Wade Jewett Look Away

My friend Corinne encouraged me to post my deals from tonight's insane "wagging" (That is what they call coupon-shopping at Walgreens).

So here it goes:

Transaction 1

Stayfree Maxipads (1) @ 2.99ea
3M Scotch Packaging tape (4) @ 3.49ea
Dried Apricots (1) @ 1.00ea
Skintimate Shave Cream (1) @ 2.99ea
Clio Hair Trimmer (1) @ 4.99 ea
Nail clippers (1) @0.69ea

used
$2/1 Stayfree coupon (1)
$1/1 Scotch coupon (4)
$2.50/1 Walgreens in-ad coupon for Scotch (3)

Total: 10.62
Paid with
$5 Register Reward (2)
$0.62 OUT OF POCKET
Received
$3 Register Reward from Skintimate
$3 Register Reward from Stayfree
$5 Register Reward from Clio


Transaction 2

Stayfree Maxipads (1) @ 2.99ea
Stride Gum (3) @ 1.00ea
Plackers Mint Flossers (1) @ 2.00ea
Skintimate Shave Cream (1) @ 2.99ea
Benedryl Allergy (1) @ 4.99 ea
Tylenol Sinus (1) @4.99ea

Used
$5/2 Allergy Medicine coupon
$1/1 Stayfree coupon
.50/1 Plackers coupon
B2G1 Stride gum coupon (took off $1.29, price before sale)
$1/2 Walgreens Stride coupon (took off $1.50/3)

Total:
$11.76
Paid with
$5 Register Reward (2)
$1.76 OUT OF POCKET
Received:
$2 Plackers Register Reward
$3 Skintimate Register Reward
$3 Stayfree Register Reward
$5 Allergy Register Reward

Transaction 3
*This transaction did not go so good. The cashier did not scan TWO of my coupons for the scotch tape, and I also gave one less $5 RR to pay with than I meant to so it ended up being high $$ out of pocket

3M Scotch Packaging tape (3) @ 3.49ea
Photo Albums (2) @ 0.85ea --> Going to use these to help organize my coupons
Skintimate Shave Cream (1) @ 2.99ea
Plackers flossing pirate swords (1) @ 2.00 ea
Tylenol Cold (2) @4.99ea
Schick Quatro Disposable Razors (1) @ 5.99ea
Hallmark Cards (8) @ 0.49ea

Used
$2/1 Schick razor coupon
$1/1 Scotch tape coupon (1) --> I gave him 3! But he only scanned one :(
$2.50/1 Walgreens scotch in-ad coupon (3)
$0.50/1 Plackers (1)
$5/2 Allergy coupon (2)

Total: $20.61
Paid with
$5 Register Reward (2) --> I was so flustered b/c he was having trouble scanning all the items that I didn't give him the 3rd $5 RR I had!
$2.50 Register Reward (1)
$8.11 OUT OF POCKET --> so frustrating, this should have been $1.11
Received:
$5 Hallmark Register Reward
$5 Allergy Register Reward
$3 Skintimate Register Reward
$2 Plackers Register Reward
$1 Schick Register Reward
$3 Phantom Register Reward triggered by Schick

Transaction 4
On this transaction, I was back on my game. No more messups. And this was an awesome store-- everything in stock except the stride gum.

Stayfree maxipads (1) @ 2.99ea
3M Scotch Packaging tape (5) @ 3.49ea
Weird candy (2) @ 0.12ea --> needed to round total up to over $20
Skintimate Shave Cream (1) @ 2.99ea
Plackers flossing pirate swords (1) @ 2.00 ea
Tylenol Cold (2) @4.99ea
Schick Quatro Disposable Razors (1) @ 5.99ea
Hallmark Cards (8) @ 0.49ea

Used
$2/1 Schick razor coupon
$1/1 Stayfree coupon
$1/1 Scotch tape coupon (5)
$2.50/1 Walgreens scotch in-ad coupon (5)
$5/2 Allergy coupon (2)

Total: $20.06
Paid with
$5 Register Reward (4)
$0.06 OUT OF POCKET
Received
$5 Hallmark Register Reward
$5 Allergy Register Reward
$3 Skintimate Register Reward
$3 Stayfree Register Reward
$2 Plackers Register Reward
$1 Schick Register Reward
$3 Phantom Register Reward triggered by Schick


Transaction 5

Stayfree Maxipads (1) @ 2.99ea
Stride gum (3) @ 1.00ea
Dried Mango (1) @ 3.00ea --> not pictured

Used
$1/1 Stayfree coupon
B2G1 Stride gum coupon
$0.50/1 Walgreens Stride coupon (3)

Total: $5.49
Paid with
$2 Register Reward from Plackers
$2.50 Register Reward
$0.99 OUT OF POCKET
Received
$3 Stayfree Register Reward

So I started with $47 in RR and ended with $58 (a difference of $11)

Total Paid OOP $11.54

The total shelf, retail price of all the products at Walgreens would have been $175.88, but you also have to take that with a grain of salt because Walgreens does have a very high mark-up (so I have been told, and it seems true to me). The prices I listed in the transactions were after sales or in-store mark-downs.

