Coupon savings, sale week ending 12/25

There are a handful of websites that have helped me go from using a few coupons each time I shop to now being an "extreme couponer". The most helpful one is http://www.iheartpublix.com/. Each week, the readers of that website post a picture of their weekly Publix savings and this is mine. This week I bought the following at Publix, for the sale that ends on Christmas Eve:
(4) Barber chicken meals (Cordon Bleu and Chicken Parmeseam) BOGO, plus $4 in manufacturers coupons= $1.98 final cost for 4 boxes
(2) Buitoni Angel Hair refriderated pasta BOGO, plus $2 in manufacturers coupons= .38 cents final cost for 2
(6) Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese $1.25 each, plus 4 $1 manufacturerers coupons and 4 $1 retailers (Publix) coupons for a 75 cent "moneymaker" on each (total of $4.50 moneymaker)
Strawberries $2.99
(8) Steamfresh vegtables, 50% off plus 8 .50 cent off manufacturerers coupons for a total cost of about .40 cents each ($3.20)
20 tangerines, total cost $2.00
Downey wrinkle releaser $4.19
(2) Publix Ceasar Salad mix BOGO $2.99 for 2
(5) Kraft Mac and Cheese cups .99 cents each
Arnold Mulitgrain sandwich thins
(4) Schick travel size razor packs, .99 cents each with 4 $2 off manufacturers coupons, makes it a $4 "moneymaker"
Rachael Ray magazine $3.75, plus a $3.75 manufacturers coupon and a $3.75 Publix coupon, making it a $3.75 moneymaker
(7) cans Pedigree dog food, .99 cents each
Revlon emery boards $1.89, plus a $2.50 Publix coupon for a .61 moneymaker
bananas $1.53
(2) Sorrento Mozz cheese $5.00 plus $2.00 manufacturerers coupons and $2 Publix coupons, total cost $1.00
(4) Coca Cola 12 packs, $12.00 buy three get one free plus a matched Albertson's coupon for $2.00 off
I also used Food Lion coupons for $2 off a produce order, two $5 off a $50 order from Albertsons and GFS (because my total was well over $100 before coupons)

My final total before tax was: $20.20
plus tax of: $ 1.47
total out of pocket cost: $21.67
total savings after BOGOs and coupons: $100.38
Big thanks to www.iheartpublix.com for the coupon matchups, I couldn't save this much without them!

Joey came home from school yesterday with the news that he'd scored an actual paying job thanks to his work with the TV production class at school. He will be videotaping all of the varsity girl's basketball games for his school. He'll get paid $5 a game, plus a free meal at the away games. That may not sound like much, but considering that his weekly allowance is $7.50, the two games a week he'll tape will more than double his income. The pay is a bonus, I think he just enjoys being involved with the team and doing the videotaping- he really likes the TV production class and all the things that he's learned there. Tonight was the first game that he taped, his next one is on Tuesday. We told him that he could give it a try, but if he doesn't have time to get his homework done he'll have to stop doing it- hopefully he can fit homework in.
I had a great coupon shopping day today- I got $225.80 in groceries at Publix for $77.30. In fact, I qualified for a $15 rebate on some of the things that I bought so I'll get $15 of that back later and my final cost will be even less.
The concert season is getting back up to speed here, I have a show in two weeks (a bunch of local bands are performing Pink Floyd's classic album "The Wall" live, song by song) and I bought tickets for a Dec 30 Rick Springfield show a few days ago...I've seen Rick many times and it's always a LOT of fun. This show is at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, so John is begrudingly going along (mainly as the driver, he's not quite the Rick Springfield fan that I am!)

"Look at You Now" CHD video- CUTE!

I found this video thanks to a remarkable blog by an adult CHD survivor, Steve Catoe. His blog is "Adventures of a Funky Heart". This video shows before and after shots of young CHD survivors, from their first surgery to today. It had me crying (just a little, honest!) with joy, there's nothing the parent of a CHD child loves more than seeing CHD kids older than their own, those who've gone before and succeeded. That's the reason I enjoy talking with parents of the littlest CHD kids, because I can tell them about Joey and how well he has done after two open heart surgeries and they can see the light, not so much at the end of the tunnel, but at least the light further along the journey in the tunnel, lol. Here is the video, I hope that you like it as much as I did.

Things have been busy around here, as evidenced by the nearly 6 weeks between blog entries!
Joey started something new at school, he was an endzone videographer at the homecoming football game last week. He stands under the goal posts and films the touchdowns. We made sure he had lots of water (and Coke!) to drink, but by the end of the game his hair was absolutely soaked and slicked down to his head. At the end of each quarter, the teams alternate end zones so he would run from one end zone to the other at full speed, with an alarmingly expensive camcorder and a tripod as big as him. He got some great shots, he'll be doing more of that next year during football season.
I had the pleasure of getting together with some old friends from high school a few weeks ago, some of them I hadn't seen in nearly 20 years. We talked and laughed and enjoyed some great pizza, and I ended up not getting home until nearly 2 AM! I was zombie-like at work the next day, but it was worth it to reconnect with old friends. A week from today, I'm going to an alumni event for my high school with some of them; we made a committment to see each other a few times a year and not let decades go by again before we get together again.
Next weekend (the first full weekend in November) is the Jamboree at Joey's school and John's work. They have a midway, concerts, food vendors- the pastor says it's "a county fair without the smell", and that seems pretty accurate. We're really looking forward to this one because we'll get to see a comedian that we really like, named Tim Hawkins. John and Joey have been watching videos of him for about a year and a half, so they're excited to see him in concert. Here's a video from his most recent DVD, it should be a lot of fun.

