My mailbox runneth over!

Quite literally.. I've gotten a couple full size items the last couple days.. it's been great.. lots of freebie with coupons. I also got a ton of stuff that I've already given away or thrown out. I have been getting a ton of those vacation planners the last few weeks.. it's been nuts.



♥Shick intuition shaver cucomber melon (smells divine) with $2 coupon
♥Citracel calcium pills
♥Prilosec sample with coupons
♥ziplock sandwich bags with coupons
♥bounce dryer sheet
♥Nutrogena pink grapefruit face wash
♥kids DVD
♥Target coupons for Green Works products

It's my birthday week!! check out all the birthday freebies we've found!

Just by chance MONEY SAVING MOM also is having a birthday this week and listed out a ton of great places that offer birthday freebies for all ages! Check those out.

I then ran into this site MR CHEAP STUFF and they also have a great list of other YUMMY places that offer birthday goodies! nice!

Seeing as how THIS WEEK is my birthday I've been getting birthday emails from local as well as national chains for at least a week offering free meals, free desserts, you name it.. here are a few I didn't see on either list I wanted to share! All of these places follow the link and find their eclubs. All of them will ask for your birthdate when you sign up, but some will also ask for other important dates in your life (anniversary date). All of these places are places I LOVE to go to normally so if you haven't been there, check em out!



NOODLES AND COMPANY
I got a free meal email, all I have to do is print the email and go! yummo!



Texas De Brazil I get hungry just going on the site and hearing the music they play.. seriously.. if you have not been to a brazilian steak house, getting a free meal (with the purchase of a full priced meal) on your birthday is the way to go!

I have to explain how these places work, because if you haven't been there WELL YOU ARE MISSING OUT but you'll be a bit confused without a little direction. Of course your server will be happy to explain as well.

Okay, you go in, get seated, and then the server comes to ask you for your drink orders (pretty expensive.. like a small little 8oz bottle of coke is $3-4 each) I normally just order water. They will of course ask if you have been there before. They direct you first to the salad bar which is amazing. I believe it has over 80 items including Lobster Bisque soup, sushi, along with other expensive yummies like prochuttio and grilled provolone. ohhh so yummy.. so of course you fill up on the salad bar which is never a good idea.

Next they give you (as pictured above) a little disc. On one side is green meaning GO and the other RED meaning stop. The guacho's or brazilian cowboys once seeing your GREEN GO card turned up will start stopping by your table each with a different meat! It's amazing. They are normally serving 12-15 meats during a normal meal so once you figure out your favorite then you can keep an eye out for that guacho.

I live in the Chicago area and a full price dinner is $42, so with the coupon for both of you it's roughly $65. But it's all you can eat and you can stay as long as you want.



Old Country Buffet also known as Hometown Buffet in other areas sent me a birthday coupon good for a free meal.



Sweet Tomatoes also called Souplanation in other areas sent me an email for a free meal as well!

Okay.. those are my favorites (all you can eat is popular with me, can you tell? I know they make a ton of money off of all of us.. and after this week I have to get back on my diet.. I've gained well over 30lbs! eek)

Well to everyone with a birthday in October, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Enjoy the freebies!

great Target cereal run on Saturday night

not sure why I didn't blog about this.. I never took pics either!

I went for the 4/$11 General Mills cereal with the $5 card back deal! lol! I had a few 75 cents off Cheerios coupons but also had a $1.50/3 coupon I got from my local Jewel grocery store. It was a manufacturer coupon but had the Jewel logo on it.. so just in case they wanted to refuse it I had back ups of another 75 cent coupon and a $1/3.

It was late on Saturday maybe 9:30pm almost before closing so they didn't have all the signs still up in front of every prodcut that was part of the deal. I just wound up grabbing
♥2 boxes of Reeses Puffs
♥1 box Fruity Cheerios
♥1 box CoCoa Puffs

My total came out to $10.57 but the screen popped up for the $5 gift card immediately after he scanned the last box. I gave him my $1.50 and 75 cent coupons and he scanned them with no problems.. then I handed him my $5 GC from the pop tarts transactions a few weeks back. My total came out to $3.42 with that $5 GC!! not a bad run for cereal which I needed (believe it or not we were running low!)

FREE MINERAL MAKE UP!!

I got this off MONEY SAVING MOM an offer for a free Everyday Minerals Custom Kit. You get to pick 3 Foundations, 1 Blush and Face Color, and 1 Concealer. Make sure you are not half asleep while you are making your selections as I did because when it asked which type of foundation (they have 4 types) I wanted I had no clue and just clicked whatever. Total shipping cost me $3.13. I don't wear make up often so this is perfect for me to use for when I do need make up for a special occasion. Come check out Everyday Minerals Custom kits here.

for the 400th time.. I have no clue what happened..

Double Dip Days started at midnight.. so guess where I was at 11:48pm.... ha ha ha getting all the deals because someone else always beats me to them.. well not sure if it helped or not.. we'll see.

♥10 bottles of glade spray $3.99 each used 10 $1.50 manu coupons plus $1 Sept ESC and will get back $10 from Oct ESR in the end 49 cents each (well less with the extra 10% ESR)
♥6 Glade Candle $5.99 each used 6 $2 manu coupons plus $2 Sept ESC plus will get back $8 from Oct ESR so 4 of them are free and the other 2 were $1.99
♥12 Herbert Choc bars $1.99 each (somewhere I thought I had seen they were on sale 2/$3 but I guess they aren't) used the $3/2 coupon so wound up being 2/99 cents
♥Revlon nail polish $4.79 used $2 manu plus will get back $4.79 from Sept ESR
♥Pert Plus $3.79 (the shelf said $3.49 I swear) used $2 manu $2.50 Oct ESC plus will get back I'm not sure because the coupon wouldn't work so they hard coded it in as $1.29
♥Acid Reducer $7.99 used $2 Pharmacy coupon and another I don't know what I'll get back because she hard coded $5.99 because that Pharmacy coupon wouldn't work but it should be $7.99 Sept ESR or free
♥snapple packets $2 (was looking for the Wylers ones they used to sell couldn't find them)
♥2 Shake n light flashlights on clearance for $2.49 each (I have a small one in my car I love, got this for my dad. He drives back and forth to AZ a few times a year)

Okay that sums it up.. my total came to $130 then I gave her coupons and she had to hard code the Oct ESC because they wouldn't scan and the pharmacy coupons. Plus I had the prices wrong on the Glade Spray I thought they were $2.99 each and the Herbert Chocolate so I'm thinking of returning them. hmm anyway after all the coupons plus the $5/$20 (I should have separated this into a few transactions to get at least another $5 off, oh well) then a $4.50 RR plus $12.48 off my CG my total OOP was $38.27. If I get all my rebates back plus 10% I'll get back $38.50. Not too shabby! lol!

**yeah I just figured it out.. if I had cut it into 3 transactions or even 2 I would have paid $26 OOP after $4.50 RR and $12 GC instead of $38. Can't win them all!

My new CVS

Okay for some reason the second I walked in the store I just felt not prepared and I have no clue why.. I knew the prices of everything I wanted, had my coupons all neatly together ready to go..

