Grocery Trip 5-21-11

Today was my daily shopping trip to the grocery stores. Unlike the extreme shoppers shown on TV my trips are mostly items that we eat on a daily basis that coupons are not available for or when they are it is very difficult to stock up the six weeks couponers advise.  I have couponed for almost 4 months and have seen poptarts on bogo one time. I do not have room to store the 32 boxes required to keep us in poptarts for four months. If they come on sale again, though, I may make room.

Anyway, today I hit Walmart and Publix. I am waiting to go to Bi-lo after the coupons come out tomorrow. I have heard word that coupons may be available for items on bogo at Bi-lo. Here is the breakdown for today's trips.

Walmart-Total before coupons and sales 59.45
Walmart-Total after coupons and sales 55.06
I know it does not sound like a lot but this includes all my meat, produce and other items that do not go one sale often.
Great buys:
Ivory Soup (3 bars) .97, coupon $1.00 made profit of .03
Dawn Dish Soup .97, coupon .25 total .72
Speed Stick Deo. .98, coupon .50 total was .48.

Publix-Total before coupons and sales 28.28
Publix-Total after coupons and sales 15.91
Great buys:
Wishbone Salad Dressing 2.79 with bogo and 1.00 coupon paid .39
Dentastix 3.59 with bogo and 1.00 coupon paid 2.58 for two of them (1.29 each)

Bi-Lo (if all works out)

I am going to take advantage of the Pick 5 for 19.95. I figure the prices for the items I am going to purchase are typically around 6.50 each. That would work out to a $12.55 savings. Not a great percentage but it works for me. I will be stocked up on those items for a while. Beyond that, Bi-Lo has a few bogo items that I have coupons for.
Ball Park Franks 7.18 (2 packs); with .75 coupon and bogo should pay 2.84
Lance Sandwich Crackers 5.98 (2 boxes), with bogo and 1.00 coupon (5-22ss, fingers crossed) 1.98 for both
Mueller's Elbo Macaroni 1.94(2 boxes); with bogo and 1.00 coupon 2 boxes FREE

Walgreen's Savings Trip 5-19-11

Hello, world. I made my way to Walgreen's today to take advantage of a few of their deals this week. An extreme couponer I am no,t but I thought I did pretty good on this trip. Thanks to southernsavers.com, I received some great deals. Here is what I got...

2 bottles of Softsoap body wash (1 15oz, 1 18oz)
3 bottles of Old Spice Body Wash (18oz)
1 20pk of Electrasol Finish Powerball
2 32 loads Snuggle Fabric Softener
Total cost: $12.95
Total Savings: $26.07

I could have done a bit better, but they were out of a couple of things. Anyway, I enjoyed my trip and my family will smell clean for a few more months. Let me know if you received any great deals this week.

How to Plant Hybrid Tea Roses

Last Friday, I was sitting at work listening to AOL radio while finishing up some paperwork. Although I was concentrating on the task at hand, a commercial found its way into the main part of my brain. Lowes was having a sale. Rose bushes 2 for $10.00. Never, in my lifetime, have I ever wanted to grow roses, but, now, I did. I sent my wonderful husband to Lowes to check out the sale. When he left the store, he had 4 bushes and a bag of garden soil. If you live in my part of the country, you understand the need for garden soil. I have been blessed with almost a full yard of nothing but Tennessee red clay. The roses were hybrid tea roses, the most popular rose grown.

I spoke with a few of the older ladies at work attempting to get a bit of advice on how to grow roses. They informed me that roses were difficult to keep alive and required a lot of time and attention. Well, I was committed both financially and mentally. I wanted this to work, so I went to the wisest of the wise, and the dumbest of the dumb (depending on what you find); the internet. There I found all types of contradictory advice, but I was able to put an action plan together. Here are the steps I used for planting rose bushes:

1. Clear the area. My husband dug up the area around our porch where I wanted the roses planted. If it is not a last minute thing, the best thing to do is spray a weed killer. Wait a week and then spray again. Wait one more week and, then, clear the area. We had the bushes, so it was now or never for us.
2. Dig the hole. The hole should be twice as wide as the container the roses come in and almost as deep as the container. The place where the rose stems meet the roots should be right at the dirt line. We dug them a bit deeper because we were going to put the garden soil at the bottom of the hole. Many people recommend mixing the regular soil with an organic compost, but we just filled the hole in with the garden soil.
3. Plant the bush. Gently remove the rose bush from the container. Place bush in the hole, fill in the hole with the garden soil, regular soil or a mixture of both.
4. Water the bush. Rose bushes should be watered at dirt level. We soaked the roots while keeping the leaves and flowers dry. We did not water them too much, because it was fairly late in the day. Watering rose bushes at night can set the stage for a plethora of diseases and pests. I did give them a good watering the next morning.
5. Mulch. We placed a Cyprus Mulch around the bushes. It is a good two feet wide and 4 to 5 inches deep.

It has been 48 hours since we planted our bushes and they seem to be doing fine. No wilting or strange colors yet. I will keep you informed on “how my garden grows.”

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Feel free to comment or share this article. 

Time for Change

Angel Oak Tree-Charleston SC

Well, this has been one wild week. I spent 3 days in beautiful Charleston, SC. I came home Sunday night, and on  Monday morning at 4:45am, I dropped my mom off at the airport for her trip to Israel. On Wednesday, the worse storms to strike the south in recorded history struck, leaving us without power for three days. Thursday I awoke to a sick feeling that would grow worse until Friday evening when I finally gave in and went to bed. Spent most of Saturday in the bed. I still managed to feed my family (including my dad) with no power and a very bad virus.
When I left for Charleston, I decided to take stock of my life and see where it is heading. I have lost my love for writing. I don't know what is wrong. Well, Charleston did not provide me an answer neither did three days ill and without power. I was browsing through my facebook posts when I came across someone thanking a dear friend of mine for singing Casting Crown's "I will praise you in the Storm" at church. I had to listen to it. That is one of my favorite songs. After spending some time in praise to God, I realized my problem was I was focusing on the wrong things (as usual). Yes, I feel that I should be doing something else, that door will open when it is suppose to and not a moment before then, so stop fretting over it. So I don't want to write like I did a few months ago, the world will not end. It did not provide that much extra money anyway. I am going to give up the website, "Dusty's Market" and just blog on here and my Chattanooga blog. I might write a few articles for the other websites, but I need to spend some time refocusing.
We shall see where I will go from here. Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment or post your reaction.