Monday, December 29, 2008
Kroger/CVS
Ok... Kroger run. I boo-boo'd and spent more than I wanted because I thought I had an eSAVERS Q loaded onto my card for B1G1 Pantene shampoo.... it was buy 1 Pantene Shampoo, get 1 styler free.
.... so annoyed.
So I spent $4 more than I REALLY wanted to spend because I thought I'd be paying 49 cents for 2 shampoos! ARGH!And I don't even know if I can use them toward the P&G coupon book because they rang up as plain ol' "Shampoo" on the receipt!!! Double ARGH! Ok, vent over.
8 bounty single roll paper towels
11 Tropicana 2 liters
3 Pounce cat treats
1 pouch of dog treats
1 half-gallon skim milk
2 bags of Kroger tortilla chips
2 Pantene shampoos
2 cans of beans
------------------------
$53.33 (this is including tax)
-$13.00 (store coupons for using a kroger card)
-$20.50 Manu Q's
---------------------
$19.83 paid. 64% saved.
Then headed to CVS.
6 bottles of dawn
1 box of hot pockets (for hubby's lunch)
-------------------------
$12.83 (not including tax)
-$4.47 (using my card, dawn B1G1)
-$3.00 (dawn Q's)
-----------------------
$5.36(not including tax)
-2.59 ECB
---------
$2.77 +11 cents tax
$2.88 oop.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
CVS'ing
Went to CVS this morning and got 6 bottles of dawn, 1 bottle of vanilla extract, and 3 sunday papers for the P&G coupon insert.
paid $8.99 in ecb (expiring soon!), used $1 off 2 dawn Q, and paid 27 cents out of pocket!
Later today, heading to the mall to burn through a gift card and then to Kroger to buy groceries for the week.
paid $8.99 in ecb (expiring soon!), used $1 off 2 dawn Q, and paid 27 cents out of pocket!
Later today, heading to the mall to burn through a gift card and then to Kroger to buy groceries for the week.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Ok, my website
Not too many people know this, but I've been a nerd about websites for YEARS. I taught myself html when I was in 6th grade because I wanted to make up my own website for Sailor Moon.
Now they make programs that do it for you. It's so nice! But it's nice to also understand what the html is doing in case the program screws up and you have to find the boo-boo.
I used to have my website at http://www.krystalily.com/ but the hosting business sucked and didn't get back to me about renewing my domain in time, so I moved it while giving them the middle finger and saying eff you. They weren't getting my business anymore.
So where did I move it?
To here: My website
It's not as good as Pioneer Woman's, but it'll do. :P Not all of us can be as interesting as Ree!
Now they make programs that do it for you. It's so nice! But it's nice to also understand what the html is doing in case the program screws up and you have to find the boo-boo.
I used to have my website at http://www.krystalily.com/ but the hosting business sucked and didn't get back to me about renewing my domain in time, so I moved it while giving them the middle finger and saying eff you. They weren't getting my business anymore.
So where did I move it?
To here: My website
It's not as good as Pioneer Woman's, but it'll do. :P Not all of us can be as interesting as Ree!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
I'm having a good hair day
It's raining out. I'm waiting for the mailperson to get here so I can run out to CVS. I am also waiting on DH's package. Do I really want to go out and risk not getting DH's present? Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
A lazy day
Today I may or may not venture out. I feel really lazy. DH's present came and Sammie pounced on the Fedex guy! He was like "Call her, go ahead, you call her" and I'm like "Sammie! Get inside! Go! Inside!" and she'd go in, but she'd immediately come running out, barking at the guy again. I think she was in love!
For those who haven't seen a picture of my dog, here she is!
Monday, December 22, 2008
CVS and Kroger
DH and I went to CVS (omg he actually enjoyed walking around in there! Woo hoo!) and Kroger. I had to get my meds and I asked the cashier at the front desk about my raincheck, which she signed the person's name for them. Anyways, not counting my meds, we paid NADA for everything! In fact, we got back $2.30!
CVS - 2 J&J First Aid trial size kits, box of 10 twinkies (oh that hubby of mine!), and Reinventing Beauty Mag. Spent 5 ecb's for that.
Kroger - 3 bottles of Tropicana, 2 bottles of Verners Ginger Ale, 4 boxes of Banquet Pot Pies, 1 bottle of Parmesan Cheese.
FREE! *dances in da street* Oh wait, it's feelin like -8 degrees out here, maybe I shouldn't do that!
