Longwood Gardens - Again

I am intending to put up a slideshow of the Longwood Gardens in the spring. Until I get it all together, I've been proofing. Here's the latest:

My little guy is just not so little any more!

Love,

P

Grocery Shopping and Hallmark

Money Saving Mom always posts her grocery shopping finds every week along with how much she spent on it. I decided to do the same this weekend since I got to go grocery shopping without Michael today:

TOTAL: 55.80

I'm sure in Texas, I would have netted a lot more for $55.80, but for up here in the NE - it's not a bad showing there! If you are wondering what is on the list:

Bananas

Rhubarb

Mushrooms

2 lbs of Strawberries

Apples

Kiwi

Blueberries

Mediterranean Olives

2 packages of hotdogs

A sunday paper

2 mayonnaises

1 swanson beef broth

skimpy butter (splurge, not on sale but Michael wants to make cookies today so there it is)

Dozen eggs (could have bought 2 dozen eggs for the price of that 1, but the ones on sale were out and we needed eggs for said cookies)

Bag of steamfresh mixed vegetables

Bag of steamfresh brown/wild rice with broccoli/carrots

24 frigo cheese sticks

2 roaster chickens (each 7 lbs)

12 pack of apple juice

2 packs of Materne squeezable applesauces (French and one of Michael's favorites)

Hallmark is next to my grocery store, so I popped in there.

I bought this game for Michael - an African animal quiz game along with a whole tube full of little African animals to play around with on the ground:
I also purchased 1 card to celebrate 1st communion, 1 small gift sac, Melissa and Doug's wooden fruit cutting tray, 5 Christian themed cards of various sentiments (birthday/sympathy/friendship), and a set of 10 thank you cards.

Grand total? $22 - AFTER taxes. Retail cost: $62

I was pretty proud of my deal finding. Brian thought that NO money should have been spent in the first place. Party pooper.

Target has some great grocery deals for my area this week. Milk at $2.96 (astronomically cheap for here - my milk normally costs me $4 a gallon). Plus some great $5 gift card deals, which when partnered with coupons basically ends up with some pretty great deals on personal care items. You can pretty much bet, I pay between $0.00 to $1 for each of our toiletries. Free for suave branded stuff - $1 for Aveeno/fancier brand stuff.

I don't think I have talked about how much I love couponing. It is really fun getting great deals on items I actually used. Like this week, I'll be getting 3 rolls of scotch tape for free at Walgreens when I partner printed coupons from 3M with the Walgreen coupons this week.

Money Saving Mom has changed my life and my spending habits and reintroduced to me the fact that I can get great deals on stuff and save a ton of money. :)

All - to buy paint for our rooms, nightstands, plants for the outside/etc. Oh yes - to pay for all the grownup things we need - like our water neutralization tank that busted. NICE.

How much are basic items in your area? Like a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, 1 avocado, 2 lbs of strawberries, cost of bananas per lb. Let's see who answers this question!!!

Love,

P