WELCOME

I am a stay at home mom who is fed up with spending a large portion of income on grocery bills. It is my job, according to God, to be a good help mate for my husband. I am trying to live up to my job description. I am starting a journey into the grocery coupon world and invite you to come with me. I have never used coupons for grocery shopping and as of January 1st 2008 I am diving in. I will be using http://www.thegrocerygame/ , http://www.moneysavingmom.com and the http://www.couponmom.com/ website to guide me on how to save money. I am going to treat this adventure as a part time job and put in the hours necessary to make it work. I am excited and nervous to get started.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Kroger Coupons came today

More Kroger coupons came today! I have no idea how I am getting these but I say BRING IT ON!

Here is the list of coupons I received:

FREE 12 pack
FREE Private Selection ice cream
FREE Post cereal
FREE Kroger grape tomatoes
$1.50 off Coke
.35 off Kroger veggies
.65 Kroger deluxe ice cream
$1.00 off 2 Lenders bagels
$1.00 off 2 Post cereal
$1.00 off 4 Knorr
.60 off 2 Duncan Hines frosting
.40 off 2 Rosarita beans
$2.00 off 2 Dove product
.50 off 1 New York garlic bread
$2.00 off Tri Scents air freshener
$1.00 off 1 Sunsilk shampoo

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Another REbate Check

We were on vacation in September and a friend of mine bought a box of Blueberry Mini wheats. Inside of the box was a rebate. I , of course, was all over it and told her to send it in. She said she was not interested and I could have it. I sent off the rebate with the receipt. Today in the mail was my $3.36 rebate check.
This is a great deal because my friend bought the box of cereal and I got the money!

Say Hello to My Little Friend


Here it is!
Say hello to my little friend.

I got my slow cooker yesterday. Today I am whipping up chili. I just finished adding everything into the slow cooker.

This is a Smart Pot, which means it will turn onto a warm setting once the cook time has been reached. It has four different cook settings, a high 4 or 6 hour and a low 8 or 10 hour setting. I got the 5 quart round pot. I was looking at the more expensive ones but they were just to big. This baby cost $24.88 at Wal-mart and I will get a $5 rebate.

Here is the recipe from Betty Crocker

Family Favorite Chili

2 pounds ground beef
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (15 ounce) tomato sauce
2 Tbs chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can (15 or 16 ounces) kidney or pinto beans, rinsed and drained

Cook beef in skillet until brown.
Mix beef and remaining ingredients except beans into slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low heat setting 6 to 8 hours or until onion is tender
Stir in beans. Cover and cook on high for 15 to 20 minutes or until chili is slightly thickened.

I cook everything in my slow cooker on low. I have used high a couple of times but the meat seems to get tough. Remember slow is the way to go.

If you have any good slow cooker recipes I would love you to leave it in the comment section.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Finding Deals in the Stangest Places

Since I started this blog in January I have not put very much personal info on it. I have done this on purpose. First, I don't really want a bunch of strangers knowing every little detail of my life. I am sure most people reading are very kind and nice, but lets face it, not everyone reading blogs on the internet have best intentions. Secondly I made this blog as a way of expressing my delight and joy when I find great deals. I LOVE posting pictures of my grocery trips to Krogers and I LOVE sharing what little knowledge I have with people.

Why am I writing this? This deal I found only through a personal experience I had this week. My Aunt died on Tuesday. She was very very close to me she was more of a second mother than a great aunt. I found out on Monday she was in the hospital and Monday at 8 p.m. I headed out on a 10 hour drive to be with her in her last moments. It was very sad but I praise God that I was able to hold her hand to the end.

After my aunt passed we called a friend of mine who is a mortician. My aunt wanted to be cremated. My friend gave us some prices of funeral homes in the area. The difference in pricing is really amazing. We found prices from $2000.00 to as little as $695.00. As it turns out not all funeral homes are created equal, at least in their pricing. In the area where my aunt is there are only 2 crematoriums but many many funeral homes.

