great and not so great things about 2008

Well.. I guess this would be an amazingly appropriate time for me to explore some awesome things about 2008... GOOD AND BAD.

Here is 2008 summed up, funny I just rattled this off to 2 co-workers today.. all in all I feel like a failure on some parts but in other areas feel as if I've accomplished more in one year than any other year of my life.

♥paid off $30,000 in 6 months. my story is outlined here and the 2nd part continued here
♥found out January 2008 that I would be laid off by March 2008. later they extended that date to April 11th 2008. Had our HR come in and explain unemployment to us, our benefits, severance, etc. Had another company come in and help us do our resumes and prepare for interviewing.
♥May 2008 I am laid off and my husband work drops hours down to 32 hours. His final checks after taxes, health/dental/vision, 401k blah blah blah is not much more than my unemployment checks.
♥June 2008 out of necessity I start learning grocery gaming/couponing/hounding. It took me awhile and I'm still learning, but I've gotten some great deals since and have learned so much about myself and my money.
♥September 5th 2008 my husband gets laid off!! ughhh.. he gets unemployment and severance and luckily found another job within 3 weeks. He only wound up getting 3 weeks of unemployment in the end.. but oh well.
♥October 2008 my husband starts his new job and I learn to live off his new checks (they are bigger because there is no insurance/401k taken out yet) so I start saving as much money as I can and start building an amazing (to me) emergency fund. This of course will change with his insurance now kicking in as well as 401k.
♥December 12th 2008, my boss calls me in for a meeting and asks me to come back to work MONDAY!! I went back the next week after a few snafu's and having to change around a ton of plans etc.
♥TODAY DECEMBER 31ST 2008 I got my first check from my new company and EVERY DIME went to savings. I had not one bill that has to be paid.

~I gained an amazing amount of weight in the last 18 months basically. I must get back on WW immediately. I can not believe I was off for basically 9 months and did no biking, hardly any walking, no running, walked the dog just once a day.
~I wasted an unbelievable amount of time not getting much done this year. I'm not sure how the days slid by so quickly at home, but they did.
~My parents paid for me to take medical transcription classes on line. I completed the medical terminology portion in the first few weeks I was off but after that I was concentrating so hard on saving money that I never did get any of my medical transcription done. I feel so bad about that.
~I got rid of our gym membership after not going for 6 months and bought a treadmill which now sits with about an inch of quarry dust on it in my garage. *sigh*

Okay... now I have to admit.. Unemployment DID have it's benefits. I was home to help numerous neighbors with their animals over the summer and house sit. I felt good being able to help them all.

I was home to help a friend who wound up with Guillian Barre Syndrome explained here with her kids. At first her mother was living in her home 24/7 so I went over to help her mom. I figured I could at least give her a break. Once she came home from the hospital then I was able to watch the kids while she went for physical therapy so her mom could return to her own household life.

I also was able to spend some time with my son, my husband, family, and friends. This was good, but also had some stress related because of the financial situation. Hanging out sometimes requires spending ca$h, so I was pretty honest with people about finances and letting them know I couldn't join them for dinner at fancy restaurants or go down town or travel. It just wasn't in the cards.

Okay I had a ton more to write here but seriously I can't even think of the things I wanted to touch on. Basically, a majority of the people I personally know had a pretty stinky 2008. I can't wait to kiss this year goodbye and am looking forward to a POSITIVE 2009.

which do you use?

I'm full of questions again the last few days... so I'm wondering out of all the little websites that offer you cash back or points to shop through their sites, which ones do you use? Right now I have so many accounts I can't even keep them straight HOWEVER whenever purchasing a product I go on each site and find out which pays the most back and which allows you to use coupon codes. Plus I always use my credit card that pays me back points towards it's own website. Here are a few I use.

www.ebates.com
www.cashbaq.com
www.mrrebates.com
www.thankyou.com
www.mypoints.com

I know there is at least one other I'm not thinking of right now. Tell me what you think about these sites and which you use.

Is there any double dip deals this month at Walgreens?

Just a question because I was looking at a few sites and didn't see any posted?? even over at www.iheartwags.com they didn't have anything posted... hmmm I know it's a bit late to be asking this but it slipped my mind until just today!

The 65 sq foot home, could you live there?

