Thoughtful Thursday: What's your routine?

I thought I would make Thursday the days where all my random thoughts come to a little place for review.

My first thought was more curiosity than anything. How much do you slather on each morning? I have gone ahead and posted a picture of my morning mess and thought you might do the same or, at least, tell me what your morning routine is and list the items you use to pretty yourself.

My routine:

Sunblock all over my face, neck, chest, and arms
Deodorant :-)
Cover blemishes
Foundation
Blush
Powder
Base eyeshadow
Crease eyeshadow
Highlighter eyeshadow
Eyeliner (one or two colours)
Mascara
Lip liner
Lipstick
DONE!

WHEW!!

Wheelin' Wednesday: Good Deal?

I didn't notice this on the Harris Teeter website, but the store has a triple coupon deal going on until May 5th. I best be getting my coupons out to match deals!

Now, let me ask all of you this:

Do you purchase more than one newspaper?

I have to admit that I don't.
I obtain Sunday newspaper every week.
I have Redplum coupons delivered in my mail on Wednesdays
I obtain coupons via the Internet


What do you do? How many papers do you purchase?

I also want to know, what is a good deal for Electrasol capsules for the dishwasher? I want to make sure I just obtained a good deal. Bi-Lo was selling the Electrosol as B1G1 free for $7.72. I had a coupon for $2.50 so my total was $5.22 for two boxes (32 count each). The last ones I purchased were actually free so I honestly didn't know what a good price would be for such an item.

On the flip side, I picked up Kashi waffles at Bi-Lo. They were on sale for 3/6.99. I purchased two for 4.66 and then provided coupons for 1.50 each (3.00). I paid 1.66 BT which equals .83 cents each.

What do you think about that?

Deal of the Day 2?

Well, as luck would have it, CVS became a good deal.



3M HOOKS 2/5.00
COUPON 2.50 OFF EACH

PURCHASED 6 FOR 15.00
COUPONS OFF -15.00
TOTAL BEFORE TAX 0.00
ECB'S 5.00

SCHICK INTUITION RAZOR (THESE ARE AWESOME)

PURCHASE PRICE 8.99
COUPON -4.00
ECB'S -4.99

TOTAL BEFORE TAX 0.00
ECB'S 4.00

ALL SMALL AND MIGHTY (I LIKE SOAP...HAVE WE TALKED ABOUT THIS?)
PURCHASE PRICE B1G1 FREE 7.49
COUPONS -2.00
ECB'S -4.00
TOTAL BEFORE TAX 1.49

Okay, so I purchased all of this for $1.49 before tax.

So, this averaged everything out at $.16 each (before tax)-what do you think about that? BTW- after tax was .33

Deal of the Day

Wal-mart had Colgate toothpaste on sale for $1.00. I pulled out my "handy dandy" coupon album and quickly retrieved 3 coupons for $1.00 off and 1 coupon for $.75. My total cost with tax was $.52 for 4 tubes of toothpaste!
I don't know about your family, but my little family goes through quite a bit of toothpaste!

Hurrah! I am a winner!

I may do a Target run on Saturday. CVS and Walgreens don't have deals that are worth much to me. I would still be paying out of pocket on stock pile items that I can live without for now.

ABORTION CLINIC

I went to the abortion clinic on Saturday morning. After praying 15 decades of the Rosary, I stood outside the entrance with my pro-life sign and pamphlets to give out to these women. Two women decided not to have an abortion while I was there. The second woman was in an all out knock out verbal fight. Her, I am assuming, boyfriend was strongly opposed to the abortion. The group of pro-lifers assisted in talking to her, but I really think it was the boyfriend (with God's help) who really made her change her mind. They sped out of there, she with the clipboard and pen still in hand! Praise God! 

During that time, one of the workers came out to tell us not to block the entrance (which didn't occur). She had such an attitude. It is so sad. 

In the meantime, these pro-life groups-when they obtain the name of a doctor doing abortions outside of their regular practice- will go to their clinics with all sorts of signs opposing these actions. The doctors fear the stigma (for it is truly a stigma) and will often stop performing abortions. 

