I robbed that store LEGALLY!!

FREE T-SHIRT giveaway every day in December

2009-12-13T08:06:00.004-06:00

Sorry for just posting this now, I had heard briefly about it a few days ago but just got the specifics on it today.

Every day this month TEETSY.COM will be giving away a t-shirt. Just go on the page, click on today's shirt and leave a comment. The comment can be totally random, a comment on the shirt being offered for the day or a another shirt you see on the website. Leave your name and email address (so they can get in touch with you if you win) and DONESKI!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I just finally started posting on my other blog and blogging a bit about my pregnancy. This baby has kept me busy. It was an expected thing so now I'm hurrying doing all the stuff that women do before they get pregnant like researching EVERYTHING you put in your mouth, put on your body, etc. Fun times!!

GUESS WHAT?

2009-11-04T22:07:00.003-06:00

I'M PREGNANT!!!

Don't believe it, umm because I didn't!! It wasn't planned at all, but my hubby and I have been married 11 years and we're excited!! check out the baby.. 7 weeks. I'm due June 20th!!

FREE NURSING COVERS!!

2009-10-10T21:18:00.003-05:00

*******NEVER MIND*** I just googled and this is a scam!! do not order!!

Okay.. this was stolen from my AWESOME home birthing cousin Heather. Thanks girl!! :)

Okay.. here's the low down. UDDERCOVERS.COM is giving away free $32 nursing covers. You must pay shipping. Use code CRANBERRY2

FREE ICE CREAM AT COLDSTONE TONIGHT!! 5-8PM

2009-09-24T11:22:00.001-05:00

CHECK OUT DETAILS HERE

HELP BEAT BREAST CANCER SEPT 15TH W/ A $35 MASSAGE

2009-09-03T13:37:00.002-05:00

Spend $35 for a 50 minute massage on September 15th, and $10 will go to Susan G. Koman.

detailsHERE

FREE GYRO DAY FOR CHICAGO/BURBS!!

2009-09-01T13:12:00.001-05:00

http://www.kronosproducts.com/freegyros.htmlHERE to print your coupon!!

yummy

those dang Joneses....

2009-08-21T07:19:00.002-05:00

One of the blogs I read pretty often had a post called OUTSAVING THE JONESES and it's basically about how I've been feeling about hounding since I went back to work.

When I was unemployed, it was basically a full time job for me. I was able to get baby diapers to give as gifts to friends for very cheap, that came in handy. I was able to buy name brand food, school supplies, even clothes and backpacks for much less because of what I learned hounding.

Hounding did benefit me and still does, however now that I'm working I just don't have the time for it. If I see a good deal that I can pull easily, I'll go run it on my way home from work but it has to be for something REALLY worth it and something I actually need.

This week I hounded 7 tombstone pizza's and was paid $9 to take them out of the store. On the flip side, now I have to figure out where to store 7 pizza's in my freezer which is already jam packed.

I still have many items including tons of cleaning products even after Christmas when I filled reuseable grocery bags with such items. I even put toilet bowl cleaner in them. Hey, I was unemployed for a majority of the year, I had just paid off $30,000 in debt, and wasn't about to go back into debt over Christmas. People got goodie bags and actually, I got a ton of positive feedback about it. They were all items we use every day in our homes, why not! :)

Anyway.. go check out her post about Outsaving those Joneses!

I need help finding 2 home items!!

2009-08-11T09:10:00.003-05:00

Can you help me find the best deal on both these type items. First off, my husband decided to bake a Calzone in our toaster oven a few nights ago. This morning I made some pop tarts and it started a grease fire. We needed a new toaster anyway, BUT now that I'm looking at toaster ovens on line I seriously have no clue where to start. I want one that is large enough to put a pizza in and is easy to clean.

The second item is a cable modem. Our cable modem is older than 6 years old. It's finally on the fritz. The one we have right now we basically got for free from Radio Shack. They were doing a deal where you buy the modem for $39 and you got a $50 gift card back in the mail.

Okay. I use ebates, mypoints, mrrebates, and cashbaq so if you can find a deal that would be even sweeter using one of those or another rebate site have at it!

Thanks in advance.

Meal Preparation Stores

2009-08-10T22:23:00.003-05:00

okay.. here goes. I have a confession. This is NOT something I would normally condone as "saving" money. I know that if I set my mind to it, got organized and cooked these meals at home myself that I would probably be able to do it for less than half the cost.... here goes.

I'm addicted to a meal preparation service.

It started quite innocent actually. My sister works 12 hour shifts and wanted to make sure her kids were eating healthy when she wasn't home early enough to cook for them. She wanted something that she could take out the day before to thaw and that her older son could make for his little brother without burning down the house. She then found meal preparation services!! Since then she has changed the company she goes to, however, the idea is the same and she walks out with 12 family sized meals each with 6 portions.. so 72 meals in all. Each serving comes out roughly to 2.78, I know we super couponers can get most of the ingredients to make these type meals for less.. I am sure of it.

As you may have noticed I haven't been posting my hounds recently. I just don't have the time or energy to hound much and when I do, I have no time to blog them. Instead I've sorta changed my blog.

anyhooo.. last week I finally broke down (after deciding to have the same meal I've cooked 4 times already this month) and checked out the website for the store my sister goes to. After reviewing their site and a few sites for other stores in my area, I found that this store has the best deal. One set price AND they give you sides for free. They are included. Other places they were not.
SIMPLY HOMEMADE My husband decided to go with me at the last minute and it was actually like a date! It was really cool. Since we went together, the 2 hour window in which it normally takes to make all 12 meals took only 45 minutes. It was so much fun. Each of our 12 meals is actually 6 portions so really we got 72 meals put together in under 45 minutes. No chopping, no cutting, no dirty dishes. Everything in Ziplock bags and in my freezer in an hour.

Here is how it basically works (at this store anyway). You walk in, wash your hands, put your hair up, get a drink if you would like, get an apron then go from station to station building your meals. Each station has a full letter size recipe cards that have dummy proof instructions such as: open lower refrigerator and get small ziplock bag of grapes. Umm yeah I can do this. Any seasoning or ingredient has the correct measuring cup/spoon already sitting IN IT, ready waiting for you. All you have to do is follow the directions!! The best part is you can choose how much onion or pepper to put in your meal. Great recipes too.

Since I went I've been researching other stores in my area, I've found MINDFUL MEALS that even allows you to upgrade to Organic meats. I really like this store because you can order as little as 6 meals but everything is individually priced. Also the prices are a little higher per meal than Simply Homemade and it's a farther drive from my house. On the flip side, on their home page they advertise "Grab and Go"meals that are lower priced. That would be great when you are on your way home from work and just don't feel like cooking. Instead of pizza, it would be a healthy meal.

I think DINNER BY DESIGN is the most popular in our area, it was the only one I had heard before I went myself. They offer coupons in the Entertainment book and are located in other areas/states other than the greater Chicagoland area. I did meet a lady at Simply Homemade who was preparing her meals at a station next to me. She told me she started going to Dinner by Design years ago, but she had switched simply because Simply Homemade gives the sides for free. Less to think about and more food for the same price. Makes sense to me.

This store GOURMET IN A DAY only has 1 store in the Chicago area, however, they are offering free preparation this month. Meaning you can stop in and pick up your meals already prepared. I really like preparing mine, but hey.. to each their own summer is a busy time of year.

Some of these stores offer free desserts, delivery, free extras if you host a party there.. a party? yeah a party.. almost like a tupperware party or a tastefully simple party only your guests sign up for their meals and pay before the party. You show up with drinks and music and prepare meals together. Sounds fun to me.

Check out a few of the stores in your area HERE

Okay so as I said, I don't think this is super cost effective versus when I am hounding and eating out of my stockpile for super cheap and free... BUT my husband and I went out for dinner a few weekends ago and got burritos. Our bill? $52 for 2 people!! yes, between drinks, dessert, and tip we spent $52. Total insanity. So paying $204 for 72 meals is cheap in comparison. In telling other people about this they figure that I will save on time with grocery shopping and dishes, money on wasted food I'll never eat, and peace of mind that we are eating healthier.

Let me know what you think, have you tried one of these stores in your area? Any tips?

Food Clubs ~N~ such

2009-07-31T08:02:00.004-05:00

OKAY.. what is your HONEST opinion of food clubs? Seriously here peeps? I had a Sam's club card YEARS ago and could not walk out of that place WITHOUT spending a minimum of $100. Normally that was just for the 4-5 things on my list. Yes, I was buying in bulk and normally what I was buying I would have enough of for month.. so was my 3 trips per year worth the club price. I didn't think so and cancelled. There are other food type clubs out there... I thought I'd give a shout out to a few of them.

SCHWANS WEBSITE HERE
Looking for free food? Who isn't? Schwans is hosting a Free Food giveaway promotion starts 8/1/2009. Complete details regarding this offer will be available on www.schwans.com/free on 8/1.

Schwans is awesome, and comes to your home!

GORDON FOOD SERVICE Also called GFS.

website here I stumbled upon this club purely by accident. I drive past one in my home town from time to time and finally stopped in. I don't think they deliver to your home, they do to businesses. Their stores are small the size of maybe an Aldi, but no "club" membership is needed.

ANGEL FOOD MINISTRIES website here
this is great because they come once per month and offer great packages. It's really great in the summer because they offer grill packages filled with different meats. You do have to purchase a basic package to buy the "extra" packages but it's worth it. I did blog about it here last year.

SAMS CLUB website here
I was a huge huge huge fan of Sam's when my son was first born. His father was running his own business and we bought a majority of the cleaning products from Sams as well as diapers and food. That was 15 years ago. Since I did get another membership for maybe 2 years and found I just wasn't saving all that much.

COSTCO

website here I've never had a Costco membership, but I have thought about getting one. I noticed that their gas is always cheaper although it's sort of out of my way just to go for gas. I know plenty of people who have "food club memberships" and it seems a majority of them have Costco over Sams.

FREE SLURPEE DAY TODAY 7AM-11PM AT 7/11

2009-07-11T15:25:00.001-05:00

GO GET EM!!

Radio Shopping Show

2009-07-08T10:38:00.002-05:00

RADIO SHOPPING SHOW If you live in the Chicago area check out this site. They have some AMAZING deals on everything from dinners out to Golf and everything in between.. car washes, oil changes, mini golf, and it changes from week to week. I always forget about this show but then this week a friend got a great deal so she could take her kids up to Wisconsin Dells for 4 days for under $100!! Some of these deals can't be beat! *if you don't live in the Chicago area I suggest searching the net for another radio shopping show.. I saw on google it popped up Vegas amongst other places.

I had written this post back in February outlining Smart Circle.

Also, I really love RESTAURANT.COM they do deals from time to time where they sell their certificates for 80% off. Be careful to read all the fine print as you don't want this WARNING situation to happen to you. Basically I didn't see it was a dine in only coupon and of course they wouldn't honor it even though the pizza was made when I got there. I offered to sit down and eat a piece and then have the rest wrapped to go.. no go.

GREAT SCOT!

2009-06-16T15:02:00.009-05:00

UPDATE I GOT IT THE COUPON POSTED!!! :)

Scottish games are in Oakbrook this weekend! I have a great $2 off an adult admission coupon but am having issues posting it. I have it saved as a PDF and can't figure out how to post.

www.chicago-scots.org for details and to buy tickets on line without coupon.

I'm seeing that if you use the www.chicago-scots.org the fee is $15 per ticket but I'm being told that there is a way you can get Saturday tickets for $13 adult.

COUPON HERE

scot2 scot2 Melissa scottish games coupon

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu online tips

free/cheap stuff to do with your kids/furbabies in the Chicago burbs

2009-06-15T09:17:00.001-05:00

Events that involve pets, animals and plants, such as pet washes, adoption days, nature walks, microchipping, nature photography exhibits, nature tours, bird walks, calls for volunteers for nature-related work days, etc. Deadline is two weeks before event date.

June 13

Save-A-Pet fundraiser: 7-10 p.m. Saturday, June 13, Brunswick Zone, 1100 W. Lake St., Roselle. Fundraiser for abused and neglected animals includes live music, raffles, silent auction, prizes, more. $25 at the door includes pizza and soda (630) 351-2100.

Birds 'n Berries: 9 a.m. Saturday, June 13, Knupper Nursery, 1801 N. Rand Road, Palatine. Free seminar about the vast array of trees, shrubs and other plants that can be planted in your garden to provide a seasonal buffet for our feathered friends. (847) 359-1080.

June 14

Doggy wash: 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday, June 14, Wizard of Pawz, 2306 Hassell Road, Hoffman Estates. Dog baths $10-$18, other services available sponsored by Wizard of Paws to benefit Chicagoland Dog Rescue. Also includes baked goods, BBQ, raffles, vendors. For information, chicagolanddogrescue.org.

AKC All-breed dog show: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, June 14, Chain O'Lakes Kennel Club, Lake County Fairgrounds expo hall, Peterson and Midlothian roads, Grayslake. Talk to breeders, get information about different AKC and miscellaneous breeds. No admission, parking $10 per car, Visit. colkc.org.

Sunday morning bird walks: 8 a.m. Sunday, June 14, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Mark Spreyer will lead a morning bird walk for ages 10 and over. Binoculars and field guides are a must. If you don't have any, don't worry, Stillman does. If it's raining, the activity will be canceled. Free. Call (847) 428-6957 to register.

Celebrate Dad's: 1:30 p.m. Sunday, June 14, Crabtree Nature Center, on Palatine Road, one mile west of Barrington Road in Barrington. What is the father's role in nature? Take a look at some of natures dads and make a fish print in honor of fathers. Free, call to register.(847) 381-6592.

June 15

Earth-Friendly Sculpture Contest: Begins Monday, June 15, Rolling Meadows Library, 3110 Martin Lane. Show your creativity and turn junk into a work of art. Use recycled bits and pieces from home or come to the Ask Me Desk for a bag of rubbish and make something "out of this world." When you bring in your creation a photograph of your sculpture will be taken and you will receive a certificate of completion. The photos will be on display in Youth Services and winners will be notified in August. Deadline for entry is July 24. For information, call (847) 259-6050

June 16

Arlington Anglers: 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, Dick's Sports Store, on Martingale Road, Schaumburg. Professional Walleye Tour fisherman, Larry Conn shares his techniques. Come find out more about the club, its activities, and outings. Tom, (847) 639-7858 or Bob, (630) 688-0995. Visit arlingtonanglers.com.

Zoonotic Diseases: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, Hoffman Estates Animal Hospital, 1056 W. Golf Road, Hoffman Estates. Dr. Megan Williams discusses, "Zoonotic Diseases: Why You May be Sharing More Than Just Your Home with Your Pet." Free education seminar, open to the public. To register, (847) 310-8668.

June 17

Parker in the Park: 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday, June 17, Indian Trails Public Library District, 355 S. Schoenbeck Road, Wheeling. Grades 1-6 can explore the role each person plays in protecting the environment and share new ideas for conserving energy. To register, (847) 459-4100 or www.indiantrailslibrary.org.

Dog Train and Play class: Eight week sessions begin Wednesday, June 17 or Saturday, June 20, River Trails Park District, 550 Business Trail Drive, Mount Prospect. Basic commands, problem solving and manners are taught. Open to dogs ages 3 months and up. (847) 255-1200.

Fishing Camp: 10 a.m.-noon Wednesday June 17 and Thursday, June 18, Crabtree Nature Center, on Palatine Road, one mile west of Barrington Road, Barrington. Take a closer look at native fish through fun activities, demonstrations and fishing. Ages 8-12. Free, register at (847) 381-6592.

June 18

Once Upon a Bird: 10 a.m. Thursdays, June 18, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Hear bird stories and visit a live bird or work on a simple craft. Come dressed to be outside. The program will be done in less than an hour. If it is raining, this activity will be canceled. For ages 4-9. $2/child, adults are free. (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org

Prairie Woods Audubon: 7 p.m. Thursday, June 18, Spring Valley Nature Center, Schaumburg. Lonnie Morris, chairman for the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, presents, "Cool Cities." Free. prairiewoodsaudubon.org.

June 19

Yappy Hour: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, June 19, Meineke Park, 220 E. Weathersfield Way, Schaumburg. Activities for adults, kids and dogs including a DJ, dog agility course, craft area for kids, special dog events and wine samples for adults. $12-$18 for adults; $3-$5 for children 3-17. Dogs free, but owners must have a copy of shot records at the event. To register, (847) 985-2143.

Night Hike: 8:30 p.m. Friday, June 19; Crabtree Nature Center, on Palatine Road, one mile west of Barrington Road, Barrington. Join a naturalist in the evening to explore what natural wonders are abroad after the sun goes down. Free, register at (847) 381-6592.

June 20

Picnic at the Prairie: Noon-3 p.m. June 20, picnic shelter at Margreth Riemer Reservoir, Quentin and Palatine roads, Palatine. Prairie Woods Audubon Society is hosting their annual Picnic On The Prairie event to thank volunteers and the community for its support, dedication and hard work on the prairie and for the environment. Free hot dogs, chips, and lemonade; kids' prizes; free tours; tips on native plants.

Bike Path Kickoff: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, June 20 at Crabtree Nature Center, on Palatine Road, one mile west of Barrington Road, Barrington. Pedal by ponds and through woods as you try out the new 10-mile bike path. Whole Foods has a fueling station; REI has a Bike Safety Rodeo for kids a basic bike safety check for adults. (847) 381-6592.

Adventure in Nature series: 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 20, Citizens for Conservation office, 459 W. Route 22, Barrington. Topic, Senses: Children will use their senses to explore Flint Creek Savanna. Dress comfortably to sit in the prairie grass. For children kindergarten and older; adults encouraged to come. $3-$5 per child. Free for adults. Register one week before class at (847) 382 7283.

June 21

Kayak Demo Days: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, June 21, Lake Arlington. Join REI staff on the water to test paddle a variety of canoes and kayaks from Old Town, Wilderness System, Mad River, Perception, Necky, and Ocean Kayak. Come see how design and materials affect performance and decide which boat best meets your needs. Be prepared to get your feet and seat wet.

Sunday morning bird walks: 8 a.m. Sunday, June 21, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Mark Spreyer will lead a morning bird walk for all ages. Binoculars and field guides are a must. If you don't have any, don't worry, Stillman does. If it's raining, the activity will be canceled. Free. To register, (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org.

June 22

Green Tips 101: 7-8:15 p.m. Monday, June 22, Indian Trails Public Library District, 355 S. Schoenbeck Road, Wheeling. Board Members of Go Green Wilmette will share information about easy, high impact changes to reduce one's carbon footprint and help the environment. Learn which changes have the highest payback. Registration required; call (847) 459-4100 or visit www.indiantrailslibrary.org.

June 24

Farmers market: Our Lady of the Brook Catholic Community will be the site of a weekly farmers market in Northbrook this summer. The market will kick off on Wednesday, June 24, and will be held every Wednesday through Oct. 14 from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. The market will feature dozens of vendors, selling the freshest produce, flowers, organic foods, artisan cheeses, baked goods and much more. There is plenty of free parking, and samples will be available. Our Lady of the Brook is located at 3700 Dundee in Northbrook, and can be contacted at (847) 272-5686 or at www.olbparish.org.

