Category Archives: Coupons

Weekend Rambling

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I have enjoyed 4 full days off work in a row!  I am excited and feeling accomplished that I just had to share all that we have been up to.

  • Both Friday and Saturday, we spent over 5 hours enjoying the pool. I can finally say that I have a tan now!
  • The weather has been awesome, much cooler than in the past week and much cooler than I expected, temperatures have been in the mid 80s by day and even some 50s at night.
  • Because of the nice weather, I was able to spend several hours working not only in our square foot garden but also working in the flower beds around the house. I am very pleased with the results!
  • The square foot garden continues to provide us with fresh vegetables daily, our cherry tomatoes are awesome! Hopefully by the end of the week, we will have some full size tomatoes to go with our cucumbers and squash. Because of the really hot weather, I am not sure if we will be getting any more beans this year but the kids loved planting and picking so they will be repeated next week.  My most exciting discovery this week has been that we have 4 watermelons and 2 cantaloupes growing! I can’t wait to eat these.
  • I have been grabbing some good deals at both CVS and Food Lion this week. I will say that I was most disappointed to find that Diet Coke was not on sale at Food Lion after being told it was by 2 different people.
  • Both the little girls are really enjoying swim team. Lily is now able to swim all 4 strokes but needs to work on her endurance. Kendall is able to swim the back stroke and freestyle without stopping. Kendall has also been working on the butterfly but I am not sure she will be able to compete in this stroke this year.
  • Our new dryer arrived on Saturday and we were able to dry a load of towels in less than an hour!
  • One of the best deals I got at Food Lion was ground chuck for $2.67 a pound, this afternoon in less than an hour, Matt and I put together 5 meals. We decided to combine the ground chuck with venison that we had previously purchased.  All the meals were frozen because we are still eating leftovers from Kendall’s party.  We packed 2 bags of cooked ground beef; these will be used for Hamburger Helper or other meals such as pizza that started with cooked meat. I made a meatloaf and cheeseburger pie and finally Matt made a container of Taco rice that we plan to take to the beach as a meal in August.
  • On Friday, which was the Fourth of July, Amanda came and took Kendall shopping for her birthday. She purchased a dress, 2 complete outfits, a pair of shorts and a couple of Disney shirts. Kendall is so excited to have new clothes to wear!  Haley decided to spend time with us as well. She actually went to the pool. The little kids absolute LOVE when their big sister spend time with them!
  • Tonight, all three of the little ones are attending Vacation Bible School at my brother’s church. I am excited and surprised because Zach wanted to go and did not even get upset when we left him eating with his cousin. I hope they all have a great time. This is the first time that Zach has been able to stay somewhere without either of his parents. He will sometimes stay at the child watch center at the YMCA but other time he refuses so for him to want to stay is AWESOME! I hope the trend continues all week!

Saving at Harris Teeter

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I have been looking at the Harris Teeter ad for several days now, trying to decide it I should make a trip for this week or wait.  I am reading rumors that they will host a “Super Doubles Event” in the next few weeks, but after a little more printing, I knew this would be an awesome week to go.  I was able to load my card with the ZVR coupons (Harris Teeter) and I even signed into Saving Star to make sure I could get the best deal.

Bright and early this morning we headed out to Salisbury. I am so glad I did!

Total Spent $65.01
Total Saved $109.56
Percent Saved 63%

Once everything shows up in my Saving Star, I am also eligible for $10 cash back!

One of the reason I am so excited about this trip is the number of convenience foods, I was able to grab. We spend ALOT of time at the pool during the summer but there is no way we can afford to eat out or even just buy snacks at the pool each time. So today was awesome, I grabbed around 20 Lunchables- great for swim meets and if they last that long to take to the beach, 5 packs of Hunt’s pudding, 8 boxes of Granola bars, 4 boxes of fruit by the foot/fruit gushers and 5 cases of soda for Matt to drink at the pool and also for the beach. These are all easy things to carry to the pool. In addition to these items I also included in my purchase was 2 boxes of Hamburger Helper, 2 boxes of Suddenly Salad, 3 boxes of Stand up Taco shells and 2 bottles of salad dressing.

I keep a spread sheet for the year with most of my best saving trips on it. This is not the best trip as far as percentage wise that I have saved but it is the second largest savings dollars that I have achieved this year!

