Epic Publix Haul! (5/26/16)

I thought for sure something was going to go wrong with this deal and it wouldn't work, but to my surprise, I was able to print all of the coupons, everything was in stock, and all the coupons scanned!

Here's the deal...

I bought...

-Eight jars of Hellmann's Mayo that were BOGO $4.99.

-Eight French's mustards, four regular, two spicy, and two sweet. These were BOGO $1.63.

-Eight Vlasic Pickle Relishes that were regularly priced $1.39.

-Two Daisy Sour Creams that were BOGO $2.49.

-And, four DulcoGases that were on sale $2.99.

I used...

-Eight Publix store coupons that were $3 off a Hellmann's Mayo, a Vlasic Pickles, and a French's Mustard.

-Two $2 off $6 worth of Hellmann's coupons.

-Four $0.50 off French's Mustard coupons. (doubled)

-Two $0.50 off French's Spicy Mustard coupons. (doubled)

-Two $0.50 off French's Sweet Mustard coupons.  (doubled)

-Four $1 off two Vlasic Product coupons.

-Four $3 off any DulcoGas coupons.

-And, two $0.45 off Daisy Sour Cream coupons. (doubled)

Total Retail Value: $97.14
Total OOP: $3.45

Everything in this haul ended up being $0.12 each!!!

96% savings!

Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman - Review

I recently finished reading The Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

The Skinjacker Trilogy is set in Everlost, an in-between world where kids who have died go when they haven't yet reached the "light." The main characters are Nick and Allie who find themselves in Everlost after an ill-fated car accident.

Everlost: In the first book, Allie and Nick are thrown into Everlost after knocking into each other on the way to the light. Once in Everlost, they meet an array of characters, ranging from Mary, the self-imposed Queen of Everlost, to the McGill, monster of Everlost, and the Haunter, whom you'd better please if you don't want to be locked in a pickle barrel for all of eternity.

I really enjoyed the first book of this series, but it was just a kicker for the other two books. After reading Everwild and Everfound, I realized that Everlost was just setting up the basic ground work for the rest of the series. That being said, the other two books are awesome!!!

*If you have not yet read the series, and do not wish for anything to be spoiled for you, stop reading now!*

Everwild: The fate of the children of Everlost hangs in the balance between Mary Hightower and Nick, who both have very different ideas of the purpose of Everlost. Nick believes that each and every afterlight should know that they have a pathway to the light if they are ready to take it, however Mary believes that the children don't need to know about the path and that they should make their eternal home in Everlost. Meanwhile, Allie and Mikey travel in search of Allie's parents. Along the way, they meet other skinjackers and Allie learns from them things that will change her perspective on Everlost and her fate.

*Major spoilers!!!* There is a moment in Everwild where I wanted to throw the book across the room! It was one of those moments that remind me why I love reading so much, and it was the moment I realized why Neal Shusterman is such a valued author. Allie is still alive. About halfway through the book, it is revealed that skinjackers are actually still alive, they are just in comas, which is why they have the ability to skinjack. Neal Shusterman built up to this revelation so well, I honestly did not see it coming and it was a phenomenal moment in the book.

Everfound: As the children of Everlost wait for Mary's reawakening, her skinjackers continuously reap souls so that Mary will have more followers upon her return. When a tragic twist of fate awakens Mary too soon, it is quickly revealed what her true intentions for Everlost are. As a war wages with Allie, and her band of misfit characters, versus Mary, and her band of loyal followers, who will win as all life on Earth hangs in the balance?

I found Everfound to be a bit of a slower read compared to Everwild because all of the characters had to come back together. However, Neal Shusterman did this seamlessly, making each twist and turn hold new surprises. I found a few things in this last book a little disturbing however, such as when they trapped Jill in the prize pig. I don't know why, but that didn't set well with me. However, Jix frees her before the book ends, so that made me feel better about it. One thing I loved in this book was how Mary finally went down. She sunk herself into the earth in a locked fridge! That was an awesome ending! If she had gone into the light or been extinguished by the scar wraith, that would have been too predictable. But the fact that she sunk to the center of the earth, in a locked fridge, and she did it to herself rather than have Allie do it was amazing!!!

I give these books and Neal Shusterman a 10/10, and I look forward to reading more of his books in the future.

My Experience Making a Thread Box

I recently purchased a new car (Finally!), so am currently pretty low on funds. Therefore, for my mom's birthday I have been trying to come up with some good homemade gifts. One of the things I found was this origami thread box that I thought was really neat!

Things I Found:

• The thinner the paper, the better!!! I was working with different pieces of paper that varied in thicknesses and I found the thinner pieces much easier to work with. Also, the parts that were made with the thinner paper were easier to open and close once it was finished.
  
• The four little squares on the front were EXTREMELY frustrating to fold at first, but after fiddling with the first two for a while, I finally figured it out, and the last two were much easier. This is one of the reasons it is especially important when you are making something like this to crease the edges really well. I was pressing each fold down with my ruler to make crisp folds.
  
• This can also be customized really easily to match someone's specific needs. I, personally, liked the way that this was laid out. I think it's really cute, but if you wanted, you could have four of the squares or two of the rectangles.
  

I would rank this at a 4 out of 5 difficulty level just because of the four boxes on the front. Other than that, it's really simple to make, and I think it is a great gift idea. 

 

The Visit - Review *No Spoilers!*

My mom and I recently rented The Visit from Redbox. I had heard how good it was by a couple of friends, and I was not disappointed.

The movie opens with the mother of the two main characters, Becca and Tyler, talking about her childhood. It is then shortly revealed that the movie is a "documentary" that the daughter is filming. She is filming this documentary about her and her brother's visit to their grandparents whom they have never met. When they arrive at their grandparents house, all seems normal, except for the grandfather's frequent visits to an outside shed and their grandmother's erratically outlandish behavior. As the week trudges on, the grandparents "normal old people problems" become more and more alarming, and the episodes grandma has at night seems like more than a normal case of dementia. As events grow stranger by the day, terrible secrets are revealed, throwing the entire visit into chaos.

I really liked this movie! I like horror movies that are creepy but don't have a lot of violence in them, and this movie definitely checks both of those boxes. I've also seen many people online saying that it's almost a horror-comedy, and I could see that. There were a few parts that were funny.

The only cringe-worthy parts were when the boy, Tyler, rapped. I'll admit that rap isn't exactly my genre of choice, but even I knew that this was bad. I think he only does it two or three times, but it's definitely worth skipping when he does.

I give this movie a 6.5/10.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Walgreens Purex Haul! (5/6/15)

Over the course of four trips to Walgreens, I acquired eighteen bottles of Purex laundry detergent this week.

Here's the deal:

The bottles of laundry detergent are normally priced at $5.79. This week they were on sale for $1.99.

-I used seventeen $1 off coupons. (Ten of them were printed from home, but to my delight, some of the bottles in the store had $1 off peelies on them! Score!)

-I also used $1 in Register Rewards that was going to expire on the 8th.

-Lastly, I redeemed $11 worth of Rewards Points.

My out of pocket price for all of these came to $14.13 tax included.

However, I redeemed $6 in SavingStar rebates, making my total $8.13.

This made these $0.45 each!!!

At their normal price of $5.79, eighteen of these would have come to $104.22 before tax.

This was a 92% savings!!!

Pictured above is my laundry detergent stockpile, and as you can see, there was only one bottle of All left from last year's Publix deal, so I was really glad this deal worked out and I was able to stockpile so much.

*If you don't know what SavingStar is, it is a lot like Ibotta. You can redeem rebates for purchases.