Happy Mail Day!

Hip, hip, hooray! Guess what finally came in the mail today!?!? My Charlie Brown DVDs that I sent off for back in December courtesy of Bird's Eye Voila! I really thought I wouldn't get them since it had been so long.
Four came today, and hopefully 4 more are on their way. I got 2 You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown and 2 A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I think the other ones that I sent off for are the Halloween Great Pumpkin one and the Christmas one. I really hope they come because those are my two favorites!!!
I also got some Huggies coupons (we don't use disposable diapers, but these will be great for coupon swaps/trains that I'm apart of), a free Gerber Oneida stainless educator's spoon that I forgot I even signed up for (this is awesome because I was thinking of buying one!), a 20% off Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupon, and 4 weeks worth of coupons for BOGO Papa John's pizzas.
I love happy mail days! :)

Kroger: Pillsbury Biscuits Catalina

I decided to try out the Pillsbury catalina deal I had read about at Kroger, and it worked. For the details of the deal, see The Thrifty Mama's post here.

Kroger 2/26:
+ 5 cans Pillsbury buscuits (on sale for 10/$10)
+ 3 Johnson's Buddies soap bars
+ 1 box Pillsbury Strudels (on sale for $2/ea)
+ 3 packs Starkist Tuna (on sale 10/$10)
+ 1 bunch seedless grapes (on sale 10 lbs./$10)
+ 1 head lettuce
+ 1 bunch organic bananas
+ 1 Roma tomato
+ 1 cucumber
+ 1 cantaloupe (on sale for $1.50/ea)
- Coupons ($7.50: Cellfire Grands biscuit $0.50, Cellfire Pillsbury Strudels $0.50, $3/3 Johnson's soaps, Buy 2 Get 1 Free Tuna--saved $1, 2 x $0.25/1 Pillsbury biscuits doubled, $0.40/3 Pillsbury biscuits doubled, $0.35/1 Pillsbury Strudels doubled)
+ Tax
=$13.63 out of pocket, $14.92 saved, 53% savings
Avg. cost per item: $0.76
*Plus I earned another $3/3 Johnson's soaps catalina (which means 3 more free Buddy bars), a $3 OYNO for buying 5 Pillsbury biscuits, and a $0.50 on one 2.5 or 3 oz Bumble Bee Premium Ligh Tuna Pouch catalina which was triggered by buying the Starkist Tuna.

My plan is to go back and buy more biscuits and use the $3 OYNO to cover the OOP cost. When I buy 5 more, I should get another $3 OYNO catalina also, so I can keep buying biscuits and rolling the catalinas. With coupons, too, the biscuits should be free or nearly free. I read on the DS Thrifty Forum that you can freeze these, so I'm going to try it!

Total left for this month: -$67.44

Drew loves CoverGirl Outlast Lipstain, too!

I posted a Bzz Report here about the cool new lipstain from CoverGirl that you need to try!

So, how cool is it that Drew Barrymore talked about how much she loved the new lipstain, too, today in an interview on Shine from Yahoo??? Click here to see for yourself!

Like to rent movies, but hate to spend big $$$

Then RedBox just might be the thrifty answer for you! You can find a RedBox in many grocery stores and sometimes even in Wal-Marts. They look like big, red vending machines for movies! The best part is that rentals are only $1/day.

You can check for a RedBox near you by visiting their website: http://www.redbox.com. You can browse what movies are available at the box or you can check online from home. You can even reserve a movie so that it is ready for pickup when you get to the box!

We rent movies from RedBox all the time. We'll never pay $5 to rent a movie again!

Sometimes RedBox sends out codes for a free movie rental. We've tried these a couple of times and they've never worked for us, but maybe you'll have better luck! Either way, $1 or free, this is the best way to rent movies!

Ugh!

There are 6 days left in the month and we are already over budget by over $50. I know this doesn't include our eating out for lunch today yet either! Ugh!

The thing that really hurt us was the nearly $150 Sears Photo purchase of photos and a photo CD for DS's first birthday. I really hadn't planned to spend that much; I was planning to get the $9.99 photo package, but all the photos had turned out really well and we had only had professional photos done one other time in DS's whole first year (and it was a small $9.99 photo package). So, while it did put us over budget, I have to admit I don't regret it one bit. I will have these gorgeous photos of my baby on his first birthday for the rest of my life and I will really treasure them.

We will just have to live a little tighter for the next 6 days so we don't go over much more. So far we have been over budget for both months of 2009! Hopefully we will be able to stay within our $500 budget for March, after all, third time's the charm, right?!?!?

Updating Totals

Eating Out:
+ $14.93 Char-Grill 2/12
+ $10.78 Subway 2/12

Services:
+ $10.00 Admission to Kid's Museum for DS's birthday 2/12
+ $149.43 Sears Photo 2/12 (DS's 1-year photos)
+ $1.07 Redbox DVD 2/16
+ $5.20 USPS 2/18

Groceries:
+ $35.18 Harris Teeter 2/13 (Food for DS's birthday party)
+ $22.42 Kroger 2/13
+ $22.64 Kroger 2/13
+ $9.36 Kroger 2/14

Total left for this month: -$53.81

Kroger Necessities

We needed a lot of stuff tonight that we were out of and most of these things are not ones we have coupons for sadly. I am looking into buying a few things like sugar and flour in bulk (once we have our garage storage area set up) so hopefully that will save a little money in the long run.

I also plan to use this container of yogurt to make my own yogurt from now on. I've done it once before and it worked great. I just wasn't wild about the starter yogurt that I used. It was much too tart for my taste, so hopefully this one will be better! Here's a link to show you how to make your own yogurt in your crock pot! It really does work!

Kroger 2/22:
+ 2 1/2-gallons Silk Soy Milk
+ 1 gallon Kroger skim milk
+ 1 gallon Kroger whole milk
+ 1 large container Yogurt
+ 2 bags Private Selection frozen berries (raspberries + strawberries)
+ 1 bunch bananas
+ 3 kiwis
+ 2 pears
+ 3 Fuji apples
+ 3 red grapefruit
+ 5 Johnson's buddies soap bars
+ 1 Kroger Value sugar
+ 1 dozen Kroger eggs
- Coupons ($5.50: $1/2 Silk soy milk, $2.50/3 Johnson's products, $2/2 Johnson's products, Double points)
+ Tax
=$34.60 out of pocket, $7.90 saved, 19% savings
Avg. cost per item: $1.33
*Plus I earned another Johnson's coupon ($3/3) that works on the Buddies bars, so we can get 3 more for free!


Total left for this month: $227.20