Coupons In Overdrive

Found some great deals!

2012-01-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

I went in search of a couple of deals today and found some extra deals along the way. I hit the commissary to look for coupons and get some crackers. They have cheese-nips for $1, Wheat thins for $1.99, and Ritz for $2. They also have displays with booklets in them with coupons for $1/2 Nabisco crackers and $1/2 Ritz. I had a few tearpad coupons I had found before New years that were for $2 off Ritz too which made them free. My dad had wanted some wheat thins, so I got him 2 of those with the $1/2 coupon for $1.49 each and the cheese-nips for $.50 each.

Then I found this awesome coupon on the shelf in front of the Kool-aid and Country-time canisters.

It is $3 off 2 Kraft beverage products (excluding single kool-aid packets) and 1 Kraft food product. I grabbed one, but the canisters were all $2-$3 and up. I walked down the aisle to check capri-sun and found the kool-aid bottles were $1. So I grabbed 2 of those and went off to look for a kraft food product. The mac and cheese was $.99 and the stove top was $1. So I got all three for free! I went back and grabbed more coupons and loaded up my cart with 20 kool-aid packs and 10 food items and checked out again paying $.35 for them all! I have more coupons, so I will go back this weekend and do it again.

Then I went to Walgreens for the boost deal. I got 4 for $5 after my coupons and RR from last week and got $5 back. I picked up some Christmas m&m's for $.23 each and found half gallons of milk for $.50 each! It was a pretty good deal hunting day.

Triple dipping at Safeway!

2011-06-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Safeway has a pretty good deal right now for Kellogg's cereals. At first, it doesn't seem like a great deal, but combine a few different deals to make it GREAT!

First, the cereals are $2.49 on sale and if you buy 5, you will get a free movie ticket instantly for any movie up to $12. Now, use some coupons:
$1.50/2 6/5 RP
$1.00/2 6/12 RP
or several $1.00/2 or $.70/1 at www2.kelloggs.com
Now, your cereal is either $1.49 each (with $.70/1 corn pops or Raisin bran printable coupons), $1.74 each, or $1.99 each with $ off 2 coupons. Not a super price for cereal yet.

But, look for the boxes that have the cars promo on it. For every 4 codes you put in online (1 code per box), you can get a $5 gas card (visa pre-paid card). So, you have now paid from $7.45-$9.95 for 5 boxes of cereal and you will get $5 back in a visa/gas card and a free movie ticket. Good Deal!!

Some, a very few, types of cereal that are included in the cars promotion are also good for a different $10 rebate when you buy 10 boxes. You can find details here: http://www2.kelloggs.com/AARP/rewards/

Buy some of the cereals that cross over and you can now send for a rebate with 10 upcs. GREAT DEAL!!!!!!!

Triple dipping: free movie ticket, $5 gas card, $10 rebate

What feeding 10 people looks like

2011-06-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is our produce buy for the week. I shop on wednedays at the hispanic markets for produce as they have the best prices and wednesdays they have produce specials. I am almost exclusively buying my produce here now or price matching at walmart.

We got 43 lbs of produce tonight including apples, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, mangos, and peaches.

We also got 7 lbs of rice and 15 lbs of meat(pork chops and whole chickens).

We paid @ $38 for all of this with $20 of that being the meat. We will have to get more meat and still have oranges to get, but with 10 people in the house, this will last us about a week, maybe a few days longer, but we will be buying more next Wednesday.

Though this is a coupon blog, it is rarer these days for me to get free produce with coupons, so this is the way to go. And since my huge stockpile of free boxes of rice is gone now, I will also be buying rice here until I can get it free again. I am paying $1 for 3-4 pounds of rice when it is on sale instead of $1.50 for one pound at Fry's.

Crisis Averted

2011-05-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

No matter how hard I try I can't seem to keep a good stock of toilet paper around here. I did have a stockpile for TP at one time, but now it just goes so fast. Tonight, we were down to one roll, between three bathrooms. I panicked. I didn't want to run out and just pay for toilet paper. Then I remembered that CVS had these 1000 sheet rolls this week for $.50 each. I also remembered that the sale ended in about 30 minutes when the store closed. Oh, and I had a $5 ECB in my purse.

So I jumped in the car, got to the store and grabbed 10 rolls. I handed over my ECB and $.47 tax and walked out relieved. The TP crisis was averted for another week.

45 pounds of produce for under $15

2011-04-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is part of my shopping trip tonight. I did not use any coupons, but still got some good deals. Wednesday is produce day at the Mexican Markets here-Food City, Pro's Ranch Market, El Super. On Wednesday's they have specials on fruits and vegetables.

Tonight I got a watermelon, a cantaloupe, bananas, Granny Smith apples, mangoes, kiwi, oranges, cucumbers, strawberries, bell peppers, and a head of lettuce. In all, about 45 pounds of fruits and vegetables and I paid less than $15 (about $14.58) for it all. (In my small picture it doesn't look like that much, but it is @ 45 lbs)

While there are coupons on produce sometimes, this is one of my favorite ways to get deals on fruits and vegetables. If you can't get it free, you look for the lowest price you can get.

Get a $25 Target gift card with AZ Republic subscription

2011-03-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

If you are not a subscriber to the AZ republic already, here's a good deal for you. You can get the Sunday and the Wednesday paper for $9.28 for the first 3 months and get a $25 Target gift card when you sign up! That's about $2.14/week, so it's about the same as what you'd pay in the store for a Sunday paper (with tax), but you also get the wednesday paper too. If you count in the value of the Gift card, you're only paying $2.84 for 3 months worth of Sunday/Wednesday papers. A great way to get some free coupons!

You can sign up here through April 15: AZ Republic Free Target Gift card deal.

Use Reference Number: 3351467 to get the deal.

Movie tickets for $6 each

2011-03-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

Their are many sites like groupon now. Buy with me is one of those sites and right now, they have a deal for AMC movie tickets. You can get 4 tickets for $6 each or $24 total. These are silver tickets, so are not good for the movies when they first come out. You can see a movie at AMC any weekday before 6pm for $5 and on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday before noon. But if you want to see a movie outside of those time-frames and it's not a new movie, this is a decent deal on movie tickets.
These can be used at any AMC, Loews, Cineplex, or other affiliated THeater, but shipping is only available to RI, NH, NJ, NY, CT, MA, DC, VA, TX, WA, CA, AZ, IL, WI, PA, MD, GA.

You can sign up here: Buywithme and then look in the Phoenix deals for the AMC tickets.

$7 for a $15 ebay gift card!

2011-03-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Groupon is offering a $15 gift card for ebay for just $7! If you don't know what groupon is, they send you a daily email with deals for stuff around town. I have gotten some good deals for restaurants, redbox, and kid's activities from them. You can sign up here: Groupon

If you are already signed up, here's where you can find the ebay deal: Ebay Groupon.

$22 for $298 of groceries!

2011-03-29T00:10:00.000-07:00

I finally hit the mega sale at Fry's today. I also stopped at Basha's and walgreens. There's actually more groceries that didn't make it into these photos, but for all my shopping trips today, I spent $22.72 out of pocket and I saved $275.54 or 92%.

I ran into quite a few problems with my fry's order. An electronic free coupon did not come off, 2 coupons did not double correctly, one coupon got missed, I was charged for an extra bag of dog food I did not get, I miscounted and got 2 extra items for my sets of 10 for the mega deal, and I grabbed two of the wrong items that rang up $1 more than the item I was supposed to get. That receipt was fun to figure out all the errors! I did go back, though and got almost all of them fixed with no problems. The electronic coupon I will just have to use next time.

All in all, it was worth it, and it's nice to have such a great staff at my Fry's when I have to get something fixed on my receipt!

Free appetizer at Chilis

2011-03-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

Sign up for chili's email newsletter and you can print a coupon for a free order of chips and Queso immediately.You will also get free stuff for your birthday sent to your email. Sign up is quick and easy- just your name, birthday, and email. Click here to signup.

Free Movie- in Peoria

2011-03-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

Anyone want to go see a free movie tomorrow night- I got this in my email.
There are still passes available for the Harkins Arrowhead in Peoria for 3/16 @ 7:00.
Just follow the link and reserve and print your passes.
Click here for free movie passes.

If you have never done a free preview before, you will want to get there early. It is first come, first served and they do sometimes run out of seats. You also want to be able to get seats together if you are going with someone. Concessions are at your own expense of course, but you can use your Harkins cup and t-shirt if you have those for cheap and free drinks or popcorn. Free or cheap date night! :)

Free stuff at JcPenney!

2011-03-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Got this in the mail today!
It's $10 off a $10 or more purchase at JCPenney. Which equates to free stuff!
It can only be used in store, so next time I am by the store, I will have to go see what I can get for $10.

This came because I was signed up for their rewards program. If you sign up for the rewards program, you will get these occasionally throughout the year. You can sign up for the rewards program for free here: www.jcprewards.com

Yay for free stuff!

Milk deal for the new year!

2011-01-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

My husband found a great deal on milk this morning. Since these were close to the expiration, they were marked $.99 a gallon. We go through a lot of milk and this is a great stock up price! Milk freezes just fine, so I told him to get as many as he could.
He brought home 24 gallons of milk and said there was still a lot left.
We opened each one and poured off about an inch (into a pitcher to put in the fridge) so they won't expand and explode in the freezer.
We won't have to pay full price on milk for 2-3 months now!

Free desserts and cheap lunches

2010-11-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

I visited Fry's today for a prescription for my daughter. She had one of her wisdom teeth pulled! :( I had a $10 KMart coupon for a new RX that I used. The script was only $3, so I made $7 on it! Then I went shopping.

I got some cinnamon toast crunch for @ $.75 a box. I used 2 $.55/1 coupons that doubled to $1 each and 1 coupon for $1/2. Both coupons were printables.
Ramen noodles were 6/$1 and DD requested these since she can't eat hard foods right now.
I grabbed some bread for $1 and some store brand vanilla wafers for $1.27. (These are my midnight snack cookies.) The cheese was kroger brand and I got 2 blocks for $1.50 each.
The banquet fruit pies were on sale for $.79 each and were free with my $.35 coupons that tripled up to the price.
Campbell's chicken noodle and tomato soups were $.50 and were $.25 each after my $.25/4 coupons that quadrupled up to $1.

The frozen meals will be great for lunches. I got 3 kid cuisine for $.39 each after $.50 coupons, 3 Healthy choice and 1 Marie Callendar's steamer meals for $.47 each after $.50 coupons, and 3 Banquet family meals for $.78 each after $.50 coupons. The family meals will make enough for lunch for everyone with one box. So that was a great deal for us!

After coupons and my $10 RX credit, I paid $6.72. Before sales and coupons, my total would have been $65.02, so that's a savings of 90%.

Junk Food Extravaganza!

2010-06-23T13:38:00.001-07:00

It's been a very long time since I posted, but I'm going to try to start posting again.
Starting today, Fry's has a lot of good deals and some freebies. Almost all of this is part of the buy 10 items get $3 off promo. You can do as many multiples of 10 in one order as you want. Here's what I got:
Totinos pizza rolls $.69 each with sale-used $.40/2 coupons doubled to $1-Final price $.19 each

Banquet breakfast sausage $.69 each with sale-used $.35/1 coupons (from meal boxes) doubled to $.99-Final price $.30 moneymaker each

Banquet meals $.69 with sale- used $.60/6 coupons (from meal boxes) doubled to $1-Final price $.52 each

Totinos pizza $.69 with sale-used $50/3 coupons doubled to $1-Final price $.35 each

Hot dog buns $.88 each

Oscar Mayer hot dogs $.88 with sale- used $1.00/2 coupons-Final price $.38 each

Koolaid Funfizz packets $1.99- used free with purchase of 2 Oscar Mayer hot dogs coupons (found on OM packs)- Final price FREE

Chef Boyardee cans $.59 with sale- used $1.00/2 coupons (from banquet meal boxes)- Final price $.09 each

Orville Redenbacher popcorn $1.69 with sale- used $.40/1 coupons doubled to $1-Final price $.69 each. Also received a catalina for a free redbox rental with the purchase of these.

I paid $12.50 total and saved $72.93 or 86%. I got 45 items total, so I paid an average of $.28 per item.

Walgreens 15% discount today and tomorrow!

2010-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

If you don't already know, Walgreens has a coupon out good for today only for 15% off. You can print it out here. You have to check out in cosmetics or photo to use this coupon and give it to them before they start ringing you up.
I hadn't done any of my Walgreens shopping this week, so I headed out today to get some of the deals.
Here's what I got:
Dove men's body wash $5.99 or $5.09 after 15% off and used $1.25 coupon, get back $6 RR
3 Musketeer bars (reg. ones only) buy 4, use $.49 in ad coupon and with 15% off they come to @ $.42 each or $1.69 for 4 and you get back $1.50 RR
Nabisco oreos $.99 or $.84 after 15%, used $1/2 coupons for $.34 each
Kotex pads $3 or $2.55 after 15%, used $2/2 coupon to pay $3.10 for 2 and get back $3 RR when you buy 2
Super Poligrip-small size $2 or $1.70 after 15%, used $1 coupon to pay $.70 and got back $2 RR
Covergirl makeup is b1g1 50% after 15%, one was $10.19, the other was $5.09. I used a B1G1 free coupon for $10.19 off and a $1 coupon to pay $4.09 for 2
Gillette Venus embrace $7.64 after 15%, used $2 coupon to pay $5.64 and got back $4 RR
Olay body wash $8.49 and $7.47 after 15%-got two different kinds at two different stores. Used free coupon when you buy Venus razor-both free
And I stocked up on the big roll TP for $.59 each after 15% off

I used RR from the last two weeks and paid @ $10 oop for both orders. I could have spent less, but I had limited time today, so instead of breaking the orders down, I just did everything all at once. I got $31 in RR back to use later.

Some fry's deals this week

2010-02-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

I did a lot of shopping last week, but not a lot of posting. This week is not as good for deals, but there are a couple of deals that are worth looking at.

I went to Fry's this morning and they have a $3 off when you buy 10 items event going on. I bought 20 of the specific items and got $6 taken off.

Here is what I got:
6 Banquet meals- These are $.69 each after deal and I had a $1/6 coupon from on the package (from when we bought them before.) I specifically looked for more that had the coupons on them and got that kind. After the coupon, they were about $.52 each.

2 Banquet sausage- these are $.89 after the deal and I used the $.35/1 coupon (doubled) from the packages to get them for $.19 each.

4 Gatorade G2- $.69 after deal and used $1/2 coupons, so $.19 each

6 Pillsbury grands- $.89 after deal, used $.30/2 coupons (doubled), so $.54 each. When you buy 6 of these, though, you get a $4 catalina. So you pay $3.24 and get $4 back! These types of catalinas will roll, so after the first purchase, you can keep going without spending money until you run out of coupons.

2 Purex- $2.19 after deal- used $.35/1 coupons (doubled) to pay $1.49 each. When you buy 2 of these, you get a $4 catalina. So pay $2.98 for 2 and get $4 back!

There are a few other good deals, but these are the ones I'm doing this week at fry's.

Back in the Saddle again!

2010-01-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

I have shopped very little for the month of January, partly because of the lack of good sales and partly because I have been super busy. And really, there has been very little that I have gotten excited about this month in the sales. (Maybe the Walgreens Bayer deal!)

Starting today, Fry's has another one of their Mega sales and it's pretty good! When you buy 10 participating items you get $5 off. That's $.50 each item and you can do multiples of 10 in one order and get $5 off for every 10. There's a lot of free and cheap stuff with this sale and a couple of money makers!

In the photo above these items are part of the buy 10 get $5 off sale and their prices after coupons I used and sale:
Finish dish tabs $.49 each after coupons
Armour meatballs $.99 each after coupons
Kleenex $.43 each after $.40/1, $.50/3, and b4g1 free coupons
Quaker rice snacks $.50 money makers each after coupons!
Pillsbury Toaster Strudels $.79 each after coupons
Frank's Red hot $.49 after coupon
La Victoria salsa $.51 money maker each after coupon (from points rewards)
Rotel tomatoes $.11 money maker each after coupons
Hormel Chili masters $.21 money makers each after coupons
Land O lakes butter free after coupons (printables from last month)

I also got 2 Tony's pizzas for $1.50 each using some $1/2 printables I had from last month, 4 Wholly guac/salsa products-free with coupons! (first 4 only), and 1 Kroger orange juice that was marked down $.99.

I paid $6.03 oop and saved $105.43 or 95% savings!

I also went to Bashas and got the 10lb bag of chicken for $3.90 ($.39/lb is a great stock up price for me.) There is a limit of 1, so that's all I got this trip, but will be going back for me. The S&W beans are on sale for $.48 and with the $.50/3 coupons doubled, I paid $.44 for 3 cans or @ $.14 a can. I got 9 cans total and used 3 coupons.

I paid $5.22 oop for this whole order and saved $18.99 or 78%!

This was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things!

What happened to all my Toilet paper?

2010-01-26T09:12:00.001-08:00

This was the scene last year as I stocked up on free and almost free toilet paper. My littlest one had fun building a fort with just the latest packs I had just brought in. I had way more in my closet already! As I look back at my posts, I realize I was stockpiling these in April and May of last year.

