Going coupon crazy - a journal about saving money

A couple of things

2009-07-11T13:12:00.001-07:00

If you have not already heard, 7-11 is giving away free slurpees today cause it is 7-eleven day. It is a 7.11 oz slurpee and it is pretty tasty! They'll be free until 11 pm

Arby's has a coupon out where you can get a free roastburger with a purchase of any size soft drink.

http://www.arbys.com/coupon/

This offer expires within 3 days of printing so if you print them out today, they will expire on the 14th of this month. I have already taken a part of this awesome deal twice (once yesterday and once today) and it makes for a pretty tasty deal!

Websites that help you save

2009-03-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so there are a lot of moneysaving tips online and it's hard to know who to go to. I tried looking at a lot of the coupon forums and I have to say, only one has been near and dear to me and has helped me save lots of money. Of course I'm talking about Hotcouponworld.com. I hate to pimp them out every chance I get, but it is run by really great people and they're only in it to help others save.

Here are some websites I'd recommend for newbies starting out to go to:

1. cellfire.com (load your Kroger card, or whatever grocery store card it lets you, into their system.)
2. eSAVER (same concept as cellfire.com, you load coupons on your store card)
3. shortcuts.com (same thing as the above two... you can also combine these q's w/ manu q's you cut!)
4. Hotcouponworld.com (Site that has a forum where people discuss saving money)
5. Any of the bloggers I read here on blogger.com

Ok, that's all I got today. :)

And thanks to Ashley (http://getgroceriesfree.com/blog/) for nominating me as a blog that shows gratitude!!

How I organize my coupons

2009-03-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so about 2 years ago I decided to be a couponer. My DH and I had ordered the paper out of pity from a middle school student who had been going door to door in frigid weather and we had past sunday papers piling up everywhere. I took all the inserts out and got my coupons together.

At first I did the binder method. I had bought baseball collector sheets ages ago for my class and I had about 50 of them left over. I put these in the binder and separated them with old dividers I had used in my college classes. I had them separated into different groups: Meat, Healthcare, Beauty, Boxed goods, Canned goods, Frozen goods, Dairy...

I then would put the coupons in the appropriate place and that was that. Well... that method and I didn't get along very well. It caused some serious downtime for DH and I when we went out because he'd be flipping through the binder, not really understanding how it was set up, and I'd get so aggravated with it that we'd end up coming home pretty angry about the whole experience.

So I ordered them by aisle... and that didn't work out too well either.

So I alphabetized them. Let me tell you, alphabetizing coupons into a coupon binder that was already in alphabetical order SUCKED so I gave up on that.

I then resorted to...the box.

Now, my box (haha) isn't big. It's a small clear caboodle box I had been using to store a bit of makeup I don't use. I threw away the makeup (since it was like 10 years old) and created dividers.

How I start out cutting and organizing my coupons is this. I put the inserts on the floor.

Then I separate the pages within the inserts.

Don't mind the cat. Then I carefully hold the stack and cut out the coupons at once. After I've done that page, I then file it into my box.

And I thought this ad for a coupon was pretty funny cause apparently gamers have different hairs than everyone else....

As explained in Penny Arcade's comic.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Hiatus

2009-03-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, my hiatus from this blogger and from me on HCW and the hounds on MSN is over and done with. I had to just chill out from couponing for a bit. It was getting to be overwhelming, so I just hung back and relaxed. I'm back now though, so expect more posts in the future! :)

Surveys that pay - Hotcouponworld shows 19 sites that pay

2009-02-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

So many of you know that I am a big fan of Hotcouponworld. They've compiled 19 sites that pay money and are legit. It's a real easy way to make a few bucks on the side!

It is recommended that if you decide to do surveys, make a seperate email like couponcrazysurvey@gmail.com or something like that.

Want to learn more? Click here to go to the site!

Kroger run!

