Extreme couponing?

I watched the show last night.  ugh.  It disgusted me.  I guess what bothered me is that these people who do this clean out the shelves so there is nothing left for those of us who are just trying to save their family a little money.  I have a "stockpile" which is a small cabinet/pantry in my garage.  Pitiful in their eyes.  But it sure was nice last night when I was making stir-fry and ran out of soy sauce that I just went to the garage & grabbed a new bottle.  My supply is really low though.  Christmas put a damper on my stocking up.  But really?  These people need 1000 boxes of pasta?  When they already have 1000 at home?!  So that I can't go get 5 for my family?!  That and the fact that they spend so many hours in the store, taking up so much of the employees' time then they pay nothing for any of that.  Talk about selfish. Those costs - the cost of the product they aren't paying for, the cost of paying the employees, the cost of the gazilliions of plastic bags - will simply be passed on to the rest of us in higher prices. 
I'm all for a deal.  I love to use coupons, combine them with sales, get a good price on food.  BUT, this is ridiculous.  I won't buy something I won't use.  Occasionally if I do get something for free that I know we won't use, I will donate it.  But for the most part, we only purchase what we need and consume. 
I also noticed no fruit or veggies and protein in those carts.  Lots and lots of soda, bottled drinks, pastas, cereal.  I saw lots of chemicals, HFCS & artificial dyes.
FG agreed with me that I do pretty darn good for what I do.  I don't spend ALL of my free time looking for sales and spending money building a stockpile of crap.  I found it nuts when I had 18 boxes of cereal.  But they are gone now - a few months later.  I'm scanning the ads for more cereal deals.  I promise to leave some on the shelves for you though.

My savings!

Whoohoo! Today has been a good shopping day.  My measly paycheck went about as far as I could make it go.  FG is at the office now, hopefully getting in some client checks so I can finish shopping.  Actually, I don't have all that much leftover after today's adventure and I do still have a bit of cash in my wallet.  But I want to keep some of it there for a bit!

So our first stop today - Raley's.  I saved 58%.  I took advantage of their Buy 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal and get them for $1.74 each.  I bought 8. I had two $1 off 2 coupons.  I got 2 gallons of milk to go with all that cereal (my cereal stockpile is now at a whopping 12 boxes of unopened and another 8 of opened ones).

Second stop wasn't that  successful but it was still good. It was stuff we needed too, like laundry soap and face wash and flouride rinse for the kids. Target - Saved almost $17, spent almost $52.  I did get a good deal on fabric softener which was on sale and then I had two coupons totalling $3 off.  My splurge was that I bought myself a new belt since my old ones are toast.  It was also on sale and I had a $2 off coupon.  Target Online Coupons.
Side note on our Target trip. I bought the kids Icees and with the first sip, DS's tooth popped out and landed on the floor.  We put it in my pocket for the toothfairy later.

Third stop was Smith's (Kroger affiiate).  This was a great one.  I took advantage of their $4 off 8 items deal and got $8 off.  I got 3 pkgs ground beef (really the only meat we need right now anyway), a bunch of Powerade for FG, Capri Sun for the kids, and some lunch-food items for school lunch too.  Spent $30, saved $22. 

I promised the kids if they were good we would go get some Silly Bands at the toystore so I took them there.  LOVE my discount!  They each picked out a package and immediately put them on.  My boss came out to say hello and told me that I shouldn't have paid for them and let the kids pick out another pack each.  So sweet!

Then we headed to Payless.  BOGO plus a 20% off coupon.  Got the kids each a new pair of tennis shoes for school.  Now usually we buy them "better" shoes but DD's foot grows fast and she won't wear these every day.  DS wanted these ugly Airwalk ones and I know his current tennis shoes are too small.  So I let him get them.  FG wasn't happy but oh well.  We'll go get him some better ones in a couple of months when he no longer wears sandals regularly.  At least I saved $20!  Since it's 2 doors down from the toystore, they give me a 10% discount for working in the center.  Unfortunately, she tried to give it to me on top of the other discounts and it wouldn't go through.  Oh well. It was a nice shot and it's nice that they offer that to us anyway.

