Kroger Coupon Trip 6-19-13

Another Kroger Coupon Trip!

Basically this time I went in for some last minute bargains before the buy 4 save $4 sale is over. Plus I only have 8 more days until I deliver my baby, so maybe only one more trip after this until I am on bed rest with the baby. This was a pretty good trip with it being $62.67 in retail, and only paying $20.35 out of pocket. That is a 67% savings, as well as $6 in catalinas I got for my next purchase. The savings percent would have been higher on this trip, but we decided to take advantage of this weeks buy 10 get 5 free sale, which was all the canned goods in the picture and the two boxes of Mac and Cheese. 

The two different CAT's I got back were from buying the Oscar Mayer Bologna, buy 4 get a $3 CAT. I got two Bacon and two Turkey this trip and threw them in the freezer. The other $3 CAT I got was from buying the Bayer Low Dose Aspirin. I basically am not a big fan of them, but the CAT makes them free, and my roommate and boyfriend will use them, so a win win!

As ALWAYS all my coupon match ups were done on Kroger Krazy, please feel free to check it out, the lady that runs the site is AWESOME.

OH! I got so excited at the register to find out that my Krogers is a high doubler!! Which means ANY coupon I have over 50 cents automatically becomes 99 cents at the register! How cool is that? Any thing under 50 cents just plain doubles, but I was under the impression my local Kroger was a low doubler, and anything over 50 cents just stayed the same! 

Most of all I couldn't have had such a good shopping trip if it were not for my wonderful boyfriend, Justin. He is so helpful and great at helping me keep totals and balances right for all my trips.

Krogers Coupon Trip 6-11-13

Made  BIG Krogers coupon trip today! Very happy with how it turned out! The retail on this was $110.29 and I only paid $37.46! I am gonna post some details on how I got this deal, but for the most part I just picked and chose which items I wanted from the match up on Kroger Krazys. So please feel free to check out her site and get yourself some bargains too! Just click the link above.

Now nearly half my purchase cost was the pop. It is on sale three 12 packs for $9.00. I ended up with 6 of the 12 packs(for $18) and used $4 in newspaper coupons, making it 6 of the 12 packs for only $14. Which is pretty awesome at $2.33 per 12 pack of name brand pop. Which to my surprise each 12 pack of Dr. Pepper 10 came with a free redbox rental! So we basically get $2.56 in free stuff (redbox in my area is up to $1.28 a night per movie).

The Airwick Freshmatic was FREE, after sale and coupon, and then the refills after sale and coupon cost me  $3.98. So for the entire set up, I paid $3.98 which normally retails for $9.97.

The 4 Smart Balance Butters I paid 84 cents each for in the end, because my Kroger retails them at $2.59 each, instead of the lower estimate I got from Kroger Krazys. That's still a HUGE savings, so not a big deal to me.

The Pampers baby wipes (72 count) retailed at $2.49 each, after sale and my coupons I paid 49 cents each, and got two packs. Trust me, if I had more coupons I would have gotten more!

Now before every coupon trip I write out a detailed list of what items I am getting, along with the appropriate price before and after coupons. This way if there is a price difference, which happens, I can adjust my trip and decide if the discount is still enough to buy the item. This trip worked out very well, considering it was pretty complicated. First off Kroger is have a buy 4 participating items, get $4 off your purchase sale, so if I wanted the discount I needed to get my items in sets of 4. One item I had planned to buy my Kroger did not carry, so there went 2 items off my transaction, which threw it off. But later on in the trip another pair of items I learned were not in the sale, so it evened out, only 4 items I didn't get. Had it been different, say I had 3 sale items, I would have had to make that hard choice, do I get something I didn't plan to get, just to get my $4 off? Or do I put 3 items back? I am very happy this trip went so smoothly and if I can gather up another list of items I may make another round this week, since this sale is pretty awesome.

30 Week Maternity Photos

We took 30 week maternity photos a week ago and got them back today. I just wanted to share a few of them on here that were my favorites. I love ENB Photography, who did my photos, we had a lot of fun.

This one I love and the one below because in between pictures Justin thought it was funny to blow on my belly button. Which kept making me laugh and giggle.

I love the heart hands, this little guy is my whole world.

This one came out so pretty, Justin and I making a heart on my belly over Aries.

I really like the symbolism in this one, because it is half Justin and half me making a heart, and that's exactly what this baby is, half of each of us.

I really loved all our photos and can't wait to go back for more after our little one is born.

