I am going to declare June another no buy month. I still have a Shop & Save gift card with over $100.00 on it so I should be able to get all our groceries for the month with some left over. I have not been to Walgreens except to use up my RR and only paying around $5.00-$10.00 OOP per week. I should be done with them buy the middle of July since they are becoming harder to use and the deals are just not there.
I am down to only a month before my next vacation to ..... yup WDW. I am not looking forward to the heat but I will be spending the time with my kiddos at the beautiful Animal Kingdom Villas. (As long as they can get along). We recently had an offer for a free 3 night Disney Cruise which I just cannot pass up. So we are planning our cruise for Oct 2010 with a brief stay at Disney's Vero Beach Resort before. It looks like so much fun and I have not been to the Atlantic side beach since I was a kid. We are saving every extra dollar we can find so we can do some excursions, rent a car and just have a great time in a new place.

Since Walgreens got rid of the Easy Saver Book I have just lost interest in the RR deals. I end up having to buy items I don't want or need inorder to have enough items to match the number of coupns. Plus I have been having a lot of trouble finding the items listed in stock. I have searched all week for Fish Oil with no luck. Once I use up the RR I have to the best of my ability I will probably be done with Walgreens again. (When they lost all my DS19 baby pictures from the first 3months of his life I refused to go there until last year when I found Hotcouponworld.com)

This past week I been to Target twice, Shop n Save and Walgreens.
Target 1

Target 2

Shop n Save

Walgreens


I really don't have big plans for any shopping in the next couple of weeks although I am hoping for a good meat sale.

We spent alot on our garden this year so I am hoping for a great harvest this summer. I built 4 raised vegetable beds but we could only afford dirt for 2 of them so far.
Currently I have green beans, cucumber, lima beans, lettuce and spinach comming up in bed one.
In bed 2 I have sweet peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, cantalope.
I am working on a strawberry fountain but I need the dirt which we can't get until it stops raining.
In the older beds from last year I have a new blueberry bush, hot peppers and spaghetti squash.
My very first bed we built on the patio is now a full herb garden with cilantro, sage, lemon thyme, rosemary, parsley, green onions and chives.
As you can see I haven't been as busy shopping but I have kept myself busy in the yard.
We also bought one of the topsy turvy containers just because they are so different and cute. We have grape tomatoes doing very well in there.

I know, I know. I have not been a very good blogger. I really haven't been shopping much since we got home the end of March. Other than milk and fresh fruit and veggies I have been staying at home getting my garden ready. I am building 4 raised veggie beds and fencing it in to keep the dogs' out. DH spent almost a week in the hospital only to find nothing wrong with him. I had to take DS to the urgent care center for a splinter under his nail only to find our insurance had dropped him because they did not recieve his class schedule I faxed to them in Jan. A trip to the vet with the puppy for a UTI. And I still was able to put some money in the savings for March.

We had a wonderful trip to Disney World. It was a little cooler than we expected but no real rain to speak of. The count down is on for the next trip which will be to MY favorite place Animal Kingdom Lodge for my birthday. I was able to save $89.00 on the next trip by purchasing points from someone instead of having to pay cash for the extra night.

May looks like it may be another slow month for me. I did get out this past weekend to Lowe's, Home Depot and Kmart to get in on the great sales and double Q. This is the first time DH went with me and he was amazed at how well I did.
I will try to get every updated by this weekend.

No buy March

I had declared March a no buy month when I could not fit another thing in any of my 3 freezers.
So far I have done very well. DH truck needed a new ball joint, thank goodness he's a mechanic we applied that $75.00 to the household budget. I have picked up things that we need like milk, bread, fresh fruit and veggies that totaled around $30.00. Then over the weekend DS19 and I went out to get him somethings to eat while DD14 and I are out of town. That was another $30.00 for frozen chicken nuggets, mini tacos, quesadillas and ravioli.
The rest has been freebies at Walgreens. I use coupons, Register Rewards and my Gift Card so no money out of pocket there.
Then on Sunday we went to buy a spreader for the yard as well as a blueberry bush. While we were there we picked up grub killer, we are hoping to get rid of the moles in our yard by getting rid of their food source. We also found on clearance some organic potting soil and ant spray. That little trip cost us $91.00 but we got what we needed to get started on spring planting.