This is pretty good, because if I had not messed up a bunch with that one transcation, I would have come out ahead. Essentially, the money I paid out I earned back in rewards for next time, though.

It's exhasting to type all this up, but I wanted to give some of you a good idea of what I'm learning to do with couponing.

Three times while I was checking out, random strangers (all men) made comments to me about how much my husband must love me and be proud of me for how much I am saving. I appreciated the compliments very much but also thought it was kind of strange that they were thinking about it only from my husbands point of view rather than my own. :)

A few girlfriends have told me that they want to start couponing with me this summer, so I'm excited to see how that will go. I think Corinne and I are going to start a club. Corinne, if you are reading this, I also wanted to tell you that I think someone from the seminary probably does coupons at Walgreens a lot too, because that 2nd transation I did at the Wags at Olive and Mason and they were cleaned out of all the Free-After-Register-Rewards items (that is the closest one to the seminary).

Goodnight everyone!

Genesis 3: The curse

When God curses in Genesis 3, is he pronouncing something that is a natural result of sin and disobedience because it could be no other way according to the way God has ordained the universe to operate? Or does God pronounce judgment and impose a sentence that would not necessarily have been in place had he not deemed it so right then? Does this question even make sense? Or is it significant? I am leaning toward it being a tension – the nature of justice is really known only perfectly through God, who is perfectly just. So only God would be able to pronounce a just sentence that also happened to be set up to be a natural and just consequence of sin in his created world. I think I am thinking too much in terms of a human perspective (which is the only one I have!) In a court of law, when a judge or jury give a sentence or a judgment, we ask the question of our own consciences – is this a just sentence? Well, in some sense it is justice, according to the system of justice our government has implemented. But God’s perfect justice is our standard, it is possible for us to say – no this such-and-such sentence is not just as God would see it (if our consciences lead us rightly). But if God is doing the sentencing, there is no higher standard of justice to apply to. God is his own standard. This is blowing my mind.

Ebates - Don't shop online without it!

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Happy shopping!

Suffering and Glory

Most of us who have started seminary already have a sense of the place of suffering in ministry – many seminary families struggle financially, for example, and have to live a simpler lifestyle than they once did. I find that I try to minimize the suffering that this causes our family at times – I try to think of it in terms of a challenge or game to figure out how to save money or make extra money. Other times, in order to avoid thinking about financial hardship now and in the future, I let our relative poverty make me feel better about myself – that someone we are more holy than others (ugh). I need to name it for what it is – its suffering and it sucks to not have money sometimes. It is a struggle to have integrity in my suffering – to legitimately recognize the sacrifice we are making as hard and painful, but to also not turn it into my own glory. Instead I give the glory of my own suffering to Christ.

Jesus invading the heart

From page 58 of The Cross of Christ by John Stott:

The same evil passion influences our own contemporary attitudes to Jesus. He is still, as C.S. Lewis called him, “a transcendental interferer.” We resent his intrusions into our privacy, his demand for our homage, his expectation of our obedience. Why can’t he mind his own business, we ask petulantly, and leave us alone? To which he instantly replies that we are his business and that he will never leave us alone. So we too perceive him as a threatening rival who disturbs our peace, upsets our status quo, undermines our authority and diminishes our self-respect. We too want to get rid of him.

This passage is incredibly convicting. This is the way I often feel in marriage. I’m often exasperated and wanting my husband to get out of my business, so to speak, in our marriage. But my husband has every right to be in my business. In fact, if he wasn’t concerned about my life, heart, mind, actions, etc. he wouldn’t really be doing well in his role as husband to me. Jesus wants to be in my business because he loves me (way more than my husband). Sometimes it is really hard to understand why Jesus gets into our business, because it can be incredibly painful when things change, even if it’s simply your own mind or heart. But Jesus changes us for good. I’m glad Jesus isn’t defeated by my own resistance, just as he wasn’t defeated by death on the Cross. He continues to pursue believers and he remind us of the victory he has won for us over our sin and death.

Relish Retreat

This weekend we are going to Springfield, MO. Again! Twice in less than 4 weeks. Dan is preaching (again), the same sermon only to a different audience. We are meeting up with OURUF students who annually come to Doug's hometown for their leadership retreat.

I keep forgetting we are going and start to get excited about what movie Dan and I could see on Friday night. (We still have like 7 or 8 fandango gift certs that expire June 30). But then I remember we are going to this retreat and that is better.

I'm excited to see my friends, many of whom I haven't seen in a good while. Lucy will come with us. It will be nice to sleep in some AC, since we don't have a new window unit for our apt yet. It's getting hotter every night, and we made the mistake of eating frozen pizza and using the oven for dinner last night.