2009-02-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

I went to Kroger today with DH and tried to unload quite a few coupons. Of course, DH is of the sane mind saying "This will go bad before we can even eat it" and I'm of the "let's get as many things as cheap as we can!" mind. It can be quite a conflict so needless to say, we didn't get as many things as I had thought we might get but DH was really nice and we did quite a few things for pretty cheap (compared to what we were spending before). Anyways, here's the booty:

4 boxes of Cheerios cereals
1 gallon of nonfat skim milk
12 chef boyardee canned pastas
1 box whole wheat pasta
1 head of lettuce
2 green bell peppers
1 thinger of celery (a stalk? I dunno, it's celery lol!)
2 newspapers
2 progresso black bean cans
1 Kroger ranch salad dressing bottle
1 loaf of kroger bread
1 package of kroger hotdog buns
3 john morrell hot dog packages
3 john morrel sausage packages
2 bags of kroger frozen chicken tenderloins
4 boxes of betty crocker fruit snacks
3 Pillsbury Grands! biscuits
1 can del monte tomatoes
2 Marquez bean and cheese burritos
1 can kroger kidney beans
1 package of kroger bacon
1 box of Imperial Butter
------------------------------------
$122.37
- $69.04 in store coupons and manufacturer coupons
------------------
$53.33

saved 56%. Hey, reached my goal: to save over 50%!

Got a catalina: save $2.50 off of your next order courtesy of General Mills

Organic Grocery Deals!

2009-02-08T07:22:00.000-08:00

I know that some of my followers like to eat organic and it is hard to go green on a budget. I present to you a forum that may help you find those deals you are looking for.

Organic Grocery Deals is the kind of forum that will help you sniff out those good organic/green deals! What does this forum include? Here's the list!

gardening

eating in season

organic and natural product information

coupon trading

green living tips

book recommendations

organic news

deals
... and more!

All you have to do is click here to go to Organic Grocery Deals and sign up! I already did as and I'm having a great time since I do plan to do some more gardening this year and to eat healthier.

How I feel about the economy....

2009-02-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, this whole economy-is-getting-worse thing needs to end. I am not impressed with the leaders of our nation on how they are handling this. I'm certain that this whole thing is much harder than I am perceiving it to be, but let's get real here folks: giving tax-payer money to corrupt wall-street frauds is not the way to help out an entire nation who is struggling to keep their jobs/put food on the table/keep a roof over their heads/keep the heat slash water slash electricity on. I just get so annoyed with how everything has been handled that it makes me want to go straight down to Washington and picket... but I won't. Mainly because I can't afford to.

So what can I do to help make ends meet? I already don't take yearly vacations. I don't have enough goods to really make enough money in a garage sale. I don't even eat out that often anymore. (Does three times a month equal to eating out too much? I really hope not...)

The way I do this is to coupon. I may not be really good at it yet, but I'll get there. I can take pride in knowing that we got $100 worth of groceries for only $55 (and that's not even as good as many of you following me can do! I know you guys can do better too!).

I just hope that those out there don't fall into too much despair over how crappy the economy is. It's a bleak time we're living in, but as long as we have friends and/or family to keep us smiling there's always hope for a better future.

What have you guys done to help make ends meet?

PS. I hope to take pictures of my coupon box either tomorrow or Saturday. I know I love looking at other people's coupon holders, so I hope that entry will be entertaining for you guys. :)

Hotcouponworld Valentine's Day Contest - Get a gift from your wishlist

2009-02-04T03:17:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. I have been making changes to my blog and it's been slow going because like I said in my last post, I have trouble focusing. I'll try to keep this post pretty short and focused hehe!

One of the sites I use is Hotcouponworld.com and I love love love going there to check out the deals. Last winter, they had a giveaway contest and the person who won got to get a gift basically from their choosing. Awesome, right?? Well, they're doing it again!

This time they are having a Valentine's Day Contest. Here's the gist of it.

First, if you are not a member of Hotcouponworld, I highly suggest you register to become a member. These contests are fun and the forum is a great resource for couponers and deal seekers!

Second, click here to go to the thread about the contest!

Want to know the details before doing anything? I'll just copy it here so you can get the idea before registering to enter the contest. (Though I do suggest registering just for the amazing resource that website is!)

Contest Dates: Today - Feb. 13, 2009 (12 midnight pacific time)
Details: This is going to run just like our Christmas giveaway, but with one caveat - the gift really needs to be something for you. We know you all scrimp, save, and devise ways to make sure that those in your family are taken care of. So this is the contest for the members who are always thinking of their families first and go with holes in the nightgowns or are carrying a purse with a broken strap. We really want YOU to be our Valentine.

