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Archive for July, 2011

food pantry haul

July 29th, 2011 at 07:49 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 785.47
RX total = 219.65
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,1212.31

It's the end of the month and several coupons are expiring. They are for things I can get free that I can give to the food pantry, so I went shopping today.

I went to 2 Walgreens and got 9 .39 mailers for myself. I've used 4 in the last 2 days with paperback swap books. Spent $4.14. Went to the post office to mail my items and spent $7.64

At King Soopers I spent .83 in taxes and got a $2 OYNO coupon back, so basically made money. The $2 coupon was for buying 3 Crest toothpaste. When you buy $6 in Crest you get a coupon for $2 off your next order. The $6 is the before sale price, so even though they were on sale for $1 and I had coupons to make them free, the catalina is based on the $2.24 pre-sale price.

I got the following for .83 in taxes after coupons. All of it goes to the food pantry.

3 boxes Ronzoni Garden Delights pasta
3 6.4 oz tubes Colgate toothpaste
6 Oral B toothbrushes
3 12 oz Ivory body wash

Next was Safeway were I spent .49 and got a coupon for $3 off my next $10 produce purchase. I got the following

16 oz SW brand brown rice - FREE
12 oz SW brand marinade - FREE
16 oz SW brand frozen green beans - FREE
1 bag Fresh Express coleslaw - .49

The rice and marinade go to the food pantry.

I finished reading my book Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. Paranormal - very good.

Captain America

July 27th, 2011 at 08:13 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 764.97
RX total = 219.65
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,191.81

I took my youngest niece to see Captain America yesterday. It was Ok. It wasn't great and neither one of us liked the ending. I used 2 of my free movie tickets from buying cereal last month, I have one left.

I had a coupon for $10 off any purchase at Pier 1, so we stopped there on the way to the movie. I found two cute soup bowls I liked for $6/each. After the coupon they were $2.15 with taxes. I had 2 coupons, but couldn't find anything else I liked or thought someone else would like for a gift so I gave one coupon to the lady waiting in line in front of me, she was happy.

Since Border's is going out of business and I still have a gift card, we went there. I got 4 books at 40% off and used up my gift card and spent $3. The gift card had about $18 on it.

We ate at the food court for about $11.

Walgreens has cushion mailers on sale this week for .39/each - normally $1.59. I got 9 of those and will probably go back on one of my grocery runs before Saturday and get at least 3 more. I've swapped so many books lately I was completely out. At one of the Walgreens they were having a booksale for charity. I picked out about 10 paperback books and donated $10.

I finished reading the library book Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh. Paranormal - very good.

free meat and produce

July 25th, 2011 at 09:30 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 743.97
RX total = 219.65
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,170.81

I went to King Soopers to get a few more free things for the food pantry this morning and to get more eggs and tuna for me. I got 3 doz eggs, 4 pouches of tuna, 3 boxes of Ronzoni pasta, 2 tubes colgate toothpaste, 1 reach toothbrush, 1 reach floss and 2 colgate wisps. After coupons I paid $3.88. I used $11.75 in coupons. Everything except the eggs and tuna will go to the food pantry.

Next I went to Safeway and got $78 worth of groceries for free. This is a little complicated. Safeway has a deal this month when you transfer 6 prescriptions you get $60 in gift cards. I had already got one of the $30 gift cards and I transfered my 6th prescription today and got another $30 gift card. I spent $5.60 on the prescription. I also got a coupon for 10% off my entire grocery order, after safeway coupons, for transferring the prescription.

Safeway has a deal this week when you buy a $100 Mastercard you get a coupon for $10 off your next order. So I spent $105.95 for the card, (paid with a credit card that gives me 1% back) and got my $10 coupon. It's like buying money with the $10 coupon I am ahead $4.05. I can use the MC anywhere.

Safeway sent out a bunch of coupons last week. One was the $10/$50 coupon that I used at King Soopers to get my free salmon. They also had a $4 off 4 lbs of frozen chicken breasts, and several free item coupons. The free item coupons were salsa, marinade, salad dressing, frozen vegetables, rice and Mission tortillas. I got all of those for free, plus 10% off the price, which was used to cover other items. I had a coupon to make a travel size of Tide free and a Pure Protein bar free. And I had a coupon for $3 off $10 in produce, plus several other miscellaneous coupons.

