How I’m so cheap…

A few folks have recently asked me for pointers about how to save money, so I thought this might be the easiest forum to explain it without them actually having to drive 600 miles to go to the grocery store with me. I’ve had the most savings at Publix and CVS. I went to Publix today, actually, so I’ll use it as my example later.

Tip #1: Get a Sunday paper. Every Sunday. And cut the coupons. All of them, even if it’s stuff that you don’t think you’ll need (at first, anyway). I went so far as to buy a notebook with clear plastic baseball card holder sheets to further organize my coupons, but I am pretty OCD.

Tip #2: Forget about the Extreme Couponing crap you see. It probably ain’t gonna happen. I have consistently had savings of around 40% off of my grocery bill in the last 4 months. Probably about the same (maybe a little better) with other household items and things like soap and deodorant.

Here’s a shot from today’s trip, for example: Saved 87.33, paid 94.75. That’s right at 48% savings.

Tip #3: Be a hoarder…with everything non-perishable, at least. I currently have 6 bottles of laundry detergent and enough Lysol spray and wipes to survive a nuclear winter. I also have 21 cans of tomatoes (diced, sauce, etc) and 10 cans of Chef Boyardee in the pantry. I’ll stop there, because you get the point, but when you find savings, stock up.

Tip #4: Now we’re getting to the good stuff. I like Publix because it offers a variety of buy one get one (BOGO) deals each week. That’s an automatic 50% savings right there. Stock up! I’ve found that if I stock up a little (buy 2 jars of peanut butter and get 2 free), then usually by the time we’ve worked through the peanut butter, there’ll be another BOGO deal so I can stock up again.

Tip #5: Use a coupon with a BOGO for some awesome savings. See below, but note that the arrows are all messed up and I don’t know how to fix ’em.

<– (peanut butter’s BOGO this week, btw. And it’s the big jars!)

<– There’s a bag of Splenda I bought for 6.99.

<– Down here are two boxes of Splenda packets that were BOGO. I had a coupon for $3 off any Splenda product with the purchase of a Splenda Essentials, which is just Splenda with extra crap added in. I couldn’t use it on this deal (minimum 200 packets and these aren’t 200), so I bought the big bag of Splenda above & got $3 off of it. So I have 2 boxes of Splenda packets and a big bag of Splenda…and it all cost me $7.88. (that’s .89 cents more than the bag of Splenda itself would have cost me)

<– I also had a coupon for $1 off any Planters product. Their peanuts were BOGO + the $1 coupon, means that I paid 2.89 for 2 cans of Planter’s peanuts.

<– Publix in FL also does BOGO on wine. Not sure if they do that up in GA, but I’ve gotten some good deals on wine that way, too.

Tip #6: Publix also has store coupons that you can use. You can add a manufacturer’s coupon to that store coupon to add up some savings, too. I did this a couple of weeks ago on sunscreen. We’re in southwest FL, so sunscreen is a must. Coppertone sunscreen is normally $8.99. Publix had a store coupon for $2 off – bringing it to $6.99. The bottles of sunscreen themselves had $2 manufacturer’s coupons on them, bringing the price down to $4.99, nearly 50% off. That’s a good price for the SPF 50 easy spray on stuff, so I stocked up!

Tip #7: Be on the lookout for extra savings. Examples from today’s trip:

 (<– bread is also BOGO this week, and with a kid home for the summer who eats a billion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day, it’s a good deal.
(<– Pilot G2 pens – yes, the good ones – are also BOGO, so you get 4 of ’em for 2.99. Good deal).

<– I missed the Neosporin deal in the ad, but while walking down the aisle, I saw it and thought I had a coupon. So this Neosporin was 20% off = $4.31. My coupon was $2 off any Neosporin product, for a total of $2.31 for a tube of Neosporin.

<– Publix kept this deal on the down low, or maybe I just overlooked it, but packs of mechanical pencils were only $1. The limit was 5, I think, so I’ll have to go back tomorrow for more, but a pack of Bic Mechanical pencils for $1 is a hell of a deal.

Tip #7: I know, I know.  You’re thinking: this takes too much time!!! At first, I’ll admit, it did take some time to sort this all out. Organizing the coupons, looking at the ads…it took a couple of hours here and there to get it all straightened out. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes MUCH easier. And, with all the savings, it’s like you’re getting paid for it! So might as well stock up on the BOGO wine! =)

Tip #8: For perishables, get the deals while you can. It’s more difficult to get huge savings on milk, bread, meats, and produce, but there are savings available. I have 2 Porterhouse steaks in the freezer right now that cost less than $10 total. I also have 3-4 packages of chicken breast that were BOGO at one point. Cherries were on sale this week, so we’re enjoying them. When watermelons go on sale, we’ll eat 2 of ’em a week. =)

Things to know about Publix:

• Their specials run from Thursday to Wednesday.
• Get their Publix store food coupons inside, usually in a booklet on a turn display at the door.
• Their Publix store health/beauty items coupons are also inside in a booklet on that turn display

Family

I’ve always been fascinated with genealogy. In high school, I managed to get hold of a genealogy book for the Turpins. Nerd that I was, I traced our particular Turpin clan’s history all the way back to Michael Turpin, who left Southampton England somewhere around 1630 to settle in Virginia and to be among the earlier groups who ventured south into North Carolina. Our Turpins kept moving South, eventually landing in north Georgia. (I guess I just kept the family tradition alive by moving us another 600 miles south.) I’m such a nerd that I typed it all up and gave it to my grandmother for Christmas that year.

