Super Fresh Triple Coupons

Well, I have now made three trips to Super Fresh this week to take advantage of their triple coupons. They limit you to 3 of the same coupon when they triple to I had to make several trips to maximize my savings. I think I did pretty good on the deals there this week. I love it when they have triple coupons. Here are the details of my transactions:

Trip #1 on Friday:

• 2 Daisy Sour Cream (small) ($1.60)
  ($1.00 * 2 less 2 $0.60 coupons tripled)
• 1 Daisy Sour Cream (medium) FREE
  ($1.67 less $0.60 coupon tripled to value of item)
• 2 Stash Tea Bags $1.00
  (2 for $4.00 less 2 $0.50 coupons tripled)
• Hormel Pepperoni $1.85
  ($3.50 less $0.55 coupon tripled)
• 3 Wispride Cheese Spreads $3.12
  ($2.69 * 3 less 3 $0.55 coupons tripled)
• Beech-Nut Baby Juice ($0.10)
  ($1.19 less $0.75 coupon tripled to regular price of item)
• 3 Argo Corn Starch $0.45
  ($1.50 * 3 less 3 $0.45 coupons tripled)
• 3 Fiber One Pastries $1.47
  ($2.59 * 3 less 3 $0.70 coupons tripled)
• Total Out of Pocket $6.19
  Coupon Savings $26.51

Trip #2 on Saturday:

• 3 Daisy Sour Cream ($0.40)
  3 for $5.00 less $0.60 coupon tripled
• Gallon of Milk $3.99
• 5 Stove Top Stuffing $1.76
  ($0.75 * 5 less coupon buy 4 get 1 free, cashier input as $1.99)
• Reynold Baking Cups $.014
  ($0.89 less $0.25 coupon tripled)
• Stash Tea Bags $0.50
  ($2.00 less $0.50 coupon tripled)
• Hunger Donation $1.00
  (Hubby added this)
• Total Out of Pocket $7.02 (includes $0.03 tax)
  Coupon Savings: $9.64

Trip #3 on Wednesday:

• 2 Half Gallons of 8th Continent Soy Milk $3.00
  ($2.50 ea less 2 $1.00 coupons)
• Daisy Sour Cream ($0.13)
  ($1.67 less $0.60 coupon tripled)
• 3 Fiber One Pastries $1.47
  ($2.59 * 3 less 3 $0.70 coupons tripled)
• 3 Hormel Pepperoni $5.55
  ($3.50 * 3 less $0.55 coupon tripled)
• Total Out of Pocket $9.89
  Total Coupon Savings $15.05

Super Fresh Totals For the Week:

• Total Out of Pocket $23.10
• Total Coupon Savings $51.20
• Percentage Savings 69%

I think the savings from their triple coupons worked out very well for me. We have more then enough corn starch, pepperoni and sour cream to last us awhile. My fridge is even packed full. The picture above is what my fridge looked like before the last trip to Super Fresh. Crazy, isn't it?

I also took advantage of the triple coupons at Shoppers. They were only good last weekend so that deal is over now, but I expect they will be running it again. And when they do I just may have to visit them again. I really do love my coupons. Did you find any good deals on groceries this week?

Tackle It Tuesday - Food Storage Cabinets

This week I decided to tackle the food storage cabinets in basement. As you can see by my before pictures they had gotten rather disorganized. I tend to be a bit OCD so it was really bothering me.

To properly clean and organize my cabinets I decided to pull everything out, check the expiration dates and then put it all back where it belonged. I was surprised to find some old food in there that has expired over three years ago. Yikes!

While I was cleaning out I also decided to inventory the food I had on hand. The inventory is handy because I now know what foods I need to stock up on and which we already have plenty of. Right now that inventory is just handwritten in a spiral notebook. I have plans to type it up and start a better inventory system, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly how I want to work that. If anyone has a working system for inventorying their stockpile, please let me know. I would love to hear some ideas.

After the Cleaning and Organization:

The cabinets are much more organized now. The similar foods are grouped together. For example, all the pasta and pasta sauce are on one shelf, the chicken stock, veggies and tomatoes are on a shelf together, and so forth. The same foods are together with the older ones in the front so they can get used up first. But I didn't alphabetize the food. Sorry guys.

I am so glad that these cabinets are finally organized. It is such a relief to me. I also now realize that we are almost out of storage space for my stockpile. Part of that is from all the deals I got using triple coupons this week. I love triple coupons. We need to start using our stockpile more and buying less at the store for awhile.

To check out more tackles, head over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

Menu Plan Monday - Thanksgiving Week

I'm a little late getting my Menu Plan post up. It's sad because this is an easy week too. Oh well, here is the menu plan for the week:

Sun - Spaghetti and Italian Sausage
Mon - Cheesey Sausage Croissant Wraps
Tue - Mom's Bday dinner out
Wed - Kielbasa and macaroni and cheese
Thur - Thanksgiving
Fri - Turkey & other leftovers
Sat - Eggs and Bacon

Check out other menu plans over at Org Junkie.

Weekend Shopping - Drugstores

I did a lot of shopping this weekend because of all the triple coupon deals. In addition to the grocery shopping I did my regular drug store and Target weekend runs. Here are the details from those trips. I will post the details from my grocery shopping in a separate post.

Target:

• Bottle Liners $4.29
• X-Box Game $34.98 (on clearance and on Hubby's wish list)
• 3 Jumbo packs Huggies diapers $26.97 ($9.99 * 3 - $3.00 in coupons)
• Total $70.09 (includes $3.85 tax)
• Received a $5.00 gift card for the Huggies
• Caregivers rebate due for Huggies $3.00

The decent deal at Target is the Huggies. The bottle liners were a necessity. And the game takes an item off my holiday shopping list.

