10% off a Hy-Vee purchase

About twice a year, I get a coupon in the mail for 10% off a Hy-Vee purchase of $50 or more. It's my favorite mail day! This week happened to be that week, and it was great timing! The only thing that wasn't so great was that the other sale ads were decent too. I ended up deciding to just stick with using the coupon and using my whole $50 at Hy-Vee. We had a REALLY long day yesterday! I was up before 5, worked my regular day, went to an event at Chief's stadium, took my girls to dance class and then we were FINALLY able to hit Hy-Vee. It was late, and we were very tired, but we managed just fine. Dare I say we had "FUN?"

Several items aren't picture (or aren't visible) due to space constraints, but this is what we got:

1 generic cottage cheese
1 generic unsalted butter
1 Valley Fresh Steamer
2 Freschetta pizzas
3 boxes of Fiber One shredded wheat (My favorite! I love it with fresh strawberries!)
3 cans of generic corn
2 cans of generic black beans
3 boxes of Gerber fruit strips (These were $.25 a box!)
2 bottles of Old Orchard
1 jar of Skippy Natural
1 bag of Tostitos
1 box of 48 count Benadryl (This was $3!)
1 box of Cascadian Farm chocolate almond fiber bars
2 bottles of Glaceau Vitamin Water
1 box of Kashi Blackberry Graham bars
1 gallon of whole hormone free milk
1 Yoplait Greek yogurt (Love the protein in this for my girls! And no HFC!)
1 box of Electrasol Gelpacs
2 bags of generic cheese
2.50 of apples
1 bag of frozen cranberries (Yes, these were $.50 again! I have SO MANY cranberries in my freezer!)
2.27 lbs of organic pears
4 lbs of strawberries

My total came in at almost exactly $50 before tax. However, 2 lbs of strawberries and the Benadryl are for my mom, so I will recoup $4.50 or so. I need to try to make it to the Oroweat outlet on with that $4.50 at some point this week.

Also, a little tip on the medicine. The bargain section of the store was FULL of over the counter medicines at discounted prices . I think the store must clean out their shelves the last day of the month to make sure they're not selling anything that is expired as they could be fined. The closer they were to expiration, the cheaper they were. (I've gotten big boxes of Claritin for as cheap as $1 a box before.) The Benadryl I bought expired yesterday, but we'll use it fast enough that it's not a problem. I'm sure all stores do some sort of cleaning out like this. It would be worth checking with customer service of the store manager to see what you can find out. It's a great find -- especially if you can pair it with a coupon!

I don't really have a fancy meal plan for this week. We're really busy getting ready for our summer vacation (stay tuned on that,) keeping up on yard work, finishing up school, etc. My family is always very content to eat a simple meal, but they are even easier in the warmer weather. The girls are happy to eat something as simple as fruit and cottage cheese or a smoothie for dinner. My husband understands that sometimes he just has to fend for himself -- that's part of having a mommy who works. I am going to make a big pot of salsa soup tonight (since I didn't make it last week) for dinner. Then, I'll have the leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week. We're also still snacking on blueberry buckle, but I might make some whole wheat pumpkin cranberry muffins later this week for quick breakfasts and snacks.