10/13/17 - What I'm Buying This Week

It's grocery deal time again! I've fallen off the meal planning bandwagon lately and all the eating on the fly and drive thru has played havoc on my stomach. This week it's back to focusing on stocking up the pantry and doing more home cooking. I like to do most of my grocery shopping on Thursday and Friday since the new grocery ad cycle in my area starts on Thursday so I hit the stores yesterday.

First great deal was actually at Walmart and it's an ongoing deal - so not tied into any ad cycle. I'm not a Walmart shopper but there is a "new" store (granted it's over a year or maybe two old) that's on my way to Meijer and Kroger (which are next to each other) and my credit card is offering 5% back in rewards points for Walmart purchases this quarter so that was my incentive for venturing into the store.

Best deals I found...

Well Yes! soup for $1. It's $2.19 at Meijer and $2.99 at Kroger. Plus, there is an insert coupon out for $0.75 off (SmartSource 10/1/17) and the same coupon is available as a printable at www.coupons.com, so $0.25 soup!

Paid $1.98

$0.25 after coupon!

Next deal was on Rana pesto for $1.74. It's $4.99 at Meijer and Kroger. There is an insert coupon that came out this past weekend (10/8/17) for $1 and the same coupon is available as a printable at www.coupons.com. $0.74 for pesto, can't beat that! The coupons don't expire until 12/31/17 and this is Walmart's everyday price so I'll be enjoying pesto for the next several months.

$0.74 after coupon

Next stop was Meijer. They have some pretty good 10 for $10, get the 11th item free deals his week. Plus, hubs upgraded my cell phone a couple months ago so I was FINALLY able to get on Ibotta and I've been redeemimg deals like crazy there. Did two transactions as I like to make sure my 11th free item rings up the way I want it and the shorter receipts are easier to scan.

Transaction #1

(4 ) Hormel Natural Choice Snacks    $1 each

(2 ) Pillsbury crescent rolls    $1 each

(2) Larabars   $1 each

(2) Starkist Tuna Creations   $1 each

1 lb baby carrots   $0.00 (11th item free)

...so these were my 11 items for the 10 for $10, get the 11th item free deals, then...

dozen eggs  $0.49

celery   $1.99

bag of Lacinato kale   $2.69

shallot   $0.30

Muir Glen tomato paste   $0.91

Minute Rice   $1.79                              

$18.17

- (4) $1 off Hormel Natural snacks  (yup, they were free after coupon)

- $1/2 Pillsbury refrigerated rolls

- $0.50/2 Larabars

- $0.50 Muir Glen               

$12.17 + $0.14 tax = $12.31

All for $12.31

Submitted for $0.50 back on the Muir Glen and $1 on the Pillsbury from www.savingstar.com and $1 on the Starkist from Ibotta so got another $2.50 back.

Transaction #2

(4) Progresso soups   $1 each

(6) various Pillsbury refrigerated rolls   $1 each

Fage crossovers yogurt   $0.00 (11th item free)

... I made sure the Fage rang up last as the free item because I had coupons for all the other items and the register won't let you use a coupon on a free item.

$10

- $1/4 Progresso

- (3) $1/2 Pillsbury refrigerated rolls

$6.00

$6.00

Submitted for $1.00 back from Savingstar for the Progresso and $0.50 back from Ibotta for the Fage. I didn't know if I'd get credit from Ibotta for a free item but I did so another $1.50 in the bank for me!

Other Meijer mPerks deals I got credit for...

$3 off your next purchase when you buy $10 in Pillsbury refrigerated products

- credited for $8 so far; actual spending $4 (not counting money I'm getting back)

$2 off your next purchase when you spend $10 on Progresso Soup

- I had a small credit going in so now I'm up to $4.74; actual spending $3

Made Moroccan Lentil Salad for lunch. Recipe HERE.

Moroccan Lentil Salad

Today I went back to Meijer to finish off the Pillsbury and Progresso deals with some more coupons that I dug up.

loaf of Meijer bread   $1.09

(6) Progresso soups   $1 each

(3) Pillsbury crescent rolls   $1 each

Yoplait custard yogurt  $1

4-pack mini Naan Stonefire bread $0.00 (free 11th item)

$11.09

-(2) $1/3 Progresso soups

$1/3 Pillsbury refrigerated rolls

$0.25 Yoplait custard yogurt

$7.84

Total $7.84

Earned a total of $5 in mPerks credits for my next order. I'll probably go back and get some more 10 for $10 items that I don't have coupons for including Naan Stonefire and Starkist Creations.

