Walgreen's deal 3-31

Hello all. Thanks to Rachael for the heads up on the Mentos. I want everyone to feel free to share deals you find and I will try to keep everyone updated!



I made my Walgreen's run today and got a lot of stuff! Here's the run down:

Tuf garbage bags: 4.99 (I have a rain check, but the size is not in stock yet and I need them!)
Capt Crunch/Life cereal 2/$5, 50 cents MQ on each- also got $2 RR
Chapstick: $1.99- got $2 RR
Reynold's wrap: 89 cents on ad, had 3 $1 coupons so made 11 cents each
Cottonelle Wipes: 2/$5 on ad, $1 off coupon generated by Walgreen's on a previous trip
Napkins BOGO at $2.99, 50 cents MQ
Scott tissue: 2/$5 with ad, $1 off each with MQ
Mentos 2/$2, $1 off each MQ
Bush beans: 99 cents on ad
Paas color kit: 99 cents on ad, plus it was a filler item for me.

My total after all coupons was $17.64, and I saved $40.71 in ad/coupons.
That is a savings of 70%!!

How did you do this week. Thanks Jen for letting me know what deals you rocked, I would have missed the napkins!

Another frugal way...

How's this for being frugal?

My workplace participates in the Pride in Healthcare Competition sponsored by the Wisconsin Hospital Association. I had to write an essay of 300 words or less describing what motivates me to work in healthcare. Just for entering I received a $5 gift certificate from the hospital gift shop.

I entered last year and won a $50 gift card to a local restaurant which my husband and I used for an anniversary dinner out!

Well, I found out late last week that I won grand prize this year! Here's what I won: an overnight stay at the Kalahari (a family friendly indoor water park hotel), dinner and reception, and a gift certificate for $125 in their spa to be used anytime! I am so excited!

The essay sure didn't take long as 300 words is only a few paragraphs. Being an occupational therapist is work that I love, so it was easy to speak from the heart and describe why I work in healthcare.

Think about different ways you can be frugal and enter workplace contests or other giveaways. It's another avenue for freebies. My kids will enjoy the overnight stay, and my hubby and I will get a date night as well:)

Walmart quick run

Made a quick trip to buy the eldest a new bike and thought I'd check a few prices....Here's what I got.

2 Juicy Juice: $1 off 2 bottles MQ
Ocean Spray: $1 off MQ
Kaschi meal : free, coupon from mailer
4 Mentos gum: $1 off each MQ

Other items included spaghettio's, blueberries, and chicken nuggets.

Subtotal was $28.14, after coupons it was $19.57! I saved $9 in coupons! Always worth the trip! Thanks again coupon stash!

A second round of Double's

Kmart again. I had to run for a prescription so why not take another look and use a few more coupons?

Old Spice deodorant: $2 MQ from P&G mailer=free
Mt Dew 12 packs: $2 MQ from a rebate=48 cents each
Stride Gum $2 off 3 packs MQ=free
Bic Soleil razors: $2 MQ=free
Sunkist soda: $1 peelie on bottle
3 Boxes Ziploc bags: $1 off 2 and 40 cents off 1

Keep in mind all coupons were doubled. So my total oop was $8.56 for over $40 worth of stuff!

I love double coupons- which it was more often!

Pierce's 3-27-09

Here's my weekly grocery round up.

Yes mom, the Ketchup is yours~I'm holding your mail hostage. Due to overwhelming requests, I will list the good deals, coupons, and where I got them! All coupons come from the weekend newspaper unless noted. Here goes:

4 box Minute Rice 50 cent MQ (manufacture coupon)
4 Old Orchard Juice $1 each on sale, $1 off 4 coupon from a mailer
Fisher Sunflower seeds $1 off MQ
Country Crock 50 cents MQ
Oreos $1 off when you buy milk

The rest were part of their ad sales. I got canned veggies, apples, lettuce, tomatoes, Ketchup, syrup, bagels and chips.

Grand total was $40.54. Total saved with coupons and ad prices was $20.70.

Best of all, we are under budget for food again, although I do have another trip to walmart that I will post shortly. Even with the next trip, under budget for food this month! I think I will continue this budget amount for another month to see how I do.

How did you do? Leave me a post, and sign you name so I can acknowledge you!

P.S. Not one of my boys in the picture, it is a friend's child!

