Stellan

Playtime

First signs of spring

The other half of the story

Total: ~11.00

This post was originally intended to be a follow up to one of my Dillons posts. It's just taken me so long to get around to writing it that I can't remember which one. This honey was accidentally left out of the shopping picture that day which conveniently reminded me of a point I'd been meaning to make.

I've been showing you the good deals I've been getting lately, but you would be much mistaken if you assumed we have a minuscule grocery budget or bought everything dirt cheap. As much as I like to save money, I also like to splurge on certain things. Some of these have to do with taste: real butter and high quality tea and coffee. Others are health decisions. I buy whole wheat pasta which costs about twice as much as regular.

The honey falls into a very special category of splurge: the ones that make my husband happy. I would be perfectly happy with the store brand honey bear. But Kurt's been reading a lot about health foods lately and believes that raw and unfiltered is the way to go.

It's all too easy to plunge ahead with my own ideas about what is good and helpful for our family without ever pausing to consider what would please my husband. And he's the one I'm supposed to be helping! So I'm learning to cheerfully buy the $11 honey.

Check out Crystal Paine's excellent post on this very topic over at Biblical Womanhood.

Free download

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Walmart

Total: 43.45

Walmart is where I do my staple shopping. I use the Walmart price to gauge how good a sale is.

Dillons

I paid: 20.90

Highlights:
1/2 gallon of buttermilk marked down to .99.
Made .25 on the toilet paper.
Marked down yogurt made it .49 after coupon.

Walgreens

I paid: 5.24

I also picked up sunscreen on clearance for 1.75, but I forgot to put it in the picture!

Dillons (updated)

Regular price: 37.70
I paid: 12.59

Just so you know, all amounts I list are before tax. Keeps things simpler.

Also, I had issues with my e-coupons this week. I contacted the coupon people and have received credit for several of them.

Yesterday and today and forever

Life is good. Really good. For the first time in a very long time we are not sick or injured, moving, pregnant, or grieving. It seems as though we have been at least one of those things, and sometimes more than one, almost constantly for the past 3 1/2 years. To be sure we have normal, everyday sorts of struggles. I do have to tackle potty training in the near future, after all! But overall life is easy right now.

I'm in a season now of reaping the sweet fruit of hard lessons. The "break" I begged for so often God has finally seen fit to give. I'll take it thankfully, but I don't want to forget the lessons. I have no doubt the hard times will return in God's perfect time.

But though my circumstances have changed God's purposes haven't. He is still in the business of conforming me to his image. God did not cease to be good when my circumstances were bad, and I have not stopped being dependent on him because my circumstances are good.

Not that much has changed.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 ESV

WOW

This is the best everyday bread I know of. I make it quite often. I tweaked the whole wheat recipe from my bread machine book to come up with something that would have all the desired qualities: healthy, hearty, but not like a rock. I find whole wheat is too strong for my taste. This has a fabulous mild flavor, soft chewy texture, and turns out great every time.


Wonderful Oatmeal Wheat Bread (WOW Bread)

1 2/3 c water
2 T butter
1/3 c brown sugar
2 t salt
2 c wheat flour
2 c oats
2/3 c bread flour
3 t bread machine yeast

Kohls clearance

Practice, practice, practice

I should clarify that she fell over several times between all these pictures. She actually did best the first time and tired pretty quickly.

Cloth diapers

Walgreens Deals

Total after sales, coupons, register rewards, and rebates: 1.84.

However, I confused a couple of deals, so I have several things to return next week. And I was especially disappointed not to be able to get the Gillette razor deals because both Walgreens were out. Still, not bad overall.

Dillons Deals

My best deal of the week was definitely the yogurt I picked up at Dillons.

Yoplait packs were on sale 2/4. I had 1.50 off printables (if I knew what I was doing "printables" would send you straight to the coupon so you could get some yourself--but I don't), so I went expecting to pick up 5 packs for .50 each. A good deal.

But when I got there I found one pack that was marked down to .50 for quick sale!

Then at checkout an e-coupon came off that I didn't think was working.

So...

