My Brand of Crazy

Today I didn't leave the house once, and it was so nice. I rearranged some things in the living room so Amelia's Christmas gifts will fit better, played "craft" with her and some other games, and baked - french bread and dog treats, among other things. I was cracking an egg to use for the top of the french bread when I noticed myself cringing. I realized it has become second nature to me to do that in recent years. Every time I crack an egg, I do a mental cringe and hold my breath.

No, I do not feel guilty that that egg could have been a chick, nor do I take an indignant stance to the hormones given to chickens. (I'm all for animal rights and organic food, but realistically I just do NOT have time for that in my day right now.) The reason I cringe when I crack an egg is because I fear that this will be the time.....

that someone put the wrong egg in the ones to go to the market, and inside MY egg, which should contain a relatively benign egg white and yolk, is a dead chick.

UGH. That was really hard to type. I am traumatized by the mere act of writing it. I don't know why I fear this, but there is a part of me that is certain that one day, the wrong egg is going to be in my carton and I will absolutely freak out when that happens. I have no idea where this comes from, I have never heard of that happening to anyone (and if you have, please don't tell me!). I sort of think it was borne during my biology class in college, much the same as my trepidation that someday, I may somehow ingest a tapeworm and later, after many years of unexplained weight loss, find it in my underwear when I go to the bathroom (yeah, thanks a LOT for that one, Dr. Rogers. Really.).

Anyhow, I got to thinking about other irrational fears I have, as later on in the day I prepared a turkey for roasting. Mark had to leave the room as I unwrapped the bird (he just can't handle meat on the bone, lol). It's not my favorite thing to make either, but when I found a 20-pound turkey at Hilander on Friday for $10, the bargain hunter in me couldn't pass it up.

I unwrapped the old girl (guy? IDK.) and set it in the sink. I turned it on end and peered into the cavity, noting the neck and giblets inside. Why do they have to put the neck in? There's really not enough meat to make it worthwhile, and it just makes it too realistic for my liking. I did manage to refrain from dry heaving as I used tongs to remove the neck and pouch of giblets - no way was I touching those with my fingers (see? another irrational fear. I don't know what could happen that would be so horrible if I touched them, but my mind is convinced something would). I threw them in the trash and set the bird on the roasting rack. Ugh. Now it really looked like a turkey. I really much prefer beef or pork, that looks nothing like what it came from by the time you buy it! I don't usually buy whole turkeys or chickens though, as much as I hate to admit DH is right, they do freak me out a bit, especially when you boil them and you pick through and see all the vertabrae.

Anyway, I made it through all of my cooking without coming face to face with any disembodied chickens hidden in egg shells, and without having to touch any turkey livers.

Other irrational fears:

• That the oven will explode if I open it as it's relighting.
• That I am going to accidently put the car in drive when it should be in reverse or vice versa, and run over someone
• That I will go out to the kitchen one night and some Freddy Krueger type will be standing at the back door.
• That something will happen if I reach into a sink full of dishwater to pull the plug (not sure what, mostly just that it's gross, I think). I use my tongs for this as well.
• That if I eat a cough drop at bedtime, I will fall asleep with it in my mouth and choke on it before it dissolves.
  

So do you have irrational fears like that? Reinforced by nothing, can't pinpoint where they came from but nevertheless are here to stay? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

P.S. Not sure it was such a great idea to post this as night....am wondering what kind of dreams I'm going to have now, lol!

Go read my other blog!

I just put a post up on Amelia's caringbridge page that everyone needs to read! Go check it out!

The "Cheese" face

We haz it.

Hilander Mega Saver is back!

Last spring I wound up with 24 free bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner during the Mega Saver sale, so I was excited to see that it was back again this week. I was counting on it coming - Ohio Kroger stores (Hilander is owned by Kroger) had the deal last week, and Kroger deals tend to travel around the country, so I was already making plans.

