CVSing

Right now at CVS they have a bunch of stuff on clearance from 50-75% off!! I hit up the makeup section and used a lot of $1.00 off coupons I had. I got 6 packs of Revlon nail files for -$0.01. Yep that's a minus sign! They paid me $0.01 for each package. They were on clearance for $0.99 and I used a $1.00 off Revlon coupon for each package. SO a made a penny off of each package! Way cool! I also got a few mascaras and a lipstick for less than $1.00 a piece. So if you have a CVS by you go hit it up and fill up your makeup bag for real cheap.

We are out of our rental house (as of Sat.). We have not yet closed escrow on our new house so we are staying at my parent's until we do. We hope to close on Wednesday. I'll keep you all posted.

Happy Couponing~ Caroline

Filling but not frugally

(Pipi Longstocking/aka:Emma!)

I promise I will be back to regular posting soon. And I am especially hoping to post a lot more recipes for all of you who have asked :o)

I am trying to adjust to this new, much slower paced life that God now has planned for me. I will admit that it has not been easy as I am a multi-tasker, think aheader and I have had to become a one thing at a timer and moment by momenter :o)

OK, so I have a confession......I have been filling my freezer a little bit, but not very frugally. I am ashamed to admit it. Today I bought some pre-made freezer meals out of the freezer section at Target. Yikes! Late afternoon and dinnertime have been the hardest parts of the day for me so I am doing whatever I can just to get by.
Hubby is taking vacation time next week and agreed to help me make some meals for the freezer one day. He actually sounded excited about it! I plan on trying some new recipes and will post them for you all IF they turn out OK :o) My mom has also offered to make a few meals for my freezer as well. So all I need to do is get through this week and we should be in much better shape next week.

I have not done any of my couponing in the last few weeks. But can I just tell you how much my past couponing has blessed us lately! We are well stocked on most of our daily care needs and household supplies. How nice it has been to not have to run out to the store because someone has ran out of deodorant. Hubby even noticed how well stocked all of his stuff was and thanked me for being so frugal. He's a great guy!

I will chat with you all really soon!
~Caroline

CVS, Target and Walgreens!!!!!!!!! Good Stuff

OK, after my not so great trip last week , this week completely rocked! I made up for last week and the next year! Here's the run down, and please let me know if you ever have any questions about any of the deals I have got :o) I can't get all my pictures to download so I will post this now without pics and try to post with pics again later. Sorry :o(

CVS:

1st Transaction: 3 Crest Toothpastes 2 Oral-B Toothbrushes
Total (Before Coupons)=$13.36
Coupons Used: 3- $0.75 off Crest Toothpaste (=2.25 off) 2-$1.00 off Oral-B Toothbrushes(=$2.00) $1.00 Extra Buck (from Last week)
Total Out of Pocket= $8.05 Got Back $7.24 Extra Bucks from Toothpaste

2ND Transaction: Carefree Pantyliners (22 cnt) 2 Dawn Dish Soaps Instant Energy Drinks (2 pack/for hubby)
Total Before Coupons= $8.84
Coupons Used: 2-$0.50 off Dawn Dish Soap (=1.00) $7.24 Extra Bucks
Total Out of Pocket= $0.07! Got back $6.98 Extra Bucks (for Energy Drink and Carefree pantyliners)

3rd Transaction: 4 Covergirl Blushes (B1G1) 2 Almay makeup products
Total Before Coupons= $32.96
Coupons Used: BIGI Covergirl (made all 4 blushes free!) 2-$1.00 off Almay Products 3 $1.00 off Revlon Products (so this made me actually earn $3.00 for buying the blushes!) $4.99 Extra Bucks $1.49 Extra Bucks
Total After Coupons=$0.41 Plus I earned $10.00 Extra Bucks for the Almay Products :o)

4Th Transaction: Excedrin PM 2 Pert Plus Shampoos (B1G1) 2 Sure Deodorants (B1G1)
4 Boxes of Post Cereal (B1G1)
Total Before Coupons= $21.09
Coupons Used : $4.00 off 2 Pert Shampoos (making them both free) $3.00 off Sure Deodorant (made 0.31 off these!) $2.00 off all the cereal (making these $1.79 a box) Used $10 Extra Bucks
Total Out of Pocket= a whopping $0.00! Plus I earned $3.79 in Extra Bucks!

