It's my birthday... ♪ dah dah dah dah dah dah ♪

sooo I awoke this morning and was super groggy.. I spent yesterday most of the day in bed, puking, and generally feeling cruddy. I had to cancel my birthday dinner with my family which I was pretty upset about because we were going to Texas De Brazil one of my favorite restaurants. anyway.. my phone was going bezerk with texts coming in since 6am (I woke up at 8am) and so I finally rolled over and started reading them. The last one was from my neighbor saying to call her ASAP because she had a huge favor to ask me.

I take my dog out and he's barking at what I didn't know. I bring him in, feed him and his sister the cat, go potty myself. I was super dehydrated and thirsty so I decided to make myself some orange juice. There was a rapping on the door like 2 sips into my OJ and my husband says "who could that be right now" so I told him it was probably my neighbor who had texted me only 15 minutes before. I answer the door in my robe and she was standing at the door sobbing and asked me to drive her to the dr. No problem, I'll get showered/dressed be over in a few minutes.

Off to the dr we go then the pharmacy and back home. Long story short, she's been ill for over 2 years now and now on top of what has been going on she got a super bad cold and hasn't slept in days because of her meds mixed with whatever cough medicine she's been taking. The dr gave her new cough medicine, some sleeping pills, and a new prescription for something else. So it was a good day for her, she's just exhausted so I'm hoping she's sleeping right now.

I came back and my husband had a gift for me!! THIIIISSS!


AND FOR ALL YOU FRUGAL FOLKS he got it FREE!! That's right, he saved up points and got it for free! So I like it DOUBLE! lol! It's one of those groovy digital picture frames but it also plays video and music! super cool!

After the dr/pharmacy I walked one of my neighbors dogs and then came home, printed out my Noodles & Co free birthday lunch coupon, put together a small CVS run (thank god for I heart cvs dot com), and off we went.

Had a really great FREE lunch (well we had to pay for my husbands meal, no biggie it was still nice) then walked across the parking lot to CVS! ohhh yeah! First time my husband has seen me in coupon action! lol!


♥2/$5 Colgate TP (one kid, one Total) used one $1.50 coupon from All You
♥Covergirl clean make up $5.49 used $1 coupon from last weekends paper
♥Gillette Fusion power $9.99 used $4 coupon from last weekends paper

$3/$15 and a $10 ECB, total OOP was $1.73 (I thought it would be 73 cents but I miscalculated, but still a great deal!). I earned $5.49 ECB for Covergirl, $5 for the Gillette, $2 for Colgate, $2 from Summer savings.. check out my receipt!


I got a $25 switch your presciption coupon (I don't have any prescriptions right now though..) and a $10/$50 coupon that expires on 10/16. I have $27 in ECBS so I'm going to have to sit down and figure out a deal where I can get at least $25 or more ECBS back. I'm excited. I'll have to work on that next week because I still haven't hit K-Mart to DOUBLE COUPON, no time! lol! Also my neighborhood grocery store is having great 10/$10 deal but also every time you spend $10 you get $3 off! So I gotta work those deals before next week as well!

Okay, next we went to Target to fix my fiasco from last week
I talked about here and they refunded my $9.44!! So I had remembered to use my $5 GC (which I used for cereal anyway) and gotten the correct prices that trip would have been like $25. Wow big difference from $40!

After that my husband wanted to go look at new phones because he hasn't gotten a new phone in over 5 YEARS! yes, no kidding. His work paid for them so he used to get hand me downs from the engineers! lol! I stopped at Caribou Coffee because I'm PMSing and it's my birthday and I wanted dessert! lol!

We got home and I got my mail and more surprises awaited me!! lookie lookie!

♥astroglide sample
♥free carthart hat
♥mints from shoppers but had an advertisement for the Ford Flex
♥mineral make up I ordered paid $3.13 for shipping
again it seems like I got more but I can't remember what else I got! lol!

Okay so all in all, combined with all this, and cyber birthday wishes along with snail mail cards I've had a pretty great birthday!!

WOOT FOR SAMPLES

TODAY I GOT THIS!!!!

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

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

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

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

BEFORE

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

samples OOOH HOW I LOVE THEE!!

okay.. this is strange.. I sent away for the free Philadelphia cheese and got it back in the mail. I wrote an email to the company and never got any responce until today (that was almost a month ago I think) so today I got a free coupon for a free tub of Philadelphia Cream cheese.. I'll take it.

P&G sent me another sample of tampons.. I didn't realize I signed up for so many, but again.. I'll take 'em!

Finally got that free gum from Stride, sweet Cinnamon I think it's called.. smells good and after my lunch with onions I'll be chewing a piece for sure.

Last but not least Fiber One sent me coupons (good ones too), a cereal sample, and a Fiber One bar sample (bmmmmffffhhhfhhfh that's the noise I'll be making after I eat it.. they are soooo good but give me horrible gas).

That's all for today folks!!

Hi, my name is Melissa and I have a POO problem...