CVS

• Maybelline Mineral Foundation $6.99 ($8.99 - $2.00 coupon)
• Paid with $5.00 ECB
• Total OOP $2.23
• Received $8.99 ECB for Maybelline & $5.00 for a Survey I completed for the CVS Advisor Panel

Walgreens

• 2 Bounty Basic Paper Towels $0.78 ($0.89 * 2 - $1.00 coupon)
• 3 Hershey Holidays Miniatures $6.00 ($2.50 *3 - $1.50 coupon)
• 2 Tuf Trash Bags $5.00 (sale 2 for $5)
• WAG Formula $12.99 ($15.99 - $3.00 coupon)
• Pepsi 20 oz $1.39 (for hubby)
• Gillette Venus Embrace Razor $5.49 ($9.49 - $4.00 coupon)
• 2 M&M Premium Candy $6.00 ($4.00 * 2 - $1.00 WAG Coupon - $1.00 Man Coupon)
• Paid with $20.00 in Register Rewards
• Total $19.64 (includes $1.99 in tax)
• Earned $6.00 Register Reward for Embrace Razor
• Received $3.00 off magazine purchase from M&M's

I need to buy one more pack of the holiday miniatures to get the $5.00 rebate so I will have to go back to Walgreens this week. That's ok though because I can pick up another Embrace razor. Yeah for free razors.

Rebate Peelies

When I was at the grocery stores this weekend I found two different peelie rebate forms you may want to be on the lookout for. The first is for Andes Baking Chips (buy 2 get 1 free by mail) and the second is on Sunkist Almonds (Buy 2 bags get $2 off your next purchase by mail). If these are items you need for holiday baking anyway, you might as well look out for the rebate forms. Both forms also had recipes on them so you may even want to grab them for the recipes.
Both of these were on free stnading displays of these items in the grocery stores I visited. I found the Sunkist Almonds form at Super Fresh and the Andes baking chips form at Weis.

It's Triple Coupon Week Apparently

It looks like it is triple coupon week since both Shoppers and Super Fresh are running triple coupon specials. Shoppers started theirs today and Super Fresh starts their tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to get some good stuff cheap with these promos.

First up: Shoppers

They triple coupons up to $0.50 and double coupons up to $1.00. This promo is running from Thursday November 20th through Sunday November 23rd.

They are also running a promo where you can instantly save $10.00 on either a fresh Shady Brooks Farm turkey or a frozen Butterball turkey when you buy $25.00 in participating Kraft products. Remember that the $25.00 is before coupons. Check your ad for more details. Participating products in my ad include:

• Stove Top Stuffing $1.67
• Kraft Salad Dressing $2.00
• Cool Whip $0.99
• Oscar Mayer Bacon $3.00
• Kraft Chunk Cheese $3.00
• Kraft Shredded cheese $2.50
• Philly Cream Cheese $1.25
• Nabisco Crackers $3.00
• Miracle Whip $3.00
• Maxwell House Coffee
• Planters Nuts
• Crystal Lite Beverages
• Kraft Dry Packaged Desserts

Super Fresh is running triple coupons up to $0.99 from Friday November 21st through Thursday, November 27th. Keep in mind that my Super Fresh only allows you to triple 3 of the same coupon. So if you want more then 3 of the item you will have to make multiple trips.

I plan to hit Super Fresh tomorrow morning and possibly Shoppers. I will post this weekend letting you know what I was able to get super cheap or even free.

Tracking Your Savings

While I have used coupons for quite a few years now, it has only been this year that I have seriously gotten into couponing and looking for the deals. I also started rebating this year. To help me decided if spending time on my coupons is really worth it I decided to track how much I have been saving with my coupons. I only started tracking my coupon savings on September 24, 2008. I also believe I missed some of my receipts so these totals may be a little low. However, since September 24, 2008 I have saved $750.00 in coupons. Not bad for less then 2 months. I definitely think that this whole couponing thing is worth my time.

When you submit rebates you also need to track them to make sure that you get your money back. It was just this May that I started rebating so my totals are from May through today.

• Rebates Requested: $762.61
• Rebates Received: $652.42
• Rebates To Request: $99.40 (Rite Aid & Walgreens this month + Caregivers)

Judging by these numbers I could possibly hit $1,000.00 back in rebates this year. That is just amazing to me. Most of these rebates are for freebie items I picked up at Walgreens and Rite Aid. I love their rebate programs.

So how much have you saved this year? Do you track your savings and rebates?

Photo courtesy of Morgue File

Free Holiday Music on Amazon

I love music and I love free stuff so what could be better then free music? Well, right now Amazon is offer a free Holiday Sampler which has 5 songs. The songs are:

• I Wish You a Merry Christmas - Bing Crosby
• Deck The Halls - Peggy Lee
• The Nutcracker Suite - Les Brown & His Band of Renown
• Auld Lang Syne - The Beach Boys
• Jingle Bells - Robert Wagner Chorale

I certainly think its st least worth checking it out. You can get to the album here.

Works For Me Wednesday - Gmail

About a month ago I switched over to Gmail. Now that I'm starting to use more of its features, I'm loving it. Here are some of the things I love about Gmail:

• Ability to send and receive from all my email accounts in one place. I have four personal email accounts and gmail allows me to keep them all in one place. Yes, other email software allows you to do this too, but I really like the way Gmail does it.
• Search capabilities. I get a lot of email so being able to do a google search of my email is a wonderful thing. It allows me to find emails I had lost hope of ever finding again.
• Filters. I subscribe to lots of newsletters and as I said before just get a lot of email. The filters in gmail allow me to filter on several different things. I'm still getting everything filtered the way I want it, but it is so wonderful to not have all the newsletters cluttering up my inbox. I tag them as newsletters and archive them. Then when I get a chance I look at them. Filters are a wonderful thing.
• Spam Filtering. One of the email addresses that I have going to my gmail account is one I have been using for over ten years now. So you can imagine the amount of spam it gets. Well, since I've switched it over to gmail I have only seen one spam message in my inbox. That is just amazing to me.

