Lagging!!

Well, I have not been doing so hot on my food storage shopping. Last week I did pretty good but I didn't get a chance to take a picture and post about it. This week, I had some issues with my coupon shopping for the first time. Sometimes I print coupons online and for some reason I had quite a few online coupons to use this week. So I went to the grocery store, bought all the stuff, went way over budget (by $60.00!!!) then when I got to the check out the guy said he couldn't accept my online coupons. I guess my printer is running low on ink and it didn't print out the code for him and the bar code was too blurry to work. Bleh! So I had to talk to the manager. The manager said he couldn't use them either so I have to re-print them and take my receipt back. They said they would reimburse me for the coupons. So frustrating. It was late at night and I was tired. Plus, I just found out my daughter is allergic to a lot of foods so I've become one of those people you see in the store reading every single label. I think it took me two hours to shop last night. I also had to buy special things for her. She is allergic to wheat so I'm having to make my own bread for her out of rice flour. I had to buy some really expensive stuff called xanthum gum for the bread. I also had to buy some shortening which didn't contain soy since she is allergic to that as well. I found it and again it was about twice the price of a normal thing of shortening. So while I'm getting the hang of these allergies, my shopping experience's aren't going to be too fun.
Anyways, my food storage is about the same. I have about 3-4 months. I need more but things just haven't been working out in my budget to get extra stuff for storage. Hopefully I will be posting some exciting food storage accomplishments in the near future.

Water Storage! WOO HOO!!!

Technically, water storage should be the first thing you store in case of a natural disaster and the water sources become contaminated but I didn't quite get to it until now. Over this past weekend, we filled up our new water barrels. We are now the proud owners of three 55 gallon drums. I feel so great having these!! It really is a load off my shoulders. If you're just starting out on your emergency preparedness, start with water. Don't be like me!! Get that water stored and fast!!!

A few months ago, there were some really bad fires around where we live. My dad actually had homes burning all around his. He had to be evacuated and during this time, he stayed with us. I was able to discuss with him the importance of being prepared for a disaster. In the case with the fires, his home was spared, but there were some areas in his city where the water had become contaminated due to pipes bursting from fire damage. Everyone in his neighborhood was without water for a few weeks until they could fix the problems the fires had caused. If you are ever in a situation where your water becomes contaminated, think of how nice it would be to know that you had enough water to sustain you and your family for a few weeks right there in your house/garage.

I'm really excited that we have finally gotten our water stored! YAY!!!!

Diaper Deal

Last night, I went and bought 4 jumbo packs of diapers for $11.94 including tax! Woo Hoo!

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Today I finally headed out to the store. I got some pretty good deals. I did really well at one store and was super excited, but my overall savings was just so-so. Here's my loot!

1 Pinesol Cleaner
1 Welches Squeezable grape jelly
3 Duncan Hines Cake Mixes
1 Betty Crocker Frosting
3 Mc Cormick Seasoning packs
1 pkg I can't believ it's not butter baking sticks
1 Barilla Marinara sauce
1 lb Brown Onion
1 Vitamin Water (FREE)
1 Chuck Roast
1 pkg Rib Eye steaks
1 Maries Salad Dressing
2 Mabeline mascaras
2 Sure deodorants
2 Dove conditioners
2 Lysol Wipes
2 Lysol Toilette cleaners
2 Lysol Bathroom cleaners
2 Walgreens Multipurpose cleaners
2 Boxes Hefty Zip bags
4 Jars Skippy Peanut Butter
1 Edge Shave Gel
1 Chocolate Chex Mix (FREE)
1Cheddar Chex Mix
1 Skintamate Shave Gel
1 Pkg Scunci Rubberbands
1 Colgate Toothbrush (FREE)
1 Scotchbrite Sponge

Total Price= $167.06
Total Paid= $58.71
Total Saved= $108.35/65%
I received $5.00 to spend on my next trip as well.

I really needed peanut butter so I was happy it was on sale. I have been scraping it out of the jar for the last few days. Also, my daughters 3rd birthday is coming up and we're having a party for her. I'm going to be making the cakes so I was pretty happy they were on sale and I had a coupon. I just need to get more icing and I'll be all set!

Sorry...

I haven't posted in awhile. In March, I had a couple of parties and I had to go over my grocery budget a bit so I haven't spent any money for a few weeks. I am probably going to have a slow month in the month of April because I am cutting my budget in half for April only to make up for going over budget in March. We'll see how that goes...

Food Storage Closet

Today, I updated my food storage closet. I had organized it a ew weeks ago, but it was in need of some type of shelves. I got these cheap ones at Walmart and came home and got right to work!

Weekly Grocery Shopping

I'll just get to it. Here's what I got......

