Big A Little A, What Begins With A?

I took the kids to the library today to get some new books. I was looking on the shelves while Caleb was looking at the books that are in baskets. Usually there are just board books in there. Well, what book does he come wandering over with? Dr. Seuss's ABCs. That is his favorite book right now. We own it and read it every day. But, being the wonderful mother that I am, I sat there in the library and read it to him. And then we checked it out and took it home with us. When we got home, he ran upstairs and got our copy of the book and put them both on the couch. And I read it to him again before nap time. And just in case you are wondering what begins with A, Aunt Annie's alligator, A, a, A.

CVS and Walgreens again

So, I had some Extra Bucks to spend at CVS and lots of Register Rewards for Walgreens, so we went shopping today. At Walgreens, my total was - 0.04. The guy couldn't figure out what to do about that, so I bought a $0.25 Lindt truffle to fix it. It's not pictured because Caleb and I split it in the parking lot. :)

I got:
2 3-packs Zest soap
1 Gilette Fusion Razor
1 Venus Embrace Razor
dental floss
Colgate toothpaste
2 Easter cups (for my Sunday School class)
Easter stickers (also for SS)
2 cans Blue Diamond almonds

I spent $3.92 and got back $14.99 in extra bucks to use next time I go to CVS.

Here's my plan for next time I go to CVS (hopefully the last time this week).
3 bags of Easter Candy $3.99 each
1 Crest Pro Health Night Rinse $3.49
$5/$15 purchase coupon
$1.50 off 3 bags candy coupon
$1 off Crest rinse coupon
Total $7.96 (I'll pay for it in Extra Bucks from today)
Extra Bucks earned - $8.49

I may also get some LypSyl lip moisturizer which is free after Extra Bucks this month

Homemade Bread

I love to bake, but I rarely make bread anymore because of the time it takes. A friend from church gave me a recipe for Almost No-Knead Bread that takes very little prep time (although it does rise for a long time) and is nice and crusty. I've never been able to make crusty bread before. We ate it last night with dinner, and Caleb and I had the leftovers as French toast this morning.

Here's the recipe -

3 c flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c plus 2 TB water (room temperature)
1/4 c plus 2 TB mild flavored beer
1 TB white vinegar

1) Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8-18 hours.

2) Lay 12 X 18 piece of parchment paper inside a 10 inch skillet and spray with cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and need 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball. Transfer seam side down to parchment lined skillet and spray top of dough with cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.

3) About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest setting, place 6-8 quart Dutch over with lid on rack (I improvised with the crock from my crock pot and aluminum foil for the lid as the lid is only oven safe to 350 degrees), and preheat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and cut a 6 inch long slit in top. Remove pot from oven. Pick up dough using parchment and place in pot. Cover and place in oven. Reduce temperature to 425 degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes, uncover, and bake for another 20 -30 minutes until loaf is deep brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Grocery Budget

I love to shop and cook and bake and eat, which means I have to work hard to control our grocery budget. With my new found love of couponing, I am hoping to shave some money off of our grocery budget. My goal for this month is $400, down from $500 in January. To keep myself accountable, I am going to post how I am doing on my blog. For right now, as I try to figure out the whole Walgreens and CVS systems, I am not going to include those in my budget, as I purchase mainly toiletries and household goods there. Right now I am going to focus strictly on money spent at grocery stores.

So, here's my totals so far for March -
Super Target - $9.65
Trader Joes - $12.00
Kroger - $27.24
Publix - $13.29

Total spent - $62.18
Total remaining - $337. 82

It feels like I have already spent too much since it is only March 4th, but the only ingredients I need to buy for dinner's next week are eggs and cream cheese, so I should be okay. We'll see how it goes.

Pajama Day

Since becoming a Stay At Home Mom at the end of May, I haven't actually stayed at home all that often. I like to be out and about and the kids seem to like it, too. I try to get out every morning after Alexa's nap. We go to the library for story time, to park, for a walk in the neighborhood, to visit Daddy or Grammy at work, to visit Grandmother and Granddaddy at the assisted living home, shopping, or to a friend's house. It was beautiful and warm outside yesterday, and we went to Walgreens, Publix, outside to play and for a walk. Well, today it is rainy and stormy and gross, so I have declared it pajama day. Caleb and I are still in our original pajamas, but I had to change Alexa into clean pajamas this morning because her diaper leaked. So far today, we have baked cookies, done some laundry, called and made two doctor's appointments, shopped online and watched the movie Cars for the 18th million time as it is Caleb's new favorite. He only watches the first 20 minutes or so every time before he gets bored. So, Happy Pajama Day, everyone!

Busy Cooking Dinner

Alexa that it is, not me.

Walgreens Fun

It's a great week for deals at Walgreens this week. And I found a very nice cashier who stood there and rang me up 4 times so that I could get everything worked out and not have to go back several times with 2 kids.

Here's what I got -
1 Gilette Fusion Phenom Razor (good thing Dave likes these because this is #4 that I have gotten with the sales and coupons)
2 3-packs of Zest Soap
6 bottles of Olay body wash
3 Herbal Essences shampoo, one conditioner, one mouse, and one hairpsray
1 roll of toilet paper (I needed this because you can't have more coupons than items. I figured we needed it anyway, so I grabbed a single roll of toilet paper.)

Total was $27.02. But wait! I got back $28 in Register Rewards to use at Walgreens. Yes, that's right. They paid me $.98 to take all this stuff off of their hands. And in addition, I will be clean and smell nice for a long time.