Bon Bons ahoy!

  Sandy Hook Elementary School, K-4 Newtown, CT. It is a very sad and tragic situation. Oh so close to the holidays. All those precious children lost for who knows what reason. Connecticut is a good sized state. Newtown is about an two hour`s drive from where I live. Rural area up in the Northwest corner of the state. Stuff like this shouldn't happen in anyplace but especially places like that. I think if my kids were younger or I had grands, I could connect more to this. I sent my thoughts out on this and I hope that the families will be able to have some peace in their lives and minds one day in the future.

   On that note, I am going to keep busy and keep my mind off of that. I am going to make the bon bons today. I have to make alot of them. A shit load really. Chelsea needs some, Natalie needs some, and Fred informed me that he needs at least 6 bags. I put like 8 in each bag. Fuck!!
  Tomorrow I have to do jam and then I have to do the orange marmalade. Those jams have to be delivered on the 19th. So I have four days to finish the two kinds. I am not going to watch the news at all. I usually do not anyway. I will check the weather but that is as far as it goes. All I have to do now is finish my coffee.

  The couponing has been a slow start but I got another book from the library all about it. It was written in 2012 and it is called The Everything Couponing Book. I am hoping some time this weekend to crack it open. I still have the other book about shopping and saving money. I am more than halfway done with that one. I am learning a lot. I am collecting coupons and I am going to save money.  I made the same mistake I always do this week. I get paid the 2nd Wednesday of every month. Then I go hog wild and buy anything we need. From maxi pads to blocks of cheese. I make sure the stuff I buy is on sale and I am frugal, but I always over spend. Frugal and over spend does not go together but I have made it an art form. I need to learn to stop doing THAT!
 Okay, like I need to go to AC Moore today (ugh...fucking ugh) and buy another Xmas themed paint can to put home made popcorn in. I decided I was going to make a tin for our friend J. Her family has been struggling and there is not much in the way of a Christmas at their house this year. Young kids too. I cannot buy them anything because I just do not have the extra dough right now. I guess I could use some of my jam money and spend $20 to get the boys something. I don't know. See, I am trying to save money but the pull of being good and right always gets me in the end.

That is about all I have to say about anything today. I got Ruby sitting in the chair next to me and Lu is bugging me to pick her up. My cup of coffee is almost down to the dregs.  After I give love to the dogs, I will tackle the kitchen and start the chocolate making. I need to find my container of pink Himalayan salt. It is the most important part of the candy.
Hope you have a wonderful Saturday and your heart is not too heavy today.

I saved money!!!!

I actually saved money yesterday when I went grocery shopping. I have been reading this book, Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America`s Cheapest Family.  I have not gotten super far into it yet but enough to know that they are teaching how to shop once a month and cook some of your meals for that month at one time to freeze or OAMC (once a month cooking). I had no idea that is what this was about. They do not say you shouldn't use coupons but they say you do not have to KILL yourself being a Coupon Queen. It starts you off easy. Try to shop just for this week only. You look at all the sales flyers, see what you already have in the house, and plan out your meals for the week. I did that.  If you have coupons to correspond with the sales, great! I am just a beginner in the coupon thing so I only had like four coupons to use total. I have to see why my printer is not working and either fix it or get a new one. Printing coupons online is the way to go too.
 I wrote out my lists of the two stores. We did get a couple things not on either list. Hamburger became an unadvertised sale at Stop and Shop. I needed it but had not added it to the lists. Sometimes if something good pops up, you have to grab it.
 I saved $40 at Stop and Shop and I saved $30 at Shoprite. I also bought B1G1 cereals at Rite Aid. I spent $125 (which I usually spend) and I came home with more than double the groceries! I had chicken breasts, big family pack of hamburger, two things of bacon, Italian sausage for my Tuscan soup, hot dogs, and a big family pack of pork chops that was used last night for dinner.
 Plus all the stuff I needed for this weeks meals. Fred and I can eat leftovers.

So I saved money and it was a rush and I will do it again. I have a crisis right now. We cannot find the metal rack that goes inside the canner so that I can make jam today. I could drive 20 minutes away and spend $6 for a new one but part of me doesnt want to spend the money until Friday.

Couponing: A journey into food savings

Fred brought home 4 Sunday newspapers this morning for me. I have been reading up on how to save money with coupons. One of the rules is to get one Sunday paper (or whatever paper has the coupons) for each member of the family. Sunday is also when they have the pharmacy flyers with their coupons. I have already saved the grocery store flyers for next week.
 Next I have to shop for a zippered school binder and baseball card sleeves. There is a website called Smart Spending Resources that sells the inserts and organized inserts so that I can separate coupons but sections of the store. I may buy one package for the inserts and then buy extra sleeves at Target or Walmart. You basically put one coupon in each sleeve. If you have 6 of a coupon for Charmin, you put that in a sleeve. You do not put ALL toilet paper coupons in that sleeve, just that one particular coupon. That is why you see couponers with such big books. You save your coupons until they go on sale at each grocery store that you use. Then you buy as many as you are allowed and save save save.
 I was supposed to get some help with this from a coupon expert but I have not heard anything back from her, so I am going to try to read up on it and do it on my own. I will let you know how it goes. But this is my first Sunday of collecting more than one newspaper. Stealing is a no no. You spend the money on the papers cause you will be saving in the long run.
If I can shave my grocery bill every month in half, that would be wonderful. I will continue to say that I will not become one of those weirdos that buys like 50 of one item cause it is free. I have more class then that. Buying only what we need is good. If I can get 4 tubes of toothpaste for free, that will last us the year. I do not need to be greedy and I do not want the cashiers to be afraid of me. I have two books waiting for me at the library about couponing that were published very recently. I hope the help.
  I slept in this morning till noon. It is warmer than usual today and I snuggled in. It felt good and not so good. I had things I wanted to do this morning but those hours are gone now. It is going to get dark in two hours. Isnt that some bullshit? I hate winter time.
So I will make the jam tomorrow. I will have all day to do it. I am still in my jammies for cripes t sake!  Fred is making chili for dinner. I want baked potatoes. I need to wash dishes. And we have a Xmas tree to put up. It is sitting on the floor waiting to be put together and decorated. Maybe we can do that today. Do the tree. Jam tomorrow.

 This post is going nowhere fast. This is what happens when you sleep too long. Your brain gets a tad extra fluffy. I am gonna go now and do all those things up top that I said I was gonna do or I could just go back to bed and watch tv. :)