The CVS $5.00 Challenge

Alyssa is hosting a $5 CVS challenge each week. Visit her site to check out all the great scenarios people have worked out for $5 or less! It's always cool to see what everyone is getting. I LOVE deals!

Here's what I got on Sunday:I did three transactions. On the first transaction, I got:
Accu-Check Compact Plus Kit Price: $9.99
Used: $9 in ECB, Paid $1.09 Out of Pocket
Earned: $9.99 in ECB!!!
On this transaction, I paid $1.09 out of pocket and saved $75.99!!!

On the second transaction, I got:
1 Clairol Natural Instincts Hair Color, $5.99; I had a coupon for $4 off
1 O.B. tampons$4.49; I had a coupon for $1.50 off
1 Rightguard Professional Strength Deodorant and Antiperspirant $6.99; I had a coupon for $1 off
1 pkg of Gummi Savers $2.19, on sale B1G1 FREE, I had a coupon for B1G1 Free; thus FREE
1 pkg Lifesavers Mints (see above); FREE
I used my $9.99 ECB from the first transaction; paid $1.85 out of pocket, and earned $7.50 in ECB!!!
I spent $1.85 out of pocket and saved $30.17!!!

For my third transaction, I had to go to another store. My CVS was out of what I was looking for...MASCARA!
1 Physicians Formula Mineral Mascara $7.99
I used $7.50 in ECB and paid $.53 out of pocket.
I spent $.53, saved $7.50, and earned $7.99 in ECB

So for this challenge, I spent a total of $3.47 cash and saved $113.66!!!

My next visit to CVS is NOT part of the challenge, but I want to share anyway. I read online that since the Lifesavers packages were on sale B1G1 Free at CVS, and I had coupons for B1G1 free from the newspaper, the packages would be totally free. It seemed a little too good to be true, so I tested it on the challenge. Guess what?! It worked! So I went back on Monday and loaded up on Lifesavers. Check out what I got:

I got:
1 24 pack of CVS waters (reverse osmosis, our favorite) for $2.99
2 Softsoap Shower Gels $4.49 and B1G1 Free; I had 2 $.75 off coupons
6 packs of Lifesavers B1G1 Free, plus 3 coupons for B1G1 free

For this trip, I opted not to use any ECBs because none of these products earned ECBs. So I spent $9.63 out of pocket and saved $18.94!!!

My total actually should have been $2.25 lower because I was charged for one of the packs of Lifesavers. I didn't complain, though, because in a course of two days, I got 8 packs for $2.25. Still great in my book. :)

I Asked, and He Delivered

This morning as I prayed, I asked the Lord to show me areas of sin in my life, areas that I may not be aware of. I didn't hear or feel an immediate poke in the ribs, but shortly thereafter, I checked my email. I received an email from a great friend who shared some of the struggles she has had to overcome and thought that maybe I dealt with some of the same things. My first response was that no, those weren't struggles of mine. I emailed her back, thanked her for sharing her wisdom, and kind of left it at that. However, the Holy Spirit didn't quite leave it at that. I just kept thinking about the email. It has been on my mind all morning.

I came upstairs this afternoon to pray, and I felt a nudge to check my email, so I did. There, in my inbox, was another email from my sweet friend who shared more specifically of the struggles she has overcome and an apology for assuming that I dealt with the same struggles. Immediately, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and had another "AHA!" moment. I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me and say, "Ah hem...(how do you spell the clearing of a throat?). You asked me to show you areas of sin in your life. Ah hem...".

Oh!!! I got it, Lord!!! You see, with the first email, I was blinded by my own sin, my own pride. It took that second nudge to show me. The blinders came off, and I indeed realized that my friend was right. She showed me an area of sin that I was blinded to.

Thank you, sweet sweet friend (you know who you are). Thank you, LORD, that you haven't given up on me. I asked, and YOU delivered. Praise God!

"I am confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected." Philippians 1:6

AHA!

If you read my last post, you saw that God allowed me to sit in on my own trial, and I got to personally hear Jesus take the penalty for each of my sins. It was a powerful, powerful time for me. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my last post.

What's even more amazing is that while I was at church on Sunday, God made His great reveal to me. As Channing and I entered the sanctuary, I saw the sacraments. We were going to be taking communion. Immediately, I had the great "AHA!" moment. I realized that on Wednesday, God was directly preparing me for what was to come Sunday. He allowed me to sit in on my trial so that when I took communion on Sunday, I would truly realize the great sacrifice that Jesus made for me. It was SO POWERFUL. It reinforced to me that God is there with me all the time. He hears my every prayer. He knows the struggles I am facing. It was reinforcement that I am going to be ok.

