Friday Savings

Today at Walmart I spent $67.24. It's the end of the month, so I bought a few extra things because some of my coupons expired today. Some great buys were buy Gillette deodorant and get a men's body wash free(charity), free package of Sunchips, and buy one get one free Oral B toothbrush. I like those kinds of coupons(well, I like them all, but those especially)! An employee at Walmart was especially nice to me today. My 3 year old was a little grumpy, so she played peek-a-boo with him to keep him busy while I checked out, and then when we were loading up the car, I hear her yelling to me that I forgot a bag. I couldn't believe she ran, literally, out to the parking lot - and I park far away- to bring me my bag. That was so kind and thoughtful of her. It made my day, and I thanked God for bringing someone nice to me when I needed it.

At Vons today I spent $16.72 and saved $16.25, 49% - I almost made it to 50%! Mothers and Keeblers cookies were on sale for $2.00 + $.55 coupon, soft taco tortillas for $.99, Sargento shredded cheese for $1.69, and round steak for $2.99/pound.

At Ralphs today I spent $8.11 and saved, ready for this, $18.86!!!! I was even shocked by the savings amount. Gatorade was on sale for $.79, and then the big sale was watermelon for $.19 per pound. The watermelon, alone, saved $11.66! I think the cashier thought I was crazy because I kept saying how amazing the savings was. If you've ever seen that Staples commercial where the guy looks at every item and yells, "Wow, that's a low price!" that was me today. :)

Dance Competition this Weekend

We are so busy getting ready for my daughter's dance competition this weekend! It's at the Hilton next to Universal Studios, and it's classes from 8-2 on Sat., followed by a competition; and classes 8-2 on Sunday, followed by a show put on by the teachers and then awards. It's at least 2 hours away, and with LA traffic, more like 3. So, we have to leave sometime Friday.

Usually my daughter and I go to competitions by ourselves, but because this one is so far away and for a couple of nights and days, my husband and 2 sons joined us last year. This year, my older son doesn't want to go because he's afraid he'll get sick, and the state testing at school started this week and lasts for 4 weeks. I don't blame him, since we don't know exactly what sets off his sickness, but being car sick does seem to be a contributing factor, it's fine that he wants to stay here. My husband decided last night that my son can stay with my parents(they offered) and my husband and 3 year old son will come with us.

So, now I'm torn. I'm glad they're coming with us because I hate to be alone, but I also hate being so far away in case my older son gets sick, and my 3 year old was kind of difficult last year. He couldn't sleep well in the hotel, so of course neither could any of us. He also broke one of the dance competition signs, on accident of course, but it was still very embarrassing. I couldn't fix it, and my husband and older son were sightseeing, but luckily I saw another "dance dad" from our studio and he fixed it.

One nice thing about my husband coming is he can go and get us food for our meals(I have to stay at the hotel for my daughter's breaks), because even though it's a fancy and expensive Hilton, they don't have refrigerators! The other $99 hotels that we've stayed at have refrigerators, microwaves, and nice continental breakfasts, but of course the very expensive Hilton doesn't!

Anyway, I will definitely be doing a lot of praying the rest of this week and this weekend for lots of patience, peace, and health. I'll let you know how it goes.

Frustrating Technology

Technology is so frustrating sometimes! My old digital camera didn't work very well. Everytime I wanted to take a picture of my kids' special events at school or dance, the camera would tell me to "replace the batteries," even though I just replaced them 2 seconds earlier. My husband earned a bonus of several gift cards for finishing a computer software project on time, so he decided to use one of the gift cards to buy a new digital camera.

Today I decided to try out the new camera. It has a square rechargeable battery, unlike my old one which used AA. So, I turn on the camera, and amazingly it doesn't tell me to "replace the batteries." I took a couple of pictures of some items I made to sell and of a crochet basket cover my daughter made. I wanted to try the camera at home first, before my daughter's dance competition this weekend, to make sure it worked. Well, amazingly, it took the pictures just fine. So, I took out the card, plugged it into the card reader, plugged it into the computer, and of course, it didn't work! The computer didn't even recognize it was there.

So, now I have to wait until my husband gets home and hopefully he can get it to work. He usually can, and wonders why I had a problem with it. :)

Monday Savings

I had to go to CVS Friday night because my daughter had dance competition all weekend. I spent $3.48 and saved $10.76! That was a great deal! CVS flossers were on sale for $.77(charity box), Edge shaving gel for $2.79 + $1.80 extra bucks for next time(charity - it's great to find a man's product for charity, it's so rare), Del Monte ketchup for $1.00, Bumble Bee tuna for $.49(charity), and Gatorade for $.77. I also had $4.49 in Extra Bucks from last week's shopping trip.

