Update on Misc Things

Well, I thought I'd update on a couple things.

First, I finally got my $50 Visa card from Barbie in the mail. I was so excited to see that come. It made my purchases worth it. I ended up getting 5 barbies and the horse for $16.98 total. To bad the horse didn't work, but Katie didn't want me to take it back because she liked it even though it didn't made the noises.

Second, I finished one of those Internet offers and received my check for $500 in the mail. I was so excited!!! I think I will do another one in a couple months when things settle down a little.

Third, I had lots of fun cashing in on the Albertson's deals and couple weeks ago, the double coupons at K-Mart, and of course, CVSing.

I even managed to get a great deal on a new gun. Well, Jake laughs at me, but paying full price for anything just isn't my style anymore. We found a gun we wanted to buy at walmart for $109 but I told him not to buy it, then we found the same gun but in stainless instead of just black for $119 at Big R. But, we got a $30 gift card back on it so Jake was able to get all his ammo and clay pigeons for free!!! It workout out great.

Walgreens has a deal on printer cartridge refills and I got my color ink refilled for $5 plus they have a $5 rebate on it this month. FREE!!!

I won't list all my other shopping trips because there isn't a whole lot going on right now.

Oh, we got a new mattress set. I have been looking for a while and we finally found the deal we were looking for on a great mattress. We bought a Seally Pillowtop Set fr $599 plus we got a $50 gift card back that we used on new pillows and sheets. At a retail store we would have paid over $900 bucks for the set and then the pillows and sheets, but we got it all for $599!!! But, we have to wait for it to come it. We were so mad. We called and they said they had them in stock, we took down our old bed to the basement and went to pick them up but they didn't have them. So, we are just sleeping in the basement till they come in, hopefully on Friday!!!

Goal Reached

So, I haven't posted in forever because I'm super busy, but I totally reached my goal this week on spending. I love to shop and spend money so getting great deals is so fun for me. But, I spend a lot of money doing it. So, this week, I was determined to spend only $10 dollars out of my pocket. Here's how I did-
I purchased all of the following items:
8 Boxes Pasta and Rice A Roni
2 Bottles of Baby Powder
5 Boxes of Microwave Popcorn
4 Boxes of Quaker Oatmeal
6 Boxes of Granola Bars
2 Boxes of Life Cereal
1 Bag Sunflower Seeds
3 Screws
2 Boxes Cheez-Its
3 Packages of Christmas Cards (80 cards)
1 Package of Garland
2 Bottles of Shout Stain Remover
2 Twin Packs of Glade Oil Refills
4 Boxes of Q-tips
1 50ct Box of Tylenol
1 Stick Revlon Lipstick
So, for all of that I only paid........... $9.41!!!
Savings: $ 144.12

Commissary 11/11/08

Here are several deals I got on groceries and glade today. I started my shopping at Albertson's but after my deals starting falling through I decided it wasn't worth it and headed to the commissary. Sorry you all can't cash in on these deals but watch for the items to go on sale in your area and use the coupons on them. I think almost all of my coupons were printables.

Evaporated Milk- .44
Duncan Hines Cake Mixes- .48
Progresso Soup- .81
Progresso Soup- .21
Glade Oil Candle Holder- 1.00
Glade Oil Holiday Scent Refills, Yummy!- 1.20
Kellogg's Cereal- 1.05

As you can imagine, I stocked up on most of these items. Hope you had a great day also!

Savings this Week- 11/02-11/08

I haven't posted a lot lately, mostly because I haven't been hunting as much. Anyway, I am pretty stocked with a lot of stuff so I haven't done much but here is what I did this week.

Walgreen's- I went to Walgreen's this week for one thing, and actually only got one thing, 10 times! I got the diapers that were on sale. I really like these diapers. The first trip I bought 4 without the $2 coupon and then forgot to use my RR's. So, I bought 2 more and used it. The diapers were on B1G1 sale for 8.99 so I should have paid 26.97 for 6 packs but used my gift card and RR's so $0 Out-of-Pocket. The second trip I asked the pharmacy for the coupon book and bought 4 more packs. The coupon takes off $2 for each pack so I saved $8! Yeah, my total was $9.98 but I used by GC again. $0
Summary- $89.90 in product Paid $0!

Target- Last week I had a little shopping spree and this week I took it all back! Anyway, I bought a new shelf for my basement for all my food storage and stock piles. The shelf went on sale from $54.99 to $34.99 and I had a $5 gift card. So, I got a way nice metal shelf for $29.99!

Kmart- I got 2 2GB SD cards for our camera and video player on sale for $14.99!

Amazon.com- I did a deal that I hope turns out good. I took and chance! Anyway, Barbie.com has a deal that if you spend $100 on select products they will send you a $50 Visa Gift card. So, I researched all the products and found the best prices. I bought 5 Barbie & the Diamond Castle Barbies that sing and the Barbie & the Diamond Castle Walking Horse. My total was $105.14 and I saved $8.37 with a shipping code and $8.52 with a 10% off code so my grand total was $96.62 which isn't bad for those great gifts. But, I saved another $30 by using my Amazon Credit card so I will only pay $66.62 to amazon and get back $50 from Barbie. I am hoping to get my gift card by the time I have to pay amazon so that I only have to out of pocket $16.62 but that's really pushing it. Anyway, I got a barbie and the horse for Katie for Christmas and the rest for gifts.

Misc- I spent another $41.90 on gifts this week for Christmas.

