Category Archives: Coupons

Saving Money- CVS trip

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Thursday’s have turned out to be the day that we end up shopping especially for groceries since we have to travel to Winston (30 minutes) most of the time for the best deals. Today we went to CVS, Harris Teeters (2 orders) and Costco. By far the best trip saving wise was CVS.

Matt noticed this morning that he was out of shaving cream. After a few minutes of thought, I decided to use the 5 ECB I earned for completing a survey on line to buy the shaving creme.  I used Southern savers to find at least one coupon.  I was pleasantly surprised when I scanned my card at the red box and got another 5 ECB for beauty club purchases. Here is what I purchased for $0.36

I used a 0.55 coupon on the edge, the gum was on sale BOGO. I ended up grabbing these at the checkout so I would not waste any of the ECBs.  So I saved 95%, have 9 ECB left for next week and earn 0.25 for using my green bag tag.

Well worth the extra 5 minutes and stop at CVS

Saving Money- Even When It is Not Convenient

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Living in a small town makes it difficult to save money most of the time. Add in the fact that most weeks, we don’t have alot of extra time to devote to saving money. But I have learned the hard way, sometimes saving money is not the most convenient or easy thing to do.

 Out of the 7 of us, 5 use contacts and/or glasses. I do carry vision insurance at work but coverage is very limited.  Glasses are very expensive, on average a pair has been costing with the insurance an average of $200.  We have tried places in town such as Walmart, however they refuse to place transition lens in Lily’s glasses and the “$10” kids glass still cost around $100.  In addition, the customer service is awful, we have waited around 30 minutes each time we go for a fix as well as they charge for each piece that breaks on the glasses, for example nose pieces are $10 each. I also have attempted to order glasses online but this does not work out either mainly due to trying to fit the small face structure of the girls.  I have been reading about Vision Works and decided to check it out. The closest Vision Works is in Winston about 30 minutes away. I stopped in 2 weeks ago, we were able to order 2 pair of glasses for Lily including one with the transitional lens, they also “slimmed down” the lens as well, the final cost $184.00.  I was most impressed with the selection of frames we had to choice from, even staying with the lower $69.95 frames, Lily located several pair she really like in about 10 minutes.  I was able to come home and submit for a part of the cost back from my vision plan. I can only get $90 back as opposed to $150 but the real difference is after reimbursement I will have spent $95.00 for two pair of glasses as opposed to $150 for one.  Yes, using Vision Works took extra time and the cost of gas but the overall saving is well worth it.  Check out Lily’s new frames below!  I was so pleased that Kendall will be receiving 2 pair of new glasses this week as well!

Another example of saving money not being easy is couponing in general. It takes time. Time to prepare and shop. An example is today, I knew that if on my way to CVS, I stopped at my parents then I would have a second set of coupons and therefore be able to purchase 2 toothpaste for free instead of one. At this point, I don’t need the second tube but it was a small inconvenient for a free item.

Thirteen Dollars at CVS

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Since Thanksgiving, CVS has really had some slim pickens for sales, there have weeks that I have not even gone to CVS for the sale but instead a need.  But this week was one of the best I have seen in a long time. This is an excellent example of rolling ECBs to cut down on expenses.

This is actually 2 trips to CVS as the first store did not have enough of the deodorant for me to purchase so we headed to the CVS in Winston-Salem since we were headed that way anyway. I spent $12, saved $53.27 and ended up with 4ECBs and a total of 81% savings. These are all items that we will use infact both the Dawn and the Deodrant were on my list to purchase this week.  I started these with no ECB nor gift cards so these can be duplicated except for the mouthwash!

Transaction 1– Canbury Easter Egg 0.87 on sale, total was $0.93 and received 1 ECB.

Transaction 2- (2) bottles of Dawn Dish Detergent with Hand Renewal, used 2- 0.50 off coupons from PG 1/1, and ECB from Transaction #1.  My total was 0.02! Even better the nice cashier looks down and goes I have 0.02 that someone left, so they were entirely free!  I did include 0.02 for totals on this post just so you can’t complain!

