Frugalicious Def.

Christmas Competition

2010-11-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

First things first, I do not consider myself to be a very competitive person. In fact, I'm the least competitive person I know (ha ha, yea, it's a stretch for a joke). Anyways, I am VERY competitive with myself, which sounds strange, but since I started on this savings journey 1 year ago, it has almost become a kind of game that I play with myself. Me and my wallet VS. the stores. Well, this year, I decided that I was crazy. Read on and you'll see why. I decided that I wanted to set a budget for Christmas this year of $100. Not per person, for everyone. Let me go on... we generally buy gifts for about 25 people (including my husband, myself, son & dog). And we have never really had a budget for Christmas spending. Strange right?? Even last year, I just set a goal to save and use coupons, but I never paid much attention to how much we were spending as a grand total. Well this year I decided (after setting that ridiculous $100 goal), to count it up and see how much we were spending. I calculated it based on how much we would spend in our "cutting back" minds and it ended up being over $700. For someone that cringes when she spends more than $25 at the grocery store, this is HUGE! Now, obviously the $100 budget is ridiculous. When I first told my husband, I believe he laughed, then said, "If you could do that it would be awesome."

Now, let me go on to say that I realize that a $100 budget for 25 people would equal out to $4 per person. Clearly, that is insane. And no, I am not shoplifting. What I am doing is using things like mypoints, swagbucks and more to get gift cards and getting gifts for free. Now I realize that if you are new to couponing, or even new to some of these "reward earning" sites, it is probably too late for this year, but in the next few weeks I will be sharing with you how I was able to save up enough points from various websites to get gift cards to cover most of our Christmas shopping. (And let me say that I am not one of those people that sits on a computer 24/7 - the way I have earned points through each of these sites is easy and something that anyone could do).

Ok, enough of my rambling. I cannot say much more about the gifts I have bought for Christmas or the amount spent yet, since the recipients haven't received them yet and might read this site and I don't want to give anything away. But I will say that the gifts I have gotten so far are valued at way more than $4 per person ;).

If you've kept reading til now I applaud you. I guess my "not blogging for 6 months" equals one insanely long blog post! Ok, so on to the good stuff.

Are you looking for cut back on your Christmas spending? Um, I would guess that MOST people nowadays would say yes. If you are, here is a way I'm going to help you with that. As I said before, after Christmas has come and gone I will give you all the details of some sites I have used over the past year to help earn gift cards to help pay for gifts this year. But since there's not THAT much time left til Christmas (I won't dare give a countdown), I do have 2 sites that can help you make a slight dent.

Ok, the little one is fussing so this will be fast and furious.

1. ItsThoughtful.com - sign up through here and first, you will help me out, and second you can then send the link along to your friends or post on your facebook wall. Once 15 of your friends sign up through your referral link, you will get a $25 Amazon gift card. By the way, this site is FULL of great Christmas ideas!!! Even if you decide not to sign up, I would definitely bookmark it for future reference!

2. ShopItToMe.com - sign up through here and again, you will help me out :), and then you can again invite your friends to join. Once 10 friends sign up through your referral link, you will get a $10 gift card (and you can choose from a list of different gift cards). This is a daily shopping site, and they do send quite a few e-mails, so I would recommend giving them your special "couponing" e-mail.

Now, the best thing about these 2 sites, is that you do not have to buy ANYTHING, you do not have to give any credit card info, nothing! All you do is get your friends to sign up and you get rewarded. Just from doing the 2 sites above, you have the potential to get $35 in gift cards towards Amazon.

Note: this is not my pathetic cry for people to sign up through my link. Obviously, I would like it very much and it would help towards my Christmas goal, but if you choose to sign up through someone elses that is fine too. I just wanted to share these to help put a dent in your Christmas spending as I try to do so for myself as well.

Ok, this post is probably long enough. If I hear of any new gift card deals like the above soon, I will be sure to post. Til next time... :)

http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/ab5/rdr11884/?action=view¤t=signature.png

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

2010-11-20T14:54:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I don't know where Carmen is and I also don't know where I have been. Well, I guess I do, I have been consumed in the world of toddlerhood. Hard to find a minute to sit down, much less get on the computer and write on my blog. Has it seriously been 6 months? It's pathetic and I do apologize. But, I'm attempting to make up for it. And I'm really hoping that soon I can figure out where in the world my background went?????

http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/ab5/rdr11884/?action=view¤t=signature.png

Google Reader

2010-05-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

So after gaining some attention to my blog after my recent GetRichSlowly.org video contest win , I feel like I need to pony on up and get back into the blogging scene. I took a little break there to try and earn a little cash with my Every Party has a Pooper idea (which I'm thinking of branching out and making some Depends creations for retirement/over the hill parties - eh??). But, I'm back and here to share a quick tip. My friend, Jennifer introduced me to the world of Google Reader a while back and my world has never been the same since! If you haven't heard of google reader and are a money-saving-blog-reader like myself, then you have got to check this out! Go on over here to check it out. You can sign in with your google account if you have one, or you can sign up for a google account for free (perhaps to use when you sign up for coupons and newsletters!!). Then, you just add the blogs you want to follow and it puts them all in one nice neat area to browse through instead of going to each and every blog. I love this because I get on my iPod touch when I'm nursing my son, and I can just flip through really fast to see the different deals I want to pursue. Definitely makes the deal-hunting way easier. In fact, I'm really looking forward to the day that I have saved up enough swagbucks to get my iPhone so I can even check the deals when I'm out and about. Yea - don't laugh at me, you have to be on top of things to get the really good deals!
Ok, so while you are setting up your google reader, here's a list of some great websites to add to your reading list:

frugaliciousdef.blogspot.com - duh!
hip2save.com - seriously gives SO much information on the different deals out there!
katycouponers.blogspot.com - if you want to learn how to totally work the Randalls system!
thefrugalfind.com - another good one that covers everything from freebies to Target deals!
stretchingabuckblog.com - yet another good one for grocery deals and freebies!

Ok, so there's a few to get you started. Don't take on TOO many blogs to follow, or you will find yourself reading through TONS of repeats. Best to stick with a few really good ones and trust that they will give you all the info you need to know!

I like clean butts and I cannot lie!

2010-05-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I know that at times my Frugalicious blog seem to be more babylicious than anything else, but I want to give a quick shout out to the Randalls mom-to-mom brand of wipes. If you have ever given your baby blueberries, then surely you can appreciate a good blueberry diaper/butt. And if you haven't, well let's just say that they can easily stain a fair-skinned baby's bum like my son! Now, to be honest, my favorite wipes all around are Huggies. If I had my way I would always use Pampers diapers and Huggies wipes. But, I am frugal, so I will use whatever I can get for cheap/free. I received some mom-to-mom wipes as a gift, so I decided to go ahead and give them a try. I seriously don't think Pampers wipes stand a chance against a BBP (blueberry poo). Maybe their thick wipes, but even still, I'm not sure how they would hold up. Huggies would probably do slightly better, but the thing that gives the Mom-to-Mom wipes a HUGE advantage is that their wipes are textured. I'm not just talking little bumps, these are some serious microscrubbers! (That face wash commercial just came to mind.) They are exactly what you need to grab hold and give a good scrub - without having to scrub your baby's bottom raw. So, by all means if you can get Pampers or Huggies wipes for free - DO IT! But when you are in a pinch or with a baby with a purple rear - head to Randalls and get you some Mom-to-Mom wipes!

Homemade Baby Food

2010-05-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Need some more motivation to make your own baby food? Last week I purchased over 30lbs of food to make into baby food (should have checked my freezer space first because it is really tight, but I'm planning on cooking a 10lb turkey I've been saving in there, so that should free up some more space!). Anyways, just to give you an idea - I've already priced out the sweet potatoes to see how much it costs per ounce and I was shocked! I bought the sweet potatoes for $0.99/lb (normally I wait til they are more like $0.59/lb, but I wanted to grab just a few to have since I was having a cooking marathon!) - and when all was said and done, I made sweet potato baby food for $0.04 per ounce!!! A can of baby food sweet potatoes at the store costs around $0.50 for 2.5 oz - so by making it yourself you can make it for one FIFTH of what it costs to buy it!!! I'm still in the process of portioning and freezing, so I'll let you know the other deals once I find out how many ounces I've made!

**By the way, a VERY smart friend of mine, Christina, told me when she made her food, she just put it in ziploc bags so she wasn't waiting around on the ice-cube trays to freeze, empty, wash and dry - then she just snipped a corner of the ziploc bag and basically piped the food out into the ice-cube trays when ready. It is SOOOO much easier and probably the only way I will do this from now on. And my husband mentioned that he thought it looked fun =)

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T19:35:00.001-07:00

So, I've been thinking of something for a while now, but today seems like a good day to talk about it with it being Mother's Day and all. Here it is: You don't truly appreciate your mom until you are one. I love my mom dearly, but I don't think I 100% appreciated her and all she's done for me until I became a mom myself. So here's to the moms!

Here's to the moms that hear something on tv about nipple clamps and all they can think of is nursing their teething baby; the moms that drink a beer, not for the social drinking aspect of it all, but rather to increase their milk supply for their baby; and the moms that buy brown shoes to accessorize with their poo-stained clothes. It's the hardest job in the world that you don't understand til you are in it, but it is also the best job in the world! So, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! Enjoy yourself (and maybe have a beer - for your baby's sake of course!)

Every Party has a Pooper Review

2010-05-06T07:52:00.001-07:00

Check out Melissa's review of Every Party has a Pooper!

Click here to check it out!

DIAPERS!!!

2010-05-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have to share some info with you guys on a super hot diaper deal right now.

Right now, when you redeem your points at pampers.com - you can get a $3 off coupon for diapers.com for every 150pts.

So, here's what you can do to score some super cheap diapers!

1. Redeem your points. (to get WAY cheap diapers you would need to use 9 coupons (1350 points) and you would pay $1.45 for 5 JUMBO PACKS!)

2. Mail in 5 Pampers coupons from last week's paper (Randalls also has blinkie coupons for $2 off any Pampers diapers - so you could grab 5 - mail them in and get $10 off)

3. You will get an email from diapers.com when your coupons have arrived and been credited to your account.

4. Log in and order 5 Pampers jumbo packs (9.99 each) - plus you can use the $1.50 instant eCoupon (will only deduct $1.50 once)

5. Use code SAVE1095 to get an additional $10 off (that's my special referral code, if you'd like to help me out!)

Oh - and it gets better because right now when you enter codes at pampers.com from packages of pampers with dry max, you get double the points!

Don't get Discouraged!

2010-05-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was invited to be a guest on an internet-radio show for Stubborn Facts Radio. It was fun because it was something I had never done before and I got to talk about one of my favorite things: couponing! You can check out the interview by clicking here.

So, it's kind of strange because one of the questions I was asked was for my advice to new-couponers out there, and my advice was to not get discouraged. You will inevitably run into people that try to bring you down because they are jealous of how you save money. Whether that person be the manager at a grocery store that insists on checking out your receipt because they are convinced the cashier did something wrong because you couldn't possibly pay $0.70 for a cart full of groceries (which turns out to all be totally legit) or perhaps just some disgruntled person in line behind you that feels you are taking up too much time with your 2 minutes of coupon scanning, only for them to get up to the cashier and take 5 minutes as they put $10 on each of their credit cards. So, my advice was simple: don't get discouraged.