Total for the month $500- 75.00 - 30 -30 -91 = 274.00 so I will have money for the savings account in March.
DD and I leave in 3 days for WDW. I have a number of GC for disney that we will use for all our food and expenses on the way. I will also leave a little cash and a grocery GC for my son incase he needs anything.

Thursday was another $10 off $50 day and they had a number of good meat deals so I went to work on my plan of action. I did not take pictures. I was just to tired when I got home and I wanted to get everything put away so I could make dinner. I split my order into 2 this week to get the best deal.
Deal 1:
5.00 3lb bag Tenderbird Chicken Breasts
5.00 Tennesse Pride Sausage & Biscuits (kids have been requesting these for awhile)
5.00 Seabest Shrimp x 2
5.00 Swift Beef Patties
4.68 Orange Juice (got the wrong one but to lazy to exchange it) x2
1.67 BC Frosting x 2 - .50 Q
1.67 BC Cookie Mix x 3 - .40
2.00 Pillsbury Cresent Rolls x 4 -.35
____
54.94 - 10.00 = 44.94 - coupons = 37.28 on GC bought earlier + $10.00 Catalina for next visit from the BC/Pillsbury purchase


Deal 2:
5.00 3 lb bag of Tenederbird Chicken Breasts x 2 (total of 3 allowed)
5.00 5 lb Jumbo pack of Hot dogs x 2
1.00 Hunts Manwich x 8 - .50/2
1.00 Hunts Diced Tomatoes x 8 - .40/2
1.00 Rotel Tomatoes x 6 -.30
1.00 Hunts Pasta Sauce
2.50 Pam Cooking Spray -.35
4.68 Orange Juice (again bought the wrong one but I did return one when my total was more than 50.00
_____
57.18-10 = 47.18 - coupons 41.18 - 4.80 returned juice = 36.38 on GC + $10.00 Catalina from Hunts purchases. Plus I have a friend that is sending me a MIR for $5.00 meat purchase.

How far can $20.00 really go?

If you watch your sales and coupons it can actually go pretty far and it is a good thing when you have family pets! $116.00 vet bill for shots, heartworm meds and eye salve. Saturday I stopped at Aldis for the fresh fruit for the week. Strawberries and Bananas = 4.20

Then a quick stop at Schnucks. Then last night I had to take the newest puppy to the vet for shots and an issue with her eye.1.00 Kleenex x7 - .40 Q doubled to .80
1.00 Heartland WWheat Spaghetti & Disney shapes x 10 -.55 Q
1.79 Healthy Ones Luch Meat x 3 - .75 Q
6.99 5# Clementines -1.00 Q
Subtotal 30.15 w/ tax - coupons = $15.80

Running total for the month $159.69 left to go.

I have spent the last couple of days playing around with Photoshop, making iron ons for our upcomming Disney trips. Here are some of the ones we will be wearing if they meet the kids and grown ups approval:And On the last day:

Happy Friday the 13th

I just love Friday the 13th. It has always been a lucky day for me. So far nothing exciting has happened but nothing horrible either.
Today on the way home I made a quick trip to WAG to pick up a few rebate items and The Gamer Razor


2.50 Windex Wipes -1.50 IP but it is not listed on the receipt so I will be going back tomorrow
8.99 Gamer Razor -4.00
3.50 Scrubbing Bubbles Gel -3.00/2
3.50 Scrubbing Bubbles Scrubber
____
12.27 on GC. I will receive 3.00 MIR and I got the $6.00 RR to use later.