Second Store
Transaction 3– (2) Tom’s of Maine Wicked Fresh Mouthwash  clearance priced $2.74 Total was 5.85, received 6 ECB back

Transaction 4-MY FAVORITE!  (2) Irish Spring Body Washes $2.49 each, (4) sticks of Men Speed Stick,  $1.99 each (2) 24 bottle case of CVS water 2.22 each
                       Used (2) 1.00 off Body Wash
                                (2) BOGO Coupons for the Speed Stick each rang up at $3.99
                                  6 ECB from Transaction 3
                        Paid $1.32 earned 6 ECB

Transaction 5  (3) 12 packs of Pespi products 3/10.00
                         Used 6ECB from Transaction 4
                           Paid 4.68 or $1.56 each or 0.13 a can
                          Earned 4 ECB

January in Review

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I am actually excited to write this first update for the year! I also am including some important changes we are starting to implement this month. I will be the first to admit that most of my excitement is due to the fact that with alot of conscience effort, I have met most of the goals this month.





Blogging: This post will make 16 for the month!! I can honestly say that I have had to think about blogging this month. But have been successful in at least getting something on paper.

Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Major improvements this month including meeting the goal for the month. I need to continue with this focus and also add some meat to it. I am also extremely excited that Matt has “stepped up” and is taking an active role in being the spiritual head of the house!
Goal is 3 a week.

Groceries: So this is the major ouch I am way behind goal on this one. I spent $1120. So my explanations is as following: stock-pile. Food Lion the one local grocery store has been running an awesome “Brand sale”. I have made 3 separate trips spending approximately $85 each trip.  This is a store that I normally don’t even shop. The other part of the explanation is that we are attempting to stock up on items during the first 3-4 month of the year so that during the remainder of the year, it will make all things easier.
     I am planning on making some major changes in= the way I keep up with our budget in this area. I am going to pull out the designated money on Monday and keep a cash envelope for it each week. This first week will be the hardest since I usually shop at CVS on Sundays, so I may just end up taking a week off or at least                 
 Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially: After looking at our spending and income for the month, we are $450 over budget. I can account for all of this in the medical bills that were paid during the month. In order, to continue without this overage tanking our budget for February, we will be using our unexpected tax return to cover. Other plans for the return including the completion of our addition with gutters going up!
     I realize that we need to place money in our budget for medical expenses and will begin this in March. No debt was paid off this month but we should begin to see one or more a month starting in February.
Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year.

Weight– I lost 7 pounds in the month of January! An awesome start..at this rate I will reach my goal prior to December of this year! Currently I am exercising 4 days a week and drink 8+ glasses of water

Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150

Saving Money- Add to the Stockpile

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Just last week, I was excited to share that I thought our stockpile was near complete. I was even more excited that I was not even close to the grocery budget for the money. Well since then I have been shopping again at Food Lion and have a plan to go to Costco again tomorrow. Sounds crazy doesn’t it, what is even more crazy is that I am planning to move some money from dinning out to cover the Costco trip tomorrow.  But let me explain…..

Food Lion is the only “grocery store” in our area. We also have a Walmart that sells groceries but I really dislike Walmart. I rarely go to Food Lion because of their coupon policy and usually much higher prices when compared to Costco. But these past several weeks have been different. A good example is my trip tonight I spent 85.09 and saved 66.13 or 44%. This is not a huge saving percentage and in the past I would not even post about this trip but if you take a close look at what I bought for that $85 it makes more sense.  Chicken leg quarters were on sale for 0.59 a pound in quantities of 10#. This is actually 0.20 cheaper than my stockpile price. I ended up purchasing 40# of chicken. My thought is that I will crockpot cook one bag at a time. This should provide enough meat and chicken stock for at least 4 meals or 1 month so I purchased a 4 month supply tonight. While I was in the store, they have continued there “Store brand sale”, in addition to ketchup and BBQ sauce, they added cat food and salad dressing. I again grabbed several of the condiments as well as 40 cans of cat food, at 0.15 a piece it is cheaper than dry food. I also grabbed more sodas at 0.64, with coupons goldfish and pop tarts also made it into my cart.  So this 44% saving trip really is a great deal in real life.

We will head to Costco tomorrow for milk and other items we are out of just to finish off the month. Matt and I are already talking about several changes to the way we are budgeting. In addition starting next month, I am going to use a envelope system for groceries so that we can “carry” any remaining amounts over for a month when our financial situation changes as we are anticipating in the next 6 months or so.

Saving Money- Stockpile complete Now what?