And now they are gone. As I mentioned before, I have 5 girls! 3 of those are teenagers who, when I started rationing the TP, would ask me for a new roll every day! (And I usually gave them two at a time-so they were going through two rolls a day!) So now we have no more toilet paper.

I had some RR's to use up at Walgreens yesterday since they were expiring. I had a $2.50 and a $2 RR. I got two pert shampoos- one was the men's kind. I used a $1.50 on men's coupon and a $1 on the other one, so my total for these two was $2.50 and I got a $2 RR back. I also got a men's sure deodorant that was $1.50 with the in-ad coupon and I used a $1.50 coupon from Sunday's inserts to get that free. (I had only cut out one coupon so far.) And then I got toilet paper! These big rolls are $.50 this week. This is what I'll be stocking up on for now using RR's until more free TP comes along. I got 4 rolls (Only 2 are pictured) for a total of $2. I used the $2.50 and the $2 RR which made my total $0 before taxes. I paid $.75 tax and used a Walgreens gift card, so $0 oop and got the $2 RR back for the pert deal. I will be shopping more this week and adding the TP as a filler as often as I can!

2010-01-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

I stopped at the Walgreens next to Safeway today- a store I don't go to very often, and I was thrilled to find more of the Bayer Glucose meters! I got one of each and I also got a box of the Bayer quick release crystals 20ct that was clearanced to $2.19. I had free coupons for the meters and a $1 coupon for the aspirin. Word on the street is you will get a $6 RR for buying 3 bayer products instead of the $3 RR I got earlier for buying just the two Bayer meters and people have been buying this clearanced box. (Plus the $5 RR for each meter!) Well, that is a valid RR, but for me, the clearanced Bayer did not seem to work. I only got the $3 RR and the two $5 RR's. Still, about a $12 MM for me not counting tax.

I also got a thermacare patch that is $2.49. I used a $1 printable coupon and I got a $2.50 RR back. $1 MM!

I saw some Kellogg's corn flakes small boxes for $1 each and I had some $1 peelies so I got two of those-free with coupons and I got a small can of Baking powder since we are out. I used a $3 RR from the glade candles and paid $3.79-most of which was tax-on a gift card I got from Mypoints. (The RR for the glade candles is still good, but they are $3.29 each now, so almost free with the $3/2 but not a MM.)

My total oop for the day was $11.99 for the prescription at Safeway!

Stocking up on meat

2010-01-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

I went to Safeway today to pick up a prescription for my dog. I filled this prescription the first time at Fry's for $4 and used a $10 gift card coupon to get $10 back to spend at Fry's. Safeway just came out with a $30 coupon in last week's ad so I transferred it there. I paid $11.99 for the meds at Safeway, but got a $30 gift card to spend there.
While I was there today, I wanted to get some of the hamburger that is $.99/lb. I got @ 10 lbs in two big packages and I also noticed the whole chickens were $.47/lb so I got 3 chickens also. I had some $2 when you spend $8 meat wt's, so I used two of those. I also got the 18ct eggs that are $.99 with the ad coupon when you spend $10 and two packs of hamburger bun for $.88 each with ad coupon. My total was $16.69 with tax and I paid with my new gift card.
*I also found some peelies here for $1.50 on any Post cereal. These are $1.50 this week at Albertsons, so would be free. I grabbed 4 coupons for a trip later this week. (There are also some Post cereals at Walgreens for $1 and $1.75 right now.)

I went to Super Target this past weekend since my daughter had a gift card she was dying to spend and I figured I'd do some grocery shopping there too. Before I left, I printed off two coupons for $2 off Archer Farms ham from the target web site. Two is the limit and I didn't log onto the other computers to get more. When I got there, I found two ham steaks for just over $2 each, so I paid just a few cents for each one of those. I also found a lot of hamburger marked at $.99/lb since they were going to expire in two days. I got 16 packages and used 2 of my $2 on $8 meat wt's and paid @ $.60/lb for the hamburger.

Though this looks like a lot, it's not for our family. I will likely go back to Safeway this week and get more hamburger and chicken as I am trying to stock the freezer again now. At these prices, I should be stocking the freezer to last for several months!

Walgreens quick trip

2010-01-06T16:20:00.001-08:00

There's a few good deals at Walgreens this week, but I have limited time. So I just cut a few coupons and made a quick trip for these items.

Electrasol Finish is $3.49 and I used the $2.50 coupon from Sunday to pay $.99 and I got back a $1 RR. FREE after RR

Glade fragrance collection soy candles 2oz are 2/$5. I used a $3/2 coupon from 11/22 SS and paid $2 for both. I got back a $3 RR. This is a monthly deal for the RR. $1 MM with coupon and RR.

Oreos small packs are $.99. I used a $1/2 coupon from tearpads, I think from earlier in the year. $.49 each after coupons. (I love my oreos!)

Toilet paper big rolls. These are $.50 each with in-ad coupon. With the amount of girls I have, we are always stocking toilet paper. I used these as a filler along with a $.10 piece of Christmas candy so I could use a $5 RR from the bayer meters. I paid @ $1 with tax and got $4 in RR back.

I also stopped at QT (Quik trip) for another free sandwich. Thanks to their frequent reloading of this coupon and my tech obsessed husband, we have had free lunch from QT many times over the last few months! With all our computers in the house, I can print from each one. I had enough coupons this time for free lunch for me and the kids for this whole month already! The kids have been getting the foot long sandwiches which feeds two of them at a time. I am out of coupons now, but will check for a reload every week.

Free QT sandwich!

2009-12-30T20:22:00.001-08:00

Look in the coupons on my sidebar (click to see all coupons-it will open another page) for another Free sandwich coupon from QT! They seem to be reloading this coupon at least once a month and it's been twice this month. I just printed some more from each of my computers so I have free lunch for everyone for tomorrow!

Some Walgreens deals

2009-12-30T19:54:00.001-08:00

There's a few good deals at Walgreens right now. Some of these coupons expire 12/31, so you'd need to do the deal tomorrow.
The Olay Regenerist face cleaner is 20% off this week and there are $3 coupons from the 11/29 PG (exp. 12/31). The new PG from this past Sunday advertises a $15 rebate when you buy 2 Olay regenerist products. The rebate form is online at olay.com.
The face cleanser is $5.83 on sale this week- buy 2 and use 2 of the $3 coupons and pay $5.66 plus tax oop and send for the $15 rebate!

The Bayer meters are on sale again for $14.99 and produce a $5 RR. This time around, though, there is a seperate $5 RR for the contour and for the breeze. There is also another $3 RR when you buy 2 bayer products. SO, buy one of each meter at the same time, use the free coupons from 10/25 and just pay tax. You will get back $13 in RR!

There is another RR deal from unilever for a $4 RR when you buy 1 Theraflu and 1 Lipton tea. The theraflu is $3.99 right now and there is a $2 WG coupon in the Healthy savings booklet that expires 12/31. There is also a $2 printable theraflu coupon-look on my sidebar to print this. I got the bog box of lipton tea which was $4.79 and I used a $.50 coupon from 11/15 RP. There was a smaller box that was $3.49, but it was decaf and I need my caffeine. If you can use all coupons, you could get the big box of tea and the theraflu for $.29 after the RR or about a $1 MM with the smaller decaf box. I was not able to use both coupons tonight because the WG coupon is ringing up as a manufacturer coupon and it wouldn't take both coupons together no matter how they rang it up. The manager would not push it through either since the total left after one coupon was $1.99 and the other coupon was $2. So I paid more than I had planned, but I did get the $4 RR.

Look for Revlon on clearance! This week, Revlon is b1g1 free except for lip and nail products. I got a bunch of eyeliners for $2.19 and they also rang b1g1 free and some lip glosses at $2.19. I used a $2 coupon for each one, even the free ones, so these were a MM and helped pay for my other purchases.

I also went by CVS to check the Christmas clearance. It's still 50% and I am waiting for at least 75%. I decided to get one of the colgate that is $2.99 with a $2 ECB. I had a $1 coupon and a $2 ECB, so free and then got $2 back. They were also putting clearance stickers on a lot of makeup while I was there, so I pulled out my Revlon coupons. All the ones I got were 75% off and most were under $2, so I made sure I had enough $ in makeup to cover the coupons I had left. For some reason the register wouldn't take my last coupon even though I had $2.06 left in makeup to use it on. I just took it back and will go back for more later. Though I could not make money on the makeup at CVS, I had more choices on the clearance stuff than at Walgreens. I got some eye shadows, lipsticks, and a mascara. I am going to pull out all my makeup coupons and go back tomorrow and see what else I can get cheap or free. They had a ton of makeup on clearance in almost every brand!

Cleaning the stockpile

2009-12-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

I did some cleaning out of my HBA stockpile today. This is the cabinet in my closet. This cabinet is taller than me. :)
Top shelf is toothpastes, toothbrushes, floss, mouth wash,face cleaners, and feminine products. Second row is mostly men's products- razors, shave gels and after shaves, face cleaner, deodorants. There are also some girls razors and shave gels on the left side. Next shelf is mom's shampoos,hair color, face stuff, body wash, and lotions. The bottom shelf is for kid's use- shampoos, body washes, lotions, hair products.

These are going under the sink in the older girls' bathroom.

This is a shopping bag full of just mascara!

My makeup basket. You can't tell, but it is really big! I have foundations, eye shadows, blushes, lip stuff, nail stuff, and eyeliners in here as well as some makeup puffs. Probably a good 75-100 items in here alone.

Travel size shampoos, face scrubs, etc.

Brushes and heat patches.

Excess hair colors and products. I actually have several more bins full of other stuff for yard sales or donations like glucose meters, deodorants, etc.

More toothpaste, deodorants to give away.

Now I have enough to last a while, but not too much and I can start building again after Christmas!

Sonicare toothbrush at Walgreens!

2009-12-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

I'm doing some orders at Walgreens today to take advantage of the 15% off and $5/$25 RR as I posted before. But here's a really good deal I wanted to post separately in case anyone wants to get one. The Sonicare toothbrush is normally $74.99 and is on sale for $49.99. With the 15% off, it is $42.49. There is a $10 MF coupon 11/22 SS and there is a $10 Walgreens coupon-look for a handout of coupons at the front of the store. These coupons are just printed out from a printer-though some stores had different colored paper-it's not a booklet. This brings your total down to $22.49 plus you get the $5 holiday RR for spending $25 and there is a $10 rebate out for this too! (Rebate can be printed online- got one at my dentist's office.) Counting the $5 RR and the $10 rebate, your final price for this $75 toothbrush is $7.49 plus tax!
I added some small cans of fruit ($.39 with WC) as fillers and used a $5 RR (not the holiday one-these don't roll!) and $4 RR, so I paid $16.90 in store with tax and I'll send off for the $10 rebate.

Walgreens 15% discount today and tomorrow!

2009-12-17T08:06:00.001-08:00

If you are not a fan of Walgreens on facebook, you should be! You can print a coupon there for 15% off your order good for today and tomorrow only. I plan on doing a bit of shopping today and stacking this with the $5/$25 RR. You have to give the coupon first before you start ringing out so they can apply the discount. I am thinking that this will automatically take 15% off everything as it rings up, so you will need more items to get to the $25. To use the coupon, you have to check out at the photo or cosmetic counter and you need to hand them the coupon before you start checking out.

Here's the small print from the coupon:
*Discounts available to the public December 18.
**Offer not valid on prescriptions, cigarettes, dairy products, liquor, liquor department items, phone cards, newspapers, magazines, stamps and gift cards or where otherwise limited by law. Also not valid toward Prescription Savings Club membership fee. Limit one card per person per purchase. Card must accompany purchase. Offer valid only on in-store purchases.

Go here to become a fan on facebook then click the "fan offer" tab on their page.

Making my own deals at Albertsons

2009-12-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

Not too many deals this week but I still need some groceries. So I put together my own deal for Albertsons. I had 3 coupons for a free tombstone product that I got from the company a while back. Since it's a busy night for everyone tonight, this will be dinner. I pulled together other items I had coupons for that would make them free or almost free and got enough to reach $30 so I could use the fresh & easy coupon. (actually had almost $40 worth before coupons)
Here's how my order broke down:
3 Tombstone pizzas $4.99 each- $4.99 coupons each= Free
3 Breyers ice cream $1.99 wyb 3- $.75 coupon each-doubled= $.99 each
1 All detergent- used $2.99 safeway coupon then $2 MF coupon= $.99
2 packs boneless chicken @ $8- $2 WT= @ $6
1 ALbertsons butter $2- $.30 peelie quad. to $1= $1
2 Carmex $1- $.50 coupons each doubled (printables from email mailing list)= Free
Then I used the fresh & easy $3/$30 and a Fry's $3/ $15 frozen mailer coupon.
I paid $6.10 with tax.

I also want to go back to get some of the Campbell's cream soups that are $.79. I have $.4/2 coupons to use on these and they will be great for getting my totals up to use the F&E coupons. These are also on sale at Walgreens for $.69 and I have $1.00/4 coupons to use there and will use these to boost my total for the $5/$25 RR.
That's all the shopping I have time for now. Have to go study for my final.

Walgreens- a few deals

2009-12-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any Walgreens shopping this week yet. I was waiting until today since they have the $5/$25 RR again today and tomorrow (Wed.-Thur.) only. After two weeks of great deals, there's not a lot this week, though. I will be getting a few of the b1g1 free toys. Then there's the complete solution that's $7.99 with a $8 RR. We have a $1 coupon for these, so a small money maker. The gillette fusion razor is $8.99 with a $4 coupon and $4 RR. There's also a huggies diaper deal for anyone needing diapers.
The new grocery ads came out today too, and I don't see much there either. There's one or two things at each store I will likely get, but nothing to run around and chase all week.
Though I miss the great deals, it's not a bad thing for me since I have finals this week for school and really need to concentrate n those instead of chasing deals. I still have a little bit of Christmas shopping left to do, so I will finish that up this weekend.

Here's a little wrap up of what I got last week at Walgreens- mostly between Wednesday and Saturday.
12 Triaminics
5 Renu double packs
8 Just for men
12 Stayfree
3 Scunci
5 Conair brush sets
6 Chinet plates
8 Kellogg's cereals
5 Neutrogena for men
3 Stimudent
5 Ritz crackers
19 $9.99 toys
I also got a lot of other stuff as fillers like eggs, noodles, etc. and quite a few more gifts from taking the kids shopping for each other (makeup kits, twilight books, several bakugan sets, calendars, socks, nail stuff and kits, and more.

Total #'s: @ $712 in merchandise, spent @ $82 oop which is a savings of @ 89%.
And yes, all of this is stuff we will use or I will give to someone I know who can use it (like the just for men-for my dad). It was a fun week!

More Walgreens fun!

2009-12-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

Another trip to Walgreens tonight yielded all this. This was done in two transactions though.

First transaction I got:
4 Kellogg's cereals $1.99 each & used $5/4 printable
1 Stayfree $1.99 & used $1 printable
1 Just for men $6.99 & used $2 printable
1 Conair brush set $2
2 Chinet plates & used 2- $1 coupons and b1g1 free WC(only took off $2.01 instead of $2.50)
3 Ramen noodles $1
1 mini canister $.39 (with in-ad coupon)
I used a $10 rr from the Renu. I paid $4.80 oop and got back these RR:
$2, $7, $2, $5(wyb $25)total of $16 RR.

Then I did this transaction:
Conair brush set $2
Stayfree $1.99- used $1 printable
Neutrogena mens $4.99
2 Kraft mac & cheese- $.69 each with in-ad coupon
eggs (not pictured) $.99
Stim-u-dent $2
1 $9.99 toy- used $4 in-ad coupon
Revlon makeup mirror $4.99- used $1 coupon (tried the $3 beauty tool coupon, but didn't work)
I used 2-$7 RR from the JFM and 1- $5 RR from triaminic.
I paid $4.71 oop. (should have been $1.71 if my $3 coupon had worked,)
I got back in RR: $2, $2, $2, $5, $5 for a total of $16 in RR

When I found out the revlon mirror wouldn't work for the $3 coupon, I couldn't take it off my order since I needed it to hit the $25 mark, and since the cashier had already scanned all my coupons, taking it off would have created a negative total. So I may just keep it, or I may take it back and get a refund.

The Just for men rang up correctly at this store, so no price adjusting needed. I will also send off for the rebate for this and get $8 back on that! I have heard some people are finding some colors of this product on clearance and they are producing the RR. I have not found any yet at the 3 stores I checked, but I'm going to keep on looking!

I spent $18.40 oop today and I have $29 in RR left. Hoping to get my totals lower when I go back tomorrow thru saturday as that's a lot to spend oop for me for freebies!

Walgreens $5/ $25 RR and special ad Wed.- Sat.

2009-12-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

There's a special Walgreens ad today through Saturday with some free stuff and the $5 RR when you buy $25 of anything is back! I saved all my shopping for Walgreens until today to take advantage of this RR. I'm glad I did since I was going to use my $2 All detergent coupons to get the bottles for $1.50 at Walgreens, but they are on sale now at Albertsons for $2.99, so $.99 after coupons!

