Time to Catch Up!

It has been a while since I blogged.

Figured I needed to jump back in! Lost started its final season last night, the Bachelor is almost OVER, American Idol is gearing up, and we're right in the middle of awards season, always a favorite of mine, so I need to get back in the habit of sharing my most pressing thoughts on the matter of television with you. But before I do that, I have a little "news junkie" topic to discuss.

So, we've been hearing a lot about two politicians and their extramarital activities over the last two months: John Edwards (unless you live under a rock, he was VP candidate in 2004 and Presidential hopeful in 2008) and Mark Sanford (Gov. of SC). Edwards, I'm sure you know, made headlines recently by finally admitting that in addition to cheating on his cancer-stricken wife WHILE running for President, he also fathered a child with his mistress. Sanford, you may remember, is the Governor that disappeared for several days and turned out to be in Argentina with his mistress-who he publicly called his soulmate. OUCH to his wife! She filed for divorce in December after initially seeming willing to forgive, if not forget.

Well, cut to present day, and they are both back in the news again, both because books are being released giving more information about their scandals. Edwards is by his former campaign staffer, Andrew Young, who covered for Edwards by saying he too had an affair with the same woman and he was the father of her child. The Gov's wife, Jenny, is authoring her own book about her life and the destruction of her marriage.

I was reading on the web about both of these men's infidelities and it really stuck me how little these men care about the women that married them and fathered their beautiful children. Again, I'm reminded of how stinkin' scary it is to be single and looking for a good one! SIGH.

Preview of Jenny's book-she admits there were other women and that her husband had the balls to ask her for advice on how to deal with the public when admitting the affair but not ask her how she was feeling. I would actually read this one. I think her perspective is interesting.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35205086/ns/today-today_books/?gt1=43001

Andrew Young's book, on the other hand, no thanks. I love this blog called "Eyes for Lies" by a "human lie detector." She is so interesting. Anyway, I had seen some of George Stephanopolous's interviews with Young and he really creeped me out. While I think John Edwards is a total rat, I don't think this guy is any better. Turns out, Eyes doesn't have a very favorable impression of him either.

http://eyesforlies.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-thoughts-on-andrew-young.html

So, with all that positive energy about love and relationships, who is watching the Bachelor, and why is that girl Vienna still on the show? What about the irony that last year, Jake was the one warning the Bachelorette that one of her suitors was not as nice as she thought and this year, he is completely ignoring all the girls who are telling him the same thing about Vienna? I bet he totally picks her and she dumps him because she just wants to be famous. Ugh.

I'm still digesting LOST from last night, but if anyone has a good theory so far I'm game to hear it!

And, my best friend's husband played bass on the Grammy's Album of the Year! And a guy I went to high school with won 2 Grammy's for producing it. Wow, 15 years ago he was charging me and his sister money to drive us around in an old gas-guzzling pick up truck, and now he has 2 Grammy Awards. I guess dreams really do come true! LOL. Never give up, folks, never give up.

Last Minute Gift Ideas...

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.

- Oren Arnold
American editor and free-lance writer (1900-1980)

Cute Alert!

Before I redirect your attention to my next rant, please go see this video of the First Dog being all kinds of cute-and Michelle Obama and Oprah baby-talking to him. SQUEE!

http://jezebel.com/5425830/bo-reduces-michelle--oprah-to-baby-talk

Next up, because I just can't stop talking about this entitled, narcissistic twat-Chris Brown is going all anger-management-failure in a profanity-laced tirade on twitter (glad to see those mandatory classes are helping him control himself) because Walmart and whoever else doesn't want to carry his CD because he is a criminal and a bad role model. He is tweeting, quote:

“the[y] didnt even have my album in the back… not on shelves, saw for myself. im tired of this s—. major stores r blackballing my cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. what the f— do i gotta do.”

Also: “im not biting my tongue about sh– else… the industry can kiss my ass.
WTF… yeah i said it and i aint retracting s–”

And finally: “we talked to the managers and the didnt even know anything. wow!!! but they had alicia keys album ready for release for this tuesday comin … the manager told me that when there are new releases its mandatory to put em on the shelves.. BUT NO SIGN OF #GRAFFITI. BS.”

