My latest shopping trip

Well, we had a new Meijer open in our city. Their grand opening is this week. I received a mailing that had a card in it to get $10 off if I spent $50 or more. The card is good for 4 weeks. There was also a coupon in the ad that gave you a $20 voucher if you filled a new or transferred prescription at the new store. I had one that I transferred. Cost me $5 but got me the $20. I also took back the returnables (bottles/cans) that we had so $4.40 in bottle slips. I'm going to put my total at the end.

Here's what I got:

2 cans store brand biscuits
20 oz pkg chicken breast tenders
1 head lettuce
1 V05 shampoo
2 Suave body washes (bonus size: 18 oz for 12 oz price)
2 boxes Barilla Whole Grain penne
1.88 lb green grapes
1.40 lb black grapes
3 rolls (1 lb each) store brand ground turkey
2 boxes Stove Top
1 pkg Aunt Millie's hot dog buns
1 pkg Aunt Millie's hamburger buns
12 bottles (32 oz each) Powerade
3 dozen large eggs
1 24 oz tub small curd cottage cheese
1 box (17 oz) Froot Loops
1 box (17 oz) Apple Jacks
2 pkgs Dole Salad Mix (did Romaine for both)
1 bag organic blue tortilla chips
3 kiwi
4 bottles (50 oz) Purex laundry detergent
2 rolls Breakfast Sausage (can't remember brand name right now)
3 loaves Aunt Millie's Butter Top Wheat bread
1 box Noodle Roni
2 pkgs McCormick Stroganoff seasoning
1 pkg fresh sliced mushrooms
3 pkgs Steak (markdown)

According to my receipt:

Total Meijer Promotions: 30.00
Total Non-Coupon Savings: 50.49

My Total Amount Paid: 30.99

I also got a case of 12 bottles of lemon flavored sweetened iced tea for free as they were giving it out as I was walking in. I told the guys I would like to take it back to my car as I was afraid they might not be there when I came out. Turns out they weren't. Between the tea and Powerade, we are set for drinks for Shawn's lunch for some time.

What I got for $12.33

I took advantage of a deal that Target has this week on General Mills cereal so if you subtract the $5 giftcard that I got, I only spent $7.33 for everything pictured here. This is what I got from Target and Dollar Tree. Target has General Mills cereal 4/$11. I went in with 3 $1 off/1 coupons for Cheerios. Here's what I got at Target:

3 boxes Cheerios on sale for $2.75 each - $8.25
1 box Cinnamon Toast Crunch - $1.99 (was priced lower than sale price)
1 Johnson's Buddies Grip Soap - $0.99
1 bag Candy Corn (for DH) - $1.66

I had the 3 $1 coupons for the Cheerios and a $1 coupon on Johnson's Buddies. I also have a Team Member discount of 10% and my state does not charge tax on food. My grand total after all coupons and discounts was $8.15 and I also got a $5 gift card so I technically got all of the items for $3.15.

At Dollar Tree, I picked up the two plates (one dark, one light) as I'm going to try to take some cool pictures of the food I create. I also picked up the basket in order to put fruit in on the counter so we don't have it all over the place. The hamburger buns are for tonight's dinner. I spent $4.18 at Dollar Tree.

I think I did pretty well. Last night and this morning I was going through many of the magazines I recieve for free and pulled out the coupons I saw in there. I used to be a "coupon queen" but started slacking off when we moved. I need to get back into them for the items we use. I will probably only use them though if I can get the item for less than what I can get it at Aldi or Save-a-Lot as that is where we have been doing the majority of our shopping lately. Doing our shopping there though, I think I have finally gotten Shawn to see the reason why I have so many of the "green bags". Granted, he has taken one of them over as his "lunch bag".

