Adventures in Couponing

So I have been reading Kelleigh Ratzlaff's blog and she has inspired me in a few ways. One of which is to try my hand at couponing again. I did it when Travis and I were first married, and usually saved 35-50% off of my bill. That was without buying a member ship to any of the pay coupon sites too. The best I ever did was 75% off of my total once. That receipt stayed tacked up on the fridge for a LONG time. :)

Anyway on my last trip to Costco, I was appalled at how much my bill was. I thought I shopped at Costco to save money? I did the math and figured out that I was spending WAY too much money on meat there. With exception of ground  turkey, I buy only frozen meat products at Costco.  The Kirkland brand ground beef has always been decent to eat. I forget right now what the meat to fat ratio is, but something is telling me it is 91/9. The price went up recently and it is now $3.25 a pound for FROZEN GOODNESS ONLY KNOWS WHAT THEY MIXED IN THE CHUB ground beef.

The Kirkland brand boneless skinless chicken breasts have previously always been good. But the last two bags have been VERY chewy no matter which way I prepare them. So the quality has gone down due I am sure to whatever non-organic processing method they are using on it. The price of that has steadily gone up too and this last time it contributed to my over large bill.

DON"T EVER BUY THE KIRKLAND FROZEN GROUND TURKEY!!! Ground turkey is not supposed to be spongy and dripping out moisture when you defrost it. I still have a bag with 4 chubs of it in my garage if someone would like to do an experiment to find out what the heck is in the frozen ground turkey there. I am not sure what the price per pound for the fresh ground turkey breast is there, but I do know that when the similar product is on sale at Vons, it is priced competitively.

Now of course on the last trip I stocked up on all three, so I did not buy any this week at Vons.

So back to Kelleigh. She posts these crazy blog posts with pictures where she gets $50.00 worth of groceries for $15.00. So I decided to try coupons again. I called Ralphs and Vons and got my actual club card numbers. Then I went to their web sites and registered my club cards. Both stores have an area on their web site where you can pick manufacturer e-coupons that you can load on your club card and use with newspaper coupons. Vons also has a couple of other E-Coupon sites on their site where you can register your club card number and to get more E-Coupons.

I have twice now gone shopping at Vons. The first time I saved 48% off of my bill and tonight I saved 49% off of my bill. Both times I only had the e-coupons and consulted the Vons weekly ad to see what was on sale. I also grabbed a few in store coupons. I am kicking myself that I did not get a Sunday paper yesterday, because I missed those coupons. (Anyone local have their coupons to spare?)

So what did I get? I got two cartons of strawberries for .99 cents each. Alton will be thrilled tomorrow morning when he finds them. Avacados were .99 cents each, so we will be using those tomorrow night when we have skirt steak fajitas. Speaking of the skirt steak, I had a $2 off any $10 meat purchase, so that e-coupon went to the meat. (I don't think Kelleigh would approve of how much I paid for the meat, but Alton loves steak and I wanted fajitas. LOL)

I had a $1 off e-coupon for Cascadian Farms organic cereal. They were on sale for $3.29 and one of the boxes had a $2.00 off coupon. Plus I had a $2 Catalina I earned last week for buying the same cereal with the same coupons. So I got two boxes of organic cereal for $1.58. I am sure there was a coupon in the paper too, so I might have been able to get them for free. I did earn another $2 Catalina for next week. (Does ANYONE know why they call them Catalinas?)

We don't generally buy taquitos. But the box of 60 was on sale for 9.99 and I had a $3 e-coupon and a $3 off coupon  that was in the weekly ad. So the $11 box of taquitos became $3.99. The make a fun lunch every once in a while for my rice and bean loving child. It's something he can dip. ;)
Classico spaghetti sauce was $1.45 if you bought 3. I bought 3. Starbucks has new ice creams... so there was a $2 off any two Starbucks ice creams. They were on sale and I had some sort of coupon. So two pints of yummy ice cream for under $3? Yes please.

They had GREAT prices on several produce items we eat a lot of. Cara Cara oranges (THE BEST!) were 99 cents a pound, so were broccoli crowns and bagged fresh spinach. Those prices are even cheaper than the farmer's market around here. They were out of the spinach, so I remembered to get a rain check.

This will be an interesting experiment. We don't eat a lot of processed food and there are certain things my DH just won't eat. Alton is FORBIDDEN to eat kids sugar cereal, so I won't be utilizing those sort of coupons. And I don't know if Travis will allow me to build a hoarding pantry like so many crazy coupon ladies seem to do. But I am going to try. I will let you know how it goes.

I am not yet convinced. For certain things, Trader Joe's is just better and or cheaper. For instance, Vons does not carry yogurt that is sweetened with cane juice instead of something artificial or high fructose corn syrup. Staple items like frozen peas, corn, and spinach are still cheaper at Trader Joes. Even the national brands with a coupon are more expensive than TJs. Also, with at least the Green Giant veggies, there were no plain veggies for the brand I had a coupon and e-coupon for. They all had some butter or cheese sauce slopped on them, which while tasty, kind of defeat the purpose of eating vegetables in the first place, you know what I mean?