I'm sure that the more I use gmail and check out all the features I will find even more to love about it.

For more Works For Me Wednesday listings, check out Rocks In My Drier.

Tackle It Tuesday - Dining Room Table

This week I decided to tackle my dining room table. It was out of control piled up with all sorts of "stuff." I really think all this stuff multiples when I'm not looking. Here is a picture of what my table looked like before I started cleaning.

Yikes! How did it get this bad?

So I cleaned up all the "stuff," putting it away where it belonged. The table cloth got sent off to the wash and the baby even got cleaned. Here is what the table looked like when I was done cleaning.

Yeah! I have a clean table now. Of course knowing me it will be awhile before the table cloth makes it way back to the table. Hey, as long as the table is clean right?

To check out more tackles, head over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

An Apron and Cupcake Giveaway

I'm sure you all know by now that I love giveaways and contests. Well, I've found another one, but this one ends tonight so don't waste any time checking it out.

Confessions of An Apron Queen is hosting a giveaway for an apron from Cupcake Provocateur. You can win an apron and a batch of cupcakes in a jar! I love the design of their aprons so go ahead and check them out. I know an apron would sure come in handy if you're planning to do any holiday baking. This contest ends at midnight tonight (November 17th) so head over there now.

And check out a Deal Seeking Mom's post on blog giveaways. There are lots of links there to giveaways.

Menu Plan Monday

Since I got a ham on sale this week, we will be having quite a few ham related dishes. We will also be freezing about half the ham for future meals. I'm also looking for a good recipe for the ham and corn chowder (or something similar), so if you know of one, please let me know.

• Ham, apple sauce and potatoes
• Ham & cheese calzones
• Ham and corn chowder
• BBQ Chicken
• Beef stroganoff (carry over from last week)
• Birthday Surprise (I left this one up to hubby since I refuse to make dinner on my birthday)

Since we will still have lots of ham to use up on future meals, I would love suggestions on dishes using ham. If you can think of something, leave me a comment with a link to the recipe.

To check out other menu plans, head over to Org Junkie. Maybe I'll get lucky and find some good ham recipes over there this week.

Frugal Holiday Baking

I love to bake for the holidays and often give homemade goodies as gifts. When I was in college I made tons of different cookies throughout the month of December and gave tins of them away. Every year I looked forward to December and baking new unique cookies. I no longer have that much time to bake so I just make a few "classics". It's still fun and keeps me from completely stressing out during the holidays.

Anyway, if you plan to do any baking this holiday season, now is the time to stock up on your supplies. There are all kinds of sales on flour, sugar, baking chips, butter, cornstarch, spices, cream cheese and so forth. By combining the sales now with coupons you can save a significant amount of money on your holiday baking.

Sunday Shopping November 16th Edition

Today was another run around shopping Sunday. At least my shopping is now done for the week. Here are the deals that I found this week:

CVS:

This week I did four transactions as CVS so they got their own post, you can read about them here.

Walgreens:

There really wasn't much on sale at Walgreens this week that excited me. The only thing I did pick up was peanut butter. I will need it when I make peanut butter fudge next month. So to those of you reading this who missed my fudge last year, I will be making it this year as long as mini me cooperates and lets me cook. I just need to get marshmallow cream, so if you find a good deal on some, let me know.

• 4 Skippy Peanut Butter $6.00 (using a Walgreens coupon)
• 2 $1.00 off 2 Skippy coupons ($2.00)
• Total $4.00 - Paid with rebate gift card

Target:

• 2 Arm & Hammer Refrigerator Boxes $1.14
• 2 Reusable Shopping Bags $1.00 (sale price)
• 3 pack Christmas Weebles $5.99
• Arm & Hammer IP Coupon ($1.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $7.56 (includes $0.43 tax)

Rite Aid:

• St Ives Apricot Scrub $4.99
• 2 Pampers Wipes $5.00
• 2 Pampers Wipes Coupons ($0.40)
• Total $10.19 (includes $0.60 tax)
• Paid with $10 gift card from Sept. P&G Rebate and $0.19 cash
• Rebates Due: $5.99 ($4.99 for St Ives & $1 for wipes)

Rite Aid is running their Gift of Savings promotion between November 16th and December 24th. With this promotion you get cash back for your total spent at Rite Aid during the promotion period. To get the cash back you need to enter your receipts in the Single Check Rebate system on their website. The total spent is before coupons and even includes other items that are already on rebate so you can "double dip." I love promotions like this. I'm hoping to be able to combine this with other rebates and get some really good deals. Here are the dollar breakdowns for the promotion:

• Spend $25-$50 get $5
• Spend $51-$100 get $10
• Spend over $100 get $20

Safeway:

They got their own post too. There were some decent deals there this week. I was happy to get the ham on sale because I have been craving a ham.

Safeway This Week

Safeway has some decent deals this week so I stopped in this weekend and picked up a few things. Here's what I got:

• 3 Pepsi 2 liters $2.07 (with Super Coupon)
• 2 Pepsi 20 oz $2.98
• 3 Pop Tarts $3.00 (with Super Coupon)
• 3 Progresso Soups $2.97
• 4 Nabisco Crackers $7.52 (weekend special)
• Coke Fridge Pack $3.50
• 3 Birthday Cards $2.97
• 2 Oscar Meyer Bacon $6.00
• Spiral Sliced Ham $16.68
• Bananas $1.15 (not on sale, but hubby wanted them)
• Fleishmann's Yeast $4.50
• Total Before Coupons $53.34

Coupons Used:

• Buy 3 Cards, Get Coke ($4.39) cashier input regular price instead of the sale price
• Pepsi BOGO lid ($1.49)
• Pop Tarts ($1.00) on 2
• Nabisco Crackers ($2.00) 2 * $1 on 2 coupons
• Yeast ($2.75) 3 * $0.45 coupon, doubled
• Progresso ($1.10)
• Progresso ($1.00) $0.50 on 2, doubled
• Total Coupons ($13.73)

Total Out of Pocket $40.10 (includes $0.48 tax)
Earned $1.50 off next purchase for purchasing the yeast (3 * $0.50)
Also earned another $0.10/gallon off gas purchase. Now if I could just get their stupid gas pumps to accept my card.

