What Was I Thinking?

I can get all the Kraft Mac & Cheese and Poland Spring water from CVS that I want; I have oodles of gift card money! That makes it free! I keep forgetting that I have "free" money at CVS and Rite Aid. For some reason, Rite Aid never has anything that excites me. I guess I'm just so spoiled with the CVS deals, I can't be persuaded to go anywhere else. Since Walgreens stopped their EasySaver checks, I'm pretty much done with them.

Let's Review The Numbers And See Where I Stand

I was trying very hard to keep May's spending down to $80.00. I almost made it. After subtracting a small amount of rebates for the month, I spent $84.41. I don't keep my coupon use by month; it's cumulative throughout the year. Here's how it stands right now:

Cash outlay: $772.21
Rebates: 137.71

Total OOP: $634.50
Total discounts, coupons, store card savings, etc. $2,015.02 (77.25% coupon use)

Well, I'm a bit over right now if I want to make goal by the end of the year. I think I can do better, however. I've just got to stop looking at the CVS and Walgreens flyers! I did happen to notice that CVS has a pretty good price on Kraft Mac & Cheese and I think I still have a couple of B3G1F Qs. There's also the 3 litre Poland Spring water for $1 a jug. I won a reusable water bottle from a sweepstakes and I think I may go to buying the large jugs of water and trying to use the refillable bottle more and hopefully, do my part in conserving resources by not buying and throwing away so many plastic bottles.

I hate to tell you, but, I bought something yesterday at full price without a Q. I was out of town and happened to have a micro and fridge in the room. Instead of going out for dinner and spending $20, thereby blowing my monthly restaurant costs out the roof), I went to the grocery and bought a frozen lasagna for about $3. I couldn't find anything any cheaper, but, I'd rather go over my food budget by $4 than to go over my restaurant budget by $20.

No More Tacos For A Long Time!

I think I've burned out completely on tacos. I kept having to open a new box of shells to go with the leftover meat and making more seasoned meat to go with the leftover shells. I finally got the shells and meat to work out today. I don't mind throwing the lettuce away. I really don't enjoy salad all that much.

I accidentally turned the temperature way down in my fridge and froze a dozen eggs. How do I know this? I tried to crack one for breakfast and found that it was as hard as a stone. Wonder if I leave them out overnight, will they thaw? And, will they be any good after that?

I had a dozen lbs. of bacon in my dad's freezer a while back. Got it BOGOF and double Qs. Sweet deal. I didn't have room for them, so, I left them in his freezer. Since he's been diagnosed with cancer, one of the few things he can eat is bacon and eggs. The bacon is all gone, so, that should take care of a great portion of my "3-a-day" stockpile use. The taco shells and envelopes of meat seasoning should take care of the rest for a while! Does giving stuff away count towards my "3-a-day?" If so, I just took care of two days this morning. I gave 6 stockpile items to my parents. I guess it doesn't really matter how I get rid of it, just so I'm using it and not bringing in more.

I'm happy to report that I've kept my spending at about $82 this month. I will give totals in a couple of days. I got a real boost by being able to acquire several $3.50 Qs on Purina Cat Chow. Target had them for $3.99, so, I paid, with tax, about .86 for each bag of 3.5 lbs. Not great, but, I'll take it. There are, by the way, more cats in my yard than I've ever seen in one place before. And you know what? They are all welcome.

I wish I could feed as many people as I do cats. It's a crying shame that in a country as rich as ours, many people go hungry every day. A lot of kids. They can't do for themselves, they depend on a parent to provide for them, and it's just not happening. It's a national disgrace.

Even though my dad is very ill, he is insisting that I continue with my summer vacation plans. In fact, when I said I'd cancel, he yelled at me, "DON'T YOU DARE!" So, I will be gone from June 27-July 7. I'm going to a sweepstakes convention in New Hampshire. Now, I have only been north of the Mason-Dixon line once in my life, and that was on business. I'm not quite sure what to expect in New England. I like to think that I'm pretty flexible, and if people make fun of my accent, well, that's O.K., too. Rest assured that I will be taking Qs for free cokes and snacks. I won't be the boon to their local economy as they had hoped!

