Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Wags doesn't quite rock yet

Despite hating Walgreens, I wanted to get in on the stellar Softsoap deal. Unfortunately it wasn't as great when I went, but I still did pretty good. I spent a little more than I wanted to, but not too bad.
My total OOP cost was $10.14 and total savings was $45.18 (those little candles were $5/ea - but I got them free after coupons!
Yippie!

Monday, March 30, 2009

I Did It All By Myself

O.k., let's be honest here. Sara usually helps me with my deals. She'll plan them, and go with me. I love getting deals, but Sara seems to do much better than me.

So today I did it all by myself. I clipped all my coupons, looked at the add, matched up the deals with the coupons, made my plan and went to the store! AND it was a sucess! I LOVE CVS!!!

Total OOP $4.35 (and $1 ECB for later) Savings this post $20.22

Saturday, March 28, 2009

$0.80 for 2 boxes of cereal

Yep, only $0.80 for 2 boxes of cereal!!! Isn't that amazing? CVS had some cereal BOGO Free and then I had 2 $2 off coupons. Its not my normal brand, but it looks pretty good and you just can't beat the deal!

I also got the best deals on the 75% off end caps. I used my ECB's combined with my coupons and did really well for myself. I'm so happy with CVS.



Total OOP $5.87 Savings this post $24.59

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Walgreens - getting slightly better

I need to take it slow at Walgreens since it's the enemy.


This week they had a killer deal on the Bic Soleil Razors so I gave it a shot.

Here's the breakdown
1 Bic razor on sale for $3.59 - $2.00 WAG Q - $2.00 MQ (Free plus $.41 overage)
3 Bic refils on sale for $3.59 - (same as above)
1 flushable wipes $2.59
Total OOP $2.26 ($1.31 was taxes)
Total Saved $29.60

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

CVS 3/23

I had a pretty slow day at CVS. I didn't really need anything, but there were a couple of deals I didn't want to miss so I could keep building up my stash.





Here's what I got.





Breakdown

2 - Dry Idea deodorant @ $7.99/ea - $5.00 MQ (earned 10 ecbs)

1 Crest Pro Health @$3.49 - $.75 MQ (earned $3.49 ecbs)

2 Post cereals @$4.79/ea - Store BOGO sale -$4.00 MQ

2 Skippy PB @$3.29/ea - Store BOGO sale

-$13.98 ECBs from last week



Total OOP cost $4.25



Total Saved $36.21



Total ECBs earned $13.49

Friday, March 20, 2009

Take that Target!

Target sure thought they had me.
I printed off $1 off Cheetos snack coupons from the Target website and attempted to purchase the smaller snack size found by the register. The manager turned me down and said that I had to buy the larger size Cheetos, even thought the coupon doesn't specify.

So I called corporate.
Take that!
The person I talked to there told me that Target should accept my coupon and gave me a reference number to give to the Target employees if I had any other problems.

So I went back to the store, armed with my reference # and tried to get some Cheetos (don't worry, I was purchasing other items also, so it's not like this was a lot of wasted trips)

The same manager turned me down again and recognized me as someone she had already turned down. I told her that I had spoken to corporate and could use the coupons. She didn't care and said she wouldn't allow it. So I gave her my reference number and told her to call corporate herself.


AND SHE DID!!!!

For a $1 coupon!

So I stood in line for 20 mins while she explained the situation to the corporate offices.

She then said that corporate was instructing her not to accept the coupon.

So I asked her to pass me the phone.

I explained the situation to the corporate office and told her what the coupon looks like. She said that she didn't have the coupon in front of her, so she wasn't able to confirm what I was saying so I told her to go ahead and get the coupon from Target.com. Then I had to wait for her to find the coupons online. She then asked to talk to the manager again and I passed the phone back.

The manager started grumbling and saying it was corporates fault for not specifying on the coupon... and then she hung up and said, "It looks like we'll accept them this time."


Heck yes you will!
And you'll have a nice piece of humble pie while you're at it!

At this point it was no longer about a $1 coupon... this is my pride we're talking about!