In all I used $41.25 in coupons, including the $10 off coupon from the MC purchase and $5.95 from the 10% discount and $26.51 on the $30 gift card I got from the pharmacy.

I got the following items. FP = food pantry. SW = Safeway.

SW ceasar salad dressing - Free - FP
SW marinade - Free - FP
SW salsa - Free
SW brown rice - Free - FP
Mission low carb tortillas - free
2 big rolls Viva paper towels - .48/each
SW frozen green beans - Free
Travel size Tide - Free
4 boxes Atkins bars - 3.47/each
Pure Protein bar - Free - FP
4 lb frozen chicken breasts, boneless/skinless - 5.19
2 lb frozen tilapia fillets - 7.19
Gortons fish fillets - 1.25
1 lb deli turkey meat - 5.43
4 stalks celery - .28
1 onion - .73
2 bags Fresh express lettuce - BOGO - 2.29
3 bags shredded cabbage - 3.57
1 garlic - .50

I got quite a bit of meat and produce for free on this order. My freezer is getting stocked up again. I love coleslaw - it's my veggie of choice, plus it lasts alot longer than lettuce. I eat about 2 cups at a meal so those 3 bags of coleslaw will be gone in a little over a week.

I finished reading Crazy Kisses by Tara Janzen - Romance - excellent.

Harry Potter movie

July 23rd, 2011 at 09:37 pm

My sister and I drove up to Greeley to see my oldest niece yesterday. I took her 4 bags of groceries and book #16 in the Stephanie Plum series. We took her to lunch at Red Lobster where I had shrimp scampi - spent $10.27 using a discounted gift card.

Then we went to see Harry Potter. I used one of my free movie ticket coupons so saved $6.50. The movie was really good, my niece loved it. Before the movie we needed to kill some time so we walked thru the mall attached to the movie theater.

They had an Asian gift store where there was a really cool carved 'jade' dragon ship. It was about 4 feet long and 3 feet tall. It was $800. I bought a smaller version for $100. It's about a 18 inches long and a foot tall. Very cool looking. I also got a chinese jade dragon for $20. I'm not sure what the actual stone is, it looks like jade, but I'm sure it's not or my small version would probably have been $800 too.

I went to the Farmer's market this morning and got about 10 tomatoes for $6.

I finished reading the library book Lie With Me by Stephanie Tyler. Romance - very good.

free salmon

July 21st, 2011 at 09:47 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 678.52
RX total = 189.65
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,075.36

Went to King Soopers this morning and spent a lot more than usual on groceries, but I got $25 worth of wild caught salmon for free. I spent $62.40.

I had a coupon from Safeway for $10/$50 and I had 3 $5 Visa cards that I got from buying the Kelloggs cars 2 cereal last month so between those two deductions I got 3 lbs of salmon for free. The salmon was on sale for $7.99/lb

I also did 3 mega deals - buy 10 save $5 which saved me $15 and I used $19.73 in other coupons.

I spent $20 in vitamins which was a big part of the $62 I had to spend and I also got some frozen shrimp on sale for $6, which was another chunk.

I got 3 tubes of Colgate toothpaste, 4 Reach toothbrushes, 3 boxes Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta, 1 Pasta Roni and $2 in Produce for free. All of this, except the produce will be donated to the food pantry. I got the produce free for buying 4 bottles of Kraft Salad dressing. They were part of the mega deal and were .99/each after sale and coupons and then I had a coupon for $1 off produce when you buy 2 bottles of Kraft dressing.

I got 3 doz eggs for $1/each and 6 large boxes of Kleenex for .66/each. I got 3 Rice a Roni for .69/each for the food pantry - had a coupon get a free pasta roni wyb 3 rice a roni. I got 6 pouches Bumbleebee albacore tuna for .99/each and 1 was free.

