Deals of the Week

This was a big shopping week. I spent a lot of money. But...I got a lot of good deals and increased my food storage and filled my deep freeze with meat. Lots and lots of meat.

Here's my story.

Free:
Gum
Vitamin Water
Kraft Salad Dressing
6 bags of goldfish
2 bags of Hanovers pretzels
um... I think there was more
Nivea Body Wash

But this is not where my story ends. Today I went to Safeway. They have a deal where if you spend $30 on certain products you get $10 off your next purchase. There are over a 3000 choices. So I spent the time and found the actual list online and matched what I needed, with what I had coupons for and what was on the list of 3000. Then I realized that my coupons expired today and I packed the kids up and off we went. You see by preparing ahead of time I could get my future $10 without actually spending $30 because I really probably only spent about $15 using coupons.

So I'm going through the aisles getting stuff on my list (always use a list) when I hit the meat department and realized they were having a BIG sale. And I bought a lot of meat (over 35 lbs). I went to the check out and almost fainted when the bill ran up to $85. I kept shaking my head as I was leaving the store and realized they never gave me my future $10 so I went back and they said they couldn't give me the coupon because it automatically rings up but they could give me a crisp $10 (if that was ok). Ummm...yeah!!! So my bill was really $75. I felt better. Then I looked at my bill again and realized I had saved $147. That meant my total bill would have been $222.

Here is what I got for $75. I did not feel so bad after my realization.

• 2 gallons of milk
• 8 jars of Bertolli Spaghetti Sauce
• taco shells
• 3 bags of Mission torilla chips
• flat of bottled water
• 4 cases of coke and diet dr. pepper
• 2 bags of preztels (regular size)
• 2 pork sausage rolls
• 12 lbs of chicken breast(boneless)
• 5 lbs of sirloin (boneless)
• 15 lbs of pork loin chops (boneless)
• 5 lbs of chicken legs
• 2 mangos
• 4 boxes of microwave popcorn

And now that I wrote it out I feel like I could have done better. But $75 is not all that bad.

I'd like to never have to do the last 24 hours again.

I won't bother documenting the 1st part of the last 24 hours but I the last part ended with a house full of kids.

A few months ago we got an awesome deal on furniture. If I had the energy I would link to the post about it. But...the dining room table we got had a huge stain that required professional help. Since it was under warranty I didn't worry about it and today we finally got it arranged to fix it. It was going to get fixed at my friends house since the warranty was under her name. I told her that I should watch her kids so she could deal with anything table oriented without being distracted.

The kids came. And for 3 hours my house was the loudest I think its every been. There was fighting. There was screaming. There was everything possible that could make them mad at each other happen. My hopes of getting some cleaning done while they were here soon dashed. Finally I went upstairs, picked a room and started cleaning. I moved to the other room and got on the phone to figure out some solutions to the 1st part of the 24 hours stuff. When I got off the phone (less than 5 minutes) I went downstairs.

4 children.
An entire container of oatmeal.
An entire container of raisins.
An entire container of animal crackers.
My entire main floor.

Put it all together and what have you got? A mental breakdown. Luckily the mom was do back in fifteen minutes.

So her kids are gone. My kids are in time out in their room. I'm seriously thinking of letting Mster stay there for a few hours. I want my little angel back. This is not an exclusive bad behavior situation.

This 24 hours better be done.

If you don't get the newspaper

or if you do get the newspaper...

Proctor and Gamble have online coupons that you can put right onto your grocery store's card.

Go to www.pgesaver.com
You will have to register but its free. Put in your area code and it will tell you which stores in your area are available. Put in your store card number into your account.
Select which coupons you want and they will automatically go to your card.
The next time you shop at that store and buy that item it will automatically just take it off. These coupons don't double.

I'm going to use these coupons as a bonus. I just dumped them all on my card and if I happen to use them I'll get a bonus. I'm not going to try and remember what's on my card especially since P&G products are all toiletries and right now I only buy them if they are under $.5o or free since we have everything we need.

You can also put free coupons onto you cell phone. I don't have a data plan on my cell phone so I'm not ready to figure that one out yet but those types of coupons are good for free movie rentals and a lot more than just toilet paper. If I get into it I'll post about it.