SHAMPOO PROBLEM!! geez.. the minds of kids these days... well it's been brought to my attention my another fellow blogger (I don't even remember whom) that they have a major stash (okay can we just call it what it is.. stock pile, stash, it's all the same, we're squirreling away these products like nuts! PUN INTENDED!!) anyway.. my husband comes home today to find another pile of shampoo/conditioner on the stairs waiting to be brought upstairs. The man shaves his head and looks at me and says "you have a normal amount of hair, I have no hair, your son who doesn't stay here 100% of the time just shaved his head.. who is going to use all this shampoo"

So I decided to gather all the evidence.. I put it all nicely together just to look at it.. I had meant to donate some of it recently and it never happened so it sat in bags on top of my husbands work bench in the garage for the past 2-3 weeks. So here I am to admit my poo problem. anyway.. so other bloggers have been talking about "no poo" meaning no shampoo. I've read several websites (google it you will find all sorts of articles) and as it turns out shampoo is bad for our hair! ughhh great. So from the girl who goes natural all the time with no make-up hearing this has perked her ears. I have given away more shampoo/conditioner than I care to admit and I just started hounding/couponing/playing the grocery/drug store game in June! I can't imagine what others have stashed in their houses... we could wash our hair for years on just what I have in my house now.. and if I do the calculations right.. I've gotten every bottle free! yikes..

Here is the pictures to show what I have.. like I said I'm sure there are many of you out there who have stashes much much larger.

my pert collection.. I was so proud when I found these for $1.99 and had $3 and $2 coupons.. one of my first FREEBIES!

I would have never even looked at this product and now that I have I'm in love.. of course that's what they want you to do.. try the product and fall in love. I got them free from WAGS their rebate program....

BOGO COUPONS ARE EVEN SWEETER WITH BOGO SALES!! lol! I had a few other sets of these and I know I gave 1 set to my sister.. not sure about the others. I just got the pink set this week at Ulta... hmm

and of course the super star from today.. $3.99 each and I got $12 off in coupons plus $10 back from WAGS rebates! not a bad deal! so it cost me roughly what $2 for all of those.. so today I paid for half of a bottle of that shampoo and got the rest of everything else free! not bad!

Okay.. so the question at hand is................ WHAT DO ALL YOU DO WITH ALL THIS POO?

I have no clue what just happened

Really I don't.. okay.. I'm going to run through a list of all the places I went today and all the goodies I got..
First stop WAL-MART's redbox!!
I used today's code and rented a movie for free! Most Monday's I use both my debit card and my credit card and rent two but there wasn't a 2nd one I wanted today.

Okay second stop WAL-MART! LOL!
3 Preperation H travel wipes 10 count $2.94 free for me with $3 coupons

1 weber seasoning pack 62 cent used 50 cent coupon

Ruffles chips $2 no coupon (GASP)

2 6 box packages of raisins $1.33 each used $1/2 coupon

2 First Aid Kits 99 cents each free for me with $1 coupons

12 Powerades (only 10 shown here) 60 cents each $1/3 or 27 cents each

1 snyders 1lb bag of pretzels $2.08 used 75 cent coupon

3 Vlasic Pickles $1.99 used 3 $1 coupons

2 V8 Splash juices $1.98 each used $1/2 coupon

2 Sauve mens body wash $1.78 each used BOGO coupon which gave me $2 off, the cashier had no idea why but neither of us questioned it!

2 cans spaghetti-o's 88 cents each used .40/2 coupon

2 mac and cheese Italian 75 cents each used $1/2

my total came to $19.01 with tax.

Next stop ULTA

I had an appointment to get a consultation for the free 10 day natural minerals plus the free make-up brush. So I went in and did that first. Then I decided since I had the 20% off coupon from the flyer this week I would look around for something to buy.. I found a HUGE clearance section and starting thinking CHRISTMAS immediately. Here is what I got.

sorry the picture is so dark.. I'm not sure why it turned out that way and my husband keeps chaning the way that our computer sets up our pictures and of course I have no clue how to fix anything now! ughh I barely was able to flip the picture vertical! lol!

1 foot massager marked as $9.99 on the final sticker rung up as $4.99 used 20% off got $1 off

BOGO Vive Pro shampoo/conditioner free for me by using a BOGO coupon

My total was $4.30 with tax, then she offered me a free subscription to In Style magazine that came with a free gift and $5/$10 purchase. So she gave me a selection of a few things I could have for free and I chose that little white make up case which I thought would be nice for my sister when she travels. CHRISTMAS GIFT! The $5/$10 coupon I'll go back and use to get more of those foot massager things. My sister and mom are both nurses! They'll love them!

CVS

Finally I get to CVS! lol! FIRST TRANSACTION!

3 100% Granier hair color $5 each used $3 coupons and recieved back $5 ECB

1 feminine wash $4.79 used $2 skincare coupon

2 Schick shavers 99 cents each used $2 coupon

2 choc covered peanuts used $1/2 peanut coupon from printer

Also used my $4/$20 coupon and a $5 ECB

The ECB wouldn't work because without tax I was at $4.70 so I grabbed another choc covered raisins and my total OOP was $1.68.

