What It's All About.

I'll Have A Slice of Thin Crust

 and one curious george.

Just two of many costumes this halloween season!

Couponing 101

From time to time, I have friends ask about my couponing, so here is a one example of what I consider a good shop.

I enjoy couponing. It is a game for me to get free razors, rice, and toliet paper. I normally do a weekly shop at Giant Eagle that I try to keep around $50 for the week (after coupons). That includes Sal's Reagan's blueberries, bananas, and 2-3 gallons of hormone-free milk weekly. Then anything I have great coupons for that will make it free or cheap goes into the cart. If it is something I can get for free that we don't use, I get it and donate it because it still goes towards the fuel perks I WILL use.

 These shops don't include meat since I don't buy that from GE, but shop a local market for that.

*

Giant Eagle
Actual shelf cost: $87.10
Cost after GE card: $77.85
Cost after coupons: $53.85
Cost after rebates: $43.85
Total Savings: $43.25
50% savings! I'll take that!

Since I shop weekly, I scour the sales and stock up as necessary. About the only thing I buy, at retail price, on a weekly basis is milk and fruit. I also try to stay away from processed foods for our family, but sometimes the only thing the kids will eat for lunch is plain pizza.

This week I found a great deal in the clearance cart. Tom's of Maine Natural Toothpaste. Retail price: $2.73. It was on clearance for $1.24. I had a coupon for $1 off. There were two tubes left and I had 2 coupons.

I also like to shop the cheese section carefully. We always put a cheese board out when we entertain, so I like to have a variety on hand. At Giant Eagle, as cheese closes in on its sell by date, they stick a $1 off sticker on it. Cheese is pretty pricey these days, so even that little bit helps. Today I stumbled on small chunks of White Stilton, some with lemon zest, cranberries, or blueberries. Most of these chunks were under $3. The four that I purchased cost $2.55 total, one of them being a whopping nickel! If they don't get consumed this weekend, I'll either freeze them and use them for cooking or just make a sauce with them.

There has been a wine deal going this week as well. Casillero wines are $9.99. If you buy $20 in groceries, the catalina machine spits out a $10 rebate. Free wine. Well, postage cost minus a penny. You can do this deal as many times as you'd like, but it has to be seperate transactions. Meaning you can't buy 3 bottles if you are spending $60. The machine will only generate one, but if you want to break up your shopping or do seperate transactions, the machine will spit one out for each $20 order.

Things I stock up on when I can get them cheaply; rice, pasta, and paper products.

Things I have to keep on hand and stock up on when they are on sale: YoCrunch (only chocolate chip flavor) for Reagan. This week they were on sale 3 packs/$6. I had $1.50 GE catalina coupons and a manufacturer coupon for $.75 (doubled to $1.50), so I got all 3 packs for $3.

I might not be the best couponer out there and I know plenty of people that would have gotten all this stuff for like, $1.34 or something crazy like that, but I was pretty happy with this shopping trip.

*not pictured are thebribes donuts the kids got for being good in the Eagles Nest.

For Those Not On Facebook

Yes, there are still a couple of followers of this blog that are not on facebook, so here is a recap for those that haven't seen the pictures.

We've been busy, but what else is new. Bill is out of town this week and my buttons are being pushed like mad. Let's hope the three of us survive each other with no breaks. To those of you with partners that travel often or are on active military duty and you have to be the solo act 24-7, I salute you. After a day or two we get into a groove and things move along fine, its the getting to fine that sucks.

So here's what we've been up to. Follow the links for photos.

Night time stories at the schoolhouse, which helped Reagan with her fear of the dark.....a little.

Moms of Mulitples Halloween party.

Goblins In The Garden at the Arboretum. I am ashamed to say this was my first visit to the Arboretum. It is gorgeous and this little treasure is on our local map now.        

Five Dolla

We've tailgated for a lot of years.

In the Muni lot.

In the Burke lot.

In many other unnamed lots.

We found our home in "The Pit."

This past week, the geniuses at Network Parking decided to charge $5 for "Pedestrian Traffic."

Sure there are lots of people that come down to The Pit to join their friends for some beverages, food and fun before the game. We have one in our group of season ticket holders. He does the responsible thing by taking the Rapid and meeting up with us. We pay $30, yes 30 bones to park and set up camp for the morning. There are usually 3 of us in our car and then another car that holds 2 people, pays $30 more bones and meets up with us.

Apparently that is not enough for the greedy folks at Network Parking. They suddenly decided, and from what I hear they did it without the proper permits, to charge $5 for people walking in.

We Are Not Just Going to Bend Over And Take It!

A fellow blogger, Cleveland's a Plum,  has a bigger voice than me and has taken to the airwaves.

Might seem trivial to some of you, but Clevelanders are passionate about their Browns (yes, even the 1-3 Browns....hey, we've seen worse teams!) and their tailgating.....and having an extra $5 in their pocket.