2009 Healing Hearts benefit walk

I've taken the plunge and signed up for a benefit walk to support a local congenital heart defects charity. I'm not much of an athlete, so this will be a challenge for me. It's a 5 mile walk in beautiful Phillippe Park in Safety Harbor, Florida on October 10th. As many of you know, my son Joey was born with a heart defect and has had two open heart surgeries, in 2001 and 2006. I'm really looking forward to helping raise money to fund research into CHD's, and get a bit of exercise as well. Please click on the link to the right of my page and feel free to sponsor me for any amount that you would like- even $5 each from several people adds up to make a great contribution toward helping kids with CHDs. :)

Autumn is approaching

As the title of this entry says, I'm afraid that summer is on it's way out and autumn is just around the corner. That's not totally bad news, we're all back to school/work and getting back into the whole getting up early, doing homework, etc rhythm of things. But, the very best part of autumn arriving- football season! The first game of my alma mater, the University of South Florida is next Saturday and I can't wait to watch it. The football team at Joey's school (it's a kindergarten through 12th grade school, so kids of all ages come to the football games but only the high schoolers actually play) started their season with a win last night. I've convinced John and Joey to give up their regular Friday boys nights out at the gun range when there's a home game at Joey's school, so we'll get to go to 4 or 5 of the games. Joey is hoping to help with the filming of the games (so the players can make highlight films to send to colleges), partly so he can avoid sitting with me during the game- I get really, really involved and tend to scream...a lot...when our team is doing well. I can't help it, I love watching football.
Another cool thing that I've been enjoying lately is that I've reconnected with three of my best friends from high school (Doug, Wojo and Dianne) on Facebook. I've been talking to them on Facebook a couple times a week, and last week I posted some pictures of our graduation (in 1987!) there and everyone chatted about them for most of the evening. We were working on getting together at a dinner at Capogna's Dugout hosted by the class after ours (CHS '88), but it's the same day that I'm having my parathyroid surgery next week so I had to decline. We might go next month instead, it sounds like many of the class of 88 folks have dinner at Capogna's every month and don't mind of other classes join them.
Joey is doing well at school, so far the homework load in 7th grade is much lower than it was last year. He's working on the school TV news show as one of his classes. He's the only middle schooler there, everyone else is a high school student. He says that he runs all three cameras during the live show, I'm not sure how that works but he seems to really enjoy it.
I'll probably be back to post another entry after my surgery on Thursday, I have five days off of work to recouperate so I'll have plenty of Internet time- yay, that beats working any day!

Busy Saturday

We had a very full (but fun) day today, but first I wanted to post a picture of Joey's new hair color. It's a little hard to see, but he got blonde highlights in his hair on Thursday. Our regular hairdresser did it once, and you couldn't see ANY blonde- his hair is so dark and thick that it takes a ton of dye to show up at all. So, she abandoned the highlighting cap with the carefully chosen bits of hair dyed and just painted the blonde dye on with a brush- this picture is the result. He really likes it, and when we saw a girl from his school that evening she loved it- so that's all that matters to him! On to our day- today we took our 15 year old dachshund Brina to the vet for her yearly exam, and the vet declared her amazingly fit for a geriatric...always good news! After that, we went to the 1st anniversary celebration at the Armed Forces Military Museum in Largo- they had lots of refurbished military vehicles in the parking lot (that's one that Joey is posing in front of...apparently it's bad form to smile while touching a gun, because I couldn't get a smile out of him when the camera was out.) They also had folks walking around the museum is authentic uniforms from different time periods, with historically accurate guns. Joey loved that- he talked with several of them, it's amazing how much he knows about military history. After that, we went to a really shady looking Army/Navy surplus story in Tampa- so shady that the storefront is covered in burglar bars, broken glass, duct tape, and decades of junk. But, our neighbor told us it was a cool place so we checked it out. They had everything in the world there, including stacks and stacks of circa 1974 kids blue jeans, plaid pants from the same era, men's shirts from even earlier- all new with original tags. None of it was Levis, or I would have snatched those vintage jeans up. John and Joey found a bunch of military surplus stuff that they loved, so we left with a bagful. After that, we went to the historical Ybor City section of Tampa and went shopping at the vintage shops there (Joey got a great camo & skull t-shirt, his favorite look) and John got a pressed Cuban sandwich for dinner (Joey and I waited on the shrimp on the grill that John promised to make at home!) We walked around Ybor for a long time, but once it started pouring rain we made a dash for the parking garage and headed back to our side of the Bay. We had plans to go to a big motorcycle show/concert at a park in Largo, but we were so worn out that we just enjoyed the shrimp that John made and relaxed! I'm glad we got to enjoy such a full day out today, as summer is screeching to an end- I go back Monday and Joey starts school on Wednesday. I guess that means that my days of staying up playing on Facebook until 2AM and sleeping in until 10 are over until next summer- but it will be nice to get back to work, and into the swing of 7th grade (!) for Joey.