SECOND TRANSACTION

2 stayfree products 2/$9 used a $1 off coupon and a BOGO coupon got a $5 ECB back

1 Playtex Sport tampons $4.99 used a $1 off coupon got back a $3 ECB

1 CVS feminine wash $4.79 used a $2 CVS skincare coupon

2 schick razors 99 cents each used $2 coupon

1 caress body wash $1.49 used 70 cent coupon

2 malt-o-meal cereals FREE FOR ME because I used 2 $1/1 coupons

tried to use another $4/$20 and it refused to take it. I talked to the cashier last week about that and she said it's possible to use those twice. So this week I printed out 2 and she couldn't take it! ughh I'm confused. So I gave her a $2/$10 and a $5 ECB and my total OOP was $5.13 so not my proudest trip. win some/lose some.

****note for myself**** my CVS receipts show as of 8/22 that my YTD savings is $624.46 and my SUMMER 2008 spending is $91.50!! Yeah!!

I also forgot to mention I stopped for lunch at Taco Bell and through BuzzAgent I had free coupons for free Fresco Ranchero chicken soft taco's (my favorite) so I ordered two, drank from my bottle of water I brought with me and had a freebie lunch! yeah!!

want to see other CVS deals?? head on over to
centsible sawyer to check it out

is it fall already?

Well they haven't even put the kids school supplies away yet, but WAGS already had out all the fall candles and decorations.. yikes! no wonder the months just fly by because next month we'll be looking at Christmas stuff already. I'm scared! lol!

Well I had this plan in my head to go to WAGS, Jewel, Woodmans, Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, and Butera today.. but really I didn't need much and didn't want to go to too many stores because I figured I'd spend too much. after all was said and done I think I spent around $60 in groceries and odd and ends but I only went to WAGS, Jewel, Woodmans and Aldi. I didn't take pics of really anything because some of the groceries were frozen/cold so I needed to get them into the freezer/fridge asap. It was only 84 today but it was super muggy/humid. I did bring a cooler with me, but that also makes it easier to just drag that into the house and get everything put away faster.. so I'll just highlight the deals I got today.

I added a new label today, it's called THINGS TO WATCH FOR because there was 2 things that popped up for me today that could make some already sweet deals even better. I do have pics for those and will add those within the blog!

WALGREENS

Transaction 1

3 Biore Foaming Cleansers on sale for $5.24 each

1 Preperation H travel wipes $3.99

Now here is the good stuff.. Money saving mom had a little segment today telling how to get an overage on those Preperation H wipes. They are $3.99, then you use an Easy Saver $2 off coupon PLUS a coupon from the manufactures website for $3! $1.01 overage! woot.. and it worked.

I had a $2 manufacturer coupon from a sample I got in the mail last week for Biore which I intended to use.. but.. here is "things to watch for"

so I'm looking for my deals and I come across this sticker on the Biore. Not knowing what this meant for sure I decide to ask once I got all the items I was planning on getting. Apparantly my WAGS (not sure if all do this) keep manufacturer coupons behind the cosmetic counter and if you go to the counter pay for your transactions they'll use THEIR coupons towards your purchase! Sweet.. so I only had one $2 coupon.. well she had all 3 so I didn't have to use mine at all!!

So my total was $8.71 and I got back a $9 RR!!! woot for me.

Transaction 2

2 Bertolli dinners $5.99 each

I used 2 $1.25 coupons plus my $9 RR from first transaction. Total 69 cents! woot! And even better I got a $5 RR for my next transaction.

Transaction 3

4 Ragu Sauces 3/$5 or 1.66/1.67 each

2 Skippy PB 3/$5 or 1.66/1.67 each

1 starbucks truffles $1.50 (she gave me a $1.50 coupon)

used 3 $1/2 coupons plus my $5 RR from second transaction, my total was $2.20 and I got back a $4 RR for my next purchase! Now the starbucks candies are a weird thing.. I've gotten those candies for free at other WAGS like when I did the Clean and Clear deal I got 2 packages of them.. They keep the coupons behind the counter along with the candy.. so I'm not sure where the coupons came from but I've gotten 3 of those packages for free now. It's a little tiny box with two candies in it.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Too bad I hadn't done more of the Kelloggs deals then I would have had a $5 RR to start the whole thing rolling. Oh well.. we have so much cereal my DH would have been mad.. he thinks stockpiling means he has to each everything as fast as possible.

At Jewel I got the 4/$5 pop tarts again.. used 2 $1/2 coupons and the milk deal that was $2.28 per gallon. Milk was $1.99 a gallon at Butera over the weekend but you have to spend $20 and there just isn't normally any great deals there so I didn't want to walk around the store aimlessly looking for things to just buy to get up to $20. I'll spend the extra 29 cents and just get it at Jewel since they were having such a great deal anyway.

I stopped at Woodmans next and stocked up on things that I can only find there or only find there for a great price. Of course I only had a few coupons so in the end I wound up spending $46 BUT I normally went there to stock up and would spend $170-$200 so I didn't do too bad in the grand sheme of things.. anyway.. so here I come to my second "THINGS TO WATCH FOR" item. I didn't take an actual pic of the product because I didn't buy it, but if you are still holding on to your FREE coupons for Purina Mighty Dog Classic wet dog food or Purina Friskies Selects indoor wet cat food

then watch for these at your local grocery stores. It was a stand obviously made/sent by the manufacturer. At my grocery store WOODMANS they had them standing side by side at an end cap near all the pet products. It was a box that had 2 cans of food in each and the sign said BOGO at the top!! so it was buy one get one free so if I had those coupons I could have gotten DOUBLE what I got at Target last week when I used these coupons! ughh! I think they were 59 cents each.. I guess I should have bought more.. oh well.