I walk in and it's a brand new CVS just opened on the 7th of September. We never got cool "come check out the new CVS" coupons like other people I've heard about so I'm a little miffed at that.. but whatever. So I walk right in to scan my card, there was this weird little screen like a broken computer and I try to scan my card.. NOTHING.. so I see an employee and ask and he says "it's broken" in the most broken English I've heard this week. Ok.

First Transaction
10 soy joy bars 10/$5 used 5 BOGO coupons (tried to use a $2/$10 coupon and of course he tried that one last so it wouldn't scan, yeah thanks buddy)
1 Nivea body wash $4.99 used $1 off coupon

$2/10 coupon my total was under $10 with tax so I grabbed the kit kat bar, $3.99 ECB total OOP $1.06 Earned a $4.99 ECB



6 Purina dog foods $1.19 each BOGO sale used 2 B2G1 free coupons
1 Adidas deoderant $4.99 tried to use $1 coupon and the bar code had been cut off! ughh not even sure where I got it from but I didn't have another.. so oh well.

$2/10 coupon and then I tried to use a $5 ECB which wouldn't work. So he realized he never scanned my card even though he had my keys next to the register. Okay so he scans the BOGO dog foods come off and my total is negative something.. so I quick grab 2 kit kat bars and my total OOP came to 35 cents. I earned a $4 ECB

I used my debit card for both transactions.. on my way home I was thinking I have like $4 in change in my purse why did I not use that! ughh oh well.

want to see other CVS deals?? CVS SUPERSTARS

hmmm what I *thought* was a fun Target run turned out to be not good!

grrr.. I'm so angry right now.. anyway.. I went to Target to try to cash in some of my $1 cat litter coupons. They have my cat litter for $1.77 but for some reason they have all stopped carrying the type I normally buy and I've had to resort to the one type of that brand I don't like and have way too much of. grrr.. So of course this store only had the type I don't like so I decided since I had time, my coupons, and tons of clearance I would walk around and check out some deals.

This is what I thought I walked out with...

3bags of Beggin strips little on sale for $2.10 had $1 off coupons
2 bags of Goodlife treats $1.73 had $1.50 coupons
1 bag of Iams cat food $7.49 with a $7 off coupon
1 cat litter air filter 94 cents
5 sunshades on clearance for $1.98 each
1 bike lock clearance for $2.98
1 bike wind up headlight clearance for $4.98
1 combination lock $2.08 but rang up as 74 cents
various back to school items all under 40 cents each
pack of wash clothes $1.48 on clearance

my total after coupons was $39 and I didn't even think about it because I had multiples of many products and I forgot to use my $5 gift card from a few weeks ago.. plus most of this stuff is Christmas gifts so I thought I was doing good.. umm yeah.

So after my CVS trip (which I'll post about next) I came home, spread out my loot to take a pic of it for my blog (which is very helpful). So I'm looking at everything just trying to make a mental note of what I should have paid for certain things and my total is nowhere near $40.. I'm at like $28 and that was with a cushion. I look at my receipt and realize the cat food rang up as $11.49 and the Goodlife treats $3.99!! umm yeah there is my difference!

I called the store and explain the situation. Most stores just say "bring your receipt back and we'll get it worked out" ooh no the operator tried to tell me that sometimes people decide they don't want a product and put it down anywhere in the store.. UMMM no I bought these things from the specific shelves. there were many other products and I even usually will READ what the tag says to at least verify that it's in the right place. She said she didn't know and basically acted like too bad... so I asked for a manager. Some guy comes on the line and is telling me I have to come into the store NOW and when I tell him I don't live close (I wanted to check out the new CVS by that Target which is the only reason I went there) he said "TELL ME WHAT DAY AND TIME YOU WILL BE HERE SO I CAN NOTIFY CUSTOMER SERVICE" umm what??? what happened to "when you have time" or "next time you are in the area" wtf is that!!

So I explain the situation again and he says I have to come back when the prices are the same.. omg whatever.. TELL ME HOW LONG I HAVE AND I WILL TRY TO GET BACK THERE WITHIN YOUR TIME FRAME so he tells me 2 weeks and takes down my name.. what is that going to help? seriously.

So I get off the phone and my husband is standing on the stairs and he's laughing at me and says "you get so angry" OMG the man who gets angry about everything is telling me I get angry when I'm being treated poorly? hello.. so I tell him what they said and he's still laughing at me like I'm in the wrong!!! WTF not a good day here guys!

I ♥ Butera clearance

Okay.. have I not told you guys about Butera clearance before? Seriously.. every time I go there I hit their clearance sections because they change every day. In the produce section they normally have a full cart of produce that has been wrapped and greatly reduced in price.

Today I got 4 huge peppers (red, yellow, 2 green) for 79 cents. Nothing wrong with any of them.. I cut them up and threw them in my freezer.. DONESKI (that's done in Chitown polish if you didn't figure that out) Also I go by the bakery and look at their stuff.. most days they have brat buns, hamburger buns, or dinner rolls marked down to 99 cents. that is what they had today so I got some hamburger buns. Other days they have garlic bread marked down and sometimes those awesome sugar cookies with all the frosting on them.. yummmm The garlic bread I normally take home and throw right in the freezer.

I know Butera is a small little grocery chain in the Chicago area. They are family owned and operated. They boast an amazing produce section normally priced well below the other area grocery stores.

keeping an eye on the budget

My goal for this month was to simply keep an eye on my budget. I have set aside $300 for groceries and really I have no clue why. I remember when I first started reading other peoples goals that they spent wayyy less on groceries than I did and I only have 2 people living full time in my home. My son lives here every other weekend sometimes more than that.. plus my nephews do spend some time here.. but I had my Aldi bill down to $40 one week and that covered all my basic necessities AND THAT WAS BEFORE I started couponing. Since then I've gotten things much lower, plus combine that with my stockpiling, I could spend farrr less if I needed to.

So I just checked out my balance on what I've spent so far this month and I'm sitting at $131.40 and that includes any Walgreens or CVS runs. So if I had my budget at $40 a week or $160 a month I would have $28.60 to last me until October. This Friday I have some double dip WAGS deals I want to get in on, but I don't think I'll have to spend much OOP. I still have about $12.50 left on the gift card and $4.50 RR that I can use.

I do have about 15 $1 cat litter coupons I had wanted to use that expire on the 29th however I went on coupon clippers and found that more had come out. I knew that I was missing a part of my coupons one week because I saw my brand of cat litter advertised but didn't see one coupon. I ordered the max of 10 of them, that was all they were allowing. The expire in December which is fine with me because I'll probably be running low around that time and I can cash in on those 10 in one trip instead of my 4 at a time I've been buying since I bought a big 'ol stack of them a month or so ago.

Okay so taking $15 out of my $28 left leaves me with what $13. I don't need much else. I do need cat litter powder but I can use good ol baking soda. I also need Parmesean cheese but that isn't going to cost me $10.. so I think I look good for this month coming in under that $180.

On the downside I've started counting going out to eat as entertainment. My entertainment budget was at $50. We didn't go to any movies or go bowling and I've only used my redbox free codes to rent movies.. so that $50 has gone towards eating out. I know just this week we spent $46 at Olive Garden and $15 at our favorite Hot Dog place for a quick dinner. Just this week I'm over by $11.. hmmmm

so my question is.. how did you decide on how much to budget for each catagory? How do you make sure you stay on track?

