I’ve been working on making a price book to have available for download. I have one that is nearly finished, but I really need one or two people to test it for me. . .to make sure I haven’t forgotten items other people commonly use. . .to make sure it’s in a workable format. . .etc.

If you’d like to volunteer to test my price book, leave a comment, and I’ll pick one or two people (if there’s a huge number of people, I’ll use a random number generator to pick) to test it, and I’ll send it out to you right away.

Just as a warning though – it’s 72 pages (regular 8.5 by 11 pages – to make it easy to fit into a three-ring binder) long. . .

Thanks so much!

Harris Teeter is having triple coupons this week. I was able to go yesterday. It was a surprise that they did it again so soon – the last time they had one was just in September. I’ll take it, though.

I was really pleased with how well I was able to do. The first order I spent $3.11 for $43.50 worth of merchandise. Then I drove across town to go to the other store. There I spent $4.13 for $39.84 worth of stuff. All in all, I spent a whopping $7.24 for $83.34 of stuff!

Here’s a combined list of what I was able to get:

Mueller’s Multigrain pasta (4)
Splenda Cafe Sticks (6)
Jolly Time Popcorn (4)
Knorr Sides Plus (6)
No Yolk Noodles
Martha White Muffin Mixes (2)
Ziploc Gallon Freezer Bags
Brawny paper towel (3)
Hungry Jack pancake mix
Mazola Pure Olive Oil spray
Domino Brown Sugar
Dawn Dish detergent
Coffeemate Liquid Coffee Creamer (2) (this is a real treat for me!)
Vlasic Pickles
Pilsbury Crescent Rolls
Fleishman’s Yeast
TicTacs (2)
Eclipse Mints
Borden Singles (3)

Harris Teeter states in their policy that you can only use 20 coupons a day, and I’ve seen store managers enforce that. They also limit the number of identical coupons you can use in one trip to three. Those seem like rather stringent rules, but honestly, I like them. The 20 coupon limit generally helps me keep my totals low (more on that in a minute) and not being able to use more than three of the same coupon helps ensure that stuff stays on the shelf for other customers. I went tripling one time at a store that did not have those rules, and most of the “good deals” (read: free) were out of stock. This way, even if I can’t make it to the store until the last day of the sale, there’s still a chance that I might get some good deals.

I’ve gotten super-picky about which coupons I’ll use, though. Most of the time, I’ll only buy things that I can get for free or nearly free with the coupons. Sure, some of the items I have coupons for are a good deal, but if I have a limited budget that day, I’ll usually stick pretty closely to free stuff. Yesterday I had $9.77 to spend at two separate stores, so I was pickier than usual.

Other times, I’ll compare prices to other stores (like Aldi and Wal-Mart – this is where having a price book and knowing area prices comes in really handy). If I can get generic cheaper elsewhere, then I generally won’t buy the item. Sometimes I will, if it’s a favorite brand of ours, but not always.

Another thing I’ve begun taking into consideration is convenience vs. the price of making something myself. Yesterday I passed up a loaf of frozen garlic bread – even though the price was only $.50 after the coupon. I can make the exact same thing at home for less, and the loaves I make turn out much bigger and softer than the one I was holding. On the other hand, I may have gotten it if I needed something like that for an upcoming event – the convenience makes it worth it. Sometimes. It all depends.

We’ve also become very non-brand loyal. If I can find a different brand that’s cheaper, we’ll try it. We’ve found some brands that aren’t as good as what we usually buy, but it doesn’t hurt to try it once. Another thing that helps us is not buying things we don’t normally buy. . .with one exception. I don’t normally buy biscuits in a can, but if I can get them for $.20 or less, I will – because I can’t even make them for that.

A goal of mine is to be able to stock up on things enough so that we have enough to last us through to the next good sale. I’d rather get half a dozen bottles of shampoo free with coupons and put them away, even though I have to find a place to store them – than wait ’til I run out, and then risk either forgetting it or having to pay more for it because my store just raised the price on it.