Here are my winnings! (that's right, I totally won that fight)
I got the pledge stuff for free because I had $3 off in coupons for each one and they were on sale for $2.50. I had to buy the filler items to make up for the extra $.50 overage from the coupons.
Total money spent $3.35
Total money saved $16.00
Take that!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

More grocery savings

I went to Von's because they had a few coupons that I wanted to use. Then I did a little extra shopping (but not much extra stuff, because Von's is a lot more expensive than Smith's). I didn't take a picture because the kids were hungry and so I just started making dinner and putting things away right away. I don't think I'll make Von's a regular stop, but I did get a few things really cheap.

Total OOP $ 34.42 Savings this post $27.70 (only 45%)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

How to Start Saving - This is for you Kami Q!

The following is for my friend Kami who insists I share with her my mad skills. Actually I just cheat and use all the information that other people post for me and spend their time finding. My sidebar has a list of some of the sites I use.

Seriously, the coupon thing is so much better when explained by others.

So these are the sites I got to multiple times daily to get the best tips.
www.moneysavingmom.com
www.hip2save.blogspot.com
www.heyitsfree.net

You need to start by getting all the coupons you can. Don't throw them away when they come in the mail! Print them off your computer
www.coupons.com has a ton, just go and hit print all. Make sure you hit the back arrow and print them twice. Seriously, you'll regret it if you don't. Sometimes it will say the page cannot be displayed, but just hit refresh.
There may be some you don't think you'll use, but get it anyway, because you never know and you could end up getting that item free and then donating it to someone. (The only ones I don't get are for coffee or pet food.) I have like 36 little bars of soap for kids that I got for free and now I'm giving them out to everyone I know with kids. (too bad you don't live here!)

The moneysavingmom link has instructions for CVS and it explains how to use the ECB program. (Check her sidebar on the right I think) Then each week (usually on Sat or Sun) she posts all the deals and how to get them. Sometimes you can just print the coupon off your computer and sometimes you actually have to use the coupon from the paper or mailings. (I don't subscribe to the paper, but I go to the dollar store on Monday's and get around 4 copies of the Sunday paper. That's the best place for coupons.)
I haven't quite mastered grocery shopping yet (I heard about a lady who got $100 of groceries for a quarter) but CVS is easy and a good place to start because of the ECB program. Don't get too carried away. I have a goal to not spend more than $10/week. You have to start somewhere so usually getting the items that are "Free after ECBs" is a good place. Even if you wouldn't have normally purchased this item, get it because you'll start to build up your ECB's that you can use on items you do need. If you have a coupon for any of those items, you just made money! See how easy it is?

2 months ago, I had absolutely nothing stored as far as soap, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. I've spent less than $10/week and now I have a year's supply of toothpaste (I'll probably end up giving a bunch away, you can almost always get that for free or really cheap) I've got at least 6 months of dish soap, 6 months of laundry detergent, a years supply of shampoo and conditioner, at least 6 months of body wash, etc. I've also been able to try items that I normally wouldn't be able to afford like Loreal face cleaner or Glade Lasting Impressions ($10 for air freshener is insane). I got both those items for free (only paid taxes). I've spent around $100 out of pocket at CVS this year and I've saved over $500. (of course some of those items are sale items and whatnot, but regardless - that is a ton of savings!) So $10 a week for 10 weeks so far and I've exceded my goals to have a little stockpile of household necesities. Now I can just continue contributing to my stockpile and I won't end up paying full price for something when it runs out.

Walmart saves

Walmart isn't as cool as CVS because their cashiers don't know how to count coupons.


Nevertheless (after about 10 mins at the checkout)


I walked away with this.





20 - Johnson & Johnson Buddies Soaps @ $.97 each
- 20 coupons for $1 off any Johnsons buddies product
1 Gilette shampoo @ $3.50
1 Gilette conditioner @ $3.00
- 2 coupons for save $2.00 on any Gilette item

Total OOP $3.91 ($2.01 of that was taxes)

total savins $24.00

I Feel Cheated

It is a well documented fact that Sara despises Walgreens and I too haven't been very fond of it. But there were some deals that couldn't be passed up. (Although after all of the aggravation and driving to like 7 stores I'm not sure it was worth it.)

I spent more than I wanted to because my $10 off coupon wouldn't work at one of the stores, the cashier and manager were both snotty to me and I left very mad. I thought that when my total was $11.21 that I could just use my $10's off and then only pay $1.21. That was the whole point of me shopping there! They said that I couldn't do it because then the coupons would be covering the taxes. Ugh, government!

