Birthdays and Graduations

We've had a few special occasions in the last few weeks:
Jackson turned 11 on May 17.

Raina turned 6 on June 5.
Raina graduated from kindergarten.

In Raina's kindergarten classroom.

The school had a program for K-6 with the kindergarten graduation and academic awards for 4th-6th graders. Jackson got and award for excellent achievement in math and a phy. ed. award that the teacher said was given for consistently playing fairly and with integrity/not cheating.
It makes a parent proud to see kids do so well in school!

More Summer Stock Ups

You can pretty much guarantee that with a holiday weekend come big grocery sales. This week was no exception at Super One. I saved $104.18 or 38% this week. Here are some of the deals I found:

Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta--$1.50-$1 coupon=$0.50
Barilla Whole Grain pasta--$1.50-$0.75 coupon=$0.75
Star Kist tuna--$0.49 each

Quaker deal: 5/$11, with store coupon 5/$8, used $1/2 for syrup and pancake mix and $0.75/2 on granola bars=5/$6.25, or $1.25 each

Mini Wheats--3/$8-$1.50/3 coupon=3/$6.50=$2.17 each. Eggs were free with the purchase of 2 Kellogg's cereals

Kraft foods:
Had a catalina deal if you buy $20 in Kraft products, receive $5 coupon good on your next order.
I also have a rebate form for a $10 rebate when you buy $30 in Kraft products.
I also used coupons on these products.
I bought 19 items (oh, an even 20 would be so much nicer to do the math on!), so factoring in the rebate and catalina deal brings each item down $0.79.
Capri Sun--2/$4-$0.79 each=$1.21 each
Country Time lemonade--$1.97-$0.79=$1.18 each
Planters peanuts--2/$5-$0.79-$1/2 coupon=$1.21 each
Kraft parmesan cheese--$2.99-$0.79=$2.20
Oscar Mayer hot dogs--$0.97-$0.79-$1/2 coupon=$0.32 money maker
Cool Whip--$0.97-$0.79=$0.18
Triscuits and Wheat Thins--2/$5-$0.79-$1/2 coupon=$1.21 each
Marshmallows--$0.97-$0.79=$0.18
Kraft shredded and block cheese--$1.99-$0.79=$1.20 each
Kraft American cheese--$1.49-$0.79=$0.70

When companies come out with new razors, they often put out high value coupons as well. This Schick Hydro razor was $7.99. I used a $5 coupon, making the razor $2.99.

I also went to Pamida and bought Pull Ups ($9.99-$2 coupon=$7.99) and sandals for Raina ($14.99) and Ollie (shoes were buy one, get one half off, so $14.99/2=$7.50). I used the $50 gift card I got from the Huggies Potty Dance game, so this didn't cost me anything out of pocket! I also used the gift card for our McDonalds lunch.

Field Trip

Jackson's fifth grade class does a lot of hands-on projects. Earlier this year they planted seeds and then sold the seedlings to parents, teachers and community members. With the money they raised, they bought an acre of land in Columbia (I don't know any more details), bought some items they needed to fix up the school forest, and paid for their field trip, including a guest (parent, grandparent, sibling) for each student. Barry stayed home with the little boys and I got to go with on the field trip.

Jackson and some classmates at the Marine Museum

The first stop was the Imax theater to see Mysteries of the Great Lakes. Then we went to the Marine Museum at Canal Park. We looked at the exhibits and heard a talk about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Finally we all went to Brighton Beach eat lunch.

Jackson eats his lunch on the rocks by Lake Superior

Lunch room for the day

The weather was beautiful, and it was fun to spend some one-on-one time with Jackson. That doesn't happen very often!

The Power Sword

Remy has a slight obsession with He Man, and is nearly inseparable from his "Power Sword".

In the Mail

It's been a great week for mail. I got a $50 Visa card that I won for playing the Huggies Pull Ups potty dance game; a Kraft summer sample pack with Wheat Thins samples, samples of vanilla caramel latte mix, FREE coupons for Oscar Mayer hot dogs and Bull's Eye barbecue sauce, and a rebate offer to buy $30 in Kraft products and get $10 back; and from Amazon.com a new Jillian Michaels Burn Fat Boost Metabolism DVD and Diego toy (a potty training, well #2, bribe for Remy) that were free with Amazon giftcards I earned through Swagbucks.

Super One Buy One Get One

Super One had a number of buy one, get one free deals this week. Paired with coupons, we found some good deals:

Hamburger/hot dog buns--$1.29/2=$0.65 each
Old Dutch pretzels--$2.69/2=$1.35 each
Dutch Girl dozen eggs--$1.19/2=$0.60 each
Gold'n Plump chicken patties--$6.99-$1.00 coupon=$3.00 each
Dare Breton crackers--$3.49-two $0.50 coupons=$1.25 each
Baby carrots--$1.77/2=$0.88
E.L. Fudge cookies--$3.49-$0.55 coupon=$1.48 each

Knorr side dishes--10/$10-$1/4 coupon=$0.75 each
Hidden Valley dressing--$2.99-$2 coupons=$0.99 each
No Yolks egg noodles--$1.25-$0.75 coupon=$0.50
DiGiorno 200 calorie pizza--FREE with coupon from promotion

Earthbound Farm organic cauliflower--$3.53-$1.00 coupon=$2.53
Arnold bread--$1.49

Fisher sunflower seeds--$1.29-$1.00 coupons=$0.29 each
Shasta orange pop--$1.25-$1.00 coupon (for buying 2 Keebler cracker sandwich packs)=$0.25

Bic razors--$4.99-$3.00 coupons=$1.99 each
Gilette Fusion razor (Barry's preferred brand)--$7.49-$1.00 coupon=$6.49

Angel Soft--$5.45-$0.50=$4.95

And finally it's getting warm enough to think about getting the garden started. Jackson's class has been selling plants to raise money for their spring field trip, so we have some tomato plants, peppers, marigolds, summer squash and zucchini. I'll be planting from seed carrots, spinach, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, peas, beans and sunflowers. We're getting an earlier start than last year, when we didn't start until well into June.

Overall I saved 39%, or $120.66.

Outside