I arrived home a few hours later to more food in the house plus two new chairs - a leather living room chair and a sort of "futon" chair.  Don't be thinking "college dorm room" stuff.  This is a nice chair.  FG's dad sold their cabin at the lake and we got some of the furniture.  It's only a few years old and I know his snobby wife paid a lot for it all brand new.

I also got the email confirmation that I'm a finalist for the Capri Sun House Party!  AWESOME!!!!!!!

The transition

Right now I'm sitting here sniffling and doing exactly what I didn't want to do - staying in bed way too late, letting the kids watch too many cartoons in their jammies and eat breakfast ridiculously late.  They got up early at least.  I have a lovely summer cold.  ARGH!  So I must give myself a little break and not be so hard on myself but dammit, it doesn't fit with my plan! 

My plan of transition is slowing working.  Slowly.  I'm actually getting the kids to bed at a decent hour.  I'm trying to get myself to bed at a decent hour too.  But this morning I woke up just before 6 and started sneezing and sniffling again and haven't stopped. At least I slept well from 11 - 6! Poor FG. I woke him up too.  He left for the day and I went back to sleep.  I heard one of the kids come in and ask if they could turn on cartoons and I mumbled a stuffy- "Yeth"and went back to sleep.  I know, I know, my body needs the rest and better to let it now and get over this blasted bug while I can and don't HAVE to get up and get the kids out the door to school. 

I'm struggling with my grocery shopping list too.  Ey yi yi!  I have a week of "summer" left and then the first week of packing 2 lunches every. single. day. for two very different kids.  Since I shop every two weeks on payday, today's my day!  I'm scanning the ads, printing coupons, matching up deals at various stores...  and my mind is reeling.  Dinners for the next two weeks.... snacks for the boat and home..... lunches at home..... lunches at school.... will DD need a mid-morning snack of her own or will the class have a group snack like DS did in 1st grade?  will she even have a snack?  will DS need one?  his 3rd grade teacher had us send one every day because they don't get a break in the morning so she implemented one for the class of 10 minutes to eat a healthy snack, stretch their legs, go to the bathroom and transition into the next subject. Should I plan for that this year or is 4th grade getting too old for "snack time"?  Oh yeah, afterschool snacks too and then easier to prepare, quick cleanup dinners since we'll all be getting used to new schedules - me included with working while the kids are in school 3 days a week. That means I won't be able to feel like making anything that takes a whole lot of time or effort those 3 days.  Time to bust out the crock pot! I have to get out of the mindset of finding super-easy stuff for FG to get on the table for the kids and find stuff that I can handle.  (He's a frozen pizza, chicken nugget & canned green beans cook. He's improved but I couldn't throw too much at him.) 

Right now I'm thankful that the sun is setting a bit earlier.  No, I don't want summer to end but if it has to and the kids need to start back to school, it's much easier to get them into bed when it's darker out than in June & July when it is fairly bright at 8:30 pm.  They are anxious and getting excited about the upcoming year too.  I think they are getting tired of each other and missing friends.  Playdates are great but they are together 24/7 and even when there's a break with other friends in the mix, they are still together.  The other night they were bickering and both near tears over little things. I said, "Ok, I think it's bedtime!" and oddly, they both agreed and went up to bed.  I wondered who took my kids and replaced them! 

I'll let you know what sort of deals I get at the store today.  I'm armed with coupons and sale flyers.  I was so excited when I saw that cereal boxes, the regular size ones, were $.48 at one of our stores.  I know it's a typo and will be corrected when we get there.  If for some odd reason they honor it, I'm buying 16 boxes (it's a buy 8 & get them at that price deal).  I would buy more but I don't have that much room to even store 16 boxes! Wish me and my sniffly nose luck today!