Walgreen's

Ok, I didn't see much in the Walgreen's ad that I needed this week. I'm not even going to post a picture because I only bought 2 Soft soap that were 99 cents each. My total was $2.09. I don't think I've had such a light week since I started doing this! I did get a rain check for 4 boxes of the sale garbage bags as they were out of stock. Be sure to get the flyer of coupons from the pharmacy area as there are quite a few deals hidden there! Once the garbage bags are back, I figure I can get 4 boxes of them for about $7 thanks to a coupon and mail-in-rebate.

How is your Walgreen's trip this week? I know the cereal is a good deal, but we have too much on hand already and I need to let the kids catch up on eating it!

Have a great day!

Kmart is the savings place!

Wasn't that their jingle or tag line in the 80's? Anywho, I LOVE Kmart today!

Here's a breakdown since it helps me to relive it! (These amounts are after coupons!)

4 bottles Sunkist: free
10 packs gum: free
Quaker snack thingy: free
Total cereal: free
Buddies soap: free
2 pk valentine hears: 10 cents each
1 pack gum: $1
4 box Pop Tarts: 49 cents each
6 Secret deodorant: 40 cents each
Vaseline lotion:$1 each
Benefiber tabs: $1.50 each
2 kid toothbrushes: $1 each
2 Ziploc containers: $1 each
1 Ziploc Baggies: $1.19
2 Nature's Source cleaners: 50 cents each
1 toilet cleaner (only item with no coupon): $2
2 coffee mate creamers: $4.58 for both

My total (adjusted for a return I made after I checked the receipt~guess my math-in-my-head calculator was off) was just over $100. My after total and actual out of pocket amount was $16.03! I saved 84% on the above items. Holy @#@*!!

Please leave me a comment about any other deals you know of!

Rachel, it was great to see you! Thanks for all the kind words about the blog. I'm so glad it is helping people!

Saturday savings!

First up is my Pierce's trip. The Dr. Pepper was free, along with the Dog Biscuits. No, we aren't getting a dog. I will donate them to the dog that lives at the nursing home where I work. Pierce's has a lot of 10/$10 sales this week to stock up! Most of my produce was under that deal along with the Manwich, cheese slices and spaghetti noodles.

You may look at my spread and wonder "how is she going to feed her family on this small stash of groceries?" (Don't forget I will have company with 4 additional mouth to feed from Thursday to Sunday). That's where stockpiling comes in handy. I have room in my $80 weekly grocery budget to stock up on the basics when they are on sale. Believe it or not, the above groceries will feed us all and the company. I have planned meals around what we have on hand. Our freezer downstairs will not fit another thing in it, so it's time to clean it out!

The out of pocket total for these groceries was $41.62, with a savings of coupons and sale items totalling $20.31. Leaves me a lot of wiggle room in the budget for next week's food. I know the chicken will be on sale any week now!

Here is the short trip I took to Piggly Wiggly to take advantage of a weekend only sale. 6 packs of hot dogs at 99 cents each and the ketchup $1 each. I had to do 3 transactions because the hot dogs were limit 2. I was up front about it to the cashier, and she didn't mind and I didn't have to pretend my kids were buying them! Total spent: $7.76. ($14.70 was the savings) And that is how you stock up when things are on sale. We are set for hot dogs for awhile.

Wrap up: I spent $49.38 today. That leaves me with $30.62 extra for groceries next week. Of course I may use some for the Kmart doubles!!

Be sure to check out money saving mom for her weekly Saturday shopping trip as well. How did you do?

2009 Financial Round Up progress note

I've been meaning to update the blog about my debt reduction for awhile. My family is on what we call the "Debt Reduction Plan 2009". This amounts to using a cash envelope system, buying with coupons and calling it quits with buying things we don't need.

Here is what we have accomplished in 2009 so far! We have paid off a small loan to family and paid off the credit card which had the new washing machine on it. (Our washer died for good on Christmas Eve or Day~can't remember which). My hubby loves to show visitors his 'snow blower' next to the dryer. Hey, we could live without the snow blower, but not a washing machine:)

We are currently throwing all our extra money at Dave's car loan to pay that off. My goal is to be done before the end of June, which I think is positive. We used most of our tax refund paying down debt.

Once his car is paid off, then it's on to the van loan and my student loan. We have got to get rid of these bills. It has gone on way too long!

Overall, we are right on track with our payments. I had planned to own the car by June and that is possible. I estimate it will be another 1 1/2 years to pay off the rest, especially once I looked up the payoff values on both outstanding loans. Yikes.

How are your goals doing? I know Julie is on track, she let me know she is on her own debt reduction plan. Way to go! Leave me a comment!