Dear Chris Brown,

Perhaps people will be more likely to buy and/or sell your new CD when you stop being all "what the F- I gotta do" which basically translates to "I'm sorry yall are mad at me" rather than what you should be which is "I'm sorry for that awful thing I did." Maybe, at that point, you can actually grasp that actions have consequences. Even though your ass is not in jail where it belongs for your ACTIONS, some stores choosing not to sell your merchandise because they do not like your actions is what we in the real world call a consequence. Deal with it. And perhaps show a little understanding as to why less than a year later the public is not completely ready to forgive you and give you cash to support the lifestyle which more than likely turned you into an entitled brat and made you forget that it is bad to hit a girl. So get back to anger management and have them teach you how to act when someone tells you "no" and get back to us, OK?

Cause I'd really like to be able to put "Kiss, Kiss" back on my ipod in this decade, but I'm gonna need you to show a little remorse before that can happen.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/12/14/chris-brown-twitter-rage-graffiti/

Another one goes country!

So last year I blogged about all the pop stars that were recording country albums. I had high hopes for Jewel and Darius Rucker (aka Hootie!) and my only hope for Jessica Simpson was that she would quickly fade away. Jewel disappointed, Darius has been awesome! And I was right on the money for blondie if I do say so myself.

Well, a new year, a new round of "gone country" rumors. Michelle Branch is supposed to (FINALLY) get her solo country album out next year (she did one as a duo-The Wreckers-which was AWESOME but there was some MAJOR drama between her and the other girl-nothing I can print here!) and I read today that Josh Kelley, aka Mr. Katherine Heigl aka Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy (aka namesake of my doggie) is up next to try his hand at country music. And like all the rest before him, he swears this isn't a fleeting fancy but his genre of choice forevermore. The snippet of his song in the link below is too short to judge, but he sounds NOTHING like he did in his pop music (he sang that song from around 2003-2004 or so called "Amazing" that was super catchy and I LOVED it at the time, but he never really had another huge hit-youtube here for a refresher:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VzBWIliVHc&feature=related

Anyway, his brother is Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum, who are the hottest thing in country music not named Taylor Swift. And, he lived in Nashville for a long time right after he hit it big with Amazing, so maybe this isn't totally out of left field. But, I love Lady A, and I will certainly give him a shot to prove that he can be a country *STAH*. And that baby that he and Katherine Heigl adopted is super cute so anything that ups my chances of seeing playdates between her and Sunday Rose at Centennial Park is fine with me. Bring it on, Josh Kelley!

http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/11/19/josh-kelley-goes-country-exclusive-first-listen/

RIP JC Penney Big Book

Aw, this one made me sad. This edition of the JC Penney "Big Book" catalog will be the last. I know it is better for the environment, more cost-effective, etc.-but I can so clearly remember getting the "Big Book" right before Christmas, thumbing endlessly through the toy section and circling all the items on my "Wish List" which would generally include all of the Barbies, Cabbage Patch dolls, or any other doll. Seriously-my Christmas list would have been ten pages of dolls.

I mean, what will the kids do now, bookmark the items they want online and send their parents an email? Ugh.

Anyway, makes me nostalgic for "they way things were." I might have officially just become OLD.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/blog/page.aspx?post=1390279&_blg=1,1390279

Total Savings-95%!!!

Since I posted about the coupons last week I've had lots of people ask about how it works. Last week was a great week to stock up on groceries because Kroger was having one of their "Mega" events and Harris Teeter was doing triple coupons. Publix had a pretty good sale too!

So, I ended up having one of my best shopping trips EVER this weekend. I had been to Kroger earlier in the week to pick up a couple of things in the Mega Event, but I wanted to go back AFTER I had hit Harris Teeter for the triples and knew how much room was left in the cabinets/freezer (Answer=Not much). So I made a quick run on Saturday when I was out running around with my mom-what I love about Kroger (and there is not much, haha) is that they actually break down your PERCENT of savings on the receipt. The dollar amount saved is great and usually plenty of motivation for me, but seeing the total "percent off" like you see at other retail stores, but not usually grocery, is kind of neat. So, without further ado, I will summarize my Kroger receipt for you so you can "see how it's done."

-2 Birds Eye Voila Meals in a Bag-Reg. Price 8.29 each, on sale for 5.99 each
-4 I Can't Believe its Not Butter stick packs (yes, 16 total, holiday baking here I come!) Reg Price 2.29 each, On Sale for 1.49 each
2 Larabars (been wanting to try these) Reg Price 1.69 each on sale 1.25 each
1 Bumble Bee tuna pouch Reg 1.65, on sale for .99
4 Birds Eye Steamfresh Frozen Veggies Reg Price 2.49 each, on sale for 1.99 each
3 Frostings (1 Duncan Hines, 2 Betty Crocker) DH Reg. 1.99 each, BC REg 1.89 each, all on sale 3/$5

This would have come to 46.50 pre-tax (over 50 after tax) if I had bought it all at regular price.

