Colin had school pictures a couple of weeks ago. He came home yesterday with the proof. Do you think I should buy some pictures?
Have I mentioned that I have started doing coupons? I hadn't been doing them (expect at restaurants, of course) for a about five years for a few reasons. For one thing, coupons are only for name brand items, and usually the item still costs more than the store brand item even after you take off the discount. Also, coupons are a lot of work. I never found the amount of work to be worth it.
So I have shopped at Aldi for almost four years and I have been really happy with it. Sometimes I have to go to Walmart for some things, like the brands of bread and mayo that I prefer. When I am planning right I can usually feed my family perfectly healthy meals, with lots of fresh produce, for around $75 a week.
However, a few of the grocery stores around here double coupons EVERY day up to 99 cents. That means if you have a coupon for 75 cents off, they will take $1.50 off. The thing is, these are the fancy pants grocery stores with low lighting and gourmet salad bars, where they actually bag your groceries for you (unlike Aldi). Which means their regular prices are WAY higher than Aldi or Walmart. So sometimes even with double coupons you aren't getting an incredible deal. What you have to do is stalk the sale items and use coupons on top of the sale price. Doing this, you really can get some incredible deals.
Where it really gets fun is sometimes these grocery stores declare triple coupons for a weekend. Last week the grocery store Bloom did this and I scouted out my coupons long and hard to make a trip over there. You can only use 20 coupons at a time, so you want them to be your very best ones. I was a little ticked because I had mine all picked out and when they rang me up they wouldn't accept three of them so I put those items back, but I was thinking, "I could have used 3 more!!" As you can see from the picture, I got all that food for $7.83. My total savings on that trip was $39.60, which is pretty great even taking into consideration the inflated original costs.
I was pretty happy with my haul and planned to make a couple more trips over there during the weekend, but Saturday just ended up being way too busy. My friend Shannon is a coupon pro and has a blog about it that you can check out here.
There is a certain thrill to saving that much money, and I would definitely do more if I had more time that I was willing to dedicate to it. I can't stand going to the store more than a couple of times a week. Hopefully as I get better at it it won't take as long.
Most of you have heard this story but last summer when Chad was fixing up his "flip house" there was a coupon at Lowe's that you could register for online that was $10 off a $25 purchase. You could only register for 10 per IP address, so Chad started buying them online. He would pay about 40 cents for each of them. He went in to Lowe's every day after work and made a purchase (or 4 or 5 seperate purchases at the self check-out) using these coupons. He purchased all the boxes of tile one at a time because it cost $24.99 per box. So he would buy a box of tile with a cheap paintbrush that would put him right over $25, and get $10 off. Chad was totally shameless about doing it, and the workers did not mind a bit. We used to joke that they probably had a picture of him up in the breakroom. He used a total of 74 of these coupons! So if you are ever wondering how much Chad's dignity is worth, your answer is $740!
...Each of us should apply that principle to our attitudes in attending church. Some say “I didn’t learn anything today” or “No one was friendly to me” or “I was offended” or “The Church is not filling my needs.” All those answers are self-centered, and all retard spiritual growth.
In contrast, a wise friend wrote:
All of this illustrates the eternal principle that we are happier and more fulfilled when we act and serve for what we give, not for what we get.
Our Savior teaches us to follow Him by making the sacrifices necessary to lose ourselves in unselfish service to others. If we do, He promises us eternal life, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7), the glory and joy of living in the presence of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I testify of Them and of Their great plan for the salvation of Their children, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Gabe, Easter 2006
Right as we were sitting down to eat, the campground host came running around, telling everyone that a storm was coming in about ten minutes and that we would want to take cover during it. About two minutes later we heard some thumps as hail hit the vans. We grabbed our food and ran to the vans. Chad has been teasing me because he says that amidst the chaos of running for cover, all he can remember is hearing me yell, "Grab the chips!!!"
But they kept the boys busy while we were stuck in the van!
You should click on this one to get the full effect.
After the storm let up we went back out to survey the damage...
Beautiful end to a lovely day. We got a nice fire going after this and my kids got to stay up 'til 9 or so (which is very late for them). They slept quite well. I did not.
