Freebies arrived!!!

We got all of this stuff in the mail late last week.

The P+G Brandsaver sample pack mentioned previously and a Kashi bar sample which came with a coupon for a free box of bars!

Jon, Alice and I shared the bar. Jon didn't like it but I thought it was pretty good, comparable to Nutrigrain bars. I'll probably use the coupon to get the same flavor (blackberry). It will be a good snack to keep in the stroller that Alice and I can share after baby time at the library when we get home a bit late for lunch or when we're out getting groceries.

I also had enough Swagbucks to get a $25 PayPal giftcard which I used to order one of Jon's Christmas presents from Etsy. My points are nearly high enough to order another card soon. I'll probably use it on Etsy as well.

I also cashed in my Huggies points to order a $15 Starbucks gift card. I rarely ever buy Huggies anymore since they never send out coupons, have very little points per package, I find the diapers stiff feeling and leaky and they rarely go on sale for a decent price. So I definitely wasn't going to be adding any more points to my account and was just waiting for a reward to be posted that would use up my meager 375 points.

Free Coffee at McDonald's in Canada Oct.31-Nov.6

Free small coffee all this week from McDonalds! 

No purchase or coupon necessary,  just go up and ask for a small coffee however you happen to take it.

We'll probably go every day this week since we have a McD's just a block away instead of making coffee at home in the afternoon, it will also be a nice treat when we go to pick up groceries tomorrow. Their coffee is surprisingly decent and you can't beat free!

Freebies: P&G Brand Sampler Oct 2011

A new P&G Brand Sampler promotion was launched today. Usually you can get some good stuff for filling out a short survey.

Today we ordered Pantene shampoo, Dawn dish soap, Gain laundry detergent, Crest mouthwash, and Gilette Proglide Razor. All free!
A sample size shampoo is like hotel-size, you can get 3-4 uses out of them usually. The razor lasts me about 4 months, I've got 2 of them in the past year already and just threw the last one out on Monday.

Go here: https://www.pgbrandsampler.ca

30DC2- Day 9

Since Jon was out all day yesterday and has no idea what went down at home here's a quick rundown:

Groceries:

• Loaf of French bread from Asian bakery $1.39
• 3 large bananas and 3 lemons from Chinese market $2.14

• Donald's Market- total $21.82: Whole chicken, 1 pound ground beef, 1 box Crisco, can of tomato paste $0.79, bag of pasta $0.99, can of diced tomatoes $1.49, over 2 pounds Russet potatoes $1.64, 3 jumbo carrots $1.51, over a pound and a half of green beans $2.04

I really don't remember what else happened other than it was hot and I'm sure I did something around the house!

So, what happened today?

Jon spent most of the day complaining about the garlic he had yesterday. So he had even more garlic today and for some weird reason it seems to have cancelled out yesterday's garlic. Strange. He also worked a bit I guess, I really don't know, the farting kept me away. Lol.

I spent a lot of the day keeping Alice from pulling dirty diapers out of the garbage, stopping her from trying to open the balcony door and peeling paint chips off of the frame and eating them, and pulling her down from the coffee table that she learned to climb up onto. She's a terror, she also didn't nap until 5pm and then someone rang our door and woke her up after just 15 minutes.

In between baby wrangling events I managed to tidy up the living room and finally fold and put away the laundry from a couple days ago.

Around 2 we went out to get some worms and slugs for our teeny snake Noodle and to let Alice play on the swings. I brought a small plastic bag with me thinking there might be some cherries we could pick from the tree at the park if it was still the season. About a block from our place there was a giant blackberry bush hanging over the sidewalk and it was just filled with huge ripe berries. We got right to work picking them and had a good amount within a short amount of time. We continued to the park where we found very few bugs, no cherries but even more blackberries, we picked anything we could reach before heading back and stopping at the park with the swings. Jon took Alice on the swings and I discovered even more blackberries. I nearly filled the small bag, totaling almost 2 pounds of berries! This would be about two pints I think. I may go back tomorrow to pick some more.

Urban foraging FTW!

 

Forgot to buy beans for the Mexican Rice planned for tonight so we swapped for Spaghetti with cheesy garlic bread. The stinky cheese we got is awesome for garlic bread.

In the morning Jon has to go to the bank and post office before work in the studio.

30 Day Challenge- Day 9

Here is the meal plan for the next 7 days.

Groceries today came to $44.58, we didn't pick up sandwich stuff because we're not having it for an entire week. I might scrap that idea and come up with something else using what we have because giant sandwich night usually costs quite a bit and we're just under the weekly grocery allowance.

We spent $15.66 at the butcher on pork cutlets, pork ribs, chicken and 2 pounds of margarine.  Got some flax seed, granola and walnuts in bulk for $3.54

At Donald's Market for $25.38

Organic Vanilla Soy 1.89L
Half and Half cream 1L
Tomato Sauce
Crown Broccoli
Mozzarella cheese
4 Nectarines
1 White Onion
2 Russet Potatoes
1 orange pepper
4 Ambrosia Apples
2 jumbo carrots
1 package discount vine tomatoes

Last week we only spent $37.99, so far our running total is at $82.57, less than half of our allowance of $200. Will we come in under budget? I'm really surprised that we've been doing so well.

The only extra spending was my trip to the fabric store and Jon's Starbucks meeting where he only spent about $3 and got a code for a free drink for completing a survey. We used it this morning on a Venti Java Chip  Frappucino that we shared since we ran out of cream for our morning drinks. We were lucky enough to get yet another code for a free drink. We'll probably use it next week when we go out for groceries.

Also got laundry done and posted a Craigslist ad. I keep receiving Similac coupons so I just keep giving them away to someone who needs them.

Pork cutlet sandwiches for dinner tonight. Buns were leftover from the burgers Tuesday. No waste!