Did you know they are adding soy to cans of tuna now? It's ridiculous, it's so hard to find anything without crap added to it and if you do it costs an arm and a leg. I found 5 1/2 oz cans for more than $2 without the soy. It's like paying people not to add crap to food or paying the phone company not to list you so you don't get junk phone calls, should be the other way around Smile

I also got a box of Kosher salt, a bottle of Palmolive dish soap for .39, some tomatoes, lettuce and bagged coleslaw, 2 things of Philadelphia cream cheese and Baker's unsweetened chocolate. Things sure do add up fast.

I paid with gift cards I bought in 2007 using the stimulous checks Bush sent out. Back then Bush was sending out $1200 checks for stimulous. King Soopers had a deal if you buy a $300 gift card they would add 10% more to it. So you paid $300 and got $330 on the card. I bought $2400 worth of cards using a credit card that paid me 5% back and making $240 on the cards with the 10% bonus. I started on my last one of those cards today. I had 8 and am down to 1. I've bought groceries, prescriptions, gas and gift cards with those cards in the last 4 years, they lasted a lot longer than I thought they would. This one still has over $300 on it so it should last several more months, unless I keep shopping like today.

I finished reading my book Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald. Mystery - pretty good.

$2.39/gal gas

July 20th, 2011 at 06:53 pm

I had a $1 off a gallon of gas from King Soopers for filling a prescription and went to fill up my tank and my 2 5 gallon gas cans today. I spent $2.39/gal with the discount. I spent $51.07 total on my Discover card which is giving 5% back on gas purchases this quarter. While I was there I bought a $100 gift card using the credit card, so I can get gas in the next quarter using a gift card that I got 5% back on.

I also dropped two more swap books at the post office for $4.82. After my carpet finished and I put all my books back in place, I went thru and organized my books. I found several duplicates, plus I found some books missing from certain series. This is because I loan books to a friend who keeps them for years. I forget what I have and occassionally buy ones I've loaned her because it's been so long I forget I bought them. The missing books are mostly from 10 years ago when she packed up all the books I loaned her and moved. She hasn't unpacked yet. She knows she has them and keeps reassuring me that as soon as this one next project is done, she'll get to them, but I'm not holding my breath.

So I took my duplicates and the list of missing books and put them all on paperback swap. I've already swapped over 10 books. If my friend ever does give back the old books I might have some more duplicates, but I'll just list them on swap.com and get some new ones.

I finished reading the library book Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Paranormal - very good.

odd

July 19th, 2011 at 07:13 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 641.89
RX total = 189.65
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,038.73

I'm having to walk in the evenings now because it's over 80 even at 8 in the morning, and even though it's over 80 when I walk about 8 at night, the sun is going down and there's more shade, which makes it bearable. Anyways, the neighborhood behind me was built about 3 years ago and I've been walking there year around at all hours of the day and evening for that long. There is one house that I walk by and the back yard has every kid toy you can think of. Huge swimming pool, trampoline, sandbox, playhouse, large swing/slide/wall climbing thingy, basketball hoop, volleyball net, tetherball, various yard toys etc. The garage is frequently open and you see all kinds of bikes, toys and motorized car things. Last night I noticed a new toy - a teeter-totter. But the odd thing is, in the 3 years I've been walking over there I have never seen a kid. I see them at all the other houses, but never this one.

I got a huge mesquito bite on my arm on my walk last night, first time I've had one here in forever. We don't get a lot of mesquito's - man did it itch.

Yesterday I went to Walgreens and got 2 large bars of Milka chocolate for free, well except for .09 in taxes. These will go to my nieces. I wasn't even tempted by them, my cravings for sweet stuff seems to be gone. The candybars I bought last week for my mom are still sitting on my counter too and that included my favorite candy bar - Caramel Milky Way.

I also went to Safeway and got Romaine, tomatoes and shredded cabbage. I used a $1 coupon off $5 in produce and paid with the gift card I got for transferring prescriptions, so it was all free. $4.49

I finished reading the library book Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. Paranormal - very good.

