Saturday, October 27, 2012

The weekend is here

Last night for dinner we tried something new - commenter Susie Q's Zatarain rice and beans in tortillas. We added some shredded cheese, lettuce and sour cream. Very Good! Everyone liked it and when DH has 2nd's of something new that makes it an official new meal I can add to my menu planning.

I rocked with coupons yesterday for my weekly shopping. I used $24 in paper coupons, saved another $5.45 with coupons added to my store card and got a $5 Target gift card. I saved the most at Target. They had a sale of Clairol hair color products buy 3 get a $5 Target gift card. I've had this Target catalina coupon in my purse for $4 off a Root Touch-Up kit (it expired yesterday). I also had (2) $2 off any Clairol haircolor, so I bought the Root Touch-Up kit ($5.89) and 2 of the Foam hair color ($7.99 ea). Total was $21.87, less $8 in coupons brought the price down to $13.87 for all 3 and then I got a $5 gift card, making $8.87 for all 3! Almost the price of just one foam color box.

DH loves the Crystal Light individual ice tea packets - seriously - we go through like 3 boxes a week. He drinks the stuff all day. Target always has them for about $2 a box and I recently purchased some $1 off 2 coupons from ebay (I paid $2.60 total with shipping for $10 in coupons, so still will save over $7). Target had a sale of buy 3 get one free, and I bought 8 boxes, got 2 free and was able to use 4 of my $1 off coupons. With my additional 5% discount for using Red card, that made each box .95 cents. I probably should have bought more and just used up all my coupons!

A few good deals at the grocery store - Comet cleanser with bleach (I think that's about all we used to clean the kitchen and bathrooms when I was a kid!) was on sale .88 each. They had some cans that were 20% more and stuck on top of them were .65 off each coupons. I picked up 2 cans for .23 each. Some good cheap cleaner. I stocked up on 2 Best Foods Mayo for $1.49 each by combining store sale, an additional store coupon and a mfg coupon. Also got some Eggland's Best eggs (I use these to help with DH's cholesterol) regularly $3.29 for $1.49 after sale and coupon.

On tap for today - a visit to see my grandma. I try to get over to see her at least every couple of weeks. Last time I went DD was working, but she's off today so we are both going. It's really hard to visit with her because she is so hard of hearing and won't wear her hearing aids (says they bug her!) and after a visit I feel like I just spent 40 minutes or so screaming at the top of my lungs.

After that we were going to go drive over to a private university that is really close and just check out the campus, but it's pouring rain today, so I think we'll save that for another day.  I think DD has kind of narrowed her choices down to 3. This private university, which is less than 10 miles away and she could live at home, or 2 of the state colleges. One is about an hour a way and the other is about 2 hours away. I'm hoping she either picks the one where she can live at home or the one that is 2 hours away. It's in a smaller town, smaller campus and I'd feel safer for her than the one in the big city with the huge campus. We've still got about a year to decide but will visit them all so she can get a feel for what each is like. Since she'll have her AA degree when she graduates high school she will be able to transfer in to her college of choice as a junior.

Enjoy your weekend!

8 comments:

  1. Great job on the coupons. How did your daughter get her AA while going thru HS? That saved you tons!

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  2. WOW! Ambitious DD! Great that she'll have that under wraps by graduation! HUGE savings! You are much better than I am with the couponing - I'll clip them and put them in a pile, then I forget them! DUH! But one thing I do is exchange coupon inserts with the neighbors across the street from the Sunday newspaper. I cut the ones I want out of ours, and they do the same, then we just throw them in each others' newspaper box. So often I get 2 of a coupons I really want. Just a tip if you have anyone you can swap with.

    I feel for you about your grandmother. I, too, am hard of hearing (have been since I was 6 years old), but I do wear hearing aids. I realize how frustrating it can be to converse with a hearing impaired person, especially when they don't wear aids they have. But I'm sure she enjoyed just having the company. And some day when she's gone, you'll be glad you made the effort. Hearing impaired people often feel so out of touch and they tend to alienate themselves because of their bad hearing. Which can then lead to depression. So I'm sure the visit was much appreciated and enjoyed. :-)

    Glad you guys tried the Zatarains and liked them! One of our MOST favorite "vegetarian" meals (although we aren't vegans!). And so super easy. I'll even make the rice ahead of time and it can be rewarmed quickly in the microwave when in a hurry. That just may be dinner tonight for us!

    Happy Weekend! Hope the furnace is working soon! We dropped from almost 80 yesterday here to 40 this morning and it's going to get colder! BURRRR!

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  3. You truly rock coupons right now! Nice job!

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  4. I am in total awe that she can graduate highschool with an associates....more schools should offer this. In my state(or maybe just my area) seniors can start taking classes at the local community college but your daughter takes the cake! Pretty amazing in my book.

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  5. I agree well done on those coupons. Both our kids went away from University. Ds was around a four hour drive away and dd around an hour and a bit. It did them both the world of good to fend for themselves.......

    Gill in Canada

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  6. Our state has a wonderful program where high school junior and seniors can take classes at the community colleges that count as both HS and college credit. DD is taking 15 credits this quarter at the cc and taking her 2nd year of foreign language at the high school. Next year she just plans to take only classes at the cc. Tuition is paid in full except for a quarterly fee ($115) and books. She has worked really closely with her advisor to plan this out so that she will have her AA degree. She also has earned 15 college credits from other dual credit/honors classes she's taken during her freshman and sophomore years. She loves attending the community college and likes that she doesn't feel like she is wasting some of her day, as she did being at HS all day. She's quite focused and driven, so this is right up her alley.

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  7. that is great that she can be working on her college credits in high school. She sounds very focused and organised.
    I love reading the couponing savings, I wish we had them downunder - I'd be one of those extreme couponers if they did

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  8. Louise - my daughter loves watching that Extreme Couponing tv show! When she's shopping with me and I'm looking at my list and then grabbing the item and saying "ok, this is on sale for $1.99 and I have a store coupon and mfg coupon, so it brings it down to .99.." She's says you sound like those extreme couponers! LOL. She is super organized and she'd probably do better than me at couponing, but she always tells me that she's going to have me do all her shopping for her when she's out on her own. I tell her I don't think so!

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