So if you find yourself in a position of making funeral arrangements it does pay to shop around. My aunt had insurance but a lot of people do not.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The World Serious


After many years of listening to baseball chat and hoots and hollers from my husband, The World Serious, as he likes to call it, is finally going to benefit me. Let me say right here and now, I am not a sports fan! I have been subject to much football, baseball, hockey, and basketball over the years and finally I am getting a prize for my endurance. Someone stole a base in one of the World Series baseball games and Taco Bell is giving one free crunchy taco away on Tuesday, October 28th from the hours of 2-6 p.m.

After 15 years of sports I am getting a free taco, yeah! HMMM, I feel as if I am getting the short end of the deal.

Gotta love Taco Bell though! If you go and get a taco this week show some love to the employees.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Bye Bye Walgreens


In case you haven't noticed I have not been shopping at Walgreens. If you can remember way back to one of my posts about Walgreens, you will recall that I was shoppping Walgreens at least once a month and getting the stuff that was giving me all of my money back plus overage with the EasySaver rebates. I was building a nest egg on a Walgreens gift card for those times when we absolutely needed something and did not have the money to buy it.

It has been a few months since I have shopped Walgreens. Everytime I would go in there all of the products were out. I sent an email to corporate. They sent my email to the local store and the manager called and left me a detailed message about how they were trying to be better stocked and they were sorry. He apologized about seven times on the phone. I thought, "What the heck I will try them one more time." I went back to Walgreens the next week only to be disappointed again. I was so disappointed that I did not even send another email or complain. This is actually the first time I have written about it. Everytime I think about it I get bothered.

Now you know why you haven't seen any Walgreens posts.


Saturday, October 18, 2008

What Fun at Kroger today



Today I went to Kroger and what fun it was! I was scanning the soups and looking at coupons when a couple of ladies walked by. One lady said, "Is that your coupon binder?" I say, "of course it is." We all stood in front of the soups and carried on a nice conversation, we talked about using our coupons and getting good deals. We ran through some of the buys of the week. They showed me their organizational tools and I showed mine. We wished each other the best and headed on our separate ways. That was really fun, all the time that I have been Grocery Gaming and shopping with my coupons this is the first time that I have actually met a fellow couponer in a store. Couponer? Is that even a word? It is now.

I had $104.00 worth of stuff and paid $67.02. I had a total of $41.23 in coupons. This is a %59 savings!!

Here is a list of everything I bought:

48 cans of Campbells cream soups I had .40 off 4 coupons
7 bottles Frenchs Worchester sauce (ALL FREE w/ COUPON)
6 packs of Lenders Bagels (on sale no coupon)
1 bottle of Diet Coke (My first in a week)
1 Private Selection ice cream had 1.oo coupon
1 Kroger ice cream
7 bottles Softsoap liquid soap .30 each with coupons
7 boxes of Quaker oats square cereal $1 box with coupons
1 small bottle of miracle whip NO ON SALE & NO COUPON :(
1 Febreeze noticeables I had $5 manu. coupon & 1 $5 P & G esaver coupon
This item gave me almost $3 in overage. It was on sale for $6.99 and I got $10 off.
1 box Kroger ice cream cones
1 bottle of Kroger peanuts
2 Kroger vegetable oil

If my calculations are correct I now have $229 in Kroger qualifying money which should give me $.20 per gallon off on gas.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Rodin, Rodin

This is art lesson whatever number I am on. I know I am such a bad blogger. I should really have an organized agenda. You know like the "real bloggers" who have pages dedicated to certain interests and certain interests are posted on certain days and all that jazz. What can I say, I have a hubby, kids, a house and somewhat of a life so please forgive me. My blog is like my life scatter brained, busy and disorganized.
Now for the art. A couple of weeks ago I got a chance to do some research on Rodin. Non scholarly people would pronounce his name Row-Din or ro-din, but us scholars here know that it's pronounced Row-Dan.
Rodin was alive in the 1800's during the impressionist era and as with most impressionists he also lived in France. He was a sculptor. He sculpted many human figures. Did you know the human body is the most painted, sculpted/reproduced figure in art? The body has perfect symmetry. I love how God has created us in His perfect image. Lets demonstrate symmetry for a minute o.k.? Pretend you have an imaginary line down the middle of your body from head to toe. When you cut the two halves in half what you have on the left you would also have on the right, example: left arm-right arm, left hip-right hip, left leg-right leg. Both sides are equal to the other in shape, form and balance, Ahh symmetry.
Rodin recognized this symmetry and his sculptures are beautiful. He was able to look at people and capture them perfectly in his sculpting. He would look at them in different lights even in candle light. He would have his models lay down, stand up and even turn so he could see them from the back. He was so good at it that he was accused of casting real people and not actually carving and creating the images from scratch.

