Couponing

(This is in response to Keri's comment on my previous post about using coupons)

Before we had our first child, Andrew and I were changing our eating habits which meant less "convenience" foods and more cooking from scratch. We were noticing that certain foods were giving us heartburn or indigestion, or we'd get headaches or some sort of physical reaction to the foods we were eating. Something had to change, so we decided to stop buying all the ready-made mixes and after we used up what we had in the pantry, we'd go natural and start our garden. We got rid of the microwave, too, since we hardly used it. This was also the year we quit smoking (2001) and decided that sometime that year, I'd stop taking birth control and we'd try for a baby.

I found that a lot of the coupons I used at the time were for the foods we were no longer buying. That sucked. It made it a lot harder to save money on the grocery bill, but I could still use coupons for the toiletry items and cleaning supplies. We weren't saving a whole lot, but every little bit helped.

Meanwhile, in our quest to eat better, we started having less symptoms and no longer dreaded certain meals, knowing at the end we were going to have heartburn. I made and canned my very first batch of salsa and strawberry-rhubarb jam that year. I learned to make and can pickles. Our first garden did so well, that I have yet to repeat that success! Talk about beginners luck!

Fast-forward 9 years and we still make the majority of our meals from scratch, though the microwave has snuck back in for quick re-heating of leftovers. I learned how to make a lot of my own pasta and rice dishes, and have eliminated a lot of those packets for making chinese foods or gravies or other sauces.

9 years later, the coupon world has also changed-- a lot! There are more organic foods and health food stores available and many of them offer online coupons. Where we live, there are no major health food stores like Trader Joes or Whole Foods, so I am unable to shop there, but we do try to buy from local farm stands when they are open. I never did switch to cloth diapers or try "green" diapers because I am too lazy for the first and there are none available here for the second. With the coupons available for national brand diapers, I can get them for almost free, so it's cheaper for me to use them, though I do feel guilty for not doing my part in keeping diapers out of the landfills.

The majority of the coupons we use now are for scratch pantry items, toiletries and cleaning supplies. A while back, one of the coupon websites I follow posted the pros and cons of making your own or buying ready-made cleaning supplies and the cost value came out the same when you factor in coupons. Personally, I use a home-made vinegar cleaning solution for all-purpose cleaning of the tables and messes on the floors, but use store-bought laundry soap for our clothes. Not too long ago, I was able to get Arm and Hammer Laundry soap for $1.50 a bottle and Wisk Laundry soap for $1 a bottle. I use paper towels for cleaning up pet messes, vomit and poop but cloth towels for human messes (spilled milk, Peter running around without a diaper, etc). I made our own cloth napkins and stopped buying paper napkins.

Coupons are great for getting brand-name toiletries for cheap! There are also a lot of coupons available for natural brands, too, like Tom's of Maine and Burt's Bees, to name a couple. You can go to the brand's website and search for coupons, or even contact them and ask if they have any coupons. Many times, they will send you some or give you a link where to find some. I have not had to pay for toothpaste or floss since I've been extreme couponing!

I have not ventured into making my own shampoo, though I have wanted to, but with 4 young children to bathe and clean, sometimes it's easier to just grab a bottle of baby shampoo and wash 'em down. I can pick up a medium sized bottle of Johnson & Johnson's baby wash for under $1 when I wait for a sale and use a J&J coupon plus a store coupon. This week, at CVS, they have Aveeno shampoo on sale and combined with coupons, store coupons, and CVS bucks, I got 4 bottles for free PLUS there is a $10 rebate that I can send away for which ends up giving me $10 profit. With deals like that, it makes it hard for me to give that up to make my own shampoo.

