Double your $2.00 coupons

If you have a Farm Fresh near you, don't miss this Christmas gift! The offer runs from December 19th through December 24th. Click the link for specific details.  They will double up to 20 coupons per day, allowing only 2 like coupons. Google "Farm Fresh Coupon Matchups" and find a site who has done the work for you. Sites like this will tell you what Farm Fresh has on sale this week and where you can find a corresponding coupon for that product. It's basically where you learn how to maneuver the stores for the best deals! Looks like there is some free Colgate toothpaste there this week when you bring a $.50 coupon. If you are a senior citizen, you get an additional 5% off if you shop on Thursday. Let me know how you do!

This week at the store

I mentioned that I hadn't been to the store in a while because of a hip surgery. I can walk now without crutches and so today, after Physical Therapy, stopped in to Kroger to pick up a few things. A few things is really all I can manage at this point. Thankfully, wonderful friends bring us meals.

I learned a new thing today at the grocery store.  Sit tight...it's coming.

First things first: I had a $25 gift credit that we got for transferring a prescription from CVS to Kroger. That was a good place to start.

We needed milk, cheese, and shaving cream. Thankfully, the shaving cream was on sale and I had two coupons that doubled, so each can was only $1.00.

Not on the list, but too good to pass up: a toothbrush for $.09, one of those POM juice drinks that was free with a coupon, and a buy one get one free pack of gum.

What was not on the list was Stacy's Pita Chips. I picked those up after hemming and hawing for a while. They are $3.69 and I didn't have a coupon. Just a craving.

So, I take all of this to the check-out and she rings it up and it is way more than I expected. (This is the part you were sitting tight for.)  Before I left the store I reviewed my coupon and the price I was charged for the pita chips was $5.99 and the price I was charged for the cheese was about $1.50 more than the sign read. I walked right over to customer service to return those items. I told the cashier the reason and she said, "If the price marked is different from the register price, then you get the item for free."   Dumbfounded, I said "Great, thanks". She promptly returned $11.25 to my gift card and I left with my free cheese and pita chips. 

So for $9.01, I got a gallon of milk, cheese, pita chips, 2 loofahs, two cans of shaving cream, 2 packs of gum, a toothbrush and a POM juice drink. With no savings, it should have cost $29.21.

Check. Your. Receipts.

Winner of Sydnee-$149.00 recharge station

Last week, I introducted you to Sydnee!  Sydnee is a product from Kanex  and can charge up to four of your Apple Products-the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. It's sleek design makes it a beautiful organizational tool for for your home. The readers responded positively and a winner was chosen.
The winner is Anna-one of our Minnesota friends! Congratulations Anna!

a must do before the holidays

Why does this...

make me think of this?

Goodwill Donation

Two reasons:

1. I live with a CPA and so he reminds me that tax time is upon us.

2. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the holidays often result in more things in your home.

In 11 days your house may have more stuff, so go ahead and and start making some room for that now. If you donate to your church or favorite charity, you can secure one of your last tax deductions for 2012 and share some lovely things with others. 

I know-it's December, you are just surviving. Do what you can.  Maybe you can purge every room in your house. Maybe all you can do is one closet. Maybe all you can do is charge every member of your family to leave the dinner table tonight and return with 5 things from their rooms that they don't need/use/enjoy anymore. Hopefully, you have a goodwill box that you have tossed things in all year--here's a picture of ours. 

If you do, it's time to drop that by your favorite charity!  Whether you take 10 items or 110 items, try to make a dent in your house. My guess is that you will breathe a little easier.

Cloth Napkin Give away winner

Hen House Linens recently sent me some cloth cocktail napkins and a votive candle to review for you. Read about that here.   The winner of the cloth napkins was drawn out of my husband's lovely pewter cup. (I wonder if that was a groomsmen present....)

 

And the winner is.......Amanda! No last names will be mentioned but she is quite the gardener and pumpkin seed lover.


Thank you all for commenting and getting excited about cloth napkins!! There is another give-away and the winner will be drawn on Monday, so if you have yet to comment...hurry up!