And, we're going to spread the love so instead of one person with a grand prize, we'll break the prize money into five $50 gifts.

So, go to the "SHOP" tab on the menu, search for the gift(s) you would like for Valentine's day and link the page with the gift(s) you'd like back here so we can see what you're hankering for. You should post the page that looks like this page HERE to be entered in correctly.And if you've got a funny story or some reason why we really must pick you to be our Valentine, then post it!Fine print details of the contest....You must have your Valentine's Day gift posted no later than 2/13 at 12 midnight Pacific Standard Time. You've got a $50 budget for your gift (but if you go over +/- a few bucks, no big deal - we'll still consider it if something you want is $52.99 kind of thing.

You can only enter once. You can tell your friends and have them join and enter too - this contest is for newbies and oldtimers alike.

We will pick and post the winners and get the gifts bought and shipped right away, so you'll know on Valentine's Day that they're coming - you just won't have them on Valentine's Day proper.

Other Information: I just wanted to add that shipping is NOT included in the $50! Hotcouponworld will cover the shipping. If you'd like to know more, feel free to comment here with your question. I'll be happy to answer it for you!!

Ok, so that's all. I hope everyone has a great hump day!

Ok I'm back!

2009-02-03T13:31:00.001-08:00

Man, I know it's been a while since I've posted here. I've been busy for the past couple of weeks and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that couponing kinda took a back burner there. In fact, I even let some of my CVS ECB's expire. O.o

So I'm back at it now that things are going smoothly again. What can you expect from me, as a blogger, this month?

Posts about:

how I got started into couponing
what I do to get my coupons organized
my savings per month (will be posted monthly)
other things that involve saving money

I'm not the best at it just so you are aware of this right off the bat. But at least I try. And I'm really commited to helping others save money too. (Ask my mother.. she doesn't understand why I bring my coupon box everywhere I go but she was totally excited when I brought it down to Kentucky while visiting and saved her 48% on her grocery bill)

Ok, that's all I got. I think almost every journal entry should have a picture. I'm nonfocused like that, so I present to you... my Andi Kat.

She likes sitting on top of my newspapers and other misc. crap that I have on my desk. Man, I need to clean it.

2009-01-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, watching "The Happening" and this was the best scene in the movie imo (like.. the only good scene) and it totally reminded me of couponing... and what it would be like if Mark Walhberg and Zooey D. were couponers like us.

Mark Wahlberg: "Look if we're gonna die I want you to know something. I went to the pharmacy awhile ago and there was a really good looking pharmacist behind the counter. Really good Looking. And I went up and asked where the cough syrup was. I didn't even have a cough. And I almost bought it. And I'm talking about a completely superfluous bottle of cough syrup. Psch, that's like 6 bucks."
Zooey D: "Are you joking?"
Mark: *nod*
Zooey: "Thank you."

New Year, New You?? Please don't pressure me!

2009-01-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time. It's the start of a new year and that slogan "New Year, New You!" keeps getting repeated everywhere a person can turn. On the tv, on the internet, in your mailbox (thanks fitness magazine!) and pretty much everywhere a person can go.

My resolution? To put aside half of my paychecks a month towards savings. We have NO emergency fund since it got wiped out last year thanks to our mortgage company. It's a very scary feeling. So that's mine. That and lose 20-30 pounds. (Sorry! Couldn't resist!)

So with that in mind, off I go searching for some subbing jobs. I am also applying to a few jobs that popped up. Please pray for me! It would be amazing to get a band job!

Shortpacked.com

2008-12-29T20:48:00.001-08:00

Kroger/CVS

2008-12-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

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.

CVS'ing

2008-12-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

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.

Ok, my website

2008-12-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

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!

I'm having a good hair day

2008-12-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

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.

A lazy day

2008-12-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

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!

CVS and Kroger

2008-12-22T17:47:00.000-08:00

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. :)

Meijer run!

2008-12-22T13:05:00.001-08:00

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. :)

Meijer and Kroger

2008-12-21T11:45:00.001-08:00

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*

CVS - at midnight

2008-12-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2008-12-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Stockpile Pictures

2008-12-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

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!

