Sick day

I've declared a sick day today. Last night I started sneezing and getting a headache (not to worry - we installed a carbon monoxide detector so it wasn't that!) and went to bed early. Unfortunately, it didn't help and I woke up this morning feeling worse. So, I skipped the gym (not wanting to infect Annette) and slept in. Now I'm going through my 25 boxes of Kleenex like water and watching movies and playing on the computer. I did get a paper written so I'm not being totally lazy. I hate colds. Ugh.

Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah!

I just thought I would post the words to one of my all-time favorite hymns, "Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah!" an arrangement of Psalm 146. The tune can be heard here in case you are interested. It is just such a joyful hymn that I can't help singing when I hear it!

Hallelujah, praise Jehovah,
O my soul, Jehovah praise;
I will sing the glorious praises
Of my God through all my days.
Put no confidence in princes,
Nor for help on man depend;
He shall die, to dust returning,
And his purposes shall end.

Happy is the man that chooses
Israel’s God to be his aid;
He is blest whose hope of blessing
On the Lord his God is stayed.
Heaven and earth the Lord created,
Seas and all that they contain;
He delivers from oppression,
Righteousness He will maintain.

Food He daily gives the hungry,
Sets the mourning prisoner free,
Raises those bowed down with anguish,
Makes the sightless eyes to see.
Well Jehovah loves the righteous,
And the stranger He befriends,
Helps the fatherless and widow,
Judgment on the wicked sends.

Hallelujah, praise Jehovah,
O my soul, Jehovah praise;
I will sing the glorious praises
Of my God through all my days.
Over all God reigns forever,
Through all ages He is King;
Unto Him, thy God, O Zion,
Joyful hallelujahs sing.

CVS and Rite Aid

At Rite Aid today, I purchased a Fusion razor (Nick's favorite kind). After coupon and rebate, it will be free (and I used cash from a previous rebate to pay for it).

At CVS, I got 4 12-packs of Coke and Coke Zero, a Contour diabetes monitor (straight to the giveaway pile), 1 Fusion razor, Cover Girl cover stick and foundation, and 3 bottles of Dawn Hand Renewal. I paid with $15.00 ECBs and $5.34 oop (more than I usually like to pay, but my ECBs are lower than normal and the Cokes were such a good deal I was ok with paying a little more) and got back $18.79 in ECBs.

Oven update

Because I know all of my faithful readers (all 2 of you) are waiting to hear the update about the oven, here it is. It is excellent news, actually! The GE repairman came at 9:45am this morning. With a window of 8am-5pm, I was pretty happy he came earlier rather than later - I was able to run my errands today after all (see above). The issue was that it was releasing too much carbon monoxide. He took a look at it and said that the flopbertibloop was loose and only part of the way open, and the flippertyblot was not releasing enough oxygen to get the flame blue, which is the color it is supposed to be. He adjusted the flopbertibloop so that the flame was blue again (as opposed to yellow) and said that should take care of the problem. A previous problem had been that it wasn't cooking fast enough and he said that a broken starter could have caused that (something we had fixed on Saturday). So, bottom line, we had two problems with our oven, and the first guy didn't catch the loose flopbertibloop, but fixed the starter. Now we don't have to go fight with the first company since it is likely they did fix one of our issues. Even better news, especially in the saving money department: We saved $600+ by not having to purchase a new oven! PHEW!!!

Menu Plan Monday

Today I am waiting on the GE repairman to come and look at my oven and either fix it or pronounce it dead. Soooo, in anticipation of perhaps not having the use of an oven until we purchase a new one, here is my meal plan (our stove top does work and this plan will undoubtedly change if it gets fixed):

Monday - Chicken pesto pasta, green beans, Texas toast (cooked in toaster oven)
Tuesday - Hamburger Helper, broccoli
Wednesday -Tropical chicken ribbons, pineapple, vegetable brown rice
Thursday -Order pizza - I need my oven
Friday - Hamburgers, oven (toaster) fries, baked beans, salad
Saturday - Out to eat
Sunday - Dave and Emily over, not sure yet

This could be an interesting week...

More TP and Powerade!!

80% savings at Kroger again today. I got 10 4-packs of Cottonelle, 6 Powerades, 1 package of Kroger shredded cheese, 2 Glade flameless candles, Tic Tacs, 2 papers, and Azteca salad shells. I paid $10.54 for $53.58 worth of groceries.

And I got $8 in catalinas to use next time!!

Nick says no more toilet paper, though. So I'll have to pass on any more coupons I get to people that might need some - let me know if you do!!

50% savings at Publix

I took a picture, but my camera didn't like it. So instead, I'll just tell you what I got. Grab some popcorn.

