Nail polish score!!!

Normally, I completely overlook the beauty sales. I just don't even really go there. I am not a girly-girl. I rarely wear make up and don't "treat" my skin or anything like that, so I let those sales blow past me. However, my untrained beauty eyes sure spotted a ROCKIN' DEAL at CVS this week. Thank you so much to Jenny on Southernsavers for posting it as a beginner deal. I wouldn't have even noticed it otherwise. I paid total $2.80 for these 6 lovely nail polish bottles shown below. TOTAL! And it gets sweeter. Not only did I pay $2.80 total, I also have a $4.00ECB at the end of the day! SWEET DEAL.

I had five coupons and the deal was a limit of six bottles. So, I paid 1.29 on the first bottle. Got a 4ECB in exchange. Paid 30 cents on bottle number two. Got a 4ECB in exchange. Rinse and repeat all the way to bottle six. Total spent after 6 transactions $2.80. ECB left standing: $4.00. Total cost of all nail polish: -$1.20 SAY WHAT?!?!? How cool was that deal? I was playing a nice little game with the cashier-- who by the way was super nice about said game-- he scanned my card, scanned the next nail polish, scanned the coupon, scanned the ECB and chuckled as he said "that will be 30 cents" each time. Lovely. Lovely.

Which color should adorn my toes first?!



I also hit up Publix and Rite Aid but the deals weren't quite as colorful to post about. Spent 12, saved 17.50 at RA. Spent 74, saved 81 at Publix! (awesome coffee deal this week at publix I thought)

Friday Shopping at a glance

Here are my totals from shopping today.


CVS rocked this morning! Spent $13.80 with using 6 ECBs before the cash), SAVED $39.94 AND received 11 ECBs. ROCK ON. That is the last edition of the Mega awesome Wisk sale! So we are STOCKED on laundry soap for the house. I do want to find some killer deal on Dreft if it's possible before the baby comes and stock on that, be/c I am brand picky about newborn clothing laundry, but otherwise, we are golden in the laundry department.


Publix: Spent $11.63, SAVED $28.41 actually NOT as good as I was expecting. Some how I spent about 6 bucks more than I thought I would so I reviewed my receipt and the culprit is some how I picked up 4 of the 7 muffin mix I bought were not on the BOGO. or at least not listed as such. I still bought them with a coupon, so I'm pleased that I got a deal on them, but not as good as I thought. And I thought I was getting only BOGO items. If the cashier wouldn't have been a flighty clueless person, I would have stopped to look at this there, be/c I really was shocked at the price. Not that 11.63 is bad, but I was expecting between 7 and 8. ... I may go back tomorrow with the not BOGO boxes and my receipt and see what's what. ... is 6 dollars that worth it to me? that will be the question in the morning...

But, here's the pic from Publix today:


Pickles (nope, not for me. I do NOT crave pickles, I don't even like pickles) on sale and with coupon final price was $0.39 cents per jar.
Muffin mix: on sale and with coupon final price should have been $0.29 cents per box. Three of these were that and three were only $1.19 each
And the super winner: Olive oil. Normal price $6.99. Took each bottle home today for $1.99!!


Kroger: Spent $167.15, SAVED $73.24 ....more than I was expecting, but I bought our meat for the month and that always throws me off. I'm going to show you a picture of just the MEGA EVENT deal items. I was pretty pleased with this stuff. So you buy ten items, you get $5 off your total. I have thirty items here (so $15 off total and I paid these prices for them):