Today at Smart & Final I spent $7.99 and saved $7.04, almost 50%. A 5 pound box of cuties were on sale for $3.99, Wishbone Dressing for $1.00, and Lunchables for $1.00. I will have to look into their warehouse size products(like Costco or Sams Club) sometime, because there were a lot of people today buying huge boxes of crackers and cookies. Maybe they were on sale too, or maybe they run a daycare.

At Albertson's today I spent $34.06 and saved $12.56. The savings doesn't really reflect my actual savings because I had a raincheck for 2 Jennie-O ground turkey packages for $1.99. Since it was a rain check, they just rang it up as $1.99, so it didn't actually show the savings of a regular package which is usually $5-6. So, anyway, Dole Sensations juice was on sale for $1.99 + $1 coupon(this is the best way to try something new, that way if you don't like it, you didn't spend much), Albertson's shredded cheese $1.88, Shopper's Value 1.75qt.(not the usual 1.5qt) for $1.99, Chicken thighs buy one get one free, Albertson's bakery cookies $2.50, and ice cream cups $2.99 everyday value price.

Friday Savings

Today at Walmart I spent $69.40. We needed some cleaning supplies and my 3 year old son needed some new underwear, so that made the price of the shopping trip a little higher than usual. Underwear is expensive - $5.50 for 3!

Today at Vons I spent $6.97 and saved $9.98, which is 59%! Safeway crescent rolls were on sale for $.99, Hillshire Farms lunchmeat for $2.50 + $1 off coupon, and 1 pound of strawerries for $.99.

Today at Ralphs I spent $20.14 and saved $11.73. It looks like I didn't save as much this time, only because my 13 year old son's friend told him Ralphs sold a particular book, and I bought it for him. I don't buy books very often, we get them from the library, but my son really doesn't like to read, so if he finds a book that interests him, I will get it. Especially since the STAR state testing is starting next week, he needs something to read when he finishes the test, so I decided the book was worth it. Anyway, back to my grocery savings, Ralphs fruit snacks were on sale for $1.00, Red seedless grapes for $.88/pound, 18 cookies for $1.80, and my rain check for $.99 Dole juice.

Preschool Open House

Last night, my 11 year old daughter, 3 year old son, and I went to our church's preschool open house. My 13 year old son didn't want to go, of course, and my husband wasn't home yet. So anyway, it was a different experience because I thought it was only an open house for prospective parents and their kids to look at the classrooms and curriculum. Well, I was wrong! It was that, but it was also an open house for current parents and their kids to look at their kids work and see how their child is doing, and talk to the teacher about their child's progression. So, of course, all of us parents were all vying for time to talk to the teacher. I had a notebook with several questions I wanted answered and of course the other parents wanted to know if their kids were ready for kindergarten. The teacher tried to balance her time, but I wasn't getting my questions answered. Plus, I really didn't like her answers. I asked about what my son should know before entering, and she said she didn't like parents that pushed their kids to know everything before they came because then the next year, they would resent it and hate kindergarten. Well, I don't want him to know everything, but having "a leg up" isn't a bad thing. I did the same thing with my 13 and 11 year old, and they are in GATE and are doing just fine. Of course they don't love school, I don't think anyone does, but they certainly don't resent having "a leg up."

So, after all that, I decided to go next door to the other pre-K classroom and lucky for me, the one set of parents in there, were leaving! I was able to talk to the teacher for about half an hour! I really liked her. She talked to me and my other 2 kids(unlike the other teacher) and she definitely does differentiated learning - based on their knowledge and abilities. She even had a kindergarten "100 word book" in her classroom because a couple of the kids are ready for it! What a different perspective from the other teacher! She does realize the kids need a lot of play time, just like the other teacher, but she acknowledges you can also learn from play. One example is to teach gravity, besides just dropping a pencil, she has them race cars down ramps. One other interesting thing about her is she also has an eighth grade son at the same school as mine, and it turns out they know each other. With all these wonderful things about her, I definitely wanted her as my son's teacher. When I saw the principal and went to request her as my son's teacher(I also volunteer in the church office once a week, so I have a little advantage), she told me the teacher is moving in June! I am so disappointed. Oh well, we'll have to wait and see who her replacement will be.