I share this to give you hope. I think we all go through times where we feel disconnected and far from God; times where we think He has much more important things to deal with than whether or not our child gets over his cold, whether or not our work goes well, whether or not He cares that we are hurting. Let me assure you, He does hear, He does care. Last week, He showed me that He hears everything I'm saying to Him. It has increased my faith, and I hope it helps yours. Trust in Him. According to the Psalms, He is:

• The One enthroned in Heaven
• Father
• My King
• a Righteous Judge
• A Refuge for the oppressed
  
• He who avenges blood
• the helper of the fatherless
• the LORD who counsels me
• my rock
• my fortress
• my deliverer
• my shield
• the horn of my salvation
• my stronghold
• the Most High
• God my Savior
• the God of truth
• he who forms the hearts of all
• my loving God
• my honor
• my help
• A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows
• my hope
  
• my confidence

Today, I took the time to pray the names of God, and I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit. AMAZING! Just in case you don't know them, here they are:

Adonai: Lord, Master
Jehovah-shalom: The Lord is Peace
El Elyon: The God Most High
Jehovah-sabaoth: The Lord of Hosts
Elohim: The Creator
Jehovah-mekoddishkem: The Lord who Sanctifies You
El Olam: The Everlasting God
Jehovah-jireh: The Lord Will Provide
El Shaddai: The All-Sufficient One
Jehovah-raah: The Lord my Shepherd
Yahweh: Lord (Jehovah)
Jehovah-rapha: The Lord who Heals
El Roi: The God who Sees
Jehovah-shammah: The Lord is There
Quanna: Jealous
Jehovah-tsidkenu: The Lord Our Righteousness
Jehovah-nissi: The Lord my Banner

Today, I hope you know that YOU are loved and cherished.

Who Am I?

I so wish I wrote with beautiful words. I don't, but here's what's on my heart. I hope it makes sense:

I began a Proverbs study this week (shared with me by Delta) and have really been enjoying it. I have been challenged and encouraged. Each lesson has the Proverbs to study, a place to record an application, prayer guidance, and a memorization verse. A couple of days ago, as I was following the prayer guidance, God gave me a revelation. It was one many of us of take for granted. I know I often do.

I came to the part of prayer where it called for confession. When I pray, I confess what I have done and ask for forgiveness, but I guess it has just been a long time since I have actually called it confession. Does that make sense? I guess I just always refer to it as 'asking for forgiveness'. Anyway, the study says this, "Confession: (Agreeing with God when you have broken His Law by doing what He forbids or not doing what He commands. Remember to evaluate your thoughts, attitudes, actions, and motives in light of what the Bible says. Also, call your sin what God calls it. Don't try to minimize, blame-shift or justify it)."

Again, I do these things, but for some reason that day, it really impacted me. I read what she said about not minimizing, shifting blame, or justifying my sin. I don't really do that, not with God; however, I don't often think about and really meditate on the fact that Jesus took total credit for all the horrible things I have done. EVERY ONE OF THEM. Yes, just like most Christians, I can easily say that I know that Jesus died for my sins. Yes. But I don't often picture Him taking the blame for me completely losing it and yelling at Tristan. This week, though, I actually heard Jesus take credit for each of my sins.

As I was sitting here doing this study, God totally revealed Himself to me. As I was confessing my sins, I heard the Judge say, "Yelling at your son? Hmmmm..." Then I heard Jesus say, "No, Father. That's on Me." Again the Judge, "Being lazy, disorganized..." Jesus, "No, Father. I've got that. That's on Me." "Gossiping about your neighbor...". "No, Judge. That's on Me."

I wish I could share every detail of the conversation, but because I'm not ready to post all my sins for the world to see, I'll keep some things private. I will say, though, that it was SO incredibly humbling. To hear My Savior take credit for all of the horrendous things I've done; My Savior who was tempted but never sinned, take credit for all of my failings...WOW! You see, I KNEW that Jesus died for my sin, but until Wednesday, I didn't hear His voice take credit for each of them. Wednesday brought me back. It served as the reminder that I needed. It's been a long time since I have given Jesus full credit for what He did. I have been honoring with my lips but not meditating on His goodness and really thanking Him for the shame He carried on the cross for me.

