Week 1 - $13.67, 9.82 eating out, 3.85 groceries
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 c mandarin oranges

Lunch
ate out at Texas Road House - $9.82 early bird special
1 roll w/cinnamon butter
salad with eggs, tomatoes and ranch dressing
baked potato w/ butter
6 oz Sirloin steak

Dinner
1 slice wheat bread w/peanut butter and grape jelly
1 glass skim milk

Went shopping today and got various good stuff

Walgreens

$15.00 - Walgreens gift card
.34 - 1 can Hunts Tomato sauce w/WAG in-ad q
4.49 - Gillete Body Wash
5.49 - Gillette Deodorant
6.00 - 6 Dentyne gum single packs
.86 - taxes
-------
32.18
-15.00 - 2 $7.50 RRs from ReNu purchases earlier
- 4.99 - free Gillette body wash wyb Gillette DO
- 2.00 - Gillette DO
- 6.19 - 6 $1 Dentyne Gum q's
------
4.00 paid with gift card got back another $4.50 RR for Gillette body wash. Body wash, deodorant and tomato sauce goes to Food pantry. 2 Gums go to mom, (they are cinnamon) other 4 not sure yet. May go to nieces, may go to food pantry. They are peppermint.

Walmart

2.84 - 2 bottles KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
2.48 - Walgreen brand antacid
.20 - tax
------
5.52
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's for KC BBQ sauce

BBQ sauce goes to mom - she will pay the .84 cents it cost.

King Soopers

3.58 - 2 bags Kroger frozen steak fries
1.98 - 1 gal skim milk
1.99 - 1 lb baby carrots - kroger brand
2.43 - 3 vidalia onions
3.23 - 4 potatoes
3.59 - 1 bag Dole salad
1.15 - 1 doz eggs
1.20 - grapes
.99 - 1 bunch radishes
1.07 - 3 parsnips
.70 - 1 bunch celery
2.50 - 2 packages Goldfish - pretzel kind
-----
24.41
- .10 - 2 reusable bags
-3.00 - King Sooper home mailer q wyb $15 in produce
- .70 - 2 .35 Goldfish q's doubled
- .50 - Goldfish e-coupon
- .75 - Goldfish e-coupon
-3.59 - free Dole salad - KS home mailer q
- .50 - KS Home mailer q on carrots
- .55 - KS Home mailer q on frozen potatoes
-12.00 - 3 $4 OYNO q's from buying Reach toothbrush last week
-------
1.83

The gold fish were a .15 cent moneymaker. All of these groceries were for me.

Safeway

1.06 - 6 bananas
1.97 - 3 tomatoes
2.99 - Welchs juice
-----
6.02
-1.00 - SW e-coupon for Welchs
-2.00 - $2 q for Welchs
-1.00 - $1 OYNO q from last week
-----
2.02

The Welchs was free. All of these groceries are for me. I've spent a total of $3.85 on groceries this week. Now I have over $11 left so I could go out and eat one more time. I do want to go to Safeway this weekend and get a bag of salad for .99 cents - still leavs me $10 to eat out. Not sure what I will do. Hate to leave that money on the table, but there isn't very many good deals to spend it on for groceries this week. I don't like to buy groceries unless I get a very good deal.

I got 2 samples in the mail yesterday. One was Kraft Sandwich Shop mayo; chipotle and garlic and herb. The other was Ritz crackerfuls cheddar cheese and bacon. They will either go to the food pantry or someone in my family. Need to ask if anyone wants them.

I finished reading the library book Holiday with a Vampire III. Romantic Short stories. The first one by Linda Winstead Jones was good, the other 2 were boring.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 deviled egg - mayo, mustard, salt and pepper
1 banana

Lunch
tuna wrap - tuna, hardboiled egg, radishes, mayo with olive oil, flour tortilla, pepper
no sugar lemon pudding cup
1 c skim milk

Dinner
1 1/2 Stouffer's individual meatloaves
green beans sauteed in olive oil, w/ garlic salt and pepper
mandarin orange coleslaw - shredded cabbage with carrots, mandarin oranges and juice from oranges, mayo with olive oil, splenda, salt, pepper and cashews
1 cup skim milk

Snack
1 deviled egg
1 snack pack of Weight Watcher pretzel things with olive oil and rosemary.

Mom gave me the box of Weight Watcher snacks so they were free. The lemon pudding was free also.

This is fairly boring listing menus everyday, but haven't been shopping in a few days to post something more interesting. Plan to go tomorrow since I'm almost out of milk and veggies. Making my list and gathering q's today.

Finished reading the library book Demon Bound by Meljean Brook. Paranormal - excellent.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu, there's going to be a lot of repetition, especially for breakfast and lunch

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 deviled egg - mayo, mustard, salt and pepper
1 banana

Lunch
tuna wrap
tuna, hardboiled egg, radishes, mayo with olive oil, flour tortilla, pepper
no sugar vanilla pudding cup
1 c skim milk

Dinner
1 baked potato w/light honey dijon salad dressing
1 can Chunky Chicken Noodle soup
1 cup skim milk

Snack
1 deviled egg
1 apple

The oatmeal and salad dressing were free on top of what was listed yesterday.

I got $5 of gas yesterday, just enough to get me thru the end of the month. Next month both my credit cards are giving 5% back on gas so I'll wait till then to fill up.

I finished reading the library book In Bed with the Duke by Christina Dodd. Romance - good.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 1/2 c cheerios
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
2 deviled eggs - mayo, mustard, salt and pepper

Lunch
tuna wrap
tuna, hardboiled egg, radishes, mayo with olive oil, flour tortilla, pepper
no sugar vanilla pudding cup
1 c skim milk

Dinner
1 1/2 Stouffer's individual meatloaves
green beans sauteed in olive oil, w/ garlic salt and pepper
mandarin orange coleslaw
shredded cabbage with carrots, mandarin oranges and juice from oranges, mayo with olive oil, splenda, salt, pepper and cashews
1 cup skim milk

Snack
banana

The cheerios, juice, tuna, mayo, tortilla, pepper, pudding, garlic salt and pepper mix, mustard, splenda and mandarin oranges were all free items.