Jay over at Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has found a way to live green in many ways.. living in a 89 sq foot home since 1997 he runs a company that sells not only plans to these tiny homes but builds them and delivers them to you as well. Be sure to check out the you tube video's posted especially the one of his own personal home. I made sure to check out each of the layouts and thought that I would love to retire that way. Doubt my husband would be as excited about it, and stockpiling would be impossible.. but really.. with economic times being the way they are, living "green" would be so easy.. the green would be lining my pockets to keep me warm as well.. hmmmm check it out and let me know your thoughts on this...

BACK IN THE GAME!!

Went to CVS with $40.92 in ECBS and left with $59.97 in ECB's.. I spent $3 of my own money out of pocket and I barely used any coupons!! I wasn't prepared at all.. just wanted to go to roll what ECBS I had that were going to expire the 27th.




My CVS was substituting many items as long as it was either the same price or less and a comparable product. So this is what I wound up with. LQQk at the HUGE Listerine's I got!! wow. I wish I had brought coupons.. I also wish my dumb butt would have actually looked through my CVS envelope I had with me because I had a few CVS coupons I could have used.. doh!! Anyway.. I'm not feeling like listing out all the prices.. but basically I did two transactions so I could use a $10/$50 for the first transaction and a majority of my original $40 in ECB's.


BEARS JUST WON!!!

whoo hoo they played the Packers so that's awesome for Chicago!!

I miss all of you! My new/old job is VERY busy so I've been working a ton.. which is good and bad. I'm salary now so no OT but it's good because we need the work to keep us open and keep my job so I'll take it!

If I don't post again before Christmas, have a wonderful holiday everyone!!

2009 goals..

anyone got any? yeah.. I know some of you have already posted your goals and even your budgets for the following year. I seriously don't have the energy or time for that right now and really who knows what is going to bring this year.. so instead I'm proposing a dare for myself.. ut oh another challenge where I'm gonna last ooooh 3 days. Probably.

Well basically now that I've learned how to live on what unemployment pay is for 9 months including my husband getting laid off.. I'm thinking of staying with that frame of spending. 2008 has been a kick butt year for me to learn a ton about myself and really even though I've spent on things I probably shouldn't have in the end I'm pretty dang proud of how well I've done. We paid off our debt in 6 months, $30,000 in 6 months.. I still can't even believe that happened.

Ok so I'm thinking that my goal for next year should be to live off of my husband's paycheck and only 1 of my paychecks per month. I get paid on the first and last day of the month so I could actually use my checks to pay bills and my husbands for the goal/challenge...?? hmm or I could take half from each check and throw that into savings. Either way, we'd still be living the way we do now with stocked shelves full of food, toiletries, cat/dog food/items, and really all I would have to do for awhile would be to buy fresh veggies, fresh dairy, and meat. We've done it for 9 months why can't this continue?

get FREE or paid $5 for Entertainment books in the Chicago area!! (other places prices vary, but still great deals)

okay over at Choyster Cash she explains how to get Entertainment books for a great deal. The deal just keeps getting better the more you buy. I just bought one, I was already a Cashbaq member so I don't get the $5 sign up but mine worked out like this.

$25 regular book price
-$10 off from Entertainment book
-$5 off for signing up for auto renewal

$10 I put on my credit card but then I'll get the $10 back through Cashbaq.

If you know friends/relatives that you use these, it would be a great $5 gift!!

Blagojevich

I'm from Illinois.. which means that the whole blagojevich thing (if you had not heard yet Illinois' governor has been arrested for an array of reasons) has been part of daily talk in our state for the past few months.. now it's part of daily national discussion. Of course, with the new president elect being from Chicago as well, I'm feeling our area is under a microscope and all the media is here day in day out. Not that this shouldn't be national "talk" it's just that CNN and MSN picked up the story within minutes! It was insane.. anyway.. I just wanted to make some light of this horrible situation and remind everyone to watch Saturday Night Live tonight. I heard they are doing a few Blagajevich jokes or maybe a skit? Should prove to be pretty funny considering the guy is an obvious DOOHHHH!!

{{also from Illinois the Simpsons}}

GOOD NEWS!

heyyyyy everybody.. sorry I again have been MIA. Again just not in the mood to hound, hit deals, etc. No money too either. I actually haven't touched my coupon box since last Sunday night when I was cleaning and that was just to move it upstairs to my office so it would be out of the way for my cookie party. I did have to grab it today to check the expiration on a few things, glad I did because the kitty litter coupons expire tomorrow not Monday as I had thought.

well.. I guess I should get on with the good news.. as you know good news somehow has bad news attached to it sometimes.. and in my case it sort of does.. but the good news far far outweighs any bad news.

