Day 3 and I'm still blogging strong!
When I went to bed last night, I intended on a 6 mile run in the morning. When I woke up, it was a different story! Somehow I slept until 9am again, so it left me with not enough time before church. I decided to take the day off.
After church, we went on the weekly food shop. In the past 2 years, I've been really focused on planning out fun, new, creative recipes. This method of menu planning resulted in somewhat pricey weekly shops, but I thought it was worth it for the blog. Since I'm not cooking as often for the blog now, I'm working to plan my menus around the weekly circular, what's in season and on sale. I've always been a coupon shopper, but now I'm borderline obsessed. It can be difficult to save money on groceries when you shop for fresh produce, organic dairy, meat and non-prepared foods, so that's where my little personal challenge comes in!
I love reusable grocery bags. I have millions, and I leave them in both JJ and my car as well as the hall closet so I always have them somewhere!
When JJ and I checkout, he likes to see how close I can get to saving as much as I spend. Only one time have I been even. Today I spent $84.93 and saved $60.46. And this included a little stockpile of toiletries and 2 half gallons of organic milk.
I was so excited to see that today's paper had 5 coupon inserts! There were coupons for Oikos, whole wheat pasta, cottage cheese, baked chips, and many other healthy items!
I always buy my paper at Starbucks before church on Sunday, and make sure to check the magazine rack with the extra papers people have left. There are usually a few sets of coupon inserts in there that people don't want! They're crazy. Or I'm a dumpster diver.... (actually, I usually make JJ look for them while I order our drinks)
While I was clipping my coupons, the girls decided to snuggle up with me. I actually don't have many photos with them yet because it's so hard to get two puppies to sit still. JJ did a great job though, and got this adorable one of us :) He tried to get one of Pumpkin too, but she lunged at the camera.
Our main goal for the day was taking down our inside Christmas decorations and storing them in the attic. It was really sad to take our tree down and pack the ornaments up. I had a wonderful time in our new house this Christmas season!
This year we got a few new ornaments. Each year JJ and I get one for eachother, and then are usually given a few by some other people. I loved each one we got this year! Here they are:
Starbucks Cup - Each year I buy this ornament. I loved working at Starbucks, and I especially love Gingerbread Lattes, so this reminds me of the great times I've had there.
Seminole Snowman - This was the ornament I got for JJ this year since we went to the Maryland/FSU game and to the Gator Bowl.
New Home - I got this ornament for us, I think it's pretty self explainitory!
Ohio State Presents - My Secret Santa (Carrie) from the December 2007 wedding knot board got this one for me. She's a fellow former Ohioan, and knows how much I love the Buckeyes!
Puppy Love- This is the ornament JJ picked out for me because we got the puppies this year.
White Dog - My mom got this ornament for me from the church Fair Trade craft fair. It was made by someone in a 3rd world country (forget what the tag said) and is purchased from them at a fair price.
I love each and every one of them, and love having a tree full of meaningful ornaments!
JJ was not really wanting his photo taken while taking the tree out...
After lunch I decided to go for a run. I was a little worried my Nike+ was broken, and I wanted to test it out. I thought about running a few houses down, but figured instead I'd just run a couple of miles as fast as I could. I was trying to sync my ipod, and the Nike running website was down! Ahhh, it's like Nike is against me! Anyway, I copied the front page from iTunes. You can see I had an awesome pace compared to my last few runs. Yay! I definitely couldn't keep it up for longer than 2 miles though. I started to get a side cramp around 1 mile... but I'm glad it was still a good run! I thought about doing some strenth training tonight, but I'll save that for tomorrow.
It's been a while since I worked a 5-day work week, but I'm ready for things to get back to normal :)
I LOVE coupons! Nate and I have a battle of who can get the coupons out the quickest.
ReplyDeleteLove the ornaments! And I agree about the reuseable shopping bags...I love the ones from Whole Foods best!
ReplyDeleteDo you shop at Winn Dixie? We saved $120 in one trip once because of their B1G1 deals and coupon.
ReplyDeleteI'm a coupon junkie too! I got an awesome coupon store-er thingy that is awesome !
ReplyDeleteShopping with coupons is now one of my favorite things now! The hubby and I do the same thing - see if our cost can equal the savings :)
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about online coupons! It's so easy to "click/clip" and print only the ones you want.
I use: http://www.wow-coupons.com/grocery.php
Definitely do some google searches to see if there are other sites that work with stores in your area. Good luck!
I love coupons too!!! There are some great blogs with deals that I check out often.
ReplyDeletefrugalcouponliving.com (she lives in FL)
momsbyheart.net
I might have to start checking out more coupons, especially if I can get healthy/organic products!
ReplyDeleteI'm also a huge fan of the reusable shopping bags - we keep four in each of our cars so we're never without them!
I love coupons!!! My sister is obsessed with them, even starting a bargains blog! I'm going to the grocery on Monday, rather than Sunday because school doesn't start until Tuesday, so no work until them! Love those gingerbread latte's, too.... wish they were sugar free!
ReplyDeleteI love coupons too! Although, it definitely is harder to find them for healthier items. Good job with all the saving!
ReplyDeleteThat's a really cute pic of you and girls!
Total coupon junkie here too. Unfortunately, the coupon gods don't think us Alabama folks need the healthier coupons. We only get the crap ones. :(
ReplyDeleteI have two websites for you:
ReplyDeletewww.couponmom.com (free) and www.thegrocerygame.com (slight fee but worth it). They both classify the coupons by the % off you're saving at specific stores. It takes a little more work since you have to save a couple months worth of the inserts, but you end up saving more becuase you use them when things are at the lowest sale price. I love it! Even better if you have any stores in your area that double coupons--When Ralphs and Vons were doubling, I'd get out of the store spending $70 and taking home double or more it's worth!