Funny that my advice was something so simple, and yet here I am today, TOTALLY discouraged. Turns out, my "Coupon Rap" video that won?? me $500 through the GetRichSlowly.org video contest is being questioned in reference to whether or not it was my own creation. I won't comment on this much because it just gets me heated and honestly, it's not worth it, but it does get me discouraged. Obviously there are people in this world that enjoy knocking other people down. A few months ago, I made a different video and entered it into a contest to win a MacBook. I didn't win, and I accepted that. I didn't spend my day searching for any possibly loophole to take her prize away from her and give it to someone else who didn't truly win. I was happy for her and moved on. So, all I will say is this. Yes, I purchased the karaoke version of a song on iTunes to use as background music for my video, but I spent the time to create my own personal lyrics to the song with my couponing information. If we are really getting technical, the person that truly deserves to win the $500 prize is the person that filmed their baby and nothing more, since that is something they did actually personally create.

Speaking of, time to shake the haters off and go get my baby =).

Lunch Meat!!!

2010-05-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I've been slacking on my posts lately - and I'm really hoping this infant tylenol recall doesn't mean I'm in for some nap-less days, which would lead to even less posting!

Anyways, you have got to head to facebook and check out Oscar Mayer (click here)! Right now you can enter a contest to try and win a ride on the weinermobile, and just for entering the contest, you get a coupon for $2 off any Oscar Mayer lunchmeat. If you click your back button, you should be able to print 2 per computer! Randalls currently has the Oscar Mayer deli lunch meat on sale for Buy One Get One FREE! I'm not sure the price of one, but let's say it's something insane like $4.99. Use your 2 $2 off coupons (you ARE allowed to use 2 coupons on a buy one get one free sale) - and you will pay $0.99 for 2 packs of lunchmeat! Awesome! I'm hoping to make a Randalls trip tomorrow, so I'll let you know the outcome then!

SHOCKED!

2010-05-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

First off, I'm not a winner. I do not win at things. I do not buy lotto tickets, even scratch offs because I just don't win.

Ok, so a few weeks ago, I decided to enter a video contest from getrichslowly.org. I entered 2 videos into the contest, 1 for my financial success story (which I already posted on here), and 1 for my financial tip. Now, the rules were the video could only be 2 minutes long. So, I went for a "music video" approach, and crammed a TON of info into 2 minutes. Honestly, it's was really hard to get it down to 2 minutes, so you may have to go back and pause to get all the tips that are thrown in. Yes, it's embarassing, but it was also a lot of fun to put together.

So, the real exciting/shocking part - hence the title of this post - is that I actually WON the video contest for my financial tip! $500 cash money!!! I'm so shocked still! I'm not really sure when it will totally sink in. Now, to some people $500 may not seem like much, but to me - it is like I won the lottery! To some, $500 is a nice pair of shoes, but to me $500 is 4 months of groceries/toiletries for my family! So, it may sound crazy when I say that I want to use the $500 to buy a new camera for my family, but let me explain...
I have a horrible memory. I remember random things from my childhood (i.e. I can TOTALLY kick butt at Super Mario 3 on Nintendo and I remember every secret still), but overall, I have a horrible memory. I can't remember that I was a counselor at summer camp or what our house looked like when I was growing up. And to be totally honest, it scares me. I am worried that one day I will actually be like the lady on the Notebook and my husband will have to tell me the story of my life. With that being said, I really cherish pictures and videos. My baby boy is already 8 months old, and I'm terrified of when the time will come when I forget some of his firsts or when I forget how the first night in the hospital after he was born, he made little noises all night long while he was sleeping. So for that reason, I really cherish videos and pictures. This is why I have been budgeting $75/week for groceries for my family since the beginning of 2010. I take out $75 cash, and whatever I don't spend, I put towards my camera fund. Well, I have $485 saved so far, but I'm thinking of putting that money towards the next 4 months of groceries, and using the $500 from my video winnings to buy a new camera to capture these precious moments!
(Though to be totally honest, I might throw in a manicure/pedicure for myself since that is something I would normally NEVER spend money on myself for =) )

Run to Kroger for FREE potatoes!

2010-04-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so if you are near a Kroger, you have to try to get there at some point today. Right now the Betty Crocker potato pouches are on sale for $0.89 (normally $1). Ok, load the coupon for $0.40 off one Betty Crocker potato from cellfire.com or shortcuts.com - and then print out 3 coupons from coupons.com, bettycrocker.com, smartsouce.com - whereever you can print them.

Ok, so here's what it will look like:

3 potato pouches - $0.89 ea = $2.67
-$0.40 loadable coupon = $2.27
-$0.40 printable coupon (you have 3 of these and kroger will double them to $0.80 each) = $-0.13!!! (you will have to get some other item because kroger will not pay you the $0.13, and it makes matters easier if you have something else to take the overage or else you will end up with very confused cashiers)

and the best part is - you will get a catalina coupon for $3 off your next order at kroger!!! (today is the last day for the catalina) - so my tip - print as many coupons as you can and go take advantage of this deal, rack up some free money to Kroger, and you will be set on mashed potatos for a long time! =)

What have I been doing???

2010-04-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

So, I'm going to go ahead and admit that I have been stretching myself too thin. Between a rolling baby boy, shorter nap times, my usual couponing, housework/cleaning, my video entries for the getrichslowly video contest, and my new "business venture", I've got NO time anymore! But anyways, I've decided to try my hand at making some diaper creations and selling them on etsy.com. You can check out my facebook page here and feel free to forward it along if you know of anyone looking for a different/unique baby gift. I've had my diaper cupcakes listed for about a week now and they have gotten 30 views, but I went ahead and lowered the price today so that I can get back some of the money that I have initially invested. With your help maybe I can actually sell all of my items!?!

Needing some get-out-of-debt advice?

2010-04-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so a friend of mine told me a while back about this awesome website Get Rich Slowly. Check it out! There are tons of good tips on how to save money. Also, while you are there, check out the video contest section. You can see the videos that have already been submitted to either get some money saving tips, or hear a success story. I've finished my success story video and included it here if you want to check it out. Warning: I lay it all out there. No hiding our money situation, I just told it how it is. Perhaps this will shine some light into why I have to be as frugal as I am, but believe me, it is well worth it to get to stay home with my baby boy. (Although I would rather be elsewhere while the dog is having the liquidy poos all over the house...)

Oh yea, and I will be posting my financial tip "music video" soon - probably sometime this weekend is when that will get wrapped up! =)

More Diapers??

2010-03-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's another good week at CVS for diapers. This time, it's Huggies!

Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to CVS and scan your card at the price checker in the store - hopefully it will print out some coupons for you. When I went, I happened to get a coupon for $2 off a $10 baby purchase - I've heard of lots of people getting this one!

2. Get 2 packs of Huggies diapers (on sale 2/$17.98)

3. Go to check out and hand over your coupons:
-$2 off $10 purchase (if this CVS coupon prints for you)
-$3 off any huggies diaper printable coupon (from coupons.com) - USE 2 of these!

4. You will pay $9.98 if you get the $2 off coupon for CVS (I'm counting on people getting it as long as you have a scanner thing in your store that works because I have only started shopping there in the past few weeks so I don't think it has anything to do with their long time customers)

5. You will get back $5 Extra Care Bucks to use towards something else (maybe more diapers if you need them) - or save for a future deal because they will expire about 1 month from when it prints out. So, in a way, you have only paid $4.98 for 2 packs which equals out to $2.49/pack which is about $0.08 per diaper!!! This is an awesome price for diapers and I've actually noticed Huggies holding up much better than Pampers in the "monster poo" contest!

*By the way, if you joined RecycleBank like I talked about here hopefully you've found a way to earn enough points for your $5 off any Huggies diaper coupon?? If so you can use that coupon on this deal to get the diapers for $0.05 each!!!

CVS = good deals on diapers!

2010-03-23T07:08:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it looks like CVS is the place to be the next 2 weeks for their awesome diaper deals! This week, here is what you want to do to get good deals on Pampers!

You will need to do 3 transactions - I did 2 yesterday and plan on going back for the 3rd sometime this week (and maybe even a 4th while I'm there - I'll explain...)

Transaction #1: buy jumbo pack of pampers - $8.97 - $2 pampers coupon (from paper) = $6.97 (and you will get back $3 ECBs = Extra Care Bucks)

Transaction #2: jumbo pack of pampers - $8.97 - $2 pampers coupon - $3 ECBS (that you got from transaction 1 - they print on the bottom of your receipt!) = $3.97 (and you will get another $3 ECB)

Transaction #3: same as transaction 2 - you may or may not get another $3 ECB - the limit in the paper says 2, but some people are reporting that they are able to do it a 3rd time and it works - you'll just have to see, but either way, you will pay $3.97 for this transaction

ok so totals from all 3 transactions = $14.91 or $4.97 per pack of pampers, which comes out to $0.16 per diaper. That is a great price for Pampers!

If you want, you can go ahead and get some toothpaste with a 4th transaction to get yourself ready for next week:

Colgate total toothpaste = $3.99 - $1 colgate coupon (from paper) = $2.99 (IF you got $3 ECB from transaction 3 - use them and you will pay nothing! If not, you are still basically getting the toothpaste for free after you get a $3.99 ECB for this transaction!)

ok, now you are set for next week:

Next week CVS will have Huggies on sale 2/$17.98 (this is $8.99 which seems to be a normal price for grocery stores) BUT you will get $5 ECB when you buy 2!

So here's what you'll do:

buy 2 jumbo packs huggies = $17.98 - 3.99 ECB (from toothpaste) - $6 (use 2 of the $3 printables - can find them on facebook, coupons.com or the huggies website!) = $7.99 or $4 per pack = $0.13 per diaper AND you will have a $5 ECB to use towards your next purchase!!!

*If you are really in need of diapers, you could do another transaction with the huggies, but you won't get another $5 ECBS - but here's the math in case you are curious:

2 jumbo packs = $17.98 - $5 ECB (from previous transaction) - $6 (2 $3 printables) = $6.98 or $3.49 per pack = $0.11 per diaper!

By the way, I was definitely planning on heading to Walgreens this week to take advantage of their register reward deal on Huggies (buy 3 @ $8.99 - get $3 Register Rewards) - but after seeing the deals at CVS, I'm definitely going to just buy my diapers from them instead!

Want some cheap Disney movies??

2010-03-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

If so, head to ToysRUs tomorrow (I believe that will be your last chance!). Right now, when you reserve a copy of Toy Story & Toy Story 2 (have to reserve both for this deal I'm talking about - and you will have to pay $10 - $5 per DVD/Blu-Ray) you will get $15 off the disney movie of your choice priced $19.99 or more. Well, there is also some strange disney promo going on where the register takes off an additional $5! So, I guess you technically could get a $19.99 movie for free - personally, we opted for a blu-ray for $29.99, so in the end it cost us $9.99 - still an awesome price for a blu-ray in my opinion. So basically, if you go and reserve your copy, you will have to put $10 down, but save $20 off the price of a different Disney movie!!!

Ok, then on Tuesday, when you go to pick up your Toy Story movies, you will have already paid $5 towards the price of each, and they are having them at a special price of $16.99 each when you buy both together. It gets better - Hip2Save has explained HERE how to get 2 $10 off coupons to use. Ok, so the math will look like this:

Toy Story = $16.99 -$5 you already paid - $10 coupon = $1.99
Toy Story 2 = $16.99 - $5 you already paid - $10 coupon = $1.99

So IF you buy a blu-ray from ToysRUs like I did, you will pay $20 upfront + $3.98 (toy story movies) = approximately $8 per blu ray!!!