Random thoughts....on the way to work

I am sure you know by now that I have about a 15 minute walk to my building. During this time I think about a variety of things and never really reflected on what I pondered during these walks.

So, here I am walking and as I walk the following thought runs through my mind:

" Look at this guy just PASSING me by all quick and stuff... he must think he is all that! Little does he know that I can't walk that fast since my pantyhose are slowly rolling down and...whoops, they just rolled off to my thighs. Will I make it to work before they hit the ground?"

Just so you know, I did make it, but  I almost lost them in Target and that's my story. 

WALGREENS, CVS, AND TARGET!

So here are my deals for the day:

I went to Walgreens and picked up Angel Soft toilet paper. 

On sale for 2/$6.00

I had two coupons for $1.00 off each 

Total spent with tax: $4.44 for 24 rolls

I then headed to CVS and picked up the following:

Claritan on sale for $9.99

Coupon for $7.00 off

Total: $2.99 (not including tax)

2.00 in ECB's

I then purchased Crest Pro-Health toothpaste (Hubby likes this)

On sale for $2.88

Coupon: $.50

Total: $2.33

ECB's 2.00

Total $.33 (not including tax)

2.00 in ECB's

Last purchase was for a couple of bags of chips to absorb the ECB's (I don't like to roll these, but maybe I should)

Then I headed to Target and picked up the following:

Kraft Salad Dressing on sale for $1.59

Coupon for $1.50

Total cost: $.09

2 Dry Idea Deodorants for $2.00

2 coupons for $2.00 off 

Total cost: 0.00

How about that?

Nurses?

I have three weird stories about nurses.

One: We were friends with a family who had a mom employed as a nurse. They thought it was okay to wash their pet cat in the kitchen sink....

Two:  I have a gal pal who was studying to be a nurse..... She thought it was okay to pick up a bag of popcorn left by a stranger at a public event and eat it.

Three: I sat by a woman on a plane who was a nurse. She would bite into an apple and then stick into the front pocket of the chair in between bites.....

This hair? Awww! It's nothing!

Walking to my car after work tonight the following occurred:

Lady: Your hair is gorgeous!

Me: My hair? Awww....thanks!

Lady: Who does your hair?

Me: I do my hair.

Lady: Are you a stylist?

Me: No, but a stylist told me to flip my hair over, cut across, and you have perfect layers.

Lady: That's true and you have perfect layers. It is perfect-just gorgeous!

So, there! I have pretty hair and I cut it myself and I only brushed my teeth with sunscreen once!

Did I finally figure out how to CVS?

Okay, so I decided to have a second try at CVS. This is how I did it-let me know what you think.

Please note that you have to purchase items separately to make this work. I was talking to the cashier at CVS and she relayed that some women come in and would complete 50 transactions to make the ECB's work! Now, I don't think I will ever get that crazy, but I understand why they do that now. 

Okay, so here is the breakdown:

First purchase

Soft soap body scrub

4.99

coupon .75

taxes

.34

Out of pocket cost: $4.58

ECB's 4.99

Second purchase

Colgate toothpaste

3.99

bag of chocolates .99

This was bought with the 4.99 ECB's

Out of pocket cost:0.00

ECB's 3.99

Third purchase

Dove Go Fresh Conditioner at 4.99 buy one get one free

Two Dove coupons 

1.00

1.50

Eight pack gum at 2.79 buy one get one free

1.00 coupon for my toothpaste (she forgot to include that)

ECB's 3.99

Balance with tax: .55

Out of pocket:.55

4.58

0.55

Total:$5.03

So.... 

I bought the following:

Chocolates for .99

Dove for 4.99

Gum for 2.79

Colgate for 3.99

Soft Soap: 4.99

Total:     16.65 (not including tax)

I spent $5.03 divide by 7 = .72 cents each for every item

Now, I am nowhere near what these pros do, but this was better than my first and I only spent five bucks!

