Doing well

I had a pretty successful first week back in the saddle. Tomorrow is my WI day, and as of today, I am down quite a bit. That will be skewed a bit though by the fact that I have been really sick the past few days. I went to the doctor & she said I have severe tonsillitis, and along with that, the infection has spread in my mouth and it is FULL of horrible, painful, wouldn't-wish-them-on-my-enemy canker sores. I literally probably have 30 of them between the 2 dozen or so that are on my tongue, a couple inside my lips, several on my cheeks, and several on the roof of my mouth. The pain is HORRIBLE, which makes eating, drinking, or talking damn near impossible. I have missed 2 days of work b/c of my sickness, and I am probably going to miss a 3rd tomorrow. A good portion of my job requires talking to patients, and as it is, I can't even communicate effectively for a few seconds w/o terrible pain, so doing it for the better part of my day is just not happening. I've been really trying to push fluids, but it is definately a struggle. I am STARVING, but am totally unable to eat anything. All I've had today is a vanilla milkshake. And while I realize that's not the healthiest thing I could have eaten, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Yesterday I was able to eat some soup, but today that's about impossible. The broth burns from the salt (even watered way down), and even over-cooking the noodles to make them softer is impossible for me to chew. I've tried yogurt & pudding, but they both burned my sores... so, now I'm sipping on some warm tea.

This weekend Eddie & I did really well. Weekends are tough for us & we usually eat out probably at least 3 times. My goal for us this weekend was to only eat out once, and with the exception of a banana shake on Sunday (since I was sick & couldn't eat solid stuff by that point), we stuck to it! Here's to another good week (and fingers crossed that the brown team goes away on the BL, they irritated the shit out of me!)

Healthy on a budget

Well folks, today was day one (again) back on the wagon that has thrown me off time & time again... My goal for this week was no fast food & no non-diet pop. Today went pretty well. Breakfast was yogurt w/granola, snack was a fiber one bar, lunch was a smart ones, dinner was 6 chicken "fries" and a big salad, and after dinner dessert was chocolate ice cream (it was the last of it in the house, thankfully!)

I went grocery shopping today. In the past when I've done WW and tried to eat healthy, I cringed every time I had to go to the store b/c I was always spending at least $75 every 2 weeks on groceries. Today though, today was different! I shopped all the store ads, then decided I was going to mainly go to walmart (a rarity lately, actually) and make a quick stop by meijer afterwards. I planned my meals for the next couple weeks based on what I had at home and what I had coupons for. I decided my budget would be $35.

And here's how I did:
3 packages of Birds Eye steamers veggies $1.25 each ($1/3 coupon)
Progresso chicken broth (found this on the clearance shelf) $1.20 ($1.25/1 coupon=free!)
Minute Rice $1.92 ($.40 coupon)
3 Lean Cuisines @ $1.88 each ($1.50/3 coupon)
Special K bars $2.50 ($1 coupon)
3 cans Veg All canned veggies (also found on the clearance shelf) $.50/can ($1/3 coupon)
Simply Harvest light soup 2 cans @ $1.25/can ($1/2 coupon)
Can Hormel chicken $1.43 ($.35 coupon)
Pillsbury pizza crust $2.16 ($1.10 coupon)
Pillsbury crescent rolls $1.26 ($1 coupon)
Arm & Hammer cat litter $5.96 ($1 coupon)
Purina cat chow $4.18 ($4 coupon)
Amish noodles $1.16
Flour tortillas $1.14
FF turkey lunchmeat $3.00
Skim milk $1.82
Bananas $.92
TOTAL: $29.62

Meijer:
Kraft mac & cheese buy 3 get 3 free @ $.74/box
Bread $1.29
Dole salad mix BOGO @ $1.99/bag
Tyson chicken strips $2.50 ($1 coupon)
TOTAL: $7.08

GRAND TOTAL: $36.70 ($1.70 over budget)

I went in with a grocery list, and I ended up having to make some modifications to it b/c they didn't have some things on my list, and I forgot to put some essentials (like milk) on there. I think that $36 for 2 weeks of groceries, INCLUDING cat food & litter, is pretty damn good! I'm proud! Planning pays off!

Time?

So I'm supposing that it's time to get my ass in gear... again. I'm begrudgingly telling myself that it's grossly inappropriate to watch The Biggest Loser while eating double fudge brownie ice cream two weeks in a row.

CVS Deals 9/15/08

So you know you're a cheapskate when you debate with the cashier over a dollar... Here's what happened: I wanted to get the Aleve D ecbs this week... well, that has to be purchased in the pharmacy b/c it's behind the counter. Apparently the pharmacy techs aren't as well-versed in the CVS-ing as the regular cashiers are... First the tech tried to tell me that the Aleve was $10.99, and I had to tell her "no, it's on sale for $3.99". Then she tells me I can't use my BOGO Glade coupon b/c the product is on sale... which I knew wasn't accurate, so she finally rang it thru. Then she rings everything up, and tells me that my total is $10-something... when I knew it should have been $1.85+tax. So finally that gets sorted out. Then I'm on my way out & notice my $3 Aleve ECBs weren't on my receipt... so I looked, and she gave me the 20 ct Aleve D instead of the 10 ct. They ring up for the same price, but the 20 ct doesn't give you the ecb deal... so I had to make a return... it should have been an even exchange, but due to them having to do a return & then ring up the aleve again, I ended up getting jipped by $1. I tried pleading my case, but was getting nowhere, and the pharmacy was busy, so I just sucked it up & paid the extra buck... I still did good for only spending $3.05 this week... here's what I got:

