One Thing At A Time

I have every intention of writing more.  I want to write.  I need to write.  I have been so busy, working and cleaning and taking care of the house and planning birthday parties.  I  have been planning Benji's birthday party in my little brain for several months, but putting it all together is proving to be quite the process.  Once again, I'm very grateful for my Mom who is helping in all sorts of ways.  She is such an awesome Nanny!

So here I am at work, waiting for Stephanie {the evening charge nurse} to tell me what exactly I will be doing for the rest of the night.  It could be Ortho, it could be GYN, it could be a Kidney Transplant, it could be a General/Plastics case . . . there are a lot of what-ifs.  Whatever.  I'm fine with any of it, really, though the Kidney would be last on my list of preference.  I just don't love the Transplant surgeons.  They are all very high-maintenance and grumpy, and the one who isn't going through a divorce is practically impossible to understand {he's Japanese}.  I'l do it if she wants me to; I just hope she doesn't.

Hmm--what is today?  Thursday.  Ah--it's supposed to be "Thrifty Thursday."  I have found some great deals lately, and I have wanted to share them. 

First off: Shampoo.  I found myself in need, and I'm not super-duper picky about the brand I use.  I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, so I usually end up with some variety of Suave.  This time I was looking at "Herbal Essences" for some reason.  I had a some regular-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner in my basket, and I think they were in the neighborhood of $2.99 each.  Then, I found an end-cap with some leftover holiday gift packs and what do I find?

Yes, friends, I found GIANT sized shampoo and conditioner, each with a free hairspray, for $3.50 each.  Yes, thank you!  A much better bargain!  Always check the end-caps, or the shelves on the ends of the rows where you shop.  Often times you can find clearance deals or combo packs that make your dollar stretch a little further.

Second: Winco.  I have said before how much I love Winco, but I'll repeat it.  They have some excellent deals on food.  For example: Allen and I took Benji there last week, and found some incredible prices.  They had boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.77/lb.  That's not a terrible price, so I went to pick some up.  Then, I saw--every package was half-price!  The sell-by date was the next day, so they were priced to move.  Since we have a Foodsaver {not one of these fancy ones; ours is white, but it does the job!}, we bought 5 packages; or around 20 lbs.  I don't know that I have ever seen boneless, skinless chicken breasts @ $0.89/lb, so we decided to stock up!  Allen separated them into smaller groupings, vaccuum-sealed them, and popped them in the freezer.  So now we have plenty of chicken that is ready to go!  Honestly, that should last us for several months.  Yay!  I do the same with ground beef.  One of our local grocery stores {Dan's} will mark down their meat a few times a week, to keep the rotation really fresh.  I'll usually go early on a Saturday morning and buy them out.  I can get 93% lean beef for $1.39/lb, which is an awesome deal.  I'll take it home and we'll divide them into one-pound packs, Foodsaver them and freeze them too.  Those will last several months as well.

Looks like I'm doing some GYN, baby.

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Um, it's now Wednesday.  I actually ended up working with Dr. K {my OB/Gyn} twice that night, and I ended up staying all night on-call.  I'll go ahead and post this, and wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day.  I'll write more when Benji's party is done.  One thing at a time, friends.  One thing at a time.