June 27

Adventure in Nature series: 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 27, Citizens for Conservation office, 459 W. Route 22, Barrington. Sky: Children will watch the skies to see what weather is coming. We will see what shapes the clouds are taking. For children kindergarten and older; adults are encouraged to come. $3-$5 per child. No fees for adults. Register one week before class at (847) 382 7283.

June 28

Rolling Meadows Garden Club Garden Walk: noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 28. Tickets on sale at the Community Center, 3705 Pheasant Dr., Rolling Meadows or at rollingmeadowsgardenclub.com. $10 in advance; $15 day of the event. For information, call Carol, (847) 818-3200 ext. 230, or e-mail Rollingmeadowsgardenclub@gmail.com.

Park Ridge Garden Club Garden Walk: 2-6 p.m. Sunday, June 28, 408 S. Lincoln, Park Ridge. Featuring six gardens plus a raffle and light refreshments. $15. (847) 208-7269.

Wheeling Garden Walk: 1-4 p.m. Sunday, June 28. Seven homes in Wheeling will open their gardens to the public. $7. Tickets and maps available at the first garden, 126 Mayer Ave., Wheeling. Refreshments and door prizes at the last home. For information, call Jan, (847) 909-0335.

Rolling Meadows Garden Walk: Noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 28. The Rolling Meadows Garden Club will hold its annual Garden Walk. Tickets are available at the Community Center, 3705 Pheasant Drive, Rolling Meadows, or at rollingmeadowsgardenclub.com. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 the day of the event. For information, call Carol, at (847) 818-3200, ext. 230, or e-mail Rollingmeadowsgardenclub@gmail.com

Wheeling Garden Club Garden Walk: 1-4 p.m. Sunday, June 28. Seven homes in Wheeling will open their gardens to the public. Donation $7. Tickets and maps available at the first garden, 126 Mayer Ave., Wheeling. Refreshments and door prizes at the last house. Call Jan Schmid, (847) 909-0335.

July 5

Bird Banding: 9 a.m.-noon Sunday, July 5, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Watch Mark Spreyer, a licensed bird bander, measure, weigh and record data about resident and migratory birds. Birds are not caught in a predictable manner, so come prepared to hike the trails. Free. (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org.

July 10

The Northwest Suburban Astronomers: 7:30 p.m. Friday July 10, Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, Hoffman Estates. Programs cover various aspects of amateur astronomy, for program details and club information visit nsaclub.org.

July 16

Once Upon a Bird: 10 a.m. Thursdays, July 16, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Hear bird stories and visit a live bird or work on a simple craft. Come dressed to be outside. The program will be done in less than an hour. If it is raining, this activity will be canceled. For ages 4-9. $2/child, adults are free. (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org

July 19

Arlington Heights Garden Club Garden Walk and Unique Boutique: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, July 19. View six residential gardens of varying styles. $10, benefits scholarships and conservation programs. Free admission to the Unique Boutique, which features distinctive garden ornaments, crafts and perennials at the Arlington Heights Historical Museum, 110 W Fremont, Arlington Heights. Kathy, (847) 259-5273 or kshend@aol.com.

Prairie Ramble: 10 a.m. Sunday, July 19, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Our volunteers, under the leadership of Daria Sapp, have been working hard to get prairie plants growing in Stillman's "south forty." This is your chance to join Daria on a tour of this colorful site. Free. To register, (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org

July 25

Adventure in Nature series: 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, July 25, Citizens for Conservation office, 459 W. Route 22, Barrington. Topic, Trees: Children will study some of the trees found on the Savanna and look at the different parts of the trees and the variety of shapes. For children kindergarten and older; adults encouraged to attend. $3-$5 per child. Free for adults. Register one week before class at (847) 382 7283.

Aug. 2

Bird Banding: 9 a.m.-noon Sunday, Aug. 2, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Watch Mark Spreyer, a licensed bird bander, measure, weigh and record data about resident and migratory birds. Birds are not caught in a predictable manner, so come prepared to hike the trails. Free. (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org.

Aug. 3

Chicagoland Shih Tzu Club: 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, Arlington Heights Public Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights.

Aug. 7

The Northwest Suburban Astronomers: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, Hoffman Estates. Programs cover various aspects of amateur astronomy, for program details and club information visit nsaclub.org.

Aug. 20

Once Upon a Bird: 10 a.m. Thursdays, Aug. 20, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Hear bird stories and visit a live bird or work on a simple craft. Come dressed to be outside. The program will be done in less than an hour. If it is raining, the activity will be canceled. For ages 4-9. $2/child, adults free. To register, (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org

Aug. 23

Sunday morning bird walks: 8 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Mark Spreyer will lead a morning bird walk for ages 10 and over. Binoculars and field guides are a must. If you don't have any, don't worry, Stillman does. If it's raining, the activity will be canceled. Free. To register, (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org.

Aug. 30

Bird Banding: 9 a.m.-noon Sunday, Aug. 30, Stillman Nature Center, 33 W. Penny Road, South Barrington. Watch Mark Spreyer, a licensed bird bander, measure, weigh and record data about resident and migratory birds. Birds are not caught in a predictable manner, so come prepared to hike the trails. Free. To register, (847) 428-6957 or stillmannc.org.

Sept. 4

The Northwest Suburban Astronomers: 7:30 p.m. Friday Sept. 4, Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, Hoffman Estates. Programs cover various aspects of amateur astronomy, for program details and club information visit nsaclub.org.

Sept. 18

Prairie Woods Audubon Society: 5:30 p.m. bird walk; 7 p.m. meeting/presentation Thursday, Sept. 18, Spring Valley Nature Center, Schaumburg. Pat Winkelman, president of the Vehe Farm Foundation will speak about the farm in Deer Park.

Sept. 21.

Prairie Woods Audubon Society field trip: 3-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, Illinois Beach State Park, Zion. Meet at the North Unit parking lot or at 2 p.m. at the Bank of Palatine, Northwest Highway and Plum Grove Road, to carpool. Cyndi, (847) 776-8713.

Sept. 26

South Barrington Park District Pet Fair: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, Arboretum Mall, routes 72 and 59 in South Barrington. Various pet businesses, local pet shops, veterinarians, animal communicator, animal massage therapy, adoption agencies, contests, training demonstrations, photos, prizes, more. For event information or to participate as a vendor, call (847) 381-7515.

Oct. 2

The Northwest Suburban Astronomers: 7:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 2, Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, Hoffman Estates. Programs cover various aspects of amateur astronomy, for program details and club information visit nsaclub.org.

Oct. 11

Prairie Woods Audubon Society: 3 p.m.-dusk, Sunday, Oct. 11, Stillman Nature Center, South Barrington. "The Big Sit." Bring a folding chair, munchies and beverage and sit and count the bird species. Meet at the dock/picnic area. Cyndi, (847) 776-8713.

Nov. 6

The Northwest Suburban Astronomers: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, Hoffman Estates. Programs cover various aspects of amateur astronomy, for program details and club information visit nsaclub.org.

Dec. 4

The Northwest Suburban Astronomers: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, Hoffman Estates. Programs cover various aspects of amateur astronomy, for program details and club information visit nsaclub.org.

Midwest Bass Busters: Bass fishing club is looking for new members at any experience level. No boat is necessary. Monthly meetings are held at The Where Else Lounge, Higgins Road and Lively Blvd., in Elk Grove Village. The club fishes one weekend a month from April-October. Call Len (847) 870-7070.

Garden Club of Inverness scholarships: Students who live in the area serviced by District 211 and Barrington High School and who plan to major in horticulture or environmentally related studies in college are invited to apply. Applications available at the guidance officers in District 211 and Barrington High School.

Plant a garden: Garden Plots are available free to residents interested in doing a little gardening. The plots are located in the rear of Congregational United Church of Christ, 1001 W. Kirchoff, Arlington Heights. Space is limited. To determine availability, call (847) 392-6650 for information.

Nippersink Garden Club: A new garden club is forming to serve northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Members of the Nippersink Garden Club are coming together because of the love of gardening and the love of the Nippersink Creek area and waterways. Membership is open to all interested men, women and their children. Membership will be free and 2009 meetings are yet to be determined. Visit nippersinkgardenclub.org or contact Stacy at (262) 279-5992 for details.

Stillman Nature Center: Volunteers are being sought to help in a variety of areas including, landscape maintenance, birds of prey and more. (847) 428-6957 or stillnc@wildblue.net.

Be Citizens for Conservation volunteer: Citizens for Conservation restoration volunteers work from 9-11 a.m. every Thursday and Saturday. Jobs include: sowing legume seed, cutting brush, rescuing native plants and planting sedges. Meet at 459 West Highway 22 in Lake Barrington. Look for the white farmhouse with a silo across from Good Shepherd Hospital. Bring work gloves, dress for the weather, tools provided. For information, call (847) 382-7283.

1 year 15 days DEBT FREE!!

2009-06-02T11:18:00.002-05:00

I was so focused on my nephews “golden birthday” I totally skipped it.. a very important day in my life. It was the first anniversary of being debt free for my husband and I.. May 17th 2009 marked that day. I just can not believe it took me until today June 2nd to realize this. But I'm looking back and realizing that the way I view money, the way I treat money, the way I spend money has really evolved.

Today I am still debt free, I do use my ONE credit card with the maximum limit of $1500 once per month for ONE item. Usually this item is a more pricey item from $600-$1200. One month we bought a new bed mattress and box spring, the next we bought an expensive nice bike for my husband. Next month we are finally moving into THIS century and getting a lap top computer. My son has had a lap top for almost 2 years but it's time that we leave the old clunky desk top turned off and move up in the world. Each month I pay this credit card off in full, some months even paying off what would be due the following payment period. We feel this is our way of contributing back to the economy.

What has shocked me was one specific amount of money. I am leaving on a womens retreat this weekend. A friend I have known for around 5 years has invited me every time this retreat comes back to our area. It happens twice per year. Each year I say it's “too much money for a weekend” this year I actually looked at the price and thought “wow they lowered the price, probably because of the economy and NOW I CAN AFFORD IT, I'M GOING” I talked with my husband about it and he was very supportive.

I wrote out the check, mailed it, got my confirmation of receipt and made my plans to take Friday off so I can get there on time. This week I went walking with the friend who has invited me over and over and I had some specific questions for her. I asked her “how much was it in past years?” and she said “yikes they raised the price this retreat!” and here was me “WHHHHAATTT REALLY??” I seriously couldn't believe it.. I actually was walking next to her silent thinking “how did I miss that?” The answer is quite obvious. This year I am not unemployed and I am not in debt. The amount is affordable to me. Plain. Simple.

I have found that my husband and I are much “looser” with spending. I'm not couponing hardly at all.. I do shop at Woodmans and Aldi the two cheapest stores in my area, however, he'll run to pick up beer and snacks for poker games and just run to Jewel and spend whatever. We eat out a ton more than we were and if my son calls needing money I don't hesitate to slap $20-$40 on his debit card without even asking too much detail why he needs it. As I write this, I'm realizing I need to pull those reigns back in and control our outward/unnecessary spending before it becomes an issue once again.

I am so glad I found the groups I did and moved in a positive cash flow direction. My life is easier, the stress levels are considerably lower in my life and my husbands. Our marriage is stronger, however, my husband still has yet to take over the finances as he promised he would in past years. “once everything is paid off then I'll do it” he said that time and time again. Here we are but the difference is, I enjoy paying the bills and looking at our balances from month to month. Paying my property taxes was actually exciting because the money has been there, waiting in a savings account for me to transfer it, write a check, mail it and be done. Now, I think I would miss doing our bills. I would miss the happiness I feel now versus the depression I once felt every time I opened up our checking account on line. It seemed hopeless.

If you missed them, I wrote two segments explaining how we paid off our debt. I didn't give exact amounts but it was the jist of the story. You can read them
part one here and part two here. Enjoy

FREE ICE CREAM & HOT DOGS + great organic valley & slim fast coupons

2009-05-20T18:02:00.004-05:00

HOT DOGS thanks to MIDGET MOMMA for this link!

BLUE BUNNY ICE CREAM thanks to my very own yahoo email for that! lol! ;)

ORGANIC VALLEY COUPONS thanks to SHOPLIFTING WITH PERMISSION for those great coupons!!

Surving the stores has great instructions to get
SLIM FAST COUPONS!!!

fyi on my last post re: vacation deals

2009-05-06T20:18:00.003-05:00

Okay.. something came to mind after Katie posted a comment about the tricks to getting great vacation/airfare deals.

To answer Katie's question, We stayed at the Grand Oasis Punta Cana. Come check it out HERE.

OKAYYYYYY BUTTTTTTTT this is one of my biggest pet peeves in life.. seriously.. not sure why this rubs me the wrong way, grates on me, gets under my skin... *sigh* and I've heard it on SEVERAL occasions from several separate couples.

Couples go to resorts and come back and immediately book at that exact resort again for the next year... AND WORSE try to push that THIS EXACT RESORT IS THE BEST EVER! There will never be another resort that beats this one they've been to.. yeah well I've got NEWS PEOPLE.... they are all DEAD wrong!

My husband and I have found that between ourselves, relatives, and friends each resort as long as it has a good rating (Apple vacations this would be a 4 red apple or above) are pretty much the same. The one thing we do look for is a resort that has a buffet, a grill on the beach, an Italian restaurant, on other specific restaurant, and room service. Other than that we do look for resorts that offer a few bars plus a swim up bar. Those are just our specs.

We do "google" the resort before booking just to make sure the place didn't get super bad reviews, or that it's under construction, or there is just something that would make our stay terribly horrible. From the reviews on line we've gotten ideas on where to book our rooms, what to upgrade to, what not to upgrade to, what extras to bring for example beach towels {the ones there smelled like mildew} OTC meds/sunblock {the ones there were super expensive} etc.

So really, maybe we aren't that picky of people and me being as frugal as I've been my entire life may make this easier on us... but really.. if you want a vacation, if you just want to get away, lay on a beach, read a book, get drunk, dance, have a hot guy serve you drinks at the beach all day.. a majority of these resorts are fine and dandy!

Whew I feel better! lol! Hope this little rant helps in your next vacation search!

great airline/vacation deals!!

2009-05-05T08:57:00.004-05:00

Okay.. for some reason people are constantly asking me for my tricks to getting great airfares and cheap vacation deals.. so here they are typed out for everyone!!

This is fresh on my mind because I just got my dad a $108 round trip ticket from Chicago to Phoenix (or Rockford to Mesa but both towns closer to said bigger cities to our homes). Long story short, my family owns a retirement home in Mesa AZ and there is an issue with our watering system for our fruit trees there. My dad just left at the end of March and has to go back to fix the system.

Just a few months ago while attending a baby shower luncheon, a woman I met there told me that she's been getting great deals with Alligant Air.check airfares here for $29 EACH WAY to Mesa. I guess her best friend lives there. She said the trick is to go on each day and just check and even move forward through a few months to get the great deals.

I went on yesterday and was able to get my dad $29 one way and $79 coming back. Total $108 round trip. With taxes/fees the total just $140! My second airfare trick, which I'll show you next, cheapest rate was $240!! I saved $100!! :)

yes shocker but my second trick is YAHOO. This used to be my first trick until a few months ago. Okay.. this is how it works. go to YAHOOO then click on the left hand side TRAVEL. or go here directly. Type in the cities you wish to fly from/to. The box opens a bit more to include the number of flyer's and you should see a "use flexible dates" box. check that baby!! You may not be able to find the exact dates you want, but if you can be flexible enough, you'll save a ton on airfare!

Okay. My sister does a ton of travel back and forth to Europe because that is where her fiancee lives. Her fiance taught us this trick. KAYAK.COM again this website lets you use flexible dates to see the best fair.

Okay.. my vacation deals are limited HOWEVER if you (again) flexible you can get a great deal.

APPLE VACATIONS Go to the site, click on "SPECIALS" "last minute deals" "seasonal deals" If you poke around enough on the site eventually you'll find some great deals on that site. Just a few weeks ago I found 8 days 7 nights all inclusive flight included for $419 to Mexico. YES $419. a year ago my husband and I went to Punta Cana (again 8 days 7 nights all inclusive including air fare) for $520. We upgraded to a bigger room with a jacuzzi tub in the room for $75. Very well worth it. So for UNDER $1200 we had a full vacation for a week.

FREE KFC chicken TODAY

2009-04-27T09:34:00.001-05:00

GET OUT THERE! I didn't realize their website has coupons on it too! nice!! sign up for them!

FREE Printable Kitchen Ingredient Substitution Chart

2009-04-13T11:20:00.002-05:00

Over at LIVING EASY she posted this printable chart that could really come in handy. Funny I was just discussing ingredient substitutes with a friend of mine who has an 16 month old with allergies. go check it out here

Easter trumps hounding

2009-04-12T00:11:00.002-05:00

yeah.. so I had a full day of lunching with girlfriends, wedding planning/shopping (for my girlfriends wedding), then a tastefully simple party.. so I figured after the TS party I would run out to CVS and do a few shops. I actually NEEDED a few things that were good deals this week. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared so I came home from the TS party and quickly put together my coupons and wrote up my "plan of attack". My son who just started driving needed some "night driving" time so I grabbed him and off we went.. and off we went.. and off we went.. and off we went. Yes we stopped at 4 yes count them 4 CVS's all were closed. Super Target was closed and every pizza place was closed (I had promised my husbands poker buddies some pizza on my return) it seems that not only does Easter shut down every CVS early (even the locations that used to be 24 hour locations which have now changed?) but also you can not order pizza and have it delivered to your car which is 10 feet from the pizza places front door. Apparently they have to deliver to an address, "yes can I give you my address, you make the pizzas, and then the delivery guy can walk to my car and deliver them?" NO.. hmmm what recession?

more freebie Denny's meals!

2009-04-05T12:37:00.002-05:00

is at it again. Wednesday April 8th, bring in a friend, buy a Grand Slam for yourself and your friends Grand Slam meal is FREE!!

Most of my friends and I would just split the bill down the middle for a super cheap meal. Either way, it's a great way to get together with a friend you haven't seen in awhile to chat and have a cheap or free meal!

DETAILS HERE

BIRTHDAY FREEBIES!

2009-04-02T07:26:00.002-05:00

For my birthday I posted this exact blog.. detailing out all the freebies I had found. My birthday was 6 months ago TODAY, but TODAY is an even better day... my half birthday is also MY SON'S BIRTHDAY! Today is his 15th birthday! In honor of my awesome son check out all the goodies I have found.

Just by chance MONEY SAVING MOM was also having a birthday the week of my birthday. She 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!

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?

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

WIN FREE EDY'S ICE CREAM FOR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!!

2009-03-18T12:38:00.003-05:00

Hey guys.. sorry I've been MIA again. I *just* heard Edy's is doing their "why my neighborhood rocks" block party contest again this year. I won 2 years ago and also convinced a few of my neighbors to enter. My neighborhood was lucky enough that we had 2 winners, myself and one other neighborhood so we got double the ice cream and products.

Basically to enter, write a story about your neighborhood and enter it to EDY'S ICE CREAM BLOCK PARTY. It's easy to enter and surprisingly I won.

