Gratitude on Friday

Today I am grateful that I made the choice to skip the early morning(I am talking wee hours of the morning)Black Friday shopping. It was hard to do. It has been a tradition for the last 15 years. I slept in until 8 am and enjoyed the morning with my family. It was nice to be in my bed at 12 am, 3 am, 4 am and 6 am. I did head out after 10 am and was still able to land a few of the deals I would have scored in the wee hours of the morning. This sleeping in on Black Friday morning may have become my new tradition. Who's with me?

Gratitude on Monday

Today I am grateful for my little three year old. Brody was SO good today while I ran a marathon of errands. It made getting in and out of all those stores do-able. Not to mention, I scored some major deals(free shampoo,free deodorant, cereal that was a dollar a box, cheap razors, free electric toothbrush,etc...). Today is really all about the simple things.

{6 cents}

Look what I picked up for just 6 cents.


Yes, you read that right...when all was said and done, I paid 6 cents.

Here's what I picked up.
2 bottles of Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen
3 bags of Double Bubble gum(my boys love this stuff)
2 boxes of Stove Top stuffing
1 box of thumb tacks (not on sale, just needed them to hang 4th of July stars)

So here's how it worked.
After my ECB's(Extra Care Bucks) and manufacturer coupons, my total at the register was $10.06.



When you buy 2 bottle of Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen at CVS this week, you receive $10.00 in ECB's. ECB's are like money at CVS. I can then turn around and spend them on anything in the store.


It has been a great week in the world of coupon shopping. Earlier this week, I picked up two big boxes of Huggies(60 count). They were on sale for $19.99. When all was said and done(ECB's & manufacturer coupons), I was paid $2.00 to take the boxes out of the store. I was able to do this deal twice :-). I love getting diapers for free. I am hoping these are the last boxes of diapers I will have to purchase in my parenting career...wish me luck!

where has our summer gone?

Seriously...we are just days away from the boys going back to school. Tanner will be starting 5th grade. Carter is going into the 3rd grade & Mr. Garrett will be starting kindergarten! I can't believe he is old enough for kindergarten! I can't believe it will just be Brody & me during the morning hours of our days! Life is changing way too fast & I'm not sure if I am ready! While we have had a nice, relaxing week...it has been filled with all of the running around that takes place with going back to school. We have been shopping for school supplies (one of my favorite things to shop for-BTW), scoring some HOT deals. This was by far our best school supply deal, this week.















We picked up 45 pkgs. of binder paper for .45 cents. Yes, you read that right...45 cents. It was a super deal!


My friend Laina(the coupon queen) came and taught a coupon/money saving class for the ladies @ church. Thanks Laina! She inspired lots of my friends to jump on the coupon band wagon. So much so, that my friend Jan & I went on a little field trip to Walgreens. Jan wanted to see how to work the deals. My total, before coupons & Register Rewards was $41.00 and some change. After my coupons & RR's, my official total was $18.08. It gets even better. After I paid my $18.08, out pops $19.00 in RR. I left Walgreens last night, having made .92 cents. They paid me to buy those items last night. This is what I scored (minus two bottles of soap, 2 deodorants & 2 PB's that I gave Jan).




















Besides getting ready for school, I have been trying to pull my house back together. This little box of goodies inspired me to at least get my scrapbook desk cleaned off. I am so ready to hunker down & create! These lovely goodies can all be found in one place. They are from the July Green Tangerines Kit Club. These kits are still available but I am guessing not for long. You can call the store at 916-771-8010(tell them Raimi sent you & that I say HI) & they will even ship it to you. You don't wanna miss this kit! The colors are yummy & perfect for all of your summer day photos.







We are excited for the weekend even though the weather has put a damper on our Tahoe plans. We will stay close to home & enjoy the cool weather here. The boys are looking forward to finding out who their teachers are tomorrow night. I am excited for them. The anticiaption is killing all of us!

How about you, are you excited for school to be starting?

not bad

I have noticed that my coupon shopping escapades have slowed down with the boys home & on summer vacation. I hit Walgreens this morning & this is what I scored:



















2 pkgs. of tab dividers
3 pkgs. of glue sticks(6 sticks total)
2 pkgs. of mechanical pencils
2 boxes of Crayola markers
4 Smelly pencils(root beer, bubble gum, strawberry)
1 pkg.of toilet paper.

With the combination of Walgreens coupons & Register Rewards, I paid a whopping $1.37
for everything. Not pictured, but scored this morning(for free) were 3 bottles of Listerine mouth wash. Those were on sale, 3 for $9. I had 3, $2.00 off coupons. That brought my total to $3.00. For buying those 3 items , I received a $3.00 Register reward. I used that $3.00 reward towards those school supplies mentioned above.

I am so glad that the boys school sent home the "back to school" supply list during the last week of school. I have been slowly gathering their supplies as I see things go on sale. I refuse to be one of those Moms shopping @ Target or Wal*Mart the night before school starts. If you are wanting some awesome deals on school supplies, check out the in store ad @ Walgreens & CVS/Longs. Or, as usual, you can always check out the Abundant Food Saving site for Laina's deals/scenarios!

Happy back to school shopping!

coupon adventures

Look what I scored for under $2.00 today!