• 3 lb bag of red potatoes
• gallon of milk (on sale)
• 2 baking potatoes
• 3 Bird's Eye Voila! meals (even though Emily didn't give me a coupon for the third) (on sale) - used 3 $1 coupons, making them $1.50/bag
  
• 3 lb roast (on sale)
• 2 boxes Quaker instant grits (BOGO) - w/$1/2 coupon, $0.75 each
  
• 20 oz . Pepsi (because I'm a good wife)
• Weight Watchers bagels
• Sara Lee pound cake (50% off) - w/$1 coupon, $1.64 - normal price $5.40
  
• hot dog buns
• broccoli
• 2 bags baby carrots (BOGO)
• 2 cans Grands biscuits ($3/3 sale) - w/$0.60/2 coupon, $0.70 each
  
• 1 tomato
• bacon
• Lay's potato chips (BOGO)
  
• 4 bags Chex Mix (BOGO) - w/$1/1 coupon, $0.27 each
  
• 5 boxes Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta (BOGO) - w/$1/1 coupons, -$0.20 box (money maker!)
  
• Ritz (BOGO)
• Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal (MY FAVORITE AND NEVER ON SALE - BOGO!!!!!!) - w/$1/1 coupons, $1.24/box!! - these are normally $4.50/box
• Reddi Whip - w/$1 coupon, $1.00
  

I'm pretty happy with 50% savings, especially since I had to buy things that weren't on sale and a larger purchase - the roast. Great day at Publix!

Happy 15th birthday, Will!!

It's not every 28 year old who gets to go out and celebrate her younger brother's 15th birthday, but tonight we did just that. Actually he was wearing the same outfit as the one in this picture - Mom, do you buy him clothes?! We had a great dinner with the whole family and then a night at the mall where we did do some clothes shopping for him and totally embarrassed him. It was lots of fun. I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful younger brother!! Now I'm not twice his age anymore! Phew!

85% savings at Kroger

Got some great deals today at Kroger:

3 packs of Cottonelle toilet paper
6 Powerade Zeros
Kroger saltines
2 packets Old El Paso taco seasoning
2 packages Old El Paso tortillas
1 package shredded cheddar cheese
2 1/2 gallons Turkey Hill iced tea
6 boxes Pillsbury brownie mixes
1 green coffee mug (because it was pretty and $1)
2 lb bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts (not pictured - needed to get in the freezer)
3 packs of Trident gum

I used:
$9.50 in Kroger catalinas from previous transactions
$3.50 in Cottonelle coupons (3 paper and $0.50 Cellfire) (making them a $0.50 money maker)
$2.00 Old El Paso coupons (making them $2 total)
$2.00 Turkey Hill iced tea coupons (making them free)
$4.00 Pillsbury brownie mixes coupons (making 5 boxes $1 total)
$1.65 Trident coupons (making them free)
$1.00 Tyson frozen chicken coupon (making it $4.50, or $1.79/lb)

Total I paid: $8.23
Total I saved: $44.26

And I got another $4 catalina to use on my next purchase (it expires Sunday so I'll be using it for my newspaper purchase on Saturday).

The cashier was pretty impressed. When he told me the total, he asked "HOW much was the original total before all your coupons???"

I hate TRAFFIC

So I had quite the interesting drive to work this morning. I left my house, as usual, at 7:55 AM. This allows me to get to school by 8:30 at the latest, since even in morning rush hour it is typically a 20 minute drive (only about 10-15 without traffic). However, this morning, everyone and their brother had a wreck on streets I travel. So what would have been a 20 minute drive turned into AN HOUR AND A HALF. And if you do the math, that put me at school at 9:30. School starts at 9, so you can only guess how fun that made the beginning part of my day. AARRGGHH!!!!!

After!

Only took an hour! Much easier than I thought!


The whole view:
Ah! I knew there was flooring under there!


Side view #1:

Side view #2:
What do you know? I have room for more food now!!

Operation Pantry Clean Out

In preparation for hopefully getting this cabinet, I'm going to clean out my pantry and reorganize it a bit better. To truly appreciate the work I'm about to do, here are the before pictures:


The whole view (YIKES!)

Floor? What floor?

Side view #1:

Side view #2:If you don't hear from me for the rest of the day, I'm most likely buried under a pile of food somewhere in my kitchen! Wish me luck!

Workout Day #1

Well, today didn't go quite as planned. See, when you set your alarm for 6:15AM, you actually have to turn it on so that the buzzer will sound at that time. Now whether it was just a subconscious decision because every pore in my body wanted to stay in bed past 6:15 or just an honest mistake, I'll never know. But I woke up this morning at 6:55AM to Nick's alarm going off (the first of MANY MANY times it goes off each morning). Jumping out of bed, I scurried over to the gym where my faithful gym partner was already working out. Sigh. At least I went and worked out. So I can't call it a complete failure. Tomorrow' s workout time, though? 5:55AM. Urgh. I think I liked my previous workout plan - whenever I rolled out of bed I headed to the gym. 8? Sure! 9? Even better!