And while I’ve traced back the Ayers folks (maternal grandmother), I’ve not written it down yet. Such is life.

You can imagine how giddy I was when I discovered that the National Archives just released the 1940 Census online in a searchable format. After spending a good three hours poking around on there, I found each of my grandparents! (I’ll happily explain how to do this if any other genealogy nerds out there are interested!)

My Maternal Grandmother, Thelma Mae:

My Maternal Grandfather, Marvin:

My Paternal Grandfather, Otis:

My Maternal Grandmother, NervieLee:

On a more personal (and somewhat random) note….

*Before I get going, please know that I have started a response to all of the wonderful people who commented and messaged me about the whole teaching thing. Expect to see that in a day or two. With that having been said…

It’s a difficult thing to look inward, but I’ve done just that recently. One of the many reasons that I love my wife so much is that she “keeps me honest.” If you know me, then you know that I absolutely need that! It’s not an easy task to have to deal with me, so let me say that I really appreciate the fact that she never lets me get away with anything. (And I’m serious about that.) All it takes is one look or an offhand comment from her and I’m immediately into self re-evaluation mode. (For some reason, this comes to mind.)

At any rate, sometimes life can be a real pain in the ass. I’ve been struggling lately in a perpetual state of mental anguish. It’s not something I go through very often, so it’s been a bit foreign to me, but it has been tangible and strong. If you’ve read my other posts, then you’ll see that I’m not quite satisfied with my job right now. More on that later, though. For now, suffice it to say that I’ve had quite enough of all of it: the myriad stresses that life imposes upon us. And for what? To make us more miserable? stronger? who knows?!….

You can take a boy out of ole’ Dixieland,

but you’ll never take ole’ Dixie from a boy. 

We moved 600 miles south, only to find that we ain’t in the South anymore. Good grief! I miss it. I never imagined that I’d miss the South as much as I do, but Ronnie’s words ring so true for me right now. The people down here are just, well, not Southern. They’re way more upfront in their assholery and they are wwwaaayyyy lacking in the common sense department. It drives me nuts that these folks just don’t have manners or politeness or tact. Or, at least it has driven me nuts. While I miss the “bless your hearts” and the “kill ’em with kindness” mentality of my fellow Southerners, I’ve also decided that I will no longer allow my environment to negatively impact me. That’s a tall order, but I just can’t keep going on like I have.

There comes a time in everyone’s life
When all you can see are the years passing by
And I have made up my mind that those days are gone

Being a passenger in the seat of life is no way to live. That’s just no way to live. I’ve had a number of personal and professional epiphanies of late. I must thank my excellent online friends for their input and their love.

I’m just…well, I should just probably stop. I’m running the risk of becoming all-Romeo in Act I, scene i or Hamlet at pretty much any time in that play or – dare I say it? – maybe even Prufrock and I don’t want to become an overly dramatic parody of myself (anymore than I already am). It’s just occurred to me that we’re all fighting our own battles, so to speak. And those who are dearest to us have such an impact….

Isn’t this what’s life really all about? A continuous re-creation of self? Always seeking and forging one’s own way? Dealing with that heinous bastard called life?!

It occurs to me that perhaps there’s a beauty to all of that – those struggles and questions and doubts and triumphs – that a better philosopher can comment on. It just amazes me that it took me this long to see it. Or, maybe more precisely, that I need to be reminded of it this constantly…

A freakin’ ray of sunshine

I plan to respond to the excellent comments and questions I’ve received later. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday.

For now, though, I’d like to bask in today. Don’t get me wrong: 5th period was still, well, BLEH. And we probably lost out on an awesome rental house we really wanted (by 15 MEASLY MINUTES!).

Those setbacks pale in comparison, however, to the fact that it was a damn good day.

For the second day in a row, work was good! A few days ago, I wrote to a former professor:

Part of the reason the students are behaving like they are is because I’m allowing them to. I might not be able to fight their home lives or the area’s culture (and disdain for education), nor can I really fight their teenage-attitude-angst-entitlement junk…but I can control what happens inside of my classroom.

So these last 9 weeks will be different.

And the last two days have been. As I’ve told the students (warning: corny teacher speech forthcoming):

I am doing things MY way for these last 9 weeks. That means that we are going to work hard, but we’re going to have some fun while we work hard. We’re going to learn a lot and do some cool things. If you want to be a part of that, great. I want you to be! So hop on my train and let’s go. If not, then there’s the door. (this is the time for a dramatic hand gesture: slowly point and look toward the door.) Please leave and report to student services. Stare at the wall down there until we find you somewhere else to go. It’s your decision; but all I’m asking for is that you try, you have a good attitude, that you do the things I ask you to do, and that you’re ready to work.”

