My church small group is spending the fall listening to each other’s stories. Each week, 1 or 2 of us comes prepared to share, and we get 20 minutes to tell our story. The group then gets a chance to comment, respond, and ask questions. Our group leader shared hers first to sort of give us an example, and then she gave us some guidance as to how to begin thinking about our own (because it sure is overwhelming to try and think about telling your whole life story!).

We were each given a chunk of post-it notes in 4 different colors. One color was to represent positive people, places, and experiences, while another represented negative. The third color was for accomplishments, both worldly and character building, and the final color was for us to record insights gained and lessons learned along the way. We spent some time writing stream of consciousness on each color with the “homework assignment” to revisit and flesh out each set.

Once you write your thoughts, you lay them all out chronologically on a poster board (or piece of paper) so that the squares of color make a sort of quilt: your story quilt! From there, you can begin thinking about how to turn it into a cohesive story. It was interesting how readily the seemingly disparate instances written on the post-its arranged themselves into a timeline. Some people in the group said they were surprised to find themselves writing down names of people they hadn’t thought about in years but who had apparently made an impact that their subconscious remembered! I noticed that several of my positives also showed up as negatives–I guess when someone or something touches you that deeply, it has the potential to influence you in both directions.

I sat down one day and typed up a rambling 6-page essay from my story quilt. All the words just sort of flew onto the page since I had already put thought into the content via my post-it notes. I, the consummate volunteer, offered to share first, so I read my story last night. Ever the English major, I already want to revise and tell it again! There are so many ways you could arrange it: chronologically (as I did), by person, by event, by lessons learned. Also, since I took a broad view and considered my whole life, I felt like some really important characters and scenes in my story were reduced to a short sentence, so another layout could be to focus in on one or a few particulars but extrapolate out and gloss over its effects on the rest of your life.

I’ve always loved reading other people’s memoirs, so it was interesting to briefly try my hand at my own! I’m not sure what it will turn into, but dredging up thoughts and memories is never a bad exercise in my mind. Of course, I had the added layer of telling it out loud, which is a very nerve-wracking experience for a lot of folks. I never mind sharing, but it was quite a feeling laying myself out so raw in front of 5 people I’m only starting to get to know. But since we ALL will share our stories eventually, it’s just one big step toward being able to say I know them, rather than that I am getting to know them!

Have you ever written a memoir piece? What was the experience like for you?

I’ve started to realize that, while I love couponing and getting really inexpensive or free items, there are certain things for which quality matters more to me than price. I’m still going to seek out deals and ways to save on them, but I’ll be more concerned about the price I pay relative to its real value than the amount I pay out of pocket.

Here’s an example: on Saturday, I went thrifting like crazy. A. was out of town for MSU’s homecoming (I had to stay in town for a work event on Friday, which was fun and went really well), so I decided to take a girl day. I headed over to the west side of town to check out two thrift stores I don’t get to much because they’re a bit farther away. I was looking specifically for jeans. I didn’t find any at either place (though I did, of course, find some other things, including 2 cardigans, hah), so I headed east to Decatur to check out a second Salvation Army and a consignment shop I had known of but hadn’t visited yet. The consignment store was AWESOME. I ended up getting two pairs of jeans there for about $28. It was definitely more than I would have paid at a thrift store, but they’re both in pretty pristine condition. I looked them up on their respective stores’ websites, and each pair is worth over $50. SO, getting both for less than one pair new would be is still quite a bargain, and I would rather have those high quality jeans than jeans I could get new for less.

I feel the same way about haircuts. I have an arbitrarily chosen amount I like to spend, so I’ve started getting creative to hit that amount while still being able to visit higher end salons. I’ve taken advantage of Scoutmob twice here in Atlanta by finding salons nearby that are offering 50% off with the app, and I recently bought a Living Social certificate for $25 that provides me $50 worth of services at a third local salon. (That’s about how much a haircut costs there.) I’d rather do this and get the pampering experience of a ritzy salon than go to a cheaper barbershop or mall salon where I might not have as good treatment, even though it means that I salon hop and don’t get to build a relationship with any single stylist. (I’ve also experimented with the cosmetology school route and chosen to forego it.) Again, it’s more about the quality and value that I’m getting relative to what I pay out of pocket rather than the specific amount.

This is definitely a personal decision, and it’s taken me awhile to solidify it for myself. On some things I’m all about rock bottom lowest price, but not on everything. I don’t even know what what all of those things might be, but I do know haircuts and jeans are two of them! I feel like this is where the line between “frugal” and “cheap” starts to show. It is not less expensive in the long-run to buy low-quality products just because they’re cheap, because if they wear out more quickly you’ll have to spend more sooner to replace them. My two new pairs of jeans will replace pairs I have had since early college or maybe even high school. Those jeans have had good, long lives. :-)

Do you have certain things for which quality and value matter more than price?

Kroger has occasional sales known as “Mega Events.” On those weeks, there are certain items on which you get an additional $0.50 off when you buy 10 participating items. Usually Kroger marks down the price to begin with on these items, and THEN you get the $0.50 off, too. So if you can pair this sale with a coupon, you can score some amazing deals!