About 4 days before my party I recieved a box filled with dry ice and I believe 12 different selections of Edy's slow churned ice cream.

me and the other winner in our neighborhood Erika

MY FREEZER

It's worth it to write up something about your neighborhood and at least try.. plus it's a good excuse to get people out of their houses to eat some yummy free ice cream! :)

grocery shopping + helping a 5 yo w/ a brain tumor = win/win

2009-03-10T21:32:00.004-05:00

ok... here goes. deep breath. I have this life.. this life of less than 6 degrees of separation. Somehow, in the strangest of circumstances I find other people who know each other and every time I tell these stories it seems that people think it's the funniest thing how these situations play out.. yesterday, while proving to be an interesting situation, it weighed heavy on my heart leaving me with this gut feeling that there may be a reason my day played out the way it did. A reason I became involved.

The day started out very normal. I got to work and had a short conversation with my boss asking each other about our weekends. She told me about a bunco game in her neighborhood that was being held in honor of a 5 yo boy who had a brain tumor. At the end of the night instead of splitting the pot so the winner could take the winnings and the other half given to the family of this little boy it was decided that all the money thrown it would go to this family. Her husband is a fireman and her family has roots in our community so it's not uncommon for her to be pitching in to help another family.

After work I got home and my neighbor next door rang my bell to BRING ME COUPONS! Okay how good do I have it that people BRING THEM TO ME! So we started talking and she started telling me how she's been spending her days. She was recently laid off so she was explaining to me that a friend of hers who I know has a son that is very ill. She started explaining that her 5 yo son has a brian tumor and that the family needed help and has a huge calendar on line where you can go on and sign up to help the family. She told me about a few fundraisers that were being planned and I couldn't believe I had missed all this considering I am a FACEBOOK friend with the mom of this little boy. At this point I had totally forgotten the conversation with my boss early the SAME MORNING.

So another neighbor comes over and we had a few errands we were running together, so my first neighbor left to go finish making dinner. I ran my errands, came home, and while out I saw a Porsche that was a few years younger than mine... so that reminded me IT HAD BEEN WEEKS since I had been on my European Car club website. I log on and immediately there are people talking about a meetup they are trying to plan. Along with them was a member I had never talked to before so we started talking and she informed me of a fundraiser she was trying combine in with a meetup for our club. As soon as she mentioned the name of the bar I knew this was the same little boy my neighbor had just talked about just 2 hours earlier to me. When I asked if it was "Cin's little boy" the girl was shocked (I've never met this girl from my car club before because she had left for awhile and I just joined).

So as things worked, we took over the entire conversation on the car club website so I asked if we could move over to a private area. So I asked if she had yahoo IM, AIM, Myspace IM, skype, or Facebook. Of course, she has FB. After she gave me her name and I sent her a friend request, I realized we had a little more in common. Facebook shows you in common friends.. well automatically I see "Cin" and then the girl across the street from me!!! What. Not the girl who brought me coupons but another girl! So I ask, "how do you know her?" winds up they work together! So I tell her the girl who lives next door is how I know Cin & her family so how is it that she is friends with the girl who lives across the street but not the girl next door. She doesn't know the girl next door at all because she went to high school with Cin! Weird huh?

Anyway.. because of the girl from my car club I wound up being able to get links to all the websites and calendars for this little man's battle plan.

CARTER KETTNER

Okay here is how you can help!!! If you are in the Chicago area and shop at Jewel, on his site are links to the coupons that can be used for Shop and Share days. These are days in which if you bring these little coupons Jewel will donate 5% of your purchase towards the family for medical expenses.

APRIL 6-8
MAY 18-20
JUNE 29, 30TH & JULY 1ST

So as you can see, for some reason throughout my day yesterday everyone was telling me about Carter. I very honestly believe that everything happens for a reason, and maybe I don't yet know what the reason is.. but I can start by passing the message about Carter and way that you can do something HUGE for him without really having to do much more than print out a piece of paper and hand it to the cashier when you pay for some groceries. Sounds like a win/win situation to me!

"diet" friendly food deals!

2009-03-07T08:54:00.003-06:00

Over at HUNGRY GIRL she has cooked up some deals on diet friendly foods including a 50% off deal with the HEAVENLY DIET STORE for simply using the code hungrygirl. The only stip is that your order must be over $30 which is easy to do ordering anything off the HG approved section on their site.

What do you bring for POT LUCKS?

2009-03-05T18:06:00.003-06:00

Okay.. everyone out there has their "signature dish" that they bring to pot lucks, pig out days, fat days, whatever you wanna call them.. depending on where this is being held, work, a families house for a special occasion, at church, or at a club meeting. There is one dish that you *always* make either because you love it or because you aren't allowed to come without it. I have a few and they've changed over the years. Not sure why but I do try to mix them up. Here are a few I've done over the years.

7 layer salad
1 1/2 heads lettuce shredded
8-10 green onion's chopped
3 carrot's shredded
4 hard boiled eggs sliced
small bag frozen peas (just dump in)
1lb cooked & crumbled bacon
8 oz shredded cheese cheese
dressing - mix 2 cups of mayo with 2-3 T lemon juice and dillweed.
put the dressing on top, spread around. add a little shredded cheese and a few green onions on top for garnish. Right before digging in mix the dressing into the salad otherwise you got wise guys eating just the dressing/top and a bunch of lettuce at the bottom.

PRETZEL SALAD
you can do this one with other flavors like raspberry as well.

Brushetta
okay I learned this one from an old Italian mama type from New York. It turns out super yummy and it's easy.
cube up tomatoes (I use PLUM tomatoes)
salt
pepper
fresh garlic
olive oil
basil

this is all by sight. I fill a bowl with the tomatoes then drizzle around some olive oil. next I put about 2 teaspoons of garlic in and add in the salt/pepper/basil last. It's all about how you like it.
I get french bread and slice it up and then toast it. I like to make this at least 8hours before servings so the flavors blend. Super garlic but ooh so yummy!

layered taco dip
in a 9x13 pan
large can refried beans
1 container guacamole
1 container sour cream
1 container salsa
8 oz shredded cheese
tomatoes, green onions, olives sprinkled on top.
easy, yummy, gone

VEGGIE PIZZA
I don't make this as neat as this picture looks. I normally just chop the veggies up very fine and throw them on top. I usually do carrot, green pepper, white onion, broccoli and then I put shredded cheese on top.

If missed my MASHED POTATO BAR post go back and check it out. This is one I learned from a neighbor of mine. Super great, super easy, super yummy, super crowd pleaser.

Sausages
I use sausage sliced up in chunks or the little cocktail wieners. throw it all in the crock pot with equal amounts of grape jelly and chili sauce. Let it "cook" through on low maybe 1-2 hours depends on how done you want them. Put a ladle out and toothpicks with little plate. Easy.

Okay.. so what are your signature dishes? What do you bring? What is easy and cheap? What do we have in our stockpiles that we could bring?

REDBOX MARCH MADNESS

2009-03-04T10:01:00.003-06:00

WHOOO HOOO REDBOX IS AT IT AGAIN!!

Giving out free codes on Wednesdays as well as Monday's in March! Today's code is

75EA16.

I didn't get a text for this, did anyone else? or do you get your REDBOX info from INSIDE REDBOX

Luckily I have great sources like FRUGAL DR MOM to keep me informed!! Thanks Dr Mom!!

CiCi's is lowering their buffet price to $3.99 per person

2009-02-28T17:04:00.002-06:00

not sure if this is nationwide, statewide, or even regionwide but the one by my house will start their new price next Wednesday!! Check out if you have one in your area. CiCi's

you are now in the SMART CIRCLE!!

2009-02-26T10:27:00.003-06:00

okay there it is... another place we can find AWESOME deals. I was introduced to this marketing company about 18 months ago when a sales guy came into my office and offered me 4 oil changes for $30 at NTB! Plus, the punch cards had other offers like 20% off other services such as new struts, brakes, etc and free tire repair. The cards just expired at the end of January, I had over a year to use these cards. I bought one for each car plus bought some for family/friends for Christmas.

THE SMART CIRLCE

FREE QUIZNO'S SUB

2009-02-23T13:26:00.002-06:00

WWW.MILLIONSUBS.COM

click on the free subs, fill in your name, email, birthdate, sex etc

get an email with a link for a free sub. Happy free sub day!!

Meijer buy 10 get the 11th free sale

2009-02-21T21:05:00.004-06:00

OH yeah.. Meijer.. every once in awhile they blow my socks off (or on) with great deals. That great half off cleaners sale or when they have the Hanes deals where you buy 3 products and get $10 off. I've gotten 3 bags of 6 pairs of socks, so that's 18 pairs of socks for $5.xx!! But this buy 10 get the 11th free gets me every time.

So today I spent the day getting my trusty coupons together trying to make the best of their sales this week. Here is what I came up with.

BUY 10 GET 11TH FREE
1 Kraft BBQ sauce *filler/no coups*
2 Banquet frozen breakfast sausage *fillers/no coups* (my hubbie's fav)
4 Old Orchard frozen juice $1/4 IP coup
5 stove top stuffing used B4G1F coupon (I found this on shelf around t-day)
6 Whiskas cat treats $1/2
8 Green Giant veggies 4 50/2 coups
9 Chef Boyardee 3 35/3 coups (how was that worth it?)
9 Tortino pizza rolls 9 35/1 coups
44 items. got 4 free from the sale

5/$10 Kelloggs Cereal +++ GET FREE MILK
3 boxes frosted mini wheats
2 boxes apple jacks
$1 IP Kelloggs frosted mini wheat coup and 2 $1.50/2 Kelloggs cereal manus
MILK FREEBIE

10/$4 Lite n fit yogart used $1/10 manu

1 Trident gum 99 cents used 75 cent manu

1 Electrosol dishwasher tabs $3 used EXPIRED $2.50 manu 50 cents
YES MEIJER TAKES EXPRIREDS!!!

$5/$60 CAT from my last trip
my total $35.43 with tax

The Meijer receipt at the top says:
TOTAL MEIJER PROMOTIONS $11.00
TOTAL NON COUPON SAVINGS $32.41
TOTAL COUPON SAVINGS $19.80
SAVINGS TOTAL $63.21

so I roughly saved 74%!!! amazing!
**sorry no pics, hubbie was ready when I got home to put everything away**

remember that HORMEL coupon?

2009-02-21T21:01:00.002-06:00

ummm yeah.. on Monday I went to Dominicks to grab another pork tenderloin for $4.99 or $3.99 with the $1 Hormel coupon HOWEVER I realized when I got there I forgot the coupon BUT THEN after getting home found the coupon in my purse... yeah.. not so good... so today I went to Dominicks to grab 4 99cent Ragu's (I know a few weeks ago WAGS had a super deal on them and I didn't jump on it) so I decided to check out their clearance meat and GUESS WHAT WAS THERE? The HORMEL pork tenderloins for $3.99!! ha ha ha and I still had that trusty $1 coupon with me. I got a pork tenderloin for $2.99!! whoo hoo

no more pasta?

2009-02-19T01:03:00.003-06:00

what? I was buying pasta 10-12 boxes at a time for less than 50 cents a box or even free some weeks during the summer. I grabbed the last box tonight! I can not believe I've blown through all that pasta. To make matters worse I held onto SEVERAL great coupons for pasta waiting for the next big sale and they expired! *sigh*

anyone got any good pasta deals I could get in on?

update LINKS TO FREE KASHI

2009-02-17T22:30:00.001-06:00

sorry ladies..

COUPONING 101 was the site I found this deal on and she's got all the links!

FREE Kashi granola bars at TARGET

2009-02-17T10:21:00.002-06:00

I got this idea from another site, don't remember which but then tried it this morning and it worked fabulous. Sorry I'm at work so I can't find the link but there is an IP out there. Just wanted to get this idea out there.

Sale 2/$5 or $2.50
use $2 IP
or $2 manus that were sent out I think through Bzzagent and others
$1 Target coupon (you can print at the store or on their site)

FREE PLUS OVERAGE or if your store just enters them down.

I got 10 boxes for 33 cents. We have to pay tax here in Illinois.

sorry no pics either.

Also, fish crackers are on sale for $1.66. Grab the $1 Target coupon and get them for 66 cents!

free day means SHOPPING

2009-02-16T18:02:00.007-06:00

Okay ladies.. I'll admit I've been missing hounding something fierce especially after having to go to Woodmans the other night and spent $96. Yeah it was $96 of darn good deals, but having to shell out that kind of cash.. yeah well.. you guys understand. I haven't spent $96 in an entire month on groceries. oh well

Okay I only put together a few deals and it took me long enough to do these.. so bear with me.

Butera
3 cans of black beans 69 cents each used $1/3 coupon
2 clearance sausage $1.15 each
1 clearance bacon 99 cents
6 v-day clearance cupcakes $1.50
1 can sardines for my cat 99 cents
total $6.96

Dominicks
I got there and *thought* I had forgotten a HORMEL coupon so I didn't do the same pork tenderloin deal as I had done on Sat night. Then, when I got home I realized I did have one with me.. grr
4 boxes cereal 4/$10 store coupon $4 off (makes them $4/6) then used two $1.50 off 2 manus = 4/$3 or 75 cents each
1 bag chips $1.99 store coupon $1 off 99 cents
1 head of lettuce $1.49
total $5.63

CVS
4 boxes of Pop Tarts $2 each used $1/2 manus $6
1 CVS soap $1.69
2 CVS allergy $1.79 each (clearance)
2 boxes CVS cheese crackers $1.97 each
1 CVS 10ct Ibuprofen $1.99 FREEBIE with a coupon I got from the scanner!!
2 cans Campbells Healthy Request soup BOGO used FREE COUPON BOTH FREE
$2/$10 cvs coup, $7.50 in ECBS spent $5.xx OOP and got back $2 ECB for the crackers
total OOP $5.90 *gasp

Meijer
2 sour cream $1.29 each used $1/2 Meijer coup and 2 55 cent manus
2 coffee mate $2.99 each used $1/2 Meijer coup and $1 IP manus
1 bag of cat food $3.76 FREEBIE with manu coup
total $3.86 left the cashier scratching her head!! for real!

I also went to Petco but really only got my cat a few things. Not much. I wanted to go to Woodmans again and Jewel but seriously ran out of energy.. sick huh.

♪MOM SONG♫

2009-02-15T17:05:00.001-06:00

If you haven't seen this IT'S TIME YOU DO!! dedicated to all the moms out there!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

2009-02-14T22:36:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone.. I finally did the unimaginable.. I didn't take any work home for this 3 DAY WEEKEND! I started the weekend off with a bang by staying home with my son and making smoothies for the two of us. We watched freebie stand up comedy video's through the XBOX 360 and Netflix. It was fun.

I finally came up with a place I wanted my hubbie to take me for good old Valentine's Day. He said I could pick, anywhere I wanted to go.

Here is the catch. About oh 15 years ago they closed the one and only Ponderosa Steakhouse in our area. Since then, my sister had moved to Cincinnati for 3 years so if we were out there we went to Ponderosa and other than that we could drive an hour to get to one. So in our entire 13 year relationship we've been there probably 10 times or less and it's a place both of us love.

My son swears he's never been to one, I'm thinking he just didn't remember going in Ohio.. but that was years ago. So we drove the hour today and it was yummy. Not as good as I remembered.. but yummy.

I also did some shopping today!! Amazing!! Those $1 coupons came in (and are burning a hole in my pocket) for the Almond Breeze so since I just opened the last of the last batch I bought a few weeks ago and I am totally out of the sugar free syrup I needed a shopping fix. **someone asked what Almond Breeze is!! It's a 54 calorie per 8oz serving no dairy beverage. In the Weight Watcher world this can be used for a ton of things and only being 54 calories we find MANY ways to use products that cost us the least amount of points. Check outAlmond Breeze website.

I had seen on line other people talking about Dominicks having a great deal on cereal. My son LOVES the Blueberry Muffin mini wheats and that was part of the deal. Basically they were on sale for 4/$10 but then with an in ad coupon they were 4/$6. Then I had all those IP coupons still from over a month ago for Kellogg's cereals and they were all for another $1 off. So I got 4 boxes of my son's favorite cereal for $2.

When I was searching for this in ad coupon I came across Hormel pork tenderloin on sale for $4.99 with an in ad coupon. I found $1 Hormel pork tenderloin coupons from an insert and got a nice size pork tenderloin for $3.99. Not too shabby.

Also they had another coupon for 99 cent Mission tortilla chips. I was glad to find they had 3 different varieties to choose from.

All of these coupons had a little note on them saying "with a $10 purchase" so I sorta walked around the store looking for something we NEEDED. I found cheese 8 oz packages on sale for $1.49 and it's the Lucerine brand which is hormone free. Nice!

My total was $11.68 for everything mentioned above after coupons! I was dang happy to walk out with 4 boxes of NAME BRAND cereal, 3 8oz packages of shredded cheese, a bag of tortilla chips, a Hormel pork tenderloin, oh and a bottle of Dr Pepper I had a free coupon for. Not bad.

Then came WOODMANS.... ohhhhh my hubbie decided he wanted to come with just so he could pick out something for lunches... *sigh* $96 later we walked out with nothing but carp... oh well. We did get..
10 Almond Breeze 99 cents after coupons (on line they retail for $2.41 without shipping.. so I'm saving myself at least $2 each!!)
2 750ml bottles of Torani syrups for $5.29 each (I've seen them on line for $8.50 each and that's without shipping charges)
5lb bag of tator tots for $5 (my hubbies fav)
5 pizza's for $10
50 small variety pack bags for $11 (hubbie wanted them for lunches)

so right there is $45 ish dollars worth and we got a ton more than just that. I was pretty happy with our trip even though my shopping trips have cost me WAY more than before when I wasn't working. I guess that is my luxury now.. *sigh*

sorry no pics. My hubbie and son helped me put all the groceries away as soon as we got home.

Anyway.. hope everyone had a bang up Valentine's Day!!

CONGARA TEASE!!

2009-02-12T22:14:00.002-06:00

OKayyyyyyy.. so Congara foods and Jewel were doing another bang up deal. Last week I went in just for the tomatoes.. I posted about that. Then last night I found out about a Healthy Choice soup deal. Now *most* of these deals work off of SHELF PRICE, but then combine these great deals with SALE PRICES and of course coupons and deals such as this work out even better. For example, THIS soup deal would work like this.

Buy $25 worth of product get $10 ONYO catalina

Heathy Choice soup Shelf price $2.80
so you must buy 10 to get this deal 10x2.80 = $28
sale price is $1 each.. even sweeter $10
add in coupons.. whatever you've got
pay less than $10 and get $10 back
ROLL AND ROLL AND ROLL

what was even better about this deal is that there were blinkies RIGHT IN FRONT of the soup for 45 cents off 2. Not awesome coupons but enough to bring your total under $8 MONEY MAKER AND FREEBIE SOUP!

So on my lunch hour (yes I actually got one of those today) I ran over to the mall to get my eyebrows threaded and on my way back to work I stopped to run this deal. *sigh* things never work in my favor it seems. I found another couponer/hounder in the same isle working the same deal. So I just confirmed with her that I had to buy 10 to make the deal work. I told her about my hunts tomato deal last week. She didn't know about it and quick back tracked to the canned tomato section.