Then all the other stores that I went to didn't have the glade things that I could get for free. So I wasted a lot of time and began to really despise Walgreens. They are trying to be like CVS with their register rewards, but they don't know what they are doing and they make everything really difficult. They are so not CVS!

Anyway this is what I got!

In case you couldn't tell what I spent most of my money on, it was these babies. $10diapers for only $5 each, plus I got $10 back. So I spent $5 for 3 packages of diapers! Then I got 2 more for $5 each.

Here's the mother load of diapers!



Total OOP $40.01 Savings this post $136.44

(O.k. so saving over $100 is worth it!, but I don't think I'll be back to Walgreens for a little while)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

CVS 3/16

I had my most successful CVS trip yet!



Here's what I got


Here's the breakdown
2 - Laffy Taffy Candies @ .88/ea (-$1 CVS coupon)
3 - Dry Idea Deodorant @$2.99/ea (-3/$2 off coupons) Earned $6.00 ECBs
1 - Irish Spring Body Wash @ $4.99 (-$.50 off coupon) Earned $4.99 ECBs
1 - Colgate Maxfresh toothpaste @$2.99 (-.75 off coupon) Earned $2.99 ECBs
1 Purex Laundry soap on sale for $2.99 reg price 6.99 (-.50 off coupon)
1 Covergirl powder @$5.99 (-$1 coupon)
1 covergirl eyeshadow @3.39 (-$1 coupon & - $1.70 store promotion)
3 Aquafresh extremeclean @ 1.49 (- 3/$1.25 off coupons)

-$16 of ECBs from 2 weeks ago.
Total OOP $.20
That's right - two dimes baby!

Total Savings $44.92

and I earned $13.98 in ECBs for next week!

Good Clean Fun

All of the Buddies Soap Bars were FREE! (I love coupons!) Then I got another goldfish some applesauce and some soup. What a great way to stock up my pantry.

Total OOP $3.52 Savings this post $17.00

Monday, March 16, 2009

Smith's Sale

Sara and I went to Smith's armed with a pocketful of coupons and the store ad. They were having a great sale on items, where if you bought 10 items you got $5 back. The items that we bought all had coupons for them, so combined with the $15 off I got a lot of great things to fill up my cupboards. I just love getting a good deal!


Total OOP $39.99 Savings this post $72.74 That's 64%!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Grocery Shopping 3/13/09

Eliza and I went to Smiths for our weekly grocery shopping. We were saavvy with our coupons and both came out pretty well.

Here's my loot.



I combined coupons and store discounts and promotions and ended up spending $33.92. My total savings were $57.51

First Aid for Free

Yum...Cadbury's plus first aid kits and dish soap for FREE.

Total OOP $1.60 Savings this post $8.63

*Posted by Eliza*

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Got It!

I've earned my ECB's! Hooray! By getting some killer deals, and using my coupons I was able to get this... See those diapers? I paid $0.45 for them! Sara and I did this CVS trip at a scary part of town late at night. We had a LOT trouble getting ECB's to print and slow cashier that didn't know much and 3 tired cranky kids, BUT it was all worth it in the end!

Total OOP $3.91 Savings for this post $49.42!

*Posted by Eliza*

Friday, March 13, 2009

Babies will be clean now!

Using my awesome coupons for $5 off a huggies product I was able to get my diaper wipes for only $0.99!!! Of course I still had to do my goldfish deal and I also added some applesause and soup to my purchases this time. (Now there is a better deal for applesause, so I'll be going back for more!) If anyone wants to use their computer to print me some for huggies coupons I'll take 'em!

Total OOP $7.34 Savings for this post $14.00

*Posted by Eliza*

Thursday, March 12, 2009

It all adds up

More stuff I bought to help me get my ECB's. LOVE IT!

Total OOP $1.96 Savings this post $20.68

*Posted by Eliza*

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

6 Hours of Freedom

Today I got 3 FREE Redbox movies to keep the kids (and Dad) entertained while I have a meeting at church. Hooray for Kirby, Madagascar 2 and Get Smart!
If you have a Redbox nearby use code JBG123and you too could have a little bit of freedom.


Total OOP $0 Savings this post $3
I also got a free movie on Monday so I saved another $1

*Posted by Eliza*

Starting out small

What can you get for less than a dollar? I got this...