Saturday Events

I woke up after "sleeping in" which we all know really didn't happen. I decided to get back on the band wagon with painting.....Opened the paint bucket and found mold growing! What in the world? I never knew this was even possible, but it happened! 

That threw a wrench in my day along with Saturday Mass being moved to 7:15 P.M. -which caused the abortion clinic vigil to be moved . 

I headed to the abortion clinic to pray at 3:00 P.M. and was met by 3 others from the chapel. As we prayed in front of the clinic, other persons from other parishes joined us until we totaled 11. More people came to cover after we had prayed. I also heard there were about 100 people praying that morning in front of the clinic!

Afterwards, I did a bit of bargain shopping. I was able to pick up the following:

Secret Deodorant with price dropped to $2.20 and my $2.00 coupon= $.20

Turkey Breast on sale for $.99 per pound

Green Grapes on sale for $.99 per pound

I am not buying a lot of groceries since we will be gone for a week, but the grapes can be eaten within the next three days and I am freezing the turkey breasts. 

During one of my store trips I encountered a woman who was very into coupon shopping, CVS and Walgreens shopping and so on. We struck up a conversation and during our little talk- she relayed to me that she was often online at least 4 hours per week just to pull up coupons. She then told me that she goes to the store every day and that her family often wonder where she is going to put her new finds! Her deals usually have her only paying one dollar or so overall. She loves to do this, but at what cost? I mean, if you don't need it-what is the point? One thing, which I thought was very nice, is that she gives some of these items away to shelters. 

Okay-that's my story!

Spending Deal http://a1061.g.akamai.net/7/1061/5412/home/www.walgreens.com/rebate/RebatePeriod117.pdf?ec=hn1006_rebatecatalog

Yesterday I purchased Halls cough drops for a $1.32 and then knocked that out with a $1.00 off coupon. I them purchased 3 packs of gum for $.96 each (not a great deal) but then I slammed a 2.00 off coupon for the gum. I ended up paying about $1.48 with taxes for everything. I would have done better, but the cashier wouldn't let me use another one of my coupons.... maybe I will head to Target with those. 

I also put in the title of this blog the address for Walgreens savings. Happy shopping!

CVS

I took my two $2.75 off Scrubbing Bubbles coupons to CVS to purchase scrubbing bubble shower cleaning merchandise for $2.99. Including tax, I bough two for .88 cents which is pretty good.

I went home, opened one up ( it was a refill package of scrubbers you put on a plastic scrubbing thingy) and then put them on the dryer... I then did laundry, accidentally knocked the entire package into the machine and washed my clothes with shower cleaning scrubbers.

Yes, my clothes are clean, but they smell like a bathroom cleaning product....do you think anyone will notice??

It's 6:56 Am and I am blogging about budgets!

You know I keep these monthly spreadsheets to monitor spending and just recently I have started to create pie charts to monitor the amount we spend per month percentage wise. I am happy to report that we dropped our grocery spending by 9%! Hurrah!

A POOR MAN'S MEAL......OR IS IT?

I have not been in the mood to cook this week. Hubby has been ill and my hormones are all wild with pent up meanness just waiting to pounce upon the unsuspecting husband  ( I am sure he suspects). Luckily, Hubby has been happy with frozen pizza these past two days, but, even though he would be happy, we can't have another day of pizza. My little mind was working, the eyebrows were furrowed as I set up my after work plan of heading to a local eatery and (shudder) pick up some take away food! GASP!  Fyi- I did have a $4.00 off coupon... That was my plan and I was sticking to it until....this morning. 

Now let me give you a bit of background. March was a record breaking month when it came to our food spending. We were right under the $400.00 mark which is awesome for us. As I have stated many times before, I am not a very good grocery shopper. It has became a plight of mine to lower our bill to $300.00 per month ( a girl can dream, can't she?). I will conquer and divide!

So...when I opened the fridge this morning to prepare Hubby's breakfast and lunch- I looked about and there was a meal right in front of me. I could use the cooked Boston butt pork roast flavored with bbq and my .25 cent box of macaroni!  A meal for pennies! Hurrah! I am a winner!