Workout plan

My friend and workout buddy, SlaveDriver...I mean Annette!...and I made a plan to work out together each day for an hour at 6:30am. When I told Nick, he asked "you mean the 6:30am that is in the MORNING?!?" While we might be crazy, we enjoy the time to chat and it is nice to have a partner to make me go - otherwise, I sometimes skip!

Three strikes...and I'm out!

I struck out at all the places I went today in my search for deals.

At CVS, while I did come home with 25 boxes of Kleenex, Flavor-Ice popsicles, moisturizer, and body wash, I didn't find the items that were supposed to be money makers, and ECBs that were supposed to print out for one of the items did not. So I lost quite a bit of ECBs today. The bright side is that I still only paid a little over $1 for all that stuff and do have some ECBs to roll next week.

At Target, I tried to get some more free Joint Juice with my remaining 13 coupons. However, Target had none and since the coupons expire today, no more Joint Juice for me. I did get a few other things I needed.

At Publix, I was going to get 3 bottles of Fantastic carpet cleaner, which after sale and coupons, would be $0.45 each. Sadly, my Publix was out of that variety so I didn't get any. I may try another Publix on my way home from school Wednesday.

I think I'm going to cut my losses for the day and grade some papers!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Ranch chicken, roasted potatoes, broccoli
Tuesday - Marinated pork chops, Pasta Roni, green beans
Wednesday - Calzones, salad
Thursday - Chicken stir fry, brown rice, salad
Friday - Hot dogs, french fries
Saturday - Monterey chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans
Sunday - Savory chuck roast (recipe below), cooked carrots, red potatoes

This is a tried and true roast that my mom made for us growing up. It has always been my favorite.

1 3lb boneless chuck roast, trimmed
2 T. white vinegar
1 t. garlic salt
1/4 cup flour
2 T. olive oil
1/2 package dry onion soup mix
3/4 cup cooking sherry
1/4 brewed coffee

Rub roast w/vinegar. Cut 8-10 slits in roast; sprinkle garlic salt into slits. Dredge with flour. Brown roast on all sides in hot oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir together soup mix, sherry and coffee; pour over roast. Bake at 350 for 3 hours, or on high in the Crock Pot for 2 hours and low for 7 hours.

Yay Braves!

Though I think they lost....

Not really sure. We went to a Braves game tonight with other alumni from our college. But mainly we sat with Dave and Emily and talked with them. You know, because we don't see them very often so we needed to catch up.

Nick would say the best part was the seats -we were on the lower level in the outfield with a great view of home plate (I guess - I think I actually looked at the game maybe once).

I say the best part was the all-you-can-eat buffet line with burgers, fries, lemonade ices, peanuts, popcorn etc etc etc. YUMMY!!!

Emily did get a picture so if she posts it later I'll link to it. For now, I'm going to bed!

Basketcase Boo

Boo LOVES baskets and boxes. When she finds an open one, she just assumes we put it there for her to sleep in. This has been her favorite spot of late, while the office bench is being painted and its location has been in the middle of the floor. This looks a little more comfy than when she tries to sleep in shoe boxes.

CVS and Publix

Pictured above is what I got at Publix. I took a pic of my CVS stuff as well, but my camera's batteries couldn't handle it and it didn't take. I don't really feel like getting everything out on the counter to take it again.

At Publix I got litter, Del Monte canned veggies, Green Giant frozen veggies, sour cream, 2 A1 marinades, 2 1lb packs of ground beef, 3 bags of Senseo coffee pods, olive oil and 3 packs of Dixie napkins. I spent $32.49 and saved $33.98, about 50%. I had a coupon for every item. Considering the normal cost of the coffee ($14.97 for all three) and everyday cost of litter ($8.99), saving 50% is quite good.

At CVS today I got 5 Dawn Hand Renewal dishsoaps (free after rain check and coupons), Excedrin (free after ECBs), Aleve-D (a MM after ECBs and coupon), Dasani 24 pack of water (at $3.99 the best price I've ever seen on those), and 2 bottles of lotion because I don't have much of a stockpile. Because of the lotions, I lost some ECBs, but still only paid $1.30 out of pocket for all of that merchandise and have plenty of ECBs to spend next week. And this time I actually had a pretty good experience!

My next piano student

Caleb, wearing Mr. Potato Head glasses so he can see the music.

Oh wait! There is no music on the piano.

I have my work cut out for me!

All in a day's work

Well, this morning I went to my real job - teaching. It was a good morning at school and we had a nice lunch in the park. But then, I left to go to my second job - finding deals!