I'm slowly building up my "points" to recieve my extra care bucks. So far, so good.

Total OOP $0.98 Savings for this post $10.34

*Posted by Eliza*

Getting Saucy at Target

Despite having a new store clerk who didn't realize I could combine a manufacturer's coupon with a Target coupon and having a store manager who didn't really believe that the multiple coupons I had weren't copies... (they ended up accepting everything, but she gave me a very distrusting look)

Here's what I walked away with.


I got 6 Motts applesauce @$1.64/ea

-6 MFQ $.55 off

-6 Target Q $1.00 off


Grand total $.54


Total Savings $9.30


PS. I would never ever spend $9.30 on applesauce normally. That's just ridiculous!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Walgreens isn't completely the enemy

Walgreens has been having better deals lately than CVS (gasp) so as much as I want to resist, I just can't!

Here's what I got this week at Walgreens.

Here's the breakdown
$2.99 x 10 - Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner (on sale from $3.99)
$.89 x 1 - Tuf paper towel
7.99 x 2 - Glade lasting impressions (on sale from $9.99)
7.99 x 4 - Glade Sense and Spray (on sale from $9.99)
- 2 BOGO manuf. Coupon for Glade Sense and Spray
- 2 BOGO manuf coupon for Glad lasting impressions
-.30 instore coupon for Tuf paper towels
- $4 off (x6) Glade lasting impressions and sense and spray
- $1 off (x4) Garnier Fructis styling products
-$2 off (x10) Garnier Fructis styling products
Total OOP $12.85
Total Savings $92.25

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Gold Fish Stockpile

Target has had a coupon for $1 off pepperidge farm products. Their yummy goldfish crackes come in a wide variety of flavors and only cost $1.79. Soooo with my dollar off coupon we've been feasting on $0.79 goldfish!




This is just a small sampling of what I've gotten. On Thursday I had all the kids go to the register with their fish, a coupon and eighty cents. Cannon even got baby goldfish! So with each of us using a coupon each time we go to Target we've been able to stockpile quite a bit. I'm excited because they are a great snack and they aren't costing me too much!

Recently there was a $5 off coupon for Huggies wipes. At Target wipes are $5.99. So I was able to get wipes for $0.99! AWESOME!


*Posted by Eliza* Total savings this trip $17.00

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Went back for more

A deal this good I just had to go back and do it again. I've now gone to 4 different CVS stores and bought them out of the little $2.99 lotions.


Today I did 4 transactions and spent a total of $1.84 and saved a total of $21.64.


I also did the redbox deal yesterday and got 2 different movies for free! Savings of $2.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Today I used the Redbox code for Wednesday and got to see a FREE movie with my kids! We saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was pretty cute. I liked it and the kids liked it. And since I don't really like chihuahua's I'm not tempted to get a dog!

To get your own FREE movie use this code, 75EA16, today only. I know the Redbox movies only cost $1, but if you can get it for FREE...

There are more codes that work on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll keep you updated.

Photos from Beverly Hills Chihuahua

*Posted by Eliza* My total savings for this post is $1.00

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

We had to start somewhere

It's Sara here and I had a killer week at CVS that I just had to brag about!



I spent total out of pocket (OOP) $4.66. I made $12 in Extra Care Bucks (ecb) which work just like a gift card next time I go.




Total savings $63.79 +12.00 to spend next time



And...



Check out all my loot.








Those little lotions at the bottom are how I made my money. They cost $2.99/ea and I had a $4.00 off coupon (well 11 total coupons that I used in 11 different transactions). So with each coupon I was able to get a lotion and 2 candy bars for free! Woot woot!





I love CVS!





Walgreens is the enemy.

I went there today as well. They have a program similar to the extra bucks, but it's not posted anywhere. They list a few items in the ad, but the rest you just have to try to figure out yourself. What's up with that? I found online that the Colgate MaxFresh cost $3.29 and you get $3.50 register rewards back. So I did that and tried to use my register rewards with my next transaction and combine it with a bunch of other coupons and it totally didn't work. They even had to call over 2 different managers and nobody could figure out how to get them to work.

So I ended up spending a total of $4.61 and saved $25.00. Not bad, but it's totally not as cool as CVS.

Here's what I got at Walgreens.



Ok, it's Eliza's turn now to post some savings!