Mommin' It Up!

June 28, 2008June 28, 2008

I love Kroger! It’s like the CVS of Grocery Stores!

I had so many super savings this week, I decided to break them up into two posts! You can see my CVS post here, but this one is alll about Kroger! I started off the week at Kroger to work the Daytona 500 promotion, where if you bought 10 of certain items, you got $3 off your order at checkout. You could do this up to three times per transaction. I did it twice in one transaction, and here is what I got:

That’s TEN jars of Ragu, two 5-packs of Kraft Mac & Cheese, and eight boxes of Fruit Roll-ups that counted towards the Daytona deal. I had 50-cents-off two Ragu coupons, which after the promotion made the Ragu just 78 cents each! I had 80-cents-off two coupons for the Fruit Roll-ups, which after the promotion made them only 87 cents each – but then I had a nice surprise when I was rewarded at checkout with a $3.50 catalina for buying the Fruit roll-ups!! So that makes them even cheaper!! I had a FREE coupon for the Cake mix and the tuna pouch which had printed for me on previous Kroger receipts. All in all, after all the coupons and promotions I paid $30.25 for all this and got back $3.50 to spend on my next order. Woohoo!

Then I heard about this hot Planters coupon (buy 3 participating Kraft/Nabisco items, get $3 off Planters nuts) from Money Saving Mom, and found out there was also a Catalina deal for Planters at Kroger. So I did this:

Eight pkgs. of Kraft Mac & Cheese 77 cents each
Three Planters Honey roasted peanuts $3.19 each
One pkg. Kraft Deli Select singles

I used three of the $3 off Planters q’s and a FREE coupon for the cheese from Sunday’s Parade magazine, and my $3.50 Catalina from the Fruit Roll-Ups deal, and paid a total of $6.23 and got a Catalina for $4 off my next order for buying the Planters!

THEN, I heard about some more great deals from Jamie at Thrifty in the Cincy (all you Dayton-area readers should bookmark her! She has all the local Kroger and Meijer deals!!) So, I took more Planters coupons as well as some others and did THIS:

Eight pkgs. of Kraft Mac & Cheese at 77 cents each
Two Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts $3.19 each
One Planters Cocktail Peanuts $2.99
One pkg. Kraft Deli Select Singles $3.19
Three Lawry’s marinades $1 each
Two Cottonelle 4-pks 99 cents each

I used three of the $3 off Planters q’s
One FREE Kraft cheese coupon from Parade magazine
Three 50 cents off Lawry’s coupons, doubled which made the Lawry’s FREE
Two 25-cents-off Cottonelle coupons, doubled to 50 cents (making them 49 cents!)
My $4 off Catalina from the earlier Planters transaction
I paid a total of $3.61 and got another $4 catalina to use on my next transaction!! I LOVE YOU KROGER!!!

The Planters deal is buy 3, get $4 buy 4, get $5, buy 5, get $6.50…I have some more coupons so I will be going back for this again next week! It ends July 13th. I now have enough Mac & Cheese to last the rest of the year!!

That’s all for my adventures in Krogering For more great money savers, check out Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!

June 27, 2008

Apparently My Teeth are Very Sympathetic

True story: when I was 19 years old, I had an appointment to get my wisdom teeth surgically removed. But then I got a kickin’ summer job so I had to cancel the appointment. Because I am an idiot and a scaredy cat, i never re-scheduled the appointment, which was really dumb because back then my parents and their insurance would have paid for it.

About four years later, when Bobby and I were newlyweds, he started getting his wisdom teeth in. For whatever reason, he had never had his out either, and getting them in was pretty painful. I know this, because within a couple of days of his bothering him mine started coming in too!! Isn’t that weird??? It hurt like a mother!! We loaded up on Advil and Orajel and eventually it subsided.

Fast forward to three-and-a-half years later, when Joshua was about six months old. He got four teeth within a month, and guess what? My bottom left wisdom tooth started coming in at the same time. This time, it hurt even more than before! It just throbbed and throbbed. Now I understood why babies are so undone by teething. It flippin’ kills! Once agan I loaded up on Advil and Orajel. This time, it took a couple of weeks to really dissipate. It hurt, BAD, and I was much grumpier about my teething troubles that Joshua was about his!

Jumping another four years into the present, it is now Sophie who is teething. She has, at the ripe old age of 19 months, six teeth, but right now she is working really hard on two more. Wouldn’t you know it, about two days ago, my bottom right wisdom tooth decided it was time to come out and play. It is fairly irritating, but so far not as bad as it has been in the past. I am crossing my fingers that it doesn’t get there! Sophie and I both throwing teething tantrums will not be a pretty sight!

My last dental cleaning a few months ago was with a new dentist. She took a look at my x-rays and said, “What’s an old lady like you doing with wisdom teeth?” She knows how to charm ’em. But anyways, seeing as my kids have lots of years of getting and losing and getting new teeth ahead of them, I am gonna price having these babies out as soon as Sophie is weaned! I am way too wimpy (as well as too old) for this teething stuff!

June 26, 2008

Starting to freak out

So it’s almost time for me to go back to work, and I don’t want to!! Yet, anyway. I’m not ready!

I just don’t know how we’re going to do it. I can’t imagine getting up at 5:30, pumping, feeding Sam, showering, wearing real clothes, and making it out the door before 7. I don’t know how Andy is going to handle both of the kids at home, especially because he does not possess the power of lactation. That is the key for keeping Sam happy, for sure. And how am I going to pump enough to leave for him?? Ugh.

I am looking forward to a couple things… listening to books on tape in the car (instead of Sam’s incessant screaming), going out to lunch with my friends, and hopefully starting to use the exercise room on campus. But I am going to miss them all so much. Especially that little guy.

I have been really fortunate to have this maternity leave… certainly not all women have 13.5 paid weeks off. And it has been so wonderful. I will always remember the time Sam and I had together during his first months, and how much I loved just sitting and staring at him. Ok, I am going to cry.

So anyway, I know that it will work out somehow, and we will all make it. I’m just not exactly sure how.