Mommin' It Up!» Bargains

Guest is Best! Put your friends to the test!

Emily — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:02:25 +0000

Today’s post is by our friend Celia, who blogs at DealsForDayton.com. You should check it out! Among lots of other stuff, they have a comprehensive list of kids-eat-free deals that I love! Which, now that I read on, is kind of the point of this post. *ahem* Without further ado… we give you Celia!

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I love my birthday. I love cake, ice cream, gifts, and being the center of attention! But, my entire life, I’ve HATED my birth date. My birthday is smack-dab in the middle January. I seriously think it is the worst day of the year.

January is the coldest month of the year, when no one wants to go outside (even to a birthday party!). It is right after Christmas, when everyone realizes they over-spent on the holidays, so they skimp on birthday gifts. It snows a lot, which generates snow emergencies, frantic runs to the grocery store, icy roads, car accidents… you get the point. Seriously, January 13th is THE SUCKIEST day of the year! Who would want to celebrate with me on a day like that?! (Not to mention if it falls on a Friday…)

What’s a party-lovin’ girl to do? Well, this year I decided to change my birthday. It is now on April 13th. I acknowledge that my legal date of birth is January 13th, but I just refuse to celebrate it until April. Can you blame me?

My favorite part of my birthday is getting FREE stuff! Tons of restaurants and even a store or two help you celebrate your birthday with a FREE GIFT!!

Now, you can always go to a restaurant and HOPE that they might give you something for your special day, but you might strike out, and no one likes to hear, “no,” (especially on her birthday!). In order to avoid such situations, you can search around online and try to fine the sites that offer aforementioned “birthday goodies” or you can find a site that has already done the leg work for you!

If you live in the Dayton, Ohio area there is a site for you! (Although even if you don’t live in Dayton, there are lots of places that are national on the list) You can register away to get lots o’ free food and even retail coupons for your special day! (YAY!) While you’re there, you can also check out our Kids Eat Free list. If you combine the two, you got a cheap birthday celebration for the whole family! WAHOO!

So, have I inspired anyone else to change your birthday? What do you look forward to on your special day? (And leave the wrinkles out of this discussion!)

Also, now that everyone knows my birthday, I have high expectations for next year, what are you planning to get me? (My birthday list is close to Jenny’s, only add in a Shark vac n’ steam!) Thank you in advance.

Celia

A Fool and His Money…

Emily — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:49:33 +0000

The other day, I heard Kate yell from the living room, “Mom!! We need to buy Wonder Hangers!” Then she came running to me and said breathlessly “We need to buy Wonder Hangers! You can hang FIVE shirts in the same space it takes to hang ONE on a regular hanger!”

Do you know what she’s talking about? These:

Apparently they show infomercials on Nickelodeon.

Later, I was bemoaning the state of her room, and she reminded me that her closet would be MUCH more organized if she only had Wonder Hangers.

She’s also convinced that her dad is going to buy her a Snuggie for her birthday.

A few days ago, she asked my grandma if she would buy her a BumpIt.

Because every five-year-old needs a beehive.

And so it begins. We can’t really hold her responsible for her inclination to be interested in anything marked “As Seen On TV!” The poor girl comes from a long line of people who are suckers for infomercials.

Case in point: Yesterday I actually considered buying her a BumpIt. (And yes, I can see you all cringing.)

I was somewhat concerned about the message I’d be sending to her if I did buy one, though, so I sought counsel from my BFF Jess. I emailed her:

Kate’s the flower girl for the Miss Basketball ceremony at the high school basketball game. The other day she told me she wanted a Bump It and I’m thinking of getting her one for tomorrow night, to give her a cute little hair do. Is that ok or is that crossing the line into cheerleading wigs and high school breast implants??

I knew Jess would give me good advice, and as I suspected she stopped me from hitting the “Buy It Now” button with her response:

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY THE BUMP IT! I think it’s a fantastic idea in theory, but those things are a piece of junk. I bought them and could not get it to work right and it looked so silly. You should try “making” a bump it by teasing her hair… look online or YouTube or something!

Crisis averted. I did not waste any money or risk taking the first step toward Kate’s debut appearance on “Toddlers and Tiaras.”

