Linda ~ check on-line. Most companies offer coupons and all it costs you is the paper and ink to print them. Compare prices carefully because unless you can get double- or triple value, most coupons aren't really money-savers for the type of item. Also note that many coupons limit you to one item and/or to a particular size -- which may not be the least expensive size. Out of curiosity, I compared paper towels a couple weeks ago (and by now my figures are estimates, not exact). First let me say that this is one of the few products for which I usually buy only a specific brand-name, but for the sake of comparison I did buy some off-brands and checked them for absorbility -if that's a word, lol. There are 4 major grocery chains including a discount-type, and one big box store in my area and numerous other stores offering paper towels; I price-checked at ten different stores. The size considered was the "Jumbo" roll, not the standard size. My area does not do double-coupons, but some stores do accept competitors' coupons. The prices ranged from $2.29 per roll, to $1.00 from the local dollar-store. That's a big difference! The dollar-store's quality was only slightly less absorbant than my favorite brand and better than many of the other offerings. The next best price was from stores on weekly special. My first point is that the best value of coupons is obtained when the final cost [with coupon] is sufficiently less than a comparable item [without coupon] to be worth the effort of collecting and using the coupons. My second point is that stores are still offering loss-leaders which are of significance while not requiring snipping or filing. And my last point is that it pays to compare off-brands to the BigNames because there may not be any difference or only a slight difference in the perceived quality. And, yeah, I bought a year's supply of paper towels from the dollar-store. Which is also a point to consider... if you buy in quantity, you won't be caught with "have-to-have" shopping and you can wait for really good deals to come around. Of couse, you need to know what price really is a good deal, so a small notebook can be invaluable in tracking the prices of your often-used items.

I don't buy as much fresh produce in one shopping trip because it would go bad before I could eat it. I am lucky I can walk to the grocery store when I run out of something or when I need more fresh produce. My neighbour cries the blues about not having food to eat or having nothing in the house to cook or no salad fixings so I often end up taking her over dinner or a big dinner salad and cookies and cake when I make it. She eats the food I give her then gets in her car to drive 4 blocks to buy cigarettes for her after dinner smoke. Kind of makes me upset that she would rather spend her money on smoking than food. She also cried about taking a big loan out to do landscaping that she doesn't need done. She has more money than I do so I don't know why I am feeding her. LOL I find it is cheaper to bake my own cookies than buy store bought unless they are on sale. One thing I have noticed with the gas prices being as high as they are my brother is not stopping by as much with a coffee for me from Tim Horton's. LOL He used to bring me a coffee everyday and his newspaper but now he does it only on weekends. I won't be buying flowers for my garden this year but will get tomato plants instead. My one brother did give me 4 pots of geraniums free for my front porch pots from his store. I use coupons too but our stores don't offer double coupons like they do in the US stores - we just get the face value taken off. There was a coupon though for a free Pledge product in last weekends booklet so I used that and also picked up a few other coupons from relatives that don't use them. I like the coupons for free cleaning products. LOL I also cancelled my newspaper because I have the internet and I can get the newspaper from my brother or from my neighobur down the street. My SIL a few blocks over always hands me the tv guide and my Saturday New York times puzzle from the weekend paper when I go by their house on my walk. LOL Walking by their house pays off in other ways too. They shop at Costco a lot and my SIL is always giving me toothpaste and rolls of toilet paper to carry home. My brother's favourite thing is to shop at Costco. LOL Anne

Jillius I think you have found your calling! I just read through some of the links you posted, and I will definitely study them more because I am finding this subject fascinating. I have been to several "psychologist" is my lifetime, starting from probably age 12. I distinctly remember the first dude. He was some Ph.D. Family psychology expert. His name, get this, was Dr. Blank. How ironic! After many sessions with me alone, which I never felt comfortable, he brings in my dad and my brother. For several more hour long sessions we play the card game "Uno". Finally after maybe the third or forth time, I chucked the uno cards across the room, stood up and yelling, "Why are we playing this stupid game! Are we ever going to talk about the problem?" So he says, okay we will next week. Well my brother (age 7) was prepared. He had brought his spit wad pea shooter in his pocket. As we are "talking" a spit wad bounces off dad's head. Then one after another. My dad asks Dr. B what he should do. He says to let him continue to fire him with spit wads. Finally dad snaps and grabs my brother and starts spanking him. I think I ran out of the room crying at that point. I never saw my dad again for many years after that. So now we get a new Dr., a lady this time. She told me to imagine the throw pillow was whoever I was angry with and hit and yell at it. I was like, um no, I don't think so. This is totally stupid. Third Dr, another lady, had me wear rubber bands on my wrist and snap myself with them whenever I had a negative thought. That was the stupidest one of them all! There were a few more in there, but you get the point. I gave up on therapy. I've tried just about every antidepressant out there as well. They just make me 100x worse and the side effects are worse then the depression. I am going to do some serious research on this positive therapy you are studying. It actually makes sense! I read this exert on the "learned helplessness" link, and the light bulb moment happened. "Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in aversive situations, that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness.[1][2] Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from such real or perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.[3] I thank you from the bottom of my heart for posting this. You truely are a gem, which I've recognized that for a long time. You are going to help so many people....starting with me! Hey, I just realized the little emoji face posted. That's my crazy face btw! Lol! Edit: I just realized the emoji didn't post. Here is my crazy face for ya! My DD used to make this face for me all the time!

OK, I guess I'll just have them dry cleaned. I have to hem them and make them narrower so I'd rather do that on clean curtains but I would want to have them dry cleaned after the alterations so I guess I'll just alter then as is. They don't look or smell dirty though but ya know, they are used. Maybe I could toss them in the dryer on air and get the dust out of them?