I've gotten a fair amount of samples in the mail over the past few days. Today I got a samples for Orville Redenbacher Rice Cakes with coupon and Meow Mix Wholesome goodness dry cat food with a coupon.

dove pro-age lotion sample with coupons, Biore samples with a $2/1 coupon
BzzAgent taco bell kit with 12 coupons for free fresco style tacos,$5 off coupon for those allergy eyedrops (can't remember the name).

Okay.. so that's it for today. Time to read everybody elses deals! lol!

In a "hounding" slump...

Okay.. so today marked another day that I just didn't feel like hounding.. I looked at deals on line and that.. read through the grocery ads that came out yesterday.. just tried to get a general feel for what I needed. I'm starting to feel the "unemployment" red line (meaning I have less and less money each week available to me) so I'm really looking only for deals on things that I need. For instance, I really needed ketchup and bleach this week. I went to WAGS on Monday because I had to get $10 cash (I don't ever carry cash) so I pulled together a few fast deals and wound up spending $17 there that day. $4.xx on deals plus $2.42 in TAX plus my $10 cash.. so it was an expensive (for me) wags trip. I stopped at CVS on my way home that day just to get 1 more $1 candy to get my $5 ECB, but other than that I've not gone shopping at all.

This week I did get another rebate for the Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaner. Works good, I'm happy with it and I got it for free so that's cool. I also got some really good FREE coupons this week. One in the mail for V8 fusion. That was one where you text for the coupon which was cool. I also got 5 free wet dog food coupons this week in Sunday's circulars (I get coupons from neighbors and my husbands grandma) and also I had 4 free wet cat food coupons from last week. I got another today at Jewel when I went for a grand RE opening which turned out to be a disaster.

I thumbed through a special circular that was sent for this grand re opening at the Jewel in another town but still very close to my house. They had some pretty good deals PLUS had some freebies/games going on I thought would be cool to check out.

So on the way I decide to stop at Target to get a few things like cat litter. I bought about 25 of those great Tidy Cat $1 off coups that came out awhile ago. If I can get litter for 77 cents a week I'm going to stock up. So I got 3 of those because of course they only had one type and I like to switch the types around. Not sure why but I'm convinced the litter doesn't smell as bad if you switch it up. Anyway.. I found some other good deals on some clearance items.. nothing great, nothing to brag or that I even took pics of. I wound up spending $14 there on nothing particular.

I drive across the street to Jewel and I see this huge group surrounding this pop up tent. I park and walk over and sure enough there is a huge slot type machine set up and you pull the arm and if you get 3 huggies you win a TV. There were several other items you could win if you got all 3 and after asking a few others standing there I heard that yes they had started at 4pm (it was now 4:15pm) and in that time 3people had won something. So I pulled the lever and got a big nothing. oh well.. my parting gifts? Another free Jewel reusable grocery bag, 2 samples of Dunkin Donuts coffee, a few coupons 1 for a free half gallon of ice cream, a sample of tide/downey laundry detergent, and a big chip bag type clip. So not a bad deal.

So inside I go to grab all the deals that are just at this location. As I'm walking in some lady is walking out and yells to me to "think about going in there" apparantly there was some computer glitch and all the registers were down. So the only register they had running was the service desk and that was backing up down the isles. By the time I got in there they had the self service registers running so that was 4 more registers shoppers could use. Because of this I decided not to try to get all the deals I wanted and actually found a few of the deals I thought I really wanted weren't exactly what I wanted so I passed on some. I get through my self check out which always takes me forever because of coupons and today I was buying beer so I had to wait for someone to come over and validate my age into the register. So I'm leaving and I had spent $32 on basically nothing.. so I decide to grab my receipt and look at what I bought... yea TOTALLY BLANK RECEIPT! nice huh? ughhh so once I got home I worked it all out and it makes sense but still I'm sorta miffed because I didn't get that much.

I gotta figure out how to make hounding work to my advantage in the food arena.. seriously.. I don't get how others get such great deals in the grocery stores. I just can't seem to pull food deals. I can get unlimited amounts of deoderant, shampoo, cleaning supplies, and in general junk food for great prices, free, or even get paid for it.. but regular every day stuff.. not at all. not sure what I'm doing wrong.. ughhh

So tonight I went to another Jewel to use the free ice cream coupon I had gotten earlier and that free V8 Fusion coupon. Wound up getting some Magic Shell (crack in a bottle) and came home and had a little ice cream party with my son and 2 nephews. Of course, they were more excited to see the juice than the ice cream.. I THINK SOMEONE SWITCHED MY KIDS AT BIRTH, THEY CAN'T BE MINE! lol!

So I've been really up in the air over doing the AXE/WAGS deal. If you buy 4 AXE deoderant/shower gel you get free 2 movie tickets.. which isn't a bad deal and at Christmas I always buy that stuff for the boys anyway.. I just don't feel like spending $16 for movie tickets! lol! Tim and I go to the $5 shows early on Friday/Saturday/Sunday or we use our freebie tickets we get once in awhile.. or we wait for it to come out on video and get it free from redbox (I just returned 3 movies I rented from redbox for free yesterday).

Anyway.. that's all that has been going on with me in the hounding world.

This is going to take forever... maybe longer..

first stop jewel

Okay.. sooooo I wanted to go to Jewel first because it's the farthest, I had nothing cold to get there and because they had a super give away at this particular one JUST TODAY! It was a reuseable grocery bag filled with free organic goodies (including pet products) and tons of coupons. If I had time like a day and half I'd actually list out each coupon.. all I know is that they are all for organic products.

I tried to take this picture twice but my chihuahua Blue just had to be in the pic.. I guess he's my photobomb for the day.. ha ha

Inside Jewel I wanted to get the $1.77 cereal deal (limit 4) and it just so happened that I had two $1 off coupons and a free chex mix product (up to $4) from GM for calling in and telling them about a bag of chex mix 100 cal pack I got that was slit up the back. Totally weird. It was like a box cutter had cut right up the back of the bag but there was no box cut mark in the box that the bag came from.

anyway so I got all this for $11.xx but I'm taking the soup back because even with the $1 off 2 coupon they were $5!! I had no clue they were $2.99 each. I thought they were $1.99 each. I did finally get to use my MUIR coupon but just for that little can of tomato sauce. I only had one.

STOP TWO WAGS

I had read WAGS was doing a demonstration type deal today something to do with Clean and Clear complete with coupons/samples so I went in to check it out. Basically it was both the Clean and Clear blackhead eraser and the Advantage Acne Cpontrol Kit were both $19.99. All Clean & Clear products were buy 1 get 1 50% off this week plus buy $30 and get $10 in RR. So because I was a few cents short she run up one of my C&C items as $20.10, gave me 2 $1 off C&C coupons, 50% one of them, plus a $5 Internet coupon she had sitting there. I had a $5 RR plus somehow she worked in 2 packs of Starbucks candy for free (she had the coupons for those too.. I wanted to ask for some coupons for myself but didn't). so my total came out to $19.xx and then I got the $10 ECB!!



so basically, I got all this for $9.xx not bad!!

exhausting unorganized stop CVS!!

Okay, so I'm driving to CVS and realize I'm really not all that prepared. I have a few coupons for deals that are ending today. I have a my CVS $2/$10's printed, $2 skincares printed.. that's about it.. no lists breaking up my deals, figuring out rough totals nothing.. okay.. wing it.. My total for all three transactions were OOP $2.80 and one $10 ECB which I got back.

Transaction 1

2 Crest toothpastes $2.49 each with $1.50 ECB plus 2 75 cent coupons

2 oral b toothbrushes $2.49 with $1.50 ECB plus 1 $1 off 2 coupon

2 colgate toothpastes $2.99 each with $2 ECB plus 2 $1 coupons

1 cvs sunscreen $2.19 with $2 off all CVS sunscreens PLUS $1 CVS sunscreen coupon from scanner

2 CVS hand sanitizers $1.19 each b1g1 50% off with $2 off CVS skincare coupon

total came out to $8 something and I had planned on using a $10 ECB so I threw another CVS antibacterial $1.49 and a nail clipper $1.19 up on the counter. My OOP was 19 cents!! I got a $6 ECB for Crest/Oral B and a $4 ECB for colgate.

Transaction 2

1 cvs sunscreen $2.19 with $2 off all CVS sunscreens PLUS $1 CVS sunscreen coupon from scanner

2 CG lashblast $8.49 b1g1 50% (I thought this was B1G1 free?? hmm, oh well) plus 1 B1g1 free coupon

2 CVS foaming soap $1.99 each b1g1 50% off with $2 CVS skincare coupon.

My total came to $2.18 OOP which should have been negative now that I see what I did wrong.. oh well I wanted to try that mascara anyway! lol!

Transaction 3

1 cvs sunscreen $2.19 with $2 off all CVS sunscreens PLUS $1 CVS sunscreen coupon from scanner

2 CG loose powder $7.99 each B1G1 sale with B1G1 free coupon

2 CVS aloe hand soap $1.69 b1g1 50% off with $2 CVS skincare coupon

again my total was negative so I threw another CVS antibacterial $1.49 and a nail clipper $1.19 up on the counter. My total OOP was 43 cents! Woot!

Last stop, Butera

Okay I went simply for the $1.99 milk.. but you have to spend $20 to get that good milk price. It's limit one so I went twice this week. Ok. So I wanted to make sure I got only things we would use so I wound up with lettuce, cantalope, hot dog buns, water bottles, 2 liters of pop, 4 cans of full throttle, milk, and some marked down doughnuts. My total with coupons was $21.95.. not bad.

TOTALS for the day

Okay, roughly OOP I spent $55.53

minus $10 CVS ECB

minus $10 WAGS RR

minus $5 soup return later today

I spent around $30

Plus I got a $4.79 Rebate today from Excederin. Not sure if I mentioned it but I also got one for $6.49 yesterday from 3M for the stove top cleaner I bought a few weeks ago.

