Couponing 7/5

I am proud to say I took another hiatus from going to the grocery store last week since we were headed out of town last weekend.  However, it left me with no choice but to pick up several items on my way home from work on Tuesday. I had to stop at both grocery store (Publix and Winn-Dixie) but I managed to spend under $33 for everything. Here is the evidence:

As you can see, at Publix I spent $22.77 and saved $40.57 for a total savings of 64%!  Not too shabby for a restocking the fridge!

I did not get a picture of the Winn -Dixie receipt, but I spent $9.78 and saved $12.29 for a total savings of 56%.  My Winn Dixie haul consisted of only 2 products:

2 bags Dole Lettuce for $.40 ea = $.80
          (I was planning on using a $.75 off 1 for each bag, but when I got to the store they had $1.25 of 1 coupons on the display! I obviously used those instead)
2- 12oz bags Community Coffee $3.50 ea = $7.00

I have noticed before that sales do not always ring up correctly at my local Winn-Dixie and Tuesday was no different.  After they scanned my rewards card the coffee was still ringing up $6.50 ea instead of the $4.50 ea sale price.  I noticed that there was no sign on the coffee when I picked it up so I double checked an ad in the store, so showed the ad to the cashier and he made the correction.  I have learned my lesson when it comes to overlooking prices =)

At Publix I had a pretty decent haul that was topped off with another $5 off a $20 purchase from Earthfare that I got this week in my inbox.  Here is what I got:

milk = $3.99 <---no joke!  I think buying our own dairy cow would be cheaper
2 Macaroni Grill Freezer meals for $2.75 ea = $5.50
2 Wanchai Ferry Freezer meals for $2.75 ea = $5.50
2 Oscar Meyer Cracker Combos (grown-up lunchables) for $.50 ea = $1
4 cans Bushes Baked Beans for $1.15 ea = $4.58
3 cans Publix tomato sauce for $.33 ea = $1
fresh mushrooms = $1.50
vidalia onions = $1.08
2 bottles of French's Mustard for $.50 ea = $1

I will take a 61% savings for the week anytime!

Wedding ABC's Part 2 of 5

I am back with my ABC wedding recap with letters F-J.  Letters A-E were posted last week. It has been fun going back through all of our wedding pictures to find the pictures I am looking for!  Enjoy!

Flowers

We decided to keep it simple with the flowers and used a local vendor in town.  My bouquet was mini white calla lilies, yellow roses, and blue hydrangeas.  My bridesmaids carried blue hydrangeas and daisies.  For the tables at the reception we bought vases from Michael’s and filled then with either a sprig of blue hydrangea or yellow, white and pink gerbera daisies.

The bouquets

Table decor flowers

Groomsmen

Eric’s brother was his best man.  The rest of the groomsmen were my brother, friends from Tallassee and a friend from the guard.

Honeymoon

We honeymooned at Sandals in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  It was wonderful!  We had a blast!

Happy Jamaican Independence Day!

Wish this was the view out our backdoor every day!

Bout to do a lil snorkeling!

Paradise!

Invitations

I went the DIY route with these.  I purchased simple invitation kits from Michael’s and printed them myself.  However, I put my own spin on them with a cornflower blue (One of my colors along with yellow) ribbon tied at the top and I used a stamp with some silver embossing powder to emboss the letter “C” at the top. 

The details I added:  blue ribbon and embossed "C"

Jewelry

I wore a tear drop diamond earring and necklace set that my parents gave me several years ago.  They were very simple and elegant, which I loved.

4th of July Weekend Recap

We spent our 4th of July holiday weekend in Orange Beach, AL with Eric's brother and his fiance.  It was a WONDERFUL weekend, a perfect of balance and relaxation with a little bit of excitement in between.

Eric picked me up from work on Friday afternoon and we headed down south.  Luckily there was not too much traffic, just a little bit once we made it into Orange Beach.  Saturday we were up and at em at 4:00 AM to head out to fish!  I fell asleep on the way out but had Eric wake me up just before sunrise--I couldn't miss it!

The sky opposite the sunrise right before the sun came up.

Eric and I right before sunrise....it was early give me a break.

There's the sun!

It was a pretty good trip.  We caught a limit of red snapper, plus a few other random fish:  trigger fish, white snapper, beeliner, and a scamp (type of grouper).    At one point during the day we realized  we were sandwiched between two thunderstorms.   One was to our left and one was to our right most of the day, but we never had rough water or anything other than blue skies above us!  We did get to see a pretty cool site in one of the storms.....a water spout.  I had no idea what it was but I quickly learned it was a tornado on the water.  It was pretty cool, and a little freaky. It lasted a good 5-10 minutes so I was able to get a bunch of pictures of it.   Because we were out on the water it looked like it was pretty close, but it was nearly 10 miles from us, so we were safe...like I said we had sunshine and calm waters. It was pretty amazing!

Water spout!

We slept in on Sunday and did not head out to fish until that afternoon.  We caught a few more snapper, and headed back in.  That night we caught some fireworks at one of the resorts on the beach.  It was conveniently located where we could see it from the boat in the bay so we got a nice show.  

After we got back from the fireworks.

Monday we did next to nothing and it was WONDERFUL!  We were all pretty exhausted, so aside from cooking lunch and a short stroll/impromptu photoshoot on the beach, we slept, and watched movies (it was too hot to go outside), and laid around all day long. Our choices for lunch did not help our lethargic moods.  We had an All-American feast of barbecue ribs, potato salad, baked beans, and garlic bread.  And as if that was not enough, we topped it off with a very patriotic red velvet cake made by my very talented soon to be sister-in-law.

Here are a few pictures from the beach photo shoot.  I was playing with some new editing features I just discovered on Picnik so I had some fun with the pictures.

The only near-not-so-fun thing we had happen was the AC going out in Eric's brother's house on Monday night (hence the reason the boys agreed to come walk on the beach with us).  Believe it or not we found not one but TWO different repair guys who were working on the 4th.  Not only that, the guy who came had a bunch of calls so he didn't make it to the house until 11:15 PM that night!  Luckily it was a quick fix and we were able to get a few hours of good (cool) sleep.  Eric and I were up early and headed back home by 5:45 AM so we could both get a full day of work in.   I decided about 3:00 PM Tuesday afternoon that I was really glad we napped for so long on Monday because I would not have made it otherwise.

Ice Cream Candy Nostalgia

If I had to name one food that Eric and I could eat every day and never get tired of, it would be ice cream.  We almost always have a container in the freezer (although they don't last long).  When we do run out we load up the puppy dogs for a trip to Dairy Queen for mini-blizzards!

Last night was one of those nights where we had no ice cream in the house and Eric could not go without.  We had to run another errand in town so we bypassed our usual Dairy Queen (we've already been once this week) and headed to McDonald's for a McFlurry.  When we got there we were reminded of their current McFlurry special......The ROLO McFlurry--did you hear the angel chorus just then?  They are sooooo good. I bet it's been at least 5 years (probably longer) since the last time I ate a Rolo, but they remain one of my favorite candies, put them with ice cream it was soooo good.

from the Rolo McFlurry facebook page

I WILL be back for another soon!