 Here is another look at those napkins Amanda won from Hen House Linens!

$149.00 value giveaway-Ipad/Iphone Recharge station

  Just in time for Christmas, Kanex sent this to one of you!

This is awesome. I opened the box,  checked it out and got really excited for one of you. Then, carefully put it back in the box ready to send out to a lucky reader.  I spared you and didn't take bad pictures of the product because the video is all you need to watch. Sit back and watch it-it is only a minute of your time. Trust me, you will want this.

 http://www.kanexlive.com/sydnee


I was sent a WHITE Sydnee and it does hold up to 4 iPads or IOS devices.  (iPads, iPhones, iPads) Sydnee's  sleek design will look beautiful on your desk. I love organizational gear and this  one is AWESOME. It even comes with a 3 pack of USB charging cables. If you are always looking for your devices, you'll have no problem again with Sydnee in your home.

Comment on the blog or the Facebook link and I will pick a winner at random on December 17th.

Good luck!!!

Get it together quickly-fuel reward points expire this weekend



photo credit

Christmas will be here in 18 days, which meals you have 17 days to figure it all out. It's go time.


1. Finish up making the list of gifts you will be buying this Christmas.

2. Specifically name the stores where you plan to purchase these items.

3. Get to Kroger before 4x the fuel points on gift cards expire and purchase the gift cards for those stores. (Click here if you are not sure what I am talking about)

4. You'll find that you have accumulated a bunch of fuel points. If you spend $100 in gift cards, you'll save $.40 a gallon at the tank. You can maximize your savings by taking more than one car to the tank and not turning off the tank between fill ups. Kroger allows up to 35 gallons during a single purchase. Bring your gas tanks as well. If you were to buy $100 in gift cards, you'll save $.40 at the tank and that would be a $14.00 savings at the tank if you were to benefit from the 35 gallon fill up.


Here is the link to the gift cards which Kroger states they sell in their stores.

And you'll feel better your list is done. Consider this the deadline-you'll save money and enjoy Christmas a little more knowing the shopping is done a bit early.

A Giveaway for Living Consciously Readers

Recently, Hen House Linens contacted me to let me know about their line of products. They were kind enough to send me a set of 4 cocktail napkins as well as one of their Frasier Fir candles. As a promoter of cloth napkins, I was excited to see their product. The fabric is beautiful and would seem to stand up to some use. The presentation is also beautiful. I lit the candle and can endorse that it certainly smells like a Frasier fir. We'll enjoy that this Christmas! I am giving away the cocktail napkins. Just contact below by commenting on the post and/or the facebook link and I'll pick a winner by next Friday. When you comment, tell me something fun.

Here is more on the product lines offered from Hen House Linens.  Beautiful.

Setting the Table:

Hen House Linens Dinner Napkins ($9); henhouselinens.com: Wipe up that gravy spill or dab your cider-stained lips with these generously-sized, no-fuss napkins that hold up to countless washes.

Hen House Linens Placemats ($9); henhouselinens.com: Add a festive touch to a holiday brunch, lunch or dinner with these timelessly elegant essentials.

Hen House Linens 14 x 70 Runner ($22); henhouselinens.com: For a truly one-of-a-kind look, mix and match the traditional and the modern prints, to create your own look.

Thymes Frasier Fir Reed Diffuser($60); thymes.com

A beautiful tradition for giving to others, and to yourself, these slender rattan reeds absorb the scented oil, releasing a crisp, just-cut forest scent throughout your surroundings.

Thymes Frasier Fir Candle ($28); thymes.com

Mountain fresh and glowing, this festive scented candle sets the mood and evokes seasonalcelebrations to create special moments that make up our life stories.

keep your kids out of trouble while shopping with them

photo credit

Recently, my friend Daynon told me about shopkick.  It's a free app available on your IPhone that gives you "kickbucks" while you shop. Kickbucks are earned automatically by walking in stores and/or scanning items in the store. You can redeem kickbucks for giftcards. I found this YouTube video to break it down for you. The kid is adorable. There is also an official "how to video" on the shopkick website.

