A Tired, Busy Mom's Rants

Update on MIL

jladams2 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:36:29 +0000

I spoke to my mother-in-law today. She’s says she has a doctor’s appointment this week in which the doctor will determine whether or not she can return to work. She was always an independent woman, a hard worker. It makes me sad to even think this, but I don’t believe she’s going to be able to return to work. It’s been several weeks since her surgery and her memory doesn’t seem to be getting better. During our conversation today she let me know (again) that she had an aneuryism. That proves to me that she’s just not getting any better. Her long term memory is fine, but her short term memory has been affected. I truly hope I’m wrong. I’ve always enjoyed her visits down to stay with us. We would go shopping and make nice meals for her. I would love for her to be able to drive down again but I fear that she’s lost that independence.

I did go grocery shopping today, here is how I did:

Total items: 66

Total cost: 129.26

Coupons: 13.05

Bonus Coupons: 2.4

Plus Card Savings: 46.01

Total savings: 61.46

Great deal on razors and frozen dinners

jladams2 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:30:58 +0000

This week I got Hot Pockets for 1.19 a box (original 2.14/box) and some razors for 78% off the original price. Hooray for Shortcuts.com! After returning home it occurred to me that my 3 Shortcuts coupons would probably apply on my Kroger card whether or not I bought 3 packages of disposable razors. I’m going to test my theory the next chance I get. So instead of paying .99 or 1.99 for the razors (7.23 originally), I could possibly get them free, or get a dollar back from the manufacturer’s coupon along with the 3 Shortcut’s coupons.

Here is how I did this week:

Total cost: 217.17
Total items: 80

Coupons: 32.55
Bonus Savings: 1.50
Kroger Plus: 80.21
Total Savings: 114.26

By the way, I blame my hubby for being over my $200 goal. He suddenly is worried about his appearances and asked that I buy Rogaine. Holy cow!!! One little bottle cost $32! There went my coupon savings! (Plus I didn’t have a coupon for the Rogaine.)

A little behind…

jladams2 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:22:33 +0000

Labor Day weekend was a busy one for me. Spencer and I went out of town on Saturday to visit with family and to attend my sister’s baby shower on Sunday. We returned on Monday afternoon, which also happened to be my birthday. Needless to say, I didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping. My husband, however, did because he was canning salsa. He did NOT use any coupons. I waited until the following weekend to do the “Grocery Game” thing, and here is how I did.

09/13/09

Total cost: 172.78
# of items: 63

Coupon savings: 8.50
Bonus savings: 0.75
Kroger Plus savings: 49.65
Total savings: 58.90

Nothing great here. It wasn’t a great weekend for shopping and if I remember right, there wasn’t much to offer on Grocery Game for Kroger that weekend either.

Couponer of the Year?

jladams2 — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:41:07 +0000

I love when the customer behind me, the cashier, and the bagger look on in amazement as my total cost rings up after my coupons and the Plus card. I told the cashier today that I wish there was a store competition to see who could save the most money. The person (me) that would win would have their photo framed and placed above the service counter. The gentleman behind me was in awe when he learned that at first my total was up to $352.00 but ended up being $190.00.

total items: 114
total cost: 190

coupons: 44.2
bonus savings: 5.4
Plus card savings: 103.24

total saving: 152.84

New approach

jladams2 — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:36:16 +0000

OK, I’ve got a new approach to the Grocery Game. I am now cross-referencing my Short Cuts and Cellfire coupons along with my manufacturer’s coupons. The Grocery Game usually indicates if there is a Cellfire coupon to be used in conjunction with a regular coupon (although a couple of times I’ve found that they hadn’t). However, Grocerygame.com doesn’t include Shortcuts.com coupons to that list. So now I’m checking both sites and if, for example, I have 2 downloaded coupons on my Kroger card then I will only use 2 coupons on that shopping trip. There were times in the past that I just used all my coupons, even if I didn’t get the lowest price with a matching downloaded coupon. In the end I was spending more money than I should have. Here is how I did last week. (I’ve been super busy so I’m posting last week’s entry retro-actively.)

total items: 79
total cost: 126.59

coupons: 40.25
bonus savings: 7.55
Plus card savings: 88.78

total savings: 136.58

Need a Grocery Game Intervention

jladams2 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:17:14 +0000

OK, so I recognize that I need help. My problem is that I am obsessed with saving money to the point that I feel the need to use all my coupons, even if 1- I don’t need 12 cans of cinnamon rolls, 2- I’ll never use up all the cinnamon rolls before they expire, and 3- no one in the house likes that brand of cinnamon rolls (a metaphor for all the different men’s deodorant I’ve bought for my hubby and step-son). I really need to focus on quantity from now on and balance that with expiration dates.