So as you can see, Kate’s predisposition toward getting ripped off is an unfortunate side effect of her genetic make up. Need more examples?

My dad is the proud owner of a Swivel Sweeper.

Andy’s mom has given us the Pasta Pro and the Moving Men (both of which we still use, I might add), and just this Christmas she was the happy recipient of a Perfect Brownie pan (I totally want one of those – I love corner brownie pieces!).

This little “issue” we all have goes back even further in the family tree – recently our grandma told Jenny she wished she had a credit card because they sell a lot of things on TV that she’d really like to have. I’ve made a mental note to keep credit card applications away from her and Kate.

Speaking of credit cards… where is mine? I really want an InStyler.

I Likes To Shop for Free!

Jenny — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:41:27 +0000

Despite the fact that Thursday was both Thanksgiving Day and my husband’s BIRTHDAY, I had to get me some DEALS! And CVS starts their “black Friday” sales on Thanksgiving Day instead of Friday. So at 10 a.m., my BFF Luanne and I hit CVS! My “regular” store wasn’t open (the horror!) so I went to another store that I used to frequent and happily two of my homies were the only ones working! That and the dozen donuts Tim Horton’s donuts Luanne & I brought them helped us have a really FUN shopping trip! Luanne and I each did 3 transactions, were able to use Rite Aid $5/$25 coupons because this CVS accepts competitor coupons, got a TON of freebies because they had everything in stock, and “made” a ton of ECBs. It was EPIC!! But of course, I forgot to take a picture. D’oh!

But never fear. Hungry for more deals, I went to Rite Aid and Walgreens and my “regular” CVS on Friday. Here’s what I got!

The best score of the day was at Rite Aid. I got 2 Schick men’s razors, 3 Schick Intuition razors, and 3 packs of Schick disposables all FREE plus a penny. I also got the Scope, toothbrush, tampons, shampoo, & shave gel. I ended up spending $7.21 and will get over $8 back in rebates plus a $5 Rite Aid gift card! Yee-ha!!! Now that’s what I call shopping!!

Then I moved on to Walgreens for free deodorant, shave gel, and body wash, 99 cent crayons (64 pack Crayola! with sharpener!) and of course a gallon of milk. Because we needed milk!

Finally, back to CVS to get a couple women’s razors that they didn’t have at the other store on Thursday (I graciously let Luanne have the one they did have in stock. ‘Cause I am big-hearted like that!)

It was a great drugstore freebie shopping weekend! And NO ONE was at the drugstores on Friday, so I didn’t risk traffic or being trampled to death. Woohoo!

Hope you got some great bargains this weekend. To see what everyone else got, check out Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!

Hairspray Score at CVS!

Jenny — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:44:05 +0000

As I wrote in a recent article on Blissful Style, Tresemme Tres Two hairspray is my fa-vo-RITE! So when I saw CVS had a good ECB deal on Tresemme this week I had to get me some o’ that. So here’s what I got!

Three Tresemme hairsprays, $10
Glade Soy candle $4.99
Edge Shave Gel $2.89
Crest $2.88
Total = $20.76
Coupons: CVS $4/$20 email coupon (expired but my CVS takes them for 30 days)
Glade $1 off coupon
$3 off Glade Walgreens coupon (my CVS takes competitor q’s)
$1 off any Glade CVS CRT
$3 off any $10 hair care purchase CVS CRT
Three $1 off Tresemme printable q’s
75 cents off Crest manu q

Total = $5.01

I paid with 4.99 in ECB and paid 36 cents cash and got back 5 ECB for the Tresemme, 2 for the Crest, and 2.89 for the Edge. That’s makin’ money! Woo-hoo!

That’s all the exciting couponing I did this week. Hope you all did great! To see how everyone else did, head over to CVS Superstars at the Centsible Sawyer, Shopping Superstars at the Thrifty Mama and Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!

Ah, CVS I Missed You!

