Grocery Pick-up Happy

This is what happens when I don’t plan ahead of time, I go crazy with grocery shopping and I just pick up anything. I am bad with grocery shopping in fact I get high while grocery shopping, it’s my addiction. I am beyond my 50 per week limit, last week I went overboard by $3++ which isn’t so bad but this week I went overboard by $10 and I still need to buy a sack of rice for $13-15 so I will be overboard by almost half of my weekly budget.

We were lacking a lot of basic items on our pantry and what was suppose to be a 8-10 item list became 30+. Eeer! Way to go Claire! On my basic list is garlic, onion, tomato, bell pepper, ground pork, cauliflower, bread, yobaby yoghurt, decaf coffee for Ria and orange juice. All this will only cost me less than $20 but no, I had to pick up bing cherries because they were ridiculously cheap (1.49), johnsonville hotdog (I tasted it last Saturday and it was delish), hotdog bun (because I bought hotdog duh!), yobaby drinkable yoghurt, beechnut cereal and biscuits (for caleb’s baon & breakfast), juicy juice individual pack juices (they were on sale), quesadilla bread (I was hankering for some quesadilla, darn I was hungry while shopping), Mott’s apple juice (I not only bought 1 but 4 eeerrr), starbucks ice cream (free so no complaints here), tomato paste (just because) and organic pasta sauce. See? I was pick-up happy!

I feel bad actually after all of them were rung up and because I only saved $17 in coupons (real total was 75+); I promised myself not to go inside any and I mean ANY grocery store next week. On the upside though, I got passport pictures for free at CVS! I would have wanted to do their photobook deal (Free and they were really, really cute) but I just did not have the time to sort through numerous pictures and I really mean numerous because the hubby is trigger happy moreso now that he bought a VERY expensive D700 (I still can’t get over its price and I can’t believe I allowed him to buy the darn camera).

Help I need sleep

I think I am getting dizzy with coupons, last night I was trying to cut my internet coupons and put them in a photo album but half way through I got tired and stashed all the coupons in the album. I think I will never be as organized as I want to be, the most I can do is organize it per store, me thinks that it’s too much to organize per category. Couponing takes a lot of time, something I am sorely lacking.

Our home is a freakin’ mess! A jungle and I don’t have the time nor the strength to clean them all up. Boxes, toys and papers are everywhere. HEEEELLLLLPPPPP…it’s having its own life!

It’s not the neverending chores that’s getting me, it’s the lack of sleep! For the past 5 days or more, Caleb has been getting up on an ungodly hour and had been kicking us and disrupting our sleep, moreso with me because he wants my attention and I’m the one who has to get up to prepare his bottle. I’ve been getting at most 3 hours of sleep per day. It is sooo bad that every minute of the day I want to crawl to the bed and just sleep. I CAN’T do this, I am just soooo exhausted. Blogging is my only way to keep myself awake, I can’t even think straight. Parenthood hah who said it’s easy and I’ll beat them to a pulp.

Where can I buy time?

I am so freakin’ busy these past few days that I am badly considering taking a day off, salary for that day be damned. Ever since I started working, I barely have “me” time. We would get home at 7 PM, I’d cook(sometimes Yiek cooks for me), prepare Caleb for sleeping and then wash the dishes. Sometimes like yesterday, I have to cook thrice; Caleb’s dinner, our dinner and then Caleb’s baon. By the time I am done it is already 11:00 PM and I barely have 10 minutes to relax. Yesterday, I vowed to clean as you go so I was multitasking like crazy while cooking and decluttering which seems to be never ending and organizing things. Damn that was tiring. Today, I’m planning to do some grocery shopping and file for my advance parole, tomorrow organize pictures so I can get the free photobook from CVS and do produce grocery shopping, Friday go to CVS to claim the photobook. Throw in some cleaning, cooking, washing dishes in between all that and lack of sleep to boot.

