I Paid My Babysitter in CVS Merchandise!

Before you read my Super Savings Saturday post, will you PLEASE take a second to go vote for my poem here at Rocks in my Dryer’s contest?? It’s the third one down, and it’s about COUPONS!!! It says “By Jenni” (she spelled my name wrong but who cares? I’ll be Jenni with an “i” if I have the chance to win the cool MP3 player she is giving away!!) So please go VOTE FOR ME NOW! Thank you SO MUCH!!

Ok, now back to Super Savings Saturday!

It’s official: CVS is my new BFF. Not only do they pay me to shop there, but yesterday, I paid my babysittter by taking her shopping there!! It sounds crazy but it’s TRUE! Thanks to Karen, who sent me her coupons from like the last 8 weeks or so, I had a huge mountain of coupons I could not handle by myself. So I called Lucy, my beautiful, sweet, 19-year-old babysitter, to come help me clip coupons/corral the children while I clipped. We clipped coupons yesterday for…wait for it…THREE HOURS! And the sad part is, I only have HALF OF THEM FILED!! Here’s what the un-filed half looked like when I finally had to give up and take Lucy home:

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Mind you, this is ONLY HALF OF WHAT KAREN SENT ME!! Thank you Karen!!

Anyhoo, before I took Lucy home, I said, “Lucy, you have a choice. I can either pay you $10 cash or I can take you to CVS and you can pick out a bunch of stuff.” After spending all day clipping coupons with me and listening to me extol the values of CVS, Lucy chose CVS. So before we took her home we went to CVS. She picked out the twin-pack of Dove shampoo that is on ECBs right now, two Cover Girl lipsticks, a Revlon mascara and a Revlon eyeliner. I also got a gallon of milk. I tried to convince her to get more stuff but she kept saying, “Jenny, no, I feel so bad!” (I had also sent her home with a bag of goodies from what I now call “Jenny’s freestore” – you know, Glade candles, toothpaste, dish soap…) I said, “Well after you see what this is actually going to COST me, you will say, ‘DANGIT! I should’ve gotten more!'” With tax, the total came to $34 & change. My store lets me stack coupons, so I used a CVS $5/$30, $4/$20, and $3/$15. I had a B1G1 free coupon and a $1 off coupon for the Cover Girl, and a $1 off coupon for each of the Revlon items (which were B1G1 50% off anyways!) Also the Revlon eyeliner had a $1 peelie on it which I didn’t even notice but my cashier did fortunately! I used a $9.99 ECB and paid $1.88 out of pocket. I also got $3 ECBs for the Dove shampoo. Woohoo! Lucy was very happy with her haul and I was happy to have spent less than two bucks for her three hours of work she did for me! (I do pay her more than $10 for 3 hours of watching my kids, just to let you know. I’m not THAT cheap.) I told her that whenever she babysat, she could always choose between cash and CVS merchandise as a form of payment.

The great CVS deal I got this week is this great office chair, which we REALLY needed! (the cute little boy we already had).

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We had been using one of our dining room chairs as our office chair, and the back-and-forth on that was getting a little old. It was on sale at CVS Sunday & Monday only for $29.99 plus you got $5 ECBs for it. I bought the chair, a bonus pack of Keri lotion, and two canisters of Glade air freshener. I once again stacked CVS coupons, and I had a $5 coupon for the Keri lotion and a B1G1 free coupon for the glade. I used $20 ECBs and my grand total was….66 CENTS!! AND I got back $7 ECBs! Not bad for such a nice office chair!!

I can’t wait until next week’s deals at CVS, especially since they have put out NEW $ off coupons! You can find those here at Money Saving Mom, where you can also find more great Super Savings Saturday posts from other bloggers. And I know I sound like a broken record, but if you haven’t purchased her Supermarket Savings 101 class yet, you gotta! It’ll help you save a bundle!! You can check it out or purchase it here!

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WFMW: Organizing Your Coupons

Are you sick of hearing about coupons yet? Well, too bad! It may be obvious to surprise you that I am not the most organized person in the world. Last week I told you I got my coupon organizing ideas from Money Saving Mom, this week I’m gonna show you how they’re working for me. To store my coupons at home, I use this old Rubbermaid container.