I would have liked to get some more Progresso soupo, but when I was there they only had 3 flavors left and I didn't like 2 of them. The service at the Safeway I stopped at also leaves a lot to be desired. I really need to try to get to the other Safeway instead or just not go. Yes, the service was that bad. It wasn't our first bad experience at that Safeway either.

CVS This Week

My trips to CVS this week weren't as good as they could have been, but they weren't too bad either. I wound up hitting three different CVS stores before I finally called it quits for the week. For details on the ECB deals I used this week, click here. Here are the details of my transactions:

Transaction #1

• 6 Glade Glass Scents $15.00
• 2 Duracell 16 packs $19.98
• Loreal Age Perfect $15.99
• 3 Glade BOGO Coupons ($7.50)
• 2 Duracell Coupons ($3.00)
• ECBs Used ($20.58)
• Total Out of Pocket $21.72 (includes $1.83 tax)
• ECBs Earned $20.99 ($15.99 for Loreal & $5.00 for Glade)

Transaction #2

• 3 Duracell 16 packs $29.97
• 2 Duracell Coupons ($3.00)
• ECBs Used ($20.99)
• Total Out of Pocket $6.52 (includes tax of $0.54)
• ECBs Earned $30.00 for Duracell

Transaction #3

• 4 Glade Glass Scents $10.00
• Duracell $9.99
• 2 Glade BOGO Coupons ($6.58) the cashier took of the regular retail price instead of the sale price. I pointed it out to her, but she left it that way.
• Duracell Coupon ($1.50)
• Total Out of Pocket $13.11 (includes tax of $1.20)
• ECB Earned $5.00 for Glade

Transaction #4

• 2 Bags M&M Peanut $4.00
• 6 Glade Glass Scents $15.00
• Duracell $21.97 (1 16 pack & 2 8 packs)
• 3 Glade BOGO Coupons ($7.50)
• Duracell Coupon ($1.50)
• ECB Used ($30.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $2.63 (includes tax of $0.66)
• ECB Earned $25 ($15 for Duracell & $10 for Glade)

Summary:

• Total Out of Pocket $43.98
• Coupons Used $30.58
• ECBs Used $71.57
• Price I would have paid without coupons or ECBs $146.13

I got confused on the limit on the Duracell deal so I wound up buying enough batteries to do the deal 4 times, but there was a limit of 3 on the deal. At least we now have enough batteries to last us awhile. With a small child in the house we can go through some batteries. I also have a ton of Glade now. These will be used as Christmas gifts and I may even use one or two around my own house.

These deals could have been done with even less out of pocket if you were willing to break the transactions out even more. The problem I have with doing that is that two of the CVS stores I stopped at were busy and had lines to check out. I don't feel right holding up the line to do multiple transactions to save a few dollars. The deals are very good even without doing that so there is no need for it.

Do you have any CVS questions? If you do, please let me know. I plan to write an Intro to CVS post to help out anyone new to CVS.

Cheap Cream Cheese

For those of you that have a Weis Markets near you, there is cheap cream cheese to be had there this week. They have the Philadelphia Cream Cheese bricks on sale for $1.25 and there was a coupon for $1.00 off 3 in the paper a week or two ago. They are also running a catalina deal on the Philly Cream Cheese bricks. You get a coupon for $$ off your next order depending on how many you buy.

• Buy 5 get $2.00 off your next order
• Buy 6 get $3.00 off your next order
• Buy 7 or more get $4.00 off your next order.

When I ran various scenarios, the best that I came up with was buying 7 @ $1.25 for $8.75, use 2 $1.oo off coupons making your out of pocket $6.75. You'll get a coupon for $4.00 off your next order. So the net cost of each block of cream cheese is $0.39.

I did this deal yesterday and the cream cheese I got was dated for February. That makes this a great deal for those of you who will be using cream cheese during the holidays. Think cheesecake and all the other baking you can do with it.

This deal is only good through Wednesday, November 19th and is limit one per transaction.

The Dangers of Gift Cards

Consumer Reports has an interesting article on Avoiding Gift Card Pitfalls. Last year unused, lost and expired gift cards cost consumers $8 billion. That is pure profit for retailers. No wonder they push gift cards so much.

Did you also know that once a company enters bankruptcy, they do not have to honor their gift cards. Check out this article from the LA Times about how consumers may be out of luck in retail bankruptcies.

Despite all this, the estimates for gift card sales for this year top $100 million. If you plan on buying gift cards this year, please read the Consumer Reports article and the LA Times article so that you can at least be an educated consumer. If you're truly stuck on what to get for someone on your list, I recommend cash. It never expires.

With the financial problems that many stores are having I personally plan to avoid giving gift cards this holiday season. And if I receive any gift cards I will be using them as quickly as possible. This past weekend I even gathered up all the gift cards I had around the house and started using them up.

Walgreens $5 off $20 Coupon

Walgreens has a coupon for $5.00 off your $20.00 or more purchase good Friday November 14 and Saturday November 15 only. You can get your coupon here. I'm not sure if I'll be using this one of not. Tonight I'll try to look through their sale paper, but if I remember correctly, there wasn't that much exciting to me in their sale paper this week.

What about you? Will you be taking advantage of this coupon? It's a great deal if they have something you need. Or maybe you could use this on the Entertainment book.