117% savings! At Kroger, we saved $14.27 in store coupons and manu coupons. :)
CVS - 2 J&J First Aid trial size kits, box of 10 twinkies (oh that hubby of mine!), and Reinventing Beauty Mag. Spent 5 ecb's for that.
Kroger - 3 bottles of Tropicana, 2 bottles of Verners Ginger Ale, 4 boxes of Banquet Pot Pies, 1 bottle of Parmesan Cheese.
FREE! *dances in da street* Oh wait, it's feelin like -8 degrees out here, maybe I shouldn't do that!
117% savings! At Kroger, we saved $14.27 in store coupons and manu coupons. :)
Meijer run!
I went to Meijer today to take advantage of the Betty Crocker potatoes deal. This is what I hauled away with:
Not too bad for $4 altogether! I got a $4.59 rebate check from Theraflu so that worked out well! I saved $7.97 so that makes a savings of 66%.
My stockpile of Betty Crocker potatoes grows. *insert evil laugh*
I also played coupon fairy and gave some coupons to people looking at the potatoes and the Dixie plates. Not like I need any more potatoes!
Edit: Thanks Pubbler for reminding me! I had this in TWO transactions so the Betty Crocker Q's would double. :)
Not too bad for $4 altogether! I got a $4.59 rebate check from Theraflu so that worked out well! I saved $7.97 so that makes a savings of 66%.My stockpile of Betty Crocker potatoes grows. *insert evil laugh*
I also played coupon fairy and gave some coupons to people looking at the potatoes and the Dixie plates. Not like I need any more potatoes!
Edit: Thanks Pubbler for reminding me! I had this in TWO transactions so the Betty Crocker Q's would double. :)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Meijer and Kroger
Today DH and I went to Meijer. Well, all we went to go for was the Coke and Pepsi ($1 2liters) and well, this is what we hauled out.
4 boxes of Betty Crocker (paid 50 cents or less for them)
5 2 liters of pepsi/coke products (The cokes I will be putting into coke rewards for coupons)
1 game for the DS for our friend (We used a $4 santa buck)
1 bag of doritos (dang we were hungry and they were $1.99... only 22 more cents higher than the rock bottom price I had seen them earlier)
4 cans of Del Monte tomatoes
2 cans of black beans (totally not on sale, but I love them anyways)
We paid $32 but $15 of that was the video game for our friend. So we would have paid $17 for the rest of the stuff, which isn't too bad considering. Meijer Good Deal alert! The betty crocker potatoes is $1 so head on down with your 35 cent off betty crocker potato Q's and get mashed potatoes for 30 cents!
We then went to Kroger and DH was like "Are you sure they're gonna have the tp in stock?" and I was like "They better! It's the weekend!"
So I went in, saw they had the Cottonelle TP I wanted, and left with the store paying me almost 70 cents to take the TP out!!
5 packages of Cottonelle TP
Had 4 Q's for 50 cents off, doubled to $1
Had shortcut to Cellfire for 50 cents off 1
Had shortcut to shortcuts.com Q for 50 cents off 1
Had a shortcuts.com 80 cents off your next order
Used a reusable bag
Thus them paying me to take the TP out! Amazing!
PS: it feels like -15 degrees outside according to weather.com. It's 7 degrees but factor in the wind chill and you get that BS. Awesome possum! *curls up more in her blanket*
4 boxes of Betty Crocker (paid 50 cents or less for them)
5 2 liters of pepsi/coke products (The cokes I will be putting into coke rewards for coupons)
1 game for the DS for our friend (We used a $4 santa buck)
1 bag of doritos (dang we were hungry and they were $1.99... only 22 more cents higher than the rock bottom price I had seen them earlier)
4 cans of Del Monte tomatoes
2 cans of black beans (totally not on sale, but I love them anyways)
We paid $32 but $15 of that was the video game for our friend. So we would have paid $17 for the rest of the stuff, which isn't too bad considering. Meijer Good Deal alert! The betty crocker potatoes is $1 so head on down with your 35 cent off betty crocker potato Q's and get mashed potatoes for 30 cents!
We then went to Kroger and DH was like "Are you sure they're gonna have the tp in stock?" and I was like "They better! It's the weekend!"
So I went in, saw they had the Cottonelle TP I wanted, and left with the store paying me almost 70 cents to take the TP out!!
5 packages of Cottonelle TP
Had 4 Q's for 50 cents off, doubled to $1
Had shortcut to Cellfire for 50 cents off 1
Had shortcut to shortcuts.com Q for 50 cents off 1
Had a shortcuts.com 80 cents off your next order
Used a reusable bag
Thus them paying me to take the TP out! Amazing!
