Mommin' It Up!

March 29, 2008

Why Pay Retail When You Can Pay FREEtail??

I was majorly bummed out this week when their appeared to be no great deals at CVS, so I decided to concentrate on purchasing some items I had rebate forms for. There are few things I love more than paying for things at CVS with ECBs and then getting back rebates for them in real, actual dollars!! As a matter of fact, I have gotten back over $45 in rebates this month for things I bought at CVS with FAKE MONEY! Woohoo! So, here’s what I got:

I had a rebate form for the Pert Plus – if you bought two bottles, you get a rebate back for the 2nd one. Here’s how this transaction worked:
Two bottles of Pert Plus for $3.99 each
Two bottles of Tresemme for $4.99 each
One box of Kleenex for 88 cents
I used:
$5/$15 CVS coupon
$2.50/2 Pert Plus coupon
8 ECBs and paid 54 cents cash
I got back 5 ECBs for the Tresemme and will get back a $3.99 rebate for the Pert Plus! YAY!

I had a similar rebate form for Sure deodorant, and we needed Kleenex and juice so…

2 Sure deodorant at $2.99 each
Welch’s grape juice on sale for $2.50
3 Kleenex at 88 cents each
1 CVS spray hand sanitizer $1.79
5 Juicy Drop pops at $1.49 each (only 4 are pictured because I let Joshua have one!)

I used:
CVS $5/$15 coupon
$2/2 Sure deodorant coupon
$2 Welch’s juice coupon
50 cents/3 Kleenex coupon
FREE hand sanitizer CVS coupon
8 ECBs and $1.07 cash
I got back 5 ECBs (for the juicy pop thingies) and will get a $2.99 REAL MONEY rebate back for the deodorant! Woohoo!

I also bought the Clear Care contact solution that was an ECB deal this week (got back 3 ECBs) and will be getting back a full $7.99 rebate for it. But I sent in my receipt for the rebate BEFORE I wrote down how much it cost me in ECBs and I can’t remember! But it was definitely a profit with the $7.99 rebate!

Then, Thursday I learned via a couponing message board that one of the CVS Monthly April ECB deals had started early! SoftSoap Spa Radiant body wash is $4.99 and already giving back $4.99 ECBs! So I ran right out and got this:

3 SoftSoap body washes at $4.99 each
2 Glade sprays at $1.69 each
I used:
$5/$15 CVS coupon
$3/$15 beauty purchase CVS coupon
3 $1 off SoftSoap body wash coupons
2 $1 off Glade Spray coupons (found these inside my Parents magazine and my Gma’s Good Housekeeping!)
5 ECBs and 73 cents cash
I got back $15.97 in ECBs!!!!!!!!! Not too shabby eh??? I LOVE CVS!

I also got a GREAT deal at Meijer this week on Lysol products! Thanks to two friends, Andrea and Karen for making this happen! Andrea tipped me off about the Meijer 1/2 off Lysol sale and Karen, my favorite enabler provided all the coupons! So, I got all this:

18 canisters of Lysol Wipes, 4 Lysol toilet bowl cleaners, and 4 boxes of pizza rolls for $7.20 including tax! The pizza rolls were FREE with doubled coupons, the toilet bowl cleaner was 4 CENTS and the wipes were 29 CENTS because I had $1 off coupons for each one sent to me by the wonderful, smart, talented, KAREN! Yippee!! Now my family and I are all stocked up on these Lysol products for a looong time! When I first realized that couponing could be a real way for me to give to others, I asked my sister-in-law what kind of household products she would most want if I could get them for free or ultra-cheap. Lysol wipes were what she requested and I was really happy to be able to hand her a big bag full of them!

So, even though I thught this week was going to be a bummer, it ended up being a great week of savings and freebies! In addition to all the above, I also got 7 bags of BirdsEye vegetables FREE after coupons and promotion at Kroger, and a Venus Embrace razor, free plus overage at Walgreens after rebate, coupon, and a $5 Register Reward! I only paid $8.69 after coupon for the razor including tax, and got not only the $5 Register Reward but will also get back a full $9.99 rebate plus 10% extra on my Walgreens gift card! Now that’s what I’m talking about!