More Kraft BBQ Sauce

I couldn't help myself. I went back to the store this morning and did it again. Over the past few days, I have bought 22 bottles for a total of $2.08, getting back $11.00 in OYNO. When are they going to stop paying me to take it home? I used the OYNO for 5 lbs. of ground chuck. I just finished browning it all, putting it up into 8 vacuum-sealed bags. I'm thinking more tacos since I have so much lettuce, sauce, cheese, and sour cream still in the fridge. The taco thing could go on forever. The amount of seasoned meat never matches the number of taco shells in a package. So, you end up making more meat sauce for the rest of the taco shells, or you have seasoned meat left over and you open another box of taco shells. The rest of the stuff never evens out, either. It takes a whole lotta tacos to use a head of lettuce.

I've got about $3 left to spend this month. Tomorrow, for sure (because I'm almost out) I will go to Target and get cat food. Qs exp 5/27, so, I'm up against the clock in two ways.

Darn, darn, darn! The rain is moving in today for the next several days, just in time for Memorial Day festivities to be disrupted. My friends are in St. Marrten/St. Martin (I don't know if they are on the Dutch side or the French side), so, I'm sure they will have a fabulous holiday no matter the weather.

Did you know that Disneyworld (and I think Disneyland, too) are giving away a free one-day pass to everyone who asks for their birthday? It has to be used on your exact birthday. My birthday is a few days before Christmas and Orlando would be nice that time of year, compared to what I would have at home. I'm thinking seriously of a trip to Epcot Center in December. I don't know the link, but, I'm sure if you google "free birthday pass at Disneyworld" or something like that, you can find it. I'm actually probably too old for Disneyworld, but, I've never been. Never had children, so, never had grandchildren. No reason to go until now...FREE!

I Can't Get Off The BBQ Sauce Merry-Go-Round!

Go ahead, readers, just shoot me and put me out of my misery. I had to go to the store again today and buy 5 more bottles of BBQ sauce. They are .74 ea. and they all had a .35 peelie on them and this is a double coupon store. As you can see, I spent a few pennies for these 5 bottles and received a $2.50 OYNO. I wish the ones with peelies would disappear so I wouldn't keep doing this! All totalled today, I took home about $46 worth of groceries for $7.47 and still have the $2.50 OYNO. Ground chuck was on sale and that's one thing I'm completely out of. I had $7 in Qs on any meat, so I got 4 lbs. for just a few cents. I'm thinking of browning all of it and putting about 1/2 lb. in each bag. I have one of those vacuum gadgets, so, keeping it in the freezer for a while will work out well for me. It's a great way to throw together a taco or burrito dinner or make some spaghetti with meat. If it were winter, I'd mention chili, but, I just don't eat chili in summer. Besides, I have 2 dozen cans of chili that were obtained either free or for just a few pennies each.

I've come down with the worst summer affliction; poison oak. Instead of rushing to the store to buy Benadryl lotion, I hit my dad up for his bottle. No sense buying it when he's willing to share.

Oh, I came up with a great way to get rid of some of all that salad dressing I got nearly free last week. My dad likes a baked potato slathered in ranch dressing. That dressing is high in fat and calories which is exactly what he needs right now. I'm trying to help him keep his weight up.

Well, here it is Saturday afternoon and I have just finished sorting, filing, and inputting all my Qs in the HCW database for trading. Thank goodness I got it done today. I hate to start off with new inserts on Sunday with a backlog of work still to do.

I'm feeling optimistic about my spending this month. As I told you last month, I need to cut back to $80 a month to make goal this year. I'm at $77 right now and there's only a week left. I will probably go over by a few dollars because I have to buy cat food tomorrow, but, I have great Qs and the food is (I hope still) $3.89 a bag at Target. And, no, I will not consider going to WM for it. I don't care if they are giving it away. The cashiers at WM all act like their heads will explode when you hand over Qs. I had one cashier make me wait for 5 minutes while she went to find a supervisor just to get permission to scan my Qs. That was so ridiculous I would have laughed had I not been fuming so much. I wrote the store manager about it, never got a reply. Then, I contacted corporate; still no reply. I can only surmise that WM doesn't really care if I come back or not, that there are millions who will take my place.

