You Can Never Have Too Much Stockpiling Space:)

A few weeks ago I cleaned out our spare room so that it actually looks like a room and not a giant storage closet. This morning I convinced husband to get up early and help me move some stuff around and help me create even more space for our stockpiling. This is the closet in our spare room, previously there were a ton of storage tubs and boxes where my shelves now are, but we managed to cram all of that stuff under the bed. I am planning on getting another shelf to put back there. Right now la canasta is living in the space, but now that I have had some time to think about it I'm not convinced we are going to use it all that much, we will see how it goes for now while I have space for it, but if I need space to store stockpile stuff I am guessing it will be back on the sidewalk:)

La Canasta!

So as I told you earlier husband and I planned on venturing out at midnight to get the new Walgreen's deals. Well, how awesome when I found this grocery basket (or la canasta in espanol- it tells me not to put my ninos in it) outside on the side walk!!! Husband isn't quite as excited as I am and I have no idea why!

Anyway, so we went to Walgreen's, I haven't always had the best experiences there. However, today I was determined to have a good shopping experience there- and I have succeeded! I called this morning and the not so helpful person that answered the phone told me their sales start at midnight. I heard there would not be a lot of the ritz crackerfuls in stock, so I wanted to be there for midnight. So we went and rang up our first transaction- 2 ritz crackerfuls and 2 right guard body wash (I know I previously said no more body wash!). The crackerfuls were free after $2 register rewards and I had $2.50 in coupons and the body wash was b1g1 and I had a b1g1 coupon. Of course the b1g1 coupon didn't ring right and he had to call the manager, this man was the most helpful manager I have ever met anywhere! He was prepared for the coupon, apparently corporate sent out an email. However, once we got everything through I realized my register reward was not printing. The manager told me that sometimes the RR don't print until 12:15am, so we waited. He rang up my body wash and I got both for about 40 cents total. After waiting about 15 minutes or so they rang my crackerfuls, while we waited he explained that I should do it in 2 separate transactions so that 2 RR would print. Still no RR printing...waited a few more minutes and rang another one...still nothing...one more try, almost there...finally success! I paid about 45 cents for one box and about $1 for another. Then I bought these paper towels, they were on sale for $3.99 and I had $1.50 off coupons, plus my newly printed RR. I had to buy the popcorn as a filler item (at walgreen's the RR counts as a coupon so you can't have more coupons that items). It was on sale for 25 cents each so no big deal. My paper towels and popcorn were just a little over $2. So for everything I paid a little over $4!!!

Saturday Shopping

I have been waiting all week to go shopping. Husband got to work a lot at the post office this week and had to make up some hours at his second job, so he did about a 60 hour work week. I hate shopping by myself so we waited until today to do most of our shopping.

We started at Kroger. Not a lot that I wanted this week, but earlier in the week I went and got some of these chicken strips. They are the refrigerated kind and were bogo $3.99. They were delicious, so we went back and got a couple of more bags. I had $1 coupon for them and $1 off on the cookies, so we got this for about $4.50. These chicken strips are perfect for salads.

Next we went to Publix. This is probably the most expensive trip I have ever had to Publix, but I think it was worth it (36 items here including meat). When we walked in we saw that pack of ribs. It was about $7.50, which I think was a pretty good price (not sure we never really buy pork). They look really good and husband has been wanting some ribs, I'm thinking these will be good in the slow cooker. My Publix accepts Earth Fare coupons and I had one for a free pound of ground chuck with a $10 purchase, so we got that pack of ground meat for about 60 cents. I had a rain check for the hunt's ketchup and the homestyle mac and cheese. I had a coupon for a free cooking creme so we got that. Husband loves the fig newtons, but they are outrageously expensive, but they were bogo $3.89 this week and I had 2 $1 off coupons. The salad dressing worked out to about 75 cents a bottle. When we were checking out they had coupons that you could get if you donated to the Children's Miracle Network. I donated $5 and got some good coupons, including $2 off toilet paper which I used on that pack.

