Night Time, Walgreens, and a Disgruntled Potato

On most days, all I want to do after I put the kids to bed is slip into my jammies, put my glasses on, pour myself a cup of coffee (the tenth one of the day or so--but at least it's 1/2 caff), and curl up on my bed with a blanket and my laptop. I want to write and share the adventures of my day.

A lot of times this plan comes crashing down. Isaac has been a real booger lately when it comes to sleeping in his own room at night. Either we can't get him down to sleep at all in his room (thankfully this doesn't happen too often), or he'll wake up after an hour or two screaming, and we're both too tired to deal with trying to get him back to sleep in his room (this happens a lot). So every night he spends at least a portion of his night in our bed.

But right now it's 8:35, and Isaac went to sleep successfully in his own room at 8:00, and I have high hopes that he'll stay there at least long enough for me to write a little and maybe finish a book. We'll see. ;)

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There are two things I definitely wanted to share today. Neither is earth-shattering, folks, but it's news in my world.

The first is that Walgreens is finally really working for me. Two weeks ago, I went in and spent $5 out-of-pocket and got $9 in Register Rewards back. Today, I went in with those RRs and got a few things.

My plan was to just get stuff that gives RRs back. I knew it was a long shot, though--I had gone to the Walgreens by our church on Tuesday, and all the RR items were already gone. The sales start on Sunday, and I guess there are several couponers like me who read up and shop Walgreens strategically and had cleared the shelves of the freebie items. But I had these RRs burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided on a whim to stop by a different Walgreens on my way to Whole Foods today. Here's what I ended up getting:



If I'd gone in there with no coupons, my total would have been about $16. I spent $.26! And I got $6 in RR back!

I knew I wanted to get these items:

• Dry Idea Clinical Strength deodorant ($5.99, get $5 RR back)
• Skintimate shave gel ($1.99, get $1 RR back)

I had a $2 coupon for Dry Idea, and I had 2 RRs for $4.50 each. You can't get more items than you have coupons (RRs are counted as coupons), so I had to get at least 3 things. Then I saw in the ad that they have Mitchum deodorant on sale for $1.99 if you use the in-ad coupon, so I decided to get that (that's the kind of deodorant I usually use, for those who just need to know). But I still had more coupons than items--4 coupons and 3 items. So I went in search of a filler. I found that stainless steel ice cream scoop marked down on clearance for $.50. I figured I could use it for scooping cookie dough, so I got it. I went up to the register with those 4 items and my 4 coupons. The lady at the register (I always say "the lady who was checking me out" but Scott says I shouldn't say that) scanned my items, then she looked up at me and said some beautiful words: "Your coupons exceed your total. You have to get something else!" She reached for some kind of designer tea sitting next to her at a display. "You like tea?" I hastily looked around at the stuff at the front counter (there were 3 people behind me in line) and found that little bottle of Listerine for $.75. That would have to do! My new total was $.26, plus the $6 in RR back. Woo hoo!

Then I went to Whole Foods and spent $50. Hmph.

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I was cooking dinner tonight (one of my favorite comfort foods--a scramble of potatoes, onions, eggs, and cheese cooked in the skillet), listening to the sounds of the kids playing with Scott in the living room and my radio talk show (the Scott Wilder Show) on in the kitchen. I reached over to grab a potato, and I noticed that it looked funny. I mean, it was an organic potato, and often organic produce looks a little different than conventional stuff. But this? You be the judge.



Mr. Potato Head didn't look very happy tonight.