Yesterday I went to Walgreens before going to mom's to walk. I converted my RRs from last week to a gift card and got this week's moneymaker. I had 3 $6 RRs and 1 $4 one.

Transaction 1

20.00 - Walgreens gift card
1.00 - 3 Hunts tomato sauce 3/$1 with their q
7.49 - ReNu contact solution
.52 - taxes
------
29.01
-22.00 - 3 $6 RRs and 1 $4 RR
- 2.00 - $2.00 ReNu q
------
5.01 - paid with a gift card and got $7.50 RR

Transaction 2

7.49 - ReNu
.52
------
8.01
-2.00 - $2.00 ReNu q
------
6.01 - paid with a gift card and got $7.50 RR

Both contact solutions and the tomato sauce go to the food pantry. The reason for buying the tomato sauce was so each RR has an item to go with it. This is called a filler - per Walgreens policy you can not have more than 1 coupon per item.

This morning I went again and converted the 2 $7.50 RRs I got yesterday into a gift card

Transaction 1

15.00 - Walgreens Gift card
.34 - 1 can tomato sauce - using Walgreens q
------
15.34
-15.00 - 2 $7.50 RRs
------
.34

Transaction 2 and 3

7.49 - ReNu
.52
------
8.01
-2.00 - $2.00 ReNu q
------
6.01 - paid with a gift card and got $7.50 RR

So still have 2 $7.50 RRs. I made 1.49 on each bottle of contact solution. I plan to buy 1 more this week making $7.45. I will put 2 more RRs on another $15 gift card later this week also. These 2 bottles of contact solution go to my brother.

I finished reading my book Nimisha's Ship by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

The All You grocery challenge starts today. I'm not officially entering, just doing it for the heck of it. The rules are:

You can only spend $25/week, per person for food. That includes all meals, snacks and eating out. If you go to someone's for dinner or a party, then that is ok as long as you don't get free meals for all your meals.

If you have leftover money from one week, you can't use it in another week.

You can use your garden, your stockpile, your coupons, catalinas and register rewards.

Part of the challenge is judged on being creative and eating healthy.

I didn't do anything special to get ready for this, such as buy a bunch of produce and vegetables ahead of time. I did buy milk and bread last Friday because I needed them. I'm low on fresh veggies right now so will need to get some this week. My pantry and fridge are full, but they always are. I consider that part of the challenge.

I fixed several things today in preparation for later in the week. Oatmeal, deviled eggs, coleslaw and tuna salad.

I plan to still buy food for the pantry on my regular grocery receipts and just deduct that from the total. I will also deduct anything that is not food, such as paper products, cleaning supplies and personal care items. Only food that I eat counts.

I will be tracking what I eat each day and posting it the following day. Eating out will be the big challenge for me. I hope I can make it past week 1

I finished reading the library book Dragon Heat by Allyson James. Romance - OK

I finally finished updating my financial notebook and made copies of the information to give my parents to keep in case of emergency. It makes me feel very vulnerable having all that information in one place. All my assets are listed and how to access them. If someone unfriendly got ahold of it, it could ruin me. But on the other hand unless I do that, my parents would have no idea where many of my assets were or how to access them. For example, my I-bonds are electronic thru Treasury Direct. I never get mail or email concerning them. Without access information they wouldn't know they even existed, let alone how to cash them in.

Now that I have that done I need to get my will updated. I might do one on the internet. The last time I did it my nieces were very young and I didn't include them in the will. Now I plan to cut out my sister and brother and leave everything equally to my mom, dad and 2 nieces. My nieces are still young and I really don't think it's good for their character for young people to have money handed to them in their 20's and 30's or younger. I think people learn more when they have to struggle a bit to get money and make choices about what's more important to them when spending money. Easy money is a sure way to ensure they don't value money, or the work that goes into getting it. So hopefully I will still be around for at least another 20 years or so

I finished reading the library book Nauti Deceptions by Lora Leigh. Romance - very good.

I've been playing the King Soopers Summer Savings game for a week and I finally won for the first time yesterday. 1 free 4 roll pack of Angel Soft toilet paper. I got it when I went to the store this morning. The game is still good for the rest of the summer.

I also got:

5.00 - 4 more Reach toothbrushes
.40 - taxes
------
5.40
-1.25 - BOGO q - no overage this time
-1.00 - .50 q doubled
-2.00 - $2/2 q
-----
1.15 - got back another $4 OYNO q - made 2.85. 3 toothbrushes go to mom and dad and 1 to food pantry. I have 9 for food pantry so far and will try to do one more deal next week.

1.76 - 2 Luna bars
-1.76 - 2 .50 q's doubled to .88, cost of bar
------
FREE - the bars go to the food pantry. These coupons came from coupons books that CURVES is giving out. My mom has been giving them to me. This book also has No Yolks coupons, which I love. Hope there's a sale on these soon.

1.98 - 1 gal milk
2.50 - Sara Lee bread
.72 - bananas
-----
5.20

Last night mom called while dad was in the other room. Wanted to know if I would go to Staples today and get a letter opener for him for Father's day. Only thing she could think of to get for him. There is a 15% off coupon on Staples good thru tomorrow so I printed it off and went this morning. The most expensive one I could find was under $5, but I got it and used my 15% coupon. Ah well, she'll have to figure out something else, or make do

Finished reading my book Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood. Romance - excellent.

My youngest niece came over today to sweep my garage and porch. I paid her $25 for this half hour chore. She did a really good job, but it was basically just a way to give her money for her trip to Hondurus.