I grab my blinkie coupons and soup and get to the register. get my total BELOW $10 and I'm standing there with my $10 ONYO from last week. hand it to her and she says it's not going to work DOH I didn't even think about overage. I had grabbed some banana's but not enough! oops.. so I grab some gum, she puts it through and and and and and NO FREAKIN ONYO CAT!

roll eyes! so the customer service lady tells me to come up, she returns my items and walks me to a self check to "try again" this time she paid with cash out of the self check machine! amazing what these customer service girls will do to help make a deal work. No ONYO CAT this time either! *sigh* She explained that sometimes halfway through these deals the companies decide to change it up and make it off the sale price.

I left there and quickly signed onto www.hotcouponworld.com only to find out the deal is dead now until the 26th.. I guess they are reworking it and then rerolling out this program. *sigh* so much for my deals... looks like my area is very over saturated with people doing the same deals I've been doing.

In the end I walked out of Jewel today with 10 cans of soup, a pack of gum, and what I thought was a large bunch of bananas all for 78 cents.

Loving Jewel!

2009-02-09T19:25:00.003-06:00

Just got back from a Jewel run. I found out over at www.jillcataldo.com that Jewel was running a Conagra deal that wasn't advertised except on Catalinas. They had $1 HUNTS diced tomatoes and one of the deals was pretty easy. Buy 14 cans, use as many coupons as possible, spent at most $14 OOP and get $10 back. Hey $4 WITHOUT COUPONS for 14 cans of diced tomatoes.. I'm there! I printed a couple on line $1/3 coupons and digged for a few manus from the paper and went. Of course the printer jammed and didn't print my $10 CAT but the ladies at Jewel know better than to argue with me and just ask me what the deal is. They just rerang it up at the service desk and my CAT printed! Nice!

Also, while rummaging through my mess of coupons last night I found out I had a few 75 cent off Almond Breeze coupons!! and they are manus which means I can use them at Woodmans because Woodmans does not take IP's!! whooo hoo!

Okay ***just*** googled Almond Breeze coupons and realized there are really great coupons out there! This meaning I can get Almond breeze for under $1 each!! HOLY COW! *sigh* couponing is great even if it means having to figure my own deals out! lol!

one hound this week

2009-02-08T00:17:00.005-06:00

I had one $3 register reward or Catalina whatever you want to call it from Walgreens. It was expiring on the 5th SO on the night of the 5th I stopped at Walgreens on my way home from work got a gallon of milk and a package of skittles. I paid 44 cents with my gift card.

Thats it.. BUT then.. my husband decided we needed mass quantities of beer and wine coolers AND of course money to play poker or bunco this weekend (neither of which happened) so he spent $50 on beer, mikes hard lemonade's, crackers, and cash! geez.

Yeah then he starts telling me how proud I would be of him for buying 3 packages of crackers for $6 AND THEN REALIZES there is $1 peelies on EACH of the boxes DOH!

You guys.. I hate to say this, but I just don't have the time and/or energy to hound anymore. I've been trying to get through stockpile which is actually working to my advantage. Our freezer is actually looking empty for the first time in months. The worst thing is that I have no idea what coupons I have, what ECB's I have, or what rebates I have coming back to me. It's pretty nuts. I have about 2 feet of inserts (2 large stacks) and have no idea which ones are even still good or what. *sigh* someday I know I'll need them and I'll be glad I have them.

Okay and if you were following my last post about being sick over my car.. yeah my OLD car which has no problems other than the key being stuck in the ignition IS WORKING PERFECTLY FINE NOW! *DOUBLE SIGH* sooooo frustrating!! Today it was 51 degrees here in Chicago so I decided to clean out our garage and make space for my new car. I had to push my old car out onto the driveway to jump it and just to get out of the garage so we could clean. I got it out there and my husband's truck wouldn't jump it. I was SUPER worried, but then realized each time I had tried to jump it the key turned right back into position and came right out. So strange.

I finally called my dad and explained what was going on and he said he thought I just wasn't getting a good connection to Tim's battery or not making a complete circuit (maybe the negatives weren't getting a ground) So I moved Tim's truck out and moved my new car over and jumped my old car NO PROBLEM. Then I let it sit and run for like 30 minutes, drove it around the subdivision and came home. Backed it into the garage really close to the wall (that was scary) went to turn it off KEY CAME RIGHT OUT! sigh.. I just went out and spent thousands and it's working again!! not good!

My sister thought maybe with the warm up it might work again, but it was happening at the end of August, in September, and October. I finally tried to get it fixed in November and drove it all of December. So temperature did make it worse (the time became longer) but my nephew drove it on the worst day possible I think it was negative 5 that day and the key came out with no issues. He had to take the key out twice that day to drive it. So really.. no, it doesn't matter. *sigh*

I'm gonna give it one last ditch effort and let my cousins cousin (yes that's right my cousin has a cousin that's a mechanic) look at it and see if he can't fix it. We'll see. Also, my husbands truck needs new belts, new brakes, a new battery, and there is something wrong with his power steering pump! Great huh?

wanna be sick?

2009-02-07T14:16:00.002-06:00

my keys came out of the ignition today.. each and every time I started it... sick

I saved another $500 on my new car!

2009-02-03T21:28:00.004-06:00

Okay here it is.. I'm laying it out there. Everyone from Dave Ramsey to Suzie Orman would be screaming their head off at me for buying a brand new car. I agree with their reasoning on WHY to buy used cars, I know it's true that the minute you drive a new car off the lot it's value decreases immediately. My personal reasons for buying a new car are mainly the fact that I hate buying other people's problems. I know that other people do not maintain their cars as I would and in fact without www.carfax.com most people would have no clue how many times their pre-owned vehicles had been bought/sold/auctioned, in accidents, in floods, had major work done to them etc.

When my husband started badgering me YEARS ago that as soon as his car was paid off that I was buying a new car. I just didn't see the reasoning in going back into debt to buy another car when we just got out of debt. So I started scrimping and saving as much as I could to buy a new car. Unfortunately, my car didn't make the cut and I bought a car a few months shy of having the full payment which is fine because I have a home equity loan that I've kept open. I figured I would just borrow the remaining balance and pay it back in the next couple months as fast as possible. This is a win/win situation because borrowing against this home equity line helps my credit because we've closed all of our credit cards except one, and the one we kept we lowered our balance on. Many people do not know that closing accounts HURTS your credit. Also, creditors want to see that you have between 3-5 active revolving accounts. Other than my mortgage we have used nothing for months. I finally broke down and started using our one credit card for small purchases that could be paid off each month.

Okay so as soon as my husband started searching Carmax over and over and over looking for a car that I would like, was reasonably new with low miles I knew that if I didn't take some control he would wind up trying to persuade me just to buy a car so the deed was over with. (sorry but he thinks his truck is going to die any day now and me being in line for the next car was hindering his dreams of buying a Dodge Challenger in the next few years HA). Friday during the day and then Friday night I realized my key issue had gone from bad to worse. It was now taking between 4-8 hours to get that darn key out of the ignition.

My son and I started surfing a few more sites and as soon as I realized that the Avenger was going for only a couple thousand dollars more BRAND NEW versus the used cars that my husband was looking at.. I started actually warming up to the idea. Then I saw that Dodge had a new LIFETIME power train warranty and I started reading and realized UNLESS you are the first owner of the vehicle this warranty is null and void. I buy my cars to drive them into the ground. I buy new so I can get every mile I paid for and drive them into the ground so I can get penny I spent. This is just my personal thinking. Then, I saw that Dodge had employee pricing plus a local dealer added on a few other rebates.

We went in, got the car on Saturday and came home and then I realized I never got a rebate I had seen advertised on my Credit Unions website. I had mentioned it to my sales guy and he said he would look into it for me because I couldn't remember the exact details. After spending 6 hours there, driving multiple cars, deciding on what to do that $500 actually left my brain. I called dealership on Monday and talked to the Sales Manager and he told me I had to get a loan through my credit union. He said he would still allow the deal and not put my paperwork through if I could get this done in the next couple days.

I called my credit union early this morning and actually was able to get it done before noon today. I asked to leave work at 4pm, drove home got my husband and drove out to the credit union to sign docs and get our check. Then we drove out to the dealership, signed new docs, got a free car wash (yes my car was already dirty, stupid Chicago winters), and got home within 2 hours. Not bad.

So.. this is how I got the $500 (and you can get) or even $1,000 on a brand new Chysler or GM car http://www.lovemycreditunion.org/ has joined up with credit unions around the country and this deal lasts until June 30th 2009. If you happen to be in the market for a new car, check it out.. or pass it on. Okay Okay.. and before you get too jumpy YES I did have to get a loan for my car through my credit union to get this $500 bonus rebate, HOWEVER, I fully intend on paying it off as quickly as possible. If I can continue to keep our spending down we'll have it paid off in 4 months so I'm not too concerned.

a cartoon, my own cake wrecks, and super SPENDING Saturday.

2009-02-01T08:58:00.008-06:00

well.. I got this cartoon from Jackie over at Mommy on a Debt Free Mission she also has a story about having to fight for her coupon rights... *sigh* so very frustration to me to read that other people have the same issues.. actually now that I think about it I'm not sure if that is a comfort to me to know that I'm not alone in that and the actual frustrating scenario is how so many glide through the SAME transactions I've tried with no issues what so ever.

Anyway.. go check out her page.

Also in the spirit of "cake wrecks" I have a few pics.. let me start with a bit of background. I live close to the small town of Woodstock Illinois where they filmed the movie "Groundhog Day". This town gets a little "into" the actual holiday because of that movie.

So last night after dinner my mom, my son, my husband and I all went to Super Wal-Mart. My son and husband needed jeans (really bad) and this is what we found (of course in addition to jeans, t-shirts, some thingy for my car to plug in my sons IPOD to, and some benadryl.

yeah not quite sure exactly what they were getting at here, and whom is going to buy these AND eat them.. but Punxsutawney Phil never looked so... soooo.. errrr.. welll ummm for lack of better words poopie!!

and on to the best news of all...

I broke down and got a new car! amazing huh? I found out Dodge was doing Employee pricing, plus all sorts of rebates, sooo out we went late Friday night exactly 15 minutes before they closed and looked at a few cars. We went back yesterday morning and drove and drove and drove and lunched and talked and played devils advocate, and fought and talked, and laughed and made shadow animals and finally after 6 hours I drove away in this....

2009 Dodge Avenger SXT
of course as always I don't feel I got the best deal I could have (that happens every time I buy a car). The very worst part is that I miss my old car already. I have been driving a 2000 Dodge Stratus. It has 106,000 miles on it and I've never had a single problem with that car until the key issue. Little stuff here and there, but always easily fixable and things that cost $300 or less to fix. That car was always dependable, never had it not start on me (except the other morning). So I kept that car which is now sitting in my garage and my new car has to sit outside. I'm trying to decide what to do with my old car. I guess I'll wait for my dad to come back from his snow bird southwest sun ranch and help me figure this thing out.

my bed's getting trumped

2009-01-29T22:20:00.002-06:00

well.. it looks at though I will not have time to go bed shopping this weekend. I had started writing up a list of everything I need to do this weekend however, after today car shopping is going to be the highlight of this weekend.

I was about to fall asleep last night at 12:20 and I remembered my keys were still in the ignition of my car.. I decided it would be fine and fell asleep.. the rude awakening at 8:23 this morning of my car saying CLICK CLICK CLICK wasn't so great. Here is the situation, and excuse me if I've already mentioned this like 400 times (I can't remember if I have or haven't) but my car has been having issues with letting go. It really is in love with me driving it or having my key stuck inside the ignition.. something about the car and that darn key.

My mechanic has had the car for over 3 weeks at one point and of course his report is, "it works every time for me".. yeah well it DOESN'T work every time for me. They've replaced the cylinder and greased the key.. and short of ripping apart my entire car just to figure it out they can only imagine that the transmission doesn't think the car is in park therefore will not let go of the key.

My husband and I have come up with tricks to get the key out and finally I figured out that if you just leave the dang thing in there it pops out on it's own. Pretty magical really. Sometimes it takes just seconds to pop out but now it's becoming increasingly longer, today it was 20 minutes.

Anyway.. last night I got home from work after 6pm and just wanted to go in and.... (make myself one of my mocha fraps) EAT and get to work on my BUCKET of work I brought home.. which I did...

so that brought me to 12:20am and then 8:23 this morning. luckily my co-worker has to pass my house to get to work, so I rolled my car out of the garage (almost lost the car as I tried to push the car and the recycle bin and the car started rolling down hill out of my garage) she showed up, popped her hood, jumped it in 3 seconds, she was gone around the corner before I even shut the hood of my car. we're that good folks!

anyway.. I've been looking for a new car on and off here and there but I've worked very hard to save the money I've saved towards a new car and really.. I JUST DON'T WANT TO SPEND IT!! not good.

So my husband is busy shopping at Carmax. Just wondering if anyone has had any luck (good or bad) at this place. I've also been looking at a local car auction but my husband got me turned on to carfax.com so I've been checking each of the cars and of course the cars I want have either been in accidents or have wayyy too long of records to want to touch.. *sigh*

soooooo I guess this is going to be a car shopping weekend and the bed is getting trumped...
***my cousin's husband (then boyfriend) wanted to buy her a diamond engagement ring and they needed a new bed. her engagement ring got trumped. then for their 10th wedding anniversary he wanted to buy her a 10 year anniversary band and of course they wound up needing a new bed that year. So again her "marital" jewelry was trumped by a bed.. now my car is trumping my bed. so strange***

free chicken & what to do with that ham?

2009-01-29T00:01:00.003-06:00

Okay.. I had to hit that Jewel sale before I didn't have time to hit it.. plus it was on my to do list from this weekend. They said they would be restocked with chicken on Monday and as I said I had those $15 in CATS that were expiring today burning a hole in my pocket.

So last night after work I quick took a run to Jewel. I grabbed 4 packages. The sale was 4 for $19.99. Well not one of those packages was a full 3lbs (which was the sale) and not one of them was $5!! So I didn't know how the deal would work out...

Well up to the checkout I went.. my total for 4 packs of just under 3lb of chicken? $13.23 WITH TAX! Yipes. grabbed 2 packs of gum, paid $1.28 and left with my almost 12 lbs of chicken.

I fired up the new George Foreman and spent the next couple hours breaking down those packs between grilled chicken packs, raw chicken packs, and cut up raw chicken packs. My freezer is full of chicken and beef once again!

OKay.. one other thing.. I bought that huge honkin ham for $6.99 the other day. It's still sitting in the bottom of my fridge.. I need to make it.. I'm not going to make it for just the two of us AND I don't get home until 6:30 most nights so I don't have the time to make it.. can I just throw it in the crock pot? What else can I do with it? I should have just brought it to my mom's house and threw it in her freezer for Easter! oh well!

I ♥ home made 54 calorie mocha fraps!

2009-01-26T21:49:00.003-06:00

ha ha ha sorry.. I'm totally in love with them. I figured I would just post my recipe for my mocha fraps.

♥8 oz Almond Breeze unsweetened I use chocolate but you could use Vanilla or original if you like
♥ice just enough to fill and cover the liquid
♥coffee creamer probably about a teaspoon full
♥2-3 packets of splenda, equal, or sweetnlow. whatever you use.
♥1 teaspoon (or more if you like) instant coffee (decaffeinated or regular, again your preference)
♥1 teaspoon sugar free syrup HUNGRY GIRL suggests TORANI brand syrups but I found a knock off at my local grocery store for a bit cheaper. I used chocolate.

Blend in a good blender, smoothie maker, or magic bullet type mixer. I use a little lite whip cream with cinnamon sprinkled on top just to make it more appealing and a little more naughty.. but I don't care. They are yuummyy!

I've also made them using regular skim milk, a sugar free packet of hot chocolate, instant coffee, and some splenda. Those turned out good but are more calories.

You can get creative and use all sorts of different flavor of coffee. Hungry Girl talks about using those flavored coffee's, flavored coffee creamer, and of course the sugar free syrup comes in a huge variety of flavors.

You could use these to make some smoothies too if you wanted. Some yogurt, some fruit, some ice, maybe a splash of juice. Yummy!

Mailbox Monday

2009-01-26T21:26:00.003-06:00

ha ha ha poor Charlie.. ♪ chhhheer up Charrrliee♫ (sorry I'm mixing my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Charlie Brown) doh! No mail for Charlie.. but mail for me!!
I got this today!!

this little bag came filled with a few goodies and I'm not even sure how I got it. I must have signed up for something awhile back. I love MY SAVINGS so who knows.. anyway.. this little make up bag came filled with a Shaver, some lip gloss, and some deodorant! So cute!

Also, over at Staples Thanks to Sherry at SAVING SHERRY for posting this great deal. They have a coupon code for $20 off a $20 stamp order here. Use coupon code 47328 at checkout online. Funny thing is I've been running very low on address labels and wanted to get one of these stamps. I waited and the deal came to me! How about that?

ooh what else..
Ohhhh I got 2 more things checked off my WEEKEND to do list. My sister, her 2 boys, my husband and myself all shoveled my parents entire driveway in under a half hour. Great workout. It wasn't as bad as I thought. The end of the driveway had a good 2 feet of thick heavy ice that my oldest nephew and my husband hacked away at while my sister, my younger nephew, and I all plowed away at the foot of powder on the rest of the driveway.

I still have to go back to to Jewel. I wanted to go on my lunch break, but lunch breaks just don't happen at my office right now. My husband finished the laundry, cleaned our bedroom and our loft upstairs. So the computer room is a wreck but the rest of our upstairs is super clean. Now if I could just get that kitchen back in order. I brought home an hour of work and it's almost 10pm so that kitchen is going to wait another day (again).

Sooo coupons, my dress, and bed shopping possibly this weekend...??

procrastination sunday... UPDATED

2009-01-25T21:38:00.000-06:00

hmm this is more like every day of the week for me, so not so sure what it is about today that it's actually bugging me.. but here is the list of things I HAD to get done this weekend. I was sick this week with a monster cold so yesterday I wound up lounging around the house all day, took shower around 7pm and then did a few errands.. but none of them actually made a dent in what I needed to get done this weekend. Here is my list.

1. Jewel. They are having their awesome buy 4 for $19.99 meats again this week. I have $20 in CATS burning a whole in my pocket along with a list of a few necessities we need for the house. Drove past 2 Jewels last night but didn't want to get out of the car again.
I went to Jewel and snoozed and loozed (or something like that) I got there and all the meat deals I wanted to pull were already taken! *sigh* I could have gone with all ground beef and pork.. but that's all I got in my freezer now!

2. Woodmans. This store is on the other side of town. Winds up being a 30 minute drive. I was within 5 minutes of it last night on the same road, but didn't want to drive that far south out of my way of the other errands we were doing. There are a few WW necessity items I need from there.
ACCOMPLISHED

3. Laundry. I am notorious for doing laundry and just leaving it in front of my dryer. I wear wrinkled clothes to work, to parties, to baptisms.. doesn't matter. Downy wrinkle release is my best friend and I actually wind up making my own once the bottle is gone. I have about 7 loads of laundry currently sitting on top of my bed waiting to be folded or hung. My sheets are in the dryer, my mattress pad is being washed right now.
shhhhhh my husband is actually watching tv and cleaning our bedroom which is where all the laundry is....