22 4oz cups of yogurt
10.00 on sale
8.50 with the markdown
-1.50 (5) printables
-1.00 e-coupon
FREE

I also found a half-gallon of milk marked down to .99 for quick sale.

Apparently Krogers (which go by many names) are known for these sorts of unexpected deals.

Dillons Deals

This is what I bought at Dillon's today.

Regular price for all this: 102.88
I paid: 37.32

Dillon's was having a special sale for the second week. In addition to the regular sale prices there were a certain set of items that if you bought 10 (mix and match) you would get $5 off the order. Also there is a new thing call e-coupons that you load onto your store card and they come off automatically if you buy the item. Dillon's doubles coupons up to .50 and raises those above .50 to 1.00.

So here's how I did it:

3 Armour meatballs 14oz, 3.79 each
-1.29 sale
-.50 buy 10
-.55 mc (3)
-.45 raised (3)
paid 1.00 each

3 Ghiradelli Brownie Mix, 2.99 (my new favorite brownie mix)
-.80 sale
-.50 buy 10
paid 1.69 each

4 Triscuts, 2.75
-.36 sale
-.50 buy 10
-2/2 mc (2)
paid .89 each

4 Kleenex 184ct, 2.39
-.89 sale
-.5o buy 10
paid 1.00 each

1 Kraft Cheese Block 8oz, 3.95
-1.96 sale
-.50 buy 10
paid 1.49 each

2 Kraft Singles 2% 12 oz, 4.19
-2.20 sale
-.50 buy 10
-.75 mc I found these in a dispenser by the cheese!
-.25 raised
paid .49 each

3 Kraft Shredded 2% 8oz, 4.29
-2.30 sale
-.50 buy 10
-.75 mc
-.25 raised
paid .49 each

Bananas for .49/lb.

2 Fleishmann's Yeast Jars 8oz for the price of 4, 7.49
-.45 mc
-.45 raised
paid 6.59 (3.30 for 4 oz.--better than I could do at Walmart, I think)

1 Crest Pro-Health, 2.29 on clearance
-1.50 e-coupon
-1.50 mc
made .71

1 Colgate Max Fresh, 1.44 on clearance
-1.00 mc
paid .44

1 Gillette Shampoo, 4.29
-2.00 e-coupon
-2.00 mc
paid .29

1 Cottonelle 4pk, .99
-.25 e-coupon
-.50 mc
-.49 raised
made .25

2 Sundown Vitamin D 1000 100ct, 5.49
-2.75 sale
-2/2 Catelina
paid 1.74 each

Our little man

Walgreens Deals

So, here's what I got at Walgreens this week:

1 Colgate Total, sale 2.99
-1.50 manufacturers coupon
-2.00 register rewards
made .51

1 Foil 20ft, 1.69
-.80 walgreens coupon
paid .89

1 Puffs w/lotion 60ct, 1.79
-.25 mc
-.90 wgc
paid .64

3 Campbell's Tomato Soup, 3/4
-.40/3 mc
-1.93 wgc
paid 3/1.67

2 Listerine 1L, sale 2/9
-2.00 (2) mc
-4.50 rr
paid 2/.50

1 Revlon blush, 9.99
-9.99 easy saver rebate
free

6 Hershey's dark chocolate bars 1.45 oz, .89 each
- B1G1 (3) mc
-B1G1 wgc
6/.47
I don't quite understand why this one worked out the way it did--I figured it would be free. Still a deal!

2 Finest Natural One-a-Day Fish Oil 120ct, sale B1G1
paid 16.99 (the cheapest way I've found to buy these)

I also had a Pantene coupon for 2.oo/1 that was about to expire. So I went to Walmart and got:

1 Pantene conditioner (the big size) w/bonus 9 oz hairspray attached, 5.88
-2.oo mc
paid 3.88 for conditioner and hairspray

I wasn't sure whether 3.88 was a good price to pay for Pantene. I got it for 2.50 in a Walgreens deal a few months ago, but I haven't been doing this long enough to know how often that might happen. When I saw the free hairspray though, I decided it was worth it.

Christmas and After