I am still using my coupons & scoring some sweet deals.
Today I purchased/received for free:
8 cans of Progresso soup
3 rolls of Bounty paper towels
2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste
1 bottle of Windex(I will get this for free after I mail in my rebate-SCORE)
1 can of Windex wipes
6 boxes of raisins (impulse purchase for Brody)

Again, you can check out Laina's site for daily deals/updates.
Happy shopping!

Look what I scored this week!

Safeway was having an awesome deal on cereal.
The cereal was on sale to start with and then if you bought 5 boxes, you got $5.00 off & then I had several $1.00 of coupons for each box of cereal that I purchased.
With 4 boys, we go through mass amounts of cereal.
My friend Laina posted about this super deal on her site. I got 10 boxes of cereal for $7.98.
Well I thought I was going to pay $7.98 for my 10 boxes of cereal (I thought this was a super deal).

{Another photo for my project 365}
Then the cashier noticed two more $1.00 off coupons on my cereal
boxes. Since the transaction had already been charged to my ATM card,
she handed me $2.00 cash back. I paid $5.98 cents for 10 boxes of cereal. This was an AWESOME deal. I paid about .58 cents a box.
I don't care if the boys want to have cereal for breakfast, lunch & dinner this week...they can have at it. If you haven't checked her site out, you should. I can't score all of the deals she posts but I try to hit the stores where I will save the most money. Happy shopping!

Check this out!


Thanks to Laina's fan-tabulous website, this was today's haul from Target. I purchased everything you see here for roughly $4.88. The toothpaste alone (one box) originally sold for $3.99. I purchased the Crest for .24 cents-yes you read that right-.24 cents. I paid .74 cents for the Colgate. I got those packages of Ziploc bags for .10 cents each-SCORE! The M&M's were my big purchase for $1.24 a bag after the clearance price & a coupon. I am having such a good time scoring some major deals. Who knew coupon clipping & shopping the clearance racks @ Target could be such a high-LOL? If you haven't checked out her site you really should. She makes it so easy to save money! She breaks down the deals for you & links you to the online coupons. The best tip Laina shared with me was that you need to clip every single coupon out of the Sunday paper. If you have friends who are willing to save their coupons for you, even better. You will save the most if you have the Sunday coupons, Internet coupons & store sales/clearance.
Happy shopping!

One steal of a deal

I have a new friend, her name is Laina. I met her @ the scrapbook store. She and her darling daughter come in just about every Monday night to create our weekly Monday night Make n take with me. I love visiting & chatting with these two while they create their projects. They are so much fun. Laina has been playing the coupon game for the last 4 months. Her boss had her learn(on company time)the ins & outs of the coupon world. What an awesome deal...she was paid to learn how to save money. She has saved a ton of money & has scored some major deals. You can check her site out here http://abundantfoodsavings.com/
Each week she gives me a mini assignment. I am going to slowly work my way into the saving money while I shop world. The 1st part of my assignment was to go & purchase the Sunday paper. Thanks goodness Arco still had a few left on Monday night.
I went home & clipped all of the coupons for things my family would/could use. While clipping coupons, it made me think of my Grandma Shore. She is always on the look out for deals. Hoping not to bore you but this was my steal of a deal last night. Walgreen's has Oral B toothbrushes for $4.47 with a register rebate of $4.47. There was a coupon for .75 cents off of that toothbrush in the Sunday paper. So I was actaully paid .75 cents to buy that toothbrush. You pay for the toothbrush & get your money right back in the form of a coupon($4.47) to use in the store. I turned around & purchased 10 cans of Pringles (10 for $10.00). I used my $4.47(plus .75 cents.) coupon to buy my Pringles. So far, a toothbrush & a 10 cans of Pringles cost me $4.78. Well when you buy the 10 cans of Pringles, you get another $3.00 register rebate. So with that $3.00, I turned around & purchased a gallon of milk. Thanks y to Laina for the step by step directions on that purchase-lol)So my total for a toothbrush, 10 cans of Pringles & a gallon of milk was $5.27(or close to it). Can you believe that? You should have seen my boys eyes this morning when they laid eyes on the mass amount of Pringles on the kitchen counter. I am sure they thought their mother had lost her marbles.

John worked from home today. On his lunch break, I had him go back to Walgreens with me. This is what we scored today for about $15.00. Not as cheap as the night before because the toilet paper made our bill go a little higher.
3 pkg. of toilet paper
10 more cans of Pringles (yes you read that right)
3 cans of chicken broth
2 bottles of Dawn dish soap
1 box of Kleenex
5 designer Halloween pencils
1 Febreeze plug in
3 Oral B toothbrushes
1 tube of Crest toothpaste.


Okay, here was the big deal of the day(thanks Laina)...Rite Aid has Crest Pro Health toothpaste on sale for $2.69. There was a $1.00 off coupon in the Sunday paper for Crest. So my total for the toothpaste(after the coupon)was $1.89. Then I mailed in a rebate for $2.69 on that same bottle of toothpaste. Crest just paid me about $1.00 to buy their toothpaste. SCORE! That my friends, was the Steal of the day!

I can't wait for my new assignment next week. Thanks for the HOT tips Laina! Keep them coming! Let me know if you try this! I was so excited about the money we saved.