earphones!

I received free earphones in the mail today! Yahoo! I got them from the site http://1saleaday.com/
I also signed up yesterday with them to get a free breast cancer pink ribbon pin. I wasn't sure if it would work, but the earphones arrived, so I'm very happy! Sometimes they have stuff you have to pay for (at a discounted price) but every now and then, they have a free item.

One of my best friends ever sent me this link today:
http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-113020-10125-1-how-to-get-the-most-from-coupons?ywaad=ad0035&nc
I liked the article very much. I had actually been wondering about the effect the show Extreme Couponing was having on stores, people who previously did not use coupons, and people who do use coupons. There are several things you have to take into consideration about the show:
1. The deals they show on the program are usually the biggest deals the couponers have done. I mean, it has to be good t.v., or we wouldn't watch it!
2. Those people spend as much time doing coupon stuff as a normal person would spend at a full time job.
3. To get $1000 worth of groceries for 25 cents, these people have to be flexible on what they're going to buy. They already have a stockpile of items, so they do not have to shape their grocery list around what they need for the week; they shape it around what items are on sale.
4. They typically buy multiples of the same item with multiples of the same coupon, which make their savings look extreme.

I do not condone people stealing newspapers, trying to rip off stores, or using 30 coupons for the same item. I have been known to have some extreme savings (I once bought a brand new $200 coat for $10--It was out of season, it was marked down because it was missing a button, the store was having an additional discount on all discounted merchandise, and I had a coupon), but, I would typically call my savings pretty average. I love to watch my grocery bill drop $20 or $30 when the cashier runs my shopper card then my coupons. Even if I'm still spending $35 or $40 for groceries, I still feel like I've done a good job. There are specific things I need--bread for sandwiches, eggs for breakfast, milk for cereal, etc.--that I probably do not have a coupon for, but I am going to buy anyway because I have a family to feed!

I don't want to be that person holding up the line for three hours because I've jammed up the register with all my coupons. I also do not want to be the person who ruins it for everyone else. I don't need thirty bottles of mustard. I don't really know anyone who needs that! So, I'm not going to buy 30 bottles of mustard all at once, even it I have 30 coupons for it! That way, other people who need mustard can still buy it.

I would not recommend for anyone to quit his or her job to become an extreme couponer. I would also encourage those who do have stockpiles of items to share them. If you have 100 boxes of cereal, donate them, give them away, or let friends "shop" in your garage. You don't need them all, and you will probably be getting more next month!

---
On the job front, today was my second day at the book store. Tomorrow will be my last day this week. Then, I'm off for the weekend. I have decided I will give myself a job within a job. I appointed myself as cleaner, straightener, and keeper of textbooks today. I went around, gathering all the stray books and finding a home for them. I also cleaned up, organized the desk, grouped like things together (pencils here, paper there...), and picked up all the trash laying everywhere. This occupied my time for most of the day, which is a good thing, since the managers still do not know exactly what to do with me. Every time I ask one of them a question, he or she directs me to another manager, who directs me to another manager (you get the picture). Somewhere down the line, one of three things happens:
1. I am directed back to a manager who had already directed me away. At this point, I just figure out something to do.
2. The manager I have been directed to is no where to be found. At this point, I just figure out something to do.
3. I give up. I am tired of going up and down the escalators, through doorways, and across warehouses looking for managers. At this point, I figure out something to do.
Do you see a pattern here?

We shall see what tomorrow brings!

job, part 2

Well, I can't say I'm surprised, but I can say I'm disappointed. My first day of work was today. I felt as if the managers were not prepared for me to come in today, because they did not have all the necessary paperwork for me, and they really had nothing for me to do. I go back tomorrow, so maybe there will be something that magically popped up after I left. We'll see. I am definitely over qualified for this job. I am actively looking for something either to supplement this job or to take its place completely.

Ashley is still rashy and itchy.

Positive attitude! At least we both have jobs and a nice place to live, and we are finding stuff to fill up our apartment! But we are not hoarding! We have already freecycled one box of stuff that we put together as leftovers from stuff we got from other freecyclers that we didn't really want. Does that make sense? Maybe not because I am tired, and I just wrote my first paper for my first MBA class, so my brain is doing all kinds of crazy stuff right now.

Good night!

job

I begin working at 10am today at my new bookstore! It's in Fort Worth, so it's about 20 minutes away, but it can take longer to get there, depending on traffic.

We went to a few yard sales yesterday, and there was one where we wanted EVERYTHING! The lady was having an "estate sale" even though it was just really inside her apartment. She collected Egyptian stuff, African animal stuff, and Mardi Gras stuff. We bought a few things, but we wanted to buy it all! We also got a neat little media rack that fits nicely beside the television. Total, I think we spent about ten dollars. Woot!

Deal!

I had a sort of interview today for a position at the TCU bookstore. And, I start on Monday! 10am! But, I am not getting paid as much as I want (or as much as I deserve, for that matter!), so I am going to look around some more. I may even call up my old boss and see if he has anything for me. What I really, really want to do is work for Half Price Books. I think that would be aaawwweeesssooommmeee--that's awesome x 3.

