I'm not stealing ok...

So I've been couponing for a few months now.  Not anything crazy like the chicks on the tv show  - but enough to where I have a little envelope...

I got these minute rice 2 packs for 25 cents

I went to the walmart and the cashier acted like I was stealing or something I had the ads to match and she buckled me on every single price match.  I finally asked her,"Why do you act like I'm taking money out of your own personal pocket --- when you damn well know your minimum wage making ass has no reason to be rude to me nor to be loyal to the people who own this damn walmart."  Well that knocked the rudeness right out of her ass.  I mean seriously, the stupid commercials say we price match - then you show up to price match and all they do is give you grief.

I ended up getting all these super D vitamins (gel caps) for 99 cents each.  I have a bunch of other stuff too - like challenge grade AA butter for 99 cents - 25lbs of blue ribbon long grain rice for $7 - jergens 8 oz ultra healing for $1 - various high end razors by gilette for him and her at about 1.99 a piece. My fave is 42oz of kielbasa for 4.15 and tyson chicken breasts for 1.99 a bag.

I only use coupons on what we use - or what my brother or sisters houses can use.  I will not buy 200 sports drinks, or 100 bottles of ketchup, or 300 cases of soda even if I can get them for free.  I focus on stuff we can use like Toilet Paper (12 pack cottonelle for 3.50 after coupons and instant rebate) and different dog food deals.  I already have 2 years of feminine paper products up and 2 years of toothpaste including sensodyne whitening and aim super clean whitening...some of them free and some of them under $1.

I got these flintstones vitamins for my 7 yr old niece they ended up being $3 a bottle after my coupons.  This will hold her until about next August.

I am not greedy - I always pay something.  Because the stores have to make money in order for us to continue getting deals.

The shop I work at gets a local free paper a few times a week.  The friday one has the P&G coupons.  The Sunday one has a redplum coupon book and another less popular coupon book.  The staff hides the papers in my locker until I come in on Monday.

I remember one day I got 5 lbs of butter, 4 packs of kraft singles, 1 lb mozarella, 1 lb medium cheddar, 1 lb meunster, 2 cream cheese, 2 marzettis caesar dressing, 2 boxes organic spinach, 2 tictacs...for a little over $18.  But as always those are things we use. 

I ran into a former co-worker of Mr. Mans when he was in sales at the grocery store and she was so happy to see me.  I invited her over that night to bring baby because I hadn't seen her in 3 years.  She saw our pantry and home and she said,"I'm so happy you two are still together and still in love - you are doing so well for yourself and are so prepared and thriving as usual."  I told her about prepping as a method to saving on expenses and not taking useless trips to the store.  I also admitted that I use coupons for things that we eat or consume such as vitamins.  She told me that she tried couponing but she just "doesn't get it" or she "loses patience"  She then admitted to me that after her husband (who is a real jackwagon and I never did like)  married her - he stopped giving her money and stopped paying her for working - UNBELIEVABLE!  She then admitted she and her daughter are on state medical benefits and food stamps.  WOW!  I don't even know how she managed that because her husbands business makes pretty good money.  Unbelievable and embarrassing.  I was thoroughly embarrassed for her.

Sometime soon - all these little government benefits will be cut off.

Then what will they do?

Where Da Cookies At...Auntie Cheffy...

We had my sister in laws sorority sister stay with us for awhile.  She received a promotion and a transfer here from Chicago and we felt it would be nice to let someone stay in our house rather than a hotel.  She was able to situate herself in a couple weeks. She has a little 13 month old daughter who comes to visit us about once a week.

Mr. Man is teaching her all kinds of funny faces and songs...and it's super fun having her around.  She is genuinely a good-natured and happy baby and super smart because she responds to multiple instructions.

 I always bake cookies for her when she comes over and I make them mini size so they fit her small hands.  Well last Sunday we had a bbq for family and friends - and I had just put in the 3rd batch of cookies when I heard her talking and banging on something.  I was busy preparing potato salad, wilted spinach salad, grilled veggies and breadsticks.  I finally turned around to look at her!

She was talkin to the STOVE! haha.  Don't worry it's heat safe front and sides.  She was pointing at the cookies talking to me in her baby talk. 