4. Kitchen. I have a full load of dishes that is clean and just needs to be put away. I also have a full double sink that is double deep of dirty dishes that need to put in the dishwasher.
umm yeah.. emptied the dishes, refilled the dishwasher, started the dishwasher but my kitchen is STILL a wreck. I started pulling out all the things I want to sell at our garage sale this spring so kitchen appliances pieces are all over the place...

5. Bathrooms. Both bathrooms are disgusting. enough said. I just finished the upstairs ones in it's entirety and actually the downstairs isn't as bad and it's only a toilet and sink.
never touched the downstairs bathroom.. it's attached to the kitchen and it's only 9:30.. hmm

6. Bills. I normally pay them so far ahead of schedule, I forgot about one that was laying on the computer room floor in a stack of stuff to be recycled. Imagine that. I just wrote it out (I tried to pay it on line and realized I would have to PAY to pay it on line and decided the stamp was cheaper). But I did pay all my other bills (some of which I found in that same stack of recycling) that I had ahead of time on line. The ones that HAVE to be mailed will wait another week. IN the mean time I will "File" them in my recycle stack.
just as far as I was when I wrote this, but I did accomplish it today.

7. Car. I have to drop my mom's car off today.
yeah nope, read below...

8. Shovel. I have to shovel my mom's driveway today in order to drop off her car. However, it's NEGATIVE 2 right now and the foot of snow on her driveway isn't going anywhere. Luckily I talked to my sister and she's gonna have a plow guy come tomorrow so dropping off my mom's car and shoveling have actually been stricken from my list.. however now I have to find time before Tuesday night to drop off her car and check the house before she goes home.. I should add to the list PRAYER because I'm gonna need it when I walk in her house and find all her pipes have burst, the house has been ransacked, and my Porsche is missing.
yeah nope... going with my sisters plan although it was warmer than I thought.. it was 8 degrees around 4pm but the windchill was negative something..

9. Bed shopping. This is something my hubbie and I have been talking about since July folks. It hasn't happened since July, it probably won't happen today.
HA HA HA HA HA SNORT

10. Coupons. I quit cutting out the coupons and just clip right from the inserts because I plain just don't have time. I still have the old ones, probably all expired to send out to the military. I need to go through those envelopes to make sure I don't have any I could use still. I also need to go through all my inserts, make them neat, write the dates on the front and put them in order. Also I need to get the ones that are dead out of here too.
umm I found the coupons I needed for my shops today.. yeah that's it.
11. Work. I brought about 2 hours of work home.
ACCOMPLISHED

12. Dress. I ordered my bridesmaid dress last month and it came in 2 weeks ago already. I need to pick that up. The wedding isn't until July so maybe I could fit bed shopping and my dress pick up together for my 11th anniversary July 3rd. lol! The dress shop is only 20 minutes from my house.. doh!
right there with my bed shopping!

13. Mail. bills. enough said.
ACCOMPLISHED

Any ideas for me? How would you organize this list? have you ever been a procrastinator and how did you overcome your obsession with blogging and FB long enough to stop procrastinating and get some work done? Is there FB/Blogging/web surfing rehab?

**so I accomplished 7 (6 1/2 because I have to go back to Jewel before Wednesday) of the 13 things and 2 others my sister/husband will help me with tomorrow that being the car & the driveway.

bye bye 1st l♥ve... it's time 4 something BETTER!!

2009-01-24T21:47:00.006-06:00

Hello, my name is Melissa and I'm a smoothieholic. As I sit typing this my outside temp in the Chicago burbs is -2 degrees and windchill is around -17 but ALAS I'm sipping a mocha frap I made right here at home all for probably less than 10 cents and 54 calories. It's a weight watcher dream.

Let me just start by saying that my sister had moved briefly out of state in the early 90's. This was right about the time that smoothies were the "new thing" on the west coast. She came home, told me about them and then showed me how to make them. This was something NEW to me and so was born my smoothie and anything smoothie like obsession. My obsession of course leads to other obsessions. Finding the perfect fruits, yogurts, mixes, powders, ice, spices to make the perfect tasting smoothies.. but it doesn't end there.. in the obsession has also been the hunt to find the perfect smoothie making machine.

My poor mother, I can't tell you how many blenders we've been through since smoothies came to Chi-town via my sister. It's been more than a few I'd say, and since I've been married and living on my own over 10 years now it's been a few more in our house as well. My house is where blenders come to die, some commit suicide even before the box is opened. Every person who "thinks" they have a great blender is usually proven wrong when I hit them up for some "girlie" drinks or a smoothie.

Anyyyyywhooo so this brings me to my current dilemma... the last few weeks I've been having to "speed blend" my smoothies because my very favorite Back to Basics ORIGINAL smoothie maker has been leaking AND not chopping ice very well.

As you can see with this model there is a spicket however no lip at the top to pour from. The spicket is set higher than the blades, therefore, there is always a good 4-8oz of smoothie left on the bottom. Once you try to turn the container upside down it never comes out neatly. Also, my model doesn't even have a handle on the back to hold it. I'm pretty sure I have their FIRST model they made. I can only remember that we got it at Service Merchandise and I stole it fair and square once I moved out.

My mom has since gone out and bought this Back to Basics smoothie maker. When it came out a few years ago it was a little pricier. I can't find the exact model my mom got, but you can see Back to Basics and other brands that jumped on the smoothie blender band wagon have learned from the original mistakes. They've moved the spicket down, added a lip/spout, and added a handle. Also I've noticed that the stick for mixing on my mom's newer model actually is shorter. My original model they made too long and if you weren't careful you would wind up with chunks of plastic in your food. Not fun or yummy.

Okay.. so we all stay up late and watch infomercials.. and we all dream that every infomercial product is the ANSWER to our prayers.. the steamer is going to clean everything perfectly, my house is going to be spotless and germless. You have to use the steamer in order for any of that to happen.. just bringing one into ones home doesn't render said house spotless or germless, however, through the magic of tv you don't get to see how much a pain it is to use this or that product. Setting it up, cleaning it, you can't feel the weight of it, or how cheaply made it is.. blah blah blah.. soooo I think you all know where I'm going.. what other infomercial has ANYTHING to do with blender.. ahhhh of course Magic Bullet.

Of course, I remember a few months back there was Magic Bullet's on sale/clearance at Walgreens for like $5 or some insanely cheap price and of course I never once checked any of my stores. No clue why. All I know is that this week I started looking into them and finding out, price wise I just couldn't give in. They are over $60.

Last night I went to pick up my bra's from JcPenney I had ordered (all clearance of course $11.99 each plus I used a coupon code, picked them up myself to avoid shipping fees and used mrrebates to get 3% back) and on my way out from JcPenney I grabbed a few of their small catalogs. This morning I started browsing through them and the first thing I noticed was this set.

It was in the catalog for $29.99. I tried to order it on line and get some coupon codes but nothing was working. Instead Tim and I had errands to run and a new JcPenney store just opened in our area so I figured we could stop in and grab it. I grabbed one and went to scan to make sure it was priced at $29.99 in the store, NOPE $39.99 what??? so I go to the checkout, explain the situation and they tell me to go back to the catalog service desk to get checked out. I wasn't in the mood, I was hot and tired (I've been sick this week) but I drudged back there and the catalog lady was awesome, gave it to me for the $29.99 price and even let me PHYSICALLY twist her arm joking around with me. (hardyyy har har)

So we stopped for a quick Panera yummmy dinner and came home and I wanted some dessert. But what else.. a mocha frap! lol! Let's give this thing a TEST RUN. OOOHhh myyyyy, I don't know how I lived WITHOUT this piece of heaven in my home up until this day. Of course, the blades are new and sharp, the pieces are all new and right on my counter BUT here is what I've noticed already that I love about this. I NOW know why they sell the Magic Bullets in sets of two because I want one for work.

Set up is a breeze. It's super tiny and living in a townhome with not the biggest cabinets I could keep this on the counter without taking up too much space OR easily put this away each time. I've already mentally taken my smoothie maker and my blender out of my kitchen. I won't be needing EITHER of them after today.

I was able to take the actual glass I'd be drinking my frap from and make it IN THE GLASS. #1 I don't have to do a ton of dishes!!! the container, the glass, the lid, the blade, the blending stick, and the rubber stopper all had to be cleaned each time I made anything. Not to mention the spicket should be cleaned out as well because honestly how knows what could be lurking in there. #2 NO GUESS WORK. I usually stand there trying to figure out just how much the current ingredients that are in the bottom of my smoothie maker will make. Will it fill the glass I want it to fill? Will it not be enough? This time, I poured my Almond Breeze in the bottom, added ice, powder creamer, splenda, sugar free choc syrup then threw the blade on, twisted and put it on the base. It blended itself in about 20 seconds.

Once I was done, I took the blade off, rinsed it off under hot water and left it on a towel to dry. No taking apart the whole assembly, no wiping the counter down from the spicket leaking or the rubber seal leaking from underneath. This will also not be taking up 1/4 of my dishwasher space either. I usually clean it out myself but each time I wash a load I throw the entire assembly in there for a deep clean. I'm not using the little lip rings that cover the top only because I always grab a straw to drink them from and I figure it's just another dish I don't need to wash.

Okay so since I got home I realized not only can I get rid of my 2 big blenders, but also my hand stick mixer set, my old quesadilla maker (I got the new George Foreman 360 for Chrismas) which also means I can get rid of my old George Foreman grill that the plates don't come out from and is impossible to clean!! This mixer is so great it's even cleaned out my cabinets, I can't say that about the steamer we bought though!

....and for your listening enjoyment... IS THIS LOVE?

added Meijer Mealbox widget to my side bar!

2009-01-22T15:16:00.001-06:00

check it out!! much easier (for me anyway) to grab Meijer coupons from week to week!!

burning up $52.88 worth of ECB's or EB's.. whatever

2009-01-20T22:05:00.004-06:00

yup I had $52 worth of ECB's burning a hole in my pocket.. quite literally. They were expiring tomorrow. I got all of them from my shop in December with all those pages of freebies. Problem is, I should have figured out my best plan of action complete with coupons and stuff.. but *sigh* I've just plan been too busy to plan my shops. I sorta wing it, and most times come out pretty happy with what I decided to do... the only thing is now I'm down to under $10 in ECB's. I'd gotten a few over the last couple weeks and then got a total of $5 in ECB's from today's shop.

I'm missing a gallon of milk which I paid $3.19 for and a 28 pack of water bottles I paid $6.99 for.

♥5 boxes of CVS crackers $1.99 ea gave back $1 ECB's for each box
♥2 containers of Q-tips $3.99 (my DH was very mad I bought CVS brand last time)
♥2 containers of Kraft Parm cheese $5.99 each (very steep but I was burning and didn't care)
♥2 nail clippers 99 cents each
♥10 cans of cat food 89 cents each (we needed them)
♥9 packages of Excedrin $1.99 used $2 manus for each FREEBIES
♥1 package of 3 Shick intuition refills $10.99 (I had no coupons with me for them, but I needed to burn another $20 and thought to myself what one luxary item would I NEVER spend cash on.. this was one such item that came to mind.. even though I love/hate them, they are good in a hurry)
♥1 Cascade powder $2.99 (this is for my office, I'm sick of trying to squeeze the last drops out of the gel gallons for our dishwasher)
♥1 gallon milk (not pictured) $3.19
♥1 28 pack Nestle water bottles $6.99
my total was over $80.. after my Excedrin coupons, I used a $10/$50, then gave her all my ECB's and paid a whopping $2.16!! NOT BAD! I walked out with $5 in ECBS which stinks because if I actually put some time/effort into this I could have walked out with probably at least the same I walked in with.. oh well.. such is life.

God, I could use a little push...

2009-01-20T00:14:00.004-06:00

I'm feeling a need for positive in my life.. I just watched a small segment of Oprah's show today.. her talking with Demi and Ashton about the change in not only America but the World. the words "we are in this together" have very much touched me tonight.

But here is my cyber pat on the back to try to push me into seeing that I need to start moving in this direction FORWARD in 2009. I actually said out loud today that I didn't accomplish anything while I was off 9 months. I'm still in awe that I let those days slide by without slapping myself and saying "wake up girl you'll never get these days back" BUT then something deep inside me says I did right by myself. Maybe it was a good time for me to stop and smell the roses so I could say I once spent some time to myself.. not sure.

Last Thursday marked my 2nd check at my new/old job. Again the check in it's entirity and a big portion of my husbands check from the week prior went to savings.. this made me think.. where was I a year ago financially????

I know a year ago I was still in debt. I know a year ago I was working 2 jobs, my husband too. I know a year ago I saw my son for probably an hour every other weekend and most of that time was spent eating with him or just not talking or interacting with him because I was so exhausted all the time from working. I know a year ago I was moving in the right direction (financially). I know a year ago I had *just* found out I was going to be laid off come March. But, once I checked my bank on line and found out just where I was financially a year ago, I nearly threw up. seriously.

A year ago (this week) I was over $25,000 in debt. so basically I paid off almost $26,000 in 4 months time. I still don't know how we did it.. but today my credit cards are paid off (except for the bridesmaid dress I put on my credit card ONLY to earn the points for it which I will be paying off with my husbands check this Friday). Last Thursday I deposited enough money into my regular savings to meet a personal goal of my own. It was something I was striving for.. and then tonight to look at my NEGATIVE HUGE balance from a year ago.. and just the screen before seeing the savings as of today... I'm wowed by myself.

Sorry I know I need to get over myself, but right now... "God I could use a little push" just point me in the right direction and I can do the rest.

Any other pushes needed out there in cyberspace???

sending free cookies to the soliders

2009-01-18T09:07:00.004-06:00

Okay, it's not totally free.. BUT all you pay is shipping!! It's a local (to me) place but I'm sure they would be willing to accomodate to others around the country.

If you or any relatives/friends have anyone over in Iraq/Afghainstan Piece-a-Cake bakery in East Dundee Illinois will send them FREE cookies. You have to pay the shipping which is $20 for APO $25 for FPO. Anyway, they send them 75 an assortment of those huge sugar cookies of smilie faces, hearts, flags, etc. All you need is the soliders address there and you can even include a short message if you like.

Anyway you can order them a few different ways. Stop in Piece-a-Cake at 304 N River Street in East Dundee Illinois. It's on the same street as Bandito's. Call in an order with your credit card. Phone 847-836-6703. Fax in an oder with your credit card 847-836-0626. Order them via the net at http://www.piece-a-cake-bakery.com/ or email at cakeb1@aol.com

I have sent several batches to my cousin in Iraq who is actually in Afghanistan right now. The first time he said he got an assortment of brownies, cookies, and treats like rice crispy treats. I've also sent them to friends as well and they all reported back the box was big enough to share with a large group.
story from the local paper about this bakery

awesome Hickory Farms Clearance sale!! sorry!!

2009-01-17T22:58:00.002-06:00

sorry should have posted this last night.. totally forgot to post it to my blog or anywhere else.. instead I ordered one item for my cousin and went to bed. *sigh* (I read about it on another blog yesterday afternoon, whomever it was that posted it sorry I'm not giving you props because I honestly don't remember who it was that I saw it first on)

Okay.. basically log on to Hickory Farms through www.mrrebates.com because mr rebates sweetens this deal by giving you back another 7% on top of what a great deal this already is. If you do not have a mr rebates account, sign up, it's free and very easy.

Once you log on THROUGH MR REBATES to Hickory Farms (just go to the search box in the upper left hand corner and type Hickory Farms) it brings you to their site. Click on your selection to browse their "items" and deals. They show you the "clearance price" in red.

Pick an item(s) you would like to buy, add it to your cart) enter the coupon code SIZZLE for an additional 15% off.

better yet, send these packages to our guys/gals over in Iraq or Afghanistan. There is FREE SHIPPING TO APO OR FPO ADDRESSES!! WHOO HOOO!

So I got the Family Get together gift box, normally $50 on sale for $12.50 then after the SIZZLE code knocked down to $10.62. Mr Rebates will give me back 74 cents so my total for my cousins birthday gift was a whopping $9.88 SHIPPED TO AFGHANISTAN! go me!

3 awesome transactions at Jewel this week

2009-01-17T19:39:00.002-06:00

Hey everybody.. of course no pics. I did these transactions at Jewel on Wednesday this week. It was the last day for their buy $30 get $15 back deal and I had wanted to take better advantage of it, however, working and trying to put together deals is really exhausting to me. Seeing as how work is my priority right now, unfortunately hounding has taken a back seat to everything else in life. Luckily I have a pretty good stockpile already so there isn't much we really need from one day to the next (minus all the WW friendly foods I stocked up on last week).

Okay.
Round 1
12 cans of Progresso WW soup $5/$10 on sale ($2.68) shelf price
**just to be on the safe side I bought 12 just in case the shelf price was actually lower which happens pretty often. Totally throws me off. Used 2 50 cent coupons and 2 $1 coupons plus $15 in RR's from a transaction I had done the week before. My total was $4.92 received my 3 $5 RR's no issue!! yeahh!!

Round 2
2 gogurts $4/$10 ($3.36 shelf price) used 2/.75 coupon
6 boxes Cascadian Farms gronola bars $3/$10 $4.68 shelf price used $1 manus
2 Fiber One Pop Tarts $4/$10 used 70 cent manus (price might be wrong)
3 $5 RR's from prior transaction paid $6.36 OOP (would not allow me to use 4 $5 RR's in one transaction) recieved my 3 $5 RR's no issue again!! whoo hoo

Round 3
1 gallon skim milk $2.28 GASP it wasn't $1.99 for the first week in MONTHS!
4 boxes Frosted Flakes 4/$7 used $1 IP manus
used 1 $5 RR paid $1.41 OOP and walked out with $20 in RR's that don't expire until the 28th!! (actually I shouldn't have paid with my $5 RR and my total should have been a little over $4. The cashier didn't scan 3 of my $1 manus which I realized after I left the store)

WOOT WOOT WOOT!! :)

more 2 ♥ & hate

2009-01-13T20:48:00.003-06:00

Okay.. here it is.. the Shick Intuition. I admit, this isn't even my razor, I stole this pic off photobucket. I got my Shick Intuition a few months ago free in the mail. I got a few coupons with it but never intended to ever use it. My sister uses it and LOVES them. Hasn't bought another razor since.. but I never saw the point considering the price. Even the few times since I have started hounding that I could have basically gotten them free I haven't.

Of course, one day I was in a big hurry and had to shave that day. So I figured since my sister had said how awesome and time saving they are I would at least the one I got for free. Yeah.. UMMMMM LOVE AT FIRST SHAVE! For real! I couldn't believe how in love with this shaver I became after just the first use. It was like crack, crack for all of those who hate to shave... crack for those of us who hate to take the time to shave... crack for those of us who hate lather up in the shower and by the time you got yourself lathered the shower water has taken half of it away...