I'M GOING BACK TO WORK FULL TIME STARTING MONDAY!!

Yup you read it here first! lol! I had talked to my boss on Saturday and basically he was thinking I would come back in March sometime, but the rates dropped out (mortgage industry) and they got bombed and decided to bring me back NOW! He called me for a meeting on Friday afternoon and I seriously didn't know what to expect... and there it was! whoo hoo!

bad news? what bad news? did I say something about bad news.. oh I guess I did.. well.. I won't have as much time to pull deals and to post them. I'll try to do the best I can but I know with going back to work and recreating my schedule, plus the holidays I won't be doing much until after the holidays. I will miss you all, I'll try to stop in your sites as often as possible just so I can steal your deals as I normally do anyway.

Anyway.. I hope everyone has a great holiday season if I don't talk to you before!! :) Everyone stay merry and bright and remember this season, for as much stress as it sometimes brings, is still most peoples favorite!!

Trina asked for cookie recipes!!

Hi everyone.. over on FB (facebook) Trina (also a fellow blogger) asked for cookie recipes after I had announced last night that I was exhausted after my cookie exchange. I have hosted the cookie exchange in my neighborhood for 5 years. It is open to all family/friends of people who live in our neighborhood. We also do an ornament exchange which is fun. My rules for my cookie exchange are seriously fierce. For each person participating you need to make a bag of 6 cookies. They don't have to be Christmas cookies, they can be bars, treats, store bought. Any type, even chocolate chip is taken here. I try to make it cheap and fun.

Here is a list of rules from a website we found a few years ago.. we laugh about it like who would want to be in this one?

RULES OF THE COOKIE EXCHANGE

All cookies must be homemade, baked & main ingredient must be flour.
No "no-bake" cookies, meringues or bars are allowed.

Please bring 6 dozen total cookies. You can split 2 recipes into 3 dozen
each, if you wish. (NOTE! Most asked question: WHY 6 dozen?)

The theme is "Christmas Cookies" - no chocolate chip cookies allowed
- unless they are really different! No "no-bake" cookies.

Arrange cookies in a basket or platter (be creative!) & a large container (i.e., Tupperware) to carry away cookies and a copy of your recipe.

Christmas attire is encouraged!

RSVP as soon as you can and let me know what type of cookies you are planning on baking - no duplicate recipes are allowed.

If you cannot attend but would like to exchange cookies, you may
deliver your cookies the day before the party. I'll exchange them for you.

There's a prize for the best (most outrageous) Christmas outfit.
First, second & third place!!

If you don't have time to bake, or have ruined your recipe, but still want to attend, you must go to a real bakery and buy 6 dozen yummy cookies.

If you can follow all these rules you will be invited again!

anyway.. here is my favorite cookie recipe... for sure.
JOSE CUERVO CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup or brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl,
check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality,
pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter
in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one peastoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point
it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still ok, try another
cup just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup
of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off the floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry
it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Who geeves
a sheet. Check the Jose Cuervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can
find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall
over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the
Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher.
Cherry Mistmas !




here is a website that has links to great cookie recipes. Really nice layout.

I usually make a few type cookies every year but each year I make Peanut Butter Balls. I follow a very easy recipe and it always comes out very yummy.
1lb of powder sugar
1lb of peanut butter
1/2 lb of butter

melt butter, mix in powdered sugar and pb. roll into balls. refrigerate for 1 hour. melt 1lb of chocolate (any kind works and I als put a little wax in it) then dip balls. refrigerate another hour and put in tins/bags.

I host the exchange but every year I make PB balls.. this year I only did PB balls. Everyone asks for them so I said forget it.. they all get 6 of those. I should have done a double recipe and given everyone 12 just to make them happy! lol! I wasn't impressed with the way they turned out this year. Oh well.

From time to time we can get my sister to make those Neiman Marcus cookies that the e-mail had been going around about for here.. Here is the SNOPES version of that story with the recipe. They say the story is false.. hmm

Happy baking or not baking everyone!!

a little help from my "hounding" friends...

