Where is everybody?

Where is everybody? Is everyone really so scared of the economy that they are staying home? Literally?!?! Seriously?!?!

For the most part I cannot put my finger on "it," but more and more frequently these days I find myself saying things like:
"Wow, I can't believe I found a parking spot right in front of that store!" (remember I live in the city)
"I can't believe how little traffic there is." (think city driving! ugh!)
"Where is everybody??"
"Did Tim LaHaye get raptured and leave me behind?"

At first I thought it is because I'm a mom, and I keep slightly different hours than the rest of the city so it's just a coincidence. Yes, I'd be happy if my favorite stores opened by 8 AM every day. [Let's hear it for the mommies!] :) Maybe I just happen to shop or be out when most other people aren't.

But..... Last Monday there were skads and skads of parking on a main avenue, in the middle of the day, when it is usually packed! I was a little spooked. Then I remembered that it was Monday, and several larger independent stores in the area are closed on Monday, so I felt a little better.

But not for long.

Tonight I did an unusual thing. I wanted to pick up something at the grocery store for tomorrow morning. So at 7:15 pm (that's the unusual part!) I piled the kids in the car and went to the grocery store, expecting to see all the work-a-day gals and guys loading up on last minute dinner groceries. As I pulled in to the parking lot I was pleased to see several parking spaces relatively close to the front door. Trying not to be greedy I skipped over the first one and took the second, still a bit of a walk but close enough for this city girl. :) We did our shopping, waiting only a few moments in line (score!), and as we walked out the door my jaw dropped. I guess I wasn't really paying attention the first time around. The parking lot was 80% empty. This is unreal! This is unheard of.

Since I'm sure it's not the rapture (wink) this just has to be.... bad economic times?!?!?

It's creepy, really. We live near a large university, and this is the kind of emptiness I would expect to see at the beginning of summer break. Or spring break. Or the week of Christmas, for goodness' sake.

Am I actually going to get a little love back from my overrun city thanks to the economy???

Crock Pot Breakfast

I don't want to forget this..... I'm going to try the Crockpot Whole Grain Breakfast Cereal instead of the tasty Coach's Oats we've been eating every morning. Talk about a no-fuss breakfast! yes! I am fired up.

Went to Safeway tonight after bedtime so NO KIDS. I was able to wander up and down the aisles and look at what was on sale to match up with my coupons. Of course now that I have discovered the Nourishing Gourmet I wish I hadn't bought half of that stuff but... oh well. After all the sales and coupons I saved 44%. I've got to tell you I wasn't too excited about that number since I had about $16.25 in coupons ~ yes, JUST COUPONS!! That's pretty good for me. The two best deals:

Simple Harvest granola bars
reg $4.29
on sale 2/$5
$1/1 coupons (lots)
final price: $1.50 each

Rice Dream
reg $2.29
on sale $1.50
$1/4 (on the box!! score!!)
final price: $1.25 each

The one thing I did buy without a coupon or a sale was sausage. I'm treating my DH for his birthday. That's true love. (Aren't I nice?) :-P

I did notice at Safeway that entire sections of refrigerated cases were empty and covered with plastic: eggs, cheese, yogurt, lunch meat, hot dogs. The list is pretty long. When it was my turn at the checkout line (the only one open at 10 pm on Saturday night!) I came face to face with the uber-efficient chip-on-my-shoulder sarcastic checker (this is my neighborhood store, I have opinions on most of the employees). I like him for his efficiency but sometimes think he could, well, spark up his personality a little bit. Anyway he was shocked with my 15 coupons that ALL rang up properly (yes I check my coupons in advance!) so I thought I might be in his good graces.

Me: "So, can you give me the 3-second shpiel on what's up with all the refrigerated cases being empty?"
checker: "oh sure. I got really hungry and ate up everything in all the cases."
Me: [without missing a beat] "oh yes, I did notice you put a sign up that said "I O U 1 Cheese" so I see how that could have happened."

And that's all she wrote, folks.

My head hurts

Actually not sure if my head, heart, or stomach hurts worse.

Officer kills self and shoots own children

There are no words.

No Starbucks today

Evidently the Starbucks story isn't over. Today I was walking with a friend and my kids near the "old" Starbucks (that closed yesterday... sniff) and the two adults were joking about getting coffee "Oh wait, no more Starbucks, oh no!"