Here's the breakdown:
1. You get points for walking in stores.
2. You get points for scanning items in the store. (You don't have to actually purchase the item in order to receive the points...just scan them with your IPhone.)
3. You redeem acquired points for gift cards.
4. This is a great opportunity to keep your kids entertained while shopping with you.  A scavenger hunt of sorts.

If you are interested, let me know. I can refer a friend from my app.

This week at the store

I am not really going to the store and planning any big trips, because of the hip. I am so grateful for the wonderful friends and family who are bringing us meals during this tricky time. Last week, I shared Audrey's haul with you and this week Rebecca was kind enough to share her great deals of the week.

She writes that she spent about $44.00 for about $98.00 worth of merchandise. She shopped at Kroger and used sales, manufacturer coupons, and Kroger coupons to save $54.00ish!  She used a gift card to help one of her favorite organizations, Young Lives. (You can read about that here).

She knows she will save at the pump because she increased her fuel points.

 

Rebecca is a busy mom and admitted that this trip required her to take a late night trip sans kids but it was totally worth it.

 

 

 

(Sorry for the 2nd blurry picture. Rebecca took a great picture, but for some reason it didn't upload clearly,)

 

Yogurt, orgnic milk, vegetables, diapers, cereal..... it just goes on and on.

 

Atta girl, Rebecca.

Pretty Cheap Fuel

photo credit

Between November 18th and December 9th, Kroger is rewarding their customers with 4x the fuel points with any gift card purchase. (Kroger gift cards are not included in the deal).

If fuel points are new to you, here is how it works.  Let's say you plan on buying a $100 item at Best Buy for someone for Christmas. Before you head to Best Buy, pick up a $100 Best Buy gift card at Kroger.

Right now, That $100 card is multiplied by 4 to give you 400 fuel points. Four hundred fuel points is equivalent to a $.40 savings at the gas pump. That is $.40 off per gallon of gas you purchase, up to 35 gallons.

Hopefully, your Christmas list is ready and organized and you know exactly how much you are spending at each store. Since Kroger stocks so many stores' gift cards, you'll likely find the store you have on your list.

Organizing requires four healthy limbs

I had hip surgery just short of 3 weeks ago. As you can imagine, it sure slows down any chance you have to organize something. I can only walk with crutches and if you have ever had crutches, that means you can't carry so much as a glass of water. I have a backpack that I use to move things from one room to another. It's pretty ridiculous. I want to watch TV and drink water so I have get to get a bottle of water out of the fridge and put it in my backpack in order to carry it to the den. And by the way, buying bottled water is NOT MY THING. Ugh. But for now, it will have to do and I am grateful for the bottled water.

Organizing just about anything around my house is out of the question, except for one thing. For a person who has a high need to organize things all the time, this is what I have been reduced to:

I guess it's good for my soul. Sometimes a body just needs to slow down and this is my time. 

A little something for the mailman

Our house was built in 1925, so that makes it 87 years old. Although, I guess the mailbox we inherited is not that old, it sure looks like it could have been.

I am not against the golden finish.  I am just against weathered, nasty, never cleaned gold. So, once again I put my dad to work the last time he visited. (I don't abuse him if you are starting to be concerned about my dad. He actually likes doing all of these projects I write about it.) Just like the lamp, this appeared to be another paint job for dad. I will say that he sanded it before he painted and the finish after sanding looked pretty cool. But, I had the black paint and our door is black, so it seemed like the better accent color. And for the price of a can of black spray paint, here is the new mailbox.

 

 

 

I hope it makes the mailman as happy as it makes me.

More JCP free kid haircuts in november

Sorry to be a little late out of the gate on this one. I just learned that JcPenney is offering free haircuts to kids on Sundays in November, grades K-6th. There are several online articles announcing the offer like this one.

No coupon required! Just make your appointment on Sunday!

Too good to waste

I've needed a beside table lamp for a long time, and just couldn't find one I really loved at the right price. I searched store after store and came up short. I was searching in all the wrong places because all the while, my lamp was in my parent's basement.