I was going to be done after this but at the bottom of my receipt was a coupon for a free haircolor product (up to $9.99) and a free CVS mouth wash! So Off I went to find these 2 :o)

5Th Transaction: 2 Clairol Hair colors CVS Mouthwash
Total Before Coupons: $21.47
Coupons Used: BIGI Clairol Hair Color Receipt Coupon for Free Hair color Receipt Coupon for free mouth wash
Total after Coupons= $0.70!

So today I got $97.72 worth of products for $9.23. That's a savings of over 90%. Is this fun or what?!! And again, I had 2 different cashiers than I have had before (one was a manager) and they were both as wonderful as can be!
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Walgreens has tons of deals on back to school stuff. Check your local ad for all the coupons.
I got all of this plus 2 Snickers :o) for $9.00! (4-3 ring binders, 2-4 packs TP, 3-2 packs big erasers, 2-6 packs of Highlighters, 2-10 packs BIC pens, 2 small legal pads, 1 pencil sharpener)

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Target has my and hubbies' favorite razors on sale this week! Gillette Fusion (powered) and Gillette Venus (this is the best razor on earth. Your legs will seriously feel like pure silk!)
They were on sale for $7.49 each and when you bought 2 you got back a $5 Target Gift Card. I had $4 off coupons for each of 3 Fusion Razors and $2 off for each of 3 Venus Razors. Here is how I did it

1st Transaction: 2 Fusion Razors used 2 $4.00 off Coupons Paid $8.08 got back $5 gift card.
2ND Transaction: 1 Fusion 1 Venus Used $4 off and $2 off coupons and $5 gift card. Paid $5.08 and got back $5 gift card.
I did this one more time :o) and got back another $5 gift card. Plus I got a box of Kashi Cereal for $0.66. I had a $2 off coupon.

~Caroline

Great offer from Money Saving Mom!!!

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I can't believe she's offering such a great price and I'd highly recommend you run over here Click Here! and check it out.
What makes this deal so good is that this ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101--this course alone is worth much more than $5.97 and will teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. If high fuel and food costs are discouraging you and leaving you strapped for cash, you definitely need to buy this ecourse.
You'll learn how to cut your grocery bill by up to 50% or more and have fun saving money at the same time!Go here Click Here! to read more about this huge sale! Hurry, though, the price goes up tomorrow--get this money-saving ebook package at a ridiculously low price while you can!
~Caroline



Click Here!

CVS this week :o)

OK, I have to start by saying that I did not do as good as I thought I was going to do this week. First lesson: Never do CVS when you are really really hungry. I was at the point of "I need to get food in my system or I am going to pass out". So I was hurried through the store AND my brain was not functioning even close to 1/4 of what it should have been functioning. Second lesson:Don't be so hard on myself. Once I got home and snapped the photo of all that I got I realized that I did not do quite so bad. So it wasn't one of my better weeks. I did still save lots of money!

1st Transaction: Schick Intuition Razor (for my sister) on sale $3.99

1-3ct Pack Stride Gum $2.00 / 4 bags Lifesavers Candies (3 mint-1 Sour) on sale B1G1free

Total (before Coupons): $10.55

Coupons Used: 2-B1G1 free Lifesavers Candies (This made all 4 packs free!)

$4.00 off Schick Intuition (it was adjusted to $3.99 making the razor free)

$2.00 Extra Bucks from last week

Total Out Of Pocket: $0.15

They have a deal on candy this week:Buy $10 worth and get $5 Extra Bucks back. You can do this a total of 5 times. I thought the Lifesavers, which were on sale B1G1free would all count towards the deal but the free ones did not count. Now the free ones I got with the coupons did count, just not the store free ones. So I was planning on getting a $5 EB on this and using it on my next transaction. But I did not realize it until it was to late (lack of food).

