Good Shopping Day

My friend Mallory will probably be upset that I took the time to blog this today because she is on a fast from visiting her friend's blogs...I may have to email it to her since it's a fiscally responsible post.

Now that Publix has changed their Penny item day to Wednesday's with the coupon appearing in the Wednesday paper, it makes it a little more challenging for me to get on my game and make sure I'm getting deals on the things I buy.  However, it forces me to shorten my window of shopping to today on the items I already have coupons and deals for each week and I can wait until Sunday when the weekend coupons show up to finish out anything else I want to get for the week's flyer.

Today I did pretty good.  Total bill $154.33, actually spent $81.89 (72.44 in saving and of that, 35.68 was saved with actual coupons!)

Some of my better buys -

• 4 Pack of GE 60 watt lightbulbs - B1G1 at $1.89 for 2 and I had 2 coupons for $1.50 off each on GE lightbulbs (they only gave me actual value, so I didn't get the overage back, but hey, FREE lightbulbs!)
• Healthy Choice Entrees - Buy 5 for $10, already a decent deal for someone that eats in at work.  I had two coupons for $5 off 5, plus a Publix coupons for $1.00 off Healthy Choice, so I got all 10 meals for $.90 each.  Not a free lunch, but darn close!
• DelMonte Canned Vegetables - B1G1 at 1.29 for 2 and I had 2 coupons for $1 off of 4, so the net price per can was 0.39!  My kids still eat their vegetables, plus I can use them in chicken pot pies and other casseroles I make, so well worth the stock up.
• Aveeno Skin Care - 20% off.  I was able to get a facial cleanser and a scrub for 3.59 for each bottle because I had 2 coupons for $2.00 off any Aveeno product.  Who doesn't love cheap, but good for your skin, pampering items!
• Nabicso Crackers - 2 for $5, in itself, not outstanding, but I also had 2 coupons for $2.00 off of a purchase of 2, plus a coupon for $1.00 off Ritz Crackerfuls (the 4 cheese ones are AWESOME!) so for my 4 boxes (3 Triscuits and 1 Crackerfuls), I paid $1.25 each.  I love my Triscuits with hummus, mmmmmmmm.
• V8 Splash - B1G1 at $1.49 each, plus I had a $1.00 off purchase of 2, so I paid 0.50 per bottle (these are the 64oz. ones!)  I have not been making coffee at home on the mornings Cory is out of town - which is most of January, but have been filling up my to go cup with this juice instead, so definitely a good buy for me.

On top of this there were many other items in my cart, some I had coupons for, some I didn't to make up the rest- Gallon of Milk, 2 bags of Tostitos scoops ($3 a bag), 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes (.55 a can), 12 pack roll of Quilted Northern (4.99), Danative Vanilla 4pk (1.00), bananas, 2 bags of Goldfish ($1.00 per pack), 5 cans of Progresso Soup (.64 a can), Gold Bond 13 oz lotion, bottle of red wine, 2 boxes of Cheez Its ($1 a box), 2 - 8oz bags of Kraft shredded cheese, a $5.00 6 pack of Chicken Tenders from the deli the kids polished off on the trip through the store for supper and of course, the Penny Item - 64oz bottle of Publix White Grape Juice.

And...drum roll, my total cumulative shopping trips since January 1st are at $273.44 for the first 2 weeks.  Since I won't probably need anything much before next Wednesday, I might actually come in under my $500 per month household / food budget the very first month of the year!  Hooray for me!  (Especially since the overage goes to our savings for the addition to the house we have planned for the boys new "wing")

For those of you wondering, Duke is doing great.  His hair covers his forehead so unless you know there is something under there, he looks totally normal - and acts it too.  But it is purple on the edges and there is a bump...we'll see what this weekend brings.  He's not too happy he can't be in the bathtub and on top of it, his navy blue paci tore and I had to replace it with a light colored one from the closet on Monday night after the trauma of the day.  Apparently it isn't at "findable" in his crib in the middle of the night, because I have awoken to a wail of "Where Paci GO?!" several times in the past few nights, only to walk in and find his whole crib and everything in it tossed everywhere in his attempt to locate it.  Thank goodness once it's found, it's face down and snoooooze..................