less, we could still enjoy the richer things in life because we'd eat less and feel satisfied.

I'll share more thoughts on healthy eating later, but these books are what gave me a jump-start.

Ultra Foods Deals!!

This week was GREAT at Ultra. Some great deals.





Purina Kitten Chow: $1.89 x6, used 6 FREE coupons (will donate.)
Milk for $1.78!
Mushrooms $2.99 (really love mushrooms!)
Red Peppers: Found a bag of getting wrinkly ones for $1. Great!!
Ricotta: $2.29
BBQ Sauce: $.79 (we ran out)
Frank's Red Hot Sauce: $.99, free coupon
Powerade: on sale for $1, buy 10, get $5 free (in-store q). I had 5 $.75 qs, so $.41 each!
Beer: on sale 3/$20, then a $15 MIR!! Rock on. 3 12-packs for $5.

So after rebate, it's $22 for ALL of that. Great finds! Starting the summer out right ;)

Grocery Budgeting

I read these blogs where families spend $40 per week for their family of four, which really puts our budget to shame! However, many of these people live in the south or other areas where the costof living is generally less as it is, and many of their stores double coupons. While I wouldn't exactly say it makes it 'easier' it sure does help. We spend about an average of $65/week, which I want to try and cut down a bit, if we can. I don't see why not, as we seem to buy some extra thing. And we have a stockpile of sorts (maybe some day I can share photos ;) ) so basically all we need to buy is meat as-needed, fresh produce, milk and bread, plus lunchmeat and cheese for Matt. But because we have extra, we sometimes like to go buy 'fun' stuff like frozen pizza from Trader Joe's, or their other goodies. So we need to not have that mentality of "we can afford it, go get it." But sometimes you are just out and about, or so many weeknights we work late, or have church activities or other things that mean we eat away from home. Foods that are easy to take with are sometimes more expensive asnd once in a while we just like to get subway or a pizza, which we feel counts as groceries becaus we aren't eating food we have at home.

I did stop for more Special K, since we LOVE it (the new blueberry is our new favorite!) and it's good for you.



Target had a deal on all Special K products, where if you buy 5 you get a $5 GC to use on your next purchase. They are on sale for $2.39 each, and so in my opinion, this isn't a good deal and not something I would normally do. However, I had a $5GC in hand, so I took 5-$1 manq's and paid $2.07 cash and still have a $5 GC. That made it worth it to me!

Also in the grocery budget for May are these lovelies:



They were waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday =) So sweet!!