Anyway, I got a few things this morning. I got the Renu twin pack for $9.99 and get a $10 RR back and the Just for men touch of grey for $6.99 and get a $7 RR. I had a $2 printable coupon for both of these, so they were both $2 money makers! The just for men did not ring up at the sale price, though so I had to get a refund for that. (Watch those prices.)

I also got the stayfree which is $1.99. I used a $1 printable coupon and got the $2 RR back. The Scunci head bands are $2 with a $2 RR- my girls love these.

The chinet plates are $2.50 and I used $1 coupons for each and there's a b1g1 free coupon in the weekly ad. These should come out to $.25 each. But my ad coupon only took off $4.02 instead of $5, so they were about $.50 each. I didn't go back to fix that issue.

The triaminic is on sale for $5 each and you get a $5 RR when you buy 2. We have $3 coupons that just came out for the thin strips and there's a $2 walgreens coupon in the older healthy savings booklet. (I picked that up in October.) That makes these free except for tax and then you get the $5 RR! So, a $5 MM! BUT, the walgreens coupon does not work-at least not at my stores. I have had the managers try it every way they could, but it just won't scan. So, they price adjusted the thin strips down to $3 each and then I used my $3 coupons. I still got them free, but it was a pain. If you are doing this one, I suggest you give them the walgreens coupon first so they can't say its because you used manufacturer coupons and then they should be able to price adjust for you.

I did the triaminic seperate and paid $.53 oop tax and got the $5 RR. Then I did the rest all in one order and paid $8.36 oop (used $13 in RR on this also) and got $21 in RR for the products and the $5 RR for "spending" $25.

The $25 is before all walgreens and manufacturer coupons. I like this promotion better than the coupons they send out since I can get my oop down and still get the $5 RR!

I did not get two of the freebies- I couldn't find the stim-u-dent, but I will be making more trips to get those and more of the freebies. I also plan on getting some of the $5.99 toys. Since that involves a coupon, I should be able to get 2 toys (ring up at $9.99 each) and @ $5 of other stuff and still get the $5 RR.
I am also excited about the stayfree as I have 3 teen girls and I haven't had a good deal on those in a while. I'm also going to pick up some of the brushes for free since those disappear around here.

I don't know if the $5 RR will roll into another $25 deal as I didn't try it. But I might just save those up for the kids to use for their Christmas shopping.

Some Free, some cheap- Walgreens & CVS

2009-11-29T17:29:00.001-08:00

I had a hard time today at CVS and Walgreens, but I had anticipated that since some of the deals are a little complicated. I stopped at CVS first. I did the gillette buy $25 get $10 ECB with the Gillette deodorants and Body washes. Two of the deodorants were $4.49 and one was $5.49. (There were only 2 left of the cheaper ones.) The Body washes were $4.99 each. I used 3 of the buy Gillette deodorant, get body wash free coupons-from the 11/1 P&G and 3 of the $1 Gillette body wash or deodorant coupons. Total after coupons would be $11.47 and then I get back $10 ECB's. I also got 2 more of the Revlon eye shadows which are buy one get one free and I used 2- $2 coupons making them $.99 for both, and a Zooth toothbrush- on sale for $2.49, used a $1 coupon from 11/1 PG and got $2 ECB back. I used a $5/$30 coupon from the medicare quiz and a $2 ECB and a $10 ECB I got from taking a survey.

I had also tried to get the Covergirl makeup that was buy one get one half off and use the buy one foundation, get one face product free coupon (11/1 PG), but the cashier couldn't get the coupon to work an the manager said I couldn't do it with the b1g1 sale. The cashier said she had actually done that before too and it should work, but they had updated their registers making a lot of coupons harder to get through. I had them void off the makeup, but that screwed up my order, so they re-rang the whole thing. With the re-ring, we all forgot to scan my green bag tag again, since it was scanned on the voided order. They just printed me out a $1 ECB for that. With the second order, I was under after all my coupons, so I had to grab a $.99 nail clipper by the register to add in. I paid $.14 oop and got back the $10 and $2 ECB's.

I went to Walgreens next and I got a gillette razor $4.99 after $4 coupon from today's PG and got a $4 RR back. Glade sense & spray is $5.99 and I used a $4 coupon to make it $1.99 and got a $2 RR back. I got my covergirl makeup here with no problem- the foundation was $11.99 and the blush was $11.49. The sale took off $5.75 for the half price item and my coupon took off $11.49 for the blush. I was also able to use a $1 coupon for the foundation making my total $5.24 for both.

Then I got 3 ecotrin which are $3.49 regular price. I used a $10/3 coupon from 10/11 RP leaving me with $.47 for all three. But there is also a coupon in the ad for the ecotrin for $1.99 which will take off $1.50 for each one. Since I gave the $10 coupon first, the walgreens coupon takes off $4.50 for the 3 boxes giving me overage! For this deal, make sure you have something in your order to use the overage on, and give the walgreens coupon last. The $10 coupon will beep like a free item coupon and ask for the price. This will confuse some of your cashiers, so make sure they type in $10 for the price to take off. (Mine put in $3.49 at first.)

I got some covergirl nail polish that was on clearance for $2.19 each and they also rang up on the buy one get one 50% off sale. I used a $2.50/2 Covergirl coupon for these and paid $.78 for both or $.39 each.

Then the olay deal is pretty complicated, but it works. There is a coupon in today's insert for a free Olay lotion when you buy a bodywash. There are also $1 coupons for the bodywash from 11/1 PG. The bodywash is on sale for $2.99, so $1.99 after coupon. Then if you get the big pump bottle of Olay quench lotion that is on sale for $7.99, you get an in-shower lotion (I found this by the bodywash) for free. Your coupon for the free lotion will take off the $7.99 for the big lotion as there's no price limit on it. So, for all 3, you pay $1.99! (Some people have used a $1 coupon for the lotion too, but I didn't try that.) *The $1 coupons expire 11/30, so use them fast!

When I rang this order out, I put the in-shower lotion up first and then later in the order, I put the body wash and big Lotion up together and gave her the coupon then so she could see the products and prices, and she took off the $7.99 for that lotion with no problem. I got some votive candles for fillers, but my store has changed their policy very recently to only allow one RR per order. I used one $5 RR and that's it, so I paid more oop for this order than I wanted, but I still got some great deals! I also forgot to do the Nivea lip deal, but I'll likely be going back tomorrow to sue up my 11/30 coupons, so I'll do it then.

* I have been waiting for a b1g1 free sale on covergirl to use my b1g1 free coupons, but since they expire tomorrow, I settled for the b1g1 50% off sale. This is my favorite foundation, so I'm willing to pay a little oop for it, but not too much! You could do this deal a lot cheaper with the $5.99 foundation and a cheaper face product too, but only through tomorrow!

CVS Green bag tag

2009-11-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

I looked at the boards and found I am behind the times here, but in case anyone else is like me and didn't know this yet, I'm going to post this anyway.

At Cvs today I found this cool little tag by the register. It is $.99 and once you buy it, you scan it every time you shop and bring your own bag. On the 4th scan, you will get a $1 ECB. You can only scan it once a day, so for those of us who do multiple transactions, that makes a difference, and you have to make a purchase when you scan it.

So, scan it every day that you shop at CVS, bring your own bag for your items and get free ECB's during the year just for bringing your own bags. The bag does not have to be a CVS bag. The guy at the register said I could even bring back the plastic bag, just as long as they don't have to give me a new bag for my purchases. I bought mine with a gift card I had from a return- so free!

"Black Friday" at the drug stores

2009-11-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

Though the deals were fairly disappointing this year, I still went shopping today for CVS and Walgreens Black Friday/Thanksgiving sales. At Walgreens, I found everything I wanted, but when I got to the checkout with my order worked out just right, I was informed that they can now only take one RR per order. I have always been able to use as many as I wanted there in one order as long as I had enough items to match. Luckily the BA was super nice about it and didn't have a problem with me splitting all my orders up. I did end up paying more oop than I wanted, but I'm satisfied with what I got. All the items shown are the free after RR items, except the eyeliners and bags. With my coupons, the Johnson's body wash, Dove deodorant, and Nivea shave gel were $1 MM's, the aquafresh was a $.50 MM, and the Infusium was a $2 MM. The Neutrogena eyeliners were b1g1 free and were $6.36 each. I used 2-$2 coupons, so I paid $2.36 (with RR) for both and the bags were fillers at $.10 each (with WG coupon)to allow me to use the RR on each order.
I also picked up some of the 50% toys for my little girl's birthday tomorrow and for Christmas. These cannot be pictured since someone might see them who shouldn't. I used RR for these too. Total oop was @ $5.

I was surprised to also find almost everything in stock at CVS since I didn't go out until almost noon and hit Walgreens first. The only thing they were out of was the Bic Soleil razors. All the items pictured were free after coupons and ECB, some were MM, except the eye shadows. Those were b1g1 free and used $2 coupons on each paying $.99 for each two. I broke up my orders here to be able to use mostly ECB's and spend less cash. I paid @ $4 oop here and I also got 2 more toys that were b1g1 free. I used up the last of my ECB's on the toys, but i forgot my free coupon for Herbal Essences at home, so I will be going back tomorrow to use that and get a $2 ECB to start over with for next week's ad.

Line Switching Etiquette

2009-11-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

As any seasoned couponer knows, picking your cashier is integral to your couponing strategies. You've gone over all the ads with a fine tooth comb. You've browsed all the online boards for any deals you might have missed. You've made your list and cut your coupons. You've filled your shopping cart, stopping to whip out your calculator and adjust your attack plan when you find a bare shelf. You've counted, added, and rechecked your shopping cart and coupons to make sure everything is right before you get to the register. With coupons in hand, you approach the checkout lines. You take a quick stroll along the whole length of registers evaluating each cashier available to you. The cashier is the only thing left between you and your cart full of shiny freebies and deals. You must choose carefully to avoid any hassles or problems.

You find the one that looks the most promising or your favorite cashier and you pull your cart into their line. You stand in line patiently trying to pretend you are checking out the cover of one of the more respectable magazines like Home and Garden.
You might even say something aloud about the cute flower bench that would look great on your porch, while you are secretly wondering what evil thing Angelina has done to Jen now that is splashed all over the tabloids in front of you. You don't dare pick it up and let any of these strangers catch you actually reading that stuff.

Then as luck would have it, a new line opens up right next to yours. The new cashier comes over and says you are the next person in line and invites you to move over and join their line. You panic. You have two seconds to evaluate this new cashier and decide if you want to make the move. Your rushed evaluation tells you this cashier might be trouble, but that could be just because you are already comfortable where you are. You try to plan an exit strategy quick. The person in front of you has already unloaded half their cart onto the conveyor belt.

Then brilliance hits. You can still get out of this and look good doing it. You will look like the nice customer by telling the person behind you in line that they can move over instead since you are not in a hurry. With a smile on your face, you turn around and... there's no one there. Apparently the person behind you had already switched lines while you were wrapped up in Brad's girls' rivalry. Panic again sets in as you realize you are out of ideas and out of options as the cashier is standing there waiting for you to make your move.

You reluctantly move over. The results of your switch can be good or it can be bad.
In my latest occurrence, it was not so good for me. The cashier was friendly and efficient, but I held my breath as I handed over my stack of coupons. Most of them were no problem, but a few were questioned. Some were allowed to pass while a phone call was made on some others. Those that required a phone call were ultimately denied for this visit. (I was allowed 3 of 10 coupons) Of course, those were the ones that would have paid for most of my order and of course they expire that day!

At this point, I should have taken off some of my higher priced items- like my ham so that I could rebuy them later with the coupons I still needed to spend. Unfortunately, my mind was still back on the line switch trying to figure out a way I could have gotten out of it. That's the way my mind works, you give it a problem or a puzzle and it wants to solve it. So I pay for my stuff- with actual money!

Later that night, I go to a different store since I still have those coupons to use.
I have decided to rebuy some of the items I had bought earlier in the day and then I could return those items from the first trip for a refund of my money. No problems on this order at all. The only problem now is I hate returns and now I have to muster up the strength to take this extra stuff back to the store and explain to them that I didn't want to pay cash for it in the first place.

Well, that's my story, some of you might be able to relate. I'm wondering if Miss Manners has any rules of etiquette for declining a line switch at the grocery store?

Last day of sales=Slim pickings and Rain Checks!

2009-11-10T15:50:00.001-08:00

Tuesdays are the last day for the grocery sales around here and that means rain check day! I will get rain checks during the week if they are out of stuff I want, but Tuesday's I expect to get more rain checks. That's ok with me, because the rain check just extends the sale and allows me more time to collect coupons!

I didn't get much at Fry's, but I did get more free potatoes and toothpaste. Thanks to "Grateful Guest" on PYP, I learned that the small cans (11 oz) of Dole oranges were part of the mega sale, even though they were not marked. They are $.99 before sale and $.49 after. So with the $.55/2 coupon from Sunday, these were free! The hormel pepperoni was $1.50, so $.50 after coupon, of course my store only had one left. (Thanks Annabeth for reminding me of this deal!)
For the gold medal flour and Nestle chocolate chips, I used the Bashas coupons along with manufacturer coupons at Fry's. Make sure you alert them to coupons like these before they ring the items so they can price adjust the items. The flour was $1.28 with Bashas coupon and $.28 after a printable $.50 coupon. The nestle chocolate chips were $1.48 with the bashas coupon and these are part of the mega sale too. So, you get an extra $.50 off for the sale making them $.98 and the $.50 manufacturer coupon makes them free! (You actually make $.02 on those.) These two items are a limit 1 for the Bashas coupon and with an additional $25 purchase. For most cashiers, that is $25 before other coupons since you have to hand these coupons over first to be price adjusted.
I also used a $2 meat winetag and 2 of the $2 catalinas from Albertsons and I paid $1.38 after tax. (Tax was $.85 of that total!) I saved $83.34.

At Albertsons, I really wanted the puffs tissues which would be free after coupons, but they were all out. I got my rain check, so I can still get them free as long as Albertsons continues to double and quadruple coupons. I also got two 5lb bags of pillsbury flour for $1 each. I had no coupons for these and I could have used a bashas coupon here too with MFR coupon for another bag of Gold medal flour for $.28, but I wasn't buying $25 worth even before coupons. But $ for 5lbs of flour is still a good deal and we bake a lot! I was finally able to use my rain check for the warm delights. They have been out of these since the sale almost a month ago. But they were fully stocked this time, so I got my 12 for free. The Green giant steamers were also free, but I had already used all my coupons with a rain check last week. I used one of the $2 catalinas from last week and paid $.22 which was all tax. I saved $37.86. I might go back this evening to get another rain check for the vegetables so I can get some more coupons together. I don't know why I didn't think of checking them while I was in the store earlier to get another rain check.

Fry's deals and free stuff.

2009-11-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

I went shopping at Fry's today and I paid $.30 for all this. I also got back $4 in coupons to use on anything! I was very excited about the Uncle Ben's coupon in today's paper that makes the Long grain and wild rice free! But when I got done checking out, I was even more excited to see I had received a $1 OYNO coupon for every 4 boxes I had bought.
The betty crocker potatoes were free as were the toothpastes after coupons. (I found colgate coupons good on any toothpaste at my commsissary.) The can milk was also free with coupons for $.50/2. We did not get these coupons in our area, but had I ordered some online.
The playtex gloves are a money maker- I made $.50 on each one for a total of $4.50 off my other groceries. I also used a $3/$30 Fresh & Easy coupon to get $7.50 total off my other groceries.
The Hamburger was $1.25 a lb and the taco shells were $1.19 each. After all coupons, tax and the $5/10 deal, I paid $.30. I saved $152.10!

Last call for Albertsons!

2009-11-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

Last day for this sale at Albertsons. I used the last of my $1/2 cereal coupons, got more free yougurt, and granola bars,and used a rain check for the pizzas which were also free after coupons. I also got rain checks for the hot dogs and apples since they were out of those. I am sad to see this sale end, but I'll be waiting for the next great sale to come along.

Fry's mega sale continues next week, so I'm not even shopping there today so I can focus on ALbertsons and Walgreens.

Free Lubriderm lotion and another way to do the free Almay deal

2009-11-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

I went back to Walgreens today to see if the Almay was still bogo free and it was! But I already have a ton of mascara, so I did the deal a little differently. I had a $5 and a $10 RR from the previous Almay Pure naturals deal. I had heard that these would roll into each other, so I gave it a try. I also found out that for the $5 RR you can get the pure naturals mascara, eyeshadow, or lipgloss. The mascara is the cheapest, but I have enough of that, so I got an eyeshadow.

I did two different transactions. I started with the pure naturals foundation at $9.99 and got a one coat mascara @ $6.99 with it. The $6.99 mascara came off as the free item and I used the $4 coupon which came off once for that mascara. So, I had $9.99- $4 coupon=$5.99. Then I used the $5 RR from the pure naturals mascara I bought yesterday to bring my total down to $.99 plus tax. I got the $10 rr back rom this transaction.

