I've gotten some rebates lately.

So far this month, I have received $9.77 in rebates. I started the month with $60.76, I believe. For all purchases, including cat food, I have only spent $16.03 this month. It looks like I am in pretty good shape right now. I did use the rest of my Bi-Lo GC and I used an ECB of $11.99, but, I got back $23.50 in ECB, and have used a couple of dollars on my CVS GC.

I'm struggling over a dilemna; Bi-Lo has the Green Giant boxed veggies for $1 a box this week. With Qs, that would make them .50 per box and I could get 10. I'm torn because this whole challenge is to see how far my stockpile will take me, on the other hand, .50 GG veggies is pretty hard to walk away from. I think the regular price is something like $1.79 now. Here's the other problem; knowing that I could have had them for .50 each means that I would NEVER pay full price for them, even if I was completely out! I have a few days to think it over. Right now I'm leaning toward doing the deal. I have $54 to work with as of today.

Have you heard about the promotion from Eight O'Clock coffee called Accumul8? You join up and then enter the info off of your bag of coffee to earn points. I wish I'd known about this a long time ago. I shudder to think how many bags have gone in the garbage. Anyway, with 2,500 points you can get a $25 Visa GC. Each code is worth 140 points and if your code doesn't have all the required information, you can mail it in and they will send you a special code for redemption. I've had to do that because some of my coffee bags have been in the house 2 years or more and back then they weren't coded with all the information they have on them today. With only 700 points, you can get a special coffee mug and a Q for a free bag of coffee. If you drink coffee, it's a pretty good promotion.

As I expected, dinner last night was a repeat of the night before. That's O.K. I really don't mind doing that once in a while. Oh, the coconut cream pie? I still had 1/2 of it and my dad came by for something. I sent it home with him. I talked to him a couple of hours later and asked him if he'd tasted the pie. He said that between him and his wife, the pie was already gone! I guess that means I am free to make the pineapple upside down cake today. I have some leftover crushed pineapple from the chicken dish a few nights ago. I wonder if I would ruin the cake if I added a small amount of crushed pineapple to the batter? Does anyone have any thoughts on that?

Give me a hand. I'm using up a lot of stockpile.

I usually tell you about my dinners that I make from stockpile items, but, there's several eating events throughout the day when I also use stockpile. I've been making tuna and egg salad for sandwiches for a few days. I have plenty of eggs from the last big sale and tuna like you wouldn't believe on the shelf. Of course, there's cereal for breakfast (I don't really want to think about those 20 boxes I bought recently), sandwich stuff for lunch and soft drinks and tea to drink all day. Tonight, I was going to make a veggie dinner, but, at the last minute decided to fry some bacon and put it in the baked beans. I had that, peas, mac & cheese, applesauce, and some of yesterday's coconut cream pie. I took quite a bit next door before I ate. I also made some killer corn muffins. Um, so sweet and crunchy. I use Miracle Maize Sweet Cornbread Mix. I always have a good Q for that; the only bad thing about it is that I can only find it at Wal-Mart and I HATE WAL-MART!!! The cashiers' heads always explode when I have Qs. I had one recently to leave me at the register for 5 minutes while she ran down someone to allow her to try to scan my Qs. I guess when you pay peanuts, you only get monkeys to work for you.

I made a chicken dish last night with pineapples and soy sauce, used a little cornstarch to thicken the sauce, and served over a bed of rice. I'll bet I have 50 pounds of rice in my house. You know, I could try a rice pudding. I've never done that.

I don't always have to have meat for dinner. I am just as happy with a complete veggie meal. Don't misunderstand; I'm not a vegitarian. I just don't think it's not a meal without meat.

I feel like I am doing really well using stockpile items. I think I mentioned that my "kids," my niece, nephews, and families, are all getting file boxes full of useful stuff out of stockpile. I think I used about $600 worth and you can't see in my house where anything is missing. As far as I can remember, the only "food" I have purchased this month is a loaf of bread and a half gallon of milk. Everything else I've had for this first week of the month is out of stockpile.

I only buy skim milk to drink and sometimes that doesn't work too well in recipes. It occurred to me the other day to use a can of evaporated milk when a recipe called for milk. I have plenty of that and it's a small enough amount that I can use it all within 2 or 3 days.

I fear tomorrow night's dinner will be a repeat of sorts. I have plenty of mac & cheese and peas left, so, I'll ramble around in the pantry to find a couple of more things to add to it for dinner. I see a tuna sandwich in my near future, too. I absolutely will not eat tuna that's been in the fridge for more than four days. It's not worth the risk.

