Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: January 22 ~ 28, 2017

[ReneeT]

Good evening, All

Darn computer wasn't cooperating this morning - I had a choice of re-starting it and waiting for it to come back up, or having time to stop to pick up donuts for the crew on the way to work.... Needless to say, donuts won!!

It was a crazy busy day at work today - I managed to sneak off the unit long enough to snag a bottle of water around 2 pm; and to grab a burger in the cafeteria long about 5:30 this evening - stuffed it down while finishing up my last admission of the day. Only 35 minutes late getting off work tonight - so an hour of extra pay with the missing lunch break added to it; I guess I'll appreciate that, at least!!

Stopped in at CVS on my way home yesterday and did the Boost deal one more time - I needed $18 and change to finish a Buy $25/Get $10 Extra Care Buck deal, so bought 3 - $6.99 cartons = $20.97 Used the $10 ECB from the last deal + 3 - $3 coupons + $1 ECB from buying milk = $20; paid $1.17 out of pocket; got back a $10 ECB.

Tonight I popped into CVS again and picked up 9 - 12 packs of assorted Coke company sodas @ 3/$10 = $30. I used the $10 ECB from the Boost deal + a $5/$15 purchase scanner coupon = $15. Paid $15 and a bit of tax out of pocket; got back another $10 Extra Care Buck as the Coke products are part of a spend $30/Get $10 ECB deal - now I'm all stocked up on soda for our family Easter Dinner that Hubby and I host here at the farm - and then some

Tomorrow morning is aqua aerobics with three of my neighbor ladies; then Hubby and I are going to do some serious house cleaning - I'm in a 'get rid of it!' mood right now, so he'd best take advantage of it while it lasts!!

Tuesday is aqua aerobics with the ladies again; then I have to be at work by 12:30 to spend two hours doing clinical competencies. We have new CPR dummies and a new learning exercise that we have to complete on-line before we can do the practical on the dummies - the online learning takes TWO to FOUR hours to complete! No way we can get that done at work, so we have to come in on our days off to do it, so I guess I will stay at work and get it all done Tuesday. It should end up being somewhere between 5-7 extra hours - which will throw me into overtime by the time I get off work Friday evening; I'm trying to convince myself that will make it worth it!

I plan to stop at the local chain grocery store on my way home Tuesday evening to pick up some of the 99 cent/lb split chicken breast they have on sale. I'm back down to 6 cases of home canned chicken in pint jars - and while I'm much more hopeful for the future than I used to be, I'm still expecting some fairly serious financial upheavals during this next year. Chicken lends itself to so many different recipes that you are less likely to get food fatigue even if you have to serve it frequently!

Getting the chicken canned will take up some of my free time on Wednesday, but I might prep it that morning, then sneak over and snag youngest grandson when he gets out of school at 11 as I want to pre-pay his tuition for next month anyway. I'm pretty certain that means I'll get conned into taking him out to lunch

Thursday and Friday are work days again, so nothing useful besides earning a paycheck will be getting done on those days - I've been crawling in the door somewhere between 9 & 10 pm most work nights lately with not enough energy left to do much more than read on-line for a bit before crawling in to bed.

Not sure what the weekend will bring as yet...

Take care all you wonderful folks; and keep your eyes peeled for the crazies - they are thicker than fleas on a hound dog out there!!

 

[SAPPHIRE]

I agree about future financial roller-coaster.............and I never liked them as a kid either!...Not stocking much, but picking up bargains for immediate usage. Grabbed 7 Odwalla small containers of vanilla soy protein drink to use as smoothie mixers.......at 25 cents each instead of about $3 each.........bought an $8 family box of Post Grape-nuts for $3.99.........a small oval box of Kroger oatmeal for 89 cents, 5 Noosa yogurts on sale and with $1 coupons for 67 cents each.......that kind of stuff.......finding mostly natural (!) pork at lowest prices at Sprouts so for now that's most of our meat supply...find some time for TLC..........

 

[ReneeT]

Those were some pretty good deals, Sapphire!

Woo-hoo! Progress is being made!! Called Monday to contact our HVAC guy, he came out this morning and took measurements, and Hubby ordered the propane heater. It should be here in a couple of days so I'm hoping for a next Tuesday morning install. Sometime between now and then, I have to move everything that is in the corner by the kitchen door so that I can then move my shelf of cook-books to that area. I guess I'll have to get some nicer looking containers to hold garden gloves, clothespin bag, etc... if they are going to be sitting under that shelf; maybe I could paint some of my metal popcorn tins a deep red and use them...

Picked up my chicken yesterday afternoon when Hubby proposed a trip to town; they only had a few packs but I was able to buy enough to run a canner load, so 9 pints chicken and 5 quarts of broth are sitting on the island counter this afternoon - any addition to the pantry stockpile, however small, is a blessing!

I woke up at 3:30am for some silly reason, so was wiped out by the time I got home from aqua aerobics and then canned the chicken, so I ended up catching an unplanned nap on the end of the couch, Guess that means I'll be doing my competencies tomorrow instead, which will work out fine - the neighbor and I will run up to the pool and exercise, then run by the used furniture store so I can look at washers, dryers, and small round kitchen tables. We can hit the Italian buffet that I just happen to have some gift certificates for, then I can slide in and get my competencies done while she visits with a friend in town. The new store ad came in the mail today and shows a few more good deals, so I will pop in there and take advantage of them while I'm in town.

Whew - just thinking about all that running wore me out; I think I need another nap

Take care, all...

 

[moldy]

Another good score today. DH and i went to the farm show and another ReStore. We needed a dresser to cut up for drawers (kinda hard to explain). Looked and looked - finally found an old desk with no legs. Heavy and well-made, there was a $5 sticker on it. The manager was so happy to get rid of it (he was getting ready to throw it away), that he gave it to us for free. I also had some books - he said, 'Nah, just take those too!"

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Found Progresso Soup for $.99 a can! They are good for two years according to the best by date. I've noticed that stores in our area tend to have sales on soups at this time of year. With a two year shelf life, instant out of the can food the family will eat? On it! Figure for $30 that's one tasty, some what balanced meal a day for an adult for a month.

 

[nomifyle]

We are up to our elbows with baby pigs. We had two pregnant sows, the first one had four beautiful healthy babies, but mom was struggling. Two babies died and so did mom. We've been bottle feeding two squilling piggies for three days. This morning second sow had six, two still born and two dead. The remaining two are here in the house. One is struggling, so who knows. Its looks like mom is rejecting them. We were hoping to sneak the first two in with her, but now we have four to feed. This is all very time consuming and heart renching.

Judy

 

[SAPPHIRE]

OGM.........I've bought Progresso soups at Safeway when on sale for 99 cents and double coupons (.50 off two) so ending up 50 cents a can..........good deal IMO.....I give them to elderly neighbors who are struggling with health issues/finances.......we have soups stocked for us too.........I remember canned soups for a quarter or less!! Now even generic ones are just a might shy of $1...........

My dh loves homemade potato soup and we've had a lot of that lately..........