MAILCALL MONDAY!!

loooooookiiiee looookie what I found in my mailbox today!


that's right the dancing cash man! lol! I got a rebate from Kelloggs today for the Blueberry Muffin Cereal rebate $3.24. I also got a $5 check from Finacea I had ordered a sample pack from them and due to an overwhelming response they had to modify the free packs. Instead I got a $5 check and a $10 coupon for my first prescription. Not bad. Also, I still have a check for $2.49 for Hunts Ketchup I never cashed and $1 Menards gift check for use in their store.

$10.73 isn't bad pay for just walking out to your mailbox! lol!

when do "ROOKIE MISTAKES" just become... DOH moments?

really I need to know.. I'm three months into couponing/hounding and last night realized I made a $1 DOH mistake.... On Friday I went to CVS and used the scanner.. I got 4 coupons with one scan and read them, folded them, and threw them into my coupon box.


The major DOH part of it was that as I read the coupons I had, I actually thought to myself "oooh I'm going to get one of these today too!" of course by the time I actually went to get the product 2 1/2 minutes later I'd forgotten! lol! It was for the Excedrin Express gels, $1 off coupon.. so I could have done even better on that deal! lol! ohhh boy.

I swear I feel like I'm going to be making these type mistakes forever with this hobby! There will always be a way that I could have gotten a "better deal" if I had just waited until the next week when xyz product went on sale or hit the item on clearance a month later. *sigh*

this says it all

hell has frozen over.. I'm convinced.. the Cubbies are doing amazing (I probably shouldn't be saying this so soon.. I'm probably ruining it for them) and I got into a CVS survey and earned myself 10 free Extra Care Bucks!! Woot!

If you haven't signed up yet for the CVS panel march your little but (or click whatever) over and sign up now! just follow this link! https://surveys.researchresults.com/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=SCREENERCVS

and while I'm here.. a little Harry Caray for everyone!!

KEEP SCROLLING DOWN CUZ I MADE LIKE 5 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS!!

Lunch at Olive Garden

This post actually has no tag.. oh well.. Okay so my son had been begging for months to hit Olive Garden. So the last time he had an orthodontist appointment we went for lunch afterwords. We just did the soup/salad/breadstick deal and for the 3 of us the total was under $30 with tax/tip. We had such a great time I wanted to do it again and of course my pasta hound son wanted to as well.

As things would go my husband had an interview at 11am this morning, Dylan's orthodontist appt was at 12:30pm (he had off of school today) so I was hoping my husband would make it home in time to change quickly so we could jet across town to the mall. We were running late (normally we are there extremely early) but we normally have like an hour wait so we figured today is a Friday, nobody will be there, and too bad so sad we normally have to wait so they can wait this time. It worked! we got there, he went in after a 20 minute wait and it took almost an hour for him to reappear.

We had some other errands to run in the mall, returning a sweatshirt that the zipper broke on and just looking at clearance items to see if we could spot any deals.. nothing amazing we actually NEED popped up so off to Olive Garden.

We looked at the menu and I asked our waitress about the never ending pasta bowl that has been advertised like crazy on tv lately. I wasn't sure if it was a lunch or dinner item and she said both actually (I think it's the same $8.95 price though..??) so we decided to go with that. My husband isn't too hot about pasta so I suggested he stick with the soup/salad/bread sticks and he instead questioned about the meatballs or Italian sausage you can get for $1.95 with the pasta deal. In fact for $1.95 you get never ending meatballs and/or Italian sausage with your pasta!! He was sold and ordered just that.

What I didn't realize is we also got never ending soup or salad (whichever you chose) and of course never ending breadsticks and free refills on our peach tea we all ordered. It was a really great meal, however, it set us back $46 for the 3 of us with drinks. Our entertainment allowance per month is $50 so I guess we blew that in one sitting.

All 3 of us only wound up making it through one soup or salad and one bowl of pasta (and of course 3 breadsticks each) but we got to bring home what we had left which was half of that first bowl they bring out. Our waitress did tell us the first serving is a dinner sized portion so I guess that made sense.

Thought I would share how much I enjoyed this meal with my little family of 3..

grocery brag

Okay I don't have a pic because by the time I got home with these deals all my neighbors were outside and wanted to talk. I finally remembered I had groceries to put away including ice cream so I quick took them inside.

I don't ever get great grocery deals and to everyone else who is a grocery gamer I'm sure this isn't that impressive considering somehow I always read you have a balance of like $5 and you use a GC which I have no clue how you get. I don't have the same stores, not one store in my area ever does double coupon days, and we never get $5/$25 or anything like that ever in our area. I've seen Jewel do $5/$150 a few times.

♥ 5lbs of boneless/skinless chicken $5.99 $1.99/lb
♥ 2 lbs of bacon $1.99 each
♥ cilantro 2/$1
♥ tub of onions (on clearance rack) 89 cents
♥ skim milk $2.79 (this is a high price for me but we needed milk)
♥ 3 8oz bricks of cheese $4
♥ dozen eggs 99 cents
♥ edy's slow churned ice cream $2.89 used $1 manu coupon
♥ banana's $1.39
♥ 2 bakery garlic breads 79 cents each

$24.57 OOP total.

**side note for myself** I don't do a really good job keeping track of my savings like others do, however, I have started keeping a small spreadsheet just to keep track of how much I've spent. It's helping me stay on budget more than anything.

As of today I have spent $125.69 this month in groceries/wags/cvs/target/meijer runs. My budget for groceries is $300 per month so I'm doing very well as you can see. $300 includes all my groceries, paper products, toiletries but does not include eating out which comes out of my entertainment allowance.

My savings to date is $519.16 but that is a rough estimate because some stores break down your savings like adding in sales prices (what you would have spent if you hadn't gotten certain products on sale) other stores don't even give a "savings" amount so on those I count up my coupons and just put that in as my savings.

do you have one of these???

for ALL OF THIS???

I know other people have actually gotten wayyy more for 10 cents.. but I was happy.. here is how it all went down... (of course with me there is a story to everything.. I'm sure you are all learning this if you've read my blog before)

I was looking for the Aleve Sinus and realized you had to get it at the pharmacy.. ok no biggie.. well at some stores (not CVS) you can go to the pharmacy and they take all your information but you can pay for it at the front with the rest of your order.. of course CVS wouldn't let me do that.. okay.. fine.. so I finished my shopping and came back to check out.

I put everything up on the counter, she started scanning and the Aleve stopped her. But what she didn't realize is that it asks her first for the drivers license to be scanned.. so it was popping up with 1.20 (the grams of Pseudoephdrine that is in that product) so she thought it was giving her a price of $1.20 and I was like heyyll give me the whole shelf!! Of course, that wasn't what it was asking and she was all confused. Finally the manager came over to key in the amount of the product and then gave me $3 off because he knew I wouldn't get my ECB's. He leaves and she starts putting in all my coupons. She gets to the $2/$10 which I told her to use first but it wouldn't scan so she put it aside.. so now of course my total is $7 something and it won't work.. so finally she gets it work and it takes off my total so now I'm at a negative $1 something because she also finally remembered to scan my CVS card so the price of the Excederin came off. Okay she knew that was totally wrong, cancelled my whole order and started over.