I NEED EVERYONE'S HELP ON THIS!!
Okay.. I'm not listing this as a challenge because frankly I have nothing to give to a "winner" and nobody could actually be a "winner" because everyone's ideas are valuable to me. Anyway.. here is my idea. Last night I was laying in bed thinking about Christmas being so close. My husbands family has decided to do away with getting gifts for everyone, the family was just becoming too large especially now with the three of the 4 boys getting married in the last year (my husband being the 4th we got married 10 years ago).

Anywhooo just for fun the last couple years we've been doing one of those white elephant type games where everyone brings a small/cheap gift, wraps it, and we do a little game of rolling dice, picking gifts, and stealing from one another until everyone has rolled a 6 in the final rounds. This year they changed it up and said everyone must bring 3 $1 gifts... hmm well AS WE COUPONERS KNOW $1 can goooo a long way.

So I started thinking of items I've hounded that I either hounded so many of I'll never use them all OR items I've hounded that I haven't found a home for yet. My husband and suggested using the universal remote from CVS Black Friday deals as one of the $1 gifts because for that entire shop I only spent $1.33 OOP. We don't need it, we have all the universal remotes we need right now. I thought it would be a good back up if we needed it..?? but okay.. I'm game.. I got it for free.


So I was trying to think of 5 other items last night. I came up with some nail polish, batteries, soap, shampoo, cereal, etc. But then I started thinking bigger. So here is where I need your help. I'm going to go to CVS and do the biggest shop I can do where I only spend $1 or less out of my own pocket. Everything that I shop in that one transaction will be going in one big box along with the receipt as PROOF and one person will get to open that box and keep the entire contents.

Okay so what I want you to do is leave me a link to a shop you've just done, a shop you've just outlined for upcoming weeks, leave me a comment just outlining a shop that could be done easily or even leave me a comment of just ideas that could help me out.

I'm not sure how many people from the family read the blog, I think maybe 2-3 tops because I do have it linked to my FB. Either way, for the people that don't read this is going to be fun.

Here are my personal CVS details to date to help you with your ideas.
♥I have roughly $46 in ECB's.
♥I would really like to keep all of those $46 ECBS if possible maybe even making more.
♥I have several $10/$50 coupons and $3/$15 coupons I got in the mail from CVS.
♥I get regular papers so I do have multiple of most coupons unless I have used them.
♥I just bought more toner so if you suggest IP's I'm good in that dept
♥I have until Jan 3rd to do this because my husband's family is waiting until after the holidays to celebrate this year. This gives me an extra full week PLUS after Christmas sales.
♥Items must be products that you know will be stocked well. I have only 3 CVS's I can hit and most of them are not well stocked because apparently there are several other hounders out there that "clean the shelves" pretty early.

COINSTAR IS A RIP OFF

I had decided a few weeks ago that I wanted in on the $10 rebate from Coinstar you could get for simply putting $40 in change in one of their machines. I read the website
coinstar in detail outlining this deal. Now not every had used this machine before I wasn't exactly sure how they worked so once I got to the machine I did the short tutorial and read all the signs on the machine. The one sign taped to the machine said that you have to bring the receipt to the service desk. Knowing I had to choose an ecert or gift cert I was a little confused by that but thought that maybe that was just how this store worked with their coinstar machine. I went ahead and started looking through the choices for gift certs and when I couldn't decide I just figured I would put my money in and get it counted. I was over my $40 mark by just 76 cents. I had to work hard to get that $40, the last week I has $9 short and wound up having to buy $6 worth of change because prior to getting to the machine I didn't realize it took dollars as well.

Part of the advertising for this actually says "TRY" so I'm thinking this Coinstar trying to get new customers to use their machines. Of course, I'm looking for directions at the machine to get the rebate and all I remember was the website saying that I needed to keep the bottom part of the receipt to get the extra $10. My coins got counted and now I'm looking through my options and each one just wasn't that appealing to me. Of course I hit the back button to go back to the first screen that had different gift cert options than I was looking at and the next thing I know it's printing out a receipt. Umm okay.. so I go to the customer service desk and the lady hands me $37.16 Coinstar had taken my 8.9 cents on each dollar even though I didn't chose the cash option!!

The customer service lady said she could print a duplicate receipt for me, but this receipt only shows the $37 so I'm asking how I get my rebate. Of course they know nothing of this so I ask if I could get a copy of the receipt that came from the Coinstar machine. Sure, no problem.. so they walk me over to a copy machine which I had to pay the 10 cents for one copy of my receipt.. okay whatever.

