Have you ever been watching a TV show and something that was said resonated so deeply that you had a profound epiphany at that moment?

I was watching a talk show and the guest and the host were discussing health issues and why the woman hadn't changed her life-style habits. The host made a point to say that she needed to love herself enough to make the changes.

In that moment I realized that I need to love myself enough to make the changes in my life to lose some more weight. I've made a lot of changes over the last couple years. I am healthier and feel much better then I did a few years back. My blood pressure is better. I even managed to lose about 10 lbs and right now I've kept it off for 2 years. But it's time to step it up. 10 pounds is good but to really be healthy I need to lose about 70 lbs all together.

So, I need to make some more changes.  I am not sure what my next steps will be, but I am going to keep changing for the better.

Crock Pot Potato Soup

Since some friends have requested my recipe I decided to go ahead and type it up.  I don't often use recipes so my dishes come out different every time. This time the soup was awesome and I don't know that I would have changed one thing about it so I will share it with you.

This recipe is for a large 6 quart crockpot since I have a family of 5 including 3 teenagers (which often means extra visitors in the house too) so you will have to cut it down if your family is smaller.

I started the soup just before noon figuring that dinner would be served around 7 or so. Schedules around here are chaotic on Sundays because my daughter is a worship leader for her youth group and my husband works the lights during church services. That made this meal perfect since it could sit in the crock pot until everyone was home.

Start by putting your base ingredients in the pot.

1 standard carton of swansons chicken broth
1 3lb bag of potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tablespoons of green onions or scallions diced (optional yellow or white onions chopped work as well )
1 tablespoon of chicken base (bouillon cubes would work too)
4 cups of water (or just enough to fill about 2/3 of the pot)

At this point I did some seasoning with garlic powder and onion salt, salt and pepper. Just remember that potatoes absorb all the salt in a dish so don't salt to much at this point. You WILL have to salt again.  I set my crock pot on high for 6 hours.

At the last 30-45 minutes I reset the crock pot on high again.  I used my blender to make my thickening mix. 

Thickening mix:
1 1/2 cups of milk,
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of the potatoes from the soup
1 tub of Philladelphia Cooking Creme in the Savory Garlic flavor
1/2 cup of shredded cheese (I used a taco blend)

I blended the mix until smooth and then poured it in the crockpot with the soup. This pretty much filled my crock pot almost to the top. I mixed the soup until it started to thicken. Let it continue to cook for the last 30 or so minutes until it is the thickness you desire. At this point I salt and peppered one last time. Then I turned off the crock pot and it is ready to serve. I served with shredded cheese and oyster crackers on the side.

One note: don't add any dairy products too early in the cooking process; milk, cooking creme, sour cream etc. If added too early they will curdle in your pot.

It was a big hit with my family and our guest and my husband will be taking some for lunch tomorrow too. It's a great winter crock pot recipe!

How much did I actually spend on Halloween candy?

I want to follow-up on my Halloween candy scores.  Usually, before I started couponing, I would run out the day before or day of and buy it last minute. That would usually mean I spent about $20-25 on the cheapest candy I could find at Walmart which includes the pixie sticks, smarties, etc. If you have kids, or even if you don't then you probably know that is the undesirable candy and that most of us prefer the chocolate candy bars. If you are in the minority that doesn't like chocolate, I feel sorry for you. :)

So this year I started early in the month watching for good deals on fun size or snack size candy bars. Boy did I score!

My first deal was good. I ended up paying about $1.50 a bag for 3 large bags of  fun size M &Ms and Snickers. These are the large 19 to 22 oz bags that usually run an average of $5 or more a bag. Then over the course of the next couple weeks I picked up 6 more small bags of candy. These were the 10 to 11.18 oz bags of candy that average $3.50 or more and occasionally are on sale for $2.50 a bag. My final price per bag for these was $0.50-0.99 a bag.

Here's my final score list:
11.18 oz bag of Snickers                                                              $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Hershey's Cookies and Creme bars                    $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Kit Kat bars                                                        $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Kit Kat bars                                                        $0.99
10.23 oz bag of Snickers with Almonds                                      $0.49
10.23 oz bag of Snickers with Almonds                                      $0.49
11.23 oz bag of Peanut M&Ms                                                    $1.50
19.07 oz bag of M&Ms                                                                $1.50
22.55 oz bag of Snickers                                                              $1.50

Total Price                                                                                   $9.44

So to recap I bought 9 bags of candy for under $10. That means I cut my normal candy cost more than in half and it was all the good stuff. There was enough for me to fill my candy bowl for Trick or Treaters and still have some left over to go in the candy jar for my husband and older teenagers.

