Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Favorite Websites

Here are some of my favorite websites and a great magazine.

First, http://www.swagbucks.com is a search engine that pulls from Google and Ask.com. During random searches and copying codes from their emails you receive "Swagbucks" which in turn can be used to buy things. For example, I've bought both Amazon and Barnes and Noble giftcards with my points, so spent no money out of pocket but have received free giftcards. Can't beat free!

Second, http://www.freekibble.com has daily trivia questions, when you answer them (right or wrong) you donate 10 pieces of food to animal shelters. Quick, easy, and you learn interesting dog facts. Not to leave out cat lovers, there is a link for cats on the site also.

Third, All You magazine http://www.allyou.com/. $20 for a year seems steep, but each issues includes close to $100 worth of coupons. Good ones, too. You can only buy this at Wal-Mart or through a subscription. I try to avoid Wal-Mart at all costs so have a subscription. Save up some Swagbucks and get a free subscription through Amazon. Save even more!!

By the way, my Bissell Spot Bot Pro works wonderful. One of my dogs decided to vomit all over my house night before last so I got to put it to good use today. That, and my new mop. I really didn't expect to have to use either so soon. Darn.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

More shopping

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm over shopping for a while!



Trip 2 to Harris Teeter wasn't much more fruitful than the first, but at least this time I did find the store directory in the front of the cart. They have a strange store set-up. With my doubled coupons I saved $30.82, saved $12.07 with the VIC card, and spent a total of $21.81. Not pictured are a pack of chocolate chip cookies (the only thing on my trip I paid full price for, go figure), another Deli Creations, and a third Dannon Greek yogurt. Those Seapack and Gordon's Fish Sticks should feed us at least two, maybe three meals out of each box. The Seapack were $8.45 and then B1G1 free, I used two $1 off coupons, since I was buying two products, so got the two boxes for $4.45 total.



Next was Walgreens to get a new hair dryer. My husband broke my last one, well, he broke the switch on it, I used the tip of whatever I could find for a few weeks to turn it on, then that plastic cracked. Since it was becoming a fire hazard I decided to buy a new one. It was marked down to $14.99 this week, then the Arizona teas were B1G1 free, the Nabisco cookies (not that I needed them...) were 2/$3 and I had a $2/2 coupon from coupons.com, and the Right Guard was B1G1 free and I used a $2/2 coupon on that as well. I used a $6 RR to bring my out of pocket total to $15.55. It should have only been $9.55 but the cashier was trying to tell me my RR was actually a product rain check. It's been one of those days where it was either leave or yell, so I decided to leave instead. :) Anyway, that just means I have another $6 RR for next week, hopefully I can roll it over.



Last was Target, I went in to buy a mop (not pictured). My blinders weren't on tonight, obviously! I had .50 cents off the Kaboom from this Sunday's sales flyers, the deodorants were $1.99 each and I had a $4/2 coupon from this Sundays sales flyers also, making the deodorant free, $1 off the Up Wipes, and .10 cents off for taking my own bags. My total was $22.36, I paid with my $20 giftcard from the Bissell deep cleaner, so only paid $2.36 out of pocket!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Catching up!

I did a lot of shopping this week... too much, probably. Below, see how I fared.



First was Target since my female dog Daisy, prefers vomiting on carpet rather than the great big space of tile we have... Anyway, this week Target has all their Bissell pet vacuums and deep cleaners full price, but you get a $20 giftcard at the checkout for use on your next trip. THEN, it gets better!! Today one of the sales flyers had a Bissell rebate form where I will submit to get $20 back from them as well. I can handle $89 as I couldn't find it anywhere cheaper than $129.



Next was my husband's favorite trip, he left Harris Teeter saying, "I am NEVER paying full price for anything again!" Anyway, we bought more, but some has already been eaten... I got the green chilies, 2 tuna pouches, 2 Lip Smackers, 3 Yoplait Whips yogurt, 1 Chobani Greek yogurt, and Purdue Shortcuts Grill for a grand total of $3.37. I saved $3.03 using the HT VIC card, and $16.04 using coupons (which were doubled). I wasn't terribly impressed with Harris Teeter but probably will make another trip tomorrow with the .85 cent off Viva Big Roll paper towel coupons from the insert today, and some more yogurt coupons.



