Valentine's Day once more

Scott and I are having a quiet and uneventful evening here at home. I made a simple spicy stir fry and rice... that is it. No chocolate's, flower's or dinner out just a simple meal together. We've had some unplanned expenses and don't feel we can go out and buy stuff we don't really need just for a commercially invented Holiday.

Yesterday I had to rush Mr. Tesla to the Vet as he had what looked like a tumor on his bottom  and he was in extreme pain. They fixed him up and I had them also give him all his shots while I had him there as he doesn't handle the trip over there well and he HATES the entire staff. I don't know why as they're the gentlest practice I know of in this area. He just acts so ugly to all of them; they have to give him "kitty chillers" just to work on him. Back to his problem - an infected anal gland. They cleaned it out and gave him a shot of antibiotic and a pain reliever. He is a MUCH happier cat today.

Sunday morning we discovered our heat was out.. always happens on a Sunday too when the Repair call will cost double. Well Scott decided that he would see if he could get it working himself and save us that money. It turned out to be a switch and he got it all cleaned up and reset the switch and we had heat once more. YEAH! Then yesterday when I got home from work it was again off and it was COLD in here. I let Scott know and then I just sat next to our electric space heater until I took Tesla to the Vet. When Scott got home from work he was able to reset that switch again and got it going. He has ordered a replacement switch that he will install as soon as it arrives. I'm very thankful for my "Handy hubby".... who needs all that other stuff!

Yesterday on my way home from work I decided to do a little shopping for items we needed and some special sales items that I paired with coupons. I decided to show you one of my stops. I did 4 separate transactions ( 2 on Sunday and 2 on Monday) so that I could use all my coupons AND the register rewards that printed off. I think it was WELL worth the effort to get the deals!










I also went to Kmart and CVS yesterday and got some GREAT deals on some other items.

K-mart Purchases

At Kmart I got "goodies" for the dogs - 10 cans of Alpo and 6 packages of treats; without the sale prices and the high coupons I had this would have cost me $33.56... I paid $15.22 for a savings of $18.34. OVER 50% savings and the dogs will so enjoy these special treats. We give them canned foods on really cold nights.I also earned another $1 in register rewards from Alpo that I can use on my next trip in there. I wish I had more of the dog treats coupons that were in Sunday's paper.

CVS Purchases

 At CVS I just bought sale items paired with my coupons. All this would have cost me $43.07 and I paid $22.63 for a savings of $20.44. Almost 50% savings. I'm going to watch for good coupons on beauty items that I can pair with sales to fill some gift baskets for next Christmas for the teens in my life. I have no clue what to buy for them anymore but I know that the girls all love make-up and such. If I can pick items up for $1 or less throughout the year I can have some nice baskets for them. 

I think coupons are definitely worthwhile if used in combination with a GREAT sale. I also went to Bi-Lo while Tesla was at the Vets and saved another $30 using my Bi-Lo Bonus card and coupons AND I earned 40 cents off every gallon of gas up to 20 gallons at the Shell Station. NOT BAD!

I recently bought "The Couponizer" as I had seen it mentioned on Saving Well Spending Less's You Tube Channel. (She has a LOT of really GREAT tips on how to utilize coupons to your best advantage.) And I LOVE it! It comes with everything you see... a clear bag that it fits nicely in, a sorting mat, a pair of scissors and "The Couponizer". I've all ready saved enough using coupons this week to pay for this as well as getting 13 weeks of the Newspaper so that I can get the ads and the weekly coupons. I bought my Couponizer from Amazon for $23.94 shipping included in this price. I wish I could take advantage of all the printable coupons but we use Linux and none of the coupon sites support it so I'm poo out of luck on that one. OH well!

OK - I've gone on long enough but I did want to get on here before the week was half over.. I'll do a cookbook post tomorrow. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!