What a day! You may have noticed my lack of posts lately, but there is a very good reason for that. Today was the last day of the school year at the Preschool where I teach.
The last several days have been spent preparing special school scrapbooks for 9 little friends. Now, those of you who know me know that I am NOT a scrapper. Nor am I crafty. The keyboard is my medium of choice. But I am proud to say I actually completed 4 of the 9 books and they turned out really cute! I had no idea scrapbooking could make such a huge mess!
If you know me, you also know my bad habit of procrastinating, so yes I was up until 1am last night. I am wiped out. I also had to make a dash to Wal-Mart at 9pm to get more supplies.
I like to make the most out of every trip to the store, so I also picked up some milk, my free Kotex, napkins for 0.47 and my favorite cheese. I was also looking for the rumored diapers on clearance, but they had already been wiped out.
Wal-Mart was a zoo, as usual, and I ended up in line behind a young family. They were buying a cart full of stuff, including diapers. I remembered my coupons tucked in my purse, so I whipped out a $1.50 Huggies coupon and offered it to the frazzled looking Mom. She looked at me kinda funny, and said “thanks“.
I could instantly tell she was not a coupon shopper, because she handed the coupon to the cashier looking skeptical and said, “here, see if this works”. Of course, it did, and she shot me a grateful smile. I couldn’t help but overhear their total, and it was nearly $150, ouch!
This is where it got interesting. They split up their payment on 2 gift cards, and then the mom asked her husband for some cash for the remaining balance. They had EXACTLY the right amount in cash. I realized that without my coupon, they would have come up short. It gave me chills… thank you, God!
I hope that very coupon inspires her to take up couponing. I literally feel sad when I see families paying so much more than necessary for groceries.
Speaking of sad, it was not easy saying goodbye to my students today. They have grown and changed so much since last fall, I can hardly believe the difference. This was my first year working in a preschool and I had no idea I would enjoy it as much as I did. The best perk by far was having my little one in the room next door, so I never felt like I was missing out.
There were lots of hugs and tears today. I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with Aubrie, the lead teacher, and many others. It was a wonderful experience, and I am looking forward to next year!
Abel’s scrapbook was just adorable! I’m not sure if you made his or if Aubrey made his but I will cherish it always!
Tracey
Teaching is truly a wonderful profession, isn’t it? I’m so glad you enjoyed your experience. Love, Mom
Tracey, I am glad you liked it! I am not telling you who made it, just to keep it interesting. 😉
Guess teaching is in my blood, mom!
I feel sad too watching people spend so much money on stuff!!
Especially before the holiday weekend when peoples carts were stock full of things they *think* they need 😉
I live near 4 great grocery stores and have found that their weekly ads compliment each other (rather than compete.)
For example, one store this week had ground beef for $1/lb and watermelon for $3.99 each.
Another store had hamburger buns for $1 and 24 bottles of water for $2.50.
These grocery stores are literally minutes from each other, and the sale prices were 50% off or more – but people were stocking their carts at one store with the non-sale items that they could’ve gotten so much cheaper had they hit BOTH grocery stores.
(I hit both, and saw people with loaded carts at both.)
It’s only been the last month or so I have been truly convicted about the amount of money I spend on groceries and I’ve been working on tackling it. I was never “bad” at shopping, but now I am amazed at what I use to spend!!
Our bill (for meat based meals) is $60 – $80 a week. I think I can probably still get it a bit lower, but we do enjoy a few extras in there still 🙂