Sunday Shopping At CVS

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This is one of the best weeks in a long time at CVS, I knew that I needed to get to the store today if I want to grab the couple of deals I spotted.  But the reason I am so excited tonight is not only did I get the deal but made money in the process.

In the past, there has been some debate on a couple of websites as how to count your ECB and figure in your savings., however today no matter how you do the math, I made money by shopping.  The one slight issue I had was that the red coupon machine did not work so I had to wait till after the transactions to get most of the coupons that have been advertised. I just kept things simple and am sure I did better by the machine being broken in the end.

I started out with $1.00 ECB on my card and $2.50 on Matt’s card.

Transaction #1 (my card)
M&M on sale $0.75 and Skinny Cow Carmel Delight on clearance for $0.59
Total spent $0.37 and Earned $0.75 for the M&Ms

Transaction #2 (Matt’s Card)
Crest Pro-Health mouthwash on sale for $4.99 and a coupon for $1.00 off
Total Spent $1.83 and earned $4 in ECB and an additional $5 in ECB for meeting $50 in the beauty club.

Transaction #3 (Matt’s Card)
Crest Pro-Health mouthwash on sale for $4.99 and a coupon for $1.00 off
M&M on sale for $0.75
I did use $4 ECB from the previous transaction, total spent $1.09 with $4 ECBs

Total Spent out of Pocket = $3.29 plus $3.50 in ECB      equals $6.79
ECBs remaining = $10.50
Total profit $3.71!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Random Tuesday Thoughts 5/6

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Life is going at its usual hectic pace around here so this is the prefect way to update with things going on.

  • The highlight of the last week and most like of the entire month if not the entire year was the Christian music concert that Matt, myself and the little kids attended on Sunday. It was outside at our fairgrounds. We were able to see several bands including The Newsboys. It was awesome, we all enjoy!  One of the surprising things is that we were all able to wear matching shirts that we purchased for our last trip to Disney, 3 years ago!  I am going to try to post some of the picture tomorrow. We had awesome seats that left me with ringing ears.
  • This weekend, I am planning on a yard sale at my BFF house. The goal of any yard sale is to make $100 and I hope to exceed this goal. All proceeds will go toward cheerleading for the next year as both girls plan to be involved. I have a good idea of the money that will be needed in the next six months and it will be a huge stretch but as always God will provide!
  • Our square foot garden is growing. I was able to plant with the help of the kids the sweet potatoes last week. I hope that by the end of May we will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor! One thing that the kids are really enjoying is each planted their own square of green beans. So far Kendall and Lily are tied for most plants growing.
  • Both Amanda and Haley will be starting or have started new jobs this month. I praying that they both enjoy working and can begin to save and get on a good financial track.
  • Last Saturday, I spent most of the morning weeding the flower beds around the house I am excited that the new flower bed we created in front of the house is growing.
  • The end of the school year is fast approaching with it comes lots of year-end events. Unfortunately, at work we getting  a new computer system the last week of the school year. I am being faced with some very tough decision about which activities to attend.
  • May is going to be a super expensive month but Matt has another new website on the horizon so I hope this will help offset the cost.

 

Making Money at CVS

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I am excited to report that CVS paid me $0.36 to take items out of the store today. I have figured this saving several different ways but this was the easiest, so I will start with it. I had $5 ECB from a previous purchase, I am counting this a spend amount. In addition to the original 5 ECB out of pocket I spent 6.60, total spent 11.60. I came home with 11.96 in ECB! Profit of 0.36!

 

In addition to the 5 ECB from previous purchase, the red box gave me another $2 in ECB from my Spring spending. I used one newspaper coupon for $4 off a Gillette Razor the remaining coupons were given to me by CVS.

Here is what I purchase:

11 boxes of CVS chewy Antacid, these are a month long deal, Buy one for $1.49 and get $1.49 back in ECB. The limit is 10 per card. I have 2 cards.

1 Gillette Venus Razor with 2 refills, coupon above
1 can of Skinimate Shaving gel- Use a $3 off $10 coupon that printed last week.

1 2L of Ginger Ale
1 1L of Diet Coke- I wanted to use all ECB on my first card because that makes it easier to keep up with.

