My First Coupon Adventure

Our Food Lion store had many buy one get one free offers this week.  I checked the sales against my coupons and made a list.   My bill came to $75.03 and I paid $26.65.  

I am so excited with my first coupon shopping trip where I really paid attention to my coupons and the sales.  I’m ready for my next trip, this is exciting. Below are a few examples I bought.

2 boxes Cheez-it crackers – @ $3.49 = 6.98 / One free - $3.49 - $1.00 coupon = $2.49 / $1.25 a box

2 packs M&M candies – @$1.00 = $2.00 / One free - $1.00 - $.75 coupon = $.25 / $.13 each

2 boxes of Ritz crackers - @ $3.99 = $7.98 / One free - $3.99 - $1.00 coupon = $3.00 / $1.50 a box

4 boxes of pasta shells - @ $1.59 = $6.36 / Two free - $3.18 / $.80 a box

2 Heinz Ketchup - @ $3.29 = $6.58 / One free - $3.29 - $1.00 coupon = $2.29 / $1.15 a bottle

4 bottles Barbeque sauce @ 2.39 = $9.56 / 2 free - $4.78 – 2 - $1.00 coupons = $2.78 / $.70 a bottle

3 Bryers Ice Cream @ $6.49 = $19.47 / Store sale $1.99 each - $.75 coupon = $14.25 / $1.74 each

2 packs Kraft cheese squares @ $4.89 = $9.78 / One free - $4.89 – 2 $1.00 coupons = $2.89 / $1.45 each

Plus and extra $5.00 off with my store card besides the usual store savings.

I bought a baseball card book at Target for $14.99 and it came with 60 sheets for cards.  The packs of sheets are 30 for $5. It really helps to be able to flip through the pages to see all the coupons you have instead of going through a pile of them.

There is a really good website that helped me get started, check it out at http://thekrazycouponlady.com

Also did you know that there is a program to send expired coupons over seas?   The military overseas can use the expired coupons for up to six months past the expiration date.  I have adopted a base in Japan to send my coupons to once a month.  If you want to join in on this you can adopt a base or you can send me the coupons once a month and I will send them in.

Till next time...

Love,
Jennifer

New River Air Show

Last weekend we went to the New River Air Show on base.  The weather was calling for rain all weekend but down here seems like unless it's 100% chance a lot of times it does not rain.   Saturday we had our yard sale and had a really nice day for it.  We did pretty good but still have a lot of things left.  I guess we will take them to the donation place.  Greg's sister came over and sat with us for the day while we had our sale.  We had a nice visit together. 

Sunday morning was very nice so we decided to go to the Air Show.  I have never been to one and thought it would be fun.  It was free to get in so we took our chairs and headed out.  When we arrived of course we had to go through security then walked a pretty good distance across the air field.  When we sat on the chairs you could only see what was in the air but nothing on the ground because of all the stands and bleachers set up.  There were sections you could pay $5 and get in and see the whole air field.  So we decided to pay and go inside.

Well we were inside for about 10 minutes when a dark cloud came over with some rain.  It started out light they got pretty heavy so we went around the corner with everyone else and crammed under a small tent.  Of course till we got there we were pretty wet.  It only lasted a few minutes and stopped.   The air show started again and we got to watch about 30 more minutes till another dark cloud came, this time with a very heavy down pour.  We got around the bleachers and got under but it didn't cover very well.  We got drenched this time.

Again we decided to stay, although it was cold from the wind and being wet.  The sun came out every now and then which was nice but then went back behind the clouds.   They started the air show again with a group jumping out of a plane.

There was a helicopter pilot doing tricks and flying it upside down.  Also a plane doing a lot of crazy flying stunts.

The planes in the show were really neat. 

This jet went by so fast.  Then came around to stop and hover over.  It was cool but very loud.

This plane tried to land on a truck while moving.  It had gotten pretty windy from the rain so he was not able to do it after several tries.

After watching for about an hour the announcer said there was another storm cell coming with lighting.  You could go to your car to wait it out or to an airplane hanger that they opened up.  I was tired, cold, wet to the bone and hungry.  We decided to leave (as most people did) and go home.  We stopped at Bojangles got some chicken, took it home got into some warm clothes and had chicken for supper. 

We will try again next year.  A few things about the show is;  #1 it's worth paying the five dollars to get a better seat. #2 eat a big meal before you go, they were charging $7 for a funnel cake and $3 for a bottle of water. 

Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Ham and Yam Festival

We went to the Ham and Yam Festival in Smithfield, NC  www.hamandyam.com .  This was a little longer drive then we normally do to go to a festival.  It sounded interesting so we went.  It was very nice with lots of vendors selling crafts.  There even was a stand with someone selling stamps from a company called "Stampin Up"  www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/crazystampcreations.  If you like to make cards or even use stamps for your scrapbooking, this is a neat company.