In the mail today I got Glad force flex trash bag sample, and a Freeze It sample with a $1 off coupon. At WAGS I got a sample of Eucerin Redness Relief face wash and face moisturizer along with coupons for those products.

Okay so the way I'm looking at it, I spent $30 on the Clean and Clear products at WAGS and everything else you see was free! not bad for a few hours!

this GAME is sooo frusterating!

OKay.. so this was my idea for the day. I had TWO $5 RR from the WAGS KELLOGGS DEAL from Sunday. So I figured this.

1st transaction
8 speed stick deoderants 4 womens 4 mens $1.99 each
use 5 coupons 2 $1/1 3 $1/2
use 2 $5 RR
pay $2.15 (roughly)(giftcard)
get $10 RR from Speedsticks

2nd transaction
2 biofusion products $5.99 each
use $10 RR from Speedsticks
pay $3.xx OOP (gift card)

Earn $11.98 toward Easy Saver.

and that is basically what I did HOWEVER.. of course my coupons wouldn't work, the cashier told me I COULD NOT use two RR together in one transaction.. even though it does not state it anywhere and I haven't heard not one person say that ever on here.. ughh

So of course I walk up and there is not one person in the store.. just me and employees, nobody at the register and little old lady Judy starts my order and as soon as she sees the RR's "ooh I can't take both of these the last time I tried this it messed me up" so she tries *shaking her head the whole time* then she calls half the other employees asking them telling them what the register says (she can't just ask one of them to come up) I've tried that/this/whatever. Now there is 5 people in line and she has tried the first $5 RR like 27 times and it beeps and says something like it was more coupons than products which is totally wrong.. okay whatever.

So finally mr manager comes up front as she whispers "ohhh he's in a terrible mood" great as I turn and roll my eyes. Finally she calls for Mary to open a 2nd register and sends a majority of the line back to her. mr manager voids my entire transaction, rerings, throws my $5 RR through FIRST, then my coupons and my total is $7.15 they refuse to take my 2nd $5 RR he said they aren't allowed to.. okay whatever.

So then the 2nd transaction I messed up by grabbing one of those Jane make-ups IN THE WRONG SIZE, so it rings up $6.99 even though what I grabbed had a tag that said $4.99. She checks the size (of course with everybody sighing and coughing behind me) and says "oh you have the 1.4 oz not the .xx oz" or whatever. ok.... great.. so it's right there next to the register to I grab the correct one as she is taking off the other one and she rings up my total $8.29, I put $5.64 the remaining balance of my gift card and paid $2.65 on my debit card which I had more than $2 cash but I was so nervous with everybody mad behind me I just threw it on my debit card.

After that I strolled over to Dollar General to see what coupons I could steal or which ones of mine I could use NOTHING! great huh? So I went next door to Butera (the store I had a big problem with over the 75 cent Krakus coupons) and got a few things. they had $1.99 milk (with a $20 transaction) so I got two packages of Scott towels for $4.99 each and used my $1 coupons and then some fruits/veggies, kraft cheese for free with 3 kraft products (kool aid), and sour cream. I had never had this cashier before but woahh what a nastyyyy girl.. at first I thought maybe someone had seen me in the store and told her to be careful with my coupons (because she asked me about each of them including the Butera milk coupon) but then I heard her talking to the lady behind me and this girl was just a nasty arrogant miserable person. Nice huh?

Got some great samples yesterday/today. Eukenuba Naturally Wild dog food which both my cat and dog love!! That came with a $5 off any size dog food coupon. Gillette shampoo with $1 coupon, Carress body wash with $1 coupon, and another Stayfree sample with $1 coupon.

Okay so in the end I still have my $5 RR and am out $10 OOP which makes me mad.. but whatever. I think from now on I'll go to the cosmetics or camera register myself to avoid the whole situation! lol!

Thanks to CVS today wasn't a total loss... *sigh*

OKay.. because I messed up and did the Kelloggs deal early, I went back got my money back but no coupons figuring I'd get other coupons from my neighbors and/or parents.. well of course no neighbors have saved theirs for me this week (of course) and I've driven to every Dollar General that sells Sunday's papers on Mondays.. and of course they had Sunday papers just NONE with the coupons in them! ughh!

So I decide on my way home from driving all over to stop at Wal-Mart and see what deals I could dig up. I always have a little spiral notebook with all the deals I want to get where and with all the coupons tucked inside the spiral. Of course, I get to Wal-Mart make it halfway to the door look down in my trusty coupon keeper.. and LOW AND BEHOLD MY SPIRAL IS MISSING. Panic quickly sets in, I says OUT LOUD "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME" (some guy looked at me like I was a circus freak with 12 heads) because now it's like 140 degrees outside, I've been sweating my keester off for what seems like hours and now I can't even go inside Wal-Mart to the nice cool air and browse the isles for hours trying to find some deals because today I actually have time.. ughh.. so I go back to the car hoping my spiral just "fell out" and of course.. not there. *sigh* some swears too.