Jenny — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:28:03 +0000

I went back to CVS today to get some good deals. Still nothing I jumped up and down about, but at least there were a couple freebies and a great diaper deal. Here’s what I got:

Skintimate shave gel $3.49
Colgate toothpaste $2.99
CVS paper towels $.99
Two Excedrin Migraine @$1.99 each – $3.98
Advil Liquigels $3.99
Two Schick Intuition refills B1G1 free $10.99
Total = $26.43

Coupons:
$5/$25 Rite Aid q (my CVS takes competitors q’s)
75 cents off Colgate q
Free CVS paper towels coupon
Two $2 off Excedrin manu q’s (adjusted down)
Two $4 off Schick Intuition manu q’s
Total = $7.71
Paid with 5 ECB and $3.12 cash and got back $5.49 ECB

Next transaction: diapers!!

Two packs of Huggies $20
Wipes $5
Total = $25

Coupons:
Rite Aid $5/$25 purchase
Two $3 off Huggies diapers printable q’s
One $5 off any Huggies Gentle Care product printable

Total = $9
Paid with 7.49 ECB and $1.86 cash and got back 10 ECB!

That’s all I got! I still have those 10 ECB so I hope to get some great deals next weeks. We shall see! To see how everyone else did this week, check out Shopping Superstars at the Thrifty Mama and Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!

Cookin’ It Up!

Jenny — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:56 +0000

I told you on Friday that Bobby and I were going to attempt part of the March menu available from the once-a-month-cooking geniuses at Once a Month Mom. The menu contained 15 great recipes which really do make up an ENTIRE month’s worth of meals! To do the whole menu, you need about 8 kid-free hours with a cooking partner. Because of the busy-ness of spring that has already sprung, Bobby and I didn’t have a whole day to devote to OAMC, so we picked our six favorite recipes from the menu and set aside two blocks of time on Saturday – in the morning, my parents came and got the kids at 9. I made a small start getting organized, and after Bobby got home from his Bible Study at 10 a.m., we got to work! Since we were just cooking for one family instead of two (if you cook with a partner and stick with the original menu you’ll have enough meals for both families), I adjusted the recipes according to how many servings we wanted to make of each meal. In our morning session, we made Raspberry Chicken (3 meals), Orange Marmalade Pork Chops/Salmon (4 meals – the recipe called for salmon but I don’t like fish, so we made one meal of salmon for Bobby and the other three we made with pork chops), pizza roll-ups (6 meals) and chocolate-raspberry pancakes (3 meals). We finished up by 12:30, ate lunch, and got ready to go to Sammy’s first birthday party, where we picked up the kiddos. Here are some photos from our morning cooking session, where we made 16 meals!

The marinade for our raspberry chicken. Yum!

Orange marmalade pork chops ready to go in the freezer:

Pizza roll-ups, before & after baking. They smelled and looked so good we wanted to eat them right then & there!

Bobby manned the griddle and cooked our chocolate chip-rapsberry pancakes:

We had originally planned to do 3 recipes in our morning session and 3 in the evening, but everything went so smoothly in the morning that we got four recipes done!! Woohoo! So that night after the kids went to bed, we started on the Baked Chicken Fingers and Mandarin Orange Chicken. We made 3 meals of each, and it only took us about an additional 2 hours of cooking and clean-up!

Here are our finished chicken fingers. We had these for lunch today after church and they were really yummy!

And here’s our Mandarin Orange Chicken, ready to go in the freezer:

All in all, we cooked 22 meals in about 5 hours, including clean-up. And since I only spent about $70 on all the groceries for this endeavor, that means our meals cost us $3.18 each. Pretty darn good for 10 dinners, 9 lunches, and 3 breakfasts! And I can’t even imagine how much time I am going to save this month since I won’t be cooking nearly as often!

Bobby and I had such a great time cooking together. I don’t know if all married couples could stand to do this together, but Bobby is a MUCH better person that I am, which enabled us to have a successful & peaceful cooking day. We still loved each other at the end of all that! Here we are about 11:00 at night, after we finished cooking.

We really LOVED the once-a-month cooking experience, and we hope to be able to do the FULL menu and FULL cooking day in April! There is a really yummy menu from Once A Month Mom here and lots of things on sale for it this which, which Tricia posted about here. So get a partner, get a plan, and get once-a-month cooking! Tricia and Cortney have all the resources you need at Once a Month Mom including printable menus, grocery lists, and grocery store sale match-ups.