We went to King Soopers to rent Avatar from the Redbox there. I had a promo code to get a free rental. While there I also got the following

3.00 - 3 3 bar packs of Ivory soap
5.00 - 4 Reach toothbrushes
.63 - taxes
----
8.63
-3.00 - 3 $1 q's Ivory soap
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's Reach Toothbrush
-2.22 - 1 BOGO Reach
-2.22 - 1 BOGO Reach
-----
-.81 - I didn't know the BOGO price would be so much or I would have gotten some bananas as a filler. Instead the cashier just zeroed out the order. But I got a $4 OYNO coupon. No money spent - $4 made. I was glad my niece was with me to see the transaction. I've tried to explain to them how I get all this free stuff and sometimes make money, but their Dad basically acts like I don't know what I'm talking about. So seeing is believing. I'll have to try to go back and do 1 or 2 more transactions on the Reach. I have a few more coupons.

We went to Taco Bell for lunch. Her favorite. $6.91 for the two of us - can't get much cheaper than that. The movie was really good, if long, we both liked it.

I also went to Walgreens and still no Neutrogena. My favorite cashier told me she had a customer who came in and bought 4 cases of the lip balm. Paying about $3.75 and getting $10 OYNO coupons each time. That's good for her, but there are other people in the world. I try not to get too greedy and wipe out all the merchandise when I do deals. I did find out the Schick razor deal I did on Sunday was even better than I originally thought since there is a Try Me free rebate out for it. So I will make $8+ on the razor.

Also went back to Walmart and got 2 more of the Hillshire farm lunchmeat. I had my coupons this time so got 2 tubs for $1.54 or .77 each.

I finished reading the library book The Marriage Trap by Elizabeth Thornton. Romance - good

I'm not nearly as good as baselle at finding money on the streets, but every once in a while I find a bit. This morning it was raining and mom and I walked at Walmart. Last fall when we were walking at Walmart she saw a dime on the ground and pointed it out to me. I said don't you want it and she said she didn't want to bend over and pick it up, so I did.

A couple of days later I was getting groceries at Safeway. I got $55+ worth and after coupons I gave the cashier that dime to pay for my groceries and he gave me back 4 cents in change. I told my mom that story and she loved the fact that I paid for groceries with that dime and got change back.

The next week when we were walking I found a nickel and said "aha! grocery money" and it just so happened I bought around $25 of groceries that week and it came to exactly a nickel after coupons. So I love finding money on the street, it always makes me think I'll get free groceries.

While we were in Walmart today we saw they had Hillshire Farms lunchmeat on rollback from $3.88 to $1.12. We both got 2 packages. I have some .35 cent off coupons and am tempted to go back and get some more and freeze them. However, it was a major hassle and I'm glad my dad checked out with his while we were still walking. They rang up at $3 and he had to take the CS back and show her the sign. By the time I got to the same cashier though, he already knew they were ringing up wrong and just fixed mine as he went. If I go back, they probably won't have it fixed and I'll have to go thru the same hassle. Ah well, we'll see if I feel like it tomorrow.

I subscribe to the Denver Post because they usually have much better coupons than the local paper. However, yesterday they only had $4 off the Schick Hydro razors which makes them free except for taxes at Walgreens this week. Since I'm not buying them for myself I didn't want to pay taxes on them. But my parents give me their coupons that they don't want and they had a $5 coupon which makes them a moneymaker of .51. So on the way home from walking last night I stopped at Walgreens and they still had a bunch of them and I picked one up. Now I have $23 in RRs that I need to use or put on a giftcard. I'm waiting to see if they restock on the Neutrogena.

I made $33 from the garage sale my parents had. The last day was pretty miserable with the rain, but they still got lots of people. We had 4 inches of snow in one of the mountain towns and it snowed down to 10,000 feet. We are at 7,000+ feet so we just got rain and cold. Third day I've needed my furnace. But I'm not complaining I like it cooler. I'm sure it will heat up soon enough.

Here I thought I didn't have anything to blog about today and I ended up with a long post

I finished reading my book The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglass. Sci/Fi - good.

It's raining today, so when I went to Walgreens this morning I got a free car wash courtesy of Mother Nature

Walgreens did not have all the deals I read about, but I did make $7.80 on the Nivea body washes. They were out of the Neutrogena bars which would have been a big moneymaker, and I only got a $4 coupon on the Schick Hydro razors, meaning I would still have to pay tax to buy them and they're not worth it to me.

I did get 3 of the Nivea body wash for men

5.99 - 1 body wash
.41 - tax
----
6.40
-3.00 - Q
-----
3.40 - used gift card that had put previous RRs on and got $6 RR back. Profit $2.60. Repeat 2 more times and made $7.80

I also got 2 6 packs of Boost on sale buy 1 get 1 50% off.

7.29 - first boost
3.64 - second boost
----
10.93
-3.00 - 2 1.50 q's
-----
7.93 or 3.97 each

I had to turn the furnace on for a little while yesterday - it got under 40 degrees. But I definitely like the cooler weather.

I got a great sample pack in the mail yesterday from P&G

4 Cascade Extra Action tablets
1 Bounce sheet
1 Travel size Tide with Frebreeze package
1 trial size Pantene shampoo
1 trial size Pantene conditioner

I finished reading the library book Devlin's Justice by Patricia Bray. Sci/Fi - good

Well my soup was not the best soup I've ever had, but it was tasty and filling. I gave a big bowl to my parents for their dinner tonight and have enough left over for at least 2 more dinners for me.

I had tuna wraps for lunch and I made mandarin orange coleslaw to go with it. Really good. Coleslaw mix, with chopped up mandarin oranges and cashews. Mix mayo, some of the orange liquid from the can of mandarin oranges and salt and pepper and combine everything.