If you find a blu-ray for $24.99 you will get a better deal, but for me I wanted to get a blu-ray that we would actually watch, rather than one I would still have to pay $5 for that we wouldn't. Anyways, if you want this deal - better head out fast because the Toy Story movies come out Tuesday!

Kroger - March 17-23

2010-03-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't been shopping at Kroger lately, but this week they had some good deals that I didn't want to pass up. These deals are good until next Tuesday (the 23rd), but I've heard some possibility that some of the sales may go on for an additional week - but if you want to snag some of these deals, your best bet is to make it there sometime before next Tuesday.

Quick note: For the Buy 8 Save $4 deals - you can mix and match - you don't have to buy 8 of the same item to get the $4 off!

Some freebies:

Snickers - $0.50 (part of buy 8 save $4 deal) - $0.50/2 coupon from paper (doubled = $1) = 2 FREE

Ronzoni pasta - $0.75 (wyb 8) - $0.75/1 printables here and here (can print 2 at each site!) = 4 FREE (more if you have access to more than 1 computer)!

Scotch Brite sponges - $0.50 (wyb 8) - $1/2 printable here = 2 FREE! (this is a pdf file so you can print it MANY times!)

Some other deals:

Garden of Eatin chips - 2/$4 - $1/1 printable here = $1 each!

Bananas - $0.39/lb

Ok, 2 more things then I'm done:

1. Pantene Nature Fusion shampoos & conditioners are on sale for $2.97 at Kroger - IF you are a member of Vocal Point, you probably signed up for the FULL size sample of Pantene shampoo that came this week - along with it was 3 coupons for $2 off 1 pantene Nature Fusion shampoo/conditioner - that means $0.97 for Pantene shampoos and conditioners which is a GREAT price for Pantene. If you are not yet a member of vocalpoint, sign up here. You get to try so many new products for free!!!

2. Tide with Febreze Sport - OMG! That is pretty much all I can say. My husband works out everyday at lunch and so he accumulates stinky clothes pretty fast. Well, I don't really want to do small loads of laundry EVERY day just to wash those clothes, but while I was pregnant my sensitivity to smells drove his workout clothes to stay in the garage until laundry day - horrible huh? Well, a few weeks ago I got a sample of Tide w/ Febreze Sport in the mail - and it was AMAZING! So, when I saw it on sale today at Kroger for $5.88 - I pulled out my $1 off coupon from the paper and will gladly pay the $5 for it! Usually, I do NOT like to pay that much for laundry detergent, but my nose says this is well worth it!!!

Diaper coupons!!!

2010-03-19T12:01:00.001-07:00

Quick - if you have any little ones in diapers or know someone who does, you'll want to print out these coupons!

Both coupons are for $3 off any 1 Huggies Diapers. The first one can be found at coupons.com. For the second one, you will need to become a fan of Huggies on facebook. Click here to see their fan page.

You should be able to print 2 coupons at each site - so a total of 4 $3 off coupons! I hear there are some good diaper sales coming our way in the next few weeks where you can use these coupons! Til then, happy printing!

CVS Advisory Panel

2010-03-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Do you shop at CVS? Well, even if you don't and you live somewhere close to one - you have GOT to sign up to become a member of the CVS Advisory Panel. (Click here to sign up). They will e-mail you surveys from time to time (I signed up maybe a month ago and just got my first survey today) - and then they will give you Extra Care Bucks (like cash you can use at CVS!) for completing surveys. I just did one that maybe took a grand total of 5 minutes of time and got a coupon for $5 Extra Care Bucks! Wahoo!!! Now to decide what to get???

Diaper buyers BEWARE!

2010-03-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

So maybe the big ad in the coupon section of the paper this weekend caught your eye. You know, the one for BabiesRUs where if you buy 2 value boxes of Pampers diapers, you get a $20 gift card. (Good Saturday, March 20th ONLY). Sounds like a good deal right? Well, some simple research and math can tell you whether this is truly a great deal or not.

Value boxes of Pampers are $40.99 - so if you buy 2 you are starting at $81.98

Well, they are giving you a $20 gift card, so to make yourself feel better, I'll subtract that from our total. You are now looking at $61.98.

Ok, and if you get the newspaper or know someone that does, hopefully you can scrounge up 2 $2 off Pampers cruisers coupons - that brings us to $57.98

Well, you can also go over here and print off 2 coupons for $5 off any Pampers value box (I'm not sure if they will take 2 of these or any of these at all because of the gift card promo, but let's just say best case scenario they will): that brings us to $47.98 for 2 value boxes!

Now, let's break that down:
Cruisers size 3 (160 per box) = $0.15 per diaper
Cruisers size 4 (140 per box) = $0.17 per diaper
Cruisers size 5 (124 per box) = $0.19 per diaper

(Now, if they don't take the 2 $5 coupons - your cost will look like this instead:
size 3 = $0.18 per diaper
size 4 = $0.21 per diaper
size 5 = $0.23 per diaper

*Ok, so now the truth comes out - first time I did the math I messed up so this looked like a horrible deal, but now it isn't looking so bad. Here's my general rule of diapers: (from the who cares dept.):
- I will not spend more than $0.20 per diaper (unless we are stranded somewhere diaperless or some other desperate situation)
- I generally get diapers for around $0.15 per diaper (this is buying the smallest packs - or Jumbo as they call them) - your $2 coupon goes a lot further on a $8.99 pkg of diapers than a $20 pkg!
- Sometimes I can find deals where I get diapers for less than $0.10 per diaper - this is when I stock up like a mad woman!!

Another thing: Next week CVS is going to have a deal on Pampers diapers where if you buy a jumbo pack for $8.97 you will get $3 in Extra Care Bucks (to use towards a future CVS purchase - maybe more diapers?) - and if you add in your $2 coupon from the paper - it is like you are getting them for $3.97 - that equals out to around $0.13 per diaper (more/less depending on size)

So here's my take on the BabiesRUs diaper deal:
If you are going to be out and about - might as well stop by. I have a feeling that it is going to be mad chaos like black Friday shopping - so if you are like me, you may not think it's worth fighting for. The prices seem to be pretty good for Pampers, so if you are a "brand snob" (heard the term somewhere else and thought it was funny) - but if you are a Pampers only fan - it might be a good deal for you. I get whatever is cheap, so the crowds aren't really worth it for me - plus, I like to space out my spending on diapers to a $4-5 trip every few weeks rather than drop $50 at one store - that's just me and my budgeting though. Also, if you are needing to desperately stock up - might be worth it since you have to be willing to shop around for diaper deals. Anyways, just putting it all out there for you to make your decision!

March 15 - Randalls

2010-03-15T15:36:00.001-07:00

So this week at Randalls has just been SO amazing! I had to go back after I got my coupon order in the mail. I got 10 coupons for the Quaker Oat squares, which = 10 FREE boxes! And I LOVE this cereal!

I was really excited about this trip and the best part was the cashier who said she had never seen anything like this before!

You can read here about all the deals I did (again, I copied her).

I ended up saving $90.08 and paid....

$0.43!!!!!!!!

The cashier told me she has to read off to me how much I saved, so she said "You saved $90" - or 100% as my receipt says!

Oh yea, and I didn't even have to use my $11.50 in catalina coupons from last week, AND I earned $3.50 in NEW catalina coupons - that means $15 towards my next Randalls purchase. SOOO excited!

March 11 - Randalls

2010-03-15T15:28:00.001-07:00

So this was an AWESOME week for Randalls. I had told myself after my freezer cooking day, I wasn't going to go shopping for a long time, but these deals were too good to pass up. I ended up doing 2 transactions, which is something I never do, but this worked out perfectly.

For the first transaction, I did the Smart Ones deal, mentioned here. (I basically copy-catted most of the deals she did). I can't list the breakdown of my specific deals I did right now, but if you have any questions, let me know and I'll fill you in!

For the 1st transaction: I ended up paying $6.90 (saved $24.37) and got a catalina coupon for $10 off my next Randalls purchase (from Frozen Food promo)

For my 2nd transaction: I ended up paying $10.37 after using my $10 catalina coupon (saved $94.69) and got another catalina coupon for $10 off my next Randalls purchase (from Frozen Food promo) and $1.50 catalina coupon (from Betty Crocker fruit snacks promo)

March 11 - Walmart

2010-03-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm back to blogging after a little bit of a break. I hardly go to Walmart anymore, but occasionally there are some deals that bring me in to the store again!

You can find most of the deals I snagged by clicking here.

The things I was most excited about:

Ore-Ida fries: $0.17 each
Kotex liners: FREE
Shrimp poppers: $0.58 each
Chef Requested steaks: (I went for the more expensive Filet Mignon this time!) - $2.28 each

All in all, I ended up spending $5.95 and saved $25.50 or 81%. Not too shabby if you ask me!

Money-making Vick's Cough Drops at HEB!

2010-03-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

I realized on my freezer cooking day, that I accidentally made WAY too much filling for Chicken Pot Pies, and didn't have enough of the crusts (which I use the refrigerated pie crust, because to me, it's worth spending the money to not have all that extra work). Anyways, I needed to get some more, so I wanted to try out the Vick's cough drops deal I had read about. It worked like a charm!

The Vick's cough drops are regularly priced $0.99 at HEB. If you use the $1.50 off ANY Vick's product coupon (there's one that came out that expires at the end of March, and a new one from this week's paper that is good through April), you basically get paid $0.51 to take them! If you happen to still have any coupons for FREE puffs when you buy 2 Vick's products, you can get an even better deal!

I ended up getting 10 cough drops to help pay for my pie crusts and 5 free puffs! Remember, if you don't have enough of the coupons, you can always order some from thecouponclippers.

*Also, I have to give my husband huge props because he found the HEB Quench drinks with coupons to try them FREE attached. So we got totally free drinks! I guess my crazy couponing is wearing off on him =).

Back to Blogging

2010-03-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've decided to keep at it! I'm going to attempt to "shake the haters off", as some would say, and try to continue to focus on sharing how I save my family money and the people that don't like it need to just stop reading. =)

Well, I missed quite a few days of taking pictures and recording totals last week, but I think I just missed a Target trip and a Randalls trip - both of which weren't great savings, I just needed last minute things for my freezer cooking day. Which, by the way, when all was said and done, I ended up making 35 meals worth!!! Soooooo, I won't be shopping much because we have NO room left in our freezer.

I'm probably going to stop recording EVERY trip I make to the store, and just focus more on the great savings trips and the awesome deals out there that you can snag. One day this week I'm going to try to actually put on make-up (my daily job doesn't require that) - and film myself talking about how I save money in hopes to win a MacBook from Hip2Save's contest! You can read more about it here.

Blogger Drop Out?

2010-03-06T13:34:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I'm not fishing for compliments or looking for any pats on the back, but basically I'm trying to decide whether or not to continue with my blogging. I do enjoy it, but it does take quite a bit of time and effort. I've been kind of discouraged lately and I'm exactly sure why. I think I am just frustrated with the people out there that have some stupid idea in their head that what I'm doing is stealing. Sorry - I do have my panties in a knot about this! Am I stealing? No! When I use a coupon at the store, the store gets reimbursed the value of the coupon PLUS an $0.08 handling fee, which obviously it doesn't cost $0.08 each for them to mail it in, so they make money! If Target wants to have gift card promos to get me to shop at their store or Walgreens wants to offer reward bucks, that's their choice! I'm not stealing and I honestly don't understand how anyone could "have a problem" with what I'm doing. I don't get the items for cheap and return them to turn a profit! I don't get the items for cheap and sell them out of my own little convenience store. All I'm doing is stretching my family's money as far as I can so we don't have to live on welfare - which I could understand someone viewing as stealing! If you're jealous - jump on board, but don't criticize me for saving my family money! Ok, stepping off the soap box now - anyways, am I going to keep couponing and getting the deals like I have been - of course! Basically I'm just trying to decide whether or not to keep documenting it on a blog, my spreadsheet works just fine for me now, but if my blog perhaps helps anyone out there with saving money, I'll be happy to continue to do so.

Week 9 - Randalls trip 2

2010-03-03T09:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, so lately I have been going way over my budget for the groceries for the week, so you are probably thinking I shouldn't have a "frugal" blog, but honestly I have just been getting such amazing deals that even though I'm spending alot this week, in the next few weeks there should be a HUGE drop in my spending!

I have decided to try my hand at Once a Month cooking - so I needed some chicken breast and Randalls had them for $1.88/lb which seemed like a good price to me, so off I went. I ended up getting close to 17 lbs, so I shouldn't need to get more chicken for a while, but I'm probably not going to be able to pass up the 4lb bags of frozen chicken breast on sale at Randalls this week for $1.44/lb.

One other thing I wanted to mention, was this was another time I was SO glad I had my coupon binder with me. I found Jennie-O Italian sausage on price cut for $0.99 each!!! These were originally $5 each, and with my $1/2 coupons - I got each package for $0.50! Seriously keep your eyes peeled at Randalls for their price mark-downs.

Chicken Breast - $32.31 (close to 17lbs)

Jennie-O Italian Sausage - $0.99 ea. - $1/2 coupons (used 2) = $0.49 ea.

-$10 catalina (got from previous charmin/bounty PG promotion)

=$24.11

saved: $27.65 or 53%

Week 9 - Walmart

2010-03-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have TONS of Jennie-O turkey coupons that will expire on the 7th, so I went to Walmart to stock up since they have the best prices on ground turkey right now. SOOOOO, again I'm going over budget this week, but over the next few weeks, you will only see me buying amazing deals or items with stock up prices. And probably won't see me buying hardly any meat because we have TONS now.

Anyways, Walmart has Jennie-O ground turkey tubes for $1.48 each and Jennie-O turkey sausage tubes for $1.52 each - so if you have any of the $1 off 2 coupons left - head to Walmart to get some Jennie-O products for $0.98 - $1.02 each.

I got:

11 Ground Turkey - $0.98 each (after $1/2 coupon)

9 Turkey Sausage - $1.02 each (after $1/2 coupon)

=$19.96

saved: $10 or 33%

Once a Month Cooking - my latest obsession!

2010-03-03T07:22:00.001-08:00

So the other day I was just reading around on different blogs and came across someone talking about "once a month cooking." I started to read about it more because I was curious and totally fell in love with this idea. It's pretty much what it sounds like. You make a menu of meals you want to make, and one day you make and freeze enough meals to last your family a month - and you never have to cook for the month, you just pop one of your meals in the crockpot/oven/whatever the case may be. Well... I like the idea, but I wanted to change it a little bit. I enjoy cooking, so for me, I love the idea of cooking a bunch of meals to be frozen (especially for those nights my husband doesn't get home from school until 9:30), but a whole months worth - not for me.

Anyways, I started researching different recipes, and the most exciting part was that because of all of my recent stockpiling, I really don't have to buy much at all to prepare TONS of meals for my family.

Here are the meals I'm planning on making (if you care to have any of the recipes let me know and I'll post them):

-lasagna (double recipe to make 4 mini lasagnas)

-chicken pot pie (x4)

-brown bag burritos

-taco soup

-chicken parmigiana (x2)

-chicken & rice pilaf

-chicken macaroni bake (x2)

-mini meatloaves (x2)

When I look over the recipes and the amount of servings they make, this will probably easily make us at least 20 meals. I love this idea because it is perfect for those nights that you just don't want to cook - and this way you can just pull out one of your pre-made meals instead of running out to eat (will save more money this way!).

So this probably isn't for everyone, but for me this sounds great because with a 6-month old, it's not always the easiest to make an elaborate meal every evening. (People with more than one kid right now are probably rolling their eyes at me at this point). Anyways, this doesn't seem like it will be NEAR as much work as I originally thought. Last night I browned up the ground turkey that the recipes need, and I cooked the chicken breasts in the crock pot over night (which is seriously probably the best way ever to cook chicken!). Later I plan on cooking the rest of the chicken and chopping it up, cooking the noodles, and chopping the onions - and then I'm all ready to go for my cooking day! Then, on my cooking day, all I'll have to do is put the things together!

Ok, so I've gone on about this a lot longer than I planned on (still waiting on my little man to wake up...), but anyways, here is the lady that I think is the most amazing person ever when it comes to once a month cooking:

Once a Month Mom! Click here to check out her website. She is amazing! She puts together her menu, you can copy all of her recipes - she even puts together a shopping list, lists what size containers you will need for storage, EVEN includes labels that you can put on your foods (with directions on how to thaw & cook!). I have become totally obsessed with her website and am planning on using a lot of her recipes to try this out. If all goes well, I may just have to make this a once a month (or every other month) type deal!

Kroger March to Savings Game

2010-03-02T09:54:00.001-08:00

This is so cool. On the Kroger website, you can play this game where you can win all kinds of cool coupons. I just won a coupon for a FREE package of Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs. The coupon gets loaded on your card, so you will need to register for an account with Kroger and have your card # handy. I saw that you choose your store when you first sign up to play, so if you aren't near a "Kroger" store, you can check to see if you are near one of their affiliates (Fred Meyer, etc.) Let me know if you win anything good!

Today only! - AMAZING Charmin toilet paper deal!

2010-03-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, so now we seriously have more toilet paper than anyone needs. I'm pretty sure that I won't need to buy more til next year. Anyways, you can only snag this deal TODAY!

Charmin toilet paper - originally $15.99, but is on sale for $9.99 when you buy it with bounty paper towels

Bounty paper towels - originally 16.99, but is on sale for $9.99 when you buy it with charmin toilet paper

So here is what you do:
1. head over to pgesaver.com and load the coupons onto your Randalls card for $3 off any Charmin, and $3 off any Bounty

2. go to Randalls and buy 1 pkg Charmin toilet paper (the 24 big roll size=48 regular rolls) for $9.99 AND 1 pkg Bounty paper towels (the 12 big roll size = 16 regular rolls) for $9.99

3. If you have the coupons from the paper for $0.25 off Charmin, and $0.25 off Bounty - use those!

4. You will pay $12.48 (+tax), but you will get a catalina coupon for $10 off your next purchase at Randalls (you can use for ANYTHING!)

So really, it is as if you are paying $2.48 for 48 reg. rolls of toilet paper and 16 reg. rolls of paper towels which equals out to $0.04 per roll!!!!!!!!!

Need a little extra money?

2010-03-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

Since I've become a stay-at-home mom, I have found myself subscribing to different survey sites where I can try to earn a little extra money for minutes of my time. One of the sites that I recently signed up for is Inbox Dollars. Now, if you hate getting junk mail - just stop reading this now. Basically what this is, is a website that will send you e-mails (approximately 5/day) and all you have to do is open them, click on the link at the bottom that says confirm this paid e-mail message and there - you have earned some money. Ok, so you only get like $0.02 per e-mail, but that's $0.10/day - and for just opening an e-mail and clicking on something - I say it's worth my time. I mean, come on, I'm getting paid $0.02/second - which would be equal to $72/hr, which would be close to $150,000/year. Now, obviously I'm not getting e-mails every second, but the point I'm trying to make is that if you have a "random e-mail" address and don't mind clicking on a link, it may be the thing for you. If you are interested, click on the little link over on the left there to get signed up. You can earn extra money for filling out their surveys, but I have just been clicking the e-mails and so far am up to $0.96. (Plus I got a $5 sign-up bonus), so yea, for clicking something in my e-mail, I currently have $5.96 that I can have sent to me whenever I want. Not too shabby right??

New Month, New Coupons!

2010-03-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

It's the beginning of the month which means that many of the coupon websites have reset. So get your printer ready and start printing those coupons!!!

coupons.com

smartsource.com

redplum.com

RecycleBank!

2010-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I keep mentioning this, but it's because I think it is such an awesome deal that everyone should take advantage of! If you haven't yet signed up for recyclebank.com - go here to do so. Just for signing up you will get 40 points. Then, click on the tab to earn points and click on join the eBay green team. You have to give them your e-mail address, but I think they have e-mailed me 1 time! Just for signing up you will get 50 points. Then, if you go back to the earn points tab, look for the spot to enter promo code, and enter RECYCLEYOURMAGS to get 15 points! So, just for doing these few things that will take maybe 5 minutes of your time, you will have 105 points! Currently, my favorite reward that they have is the $5 off any Huggies diapers coupon - makes them VERY cheap! But, if you look around, they also have coupons for Green Works natural cleaners (free products for as little as 50 points) and some other great coupons. Keep in mind that their rewards change pretty often, so if you don't see anything you are crazy about, you can hang on to your points and keep checking back.

Also, if you have extra time, you can check out kashless.org. The link to register is on the right hand side of the page under an ad, it is kind of small and hard to find. Once you are there, you can do different things (like recommend the site to friends' e-mails) to earn points - and these can be transferred over to recyclebank! So, if you have your eyes on that $5 Huggies coupon - you will need to get 45 more points at kashless, but it's really not hard to do. If you have any more questions about all this, just let me know!

Week 9 - Randalls

2010-02-28T20:13:00.001-08:00

If you got the paper today, you probably saw the Randalls ad with their special 3-day sales. I was excited! I decided to go ahead and make a trip today because I had a loadable coupon for $2 off Pampers that was going to expire at the end of the day today, and I couldn't resist using that with the in-ad coupon to make them $7.99, so after my $1.50 paper coupon - diapers for $4.49 (would have been better if I had the cruisers loadable, but I already used that). I think that equals out to around $0.14 per diaper which I think is a great price - especially for Pampers!

Ok, so here are some of the other deals I wanted to do. Also, Randalls is still having their P&G promo (buy $25 worth of select P&G products, get $10 catalina off your next order) - so that along with their new price of $9.99 for a 24-big roll pack makes for an awesome price on Charmin! So of course I felt the need to stock up, so now we don't have to buy toilet paper for months and months!

5 Dr. Pepper - $0.49 ea with in-ad coupon (I think the cashier missed this, so I ended up getting them for $0.99 ea, which is still a great price - but I may have to go back because that's $2.50 I missed out on!)

2 Prego Heart Smart pasta sauce - $1.25 ea. with in-ad coupon

-$0.50/2 insert

=$0.75 ea.

Tostitos tortilla chips - $1.88 ea. with in-ad coupon

Pampers - $7.99 with in-ad coupon

-$2.00/1 loadable

-$1.50/1 insert

=$4.49

Signature Cafe Chicken Tenders - $3.99/lb with in-ad coupon

-$2/1 Randalls printable coupon

=$1.99 for 1lb chicken tenders (that are delicious!)

2 Charmin 24 roll - $9.99

-$1/1 loadable

-$0.25/1 insert (used 2)
=$8.99 ea.

Bounce Dryer bar - $4.99

-$1/1 loadable

-$1.50/1 insert

=$2.49

Dawn Direct foam - $2.49

-$0.50/1 loadable

-$1.50/1 coupon from Home Made Simple booklet (request yours here)

=$0.49

spent: $38.99

saved: $41.46 or 53% and got $10 catalina coupon for $10 off my next purchase at Randalls

Week 8 Summary

2010-02-28T20:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this week again was not so good with the savings. I got some great deals, I just still ended up spending quite a bit, and I had an unexpected trip to Randalls because I realized we had somehow completely ran out of diapers, so that was an unexpected $7 right there. Anyways, I have a feeling that next week will be a big spending week as well, but hopefully after that I won't have to buy much more than a few small things like milk, eggs and bread for a while. My total for the week was $73.11, so I get to put a whoping $1.89 towards my camera savings. Wahoo!!!

Week 8 - Target

2010-02-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

I made a quick trip to Target on Saturday to use some coupons that were going to expire at the end of the month and we needed to get some lightbulbs for the kitchen while we were there.

Here's what I did:

2 Classico Alfredo sauce - $1.84 ea

-$1/2 printable = $1.34 ea.

2 Classico pasta sauce - $1.84 ea.

-buy 15oz alfredo sauce get 24oz pasta sauce FREE insert coupon (2) = FREE

4 Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers - $2.79 ea.

-$2.00 insert (4) = $0.79 ea.

2 Kraft shredded cheese - $2.00 ea.

-$1/1 Target coupon

-$1/2 insert

=$0.50 ea.

2 Barilla Plus pasta - $1.84 ea.

-$1/2 Target coupon (in home mailed coupon booklet)

-$0.75/1 insert (2)

=$0.59 ea.

5 Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta - $1.29 ea.

-$0.75/1 insert (5)

=$0.54 ea.

Huggies diapers - $8.99

-$1.50/1 Target coupon

-$2.00 coupon from coupon booklet found in Randalls

=$5.49

4 Johnson's Buddies soaps - $0.97 ea.

-$1/1 printable (posted about here)

=FREE

4 Reveal light bulb packs - $2.14 ea.

-$1.50/1 Target coupon

-$1/1 insert

=FREE

spent: $15.58, put $5 on previously earned gift card, so spent $10.58 oop

saved: $47.29 or 71%?? that doesn't seem right, oh well.

$25 Houston Garden Center Gift Card!

2010-02-27T19:49:00.001-08:00

Click here to sign up for e-mails from Houston Garden Center and just for doing so, they will send you a $25 gift card! (limit one per household)

ToysRUs Pictureka Deal!

2010-02-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

Here is an awesome deal that I almost didn't post on here because I don't want anyone to get their feelings hurt if they get one of these games from me and see how little it cost me! This week ToysRUs has the Pictureka Flipper Game on sale for $6.98. If you use the $5 off 1 coupon from here - you can get it for only $1.98!!!

Thanks Hip2Save!

*On a side note: If you receive one of these from me as a gift, please do not get your feelings hurt that I didn't pay full price ($15), I am just very frugalicious and have to spread our paycheck as far as it can reach!

Week 8 - Randalls part 2

2010-02-25T16:28:00.000-08:00

I cannot stress enough how important it is to load those coupons on your card if you shop at Randalls. I was needing a mostly-produce trip to get stuff to make baby food, so with the coupons on my card, I was able to get paid to take other items, to help pay for my produce. It's a good feeling =).

(FYI - where it says loadable I am referring to coupons loaded on my card from either cellfire or shortcuts)

Breakdown:

Chocolate Chex Mix - $2.55

-$0.50/1 loadable

-$0.50/1 printable

=$-1.15

Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters - $3.69

-$1/1 loadable

-$0.40/1 loadable (when you buy the nut cluters, it takes off the coupon for the granola bars)

-$0.40/1 loadable

-$1/1 insert

=$-1.51

Fiber One Muffin Mix - $3.79

-$0.50/1 loadable

-$0.50/1 insert

= $-0.21

3 Hamburger Helper - $2.00 each

-$0.75/3 loadable

(had 3 Randalls coupons for $0.50/1 that I meant to use, but guess I forgot)

-$0.75/3 insert

=$0.75 each (was planning on these only being $0.25 each!)

Betty Crocker cookie mix - $1.25 (only oatmeal was priced this low)

-0.40/1 loadable

-0.40/1 insert

=$-1.15

Golden Double Stuf Oreos - $2.50 each

-FREE coupon from facebook = FREE

Prego Heart Smart (makes awesome pizza sauce!) - $2.00 each

- in-ad coupon made them $1.25 each

-$0.50/2 insert

=$0.75 each

Yoplait Fiber One Yogurt - $2.50 each

-$1/1 loadable

-$0.50/1 insert

=$-0.50

Yo Plus Yogurt - $0.99 (overstock price)

-$1/1 insert (again - glad I had my coupons because I got more free yogurt!)

=FREE

Hillshire Farm lunchmeat - $2.99

-$0.35/1 insert

=$1.94

Brocolli - $0.98/lb = $1.94

Zucchini - $0.99/lb = $1.72

Sweet Potatoes - $1.29/lb = $4.18

2 Baby Carrots (2lb bag) - $2.00 each = $4.00

total: $14.74

saved: $40.05 or 73% - and earned a catalina for $1.50 off my next purchase!

Week 8 - Target

2010-02-25T16:18:00.000-08:00

Today's trip to Target was proof of why it's a good idea to bring your coupons along with you. I found Stacy's Pita Chips (cinnamon sugar flavored - YUM!) on clearance for $1.50 a bag. Lucky me, I had 5 $1 off coupons in my binder - so I got 5 bags for $0.50 each!!!

Here's the rest of my deals:

5 Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar chips - $1.50 each (orig. $3)

-$1/1 insert = $0.50 each

3 Johnson & Johnson travel baby shampoo - $0.97 each

-$1/1 printable (from deals here) = FREE

5 travel size Band-aids (8ct) = $0.97 each

-$1/1 insert = FREE

5 Special K Fruit Crisps = $2.50 each (get $5 gift card wyb 5)

-$1/2 Target coupon from paper (used 2)

-$1/1 printable (used 4)

-$0.75/1 insert from paper

=$5.75 for 5 ($0.15 each after gift card)

2 gallons of milk - $2.09 each

eggs - $1.19

red delicious apples - $0.99/lb = $2.13

trash bags - $5.99

-$1 off Glad Force Flex Target coupon

-$0.55/1 peelie found on box

=$4.44

My total was $19.45, but I was able to use my gift card that I earned previously with the razor/Olay deal here, so I only spent $12.51 out of pocket

saved: $36.95 or 66%

Week 8 - Walmart

2010-02-25T16:11:00.000-08:00

Again, I was out to find some freebies which I previously mentioned here. Unfortunately, Walmart didn't have the Sara Lee $1 pies, Johnson's buddies soap, or travel size Right Guard deodorant. I was able to get some other goodies though:

3 Jennie-O Sausage - $1.52 each

-$1/2 insert (I ordered extras of these from the coupon clippers) =$1.02 each

9 Jennie-O ground turkey - $1.48 each

-$1/2 insert (I ordered extras of these from the coupon clippers) =$0.98 each

4 Yobaby meals - $0.94 each

-$1/1 printable = FREE

(by the way, does anyone know if you can freeze yogurt??)

Beechnut mini-meal - $1.00

-$1/1 insert = FREE

Beechnut stage 1 foods - $0.40

-$1/3 printable from e-mail = $0.06 each! (I meant to get 12 of these because I had 4 coupons, but somehow only grabbed 9 - the cashier still used all 4 coupons though, oops!)

total: $12.24

saved: $14.00 or 53%

Week 8 - Kroger

2010-02-25T16:05:00.000-08:00

I've been making baby food for a while now and I am needing to branch out. So, I saw the Kroger had avocados on sale for $1 each, so I decided to go ahead and grab some while I was out. Also, I wanted to grab some pre-packaged baby meals for super cheap - (read about here).

Breakdown:

3 Beechnut Mini Meals - $1.03 each

-$0.50/1 printable (used 3 of these) = $0.09 for 3!!

2 Kroger frozen peas - $0.88 each

2 Avocados - $1.00 each

Kroger Hamburger buns - $0.88

total: $4.46 (if this doesn't add up right, it's because they took off 10% for the peas and hamburger buns because of that whole senior discount confusion?!)

saved: $5.25 or 54%

Week 8 - Walgreens

2010-02-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, so today I guess I just felt in the mood to do some aerobic shopping, so that's what I did. I went to 2 CVS stores, 3 Walgreens, ToysRUs, Target, Kroger, Randalls and Walmart all in less than 3 hours. I'm telling you - SERIOUS aerobic shopping! And lugging my coupon binder around definitely counts for lifting weights!

Anyways, one of the places I went today was Walgreens to take advantage of the money maker Excedrin deal (read about that here). I went to 3 different Walgreens to take advantage of this deal (asking the cashier to do 3 separate transactions would contradict my whole aerobic shopping bit - and I just never know what they are going to say to that and don't want to risk messing up the deals), but unfortunately the last store was sold out, so I'll try to hit up one more store sometime before this deal ends on Sunday. Anyways, IF you signed up for the free bottle of Excedrin like I talked about previously on my blog, you probably got your coupon in the mail sometime this week. This makes the deal even better because you don't have to pay the $0.50 out of pocket and it will still give you the $2 Register Rewards! But, if you don't, print your $2 off coupons and just remember - if you buy 2 things of Excedrin in 1 transaction - it will still only print ONE of the $2 Register Rewards. So to really make the most out of this deal, you need to ring them all up separately. The main reason I took advantage of this deal was for the Register Rewards because I need them to help sweeten up a deal next week for Huggies diapers! (Will post about that soon!)

Overall, I spent $0.50 for 2 bottles of Excedrin and got $4 in Register Rewards!!!

Jennie-O Turkey!

2010-02-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

If you prefer cooking with ground turkey instead of ground beef - here's something you might want to read about. Walmart has tubes of Jennie-O ground turkey and turkey sausage for $1.48-$1.52 each. A while back (I can't remember when), there was a coupon in the paper for $1 off 2 Jennie-O turkey products. Use this to get the tubes of turkey for around $1. This is a great price for ground turkey! I'm actually planning a trip to Walmart this afternoon to stock up. Last month, I bought several of these coupons from the coupon clippers, so I'm going to be able to grab myself 12 tubes of turkey this afternoon for around $12! The coupon expires March 7th, so if you want to take advantage of this deal, I recommend ordering the coupons today so you can get them sometime early next week!

Attn: HEB shoppers!

2010-02-25T09:23:00.001-08:00

Ok, to all of you HEB shoppers out there, I recently heard of a great deal for you to save some money at HEB. Apparently, HEB has Vick's Vapo Cough Drops (20ct) for $0.99 (I've heard this is the everyday price). Well, last week in the paper, there was a coupon for $1.50 of ANY Vick's product. Use this and you will get $0.51 of overage! That means, you can use this overage to help pay for some of your other shopping items (think: produce, meats, other non-coupon items!). You can sweeten this deal further if you buy the cough drops 2 at a time - then you can use the coupon from a while back for FREE Puff's tissues wyb (when you buy) 2 Vick's products.

If you don't have these coupons - go over here to the coupon clippers and you can buy some. I just ordered 20 of the $1.50 coupons. That means $10.20 of overage!!! I'm not planning on using them all in one transaction, but the coupons don't expire til March 31st, so you have a while to take advantage of this deal!

For more details on this deal: click here.

Thanks KatyCouponers!

Coupon Insert Preview for 2/28

2010-02-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Click here to check out the coupons that we can expect in Sunday's paper. I'm really hoping that we are right around the corner from an awesome coupon week because the past few weeks have been pretty disappointing in my opinion. Anyways, check it out and maybe someone else will find coupons that they could use.

Also, if you have a particular coupon in mind that you want, but don't want to buy the whole paper, you can order coupons from theCouponClippers. I have ordered from them before and they are super speedy in getting you your coupons. Worth checking out for sure!

Swagbucks!!!

2010-02-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

If you haven't been using Swagbucks, today is the day to start! Today is Swagbucks' 2nd Birthday and they have totally changed their site. They are also offering more opportunities to earn swagbucks and you will be rewarded more often when you use them to search. Click the swagbucks link on the left side of my page to sign up and if you sign up today you will start with 60 swagbucks!

Gloveables!

2010-02-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

My mom first introduced me to gloveables when she got my grandma a pair for her birthday. One day when washing dishes at my grandma's house, I used her gloveables and fell in love! I like washing dishes with gloves on so my hands don't get too dried out and so I can use hotter water, and the thing I love best about these gloves (aside from them being so cute!) is that the ruffle design (that goes on your forearm) is up so high that NO water gets down in them. I seem to have the problem with other gloves that water gets down in them which is never a good thing.

By the way, gloveables is an AMAZING company! I somehow managed to poke a hole in one of my gloveables while cleaning a fork (rather aggresively I guess), and I e-mailed the company to see if I could possibly buy just a left glove. I kind of figured that they are only sold as a set, but figured it was worth a shot. Well, turns out they are sending me a new pair! Such amazing customer service and an awesome product! Check them out here.

Beech-Nut Baby Food Deals!

2010-02-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

2 Exciting Deals from Beech-Nut baby foods!

Go here to sign up for a Baby Food Starter Kit. Not sure what all will come with it, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some high-value coupons!

Go here to sign up for the Beech-Nut newsletter and they will send you coupons via e-mail. When I signed up I got a coupon for $1 off any 3 Beech-Nut or Let's Grow items. The step 1 jars of baby food are only $0.40 at Walmart, making them $0.07 each after the coupon. I was able to print the coupon 2 times per computer (and you can open the e-mail on a different computer to print more). I have been making my baby food because it is so much cheaper than buying it, but at this price I'm going to grab some to have on hand!

FREE Jack-in-the-Box Sandwich!

2010-02-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

If you aren't snowed in today and are wanting a cheap meal - head on over to Jack-in-the-Box. Today only, if you buy a large drink, you can get a FREE grilled sandwich. I just got back from taking advantage of this deal after running by CVS to check on baby wipes and must say that it is a good sandwich! I tried the turkey bacon cheddar sandwich and I thought it was very tasty! Though it's a little late for lunch, you could always go grab this for dinner because it is actually a very big sandwich!

Thanks DealSeekingMom!

Awesome Huggies Wipes Deal!

2010-02-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

I read about this last night and decided to go check it out for myself today and it's true! Right now, CVS has Huggies Wipes tubs advertised on sale for 2/$5. Well, the refill packs (216ct) are ringing up for the same price! Even if you have absolutely no coupons at all, $2.50 for a refill pack is a great price. Some people have reported that when they scan their card at the CVS coupon printer (at the front of the store), their card is generating a $2 off Huggies wipes coupon. If so, then you could get these for $0.50! I wasn't so lucky, but did have a $1.50 off 1 coupon from recyclebank and a $1 off coupon from a recent Randalls coupon booklet. So I ended up paying only $2.71 for 2 refill packs of Huggies wipes! I'm assuming (and could be wrong), but I'm guessing that the CVS coupons that print when you scan your card are based on your buying trends. Well, this is one of the first times that I have really shopped at CVS in a long time, so I'm guessing that's why I didn't get the coupon. I am planning on going back later this week though to see if I can get that coupon because I'd love to stock up on some cheap wipes!

Again, even if you don't have little ones around - grab some for cheap and you can throw them into a baby shower gift! I'm telling you - you can make a very nice gift basket with much needed items for a baby shower for VERY cheap!!!

Side note: I have to say that after going to CVS and playing with the coupon printer/price scanner, I'm starting to drift towards it rather than Walgreens. I still love the deals I find at Walgreens, but I LOVE stores that have a price scanner so I can check the prices of things myself before throwing it in my basket! Also the way they store your ECBs (Extra Care Bucks) on your card instead of having to remember to bring the paper coupons is definitely appealing!

Week 8 - Randalls

2010-02-21T18:24:00.001-08:00

While we were out today, I wanted to stop by Randalls to see if they had more coupon booklets, and while we were there I decided to take advantage of a sale they were having on Rice-A-Roni and Pasta-Roni. I've never had these before, but figured that for $0.15 each, I should get some and whenever I'm needing a fast dinner I'll cook up some chicken and toss it together and call it dinner.

Breakdown:

10 Pasta-Roni: $0.75 each

-$3/10 Randalls coupon (from Meals Made Simple coupon booklet found on endcaps of Randall's aisles) -$1/3 (used 3) insert = $0.15 each

4 Nabisco 100-calorie packs: $2.00 each

-3/$5 in-ad coupon (took off $1) -$1/2 coupon (used 2) from Randalls coupon booklet found near pharmacy = $1.25 each

2 onions: $2.44

-$10 coupon from previous P&G purchase

=$1.94

saved: $28.68 or 94%

I think I am now set on healthy snacks and pasta sides!

Food Town - FREE tomato sauce!

2010-02-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

I made my first trip to Food Town yesterday so I could stock up on some tomato sauce. They had the small cans of sauce on sale 3 for $1. Well, if you go here you can play a little game and print off a coupon for $1 off 3. Therefore, free tomato sauce! You can print 3 coupons per computer, so I was able to get 18 cans for FREE! If you don't have a food town near you, Walgreens has these on sale this week for $0.39 each (with in-ad coupon), so you can get them for $0.06 each. But, there is a limit of 3 per trip, so you'll have to make lots of trips if you want to really stock up.

Some Freebies!

2010-02-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've decided to go ahead and list the freebies that I plan on taking advantage of in the near future. This will help serve as a reference for me and give y'all the details if anyone wants to take advantage of these freebies too.

1. FREE Johnson's travel-size baby shampoo. I posted about that here. I highly suggest picking some of these up even if you don't have any babies around. Think free baby shower gifts!!!

2. FREE Johnson's buddies soap. I posted about that here.

3. Cheap/FREE Beech-Nut Mini Meals. A while back in the paper there was a coupon for $1 off any Beech-Nut Let's Grow Meals. These are priced around $0.99 at Walmart - so you can get them FREE! If you don't have the coupon (or even if you do and just want more free food like myself) - you can print one here. (Sorry, couldn't make it directly link). The coupon will print for $0.50 off 1, but I noticed these at my Kroger the other day for $1.03 each - so after they double the coupon they will be $0.03 each!!! I've never tried these or even heard anything about them, but if it says Baby and it's free - I pretty much grab it these days!

4. FREE Sara Lee Pie?? - I've read about this one, but have not looked at my Walmart to check it out. Walmart's prices are really wishy-washy too, so I wouldn't go out in search for just this deal, maybe just take a peak if you are already there. Rumor has it that the Sara Lee pies are on a roll-back price at Walmart for $1 each. If you print the coupon here, you can get them for free. I'm really glad we invested in a big freezer in the garage because if I can find these, I'll grab one or 2 to throw in the freezer because my in-laws love pie and they are coming to visit in May.

5. FREE YoBaby Yogurt- I had never even heard of these before, but again BABY + FREE = I'm all over it. You can go here to print off a coupon for $1 off any one YoBaby Organic Whole Milk Yogurt. Rumor has it (again, who is 100% sure with Walmart), but I've heard that they have these for $1, so you could get these for free! I was able to print 4 coupons on just one computer. Has anyone ever tried freezing this? The ones I printed expire March 1st, so hopefully I can freeze them since I think my little guy is still a ways away from eating yogurt.

6. FREE travel-size Right Guard deodorant - After getting my 8 FREE deodorants at Randalls, I'm sure you are wondering why I would take advantage of this, but these would be perfect for my husband to keep in his workout bag. And hey, deodorant doesn't go bad, so stock up if you can! Go here to print off a coupon for $2 off 2. These should be around $1 at Target/Walmart so you can get 4 for free! (Should be able to print 2 per computer).

7. Money-Maker Excedrin. Starting Sunday, Walgreens will have Excedrin Menstrual Complete (20-24ct) on sale for $2.50. Plus, if you buy 1, you will get $2 Register Rewards! Print off the coupon from here ($2 off any Excedrin) and you will turn this into a $1.50 money maker! Best part is that anyone can take advantage of this because I've read that the Excedrin Menstrual is basically the same as regular Excedrin, just in a pretty pink box!

8. FREE Hunts tomato sauce! Ok this is what I am absolutely most excited about! If you go on over here you can play a recession game and at the end you have a choice to print a coupon - click on the Hunt's lady, and you will get a coupon for $1 off 3. (The game is basically you playing with the mouse to hit some money guy in the head - weird, but takes like a minute). I was able to print this 3 times per computer - print 1 time before registering, then you will have to register to print it some more. (By the way, you can get coupons for other products, but the Hunt's is the best right now for this deal!). Here's where it gets good. If you have a Food Town near you (go here to check locations) they currently have the small cans of Hunt's tomato sauce on sale 3 for $1. With your handy dandy coupons that equals FREE tomato sauce! Now, if you aren't able to make it to a Food Town, hopefully you are near a Walgreens and you can still get a pretty awesome deal. Starting Sunday, Walgreens will have the small cans of Hunt's tomato sauce on sale for $0.39 each with the in-ad coupon. That means with your coupon you can get them for $0.06 each!!! Unfortunately Walgreens has a limit of 3 per visit - so you'll have to make frequent trips or something to really stock up. I am super pumped about this because I have recently discovered how to make the False Alarm brand chili without buying their box of spices. I've been needing more sauce and so I'm hoping that with my 6 coupons I'll be able to go to Food Town to get 18 FREE cans!!!

Update: Target Kraft Deal coming soon!

2010-02-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

Update: these are store coupons, so you can pair them up with manufacturer coupons to get some good deals! I'll let you know if I hear of any specific deals worth seeking out!

So this caught my eye last night while I was trying to find some Target coupons for Special K products. It looks like we'll have something to look forward to this Sunday. Look here at some coupons Target will have available for different Kraft products. No one knows yet if these will be manufacturer coupons (meaning you can use them somewhere else) or if they will be Target store coupons. Part of me hopes that these will be manufacturer coupons (so I can combine it with the Target store coupon from the paper a few weeks ago for $1 off a package of oreos - this would make it $1.50 off a package of oreos!!!) But my waist and the rest of me would be fine with these being store coupons because you could pair them up with some of the coupons from here to get some amazing deals as well.

By the way, I noticed that there is coupon for $1 off 2 Nabisco 100-calorie packs. If you are near a Randalls, go by the pharmacy and see if they have the "Deliciously Aware" coupon booklet. If you can find it, there is a coupon inside for $1 off 2 Nabisco 100-calorie packs. This makes for a good deal at Randalls this week when combined with their 3/$5 deal, or you can save it til after Sunday to see if it can be combined with the Target store coupon (if that's what it turns out to be).

Oh, and if you've never tried any of the Nabisco 100-calorie packs before - I suggest the oreo cakesters. There are 5 100-calorie pouches per box, and I really want to go get more. I'm thinking of going and getting 4 more or 2000 calories worth =).

Week 7 Summary

2010-02-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

Ah, this one hurts. Well, I went over my budget this week, but that just has to happen sometimes. Especially when I'm buying enough toilet paper to last us a few months! My total spent this week was $101.25. I did earn $15 in Target gift cards and I got a $10 coupon off my next purchase at Randalls. So if you want to count those against my total, then I only came in $1 over budget - which sounds much better! Also, I'm submitting the Target receipt for a $15 rebate, so even though I spent a lot this week, in the long run it will turn out to not be quite so much. So obviously no savings to report this week towards my camera, although I did get back a $15 rebate in the mail from a different Olay rebate, so I guess I have that to put towards my camera savings. I'm really hoping for some AMAZING deals at the grocery stores next week because I've felt like lately the deals are very sparse.

Week 7 - Randalls

2010-02-18T16:39:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer #1: This Randalls trip was WAY more pricey than I usually like to do, but $23 of my total was toilet paper. Toilet paper is one of those things that I cannot go totally cheapo on. My butt enjoys the softness of Charmin, so I splurge on it. I usually try to not buy it unless I can get it for less than $0.25/roll. Randalls currently has a P&G promo where if you spend $25 on P&G products, you get a coupon for $10 off your next Randalls store purchase. So basically, I ended up getting the toilet paper for $23 for 2 24-roll double rolls, which I say is actually $13 (because of $10 coupon) for 96 regular rolls = $0.14/roll. This is an amazing price for Charmin! So, I had to get it.

Disclaimer #2: Guys may want to look away! Ok, no woman can even try to lie and say that at some point each month you want fast food. Yay for you if you have stronger will power than me, but there comes a point each month that I want fast food, and I need it badly! So, I buy foods from the store that resemble what I'd get at a fast food restaurant, and then I can get my fix for way less. Ok, this is me justifying my purchase of 2 fried chicken products in one day. Just wanted to explain that I am not becoming a total frugal fatso, but everyone has their weakness. Judging by my receipt, mine are fried chicken and toilet paper. Hey, they go together I guess.

Ok, onto the good stuff. This was kind of a bummer of a week for me for Randalls because they didn't pay me to take much stuff of their shelves. (I'm starting to sound like a total saving snob). Oh well, at any rate, after laying everything out at home to take a picture, I realize that I actually did a decent job. Here's my breakdown:

Betty Crocker cookie mix (I have SO much of this, but keep getting paid to take it!) - $1.25

-$0.40/1 SC -$0.40/1 SC -$0.40/1 CF -$0.40/1 insert = $-0.75

2 Betty Crocker cake mix - $0.89 each

-$0.75/1 printable = $0.14 each

Betty Crocker frosting - $1.39

-$0.50/1 CF -$0.50/1 insert = $-0.11

2 Progresso soup - $1 each (I normally won't pay for soup, but my husband found a kind he really likes, so I figured I'd get it since I haven't seen any loadable coupons lately)

-$0.75/2 Randalls coupon -$0.50/2 insert = $0.25 for 2

Honey Maid Graham Crackers - $2.50

-$1/1 Randalls coupon -$1/1 Nabisco cracker insert = $0.50

4 Nabisco 100 calorie packs - 3/$5 with in-ad coupon

-$1/2 (used 2 of these), manufacturer coupons found in Deliciously Aware coupon booklet by Randalls pharmacy = $1.25 each

4 Cherry coke - $0.99 each

-$1/1 recyclebank coupons (used 4) - read about the program here - 4 FREE

2 Campbells Select Harvest soup - $1 each

-$1/1 printable = 2 FREE

2 Charmin toilet paper 24double roll - $12.99 each

-$1/1 P&G loadable -$1/1 manufacturer coupon (I had 2 of these and have no idea where they came from) = $22.98 for 2

2 Pillsbury Valentine cookies - (on clearance 50% off 3) - $1.50 each

-$1/2 Randalls coupon -$0.75/2 CF -$0.75/2 SC -$1/2 printable =$-0.50

seriously what am I going to do with MORE cookies?, but I got paid to take them so you know I had to!!!)

2 Kraft singles - $1.49 each with in-ad coupon (regularly $4.49 each - ouch!)

-$1/2 insert (says for Kraft cheese, shows cheese blocks in picture) = $0.99 each

Milk - $2.38

-FREE milk with $100 grocery purchase coupon (no longer available and expires tomorrow) - FREE

Yoplait Fiber One Yogurt - $1.50 (the peach variety was on sale $1.50 instead of $2 because of overstock**)

-$1/1 CF -$1/1 SC -$0.50/1 insert = $-1.50

El Monterrey Burritos - $3.00

-$5 off any El Monterrey coupon (I got this in the mail and can't remember where I signed up for it. I want to say maybe it was one that I got for becoming a fan on facebook?) = $-2.00

DiGiorno 100 Calorie Pizza - $3.00

-FREE coupon for being a member of kraft first taste - learn more here - FREE

O Organic Cottage Cheese - (clearance 50% off 2.98) - for some reason she charged me for 2: $2.98

(got this to make some crescent lasagna I read about to use up some of our crescent rolls)

Pot Roast - $1.77/lb

-$2 off $10 Rancher's Reserve Beef purchase here = $8.21 for a 5 1/2 lb roast - this will give us probably 4 meals!

Green seedless grapes - $0.99/lb = $2.13

Zucchini - $0.99/lb = $1.33 (not sure we will eat all this, might make some into baby food)

Red potatoes (for the roast) - $0.99/lb =$1.74

Brocolli crowns - $1.99/lb (seems high, but I really wanted brocolli) -$1.91

Signature Cafe Chicken Fingers - $6.49/lb

(ok, so I told the lady I wanted 1 POUND, I figured, hey, 6.49/lb, use my $2 off coupon, get 1 lb chicken fingers for $4.49 - nice!, um, yea the lady gave me like 1 1/2 lbs! GRRR, totally threw off my money saving!)

-$2/1 coupon from here = $6.83

-$2 catalina coupon from previous pillsbury purchases

=$51.65

saved: $108.93 or 69%

considering that $23 of my total was toilet paper, that means I actually got all my other groceries for $29

and I earned a coupon for $10 off my next Randalls visit!

**Always keep an eye out at Randalls for overstock sales. Certain items will be on a special markdown when they just have too many on their shelves!

Week 7 - HEB

2010-02-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I rarely go to HEB. You can just get much better deals at Randalls or Kroger where you can load coupons on your card and they double/triple coupons. But I know plenty of people that say they can't do my crazy savings because HEB is all they have around. So, since no one asked, I figured I'd explain my take on HEB saving/shopping. In my opinion, your best bet for finding deals at HEB is to take advantage of their buy __ get ___free deals. (example: buy cheese, get meatballs free). The way you can sweeten up this deal is to use a coupon on the item you have to buy. (example: use coupon on the cheese!). It appears that most of the time the item you get for free is an HEB brand item, and the item you buy is not, so this will work out in your favor. Then, I would just find deals that way and stock up when you find a good deal.

With that being said, we eat a lot of spaghetti & meatballs around here. It's my husband's favorite food and I personally like meatballs better than sauce w/meat in it. Not sure why I just explained that, but anyways, I noticed an HEB deal on meatballs so I headed out to see how it worked out.

Here's what I did:

deal 1: Buy Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese, get HEB meatballs FREE

(I did this twice).

2 Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese (will use to make my cheapo pizza - will post about soon) - 3.77 each

-$1/1 printable coupons

makes it $2.77 for cheese & meatballs!

deal 2: Buy HEB Popcorn chicken, get 2 Lunchables FREE

(Honestly, I didn't really need the lunchables, I just LOVE their popcorn chicken and couldn't pass it up since I was already there)

Popcorn chicken - $5.67

basically paid $5.67 for popcorn chicken & 2 lunchables - cheaper than getting the popcorn chicken at sonic!

So, I ended up spending $11.21 and saved $12.12. Not too shabby in my opinion. They had some other deals where if you bought Oscar Mayer lunchmeat you could get free cheese - and you can get a $1 off coupon from the above kraft link.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I do feel bad for people whose only choice for shopping is HEB. I have nothing against them really (other than the one by my house is ALWAYS crowded - I swear, even at 3am I'm sure that place is packed!), I just feel bad that people can't find the other outstanding deals that you can find at other grocery stores. BUT, if you look hard enough you can find some amazing deals to be had at HEB as well. I'm going to try to start posting HEB deals that I read about so hopefully some of your HEB-only folks can get some good finds too!

Walmart Valentine Clearance

2010-02-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

While I was at Walmart today, I noticed as I was waiting in line, that the lady in front of me had Valentine's items in her cart. So, I decided to go check out what clearance items they had and went ahead and got a few things for next year. Now that we have a little one around, I think it's fun to play up the holidays, but my frugaliciousness won't allow me to pay full price, so I'll just buy stuff on clearance this year so we'll have it around in the years ahead. Everything was 50% off, but of course just now as I was checking my deals, I read that starting tomorrow they will have their clearance stuff for 75% off. Ugh! Oh well, anyways here's my loot:

2 Valentine buckets with lids: $0.75 ea. *

Valentine cups (5pk) - $0.75

Fancy Hearts (haha, that's what my receipt says) - $2.50 - didn't realize how much these were, probably wouldn't have gotten them

Glitter Hearts - $2.50 - same thing!

3 Red Buckets - $0.75 ea.

Valentine Banner - $1.25

Dizzy Danglers - $1.00

2 Valentine Boxes (each has 2 take-out style boxes) - $0.75 ea.

=$14.34

*I plan on filling the Valentine buckets with NON-valentine candy next year - maybe Chrstmas clearance candy? Hey it's still in a cute container so it counts :-). I've also heard of people getting Christmas M&Ms and picking out the red ones to give for Valentine's day. Maybe if I got them free....

Week 7 - Walmart

2010-02-18T16:08:00.000-08:00

I ran into Walmart really quick to see if they had some tortilla-crusted fish my mom wanted (which unfortunately they didn't), and to check on a deal I heard where supposedly the Pictureka Flipper Game is ringing up for $7 - if you use the $5 off coupon from here you can get the game for $2. Well, unfortunately, my Walmart didn't have that either - it was still ringing up for $15, so I passed on that.

Recently, I measured out the ingredients that come in the spice packets for the False Alarm chili mix. After looking at my spice cabinet, I realized that I didn't have everything that I needed, and since my McCormick's coupons expired, I figured Walmart would be the best bet for cheap spices.

Here's what I got:

Great Value Chili Powder - $1.68
Great Value Paprika - $1.48
Great Value Minced Onion - $2.24
McCormicks Minced Garlic - $3.42
McCormicks Ground Oregano - $2.92

=$11.74

Week 7 - Kroger

2010-02-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I totally blew my budget this week, but it happens (like how I'm having to explain myself to myself?). Anyways, today I was a shopping machine! I made it to 4 stores in a span of about 3 hours (1hr of which was spent at Randalls, and I'm not sure how). My first stop was at Kroger. They have these knock-off fritos called Cornitos that taste amazing and are WAY cheaper. Even with the Daytona sale (buy 10 items, get $3 off) going on at Kroger right now, the Fritos were $1.69. The Cornitos were $1.31 so they won.

*Reminder my Kroger will triple 3 like coupons up to $0.39 and double 3 like coupons up to $0.50.

Breakdown:

4 Hunts pasta sauce * - $1.39 ea.

-$0.50/2 printable (used 2 of these) = $0.89 ea.

Softsoap - $0.88

-$0.50/1 coupon from All You Magazine = FREE

Kroger spaghetti sauce (knock off Prego) - $1.11

Gala apples - 4/$1 = $1

2 Cornitos chips - $1.31 each = $2.62

Cornstarch - $0.99

total: $8.48

(not really sure why, but for some reason my receipt says I get a 10% senior discount for all Kroger brand items, I've never signed up for this and never told them my age, so I'm not sure what's going on here).

saved: $4.50 or 35%

*I LOVE the Bertolli or Classico spaghetti sauces, but they are just too stinkin expensive. I've discovered that you can make spaghetti sauce that tastes very similar by using 2 cans of Hunt's Pasta Sauce, adding a palm-full of italian seasoning, and 1 can of diced tomatoes - and it comes out tasting almost exactly the same and ends up being WAY cheaper. You can print off coupons for $0.50/2 Hunt's pasta sauces - click on printable coupons, it's the save-a-lot website, but they are manufacturer coupons (doubles to $1 off 2 at Randalls or Kroger), and Kroger often has these on sale for $1/can. - Unfortunately this wasn't one of those weeks, grr.

Coupon Insert Preview for 2/21

2010-02-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

Click here if you want to see a preview of the coupons that will be coming in the Sunday paper this week. I usually try to glance through the list to see whether I feel it is worth it or not for me to buy some extra papers. I usually try to keep an eye on the high-value coupons ($1 or more) or the coupons that can be doubled/tripled (less than $0.50). I'm noticing more and more coupons for $0.55 off a product, which I consider to be a pretty stinky coupon because it barely squeeks by being able to be doubled. Anyways, some of the ones that popped out at me are:

$0.40/1 Gorton's item
$3/2 Infant's tylenol (although I've found $2 off 1 coupons at the pediatrician's office - next time I go I am going to grab a few with the teething that is currently going on around here)
$2/1 Pamper's Cruisers

*Currently, P&G is having a rebate deal going on where if you buy $50 worth of products (before coupons) and mail in your receipt, you will get a $100 coupon booklet in the mail. Go here to read more about it and to get the rebate form. (For what it's worth, I've decided that I am not going to go out of my way to buy products just to get this rebate, but currently Safeway has a promo deal where if you buy $25 worth of P&G products, you get a $10 coupon for your next shopping trip, so probably between that and the razor deal from Target this week, I'll probably end up getting the $50 for the coupon booklet - I'm just not going to go out of my way for it because when I looked at the coupons in the booklet, I just didn't feel that they were that great. Just my two cents.)

Thanks, SouthernSavers!

More Free Baby products!

2010-02-17T20:24:00.001-08:00

I've never heard of or tried this product before, but if it's free, I'm more than willing to try it out. If you go here you can print out a coupon for $1 off any Johnson's Baby Product. Apparently, Target and Walmart sell these Johnson's Buddies soaps for around $0.97 making them free after this coupon. You can print 2 coupons per computer - so 2 free soaps to try out! Yay for free stuff!!!

Free Baby Shampoo!

2010-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Have a baby or know someone who's expecting? Well, this is a great coupon that you don't want to miss. You can go here and print out a coupon for $1 off ANY Johnson's baby shampoo. The best part is that it doesn't exclude travel size. The travel size shampoos are priced around $0.97 at Target/Walmart, so you can get them for FREE with this coupon. You should be able to print 2 per computer.

*Before I started serious couponing, I thought that the smartest way to use coupons was to buy the bigger sized items because they are a better bang for your buck, right? Wrong. One of the key things that I've learned in my short 3 months of crazy couponing, is that it is way better to get a lot of smaller sized items for FREE than one bigger item for cheap. Sounds so obvious, I really don't know why I didn't realize this a long time ago!

Freeze Eggs???

2010-02-16T14:56:00.001-08:00

Ok, if there is in fact anyone that reads this, I'm sending a question out there. Has anyone out there actually tried freezing eggs? I read this on the allyou.com website (which by the way, All You is a magazine I LOVE!!! - filled with coupons and frugalicious ideas).

Freezing Eggs
Whisk together whites and yolks until just combined. Measure into an ice-cube tray, using 3 Tbsp. of the mixture per segment (3 Tbsp. is equivalent to 1 large egg). Freeze until solid, then transfer cubes to a freezer bag for up to 6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator.

Sounds kind of strange to me, but I kind of like the idea. Maybe next time Randalls has another one of their awesome egg deals ($0.99 for 18-pack) - I might have to stock up and try this out. Thoughts???

Week 7 - Randalls - FREE DEO!

2010-02-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

Need some free deo for your b.o.?? If you do, head to Randalls/Safeway! Not sure how long this sale will last, and I only heard about it last night, so don't shoot the messenger if today is the last day it is good for! Randalls currently has Right Guard deodorant on sale 10/$10. Well, you can go here and here to print out 2 coupons at each site for $2 off 2 Right Guard deodorants. That's right - you can get yourself 8 FREE deodorants! Judging from the picture above, you might think that my husband is super stinky. He's not, I just no longer believe in paying for certain personal care products and deodorant is one of them! I had to go to Randalls today anyways to pick up some prescriptions, so if you are out and about, might be worth stopping in!

By the way, my breakdown was:

8 Right Guard deodorants (originally 2.49 each, on sale for $1) - $8.00

-4 ($2 off 2 coupons) = FREE

Whole Foods FREE groceries/Recycle Bank!

2010-02-16T13:25:00.001-08:00

So one of my new favorite hobbies, is walking out of a grocery store paying $0! No, I'm not stealing, I just LOVE finding the deals where everything I pick up ends up being free. Saturday, I went to Whole Foods for the first time. I nearly fell over when I saw the prices in there. $6.99 for Stacy's Pita Chips - that you can get at Target for $3 regularly priced, no sale. I'm way to frugal to even step foot in that place! But, I needed to find a place that had the Happy Baby Food that I got FREE coupons for. They had one kind at Target, but when I researched more, the other varieties were only sold at Whole Foods. Anyways, that's besides the point. And the point of this post is not to show off what I got for free that you won't be able to get (since I had to order the coupons on a website), but rather to tell you about the awesome website where I got the coupons from. (By the way, the baby food was $4.99 each at Whole Foods - so I ended up getting 48oz of baby food, or $20 worth for FREE!!! - I have calculated out and making your own baby food is cheaper by at least 1/2, but if I can get it for free, and organic at that?!? I go for it!).

Ok, so the website is RecycleBank. Click here to check it out. If you live in one of the cities RecycleBank is offered, you can earn points for your every day recycling. Unfortunately, I don't live in one of those cities, but there are other ways you can earn points. Just for signing up get 40 points. Then, if you sign up for the eBay Green Team (they just send you 1 e-mail), you earn 50 points, so for those 2 things you get 90 points. Once you sign up you can look around at some of the rewards. For 50 points you can get a coupon for a FREE box of Kashi cereal. Or for 50 points you can get a coupon for $1 off any Coca Cola product (makes 2-liters FREE at Walmart). So, if you want some free items for 3-minutes of your time, I definitely recommend it! You can look around at other ways to earn points - they have a partnership with kashless.org where you can earn more points. If you have time - you might want to check it out because they have some awesome rewards if you have more points (the $5 off any Huggies coupon - for 150 points is my favorite!).

Print this Quick!!!

2010-02-16T11:06:00.000-08:00

Want to get milk, bread or produce for free? Well, make sure you load up your card with the coupons from cellfire and shortcuts and then print out this coupon! If you go here you can print out a coupon for $0.95 off 1 Pillsbury sweet rolls. You should be able to print this coupon twice if you click the back button. Even if you are totally new to couponing - you can load a $0.40/2 coupon from cellfire, and a $0.40/2 coupon from shortcuts - print this coupon out twice and you get $2.70 off of 2 packages of sweet rolls. The small packages are $1.49 each, so if you buy right now, you can get them for $0.14 each - but honestly, the best idea would be to go ahead and print and load your coupons, and then wait til after next Tuesday. Cellfire will reload on Tuesday, and I'm pretty sure that we can count on another $0.40/2 coupon - then you will get paid $0.12 to take them off the shelves at a Safeway store. Nice huh? Of course this won't cover the cost of milk, bread or produce, but combine this with other similar deals where you make money, and you'll start getting your other items for free too!

p.s. - this is a REALLY good, high-value coupon - and you can only print 2 per computer - so I would definitely see if you can get some friends/family to print some out for you to hang on to. They don't expire til April, so you will have plenty of time to use them!

Shortcuts!

2010-02-16T10:13:00.001-08:00

It looks like shortcuts has added some new coupons today. If you want to start accumulating some coupons on your shoppers card to score some big time savings (especially at any Randalls/Safeway stores), head on over here now to load the coupons on your card! I already see MANY duplicates between shortcuts and cellfire. Remember, the best way to save at Safeway stores is to get at least 2 cellfire loadables & at least 1 shortcuts loadable - combine with a paper coupon and you will save big!

Ex:

2 coupons from cellfire for $0.50/1 Chex Mix

1 coupon from shortcuts for $0.50/1 Chex Mix

1 coupon from paper for $0.50/1 Chex Mix (if your store doubles, it will take off $1)

= $2.50 off 1 package of Chex Mix! - I've noticed recent prices at my store is $2.55 for a bag of Chex Mix - so $0.05 is what you would pay!

Week 7 - Target

2010-02-14T16:03:00.001-08:00

I heard about a good deal at Target for razors, so we decided to enjoy our Valentine's Day by making a trip to Target. (well, we needed milk anyways, so really I just grabbed the extra stuff while I was there).

*Target has 2 gift card deals this week:

1. Buy 3 Olay body washes - get a $5 gift card

2. Buy 2 Gillette razors - get a $5 gift card

My Breakdown:

3 Venus Spa Breeze Razors - $6.99 each

-3 ($2/1 insert) =$14.97

1 Fusion razor - $6.99

-$4/1 insert = $2.99

3 Olay Total Effects Body Wash - $5.50 each

-3 (FREE Olay Body Wash wyb venus razor coupon) = FREE

=$18.17

and earned $15 in Target gift cards (2 for razors, 1 for body wash)

saved: $63.30 or 78%

Plus I'm going to submit my receipt for the $15 Olay Rebate here, which will turn this into a $11 money maker!

Week 6 Summary

2010-02-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I knew that I wasn't going to be saving much this week with the horrible Randalls trip and pans trip to HEB. So, this week I spent $61.41. Which means I only saved $13.59. So, I currently have $225.20 or 37% saved for my camera. Hoping next week will be a better week!

Week 6 - HEB

2010-02-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well, I hardly go to HEB because 1. I can find better deals elsewhere, and 2. it is ALWAYS so stinkin crowded!!! But, they had a special deal running for Valentine's Day where if you bought a skillet/griddle set for $15, you got a lot of breakfast items for free. And, I've been wanting a griddle for a while, so I went ahead and took part of this deal.

Breakdown:

2 piece griddle & skillet set - $14.97

Pomegranate Blueberry Juice - $1.96