Kleenex at $0.66 per box
Goldfish at -$0.01 per box (yup, I got paid a penny to buy goldfish today)
Kens Salad dressing: $0.69 each
Ritz: $1.99
Ketchup: 1.99
apple juice: 1.99 each
pudding mix: $0.59 each
desitin: 1.50 each
Listerine 1.50 each
popcorn: 1.24

~~~~~

All in all, not a bad day!

Total spent: $192.58
Total saved: $141.59
Earned: 11 ECBs from CVS AND $1.50 off next purchase from Kroger.

I'm over budget, but I had babysitting money, so I'm cool with it. Unless there are just some seriously super nearly free or free deals next week, I wont be buying anything thanks to menu planning and our stockpile. YAY!

Friday shopping...ROCKS!

As much as I don't like lugging the kids around with me from store to store, we did awesome today on the deals! AWESOME!

First stop was Publix.

Here's a picture of what was purchased. Let me tell you... Even though I had done the math last night and knew what I thought I would be spending... I wasn't so sure as it was all being scanned. However I should trust what I plan. It is so awesome to see the little savings amount go UP and the total go DOWN as they scan each and every coupon! I had planned to spend about $15.05. On all of that. Seriously! Let me break down what you see:

8 four-packs of yogurt
6 boxes of instant oatmeal
4 packs of kraft homestyle mac and cheese
4 bottles of veg oil
4 travel packs of band-aids
3 cans of hunts tomatoes
2 tubs of butter
2 baby jar foods
1 box of cake mix
1 box of baby cereal
(and a partridge in a pear tree)

The honest truth: I got ONLY what was on my list. Nothing jumped in the cart miraculously. I LOVE STICKING TO THE LIST and knowing what to expect! ... back to the totals: I wanted to spend 15.05 for all that.

I'm going to repeat that list and break it down:
8 four-packs of yogurt-- FREE
6 boxes of instant oatmeal --$0.84 each
4 packs of kraft homestyle mac and cheese --$0.24 each
4 bottles of veg oil --$1.29 each
4 travel packs of band-aids --FREE
3 cans of hunts tomatoes --$0.26 each
2 tubs of butter --$0.14 each
2 baby jar foods-- FREE
1 box of cake mix --$0.87
1 box of baby cereal -- FREE

Some how... my total ended up being $12.03 with a savings of $64.80! I spent three dollars less than I thought I would. Which means somewhere in my calculations from the sales ad, there was something marked higher than what they'd actually marked it for at the store! I CAN NOT believe I got all that stuff for TWELVE BUCKS!

The second stop was CVS.

Last week or the week before, I forget now, they had this crazy deal where you buy $25 dollars worth of marked products you get 10ECBs back. Well Wisk was on this list. Wisk was also on sale for $5.00 instead of normal price of $8.99. AND there were $2.00 off coupons in the paper for Wisk the same week... SCORE. However... at my CVS and the one down the road and the one in loganville and the two others I called... this was GOBBLED up the first day and no Wisk was left to be had. I went in and got TWO rainchecks to do this deal. So 6 bottles on each rain check.

I went to try to do my deals today and there wasn't enough Wisk on the shelf to do both. I left four bottles there and got my six. I'll be going back next week to get the other deal. SO... I paid $19.80 on SIX bottles. A savings of $34.14 AND got back the 10ECBs.

Next week I'll do it again... spending $9.80 be/c I can use the ECBs on that purchase. So I'll spend $9.80 and then ALSO get another 10ECBs back, making those six bottles basically free! WHAT?! LOVE IT. LOVE IT! ... I don't normally use Wisk, but um. yah, we will now. LOVE IT!

The third stop was Kroger.

There is no picture for this stop. It was mostly ingredients needed for meals I'm making this weekend. I am cooking for three families this weekend in addition to my own. I got the normal fruit/milk/eggs purchases and we also scored some FREE OJ, FREE soda, and TEN more FREE toothpastes! I think we're SET on toothpaste for the rest of 2011. Overall, I spent $45.95 and saved $34.05. So not bad really, considering that I had to get a lot without coupons for the meals I want to make.


~~Daily totals~~
Spent: $77.78
Saved: $132.99 (63% savings for the day)
Earned: 10 ECBs (if you aren't familiar with that, it's like ten bucks to spend only in a CVS store)

WAH CHA!

I'm WELL within my grocery budget and eager to see what the sales are next week. I love stocking up. Love it! I love FREE. Say it with me... FR-EE! FREEEEEEEEE!

CVS finds

This week, I wanted to try the CVS thing again. I knew I wasn't ready to jump back into all the craziness that goes with the ECB world (Extra Care Bucks) but, I wanted to try a little something.