Sunny Spring Saturday

We had a pretty good day today. My dad and I went to Costco, and Alton charmed the pants off of everyone. I got a gorgeous Star jasmine bush for $15. I LOVE star jasmine. Our local Costco was out of the the Fraggle Rock season DVDs, and since my brother mentioned that he wants them too, my dad and I had to venture to the Costco in the ghetto. Inglewood is scary, but thankfully the Inglewood Costco was not as scary as the Inglewood Target was.

After that, I came home and planted my plants, and Alton discovered that he can stand for a long time. He also discovered the hose. I got a cute video of him with the hose and I will post a link to it later. Then we went over to my grandmother's for dinner and to be squatters in her living room because she has air conditioning. I miss our air conditioning. When it got cooler, we took Alton and his cousin John John out to the back yard to play and I gardened for my grandmother. All and all it was a pretty good day.

Making My Home a Haven

Travis and I spent the better part of the afternoon and evening returning our house to normal. Bye Bye Christmas! We normally leave the tree up until New Years day at least, but we have been running the heater more for Alton and the tree dried right up. Plus, I wanted Travis's help putting everything away, because there is no way I could have done it all myself while caring for Alton.
We even cleaned up the office! It is normally a pile of crud. We throw everything we don't have an immediate home for in there and boy does it show! We got rid of a bunch of my old Mary Kay stuff and a bunch of expired PartyLite catalogs. The layers of dust we soooooooooo thick in there. Jack and Lucy were not at all amused by the extreme use of the vacuum. The office still isn't done, but we can now see carpet that has not seen the light of day in a couple of years.

Alton is feeling much better. His teeth are still coming in, but his sore throat cleared up and he is sleeping much better. He woke up at one am wanting to party. But his poor parents were not, so we just brought him into bed with us and hoped he would get the message. He finally slept at about 2 and we all slept in until 9:30.

I am excited that I am really building a nice routine for keeping the house nice. When I was having people over last weekend, I was beside myself because I did not have anything to do to the house before they came over. I feel like things are much more under control and making dinner is no longer as stressful since the kitchen is always clean. DO IT! Take back your home. You and your marriage will be much much happier!

I miss my home being a haven!

So with the arrival of Christmas and half the contents of a Toys r Us now taking up residence in our living room, there are piles of stuff EVERYWHERE!
Not coincidentally, Travis and I have been squabbling more.
On top of that, Alton is sick with a virus that gave him a fever of 104. We went to the emergency room with that one.
Finally, he is cutting his first tooth as well which means he wakes up crying. Oh, and because of the teething and the fact that he is congested at night means that we have to drive him around for 1/2 an hour to get him to sleep and then Travis carries in his Britax Marathon car seat where he sleeps until he wakes up screaming. :( I have rocked him to sleep every night for the past three nights, but he always wakes up 45 minutes later. Poor baby.

I promise that soon I will post never before seen pictures of his 6 month photo session and Christmas morning.

Oh, and while the house is a mess, I am still reading my daily devotional and vacuuming at least the living room. So there is hope for me to return to my routine soon.

Happy day to all of my readers. :)

Making My Home a Haven I've lost track of which day

So I was super busy last week, so I did not stick to my new routine, but I did manage a quick pick-up everyday so that the living room stayed nice. Today's task was to clean bedrooms and I did. Alton is asleep, or I would take and post after photos.

One of the babies from my Playgroup board died. The mom hasn't said specifically how she died, but from what we can piece together, her daughter had to be sedated for an MRI, and even though she came out of anesthesia, she died at home later that day. I have heard that is something to look out for when someone so young is sedated. It freaks me out and the board has been pretty much deserted today, as if posting on the board is going to put our babies at danger as well. I did not know Tina in real life, but we are both nursing mothers and she was one of the first people I came to recognise on the board. I can not imagine losing your child and then having to wait for your milk to dry up. :(

Onto more cheery thoughts. I got my to do list done today:
Do two loads of laundry
Make Lunch for Travis
Vacuum living room, bedrooms, and office
Clean bedrooms
Returns and exchanges at Stride Rite and Gymboree
Fold all the clean laundry

We are having our home group over for a white elephant gift exchange and potluck. It should be a good time!

Making My Home a Haven Day 4

I thought I should clean my bathrooms today and guess what today's task is?

I will post photos later.

Today's to do list:
Pack Travis's lunch
Clean Up Kitchen Table
Clean up dining room table
LAUNDRY
Go to Target and return/exchange
Clean the bathrooms

Is anyone reading today?

Making My Home a Haven Day Three

Yesterday's task was tidy the laundry area.

Ours is is the garage, so it is hard to make it "pretty".

