Weekly Savings for July 5th

So here I am, once again, reporting on my new pastime. :) It has obviously affected my blogging! Actually, the thing that has affected my blogging the most is my OTHER new pastime, training my kids to obey me the first time, every time. Which is a whole other blog.

This week's totals are:

Hy-Vee:
shelf total: $109.71
spent: $65.39
saved: $44.32
savings of: 40%

Hen House:
shelf total: $53.84
spent: $44.50
saved: $9.34
savings of: 18%

Walgreens:
shelf total: $185.11
spent: $83.41
saved:$101.70
savings of: 55%

I won't shop at CVS this week; there is no time! It would have made my savings percentage even better, though, so it's a shame.

Mike worked a half day yesterday, and we went to TGI Friday's for a birthday party yesterday evening (Happy "21st" Birthday, Caleb!! *wink, wink*), and then watched the Grand Finale (yeah, we got there a bit late!) of the fireworks display at a local place, and today Mike is helping said "21-year-old" Caleb with some trees/branches in his yard, and then he will work on our dryer vent. Tomorrow we will go to church in the morning, and then visit Mike's parents after the boys' naps. We usually get home at bedtime when we go to their house, so that will be our day tomorrow!

Oh yeah. About the dryer. It sounds so easy. "Work on our dryer vent." HA!!

He has been working on it on and off for the past month or two. Pull out the dryer, empty the "tube" going from dryer to outside the house, put dryer back. The dryer never seems to get all of the clothes dry, and one cycle takes almost 2 hours, so we run it twice, which means I only get one or two loads of clothes done every day. Not Good!! I have had to buy extra shorts for the boys this summer because of it. I wish our homeowner's association allowed clotheslines, because I would definitely have one if they did!! I might get one anyway. What can they say? I'd be helping the planet out. ;)

So, the dryer... the lint has not been collecting in the lint trap, but in the tube which goes all the way from the laundry room, under the entire kitchen floor, then out the back of the house at the level of the backyard deck. I was SURE it was something wrong with the lint trap itself, and that a new dryer would solve the problem. But Mike was sure that it is a problem with the "tube" (not the technical term, I know) itself. Sure enough, Mr. Technical was right once again!

There were holes all over in the "tube", so we now have a 5' x 1 1/2' hole in our basement ceiling to accomodate installation of the new "tube". He has almost completed the excavation of the old, wimpy "tube", and is installing a new, fresh, galvanized steel "tube" that will hopefully work much better and provide our dryer with many more nice, happy, lint-collecting years.

Anyway, after all of that, here are my averaged Grocery Game totals for this week!

shelf total: $348.66
spent: $193.30
saved: $155.36
savings of: 45%

Much better than last week, and my stockpile is almost completed already! Such a good feeling to have on hand the things you use on a daily basis. No more running to the store for things at the last minute, and having to buy it at whatever price they happen to be selling it for that day!