My Biggest Grocery Savings to Date!!!

I am so excited about these savings!! I actually told my 13 year old daughter that was with me, "If I save over $100, I am so bloggin' this!" We watched on the Publix cash register screen as my savings went from $30 to $40 to $70 to $90. I stood there as it got closer to $100 saying, "Come on! Come on!" And then it was done: $101.73 in savings!!! *WooHoo* I was stoked! (The cashier, not so much! LOL).

Here is what we got:
4 boxes of Cheerios
3 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios
3 boxes of Cookie Crisp cereal
5 pk of Kotex pads
4 boxes of Pyramid Lipton Tea bags
1 box of Luzianne tea bags
3 Yo-plus 4-pks
5 4-pks Fiber One yogurt
4 boxes Taco Bell dinner (an item I did NOT have a coupon for--I know, shame on me. LOL)
2 Velvetta cheese spread (mexican flavor)
2 pints Starbucks Ice cream (Caramel Macchiato kind--yummy)
2 loaves of garlic bread
2 boxes of breadsticks

I used a $5 off $30 coupon I got in the mail from Publix (I think that should make up for my not having a Taco bell q LOL).

Summary from my receipt:
Store Coupons: 9.50
Vendor Coupons: 24.65
Advertised Specials (BOGOs): 67.58

Your Savings at Publix: 101.73

Grand Total: 35.64

I just tried to explain to my husband that the Cheerios alone are 4.99 a box--I got 7 boxes of them so we could say, I paid full price for the cereal and got everything else for free. He is about impressed as the cashier was. LOL Oh well, I will bask in my savings victory!!

Honestly, I don't think I have ever saved this much on groceries. I have when buying clothes on clearance at Penneys or in the big Target Toy Clearance but on groceries, this is a new one on me.

Bird Feeder Update

If you remember a long time ago I posted pictures of Alexander and my husband, Jeff making a bird feeder out of an empty two-litre bottle. For many months, no birds ever came to it. None. Alexander was quite discouraged because he was all set to look at the birds and see what kinds would come. We didn't know what to do. We knew that the birds just needed to find the feeder but we also knew that that might be skiddish since we had several stray cats hanging out on our porch too.

We managed to shoo the cats away and finally the birds came. Alexander has enjoyed looking at them and trying to figure out what they are. The birds are now used to seeing movement at the screen door and don't fly away as quickly as they did at first. Even the baby, Gregory, gets excited when he sees a bird at the feeder.

(Jeff did make the holes a little bigger for the seed to come out easier.)

Here are a few pictures of the birds we have seen.

Female House Finch

Both female and male (the red headed one) House Finch

Cardinal

We also have a family of cardinals that have been coming. It looks like a male, female and 2 babies. We need to research it a little but I think that cardinals are the kind of birds that will continue to come back to the same feeder for a long time.

We have also had a chickadee come but we haven't gotten a picture of it yet. Also the doves are starting to show up more since the other birds tend to fling the seed all over the porch looking for their favorite kind. LOL

I think that the feeder was a good project for Alexander. I felt bad that it took so long for birds to come but once they did, he was thrilled!!