This sale has a lot of baking items included, so I'm focusing on stocking up for my holiday cookie and candy making. Customers of the Ohio stores had reported Carnation evaporated milk and Nestle chocolate chips on sale, both of which I'll use a significant amount of, so I went ahead and ordered coupons for those items, as well as some Bic razors which will be free after coupons. It does sound counterintuitive, but I spent about $10 on coupons that will save me $80. I usually order my coupons from The Coupon Clippers, but have also used the Coupon Master in the past. TCC is my favorite - super fast shipping, though coupons for hot items do go quickly so you've got to be on the ball. This time I also ordered from ebay - I'll let you know how that goes! (Side note: I am not actually buying the coupons - those are illegal to sell. I'm paying for the time it takes to collect and clip them. That's the official word ;))

First, a few Hilander tips:

• Sales in this area run from Thursday-Wednesday - the sale flier arrives in my mailbox on Wednesday, and also goes out in the paper if you get the fabulous usually less than worthwhile couponwise Rockford Register Star (and don't even get me started on their "journalism"). If you don't get either you can view the ad online at http://www.pay-less.com/.
• You need to sign up for the Kroger Plus card - another one of those goodies to put on your keyring. Scan it every time you shop even if you're not buying anything on the card - you can rack up points toward 0.10 off a gallon of gas if you buy it at the Hilander next to the mall. Sometimes you may also receive coupons in the mail, depending on how much you spend that quarter.
• There are also websites to link e-coupons to your Plus card - Shortcuts and P&G E-saver. When you buy an item for which you've loaded a coupon onto your card, it comes off automatically at the register.
• Hilander doubles coupons up to $0.55 everyday. Given the choice between a $0.50/1 coupon or a $0.75/1 coupon, I'd choose the lesser because it will actually give me $1.00 back.

So this is how the Mega Saver sale works: If you buy any ten items included in the sale you get $5.00 taken off your transaction immediately at the register. These items are sale priced from $1.00 to $3.00 - basically you get $0.50 taken off each item. Combined with coupons, especially those that double, you'll make out well on certain items. Here's a few of my scenarios for next week:

Johnson & Johnson baby wash 10x3.00 = 30.00

Q's:
Mega Saver bonus = 5.00
J&J coupons $1/1 (from 11/2 SS) 10x1.00 = 10.00

Total after q's = 15.00 (1.50 per bottle!)
-------------------------------------------------------
Nestle chocolate chips 10x2.50 = 25.00

Q's:
Mega saver bonus = 5.00
Nestle coupon $0.50/1 10x(2x0.50) = 10.00

Total after q's = 10.00 (1.00 per bag)
-------------------------------------------------------
Carnation evaporated milk 10x1.00 = 10.00

Q's:
Mega saver bonus = 5.00
Carnation coupon $0.50/2 5x(2x0.50) = 5.00

Total after q's = 0!

These can be mixed and matched as well, meaning I could buy 3 J&J, 5 bags of chocolate chips, and 2 cans of milk and still receive my $5.00 bonus. As long as I have ten items included in the deal I'll get it. One word of warning - be careful if you're using coupons that require you to buy 2 items - make sure you have an even number of those!

Some other great deals:

-Bic Razors 2.50 (use 2.00/1 coupon from 10/12 SS to make them free after Mega Saver)
-Quaker Oats 1.50 (use 0.50/1 coupon from 9/7 RP; after it doubles and the Mega Saver these are free too)
-Swiss Miss hot chocolate 1.00 (use 0.50/2 shortcuts coupon, combined with MS it's 0.50 a box)
-Domino sugar 2.50 (use 0.50/1 coupon from 10/12 RP, making it $1.00/5 lb bag after q and MS)
-Scotch lint roller 1.00 (use 1.00/1 coupon from 10/5 RP; after the MS deal this is a money maker!)

So you know where I'll be in all my spare time for the next week or so! I hope it's helpful to you to see how I work out my scenarios - it helped me when I first started couponing to see what others were doing. If you're inspired to try for yourself, leave me a comment and let me know!

Great day at Walgreens!

Walgreens used to be hit or miss as far as deals, and those they did have were sometimes clunky and difficult to understand, but they've been fine-tuning their system and it's become increasingly lucrative. Combining their store coupons with manufacturer coupons and their Register Rewards deals is a great way to get things for very cheap, if not free. Their monthly rebates are also a great way to save money - I get mine on a gift card so that I can use that to pay for OOP expenses and not have to use cash.