(I also submitted this post to I am Blissfully Domestic! Head over there and check out all the great posts!)

My First Time at Aldi & a SwagBucks Code

Jenny — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:15:51 +0000

There were really no drugstore deals that excited me this week. That’s right, dear readers, I did not even darken the door of a CVS!! I hear this week is going to be a little better at least. I hope so! I am starting to get nervous!

In the absence of any exciting deals at the grocery stores I frequent, and in preparation for my Once-a-month-cooking adventure, I decided to try my hand at ALDI this week! I had never been there before! That’s right, this frugalista was an Aldi Virgin. Can you believe it?? Here’s what I got:

I got all this for $19.35! I was especially pleased with the price of the milk at $1.89/gallon! The butter, minced garlic, soy milk, and mozarella cheese were all exceptionally good deals I thought. So, I was pretty pleased my first time out and I’ll definitely shop there again when they have good sales!

So that’s all the great bargains I did this week, but I now have one for you! You may have read my “Things I Love Thursday” entry last week where I featured Swagbucks (it’s here). Swagbucks is a fun way to earn prizes just by searching the internet! I use Swagbucks for all my regular Google searches now, and sometimes win bucks which I can then redeem for great prizes! I am saving my SwagBucks up to redeem for some Amazon gift certificates so I can get some books and videos I’ve had my eye on. But there are TONS of prizes to choose from. And now, if you sign up as a new user, we have a special code for Mommin’ It Up readers to get TWO additional SwagBucks! You’ll get 3 for signing up and 2 additional if you enter the code MOMMINITUP (case sensitive) – so you’ll start out with FIVE Swagbucks! Awesome! All you have to do to get started is register here.

Well, that’s all the great saving I did this week. Hopefully I’ll have more next week! To see how everyone else did, check out Shopping Superstars at the Thrifty Mama and Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom!

Deal or No Deal?

Jenny — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:42:40 +0000

Well before the cold from H-E-L-L hit me this week, I was able to get out to CVS on Sunday. So the answer is, ONE deal at CVS, NO DEAL anywhere else. I haven’t even been to the grocery, I just sent Bobby out to get some staples. I’m very sad to say that I have both my Kroger and Meijer grocery runs all planned out, complete with coupons in separate envelopes, but I doubt I will be feeling good enough to even get there today. Waah! I hate missing those deals. But anyway, here’s what I got at CVS on Sunday.

Irish Spring Body Wash $4.99
Dry Idea $2.99
Bic Soleil razor $6.99
L’eggs trouser socks clearance 75 cents. (Score!)
Total = $15.72
Coupons: $3/$15 CVS email coupon (expired but my CVS takes these for up to 30 days)
50 cents off Irish Spring manu q
$2 off Dry Idea printable manu q
$2 off Bic Soleil manu q
$2 off Bic Soleil Walgreens q (my CVS takes competitor q’s also)

total = 6.22

I paid in ECBs and paid 70 cents cash and got back 9.99 in ECB. Not too shabby! I hear the deals aren’t too great in the coming week, so we’ll have to see if I can find a deal or not!

Well, I wish I had done more, but whaddya do? Hope you all did great! To see how everyone else did, check out CVS Superstars at the Centsible Sawyer, Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom and Shopping Superstars at the Thirfty Mama.

Retail Hairapy

Jenny — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:00:56 +0000

***Updated with photo of mah HAIR***

So, Saturday was my day. The sun shone, it was like seventy-freaking-degrees, and I got to go shopping by mah-self. First I hit CVS and Walgreens and got some sweet deals, and then, I went to Target to get THIS beauty (on the advice of my friend Laurin – thank you girl!):

It is the Remington Emi Airwave Dryer, a.k.a the COOLEST FLIPPIN’ HAIR DRYER EVER!! It dries your hair and curls it at the same time. Amazing.

