Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sunday Deals 2/1!

OK. First I walked by my printer today and saw the Target coupons for Yoplait Yogurt. I could've screamed. That's why my yogurt deal yesterday of $.34 each didn't seem as great as I remembered it was supposed to be. I was supposed to stack those manufacture coupons I used with the Target coupon of $1/8 to get them for $.22 each! I'll have to eat up all this yogurt and then get the deal next week! Click here to print them if you want to try it!

Back to the point of this post. Drugstore deals start tomorrow! Here are some links to blog's that show the deals and which coupons to use! I'll post how I did tomorrow. Let me know if you are going to try it!

CVS:

Walgreens:

Rite aid:

Friday, January 30, 2009

Mini Shopping Trip to Kroger & Target

I've been cooped up in the house now for a few days and when I was actually able to go somewhere, I decided to take advantage of a couple of sales I knew of & coupons I had.

First, Target:

I got a few things I needed; the step stool for Graham to brush his teeth upstairs $2.50, the puffs $1, and I threw in one $1 coloring thing for Graham (these come in handy when he's getting antsy!). The yoplait yogurts were $.59 each and I had two printable coupons for $1.00/4. So, I ended up getting the yogurt for $.34 each! Not bad.

Then on to Kroger before their mega sale was over. I needed milk and wanted to get more of that cheese on sale to put in my freezer!

I ended up buying:

2 gallons of milk - $3.39 each - sale price $5/2

9 Kraft cheese (variety of shredded/block/cubes) $4.19-$3.39 each - sale price $1.99

Doritos - $3.17 - sale price $2.18

Snapple - $1.29 - sale price $1.00

Value of Products: $47.71

Savings from Sales: $21.62

Coupons Used: $11.75 (I grabbed 9 $.75/1 coupons from the blinkie next to the cheese and bought 10 of the mega sale event items to get $5 off!)

Total OOP: $14.34 - Saved 70%


Thursday, January 29, 2009

Kroger Shopping 1/26


This was my second trip to Kroger since I have been shopping strategically and super-couponing. I found most of my sales/deals for Kroger this week from Southern Saver's blog. If you look at the sales and pair them with coupons, you can use those items plus what you already have in your house to plan your meals for the week.
Hint: Southern Saver's tells you what coupons to pair with the sales!

Here is how I did this week:

Value of Goods: $104.58

Coupons Used: $27.88 ($10 of this was from using the current mega sale deal twice-buy 10 items on the list and get $5 off)

Kroger Savings: $26.79 (amount saved from sale prices)

Spent: $44.40 OOP or 58% Savings

Leave me a comment and let me know how you did! Also, check out The New Frugal Mom's blog. She does a "Let's Go Krogering" post every week. She posts her deals and others post theirs. It's amazing!

Free Diet Dr. Pepper


I'm not a huge fan of Diet soda right now. I only drink it when I'm on a diet and being pregnant, I'm not! But I know some of you out there that love it.

Click here to get your free coupon! Thank you Never2Late2Save!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Frugal Maven's Beer Bread


So, on a snow day when you're stuck at home all day, there's not much to do. I remembered Frugal Maven's recipe for cheap and easy beer bread and decided to try it. Baking things yourself, especially with ingredients you already have around the house is a great way to save money. I didn't have self-rising flour, but you can add baking powder, baking soda, and salt to all-purpose flour to make it work! (Look it up if you need to!)



So, I attempted this recipe and it turned out fabulous! I ended up using what beer we had in the fridge and the winner was Pabst Blue Ribbon. Next time, I'll try a dark beer. Taylor really liked it, which is a big accomplishment...and Graham ate it too! Try it and leave me a comment on how it turned out!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My CVS Shopping 1/25


OK. I'm going to do my first shopping post. I've only been at this for 2 weeks, so I am by no means an expert, but I feel that I'm getting pretty good deals and I can only get better at it!

So, if you haven't heard of CVSing, check out Money Saving Mom's blog. On the right hand side of her blog, there is a link to CVS 101. Basically, the plan is to buy things for free or practically free at CVS (or other drugstores-I'm working on Rite-aid and Walgreens too) that you would normally buy at the grocery store.
The way you do this is by buying things that are on sale, using coupons and getting Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) back-all on each item if you can. You then roll the ECB's that you earned onto your next purchase. You should always be trying to earn the same amount or more ECB's on each trip! That way you don't spend much out of pocket (OOP).