The important Walgreens points:

• Instant Value coupons (IVCs) are found in the weekly ad - they're only good for that week.
• EasySaver coupons (ESQs) are from the smaller books found in front of the ad display - these are good monthly.
• Rebates are also listed in the EasySaver book - often there's at least two items that are free after rebate (FAR).
• Register Rewards (RRs) are coupons to use on your next order that are generated when you buy certain items according to each week's ad. They print from the machine next to where the receipt prints. You can only use one per transaction, however.
• You can't have more coupons than items you're buying - sometimes you end up with 2 q's for one item because you're using an ESQ and a manufacturer q, or you use a RR and wind up not having an item to match that q with. So count your q's before you go to the register - if you have 8 q's and 7 items, grab a small filler. I usually buy the individual Crystal Light mix-ins for .59 - certainly not a bargain, but I drink them and since I save so much with q's it's not that big a deal.

I've hit Walgreens four times since Sunday (three of those times were today!). I had a bunch of RRs from a deal a couple weeks ago, so Sunday I went and bought 8 boxes of gallon-size Hefty bags, which are B1G1F with the IVC in this week's ad. After 4 0.55/1 coupons, my total was 10.96 plus tax, and I used a $10 RR. You can do the math from there :)

Today I decided to get serious about burning up some more of those RRs. I did three transactions and came home with the following items (plus the 6-pack of Ensure I got for my mom) for only $2.10 OOP, and that's only because I forgot to use my gift card to pay for the first transaction - it should have been $0 OOP.

Transaction #1:

Hefty bags 4x3.29 = 13.16
Ensure 1x6.99 = 6.99
Total before q's = 20.15

Hefty IVC B1G1 2x3.29 = 6.58
Hefty man q 2x0.55 = 1.10
Ensure 1x3.00 = 3.00 (I also have a mail-in-rebate for the full price, so I'll make 3.00 on this deal!)
RR 1x10.00 = 10.00

Total after q's = 2.10 (includes tax)

Transaction #2 (done twice):

Almay makeup is B1G1F, so there is no price for the second Almay product. I bought the Almay one coat mascara, which is FAR this month so I'll get back 6.49 twice for that.

Celestial seasonings tea 2x1.50 = 3.00
Schick Quattro disposables 2X5.99 = 11.98
Almay eye makeup 1x7.99 = 7.99
Almay mascara B1G1F
Filler 1x0.59 = 0.59
Total before q's = 23.56

Celestial seasonings ESQ ($2/2) 1x2.00 = 2.00
Celestial seasonings man q 2x1.00= 2.00
Schick ESQ 2x3.00 = 6.00
Schick B1G1F man q 1x5.99 = 5.99
Almay 1x2.00 = 2.00
RR 1x5.00 = 5.00

Total after q's = $2.72 with tax, put on a gift card. Notice that the tea and razors were free after q's!

Coming tomorrow - Hilander Mega Saver preview!

CVS - Week of November 2

I was in desperate need of diapers (that's one thing I haven't focused on building up in my stash yet) and Pampers are on sale this week at CVS (2/$20 with $5 ECB) so I bit it and ran over Monday night. I had a $5/$30 q to use, so I had to add on some extras. The Crest ProHealth whitening 4.2 oz is a free monthly deal - buy one for 3.49 get 3.49 ECBs back. The limit for this appears to be 4, so you can do it 4 times. Ice cubes gum is a weekly deal - buy 10 get $5 ECB - so I threw that in too. And the Huggies swimmers - I walked in and spotted them immediately, marked down to 0.89! I had coupons that I'd left at home, but knew that the diapers wouldn't last that long, so I just bought them - you really can't beat that price!

Here's my scenario:

Pampers 2x10.00 = 20.00

Crest 2x3.49 = 6.98

Ice cubes 10x1.00 = 10.00

Lil Swimmers 3x0.89 = 2.87

Total before q's = 39.85

Q's:
Pampers 2x1.50 = 3.00

Crest 2x1.00 = 2.00

Ice cubes 4x1.00 = 4.00

CVS 5/30 1x5.00 = 5.00

Total after q's = 25.85

Pay with ECBs - 15.00

Total OOP = 10.85 + tax

Receive $16.98 back in ECBs

So I got more ECBs back than I spent, which is my goal every time! My OOP total is more than I'd usually spend OOP but we needed diapers, and I can sell the swim diapers next spring so it was definitely worth it!