Next stop was Kroger. They are having another "Buy 4 Get $4 Off" Mega Sale this week. I spied my favorite cashier working the self checkout so I loaded up...

*are Mega Sale items

*(8) 24-ct Stayfree Pads @ $2.99 each

*(4) 72-ct Huggies Wipes @ $1.99 each

*(4) Kellogg's Special K cereal @ $2.99 each

*(4) Laughing Cow cheese wedges @ $3.59 each

*(2) Herbal Essences @ $4.99 each

* Arla spreadable cream cheese  $2.69

* So Delicious coconut milk creamer  $1.99

(2) Muscle Milk bars @ $1.50 each

(8) Larabars @ $0.90 each

(6) Enjoy Life chocolate bars @ $1.39 each

Noosa yogurt  $1.99

$93.39

- $24 Mega Sale discounts

- $2.69 free Arla Kroger eCoupon

- $1.99 free Noosa Kroger Free Friday eCoupon

- $1 off $6 Kroger natural foods

- (4) $2/2 Stayfree

- (2) $1/2 Huggies

- (4) $1 Kellogg's Special K

- (4) $1 Laughing Cow

- $2/2 Herbal Essences

- $1 So Delicious

- (2) $1 Muscle Milk

- (4) $0.50/2 Larabar

- (2) $4/3 Enjoy Life

$31.71 + $2.81 tax = $33.52

Can't beat $33.52!

I had $59.87 in register discounts and coupons

$11.27 of the total is for donations this month. Donating the Stayfree and Huggies wipes. I haven't posted my monthly donations in awhile but I've trended towards donating Health and Beauty Aids more than food items now as I was told these are in demand because people can't use food stamps for things like this. After coupons but before tax the Stayfree was $0.99 a pack and the Huggies were $0.49 a pack. I may go back and get more next week.

The Herbal Essences was a request from my daughter. Larabars too. She loves them but wanted to try a bunch of new flavors. The Enjoy Life chocolate bars were $0.06 each after coupon and qualified for a Savingstar offer. Savingstar gave me credit for spending $8.34 on Enjoy Life products. I'll get $4 back when I reach $12. I'm up to $10.34 because I got $2 in credits for watching a 30 second video on their site. Also submitted for $0.50 back on 2 Larabars and got 400 Kellogg's Family Rewards points for the 4 boxes of cereal.

If I hadn't seen my favorite cashier I probably would have broken this up but this guy scanned all 25 coupons without batting an eye. Yay!

Dinner tonight is Spinach, Ricotta, and Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Recipe HERE.

Spinach, Ricotta and Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Feels good to cook again and stock up my pantry.

Monumental Marathon Training Weeks 18 and 19

Today was catch up day. A gray rainy curl up in bed all day day. I welcomed the cooler weather and spent the day catching up on life in general. Actually, I was trapped in Anderson, IN for most of the morning. G had master classes with two renowned ballet dancers for 4 hours, then an awards ceremony to attend. I packed up my laptop, Kindle, the weekend papers, cell phone and a camp chair and spent the morning sitting in the parking lot catching up on life. I think I was the envy of every dad trapped there too as I was outdoors, all by myself in a quiet parking lot, enjoying the fall weather and my time alone. It didn't start raining until we started home.

I am working on revamping my blog page, moving things around and updating labels and such. I am planning to launch a Facebook page for it and being more active in general with the blog again. I am also excited to be selected for Lewis Howes' Book Launch Team for his upcoming book "The Mask of Masculinity" (available October 31st). He is a motivational speaker, entrepreneur, former pro athlete that I discovered down the internet rabbit hole one night. That's a post in itself so more on that later.

I refocused my running goals after Mill Race. I am hoping to go into the Monumental Marathon with the same level of training I was had at Mill Race. Surely I can run a qualifying time there. I plan to see if I can run 3:50. It took BQ -3:23 to get into Boston 2018 so I am aiming for at least 5 minutes under (that's 3:55 for me). I didn't run the mileage I wanted the two weeks after Mill Race but I'm starting to depend more on running by feel. Truth is, I've been pretty darn tired. So here's the training log...

Week 18
Sunday 9/24 – Zero miles. Post race recovery day.

Monday 9/25  – 6 miles. Easy shake out run on the Monon.

