Kroger — $89.20
The Clarinex saga continues.  To recap: we switched insurance carriers on Oct. 1 but due to a paperwork snafu, we didn’t receive our insurance cards until about the near the end of the month.  I refused to pay out of pocket for Clarinex so I went without for the month of October.  When my insurance card finally arrived, I immediately called the pharmacy.  But it turned out my prescription has expired in the meantime.  So they tried calling the Dr. to get it extended or refilled.  No go.  I had to make an appointment to see the doc.  I did so.  She refilled the prescription yesterday.  Today I took in my new subscription.  I waited around for them to fill it.  Finally, my number came up and I went up to pay.  Oops, your insurance doesn’t cover Clarinex.  Are you kidding me?!  I went through all of this only to find out that my new insurance company doesn’t cover Clarinex?  Boy, I was more than a little ticked!  I explained to the pharmacist that I take the Clarinex because it’s extremely effective in controlling my asthma.  But I am simply not going to pay $120 per month for the privilege.  Na uh.  No way.  She suggested Claritin was the best option.  Reluctantly, I agreed.

Turns out that Kroger currently has 30-tab boxes on sale for $18.99 – that works out to $0.633 per dosage.  A far sight cheaper than the $2/pill that Clarinex costs.  I debated buying more than one box but resisted the urge since I was still seeing red about my lack of insurance coverage and I balk at stocking up on something priced at $20/pop.  Turns out my intuition was right (see entry below).

In addition to the $20 for the Claritin, I picked up the ingredients the kids and I needed for our holiday pie-fest — we’re joining some friends for a big Thanksgiving Day feast and we’re taking the pies.  We plan to make two pecan pies, two pumpkin pies, two buttermilk pies, an apple pie, and a lemon meringue pie.

• Applegate slice smoked turkey breast — $4.99
• Granny Smith apples — $0.60 (saved $0.59)
• Braeburn apples — $1.03
• 24 rolls Kroger TP — $7.59
• 1/2 gallon Horizon 2% milk — $2.99 (saved $0.10)
• set of 2 Marie Callendar’s frozen pie crusts — $2.50 (saved $.29)
• 2 dozen Nest Fresh large white eggs — $7.78
• Kashi cereal — $3.69
• C&H brown sugar — $2.00 (saved $0.49)
• organic vanilla extract — $10.39
• quart Meadow Gold buttermilk — $1.99
• lemon juice — $2.29
• Cream of Tartar — $6.69
• Karo light corn syrup — $2.50 (saved $0.69)
• Diamond pecan halves — $6.69 (saved $0.50)
• deep dish fluted Pyrex pie plate — $2.99 (saved $3.00)
• “bring your own bag” credit — ($0.15)

Total loyalty card savings was $5.66 or only 6% off my total bill.  This was simply one of those trips where I had to buy what I had to buy and I had to buy it right here and now.  The Daughter got the pecan pies made today.  Since I can’t eat pecan pies, she got to use frozen crusts (which I also cannot eat).  Tomorrow The Son and I will spend all day making the rest of the pies; they’ll all be made from scratch with hand-made, from-scratch pie crusts.  We’ll probably save the apple pie for Thursday morning.

MLB.com — $20.97
Two Colorado Rockies World Series commemorative facsimilie autograph baseballs; to be given as Christmas gifts — one to The Son and to a grandson.

The story behind this purchase is that last Sunday The Husband saw an advertisement in the paper selling these baseballs for $19.95/ea.  He mentioned that it might be a great present for The Son.  I agreed and added that the grandson might like one as well.  Today, while babysitting a neighbor’s sick boys, I caught up on some paperwork.  While filling out the baseball order form it occurred to me that I was about to send off a check for almost $40 to some anonymous PO Box.  I decided a little research was in order.

Naturally, I turned to the Internet — and I’ve got to tell you, I’m still patting myself on the back about this one.  I found the very same product on MLB.com for $7.99/ea.  The two balls plus shipping came to a total of $20.97 – just about half the price of the mail-order offer.  As the coup de grace, I paid for the order through my Paypal account which will afford me some great consumer protections beyond even a credit card payment and certainly much better than paying with a check.

The balls are on back-order (actually, it’s technically a presale because the baseballs are still in production) so the charge won’t go through until the order is actually shipped.  All I have to worry about now is whether we actually receive the order in time for Christmas.

Safeway — $48.79
The temperature dropped 43 degrees in the last 24 hours.  By the time I got to the gas station tonight it was downright chilly and I saw a few flakes of snow flying around.  Since The Tank’s tank was hovering just above 1/4 full, I figured it would be a good idea to tank up before either the temperature went lower or the snow got thicker.  I pumped 16.544 gallons @ $2.949 per gallon.  My odometer now reads 116,906.

Walgreens — $31.98
After surviving the latest episode in my allergy meds saga (see above), I went on-line and did a little price checking.  My Google Products search produced prices equal to but no better than the sale price I’d found locally at Kroger — good but not good enough to pay additional shipping and deal with a questionable on-line company.  So I abandoned Google and went to Walgreens.com.  Paging through the on-line version of their weekly flyer, I finally came upon a Claritin sale — $15.99 for a box of 30 tabs.  That beat the Kroger price by $3.00 or $0.10 per tablet.  Since a Walgreens was right along my intended after chore route, I stopped in and scored big!  There were only two boxes left on the shelf — and one was a bonus box containing 40 tabs instead of 30.  I took both boxes up and confirmed the price — $15.99 per box!!  I plan to hit another Walgreens near the house tomorrow — sure would love to find another 40-tab box or two at that sale price.

The Home Depot — $71.69
My handyman and his son are supposed to show up on Friday morning to pour the new retaining wall.  I suspect it will be too cold to actually do the pour but I need to have all of my supplies on hand just in case the weather decides to cooperate.

The first thing I picked up were light bulbs –I needed bulbs for the two basement stairway wall sconces, 60w bulbs for in the bathroom, and a weird-shaped 60w for the light fixture over the dining/kitchen table.

Then I headed back to the contractor section for Quikrete and hardware cloth.  Who knew that cement was so gosh darned heavy!?  We’d calculated that I’d need 24 bags for the project but I knew I’d only be picking up half of them today.  After all, twelve bags of cement is equivalent to nearly one-half a ton!

I was stupid enough to wrestle all twelve bags onto a cart by myself — a job definitely not appropriate for a middle-aged woman with Fibromyalgia.  Once I had my dozen bags on the cart, it took every ounce of strength I had to propel it to the cashier at the front of the store ;-)  Once there, I asked for assistance in loading the bags into the car.  On the way home, I was wondering how in the heck was I going to get those bags out of the car?!  I could just see The Husband and me breaking our backs — and likely the bags.  Not.  That’s when it occurred to me — I had a marker I could call in.  As soon as I got home, I called the neighbor I’d helped out this afternoon and she sent her husband and her visiting brother-in-law over.  They got that cement unloaded in a flash.  I figure I’ll go back for the other 12 bags on Friday morning.  If my handyman shows up, he’ll be able to unload.  If not, the neighbor and his brother will still be around