How I Spend Less than $10 a Year on Laundry Soap

      One of my kids has very sensitive skin so I had to start buying the more expensive fragrance free
detergents for our laundry. And why if they are leaving something out do you have to pay more for it? Anyway. I decided to try and make my own detergent to save money over the expensive store bought bottles. We have now been using my home-made recipe for two years and my daughter has had no problems with it and it is so inexpensive and does a great job. I figure I have spent less than $10 a year to make our detergent. I have had the box of Borax for the entire time and I believe it was only about $5-$6 dollars to buy it. Below is the recipe.
Hot Water
1/2 grated bar of Fels Naptha or Zote laundry bar soap (Zote is only .59 at the 99cents store)
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing soda (I just use a couple of heaping scoops of Oxy Clean cause I couldn't find the washing soda)
1/2 cup of Borax
Take a very large cooking pot and fill about a third full with water and put on the stove to heat. Grate the bar soap and dissolve in water. You don't have to boil it just get it hot enough to dissolve the soap. After that is done turn off the flame and pour in the other ingredients and stir to dissolve. Then add enough hot water to again double the amount. Let sit a few hours or over night. It will thicken a great deal. If it is too thick to pour just keep dilluting and you can even just heat it up a little. That is what I do. Then I take my funnel and pour into some empty laundry containers I saved and fill about half way and fill the rest with hot water and shake. I keep a really big container to just pour in the concentrate and refill my bottle as needed dilluting with half water and shaking well. Use a full cap or around a 3/4 cup amount per load. Some people like to add essential oils for fragrance but that is what I am trying to avoid.  The detergent does not suds up but that is not what cleans your clothes. Our clothes are as clean as before, my daughter is better off and I save a lot of money making my own. Less plastic bottles used too. I have to make it about every 6 weeks or so but it takes only a few minutes.

CVS hot Revlon moneymaker

At CVS they have the Revlon buy $10 get 4ECB. Well the CVS near me had various cosmetics 75% if they had a tag on the item so the lipgloss I found was 9.99 and after 75% off and the $2/1 Revlon coupon you pay .49 but they give you the full value of 9.99 so buy two lipglosses and spend .98 (plus tax) and come away with a 4ECB for a profit of $3 minus tax if I did all my math right. I am heading back now to do another one of these since you can do it twice.
**Update...Just got back from a different CVS and it did not generate the ECB's. This worked for me twice at a different CVS. So this is a big time YMMV deal but it is cheap to try and see if it works. You still get two Revlon lipglosses for .98 by using the $2 coupons so I didn't lose much by trying it.

Playtex Tampons Sample

You can request a free sample and then click on the box to the right for a coupon too.
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid87034.aspx

$156 dollars worth of groceries for $42.66

Hit three stores today; Walmart, Walgreens and Albertsons. Wags I made money at as I am doing a rebate so after the rebate it will be 1.49 MM. Walmart was 22.xx and Albertsons was 20.xx and I got back a $4 cat for the Kelloggs cereal deal. I wish I could post a picture of all the stuff but my daughter was leaving on a camping trip and a lot of the goodies were for her to take to share so we were in a hurry. Just wanted to share as I love coming home with bags and bags of stuff that would have cost me so much before but now is so much easier to afford. Thank God for coupons.

FREE DRINK FROM THE COFFEE BEAN--YUM!

Receive a free Ultimate Ice Blended drink at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Ultimate Summer Open House on Tuesday, May 11th from 4 - 7 p.m. at participating store locations. This offer is only valid at participating The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store locations, excluding all Ralphs stores, casinos, campus or airport locations.

Personal Best at Target and a stop at CVS

Great trip to Target today.

