Super Savings Saturday

Okay...so I've finally gotten around to doing this.   Don't stone me!!  I've realized that I need to revise the budget for the month.  I'm going with $100 now.  Things are not as tight this month as previously thought.  We're still instituting a no-spend month in many other ways, so I don't feel bad stocking up on deals now that we'll benefit from in the future.
 I went to CVS and got:


Transaction 1
2 Ousts
1 Soyjoy box
1 Ivory 3-pack soap


Used:  
1 Ivory $1 Q
1 B1G1 Oust
10 ECB
Paid:  $0.69 (all tax)


Transaction 2
1 Soyjoy box
1 Newspaper


Used:
6 ECB


Paid: $0.50 (for newspaper)


Rainbow (grocery store)
3 granny smith apples
4 Silk soy milk
3 packages plain bagels


Total:  $16.04


Budget remaining for the month: $27.96

Busy Week

I haven't had much to report this week.  Everything has been very hectic with getting stuff together for the wedding--we're at the six week mark!  This has made little time for blogging, and little to say.

I plan to go out to pick up a few things today, I'll update on them later.

Eat From the Pantry Challenge Progress

I've done a couple of shopping trip reports for the month, but haven't really reported on how the eating is going.  So far, so good.  I said that T went on a trip this weekend, so I can't hold him to eating from the pantry (and he cuts way back when he's home--especially for a man who was a bachelor until he was 36 years old!).  

I however, have been pretty good about it, except once so far, but that was planned before I took on the challenge.

Jan 1st- oatmeal that I'd been trying to get rid of (one of the good things out of being sick-can't taste the flavors you don't like!)

met friend for lunch to pick up bridesmaid dresses (pre-planned) 

leftover pasta

Jan 2nd- finished oatmeal

leftover pizza

leftover pasta

Jan 3rd- cereal

finished pizza

turkey chili

Jan 4th- cereal

leftover chili

chicken tacos

I eat leftovers for lunch most days.  They are just more interesting than sandwiches.  

So far, the pantry challenge has been a really good thing for us, as I've discovered some things that I'd forgotten about.  They don't necessarily need to be used up immediately, but at least they're back into my mental inventory!

Furbaby Likes to Eat String

Lily decided that she wanted to terrify me this weekend.  Alright, maybe she didn't intend to, but it happened anyways. 

I was getting ready to put some towels into the washer on Friday morning, when I noticed some pulls on one of them.  I cut them off and left them on the bathroom counter (our washer and dryer are in the bathroom).  I put the towel in the washer and turned around just in time to see her swallow the string.  There wasn't even enough time for her to sniff it to see if it was appealing first, she just took it right down.

By that point it was gone.  And if you're familiar with small animals, you may know that string can be fatal as it moves through their intestines (by stretching out and acting as a razor wire as the... um, matter... works it's way down).  So, I spent the next two days (until this morning) hoping that she would poop it out just fine.  Thankfully (!) that was what happened, but nothing like that will ever happen again!

Ha!  With events like that, I can hardly wait until all of the worrying that comes along with having kids...

Menu Plan for the Week

T ended up getting a trip this weekend, so the meal plan got a little altered for the weekend (I usually don't like to cook for just myself).  I ended up scrounging around for most of the weekend, but it was nice to have some freedom from cooking. 

He'll be back tonight, so it's back to the meal plan.  Tonight is turkey chili night. 

The rest of the week will be:

Monday- chicken tacos
Tuesday- frozen leftover peanut butter Thai chicken
Wednesday- Penne Rustica
Thursday- spaghetti and garlic bread
Friday- date night (eat out)
Saturday- turkey pot pie
Sunday- turkey sausage, white bean and spinach soup

CVS

Made another trip to CVS today.  I picked up:

1 Christmas candle tin
1 lightbulb
1 SoyJoy six pack
2 CVS brand travel pack tissues
3 bags Nestle chocolate chips
1 Nivea body wash
2 Nivea lip balms

Used:

1 $1.00 GE Q for lightbulb
1 $2.00 Nivea body wash Q
1 BOGO Nivea lip balm
1 CVS CRT for Nivea body wash
$16 ECB

I spent $3.93 oop, including tax.

Remaining January budget:  $25.19, but don't plan to do any more shopping for the rest of the week.

CVS Moneymaker Trip!

Tee-hee-hee!  Do you hear that?  It's me doing my happy dance!

I went back to CVS today to get my prescription, but I did a little checking around online first to see if there were any good deals to take advantage of while I was there.  Am I glad I did!  I found this money maker on Nature's Bounty vitamins (may require registering for A Full Cup if you haven't already--it is more than worth your time, though). 

I printed out the $5 coupons for the vitamins and headed to the stores (ended up going to 2 CVS's).  Here's what I got:

12 Nature's Bounty vitamins
2 cans of tuna
2 early Sunday newspapers
1 Tide
1 Cascade
1 Dawn
1 Efferdent
1 Bounty paper towel 8 pack
1 Charmin 12 pack
1 CVS brand face wash

All for...wait for it...wait for it... $1.30 plus tax oop!

I used:

10 Nature's Bounty $5 coupons (registered both T and me and used 2 computers)
1 $1.00 Tide Q
1 $0.50 Cascade Q
1 $0.50 Efferdent Q
1 $0.50 Dawn Q
1 $0.25 Bounty Q
1 $0.25 Charmin Q
$1.50 ECB

I got back $21 ECB!

Now that's a good day!

Remaining January budget:  $29.12  (I'm counting the tax I pay toward the $80 budget for the month)