ABCZooHome

Stores #3-5.  CVS here.  Target here.  8 hours later I got home.  I’m still putting things away.

Petsmart:
24 cans Alpo dog food, $.82 each – $.07 each PetPerks – $4.00 (2x$2.00/12)
4 cans Pedigree dog food, $.75 each – $.75
1 small bag Purina One Beyond dry dog food, $7.99 – $.49 PetPerks – $4.00
3 small bags Beneful Fiesta dry dog food, $5.99 each – $6.00 (3x$2.00/1)
1 small bag Hill’s Science Diet dry dog food, $10.99 – $3.00 PetPerks 
2 “smart” dog toys, $9.99 each – $.75 each PetPerks
1 dog chew toy, $10.99
2 bags treats for “smart” toys, $4.99 each – $.75 each PetPerks

Total before: $119.58

Total paid: $92.16, 23% savings

I have a rebate for the Hill’s Science, $7.99

Walgreens:
I was hit up by the local paper for a subscription on the way in, earning a $10.00 gc.  I may or may not keep the subscription.  Probably not past the first month.
2 Chex Mix, $2.79 each – $1.58
Rice Krispies Treats, $1.99
2 Energizer button batteries, $4.49 each
Cottonelle 12pk, $5.00 – $.75 – $1.00 Walgreens

Total before: $23.56

Total paid, after gc: $3.24, 86% savings

United:
Big trip, too much to list and not very many great deals.  Highlights and bottom line:
-$.95 green bag credit
4 Gillette body wash, $4.39 each – $8.78 b1g1 – $16.00 (4x$2.00/1)
2 Barbasol shave cream, $1.39 each – $1.39 b1g1
2.72lb. beef arm roast, $13.03 meal deal
1 box shells & cheese, $1.69 – $1.69 meal deal
2 brown gravy mix, $.45 each – $.90 meal deal
1 lb. baby carrots, $1.69 – $1.69 meal deal
3.45 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, $13.77 – $5.83 b1g1 pkg.
2.85 lbs. bone-in pork chops, $12.80 – $6.11 b1g1 pkg.
4 bags salad, $1.59 each – $3.18 b1g1 – $1.00/2
2 1.25ltr Coke, $.99 each – $.99 b1g1
1 Powerade, $1.00 – $1.00
13 Chef Boyardee, $1.00 each – $6.50 (13x$.50/1)
8 Fuze, $1.00 each
4.36 lbs. bananas, $2.70
-$8.00 Fuze wyb bananas
-$36.51 WIC

Total before: $478.57
Total after: $365.50, 24% savings

I did so much shopping yesterday that it warrants multiple posts for the deals at different stores.  CVS is here. Petsmart, Walgreens, United here.

Target:
25 Sobe Lifewater, $1.00 each (2 were $.71 for some reason) – $5.00 (5x$1/5)
Purell 6pk mini hand sanitizer, $2.54
Iron Girl energy bar, $.99 – $.99
stick lighter, $1.00
3 Vicks Nature Fusion cold medicine, $6.49 each – $4.50 (3x$1.50/1)
here’s where it gets a little complicated:
2 Venus Breeze razors, $7.99 each
2 Venus Breeze refills, $14.49 each
2 Olay body wash (1 came with beauty bar), $5.99 each
2 Secret deodorant (both came with body spray), $3.99 each
$6.00 off Secret wyb razors (2x$3.00)
$11.98 free Olay wyb refills (2xfree)
$1/2 Olay/Secret/Venus Target coupon
$5 off Venus razor and refill Target coupon

$2.76 RedCard 5% savings

Total before: $113.14

Total paid: $74.50, 34% savings

Left with $15 gc:
$5.00 Vicks
$10.00 Venus (2x$5.00/2)

Posted this week to:

I’ll try to keep it brief, but I hit just about every store I ever do: United, Target, CVS, Walgreens, and Petsmart.  There were several “needs” that messed up my overall savings, but also some excellent deals.  In fact, I’ll split into separate posts for different stores.

CVS:
4 small cookies/crackers:  Golden Oreos, Cheez-its, Chips Ahoy, Fig Newtons, $1.25 each
2 Halls Breezers, $1.50 each – $1.00
2 theater pack Red Vines, $.75 each
5 Lipton teas, $1.00 each – $1.00
CVS tissue box, $.88
saline spray, $5.89
Carmex lip balm, $3.19
Nature Made vitamin D, $7.99 – $1.00
2 CVS stomach medicine, $2.99 each – $1.50
St. Joseph’s aspirin, $2.00 (rain check) – $1.00
3 greeting cards, $.99 each
2 Gillette Fusion razors, $7.79 each – $5.00
2 Gillette Fusion refills (each included trial size body wash), $17.14 each – $5.00
3 Purell hand sanitizers, $1.99 each – $1.00
2 Suave Pro shampoo, $2.57 each – $2.57
2 Suave Kids shampoo, $2.67 each – $2.67

