Chicken Salad Salad

I made one of my favorite things for dinner tonight - chicken salad salad. Every time I make chicken salad it's different, based on what produce we have around. Tonight I added celery, onions, carrots (just a few), apples, walnuts, relish, sour cream, light mayo, salt, pepper, Cavender's Greek Seasoning, and of course, chicken. Yum. I'm going to experiment with freezing it because I made a boatload. I kept the apples out of the part I'm going to try to freeze. I'll try to post how the freezing turns out when I decide to have it again.


Wal-Mart in Ozark restocked with some healthier choices recently. Veggie Chips are back for $3.99, and Cascadian Farms Organic cereal is back too. Click here to print a $1.00 off any Cascadian Farms product, making the cereal only $2.18/box. There are a bunch of other good coupons on that website I used today at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also has red, orange and yellow bell peppers on sale for $1 each (they're normally three times that or more).


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Ben's moving on into his 3-6 month clothes. He can still fit into some of the 0-3 stuff, but I filled the first box today with clothes he's grown out of. He's two months old today and it's amazing how quickly its gone by.

shop at home first

Today was a beautiful day! We took a walk outside to check on the flowers. They survived the freeze, but I'm not sure they will last much longer with the dogs running through them.



As I have started my stockpiling project, storage and organization has become the new focus. I worked on the laundry room cabinets and the hall linen closet. My first thought was developing a long-term system which means keeping everything up high and out of toddler reach. I pulled most everything out from under the kitchen and bathroom sinks and divided the toiletries and cleaning products, then tried to group by smaller categories. In the linen closet, Josh has a shelf and I have two. In the laundry room cabinets I grouped by category / room - bathroom, kitchen, laundry, dusting, outdoors, and there are several odds and ends like light bulbs and spray paint in there too.

before



after




The idea is now that everything is organized and grouped, I will know not to stockpile anymore of certain things unless they are next to free. Also, as we need things, we can easily find them and not purchase them again. (Hence the "shop at home first" title.) The next biggie is the food. I'm going to need some plastic tubs to conquer that, though. And maybe a label maker. The long term plan is to store extra food in the basement after I get into canning.

The towels and toilet paper are now under the bathroom sinks. They are much safer than toilet cleaner for a kid to get into.

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We did some double coupon deals at Dillons, then stopped by mom's Bunko group to meet everyone.

*Coupon tip of the day - Price Cutter on Republic Road doubles coupons up to and including 50 cents, but not the one in Ozark (I called them.) Dillon's doubles coupons up to and including 50 cents AND if the coupon is between 50 cents and less than $1, they will round it up to $1. This resulted in quite a few deals, but it took forever to hunt for the items that matched the coupons.*

Ben was pretty fed up by the time we got home, but he calmed down after a diaper change and nursing.

Coupon deals at Walgreens and Wal-Mart 04/05 ads

Great Wal-Mart deals here, and Walgreens deals here.

Here's my loot for today.



Wal-Mart deals ($26.25 in coupons)
(go to link above or just ask for more details on which coupons I used)
2 Trial size Old Spice bodywash, FREE
Bisquick biscuit mix, FREE
Crunch N' Munch, FREE
2 Bars of Johnson's kids soap, FREE
4 Four-packs of Hawaiian Rolls, 44 cents each
2 Bottles of Kraft salad dressing, 8 cents each
2 Bags of Halls cough drops, 44 cents each
2 Bags of Sweet Tarts, 88 cents each
3 Rolls of Viva Paper Towels, 54 cents each
2 Bags of blueberry muffin mix, 33 cents each
Aveeno lotion, 97 cents
Box of Cocoa Puffs, $1.23
10 packages of Kotex, 20 cents each

Walgreens deals ($43.66 in coupons, rebates and sales)
Edge shaving gel, FREE (after register rewards)
Skintimate shaving gel, FREE (after register rewards)
2 Cans of Oust disinfectant, FREE (after mail-in rebate)
3 Boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch $1.83 each
3 Cans of Swanson Chicken Broth 68 cents each
2 Cans of Gillette shaving gel, 99 cents each
Physician's Formula Organic foundation, 99 cents (after mail-in rebate)
6 Seasonings, 50 cents each
3 Bags of potting soil, 99 cents each
2 3-packs of Schick Quarto razors, $2.40 each