Laurin wrote a great review of this hair dryer, (read the full review here and see a video of her demonstrating it on her local news here) so I’ll quote her:

After reading the directions, I got started on what I figured would be another shameful chapter in my hair saga. See the attachment tube? I separated a section of hair at a time, turned on the dryer, and dropped the ends of the hair sections into the tube. A vortex of air sucks the hair in and spins it round and round, drying it from the roots to the ends into a perfect curl.

When all of the sections of my hair were dry a mere eight minutes later, it looked like I had smooth dreadlocks, a look I hadn’t really considered at this stage of my life. After letting my curls set for a minute or two, I finger-combed each section apart and checked myself out in the mirror. Holy hairnet! My hair looked amazing. The curls were perfect and I looked like I had just come from the salon. Shower to done in about 10 minutes, with an actual hairstyle. Life changing!

Ok, it’s me again. Doooodes, I totally got this hair dryer this weekend at Target, and it RAWKS! It worked perfectly. My hair used to be stick straight, then I had little miss Sophie and somehow it got wavy. Only it’s mostly just really wavy in the back, kinda wavy on the sides, and straight in the front. NOT COOL. It now takes me forever to style and I pretty much always hate the way it looks. But with the Remington Emi, it only took me about 10 minutes and my hair was dry and styled, and very, very wavy. And it stayed wavy all day long. As a matter of fact, I think I might even be able to get a second day out of this hairstyle. Since it usually takes me about 15 minutes just to get my hair DRY (I have tons of hair, people, I’m serious), this is a major, major exciting hair breakthrough for me. Thanks to Laurin for this great discovery!

And now, since the readers demanded it, a photo of my Emi-styled hair (and yes I am getting my brows waxed again next week so SHADDUP):

My other super-awesome retail coup this weekend came from Sears. I was moseying through the store when I saw that the Lands’ End shop was having 70% off clearance. 70%!?! Just that morning I had been looking online at Lands’ End Overstocks because I really wanted to get a nice winter coat for next season and thought I’d buy while they were on sale. So imagine my joy when I found this Weatherly jacket (in admiral blue) in the Lands’ End shop for just $11.99 on clearance and this Angel Down full-length coat for only $26.99 on clearance! I am now the proud owner of both, and my grand total with tax was only $41.71. Wooohoo! I am going to be very cute and very warm next fall and winter!

Great weather, great bargains and great hair…put a little pep in my step!

So, what exciting things did YOU do this weekend?

Coupons Make Mommy Happy

Jenny — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:53:16 +0000

Well it’s 6:39 PM and I’m just now getting this post up, because I didn’t even have the chance to do any of my coupon shopping until this afternoon! I hit CVS and Walgreens and did not come away disappointed. It’s amazing how much a good couponing run can lift my spirits. When I got home I felt like a a real winner. Here’s what I got!

First up, CVS:

One Touch Mini $14.99
Three Puffs tissues $2.91
CVS Vitamin D $2.99
Fusion Razor $7.99
Total = $28.88

Coupons:
$5/$25 Rite Aid q (my CVS takes competitor q’s)
$14.99 One Touch Mini manu q
$4 Fusion manu q
total= $4.89
I paid with a $4.99 ECB adjusted down to $4.89 and paid 63 cents cash. I got back 2.90 ECB for the Vitamin D and 4 ECB for the razor. Woot!!

Next I went to Walgreens, where I hadn’t been since I would guess, August or September. But the deals were too good to pass up this week!

Sambucol $12.99
Colgate Max Fresh $3.29
Excedrin $5.99
Two Extra gum clearance 65 cents each (filler!)
Blink eye drops $7.99
Total = $31.56

coupons:
$10 off Sambucol Walgreens q
$4 off Sambucol manu q
75 cents of Colgate manu q
$4 off Excedrin Walgreens q
$1 off Excedrin manu q
$2 off Blink manu q

Total (including tax) = $12.93, and I got back $11.50 in register rewards! $8 for the eyedrops and $3.50 for the toothpaste. Woohoo! I am going to use those register rewards on the sweet Huggies deal at Wags next week!

Well that’s all for me this week! Hope you all did great too! To see how everyone else did, check out CVS Superstars at the Centsible Sawyer, Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom and Shopping Superstars at the Thirfty Mama.