So, here was my shopping trip from this past Sunday 1/25 (sales for the week always start on Sunday).
I Bought (value before sale price):
CVS facial tissue $1.29 (Sale: 2 for $1.00)
CVS facial tissue $1.29
CVS facial tissue $1.29
CVS facial tissue $1.29
CVS facial tissue $1.29
CVS facial tissue $1.29
Wisk he 3x concentrate 32 loads $8.49 (Sale: 2 for $9.00)
Wisk he 3x concentrate 32 loads $8.49
Garlic Salt $.99 (Sale: $.88)
Oregano $.99 (Sale: $.88)
Vanilla Extract $.99 (Sale: $.88)
Huggies Pull-Ups $12.99 (Sale: $10.00)
Huggies Pull-Ups $12.99
Colgate Total Advantage 7.6oz $4.89
Colgate Total Advantage 7.6oz $4.89

Value of Products = $63.45

Subtotal After Sale Prices = $44.42

Used Coupons:
$1.50 off Colgate Total printable
$1.50 off Colgate Total printable
$2.00 off Pull-Ups printable
$2.00 off Pull-Ups printable
$1.50 off Wisk
$1.50 off Wisk

=$33.42 (Used $14.58 in ECB's from last week) for a total of $21.47 (including tax) OOP

Received:
$5 ECB's for buying $20 worth of Huggies Products
$2 ECB's for 2 Wisks
$4 ECB's for buying 2 Colgtate Totals

Summary:
Spent: $14.58 ECB's and $21.47 OOP
Received: $11 ECB's for next time

Total Cost: $25.05 (for 63.45 worth of products) - 60% savings!

If you want to try this, there are plenty of blogs out there that tell you what the best deals are each week. Try Southern Savers blog!

Let me know if you try it and how you did. Leave a comment!

Free Coffee Tomorrow!

Good morning everyone. I still need to post my shopping trips for the week to show you my savings, but in the meantime I thought I'd let you know about a freebie for tomorrow. Panera Bread is giving away free coffee on Wednesday, January 28th with samples of their new offerings. Yummy!
When you visit for free coffee and delicious breakfast samples, they also invite you to donate $1 to support our Operation Dough-Nation® Community BreadboxTM program.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Free Movie Rental Today Only!


Every Monday Redbox puts out a code for a FREE movie rental! You can only use it on the Monday it comes out. You can use it multiple times on that Monday, but only once for each credit card. You just need to return it/them before 9 p.m. the next day so you don't get charged the $1.00 for each additional day.

Here's the code: 57VH9L
Happy movie watching!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

It's Time to Make a Deal!

It's only been two weeks, but ever since Frugal Maven introduced me to CVSing and opened my eyes to all the deals that can be had with super-couponing, I am hooked! I've been telling everyone I know about the deals I've been getting and several of them have asked me to share what I'm doing. Of course, some people are skeptical and I also want to show them they're the crazy ones!

Thanks to Frugal Maven's inspiration (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!), I am officially starting a blog to help my friends and family, and maybe some others along the way, spend less and get more! My plan is to post links to deals I find around town, on other blogs (giving credit of course), or wherever else I find them. Whether it's deals on groceries, drugstore buys, freebies, or just good deals around Louisville. I will also share the deals or savings that I take advantage of as I do it!

My first piece of advice is to get the coupons from the Sunday paper and start saving them now. If you do get hooked, like I did, you'll want those coupons saved up. You don't even have to cut them out at first. Most of the frugal blogs out there tell you where to find the coupon in which coupon book-from which paper, so it might be easier to find it if you didn't cut them out at first. However, if you do get hooked you will want to cut and organize your coupons. I'll share how I did that in a post soon.


So, let me leave you with your first deal. Maido, the Japanese Restaurant on Frankfort Avenue, has a great Happy Hour Appreciation Menu they are serving right now. It's only valid Monday - Thursday, from 4 - 6 p.m., but you can eat CHEAP! Click on the picture to the left to see the menu! If you like sushi, try it out.