My Wheat Grinder

I got a wheat grinder for Christmas. I've had it on my list for a few years now but I guess somebody finally realized I was serious in my request. The problem was that the moment Christmas was done I finished my pregnancy honeymoon and entered into I'm too sick to microwave a hotdog for my kids stage of the pregnancy so I couldn't use it.

Finally last month I started feeling like my old self and I pulled it out and I LOVE IT!!! I use it frequently. It would have been so daunting if I hadn't used one before but I just pulled it out and started right away and within minutes I had my flour. I felt so industrious. I then, use my flour to make my own bread and pizza dough.

If anybody had told me when I was younger I would be making my own flour and turning it into edible food I would have laughed and laughed. I wonder when I'll start canning my own food from my own garden. hahaha. There's me laughing about future me. There are no gardens in the works for this summer. I decided that with baby #3 on the way I would focus on maintaining our yard instead of trying to do more than I can. I know, a novel idea.

Deals of the Week

I got a ton of good deals this week.

Free:
Kraft Salad Dressing (well it was $.08)
Toilet PaperX4
McCormick's Grilling Spice
Quacker Rice Snacks X2
Vitamin Water X2
Wrigley's Gum

Good Deals:
Frozen Vegetables - $.18
3 boxes of Raisin Bran, a gallon of milk, a loaf of quality bread - $4.50
15lbs of potatos - $1.99
Quatro razors (heavy duty quality ones) - 2 packs for $2
4 racks of beef ribs - under $12

Lster got 2 birdies

Lster loves the Wii. He loves all things electronic. He is scarily picking up how to play electronic games very quickly.

Today he asked to play Wii. I said sure and we played together for a bit. He wanted to play golf. A few weeks ago I told Lster he had to wait for Daddy to teach him how to play Wii golf. Well, Lster immediately did and Daddy "taught" Lster how to play. Basically it was Lster attempting to get the ball in the hole until the game had mercy on him and moved him onto the next hole.

But today when we played I was SHOCKED!!! He got 2 birdies in the first 2 holes. I couldn't believe it.

Lster thinks it Christmas

Lster: Its Christmastime!!
Me: Nope, its not.
Lster: yes mommy...its Christmastime!!
Me: Its Christmastime?
Lster: YES!!!
Me: Okay...its Christmastime.
Lster: Where are my presents?

Deals of the Week

Free:
Colgate Toothbrush
Sobe Drink
Quaker Rice Cakes Snacks (actually I got .12 cents given to me for getting them)

Almost Free:
frozen vegetables - $.18

Update on ValentineKnits

There really isn't an update on the blog but there is in sales. I just started branching out to using only ribbon in my hair clips and I've just sold my first batch to the store that I've been supplying for 4-5 months now. They bought everything I brought, made requests for new items (that I will now have to figure out to make) and ordered more of old stuff I've made to restock their shelves.

They are located very close to a movie theater and a bunch of other shops and apparently this summer on friday nights the shops are hosting an outdoor band show. All the shops are going to have tents out where they can showcase their merchandise. The shop owner said she wanted to have bunch of my stuff out there for those performances.

All positive news. Yeah.

Lster's take on Easter

At the dinner table:

Lster: Jesus is dead.
Me: Yep, Jesus is dead but He was resurrected.
Lster: Where is He?
Me: Um...(try putting it in 2 year old words)...umm...(giving up)...he's in the spirit world.
Lster: I miss Him*.


*I guess its probably important to note that Lster's been known to tell me he missed me after I come out of the bathroom. TIme doesn't really play a factor in his missing ability.

Deals of the Week

Free:
Colgate Toothpaste
Salsa

I spent 27.00$ and saved 46.00 that's 62% savings on all stuff we either use regularly or needed.

Today at the Library.

Mster(the social butterfly): Hi my name is Mster. What's your name?
Girl: Autumn.
Mster (eyes wide open): I just played with a girl named Autumn today. What's your mom's name?
Autumn: Kari.
Mster: What's your dad's name?
Autumn: I don't have a dad.
Mster (to me and her): You don't have a dad.
Autumn: Well I have an Uncle dad. My dad drove my mom's car and got pulled over and now he's in jail.