Our kids drink a lot of juice, so we use coupons for getting 100% juice products. There are a lot of coupons out there for juices-- everything from orange juice to cranberry to fruit/vegetable mixes. They can be big money savers when it comes to 4 kids drinking several glasses of juice a day. I can tell you personally that several juice brands offer coupons on their websites. We also drink a lot of iced tea, and there are coupons out for several different brands. My personal favorite is Lipton, and there is a coupon for them every couple of months, and when it's out, I get several papers and stock up when there is a sale.

Feminine products-- I have been wanting to make my own cloth pads, but until I get around to making them, there are tons of coupons out there for many different brands. This week, I was able to pick up two packs of pads for free because they were buy one, get one free and I had 2 coupons, which made them free plus overage (3.69 for 2, I had 2- $2 off 1 coupons=$4 which means I paid nothing plus I got 31 cents extra off my total bill).

We like ice cream (yum! who doesn't?!) and last week there was a sale on Edy's for $2 a carton and when combined with a coupon, I can get them for as little as $1 a carton. This week Food Lion has a sale on frozen dessert items and it's an extremely good sale-- buy any 5 items and get $5 knocked of the total which basically means $1 off each item. Cool Whip is included in that deal and it's on sale for $1 which means what?? Buy 5, get $5 off = FREE! Add in a $1 off 4 coupon and you've got overage that will come out of the total bill. Cool Whip is my guilty pleasure, so it's not something I buy often, but with a sale like this, it's worth stocking up on a few containers, since they freeze well. If I dole it out carefully, I can still have some in the freezer for apple and pumpkin pie season in the Fall.

So, even if you don't buy a lot of convenience foods, you can still save a lot of money with coupons in other ways. Contact your favorite brands and see if they have coupons to offer, check with your local grocer's and see if they have coupons for loyal shoppers, they may even have coupons at the service desk, which I always check for. Search online for rebates and even more coupons. There are hundreds of coupon blogs for the many different stores in your areas, just do a little search for them.

Hope this helps! :o)
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We went into the "Big City" on Friday to visit family and friends and make a couple stops here and there. We got caught in rush hour and it took us 40 minutes to go 11 miles on the beltway. Living in the mountains made us forget how to plan ahead and leave early to get to our destination on time in traffic. It was hot and humid and all the exhaust from the cars made my eyes water and gasp for air. You couldn't pay us to move back to the Big City!

It was a good trip, though, and we enjoyed our visits with everybody. We didn't return home until after midnight and it was so good to be home again, in the quiet, cool mountains, away from all the hustle and bustle of cars and smog and crowded homes.

We have our moments, sometimes, when we wonder why we moved more than 2 hours away from all our friends and family and all we need to do is visit them to be reminded why we love it where we are. We live where people go away to for the weekends.

The fourth of July is coming up and we may go back to the Big City for that day, depending on if Andrew has to work or not. Looking forward to being with friends, not so much the traffic. Wait and see what happens at work-- The Boss fired someone, so Andrew and his co-worker need to pick up the slack and work more hours. Good for the bank account, so I'm not complaining.

Speaking of the bank account, I've been doing really well with the couponing. People that save huge amounts and pay little are called 'extreme couponers' and I think I can join the ranks now. Sunday was a very good day for me at CVS (a drugstore). I sat down with the sales papers and my coupons and worked out a plan on Saturday night (no more partying for me on Saturday nights!) and then Sunday morning I went to CVS. My grand total came to $82 and I paid only $6 plus I got $11 back in CVS bucks! Whoo-hoo! I got stuff we needed, too:: paper towels, diapers, pads, razors and shaving cream. It's a thrill to see the cash register total go down, down, down as I hand over coupons and CVS bucks to pay only small amounts and get approving nods from the cashiers.

I was telling my friends about it and I was thinking of maybe hosting a workshop for other deaf people to show them how to use coupons to the extreme. It doesn't take a lot of time to use coupons, only a couple of hours a week to cut them out and match them up with sales and then comes the fun part-- shopping!

