PUBLIX SHOPPING TRIP 1/25/08

This one was so good I had to blog it.

All this food.....
$68.84 retail price before sales and coupons

Total out of pocket after sales and coupons $28.04!!!!!!!!

How did I do it? I mostly shopped the buy one get one free things, and stacked manufacturer's coupons on top of these sales. Publix is great because they will accept one coupon for the one you pay for AND for the one that is free! That adds up to some killer savings. If you shop at Publix I really recommend checking out the weekly coupon match up posts on Sarah's Blog, FiddleDeeDee and on Southern Savers Many of the coupons are printable so you don't even have to save the coupon inserts from the Sunday papers for most savings. (But you save even more if you do!) These ladies make it their full time job to help us save BIG BUCKS on our weekly shopping trips!!


I'm going back for a few more things that I didn't have coupons for with me later this week, but wanted to be stocked on essentials because Gabe isn't feeling well and worse case scenario I don't want to be stuck with no toilet paper if I can't leave the house! HA!

NOTE: The toilet paper was actually on sale at Walgreens and was about $5.

Off The Wagon...

I've been catching bits and pieces of Oprah's "Best Life" week. Yesterday they talked about "falling off the fitness wagon" she had one of the past winner's of The Biggest Looser on and he had gained back around 100 lbs. My husband and I actually watched this season and I was so sad to see him look so embarrassed and discouraged, but I related SO MUCH with what he had to say. He talked about his addiction to food and depression and how maintenance is a constant battle and almost harder than just loosing the weight in the first place.

I've actually lost all my "baby weight" and thanks to P90x, I lost a total of 20 lbs and got my metabolism kicked back into gear! However, since I stopped working out my sugars have just been wacked. I realized yesterday I have officially fallen off the "diabetes wagon". I haven't been logging, I've been checking my blood sugars really sporadically, I haven't ordered any new Dexcom sensors out of sheer lazy and busyness. So I am on it. One of my new D-friends, Joanie, sent me some great Excel log sheets and I went through my meter and logged all my sugars since January 1 of this year. I need to fax over 60 days worth to Dexcom (so some of those might possibly be made up numbers but whatever gets me coverage) and I am going to shoot for getting in 3 cardio workouts per week. I'd like to do another cycle of P90x, but I'm sane enough to know that my current schedule will NOT allow that dedication, but that doesn't mean I should do NOTHING.

Debt Free Probably Not For Me....

Last year we hired a financial consultant from the Dave Ramsey organization to help us make a budget and figure out the best way to pay off our debt and save money. She was AWESOME and motivated us both to make a lot of great changes. We did make some good progress too.

Here's the thing that is frustrating. I'm saving a TON of money on household and grocery stuff by menu planning and couponing. I'm working part time now teaching piano. We have a fantastic cash flow plan that allows us to track every dollar and plan for the future. And we're STILL not paying off our debt very fast. WHY? Medical bills. AHHHHH!

We have a pretty decent insurance plan from Justin's employer and even WITH that coverage we are spending a lot of money out of pocket. I just did the math and basically.... if even ONE THING goes wrong with another family member besides me (because it's just unavoidable for me... too much medication, supplies, specialists co pays) we go back into debt. Every time we go into debt it's because of medical bills. When Gabriel had his adenoid issues it set us back AGAIN. It is so frustrating to me. And there is just absolutely nothing I can do about it which frustrates me more.