Saturday, February 28, 2009

Snowboarding!


As promised, me, snowboarding! Since I'm not going fast enough here to cut snow, it kind of looks like I'm just standing there- but I swear to you I'm moving! I did cut snow in the top section of the mountain, but that was before we got the bright idea to take pictures (and also before I wiped out faceplant style).


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Dear Cheese, my love

Dear Cheese, my love:
You keep moisture in my casseroles,
add zing to the tops of my salads,
and go great with all kinds of wine.
Don't let dull crackers pull you down,
and darling, stay delicious.

Ile De France shares my love of cheese, and makes it.
iledefrancecheese.com
They also have $1 printable coupons, which you should check out.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Oy Vey, Oral Surgeons!

Update on the oral surgery- I switched my appointment from friday the 13th to good friday, since it turns out my insurance isn't as good as I thought it was. The "coverage" is good, but the plan max is on the measly side, and April starts a new benefit year so the wisdom teeth will have to be my only 2009 dental work, and still exceeds my benefits, so I'm looking at ~$750 out of pocket.
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So after big spendin' sunday, I had big spendin' monday! Without stopping at CVS or any of my favorite places, too :(. $69 for the panoramic x-rays they needed at the oral surgeon's for my wisdom teeth, since you couldn't see the whole wisdom teeth from a standard x-ray set. Yuck. Plus another $50 to change my oil at goodyear- and that was with the "member discount" (though I'm not a member, sssh!)- but they did rotate my tires too. And I need not fret about making my FSA spending by the end of March when my health plan year ends- luckily, Friday the 13th was open next month (shocking, no?), so I'll have a ~$250 bill for having all my wisdom yanked out through my mouth which will definately put me over my top with the scripts for pain meds and antibiotics. AAAHHHH! So, I think with the exception of my snowboarding weekend (I just learned how last month, and am QUITE proficient in falling down) next month, it's time to have a month or two where I track every cent. Not that I think vacation $ doesn't hit my budget, but I save hard for it and refuse to fret over it (within reason) while I'm enjoying the time off. And I promise, as soon as I learn how to get pictures off my new camera and onto here, YOU will be privy to an annathy-while-snowboarding-photo my friend Amanda took!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Big Spendin' Sunday

Well, big spendin' for me. There were a few splurges (chips, Juno, wine...), but all in all not too shabby. And if you can't tell from the Ralph's trip, I'm making Tacos this Tuesday.

First, my only MM trip, at dear little Rite Aid:
10*$0.50 SoyJoy
$2.99 Garnier Wonder Waves Conditioner
- $3/10 SoyJoy Q
- $1 Garnier Q
OOP: $4.24, will get back $7.99 in SCRs for a profit of $3.75 (you'll see it as $4 in some blogs, but I take my pesky CA sales tax into account)

CVS:
$4.99 Nyquil Liquid, 6 oz
$4.99 Dayquil 12 ct
$2.50 Rubbermaid round takealongs
$2.50 Rubbermaid sandwich takealongs
$7.49 Viva 8 ct
$4.99 Huge (60 ct) hairties
- $1.50 Nyquil Q
- $1 Dayquil Q
- $1/2 Rubbermaid takealongs Q
- $0.50 Viva Q
- $10 EB from buying 2 nuetrogena last week
- $11.94 EBs from buying 4 colgate last week
= $1.95 OOP, $5 EB back for nyquil/dayquil, $2 EB back for Viva for a net cost of $16.89 (see? big spendin'!)

Target:
$10 Juno
$3 Baked Lay's
$1.57 Target brand napkins
=$15.52 OOP

Trader Joe's:
$2.29 Mini tomatoes
$2.49 Sugar Snap Peas
6*$1.99 Charles Shaw Wine (commonly known as two-buck-chuck... and one of annathy's naughty vices)
=$17.71 OOP

Ralph's:
$4.59 Mission Tortillas, 16 ct (wowsa these are pricey, and the other brands weren't any better!)
$1.99 Eggs, 1 dz
$1.25 Milk, 1/2 gal
$1.49 Peppridge Farm bread, clearanced for sell by date
2*$2 Gogurt
3*$0.60 Rachel's Yogurt (the cashier suggested I try the grapefruit flavor when they get it back in stock)
3*$0.68 Avocado
$1.96 Hot house tomatoes, 1.98 lb
$3.49 Ground Beef, 1 lb 80% lean
$3.99 Strawberries- BOGO, so I got 2 for that price
-$0.75/2 Gogurt Q ("doubled" to $1)
-$1/3 Rachel's Yogurt Q
=$24.60 OOP

That's a grand total of $64.02 OOP with a true cost of $70.97. That's a big spendin' Sunday, but I did get a fair amount of stuff this week for being without a triplin' shop rite or doublin' kmart.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fun with Dentists!

I had to go to everyone's favorite place in the whole wide world today- the Dentist! All things considered, it wasn't a bad experience. I got a chipped tooth fixed and worn away enamel filled in, without a shot. The good news is apparently my dental insurance is good, and they're going to bill them first so we'll see how much I end up paying (I have a feeling it'll be a good amount yet since I haven't hit my deductible for the year yet on that, but at least that's an FSA expense).