3 Bottles Listerine (FREE)
2 Revlon Colorsilk Hair Color
2 Hershey's Candy Bars
5 Boxes Sugarfree Jello
1 Trident Gum
1 Dry Idea Deodorant (FREE)
1 Colgate Toothpaste (FREE)
2 Six Packs Dive Bar Soap (FREE)
1 Individual Dove Bar Soap
5 Bags Quakes Rice Snacks
1 Family Pack Pudding Fat Free
1 Land O' Lakes Spread
1 Bag Large Shell Pasta
1 Bag Fettuccine
4 Boxes Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks
1 Box Curves Granola Bars
1 Box Nature Valley Granola Bars
1 Box Chex Mix Granola Bars
1 Box Fiber One Granola Bars
4 Country Crock Spreads
2 Four Count Dole Fruit Parfaits
2 Comfort Little Puffs Snacks
2 Classico Marinara Sauce
1 Package Dixie Paper Plates
1 Head Cabbage
3 lbs Tri Tip Roast
1 Package Big Red Gum (FREE)
1 Package Strawberries
1 Nail Saver Sponge
1 Betty Crocker Cake Mix
2 lb Red Delicious Apples
1 Package Deli Cuts Chicken Breast
1 Purex Laundry Detergent
1 Package Lettuce
1 Package McCormick Roast Seasoning

Total Price= $193.93
Total Paid= $64.51
Total Saved= $129.42/67%
Received $5.00 to spend next time.

Water Storage.... Oops!

Water storage has been on my mind lately. I kept telling my husband that we needed to get those 55 gallon drums for storing water. All I currently have is about 12 individual gallons bought from the grocery store and a case of bottled water. Today at church they passed around a sign up sheet to order either 30 or 55 gallon drums for water storage. I decided to put my name down for a 30 gallon one with the complete set up with the pump and everything. It was offered to us at a good price and I hoped that my loving husband wouldn't be too upset when I told him that I had ordered it without consulting him first. Even though it was a discounted rate, it's still pretty pricey but I really felt the need to order at least one! On the car ride home, I was about to mention that I had signed us up for one 30 gallon drum, when he turns to me and says "Oh, Honey! I saw a sign up sheet today for water storage drums and I signed us up for three used 55 gallon drums!" Uh Oh!!! I reluctantly told him that I had also signed us up for a 30 gallon one. So it looks as if we will be getting three 55 gallon drums and one 30 gallon drum. Oops. Oh well, you can never be too prepared right??
It's recommended to have 14 gallons of drinking water stored per person in case of emergency. That's the bare minimum. Water for cooking and washing is extra. Now it loos like we will have more than enough water for drinking, cooking and washing if there is ever an emergency! 48.75 gallons per person to be exact!

I got some good deals today but over all, I only saved 60%. I never thought the day would come where 60% savings would be a disappointment, but it sort of is. One super awesome deal was the three family packs of chicken shown above. They have a special rack for stuff that's about to expire in the meat department. They put orange stickers on the packs of meat and they usually say "reduced for quick sale". Well I always check it out but very rarely buy anything because it scares me. Last week they had a very grey package of sausage and I could feel the food poisoning attack just by looking at it. So normally, I don't get anything but today I noticed they had a ton of boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $0.99/lb. (a normal cheap price for boneless skinless chicken breasts is $1.97/lb) So I just had to ask the butcher for info on it. I walked up to him and said "HI, i see there's a lot of chicken breasts for sale. Are they going bad? Will my family DIE if i feed it to them?" He started laughing at me and said that no, we wouldn't die, that actually nothing was wrong with them. They just accidentally ordered 300 lbs of extra chicken breasts so the manager said to mark it down to get it out of there. So not only was the stuff not going bad, it was brand new!! So i picked up three family packs of chicken. That was probably my most exciting deal this week. I did get some stuff for free, but the chicken was like an extra special bonus today.

1 Glade fan starter kit (FREE)

2 Tubs Smart Balance Spread

1 Exedrin Menstrual Gelcaps (FREE)

1 Pack Extra Gum (FREE)

1 CVS Vitamin D (FREE)

1 Single Dr Pepper (FREE- was thirsty)

3 40 count Packages Huggies Gentle Care Diapers

1 Large Tub Cottage Cheese

2 Boxes Pop Tarts

1 Bag Spanish Rice

1 Bag Yellow Rice

1 Bag White Rice

2 6-packs Treetop Applesauce

1 Hormel Complete Meals (FREE)

2 6-Packs Danimals Smoothies

1 12-Pack Quilted Northern toilette paper

1 Ken's Light Salad Dressing Spray

2 6-packs Dannon Lite and Fit Yogurt

2 Mc Cormick Seasoning Packets

3.87 lbs Bananas

2.26 lbs Red Seedless Grapes

1 Bunch Green Onions

1 Bag Lettuce

13 lbs boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

3 lbs T-bone Steak

8 Atkins Protein Bars

Total Price- $183.95
Total Paid- $73.61 110.34
Total Saved- $110.34/60%

I also received $12.99 in store credit to use next time.

Diapers

I made a quick trip to CVS today to take advantage of the last day of their sale. I needed some Diapers. Long story short, I walked out of there with two jumbo packs of Pampers and Johnson's Baby Shampoo for $8.79 out of pocket and got a $5.00 ECB (like cash) to spend in their store at my next visit. Not bad!! One pack of diapers cost $12.49 all by itself but after coupons and such, I made out like a bandit. Sometimes i really feel like I'm stealing. But I'm just being smart!