My mom found this in front of her neighbor's house one day. She had put it out for the trash man. My mom picked it up with no real intention, but thought it was too good to waste.

(Did  you know there is a section of the county dump here in my town that they call "Too Good to Waste" and you can rummage through it? I only know that because my friend Katie went there in high school because she does random things like that. She returned to tell my 33ish year old self that that was like me - "You are too good to waste!" This in reference to my status as a single woman. I digress...)

(It came with a shade, but I didn't care for that so much, so I just took the base.)

 

 

The height and shape is what I appreciated, but I knew the color wouldn't work. I wanted a robin's egg blue  and found a can of spray paint at Michael's for a little more than $6.00. It was worth a shot, I thought. My dad came for a visit a few weeks later and I asked him to do it because he is such a careful painter. I took a lampshade that I had that I was not using and it all came together.

 

 

 

 Try the same if you see a lamp at a yardsale (or your parent's basement).  It may only need some paint. Since having hip surgery last week, I am in bed a lot. (Nothing serious.) It's nice to have something pretty to look at while I get better. Thanks  to my friend, Melissa, for the "get well flowers" to round out the look!





A whole mess of produce

My friend, Audrey, sent me this picture a few weeks ago.

She is a couponer and she knows what she is doing. She must have even impressed herself with this trip. She surely impressed me. I love this picture because Audrey has shown that you don't have to buy a bunch of processed food to benefit from coupons. I mean, do you see the produce in this picture. It is practically falling off the cook-top.

She wrote:

I got free toothpaste for the church food pantry and took advantage of
the Betty Crocker/General Mills Catalina to get some cheap potatoes
for the food pantry and some of our own pantry staples. Then I used
the catalinas ($15 dollars worth) to get fresh produce. All in all, I
spent exactly $28.00! (just realized I forgot to put the 2 bunches
of bananas and 2 avocados in the picture)....Yay Kroger deals!


Later, she wrote:

I saved $47.23 in 2 transactions (I had $11.20 in coupons, $15 in catalinas from 1st transaction, and $21.03 Kroger plus savings). I love when I can save on produce. The produce alone would have been over $23.00 without a Kroger card.


If you don't know what a catalina is, here is a tutorial from forthemommas.com

If you want to go shopping with Audrey, you best just get in line.

This week at the store

Well, actually this was a few weeks ago. A little orthopaedic hip surgery hindered the blogging process for a while. It's not earth shattering for sure, but it reinforces that toiletries don't have to cost an arm and a leg. Never pay for toothpaste. Never.

 

Had I paid full price this would have cost $15.09 + tax. Instead, I paid $3.50 + tax. Each packet of Angel Soft was $.50 and the toothbrushes were $.50 as well. Toothpaste was free. (The week before this, I picked up 3 tubes of Crest for free. As long as you are not brand specific, you can stock up during certain times of the year.)  It's just matching a coupon that doubles with a sale price.

 

The only person who is missing out is your dentist, because he's not making a lot of money off of you.

A staple gun, a mama that sews, and an interior designer friend

I am a huge believer in mixing it up when I decorate. Thankfully, my college roommate, Rebecca Simpson is an interior design and she has influenced me quite a bit.

Disclaimer: she did not decorate my home, so if you don't like it, it's not her fault. Mostly, I just mean I watch her perform her magic in her beautiful home and then I give it a try. She gets an A+ and I get a C-, but because her A+ is so amazing, guests in our home love our C-. They just haven't been to Becki's house, thank the Lord.

Anyway..back to what I was saying. I like to mix it up. Yard sale + homemade+ big box stores + legit furniture stores.

This is a view of the corner of our  living room if you are sitting on the couch. I'll break it down for you.

There are some built ins that were here when I moved in. They are backed with a houndstooth wallpaper print  that I found at this second-hand fabric store. I think it was about $6 and I had enough left over to share with a friend. It was  hung with double-sided duck tape. Best invention ever.

I wanted a monochromatic look on the bookshelves, so black, white, silver, and grey only made the cut...but most of that was around our house.