So how did I walk out of the store paying only $4.33? (2.01 of that was my tax!)

As Monk would say, here's what happened-
I started by matching up SALES with COUPONS I already had. I had coupons for everything I bought except for the butter sticks. Those were a great price, so I wanted to stock up for holiday baking! Since this was a "Mega Event" Sale, that means that if you buy any 10 "mega" items, they take $5 off your total (which equals 50 cents off of each item). So, I got $5 off for that, I had a Cellfire coupon on my Kroger card for one of the frostings which took another .50 off. Those were my "Kroger" discounts. I had 2 coupons for .40 cents off a Larabar, which got doubled to .80 off each bar, making them .45 each. I had 4 coupons for .50 cents off each (kroger doubled) of the Birds Eye Veggies, making them .99 cents each. I had two coupons that were "Buy 2 Birds Eye Veggies, Get one Birds Eye Steamfresh Meal Free." The cashier made a little mistake, which I didn't realize until I got home looking at the receipt. He manually entered the Meals at 8.99, even though Kroger sells them for 8.29 and they were on sale for 5.99. So, that gave me an extra $6 discount OVER the meals being free. WOO-HOO! I had a $1 off a Bumble Bee tuna pouch, so that ended up being FREE. I had 2 fifty cent coupons for the 2 other frostings that both got doubled to $1, so those 3/$5 frostings ended up costing me 2.50 total after the Cellfire coupon listed above, making them .83 each. Did I mention I am baking for the holidays? Oh yes! And finally I got my 4 packs of butter for 1.49 each, no coupon, but after the frozen meal overage it is probably good that there was something I didn't have a coupon for! I wonder if they would have given me money back if I had come back in the negative?

Grand total of savings, per my Kroger receipt, was $23.38 in manufacturer's coupons, $3.80 in bonus coupons (that means the ones they doubled), 17.10 in Kroger Plus savings (the sales price discounts plus the $5 Mega Sale), giving me a grand total of 44.18 savings, or 95% off the regular prices off all that I bought. I spent 4.33 out of pocket, 2.01 was tax, so my actual food only rang up at 2.32 (you do usually have to pay tax on the point of sale price when you use coupons-each store varies a little).

Do you believe in coupons yet?

How to Buy Everything You Want and Still Have Money Left Over

With cost of just about everything going up (just in time for the holidays! YAY!) I have really been good about using my coupons lately. Smart shopping is just the way I was raised. I love to shop. My mother loves to shop. But my mother always taught me that when you go into a store, the first thing you look at is the clearance rack. Then, you look at the normal sale rack. Then, and only then, do you look at the "regular price" stuff, and only to see what you need to watch for when it goes on sale. Occasionally I get a little good-natured ribbing from friends, family, and coworkers about my obsession with a good sale, but the majority of the time, I am not at all embarrassed to be frugal. So it should be a surprise to no one who knows my shopping philosophy that I have become a coupon lady. I love a good deal, and I work in nonprofit so obviously I am not bringing home the big bucks. And, I'm a Leo so I love to boast about trips to the store where I get $40 worth of groceries for less than $10. :) Recently, I have had several people ask me how I learned the secrets to my shopping strategy, so I thought I would make a little blog post and share.

One of the biggest ways to see the difference in sale/coupon shopping is with your groceries and household items, so that is the perspective I will use for this blog, though you can apply the same tips to anything (ex-I love Ann Taylor Loft, but only shop the extra % off clearances and/or use the coupons they send me in the mail). Here are my best tips if you would like to get started with "couponing":

1. Pick your favorite stores and product brands and sign up for their e-newsletters. They will send you the weekly circulars and coupons. This way, you can work on buying only what is on sale. Also, sign up at the printable coupon sites:
www.coupons.com
www.smartsource.com
www.redplum.com
These "re-set" at the first of every month-this means, new coupons are available and previous offers will be available to you again if you already printed the allotted number of times on your computer (you can print each coupon 2-6 times each month depending on the site).

Also, get the Sunday paper for the coupons-CVS sells them for $1 so I get 2 copies each week which only costs me 25 cents more than buying 1 at the gas station like I used to do. Hard-core coupon ladies will tell you to buy 4-6 copies but being a one-woman household, I don't need THAT much stuff.