$4 off $20 coupon and $3.00 ecb

Total before: $113.74
Total paid: $85.00, 25% savings

Left with $21 ecb:
$1.00 crackers/cookies
$1.00 tea
$4.00 vitamins
$1.00 aspirin (rain check)
$3.00 cards
$10.00 Gillette
$1.00 green bag
and available rebate for Carmex, $3.19

linked this week to:

I didn’t get around to recording what we really ate last week.  I estimate about half the meals got eaten in some form or another.  Last week I was working from mostly freezer and pantry foods.  This week I have fresh meat thanks to yesterday’s marathon shopping.

Monday:
sesame glazed salmon, noodles, broccoli
reality: All of the above – and I discovered that a honey glaze, in the oven, bubbles up and turns to tar.  Who knew?

Tuesday:
fish tacos, rice, salad
reality: Skipped the rice and put the salad on the tacos.  Not bad.

Wednesday:
on your own (kids gone)
reality: I had some pasta, don’t know about anyone else.

Thursday:
pork chops, applesauce, mashed potatoes
reality: Exactly as stated – and with an excellent gravy, if I do say so myself.

Friday:
chicken taco soup, salad
reality: to each their own

Saturday:
pot roast, biscuits, salad
reality: KFC/Taco Bell

Sunday:
popcorn chicken/teriyaki chicken nuggets, tater tots/french fries, salad
reality: chicken and gnocchi soup

I began talking about categories of information to tame here.  This is a large topic and I thought it prudent to divide it into two posts to keep it manageable.  Here then is the second half of my list of categories to be included in a  Control Panel.  You can find the rest of the series to date here.

Holidays

The big one for many of us is Christmas and that season.  There is a whole community (several, I’m sure) based solely on gearing up for Christmas, one being at Organized Home.  My own seasonal cleaning challenge has a fairly comprehensive preparation plan for the typical fall/winter holidays.  As for our Control Panels, the Holiday segment will consist of just the planning elements – gift and card lists, decoration guides, craft ideas, and anything else you associate with any holiday throughout the year, not just winter holidays.  An overall holiday, birthday, anniversary list would be a welcome addition.

Directories

A personal address book is a must – and usually a no-brainer.  But what about a local service directory?  A mini version of your city’s phone book, with only the information you actually *use*.  Also a storage point for take out menus, local business coupons, area brochures, sports team calendars, etc.  Note: if you have season tickets and plan to use them, you’d probably put the team calendar in your Schedule section, but for most of us this would be more a curiosity reference.

Finances

From your checkbook balance to an investment portfolio to last year’s tax return, everyone has financial records to organize.  Monetary goals can also be outlined here, with a savings or debt reduction plan to achieve them.  Receipts, warranties, owner manuals should all be kept together and in an accessible manner.

Hobbies

Scrapbooks, needlepoint, gardening, music, writing, the list is endless.  If there’s something in your life you do for fun, chances are there is something about it you need to plan, organize, or store.  I’d probably also put decorating ideas here, but they could also go in Projects or if you’re embarking on a full-scale renovation they could even have their own section.

Spiritual

Anything you consider spiritual or renewing can be covered here, whether formal prayer logs or musings on nature or anything in between.  I encourage everyone to keep a journal or diary in this section of their Control Panel, even if only the most mundane of records of the passage of time.

School, Work, Organizations

This is where we will diverge probably more than in any other section.  Some work for an outside company, some work from home, some don’t work (yeah, like this isn’t work!), some go to school, some teach school, some homeschool, some have kids in school, some are members of volunteer or recreational organizations or sit on a board of directors somewhere.  If there’s anything you belong to, outside responsibilities you juggle, this is the place to ground it.

Substitute Lesson Plan

I was trying to come up with some kind of catchy title for this section.  I’ve seen it called an Alien Abduction notebook in some forums.  The theory is that this is the emergency referral section that your family can turn to if for some reason you are unavailable for a period of time (as if you were abducted by aliens, get it?).  It contains sensitive information such as passwords, account numbers, utility and credit information, bank and other account information – more than would be found in the day to day finances.  I like to think of it as a place to write down all the things that I normally keep in my head – things *I* don’t have to look up to function daily, but if my husband had to, say, transfer money between accounts he’d have to find.  Due to the nature of this information, it is usually handled and stored with more care, and we will get to that as well when we come to this section.

