12/28

I decided to keep a more detailed blog so that I can look back and see what we did on a particular day. Some days there is really nothing to write about but the everyday things that everyone deals with. Some days there is a little more - nothing very exciting though!

Not much happening today. Got up at usual time of about 7:00. Sam always sleeps later…8 or 8:30. I go to bed before him so I am ready to get up earlier. We had ham and eggs for breakfast. Ham was from Mother and eggs were free when you buy Sargento cheese at Publix.

Just messed around this morning, took showers, washed dishes, etc. I am going to Samantha’s house this afternoon about 4:00 to stay with the boys while they go look for new cell phones. I watched All My Children and made a chicken and rice casserole for Sam to have for dinner while I’m gone. He just needs to put it in the oven for about 45 minutes. I’ll eat with the boys - Samantha will have spaghetti ready for me to feed them. She also wanted to borrow my camera so I won’t have it for a few days.

I’m back now….about 9:45 p.m. Had fun playing with the boys and all their new Christmas toys. Spaghetti was good and they all ate their dinner. I did manage to watch the Bulldogs beat Texas A&M 44-20! Go Dawgs! Nice game - it was fun watching them win by so much - no nail biting going on (after the first half anyway! : )

One camper tonight!

Tues. 12/29

Today we slept pretty late……8:30 or so. We had ham and eggs for breakfast. I need to get milk at the store in order to have our usual cereal! I’ll do that tomorrow when I can get it free at Kroger. (With Rx Rewards). By the way, the ham was from Mother, the eggs were free from Publix deal and the bread was free with coupon.

Around 10:00 we decided to go to Lowe’s to get a new electric heater for the camper. Our old heater just quit working and the propane is just to expensive to use the furnace exclusively. With temps in the 20/30’s at night and 40/50’s days, it takes one tank every 5 to 7 days. That is $26 a week or over $100 a month. Way too much……..especially when electricity is free for us! We found a really nice one for $49.00, and with $15.00 remaining on my Lowe’s gift card, it was only $30 plus tax. We had the sales associate hook up three different ones for us and this one seemed to fit our needs the best. It is 750 Low/1500 High BTU’s, with reflector and fan. It’s about 2 ½ feet tall and about 18” wide and very ORANGE when on high. It’s like sitting in front of a hot fire. We don’t sit that close, keeping it over by the dining table, about 15’ from our chairs. With the bedroom door shut, it keeps the entire living area very toasty. At night we turn it to face the bedroom and open the door, of course. If the temp is in the 20’s we would probably need the furnace on low in order to warm the bedroom at night. We’ll find out soon as the forecast is for lows in the 20’s starting Friday for 4 or 5 nights!

I am still scared of electric heaters after hearing all the horror stories every year. We will be very cautious with this one and we always turn it off and unplug it when we are gone. We probably won't even use it when the boys are here...we'll just use the furnace.

After Lowe’s, we stopped at Kroger to drop off a prescription and pick up some free bread (free with coupons doubled). Also found some Hershey Kisses (Cherry Cordial flavor - my fav) at ½ price, so got the last two! I will splurge and pay ½ price for chocolate! ;-)

By now it’s lunch time. I had a few coupons that expire 12/31 from McDonald’s to use up. Sam hates McDonald’s so we stopped at Checkers to get him the free Champ Burger (on back of receipt) and large drink and fries. Then on to McD’s for my free medium Meal deal. I got the Swiss & Mushroom Angus Burger, Medium Fries and Medium Diet Coke for free. (Free deal mailed to me from Panama City where I had called in a complaint). The Angus Burger is really good but I would never pay full price for it. I think my meal was regularly $5.75. Then we had free cones (coupons expire 12/31 - I have 3 or 4 left!).

Got back to the camper around 2:30. Missed All My Children. We played with the new heater for awhile, took a short nap, had leftovers for dinner, watched some shows on HGTV, read a few blogs and time for bed!

Two campers tonight!

Wed. 12/30

Today we had to get up early for Eye Dr. appointments at 8:40. No breakfast for me, just coffee. Sam had cereal (with free milk from McDonalds!) We both are going to get eye exams and new glasses one last time before the eye insurance ends on 12/31. We did not renew that portion of the insurance for 2010, just to save a few dollars on insurance premiums. Our exams went well, we picked out new glasses and they will call us in a week or 10 days to pick them up.

We made a stop at Kroger to pick up one of my prescriptions - the last one with a $25 gift card coupon. Those coupons expire 12/31, and I will miss the free groceries (until I find more deals!). Those came from K-Mart and were good for $25 gift card when you transfer a prescription. Kroger honors other competitor’s coupons so I used them at Kroger for October, switched to Target and/or CVS for November (using their own coupons) and transferred back to Kroger for December. Since I have 5 (now 6) prescriptions each month (all are $4, except one which is $15), I actually ended up with about $250 free groceries from Kroger since October. While there we picked up a few grocery deals. We wanted some Boboli pizza shells to make pizza using the free pepperoni from last week’s Publix deals. They don’t sell them anymore so we had to make one more stop at Publix just to get the Boboli. I had $1 off coupons that expired 12/31 and luckily, Publix still sells them. Guess we’ll have Pizza when the boys come next time!

By the time we got back to the camper it was 1:00 and time for lunch and All My Children. I had egg salad sandwich and chips and Sam had ham sandwich and chips.

After lunch, I put up the rest of the groceries and Sam had to make a run to the farm store down the road to get one of the propane tanks filled. Hopefully, we will be using less propane now that we have the new electric heater.

While he was gone, I took down the tree and the Christmas decorations and got them ready for Sam to pack away when he returned.

I did identify a White-breasted Nuthatch on the pine tree outside the back of the camper. No camera so no picture for now. I’ve also seen several Eastern Bluebirds being very active around the campground.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon reading books or blogs and contemplating dinner. We decided on Barber’s broccoli stuffed chicken breasts (regularly $4.99 for box of 2 but only $.50 with Publix deals last week) and Betty Crocker’s sour cream and chives potatoes (free with Publix deal) and a small side salad to get in the veggies! Dessert was Nestle toll house cookies (I think these were $.45 instead of $2.89, also Publix deal).

Nothing on TV except reruns!

We had one camper overnight who has been here for 3 days now. They are leaving Thursday morning.