My next transaction I got the Pure naturals eyeshadow at $7.49 and a double pack one coat mascara at $7.99. The $7.49 one came off for the free item and again I used the $4 coupon and it came off once. So it was $7.99-$4= $3.99. I wanted to use the $10 RR, so I bought some eggs and some candles and a candle holder from the fall clearance. And then I added 3- 6oz. Lubriderm lotions. These are $3.99 each and we have $2 coupons from 10/11 rp. There is also a diabetes booklet in the pharmacy area with a $1 Lubriderm walgreens coupon that takes off $1 for each one you buy. So these were $3.99-$2-$1=$.99 eachx3= $2.97 total. When you buy 3 Lubriderm lotions, you get an $8 RR! My total before tax was now $10.35 and so I used the $10 RR from te foundation and paid $.35 plus tax. I got back the $5 Almay RR and the $8 Lubriderm RR!

If you have no RR to start with and want to spend as little oop as possible, start with the Lubriderm deal and pay $2.97 plus tax and get $8 back which you can then use on the $9.99 foundation. If you do his, pair the foundation with the mascara, eyeshadow, or lipgloss that also produces the RR (not the one coat that gives overage)- you will pay $9.99-$8=$1.99 and get $15 back. Or if you don't want the lubriderm, start with the Pure naturals mascara @$6.99 and pair it with the one coat @ $6.99 and use the $4 coupon. Your total will be $6.99-$4= $2.99 oop plus tax and get back the $5 RR which you can then roll into the foundation to get the $10 RR.

Well, if that doesn't confuse you, then go get yourself some free stuff!

Here's some close-up pics of the diabetes magazine and the trueblends makeup as well as the one coat mascaras so you'll know what to look for.

Super deal at Walgreens-Free makeup!

2009-11-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

At Walgreens right now, Almay makeup is ringing up buy one get one free. It is supposed to be buy one get one 50% off. In the front of the stores, there is a new coupon book for November that has a $4 off coupon for Almay one coat mascara. The joy of this coupon is it's a Walgreens coupon and one coupon takes off $4 for every mascara you have in your order! SO, while the makeup is still ringing up bogo free, this makes for free mascara or even a money maker!
Some of the one coat mascaras are $6.99 and some are $7.99. So with the $6.99 ones, you buy 2, it takes one off then you use the $4 coupon and it takes off $8 making you $1.01 for every two you buy! (Make sure to have something else in your order to use this overage on.) If you buy 2 of the $7.99 ones, then they are basically free with bogo and the $4 coupon. But since this is probably a glitch, it is likely to be fixed soon so that they are actually ringing up bogo 50%, so hurry to get in on this one. Once fixed, if you buy 2 of the $6.99 mascaras, it would be $6.99+$3.50=$10.49 then your coupon would take off $8 leaving two mascaras for $2.49. Still a good deal, but not free!

Almay has another deal running too for the pure blends foundation and pure blends mascara. The foundation is $9.99 and will give you a $10 RR, so it's free after RR! The mascara is $6.99 and is giving a $5 RR. (The $4 coupon does not work on this mascara.) Buy both together and you will get the mascara free while it's still ringing bogo free or for $3.50 if it's fixed to bogo 50%. So you will pay either $9.99 for both or $13.49 and you will get $15 in RR back! It's a money maker either way! With the mascara deal above for the one coats, you can buy as many as you want in one transaction (but buy in 2's for the bogo deal). But remember for this deal since they are producing RR's only to do one of each in a transaction as you will only get one RR for the foundation and one for the mascara in a transaction no matter how many you buy. Also remember you cannot roll these RR to buy more Almay or you won't get another RR.
(Hint: use the MM mascaras to provide overage so you can spend less on the RR makeup.)

More Fry's free and cheap groceries!

2009-11-02T12:54:00.001-08:00

I went out this morning to do some Walgreen's deals and stopped at Fry's also to get more of the mega sale items.
I paid $3.55 oop for all this. I forgot the clorox wipes catalina deal ended yesterday, so I did not get another catalina for those, but they were still free with the coupons and previous catalina.
The Betty Crocker potatoes were free.
The kotex pads were 2/$1 since I had $1 coupons on each and a cellfire coupon for $1.
The Keebler cookies were $.25 each with printable coupon (these have reset and you can print more now-look on the side bar for coupons.)
The sausages were a moneymaker- I made $.11 each package.
The gloves were also a money maker- making $.50 each package (paying for most of my groceries).
The kleenexes were about $.50 a box with the $.50/3 coupon and a free box wyb 3 coupon.
The frozen vegetables were $.49 each after coupons.

There was still no tuna avaiable at my fry's, but I will try again tomorrow.
Total spent: $3.55
Total saved: $115.49 (98%)

More Albertson's free stuff!

2009-10-29T22:38:00.001-07:00

Since I missed the Fry's sale today, I stopped by Albertson's after my class to get my deals fix.
I got these for $1 each after my coupons:
Nature valley nut clusters
Nature Valley Granola bars
Trix kid's yogurts
Cinnamon toast crunch cereal

I paid $1.50 for the other cereals with $1/2 coupons and $.99 each for the bacon.

I used a $3/30 fresh & Easy coupon and paid $14.70 oop and I got $14 in catalinas back. SO I can go back tomorrow and get more stuff totally free oop and get more cat's to roll! Plus, I again got movie ticket codes on all my cereal boxes. You can get one movie ticket for two codes, so I will have 3 more free movie tickets now! I love movie ticket deals!

Sitting this one out

2009-10-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

As I have been couponing for a while, I know that you can't get every deal every time. Still sometimes it's sad to have to miss a deal.

I had planned to hit Fry's today for their Halloween madness sale. It's today from 3pm-9pm only and they have special deals during that time. Unfortunately, I will not get to go. :(

The few things I really wanted were the Bar-s bacon which would be $.47 after coupons and the pop secret popcorn which would be $.38 after coupons and the chocolate chips for $.97 each. If I went, I would have got some of the apples too that were $.99 for a 3lb bag and maybe some of the candy- the wonka bags are $1.67 and there's a $2 printable.

But this morning started with my computer going all wonky and since the deals I wanted needed printable coupons, I couldn't get them to print. So I went to the kid's computer during lunch time (when they would not be doing schoolwork) to try and print some there and it wanted me to install the "coupon printer" again, for like the 100th time! Of course, to do this, you need to be an administrator and my husband had put a password on the admin account so I couldn't get into it. I texted him and he sent me the password, but it didn't work. So still no coupons.

Then I had to drive across town to pick up some gloves for my husband because he needed them for riding his bike and he couldn't get home in time to go get them himself. And I took the kids to the library. Then my two older girls had to leave for their dance group tonight leaving me at home with the 3 youngest ones.

So, now I am at home with no coupons to go shopping with, no babysitters, and I am not going to take these little ones into the "madness" to do some shopping, I will come out with a huge headache.

Of course, about the time my husband gets home and can get me into the admin side to be able to print coupons, I have to leave for my night class and I should get home right about 9:00pm. When the sale ends.

Oh well, you win some and you lose some. So, though it is involuntary, I am sitting this one out. (I'll make up for it with all the other deals this week.) ;)

Fry's Mega sale-lot's of free groceries! 10/28-11/3

2009-10-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Fry's has a great sale this week with lots of free stuff and cheap stuff! PYP has a great list matched up with coupons.
Fry's is also doubling, tripling, etc.-every coupon (below $1 value) is worth $1.
They are also taking competitor coupons-this was on the back page of the business section of Wednesday's paper (10/28). You might want to have a copy with you as my cashier did not know this and I had nothing to show her, so I was not able to use my $3/$30 fresh & easy coupon.

The mega sale takes off $5 for every 10 participating items you buy, so basically you save $.50 per item. Here's some of what I got: (prices are after the $5 comes off)
Tombstone pizzas: $1.99 used $1.50/2 coupons- Final price $1.25 each
Keebler fudge shop cookies: $.99 each used $1.50/2 printable coupon-Final price $.24 each
Banquet brown & serve sausage: $.89 each used $.35 coupons from meals boxes-Final price $.11 overage each!
Cheez-its: $.99 each- used $1.50/2 coupon-Final price $.24 each
Halls cough drops: $.50 each-used $.35 coupons-Final price $.50 overage each!
Betty Crocker potatoes: $.99 each-used $.25 coupons-Final price $.01 overage each
Quaker instant oatmeal: $1.99 each-used $1.25/2 coupon-Final price $1.37 each
Kleenex: $.99 each-used $.50/3 coupon-Final price $.66 each
Kotex: $2.00 each-used $2/2 coupon-Final price $1.00 each
Playtex gloves: $.50 each-used $1 coupons-Final price $.50 overage each!

Milk- $1.47

Everything I got except the milk was part of the buy 10 get $5 off sale. The kleenex and oatmeal were not great prices, but we needed them and the overage from the other items helped make up for those. This type of sale is great since it takes off the $5 at the end, the coupons will double up to the original price before the discount. So those items that are $.50 after the sale are actually $1, then the $5 comes off at the end. That means the coupons double up to the $1 and creates overage! But you also have to be careful, if your count is off by just one item or youpick up an item that is not participating, your $5 will not come off.

Look to the side on my blog for some of the printable coupons I used!

Albertsons deals this week! Free cereal, free movie tickets, free yogurt, and cheap produce!

2009-10-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Albertsons has some good deals this week. My daughter took the photos and for some reason she left some of the items out. Things I got that were not pictured here were 4 packs John Morrell hot dogs- these are $.49 each with the coupon in the ad and there's a limit of 4. I also got two boxes of Cinnamon toast crunch-these are on sale for $2 each and I used 2 printables for $.55/1 (doubled to $1) making them $1 each. These were supposed to generate a $2 OYNO catalina, but it wasn't working. They gave me $2 cash back. As a bonus, the boxes I got had a code for a free movie ticket when have two codes. So, two boxes of cereal and one movie ticket for free!

Shown in the photo I got 2- 3lb bags of apples @ $.99 each with the in-ad coupon (limit 2), bananas are $.39/lb, whole chickens are $.48/lb, and pork chops are $.88/lb.

They also have a 12oz package of bacon for $.99 with in-ad coupon (limit 1) and for the cereal deal, you can also get Yoplait yogurt packs, Nature valley granola bars, Betty Crocker fruit snacks, or Fiber one toaster pastries or bars. Each one is $2 and you get $2 OYNO when you buy 2. There are coupons out for most of these making them free or cheap after OYNO. I will be getting some of the kid's yogurts next with the $.35/1 coupons, they will be free after the coupons and deal.

Albertsons is still doubling, tripling, and quadrupling coupons.

More Albertsons and a little Walgreens

2009-10-09T12:12:00.001-07:00

I did some more shopping at Albertsons. I got some more of the same items as before and some stuff they didn't have in stock the first day I went in. On the buy 6, get $3 off sale, I got free: G.G. Steamers, Chex mix, Totinos Pizza rolls, and Progresso Broth. I also got some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls. I bought 4 at a time of these and used $.50/2 coupons that doubled making them $1 each after coupons and the sale. But when you buy 4, you get a $2.50 OYNO catalina. Which, when used on your next order of the rolls, it brings the price down to $1.50 for four or $.37 each. You can also buy 3 and get $2 back or 5 and get $3 back. The buy 3, get $2 back is the best deal for the catalina part, but my coupons are off of 2, so I am buying in 4's.
On the buy 10 get 3 free conagra deal, I got hunt's can tomatoes for about $.44 a can with $.45/3 coupons, Crunch & munch free after $.35 coupons tripled and banquet meals for about $.60 each with $.60/6 coupons from inside the boxes. Also inside the banquet meal boxes are coupons for $.35/1 of the Banquet sausage. These are $1, so free after coupons are tripled.
I also got more Tony's pizzas. The smaller single serve pizzas are free with the $.50 coupons and the larger family size pizzas are $1.38 each after the $1/2 coupons. Both coupons were from this past Sunday's paper. I found that if you buy the large and small pizzas together, the $.50/1 for the smaller pizzas doubles all the way to $1 giving you some overage. If you buy just the smaller pizzas, these coupons double only to $.88 making them free.
I piked up some bananas which are on sale $.39 a lb and some hamburger that was marked down to $.99 a lb and I used some Walgreens RR to help pay the oop costs.
I have had lots of problems with coupons not scanning or not doubling with this sale, so make sure you watch your coupons and pick a good cashier! I have had two cashiers who were able to fix the coupon issues when they happened and two who really screwed up my totals when the coupons didn't work right! I have paid $11.50 more than I expected to so far because of coupon issues. I am very tempted to go in and run 6 of the same items at a time and do separate orders. That way, only the coupons for that one type of item is coming off the order. At least that way I would know where the problems are. But I probably won't do that unless the store is dead when I get there.

I used up some RR at Walgreens for this 5 lb bag of rice and rolled some into another Vaseline lotion. (That is a monthly deal.) I also picked up some cookies since these are on sale for $1 and I have $1/2 coupons from the Kraft coupon booklet that came out a while back and I also have $.75/2 coupons from the inserts. Not free, but I love my oreos!

Free Lunch!

2009-10-07T15:19:00.001-07:00

If you do coupons, you know there is such a thing as a free lunch! QT has a printable coupon out right now for a free sandwich, wrap, or salad! I got this ham and cheddar sandwich and it was good! You can print the coupon once-look for it in my side bar on the left. (Click to "see all coupons".)

You can also find the coupon on Piching your pennies printables links. (Look in the AZ forum for the thread that says "Free QT sandwich".) Link to PYP AZ forum is on the right hand side of my blog. You may be able o print the coupon from both locations.

Albertsons is the place to be!

2009-10-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

This week (starting today), Albertsons is having an awesome sale AND they are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling coupons! I got there about noon today and they were already out of the Progresso broth and Crunch & munch- both would have been free with coupons. They were running low on other items too. But here is what I got:
$3 off when you buy 6 (can buy multiples of 6 in one transaction):
Green giant steamers- free after coupons
Totinos pizza rolls-free after coupons
Chex mix- free after printable coupons
Betty crocker icing- free with peelies (found a while back)
Betty Crocker warm delights- free after coupons *The coupons for this product are not working right, so make sure you pay attention when the cashier scans them!

Check out the coupon link on the left for printable coupons for these items and more! (Click to "see all coupons.")

Another deal is the Conagra buy 10 get 3 free which makes each item $.77 before coupons. For this deal I got:
5 Banquet frozen meals-$.77 each (these all had coupons on the inside that I can use next time.)
6 Hunt's diced tomatoes- about $.44 each after coupons
2 Chef Boyardee microwave cups- $.27 each after coupons

And I also got:
4 Tony's pizza $1.88 each and use $1/2 to make them $1.38 each
3 Tony's single serve pizzas-$.88 each and free after $.50/1 coupons
The coupons for both of these were in last Sunday's inserts.

Pork chops @ $.88/lb

I used a $3/$30 fresh & Easy coupon from today's paper also. In the end, I got overcharge by $7.50 as a result of coupons not scanning and the cashier getting confused and messed up. Unfortunately, the receipt was such a mess, I had to actually come home to figure out the problem. Watch those coupons at the register!

Way back in the back, you can see I also stopped at Bashas and got 3 Campbell's soup at hand for $.29 each after coupons and 3 Snuggle dryer sheets free after $3 coupon from last Sunday.

For a complete list of all the deals this week, check out Pinching your pennies with the link on the right.

Bashas free butter!

2009-09-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Challenge butter is $.88 at Bashas starting today for the first 4. There are printable coupons for $.50, $.55, and $.75 off 1. All should double and make these free! Also, check out the coupons on my side bar on the left. (There's a scroll button at the bottom or click to see all coupons at the top.) There are more Challenge butter coupons there too! You can print them right here from my blog.

I also found some $.75 off 1 blinkies at Albertson's tonight. These say "do not double" but start with a "5". So, if your cashier suppresses the doubles, your butter would be $.13, if not they would be free. (I stopped at Albertson's tonight on my way home for some strawberries for $1 each.)

I am really excited about this deal since I have not been able to stock up on butter in a while and it seems like it's been forever since they last ran this deal. Free butter is awesome!!!

CVS, Safeway, Fry's , and Walgreens

2009-09-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

I did a lot of running around today and here's what I got:
At CVS, I got 2 bottles of Tide and 13 bottles of Dawn. The tide was $6 each and the dawn was $1 each. So my total before coupons was $25 and when you spend $25 on certain P&G items, you get $10 in ECB back. I did not have any ECB to use on this order, but I used $1 tide coupons and $.25 dawn coupons from this past Sundays inserts. I also used a $5 off $25 CVS coupon from the flu quiz here. So I paid $14.75 oop plus tax and got $10 ECB back.

Then I went to Fry's and used my free La Victoria coupons that expire today. I also grabbed a Betty Crocker cake mix for $.77 (no coupons) and 2 boxes of Green giant vegetables at $1.25 each. I used 2- $.50 printables for the veggies and had a $.50 off 2 shortcuts coupon that came off. So these should have been free. BUT my cashier suppressed my doubles! So not such a good deal for me.

I hit Safeway next and got 7 of the Joint Juices and two packs of Chicken breasts (bone in) at $.99 a lb. I used a $2 WT on the meat and the $5/7 Joint juice and the $10 oyno. I paid $1.58 oop and got both cat's again to use next time.

