December Freebies

Here is what I got completely FREE during the month of December. Click here to read a previous post explaining each category.

Publix Mystery Coupon Items:
Redenbacher popcorn
Publix pasta sauce
sourdough bread
2 bottles grape juice
Publix salad dressing

CVS Extracare Bucks With Sales and Coupons:
2 reams printer paper
Cascade dishwasher detergent
2 jars Ragu sauce
2 Colgate toothpaste
2 Crest toothpaste
Schick Quattro razor
Soft & Dry deodorant
2 CVS facial cleansing towelettes
8 travel size first aid kits
Listerine
Zantac
3 Arm and Hammer Essentials

Great Sale Prices Combined with Coupons:
40 boxes Martha White corn muffin mix
4 boxes Shedd's Spread sticks (14 cents each)
2 pkgs Idahoan mashed potatoes
Betty Crocker mashed potatoes (10 cents)
4 strips yeast (10 cents ea)
4 lb apples
ginger Altoids
2 WellPatch
12-pk Schick disposable razors
small bottle Suave moisturizer
2 pkgs Cottonelle bath tissue
Energizer rechargeable charger

Spent Free Gift Cards (from transferring rx):
13 half gallons Mayfield milk
4 lb raw almonds
4 dozen eggs
4 bags frozen veggies
spiral cut ham (for Christmas dinner)
5 lb ground beef
2 28-oz pkgs sausage links
2 lb bacon
2 pkgs shredded cheese
drain opener
birthday card

Full Rebates:

3 boxes Russell Stover Private Reserve chocolates (2 will be full rebates; one was free with a buy 2 get one free coupon)
Arm and Hammer Essentials
Energizer battery charger

Free Deals:
Tide sample
Prilosec sample
3 bottles French's Worcestershire sauce
Dole salad kit

Given to Me:
hot cocoa mix
tray of mini cupcakes
3 layer cherry cordial torte

Jammy Time

I got busy at the sewing machine a few days before Christmas. The result: jammies for three members of the family. Soft, cuddly, and warm!

Gathering Crafts

For my post-Christmas fun, I might try some of these:

I really, really like this calendar idea from Lark and Lola. So cute!

A little free embroidery from Allsorts to try out in the winter lull.

A skirt without a pattern from Anna. I would do the waistband-and-zipper version.

After Christmas Sales

So many bloggers are posting their after-Christmas deals; I thought I would do the same.Light bulbs. Two packages of 40 watt. Walmart. Less than $4. That's all we need.

The Stockings Are Full

My clever Professor made stocking hangers this evening after we remembered that our real stocking hangers are also inaccessibly packed away behind the furniture pile. He simply bent the hook section of white wire coat hangers, one per stocking, downward at a 90 degree angle. Set along the mantle, with a row of books to weight them and garland to hide them, they seem to be counterbalanced just right for our very full stockings.

The Professor Learns Free

The Professor is learning my tricks: He came home today and told me he got this fresh poinsettia FREE! But he won't tell me the story until later. I can hardly wait. I am so proud of him!

The garden center was giving them away with the purchase of a plant on Christmas Eve. He bought a loropetalum (Chinese fringe) for me for Christmas. He planted it too!

Christmas Decorating is Over in Our House

We finished decorating for Christmas about the time we began decorating for Christmas. Here is the reason:All the rest of our Christmas decorations are neatly shelved behind this half of the garage sale pile! Back there behind the dressers and the bags of clothes. Behind the medical equipment and the TV. Behind the furniture stacked to the ceiling. I AM NOT climbing behind all that to pull out boxes of wreaths and angels and nativities. So decorating is finished here.

I believe I will bake instead.

Making Room

I really should be decorating for Christmas. But daughter, son-in-law, and grandson are moving in with us next week. We need to make room for them. So we:

1. Floored the attic for storage.

2. Are constantly working on cleaning out drawers, closets, and cupboards while we set aside all the riffraff for a future garage sale.

3. Turned the studio into the master bedroom (all 7'x8' of it!). Our closet consists of two shelf brackets to support about eight hangers each, just visible to the left in the photo. Our dresser is a stretch of open shelf just above the hangers. For a night stand we use a stack of plastic boxes filled with back stock of toiletries. We share the space with crafts and sewing supplies on the upper shelves.

4. Added most of the family room furniture to the living room.5. Turned the family room into the dining room. The cabinet on the left in the photo is going to the garage sale pile, and everything on top of it and on the dining table still needs to find homes.6. Turned the dining room into the computer room. Two more desks and computers will be arriving with the young family so this room will be very full. We moved our CD player/radio into this room, and discovered that all our CD's fit in the top drawer of the dresser on the far left. That's the type of organization I like! 7. Emptied the master bedroom and bath for the young family to use.

8. Continue to pack boxes for the attic with things we don't really need to use right now.

3 Sacks of Groceries: $1.76

It's hard to believe, but sometimes I have to work at spending money on groceries. I spent only $1.76 for all these groceries at Publix tonight. The muffin deal was ending tonight, so I wanted to make sure I used my last coupon. Now that our household has increased by three, I'll take all the help I can get on my groceries! Thank you, Publix and Smucker's!

Here is the breakdown:
10 boxes Martha White corn muffin mix, 2/99 cents, one 55 cent coupon, and Smucker's deal coupon of buy 10 items get $5 off order. (This was a money maker. 10 mixes came to $4.95, plus my 55 cent coupon, brought cost down to $4.40, minus the $5 off, means I made 60 cents on the muffins)
3 boxes Shedd's spread sticks, $1.39, 75 cent Publix coupon, 25 cent mfr coupon doubled, net cost 14 cents each
Idahoan mashed potatoes, BOGO 65 cents, 40 cent coupon doubled, net: I made 15 cents
No Yolk noodles, $1.87, 50 cent coupon doubled, net cost 87 cents
Nestle hot cocoa mix BOGO $1
The math: I owed 42 cents for Shedd's, 87 cents for noodles, $1 for hot cocoa, total: $2.29. Publix owed me 60 cents for the muffins, and 15 cents for the mashed potatoes, total: 75 cents. $2.29 minus 75 cents is $1.54 plus tax comes to $1.76.