This is just one of many examples of ways to save money with a little preparation and planning.

It's Super Doubles at Harris Teeter!!

It's Super Doubles at Harris Teeter.  That means stock up time on a lot of products.  Today was my big shopping day, where I spend a couple hours going through the store combing the isles for deals and freebies.  Wednesday I work out of the home at a job and so I only had about 30 minutes in the store to grab a few must have items and deals. Here is the run down of my scores from those two trips.

2 Tabasco pepper sauces
3 cans of Furmans crushed tomatoes
4 Martha White Muffin mixes
1 Lysol disinfectant wipes
2 Morton season salts
1 Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1 San Pelegrino Sparkling water
4 cans Blue Diamond flavored Almonds
2 boxes Celestial flavored teas
1 Hidden Valley Salad Mix
1 Buitonni 4 cheese and spinach ravioli meal
1 box of New York Texas Toast
1 tub of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream
2 tubs of Philadelphia Cooking Creme
1 tub of HT Ricotta Cheese
2 doz HT large eggs
2 packages of Mission Artisan Multi grain Tortillas
4 bags of Krunchers Potato Chips
4 Boxes of Nut Thins
1 Carpet Fresh
1 A1 Steak Sauce
2 Dr Pepper 2L
2 pkgs Dentek Easy Interdental Brush Cleaners
1 Country Crock tub of butter
2 Best Life tubs of margarine


Spent Total OOP $26.30
received one catalina for $4 on next purchase

Retail Value $177.28.

Just a note on some of my tips and tricks of the trade.

Take advantage of catalina deals:  I used one $4 catalina "on your next purchase" yesterday that I received last week from the purchase of 4 boxes of Blue Diamond Nut Thins. Received another catalina yesterday from the purchase of 4 more boxes of Nut Thins. Rolled that one today and received another catalina from the purchase of 4 cans of Blue Diamond flavored almonds.  Since the Blue Diamond products are on sale B1G1 free, that is a great deal even without the coupons, but since I had $1 coupon on 2 (that doubles to $2 off) this deal makes me $2 each time I roll the catalina. Great way to decrease my OOP (out of pocket)!!

Check out other sites that offer coupons:
I also had a coupon for $10 off $50 spent from Recycle Bank. It's a great way to go green and earn points towards purchasing other savings coupons and prizes.  Check them out here.

One additional note here....I also use Swagbucks. They have a coupon section that is the same coupons on coupons.com and I receive 10 swagbucks for every coupon redeemed.  The swagbucks are awarded to my account a couple weeks after I use the coupon and then I redeem all my swagbucks for Amazon gift cards to purchase books for the kids' homeschooling  or books for my Kindle. Check out swagbucks here.

Take advantage of rebate offers and combine coupons when possible: There is a rebate for the Lysol wipes that will refund me $3 (the retail purchase price of the wipes was $2.99, but I had a $1 off coupon that doubled to $2 off making the wipes only $0.99).  That means I will make an additional $2 off this shopping trip when my rebate arrives.

Take advantage of your grocery store ad deals such as meal deals and make sure to check your member cards and receipts for additional savings:  HT had a meal deal this week where when you purchase the Buittoni meal for two, then you also get the San Pellegrino sparkling water, the New York Texas Toast, and the Haagen-Dazs ice cream all for free. The meals were priced $9.99 but I had a evic offer last week on my receipt saying I would get $2 off if I purchased a Buittoni meal by 11/15.  Then I also had a coupon ( I believe it may have came from the November All You magazine) for $1.50 off that doubled to $3 off the meal. That brings my total spent for all 4 items down to $4.99.

One final note: Make sure to watch the cashier ring up your coupons and double check your receipts. They will often miss coupons and things don't always ring up correctly. These mistakes could cost you a lot of money over time. Just today I found that my Texas Toast didn't come off my bill and the full price of the San Pellegrino didn't either.  I will have to make a trip to customer service tomorrow to take care of those charges. Also today I went to CVS and the cashier missed one of my ECB coupons. Luckily she realized  it and handed it back to me. That's about $10 in mistakes all in one day!

At the end of the day it was a great day couponing. I even got to be the coupon fairy while I was in the store. I had an odd number of coupons for the blue diamond deal and I shared the last coupon I had with a nice gentleman who was doing his grocery shopping and purchasing 2 cans of the Blue Diamond almonds. Great feeling when you can pass the savings on to someone!

How did you do with Super Doubles!???!!

 

So I am really excited about my finds this week.  I spent a little more this week then I usually do but there was a couple reasons for this. 