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Transaction #2: 2 bags Twizzlers (I love these) on sale 2/$3

2 boxes (120 cnt each) Carefree Pantyliners (I'm set for life!) $4.50 each

2 packages (36 cnt each) Stayfree maxi pads (also set for awhile!) $4.50 each

1 Listerine $4.00

1-3 pack Stride gum $2.00

Total (Before Coupons): $29.00

Coupons used: B1G1free Stayfree Maxi Pads

$1.00 off 2 Carefree products

Total out of pocket: $23.13 (I was not happy having to spend that much. If I had the $5 EB I would have been much happier)

$10 Extra Buck earned (Carefree/Stayfree/Listerine/and other products= Buy $20 get $10 Extra Bucks) $5 Extra Buck earned on the candy deal

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Transaction #3: 4 boxes "movie" candy (4 for $4)

2 boxes Clariol Natural Instincts Hair Color (yes I bought black, but I am going to exchange one of them for a different color :o) ) on sale $5.99

4-3 pack Stride Gum (hubby chews a lot of gum. Seriously, A LOT!)

Total before Coupons: $25

Coupons used: $2 off Clariol haircolor

B1G1free Clariol haircolor

$10 Extra Buck

$5 Extra Buck

Total Out of Pocket: $1.38

Earned $5 EB for another candy deal and $1 EB for the Clariol Haircolor (I will save these for next week)

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The cashier I had this morning was new to me. When he saw my totals after coupons he would say, "wow you are a really smart shopper. There is one other lady who comes in and does the same thing and it is amazing to watch you guys." When he was done with my last transaction the manager was standing next to him and he told her, "There are 2 of these smart shoppers that come in here and shop like this." And I replied, "I guess that makes everyone else who comes in here dumb." He agreed! It was pretty funny :o)

I did end up spending almost $25 today. More than I had planned but still good deals. Hubby is thrilled at the amount of candy and gum I lugged home!

Walgreens and Rite Aid also have some great deals this week. The problem with their deals is that they requires you to spend the money out of pocket and then put in to get the money back. You end up getting a lot back and lots of stuff for free. I unfortunately didn't have the money this week to put out front. But that's OK, I don't have to do every deal :o)

~Caroline

Hi there :o)

Yes, I know I said I would post my Walmart trip last Saturday. And yes, I know I said I would post my CVS deals by Tuesday of ever week. I have a really great excuse though! I have finally been enjoying our summer! Yes, I realize it is the end of July but we have just had a lot happen that has kept us from having lots of fun. But that has changed this week so I have not been around much to post on here. Sorry, will you forgive me? :o)

I did head to wallymart on Saturday and had 15 deals and coupons in hand. I walked out of the store with none of the deals. Lesson learned: if you plan on doing a listed wallymart deal from another site go to a super wallymart. Most of the deals would have been at a super wallymart but were not at their regular store. So I will more than likely pass on wally mart posted deals from now on. Good lesson learned.

I did do a CVS run on Monday. I am ashamed to say that I failed to take pics of the stuff before I put it away. Lesson learned: If something is on sale "buy one, get one free (B1G1) and you have a coupon for said item that is B1G1 then said items (both of them) will come up for free! Case and point- CVS had the new Trident gum B1G1 and I had 3 coupons for B1G1 of the gum. So I purchased 6 packs, used my 3 coupons and go them all for free! I did the same thing with Loreal Shampoo and Conditioner. I only had 1 B1G1 for them so I got a shampoo and a conditioner for free. Those were my big deals for the week.

Walgreens had some great coupons in the Sunday paper for this week. Lots of school supplies for dirt cheap. Plus a men's razor coupon for $2.99 and I had $2 coupon so I got them for 0.99!

So I am going to go back and have some more fun now. I will try to at least get the weekly deals posted here for you all. "Try" being the key word here :o)

~Caroline

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 3

Couponing. This is a new thing to me but it is something that I have really enjoyed learning and has saved us a lot of money. Let me start by saying that when you get into serious couponing you need to start small. Once you get the hang of it you can go big. Now serious couponers don’t just cut the coupons out of the Sunday paper and go shopping. No way, there is a fine art to this. You have to figure out where the best deals are for that week and you most importantly have to learn how to “stack” coupons. This is where couponing will make or break you and I have had times where it is has broken me because I did not “stack” my coupons right.