I purchased $102.31 worth of products for only $32.40 (after rebates), equaling a %68 savings! Once again, I am proud of purchasing only things we need and will use. Many of these things (potting soil, foundation, a couple of the spices) were things I would have bought this week no matter what, and I am thrilled to find deals for each of them. Tomorrow we're going to try Dillons or Price Cutter because they double coupons. It takes an incredible amount of time in the store for me to do this because I don't have a great system yet, but it's getting easier.

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I've been eating dairy again for the past several days, and it's hard to say if there's any difference in Ben. Because we went a couple of days without his Zantac, he was really fussy anyway, so I can't tell if the dairy has been a factor. We were able to get our prescription refilled today and he's been a much happier baby.

I actually left him with my parents for the first time tonight. It's crazy to think I haven't left him for more than thirty minutes (with Pam, while I walked down to the DMV), since he's been born. It was good for me, though. I enjoy my book club group, albeit a very strange mix of women. I didn't read much of the book, but we spend most of the time visiting about things other than the book anyway. I got to choose our next book - Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I've started it but haven't finished it yet. I will be sure to write about it once I've finished it.

Ben received some gifts at book club too. Dody gave him the adorable "Ask Me About My Compost Pile" and "I Can't Read" onsies and the awesome socks that look like shoes. The outfit, pants and teeth ring are from another teacher friend of ours.

extreme couponing

So I took couponing to the next level this week and added Wal-Mart. Because I had several coupons to use before they expired at the end of this month, it turned out to be quite a large shopping trip, but the rest of this month will most likely be pretty small. Again, I only bought things that we could stockpile in our pantry or cabinets or freeze, and only things we would ordinarily buy at some point.

I was originally going to itemize everything like I've done before, but that seemed a bit too daunting.

CVS



Walgreens



Wal-Mart (The old lady in line behind me was so excited to see how much I saved with my coupons. She kept saying how proud she was of me.)



Overall, my out of pocket was $157.83 and the original price of all of this was $284.41, so with sales and coupons I saved $126.58 or 45% of the original price! That's not bad considering how many "staple" items I was able to buy. I didn't buy a single item I didn't have a coupon for except for Ben's security blanket. I even had a coupon for my socks ($1 off any No Nonsense brand item, and I found the socks on clearance so they were only $2 for the pack!)

Here's the best of my purchases, and feel free to ask if you want to know how much anything else was or where the coupons were from.

Free - Diet Dr. Pepper (go here to get your free coupon, can be used anywhere)
Mentos Gum - $0.28 / pack ($1.00 off coupon from All You Magazine - March)
Halls Cough Drops - $0.18 (after $1.00 off coupon from the newspaper ads, I think)
Grands Biscuits - $0.50 (on sale at Wal-Mart for $1, then coupons from newspaper ads)
Glade Oil Warmers - $0 (I had two buy one get one free coupons and the check-out guy said I could use them both, so they were both free. I'm not sure if he was supposed to do that, though.)
Reynolds Foil $0 (Walgreens has an in-store add, plus the add from the paper makes it free)

The rest were various combinations resulting in the following:
4 4-packs of toilet paper for $2 each
6 things of deodorant for $0.99 - $1.24 each
4 large bottles of shampoo for $1.49 - $2.24 each
4 packages of Pillsbury fridge cookies for $1.83 each
6 boxes of Quaker granola bars for $1.50 each

I bought a KC Star at Price Cutter and it was definitely worth it. I believe they have twice the coupons of the Springfield News-Leader, especially for food. Some were duplicates, but then I just bought twice as many of that item if it was a good deal. I've also started taking a Sharpie and writing how much I paid for an item on the item. I think this will help me remember how much I spent the first time, so I can aim for that price when replacing it. We are lucky to have plenty of storage cabinets above our washer and dryer and a nice pantry, or this could get out of hand. I would still like to install some additional shelves in the laundry room, but I'm not going to have another coupon trip this large for a while.

