Happy New Year!

Here is a toast to a happy, safe, prosperous and BLESSED 2009! We are packing up the family and heading to the beach for a couple of days. At midnight we will bring in the New Year watching fireworks on the sand and freezing our butts off! I hope wherever you are and whatever you do, you have a wonderful night and a great beginning to the New Year!

You gotta hear this!

My bloggy buddy Miranda at Keeper of The Cheerios has this on her blog and it inspired me. See what you think about this!

You must be joking......

Yesterday I posted about an extraordinary and very common sense article pertaining to current economic times and how people are coping. A little later I flipped the pages of the next section of the SAME paper only to find this RIDICULOUS article.

Seems this lady in LA has built a rather extraordinary doghouse. Or rather, she has HAD it built. To the tune of $20,000. This dog house has heat and air, hardwood floor, ceiling fans, lighting, a vintage dresser to hold dog clothes......it goes on and on.


Check it out here:
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-hm-doghouse6-2008dec06,0,6314671.story

Here is what I don't get. People in our own neighborhoods are starving. Kids go to bed every night hungry and cold. People can't get a job. Senior citizens have to choose between food and their medicine. I could go on and on.

Now don't get me wrong.....I am a pet lover. I have 3 cats. They eat store brand catfood. They live in our modest home, not a cat palace. This is what pets DO.

I sure could have thought of ways to help a lot of people with $20,000....plus the money she spent to move it to their new home on a flat bed truck, with the aid of a crane. (I did not see a cost estimate on that.) I am glad these folks have their wealth and love their pets. I wish them no ill will. I just wonder where their priorities truly are.

Morning news

I don't usually read the newspaper commentary section. I don't know what made me turn there today, but I am sure glad I did. I ran across a commentary by Boston Globe writer Ellen Goodman that really struck a chord in me.

The title of the article in our local paper is "Thrift is New Normal". The title alone caught my eye, and I wrote about it on my Scrappy Gypsy blog before I even posted it here. (What? You don't read it? Shame on you! Now follow the blog list link.....)

I read the article, which is basically about the current recession and economic times and the way retailers are reacting and was amazed by some of the one liners that stood out to me. Some of my favorites are:
~~These days the media are full of people saying bye-bye to bling-bling~~
~~These days Change You Can Believe In is what's jingling in your pocket~~
~~Thrift is the new normal~~
~~Sixty percent off is the new black~~
~~Cutting back is in. Retail therapy is out.~~

You will have to read the whole article to see what I mean. It was a really good commentary on excessive spending and "keeping up with the Jonses". Check it out at
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/12/12/an_upside_to_the_economic_downside/

CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!

Trot yourselves over to "The Centsible Sawyer" and enter Denise's giveaway for a $500 Wal-Mart gift card!!!! How awesome is that? She lists 5 different ways to enter, so what are you waiting for? GO ENTER!!! NOW!!! Good luck!

It's Saturday....

You know, I figure I have the best of both worlds when it comes to Publix. You see, I can get the coupons on Sunday, clip them all and sort them, and hit Kroger and Walgreens on Monday for some super savings. Then when the Publix ad hits midweek, I can make my list of BOGOs and other great deals, match up coupons from the previous Sunday, and then wait for the coming Sunday to find even more. Then I shop Monday or Tuesday before the ad changes again.

That's what I did last night. I sat down with my Publix flyer, made my list of things I wanted, then went back and matched up coupons I have. I used my coupon file of coupons from previous weeks papers, the coupon pamphlets from Publix and the huge stack my beloved sister mailed me from Baton Rouge. (THANKS SIS!) Next I went online to the Fiddledeedee blog and checked for any printable coupons I might have missed, printed out one for Idahoan potatoes, and organized everything into my file. Each store has a little file in the front of my coupon box to hold the coupons I am using that week.

Now it is Saturday and I am chomping at the bit for tomorrow's paper! YAY! More coupons clipping!!!! I am hoping there are good coupon sections tomorrow as the last two weeks have seemed kinda slim to me.....

I was also thinking that some people might wonder how I make my list. I have seen various formats for computerized, printable lists and master lists and such, but that doesn't work for me. My style is rather primitive and plain, but it works for me....so here goes.

I use the hard backed spiral notebooks that you can get at Dollar Tree or Michaels in the dollar section. They are about 3-4 inches wide and about 6-7 inches tall. Spiral bound, so they fold back on themselves, and hardbacked so I can write on the paper while holding the book in my hand, with nothing underneath. The book will stand up in my coupon file.

I make a separate page for each store....Walgreens, Publix and Kroger. I scour sale papers and make the list of the best deals on stuff my family uses. Then I go back through my coupon file and make notes by my list of what coupons I have. It is handwritten, but looks something like this:

4 Idahoan potatoes M
2 Juicy Juice M
candles P
etc.

I circle the letters and quantity I want so it stands out. I use P or K or W to denote store coupons, M for manufacturer coupons, and RC to remind me I have a rain check for an item.

Like I said, primitive and plain but it works for me. I am thinking of scanning a picture of my real list and my coupon file so you can see just how plain and simple I am. :) Also, you will see how bad my handwriting is. :)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh girls.....trot on over to the Publix site and check out the big ole honkin' list of BOGO deals this week! There is about a zillion of them, and most items offered have coupons for them in the Publix winter savings flyer available at the store. I grabbed about 6 of each flyer and I am so glad I did! Look out Publix shoppers....here I come! Watch me burn some tracks squealin' through my favorite grocery store and save some moolah!!!!!

By the way, the Kmart double coupon thing really stinks. I went yesterday, and even with the double coupon deals, the prices are so doggone high I still didn't buy much. I think they jacked the prices earlier this week to allow for the coupons. Most shampoo was about $5 a bottle, and the cheapest Tide was over $9!!!! However, the Gillette men's body wash was on sale for $3.99, and there were $2 off coupons in this past Sunday's paper so you can gets those for free if you can find them. They only had 3 left when I got there yesterday so I snatched them up.

Happy shopping!!!!

Quick notes.....

Coupons.com posted new coupons yesterday, there are some good ones there including a $5 off $25 purchase at Walgreens good today only. I will be there this afternoon!

Also, our KMart circular in Sunday's paper had the double manufacturers coupon banner again. They will double all coupons up to $2 face value. However, they do not accept internet coupons. You can also only use 4 of the same coupon in one transaction. (Take a friend and split them up or go through the line twice if you have a lot) Just read the fine print on the Kmart coupon in the flyer before you go. You can only have 75 coupons per transaction, blah blah blah.....

Happy shopping and saving!!!