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Back in November, I found a “stockpile” list on line and with a few changes, I posted it here.  With the financial changes we are facing in a couple of months, one of the ways we are preparing is by building the “stockpile”.  As I was reading over on Southern Savers, I realized that Food Lion has it “special brands sale.” Basically this give you a quarter back for each of the store items you purchase, in the form of a catalina.  After reading further, I realized that they also had several items on a great sale. So we decided to make a trip to Food Lion. I rarely go to Food Lion simply because of their higher price and the fact that they do not double coupons.  Ketchup, mustard and BBQ sauce are all on sale @0.88 with the sale this make each 0.63, this is the lowest I have seen any of these items. They also had there soda on sale for 0.89 with the additional discount that was 0.64 each. I purchased a total of 46 items of the store brand including bread and milk. While shopping I also discovered wing drumette marked down. I grabbed these for our Super Bowl party.  I did seperate my purchase out to 3 transaction to use the catalina and not have any left.  While putting these items away, I realized that we have added a lot to the stockpile this month. So I decided to check out the list vs what we actually have.  I am about 4 items short but these are not things I will run out and buy but probably will just grab extra the next time I buy them. So now what?

If you watch any of the shows on TV, you see they just keep adding and adding and adding. Not me!  I am not planning on adding to the stockpile unless an item is free or what I consider a stock up price. So I will continue to buy items especially at CVS and also watch the sales at other places. But for now, I just want to maintain this level of stuff. So unless,it is a great deal it won’t be coming to my house! I also have managed to spend only $600 of our $800 budget so far this month. I know this will go up at least by $50 but that still is awesome for us and below budget!

A Day of Shopping

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I am really interested in the way people shop, especially how you shop if you have a large family. Yes, I know we have a large family but I am often curious if I am doing it right? Can I do it differently, smarter or better? This is one of the reason that I watch TV shows about people with large families. So I thought since I haven’t done a post about a day in my life in a long long time, I would share today.

Preparation- This is the most important part of the trip for me. The more prepared I am the less chance of missing something in the store. I also really dislike running to the store to pick up one item at a time. We usually will start to notice that we are running low on things, look at the calender and decide we need to make a trip to Costco. At that point, I usually place a list on the fridge to add things as I realize I need them. This list went up last Saturday. It also serves as a reminder to me to check out things that we might be running low on.  Next on the list of preparation is checking out the Costco coupons. Are there items we usually buy that I will definitely get  because there is a coupon? Because we simply can’t purchase very thing at Costco I usually have a second list for Aldi or Food Lion. This week happens to be “Super Doubles” at Harris Teeter so I have spent around 2 hours gathering coupons and placing 2 separate orders for this. Matt took the kids and picked up the first list yesterday.  After discovering they did not give me credit for any of my coupons, I spent another 20 minute on the phone and decided to use up some of the value and place an order for today.  In the category, I put things like making sure the cooler is in the car as well as getting all my coupons and list in one spots so I don’t forget them. We also usually take a small cooler with drinks just because someone is always thirsty.

Trip itself- We first window shopped at BabysRUs for a new car seat. We ended up purchasing one at Costco, it is a booster for Lily. Costco had a good deal on pork. Highlights of our purchase include: bag of chicken breast, 3 large pork roast ( at home I divided these into a total of 10 separate meal and froze each individually), 2 packages of pork chops ( these are divided into 2 meal each, we had one for dinner and froze the rest0 6# of hamburger ( I am planning a cooking day on Saturday, this should be 3 meals), 2 gallons of milk, 6 gallons of Apple Juice, 2 gallons of Orange juice and 7 dozen eggs. I did purchase a lot of meat today as well as staples that I have not been able to find cheaper through coupons.  We had lunch at Costco, ran over to Harris Teeter to pick up and then came home to put away everything. I did make a quick trip to Aldi for beans, rice and taco seasoning.

The End- I spent approximately half of our grocery budget this week. Just looking at the meat we purchased this should be the only large trip we make this month.  Since we don’t have any plans on Saturday, I am planning to cook  that day. Items on the list included chicken for stews, beans, 2 cheeseburger pies and 2 meals of Salisbury steaks. Today alone, I was able to divide up the pork roast and pork chops. On average we have enough of both of these items for 2-3 months! So that is exciting to me!

Saving Money- A look at the Numbers!

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I have made multiple shopping trips since Thursday. The main reason why is that our local grocery store has a stock up deal on Diet Cokes and paper products. I discovered these by accident on Thursday and since it seems we pass a Food Lion almost anywhere we go, I am trying to stock up.  Diet Coke 2 liters are on sale for 0.88 each when you buy four. This is the cheapest I have seen them since September and I have gone through my stockpile and actually have been paying around $1.25 each for the past couple of weeks.
So let’s look at these numbers. Standard price for a 2L is $1.25, so far I have purchased 16 at a savings of 0.37 each for 5.92

While picking up a third round of drinks on Friday, I discovered that Hefty paper products are on sale BOGO free, with a coupon on display for 1.00 off 2. So far I have picked up around 300 paper plates, 60 paper bowls and 50 cups. I did send a set home with  my mother to  use at Christmas. I figured out that by using these products instead of the dishwasher twice a day, I am saving at minimum $1.00 a day by reducing our use of  the dishwasher by half. I should have easily enough products to last a month so that is a savings of $30.

