Done with Christmas!

This week was pretty crazy, but great at the same time. For the first time in a long time I spent $95 at the grocery store! I'll explain. First of all, there is a reason why I truly, truly recommend leaving your kids at home when you grocery shop! You will always buy something that you didn't intend to buy. Even if it's just one little thing, it throws off your whole plan. Plus, just the fact that they are with you makes is more difficult to concentrate on making your deals. They make me crazy with "I'm thirsty" and "I'm hungry" and all of their legitimate demands. It's just hard to do so many things at once. So, you are truly trying to rush through the store as fast as you can. Well, this week, because of time constraints, I had to bring my kids to the store. Now, I am not blaming them entirely for my spending. I did have 2 weeks of shopping to make up for, which means replenishing all of the necessities like toilet paper, paper towels, etc. I also did some stockpiling because my fridge, pantry and freezer were really empty. AND lastly, I was stocking up on cleaning supplies because I started doing flylady.com! Are there any FLY LADIES out there? If so, you know what I'm talking about. If not, you are missing out on a wonderful program. If you like my site, you will love hers too. Her site tells you how to clean your house! She tells you what you need to clean each day and breaks it up into a little each day. I love it. I have finally regained my sanity! So, the $95 grocery bill wasn't all my kid's fault. I caved, which I never do, for some $2 a piece Lunchables. I even tried to explain how they would get more if we would buy the crackers, meat, and cheese separately. They wouldn't have it. Lunchables are cool. I am a sucker....what the heck it's Christmas.

Ok, so here's what I bought this week:
-All of my weekly groceries, which was a lot because I was out of everything!
- Stockpiling:
-2 of the 10lb bags of chicken from Adrien's for $2.90 a bag
-6 boxes of Honeycombs that were on sale for 2 for $3 at Super 1
-Several heads of lettuce that were .88 at Adrien's
(of course I price matched at Wal-Mart)
-toilet paper - I used the White Cloud coupons from All You magazine the paper was $2.00 and the coupon was $1. Total cost $1 each for 3 packs of toilet paper.
- 4 bags sugar free chocolates with buy 1 get 1 free coupons
-Extra cleaning supplies: dish brush, Comet, 2 pack of anti-bacterial wipes, paper towels, dryer sheets (the static is driving me crazy so I caved on these - you can cut them in half and they work the same)
-I know I used another coupon, but I can't remember.

I bought so much stuff that my basket was overflowing, so $95 is not bad I guess. I just have a hard time swallowing that number, but I was still under budget, so yeah.

My Christmas shopping is complete! Aside from the few things that I plan on making myself, I have everything and am done with shopping. I even brought some clothes and baby items to Baby Basics on Ridge Rd to make some extra Christmas money. She will call me Tuesday, so I may get ONE more thing for my husband, but I am done!! Happy Dance!! Now I just need to focus on putting together the Christmas mugs that I am making for the teachers. I'm not sure if I wrote about it before but this is what I have:

Christmas mugs - free from CVS with $30 gift card from prescription coupon
Coffee - .06 a bag from target with the printable $1 off Archer farm coffee coupon
Chocolate - .63 total for all of them. My mom gave me her $5 Foodie Bucks from Fresh Market
so I was able to get $5 in free chocolates. So they are .07 a piece.
Candy Canes - .88 per pack. CVS sale
Lip gloss - free from my mom who is getting out of Mary Kay and wanted to help.

I am going to put all of these together in a clear bag with a ribbon and they will be beautiful! So $1.03 per gift! I love it.

My lemon tree is ripe so I gave all of my neighbors lemons today as a Christmas gift. (FREE)

Just a reminder - It's time to send out Christmas cards! I just realized this. I have Christmas cards that I got on clearance after Christmas at Target last year for .30 a pack and a 3 roll pack of wrapping paper that I got for .50 there. So, look forward to the after Christmas clearances this year!