Giant Enormous Whine ahead (you've been warned)

Sleep.  Oh sleep how I miss you so much.  I've never been one who has needed much sleep, but my sleep deprivation is at an all time high.  I get maybe 3 hours broken up each night and that is not enough.

I get dizzy these days just doing my normal chores.  The other day I got so dizzy, I was about to pass out.  So for some really messed up reason, I jumped up to run into the other room and slammed my arm against the corner of the wall and fell to my knees.  My brain feels completely fried and I don't feel at all like myself these days.  My thyroid function is fine, I'm fine, I just need sleep.  Cooper didn't start sleeping through the night until I was about 7 1/2 months pregnant with Fin.  Then I couldn't sleep because I was so uncomfortable.  Now Fin needs to eat every two hours at night and Rich is a total bear if he doesn't get sleep--so I really don't want to wake him if I can help it.  He seriously is major grouchy (sorry hon, but it's true...) and I'd rather be sleep deprived than deal with the super grouch.  And even if/when I get Rich to help me, inevitably the baby makes so much noise and ends up wanting to nurse yet again so I'm back on call.

Sure I could pump a bottle for a feed at night, but then my breasts would explode at some point making it pointless.  I've tried sleeping right after putting the older boys to bed for an hour or so while Rich has the baby downstairs, but with our schedules, I usually have too much to do that makes going to bed at 8:30p doable.

Four kids has really pushed me over the edge.  Thankfully Fin is a doll baby and I know that once he is out of his giant spewing, gassy tummy phase, he has the markers of being a sleeper like Riley.  But until he is a bit more matured, the smaller more frequent feeds will just have to do.  So I don't need advice, just understanding when I step out the door with two different colored shoes on and yesterdays t-shirt with spit up on it.  And if I try to make a joke that totally misses the mark?  Laugh anyway so I feel less alien like.  

And if you are the praying type?  Pray that my toddler stops thinking the dog food bowl is his own personal play dough.  Or that my makeup is just like his crayons.  Or that if he doesn't like the food that is served it becomes a baseball game towards the wall.  Because that doesn't help when I'm in a fog.

Coupon bonanza 11/5/09

I saved $114.17 which was 66%!!!  I felt like such a stud I tell you.  I even shouted out a "whoo hoo" at the check out line and the people who'd been waiting an hour for my coupons to get entered clapped for me.  

Some of my free stuff: free bacon, free english muffins, free eggs, free orange juice, free pasta sauce, free pasta, free croutons, free salad dressing, free Kleenex and free Progresso Beef Broth.

It was so time consuming though.  I got the circulars on Tuesday and started scoping and planning.  I matched coupons to the ads at both Safeway and King Soopers and decided to head to Safeway due to the better deals they had going on for this week.  I had to have the paper spread out for a few days on the island taking up room that I normally use for food prep.  I went online and checked the coupons.com site for the weekly specials from the paper.  I also went through the Safeway shopper rewards stuff to add coupons savings online.  For instance I got an Au Gratin potato box coupon from the coupons.com site, but I also added the same coupon onto my Safeway rewards card too.  So it was double the savings.  

I spent $61.23 and got $175 worth of groceries.  I got brown sugar, flour, box mashed potatoes, croutons, dressing, pasta sauce, pasta, onion powder, two boxes of juices for the soccer team thing, butterscotch chips, beef broth (2), V8 Fusion, Caribou Coffee was a steal at $2.99 lb.--I had two coupons so I got two of them, Kleenex (3), Eggs, milk (.99/gallon) OJ, Pizza, Butter (2), choc chip cookie dough precut, english muffins, loaf of wheat bread, bagels, turkey for Thanksgiving ($6.88) Bacon,  4 bags of grapes.  

So I had a successful trip, but what do I serve this week for food?  Spaghetti with a salad (have some lettuce leftover from last week,) omelet and bacon for breakfast tomorrow.  I have chicken from last week to grill and I'll marinate it in the salad dressing.  I used the mashed potatoes tonight to go with the ham I bought last week and some peas.  We'll have some blueberry pancakes for dinner (I didn't make them last week and I've had some begging...) and I'll get started on my Christmas cookie baking for gifts for teachers.  I'll still have to head over to King Soopers and/or Sprouts for some meat (the shrimp I was going to buy was published as $4.99/lb but came in a two pound bag, so my coupon wasn't good enough for it to be affordable.)  I have plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, so I'll be scanning the fliers mostly for protein sources, so not more than $20.

What I've learned.  Take all the coupons with you.  I left a bunch behind that didn't present as specials on the flier, but there were several good deals I knew I had coupons for that weren't listed.  Focus on the cost per meal.  I think that deals are great and exciting, but if you have too much flour/sugar/butter/cereal, it's not going to feed your family adequately.  If I focus on the per meal cost, it is so much better.  We had a meal last week that cost approx $.80 per person.  It was fajitas and had vegetables and protein and calcium etc.  THAT was a good deal.  My chili last week?  Cost about $.75 per person.  We stretched that for 4 servings of leftovers after the dinner, a total win on cost.

I'm all stocked on baking items, and pantry supplies.  I really need to make sure I'm saving money on the healthier whole foods as well.

RIP Shelly

I met Shelly several years back on the about.com Frugal Living forum.  I was a new Mom and found it easy to cruise online while nursing my son a dozen times a day.  She and I then moved to the Delphi Living Frugally forum and were moderators and enjoyed talking about how to save money.  She and I shared several things, one being Catholic yet a Democrat, which is pretty rare for a Catholic to be a Democrat out loud.  I actually left the Church for a few years feeling so much like an intruder every Sunday.  I came back because of Shelly and a few others I had met that made me realize the Church has room enough for everyone.

Shelly and I would scrap it up during the election seasons and I would find myself nodding in agreement with her on everything.  

She leaves behind two Sons, two Granddaughters and a dearly loved Husband.  She loved the Beatles almost as much as the Catholic Church and she had a great sense of humor.  She was a fierce Momma bear and I get that.

Speaking of the Beatles...I was crying this morning when I found out Shelly had passed.  My son Jack told me that he understood my pain.  He said that he was just as sad when his pet grasshopper "Jude" died.  Knowing Shelly's love for the Beatles and remembering the song "Hey Jude" made me laugh out loud.  It was like God was using Jack to cheer me up and to know that my friend is in heaven with our heavenly Father.  

My mission for the next few months

So that whole coupon clipping, $4 a week grocery bill thing had my brain working overtime this weekend.  I did a little research and I found a few more pieces of information.  I had never heard the term Catalina before used for couponing.  That's a big part of getting your groceries for cheap.  From what I understand, a Catalina is your cash rebate to put towards your next round of groceries.  So if you buy 2 Pillsbury pie crusts, you get $2.50 towards your next grocery bill.  That's how you pay for the more expensive groceries that can't be whittled down enough by coupons.  Also, if the coupon doesn't have a size specific, you can purchase travel sizes to make money off the coupon.

The problem with buying smaller product amounts or travel sizes to me is environmental.  Buying 10 travel size Dove antiperspirants goes against my moral philosophy of living lightly off the land.  I personally can't buy a dozen containers to throw into a landfill, I feel too guilty.

I did buy a newspaper on Sunday (felt a wee bit guilty for all the paper waste, but I did recycle...) and clipped like crazy.  I also signed my savings card online for Safeway--less paper waste, yeah!  

So my goal for the next few months is to see if I could get down to $100 a week for groceries.  That's less than $1 per person per meal, not including snacks.  I can't even imagine getting that low, but with coupons, catalinas and buyer reward programs, I know I can save money.  It will be a matter of how much I can save.