Check It Out!

Well I made another CVS trip today and I wanted to share with you my savings. Today was good but not as successful as last weeks. I didn't have any extra bucks to start with which always makes a difference. However, I actually got some things that I needed instead of what was just on sale, so that made it successful in itself. Here are my purchases:

Purchase #1:
Retail Value of Products: $53.91
Total Out of Pocket: $31.05
Amount saved: $22.86
Extra bucks received: $11.00

In actuality I really only spent 20.05 because they gave me $11.00 back in EBs (free money), but for the sake of keeping up with totals I'll keep it in this format.


Purchase #2:
Retail Value of Products: $13.95
Total Out of Pocket: $-0- (used the coupons I had for each item, combined with the sales, which made the total $5.78 and then I used my extra bucks from the previous purchase which made it FREE!!)
Amount saved: $13.95
Extra bucks left for the next CVS trip: $6 EB


Here are my totals since November 12th:

Retail Value of Products: $139.47
Total Out of Pocket: $54.20
Amount saved: $85.27

-A

Check It Out!

I could hardly wait to blog about my CVS trip today! It was wonderful! It was literally a steal- well almost! Today I made two separate purchases because of the way the deals fell. I’ll explain as I go. Here’s how it went:

Purchase #1:
Retail Value of Products: $27. 45
Total Out of Pocket: $18.93
Amount saved: $8.52
Extra bucks received: $7.00

The reason I chose to make two separate purchases was simply because the items that were purchased first came with Extra Bucks. Extra bucks are sometimes but not always advertised and they are located at the bottom of your printed receipt. Oh, I forgot to mention – they are free money! ;)

I didn’t mind spending $19.00 because I knew it was going to give me extra bucks which would allow me to turn around and use those as free money for my next purchase. Plus I couldn’t beat the deal on Coke products (4/$13).

On to my next purchase…

Purchase #2:
Retail Value of Products: $44.16
Total Out of Pocket: $4.22
Amount saved: $39.94

Thanks to the coupons, manufacturer and store, and $9 in Extra bucks I already had plus the $7 dollars in Extra bucks I earned today, I was able to spend almost no money!

Here are my totals since November 12th:

Retail Value of Products: $71.61
Total Out of Pocket: $23.15
Amount saved: $48.46

What is CVSing?

Recently I heard about a new way to save money. I know, my ears perked up when I heard that too! :)

A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about coupon shopping, which we both do. She started explaining a new “hobby” (if you will), that she just started doing. She coupon shops at CVS!

Now, you may be thinking, “Okay what’s the big deal? Anyone can clip a couple coupons and save some money but I really don’t want to go through all that trouble just to save a few bucks.” Well I’ll tell you, it’s not just a few bucks – sometimes if you plan it just right you can spend little to no money out of pocket. You can go to my friend Lindsey’s blog and look at her purchases to get an idea of what I mean.

There are lots of resources such as: blogs, newspaper ads, and websites that you must visit weekly in order to get the best deals.

I started this past week and I made my first purchase as an official CVS coupon shopper(also known as CVSing). My first shopping trip I saved $40.00 and received $16.00 in Extra Bucks back (free money). So in actuality I only spent $24.00. Since I’m new at this I haven’t quite remembered to do everything but I will get on track this week and begin sharing my purchases with you. I forgot to take a picture this time but I will for the next purchase so you can get an idea of what I’m getting and how much I’m saving. It would have been great to show you a picture of all that I purchased last week because I received a lot of things for the amount I paid.

If you would like to learn more about CVS coupon shopping go to simplycvsshopping.com and click on the CVS 101 tab. It will tell you all you need to know to get started! It’s so much fun - and you can save lots of money! :)

Learning to cook a bird

This past Sunday I had my first experience cooking a turkey. Our church had their regular thanksgiving dinner for the congregation and I decided I would volunteer to cook a turkey because it would give me good practice for the holidays. Not only did I have my first experience but Josh had his first experience in learning how to cut the turkey. He had a wonderful teacher and he did great!
The turkey I chose to cook was a Champagne-Basted turkey. It was a very easy recipe and surprisingly enough it turned out moist, tender and fabulous! Normally something a turkey is not (in my opinion, but I’m not a big fan of turkey).
Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
•1 turkey (14 to 16 pounds)
•1/4 cup butter, softened
•1 teaspoon salt
•1 teaspoon celery salt
•3/4 teaspoon pepper
•Fresh sage and parsley sprigs, optional
•2 cups Champagne or other sparkling wine
•2 medium onions, chopped
•1-1/2 cups minced fresh parsley
•1 cup condensed beef consomme, undiluted
•1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
•1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

GRAVY:
•1 tablespoon butter
•1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Directions
•Pat turkey dry. Combine the butter, salt, celery salt and pepper; rub over the outside and inside of turkey. Place sage and parsley sprigs in cavity if desired. Tuck wings under turkey; tie drumsticks together. Place breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan.

