5 posts tagged “bargains”
After a hellish bout with the stomach virus made popular by cruise ships called the Norovirus, I am BACK! Yes, my grandfather brought the Norovirus to Thanksgiving and it made its way around my family. I started feeling twinges after I got back from Black Friday shopping with my mom, and by 4pm I was down for the count. Tadd tucked me in bed and I nodded off for a couple of hours only to wake up to the sound of him wretching in the bathroom as well. We both stayed in bed all day Saturday and by Sunday we were feeling well enough to put up the tree. I don't have much else to say about the Norovirus, other than I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!
Unfortunately, I made it back to work on Tuesday to find that I was all alone during what is likely the busiest week in the entire year for my industry. My boss's kid is severely ill, our data entry specialist was out with pink eye, and the other case manager is in NJ due to a death in the family. That left just me. The data entry person came back Wednesday, and my boss was finally able to come in for a half-day today, but I have been doing about six times the amount of work I normally do and my stress levels have been through the roof. I'm trying to console myself with the fact that the week is almost over, but I have NEVER been this behind before. Through no fault of my own, of course, but it is bothering me all the same. I'm only one person! Luckily, everyone should be back in the office on Monday and the December new business should start tapering off. But sometimes it feels like I'll NEVER be caught up again.
In happier news, we got a new camera on Black Friday! We got the 10.3 megapixel Kodak that was on sale at Target for $89.99. It's not the fanciest, but it is worlds better than the camera we have had since we first got married in Summer 2004. I can't wait to take it along for our Disney weekend a week from tomorrow. I am SO looking forward for a little getaway, and it will definitely give us a reason to try out all the features of our new camera.
I know I promised F&G Fest pics. They are still coming. In the meantime, I've already posted the majority of them over on Facebook. We had a lovely time! It was hot, but we both had our brand new Misty Mate personal misters, which worked like a charm to keep us cool. Epcot looks stunning, seriously. Especially the hydrangeas! We were walking around the perfume garden in the back of France and happened upon a large quantity of them in the very back of the garden. I just had to stop and stare at them for a few minutes. They looked like a field of gorgeous pink and purple clouds. Breathtaking! I loved all the topiaries too, especially the one with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Tadd, Bet, and I went to the new Orlando Ikea last Sunday and were quite impressed. I believe this is the first one open in Florida, and we had never been before. It's definitely a sensory overload. I'm going again tonight with my mom. My parents are (FINALLY, after many years of going back and forth about it) getting ready to redo their kitchen, so I thought she might get some inspirations for some of the smaller details, like those little shelving systems you can get for your backsplash area to help you maximize space between the bottom of your cabinets and the countertops. They have all sorts of nifty little things at that place. When we were there last weekend, we spent $25 and got a 4-piece knife set, 2 pillows, 4 picture frames, 100 tealights, a wall clock, and a cutting board. You can't beat that!
Vacation and birthday are exactly one month from Tuesday!
I did a lot of shopping this weekend. Bought 2 shirts at JCPenney, 2 tank tops and a pair of those bermuda shorts to wear for our theme park adventures this spring/summer and some clothes for Tadd at Old Navy, and did some Easter shopping at Target and various other places. We ended up going to the Old Navy off of Colonial Drive and passed a Scientology protest on the way, which was...interesting. We also went to this HUGE wine store in that area. I got a bottle of cherry wine imported from Denmark that I found I absolutely adore. I took the advice on the bottle and mixed it with cola and it tasted like the most delicious Cherry Coke I have ever had. VERY yummy. They also have some black currant beer that I want to try.