4 Tic Tacs on clearance and with BOGO cpn.

Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon 1.99 used the $1.50 cpn from online

Bag of Spinach

2 French's Honey Mustard (Failed to buy the dipping sauce so lost out on two cpns)

2 Ortega Taco Seasoning- Used the .60/2 cpn

3McCormick Montreal Steak 1.50 each used the $1 off (I think)

3 Cheese pizzas

1 Dial Handsoap .35 cpn

Pantene Used $1 Target mailer cpn and $2 MQ

2 Schick razors used 2 $5/1 cpns and 2 $1/1 online Target Q

Used 2 $5 Target giftcards and spent only 3.50 oop got back $5 Target GC

I think the checker was confused by all my cpns because it looks like he took off one of my items at the bottom of the receipt. But hey to walk out of Target with four bags for $3.50  Priceless. My personal best anyway.

CVS

1 Carefree free w/Q

1 Crest Pro Health Mouth Wash used .75 Q

1 Kotex U used $1 Q

1 Huggies 1.50 Q

1 Nivea Men's Bodywash used $3 Q

1 Nivea sunless tanning lotion $2 Q ( I could have done better with the BWash Q but I really wanted this)

Total was 37.50 before Q's  used 15ecb so my oop was 8.27 and got back 15.49 in ecb's that is a personal best in ecb's.

My hubby who was with me at Target could not believe his eyes. He asks why they would even give out these Q's and I told him because most people never even use them or very few if any at all but for those of us who do, great deals.  That's my youngest in the background.

FREE POCKET SIZED DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND CONSTITUTION

Free pocket sized booklet. Free Samples / Freebies / Free

$54 worth of stuff for $1.94

I wish I would have had time to post pics but with a sick kids this last week I was lucky to even get out to shop. I was just looking at my receipts and for Walgreens and CVS I spent only .85 and 1.09 out of pocket for over $50 worth of stuff. I'd say that was a good week considering I didn't have much time to prepare. I am jealous of the couponers who live in states with no sales tax. They must shop for free sometimes. When we go to visit family in Oregon this summer you can bet I will be taking all my coupons for some tax free shopping. I cringe at all the money I wasted prior to couponing.

Mother's Day Swag code

Check the blog for a Mother's Day swagcode.

Free Sample John Frieda Sheer Blonde

Oh I hope this comes with a good coupon.
http://www.johnfrieda.com/promotions/promoOptin.asp?promo=jf_sblonde10

Free Cinnabon for Nurses

In honor of my daughter who was just accepted into nursing school I thought this was a great freebie: Free Samples / Freebies / Free

Walgreens

I was trying to use up some of the RRs from all the Plackers (yeah) I bought last week so this week I stocked up on envelopes and padded mailing envelopes.
3 boxes white envelopes, 3 padded envelopes and one hair clip (desperately needed)
Used 4 RRs and oop was .85. Not bad for a good supply of envelopes. I still have 10 RRs left. Will wait until next week to use those and try to roll them. I am getting better at it and I want to mention a blog I love to check daily as she gives some simple scenarios for Wags and CVS. It is: http://jerikayssearchfortheperfectdeal.blogspot.com/
I love her blog and a few others for the simple deals I can manage. She is an expert and I learn a lot from checking her site daily.

UUUggghhh!

I haven't been out to grab any more deals this week because of a sick two year old that has been attached to my hip but I am going out today God willing. I want to grab some of the cheap envelopes and mailers at Wags today and make a trip into CVS. Funny how addicting this is when you can't get out there and you think you might miss a deal but then you have to remember that next week is another deal and you can start all over again. I have been spending my time at home doing online surveys and grabbing some freebies so time not all wasted.

Free DUNKIN DONUTS COFFEE

I signed up for the perks program and am waiting for my coupon for my free coffee.
You get another coupon on your birthday. Free Samples / Freebies / Free

Freebie for New Mommies

Enfamil freebies..Free Samples / Freebies / Free

NEW PRECIOUS CHEESE REBATE!!!

I love rebates especially on food I need for my family. I found a new one today at Vons on the Precious

String cheese.  The rebate is for $5 off two Precious snack cheeses. You need to have the peelie from the package.  It is good 4/1/10-10/31/10 and you can do it up to five times.