First, I normally don't do any shopping at Rite Aid, but this week there were quite a few freebies and one deal, the John Frieda Hair products that I really needed. I didn't have any UP rewards to roll and I didn't want any left over because I will likely not be back there for quite a few weeks. That means I go ahead and spend them all in one shopping trip.
Second, I took my 14 year old along for the trip and along with the 2 slim jims or meat sticks, the gummy bears, the caramels and the candy corn you see in the picture, she also got a nail polish and a mascara for coming along.  That's another reason I like my couponing......I have money left over to spoil my kids from time to time.  :) 
Thirdly, I also purchased 4 of my Sunday papers in these transactions.

I shopped at Walgreens and CVS this week as well and did multiple transactions in Rite Aid and CVS to keep my OOP down. What you see is the combination of shopping at all three stores.

The retail value of all of this was $139.82 and I spent $40.51 OOP, I have $4 in Walgreens Register Rewards left over, $6 in Extra Care Bucks left over, and I have about $11 coming back in rebates from RiteAid. So my net cost for this trip was $19.  That is not bad for all that I came home with that you see in the picture plus the nail polish, mascara, and the 4 newspapers.

Here's what I got this week.

• Listerine Mouthwash
• Tic Tac big pack
• Hall Apple Cider Cough Drops
• Cover Girl eye shadow ( I actually needed a new eye shadow so I was especially excited about this.)
• Cover Girl tinted moisturizer
• 3 bags of Fun Size candies (preparing for Halloween, I usually end up spending about $25  on  candy...not this year!)
• Pur-Absorb Iron supplement 28 pk (my 16 year is actually in need of this and it was a $15.99 value completely free!)
• movie snacks for my 14 yr old (2 meat sticks, 1 bag gummy bears, 1 bag of caramels, 1 bag of candy corn)
• 1 bottle of the crackle nail polish
• 1 liquid eyeliner
• 1 box of Playtex Gentle Glide tampons (two teenage girls in the house so these won't last long)
• 1 bottle of Chloraseptic throat spray
• 1 box of Cepacol throat lozenges (stocking up for winter, we usually go through quite a few bags of cough drops)
• 1 bottle of hand sanitizer
• 1 blistex lip ointment
• 1 bag of Burt's bees honey cough drops
• 1 box of Prep H Totable wipes (not something we actually need at the moment, but it was a money maker for me and I can donate either to a family member or other charity such as a homeless shelter.)
• 2 bottle of Frizz-ease Straight Fixation (my 16 yr old uses this almost every day and normally it's about $5 a bottle)
• 1 Scope mouthwash
• 1 Zarbees Child Cough Syrup (again this was a money maker and I will donate this to one of my family members with small children)
• 1 Emergen-c Immune Shots (I've actually tried these before and found that they are a great feel better boost during winter blahs)
• 2 pkgs carefree pantyliner
• 1 bottle of Robitussin  (I actually got this at Lowe's Foods on clearance and with a coupon it cost me $2.19. I've had some terrible allergies this year and went through one whole bottle already so I decided to take advantage of the sale and purchase this bottle before I run out.

My tip for you this week is that you don't always get everything for free, but with a little organization you can score some GREAT deals on things you already use and need.

A good starting foundation for couponing.

I want to give you some tips about couponing.

First, you need to be very organized so that you don't end up wasting your time looking for coupons you know you have and can't find. You need to be organized with your storage of your products too. You don't want to be purchasing product that you don't need or that will expire before you use it, so it is important to organize your pantry and your bathroom closets/cabinets so you know what you have on hand.

Second, you need to make sure that you understand the program and the coupon policy at the store you are going to be purchasing your products. I recommend starting with one store and starting to coupon at that store first and then once you have mastered it there, branching out to another store. Print the coupon policy for that store and learn it and take it with you. If you don't understand the policy, ask questions before you get to the register.

Third, though some let this take over their lives and become a job for them, most of us do not have that kind of time. If you watch TV for 1-3 hours a week then you have time to coupon, but I recommend using sites like southernsavers.com and coupondivas.com to match up your coupons to the sales and create your shopping list for you. This saves me so much time that I would otherwise have to spend going over the circulars. To be accurate and never miss any deals you would have to keep a detailed up to date price list of items all the time.

These three tips are the foundation for successfull couponing.

Part 2: Couponing

So last year I started a series on couponing with the intention of busting some myths about the practice.  I want to prove that those excuses why you don't coupon are really costing you money.  This is Part 2 in a series. I want to break down the groceries and household products shopping for you.

If you have ever said that they don't make coupons for the products or brands you use then this blog post is for you. 

