Grape Juice

The following involves frugality, theology, and good music. Not a bad combination, eh?

My task for today was to buy grape juice for Sunday's communion at church. Communion at our church happens quarterly and monthly (depending on the service), though we wouldn't mind one bit if we celebrated every week. :) Since Gaines' current elder duties include Worship Committee, that means planning for communion, which means checking the supply of bread and wine*, which means buying more, and as the shopper in the household, the task really fell to me. Though you should know by now that I actually had fun.

*Yeah, yeah, so it's just grape juice. I have no problem with wine, myself. But that's a conversation for another day.

With a little extra effort on my part, I picked up a 64oz bottle of Welch's for all of nine cents. Here's how I did it:

1. Check the sale pages. Brand name grape juice 2/$6 at CVS.
2. Print out a coupon from the Welch's website for $1 off.
3. Take along 2 kids and 2 Extra Care Bucks (I just happened to have).
4. Buy grape juice and only grape juice. No snacks, toys, or sunglasses!
5. Combine coupon and ECB's and pay only 9 cents out of my pocketbook.
6. Get an extra $1 ECB back because I've been using my Green Bag Tag. Woot!

The anticipation of the Lord's Supper has gotten me thinking about my favorite songs and hymns concerning the Eucharist. Either these are songs appropriate to sing after partaking (it is a celebration, after all!) or songs perhaps not fit for worship, but the lyrics still speak to some aspect of the supper.

Take to the World

"Go in peace to love and to serve
Let your ears ring long with what you have heard
May the bread on your tongue
Leave a trail of crumbs
To lead the hungry back to the place that you are from"

Arise, My Soul, Arise (Indelible Grace Version)

"Arise, my soul, arise,
shake off your guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice,
in my behalf appears;
Before the throne my Surety stands,
Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on His hands."

A New Law

"I don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy
So just bring it down from the mountain to me

I want a new law
I want a new law
Just give me that new law

And don’t teach me about moderation and liberty
I prefer a shot of grape juice
And don’t teach me about loving my enemies
And don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit
No, just give me a new law."

Both of Us'll Feel The Blast

"I hope we sit together when Jesus serves the wine
So I can look into your eyes when I taste it the first time
And I know there's no secrets when you're sitting at that table
But I believe we'll smile real knowingly when we read the label
And it says "passion sacrificed to keep from going crazy."
We'll tip our glasses to the Host who used to look so hazy
And drink it down all sweet and slow and slip inside His mind
And realize as it goes down- this is communion wine."

These are some of my favorites. What are yours?

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How to Stock Up on Diet Mountain Dew

(This is for Amy. I just saw she requested this in the comments and I wanted to post this quickly since sometimes the stores run out by mid-week! I got mine last Sunday night on last week's deal, which was 4/$12, but with the ECBs* it still works out as way cheaper than grocery store prices!)

1. Notice the ad in Sunday's paper that says Pepsi product 12-packs are on sale at 3/$10 AND that you get $10 ECBs back if you buy $20 worth of Pepsi products. (You are welcome to buy other Pepsi products to complete the deal--check the ad. I'm just explaining how I took the opportunity to stock up on Gaines' favorite soda before the baby arrives!)

2. Acquire a CVS ECB rewards card (this is free!) if you don't already have one.

3. Call you local CVS and make sure they have enough 12-pack boxes of your favorite Pepsi product this week. In our case, it is Diet Mountain Dew. And yes, I called ahead last Sunday night before I made the trip because not all CVS stores carry my husband's favorite beverage, especially when they have a big sale!

4. Buy $20 worth of Pepsi 12-packs. In this case, that would be 6. That means you paid $20 for 6 sodas at a price of $3.33 per box, which is a good deal in itself. But...

5. If you have a CVS card, when you make your purchase you should get $10 ECBs on your receipt. Wow! You can then use those ECBs to buy anything else in the store, even more sodas...