For more great deals and tales from couponers, check out Super Savings Saturday over at Money Saving Mom, our savings guru! If you haven’t purchased her Supermarket Savings 101 course yet, go for it!! That’s how I got started saving all this moolah. You can check it out or purchase it here!

March 22, 2008March 22, 2008

All I Want in My Easter Basket is a CVS Gift Card!

Seriously, people. CVS is AWESOME! The deals you can get with the ExtraCare program and some manufacturers coupons are AMAZING!! I’ve been doing this for about three months now and I still marvel at the savings! Here’s a couple of the deals I got this week:

I got 4 Dove Advanced Shampoo/Conditioners $5.29 each but on sale B1G1 Free
1 Dove Cream Oil bodywash 3.99
1 Dove Deodorant 3.49
2 pkgs. Easter eggs $.99 each

I used:
$5/$15 CVS coupon
$3/$15 CVS Beauty purchase coupon
Two $3/2 Dove shampoo coupons
$1 off Dove Body Wash coupon
$.75 off Dove deodorant coupon
$1.50/2 Dove shampoo CRT (coupon that prints on your CVS receipt)

My pre-tax total was $2.54. I used a $2 ECB and some change and got back $6.98 in ECBs! 5 for the Dove products and $1.98 for the Easter eggs! Woohoo!

And for my next trick:

Two Listerine Kids’ Smart Rinse for $2.99 each
Two Colgate Total Advanced Whitening for $2.99 each
Two Lady Speedstick 24/7 for $1.99 each
One Revlon hair clip clearanced at $1.75

My total before tax was $17.69.
I used:
$5/$15 CVS coupon
Two $1 off Listerine Smart Rinse coupons
$1 off Lady Speedstick coupon
One $1/2 Colgate coupons
$2 off any Revlon items CRT

I used $6 in ECBs and paid $1.02 in cash and got back $13.96 in ECBs!! PLUS there were “Try Me Free” rebate forms with the Listerine so I will get back a check for $2.99 for that! HOLLA if you HEARD me!!

Allright, now on to Kroger’s! Oh, how I LOVE to go “Krogering” now that I’ve discovered coupons! Kroger was having a big sale on frozen veggies this week so I stocked up! Also their Kroger brand canned veggies were on .39/can so I got lots of those too! Here’s my haul:

I got all this for $38.36! I know it’s hard to tell in the pciture exactly how much I got but it was A LOT! I got 16 bags or boxes of frozen veggies (all were on sale $10/$10 and I had coupons for the Green Giant and the Birds Eye!), 16 cans of veggies, 18 containers of Yoplait Yogurt (on sale 2/$1.09, my coupons were for 50 cents of 6, which Kroger doubled), 5 pkgs. of Kroger cheese, 2 loaves of Kroger bread, a canataloupe, 4 bananas, a head of garlic, 2 pkgs. of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (FREE with doubled coupons I printed off the INTERNETZ!), and 5 cans of Kroger fruit. All for $38.36. I was PUMPED!!

Shew! I am getting worn out. But one more coupon spree must be documented. On to Walgreens!

My total came up to $38-something before tax, but I paid just $12.69 before tax for all this, and I will be getting back $16.50 in rebates for it! YAY!!! That’s right, more REFILLS for my beloved Glade Scented Oil Candles! Yeehaa!

Ok, my friends, please promise me if you haven’t already, you will GO GET YOUR COUPON ON this week! And head over to Money Saving Mom for more Super Savings Saturday inspiration!