Monday Savings

At CVS on Saturday, I spent $16.70 and saved $10.07. CVS brand Pringles were on sale for $1, Sensodyne Pronamel for $4.49, V05 Shampoo and conditioner $.66(for charity), and Dove Conditioner for $4.49 + $1.50 coupon + $4.49 extra bucks to be used next time. So, I actually "got paid" $1.50 for the Dove conditioner. I also used $2 extra bucks from last week's shopping trip.

At Albertsons today, I spent $13.98 and saved $20.85. Francisco Rinaldi pasta sauce was on sale for $1(1 for us, 1 for charity), Quaker cereal, granola bars, and oatmeal for $1 if you bought 5, Minute Maid orange juice $1.99, and 8 Drumsticks $4.99. I had a raincheck for $1.99 turkey, but apparently it fell out of the paper clip in the car - thank goodness that's where it fell. So, I will have to buy that next week.

At Smart & Final today pears were $.50/pound and Danimals yogurt was $1.99. I spent $3.16 and saved $2.85.

Friday Savings

So, not every week can be as low as last week at Walmart, unfortunately. This week we needed several more things. I spent $61.22, which still isn't bad compared to what I used to spend(at least $120) before I started all this Coupon Mom process.

At Vons today, I spent $19.67 and saved $11.84, which is 38%. I know I've done better, but Walmart stopped selling ice cream cups, so I had to buy them at Vons, and they didn't show up as being on sale. They were marked as 2(6 packs) for $6, so I thought it was a sale, buy maybe that's just they're regular price. Anyway, the sale items I bought were Gerber Graduates meals $1, thin pork loin chops $2.99/lb.(that was a big save - $5.65), oranges $.49/lb., zucchini $.99/lb., and mushrooms in an 8 oz. package $.99.

I don't know how much I'll spend/save at Ralphs today, yet, because they're having a huge sale from 1-9. So, my daughter and I will have to stop by on the way home from dance tonight. I hope they still have the items available, because some of them are only "while supplies last," so they're not eligible for a rain check. Their big specials today are $.99 for Kelloggs cereal + I have $1 off 2, and $.99 for Dole juice. Their regular sale items for this week that I'll buy are $1.80 for their 18 count bakery cookies, $1.99 for ground turkey, and $1.99 for Cheezits, Wheat Thins, and Triscuits - which is just in time because both of my kids just ran out today!

Surprising Mom at the Mall

Just about every Wednesday, my 3 year old son and I go to the shopping mall. Sometimes I buy something, but most of the time we go just to walk around and look in the pet store and Disney store. We always end our trip with about 20 minutes of playing in the play area. So, today my son was happily playing with a little girl when another little girl and her brother joined them. Both girls were 5(I heard them tell each other their ages, although one girl had to "one up" the other and be 5 1/2) and her brother was 2. They were all having a great time, minus the brother, when the mom asks the little girl where her brother was - the mom was busy on the phone. The little girl went to the play structure where they had just been playing, and told the mom he wasn't there. The mom said, "What do you mean he isn't there. Where is he?" Well, of course the 5 year old didn't know. So, the mom eventually got up and went to search, slowly, for the little boy. I say slowly, becaue I would have been in a frantic run if it was me; but of course, it wasn't me becasue I knew where my son was at all times, just like she should've. Anyway, she found him in the nearby arcade and thankfully he was o.k. She's very lucky because there was a man in there playing a game at the time. You never know who's around - you have to be so careful and vigilante watching your children. So, of course the mom was mad at the little boy and dropped him on to the play mat and this time she chose to sit at a spot closer to the entrance, rather than at the opposite end.

Mother's Day Items In My Etsy Shop

Since Mother's Day is only one month away, I've been adding new items to my Etsy shop(there's a link to my shop on the right) almost every day. I've included a picture of the latest item I added - a rainbow magnet for your special mom. I have other magnets and buttons. I will also soon be adding keychains, mirrors, and a tissue box.

I've also been adding a lot of the same kinds of items for end of the school year teacher gifts. For us, school gets out in just 2 months, so it's a good time to start buying those practical gifts for your child's teachers.

Monday Savings

I thought I would add on to my typical Monday savings, and also mention my savings at CVS; I normally shop there on Saturdays after picking up my daughter from dance class. So, I spent $7.22 and saved $21.83! Colgate Total Advanced was $2.99 + I earned $2 extra bucks to be used next time, Gold Emblem spaghetti for $.88(1 for us, 1 for charity), General Mills cereal was buy 1 get 1 free + 2 - $1 coupons, Dawn dishwashing soap $.96, and my raincheck for Swanson broth $.49. I've been trying to redeem this raincheck for over a month now, and they finally had it in stock. Lucky for me, there was no expiration date on the raincheck. I also used my extra bucks rewards from last quarter, $6.50.