So it's a little blurry b/c it was taken with my phone, but you get the idea! Here are my transactions:

Transaction #1

Aleve D (20 ct in error): $3.99

Excedrin $3.99

2 Glade Sprays @ $.99: $1.98

Powerade: $.88

Total: $10.84

Use $2/$10 CVS coupon from magic coupon machine

$1/1 Aleve coupon

$2/1 Excedrin coupon (cashier didn't notice this was for the wrong Excedrin product... but it scanned!)

BOGO glade coupon

Use $3 ECB from last week

Total OOP: $1.85 + tax = $2.00 (Earn $3.99 ECB & then noticed I didn't earn $3 ECB for Aleve...)

Transaction #2

Had to return the 20 ct Aleve D b/c what I really needed was the 10 ct. They returned $2.02 to me as the adjusted cost with coupons

Transaction #3

I then got the correct Aleve. There was a $1 off coupon taped to the box, which he scanned then never removed, so at least I got an extra coupon outta the deal...

Aleve D 10 ct: $3.99 (earn $3 ECBs)

Total: $3.99

Use $1/1 Aleve coupon

Total OOP: $3.03 & Earn $3 ECB (after the fact I realized I had $2 ECB that I could have used for this transaction, but was so flustered that I forgot!)

Transaction #4

Lipton 100 ct: $3

30 oz Mayo: $3

2 Skippy Peanut Butter & 1 Ragu pasta sauce: 3/$5

Total: $11.00

Use $2/$10 CVS printable

Use $.50/1 Lipton coupon

Use $.50/1 Mayo coupon

Use $1/2 Skippy coupon

Use $3 & $3.99 ECBs from earlier transactions

Total OOP: $0.01 + tax = $0.04 (earn $3 ECBs)

Started the week with $5 ECBs, Ended the week with $5 ECBs. Spent $3.05 OOP this week.

My CVS Savings 8/7-8/13

Not a huge week for me b/c there's not much I'm interested in this week, but I started this week with $5.99 ECBs from last week, and I spent $2.40 OOP & earned $5 ECBs. I only did 1 transaction this week b/c there weren't a lot of deals I was interested in, but I did get a couple things I needed for really cheap! Here's my transaction:

I bought:
2 cans CVS peanuts @$1.99 each ($3.98)
2 Aussie shampoo/conditioner @$2.49 each ($4.98)
1 bag Chex Mix @$1.00 ($1.00)
1 Revlon Nail Polish @$3.99 ($3.99)
1 3-pack CVS paper towels @$1.99 ($1.99)

Total before coupons: $15.94+tax

I used:
$2/$10 CVS printable
$2/2 CVS nuts coupon from magic CVS machine
$2/2 Aussie products from yesterday's paper
$0.60/1 Chex printable
$1/1 CVS paper towels from magic CVS machine
$5.99 ECBs from last week

Total savings: $13.59

OOP this week: $2.40
Earned: $2 ECB from Aussie products & $3 ECB from Revlon nail polish

Free All You Trial

Perhaps this is something that you've been able to get for awhile, but it's news to me...

Walmart puts out a magazine called All You that's chock full of coupons... in searching thru this month's issue for new coupons, I noticed a little blurb about getting 2 free issues by going to http://www.blogger.com/www.allyou.com and requesting the free trial.

Fill in your name/address, then check the "Bill Me" option. Really what this is doing is signing you up with a 12-issue subscription, but the fine print states that you can cancel at any time, simply by writing "CANCEL" on the bill when you receive it and sending it back, while keeping your trial issues. So, get your 2 free issues, send the bill back, and you'll get a couple month's coupons for free!

CVS Deals 8/31-9/6

This was a pretty good week for me... I started the week with $4.49 in ECBs ($3 & $1.49) and I spent $1.75 OOP and ended with $5.99 in ECBs. Here's how I did it:

Transaction #1
3 cans pringles @ $.88=$2.64
1 Dawn @ $.99
1 Colgate @ $2.99 (earn $2 ECB)
2 Cover Girl Lip Color BOGO=2/$9.99
Total before coupons $16.61

Coupons used:
$2/$10 CVS printable
$.30/3 Pringles
$.50/1 Dawn
$1.50/1 Colgate printable
BOGO Cover Girl lip color coupon (-$9.99)
$1.49 ECB
Total Coupon Savings: $15.78
Difference: $.83 + Tax = $1.67 OOP & $2.00 ECB Earned

Transaction #2
Cover Girl Wetslicks $5.99 (Earn $5.99 ECB)
Total before coupons: $5.99

Coupons Used:
$1 Cover Girl coupon
$3 old ECB
$2 ECB earned on last transaction
Total Coupon Savings: $6.00
Difference: Overage of $.01 + Tax = $.08 OOP & $5.99 ECB Earned