Mommin' It Up!

July 25, 2008

First-Time Offender

Last Saturday after a family get-together, Sophie and I were happily cruisin’ along home via the rural state route off of which my hubby’s sailing club is located when I looked up and saw a State Trooper coming toward me on the other side of the road. I quickly looked down at my speedometer. It said 70. The speed limit was 55. I knew I was toast. Crap!!

Sure enough, the trooper turned around and flipped his lights on, and thus at the age of 30, I got my first speeding ticket. He clocked me at 71, and the fine was $175. That’s right, one hundred seventy-five-freakin’-dollars!! A little steep, I think. Champaign County must be hurtin’ for cash. But alas, I was guilty. I knew I was. It just would’ve felt a lot better if I had meant to speed. I’d much rather be punished for a crime I intended to commit than for one I totally didn’t mean to at all. I was just driving along…not even paying attention. There was no one else really on the road out there in the sticks. Just me and the cop.

At least the trooper was nice. Right away he told me that Sophie was adorable (adorable enough to get me out of a ticket? Apparently not.) I probably would have cried if he had been mean to me. Last year we got pulled over in Indianapolis when Bobby was driving, and the trooper was a complete jerk for no reason. He was a disgrace to his profession. We had two sleeping kids in the back of the car and he treated us like we were hiding meth under the seats or something. Ugh. But anyway, while I was waiting for Good Cop to write my ticket up, Sophie kept saying “uh-oh, uh-oh!” Truer words were ne’er spoken, little girl! He wrote my ticket up and gave me my instructions for payment and/or court (I’ll take payment, thanks so much. I’d love to spend $700 in gas to come back out here and see you again, but I have to wash my hair that day. So.), and sent me on my way, admonishing me to “be safe.” Which I guess means drive 55.

So, my friends, that’s my sob story. Crime doesn’t pay. Unless you are the Champaign County Municipal Court, in which case my crime just paid you $175.

You’re welcome.

Now, please tell me some of you other ladies out there are criminals like me!

July 18, 2008July 18, 2008

There Once Was a Girl Named Jill

There once was a girl named Jill
With whom I would so like to chill
She changed her blog address
And now she’s in distress
That her traffic has dropped to near nil.

Oh, man, I just astound myself with my talent. Really!! I should probably start a limerick blog. But anyhoo, my bloggy friend Jill, aka The Diaper Diaries, changed her blog from a WordPress hosted site to her VERY OWN website this week! So you can now find her here at thediaperdiaries.net. And if you haven’t found her yet, go check her out. Jill was my very first bloggy friend and I heart her very much. One of the first posts of hers I ever remember was entitled, “Why Aren’t Christians more Funny?” between that and one about the different shapes of poop, I was hooked! I DO love a blogger who isn’t afraid to write about POOP! (So does Emily, she is just scared to admit it.)

Jill just moved her blog address on Monday and she is missing some of her readers. I am sure they will find her eventually but in the meantime, please go check her out, leave her a comment, and tell her I sent ya! You will not be sorry! As a matter of fact, I am sure you will love the Diaper Diaries as much as I do and you will want to bookmark it and become Jill’s stalker. But don’t even think about the stalker part ’cause she’s MINE!

Now go visit her or I’ll write a limerick about you, too!

July 12, 2008July 12, 2008

A Little Appreciation Goes a Loooong Way

The deals weren’t too stellar at CVS this week, yet I STILL managed to make it there a couple of times! After all, I needed milk and Drano,and I know of nowhere else where you can get that stuff for next-to-nothing.

