Thursday, October 29, 2009

Free Dove at Wags!

Walgreens has a deal on Dove shampoo/conditioner which is awesome!  They are $4.99 BOGO and if you buy 8 you get a $10RR!  So here is what I did to make it a money maker...

8 Dove conditioners - 19.96
8 $1.50 coupons - 12

Used a $8RR I had from last week and paid $1.47 or so in cash.  So it "cost" me 9.47 and I got $10 back!  You can do this with 4 conditioners and 4 shampoos an stilll make like ..04 I believe.  Its still a good deal even if you pay a buck or two!  Head on over there and grab some free stuff!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I <3 Kroger

Made a quick trip to Kroger and this is what I got for $1.84!!!  I can't wait to find some more q's and do it again!!



4 boxes of Cheez Its - kept one at work for a snacky!
4 evaporated milk
2 keebler cookies
7 playtex gloves
1 lean cuisine - ate for lunch, a girls gotta eat

Paid only $1.84!!  Run, do not walk to your nearest Kroger and whip out those coupons for the Mega Sale!  What deals did you get there?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Some Online Shopping at JCP!

JCPenney has a coupon code for $10 off a $10 purchase just by using the promo code SWEETS4U, so I decided to take a look.  I ended up getting the below bathing suit top and matching bottoms, as well as a set of lounge around shorts for $7.33 (shipping was $5.95).



I needed a new suit anyways and this will go perfect for our cruise!  I'm not sure how long the coupon code will be around so get shopping!

Boston Market also has a coupon out now for a meal for $1 that is good for the week, so can you guess what I had for lunch!?!?  It was 2 legs and one breast, with mashed potatoes and cornbread.  Pretty good if you ask me for $1!

So it looks like Kroger might have the better deals this week over Meijer.  I'll highlight them both below. 

Meijer

Snuggle - $3.39
     Use the $3 Q from 10/4 RP
     Cost - .39

Pillsbury mini brownie mix - $1.29
     Use the .40 Q from 9/27 RP
     Cost - .49

Campbells Chunky soup - $1.19
     Use the .50/4 Q from 9/20 or 10/11 SS
     Cost - .86 each

Bananas - .33/lb

Kroger

They are having their mega even sale right now which is if you buy 10 participating items you get $5 off your bill.  The prices below are noted after the $5 discount (.50 off each item).

Carnation Evap Milk - .50
     Use .50/2
     FREE - Stock up for the holidays

Kotex - $2
     Use $1/1 printable
     $1 cellfire Q
     FREE - great donation item if you don't use this

Scotch Nail Saver - .50
     $1/2  9/20 RP
     FREE

Playtex gloves - .50
     $1/1  10/4SS
     FREE

Cheez Its - .99
     Use $1.50/2  10/4 RP

Keebler cookies - .99
     Use $1.50/2  printable
     Cost - .24 each

Danimals - $1.49
     Use $1/1  10/4SS
     Cost .49 each

Tyson split chicken breast - .99/lb
     Use .50 Q from 10/4SS
     Cost - varies

These are only the best things I see that are free/cheap. 

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Free KFC Chicken on Monday!

Yipee, free KFC Chicken tomorrow.  Here is the link explaining it, I don't think there is a PDF or coupon to print this time.  Looks like free lunch tomorrow!

Link

Monday, October 19, 2009

Cake Pops!

Okay, so I lovee Bakerellas site which is here.  Her stuff is always so cute and creative, and she makes it look so easy!  I've been wanting to try these because I was hoping to make them for Halloween if they were easy enough, so I tried them tonight.  Let me tell you, they were pretty darn easy, and I had a lot of fun with them.  I used orange chocolate disks from Michaels, but either I used too much on my cake pops or I didn't get enough chocolate.  My batch made about 36 pops, but I only had enough chocolate for a little more then half of them, so I'm leaning towards I didn't knock enough chocolate off.  I also couldn't find an edible ink pen at Michaels, so I want to get one before Halloween when I make these again.  I thought it would be cute to put Jackolantern faces on them.  We'll see! 

I won't have much time to put up the drugstore deals, but check them out  here.  This is where I come to look before I hit the stores after I've looked through the ads.  Sometimes I miss stuff and I like to double check!