So I actually started lQQking for deals on them or at least the refills. There was none that week or the next few weeks coming up, but then I used it a few more times and realized I HATE THIS THING! lol! Before I started hounding I would use the same razor for months. I started hounding and getting them for free so now I use the same replacement head for probably 2 weeks. I don't shave every day in the summer, probably every other day. This summer was even less because I wasn't working and actually didn't wear shorts until almost July. Now here I am using the same head for the 3rd shave and already I can feel the blades rubbing against my skin. By the next shave it was almost not even worth it, there wasn't enough lotion around the head to really get a good shave without almost hurting myself. So basically I got 4 shaves out of it.. is it worth it?

Have you used this? Do you like it? Tips? Comments?

take a bayer before reading this post

2009-01-11T23:04:00.002-06:00

you will NEVER believe how much I spent at Woodmans tonight! Never in a million years. $80!! I hope you took that aspirin because you are going to need it. But in defense of Woodmans it's a store that has awesome deals and an awesome selection of products. Their cheese isle is 2 sides and the length of a normal Walgreens isle. It's pretty impressive. I just started Weight Watchers again so I wanted to stock up on the products that make my life easier eating healthier. I also had some awesome ideas from my sister in law to help me out.

Also this weekend my son and I were making mocha frappachino's at home so I went on HUNGRY GIRL to look up a few mock recipes she's put together for yummy very low point alternative fraps and other starbucks type yummies. Luckily, Woodmans had a majority of the actual products she suggests and for wayyyy less than the websites she suggests you order them from. Yahhh me!!

Lastly, my in laws bought us the new George Foreman 360 grill(check it out here) so my husband has been making quesadilla's for snacks all the time. I had to stock up on supplies so I wound up GET THIS buying 5lbs of cheese for $14.99. Works out to $3/lb which is actually pretty good in my area. I usually wait for the 8oz packages to go down to $1.50 on sale and then stock up, so this is the same and I don't have to wait for another good sale! lol! talking about quesadilla's makes me think of...

dummies... dummies

2009-01-10T22:06:00.003-06:00

YEAH I SAID IT!! DUMMIES!! There are big dummies out there.. but ahhhh haaaaaaaaa I got their number and those dummies are only lining my fat pockets in my big girl jeans (I gained over 50lbs the last year so I can officially say I'm a big girl again.. I can also announce I'm back on Weight Watchers so eventually I'll start blogging about that too)

And back to the dummies.. Sooooooooo today I wanted to take the $3 coupons to Walgreens to grab some FREEBIE Ben & Jerry's ice cream, however, since I'm on WW again I figured I'd get some of their "light" stuff or sorbet. OF COURSE my WAGS had none of that... only the wonderfully yummy full fat stuff and really not a great selection at that. Of course they had their most popular yummmmmy flavors, just none that could jive on a diet. So I decided to go next door to Jewel that had them 2/$7 this week. I figured I could pay 50 cents for each instead.. that's fine.

So back in the truck (we got about 9" of snow over the past 24 hours so I needed the 4x4) and slid over to Jewel. I decided since I was there that *sigh* I should hit their buy $30 get $15 in CATS back deal.. hooo hummm.. so I grabbed some PT & TP (paper towels and toilet paper) and up to the register I go.

I get rung up, hand over my coupons and of course MY LUCK no CATS print. So little miss manager JUST SO HAPPENED to be "clocked out" and was in my line trying to buy a few items for her dinner and ran around the counter to try to figure out what was wrong. So she rings up a separate order trying to force the CATS to print, NO GO.. ughhh so she sends me to the service desk. In the process she pushed my cart to the side right next to the garbage can. She comes back hands me my 3 $5 CATS, smiles and says "thanks for being so patient" (*sigh* I love you little manager lady). So I'm fumbling in my purse to put my precious $15 in CATS in an envelope.. and I lQQk down in the garbage AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW... MORE $5 CATS JUST LAYING RIGHT ON TOP!! Who the heck is out there THROWING AWAY MONEY? Who is it? I want to know because if they got money to burn like that then I want to be adopted so you can just throw it at me night and day.

There were 2 of them right on top, I was lQQking for that third one, I KNOW YOU ARE IN HERE... nope.. couldn't do it without being completely obvious.. so I just left.. but here is how my transaction went down (basically)

2/$7 Ben & Jerry's ice cream used two IP $3 coupons = $1/2
1 24 pack of Charmin Big Rolls $12.99 (sale based on shelf price of $17.99) used 35 cent manu
1 10 pack (? is that right) of Bounty select a size $10 (shelf price of $12.99)used 35 cent manu
he gave me my total that was insane.. I handed over the above coupons PLUS $15 in CATS from the last time I ran that deal.. my total $10.xx
(the above story happened, no CATS blah blah blah) so I paid $10 OOP and left with $25 in CATS!! ♥ IT!!!

too good to NOT share! video and a 20% off Ulta coupon!!

2009-01-08T21:48:00.005-06:00

okay guys FrugalSuz posted this video and said it was her twin.. I've watched this video like 4 dozen times because first of all the lady looks like someone I know.. secondly, my husband and I have actually done that before because some of the deals I swear they are going to stop me on the way out. Anyway.. check this out!!

frugalsuz's twin

ALSO I got a coupon for 20% off your transaction total at Ulta emailed me to me today. It's good from Jan 15th-19th. It's a friends/family deal that includes one salon service but does not include clearance or Chanel fragrances. Anyway.. it was emailed to me and I can't figure out how to post it, so instead here is a link to slick deals where it's posted Enjoy!!

SMELLING GOOD W/ FREE FEBREZE & BUTT WIPES

2009-01-07T23:26:00.006-06:00

sorry this is going to be a fast post. It's already almost midnight and all I've done today is work, work late, ran to 2 CVS's, got gas for the car, made dinner at almost 8pm, cleaned up the kitchen, started some laundry, fed my cat, took the pics and posted. *sigh* working is sure getting in the way of hounding! ;)

1ST TRANSACTION
2 FEBREZE CANDLES CLEARANCE $1.99 USED $2 COUPONS
2 XMAS SEPARATED DISHES CLEARANCE 49 CENTS EACH
1 CVS MOIST WIPE 84 COUNT $4.29 USED $3 OFF CVS COUPON
1 J&J STRESS MELTAWAY LOTION $5.99 USED $1.50 J&J CVS COUPON AND $1 MANU
$3/$15 $2.59 ECB
PAID 58 CENTS OOP

2ND TRANSACTION
1 XMAS BABY BIB 99 CENTS CLEARANCE
2 XMAS BOXERS $1.75 CLEARANCE
1 COIN PURSE 49 CENTS (TOO CUTE TO PASS UP)
3 PET BLANKETS 75 CENTS CLEARANCE (TO BE DONATED TO SHELTER)
1 CVS MOIST WIPES $4.29 USED $3 OFF CVS COUPON
1 CVS HAND SANITIZER (THE CASHIER HAD TO TELL ME ABOUT THE BUY ONE GET ONE 50% OFF DEAL SO I GRABBED THE CLOSEST THING TO ME) 59 CENTS
1 BAG ALMONDS $3.49 USED $1.50 CVS COUPON AND $1 MANU
$3/$15 CVS AND $7.49 ECB
PAID 19 CENTS OOP

3RD TRANSACTION (DIFFERENT STORE)
3 FEBREZE CANDLES $1.99 ON CLEARANCE USED $2 MANUS
1 COTTONELLE BUTT WIPE PACK $5.98 GOT BACK $3 ECB PLUS TRIED TO USE A $2 MANU FROM LOCAL GROCERY STORE BUT THEY WOULDN'T TAKE IT BECAUSE IT HAD THE GROCERY STORE LOGO ON IT.. GRRR
2 CVS FEMININE WASHES $3.29 AND $1.64 (B1G150%) USED $3 CVS COUP
$3/$15 AND $3.99 ECB
PAID $1.61 OOP

****Also I wanted to know.. the 6 pack of water at CVS where you get a $2 ECB does it have to be a specific type of 6 pack?****

exhausted.. sorry no pics

2009-01-06T22:16:00.004-06:00

A local grocery store Jewel (which is owned by Albertsons) is doing that great spend $30 get back $15 on certain products.. yeah well.. I tried to roll those RR and it didn't turn out that well.. here is what I did. All prices are off shelf prices not sale prices so I had to calculate everything out to get the deals based on shelf not sale prices which can be pretty sweet.

FIRST TRANSACTION
3 packages of diapers on sale $10 each
NO I'M NOT PREGGERS.. I am saving them for a baby shower I'm going to soon.
used 3 $1 coupons
My total was $28
got back $15 from the regular promotion
plus an extra $5 from another deal where if you spend $25 on baby products you get $5!!

2ND TRANSACTION
6 boxes of cascadian farms granola bars $4.64 3/$10 on sale
2 boxes of puffs $1.25 on sale (fillers)
used 6 $1 coupons on the granola bars, didn't bring any puff coupons.. are there any out there? used $15 in RR from first transaction. Paid $2.xx OOP

3RD TRANSACTION
(they wouldn't let me buy any more P&G products with the coupons so I ditched what would have been my 3rd transaction and got these)
1 gallon of milk $1.99
10 Dannon Light and Fit Yogurts ~ ughh I seriously can not remember the sale on these. I had .50 cent off 2 coupons loaded on my Jewel preferred card plus I used a $1/10 coupon and a buy 6 get 1 free coupon.
1 loaf of bread $1
4 cans of cat food again I don't remember the price.
My total came to $6.38 paid with one of the $5 RR's and $1.38 OOP

Left the store with $15 in RR's I can use another day.

I also made a quick stop at Walgreens to grab the Electrasol dishwasher tabs. On sale for $3.49, used the $2.50 coupon from the paper. Then paid with my GC and will apply for the rebate this month.

That's all I've got for tonight everyone. Sorry. this whole job thing has got me wondering how all the rest of you do it!! *sigh*

great and not so great things about 2008

2008-12-31T19:58:00.003-06:00

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?

2008-12-26T16:55:00.002-06:00

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?

2008-12-25T23:37:00.002-06:00

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?

2008-12-24T00:21:00.002-06:00

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!!

2008-12-22T22:54:00.005-06:00

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..

2008-12-17T00:03:00.004-06:00

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)

2008-12-14T19:18:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-13T22:17:00.004-06:00

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!

2008-12-13T17:51:00.004-06:00

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!!

2008-12-09T13:55:00.003-06:00

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...

2008-12-08T09:25:00.006-06:00

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

2008-12-06T17:38:00.005-06:00

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

2008-12-04T15:21:00.005-06:00

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.

2008-12-03T09:20:00.008-06:00

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.

walked in with $30 ECB left with $46.92

2008-11-27T23:19:00.007-06:00

Okay.. in the grande scheme of CVS black weekend deals I didn't do THAT great.. they were out of a ton of stuff and they said they would give me rainchecks but I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to find the products again or if I would remember or if the coupons would still be good etc.

Here is what I wound up with.
♥1 universal remote $6.99 gave back $6.99 ECB FREEBIE
♥1 excederin $4.79 used $2 manu $3 CVS and got back $1 ECB FREEBIE = moneymaker
♥2 Loreal lip glosses $6.99 ea used $1 manus got back $6.99 ECB's each FREEBIE
♥2 Johnson Buddy bars $1.19 ea (fillers) used $1 manus
♥1 Sally Hanson nail polish $3.79 FORGOT TO GIVE A COUPON UGHH got back $3.79 ECB so still a FREEBIE but not a money maker
♥2 Hershey bars 50 cents each used BOGO bought the wrong bars, should have bought the king size so didn't get any ECB's oops
♥2 playtex tampons $3.99 each used $1 manus (could have used $2 ESC from WAGS??) got $3 ECB for each FREEBIE
♥3 Gatoraides $1.49 each no coupons got $1.49 ECB back each FREEBIE
♥Johnsons lotion $5.69 used $1 IP manu got back $5.69 ECB FREEBIE + moneymaker

used $3/$15 CVS I got in the mail, couldn't find my beauty coupon???? and then used a $10/$50 as well.
paid $1.33 OOP

It's funny how things have been coming to me when I need them.. maybe because I'm actually looking for them? not sure but the last couple days I've been looking at peoples stockpile pictures and realizing that everyone has a ton of TP and I have absolutely none! I'm down to my last few rolls and that was from a deal that I don't even remember that I know wasn't "that good" oh wait.. yeah it was at Menards of all places. Anyway.. so I finally found a deal that was ending today at Jewel $6.99 for Cotonelle 12 double roll pack. I had a $2 CAT for Cotonelle and a $5 CAT (left from my rolls at Jewel the last few weeks) so I paid 55 cents OOP for 12 double rolls of the TP we love. I'm good with that.

Then again tonight.. I wasn't going to go to CVS but then my husband talked me into it. I looked at the tampons thinking I could really use some. I was hoping that they would at least have one box even though I was seeing it was a max of 2.. and low and behold there was 2. It's just funny how since I've started hounding how putting myself out there things have come to me when I start thinking about them. It's a great hobby! lol!

UPDATE!! I went to Jewel today and asked about the bags I had purchased for $2 and the first girl at the Service Desk immediately said that I couldn't return them.. *sigh* I said they've never been used, they are still tagged and I'm going to rebuy them immediately.. do you need me to bring the bags in??? So she asks another girl who was just walking through and she says "yeah give her the $10 back" so the first lady I talked to said "you give her the $10 back I'll go do this" and grabs some stuff out of the 2nd ladies hands and walks away.. umm okay.. she cheerfully handed me $10.18 out of the drawer and that was that... I stood there with the receipts and said "shouldn't you MARK the reciepts?" ooh yeah.. lol! she marked them that I was refunded I took my $10 and was a happy camper!!

Even though I didn't get all the Black Weekend deals at CVS I wanted I was glad to get what I did get and with the help of my favorite store employee. He always tries to help me out and even says "let's just do this and if it doesn't work then I'll refund your $$" So as far as my deals today, I got things I actually needed and great customer service. Great day for me even though I didn't get much! lol!
Share

WWHD?

2008-11-26T09:36:00.003-06:00

What would HOUNDERS do?

Okay.. remember all these??

Just found out these are going to be $1 starting tomorrow.. I paid $2 for each of them and had gut feeling they would drop to $1 each but wanted to make sure I got them before they sold out!! *sigh* so what would you do? Would you bring them all back tomorrow when the sale starts and get your $1 back for each? So far I've only found 2 of the receipts but it's for 10 of them. I believe I bought 12 total.

DO NOT ASK HOW THIS HAPPENED!

2008-11-24T14:03:00.005-06:00

Okay this post could go a few ways.. don't ask how I got so much and don't ask how we got on this subject BUT a girlfriend and I somehow got on the topic of how much tea we have in our house. Seriously, how does this happen because the more people I talk to about it the more people flip open their cabinets to reveal just how much tea they have too! lol! So funny! So I decided to gather what tea I have in my house and take a pic.. somehow I decided to add in all the little cold tea packets I have, hot chocolate, coffee (I don't drink coffee but somehow I wound up with some), and juice mixes. Most of this stuff has been hounded so I figured it ties in with my blog! lol!

here goes

50 pack box of singles to go from Walgreens clearance I think I paid $2 for them
9 boxes of Crystal Light Peach tea singles $1 each on clearance at K-Mart during their first double coupon days
Kool Aid packets I bought so I could get other freebies like the Crystal Light tubs!
Miscellaneous teas/spiced ciders/coffee/ singles I have gotten through hounding, samples, gifts.

9 BOXES of Celestial Seasonings teas all FREEBIES at Wags a few weeks ago
9 boxes of Swiss Miss hot chocolate and 2 store brand
9 boxes of Lipton Pyramid teas all FREEBIE

I'm a dope, but I found someone that is more of a dope..

2008-11-21T13:44:00.004-06:00

I decided to run out and hit 3 stores today. Walgreens, CVS, and Jewel. All three transactions I could have done better. Don't get me wrong, I still got good deals on everything but... could have spent less OOP if I had thought about it. Also, I'm taking down the ticker because well.. IT'S MOCKING ME and my loser ability to fail miserably at a task within 3 days time.. nice huh? I've done better.. I've quit diets 9 minutes in before. I'm THAT good folks!

CVS
♥6 Glade scented square thingys $2.50 each used BOGO coupons
♥4 Duracell batteries $5.99 each used 75 cent coupons and $5/2 coupons

okay here is where I get dumb.. for some reason I was calculating what I had to spend to get the items trying to figure out if it was a better deal to do one or two transactions and whether I should grab other items. I didn't have any filler ideas or extra coupons so I said forget it and walked up to the cashier. Of course, as soon as I walk up to the empty front 5 people get in line behind me. My total comes to $42.xx before coupons and I'm thinking DOHHHHH I could have gotten $8 worth of stuff and used a $10/$50 coupon which I have several of! grr.. I didn't want to tick anyone off so I just dealt with it.

Used a $15 ECB which the cashier couldn't get to work, I know my first $15 ECB from Duracell also wouldn't work and the cashier had to key it in as three separate $5 ECBs. So this cashier decided she couldn't figure out how to get it to work so she calls over another cashier. He comes over and keys it in as I paid $15 cash. Okay that works. My total was $5.xx so I used my debit card. The drawer opens and the cashier is standing there asking ME WHY the drawer opened and I said "because he keyed my ECB in as CASH" she said "any other time I key something in as cash it doesn't open the drawer" so I asked her "okay how do you put CASH in the DRAWER when a customer PAYS WITH CASH?" and she waves at me like I wouldn't understand. {{rolling my eyes here}} anyway.. I got back another $15 ECB for Duracell and $5 ECB for glade.

Jewel
♥7 Philadelphia cream cheese 99 cents each
used 3 .50/2 coupons
total OOP was $5.55 and got back a CAT for $4!! so these cream cheeses cost me roughly 22 cents each!! woot!

this was a Walgreens double dip deal that has been talked about all over for the past couple weeks in anticipation of monthly double dip days. Anyway, there weren't many double dip deals this month but I like this shampoo so I wanted in on this. The way that the deal read was that these shampoo/conditioners were 2/$20 there was an ESC from the new December book for $5 each and of course the ESR for $10 so I'm expecting free shampoo in the end of the deal. I get there and there are no December books. So I go to grab my poo and the shelf says 3/$20 not 2/$20. and in my head I'm like whooo hoo I'm gonna make $5 on this deal with that $5 off coupon. So I go to the front and ask for the book and the cashier finds one, I flip through and find a coupon and it's for $2 off not $5. I didn't see any other coupons so I had to pay $15 off my GC. I wasn't happy.. but i guess I got all three for $5 which isn't bad.. but I don't know what went wrong here.. ???

owned

2008-11-18T12:24:00.007-06:00

yup that's me.. today.. you see.. I ran a bunch of errands. Came home started taking pictures of my deals. Went outside to take pics of the the last deals and dropped my camera on the ground. Grr.. we've been looking for a new camera HOWEVER we don't have the $$ to be going off to buy a new one yet. when I take pics the screen looks normal but then the pic looks all weird. I figured maybe it was just the way the pictures were displaying. yeah no dice... I just loaded them and they look like this...

yeah not good.