I used to think that this area wasn’t all that great for couponing, but I’m finding that that was a really wrong thought. I’m thankful that our stores triple as often as they do. It really helps with my grocery budget!

I prayed on the way to the store that God would help me do well and stay below the amount that I had to spend. I’m thankful that it went as well as it did!

Well, I caved today and got out the Christmas music!

Most years, I start playing it mid-October. This year, I held off for a little bit. But today, I started thinking. Why not start it now? Why not start listening to music that celebrates our Savior’s birth? It’s one of the greatest things God has done for us – sending His Son to live here on Earth so He could die for my sin. . .

So I’m listening to a beautiful instrumental arrangement of Hark the Herald Angels Sing at the moment. It’s so relaxing. So beautiful.

And I cannot wait this year now that S is starting to understand more. I cannot wait to explain to him just why Christmas is such a great time of year!

We have chirping in our house again. It’s the sweetest sound! I just love baby chicks.

For a week, we collected all the eggs that our hens laid and put them in the incubator. Today, the first chick hatched. I think that leaves 8 more to go (if there really were 9 in the incubator, lol).

Chicks are so much fun. This one is really friendly, and loves to be held. I’m hoping for a bunch of females this time – we can always use more layers.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post a picture or two when this one gets dried off more and fluffed out – it’s pretty scraggly looking still.

It is so easy to get so involved in our lives that it makes it easy to forget how others live.

Last night, on the way home from church, we passed a lady on the side of the road waving her arms frantically trying to flag us down. We stopped to see what was the matter.

The man she was living with had gotten violent and had been hitting her, and she wanted a way out of the house.

In the end, she decided to have us just go on, since we were going in the opposite direction and she didn’t want to use our phone to call someone.

It broke my heart. She looked so young and was obviously scared to death. I cannot imagine what it must be like to live her life. Yet I am well aware that her way of life is common for so many other women as well.

It opened my eyes a little more to the way things are in the world today. I have Christ, a loving husband, and a great church to help me through the trials in my life. . .but this girl. . .she had nobody.

There might not be anything I can actually do to help her and others like her, but I can at least show Christ to people!

My parents came down for a short visit this past weekend. It was so nice to see them again – since they live fourteen hours away, we see my side of the family only a handful of times a year. This time Mom and Dad came now so that they could avoid driving through snow closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Before they arrived, my mom warned me not to stock up on any more meat for the freezer, but not to second-guess any possible reasons. Too late for that one, Mom! But I didn’t dwell on the ideas that presented themselves.

They got here while we were at church Wednesday night, so when we walked in the door after church, there were Mom and Dad, along with three coolers on the floor.

Inside those coolers was a TON of frozen meat. They had considered buying us a side of beef, but we have an upright freezer that’s not too overly big, and they were concerned that everything wouldn’t fit. They opted for a new option that their meat market offers – instead of getting all beef, they got various cuts of beef, pork, and chicken. What a great idea!

The meat in those three coolers completely filled our stand-alone freezer, and quite a bit went into the frig-freezer as well. What an incredible blessing! And what an amazing example of God’s provision! It was really neat to put it all away and see what all the different cuts of meat were. Many of those cuts of meat were cuts that we haven’t bought in a long time – if I’m on a limited budget, I’m not going to go buy steaks when I can get more of a different meat for a much lower price!

There was steak, stew beef, roasts, sausage, ground beef, chicken, and more. And that’s not counting the fresh meat that they bought while they were here.

Dad told me later that my mom’s parents did that for them when they were newlyweds. My grandparents raised beef cattle, so they butchered a cow and split the meat between their four children and their families. My parents wanted to do the same for us. What a blessing.

It is so encouraging to me to know that there’s all that protein in the freezer! I was having a hard time getting creative with whole chickens and ground beef, since that’s what we eat most often. It is SO wonderful to have other cuts of meat to choose from now!

God is SO good!