Any other good baking sites out there for me to check out?  I LOOOOOVE baking!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Cheap Chicken and a new potato recipe!

So after my fun trip to Meijer yesterday I dropped the boys off and went to Kroger for cheese and Vince and Joes for chicken fryers.  I think I got like 20 packs of cheese (shredded, bar and slices) for $1 each.  I know I could have waited for a Kraft sale but we were running pretty low, and that doesn't happen around here!  We seem to go through cheese like water.  I also bought two of the chicken fryers from Vince and Joes, I just love making it in the crockpot sprinkled with some rosemary and lemon slices on it.  We usually are able to get a couple of meals out of this, so I'll probably make some chicken salad with the leftovers tonight for lunch tomorrow!

After showing hubby the cheese, he wanted more of the Muenster cheese slices, so I went back out this morning and got more and also grabbed three more chickens.  I couldn't resist, they were only $2, and basically were already cleaned out, makes a cheap meal. 

So we are pretty stocked on everything for a bit, I hope!  My main goal was to make sure they had something to eat while I was at school two nights a week, that wasn't just boring old sandwiches or take out.  I think I accomplished that! 

I was looking at the stockpile pictures on HCW last night and it inspired me that I wanted to take some and see what everyone else thought.  First I want to clean up my shelves though...you don't need to see how unorganized I am!  Hopefully I can get around to posting those this week.  I grabbed a paper today as usual, so I'll post those deals later.  

Tonight for dinner is the chicken in the crockpot as well as these.  I've never tried them before, but the ladies at the Grocery Challenge board say they are amazing, and well frankly, we're tired of just regular baked potatoes.  I have so many from the garden its not even funny, so I'm trying all the new recipes I can!

What were your favorite deals last week?

Friday, October 16, 2009

Finally Some Good Shopping!

Okay, I must say, I haven't done a big grocery shop for a while, its usually things here or there because we have such a big stockpile, but Meijer had some good sale items as well as catalina items, so I was able to do a bigger shopping trip!  I'm sure its not big like everyone thinks, but its big compared to my standards of just 5 things at each store!  Here's my first picture on this blog!



Sorry I don't know why its so blurry, but here are the items I got.  I have to say hubby and son did come with me and they hardly ever do, but I think hubby just needed to get out of the house!  They cost us a few extra dollars, but it was alright, well worth it.  It was kind of  nice having them come for once. 

pig ear - .99 (extra item)
dog chain - 1.84  (extra item)
chicken bouillon cubes - 2.39
2 Tyson chicken thighs - 2.77 and 2.91
bread - 3.69 (I thought this was the one for the pepperidge farm deal but you can get the ones that are 2.49, live and learn)
cheese cake - 4.99 (free item for buying 2 viola meals)
beer - 17.19 + deposit 2.40
2 soup - 1.30
6 soup - 3.90
grapes - 1.87
kid soup - .99 (extra)
tonys pizza - 1.98
4 soup - 5.06
gummy worms - 1.30 (extra)
4 ziploc bags - 6.76
chips - 1.97 (extra)
2 eckrich sausage - 3.98
2 broth - 3.98
2 viola meals - 5.98
OJ - 2.29
snuggle - 27.93

The total was 108.xx - and I ended up paying 43.02.  We had about $7 in bottle returns so subtracting that off of the beer total, $12 or $13 was beer.  So for groceries it was $30 (I don't include beer in my monthly budget).  I also received a $5 OYNO cat  :)  I am going to go back tomorrow for the Super sale, which I swore started on Friday but apparently I was wrong!

We are going to the Cider Mill tomorrow and then to get a costume so that will be fun!


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

More Meijer Items!

So I finally had a few minutes to go over the Meijer ad and see what other good deals were out there, and I have to admit I am exited to do some shopping on Saturday (I try to get it all done on Saturdays as I don't have enough time in the week!).

Here are a couple more things that end up being great prices!