Am I A Winner Or A Loser?

I may as well stop saying that I'm not stockpiling. The siren song of the Q drove me to go to the store this morning. In that vein, I'm a loser. I'm not doing what I set out to do. I'm a winner, though, in the deal I did at the store this morning. I bought 12 bottles of Kraft BBQ sauce, spent actual $1.48 and received $6 in OYNO. I gave my dad 2 bottles, so, I'm 2/3 of the way to using my "3-a-day" from stockpile.

I do have to buy fresh foods and dairy from time to time. My store had a great deal on different Kraft cheeses. Here's how well I did; (2) bags of shredded cheese, (2) 8 oz. bricks of cheddar cheese, (4) packages of Kraft singles, for a grand total of $6.07. Oh, no! What have I done? More grilled cheese sandwiches?

I noticed that the Kraft 2% milk cheese bricks have been downsized to 7 oz. I expect to see the regular cheese to downsize when the current shelf supply runs out.

Hah! I CAN do it!

Smart Source put out the Kraft printables yesterday or thereabouts. I now have scads more BBQ sauce and salad dressing Qs, but, I AM NOT GOING TO USE THEM!!! Today's the last day of the BOGOF sale at my store and I've deliberately filled up my day so that I have no time to go to cash them in. I've got to show a little constraint, right? Anyway, I don't eat that much salad. My dad likes ranch dressing on a baked potato, so, I loaded him up with ranch dressing. It's loaded with calories; I didn't go for the "lite" or "free" versions of Kraft. Oh, no, I went with the really fat stuff. It's important to keep his weight up. You know, a lot of cancer patients don't die from the cancer; they starve to death. I'm not going to let that happen to my dad. If he keeps his weight up, he has a real fighting chance with this thing.

I guess you know that I'm really tired of tacos by now. Had 2 more last night for dinner. The lettuce is growing exponentially and there's no bottom to the sour cream container! I think tonight will be a loaded baked potato. I'm little; I can slather on the butter and sour cream and not worry about it. Of course, that won't be using up any stockpile items. I guess the "3-a-day" rule is not working out so well. I did, however, score a 5 lb. bag of potatoes at 1/2 price yesterday. I can't believe the cost of potatoes; there were 10 potatoes in the bag for $1.99, so, 20 cents each potato. When I buy just one baking potato from the loose potato bin, they are about $1.25 each. EACH!! They ought to be made of 18 karat gold for that price.

As often as I am in a grocery store, I should not be suffering such sticker shock, but, don't these things sneak up on us? The worst part of the store, in my humble opinion, is the coffee aisle. There's hardly any "plain" brands of coffee anymore. At my store, it's all premium brands, the bags are only 8-10 oz. each, and are very high priced. I quit my Gevalia membership because it was so expensive, but, compare your local store's coffee prices, you'll see that Gevalia is not that extravagant after all. Thankfully, I have a year's worth of coffee stockpiled. I don't even have to look when I'm in the store.

Have you ever walked out of a movie before the end? I have done that only once and it was Ferris Buehler's Day Off, or something like that. I managed to stay for about 20 minutes before I bolted. I subscribe to Netflix (not because I like to watch movies so much, but, it was to get 4,000 United Airlines miles) and was watching "Unforgiven" today. Now, I'm an old lady and I think Clint Eastwood is a hunk even in his 70's, but, I shut the movie off about 3/4 through. There were scenes that were just so violent that I was totally turned off. I have no idea if Clint lived or died, or what happened to his little kids he left alone at home. I just couldn't watch any more of it. If anybody wants to tell me how it ended, I'm open to that. I'm just not going to watch it.

Well, I'm going to try not to break my arm by patting myself on the back for staying away from the grocery today. If my typing looks funny in the next few days, you'll know my arm's in a sling!

I Failed Miserably!

I know, I said I wasn't going to do any of the Kraft deals that were so inviting this week. Well, I fell flat on my face over that one. I just couldn't leave 44-cent bottles of salad dressing and free BBQ sauce sitting on the shelves. I also found a great deal on Kraft Mac & Cheese and received a $2 OYNO for my efforts. I only spent $10 and had about $37 in Qs and store card savings. That's a great percentage, but, I said I wasn't going to do it and then I did it anyway. I really need to reach down deep and find some willpower.