Now this time I had watched that she had to scan in my DL first for the Aleve so when she got to the Aleve I shoved my DL at her and said "try this first this time" and of course it worked. So this time I see the price popped up with no issues so I'm thinking "okay cool I'll get my ECB" and she keys in CVS -$3... what? so I had no clue what she was doing but thought maybe she had to do it that way?? no clue.

She scans in the rest of my coupons and I'm standing there looking at my total and it's $4.48 so I throw up the 99 cent baby lotion. It goes over $5, I go to hand her the ECB and she tries to scan it and it won't work.. so she asks for my CVS card (which she never scanned this transaction either) and it takes my balance lower because my sale priced items had scanned full price.. so I'm standing there trying to get my balance over $5 to use my $5 ECB that is expiring next week. (I try to play it safe) so I wound up with the three bags of Reeses. If I had known that was how it was going to work I would have grabbed something for $5 instead of the two hand wipes which I had used as a filler so I could use the $2/$10 coupon.
Okay so here is my final break down

♥Aleve Sinus $3.99 75 cent coupon (the IP coupon link said I already printed it which I know I never did grrr)
♥excederin tension headache $2.99 used $2 IP coupon
♥2 CVS hand sanitziers 99 cents each used $2/$10
♥10 2 pack shick razors 99 cents each used 5 $2 off schick coupons one she had to lower to $1.90(yes I know I could get a better deal buying the 10 packs at Wal-Mart but they are always out)
♥travel sized Johnsons baby lotion 99 cents
♥3 Reeses 50 cents each

she gave me that $3 CVS coupon and I used the $5 ECB I mentioned.. My total was 10 cents.. one thin dime. I got back $6.99 in ECBS so I was really happy because I had lost some ECBS over the past few weeks not working my deals before going to CVS. It was nice to walk out with $1.99 more in ECBS than I had walked in with.

**side note**YTD Savings $818.25 Summer 2008 spending $111.76

okay.. sooo I totally forgot to tell you all this...

I finally had a chance to balance my checkbook Tuesday. I got the statement the first week of September probably the 4th. I had thrown the statement in a pile of bills and other stuff and forgotten I had gotten it.

when I was in a financial downward spiral I hated money so much my favorite balancing the checkbook activity became my worst enemy and I didn't balance the checkbook for almost 18 months. We finally got our *stuff* together Labor Day weekend 2007 and it took me around 3 hours to get all the past months balanced. Luckily, I had entered two debits twice one month and had not added one of my husbands paychecks another month so we had a very nice cushion. The extra money was also the head start on our debt war.

Since then I've been pretty *anal* for lack of better word about getting those babies balanced the second they walk in the door. It only takes 15 minutes at the most and I love balancing to the penny. I found the statement accidentally when cleaning/organizing and went to balance it immediately.

I'm going through checking off my deposits, ok no issues. Next was my checks, yes I still write checks for a few bills. Everything checked out okay.. Last come all my debits.. and as you all know from being in CVS and WAGS a few times a week and sometimes doing 2-5 transactions those statements can get quite lengthy with $1.18 debits.

So I get through everything and realize somehow I had entered 2 transactions twice and had not entered 2 other transactions. Not sure how that happened I must have looked at those both flip flopped one day or something. Oh well.. Got those entered and was still off.. hmmm so I'm sorta scanning through each page of my statement and I see a CVS transaction that is BLACK.. hmmm debits are colored BLUE what is this? Sure enough I have a CVS transaction that they paid me 43 cents BACK to my account!!

Here is the weird thing.. I dug up the receipt from that transaction and it seriously is confusing because my total balance was negative 10 cents but then my tax would have been 53 cents so I'm confused how they paid me the 43 cents???
anyone?? Bueller?? Bueller??

OMG A DOUBLE DIP DEAL I PUT TOGETHER MYSELF

IT'S AMAZING!! Double Dip days at WAGS this month is 9/26 & 9/27 so this will only work on those days.

I've found a few good ones but this is really what I'm aiming for for Christmas gifts plus I have a ton of coupons for them so I really want to get in on it!

Glade Scented Oil Candels with holder
$5.99 regular price
$2 manu coupons that expire 10/4
$2 September Easy saver coupon from book
$2 October rebate

FREE!! PLUS YOU CAN DO THIS 4 TIMES FOR FREE OR EVEN THIS WEEK FOR $1.99 EACH IF YOU REALLY WANT THEM!

acts of couponing kindness..

ANOTHER LABEL TO ADD! LOL!! I had another act of couponing kindness come my way today... this one wasn't unexpected but the little note that came with it really was so sweet I just have to share.

I'll give you a little background here.. My husbands grandmother found out that I started using coupons for everything so she figured she would start clipping what coupons she got and mailing them to me. It was really nice because she is in her 90's, she and my husbands grandfather live together in their home. He still drives, they still do their shopping once a week on Tuesday I believe.. bowling, lunches, church, friends, and of course family keep them busy all the time. They live about 45 minutes to an hour drive from us so we don't see them as often as we could.

Okay so today I woke up and my sister called me like 3 seconds after I opened my eyes.. okay the only thing she could be calling me for is to go see my grandmothers grave.. sure enough, get your butt out of bed, take a shower, today is the day... we are going to see grandma (she died a few years ago, but we call going to see her grave just going to see grandma). We had planned to do this for grandparents day but my sister and mom are both nurses and scheduling conflicts are nothing new in my family. So my sister wound up having her days switched and she had off today so she figured she better get us all up and going otherwise the day would waste away and we wouldn't go.

As it happened, my mom & dad came as well and we had a great time being just our family.. the 4 of us. We went to both of my grandparents cemetary plots which happen to be a few miles apart and my fathers parents are buried right across from our favorite polish restuarant. So we had a wonderful day, the sun was bright, the breeze was cool and both the cemetary offices were open so we had access to bathrooms, people to help us hunt down other family members/friends plots, and other people to ask to remove some bushes from one plot that are over grown. It was a great day..

Better yet, I get home to find this FAT envelope in my mail box and I see Tim's (my husband) grandmothers handwriting with my name spelled out perfectly (I didn't take my husbands last name and have an impossible last name to boot). Sure enough the inside contained all the coupons that came 9/7 so I think we got 4 sets that weekend?

Here is what she said:

Dear Melissa,

First of all THANK YOU for the Grandparents day card. A few years ago it was always celebrated the last Sunday in September. next I was in the hospital from last Monday til next Thursday with ppnemonia. I'm home now and doing ok. Nexxt coupons were all from last Sunday, I never had so many in one day. Let me know if you have had enough.

Are you all ready for the wedding - really getting close! (side note Tim's oldest brother is getting married Oct 5th) Wish I could write like you do. The mailman always has a big smile when he delivers it. You will be getting the magazine Family Circle. They sent me a coupon that I could give one to someone so I thought of you. I enjoy it and hope you will too.

Good luck going thru 194 coupons (yes she counted them). See you on the 5th of Oct.

Love
Grandma

I guess today is actually grandparents day today in my family anway! lol!