Campbells cream soups - .65
     Use $1/4 mealbox q and this $1/2 printable (or there is a coupon in the 9/27 SS)
     Free or very cheap
     ****Great to stock up - think of any holiday cooking you will be doing*****

Snuggle - $3.99
     Use $3 Q from 10/4 RP

Tyson Chicken (not sure if this is breasts/thighs/etc) - $1.99/lb
     Use .50 Q from 9/27 RP
     I try to find the lowest priced package to make it the cheapest

Campbells Harvest Soup (bowl or can) - $1.29
     Use mealbox q and coupon from 9/20 SS, 9/13S or 10/4 SS
     .39 for the bowls and .49 for the cans

There are a couple of Catalina deals that my friend Pubbler posts about.  I think I'm going to do the Ziploc and the Peppridge farm one this week, hopefully it will bring down the cost of the other groceries, or at the very least I'll be able to get some free Snuggle with the $5 catalina from the peppridge farm deal.  Not too shabby!  She also lists some great money making scenarios at Rite Aid.  I haven't tried my hand at Rite Aid yet, but she does really well with the rebates.  If you are diligent with doing rebates I highly suggest you check out her blog and start making some money on the things you need anyways!

We are heading over to the cider mill this weekend and then off to find the little one a costume.  We usually pick a big bag of apples and then try to make some good recipes with them so if you have any fun recipes you do with apples I'd love to hear them!  Also, my mom brought me a large bag of pears from my grandmas tree, so if there are any good recipes out there for that too, I'm all ears! 

Monday, October 12, 2009

Favorite Deals This Week

I haven't had too much of a chance to look through the papers, but so far here are my favorite deals (I'll update as I get through the papers):

Meijer

Snuggle (sheets and liquid) $3.99 - use $3/1 coupon from 10/4 RP
     Some people have reported seeing this at their dollar stores for $3 - I checked the Dollar General by me and they only have a 40 count dryer sheet box for $2.  I think the one at Meijer has more sheets in it, but I will see when I go later in the week.

Kroger

Kroger Block and shredded cheese 10/$10
     I know sometimes you can get the Kraft cheese with a coupon and good sale cheaper then this, but I'm out of cheese (oh no, say it isn't so!), so this is a good deal for me.  I bought a few packages at Meijer last week but they were out of stock, so I didn't get as many as I wanted.

CVS

Pumpkin Carving kit - $1.99 get $1.99 ECB

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Dreaded Dentist

Oyy I knew I hated the dentist for some reason!  Little background - me, my brother and sister always hated going to the dentist, I guess I don't know why exactly, but needless to say I still hate it.  I started going to a new dentist that my hubby goes to and raves about.  He said they all make you feel so comfortable and everything, so I gave it a shot.  I went about 2 months ago and took our son, it really was painless and quick, and the hygenists were so nice.  And the actual dentist was a real doll, I really like it there, I do.  Until they told me I had 3 baby cavitites.  Are you serious?  I brush, I floss, I hardly eat a lot of candy or sweet drinks, how did this happen?  Oh well I pouted for a couple days and just scheduled an appointment to get them all done (I think its the shots that I used to hate that freaked me out).  So I told them I don't like dentists, I don't like shots, etc.  They numbed me to no end with some minty gel stuff and they were so gentle with the shots, it really wasn't a big deal.  It only took about 45 minutes and I was done.  I thought, well this isn't so bad.  

Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago.  I was eating a crouton in my salad and my darn tooth gave me this awful pain where I had the filling done.  I just wrote it off as nothing.  A couple days later as I was drinking water (ice cold as usual) I got the same awful pain.  I knew I should make an appointment but I just didn't have the time to go, plus I didn't really want to.  Well since I was off of work with my hubbys surgery I figured I might as well just call to see whats up with the darn tooth.  Yeah well not so glad I did that, I now need 2 freakin crowns.  She said I must have had fractures in my teeth from grinding them and when they did the fillings the drill vibrations made the fractures worse so they only thing to do is crown them.  Well whoo hoo another $800 out of pocket.  I do have to say I am thankful for having insurance, but come on $800, that is a house payment!  Oh well, guess we can't win them all.  Anyways, I'm thinking of doing one at a time maybe one in November or so because its just very uncomfortable with the cold water hitting my teeth and then having to be careful what I chew. 

Well as I'm typing this our Tigers just lost the game to the Twins  :(  Now off to watch NCIS that I taped...mmm I love that show!

