I have some shopping to "confess" to.

The whole point of my challenge is to live off stockpile for as long as possible and not add anything to it. On the other hand, the "art" of couponing is knowing when to jump on a deal when it's really great and it's something you'll definitely use. I used a CVS ECB yesterday to buy the L'Oreal Revitalift (O.K., I admit it, I need some wrinkle helper!) and paid the difference with a free GC. I got an ECB back of $11.99, so, I did O.K. there. I had to have milk and I had no Q for that; however, I found my Lactaid .69 off regular price yesterday and had a free GC to pay for it. Today, I bought 2 of the Joy for .99 ea. at Walgreens w/ (2) .30 Qs. I had a few cents left on 2 free GC, but, ended up paying out of pocket .64. I bought the 7Up on sale at Rite Aid and used a free GC for that. I think I have $2.20 left on that GC and that's what I bought 20 boxes of cereal with a few weeks ago. I had to have coffee cream, so, I stopped at the store and got 2, used Qs, and used a free GC. Now, my biggest "sin," if you will. Food Lion had my favorite single serve Stouffer's entrees 1/2 price just for yesterday and today. I had a $1/3 Q, so I bought 3 boxes of lasagna. That total was $4.14, all oop. So, I am now $8.98 over budget for the month and have used up about all of my free GC.

It was really a good thing that I shopped at Rite Aid today. There's a special promotion going on now where you get $30 GC for each of up to 4 prescriptions you transfer there and the Qs are good through November. I think you can only get a GC once every six months or something like that, so, by November, I will be eligible again to transfer and get the GC. I actually have 2 prescriptions that I have to pay for. All my other meds are covered under Medicare Part D and they are not eligible for the GC deal. I've got to really read the "fine print" on the offer, and , boy is it small print!

Looking back over the shopping I've done for these two days, I guess I really could have done without the L'Oreal and the Joy, but, they were both such good deals that I just couldn't resist. The rest that I bought are "real" groceries that get used up pretty fast. Please forgive me that I've now gone almost $9 over budget for the month. I did really well in July and August, so, I kind of expected things to not work out quite as well this month, although I worked really hard to stay "inside the lines."

I've eaten meatloaf and veggies for 3 straight nights. There's one mini-loaf left and I'm sorry, but, it's going outside to the cats. I just can't face it again tonight. Over those 3 nights, though, I have used up quite a few things in stockpile; the peas, brocolli, mashed potatoes, applesauce, and rolls. Oh, yeah, let's not forget that Key lime cheesecake. I'm still working on that bad boy.

Today and tonight are baseball games on several channels. I doubt that I will do anything in the kitchen today other than nuke a single serve entree between innings. I suppose I should take some chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow night. Umm, just not sure about that yet.

Just to keep up, here's a recap of what I have left to "spend" this month:

Money: -0-
CVS GC: 3.62
CVS ECB: 11.99
RA GC: 2.20
Bi-Lo GC: 5.10

I have a $25 CVS GC "on the way" from MyPoints, whenever that shows up.

Thank goodness there is only 9 days left in the month!