Groceries! (part 2)

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to find a good deal, especially on groceries. Sometimes I have great luck with coupons, but since I don't get the Sunday paper, that doesn't happen very often. Today, however, I got really lucky.

I was shopping at Food Lion (usually I go to Kroger, but FL had Garrett's favorite hot dogs for BOGO, so I went there instead) and some employees were taking a bunch of pasta off the shelf and putting it in a cart to haul away. I asked what they were doing with it all, and they said that some of it was expired, and then some of it was going to be "reduced for a quick sale". I asked if I could get any of the expired stuff (I know, I'm shameless), but they said no, they didn't want to be sued. Understandable, I guess. So, I asked when the other stuff would be reduced, and they said to come back later in the afternoon.

So, I went back to FL around 3, but the reduced pasta wasn't anywhere to be found. Now, usually I would just figure it had already been sold out and I would go home, but today I was really in a bargaining mood, so I asked an employee, Judy, where the pasta was. As it happened, Judy is the one in charge of marking down products, and she told me that she hadn't gotten to it yet. But, she led me to the back room and told me to pick out what I wanted, set it aside, and she would save it for me for tomorrow, which is when it would all be ready. Like a kid in a candy shop, I grabbed everything I wanted. I love pasta SO MUCH, plus the expiration date wasn't until 8/2010, so it would last forever! Even the whole wheat pasta was going to be reduced.

About 10 minutes later I walked back out into the main store area, and passed by Judy to thank her. Then she said, "Well, I'll just go back there now and reduce it for you so you don't have to come back tomorrow." Yay!!

I love a good chance to stockpile my food storage. Lately, I have been having a really hard time finding good deals on pasta (didn't it used to be a little less than $1 per pound? Now it's more like $1.30!). So anyway, I got all this pasta shown below, and I'm contemplating going back in the morning for a bit more (hey, it's good for 2.5 more years!!).

Grand total: $8 (they were about 35 cents each)

PS - Aren't those flowers pretty? Garrett gave them to me at the airport when he picked me up on Tuesday night. Isn't he sweet?

Ikea!

Yesterday my friend Natalie's mom was flying in to visit, and Natalie invited me to come along to pick her up so that we could go to Ikea first! I have been wanting to go to Ikea for so long, because Abbie has tons of stuff from there, and she is always raving about it. I just had to see what all the fuss was about!

I love Ikea! However, there are two things I want to do differently next time: I want to have more time to spend there (by the time we got there we only had about 1.5 hours, which isn't enough time in a huge place like that!), and I would like to go back with NO KIDS. It's a pretty kid-friendly place, but not when they have been sitting in the car for over 2 hours, and they haven't had a nap, and they are hungry. Not a good mix.

I got some really cute things for Abby's bedroom (some curtains, finally, and some pictures for the walls, and some neat little storage bins that hang from the walls), and I got a lamp for my bedside table (using some of my birthday money). I really wanted to get a shelving unit for our books, but by the time we were walking through the furniture warehouse room, we were in a big hurry to leave (angry kids) so I didn't have a chance to go find it. Next time, I guess... I also want to eat in the cafeteria they have. The food looked great and it was really cheap!

And, there is an Ikea in Draper, and since I go to Utah on Sunday, maybe I can convince Emma to take me there during my visit. I won't be able to get the shelves, obviously, but there are some other things I didn't get yesterday because of certain circumstances (screaming and yelling kids).

Groceries!!

If you live near a Kroger, now is the time to stock up on food storage!! They are having a great deal where if you buy 10 participating items (that are on sale already), you get another $5 off. I bought 30 of the items (there are TONS to choose from and they are mix & match, so you don't have to buy 10 of one thing) so I got $15 off automatically (after swiping my Kroger card). Then, I also had a $7 off coupon that I got in the mail (if I spent more than $35)!
The 7 oz Baby Goldfish came out to be 50 cents each! I was going to buy the regular sized Goldfish, but I noticed that they only have 6 oz in those packages, plus the smaller ones are better for Abby right now anyway. This deal ends tomorrow (Saturday).

My original total: $82

I paid: $31

Not all groceries shown were in the "buy 10" deal.

New Laptop!

Well, a few months ago our laptop start having some problems on the right hinge. Eventually, the hinge broke, but that was okay for a while because we just had to be really careful when we opened it, used it, closed it, or carried it around. Then, it could only be used on a still surface (not our laps) because if it wasn't, the screen would slam down on our fingers (or it would fall backwards). But that was okay too... it was still usable. But, we had resigned ourselves to the fact that it was time to start looking for a replacement. This laptop was more than 5 years old, so it's not like it's brand new. So the other night, as Garrett was using the decripit laptop to research new ones... it broke all the way. The other hinge completely snapped. Now, the only thing keeping the screen and the keyboard together is a little wire. I thought it was kind of funny that the laptop broke as he was searching websites for a new one (you can see it on the monitor)... Garrett didn't quite see the humor in it all. Anyway, the laptop is still usable, and we are using it - it just has to be propped up on the couch and we can't move it. But hey, whatever works, right? It's fine... but unfortunately, the whole point of having a laptop is that's it's portable. So, last week we went to Best Buy and Circuit City to see what's out there, and we finally found a great one for a pretty good price, and Garrett would only have to upgrade one or two things to make it ideal. However, when we went to the store, it turned out that we had to order it from them, and that it would take 2 weeks, AND it would cost $75 for shipping and handling! What a rip-off! So, we ended up buying the laptop that was a step up from that one... it already had the features Garrett wanted, plus we could walk out the door with it. And, after the rebates, the price was still ok. So now Garrett is the proud owner of a new hP! He is very happy with it so far. Hopefully it will get us through residency! And what has happened to the old laptop? Well, Garrett jimmy-rigged it to stay open (it just can't be closed) so now it's mine!! Woo hoo! It's joined my "old things people didn't want anymore so they gave them to Hannah" collection. So now I have a 10-year-old car (love it!), a 7-year-old iPod (yes it's a first generation - antique!), and now a 5-year-old laptop (really, that's not that old, it still works great). I like having old things... sometimes new things make me nervous that I will break them!

Coupon Queen (part 2)

On Saturday my friend Abbie and I went to Food Lion, coupons in hand. We have been reading this blog about saving money, using coupons, and finding good deals, so we wanted to try it out for ourselves. In the end, it was successful! After ringing up my groceries, the bill was $75. However, after handing over my coupons and using my store discount card, my total bill came out to be $35! Can you believe that!? I saved more money than I spent! I was so proud of myself. Abbie was successful, too - she also saved more than 50% on her groceries. I think my favorite part was buying 2 boxes of Cheez-Nips (snack) and 5 boxes of KRAFT Mac-n-Cheese for $1 total. That was great! I love knowing how to use coupons! This is such a great way to build up my food storage.

Coupon Queen

I'm usually no good at using coupons. Coupons are generally only for brand name products, and in my experience, the store brand is usually still the cheapest. However, I just found this neat website that shares good ideas on how to save money. Some of the ideas are just okay - not anything I would want to use my time doing. But SOME of them are fantastic! Today I went to Target and bought 32 string cheeses and I paid $0! Here's how it worked:

Target has an online printable coupon for $0.50 off any two packages of Market Pantry cheese. Market Pantry individually-packaged string cheese is regularly priced at $0.25 each, so use one coupon for each two packages purchased, and pay $0 for unlimited string cheese! There is no limit to how many coupons you can use in one transaction!

Click here for the coupon (scroll down a little bit). Print as many as you like and enjoy! The offer expires March 8. So here's the real question... does string cheese freeze? I really want to stock up!