But it does look better than it did.

To do list (done)

Fold and put away diapers

Unload dishwasher and clean up breakfast dishes.

Pack Travis' lunch

Do Borders Cafe secret shop

Banking

Got it all done!

Making My Home a Haven Day Two

I did all my tasks for the day.

I did my morning routine, had a quiet time, did the task of the day, and did my to do list.
Today's to do list is as follows:

Pick up Travis's dry cleaning (The thing my husband asked me to do today)
Fold and assemble cloth diapers
Unload the dishwasher and dish rack
Tidy, dust and vacuum the living room (which was the task of the day)
Pack Diaper bag for Disneyland!

Everything is done and I was able to get it all done while Alton had his morning nap. :)

The before shots....

The Afters...

Making My Home a Haven

So today for the first time, Alton played quietly with his toys while I cleaned his room and closet. (Really his room is just a huge closet since his crib is still in our room.) I was able to sort through his outgrown clothes and tidy some things away. I was so excited that he was able to sit and play all by himself and I realized that I might be able to get things done around the house now. :)

Maggie, (the link to her blog is on the right) posted a link to a Christian woman's website that is trying to help women make their homes havens for their families. Since our house was generally in good shape pre-Alton, I was very happy to see a guide to return to my previous housekeeping standards. I miss coming home to a tidy house. Travis hasn't said anything and he is very helpful, but I know he misses coming home to a clean house with dinner started.

On the blog there are day by day challenges and though I am starting a few days behind everyone else, I am still starting. Day one's challenges were to spend time with the Lord and make a morning routine to-do list. I have been meaning to do this for quite some time, but never got around to it. Here is my list:

1. Wake up and pray.
2. Shower and dress.
3. Read my on-line devotional.
4. Breast Feed Alton
5. Make breakfast for my family
6. Eat Family breakfast and discuss plans for the day.

The final task for day one:
3. Do Something! (5 -15 minutes)Each day I'm going to be giving you a simple organizational task to complete in your home. And today we're going to start at the very beginning - a very good place to start!Put on an apron, light a candle, and turn on some uplifting music. Then go to your front door and pretend you are a first-time visitor to your home. Walk in and take a look around. What is your immediate impression of your home? Is it calm and clean or cluttered and chaotic? Take five to fifteen minutes to clean, de-clutter, and beautify your entry area. Do a quick pick up if there are items out of place, mop or vacuum the floor, shake the rug, spot clean the walls, and rearrange things.

I did clean up my entry hall. We had all the bins from the Christmas decor out and about and the coat tree was overflowing. I pruned the coat tree and as soon as Travis got home, we put the bins back out in the garage.

Is anyone reading? Feel free to post a comment or drop me an e-mail so I know. :)

8 Random Things About My Kitchen

I have been tagged by Andrea to post 8
random things about my kitchen.

1. We have the loudest 70's lime green and yellow daisy wall paper. Shown here:

My mother in law swore when we moved in that she would change it and paint the kitchen whatever color I wanted, and that has not happened yet.

2. As you can see in this photo, I love Classic Pooh. I have towels, I have trivets, I even had a cookie jar that looked just like the Pooh his nose in the honey pot trivet up above, but Travis broke it. Twice. Sadly, it is time for a new cookie jar.

3. I love all things Americana. I got the giant apple serving piece that is on the wall at Apple Farm in SLO. Once I have painted my kitchen the colors I want to, my kitchen will have an Americana theme.

4. We have two full sized refrigerators in our kitchen. Our house came with one and a family friend gave us their practically brand new one when they were moving. They gave it to us right before Thanksgiving, and because we had so much food and drink to store for Thanksgiving for 20 people, it came in handy. We keep them both plugged in because we need the freezer space for meat from Costco. Someday, I will just buy a separate freezer and let go of one of the
fridges. But for now we have our everyday fridge and the "entertaining" fridge.

5. We have a trash compactor. While this is not normally noteworthy, it is always a drama when he have Trav's family over because we keep the dogs' kibble in two small trashcans with a lid and our recycling in a trash can with a lid. Travis's uncle and cousin James have not learned in the two years that we have been living here that trash does not go into the recycling or dog food.

6. I have red appliances. Travis bought me a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer after I hounded him for years while we were dating. So when we got married, I registered for and received all of the matching appliances.

7. I am anal about my Tupperware storage. Everyone I know has a drawer with all of their ziplock containers just thrown in willy nilly. All of mine is neatly stacked with the corresponding lids stacked on top. I can always instantly grab the properly sized container for leftovers.

8. Travis and I are a toast eating people. We always have peanut butter and jelly toast with breakfast and we are never without at least three different types of spreadable fruit in the cupboard and fridge. We currently have Strawberry, boysenberry, raspberry, and blackberry jam in the cupboard.

I tag Maggie, Kayt, and Samantha to post about their kitchens.