Pinterest

Pinterest. The first time I heard the word I was mostly confused. The first person who told me about it made it sound like eh. So did I get into the Pinterest craze right away? No, not really. The main reason being I had no concept of what it really was. Pinterest is a private community for the creative. Or I should say that is what it is for me. It is a gathering place for ideas and concepts. Want to learn how to knit? Start at Pinterest. I guarantee they will have suggestions for buying the cheapest supplies, how to do it, and a pattern for anything you could want. Want to share your fashion sense? Start a board for it. All ideas are gathered in the form of boards. Similar to the idea of pinning a picture to a bulletin board. Other people can come along and pin your picture to their board so they can use it later. I have a board just for a Wishlist. So if I ever had a friend who wanted to shop for me, I can always refer them to my Wishlist for helpful ideas. I also have one to keep all my wedding ideas together and one for crafts I want to make. I learned to decoupage from links I found on Pinterest! Pinterest is a exclusive community so you must be referred or approved to join first. I was very lucky to have a facebook friend who was able to refer me. Below are just a few of the neat ideas I have used off Pinterest in my home!



 Above: This is the condiments drawer in my fridge. I hated fishing around for what I wanted so I often never used them at all. I went to Target and for 88 cents each got these little plastic trays that fit right in the drawer. I sorted out what we had and now it is easy to find what we need right away!



Above: This is most of the ribbon I own. With Chris's help we built me a productive display that hangs from the ceiling so that I can pull off any amount that I want of ribbon or I can easily remove the rod and pull the roll off itself. It is also very light weight. This cost me about $6 to make.

Above: I found this idea to be brilliant. We originally had our batteries every where. Then we had narrowed them down to a drawer. Well they still rolled around every where and we never knew if we had very many of one type, etc. Well, now we put them in a small tackle type box that I paid a $1 for at a auction. Now the batteries are always sorted and I know when we are low on one size or another so I can keep it stocked!

Droid X

Well, today I upgraded my phone. Which was desperately needed because the one I had was severely lacking in memory. So with my options and price range ahead of me, I went to the Verizon store on Towne Blvd in Middletown, Ohio. Which, by the way, is my local store. I did have the option of a samsung phone that was similar and cheaper, but overall was literally less phone. So I ended up spending $200 out of pocket, and getting the Droid X. So far my experience with it has been great. I am loving the huge amount of space. I have 3 GB on my SD card and 6 GB internal storage remaining. It is all touch screen, which I have previously used with my iPhone. So that isn't too bad. One of main key points that led me to this phone was the size. It is really big like the iPhone as well. Which makes it easier to work with. Even though I have always preached you buy a phone to use as a phone, I don't use a phone as a phone any more. This is my Internet, GPS, text messaging, weather checking, facebook updating, calculator, camera, that also is a phone. It is crazy, because six years ago when I got my first cell phone, it was literally just that, a cell phone.

Just think, if we can go that far in six years, what can the future hold for us?

Super Bargain Shopping Trip!

Okay, so I had a little time today to make it out to Walmart thanks to my friend Jeremy. The roads are really snowy and bad so he was nice enough to drive me out there. They were having a big sale on the Miley Cyrus/ Max Azria line of clothes, Valentines Day clothes, and some other odds and ends they had. So I went and got myself some really nice stuff really cheap! I ended up spending roughly $45 and I came home and added up the tag value WITHOUT tax which came to $235!! That means I saved $190! Which for some of the tags I couldn't find the full price but a previous mark down price only. So that means I saved even more, I just don't know how much. This was a AWESOME trip over all!! I also got a outfit for my mom and for my little brother!


This is a sexy bomber jacket for only $3, when it was orginally $20!

These jeans were orginally $15 each and I got two pairs for only $3 each. One pair for me and my mom.

These two sets are sweatshirt/jackets with Tshirts, and I paid only $3 each! The one is Betty Boop and the other is Tinker Bell.

Then these three shirts I paid only $1 each and they are from the Miley Cyrus/ Max Azria line, very cute, and I am going to wear a thin strap tank underneath.

It has been interesting. I am going to get tested next Tuesday to find out if I have Lyme Disease. I am nervous because I want to have it and not to have it at the same time. It would mean a cure for so many little problems and yet it would mean one big problem. Things are good between me and Justin. I love him as much as ever. Right now Sam is cuddled up next to me, draped over my arm. I am going to volunteer tomorrow, and I am taking Holden with me. He is going with me because I am spending most of the day with him. Mickey is going into the hospital for most of the day to have tests done. I think I am going to meet Justin's sisters on Friday. I am kinda excited about that. He talks about them often, and then I have a big baby shower gift for his one sister.