Lster's on the Computer

I realized Mster was around this age or younger when we started playing games on pbskids so I've been thinking of letting Lster try it out. I had been trying to figure out how to handle the fight for the computer time. I wasn't really relishing the tears and crying over who's turn it was but they've been surprisingly good.

The take turns playing games and Lster is starting to kick me off the mouse. He can move it around and click the button. He can play the simple games. Its fun to watch him.

Deals of the week

Free (all name brand):
Chapstick
Aluminum Foil x 2
Kraft Salad Dressing
3 dozen eggs
Hamburger Helper

Almost Free:
Shampoo - .50$
Conditioner - .50$
Deoderant - .25$

Good Deals:
hot dog buns - .50$
ball park hot dogs - .50$

I'm Pregnant

Today I am a full believer in pregnant brain.

At about 7:45 this morning Mster's friends mom called me. She wanted to apologize for not telling me she was going out of town. I thought it was really odd. She happens to be the wife our church's bishop so even if she hadn't told me I already knew. But I thought it was nice of her and was ready to hang up when she asked if I was planning on taking her daughter to preschool (we usually carpool). I gently reminded her that it was spring break. She gently reminded me that our kids preschool only had spring break for 1 week since her teacher was in a different school district than where we lived. So Mster's been skipping all week. Oops. I probably wouldn't have sent her anyway because she's been sick but I still can't get over that we've been holed up here all week and could have been back to our routine.

Mster was VERY excited with the news. Got ready as fast as she could and then asked me to take a video of her with her camera singing a song about how happy she aws that spring break was over.

Yep. I'm pregnant

Friends are Good

I'm a believer in friends. They've always been really really important to me. Part of me thinks its because I'm an only child and so I didn't have the closeness of siblings to rely on during life. But as I've grown up into a big girl I've lost a lot of my old friendships. They were ones I thought were so important at the time. They meant to the world to me and I thought vice versa. But their lives get busy. They have families of their own and our communication becomes me reading statuses on facebook. Of course there a few that I keep in pretty good contact with and don't resort to just blogs and facebook to maintain.

But I've had 2 friends from the "past" (I say that lightly because now I realize they were always there) who have since sprouted.

Today one of those friends saved me from having a horrible day. She was awesome. I knew I needed to talk to someone. The only person I could think of I knew was super busy and I just sat there trying to figure it out myself. Then I had the idea to call an old friend. We chatted. She helped me. She supported me. And then she had to go but I felt so much better after talking to her. I wasn't completely there but better. It was what she did a few hours later that makes friends good. She called me back. She talked to me about the things going on in my life. She laughed at the things going on in my life and she distracted me from feeling horrible and she rocks. After talking to her for awhile I had to go and she said "no problem, I just wanted to call and distract you a bit". She knew it. She knew what I needed and for the rest of the day I was able to not only function, I excelled.

And so I realized that there are friends out there that are real friends. The ones you can call on whenever. The ones who help you excell.

My doctor just pumped me full of prescriptions

I hate taking medicine. I don't even think Nyquil works all that often. Sometimes it will knock me out but more often than not I will end up having a restless night of inadequate sleep as I drift in and out of conciousness. (And inevitably the night I take Nyquil will be the night the kids decide to get up 5 times and I'll be walking around in a dazed stupor anyway)

That being said I can't even take nyquil right nor do I think its the right medicine anyway. I've got serious chest congestion. I feel like a somebody lit a cat on fire, blew it out right away, stuck it in my chest and now the smouldering mass of cat fur is just sitting there putting pressure in my lungs and making it hard for me to breathe.

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound and doctor's appointment. I hestitated to tell the doctor the chest issue but I did and asked what I could take. After asking a bunch of questions she decided that I needed 2 prescriptions (2!). One she prefaced by saying, you will feel like you just drank 3 cups of espresso. Your heart will race and you'll feel jittery. Umm...that sounds worse than a smouldering cat.

But I listened and I bought them and I took them and the chest is still heavy and hurts and my body feels all tingly all over and I'm feeling the jitters. Not so useful.

Yet again why I hate taking medicine for colds.