I am on a roll!

I have been a cleaning and organizing machine lately! LOL. In the last few days, I have:

1. Worked on straightening up Josh's room so I can use it as a daycare storage room.
2. Worked on recording all of my work hours for this year (for tax purposes).
3. Went through all of my receipts and recorded them (also for tax purposes).
4. Did some straightening and organizing in the office and our bedroom.

Next I need to straighten up my pantry so it's easier to find what we have. It's getting pretty stuffed. What a blessing!

Last night's bargains:

Staples:
Two 8 roll packs of Bounty paper towels (on sale for 4.99 each)
Two dry erase calendar boards (on sale for $1 each)
1 package of binder clips (on sale for $1)
With a coupon for one of the Bounty's and a $12 Staples Reward, my out of pocket was 81 cents. Yes, 81 Cents!!!!!! (See attached picture)

Walgreen's
Thera-Flu products, on sale 2/$10 with a $5 Register Reward. I had a $3 off two coupon, making it 2/$7, plus the Register Reward
Also got boxes of cereal bars and granola bars for Natasha on sale for $2 each. With previous Register Rewards and the coupon, my out of pocket total was $7.48.

Another Walgreen's visit: Two packages of 12 roll Cottonelle for $5 each with 75 cent off coupons. I had taken my coupons to K-Mart first because they are doubling this week, but their Cottonelle was $8.49 for 12 rolls, so no bargain there. Didn't end up buying anything at K-Mart, no good sales that matched my coupons. I was very sad.

Bargains from last night

I went grocery shopping last night. These are the bargains I found:

Wal-Green's
Dayquill/Nyquil products 2/$11 with a $2 Register Reward. I also had a $3 off coupon which made them 2/$6 after the Register Reward.
Excedrin headache medicine was buy $15, get $7 in Register Rewards. I found one with a $3 off peelie coupon and had $1.50 coupon so got two bottles.
Lady Speed stick, on the clearance aisle for $1, had buy one get one free coupon, so got them for 50 cents each!

With coupons and previous Register Reward coupons, my out of pocket for all of that was $12. Got $9 in Register Rewards for a future purchase.

United:
Taco Bell salsa, on sale 2/$4, had an in-store coupon for $2 off, so got them for $1 each.
Chicken Helpers on sale for $1.25, with coupons, $1 each
Progresso soups, on sale for 99 cents to 1.50, had coupons making them between 74 cents and 1.25 each. Stocked up on soups for a while!
No coupons, but Best Choice cream soups were 50 cents a can. Got several cream of celery and cream of chicken, and rain checks for mushroom and broccoli because they were out of those.
Also got rain checks for Taco Bell taco shells, on sale for 99 cents, but they were out.

Wal-Mart
Price matched Hamburger and Tuna Helpers (on sale at K-mart for $1, but they were completely wiped out of them). With coupons, 75 cents each.

As I have been doing this, I'm learning stuff along the way. Earlier in the year (around May), I found Van Camp's Pork & Beans for 25 cents a can (with coupon and sale) and bought 8 cans, I'm on the last can and haven't found as good of a deal again. So when they go on sale again next year at the beginning of summer, I will try to find more coupons and stock up some more.

Did a Dave Ramsey No-No

Well, Tom and I made the decision to do a Dave Ramsey no-no this week and borrowed against his 401K. This is allowing us to pay off all of my medical bills from last year as well as settle a couple of credit card bills. Hopefully this will help us be able to get a foothold and make some progress. It leaves us with 4 other credit card bills (two more of which I hope to settle within the next few weeks, one of which we have payment arrangements on, and another which I'll be sending a letter to try and make arrangements on), Tom's medical bills (which we are making payments on), our house, and student loans. Please pray for our creditors to have mercy on us as we try to work out arrangements with them.

Food Pyramid Deals

Last night, Tom and I went to Ponca City so I could speak at a Victim's Impact Panel. I had looked at the Food Pyramid ad before we went and knew they had a couple of things I wanted to get. When I got there, I found out that they had their Libby's canned veggies on sale too, so got even more than I expected.

