a little bit of this and a little bit of that

Breaking news:  I received a part time job yesterday as the new studio manager for Open Air Photography. Katie Stoops, who owns the business, did our wedding photography back in May 2008.

Today was a good day.  I used $23 worth of ECB and coupons at CVS + free eyeliner with BOGO.  My favorite deal of the day: $9.99 contact solution with $9.99 in ECB.  They call that "getting it for free," but it really means you get $9.99 off your next purchase.  After being super successful with my home/beauty shopping, Whitney and I hit up the going-out-of-business sale at Blockbuster and then headed to the Green Valley Book Fair.  

Andy came home yesterday with $15 worth of groceries.  I freaked out a little because I thought we were on the same page with the December budget challenge, but according to him I never said we were spending $16 a week. Oh well.  I still want our goal to be $50 for the last four weeks of December, so we'll just have to spend less next week.

I gotta hand it to him though.  For only $15 he picked up bananas, the most delicious strawberries (which sadly were $4.99), and some extremely discounted meat:  2 packages of turkey meatballs, steak burgers and 2 steaks.  

Yum.

Ode to CVS

I just have to throw this out there:  I love CVS.

I love how you can return makeup.  I love that there are always a ton of BOGO items.  

I love love LOVE EasyCare bucks.

The other night I bought two different foundations by Revlon.  They were BOGO and I had a $2 manufacturer's coupon.  I also bought a bag of razors for 4.99 and received $4 in ECB.  Then I took an online quiz about the Medicare Part D plan and received a $3 coupon towards anything I want.  I aced the quiz btw.  *brushing off shoulders*

THEN I received a $4 off any purchase of $30 for my birthday.  So really, the next time I spent $30, I can get $11 off my purchase.  I think I'm going to search for some manufacturer's coupons before I go and try to get some great deals on TP, detergent and other household items.

The December budget challenge is going well.  So far we've bought a gallon of milk and a package of Saltine crackers, coming in to just over $4.  We had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch yesterday and Andy had a frozen pizza for dinner.  I ate fish sticks and veggies and couscous with the kids I nanny for.  Today's lunch was mac 'n cheese.  We haven't exactly been healthy eaters, but we're doing what we can with what we have.