Tyler's jeans

On monday, August 29th, Tyler's jeans came UPS and he has tried them on. He has told me that he like the jeans and that they fit just great. Not bad for spending $39.98 on 2 pairs of jeans and free shipping. CCS did not let me down and I believe that I will be making another purchase through them for Tyler again for Christmas.

He wore a pair yesterday to orientation and they did not look bad on him. He told me that the jeans made him look a little skinny than he is now. Great Job on my part.. woohoo..

Apple Cake Recipe

Tonight, I made a apple cake that I have been craving for the last 2 weeks. I used a cake mix and added my own stuff to it. It was so awesome and I know I will be making it again. Robert and Tyler enjoyed it a lot and as of right now, there is only 1/8 of the cake left. My recipe that I used is listed below.

Apple Cake Recipe

1 box betty crocker super moist cake (yellow)

1 1/2 tbsp apple pie spice

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon 

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

5 peeled, core and cut apples ( I used pommes apples)

Glaze:

1/4 butter melted

1/8 brown sugar

Prepare:

Combine Cake mix, apple pie spice, cinnamon, sugar together and mix. Add oil, water and eggs as you would normally from back of cake box. Mix for about 2 minutes and then fold in the apples. 

Cake pan, spray with non-stick spray and flour and then pour in cake batter. Cook for 35 - 40 minutes. I cooked in a bundt cake pan, Once done, let cool for about 5 minutes. 

While cake is cooling, prepare the glaze on stove top by melting butter and stir in brown sugar. Once melted, pour on cake and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Then ready to eat. I wish I would have taken a picture of this. I will the next time. 

August 26th - 28th, 2011 Greensboro, NC trip

I had plan to stay home for the hurricane, but Robert sent Tyler and myself away from the house. We ended up going to Greensboro, NC to my sister SIL's house and stayed until Sunday. I was very impressed with myself. When we left the house, we had $200 on us for gas and other needs. I spent $37.00 for gas in the truck for the trip down there. O'course, I had already filled up the gas tank on Tuesday, August 23 for the hurricane. I was impressed that I only used 1/2 tank of gas for the trip down to Greensboro. I had to stop and get a light bulb for the truck and I replaced in myself in the parking lot. However, the bulb still didn't work even after replacing it. My father messed with the fuses to try to get the cigeratte lighter to work so I had a GPS for the trip down and back, I didn't have the gps, I had to print out directions and use Tyler as my side kick for directions. That was interesting, however, he did good with directions and texts for me until we came home when he went to sleep. He was the one who made me spend the $17.84 for the light bulb that I did not need, but have a back up now. However, we did make it down there. On the way home, we stopped and filled the tank up again and I spent $39.04 at the gas station. Stopped at McDonalds for lunch and spent $10.66 and at Food Lion for 2 bags of sugar at $6.51. Then when we got to the 7-11 by the house, I spent $8.40 for 4 newspaper. I ended up spending the for the whole trip $119.45. I ended up giving $81.00 back since I used some of my loose change for the change for some of the purchases. I did not do a bad job and when I got home, I had 3/4 tank of gas in the truck. I did so great this past weekend. Yeah for me..

August 24 Farm Fresh Shopping Trip

On August 24, I went shopping to get a few items before hurricane Irene decided to come and drop by for a visit. I made a very few simple purchase and I ended up getting a free water coupon.

However, I picked up only a few food items and some snacks to hold us over in case we loss power. My complete total of my purchase was $43.43. Coupons total was $27.00. Out of pocket, I spent $16.43 and received a Catalina for $4.50 for my water. Giving me a saving of 63%.

Before I walked out the door, I remember I needed bags of ice. Farm Fresh had ice on sale for 2 for $4.00. I got 3 bags of ice and a case of water. Farm Fresh took the whole $4.50 off my order which gave me my case of water free and $.62 off a bag of ice. Not counting my green bags counted for 3 bags of $.05 each off my total. My total order was $9.98. Coupons total was $4.50. Out of pocket, I spent $5.48. Not bad for my purchase. Giving me a saving of 46% on my last purchase.

Adding both together, I had a total of $53.41, coupons of $31.50. Out of pocket $21.91. Saving of 59%.

That was a great trip. Wish I would have did this the day before when I went for supplies for the hurricane with batteries, light fuel, hurricane oil, and 4 case of water. But that is okay, I still did a great job. I will continue to go a great job.

School shopping for Tyler clothes..

