double your pleasure.

i’ve heard many tales of stop & shop and their magical coupon doublers, but i never thought i would have the opportunity experience the greatness in this barren stop & shopless territory.  well, it looks like everything these days is going all crazy-town, because not only is rite aid doing their own take on extrabucks with their +up program (what!?), but my shaw’s circular this weekend (the junkmail version- NOT the one you can pick up in the store) had 4 very special dollar doubler coupons attached. i am SO feeling the magic this weekend. shaw’s doubles most manufacturer’s coupons up to $.99, which is great and all… but these four babies let me double $1.00 value coupons, for awesome and totally unheard of savings. coupled with a couple of sweet weekly sales, i felt a little like i won the coupon olympics today. my best scores:

cheerios & lucky charms @ 2/$4 coupons.com has a bunch of killer $.55/1 coupons right now, doubling to make each box cost exactly $.90. 6 boxes= $5.40

hood frozen tangy frozen yogurt @ $2.99 with yet another dollar doubler was only $.99.

arm & hammer detergent @ $5.29/1 was on bogo. i used one of my dollar doublers to get 2 bottles for $3.29 (or $1.65 each).

i also used my remaining 2 doublers to score a few products that never really go on sale:

paul newman frozen pizza @ $5.99/1 became almost reasonable at $3.99.

morningstar chicken fingers $4.29 became walmart cheap at $2.29.

of course then i splurged a little on 1.5 lbs. of cherries @ $3.99/lb. but they are stunningly fresh, and much like fiddleheads, one of the more transient pleasures of summer. (why save if you can’t eventually spend on the things that make life worth living?)

i wrapped up the whole grocery adventure in a $5/$50 that i got in the mail a few weeks ago, and got the whole lot (roughly $60+ worth of food) for $28. not free, but i was able to get what i wanted, and stock up on some things that i needed for $2 under my weekly grocery budget. in my world (as a girl who used to spend $80 a week on foodstuffs), it feels like definite progress.

however, a lingering question still remains: WHERE IS THE FUCKING WACKY MAC?! please stop advertising it in my local circular (especially if there are coupons available to make it FREE you teasing whore!), if it doesn’t actually exist in the state of maine. i have looked up and down every aisle in at least 3 different stores in southern maine. if anyone out there in the universe knows where i can find it, please give me a holler. and soon. before i start wrecking up the joint.

a momentous occasion.

maybe momentous isn’t the right word… but today brings a small amount of warm fuzziness to me today, because the highest of my high interest credit cards has finally dipped below the 5 figure mark. not actually that impressive, as it has been 5 months since i placed my debt up on display for public ogling and judgement… and it was at $10,640.29 when i started. but for me, this is a semi-major achievement. i’ve had the card since i was in my early twenties, and i haven’t seen it at a 4 figure balance for YEARS. mostly i would just pay a little… then buy a little. and so on. i’m sure they love me down at the credit card company. me and my 20% interest rate.

but this time, i’ve been plunking down my slightly higher than the minimum payment for 5 months, and that little bitch remains frozen solid in my freezer. and according to my favorite financial advice/calculator site, even if i can never pay any more, even if i never do anything different than exactly what i’m doing right now… in 4 years, it will all be over. 10 years worth of damage completely gone in 4 years. and if i can up my payment by $100 a month, it’ll be gone in 2.7 years. now wouldn’t that be a little miracle?