I spent it all!

I couldn't help myself. I went back to WM yesterday and bought 3 more Tai Pei entrees. It was $4.24, leaving me with a whopping 13 cents at the end of the month.

I made it! I went from June 26 to July 31, spending no money out of pocket for groceries of any description. I used a $20 GC, $1.15 off of another GC, $ 18.99 ECBs, $16.50 RR, and as best as I can figure, $31.04 of rebates from prior grocery purchases.

The end of July came just in time. In another day or two, I would have had to buy cat food. Now, it will come out of the $50 budget for August. EEK! I don't even have a Q right now on the brand I always buy. I do not think variety is the spice of life for cats. In fact, change their feed, you change their bowel habits quite a bit. They need the same thing all the time. I have a big Q on some kind of premium feed from Petsmart. I may go over there and see how much it is. I'm not holding out much hope that it will be enough to make me change my cat's regular feed.

Stay with me through August and let's see if I can do it on $50 oop.

I received more rebate money today.

I received a $2.19 rebate today to go with the $2.18 I have left from the month. It looks like I'm going to end the challenge spending no money out of pocket and having $4.37 left over! I could go back to Wal-Mart and buy 3 more Tai Pei entrees. That would still leave me with a dime, I think. As a matter of fact, I'm eating one of those right now with a lovely glass of wine. Yes, it's the middle of the day, but, sometimes, I just deserve it! Actually, the wine is to put the fire out. These things are spicy.

Have you ever had to take a hard line with someone when it was to your own financial detriment? I work for several lawyers in town and get along with everyone, or, so I thought. One of my lawyers called me and chewed me a new one, all based on erroneous information. I went to her office and told her face to face that I would no longer work for her. There were several people present and it was not a pretty sight. She has exhibited a mercurial personality in the past, but, today was over the top. Actually, she's the reason I'm having a celebratory glass of wine in the middle of the day. I could use a few "high-fives" for taking up for myself so forcefully. I didn't say anything that I might later regret. I had 3 things to say, I said them, and I left. The secretary's mouth was hanging open when I walked by her. I know that it will be all over the courthouse by the time it opens in the morning. Big city, but, a small and gossip-y clique within the legal community.

Well, thanks for letting me take a hard left turn there. Just when you thought I was going to talk about my August challenge, I shift gears and tell that story!

Here's the challenge for August: I currently have $50 Rite Aid GC that was free, $53.85 CVS GC, also free. I will be receiving a $25 Walgreens GC soon, again free. All of those are in play as well as any rebates I receive during the month of August. I will budget $50 out of pocket. I must buy cat food and a few basics along the way. Fifty dollars! Gosh, that's nothin' when you go to the store!

Are you with me?

I almost blew it today.

As a rule, I do not shop at Wal-Mart. I went there today, mainly to look for a couple of items I had Qs for that I couldn't find anywhere else. I bought some things I really didn't need to buy; it's only carried at Wal-Mart and the Q had a long expiration date. I should have left them on the shelf, but, you all know the siren song of the Q, don't you? I was able to get 4 of the Tai Pei entrees and a bag of salad. I finally found the BUNdinos there and I wanted to use that Q and send off for the rebate. I was afraid I had blown my ZERO budget, having only $11.11 of rebate money left. The total was $8.93! Yea! I still have $2.18. I used more than $11 in Qs on that trip.

I was really curious about the BUNdinos, so, I had a couple of them for lunch. Be warned; it's all bread, hardly a spoonful of filling in each one. The box had 9 (they are about the size of a Bagel Bite), cost $1.98 and about all I got was bread. Your kids might go for them, mainly because they are so easy to prepare in the microwave. They are not made for toaster or conventional ovens, only microwave. All is not lost because I will get $1.98 back in the mail.

I only paid .18 for the bag of salad after Q. I needed it because I have a crap-load of tomatoes here. If I eat all the tomatoes, my dad thinks he hasn't been bringing me enough and doubles up. I like tomatoes, but, I don't want it every day!

Somehow, the temperature control in my refrigerator got turned up to "cold" and nearly everything in there froze. Two boiled eggs froze hard as rocks, my salad had icicles on the lettuce leaves, and my oranges froze solid. I'm worried about my fresh eggs. If they froze, I've lost a lot. I have 3 dozen eggs in the fridge. I think I may have knocked the control up when I made bread last week. I keep the flour in the refrigerator and it is up against the thermostat control. I probably jiggled the thing when I was putting the flour back in.

To recap:

Rebates used: $26.80
Free Bi-Lo card: 20.00
Free CVS card: $1.15

I have left: $2.18 in rebates

I just keep a running total of Qs used for the year. I don't break them down month to month, so, I cannot tell you how much in Qs I used in July. Suffice it to say that I didn't buy anything except a loaf of bread without a Q and it was on a special sale price. There's nothing I need in the next 2 days and I have already thrown away all my July expiring Qs, just so I wouldn't look at them and say, "Oh, poor baby, I can't throw you away. I'll have to take you to the store and use you." Don't laugh, you know the feeling. For the dedicated couponer, there is a gravitational pull to the store when you are holding them!

Tough decisions.