PS: it feels like -15 degrees outside according to weather.com. It's 7 degrees but factor in the wind chill and you get that BS. Awesome possum! *curls up more in her blanket*
Saturday, December 20, 2008
CVS - at midnight
Just got back from CVS! My poor hubby had to dig us out, we got stuck at the end of our driveway because they decided to plow our roads. Nice to have the road plowed! Bad to have big snowpiles at the end of our driveway. He even shoveled that before we left so it wouldn't happen. Oh well!
Overall, we spent $8. I didn't want to deal with doing multiple transactions cause the store was actually busy. Would have saved more too, gosh darn it, but polite lil' ol' me decided "whatev" and did everything in one big ol' transaction.
Overall, we spent $8. I didn't want to deal with doing multiple transactions cause the store was actually busy. Would have saved more too, gosh darn it, but polite lil' ol' me decided "whatev" and did everything in one big ol' transaction.
Altogether we got 2 listerines, 2 halls, 1 shampoo, 1 tape for gift wrapping, 1 box of excederin, 1 box of crest toothpaste, 1 bottle of crest mouthwash, and the Arm and Hammer cleaning kit. Yes we have more than one card. Many couples at the CVS had more than one card, so I didn't feel so bad.
Overall: $8 more or less spent. Got $19.15 back in ECB's. Not bad, but could have been better. I need to learn not to be so darn polite! Mwahaha!
I love cats
And I love Christmas. So in following with frugalsuz's post about her cats, I found this really cute cat picture. I call Santa Clause Santa Cats to my kitties, but I am thinking of changing it to Santy paws. Just cause of this picture.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Stockpile Pictures
Well, I'm stuck at home so while lunch was heating up I grabbed the camera and got adventurous.
I decided to take pictures of my stockpile. It's small, so bare with me. Hubby has the mindset that if we aren't going to use it right away we don't need it. He was like that when the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips were on sale for a really good price at Kroger during their Mega Event and I wanted to get some. Of course, that event has long since gone, but the other day he grabs two of the bags and goes "Hey, these are on sale!" .... for $2.50 a piece. I could have smacked him over the head. Anyways! Onto the stockpile pictures!
This is our random top shelf. Random stuff is put up here.
Bigger shot of the pantry. You can see my baking goods and some boxed foods. We have more than just 1 box of betty crocker potatoes. We have about 6 more boxes behind that one you see there.
This is one of the shelves in my pantry. We used to have 6 jars of Ragu, but DH and I eat pasta a lot. We also used to have about 6 bottles of Heinz Ketchup. We love the stuff! And it's lasted us since May!
My small but growing stockpile of toilet paper. Kroger was out of these this week! I was so mad! I only wanted to get 5 of them.
Leave some for the rest of us! *angryface* Or that Kroger needs to restock. They had full shelves the day before that awesome Cottonelle Q came out. I'm inclined to think someone wiped them out. :(
More of my stockpile stuff. Most of that is Windex sprays, glade, and dawn dish soap.
The windex was my first stockpile ever! That was back in... March?
Whew, maybe I went overboard with the glade huh? Nah!
If you were to peek underneath one section of my bathroom sink, this is what you would see. I want eventually to move the TP over to the other section, but I currently have my hairdryers in that section and until I figure out what to do with them, this is all the stockpile I have underneath.
Contact solution, soap, 8 boxes of toothpaste, 1 large tube of toothpaste, two trial sizes of toothpaste, 4 trial sizes of crest mouthwash, 1 bottle of listerine, 1 bottle of crest, 2 bottles of Listerine SmartAgent. 4 bottles of Shampoo, a bunch of deoderant, a lot of razors.
My small but growing stockpile of laundry detergent in the basement.
And there you go. Like I said, nothing amazing but keep checking back. I'm working on it!
I decided to take pictures of my stockpile. It's small, so bare with me. Hubby has the mindset that if we aren't going to use it right away we don't need it. He was like that when the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips were on sale for a really good price at Kroger during their Mega Event and I wanted to get some. Of course, that event has long since gone, but the other day he grabs two of the bags and goes "Hey, these are on sale!" .... for $2.50 a piece. I could have smacked him over the head. Anyways! Onto the stockpile pictures!
This is our random top shelf. Random stuff is put up here.
