Monday, May 24, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Ever Tired of Couponing?
I am this week. I have had a slew of problems at CVS with my ECBs not generating and I am giving myself permission to not go to one more store until I either have to burn ECBs or RRs. That is why I did this blog and am taking a little break from shopping. I have so many toiletries already that I can handle a couple of days off right? So until next week, I will clean out my spice cabinet. Been wanting to get to that anyway. I love couponing but don't want to get burned out chasing deals. Simplified chasing is my motto.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Rebates for Vacation
I love rebates. I have decided to save our rebate money for vacation spending money. I can't believe I missed out on these for so many years. I have 17.99 in checks. Waiting on 50.49 in rebates and hunting down more. Let me know if you find any good ones. Jealous of the folks in other states that get those great liquor rebates where you can buy food. Oh, how I wish.
Monday, May 17, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
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.
**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.
Friday, May 14, 2010
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
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
$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.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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.
Monday, May 10, 2010
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
Sunday, May 9, 2010
$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.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
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
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
Friday, May 7, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
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
You get another coupon on your birthday. Free Samples / Freebies / Free
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
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.
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!!
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
or good deals to make up gift baskets. Free Samples / Freebies / Free
Sunday, May 2, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, April 30, 2010
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.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Free Eucerin Lotion Sample
This is a great lotion and hopefully they'll include a coupon. Free Samples / Freebies / Free
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
CVS 4/26
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
Monday, April 26, 2010
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