I’ve shopped numerous mega events at Kroger, but I’ve never actually tracked my savings on just those items. I will admit, sometimes I’ve bought things that I wouldn’t ordinarily buy just to get to my 10 items. (They’re usually still a pretty good deal, though one could argue that it’s not a good deal at all if it’s money I wouldn’t have spent otherwise.) This past Sunday is the first time I’ve ever bought TWENTY items, meaning I saved an automatic $10! There were some great matchups…though I did buy 3 boxes of Kleenex without coupons in order to make the second 10. BUT, it’s not like they’ll go bad, and they were still under my personal price point of what I like to pay for tissues. So I don’t feel too bad (though the boxes aren’t as cute as the Kroger store brand ones!).

Here’s my haul:

(Keep in mind this is not my entire grocery trip. For some people it would be, but I also bought a bunch of produce and some things I needed for meals I made this week.)

Total Spent (Mega Event): $22.78 Total Value of Items: $52.10 Total Saved: $29.32 or 56%!

I had made a list of 10 items before I went but was surprised to notice several things included that had not been marked in the weekly ad, so that’s what led me to put together the second 10. A. needed oatmeal and then it randomly turned out that Kroger brand oats (which is what I buy!) were participating. I also had a coupon for Ocelo sponges that was about to expire, so I made myself a note to check on their price and was surprised to find them marked as a mega event item. I only had one coupon for the lunch meat, but since it doubled with a Kroger bonus coupon, it sort of seems like I had one for each package. :-) I also used coupons on the Campbell’s Great for Cooking soup, the Stovetop Stuffing, and the Lipton’s Recipe Secret Dry Soup mixes. All of those are often in casserole recipes and I never seem to have them on hand…so now I will!

My 3 shining stars of this haul were the Cool Touch Kleenex, which was $0.99 after mega event savings and for which I had a $1.00 off coupon (read: FREE), the Organic Imagine Broth which I got for $0.99 after my coupon, and the Morningstar Farms veggie patties. On Saturday, A. and I went on a wild goose chase for some pumpkin beer and ended up at not our usual Kroger. We didn’t find the pumpkin beer but bought a different kind, and the cash register printed me a coupon for $2.00 off one Morningstar Farms entree! Since it was in the mega event for $3.29, I got this healthy, tasty item for only $1.29. So, it’s a good thing I got a wild penchant to try and find pumpkin beer.

Any good bargains in your neck of the woods this week? October was a tough month grocery budget-wise because it had 5 weekends, which is when I shop, but at least I got the thrill of the hunt with this mega event.

A. picked me a tiny flower on his run the other day. :-)

So, last week I got a crockpot! I had one that we inherited from A.’s parents, but it breathed its last awhile back. (I decided it was dead after more than one failed recipe, i.e. completely raw meat after cooking all day. And of course one of these happened when company was coming over. But I digress.) I had been hemming and hawing, as I am wont to do, over what brand, style, and size to get, but last weekend I found a good deal on Amazon and just went for it. So far it has not disappointed!

The first thing I tried was a pot roast. I tried to make a pot roast the traditional way once and learned the hard way that a stockpot does not equal a dutch oven. Picture a giant mass of basically boiled meat. Yeah. But I found a small-ish roast on manager’s special last weekend at Kroger for about $4.00 and decided to give it a shot the slowcooker way. I followed a recipe from my All Recipes Dinner Spinner app called “easiest pot roast ever” (I kid you not). I chopped up potatoes and celery the night before, and then in the morning before I went to work I added some baby carrots as well. I placed 3 beef bouillon cubes on the roast (which was atop the vegetables) and poured 1/2 cup of water over it. I set it to low and headed to work. Given my previous unreliable crockpot, I was nervous about it all day. I was afraid I would either come home to a raw mass of beef OR to an apartment burnt to a crisp. What I came home to, instead, was a delicious aroma in the air and an amazingly tender roast! I boiled up some egg noodles and we enjoyed a tasty dinner. There were way too many potatoes, but I ended up re-warming them in the toaster oven with some melted cheese for a side dish on another night. Crockpot success!

I also made a crockpot potato soup last week. It was pretty good–not amazing, but through no fault of the crockpot’s! I’ll probably explore for some better soup recipes to fall back on.

I have had one fail so far. Saturday night I put together an overnight crockpot oatmeal including some diced apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and milk. It had what to me seemed like an awfully small amount of oats and an awfully large amount of liquid. Sure enough, I woke up to a bubbling pot of brown, murky liquid in which there were maybe 3 discernible oats and no discernible apples. Plus, it had caked on to the sides of the stoneware really bad. I forced myself to eat some, but it was everything I hate about oatmeal. A., who is an oatmeal fanatic, wouldn’t even eat it, so we threw the rest away. Ah well. Live and learn. And again, it was not the crockpot’s fault.

In short, I am excited to have a working crockpot and have so many recipes I want to try! In fact, there might be too many….it’s a bit overwhelming. What are your favorite things to cook in the crockpot?