Tuesday 9/26 – 6 miles. Run Club workout. 2 mile warm up, then 800 meter hill runs with the first 800 fast and the next 800 as a recovery. Did 3 sets and that was enough. My legs were dead. It was still in the 80’s and we got popsicle sticks afterwards. 1 mile cool down back to the car.

Wednesday 9/27 – Zero miles. I needed a rest.

Thursday 9/28 – 6 miles. Easy run on the Monon.

Friday 9/29 – Zero miles. Ended up having too much other stuff to do so I didn’t get a run in. I’d committed to making some decorated cookies for a fund raising raffle at my High School Reunion on Saturday night but I didn’t get around to making then until this morning. Hubs then took me out to lunch and I lost track of time and got behind. Decided I’d finish the cookies in the morning as I wanted to go to my alma mater Chatard’s home comimg football game. I hadn’t been to a Chatard football game since graduating high school. I’m glad I went. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and catching up.

Saturday 9/30 – Zero miles. Finished up decorating some cookies in the morning for my 30^th High School Reunion then had to help my mom pick up her brother from the airport. That sucked up most of my afternoon, then went to my Reunion in the evening. Reunion was supposed to run from 7pm to 11pm. At 1 am the brewery finally kicked us all out. It was a blast!

Chatard HS Class of 1987

cookies for the raffle bag

18 miles for Week 18.

Week 19

Sunday  10/1 – 5 miles. Easy run on the county road. Went to work in the evening.

Monday 10/2 - Zero miles. Got home at 4 am and had a quick turn around to get back to work by 2 pm cause I traded shifts so I could take my daughter to a dance competition on Saturday.

Tuesday 10/3 - Zero miles. Worked all day.

Wednesday 10/4 – 15 miles. Couldn’t decide what to run tonight. I initially was going to do some speed work since I missed Run Club on Tuesday and toyed with doing a warm up, then 3 miles at 9:00, 2 miles at 8:30 and 1 mile at 8:00 and repeat it a couple times. Got halfway to Carmel with my daughter and realized I didn’t have my Garmin so that plan changed to a 12 mile long run since I knew the 6 mile turn around point. Got to the Y and reached in my glove box for my lock and realized I’d stuffed my Garmin in there last week so decided to do the speed work again. Well… it was hot again. In the 80’s and it had rained earlier in the day so it was humid. Did the mile warm up, then 9:06, 8:48… first pace mile was good except I started out too fast then overshot the slow down. My left Achilles for some reason started pulling during the second mile and I had a tired wooden feeling in my legs. Noooo…. I didn’t want to risk an injury by pushing tired legs – and the whole time I’m trying to figure out why they were tired – so I backed off. Ran the rest of miles easy and gave myself plenty of time to stretch afterwards. Achilles pull went away soon after I slowed the pace so I have no idea what happened. Got home in the evening and realized I was really sore – like more sore than after Mill Race. What is up with my body?

Thursday 10/5 – 6 miles. Work up feeling like I’d been run over by a truck and remained tired all day. Got out on the Monon in the evening and hoped things would feel better. Luckily it did. It misted rain the whole time which helped. Overall a pleasant run.

Friday 10/6 – Zero miles. I had originally planned to get at least a 6 mile run in before going to work in the evening but simply felt too physically tired so I shelved it.

Saturday 10/7 – Zero miles. Got home from work at 4 am, then left at 8 am to take my daughter to a dance competition. Spent the whole day there and got back home at 10 pm.

26 miles for Week 19. I feel like I "broke" something Wednesday night. Hoping for more energy this week!

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my blog! So glad you found me here. I originally started this blog in 2013 as an accountability tool; something to keep me accountable to my goals. I figured even if no one read the blog, it would be out there for the world to see and, in a sense, make me accountable.

            Back then, my original goal was to run a sub-2:00 half marathon again. I was a former high school runner trying to get back in shape. I met that goal and realized that I enjoyed writing a bit about my day to day life so the blog continued on. Sharing my life has opened me up to an enormous world of possibilities. I’ve done things that I had never even dreamed of doing in the past. I ran Boston. I started an Etsy store. I learned to swim. I can bake things and make things that I thought you only saw in magazines. It’s been empowering to see that I can do all the things I used to think only other people. I believe anything is achievable if you take one step at a time.

            I’m a mom with too many interests. I bake, I cook, I craft. I love the game and hunt of a great deal so I’ve been a couponer and deal seeker forever. I’m a wanna-be minimalist that struggles with clutter and sentimentality. Life is a journey. This is my place to share it.