Over the last year of heavy couponing I've learned some tips that have really helped.

1. Seperate your printed coupons with insert coupons. This keeps them from sticking together and having the cashier miss one. If I have too many printed coupon vs insert coupons, I bend the corners of the printed ones so they seperate.

2. If you want to know if your coupons will double, look at the bar code on the coupon. If it starts with a 9, it won't double. If it starts with a 5, it will.

3. Most of the printed coupons are bricks coupons. To know this look at the address and if it says bricks.com it's from the bricks company. Usually you can print 2 coupons by pressing the back button until a second one prints. But before I print my coupons, I click on the Help link in the lower right corner. A seperate window opens and sometimes there is an option to have the coupon mailed to you, if you fill in your name and address. I do this twice and in about a week I will get 2 more coupons in the mail.

4. Walgreens has a special button on their cash registers that lets them print a rebate reciept for you. This is great when you are buying more than one item that you have rebates on, or just like to keep the original receipt in case of a return. I printed out the instructions and hand them to the cashiers, since they never seem to know how to work their registers The instructions are here:

http://deals.families.com/how-to-print-a-rebate-receipt,t110...

It's raining on and off today, but my mom said they are still getting lots of people at their garage sale. Dad is happy - he's made over a $1000. He sold a riding lawn mower for $880 and has more big ticket items to go. Well worth the effort - unfortunately he has a summer cold and is very sick. He catches colds very easy. He gave me his cold last September. First one I'd had in over 5 years so I'm trying not to get too close.

It's hard thinking of your parents as old. Both of mine are in pretty good health, but have general aches and pains. My mom is 70 and is in excellent health. She's probaby the healthiest in the whole family including all the aunts. My dad is losing his hearing and has bad hips and is generally worn down. But he's pretty healthy overall.

I finished reading the library book Devlin's Honor by Patricia Bray. Sci/Fi - good. This last week I've been reading all library books and have one to go. For some reason I had a bunch due on the same date and none of them were renewable, so I've been scrambling to get them all read by Monday.

I decided to make soup today. I don't have a recipe per say, but just decided to throw in whatever I have. From my freezer I took cooked hamburger meat, Steamfresh potatoes and greenbeans package and frozen corn. My refrigerator donated carrots and celery. My pantry coughed up onion, canned tomatoes, pinto beans, mushrooms and chicken stock. I'll add thyme, salt and pepper and see how it all turns out after a few hours in the crock pot.

My parents are having a garage sale today and tomorrow. I took some stuff over to add to it. Be nice to get rid of some things and make a little money too.

I finished reading the library book Eight Days to Live by Iris Johansen. Mystery - good.

I had planned to go to Walgreens today and convert my $9 RRs to giftcards, but after reading Elisabeths blog I used them at Safeway instead and they worked beautifully to buy me lots of veggies.

I spent a total of $4.30

10.68 - 12 Kraft cheesy explosion mac and cheese
-6.00 - 6 .50/2 q's doubled
-----
4.68 - all to the food pantry

2.98 - 2 Kraft salad dressings
-2.00 - 2 .55 q's doubled
-----
.98 - plus I got a $1 OYNO cat. This finishes up what I needed for the $10 Kraft rebate so sent that off today.

3.00 - 3 Zone bars
-3.00 - 3 .50 q's doubled
-----
FREE - go to food pantry

1.58 - 2 cans Kuner white beans
1.19 - lettuce @.79/lb
.24 - celery @1.72/1b
.86 - 2 potatoes @.50/lb
.26 - 2 carrots
1.59 - bagged shredded cabbage
3.00 - 3 lbs apples
-----
8.64
-1.00 - Safeway q for bagged apples
-----
7.64

Then went to Walmart. They were supposed to have KC BBQ sauce on rollback for $1, but our store had it priced $1.42 so didn't get that.

5.52 - 4 cans Muir Glen organic tomatoes
-4.00 - 4 $1 q's
-----
1.52 - food pantry items

2.00 - 4 packages Taco Bell Taco seasoning
-2.00 - 2 $1/2 q's
-----
FREE - food pantry items

.97 - bananas @ .44/lb
.88 - bunch of radishes
----
1.85

I spent $6.20 on Food pantry items and $1.60 on groceries for me.

The food pantry gets

12 boxes mac and cheese
3 Zone bars
4 cans tomatoes
4 packages taco seasoning mix

I'm thinking about unoffically doing the All You Challenge. It starts June 20 and goes for 4 weeks. You have to track everything you eat and anything you spend on food. My pantry and fridge are pretty well stockpiled with food, since that's just the way I eat anyways. I just think it would be interesting to see how I do, but I don't want to officially enter.

Last night mom called and wanted to go out to eat since they didn't feel like cooking. Of course I said yes. We went to Texas Roadhouse. I had a coupon for a free appetizer that they gave me when they severly undercooked my steak on one visit. We ordered the cheese fries. They were huge - a platter of fries, cheese, bacon bits and ranch dressing. They were so good, we all loved them. However, because they were so hugh I ended up just eating the fries and my salad. I brought my steak and baked potato home for another meal. We went during their early bird hour so we got our dinners for $7.99 instead of $9.99. Two meals for $10.

I finished reading the library book Guilty Pleasure by Lora Leigh. Romance - good, but I like the breed and dangerous men series better.

All You magazine is sponsoring a grocery challenge. They did this last year too and it was pretty interesting following some of the blogs about it. Basically the rules are you can spend $25 per week, per family member for one month. Then you track what you spend and what you eat. This includes eating out. If it weren't for the eating out part I could easily spend less than $25 a week on groceries You are also judged on creativity and how healty you eat. You can eat from gardens or stockpiles, you can use coupons, sales etc. The winner gets a $1000 grocery card. It's pretty interesting.