Here is how I did last week:

Total cost: 214.85
total items: 105

coupon savings: 47.60
bonus savings: 5.85
Plus savings: 121.51
Total savings: 174.96

So I think I saved the most money on this trip, but my overall cost would be much less if I would be a bit more conservative on the coupons. Another thing, I expected to get $64 off for all the P&G products I purchased, but it appears that Kroger has a $40 dollar limit, because that was all I got. So, that was a dollar more for 24 items than what I expected to pay.

My mother-in-law is expected to be discharged this weekend. She’s doing really well with physical therapy, but her short-term memory hasn’t gotten any better. We’re just hoping she manages to recover enough to be able to go back to work someday.

105
214.85

47.6
5.85
121.51

174.96

Mother in Law

jladams2 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:31:50 +0000

When I first created this blog (a requirement for a grade course through the CTER program at UIUC), I envisioned it as a place to discuss all the thing working mothers have to deal with: stresses at work, husbands doing/not doing things, chores, kids being cute, kids driving a mother crazy, lack of sleep, etc. It’s turned out to be more about the Grocery Game this summer than anything else. Mostly that is because I’m very proud at how well it’s working, I’m saving quite a bit of money and I’m coming home with a lot groceries- some stuff I wouldn’t buy normally but I do enjoy them (like the Edward’s frozen pies). I really wish more people would join me because its so much fun. Its frustrating when I think of people that really need the savings, families with many kid and/or limited incomes.

Most of the summer had been uneventful, which is why I blogged so much about my grocery savings. However, our world has been turned upside down with the discovery of my mother-in-law’s brain aneurysm. A couple weeks ago she suffered a severe, sharp headache and immediately fainted. When she came to she vomited. She was rushed to the hospital where they discovered that she had hemmorhaging on the brain. They didn’t find the source of the hemmorhage and so she ended up going home after a few days. While at home she had another severe headache and nausea so she returned to the hospital. After waiting another few days, the angiogram found the aneurysm. She had brain surgery a week ago today and I think she has a long road to recovery. She’s very confused and has short term memory loss.

So my mother-in-law’s condition has been consuming us this past few weeks and I think it will for awhile. It all happened so quickly and we didn’t know what possible side effects she would have from the surgery. She really had no option, her condition was fatal, but now we miss her so much. I’m hoping she will return to her independent self, the grandma that runs a business, owns her own home, rents a home, makes visits to spend time with her grandsons, loves to shop, dates, etc. One neurologist said that she may never be the same. I sure hope he’s wrong.

So anyway, here is how I did on my last trip:

total items: 85
total cost: 105.15

coupon savings: 38.55
plus savings: 72.14
total savings: 112.54

I did pretty well. Technically I paid 105.15 after using my flex dollars for my medical savings acct. I can’t believe that flex acct. covers the cost of Clearasil products! The sale this week was basically the same as last week, the highlight of both trips was the 10 item mega event at Kroger. Last week I had $30 off for buying 60 items from that sale. This week I had $10 off for 20 items from the sale. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m really not buying much that isn’t on the list, so that helps a lot.

Well, need to feed my little one breakfast and get ready for his swim lesson. Looks like we’ll be swimming in the rain.

85
105.15

38.55
1.85
72.14

112.54

Lots and lots of coupons!!!

jladams2 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:42:18 +0000

I left the store feeling awful proud of myself today. Here is how I did:

# of items: 111
total bill: 189.99

coupon savings:56.85
bonus savings:6.25
Kroger plus savings:64.48

total savings: $127.58

This is my second best trip- in other words, the second most money I’ve saved and I’m still under $200. The best thing about collecting coupons is I get to try things I normally wouldn’t try. Today I bought 3 bags of Chex Mix (avg. 82 cents ea.) and 1 bag of Cheerio Snack Mix (.49 cents). Did you know that there are chocolate varieties of Chex Mix now? I also bought 3 packages of Edwards frozen pies (.90 cents ea.)- yum, yum! However, trying new things has its down side too- my husband will get to thinking that he NEEDS those items and will expect me to buy more even if it’s not on sale.

The big buy today was on Kleenex. I came home with 11 boxes for .63 cents each, and I’m not talking the plain old tissues. We’re talking anti-virus, the extra soft, and the lotion kind.

A lesson I learned today as I was reflecting on all the goodies in the pantry- when there are downloadable coupons to print (check out this one and this one), go ahead and see if you can get more! I realized that I could have gotten 3 more bags of Chex Mix! Now I HAVE to go back, I can’t pass up that sale!

I also found another site for loading coupons on to the Kroger Plus card (other than cellfire, that is). I can’t remember how I found out or I would give that person credit. Anyway, check out Shortcuts.com. I was pleased to find that on top of using paper coupons on yogurt and Chex mix, but the coupons I had loaded for those items on Shortcuts.com and Cellfire was automatically deducted on my receipt. Example: I got Chex mix select for .49 with my coupon (after the sale price). Then I got a .50 deduction for Shortcuts.com, I actually earned a penny on that one!!! Too cool.

What, no coupons???

jladams2 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:13:27 +0000

Couldn’t believe it! I went to the list yesterday and after narrowing down to what I actually want/need to buy I found that I didn’t have any coupons to clip. That is crazy.

So the list was pretty short this week, and our pantry is nice and stocked so there wasn’t much for me to buy. Here is how I did:

# of items: 39
total cost: 121.69

coupon savings: 0.6
Kroger plus savings: 39.99
total savings: 40.59

So, you might be wondering why there was a 60 cent coupon savings even though I didn’t clip anything. Well, that is because I download P&G eSaver coupons to my Kroger Plus Savings card. Those discounts are taken off automatically when I use my Kroger card. They are pretty handy especially since I use a lot of P&G products: Tide, Bounce, Cascade, Bounty, Crest…

Included in the above cost is the $10 I spent at Jewel on some spreadable cheeses. I didn’t get any discounts for that so I tacked that cost on to my Kroger bill. I really think I did pretty well. The best deal I think I got was the boneless half pork loin. I usually buy the pork loin already sliced but that wasn’t on sale. I’ve been pondering the half pork loin for awhile now, actually. It seems to be on sale quite a bit but I just don’t know how to cook it, and I don’t think the family can eat all that meat! So I decided to play butcher and slice it up. I ended up with 8 thick cuts of pork loin chops and 2 butterfly loin chops at 53% off the normal price. I did compare it to the already sliced pork loin- they were going for around $4.50 a package with 3-4 loins in a package.

So, $121 – not bad. Getting closer to my goal!

4th of July

jladams2 — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:27:21 +0000

Well we had a great meal for the Fourth even though it rained ALL day and we couldn’t enjoy the meal outdoors. We ended up having BBQ spare ribs, sweet corn, bowtie pasta salad with spinach, deviled eggs, and frosted brownies. Most of the ingredients in the meal was from my stockpile and honestly I spent the most money making that pasta salad, but it was delicious!

I didn’t do that great today on my grocery trip, but I still paid less than $200. When I first started grocery game I was spending anywhere between $200-$300 a week in groceries!!!

Here is how I did today:

Total items: 83
Total cost: 193.43

Coupons: 17.50
Bonus savings: 0.50
Kroger savings: 43.25
Total savings: 61.25

I’d say the best deals today were the soda, PowerAde, and chicken. All Coke and Pepsi 12 pks were selling 4 for $12, and also buy 4 get 1 free. I was able to mix and match Pepsi and Coke products and ended up getting each 12 pk for $2.40. I had a coupon for the PowerAde, buy 10 get 5 free. So I ended up getting those for 52 cents a bottle. The Tyson chicken breast was going for $1.87 /lb., normally $4.59/lb., so I bought 4 packages (I still have one in the deep freezer). Oh, I also bought 4 pkgs of Kraft cheese slices, they were on sale for $1.47, originally $4.15 a pkg.

To be sure, an important thing you would need to take advantage of the Grocery Game is plenty of pantry space and a deep freezer. Right now my freezer is full of lumpia (thanks mom!), ground beef, chicken, Rib-eyes and New York strip steaks, veggies, ice creams, and breakfast sausages. In my pantry I’ve got a stock of BBQ sauces, marinades, spices, Chef Boyardees, PowerAdes , sodas, cereal, fruit snacks and brownies. Truly, Grocery Game would be ideal for a big family, or even just a family with a couple hungry teens.

Another thing to note is that coupons aren’t found in the newspapers on holidays. However, many grocery stores have some decent sales for the holidays, so you can still take advantage with your older coupons. This just shows why it is important to organize your coupons so you can easily find them. Mine are stored in a page protector by date in a binder.