Baby Food Savings

I prefer to make my baby's food, but there is something to be said for the convenience of jar baby food. So my daughter gets a combination of both. This week I was very happy to be able to combine a sale and coupon to stock up on food for my daughter. I wound up getting 61 jars of food, 3 small bottles of juice and 5 boxes of cereal for $13.02. The great part is that I still have more coupons and the sale is on at Weis through Wednesday.

We did pretty well with our general grocery shopping today too. It cost us $68.27 after I saved $47.58 in coupons and $29.72 in "club savings." It was enough of a savings that they had to come over with a key to finish my order. I love it when that happens. I definitely feel that it's worth it to stock up when items are on sale. The only things we got at the grocery store that weren't on sale were the milk and Yo Baby yogurt.

Right now my pantry, cabinets and storage closet are pretty much all stuffed full. There are a few things we are low on, but I should be able to get them at a good price soon. Do you think it's worth it to stock up on your family's regularly used items?

Bath & Body Works Semi-Annual Sale

Bath & Body Works is currently having their semi-annual sale. I stopped by one of their stores yesterday to see what they had. I wound up spending $9 which is a lot to me anymore, but I did get two lotions, a body scrub and a rubber duckie.

I love their True Blue Spa Lay It On Thick lotion. It's the only lotion that helps my dry skin in the winter. So I always try to stock up on it when it's on sale. They run slightly different specials each week, so check back and see if you can find something you love there.

Are there any stores you frequent that have semi-annual or annual sales? Do you use that opportunity to stock up on the products you love?

Shopping the Deals

I am really starting to love CVS. Today I hit three different CVS stores and picked up most of the items in this picture. Three of the items were picked up at Walmart yesterday. I purchased everything in this picture for a grand total of $2.64.

I am having so much fun with putting together deals. I love to take at least one night a week and put together my shopping list and pull my coupons for shopping. I think it's just so worth it when you take the time to plan out your shopping. You do have to be flexible though because you never know when they're going to be out of something that is on your list or you'll see something that is also a good deal.

I had been debating using the Walgreens $5 off of $20 coupon that's good tomorrow (Friday, June 13th). So I decided to sit down and write up my shopping list to see if it would be worth making a stop. My gift card from the May rebate came in today so I have some free money begging to be spent. I finally came up with two alternative lists to maximize my savings with the coupon. Now I just have to hope that they have everything that I want when I get there tomorrow. At least I have two scenarios to choose from.

Do you take the time to plan out your shopping trips and pull your coupons? If you do, do you find that this works well for you?

To get your Walgreens coupon, click here

Register Receipt Surveys

More and more stores are advertising surveys on their register receipts. When you complete these surveys, you are usually entered to win a gift card to their store or something similar. I'm curious about how many people usually complete these surveys. I'll admit that I always complete them for my favorite stores because I would love to win the gift card they offer. Of course I've never won, but I still keep trying. Do you complete these surveys regularly? Do you even know of anyone who has won the gift cards or other items they promote?

Rita's Cool Card

For those of you that are familiar with Rita's Italian Ice, you will know that there is nothing better on a hot day then one of their ice's. If you regularly go to Rita's then you should ask about their Cool Card. You get this card stamped every time you buy a frozen treat and after purchasing ten frozen treats, you get one regular sized one free. The really cool thing about this is that it doesn't matter which frozen treats you buy when you're filling the card. So you could get ten child sized ice's and then your free one could be a regular sized gelati. Next time you're at Rita's ask for a Cool Card. They're completely free so it's worth trying even if you aren't sure you'll fill it up.

Rita's also has a Birthday Club you can join to get special discounts on your birthday and special offers emailed to you year round. For more information on that, click here.

What stores have "frequent flier" programs that you take advantage of?

Extra Cash

I'm always looking for ways to bring in a little extra cash without having to dedicate a lot of time to the effort. One thing that works well for me right now is selling my books on Amazon.com. I love books and buy them fairly regularly. So when I finish a book I always look it up on Amazon to see what it's bringing used. If it's selling for a decent price I will add mine to the listing. I love their service because:
1 - It doesn't cost you to list you items. They just take a fee if the item sells.
2 - You don't have to write a listing. You just input the ISBN number in their search box, when the item comes up you click the box to sell yours and complete their form to create your listing.
3 - They collect the money and notify you when the item is sold. My account is setup to automatically transfer the earnings to my bank account every two weeks. You could also use your earnings to purchase items from Amazon.com.
4 - They tell you what the fees are if the item sells when you create your listing so there aren't any surprises down the road.

I don't make much money doing this. It's usually a few bucks a month, but it gets the books out of my house and makes me a little extra money without a lot of effort. For me, this is a win win situation.

Do you have any methods for making a little extra money?

Free Picture for Fathers Day

You can get a free 8x10 or 10x13 picture from Picture People for Fathers Day. This offer is only good through Friday, so you will need to hurry to take advantage of this offer. Click here to get your coupon. Thanks Free 2 Be Frugal for the notice on this one. It looks like part of Hubby's gift this year will be a picture of me and our daughter. Hmm, my father might like one of those too. Looks like we'll also be able to take advantage of the 15% off the rest of your order deal too. Then we can add some frames and we're good to go.