I come home, find Coinstar's phone number so I can call them and get this worked out. The man I spoke to basically said "it's your fault you didn't select and it will time out" umm what? So I'm out my $3.63 plus the rebate huh? Basically yes.. so he suggests that I take the money some where else and get $40 in change and start again! Umm yeah you know how long it took me to get that $40 in change together? A long time, and I live in Chicago, this deal ends tomorrow and we're in the middle of negative degree windchills and snow! Yeah like I want to go back out in this weather, inconvenience the store for them to give me $40 in change, and start the process all over again. This is totally nuts.. So finally he puts me on hold to "talk to his supervisor" and comes back and gives me the same smoke so I said "okay so you are telling me I have to take time out of my day to lose even more money to complete this transaction because now I have to come up with another $4 in order to get the $10, how is this worth it??" and he hung up on me!!

Sorry this was not worth it to me.. I'm out my $3 and I'll never use their machines again.

a mish mosh of shopping

I did some shopping yesterday and today.. just wanted to share/brag my buys.. I just emailed a friend of mine a few deals. I'm just going to copy/paste this email because it has some good deals going on not only in my area but also in other states. It gives some good information to those people who are new to couponing as well.

You might have already seen these yourself.. but I wanted to make sure you knew about them because they are THAT GOOD! First that $20 P&G deal doesn't end until the 15th I think.. so take your time if you need to on that one. I just realized that last night and was sorta miffed because I know I could have waited for better Avenu coupons.

At Jewel this week, you might have seen this in their ad, they are doing this weird buy 4 for $19 meats or something. The Pub burgers are part of that. I don't have ad in front of me but basically it would be get 16 burgers for $19 for that's $1.20 for each burger! The lowest they ever went was $1 each! Luckily you have an extra freezer so you can buy these things up!! I use them to make everything from meat loaf to spaghetti and of course we do have burgers sometimes too.. but it's a great deal!!

Not sure if you have read on her website or you knew, but Target has their own coupons as well. ON their website it you scroll to the bottom of the HOME page. The link will be under TARGET STORES then it says SUPER TARGET COUPONS + SPECIALS. if you go into that you can print the coupons, one or all of them if you would like. The best part of this is that you don't have to print them at home. When you go to Target use their "registry" computers where you print baby/wedding registry and you can log on to their website and scroll down just like you would do at home, pick which coupons, and print just like at home but you dont' have to waste your paper or ink!! whoo hoo.

The reason I'm telling you about the Target coupons is because those coupons sometimes have real deals behind them. Like last week I printed out a few $1 off fresh broccoli or cauliflower. Entire heads were on sale for $1.33 so for 33 cents I got a head of broccoli and a head of cauliflower. Also right now there is $2 off ARcher farms HAM. They have Ham's that are cut in little chunks for under $2 so you could make that for dinner and have FREE meat for dinner (ham steaks, or cube it up for breakfast or make a tator tot casserole or any casserole for dinner with it! yumm)

ok that's all I got.. just wanted to let you in on the secrets!


ok, back to my deals! lol!


Walgreens
2 9" plates 79 cents each
2 6" plates 79 cents each
3 chapstick 99 cents buy 2 get one free
$7.xx on GC I took a picture of this because I found 2 that had 80 plates for the same price versus 72 plates. Basically I got 16 extra plates! Just something to watch for.


Meijer
2 Hanes Womens socks $4.49
1 Hanes Men's socks $5.99
buy 3 Hanes products get $10 off deal. Paid $5.33 OOP and got back a $3/$15 CAT for my next trip! woot!

Dominicks
10 Welch's grape juice on sale for $2.99 each. If you buy 5 you get $5 off brings them down to $1.99 each. Used $1 manu coupons for each. Paid 99 cents each. Paid $10.xx OOP (we were actually out of juice believe it or not)


K-Mart (don't have the receipt in front of me so bear with me)
3 Reynolds Alum foil $2.99 each used $1 manus doubled paid 99 cents each
4 Beggin strips no clue on price used $1 manus doubled
3 Endust $3.29 each used $2 manus took add'l $1.29 off FREEBIE
3 Scotch lint sheet roll $3.29 each used $1 manus paid $1.29 for each
1 Lifesavers $1.79 used $1 manu took add'l 79 cents off FREEBIE
4 Quaker granola bars $2.99 each used $1 manus doubled paid 99 cents each (my manu's were actually for another line of Quaker but I had asked another double coupon week and they took them because they don't carry the other line at any of our area stores)
used $5/$50 coupon I got from electronics department that of course expired yesterday but the front register let me use (he had to ask the service desk manager and she said it was okay). My original total was $58.xx after coupons I paid $11.xx OOP.