Things are going great at Clothing Without Walls. I really enjoy volunteering there. I enjoy the fact that I am helping people. We have been increasing sales a lot lately, which I am super happy about. I hope we can catch up on the rent soon. Once we get the basement organized I want to get some more local churches involved with volunteering and donations, I would love to see more traffic there and to have it more well known. It is nice because Justin goes with me every Tuesday and then Chris goes with me at least once a week. So I am not doing it all by myself.

So much has happened today. I had a good day, a bad day, and just a day all together. I feel worn out, happy and depressed all in one. Why does life have to be so up and down? It started out with Justin going to court and my dad went with him. He got the tickets reduces partially, but in the end they all came out $830. We have until the end of the year to pay them. It is just so much, and the car is totaled too. I still owe $8,000 on the car as well. Then we went home and unloaded half the garage to get out the extra washing machine, because my older machine died. That was a hassle. We stored a bunch of Justins crap in the trunk of the Sebring. He needs to sort through it, so we just stuck it in there. I also found some Christmas presents for the kids in there, that I will give them for their birthday. Then Krystal called and invited us over for a pizza and movie night. Which was super awesome. We had a blast over there. I had a lot of fun just joking around with her and Dale. We were watching the Alien and Predator movies. They know all kinds of neat information about the movies. We watched two and a half movies. I think we will be going back soon to watch the rest of the movies they have.

But the other bad news of the day was when we finally picked up the car from the shop. They did some stuff for free, which was awesome. But Justin didn't take very good care of this car and there was a lot wrong with it. The total bill came out to $800. Which just blew me away all together. But it runs pretty nice. My dad still needs to replace the spark plug wires. Magnum did a really awesome job on the car and I would refer them to anyone any day. The bill was high, but any where else I would have had at least over a grand total. So they are pretty awesome. I just don't know how we are going to get out of all this debt. I am going to go over to moms house tomorrow and work on the bills then. I picked up my check from work and it was small. I am just stressed over the whole thing. I don't know how we are going to catch up. :(

Tomorrow is Thanks Giving and I am pretty excited all together. I bought that last of what I needed today and dropped it off at my moms house. We are all gathering over there. I am working in the evening that day. That leaves me plenty of time to eat. I volunteered to work on Friday. I could use the extra hours and the extra pay. I got paid today. I picked up dog food while I was out. These dogs eat a lot! But I love my babies, so I wouldn't have them any other way. I got a bunch of errands ran today, but not much done around the house. I hope I get enough sleep on Thursday night so I can get up early and get a little bit of shopping done before I have to work. Wal-Mart should be packed because of the sale. Other then that, nothing much else to write about.

I worked again tonight. I enjoyed it. After work I bought a new shirt they had marked down. I got a lot of things done today. I got a load of laundry ran, did dishes, made two postcards, addressed eight postcards and got them mailed off, I bought three new shirts for work, I gave Jeremy the outfit for his mom, and I fed the cat. So I was fairly busy until Justin got off work. Me and Jeremy picked him up from work today. I love being around him. He is so good to me. He did a bunch of house work while I was at work today too. Which makes me really proud of him. I was talking to a lady today about going back to cosmetology school. We work together as cashiers. She said there were grants and stuff I would be able to get. So I am anxious to see what might happen. I think it would be good for me to finish and have that as a part time job. I am starting a change jar to raise money to get Zoe declawed and a change jar to get Garth fixed. Zoe clawed Asia in the eye today. Which really makes me mad. Asia is in love with that cat. She looks ok, but I want to wait and see how she is the next few days before I know for sure if she messed up her vision or something. Oh, I was so mad when it happened too. Zoe was lucky I had to go to work. I don't mind Zoe clawing Asia, because she does try to play with her and stuff, but she didn't need to claw her face like that. Then with Garth, I really don't need him humping Asia and I don't want Coco to have another litter yet. Spooky is the weirdest cat I have ever had. I think she went to the bathroom on the living room vent. But she is also the most loving cat I have ever had. Oh and it turns out Chris was right, Zoe's kitten is a boy. He is so cute too. I started calling him tater tot today because he is almost the right color for that. Krystal stopped by to return some books. It is always nice to have her visit. She may have gotten this amazing job, which would be cool. I am anxious to see how that works out. I am waiting to hear from a guy who is supposed to appraise my house!! Then I will be able to get it refinanced so we will have a much smaller house payment. I am very very excited about that. My insurance is up at the end of the month, but I am going to see about what I can do to get on Medicaid and food stamps and stuff until I get back on my feet. I am only working part time at walmart right now, and then they approved me for unemployment. It isn't much, but every little bit helps. Well, I am going to head off to bed now, Spooky is sleeping on my back.