Weight Watcher coupon giveaway contest

Hey ladies.. I was a Weight Watcher queen until exactly 1 year ago today. I'm not kidding.. September 16th last year was the last time I journaled, ate within my points, and worked out. After that date was my Brother in laws wedding and I just gave up.. because 2 weeks later Tim and I went to Punta Cana on vacation and 2 weeks after that we got 2nd jobs to pay off our debt. Between having no money, the stress, working a ton of hours, then getting laid off from my regular job, and a ton of other things I've gained back all but 6lbs of the weight I lost on Weight Watchers. Check out my site Losing my ARSE in the battle

Okay so Lorie over at Honey I shrank our spending is doing a little giveaway and it's all for Weight Watcher product coupons. In my promise to myself to start back up as of tomorrow 9/17 this would be a great way for me to jump back in with both feet.. anyway head over here!

this used to be my favorite store before coupons happened

Woodmans.. oooh how I miss thee... but IP's are not allowed and it's difficult to find out prices because they have no sales ads.. so it's almost easier just to go elsewhere.. but this week they actually sent out a flyer and in the flyer was WOODMANS COUPONS which something new. all they had was a few $1 off coupons.. really generic like $1 off paper products, $1 off pet products, $1 off cleaning products, but they let me stack them so this is what I wound up with.

3 bags of cat litter $1.99 each used 3 $1 manu coupons and $1 store coupon
3 bags of cat food used 3 $1 coupons (they said any size WOOT)
1 9 jumbo roll pack Charmin TP $4.99 $1 store coupon 25 cent manu (not the best deal I admit)
1 can mighty dog food FREE with coupon
4 Cascadian Farms frozen mixed veggies $1.59 each used 4 $1 coupons (not IP)

Total OOP $12.31

My car smelled heavenly on the way home

My first stop of the day was at WAGS, I had put together a few deals of things I wanted to get. On the way home I stopped at Woodmans and Meijer last (I'm posting out of order today sorry) but every time I got back in my car it smelled divine.. and here is why.

2 glade 2 pack oil refill $5.99 each BOGO but only up to $5.49
1 glade oil warmer FREE WITH COUPON ON REFILL PACK WATCH FOR IT plus $1 from rebate
3 glade candle refill B2G1 free coupon $1.99 each plus I'll get $3 from rebate
1 Crest Prohealth mouthwash $4.49 used 75 cent coupon got back $4.50 RR

used $10 RR cleaners last week and $4 RR Benadryl last week and 16 cents off my gift card. I got back a $4.50 RR from the mouthwash and I will get back $4 in rebates next month. Not bad.

Banned from POO now household cleaners...

A few weeks ago I had to announce my addiction to free POO and show how my stockpile has exceeded what I'll ever use in 3 years time! lol! So now it's household cleaners.. sorry between Meijer having 1/2 off this week and WAGS having that great $10 RR last week I've stocked up..



Okay so here is my loot

11/$10 (or 10/$10 get the 11th free)
2 BC cake mixes $1/2 coupon
2 BC potatoes $1/2 coupon
4 Glade spray 1 BOGO 1 1/$2
1 hunts ketchup no coupon FREE ITEM
2 combos $1/2 coupon

1/2 off Lysol products
2 dual action wipes $1.24 had 2 75 cent coupons 49 cents each
10 Lysol wipes $1.24 each had 50 cent coupons for each 74 cents each
10 Lysol Kitchen spray $1.14 50 cent coupons for each 64 cents each
3 Lysol multipurpose solution $1.39 each 50 cent coupons for each 89 cents each
1 Lysol toilet bowl cleaner $1.04 50 cent coupon 54 cents
1 Lysol 4-in-1 spray $1.39 $1 coupon 39 cents

38 items paid $26.85 OOP with tax. Saved $57.86!!! Not bad, basically that is 70 cents for each item with tax!

*almost* in tears over a really great unexpected gift from a fellow blogger

I had a fellow blogger send me a note just simply asking if I wanted any pet supply coupons. She said she didn't have any pets and knew I did and was willing to forward them to me so I could use them. Today I got a Pirority mail 8x11 envelope STUFFED with coupons... just totally unbelieveable. I don't know if she wants me to broadcast/advertise but I just want to make it known that this grocery gaming community has helped me in ways that I had never expected. So I just wanted to thank her and every fellow gamer for making this possible for me... I seriously could not do this all alone!! You are all 100% amazing!

My *****BEST****** WAGS trip ever!!!!! I ♥ Wags 4-ever!!!

OMG I AM SOOOO EXCITED TO ACTUALLY POST THIS.. CHECK IT OUT!!

okay the rundown of my goodies.... sooo sooo soooo excited, can you tell??
buy 7 get $10 RR
5 Scrubbing Bubbles scrubbers $3.79 each used $2 coupon for each
1 windex $2.49 used 75 cent coupon
1 shout wipe box of 12 $2.40 used 75 cent coupon

buy 3 get $4 RR
3 Benadryl $3.99 used 3 $1 manu coupons

rebates
1 excederin $3.79 used $2 IP coupon
1 crest pro health toothpaste $3.79 used 75 cent coupon

clearance
3 aqua noodles $1.49 each (my dad brings these to our house in AZ for the pool)

stacked deals
2 oust spray $2.99 each used BOGO coupon 1 $1/1 manu coupon plus $1/1 ES coupon which gave me $2 off ($1 off each one)
3 twizzlers used coupon from flyer 99 cents each
2 Dove bars used 2/$3 ad coupon 2 $1/$1 manu coupons 1 easy saver coupon
2 Herbert Choc bars $1.99 each used ES coupon took off $3 so I paid 49 cent each?
1 Visine $4.79 used ES $2 plus $1 manu

no deal
2 gallons of milk $2.99 each

used $10/$40 WAGS coupon good only yesterday/today
used two $10 RR I had

Originally she said my total was $88 or something.. handed her coupons my total was $15.21. Used my GC so paid NOTHING OOP and got back $10 for the cleaners and $4 for the benadryl which I needed desparately. Plus I will get back $8.34 in rebates next month! Woah.. I'm spent!

The bottom of my receipt says
WAG COUPON SAVINGS: $ 6.51
WAG ADVERTISED SAVINGS: $23.83
MFG COUPON SAVINGS: $52.24
YOUR TOTAL SAVINGS: $82.58

THHHHHHHHATTTT RIIIIIGHHTTTT!!

WOOT FOR SAMPLES

TODAY I GOT THIS!!!!

A potato masher along with a free coupon for Ore Ida new steam and mash mashed potatoes and as you can see $1 coupons for the same product! wonder if these will ever go down to $1 each???

Oh I got it from shespeaks which is another website like BzzAgent where I get to sample stuff for free!!

Meijer trip

Okay sorry no pictures today.. I had a bunch of frozen food items and wanted to get it in the freezer considering for some dumb reason I decided to get that stuff first when I got to the store.. then I was walking around trying to match up coupons with other deals such as clearance items and other sales. I have not been cutting out my coupons so all the coupons I had on me are old and some are about to expire.