So here is where things get tricky. Generally I think that I will buy just about anything if it is free or I can make money off of it. I have one rule, I don't buy baby products, don't have one, don't want one right now, so no baby products. But there are some products that are just awkward to buy. Take this week for example, CVS had the preparation H wipes on sale for $3.99 and you got $3.99 extra care bucks back. I think this falls under the category of awkward to buy products that you don't go get unless you need, so I would not have got this if it would have just been free. However, there was a $2 coupon online, so I made $2 from buying it. The candy was 50 cents each and they gave you $1 ECB so it was free. I got a free green bag tag coupon from the coupon machine, so I paid $1.50 for this stuff and I got a $3.99 ECB and a $1 ECB.

Then we went to Wal-Mart...uuuhhhhh. We got some pretty good deals but the cashier was annoying. I originally had more of the band aids, but the refused my coupons (I wasn't too surprised because it was a PDF coupon). The hot dogs were on sale for 88 cents a pack and I had $1/2 coupons, so they worked out to about 40 cents each (oops we forgot to by buns!). The soy sauce was 42 cents a bottle after my coupons and I had a coupon for eggs when you bought it so those were almost free. That purple bag is 4 tiny razors, I've never heard of the brand before, but they were free. The little first aid kits are $1 each and I had $1/2 coupons. I got all of this stuff, 20 items, for less than $15.

We finished the day by buying me some shoes, yay!, and stopping by the Outback to get a blooming onion, yummy! Now we are anxiously awaiting going to Walgreens at midnight to catch the good deals (that is sarcasm, husband is none too thrilled about our upcoming late night adventure).

Taco Soup

It's time for another quick and easy recipe on the cheap! Well not so much quick today since this is a slow cooker recipe, but still cheap and easy. My wife insists on calling it Taco Soup, but it's almost more of a chicken chili.

Be warned: this recipe will make quite a bit of soup. Enough for around 4 people or to have some leftovers. You will need a pretty big slow cooker with at least a 6 quart capacity. Cooking time is around 6 hours. For ingredients you will need:

1 pound boneless chicken breasts
1 med or large yellow onion
2 can of corn
1 can of black beans
1 can of pinto beans
2 cans of original Ro*Tel
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 pack of taco seasoning
1 cup chicken stock
fresh cilantro

One of the best things about this recipe is how easy it is to make. Very little prep goes into it. Clean and trim the chicken breasts and set them aside. Dice your whole onion and cilantro finely. When opening the cans of corn and beans you can choose whether or not to drain them. I suggest draining the corn, but not the beans.

In the slow cooker combine all of the ingredients but the chicken. Stir very well, making sure the taco seasoning in particular is well blended. Add as much chopped cilantro as you want, to taste. You can use dried cilantro, but fresh cilantro will have a much stronger flavor. If you don't have or care for chicken stock just use a cup of water.


Once all of vegetables and stock have been combined and thoroughly mixed you can add the chicken breasts. Simply lay them on top of the mixture and push down on them until they are completely covered. Drop the top on the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours. After 4 hours fish out the chicken breasts and shred them.


The chicken breasts should be tender and come apart easily. After shredding put them back in the soup and cook for 2 more hours. Once it is done ladle into a bowl and sprinkle lightly with pepperjack or cheddar cheese. Add some crushed tortilla chips for a little crunch. If you would prefer beef over chicken you can make an easy change. Brown and drain a pound of ground beef and add it to the soup instead of the chicken. This recipe should serve 4 to 6. Enjoy!

Today was Pretty Awesome

So we started the day by going to get our coupons and usual cup of coffee at McDonald's. I had $1 off frappe coupons and usually I would go inside and use them but they are destroying our McDonald's currently and you can only use the drive-thru. So we went through, ordered and gave the girl our coupons. After we heard her yelling to a co-worker about using 2 coupons at once and what to do she came back to the window. Husband tried to give her our debit card to pay for the order and she told us it was free with the promo we used. I think she had our coupon confused with one they have for strawberry lemonade free, but I wasn't going to pass up $6.50 of coffee for free, so good start to the day.

