Today was a wonderful day with family. Our Christmas celebration began last night when I hosted Christmas Eve dinner for my side of the family. We are truly blessed to have so many caring people in our lives.

Total saved was $18.08
Total Spent was $11.96, so I get to make another trip.
Where I saved…
Store coupons $7.00
Vendor Coupons $5.00
Advertised Savings $6.08

I bought some Tylenol, Tylenol cold, Tylenol Sinus, Sudafed and some Tylenol Head cold

Total savings was $71.79
Total OOP was $62.77

I was a slacker and didn’t take note of the coupons beforehand, so I can’t give you a breakdown of what costs what after coupons.

Here is where I saved:
$11.58 from store coupons
$16.40 in Vendor Coupons
$43.36 from advertised specials

I spent about an hour going through ad and looking for coupons. I spent about an hour while driving home from Gainesville one day to sort the coupons that I would be using.

P.S. No picture of the items this week either due to the limited time we have had the past week.

Publix 12/5/09

This was my first week of actually spending more than ten minutes gathering coupons for grocery shopping. Last week, I just got lucky because of the chicken on sale. I spent close to an hour going through all of my coupons, but I was also organizing them at the same time.

Total spent out of pocket $52.09
Total coupons $10.85
Advertised Savings $23.17

Total Saved: $34.51

Cheerios $2.50 (2)

$1/2 boxes, so $2 each

Grands Biscuits $1.25 (2)

$0.30/2, so $1.10 each

Publix Orange Juice $3.79

Publix Glazed Donuts $1.99

Jell-O Chocolate Pudding $1.39 (2)

$0.55/2, so $1.12 each

Cranberries $2.99

Betty Crocker Cookie Mix $2.19 (4)
BOGO

$0.40/1

$0.40/1

$0.40/1

$0.40/1, so $0.70 each

Pillsbury Brownie Milk Chocolate $1.99

$0.40/1, so $1.59 each

Publix Strawberry Preserves $2.39

Idaho Potatoes $0.70

Publix Honey Wheat Bread $1.79

Bananas $1.89

Publix Grape Jelly $1.99

Nestle Tollhouse Cookies $3.39 (2)
BOGO

$1/1, so $2.89 each

Oscar Meyer Bacon $3.00

$0.75/1, so $2.25

Egg Beaters $1.67 (2)

$1/1

$1/1, so $0.67 each

Publix frozen pizza $3.99

Soft-soap Shower Gel $2.79

$0.75/1, so $2.04

Bear Naked Granola Bar $1.39

$1/1, so paid $0.39

Publix Milk $3.19

$1/dairy from baby club

Daisy Sour Cream $1.50

$0.50/1, so $1.00

Publix Cool Whip $1.89 (2)

Nestle Hot Chocolate $2.19 (2)
BOGO, so $1.10 each

It is red, but doesn't seem to bother him. Hoping that its not red tomorrow morning when we get up. I have no idea what it is. He was inside with me for the majority of the day yesterday since it was raining. I feel bad for him :(

This recipe is from A Year of Crockpotting. I will be honest, this was the first time I ever skinned a chicken. GROSS! It was disgusting. I doubt I will do that again or at least not anytime soon. The chicken was good. I wouldn't give it 5 stars, but it wasn't put on the list of never cook this again.

So What does it call for?

Ingredients
1 whole chicken, skinned (4-5 pounds)
2 tsp kosher salt (if you'd like it as salty as the ones in the store, add another 1 tsp.)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch of chili pepper (probably not necessary)
4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

Directions

A 6 quart crockpot for a 4 pound bird.

Skin the chicken and get rid of the neck and other stuff from the cavity. This takes a while, and is gross. (If you don't mind skin on the chicken, then you don't have to skin it. We aren't fans of the skin on chicken)

In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out.

Place the bird breast-side down into the crockpot.

Place 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8.

The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat. When I took mine out, the meat was so tender, it fell off the bone.

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It was very tender and it done fall right off the bone.

I did double a few of the ingredients. Which ones? dried thyme, black pepper and cayenne pepper. It was not spicy at all. I didn't use 4 cloves of garlic, but only because I only had two.

I would HIGHLY recommend preparing the chicken the night before you are planning to put it into the crockpot.

First, we have some awesome friends. We took a long weekend and headed to the Bahamas. The cruise was nothing spectacular, but there were some good memories made.