Well, today has been fairly productive. I got a bunch of stuff ready for hte lard sale and hung out with Krystal for once. She is a awesome person to hange out with and I got a lot done. Coco is napping and laying here on my lap. I love her so much! Oh, and we went and drove around town a little to look at some of the houses we are interested in buying. I think I may buy a house now instead of the apartment building. But there are several triplexes and fourplexes I am interested in too. But I am not going to even go look at the insides until I get this house ready to go on the market. I can't afford both while I am on the income I am now. With all the over time I am working though, I might be able to catch up. I am considering taking a second position at Prairie Meadows instead of working as much over time, because I am hitting a hard tax bracket and making squat. If my checks were separate it wouldn't be so bad. There is a opening in the gift shop I a would like. So I am going to apply for that and see how it goes. That is my update for the day.

Stove

I am gonna get a stove! I have been talking to this lady in Prairie City and she can even deliver it! So I am very excited. I haven't had a stove in months. So real cooking can happen now! I am very excited. When I get paid on Friday we will be making arrangements to get it. My check should be pretty hefty because I have 34 hours overtime on it. So yes, I am very excited about a stove.

I have a awesome lady I work with named Nicole and me and her chat all the time. I can't exactly remember how she came up with it, but she thought I should name the puppy Asia. I thought about it and went home and played with her a bit, and the name really does fit! So the new babies name is Asia. I don't know what Coco's deal is today, but she has been super cuddly and kissy. I love her so much. Asia is opening her eyes now, and is starting to make new noises. I swear Garth meowed once, so Asia makes some odd noises. But I love her to death to. My puppies are my life!

Remodeling HELP!!

Ok, guys, I am working like 50-60 hours a week, and I have to finish geting my house remodeled. For the most part it is easy stuff, but then a few hard things. If anyone can help I can pay them money, but not until a few weeks from now, and it wont be much, or I can give you some food, some furniture, and possiably some other stuff. Here are the things I need done:
Easy StuffPainting 3 roomsLaying down sticky squares of floor in kitchen and bathroomscrape wall paper off bathroom wallwash bathroom wallcut pipes for shower curtain(I need a hack saw)Paint bathroomput up wall paper in bathroomhang mirrors in bathroom.
Hard StuffRun two electric outlets, one for stove, one for fridgelight the pilot on my gas water heater
Please please people HELP ME!!! The sooner I get this done I can get this place on the market and get into my apartment building! Plus My house is in shambles! Make me a deal, help me out!

First Snow

I have not blogged in a while. I keep intending to but, I have been really busy. Yesterday and the day before were my first two days of work. The orientation went very well. I wasn't too bored and actually had some fun. I am now TIPS certified. Our water went out here at the house, because Jeremy broke a valve. It really wasn't his fault. He just set a box on a pipe that was about to die anyway. When Chris removed it he told me that it was corroded. Things are going pretty well now. Today is my day off. I don't work again until Saturday. I am excited about it. I am not sure when I get off though. Because it says I work from 2pm to close. Well if you know Prairie Meadows, you would know that it is open 24 hours a day. I am going to be working part time, but as soon as a full time position opens up I am going to try to go after it for sure. I don't get any benefits or anything until I am full time. Me and Mom still aren't getting along. It really bums me out. She promised that her and Butch would help out with all these repairs with the house and they just let me down again. Chris is starting to pull through for me though. He has some one lined up to do the re-wiring. Plus we are going to be working on water proofing the basement soon. I am really excited about that.
Oh and the most exciting thing that has happened all day is today was first snow!! And oh boy is it snowing. It has been snowing for like the past couple of hours, and I think we are coming up on 6 inches! If it keeps coming at this rate, then we may have a foot or more! At first it was kind of light,, and then the big fluffy flakes started coming down. It is sticking to everything but the road. There it just turns kinda mushy.
Zoe my cat has been out and about a lot more lately. I like having her around. It is like a sign of leisure and comfort. She is always resting some where. Her usual spot is on the small table in the middle of the room. Right now she is laying on my sewing table, right in front of the window. There must be something special about the spot because she isn't getting any warmth, and no sun really. It is still light out, but it is usually dark around five now. Chris told me the other night that it was very weird to him for it to be so dark so early.
The puppies have been good. Garth is getting more and more social. He will come and curl up with you now while you are watching TV. But don't let Coco see, because then she will have to be on your lap too. Then the fighting will ensue. They are funny yo watch play. I love them to death. I was worried for a while that I was allergic to Garth, because it seemed like when I was around him my sinuses would act up. But now I realize it is just the season and I have try to keep things more clean inside. I have to vacuum a lot more because the dander can get to me. I made sure to pick up some anti-histamines at the store, so when I do get all stuffed up I have some thing I can take. Plus Jeremy has been having the same issue.
Chris has been doing okay health wise, with he exception of his fatigue. His job is really straining him because he is not on a regular work schedule. So I don't know how to help him. He says he wants another job, but wants to keep this job. Which I understand he is good at it, plus it is very secure. They need him and trust him there. But he needs to make more money. He said that he would wait on getting his own car so he could get a computer for his college. But I think he is going to regret that choice once he has to walk home from work in the snow. I don't know what to do though. I am going to have to wait and see what my pay checks are going to look like first.
Speaking of pay, I am hoping that I do get a lot of hours, because I want to be able to get Chris and Jeremy good Christmas gifts. I want this Christmas to be really special. Since it is the first one in our new home. Plus the three of us will be here all together. Oh and I don't know if I put this on here yet, but Jeremy has found out when he starts college. I can't remember the exact date, but it is in the beginning of Feb. SO I am really excited for him. I am so proud of him too, all his hard work. He is getting straight A's. Plus he has lost a lot of weight. He just really amazes me. That's why he totally deserves a wonderfully awesome Christmas gift.

