Who me? Use coupons?

I broke down and went to the grocery store today. I had the day off from work and the only thing left in the freezer were some frozen chicken breasts and two bags of vegetables. The refrigerator was equally bare, yielding a few oranges, two slices of deli turkey, a serving of yogurt and assorted condiments.

Early in January, I was at the grocery and watched a woman in front of me buy a cart full of groceries for only $27 after she'd used all of her coupons. I was amazed and felt guilty when the cashier asked me if I had any coupons. "Not today," I said, vowing that I sure would the next time.

Since then, I discovered Bargain Briana. Actually, I re-discovered her. I first became familiar with Briana in the Ridemakerz giveaway days. But I didn't really check out her site until recently. Intent on cutting my grocery bill, I've spent hours over the past few days on Briana's site trying to understand exactly how to get the best deal.

So today, I sat down with the grocery ad, Briana's site listing the store deals open on my computer, and my sparse collection of coupons in hand to make out my menu based on what's on sale this week. Then I headed out to shop.

First the dairy department. Shredded cheese on my list. It's on sale 2/$6. Plus there's an on-package coupon. Then Pillsbury Grands. 10/$10. I have a coupon for 50 cents off three. Oh wait, Grands Sweet Rolls don't count. Dig for the ones that do count.

Move on to the Italian aisle. $1 off /2 Prego. Oh, but not the size I usually get. The big size. Hmmm. Ok, I can use those still. Brownies. $1 off /4 -- but the ones I have a coupon for aren't the ones on sale. Which is cheaper? Do I really even need brownies?

I can feel myself starting to get slightly anxious. This whole couponing thing is hard work. Make sure I've got the right size, the right variety, the right number of items to get the discount. Boy, it sure was easier to go in with my list and ignorantly toss stuff into the cart without trying to match up to manufacturer requirements.

But still, I trudged on, consulting my list and my envelope of coupons. I was glad to get to the bottom of my list and head to the checkout. Once I got there, I watched the woman in front of my with a little bit of envy. Nothing in her cart was on the 10/$10 list and she had no coupons to redeem.

Then it was my turn. I piled my coupons on the checkout stand and waited for the cashier to scan and bag my items. After everything was rung up, my total was $162 and some change. I handed over the coupons.

I watched as 30 cents here and 50 cents there came off my total. When all was said and done, I saved almost $13! Small potatoes to the mega coupons queens out there, I'm sure. But enough to make me think that coupon ignorance may be bliss, but it sure is expensive.

Next up, I'm going to learn how to play the CVS game.

Why do Catholics do that?

The other day in response to my "Givin' it up" entry, Momza asked me to explain the whole concept of Lent to her sweet little Mormon self. And thanks to the great homily by Fr. Paul on Ash Wednesday I can do just that!

Lent is the period of preparation before Easter. As Catholics, we're called to do 3 things during Lent:

1. Pray
2. Fast
3. Give alms

Each one of these gives us the opportunity to work on our relationships -- with God, with ourselves and with others.

Pray: We're called to do something new or extra in our prayer life to strengthen our relationship with God. For some people that might be getting up 10 minutes earlier to read the Bible. Some may choose to pray the rosary daily. For me, I'm going to bed earlier and using the time to read/reflect using the book Reliving the Passion (written by Mike's Godfather, Walt Wangerin). Praying for a parking spot up close the entrance of the grocery store does not count.

Fast: This is where the giving up comes in. Each person chooses for him/herself what to give up for Lent, although universally Catholics do not eat meat (beef, chicken, pork, veal) on Ash Wednesday or on Fridays during Lent. When I was a kid, we always gave up candy which made an Easter basket full of jelly beans, marshmallow Peeps and Reese's peanut butter eggs extra special.

There are two ideas behind fasting. One is self-discipline. The other is rooting out things in our character that aren't good -- something that hopefully continues after Easter. So giving up pop is self-discipline; giving up cussing is about rooting out a yucky part of my character.

A third idea is just a myth, though it seems pretty plausible based on my experience. That is that we give up things during Lent so that our mothers can lay the guilt on us when we cave and sneak a tiny bite of brownie even though we've given up chocolate.

Give alms: This is about relating with others. Doing acts of charity -- donating money, working at soup kitchen, volunteering at a nursing home -- helps keep "do unto others" fresh in our minds. This is the one piece of Lent that I'm struggling with. Not that I don't want to do it, but I don't know what to do and where to schedule it in. I'd like to find a service activity that our whole family can participate in, so I'm still looking.