Walgreen's

Just a friendly reminder to you all to watch the expiration date on your Register Rewards! I didn't realize mine were 1 day from expiring...good thing I found plenty to buy with it!

Obviously got some Easter candy, Kleenex (I was down to two boxes!), clearance napkins were 25 cents after coupon! My favorite deal was the toothbrushes~buy 3 2pks of Reach on sale for 3/$9, then get $6RR back. Essentially they were 50 cents for each toothbrush after that. We always need toothbrushes.

The totals: My oop was $19.68 after saving $30.56 in ads/coupons! A savings of more than half! (I can't find my calculator to figure it exact). Don't forget I also got $6 RR for my next visit!

Kmart Quickie

Here is a quick run I made to Kmart to check on a prescription. I am going to try to do a moneymaking prescription transfer, Kmart to Walgreens.

All of the above cost me $1.28 and I have the receipt to prove it! My clerk pointed out that the Sunkist was $1 and had a $1 coupon on it making it free. I would have gotten more, but I just didn't feel like it, and we really don't like it. However, I will be giving it to someone that does!

Shopping round up

Here is my Walmart run. There are 4 bags of those rice chips actually (hard to see). Had a couple freebie coupons, and many coupons for the rest of the items. We didn't need too many groceries because we are headed out of town for a couple days. I used this opportunity to stock up on a few things I had been putting off.

Subtotal was $46.47, but after coupons my total was $21.73. I save $24.74 using coupons!! More than 53%!!


Here is my Pierce's run. Not pictured is the loaf of bread and 3 bags of chips I bought. Seems like the week of chips?!

Got 6lbs hamburger, 6lb Chicken quarters (68 cents/lb!), cheese blocks, bags of apples and potatoes, sugar on sale, and the other stuff you see here. I found waffles cheap when there too! Note the lighter fluid as grilling season is BACK! Don't forget the kiwi that Andrew begged for!

Total after coupons and sales was $63.56, more than I meant to spend! But saving was $35.76. At least I figure I saved about 1/3 here. I wish they had better sales. Oh well, can't win them all!

I hope your grocery shopping was also successful. I am happy that I am on track for my budget so far, hope to keep it reigned in this month. Still have guests coming later this month, I need to work on a menu for that!

Until later, have a great day and week. See you for the Walgreen's post later this week.

Sisterhood Award

I am honored that All Things Frugal was so kind and has given me a Sisterhood Award in blogging!

I am truly flattered, thanks for visiting the site!

It represents those that have Attitude & Gratitude. I must now pass it on to 5 ladies who share those traits so here goes:

1. Getting Ahead - I love the weekly wrap up for being frugal!
2. Thrifty Florida Mama Found a great link on her site for a woman who lived on $1 per day!
3. $5 Dollar Dinners - Don't miss her bargain meal of the week.
4. Bargain Briana enjoy her series of the 15 Days of Couponing
5. Affluent Pauper Look for her Sunday Sample roundup

Thanks ladies for helping me start my journey into saving money:)

As with all awards there are some rules:
Post it on my blog
link to who gave it to me
and let the others know to come and get it.

Keeping my eyes on the Target...

First of all, a shout out to my son Sam for helping me organize and getting into the picture!

My shopping day at Target was amazing: DEALS!!!!- sorry the picture is so far away but I plan to recap anywho. The deals (after coupons~both in store coupons and manufacture coupons)

10 bags Goldfish crackers: free
3 box PopTarts: free
3 sample size Tide: free
1 Gillette body wash: free
5 sample size Head & Shoulders: 12 cents each
1 Suave deodorant: 47 cents
2 boxes Fruit snacks: 50 cents each
4 box Granola bars: 75 cents each
2 Deli Lunch meat: 2.04 each
2 bags Broccoli: 50 cents each
1 bag Romaine lettuce: 1.24 each
14 Kraft mac n cheese: 39 cents each
10 Prego spaghetti sauce: 74 cents each
6 pkg Beef steaks: total all 6 15.70
2 carton Tropicana oj: 1.99 each
6 Silk soymilk: 97 cents each
6 6pks Motts applesauce: 69 cents each
4 box Toaster Strudel: 64 cents each
2 box Pancake mix: 1.49 each
2 Velveeta shells individual size: 58 cents total
2 24 pk bottled water: 1.00 each

I think I covered it all. That is a lot of stuff! My back was breaking hauling it all in the house.

My oop total was $49.21 and I saved $104.15! A savings of 68%!!

