~ Saturday Night Savings ~

At Safeway I purchased:

18 ct. eggs
1 gallon milk
1 32-oz Coffee Mate
1 12-pkg Nabisco cookies
3 boxes Kleenex ($.75 ea on clearance - $.50 coupon doubled = $.41 a box)
Tin of butter cookies - $1.25 clearance
Large box of taquitos
4 boxes Nature Valley Granola bars (4/$6.00 before coupons)
4 boxes Trix (with coupons and sale these were $.49 a box)

Total Spent: $19.00
Got Back: $2.50 Catalina for buying granola bars

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At Walgreens I purchased:

2 6 oz. boxes Chips Ahoy
8 cans Progresso soup
2 boxes Nutri-Grain bars
3 6 oz. bottles NyQuil
1 8 oz. bottle Theraflu
2 10-ct pkgs DayQuil
2 boxes Puffs tissue

Total Spent: $19.92
Got Back: $2.00 Catalina for buying Chips Ahoy

I did three transactions at Walgreens. They have a Register Reward deal running all month for Vicks products. Spend $20.00 and get a $10.00 RR. I had coupons for $1.50 off each Vicks product and I had coupons for a free box of Puffs for every 2 Vicks I bought.

So....I purchased $20 worth of Vicks and then used my $10.00 RR to buy the soup. The soup also had a RR (spend $10.00 and get a $3.00 RR). I used the $3.00 RR from the soup to buy the Nutri-Grain bars (on sale 2/$5.00) which had a $2.00 RR.

I also purchased two boxes of the Chips Ahoy for $.99 each. That generated a $2.00 RR.

We are not a house full of sickies (at least physically), but these kinds of medicines are good to have on hand. I always check expiration dates and buy what has the longest shelf life.

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At Albertsons I purchased:

4 pkgs Green Giant vegetables

1 box toaster strudel

2 boxes Cocoa Puffs

5 boxes fruit snacks

3 pkgs allergy/cold medication

2 boxes DiGiorno pizza

Total Spent: $7.97

Got Back: $8.50 in Catalinas ($5.00 for spending $20.00 on General Mills items and $3.50 for buying five fruit snacks - kind of a deal within a deal, since the fruit snacks counted toward my $20.00 purchase too).

Grand Total Spent: $46.89

Grand Total in Catalinas/RR received: $13.00

Total Out of Pocket: $33.89

And....it kept me off the streets!

Albertsons Run

All the coupon stars and planets have aligned this week at Albertsons, making for some free, yep FREE, food. There are even three double coupons in their store ad. I did two transactions:

13 cans Progresso soup
1 pkg Green Giant Steamers - corn
1 box Cheerios
2 bottles V8 Fusion juice
5 pkgs Nature Valley Granola Clusters
5 pkgs Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks

I had coupons for everything but the corn. I also had my $10 Catalina from last week's P&G promotion. Total cost was $13.82. BUT, I came home with $12.00 in Catalinas. That makes the cost $1.82. See what I mean about the stars and planets aligning?

Canine Chronicles

Miss Jessie is back home, again. I took her back to the Vet on Tuesday afternoon. It's a long and whiny story. Suffice it to say she needed to be there, and not here. Her Daddy picked her up late this afternoon and she's doing much better. No more e-collar. With all the advancements in medical science, you'd think they would have something better to offer than a thin piece of plastic, shaped into a cone.

So....we spent another $93.00 for boarding, sedation, etc. I don't know why I am so shocked at these figures. I think it's most likely due to the fact when I get sick, I go to the doctor and pay my $12.00 for the office visit. If I need medicine, it is $3.00 a pop. Jessie's antibiotics and pain meds cost almost $100.00.

All is back to normal in the Morris household :). Back to making knobs and clipping coupons.

Miss Jessie

She came home about two hours ago. I was hoping to post a picture but she was in no mood. She was actually in an e-collar. I know it's necessary, but geez, she is miserable.

Her cysts were removed and now we wait for pathology. Whatever these growths turn out to be, we got rid of them very early. $730. Yep....$730. They let us pay half today and we will make $50 payments every two weeks till the balance is paid off. To quote Tony Soprano, "what are you gonna do?"

Jessie's "little" brother moped around all day, and didn't touch his dinner. He perked up the minute she and her plastic lamp shade collar came through the door. We were worried he would not leave her alone, but he's actually been very good about giving her plenty of space. We can tell he's concerned though.

Time for her medication.....

Dog and Tiger

First, no more Tiger Woods jokes. It's sad, it really is.

Miss Jessie had her 10th birthday recently. She also sprouted two cysts. One on her lower jaw that we thought was a blood blister. Another one very close to her girl dog parts. Both need to go, and then go again to be biopsied. This will cost about $500.00. We did have insurance for her, up until a year ago, when we cancelled it because our budget no longer allowed for the $40 a month. I tell myself we've saved the cost of the insurance for the past 12 months, and that pays for the surgery. I'm good at rationalizing.

St. Francis 24 Hr Animal Hospital in Vancouver, WA. They rock! More specifically, Dr. Michael Baker rocks. I'm sure the other vets are qualified, but Dr. Baker is the only one I want cutting on my dogs. Hell, I'd even let him cut on me.

The worst thing though, is being told the cysts are "of concern." I didn't ask for clarification, because I already know what "of concern" means. So we will be praying for our sweet dog. She goes in at 9:00 am tomorrow.

A little side note about tithing. Tithing is the only thing the Lord tells us we should test Him in, or at. I am good at tithing. I'm not 100% at tithing. Tithing can be scary. But when I do give the tithe, a sense of instant confidence comes over me. I did my part. God will do His part. An hour ago we got an order from our web site. It was for $85.00. That's a big order for us. And, it's a quarter of Jessie's surgery.

I would like to say a public thank you to the Lord and encourage others to step out in faith, and give God His 10%.

Did you hear......

Tiger Woods is changing his name....to Cheetah.

tsk...tsk...tsk