My Ebenezer

For the past year and a half, I have been following several money-saving blogs online. At first I was almost religious about it, making sure I printed out Every Single Coupon so I could try to take advantage of Every Single Deal. I won't get into the details of how I could so easily lose my cool if my printer malfunctioned at *just* the wrong time. Or if the cash register girl skipped over one of my coupons. Or--perish the thought--if I was an hour too late to one of the online freebies and missed it altogether. Those details would be highly incriminating, not to mention embarrassing. Over the last several months, I have been losing interest in spending every second of my precious free time scouring the deals, and compiling my coupons. Maybe there are some people out there who can do all of this in a mere 45 minutes per week (there are those who claim so!), but for this girl, it was consuming me. In the last few weeks, I hadn't even been reading the blogs, so low was my inter...

I've been sort of AWOL from the couponing world lately. I don't know what to call it; whether I was suffering from Coupon Jadedness, a Time Shortage, or a Deal Drought, but it seems all three combined to make a perfect storm of paying full price. :) But why waste time focusing on the months I've spent buying things at full price? Why not look at what I got today? I went to CVS and spent about $5 for all you see here. This puts a smile on my face! Here's the breakdown: ReNu contact lens solution, 12 oz size. $7.99 with $7.99 in Extra Bucks (this is spendable cash at CVS) coming back to me. I used a $4.00 off coupon, bringing my out-of-pocket expense to $4.55 after sales tax. Today I went back and bought the rest of the items, using my $7.99 in Extra Bucks. Dove deodorant, $3.29 (plus $.75 off one coupon) Herbal Essences shampoo, $2.88, (plus $1 off of 2 coupon) Herbal Essences conditioner, $2.88 Skintimate shave gel, $3.99 (but FREE since I had a coupon to try it fo...

I'm still not sure I'm doing the whole coupon thing just right. Maybe it just takes time, but it seems like others (*cough*, Melanie ) are able to seriously score deals and I'm just getting my toes wet. Anyway, here's what I got at Publix this morning for $39.85. I saved over $57. I'm pretty satisfied, but wish I could get over the hump and have a real "wow" dollar amount to post. Included in the photo are: 4 large jars applesauce 2 pkgs cream cheese 2 pkgs cake mix 1 box cereal (free!) 2 bottles Ocean Spray juice 1 bag pita chips 2 cans diced tomatoes 2 bowls cool whip 2 pints specialty creamer 2 tubes sausage (hiding behind the strawberries) 1 pineapple 2 pkgs strawberries 1 Sara Lee pound cake 2 pkgs bacon 2 pkgs butter 2 containers pulled pork (each one feeds 6) I am so thankful for the opportunity to save money on our groceries!!

Somehow this turned out to be a stellar week at Publix. I usually go do some type of couponing there each week, but sometimes the deals aren't good enough to write home about. Or I'll only get one really exciting deal and forget to post about it. Not today! Today, Publix had their act together and offered terrific sales at the time that there were fantastic coupons available. I am thankful that the Lord enabled Noah to behave in the cart while I did some thinking. Couponing takes a tremendous amount of forethought, planning, and uninterrupted thought; have I mentioned that? I paid $13.87 for all you see here!!! That's: 2 boxes Special K cereal (these were FREE , believe it or not!) 2 cans PAM nonstick cooking spray 2 boxes Wheat Thins (these were 25 cents each!!) 2 bottles French's Mustard 4 pkgs Velveeta Shells and Cheese 2 pkgs Smithfield Bacon 2 bags Kraft shredded cheese 2 cartons sour cream 1 bag Stacy's Pita Chips I think this may have been my best coupon run...

Here's what I got at Publix this week for $26.58 2 pkg Lender's Bagels 1 pkg Goldfish Crackers 2 bottles Olive Oil 2 boxes Cheez-Its 1 box Scotties Tissues 2 jars Smucker's Jam 2 jars Applesauce 4 cans Progresso soup 1 dozen eggs 6 Dannon Yogurts 3 apples 1 huge crown of broccoli 2 pkgs Halls Cough Drops Spent $26.58. Saved $33.58. What a blessing!!!

