Wow-----where has the time gone!?!

I keep meaning to post some perfect post that will make up for the fact that I didn't send out any Christmas cards this year and am still removing frozen lights from my front porch. Since it's the end of January, THE VERY END!, I think I will do a Valentine's 'card' instead and maybe I will think of some way to incorporate the porch Christmas lights to Valentine lights---perhaps spray painting them red would help? I'm not sure I'm up to the innovativeness of my friend, LuWenn, who spray painted her pumpkins to make a snowman decoration. But I'll give it a try.

I met a girl in our ward up here who would entrance me with her tales of going to the grocery store and getting 'free' stuff. She made it all sound so simple, I thought, I have a brain, I should be able to figure this out. Well, I do have a brain, but for some reason it is not in top condition, which is what every good coupon clipper needs, I think. I entered the world of coupon clipping ready to conquer all and show my good husband what a thrifty wife he has. So I started with a simple Albertson's sale. Let's see, you buy $20 worth of certain items and you get $5 to spend on your next transaction. Should be a piece of cake. Well, the trick I learned from Sarah, was to get the first transaction to be discounted with your bunch of coupons and then to use still more coupons and the $5 on the next transaction so that it came out practically free. See....there is a hitch here. It sounds good on paper, I figured out all of my 4 transactions that would be discounted using multiple coupons and the $5 Albies would give me and I would be sitting pretty. Well, here's the hitch......when you get this all figured out on paper so that you can waltz into Albies, pick up the items, stack them into 4 separate piles (amidst disapproving stares from fellow shoppers and the cashier), you never figure that Albertsons will be sold out of that item, because everyone else in the valley is doing the same thing you are! So then you have to grab your coupon book (which used to be a photo album in it's better days) and rummage through it to figure out how to get to your $20 again with items that you truly need, have a coupon for and can find in the store. The planned 10 minute escapade turns into an hour of thinking, re-thinking, pulling your hair and wondering if your kids are still watching the movie you put on in the car (when you promised that you'd only be 10 minutes in the store) or if they're running loose in the parking lot! Wow, stress level goes up! You get it eventually, but wonder.....did I really need that, did I save enough to justify all this hair falling out?

I have to say, though, that I was so proud of my 75 boxes of cereal that cost $1 or less that I had to invite everyone who walked through the door to come and view the masterpiece so carefully laid out in my food storage room. BUT when I thought I'd gotten a deal on Velveeta cheese last week at Smith's (which we usually don't eat, but was a deal, so I'm sure I could find recipes somewhere!) and then looked at the Albertsons ad the next day that said I could have bought the same crackers that I'd bought at Smith's for $1 less AND get FREE velveeta cheese, I thought I'd cry----and I did dream about it all night long----must be my subconscience trying to figure out how I could screw up so badly!!

I hope the learning curve get's easier. Some things have worked well, other's haven't (big oops!), I've spent a little more then normally, but in general I think my food storage is in better shape. When I have another minute between Jacob's non-sleeping ear infection moments, then I will write down some of the tips I've learned. It definitely has been an adventure and something new to learn and try. I didn't know I could get teary about the 6 cans of Glade Air freshner I got for FREE---wow, they look so beautiful all stacked next to my 75 cent shampoo bottles! I did it, I finally figured out how to get FREE ITEMS! So now I can smile smugly at people and tell them that you can get FREE stuff out there if you just work at it a bit (ha, ha, ha!).

However, in the midst of feeling guilty for spending so much time trying to figure out the silly coupon saving bit and then feeling bad that I didn't get the best deal around, a friend of mine sent me this email that I thought was so beautiful---so I thought I'd share!

Interview with God