My mailbox runneth over!

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



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

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

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

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

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



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



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

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

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

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

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



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



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

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

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

great Target cereal run on Saturday night

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

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

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

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

FREE MINERAL MAKE UP!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

My new CVS

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

want to see other CVS deals?? CVS SUPERSTARS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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