First, I want to say....you do use toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap, shampoo, razors,  and you do clean your house, right?  Then there are definitely coupons out there that can save you money. Even if you don't use a coupon for anything else purchasing these products with coupons can save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars a year. Furthermore, if you are stuck on the same brands all the time and you are not willing to try other brands, there are still ways to save tons of money couponing.

Lets chat about the pharmacies.  For a very long time I avoided the pharmacies. It's common knowledge that their products are marked up as compared to the large discount stores such as Walmart and Kmart and even compared to most grocery stores.  I only went there on occasion when other stores were not open (like in the middle of the night with a sickly child) or when I was in a hurry and didn't want to deal with the crowds or size of the other stores (like when on vacation or running late for an appointment).  I rarely purchased anything other then exactly what I entered the store for in the first place. I even remember getting a Register Reward from my local Walgreens only to throw it away (gasp!!  I know it's terrible!!)  as it was a coupon and I never used them. Then one day while working my 9-5 office job someone mentioned that they were saving tons by shopping there and sometimes they even got products for free! I got very curious and decided to see what the fuss was all about.

I began couponing and shopping the deals, mostly at the Walgreens and CVS and realized that I could get toothbrushes, toothpaste and razors all for FREE!  And we aren't talking about the cheap ones either! That's when I was hooked.

You see, the pharmacies regularly put items on sale and give rewards that print at the register (called catalinas) that you can use toward future purchases.  Every week there are rewards to be earned. At Walgreens they are called Register Rewards, (abreviated RR on coupon blogs). CVS rewards are called extra care bucks (ECB) and Rite Aid's are called UP rewards.  If you roll your rewards every week into other deals you can stretch your money even further.

To give you an idea of some of the deals that I get and how much I save week to week here are two real shopping scenarios that I actually did.

CVS is a great store to start in and learn to coupon.  Make sure to take advantage of their kiosk and scan your card for more deals.  I recently went to CVS for my weekly shopping trip. We had recently been on vacation and so I had no ECB to roll over and had to pay for everything OOP (out of pocket) but in the end it was still an awesome deal.

Here's What I purchased.
2 Dawn Dish Soap
2 boxes of Finish dishwasher detergent tablets
2 Softsoap Body wash
2 Aussie hairsprays
1 Aussie Hair Gel
1 Aussie Mousse
3 Airwick i-motion air fresheners
1 box of Wheat Thins crackers
1 box of St. Joseph's Aspirin

 AT the time of my trip I actually was out of body wash and needed to purchase some anyway. Plus I have always tried to purchase products we use regularly when they are on sale to save money. My girls use the Aussie hair products and they were on sale even before coupons. If I had purchased only those products at Walmart it would have cost me about $21 (thats 2.97 x2 for the bodywash and 3.94 x4 for the Aussie hair care).

When I purchased all these items which were on sale or had rewards on them, I ended up spending $23 out of pocket and got back 16 ECB to be used next time.   That makes my net cost that night only $7 for all those products and I still had 16 ECB to use the next week!

Now this week I made a trip to Walgreens that was especially exciting. I had 12 RR to roll over in the deal. I did 2 early transactions and scored 10 more RR and then put them all into purchasing my main transaction which was items I really needed at the time or items that were an already awesome deal with sales and coupons.  3 transactions ended up costing me a total of $11.60 OOP and I got back $5 more register rewards.

Here's what I came home with:
2 12 pk cottonelle
2 35 ct clorox wipes
2 Lt Brown Sugar boxes
1 4# domino sugar
1 Re-nu solution
1 Schick Men's Quattro Titanium razor
1 Schick Women's 4 pk refills
7 or 8 different character pencils
4 Hershey's chocolate bars (not shown)

The toilet paper we desperately needed as we were down to less then a roll in each bathroom in our house. I already own a quatro razor but I needed the refills. Just for arguments sake lets say I want to Sam's club and bought the cheapest brand of toilet paper (probably 32 rolls) for around $17 and went to walmart and bought the cheapest razors for around $3 then I would have spent $20 out of pocket, not gotten all these products or any rewards to use next time.  Talk about smart shopping!!  And these are all name brand products, not generic.

The trick with all this is to pair a sale with a coupon. All the items in my pictures I had coupons for so that cuts down my OOP. Some items I even make a profit on in the end.