Mornings are a crazy rush too even crazier that the evenings. I wake-up, prepare breakfast for Caleb and Yiek, cook Yiek and Caleb’s baon if the dinner last night was not enough but rice is always cooked in the morning (Yiek is O.C. with how fresh his food is), prepare all of our baon/things, take Caleb’s bath, dress Caleb up, take my bath, if Yiek is procastinating I iron his shirt/pants so we wouldn’t be late (I know we can iron in advance but that is still a work in progress) and then rush to the office.

No wonder I am so cranky!

Seriously, where can I buy time? Back to work which becoming crazy too, so many tasks!

2nd Week of July Weekend

This was a full week for us, Wednesday I celebrated my 30th birthday with a quiet dinner at Cheesecake Factory. The price is not quiet though and I had to wince when I got the bill, to date this was the most expensive dinner and we didn’t even like the food that much. I think we ordered the wrong entrees but anyway with entrees that start at $15 it should have been spectacular but we weren’t impressed, the serving was big though and as such we were too full to eat dessert (their specialty) so I just ordered one delish cheesecake for take out. Caleb also was such a handful during dinner, he’d shout and demand for whatever he fancies. He was throwing a mighty tantrum when we wouldn’t let him ride the car stroller because we were $1 short. Grrr! He was also shouting and making his body hard from cheesecake factory to the old navy store that some people had to avoid us, hah! screaming toddler and wearing a dress & high heels is not a good idea at all. The only saving grace was that I got $23 worth of old navy clothes for me for $3 or make that 2.84 because I had a $20 coupon from my last shopping trip. Also, since it was my birthday I got 3 free lipgloss from Sephora. Wee!

Saturday, we attended a baby shower and had a nice time making chika, of course the makulit baby had to have accidents, he scraped his knee and feel from the chair head first which had him screaming hell. I save a lot on our baby shower gift and I mighty proud of having done so! It’s not everyday you can save $14 for a big box of diapers and wipes. Yes! I’m getting good at this.

Sunday, we went to the NJ State Fair but it was too hot, so we were there for only an hour. Caleb had stomach problems when he drank the lemonade there, he was vomitting from h20 poisoning we guess which had us vowing that we will never let him drink juice if we are not sure of the water source (we always use distilled water for him). We then went to Pandan Cuisine and had a nice Filipino dinner. I t forced Yiek to stop at CVS so I can do some shopping. I got Gilette Fusion Razor (perfect timing since Yiek is out of mach3 refills), Tylenol Arthritis Tabs (I know someone will use this back home), 2 notebooks, 1 glue, 1 scissor (because they were giving free school supplies so how can I resist  free), Scott 12-pack bathroom tissue and 1 coke. I paid 1.84 for all of that because I had CVS money to burn from my last CVS shopping trip. Truth be told, I could have paid only $0.30 or less had I not bought the coke but darn I was thirsty from the hot, hot weather. I could have also save my $6 CVS money from the bathroom tissue but we were out of those and I can’t very well use leaves as tissue can I? Although Yiek had tried that out of desperation I wouldn’t. The cashier was really shock at how much I saved and she even said “damn, how did you do it?” when it printed $11 worth of CVS money. All in all a good but tiring weekend, next weekend another party to attend to. Our weekends our full nowadays because summer is short here in NJ a lot of activities are occurring every weekend so we are making the most of it.

Thirty

Today is my bday if I were in the Philippines so, no sense in denying it, I’m 30 and proud of it! My checklist when I was a teen was simple, get married , have a kid before 30 and be filthy rich.  I may not be filthy rich (I am just a middle class ngarag but still pretty mom thank you very much!) but I feel as if I have everything I could ever ask for. Some may want to be a manager or CEO or someone BIG before they turned 30 but I found out, I am not cut out for that. Yes, it’s quite bongga to have your peers ohh and ahh at what you’ve accomplished but I’ve realized I want my life to be simplier.  I discovered that I’m quite content with taking care of my little family, I may not be the best homemaker because I was spoiled rotten by my parents and Lola but I do try to keep my home in tact, not clutter free (I’m working on it!) of course.