I’ve tried to be fairly complete in this list.  But I may have missed something, or you may have something unusual to track and file that isn’t mentioned, or something that I mention as a subcategory could be such a big part of your life that it merits its own section.  There are also a few things that may overlap categories; I mentioned one or two.  Use my descriptions as a starting point for examining your life and the goals you noted yesterday, and come up with your list of categories/subcategories for your own Control Journal.  Please let me know in the comments what you think I missed.

 This is part 3 of an ongoing series on creating an information filing system I call a Control Panel.  First I talked about what a Control Panel is; then I asked you to think about why you might want one.  Today I start explaining what sorts of information I consider to be part of a Control Panel.

This is the crux of the Control Panel – What does it contain?  It should cover any aspect of your life that needs to be organized or referenced.  What the core of the Panel is and where you start with it depends sometimes on which philosophy or system you choose to follow.  For example, Franklin Covey planners begin with values, goals, and mission statements.  From these they determine what’s really important in their lives and parse that down to the tasks they fill their days with.  Flylady and SHE systems usually start with routines and schedules, and are primarily based on housework and recurrent chores.  Both views have merit, in my humble opinion, and I’ve practiced both.

We touched a little on the goal-oriented style before, with why we’re building a Control Panel and what we want it to help us accomplish.  If you haven’t already thought about this, I encourage you to do so before you go any further.  When we actually begin building our Control Panels, they’ll be more like the schedule-oriented systems, but a sound beginning in planning and goal-setting is extremely helpful to keep from getting bogged down in the trees while losing sight of the forest.  So today we’ll look at the various things that go into a comprehensive Control Panel and decide what we need individually for our families and homes.

The following is a list of categories that I plan to have for my Control Panel.  I will touch on each of these, working to gather or create the information required.  If I’ve missed anything you’d like to work on, please let me know and I’ll try to work it into the plan.  If there’s anything on my list that doesn’t apply to you, when we get to that part you can spend some time fine-tuning what you do have, or take a break altogether.  We’re in this together, so please speak up and leave a comment if there’s anything you’d like to say.

Schedules & Routines

A master family calendar – school schedules, work schedules, activity schedules; daily routines – morning, afternoon, evening; weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual tasks and housekeeping chores.  Basically anything based on time goes here.  It is the core of the Panel and will be an active section, in that it will be used and referenced daily.

Goals, Plans & Projects

Long term goals (anything requiring more than a single entry on a task list) and projects large and small will be laid out here.  Whether you’re building a business, moving across town, or losing 20 pounds (or more, like me), a soundly written goal and a step-by-step plan for achieving it will help ensure that you do succeed.  If you like to travel, collect brochures for places you’d like to visit, for example.

Food Preparation

We all eat.  Most of us even cook.  A segment of our Control Panels will deal with food – recipes, menu plans, pantry and grocery guides, oamc plans if that’s your thing, canning or other food storage if you do that, a price book, coupon storage, and anything else to do with food and its storage and preparation in our homes.

Family & Inventories

This is kind of a catch-all for general information about other people in your life as well as various databases of property or knowledge.  If you were in a bookstore and wanted to know if you’d already purchased #4 of a series, you would check here.  A complete home inventory is a good idea for insurance purposes.  Keeping track of children’s and spouse’s sizes aid in shopping for clothes, as will an inventory of their existing wardrobe.  Also helpful is a list of books or movies that you want to see but haven’t gotten around to.  Aren’t we all too likely to forget what it was that so-and-so recommended when we’re actually looking for something to read or watch?  An index to household storage is often handy as well.  Family medical notes and records also belong here unless they are particularly extensive for some reason.

There are many more to be sure.  More coming next time.

Everyone is talking about the loss of Steve Jobs and what effect he’s had on our world.  If you’re an Apple fan you might liken his work to that of Thomas Edison – I’ve seen that said several times since yesterday.  If you’re not, you may not appreciate the strides in technology either made possible or made faster by Apple tech under his guidance.  Either way, he was part of a group of folks who started from nothing and changed the way we see the world and the way we live in it.

This isn’t a tech blog, I didn’t know the man, and I’m not the biggest Applehead I know.  But I wouldn’t be doing the things that I do without the Apple products I’ve been surrounded by for 30 years.  My (my family’s) very first computer was an Apple II+.  I was 8.  After that we moved to a Mac SE – and I remember the 45Mb external drive being a big deal.  When I went to college I got my own for the first time.  I don’t remember the model, but it was still one of the box Macs.  In the years since then I have had almost everything: a Newton, a PowerBook, a couple of Power Macs, a G3, one of those colored bubble iMacs (strawberry), an iMac from about 6 years ago that my younger daughter has now, a MacBook from about 4 years ago that my older daughter has now, and I’m using a new iMac from earlier this year that has a bigger screen than I ever imagined in the 80s and more storage than I ever thought possible to need.  Mom has a new MacBook Pro.  Our household uses an iPhone 3GS, 3 iPhone 4s, an iPod 4g, an iPad, an iPad2, an Apple TV, and a Time Capsule.  In some ways – like Google, Wikipedia, and the internet in general – I don’t know what I’d do without them now.

