1st Week Review
Posted By linda on August 31, 2009
I decided to do something new. I decided that I will write/type the happens every week on Sunday. It was a crazy week.
Saturday – Our daughter, Kiani, calls us and tells us the brakes are not working very well. We drive to her work and discover her brake fluid is low. We quickly run over to Target and buy some more. My hubby puts more in and drives it from one parking spot to another parking spot. He checks the fluid again and it is low again. I tell him when he moved the car I could see the fluid coming out. We decided this not safe to drive and call AAA. We waited for about 3 hours for AAA. Kiani works at an outdoor mall, so we killed a lot time by window shopping and eating dinner. They take the car over to the nearest auto shop which was closed until Monday. My hubby talked to auto shop before the closed on Saturday and they said they would have their mechanic look at Monday. It took a long time for AAA to come out but it only cost us $6.00 for a tow.
Sunday – We went to church. After church I did our weekly shopping for grocery.
Monday – First day of school. We got up 7:ooam. Our day went fairly well. We trying out a new schedule. My hubby and son are doing PE together. They seems to be enjoying it. We also got the call from the auto shop and it was going to cost a lot to repair the car. We decided it would be best if we took it to Sears. My hubby again called AAA and waited another 3 hours for them to show up and tow it to Sears. Because Kiani had no car to drive to work. My hubby took her to work and I pick her after work.
Tuesday – Day 2 of school. Again everything went fairly smoothly except for a few complaints. Kiani didn’t have to work today, so no one had to take her to work. Sears called us and told us it will cost $1000.00 to repair the car. OUCH!!! After they finishing repair the car they called my hubby cell phone but we didn’t realize they called until it was too late to pick up the car. We would have to pick it tomorrow.
Wednesday – First thing my hubby did is go and get the car. He decided it would be best if drives the car home just to make sure everything was working properly. He drove it and discover the alignment is off. He drives back to Sears and have them fix the alignment. He waits this time. He waited for about 2 hours. He comes home frustrated from having to deal with all this. He (Jason works from home) works late that night and make up the time he missed earlier.
Thursday – This day seems to be going well. We all are getting into a routine. Everything was going well until we go to youth group. I was driving to youth group and run over a screwdriver. It puts a hole in the tire. I was so blessed by this wonderful stranger, who’s house I broke down in front of, changes the tire for me. I was really happy because I would have had to call AAA, if he have not change it. Our spare tire is in the weirdest place. It is under car in the front of the car. It is really hard to get to. It took this kind gentleman 50 minutes just to get the spare and about 2 minutes to change. After that I just went home but my hubby realized it was going to be another day at Sears.
Friday – My hubby is off to Sears to get another car repaired. The good news was that we had Sears road hazard assistance. It did not cost us anything but time. My darling hubby had to wait another 2 hours at Sears. While he was not Sears, our video streaming for school did not work. My hubby is the computer expert in the family and I am not. I had called Abeka and they said there server was down. I just had the children do what they could do for school. No school today, I guess.
Saturday – After a long week, it was nice to sleep in and try to relax. My hubby and I had a little surprise for Ashleigh. She always wanted a bird. My hubby took Ashleigh and Jason over to PetSmart and I went to Target. While I was at Target, my hubby calls me and ask if he could get a bird too. So now we have two birds. The funny part to all this is I have been trying to cut down on our spending and now we have more mouths to feed. I was bargain hunting in Target at the time. I got some really great deals. Here are my Target deals.
- 5 boxes of True Delight granola bars @ $2.74 each minus 2/$1 coupon (when you buy 5 boxes, you get $5 gift card)
- 10 Skittles crazy cores @ $.52 each minus 9/$1. coupon (cashier missed one and didn’t notice until after I was home.)
- 2 Twix Bars @ $.52 each minus 1/$1 coupon
- 3 Reese peanut butter cups @ $. 52 each 1 BOGO coupon and 1/$1 for 2
- 2 gallons of milk @ $2.74 each (Used the $5 gift card for the milk. This was my 2nd transaction. Totally Out-of-pocket cost for the milk was $ .13)
- The total Out-of-pocket cost not including the $ .13 for the milk and coupons was $8.98
Hubby’s new little friend. I haven’t had a chance to take a picture of Ashleigh’s new friend yet.
Sunday – We went church. On the way, home church we stop and bought a newspaper and another gallon of milk. My hubby didn’t care for taste of the Target milk. So, bought him another one for and I will the another one for cooking or the children can drink it. I made our weekly menu and our weekly shopping list. I have been really trying to save money on our grocery bill. We have a budget and I have been working to reduce grocery bill every week. This week I decided to keep track on what I spent. Our past grocery bills have been way out of control. I didn’t use coupons and I bought whatever look good. Today, it took me about three hours to go through the ads and coupons. It is a lot work but the first time we have been meeting our budget. My first stop was CVS. My budget for CVS is $20.00 for every week. I spent a total $17.88 and got $53.05 worth of items. Here is how I did it.
1st Transaction
1 Duracell AAA 8pak @ $5.99 minus 1/$1 coupon
2 Duracell AA Ultra 4 pak @ $3.99 minus 2/$1.50 coupon
1 Tylenol 10 Ct @ $2.49 minus 1/$1.50 coupon
This is the funny part, the cashier and I both didn’t realize that the Duracell Ultra were only $3.99 until after the transaction. She took my coupon for $4 off if you spent $20 but my totally was only $16.46 (This part I didn’t realize until now. OOPS)
I also used $4 in Extra Care Bucks.
Total out-of-pocket cost was $16.46 – $13.50 (in coupons and ECB) + $ . 18 tax = $3.14
Because I didn’t buy $15 worth of batteries I had to buy another pack to get the $5.00 in ECB.
2nd Transaction
1 Duracell AAA 8 pak @ $5.99 minus 1/$1 coupon.
1 Starburst @ $.67 minus free coupon valued $.89
Total oop cost was $6.66 – $1.89 in coupons + $ .31 tax = $5.08 Received $5.00 in ECB.
3rd Transaction
I Venus Razor @$8.99 minus 1/$2 coupon
Total oop cost was $8.99 – $7.00 (in coupons and ECB) + $ .12 tax = $2.11 Received $3.00 ECB
4th Transaction
2 V8 Splash @ $2.99 each
1 GE nuts @ $.99 minus free coupon valued $1.69
Total oop cost was $6.97 – $4.69 (in coupons and ECB) + $0 tax = $2.28 Received $2 ECB
5th Transaction
1 Clairol Hair Color @$4.99 minus 1/$2 coupon
Total oop cost was $4.99 – $4.00 (in coupons and ECB) + $ .06 tax = $ 1.05 Received $ 2 ECB
6th Transaction
1 Head and Shoulders Shampoo @ $4.99 minus 1/$1 coupon
Total oop cost $4.99 – $3.00 (in coupons and ECB) + $ .12 = $2.11 Received $ 1.oo ECB
7th Transaction
Old Spice deodorant @ $3.99 minus 1/$1 coupon
Total oop cost $3.99 – $2.00 (in coupons and ECB) + $ .12 = $2.11 Received $1.00 ECB which I gave to my daughter who wanted to buy a few things of her own.
After I left CVS we went shopping at Shaw’s. I won’t bored you with the detail of this trip. I made a few mistakes. So I will be returning to Shaw’s tomorrow to return some items that I thought were on sale. I am still trying to get this down. Our grocery is down from last week. I also had $ 46.30 in coupons at Shaw’s but my goal is to cut our grocery bill in half.
After a long day of shopping it is nice to home with my family. Hopefully, next week won’t be so crazy.
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