So to me, congratulations for living 30 fruitful years ! Now, I’m off to make my “before 40″ checklist, it’s quite ambitious really but I have 10 years to do them so I’m not in a hurry.

CVS 7/5

This is the first time that I’ve maximized my coupons. I had to buy another newspaper to do this, $1.25 but it’s all worth it. I had $4 Extra Bucks Credits (ECB) from previous purchases and I received another $2 ECB for I don’t know what, it just emailed me one day and on top of that I get a $5 off $25 or more purchase expiring today. So, I vowed to make this my serious “CVS” week since so many people are gushing about how they have saved at CVS. Na inspire ko nimo ’tish hehehe.

Here is my loot. Pardon the grainy pic, no good lighting.

* 2 Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

* 2 Olay Body Wash

* 3 Post Trail Mix Cereals (Now I’m not a cereal person, so I’m planning to give this to a food drive)

* 1 CVS 22 count Panty Shield

* 2 Febreeze Noticiebles (an air freshener that you plug to your ilong hehehe este outlet)

* 1 pantene pro-v brunette conditioner

Before coupons total is $42.89

After coupons and ECB at hand total comes to 17.48 + 1.67 tax = 19.15

Not bad eh.. but get this, I earned 18.99 ECB to spend on my next purchase which makes this shopping trip FREE!!!! Gosh, now I am more addicted. I am going to make this a Sunday regular trip, Sunday because it’s the first day of the add and I need to there early so I get the good deals. Funny, Yiek was calling me “Dugay pa ka gutom nako!” nyehehe gibiyaan na nako ang akong bana kay nawili sa coupons hehe.

tomorrow, another shopping trip but I am not anticipating a lot of savings since I’ll be buying basic goods i.e. goods that don’t usually have coupons i.e. produce, pure orange juice etc.

* 2 Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

* 2 Olay Body Wash

* 3 Post Trail Mix Cereals (Now I’m not a cereal person, so I’m planning to give this to a food drive)

* 1 CVS 22 count Panty Shield

* 2 Febreeze Noticeables (an air freshener that you plug to your ilong hehehe este outlet)

* 1 pantene pro-v brunette conditioner

Before coupons total is $42.89

After coupons and ECB at hand total comes to 17.48 + 1.67 tax = 19.15 (OOP)

Not bad eh.. but get this, I earned 18.99 ECB to spend on my next purchase which makes this shopping trip FREE!!!! Gosh, now I am more addicted. I am going to make this a Sunday regular trip, Sunday because it’s the first day of the Ad and I need to be there early so I get the good deals. Funny, Yiek was calling me “Dugay pa ka gutom nako!” nyehehe gibiyaan na nako ang akong bana kay nawili sa coupons hehe. Next goal is to have $5 or less out of pocket(OOP) cash, this should be easier since I have ECBs to spend.

Tomorrow, another shopping trip but I am not anticipating a lot of savings since I’ll be buying basic goods i.e. goods that don’t usually have coupons i.e. produce, pure orange juice etc.

8 Days to 30

I’m making petiks I just had the itch to blog. 8 more days and I’ll be turning 3-0 (hapit nako molapas sa kalendaryo). I got myself an advanced birthday gift, the IPhone. I had to pay twice the price because I couldn’t wait for January (Kadugay pa ato!). I love, love, love it!

I have installed 20 apps already and purchased 3 for 0.99 each. Installing those apps is as easy as 1-2-3 in fact I’m addicted to finding new apps. I just purchased a grocery app, which allows me to input my grocery list as a checklist per store, it even allows you to input the price, and totals them. It has a lot of cool features too i.e. if you can’t find it in one store you can transfer that item into your other store’s list, cool! So far I have installed internet radio, numerous games (I love Tap tap revenge) for me and Caleb (Wheels on the bus, Barnyard etc), AroundMe/Yelp which lists all stores/banks near my current location, Shazam (listens to a song and identifies them), calorie counter, foreign exchange app (gets the latest exchange) and much more. It’s the best gift I’ve given to myself.