December was a bad month

2008-12-17T17:17:00.001-08:00

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.

CVS

2008-12-16T19:24:00.001-08:00

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!

Kroger - Yesterday and Today

2008-12-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

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!

63 degrees

2008-12-09T20:18:00.001-08:00

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!)

First Post

2008-12-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

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.

My personal goals

2008-12-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

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

The weekend = pretty boring

2008-12-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

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.

Week in Review

2008-12-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

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.

www.restaurant.com

2008-12-03T17:34:00.002-08:00

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

CVS again

2008-12-03T17:34:00.001-08:00

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!

CVS

2008-12-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

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.

Amused

2008-12-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

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!

Kroger

2008-12-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

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)

Kroger and CVS

2008-11-30T17:32:00.001-08:00

Kmart

2008-11-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

All kmarts are having super doubles! Coupons up to $2 are doubled. This does not include internet printables.

I got the following:

3 Glade scented oil candles
1 box of Hefty trash bags
2 suave deoderants
2 suave hair shampoo
1 box of cotton swabs
---------
$25.00

I would have done better but no coupons for the cotton swabs and the hefty bags were really pricey. :-/ We needed these things and they had NO cheaper/smaller sizes for the hefty bags. I was pretty disappointed.

I saved $17 by using coupons. Saved 40% on my receipt. Not really good, but whatever. Kmart is pretty pricey compared to other stores!

Why am I a noob sometimes? Oh cause I am!

2008-11-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

So I went to CVS to get eye solution and OF COURSE they're out. I'm out of town so I'll check the CVS at home and see if they have it but if they don't I'll get some rainchecks (and hopefully they'd be "free"!)

So instead of that I got the following

$3.98 (4 2-liters of pepsi max)
$0.99 (J & J first aid)
$8.99 (maybelline foundation)
---------------
$13.96
-3.00 (maybelline Q)
-0.99 (first aid cvs Q)
-5.00 (ecb)
---------------
$4.97 (5.50 w/ tax)

OOP: $5.50
ECB's used: $5.00
ECB back:$8.99

So I could have used a $4 ecb to help pay but I was too flustered to think rationally. I hate my brain! Who knows. WHATEVER. I'll just use it later.

So I got the foundation for my friend because I don't use it, and she sometimes uses it.

So it could have been better. I'm kicking myself for not using that stupid ecb. ARGH!

Oh well, I learned.

I'm just kicking myself still.

Checkin' out the Deals

2008-11-21T17:31:00.000-08:00

So today I got bored after work and went driving around. I first stopped at CVS and got:

$11.78 2 bottles of Listerine Agent Cool Blue
$0.99 1 trial size Johnson and Johnson First Aid Kit
-----
$12.77
-4.90 (raincheck listerine)
-4.90 (raincheck listerine)
-1.00 (listerine cvs Q)
-1.00 (kit cvs Q)
--------
.97 (1.03 including tax)

OOP: 1.03
Saved: 11.80

Then I went to Walgreens to check it out. I don't really like their store. I dunno what it is. Something about it gives me the heebie jeebies. Maybe I'll have to go back there later w/ hubby and see if I still get that feeling.

But anyways, I got:

$1.50 1 tin of French's dried onion things
-----------
$1.50
-.21 (Wag's Q)
-.50 (Manu Q)
------------
.79 cents

OOP: .79 cents
Saved: .71 cents

I won't complain about that! And I get to make my green bean casserole for Thanksgiving. Hubby hates green beans so it will be all for me! AWESOME! Leftovers!

Kroger / CVS

2008-11-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

Went to Kroger today. Got $70 worth of food for $30. Had $15 in Q's alone and saved $24.06 just using my card alone. I'm pretty excited about it. 57% saved on our order and hubby was pretty happy. He turned to me and said, in front of the cashier, "Hm yeah, $30 is what you wanted to spend right honey?" (Turkey deal was spend $30 get the .59/lb off... too anxious to get a good turkey then wait one more week for the chance something could be cheaper)

hahaa, yeah! Would have been nice if it was lower, but I'm not complaining! I think he realized that we could have gotten $30 worth of stuff - all those Q's and still get the turkey, but he was pretty pumped about saving 57% in total.

