Savings Summary Saturday - December 31

Grocery Shopping (and other savings) this week:
Saved 54% at Giant this week.(paid $65.38; $120.39 before savings)
Savings Highlights:

• Best Life Spread - paid $0.67 each (sale price of $1.67 each plus a 50 cent coupon that was doubled!)
• Coke Zero Liter - money maker of $0.99 each (sale price of $1.00 each plus a 99 cent coupon that was doubled!)

Gas Savings:
Saved 30 cents per gallon using my Giant card at Shell.  Plus I used my Shell SuperSaver card to get an additional 2 cents off per gallon.

Money received this week (AKA thank goodness for Christmas gifts!)

• $50 CASH from a contractor
• $25 Michaels gift card from The Segalls

Things we got in the mail:

• Entertainment Weekly (from Mycokerewards.com)
• 2 books from Paperbackswap.com
• Fitness Magazine
• calendar from The Humane Society

Donations this week (got to get them in before the end of the year!):

• Donated money to Ashburn Fire & Rescue
• Donated money to Jill's House

Rewards programs:
MyPoints (personal account) - 6,797 points (6,762  points -last week)
MyPoints (coupon account) - 2,730 points (2,640 points-last week)
Swagbucks - 1,928 points (1,891 points-last week)
Listia - 14,623 points (14,578 credits-last week) $0 paid out (when buying credits it is $0.10/credit)
Postpoints - 2,250 points (2,235 points as of Dec. 3)
mycokerewards - 3,923 points (3,896 points-last week)
Bondrewards - $20.71 ($20.61-last week)
Upromise - $12.47 ($12.47-last week) available for transfer
Capital One Rewards - 1,686 miles (1,586 miles-last week)
Thanks Again - 0 points

New Year, New Goals

• Use rewards programs to get gifts - Another WHY HAVEN'T I DONE THIS moment - What about using gift cards for daily stuff!  Thanks to Crunchy Frugalista for the idea.  While I can usually get better deals at the store for laundry detergent & stuff, I could definitely use this idea for dog food!
• Use Restaurant.com coupons - no action this week
• Buy a New Car - no action this week
• Set up an Estate - no action this week

Mutts - My Favorite Comic Strip

I love Mutts.  I think mostly because it's true to life.  Patrick McDonnell does a GREAT job at portraying the relationship between pets and "owners" and pets and other pets.  Here is today's comic.

This one just REALLY touched me.  So much that I almost started to tear up.  Why, because that is Zed to the T.  He will follow me and Dan to the ends of the earth.

Conversations at the Dog Park

Esa and Zed go to the dog park every once in awhile.  Yesterday, we went to Brambleton's Central Bark.  After four years, I'm used to people say about Esa "She's so beautiful!", and lately, "She's so calm", which I answer "thank you" and "lots and lots of training".  We always get asked what type of dog she is.

Yesterday, was no different.  We got asked what type of dog and when I replied "Husky/Shepherd", one of the lady's replied "Have you had a DNA test done on her, she looks like a Shiba Inu" I replied, "she's too big.  That breed is small."  Her response "They come in large sizes too."  When I told them the results on the DNA test 2 and DNA test 1, one of the other lady said that her friend's didn't come back accurate either.

She was also trying to guess what kind of dog Zed is.  I did hear her say "terrier", then she asked.  I responded "Heinz 57 - your guess is as good as mine.  Our vet can't even tell"  Then came the DNA conversation (above).

Later on, a guy came with 2 german shepherds that were very well behave.  He commented on the one Labradoodle who wouldn't drop a ball that was a puggle's.  The owner said no, he doesn't drop and mentioned about having to go to the emergency room to get stitches because she tried to get a chicken bone out of it's mouth.  He continued about how his dogs obey because of the shock collar and tried to show the lady how it works, but she was totally against even looking at it. 

I know he was trying to help, but people who use that need to remember that not everyone believes in them, plus you need to keep in mind the dog personality.  I bet you anything she could easily train the Labradoodle to drop by click training.  People just don't take the time to figure out what works with their dog.

People are funny.  I know people are trying to make conversation while their dogs play, but some funny conversations (or should I say "you should do this" conversations) happen.