Alligators, a grocery deal, and Jason Mraz

Over Labor Day, my hubby and I went to Cypress Gardens. This is where they filmed the scene where Ryan Gosling takes Rachel McAdams on a romantic row boat ride through a bunch of gorgeous white swans on "The Notebook." We went on our own self guided row boat tour through the cypress swamp- unfortunately, there were no white swans. But we did see one of these...

That was pretty cool. Hello, Mr. Alligator.

The fearless rower.

It was really pretty and peaceful there. To do the self guided tour, you follow numbers that are posted on trees; it took us through lily pad fields (is that what you call them?) and under bridges.

It's crazy to see these tall trees growing straight out of the water.

Cypress Gardens also had a small museum (the garden is located where a - surprise! - plantation used to be, so they have a lot of artifacts and stories), a swamparium (creepy snakes and reptiles) and a butterfly house. The butterfly house had a beautiful duck named Cypress. He really enjoyed pecking at my toes.

I love these flowers! Last time I saw these, I was in Hawaii.

There's also a walking path around the swamp.

Just in case you can't read this sign (that is right off the official walking trail)- "caution: alligators and other animals can be on the trails and surrounding areas. Stay at a safe distance."

Here is where the owners of the old plantation are buried. You don't see a lot of huge crosses in graveyards in Utah!

So quick sidetrack before moving on to Mr. Mraz- I've been making a concerted effort to shop for deals (especially with coupons) since moving here. This is the total amount of items I bought on a recent grocery store trip- the total before savings: $30.27. The total after savings (including coupons): $13.86. For all of the food in that picture. The crazy deal that really sealed the savings was this- buy one PF Changs Frozen Entree for Two (I had a coupon that knocked off $2 from the original price), get: Ben & Jerrys (any flavor), loaf of frozen garlic bread, two liter Coke product, and a box of Minute Rice (white or brown) FREE. Granted, half of this stuff I wouldn't normally buy- I like making fresh meals, but an additional box of brown rice never hurt anybody, and I had a coupon, so I gave in and bought the deal. Kind of fun.

So, readers- how do you divide up your time with your money saving projects- between watching the store ads for sales (I only focus on two grocery stores; and I haven't graduated to adding a drug store in that just yet), making menu plans based on those sales, using online/print coupons (matching the sales with the coupons- multiple coupons, if you can), etc.? Anyone out there have any best practices and tips they'd like to share? How do you shop for essentials and still get ingredients for meals while stocking up on good deals? How do you not get burned out trying to buy food on sale, let alone household items and clothes?

Here's the meal I bought that would have cost about $17 (but I got it for approximately $6.99).

So, we did this totally spur-of-the-moment thing last night- we went to the Jason Mraz concert at the College of Charleston! We weren't planning on this at all, but it worked out great. It was an amazing concert, and we had a blast. This is my hubby (on the right) with his friend from dental school.

So excited to be on a spontaneous date! We've both been to rock concerts before, but this was our first time going together.

Don't worry, this was a responsible mid-week outing- the dental students studied during the boring opening act.

Jason Mraz is an amazing singer! I really enjoyed his music. He sang a lot of his hits, including "I'm Yours," my personal favorite. His music has a really fun, energetic beat and sound- I loved it. He's a great performer. Random thing from the concert- Jason was eating cantaloupe on stage. His reasoning- "I eat cantaloupe when I perform. It's what I do." There you go. The guy's 33 years old.

I highly recommend going to a Jason Mraz concert if you ever get the opportunity.