Publix - finally!

My DD had fun arranging and taking a picture of this trip.  My first shopping in several weeks that  involved more than milk, bread, fruit and eggs!

4 Hunt's ketchup  1.69/2    -20/1 dbl  =  .44ea
6 Crest toothpaste   2.69/2  -1/1  = .35ea
2 Pepperidge Farm cookies  2.50ea - .50/1 dbl  =  1.50ea
2 gal milk   1.99  -  1/1 wyb Pep Farm cookies  = .99ea
4 Scrubbing Bubbles   3.29/2  - .75/1  = .90ea
4 Kellogg's Mini Wheats little bites   3.89/2 - 2/2 =  .95ea
6 Dentyne 60ct gum  3.29/2  - 1.50/1  =  .15ea
1 Angel Soft tp  5.49
2 Gorton's fish sticks  5.49/2
2 Mueller's spagetti  1.29/2  - .55/2 =   .37ea
7 Navel oranges (4.5lbs)   .79lb  =   3.56
1 3lb bag apples  2.50
1lb box Matzos bread  1.99  clearance-not sure of reg price
2 candles  .34ea  not sure of reg price


Total before coupons & sales:  $118.39
Total OOP:  $40.08

Rubik's Cube Cake

Here is a picture of the Rubik's cube cake I made for my oldest DS.  We had all of the ingredients necessary for the cake in the pantry.  But I don't usually keep black licorace in my pantry, so that was an item I had to purchase and could only find it at Walmart.  I also found that I needed eggs, since all I had was hard-boiled.

I know that the cake is not quite square or even, but it is 4 layers as it is and to keep from having to make another 1 or 2 layers, I tried to 'prop up' the corners with extra icing, but didn't quite get it.  I know how and what I am supposed to do to make it even, I just didn't want to make more cake!  Even for a family of 8, that is a lot of cake!

Plus, I took the picture before I cleaned up the tray.  I was planning on using a cardboard cake tray 'thingy', but I had to store it temporarily overnight on this while I was making it and it stuck quite nicely on this, so I just left it on the round cake keeper thingy.

It is alternating 2 layers of chocolate and 2 layers of yellow cake with chocolate icing.  The licorace and colored buttercream are on top of the chocolate.  I knew we would throw away the licorace - no one here likes it.

Here is the cake in the process of being made.

 

Coupon organization - does the system work for you?

After pondering my hiatus from shopping, I have come to the conclusion that not only was I extremely busy with other things, but also was not excited or interested in shopping because my system was not working.  That is, my system of how I was organizing my coupons.  It just didn't work for me.

I kind of think that since my binder broke, I just didn't want to shop or use coupons.  I know that may sound funny, but it just shows how important it is to use/find an organizational system that you like.

For me, it is a single binder, meaning just one set of rings and the coupons are stored in baseball card inserts so that I can see the coupons at a glance.  I am a visual person and as I am flipping through the pages I can remember seeing a coupon. 

I sort them in alphabetical order - all the A's together, b's, c's, etc. by product name.  One page is for A's food and the next page is for A's non-food, and then the b's food, b's non-food, etc.  But I don't get hung up on alphabetizing within each letter.

When I had to use the binder with 2 sets of rings, it was too much flipping from one set of rings to the other - I really didn't like it at all.  I tried food in one set of rings, non-food in the other - too much flipping from one side to the other.  It required an extra step in the thought process - 'is this item food or non-food? Oh it's non-food... I need to flip to the other side!'

So, since the rings weren't big enough to hold all the pages, I tried A-N in one set, M-Z in the other set.  That way didn't work either.  Thought process - 'this starts with a T and that is on the other side so I need to flip sides!'  Not efficient either!

One of my best friends uses a file box and divides them up by category and she totally loves it!  I tried that too, but I couldn't see the coupons, would forget I had them, and, for me, seemed harder to flip through the coupons.  But my friend loves the file box...and it works extremely well for her!


So, my DS repaired my binder (back in March) and it took up until a few days ago (almost half-way through April) for me to take the time (all of 30 min) to switch back to my fixed binder, pull out the expired coupons, and file all the new ones I had accumulated. 


Point of all of this?  If one system doesn't work for you, or using your coupons seems like too much trouble, then maybe all that is the trouble is that you need to change your system or tweak it just a little bit. A year ago, I tweaked the binder by organizing by alphabet rather than product category.  Works much better for me now.

It takes 'work' to save money using coupons.  Each system requires 'work' to use it.  Using a system that makes sense to you means that you are getting paid (by not spending) the most for the time you 'work'.

I am still around - just not shopping much

I thought I had better post at least 'something' here. Since this is a place to record shopping, I have tried to only post results of shopping here. Problem is, I haven't done a lot of shopping lately. Well, maybe it isn't a problem, but up til now, I haven't had much to post about.

I did go a couple times for bread, milk, fruit, and eggs and I will post those in the monthly totals on the sidebar; but I haven't done much shopping other than that. We have been eating from the pantry stockpile for about 3 weeks now. We are down to about a week's worth of meat left in the freezer (maybe 1.5 weeks), so I will definitely be getting out a bit more.

So, what have I been doing in all my spare time from shopping?
Since March 19 was my last 'real' shopping post, I have had: a birthday, 2 out of town trips, quarter break where I teach math-which translates to no students, but get ready for a new quarter by organizing, planning and finding things to do in class hence a break from students but not work. I have had an out of town meeting, Passover sedar with family, beginning of new quarter (new students), Easter, another birthday, and homeschooling the six.

Only entered one store this week!

I didn't do much shopping this week - no time for it, plus after all that shopping a few weeks ago, we didn't need much.  No time to shop, so no time for pictures :(  In fact, as excited as I was about my binder being fixed, I still have not transferred everything back over to it.  Maybe this week...

However, I did send DH for dog food and milk (actually I didn't even notice we were low on them and he just did the shopping this week).
Oops - we went through a lot of milk!  I just found the receipts - DH bought 6 gallons this week!  But we still have over 3 1/2, so that is good.    Spent $24.80  ($15.19 in March, $9.61 in April)
One evening I was looking for a quick meal and remembered we had lots of hot dogs, so I sent DS and DD to the store for buns and chips - gave them $13 (all the cash I had) and told them to give me back the change.  No change - they spent $14 something! 

I went to Dollar General and got a few items for Easter baskets and for a classroom demonstration (I teach math in the evenings) about fractions.  Spent $25'ish for all of that.  Some of what I bought comes out of a different budget (gifts).  I don't have my receipt handy, so I am estimating that $5 was grocery money.

So, this week we have spent $44.30