See the pillow. My mom just made that for me. She made two pillows. I think the fabric was about $10 for TWO pillows. The inserts were "free" because I had a gift card to Crate and Barrel from our wedding.  DOWN inserts are the only way to go. My husband could care less about the fabric but he loves the pillows.

The investment in that corner of the room was the chair. I needed two small chairs because we have a small living room. It doesn't do you any good to buy a less expensive chair if the scale is wrong. I looked all over town and knew these chairs were the way to go because the size was right. This is the place to spend a few extra dollars. The stool is from a yard sale...$3 bucks maybe. I covered it with a silk fabric that wasn't much because I only needed a bit. Attached with a staple gun. The rug gets a lot of traffic because it is in the room which we live. I can use either side, so it has a longer shelf life. Picked that up at Shades of Light, but again...two sided means it will last twice as long.

Before I ever moved into the house, I had the floors stained that dark ebony. You can see a bit of it.
Almost everyone who walks into our house mentions how much they love the floors--the men too! I think those floors (and our kitchen) will be the gems that sale our tiny little home one of these days.

The lesson of the day: don't do The Room Store.   Mix and match, spend more in some places/less in others. Oh, and add interior designer to your friend list.

Getting checked out at CVS

I stopped by CVS to check something out. As I entered the store, I walked right up to their
coupon center. I got out my CVS card connected to my keychain (still in my hand from taking the keys out of the ignition) and scanned it. I then stood there quietly waiting for any coupons offered that day.

photo credit

Walking in right behind me was an man and his wife. I would say they were about 65-70 years  I can only assume that the man stopped to watch me because this is what followed:

Woman: "I guess we should have one of those cards."
Woman:  "Do you think we should have one of those cards?"
Woman:  " I don't know know where mine is."
Woman: "Do you really think it matters?"
Woman:  "It's not worth it. It's more trouble that it's worth."

Did you notice how many times the man spoke?   In the meantime, I received $4.00 in extracare bucks from the coupon center for standing there for 15 seconds.

A few observations:
1. This woman was clearly having a some internal confusion/guilt for not using a CVS card. It's not weird to  use coupons these days and at some level she must know that.

2. Getting paid $4.00 in 15 seconds is the equivalent of being paid an hourly wage of $960.00.

3. This man thinks woman who attempt to save money are worth staring at.

Free Movie at Redbox

  

Redbox is celebrating their birthday on 10/10/12 and they are giving you a gift! At checkout, at any Redbox location, use promo code "BIRTHDAY" to get a free movie. Of courese, it won't be free if you don't return your movie the next day. You will still be charged their daily charge if you keep it more than a day.


(Promo code terms: Code is valid from 10/10/12 at 12am CT through 10/11/12 at 11:59:59pm CT. Limit: 1 code per transaction, regardless of # of rentals. 1 time use of code only. Code valid at box only for a 1-day standard DVD, Blu-ray DiscTM, or video game rental. Code is not valid online, via app, or for prior rentals)

Weed out Wednesday

Sometimes you stumble upon a solution to a "house process" that really works. It doesn't need tweaking and you realize....this is it. I won't ever change it. That's how I feel about our donation box.
There is this narrow space between our basement steps and the wall. I got my hands on this tall skinny cardboard box and it fits perfectly there.

Whenever I decide something is donation- bound,  I immediately open the door to the basement and toss the item into the box. It's deep, it's dark and it's forgotten. When the box gets full, I just dump it out and begin itemizing the list so we can deduct it on the taxes.

Itemize and bag it up.  Easy Peezy.

It feels so good to see that bagged up and ready for the car.  Four grocery bags of stuff that will eventually show up in a new home for someone else to enjoy.  Where is your donation box?

I am not Cinderella

These babies sat on our street from Thursday to Monday.

Two oversized containers used for construction. They took up  5-6 parking spots.

The  sign ON THE CONTAINERS reads, "Do not place GARBAGE in the container."  The reason garbage should not be placed there is because they do not have lids. I repeat: NO LIDS.

And yet....there is what I have been looking at since Friday night.

Thank you so much for inviting every rat, possum, stray cat, bird and squirrel that lives in the entire city of Richmond to our street. 

