Record your Yourth - what happened after high school...

So after I got into the college of my dreams, I spent that summer working as many hours as I could and saving as many pennies as I could.  I left for Franklin in the fall with much anticipation and excitement!!!

I met one of my best friends that first week at FC.  Like the first night or two she sat outside of her dorm room SOBBING on the phone to her boyfriend...who was like 20 minutes away.  I know I walked passed her, rolled my eyes and thought not nice thoughts.  Within just days though I got to know her much better and we became very close! 

The rest of the year was filled with friends and classes and working - I worked all the way through college and still left with loan debt!  I worked part-time in the campus bookstore and did some volunteer work with the theater department (and after that year - ended up being the theater house manager for the next three years).

I didn't make it home often - the drive was only about an hour and fifteen minutes but I didn't have a car of my own.  If I wanted to get home, I had to have my parents come get me or hitch a ride with someone else headed that way.  I was lucky that there were a few other people from my area that were at FC and could hitch a ride if needed.

I've often told people (and still do say) that you couldn't have paid me to go to another school.  Purdue University is just 1/2 hour from my house...a nice large state school that probably would have left me with a bit less loan debt at graduation but not my cup of tea!  My graduating class at FC was actually smaller than my graduating class from high school - it was perfect!  I knew most of my classmates and many of the upperclassmen in just a few weeks time.  It was such a "family" to me and I really enjoyed that aspect of school. 

I graduated from FC with a BA in Journalism...  I left FC and didn't go into the field though.  It is something that no one can take away from me and an experience that totally shaped my life and I wouldn't change any of that for any reason. 

This is my fifteenth (and final!) post with Mommy's Piggy Tales recording my memories in just 15 weeks. If you're interested in doing the same for yourself, swing by her place to check it out! She will be starting a new session soon!

Click here to read my post from last week, where my twelfth grade finished up my high school years quite nicely.

Marsh ad highlights - 9/16 through 9/22

The Mega Sale is STILL on (make sure you get the right amount of items!) and there's a four-day Tailgate Sale too!

Tailgate Sale (Thursday through Sunday, 9/16 through 9/19)
Food Club brats - $2.99 ($1.50)
Ruffles potato chips - $1.98 (save $2.01)
2lb Fried chicken strips - $3.99 (save $1.00)
6-pack Coke products - 4/$9.88 (save $8.88 or more on four) - limit one

Mega Sale items - Buy any 10, get $5 off instantly!
(final price listed - see the ad for specifics!)
Food Club or Sargento cheese - $1.49
Dean's cottage cheese or Breakstone's sour cream - $.99
California Pizza Kitchen or DiGiorno pizzas - $4.49
Kraft Mac & Cheese dinner - $.99
Oscar Mayer bologna or Food Club ketchup - $.98
Gatorade - $.58
Tropicana or Dole juice - $2.49
Swiss Tea or Green Giant Steamers - $.99
Jell-O pudding or Gelatin - $.49
Nature Valley granola bars - $3.49
Bull's-Eye bbq sauce, Red Gold salsa or Tuttorosso pasta sauce - $.99
Progresso soups or Pillsbury Grands! - $.99
Pillsbury Grands! cinnamon rolls or Oreo cookies - $1.99
Mids, Planters or Totino's - $2.49
Red Gold Sloppy Joe, tomatoes or sauce - $.49
Crystal Light or Yoplait yogurt - $1.49
Wanchai Ferry Asian meals or Macaroni Grill meals - $5.49
Marie Callendar's Bakes - $3.99
Herbal Essences or Aussie - $2.00
Old El Paso dinner kit - $1.99
Betty Crocker mix or Pillsbury Toaster Strudel - $1.49
Edy's Eskimo Pie or Nestle frozen novelties - $2.49
Kellogg's cereals, Nutri-Grain bars or Nature Valley granola thins - $1.99
Jell-O, Yoplait Smoothies or Dannon yogurt - $1.99
Keebler, Kellogg's or Betty Crocker - $1.99