M.I.A.

Hey everybody.. sorry I've been MIA (too, I just saw another post like this). I too have been busy, getting ready for my cookie exchange at my house. I host it every year and for some reason this year it's just taking me longer to get everything put together. Last year I had 2 jobs and 6 teenage boys in my house the weekend before and still managed to get everything put together! Weird.

Anyway.. I only got a few Black Friday deals. Normally every year I refuse to even step foot in grocery stores from Thanksgiving to after Christmas but this year I figured I would at least take advantage of a few freebies.



Carsons had those $10 off any $10 item cards that were in the paper. I managed to snag mine and my sisters (she's a nurse and had to work a 12 hour shift on Black Friday) so I waited until the sale was almost over and went at noon. The sale ended at 1pm. The coupon would not allow for any door busters so I really had to work at finding something for $10 that was not included in any door buster deal. It was actually hard to do! Plus each register had a 20 minute line at the very least. I got in line with just a few minutes to spare and a sales lady walked through our line answering questions. She scanned my items and I asked if I could 2 transactions or if I could use BOTH coupons in one transaction. She told me to do 2 transactions.

I got the scissors normally $38 for $2.xx. I got the plaque for $1.38. I don't remember the original price. But I'm happy with both those buys.

I headed out to Jewel after Carsons, and then to Walgreens. I don't remember at all what I had to get at Jewel but I didn't take pictures. I had an IP coupon for BOGO on these lotions so I paid $1.99 for both of them. I had a $2 RR I wanted to use that they wouldn't let me use because my total on products was not over $2.. *sigh* used my GC and still paid nothing OOP.

I also stopped at Target and printed out a few of their broccoli/cauliflower coupons and got both for 33 cents after the $1 coupons. I used those for snacks for our Thanksgiving on Saturday with my husbands family. I also stopped at CVS where I spent a good half hour putting together a deal only to figure out it was on the wrong products. Bought 2 candy bars and left.


I stopped at Woodmans just to pick up a few other items for our Thanksgiving and they didn't have any good deals there but I did pick up this wreath for our front door for $11.99. I wound up spending $25 there.

My last stop was at Petco trying to find some cat litter I had a free coupon for. It's the Arm & Hammer essentials. The coupon is good for a free bag up to $3.99.. well I have yet to find a bag that isn't over $8!! So I'm not sure where this bag is being sold (on their website they mention every store I've been to for that product, not for that small size) so I still have the coupon which is now expired.

Yesterday I went to Jewel to do the buy $20 P & G products get $5 CAT plus 5 free Redbox video's. I had to pick up a few other items for my cookie exchange party and of course wound up walking out of there paying $30 OOP basically for toilet paper, paper towels, bounce dryer sheets, paper plates, cups, small bowls, utensils, and yeah.. that's it. LOL! I looked at the receipt several times and it's right. It all added up to that. I just had it in my head that my total was going to be like $20! oh well. I walked out with my $5 CAT for next time and 5 free movies.

SPEAKING OF FREE MOVIES!! whoooo hooo
PLUS EQUALS $8.99 PER MONTH FOR UNLIMITED FREE MOVIES PLUS MOVIES BEING MAILED TO YOUR HOME!!

I have been using exclusively for the past 6-8 months and getting freebie codes every Monday, sometimes every Wednesday and then free codes in between. As I mentioned I did a Jewel deal where I got 5 free codes. I'll be using those eventually for new movies that come out, but this watching movies right on my tv through my husbands XBOX is amazing!!! who ever thought that I'd be happy my husband has xbox?

anyway.. basically now all I do is go on line and add movies to my "watch instantly" que, then I go to the xbox and scroll through, find NETFLIX and scroll through the movies I have loaded. This includes entire seasons of tv shows as well as movies. It's so much fun. The other night I watched Grease 2 one of my all time favorite movies.