Bigger shot of the pantry. You can see my baking goods and some boxed foods. We have more than just 1 box of betty crocker potatoes. We have about 6 more boxes behind that one you see there.
This is one of the shelves in my pantry. We used to have 6 jars of Ragu, but DH and I eat pasta a lot. We also used to have about 6 bottles of Heinz Ketchup. We love the stuff! And it's lasted us since May!
My small but growing stockpile of toilet paper. Kroger was out of these this week! I was so mad! I only wanted to get 5 of them.
Leave some for the rest of us! *angryface* Or that Kroger needs to restock. They had full shelves the day before that awesome Cottonelle Q came out. I'm inclined to think someone wiped them out. :(
More of my stockpile stuff. Most of that is Windex sprays, glade, and dawn dish soap.
The windex was my first stockpile ever! That was back in... March?
Whew, maybe I went overboard with the glade huh? Nah!
If you were to peek underneath one section of my bathroom sink, this is what you would see. I want eventually to move the TP over to the other section, but I currently have my hairdryers in that section and until I figure out what to do with them, this is all the stockpile I have underneath.
Contact solution, soap, 8 boxes of toothpaste, 1 large tube of toothpaste, two trial sizes of toothpaste, 4 trial sizes of crest mouthwash, 1 bottle of listerine, 1 bottle of crest, 2 bottles of Listerine SmartAgent. 4 bottles of Shampoo, a bunch of deoderant, a lot of razors.
My small but growing stockpile of laundry detergent in the basement.
And there you go. Like I said, nothing amazing but keep checking back. I'm working on it!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
December was a bad month
to start a spending challenge.
Total spent so far on everything:
Groceries: $37.20
Restaurants: $205.10
Random(CVS, Sav-Mor, target etc): $333.11
And the Random is why this month was bad to do a spending challenge. Christmas. The bane of my existence! I didn't think we'd spend this much, but we had $100 to spend on our "secret people" for xmas, and well... I kinda went overboard with hubby's gifts... $160... but he wanted only a few things so I got him one out of it all...
Of course, it happened to be the most expensive out of his list.
I'll restart this challenge in January. Hopefully that's a better month to do it.
Total spent so far on everything:
Groceries: $37.20
Restaurants: $205.10
Random(CVS, Sav-Mor, target etc): $333.11
And the Random is why this month was bad to do a spending challenge. Christmas. The bane of my existence! I didn't think we'd spend this much, but we had $100 to spend on our "secret people" for xmas, and well... I kinda went overboard with hubby's gifts... $160... but he wanted only a few things so I got him one out of it all...
Of course, it happened to be the most expensive out of his list.
I'll restart this challenge in January. Hopefully that's a better month to do it.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
CVS
Today I went to CVS to kill time with my hubby before heading to Applebee's for 1/2 off appetizers.
We got the following:
$1.60 1 2liter of pepsi max
$5.99 1 tube of wrapping paper
$1.99 1 package of name tag peelie things
$2.99 1 roll of wrapping ribbon
$5.98 2 packages of 4 pack duracell batteries
$7.99 1 tube of Maybelline Lipstick
FREE 1 tube of Maybelline Lipstick (BOGO)
$3.99 1 tube of Maybelline Lipstick
-------------
$30.53 (not including tax)
-$3.00 (3/10 holiday wrapping Q)
-$5.00 (duracell tearpad)
-$5.00 (ECB that was going to expire)
-$12.00 (3 $4.00 off Maybelline Q's)
-$2.00 (2 $1.00 off Duracell Q's)
-----------
$3.53
OOP w/ tax $4.49
Hubby seemed impressed!
We got the following:
$1.60 1 2liter of pepsi max
$5.99 1 tube of wrapping paper
$1.99 1 package of name tag peelie things
$2.99 1 roll of wrapping ribbon
$5.98 2 packages of 4 pack duracell batteries
$7.99 1 tube of Maybelline Lipstick
FREE 1 tube of Maybelline Lipstick (BOGO)
$3.99 1 tube of Maybelline Lipstick
-------------
$30.53 (not including tax)
-$3.00 (3/10 holiday wrapping Q)
-$5.00 (duracell tearpad)
-$5.00 (ECB that was going to expire)
-$12.00 (3 $4.00 off Maybelline Q's)
-$2.00 (2 $1.00 off Duracell Q's)
-----------
$3.53
OOP w/ tax $4.49
Hubby seemed impressed!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Kroger - Yesterday and Today
Yesterday hubby and I went to Kroger (after spending $22 on dog food for our sensitive skinned pup...)