2. You have to have a plan. Since I am single, it is pretty easy for me to be more flexible about meals and cooking because I don't have to do it everyday, but I do try to go into the week with an idea of 2-3 dishes that I have the ingredients on hand to cook. If you have 2+ people in your home, do a weekly meal plan and make a list of everything you need, figure out what you already have, and what you need to get. When you are getting ready to go to the store, make your list based on the sale flyers for your store and go ahead and get your coupons ready. Try to create meals around what you have on hand and what is on sale at the store each week. Sticking to your list will help cut down on those evil "impulse" buys! You can be flexible; if you get to the store and there is a great deal on chicken and you were going to buy ground beef, maybe your beef tacos will become chicken tacos instead....you get the idea.

You do have to spend more time shopping, but since I enjoy it that is not a problem. I generally hit Publix, Harris Teeter, and CVS once every week to get the deals I need. I will throw in a Walgreens, Kroger and/or Target visit once every couple of weeks too. Some people go to every store 2-3 times a week to take advantage of a deal multiple times but my time is more valuable to me than that-I try to stick to my once per week shopping schedule, a lot of times over my lunch break. The Harris Teeter by my office has an elevator, a cart escalator, AND a Starbucks, and since I am easily amused shopping there feels like a weekly treat rather than a chore.....but if you are not like me, that's OK, you can hit your one favorite grocery store like you usually do and going in with coupons, a list and a plan will still save you some money.

3. Know your "rock-bottom price" for the items you buy the most. To get a good deal, you have to know what a good deal actually is on a certain product, and since the same item may have a different price at every store in your area, you need to know what you are willing to pay. When things hit "rock bottom" stock up. Buy as many as you have coupons/space for, and by the time you are out there will be another sale. If you end up with too much of something, consider donating the items to a food pantry or women's shelter. (I bought Target brand baby wipes with a coupon I got in the mail for$3 any target brand purchase-wipes ended up being about 10 cents a package. I donated them to a United Way drive going on at the office.)

Buy One, Get One or "BOGO" sales are usually a good starting point for finding items at "rock-bottom" prices. That's basically 50% off, and most stores ring each item up at half price so if you only need one, you get it half off. If you can get an item half off, plus a coupon (and bonus if you are at a store that doubles coupons!) you end up walking away with a great deal. Case in point-last week Publix had Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta (the whole wheat kind) BOGO. Coupons.com had the printable coupons for $1 off 2. They rang up at .60 each, plus I got $1 off every two I bought (I printed that coupon about 4 times) which made them .20 each. I got 8 boxes of pasta for a little over the cost of ONE at regular price. And I won't have to buy any more for MONTHS-and by the time I am getting low, I know there will be another sale. Which brings me to the next point.....

4. Combine coupons with store sales for the best value. Sometimes, you get things FREE this way! Or for pennies like my pasta example above. This is how you really create a difference in your budget. You will probably want to do a little research on each store's coupon policy before you get up to the register. Some stores will limit the number of coupons you can use, some won't accept competitor coupons but some will, etc.

5. Find a website that matches up the best deals in your area and sign up for their newsletter. If you live in Nashville, www.faithfulprovisions.com is a good local one. It covers all the stores I typically shop and shows which items are the best deal based on sale price + coupons. It also has some great resources if you are new to clipping coupons-my favorites are the coupon insert schedule, so I know when I need to buy the paper, and the "lingo" list so you can interpret the list of deals as they use all kinds of abbreviations.

6. Set a limit for how much you want to spend each week. Because really, there are so many good deals you won't be able to get them all. Prioritize-for example, even if pasta goes on sale again in the next month, I won't be buying any because I don't need it. I think the Faithful Provisions lady does $40/week, and I believe she feeds a family of four and that includes all household items like soap and cleaners, as well as personal care like razors and shampoo. I'm not that good! I aim for $30 week and it is just me! But I do buy a lot of fresh produce and there are not as many coupons for those so I really watch sales closely. And I am a product junkie-if there is a new hairspray/lipgloss/etc and I have a coupon I have to have it! If you can get a really good deal, I think it is ok to break the budget every once in awhile. But generally, have an overall monthly budget and even if you go over one week try to cut back a little the next.

A couple of other sites worth checking out/signing up for:
www.southernsavers.com They have a "best prices of all" section which is handy if you are looking for a good deal on a specific item

www.coupongal.net Has a separate section for Retail coupons and Restaurant coupons

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/10-days-to-become-a-krazy-coupon-lady-day-1/
A "10-Day" series on how to become a coupon king/queen-although you can scroll through all ten days in about 20 minutes. She has some GREAT tips on learning your rock bottom prices, how much to buy, what to only "buy" when its free, etc.

The first time you get a receipt where you saved more than you spent, you will love the satisfaction your get from saving money and getting great deals. Happy Saving!