I can't relate

July 17th, 2011 at 09:46 pm

I've been trying to lose weight recently, since April 15th. After being so sick last year I wanted to get healthier. I'm not drastically cutting calories or exercising more than normal. I'm willing to lose the weight slowly. As part of the effort I am reading a lot of books on how to lose weight and be healthy, and books by people who have lost a lot of weight.

One of the books I read recently was by a lady who was on the Biggest Loser. I can't remember the title of the book or her name right now, but it was Julie something. She was a stay at home mom and won a car for one of the contests.

Her book told a lot about how she hated her body. How she was disgusted by her being fat. How she looked at other fat people and thought they were disgusting. How she was afraid to meet other people thinking they were disgusted by her fat. How she wanted to be thin so other people would like her.

I was talking to my mom about the book and told her I just couldn't relate to the woman and her story. I've been overweight since I was 6 and fat my entire adult life, but I've never thought that way. I don't like being fat because it's uncomfortable and unhealthy, but I don't hate myself or my body. I don't think of myself as less than someone else because I am fat. When I look at other fat people I don't think they're so fat, they're disgusting. It's just a classification. I think it about skinny people too.

When I'm in Walmart walking all kinds of random thoughts go thru my head when I see people, but they aren't moral judgements, just commentary. Look at those legs, they are so skinny, how do they hold her up. That's a pretty color on her. What beautiful skin. Weird color hair. I like those earrings. Look at those tattoes. That lady has a strange hair color. Nice looking guy. What a pretty girl. That lady is big. Neat t-shirt. That lady's outfit looks classy, etc, etc.

The only time I'm disgusted is when I see behavior like yelling at kids, or talking loudly on a cellphone, or picking their nose or something like that Smile

Fat is not synonomous with bad or immoral. Someone isn't worth more as a person because they are thin. Then my mom surprised me because she said she can totally relate to the woman's story. She's felt that way her whole life. Less than because of being 10 or 20 pounds over what society says she should be. She compares herself to others and she always seems to come up as less. Less pretty, less thin, less creative etc.

She has been on a diet and exercizing her entire adult life and has never been satisfied with herself. I asked her if she looked at other people in the store and thought things like that lady is fat, she's disgusting, etc. She said she doesn't but I don't know if I believe it. She's said things to me before about how someone is so skinny it makes her sick. And how she is so fat, she doesn't want anyone to see her.

I know when I was growing up my sister was skinny and she seemed to get more praise for her looks than I ever got for grades or awards. I knew that my mom thought her being pretty/thin was a better accomplishment and worth more than being smart or achieving something. Even though she was skinny naturally and didn't have to try to be that way. My mom would deny this of course, but it was obvious.

I always had enough accomplishments growing up, that I guess I never considered my value as a person was related to how I looked. I knew I had worth because of the things I did and the awards I got. I didn't have low self-esteem. I just didn't care as much about my weight/looks as I did about enjoying food. Eating food I liked, when I wanted it.

I believe part of the reason I got so fat, is I have very little body consiousness. Once I'm dressed for the day I never think about how I look again. Someone has to tell me if I have something on my face or if I spilled something. I just don't notice.

I never thought that if I was thin I would be more popular or whatever. Why would I want to be friends with someone who only wanted to be my friend if I weighed a certain weight and not anymore?

I wonder how many other people think like my mom and the lady who wrote the book. When they see other fat people, do they think they are disgusting? Do most people have a running commentary about how other people look and make judgements about them based on that, or is it just commentary and classification? I know teen-agers do that a lot, but once people become adults and learn that you can't judge someone on their looks, do they keep doing it anyways?

Now I have to admit, if I see someone scary looking I might think scary looking and be leary of them, but I don't think bad person. Just cautious. Also if I see fat hanging out of clothes or butt cracks, etc. I get a little disgusted, but still don't think the person is disgusting, just the piece I saw that I shouldn't have Smile One thing that really disgusts me even with thin women is when they bend over and you see the top of their butt crack and their thongs - yech!