Giveaways

There are several good giveaways going on right now. Here are some of the ones I've entered

• Mom Advice has a giveaway for a $50 Walmart gift card. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on her giveaway post telling her one thing you would like to see covered on her blog. This contest ends November 18th.
• 5 Minutes For Mom has lots of giveaways going on right now, but the one I am most excited about so far is the one for a $100 Sears gift card. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. You get additional entries for subscribing to their feed and subscribing to their newsletter. While you're over there be sure to check out all of their other giveaways. I mentioned them previously in this post. This contest ends November 28th
• Freebies 4 Mom is giving away a $50 gift card for JC Penney. Just complete the form on her site and you are entered. This contest ends November 20th.
• The Freebie Blogger has a giveaway going on for a $15 Walmart gift card. Just leave a comment on her giveaway post and you are entered to win. This contest ends November 16th.

Do you know of any other good giveaways? Let me know because I love to enter them.

Cheap Notebooks at Staples

I am always making notes and writing down things I need to remember. As a result I go through a lot of little notebooks. So when I saw Staples emailed me a coupon for $5.00 off a $5.00 minimum purchase of Staples M products I was pretty excited. I knew you could get the 3 pack of small journals for $2.99 so I just needed to combine that with something else to get some nice cheap notebooks. Here is what I got for a grand total of $2.61 including tax. I could have done better if I had only purchased two of those Pocket Pad notebooks. Oh well, live and learn.

Did you get this coupon? If not I recommend heading over to Staples site and signing up for their emails. There is a spot on their homepage that says "Sign up for great offers!" I'm hoping they'll keep putting out coupons like this for the holidays.

CVS Duracell Deal

According to the previews I've been seeing CVS will be having an excellent deal on Duracell batteries starting Sunday. When you spend $20 on Duracell batteries you get back $15 in ECBs. There is a limit of 3 on this offer. Combine this with coupons and you can get some free or very cheap batteries. This is a great time to stock up on batteries for the holidays.

There are some other free or cheap after ECB items this week at CVS. They are:

• L'Oreal Age Perfect Pro-calcium moisturizer $15.99 (limit 1)
• Glade spend $10 get $5 (limit 5)
• Zantrex 3 $4.99 get $4.99 in ECB (limit 1)

There have been a lot of coupons for Glade lately, so go through your stash. You should be able to get some free Glade products. I'm not sure if the Glade deal is for all Glade or just some products, so check your ad. There was also a coupon for $1.00 off any L'Oreal moisturizer in the 9/21 Smart Source. If you use that, this becomes a money maker.

All You Magazine December Coupon List

The coupon list for the December issue of All You magazine is out. I love this magazine and definitely recommend subscribing to it. The copons in it more then pay for the subscription. This is the only magazine that I actually pay to subscribe to. There have even been a few months where the coupons have been really good and I've purchased additional copies at Walmart.

Now I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my December issue. Hopefully it wil be in the mailbox when I get home today.

Here is the list of December coupons:

• Betty Crocker Specialty Potatoes $1.00 on 2
• BRUT Product $1.00
• Chex Cereals $1.00 on 2
• Colgate Childrens Power Toothbrush $0.75
• Colgate Childrens Toothpaste $0.75
• DOLE Mandarin Oranges or Tropical mixed Fruit $0.55 on 2
• Dove Cream Oil Body Lotion $1.50
• Dove SkinVitalizer $3.50
• Heinz Cocktail Sauce $1.00 on 2
• Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizer $1.00
• Kings Hawaiian Bread or Rolls $0.55
• Lasting Finish Lipstick $1.00
• Marie Callender's Signature Sautes $2.00
• Marzetti Veggi Dip $0.55
• Mrs. Dash $0.50
• Nestle Toll House Morsels $1.00 on 2
• Nestle Refrigerated Cookie Dough $1.00 on 2
• New York Brand Refrigerated Products $0.50
• Ore-Ida Steam n Mash Potatoes $1.00
• Orville Redenbacher's Kernel Popcorn $1.00
• Orville Redenbacher's Popping Oil $1.00
• Quattro Titanium Trimmer $4.00
• POM Wonderful Pomegranates $1.00 off 2
• Reddi-wip $1.00 (16 oz or larger)
• Sexy Curves Mascara - Buy 1 get Color Rush FREE
• Slim Jim $0.75 (16 ct or larger)
• Suave Hand or Body Lotion $1.00 (18 oz or larger)
• Swiss Miss Cocoa Sensible Sweet $0.50
• Tyson Cornish Hens $1.00
• Wet Ones Hand and Face Wipes $0.75
• Ziploc Zip 'n Steam Bags $1.00

Watch For Catalinas

Just a reminder to everyone to watch for those catalina coupons when they are at the store, particularly the grocery store. Tonight I ran in to Giant really quick to pick up one item. The only lane without a line was the self checkout. This pile of catalinas was sitting there so I grabbed them. Two of them are for items I get for my daughter anyway. Now I just need a sale to match them up with. You gotta love free coupons.

Coinstar Money Maker

I have been accumulating change in the ashtray of my car for about a year and a half now. The ashtray was completely filled so I needed to empty it out. Since I had been hearing how Coinstar is free when you redeem your coins for a gift card or eCertificate I decided to check it out. When we were at the grocery store Saturday I took all the coins from my ashtray in and cashed them in. I was amazed that I had over $11.00 in change in there. It has now been redeemed onto a Starbucks gift card. The procedure was quick and painless and now I have the funds for a few more outings with Little Bob.

This week I also received an email from Coinstar stating that they’re running a promotion where you can earn a $10.00 holiday bonus. All you have to do is mail in the bottom part of your Coinstar receipt and they will send you a $10 gift card or eCertificate for the same place you redeemed your $40 in change to. This promotion ends December 7, 2008. For more details, click here.

I have a jar of change at home that I can cash in. For a 25% return on my money I will definitely be taking advantage of this offer. Since the holiday bonus certificate takes 6-8 weeks to arrive it won’t be here for the holiday shopping season, but I’m sure it will still come in handy.

