Random Stuff and an Albertsons Haul

So...I got home from grocery shopping about 45 minutes ago. Even though I'm more than tired, I need to defrag my brain before I go to bed. The big news here is we've had some snow, and they expect snow overnight. Snow is no big deal, but ice scares me. I did a couple Tonya Harding spins in the Albertsons parking lot. As John Pinette says, "Let's not visualize, let's just move on shall we?"

Our trip to Nevada was cancelled. We realized we could not make that drive in two days, and we certainly did not have enough time to take three days coming and going. Why that thought didn't occur to anyone earlier, is beyond me. Now the plan is to meet up with Inv. Linton and his lovely wife at the Grand Canyon next summer. Judging from the storms all around us, we probably would have cancelled at the last minute anyway. Towing in snow is not fun; just ask my husband.

I decided I want to start doing my own You Tube videos after the first of the year. I will talk more about that in a future post. I have been addicted to watching the videos of a small group of ladies who make the most beautiful things with paper.

I don't know if food can be considered a "haul," but that's what I'm calling this. I know blogs are nicer when pictures accompany posts, but that isn't happening tonight. I'm going to list everything I bought, and my total out of pocket expense. I should mention that I don't shop like many people do. I shop the sales and to stock up. I will buy six boxes of cereal, even if I have six boxes at home, if I can get it for $.49 a box. Plus we donate food to church and our local homeless shelter. I've been very lazy with my coupon shopping lately. Wonder if that has anything to do with watching videos and creating things? Nah...

I bought:

1 pkg Mission tortilla chips
1 pkg Nestle cookie dough
2 32-oz bottles Coffee-Mate creamer
1 box Hartz Crunch & Clean dog treats
2 boxes Keebler Club crackers
1 box Ritz crackers
1 box Wheat Thins crackers
1 can Planters cashew pieces
2 boxes Lucky Charms
1 box Trix
1 box Cocoa Puffs
1 jar Ragu Alfredo sauce
2 boxes Stove Top stuffing
1 pkg Franz Hawaiian rolls
1 pkg Idahoan potatoes
2 boxes Barilla spaghetti
1 box Barilla linguine
1 bag Cheetos
1 bag Fritos
1 loaf Granny's white bread
4 12-pks Pepsi products
4 12-pks Coke products
1 pkg Pillsbury pie crusts
1 gallon milk
1 16-oz bottle Darigold strawberry milk
1 pkg Swiss cheese
1 19 lb. turkey
1 10 lb. bag potatoes
1 bag salad
1 bunch celery
1 bunch green onions
1 pkg broccoli & cauliflower mix....and
1 Marie Callender's coconut cream pie (MAJOR impulse buy)

GRAND TOTAL: $67.01

I cut a piece from the frozen pie (the box said I could) and supposedly it should be thawed by now. It isn't anywhere near thawed. I'm fixin' to take my heat gun to it.

Bedtime :)

Big Friday Night on the Town.....

I went to Walgreens.....seriously, and I was excited about going. It's so ironic, because back in the day, I was a wild child. I could PAR-TAY down with the best of them. Now a solo trip to the drug store is all it takes to make me happy. Armed with my zippered coupon binder, I spent a good 90 minutes just browsing around comparing what they had on sale or clearance to what I had coupons for. The people working there got a laugh when I told them I was taking my time enjoying my big night on the town.

This was a good Walgreens - if you do couponing you know what I mean. A nice Walgreens with friendly people who don't consider you the enemy for trying to save as much money as possible. I am going to post a photo tomorrow of all the things I bought.

The big deal for me tonight was a Schick Quattro razor - actually TWO of them. I call these designer razors. They are usually at least $10.00 and I don't ever buy them because of their cost. And, because I don't have much hair on my legs and can shave them a couple times a month and be just fine according to hubby. I always see serious coupon shoppers with a dozen or more of these designer razors in their stash and wonder how they did it. Now I know! The razor was priced at $9.95 with a $4 in-store coupon. At $5.95 that's still too much for me to spend on a razor. I looked in my binder and found a buy one/get one free coupon for the Quattro. This coupon and the fact the wires all connected in my brain that you can use two coupons on a BOGO free deal, made the two razers a total of $1.95 plus tax. Each package has two cartridges, so I'm covered now, through menopause.

Coupon Shopping

I'm pretty good at ye old coupon shopping, even if I do say so myself. I amaze my husband and that's tough to do. Tonight Jacob's church youth group went to a water park, so Miss Jessie and I hit the grocery stores. She is a wonderful traveling companion and a reassuring presence when one is driving around at 11:00 pm. My original plan was to visit three stores, but I ran out of time after the second one.

At the first store (Albertson's) I spent $33.83 and got the following:

1 dozen eggs
1 bag tortilla chips
1 bag Cheetos
1 bottle fancy cherry water for my son
1 bottle canola oil
2 pounds butter
1 package of double roll toilet tissue
2 Kraft pasta salads
1 bottle Ranch salad dressing
1 bottle Italian salad dressing
1 bottle Bleu Cheese salad dressing
1 bottle Caesar salad dressing
1 pound monterey jack cheese
1 pkg beef mini hot dogs
6 onion bagels
6 cinnamon raisin bagels
1 pkg. Reese's peanut butter cup mini's

Then I went to Safeway and spent $21.48 on:

Bag of salad greens
Bunch of bananas
3 pounds peaches
1 loaf buttermilk bread
1/2 gallon lemonade
24 pack Pepsi
1/2 pound deli turkey
1 package flour tortillas

Not exactly a balanced diet, but we have chicken and beef in the freezer and are well stocked on most other staples. I am envious of those who live where stores double an unlimited amount of coupons. Safeway offers four in their weekly circular. I only shop at Safeway for whatever they have a good sale on, preferably when I can combine that with a coupon. Otherwise they are just too expensive. Albertson's does accept Safeway's doubles though....all four of them. So I have to be creative and often make a few trips throughout the week. Luckily we are within walking distance of the Big A.

It seems grocery prices are rising daily. Hubby planted a good sized garden so hopefully soon we will be getting our greens from there. I notice too that manufacturers are downsizing their products in the hope we won't notice (we do!). And there you have my little shopping trip for the day.