Okay.. my run went like this

CVS (sorry it's impossible to see what is in the picture)
First Transaction
4 Glade candles $2.50 each used $1.50/2 coupons
paid $7.xx OOP got back $5 ECB

Second Transaction
4 batteries $5.99 each used 2 $5/2 and 75 cent coupons
4 Glade plug in refills $3.99 ea used BOGO coupons
2 Glade candles $2.50 each used $1.50/2 coupon
$5 ECB and $15 ECB from last trip
paid $3 OOP and got back a $15 ECB for Duracell and a $10 ECB for glade.

Butera
2 bagged salads 99 cents each used 75 cent coupons
1 clearance bag of rolls 99 cents
$1.52 OOP

First transaction
9 Swiss miss hot chocolates $1 each (regular price $2.35) used 2 30 cent coupons
1 (not pictured) Parmesan cheese $2.99
$10 CAT from last week
$1.60 OOP and got back $10 CAT

Second transaction
8 boxes cereal $3 each used $1/2 coupons
2 boxes chex mix bars $3 each used $1/2 coupons
$15 in CATS $9.53 OOP got back a free milk CAT (for next transaction) and $15 more in CATS.

Last transaction
1 milk $3 used $4.50 coupon gave overage
1 Dannon Yogart$2.29 Avenu coupon 75 cents
paid 12 cents for both

Okay so the question of the day is, do you know of any great deals on cameras? Bring em here if you do! :)

sigh now I can't get rid of A&H TP!!

2008-11-17T14:13:00.004-06:00

Okay.. here was my CVS deal yesterday. I went specifically for the batteries. I have plenty of coupons the CVS ones, ones from inserts, and the internet email CVS ones.. so combined I planned out a groovy easy deal.

4 Duracell batteries $5.99 each (not pictured) used two $5/2 coups and 4 $1 coups (we didn't the $1.50 coups?)

4 A&H TP clearance for $1 used 75 cent coupons

1 Johnson Buddies $1.19 used $1 coupon

11 Halloween chinese food style containers clearanced to 9 cents each

CVS $5/$30 coup plus $5 ECB

My original total came out to $37 which I thought I was right at $30?? not sure.. but then I gave her coupons and my total was $7.xx so I had figured I would have to spend $6.xx OOP so I might have been off here or there. I get the receipt and realize the A&H TP rang up as $1.99.. so she credited me back $8.xx to my debit card, rerang and my total came to $4.xx. So basically I got everything for $3 OOP in the end. I also got back a $15 ECB for this transaction which was good because I was down to one lonely little $5 ECB! lol!

Okay.. while I was there they were bringing out a ton of Halloween clearance items. TONS it was insane. I almost wanted to ask if they actually ever brought out any items during Halloween because there was the freebie plastic pumpkin and many other great buys during October.

So here is my question for the day. This lady was there and she was filling up 2 CARTS of this stuff plus baskets of candy and odds and ends. She had an envelope filled with coupons. It took a full 20 minutes for her to get rung up so while I was getting my issue cleared up she had finally gotten everything put back into the carts and had left. So I walked over to the cashier that had rung her up and said "out of plain curiosity what was her total" she says "she did 3 transactions and each was under $1" UMMM HOW? there is no way on god's green earth that she had coupons for most of that stuff... none of it was name brand anything.. so I was I asked the cashier "what coupons did she use" she showed me what she used and she was stacking $3/$15 (old expired ones), the $5/$20 halloween from scanner coup, then $4/$20 email ones and $5/$30. It still makes no sense how each transaction was over $30 and she got them all down below $1.. but does your CVS let you stack multiple of their coupons?

oh but of course

2008-11-15T08:33:00.003-06:00

Soooo yeah I failed miserably at my challenge.. just what 3 days in.. K-Mart was having double coupon days so I had to go. I wound up getting a few things I really needed that they had pretty good deals on. I got a new cat litter box, some pint jars for canning I want to start asap, a tea pot (my husband threw ours out or sold the one we had at our last house, I'm still mad about it) and cheese. The cheese was BOGO at $3.19 so I figured that was a good price for 2 8oz packages. Either way my original total was $115.xx and I walked out of there spending $40.xx so not bad..

Okay, I had so many errands to run the night I got the milk I didn't realize that Dominicks brand milk comes in different colors. I think I *knew* it as I have bought it before, and I *thought* I read the container, however it says LOW FAT.. meaning NOT SKIM which is what we normally drink! oops.. more fat.. great.

Also, I did not check my bank account before leaving the house on those errands. I figured I would get cash back from that transaction versus having to pay ATM fees to go out to dinner last night. So my total came to $24.05.. yeah I had $22 in my account by the time that transaction came through.. so that transaction cost me another $10.. ughh $14.05 for two gallons of milk that I don't even like.. *sigh*

ran a few errands tonight...

2008-11-13T21:19:00.005-06:00

I had 2 REDBOX movies to return (freebies with Walgreen's text codes from yesterday) so I decided to grab some coupons and get in on the buy $20 get $10 Conagra deal. Sorry I had so many stops to make I didn't get pics of everything.

Jewel
have you ever seen such a perfect HUNT'S diced tomato pyramid? The cream cheese couldn't make it to the cheering competitions tonight, sorry. and for heavens sake, will someone please little miss hunt's diced in the 2nd row from the top on the left to stop looking at her mom while we are taking pictures.. geez! I guess this is what Jon & Kate plus 8 feel like at family pic time!!
♥10 Hunts diced tomatoes regular price $1.80 sale $1 used 5 .40/2 manu coupons
♥1 Healthy Choice meal thingy regular price $3.95 sale price $3 used $1 manu
used two $5 CATS from last weeks trips paid tax for those items
♥2 Zone Perfect bars on sale for $1 ea used $1 manus FREEBIES
♥2 Jewel cream cheese on sale for $1 ea
paid $2.30 OOP for that entire order. Basically I paid for the cream cheese and everything else was free! OOH and I got another $10 CAT for my next purchase!!

Butera
yes, that is a Thomas Kinkade stained glass covering an outlet in my kitchen.. and yes, that is a phone jack with no phone.. the only phone jack in our house and there is no phone.. woot for being unplugged for 5 years and counting!
♥2 Fresh Express bag salads on sale for 99 cents each used 2 .75 coupons 24 cents each
♥1 lb Deli Salami $2.95
♥6 pack onion rolls day old sale $1.19
♥2 Banquet breakfast sausage 99 cent each
Total OOP $6.74

Dominicks

♥2 gallons of milk sale price $1.99
Total OOP $4.05 p.s. if you've never seen 2 gallons of milk together, raise your hand...

Okay so my total for the night is: $13.09 added on to my total from yesterday of 18 cents I'm at $13.27 for 2 days.. ughh not great.. but I've gotten items that will last.

DAY 2

2008-11-13T13:27:00.004-06:00

Well of course on day 2 I found out about a couple things going on.. BEST of all KMART IS HAVING DOUBLE COUPON DAYS AGAIN.. BUT THIS TIME THE SUPER KMARTS ARE INVOLVED WHICH MEANS MORE GROCERIES!! Groceries are my hardest thing to hound so I'm actually going to make a day of it driving to another town a little over a half hour from here.

Okay.. so here it is..
♥Breakfast was cereal, bought it for 80 cents per box at Target last week
♥Lunch was soup/bread bought the soup during one of my Jewel raids and my son was home sick so he needed some good ol chicken soup
♥Dinner baked Spaghetti with homemade garlic bread made it from my 14 cent boxes of Smart Taste, Ragu from my Jewel raid last week, tomato paste and diced tomatoes I got from aldi for 45 cents, onion I got for 79cents for 3lbs, green/red pepper I got marked down for less than a quarter each, cheese I got 2/$4. I think that about sums it up.

I didn't take pictures but yesterday I went to Jewel just to get 4 more boxes of the Lipton Tea FREEBIES and a loaf of Italian Bread which I had one of those survey free coupons for FREEBIE. I've never made homemade garlic bread before and actually was happy at how easy it turned out to be. I have so much tea now I'm sure that these will be going in my Christmas bags this year! Last night my son decided he wanted to try some so I let him open 2 boxes. Now I have 4 boxes of open tea, which I know for some {{{ahhhhemmmmother}}}} isn't a lot.. but I normally only have maybe 1 at the most.

Originally we were supposed to be doing Subway for dinner but after announcing my stockpile challenge I decided it would be better to stay at home and eat. The catch was instead of just making dinner for my husband, my son, and myself added to that was my mom and my two nephews. We had to pick up my sister from the airport last night so I wanted to make a meal that was filling enough and easy to make for 6 people. It turned out good (minus my 10 yo nephew who has a gourmet chef for a father and said he didn't like it much and ate 4 bites). We had plenty of leftovers to boot which I just had for lunch YUMMYYYY!

Okay yesterday I spent a whopping 18 cents at Jewel for 4 boxes of tea and loaf of bread for dinner. So this is where I sit at right now, 18 cents.. I'm liking it up here. My excitement will be quickly fading with a CVS trip, a trip to Dominicks to get $1.99 milk x's 2, a Super Kmart run tomorrow along with putting together a deal at Wags to use that awesome $5/$20 good tomorrow and Saturday.

Mashed Potato Bar

2008-11-12T13:18:00.002-06:00

You know.. I should have just explained this in the post.. but the post was getting too long. Mashed Potato bar is great for get togethers, any type.. just a fun little extra. I'm going to copy/paste some comments I answered in my post about it.

Mashed potato bar ~ Learned this from a great neighbor of mine ~ I know it's cheating but it's how I do it.. I make an entire small box of mashed potatoes in my small crock pot (I don't even know the size it's a tall round one, the inside is the circumference of a dollar bill I'd say??) then I put out goodies like bacon I make earlier and crush up, cheese, sour cream, green onions, regular onions, salsa, butter etc.

**when you pour the whole box of potato flakes in the crock pot you are probably going to be standing there thinking "geez there is no way the rest of the milk/water will fit" those potato flakes absorb it up quick so even if those flakes are 1" close to the top, it will probably all fit. Stirring it is never easy either because you have to dig down deep to get down to the bottom.**

I make it about an hour before the party so it has time to heat up. I make them per the regular directions with the same butter, salt, water, milk measurements the box tells you.

Then I put it on warm or low during the party. I try to keep an eye on it because eventually the bottom will start to burn. So mix it up from time to time and I've even turned it off for 20-30 min at a time. At the end of the night whatever is left I throw in little storage containers and freezer for dinners another night.

I think the steam and mash would probably work out in the crock pot.. you could probably steam/mash them and just throw them in the crock pot just minutes before guests arrive. My neighbor actually makes her own mashed potatoes. I would except it's a ton of work to be doing RIGHT before a party start, plus having to clean up a huge pot again right before the start of a party. I guess you could make your own the night before or hours before and just throw them in the crock pot with enough time for them to rewarm through.

Also, for this I usually put out little disposable bowls and separate spoons/forks because for some reason it just seems easier (and more fun) to build a little mashed potato meal for yourself. I wind up having like 3-4 bowls and eating nothing else just because I'm a mashed potato nut! lol!

25 days and counting down...

2008-11-12T08:18:00.003-06:00

Okay.. so day 1 down! lol! I've been thinking about doing this challenge for awhile. In fact Mary over at
OWLHAVEN did this in September with her husband and 10 kids!! Yes you read that right 10 kids!! Her day to day blogs were inspiring as she has a huge garden so much canning was going on that month along with many other homemade items. Her goal was to spend under $200, however, she had spent an extra $200 the month before stockpiling items. She felt her pantry was full enough to give it a go, and she pulled it off!! Amazing.

Also over at another one of my favorite blogs Precious at Frugal makes Cents she had talked about the same thing I am here, using up her stockpile. She had some of the same guidelines that I did basically stating that if she could get something for rock bottom price she was going to get it. She is simply going to take the next 6 months to use her stockpile. Easy enough.

I have been banned from shampoo purchase and cleaning product purchase so that does leave me with less to coupon anyway. (I have bought some shampoo/cleaning products but only stuff I could get for free)

My first day at this!!
Yesterday was my first day, I hadn't announced it on my blog yet. I wanted to put some real thought into it. What rules/guidelines I wanted to follow and I still have to work on the budget for this. I've found plenty of milk for $1.99 so I'm confident that the maximum amount of milk will be $6 this month although sometimes my son goes through a ton of milk.. hmmm might be more like $10. still not bad. As far as Mary at Owlhaven goes I would have spent the $200 just in milk if I had 10 kids. I think she had gift cards and did some trades here and there if I remember correctly.. not for just milk but for other supplies as well.

Okay so Day 1 went like this.
Breakfast
Cereal or leftover big breakfast from Sunday

Lunch
leftover dinner from Monday or Onion soup with bread and cookies

Dinner
Shake and Bake Pork Chops, steam broccoli/cheese, cranberry sauce, and potatoes. The potatoes were supper yummy. A neighbor told me how she makes them and it came out really good. Basically she cubes up potatoes, mixes them with EVOO and a packet of onion soup mix. Bake at 350-400 (depends on your time frame) until tender. I decided to start using the stockpile so I scrounged up some salad dressing I had gotten awhile back for free. It's some Jalapeno red pepper ceasar, weird huh? It had some oil in it and some flavor with a kick.

Okay Day 1 done.. 24 to go and already I'm planning a few shopping trips.. one for today, a couple for tomorrow, and actually one for next week.

My personal challenge.

2008-11-11T23:10:00.003-06:00

Well.. it's come to my attention over the last couple days with all the shopping I did and trying to fit everything into the freezer and moving things around to make the stockpile shelves fit everything I bought that I really need to "dig in" to my stockpile. Seriously. (ok longest run on sentence followed by the shortest sentence ever) I still have most of the boxes of 100 cal packs I bought in August during Meijer's back to school deals.

Here is a list of my over abundance of goodies.

MEAT
One of the first things I noticed yesterday is that I now have more pork than I know what to do with. Somehow I've ended up with I think 4 packages of just pork chops. I also have a pork roast. I also have a good stock of chicken. I have some burgers which I can make into other things such as chili, meatloaf, or for spaghetti. I'm going to aim to clean out the freezer first of meat and then I can start buying other meat. I probably have enough meat in there to last my 25 days.

SOUP
OMG somehow I've managed to gather a ton of soup, and not just already made soup but those packets of soup, cup of soups (both little packets and little cups), not to mention Ramon noodles, chicken stock, bullion cubes and the like. whew.

FROZEN VEGGIES
Because of that sale I have a huge over abundance of frozen veggies. They are all in steam packages, however, I have been using them over the past few days in various other ways. I actually partially steamed the sugar snap peas and used them as dipping veggies. Didn't work out that great because they were limp and soggy, but it was a yummy treat with no chips! lol!

PASTA
Those Smart Taste coupons came in handy and I used em! lol! It was BOGO at $2.29, so I got two boxes for 29 cents a couple weeks ago. The sale before that was 10/$10 and I used up what coupons I had at that time. Not to mention I started out with a good amount of pasta in the house. But now it's just out of control. Same with Pasta sauce. Lots of it!!

BOXED POTATOES
wow.. not sure where they all came from (yeah I do, don't let me fool you) but boy do I got boxed potatoes. I have plenty of mashed potatoes and au gratin potatoes to last a long while. I would say I would save these to use for the cookie exchange party, but I like making plain potatoes and letting everyone put their own toppings on. All the boxed mashed potatoes I got are all flavored.. hmmm guess I could use the cheese ones.. who doesn't like cheese? lol!

CEREAL
Currently I think we have around 15 boxes of cereal. Which for other hounders probably isn't a huge amount, but for us I think in 4 weeks we can make that last.

CHIPS/GOODIES
As I mentioned above we have plenty of 100 cal packs and pretzels from 10/$10 sales and also a scary amount of tortilla chips.

THINGS I WILL ALLOW MYSELF TO BUY
I will allow myself to buy dairy. I know I'll need milk, sour cream, cream cheese, and regular cheese this month. Fresh produce mainly fruit but also a few veggie items like lettuce and cilantro for other meals. Meat I will allow myself once my stockpile gets smaller as I mentioned above.

One little strange thing about this is that my last day is the day before my cookie exchange in my neighborhood. I usually make PB balls and one or two other types of cookies. I've already bought the PB and I have a ton of chocolate. I'm pretty sure I have plenty of powdered sugar so I will be okay in that area. Maybe for my other cookie I'll make cake cookies from cake mix. Easy and yummy.

But the fun doesn't end there with the cookie party. It's a neighborhood fun night and I invite neighbors from my hood to come over, eat munchies, and spread Holiday cheer with the cookie exchange (this includes MEN!), ornament exchange, and usually lots of good ol fashion gossip and of course explaining our cookies to everyone else! Some years I've spent a ton of ca$h buying boxed appetizers and the like.. last year I pulled back the reigns because of credit card debt. This year I'm going to do my best to find some cheap 2 liters of pop and I have to do my mashed potato bar for sure. Included in this I will have to buy sour cream, bacon, cheese and veggies. I will do boxed mashed potatoes so I think just the food/drinks should be a pretty minimal amount.

This DOES NOT mean that if I can get something for 25 cents or less that I won't buy it.. it simply means that I need to cut back and start using the stockpile. There is no reason to have a stockpile if I'm not going to use it right?

EATING OUT
I normally count my eating out into our food budget but I also combine our grocery budget with entertainment and household items because with hounding it's hard to separate what was cleaning products and what was food. I have SEVERAL coupons from restaurant.com that I had purchased so when my son is visiting (which is when we eat out the most) we'll have those to go out to eat with.

Luckily we have Thanksgiving tucked in there. This year my family is not celebrating basically because my sister/mom are both nurses and always work the holidays for the extra money. My mom will be out of state for Thanksgiving and my son is actually going out of state with his dad. My sisters boys will be with their father and his family out of state as well. We do have dinner with my husband's uncle on the 15th and of course Thanksgiving at his grandparents on Thanksgiving day. So both those days are automatic freebie days for us!

BUDGET
This is tricky.. because I really need to figure out what I've spent so far THIS MONTH on food. As I said I combine Entertainment and household items into our food budget so I'll have to figure this out tomorrow. I was originally thinking $80 for 25 days which I think is possible. I will need $6 for milk this month, $10 other dairy items, $10 produce, and between $14 & $20 for the cookie exchange party. This puts me roughly at $46 however this doesn't include my great deal buys of 25 cents or less.

I do have $15 in CATS from the Jewel shop and also around $40 on my WAGS card. That money I will not count towards this month. Those are essentially my freebie dollars.

As some of you already know, I get very excited when I make entire meals from the stockpile. I also try to figure out how much it cost me for the whole meal and each serving which sometimes is hard considering I don't remember exact prices. I'm going to try my best to blog daily to let you know how I did the day before!! Wish me luck!!

acts of kindness

2008-11-11T15:36:00.004-06:00

Lindsay over at FRUGAL AND FABULOUS gave me this award!! I really love the comment she left about me and why she was giving me this award.

"Melissa @ I robbed that store legally! Melissa gets some really great deals week after week - and often goes to great lengths (and through many an awful cashier) to get them. But she's a trooper and never gives up! :)"

I really appreciate this comment because YES hounding/couponing is difficult, it's frustrating, it's not as easy as it looks, and it's addicting. I've made tons of mistakes and love to share them simply because I don't want other couponers out there (newbie or veteran) to think that I don't or that they can't make mistakes or that they are alone making mistakes.