I wanted to make a pineapple upside down cake today. I have everything for it except the cherries and I don't think I'll miss them, but, I'm still working on that coconut cream pie from yesterday. I guess I'll put the pineapple on hold for a couple of days.

I was looking around the washing machine today and I believe I have enough detergent and softener to last about 8 months. I have several bottles of bleach and I don't use it too often . I never use it for household cleaning, although I know many people do. The cats are set for at least a couple of weeks. Everything seems to be under control.

I promise to "confess" when I shop. I won't hide anything from you. Thankfully, I have several bags of Dove Promise chocolate candy, so, I won't have to sneak out and buy any. I'll tell you what's really a good, no, great, chocolate, and that is Hershey's Bliss. As the CVS manager said, "Don't waste that candy on kids. That's grown-up candy."

Romano's Macaroni Grill Boxed Dinner Kit

Many of you received one of these in the mail. I prepared it yesterday. My advise; if you didn't receive one free, don't run out and buy it. It was terribly disappointing. Maybe it's just me. I prefer a marinara sauce over pasta; however, everything was out of stockpile, so, mission accomplished.

I found a boxed mix for coconut cream pie in the pantry. I whipped that up a little while ago and put in the fridge. I'm still working on all that free cheese from August. Yes, another grilled cheese sandwich today! I am also in the process of making some tuna salad for sandwiches. I have everything on hand for that, as well.

I have some boneless, skinless chicken breasts thawing in the fridge. I'm not sure what to do with it tonight, but, I'm thinking about something with soy sauce and pinapples over rice. I have everything on hand to do that and add a veggie or two.

In the past couple of weeks or so, I've used several packages of Pillsbury crescent rolls and also their cinnamon rolls. They've been in the fridge for a good while and I guess I need to use it or lose it.

I think I've been doing pretty well with using stockpile items lately. I do kind of "fall off the wagon" every now and then and buy something I don't need, just because I have a Q. I know I'm not the only one.

I did it again, I went shopping for non-essentials again!

Give me credit for not doing the K-Mart doubles. I resisted completely. I did, however, go to CVS this morning and buy a bunch of stuff I don't need; I used $11.99 in ECB, some Qs, and $1.94 off my free GC and got back $23.50 in ECB. I went next door to the grocery for some milk. I've been out for several days. I had 2 of those $2.25 Electrosol Qs that expire today. They were marked down this week to $3.79 and I bought 2. Here's the embarrassing thing; I don't own a dishwasher. I'm determined that someday I will have one. I'm trying to win one. I may break down and buy one. I may move into a place that has one. One way or another, "with God as my witness," (Miss Scarlett O'Hara) I will have a dishwasher and I'll be all set with detergent. O.K., so after all Qs and GC used, I spent a total of $2.40 today. Oh, yeah, I got a rebate of $3.79 in the mail yesterday. I still have about $50 to spend this month.

I have gotten all my Christmas stuff together, boxed, bagged, wrapped, and tagged everything. Unless I think of someone else that I've forgotten, I'm all done. I don't usually go shopping the day after Christmas, but, a couple or three days later, I start shopping for next year. I pick up little things all year long and put away. Then, when October rolls around, I am done. My family members are getting file boxes full of HBA, cleaning, food, and toys. Almost everything came out of stockpile. I generally figured it up and there's about $125 worth of stuff in each box. I made 5 boxes. That doesn't include toys for the little girls. They all got Disney princess stuff. I think they are all ape over that stuff.

I want to share a little bit about why I haven't been preparing regular meals; I'm going through a rough patch with my health. Six years ago, I weighed 280+ pounds. I had gastric bypass surgery and lost down to 150. I was very happy with that. For the past year, though, I have not been well and I am down to 112. I have had several tests run lately and hopefully can find out what is wrong and try to correct it. Eating is sometimes very hard for me. My esophagus goes into spasms and traps my food. That is extremely painful and sometimes last for 6 hours before my esophagus "lets go" and my food can travel. Of course, that makes me afraid to eat. I would blow away in a strong wind, but, the funny thing is, I never feel hungry. When I eat, or try to, it's just because I need to. I don't ever feel like, "Oh, I'm hungry. Let's see what's here." Even so, I am trying hard to live off of stockpile as much as possible. I'm running out of applesauce and yogurt, two things I can get down with little problem.

