Saturday, January 31, 2009

Can't seem to keep up...

Okay, well I had planned to get back into this pretty steady, however it just doesn't seem to work for me...I guess I should just be happy to post when I can. I am thrilled to say that we have about two weeks left in our "month" and I still have about $75 in grocery money left, that is only $5 less thank I am supposed to have! (Now mind you I did get a little bit of refund money in (rebates on products I have bought) So that has helped, but we seem to be staying on task this week. But this is the first time in over three months that we have even attempted to stay within our budget. I am very excited to be working on it again!

I had hoped to post about all the great deals I am planning to do, but honestly I just don't have time. I do hope to show you what awesome deals I got, assuming I get some!

For now, I am off to read, being back in school is more challenging than I expected...:)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Because I know you will understand and laugh...

Well, we are trying to teach our children (the boys) not to come out of their room until about 8 am. This is because Mommy really needs this time to get awake, read for school, spend some time with the Lord, exercise and get some housework done. Not that I would do all of that in any given morning but those are all options that I "need" right now :)

So in order to do this, we put a digital clock in the boys room and told them they could not come out until they saw an 8. (I am quite certain Matt showed him where the 8 needed to be) They are more than welcome to get down and play with their toys or whatever they so choose so long as they stay in their room. Joshua assured us that he understood (which is important, because HE is the one who can open the door).

Well, I removed Lydia from the room when she started crying around 7 this morning. Nursed her and put her in her pack n play in my room. Then went back to my studying. Then sometime around 7:15 I heard the boys. I thought this would be a good test. We really didn't expect that it would work on day one, but I was willing to try. Work with them and help them learn.

Joshua and Asher came running down the hall at about 7:20, I was shocked. I really thought this would have lasted a little longer. I was even more surprised to hear Joshua saying, "Mom, my clock has an 8 on it" followed by the words "and a 7, and a 1" Yeah, it was 7:18...

Oh well. I did get some studying in this morning. And it was a good learning experience for me. Tonight I will make sure that Joshua knows where the 8 needs to be on the clock!

Do any of you do something like this? If so how does it work? Have you always done it? If not, how long did it take to get it in place? I would love any advice on this!

Monday, January 26, 2009

KROGER AGAIN!

That great Kroger sale I told you about last week...well it seems like they are doing it again!!! YAY!!! I will be there Thursday night after class!! I can't wait! If you go, tell me now you did! Have fun!

More on the Sweet Potatoes



I really got tired of every Sweet Potato recipe calling for brown sugar and cinnamon. Don't get me wrong...I like those two ingredients, but we needed some variety. SO I found this recipe! It was pretty good, nothing GREAT but not too bad...
Sweet Potato Wedges, serves 4

Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
freshly ground pepper

Directions
1 Preheat oven to 425F degrees.
2 Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut each half lengthwise into six wedges.
3 Mix with remaining ingredients in a bowl.
4 Toss gently to coat potatoes thoroughly.
5 Place wedges on a baking sheet without letting them touch and bake for 25 minutes or until very tender.

I doubled it and did not have cloves, so it was a little different, but I don't think it changed it too much.

CVS



SOY JOY!!!

I initailly made three transactions, that were basically all the same...

I bought:
1 head and shoulders 4.99
1 box Soy Joy 6.00

I used $1 mc coupon on the Head and Shoulders
then $9 ECBS (the first time I only used $7)

I then payed teh remaining, using a gift card for all but 0.15!!!

Then I realized that I could get more Soy Joy and went back and did three more transactions...
1 box Soy Joy 6.00
1 $6 ECB
Total 0.00

That was fun! May even go back for more Soy Joy, it says I have not met the quantity!

Walgreens



Well as you can see I had lots of fun at Walgreens this week. I was able to transfer a perscription and score an extra $25 gift card too! That was fun!

So in the photos you see:
1 Ink cartridge refilled $5.00 ($5 rebate in Easy Saver Catalog) FREE
2 Reynolds Wrap Aluminum foil .89 each ($1 off mc)
8 Hersheys candy bars BOGO (4 BOGO coupons) FREE
1 Colgate Toothpaste $2.99 ($1 off mc & $2 RR) FREE
2 PreSchool Workbooks $2.99 BOGO
1 Spill Proof Tumbler $1.09
1 Book of Stamps $8.40

I also used a $10 Register Reward from last week.

Therefore my total off the new gift card was $11.83!

AND I will get $5 back on my Gift card!!