Here is my coupon keeper.. Yes it's a MONSTER box. I stole it from my son and nephew fair and square after I had to pay $11.88 for the box. They got the inside contents. It's perfect size. It holds full size envelopes, flyers, atm envelopes (for depositing rebates of course), an old envelope box that I throw the expired coupons in that eventually go to the troops overseas, and it used to be empty enough to hold my purse.. no longer.


view from the top


and the envelopes. I have extra envelopes like this one that are store specific. I *think* the CVS envelope is my favorite.

anyway.. so I decide to go home.. I'm sitting at the light and realize I haven't worked out any of my deals for CVS this week BUT I have most of my coupons in the car with me maybe I can make a few deals, get my CVS coupons, and this weeks flyer.. plus I had plenty of the new $2/$10 coupons printed and rearing to go.. It was only 2 miles out of my way.. I'm going.

So I get there go inside and these are the deals I put together.


First Transaction
2 packs of mechanical pencils 99 cents each
2 packs index cards $1.49 B1G1
2 packs Piolet pens $1.99 B1G1
2 Sure deoderants $2.49 B1G1
2 Pert $3.99 B1G1 (do you see a trend here?)
1 CVS personal lubricant $1.49
2 gold bond lotion 99cents each

coupons
$2/$10
$2 off any CVS skincare
$2 off any size gold bond lotion (got knocked down to .98)
$1 off any size gold bond lotion
2 $1 off Sure deoderant
2 $2 off Pert Shampoo

My total $4.08. MIR for School Supplies with Pert/Sure $5

Second Transaction
2 covergirl make-up $8.99 B1G1
1 CVS fem cloth $1.89
1 CVS hand santizier
2 trial sized gold bond powder 99 cents each

coupons
$2/$10
$2 off any CVS skin care
1 B1G1 covergirl makeup ($8.99)
2 $1 off any size gold bond powder (one rang up as .98)

Total $1.68. I had everything in my basket separated out until I realized that everything in my basket was going to be FREE.. so I ran back and got the hand sanitizer (I just grabbed anything that was over $2).

So my total for both transactions was $5.76, add in .42 for a stamp to mail the rebate = $6.18 so today for everything I paid $1.18

Then I get home.. now this is the good part.. I go to take all my goodies inside. I had stopped to pick up some formula from a fellow Freecycler for my friends baby, along with 3 bags from CVS, some misc garbage in my car, plus some of the coupons from this weekend I hadn't cut out yet and GUESS WHAT FALLS OUT FROM UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING?? My freakin spiral.. *sigh* more swears...

BUT THEN.. da da da daahhhhhhhhh (the plot thickens) I get to my mail box and what awaits me??? I won't keep you in suspense.. well not that long anyway.. hey did you see that chicken? why would there be a chicken here right now? Where did she come from.. what did she have in her mouth? ughhh I have a.d.d. what was I telling you? hmmmmm geez.. I had something really great.. OHHHH YYYYYeaaahhhhh... it was the mailbox..

2 rebate checks 1 for $1.99 from Pert peelie and one for $2.49 from Dawn! Yippee.

I also got 2 samples today. gas-x strips with coupons and Nivea Mens face cream with a coupon as well.

So take the $4.48 from the rebates and I MADE $3.30 today.. I guess in the long run I'd be counting those rebates twice then.. but hey.. either way.. the day didn't turn out to be a total loss.. now to hunt down some neighbors that didn't throw away or use their coupons.

hi hooo hi hooo it's off to CVS I gooooo, to practically steal their awesome deals... hi hooo hi hooo

{{{in my best surfer on acid voice}}}
CHECKKKK ITTTTT OUUUUUTTTTTTTT DUUUUUUDDDEE!!

so my rookie mistake for the day? not realizing I could pull the mascara deal twice! DOH! lol!

4 stayfree pads $4.50 each
1 Johnson's baby powder $3.99
2 maybelline mascaras $5.99 each

my total came to some insane price like $36 something.. *gasp*

hand her coupons..

2 B1G1 free stayfree coupons.. minus $9
$1 off Johnsons baby powder (from a magazine)
$18.50 in ECBS

My total OOP (which sucks) $6.67
ECBS earned $20!!

So I could have grabbed another 2 mascara's and paid with a $10 ECB paid $2 and got another $10 ECB oh well.

Basically I walked away paying for ONE mascara, getting the rest for free and then earning $20 to boot. I also upped my ECBs to $20 from $18.50 which isn't shabby. I'm new to this so I started with maybe $3 in ECBs.

I went to Wal-Mart but didn't really feel like sniffing out any deals. just got what I needed. One of those All You magazines that has all the great coupons, some flea stuff for my little puppino, and wet dog food.

I came home and got my mail.. and look.. ahhh SAMPLES.. yeahhh!!! another Warm Delights mini and a new Oatmeal Crisp cereal!

great freebies, samples, and deals today OH YEAH!! and proof why I still don't need to buy the cow...

Okay so today I was pretty busy.. I had enough time to squeeze in a good 2 hour visit with my friends son/daughter/mom/brother and help out a bit with the kids. I brought my coupons thinking I might have time to stop at Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Ulta, and CVS... ughh not so much. I was meeting my sister and mom for the $4 matinee of MaMa Mia and possibly a late lunch so I knew it was going to be tight.. I didn't wind up getting out of the house until almost 11.. so time was tight.

