3/1 Expressions

Instead of feeling pressured to post consistently - I thought I'd try blogging again - and posting only when I really wanted too. Today's financial expressions are: today was pick-up day for the Angelfood ministries box. We hadn't purchased one in a while - I guess we didn't want to make the time to mail the check and go pick-up the bounty. The box today was great. I did notice that prices this year are up $5 for the box making each box $30. But what hasn't gone up in price lately? The boxes seem to have more fresh and frozen veggies and less breaded/fried items. There are no income requirements to buy a box. Also, on the topic of groceries, I have noticed that coupons are "better" this year - to make up for higher prices - I am talking about the grocery stores mailing $5 off when you spend $30 coupons, $1 off of $3 in produce purchases, etc. (I combine them - making sure I hand the $5 off $30 coupon first - and end up paying very little for $30 worth of groceries) These types of coupons give you more choices. Anyway, my pantry and freezer are full. So, the only groceries I am buying this week are: I am using my $30 Rite Aid giftcard (from transferring a $1.XX rx) to buy a gallon of milk. Today in the mail, I got my $10 Publix Gift card for buying 15 Yoplait yogurt (on sale and matched w/couopns). I will cut out the 1 cent item "Mystery Coupon" when you buy $10worth of groceries at Publix - I plan to "buy" eggs and fresh fruit to round out our groceries - so, I don't plan to pay any cash out of my pocket this week for groceries. My other financial expression is - do you enter "instant win" contests? I do when I have the time and this past week - won the "Philly Cream Cheese" Breakfast basket - can't wait for it to get here. Also, we encouraged our daughter to enter a poster contest last month - and she won first place! She will receive a $1,000 savings bond for her effort - to be presented at a nice awards ceremony.