They have this amazing hotel here that is part of the university I work at and they do a Sunday jazz brunch buffet which we have been dying to try. It is $20 a person, but they have such good food there I knew it would be worth it. We had reservations for 11am, but I wanted to hit CVS quickly before they ran out of the stuff I wanted this week. We went and got a few things (I will explain with the picture below), and while we were there I checked to see if they had my reach toothbrushes. I have had a rain check for these for over a month. I have looked at all of my CVS stores, I even checked one in New Orleans when I went home, but nothing. Of course they had them today, and of course I didn't have my rain check with me! Not complaining, I am just thrilled they had them!

The buffet was even more amazing than I thought it would be:) At first I was upset because I thought they had prime rib and I didn't see any. We decided to start with breakfast and each had an omelet, it was amazing, but so filling. Soon they did put out the prime rib and it was worth every penny we spent. We will be back and I will not be filling up on eggs!

Anyway... onto today's deals! So we got all of this at CVS. I find CVS confusing sometimes because of the Extra Care Bucks (ECB), which is a coupon you get back on your receipt to use on a future purpose. I try to be careful in getting stuff so that I don't spend to much on things we don't need. I started the day with $2 ECB and I finished the day with $2 ECB. In between I spent about $12, which I think is pretty good. If I would have paid full price for all of this it would have been over $60. The 5 single tooth brushes were the ones I had the rain check for- 5/$5, plus I had $5 in coupons to use. I spent 40 cents in tax for them which is amazing because they are usually more than $4 each. I had some left over coupons for reach and they had these double packs for $3.89 and you get $1 ECB, so I got those for 89 cents a pack, or about 45 cents a toothbrush- I think we are pretty set on those for a while. The Dr. Pepper was on sale $1 each. We have been trying really hard to stay away from soft drinks and we only make an exception for IBC root beer in the bottle. The problem is we drink a lot of root beer and they are expensive! I decided if we just stick to the root beer we are going to be poor, so we decided to break down and get a few soft drinks- only to drink with dinner I swear! So I used some ECB to pay for those. They had the biore stuff on sale for $7.99 each, which I think is insane, but I had a bogo coupon and they gave you $5 ECB when you bought two. So I used my previous $2 ECB and paid a little over $8 out of pocket and got $5 back, I think that is good, although I didn't really need this stuff, that is where it all gets confusing for me. I don't want to buy stuff just because it is cheap. They also had a deal on the suave products, buy $10 and get $3 ECB. The body wash was $2 each and I had bogo coupons and the deodorant, which I don't use but needed to make my $10- it will get donated- was $1 each and I had 50 cents coupons. I was prepared to use my $5 ECB to pay, but he rang up my coupons for $3 instead of $2- again not complaining!- so I used a 99 cent ECB we got for a pack of 99 cent gum we got earlier and paid a little over $2 out of pocket (They will not give you change back from an ECB). I have decided we no longer need body wash, I just counted and we have 18 assorted bottles in the stock pile! I'm guessing some of that will make its way to the donation pile:)

We also made a quick trip over to Kroger. They had the mountain dew on sale so when you bought 4 you got 2 free, which made them 84 cents each. The cookies were $1 after a coupon. I didn't have a coupon for the pasta roni, but it was on sale for $1 each and we make 2 boxes with some shrimp and voila- shrimp fettuccine, another cheap quick meal. Husband really likes the suave men's shampoo stuff and it is on sale for $1.67 a bottle at Kroger and I had 50 cents off 2 coupons that doubled, making it about $1.17 each, which isn't too bad. We paid about $18 for this stuff. The lady in front of us paid $171 for not even a full cart and I just about fell over thinking about spending that!

Playing Catch-Up

Things have been a little crazy at our house lately so it has been a while since I posted. Husband recently got the most fantastic job ever at the Post Office and a 2nd job that he can work when he is not needed at the Post Office. It is intensely awesome with helping out our financial situation, but it has lead to him doing some training about an hour from here and then I went home to visit my parents for about a week, so shopping has not been on the forefront. Here is some stuff that I have gotten over the past couple of weeks.

We went and got these paper towels when I came back home Sunday. They were $5 at CVS and you got back $1 ECB, plus I had $1 off coupons that expired that day, making them $3 each pack.