Last I stopped at Walgreens and I got:
3 Theraflu- used $2 Walgreens coupon and 2- $2 printables (I had these printed from a previous sale- there are no more printables now.)
2 Herbal Essences- used $1 coupons
1 Robitussin to go
1 Dentek- used $1 printable
1 Halls- used $.75 coupon
1 Gillette fusion- used $4 coupon
I grabbed some fillers (tissues, stickers, marker) and used RR to help pay for each order. (Separated into 2 orders) I paid $3.30 oop for all and got $23.50 in RR back. I did not use the $5/ $25 that is good through today because I did not want to spend $20 oop, though I could have used it to make more money. Just didn't want to put out that much this time.

Free Groceries at Safeway

2009-09-28T18:23:00.001-07:00

Right now Safeway has a nice money maker on these drinks. If you buy 7 of these Joint juices ($1.39 each here in PHX) you get a catalina for $10 off your next order.
If you buy 8 the first time and use 4 of these printable bogo coupons (you can print 2 per computer)your total will be $5.56 plus tax and you will get the $10 cat. back. You should also get another coupon for $5 off of 7 bottles. (I got this 2 out of 3 times doing this deal). Use the $5 off next time on 7 bottles and pay $4.73. Use the $10 catalina also and you can pick up $5.27 of free groceries and get another $10 cat and $5 coupon. Keep rolling! This is supposed to be good through 10/18.

Super week at Walgreens! Lots of free stuff!

2009-09-28T17:54:00.001-07:00

Walgreens has some super deals this week with lots of freebies and some money makers (MM).
Here's a quick run-down of what I got so far:
Gillette Fusion $8.99 used $4 coupon from sunday's P&G and got back $6 RR (Moneymaker!)
Gillette Venus $7.99 used $2 coupon 9/27 P&G and got back $4 RR
Halls Refresh drops $1 used $.75 coupon 9/27 SS got back $1 RR (MM)
Chapstick Fresh Effects $2.99 get back $2.99 (Free)
Vaseline sheer infuion lotion $6.99 used $1.50 printable got back $7 RR (MM!)
Thereflu $4 each used $2 walgreens coupon from Healthy savings booklet in store (takes off $2 for each one)-buy 3 and pay $6 oop and get $8 RR back (MM!)
Dentek flossers $2 use $1 printable get $2 RR back (MM!)
Herbal Essences $2.99 used $1 coupon from 8/23 RP or 9/13 RP get $2 RR (FREE)

I grabbed some oreos, popcorn, and tissues for fillers. I also used some RR for extra newspapers yesterday. I used RR from last weeks deals and previous orders for these and broke the transactions up into smaller orders so I paid the least oop. Be careful as you don't want to use the P&G RR's on other P&G deals- like don't mix the razors or herbal essences RR as you won't get another one.

Some more deals I did not get:
Robitussin to go $2.49 get $2.50 RR back (FREE)
Emergen-C booster $3.49 get $3.50 RR back (FREE)
Oral-B Advantage 1-2-3 toothbrush $3 use $.75 coupon form 9/27 P&G get $3 RR back (MM!)

Also, on Tuesday and Wednesday, you can use this $5/$25 coupon to make even more money! Remember though, your total has to be $25 after all coupons, walgreens coupons and RR come off, so you will be spending $20 plus tax oop.

Walgreens deals

2009-09-17T15:52:00.001-07:00

I'm getting a late start since I was working on schoolwork for most of the week when I had some free time.
Here are some of the deals at Walgreen's this week. These are good through Saturday.
True North nut clusters are $3, use a $1 printable or $1 from 1/28 SS and pay $2 and get back $3 RR. $1 moneymaker

Triaminic- 2/$10, use the $2 walgreens coupon in the healthy savings book and pay $6 (will take off $2 each) and get back $5 RR. $1 for two boxes. Some were reporting they had received 2-$5 RR when buying the night cold and cough liquid or the allergy strips, but I have had no luck-only received one $5 RR.

One-A-Day vitamin drink mixes 2ct $.99 each, buy 3 for $2.97 plus tax and get $5 RR back. NO COUPONS NEEDED DEAL-$2 MONEY MAKER!!! (I used RR from previous deals to cut oop spending.) *These were hard to find. I found them at one store hanging on the end of an aisle, but could not find them at another store.

*Not pictured because my daughter took them- Sally Hansen hard as nails nail polish is $2.89 here in AZ (reported cheaper elsewhere). Buy 3 and use $1 coupons from 8/2 or 8/23 RP. Pay $5.67 oop plus tax ad get $5 RR back-good only on Sally Hansen products. If you have girls like I do that go through a lot of nail polish here's a good deal to stock up!

Listerine Total care is $2.99, use $2 coupon from 3/15 SS or 4/26 RP and pay $.99 oop and get $2 RR back. $1 Moneymaker!!! (I bought two in two different transactions.)

Carefree "ultra" pantyliners $1.99, use $1 coupon from 8/30 SS to pay $.99 plus tax oop and get $2 RR back. $1 Moneymaker!!! (I used this $2 RR to buy the pads pictured for my girls. They are on sale for $2.) This deal is good all month!

Ghiradelli chocolate was on clearance for $.65 and I used $1/2 Walgreens coupon in September savings book to get them for $.15 each. I found the candy up by the register.

The TP and butter were fillers for orders I was using RR on.

Stocking up at Food City and Fry's again

2009-09-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

I stopped at Food City today since they had flour again for $5.99 for 20 lbs. I also got some fruit- peaches were 2 lbs for $1, pears were 3 lbs for $1 and the apples were $.49 a lb. Hamburger was $.99 a lb, and the 7oz bags of pasta were $.17 each. The spaghetti sauce was not on sale, but I needed it so I grabbed just one.

This is from last week's fry's stock up sale. I got more, this is just one trip.

Got my Tuna and my salsa!

2009-09-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

I stopped at Fry's today and they had more tuna! I used the 3 $1/5 coupons I had found yesterday and got 15 cans @ $.27 each. Out of the 15 cans I got, 3 of them had the peelies on them, so I can go back now and get 15 more cans at that price.
I also picked up 6 boxes of the mac & cheese for $.29 each. I usually stock up on this when it's $.25 or less a box, but $.29 is close enough. I was going to get some of the Ramen that's $.10 too, but I only had $6 in my pocket. My total came to $6.01.

I will cut my coupons at some point and head back to really stock up since these are great pantry items for us. These are also great items to stock up on for the food pantry, so I'll likely get extras for that.

When I got home I checked my mail and I got 5 free salsa coupons in the mail today! If you remember my post here about La Victoria I had a lot of points to get the $4/1 coupons. But as with most online printables, after the second coupon print, I couldn't print anymore. I had already redeemed my points and even tried it again. (silly, I know) In all, I had about 4 coupons not print. So I had emailed the company about it and let them know I was out the points with no coupons. It took a while, but I finally got the coupons. I was a little disappointed though to see the expiration date was 9/30 of this year, but I am still happy to actually get them.

Some Albertson's deals

2009-09-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Pay no attention to the dirty counter. ;)
Today is my daughter's 14th birthday, so I took her to Baskin robbins this afternoon for her free ice cream cone. Since it is right next to Albertsons, I stopped to get some of the deals this week. I didn't have all my coupons cut and since the buy 6 get $3 off deal is limited to one per order, I only did it once as I didn't have time to do multiple orders right then. So here's what I got:
1 Betty crocker cake mix $1
1 Betty crocker icing $1
-used $.50 on 2 coupon for those two and paid $.75 each
2 Old El Paso black beans pouch $.75 each and used $.60/2 coupon to make each one $.45
2 Betty crocker pouch potatoes $.75 and used two $.40/1 coupons to make each one $.35
All of these were part of the buy 6 get $3 off and the prices above are after the $3 comes off.
I also got 3 of the yoplait yogurt 4pks that are $1.50 and used $1 coupons on all of them to make them $.50 each 4pk. And I needed some rice, so I grabbed a 2lb bag for $1.49. I paid $6.40 total with tax and saved $17.01. *All the coupons I used were printables.

I also found some peelies on the bumble bee cans of tuna there good for $1 off 5 cans. These are on sale at Fry's this week for $.47 a can. This coupon would make the cans at Fry's $.27 each! Fry's has some good deals in their case sale this week and Albertson's has some good GM deals too.
I have a paper due for one of my classes this week and a test to study for in another, so hopefully I'll be able to get out and get more deals done this weekend. My stockpile is running very low! (Notice I had to actually pay for cake mix and icing! Ugghh!!)

Free Flowers and $1 Restaurant certificates-Today Only!

2009-09-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today is good neighbor day from FTD florists. You can stop by a participating florist and get a bouquets of a dozen flowers free. You are supposed to keep one and give the other 11 flowers to neighbors or friends. Here are the participating florists in the phoenix area:

Arrowhead Flowers, Glendale, AZ
Flowers on Fourth, Benson, AZ
Fresh Bloomers Flowers And Gifts, Mesa, AZ

Check here to find florists in other areas:
Good neighbor FTD florists

Also in honor of 9/9/09 you can get a restaurant.com $25 gift certificate at 90% off or $1 using code: NINETY
This deal is good for 99 hours (4 days), so good through 9/13. Find a participating restaurant near you: Restaurant.com
The certificates are good for a year, so you have plenty of time to use them. Plan a nice night out or use them for a special occasion.
*While this is a good deal, remember these are more like coupons than actual gift certificates. But it can make for a good discount if you are planning to go out to eat anyway.

Awesome Target dog food deal and the dollar store

2009-09-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

I stopped by target today to look for some shoes (didn't get any shoes) and remembered to use my dog food coupons. I got 4 bags of the Chef Michael's 1.5lb dry dog food and 8 of the wet dog foods. I used 4 of the buy one get one free insert coupons and 4 of the $3 insert coupons. Since I handed the bogo coupons first, they took off for the $4.xx bags instead of the $.84 cans. Then I used some target coupons-4 for bogo on the cans that took off $.84 each, and 4 for $1.50 off the bags. I also picked up a dog collar for $4.99 and a set of headphones for my daughter @ $16.99. The dog food was free after all my coupons and took off so much overage that I paid $7.34 for the other two items before tax (would have been $21.98) and $10.54 total with tax!
*Remember target store coupons can be combined with manufacturer coupons, but your cashier may or may not allow the overage. At the very least, you can still get free dog food. Look for target printables at hotcouponworld.com

I also hit the dollar store today for a few random items and headphones (before I got the cooler ones at target) and picked up some grocery items too. I got some nectarines, garlic, two honey bees, and some syrup. Remember, while some items are a good deal at the dollar store, some are really priced too high even at a $1; especially if you coupon. The syrup was not a great deal, but the nectarines and garlic were a good deal. And the headphones will be a good cheap backup pair.

Bashas deals and the food bank!

2009-09-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Raeanna for telling me about the food bank. I donate a lot to the food banks and even help out sometimes at one. But I did not know that the St. Mary's food bank (we went to the westside food bank) actually sells boxes of food to the general public. You don't have to qualify for this, you just show up and pay. Most of the boxes they sell are not really a good value to me as I can almost always get the stuff a lot cheaper than their prices. But the beauty of their program is that when you buy one of their main boxes, they give you extra boxes of random stuff they have extras of. Here I bought the "pantry box" which is normally $13. I paid $11 with a military discount. In the pantry box, I got 2 boxes of mac & cheese, two cans of tuna, 1 small bottle of juice, 1 jar of peanut butter, and 7 cans total of: soup, vegetables, and tomato sauce. So, not a lot. BUT I got all the other stuff here too as extras. Most of the bread is expired or close to expiring, but we will freeze it. In the box is a ton of carrots, some onions, and two heads of lettuce. I also got grapes, celery, a watermelon, and several single serving packs of carrots with ranch sauce and apples with caramel. Plus the laundry and dish detergent, several small chocolate milks, cleaning wipes, ziploc bags, and much more! So, in the bigger picture, it was a pretty good deal for $11.

On the way home I stopped at Bashas for some of their deals on meat and staples this week. They have hamburger at 80% lean for $1.35 a lb and chicken for $.39 a lb-sold in a 10lb bag. Also got a 10lb bag of potatoes for $.99.
No coupon shopping, but I use as many methods as I can find to save money. I will hit some of the stores for quadruples and competitor coupon shopping in the next couple of days!

Fry's Mega Sale and a little Walgreens

2009-08-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

I finally had time to do a little shopping at the Fry's mega sale. Sometimes it pays to procrastinate, since now Fry's is not only quadrupling coupons, but the are taking competitors coupons. So, I cut out my $3/$30 fresh and easy coupons and loaded the cellfire and shortcuts coupons and went shopping.

Here's what I got:
2 Wanchai ferry meal kits $1.99 each after coupons and sale
2 BC potatoes $.37 each after shortcuts/cellfire coupons and sale
6 BC fruit snacks $.35 each after coupons/cellfire/shortcuts and sale plus got $3.50 catalina back
7 Pillsbury toaster strudel $.33 each after coupons/cellfire/shortcuts and sale
6 Pillsbury cinnamon rolls $.31 each after coupons/shortcuts and sale
4 Pillsbury grands $.13 each after coupons/shortcuts and sale
2 GM cereals $.89 each after coupons/sale
2 BC Brownie mixes $.61 each after coupons/cellfire/sale
1 Fiber one muffin mix $.49 after coupon/cellfire/sale
2 Old el paso taco shells $.69 each after shortcuts/sale
1 BC cookie mix $.09 after coupon/cellfire/sale
5 Hamburger helper $.18 each after coupons/cellfire/shortcuts/sale

I also got dog food and 4 rolls of the hamburger that was $1.57/lb. (They were 2lb chubs.) I spent $26.76 oop, got $3.50 back and saved $117.47 or 82%.

I made a quick stop at Walgreens since there are some money makers this week, but they were already out of a few of the items I wanted. So I only got 1 of the Rembrandt whitening toothpaste and the carefree liners. Both are free after RR and both have a $1 coupon,so I made $2 on those. (before tax)

Free Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-a

2009-08-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

Chick-Fil-A has a new contest/activity called the Chicken wave. If you are one of the first 250,000 to sign up, you will get a coupon for a free chicken sandwich-mailed out in October. Right now there is about 180,000 signed up according to the website.

You have to make an avatar when you sign up by either uploading a photo of yourself or you can choose one of their cow avatars to represent you. If you miss the first 250,000, you still get a coupon for a free drink.

Go here to sign up now:
http://www.chickenwave.com

Save $5 when you buy $25 at Walgreens-Hurry!

2009-08-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have been super busy this week, so sorry for the late notice. Walgreens has a promotion that's good through tomorrow (Saturday) where you can get a $5 RR when you spend $25 on just about anything. (The usual exclusions apply- postage, gift cards, tobacco, alcohol, etc.)

The good news is the $25 is before coupons! So you can easily put a bunch of deals together and pay very little oop and get the $5 RR back.

I did two quick transactions today while I was out running errands.
The first one I got:
18 Bic highlighters 5pk- on sale for $.39 each. I used 7- $1/2 coupons for $.02 oop
6 Mars candy bars- $.49 each with in ad coupon and used 3 $1/2 coupons- FREE
5 Kellogg's poptarts $2 each- used 2- $1/2 coupons- $8 oop
2 Glade soy candles $3.29 each- used free coupons from inserts- FREE
Also used a $6 RR from last week's Listerine deal and with tax, I paid $3.09 oop.
I got back the $5 RR for spending $25 and also a $5 RR from the poptarts.

The second order I got:
4 Bic highlighters 5pk- $.39 each- used 2-$1/2 coupons and was able to get overage at this store. Made $.44
6 Mars candy bars $.49 each with ad coupon and used 3 $1/2 coupons- FREE
3 Glade soy candles $3.29 each- used free coupons- FREE
1 Softsoap bodywash $3.99- used $2 printable- paid $1.99 oop
1 Conair brush $2.99-no coupons- $2.99 oop
4 Starbucks Frappucino- $1.25 each with ad coupon- used 4-$1 coupons- $.25 each or $1 oop total
Used the $5 RR from poptarts and paid $2.30 with tax and got back the $5 RR when you spend $25, $4 RR for the softsoap, and a $2 RR for the brush.

My stores were all out of the velveeta cups which are free this week with the walgreens coupon (back to school booklet), insert coupons, and $1 RR when you buy 4. Another deal I did not do, but might go back for was huggies wipes. The cheapest box in my stores is $3.29 and if I use the $2 coupon from the back to school booklet and the $.50 insert coupons, they will be $.79 each. Not great, but combine it with the $5 RR wyb $25 and they will be almost free.

Remember the extra $5 RR will not roll, so don't use it on another $25 order or you probably won't get another one. I'm saving mine for next week, but pay attention, they expire 8/31!

Mega Swag Bucks Day

2009-08-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today is a Mega Swag Bucks day! That means you have a better chance of earning swag bucks today if you search. If you are not a member of swag bucks, you can join using my banner here or on the side.

Swag bucks is a search engine that gives you points or "swag bucks" every so often when you are searching. So, if you do a lot of searches, go through swag bucks and earn something back from your searching.

Swag Bucks can be redeemed for gift certificates and other prizes when you have enough.
So start searching today!

Walgreens is my best friend again

2009-08-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

After a few lackluster weeks at Walgreen's (and my grocery stores) I am happy to have some good deals to go after this week. While I did get a few of the free shampoos and toothbrushes last week, you know I really like those money making deals.