Okay I’m too hyper for my own good, I don’t have plans for my birthday I’m still poor as a rat because I have not receive a single cent of my salary, damn 30 days rule. It will just be a simple 30th birthday, a quiet dinner (I’m planning to try Cheesecake Factory) and a little shopping (because I got $20 credit from OldNavy that I must claim between July 6-9). The first quarter was hard on us financially but I’m glad things are picking up and even better than before. Life is good and a sheep can afterall survive the year of the ox!

Sigh of relief

Whew! I just knew from chatting with my sis that I got the wrong Chad! It’s our neighbor chad not my childhood Chad, now I feel so relieved!

His name was Chad

Last night, I heard a disturbing news, my childhood sweetheart died of a heart failure. His name was Chad, he was my neighbor when I was around 3-4 years old, when I’d misbehaved my yaya/mom/titas would say “Hala Chad si Claire nagminaldita (Chad, Claire is misbehaving)” and I would immediately stop whatever mischief and tantrum I was doing. It happens vice versa too, he misbehaves and they threaten to call me and like magic his mood changes.

We moved to a different village when I turned 5 or 6 and I didn’t see him again but loved hearing stories of our past romance if you can call it that. It wasn’t until I was in college when I met him again, I was vacationing at my Lola’s place in Negros. My cousin reintroduced us and we hit it off  it helped that he was cutie, charming smile, those killer dimples and eyes that seem to shine. That night we went to a disco house and we were inseparable, call it weird but we jet off to a graveyard riding his motorcycle (maybe because it was all soul’s day). It was a magical night, he’d hold my hand and I’d feel electrified.

I had to go home to Cebu the next day and that was our one and only rendezvous, he’d sometimes call me at home and we’d talk for hours. I liked him and I know he likes me back but something from his past held me off and we remained just friends.

I can’t recall the last time I talked to him, it’s just sad that I can never see him again, never recall how we used to be foolish. Life is short, I wish I’d known him better.

IPhone 3Gs

Iphone 3GS

I’ve been wanting to own an IPhone ever since it came out but the price and monthly bill held me back. Upon seeing a friend’s kid who is 2 years old operate an iphone as if he was pro and borrowing a friend’s IPhone (to view wiggles on youtube) while on a road trip to stop Caleb from throwing a fit, I was convinced to get one for my 30th birthday. Yeah! yeah excuses, excuses!

3-0 is a BIG number so I deserve a gift right? right? Yiek wants a D700 and I want an Iphone which 75% cheaper than the D700 by the way, so I’m getting mine he’ll have to wait for his. LOL! Yesterday was the announcement for the new IPhone 3G and wow it’s even better than before *insert tulo laway* here, I immediately checked my account if I was eligible for an upgrade but lo and behold I’m not buuhuu, I only get a discount which still 200 bucks more expensive than advertised price. Arrg! So, I emailed ATT and I got this reply:

Our records show that on 8/13/08, a new phone was purchased for
XXX-XX-XXX in exchange for a 24-month commitment to get discounted
pricing and/or a rebate. When the agreement is within 6 months of
expiring (1/14/10), and if your service has not been suspended more than
3 times in the last 12 months for non-payment, you will be eligible to
purchase an iPhone 3G S at the standard discounted price of $199
16GB/$299 32GB. You are eligible for early upgrade pricing on the iPhone
3G S, which is $399 16GB/$499 32GB prior to 1/14/10. Also, purchasing an
iPhone 3G S at the no-commitment pricing of $599 16GB/$699 32GB pricing
is available prior to 1/14/10. An $18 upgrade fee will apply unless
otherwise specified.

If I read it correctly, I’ll be able to purchase the phone at its advertised price if I wait after July 14. Yippeee! Now if only I can wait that long. Am I reading it correctly or am I just delusional?