She did not leave that stove.  Until I said go play with the doggie (who she thinks is named hotdog).  At 13 months she can now handle her spoon and feed herself and seems to think she's ready for chopsticks. haha.

It's fun having her around.  Even though her grandma reprimanded me for spoiling her. HA!  This is why we also prep - not just for the family we have - but the people we've invited into our circle.

Beef...

We recently moved back to the East side of the valley which is a really happy move for us.  We were on the west side of the valley for a couple years and it really felt like social purgatory.  We met in the east side of the valley and first moved in there together.  We also had a nice little routine here for socializing, working and shopping.  I only recently started my shopping routine again...since I got a new job about 9 weeks ago.

 

 I hit one of my favorite Asian Markets where my butcher Mario works.  This guy always gives me the best cuts and will grind my beef fresh after trimming a LOT of the fat and cartilage off.  He will open fresh vac sealed bags, grind it and give me the sale price of the day.  I used to get 93-95% lean for about $1.49/lb - but lately it's closer to $1.99/lb.  I am not complaining.

 I purchased 35 lbs with none of the store managers raising an eyebrow.  This meat smells and looks good when you cook it - and the idea of getting mystery ground at the "regular" store kind of weirds me out but i'd do it if I had to.

I portioned off 10 bags at 1 lb per bag for my friend Jo to let her try it for her family.  I told her I will weigh and bag this time but next time you just get a sack of meat - haha.

Her husband was over watching the game the day I bought it and I made burgers for him and Mr. Man and let them "try" it to make sure it was good enough...As if...ahahaha. 

Ours are portioned out at exactly 1.5 lbs then I press the air out and flatten them so they stack neatly.  I don't see the point of vac sealing them because we eat them quickly enough.  I am not canning at this time because the new house has a glass top electric stove and I notice when it's on high the temperature fluctuates.  I simply do not want to take the risk of the pressure dropping especially with my new lovely All American Canner.

I will be buying an outdoor propane stove next week as well as an Excalibur Dehydrator.  It's just time to get everything in order - because as usual the analysts are projecting a 30-40% increase in food price in the spring because we had a 3rd drought this last summer.  I've been telling people to "strengthen" their pantries and to my surprise quite a few people have responded positively and started "making room."  That's really awesome - to see people love their family enough to have food and everything else up.  Then there are those who do NOT put anything up. Or even worse...

Those who ACT like they are putting stuff up yet it's just a pathetic attempt to appear like an A W A R E person but it's just a recipe of bullshit made up of whining and excuses.  I love people who say they are broke yet have money for a bunch of useless nonsensical things and they don't make room for important things.  I've heard one person say they can't prep meat and butter and stuff because they are on a budget yet they always have money for liquor or going out or other dumb stuff.  You know it used to make me mad.

It doesn't make me mad - I still feel a big disgusted but I no longer get mad about it.  I mean it's like they are slowly killing themselves and who am I to stop them from the freedom to self terminate?  When we had a chunk of money - I went and got Lasik surgery.  In my opinion not needing glasses or contacts was much more valuable than a new purse.  I like waking up and reaching for my Glock and my eyes are already focused. 

In a couple more months we'll have been putting up food 2 years.  I used to feel more philanthropic about helping others in case of emergency - but I no longer feel like that.  I am doing a lot - to hustle money to get our preps up.  I am working full time, going to school, maintaining the house - I am also selling bread, cookies and eggrolls on the side.  No one will ever call me a slacker in this life.  Someone called me the energizer bunny last night coz I was on a 2 hour skype call and I rolled out the eggrolls the whole time.  I just felt it was efficient.  I'm exhausted a lot of days but my mind is at ease.

Some days I've already been on my feet 6-9 hours doing cakes and on the way home I'm super tired.  But I will play in my mind what I could pick up in one stop just to beef up the preps...and I always find something.  Well and the fact that the lobby at work always has a ton of free papers with a jillion coupons in them.  It never ends but I'm glad to have instead of being a crybaby have not.

