Author Archives: Sheila

82% Savings at CVS and Harris Teeter

Posted on by
1

Yesterday was the first day of Triple coupons at Harris Teeter. I have been working and planning for this for the past couple of day. I would estimate a total of 2 uninterrupted hours but it ended up beginning 4 for me. My plan is this I will shop 3 times. Yesterday the trip focused on “free items” but I also picked up 10 packs of baby food because they were on “sale” and I had store coupons which did not double. I spent a total of 30 minutes in the store because I had a list printed and my coupons were sorted by “free”, “good deals” and “check”. On my first time through the store, I picked up the wrong band of taco seasoning so I went back and got just the two packs that I needed. The coupon for 0.75 off 2 would not go through so she had to call a manager to put it in. So it tripled and the register showed I owed 0.26. She looks at me and says “I guess you get it free.”

I spent $14.45 and saved $60.15.

After Harris Teeter I made a quick trip to CVS, unfortunately somewhere in the store, I lost my card so now I have to call to get my new and old card linked. I want to be sure and get my quarterly ECB in April. I bought 1 pk of Pampers size 5 and 2 packs of skittles and 2 packs of Starburst. I had a BOGO coupon from facebook for each so I used a filler to reach my $10 because of a 3 off 10 from Walgreens. So OOP I spent $1.73 and walked out with 3 ECB!

Total savings was $75 and OOP was 17.22 for 82% saving! I will be heading back to Harris Teeter tonight for my second trip!

Happy Birthday Haley

Posted on by
Reply

So today is Haley’s 15th birthday. I have been debating on what to include in this blog today. I had debated on just making this a post about how awesome and special Haley is to me right now or doing a post about her “birth” day. I decided to post the later because as each year passes I am sure I forget some of the important details that one day Haley will want to know.

So Haley was born on a Tuesday. I was employed with Health Focus and at that time, it was a perfect job for a working mother and especially one that was pregnant. I actually started this job on the day I found out I was pregnant. I took a test in the bathroom of one of the facilities I worked at because my bf bought it on our lunch. You were paid for full time as long as you were able to cover all the patients at the 3 facilities I covered. So I just didn’t feel great that morning and decided to hang out at home until after Amanda’s nap. I only had 2 patients to see that day. I was laying in the bed watching “All My Children.” My plan was to drop Amanda off at daycare and go to work at 2ish. But Haley of course had different plans. My water broke during the show. It was not the gush you hear about. I called my mom and she insisted that I go to the doctor. In fact I called and she and Dad met me there.

Amanda and Pawpaw went to go find Destry because even though I had already called and asked that he met me at the hospital we didn’t think, he would get the message. Of course we were correct and Pawpaw drove in behind his cement truck just as he was going out on another run.

I was admitted to the hospital and IMMEDIATELY wanted pain medicine. Unfortunately the meds slow and almost stopped my labor. The meds began to wear off at 5 pm and Haley was born just before 6pm. After Destry arrived I sent my mom and dad home with Amanda and Destry’s mom home as well. It was during this delivery that I realize I like to be left alone.

After Haley was born, Amanda arrived back at the hospital within half an hour to see her new sister. We had done a good job preparing Amanda that I would have to stay in the hospital but we forgot to tell her the baby would too. The nurses were awesome and took a polarid picture which Amanda took home and carried with her for the next 3 days to show anyone what her new sister looked like. I still have the picture and you can see the finger prints from where it was carried around. This was also the beginning of a tradition that has continued with all 5 kids. Haley brought Amanda a purse with crayons in it!

Haley is super excited today because she got the call last night that she starts the driving part of Driver’s ed today. She was awake before 6am to start celebrating. Hopefully tomorrow I can post a couple of pictures.

CVS ROCKS!

Posted on by
1

I made my “trip at nap” to CVS on Sunday. I ended up with 2 rainchecks from last week after 3 trips to find the “Princess and the Frog” DVD for Easter. So I decided to check once again to see if they got any in. They did !!! So I spent OOP $24 and saved $58 with 6 ECB to use next week on the Huggies diaper deal that I hear they are having. I had a savings of 71%, my personnel highest this year!
I wanted to highlight a couple of things I bought. The DVD on raincheck was $19.99 with 3 ECB back with purchase. I ended up paying $10.85 for this as my first transaction. My second transaction included both soap and toothpaste to donate as well as a couple of bags of candy to donate as well. My third transaction was the best. I purchased 2 bags of diapers, total OOP was $5.84 and I earned 6ECB back. I was so excited, by the math I paid $0.08 per diaper!!!!!

I also had to go to Food Lion to purchase some baby food. Zach is eating 6 jars a day and I am trying to only buy with coupons and when on sale.

Future deals this week should also help manage the budget this month. Harris Teeter is having a triple coupon event and I have already started my list which will entail at least 2 trips depending on the sales this week, which will post later today. CVS is scheduled to have Huggies diapers on sale next week and I have recently printed 4 $3 off coupons. I should be able to get at least one free pack of diapers !!!

Monday Menu Post 3-22

Posted on by
Reply

I know I have not posted in 6 days but man have we been busy! I am planning to catch up with several post today as well as a very special post tomorrow in honor of Haley’s birthday! But first is the Menu Plan for this week. Angel Food arrived on Saturday so we have A LOT to chose from. Most likely things will change this week as it goes along but at least now I can say that I have a plan. I am planning on using some of Haley’s favorite food this week as well! The goal is to have a fruit and veggie with each meal to keep us a little bit health.