Groceries- For groceries this week I got a total of $96.27 this week, but only saved $5.50. Opps! Mostly because I took Katie to breakfast one day and then to the PTA night so eating out this week cost us $45!!! The rest was mostly spent on stocking up on baking items for the holidays and Girl Scouts. Actually, I didn't buy anything that I ate this week. Anyway, I got Duncan Hines Cake mixes and frosting's for $.47 each. I stocked up!!!

CVS- I went one time and just got what I needed, and the free toothpaste! Anyway, Pantene was on sale and there were coupons so I got 3 bottles and the toothpaste and only paid $1.23 after ECB's and coupons. I got back $5.49 in ECB's.

Thrift Store and Airman's Attic- I made a stop at both this week. I got Katie and new coat, Tyson a booster seat, and a couple misc items all from the Airman's attic for FREE!! Then, I got a carpet cleaner, a new skirt, my friend's boys a couple ties, and Tyson a snow suit for $15.25 at the Thrift Store. Pretty Good.

Well, that was my week of savings! How did you do???

Walgreens 10/24/08

I decided to take advantage of the $5 off $20 and try to get my FAR items for November. But, I didn't find much to get.

I grabbed some candy for the trick-or-treaters, much needed cold and flu medicine and the Almay Mascara with Free eye liner.

I had 2 $1 off for the Triaminic, $2 off for the Theraflu, $1 off for the Almay, and $3 off for the candy. But, the cashier scanned $3 worth of the coupons twice and didn't want to fix it. Yeah!! So, I ended up paying $10.88 out-of-pocket, got back $8 for the medicine, $2.99 mail-in-rebate for the theraflu, and $6.99 rebate for the mascara. Pretty good!

CVS Trip

Monday has a whole new meaning to me. I love Monday's!!! Anyway, I only went to CVS this morning and this is what I got.2 Pumpkin Pals- .99 each but Free after ECB's
2 Light Sticks- .99 each but Free after ECB's
2 Brach Candy's- 1.29 each but Free after ECB's
I paid with $6 ECB's and .54 and got back $6.54 in ECB's

Excedrin- 1.99 but used $2 off coupon and $3 off coupon!!!
Powerade- $1.69 but Free after ECB's
Babywipes- $2.79 but used $1 off coupon
2 Crest Whitestripes- 5.99 each but used 2 $7 off coupons!!!
2 Always Infinity Pads- $4.99 each but used 2 $2 off coupons and received $2 ECB's
I paid with $3.98 in ECB's and $.46 cash and got back $3.69 in ECB's

Overall: Product = $42.57
Cash Out of Pocket = $.99
ECB's started with = $8.00
ECB's left with = $8.25

How You Asked!! (Post to Karen)

First things first, you can't live in Italy!!!

Then, you have to stock pile coupons. The commissaries overseas let you use coupons up to 6 months after they expire. I have a ton if you want me to mail them to you. You need to save the coupons until the item goes on sale and then use it. But, because your limited to what stores you can shop at it will be harder.

ECB's or Easy Care Bucks from CVS Pharmacy and RR's are Register Rewards from Walgreen's. Both of these stores give those as money to use toward your next purchase.

So, the trick is to have a coupons, get the item on sale, and hopefully get rewards back. You can stack 2 coupons for one item if you have a manufacture coupon and a store coupon.

Example from my trip to CVS today:
2- Nature Bounty's Vitamins- CVS put them on sale for Buy 1 Get 1 Free and I had 2 coupons for $2 off each item. CVS allows you to use a coupon on the free item still, some stores do not. So, they ran up as $9.18, minus B1G1 ($4.39), minus coupons ($4.00), total out-of-pocket was $.79 and they gave me $2 in ECB's.

2- Crest White strips Trial Size- I had 2 coupons for $7.00 off any crest white strip so when I saw the trial size for $5.99 I was excited. P&G (Procter and gamble) allow you overage on there products if you roll it into another P&G item so keep reading to see what I did. So these two items for completely free. (Who cares if they are trial size when they are free. I just got 2 weeks of white teeth!)

2- Swifter Products- CVS put these items on sale and I have coupons. So, I bought the Sweeper Starter Kit for $7.99 and the Duster Kit for $6.99 but used a coupon for a free duster when you buy a sweeper the cashier took off $7.99 instead of $6.99 thought). Then, the roll over from the crest white strips work since swifter is a p&g product. So, $14.98 minus $7.99 from coupon, minus $2.02 from white strips, total out-of-pocket was $4.97 and they gave me $5 in ECB's.

24pack Nestle Water- This was on sale for $4.49 and I had a $1 off coupon. Who can't use water. I paid $3.49 out of pocket and got back $1 in ECB's.

Total for my trip:
Product- $46.93
Savings- $38.18
Total Out-of-Pocket - $8.75
Total ECB's earned for next week- $8.00

So, next week I will have a way lower out-of-pocket because I can use my ECB's. To bad I didn't have any this week.

Anyway, this is a long post to try and explain something you can't really do right now, but this is how I am doing it.

Let me know if you would like coupons and I'll send them your way. Just using them at the commissary I save a lot of money and get some things free still. They allow overage and Internet printed coupons, at least at my commissary. Internet printed coupons are awesome so watch for them. I'll post some links if you want them.

Last week at the commissary I got 2 boxes of broccoli and cheese and 3 packages of kotex and paid $.79.

Hope this helps. what other questions do you have. I can explain the rebate program for you but it is for Walgreen's or rite aid if your interested.