Great Meijer Trip

I did such a great job the last time I went shopping at Meijers. I got it all for - drum roll please - $12.43!! The starting price before coupons was somewhere around $65.00! The receipt says that I saved 69.71! Isn't all this stuff crazy?!?

• 2 1/2 cases Pepsi
• 2 Juices
• 2 laundry detergents
• 2 block cheeses
• 2 mayos
• 2 dressings
• 2 A1's
• 3 sauces
• 4 rice packs
• 4 ragu's
• box of lemonade stixs
• box of trash bags
• box of dryer sheets

I was going to go back and get a couple things but the weekend started and I just never made it back. I'm hoping that this week has as good of a sale as last week! And my store doesn't double coupons (it's a new store and it's a test store - sucks for that and the layout!).

If you want to start saving like this just email me and we'll talk about how you can save big time.

I'm hoping to start keeping up better with the blogging - sorry to anyone who has been dropping by. I've been super busy. The place I use to volunteer at & now work at, Gilead Ministries, had their annual Crusin' To Care Car Show a couple weeks ago. Wow it was such a blast. We had it at a new location - 5 Points Mall - and we had lots of people there! It was a great sucess!! It was a really windy day but it was sunny and that always makes it nice for the car show people coming with their fancy cars! We had a tribute to Janet that was super nice, I think most of her family was there. We raised more than ever before so moving to the Mall was a great plan and we'll be there next year!

And for all you mom's out there here's my cutie GD! She's just the cutest darling! She's 7 months old and I just love her to pieces.

Have a blessed day!

What's been keeping me away

I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote. Gilead Ministries, where I volunteer, needed a part time worker and since I know the database pretty well and had been wanting to learn QuickBooks, I went ahead and took the job. It's pretty weird sitting at "Janet's Desk" - she's been gone for almost 2 months now and I still have a hard time thinking that she's gone. I guess I just thought that she'd always be at Gilead's front desk... now it's me. It's strange sometimes when first I come in and don't see her & realize that I'm going to be sitting at "her" desk. She never cared when she was alive but I guess I just want to walk in and see her sitting there....

Well since I was last writing my DH and I went up to the Mayo Clinic up in Minnesota. Boy it's a beautiful place - the Mayo Clinic not necessarily MN (it was still super cold when we went up there! now the weather has finally changed and it's starting to get warm). Although we did have one nice really sunny warm day over the weekend and we went to a neat place called Quarry Hill Park that was an old gravel pit that they city had turned into a park. It had hiking trails, a pond, hills, a cave, and a nature center that was packed with families when we went but still really cool. They had a bunch of stuffed animals (which isn't really my cup of tea but what the heck how does one on a small investment, show kids all different types of animals safely? - stuff the animals). They also had a bird watching room which was super neat - there were all types of birds just outside the room which had tons of windows and it also had speakers so you could hear the birds. I wish I knew my birds better but they had a little cheat sheet to help you figure out what birds you were looking at!

Mayo was beautiful. They had marble everywhere and statues and beautiful glass blown chandlers that were donated by a lady that must be very wealthy! They were gorgeous!! The buildings are 19 stories tall and there are skywalks and underground walkwalks that go for miles - which is great for the wintertime up there since they have bad winters.

Mayo was for my DH who has a couple health issues that we needed to check on and we got great service there - unlike so many places we go. Altho there was one incident that for a hospital/clinic of that size and reputation we thought they were lacking. DH had to have a test where he was going to have to lay on a gurney but since he is in a wheelchair he usually asks that the bed/gurney be lowered to the lowest setting so he can transfer easily on his own but this one's lowest setting was still 2 feet above him. And the woman running the test didn't know what to do... We said if there was one other person to help me (the woman was too old to help), we could easily get DH on the gurney. It took a good ten minutes and then it was finally the doctor that ordered the test that came and helped me get him on the gurney! Silly! Oh well stuff like this happens all the time but we just didn't expect it there - there were tons of people in wheelchairs, but I guess most of them could stand if they had to - DH can't. We also had one doctor that we waited for 45 to 60 min's for and then he was only in the exam room for maybe 10 min's max! I hate that - he rushed everything and couldn't get out of the room fast enough. He was the only disappointing thing about the whole experience.

All in all DH got some great care there and if you ever have a medical problem and need expert knowledge, I'd advise going to the Mayo - it's great! Other than the actual buildings being really beautiful - there's tons of marble everywhere - the people who work there are exceptionally nice. Most places you go to see a doctor the front desk people are just so so, at the Mayo they are SO friendly and SO nice - I was just floored at how helpful they all were. When you first get there they set up all your appointments & tests so that you just have a list that you follow. They are so organized! It's wonderful!

And my last CVS shopping trip was great - my two fav employees were working and the manager even let me use my expired one ECB that I was really bummed that I was going to lose! $10 worth! I got tons of stuff as you see! You gotta try it out - just start buying 2 newspapers or buy one and ask a family member or friend if you can have the inserts from their paper. Save them and then go to IHeartCVS.com and SouthernSavers.com on Saturday evening to see how you should shop for items the next week. They will tell you what coupons to get from what insert and what items are the best deal and SouthernSavers will have it all planned out for you. Go do it now - while you are thinking about it. They have cvs 101 pages that will help you figure it all out! Happy shopping!

Have a Blessed Day,

I got Rain Email

This was my first email from my granddaughter:

nhhnnom viovngfvd sss etr
uecfd zvyxvv44443 h iiiiiiyvvvvvvmn jsx
NNM RVR FCX

Isn't that the cutest thing ever? I'll have to ask my DD how DGD wrote it.