I am not Cinderella, so I do not do mice and birds.

Let this be a lesson to everyone. Containerize appropriately.

9 to 5

My very overdue disclaimor:

I haven't been writing a lot lately.

That is because the primary way that I live consciously is that I go to work everyday.

And as of late, that job has been killing me.

Maybe one of these days, I can write regularly because I'll be a full time blogger.

But, I kinda doubt it.

Nonetheless, thank you for reading. It makes me happy.

Organizing baby

One of the perks of  writing a blog is the free stuff sent to you if you commit to reviewing a product. Recently, I was sent two products from PRK Products, Inc: the Universal Baby Food Jar Organizer and Universal Baby Bottle/Sippy Cup Organizer.

I'll start with the Baby Food Jar Organizer. I gotta say, the box is pretty convincing because the pictures on the box are fabulous. It boasts that it can store up to 16 jars of ALL stages of food.
I opened the box to find some assembly required, but for good reason. You can assemble your jar organizer to hold EITHER Stage 1 & 2 foods OR Stage 3. Pretty fabulous.

Those panels in the bag build the sides of the unit.

Here is a side view--it comes with those little feet that give it a slant, so the jars slide down, when you remove one.

Here is the look from my cabinet. Sorry, I have no baby so I have no jars.  My assessment---I love it.


Second item:  the Baby Bottle and Sippy Cup Organizer.  It is a two part deal, one basket to hold the nipples/tops etc as well as the actual bottle/cup holder. No assembly required for either.

I had one sippy cup leftover from my days as a foster parent and I tried it in the Sippy cup Organizer.
It didn't fit!! I was so surprised. And then, I realized....USER ERROR.

The unit actually expands depending on the size of your cups/bottle. I just had to push one button on the top of the unit and it released the unit to expand to the size I needed. Brilliant.  The box boasts that it is compatible with over 30 brands of bottles and cups. Again, no baby = no bottles. I'll take their word for it.

Here is a picture of the box, showing how the unit can fit in your fridge.

These products were apparently created by a mother of triplets. That is a good enough endorsement for me. All I can say is that I had every intention of giving this away to blog readers after I wrote about it, but I decided against it.

I am going to keep it and pray that one day I will have babies who  need a little organization.

Driest Summer on Record

Not to long ago, I posted this and encouraged you to "grow something and eat it".

I showed a picture of my dad's garden. He sent the data of what his garden yielded and I thought it was worth mentioning.  Here's a picture of the garden to jog your memory:




30 cabbage

353 Yellow Squash

50 Zucchini Squash

301 Cucumbers

27 Green Peppers

630 Tomatoes

94 lbs. of Green Beans

133 lbs. of Potatoes

540 ears of Corn

My dad ran some numbers, because he loves to run numbers, and estimated that the cost of buying those at your local supermarket would cost the customer about $1300.  The craziest part is that he and my mom harvested all of that but knew the garden could have given them so much more, if not for the fact that it was the driest summer on record in Roanoke, VA.

Although, something tells me they didn't go hungry this summer.

This week at the store

We left town for the holiday and so I just had to get a few things to us get through the week. This was a trip to Kroger and here's the breakdown:

-French's Spicy Mustard: Normally $1.99 but on sale for $.99. with a $.35 coupon that doubled, the mustard was $.29

-The Greek yogurt was $2.89 each, for a pack of 4. Saved $1.50 with a Kroger coupon. Since I had two of those, each four pack was $1.39.

-I saved $1.39 on the sausage combining a coupon with a store sale.

-The peanut butter was 50% off and I had a coupon that doubled.

-The provolone cheese and the peaches rounded out the purchase, with no coupons.

All in all it was a $9.29 savings, spending $10.02. Couponers have a reputation for buying a lot of processed foods, but I hope this reflects a different story. It's also a picture of what normal couponing typically looks like. Television shows lead you to believe that 90% savings is normal.  Saving 40-60% is fairly typical.

Happy Shopping!