Somewhat Menu For The Week

With the way the economy is today we are trying to squeeze everything we can out of our grocery budget. I've been trying to make enough for dinner that will have leftovers for Shawn to take to work. He's been using one of my "green bags (reusable shopping bag)" as his lunch bag. He told me his buddies at work call it his purse. I've tried menu planning before but it didn't work out too well. I'm going to try again though. I only have through Friday as we'll probably go grocery shopping at Meijer on Friday. We just had a new one open in our neighborhood and they sent us a Grand Opening Savings Card. Starting this week, for the next four weeks, if we spend $50 or more, we get $10 off. For those that don't have Meijer it would be similar to a Wal-Mart Supercenter or a Super K-Mart. We get the bedding for the pigs there so that will be almost $7 of the $50. I've already looked at their ad online and marked down the deals and what we need. Ok, enough rambling and on to the menu for the week:

Monday

Steak

Pierogies

Chopped Collard Greens

Fruit Cocktail

*Monday's Menu has become Tuesday's meal as Shawn didn't get off work until 8 pm Monday. I think I will take off the original Thursday dinner and push Tuesday to Wednesday and Wednesday to Thursday.

Tuesday

Hamburgers

Onion Rings

Tomatoes

HM Brownie Bites

Wednesday

Shrimp Monterey

Salad

Tomatoes and Cucumbers

Ice Cream or Popsicles

Thursday

Fish

Onion Rings

Hush Puppies

????

Friday

Sliced Steak w/HM Gravy over Rice

Green Beans

Peaches

Cupcakes (if I make them)

Cute Coupon Organizer

While reading through the blogs I follow, I came across this blog ( $ Moms Helping Mom Save Money $ )by way of one that I follow. They are giving away a really cute coupon organizer. I know I'm trying to figure out the best way to sort and store mine.

Last night's dinner and a potato review

I was picked to test the new Steam n' Mash potatoes from Ore-Ida through She Speaks. I received my package that included a potato masher, one coupon for a free package and 10 $1 off coupons. I picked up my free package last week and let Nicholas pick the flavor. He chose the Garlic flavor. I made them with last night's dinner. We were not that impressed.

The packaging is eye catching. It states that there is supposed to have 7 servings. Once I made them though, I could tell that their 7 servings would not equate to 7 servings in my family. Shawn does physical labor at his job and Nicholas is a growing teenage boy. This is the amount of potatos we had after adding the milk and mashing.
This was my plate last night. Samantha had less potatos then me. Nicholas had about the same amount and Shawn had more. I did have to reheat the prepared potatos in the microwave as they weren't warm enough. I don't believe that we will be purchasing these potatos again.

Soundtrack to my life

Stole this from Gail's blog:

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE​,​ WHAT WOULD​ THE SOUND​TRACK​ BE?

So, here'​s how it works​:​
1)Open your libra​ry .(​iTune​s,​ Winam​p,​ Media​ Playe​r,​ iPod,​ etc.)
2)Put it on "shuff​le"
3)Press​ "play"
4)For every​ quest​ion,​ type the song that'​s playi​ng
5)When you go to a new quest​ion,​ press​ the "next" butto​n
6)Don'​t lie and try to prete​nd you're cool[so,you can erase my song "answers",grab your ipod and answer the questions yourownself.]

Openi​ng Credi​ts:​ Cotton Eyed Joe by Rednex
Wakin​g Up: Cherokee by Europe
First​ Day At Schoo​l:​ Rock You Like A Hurricane by The Scorpions
Falli​ng In Love:​Walk This Way by Aerosmith & Run DMC
Fight​ Song:​ The Look of Love, Pt. 1 by ABC
Break​ing Up: Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Life:​ West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys
Drivi​ng:​ Panama by Van Halen
Weddi​ng: Our House by Crowded House
Birth​ of Child​: ​I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
Final​ Battl​e: Bad to the Bone by George Thoroughgood
Death​ Scene​:​ AM Radio by Everclear
Funer​al Song:​ Burning Down The House by Talking Heads
End Credi​ts:​ Obsession by Animotion

This was out of 217 songs I have on my MP3 player. No IPOD here. Well, I can't wait to see everyone's list. I have to say I busted out laughing several times making mine. The two that had me laughing the hardest was Birth of Child and Final Battle.

The Next Morning

I was able to get some better pictures now that I have some light. This picture was taken just after 8 am this morning. I estimate the water level has gone down about 1 foot. Last night you could not see the vegitation that is poking through the water. This picture shows where the water level was. On the left side is a line of debris left when the water started receding.