I've simply come to accept that some people will starve and they will have done it to themselves.  Some people will get staph or mrsa because they don't have silver ointment in their preps.  Some people will just have no clean water because they bought the latest clothes instead of a ceramic bucket filter.  It is what it is - I intend to simply focus on what I can do - and trade with those who did the same.

I'm so glad I don't live in this neighborhood.

some of you may know that we sold our previous house and bought a new one - during the process we stayed at my sisters and father in laws at various times to keep me in school.  My sister lives in a semi gated community and blah blah this shit that shit freakin HOA shit.  Well the new head of the HOA noticed my car in front of the house parked there and called to enquire about it...

My sister had called in to say that there is a problem from a nearby park where sewer roaches were going in the backyard and they should call the city to fumigate it.  Instead of being more concerned about that shit she pushed about my car.

Today she came by to check out a crack in the fence and said they can't do anything about it (my sister was out at costco)...she basically told us they wouldn't be fixing the common fence I was like cool have a good day get out...Then she inquired about the BMW and MINI cooper convertible in the front of the house...I said "oh people can't visit or what?"  She's like we just like to know what's going on.  I was like Shut the fuck up - Get out.  My sister will be home in one hour.

See this is exactly the kind of bullshit that pushed us to find an older home in an established neighborhood so I wouldn't have to deal with dumbasses. 

I hate first time homeowners who think it's their business to police the neighborhood.

The Latest Thing...

 It was time for a new phone and it was also time for a new upgrade.  My previous flip phone was just too small to use online flashcards without scrolling in a circle.  We popped into the AT&T store and I said just give me my freebie with a bigger screen.  My sister and brother had other ideas.  i was really contemplating an IPAD just because it was easier to dock than my laptop.  So instead of getting an ipad and a new phone I just got a hybrid of both.  A gift from my siblings. How nice right?

I have to admit it was kind of weird getting used to it - I'm not really big on the latest thing outside of canning and canning jars. lol.  I used to really be into that but these days not so much.  I just have other concerns.

I must say it only took my bill up about 13-15 bucks a month - not as much as i expected.  I can use 3 gigs of data and still the unlimited phone, text and all that other crap.  To be honest I don't use that much because i'm always sinking to wifi hotspots, school wifi or home.  My bill is about 43 per month - which in my opinion is a steal - other people think "i got suckered into THAT one"  which is really funny coz everyone I know pays upwards of 110 per month per phone.  Last weekend I stoopped by the Korean store and found these hello kitty dust jacks - LOL.  Pretty useless but the latest thing on another continent.  It entertains me to no end.

That's it - that's the latest thing.  Well we have other latest things - but that's for another blog

Lasik Update

Well...I went into the Lasik doctor for a consultation...just to see if I qualify for the Lasik procedure in terms of the health of my eyes and my prescription.  I also wanted to get a price point to see if it was affordable. 

I have been wearing contacts and glasses since I was about 13 years old.  I remember being so self conscious about my glasses and felt weird about my contacts.  Also for as long as I can remember I have always been a nightbird and prefer staying up late so for many many years I wore those contacts far longer than I should have, or I would even fall asleep with my glasses on.  I remember a few times I was in such a hurry I would jump into the shower WITH my glasses still on my face. haha.

I checked out some reviews on Yelp and checked some overall reviews.  I made some calls and I went with the guy who had been doing it the longest and had the most procedures (over 40,000 lasik/prk procedures under his belt).  I figured what did it hurt - almost all of them were "free consultations" to prequalify you for surgery and if I decided not to get surgery then I could always just pay for the contact/eyeglass exam and fill my prescription.  But to be honest, I am tired of wearing glasses - my prescription makes for heavy glasses and the contacts I prefer are $28/box even with a discount.  In the last few years I've also been unable to wear them on high pollen days - it's become unbearable.

The place was super busy.  I guess they do all their surgeries on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  People also come in from all over the state and from New Mexico and California to get their surgery done.  The staff are super nice and friendly - and answer all your questions - they must have like 15 exam rooms at that place and only one optometrist and one surgeon.  but it's a pretty speedy process.  I was a bit nervous but I was confident that i would qualify because a few years ago I had a very good optometrist take a 360 degree picture of my eye to also check the internal health of the nerves - actually I still have it on CD.  So then it came to price.  They quoted me 4800 for both eyes which pretty much seems to be the going rate for someone with eyes like mine (myopic -4.25 both eyes).  I told the office manager and the doctor I am a poor student...is there no way that you could bring the price down and I explained about how my eyes are rejecting lenses on high pollen days and i have long study hours AND my glasses are too heavy.  They told me they would be right back.

