No one knows what’s going to happen and there are a ton of rumors going on that they’re going to close the plants here in OK. 

I’m afraid that the owners didn’t help at all because they gave some information during the meeting that was contradicted when they sent out a FAQ later in the afternoon.

It should be an interesting few months for sure.

I’m not an expert at it yet, but between matching coupons and sales, I saved over $40 last week.  Maybe more, I’d have to go through my receipts and I don’t feel like doing it at this time of morning.   I paid more than some of the girls whose blogs I’ve been reading.  BUT I’m paying less, in many cases much less than I have been.

I got 2 boxes of Tornadoes for free, 2 more for .99 cents.  I got 2 Healthy Choice meals for $1 each and 2 more for $1.50 each.  Lean Cuisine meals for $1.67 each (I didn’t get them at the store that doubled coupons for this weekend only), cups of yogurt for .32 cents each and jars of peanut butter for $1.20 each and a box of raisin bran for .50 cents.  I did get healthy food as well including a bunch of produce.  Overall, I paid about the same as I normally do but got almost 1/3 more food.  My fridge, freezer and cupboards are over-full, though I do need to pick up another bag of apples and more yogurt since we go through them so fast.  Even the 18 month old loves them.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten razors at Walgreens and received register rewards (like coupons good on the next purchase) back for more than I paid for the razors.  I did the same for womens body wash.  I’ve paid only tax for deodorant. Last Sunday I went to Walgreens and bought mens body wash and deodorant, I paid $4.97 and got $4.50 in register rewards.  This Sunday, I’ll be able to get 2 packages of diapers for $6 each before register rewards.  It’ll be about $4.50 each if you subtract the extra $3 in register rewards I’ll get for buying 2 packages at once.  I may get 4 packages of diapers simply because that’s the best price I’ve been able to get with any consistency so far.   I’ll probably get another set of body wash and deodorant because it’s not like my husband won’t use it and it never goes bad.  The same week I get the diapers, I’ll be able to combine coupons with the sale on toothpaste to get tubes of toothpaste for .24 cents each before tax, and I think that’s the week that I’ll be able to get hair ties for $3 and get $3 in register rewards, I’ll have to look at the circular after I finish my writing for the week.  The week of Father’s day, I’ll be able to pay $3 for mens body wash (Nivea) and get back $6 in register rewards.

I haven’t broken down all of the deals I’m going to be doing because I’ve been going week to week.  I know I have enough shaving cream to send some to my sister when I send her the afghan I knit for the baby.  I may send body wash since she can use it as bubble bath and she’s going to need it once she goes back to work in the next couple of weeks.

I can get more deodorant for just the sales tax at Dollar General this week, so I’m probably going to get some and donate it to the local women’s shelter.  It’s hard to justify not spending .50 cents for 4 sticks of deodorant when I know they desperately need personal care items.  I think the deodorant that my son always wanted me to get will also be free at Dollar General, I need to look at the ad… I don’t know if he’d want it now or if he’s found something better in the Marines.

I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with the extra mens care items, but most of these I’ve been getting back more in register rewards than I’ve been paying out… Making money on transactions is very addicting.  LOL

My goal is to get my grocery bill down by 50%.  That means catching the sales and trying to stock up on the things we go through the most… like peanut butter (with apologies to the dear friend who hates the stuff lol).  I was supposed to get some cereal this weekend, but the only stuff they really had on sale was sugar cereal and since my hubby and I have been trying to watch what we eat (and since the kids don’t need the sugar) I held off.  I need to find some coupons for the stuff that’s healthy, or see how much it’d be to buy the healthy stuff at Wal-Mart with the coupons I do have… for Total and Fiber One… at least they’ll eat it with fruit on it.  I’ve been doing better at stores other than Wal-Mart because they don’t really have sales   Oh yea, and because they don’t really have a whole lot of competition here and their prices are higher than in other areas.  I do read the deal pages on Wal-Mart and go there with the intention of doing those deals.  Instead I’m finding my prices are .50 cents to $1 higher than quoted on those pages with prices from central IL and other areas.   ‘Always Low Prices’ my butt.  Granted, they are lower on some things, but others their prices are much higher than I want to pay.  And with coupons, I’m able to pay less than I’d pay at Aldis for some stuff.

For those who say that it’s too expensive to drive to 3 or more stores… sorry, I can do those in one wide circle around town.  Go to one store, the next is on the way to the bread store… and if I decide to do Wal-Mart for something that’s past the bread store in the same direction and I can just loop around to go home.  All within 5 miles of my house.  When you shop the loss leaders with coupons it pays for the gas… Oh yea and drive a Honda Civic which is more fuel efficient than my old Buick (R.I.P.  I do miss that car even though it started needing more work than I could afford to put into it after I had to buy 4 new/used tires for it last summer because we kept getting flats, luckily I had the money on hand for various reasons)  Of course it also had more than 250k miles on it at only 11 years old LOL.  Too many trips back east in it… of course the last one of those was 2006 and I’d love to see my family again, but that’s another post for another day.  It’s well after 4 and I need to get back to sleep so I can get up for work in 3 hours and I’m starting to ramble because I’m tired.

