I can't believe it's been 7 months that I haven't been active at HCW. I've been lurking, checking out the occasional Walgreen's or Randall's ads and using the DB to search for printables, but the process of getting the house ready to sell, getting the new house built and moving took up about every non-work hour I had! Things are finally settling down and I'm looking forward to getting back on the couponing train .

As part of the "contact us" train, I contacted 120 companies over a 3 1/2 week period. The train is over, but the mail keeps coming in! I'm pasting into this post my chart of who I contacted and when, and what the response was (if I received coupons, I have the date I received). I'm posting this so others can get an idea of what companies are responsive to feedback (except where noted, I complimented a product of theirs). Different people on the train got different results, some that...

Today at Target:
3T pink raincoat for DD for the spring/fall - $4.98

total spending for Jan: $4.98
remaining: 595.02

2008 was an expensive year. We made a lot of major purchases, and managed to spend DH's entire after-tax salary on the major purcahses, live on mine, and not save very much. While my job was "saved" in December, if the economy keeps tanking It'll be a miracle if I still have a job 6 months from now.

So, 2009 is going to be the opposite of 2008 - we are going to live on DH's salary, and save mine (the larger one). The only thing that can come out of my salary is childcare...

This is a thank you post to HCW: My job is at risk right now (whose isn't?) so Christmas is going to have to come out of my grocery/household budget. 10 nights of spending pretty much nothing is super helpful, and I couldn't have done it without all the knowledge (and trading) from HCW!

I scored a free turkey at Randall's on Friday (They had one lonely 12 pound Jennie-O Oven Ready Tukey for 50% off because they ran out of room in their freezer cases to display them, which made the...