Another Target trip. Got these 2 drink mixes, 5 Weight Watchers Smart Ones, 6 Healthy Choice dinners, 2 Breyers yogurts, 12 Archer Farm yogurts (store brand), 1 pack of Dannon Activia yogurt, 1 Old Spice deodorant (not pictured), and Reynolds slow cooker liners. I got .15 cents off for using reusable bags, and then used $5 worth of coupons (for the frozen dinners) bringing the total to $38.14. Not terrible, but there were no sales on the dinners this week so the total came up a bit higher than usual.



My favorite! Again, at Target. I got 2 Market Pantry cottage cheese (one eaten already) and 6 boxes of Hefty OneZips. This was actually from last week, the Hefty were $1 each rather than $1.99, and I had $1 off 2 coupons from a few months ago (paper sales flyer). My grand total was $7.43. All of the plastic bags are going to the Lackey Free Clinic, they use them to package up bottled medicines and samples.

The Harris Teeter super doubles is going on through Tuesday, I'm going to hit that again tomorrow after work, there are a few great coupons that will work well for me tomorrow. The coupons this week were great, I went to Dollar Tree and bought 3 additional newspapers today. I figure $3 for much larger savings is well worth it!!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Double Coupons!

So I shared I went to Farm Fresh earlier this week. They were running double coupons, but I was not impressed. However, I may have to stop in Harris Teeter this week based on the coupon matchups below! They are doubling coupons up to $1.98! I do not shop at Harris Teeter, but there is one near my work. I'll let you know how it goes. I am just hoping they are more helpful than Kroger since I do not know my way around the store!

http://www.mrsmoneysaver.com/2010/02/harris-teeter-217-223-ad-and-super-doubles-matchups/

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Spending and saving

Not too much exciting shopping lately.

I was able to price adjust some yogurt and cottage cheese at Target and made enough to buy 4 more yogurts. Of course I am heading back there later this week so there goes that saving!

I went to Farm Fresh yesterday to pick up a few things. $40 later I have a refrigerator full, including fresh scallops and crab, so I'm happy with that. They were doubling coupons up to 99 cents, but I only used 4 coupons (this seems to be my number this week). The rest of the coupons I had, even doubled, could be used regular to get things cheaper at Target.

I did finally receive a $5 rebate check from Crock-Pot that I sent off for months ago. I bought a Crock-Pot on sale at Target before Thanksgiving, during the time I bought it Crock-Pot was running a promo where if you bought a $30 or more expensive Crock-Pot you could submit for a $5 rebate. I realize some people think rebates are more trouble than they're worth, but I generally submit them and enjoy the suprise check months later! We also got back a check from overpaying our escrow on our mortgage and a tax refund from the city from last year, so I had a nice little extra deposit for our bank account.

That extra money is going towards my Macy's bill. I only owe $320 more on it, and want to knock it out quickly!! So far we've paid down $500 worth of overall debt, and hope to hit $820 in the next couple of weeks.

My camera is acting funny so I don't have any pictures this week, I'll do a picture post if ever I sit down and try to diagnose and treat the problem. I know I love seeing pictures of what other people buy, so I'm going to try to solve this quickly.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Wags and Target

I am home to say my trip was a success! Upon leaving Target my husband said, "that's more like shopping with you!" Haha.


At Walgreens I got a Dove men's body/face wash, Schick razors, Orbit gum, and Rimmel Nail polish for 2.24. I used two $1 off Orbit gum coupons, 1 $1.25 Dove Men's care coupon, $3.00 off Schick razors, $1 off Wags Schick razors, and an $8 RR from last week's Blink Gel Tears. After that, my total was $2.24 and I received $6 RR for my next trip for buying the Dove Men's care. My total savings was $25.17!