OOP: $29.98
Saved: $31.45
Received: $1.50 oyno cats
This is what we got:
2 Arm & hammer detergents (51 loads apiece)
2 parkay spreads
2 daisy sour creams
3 cottonelle 4 packs single roll tp
4 banquet pot pies
2 crescent pillsbury rolls
2 cans of kroger corn
1 box of sunbelt coconut cookies (yuck)
1 box of betty crocker brownie mix
1 box of pasta roni
1 small bag of flour
2 boxes of jif muffin mix
1 package of kroger bagels
1 greeting card
2 bags of kroger tortilla chips
1 loaf of kroger white bread
3 packages of yeast (flesich...something or other)
---------------------
32 items
The math makes it to mean we paid 98 cents per item. And the yeast gave us 3 50 cent oyno cats, which I will use tomorrow to buy the paper with.
Missed out on CVS deals this week but there will always be another deal.
Today I went to Kroger and got 3 sunday papers for the 3 inserts in them (P&G, Redplum, Smartsource). They were $1 a piece (Kroger discounts them here for some reason).
Well, I made sure all the papers had the inserts in them, then I went into the checkout line. I had a reusable bag. The order went like this:
3.00 x 3 (Newspapers)
-.50 (fleischmann's catalina)
-.50 (doubled)
-.50 (fleischmann's catalina)
-.50 (doubled)
-.50 (fleischmann's catalina)
-.50 (doubled)
-.05 cents (bag discount)
--------------
-.05
They paid me to take out the newspapers.
Best part is the cashier looked at the screen all shocked "Wow.... good deal.... I didn't know those were supposed to double..." she hands me back 5 cents, still looking at the receipt all puzzled. I feigned surprise and went "Oh! hmm..."
and fake pondered my way out the door.
Then I danced to my car and called my mom to brag. Free coupons for me!
OOP: $29.98
Saved: $31.45
Received: $1.50 oyno cats
This is what we got:
2 Arm & hammer detergents (51 loads apiece)
2 parkay spreads
2 daisy sour creams
3 cottonelle 4 packs single roll tp
4 banquet pot pies
2 crescent pillsbury rolls
2 cans of kroger corn
1 box of sunbelt coconut cookies (yuck)
1 box of betty crocker brownie mix
1 box of pasta roni
1 small bag of flour
2 boxes of jif muffin mix
1 package of kroger bagels
1 greeting card
2 bags of kroger tortilla chips
1 loaf of kroger white bread
3 packages of yeast (flesich...something or other)
---------------------
32 items
The math makes it to mean we paid 98 cents per item. And the yeast gave us 3 50 cent oyno cats, which I will use tomorrow to buy the paper with.
Missed out on CVS deals this week but there will always be another deal.
Today I went to Kroger and got 3 sunday papers for the 3 inserts in them (P&G, Redplum, Smartsource). They were $1 a piece (Kroger discounts them here for some reason).
Well, I made sure all the papers had the inserts in them, then I went into the checkout line. I had a reusable bag. The order went like this:
3.00 x 3 (Newspapers)
-.50 (fleischmann's catalina)
-.50 (doubled)
-.50 (fleischmann's catalina)
-.50 (doubled)
-.50 (fleischmann's catalina)
-.50 (doubled)
-.05 cents (bag discount)
--------------
-.05
They paid me to take out the newspapers.
Best part is the cashier looked at the screen all shocked "Wow.... good deal.... I didn't know those were supposed to double..." she hands me back 5 cents, still looking at the receipt all puzzled. I feigned surprise and went "Oh! hmm..."
and fake pondered my way out the door.
Then I danced to my car and called my mom to brag. Free coupons for me!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
63 degrees
So Hubby and I decided that our heating bill is just too high and to counter this we decided to lower our thermostat this year. We usually have it around 70-72 in the winter. Not so this year! We have it on 63.
Our house has a basement and well... guess where our computers are. We live, eat, breathe down here and it's probably not too good of us to spend so much time in the basement, but after a year of not using it (we finally finished the ceiling last spring) we are enjoying being down here. It was like a whole part of the half that just wasn't being used! So it's nice to finally use ALL our house. Anyways, it's the basement. And we all know that there is just 1 fundamental truth about basements (well... most basements)....
they're colder than the rest of the house.