I have tons of errands to run today. I need to get off this computer and get to doing them. No clue what's for dinner tonight.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well, I think we may be done with the rain for today. Over the weekend, our "lake" gained back all the water it had lost. Also, the creek that separates our complex from the business next door is so swollen right now. I'm going to try to get some pictures in the morning. I believe we have a flood warning until sometime tomorrow morning. I just went and looked at the creek again. It has gotten bigger since the last time I looked. The picture about was taken about 10:20 pm today. The pic is grainy as I had to take it without my flash in order to get the water to show up. I could not believe how big it had become.

I realize I'm complaining about rain when there are others that have faced much worse in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes. I grew up in NC so I completely understand the magnitude of hurricanes. My thoughts are with those that have been affected by the hurricanes.

Day with the boy

After getting Samantha on the bus this morning, I got Nicholas up and ready. We left their mother's and headed to our place. Fed him breakfast. Let him basically have control of the television with veto power by me. Had lunch and then headed to Dave & Buster's. We have $50 in vouchers from My Coke Rewards. We each got a power card. He has .1 credits left on his. I have somewhere around 5 credits, I think. We played various ticket games and ended up with 557 tickets. We also played a game of air hockey. I think the "boy child" thought he was going to beat me but I won by a score of 7 to 5. I think he was a bit amazed to see how well I can play Centipede. Sometimes I think he believes I know nothing about video games.

I let him choose dinner tonight so we will be having Hamburgers. I plan on making HM Steak Fries and will probably have cucumbers on the side.

The visiting nurse will be there for Samantha at 6 pm so we will arrive at their mother's between 5:30 and 5:45. Once the nurse is done, we will head back home or head to pick up Shawn.

An interesting Election video

*Video temporarily taken out.

For those that know me & my family, pay close attention to the voter that gets "poked in the rear".

September 11th.... A Day We Will Never Forget

A good starter

I was reading another blog via Google reader and the author had posted a dip that they make using cream cheese and sweet & spicy salsa. It reminded me of this dip that I made for Christmas dinner. This is two bricks of cream cheese, 1 can of baby shrimp (drained) and cocktail sauce. It went over pretty well.

New Job Update

Well, it's only a small update. I am currently waiting for one agency to find out from another agency if I'm eligible. If this works out I will be a very happy camper. For those that want to know more, e-mail me. I will only give out more information that way right now.

A puzzle, flowers and two bottles

I know, interesting post title. It was the best I could come up with for this collection of pictures.

We finally finished the puzzle that we started at the beginning of August when Nicholas was here on vacation. It will sit on the table completed until this Friday so he can see that it's complete. Then into the box and the donation pile it will go.
Shawn picked up this bottle while I was in another store. He was looking for a vase but wasn't impressed with their selection. This bottle has a cork topper but we will only be using it as a vase.
The reason we got the above bottle. Shawn bought me flowers while we out running our errands. I had mentioned to Shawn that I wanted a bottle like the ones below for my olive oil. We found these at a local dollar store although the price was $1.25 each. I picked up one of each design because......

I'm using one for my vegetable oil and one for my EVOO. The left bottle is vegetable oil and the right bottle is EVOO. I think they will come in very handy soon as I'm going to be teaching my neighbor how to cook. Oh, I might have the possibility of another job. I'll keep ya'll posted.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I should be back in bed trying to get a few more hours sleep but it's not going to happen. Shawn & I got up at 4:15 am. We got him to his co-worker's house and then I headed to his ex's house. Today was a test run for my new "job" starting next week. I will be helping out by getting the kids on the bus.

Shawn fixed dinner last night as he was home first. We had chicken nuggets, stuffing and green beans.

Getting ready for some early mornings

No picture of dinner tonight. It was simple. "Shake & Bake" pork chops and zucchini & summer squash sauteed together.

I was approached on Thursday by the kids' mother about helping her with getting the kids on the bus once she starts back to work. Samantha is scheduled for the bus at 7:10 and Nicholas at 7:50. Their mother has to leave by 6:30 for her revised schedule at her job. Shawn was able to work out a deal with someone at his job to meet up with them for a ride to work. That means though that I will be at his ex's house about 5:30. Shawn talked with her this evening to see if that was ok with her. She stated that it was ok. We will be doing a test run of everything on Friday and I will start on Tuesday.

I already told Shawn that I'm going to premake an easy breakfast (i.e. egg sandwich or set up oatmeal) the night before so that I can have something to eat. I do know I'll be taking my sweet tea with me.