Here's the booty from Kroger:

4 boxes of stove top
1 14 lb turkey
4 marquez frozen burritos
1 box of saltines
2 cans of pumpkin mix
1 box jello pudding
2 green giant cheese, broccoli, and rice frozen packs
1 box of frozen texas toast
1 can of heinz gravy
1 bag of texas toast croutons
2 small packages of Philadelphia cream cheese
1 box of nice n cheesy (kroger's version of velveeta)
1 tub of cool whip
1 tube of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls
1 package of Private Selection Cheddar Cheese
1 package of grape tomatoes
1 package of meunster cheese
------
26 items = $1.13 per item

Which means we got the turkey for $1.13 basically. ^_^ OR we got half of that stuff for free. Whichever way you wanna look at it.

So then we went to CVS and got 3 2 liters of coke and I used 2 ECB's on it. OOP: $1.30

I might go get another turkey if their private selection brand of turkey goes on sale next week. Our freezer is SMALL! I may try to sweet-talk my way into getting a stand-alone freezer.

Kroger totals for the month

OOP: $72.25
Saved: $96.20

Huh. I thought it'd be better than that. Gotta try harder!

Can this be? Can I really be blossoming into a couponer?

2008-11-17T17:30:00.000-08:00

So I've always been super jealous of all the deals everyone has gotten ever since I joined this site.

Today I looked over my savings and gasped. I totally realized that I'm moving up the ranks and slowly, but surely, becoming "one of you".

This is what I got today at CVS on the way home. I couldn't help it!! I was thinking of the Blade MM so I just HAD to do it! This was split up between two transactions btw because of the blade Q's

3.99 Glade oil refill
7.99 Glade fan holder
.29 Blade shaving gel
.29 Blade shaving gel
-7.99 (manu Q)
-2.00 (cvs blade Q)
-2.00 (cvs blade Q)
---------
$4.57

Paid $5.33 OOP (including tax)
Got $7 back in ECB

Saved $13.99 according to my receipt.

My deals for today

2008-11-16T17:29:00.000-08:00

So this morning I get up to get 3 newspapers to get extra duracell Q's. I also got some holiday candles so I could see if I got lucky with the glade coupons inside.

3.00 (for 3 papers)
4.99
4.99
-------
12.98
-4.99 (BOGO)
-------
7.99
+20.00 (cash back for the week)
----------
27.99 (28.59 w/ tax)

I went to the first CVS, did some transactions there.

2.99 Soft n dri
-----
2.99
-2.00 ecb (from garnier)
-.55 Q
-------
.44 (50 cent w/ tax)

oop: 50
ecb: 2.00

2.50 x 4
------
10.00
-1.50 manu q
-2.00 ecb (from soft n dri)
-5.00 ecb (from glade)
--------
1.50 (1.68 w/ tax)

oop: 1.68
ecb: 5.00

5.99 duracell
5.99 duracell
-----
11.98
-2.00 manu q's
-5.00 cvs coupon
-------
4.98 (5.40 w/ tax)

oop: 5.40
ecb: 15

Then here's where I avoid confrontation.

I go to do my next duracell transaction and she said "Well, this coupon for the batteries is limit one per customer". I told her that right now I am a "new" customer because I am doing a new transaction. She got this look on her face like "uh huh" and went right into the back. This crotchety old manager comes out and goes "Ma'am, this is one per customer. You cannot use anymore" (I say crotchety because of the way he looked and the way he said it was NOT nice). Oooohkay, I didn't want to deal with that so I left my basket of stuff there and left to go to another cvs. I told the cashier that what the manager said was wrong and if they wanted it limited to one household, they should have put that on the coupon but I am a new customer every time I do a new transaction. She agreed and said "I can't do anything about it, it's what they said".

So I left to go to another cvs and thus, we start again.

5.99
14.99
-------
20.98
-5.00 cvs
-1.00 manu Q
-15.00 ecb (batteries)
---------
.02 cents (.04 cents w/ tax)

And I do this another time.

I decided to get 2 of the reinventing beauty magazines for the Q's inside them.