I've been bundled up down here with a coat, scarf, my gloves, my fuzzy slippers (socks are worn as well) and sometimes I even put on my fuzzy 1 piece pajama (you know the kind... the kind that little kids wear with the footsies attached and all? Yeah, I used to wear it as a kid and now I have an adult one)
It gets COLD down here. I would posit (Fringe is rubbing off on me) that it drops a good 5 degrees from upstairs to down here. So our basement could be anywhere from 50-60 degrees how it is now.
Well, today I finally didn't feel like my toes/fingers/whatever were freezing off. Maybe I'm catching something... or maybe it's the fact that instead of being 19 degrees outside (like it has been for the past two weeks) it was 38 and that is definitely warmer than 19. I'm glad that I don't have to wear my 3 layers of pants (yay for longjohns!) and I'm glad to be saving money.
Last month's bill was about 5 dollars cheaper than it was last year. I can't wait to see how much cheaper this month's bill is going to be. (At least I hope it's cheaper!)
Our house has a basement and well... guess where our computers are. We live, eat, breathe down here and it's probably not too good of us to spend so much time in the basement, but after a year of not using it (we finally finished the ceiling last spring) we are enjoying being down here. It was like a whole part of the half that just wasn't being used! So it's nice to finally use ALL our house. Anyways, it's the basement. And we all know that there is just 1 fundamental truth about basements (well... most basements)....
they're colder than the rest of the house.
I've been bundled up down here with a coat, scarf, my gloves, my fuzzy slippers (socks are worn as well) and sometimes I even put on my fuzzy 1 piece pajama (you know the kind... the kind that little kids wear with the footsies attached and all? Yeah, I used to wear it as a kid and now I have an adult one)
It gets COLD down here. I would posit (Fringe is rubbing off on me) that it drops a good 5 degrees from upstairs to down here. So our basement could be anywhere from 50-60 degrees how it is now.
Well, today I finally didn't feel like my toes/fingers/whatever were freezing off. Maybe I'm catching something... or maybe it's the fact that instead of being 19 degrees outside (like it has been for the past two weeks) it was 38 and that is definitely warmer than 19. I'm glad that I don't have to wear my 3 layers of pants (yay for longjohns!) and I'm glad to be saving money.
Last month's bill was about 5 dollars cheaper than it was last year. I can't wait to see how much cheaper this month's bill is going to be. (At least I hope it's cheaper!)
Monday, December 8, 2008
First Post
Unique title, I know. Anyways, I decided to make this blog for my peeps on the WIR Grocery Challenge Board. Aroooo to my fellow hounds!
After having a hiatus from hounding for a couple of months, I came back (and with a vengence too)
I decided to start doing this crazy little thing called saving money and hit up my local CVS stores and my local Kroger.
Through the past several weeks, I have been able to get good deals and not such good deals. Because I am technically starting this blog well after coming back to couponing, I am going to backlog some posts (if I can). Unfortunately most of my posts will be sans pictures unless this is a major brag and I want to completely rub it into people's faces how awesome I am. (This will not happen often let me assure you).
So thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my "First Post". I hope I don't disappoint.
After having a hiatus from hounding for a couple of months, I came back (and with a vengence too)
I decided to start doing this crazy little thing called saving money and hit up my local CVS stores and my local Kroger.
Through the past several weeks, I have been able to get good deals and not such good deals. Because I am technically starting this blog well after coming back to couponing, I am going to backlog some posts (if I can). Unfortunately most of my posts will be sans pictures unless this is a major brag and I want to completely rub it into people's faces how awesome I am. (This will not happen often let me assure you).
So thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my "First Post". I hope I don't disappoint.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
My personal goals
Hubby and I are trying this month to limit our eating out. This is the plan he made:
For each paycheck we will be allowed to have 2 at-work meals and 2 eating together meals. That means 4 at-work meals altogether and 2 eating together meals = 6 meals total.
October we spent $230 eating out... but in November we spent about $330 eating out. November was what made us go "okay this is ridiculous". This month we have spent $60 so far eating out. If we spend another $60 for the next pay period, we should be able to spend only $120. I'm tempted to just take out $60 on Friday, divide it into half for hubby and I, and be like "Ok, this is our eating out money for this week." If we stick to $120 this month, that will mean eating out has been cut by at least half.
Oh, and I am happy to cook more if it means that the temperature of the house gets raised by 8 degrees since I'm getting into the habit of opening the oven after cooking to let the leftover heat go into the air.
My challenge to myself? Spend only $220 on everything from stores. This includes groceries and cvs and whatever random shopping urge that comes over me. This includes eating out (Gifts and gas for driving are already budgeted so don't have to worry about those!)