And so I am sorry for the loss the world feels now with Steve Jobs no longer a part of it.  I know he wasn’t the sole creator of all these things, and I know that Apple will continue to innovate and produce quality products.  I think our lives are better now because of his legacy.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” - Steve Jobs at Stanford’s Commencement Address in 2005

There a LOT of B1G1 deals this week, at all locations.  Coupons in red are found in the Saving$ Essentials book in stores.

Meal Deal – Roast (ALL LOCATIONS) 10/5-18

• Buy 2 or more lbs. of beef arm roast
• Get 2 Food Club brown gravy mix packets
• Get 1 lb. of Green Giant baby carrots
• Get 1 Food Club shells & cheddar

This is part 2 of an ongoing series on creating an information filing system I call a Control Panel.  Last time I talked about what a Control Panel is; this time I ask you to think about why you might want one.

Can you lay hands on the phone number to your child’s pediatrician?  How about their teacher?  Do you have trouble keeping track of recurrent tasks?  Do you have a written record of your goals and aspirations to keep you motivated?  Can you remember what you did or didn’t like about last Christmas so you can repeat (or not) for this year?  If (heaven forbid) something happened to you, would your family know where to find important information?  When you’re out shopping, do you know all your family’s sizes and preferences so you can take advantage of the sale?  I can’t – not yet.  But my Control Panel, when I finish it, will let me do all of this and more.

I am searching for order in my home, consistency in my chores, efficiency in my life, and happiness in my family.  A Control Panel is not a magic wand, certainly, but it affords me the ability to keep everything I need for a smoothly running household in one convenient location, in whatever variety of means works best for me.  And I hope to assist you in doing the same for your home.

The one downfall to a comprehensive Control Panel is that it seems a daunting task – and it is!  There is a lot of information contained in its pages, cards, or kilobytes.  Some is external; that is, bits of data that can be gathered, that already exists in some physical form, such as a school calendar, a phone directory, or your insurance information.  More is internal; that is, things that either don’t “exist” at all, or do only in your mind until you write them down.  These are things like cleaning routines, your personal goals, or a master grocery list.  It does take time and thought to create and gather all the information necessary.  But that’s time and thought that I think is well worth the effort.

Think about the reasons you have for having a Control Panel, and what you want it to accomplish for you.  Make a list, an outline, a brainstorm, whatever works for you to figure out why you’re setting out to create a Control Panel.

Waking Hours seems at first glance to be a relatively straightforward murder mystery set in the wealthy small town of East Salem. Dani is a forensic psychiatrist working for the DA’s office who is assigned to her first solo case, involving a local high school girl found dead in the woods. Tommy is an ex-pro football player who walked away from a lucrative career on the field and now owns a training center and specializes in keeping kids on the straight and narrow. They were an unlikely pair as homecoming king and queen in high school but have had no contact since graduation. Now they are brought together again, as one of the first people involved in the investigation is one of Tommy’s most promising students as well as the son of one of Dani’s close friends. They need to work together to clear the boy they both feel is innocent, and Dani must find the truth behind the gruesome murder.

Shortly after the book begins, small oddities pop up throughout the story. A crazy old woman appears in Tommy’s back yard and says strange things before attacking him. Dani wakes from dreams of her dead parents at 2:13 am several nights in a row. These little strange events add up and keep the reader interested in more than just the “whodunit” – all the while the investigation itself uncovers even more disconnected truths. Dani points out that a paranoid person can find proof of their beliefs because “if you look for something long enough or hard enough, you’ll find it even if it isn’t there”, but eventually even she can’t dismiss the events taking place.

This is not the type of book I normally gravitate to. Most of what I read these days are the popular “young adult” fantasy-style novels, the Harry Potters and Percy Jacksons and Hunger Games of the world. But I do enjoy puzzles, so when given the opportunity to read and review a book through BookSneeze I chose the mystery with a hint of something not of this world. I’m very glad I did. I found it interesting and often intriguing from start to finish, with unusual questions and even more unusual answers. There were a few places where the descriptions almost got in the way of the story, being long and too detailed, but my sense of this faded as the story continued. Every once in a while a side character confused me because I forgot who they were, but that’s probably due more to my distractedness than the writing.

Waking Hours is billed as the first book in a trilogy, and I look forward to seeing the later books as they come out. I would absolutely recommend the book for others who enjoy mysteries, crime stories, or stories with a hint of the supernatural.

I was provided with an advance e-copy of the book for the purpose of this review. Every word above is my own summary and opinion.