March 18, 2008March 18, 2008

More Mayhem from the Mom’s Market

As Emily mentioned in yesterday’s IKEA Adventure round-up post, she toootallly ditched me for part 2 of our shopping weekend extravaganza – the Mom’s Market Sale. Lucky for her, I was feeling gracious and forgave her. You know, since she is nine months pregnant and had to spend another four hours in IKEA that day and since you have to be at the Mom’s Market at the butt-crack of dawn to get anything good! So, off I went in the fog and the rain to stand in line with hundreds of other bargain-hungry moms. It was really, really, foggy, and the drive there was a bit nerve-wracking, but I didn’t let it stop me from my pursuit of the perfect gently-used Carter’s romper or Children’s Place jeans! The sale started at 9, and Em and I were going to meet there at 8 to stand in line, but without the other half of the Dynamic Duo, I just couldn’t motivate myself to get up that early. So I got there about 8:45, and this is what I encountered:

I took that with my camera phone, so the quality isn’t the best but you can still show how foggy it was and how many darn people there were waiting! In this photo, you can see up to about HALF of the line. The sale was at an elementary school and you can’t even see the school at all! It was crazy! There were also TONS of people with their kids in strollers waiting in line. To all those people I would like to say – WHY?? Why do you do that to your kid, to yourself, and to the other shoppers?? The bargains are good but I will tell you right now it is NOT worth it to me to bring Sophie, try to keep her happy, try to navigate that place with a stroller, shop, and not be in ther people’s way. Nooo way! There was a pregnant woman in line behind me who had never been to the sale before. We watched a woman with a bundled up toddler in a stroller walk by to the end of the line and I turned to the prego and said, “Trust me, Do NOT bring yor baby here next year!” But anyhoo… the sale started at 9:00, and by the time I got up to the door it was about 9:10. It was pretty cold outside, but as soon as I hit the door I was HOT. The temperature rose about 10 degrees as soon as you stepped in the building. I made a beeline to the Sophie-appropriate clothes, which were of course all the way at the back of the building. Since I was so late getting there, there were already tons of people where I wanted to be. As a matter of fact, the Joshua-appropriate clothes were nearer to the entrance of the building, but I couldn’t get anywhere near them due to those who had beat me there, so I continued on to the baby girl’s stuff. Fortunately I was able to get in and look at stuff for Sophie after just a minute or two. I found quite a few things, but not as much as I wanted to, which I blame on my lateness. When I was finally able to get to the boys’ 4T clothes, I did find Joshua three pairs of pajamas, which I was really happy about! Then I headed off to the toys and books. I was hoping to score Joshua some Thomas the Tank Engine stuff on the cheap. They did have some stuff but not exactly what I was looking for (again, I was berating myself for my tardiness!) However, I did find him a Thomas DVD, and he hasn’t gotten a new video of any sort in a very long time, so I was happy with that.

I headed wearily to the checkout after about an hour of careful rack-scouring and waited in line. The checkout line is in a long hallway and there are two lines, one against each wall. I had to wait for about 15 minutes, which wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the extremely over-tired two-year-old (who had obviously given herself a recent hair cut!) throwing a tantrum in line in front of me. Yee-ikes. I felt sorry for her and her mom, but also for all of us who had to endure listening to that. Again, the bargains are great but I would NEVER bring Sophie there and expect us both to live through it! But finally, I got up to the checkout line and my total was $20.25 for all of this (and a cute pair of pink water shoes for Sophie that I somehow managed to leave out of the photo):

I got three pairs of PJs and the Thomas video for Joshua, the water shoes, 2 Carter’s rompers, one Carter’s bodysuit, one Osh Kosh bodysuit, one pair of Carter’s PJs, and two pairs of Children’s Place jeans for Sophie! Not too shabby! And, since I know I could’ve done better if I’d gotten there earlier, I now have a renewed commitment to get my rear out of bed earlier for the OTHER sale I go to – the local Mom of Twins club sale – which is the weekend after next. Stay tuned to find out if Emily might choose THIS location to go into labor instead! Actually, it would be a convenient place, cause if this baby’s a boy, she is gonna need to get that kid some clothes! And since I’ve brushed up on my baby delivery skills, I think it sounds like a plan!