It IS a Manic Monday...I think

Okay, so let's re-cap a couple of things. First off, my brain never shuts down and so I take Melatonin to help me sleep at night. Here's a note to self...when you take said Melatonin and wake up two hours later coughing up a lung, do NOT take a shot of Nyquil. The result is that you will be in a coma for at least another 12-16 hours. NOT a good feeling.

I'm still unemployed. I'm trying not to get too down about this because so is a large portion of the population. I am not alone. Although, it is sort of a kick in the rear when I have 20 years of retail management experience and cannot get a job bagging groceries!! But it's okay. It's all in God's hands and when the time is right for me to work, He will provide.

I'm in homeschool mom mode this morning and was all set to pull out a can of whup-ass on my boy for being in his room playing his guitar when I had asked him to do his consumer math and wouldn't you know it, he was done with the whole daggone chapter already!! Go Nick!

Speaking of him playing the guitar, I'm sitting here kind of feeling like that dad in the old Twisted Sister video to "We're Not Gonna Take It" where he just yells at his son "You sit around here all day playing that sick, repulsive, electric twanger!! What do you want to DO with your life????" That can't be a good thing.

I did another explosive food shopping yesterday and saved $111 in coupons and store sales. You know, some people want to get their same amount of food for less, I want to spend the same amount of money and get more. When we're trying to save money, I'm not so sure that's the way to go. But my cabinets are very full - there's even lobster tails in the freezer because they were dirt cheap and...well, I like lobster and never get to have it. Again, probably not the smartest choice when trying to save money.

Frank and I went out to dinner alone Friday night because the kids were both sleeping out - miracle of miracles. We went to a steakhouse here in town that we both really enjoy and while the food was awesome, the service was not. So I wrote a letter to the company via their web-site and guess what? We get dinner on the house one night this week! See? It pays to speak up sometimes! Now, had it just been one thing about the service that we didn't like, I would have done nothing. But repeatedly throughout our meal, things went wrong and our waiter was never around! So we'll get to go out again this week. I'm unsure if we'll take the kids or not. Hee, hee.

It's raining.

I miss hanging out with my friends. We need a girls night out soon, ladies!!

All this planning for the Disney talk in October makes me want to go right now!

Now I have to go and beat someone with an electric guitar...have a good day!

Food Shopping Fun

Okay, so I went food shopping today. That's not normally any big thing but I am finally getting my act together and remembering that hey, we need to save some money. I haven't clipped coupons in eons and I am looking forward to beginning again this Sunday.

So my friend A.D. told me about the Grocery Game - where you sign up and they match up all of the national coupons with the stores that you chose so you know where to shop and how much you will save in advance. I'm probably mangling the description but that's my Reader's Digest version. Then yesterday in the mail with all of the weekly grocery fliers, came my Lowes Foods one an on it it tells you how to sign up for Instasave. So I'm like "Instasave? What's that?" Well, I'll tell you... You go to their website and enter in your name, zip code, e-mail and your rewards card number and there are special sales and coupons that will be loaded on to your rewards card! You get to chose which ones you want, which is pretty darn cool. So I went, I entered in my info, clicked on my specials that I wanted and was on my way to shop.

Now there are two Lowes foods near me, one Nick works at, the other one is newer and better. Sorry, son. The other good thing about this new one is that you also earn GAS REWARDS! For every $100 you spend, you get five cents per gallon off at their gas station. I have to tell you, it's pretty sweet. You have a month to use them so over the course of the month you have the potential to keep adding to that little number. Some people I know have actually gotten twenty cents per gallon off at the end of their month. Not too shabby! But back to the Instasave... I go, I shop, I made a list of the Instasave things that I chose and did my normal shopping that I would do at that store. Well, between the in-store sales and the Instasave stuff, I saved (drumroll please!)...$$46.80!! I know, I know, pretty impressive, right? Add to that my five cents per gallon on gas and Stace is feeling pretty darn good right now.

Yes, I'm feeling pretty darn good...