Pretty In Plaid

Hi kids!

I know I haven't posted in a while...I've got about a million irons in the fire right now and time just got away from me, but I did want to tell you about a great book coming out today. Well, I can't actually tell you it's a great book because I haven't read it yet. But I will. Probably today. All of it. It's called Pretty In Plaid: A Life,  a Witch, and a Wardrobe or The Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart Ass Phase.

At any rate, Jen Lancaster is a blogger and an author that I love. And I mean love. In a pink, puffy paint heart kind of way. I am a huge fan of good memoir-style books and she is the queen. She's written three other books and they are so worn and dog eared at my house that I may have to buy new copies just to be able to see the print. And I'm not a "read things more than once" type of gal, typically. If you'd like to enjoy a taste of her writing, head on over to her blog to check it out. She's been doing some great photo posting on the 80's that I can promise you'll enjoy.

My favorite one of her books is Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie Is Not the Answer. (She is the queen of the subtitle.) If you've ever struggled with your weight--and let me clarify. Being a size four and feeling like "you've got a little baby weight you're still trying to get off" does NOT count as "struggling" and, in fact, makes the rest of us not like you when you talk about it incessantly at the gym. But I digress. Such A Pretty Fat will have you laughing so hard--out loud--that it will actually count as an ab workout. As I said, I have read it so many times that the cover is starting to wear off. 

So because I've enjoyed the rest of her books so much, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll enjoy this new one out today. So go grab it and have a good laugh. And grab the other ones while you're at it...they're all out in paperback. I promise you'll thank me later. You'll thank me before you've even READ the books because the subtitles are so great. 

Hope all's well in your worlds. I'll get back to some money-saving stuff soon. :)

Great Post from Stephanie at TotallyTogether.com

This is a post from one of my favorite folks in the blogging world. It's spot on and kind of summarizes the turning points and decisions I've made in my own life over the last year. Read and enjoy!

Kroger and Publix this week!

There are good deals out there this week! Especially if you've been clipping multiple papers' worth of coupons! Here are my favorite deals at Publix and Kroger:

PUBLIX:

Marie Calendar's Pasta Al Dente Frozen Entrees--BOGO for $2.99 at Publix which makes them about $1.50 each. If you have the coupon from a week or so ago you can get another $.75 off, which makes these only $.75 each. I haven't tried them, but they look yummy so I bought FIVE! :)

Glade Candles--BOGO for $3.49. This makes them about $1.75 each. When you add in the $1/2 coupon from the paper a couple of weeks ago, it makes them only $1.25 each. And they smell yummy!

Campbell's Cream Soups are a dollar each this week and there are assorted coupons out there to make those even cheaper.

Advil is on sale this week--a 50 count bottle for $4.49. There was a $1 off coupon in (I think) last week's paper, so for less than $3.50 you can get a 50 count bottle of Advil.

Quaker Oatmeal is on sale for $1.99. I used a $1/2 coupon and a $1/1 coupon, bought three boxes and got three boxes for less than four bucks.

My total at Publix today was $18.76 and I saved $26.76

KROGER:

Milk is on sale for $1.99 so I bought two gallons of that with expiration dates pretty far out. That's a good price for milk. Some folks will buy and freeze, but I just don't want to risk yucky milk, so I don't do the freezer thing. If you're brave, give it a whirl..this is a great price.

Kellogg's Cereals--on sale for between $2 and $3 a box depending on the brand. A couple of weeks ago there were $1/1 coupons in the paper, so I bought two boxes of pretty cheap cereal today.

Angel Soft Toilet Tissue: Four pack sells for $1.28. There have been coupons for $.50 off lately, so when doubled, that gets you a four pack of tissue for $.28. I bought five. Love cheap TP!

Starbucks Chocolate: The small (3 oz) bars are on sale this week for 2/$3 (remember you don't have to buy both to get the sale price). This makes each bar $1.50. There was a $1/1 coupon recently in the paper, so you can use that with the sale to get some good chocolate cheap! Fifty cents...can't beat that! I bought five...we'll see how long they last. :)

Split Chicken Breasts are on sale for $.99 a pound this week as well. That's a decent deal on chicken. I bought a pack today, brought it home, trimmed off the skin and threw it in the crockpot. I sprinkled on some poultry seasoning and wrapped it all up in about four pieces of bacon. How easy was that and trust me, I will have happy boys at my house tonight!