My boy pipes up "No Starbucks today!"

"Why not?" we ask

"No coupons!" he says.

I guess I have trained him well. That was good for a great belly laugh.

we now return to our regularly scheduled program...

We were out of town for a lot of the last month, so it's slowly back to the normal school year routine for us. Sigh.

Tomorrow my Starbucks closes at 5:30 pm. When I asked the (eccentric) barista today if there was a big party tomorrow, she said "Yup, we're having a wake and I'm bringing hummus!" In my mind I thought ~ hummus... hmm... not exactly "wake" material but OK!

It's just Starbucks... but there have been a lot of great conversations and emotions that happened in that place. I'll miss it. And I'm certainly not going to go to any of the other ghetto Starbucks within walking distance.

Goodbye, Starbucks, goodbye!

For my one faithful reader (you know who you are)

I recently handed my almost-4-year-old a container of strawberry yogurt.

"What flavor is it, Mommy?" he said.
"Straw-berry. It's a party in my mouth!"
"No, Mommy, it's yogurt in my mouth, silly!"

Oh, right. Yogurt.

What am I?

This post could get really philosophical. But it's been a long day (lots of free and cheap stuff at Staples, Walgreens, Target, Longs, and Safeway today ~ stay tuned for a report) and my brain and my body are tired. Instead, I was really struck by a silly catalog we received when my Grandma sent my son a toy she ordered for him. It was from Toys To Grow On and he loves it (thanks GG!). I digress! Anyway I'm flipping through the catalog before I toss it (because you know of course I can't JUST toss it!) and I came across this:


Now, maybe you can't see it in the photo, but they have four different families to choose from: White, Black, Hispanic, or Asian. My first thought was, "Wow! Good for them!" My almost immediate second thought was "Oh..... I wouldn't know what to order." [ed note: we are a mixed race family] Now, just as I'm typing this, I thought "OH! I could order two families and mix them!" Then almost immediately (again) I thought "Oh... what would I do? Cut up the kiddie dolls and sew them back together so that the kid dolls are truly mixed kids?"

Forget it. I'm sticking to Barbie. (not!!!)

Coupon mania.... what next??

As you heard in my last post, I'm getting more and more excited about coupon-ing, especially since I've discovered a bunch of other folks online that tell me what to buy, where, and with what coupon to save beaucoup bucks.

With that major coupon excitement, I'm clipping more coupons and my tiny little coupon-holder is doing me no good. :( A friend was with me at WalMart yesterday and that's the only reason I could do it all ~ pawing through all those coupons with two ducklings in tow takes WAAAY too long. On the way home, I commented to said friend that I had to start researching other frugal mommies' methods for coupon keeping. And now, I may even be able to win a coupon management system FOR FREE! But I'm not the only one. If you're getting excited about coupon management ;) and want to enter to win, join me over at Tales From the Road Less Traveled. If you win, you'll receive every coupon insert that comes out in the AJC Sunday edition for the next four weeks, already labeled and ready to go in Momma’s Coupon Management System.

So go register to win!! :D

Coupon mania

I've been really inspired by Freebies4Mom, MoneySavingMom, The Centsible Sawyer, Deal Seeking Mom.... Anyway I took a little trip to Walmart today and guess what I got?

Two Powerade 32 oz bottles: $.70 each including CRV
with one $.75 coupon and one $1.00 off coupon: I made $.35!

CleanTeam flushable kid wipes: $1.64 each
THREE coupons for $3 off/2
SIX packages at $.07 each!

Scrubbing Bubbles starter kit $4.92
With rebate: FREE!

Two bottles of Pert Plus $4.34 each
Two coupons for a total of $5 off
$5 mail-in rebate
I'll make $3.32

Also, they had this huge display of Clean & Clear face wash for $3.48. It rang up at $4.77 so I went over to customer service, and after some hemming and hawing they gave me the "advertised" price (and promptly changed the advertised price). With a $1 off coupon, It was only $2.48 for a product that is normally $4.77! yay!

A bunch of the other deals mentioned on those mom blogs weren't for sale, or the prices at my WalMart were so high that it still wasn't a very good deal for me to buy the stuff even WITH my coupons. Sadness. :(

This is the problem with living in an urban area. Often I get a great coupon or read about a great deal, but my local Safeway, WalMart or Target stores are so small that they don't carry the product. Lame! Time to move to the burbs!