Then I put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. It took three discipline referrals and a good bit of redirection and re-training, but we had a good time yesterday and today. You would not imagine how much freshmen enjoy being able to insult each other and their teacher using Shakespeare’s words (I have a .doc if any teacher buddies want it). We had a lot of fun doing that. Maggot pie, pignut, and fat-livered have been pretty popular so far. And, yes, I played along and they were able to insult me, so long as I could return the favor. We had some really great laughs and many students took the sheets with them so that they could insult other friends later, which I thought was a small victory in a weird way.

They also loved talking about the ten statements on the anticipation guide for Romeo & Juliet. We ended up having some really good discussions in each of the classes and I think many of them are hooked and excited about reading R&J.

And today the counselor came to talk about schedules, grades, and college – which is usually code for “time to send a bajillion emails, write lesson plans, and work on that power point for tomorrow.” Today, though, I listened to what she had to say, largely because I’m new to the education system down here and needed the information myself!

In two classes, some students and I ended up having good conversations about college. They thought it was crazy that my freshman Chemistry class had 400 people in it, which led to us all discussing the pros and cons of community colleges, smaller 4-year colleges, and universities. (It’s really difficult, by the way, to utter the words: “The University of Florida is a really good school.”) They were thinking about their educations, grades, lives, etc. It was good stuff.

And then…two moments occurred after school today that really helped to soothe, and possibly even mend my soul a little. I had a lengthy discussion in the hallway with a brilliant child from one of the honors classes. This is the same child who I urged to read Emerson and Whitman – even let her take my copies of their works home with her. And she’s read(ing) them. In fact, two Whitman poems showed up in her poetry anthology last quarter. She’s got that rebel/individual streak, so I knew she’d like ole Walt. Plus, the rebels/individuals are always among my favorites.

We covered a variety of topics that one might not expect a high school freshman to be interested in, much less know anything about, but she does: abnormal psychology, serial killers, paranoid schizophrenia (turns out we each have a history of it in our families). She wants to be an author, and she is quite a good writer, so we talked about whether or not college was necessary. I threw out the fact that many of our great writers – Shakespeare, Faulkner, Hemingway, Twain – never went to college. Her retort? “We can’t base what we do off of them. They had experiences and opportunities that we may not, so we can’t really look at them as examples.”

I love it when that happens.

Another gem: “Have you ever read any Kafka?” You know you’re not dealing with a typical freshman when s/he asks you if you’ve read Kafka. She wasn’t just giving it lip service, either. The Barnes and Noble Kafka collection was apparently quite affordable, so she’s currently working her way through “The Metamorphosis” and has “head that ‘The Hunger Artist’ is pretty good, too.” Yes….yes it is. So she plans to come talk about those when she’s finished them.

Before she left (turns out that instead of waiting outside for her ride, she decided to pop in on a couple of her teachers to chat), we talked more about Faulkner. She was interested in The Sound and the Fury, but I convinced her to tackle As I Lay Dying first. She’s borrowing one of my copies when she finishes Kafka.

Then, as I’m walking out to the car with a really awesome colleague and friend, I see a student and her parent. The student says, “Mr. Turpin!”. She’s obviously proud of the fact that I get to see her drive away, and she should be, so she’s wanting to get my attention. Her mother then approaches. We introduce ourselves and her mother begins our conversation with, “So, you’re the Mr. Turpin that M is always talking about? It’s so good to meet you.” It was a lovely and warm conversation. M is a hard-working and bright student, and her mother was incredibly generous, kind, and funny throughout our conversation.

That’s why we do this. Now, I’m not saying that I’ve resolved my issues with this profession or that I’ll hang in for another 30 years. Our discussions are far from over and I’ll get to them in due time…but it feels great to have intelligent conversations with fantastic students. To know that there are serious students of literature and philosophy and thought out there who are hungry for mentors and direction. It’s awesome when parents recognize what we do and express their appreciation for the impact we’re having on their kid’s lives. And when we’re able to express our appreciation to those parents for raising such awesome, smart, and hard-working young people.

The past two days were good.

Even better than all of that, though, is that we went to the pool for the second day in a row. There’s not much that soothes the soul like helping teach the 4-year old how to swim and seeing how much he loves playing in the water. It is a little scary that he’s completely fearless, but that’s also great in a way because that lack of fear pushes him to do some cool things. We just have to watch him very carefully. Very carefully. (I blame his mother for that fearlessness, by the way.)

I rubbed his back and watched him as he dozed off to sleep this evening. That was incredible, and I am overcome with emotion and gratitude that I had the opportunity to doze off myself on his floor beside him. And I’m incredibly grateful that I’m about to go hug my incredible wife good night again.

I am truly blessed. And I consider each of you a blessing, as well. Good night. Happy tomorrow.