I spent $7.22 this morning for milk, pepsi max, and newspapers. Saved $2.93
Shopping: $7.22
Eating out so far: $60
Spent Overall: $67.22
Saved: $2.93
Money Left: $152.78
For each paycheck we will be allowed to have 2 at-work meals and 2 eating together meals. That means 4 at-work meals altogether and 2 eating together meals = 6 meals total.
October we spent $230 eating out... but in November we spent about $330 eating out. November was what made us go "okay this is ridiculous". This month we have spent $60 so far eating out. If we spend another $60 for the next pay period, we should be able to spend only $120. I'm tempted to just take out $60 on Friday, divide it into half for hubby and I, and be like "Ok, this is our eating out money for this week." If we stick to $120 this month, that will mean eating out has been cut by at least half.
Oh, and I am happy to cook more if it means that the temperature of the house gets raised by 8 degrees since I'm getting into the habit of opening the oven after cooking to let the leftover heat go into the air.
My challenge to myself? Spend only $220 on everything from stores. This includes groceries and cvs and whatever random shopping urge that comes over me. This includes eating out (Gifts and gas for driving are already budgeted so don't have to worry about those!)
I spent $7.22 this morning for milk, pepsi max, and newspapers. Saved $2.93
Shopping: $7.22
Eating out so far: $60
Spent Overall: $67.22
Saved: $2.93
Money Left: $152.78
The weekend = pretty boring
This morning all I could think about was going to the store to get extra inserts... so I did. I woke up at 9 and hustled over to the store and picked up 2 papers for me, a gallon of milk, and 2 2liters of pepsi max for the hubby. It came out to $7.22 and I saved like $1.93 so it came out to 21% savings with my kroger card.
So this weekend, all we spent was $7.22 and saved $1.93 and that's it.
So this weekend, all we spent was $7.22 and saved $1.93 and that's it.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Week in Review
So, ok. I know I haven't been doing the most awesome by any stretch of the imagination at doing this whole "saving money" deal, but this is how this week went in terms of saving (if we didn't have store cards or doubling Q's):
kmart: paid 25.70 would have paid 42.70
kroger: paid 55.17, would have paid 86.93
cvs: paid 7.53 would have paid 9.99
cvs: paid .86 would have paid 36.48
cvs: paid 3.35 would have paid 9.98
cvs: paid 00 would have paid 13.97
kroger: paid 4.67 would have paid 12.54
overall paid: 97.28 would have paid 212.59
54% savings so far this week. Meh.
I still have $36.98 in ecb's though.
I can do better.
kmart: paid 25.70 would have paid 42.70
kroger: paid 55.17, would have paid 86.93
cvs: paid 7.53 would have paid 9.99
cvs: paid .86 would have paid 36.48
cvs: paid 3.35 would have paid 9.98
cvs: paid 00 would have paid 13.97
kroger: paid 4.67 would have paid 12.54
overall paid: 97.28 would have paid 212.59
54% savings so far this week. Meh.
I still have $36.98 in ecb's though.
I can do better.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
www.restaurant.com
So today I was off of work. I was browsing HCW like the addict I am and saw someone had posted in the restaurant printable forumy part. I don't know what the forum is called, it's the forum where you can print off restaurant coupons. Anyways, there was a thread about Restaurant.com - Deals on neighborhood restaurants. $25 Restaurant Certificates for only $10! and how you can save 80% (that was back in October when the 80% was going on). I went and found a restaurant that hubby and I like to go to and put in that I wanted 4 $25 gift cards. They have this promotional now that $25 gift cards cost $10. I heard from another HCW member that the new code to get an extra 50% off is JOY so I entered it in and I could get $100 worth of gift cards to this restaurant for only $40 and once I entered in the code JOY it was now $20.
Not to be outdone, I asked my husband if his work had any associate discounts to restaurant.com because I had remembered they did. His associate discount made the total $12.
So we got $100 worth of gift cards for $12 to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants in town. Hubby was really pleased!
I <3 HCW
Not to be outdone, I asked my husband if his work had any associate discounts to restaurant.com because I had remembered they did. His associate discount made the total $12.
So we got $100 worth of gift cards for $12 to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants in town. Hubby was really pleased!
I <3 HCW
CVS again
I got that 5/15 so I decided to go back and use it.