We used to struggle with the grocery bill every month and a lot of times we had to go without because our budget just couldn't allow it. Since I've been extreme couponing, the pantry has been consistently stocked and I find myself spending way less than we used to, even though we have more mouths to feed (Grandma moved in and Peter now eats regular foods). Even the bathroom cabinet is nearly overflowing with extra toiletries we use; like shampoo and soap, toothpaste, razors, body washes and band aids.

I get diapers for cheap, too. The other night, I didn't pack enough diapers for our trip to the Big City, so I made a last minute run to CVS for a big box of diapers. Usually, last minute purchases are expensive, but lucky me, I had my coupon book, so I bought a box of 54 diapers that normally cost $25, on sale for $19.99, used a $3 off $15 store coupon, a $3 manufacturer's coupon, a $3 store coupon, and $2 CVS bucks so I paid $9 plus tax and got back $10 in CVS bucks for my next shopping trip, so I ended up getting it for FREE! Sweet!

Then Sunday, airhead me forgot to pack more diapers in the diaper bag, so I needed to buy diapers, again, when Peter took a dump while we were in the store. I managed to get an 8-pack of paper towels, 2 packs of pads, and a pack of diapers and after using coupons and CVS bucks, I paid? 77 cents! Yes, 77 cents! How can you not enjoy shopping when you don't even have to touch the bank account??

Andrew used to get a little grumpy at me when I said I was heading out to the store for what seemed like the 18th time that week. It only looks like I am shopping a lot more, when in reality, I am spending a lot less, just making more purchases to spread out the coupon love. Some stores limit how many coupons I can use, like multiples of the same coupon are not allowed at one store; or another store will not take internet coupons that have 'buy one get one free' on it. So I have to get smart and spread 'em out a little bit. When Andrew checks the bank balance and sees that we still have money in there at the end of the month, in fact, more than he expected, he feels alright about my shopping practices. He likes to hear how much I saved or how much I paid for a certain item.

Target, this week, has Oscar Mayer hotdogs on sale for $1.39! That's the cheapest I've ever seen them, then add a $1 off 2 coupon and that makes it 89 cents each!! Good time to stock up and throw some in the freezer! That's really what extreme couponing is about: stocking up when the price and the coupons are right and then when you need it, you have it, instead of paying full price for it later on. I happened to have 6 coupons, so I bought 12 packages of hotdogs. Now for the summer, I won't need to buy any more hotdogs and I can focus my attention to other good buys and coupon matches. Oh, and to go with those hotdogs, Heinz 40oz ketchup is on sale at Target for $1!! Good deal! An even better deal is Hunt's ketchup for $1 at Food Lion and there is a $1 off 2 coupon which makes it 50 cents a bottle! My family prefers Heinz, but I bought Hunt's for cooking with-- like when I make sloppy joes or meatloaf.

Anyone interested in a couponing workshop?? Let me know and I'll see what I can do! :o)
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Anticipation

I was determined this year to get a bunch of tomato plants in the garden. Previous years proved disappointing-- my starts were destroyed by then-puppy Maisie and a late frost cleared the store shelves from gardeners quicker than I and only luck at a yard sale saved me from zero tomato plants. I scored 10 plants and while I was happy, it was not enough for canning and preserving. One year, I also goofed and planted too many grape tomatoes and not enough canning tomatoes.

My starts this year failed me, but it was still early enough that I had good pickings from the local farm store in town and I bought 42 plants. 2 died, so I have 40 plants in the ground, growing and thriving so far.

Many of my tomato plants are showing young fruit and I am quivering with anticipation of eating home grown tomatoes. We caved a few times and ate store-bought ones and were disappointed by the flavor and only made us more hungry for what will soon come from our garden.

This is what jungle-boy Peter thinks the fence panels are for! I didn't mind when there were no tomato plants there, but now, I shriek and race to get him off, so he doesn't smoosh a tomato plant underfoot.

