Senior Shopping Day for December

A very full cart once again! I spent $95.66 on food. I combined coupons with sales, clearance, and discounts as much as I could. I even picked up a package of Lil Smokies for our tree-decorating party, the turkey bacon for Christmas day brunch and the ham for Christmas dinner. I think I did pretty well. We are now stocked on sugar and coffee, enough for about 6 months, and eggs enough to get through January. I'll make a stop at Cash and Carry later this week or next week and should be well-stocked for the month. I made one mistake. I thought the sale on peanut butter was good for natural as well as regular peanut butter. It wasn't. I don't want to return this for the regular stuff as one of my kids really prefers the natural style. I had a $9 off coupon for my total sale, so in my mind I'm just figuring that $9 covered the non-sale price on the peanut butter, bringing my cost per jar down to 44 cents.

Once again, the shopping exhausted me. Does anyone else feel on edge when they buy so much? As I was loading everything onto the conveyer belt to check out I felt uneasy about spending that much money in one go, and bringing home that much food. Now that it's home I'm glad to have it all, but the uneasiness of spending a lot at once is hard to take.

Five Fabulously Free Decorating Ideas for the Holidays

We'll be entertaining a couple of times over the holidays, so I'm in decor-mode right now. I thought I'd show you 5+ things that I did yesterday afternoon, without spending a single cent. You may have similar supplies at home. My decorating philosophy -- use what you have.

1) bowl of mini candy canes-- these are leftovers
that I had in the pantry, bought at Dollar Tree last year

2) cedar branches from our yard popped
into a vase for an evergreen "bouquet" table centerpiece

3) another bowl, but filled with tree ornaments--for the
living room coffee table, we'll put the tree in
a different room, but want decor for this room, too

4) a large bell tied to the door knob with a ribbon--this is
an auditory decor item, as well as visual

5) a red scarf as a table topper--this scarf is
from my own closet, something that I wear,
but due to its size and color it also makes a great table topper

bonus, I've shown this to you before, pillar candles wrapped in sheet music
 and tied with a red ribbon--I found the sheet music online
 and printed at home for the cost of ink and 1 sheet of paper