At Albertsons today, I spent $11.06 and saved $11.05! I thought it was funny that the amounts are only $.01 apart. Oranges were $.99/lb., Dannon yogurt for $.49 + $1 off 10, Dannon kids yogurt $1.99 + 2 - $1 coupons, Fresh Express salad $.69 + $.55 coupon(my favorite deal), and a raincheck for sliced olives $1. I learned the hard way today, the cashiers want the rainchecks ahead of time, and not at the end with the coupons. He saw my raincheck, as he was entering my store coupon to double a manufacter's coupon, and because of his frustration with that, I ended up not getting that store coupon. Oh well, I learned my lesson.

At Smart and Final I only had one item to buy today. Chicken thighs were on sale for $.99/lb., so I bought a package that had 12 chicken thighs in it, and only paid $5.42! Not bad, seeing as that will provide us with enough meat for 4 meals and 2 lunches for my husband.

Friday Savings

I surprised myself today at Walmart - I only spent $23.15! I didn't need too much this week because a lot of the ingredients I need for this week's dinners, I've previously purchased on sale. Also, the meat I was going to buy is cheaper at Smart & Final and Costco, so I will go there next week to buy it, instead.

Vons had a lot of great sales this week, so I spent $31.53 and saved $23.47, which is 43%. Little Debbies were $1.00, 10lb. russet potatoes $.99(which I put in my charity box), 12 pack 7up for $2.49, Prego pasta sauce $1.25, Lunchables $1.00, Deli Creations $2.00, Gogurt and Trix $2.00 + a coupon for $.80, a 12 pack and 16 pack of cheddar sticks and string cheese $2.99, and Hot/Lean Pockets $1.50.

I really had fun shopping at Ralphs today. I bought things that weren't on my list, which normally isn't a good thing to do, but in this case it was. They had Easter candy on sale for 75% off the normal price! M&M's, reeses, cadbury eggs, Nestle, Brachs, 3 Musketeers, and Whoppers were all $1.00 or less for a regular size bag. I saved an average of $2.62 per bag. I was expressing my excitement over the great deals to my kids, and that made a few of the other ladies that were shopping stop and look at me funny. That's o.k. because I saved a lot of money and we now have enough candy to probably last us until Christmas. :) So, anyway, I only spent $17.24 and saved $39.27! I also bought $.47/lb. bananas, $.99/lb. broccoli, and $.99/lb. cauliflower. So, it wasn't all junk food.

I also had collected a lot of things over the past month in my charity box, so I called the lady that uses the food to give to the people in the apartment complex she and her husband manage, and she came to pick it up. It is so great to be able to share my savings with people who need it.

Endoscopy Results

We went to Children's Hospital for my son's endoscopy results. Good news is everything is normal, bad news is they still don't know what's wrong with him. So, now we're being referred to a nerologist(appointment end of May), metabolic specialist(appointment end of June), and an allergist(waiting for insurance approval). This is such a frustrating process!

One good thing is we've always wanted him to see an allergist because he has severe grass allergies and the medicine he's been given by the pediatrician isn't working; and the pediatrician would never refer him to an allergist before - he just keeps switching the medicine my son's on. Now, he has to refer him to an allergist.

Also, the next time he has an "episode," the GI doctor wants us to take him to the ER at Children's rather than call his dr. He asked if my son gets dehydrated from these "episodes," and I said yes. He wondered why he's only been to the hospital once and I told him the pediatrician always wants us to try and treat him at home. So, the GI dr. said don't call your dr. next time, just bring him here. So, that's good too( I guess that's two good things now) because they can do more for him there. Although, of course, we always hope there is no next time.

Hard Work Paid Off

Finally all my hard work has paid off! For the past twelve weeks I've been keeping track of the prices of everything I buy at Walmart, Vons, Ralphs, CVS, Smart & Final, Albertsons, and Costco. I made an Excel spreadsheet with the weekly date, item, size, and price for all the stores. I then documented what I bought for that week on each store's spreadsheet. Couponmom.com recommended that you do this for 12 weeks in order to get an idea of each store's sales price cycle.

So, I finally finished the 12 weeks and am so happy to be done with it, but it was definitely worth it. Now it's so much easier to check and see if something on sale is really worth buying or not. I get out my spreadsheets and the weekly fliers and compare them, to see if an item is really at it's lowest price. If it is, then I add it to my weekly grocery list for that store. If it's not, then I don't put it on my list.