Hope you all have been having good shopping trips - I can't believe that it's been over a week and a half since I have been to CVS. I had a friend pass away last week and it was a long week besides that happening. It was sudden and she will be missed greatly.

My DH has been working on an idea - he always has ideas, but this particular one just might work. Stay tuned for updates on this! :-)

Have a blessed day,

Great CVS Trips!

So I've done a bunch of CVS trips and we've gotten some great deals this weekend!! There's a secert savings to one of the ECB deals this week. Go to IHeartCVS.com and see what it is (altho you might be able to tell from my pictures!)

Pictures below. This was such a great haul - plus I got the Madagascar 2 DVD. And those Tides aren't as small as they look - their the 32 load bottles, 3 of them. 2 boxes Cereal, 2 packs of Shakes (4 in each), Dove shampoo & conditioner, Dawn, 2 Crests, Nivea Lip stuff, Nivea shaving gel, 2 Wrinkle creams, 6 packs cotton pads, 2 Glades, 4 Blade energy drinks, 2 lotions, 2 quick energy drinks, 2 Ritz packs. This was an Awesome trip!!

This was a pretty good quick trip right after church! $1.00!! Sorry this picture is so blurry (my phone camera) I must have wiggled it when I took the shot! But you get the idea of what I got!

And this is the last deals of the weekend. TP, papertowels, 4 bar soap, more wrinkle cream (what can I say I'm getting older!), 5 bottles of shampoo/conditioner, 2 packs of energy drinks (8 all), 3 toothpastes, 2 mircowave lunches, mouthwash, 2 boxes bandaids w/ cream, and an earrinse. WOW!!
I spent a little more than usual for these trips - maybe $6 or $7 total but I got tons!! And with the last couple of trips being soooo low I didn't mind. I was a little disappointed that CVS is now hanging their tags for brand products & CVS products on the same tag so I thought one of the items that I was buying was $1.39 cheaper than it was. Needless to say I was suprized at the price and even walked back to the item again with the cashier (one of the super nice ones) and she showed me how upper management has decided to trick the eye of the shopper with the two different prices. It looks like the price of the brand product was on sale for the price that was only for the CVS brand. So be on the look out for this new practice. But all in all I'm super happy with all I got!

Have a blessed day!

Latest CVS Trip

So I did pretty good - DD and my cards had gotten the $2 off of $10 CVS purchase CRT's (coupons that CVS price checker scanner prints out if you scan your CVS card) so I've been trying to figure out a way to get the cotton pads for cheap! As you can see by the picture we got good deals and the total cost was only $2.75 for everything!!

The L'Oreal cleanser is usually more than twice that for just one - and we got two. I have a rain check for my card so hopefully I can find another store that has two for my card (got the other two for her card). Got 6 greeting cards for free, crackers for free, razors for free, a candy bar (DH loves them!), Benefiber, Almond Clusters (goodness these are good!!!!), and CVS lotion (it's made by Jergens), and a eye mask - ALL FOR FREE. Okay it was $2.75 but what a deal - steal!!

If you want to learn how to do the CVS game, check out the left side menu and click on the advice and help link and it will take you to a page that has some great links to blogs that taught me how to do this. Buy & stockpile (buy when things are on sale only) or donate to others - I did a few weeks ago to a family that had their house burn down and it was soooo awesome to be able to give them a ton of totally new stuff!!!

Have a blessed day,

Help I need Madagascar 2 Coupon!

I've heard there's a Madagascar Escape 2 Africa coupon in a few different papers from last Friday the 6th of Feb. Do you still have the paper? email me and I'll send you my address, I need this coupon fast!! CVS has got one heck of a deal this week and I've been slacking off checking out the deals for this week! And just found out that the bigger cities had this coupon in their Friday's paper - of course our little town didn't!

CVS hasn't been the greatest in deals lately but I'm still at it! This picture's deals, I only spent about $2 bucks - on all this!! Plus I got ECB's back. Take a look at the advice and help posting (I have it on the left side menu) on how to really save money by couponing!

Couponing Advice and CVS for Beginners

So many friends and family have asked me how I get all my great deals and let me tell you I get great deals!!! But the real kudos go to Jenny at SouthernSavers, Erica at IHeartCVS, and many others! I just found one blog after another and just started reading up on this phenomenon. I have saved over 50 to 75% on my grocery bill (mostly on cleaning and toiletry supplies, plus some food items, esp. milk!).

Here's a little list of some of my favorite money saving helpful sites:

1. Jenny at SouthernSavers is so helpful. She has lots of good plans on how to grow your Extra Care Bucks at CVS and get lots of free and low cost items. Each week she has a grand plan for CVS that makes going there so easy!

Here's her guides for couponing: http://southernsavers.com/getting-started-guides/

2. And the one that started it all: Erica at: I Heart CVS. Her site will give you all the latest news on CVS and any deals that are upcoming so that you can plan your trips accordingly. Also so you can collect the correct coupons for your shopping trips. Erica also has the latest news on the hard to find CVS coupons like $3 off of $15 purchase, which are so helpful in making a great shopping trip even better!

3. Denise Sawyer, The "Cent"ible Sawyer, has explained how to CVS in a very easy to understand way. Check it out: http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/2009/02/cvs-for-beginners.html

http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/2009/02/normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4.html

She also has deals on Walgreens, Target, WalMart, Aldi's, Kroger, and Meijer's. She's been in the Aug and Sept Woman's Day magazines. And she's one of the 11 Mom's (thru WalMart). She's got a BlogTalkRadio show. She's a real helpful resource.

4. And a new one that I found today: Nickles N Dimes. Becky has lots of stores that she checks on, so go over to her site and see what kind of deals you can get!

Have a blessed day!