I’m giving myself a deadline of Jul 2014 to reach my goal weight.  That seems like a long time, but if I put pressure on myself, I do very badly.  My 25th high school reunion is the 4th of July weekend that year, so I want to be at goal. 

I’m giving myself until my 40th birthday to get out of debt.  I’m using Dave Ramsay’s system, and with as little as we owe, it’s not outrageous to think we can be done by May 2011.  I’d like to be able to give more in December 2011, and repay the kindnesses shown to our family this year. (My church did an Angel tree for families with little money.  My kids ended up with a lot of gifts from the church, and they gave us food.  I was amazed at how much we got, and in tears from the generosity.)

I have yet to figure out what else I want to change about my life, but I do know I want to go back to school and finish my degree as well.  I’ve spent too much time being complacent about where I am in life.

To help close the gap in the budget, California is selling their surplus on eBay instead of just auctioning it like most states.  To try to get more money out of these repos and impounds, the governor is autographing many of the items.  All a great idea, in my humble opinion. 

What I find really hilarious on one level and mind boggling on another are the comments being made at the bottom of the article.  There are many, many people saying that the problems with California are the fault of the liberals in charge, etc etc.  Uhh, hate to break it to you, Schwarzenegger is a Republican.  The whole problem with California’s economy is two-fold, and neither problem can be placed at any one party’s feet. 

First, they were spending much more than they were making for years.  You can’t do that. 

Second, many in California are being hard hit with the problems with the housing bubble and the economy tanking. 

So in essence, California was spending as much as if not more than they really had coming in, and then they suddenly had less coming in.  Oops.  Seems to me, that’s the problem many people are having too. 

On a personal note, I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much.  It’s been a very busy summer.  My oldest made it off to boot camp, and I’ve gotten one (form) letter back from him already.  I’m sure I’ll hear from him again soon… this time in his own words

The other day, I was walking during lunch and feeling sorry for myself when I noticed someone kneeling behind an electric scooter working on it.  I stopped to see if he needed any help, and the nut had come off the wheel in the back, and the wheel was in danger of falling off.  Someone else found the nut, and the giy said that his disability check blew out of his hand when the wheel had fallen off his scooter.  I looked around and didn’t see his check.

I should be grateful, I have both hands and both feet.  I am able to walk where I need to go, and I am able to work.

Then there’s this last weekend.  Wildfires devastated Midwest City and left over 100 people homeless.  They lost everything.  I remember going through what they’re going through.  Our trailer burned when I was a sophomore in high school.  We lost everything.  Even the electronics melted to unusability.  We only kept our pictures because they had been put in the addition.  Now, I can’t imagine going through that.  I have my laptop and another computer, all with priceless information.  Pictures uploaded to my computer that I could never replace.  It’s scary.

I need to be grateful.  I haven’t lost my house, I still have a place to live and still have a job to pay my rent.

Things are tight all over, but there are reasons to be grateful out there.  We need to be conscious of our decisions.  We need to stop focusing on the bad, no matter how bad things are around us.  Unfortunately, the media has a tendency of focusing on the bad.  They escalated the problem with the AIG bonuses until there were death threats made to the executives.  Now the media doesn’t know which way to turn.  There may be signs of improvement, they may not be.  They have no clue what to say so they keep going in circles and contradicting themselves.

My feeling is, don’t focus on the big picture, focus on what’s around you.  Take the time each day to enjoy the fact that we’ve got one more day above ground.  We have another chance to get things right.  Hug your families and give thanks that we have each other.

*edit, I just found this in my drafts dated 3/26.  I thought I published it, but I must have gotten sidetracked.

My tip is to start a ‘victory garden.’   You can do this even if you’re in an apartment.  Buy plants that work well in pots like tomatoes, and water them daily — I’ve tried this and it’s harder than it would seem here in Oklahoma, so I’m working on a way to keep everything watered.  I’ll be sure to share with you when I do.  You can also buy a herb window garden to get fresh basil and thyme for your recipes. Or you can plant the basil with your tomato plants, basil is a natural repellant for the bugs that like tomato plants.  Other plants that work well would include broccoli, and cauliflower.

And if you have a bit too much basil, cut a piece of it and stick it down the garbage disposal, leaving your kitchen smelling like basil instead of whatever it was that last went down the sink.

So this week, don’t let the idiots on Wall Street get you down, do some planning to see what vegetables you can have in your garden.  Since seeds are fairly cheap at the moment, you’ll save money and have help keeping food on the table this summer.