•Bake, uncovered, at 325° for 30 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the Champagne, onions, parsley, consomme, thyme and marjoram; pour into pan. Bake for 3 to 3-1/2 hours longer or until a meat thermometer reads 180°, basting occasionally with Champagne mixture. Cover loosely with foil if turkey browns too quickly. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes before slicing.

•For gravy, strain drippings into a small bowl. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth; gradually add drippings. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with turkey. Yield: 14 servings (1-2/3 cups gravy).

Here are some action pictures:

Enjoy :)

Letting our husbands lead

If you haven't been keeping up with the True woman blog I mentioned a few weeks ago I would encourage you to take a look at it today. I certainly needed the reminder. Today she challenges women to let their husbands assume the God given role of leadership within the home and encourages us to stop being so domineering.


She writes "I can assure you, there is such freedom in operating God’s way. As I’ve released control, allowed my husband to make leadership decisions, then supported him even when I wasn’t sure this was the best route to take, he has blossomed into a godly leader who not only leads well, but asks for my input all along the way."

Check out the rest of the blog here.

What's Going On? So Glad You Asked! (Part 2)

Now that we’ve filled you in on what’s going on at church, here’s an update about work!

A few months ago Angie became a certified Zumba instructor and she’s already putting her skills to work! She is teaching 7 (yes, you read that right) classes a week and is loving every bit of it! She teaches at the YWCA, Covenant LifeStyles Centre, Lu’s Fitness, and University Medical Center. There are a lot of people doing Zumba right now, so Angie is in big demand. She usually gets at least a couple calls a week to sub on top of her regular classes. Meanwhile, she’s still working at the Y, but she’s reduced her hours to part time. She is looking for another job right now to replace her work at the Y.

Josh is working for St. Joseph Health System’s Enterprise Clinical Information Systems department. He transitioned from Dell several months ago, but is still located at Covenant. He is the manager of a different team now – this team focuses on clinical software. With all the new changes brought by the government’s ARRA legislation, his work will continue to be fast-paced for the next few years. His team was involved with a major system upgrade a few weeks ago and everything went very smooth!

Bed Bath & Beyond Deal

Hey - just wanted to let you know about the amazing deal that I just got! Bed Bath and Beyond is running some really good deals in their monthly circular. I recommend you hop on their website and see if you might be interested in anything that they have on sale right now. I am cooking a turkey for the first time this year (eek!) which I am looking forward to. The one thing I wasn’t looking forward to was spending all the money that went along with buying all the proper utensils and pans that you need to cook the turkey. Lucky for me I got a great deal today! So I thought I’d share.

I purchased a:
17” Roaster pan with rack – Original price $19.99
OXO Instant Read Thermometer – Original price $11.99
Baster set – Original price $3.99

Even though these prices don’t look too bad as is, they get even better! In the circular the roaster pan has a mail-in rebate (you can just ask for it when you make your purchase) for $10 off. Some people don’t care for mail-in rebates because they aren’t immediate but Josh and I love them and we’ll take them where we can get them! So in actuality it makes the roaster pan $10. But wait - there is also a $5.00 off coupon in the circular that you can use. So really, it makes the roaster pan $5.00. Seriously it can’t get any cheaper :)
Also if you aren’t a regular Bed Bath and Beyond shopper you might not know that you can use their 20% off coupons anytime. In fact I used 2 of them today in the same purchase and one of them was from December 2009. The great thing about BB&B is that they don’t care about expiration dates and you can use as many as you want on one purchase. So I got 20% off of the thermometer and 20% off the baster. My total came to $30.00, but we will be getting $10.00 of that back after our mail in rebate. So I got all three of them for $20.00. That’s an excellent deal! Every little bit counts :)