.99
.99
------
1.98 for a lot of Q's... isn't too shabby

oop: 1.98

I decide that we need deoderant because my husband and I ran out last week and we had bought one thing of it... so I was like "never again do I want to run out".

Soft n dri time again!

2.99
2.99
--------
5.98
-.55 Q (was on the soft n dri itself!)
-.55 Q (same dealio)
--------
4.88 (5.24 w/ tax)

oop: 5.24
ecb: 4.00

2.99
2.99
------
5.98
-4.00 ecb (soft n dri)
-.55 Q
-.55 Q
---------
.88 ($1 w/ tax)

oop: $1
ecb: $4

SO! After all is said and done, my cvs savings are as follow:

OOP: $13.00
ecb's earned: $60
ecb's spent: $43

The booty from cvs:
2 glade jar candles
2 glade square things
2 packages of rechargeable duracells
4 packages of the regular coppertop
5 deoderants
2 reinventing beauty magazines

I now have $24 in ecb's for the next sale deal. I won't be going back to cvs for a while... except to get a prescription filled out.

Kroger

2008-11-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

So for this payperiod's grocery shopping, hubby and I went to Kroger. We got about $100 worth of things but paid $42 so we saved 56% there. I was really happy with this.

I went to CVS afterwards and they were doing tomorrow's sales early! I about died! I ran home, grabbed my Q's, and came back. I was only able to do a few things. I need tomorrow's paper to get more duracell Q's to finish out the deal and not lose money.

1st transaction:
6.59 - Theraflu
-2.00 Q
--------
4.59

oop: $4.99
Rebate: $4.99 (gonna be mailing that out asap)

Free item!

The batteries messed me up because there were NO $4.79 batteries anywhere. So I had to redo the transaction on the fly. Hate that!

2nd transaction:
$10 worth of glade stuff
$5.99 batteries
$5.29 batteries
-----------
$21.28
-$5.00 (5/2 cvs Q)
-$15.47 ecb's
-$5.50 worth of manu Q's
-------------------
.31

oop: .66
ecbs: $5

Tomorrow I am going to go back and do this after buying two papers:

5.99
5.99
-------
11.98
-5.00 cvs Q
-2.00 newspaper Q
--------
$4.98

oop:~5.30
ecbs: $15

So total oop for the duracell deal plus part of the glade deal: $5.96. Got $20 back in ecb's.

Please tell me this is not bad. I'm new to doing this CVS thing. Started this week actually, so I hope I'm doing well! I know the deal could have been better somehow, but I am really happy with what I got.

Then I decided to go to kroger and get some more holiday scent candle things. I got

4.99 x 4
-4.00 BOGO
-4.00 BOGO
-2.00 off Q
-2.00 off Q
-3.00 catalina
------------
$4.96

Cashier rang up the BOGO wrong because apparently these candles are a part of the mega deal (I didn't know this) and was showing up on the screen 4.99 -$2.00 automatic coupon, so she put the price in as $4 but the computer put the $2.00 back on because I didn't buy 10. I went back in to tell customer service that they owed me $1.98 because of this.

They looked at my receipt and told me I stacked coupons, that the $2.00 coupons were forced through and shouldn't have been, but they'd let it slide that time and just so I was aware about it. They gave me $2 back.

I am kinda confused. I thought the same way they did, that BOGO coupons were for 2 items and that another Q could not be stacked on it, but other HCW members have said that you can use 4 coupons on 4 items just how I did because the BOGO Q is for the "free" item, not for the item you are actually purchasing. So I figured, hey, these lovely couponers have been doing this longer than I have PLUS my husband agreed with this so I figured they were right and I was wrong.

Apparently kroger thinks the same way I used to. So what's the correct way?

Anyways, I technically spent $4.11 oop making my percentage for this trip 86% saved.

CVS....again

2008-11-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Is it bad that I hate that cvs doesn't have a set way that they do rainchecks? I'm really annoyed.
One place gave me rainchecks for the Listerine Agents for a sale price of 99 cents apiece. They took the ECB's off of it and so I was cool with that.