Taking the ECB that I ended with out of the equation I spent $6.60 and saved $36.65 for an 82% savings. This will definitely make my next couple of purchase free or very close.

 

Random Thursday Thoughts 2/20/2014

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I have lots of things that I would like to share but none is enough to really make a full post so I am going to share some of these random thoughts today!

Budget things- I have one week left in our February budget. So far for the month, we have spent $601.30 on groceries. I decided not to do any shopping until next Saturday. That does mean I will be missing the Harris Teeter Super Doubles event.
-I have a second receipt from CVS this week that shows 100% savings. This time I used 2 coke rewards coupons. 2 12 packs ended up costing me $0.51. I again made the decision not to purchase any additional.
– I am enjoying my gift fund. I have already purchased Haley’s birthday present in addition to most of Easter and re-stocked part of my gift closet using the fund!
– Our hair fund is again empty. I went today and got a color. I would never have guessed that this fund gets the most use. I am very lucky that our hair dresser is very budget friendly but we average $50 a month on hair for the 5 of us!

I have been able to get to the Y to exercise 3 times this week. I am averaging 2 a week but to make it 3 times is an achievement for me .  In addition, I have lost 3 pounds so far this month.

Our water heater in the main part of the house is slow not working. This means we will need to purchase a new one in the next 2 months. Gas is not an option in our area but we are considering a tankless electric one.  This will be a huge expense but one that is needed.

I have purchased the little girls matching dress for Easter and a matching tie for Zach. Hopefully we will be able to coordinate everyone for a family picture! The goal being using it as part of the “collage” over our bed that we want to create.

Matt is picking up several more jobs which will be a nice boost to our goals this year. I just hate the waiting part of this process.

CVS Shopping 2/16/2014

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Although we still have some snow still laying on the ground, things have pretty much returned to normal in our state, so back to shopping I go.  I really debated this trip to CVS but decided some of the deals were too good to pass up.   I was really surprised today when one of my receipts showed a saving of 100%. I ended up pay $1.16 for this transaction but that was entirely taxes. I usually including taxes in my spending vs savings so I was excited to come home and check out my real savings. I am going to be very detailed with this trip because just about anybody could do the same.

I started with 5 ECB that I received on Friday for purchasing Diet Cokes.

First transaction:  1 Child’s  Culturelle      regular price 27.49 on sale for $10.00 Spent $5.68 got back 10 ECB

Second transaction: 4 bottles of Suave Kids 3n1 Body Wash/Shampoo,  regular price 3.79, on sale for 2.75, coupon B2G1 Free (deducted $3.00), 2 Suave Men’s Body Wash, regular price 2.77 sale price $2,coupon B2G1 Free (deducted $3.00), 3 packs of Mega M&M, regular price 1.48 sale price 0.75, coupon  B2G1 Free (deducted $1.29) used the ECB from above. Paid 1.16 received back 4 ECB and 0.75 ECB.

Trip total:   Spent $6.84 saved $46.76  or 87%

Are You Thirsty? Stockpiling

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Today was officially another snow day for us. I was unable to get out of the driveway or up the street as of 10am when I had to make the decision. However, with the temperature being 45 with the sun shine, we were able to venture out to a couple of stores this afternoon.

The items that we purchased are for the stockpile. The first stop was CVS, the last 2 weeks they have been running a special on 2 Liter Diet Cokes. They are on a stock up price of $.99 each, in addition for each $10 spent you receive 5 in ECB. I have been slowing purchasing a couple but decided to finish up today. I purchased 15 Diet Cokes a couple of Sprites and a couple of Cokes for a total of 19 drinks. I did not use any coupons but did use one of the $5 ECB I received.  Total spent $14.97, saved $24.09 or 62%. I also received another 5 ECB to be used later. The total cost per 2 L including tax was $0.79!

The next stop was Food Lion (our local grocery store), I read on Wednesday of an awesome deal. PowerAde and PowerAde Zero are on sale for $0.89 with the purchase of 15 you receive $10 off at the register. The total cost per 32 oz drink including tax is $0.23!    Matt decided he was okay with stocking up. I did a total of 7 transactions which  was the only down side, we ended up purchasing 105 drinks. In addition to the awesome saving this represents, I will earn 3 points from Coke Rewards for each of these bottles which will be 315 point, of which 250 points earns a free 12 pack!