I also read this on Common Sense with money blog today for anyone who does swagbucks.

"Swagbucks is offering 50 free Swagbucks on your birthday. Just hop on over the the Swagbucks homepage to record your birth date (or you could do it under account details too), and you will get the free bucks on your birthday. How is that for a birthday present?"

I finished reading the library book Fire Along the Sky by Sara Donati. Historical - excellent.

PatientSaver had a really great post about an article in AARP called The Leap to Cheap.

http://patientsaver.savingadvice.com/2010/06/08/the-leap-to-...

I enjoyed it alot and found several quotes that are excellent

"they've found ways to be wealthy that don't depend on earning more cash or buying more things."

"thrift is more about knowing what you cherish, then skipping the rest"

"Someone drops a million dollars on you—how would it change your life? More than 9 out of 10 replies said, in so many words, that money cannot alter their lives."

Last night I finally got the movie Julie and Julia from the library. I've had it on hold for about 6 months and at one time there was more than 400 people waiting for it. It was pretty good. I really enjoyed the portrayel of the relationship between Julia Child and her husband. I gave it to my mom to watch before I have to return it.

Being inspired by the movie, this morning I made Julia Child's 6 minute boiled eggs, which she calls a substitute for poached eggs. They were so good. The yolk was creamy and rich and yummy. Eggs seem like such a simple food, but I love them for flavor and variety - you can do so much with an egg.

I finished reading the library book The Good, The Bad and the Uncanny by Simon R Green. Sci/Fi - very good.

It's been over 90 for the last several days and no rain. That's way too hot for me. I like it between 40 and 70. We've had to take our walks around 8 at night and it's still in the 80's. Come back cool weather

Went to both grocery stores this morning.

King Soopers

2.18 - 1 gal milk
3.76 - 2 Lean Cuisine @1.88 each
4.00 - 2 Dove deodorants
.32 - taxes
-----
10.26
-2.00 - catalina from Kraft salad dressings
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's for Lean Cuisine
-4.00 - 2 $2 q's for Dove deodorant
-----
2.26

The deodorants go to the food pantry

Safeway

5.34 - 6 boxes Kraft cheesy explosion mac and cheese
-3.00 - 3 .50/2 q's doubled
-----
2.34 - these go to food pantry and toward kraft rebate

1.98 - 4 Butterfingers - Buy 2 get 2 free
.10 - tax
-----
2.09
- .99 - 1 free item q
-----
1.11 for 4 large candy bars

3.00 - 4 Bumblebee tuna pouches
-2.20 - 4 .55 q's
-----
.80 - goes to food pantry

1.58 - 2 Sobe Lifewaters
-1.29 - free item q
-----
.29

3.49 - Kraft 100 calorie snack Cheese
-3.29 - free item q upto 3.29
-----
.29

Food pantry gets

6 boxes mac and cheese
4 pouches tuna
2 deodorants

I finished reading my book The Tower and the Hive by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi. ok

I also finished the library book Hot Rocks by Nora Roberts. Mystery/Romance - excellent - the dialog is so good.

I was not naturally frugal as a child. I spent all of my allowance every week. I chose to become frugal in my 20's. One of the major influences to that choice was reading this article: How to Retire Six Months Every Year in the Mother Earth News.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1970-05-01/H...

The articles basic premise was that by not spending everything you made you could work less. This was a revelation to me and the frugal lightbulb went off in my head. From that time on I searched for ways to be frugal because my goal of not working was more important to me, than the things I could buy.

The frugal lifestyle worked for me and seems like a second skin now. I actually enjoy and take pride in not spending a lot on things. But it was not the attitude I was born with. My brother was born a natural frugalist. He always had money when we were growing up. My sister and I would spend all our allowance and borrow a dollar from him till payday and pay him back a $1.05. Good deal for him, bad deal for us

One of my friends is frugal by necessity. When they got married they were deeply in debt from a failed business venture of his, where he declared bankruptcy, and after she had a child she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. So even though he makes very good money and they finnally paid off his debts, they live very close to the bone, where $5 makes a big difference. She doesn't care for the lifestyle but considers it worthwhile to be able to stay home with the kid. If things changed, they would not be frugal.

I'm sure there are others who were dragged kicking and screaming into the lifestyle because of some emergency or circumstance of life and as soon as possible will return to their spending ways.

I think some people are frugal for philosophical reasons such as saving the environment, or not wanting to consume too much.

I think it's interesting the way people arrive at the lifestyle and if they stay in it long-term. For me it was a conscious choice made to meet my goal and I've never regretted not buying more things or living in a better house, having new cars every year, etc. All the things people told me I should do on my journey from then to now - retired, house paid off and extremely happy with my life.

I finished reading the library book Arms-Commander by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Sci/Fi - very good.

Several things didn't go right today on my grocery trip. According to the reciept I saved 87%, but I would have saved more if more of my e-coupons had worked. It's weird how you dwell on the couple of things you didn't get free, instead of all the other things you did get free or made money on I guess they bug me so much because these particular things were stuff I wouldn't buy unless they were free or cheaper - hamburger helper, Nut clusters, chex mix.

I spent $10.25. $5 for the food pantry. Some of the rest was for nieces first apartment stockup.

Safeway is having a buy 8 or more and get $4 off sale, so I had to buy at least 8 of the sale items, after the first 8 they were all at the sale price. So I didn't have to buy in multiples of 8.

1.49 - Chex snack mix
-1.00 - .50 q doubled
-----
.49 - this is where one of my e-coupons didn't work or it would have been free. For my niece.