I also pretty much went nuts with my CVS shopping this weekend. I made 3 trips to 3 different CVS stores and spent a grand total of $8.98 on the following:
- 2 packages of 6 large plastic easter eggs
- 2 woven Easter baskets
- 2 Cover Girl TruShine lipsticks
- 1 Maybelline SuperStay gloss
- 2 Oral-B Cross Action toothbrushes
- Dove shampoo
- Dove conditioner
- Dove deodorant
- 2 bottles Dove bodywash
- Bic Soleil razor
- Bic Soleil refill cartridges
- 2 tubes Lumene Aktiva face cream
- 5 Lifestyle Fitness pain patches
- 2 Glade room sprays
- Reese's candy bar
- Almay eye makeup remover pads
We saw The Other Boleyn Girl Saturday afternoon. I thought it was pretty good, even with all the historical inaccuracies. I knew it was based off of a novel, so I had a feeling the plot would take liberties, which it did. I still enjoyed it. I thought Natalie Portman made a great Anne Boleyn. ***minor spoiler alert*** I did have to roll my eyes a bit at the very end when they tried to be all dramatic in spelling out in subtitles that the baby daughter that Anne and Henry had together grew up to become Elizabeth I. Perhaps I am just a history nerd, but I thought Elizabeth I's parental lineage was pretty common knowledge. ***end spoiler alert*** When we got home, I was in the mood for more Henry VIII stuff, so we rewatched the first 3 episodes of The Tudors while drinking our new cherry wine. It got me all psyched up for the start of season 2, which starts March 30th! It was kind of interesting seeing the same story twice, one right after another, with different actors playing the same characters and a different style of telling the same story. Kind of like comparing Elizabeth (the theatrical release film starring Cate Blanchett) and Elizabeth I (the HBO mini series starring Helen Mirren).
In other news...we are finally booking our cruise next weekend! Yay!
Lately I've gotten back into couponing. I always love a good deal, but up until the past couple of weeks, I hadn't been as into it as I had been in the past. It takes some work and strategizing, but in the end, it's really satisfying. Just this weekend alone, I have spent less than $10 for about $80 worth of product from CVS. My total over 2 trips to CVS stores yesterday and today was $8.78, which got me 3 CoverGirl lip products, a tube of toothpaste, a plastic accordian file (to organize my ever-growing collection of coupons), 4 bags of Easter candy, 2 packages of maxi pads, some deodorant for Tadd, a bottle of conditioner, hairspray, and some Excedrin Migraine. I love it! And after all of that, I still have $7 in Extra Care Bucks to put against my next CVS purchase. We also did our weekly grocery run today and got another $80 of stuff for $52.52. I would say we are well stocked on many things for awhile. This website really helps with finding th best deals, although I'm also considering restarting my subscription to the Grocery Game.
My mom made it through some major surgery this past week. She has had all sorts of issues with her lower digestive tract, so they went in and removed the part of her intestines that were the source of the problem. Tadd and I visited her in the hospital Friday night and Saturday. She seems to be doing a lot better, but she still has about 2 weeks of recovery ahead of her. Once she is recovered, most of the problems she has had in that area of her body should be gone and she can even go back to eating things she couldn't have before.
Bet came over and hung out Friday night and ended up spending the night. Then Saturday night, he tagged along with Tadd and I to meet up with Betsy & Richard at this new place down in the Waterford Lakes area called Firkin & Kegler. It's an entertainment center with a restaurant, nightclub, arcade, bowling alley, sports bar, pool hall, etc. We had a good time. We ate, drank, the boys bowled a few games, and Tadd even won me plushes of Scuttle and Ursula from The Little Mermaid with tickets from the arcade. Hee! I have some pics from the evening that I might post later.
I will be back soon with my Oscar picks!
Lots of fun stuff going on right now...
- This weekend, we pretty much finalized our cruise plans. October 4th on the Carnival Glory! I absolutely cannot wait. We'll be going to Cozumel, Belize, Hondouras, and the Bahamas!
- Tadd started up a fantasy baseball league, and I decided to give it a try. I named my team the H-Bombs. I'm not really up on the stats and figures, but it's all just for fun, so I'm just going to do my best and learn as I go. I'm currently putting together a list of my top 25 players for when we do our live draft. Bet, Ryan, my dad, Richard, and a few others will have teams as well.
- We get a short day at work tomorrow thanks to Presidents' Day. All of the companies that use us for their benefits administration for are off tomorrow, so we only have to work 9-2. Nice! It would be even nicer if we got the whole day off, but I'll take what I can get.
- I never knew how much you could save by shopping at CVS until today. We finally got one of those Extra Care Bucks (ECB) cards, and bought a ton of cleaning supplies and other essentials today, including one of those automatic shower cleaner machines. We saved a total of $26 off of an approximately $50 purchase with sales and coupons and then got an additional $21 in ECBs towards our next purchase! Even better...I found that there are whole message boards devoted to getting as much value out of those ECB cards as possible. People are walking out with $80-worth of stuff, while only paying like $0.11 out of pocket because they know how to work the system. This totally appeals to my bargain-shopper tendancies! I love it! So I have a feeling I will be shopping a lot more at CVS from now on.