Christmas Ramblings

I know I know, its not even Halloween and I'm talking about Christmas!  I LOOOOVE Christmas more then any holiday, and if I had it my way I'd have a tree up all year round!  My SIL emailed the other day asking who was having Xmas and since we hadn't had it for a couple of years we offered to have it.  So I was thinking, I might as well list some savings idea for hosting Christmas as well as how I buy the Christmas presents on a budget.  With my husbands family we do Christmas on Xmas Eve with them and then we are with my family on Christmas day, its worked out well for the past 5 years, and we get the best of both worlds/families!

Christmas presents on a budget

We save all year so we have one less stressor while buying presents.  As if its not bad enough to not know what to get the teenagers and everyone else, I seriously don't need to worry about how I'm going to pay for it all!  We each put $40 a month away ($960 a year), and then some here and there.  Even if I have to spend more then $960, at least its not going to be a whole lot more.  I think last year we had about $40 or $50 left over, so that just rolls over into this years budget.  This year my lovely parents are taking us (me, hubby, son, brother, sister) on a family vacation for Xmas, and we're going Dec 13th - 20th.  So I will have to make sure all my stuff is bought and basically wrapped before we go!  I've been doing pretty good, I've already got a few of my nephews pretty much done, and I've gotten a lot of stuff for our son already.  We have 3 teenagers to buy for, and  I think they might be at the age where giftcards are just the best bet, so I might take the easy way out and do that (even though I hate that).  So how have I already started to get presents you may ask?  CLEARANCE!!

A few months ago Target and Kmart had a great clearance toy sale.  I was able to get our son a couple of Leapster games and LeapFrog books, I got my two nephews a couple of things and I got my niece a couple of clothing things from Kohls.  It may not be a lot already, but its a start!  I have ideas of at least what to get the little ones so that makes it a bit easier too.  I have a feeling there will start to be some good sales coming this month on things, so I want to try and see if I can get some lists from the rest of my family. 

Cooking Christmas on a Budget

Well luckily there are always good food sales on Christmas cooking items so I'm not too worried, but I would like to sit down in the next month and just figure out what we're going to have so I know what to look out for for a good sale and again, its one less stressor for me.  The one year we hosted it here for my hubbys side, we had made a sort of Italian dinner.  We did stuffed shells and I can't remember what else, but it was not the traditional dinner you hear of, and boy it was good!  We also bake a lot around the holidays and I have already stocked up on most of that stuff (.99 flour was an awesome deal!), but I just need to go to Costco and get a big bag of Chocolate chips and I need some more cocoa. 

Moral of this long winded post....Plan early and stock up!  What are your favorite Christmas saving tips?

Monday, October 5, 2009

Baking All Day!

Well since hubby had surgery on Friday, I decided to take today and tomorrow off to help him out.  You don't realize how much you really do use both hands until you can't use one of them!  He slept a lot of today and so did the little one, so I got a couple hours to just sit and enjoy doing nothing!  I know I know I should have been doing homework or something, but I'm so tired! 
After the little one woke up he wanted to make cookies (he found my cookie cutters and was all geeked).  So we made some sugar Halloween cookies, it was a good time!  I've been wanting to make these since I saw them posted, so I finally did it!  Ohh they were really good, I didn't do the chocolate drizzle on top, but I can only imagine how good it would have been!  If you get some time, make them, you won't be disappointed, I promise.

I'll post the deals at CVS and Walgreens tomorrow, looks like some decent stuff!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Monthly Totals!!

Okay drumroll please!  Here are the totals from August - remember this was the month we tried to do the stockpile challenge.

Items - 495
Retail value - $865.19
Coupon value - $662.88
Value on gift cards - $49.33
Total OOP - $167.67
Savings - 76.62%
Cost per item - .44

Whoo hooo!  I'm pretty pleased and I'm thinking I'll try again another month! 

I've been so busy the last week its insane!  My husband had shoulder surgery on Friday, so we were trying to get the last minute stuff done that he wouldn't be able to do for a while last week, and then our son got what we think was the stomach flu, and trying to work and clean and everything else, I didn't have a minute to do anything!  So I've taken tomorrow and Tuesday off to help with my hubby and get a few things done here, so we'll see how it goes!  I didn't even have time to grab a paper yet today so I'm not sure how the drugstore sales are but I did look at Meijer and I'm not impressed so thats good!  They are having their 10 for $10 sale on Meijer brand stuff so I think I'll skip it this week!