Lent is over on Easter Sunday. If you count the days, there are actually 46 days in the season, not 40. Which is where the confusion over Sundays comes in. Liturgically, Sundays are a day of celebration, so many people consider them "Little Easters" and allow themselves whatever they have otherwise given up. Other people stay true to their Lenten promises daily until Easter. This is a point of controversy in my house. As is why you can eat eggs on Friday, but not chicken.

There is no punishment for breaking your Lenten promise. It's between you and God -- and your children if they hear you accidentally say "$hit I forgot to thaw the meat for dinner!" and they know you gave up cussing for Lent.

And that, Momza, in a nutshell is Lent. Thanks for asking!

Biggest Loser: Sealed their fate

Tonight on the Biggest Loser, the Blue team lost the weigh in.

Ron argued that Dane should go home based on the assumption that Dane had the best chance to continue to do well at home (he'd lost a record 100 pounds in 8 weeks on the ranch). Dane countered with his assertion that the team should jettison weak link Ron whose knee and shoulder injuries keep him from working out at 100%.

Mother-daughter team Cathy and Kristin voted with their hearts instead of their heads and followed Ron's vote for Dane. All they succeeded in doing was sealing the blue team's fate as losers next week. They really need Dane's big numbers and the team is going to find themselves continually hindered by Ron's injuries.

Kristin and Cathy are so tender-hearted. And I'm afraid that's going to haunt their team on the scale next week.

Givin' it up

Since tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, we talked at dinner last night about what we're all giving up for Lent.

Annie and Charlie had obviously been thinking about it. When I asked what they thought they might give up, Charlie didn't even try the "I'm giving up homework" line. Instead, he said he planned to give up his iPod. Impressive -- not as impressive as if he'd said his Nintendo DS, but pretty sacrificial for him nonetheless.

For her part, Annie is choosing to give up saying "Oh my God!" She gets corrected when she says it, but the fact that she recognizes it as something she wants to change about herself made me feel good.

Much to Mike's chagrin, I suggested that as a family we give up pop (that's soda to you Cheeseheads). So we let the kids have caffeine free Diet Coke with dinner tonight. Usually they only have pop when we are eating out, so the sacrifice will be mostly mine and especially Mike's.

After all that was decided, Charlie issued a challenge. "I think you and Dad should give up cussing," he said.

A little embarrassed that we must cuss enough for him to suggest we give it up, Mike and I both agreed. I couldn't help but notice Charlie's victorious grin.

I'm also going to try to abide by "no screens" after 10pm -- no TV, no computer. That will probably be my biggest challenge, more difficult by far than not cussing, dammit.

I don't expect that I'll make it through Lent perfectly sacrificial and we're still having an internal debate as to whether or not Sundays "count." But I'm going to give it my best shot.

Biggest Loser: Black vs. Blue

Tonight on the Biggest Loser was the night that the teams were split into Black (Jillian's team) and Blue (Bob's team).

Tara won the "up-down" challenge for the green team, so they got to choose their trainer; they chose to stay with Jillian. Helen (pink team) finished last, so she was forced to switch trainers and ended up with Jillian. The rest of the players were assigned to teams based on a black/blue coin toss. Although interestingly, they just happened to have exactly the right size shirt in the right color waiting for each person. Hmmm...

So the new line-up is:

Bob's Blue Team:
Kristin
Cathy
Ron
Mandi
Aubrey
Dane

Jillian's Black Team:
Tara
Lauren
Mike
Sione
Filipe
Helen

There was plenty of disappointment to go around, but the most disappointing reaction was Bob's. I think he did both his former team and his new team a huge disservice by boohooing about how upset he was. He should have put on a strong face and embraced the new opportunity, helping the players do the same.

The second challenge was a 24-hour bike challenge. Tara really showed her street smarts by gathering the things that the black team would need to get the challenge done. Their strategy of 30 minutes on the bike, 2-1/2 hours off proved to be a winning one.

My favorite quote of the night was an exchange between Aubrey and Mandi during the 24-hour challenge:

Aubrey: "My a$$ is burning."
Mandi: “Uh huh. Don’t worry -- it will go numb.”