Here is what I wound up with

11/$10 (or 10/$10 and the 11th for free)
6 Green Giant steamers used 6 $1/1 coupons 4 from inserts 2 IP
2 Betty Crocker mashed potatoes used $1/2 coupon
3 Land O Lakes Butter used 2 50 cent coupons (no clue why I didn't cut out more for myself)
2 Hunts Ketchup (they gave one of these to me as my free 11th item)

LYSOL 1/2 OFF DEALS
5 Lysol toliet bowl cleaners $1.04 each used 5 50cent coupons = 54 cents each! yahoo
2 4 in 1 Lysol multi purpose lemon (I think) spray $1.39 each used 2 $1/1 I had= 39 cent each DOUBLE YAHOO
2 4 in 1 Lysol wipes used two 75 cent coupons (I had coupons for double action wipes and I had 4 of the wipes. 2 of the coupons scanned in fine, the other 2 wouldn't go so the cashier looked at the product and wouldn't take the extra 2 coupons for the wrong product but didn't care about the first two. I had her take the other 2 off) so my total was 98 cents for both!

Miscellaneous
2 Bakery Items marked down to $1.97
2 Ore Ida Hashbrowns price drop 99 cents used $1/2 coupon from All You August mag
2 Meijer tator tots $2 each used 1 $1 coupons from mealbox

Pet Items
1 Mighty Dog canned dog food 61 cents used free coupons FREEBIE (had a neighbor give me a ton of old coupons and found that one in there along with some other free coupons that had expired grr)
4 Ceasar dog food 77 cents each used BOGO coupon from Sunday's paper

Okay so my total OOP should have been around $18.50 (give or take a few cents) without tax however 2 items did not ring up correctly and she didn't scan one of my $1 coupons (the ore ida one) so my total OOP with tax was $25.91 however I'll be going back to Meijer to collect my $5.47 so my total would have been a little over $20. Not bad for a good size cart of stuff.

fast CVS trip

4 Right Guards $2.99 each $1/1 coupon for each
1 Dry Idea (for myself) $2.99 1 75 cent coupon
1 6pack of Gold Emblum water $2.59 $1 CVS coupon from scanner


$2/$10 coupon plus $8.79 in ECBs (she rung one in as $4.79 instead of the full $5 so then I told her I had two $2 ECBS handed those to her and she took off the $5 one instead of the $4.79 one grrr oh well) Total OOP $1.38 and I earned $10 in ECB so not a bad run. I'll be giving those deoderants for Christmas to my son/nephews and of course for my husband to use!

Nervous Nelly...

Okay I said I was going to post about her and here it is.. I've seen a few posts from my regular blog roll just in the past DAY that really had me seeing red. My deals usually take me hours sometimes over days to get just right and then I get all nervous going into the store because 9 times out of 10 I know the deal will be blown by one of several reasons.

a. they are out of stock on said item or several items that make up my deal(s)
2. I read the sale ad/blog wrong and have the wrong dates/product/price/store
d. the cashier sucks and won't use IP coupons
4. the cashier sucks and misses half my coupons
6. the cashier sucks and just won't take my coupons period
b. the register does not print my RRs or ECBS
g. the scanner isn't working at the store I go to so I can't get any coupons when I walk in which I love to do and it throws my entire trip off.
a. the rebate I thought I could do for said product doesn't start for another 3 days so I have to return said product and rebuy on said day so the receipt shows I bought said product on said day.
9. I bought the wrong product for said rebate.
10. I buy said product at store abc (I love abc stores but I'm just using the term "abc" for the example) and the next week said product is an even better deal at store xyz but I already used the coupon so I'm screwed.
f. I could probably go on and on with all the problems I have couponing/hounding but if you are reading this it's because you are also a grocery gamer and have experienced at least a few of my same problems.

**side note** the numbering/lettering like that was a joke from a movie.. I can't remember which movie it was but it used to have my mom and I laughing our butts off when we would talk like that.

So over at Frugal and Fabulous she wrote this blog close to giving up and it really struck home for me simply because I know where she was at. I know that exact feeling. It is unbelievably frustrating to hear how easy it is for others out there to walk into any store and have all their deals work perfectly.. I know maybe they did blog about their issues in the past and I've missed them.. but there are just times where feeling like you are the oddball out just makes it all worse.

Also another blog in fact the blog that really got me rolling was Hounding with Frugalsuz.. and this blog she wrote just last night makes me realize her deals don't always work out either. In fact, she is as frustrated as I have been in the past.. not sure why but this is actually a comfort to me especially since this is two blogs I read back to back last night. check out her problems. What a weekend

HERE at Frugal Floridian she writes about a look she got from the cashier during her transactions and then the comments the cashier made as she left the store.

In this day with dollars needing to be stretched as far as possible why is this such a big deal for stores ESPECIALLY recently? Is there going to be some crack down on couponing? Is it just that all of us had a bum weekend/week with this game? Is it a coincidence or is it my mind thinking too much that we are being discriminated against? Let me know what you think!

early Sunday WAGS run

well it was early for me.. 8:10am is really early for me since I've been unemployed.. anyway... I went specifically for the Scrubbing Bubbles shower deal which was $19.99 on sale with a $5 manu coupon plus I used my $10 RR from last week and got another $10 back! My WAGS has always had exactly 3 of these on the shelf at any given time.. not sure how I know this but it's true so I wanted to be there bright and early to cash in on this deal. I basically only had to spend $5 OOP for this (considering I don't count RR's I earn until I use them) but I had my GC so my total was 0 oop!! yeahh!!

anyway.. I was there and my buddy Julie was working and of course I decided to look at clearance stuff since I brought no other coupons than my RR and manu with! amazed? I was too.. I think Julie thought I couldn't walk without that coupon box, it holds me up ya know!

anyway.. this is what I walked out with.


My total after coupons was $59.88 but I paid with my GC no wonder my GC goes so fast every month! lol! Most of the stuff I got is for all the kids I buy Christmas gifts for. The BBQ set was $5.19 and that is for my brother/sister in law, the desk lamp is for my father in law and the wind chimes are for all the ladies I have between my and my husbands family.

So I'm going to start listing out the people I buy for and figuring out what is for whom and what else I need to buy to fill the gaps. Either way I think I'm in pretty good shape!

I doed it! (yes that is correct English if you are like 2-4 years old)

Yes.. I doeded it!! I said I was gonna and I dooeded it.. okay.. this whole week has thrown me for a loop.. so just keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times and enjoy the ride (that is my life)... so.. I said I was going to clear off a couple shelves soon in my stockpile post. Loooookiiieee looookiee here...

BEFORE

AFTER...
YES!! I DID IT! woot! an accomplishment for this month.. amazed, I know I am!! lol! Our neighborhood had a garage sale today and I took a bike ride around and check out what people had (you never know) and this lady wanted $5 for this black book case that is about the same size as the other ones we had already in the garage.. check it out.

sorry I was a little slow on the uptake today (in many things just wait and see what other dumb stuff I did today) and decided to pull out the extra car to get the bookshelf in, but then didn't take the picture of the bookshelf totally empty with the car OUT OF THE GARAGE, so I had to lean over the car to take that pic. you get the idea. So I moved the car stuff to the bottom shelf of the new black shelf which is perfect and I moved what was in that top shelf to the top of the new shelf. So now I have 1 1/2 shelves that need to be filled! CVS time!!