I use cattle panels for my tomato plants. You can see the panels above behind the pool and I am also using old carpet as a weed blocker. I borrowed the idea of using cattle panels from fellow blogger O'Melays last year and they work great! Much better than the flimsy tomato cages, which I never liked using, and better than stakes, which the tomatoes always grow higher than and end up flopping over. Using cattle panels allow me to plant on both sides and then tie the vines to the panel as they grow. So much more sturdier and cheaper, actually, than using tomato cages.

Here's the math:

40 plants = 40 cages @ $3.50 each = $140.00

VS

40 plants = 4 cattle panels @ $18 each = $72.00

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We had lots of rain this Spring, plus it was rather chilly, so it feels like we got our garden in later than usual and the ground was just too wet for me to plant at times. I never got my peas in, which I'm really disappointed about, but some of the other stuff we got in are doing great. Potatoes are starting to really come up and I need to hill them this week. The peppers got a rough start when the chickens got into the garden and pecked their leaves off, but now they are starting to flower and show fruit. My cabbage and broccoli are been eaten by tiny black beetles and caterpillars-- I can never seem to grow these here. I had not planned to grow corn this year, but I still had seed left from last year, and space in the garden from not planting other things, so I got 12 rows of corn in and they are about 6-8 inches tall now. Hope they grow better this year and I get more ears than I did last year:: 550 seeds planted = 12 ears.

I failed to get onions planted, along with asparagus, strawberries, beans and cukes. I'm aiming for a winter garden, though, my first, so I'll be trying cabbage again and some root crops like carrots and potatoes. Starting small and if it is successful, I'll add more next year.

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Success!

I love it when a party goes as planned. With the exception of a few missing guests (we missed you!!), most everyone on the invite list showed up. I made sure to cook 90% of the food the day before, so I could enjoy myself at the party, too!

The menu: Pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, hot dogs, 2 kinds of potato salad (one is Andrew's Grandmother's recipe and the other is mine), chips, veggies and dip, and of course, cake and ice cream.

Evelyn requested a 'buggy' cake, so after much thought, I came up with a caterpillar cake. Cute?

It was hard frosting this, especially on the cut ends of the cake, but I'm happy with how it came out. 10 candles:: 2 for Peter and 8 for Evelyn. M&Ms for the spots, twizzlers for the feet and mouth. (there was going to be a butterfly cake, too, but the frosting just wasn't cooperating, so it got shoved into the freezer. I'll probably try to frost it when it is frozen and use it for Peter's cake later on his actual birthday. I'm sure he won't mind having a butterfly cake--it's a bug, isn't it? maybe I can switch it into a regular ol' fly? hmm)

Evelyn and the kids sure liked it! Peter fell asleep and napped while we had cake and ice cream. He was a cranky thing before I got him down, so I didn't want to wake him. He'll have some cake and ice cream on his actual birthday in July. There was plenty of cake left, so I'm kind of glad the butterfly cake didn't work out. That would have been just too much cake!

The pool was a big hit with the kids!! I am so relieved. I worried all night, after we filled it, that we'd wake up to an empty pool the morning of the party. We made sure the water guy "approved" of the digging out we did before we filled it all the way up. It isn't perfect, but so far so good. *knock on wood*


After the pool was filled, we still had water left in the water truck, so we filled up all the bins I had previously used to try and salvage water from last time. Turns out I am glad we did, Peter has lots of fun going from one bin to the other and we use one bin for dunking feet before getting into the pool. Of all the big bins he could hang out in, he chooses to sit in the bucket! Silly Peter!

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I'm sad to see the weekend end, it was such a nice long weekend with Andrew off beginning on Friday and not having to return to work until Monday evening. We are enjoying the luxury of our own pool and the only downside is the kids begging every waking moment when can they go swimming again. "Can we go swimming yet? Now can we go? Is it time to go swimming yet? When can we go swimming? Now? Is it time yet? Can we? Can we? Can we??" I can't blame 'em. I remember when I practically spent the whole, entire summer at the pool when I was a kid. Only difference was, there was a lifeguard there, so Mom or Dad didn't have to go with me all the time.