While we're on the topic, let me rant about Walgreens. I went in to get some of their "free" products last week (free w/ rebate) ~ well guess what? THEY AREN'T FREE! The max amount on the rebate is less than the actual sale price at the store. Uh.... no thanks!

So.... at the end of my WalMart shopping trip (and my rebate!), I will have spent $2.40 for 15 items! I'm so excited!

Another funny

"Mommy, my peepee wasn't working so I did the brown stuff instead. See?"

Yes, only a mother would love and blog about something like this.

ouch

I. Have. Insomnia.

I'm sad, and it feels dumb

I just found out -- shockingly -- that my "regular" Starbucks is closing. (Not that there is actually any regularity to it, which, come to think of it, may be why it's closing.) I had looked over all the lists and saw that none of my usual suspects are closing. So imagine my surprise when I read a fellow blogger's post that said MY location is closing. Obviously this was operator error (me being the operator) and it wasn't the full, 600-store list that I looked at originally. So that's what made it shocking. I thought I was "safe" but alas.... I'm not. There are three stores within walking distance from my house, but this one was the nicest one; in the nicest area, in the direction I almost always go... Anyway, I'll just go to Peet's a few blocks away, now, instead of the complete other direction to stay with Starbucks. It's just so wrong! The other ones are always infested with the weirdest, smelliest people; too crowded for me and my double stroller AND all those weirdos.

Goodbye, Starbucks.

More from my three year old

[after I gave my daughter a pen to scribble with, my son says:]
Mommy, my sister can't use a pen. Pens are only for adults! Babies like her use crayons and big kids like me use paints. But only adults use pens!

Public Service Announcement

This Public Service Announcement brought to you by The Voice Of Experience:

Clean poop (including the dog kind) off your shoes immediately. Do not wait until it is dry and think it will flake off. It will not.

This concludes our Public Service Announcement for today.

More on my three year old

This morning I went in the kids' room to get my son up out of bed. He said "Last night, my skin got all pokey!"

"How did that happen?"

"It was on my elbow, but I scratched it. Wanna see?"

hmm... "Pokey" .....

Did I just sell my soul? Or my blog at least?

I guess I'm a sucker for the possibility of free stuff. You could be too! WonderBrains is offering you the chance to win a $50 gift certificate if you spread the love and advertise for them. So I did it. Look at the cute button over on the side of my blog. And it was a good excuse to figure out how to customize my blog. woot woot. Go check it out here: http://www.wonderbrains.com

Why I love my three year old (continued)

3 yo: Mommy, Daddy is asleep!
me: OK
3 yo: You can't open the door while Daddy is asleep because it's dangerous!
me: What do you mean? Why is it dangerous?
3 yo: If you open the door while Daddy is sleeping he might fall out of his bed...
me: Ok, I'm not sure that will happen actually, but I'll be very careful.

Why I love three year olds (a quote)

"Look at my poo poo, Mommy! It's gi-GAN-tic!"

heart melts

Today I had a meltdown in front of my two kids. My daughter was on my lap and I'm sure it's the first time she's seen me cry. She just starts laughing. That made me smile. "You're crying? The show will go on!" It was cute.

The better part was that my son brought me his favorite toy "Here Mommy! Here Mommy! Here!" while I was still on the phone crying and then he started "washing the dishes" for me. He's never done that before, never even mentioned it so it was completely out of the blue. It was even more sweet because, of course, he is too tall to really see and reach into the sink; there were no dishes in the sink, and he was just rubbing the inside of the sink with the long-handled sponge brush, saying "Mommy, look, I'm washing the dishes for you! Look, Mommy, Look!" He was so proud of himself.

Now that's priceless.

giggle

I cut up a whole pineapple yesterday. yum. I had just done the initial trim when my 3 yr 8 mo son says....

Son: Mommy, you can't eat that with the polka dots on it!
(I knew exactly what he meant. The "eyes" of the pineapple were still on the edges, since I hadn't completely trimmed it yet.)
Me: Why not, sweetie?
Son: They'll polk you!

That gave me a good laugh, I hope it gives you one too.