6. To make the most of this deal, make another purchase and buy 3 more 12-packs of your favorite beverage with your $10 ECBs! You will have gotten 9 12-packs of soda for only $20! That's $2.22 per box, which is way better than the $4 "sale" price in the grocery chains!

7. Just so you know, last week I bought 8 boxes of Diet Mtn Dew at 4/$12, and I got back $10 ECBs, but I also had a $4 off any purchase of $20 or more coupon I'd gotten in an e-mail from CVS. That means I got 8 cases for only $20, or a price of $2.50 per box! I did not use my $10 ECBs to buy more sodas. (If I had, I would've gotten an even better deal, but I'm hoping 8 will last at least a month in our house!) Gaines said it depends on how much (and when) the new baby sleeps! ;)

*ECBs = Extra Care Bucks, or money you can only use at CVS. But I can find almost anything I need there, so I love this program!

Bonus! If you also like Doritos, Tostitos or Lays, keep your receipts! If you buy a qualifying purchase (I think it is 3 cases of soda and 3 bags of chips by the end of January), you can send in your receipts and get $15 worth of coupons from Pepsi/Frito-Lay by mailing in this form.

(If anyone is curious...using coupons and my $10 ECBs, I picked up a professional haircutting kit for only $10. That's less than the price of ONE haircut. And yes, I do intend to trim my son's hair...I'm just trying to build up the courage AND figure out how to position Jacob in front of the TV in a chair while also keeping the hair cuttings off the carpet. Anyone have any ideas? I tried the bathtub approach, but he is way too wiggly for that!)

P.S. For more info on the CVS deals this week, I like Money Saving Mom and The Centsible Sawyer.

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Cheap as Free at CVS

I've been shopping fairly regularly at CVS for about 7 months now, trying to figure out how to make the most of our money by combining coupons and Extra Care Bucks (ECB) rewards. I've gotten lots of "free" items as well as things that we need for much less than the retail cost.

Today, for the first time, I actually made TWO transactions in the same visit, using the ECB's from the first one to pay for the second...and I was pleased at how much money I saved.

(Just because I didn't want to take up too much of one cashier's time, I actually made my first purchase and then turned the cart around to go shopping for my second purchase. It worked out quite well, and I even got a different cashier the second time, so I didn't feel all weird buying from the same person twice.)

Transaction #1:
2 Crest Whitening Toothpastes, $1.99 each, got $2 ECBs and used a $1.00 off 2 coupon
2 Oral B Toothbrushes, $1.99 each, got $2 ECBs used $1.00 off 2 coupon
I Advil Infant Drops $5.79, got $5.79 ECB
Used $2 off $10 coupon
Total Spent OOP (out of pocket)= $10.57
Extra Care Bucks Credit= $9.79
Actual Cost= $0.78!

Transaction #2:
1 12pk Diet Mtn Dew (Sorry, dear, they didn't have 4!) on sale for $2.75
1 Band-Aid Advanced Box, $4.99, used $.50 off coupon
1 Neo-to-Go Neosporin, $5.99, used $1.00 off coupon
Got $5 ECB's for buying $10 worth of Band-Aid/Neosporin products
Used $2 off $10 coupon
Used my $.9.79 in ECB's toward this purchase
Total Spent OOP (out of pocket)= $0.53
Extra Care Bucks Credit= $5
Actual Cost= A profit of $4.47 in ECB's!

If you're confused, I basically spent $6.10 (because of the ECB's) and got $29.72 worth of useful items!

For those of you who are new to this whole CVS concept, you might want to check out Money Saving Mom for this and other great thrifty spending tips!

A note to readers: I only buy things we would actually use, and if I realize when I get home that we have way more than we would ever need of one item (like, say, toothbrushes), I'll donate them to charity. It's all good, y'all.

My next goal is to bring our grocery budget down to about $40/week. I like to think I'm at around $70/week now, but I know it's always a little higher with all the milk we buy. I always have difficulty with food expenses, especially since I like to buy fresh fruits and veggies.

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