I had a great idea to go print coupons that don't print on my computer at my sisters and of course most of the ones I wanted didn't work at her house either!! ughh. so I printed out what I could and found out that I was VERY GLAD I didn't stop at WAGS today because a $5/$20 coupon came out for TOMORROW ONLY!! woot! Tomorrow I'm going back to my friends house to help with the kids again (I promised her 2 year old son some play time at the park)so either on my way there or home I can hit WAGS. I also have to take my nephew to the dentist.. so I can possibly hit Ulta and a few other places.

Not sure if I had mentioned it here but it's pretty much a fact now that my mail lady hates me. Every Tues/Wed/Sat we get flyers/coupons in our mail. For some reason I mysteriously stopped getting them about 4 weeks ago. At first I thought they stopped sending them out. Then I realized that other neighbors were still getting theirs after I watched my neighbor get her mail and then asked her if I could have hers when she was done... so for the last 4 weeks I've had to ask her every week. She doesn't mind but it's insane.. so I write a little note to the postlady asking "what's up" she writes back that she isn't sure, she'll look into it and MAGICALLY ads my Tuesday coupons/flyers with my address plainly typed on the front in my mail box yesterday.. then today the day that the all the grocery ads come out.. BAM nothing again.. grrr.. I'm calling the post office tomorrow.. ughh along with about 4 other phone calls I have.

Okay.. I also realized today that I didn't have a FREEBIE part of my blog.. how could I miss that??? I get really great freebies from time to time and normally there is a good story behind how I got them.



don't mind my photobombing son!! eh eh eh.. I learned that from another hounding blog.. and of course I can't find it right now and links never work in my blog anyway! ughh..

so here goes.

sample
Ponds facial towellette

freebies
~two packages of dog poop bags ($10 credit from Amazon prime shipping trial membership I signed up and then so did my husband so we got two for free)
~two 12oz bags of cereal. $1 at Wal-Mart and there were $1 coupons for the 15oz or larger but another site linked the coupons as the ones to use to get them free. I figured it wasn't a bad deal so even though I only had 2 coupons I think I bought 5 bags.
~one Uncle Bens rice (I didn't think this one would ever come, another I think my postlady hates me.. my samples come days after everybody else)
~Smart Start Cereal.. it wasn't free. I have to send in for the MIR. I have had the MIR for awhile and meant to buy it and for some reason this box jumped off the shelf at into my cart today.

I spent a total of $18 at Super Wal-Mart today. I pulled into the parking lot and had NO CLUE what I needed to get there.. so I sat in the car thinking for a long time and decided to only get what I knew I needed.

Rebatetracker.com is still down! ughhh what a pain! I really liked that site! It keeped everything all organized for me! lol!

So now with my $5/$20 coupon for tomorrow I must strategically plan my outing. I need milk so 2/$5 is sort of expensive.. but hey.. I got a $7 RR as well.. so I'll get milk for free.. I'm STILL NOT BUYING THE COW! lol! I honestly can not remember what other deals I wanted to pull along with the milk! lol!

ughhh thank god for good deals EARLIER in the day!!

Okay.. so I wanted to at least use my $5 RR from last week and get that $7 RR for this week.. so I headed to WAGS. I didn't think I made any rookie mistakes in a long time but I was just on the phone with my Aunt-in-law (my husband's aunt) and realized I had better coupons than what I used! ughh I went through those P&G's that are all expiring this week like 20 times.. I don't know how I missed them.

Anyway.. I also realized today that I haven't been adding my samples that I get through the mail. Today in the mail I got tampons from Tampax, at Walgreens I got a skin cream sample and also a Biore sample and one other I can't remember off the top of my head. Also, I got my first 2 rebate checks!! and one of them came with MORE COUPONS!! and wouldn't you know it.. rebatetracker.com is down? WTF! lol! I got $2.49 for the Sure Deoderant rebate and $3.29 for the Zout rebate!! woot!!

Okay so here is all the loot..



WAGS

6 Olay body washes 3/$10
1 Ultra 2 glucose monitoring system $14.99

Used
$5 RR from last week
3 $2 coupons for the Olay
2 $1.50 coupons for the Olay
1 $1 coupon for the Olay
up to $20 for the One touch (she gave me $14.99 so I got it free)

Total $6.81 got my $7 RR
of course I came home and found those other $2 coupons!! ughh! not good.

Stopped at Pet-Co and grabbed one 4lb bag of Nutro cat food (senior) and one 5lb bag of Nutro dog food (small bites) had free coupons for both but I had to pay $2 in tax?? is that right? I didn't want to argue with the girl.. she was really nice and I didn't read the actual coupons so they may have said Free up to $10.99 and my bags were $11 something each or whatever.

Then to Butera (read below)
but I did manage to get 2 monsters for free with my free monster coupons
and Edy's ice cream for $1.49 each. They were $2.49 on sale and I had $1 off coupons. So not a bad day.

$6.81 - $7.00 (rr) = -19 cents
$2 at petco
$20 at Butera

so basically $26.81 OOP
$50.16 in coupons & RR
$7 RR for my next WAGS trip
samples
and $5.78 in Rebate checks!

I know I make no sense do I? lol!