Dining in in May- Day 3 & My meal plan for the week

How's everyone doing? Don't forget to comment on this post for a chance to win a $25 Olive Garden gift card in June!

Today was fine for me. I had leftover pizza from the weekend that I brought in for lunch.

Here's my meal plan for the week, using what I have on hand:

Today: Tortellini & Salad

Wednesday: Veggie Burgers & Fries

Thursday: Chicken & mashed potatoes

Friday: Taco Night

Saturday: BBQ Chicken

Chantix- Day 1 (Round 2)...

Well, I'm doing it again. Chantix. I took it it from August through November of 2007 and it worked beautifully, with the exception of some not so pleasant side effects. Needless to say I began smoking again shortly thereafter, but I think I was just not in the right mindset to quit (being depressed over the death of my grandmother).

So here I am , a year and a half later revisiting the subject. I have been talking it up to my friend for a few months, telling her how wonderfully it works for quitting and warning her about the side effects I experienced last time (nausea, fatigue, vivid dreams, and gastric upset). I talked it up to her so much that I went and got a prescription for it myself, which has been floating around in my purse for about 3 months. My friend began taking it last weekend, so I told her I would start this weekend.

I filled the first month of my RX at CVS yesterday for $136 (ouch!). My insurance does not cover it at all- thought I did get a $25 gift card with a coupon from CVS. I took the first pill last night after dinner, and within an hour I already had the telltale stomach discomfort, and the weird feeling in my mouth. I've smoked as many cigarettes as I normally do today, and haven't yet noticed any real urge not to. I also had semi-vivid dreams last night, and pretty scary ones to boot. Vivid dreams is something that I am very sensitive to with this and other drugs that alter that part of your brain (like the patch).

Right now I feel super tired, though I am not sure if it is due to the Chantix or to the disturbances in my sleep last night because of the dreams.

I signed up for their online support program, getquit, which is free when you have a code that comes inside your box. So far it seems like the same old spiel- right down when, where, and why you smoke for 24 hours, then write down all of the reasons you want to quit, etc. I have done everything they recommend so far, though I don't necessarily feel like its going to affect my chances of quitting. I already know why I smoke- addiction and habit.

I'll be taking my second pill tonight after dinner- and I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow.

CVS is the shizzle for dizzle

Those of you know me know that I have three great loves- my family, Disney, and Coupons! I have always been somewhat of a couponing affecionado. I started a few years ago and began saving roughly 30% on my grocery bill.

In July, we signed up for a really cool budgeting program called Mint.com. You enter the information for all of your acccounts, set budgets, and it automatically tells you how much you are spending on things like groceries, gas, utilities, and pretty much anythnig else you set it for. You can imagine my chagrin when I realized that we spent just a little over $1200 in July on eating out and groceries. Thats nearly the amount of my mortgage.

That figure changed the way I shop forever. I vowed to get my food bill way down, even with the rising cost of everything. Starving wasn't an option that I cared to explore, but my old standby couponing was. I grabbed the Sunday paper that week and hopped online. After some google searches I discovered hotcouponworld.com. This website is incredible, and it teaches you step by step how to get started saving and almost any store you can think of, wherever in the country you are.

After a few weeks of saving nearly 70% on my grocery bill, I decided that I needed to find a way to get toiletries and household items. Thats when I stumbled upon CVS. I read online about people saving ridiculous amounts of money by combining sales with coupons and the Extra Care Bucks program, and it all seemed to good to be true.

I've been CVS'ing since August, and to date I've saved almost $600 and spent under $60. This is what I'm doing this week:

CVS:

5.79 Covergirl Clean Makeup
6.99 Febreeze Noticable
0.99 Dawn Dishwashing Liquid- x 2
0.99 Dawn Hand renewal
8 x Schick disposables- $7.92
$22.76 Total

-4/20 CVS q
-$1 CG q
-$5 Febreze q
-$1.00/2 Dawn q
-$1.00 Dawn Hand Renewal Q
-$8.00 Schick Q’s
=$2.76 After cpn before taxes
-$2.00 ECB
=$0.76 + tax

Earn $5.79 ECB

So basically, CVS is paying me $5.03 to take this stuff out of the store! Yippe! :-)

Oh, Nancy Botwin, what a tangled web we weave....

Okay, so Ryan and I are HUGE fans of the Showtime show Weeds (thanks to our wonderful friends Cindy and Mario who got us hooked, no pun intended). We watched the final episode of season 4 last night which, just like every episode before it, left us cursing the day the darn show was created for leaving us on such a cliffhanger.

If you found this by googling something like "Weeds Season 5 Spoiler", I just want to let you know that I don't have any idea what is going to happen-

But I have a theory.

I honestly think that Nancy is faking this whole situation. It's brilliant- don't get me wrong- but come on! Is Nancy really going to have a newborn running around? I just can't see it begin written in. There is, however, a different scenario that comes to mind:

Silas- Remember when Nancy was driving to Mexico, at the same time on the speaker phone with the gift shop, ordering a gift basket for Silas' 18th birthday? She was trying to figure out what she should have them put on the card, and the only things she could think of were things like "Silas- I'm sorry I failed you" and "Silas- Thank you for raising yourself". The producers want you to think that she was under so much duress because of where she was headed that she couldn't think of anything positive to say, but what if she found the ultrasound pic in his stuff earlier, and his 40 year old girl friend is prego? Wouldn't that be reason for her to say the things she said?

Just some food for thought....

To all who come to this happy place...welcome!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my very first post!

(Pretty special, isn't it?)

Before we get down to business, I'd like to introduce myself:

I'm Tina, and this is my dear hubby Ryan:
(Sorry ladies, he's taken)

Together we conquer all sorts of things- finding creative ways to budget, traveling, and throwing lots of parties for not lots of money (a.k.a Ballin' on a Budget). We definitely have a wonderful life. And speaking of wonderful, allow me to introduce our three wonderful children:

Twinkle

Homer
and of course, Gabriella (a.k.a. Gabby)

I'm still learning how to use this thing, and amazingly its very user friendly. I've figured out how to do everything all by myself so far. I've become really lazy with technology since I married Ryan, who is an IT director and, unlike myself, smarter than the computer.

Tomorrow we'll get down to business, but right now I've got to take Gabby out before she poops in Ryan's office (I'm sure this will come up later).

So, it's a pleasure to meet you all, and don't forget to vote on my dinosaur poll. It's for a research project.


PS- Brownie points for anyone who knows what the title of my blog refers to.

PSS- Nevermind. You're all going to cheat and google it.