Bargain Christmas Shopping

Bath & Body Works is turning out to be a great place for getting some early Christmas shopping done on the cheap. There's an IP out for a free Scentport starter kit with any purchase (x11/23/08). I've been buying the cheapest item I can find in the store to go with these - a $1.50 votive candle. Total OOP is $1.61 - not bad for a little gift set!

However, when you make any purchase, you receive a coupon book that has a coupon for a free item up to $13 with a $10 purchase. I took the gift set idea a step further and used that q to buy, first, some extra votives and a set of tealights (all in the same scent as the Scentport), with a free pair of slipper socks (super soft and adorable, with nonskid bottoms). The second time I did this deal, I bought the socks with some candle holders. Combined with the free tea from my Walgreens and Target deals, these items will make great hostess or teacher gifts!

Total OOP for everything in the below pictures: $25.58.

Halloween Fun

This year was the year Amelia finally understood what Halloween was all about. She picked her own costume, willingly told everyone "Trick or Treat", and was thrilled with each piece of candy added to her bucket. Halloween lasted nearly a week for her this year, starting with the RMG Halloween party on Sunday the 25th.

All week she talked about how she said "Trick or treat" and "thank you" and got candy in her purple bucket. So she was rarin' to go on Friday when it was time to really trick-or-treat. We met up with a group of friends and set out with our three pirates.

Amelia was a bit intimidated at first by all the people in "scary masks" but once she figured out all the candy that was to be had she got over that. She loved wearing her costume and said all the pirate things we taught her to say - "arrrrrgh mateys", "shiver me timbers", and "walk the plank!" And especially for Aunt E - "There's a bounty on me head!"

So now, just like the fair, Halloween is over (however, the candy does remain). Amelia's not ready to wait another year though - she keeps asking for "more Halloween fun!"

Target deals

I made a couple Target runs over the weekend and found some great clearance deals, as well as some overage using coupons. (Please ignore the laundry in the background, I assure you it's clean and just waiting to be put away.)

Mitchum deoderant: 2x1.99 = 3.98
Ziploc bags 9x0.85 = 7.65
Extra gum 10x0.48 = 4.80
Lipton tea 4x1.09 = 4.36
Glade Scented oil refills 4x2.50 = 10.00
Total before q's = 30.79

Q's:
Mitchum Target q 2x0.50 = 1.00
Mitchum man q 2x1.00 = 2.00
Ziploc IP 1x0.75 = 0.75
Ziploc man q $1/2 4x1.00 = 4.00
Extra B1G1F 5X.48 = 2.40
Lipton Target q 4x1.00 = 4.00
Lipton man q 4x0.60 = 2.40 (overage!)
Glade B1G1F 2x2.50 = 5.00
Total q's = 21.55

Total OOP after q's = 9.24 + tax

Through December 15, holiday Glade products marked 2.50 are generating $5.00 gift cards, so I also got a $5 GC back as well.

Just in case, here's a quick guide to some of the abbreviations I'll be using when discussing my coupon usage:

q - coupon
man q - manufacturer coupon
IP - internet printable
B1G1F/BOGO - buy one get one free

Bargainz!

Recently I've had several people say they'd "love to know how I do it!" Save so much money on our grocery bill, that is. I've been couponing since the spring thanks to my cousin's wife Daisy, who gave me the tutorial I needed to wrap my head around how it all works. With working full-time, organizing the meetup group, having a two-year-old and organizing all my deals every week (practically a part-time job on its own) I just don't have the time I'd like to pull something together. I also think it helps to see some concrete examples, so I'm going to start chronicling my bargain finds here so that anyone who wants to can follow along.