So I headed out to CVS armed as usual of the deals all being there perfect just waiting for me.. each one.. the dawn dish detergent the lip slicks or whatever.. yeah I was going to give them as Christmas gifts.. I'm so bad with that stuff... sounded sorta fun.. but anyway.. I get there and no deals to be had.. so I walked around looking at the clearance and the back to school stuff that was on sale/marked down.. so this is what I wound up with.


table top grill $24 marked down to $6
lunch bag $9 marked down to $6 (I think) I bought it for my husbands non existant job
2 Purex laundry detergents $5.99 on sale for $2.99 used two $.50 coupons plus got $1 ECB back from each
popsicles $3.99 I knew these were not the right ones for the deal that www.iheartcvs.com had outlined but I wanted them to work anyway! lol! they didn't

I had a $4/$20 coupon I had emailed to me.. of course it wouldn't work and I was at the one CVS that will not even attempt to push it through. I gave her a $2/$10 and at that time I should have asked her to take off the popsicles because I owed some astronomical amount.. so I turned in a $11.98 ECB knowing I was only getting $2 ECB back for sure. not good.. so my OOP was $7.70 DOUBLE GASP {{QUE DRAMATIC MUSIC DAHHHA DAHHHDAHHH DDAAHHHH}}} so basically I paid for the portable grill but it's for a Christmas gift for my dad.. so it's all good..

lastly I got samples yesterday in the mail.. pretty good ones.


a free roll of TP (everybody can use that) with a coupon
and a free shaver

***note to self*** CVS YTD savings 728.85 Summer 2008 spending $102.68.

WAGS came through for me TWICE!! amazing!

Soooo last night I got a phone call from Walgreens saying that they are giving me a curtosey $5 Rebate for a folder I bought that they are claiming was the wrong one for the rebate HOWEVER in the picture it's exactly the same.. cool.. so after that message I decided to call to find out if I had any money yet on my card.. YES!! My entire rebate has already been loaded! yeahhh wags! So everything from here on out is free for me...

but I'm going to need it.. because my husband got laid off today! ughhh not good. seriously. I've been unemployed since April and still have no idea when I'll be going back to work.. ughh

But my shopping day got even better than yesterday! I bet you can't wait to hear why and how! lol! I went to Aldi just to get a few items I needed for this weekend. As I'm walking around the store I see this really old man walk up to an Aldi employee and say "where is the pasta, my wife writes the list and I can never find the stuff when she sends me by myself" so the girl points in a general direction and say "Larry you ASK ME THIS every time you come YOU should know by know" with this the manager walks out shaking his head and says "geez YOU SHOULD JUST DO ALL HIS SHOPPING FOR HIM CONSIDERING THAT'S WHAT HE WANTS YOU TO DO ANYWAY" in a loud shouting voice! ughhh whatever.. so I get my items go to the front.. the line is of course down the isle and mr manager opens a 2nd register.. seeing everybody in front of me has like 3 things each I of course wind up in mr managers line.. he put up the CLOSED sign after my order.. this guy walks up behind me and has 3 items all the same and he says to him "THAT'S OKAY REPUBLICANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO READ EITHER" ughhh what??? what is that about? seriously!!

So yes, my day was swell how was yours? lol! :)

okay lady.. you pushing your cart up my @zz is not going to get you and your 4 kids out of this store any sooner!

Okay I had a bad hounding day.. I'll just put that up front.. starting with Wal-Mart. I needed to get a gift for my husbands god-daughters baptism this Sunday and there were 2 ladies at the Jewelry counter who decided that they weren't going to help me. I finally had to go up to a CSM that I recognized close the jewelry dept and ask her how to get help.. finally one of the ladies came and helped me.. but of course she was suggesting I get the baby a savings bond over getting the baby what I wanted. Whatever. Savings bond suck now, they take what 38 years to mature now? Total insanity. I chose an appropriate gift and moved on. Getting through the register was another story based on a really slow cashier, a lady with a ton of coupons for items she didn't even have! If I had more power on my phone I would have taken a picture of her and started a segment called "the people who make couponing impossible for the people who are attempting to coupon legally" anyway.. I finally got through.

Next stop, Ulta.. I ran around the clearance and I had a 20% off for the entire order coupon and a $5/$10. When I get to the front the girl said "I can't use both coupons together so can I just divide these two orders up.. it will be the same" I completely snapped back because I had a 20% off coupon last week and the girl was trying to get me to use that $5/$10 but because my total wasn't even $5 she said I couldn't use it.. she even told me to go run and grab another item "just grab a nail polish" to get it over $5 so I could use it.. I should have because this girl wouldn't let me use them together even though I explained that another cashier would have let me use them.. "she was wrong, you can't do that" I left my items and left the store.. typing this out it now makes sense because the 20% coupon I had for last week was for ONE ITEM and the one for this week was for your entire purchase. Still she could have explained that instead of "it's the same" umm noooo it's not.. let me figure it out for you.. doh!

and finally the grand finally of my trip. I get to CVS and scan my card and get my $5 ECB that I called on last week WOOOT!! and a $2 off 2 gold emblum nuts and I think $1 off 3 CVS paper towels. So I start my hunt for the purex, dawn, cover girl lip slicks, and flavor ice deals.. yeah no dice NOT ONE of any of them... yeah.. jerks. They never have anything stocked. ughhh I guess there are a ton of hounders out there clearning those shelves but they should have a huge stock in back just waiting for this. They were restocking shelves while I was there but of course I looked at the boxes they had waiting and not one of them was dawn, purex, or cover girl..

I decided to walk around the store in search of some good clearance items. I found 2 of those Glucerna meal bars for diabetics marked down to $1.75. If I had coupons I could have made $7 off those puppies.. oh well.. such is life.. My dad loves them so I figured I could use my $2/$10 coupon to get one of them for free at least. Not bad. My husband has been whining about needing batteries for the smoke detectors (I guess it's a good thing to be whining about) so I grabbed some Duraceel that were on sale for $5.79.. now here is the kicker.. I had to use a $5 ECB and I got NOTHING back! GASP! I know.. horrible.. my total was like $1.7.... something not bad for all I got.. so I was happy..

Okay now this is not the first time this has happened to me but today it was super irriatating because as usual there is not one person in the store. I decide to check out and the lady in front of me is arguing about some water she is trying to buy that didn't ring up right. She was right, she even went and got the sign off the display and put it right in the guys face. He was basically telling here there was nothing he could do and that "maybe she grabbed the wrong kind" umm no.. So now the line is the lady aruging about water, another woman behind her, me, and now walks in some lady with 4 kids. Okay whatever, they are just buying snacks. Her oldest a boy is dressed in a gi ready for his Karate class.. she's yelling at him that he has a string around his neck and he tells his mom that his sister had given it to him.. and she is yelling at him that throwing it at him and giving it to him are "2 DIFFERENT THINGS" now she is standing close enough to my back that if I decided to put my foot under the cart and lean forward my butt would have been touching her.. so now I look behind me and there is a good 8 people total in line including myself.