First, I went to Kroger:I bought:

• 6 4-packs of Cottonelle toilet paper (I know, but it was FREE!)
• 4 bottles Powerade Zero
• 4 cans Campbell's tomato and chicken noodle soup
• 2 Old El Paso taco seasoning packets
• 3 boxes Nature's Valley granola bars
• 2 Glade air fresheners
• 1 gallon skim milk

I used:

• 6 $0.50/1 coupons on the Cottonelle, which doubled and made them free
• $1/4 Powerade Zero coupon, which made them $2.16 total
  
• $0.40/4 Campbell's soup coupon, which made them $4.76 total
  
• $1/2 Old El Paso coupon, which made them $0.78 total
• $2/3 Nature's Valley coupons which made them $4.57 total
• B1G1 free Glade coupons, which made them $1.79 total
• no coupon on the milk (I KNOW!)
• a $4/total purchase coupon I'd gotten from a previous transaction
• $0.50/Cottonelle coupon that was loaded onto my Kroger card at www.cellfire.com
  

Because I purchased these particular items, I received $3/my total purchase automatically. Without sales/coupons, I would have spent $37.58. Instead, I spent $10.44 out of pocket.

BUT WAIT! There's more!! $7.50 in catalinas came out of the cash register for buying these items. So I get to save $7.50 on my next purchase OR I ended up really spending $2.94, depending on how you look at it.

While at Kroger, I happened to notice that Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta was on sale for $3/4. Much to my chagrin, I did not have my binder of coupons with me in the car, so I had to go home and get my 8 $1/ coupons to go back and get:


8 boxes of pasta, and 2 more Glades (since these each spit out a $2 catalina and only cost $1.79 for both of them, they are a great money maker).

I got all this for $2.90 after my Ronzoni and Glade coupons, and a $2 catalina.

Total spent: $13.34
Total saved: $43.38
Catalinas to use for next time: $9.50

Savings percentage: 76%
YAY!

Because I'm bored

I didn't do anything all that interesting today and love lists, so I thought I'd post the American Film Institute's Greatest 100 movies of all time (2007 edition). The bolded ones are ones I have not yet seen. Basically, I've seen all the good ones - 45/100. The ones I haven't seen don't look all that interesting to me - though I'll take recommendations!

1.	Citizen Kane (1941)
2.	The Godfather (1972)
3.	Casablanca (1942)
4.	Raging Bull (1980)
5.	Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6.	Gone with the Wind (1939)
7.	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8.	Schindler's List (1993)
9.	Vertigo (1958)
10.	The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11.	City Lights (1931)
12.	The Searchers (1956)
13.	Star Wars (1977)
14.	Psycho (1960)
15.	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16.	Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17.	The Graduate (1967)
18.	The General (1927)
19.	On the Waterfront (1954)
20.	It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21.	Chinatown (1974)
22.	Some Like It Hot (1959)
23.	The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24.	E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25.	To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
26.	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27.	High Noon (1952)
28.	All About Eve (1950)
29.	Double Indemnity (1944)
30.	Apocalypse Now (1979)
31.	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32.	The Godfather Part II (1974)
33.	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34.	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35.	Annie Hall (1977)
36.	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37.	The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38.	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39.	Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40.	The Sound of Music (1965)
41.	King Kong (1933)
42.	Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43.	Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44.	The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45.	Shane (1953)
46.	It Happened One Night (1934)
47.	A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48.	Rear Window (1954)
49.	Intolerance (1916)
50.	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51.	West Side Story (1961)
52.	Taxi Driver (1976)
53.	The Deer Hunter (1978)
54.	M*a*s*h (1970)
55.	North By Northwest (1959)
56.	Jaws (1977)
57.	Rocky (1976)
58.	The Gold Rush (1925)
59.	Nashville (1975)
60.	Duck Soup (1933)
61.	Sullivan's Travels (1958)
62.	American Graffiti (1973)
63.	Cabaret (1972)
64.	Network (1976)
65.	The African Queen (1951)
66.	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67.	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68.	Unforgiven (1992)
69.	Tootsie (1982)
70.	A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71.	Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72.	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73.	Butch Caddidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74.	The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75.	In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76.	Forrest Gump (1994)
77.	All the President's Men (1976)
78.	Modern Times (1936)
79.	The Wild Bunch (1969)
80.	The Apartment (1960)
81.	Spartacus (1960)
82.	Sunrise (1927)
83.	Titanic (1997)
84.	Easy Rider (1969)
85.	A Night at the Opera (1935)
86.	Platoon (1986)
87.	12 Angry Men (1957)
88.	Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89.	The Sixth Sense (1999)
90.	Swing Time (1936)
91.	Sophie's Choice (1982)
92.	Goodfellas (1990)
93.	The French Connection (1971)
94.	Pulp Fiction (1994)
95.	The Last Picture Show (1971)
96.	Do the Right Thing (1989)
97.	Blade Runner (1982)
98.	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99.	Toy Story (1995)
100.	Ben-Hur (1959)

Shopping and coffee - great combo!

