November 10

Well, we are back from vacation and it's time to buckle down again.

My first order of business was grocery shopping. But, my coupons were a mess, so I spent a good two hours getting them into order and setting up my list. Fry's is having their Mega 10 Event: buy 10 items, get $5 off, so I wanted to be sure to take advantage of that. With the baby and all the interruptions, we didn't get to the store until 2, but we made it!

First stop: CVS

I needed some lotion, of which there were no deals. Also wanted the Pepsi deal, AND I had a $5/$30 coupon, so I put together a decent deal and we went to CVS. Had to do a change while there because they were out of the Listerine Cool Agent Blue stuff, but here's how it looked:

Pepsi 12 packs 3/$10, get $2 ECB, used 2 $1 off coupons from coupons.com
5 Palmolive dish soap $1.49, get $1 ECB, used 1 .25 cents coupon
Garner Fructis conditioner 2.99, get $2 ECB, used $1 off coupon
CVS Lotion 5.49
4 pk Easy-grip children's toothbrushs 5.99, get $1 ECB

Used $5/$30 coupon and $10 ECB

Paid $14.xx OOP

Received $10 ECB

Next stop: Frys

Got few things FREE: 2 Swiss Miss cocoa boxes, 2 carnation evap milk, 3 cylinders quaker oats

Lots of things for $1 or under using their Mega event matched with coupons

I also got this beauty for 5 cents! That's right, 5 cents. I had a Fry's mailer coupon for $3 off fresh meat, no minimum. So, I looked carefully and was thrilled to find this. It's .95 lbs of boneless bottom round steak. I'll cut it up for caseroles maybe.

My totals were:

coupon savings: 42.84 (!), included an $8/$60 Fry's mailer coupon and $15 off from the Mega 10 event

bonus coupon savings (from Fry's doubling): 6.90

VIP savings: 95.25

Total savings 144.99, 57%

Total spent: 108.17

In the kitchen today, I found my stockpile especially helpful when I needed to feed the kids and my fridge was empty.

We had pancakes for breakfast that I had made and froze.

Soup was for lunch; cans that I had bought in July when it was too hot to eat soup.

Dinner was chicken fettucine alfredo from Hamburger Helper using a package of chicken breast strips that I had bought on manager's special with coupons and stuck in the freezer. I added some zucchini that I bought today at $1/lb and a loaf of French bread from the clearance rack .79 cents. Also cut up strawberries bought today $1.50. Oh, and in my ongoing effort to reduce waste, I decided to only cut up on zucchini instead of two so that we won't have too much leftover and have to toss it. One was plenty for Jim and I as the kids wouldn't eat it. The dinner leftovers will go into Jim's lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow for dinner we are having beans and tortillas. I've been missing having cooked pinto beans on hand to add to other recipes, so it's time to make it again. The beans are soaking now and I'll cook them all day tomorrow. I'm going to add onions, carrots and celery for some added goodness.

After dinner tomorrow, the beans will go into Texas Rice Skillet and Tacos later this week.

Monthly total spent: 136.02
Total available: 263.98