Archive for September, 2010
Wonderful Wednesday
Hey I’m back – I wonder if anyone missed me. I’ve bin in England visiting my family and had a wonderful time – we packed a whole lot into 2 weeks, went all over the place and visited with my relatives. Big thanks to Keith, my darling stepdad who was so good to us, making his home so comfy for us and driving us wherever we wanted to go. I absolutely love England but it is expensive – not much opportunity to use coupons as the stores only offer a few now and again so I am very grateful that we live here in the Great United States of America where it is a whole lot easier to save money.
I printed off a lot of coupons when I was gone, had David printing loads off at home – I owe that kid big time – and I am still not thru clipping them all. I have to admit to a bit of withdrawal not being able to work my magic at the store but it was fun going down the aisles, seeing what was new and filling my cart with instant coffee. We don’t seem to be too big on instant coffee here and I think the only one worth buying is Taster’s Choice but I get bored with the same one constantly; England has a fantastic variety of really good tasting instant coffee made by Kenco, Nescafe and Douwe Egberts and so I really stock up when I’m there. However, there’s a down size and that’s the extra weight it adds to my luggage which is always bursting at the seams.
My sister Mel and I had several visits to the Charity Shops and although they are more expensive than a year ago, you can still find some really inexpensive stuff. Of course, I had to bring back some really good Farmhouse Cheddar and Stilton cheese so that took up extra room. My suitcase was already 50lbs so all the coffee had to go in my carry on and so did the cheese which was a bit soft by the time we got home – poor Greg, he had to lift that thing into the overhead compartment on the plane three times as we had two stops in Newark and Houston. I’m not sure he’ll ever forgive me for that.
I came home to mounds of mail, free samples, coupons and a few checks – my first one from ShopAtHome for $35 – yea!!! I also had a $10 Olay rebate and a $10 rebate from Proctor & Gamble – woohoo. We didn’t get home til almost 10pm and so by the time we unpacked etc., it was 11:30pm and we’re not late nighters; we’d been up for almost 24 hours and wouldn’t you know it, I woke up every hour on the hour and got up at 5am and started sorting thru all the mail and coupons as I had to go to Target that morning. Phew!!
I was delighted to see Target had a $1 off on produce coupon again, along with some Merona and denim coups- I did have a bit of an interlude with my checker who reckoned the produce coupon was only for brocolli and tomatoes as that’s what was pictured but I’m pleased to say Target seems to have let go of the “only 2 coupons per transaction” policy and I was able to use multiple coupons. I’ve bin getting a lot of Campbell Soup catalina coupons when I checkout and they have paired very nicely with the coupons on the Campbells site, especially as Target has their microwaveable bowls on sale for $1.20 and $1.50 this week. David loves to take these to uni with him for lunch. My favorite coupon is the $1 Fage Yogurt Facebook coupon – that yogurt is a tad pricey but with the coupon, it makes it only 39c and it is oh so good.
We took Melody and Li’l Cec out to dinner with us last night at Zio’s – I had a free dinner for my birthday and I also had a coupon for a free dessert but I was a bit disappointed at the end of the meal, when they said they were unable to honor the desert coupon. Apparently, in the fine print it says only one coupon or offer at a time. As my sister Mel would say “that’s minging!!” However, the four of us still ate for $25 so can’t complain. Li’l Cec was in fine form and so well behaved – no food splattered on the floor this time; he loved the warm bread Zio’s serves and had a helping of Dave’s spaghetti and Melody’s and my salad.
While we were gone, I sent Matt postcards every couple of days and when we got back, there was a letter from him saying he’d received some; he is in the Crucible this week which is the final rigorous test for the soon to be marines. They are giving them jarhead haircuts, I can’t wait to see him – graduation is the 24th of this month, only just over a week away. Yea Matt…………
We have our meeting here tonight and I hope we get a good turnout – for the two weeks we were gone, they met at Dr. Bill’s – well I say “they” but only 6 showed up the first week and 4 the second. What’s all that about? Or as Kenan Thompson says “What up with that?” I shall have to give them all a good talking to. Speaking of the meeting, I have to go ice the cupcakes I made – I only had half a tub of coconut frosting, so I melted some chocolate and mixed the two together and it tastes fabulous. When Matt was here, he would sneak in the fridge and eat spoonfuls of that stuff – he said he can’t wait to eat some chips n dip and have a cold cappucino.
Fave Deals of the Day
Free sample of So Sweet: http://soooosweet.com/index.html
Lancome is offering a free 10 day supply of Teint MiracleNo coupons needed for this great deal!
Visit your local Lancome cosmetics counter and ask for a Free 10-day supply of their new Teint Miracle. Wow I like that deal. Hopefully I can go tomorrow with Li’l Cec.
Go here http://www5.samsclub.com/OTCSampling.aspx to request a sample of Nicorette gum. Altho’ it asks for your Sam’s Club membership #, you can skip that box.