My dreams come true!

So this is my first post in quite a while.  Back in September, my DH and I received some wonderful news.  We're expecting our first bundle of joy in May!  So, it looks like my dream of becoming a full time housewife will come true.

The first timester (... or 18 weeks) were pretty rough on me and I wasn't able to keep up with the blog, couponing, my regular work, keeping my eyes open...  I've been feeling much better in last few weeks and have started cooking, shopping, working and painting.  Yes, so far my nesting instincts have led to me convincing my husband we should paint the kitchen including the cabinets.  He's been wonderful.

I hear I'm in the eye of the storm and will slow down again before the baby comes.  I'm trying to enjoy the peace while I can.  So many new topics to talk about!

Shopping Trip 1 for the week of Sept 16-23 with Coupon Matchups

You may have noticed there was no coupon match ups last week.

Remember how I had spent too much and last week was going to even out the budget?  Well, we went to dinner and bought cat food and more restaurants.  Unless I can find tiny bags of cat food to use my coupons with the mega bag $$$ seems to be the best deal still.  There was no room in the budget for groceries, couponing or deals.  To top it all off: we ended up $10 over budget again.

We don't have a newspaper subscription, but this week we started to get flyers from Flyer Source.  It's a company that delivers flyers if you don't have a subscription.  This lead the way to my first price matching at Walmart!  We shopped the stores in one area and price matched for the out of the way stores!

The housework may be slacking this week, but the budget can't anymore.  I checked the coupon match ups, flipped through the flyers and came up with a game plan for the week.

1. We were invited to dinner at the in-laws Friday night, so we decided to skip rather than postpone restaurant night.
2. We would like to start building a buffer for the next Shoppers 20x event.
3. We would like to save up for new dry food storage bins for cat food, etc.

Some of my deals didn't work out the way I wanted.  I couldn't find products with peelie coupons for the life of me.  So, we decided to skip them instead of substituting.  I also had a coupon for a new flavour of Nature Valley bars, but we couldn't find them in stores.

So here, instead of my coupon matchups, is what we actually bought, how much we actually paid and which coupons I used.

Stop 1: Shoppers Drug Mart

1. 2x Kashi Go Lean cereal.  Reg $6.49.  Flyer price $3.99.  Scanned at $2.99.  I let the cashier know I had been undercharged and he was ok with it.  Coupon $1.00 off.  OOP $3.98.  Savings 70%.

Stop 2: Rexall Pharma Plus

1. 2x Coke 12 pack.  Reg $5.79. Sale 2 for $7.99.  Buy one get one free coupon.  OOP $5.04.  I think the coupon was entered as a $3.99 off instead of a free product so we were charged HST on both, but I didn't argue.  Savings 61%.

Stop 3: Walmart

1. 2x Dawn dish soap.  Reg. $1.99.  Sale $1.37.  Coupon $1 WUB 2.
2. 12x Clover Leaf flavoured tuna.  Reg. $1.19.  Sale $0.87.  Coupon $1 WUB 3.
3. 5x Primo Pasta Sauce.  Reg. $1.00.  Price Match $0.88.
4. 1x Chef Boyardee.  Reg. $1.59.  Price Match $0.99.  Coupon $0.30 off.
5. 1x Puffs 4 pack double boxes.  Regular price we didn't note down but we're guessing it's about $10.  Sale $4.98.  Coupon $1 off.
6. OOP $18.25
7. Savings 50%.

Stop 4: Farm Boy

1. 1x Bag of oranges $2.99
2. 2x bunch of broccoli $0.88 each.
3. 1x can of beans $1.29.
4. 1x Activia Yogurt $2.99.
5. 2x Organic Bartlett pears $1.26 for both
6. 1x Sesame bagels $2.79
7. 200g Montreal Smoked Meat $3.40
8. 1x duck leg $5.25
9. Bulk baby carrots $1.08
10. White bread $1.50
11. Trout fillet $6.90
12. 4L Natrel Organic Milk $7.99.  Coupon $1.00 off.
13. Total sales savings $5.79.  Total coupons $1.00.
14. OOP $38.02
15. Savings 15%.

Total Shopping Trip Figures

1. Retail value $107.53
2. Total savings from sales, price matches, coupons $42.24
3. OOP $65.29
4. Total savings 39%
5. Weekly budget remaining $25

Anyways, that's how I shop.  DH came with me and door to door it took about an hour and a half.  Only about $12 of the savings was from coupons and the majority of the savings were from sale prices.

39% doesn't seem very impressive compared to some of the trips we've done.  But, this wasn't an extreme couponing stock up on certain items trip.  It was just a regular weekly grocery trip.  

For us the out of pocket amount was what counted most.  We've been going over budget and this week, therefore, we had less to spend.  Not only did we pick up the fresh food we'll need for the week, buy some premium items we may not usually purchase and stock up on some products we regularly use, but we still have $25 to spend this week.  Seeing as we have everything we need, I'm hoping we stay out of the stores for the rest of the week and carry the surplus forward.  We'll see.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Days 16-23

Ok.  I went away last weekend an have been busy working out of the house this week so I haven't been spending much time updating the blog.  To my dismay I also haven't been doing much cleaning either.

Day 16 & 17
My friend has a clean house.  She loves cleaning products an she loves to clean.  She is horrified if a guest finds a dust bunny.  I didn't find any.  Within this perfectly kept home is a sparsely filled basement, which drives her insane.  I thought it was wonderful.  She thought it was cluttered.  Unable to tackle the task on her own because it was bothering her so much another friend and I spent a couple hours re-storing items an prettying her emergency stockpile area.  When she saw what we had done she was so pleased she started throwing away the junk that had been bothering her.  This is not a usual 10 minute clean, but seeing as I was on vacation, I'm counting it.

Day 18
I spent my time cleaning up after the man weekend.  Enough said.

Day 19, 20
Turns out when I'm working out of the house an tired when I get home, I do not clean.  I suspected as much, but now I have quantifiable proof that I have shared with the masses.  I get lazy.

Day 21
I had a client today, so the 10 minute clean took about half an hour (let's call day 19 and 20 a wash, shall we?).

• I cleared out the living room and dusted the surfaces.  Don't ask about where the stuff went.
• Swept the main floor common areas.
• Started a load of dishes and wiped down the kitchen counters.
• Quickly wiped bathroom sink.
• Maybe took a quick nap.

Day 22

Haven't done the clean yet.  Not really motivated.  I could promise I will, but that never turns out well.  The living room looks good, the kitchen is a bit sloppy, the bathroom is dirty, the bedroom is messy.  After one week of slacking on the game the house shows it.  I guess you'll have to wait for my next update to see if I broke down and did anything about the mess today.