Now instead of trying to explain this all to you here I am going to send you over to Money Saving Mom to read her post on CVS 101. She explains everything beautifully. She also has a post on Making CVS work for you.

If you do not have a CVS near you and but have a Walgreens, then I would recommend reading her Walgreens 101 post to learn about how to coupon there.

I check with Money Saving Money Mom every week to see her scenarios on CVS deals and Walgreens deals. I also check Mommies With Cents and Centsible Shopper to see if they have any different scenarios. I will also be posting my deals every week so that those of you who live in California can see shat there is here. Oh, you can also check the Rite-Aid deals at these sites. I will have to say though, that you will not find deals like they have at CVS anywhere else!

On Monday I will wrap up our posts on my Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Talk. Have a great weekend!
~Caroline

CVS and Target!

Poor Emma is still sick so we have canceled all our fun plans for the rest of the week. No biggy, God knows what we need even when we don't and apparently we needed a week at home :o)

I did make it to CVS and Target today. We ran out of medicine for Emma so I had to go. Darn :o)I usually do not do a lot of couponing at Target but Money Saving Mom had posted some great deals there for this week so I had to go! She also posted some great deals from Wallymart which I plan on doing tomorrow or Saturday.

So here are my deal from CVS:

First transaction- 2 Sally Hansen nail polishes (0.99 each)

1 CVS Pantyliners (0.99)-Get a 0.99 Extra Buck back

2-100 count Excedrin Back and body (10.29 each)-I was very excited about this one as this is the only Rx I can take for headaches, body aches, etc...- Spend $20 on Excedrin or Benefiber products get $10 Extra Bucks back.

COUPONS: $3 off $15 purchase (printed on-line)

2-$2.00 off Excedrin (equaled $4.00 off for both)

$3.00 off 2 Sally Hanson nail polishes (note I only bought $1.98 worth of polish so this was a money maker coupon. Also, I had printed this from the computer and it did not print a bar code but they let me use it anyone. All you have to do is ask :o) )

$10.00 Extra Bucks from last weeks purchases.

Total Before coupons= $25.28

Total out of pocket (after coupons)= $7.34 plus Got back $10.99 in Extra Bucks

Transaction #2-

2 bottles of Herbal Essence- (on sale 2/$5)

Coupons used- $3 off 2 herbal essences

$0.99 Extra bucks (from the pantyliners)

Total Before Coupons= $5.36

Total our of pocket (after coupons)= $1.31

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I just had to laugh when I looked at my CVS receipt today. It says that my Year to Date savings are $106.34!! The store has only been open for like 6 weeks and I have only been 4 times! Can't wait to see what it says come December :o)

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Target Deals:

4 packages 10-count Hello Kitty Band-aids (found in the travel size section)-0.99 each
1 trial size Banana Boat SPF 30 lotion 0.99
1 J+J Buddies Soap 0.94
1 Electrasol jet dry dishwasher tabs 20-count (not in the pic because I had already dumped them into my big box before I did the pic) $5.00
2 packs (10 plus 2 free-count) Bic Pens (0.50 each) Not sure why the did not make it inot the pic?

Coupons: 4 $1.00 off Band-Aids (these were adjusted down to 0.99 each)
$1.00 off any J+J product (not adjusted down so I made 0.04 on this)
$1.00 of any banana boat product (not adjusted down so made 0.01 on this)
$1.00 off Electrasol Tabs-Target Coupon. Thanks Dana!
$2.25 off Electrasol tabs (from Sunday"s paper)
$1.00 off 2 Bic product

Total before coupons=$12.76

Total out of pocket (after coupons)= $1.56

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So I think I did pretty good today! Can't wait to hit up Wallymart :o) I'll let you know what I get and I promise that next week I will post my deals by Tuesday so you have more time to get to them if you like.

~Caroline