Things I [Almost] Never Pay For

I've had this post draft saved for a while and thought since I've been a little MIA around here, I would go ahead and share:

I haven't talked about couponing/saving in a while, but I've realized that there are a few everyday sort of things that I can always get for free or pay very little for.  So I thought I would pass along some tips.

(Here goes a list. I love lists.  I knew that before blogging. But I didn't realize most of my posts would wind up being lists. Maybe I should have named our blog Our Lists As We Know Them! Moving on....)

1.  Dental floss.  I am a Plain Jane sort of girl when it comes to floss (and many other things, actually).  It doesn't have to be fancy threads woven together to get the job done, so Johnson and Johnson's Reach Waxed Floss is what I've always bought.  But guess what? It is often priced at $0.97 (Walmart, sometimes Target), and quiet often there will be a printable manufacturer's coupon for $1.00.  When this happens, I print as many possible (2 can be printed per computer) and stock up, that way I never pay for floss!

2.  Cereal.  I love cereal. I don't believe cereal is a cop-out breakfast.  We eat it nearly every morning (not as much during the winter, but it still makes plenty of appearances).  At that rate, we go through lots of boxes!  Now, this one is not free but I do set a target price max of $2.00 per box (preferably less).  But have you seen cereal prices lately?! Four bucks or so a pop.  I realize this still works out to yield very cheap breakfasts, but I don't like paying that much when I can get it for way cheaper. Now, this takes a little more planning - watching grocery adds for BOGO or 2/$5 deals and combining these deals with coupons (usually printable ones).  But it's worth the little effort... and the strange glances when I roll up to the register with 6 boxes of cereal. :)

3.  Printer paper.  This deal is fairly new for me and I am so glad I've taken advantage of it a couple of times to stock up for school because I have to print a lot of class notes every day.  Staples frequently runs various deals on their multi-use paper where you pay for the paper up front and file a (seriously, Quick and Easy) rebate form online and just wait for your check to come in the mail for reimbursement!  I have purchased 4 (maybe 6) packs of printer paper and only paid maybe $3 total!  Definite score!  I think other office supply stores (Max, Depot) may run similar deals, just not as frequently as Staples lately.

4. Toothpaste. This deal is similar to that of the dental floss. I usually combine a BOGO sale with coupons to yield super cheap clean teeth!  These BOGO's are usually found at Publix or Winn-Dixie, and they often alternately between Crest and Colgate.  Again, I'm not picky.

5. Men's Deodorant. See, I keep Jesse in my deal-seeking thoughts, too.  RightGuard happens to be the brand that I ran across a couple of deals in a row for.  Which resulted in possibly a lifetime supply of deodorant for the hubs. I've gotten them as cheap as $1.25 each, which is pretty good considering regular price is around $4.00.  Again, this is a combination of store deals and coupons.

Do you set price points for items? Like meats or produce?  (Those are things I should really pay more attention to.)  Are there some things you're not willing to pay more for?

A new year

Hello 2013.

I know, I'm a little behind (as usual), but to my defense, we had quite the long Christmas celebration this year. We Christmased from Birmingham to Panama City Beach and enjoyed every moment (except the sick ones...).  Then there was New Years which we rang in with new Birmingham friends that we didn't even know a year ago, which we thought was neat. While waiting for the ball to drop we saw this commercial from Google which summed up the year of 2012.

It was so intriguing to watch as clips flashed by.  Then I though... I'm pretty sure I missed most of that during the year?  Where was I?
And if you didn't watch Felix jump from the stratosphere, you should watch it.  All 14 minutes of it. Yep. Do that now.

Now that you are blown away that someone has the guts to jump from 24 miles above the earth (and lived), I would like to say that overall we had a really great year this last year.  So much happened in 2012! It seems like so long ago that we were excited that Jesse was starting his last semester at Auburn, and our future (which is now our present) seemed like so far away.  Now we are settled into a new place, have made lots of new and wonderful friends, found an awesome church to be a part of, marked some things off of the Birmingham "to-do list", and I've just started my second semester of optometry school (I'll be outta here before we know it....maybe...).  Of course, our year hasn't been perfect.  There's been flat tires, ER visits (well, really that one is singular), tears of frustration over school work, and many more. But we enjoyed 2012, and I'm excited for the journey through 2013.

To begin the year, Jesse gave me this book for Christmas:

It poses a question for you to answer everyday.  Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but it makes you stop and think through your day and how it went to reveal your answer to whatever random question is asked. And the best part is that each page allows you to answer each question 5 times - once for five years.  So next year when I start the book over, I will get to read through the past years answers!  It's a fun way to journal when you don't have time to journal. Of course the first question was related to the new year: "what is your mission?" So here are my thoughts on my mission this year:

1. more God. (more daily focusing on Him and his Word. for some reason my mind cued the song "i just can't get enough" by depeche mode...just those words repeated..not the whole song.)

2. more husband. (quality time really lacks when one is in professional school)

3. more enjoying the moment.  (i began to realize more and more this last semester.  time is of the very essence in my world, so making the most of each moment is important.  and I haven't always (and still don't always) known how to do that. because I am usually focused on what needs to be done in the future, what I haven't finished, etc., when I really just need to be productive in these moments and enjoy those moments while they are happening.)

I hope your year is already off to a great start!