Walgreens has two of these right now that I am rolling back and forth. One is the Reach/Listerene deal. You buy 3 items (floss, toothbrush, or mouthwash) for $3 each and get a $6 RR back. This goes great with the $5/3 coupon we got in the inserts last week, making an extra $2 per transaction.

Then there is the colgate toothpaste that is free after RR ($2.99- get $3 RR). Use the $1 Colgate coupon from Sunday's insert and make $1 on each transaction. I have been using the $3 RR for the reach deal and paying $1+tax oop and then using the $6 RR on the colgate deal and getting $4 of grocery items with the overage.

Since my husband's job has messed up his pay for the last two months, we are super tight on our budget right now. So, being able to get groceries with the extra $ at Walgreens really helps.

Some other good deals at Walgreens that I have done at least once:

Bic pens are 2/$1 and are free after $1/2 coupons from Sunday's inserts or printables online.

Both Kellogg's deals are still going on. Cereal- 2/$5 get $2 RR, use $1 coupons and get each box for $.50. Poptarts, keebler cookies, crackers, etc. buy $10 get $5 back. I bought the poptarts and used $1/2 coupons to pay $8 for 5 boxes (used other RR to reduce oop) and got back $5 RR.

Jergen's lotion is $5.99, get $5 RR- I have no coupons for this one.

Campbell's soups $.79 with in-ad coupon, use printable for $1/2 and get them for $.29 each.

Also look for clearance Reach ultraclean toothbrushes to make more money on the Reach RR deal. (I only found one at my stores, but I snatched it up.)

And look for the back to school coupons at the front of the store. (Looks like a pamphlet.) Inside is a coupon for $1/4 Kraft easy mac cups or Velveeta cups. Use with the bogo free coupon on the velveeta cups from the inserts to get them for $.25 each. (These are $1 if you buy 3 or more, or $1.29 each if you buy less than 3.)

And if you haven't heard about the stamps deal yet (it's all over the internet!), look for the clearanced photo stamps kits behind the photo counter. They are $7.19 and they are good for a sheet of 20 photo stamps online. That's $8.80 worth of postage AND you get to put your photo on it! There is a lot of info out there about getting $8 back through Upromise for these, but unfortunately, you can't get the rebate from Upromise (or probably any other cashback/points sites) since you are using a gift code (provided in the kit) online and not actually making the purchase through the Upromise link. Still, it's a good deal to get a discount on stamps and you get to design your own. I'm saving some for Christmas.

Fry's Mega sale!

2009-07-28T19:24:00.001-07:00

So, it's been a while since I've done any major coupon shopping. But I could not let Fry's mega sale go by without hitting it. I had done a small trip last week, mainly for some basics we needed and I got a little bit of the mega deal items too.

But I hit it hard today with my coupons. Of course they were out of or low on some of the items I was looking for, but I am happy with what I got. I paid $18.72 oop, of which $3.49 was tax, and I saved $172.88 or 91%!

Cow Appreciation Day!

2009-07-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today was the day at Chick-fil-a. Free food if you dress like a cow. We went and we all dressed up! Not only did we all get free meals, but they had so many fun activities, balloons and hats! While we were there, there was a "cow pageant" with prizes for the best costume, best "moo" and the best cow strut. Then they had a nuggets eating contest. Unfortunately, they only took 4 contestants for that contest and 4 little boys got to the table super fast, so my kids didn't get to do that one. But they enjoyed watching it. Then the little ones played in the play center. It was a lot of fun for the whole family and I appreciate Chick-fil-a doing this every year! Though I don't do a lot of fast food, when I do, Chick-fil-a is definitely one of the favorites.

Everyone seems to love the lemonade here. I don't drink lemonade, but everyone besides me got lemonade tonight and talked about how great it was. However, I could probably live on their tea and brownies. Though I didn't get a brownie tonight-(if I bought one, I'd have to buy eight) I did get some tea and then got a refill before we left!

The top picture is my two little girls with the cow and the bottom is our whole group dressed as cows. If anyone else has pics, post your link!

Buying in Bulk vs. Stockpiling

2009-07-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

Having a large family, a lot of people assume I buy in bulk. But I rarely do. I don't even own a membership to a warehouse store! Instead, as a serious couponer, I usually do something called "stockpiling". Which means when something is free or at rock bottom prices, I will get as many as I can at that price. It is usually cheaper to do it this way and end up with 10 regular jars of salsa or spaghetti sauce than it would cost me to buy the same item in bulk-especially at the warehouse stores that don't take coupons.

And I have also found that it is usually more economical to get the smallest size product with a coupon and get more of it than to buy the largest size. (If spaghetti sauce is on sale for $1 and your coupon makes it free, it's much better to buy 10 of those than to use your coupon on the larger size which might be $2 after your coupon.)

Now, having said that, sometimes buying in bulk can be a good deal. When I got this week's ads in the mail, I looked over the ad for the hispanic store and noticed some really good deals this week. So, I did a little bit of both at that store. Chicken is on sale this week for $.29 lb, sold in 10 lb bags. We use a lot of chicken, so this is an awesome stock up price for me. So, I will be stockpiling chicken this week. They also had watermelons for $.10 lb, so I grabbed one of those since the kids have been asking for watermelon for a while. I might get one more towards the end of the sale.

Now, for the bulk deals, they had a pack of 5 dozen eggs on sale for $2.99. This comes to about $.60 a dozen, so that's a good deal to me. All purpose flour was $5.99 for a 20 lb bag. I have never bought flour in bulk before, but my girls are doing a lot of baking lately and with the newish bread machine, we are always running out. So I thought I'd give it a try. Breaking down the cost, it comes to about $.30 lb. I usually buy a 5lb bag of flour, so for 5 lbs this comes to about $1.50. That's a pretty good deal to me since the only time I usually can get a 5 lb bag of flour for $1.50 or less is around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I actually have been buying it at $2 and up lately for 5 lbs.

My conclusion, for me and my family, stockpiling will almost always be cheaper, but I stay open to buying in bulk on items that I cannot get a better deal on otherwise. And hopefully, we won't run out of flour for a little while. :)

More Free stuff! Free Starbucks Ice cream, Free chik-fil-a and free slurpees!

2009-07-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

If you're on facebook, you can get a coupon for a free pint of Starbucks ice cream. It says to "share" a coupon with a friend, but also says you can send it to yourself if you like. (You only get one coupon, so if you send it to a friend, you don't get one yourself, unless maybe a friend sends one to you.) They are giving away 800 every hour through 7/19, so plenty of time to get yours. But if you want one, you have to be diligent and be sitting on the site right at the hour because they go super fast. It took me three tries (3 different hours) to get one. If you are up late, that might be the best time to try. If you get in before they are all gone for the hour, you need to put in a mailing address for who you want to send it to. Also looks like one coupon per facebook account and one per household address. So once you've got one, no need to keep trying for another. Here's the link: Starbucks free ice cream

Chik-fil-a is giving away free meals again this year if you come in dressed like a cow for their "Cow appreciation day". The dress up day is this Friday from 6:30Am through 10:00 PM. We had so much fun last year and the kids are excited to go again. I know last year, if you dress from head to toe, you get a free meal and if you just have some cow accessories, you get a free sandwich. We will be dressing from head to toe and going for dinner! I can't wait to see all the pics after the event. :)

And on Saturday 7/11, there will be free slurpees at 7-11 stores! You can get a 7.11 oz slurpee for free while supplies last. ("While supplies last" means that each store will get special 7-11 "birthday" cups for this promo and when they run out of those cups, that's all the free slurpees for the day at that store.)

And if you're hungry when you go in:
"And to celebrate National Hot Dog Month in July, participating 7-Eleven stores are offering a quarter-pound Big Bite hot dog and Big Gulp® drink for just $1.99 throughout the entire month, a real value at a time when consumers’ incomes may be stretched dog-gone thin."

Free Movies and Free salsa!

2009-07-06T15:41:00.001-07:00

First of all, today is the first Monday of the month, so you can get a free Redbox movie coupon code 4J7LF6. It expires tonight at midnight. Remember, you can use this code with different credit or debit cards and get a free movie for each different card you use. (I usually get 2 free movies.)

Next, if you need free salsa, (and who doesn't?) La Victoria has a great promotion going on. They have an instant win game where you can win a free coupon for a jar of salsa. (You can also win cash-but I have just won the salsa.) I have won this, but the coupon is mailed to you and I have not received it yet. But when you enter, you can print a $.50/1 coupon. The salsa is on sale right now at Fry's for $2, so with this coupon doubled, it is only $1 a jar. I know, I said "free" right? But wait, there's more...

If you enter codes found on the jars, you can earn points to print out coupons with a higher value. You can find one code in the inserts from 6/21. You can also find many codes on the internet with just a little searching. Get enough points and you can print out a $4/2 coupon. This now makes the salsa free! (If you don't have a Fry's, check your kroger stores, walmart, or look for it on sale wherever you shop!) As with most internet coupons, you can print this twice. Earn another one and print two more.... but be careful here, you might have to print from a different computer to do this since it may block you after the first two. It does say in their rules section that you can earn up to 6 rewards, but I was not able to get a second round to print from my computer after redeeming more points. (Will try another computer later.)

Here's a link to the game/rewards program:

LaVic Rewards
(You can skip the survey when you sign in)

Here are some codes to get you started:

A127F943X649C8 (code from inserts-check to see if yours is different) (if you click "no purchase" you will get double points)

These types of codes can be entered 4 times each! This will get you lots of points fast! (you should be able to get double points if you click no purchase- or if you click "other" it will give you an entry into the sweepstakes)

L8CP225J509:08U8XN
L8PD071W622:45JRNQ
L8CU238L411:40SXFB
L8CT239O414:30XX1L
L8CW276B601:13Y9TF
L8CS298T819:03VQOZ
L8DA271N613:36DESW
L8PD276K610:07FN1A
L8DA2710614:36B4OK

Thanks to Sweeties sweeps for the contest info!

A Few shopping deals-triples and quadruple coupons!

2009-07-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

As I posted before, I have been a little lazy since I got back from vacation. But what better to get me back into the swing of things than triple, and quadruple coupons! Fry's and Albertson's both are running triples and quadruples!
Being still a little lazy, I didn't go crazy, but I got out to do a few deals. This is my Fry's trip above. I got Purex laundry detergant for $.99 each, Ragu for $.29 each, manwich for $.19 each, banquet meals for $.59 each ( no coupons), salsa for free and some chicken for $.69/lb.

This was from Albertson's sale last week. Sorry, but these prices are no longer good, but they are still doing the triples and quad's. (Just haven't got out this week yet to see what's good.)
I used up the last of my free marcal and free dog food coupons. Breyer's ice cream for $1 with coupons (can still get this price at Fry's this week), Tony's pizza for $1.50 w/coupons, Chex mix $.50 each, icing free with $.25 peelies, Lipton rice $.25 each, refried beans about $.40 each (I think), brownie and cake mixes $1 each (not great, but needed these for birthday party), and green giant steamers for $.75 each- no coupons.

If you got any good deals, let me know what you got or are getting!

A Great mail day and saving money on Vacation!

2009-07-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

Not today, but when we got back from our trip, I had about 2 weeks worth of mail waiting for me and it was the best mail day ever! I got this cute little Jelly Belly dispenser full of jelly beans, a $10 BK gift card, 4 of my coupons for a free meal at KFC (we should have 8, but only got 4 so far), a coupon for a free digiorno flatbread, my 2 $25 checks from the Taco bell game from a couple months ago, 6-$5 checks from the Honey nut cheerios game, and $26.46 in survey checks. I had so much fun opening all this, I barely noticed the bills also in the stack of mail. ;)

For our vacation, I did a ton of things to save money too. Here's just some of the saving money tricks I worked. Our best deal was the hotel and my dad actually worked that out for me. Through a friend of his, we were able to stay 2 nights in a 3 bedroom room (bigger than any of my apartments ever were!) at the Powhatan resort. We had a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, 3 floors, and a full size jacuzzi on the porch. I hosted the after wedding dinner/party here and it was great! Then we had a 2 bedroom room at Greensprings resort for 3 nights. Not as big, but still great! I paid just $200 for all 5 nights! (The first night we all crammed into a room at Super 8 for $35 until Friday when our reservation started for the other one.)

Since we had a full kitchen while we were there, we were able to buy groceries and save a lot of money doing this. I was even able to hit the commissary one day and use up the last of my KY coupons for a little more groceries. I spent about $30 total on groceries for the whole trip, except for the party. (That cost me about $85, but ti was for about 25 people.)

I also had saved up gift cards for food for the travel time. I had gift cards for Burger King and subway. So we spent about $25 total on food going up and coming back. (I had a ton of snacks packed in the car too, so we didn't have to eat as much fast food when we stopped.) When we used the BK gift cards, they had just started their new transformers game, so we got game pieces on our fries and drinks too. So, free lunch with the gift cards and we got enough free food from the game pieces to get free breakfast for half of us the next day too.

I was counting on free tickets for Busch gardens for the military, but when we got there, we found out they were only giving them away now for active duty. (Booo!)
So, we hit the base in Hampton and bought them there. This cost more than I had expected this way, but we still saved $20 off the adult tix and $10 off the kids. This was better than any other discount we could find anywhere. We also did one of those "90 minute" tours at the resort one morning and got 2 free tickets that way. That saved us $120 off the full price or $83 if we had to buy those on base. Of course, the 90 minutes took us almost 3 1/2 hours, but we got out alive and with the tix.

We also did not eat at Busch gardens, we left and hit BK (that's when we used our gift cards), so we saved a lot of money there! The kids also went swimming a lot at the resort- and that was free entertainment! We were going to hit CW and Jamestown, but ran out of time.

It was a great trip and thankfully, it did not break the bank. We did not get to do everything we wanted, but we did enough and we all had fun. And it just shows that you can be frugal in every aspect of life and have a great time!

Vacations make you Lazy!

2009-07-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been back from my vacation for about a week and I have done... a lot of nothing! Well, except my Husband's birthday, 4th of July, and a few little chores and errands. But it's so hard to get back into the swing of things. And the 110+ temps don't help! I want to get back on those roller coasters! Relax in the hotel where I don't have to clean anything, and visit with friends and family.

But, it's back to life, back to reality for me. Back to the here and now... Back to work! :)

Photo is the Griffin coaster at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg

Military Benefits

2009-06-14T20:50:00.001-07:00

The Commissary is one of many benefits for the military community. It's one of the benefits I'm very grateful for! Now, granted, a lot of items are not really any cheaper at the commissary than at the regular grocery stores, but some things are almost always cheaper here. And while I can get a lot of free stuff at other stores and even make money on some of their sales, the commissary has a great option for free groceries. In coupon terms it's called "overage". This means that if you have a coupon for more than the cost of the actual item, you get the full value of the coupon off your order. Thus creating "overage" you can spend on other groceries.

By now, you are probably getting tired of hearing about my favorite overage item- KY. But it is still my favorite and it helped me pay for all these groceries today. At the commissary, the KY is $1.85 and my coupons are for $3 off. So, for each tube I get, I get an extra $1.15 to use for my other groceries. But since these coupons expire soon (July 1), I have to start using all of them up that I still have left. So today was a stock up day.

I got everything you see in the picture for $.46. The KY paid for most of it, though I did not put them in the picture. I also got a big bag of dog food shown below. My daughter opened it and started feeding the dogs before I took my photo above.

Some of my good deals today were:
23.5 lbs of chicken @ $.50 lb
6 lbs ground beef @ $1.29 lb
1 Jar of Pace for $1.57 and used $4 printable coupon from their online game
5 bags of rice-2 lbs each bag for $.62 each after $1 coupons
2 cans Campbell's cream of mushroom soup @ $1.29 each and used $3 coupon sent from company

I also stocked up on snacks for our trip and some essentials we needed like bread and flour.

My total saved in coupons was $191.00 and I spent $.46 oop plus $2 tip to the bagger. (We always take our own bags out.)

So, if you can shop at the commissary, make sure you look for good coupons to go with the great prices there and definitely look for coupons that provide overage!

I Won!

2009-06-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

As a frugal (cheap!) person and a lover of all things free, and as a hunter (maybe stalker?) of the next great deal, I have found a new passion. Sweepstakes! Yep, like many of you, I only entered these occasionally because I "never win" and I thought it was a waste of time. I also forget to go back and enter again or even check on what I have entered.
I have heard of people who are "sweepers" and enter all the time and win a lot. I just thought they were lucky, or at the very least, spent a lot of money on stamps to enter these things. (Of course, now with everything on the internet, you don't even have to mail in for sweeps very often anymore.)
About a month ago, I found a site called "Sweeties Sweeps" and she has a whole different perspective on sweeping. She says it's not luck, but persistence that wins. Well, I liked what she had to say and I decided to try it. I have been "sweeping" regularly now for a little more than a month and I have been winning!
Nothing big yet, but I have won movie tickets, visa gift cards, sunglasses, song downloads, free item coupons, and six flags tickets! In all, I have won about $700 worth of prizes! Of course, because the "worth" of some of these prizes seem a little inflated to me- the deal hunter who would never pay full price for this stuff, the estimated value to ME for all I've won is still over $550. (This is me taking the price I would buy the item at as the value.)
I have received some of my prizes already and there's still a lot I'm waiting on. The item my girls are holding in the photo is the first prize I won when I started in May. It is the Crayola Glow station on the go and I got it yesterday in the mail! It was perfect timing since this will be a great item for the car on our trip next week! And it's an item I probably would never have bought. But as you can see, the girls are very excited about it! Hopefully it will keep them occupied and happy for at least 10 minutes in the car. ;)
I have also gotten in the mail this week- 5-$25 visa cards and two free item coupons and I have downloaded and printed 4 movie tickets and 4 six flags tickets this week also!
I play the sweeps online at night (I'm a night person anyway) so I still have plenty of time to take care of the kids, and do my coupons and household stuff during the day time. In fact, the only thing it's changed in my schedule is I'm watching less TV. (Or watching less of whatever my husband has on since he's usually in charge of the remote and most of the time I am not even interested in what he's watching.)

