$500 challenge - update

Woo-hoo just one more week to go! It's a stormy day here, so we had to cancel our plans for today. I took advantage of a break in the rain and ran to get movies and Jackson requested hot dogs for dinner.

Spending:

2 prs of Crocs for Kira - the crocs site had a sale on their Mary Janes - they were $9.99 and if you bought two pair you got them for half off. I had a code for free shipping, so 2 pair shipped for $9.99. She constantly puts Jackson's Crocs on, so I've been watching for a sale for her. (I didn't post the deal itself on here, because by the time I found out about it, they had exactly 2 prs left in her size and not much else.)

The kids and I went to see Kung Fu Panda at the movies yesterday - Free (Regal theaters - UA in these parts - free summer movie series)

Derek stopped for milk at Tom Thumb: 1 gallon of organic marked down - spent $2.25 saved $3.75 (based on the $6 regular price)

Redbox - $1.08 - I ran out for a couple of movies and had a code for one of them. DVDONME is the code, if you haven't used it yet.

Kroger:
1 personal sized watermelon: $1.97 on sale
1 package of Oscar Mayer beef franks: $4.69 used Free coupon (it was only up to $4.50, so these were .19)
1 package of hot dog buns: .88 on sale
1 7 oz Kraft 2% shredded cheese: $1.67 on sale - used .50/1 doubled tearpad q - so .67
1 dz Eggland's Best Eggs - $2.59 used .35/1 insert q tripled

spent: $5.08
saved: $9.06

$500 Challenge Totals:
food & eating out (includes HBA): $194.92 ($168.49 savings)
- (eating out $53.36)
gas: $110.74
clothing: 9.99
coffee & beer making supplies: $52.05
household necessities (like air filters, etc)
entertainment:
- Derek allowance: $20.46
- Wendy allowance: $18.85
- Kids' allowance: $6.08
crafting supplies: $45.38
gifts: $12.88
Total spent: $471.35
Remaining: $28.65

I was thisclose to letting us eat out after storytime on Tuesday. I really, really want to stay under $250 for all of our groceries, eating out, and the coffee purchase, though. That leaves $3.03 and I think we can do it.

For breakfast today: scrambled eggs and peach/banana smoothies

For lunch today, I sauteed some onion and added the last of the leftover bison. We had it with brown rice and shredded cheese - broccoli on the side. We had watermelon for dessert.

I have this bread using leftover brown rice baking right now. I hope it's good! It calls for a 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice and that's usually about how much I have leftover.

We're having hot dogs for dinner - haven't decided yet what to make for sides. Might just be watermelon.

I'm making kettle corn to enjoy while we watch a movie tonight.

I'm working on the getting started - coupons post. I'm having a hard time deciding on where to start, though. If you have specific questions on organizing, obtaining, or anything else related to starting couponing - or if you have any suggestions - please let me know!