My economy rant

Don't get me wrong. Times are hard...or at least scary...for most if not all. DH and I are always worried about the "What if" since I'm a state employee, who's facing a 10.5% budget cut. "What if" they decide to fill that cut with my job? Or do furloughs? Or... I could keep going. And he's in what some see as a "luxury" market...though, gratefully, others see it as a cost saver. Scooters rock. No other way around it. But if the banks don't start lending again, his sales might stay where they are...instead of go up like we've been thinking they would in the spring. So we deal with the "what if's" and make our plans conservatively.

But this article really burned me up. This woman in Buckhead wants you to feel sorry for her because she isn't allowed to rent her $400K+ condo, and she might lose it to foreclosure...like she did with her "lake house" (unspecified, but I would guess Lake Lanier...also in the $400K range). Not to mention at the end it states she's living in another condo because "it's cheaper". Well guess what, honey, it would be even cheaper if you only had ONE of those condos in the first place. Right...you are trying to sell the one. But why BUY a second one in the first place when you have one you are struggling with? And it's supposedly almost right next door, so it's not like it was a "vacation home" that she has just decided to live in...she purposely bought 2 condos in downtown Atlanta. Duh?

See, this is what annoys me. People with a sense of entitlement wanting you to feel sorry for them when they lose a house they never should have bought in the first place because it was more than they could really afford. There are many people GENUINELY struggling. They weren't living beyond their means, but through whatever circumstances, they now are (job loss, pay cuts, last summers gas prices skyrocketing...). THOSE are the people I feel sorry for. They haven't made stupid decisions. They have done what they can to stay afloat, but it just isn't easy. THEY deserve the bailouts and rescue plans. Not the ones who did stupid shit and now think the world is owed to them.

And don't even get me started on Octo-mom. She falls in this category too...

My plot to get free soda.

Sounds more devious than it is. This is kind of a continuation of my last post.

Walgreens has a few deals going on:
Colgate toothpaste: 3.29, get 3.50 back in Register Rewards (RR) for next visit.
Huggies diapers: Spend $25, get back $10 in RR.
12-pack coke products: 4/$13, get $3 in RR.
Blink tears eye drops: $7.99, get 7.99 in RR.

Here's how I'm doing this...

I got the Colgate...and I had a .75/1 coupon, so I actually spent 2.77 after tax and got the 3.50 back.
I'll be doing the Huggies thing (no, I'm not just wasting them...gonna give them to my SIL for my nephew). The jumbo packs are on sale for $10 each. I have 3 coupons: 2 for $5 off, and one for $3 off...making my total after coupons $17. Get back $10 of that.
Use those 2 RR's to get 4 packs of coke...FREE. Actaully, it's better than free. I get $3 in RR back. Get the eyedrops (which I have a $2 coupon for) and $7.99 in RR, then get another 4 packs of coke for about $2 (no RR on this one, since I'm using the ones from last time).

So, for about $28, I will have:
1 tube of Colgate
3 jumbo packs of Huggies
8 12 packs of coke products
1 bottle of eyedrops

I'd call that an ok deal. *insert evil laugh here* If I were to ONLY get the soda, it's STILL a good deal at about $3.50/12 pack, or .29 per can.

My new obsession: Coupons

Yes...those things we call cut and save and never use. Well, I've decided to start using. Did my first shopping trip yesterday armed with my list from The Grocery Game and my carefully clipped coupons from various sources (mostly the newspaper, but a few online ones as well).

So, how did I do? Not so bad for my first trip, I'd say. I made 2 stops. Kroger and Publix.

At Kroger:

My list was:
DanActive Yogurt- 2.00 after kroger card discount of .69, plus a coupon
Activia Drinks- 3.39 after .60, plus a coupon
Mayfield Over the Moon milk (chocolate): 2.99 after .70 plus coupon
Regular milk: Reg: 2.59 after .40
Venus Embrace Razor: 7.99 after 2.00 plus coupons
Gillette Shampoo: 3.99 after .38 plus coupons
Boneless/Skinless Tyson chicken breast: 1.99/lb

It turned out the chicken was from last week's ad. So I passed on that...it was 4.69/lb instead of 1.99, and we aren't really ready to be cooking at the new place anyway. I can wait for the next sale. They DID have Duralog Fire starter logs though, and we have been looking EVERYWHERE for them. Kroger is the first place to have them. So I bought a case of those...no coupon, and probably a premium price since they ARE the only place to have them...but we needed them. So 23.99 to those.

All together, I had 11.00 in coupons, and 4.77 in Kroger card discounts. The Venus Razor, normally 9.99, was 3.99. The Gillette shampoo, normally 4.37 was FREE. Yes, you read that correctly...FREE. No charge. It was on sale for 3.99. I had a 2.00 e-coupon on my Kroger card and a 2.00 coupon from the paper.

My totals were:
Original--54.56 (before all discounts)
Spent--38.79 (23.99 on the logs, so the planned items would have been 13.80)
Saved--15.77 (28.9% of the total, 51.6% excluding the logs)

Then, it was off to Publix.
Little longer list there. And I ended up getting 1 thing that I had a Publix coupon for, but hadn't planned to get so I left a manufacturer's coupon at home...where I could have saved a little more. Not much, but still. And I picked up 1 coupon in the store for buy2 bags of salad, get a free pack of Craisins. I wouldn't have otherwise gotten the salad, but it worked out. I eat the craisins at work instead of going to the vending machine for Skittles (I need something sweet in the afternoon), and it's not like we can't stand to eat more salad...

So, in all, I got:
Pillsbury frozen cheddar biscuits (this is the one I forgot the other coupon for)
Friskies cat treats
Craisins 100 calorie packs
Veggie lovers salad
American salad
Poptarts (x2)
Barber stuffed chicken breasts
Progresso crushed tomatoes (x4)
Thomas' bagels (x2)
2 liter bottles of Soda (1 each, 5 total): 7up, A&W cream, A&W root beer, A&W diet root beer, and Diet cherry 7up
Shredded mozzarella
Classico pasta sauce (x4)
Mueller pasta (x4)
Secret flawless deodorant
Ground beef (about 4 pounds)

Original--83.09
Spent--47.20
Saved--35.89--4.39 in store coupons, 5.00 in vendor coupons, 24.71 in advertised specials, 1.79 in Advantage Buy savings (43.2% of the total)


For a grand total of....

137.65 worth of stuff for 85.99 (37.5% discount) and a savings of 51.66. Not TOO bad. I was hoping for better. Stupid logs... Without them, it would have been 113.66 for 62.00 with the same savings, making it 45.5%. But we have a pretty good head start on groceries for awhile.

Next week, I'm buying diapers for my nephew. They are on sale for $10 each for the Huggies Jumbo packs at Walgreens, and for every $25 you spend on Huggies products, you get $10 in Register Rewards (basically In-store Credit), AND there are $5 and $3 coupons out there. So I can get 3 packs of diapers for $30, use 2 $5 and 1 $3 coupons (I have 2 of each), making my cost $17, then get back $10 that I can use on something else...and then the diapers are $7 for 3 packs, or 2.33 each! I *think* I have heard they have Register Rewards for Diet Coke, too...you can never have too much of that! Haven't heard about my other star deals of the week yet, but I'll be sure to post when I do!