I have $11.11 left from my rebate money. I have several Tai Pei frozen entree Qs that expire Wednesday. I love that stuff. They don't have Qs in circulation often. I just have to make it through Friday. I'm out of milk. What to do? I guess I could do without milk until Saturday. I'm thinking of blowing the last of my rebate money on the Tai Pei. I'm going to have to make my move tomorrow. I really would have liked to have ended July with something still in my pocket. So far, I have used $17.84 of rebate money, $20 grocery GC, $1.15 CVS GC. I didn't really do as well as I had hoped for, but, still within the rules and certainly within reason. I don't know; I guess I'll sleep on it.

Ate a frozen, single serve entree for lunch. Just snacked instead of having dinner; Goldfish and coke, vanilla wafers w/ peanut butter and a glass of milk. It's a wonder my body hasn't completely rebelled against me for the way I mistreat myself.

She spins, she shoots, she scores!

Went to CVS today for the Coke 4/$11 deal. You can't do 8 at once; it starts charging full retail price with #5, so, my manager broke it up into 2 purchases for me. He had to use his card to override my 2nd purchase so that I would get them at the sale price. Anyway, the total for 8 was $22 + tax. I had $17.99 in ECBs, 4 $1 Qs of $1/2, for a total of 33 cents which went on my free CVS GC. Of that amount, one penny was coke and .32 was tax. The manager said, "I keep going to Barnes & Noble to look for your book." When I gave him a quizzical look, he said, "Well, you are going to write a book on using coupons, aren't you?"

There will be no cooking or real meal preparation here today. Baseball starts at 1pm and goes right through until evening, then, another game at 8pm. I'm in baseball heaven. There are 4 games on today. Unfortunately, 3 of them are on about the same time, so, there will be a lot of channel-flipping.

No spending, no cooking, no nothing today.

The good news is I didn't spend any money today. The bad news is I didn't cook a decent meal today. My dad helped me pull up all the carpet in my bedroom. I had moved all the furniture out yesterday and he helped with the biggest things going back in, but, I pretty much did it all myself. I got kind of shaky while we were working and I had a candy bar to "sugar me up." Later, after he was gone, I had a grilled cheese sandwich (remember all that free cheese? Gotta use it!) and then took a nap. It's way past dinner time and I'm feeling no hunger at all. I may try to eat some cheese and crackers later, just because I know I need to eat something decent today.

I live in a fairly small house, about 1250 sq. feet, and it was built in 1930. Now, in 1930, I don't believe closets had been invented! I have no closet in my bedrooms. I use rolling garment racks for my clothes. I never had any place to put my purses where I would see them and think to use a different one from time to time. So, today, I put up a bunch of those Command Strips on the wall. You know, it's the ones that come off cleanly and will not take the wallpaper off with them. So, now, I have all my purses on the walls. Surely, now, I can be a bit more color coordinated when I go out the door!

No spending today.

I have some of those $3/2 Head & Shoulders and I suspect that Wal-Mart has them at a price that will make them free. I have so far denied my urges to go look.

Lunch today was some of that beef stew I made about a month ago. I packed it in individual servings in the freezer. Makes it easy to have some on the spur of the moment. I had a lot of heavy lifting work to do around the house today, so, tonight was a lazy man's dinner; a frozen single-serve entree.

Tomorrow, I MUST eat salad. The salad is still fresh, but, my dad's tomatoes are getting too ripe. I know he throws away a lot of tomatoes in a season but I don't want to be the one to do it. There are a few other things in the fridge that need immediate attention or they'll have to be thrown out. I guess I'll forage in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I've got gobs of work to do tomorrow; I'm pulling up the carpet in my bedroom. That means all furniture, clothes, shoes, TV, etc. have to come out, then the carpet has to be pried up, rolled up, the padding needs all the tacks and staples pulled out, and then all the furniture, etc. needs to go back in. I'll be lucky if I have the energy to make a salad! I have 2 more rooms of carpet to come up, but, I just can't do it all in one day. I'll have to tackle them a few days apart.

I put all the cats outside yesterday. The little ones wouldn't leave the front steps and wouldn't even go in the basement this morning when I went down to feed them. I corralled them and took them inside the basement and showed them where the food and water was. I checked on them several times today; they were content to lie about in the basement. Miss Kitty, the one year old, really likes it outside quite a bit. She's more familiar with the basement and the window through which they can easily come and go. It's too small for a dog to get in the basement, so, they are safe. Well, as safe as they can be. I've trapped 3 raccoons in the basement in the past week. I use humane traps and my dad carries them off into the country and lets them out near a creek. It's probably 20 miles from here, so I know I'm not catching the same ones over and over. Since I started trapping them a few months ago, I've gotten a dozen. I think the kittens are smart enough to scurry out of the way if one comes in tonight. 'Coons can climb pretty well, but, I think my kittens are better at it. Besides, raccoons rarely kill other animals. They like easy food, like cat food in the dish! Then, if all goes well, they will go for the cat food in the trap.

I'm doing well on food and quite frankly, I can't think of a thing I need. I think I could go the rest of the month and not buy any. Oh, wait, I forgot about the cokes at CVS this Sunday. Gotta do that deal.