I'm Back!/Black Friday

Hey everyone!
I made it back safe and sound from Cali!! We had a blast! We went surfing, to Hollywood (The guy Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots was playing at Hollywood and Highland), skating, to Disneyland, and had Thanksgiving at my grandfather's house. It was awesome! And somehow I managed to come in under budget!! So I came home with grocery money. Yeah!

I did, however, have to sacrifice my Black Friday because I was on a plane all day. I had to take Dramamine on my first flight so I was wiped out when I got back (I still am). BUT, I did manage to get to Wal-Mart and take advantage of a few deals on jackets for the family ($8) and pajamas ($4). I am still happy!!

Happy Black Friday! I'll write more tomorrow.

Hey Ladies - I did go shopping today for my son's b-day party this evening and to get a few things for our vacation and 2 birthday parties this weekend. I just wanted to tell you about a couple of target deals that you can take advantage of:

-5lb bag potatoes is $1.99 and there is a $1 off coupon on the Target Website, so the final price is $.99 for a 5lb bag of potatoes.

-There is also a $1 off coupon for Archer Farms coffee. The small bags are $1.06. The final price is $.06!! So, I printed out a bunch of coupons and bought as many as possible because I am going to use these as Christmas gifts. I am going to put them in a mug with a biscotti and candy cane. These are perfect for all of the teachers.

Coupon Sunday

Yesterday I did my CVS deals. I got everything that was free with Extra Care Bucks, plus the Joy deal because I had 2 coupons. I tried to get the Kleenex that was on sale, but they were sold out and I forgot to get a rain check. The L'Oreal tinted moisturizer didn't work for me either. It didn't give me my extra care bucks, so I got my money back. I didn't feel like fighting with it this week, I have too much going on, so...oh well. I did however find wine for $2.50 a bottle on clearance at the CVS in River Ranch, so I took care of 4 more Christmas gifts!! I am going to make up some Christmas labels and stick them on top of the original labels. I also clipped all of my coupons before I went to bed and put them in my binder. You know what I was thinking? If any of my friends are reading this blog, which they probably are, they are going to know what they are getting for Christmas!! I'm going to have to figure out how to fix this!!!

Man, it's been a great weekend! I found so many deals this weekend that I have frugal fever. I'm on a roll and don't want to stop. Yesterday I went grocery shopping. There wasn't really anything worth stockpiling for me, so I got all of my groceries plus a few things that I have been holding off on like sippy cups, razors, shave gel, etc. I also got paper towels, toilet paper, a few things off of the "day old" bread rack. The only coupons I used were for the White Cloud toilet paper and the Kotex pads. The 4 pack toilet paper is $2, so with a coupon it is $1. Then the Kotex Lightdays pads are $1 and I had 3 $1 coupons, so they were all free. I love it! Everything else was store brand or sales. My total bill was $52 for this week.

Then we went on a Christmas shopping adventure yesterday. First I stopped at Michael's to check out the clearance. I found this awesome $24.99 very stylish knitting bag for my friend. It was on clearance for $11.99. When I got to the counter I asked if they had any extra coupons and they told me I couldn't use it on clearance, BUT when it rang up my total was $2.15!!! Yes!! Then, we went to lunch and the manager gave us our lunch for free! I know, free! I was so happy. It was totally unexpected. It was actually because something happened to my husband when we were there, but they were so great about it that I don't want to mention the name here. So, on to Toys-R-Us so that the kids could give us a Christmas wish list. They were demo-ing this Lazer Tag game and my son totally fell in love with it. Well, it was $90 and I didn't want to use that much of my Christmas budget, so I kept asking if it would go on sale or if there were any coupons. Finally, the manager sold me the demo for $70. I was so pumped. I used a $10 gift card and used the coupon for another $10 gift card. Then I went back in and got more stuff, used my new $10 gift card, some coupons, and another coupon for a $10 gift card. Anyway, I ended up with 10 items and another $10 gift card and paid about $150. I was very happy. So I still have about $500 of my Christmas money left. My husband wants an expensive lense for his camera, but I still think I can come in way below budget because I keep finding all of these deals! Wish me luck!!

Last night I finally went grocery shopping. Last week I spent $44 on all of my groceries and stockpiling. This week I spent $85! I know, I know, it is a lot for me, but I stockpiled about 30lbs of meat too. I had to buy a lot to get the deal that I was working on. My husband and I also decided to go on a low-carb diet, so this week was the switchover to low-carb stockpiling. Next week my bill will be lower, I promise. This week Super 1 had a 5 for $19.99 meat sale, so I got ribs, chicken tenders, ground beef, chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs. That was over 25lbs of meat. Then they had some FreezerQueen family size frozen dinners that were$.97, so I got the ones that were just meat. (about 5). Ragu was also on sale there for $.88 so I bought 5 for the kids. My last stockpile item was eggs, I got 5 dozen because they are cheaper in bulk. So, all of that, plus my weekly groceries was $85. However, I won't have to buy any meat for another month!

Here is my meal plan for the week based on what I already had in the fridge freezer and pantry:
Sunday - Shrimp Cabobs
Monday - Chili and salad
Wednesday - low-carb fried chicken and broccoli
Thursday - round steak stir fry and brown rice
Friday - Meat Loaf and green beans
Saturday - Baked fish and mixed vegies (I honestly don't know what kind of fish it is, my husband caught it on a fishing trip.)

I also popped into Target because I had a Target coupon for $1 off of 2 Gerber babyfoods. I hit the 75% off Halloween isle and found a few good deals. They had Halloween dish scrubber spounges for $.24. I picked up a few for my kitchen, who cares of they are Halloween! I love them! And I found these cool picture frames that were supposed to be Halloween, but they matched my living room. They were actually red and black snake skin print. My living house has a very contemporary, modern look, and my couches are red, so they matched perfectly! They were $1 a peice. I love my life!

Last week I bought all of my Halloween candy on clearance and froze it for next year.

Let's see what deals I can find today. I saw a flower shop going out of business. I'm thinking of racking up for Christmas!