Finally the lone cashier calls for help and nobody comes.. of course.. then when someone does come up there is not one register that is clear to be able to use.. each counter was full of items that needed to be restocked. I finally got to get rung up and left the store.. whew.. but that is seriously not the first time that someone has been basically shoving me forward as if it's going to help them get out faster... I want to turn around and look at them and wait in line while staring right at them or turn around and be so close I could spit on them if I talked hard enough.. ughhh

oooh and must I forget.. my last stop the dry cleaner who LOST my husbands shirt had no clue where it was.. "what color was it" I have no idea and my cell is out of juice, so she hands me her phone to call him because she can't find it.. I call him, he says gray, the thing was hanging directly in front of me and she asks me "where is your tag for it" all I ever get is a receipt when I go there.. no clue.. but also while I'm in there some russian guy is asking for his drapes which he dropped off weeks before... "I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow I don't want to forget them" they weren't done yet! yikes.. think I'll be changing dry cleaners! lol!

so yes.. that was my day.. I think the rain is getting to me.. who ordered the cold and rain? huh who was it?

anyone else notice WAGS website is really slow?

I entered one receipt with 3 rebates on it for September and still have not gotten a reply/response from that. Also whenever I try to go on the site it seems very slow in the easy saver section. I added a new receipt yesterday and it took minutes to get from screen to screen...

made from the stockpile

I have a label entitled "made from the stockpile" and lately I've actually been able to use some of the things from the stockpile specifically for meals, I know in the future like birthdays and Christmas especially I will be pulling from my stockpiles around my house to make little baskets/boxes for various family members. Each time I see something on clearance/sale or some deal I can get I try to figure out whom may need this item and if I could give it them as a gift.

I started couponing/hounding on June 29th 2008 that was my first CVS receipt. Before then I had tried and miserably failed when I would come home and realize that I had totally messed up the deal by buying items I really didn't need or used a coupon that the next week would have made much better use in a deal. Those were my rookie mistakes. 2 solid months in I still make them but they are becoming less and less. Just today I made one by buying Robitussin at WAGS, the deal that was described doesn't start until next week! I never read the dates (reading is key here) but I did wind up making an okay deal out of it considering I used a $9 RR from last week.

So today I decided to take some pictures of the various places I stockpile around my house. I moved from a 3,000 square foot 4 floor home with a 4 car garage to a small 1500 no closet space townhouse a little over 5 years ago. I'm still figuring out ways to store different things and this stockpiling is only making things worse for me. this is where I started.. in my garage. My husband just got these shelves from his work last winter and they were full of other things and to this day I have no clue what.. as you can see I've taken over quite effectively. The 3rd shelf with all the car stuff on it I think I'm going to ask my husband to build an extra shelf specifically for... yeah right.. maybe I'll ask my dad.
the top shelf will be emptied and refilled within the next couple trips I'm thinking..
thank god for this little sliding door at the bottom.. this is actually the place my husband keeps our huge supply of extensions cords we need for the holidays, but I discovered my cat Sidney was begging to go in the garage because she had figured out I had food out there.. and she is a ninja at getting into any food even if it's not hers. Steaks, chicken, cat food, dog food, you name it.. if it smells like food she can get into it.. boxed, bagged, plastic, no difference to her.. she's 15 and has brains. So I threw them down there and really I should at least tape up the one bag she mangled... ughh yes I'll get to that..
and here is the bag that started my Christmas gatherings.. I had brought some gifts home when said persons were sitting in the living room playing xbox so I just shoved them on top of the cat food.. which is where everything has been going if it isn't something someone can see.. all I can say is a ton of stuff has made it's way into this bag and it's not only for persons living inside my home.. it has now grown to my nieces/nephews as well. here is the first box I started adding smaller items to. the box got grossly over filled and I bought the box below which is more for travel size small items.
most of my mail goes directly into this box now.. it's shoe box sized plastic tote..
this is my chips/bagged cereal box. I also have stuffing in there.
this is actually 3 cases of pop, you can barely see the pepsi sticking out from behind the Sierra Mist. I got this at WAGS last week and have no place to put it. I gave my son 2 cases to bring home with him.
I try my best but my cabinets always are full of pasta sauce. There is one deal to the next and each week I make pasta at least once trying to use them up but it seems that they sneak up on me too fast and again I'm out there buying another 4-5 jars.
This is actually a coat closet in a small little hallway leading to my garage. It's always been a small storage closet for us instead and now it's a stockpile closet. I have about 15 more $1 coupons for Tidy Cat but for some reason the only type I can find is that dumb red one.. we don't like the red one so I'd like to find any other type and buy them out.. unfortunately the only store I know for FACT that sells all of them sells them for $2.05 each and Target/Wal-Mart have them for $1.77 each.. that quarter is killing me! The TP I bought when I first started hounding which is actually what drove me to hound. I couldn't buy expensive TP without feeling guilty because I'm the one home all day using it up really fast. I was buying some really bad stuff from either Aldi or Wal-Mart.
Okay this is the part that gets me about hounding.. this cabinet was FULL until this weekend. My son and my husband don't look at my stockpiling as we can eat forever, they see it as "let's eat as much as we can as fast as we can" I go through milk now like you wouldn't believe... ughh.

this is in my bedroom closet on the floor. I just started this box so things I needed upstairs would be close.. however it's overflowing.
this is another box of things for Christmas gifts. I just got this box today from BzzAgent with my gaming system.

okay.. this is not a stockpile HOWEVER it shows just how sick I am. I keep buying these scrubbers because I like them and because I don't want to have to buy another "starter kit" if I ruin the handle somehow.. so instead I keep them all.. I know.. there is something wrong with me...

and so you've seen it.. I think that is all of it. where do you keep all your stuff? I need ideas! lol!

BzzAgent gave me this gaming system!

Welllllll I had to pay $50 but I got the games free or did I buy the games and get the gaming system free.. either way.. It was a good deal. and with my 4 guys hanging around here (my husband 31, my son 14, my oldest nephew 16, and my youngest nephew 10) we have every gaming system known to man.. including specific gaming computers, both the older kids have their own laptops. So the run down is XBOX, XBOX360, Playstation 1,2,3, Wii, Atari (the old school one), 3 PSPS, gameboy (2-3 of those floating around), we never had gamecube and we actually just got rid of our old Nintendo. They also play computer games on-line and against each other.. So this was more for me and to break up the "finding the Pimp Cup" hours with Grand Theft Auto. I figured it would be a way for all of us to play together (I'll have to get the extra 2 controllers) and exercise our minds.

Okay so it comes with the gaming system, 1 game and 4 remotes (WITH BATTERIES). Then I got 6 extra games along with it. We'll see what the hubbie says when he sees it.. I never told him.. he might want to give it to someone for Christmas gift, so who knows.

Anyway.. I'm loving BzzAgent. I finally took some time to navigate around their site a little more and finally moved up to a level 2 bzzagent. So I'm finally getting in on a few things. like this month I had mentioned some free taco bell, I got the scrubbing bubbles shower scrubber for free, and I have another campaign that I haven't recieved yet. It's all really great stuff.. I can't wait to get this game running and see how it works.

I had to take several pictures to get the final one I used because I kept getting photobombed by who other than my animals.. as usual.. check it out.