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I have coupons organized alphabetically by category in an envelope with the flap cut off. The category name is written on an index card which is placed longways into the envelope. Now, since it’s a smidge inconvenient to cart a box this big AND two kids every time we go to the store, I take this more portable coupon organizer in the car with me.

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(Kudos to my hubby for putting this in my stocking on Christmas! He got it at CVS! Woot woot!)

I have a tab labeled for each store I regularly shop at (including separate tabs for both my and my husband’s CVS ExtraCare cards), the front tab is just for CVS coupons, and I also have a tab for scrap paper and one for rebates. In each store’s tab there is an envelope with the coupons I want to use in that store. If I have the kids with me, I just take in that store’s envelope and leave the rest in the car. Here’s what it looks like all opened up:

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If I am lucky enough to get out by myself for a big grocery trip, I take my whole big coupon box just in case I see I deal I hadn’t previously planned out.

So, that’s how I keep my coupons workin’ for me! For more great Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer!

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Money Making Monday: Rebate-a-palooza!

Today for Money Making Monday I’ll gab about my newest obsession (like I needed another one!): REBATES! I love, love, LOVE a good rebate. Especially when it’s for something I paid little or nothing out-of-pocket for at CVS or Walgreens in the first place! Right now there are a couple of good rebates out there that you ALL should take advantage of!! The first is the Sambucol immune system booster I mentioned in my Super Savings Saturday post that is a monthly ECB item at CVS this month. This stuff costs $12.99, use a $2/$10 coupon to buy it, pay $10.99, get TEN ECBS back and then send in for a FULL rebate using this form and get a check for $12.99! WOOHOO! Also – it actually TASTES good! Bobby, Joshua and I have all tried it, and Joshua, my THREE YEAR OLD, sucked it down like it was candy. SO – getcha some!!

Now my good friends at Glade and Walgreens have teamed up for another stellar deal on Glade Scented Oil candles. Now, I need more GSOCs like I need a hole in the head, but GUESS WHAT?? I got FOUR MORE today because THEY ARE FREE!! They are B1G1 free at Walgreens this week, and there are B1G1 free coupons at coupons.com, PLUS there was a coupon in yesterday’s paper for a FULL REBATE up to 7.99!! So, since my receipt shows the price paid at 6.99, I am getting $6.99 back on my FREE CANDLE. Holla!! (Note: if you didn’t get the coupons in the paper, you can get one of these forms on eBay for about $1. You would still make $5.99!)

Another awesome deal in the newspaper yesterday and also available online here is the RX Essentials rebate. RX Essentials are vitamins you take that go along with prescription meds that you might be taking. This week they are B1G1 free at CVS. Use two $5 off coupons found at coupons.com, get 2 bottles for $4.99 (or use a $2/$10 coupon and pay $2.99!!), and then send in for the rebate and get a check for $14.99. You just made $10-$12! I got these vitamins for my mom, and sent the rebate in for myself, but I am going to go back and get some more for my Grandma and send another rebate in her name, as most rebates are one per household and Gma can always use a few extra dollars. (She is also getting a Glade Candle rebate! Woot Woot!)

Ok – final rebate for the week! Purell Gentle Foam is on sale at Walgreen’s for $3.49. There was a $1 off manufacturer’s coupon in yesterday’s paper, and there is a $1 off coupon in the Walgreens ad which you can stack. So…use both coupons, get your Purell for $1.49, and send in the rebate form here for a $3.49 rebate! Yee-ha! Sanitized hands that now hold an extra $2! Rock on!

Ok, my peeps, I think I am about rebated-out. Plus I have a lot of rebate FORMS to fill out and mail so I better stop here. 🙂 For more Money-Makin’ ideas, head over to Money Saving Mom!

**Edited to add**
I just got a rebate check in the mail for a purchase of Pert Plus. The rebate form said get $5 back on your purchase of two bottles of Pert Plus. I got two bottles that were on clearance at Walgreen’s for $1.79 each. I used a $1.50 off two manufacturer’s coupon, and paid a total of $2.33 with tax. The check I got today was for the full $5.00! So I hope that helps – most of the time manufacturer’s will reimburse you your purchase price before coupons – in this case even more than that!

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