2.98 - 2 boxes Cheerios
-1.00 - $1/2 q
- .55 - e-coupon
-----
1.48

3.00 - 3 boxes Hamburger Helper
-1.00 - .75 q doubled
------
2.00 - supposed to get a .75 e-coupon but didn't. These are for the food pantry

1.99 - Nature Valley nut clusters
-1.00 - $1 q
-----
.99 - supposed to have a $1 e-coupon. for niece

1.96 - 2 boxes Kraft cheesy explosion
-2.58 - 2 free item coupons
-----
.62 money maker - goes toward kraft rebate and to the food pantry

1.96 - 4 boxes regular mac and cheese
-2.00 - 2 .55 q's doubled
-----
.04 money maker - goes to kraft rebate and to food pantry

1.49 - cheetos mighty zingers
-1.00 - q
-----
.49 - for niece

13.41 - 9 cans Crystal light
-9.00 - 3 $3/3 coupons
-----
3.41 - 2 to brother, 2 to niece, 5 to food pantry

3.00 - 4 packs Bumbleebee albacore tuna
-2.20 - 4 .55 q's
-----
.80 - food pantry

1.58 - 2 Sobe lifewater
-1.29 - BOGO q
-----
.29

2.00 - 2 110 ct boxes Kleenex
.19 - taxes
-----
2.19
-2.00 - $2/2 q
-----
.19

Food pantry gets

5 cans Crystal Light
4 packages tuna
5 boxes mac and cheese
3 boxes hamburger helper

Niece gets

1 Chex Mix
1 Cheetos
2 Crystal Light
1 Nut Clusters

Brother gets 2 Crystal Light and I get the rest.

I finished reading the library book The Lost. Mystery short stories - some good, some not

I also finished the library book The Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick. Romance - very good

I took both nieces to see Shrek Forever After today. We all thought it wasn't very good compared to the others. I'm really tired of the 3D stuff. Mom got 2 free movie codes a couple months ago for buying Smart Ones at the grocery store, so I went to Fandango and got two tickets from there. 2 tickets - $9 each. I bought one at the theater for me. I got 4 bags of Hershey's pieces candy last week at Walgreens so I let them each pick one bag for the movie. We went to Red Robin for lunch. My niece had a free hamburger coupon for joining their e-club. Lunch was $26 even though they took off $9.50 for her burger. Expensive day made better with freebies

I sent my niece a site to sign up for birthday coupons since she's over 18 now. I got so many this year I wasn't able to use them all.

Cold Stone - free ice cream
Schlotsky's - free sandwich
Noodles and Company - free bowl of noodles
Red Robin - free hamburger
Ruby Tuesday's - free hamburger
Subway - free 6" sub wyb 1
Red Lobster - $5 off

http://abundantfoodsavings.com/index.php?option=com_content&...

I finished reading my book Street Game by Christine Feehan. Romance - excellent.

I spent less than budgeted in May for food pantry items - only 14.91. I'll use up that other $5 some other month. I donated 96 items so 4 short of my 100 item goal.

The month was closer to normal spending wise - I spent @ 1500 for the month. I only ate out 9 times so that's good progress. Groceries and Eating out were about the same amount. $76.29 for groceries and $75.94 for eating out.

Yesterday I went to my sister's for hamburgers and hotdogs for nieces bday. Her bday isn't until next Monday, but sister decided to celebrate this weekend since everyone was free. My parents were there too. I drove over with them and we went back to their home after cake in the afternoon. We wanted to walk but it was still too hot at 3:00 so I played games until it cooled down at 7:00 then played more games until I went home at 10:00. I only won 3 games out of about 15, but that's ok, playing is fun regardless.

I went to King Soopers today for 3 more free Kraft salad dressings and a lot of veggies. I'm in the mood for salads right now. So tonight a baked potato and salad. Spent about an hour prepping all the salad stuff so I can just pull them together when wanted.

I got another $5 giftcard from Amazon using my Swagbucks so I ordered 3 more books from them - total $32.39. I almost have enough for another gift card. I've really been getting a lot of swagbucks lately. I got 50 the other day.

I finished reading Paranormal Romance - a series of short stories. Very good.

I went to Walgreens this morning to get this weeks specials. I did 4 transactions and spent nothing out of pocket since I used gift cards that I rolled previous Register Rewards on to. I ended up with $9 in RRs to either put on a gift card or spend in the next 2 weeks.

Transactions 1 - 3

2.00 - 45 ct Ecotrin aspirin
.14 - taxes
-----
2.14
-2.00 - coupon
-----
.14 - got a $2 RR for each transaction

Transaction 4

10.00 - 2 bags each Reeses pieces + peppermint patties
.29 - taxes
------
10.39
-3.00 - 3 $1 coupons
-2.00 - Ecotrin RR
-----
5.29 - got back a $5 RR

The candy will go to my nieces, the aspirin goes in my stash. I take one a day.

Is anyone else just getting one comment emailed to them from their blogs? I get the first one, but not anything after that. This just started yesterday.

I finished reading the library book Demon Forged by Meljean Brook. Paranormal - very good.

I finished reading the library book The New Frugality by Chris Farrell. What a waste of time. There was nothing new, just a general rehash of old principles - save more, spend less and do it in a green/environmental way. Plus there was the obligatory slap at Amy Dacyczyn for her 'extreme frugalism' of reusing vacuum cleaner bags. I don't know why so many financial savings authors think they have to do that. She's the most successful savings author ever, yet so many other financial savings authors feel they have to put her down. They need to prove that they are not asking you to do something 'extreme' - like not use credit cards - everyone has saving ideas that other people would not use, that doesn't mean those people are weird or cheap or extremist. What difference does it make to them if someone uses an idea that they wouldn't use. It works for the user, it saves money and reusing vacuum cleaners, ziploc bags, aluminum foil etc is good for the environment, which this author is supposedly promoting. Most people know all the basic savings advice, you need to do something different to get people thinking about all aspects of their savings if you want to make a big difference.