When the Blue team came and offered a cease-fire to conserve everyone's strength for the last chance workout, I thought the Black team would take it. But kudos to Sione who said no, he was there to finish what he started. Then Aubrey from the Blue team agreed and they all finished.

Dane was absolutely right when he said that they had all gotten there (fat enough to be on TBL) by not finishing what they started in terms of weight loss plans. I thought it was a high point for everyone still in the game.

Last chance workout with the new teams and the weigh-in are tomorrow night. I think someone on Bob's team is going home simply because he's not focused on pushing them as hard as they can go. What do you think?

Got pancakes?

Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday -- apparently known in some parts of the world as Pancake Day, which is new to me. But I can get behind Pancake Day.

I'm not a great cook, but I can do pancakes. Around here, pancakes = love. The kids are always excited when they come downstairs for breakfast and I've got the griddle hot and loaded up with batter. If it's pancakes for dinner, that's practically nirvana for them, which only happens when Mike is not home. For Mike, pancakes only = breakfast.

Robbie is probably my biggest pancake fan. He always wants one shaped like an "R." A few years ago, I went with a pancake theme for his birthday gift. He got dinosaur-shaped pancake molds -- which turned out to be a pain in the griddle, and three pancake books: Pancakes, Pancakes!, Hey! Pancakes, and my favorite Mr. Wolf's Pancakes.

Turns out IHOP has jumped on the Pancake Day bandwagon and is hosting it's own IHOP Pancake Day. IHOP goers (IHOPpers?) can get a free short stack (3 pancakes) tomorrow only. They do encourage a donation to the Children's Miracle Network; their goal is to raise $1 million this year.

Not too many IHOPs around here, but maybe there's one near you?

So what's the verdict on pancakes in your house? Breakfast only or great any time of the day? How do you like them -- with syrup? powdered sugar? chocolate chips? pecans?

Night at the movies

Last night I took Annie and four of her friends out for pizza and to see Confessions of a Shopaholic as a celebration of Annie's birthday.

Before we left for the restaurant, I hit Walgreens and stocked up on M&Ms and Twizzlers for the movie. Then it was off to meet Annie's friends.

Now, I am a grown woman. I am a wife and mother and professional communicator. So why is it that a group of 6th grade girls can make me feel insecure and thinking "I hope they like me?" Probably because I know that they do like Mike with his fashion sense and never-ending knowledge of popular music.

"Annie, your Dad is so cool!" I've heard on more than one occasion.

But no matter, because last night they got me, not him. So I decided my strategy would be to observe. Give the girls room to be silly (as most 'tween girls in a group setting are) and offer slight direction when needed. Turned out to be a good plan.

I listened as they talked about school, volleyball and Robert Pattison (of the Twilight movie fame). I bit my tongue when they referred to certain pop stars as "hot" -- why does the word "cute" seem so much more innocent? I wondered if they even heard each other as they all tried to tell stories on top of one another. And I was amazed that one pizza and one family order of breadsticks was enough to feed them all!

I guess they were saving room for snacks at the movie, because when we got there, no one took me up on my offer of the sneaked-in candy. Instead, they all spent their own money on popcorn and slushies -- and then ate my candy half-way through the movie when they'd had their fill of the treats they'd bought.

Though we'd chosen the movie purely for fun -- and for its PG rating, I found myself thinking (from my seat behind Annie and her friends) that it could provide a good lesson for my Uggs-coveting daughter and her friends that "stuff" does not lead to happiness. That spending beyond your means can lead to lies and heartache.

On the way home, I listened as one of Annie's friends said, "That movie inspired me!"

"Yes! She got the message," I thought, waiting to hear how the movie inspired her to save her money.

"It inspired me to dress fabulously!"

At which point I delivered my one mini-lecture of the night about saving and avoiding reliance on credit cards. No longer worried about fitting in, I figured if "you can't join 'em, teach 'em."

Of course they paid as much attention to me as they would to a math teacher trying to fit in one more lesson at 2:00pm on the Friday before Spring Break starts. Before the breath of my last word on the subject evaporated, they were already talking about who cried when Luke and Rebecca parted ways in the movie.

All in all it was a fun night. Who knows if the girls got the moral of the movie? And probably they aren't waking up in their own homes today thinking "Annie's mom is so cool." But I consider it a victory that I don't think anyone is thinking "Poor Annie, her mom is such a dork."

At least I hope they're not.