This Week's Menu and Great Buys

I confess I only cooked one meal for dinner this week. It's been kind of a crazy week, and I've also got a bunch of restaurant coupons that expire on Monday, so we've been eating out a lot. Here's the one meal I cooked on Tuesday:

• Spicy Beef and Sausage Ravioli:

- 2 bags Ravioli (purchased on sale w/ coupons last week): $5
- 1/2 Jar Ragu (B1G1 w/ coupons applied a couple of weeks ago): $0.73 worth

• Sister Shubert Rolls: on hand
  
• Green Beans: $0.70

Total Cost: $6.43
Fed 4 Adults

On a different note, I wanted to share with you some sweet deals we got on a couple of BIG purchases this month. We got into a wreck in July that totaled our Fusion. We ended up coming out of it with a chiropractor bill and a BIG settlement check. We were struggling with what to do with the money. We saught the advice of family and friends- half of them told us to be wise and pay off some debt, and the other half told us we should just spend it because when would we have this kind of money again? Well, we took both sets of advice. We paid off a credit card, and we took the rest of the money and "blew" it, but in a very smart way...

Purchase #1

Shane bought a new drum set. He has been teaching for over 5 years now, and has yet to own some nice music gear. He had 2 drum sets at one point this summer, but they were not very good kits. He sold one of them and the other is being rented by one of his students. So, we decided it was time for him to get a drum set that he liked and that was better than mediocre.

So, he shopped around and found a Gretsch set through Musician's Friend that he really liked that was on sale for $650. Before he made the big purchase, he emailed Musician's Friend to inquire a little about the set, and ended up getting a response that the one he wanted was sold out. Shane emailed the guy back and asked that they would at least give him a coupon for his next purchase since they were advertising something they did not have in stock. They agreed to give him a 5% off coupon. In the meantime, he emailed Gretsch and asked if they knew of where he could get this drum set he loved that was sold out. Well, they told Shane they made very few of this one set he wanted, and that according to their records, Musician's Friend should have at least 1 left in stock and Shane should have them look for it. Shane asked, and they found the 1 left in the back of their warehouse. So, Shane bought it and said, "Here's my coupon!" So, he ended up getting this sweet drum set worth over $1000 for $600 shipped!

Purchase #2

I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do with my part of the extra money. I always buy clothes in these kind of situations, but I wanted do be different this time. I wanted to purchase something that I would enjoy like Shane does his drums. I went with new cookware. When we got married, someone gave us Caphalon pots and pans (that were on our registry, and I am VERY thankful for having them the last 3 years), which are top of the line in the cooking world. Well, they were the non-stick kind, which I have decided that I hate and are not good for me to own because I will never spend the time handwashing that stuff. Through so many runs through the dishwasher, the non-stick stuff has come off and rusted. I cook a lot so it's important for me to have some decent cookware.

I noticed in the Bed, Bath, and Beyond ad this week that if you buy $300 of Caphalon products they give you a $50 gift card. I also found the set I wanted: Caphalon 13 Tri-Ply Stainless Steel piece set of pots and pans for $399.99. I also had a 20% off coupon to BB&B, so I went in last night and made my purchase. Well, not only did I get the set and a $50 gift card for $320, but they also threw in a Caphalon Dutch oven (worth $140 on it's own) for free! So, I got $590 worth of stuff for $320, plus a $50 gift card, and the pots and pans have a lifetime warranty! My omlet this morning has never tasted so good and come out so perfect. :-)


Not only have we been able to take our stretched dollars from Grocery money and buy more things, but we have been able to stretch our stretched out dollars! I don't think Shane and I have ever been able to have so much food on our table, give so much away, and buy ourselves nice things as much as we have this semester! It's because of GOD, and partly Shane doing well in the job world (because of God), but I feel a huge contributor has been coupons (it's a God thing I got into coupons so I it's really all from God)! I really look forward to calculating my costs vs savings for groceries after a year of blogging about them.

Are you convinced to coupon yet?