What we did on the '08 election night

Grocery Shopping!

Not that I wasn't interested in the election, but it just so happened to conflict with the first free night in November where Kody and I could go grocery shopping to fill the VERY bare pantry and fridge shelves. AND...I was really excited to use all the coupons I have been collecting over the last couple weeks.

I did vote before work on that Tuesday morning (and enjoyed a free peppermint tea from Starbucks right afterwards). I did wear my "I voted" sticker all day long and I did follow the election online for about the past four months (my hobby when work was/is slow). So, I didn't feel bad just sitting back and waiting for the results to come at the end of the night. After reading lots of articles and updates about the campaigns, it was nice to not have to sit through commentary the whole night as results came in. Besides, we don't have cable, so we would've been sitting in front of a computer, which I do all day long anyway! So, grocery shopping was a great alternative.

I've made the last few grocery trips on my own because whenever Kody and I go together we always seems to end up going right after work (and before dinner). Often these trips end with one of the two of us getting frustrated and both of us being very hungry. I've always heard to never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach and that's very true in more than one way.

We decided this was going to be a fun grocery trip and that meant starting out on full stomachs with a meal that Katie did not make! Jimmy Johns! Then we headed to Aldi where I didn't get to use any of my coupons. :( But after that came the real fun!

Deal #1: $0.75 Kellogs cereal at Target! - I got five $1 off coupons online and Target was having a sale that if you buy five boxes of cereal you get a $5 gift card! So, a $2.75 box of cereal becomes $0.75, yay!! I was so excited! haha. And I even had a extra $1 off coupon we used a Kroger to get a giant box of Corn Flakes!

Deal #2: Olay Ribbons body wash at Kroger - I had a $1 coupon for one bottle and then a buy 1, get 1 coupon, so we got two bottles of NICE body wash for $3!

Deal #3: Crest toothpaste - I had $1 off coupon and the toothpaste came with an extra tube of it for free!

Deal #4: FREE Nestle hot chocolate and Ouchless hair bands from Wal-Mart with coupons!

Deal #5: $0.98 flour and sugar from Ultra Foods with a coupon!

The night ended up being really fun and we topped it off with the movie Get Smart with Steve Carell (Hilarious!), while I kept up-to-date on the election results on my computer. It was kind of like a middle-of-the-week grocery shopping date night.

I think I am beginning to get the hang of this coupon thing and I was so proud of our purchases! I have to credit my inspiration to my dear newlywed friend Emily, who showed me a few blogs that tell you where to find all the free stuff and sweet deals! You can find them here and here and about a thousand other places. I may be addicted. I may have ordered about 10 different "freebie" samples of products in the last week. Kody may think I'm crazy.

I think I must need a little more excitement in my life...