We walked around for some time checking out all the vendors.  We then had a barbeque sandwich which was very good.  Lot of barbeque here in the south is a little to strong with vinegar.  This sandwich was mild (which I like) or you could add extra sauce (which Greg did).

There are always a few wine vendors at each festival so we checked them out.  We then found a street that had a lot more food vendors on.  It was on a back street of the festival so you really didn't know it was there unless you walked back that far.  To my surprise they had a large grill with Yams.  I really like yams so I had to get one.

There was also a stand selling Ham and Biscuit sandwiches so Greg decided to try one.

On the way home we decided to stop by the Kinston Barbeque festival in Kinston, NC  www.kinstonbbq.com.  We were going to go there first but decided to go to the Ham and Yam first.  Thank goodness we did because we could not believe how little was at the Kinston festival.  The website made it look like a great event, I don't know if it was we got there a little later but it was very disappointing.  We bought a sweet tea and a jar of salsa.  Watch a group of women do a belly dancing show.  I think the total time we were there was 30 minutes.

We headed home and looked forward to our next adventure.

Till next time....

Hugs & Blessings
Jennifer

PICKLE FESTIVAL

On Saturday we headed to the pickle festival in Mt Olive, NC. 

Tent giving away pickle samples

They had a very large car show with some really neat cars.  I wish my son-in-law would have been here because he would have really liked it.

I then tried my hand at pickle packing.  How fast could you pack three jars with whole pickles?  Well it took me over three minutes, not sure I would be able to get a job packing pickles.

We then walked around to check everything out.  They had camel rides and a cute petting zoo with baby camels.

We decided to get something to eat so I had a chicken fajita and Greg had a steak sandwich.

Then we found a stand that sold lemonade, strawberry lemonade and pickle lemonade.  Pickle lemonade sounds interesting. We wanted to try the pickle lemonade but didn't want to spend $5.  I think they should have given samples.  So we settled on a regular lemonade and a strawberry lemonade.

As we were walking around we came upon a burger eating contest by Andy's restaurant www.andysburgers.net.  It hadn't started yet so we decided to wait and watch.

Several of the people in the contest have won different eating contests.  Of course this goes against my stomach doctor's advise to eat slow and chew a lot.  This burger was 50 oz with 6 oz of fries and a 24 oz drink.  Just thinking of eating this amount of food quickly made my stomach turn.  The person that won 1st place ate all this in 3 minutes and 2 seconds and won $2000.

The guy with the hat won 1st place

There was a street with some old tractors on show.

The town has railroad tracks running right down the center street.  Can you believe that a train came through during the festival.  It was only two cars but we were surprise they let it go through with all the people around.

It was a very nice day and I would definitely go to this one next year.  When we left the festival we decided to go to the Duplin Winery www.duplinwinery.com since we were so close.  We happen to get there when a tour was coming back so we were able to join them for the tasting.  We have had wine from this winery and really like it.  We ended up buying a case of wine to bring home. We actually use some of their wines for cooking.

Right down the road from the winery we noticed a seafood buffet and decided to stop.  It was called "Small Town Calabash Seafood Buffet".   It was very good and priced at $11.95 per person which was good for seafood. 

 Well it was a very busy day and we had a good time.  Getting ready for our next adventure this weekend.

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

EASTER & YARD WORK

I have been so busy working in the yard this week that I forgot to write on my blog.  Easter weekend Greg's sister, mom and I volunteered at the park in Surf City for the egg hunt.  We left early in the morning and helped hide the eggs, then we sold raffle tickets.  Anne and I rocked selling raffle tickets because we went down where everyone was parking.  This way we got everyone as they came into the park.
Easter Sunday after church we decided to have lunch at the Chinese buffet.  It was Greg, myself, his mother, brother and his wife.  It's a place we have eaten before and really like.  But next year I will be cooking because I really missed my ham and sweet potatoes.

Greg is on spring break so we decided that we were going to work on the yard.  We pretty much changed everything around.  There wasn't much in our back yard so we decided to plant bushes all along the fence.  This was a big job.  We planted some azalea bushes, butterfly bushes and some pretty yellow and green bushes.  So fifteen bushes and 120 ft of mulch, it was a lot of work but it really looks nice. 

Our back yard

All the flower beds have the red mulch.  I'm use to and really like the black mulch.  We raked up all the red mulch and planted new flowers and bushes and then put down the black mulch.  We worked in the yard every day for a week and it really turned out nice.  Below are some of the pictures of the things we have done. 

The start of Greg's Garden

Even though it was a lot of work we had a nice week.   I'll write in a few days about the festival that we attended this weekend.  So check back in a few days.

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer