UnSpectacularness

I haven’t done a meme in for-ev-ah, partially because for awhile there I was getting tagged for the same ones OVER AND OVER and t was getting a *smidge* old. But since it’s been a while, and since I can’t say no to Piper of Bliss in Bloom who tagged me, here goes! Enjoy the “Six Unspectacular Quirks” meme. Here is some general unspectacularness about me:

1) I cannot sleep without my super-loud roaring white noise machine. I take it with me where ever I travel! If it doesn’t go, I don’t go.

2) I love to have my hair played with. (But not by Sophie, who likes to jerk it out from the root.) On vacation I let Krisha and Kierstin put my hair in a million braids (it was HOTT) just because it felt sooo gooood.

3) I hate clipping my toenails. Hate Hate Hate IT!

4) I hate wearing shorts. Ick.

5) When I get a headache, the only thing that helps it is aspirin – so I take something with aspirin like Excedrin. Advil and Tylenol just don’t help my headaches though I do take them for other aches and pains. (Of course I haven’t been taking much aspirin since I am stteeeeiiilllllll nursing Sophie.)

6) I like wheat bread, but I only like grilled cheese sandwiches on white bread. I will eat it on wheat only if desperate.

Ok, now I get to tag six lucky people to do this meme!! Get excited! I think I’ll tag some of my crazy frugal friends!

Alyssa from Keeping the Kingdom First
Marin from Frugonomics
“Deal”icious Mom
Nicole at Being Frugal is Fabulous
Michelle at Leaving Excess
Jamie at Thrifty in the Cincy

Have fun ladies! I can’t wait to read about your quirks!

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Coupon Binder Show & Tell!

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I originaly posted this a few months ago, but am re-posting it to enter Kingdom First Mom’s “Coupon Binder Show & Tell Contest”. I wanna WIN!!! For the other great entries, go here.

You may recall a couple of months ago that I shared with you how I was organizing my coupons in a coupon box. Weeeelll, due to my growing obsession, I quickly outgrew that method! Thanks to the encouragement of my friend Krista, I am now the nerdy proud owner of a coupon binder. And I am lovin’ it! The binder is really working well for me. Here’s how you too can organize your coupon binder if when you sink to that level of coupon nerdiness. (Click on the pictures for a larger view.)

Start with a zip-up binder:
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Get some baseball card inserts and put your categorized coupons in them:
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Get some sticky tabs and write your category names on them and stick them to the edge of the baseball card inserts:
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Get some 4×6 picture inserts for larger coupons and rebate forms:
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Ta-da! You have your coupons clearly organized and they’re easy to carry with you! SO, that’s what’s working for me these days…I can even take all my coupons when I have the kids with me!

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All Shop and No Pay Makes Jenny a Happy Girl!

Well, I had great fun CVSing this week! I even had a couple of transactions that ended in ZERO out-of-pocket. Yay! Here’s what I got!

My first stop at CVS this week was for MILK! But I can’t go in and get JUST MILK! So…

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Milk $3.69
Loreal Vive BOGO Free $4.99
3 Glade Scented Oil Candle refills @ $2.49 each = $7.47 (you know I loves me my GSOC!!)
Total = $16.16
I used CVS $3/$15 coupon
Loreal Vive BOGO coupon (making them both free!)
Two $1 off Loreal Vive Rite Aid coupons (givng me oooooooveraaaage!!!! yess!)
Buy two get one free GSOC refill coupn -$2.49
$2/$2 GSOC refill coupon (inside GSOC holder package I had previously purchased)
Total = $1.67. I didn’t have any ECB small enough, so I paid in cash $2.34 with tax and got back 3 ECB for the Glade! yay!

Now, I am an old lady and have been having trouble with my back, so my next stop was to get some of those WellPatch(es) that are a July monthly ECB deal. And get some more free-plus-overage shampoo. And free baby wipes!!

Four Loreal Vive shampoo/conditioner BOGO Free $9.98
1 CVS baby wipes $2
2 WellPatch $11.98
Tic Tacs (not pictured!) 89 cents
Total = $24.85
I used:
CVS $3/$15
Two $1 off WellPatch
$2 off CVS Skincare q (for the wipes – wasn’t sure if this would work but it did! yay!)
Two BOGO Free Loreal Vive q’s
Four $1 off Rite-Aid Loreal Vive q’s
total = $3.87. I paid with 3 ECB and with tax $1.99 cash and got back 6 ECB for the WellPatches!!

Since that $2 off skincare q worked on the baby wipes, I decided to go crazy and compete the Great Free Baby Wipe Deal of 2008. This week at CVS, if you bought $15 of CVS baby products, you got back 5 ECB. Since the $2 off CVS skincare q worked on the wipes, this meant I could get 8 free tubs of wipes and then get 5 ECB after I got the last one. One problem: you can only use ONE of those coupons per transaction. So this meant I would have to do 8 different transactions! So I added one as a filler very time I went in, but eight times a week is excessive EVEN FOR ME. A couple of times I did two transactions when I was in the store, and then finally I went in one night on my way to Kroger to add some more wipes toward the deal with a couple of sweet zero-OOP transactions!

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This is two separate transactions, both of which I paid ZERO out-of-pocket for thanks to coupons! The first one was:
1 CVS baby wipes $2
1 Playskool baby wipes $3.79
3 Sally Hansen nail polish clearance at 43 cents each
Total = $7.08
Coupons:
$2 CVS skincare q
$2 off Playskool CRT
$1 of Playskool manu q
$3/2 Sally Hansen q

The cashier adjusted the Sally Hansen q down to cover my TOTAL before tax, instead of just the cost of the nail polish, so the total came out to ZERO!! Woohoo!
2nd transaction:
1 CVS baby wipes $2
1 CVS hand sanitizer $1.79
Used $2 off CVS skincare q and Free Hand Sanitizer CRT for another total of ZERO!!

I finally finished out the Great Free Baby Wipe Deal of 2008 with this transaction (I bought two tubs so I really did itin seven transactions instead of eight. Eight was TOO MANY!!):

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OFF repellent $3.49
two Sure deodorant $5.98
2 CVS baby wipes $4
Two Trident BOGO Free $1.49
Package of straws $1.99
Total= $16.95
Coupons:
$3/$15 CVS q
$1 CVS OFF q
75 cent OFF manu q
$1 OFF Walgreens ES q
$2 off CVS skincare q
Two $1.50 off Sure deodorant Walgreens ES q’s
Total= $6.20
I paid with 6 ECB and 45 cents cash and got back 9 ECB! 5 for completeing the wipes deal, 3 for the Sure deodorant and 1 for the Trident! Woohoo!

Ok, I am shopped out! Hope you all did great this week. For more crazy couponing, visit Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom and CVS Superstars at The Centsible Sawyer!

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