This year, Tyler felt he wanted to have specific jeans. O'Course, I gave in to him since this is his high school years. I thought I would be paying around $50 for all to get the free shipping. What do you know, after looking for about an hour, we couldn't find the jeans he had before. However, he did find another pair that he likes, so I placed the order and ended up spending $39.98 and that even had free shipping.. Hot Dog!!! Now, we get to wait for it to show up and find out if they will actually fit him. This is why I hate to order clothes off the internet because sometime clothes does not fit right. Now, we play the waiting game of 6 to 8 days to ship to find out if they actually fit or if I have to send them back. Picking was slim and we got what we can. Now, I just need to worry about some shirts for him and a few more school items. However, I get to finish school shopping after school has started September 6th. Can the days count down faster.

Shopping trips at Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree Deals

I had a notion today to go school shopping.  haha.. That did not happen. However, I didn't do to bad when I did go shopping. My first stop was Family Dollar. Family Dollar only has the Faygo that my son likes for $1, so I picked up 4 and I ended up clearing the shelve with those 4, and before I cleared the shelf, I asked to find out if they had more. He told me, no they do not have anymore until Thursday night. Okay, thanks and he told me to go ahead and take the last 4. I would have spent $31.93 and I saved $10.25 leaving me to pay out of the pocket of $21.68. Also, I found the Keri Lotion that everyone has been talking about for $3.00 and I used my $2.00 coupon and end up paying $1.00 each.
Dollar General was my next store. I walked in and picked up all my items and made it to the register. I had 3 coupons for B1/1F, well the first coupon went through not a problem. The other 2 were a issue. They wouldn't scan or take off $3.50 for the free items. The CS even called another CS to fix the problem and manage to not get a hold of the other CS. They had to do it differently then it was suppose to happen. However, I did get those free. I ended up doing a total of 3 transaction. The first transaction I spent $34.68 with a saving of $6.65 leaving me to pay $28.03. This was a bad choice that I made. However, my second transaction were the four Dove products that would not work in the previous transaction. For a total of $21.35, I saved $7.00 and paid $7.35 out of pocket. Then I realize that I forgot to pick up something else while I was there for my father. Well, I went back and picked up those 3 items. For a total of $10.25 of product and saving of $3.00 leaving me to pay $7.24 out of my pockets. That wasn't too bad this time.
Then I went to Dollar Tree Deals, I only purchased 9 items and had coupons. However, when I went to the register, I couldn't use internet printed coupons and I told the girl to take the 4 items off since I couldn't use those coupons. I ended up spending only $5.75 for all that I purchase. I had a saving of $1.50 leaving me to pay $4.25. However, I came home to look for the coupon policy for Dollar Tree and couldn't find it. I will have to do some more serious looking.

Complete total of items purchase $72.03 with saving of $28.40 and paying out of pocket of $43.63. Now I think I have cut into my budget for this week. And I still have to purchase those jeans for my son to use for school and I already know that will be $50.00 already but I will have free shipping by the time I am finish with that.

Farm Fresh Visit on August 17th

On August 17th was a very busy day. I babysitting for my sister while she was in court. I had plan to gather up my coupons while I was with the natives. However, that did not happen. However, when my sister got back from court, we both figured out our shopping list and coupons, so we could go shopping. My last post about Farm Fresh and receiving 6 $5 coupons and 1 $2 coupon from them the week before. I only had plan to use a few of them so I could use the others for this coming week purchase. I didn't take a picture of this purchase and wish I did. However, I walked in the store only planning to pay a little under $5 for all  my purchase. I manage to only pay $1.12 for $65.70 of food. That was a 100% saving. I did so awesome that day and my sister was waiting for me and was amaze that I only spent that much money for it all. I just wish I had more of those $5 coupons that I got from all that general mills items the week before. I also was short a couple of items and my sister gave me 4 things to put with my order and coupons. However, I thought I gave the lady all my coupons and when we both got home, I realize that I had one coupon that I didn't give the lady. If I would have gave the lady the coupon, I would have had to find a filler to end up paying ZERO for all my food. Since the coupon would have double from $1 to $2. So, I did great that week. Thanks sis for talking me into using those other coupons that I was planning to use this week. I had a great and awesome day then.

All You Magazine

I made a purchase for a discount for the All You magazine. I have yet to received it and I think this is wrong. Even my sister place 2 orders for this and she has yet to receive it. However, I would like to know when is the magazine suppose to start being sent out. I have been waiting since June or July. So, I would like to know about this. In a way, I think this is wrong since I have order it and have yet to receive anything. I am thinking, I have better chances to just purchase the All You magazine from Wal-Mart then wait for it to be delivered in the mailbox. I wonder who else has have this issue of ordering and not receiving the magazine.

From my understanding, it takes 8 to 10 weeks to get the magazine to be sent out. I am thinking, that I should be getting this next month, which means, I will need to go and pick one up at Wal-Mart.

Farm Fresh Coupons from General Mills products

WOW! I was looking through my receipts from yesterday and looking at my coupons that I got from Farm Fresh yesterday when I went shopping. I got 6 $5 off coupons and 1 $2 off coupon. I made out like a bandit yesterday. I can save $32 on my next shopping trip and I get to split that in between for the next 2 weeks. I did not realize how many coupons I was going to get from General Mills products yesterday. I wasn't even looking at that part when I was making plan to shop. Not to shabby here. In addition to the coupons, I got 185 for box tops as well. Now, I just need to figure out if Tyler's school does the box tops since I have no idea about the high schools. I also have other box tops from previous purchases to give as well. 

How I did my binder,thoughts on budgets, stores and bloggers.....

After trial and error with my binder to do either the inserts or the cut out of coupons in the baseball cards, I manage to decide to do the cut out coupons in baseball cards. I had started out with this and was thinking there would be a easier way to get this. However, I had 2 binders with me when I walked in the stores. One binder was coupons that was already cut and in baseball sleeves and the other was just inserts in slides. After that, I had no clue what coupons I had in one binder when it came to matching up against the stores. There are times, that I use other bloggers to make my list, however, I do use the grocery stores sale ads to make my list. I have notice that some (not all) bloggers only post items that they believe are to be good to them and miss what might be important to another individual. Granted that I am one that does not like shopping and I only go out once a week to shop, I do not go to all the stores in the area because either I am short on funds or gas or they are about an 30 minute drive for me each week. Most of the time, I will look at the other stores and then base on what my shopping is going to be on Wednesday when the sale ad comes out for Farm Fresh and Food Lion, then I decide if I should go to what store. I am on a strict budget and I have to work within that budget. I have to think what is good for my family and my budget.

My Farm Fresh shopping Trip for August 12th

I took my son shopping like usual when I go to Farm Fresh and to make it even special, I have a Farm Fresh that does double coupons up to $1 each day instead of just on Wednesday. However, I did do good on my shopping trip, not one that I manage to save over 50% of my purchases. First trip that I had was my purchases. My complete purchases came out to be $65.18 with a saving of 49% that 18 coupons were double at $15.50 leaving me to pay $34.18. Not bad for this total to pay. My second trip, my complete purchase came out to be $62.71 with a saving of 46% that had 18 coupons that double at $14.25 leaving me to pay $34.21. With both purchases, I manage to spend $68.39 for a total of $127.87 worth of products. Having a total of 36 coupons that double taking off $29.75 off my complete order. Not bad still. I still like the time that I went shopping and only spent $.25 for some bounty paper towels. And the other trip when I went to Dollar General to get the Air Wicks that they had on sale for $4 and I purchase 4 of them at $4 making my total a little over $16. I ended up only paying the sale tax on all 4 of the air wicks. I believe the sale tax that I paid was under $1.

What made me get into coupons

I decided to do coupons after using coupons off and on for many years. When I used a coupon, I would sometime talk to my sister and say "I brought this and used a coupon and got it for this much." And then when Extreme Couponing came out on television. When I first watched it, I was hooked, however, after several attempts, I could not do all that they were doing. After this, I continue to watch it and realize, this is all not true. With this, my outlook from then on about coupons were that I can save what I can and not pay for several things. I have crashed and burn on some shopping trips, however, I have had great shopping trips that lets me save at least over 50% off my grocery bill. Being a single mom and raising my son, I know that a teenager eats a lot more than what I can afford. I also live with my father for the time being and knowing that he doesn't make money like everyone else believe, he has a business to run on top of a household to manage. I have taken care of the material items like food, cleaning supplies, and making sure his house is clean. While he take care of the bills and his business. In over four months, that I have been dedicated to coupon and saving money in between classes and homework assignments, I have manage to save at least $300 on food and cleaning supplies, while this is a estimate. I have a small stock pile that I can see and know that it felt good that I purchase this stuff and not paid full price or that I used coupons that was either doubled or not doubled. The one day that I went shopping to get Bounty paper towels that was on sale at Food Lion, I had a coupon for $5 off and they were on sale for 4.99, well needless to say, I paid $.25 for it and walked out the door. However, this is only a few trips that I have manage to do this for, however, I am hooked and hope to continue saving money on items that I need. I did this blog to record my shopping trips and how well I save on money for items that we use on a daily basis. I will add more post about my shopping trips and what I spent out of pocket. I will also include many different things in my blog. This is my thoughts and being put on here give me the peace of mind that I can express things in many different ways.  Great first blog post for me.