For the entire week enjoy sale items like:
Boneless rump or round roast - $1.98/lb (save $2.21/lb)
Center cut pork chops - $1.98/lb (save $2.01/lb)
Eckrich franks or sliced bologna - B1G1 FREE (save $3.29 on two) (mix and match!)
Marsh bread or buns - $.99
Red Glob or Seedless red, black or green grapes - $.99/lb (save $1/lb)
Hostess snacks - B1G1 FREE
Libby's canned veggies - 10/$5
Libby's canned fruit - 10/$10
Perdue chicken thighs or drumsticks - $.98/lb (save $1.01/lb)
El Monterey Tornados - 2/$4 (match with recent $1 for a $1 final price!)
Pop-Tarts - 3/$4.98
Food Club singles - 2/$3
Aunt Millie's bread or buns - B1G1 FREE (free item must be same kind as purchased item)
Quaker oatmeal - $1.88
Act II popcorn - 10/$10
Quaker rice cakes - 10/$10 (recent coupon matches maybe!?)
Campbell's condensed soups - 10/$10
Ortega taco seasoning mix, dinner kit, shells or sauce - 20% off
Nature's Own bagels - B1G1 FREE (finally - some bagels on sale!!!)
Q-tips - $2.48
Dole salads - 20% off

I'm thinking there are probably some good coupon match-ups in here too.  I'll try to keep an eye out for Bargain Briana to post her match-ups - she does an amazing job!

Got another good blog to share...Stuff Christians Like

I just found this blog at the end of last week and definitely haven't searched it for all it's worth (I'm sure!) but I wanted to go ahead and get this out there!

Stuff Christians Like was

Started on March 21, 2008 as a reaction to the wildly popular blog Stuff White People Like which was created by Christian Lander, Stuff Christians Like is a blog about the funny things we Christians do. And what they just might reveal about our faith.


The site is written by Jonathan Acuff, a preacher’s kid/copywriter who lives in Atlanta with his wife and two kids.

I just found this last week when I read that Jon joined Dave Ramsey's staff and he posted a short article about "7 Ways Working for Dave Ramsey is Like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory".  It was hilarious!  So of course I had to go find his blog and I wasn't disappointed.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Weekly shopping - we barely eeked it out!

1 Deans cottage cheese was $1.89 for .99
3 Shamrock milks was $4.17 for FREE
2 Breyers ice cream was $10.98 for $4.98
2 Mission tortilla 8" shells was $5.18 for $3.18 (should have been $1.58)
3 El Monterey Tornadoes was $8.37 for $3.00
5 Kraft Velveeta Shells was $9.35 for $4.95
1 Double Stuf Oreo was $4.19 for $1.99
4 packages (appx 8lbs) split breasts was $24.84 for $7.40

Okay - so the highlighted items are what prices SHOULD HAVE BEEN with the Mega Sale Marsh had going on.  I'm going to have to look at the ad but I'm thinking we should have had $5.00 off our bill for purchasing 10 Mega Sale items (the seven listed above plus a pizza and I'm not sure what the other two items where).  I tried to call Marsh just now about it but no one answered.  I'll be going there tomorrow!

We also bought things like sour cream, milk, OJ, rice, yogurt, black beans, bread, eggs, and some fresh fruits.

All totaled we spent $78.30 (had $2 from my mom for her gallon of milk) and saved $54.48 which was 41% - which if I'm right about our Mega Sale items should be a bit different!

So, only $1.30 over budget as of right now - I'm hoping that will change after tomorrow.

Unsure...

So.  I hadn't planned to take a week plus off from blogging.  I normally try to post Monday through Thursday for sure and if something good comes up over the weekend, make a post about that as well.  But here lately I've just not been feeling the blog.  I'm really struggling with what my purpose is and why I do this. 