I got
4 cans of ragu pasta sauce
2 bottles of Dawn ultra dishsoap
3 shick razors (travel size)
1 Gillette Venus razor
1 Gillette Fusion razor
1 CVS reusable bag (I needed something to cover the overage I guess!)
$1 donation to St. Jude (another something to cover the overage)
-------------
$28.71
-15 (ecb's)
-5 (5 offa 15)
-4 (fusion Q)
-2.97 (shick any Q's)
-1.00 (ragu Q's
---------------------
.74 cents
tax: 12 cents
OOP: 86 cents
Got $5 in ECB's back.
Not too shabby. I wanted to get rid of the $15 ecb since it'd expire in like 2 weeks with nothing good to use it on. Plus we can always use more dishsoap, razors, and pasta sauce!
I got
4 cans of ragu pasta sauce
2 bottles of Dawn ultra dishsoap
3 shick razors (travel size)
1 Gillette Venus razor
1 Gillette Fusion razor
1 CVS reusable bag (I needed something to cover the overage I guess!)
$1 donation to St. Jude (another something to cover the overage)
-------------
$28.71
-15 (ecb's)
-5 (5 offa 15)
-4 (fusion Q)
-2.97 (shick any Q's)
-1.00 (ragu Q's
---------------------
.74 cents
tax: 12 cents
OOP: 86 cents
Got $5 in ECB's back.
Not too shabby. I wanted to get rid of the $15 ecb since it'd expire in like 2 weeks with nothing good to use it on. Plus we can always use more dishsoap, razors, and pasta sauce!
CVS
Went to CVS today to see if they had Dawn and the contact solution that I use for my eyes. They did! They only had 2 packages of the contact solution left, so I totally lucked out!
2 bottles of dawn
1 trial size package of ladies razors
2 bottles of contact solution
-------------
$3.35 OOP
Spent 12.99 in ECB's to pay for it, had $5.20 worth of coupons, got $17.98 ECB's back... Not too bad.
I also got the 5/15 coupon at the end of my receipt and I have no clue what to get with it now I have gotten the contact solution. Any ideas?
I know I shoulda gotten the dawn first to see if the 5/15 would have printed THEN done the contact solution but I can't think so fast yet like that.
2 bottles of dawn
1 trial size package of ladies razors
2 bottles of contact solution
-------------
$3.35 OOP
Spent 12.99 in ECB's to pay for it, had $5.20 worth of coupons, got $17.98 ECB's back... Not too bad.
I also got the 5/15 coupon at the end of my receipt and I have no clue what to get with it now I have gotten the contact solution. Any ideas?
I know I shoulda gotten the dawn first to see if the 5/15 would have printed THEN done the contact solution but I can't think so fast yet like that.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Amused
The other day when I went to Kroger, I got only a few things and I saved more than I thought I would and was pretty pleased. As I was checking out, the cashier said to another cashier "check out this customer's coupon box. It's pretty cool!" and so the other cashier comes over and looks at it and starts talking about how she needs a new way to do her coupons.
I've been amused by it for a couple of days now and I just felt this urge to blog about it. It's pretty funny to have someone say my coupon box (a small caboodles makeup case) was cool!
I've been amused by it for a couple of days now and I just felt this urge to blog about it. It's pretty funny to have someone say my coupon box (a small caboodles makeup case) was cool!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Kroger
I went to Kroger and this is what I got:
2 cottonelle 4 packs of single roll tp
1 50 oz bottle of wisk detergent
1 half gallon egg nog
4 small boxes of frozen veggies
2 tubes of Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 lb of beef
1 box of instant oatmeal
1 loaf of bread
1 bag of hot dog buns
2 glade flameless candle starter kits
------------
55.17
-31.76 in Q's (manu and store)
---------
$23.41 for 16 items (58% savings)
and then I went to CVS to get some contact solution cause i'm out.
8.99 Complete Contact Solution
-2.00 internet Q
-----------
6.99 (7.53 OOP)
Got $9 in ECB's printed out. (so basically made $2 off this deal)
2 cottonelle 4 packs of single roll tp
1 50 oz bottle of wisk detergent
1 half gallon egg nog
4 small boxes of frozen veggies
2 tubes of Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 lb of beef
1 box of instant oatmeal
1 loaf of bread
1 bag of hot dog buns
2 glade flameless candle starter kits
------------
55.17
-31.76 in Q's (manu and store)
---------
$23.41 for 16 items (58% savings)
and then I went to CVS to get some contact solution cause i'm out.
8.99 Complete Contact Solution
-2.00 internet Q
-----------
6.99 (7.53 OOP)
Got $9 in ECB's printed out. (so basically made $2 off this deal)
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