Now, I have no problem when chatting with someone online and they misspell a word, I just sort out what they mean and move on.  If I’m reading an article or a book and notice a misspelling, I wonder how well things were proofread. What really annoys me is reading a web advertisement and seeing “without further adieu.”  Uhh what? without further goodbye?  If you’re going to use a phrase, make sure you’re using it correctly. It’s “without further ado.”  And for those who speak French, I’m well aware that adieu isn’t pronounced like ado so it’s not technically a homonym and it doesn’t technically mean goodbye, it was just easier to say it that way.

Yea, ok, so that’s a minor pet peeve, really just a small annoyance, more to keep my mind off the stresses of the weekly grind.

I’m still trying to figure out the article that was in the paper a few weeks ago, about how Oklahoma has a lower unemployment rate than the national average, and the county I live in is even lower still.  Yea, that’s true I guess.  Except I was speaking to someone this week, and she said that the local temp agency said the available jobs dropped 40% in the last few months.  Except someone at church said that one of the local companies is laying off a bunch of people (I think they said 16k).  Except my husband’s employer cut everyone back to a 4 day work week.  Yea, the city I live in is still doing well, but the rest of the world has been knocking very loudly on the door.  We’re not as cut off from things as the city elders would like you to think.  Instead, they’d rather you focus on widening Randolph Ave, cutting away at people’s properties.  Or mandatory inspections for rentals and rent-to-own houses, making sure they meet a minimum code. The former I think is ridiculous, the latter I agree with in theory, though the area landlords association is against it.

Later this week, I’ll do more money saving tips.  I think we all could use some at this point.  I know I’ve been wishing I lived where my parents do, or at least in my own house where I could start a garden.  I think we all need a ‘victory garden’ this year.

My first question is whether Rush Limbaugh has brain damage or if he was just  born a frelling idiot.  I mean he says he wants Obama to fail.  Does that mean he wants the United States to fall apart?  How bad does he want everything to get? Is he just totally clueless or what??? Talk about sour grapes.  This guy is pouting so much that his side didn’t win the elections, that he’s now trying to sabotage the current president and congress.  Uhh yea, idiot.  No better name for him.  Incindiary entertainer or not, the man’s a freaking genius… NOT.  Our country needs Obama to succeed because we need to get out of the economic mess we’re in.  I do have a question for Rush though.  Is he so frelling out of touch with what’s going on with the working class and the working poor or does he just not give a flying fuck about them?  Obviously he has enough money to keep himself sheltered from the problems with the economy.  Since he doesn’t want to do crap about helping fix it, does he want to donate some of his money to help those who are having trouble because they lost their jobs??? I mean even MicroSoft is laying people off.  How about donating some of his money to help those who have lost a good portion of their retirement funds from the greedy idiots on wall street?  Oh yea, I forgot.  Rush only cares about good Republicans or maybe he just cares about himself and his hyper inflated view of his own importance.  Windbag.  Whatever. That tells you how much his opinion is worth.  There are as many good Republicans having problems because of the economy as there are good Democrats having problems because of the economy.  Not everyone is in trouble because they got loans that were more than they could afford.  Some people are having to choose between paying their electric bills or buying food.  Some it’s even more basic, they’re having to choose between buying food and paying their rent.  Yea, then those people who lose their place to live and looking at losing their kids as well.  After all, they’re neglecting their kids if they’re homeless.  Yea, Michigan needs to do something about that.  That’s just WRONG.

As for the rest… well then there are the good little Republicans.  Instead of just badmouthing the stimulus package that Obama wanted to pass, they should have tried to contribute.  Instead all I see is how it’s full of pork, and how it’s a bad idea.  THEN DO WHAT YOU WERE ELECTED TO DO AND WORK TOWARD A COMPROMISE! OTHERWISE SHUT UP AND PLAY NICE WITH EVERYONE ELSE!

Can we tell I’ve been reading the news a bit too much today?

That doesn’t mean I’m going to let the Democrats off the hook.  I saw some of what’s included in the stimulus package.  Some of that could have waited. Yes, it’s pork.  The Congressional Democrats need to play nice too.

Then there are those who think that we should just hand over more money to Wall Street.  I mean the vacation packages and bonuses weren’t enough.  We, those of us who used to be middle class and the working poor obviously need to pay for those nice fat bonuses at some Wall Street firm.  Yea, I know there are strings to the new part of the bailout, but what about the money from last year?

Speaking of the money from last year, I read somewhere today that separate from that $700 billion in Wall Street bailout money is another $2 trillion or so in money given to banks.  Uhh SAY WHAT???

Maybe everyone in congress should share whatever they’re smoking with the rest of us poor saps.  Then we won’t mind so much paying for excessive spending in government and the greedy saps on Wall Street and in the other investment banks.  Maybe they should be made to give the money back like they’re talking about making Madoff do.  That sounds like fair justice.

Now, the tip this week won’t save you money but it’ll get your tax return faster.

File your tax return online.  It’s similar to e-filing, and depending on how much you make, you can even be able to find a place to file them for free.  Go to the IRS website at http://irs.gov and click on the link on the lower left side that says “Free File”

You get any return faster, and you save the paper that would have gone toward printing your return and sending it off.