Simply, we are here to save our families money. That is the bottom line. Whether we technically could afford $1,000 worth of groceries or not, we chose to go this route and yes it's tough but we all must keep swimming! lol!

Now I have to tell you six things that I am thankful for, and then I have to nominate six people with this award!

I am thankful for:

1. I'm thankful for my healthy normal son. He was born very ill, has had 3 brain surgeries in his 14 years of life amongst other bumps, bruises, stitches, bone breaks, and the like.

2. I am thankful for both my nephews.. both of whom bring light into my world.

3. I am thankful for my parents.. they've been married almost 40 years and through it all taught me a lot about life. They had a tough first 20 years of marriage, but they stuck it out.

4. I am thankful for my sister.. she's amazing.. she was like a 2nd mother to me when I was little and my mom was in nursing school. Even though I know I was a pest to her as kids, I always knew she loved me.

5. He isn't blood.. but I'm thankful for my husband.. I know weird he is coming in close to last. He's a grounded stable man.

6. I am thankful for my grandma. Next Tuesday will mark her death, it's been 5 years. I can't believe it's been that long. I can always spend time with her when I'm in my kitchen. I learned more about her, about life, about love, about family, and really best of all about cooking. For 10 years I made dinner almost every night with her. Her hands were too weak and sore from rheumatoid arthritis to lift the heavy iron pans or peel the potatoes. So she stood over me, or sat next to me and told me how to do them. While we prepared meals, we talked about everything from her relationship with my grandfather, her family (she was one of 11), her life growing up on the farm and moving to the big city (Chicago), and even sex! She was and still is an amazing woman!! Go Grandma!

Okay now that I'm sobbing my fool heart out... I've decided not to tag anyone because as always it seems everyone has already been tagged for this.. Anyone of blogs I stalk deserve this award! everyone of them puts their heart and soul into their blogs and I appreciate each of them!

Rock on Ladies!!

In closing....

I feel like JC Wayatt in Baby Boom!

2008-11-09T10:14:00.003-06:00

right around 1:37 minute through 2:20 she is making baby applesauce and putting it in the cabinet.. this was like me last night putting away all my Jewel deals!

My totals for my Jewel deals this week.

2008-11-08T23:36:00.004-06:00

I have no idea when this deal even started, however, I got the flyer a week ago and didn't actually decide to get into it until Friday this week! I waited at least 5 days before getting in on it. I kept thinking "I don't need any of this stuff"

Total OOP $43.28

I don't have an exact total of how much each of these items would have cost without sales and coupons however I did 7 transactions over the last 3 days and I had to get over $30. A few transactions I was well over that $30 mark others by only a few dollars if that. So roughly I got $210 worth of groceries for $43.28 and I still have $15 CATS to use towards my next Jewel trip!! whoo hoo. Free milk here I come! :)

Okay.. my son saw the GoGurts in the sale and I had to go back!

2008-11-08T23:20:00.002-06:00

No picture because I'm just too darn lazy. I left the house at 10:33 and got back around 11:12. This trip didn't go so well and I'm trying to figure out why because I added fillers just in case. I had everything worked out on paper, all the shelf prices were about 2-5 cents off.. nothing major. Anyway.. I wound up with

♥6 GoGurts (am I spelling that right?) yes my 14 yo son asked for them. they were 4/$10 normally $3.20 each used 75/2 coupons
♥3 boxes Betty Crocker potatoes $1 each normally $2.20 each used 35 cent coupons
♥2 Betty Crocker frostings 6/$10 sale or $1.67 each used 50 cent coupons
♥1 Betty Crocker cake mix this was a filler $1 each normally $2 each
3 $5 coupons
Total OOP $3.92 and no RRs/Cats whatever printed LOWER LIP POUT!! I was so sorta upset and the checker was like "was it suppossed to reprint more of those coupons?" (some young guy) so I said "yeah" as I was scanning and counting the before sale prices on the receipt to make sure I hit $30 which I did... hmm so he called the service desk girl over who shrugged and handed me my coupons back from the drawer that I just used!! are they going to work again??? no clue.. oh well..

I think this is my last Jewel deal.. however, the night is young..

2008-11-08T21:16:00.002-06:00

♥ 6 All detergents 3/$10 used 2 $1 IP coupons and 2 $1/2 coupons
3 $5 CATS/RR's whatever you call them
$2.24 OOP received another 3 $5 CATS OYNO
**note I heard this deal works with only 5 All detergents.. but I figured the total would be $13.xx and I wanted to get over the $15 instead of having to find fillers. Plus I had also heard some people had issues when only buying 5. Either way it worked for me with 6 and I was happy! :)

these pics are sorta out of order.. but oh well.. My son needed to go to Wal-Mart and I had a few coupons I knew I could get some freebies with so I decided to quickly get some coupons together. This is what I got for a good deal/free/was paid to take. I didn't put everything in the picture. I did get a new pair of fuzzy boots, a thing of celery salt, my son got a bunch of fishing stuff (why we had to go fishing in WINTER IN CHICAGO.. UH HUH)and some more of those Tic Tac Chills which I found 2 more coupons for.

♥11 Johnson buddies (10 pictures my 14 yo son is showering with the last one as I type this!) 94 cents each used $1 coupons, some $3/3 coupons, and some IP coupons I had all in different places!
♥8 Well Patches 97 cents each used $1 coupons
♥2 Vlasic pickles $1.76 used $1 IP coupons horrible price for this size jar usually I get the huge jar for this price during rollback. My son is a pickle hound and I just gave my last huge jar to my mom to keep at her house so my pickle hound child can eat through those at her house instead of the ones she buys! lol!
♥3 Zone Perfect bars 97 cents each used $1 coupons (I had a ton more coupons but of course they had only 3 bars left)
♥All You Magazine $2.xx ughh I need to order a subscription! lol!

Walgreens
♥10 packs Wrigley gum $1.19 each WAGS BOGO coupon and BOGO manus FREEBIE
♥1 Celestial Seasonings tea $1.50 (my signs even at this WAGS said $2/5 I even took a pic with my camera phone this time) used $1 manu and had cashier scan ESC for the other 50 cents.

My total was 13 cents... I was digging in my purse and the cashier used the take penny/leave a penny fund which had a dime and several pennies. Done! I still have more BOGO Wrigley coupons however I didn't know how many they would allow me to buy at one time which is why throughout the week I started at 4 packs and moved up to 8 and now 10.

PB pasta sauce time???

2008-11-08T12:37:00.004-06:00

I don't think that's how the song goes.. or saying.. whatever it is that my nephews and son say constantly PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME soooo annoying.
anyway.. again.. I woke this morning knowing that awesome Jewel deal would be over after today so I got together another small deal..

♥8 Skippy PB's normally $3.20 (shelf said $3.29) on sale 4/$10 used two .75/2 coupons =$17
♥4 Ragu normally $2.67 (the shelf price was different than this as well, it was higher) on sale 6/$10 or $1.67 each used 2 $1/2 coupon = $4.68
used 4 $5RR from yesterdays trips total OOP $2.14 and earned another $15 RR for my next trip!

I just couldn't resist.. another Jewel run!!!

2008-11-07T19:03:00.005-06:00

I did two separate transactions just so I could roll the RRs and get the most for the least. Here goes

♥14 Green Giant veggies $1 each used 13 25 cent coupons.. not sure where the 14th went and boy was I mad! lol!
two $5 RR's from trip earlier today
57 cents!! booo yaa! Got 3 $5 RR's

♥12 Green Giant veggies $1 each used 12 25 cent coupons
♥5 Betty Crocker potatoes $1 ea used 35 cent coupons
♥2 Berry Crocker Frosting $1.66 used 50 cent coupons
♥1 Jewel Garlic bread $2 for dinner
♥2 Progresso chicken stock $1.66 used $1 coupons
3 $5 RR's from first transaction total OOP $3.33

walked out of store with $20 in RRs because the first transaction I only used 2 from earlier today!!
OHHHH yeahh!

****I had to use two Bertolli dinners for dinner tonight and take each of my veggies out of their boxes in order for them all to fit! I really need a 2nd freezer!!

whew, I'm exhausted!

2008-11-07T14:04:00.005-06:00

This was my lunch after my hounding crawl!! ha ha I don't drink so instead of a pub crawl I do hounding crawls! nice!
Made it from my 99 cent chicken breast I had grilled and frozen and one of those Green Giant Veggies I got! whoo hoo
and now for my feature presentation.....

Target!!
♥5 boxes of Kelloggs Cereal $2.75 used $1 coupons
♥4 Prego $1.67 each used $1/2 IP coupons and $1/3 coupon
$5 GC from a previous Target run
$6.67 OOP and I got back a $5 GC for nex time

2 stores, 2 transactions
first store
♥8 Celestial Seasons Tea the sign said $2/5 but they rang up as $1.50 each??? I read they were suppossed to be free after $1/2 ESC and $1 coupons and that's what I got them for FREEBIES
♥8 packs of gum $1.19 each used BOGO circular coupon and BOGO insert coups
total 29 cents

second store
♥8 packs of gum $1.19 each used BOGO circular coupon and BOGO insert coups
total 8 cents
**had to fight with the cashier on this one.. she tried to give me the "one per purchase" blah blah blah

♥10 Green Giant veggies $1 each used 25 cent coupons or 50 cent/2 coups
♥22 Pure Protein bars $1 each used $1.50/2 coupons
♥4 reusable bags $1 each (decided to do 4 more xmas bags)
♥4 Old Orchard Juices BOGO $3.49 used $1/2 coupons so 4/$5 I had read on another site that this was giving a $5 RR.. I didn't get it..??
♥2 Lipton teas $2.50 each used 60 cent coupons plus $2 ecoupons FREEBIE
♥4 Ranch dip packets $1.29
used $15 RR from last trip, total OOP $13.61 and I got $15 RR for the next trip!!

**this trip has made it impossible for me not to go back this afternoon HOWEVER I don't have the freezer room for all the free veggies I could get *sigh* So I'm going to try to work up just one more deal.. we'll see what I come up with.

♫ ♫I wanna love you, squeeze you, wrap my arms around you♫ ♫

2008-11-06T15:55:00.006-06:00

Yeah yeah yeah!!! I just had a great errand run.. and I know I'll have more tomorrow.. whoo hooo hooooooo!! Okay so the other day when I mentioned that I wasn't as organized as I could have been.. that was because I went to Jewel to get in on the spend $30 on specific products get $15 RR back.. um yeah.. I get there and realize I have coupons for the wrong protein bars! oops.. so I got all flustered and walked out.. because I knew I couldn't get another good deal together in a few minutes.

Okay two things.. I don't have my receipt up here with me, which I should, and my flyer blew away from Jewel so I don't have everything exact in front of me.. bear with me here.
♥6 Progresso chicken stocks $1.66 ea used $1 coupons
♥2 Progresso soups $1.66 ea used $1.10 coupons + THINGS TO WATCH FOR there was a peelie on one of them to save 50 cents if you bought that soup and one Progresso chicken stock
♥2 Lipton teas $2.50 ea used two 60 cents coupons + two e coupons $2 off EACH!! FREEBIE
♥4 Green Giant veggies $1 each used $1/2 IP coupons
♥2 Cubs reusable bags 2/$4 (realized I need 2 more the other night)
♥2 Banquet breakfast sausage BOGO $2.29 no coupons
♥2 Halloween napkins 50 cents each
♥Halloween headband 50 cents

My total came out to $17.38 (I think) and I got back $15. so minus out the bags, Halloween stuff, and the sausage I paid roughly $10 for all the buy $30 worth get $15 RR's!! Not a bad deal for all that. Plus I can ROLL these RR's I've heard. Also, this deal is based on SHELF PRICE not sale price and all items are on sale! whoooo hooo!!

BzzAgent sent me this!! whoo hoo! I can't wait to try it out!! Yeahh for BzzAgent.. but they also sent me these...

a whole book of $5 off coupons and buy 3 get one free refills! whoo hoo

last but not least I stopped at WAGS just to grab more FREE GUM and got this box of 50 Raspberry water mix ins for $2.50!! My total was $2.55, used GC!! Yeahh!!

still no camera back.. but some good deals I want to share

2008-11-05T09:16:00.006-06:00

sorry about the pics.. I had to use *my* cell phone today.. *sigh* I think I should be getting my camera back from my sister today.. unless she plans on bringing it to Sweden with her. hmmmmm

Okay.. Quick run out and of course I thought I was pretty organized.. could have been better oganized.

Meijer Run
4 Jacks Pizzas 4/$10 used $2 mealbox coupon & 4 75 cent manu coupons
1 Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls $3.99 used FREEBIE coupon from Psst
1 Philadelphia cream cheese $1.25 used FREEBIE coupon from manu

total $5.17

Wags stop
4 pairs of gloves 75% off 49 cents each GLOW IN THE DARK
2 fleece blankets $3.99 BOGO
4 packs of gum BOGO wags coupon BOGO manu
1 pumpkin decoration 24 cents
THINGS TO WATCH FOR: WAGS HAS HALLOWEEN GOODIES DOWN TO 75% OFF!!!
Total was $6.xx used GC

CVS couldn't resist
10 Cube packs $1 each used 5 $1/2 coupons got back $5 ECB

$5.12 OOP

6 months 20 days PART TWO

2008-11-04T18:12:00.000-06:00

Okay so I don't even know where I was at.. oh yeah we had just gotten the home equity loan against all advice from every direction. We had gotten that in June and I figured I could look at our budget and figure out where to trim the edges, however, that was impossible to do. We already had lowered everything over time to the bare necessities. There was nothing else we could go. We both had been saying for months that we needed to get 2nd jobs and that is just what we did.

We applied at a few places, left on our vacation at the beginning of October fully knowing that with the holidays approaching we could easily find second jobs at least for the holiday season. We landed in Miami from our trip to Punta Cana on our layover home and I turned on my phone and had a message from the nearby casino that they wanted me to come in. I waited until the next day when we were home to call back and both Tim and I had interviews lined up for that weekend. We had to get drug tested, a full background check, and take days off of work for our orientation but we made it and both started working October 28, 2007.

I got a job as a waitress in the bar outside the casino, sorta a pub type place. Low pay but pretty good tips. My husband got a job as a coat check person which turned out to be a perfect 2nd job for him. His full time job was labor intensive so this 2nd job was sitting on his butt for 3 hours per night. It was a great gig for him except he had to work 5 days per week and I only had to work 2. I worked 1 hour less than him a week as scheduled, but he usually wound up working more because he was the only part time coat check person so they always had to ask him to cover for other people.

We started paying off our debt finally in November sometime. It took me some time to get a little more caught up with bills and even pay my bills in advance which is where I like to be. I wasn't behind but I was paying my mortgage closer to the 15th rather than before the 1st for example. I had some repairs done on my car as well the first two weeks we were working 2 jobs. My car died on the way home from work one day. Not fun, and of course it always happens when you are trying to get ahead.

We started hacking away at our debt, found a savings account I had set aside I'd forgotten about and cashed that out, our grocery bill diminished simply because neither one of us was ever home. We ate for free at the boat so we took full advantage of that. (I also started gaining weight like you wouldn't believe). By January our debt snowball was really spinning. I was constantly making $1,000 payments to our home equity loan.

In January I found out my company was closing down in March.. this put a total tail spin on my life. Not wanting to lose out if my company found another place to pick us up I wasn't out looking for a new job. Luckily we got extended to April however now I was without a job. I went on unemployment and took what extra pay I got and threw that towards the debt as well.

In April we paid the last truck payment and had gotten a gift from Tim's parents of $5,000 which Tim gladly accepted. We could have paid off the debt entirely, however, we were short because Memorial Day weekend was coming up and we had a bunch of plans for the weekend. We basically needed $200 for that weekend. So we waited. We had a garage sale coming up in our neighborhood so with my extra time (being unemployed) I walked around the house looking for stuff I could get rid of, things I didn't care about, things we didn't use.

May 16th we went out to dinner with Tim's parents. They were in town to help do some wedding planning for one of Tim's brother and for Tim's cousins wedding. We sat down to eat and his dad made some joke type comment, laughing, and handing me some papers/envelopes. I think he said something like "okay maybe this will move up your debt payment a few hours". At that point every time I made a payment I would read just our budget trying to get our debt paid off as early as possible. So each time I would come up with an estimated date of when it would be paid in full.

I looked at what his dad handed me and it was savings bonds.. I was like "what?" they were Tim's from when he was a baby.. so Tim looked at them, we went home and figured out that they were worth more than their face value... they were only $25 bonds but remember we only needed another $200 for breathing room. After we figured out how much they were worth by looking them up on line, we called Tim's parents with me SCREECHING that we paid off our debt. As soon as I figured out we had that money to ride on, the money I was saving for Memorial Day weekend was moved directly over to that home equity loan. May 17th 2008.. it was the 5th best day of my life! lol! It was funny that Tim's dad's comment of "this should push you up a few hours" actually pushed us up 2 full weeks! What an amazing feeling.

I forgot to mention. I joined this amazing MSN group called Women In Red. The group helps women (and men) race to pay off debt. You race against yourself it's not a competition. It's split up by regions and you get to know the ladies in your region really quick. Everybody is very helpful and of course very supportive of one another. check them out here At Women In Red I joined a thread called the Grocery Challenge. I couldn't keep up with it, but what I did do was get a few websites that have directed me to the couponing world. I have stayed with the WIR group but now I've moved over to the SAVERS group and I'm racing to save.

I'm still unemployed, still looking for jobs every day.. my unemployment will be running out in 12 short weeks. I'm not as worried as I would have been a year ago considering I'm in way better place. I have a better handle on my money and actually a better relationship with my money.

I know I didn't give a break down of how we paid off the debt, but all I can say is that somehow we managed to scrape together every penny we had. When all was said and done we had no truck payment, no credit card debt, and no emergency fund because I used that as well. Somewhere in there was a tax refund, a stimulus check, my ESOP payout, and cash gifts from family/friends for our birthdays/Christmas. Somehow it all added up to $30,000 in 6 months 20 days.

Honestly, looking back I figured it would have been much harder, more grueling than it turned out to be. I had the help and support of pretty much everyone I personally knew family, friends, even neighbors as well as my online buddies who were going through the same experience. Believe me, it wasn't easy.. I didn't see my husband or son for a solid 6 months. My son especially because my weekends to have him over I was either working or sleeping. Tim and I were both exhausted all the time, the only time we had together was Sunday lunch. That was it.

I wish I had found couponing/grocery gaming long before, instead I learned to only shop at Aldi and shop sales for little extras here and there. I have learned so many things, things I never would have known about if it wasn't for this experience. It has really taught me how strong and motivated I can be when I set my mind to it. I've also learned so much about my marriage. It's strength, it's limits, even it's vulnerable places I didn't know existed.

I was already a "character" before this all happened, but I can tell you this.. I've gained more character, learned life lessons that are not taught in books, and was shown how important my relationship with my money really is to me. My entire life I've loved money, and debt took that from me.. my battle to win over debt has given me a renewed faith and I know I will not willingly go down that path in my lifetime again.