So if you want to win too- I highly recommend checking out Sweeties Sweeps- link on the left, and read some of her articles. She knows what she's doing and she's very helpful!

Free Chocolate

2009-06-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard, Mars brand (M&M's) is giving out coupons for a free candy bar each Friday. One candy bar is not a huge freebie, but, free is free! You can sign up each Friday to get one, but there's a limit of 4 coupons per address for the entire promotion.
It says you will get your coupon in six weeks, but I have already received the coupon I signed up for last week. Save these for a b1g1 sale and you can get two free candy bars!
Here's the link to sign up today (Friday):
Mars Free Chocolate

Free Food Wednesdays!

2009-06-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Arby's is offering free menu items each Wednesday through August 26!
Today only you can get a free Roast Chicken club sandwich with any soft drink purchase. There is a limit of one per person, so if you want to feed the family, you will need to bring them all with you.
*This is not Nationwide and only at participating stores, so call and check with your stores first to see if they are participating.

Here's a list of all the upcoming Wednesday's free items:

JUNE
10 Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
17 Free Regular Sidekickers® with any sandwich purchase
24 Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase

JULY
1 Free Regular Beef 'n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase
8 Free Orange Cream Swirl Shake with any sandwich purchase
15 Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
22 Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
29 Free Iced FruiTea with any sandwich purchase

AUGUST
5 Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
12 Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
19 Free Iced FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
26 Free Regular Beef 'n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase

Cheap grocery deals for the day

2009-06-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

I did a big circle of errands today and decided to get some deals in while I was out.
I first hit Safeway and got some hot pockets and cheerios @ $.50 each, Del monte fruit cups and velveeta shells cups @ $.25 each and some Jello pudding @ $.16 each-all prces after coupons and the $5 off $10 deal. *The safeway deals continue next week too!

Then I went to fry's and got some mac & cheese @ $.39 each, Tombstone pizzas @ $2 each after coupon, and Bar-s hot dogs @ $.75 each after coupons. *The fry's pizza deals are still good through next week too.

Next was Staples for the $1 after rebate printer paper and photo paper. The limit on these rebates is 2, so I got 2 of each. I also needed some cd's, so I got a 50 pack for $8.98 and I found these cute draw on/wipe off placemates for $.50, so I got 2 for the little girls.

Last, I stopped at Walgreens and picked up 2 packs of Nabisco cookies- on sale for 2/$5 and I had a coupon for $1/2. (I also got a $3 RR back for these.) I picked up 2 of the smaller packs of oreos/fig newtons- on sale for $1.25 each and some Johnson's baby powder- $1 each and got $1 RR back. I used 2 b1g1 free coupons for the candy bars and the cashier took off $.79 for each coupon. (They rang up $.80/.79 and .89/.70) Then I used the ad coupon for 2/$1 candy bars and it took off another $1.18, so I paid $.42 total for 4 candy bars. I also picked up all of these crackers they had left since they were marked down to $.25. My youngest DD loves any kind of crackers, so it's nice to be able to stock up on these for such a good price. Of course, when I got them home, not only was she eating them, but all the rest of the kids were carrying around their own box too! I used a $10 RR on all of this and paid @ $2 oop with tax.

It's so fun getting stuff for free!

This is why I love Walgreens!

2009-06-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

Walgreens has these glucose meters on sale again this week, but this time it's better than last month's deal. The Breeze2 and the contour are both on sale for $10. Then with the coupons that are out, they are free. I only paid tax and since they are on sale for a lower price then before, I even pay less tax. I paid about $.83-$.88 for each one. THEN you get a $10 RR when you buy one!!! So I got paid over $9 for each monitor I got. I went out yesterday with my husband and we hit 5 stores and got 10 monitors. My oop on these was about $9 and I got $100 in RR to spend!! (Remember to do only one monitor in each transaction as you can only get one coupon at a time.)

I spent one of the $10 RR yesterday for more newspapers and I spent 2 more on an ipod docking alarm clock/radio for my older dd for her birthday. So I have $70 left to spend. I used some of my $5 RR from last month's deal to get this pool for my other dd for her birthday.

The Ecotrin is also on sale again for $2 and there's a $2 coupon in 5/17 SS which makes it free. Then you get a $2 RR for that. So again, free except tax and I made $2 on those. I only got one of these so fr as I didn't have the rest of my coupons cut out, but I will go back and get more of these this week.

Some free shopping with RX rewards

2009-06-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you have to shop without coupons and that's why I love things like the Pharmacy coupons! Today is my daughter's 6th birthday and she wanted some Kid Cuisine for dinner. Of course these were not on sale and I only had a $.50/2 coupon that did not double. So I went to the store to get a Kid Cuisine for her and one for her little sister. Since there's no way I'll be eating a Kid Cuisine, she decided the rest of us could eat sloppy joes- her second choice. (We have all the stuff for that at home already.) We also got some ice cream to go with her cake and I got some of the sale items like milk for $1.47, mac& cheese 3/$1, Ramen 6/$1, and Koolaid for $1 each and I had a $1/2 coupon and a $1.50/2 for the Country time. She also wanted strawberries to go on top of her cake. (Of course, those were on sale last week!) I grabbed 2 Kraft salad dressings and used the $1.50 coupons on those and then used the $1 on produce when you buy 2 dressings coupon for the strawberries.

Then my other daughter is turning 15 tomorrow. And she wanted chinese, so I got some chicken and some orange sauce for her meal.

So I paid nothing and with my coupons, sales prices and pharmacy rewards, I saved $62.28. I still have $20 left of my rewards to spend later.

Free Redbox movies

2009-06-01T17:18:00.001-07:00

Redbox has stopped sending their free movie codes out every Monday. They are now sending a code only on the first Monday of the month. So, being that today is the first Monday of June, here's the code for a free movie tonight:
FM63H7
Remember if you have more than 1 credit or debit card you can use this code with each different card you have. I usually get 2 movies with each code-one for the kids and one for the adults. Hurry! Code is good until midnight.

Pizza for $1 Today only!

2009-05-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

Papa Johns is having a special today only: $1 for a large one topping pizza. You need to sign up for email alerts here: $1 Pizza signup then you will get a one time use code in your email you can use to order pizza online! Sign up early- good for the first 2500 only.
Yay for cheap pizza!

Making Money Fast!

2009-05-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't been out to do much shopping this week since I crashed my computer (kind of on purpose) and I have spent most of the week restoring it and reloading everything. But as the constant deal hunter I am, I was still able to make $66 for groceries and I did it fast!
How? Prescription coupons! I love these! My poor husband had a root canal this week and though I felt for him in his pain, I was secretly thrilled since he came home with 3 prescriptions in hand. And as a well-trained husband, he came home to get me first before he went to get them filled. I grabbed a fist full of prescription coupons and headed over to Fry's. They let me use 3 of the $25 CVS coupons, since they take competitors pescription coupons, so I ended up with $75 loaded on my Fry's card. The 3 prescriptions cost me only $9 total. So I made $66 to spend at the store in less than an hour!
So, don't forget, if you have a visit to the doctor, dentist, or just regular prescriptions to fill, don't forget to look for prescription coupons first. They can be a great money maker, or at least help you get some of your money back that you normally spend on your meds.

Some deal hunting today

2009-05-23T21:10:00.001-07:00

I needed some ink for my printer, so I went to Office Max. I had $21 in rewards to spend there (from turning in empty ink cartridges). They had a deal this week where you get a $10 gift card for buying HP ink multipacks. I noticed the one color I was out of was $19.99 for the double pack, so I grabbed one and some markers that were on clearance (not pictured) and used my rewards. I paid about $2 oop-mostly tax and got a $10 gift card back. Then I went back and got a double pack of black ink. These were more expensive-$35, but I used my $10 gift card and got another $10 gift card back.

Then I went to Kohl's. I had a $10 off anything coupon I got in the mail and I saw these sandals on sale in the ad for $11.99. I was able to find them in my size and I only paid about $2 for the shoes with the coupon and after tax. I am set for the summer now!

I made a stop at the commissary to pick up some stuff for dinner. Again, I paid just over $2 oop for all of this. I had overage from the KY of course and I had one of the $4 pace coupons for some nice overage on the salsa. I also used more of the free marcal coupons for the toilet paper and I have about 20 left to use by the end of the month. I also got some Little debbie donuts in this tip, but they didn't make it into the photo. ;)

A Fry's triple/Quadruple trip

2009-05-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here's what I got on a quick run to Fry's for the triples and quadruples. I paid about $5 oop for everything shown and I saved $149.61 or 97%!

Here's the breakdown:
Yakisoba microwave meals-free after coupons
Fast fixin chicken nuggets-free with coupons if you join their club online (They give you 10 coupons)
Quaker Quakes-free with coupons
Kraft BBQ sauce- free with coupons and get a $3 catalina when you buy 6! (You will only get one catalina for $3 if you buy more than 6, and you can buy 4 and get $2 or buy 5 and get $2.50. But don't buy more than 6 at a time.)
Kraft salad dressing $.17 with coupons
Strawberries- on sale for $1 but free with $1 off produce when you buy 2 Kraft dressings coupon
Tony's pizza- free with Fry's coupon I got in the mail
Hunts ketchup- $.70 with coupon
Betty Crocker pouch potatoes- free with coupons
Weber grill seasonings- free with coupons
Dial hand soap- free with coupons
Cool whip- $.49 each after $1/2 printable coupon
Crab Classic-free with printable coupons

A lot of good stuff free this week and I'm sure I haven't even found all the free stuff yet!

Doubles, Triples, Quadruples, Oh MY!

2009-05-20T12:47:00.001-07:00

This week, starting today, Albertsons is doubling and tripling coupons and Fry's is tripling and Quadrupling coupons! Both are up to $1 only, which means a $.25 coupon would be $1 at Fry's and a $.35 coupon would be $1 at both stores.
I am excited as the grocery deals have been lackluster lately. I will share my shopping trips this week when I get out to go shopping. If you had a great trip, post a link in the comments for us to see!

Walgreens $5 coupon

2009-05-20T02:11:00.000-07:00

Good only Wednesday and Thursday- a $5 off $25 coupon for Walgreens:
$5 off wyb $25

Keep in mind this coupon is only good after all walgreens and manufacturer's coupons are used. That means after all coupons (including RR) your total has to equal $25 before tax. I will probably put together a scenario with a lot of the RR deals to use this coupon and get a large amount of RR back. I will spend more oop, but should be able to get all of it back with RR. At least that's the plan. :)

Doing the Rain dance (rainchecks) and a little Walgreens

2009-05-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

I did a quick run to Walgreens this afternoon and picked up 4 of the Phisoderm face washes. These are on sale b1g1 and are $4.99 plus most have $2 peelies on them. So, using a coupon for each one, I paid $.99 for every two or about $.50 each. I also got 2 bottles of the Pert for men- on sale for 2/$5 and used 2-$1.50 coupons to pay $2 for both and got back a $2 RR. I threw in some Ramen noodles (my kids love these for lunches) and used a $5 RR. I paid just over $1 oop with tax.

I then stopped at Fry's to do some shopping with Rain checks. I had rainchecks for everything and of course, coupons. The cheeses were $.50 each and the rest was free after my coupons. I got 11 Sargento shredded cheeses, 18 Pillsbury pizza crusts, and 30 Land O Lakes butter and paid a little over $5 oop including tax.
I love rain checks, they are a great way to extend the sale to allow yourself time to collect more coupons. But you have to remember to use them! I had more rain checks, but these were the only ones I had left that were not expired.

Two short term freebies! Free chicken meal and free 8x10 photo

2009-05-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

Here are two freebies only good through tomorrow!
First is a free 8x10 photo from Walgreens, good tomorow only (Wednesday 5/6) online.
Order your 8x10 online and use code: MOTHER You can also get 25 free prints when you buy 25.

The next freebie is actually good through 5/19, but you have to print out your coupon anytime today or tomorrow, but no later than 9pm CDT tomorrow (Wednesday 5/6).
It is a coupon for a free Kentucky grilled chicken 2 piece meal from KFC. You get 2 pieces of chicken, 2 sides, and a biscuit for free! You can print 4 coupons and it's a limit of one coupon per person. This was dinner for us tonight and I have to say the chicken was pretty good. Print your coupons here.

End of the Month Rush

2009-05-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much shopping lately as I've been doing some late spring cleaning. But I had some good coupons that were expiring on 4/30, so I ran out last night to try and use at least some of them. I went to the commissary since they had the Marcal toilet paper 12 packs. I had 30 coupons but they usually only have 10 packs on the shelf. So I figured, I'd only get 10 packs and not be able to use the other 20 coupons. BUT, when I walked in, right in the front of the store was a huge display with the Marcal toilet paper! I was so excited! I filled up one cart and my husband went and grabbed another. I got my 30 packs of toilet paper and only took about half of the display. (well, maybe a little more than half, but still plenty left.) I had 12 of the free coupons left for Marcal, so I got 12 more boxes of tissues. Since these coupons scan at $1 and the tissues were only $.79, I got overage on these. I also had coupons for $2 on pork, $1 on Orange juice and $1 on eggs, so I stocked up on those too. I got 10 packs of pork chops and all were under $2, so more overage. Then I got 12 cans of frozen OJ-$.99 each, so free with coupons and 10 dozen eggs-$1.24 each, so $.24 with coupons. I still had 6 more egg coupons left, but I didn't think we could get through that many before the expiration date. But while we were in line, there was a young guy in front of us who commented on the eggs and TP in our cart. ("Looked like we might be egging and tp'ing someone's house") We laughed and my husband explained that I was using coupons and they all expired tonight and the guy was interested when we told him how much the stuff was going to cost us. Then I asked if he were buying any eggs because I had extra coupons. He wasn't but wanted some, so he ran back and grabbed 4 cartons of eggs and I handed him 4 coupons. He was so excited and thanked us numerous times and told the cashier amd several other customers how he was getting the eggs for $.24 a dozen thanks to the coupons. It was fun to see and I was happy to help him. I remember those days of being young and having limited funds. (especially in the military!) I paid about $20 oop including the tip.
After the commissary, we were rushing to get to the movie theater since I had one more free ticket that expired last night too. We didn't make it in time for the movie we wanted to see, so we got tickets for another movie (17 again) that didn't start for another hour.
Since we had extra time, we then went to Walgreens and I was hapy to find a Breeze 2 monitor. I have only found one more since Sunday, so this was great! I paid $1.21 in tax for it and got my $5 RR back. Then I used that $5 on the Nivea body wash (and a $1 Nivea coupon) and grabbed some Ramen for he kids for lunch as fillers. I paid $.66 oop and got a $5 RR back for the Nivea. Then we went back to the movie and I was pleasantly surprised as the movie was much better than I expected. Even with the shopping thrown in, it was a great date night!

Earlier this week, I did this shopping. I stopped at walgreens to get a new mophead since ours was falling apart and I picked up some ecotrin and Bayer quick release since they were both free after RR. I had a $1 coupon for the Bayer too, so that was a money maker. I paid for it all with RR and spent less than $1 oop and I got back a $2 and a $2.50 RR.
Then I went to Safeway since we needed dog food and I had catalinas that were close to expiring. I got 4 bags of the goodlife dog food and used 2-$3 printable coupons and 2-$2 printable coupons. I also got 2 electrasols and used the $2.50 coupons and 2 no yolk noodles using the $.75 coupons. All of these were part of the living well promotion, so I got another $10 catalina back. I also got 3 of the small cans of pillsbury crescent rolls and 3 small cans of pillsbury cinnamon rolls. I used $.25 coupons for one and $.30 coupons for the other making them $.69 and $.79 each. For each 3 that I bought, I also got back a $3 catalina, so these were a money maker too! Since I used catalinas to pay ($14 worth of cat's), I paid only $2 oop, most of which was tax and I got back $16 more in catalinas to use next time.

Another Kmart run and some Sunday shopping

2009-04-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

I went back to Kmart today and the shelves were bare of a lot of the coupon deals, but what I really wanted was the cereal. Luckily, they had plenty of that in stock. I got 12 more boxes(my girls and I each got 4 boxes). I also found more of the ziploc vaccuum pumps which were free with the coupons.

