Category Archives: Coupons

Great CVS trip

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I had an awesome trip to CVS today (2/28). I spent a total of $25, saved $39 and came home with 4 ECB, a total of 67%! This is my second highest percentage for a trip! I realized after getting in the van that I could have saved an additional $3 had I separated and completed 3 transaction instead of 2 but oops! One of the reasons I missed this is because I ended up using 2 store coupons that I had not plan prior to going to the store! Here is what I did:

Transaction #1
CVS Psoriasis shampoo $7.99 with a $1 store coupon
Gillette men’s clinical strength deodorant $8.99 w/$3.00 off manufacturer’s coupon and 2ECB earned.
1 Bottle of Colgate Kid’s toothpaste $2.50 w/$.75 off manufacturer’s coupon and 1 ECB
1 Tube of Colgate Toothpaste $2.50 w/$.75 off manufacturer’s coupon and 1 ECB
Softsoap body wash $4.99 w/4 ECB back
Other coupons included 5 off 25 from Rite Aid and 2 ECB

Transaction #2
Box of Huggies Diapers $19.99 with $4.00 store coupon and $2.50 Manufacturer’s coupon earned 4ECB
2 bags of Jelly Beans $.88 each with $1.00 off 2 store coupon
2 new Pacifers for Zach
Other coupons included 3 off 15 from Rite Aid and 8ECB

The really cool part of the second transaction is that including the jelly beans and pacifers as free,then diapers were still $.12 each!

Not so Manic Monday

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Today is exactly what I needed it to be a nice, quiet, routine day at home! This weekend has been so hectic starting with Thursday night and then through yesterday. So since I want to keep this almost as a journal, I am going to try and hit the highlights of the weekend.

Thursday night I made a quick but profitable trip to CVS and Food Lion. At Food Lion, I found stage 2 baby food on closeout for 39 cent a jar. I also had several coupons for $1 off 4 and 6. I ended up buying 14 jars of food for an average cost of 13 cent each. I also picked up 64 ozs of Apple Juice for 50 cent. Diet Cokes were also on sale 🙂

Friday, Amanda and I went to Winston after I saw a patient at North. We hit Harris Teeter and Costco as well as the Verizon Store where Amanda is going to be getting a new phone. This phone is the 3rd one in 10 months that has broken so she got to chose a different phone to replace this one! I also went to CVS where I had a great transaction spending 32 cent and saving $22. I had a 5/25, a 4/20 facial items and 16 in ECBs. I still brought home 6ECB from my first transactions! Matt’s brother Dave and his family arrived from Disney around midnight, I was asleep!

Saturday, Matt stayed at home to visit with the kids. I went to help with Angel Food distribution, came home ate lunch and then went back to church for quizzing. Matt and the babies brought Pizza Hut pizza for dinner!

Sunday was a church day as usual and I got a much needed nap!

Today, I have caught up on laundry, emptied cat litter, caught up on the internet and hopefully will get my coupons cut out from the past 3 weeks that Mom saved for me! I also need to get a new calender for March put together!

The biggest news is that Kendall used a spoon to feed herself Applesauce for lunch !

Kendall’s Appointment

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We started to notice several weeks ago that Kendall’s left eye was starting to cross(turn inward). The more we watched it the more often we saw it turning in. Because of Lily’s extremely poor vision we decided to have her checked immediately. So yesterday we both took her to the appointment. I have to say that she was absolutely amazing! She is so cooperative with all the tests they had to do. It was really obvious to the tech that she was far-sighted. Her vision is not as bad as Lily’s but she does require glasses. We are in prayer that she will not need surgery. After receiving her glasses, she returns in 3 months to make this decision. Because Zach was with us, they decided to “check” his vision as well. Because he is so young this may change but his eye “look” normal now. One of the main things we were so worried about was finding glasses to fit Kendall. Lily was a year older but around the same size and it took 3 months and multiple visits to different place to find her glasses. So we decided to go ahead and order a pair if we could find some that fit. We did find and order a pair from the doctor’s office. they are pink and brown and have the “cable” /wrap around ear pieces. They are not the best but they did look cute on her so we decide to get these as well as keep looking. This office does not accept our vision insurance so this pair is full price. After coming back to Lexington, I took her to the office I use and where our insurance is accepted. I was able to find an adorable blue pair of glass that she LOVES and looks great it. So I ordered this pair as well. I was also able to order myself a new pair of glasses. I will post pictures when both pair come in!

I did make my first trip to Harris Teeter for super doubles yesterday before Kendall’s appointment. I am upset with myself, first I have lost my envelope that had my extra coupons to use. These were the ones I had pulled if an item was out of I couldn’t find it at the store. I had probably 16 or so coupons in this one. On top of that I lost my receipt. I know that I had over $50 in coupons but no clue how the totals actually are. I am planning a second trip tomorrow hopefully I will do better.
The playhouse arrived and only took Matt about 30 minutes to assemble. I will try and get pics of this as well.
Matt and I are going to build raised garden boxes for our square foot garden this year. I ordered the book today and he is planning on building 2 4×4 boxes for me!

Random Thoughts Tuesday

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I saw this on a blog I read just for fun so I thought it would be a good way to update mine.

I will update my blog roll to include a list of the blogs I read/stalk just for fun!

