I've been busy at the computer

But I haven't had a lot of time for "fun stuff" this week. Sorry you've been neglected =)

I took advantage of the $5/$25 coupon Saturday at Walgreens. I can't really list all of what was purchased since some will be Christmas gifts for family. But, the gift that (so far) I think will be the biggest hit of the year... and the next 4 years... for my FIL was on clearance from $15 down to $3.74! So I picked up 4 of those (I had already gotten one earlier in the week and then kicked myself for not picking up the rest - glad they still had some). They had exactly TWO Blues Clues nighttime glow in the dark Handy Dandy Notebooks with a clock face and write-on-wipe-off pages, also on clearance for $2.49 each. I got 4 Bonnie Bell Lip Smacker sticks and 2 of the tubes (the ones my friend, Meli, would call lip thur-APP-y) - they were all 40% off and I had a handful of BOGO coupons for Lip Smackers and Bonnie Bell products. They'll make great stocking stuffers, too! I bought 2 Lindt dark chocolate with orange bars that came out to free plus a tiny overage after coupons. And, fearing that I wouldn't quite make it to $25 (I was right - it was something like $24.78 after coupons), I picked up two 3-packs of these little rubber bracelets that you're supposed to put the croc-charms in. Only, my kids are two small for the charms (also on clearance) - but the bracelets will go in the dress-up box as well. I ended up spending just over $20 after the coupon - and I'll post details when I have it in front of me.

In other shopping news...

2 bottles of Arbor Mist - on sale at Bi-Mart for $3.49 each. I have a MIR for $4 off 2 from their website a couple months ago. It ends at the end of this month - but it has already been pulled from their site. Those will end up being about $1.50 each!

I found a clay baker at Goodwill for $7.99. I have already passed on it a couple times and I have been wanting to one since reading THIS post. That, coupled with chickens on sale at Fred Meyer this week for $.79/pound... I decided to go for it.

Walgreens again. Oh my beautiful Walgreens! They have Pert on sale this week for $3.49 - I think I mentioned that before. Their coupon for $2.50 off, coupled with my coupons for $1/1 (and one $2/1) left me with 7 more bottles of Pert... and $1.07 in my pocket for buying it! I added in a Triaminic ($4.99 - $2/1 q), a Theraflu ($4.99 - $1/1) and an 80 ct Excedrin express gels ($4.99 - $2/1) to the order. The Theraflu has a MIR for purchase price (though some at HCW are saying the fine print says they deduct your coupon from it.) And purchasing those last 3 together earned me an $8 RR. Second order was a 20 ct Excedrin express gels (also a full MIR - maybe minus coupon... but I didn't use the coupon on this one) and 2 6-packs of Joint Juice. I've heard great things about Joint Juice... and they were BOGO with the first one on sale for $.50 off regular price... and I had 2 $1/1 coupons. So between the Excedrin and the 2 things of Joint Juice, the total came out to $8.98 - minus my $8 RR was $.98 - and I have a a MIR for the Excedrin which will put money back in my pocket.

Apples were a REALLY good price at Grocery Outlet this week. I found out when I was there it was because some of the apples in bags were rotting, but I was careful to choose bags that were good. Only, when I got home, I noticed that one of my 3# bags wasn't as full as the other - so they had been removing rotting apples from the bags and selling them for the same price ($1.99/3lbs). Whatever - I know it's a gamble buying produce at my store. But, that "6 pounds" of apples made 4.5 pints of apple sauce - which I canned for the first time this week! So I went back and carefully looked through the 5 remaining bags of apples yesterday - got 3 of those ($5.97) and 2 5lb bags of WAY better looking apples for $5 each ($10). For just under $16, I have enough apples to fill the rest of the canning jars with apple sauce - and have warm applesauce with dinner! Plus, I'm borrowing canning equipment from a friend... but found the ones I was given and had forgotten about while cleaning out the garage. So I can do this at any time now! I plan to pick up a bunch of acorn squash and pumpkins and can those, too!

Because of all this canning goodness, I actually had to expand our pantry out in our garage! This is SUCH a blessing to us! In the midst of everything else we have going on, I know for a fact that my family can eat - and eat healthfully - should our unemployment situation continue on... or should the power go out for too long. One of these days I'll have to do a post with a photo of our pantry. You can see how stockpiling on frequently used items when they're on sale works for us and helps keep our grocery spending WAY down.

Final great deal of the week. Rite Aid had SoyJoy bars on sale $5/10 ($.50/1). I have grown to really like them - even though soy, for the most part, still scares the bugeezus out of me. I miss granola bars, though, and I like having something that I can safely grab when we're on a long car trip. I had a few coupons for them - one B2GO and two $2/10. The cheapest I've been able to find this has been $.96 at Walmart, so I went and got myself 23 SoyJoy bars for $7 - or about $.30 each!