That same day we went to Kroger. I'm a little iffy on some of this. I know the milk was $1 per half gallon, which was amazing and yet another example of why I need a deep freezer (I have heard you can freeze milk and for that price I would be willing to try!). The toothpaste was free and I had a coupon for the laundry detergent and it printed a $2 off your next order coupon, which made it free. I think the toilet paper was like $4 a pack for the 12 double rolls, and we needed bread and french fries, which we were cooking that night.

Some time during that wee we went to Publix. I wound up with more jambalya that this but I don't know where the picture went. It was on sale for $1 per box- 2 boxes with some shrimp and sausage makes a meal and left overs, so that is a good price for a meal. I didn't think I had coupons so I just bought some, and when I came home I found coupons, so I went and bought some more.

Then we went back for another round at Publix. They had the hungry man frozen dinners bogo and I had $1/2 coupons, I don't remember how much they were originally, but I think I got them for about $1.45 each which is a great deal and husband likes these (although they did not have his favorite kind). The bbq sauce was free, the salsa was about 45 cents a jar, the salad dressing was about 60 cents a bottle. I think the toaster strudels were $1.50 or so a box, but husband has been eating them for breakfast and coupons were about to expire. The grape tomatoes were $1.50 a pack, which is the cheapest I have seen them so far. The lettuce was a little expensive I thought, but we were eating it for dinner and I didn't feel like going anywhere else.I think this trip was around $17- I need to keep better records:( I have asked husband to try and set up some kind of excel spreadsheet for me so I can keep track of our savings.

My New Stockpiling Space

Stockpiling has been a little bit of an issue in our apartment. Since we live on campus it is pretty small and there isn't a lot of storage space to be had. We have a second bedroom, but it hasn't been much of a bedroom up until now because we have been storing most of the furniture that came with our apartment in there. I would say it is about an 8'x8' room and in addition to the stuff that is still in the room we were storing a sofa, queen sized bed, dining table and 3 chairs! I finally got the good news this week that they would come and take the furniture that we didn't want out (sorry to my other res life friends reading this... it is a professional staff deal). So yesterday while husband work and played his game I spent roughly 8 hours straight transforming the room we had before into and actual 2nd bedroom complete with stockpiling space that can be covered with a curtain! I wish I would have taken some "before" pictures, the difference is really pretty incredible.

What I Thought Was Not Going To Be A Good Couponing Day...

Today's couponing didn't start out so well. I was having trouble getting organized and finding all of my coupons. First we went to Walgreen's. They had neutrogena body wash on sale buy one get one free for $5.99, normally I wouldn't call that a godd deal, but I had a bogo coupon, making both free which is an awesome deal! We got to the store and they only had one bottle left at 9am this morning. As I was leaving the Walgreen's I was checking my phone to see where they have another one near buy, missed a curb and almost broke my ankle...good times.

Then we went to CVS. I had $10 extra bucks that I had to spend because it expires today. You would think buying $10 of free stuff would be easy, but not so when you are trying to "roll" your extra bucks (ie. buy something that gives you extra bucks back). We wandered around the store for a while and finally settled on this double pack of toothpaste which gave me $3 extra bucks back and this shampoo and conditioner which gave me $2 extra bucks back. We spent about $2 in tax after coupons and discounts, so it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't super awesome either. After that we made a trip out to Walmart which was a dead end because they didn't have any of the stuff I was looking for, things were starting to look pretty grim:(

But then we hit the other Walgreen's and things started to look up:) They had lots of the bodywash, so we picked two and brought them up to the cashier, and then of course the coupon wouldn't ring. We had to wait for a manager, but while we were waiting the cashier was nice enough to pull out their coupon policy for us, which doesn't say anything about not using a bogo coupon with a bogo sale. When the manager did come he said we couldn't use the coupon. I politely asked him to explain using their current coupon policy and he was at a loss. After a few minutes of looking annoyed he keyed it in and we got $12 worth of body was for 48 cents.

We also made a quick stop at another Walmart where we found these razors that I was looking for (they look like a 2 pack but are actually a 4 pack). They were $1.97 at the other Walmart, but $2.67 at this Walmart (I wonder if they price match themselves...). I should have waited to use my $2 coupons at the other store and get them for free, but they have been out of stock for a while and I just wanted to get them, so we paid about $3.50 for all of them.