I'm feeling a bit more "caught up" now that I'm a little bit ahead in classwork and grading. I think things are slowly starting to click into place and I'm where I want to be as far as my getting all my work done. Soooo, today I took advantage of that! First, I enjoyed working out and chatting at the gym with my friend Annette (and burned 500 calories in the process!), then I strolled through Target and Wal-Mart hunting for the best prices on dishwashing detergent and other items. I bought new phones at Target because ours are dying a slow painful death, and got some Joint Juice for free as well. Then at Wal-Mart I miraculously only spent $4 on a napkin holder. Now to get some $0.50 napkins at Publix later this week! Better still, I got to enjoy coffee and coupon talk with my friend Beth, which was a great way to spend a nearly-fall afternoon, in my humble opinion!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Grilled chicken w/pesto butter, brown rice, salad
Tuesday - Steak, baked potato, broccoli
Wednesday - Calzones, salad
Thursday - Lemon grilled chicken, pasta romano, green beans
Friday - Baseball game - all you can eat junk food!
Saturday -Taco salads
Sunday - Emily brings lunch

It's nearly fall and time for apple pies!

“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.”
Jane Austen

Nick loves apple pie and I have a tried-and-true recipe that I've used since I was a teenager when making them (in fact, it is about the only thing I ENJOY baking, probably because it doesn't require exact measurements like cakes etc do). But I rarely make it for just the two of us so I decided to make one for tomorrow's dessert when Dave and Emily and the kids will be over. Apple pies make me think of fall, which will be here in just over a week! It smells so delicious I'm tempted to try a slice tonight. But I'll refrain myself! I wish it was a scratch and sniff picture!

For anyone who is interested, here is the recipe:

4 large Granny Smith apples
1 9-in double crust deep dish pastry
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 + 1 T. flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
dash of salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar

Peel and slice apples. Blend sugar, 1 T. flour, cinnamon and salt. Toss with sliced apples. Spoon into pastry lined pan. Combine butter, brown sugar and 1/2 cup flour and sprinkle over pie filling. Cover with top crust and cut slits in the top. Cook at 425 for 35-40 minutes.

Coupon organization

In order to keep everything straight, I have quite the complex organizational system for my coupons. It consists first of two binders, pictured below, which hold the coupons I save for deals in the future. The red binder has all of my non-food item coupons, and the orange one (open) has all of my food coupons. The non-food binder is arranged by type, and then by product name, and then food binder is arranged by type of food. Each month at the end of the month I go through and get rid of any that have expired.


To keep up with coupons that I won't use but someone else might, I have two file folders, pictured below. Again, they are separated by food and non-food. The blue (open) one has all of the non-food items, categorized by type, and the striped one has all of the food products, arranged in alphabetical order.


I also have a small binder in which I keep coupons that I will use in the near future or ones that have value to me that I'm always on the hunt for while I'm shopping. I carry this one with me when I go to the stores. This one also is where I keep my ECBs, weekly ads, and any misc coupons that I might need.

I love being organized!

Movie Review Friday

Tonight was Friday night movie night, our standard fun Friday activity. We decided to watch a show we'd TiVo'ed earlier in the week, Fringe, which was quite excellent so now we're hooked on a new TV show to watch this season. Then we put in "What Happens in Vegas." Quite honestly, we both expected not to like it at all. I'm not a huge Ashton Kutcher fan and don't like Cameron Diaz at all. BUT, it was really good! Hilarious and fun and really likable. We even might buy it so we can watch it again. So two thumbs up!

$147 worth of groceries for $72

I did much better at Kroger than at Publix, but I still managed to get a combined savings of 50%. Pictured are my Kroger purchases, which was about 63% savings. For $38, I got:

• 10 Lean Cuisine meals ($1.20 each after sale and coupons)
• 4 bags of Chex Mix ($0.30 each after sale and coupons)
• 3 bottles of Powerade Zero ($0.25 each after sale and coupons)
• 2 12-packs of Cokes ($2.99 each after sale and coupons)
• 1/2 gallon of milk (not on sale, needed it)
• 4-pack Cottonelle toilet paper (I was out of toilet paper; free after coupon)
• 4 packs of boneless chicken breasts (approx 7 lbs) (worked out to be about $1.70/lb after sale and coupons)
• 2 Vitamin Water ($.50 each after sale and coupons)
• Kraft American cheese (free after coupon)
• 3 Koolaid products ($0.20 each)
• 1 20 oz Pepsi (because Nick likes it- ick)

I saved $64, even though the cashier was REALLY reluctant to let me use my coupons. I don't like this particular Kroger and may find a different one in the future. I also would have done even better if I'd remembered that I had a $4/total purchase from a previous sale. But I forgot so I'll have to use it next time.