This is why I coupon

I did my first hard-core Shop N Save coupon/sale/10-50 thursday extravaganza today. For those of you outside of St. Louis or who don't know, that means I collected the coupon matchups for the sales at Shop n Save this week, collected my coupons, and shopped on Thursday, when they do a $10 off $50 purchase BEFORE coupons. Here was the result

4 Banquet frozen meals (for school lunches)

5 green giant steamers

2 coffee mate creamers

4 boxes of kashi cereal

2 4-packs Yoplait Yoplus yogurt

3 boxes Quaker granola bars

2 boxes of Quaker Life cereal

Oreo cakesters (free item)

2 20 count Cottonelle double rolls

On my receipt it says:

Total after tax $24.79

Advertised savings $10

Manufacturer Coupons $17.77

Red Tag Savings (Sales) $28.48

YOU SAVED A GRAND TOTAL OF..............$56.25

THAT IS A SAVINGS OF..................................70%

I haven't analyzed too closely this feeling I had coming out of the store. It's like the feeling when you win a game of Agricola against Doug Serven. Triumph. All went according to plan. Only with couponing I saved us $50.

Children's Ministry

If any of you were wondering where the last post came from (my Philosophy of Children's ministry) I have an answer for you. It is twofold.

1. I took a weekend class about a month ago on Children's Ministries. The PoM (Philosophy of Ministry) was part of my course integration paper.

2. In March, I started working for our church as the children's ministries intern. (I am raising some support for a stipend.) It seemed like a great idea to use the assignment as a way to really develop a PoM for me to operate under for my internship. Brooke, the Children's Director at our church (my fearless leader!) also welcomed my thoughts on the topic since our church is sort of reworking some of it's own PoM right now.

Now, I am also starting a NEW BLOG to post specificially about my internship. Hopefully, I can put in some decent time and regularly update it with what is going on in Children's Ministries at CPC, what I am learning, how I am integrating class material, funny stories from the kids, etc.

Without further ado:

http://childrensministrymatters.blogspot.com/

My Philosophy of Children's Ministry

Philosophy of Children’s Ministry by Bleard

At Covenant Presbyterian Church, we view all children as a blessing. Throughout the scriptures, children are most often referred to in terms of blessing (Psalm 128:1-4), and Jesus himself not only takes great delight in children, be regards them with honor and dignity (Matthew 19:13-15). At CPC we hope to guide children towards maturity in Christ of their whole person (in knowledge, heart, and activity).

Because children are people, and people are made in God’s image, we view children as image bearer’s of God, created by God to be in relationship with Him, with others, and with creation. Because sin entered the world, our relationships with all three have been broken and corrupted, no longer reflecting God’s original plan for us. Through the saving grace of Christ’s death and resurrection, God has provided the way for all three broken relationships to be restored and redeemed.

Our goal for Children’s Ministry at Covenant Presbyterian Church is to promote growth in grace and the reconciliation of each child to a relationship with God, relationship with others, and relationship with God’s world.

We hold to the following presuppositions in our ministry with children at Covenant Presbyterian Church (adapted from PCA2 developed by Donald Guthrie, and the RUF Philosophy of Ministry):

The Bible
The Bible is God’s revealed Word to His people and the authority under which we operate. The bible tells the story in which God is the hero and we see the big story of redemption: Creation, Rebellion, Redemption, and Restoration.

Demographics

We at Covenant Presbyterian Church are a particular group of people who live in a specific place and time. We care about who we are as a church, and seek to live faithfully as the specific group God has called us to be in this particular context. We also care about what kind of environment we create within the children’s ministry – we strive to be welcoming to all, invitational, and incarnational in all aspects of ministry life.

The Individual
In the children’s ministry, we recognize that children are individuals, who are each made uniquely by God. We also realize that children have age-specific developmental challenges when it comes to how they learn and understand concepts, respond to stimuli, and view the world. Because of this, we strive to account for all kinds of learning styles and modalities. We are committed to creating a developmentally appropriate learning climate for all participants.

The Church
The children’s ministry at Covenant Presbyterian church is committed to not becoming a silo, operating apart from the rest of the church body. We are committed to working closely with all other ministries of the church to develop a climate within the larger church body that welcomes and has a meaningful place for children. We are committed to the nurture of children as well as their parents and families

The Learning Process
Because learning is a process, we are committed to coming alongside all children, wherever they may be in their faith journey. Our goal is maturity in Christ in knowledge, heart, and activity. We want our children to experience God’s love for them, and be transformed in mind, heart, and soul.

God is at Work
The children’s ministry at Covenant Presbyterian Church recognizes the reality of God being at work among his people, including children. The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of children of any age to bring them to saving faith. We realize that God has his own set of curriculum for each child, and that all faith journeys will not look alike. We are committed to praying for the children and families in our ministry, and seeking what God would have us do in all things.

At Covenant Presbyterian Church, we take great responsibility for the growth and nurture of children. The Lord calls us to teach our children about Himself and what He has done (Deut. 6). We hope to share the love of God with every child.