A Girl and Her Chicken

That Evelyn, she is a stubborn one. She has a mind of her own and I could tell her a thousand times not to do something and she goes and does it anyway. Part of me is glad she is her own individual, but there are times when all I want is for her to listen and do it.

One of the things I am forever telling her, is to leave the chickens alone. She'll say, "okay mama", and then turn around and pick one up. ~sigh~ I don't mind too much when she is being loving towards them, but half the time she has a mean streak and just wants to see them jump and squawk when she throws a stick at them or chases them around the yard. Our chickens are friendly birds and they come running when one of us goes outside, usually looking for scraps or a hand full of feed.

Here's Evelyn in one of her loving moods towards the chickens. She has one of the younger ones, either the Rhode Island Red or the New Hampshire Red-- I can't tell the difference just yet.

When she is content to sit with a chicken on her lap like this, I don't mind at all when she wants to "play" with the chickens. I must admit though, she does very well when it comes to helping me with the chickens-- closing the coop for the night, gathering eggs, feeding them, etc. I appreciate having her help with the chickens and it's one less thing for me to do.

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The younger group of chickens are growing quickly and it's looking like I have 4 roosters and 5 hens. Another month or two and I'll have to butcher the roosters. There is already a mean one in the bunch and he likes to peck. I had them in a large bin when they were chicks and as soon as it warmed up during the day and night, they were put outdoors with the bin. I think that was a mistake, I cannot get them to go into the coop at night. The older chickens want nothing to do with the younger ones, but I suspect that will change once the younger hens are noticed by the head rooster when they're of age. Or at least I hope so.

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In the mean time, I have to wait until dark, when the chickens are settled in the bin, then stick the whole bin into the coop for the night. I tried to take the bin away, but they just settled in a different location outside of the coop which made more work for me to gather them and stick them in the coop, so I put the bin back. I put the bin right by the door of the coop once, and they chose to settle by the house. Any ideas? I still haven't put up a fence, though I am thinking about it these days.

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Egg production is at a standstill right now and I'm lucky if I get one egg a day. I don't go egg hunting in the woods with all the poison ivy at their peak so I have no idea if they are laying eggs out there or not. Do chickens lay eggs when they are molting their feathers?? I read somewhere they do not... something about having to grow new feathers taking up all their "energy" instead of making eggs. True? I sure miss having a fridge full of eggs. I'll never moan about having 7 dozen eggs in the fridge again!

Visitor

Look who lives in our garden and came to visit!

Mr. Toad!

I happened to pick something up and he was under there and hopped onto my foot.

Well, hello there!

He hung out on my foot for quite a bit,

while Andrew ran to the house to get the camera.

He's a handsome feller ain't he?

He's welcome to live in the garden for as long as he likes,
provided he eats his weight in bugs!

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Drained

What a weekend it has been. I am drained-- quite literally, drained.



I found a good deal on a pool-- one of those pop-up jobs with the inflatable rings and as you fill it with water, it rises to hold the water in. Combined with a gift card, coupon and sale, we got a 12x3 feet pool for pretty cheap. Plenty big for us but not so big that we can't maintain it. It's something we have been throwing around for a long time, always talking about getting one, but never actually buying one. We have talked long and hard about the pros and cons of pool ownership, especially one that uses a filter and pool chemicals and we decided to bite the bullet and get one-- figuring out that it's cheaper in the long run to have a pool here that we can use daily versus driving and then paying to use the public pool/beach.

Anyway, after scouting out the most level area we could find (we live on a mountain, the whole yard is on a slant), we set it up inside the fenced garden area in a spot that I can see from the house and inside the fence where Peter can't get into the pool. A pool that size uses quite a bit of water, and we didn't want to use our well water if we don't have to, so we called a water guy and found out that 2000 gallons would cost $100. Not too bad, we thought, so we went ahead and told the guy to come. The pool holds just over 1700 gallons, and if I had several barrels, I would have put the surplus water in there for when the pool needs topping off.