The Nabisco free cookies link is up again. Hurry it is good today only!

http://www.facebook.com/nabiscocookies

Anyone recv. the Sample Showcase from the USPS?

I recvd mine today and it is full of goodies. What a nice surprise. I recvd:
Sample of Secret Clinical
2 Shower to Shower samples
1 Montreal Steak from Grill Mates
Sample and coupon from Splenda
Sample Aveeno shampoo & conditioner with $1 cpn
Bengay Moist Heat Wrap
2 samples Taster's Choice flavored coffees
Sample tube of Aveeno Positively Ageless
Sample tube of Aveeno Positvely Ageless Firming Lotion with $2 cpn.
Small bar of Dove Chocolate
Whoo-Hoo what a great day at the mailbox.
The box says if you are interested in recving more to go to the website and share what you think.
I'm going now!!

Free Sample of Handmade Soap

This is a really cute sample. Perfect if you like to use your freebies
or good deals to make up gift baskets. Free Samples / Freebies / Free

Busy Weekend

I would love to get out there today and get some of those deals but my daughter turned 16 yesterday and we had a big party and friends sleep over so I am too busy and tired to go anywhere.  I will be hitting Rite Aid which I don't usually go to but seems to have the best deals this week. CVS doesn't have as much but I may try to do some of the MMs this week. I tried to shop ahead for my daughter's party this time and I figured I probably saved about a $100 compared to the usual totals for parties we throw. We like to have tons of food and lots of drinks for the kids and some beverages for the adults so parties can be expensive. I bought all the paper products ahead with coupons and specials and all the meat and lots of the snacks were purchased with coupons and it made a huge difference.
Next time you are planning a party start shopping at least a month ahead when you see things you know you will need but are on sale or a great buy with coupons. It makes a big impact on the party budget. Before I would shop just a few days ahead and whatever my total was ended up being the budget. Now I plan out what I need and make a detailed list and check off as I see it on special and pick it up. Takes a few minutes but saves a ton.

Free Sample of Gas-X

Scroll down to fill in the form: Free Samples / Freebies / Free

Swagbucks is For Real!!

When I first read about Swagbucks online at other blogs I must admit that I didn't pay it much attention. I thought,  This can't be real, why would they give me stuff for free?" I am a skeptic but I have to say now I am a believer. After signing up and using them for searches, I earned enough Swagbucks to order myself a $10 Starbucks card. Took me about 4-5 weeks. That's it! I am hooked. If you are a skeptic like me go ahead and try it. It is for real.

Free Eucerin Lotion Sample

This is a great lotion and hopefully they'll include a coupon. Free Samples / Freebies / Free

Check out Kellogg's Special K Protein Bar Trial Pack

Check out Kellogg's Special K Protein Bar Trial Pack

Loving Walgreens this week.

Back for some more free Plackers. My family uses these like mad.
1 90 ct plackers (used the coupon but don't have rec. in front of me)
2 Sudafed
1 .39 Choc. pudding (filler)
2.08 oop and 7 RR back
I will head out to do the same with the Stayfree and some more Plackers tomorrow.

Some Treats for Your Pooch

Shop4Freebies.com

CVS 4/26

Had a good trip into CVS. I didn't get the coupon for the sunscreen but still you can't beat the 2oz. tubes buy 2 and get 5 ECB.
4 cans pork & beans .49 each
1 soft soap serum body wash 2.99
1 soft soap hand soap.99
1 gallon milk 2.59
1 box Fig Newtons
2 2oz. CVS sunscreen 4.38 for both: total 23.72
Gave CVS
.40 cpn for Soft Soap
.75 cpn for body wash
11.99 ECB
my oop was 1.63 Saved 22.09
Got back 7.00 in ECB

