Holiday Decorations

Thanksgiving is officially over, Black Friday come and gone, and tomorrow is Cyber Monday. This weekend is historically the "decorating weekend," at least in my family. As I pulled all of the tubs and boxes of decorations out of the garage and sorted through everything this year, I began to think about how much work I put into decorating my house every year, just to pull it all down a month later. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love decorating my house for the holidays and having friends and family over, I love putting up my tree and hanging the ornaments with my family. But I know that there are many people that start decorating in August just to get all of their ornaments and art up.

How much decorating is necessary to equip your house to host friends and family? Are you considered a scrooge if you don't put anything up beside your Christmas tree?

Just a thought as I go back to work hanging ornaments from my ceilings.

My Stock Up Shopping Trip

Today, I went all out and stocked up at Fry's, Safeway, and Albertsons. I bought 142 items for $113.85...which means I saved a total of $146.71. You gotta love coupons when you average $0.80 per item with meat and produce included. Now I am not a hoarder, nor do I have an extreme amount of space in my kitchen. I also don't have room for a stock room in my house. Therefore, I will be donated 30 cans of food that I bought to St Mary's Food Bank, through the canned food drive at my work. Everything else is just going to have to get used within the next 6 months. I did miss out on 4 tubes of toothpaste that would have been free, except somebody cleared all of it from the grocery store before I got there.

Here is my list of what I bought....

2 1/2 lbs Jennie-O 93%Lean Ground Turkey
4 Cans Dole Tropical Fruit
4 Bags of Nestle Chocolate Chips
2 16oz Containers of Cornstarch ($0.29 each)
2 3-bar packages of Crisco Shortening Sticks
4 boxes Betty Crocker Cake Mix ($0.49 each)
2 2-lb bags of C&H Brown Sugar
1 4-lb bag of C&H Sugar
1 2-lb bag of C&H Powdered Sugar
8 cans of Campbells Chunky Soup
1 Gal Milk
20 6-oz containers of Yoplait Ligh
1.12lbs Gold Delicious Apples
3 1-L Smart Water
2 Tide Detergents
1 Axe Detailer (free)
1 Axe Body Wash ($1.38)
6 boxes Kleenex with Lotion ($0.66 each)
8 cans Campbells Homestyle chicken soup (0.75 each)
24 cans Campbells Cream of Chicken soup ($0.24)
4 jars Heinz Gravy ($0.75 each)
4 cans Hormel Chilli with Beans ($0.41 each)
6 cans Del Monte Veggies ($0.49 each)
6 cans Swansons Broth (FREE)
4 cans Ocean Cranberry Jelly ($0.49 each)
2 boxes Kelloggs Pop Tarts
1 20 oz Dr Pepper (Mike HAD to have soda even though it would have been cheaper to buy a 2 liter)
2 5-lb bags Kroger All Purpose Flour
2 Bags Dole Salad
2 Containers Kroger Whipped Cream
1.78lbs Banana's

Update: I went back to the grocery last night to stock up on some other deals I missed. The crest toothpaste was still out however, I picked up:

2 cans Pringles ($0.49)
2 Gillette Shaving Gel (Free)
2 Heinz Gravy (earned $0.50)
3 Swanson Broth (2 Free, 1 @ $0.50)
1 Bag Ricola Cough Drops (FREE)
1 36ct Reynolds Cupcake Wrappers ($1.59)

I had a $1.50 off purchase coupon from my last shopping trip, after tax this totaled $1.43, savings $16.99!