Regardless, it was a good shopping day.

And now I have to stop. My pantry is full, my refrigerator is full, and my 2 freezers are JAMMED full. I cannot fit another thing into anything else, so I'm done with stocking up. This family will NOT go hungry or toilet paperless for quite awhile.

P.S. I did buy vegetables, but I bought them at Publix and did not take a picture of them. Just making sure everyone knows we do eat veggies. Sometimes.

My 100th post

As per Emily's suggestion and example, for my 100th post, I will post 100 things about me, in no particular order.

1. I am 28 years old.
2. I will be 29 the day we get a new President.
3. I was born the day the hostages were taken in Iran.
4. Until I was 444 days old, my parents knew to the day how old I was (thanks to newspapers counting down the Iran hostage crisis).
5. I am 5'5", though Nick insists I am 5'2".
6. I have brown hair.
7. I have green eyes.
8. I wear contacts or glasses because without them, I can't read a book a foot in front of my face.
9. I have very long skinny feet and finding shoes is one of my least favorite shopping trips.
10. I do love to shop for other things, though.
11. Especially when I can find a good sale.
12. I do not love cooking, but on a good day, I can get excited about a new recipe.
13. I despise baking and would rather do pretty much anything else (sorry, Emily).
14. My favorite holiday is Christmas.
15. I do not like the 4th of July.
16. Birthdays are celebrated for two weeks in my house, for the week before through the week after. You get your way during those two weeks.
    
17. I remember this rule more often when it is my birthday.
18. I have two cats, Scout and Boo.
19. I do not have dogs and am very happy with not having dogs.
    
20. I've lived in this house for 4 years this November.
21. I've moved roughly every 4-6 years since I was born.
22. I was born in Decatur, GA.
23. I moved to NC when I was 9 months old.
24. I moved to NJ when I was 6 years old.
25. I moved to SC when I was 12 years old.
26. I moved to GA when I was 16 years old.
27. I went to Covenant College.
28. I met Nick when I was 20 years old.
29. I was married 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days after I met him (ish). :P
30. I play the piano and have since I was 3 years old.
31. I have perfect pitch, which is not a marketable skill, unfortunately.
32. I am a middle school teacher.
33. I'm in my 7th year of teaching school.
34. I am in grad school for my master's of library and information studies so I can be just like my mom.
35. Yes, you do need a master's degree to be a librarian and if one more person asks me that I might hit him/her in the head with a book.
36. I love to read.
37. I love to read out loud, probably because my mom read out loud to me all my life.
    
38. My favorite book of all time is a tie between "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Anne of Green Gables" but I could make a top 100 book list and not be done listing my favorites. I might do that on a future post.
39. I've read the "Anne of Green Gables" series at least 4 times and plan to read it again in the near future.
40. I've been to Prince Edward Island and seen L.M. Montgomery's house (author of "Anne")
    
41. My favorite movie is "National Treasure". Or "Stardust". Or lots more.
42. One of my favorite things to do is watch movies.
43. I've been skiing once.
44. I've been whitewater rafting once.
45. I've been tubing once.
46. I've been camping twice.
    
47. And that is about the extent of my outdoor activities.
48. I do not like summers, especially in the south.
49. I love snow, and especially snow days from school.
50. I won't wear open toed shoes after October 1st or before April 1st.
    
51. I don't like having my toenails unpainted.
52. I don't like having other people paint my toenails. Ick.
53. I am a highly organized person.
54. I make my lesson plans at least 6 weeks in advance.
55. I have 6 binders that I organize my coupons in (new post coming w/pics)
56. I spend WAY too much time on the computer each day, but as vices go, it is a fairly harmless one since everything else gets done and I'm not neglecting anyone or anything.
57. I get a strange satisfaction when I finish something and throw it away (like a shampoo bottle) or tear off a page from a tear-off calendar. I have no idea why.
58. I always stop the microwave before it finishes leaving numbers flashing and making my husband batty.
59. I am very clumsy.
60. I leave cabinets open in my kitchen in rebellion to my childhood when it drove my dad nuts to have them left open (sorry, Daddy! I'll close them before you come over).
61. I hate to vacuum.
62. I don't mind laundry.
63. I don't iron - my neighborhood dry cleaner does a fantastic job with that - they know me by name now.
64. I'm an extrovert who loves talking, especially over a yummy meal.
65. I'm married to an introvert who doesn't especially like to talk, which suits me just fine - no one to interrupt me.
66. I'm a night owl and a morning person, but please poke me around 3pm when I'm falling asleep.
67. I have to sleep on the side of the bed that is farthest from the door. Left, right - don't care, so long as the bad guys get Nick first.
68. I once dropped my sister after I tried to catch her when she fell off a zipline. She had to get 10 stitches in her head. I feel worse about it because she remembers it well.
69. I've never broken a bone.
70. I've had surgery on my toes.
71. My favorite thing to wear is comfy pants and an old T-shirt. I think Nick knows that I do get dressed during the day, but that is mainly what he sees when he gets home.
72. I love getting mail. Except bills.
73. I love to write papers. Yes, I am a nerd.
74. I can play the flute.
75. I can play the viola.
76. I can play the harmonica. Not joking.
    
77. I never learned to type the correct way but can still type nearly 100 words per minute, using mostly my right hand.
78. I learned Spanish in college and can still say "hola" and "como se dice?" but that is it and I'm not 100% sure what the last one means.
79. I like to run.
80. Not surprisingly if you read my blog, I love to hang out with Emily and figure out deals and execute our deals at stores.
    
81. I was homeschooled from the 7th-12th grade.
82. I skipped the 6th grade.
83. I taught 6th grade for 4 years (you'd think they wouldn't hire anyone without experience)
84. My favorite restaurant is The Melting Pot.
85. My favorite fast food restaurant is Panda Express.
86. My favorite thing to do on a Saturday is get up late and stay in my pjs and watch movies.
87. Generally on Saturdays I clean the house and run errands and grade papers.
88. I love coffee but am just as happy with decaf as I am with regular.
89. I was 13 when my brother was born.
90. My first car was a Saturn...it almost literally fell apart in just under 6 years.
91. I failed the driver's test the first time I took it.
92. I've never gotten a ticket or caused an accident.
93. The best birthday present I ever got was for my 19th birthday. It was a black shaving bag filled with fun random surprises from my dad. I don't know why, but it stands out to me as my favorite.
94. I never go anywhere without a watch.
95. I almost never look at my watch.
96. A tornado hit my house when I was 18 and 6 trees fell on the roof and on the best car ever, my dad's Ford Bronco.
97. The night it hit my sister and I had just gone to sleep after watching "Beverly Hills 90210" reruns in my room. That was one of our favorite things to do.
98. I'm now afraid of storms, but NOT, surprisingly, of "Beverly Hills 90210".
99. I'm happiest when I'm busy and sitting still makes me antsy.
100. I'm really happy to be on number 100.
     

Yawn

I don't really have anything interesting to say so I'll just post the word of the day that I got in my inbox yesterday or today (can't remember which). It was a good one:

kvell

to be extraordinarily proud; to rejoice.

As in "I kvelled when I saw the great deals I was going to be getting at Publix and Kroger tomorrow."

Good night!

Ouchie

Last night I fell down the stairs. Which I don't really recommend. It hurt, and I'm SOOOO sore today. I grabbed the rail as I went down and wrenched my arm, so now it is kind of painful. When I told Nick about it a few hours after it happened (he was in the shower at the time and I was on my way to class so I couldn't wallow in the pain), my ever-so-sympathetic husband's response was: "We need to get you a bubble." I know I'm clumsy, but I'm not sure I need a bubble quite yet. Though it sounds kind of cushy!

Guess what is for dinner tonight?

You get one guess.

The winner gets a free box.

Just kidding. I don't have enough to share.

Menu Plan Monday

In making my meal plan for the week, I went to my pantry to make my list. All I know is: I will be marinating something this week.

Monday: MARINATED grilled chicken, baked potatoes, green beans
Tuesday: BBQ spareribs (not pictured, but I have a bunch of BBQ sauce in the pantry too!), broccoli, brown rice
Wednesday: Calzones, salad
Thursday: MARINATED pork chops, rice pilaf, green beans
Friday: Hamburger Helper, salad
Saturday: Chicken w/pesto butter, pasta, broccoli

Saved $105, made $9 at CVS

I had a good day at CVS today. Not only did I have a nice cashier (i.e. one who did not roll his eyes at all my coupons), but I made some ECBs and saved a bunch of money. Oh, and I got free Chex Mix, which is always a good thing!

Here is what I got:
L'Oreal Revita-Lift cleansing towelettes
Contour diabetes monitor (another donation item)
ACT mouthwash
3 bags Chex Mix
Revlon nail polish (which I gave to a friend)
3 pk CVS brand paper towels

I spent $0.56 out of pocket, $6.79 in ECBs, and received $15.99 in ECBs back.

Happy anniversary to our church!!

Our church celebrated its 10th anniversary this weekend. We had a pool party/cookout at the home of one of the members. It was a nice relaxing afternoon of fun with our church family.

Happy anniversary, Geneva!!