Sunday, I was able to go to CVS alone and make a good trip. I spent 40.93 and saved $72.78. I did spend a little,okay $20 more than my original plan but I got alot of stuff!
I plan to hit CVS once more this week to grab some more of the canned drinks and get a couple of RX filled!
The Walgreens is opening soon, so next on my list is to try and learn how to work coupons with them. CVS was easy since I already was used to the store and getting ECB for prescriptions. Harris Teeter was a major learning experience, I am so thankful for Susan who went with me on my first trip. Now I am even going to get a second card to use on “Special” weeks!

I just ordered my second 100 free prints from Artscow.com. Shipping was $5.99 so that worked out to 0.06 a print, not bad. I am hoping to get at least several years of photos printed out using these methods so when we get the room finished and our finances all back in line I can spend some time each week on my scrapbooks.

My second purchase for the day was at the mail order pharmacy. They sent Matt a $10 off your first order yesterday so I used it to purchase vitamins for the little girls. So I spent 0.99 shipped 🙂

Lily and Haley both had doctor’s appointments yesterday. Lilys’ was a yearly check-up. She is still underweight but they just suggested we keep using vitamins and she will grow at her own speed. Haley had a medication recheck and the insurance forced us to use the mail order pharmacy so I am anxious to see how this all works out. One of her prescription had to be mailed and the other was faxed.

Finally Matt and I by default started the Atkins Diet last week. He has already lost about 8lbs and I have lost 3lbs but I will admit I have skipped more than he has 🙂

Friday Final

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Ok so I “borrowed with no intention of returning” the name of today’s post, but I like it!
I did make the trip to Harris Teeter on Wednesday, a friend called and asked me to go with her because of “super doubles”. This means that instead of doubling 20 coupons per day up to $.99 they will double coupons up to $1.98. To prepare for this trip, I first printed out the item from Southern Savers
this ended up being about 10 items. I then looked through my coupons and pulled out ones that were over $.99 on items that I would use. I also added two items I needed anyway. My list ended up being 25 items, with my personal coupons I also wrote down how much off each items the coupon would be and what was the limit I would pay for this item. For example, International delight coffee creamer 1.50/1,if less than 2.25. This was the ideal thing for me! I was able to go to the store and know if I wanted to buy things or not. I did take my coupon book which was good because I ended up using 2 different coupons than I had pulled out. I bought only the items I had coupons for except for bread which was on a great sale. Harris Teeter is higher than Food Lion on most items so I will plan only going on “Super Doubles or Triples.”
Total from Harris Teeter Spent $44.77 saved $60.45 with $57.00 being in coupons.

I made 2 trips to CVS this week. On the first trip I spent $2.97 and purchased 3 Diet Cokes, a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. The second trip spent $44.09 and saved $74.53. For both these trips I made sure I pulled list of things on sale that I wanted and had coupons for and used ECB. I did do 3 transactions on my second trip because I had a $5/20 and $5/30. I scanned my card when I entered the store and got a $4/20. This must be rang up before any coupons to work!.

Since this is my regular week for shopping I also went to Food Lion spent $42.17 and saved 17.32. I also went to Costco spent $165. So total for the month so far in groceries is $432.85. This is about $150 less than my average from last year and we will need diapers and more milk,bread before the end of the month but I am feeding 50 people for Zach’s dedication so for now I am pleased!

Couponing- The Beginning

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One of the reason that I feel a strong “push” to start this blog to share how I am saving money. I don’t make New Year Resolution but this year I did set several goals:

Get out of debt except for the house and car.
Finish the addition. (This will be a whole blog of it’s own, I got to
have something to write about)
Go on a week long vacation to the beach.

All of these involve money. At this point both DH and I agree that I NEED to be home. So me working more is not an option for my family right now so saving money is the way that I am helping in achieving our goals. So couponing and shopping sales,consignments,and ebaying all help me save money. There are a couple of “catches” for me using coupons. First I HATE going to the grocery store. Second is DH’s pay schedule. Third trying to get all 3 of the little one in a car and then shopping well that is just impossible by myself. So I am working to make this as easy as possible and to use as little time as possible. Looking at our expenses for 2009 on average we were spending $579 a month on food. This was our largest bill except for the house payment. So it made sense for me to start working on reducing that bill. I was shopping sales but not using coupons. I “tried” to only go shopping twice a month.

So now that I have written where we started, here is what has changed. First we began ordering Angel Food. If you are not familiar with Angel Food, check out their site (www.angelfoodministries.com) I budget $100 a month to purchase food this way. Angel Food has no income requirement and it is a nation wide program. The site will help you find something close to you. The food is AWESOME! We regularly buy a signature box and a fruit and veggie box. Most months, we also purchase one or more of the meat/chicken boxes. Now for the coupons. I started by going through my mother’s Saturday paper, there is no Sunday paper in this town. I clipped all the coupons I “thought” I would use. I organized them in a notebook using baseball card holders into categories. I daily check these websites, (www.budgetsavingmom.com , Southernsavers.com and Caringwithcoupons. I prints lots of the coupons, but only ones I know I will probably use and have signed up for anything free that is useful!
So far I have shopped at Food Lion, CVS and one trip to Harris Teeter for “super doubles.” At budgetsavingmom, she has a guide on how to get started. This is an excellent way to start. I did save up my coupons for about a month before really starting but I don’t see any need in buying multiple papers to get the coupons. I am trying to have the smallest expense up front so I have not bought anything extra. This is the start, my plan is to post another post on my actual shopping this week!