Monday to do list

Here is my weekly to do list.  After 2 very busy weeks, this week is much less scheduled.

We were able to pick some wild plums yesterday, what we call Oklahoma Sand Plums.  They are not good to just eat raw, but when cooked down for their pretty pink juice, Sand Plums make wonderful jelly.   Both of my Oklahoma grandmothers, my aunts and my mom all made Sand Plum jelly and it is truly a family favorite.  It was the only jelly one of my brothers and many of my cousins would eat.

 I washed our 5 gallons of sand plums last night.  Then today, I simmered them until they released their juice and strained them.   I hade one big pot full, one medium pot full and 2 little pans full.  It just seemed better to cook them all at once.  

I ended with enough juice to make at least 4 batches of jelly.  Yum!   

I've had already several requests from family members who hope I will share.  Of course I will and we may be able to pick more plums in a few days when they have finished ripening.  

The downside of all this cooking is the cleanup to do afterward.  

The stovetop was a mess but cleaned up without much effort 

And my trusty dishwasher washed 3 loads today!  

Hope you all had a good Monday! 

CVS - Last week of August 2015

I don't think I've shopped at CVS in 2 or more weeks.  Their sales were just not things I needed. 

But this week's ad interested me and I had $10 Extra Care bucks to use. 

Instead of writing out the sales I want to do, I started clipping out the ad sections I like and use a smear of glue stick to mount them on a sheet of paper.  I also paper clip the coupons for the deals, any ECBs and my CVS card to this list.

The key to getting good deals is be organized.  

Below is what I bought - I actually bought everything I planned too. 

Colgate toothpaste was free after the redbox $2 coupon and $1 coupon in today's paper.

The beverages are 2/$2 and give a $2 ECB.  My husband drank part of the Gatorade on the way home from church.

Any Tums are part of the Zantac deal- buy any 2 and get $5 ECB.  Each roll was $1.49 and I got back a total of $10 ECB.  So on these, I got back more than I paid.  

The Excedrin are spend $20, get back $10.  Excedrin works for me when I get a headache and with the coupons in today's paper, I really liked this deal. 

I spent a total of $15.24 in cash and got back $22 in ECBs.