The guy came and before filling the pool, he told my husband that the pool was not level. We told him we were aware of that but go ahead and fill the pool anyway. I didn't hear him say anything else, I was busy with the kids/keeping Peter away/making bottom of the pool smooth/hushing a barking dog... The pool was a little lopsided-- I quipped that there was a deep end and a shallow end and we were ok with that. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement between the kids, but after the pool was filled, it was late, past 7:30 and we still hadn't had dinner which was quickly getting cold on the grill. Andrew and I put the pool cover on for the night and said we'd play in the pool the next day, Saturday, after we hooked up the filter and rigged up the steps.

In the morning, we told the kids over and over to stay away from the pool, wait for Mommy or Daddy to be there first. Andrew left for work at 9am and shortly after, I was outside hanging laundry on the line. Evelyn was near the pool in her bathing suit and swim goggles just bursting with anticipation. The next thing I see, Evelyn is walking towards me, she is near the burn pit and I see something glimmering, like one of those shimmery, hazy mirages you see on a hot day looking down the road. I look again at the glimmery sight and I realize the water is flowing from the pool!! All this feels like slow motion as I run as fast as I can to the pool and catch the side and pull it up, then turn around to see a small river flowing down into the woods. Might as well have been $100 in shiny pennies flowing away. There was about 8 inches of water left in the pool.

What am I going to do? What the hell happened? Did Evelyn do something? How do I call Andrew and tell him at work? Can I call the water guy and get the extra 200 or so gallons that we paid for but didn't get? $100 fucking dollars! Shit! Maybe the pool IS more trouble than it is worth! So much for a cheap pool if it is costing us this much in lost water. All this went through my head within seconds. What am I going to do??

Here's what I did: I called the water guy and asked them if they could give us the extra water and I was told that he warned us that this would happen-- the water flowed out because the pool was not level and if he came out and filled it again, it would happen again. Well shit. I didn't hear him say that. I think if I had I would have asked him what we can do to prevent it from happening. So I thanked him and hung up. Do I call Andrew and tell him what happened, thereby ruining his day at work or do I wait for him to come home all excited to go swimming only to find out there's no water to swim in? I opted not to call him.

I grabbed all the empty bins we had in the house, dumped out the ones that had stuff in them and brought them out to the pool. I was determined to salvage what water was left and to dig under the pool to make it level. From 10 am until nearly dinner time, I was out there scooping water into bins; shoving the pool aside; digging about 6 inches down on one side of the pool; taking the dirt and dumping it (might as well turn lemons into lemonade, I now have enough dirt for a raised bed). When Andrew came home at 4, he helped me finish the job. By then I had worked out all my anger and put it all into my shoveling, but Andrew was still angry, hissing and spitting.

The pool is level now and we dumped the rest of the water that was in the bins, the same water that I salvaged from the pool, because the kids used it as a dunking area and got it all muddy and we didn't want to put it back into the clean pool. Today is hot and humid-- 90 degrees at 9 this morning-- and would have been perfect for dipping in the pool, especially with the sunburn I have from being out there all day yesterday, but-- no pool.

We have a double birthday party planned for the 19th and we already told some people to bring swimsuits for the kids. We already had the pool opened and filled, then emptied and it's not possible at this point to return it. We already opened and used the pool cover and cannot return it. I already dug out underneath the pool so it's ready to be filled. We are going to swallow the very large lump and pay the water guy another $100 to come back out and fill the pool again. This time I am going to lock the over-excited kids and the barking dog in the house with Grandma so I can hear every word that comes out of the water guy's mouth and if he says something is wrong with how our pool looks, I want to know how I can fix it, so I don't ever have to see money flowing into the woods like that again.
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