Menu Planning Monday

We're still working on cleaning out the freezer and pantry. We also have two carry over meals from last week that we didn't get around to cooking. Here are the meals I have planned for us this week:

• Chicken Salad (carry over)
• Cheeseburgers (carry over)
• Steak sandwiches
• Beef stroganoff
• Tuna noodle alfredo
• Game Night - Dinner at my parents

To see other mean plans, head over to Org Junkie.

Sunday Shopping November 2nd

Here are the details from my shopping on Sunday, November 2nd.


CVS

• Pampers Jumbo Packs $20.00
• 3 Dawn Dish Soap $2.97
• 2 Gillette Shave Gel $3.98
• Crest Pro Health Toothpaste $3.49
• CVS Coupon for $5 on $30 ($5.00)
• Pampers coupons ($3.00)
• Dawn Coupons ($0.60)
• Gillette Coupons ($2.00)
• Crest Coupon ($1.00)
• ECB Used ($18.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $2.04
• ECB Earned $8.49 ($5.00 for Pampers & $3.49 for Crest)

Target

• 2 Frosted Mini Wheat $5.50
• 2 Cocoa Krispies $5.48
• Kellogg's Smart Start $2.75
• 5 Kellogg's Coupons ($5.00)
• Gift Card From Sat ($5.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $3.73

The register didn’t give me a gift card so they gave me $6.00 in apology coupons.

Walmart

• Gerber Graduates Splashers Juice $2.50
• Gerber Graduates Yogurt Melts $1.83
• 2 Wet Ones Trial Pack Wipes $1.96
• 2 Kotex Liners $2.00
• Wet Ones Coupon ($1.50)
• Kotex Coupons ($1.75)
• Total Out of Pocket $5.04

Note: I had to guess at some of these prices because the cashier didn’t give me my receipt. I remembered how much I spent and some of the prices so I backed in to the others. The total for the coupons and out of pocket is correct though.

Walgreens Trip #1

• 2 Walgreen Brand Formula $23.98
• Register Rewards ($13.00)
• Total $10.98 – Paid with gift card

Walgreens Trip #2

• Fountain Soda $0.99
• 2 Almay Mascara $6.99 (BOGO Sale)
• 2 Gallons Milk $5.98
• 2 Almay coupons ($2.00)
• Register Reward ($4.00)
• Total $8.44 (includes tax) – Paid with gift card
• Rebate due $6.99 for Almay

Note: I also got a catalina for $1.00 off a 20 oz bottle of soda. I'm guessing this is from buying a fountain soda.

Weis

• 3 Kellogg's Raisin Bran $6.00
• 1 Kellogg's Special K $2.00
• 2 M&Ms $1.58 (my hubbie threw them in)
• 4 Kellogg's Coupons ($4.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $5.68 (includes tax of $0.10)

Wow, I did a lot of shopping last weekend. We are pretty set for cereal for awhile though. Hopefully my daughter doesn’t grow tired of Cheerios.

Christmas Giveaways

5 Minutes For Mom is hosting over 25 Christmas Giveaways this month. Check out their post on how to enter here. I'm looking forward to all these giveaways. It's so exciting because you never know when you'll win and be able to cross something off your Christmas list for free. I'm glad I subscribe to their feed. That will help me keep up with all of their giveaways.

Shopping Saturday November 1st

Weis

• 3 Wisp Flameless Candles $14.97
• 2 California Pizzas $14.78
• 3 Peelies for Wisp ($15.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $15.65 (includes $0.90 tax)

Target

• 4 Glade Scented Oil Candles $10.00
• Scented Oil Coupon ($2.00)
• 2 BOGO Coupons ($5.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $3.30 (includes $0.30 tax)
  Received $5.00 gift card

Staples

• Envelopes $6.99
• Mini Notebooks $2.99
• Total $9.98 – Paid with Reward $$
  Turned in 1 ink cartridge for a $3.00 coupon I will receive next month

Safeway

• Diet Pepsi $1.49
• 5 Cheerios (18 oz size) $14.95
• 2 Progresso Soup $2.00
• Sunday Paper $1.88
• 5 Cheerios Coupons ($5.00)
• Progresso Coupon ($1.10)
• Total Out of Pocket $9.42 (includes $0.20 tax)
  Earned a $0.10 pump credit for gas

JC Penney

• Scarf, mitten and hat set $8.49
• Top for my daughter $4.99
• Coupon ($10.00)
• Total Out of Pocket $3.69 (includes $0.21 tax)
  Paid with my Pennys card to get points for reward coupons

Enough Cereal?

For some reason, my husband thinks that we have enough cereal. The bad part is that this isn't even my whole stash of cereal. I have about 5 more boxes on another shelf and 3 open boxes in the kitchen. Thanks to the great Kellogg's coupons and the deals at Target, Weis and Safeway, I've been able to stock up. I don't think we'll be needing any more cereal for awhile. But if you hear of any good deals on milk, let me know. Something tells me we will be going through some milk.

What's really bad is that I really want to go back to Target to take advantage of their buy 5 boxes of Kellogg's get a $5 gift card offer again. I have 5 more $1.00 Kellogg's coupons and it is so hard to resist using them. I mean, come on, cereal lasts for a year or so as long as you don't open it. And I'll get 10 points in my My Points account for each coupon I redeem. So don't be too surprised if you see me at Target soon.

Have you taken advantage of any good sale and coupon combinations to build up your stockpile recently?