I LOVE writing.  I love sharing my thoughts and processes but sometimes feel like I'm writing to myself (which with tracking my grocery store purchases is great because it's become short of like a price book for me).  I'm just not sure where I want to go with this.

I don't think I'll ever be a FishMama or Money Saving Mom but I would like to be!  I'd love to have a spot where I can share my thoughts and ideas about life in general, money, deals/bargains and our Total Money Makeover journey that could be a great spot for other women (moms or not) to utilize.  But I think that both FishMama and Crystal at MSM do that so I'm not sure where I fit in.

I've thoroughly enjoyed linking up to Record Your Youth with Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales for the last 14 weeks and look forward to wrapping it all up this coming Thursday.  But again - I don't see that side of what I've blogged becoming anything permanent.

So I guess I'm looking for any ideas or suggestions.  I don't even know if there is anyone out there who reads my blog on a regular basis.  I know there are girls from the Record Your Youth group that follow through those posts and I know that if I've linked up to FishMama's Ultimate Recipe Swap that someone might click through but that's about it.  I don't know if me putting more out here would be a benefit to anyone or not. 

When I originally started this - I wanted to share deals/bargains but so many other people do that (and do it way better than I do and much more quickly as I only access my blog in the evenings). I still do share if I find something really good but once again - I don't think I have much traffic so I don't share like I should (or could).

If you read this, why do you visit my blog?  Do you visit regularly?  If you don't visit regularly, how often do you stop by?  What else would you be interested in seeing in this spot?  If you could leave me a comment or email me at kcbonly@hotmail.com I'd very much appreciate it.

At this point, I'm going to continue to do what I've done in the past (Monday is my shopping from the weekend, Tuesday a blog to share, Wednesday the Marsh ad highlights, Thursday is Record Your Youth (for one more week at least) and sometimes I even share the Kroger ad highlights and coupon previews).

If you do stop by regularly, thank you - I hope to make this a better place for me and for you.

Record your Life - 12th grade tied it all up nicely.

Last week's post was short and sweet - I didn't want to get to far ahead of myself and sharing more than that would have done so.  My 12th grade year was an awesome year for me.  I had decided in the spring of my junior year to apply to Franklin College so I could major in journalism.  I had never set foot on the campus but knew it was the right spot for me.  And then for my 18th birthday - my acceptance letter from Franklin!  It was absolutely awesome.  It wasn't until that spring that I finally set foot on campus but I knew deep down that I wouldn't want to be at any other school.  Getting into Franklin (and the journalism school) was awesome!

That Christmas break I spent 10 days in Mexico - Mexico City and close areas on a Girl Scout trip.  I've mentioned before that Girl Scouts was a big part of my life (and it still is - even today).  Girl Scouts truly helped shape who I am and this trip did so more than any other trip I had been on.  Not only did I get to meet so many new people, get a sunburn on New Years Day and experience the first snow in Mexico in like 15 years, I also met a little boy who changed the way I looked at everything.

Let me back up some...  I had "senioritis" - bad.  That's when you're a senior in high school and you want nothing more than to get O.U.T.  I seriously considered dropping out of high school after first semester because I was so done with school.  I had my acceptance to Franklin, I had all of the credits I needed (so I wouldn't have technically been quitting...just finishing early) and was ready to be done. 

But part of our trip to Mexico was to go to a small village - think dirt floors and thatch roofs - and just spend some time playing with the kids.  We taught them songs and played games.  We took little trinkets and gifts and this one little boy.  Ohmy...  His eyes when I gave him a small box of crayons was just mind blowing.  Here he was...had never seen a crayon before and I was ready to throw away half of my senior year of high school. 

I graduated with the rest of my class that year.  And I did my senior speech on "senioritis" and how that little boy totally changed it all for me (I got an A+ on that speech too!).  I'm so thankful I was able to experience that trip and will never forget those big brown eyes...