Now for today's deal: 6 items at Walgreens:
a dozen eggs
two 20 ounce sodas
a can of folgers coffee
two packages of fun size candies

Total amount due: 25 cents! GO AMY!!!

Everything I got was on sale, I had two coupons for $1 off, and then I had a couple of register rewards from last week. Also, I was sure to not use any more than six coupons this time! I couldn't have done it without Ashley, though. So, actually, GO AMY AND ASHLEY! woot woot!

furnishing

Today we started our big push for getting the new apartment furnished. It was yard sale Saturday! We went to approximately 15 or 20 yard sales this morning. Here's the final loot tally:
-1 coffee table
-1 bag of office supplies, including, but not limited to:
---pens (also, including, but not limited to, 2 brand new Pilot V5 Precise Rollerballs! My favorite!)
---pencils
---a couple of desk organizer items
---a bottle of white out
-a plastic expandable file folder for extreme couponing
-a box of tabbed divider sheets, also for extreme couponing
-a weird vase from an Oklahoman Native American reservation for decoration
-an old looking but actually new world map in a cool frame
-a marker board-cork board combination
-four books (Brave New World, Crime and Punishment, Rereading America, and one more)
-a two and a half foot tall decorative candle holder with candle
-two heart shaped red sparkly plates
-five tiny ramekins that say "Country Crock" on them

All this for less than $15!! We were wheelin' and dealin' today!
Also, yesterday, at the Goodwill, we got a nice, big flat screen tv for $10! It's still a CRT, so it's a big, heavy thing, but, it works well, and it was super cheap! Wahoo!

I learned an important lesson this week: At Walgreens, you can only use as many coupons as you have items. This includes the Walgreens register rewards "cash." So, for example, if you are buying six items, you cannot use six coupons plus four register rewards. The best trick around this is to find some really, really, really cheap items, and add them in to your purchase so you can use more coupons. I found this out the hard way and did not think about adding the cheap items in, so I lost out a little on my Walgreen's excursion this week. But, I'll know for next time! Ha ha!

Daily Deal

So, we've been staying at my sister's apartment until everything gets finalized with the new apartment. We're going by to finish moving our stuff in today. Here's the deal I got yesterday that I was most excited about:
At Steak and Shake, they have half price drinks and shakes between 2 and 4 (both pm and am!) Ashley and I went around 2:30, and we each had a coupon for a dollar or so off our meals. So, for less than the cost of a value meal at other fast food restaurants, we both had a late lunch and dessert! And it tasted better than McDonalds!

Additionally, I'll be going to Walgreen's later today to find some more good deals. I plan to fill up a cart and pay less than $10 for it all. I have some register rewards from last week, and I'm couponing it up! Very excited! I hope it all goes as planned. I'll let you know.

On the upswing

We got a new apartment today! Woohoo! We love it! The pool is about forty steps from our back door! I have an interview at SMU's college store tomorrow. Wish me luck!

In Acquiring New Stuff news, I got two big boxes of random craft supplies and a three-tiered plastic cart from a fellow freecycler!

sunday

it's coupon day! get your sunday papers and get ready to clip!

And just like that.

I don't want to jinx it by saying too much, so this post will be short, but I think things may be looking up for us again...

On a side note, I've reconnected with an old friend, and I'm happy to have someone to call up and hang out with! Also, I've decided the hardest part of not having an address to call your own is not being able to sign up for free stuff, because you really do not have a place to send it to! So much for living in a van down by the river...

one million titles

In my head, this post has had at least one million titles. A few of them include:
Roaches and Crack
Attacked by Snakes, part 2
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Texas
Bug Bites
Sunburn
Bum

Any guesses as to what's been happening lately? Right now, the outlook is somewhat grim. We had already signed a lease on an apartment that had a lovely exterior, three pools, a super nice staff, etc. We went to move our stuff in, and the place was crawling with roaches. The property managers were trying to talk us into staying in perhaps a different unit. Ashley went to get the mail, as we had already changed our address, and when she came back, she discretely told the lady who had been working with us that there were two guys in a truck smoking crack near the mailboxes. (It turns out Dog the Bounty Hunter can teach you many important life lessons--such as how to distinguish a crack pipe from other pipe types.) We decided not to live there. As we were driving away, something dawned on me and I asked, "Did one of the crack guys have a mohawk?" It turns out, it was the maintenance men.

Ashley's first day on the job was yesterday. She was actually attacked by snakes this time. They both struck her on her snake gators (these leg wrap things that protect you from snake bites), so she did not need the anti-venom that my sister recommended. Ashley reports that rattlesnakes are not, in fact, just as afraid of you as you are of them. They also do not act defensively. They strike.

It seems like with everything we've done lately, once we start to get ahead just a little, we fall behind once again. Long story.

In good news: we have arrived in Texas! Hooray! Pictures may follow, I'm just too exhausted to add them right now. We don't have a place to live, so we're crashing at my sister's right now.

We're both covered in bug bites and sunburns, but we're trying to stay positive!