Super Fresh November 5th

Yesterday I posted about triple coupons at Super Fresh going on right now. Well, tonight I took a stack of coupons up there and decided to see what I could get. Here is what I wound up with:

• 2 Pkgs Kraft Singles $7.00
• 3 Beech Nut Juices $3.87
• 2 Betty Crocker Whipped Frosting $3.00
• Trident $1.29
• 2 Gerber Graduates Pasta Pickups $2.38
• 2 Gerber Graduates Entrees $3.98
• Curves Granola Bars $3.39

Total Before Coupons $24.91

Coupons:

• Kraft Singles ($2.25) tripled $0.75 on 2
• Beech Nut Juices ($3.87) tripled $0.75 (I had 3 of these)
• Betty Crocker Frosting ($3.00) tripled $0.50 (I had 2 of these)
• Trident ($1.29) tripled $0.55
• Gerber Pasta Pickups ($2.25) tripled $0.75 on 2
• Gerber Entrees ($2.25) tripled $0.75 on 2
• Curves Granola Bars ($2.25) tripled $0.75

Total Coupons $17.16

Total Out of Pocket $7.79 (includes $0.04 tax)

I don't think I did too bad on this considering I only spent about 10 minutes pulling coupons and 20 minutes running through the store. I didn't even take my coupon box with me because I was making this a quick trip.

Works For Me Wednesday

This is my post for Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks in my Dryer. My daughter is 11 months old and so far she doesn't seem to have any particular toys that keep her attention for weeks at a time. The only thing that she loves to play with every night is her shelf of books. Here you can see her checking out her books. We actually had to remove the door to this shelf because we were afraid she would hurt herself opening it.

Every night my daughter makes a game out of crawling over to her shelf and pulling the books off. When I try to read her a book she crawls off. Don't worry, I do read to her at bedtime so she does get to actually hear the stories. I'm very big on reading and there are plenty of books in our house. She just enjoys playing with her books before bed.

If anyone has some good recommendations for toys that a 1 year old likes, I'm open to suggestions. Next month we have her first birthday and Christmas and right now I really don't know what to get her. All the toys we have gotten her so far are hits for a little while and then there they sit in the toy box.

To check out toys other bloggers recommend, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Super Fresh Triple Coupons

Tonight I had to run out to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for my daughter to take to daycare with her tomorrow. She has been eating like crazy for the last two days and she ate all the snacks I had on hand. There are three different grocery stores very close to my house so I debated on which one to stop at. I wound up selecting Super Fresh since their lot is the easiest to get on and off of.

When I ran in I was happy to see that the Gerber snacks were on sale. I had some coupons that Gerber just sent me so I selected two snacks for her and headed to the register. I was expecting my total to be about $3.50 so I was suprised when the cashier said my total was $2.81. When I got home and checked myreceipt I saw that they tripled my $0.75 coupon. This was a suprise. Since we no longer get the grocery ads delivered to our house I find it hard to keep up with all the different grocery stores in the area. Now that I know they are running triple coupons up to $0.99 this week I will have to make a return trip.

There are usually at least a few items you can get free or very cheap when they run their triple coupon specials. So if you have a Super Fresh near you, it's definitely worth checking them out. Triple coupons run through Thursday at my Super Fresh.

Tackle It Tuesday - Pantry

For this week's Tackle It Tuesday I decided to tackle my pantry. You can see my before picture to the right. The bins were added last year and they have become very messy lately. I decided to add the bins last year because the pantry was even more of a mess before we had the bins. Food would get pushed to the back and forgotten about and things were sitting weird on the shelves because of the wire shelves. The bins have been a lifesaver for us. They help to keep the food grouped together by category which really helps my organization.

To clean up this time, I pulled all the bins out and went through the food. I found a couple things that were out of date so they went into the trash. The biggest, messiest bin in there is my dinner bin. I also consider that one the most important to get organized because I need to know what we have on hand to prepare dinners. I was able to take the time to organize and inventory this bin and even wound up planning our dinners for this week around the food we already had in there.

Here you can see the results of my cleaning. I know that it doesn't look that much different from the picture, but it really is much cleaner in there. I'm very glad that I took the time to finally get the pantry cleaned out. Maybe next week I'll tackle the additional food storage in the basement. The shelves down there are getting crazy.

What did you tackle this week? Head on over to 5 Minutes For Mom to see what everyone else has been tackling.

CVS Advisor Panel

For those of you with a CVS card, it pays to join the CVS Advisor panel. Once you register, CVS will periodically send you surveys. If you qualify for and complete the survey they will pay in ECBs which print on you next purchase after a specified date. For the two surveys I have participated in, there were even smaller ECB payments for responding and not qualifying.

When they sent the emails about the surveys they had a time estimate for completing the survey. This helps you decide if you have the time to participate. Everything is online and credits to your Extra Care card automatically. I love being able to earn a few extra “dollars” just by completing some surveys. If you shop at CVS and have an Extra Care card, it’s definitely worth checking this program out. You can get to their website by clicking here.

Starkist Tuna Creations

Last week I received a packet of Starkist Tuna Creations booklets and coupons in the mail from Vocalpoint. I used two of those coupons to pick up the pouches of Starkist Albacore Creations shown here. Since Vocalpoint was kind enough to send me the coupons, I figured I would write a review of the product for them.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Vocalpoint, it is a program by P&G that assists them with word of mouth advertising. When you sign up they will periodically send you coupons and/or free products to try. If you like them, simply tell others about the great products and share some of the coupons they send you. They also have surveys, message boards and activities on their website that you can participate in once you are a member. I personally love the program and recommend it. Now, back to the tuna.