The other CVS I went to wrote the rainchecks for 3.99-$3.00 ECB and that was it. And when I asked how it would be rung up, I couldn't get a straight answer except "It'll be a store credit".

Okay? I'm fine with store credit and all, but I want to know for sure how I'm going to be paying for it. They need to get this straightened out. One of the managers said that a system was being worked on for the items that give ECB's. I can't wait until it's actually done.

Anyways, went just for the Listerine and deoderant. Left with only the deoderant.

Reg. price 2.39, sale price 3 for 5.

1.74 - .75 Q = .99 + .03 tax = 1.02 oop

Not too shabby.

Oh, and I couldn't get an answer on when tomorrow's sales would start either. It's a 24 hour CVS and the cashier goes "Oh, I don't know......" and just left it at that. I wanted to be pushy and be like "Well go find out!" but my husband was with me and there was a line and I know I'd embarrass him if I had been snarky about it.

Oh well! I got my 5 rainchecks for the listerine and I hope to do the duracell / glade deal tomorrow morning bright and early! I'm going to be one of the crazy ones that sits outside the CVS waiting for the doors to open for those and for the newspapers. Hehe!

Back to CVS

2008-11-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

So I went back to cvs today because the receipt said my limit was not reached on the crest. Turns out it was! So i returned the extra toothpaste. I also got a garnier shampoo and got $2 in ecb's for that. I also got a raincheck for the listerine and picked up a bunch of the diabetes books for the coupons. There are a ton at all the cvs stores I've been at!

I'm worried one of my ecb's won't work because it's not showing up on my card online. I might email cvs about it.

So here's my week in CVS stuff:

4 crest pro-health whitening toothpastes
1 garnier shampoo

$10.85 oop
$12.47 ecb's earned

next week I can hopefully do the duracell battery deal and get some ecb's for that.

Some people post their OOP taking account the ecb's. I think that would be a mistake as it isn't oop, but since some do, I'll just say that I got everything for "free" doing these deals.

4 crests = spent $8.57, got $13.96 back in ecb's, made $5.39.

1 garnier = 2.17. got $2.00 in ecb's back, -.17 cents altogether.

Darn you tax, darn you! But anyways, if you go by these figures it means I "made" $5.22. Of course, this is treating the ecb's like "money back". Not too bad!

Tomorrow I am going to do the Theraflu warming stuff. I found the $2.00 Q and $6.99 rebate slip today and it is on sale at CVS for $6.00 I think? So I'll get one for "free".

First time Robbing CVS

2008-11-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

haha! Ok so I didn't really, but I like to think they paid me to take the crest out of their store!

I did the crest deal. I was hoping the stores would get a new shipment in and I checked 3 cvs stores in my area last night. None had the crest pro-health whitening that gave the ecb's. 1 cvs luckily had the $5/2 duracell tearpads, so I got 6 of them. Good to know that I'll only need 4 but I feel bad now having that 2 extra. i might send them to my sister if she's willing to use them. Anyways, that's besides the point of this post!

On the way to work, I stopped at two cvs stores. One didn't have it for sure, the other had gotten their truck in and the manager said he didn't know if it'd be in because they really don't know what actually gets shipped and what doesn't.So after work, I went to that one. They had it! I got one:

3.49
-.50 ecb
-1.00 manu Q
--------
1.99

2.17 total oop including taxes.3.49 ecb's printed.

I was excited to roll my piddly 50 cent ecb into one that is a bit bigger. On the way home, I kicked myself in the butt for not getting another one. So I stopped at the other cvs on the way. Didn't have them. Figures. So I drove a little out of the way and stopped at the final cvs. They had them!

I used the 3.49 ecb's on it and got another tube for free, plus another 3.49 printed out.

Awesome possum! I got two tubes of crest pro-health whitening for $2.17 total and got $3.49 in ecb's! Oh yeah.

Ok, I admit... I HAD to go back after hearing the limit is actually 4! So this transaction went like this:
3.49
3.49
------
6.98
-1.00 buy 2 crest Q
------
5.98 overall, w/ tax, it was 6.40 oop and I got 6.98 ecb's back.

Not awesome, but still a money maker I think! Plus I went to another CVS and stocked up on some more duracell Q's for the upcoming week and the next.