My first transaction was a little bit bumpy and left me totally confused. You see, my trusty favorite cashier (who has now been promoted to shift supervisor! Thank you Lord!) forgot to scan my ExtraCare card. I always slap it up on the counter first thing, and put it away when they’ve scanned it. As he was ringing up my items, I asked him if he’d scanned it, and he said yes so I put it away. But then as I handed over my ECBs, they all started beeping. He just forced them thru using his manager’s card. “That’s weird!” I said. “Why doesn’t it like me today?” He replied that he had no idea, but he knew I was fine so he would just push them through. But finally,the register would not take any more and I had to pay $3.10 out of pocket, which is a huge amount for me!! I just paid it, but then my receipt came out with NO ECBs (should have been 9!) So then I realized that he must NOT have scanned my card. I let ht e other two people in line check out and then showed the cashier that he had not scanned my card. Whoops! He felt so dumb. So, we had to return EVERYTHING, and the register gave me back $31 something on a money card, which I used to pay instead of my coupons and ECBs. (since I had already used them!!) But then I had $3.19 left on the money card instead of the $3.10 I paid. So, somehow I made 9 cents off this deal. I have NO IDEA HOW! It was so confusing. But it was not a big deal because the cashier knows me so there was no trust issue. He knew I wasn’t trying to scam them – I just wanted my ECBs. So anyways on this transaction, I used a $5/$25 Family Dollar competitor’s coupons which rocked!! I also used $1.50/1 Walgreens coupons on the Sure and well as $1 of Manu q’s for the Sure, and I had a $2 and $3 off manu q for the Pert, making it free. I used 11-ish ECBs (originally!) and got back 9. Plus apparently made 9 cents. I don’t know…anyways, the moral of the story is that I treat my CVS folk really well. I bring them Tim Horton’s donut holes about once a month, ask about their lives and families, and when something goes wrong with a transaction, they always want to fix it! SO be nice to your CVS staff! Appreciate them for what they do for you! Make sure they will be happy to see you come in that door!

Ok, after that drama, I went Tuesday morning for the Drano to my OTHER favorite CVS. Here’s what I got!

Drano $4.99
Playtex $4.99
CVS face cloths $2.99
Reese’s 79 cents (filler!)
Tylenol PM $5.49
Total = $19.25 before tax
I used my July 4th $4/$20 q – obviously it was expired and these have started beeping immediately but they still take them for 2 weeks at my CVS – yay! Also, my total before tax was not $20 which was a result of me apparently not being able to do math. I swear I wasn’t trying to cheat! Didn’t even realize that until just now.
Coupons I used:
$4/$20 4th of July CVS q
$1 off Playtex Manu q
$1 off Playtex Walgreens ES Catalog q
$2 off Tylenol PM manu q
$3 off Tylenol PM CRT (yay CRTs!!!)
$2 off CVS skincare q
I paid with 4 ECBs and $2.44 left on my money card from the first weird transaction and got back 3 ECB for the Playtex and 1 for the cleansing cloths.

Then I did this transaction for my BFF Luanne, who has given me possession of her ExtraCare card and buys a Sunday paper every week so that I might do her CVSing for her. Cause she has tried and she doesn’t have the gift. But she’s got me so it’s alll goood.

I got her:
Playtex Sport $4.99
Pledge $4.59
Pledge Multi-surface $4.12 (clearance!?)
Six 60-ct. boxes of CVS bandages BOGO Free @ $2.29
Two 40-ct. boxes of CVS bandaes BOGO Free @$1.99
Total =
$22.56
Coupons
$4/$20 CRT (she gets these ALL THE TIME. I NEVER get them!! GRR!)
B1G1 Free pledge -$4.59
$1 off Playtex sport man q
$1 off Playtex sport Walgreens ES catalog q
I paid with $9.46 in ECBs and 47 cents cash and got back 5 ECBs, 3 for the Playtex and 2 for the Pledge. Let me jst tell yo that the reason for all the band-aids is that Lu’s daughter Krisha, (who is also our trusty babysitter) is a ballerina and goes through a package of band-aids a week! That can add up!!

Ok, on to my grocery adventures. Perhaps you all read about my torturous trip to Kroger. Well, at least it yielded some great deals!

I got all this for only $8.91!!! YAY!! I did it in two transactions. The first one was for the Planters nuts and Kool-Aid, which cost me $2.40 after sing four $3 off Planters q’s and earned me a $5 off coupon to use on my next order. I then took that coupon and got the other stuff I needed! All that cereal was $1.88 a box, and I had q’s that Kroger doubled to $1 off for each box. SO my 2nd transaction was $6.51.

I had to hit Meijer for the FREE pasta. Here’s what I got:

The pasta was on sale for 50 cents and I used five 50 cents off q’s from the Meijer Mealbox site. The veggies were on sale for $1 and I used three 50 cents off q’s also from the mealbox site. The sour cream was $1.25 and (is this getting redndant?) I used yet aother 50 cents off q from teh mealbox site. My total for all that? $1.75!!! That’s how I like to shop! My total grocery spending was $10.66 this week!! Since I was so stocked up from previous couple of weeks sales, that’s all I needed. YAY!

So that’s all the loot I took home this week! To see more crazy bargain shoppers, check out CVS Superstars at The Centsible Sawyer and Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!