There are two keys to doing this successfully: First, you must not be a loyal brand snob. Preferring a brand over generic isn't problem - I get brand-name items for significantly less than the generic all the time - but if you want to use one specific brand you'll have to plan ahead very carefully and keep your eye out for a sale on that item. Secondly, you must get your hot little hands on every coupon imaginable. It might not be a product you'll even use, but if it's free why not "buy" it? This means buying a lot of newspapers every week (and for you locals, skip the RRStar, their coupons are basically worthless. Buy the Tribune - it's more expensive but I've gotten it at Walgreens for $2.00 lately.) and saving the entire coupon inserts. It also means keeping your eye out for coupons you can print off the internet, special offers to sign up for to get coupons mailed to you, and watching out for coupon brochures, blinkie machines and tearpads in every store you go in, even the gas station. You can also buy coupons (which seems counterintuitive but it's not always - I'll get into this later) from coupon websites or ebay.

Today I hit CVS after work. CVS has an Extra Care cards that's essential if you're going to do any bargains there - one of those tags that goes on your keychain. Have the cashier scan your EC card no matter how little you're spending because it can add up - you'll earn $1 back for every 2 prescriptions you fill, as well as 2% back on your quarterly purchases. For me I've never gotten more than $1 back because my out-of-pocket (OOP) is so low, but every little bit counts as you'll see.

With the EC card, you can also earn Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) back on certain items every week, as advertised in the flier in your Sunday paper. The ECBs print out on your receipt and you can use them on your next transaction. I took advantage of several of these deals today:

My total OOP for this transaction was $1.22. Here's how I did it:

Bic razors 2x3.99 = 4.98

SoyJoy bars 4x1.00 = 4.00

Robitussin 2x8.00 = 16.00

Halls 2x1.50 = 3.00

Hand sanitizing spray 1x1.00 = 1.00

Total before coupons: 28.98+tax (came to 32.xx)

Coupons:

Bic 2x2.00 = 4.00

SoyJoy 2x1.00 = 2.00

Robitussin 2x3.00 = 6.00
Halls 2x.50 = 1.00

CVS $5/30 purchase 1x5.00 = 5.00

Total coupons = 18.00

32.xx - 18.00 = 14.xx

I paid with $13 in ECBs that I had from previous transactions, and after that my subtotal was .98 + .24 tax = 1.22. I also got $10 ECB back from the Robitussin/Halls/hand spray, and $4 back from the SoyJoy. Had I been paying a bit more attention, I would have noticed the razors I picked up were slightly different than the ones in the ad that were giving $4 ECBs per purchase, so I should have had $8 more in ECBs, but when I was getting all that for $1.22 I didn't feel that justified in complaining - it was my mistake, after all.

Earlier in the week I had gone to CVS to use some $1/1 Quaker oatmeal coupons I'd printed off the internet from bricks.coupons.com. Sometimes you can print more than one coupon from this site by hitting "back" then refreshing the page, depending on what the site has set the limit at. As it turned out, the limit for this one was 10, so I had more than enough coupons for what I wanted to do.

Quaker oatmeal was on sale for 2.50 a box, buy $20 worth and get $5 ECBs. I grabbed 8 boxes with Amelia's help, took them up to the register and walked out paying $2.10 OOP for all 8 boxes.

I also stopped at Hilander (our version of Kroger) on my way home tonight - I had some .50/1 Purex coupons expiring tomorrow and it was on sale for $1.99. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was 4 or 5 tables with a "Markdown Mania" sign in front of them. Couponer's heaven! I checked out what was there and ended up getting a bag of dog food (marked 2.99) and a Durex 2-pack (0.79), both of which I had $2.00/1 coupons for. Hilander also has a member card, so make sure you sign up for one of those too. They also double coupons up to .55. Here's my complete transaction:

Goodlife Puppy Food 1x2.99 = 2.99
Durex 1x0.79 = .79
Purex 3x1.99 = 5.97
Franks RedHot Sauce 1x1.25 = 1.25
Nailsaver sponges 2X1.00 = 2.00
Total = 13.00+tax

Coupons
Goodlife 1x2.00 = 2.00
Durex 1x2.00 = 2.00 (I got overage here)
Purex 3x(2x.50) = 3.00
Franks 1x(2x.55) = 1.10
Sponges 2x(2x.50) = 2.00
Total coupons = 10.10

Total OOP was 2.62, a great total for all these items!