After, I went to CVS:
2*$2.99 Colgate (limit reportedly 5, I've bought 4 and my receipt still says I can buy another)
2*$3.99 Stayfree
$0.49 Necco Valentine Hearts
- BOGO Stayfree Q
- $10 EBs
OOP was $0.79, and I got back $9.98 EBs for a true cost of $0.81

And then, to WAGS:
4* $1.50 Campbell's Select Harvest Clam Chowder Microwave Bowls
- 2*$0.50/2 Select Harvest Q's
Paid the $5 from my giftcard (love that thing)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

CVS with my favorite cashier

So, after the gym today (where I coughed up too much money for my next 5 personal training sessions... if only my silly health weren't important, but that's a story for another day) I stopped by CVS. It's definitely one of my favorite CVS's, and in part to my favorite cashier, who doesn't treat coupons like they're a hassle, and gives me compliments like "those coupons really work!" and points out for the sake of newbies everywhere that you earned EB's so keep this receipt and don't let them expire.


In the whole, my health is important notion, I'm starting on a multivitamin with an additional calcium supplement. This week's BOGO for a penny sale let me get both for $9.50, plus I had a $1/CVS vitamin CRT and a $2/10 CVS Brand purchase CRT (I got the pretzels as a filler to hit $10). So here's what I got:


$9.49 CVS Calcium + D Supplement, 144 ct
$0.01 CVS Multivitamin + Iron, 365 ct
$0.79 CVS pretzel sticks
$2.99 Neutrogena Soap (look in the facewash section with all the pricey Neutrogena stuff)
$2.99 Neutrogena Soap (yeah, on one of the lower shelves)
$5.99 Turning Leaf 2006 Reserve Cabernet (oooooh I love wine sales with hang tag Q's!)
- $2/10 CVS Brand Purchase
- $1/CVS Vitamins 60 ct or larger
- $2 Neutrogena Men's product
- $1 Turning Leaf Hangtag Q
- $7.99 EB from Earinse
- $3 EB from J&J monthly deal (see my very first post, it's a good filler for a $/$$)

OOP: 5.72, got back $10 EB for the Neutrogena. That's a net/true cost of 6.71, and yes, the OOP is high, but that's cuz you can't use EBs on wine. I could have tried to use more and hoped they "attached" to another item, but I'm a goody too shoes, especially with cashiers I like and see regularly.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

New knowledge on the Eats

Pasta- yum! It was very tasty, and roommate approved! The next time I make it I'll use a second jar of sauce though, which will also allow a little more space for extra veggies- mushrooms perhaps?

Wraps- I must have gotten corn tortillas, which tasted really wierd and so I'm switching to bread for the remainder of the week. The fillers were still yummy though.


Also go get your free toothpaste at CVS! I love free stuff!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Eats this week

My night to cook dinner is tomorrow, so I'll let you guys in on a little secret: I'm going to be lazy. My plans for the meal include nothing more than penne pasta, vodka cream sauce (premade), chicken breast, and asparagus (arguably the best vegetable ever). Okay, okay, if I get off work on time I may pick up a baguette and make some garlic bread too. I'm going to chop up the asparagus and cooked chicken breast and heat those in a sauce pan with the cream sauce. Oh, and I'll cook the pasta too so the sauce has something to go over. It's easy, but hopefully it will look nice and taste nicer. If you want to make the garlic bread, you overachiever, just slice, coat on one side with a extra virgin olive oil/garlic powder mix, put a little extra garlic powder on top if your heart desires (mine always does), and broil on low on a foil lined tray for a minute. Maybe two, but best check to it after one.

Lunches for me right now are wraps. Though I learned tonight making them that I need either bigger wraps or to slice smaller portions of stuff. Just an FYI. I spread some cream cheese on the wrap, put lettuce on that, cucumbers and tomatoes on the lettuce, and add some turkey. If you have honey mustard sauce that's a good dipper for it- I'm out, so I was just a little liberal with the cream cheese instead.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

I heart tax refunds!

I'm soooooooooo excited I just did my taxes and I'm getting back like, 5k! I know that sounds like I had rediculous amounts taken from my paychecks, but it's just that my moving stipend and signing bonus were taxed really really hard and I didn't realize how much that was going to affect my total for the year. Plus I graduated school so I was getting taxed on my monthly income like I'd be earning it all 12 months despite the fact that I didn't earn a cent til July. So yes, I should have had listed more exemptions considering all that, but I'm still stoked! Here's to paying off the car!

Woah. I have a blog.

So, I discovered something today. Besides that I'm too lazy to go get the free toothpaste at CVS because it's not a MM without the coupons, which I can't seem to find. I have a blog! Apparently I created it some time ago and simply never posted. I inadvertantly found it today while figuring out how to post on Dhunny/4Hats giveaway post. If I can figure out the camera I got for Christmas I will try to post photos, but for now we'll stick to deals and my once-a-week real meal. I have 3 roommates and we kind of rotate on the whole cooking bit, so I cook "for real" about once a week.

CVS yesterday:
Ear rinse $7.99
Energy Shots $4.99
CVS aspirin vial $1.99
Venus Embrace $7.99
2*CVS nail polish remover $1.99 ea
J&J bandage+neosporin 5 pack $4.99

Used a $5/30 CVS Q, $1.99 free aspirin vial Q, $2 Venus Embrace Q, $1 J&J Q and $21 EB's, and spent $1.27 OOP. I earned $21.98 EBs, so my true cost was just $0.29.

WAGS yesterday:

Gillete Gamer $8.99
2*Progresso soup $1.25
Bounty Basic $0.89 (realized at home I had another Q and should have bought 1 more- oh well)

Used a $4 Gillete Q, $0.50/2 Progresso Q, and a $0.25 Bounty Q and charged the remaining $8.45 on the GC I got from transferring my perscription there. Also got back a $6 GC (should have been a RR, but their machine wasn't working right), for a true cost of $2.45.