Well, I certainly said it right when I said today would be a spend, spend, spend day! Yikes! I don't remember the last time I spent this much money in one day! I got my car into the Honda dealership this morning, bright and early. When the courtesy shuttle finally arrived (15 minutes late) it got me to work 10 minutes late for worship - but luckily everyone else was running late too.

During the middle of Language class the car technician person called me (Mark) and told me that from looking at the condition of my drive belts and hoses that probably my timing belt should be changed even though I was only at 72k. He also told me that my front axles (boots?) were worn to a nub and needed to be replaced. He told me the total price (after I asked him) then after I recovered from fainting (jk) I asked him if there were any discounts. He was able to give me a 10% discount since it would be 3 services. Let's just say that the ~$350 I had planned on spending today was multiplied several times. You know what felt really really good though? It was being able to write a check for that amount without flinching (well, not flinching TOO much, its still hard to see that many numbers on a check going out).

I also spent $5 at the 11th/12th grade Bake Sale. I have 11 students, but only 9 of them were here today. So I told them they could each get something up to $.50 (and then I got a $.50 item too.) Only two of them had brought money for the bake sale, and I figured it was only $5 and they'd been behaving a lOT better for me this past week - plus its helping out the 11th/12th graders.

After getting my car back from the Honda Dealer, I went to Albertsons for the double dollar coupon deal. I made a list before I left of all the coupons I had, how much they'd be worth when doubled or tripled, and how many coupons I had. Then when I was at Albertsons I figured out the price of everything I had coupons for -after coupons, and decided whether or not to get it. There were about 8 or 9 things that I crossed off the list because I knew I could get them cheaper even without the extra coupon money. But all in all I did end up getting $65 worth of grocery/non-grocery items for $13.38! I could have done better if I still had some of my prevous weeks coupon inserts - but I'd taken all of them to my last coupon club meeting. Still, all in all, I did get quite a bit of things that I actually will use, and one item that I don't usually get because of how much it costs.
One thing I love about couponing is when I am able to give my extra/unneeded coupons to people standing in line - either in front of me, or behind me. (A couple of times I've even given coupons to people who were standing in an aisle looking at a product I had a coupon for, but had no use for the product - hair coloring.) I was able to do that tonight. There were two people in front of me with a fistfull of coupons, which gave me plenty of time to stand and chat with the person behind me. Eventually I noticed that she had some GUM products in her cart - so I gave her two of my GUM coupons which I had ended up not using.
Well, tomorrow will be another no spend day. Although Sunday I'll probably go and get a few items at Kroger's that are a good deal with the copons coming out this Sunday, and maybe go to the $1 theatre and see "Ladder 49."
Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura