This week's deals

Expiring today..

Quaker "True Delights" granola bars are on sale 4/$10 at Kroger. In addition, if you buy 4, you get an additional $4 off (once per transaction).

Go here to print as many coupons as you like (close the second window that opens and click on the $1 coupon again to reprint) http://www.quakeroats.com/products/product-offers-and-promotions.aspx

4 for $10 - $4 - 4 $1 coupons = $2.00 for 4 boxes.

My stores have been super stocked, so you could conceivably pick up 8 or more boxes (4 per transaction, don't forget this part!) today before the sale is over.

At CVS:

Sally Hansen products are B1G1F. There are Sally Hansen hair remover coupons from Sunday paper for $1, and various coupons for nail products. Here is what I got:

4 boxes wax strips $5.69ea = 22.76
-bogo (11.38) - 2 $1 coupons = $9.38 (not super cheap, but at 2.34/box is less than half price)

2 nail color pens (7.99) and 2 bottles nail polish (2.79) = 21.56
- bogo (10.78) - $3 off $10 Sally Hansen nail - 3 .50c off nail color - $3/2 cvs sally hansen coup - $3/2 cvs sally hansen coup = $0.28

Not much else going on this week. Tomorrow will be the start of the new grocery weekly ads so we'll see what's new!

Sites to bookmark

www.caregiversnetwork.com Sign up and then submit unlimited rebates through the year on various products. Caregiving for yourself counts.

The following blogs and message boards are good places to keep up with deals. Each has its own "flavor", rules, and contributors.

www.slickdeals.net
www.iheartwags.com
www.iheartcvs.com
www.hotcouponworld.com
www.afullcup.com
www.refundcents.com (requires subscription of $2 per month. Not necessary, but a good website with a wealth of info)

YTD totals

Just for fun, I've been trying to keep up with this :)

It's not 100% accurate because I believe I sent out 4 receipts for refunds before getting them entered into my spreadsheet.

I use the spreadsheet function of Google Documents, and my YTD summary is here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pIGyFnXjmBYgQxHTc82szNg&hl=en

Anyone can view it, but only I can add and delete information on it.

My totals so far from 1/1-3/15 are:

Spent: $768.35 ($503 Walgreens, $265.35 CVS)
Refunded: $295
Net spent: $473.35
Saved: $5838.97 ($3446.49 Walgreens, $2392.48 CVS)

Note: the refunds actually shown on the spreadsheet were refunds processed tomy bank card at the store due to products ringing up incorrectly. The $295 in refunds is 2 months of Easy Saver, and all the various smaller refunds I've done, plus Caregivers.

Get your rainchecks!

If your Walgreens or CVS is out of the following items, get your rainchecks today and tomorrow (you cannot reuse a raincheck, so have 1 written at each store for at least 3 of each product if allowed).

Walgreens:
Raincheck for Garnier sale price of 2.99
Raincheck for Sense&Spray sale price of 7.99
Raincheck for Lasting Impressions sale price of 7.99

CVS:
Raincheck for Renuzit Tri-Scents for 4.99

And any other products your store is sold out of from the weekly ad. Rainchecks typically do NOT expire, so just watch the expiration date of the coupon(s) you're using for the deal.

PS I know my photos are down I'll work on getting that fixed later tonight :D

Good deal on Advil PM

At Walgreens, there are 16ct boxes for $4.49.

Look for the boxes with a $2 coupon on the box. This makes them $2.49.

At checkout, a $2 Register Reward will print, making your net price .49+tax :D

Remember not to "roll' the RR onto the same item, and only 1 RR will print for each transaction, so you'll need to do seperate transactions for each Advil purchased.

Sorry it's been so long without an update!

IRL crap getting in the way, which is not a subject for this blog ;)

Last night and today I hit Walgreens up for the MOST excellent sale they are having. I hit a total of 5 stores, and was careful at each not to clear a shelf or take too many from stock. I still hit the figurative jackpot :) Sorry no pics this time but I'll see if there's a way to get a pic of my receipts up.

12 Red Baron pizzas (8 pepperoni, 4 supreme)
10 boxes Gorton's fried shrimp
3 boxes Nutripals children's nutrition bars
2 cans Blue Diamond smoked almonds
1 M&M's premium chocolate raspberry almond
5 Sambucol
16 Glade Sense and Spray
15 Glade Lasting Impressions
32 assorted Garnier (gel, mousse, wax, cream, pomade, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, leave in conditioner, smoothing milk, gloss drops, gloss spray)
14 Lysol wipes
2 jumbo packs Huggies Gentle care newborn diapers
1 jumbo pack Huggies wipes
2 large boxes trash bags
1 bottle 22c peroxide (filler)
1 bottle nail polish remover (filler)
4 packages Advil PM 16ct

Total spent: $13.01, $13.42, .07, .92. $27.42
Total saved: $333.07
RR's remaining: $10, $1
applicable rebates: .75, .75
Percentage saved: 94.77%


Happy shopping!

Lots and lots of pretty peektures

Storage issues have been solved with plenty of room to grow :) This is the downstairs, I haven't gotten upstairs for pics yet of what we did up there.

This is the downstairs bathroom cabinet under the sink, where we keep all our medicines, vitamins, and first aid. Bins are from The Container Store and ran about $7 each (but have been repurposed from the garage, we already owned them.) They are quite deep and hold a lot.

