Sundays and Family and Shopping

Three things need to be dealt with right now. First, the fun:

I went grocery shopping today to prepare for my departure on Wednesday (research trip). I'm quite proud of the 'guy' food I got, hoping that it will keep J from fast food while I'm gone. Of course, his mom does live less than a mile away, so I'm sure he'll be at her table often.

At HEB, I spent 27.23 and got 15.23 free with coupons! Again, this is all based on the Grocery Game shopping lists. Some of the deals:

2.50 Ritz Crackers
free wheat thins
free philadelphia cream cheese
0.75 Hefty paper plates (reg 2/3.00)
0.95 Hefty plastic cups (reg 2/3.00)
2.50 Eckrich rope sausage (2/5.00)
free Eckrich premium weiners (with two rope sausages)
1.45 Hillshire farm sausages (reg 2.00)
4.25 Digiorno pizza (reg. 2/11.00)

Then I went to Target to get bathroom stuff. They have alot of new clearance items on the endcaps, and I got razors, shaving cream, body spray, body wash, and tweezers for 10.56, using 7.60 in coupons!

Then I went to Kroger, and stocked up on the pasta sauce sale-- organic sauces and salsas are on sale. I spent 20.19 and used 4.55 in coupons. BUT I had a 20.00 gift card for transferring a prescription last week, so I only spent 19 cents! We got:

0.99 lunchables (three of them)
2.97 J's man razor (reg. 8.79)
1.91 Newman's own pasta sauce x2
1.49 Emeril pasta sauce
1.27 organic Prego sauce
1.99 milk (that's just a normal price now, it seems)
1.44 land o lakes butter (reg. 1.99)
3.99 kroger olive oil

So the cool part is that I left the house planning to spend 33.00 for a week of groceries (we have alot of staples in stock now). I ended up spending 37, thanks to a 20.00 gift card. AWESOME!


Part Two--- Let me just say that my peas were a problem tonight. Yes, my peas. It was J's family birthday dinner, and CAD apparently is trying to be nice, via a dried out pork chop and wierd yellow squash casserole. I called to offer to bring something, and was told that CAD pitched a mini fit in the grocery store, because 'she's trying to avoid starches'. HA! So I said I'd play dumb and bring peas.

If fishing for compliments was a sport, this lady thinks she's a pro. Seriously, talk about needing validation! We've talked about how she has limited her emotional communication skills to food, and so she tries to share feelings through food, hence the cooking. But, she burns stuff. So the cassarole tasted more like a stuffing that happend to have yellow squishy rinds in it. And she insisted we take some home, to the point of driving over to give it to us, after I told her I don't like yellow squash and will not eat it. I ate some at the table to be polite (yes, I'm trying- atleast I didn't freak out with the 16-year-old-trapped-in-a-22-year-olds-body-thinks-hes-a-witch refused to hold my hand during grace. He then flipped out and said he just had a shiver down his whole body. Someone should seriously educate him on Wiccan philosophy. Praying over your food is not bad!

SO the avoiding-starch CAD takes two rolls, two hunks of butter, and at dessert asks for seconds on the homemade angel food and boiled frosting!!! Yeah, she's watching starchs--- march straight into her mouth. hypocrite.

And I seriously think she's helping lazy cousin sell drugs from her house. I recalled that wonderful moment in the first season of real world, when his cell phone rang at the table, and they exchanges some looks and words.

THEN, to the best part.

CAD is passive aggressive to the max. She doesn't ask questions the right way. So when she asks me if I've seen Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, I say no. She asks if I'd like to, so I say no. I do want to rent it eventually, but I'm not interested in wasting money. THEN she says she was thinking of planning a girls night for her, me, and MIL. J giggled, and I said oh. Then the conversation changed. I'd love to hang out with my MIL, I think. But I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut around her now, crazy lady who needs medication to control her violence.

I'm hoping that if I release my pissed off levels here, I can put off the eventual blow up. I don't see how I'm supposed to forget the thing she did (which I apoligize I won't post, but trust that it was inexcusable) and if the topic was ever broached, I will tell her she's crazy, needs therapy, and will never ever touch my children, EVER-- no holding a baby, no touching my stomach, no talking to them. When we move away, they will not be a part of our lives. I'll send her a christmas card, but when they start asking for cash (in the 5-10 year future, obviously) the answer is no.

Ok, I'm still pissed. This is the precise reason I blog the rage, and avoid eye contact for the hour long meal. Any more time than that, well, I just can't stop myself.

Shopping Trip #1: HEB

This weekend, in total, I got about $46 in free groceries. The two big lessons I learned are:

1) At Kroger (not at HEB, as I found out) you can use 1 coupon per item.
So that yogurt coupon for $.40 off a purchase of 6 yogurts, is totally valuable!
6 yogurts at $.60 = 3.60
6 coupons= -2.40
Kroger doubles!= -2.40 This means that Kroger pays YOU $1.20 to buy 6 yogurts!

In reality, I only had 3 coupons, so instead of paying $3.60 for 6, I paid $1.20.

2) At Kroger, you can use paper coupons AND electronic coupons on the same item. It's just that the electronic coupons don't double or triple. So I bought Charmin (huge pack) for 16.99, and used a paper coupon (.25 x3) plus electronic coupon (.50) and ended up paying 15.74 or .24 a roll. I actually got $1 off of Bounce using .55 paper and .50 electronic coupons, too.

Here's the cool deals I got at HEB:

Total cost: $50.41 Coupons saved: $23.49

Colgate Toothpaste 2.98 (original)
- $1 off coupon
- free reusable shopping bag

Secret Clinical Deoderant 7.57 (original) (very odd combination for sale)
- $1.50 off coupon
- free frozen HEB meatballs ($2.99)

Two Marie Callendar's Pasta Frozen Meals 2.69 x 2 (original)
- Free 1 pint HEB ice cream ($1.49)
- Free Fresh Express Lettuce ($2.29)
- $1 off Lettuc Coupon


There were other deals, but these were the ones that I combined in store coupons with manufacturer coupons, based on the list from The Grocery Game.


I'll post Kroger's when I find my reciept.

Fascinated with Frugality

I know I shouldn't spend my energy on this, and should focus on the Diss. But I find the subject of coupons and money saving fascinating. I'm going to occassionaly try to post my weekend shopping trips, to record how much I'm saving as I start following 'the grocerygame' .

And as embarrassing as I think it is, I'm using more coupons at Target.

Today starts the tally! (once I get back from the store)