The Cottonelle is always on sale for $5 each 12 pk, but this week there is a instore coupon (in their savings booklet) for $1 off, that deducts $1 for both packages at once. Then I had coupons for $0.75 each package, bringing the cost down to $3.25 a pack. That's a pretty good deal right there $0.27 a roll. **hint - you can stack a store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon at Walgreens**

The Schick Quatro razors or refills were the most exciting deal this week at Walgreens. They were on sale for $8.99 (from their normal $9.99 price) but gave you 5 RR when you purchase them. Well low and behold there was a $5 coupon that showed up last week on the coupon sites and that makes a $1 profit on that one. There was also a $4 off coupon for the refills making them completely free.

The more I do this the easier it gets. You just have to hold on to the coupons until a sale that makes it a much better price you can live with  or until you have rewards to go toward the purchase.

The purpose of this post was only to show you that you can absolutely get name brand items much much cheaper  and that there are coupons out there for items you use. You just have to pay attention.

Change is Inevitable!

Things change all the time.  The grocery store or manufacturers change the prices. Places change their policies. Job descriptions change. Our tastes and likes all change all the time. The challenge in life is to not get hung up on the changes and just roll with it. One thing I've learnt as a parent is if it's not working, try something else. I see people all the time who are scared to death of change, but miserable in their current situation., stuck and unhappy with the consequences of their actions but unwilling to accept that something has got to change.

For the last couple years I have been constantly working to change myself and become who God wants me to be and be a person that I can be proud of all the time. I realized that I needed to change from the inside out. I realized that I kept doing things and acting ways the same way every day and expecting a different outcome. Isn't that the definition of insanity? To keep doing something the exact same way over and over again expecting a different outcome?  I realized that I kept eating the same way and expected to be thinner. I kept the same routine day in and day out and expected to be more organized and less forgetful.  I treated everyone around me the same way and wondered why they don't treat me with respect in return.

Then one day I realized that I wasn't living the same principles that I was trying to teach my children. I tell them all the time that they are responsible for their own actions and if they treat others better then others will eventually start treating them better. Once I realized I had to take responsibility for every action I make every single day I began to make changes.

I've been gradually changing my diet and my activity levels and began very, very slowly losing weight. I've been room by room and drawer by drawer cleaning and organizing my house. I've been looking for and implementing ways to keep me focused and on task and low and behold my life is becoming less hectic and more organized even though I've actually taken on more responsibilities. (amazing how that happens!!) I've always been a pretty laid back person, or so I thought. I am finding out that I actually thrive on routine and structure and become very agitated and stressed with chaos. Who knew?

So, I finally feel like I have a hold of this homeschooling thing. I can handle the house-cleaning. I am becoming the person I want to be instead of wishful thinking. The flip side of the responsibility coin is that I can take credit for doing something about it. I can be proud........and thank God for his provision and guidance of course.  Are you afraid of change? Or are you fed up with who you are today?

Couponing Haul for July

Last year I began couponing and stocked up on some necessities like body wash and toothpaste and once I had several months worth I stopped couponing. It's been over a year and that supply is long gone. Recently with the rising costs of goods pushing my budget to the limit I decided to get back into it and really focus on saving money. My goal is to stock up on as many items that I can get for free or almost free and make my weekly grocery/household budget stretch even further.

I want to start showing my scores and what I saved and spent so that I can track how well I am doing.

Here is last year's article I wrote on couponing. I still need to go back and finish Part 2.

http://therealmamat.blogspot.com/2010/06/saving-money-rocks-i-am-sure-that-most.html#links

Here's my finds from this week. I suspect that next weeks hauls may be better at the pharmacy but we will see.

Target

3 Vitamin Waters
1 Nexcare Shrek Waterproof Band aids
3 trial size St. Ives Body wash
1 pkg of Paper Mate pens

 Paid $2.47 OOP

CVS

2 Oral B Indicator Brushes
2 Crest Cavity Protection Toothbrushes

Pd $5.00 OOP
GB $4 in extra care bucks
Makes my cost $1

Walgreens

1 pkg Expo Washable markers
3 pkgs Carefree pantyliner
2 boxes ct of 10 number 2 pencils
2 Mitchums Women's Deodorants

Pd $8.65 OOP
GB $4 in extra care bucks
Makes my cost $4.65

That's a total of just over $16 OOP that I spent this week on a whole bunch of items that I actually needed and I got back $8 in rewards to use at a later time. That brings my total cost down to $8.12 for the week on 20 items.  Not too bad if I say so myself.

How are you doing with couponing?

The End of Homeschooling?

Here is an interesting article I found on the End of Homeschooling?  This probably doesn't mean what you think it means.  It's a little long but has some great information on the history of mainstream schooling through history.

The End of Homeschooling

Read the article, then tell me what you think. Are you HOME-schooling or home-SCHOOLing?