So I made two transactions:

1. Colgate Total $3.99
$1.00 off coupon
paid $2.99 and got back 3.99 in ECB

SCORE!

So that's free toothpaste.

2. Pampers on sale for 8.97
$2.00 off coupon
$3.99 off ECB from previous transaction
paid $2.98 and got back 3.00 in ECB

SCORE!

So, that's 3 dollar Pampers!!! And I have $3.00 off the next transaction I make! Yippie! How awesome is that?!!? WHO buys 3 dollar PAMPERS?! Me! That's who! (The size pampers purchased for $2.98 are normally priced at $11.99! Basically a fourth of the normal price!)

I'm going to probably try another two or three CVS finds again this week. I'm NOT in the market for lots of things, I'm not looking to stockpile from CVS currently. But I am looking to find FREE or nearly FREE there and GET those. We have a small growing pile of free toothpastes which is a nice thing to not have to out right buy, wouldn't you say? And this house is no where near diaper-less, so three dollar diapers, pampers at that, is just way cool.


If you want to know how I figured these deals out, I will flat tell you. I Didn't.

But go here! That link will take you over to the CVS archive on the Southernsavers site. If you follow exactly as it tells you with the "Deal Ideas," you can't go wrong! It breaks it down as simplistically as this:

• Transaction #1
  Buy:
  (1) Colgate Total Toothpaste $3.99
  Use:
  (1) -$1 off Colgate Total SS 3/07
  Total Due: $2.99 (pay with US currency)
  Get Back: $3.99 ECB
• Transaction #2
  Buy:
  (1) Pampers Diapers $8.97
  Use
  -$2 off Pampers PG 3/07
  -$3.99 ECB (from #1)
  Total Due: $2.98
  Get Back: $3 ECB

Enjoy your CVS shopping this week! And if you do anything cool (great find, great deals), come back here and post about it in the comments!

What went down at CVS today!

Here's what I went in the store armed and ready for:

Post Cereal sale: 3 boxes for $10 with $5ECB. I had $1 off coupon for 2... so I ended up with 3 boxes for $4 WHAT?! save $6.00 (good cereal, not crappy store brand versions of what I really want but REAL yummy cereal)
Dawn: sale: 2/$2 with 1ECB. I had $.25 off... so save 1.25
Head and Shoulders: price 4.99 with $2ECB. I had coupon for BOGO. So I bought 2, and got 2 $2ECB meaning I bought 2 for $.99. I say again, what?!
Colgate I had .75 coupoun, sale was 3.49 with $2ECB so 1=.74, saving 2.75 (I'm stocking up on colgate, the last two times now!)
CVS pantiliners: sale .89 with .89ECB = even

I spent 15.32, saved 22.85

How is that not magic?!

I then bought 3 $1.49 two packs of baby food with some ECB! Hello free babyfood.
At the end of the day I was 15.32 OOP, and still have 7.89 in ECB for next week's deals (or more baby food) YAY!

My first CVS score!

I had two Colgate toothpaste coupons, one I printed off was 1.00 and one in the paper was .75. I would have liked two 1.00 coupons, but it only let me print off one per computer. So fortuantely I found one that I had still from the paper. (Something weird to me, keeping all these old inserts-- I've got three weeks worth now, that's okay though, I know I need to, who knows what will be on sale next week)

Thanks to this site here, I'm told they are running a 2/5.00 deal with 2.00 in ECB (extra care bucks) so after that it's 2/3.00 And with the coupons, you're taking off even more... so we're looking at less than 60 cents a tube.

WELL... somehow, don't know how. (Don't get the "how" at all) I ended up with TWO $2.00 ECB.

So I spent 3.52 for two tubes of toothpaste and then GOT 4.00 in return. I was paid .48 for purchasing the toothpaste. What?! I'm flabbergasted.


I also have two things I'm planning on getting tomorrow at Publix. They are having a BOGO on both French's Mustard and Kraft BBQ sauce. With my coupons, on one I should be MAKING .15 and on the other I should be making .5..... I know this doesn't seem like a ton of money here. I mean, we're not yet up to a whole dollar in these three items (the toothpaste, the sauce or mustard) but that's MONEY I'm GETTING to "buy" these items. I do NOT get it. Do not. DO NOT. At all. Understand this. BUT I'm going to keep doing it.

My second real "couponing adventure" resulted in a high thumbs up!

I know my efforts are going slowly... but so far my savings IS greater than my spendings (on resources) so as long as that continues, be prepared to continue to hear about my couponing!


((((I know I need to post pictures of Matthew's birthday party... I'll do that on here, just need the time to do it! Since Mark is sleeping in the office these days, I can't get to my picture computer whenever I want to)))