This is my fourteenth post with Mommy's Piggy Tales recording my memories in just 15 weeks. If you're interested in doing the same for yourself, swing by her place to check it out!  She will be starting a new session soon!

Click here to read my post from last week, where my eleventh grade changed my career path.

Record your Life - 11th grade changed my career path.

When I began 11th grade I wanted to be a librarian.  Still.  And I had wanted to be a librarian since like 1983 - when I was six.  I love to bury my nose in a book and I even love to physically bury my nose in a book and smell the paper, ink and glue that binds the pages into a story that will take me away. 

But 11th grade made me realize that I wanted to be a journalist.  And a photojournalist.  I wanted to write!  I wanted to travel the world behind a camera and share stories of everything I found. 

I had spent the previous two years on our local high school's newspaper staff but that year really grabbed me as the turning point in the "what I wanted to be when I grew up" situation.  I knew I needed to be thinking about my future career because the next year was going to begin the process of thinking about college.

So I spent a lot of time that year writing.  Whatever my newspaper advisor would give me, I'd write.  I'd take the camera with me and go see what I could find.

You'll hear next week about where I decided to go to college and why and I'll even share where I'm at now with it all but this year...this was the year that I wanted to grow up and be a journalist. 

This is my thirteenth post with Mommy's Piggy Tales recording my memories in just 15 weeks. If you're interested in doing the same for yourself, swing by her place to check it out!



Click here to read my post from last week, where my ninth grade memories are all about a boy.

Marsh ad highlights - 9/2 through 9/8

Marsh has a Labor Day sale going on - all seven days of their ad! 

Ground beef - $1.48/lb (save $1.01/lb) limit 10lbs
Ground chuck - $1.68/lb (save $1.61/lb) limit 10lbs
Ball Park franks - $.99 (save $2.40) limit four
12-pack 7-Up, Coke or Pepsi - 4/$10 limit one
Aunt Millie's Honey hamburger or hot dog buns - $.99 (save $1.70) - match with recent $.55 coupons for $.44 final price!
Lay's - 2/$4 (save $3.98 on two)
Perdue chicken leg quarters - $.68/lb (save $.81/lb)
Nabisco snack crackers - 2/$4 (save $1.50 or more on two)
Kraft cheese (singles, 100-Calorie packs, cubes, chunk or shredded) - $1.99 (save $.50 or more)
Marsh ice cream - $1.88 (save $1.61 or more)
Honeydew melons - B1G1 FREE
In-husk bi-color corn - 10/$2 (save $3.00 on ten)
Sunbeam bread - $.99 (save $1.40)
Eckrich smoke sausage - 2/$4 (save $4.98 on two)
Eckrich sliced bologna - B1G1 FREE
Sara Lee turkey breast - $5.99/lb (save $1.70/lb)
Eckrich ham - $4.99/lb (save $1.00/lb)
Kellogg's Poptarts - 3/$4.98
Sweet Baby Ray's sauces - B1G1 FREE
Lawry's marinade - $1.98
40oz Heinz ketchup - $1.78 (not as cheap as Walmart had it earlier this summer but a good price!)
Chi-Chi's salsa - B1G1 FREE
Kraft mayo or Miracle Whip - $2.49 - match with recent $1.50 off two for $1.75 final price
Kellogg's cereals - $1.99 when you buy three
Kool-Aid FunFizz - B1G1 FREE
Rice a Roni or Pasta Roni - 10/$10
Marzetti dressing - B1G1 FREE
Mission tortillas - $1.79 - match with recent $1.00 blinkies (coupons from the machine hanging on the shelf) for a $.79 final price
Bounty or Charmin - $5.99 - match with recent $.25 P&G coupons for $5.49 final price
Dixie napkins, cups, plates or bowls - 2/$4 (there had been coupons out there...if there are again - you can get cheap paper products!)

I see some good coupon match-ups out there!  I'll try to find Bargain Briana's Marsh ad match-up and post it here too - she always has great match-ups!