From left to right, top to bottom: Children's medicines, prescriptions, vitamins, diet aids and stomach issues, fiber/calcium supplements, first aid, pain relief, cough/cold/sinus. There are approximately 25 more Citrucel stacked *behind* the bins, and 8 glucose monitors. It's very easy to move the bins in and out of the cabinet, to pull things from the bins and put them in, and the storage behind is for things I should not need access to often.


Now we move into the laundry room. These are my new babies. They are beautiful and by Electrolux, boasting an 18 minute wash time and 18 minute dry time. My back is in love with me for not having to bend down into the washer and dryer anymore.

You can see my shelf system and bins to the left of the machines. Although the room doesn't appear very large in pictures, this is a HUGE room. Each tile is 12" square and my laundry room is 9x11. To the left of the washer is a small nook where I have hanging hanger racks and a laundry hamper; to the right is another laundry hamper and then a large freezer.





Just a couple of pictures (I won't detail all the shelves individually) to show some of what I needed to store. This is some clearance cleaning product I stumbled upon for 25 cents each packet, and had 45 cent coupons for (I spent about $10 oop as I didn't have enough coupons for each). There are 108 packets, each containing four dissolving packets that fills one bottle of cleaner, or 432 bottles worth of cleaner.



The next example is the wildness I went into stocking up on Febreeze candles. It looks like so little in this picture, doesn't it? There are 33 candles here! I couldn't put more on the shelf if I wanted to due to the weight limit. I have other candles, tarts, and oils on a seperate shelf above.



I cannot emphasize how wonderful the Container Store is to find things to hold small items. They sell these plastic boxes in many sizes from "accessory" (small, shown here); shoebox (perfect size for packets of tuna); men's shoebox (shown in the next picture). They let me keep everything seperated, organized, and they stack well with a minimum of wasted space. On this shelf, I've used them to hold my Scentstories discs, B&BW fragrance oils and essential oils, and wallflower refills. I will add more later as needed, and there's enough room on the shelf to go 2 deep and 5 high.



The men's shoebox size holds large aerosol cans, our excess reusable Chico, Ikea, and HomeDepot bags (each work quite differently and are used for a variety of things including the shopping), Swiffer floorcare pads, and other large objects that present storage difficulties or messiness.

Organizing the stockpile

I've officially outgrown all our storage and it's not even Feb yet O.o

The bathroom has 2 laundry baskets full of crap sitting on the floor. The laundry room is a disaster area with sacks everywhere. The pantry has overflowed onto the kitchen table, counters, and floor. The downstairs medicine under-sink-storage is too hard to get to stuff.

I'm heading to Wal-Fart when J gets home to check out some storage solutions. I don't plan to pick up much more shampoo etc for a long while, but I just started with 3 bottles of laundry detergent and I'm going to need WAY more space for that!

Any suggestions? I have room for 2 of the little rolling carts w/plastic drawers in our bathroom which might take care of that, but I need some sort of pantry-like storage in there. I'm thinking heavy duty plastic shelving for the laundry room. The pantry itself I need to clean out expireds/reorganize and *then* figure out what needs done...

Walgreens and CVS

Today's haul! Total spent: $96.67 Total Saved: $339.90 Percent Savings: 72%
ECB's and RR's remaining: $15 Refunds Due: $39 Net cost: $42.67

Items purchased:
7 Citrucel caramel and chocolate soft chews
3 Febreeze evergreen and snow candles
4 Ragu traditional spaghetti sauce
2 Skippy crunchy peanut butter
2 Skippy smooth peanut butter
2 Baker's dark dipping chocolate
1 Tostitos corn chips
1 Doritos corn chips
2 two liter Mountain Dew soda
10 12-packs canned Mountain Dew soda
2 Gatorade Frost
1 Tide HE detergent, 50 load
2 Downy HE fabric softener
6 Clairol Natural Instincts hair dye
5 L'Oreal Vive Pro shampoo and conditioner
1 Infusium 23 conditioner for color treated hair
4 Axe body wash
2 Similsan ear wax relief
8 bonus (double) packs Bayer Aspirin
6 Walgreens brand ibuprofen
5 Excedrin migraine
2 Dayquil + Vitamin C
1 Nyquil + Vitamin C
1 Orajel cold sore relief brush
1 Extra gum
1 Altoids minis

Savings were not as great this trip as I usually get, but considering much I didn't have manu q's for I think I did pretty darn good :D I have $15RR to roll over next week (not going to be making multiple trips this week due to going out of town) and expect to do better.

Welcome to Shopahol*c!

I love to shop. I don't just love it, I live for it.

I am blessed with 3 children that I get a kick out of dressing up and shopping for, a home large enough to let me stockpile as much as I'd like (oh do I love dressing my house, too!), and a loving husband who not only allows me the time to go shopping - he happily helps me clip coupons and watches the children while I do it!

Yes, it is heavenly, and I don't take it for granted. Everyone is well taken care of with little treats and extras and of course, mom-time. I could not do the things I love to do without the loving support of my entire family.

I decided to start at ground zero. I have not stockpiled since we moved into this house (2007) and have not actively used coupons since 2005. I started both again officially on Jan 1, 2009 as my youngest started preschool and freed up large blocks of time for me.

So far - pictures are coming soon! - I have spent less than $150 and have saved almost $2500! That's a savings of 94%.

Feel free to check back often for tips on how to do it; to see what I've stocked; or to see if I've gone insane yet (I hear the odds are 4-1 on Feb 1st).

Above all, please feel free to comment with suggestions, corrections, or your own experiences. I love reading about other's deals and seeing all the new bright and shiny stuff!