They came back and told me they could take the price down to 2600 for both eyes including the lifetime assurance that if my eyes fail in the future (with the exception of needing reading glasses due to age)  I could get complimentary adjustments.  That provides that I can put down 1K cash.  The remainder of the balance qualified for 2 years interest free.  Lol my bestie Chef/French Teacher told me that only I could talk a doctor down in price.

Haha.  HAGGLE!  there is a good chance you can get something off or at least something free - I haggle with everyone including doctors and dentists.

So that was about noon and they scheduled me for a 430pm surgery with Custom Lasik on both eyes instead of standard lasik.  So Mom and I grabbed lunch and did a little shopping.  I must admit I was very nervous because  I've never had surgery - I've never even been in a hospital except when I was born or had stitches from a playground fall and a big wheel jump from my grandmothers 3rd story home..

They prepped me for surgery (a bonnet and some gauze around the ears.  They gave me a post op kit and a prescription for antibiotic/inflammatory eyedrops (a whopping total of 27 bucks - haha)  They put me on the table.

The procedure did not hurt.

But...it was weird.  They put the numbing eye drops. They tape back your upper eyelid.  They tape down your lower eyelid.  They put a thingamajig to keep your eye propped.  you stare at a blinking yellowish orange light - they apply a vacuum thing to hold it still, then the blinking light blacks down and you hear this clicking popping - and 23 seconds later that eye is done.  They repeat the procedure on the other eye.

The weirdest part is when they put your lens back and everything immediately jumps to focus.  Then you blink and get up and everything is slightly foggy/misty.  After 30 minutes the numbing drops wear off and it feels horrible.  Those people who do the reviews were lying - the recovery time stings.  It felt like someone squirted a bottle of DAWN liquid soap in my eyes mixed with sand.  I took a 2 hour nap in the car while I waited for my prescription to get filled.  Then we went home and I made tacos (sunglasses on) and then I lay down.  Even if you wanted to you couldn't just go about your day - the sting and ache will force you to take a nap.  I fell asleep from like 8pm to 1130pm and when I woke up I could see the television and all the small details from far away.  The good thing is the pain went away

I put on the clear eyepatches and slept the rest of the night.  I woke up in the morning and was amazed at the difference HOWEVER I did not see small letters very well from far away.  I had an appointment at 345pm the next day - but I went in at 11am because my Friday classes were all cancelled. 

My eyes measured 20/30.  I was a bit disappointed.  They laughed and said - it has been less than 24 hours.  They are expecting my eyes to be 20/15 within the week.

I don't regret it and I would recommend it to anyone.

Funny Story - while I was in the lobby waiting - i heard a couple in there talking and the husband really did not want to get it but both of them are getting it.  I could hear that their eyes were also not as bad as mine.  The husband said that they didn't really need it and as he said that he was looking at her fake boobs.  I could tell he had only recently bought those - haha.  I also heard that they were paying 4600 each for the procedure  he said it was substantial - She said,"but we got a $200 discount each."  LOL I was laughing - they got ripped off.  Ain't that something.  LOL.

Right after they went in for surgery another couple came in and the husband was totally sourfaced.  The wife also had fake boobs.  But I looked closely at her and noticed she also had fake lips.  She looked at me and said,"Oh did you get lasik too?"  I said "yes, I had my appointment yesterday at 4pm"  She said,"Are you in pain?"  I said,"No."  She then leaned on her husband and said,"I am."  I had a baffled look on my face and the husband rolled his freakin eyes.  LOL.  She looked at me again and said,"Did you get your lips done too?"  I laughed and said Hell no...

Crazy people.  Just itchin to spend their husbands money.

Lasik Consultation

Im at the doctors getting a consultation for lasik surgery.  I hope its affordable...it would be great not to have to wear glasses or contacts.