Publix, Target, and CVS

Emily and I had a girls' night out and we went to TWO Publixes, Target, and CVS. We had LOTS of fun getting deals (and some necessary items as well). Pictured is the combined purchases that we made so we wouldn't have to make two separate photos.

CVS:
6 bottles of Suave body wash (4 of which will be donated)
2 bags of cashews
1 bottle of Dawn dishwashing detergent

Total price: tax, which was $0.55.

Target:
A new sweater and black shorts, on 75% clearance
leather cleaning products for our chair
shampoo, conditioner, and hair serum
5 Lean Cuisines

Total price: $28, a savings of 40% w/coupons

Publix:
35 Hamburger Helper dinner mixes (yeah, I know- but they were free w/overage and I'm donating most of them)
5 Smart Ones
Green Giant veggie steamer

Total price: $17, total $ of items before coupons $85. YAY!

It was a good day for Molly and coupons

96% savings at Kroger

Emily helped me figure out a deal at Kroger. So here is what I got:

30 4-pack rolls of Cottonelle
2 Sunday newspaper
1 Cattlemen's BBQ sauce
1 French's mustard
6 Powerade Zeros
4 Koolaid packets
2 packs shoelaces
1 box Wheat Thins
1 bottle Kraft dressing
1 Wanchai dinner mix

I had a $10/$50 purchase loaded on my card, plus coupons for pretty much everything else. So I got all of this for $4.11, which is the price of the 2 papers basically. But wait, there's more. With the purchase of 6 Powerades a coupon printed out for $4 off my next purchase.

So thanks, Coupon Queen Emily, for the help in planning this deal!! The cashier was curious if we had a lot of visitors coming (I guess ones with digestive issues), but was a great sport about it and pretty impressed when my total went from $63 to $4.

Yay!

It's Friday!!

Well, I got through the second week of school unscathed. I'm still very unused to the schedule again, and I'm finding myself missing the lazy days of summer. I'm not generally a procrastinator, but I'd much rather spend time clipping, filing, trading, and of course, spending coupons than grading papers, reading articles, and writing papers for class. Alas, I don't get graded in coupons (if I did, I'm SURE it would be an A!!).

This weekend promises to be another busy one. My brother is spending the night with us again - we had pizza and movie night (I'm pretty sure he thinks we have pizza nightly, which we would if Nick was in charge of the meal plan). Tomorrow our church celebrates its 10th anniversary so we are going to a picnic/pool party. Then Emily and her family will spend the night so they don't have to make the trip home and then back again for church Sunday morning. Emily and I plan to have a night on the town and leave the guys with the sleeping kids. Where are we going? Why, to CVS and Target of course! Where else?? Hopefully I'll get some good enough deals to post tomorrow!

Bedtime! Class tomorrow morning!

Savings at CVS and Publix

Even though today was a school day, in which I did not sit down ONCE (even during lunch), I still decided to make a Publix and CVS run on my way home (which conveniently are on my route). So I stopped in at Publix and got 6 cans of green beans and 2 cans of corn (our staple veggies) and 3 boxes of Cheerios. Price before sales and coupons? $21.10. I got it all for $5.68, a savings of $%^%$! (no math skills to speak of - but a bunch). At CVS, I got three Dawn dish soaps for $0.99 each, but I had $1.00 coupons for each so I only paid tax, which was $0.21. I didn't even have to break out the ECBs!

Terrific Tuesday

I'm enjoying my back-to-school mode. Already I appreciate my days off!!

This morning I went to the gym and ran/walked for an hour - my favorite way to start the day. (No, really.) Then I got some errands done and taught piano to my new student. He is a beginner and it is going to be a fun challenge for me. Very eager student, which every teacher loves!

For lunch, I made a quiche, which turned out nicely. And even better - a friend came over to share it with me. We chatted about deals (what else?) and quilts and enjoyed the afternoon together.

Though I should have been getting caught up on my reading for school after she left, alas, instead I wasted spent the better part of the late afternoon on www.hotcouponworld.com, one of my favorite sites. It was a fun afternoon, but not necessarily a productive one!

Tonight I'm back in my children's lit class. One of our homework assignments is to bring in a "good" children's book. I'm bringing Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, but there were SO many I could choose from. I'm thoroughly enjoying this class. For fun, if you are reading and care to post, tell me what your favorite children's book was/is. I promise not to judge if it doesn't count as a "good" one!

Menu Plan Monday

This week, we're having:

Monday - Cookout at my mom's house
Tuesday - Cheesy chicken bundles, broccoli, pasta
Wednesday - Penne w/ricotta & bacon, grilled chicken, salad
Thursday - BBQ sandwiches, corn on the cob, green beans
Friday - Cheeseburger roll up
Saturday - Church picnic
Sunday - sandwiches, chips, mixed fruit