Unbelievable Savings!

I am almost glad Saturday night is here—too many good deals at Rite aid this week.
Look at what I got:

$1,098.53 Total Cost w/o Coupon
$944.20 Coupon Savings
$154.33 Total Out of Pocket

$80.00 Gift Cards Earned (Rite Aid)
$33.00 Mail In Rebates
$179.74 Single Check Rebate (Rite Aid Rebate Program)

+$138.41 I ended up making money buying all this stuff!!!

PROFIT!

My shopping is coming to a close this month due to traveling. Since I can’t sleep I thought I would calculate my savings and I can’t believe it. Look at savings for the month of May:

Cost of Products (Pre-coupon/discount): $1447.22
Total Spent (with Gift Cards/Rewards, etc): $392.78
Gift Cards/Rewards, etc Used: $122.25
Out of Pocket Spent: $270.25
May Rebates--Cash & Gift Cards: $438.53

So this is the result for the month of May: PROFIT of $168.28

This obsession of couponing/rebating is really paying off!

Shopping Spree After Vacation

Well, Thursday we returned from Disney. Even though I was exhausted I had to go shopping on Friday and Saturday to get the deals. Look at my savings:

Total Pre Coupons: $300.35
Out of Pocket Expense: $68.29 (pre-tax)
Gift Cards Earned: $35 (Target and Discover Cards)
CVS Bucks Earned: $3 (just like cash at CVS)
Rebates Earned: $30.48 (From Rite Aid--easy, just entered them on the computer)

After Coupons, Rebates and Gift Cards: PROFIT $.19

I had most of my groceries all stock except a few veggies and fruit so most of what I bought was goodies and personal/medical items:

2 Trident Gums
1 Warm Delights
3 Honey Nut Cheerios 3 BC Cookie Mix
1 Dial Soap-3 pk
2 Sunflower Chips
4 Eat Smart Chips
1 Tortilla Chips6 BC Frostings
4 Hormel Compleat Meals 2 Ortega Salsa 1 Nestle Morsels 1 Planters Nut Bar 1 Electrasol Tabs 1 McCormick Clear Vanilla 15 Vitamin Water 4 Eggo Waffles
1 Marie Calendars Frozen Meal
3 Kotex Tampons
1 Colgate Toothpaste
1 Bagelfuls Frozen Breakfast
1 Apples-5 lbs
1 Banana bunch
2 Naval Oranges
1 Cauliflower
1 Ginger Root
4 Listerine Mouthwash
1 Electrasol
1 Mini Drop Therapy
5 Ban Deodorants
1 Saltaire Kit
2 Speed Stick Deodorants 4 Huggie Wipes 1 Kotex pads 15 Special K Cereal
2 Ritz Crackers

Also, I could have had $10 more off of that but I forgot to break my groceries into $25 transactions. A few transactions I had to buy gum so the store did not owe me something.

We won't be eating or using everything I bought--evey month I donate all our extra food and personal/medical items.

Happy Couponing to You!

Cleaning House at the Grocery.....and Home!

This week I have been preparing for triples at Harris Teeter—Yipeee! As I was looking over my coupons I realized a few coupons I had would be better used this week with the sales. So today, even though I was sick, off I went. Here is what I bought

2 Lysol Bathroom Cleaner-24 oz
2 Glad Linen Air Fresher-9 oz
3 Lysol Cling Gel Toilet Cleaner-24 oz
1 Lysol All Purpose Cleaner-40 oz
1 Lysol Spray All Purpose Cleaner-32 oz
2 Lysol Disinfecting Wipes-35 wipes
2 Oat to Go Bars-6 bars
1 Wrigley’s Gum Package-15 sticks

After handing the cashier all my coupons and an about to expire Walgreens Register Reward worth $10, she told me that it was negative 78¢ so I had to buy something else. I ended up buying another pack of gum since it was easy to grab. My grand total was 54¢ for all the list above plus a pack of gum—WOW! Now I guess with all those cleaning products I need to clean house.

Saving Money

At the beginning of the year I began to use coupons. I mostly used coupons at grocery stores. My favorite store is Harris Teeter due to the fact it doubles all coupons under $1 and almost every month has four days that they triple all coupons under $1. Just an example—last week Ken’s Steakhouse Salad Dressing was Buy One Get One Free. The regular price was $3.20. In addition to the sale, I had a $1 off coupon so my final price per bottle was $.60. With such a great price I bought lots that will hopefully last this year.

The website that I started my couponing adventure with was http://savvydollar.org/ It’s a great site that is totally focused on my area. But this last week I discovered a new website about couponing - http://www.southernsavers.com/ I ended up just printing the list from the site for my local drugstores, downloaded or cut the coupons and went shopping. Below are the deals I got at Walgreens (RR are Register Rewards that act just like cash):

Walgreens Deals 3/2/09
(Three different checkouts so I could get and then use RRs)

6 Vita-Shampoo & Conditioner FREE-Rebate
Axel Hair Gel FREE-Rebate
Colgate Toothpaste $.49
2 small boxes of Ritz +$.01
3 boxes Fiber One Chewy bars $1.92
2 bags Jelly Beans $.99
Vaseline Lotion $.44 and $2 RR
Colgate Max $3.49 and $3.50 RR
3 Clorox Wipes $5 and $1 RR
Nivea Lip Gloss $.99
2 Esencia Shampoo & Conditioner Free-Rebate
Milk Gallon $2.79
2 Cottenelle Fresh Wipes $2.89
Splenda-100 count $1.94

Cost without coupons, rebates and sales: $129.92
Cost without RRs: $ 21.88
RRs (Earn on products with purchase) $ 6.50 RR
RRs (Earn on past purchases) $ 3.00 RR
Total I spent: $ 12.38

So I think my couponing is definitely saving me money. I have a goal to save $5000 this year and to give away at least 50 items. Though I think I should raise my goal as I just calculated my savings since January and it is $1824.93—Wahoo! Many times I get products free or for very little so it gives me an opportunity to help others.

That Takes the Cake

I always have to have something creative in my life. I have done a variety of things like stamping, stained glass, scrapbooking, cake and cookie decorating and digital scrapbooking. Although creating cakes can be very stressful, especially with a 2 year old who always wants to eat the cake, I enjoy it. Here are a few of my latest cakes.

Cutting it Too Close

Last night I quickly decided I needed to cut Monroe's hair so I asked him to come in from playing outside. I thought a fast haircut then off to the bath since it was already time to eat. As I quickly grabbed my clipper bag everything fell out. I picked up everything and started buzzing Monroe's hair since he was sitting so still in his chair. A second later I realized something was VERY wrong. I looked at the back of his head and then the clippers. To my disbelief the #3 blade had fell off and I had buzzed his head with just the bare clippers. He now has a big strip on the back of his head. The good thing is it is in the back of his head not the front.

In the coming weeks I am sure I will be asked, "What happened--did he have some kind of surgery?" With all our injuries from last weekend--I hurt my arm and foot and Monroe got burned. We already look like an battle-scared family so I guess a strip of hair missing just completes the package.