These pouches of tuna come already seasoned. There are several flavors, including Lemon Pepper, Sweet & Spicy, Hickory Smoked, Herb & Garlic, Chipotle Mango and Tomato Pesto. I decided to try the Tomato Pesto. There are recipes on the back of the pouches, but I decided to try using it in one of my own recipes, the Tuna Croissant Wrap. I have been making my Tuna Croissant Wrap for a few years now and family loves it. Using it with Tuna Pesto flavored tuna would be a new experience though. Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 Pouches Starkist Albacore Creations Tomato Pesto flavor
• 1 Tube Refrigerated Croissants
• 2 oz Shredded Cheddar Cheese (or cheese of your choice)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325
• Lay out croissants on cookie sheet so that half the croissants are in each row. The rows should be touching along the bottom part of the triangle. The skinny points of the triangle should be on opposite sides. This part is hard to explain, I will have to take a picture so you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
• Roll out the base of the line of croissants to flatten out the overlapping areas. This ensures that it will bake evenly.
• Open the pouches of tuna and spread it along the center part of the line of croissants.
• Spread the shredded cheese along the top of the tuna.
• Pull the points of the croissant triangles up over the tuna and to the other side of the roll.
• Bake for about 20 minutes, or until croissants are golden brown.

Here is the finished result:

We had this for dinner and it was a hit with both my husband and my daughter. There were absolutely no leftovers. My daughter even ate all of hers and she usually only eats part of her dinner and then wants Cheerios. You can see there are only a few crumbs left on her tray.

I loved the flavor of the tuna. It was nice to have it come out of the pouch already seasoned. I didn't have to take the time to mix up my own tuna and I didn't have to dirty a bowl doing it. The seasoning was also very good. I think these pouches would also make a good emergency lunch. I will probably pick up another pouch to keep in my desk at work for those days when I forget my lunch.

Final Result: We will definitely be buying these again. They were quick, easy and delicious. Something any busy mom can appreciate.

My 100th Post

It's hard for me to believe that this is actually my 100th post on this blog. I was suprised when I noticed how close I was to 100 posts last week.

When I started keeping this blog back at the end of May, my original intent was to share the deals that I was finding and taking advantage of. I feel like I've been evolving since then and as a result I'm planning a few changes for my blog. I still love sharing the deals and posting about them so that won't be going anywhere. I'm still a frugal girl at heart. But I feel like the mom part of me needs to be reflected in this blog too. My daughter is the main reason I started actively seeking out ways to save money.

Becoming a mom completely changed my life. Before I had my daughter I thought that my husband and I were busy. Honey, I didn't know what busy meant. All those routines we had before she arrived went right out the window. Now we try to fit in the hosuework between taking care of her, working and taking care of all the other obligations we have. It's a crazy juggle as I'm sure lots of other parents would agree. Just when you think you're starting to get things worked out and maybe life will calm down again, something happens to throw the whole thing off again. I'm learning to roll with those punches and take it one day at a time.

Since I know that I'm certainly not the only person out there with a crazy life, trying to be the best parent they can, I've decided that my blog should take a more frugal family view. As I mentioned above, there will still be postings of the deals I find and am taking advantage of, but I also want to start other things. One thing I will be adding starting tomorrow is product review posts. I plan to write about the things that I like as a mom and that I think other moms would also enjoy. You will also see periodic posts about contests I find that I think are interesting and naturally there will be periodic posts about my daughter.

I'm excited about these changes because I see them as a growing of this blog. It should now be an even better representation of the things that are important to me. So what do you think? Are there any changes that you would like to suggest? Let me know, I love receiving feedback. You can either leave a comment on this post, or use my contact form.

Photo Card Giveaway

Simple Mom is hosting a giveaway of a digit card file and 10 5x7 prints of your card. Plus you can get 2 sheets of customized postage. Head over to her blog and check it out. This would be a great way to get your Christmas cards done.

Menu Plan Monday

We had a crazy weekend. As a result I didn't get my menu plan done until late last night. Normally I would work on this on Saturday when I'm writing up my grocery list. At least I did manage to get it done, but there isn't anything new or exiting on our menu this week. I'm still working on cleaning out the freezer and panty some.

• Tuna Croissant Wraps
• Cheeseburgers
• Soup and Grilled Cheese
• Chicken and Stove Top
• Baked Spaghetti
• Chicken Salad

To check out some other menu plans, head over to OrgJunkie. They are also doing a giveaway if you post your own menu plan today. Head over and check it out.

$500 For Groceries

5 Minutes For Mom is having a contest for $500 in grocery money sponsored by Prego. You can read more and even enter here. The above picture is my entry in their contest. My daughter loves her "cheesy poofs." So don't try to take them from her.

October Summary

Here's My October Monthly Summary

Rebates:

• Requested - $130.26


• Received - $151.21


• Outstanding - $148.29 + Secret Loyalty Reward + Herbal Essences Free Hair Cut
  Doesn't include October Walgreens because I didn't request it yet

Coupons:

• ECB Used - $14.25 (I think this number should be higher)


• Coupons - $237.14


• Gift Certificate - $20.00 (an old one I found when I cleaned out my office)

Special Savings: $35.00
This is for weight loss/food journal and not eating lunch out. This money will be used for a reward once I reach my weight loss goal. Right now I'm thinking about a ring, but that could change.

Ebates: $16.19

Upromise: $2.61 (This should be higher, but not all of my redeemed coupons are showing up yet)

Summary:
I feel like we're doing better in sticking with our budget. For the last two weeks I have been sticking to cash. Once a week I take out our cash for the week and this is what we have to spend. This seems to work best for someone like me. When I use my credit or debit card I have a tendency to think, oh, it's only $10 (or some other small amount), it's no problem. Well, all those small amounts add up. When I stick with cash I can easily see how much I left. Besides, it's pretty hard to overspend when you stick with cash.

I love rebates and it amazes me how quickly they can add up. I especially love the rebate programs at Rite Aid and Walgreens. It's just so easy to get your money back since both of these programs allow you to submit your rebates online. I had been putting the rebate money back into our household money, but now I am going to try to save the rebate money. I figure the money comes out of our budget when I buy the stuff and we didn't miss it. So there shouldn't be any problem with me saving the money. At the end of a year this money could really add up. Yes, I love to save money. Sometimes I feel like a squirrel putting away nuts for the winter.

So how did you do this month?