Monday- Grilled chicken, slaw, potato salad, pasta salad and a new fruit dish( secret apple salad)
Tuesday- Chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, applesauce, birthday cake and ice cream
Wednesday- Spaghetti, garlic bread
Thursday- Bacon wrapped Turkey fillets (angel food) Not sure of the veggies to add in yet. Maybe a broccoli rice casserole.
Friday- I am working ALL DAY! So I am thinking either we pick up pizza or we could have the frozen pizza or pizza bites depending on what the girls have for lunch as well!

Back to Work

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I found out that I had won a $25 gift card to Outback from one of the blogs that I stalk (ooops I mean follow on a regular basis). So I am excited maybe Matt and I will go out for a date night?

Now on to the other news in our world, I am officially returning to work part-time. The not so good news is that it starts today instead of May when I first agreed. On Monday morning, my bff called from Lexington Hospital to tell me that I need to first decide how much I was willing to do and then call the department head because she was going to “ask/budget” for more OT hours.

I love being a SAHM, it is what I wanted even before Lily was born. I have been able to completely stay at home for several months at a time when each of the little kids were born. With Lily I was completely at home for 9 months and then worked around Matt and the girls schedule for about 6 months to cover a long maternity level. From that point on I worked one morning a week, Lily had discovered a wonderful mother’s morning out at Tumble tots. Sometimes I would work 2 or 3 days but no more. After Kendall, I requested and was promised a 12 week leave with no work. That changed when she was 4 weeks old and the OT that was at the hospital was leaving. I knew that eventually (probably 4 years from then) I wanted to work at least school hours and the hospital is the one of the best places to do so. So we decided in order to keep that as a possibility I would again start part-time (around 10 hours a week). We were lucky enough to find Nana Carol to watch Kendall. She was awesome and I could not have been more loving or taken better care of Kendall as an infant myself. After 6 months almost exactly a year ago , I realized this was not working and with Zach on the way, I just could not handle the stress of running a department. So luckily my bff took the job as the full time OT at Lexington Memorial Hospital. I have continued to do some prn (as needed) work and took an entire 4months off after Zach was born.

Now back to the phone call, so after discussion with Matt and a look at financially what I would have to get to make my part-time return beneficial for us. I decided that I could go back for a minimum of 4 hours per week with a maximum of 15 hours per week. I had said this would start the first of May when Amanda would be able to watch the kids and then the plan this summer is to split things up with Lily and Kendall going to Tumble tots and Haley with Zach and/or Amanda and Haley watching all 3. Next fall, Lily will start preschool 3 days a week and both Zach and Kendall can go to Tumble Tots if needed or stay with Amanda. The department head was very happy with this arrangement so I thought I would wait it out and deal with the change then.
Yesterday, I got two calls one is for a class/workshop on Thursday night that I need to finish my continuing education hours for the year. The second, they NEED me to work today and start helping with in- patients. So after picking up Haley from school this afternoon it is off to work I go!

Monday Menu Post 3-15

Posted on by
Reply

I really don’t feel like blogging right now..in fact I would prefer to be sleeping (naptime). But in an effort to post often on my blog and so that I actually can say I have a plan for the week, I am going to start Monday Menu Post. Last week we went off track because I realized I did not have any mozzarella cheese on Tuesday for the chicken. I guess the fact that we only ate out on Sunday was a good thing 🙂 So now on to the plan

Monday-Steaks (angel food) Leftover sides from the fridge and green beans
Tuesday -Roast with potatoes and carrots (microwavable)
Wednesday- Baked Ziti (Leftover from Saturday)
Thursday- Shrimp Scampi (Bagged meal)
Friday- Mexican night aka I have not a clue

Random Thoughts and Friday Final combined

Posted on by
Reply

So it is Friday but it has been a slow week as far as great deals but I wanted to make sure I blogged today since this weekend is going to be busy! I was so hoping for Harris Teeter triples this week, which has been rumored for March but no such luck! So I had to go out yesterday for diapers for Kendall and baby food. I was able to get a good deal on diapers at Walgreens but not the 2.19, I was hoping for. I hit Food Lion for the baby food and also for a couple of items I needed for the Baked ziti and garlic bread for the youth progressive dinner. The good news is that I still have around 200 left in the grocery budget for the month. This is a first but I also realize that I will probably spend that and more next week at Costco. They have both diapers and wipes on sale!

Last night we made a trip to Lowes to return some extras we had from the tile. We were able to return and purchase the same amount :). The plan is to work in the bathroom this weekend and get it ready for inspection. At this point we are probably around 1000 from inspection! I can’t wait for this so we can begin the re-financing and finally get started on the Dave Ramsey plan!

Today, my plan is to clean the living room and kitchen and also get the Baked Ziti in the fridge for tomorrow. I am going to try something new and start my cleaning out there and see if that will work! All the kids are feeling better at least they are acting better. Lily has decided that ice cream is her favorite food and she insisted that I check my pictures this morning to find a picture of her eating ice cream as a baby. Of course I could not find one but she is okay now. Kendall learned to call Cocoa the cat yesterday and it is now her favorite thing to do!