Sweet Frog Vs. Yapple

There's a Martin's grocery store about a mile from my house. Directly across the street from Martin's is a Kroger. Directly to the left  of Martin's is another grocery store called Ellwood Thompson's. And just to round out the compass, a Fresh Market is currently being built behind the Martins. Yes. Four grocery stores in a 3 block radius. Wonder who will bite the dust first. I have a thought but will keep it to myself.

So, it only makes sense that in this same little section of town, the yogurt stores followed suit. Sweet Frog was built first and people come in droves. Pretty intimidating competition you would think...but apparently not for Yapple. They came to town a few months ago and moved in TWO doors down from the Sweet Frog. I rolled my house at the arrogance.

Until last Monday.

Last Monday, I was yelling "Whoo whoo Yapple!!!!"   I didn't eat at Yapple. I didn't even walk in it. But now, Sweet Frog has this sign hanging on the front of their store.  (Side bar-I make absolutely NO point if the following sign is on the store front of all  Sweet Frogs. I kind of don't think it is because it is not on their website; however, I've been wrong before.)

They have a deal EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Obviously, I thank Yapple for that.

I took that picture on a Monday afternoon when I walked into town to buy a birthday present for a friend. Little did I know that later that night, our friends Johnny and Joyce would surprise with a knock at the door and we would eventually end up at Sweet Frog. It was about 8pm that night and when we arrived, there was a Sweet Frog worker outside the store encouraging customers to spin a wheel to win certain prices. (Sorry no camera with me to show you). We all won something but my husband won a coupon for a free yogurt! Pair that with Double Punch Monday and we were set. (Did I mention that was dinner?)

I hope someone else builds another yogurt store in Carytown.

This week at the store

Periodically, Kroger has a a sale that turns out to be  worthwhile if you have some coupons to sweeten the deal. Kroger pre-selects items that you should buy in increments of ten (10). If you buy these selected items in increments of 10, you save $5.00 at checkout. ($.50 an item). I didn't take a picture of all my items because I was in a hurry to put lots of it in the refrigerator, but here is a sampling.

If I would have paid full price, it would have cost $23.72.  With coupons and the sale I paid $5.04.

Here's the breakdown:

The popcorn was $1.49 if you buy 10 of the participating items. But, I had coupons for $1.00 off two boxes, so each box was $.99
The freezer bags were $.99 if you buy 10 of the participating items. Again, I had a coupon for $1.00 off two, so each box was $.49
The zone bars were $1.00 each but I had coupons for each valued at $.55 so I paid $.45 for those.
The good and natural bars were free. The coupons were for free bars. The coupon credit was for $1.29 each but the bars were on sale for $.89. So, I made a  $.40 credit on each bar for buying those!

Coupons came from online coupon sites, the Sunday paper, a Kroger e-coupon and a coupon that Kroger sent us in the mail.


Hope you had a good week at the store!

Let my mom be the hero

My husband wears a suit and tie to work everyday. Wouldn't you complain?

He never does.

But I do.

About the dry cleaning bills.

It's ridiculous.

I asked my mom if she used to iron my dad's shirts when he wore a suit and tie to work everyday. Go figure, she did. Ugh. Yes, she worked full time as an oncology nurse (exhausting). Yes, she had dinner on the table at 5:30 every night. Yes, she raised two kids.

Then there's me, writing this blog about "living consciously" thinking-"If I didn't write this blog, I would have time to iron my husband's shirts and then I wouldn't complain about the dry cleaning bills. "

I'll let my mom be the hero. I'm going to keep writing and going to keep complaining.

But, I do try to do some things from time to time to help with that cost to our spending. I have this great blouse that says  "dry clean only".  "Dry clean only" -that's just a suggestion, right?  (One time, Bethany Frankel said about "suggested retail price"---that she had another suggestion. I died.)

Anywho.

The blouse needed a washing, so I found one of those lingerie bags in the laundry room. Put the blouse in the bag, set my machine to delicate and hung it up to dry.

And guess what...it was fine. Just fine.

 I won't be deceived by the tag. And most importantly, I won't iron and starch my husband's work shirts. I'll let my mom be the hero. She deserves it anyway.