To all you nay-sayers that say I bought a lot of junk food my answer is yes, I did. However, much of this was packed away into our pantry cupboard and will be filtered to our kitchen slowly.

Secondly, much of this stuff I already buy on a regular basis. My kids are pretty typical preschoolers and eat a lot of mac n cheese and granola bars etc. I don't have a problem with it as long as it is not every meal, all the time. That's why our hall closet(pantry) works well. They can't reach the stuff, and I can bring out boxes as I see fit. They still have to eat their veggies and proteins every day!

So, tell me what you think and leave me a message. Thanks also to my sister for letting me know about these deals and escorting me!! Love ya Jen.

Holy Cheap!

I can feel the love! Lots of freebies and cheapies at WAGS this week. Here is the breakdown:

5 bottles Garnier= free after MQ + IVC
1 Glade Fragrance= free after MQ + IVC
3 Total toothpaste= 24 cents each after MQ + IVC (don't give me a hard time for 'paying')
9 Butterball chicken broth= 6.21 (but I will get $5 back for MIR)
1 Folgers Coffee= $2.74 (rain check) after MQ
1 Selsun shampoo= 5.99 after MQ

My total was $4.32 after using $13.50 in register rewards. I will also get $5 back from the mail in rebate! I put the 4.32 on my gift card (which just got reloaded!) so I actually paid nothing out of pocket!!

The most impressive part? My total savings for sales and coupons was $56.04!!!
Definitely worth the trip I'd say. It pays to save those coupons!

Have a great day everyone. As always, let me know what deals you are rocking this week. Stay tuned, I am doing a Target run today to try and snag some food deals!

Walgreen's and Pierces

These pictures are not all-inclusive as my hubby was putting stuff away before I could take a picture of it all! I had stopped at both places today. There weren't a lot of great sales this week, so I decided to buy several items at Walmart that I had coupons for to make them cheap, but aren't necessarily needs. I was able to snag some chips, tv dinners and tp for cheap. I also picked up a couple plastic bins to start organizing some of the loot in the closet.

Before the totals go up, I've decided to up the budget by $10 a week, making a total of $80 each week for groceries and toiletries. I only went over a buck and change this week.

Pierces: total oop was $39.64 after sales and coupons of $12.37.
Walmart: total oop was $41.70 after using $12.55 in coupons.

I really need to get on track and stay within my allotted budget, although this month will be a challenge. I have a couple birthdays this month, and we are having company at our house for 4 days at the end of the month. That will be 4 extra mouths to feed. I will find a way to make it work!! (I hope).

Keep up the good couponing, and as always, let me know how you did by leaving a comment.

A second soap run...

And the deals keep rolling! I made a second trip to get the Dove soap today. My Walgreen's had the full size bars only. (I actually wanted to mix and match with deodorant but they didn't have any) My store also never holds me to the limit on the ad coupon! Goodie for me, so the bars were 99 cents apiece.

In the clearance aisle I found 2 Banana Boat sunscreens at $3.00 each and there was a $2 easy saver coupon for each. Plus I had to get the Colgate for the register rewards.

My total for all was $13.12 after all coupons and ad specials. (although I did pay with some other RR's from my last trip). Here's the kicker: I got $13.50 back in RR's for my next visit. Which means I got all this stuff free and made a few cents to boot!

I'm loving me some Walgreen's today:)

Weekly Walgreen's Deals !!

Holy cow, the deals keep rolling. My total my look like a lot, but I sure got a lot. 3 cottonelle wipes, 2 Ragu, 2 12pk Mt Dew, 2 Dawn, 2 Colgate, tea bags, paper plates, 2 bags of Easter candy (hidden from view due to children in vicinity), qtips and 2 clearance digestive aids. I had coupons for all items except paper plates.

Here's the totals: oop $29.03. But..... I got $3 register rewards for the soda, and the coupon savings was $45.32!! Total savings of 61%!! It is so awesome to see that I am saving a whole lot more than I am spending!

Also of note, have you heard the 'Dove Buzz' going on all month long at Walgreen's? I bought 8 Dove soap bars at $0.99 each and got a $10 RR! The blogs are all saying this will also work on Dove trial size soap or deodorant! You must buy 8 Dove products for the $10 RR. It is an unadvertised sale, but don't miss out on it.

I went to Walgreen's again today to take advantage of it since we need soap and Dove is our soap of choice. I also decided to do the Mt Dew deal again. My cart had 8 soaps and 2 12pks of soda. My total was $15.12, and I got $13 RR back. My total pd was really only $2.12!!! Can you top that????