If you know me well, you know it's hard for me to accept people doing nice things for me. I'm not exactly sure why. I've had a friend lovingly tell me it's pride, but I really don't think that's the case (maybe that's my pride talking ;)). You see, I'm not too proud to accept help; not at all. I just hate for people to give things to me or do things for me when they have so much on their plate already. Too, I have a hard time watching people take advantage of others (it's part of my personality profile). I see people take advantage of others who are offering help. I sometimes call it "forced blessing". Channing and I have been in situations where we have been taken advantage of. For instance, we once had someone ask us to order tickets for them online when we ordered our own, and they would repay us when we got them. Well we got them, and the person said, "Thank you for blessing me with these." To me, that's a forced blessing. We weren't buying them to give, we were simply doing the guy a favor. Anyway, I'm sure that sounds so selfish. It was nice to give, I just don't really think that the situation was handled the way we expected. That is just one example of the many times I have seen people force blessings, in the Name of Jesus. I could go on about this, but I won't. It's a balance thing, I guess. It all goes back to motives.

My point is, I have a hard time letting my friends or others do things for me because I would rather take care of them. I want them to be taken care of. I want to serve others. I want the best for them. Right or wrong, surely I'm not alone in this. Anyway, I don't think I always give Jesus enough credit. I know I don't. Yes, I accept what He did, but I need to meditate on it daily. I need to hear His voice take My sin because that is EXACTLY what He did on the cross. I mean, if He had come to me beforehand and said, "Hey, Annie. Remember that name you called that person who cut you off in traffic? I'm going to take credit for that. I am going to die for that sin as well as all your others." Of course, there is NO way I would have conceded. That was my sin, not His. I messed up, He didn't. How thankful am I that He didn't ask? How thankful am I that He willingly gave His life for mine? Think about that. Think of every single sin you've committed. If you confess and ask for forgiveness, Jesus takes total credit for each and every one. He, who was blameless, took our sins onto the cross. He, who was/is perfect, carried our dirty secrets: lies, envy, anger, murder, gluttony, sloth, pornography, adultery...everything....to the cross. He took our punishment. Really think about that and meditate on it. I think you'll feel the same way I feel. In awe. Inspired. Embarrassed for what I've done. In debt to My Savior. IN LOVE!

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24

Who am I that You are mindful of me? Thank You, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.


Update 7/1: Please let me say that I LOVE to help people. I know from reading this that it may appear that I feel taken advantage of if I ever help anyone, and I want you to know that that is ABSOLUTELY not the case. It blesses me to help others. :)

TGIF

YEA!!! It's FRIDAY! My favorite day of the week. We don't work on Fridays, so I always use this day to relax or do something fun.

I hope you have a great Friday too!

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Corinthians 13:14

Publix Shoppers, Have I Got a Tip for You

Since becoming a frugal shopper a few months back, I have learned to love two major stores, CVS and Publix. This came as a huge surprise to me because I assumed that both stores were on the super pricey side to shop. As a matter of fact, when I lived in Atlanta, I LOVED to shop at Publix but didn't go much because of their higher prices. Thanks to all that I've learned about deals, CVS and Publix have become two stores at the top of my list of favorite places to shop. Both have AMAZING deals, and Publix, specifically, has SO many great policies that there is no reason not to shop there. I HEART Publix!!!

Seeing as how much I HEART Publix, you can imagine how thrilled I was to happen upon a super fantastic blog today. The blog is Fiddledeedee, and it is FABULOUS for lots of things, but specifically for Publix deals! Sarah has totally laid out all the deals into three categories:

PUBLIX Shoppers: for this week's deals with PRINTABLE coupons

PUBLIX Shoppers: for this week's deals with NON-printable coupons

PUBLIX Shoppers: For this week's BOGO sales

If you love Publix as much as I do or just want to learn more about this week's deals, stop by Sarah's page. She's a fellow southerner. Gotta love that!

Prepare Yourself...

...what you're about to read is incredibly disgusting. Oh, where do I begin?

We were at the office. I was working on a patient's file and could hear Asher being loud in the back. So I told Tristan (aka: Lightning Jr.) to go check on him and to make sure he wasn't in the bathroom. Tristan, as usual, took his time going back to look for him, but once he found him, I knew it wasn't good. Tristan started yelling, "Gross! Disgusting! Yuck!" This was followed by peels of laughter. In the pit of my stomach, I knew what had happened. I immediately jumped up and sprinted to the back...where I found Asher...hands in the potty, splashing...with someone's pee in it!!! This is a public potty, people! AAAAAAAAAGH!!!
I always always always try to make sure that the bathroom door is closed because I don't want him in there. Little did I know, the bathroom was used, not flushed, and waaaay too appealing for a one year old. They always say to look on the bright side, I guess the bright side of this is that there was no poo in the potty. Praise the Lord! I think I would have passed out!

I guess it's safe to say I won't win any parenting awards any day soon. I just can't believe this happened! G-R-O-S-S!!!

Update: I found out today (the 26th) that it was Tristan's pee in the toilet. Praise God! I mean, gross still...yes. But at least it was four year old brother pee and not 65 year old man pee.