Finally, I made a trip out to CVS today because of the information I found on-line, I hoped to get a coupon for 3 12-packs of Diet Coke for $8.00. I was excited to get this coupon. I combined sales and coupons today in order to purchase 9 12-packs of Diet Coke and 4 bags of candy for $25.00. In my calculations, I see the candy as all free because I would not normally purchase it.  My per can cost then is 0.24.  I go through roughly one 12 pack of drinks a week at work. We do have a machine that sells cans for 0.65 each. So by stocking up today I saved 0.42 a can or $4.92 a week. A grand total of $44.98.

Today, I place a whole chicken in the crock pot with several cups of water.  After it cooking all night, I was able to freeze 7 cups of chicken broth. A can of chicken broth is typically 14-15oz or just shy of 2 cups. I saw today that a stock up price on broth was $2.00 for the container, so by freezing the broth I had today I saved at least $6.00. I also was able to shred the cooked chicken that can be used for soups or pies instead of cans.  I should add here that this chicken from Angel Food so I am not sure of the cost.  I figure a good estimate of the savings is $5.00.

My final savings by planning ahead today is $94.00 off our normal grocery bill.

Paid to Use Harris Teeter Express Lane

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One of the reasons that I like Harris Teeter as a whole is that they are really focused on customer service. I have had only one bad experience with them, and the good one make up the difference. I have said in the past and will say again, “if ” they would ever get “Express Lane Order” straight it would be a great thing.  I knew we would be in Winston on Thursday so I took about an hour on Wednesday night to assemble and place our order to be picked up on Thursday.  A big advantage this week was that they waiving the $4.95 fee.  After hitting all our stops in record time, we headed to Harris Teeter. I knew that we were mostly likely going to have a wait when there was a car in front of us, using the Express Lane. We ended up waiting around 20 minutes to get our order after the car in front of us finished. I am still not sure what happened to our order to start with but that seem to take longer than usual as well. Next, after bring the groceries to the car, I realized he had not subtracted my coupons from the previous trip.  When planning this trip, my estimate was that we would end up paying around $10 and I have 15 in coupons to use for the next order. But something even better happened, they ended up charging $23.83 on our debit card, handing us back $25.02 and I have $15 in coupons for the next order. I do know that we received $5 for waiting the 20 minute but as for the rest of the math, I still have not figured it out.  We ended up being paid to take groceries home!

CVS-Awesome Trip

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So if you have been catching up on reading the blog lately you will remember from yesterday that I really spent more than I planned at CVS on Thursday. I was not to upset because I knew that I would use the ECB in the next couple of weeks to make some really good deals. Today I took my first trip, I was also able to grab a couple of rain checks that I cashed in today. Overall I spent $3.36 and saved $90 for a 96% saving, even better all the items are thing we use regularly.  I did split my transaction up into 2 just to make it easier for me to use the ECB.
       Transaction 1
4 bags of Combos on sale 1.50 each received a $2 off 4 bags at the red coupon machine
Revita Lens contact solution 8.99 (8.99 in ECB back)
1 Poster board $1.19
1 Breath Right Strip 12 count (raincheck from Thanksgiving)
1 LA Looks hair gel (Raincheck from Thanksgiving)

USE $22.89 in ECB and $2 off coupon above
Total out of pocket 0.29 (tax was $1.10)

   Transaction 2
2 Packs Pampers Cruisers $9.50 each (2.00 off 2 coupon)
1 Tide with Bleach $5.94 (2.00 coupon)
2 Panatene Shampoo/Conditioners $3.94 (1.00 off 2 coupon)
1 Nyquil liquid and tablet pack $9.99 (3.00 off coupon from red box last week)

Used Coupons above plus   33.45 in ECB from Above and Thanksgiving
Total out of pocket $3.07, In addition I received a $10 gift card for spending 30 in P&G products and will also get a free pack of diapers for buying  6 next time I scanned my card.

I still have approximately $20 in ECB and will do the P&G gift card again this week.