I am going to share quite a bit of the salad dressing with my dad. Hmm, if I give it away, does that count toward my "3-a-day" usage from stockpile? If it does, then, I'm caught up for a while since I took all those toiletry items to the rescue mission last month.

"Taco Day" At My House

I have literally a box full of Mexican foods, including taco shells, taco seasoning envelopes, jars of salsa, burrito sauce, jarred cheese for queso dip. You name it, I've got it. Well, I don't use it very often because you have to make so much and do so much just to make tacos and I cannot possibly eat enough to justify the trouble. Yesterday, I decided that I would pick through the box and pick out my 3 stockpile items of the day. The box has 10 tacos, but, I only took out 5 and put the others in a zip bag. I cooked the beef, I actually went to the store to get lettuce, cheese, and sour cream to do it up right. Anyway, I put all this together and could only eat 2 tacos. Several hours later, I ate 3 more. There's still a ton of stuff in the fridge and I guess tomorrow will be another full day of tacos! I just can't do it two days in a row.

This typifies the biggest reason why I can't, or don't, use up my stockpile as efficiently as I should; I just have to make too much food at one time. It's just me and after having gastric bypass surgery several years ago, I can only eat small amounts at a time.

I've made it a 1/3 of the way through the month and have spent less than $20 on groceries so far, but, I've used about $75 in Qs. I was lucky enough to be able to trade for some $3.50 Purina Qs lately, so, cat food will not take such a big bite out of my budget this month. Well, I don't know about that. There are at least a half dozen "new" cats at my house. There's a huge Siamese tom hanging around. He hisses at me from time to time and I remind him who fills the feed bowl! The tom from next door has decided that he likes my house better now. There's a manx under the house (having babies?), other females showing up. Maybe they have a litter in the woods behind the house and are coming for a good meal from time to time. Who knows? All those cats are in addition to my five. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a sucker for cats. I can't help it.

I suppose most of you who would be reading a blog like this knows about, and participates in, the MyCokeRewards program. When it first started, I was redeeming all I could for Delta SkyMiles, but, that didn't last long. I also had the opportunity to get some Priority Club points before those disappeared, too. At any rate, I was looking at MCR to get travel-related points and miles. Those are all gone, so, I'm now redeeming for the free 12-packs when I can. Have any of you been able to redeem for something you really wanted or get disappointed because the item disappeared by the time you had enough points? Since the beginning of the program, there have been end dates posted, but, the program has been extended twice. They say it's going to end November 30, 2009. Well, you cannot enter any more codes after that date. You have until the end of December to redeem. If this is really going to be the end, I guess I'll be swimming in cokes!

The Great Coca-Cola Deal

CVS has a fairly good deal on 12-pack cokes this week; buy $20 worth (@ $4 ea.) and get a $10 ECB back. I had 2 free Qs and 3 $1 Qs, plus, I had $7 in ECB to go toward this deal. I bought 5 of the 12-packs for a total of $20 + tax (yes, we pay tax on food here), used all my Qs, and ended up with a total of $2.70 which I paid with a free GC. I then received $10 ECB. Well, yeah, I hear your question and the answer is, yes, I drink too many cokes! Seriously, though, when's the last time a store paid you to take home that much coke product?

I confess I have not been eating well lately. It just seems to be too much trouble. That said, I've kind of fallen down on my goal of using 3 stockpile items every day. I was out of town for a couple of days, so, that interfered with using up stockpile. I'm about out of Michael Angelo's single serve entrees (there was a time that I thought they would last forever!), so, I'm going to have to get off my butt and start cooking. I made some stir-fry veggies in a sesame ginger sauce with rice. Of course, I made a ton. Andra told me that it would freeze well, and sure enough, she was right...again. People, if you ever need to know anything about cooking, ask Andra over at HCW. She's a genius in the kitchen. Anyway, I froze the rest of the food in single serve portions and have been enjoying that off and on for a few days.

On a separate note, my dad is holding his own. His cancer tumor has not shrunk any, but, also has not grown any. He is continuing chemo and we will find out this Friday what the next step will be.