I am very happy!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sweet Potatoes



While in Alabama Matt's grandfather gave us a 20 pound sack of sweet potatoes. There is no way we can eat all those sweet potatoes before they go bad, SO I decided to peel, cut up and boil about 20 potatoes this morning. I then added a little bit of brown sugar, a stick of butter and divided them into four dishes and stuck them in the freezer. We ate some prepared this way last night and we all really enjoyed them, even Lydia!! More homemade food for her! Tonight I am making sweet potatoe wedges...trying to be creative and think of new ways to eat sweet potatoes! (Though these are not really new, I usually add a ton of brown sugar, pecans, eggs and other things to the sweet potatoes and we haven't ever tried the wedges, I have heard of them but not tried them!)

Apples!

Well, I am not sure if you noticed or not, but in that last trip to Kroger, I bought a bunch of apples that were beginning to go bad...I had muffins in mind. I have a yummy recipe that has oatmeal, apples, and raisins. Well on the third batch, I ran out of raisins. SO, we ate a dozen this morning, then I put two dozen in the freezer...yummy for later.

However I still had some apples left. I really didn't want to wast them, and they didn't seem like they would be good to eat raw (they were browning just a little bit), so I made applesauce! YAY! Espcially since Lydia eats applesauce and oatmeal almost every morning. HOMEMADE applesauce! I am thrilled. And I must tell you that I have tried this before and FAILED miserably, but this time I simply peeled and diced the apples, added a LITTLE water and then put a top on them (in a sauce pan) and let them cook on low for a little while. OH how easy! I am so excited!

Friday, January 23, 2009

KROGER!!

I am so sorry this is taking me SO long to get everything up. I hope you all read this and get to take advantage of the awesome sale at Kroger this week (this ends today...SORRY)! I had a BLAST...here's the deal...they have LOTS of items that are included in a special sale. And when you buy 10 of those items they subtract $5 from your total bill. That is like getting an extra .50 off each item you buy. You can do that as many as three times per transaction. On Wednesday I bought 30 items in the sale it was SO much fun!!!

I do not have time to list all the wonderful things I got at all the wonderful prices. BUT you must go and enjoy the sales...it was GREAT! I even went back LAST night after class and got some more great deals!




If you have questions I would love to help! Just let me know :)

Walgreens...

I did two transactions at Walgreens and spent a bit more money that I would normally, however I bought lots of grocery items as you will see...



On the first transaction I bought:

5 Pepsi product 12 packs 3.00 each
1 Tostito Queso dip 2.50
Doritos Nachos 2.50
2 Orval Popcorn 1.50 each

that totaled $23 dollars
I used a $1.50 off 2 mc coupon for the popcorn

total after tax was 22.67 (used gift card)

I got $10 Register Rewards back(for the soda and chips and dip)...

I then bought:
6 jars Ragu Spaghetti sauce-1.99 each
1 jar Skippy Peanut butter 1.99
1 box Lipton tea bags 24 ct 2.99
2 dawn dish soap .99 each after in ad coupon
2 Reese whips candy bars 1.59 for both
3 packs Wrigleys gum .33 each after coupon in Easy Saver catalog

I used these mc coupons:
2 - .50 Dawn
2 - 1.00 off three on Ragu
1 - 1.00 off two Reeses whips candy bars
1 - .60 off Skippy Peanut butter

I also used my $10 RR from the previous transaction.

My total after tax was 7.09
I ues a gc for 2.14
so my OOP was 4.95

YAY! And I got a $10 RR for my next trip!

CVS

Okay FINALLY here are the details!

So when I arrived at CVS I found some really good deals! Here is what I bought:

2 Tylenol Severe Allergy 24 ct 1.82 each (clearance)
1 2 pack wrapping paper .49 (clearance)
2 CVS brand Allergy Meds 3.79 each (Free after ECBs)
3 Hallmark Cards .99 each ($3 ECBs when you buy three)

Total = 14.68
-2.00 2 $1 mc on the Tylenol
-10.00 ECB (from previous purchase)
New Total = 2.68
+.32 tax
Final total $3 on Gift Card YAY

AND I got 10.58 in ECBs back!!!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

I am coming back!

HEY! I have missed you so much! I have thought about you often. I have wanted to blog here...it has just simply been CRAZY! We are now done with our travels and back home settling in, so I hope to begin something more regular here! I did get to go shopping yesterday and I scored some SWEET deals! Just to give you a quick summary I got everything in the photo below for about $45! I hope to come back and give some juicy details a little later today...we will see :)

All this came from Kroger, CVS and Walgreens.