I'm over it.

O.K. I'm over it. I'm not doing the K-Mart double coupon up to $2 each. Ouch! Just typing the words hurts. Besides what I'm giving for Christmas, I have 84 bottles of body wash. Everything else in HBA is not far behind that number. I am not going to K-Mart. I am not going to K-Mart. Repeat after me...

I took my friend out for her birthday lunch today. We ate late and so much that dinner was completely out of the question. I'm afraid the Romano's boxed dinner is off until tomorrow. I brought most of my chicken piccata home and fed it to the cats. Really, this restaurant we went to gets rave reviews but there was nothing on my plate or hers that I liked. They had too many flavors all rambled up together. I guess I just like "plain" food, or at least, more plain than what they serve. Even the dessert had too much going on in it. I told the waiter that we were celebrating a birthday and he promised something special; we got zip. I'm regretting the $60 I spent. I just wish I'd picked a better restaurant. I don't think she enjoyed it very much, either. I really wanted her to have a good time and something special to remember. We go back a ways; I'm 52 and she taught me how to drive when I was 14. Thank goodness her mother never found out about that!

I'm in BIG trouble!

K-Mart is having doubles up to $2 starting tomorrow, according to the customer service clerk at my closest store. She says it's 10/4-10/7. I had heard that it was ending on 10/4, so, I hope she knows what she's talking about.

I have HBA coming out my ears. I have plenty, plenty of laundry detergent. I have no business doing the double at K-Mart, but, you know that I hear the siren song, don't you?

I just pulled out all the stuff I'm giving my family members for Christmas. It hardly makes a dent in HBA. Somebody please talk me down from the K-Mart thing. I need encouragement here!

I'm really trying to dig into stockpile.

Yesterday, I had to buy cat food and a loaf of bread; $13.63. I had all ingredients on hand to make tuna salad for sandwiches. Dinner was completely out of stockpile; chicken and dumplings, an extra can of chicken added to that, brussell sprouts, cream-style corn, applesauce, sliced tomatoes, compliments of my dad, crescent rolls, and Gold Peak tea. I took dinner next door to my 85 year old neighbor. I spoke to him earlier today and he said I brought him enough for 2 days, so, I am not going to cook tonight. For tomorrow, I'm planning on the Romano's boxed dinner, adding chicken from freezer stockpile. Got the boxed dinner in the mail the other day. Free food! Gotta love it!

I am starting to put together Christmas gifts today. I purchased some cardboard or corrugated file boxes at Office Depot (had a $4 Q to use there) and I am going to drag out all the stuff I've been getting all year with an eye toward the holiday. The niece and nephews (and families) are getting a big box of useful stuff out of stockpile. I do have some toys for the little girls. There will be HBA, cleaning, things of that nature, and some gourmet chocolates for everyone. I hope they appreciate the gesture I am making, as money is tight and I cannot go "shopping" for their Christmas gifts.

I know that giving things from the drug store or grocery store is not most people's idea of gift-giving. Remember when CVS had those Russell Stover Internationale chocolates BOGOF with ECB? I think that's good enough for gift-giving. It's a very upscale product that my kids have probably never seen or heard of.

I am not the most creative or artistic person by a long shot, but, every Christmas, and lately I started doing this for Easter, too, I make gift baskets for my secretaries, paralegals, and lawyers for whom I work. It's mostly those little packets of coffee, enough for a few pots, the flavored kinds and regular, Christmas candies (you know, the regular candy that the companies dress up in Christmas colors), candles, some little doo-dads, and I bake a bunch of stuff for them, too. They all go crazy over them! It's just a little homemade job, but, they make these folks feel special. Throughout the year, I scout out thrift shops and sometimes yard sales for small to medium baskets, spray paint them red, green, and gold, start with some pretty tissue paper, use those little plastic Christmas "bouquets," because I'm not really sure what you call them. They have a stem you can poke through styrofoam or just down into the basket. I garnish the finished product with silver and red "icicles," and sprinkle with little glitter candy cane shaped "doo-hickies." I don't know what you call this stuff. I'm sure you people who do craft projects are cringing at how I described these things and that I don't even know what to call them!

When I know that one of the secretaries or paralegals is going on vacation, I make them a little goody bag of trial size things. They always say, "Oh, I didn't even know you could get these sizes. Now I don't have to carry the big stuff." I don't tell them that companies send out these things free!

Just some ideas for you to ponder now that it's getting closer to the holidays.