On Sunday, I went to Home Depot with my husband and we got 2 free light bulbs and 2 free sink aerators. I then went to Bashas and got 4 boxes of pasta-free after coupons. On to walgreens for another chapstick, mitchum deodorant- $.24 after coupon and RR, some ramen noodles for fillers and some dawn dish soap-$.74 each after coupons. I used RR and paid $.74 oop for all of it. Last stop was the commissary for more free toilet paper and tissues. Well, the toilet paper was $.59 a pack after my coupons, but free with overage. I also got a bunch of pork and used $2 winetags on each. Most were under $2, so all were free and some created overage to be used on the toilet paper. I paid $1.06 oop for everything.

Kmart Super Doubles

2009-04-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

I made a quick run to Kmart this morning since they are doubling coupons to $2.
I was not surprised to see other couponers there, but there were more than I thought. The cashiers were not very happy about the many couponers either and they were not shy about letting it be known that they didn't like coupons. But I was not easily deterred and I was having too much fun to be brought down by the negativeness. :)

I handed over all my coupons after she scanned the items to make it easier and it went smoothly with everything doubling as it should. I accidentally had 4 extra coupons when I got to the register (the limit is 25) and I pulled the extra items out to put them back, but they let me use those coupons in a separate order.

A lot of the items I got were free or $.50 and I didn't pay any more than $.79 for anything. Except the dog food. The dog food was not as good a deal as I had hoped-after coupons, it was $1.99 for the 4lb bag. I should have just put that back. I am happy about the cleaners as I needed some more. The Vaseline lotion I wanted was already wiped out when I looked for it, so I didn't get that. (I was a little disappointed to see many other couponers with their carts full even though the coupon limit was 25.)

In all, it was a good trip and I'm glad I went early. By the number of couponers in line still when I left, I anticipate the shelves being pretty empty before the end of the day. I paid $12 for everything here including tax and will get a $5 gift card back by mail for the Kellogg's cereals. I saved $99.52 with sales prices and coupons.

An Addiction?

2009-04-18T23:45:00.001-07:00

I had my clothing swap today in a different part of town. It was a family affair as my husband and kids went too. We all worked hard, and were tired when we were done. (It was fun though!)
Of course, on the way home, I asked to stop at Walgreens and we stopped at every Walgreens we passed-literally. ;) Well, we missed one that was on the left, but we hit all the rest. I ran in each time while everyone else sat in the car. They were happy since the first Walgreens was right next to a Sonic. So while I was inside saving money, Dad bought everyone a slushie at Sonic. :)
There was more Easter candy than what is pictured here, but we ate some on the way home. I was very happy that I found the girl's underwear packages at one store marked on clearance. And I found the trial size dove and degree deodorants! These were all out of stock at my closest stores.
I rolled my RR like crazy and I spent about $2 oop and I have a $2 RR, a $3.50 RR, and a $6 RR left. Yes, I'm addicted, but it was a lot of fun.

Filling up the Pantry!

2009-04-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of shopping lately since there has been such great deals going on almost everywhere. But I haven't done a lot of posting. I've been away from my computer way too much to get any blog posting done. But my pantry is pretty full right now as well as my closets, laundry room shelves, etc. ;)

I did the Living Well promotion at Safeway getting 14 of the Bertolli pouches and a package of oreos. I used a free coupon for the oreos and $1 off coupons for the Bertolli and paid $14.xx oop. I got back the $10 Living well catalina and 7-$2 catalinas for the Bertolli for a total of $24 in cat's back.
Then I did some RR rolling at walgreens for the free toothbrush-used a $.75 coupon, free chapstick, and the free Scunci hair bands. I found one of the 2-in-1 packs of the Scunci, so that was great since those also produce the RR. With 5 girls, we go through a lot of these!

Here's another trip to Safeway for the Living well promo. I got 12 Bertolli sauces, 2 No yolk noodles-used $.75 coupons that made these $.25 each, and a 75ct canister of Clorox wipes-used a free coupon. I also used the $10 coupon from last time and 1-$2 Bertolli catalina and paid $.85 oop and got back another $10 cat and 6-$2 cat's.
I made a quick stop at the Commissary and got 10 packages of the 12ct Marcal toilet paper- $.59 each with the $2 coupons and 12 ham steaks which were $1.50 and I used $2 winetags for them and got overage. I paid $.10 oop and tipped the bagger $1. (walked it out to my car myself)
I stopped at a CVS and got the Colgate toothpaste that was free after ECB, the softsoap bodywash-free after ECB, two more of the Softsoap ensembles- free after ECB and coupons and 3 Adidas deodorants that were marked down to $2.50. I used $1 coupons on those and got back $2 ECB for each-so they were money makers. I also used a coupon on the body wash and the toothpastes, so made some money on each of those. The rest of the stuff was clearance I found-the book was $59 and the light bulbs were $.10 a box. The cookies weren't clearance, they were $1 and I added one to each of my toothpaste orders to use the extra from the ECB. I used ECB's on each order and paid less than $1 oop for all of it. I have a $3.99 and a $4.99 ECB left.

This was another trip to the commissary right before Easter and a stop at Bashas.
Bashas had the mustards for $.99 and they were free with coupons, plus they were printing out $1 catalinas for every 2 you bought, so more money makers. I got a bunch of these before Easter as the last day they were on sale was Easter Sunday.
Everything else in the picture is from the commissary and not pictured is a ton of candy for our 9 Easter baskets. I paid $3.74 for the whole order and tipped the bagger $2. I could have done better but I was losing track of the total with all the candy we were throwing in. Still, I was happy with that total and that trip was a lot of fun. I saved $175 in coupons in that one trip and we had a great Easter.

March spending/savings totals

2009-04-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished updating all my receipts from March in my spreadsheet, so I thought I'd post my totals. This is from all my grocery related shopping in March including the drug stores and grocery stores. It includes all my groceries, cleaners, HBA items, and even extra newspapers bought for the coupons. (all food and items needed for a family of eight and three dogs and some fish.)
I start with the "regular" price of each item as listed on the receipt and then count how much I saved using store sales, coupons, and gift cards.
So for March I bought:
$1876.71 worth of groceries (full price)

I saved:
$637.65 store sales prices
$949.50 coupons
$48.97 gift cards used
For a total of:
$1636.12 savings or 87% saved

I paid:
$240.59 out of pocket for the month.

After rebates mailed, I will have paid:
$236.49

I did not send out many rebates this month, but I will try to send for more in April. It really helps to lower my totals and it's fun to see those checks coming in. We also ate out about three times this month, but that was not included in the grocery money. (That's from my spending money.) That's more than we normally eat out, but we were very busy this month.

Let's see if I can do even better in April!

You win some and you lose some

2009-04-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

And sometimes when you lose, you win. If you are a long time player in the coupon game, you know that sometimes you will win the "battle" and sometimes you will lose. You also know that sometimes it's better not to fight it and just go with the flow.
I've had a few of those "losing" days recently. Today, I went to Walgreens to get the free monday movie from redbox. I did a couple of RR rolls while there-rolling the edge into the visine and the visine into the edge. I filled in with some ramen and a bag of chips (already eaten-I was hungry). Then, because Fry's is next door, I made a quick stop there for a few deals. I got some more mustard ($.25 each after coupon and getting a $1 catalina for every 2-so making $.25 on each mustard) and I got some pizza crusts-free when you buy 4 with coupons. Then I had a raincheck for the granola bars for $1 each and I had $1/2 coupons which would make them $.50 each. Well, when I got the rain check, I put my coupons with it, and didn't notice until the cashier handed me back my coupons today that they expired 3/31. So, now I paid $1 a box and that's a lot for me. I also had some ham I was going to buy-prepackaged lunch meat ham. I had $2 ham wintags to use that say "save $2 on ham", but the cashier thought the winetags were for a wholae ham only and called the manager. The manager decided it was good for deli ham or ham from the meat department. So I took the ham off my order and got my coupons back. The wt's would have given me a little bit of overage, so I had added some syrup to my order to use that overage. (to go with all those free waffles) So, in all, I paid about $5 more than I had planned for this order. So I "lost" that round, but it wasn't worth fighting about, so I just said ok.

Yesterday, I had also stopped at a different fry's looking for newspapers (they were out already) and got some mustard and some fixings for dinner (cream soups, spinach, chips). Well, I hit the u-scan and I had 14 mustards. When I handed the girl all my coupons, she scanned some of them then called a manager. They told me then that they could only double 3 of the same kind and she had doubled 3 of each coupon I had given her-6 total. They would take the rest at face value if I wanted. I asked to take the other mustards off and got my coupons back. They were very nice about it, so I said "no problem" and just took the extras off my order. But because I had already scanned all the mustards, the coupons had printed already. So I "bought" 6 mustards and got coupons for all 14 of them. So, even though I "lost" that time, I actually "won".

I also went to the commissary and unfortunately, I only found 3-KY's on the shelf, so no big overage shopping for me there. I did find some St. Ives trial sizes that gave me $.41 overage each. But I was very happy to find the marcal small steps products. I used my free product coupons for the tissues and then I used $2 coupons on the 12 pks of toilet paper that were $2.59 each ($.59 after coupons). I grabbed 2 salads and paid $.25 each after $1 coupons, 1 pouch tuna (that's all that was on the shelf) for $.24 after coupon and I found 2 boxes of Success rice that had $1 peelies on them. None of the rest of the boxes had the coupons, so I grabbed those 2. They were $1.39 before coupons, so $.39 each. I paid $.89 oop for everything.

Walgreens fun!

2009-03-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

I actually got out of bed today (since my surgery on Friday) and I managed to get my wonderful husband to take me shopping at a few walgreens. (He was the driver and the toter since I can do neither right now.)

I had some $4 RR from last weeks razor deal to start with and I used some on extra sunday papers. I got 17 total and our papers cost $2 each here. I apid $20 oop on all 17.

The softsoap bodywash was $3.99 and I had a $.75 coupon for the first one. (I also used a $4 RR for this along with other items in the order.) After I paid, I got a RR for a free softsoap bodywash. So I got another one and used the free coupon and then I got another free coupon. In all I got 10 bodywashes and I have a coupon still for another free one. I had to do all of these in seperate orders and I went to a few different stores, but there was plenty of softsoap at each store and I might go back tomorrow to get some more. With 6 kids at home- 3 of those being teen girls, you can never have too much body wash.

Along with the bodywash, I also got an edge, skintimate, or chapstick on each order. The edge and skintimate give a $3 RR and the edge was priced $2.49 and the skintimate was $2.79. I also had $.50 coupons for each. The chapstick was $1.99 each and gives a $2 RR. I rolled the $2 RR into the shaving gels and the $3 RR into the chapstick with some fillers.

I spent about $10 oop on everything except the papers and a lot of that was tax. One store was out of the chapsticks already, so I did 2 of the softsoap/edge combos, but paid oop instead of using the $2 RR since I didn't have them. But I have 2-$3 RR and a free softsoap RR to start with tomorrow so I can start all over again with the chapsticks first.

It was a fun evening, but now I'm exhausted. I probably pushed it a little too much, but the thrill of getting the deal is hard to resist. :)

Grocery deals this week

2009-03-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

I had a light surgery done on Friday, so I figured I'd get out on Thursday and do as mush shopping for the week as I could since I didn't know when I'd be bale to get back out. So this is the shopping I did. All of these deals (except the razor from walgreens) are still good through Tuesday.

First I hit Safeway and did the $5 off when you buy 10 items deal twice. I got 5 bags of Fresh Express salad mix-these were $.75 each and I had coupons for $1 off each one, so I made $.25 each. The 2 halls cough drops were also $.75 and my coupons doubled to $1, so made $.25 on each if these also. Then I got 10 Hunts snack pack puddings for $.25 each after coupons and 3 Lysol cleaners for $1 after coupons. There is also a rebate online for $3 back when you buy 3 lysols, so these will be free after rebate. I also grabbed some marked down meat and paid with a gift card-no oop.

Then I hit Albertsons for some grapes, strawberries and ice cream bars. My total was $10.72 and I paid with a gift card so no oop.

Next was Fry's and I did the Quaker 4 for $4 deal twice. I got 2 cereals, 4 boxes chewy granola bars and 2 boxes true delights bars. The true delights were free after coupons and the others were $.50 each. I also got 2 cans of hunts pasta sauce and 1 bag fry's pasta and used a $1 off coupon to get all 3 for $2. That's not a great deal, but we are actually out of pasta sauce! I paid $7.97 oop here.

Last stop was Walgreens, but they were out of all the weekly deals I wanted, so I just grabbed one more razor that was $4.99 after my coupon and I got a $4 RR back for it.

Fresh baked bread

2009-03-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

I made a loaf of bread this morning with my new bread maker! OK, to be more accurate, I made a square of bread. I didn't realize it was going to come out square, but still, it's bread and I made it!

So, I'm not exactly a "domestic diva", so this is actually a big deal for me. The only bread I've made in the past from scratch are the no yeast kind like biscuits. (Drop biscuits at that.) It's not that I can't cook or bake, I'd just rather let someone else do it most of the time. And when I do cook, it's usually something with very few steps and can be done quickly and easily. That is why I like mixes, casseroles, soups, and my beloved crockpot. I do not usually have the patience to do much more than throw it together and cook. So, I'll never be a famous chef. LOL

Since making bread by hand has so many extensive steps and you have to keep coming back to it, it's only been something I've dreamed of doing in the past. I got a bunch of yeast free before Christmas and had allusions of me learning to bake bread. I even downloaded some recipes to try. I never used any though.

So, this morning, I went into the kitchen and looked up the recipe for wheat bread in the book that came with the breadmaker and I spent about 5 minutes measuring and putting the ingredients in the maker in the correct order. Yes, it took me that long to measure and drop ingredients into the pan- I wanted to get it just right. Then I closed the lid and pushed a couple of buttons.

Only 3 1/2 hours later, I had bread! That's my kind of baking! Of course, we did go and peek into the little window about every 15 minutes, but I'm sure the novelty will wear off.

I haven't tasted it yet, but it smells so good! My bread, that I made. :)

Update: We ate it and this is the best tasting bread I've had in a long time! I will probably have to make more so my husband can try it when he gets home. (There won't be any left by then!)

More shopping

2009-03-25T20:22:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this was yesterday's shopping, which means these sales are now over. But the Safeway deals are still running this week, so you can still get those items.

This first picture is from Fry's and Albertsons. I spent $13 at Frys and spent nothing oop at Albertsons since I used the gift card I had found. I also used the $3 milk catalina I got from Fry's at Albertsons since their milk was $1.50 a gallon. So, I got both gallons of milk for free. I also got the reeses at Albertsons since they were 3/$1 and I used the rest of my $1/2 coupons making them all free. Plus each one gave me a monopoly piece too.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I won anything. :(

This was an earlier stop at Walgreens, Albertsons and Safeway. At Safeway, I got 10 bags of Fresh express salad and I used some $1/1 blinkie coupons making them free, plus making $.25 on each one with the buy 10, get $5 off promo. (still running this week) I also got some marked down meat and bread. I used a gift card for my $5 total and spent nothing oop.

At albertsons I got milk and reeses and used my gift card for the $3 for the milk- $0 oop. At Walgreens, I got a gillette razor-used $4 coupon and got $4 RR back, some dog food, tomato sauce ($.39 this week with walgreens coupon) and a few marked down DVD's for $.25 each. I used a $6 RR from last week and spent $2 oop. I will be going back for more razors and tomato sauce this week.

Total spent oop on everything in this post: about $15.

What $20 will buy you (or actually me)

2009-03-25T20:01:00.001-07:00

I went Yard sale shopping with my mom this past Saturday. I had won $20 at Bingo on Friday night and just like my kids do, I was itching to spend it. So we hit a community wide sale, though I'm sure we missed a few sales in there. :(

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but you can tell from my photos what caught my eye-over and over again. Yes, I'm a sucker for baskets. I see them and they call to me. I just can't help myself, they are so pretty and functional too! To be fair, I did leave a few. I only bought the cream of the crop and i had to bring myself to say no to some.

In all, I got 9 baskets-2 of which were cornucopias-one with some dried corn in it (decorative). I also got that really cute multi-colored screen to go in my little girls' room. I got two shirts and a pair of jean shorts for my son, a pink sweater/skirt outfit for my 5 y.o. girl (she'll might get to wear it maybe twice before it's too hot, but it should still fit her in the fall). And I got a cookie jar, a Sting CD for my husband, a wooden towel rack for the bathroom, a Queen size comforter set with shams and bed skirt for my bed,some gardening and parenting books, a dress for me, and a bread maker.

Now to be fair, the bread maker was $20 itself and my mom loaned me the money for that. Everything else was $20 total. I did get the dress for me and one parenting book for free. I must have had my "I'm a nice person" face on because the people at those sales just gave them to me without me even asking. The women at the sale with the dress just pulled it off her rack and asked if I liked it and then gave it to me. The other sale, I was looking at the book and the women said I could have it as it had helped them so much. It was a good day.

Continuing that streak, though I went to a jewelry party for my friend on Saturday night and the woman giving the party gave me a necklace for my DD. I was looking for something to order for my daughter and she just pulled out an expired piece and gave it to me. (These are expensive pieces of jewelry too!) My daughter loved that necklace when I gave it to her. My dad told me I should have hit the bank that day and see what they were giving out. Unfortunately, they were closed by then. ;)