Total Spent $18.55
Total Saved $146.59 or 89%  And I didn’t even use a single coupon!

Brand Loyalty and Coupons

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One of the first things you will read when beginning to coupon or trying to learn more about coupons is that you can’t be brand loyal.  I disagree with this statement. I have discovered over the years, that I am more brand loyal than I would have ever imagined. The things that come to mind are deodorant, laundry detergent, toilet paper and of course Diet Coke. In addition, Matt has used the same razor brand since we got married almost 10 years ago.  This weekend almost all of the above have been needed and on sale so I have spent $93 of my $300 grocery budget on these items.  But most of these should last the rest of the month if not several months

. First of all, let talk about Matt’s razors, I have learned that is it usually cheaper to buy him a whole new “Proglide razor” than purchase the replacement cartilages.  When we travel, he will use disposable ones just to save time. So I usually purchase disposable razors when I find a really good deal( less than $1.00) on them.  I know his preference for razors so if a good deal is running I will buy at least one and stick back, however this morning, he let me know that he was completely out of razors.  I checked my bag and found a rain check so this afternoon he was back in business. I love CVS because their rain checks never run out. I ended up spending $2.00 for his razor of choice!

Next is laundry detergent, I have tried several brands including the Kirkland one but return to Tide because it cleans and does not bother the sensitive skins of Lily or Zach. Tide usually goes on sale once every 3 months or so. I try to stock up but also know that I can grab an ok deal at Costco on Tide if I need to. I feel like the money I spend on Tide is made up with keeping the resale value of the kids clothes in addition to prolonging the life of most of the other clothes.  CVS also had a good deal on Tide so I purchased 4 20 load bottles. This should last until the next sale cycle.  The one exception I make in this area is a general exception across the board, if an item is free and I am shopping that store anyway, then I grab it. One of the black Friday deals at CVS was their brand laundry detergent, I grab both my free bottles. I will use these on our beach trip because I watch swim suits and towels every day or for towel at home. These are nice to have in a pinch as well. if it is free then it is worth one load of laundry.

Following close behind the laundry detergent is toilet paper. We have a really bad septic systems that we have spent several thousand dollars on in the past 4 years.  So I have to be careful what we put in it. I have found that Scott Extra Bath Tissue, first is soft enough to use and then is one of the safest for our system. Luckily, between coupons and sales, I can always find it for $0.45 cent a roll or less. Today, I grabbed it $0.40 cent a roll. In comparison when purchasing from Costco, I end up paying $0.63 a roll for the house brand, I purchased 54 rolls today so I am positive that we will be using them for several months!

Finally deodorant, I have always like Mitchum, luckily I am usually able to purchase for $1.00 or less a bottle I always grab as many as I have coupons for anytime I see them for this price. Matt on the other hand is adventurous in the area. But last year, he discovered “Right Guard” cooling effect. I have been able to stock pile about a 2 year supply so currently unless it is free, we don’t purchase any men’s deodorant!

No Spend Challenge and Shopping.

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One of my goals for this challenge was to reduce our Grocery spending to $400 for the month with  the remaining $200 set aside for Cheerleading competitions.  This is one area that we are doing excellent with. One of the reason is my winter cleaning has left our pantry much more organized and we also developed a list of items we have and need to use up.

I did realize that we were running really low on fresh veggies to use this week. We decided to  make several shopping stops today.  First up was a quick trip to CVS. I purchased 2 tubes of toothpaste, 2 2L of Diet Coke and a candy bar. I ended up paying a total of $1.55 of which $0.60 was tax. I received back 4 ECB. Next, was a stop at Aldi, total spent was $14.88 and finally Walmart. I purchased a baby gift and spent 1.71 for a bunch of celery. We check the celery at Aldi but it was limp and Lily wanted celery and peanut butter one day for lunch.   Our grocery total is $298.63 for the month!

I have a chance to order some items from Pampered Chef this week so I am going to use $100 from the left over grocery budget to pay for these items that are all going to be used for cooking.

This goal is MET!!!!!! So far for the challenge I am 2/5. By the end of the week, I hope to achieve 3/5!! This is huge for me as the challenge goals were set prior to planning of our trip!