Now if I could wake up tomorrow skinny would I take it? It depends, how skinny? Less than 130? No thanks. 130 - 150, if I was healthy and didn't have to live on lettuce leaves for the rest of my life then yes I would. Would it change my viewpoint of myself? I don't think so. Would I suddenly become body conscious and start buying lots of clothes to show off my body? I don't think so, but you never know until it happens and maybe I'm just a hypocrit. Since it won't happen overnight and will probably take years, if ever, at the rate I'm losing, I guess I'll settle for liking myself regardless of my weight and still trying to get healthier as best I can.

I finished reading my book Blood Challenge by Eileen Wilks. Paranormal/mystery/romance - very good. I really like this series.

Saturday errands

July 16th, 2011 at 08:01 pm

Got up very early for me and finished my 40 min walk before 9, it was already over 80 degrees by the time I was done.

Ran several errands this morning.

Walgreens - 4 cans mushrooms - $2
Farmer's market - 5 tomatoes - $3
Post Office - mailed 3 swap books - $7+
Safeway - picked up prescription - $4 and got some green onions - .59 cents
Vitamin Cottage - 2 stainless steel water bottles, celery and lemon mayo - $25
Library - dropped of 4 books, picked up 13 lots of my holds came in at one time.

Everything was within 3 miles of my house.

I had shrimp last night and a big salad. The shrimp are described as deveined, but I had to devein about 10% of them - yuck! They were very good though.

I finished reading the library book Blood Kin by Maria Lima. Paranormal - very good. I also finished reading the library book Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels. Non-fiction - I thought it was good and made a lot of good points.

I feel like I've been duped

July 12th, 2011 at 10:00 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 637.89
RX total = 184.64
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,029.72

I've had diabetes and high blood pressure for over 10 years. During that time most of the things I read about how to control diabetes from the ADA were eat more whole grains, eat less meat, eat less fat. Even just this month the new ADA guidelines are to eat 45 - 65% daily carbohydrates. I followed the rules and I kept getting worse. Every year I had to increase my medications. I lost some wieght, but even with that I couldn't bring my diabetes/high blood pressure under control.

For the past 3 months I've been reading about a lot of alternative ways to control diabetes/high blood pressure and the middle of April I started trying them. The main one was to drastically reduce carbs (under 50/day), no sugar. Eat more protein (4 - 6 oz/meal) and eat more fat (just not trans fat). I am amazed. I haven't lost tons of weight, but I have lost 15 pounds in 3 months, eating around 1800 cal/day. I went from taking 4 high blood pressure meds to keep my blood pressure in the high/normal range to 1 med with my blood pressure absolutely normal. I got my fasting blood sugar results today for the 3 month A1c test. It is 6.1% down from 7.3%. This is fantastic! Under 6% is considered normal, if I can bring it down just a little bit more, I will be normal! In only 3 months. Next month I plan to get my cholesterol and triglycerides checked.

I feel like I've been duped, like the government has been lying to me. They want me to be on drugs to control the problem. They want the agricultural businesses to grow, by me eating more of their products. This is their advice for the last 20 years and in that time there has been an explosion of obesity and diabetes and I blame it on that advice to americans to eat more grains and less fat. The drug companies and agricultural companies donate hugh amounts of money to the ADA.

I watched the documentary FatHead on netflix, which gave a lot of good information. I've read several books including the Diabetes Solution, Eat Fat, Lose Fat, Protein Power and several others that explain how many, many, many studies show when people reduce carbs, all the markers doctors look at for health improve - blood sugar, blood pressure and lipids. I've found several websites devoted to diabetics who have improved their numbers this way and are now medication free.

Eating this way has taken away all my cravings for food. I've bought several candy bars in the last couple weeks that were free, but I haven't even been tempted to eat them. I've given them all away. It used to be I could eat a big bowl of pasta, or oatmeal or something like that and in 2 hours I was looking for something else to eat. I was never satisfied. I feel so calm now.

There are some drawbacks. It's a lot more expensive to eat this way. My grocery bill doubled last month and tripled this month. This month the reason is buying $100 worth of vitamin supplements to see if I can get my blood sugar down a little more. Partly the cost was because I wasn't stocked up for this way of eating and had to buy a lot of things when they weren't on sale. Once I get stocked and start finding the sales the monthly price should come down some. Another offset to that though is not eating out as much that saves around $50 a month since I went from 10 times a month to 4.

