Sunday, December 14, 2008

At Least Our Ill Health Has Some Perks

What a week we had last week. ES missed more school and I finally took him to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon (another new medicine, Reglan, to try to alleviate the nausea caused by his gastritis). Then, Friday morning, hubby had to go to the doctor and he was put on a new prescription (although he was given samples for the time being - whew!). Plus, I had to take YS for a follow-up appintment with the pulmonologist on Friday (no new meds - yah!).

When I returned home, hubby reminded me that ES was almost out of his Prevacid prescription. After all of MoneySavingMom's great 24 hour give-aways, and her CVS tips, I left with the intention of purchasing the medicine, but the niggling thought of trying to also swing a deal. Imagine my joy, when the prescription receipt held another coupon for $5 off a $15 purchase (again it was only good for 3 days).

There was a weekly deal where if you purchase $20 of Hershey's candy, you would receive $10 back in ECBs. MoneySavingMom suggested buying 7 packages of Hershey's Bliss, which were on sale for $3 and using 3 of the Sunday coupons for $2.50 off two bags. However, I don't get 3 Sunday papers, so alas, I only had one lonely $2.50 off coupon. Still, I knew that MS loves to make the easiest toddler assisted candies around. (I line the cookie pan with foil. He puts out rows of pretzels. He removes the wrappers from umpteen Hershey's Kisses and I place them in the middle of the small round pretzels -sometimes I let him help, but often he puts them lopsided, so I adjust them. Then we bake them in a 200 degree oven for two minutes and I plop an M&M candy in the middle of the melting kiss.)

I also snagged a container of Thermaflu Warming Relief, on sale for $5.99, which gave me back $2 in ECBs. I had a rebate coupon to get my $5.99 purchase price back, so if you consider the $2.00 in Thermaflu ECBS as going towards the chocolate, I secured 4 bags of Hershey's Bliss and 4 bags of Hershey's kisses all for the final price of 50 cents (The chocolate total was $20 - minus $10 I got back in ECBs, minus the $5 prescription offer ECBs, minus the $2.50 coupon off the Bliss bags, minus the $2 ECBs earned from the Thermaflu). You can see why this stuff gets addictive!

Granted, I probably didn't NEED 8 bags of chocolate. But, I would have bought the kisses anyway at some point. Plus, we are having some family visit in our home over the holidays, so now I will be able to have lovely little bowls of candy around tempting them! I did chuckle when I got home and realized that I had purchased all 8 bags in dark chocolate - MY favorite. I think I may have to see if they will let me exchange a few of the dark chocolate bags for milk chocolate, in the interests of my guests.

Unfortunately, I wasn't chucklin' for long. As I entered the house, with my triumphant spirit, my son's medicine and my fists full of chocolate, I quickly took in the reality of my life. YS had thrown up at the dinner table. Hubby held him until I was able to clean up (the table, the carpet, the clothes, the tub), then I bathed him and started in on a night of attempting to catch infant vomit. You can be darned sure, though, that during a half hour lull, while he slept, I washed up the evening's dishes and treated myself to a few dark chocolate bites of Hershey's Bliss!

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