I popped in to Office Depot on a whim today just to see if they happened to have any Christmas letter stationery on sale. Boy did they ever! I got all this stationery--totaling 550 sheets of pretty Christmas paper and 300 envelopes-- for $2.68 !!! This should last me at least 6 years. :) All their paper and envelopes were marked down to a dollar each, but the register was taking an additional 75% off of that!! The cashier called the manager over, and he basically said, "Merry Christmas! We're just trying to get rid of it." Get thee to Office Depot and see if you can find this deal! P.S. I am having serious technical difficulty with the photo above. On my computer, the pic is right side up, but every time I try to load it, it turns on its side. Weird. Maybe my next investment should be a Computer Applications class. Right, Josh?

I took a quick trip to Publix today, but other than that we've been staying indoors! Funny how thinned out your blood can get after living in Florida. It's rainy and COLD! I don't want to check the actual temperature in degrees, because you Northerners would probably laugh at me. So just trust me. It's COLD!! Anyway...this is supposed to be about my Couponing Run, not the weather! So, "What will six dollars buy you," you ask? (Thanks for asking!) It'll buy you this: Okay, so it was actually $6.19, but STILL!! That's 2 jars of Ragu spaghetti sauce 2 packages of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix 2 packs of yogurt, 6 containers each 2 packages of Nestle ready-to-bake cookies (which are ten times more delectable than my own homemade cookies...and they were close to free at 20 cents each!!) I LOVE COUPONING!!!

Today, as I mentioned before, I was able to take a stroll through Publix armed with my coupons for a blissful I-actually-completed-a-thought-without-someone-fussing-or-distracting-me shopping trip! Everyone should have a shopping trip like this at some point. No deadline. No interruptions. Just you, your coupons, and a shopping cart. Here's what I scored today for $16.40! That's: 4 boxes of cereal a 5lb bag of potatoes 4 cans diced tomatoes 2 jars pasta sauce 2 tubes toothpaste (1 regular, 1 travel size) Tylenol 2 packages ready-to-bake cookie dough 2 tubes lip gloss I could have done even better, except I thought I had coupons for some of the items and it turns out I didn't, but I bought them anyway. I don't think I'll ever do as well as my sister-in-law Melanie, who recently got paid for her groceries. **scratches head in disbelief** But I'm saving money over what I used to spend, so that's at least progress! Can I tell you a little secret? I don't do...

**I have to warn any of you who think you may want to get started with couponing and/or yard sales that they are highly addicting! You will fall in love with the adrenaline rush of knowing you are paying pennies on the dollar when you used to pay dollars. Proceed with caution!** I have been itching to sit down and post this blog ALL WEEKEND!!! Friday I went to Publix on a couponing run and got (I think) some GREAT deals, and then I went to some yard sales on Saturday and again found bargains. This was a rather busy weekend; we had a church picnic on Saturday (post about that to follow), and then on Sunday afternoon I went to Victory to see Pastor Masitto be installed as their new pastor, so I was in church almost the whole day. But now Noah is taking a nap and it's finally time to share my deals with you!! Half the fun is telling people. :) Here's what I found at Publix on Friday: And I got all this for $21.54!!! In case you can't see the photo well, this includes: 6 boxes...

Ahhh, the world of Couponing. Say hello to that blissful feeling you get when you know you exited a store with a deal. ;) Jen and I have been slowly embarking on this strange and wonderful new voyage, also known as Operation Cut Your Grocery Bills. Jen has been at it a little bit longer than I have, and we both feel like we're just starting to get the hang of it. You definitely have to change your mindset about buying groceries. Instead of buying what I need for this week, I am learning to stockpile groceries based on sales and stocking up on what I will need later . This way you save money by not having to pay full price for something because you need it now and have no choice but to buy it at whatever price it happens to be listed at. Perhaps someday I will be able to post a picture of a week's worth of groceries and be able to exclaim in the caption, "And I got all this for $22.97!" or some other equally unbelievable price. Believe me, there are people out there wh...