Pretty Good Day

Today has beena long and interesting day overall. I had my interview and had to watch Mickey before and some after. I picked up Holden from school too. Jeremy went with me. It was nice to have his company. My interview went AWESOME!!! I got the job as a banquet server. I am really excited about starting there. I got Coco and Garth many different types of flea protection. I think I put too much stuff on Garth because he started acting sick just a little while ago. I am holding him now and typing one handed. So it is slow going. But I love to blog. Coco is sleeping on my lap too. We watched the movie The Invisible. OMG it was really good. I cried. Like a lot. I really liked the movie though. Jeremy recommended it for us to watch. He has really good taste in movies. Chris made tacos for dinner, but Zoe ate the leftovers while we were watching the movie. She was very stealth. My mom is working at getting on at Prairie Meadows too. She was talking to them today. I picked up my paycheck from GoodWill today too. Chris gets paid tomorrow. So we will be doing much better really soon. I bought food today. We really needed it. I need to re-apply all of us for food stamps. We need it really bad. There is never really enough to eat around here. Plus it doesn't help we can't keep any freezer food because we are still using a tiny bar fridge. Eh, but I am off to bed now.

Ewww mostly

Well, I think I am sick, at least this is what Chris tells me. Earlier he orders me to go lay down, I sleep, I get up, he feels head, and says you sick. So I guess I am sick. I feel like crap, but it is that time of the month, so I just thought it was crap, and now I get the joy of special crap! Oh, and my sweet Cy stayed in the bedroom the whole time I was napping. My sweet doggy was worried about me. I love him so much. Jeremy got paid today, and we went to the bank and filled up his gas tank. I got a whole bunch of bills in the mail today, which oddly is a good thing, because I need to know when to pay them. I have to do all kinds of math and bill stuff tomorrow. Also I have to call MediaCom and bitch because they are chargeing me for a phone I don't have! Ah, but they have sealed their fate, and I am going through a different company when we move! I am so tired of their crap! Chris has been my knight in shinning armor, he has been taking care of me so well. I am so lucky to have him here. I will probably just work until I died!

Helping Move

Zack was over helping Linda move today. She is so nice. She paid us today and I am so grateful. I am going to get all of our house money together and I should be hearing from the bank today. I am so excited. I am so excited about moving and everything. Not much longer it seems! I took Zack over to the Mery-Go-Round and bought him a nice leather coat. Then we went over to the Dressing Room and got some white under shirts really cheap. Chris has been running laundry all day, trying to catch up.

Home

I am at home for a little bit. Zack had his interview over at the econolodge. And he got the job!!Yay!! I am trying to find some way to get paid for blogging, since I love to do it and would like to write product reviews. Chris Jeremy and Zack are going to be getting paid this week and I am happy because we have bills to pay. Zack is going to be moving in here soon! Thats also kinda exciting for me too!!