Of course Publix came through and saved the day for us! This really is my favorite place to shop, I don't think I could ever move anywhere that doesn't have a Publix. Total for all of my groceries here...$7.98! How did I pay for my awesome groceries you ask? All of that Sominex in the background there. They are $3.19 a box and I had a $5/2 Publix coupon and $2/1 coupons, so for every 2 boxes I bought I made $2.60! I bought 6 boxes. I also had a raincheck for the razors for 2/$5.49 and $3/1 pack coupons, so those were all free. The chicken was a really good deal- 4 leg/thigh combo pieces per bag and each bag was about $4. This will make 4 meals for us. We got a few more of the bird's eye rice bags because we use it to make quick and super easy shrimp fried rice, so we got 6 bags for about 90 cents each. They had a publix coupon and I had a manufacturer's coupon for the toaster strudel, so they were just over $1 per box. So even though it started off as a rough day and didn't look too promising, we actually did really good!

Happy Shopping Day!

Well it didn't start out as a very happy shopping day. We went to Publix and they are still out of my razors that I have a raincheck for. Then I was very upset with myself (I still am a little) because I didn't bring my money-making coupons with me and they actually had some of the stuff in stock, btu I am trying to get over it! They had the cooking creme on sale for $2, we still have a ton of it, but I had some $1.50 off chicken coupons when you buy the creme and I wanted to get some chicken. We got the cooking cremes for 50 cents each and $4.50 off the chicken, so it was about $5 for the chicken, part of which will be dinner Sunday:) The yoplait smoothie mix was $1.59 each and I had $1 coupons so we are going to give them a try. I also had a coupon for the single serve pie, which is 2 slices, so we got that for about 50 cents. I had a coupon for the free ready rice (I actually would have done better using that at Kroger, but it was free so whatever). All of this about $10!

However the best trip of today was surprisingly Kroger. I had to go to 2 different stores, but I got all of this for about $1.50!!! The ivory body was and safeguard bars were on sale for $1 and I had $1 off coupons. We got that at the first store and paid just the 56 cents in tax. Next we went to the other Kroger. They are having a mega event- buy 10 participating items and get $5 off (works out to 50 cents off per item). They didn't have a lot that I wanted, but they had the men's nivea body wash for $2.50 after the savings- and I still had my $3 off coupons from a couple of weeks ago. So I made 50 cents for each bottle of body wash- that's not really true becaue I had to buy the pasta to make 10 items and sadly all of my ronzoni coupons were expired, they were on sale for 50 cents each so I basically got them for free with the overage from the body wash. The bbq sauce was on sale for 49 cents and I had 45 cent coupons that doubled, so made money there too! We paid about 95 cents for the 2nd trip!

This is Why I Need a Deep Freezer...

I have been trying to avoid Kroger lately and do most of my shopping at Publix, but they had a few good deals today that I wanted to get. The hilshire farm sausage was on sale for $2.50 each, which is a pretty awesome price (supposedly there is a coupon out there, but I didn't have it). Also, they have a mega event going on now- buy 10 items, save $5- and the michelina's frozen things are 88 cents after discounts, I had $1 off 5 coupons, which brought them down to 68 cents. I eat them for lunch at work and I'm not sure you can get a lunch much cheaper than 68 cents. We decided to look at the meat to see what they had on manager's special and we were pleasantly surprised when they had these packs of ground meat, which are a little over a pound each, for just $2.32. Husband is a big time carnivore so we bought 5 of them- 2 ground round and 3 ground sirloin. Also, they have on the vine tomatoes for $1/lb, and I love me some tomatoes. We got almost 4 lbs, most of which went into our shrimp ettouffee we are making right now (ok maybe I snuck a few bites while I was cutting them up).

We also made a couple of other random stops today. We went back to Publix to get some more moneymakers and some more razors because they had $3 off coupons, well they were pretty much out of both. While I was there I got one 4 pack of razors for 98 cents. We also made a stop at Walmart, where we bought a pizza pan (we used to have round pans I swear, I just have no idea where they went to). Husband made us a yummy pizza for lunch!