At Target I purchased 10 Healthy Choice frozen dinners using 2 $1.00 off two meals and 1 $1.25 off two meals coupons. For buying 10 dinners I got a $5 Target giftcard. Select Quaker Oatmeal and Grits is on sale and then you get a $5 Target giftcard for buying 5. The brown sugar .99 cent Express are ringing up in the sale, and the orginal grits (if you have a question, if you use the price scanner it will tell you whether or not it is included in the promotion). I had a $1 off coupon from the Quaker website toward any oatmeal.
My total, after tax, was $21.01 and I got $10 in Target giftcards back. My total savings was $15.97.

Until next time, keep your pennies close and your dollars closer! :)

Weekly shopping

I'm going to head out here in a bit to do some shopping.

I plan to hit up Walgreens and get some .50 cent 3 pack Orbit gum, then Target for some cheap oatmeal and Healthy Choice dinners. Details on my purchases to follow.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

2010 Savings

So far, I have saved $300 by shopping sales and using coupons since January 1st. My husband was not a believer until I shared this with him. Suddenly he's a huge fan of coupons.

Used to I would buy things when I need them and if I was lucky I would have a coupon. I have now learned, through other couponing websites, how much more you can save if you plan ahead and use a coupon partnered with a sale. I bought 12 toothbrushes for $2 total and am set on toothpaste for the year, having paid nothing out of pocket. Now I don't have to buy a new toothbrush for $3 each time and toothpaste for $3-5 either. I figure I've saved at least $40 just on that alone, by planning ahead!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Grocery trip

My husband and I just got home from the grocery store. He got off early today since he's worked his butt off this week and already put in 60 hours!

Anyway, we bought Smart Ones dinners, milk, yogurt, things of that nature. Spent $60. We're covered for the week, though.

When we got to the car, my husband said, "that was weird." What? "I think that's the first time I've ever been anywhere with you that you didn't use a coupon." Haha. Truth be told, it started snowing and I just wanted to get there and get home. I only had one coupon anyway for what was on my list, but it was for yogurt so can be saved for another day.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Great Savings!

I have had some great savings so far this week!!! I figured if I have to go out in the snow to work, I might as well go shopping, too. :)

I hit Walgreens yesterday to do the Blink Gel and Vitamin Lip stuff, and grabbed some 75% off kid stickers for Christmas presents next year. I also got two boxes of Shredded Wheat for free--they were $1 each and I used the $2 off Post cereal coupon. My dogs eat Shredded Wheat as treats, and well, free treats are the best! I can't find that receipt, but it was impressive. (The cashier told me, "You go, girl!") And I got back $10 in RRs.

Today I bought another Blink Gel (my dad has dry eyes) and a Russell Stover valentine candy heart. I used my $2 off Blink Gel coupon and the $2 RR from the lip gloss yesterday so paid $4.29 out of pocket and got an $8 RR back.

CVS: (My pictures aren't loading so just imagine for now! :))
Colgate toothpaste, Lady Speed Stick deodorant (on clearance for .87 cents and used .50 cent off coupon!), two sparkling waters (B1G1 free), men's Dove body wash, and two 2 oz cocoa butter lotions. I used 5 coupons, 2 CVS coupons (on the lotion), and $2 ECBs. I paid $5.29 out of pocket and received $7.49 in ECBs!!

Rite Aid: Bought more Blink Gel, 2 bags of Chex Mix, 2 Tag body sprays (marked down to 2.49 each and used B1G1 free coupon), 2 Cadbury Eggs, Colgate Total toothpaste, and 2 Wet N Wild nail polishes. I used $5 off $20 RA Video Values coupon, manufacturer and RA Video Values items coupons, and my $5 gift of savings rewards to bring my total to... 93 big cents!! With tax, I paid $1!!! I will then get $2 SCR and $7.99 SCR so made $9.99! Yipee! :)