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Mom noticed I didn't put any pictures of Ben up today. We visited great-grandma Hebbert today, but I'm going to write about that tomorrow with pictures, so here's Ben and daddy on the couch.

so I might be the cheapest friend you have

Couponing Week 3!



All of that for $0.68!
(That's $58.83 worth of merchandise originally. I've explained how below. It's all about matching sales with coupons and rolling store credits from one week to the next.)

CVS deals for the week of 03/22:
Excedrin $7.99 - $2.00 coupon - $2.00 ECB = $3.99
Cascade Action Pacs $4.99 - $1.00 on sale - $0.50 coupon = $3.49
Nabisco Wheat Thins (2 boxes) $5.88 - $1.00 on sale - $1.00 coupon = $3.88
Dawn Ultra $3.99 - $1.00 on sale - $0.50 coupon = $2.49
Glade Spray (2 cans) $3.78 - $1.89 BOGO coupon - $1.00 ECB = $0.89
Sure Deodorant (2 things) $5.98 - $1.00 coupon - $2.00 ECB = $2.98
Aveeno Shaving Cream $4.79 - $2.00 coupon - $2.00 ECB = $0.79
Original cost of all items = $37.40 - $18.89 in coupons / sales = $18.51
$18.51 - $13.00 in ECB's from last week - $5/$30 purchase in-store coupon = $0.51!
(I actually spent $7.51 out of pocket and I have $7.00 in ECB's to spend next week.)

Walgreens deals for the week of 03/22:
Frosted Flakes (4 boxes) $16.95 ($3.99/box) - $6.95 sale - $2.00 RR = $8.00
Hunts Tomato Sauce $0.99 - $0.60 coupon = $0.39
Colgate Toothpaste $3.49 - $2.50 Walgreens coupon - $1.00 coupon = $0.01 overage
Original cost of all items = $21.43 - $ coupons / sale =
$8.38 - $8.17 in RR's from last week = $0.17!
(I actually spent $2.17 out of pocket and I have $2.00 in RR's to spend next week)

ECB = Extra Care Bucks = $ off your next purchase at CVS
RR = Register Rewards = $ off your next purchase at Walgreens

The next step is getting a subscription to the Kansas City Star and start couponing for more grocery items as well as the weekly pharmacy deals.

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Ben actually slept more last night than he has thus far! He slept for four hours straight, woke to nurse, then slept another three hours. I felt so rested this morning. It was amazing.




We had lunch with aunt Katy and dinner with Dody and Clifford with coupon shopping and the library in between. We were both a little worn out after such a big day.

couponing level 2

Today Ben and I went couponing again and this time we added CVS to our list of stores. Walgreens and CVS are two of the main stores for serious couponers because they both give coupons for cash off your next purchase. So, here's our loot today:



We bought four Cadbury eggs (3 made it into the picture this time), two bottles of dish soap, a box of nursing pads, deodorant, a toothbrush, floss, toothpaste, mouthwash, four cans of Pringles, shampoo, conditioner, styling product, two glade candles, two glade oil refills, two boxes of fig newtons, a bottle of body wash and two tubes of lipstick. I used the $10 off my next Walgreens purchase coupon from last week and spent $34.23 out of pocket and received $20 off our next purchase between the two stores. So, my net spending was $14.23 for all of that! I know few people have time to go through and do all of this, but it's like a game to me. I recognize that I'm buying lots of the same types of products (toiletries mainly), but I'm not always going to have time to do this and we'll be stocked for quite a while after I'm over this phase.

Ben did well on our shopping day, but he was a little crabby off and on because he's got serious eye goop. The pediatrician gave him a prescription for eye drops that should clear it up in the next five days, but trying to give him eye drops three times a day in addition to the reflux medicine twice a day is tough. It does seem that the reflux medicine is working pretty well, though. We've certainly been sleeping better the past few days.

Ben's looking pretty rough with the eye goop but it should hopefully clear up soon.


Today I also had to box up the first three of Ben's outfits because they are too small. He also went from newborn to size one diapers. I kept the last unused newborn diaper and Josh doesn't really understand why. I can't believe he'll be a month old on Wednesday.