I'll post in the next couple days with some of my favorite websites that I use as resources to help me out. I've gotten good at coming up with my own scenarios, but why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

Just a vent

Many times, I think it would be better if my husband would just sit on his sorry ass rather than try to "help".

Today is one of those days.

Smart mouth!

I can just tell that's what my daughter is developing. I just can't believe how grown-up she's getting. She talks SO much now, and it's so cute. She tells little stories (sometimes I'm the only one who knows what she's talking about, but that's okay) and tells me what she did at daycare.

Everything she says just gets cuter and cuter, I swear. She's figured out how to hold up her fingers to correspond to numbers (1, 2, and 3 anyway). She thinks it's hilarious to tell me she's 3. When I call her on it and tell her she's two, she tells me, "I gon' be free on my burdaaaay". Apparently she's got her party all planned out and it involves chocolate cake, balloons, and presents. I suppose I can handle that.

Last week she was in our bedroom watching tv and jumping on the bed and she sat down and said to me, "I love you Mommy don' be scared". It was just too cute! I laughed and made her say it again and now it's all I hear. But it's so adorable, I don't mind.

Last night, though, was the kicker. She was standing by my nightstand with the monitor on it yelling so that it lit up (apparently Daddy taught her this wonderful trick). I said, "Look, Mommy can do it too," and yelled. She turned around and gave me her death look and said, "Don' yell, Mommy. Be good."

Where did she learn to talk to her momma like that?! Ok, probably from me. And I can see soon we're going to have to have the "I'm the parent, you're the child" talk. But secretly, I love seeing how she picks up on all these little things and pulls them out when you're least expecting it. And every girl needs a healthy dose of attitude in my opinion, as long as she knows when to use it. My girl's not gonna be a pushover!

Hawaiian Day

Last week Amelia's daycare had Hawaiian Day. She LOVES her daycare provider and has so much fun with her. We're so lucky to have found such a great place for her to stay while I'm working.

Today we have a birthday party and tomorrow we are going to the ZOO! So I'll have lots of cute pictures from that :) Amelia's been sick but is feeling better today - I was worried that our zoo trip would have to be postponed but as of now it looks like we're on. I'll put some pictures up tomorrow (hopefully).

Visiting Nonna and Papa

Just a few pics from Father's Day weekend - swimming at Mark's dad's house. Amelia's Uncle Eric brought his dog Ozzie along - he was just Amelia's size.

After a nap (with some M&Ms) Amelia was ready to go again. Lots of candy later we headed home.

Another Day, Another Picnic

Today was our playgroup's start-of-summer picnic. We were a little worried it was going to get rained out, because it monsooned all morning. However a little after noon the sun started to come out and we had beautiful weather for the picnic. The kids ran around the park and played games, it was a lot of fun! Now it is pouring again, like it has on and off for the past, I don't know, four days? This is getting really old!


Here's some pictures from today:


Amelia and Haven, playing "baseball":




Getting a lesson from Daddy:

Amelia LOVES Tiffany's daughter Chloe!

Heart Institute Picnic

Today was the annual Heart Institute for Children picnic. Families whose children have had surgery at Hope come back every year to see the doctors and nurses who treated them. We were so excited to go and see some of our favorite doctors and nurses. Lots of them were there and it was great to see them again, and for them to see how big Amelia has gotten.


Amelia's cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Ilbawi:

Our primary cardiologist, Dr. Husayni. There are not enough good things I can say about this man. I am so grateful for everything he's done for us in treating Amelia and in helping me stay calm and not freak out. I am so glad to have a doctor I can trust her care to completely.

Amelia had a blast - Daddy gave her lots of treats! She loved watching the other kids there and did her best with the hula hoop (which wasn't much, but she had fun).

What a great day! I'm so glad they have this picnic every year - for the first six months of Amelia's life, the hospital staff made up most of my social interactions. They are very special to us and we owe so much to them, they will probably never know. It's great to see them, to catch up, and for them to see how wonderful Amelia is doing. I just hope they realize how big a role they played in that, both by caring for her and reassuring me so much!