It's harder to eat out or go to friends to celebrate. I have to really plan ahead and bring my own food if needed.

It's really hard to find products without some kind of sugar or msg or transfat. It seems like everything has some form of sugar - it's amazing. Even tuna is packed in broth, which has msg in it. And just about every salad dressing or cheese or lunchmeat has either sugar or something hydrologized in it. Hydrologized anything means transfats.

I spend more time prepping and cooking food. I didn't used to eat meat at home much unless it was in a frozen dinner or tuna or something like that, so I actually cook meat.

It's a little boring after awhile since I mostly eat protein and veggies at every meal. There are some really good low-carb bars and ice cream and stuff out there and I can eat nuts, which helps. Again all that stuff is more expensive than grains. But bottom line I decided spending the money now to be healthy and get my numbers under control will save money in the future when I don't have to have amputations or heart disease etc.

I've lost one clothing size, both up and down and I have more energy. My heartburn after meals went away. I can't remember the last time I had a headache. I fall asleep within a half hour of laying down - it used to take me an hour or more. I sleep almost the whole night thru - I usually have one bathroom break, but the sleep seems to be a deep, good sleep, not restless.

All in all I feel so much better and the results speak for themselves. I did Atkins years ago, but couldn't stay on it for longer than a few days. For some reason this time it is not that hard. Eventually I should be able to increase my carbs some and eat around 100 grams/day.

I don't know why I finally decided to take control of this area in my life. I think I was kind of fatalistic before. You have diabetes, you'll have it for life. You'll always need medications. Eventually you'll die of it and probably a lot sooner than you would otherwise. I frequently read the advice from the ADA and tried to follow it, but obviously that was a load of @#$@#. And maybe that's why I was so fatalistic, because I did follow their advice and it wasn't working. I just kept getting worse.

Now the more I read the alternative view points and websites, the more excited I am about having normal numbers. You can't be cured from diabetes, but I can be normal. For the next 2 months I plan to continue this way of eating and add in the supplements that are supposed to help. I'll test again in September to see if I've made any more improvements.

Anyways having a stupendous day today with getting those results in the mail. I also got 3 more $5 credit cards from the cereal deal last month.

I finished reading my book Free Fall in Crimson by John D. Macdonald. Mystery - pretty good.

spending spree

July 11th, 2011 at 09:24 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 630.70
RX total = 184.64
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,022.53

I went on a spending spree at Walmart this morning. Spent 123.88 after coupons. $12+ in coupons. I got a 10" and 12" teflon coated skillet with glass lid. Both of mine have spots where the teflon has rubbed completly away. I got 2 new t-shirts in a smaller size and a pair of shorts in a smaller size - woohoo!

The rest was stock up on basics like food extracts, furniture polish, nuts etc. I got 3 trial size of Cascade dishwashing detergent for free. 2 packages of pull-ups wipes for free and a package of Cottonelle wipes for free. The wipes will be donated.

Mom and Dad are on vacation so they dropped off a package at my house for me to mail this morning on their way out of state. So I did that too.

I stayed up till 2 o'clock last night reading a library book. Breaking the Rules by Suzanne Brockmann. Romance - excellent. Love this whole Troubleshooters series.

monsoon season

July 10th, 2011 at 08:39 pm

It's monsoon season here. What that means is that in the morning it gets to 90 degrees and then around the noon the clouds come in and we get a massive downpour for 10 - 20 minutes. As much as an inch at a time, with winds upto 70 mph and sometimes hail and a lot of thunder and lightening. Then it stays cloudy and we might get another 1 or 2 storms before midnight. We should get a couple weeks of this.

Personally I love it. I like watching lightening and I'm very happy when it cools down. I have been getting up early to walk, so haven't had to deal with the rain yet for that.

We didn't make it to Rosie's the other night. Mom didn't get home till after 7, so I just fixed bacon and eggs for myself at home. Still good.