There was one quote in the book that I liked about retirment. "Many retirees find that they can make significant cuts in expenses without slashing their standard of living. The retired have the time to shop for and take advantage of deals and discounts, to clip coupons and plan ahead. It's easy for them to substitue home cooking instead of a late-night dash after work to get takeout.... You can get by on a lot less when you're retired, without really depriving yourself of anything important." This fits in exactly with my philosophy.

I was telling my dad about the savings on the Elephant Bar gift cards and he asked me to buy him 2 $50 cards, so I went online last night and got those and a lot more cards had been added, so I got another $100 WalMart card at 4% off. Dad likes Elephant bar because he gets a 20% senior citizen discount - add that to an 11% gift card discount and the occassional coupon and he really saves.

I got gas at Safeway this morning for the first time in almost 2 months. I last got gas at King Soopers on April 6th when I had .60 cents off. I used the gas in my 2 5 gal cans thru this month. This time I only had .10 cents off. It cost $2.53/gal and I spent $25 just for my car. I'll wait to fill up the gas cans when it's cheaper. The credit card should be giving 5% back on gas in July.

I have used up several of my gift cards in the last couple of weeks buying stuff for my niece's bday. So today I was looking at plasticjungle for discounted gift cards to replace what I've used. I saw an Elephant Bar gift card at 11% off. $50 card for 44.50. My parents eat there after church almost every Sunday, so I got it for father's day. Didn't see the other ones I was looking for, but I'll keep looking, probably in the next week or so they'll show up. I found a new site for discounted cards:

http://www.cardpool.com/buy

I finished reading my book Mackenzie's Legacy by Linda Howard. Romance - excellent.

I went to Walgreens today to stock up on Boost, which they have on sale buy 1 get 1 for 50% off and I have $1.50 coupons. But as usual Walgreens only had 1 so no deal. I may try the other Walgreens again tomorrow and if they don't have it, get a raincheck. I like to keep nutritional drinks around for mornings when I don't have time for breakfast or if I know I'm going to have a big lunch.

While at Walgreens I found a Blood Pressure monitor on clearance for 33.99. I've been looking for one of these and that was a decent price for the brand. I also found 2 self-check A1c tests for diabetes at $7.50 each. I'm supposed to get this test every 3 months. This is a lot cheaper than paying for a dr visit and lab work. I did some research and these are supposed to be very accurate.

I went to King Soopers after that. If people were to just look at my grocerie cart each week, they would wonder what the heck I ate based on what's in my cart. I usually have basics like milk and bread and some fruit or veggies, but the rest of the stuff is what's very cheap or free So I might have no veggies and 3 bottles of salad dressing and 2 bottles of BBQ sauce and lifesavers candy. Hard to make meals out of that

I spent $13.91

2.00 - 2 bottles Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's
-----
FREE - both bottles go to the food pantry

5.00 - 3 bottles Kraft salad dressing
-3.00 - 3 .55 q's doubled
-----
2.00 - got back a $2.00 OYNO q. 1 goes to me, 1 goes to niece and 1 goes to pantry

2.00 - 2 bags lifesavers hard candy
-2.00 - 2 .50 q's doubled
-----
FREE - 1 to each of my nieces

7.50 - 3 6 pcks Hansens natural soda
-3.00 - 3 .50 q's doubled
-----
4.50 - I rarely drink soda but every once in a while I like one, especially with popcorn, plus I like to have something nieces can drink. I get the Black Cherry made with Splenda and it's very good.

3.96 - 2 dozen large Smart Balance eggs w/Omega 3
-2.00 - 2 .50 q's doubled
-----
1.96 - after the coupons this was cheaper than store brand eggs at $1.29/doz

1.98 - 1 gal skim milk
1.99 - 1 loaf Sara Lee whole wheat bread
1.23 - 8 bananas
.23 - tax
----
4.43

Kraft has a rebate out buy $30 and get $10 back so the $5 in salad dressings will go towards completing that.

I finished reading the library book A Touch of Minx by Suzanne Enoch. Romance - very good.

Today's theme seems to run to tomatoes. After our walk today Dad came and got mom and me to go to Home Depot. We needed his truck for the dirt. Mom used the gift card I gave her for mother's day and picked out a bunch of flowers for their yard. I got a 40 lb sack of compost, some perlite and 2 tomato plants. The tomatoes I planted back in April in the windowsill died from lack of attention - oops. Home Depot had large tomato plants with tomotoes already growing for .99 cents. What a good price.

Then we stopped at WalMart which is accross the street so mom could pick up some Weight Watcher's ice cream that's on sale right now. So I bought some more tomato products. They have 40 oz Heinz ketchup on sale for $1. I had 2 .20 cents coupons so I got them for .80 each. 1 for me, 1 for niece. Walgreens has 8 oz Hunts tomato sauce on sale for .25 cents, but they are usually out if I want to buy any quantity, so I took the ad to Walmart and got a price match on 5 cans. I had a coupon for a $1/5 so I spent .25 for 5 cans. They all go to the food pantry.

I finished reading the library book A Game of Chance by Linda Howard. Romance - excellent.

My oldest niece has a birthday coming up in June. Mom and I took both nieces to Denver for birthday present shopping. OMG! It was a very good day, but we spent 2 hours in 2 stores. My niece had to look at everything in the store, she had to try on half the store and then settle for 2 things. The music was loud, and obnoxious to me. My mom and I both got so tired of standing waiting for her. We sat on one of the display ledges in one of the stores, it was extremely hard and we were both stiff after a while. Used to be we could shop all day in a mall, but I don't ever remember spending an hour in any one store. Signs that I'm getting old are I dislike most of the clothes, I hate the music, I also get stiff and sore standing around all day. But I love my niece so it was worth it - I guess

We also went to Border's were I got 2 books for me using my reward gift cards from my credit card and 33% off coupons.

After the mall we went to the Container Store which is one of my favorite stores. For once, however, I didn't buy anything from them.