Free sample of Caress Body Wash

Free Samples / Freebies / Free

All organized

To maintain my sanity while doing the coupon thing I have to stay organized. I have to figure how to put pictures on here to show my system. Today I spent an hour in the den with one of my girls (who I taught my binder system to) and clipped away while she filed. I clip what I know I will use and would like to. The others go in a file by date. I cleared a spot in a little closet we have that you can walk into to put coupons as the come in, my binder when not in the car, the file keeper for the older inserts and any misc. I need to go thru. I love it. Coupons out of sight and not on my dining room table like before. I will have to post some pics. I love to see how others do this and will share my strategy to keeping it all organized and sane.

$1 Breyers coupon

Yum, these are great.
https://ssl.unilever.com/BREYERS.COM/COUPON/default.aspx?SessionUID=47b931bc-b7dc-44b4-91ca-5c32efc32c94&T=TRUE

Wow 10 minutes and 15 CVS Extra Care Bucks

If you are a member of the CVS Advisory Panel, watch for e-mails from them. I recvd one today asking me to see of I qualified for a survey. I could earn 2 bucks if I didn't qualify but would get 15 bucks if I did. Well, I did qualify and after a short survey of about 10 minutes about a new possible product line, I was done and told I had earned my ECBs. That is awesome. Did I mention how I love CVS. If you'd like to sign up for the program here is the link. https://www.cvsadvisor.com/Home_gray.aspx

CVS and Vons deals on meat.

I went to finish up my CVS buys for the Olay rebate. I am stocked up on Olay for at least a year. Went into Vons and needed a big shop. Not too many really great buys but if you have a Vons near you the Kraft buy 5 get $5 off is a good deal right now. We are all stocked up on Am. cheese for a bit. I was able to get lots of meat on markdowns. Vons has great deals on meat they need to move fast and I always check there first. With 4 kids and their friends over for dinner a lot I need deals on meat. I try to not to spend more than $5 for meat for our dinner and am able to do this most every day. Check it out if you shop at Vons. I just pop it in the freezer when I get home. Sometimes with coupon matchups I can get meat for $1 or almost free. My pre-coupon total was $148 and after coupons it was $101. Not the best but I am stocked up on meat for a while even found some for my daughters b-day bbq next weekend.

Target printable coupons

Shop4Freebies.com

Free Coupon Booklet

Here's a link to a great coupon booklet of Procter & Gamble Products. I've recvd this before and there are some great high value coupons in it like a $1 off Dawn.
http://www.startsampling.com/sm/101022/quickQuestion.iphtml?item=101022&source=

Thanks She Saves

What did I get in the mail so far this week?

Did I mention that I love getting freebies? I love checking the mail everyday to see what has come in the mail slot. This week I thought I'd share what I have recvd so far.
$10 Walmart giftcard (An offer that came in the mail to update our BofA CC.
A coupon for a free Beechnut toddler food.
Sample of Olay body wash.
Sample pack of pampers diapers with $2 coupon. (I may combine this with the Target pampers coupon from Sunday's paper.
That is what I have recvd so far and it is only Wed.

Here's another good lotion sample.

Free Samples / Freebies / Free

Free sample program from the US Postal Service

Here is a link to a program you can sign up for to recv a box of free samples from the Postal Service. You answer a short questionaire and then you are set if you qualify. I did qualify and it looks pretty easy to. Try it out, there are some good freebies in the box.
https://secure.startsampling.com/sm/101145/

Thanks For the Mommas

Another free sample. I just got a ridiculously strong biodegradable trash bag for FREE!

I just got a ridiculously strong biodegradable trash bag for FREE!

Dunkin Donuts Sample

Free coffee sample. http://www.shop4freebies.com/category.php?cid=39

Shop4Freebies.com

Here's a sample of the new U by Kotex. I believe this sample also comes with a $1 coupon. As far as tampons and pads go these are cutely wrapped in new bright colors. My girls thought they were cute anyway. Shop4Freebies.com