This is also a great way to check and see if items on sale at the grocery stores can beat the regular Costco prices. Just be sure and check the price per unit, like price per ounce.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, and it was at first, but now that I'm done, I can definitely see that it was worth it. I've also memorized a lot of the prices of the items that I use every week, so I don't even need to check those. I just know if they're a good sale or not. It's really shortened the amount of time it takes to go through the weekly fliers.

Monday Savings

Today I mostly went to Smart & Final in search of great deals on Easter candy. After Valentine's Day, they had tons of candy at really great discounted prices. Unfortunately, the same was not true this time. The only discounted candy they had was one package of chocolate Easter bunnies for $.85. My kids weren't interested. So, I just bought a dozen eggs for $.99 and 10 pounds of rice for $3.79, which is an excellent price!

At Albertsons I spent $10.67 and saved $10.49, just about 50%! they had sliced olived for $1.00, and Easter candy for 50% off. I bought whopper eggs for $1.09; twix, snickers, and milky way for $2.14 each. My best deal was 4 cans of Swanson broth with a store coupon of $.49 each, a manufacturer's coupon for $.40 off 4 cans, and a store coupon to double my manufacturer's coupon! I love it when you can "stack" coupons on an item by using a store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon.

Friday Savings

I was surprised by my grocery shopping bill today. I thought it would be a lot more since I'm having 6 family members, plus the 5 of us for Easter dinner, but it was about the same as every other week. Of course, I bought the ham and rolls at Costco earlier in the week, so that's not reflected here, but that wasn't bad, only $20. I'm using vegetables that I bought last week on sale, and the dessert will be brownie mix(that I previously bought on sale) cut out with Easter shapes. So, with a lot of the dinner previously bought on sale, my Walmart bill today was only $57.

Vons today had Ritz for $1.99, Del Monte canned vegetables for $.49, Bumblebee tuna $.50, Safeway Select ice cream $2.39, and a couple of bags of Easter candy for $1.66. I spent $12 and saved 47%. I am adding one can of vegetables and tuna to my charity box.

Ralphs had their Bakery cookies for $1.80 for 18, and shredded cheese for $1.50. I wanted mozzarella and they were out - I couldn't ask for a rain check because I'm using it in a recipe this week - so I just bought a 4 cheese blend instead and will substitute it in the recipe. I spent $8.40 and saved $9.55!

Endoscopy is Over!

We ended up getting a call from the hospital yesterday, moving the endoscopy to 8:00am with check-in at 6:00am, so we had to leave at 5:00am! It worked out though, because even though it was raining, since it was so early in the morning, there wasn't any traffic yet. We got to the hospital on time.

We had to wait to check-in because there were already 2 younger kids in front of us. After check-in, they gave us directions to the surgery registration room. The nurse checked us in again, and took his vitals. We then had to go to the waiting room. Another nurse called us in and went over the procedure with us, and took all of his health information. We then went back to the waiting room again. At around 7:45, another nurse called us in to the endoscopy suite. She told us about the procedure again and paged the dr. In the meantime, we met the anesthesiologist. The dr. asked us some more questions and then we went into the procedure room. I prayed with Ernesto and then they gave him strawberry smelling gas to make him fall asleep. He fought it and kept telling us he couldn't breathe, and grabbed at his chest. We all assured him he was fine and they were monitoring him. He finally fell asleep and I had to leave the room. The dr. came out in about 20 minutes and said he was done. Everything looked fine, no inflammation, and he took some biopsies, which we will go over at our follow-up appointment next Thursday.

I then had to go back to the original waiting room until another nurse came in and told me he was waking up. He was still groggy, and had a very itchy nose, and was bothered by his hair(he kept moving it on his forehead). He tried a sip of Gatorade, but was nauseous, although he said it was tolerable, because of his sickness he's used to the nausea. The nurse gave him some nausea medicine, which made him fall asleep. She came back after a short time, woke him up, and made him sit up. Another person removed his i.v. and took his vitals. His blood pressure was a little low, but the nausea was better, so they sent him home! I thought they would keep him longer until his blood pressure was higher and he would tolerate liquids, but the nurse told me because he has a history of nausea, he would be fine.

He's been o.k. at home so far. He ate some soup and crackers for lunch and has fallen asleep for a short while a couple of times. We'll have to see how he is later because tonight I have to go to a parent incoming freshman(next year) orientation at the high school. If he's still sleepy, my daughter will have to miss dance and stay here and take care of her little brother while I go to the meeting. Thankfully, Ernesto's attendance isn't required at the meeting.

Anyway, thanks for your prayers and I will let you know next week what the doctor says.