I finished reading my book Ruthless Game by Christine Feehan. Paranormal - excellent.

friday errands

July 8th, 2011 at 09:28 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 611.98
RX total = 184.64
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 1,003.81

Over $1000 saved in coupons, prescription deals and discounted gift cards so far.

Went to Safeway this morning to pick up another prescription. I've transferred 4 this month, which gives me a $30 gift card. If I transfer 2 more before the end of the month, I will get another $30 gift card. The prescription was $2.

Went to King Soopers and they sent me another survey for $5 off when I returned it to the pharmacy. I spent $6.86 for $31.86 in groceries. I used $5 in coupons, $5 RX deal and 4 $5 visa cards Kellogs sent me for the cereal deal a couple weeks ago. They came really fast. I'm expecting 3 more of them and 2 $10 ones.

I got 3 lbs of bacon on sale at 3.99/lb - still expensive, but best I've seen lately. 3 doz eggs for $1/doz. 4 candy bars - free - go to my mom. I gave all the ones I got last week to her too. 3 Tic - Tacs - free - go to my niece. On clearance I found two huge bottles of potassium supplements that I take on sale for $4.79 each 50% off.

I entered the vitamin codes into Nature Mades wellness site and got 110 points for each bottle, that put me over 500 points and I ordered a $7 coupon.

I know dad wants to go to Rosie's tonight for their prime rib special so I plan to have an omelet for supper. For breakfast I decided to have dinner. I sauteed chicken sausage with mushrooms in butter - it was so good. I'm definitely having that again. I cut the 1b of sausage into 3 sections so I can make it 2 more times.

I sold a book on half com for the first time in a year or so. I just put 2 on last week. Hope the other one sells as fast. Went to the post office and mailed it - $2.82. When I got home there was a message I had a trade on paperback swap, so will have to go back to the post office again tomorrow. Fortunately it's less than a mile away. I've made 4 swaps now, this is pretty good. I have so much credit at the used book store I can never use it, so this is another way to get more books that I want.

I finished reading the library book Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Sci/Fi - very good. New author for me, so put the next one in the series on hold too.

free-range nuts - are you nuts?

July 5th, 2011 at 08:37 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 584.98
RX total = 179.64
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 971.81

I went to King Soopers this morning to get a few groceries. I had a survey offering me $5 if I returned it. They wanted to know why I transferred a prescription. So I got another $5 put on my card. I got 8 free candy bars (4 milky way and 4 3 musketeers). I hope to give them all away to either my mom or nieces before eating one. I also got 2 bottles of Lipton tea for free, which will go to my dad.

The main thing I went for is vitamins. They had CoQ10 BOGO and I had some $2 coupons. These are really expensive vitamins. I'm really trying to get my diabetes under control and the numbers have been very good lately. If I can drop them another 20 points, I will be in the normal range for fasting blood sugar. I read that this supplement helps, so decided to try it out for awhile.

My blood pressure has been spectacular lately too - 110/60's. I plan to see the dr in August and see if I can go off some of the meds, if not all.

While in the store I saw they were advertising free-range nuts (walnuts and almonds). How ridiculous, am I supposed to believe these nuts come from trees that freely range about? Just another stupid marketing ploy that adds about $2/lb to the cost.

I finished reading the library book Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty. Western/Romance - very good. A new author for me, I put some of her other books on hold at the library.

coupon burnout

July 3rd, 2011 at 08:35 pm

ytd = April 1 2011 - March 31, 2012
Coupon total ytd = 559.80
RX total = 174.64
Discounted Gift Cards = 207.19
Total = 941.63

Not a lot going on right now. I can't get interested in any of the deals, it just seems like too much work. I think I'm burned out. I read about them and think - eh I don't feel like it. Hopefully I'll snap out of it.

I went to Walgreens this morning and used a $6 RR to buy two jars of Hellmann's mayonnaise. Also got a dozen eggs for .99

The fried jicama the other night was the best out of the two methods of cooking. I don't think I baked the chips long enough. I might try it again for longer next time. The fried jicama was really pretty good and I'll probably end up fixing most of the rest of it that way.

I finished reading the library book Wit'chstorm by James Clemens. Sci/Fi - very good.