Here is a piece of Rodin's art called, "The Thinker". This piece is very popular and it is cast in bronze. It is a huge piece of art as well, I have had the pleasure of touching one of these sculptures in real life. Check out how well definded this man is. Notice how he has his right arm leaning on his left leg. Go ahead give it a try, it is very unnatural and uncomfortable. The thinker was actually a piece that came from the "Gates of Hell" which was another of Rodin's pieces. The "Gates of Hell" is two massive doors that were commissioned for an art musuem that never opened. This piece is very cool as well. It depicts hell at the bottom of the doors and there are 180 small sculptures inside this huge one. The Thinker is sitting on top of the door frame in the middle looking down into hell. If you get a chance look at some pictures online of this piece. You will see people trying to climb up "out of hell" the door frames. There are people in the corners.
Fun fact of Rodin: He had a girlfriend for 53 years. They had a son together who had some kind of mental illness. Rodin married his girlfriend when he was 77 years old. She died two weeks later and he died 9 months later. I am not sure if this fact is a reflection on marriage or just a strange occurance. Actually I do know, she was sick and wanted to marry so they married.

Free Coffee!! Free Coffee?


Hey, there is free coffee to be had at Barnes and Noble. All you need is the coupon for it. My friend Lori has so lovingly left a link on her blog to the coupon. Run, don't walk to her blog and print out yourself some coupons. I printed two but that's just me.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Crock-Pot Deal


I must tell you all about a Crock Pot deal. First let me start by saying that I have wanted a new crock pot for about 6 months now. The one I have is still working o.k. but it is a non stick kind that sits on a griddle base and the non stick is wearing off. I have been looking and lurking on blogs and website eyeing new Crock Pots and have been biding my time. The time has come to buy a new one. There is a $5 rebate on any Crock-Pot over $24.50. If you would like to print the rebate form click here. The crock pot I am looking at runs about $55.00.

Enjoy the picture of my future crock pot. It comes with all the bells and whistles. This thing will do everything except go to the freezer and throw the meat in. Here is a quick features list.
  • 6 Quart Capacity
  • Digital timer tells you when meal is ready
  • Programmable cooking times from 30 minutes to 20 hours
  • Automatically shifts to warm when cooking is done
  • Removable oval stoneware for easy serving and clean-up
  • Dishwasher safe stoneware and lid

Sunday, October 12, 2008

It's that time of year again


It's that time of year again. The time of year when the leaves are starting to change. The time of year when the air is getting cooler and the days are getting shorter and shorter. It's that time of year when you load up the family and head to the apple orchards and the pumpkin patches to wonder the fields and pick, pick, pick. That is exactly what we did yesterday.
We first headed to our favorite orchard only to find out that our orchard was already picked over. They, graciously, gave us directions to another orchard where we picked and picked and picked. We picked 261 apples.

Here is my money saving tip: Pick your own apples. We go once a year and pick them and then we peel and core and bag them up. We actually did all the peeling and coring today. We bag them in gallon size Ziploc bags in apple pie portions. This year we got 27 bags of apples. We freeze them flat so that we can store them in the top of one of our freezers.

I use these apples through the year to make apple pies and fried apples mostly. People are always surprised when I tell them that my apple pie is my easiest dessert I do. Since the apples are ready to go I just add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. I use the Pillsbury ready made pie crust, you know the kind that you just unroll and its ready to go.

If you haven't gone picking this year you better get to it. Time is running out.