Then mom took us to the White Chocolate Grill for dinner. Which is a very expensive restaurant, but is one of my nieces favorites - mostly for the desserts. We had a late lunch so I wasn't that hungry. I got a Rustic Club sandwich with fries and ate about half the sandwich and a few of the fries. I brought the other half home. It was really good. The main reason for going though was the desserts. Their desserts are $7 each and are supposed to serve 2. My mom and I split a White Chocolate brownie. It was decadent. The brownie was about 4" x 4" and topped with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and huge peels of curled white chocolate. I had one bite of the brownie and half the ice cream and a couple of the chocolate curls. Mom ate all of her half and I took the rest home. My oldest niece had the White Chocolate souffle cake. She ate about 2/3 rds of it and brought the rest home and my youngest niece had the rasperry cheesecake. She also ate about 2/3 rds and brought the rest home. We were all totally stuffed when done, but it was very, very good.

We stopped at Target on the way home to get the rest of the birthday presents. My oldest niece is working at Target this summer and gets a 10% discount on everything so we used that. I spent $40 on her presents and $7.46 for lunch, and got 2 books and dinner and leftovers for tomorrow for free. We started at 1 pm and got home just before 9 pm - a very long day.

I finished reading the library book changes by Jim Butcher. Sci/Fi - very good.

Mom and I went browsing today. She clips advertisements for gift stores she wants to visit and since she had to go way downtown she picked out a couple to see and asked me along. She loves to buy gifts. She gives gifts to everybody for everything. But most gift stores don't stay in business very long. Too much competition from the big chains. She likes to find things that no one else she knows has seen.

We went to a little store that had old fashioned victorian style stuff and she found a really pretty necklace and earring set for herself. Then we just walked around the block and there was a spice store. We wandered in to see what it was about and she got several spices. I guess there is going to be a new Cooking channel on TV that starts May 31 and one of their shows is called Spice It Up. It's based on this store. They were advertising it.

Next store was cooking store, which I love to look in, even though they are usually very expensive. I did get a new paring knife with a cover for the blade for $10. She got several things. We were at a parking meter and were late getting back to it, but fortunately no ticket.

We went to another little store in another area of town called Aunt Ruth's Attic. It had shabby chic type stuff. Neither one of us found anything interesting there.

Lunch was at Ruby Tuesday's. $9. I had the salad bar and a baked potato. Last stop on the way home was the dollar store. My kind of store . Mom got bunches of plastic/silk flowers to put on the graves for memorial day plus some other things. I got a big bag of shelled sunflower seeds, some egg noodles, some 13 gal trash bags and a pair of sunglasses. $4.15 I sat on my sunglasses the other day and broke them. I found a dime on the way out of the store.

I bought a large pizza on Tuesday because a friend was supposed to come over yesterday with Avatar and we were going to watch it. But her car broke down and she canceled, so I'm taking the pizza over to parents tonight to have it. It's too big to put in my side-by-side freezer.

I finished reading my book Hunting Julian by Jacquelyn Frank. Paranormal - very good.

I ran several errands this morning. I went to Great Clips for a haircut - $8.99 with coupon, saved $3 - spent $11 with tip.

Goodwill - dropped off 3 boxes of household stuff

Staples - bought 1 black ink cartridge for my printer

21.49
.35 - tax
------
21.84
- 2.00 - 10% rewards check from staples for previous ink purchases
-15.00 - staples check for turning in 5 ink cartridges last month
------
4.84
-4.00 - used the Staples card I bought that was discounted by $4
-----
.84 for ink

Walgreens - traded in last weeks RRs for a $10 walgreens gift card and got milk and bread and a .19 cent Royal gelatin package for a filler. The gelatin goes to the food pantry. It was .47 cents after the RRs, which I paid with another WAG gift card. No oop.

Papa Murphey's - bought a large pepperoni pizza for $8. I had a $3 coupon.

I got a $5 rebate check in the mail for the Quilted Northern I got a while back. I think it was buy $20 get $5.

I finished reading the library book Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson. Adventure - ok

My mom, my niece and I went to Parker, CO today to do some looking around. We had driven thru, but never stopped. Mom had heard there were some good gift stores there and wanted to check them out. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything different, just the same stores as in every other town in the USA. Walmart, Target, Kohls etc.

We went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and I got my niece some things for her apartment as bday presents. A cover for her bed and a set of 7 baking pans. I spent $60 after using 2 20% off coupons.

We went back to mom's and talked for several hours. She is all grown up and I am impressed with her demeanor and attitude towards the world. So proud of who she has become.

I gave my niece the box of cleaning supplies and spices and stuff I've been collecting for her for her new apartment.

I got a few more boxes of cereal free today. 6 Captain Crunch which go to my brother and 3 Cheerios for me. I got a total of 51 free boxes of cereal last week. 34 for the pantry, 11 for me and 6 for brother.

I finished reading my book Moon Shadows. Paranormal short stories - ok

I've been thinking alot lately about needing to update my financial notebook. I moved a lot of money around in the last month, opened new cds with a new bank, bought some more I-bonds and got a new credit card. My notebook hasn't been updated in more than a year. With all the accounts that are totally online anymore, where you don't get printed statements in the mail, someone coming in after I'm dead would have a terrible time finding some of my assets without help. Several of my accounts don't even send you tax information anymore, you have to go to their site to print it. My parents can do some basic things on the computer, but they really need to be spelled out for them to be able to access many of the financial websites that ask you security questions and type in passwords etc. It would be very difficult for them. I do print out statements at least every quarter so that would be somewhere to start.

Anyways, while wandering around on Dollar Stretcher I came across this article that I thought was rather timely.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/10/10may10b.cfm

Now if I would just sit down and actually do the updates

I finished reading my book Damia's Children by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - ok