Libby's vegetables on sale 59 cents a can. I had $1/4 coupons, making them 34 cents a can.

Libby's canned fruit on sale for $1 a can, I had $1/2 coupons, making them 50 cents a can.

Food Pyramid doubles coupons up to 50 cents, so...

Spaghetti-O's, on sale for $1 a can, I had coupons that doubled making them 60 cents a can.

Ravioli, on sale for $1 a can, I had a coupon that doubled, making them 50 cents a can.

I got 16 cans of veggies, 8 cans of fruit, 6 cans of Spaghetti-O's, and 2 cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli for $19.26!! Would have got more of the fruit and veggies if I'd had any more coupons.

I really like coupons

This past Friday, I was the annoying person at Wal-Mart with a cart full of stuff, and a handful of coupons. LOL. I also had some items to price match. Some of my deals:

Wal-mart:
12 packages of Tide Single load, $4 for all with coupons. Super handy for Natasha doing her laundry in the basement of her dorm.
Totino's frozen pizzas, 1.25 each, $1 each after coupons
Hot Pockets: price matched 3/$5, with coupons: 3/$4. These are great lunches for Tom to take to work.
Saved 50 cents on three boxes of Kleenex and 55 cents on a package of Sparkle paper towels and $1 on White Cloud toilet paper
Campbell's tomato and chicken noodle soup, price matched 5/$3, after coupons averaged 52 cents a can.

Walgreens:
4 bottles of Gain laundry detergent: $5 each, $4 each after coupon
2 bottles of Downy fabric softener: $4 each, 3.25 after coupon
3 bottles of Dawn, 99 cents, 49 cents after coupons
1 bag of Cascade packets, $4, $3 after coupons

My total after coupons was about $29, then I got $13 in Register Rewards back. I gave the bottles of Gain to Serenity and Josh. It's awesome to be able to save money and help out my kids in some little ways!

Putting right along

Well, time is putting right along and it's already been a couple of weeks since a blog post! So sorry!

One of my latest bargains, Labor Day weekend, I went into K-Mart because they had General Mills cereal on sale 5/$10. I got 5 boxes of it and used coupons I had for some of them. Spent about $8 on 5 boxes of cereal. Along with that, I got another coupon for $2 off 5 more boxes of GM cereal (haven't used that one yet) and a coupon for $5 off a $20 grocery or drugstore purchase. Just so happened that K-mart had Quaker cereals on sale the next week 4/$10 so I got 8 boxes. With the coupon, I spent about $2 a box. Peanut Butter Crunch is Tasha's favorite so I sent her a couple of boxes, the rest is for Tom, Josh, and the daycare.

This week, I have been re-reading a book that my friend got me for Christmas last year: Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado. It's very interesting, it's about living life in your "sweet spot", where God intends you to be. If you like to read, you might want to check that book out.

Bargains and Updates

Well, I was finally able to do some grocery shopping on Saturday. I am so grateful for my stockpile of food, it made it easier to deal with being unable to shop last week. With Tom going to the hospital to see his dad and the other car being on the fritz, it got put off till Saturday.

Wal-Mart:
Tide single loads, 97 cents at Wal-Mart, had $1 off coupons, FREE!
Dial liquid hand soap, 4/$5 at United (price matched at Wal-Mart), 90 cents each with 35 cent off coupons
I also picked up some games on the clearance aisle to put back as Christmas presents.

Wal-Greens:
Degree deodorant, on sale 2/$4 with a $1 Register Reward. 75 cent off coupons made them $1.25 each, then with the RR's, they will end up being 75 cents each.
Mitchum deodorant, on sale 1.99 each, 75 cent off coupons, $1.24 each
Dawn dish liquid, on sale for 99 cents, 50 cent off coupons made it 49 cents

Tom's dad seems to be doing well, they have moved him to another hospital for therapy now.

The car is still on the fritz, going to call mechanic after checking battery/cables one more time.

Tasha seems to be doing well at college. It was really weird going grocery shopping without her, she always went with me and helped me.

Hope everyone has a great week!