My Kroger total OOP today was $36.51 (I bought quite a bit of produce and some other odds and ends not mentioned above) and I saved $22.08. Not as great as Publix, but Kroger never really is. You can't argue with twenty-eight cent toilet paper, though. You just can't. :)

Have a great week shopping! Let me know if you find any other great deals!

Here is one of my favorite resources for Publix deals and here is one of my favorite resources for nearly everything else.

Wal Mart

Here's a link to a posting of some of the newest and best ongoing deals at Wal Mart. They don't double coupons, so your Qs won't go as far, but of course their prices are low to begin with so sometimes it's still worth a trip. Check out what's on sale and you be the judge!

Krogering Again

If you haven't been to Kroger to get your free deodorant, hurry! You only have a day or so left! Suave deodorant is 10/$10 this week and a few weeks ago there was a coupon in the paper for $.50 off, which of course Kroger doubles to make free deodorant! I bought five when I finally found a Kroger last night with them in stock! In addition, Pilsbury brownies (10/$10) are almost free with $.35 off coupon from the paper and if you haven't started buying your Johnson's Buddies, remember that you get catalina (register) coupons to make them almost free once you buy your first two. Those are definitely my favorite deals at Kroger this week, so get them while they last!

Don't forget that you can get a rain check for these items if your store is out!

Organization

I've gotten several questions lately on how I stay motivated with all of my couponing. First off, the amount of money I'm saving is certainly the biggest factor in what keeps me going. I've found, though, that staying organized and on top of my game from week to week is really important as well. I thought I'd share my process with you so that you can see how I make sense of so many papers each week and manage to keep them in some semblance of order. We all know that the most frustrating thing in the world is knowing there's a coupon for something somewhere in all of our "stuff" but having no idea where it is.

Here's how I process my papers each week.

1. First, I separate the insert into individual pages and collate them by page. I usually do five papers each week so I tear each insert apart and stack them five at a time. This helps later when I'm clipping them because I clip all five at one time by stacking the pages. It doesn't always make for the prettiest coupons, but it gets the job done a lot faster than trying to do each page individually. This week I was behind by a week (NEVER A GOOD IDEA!!!) and so I had a HUGE stack of paper to get through. Here's the stack before I actually started to cut...

2. After I separate the coupons out by pages, then I lay out my index cards. I have one index card for each page in my coupon binders. As I cut the coupons I sort them by category. They fill my coffee table:

...and they also carry over onto the floor as well.

3. Clip, clip, clip. I only do this after the kids are in bed and while there's hopefully something relatively interesting on TV because--no doubt about it--this is BORING. It has to be done, though, so it's best to multitask while you're working on it.

4. As I clip, I sort by category and lay the coupons out on the index cards as I go through them. It ends up looking something like this:

Once everything is clipped and laying on the index cards, it only takes a second to flip through your binder and insert the coupons into their appropriate pages. I keep the index cards in order so that this part of the process goes really quickly. I hate all the flipping around in the book, so that's why I created this system to organize before I start trying to put things into the books.

If you stay on top of things each week, this really doesn't take all that long once you have your system down. Is it fun? Not really. Is it helpful and useful and worth every minute? Without a doubt!!

Quick Kroger Trip today

Well, unfortunately I got all of this put away before I had taken a picture and I'm far too lazy to get it all back out for a photo op. :) At any rate, I wanted to make you guys aware of some good deals going on at Kroger this week. Pilsbury brownies are on sale 10 for $10 this week, which makes them a dollar each. A couple of weeks ago there were coupons for $.35 off a Pilsbury brownie mix in the paper. Once Kroger doubles that, the brownie mixes are $.30 each. Can't beat that! I bought 5. (Another perk to buying multiple papers!) 

In addition, Suave deodorants are on sale for 10 for $10 and there were .50 off coupons a few weeks ago in the paper for those, which makes them FREE! Unfortunately I can't find a Kroger with them in stock, but I'm going to keep looking!

In addition to the brownie mixes, I also bought three more Johnson's Buddies with a coupon for $2.50 off of three and got another coupon to do the same deal next time I go. If you haven't started stocking up on free or almost free Johnson's Buddies soaps, you're missing out. I'm up to about 20 in my stockpile, but my pal Katie has to be over 60 by now. Insane, right? But she's using them for her kids' treat bags at their birthday parties...great idea, right?! And they're FREE! 

Hope you can snag some good deals at Kroger this week...the 10 for $10 sale is always a good time to stock up!