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!

Cute Grandbaby

She is just adorable and I just can't get enough of her. I have to get some more pictures. She grew a ton and I haven't taken any pictures of her lately other than with my cellphone!! Thank goodness it's a new one and it takes pretty good pictures! Here's a cute video of her.

Have a blessed day,

Freebies

Free DVD: http://www.responsibilityproject.com/guide/

Free Hypoallergenic Pillowcase: Zyzal is offering a free hypoallergenic Pillowcase when you call 1-888-669-9992. The call is all automated. You will need to press 1, then 1 again, (possibly 1 one more time), and then enter your shipping information. US only.

Free Car Rental: Now through March 31st you can get a free weekend car rental through Hertz!! Use code PC#127595 when making a reservation for any economy or full size car. One free rental per month. (You will still have to pay for gas and any insurance if needed).

Have a wonderful day,

Where'd the time go???

I started working out with my s-i-l at the local ymca starting the beginning of the year. She and my m-i-l work out of their house babysitting so the best time for her to go to the y was just before she would be picking up the kids from school in the afternoon. Since I don't work a full time job, I said that'd be fine. Little did I know that splitting my day up like that would take a lot of adjusting!! Plus I was sick with the flu for a solid week - it was horrible. I prolly went through 3 boxes of tissues!! But this middle of the day thing has messed me all up!!

I do enjoy working out again. And yesterday we started a routine in the pool. I use to be on the swim team back in HS and I have always been a swimmer. I've always tried to have a pool or a lake near where I live. Since I've lived here in IN it's been very hard to get to water and I've really missed it. But boy am I out of shape in the pool. I remember back in HS before school we had to swim a mile - this is before school - and then during school we had another time in the pool, so I use to swim a lot then. Then after HS I didn't swim as much but I did do a lot of other physical activtities - lots and lots of hiking (I lived in the desert and we use to hike the hills around them) and I worked construction for many years. I was (key word: was) in good shape. No longer am I in anywhere near good shape. I've gained about 25lbs in the last 10-12 yrs and although I'm tall and most would say not super fat, I haven't been comfortable with myself in a long time! So this whole working out thing is a super thing - other than I have got to figure out how to manage my time much better!!! My shopping has suffered!!! And now we just got tons of snow and I have no food in the house - my DH is gonna be soooo mad! :-)

Have a blessed day!!

Long Time But I'm Still Saving Money!!

Here's the picture from Thanksgiving but I don't think I'll have a picture of all the stuff from the Dec 21 & 22nd shopping! CVS was giving away the store! On the Thanksgiving Day shopping trips I bought all this for under $4 dollars! I got tons of candy for a Christmas gift that I was making for friends and family. The candy bars are for my MIL and there's also a baby's 1st Christmas ornament. A fish aquarium (really cool - I think Rain will love!) Lip stick, razor, Dove facial cleaner, cookies, contact cleaner, and 2 pretty purses with lotions attached. I think I did pretty good that day.

Then today (& yesterday) I bought tons of stuff for pennies on the dollars PLUS they gave me tons of ECB's back. An ECB is CVS money that you can use at CVS just like money, so if they have an item like they did this Sunday & Monday for LOreal make-up for 6.99 with an 6.99 ECB printing and I happen to have a $2 off coupon - it's like they are paying me to take their make-up off their hands!! I say sure, no problem. I got tons of stuff for next to nothing.

I hope you all have been reading up on how to do your deals and steals - workin' the system with either IHeartCVS.com or SouthernSavers.com (or even CouponMom.com). They are all great help in making CVS work for you. Just do a little reading and start out with small items and work your way up.

Normally CVS is an expensive little store but if you know how to shop there you can really make out!!

May you all have a blessed Christmas!

Huge Giveaway on The Centsible Sawyer

$500 Yes, you are reading that right, can you believe it?!?!?!? $500 Who couldn't use $500 dollars right about now? Even if Christmas wasn't just 2 weeks away - oh my gosh, it's only two weeks away folks!!

Anyways go on over and check out Denise's site - I'm not sure when it's over but prolly soon!! It's over on Monday the 15th so you have time!! She has some great ideas for helping you save money!

Cool (easy) rebate coming up!!

CVS will be having some really good deals the week of the 21st thru the 27th and if you can get two newspapers this weekend (& possibly for the next little bit at least) you can get work on getting something really cool: A bonus coupon book from P&G worth $120!! It has tons of coupons in the booklet they will send you - most are worth $1 and over. You have to buy $50 worth of products during a month and a half and there's lots of different products in the list of items that qualify as P&G products.

When I read the fine details I couldn't tell if you had to buy the $50 worth of P&G products all on one receipt (which wouldn't have been so great but somewhat doable at CVS) but I emailed them and they were very nice and emailed me back and said No, it doesn't have to be on one receipt!! So save those receipts dated from 12/14/2008 and 1/31/2009!!

Go to: http://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com/pgeds/en_US/jsp/EDS_Page.jsp?pageID=Year-of-Savings for all the details and a list of the products and the rebate form that you have to mail in with your receipt(s).

Some of their products that qualify:

• Febreze
• Old Spice
• Secret
• Charmin
• Luvs
• Pampers
• Puffs
• Duracell
• Camay
• Ivory
• Olay
• Zest
• CoverGirl
• Always
• Tampax
• Dawn
• Joy
• Head & Shoulders
• Pantene
• Herbal Essences
• Clairol
• Bounty
• Mr Clean
• Swiffer
• Cheer
• Era
• Gain
• Tide
• Gillette

Okay, I know that you are gonna go shopping sometime in the next week or two and I'm sure that most of the products on the list are things you usually buy anyways, so keep your receipts!

Have a blessed day - sorry I've been slack lately!!!

e-coupons I think I love you!!

Okay so yesterday I had to go up to Fort Wayne and I've been doing some shopping while I'm up there cas they have some stores up there that we don't have in our little ole hick town here. And I saw my first negative amount on the cash register!! Holy Cow that is an awesome site!!! It was minus 31 cents - I hadn't planned on a negative amount so wasn't prepared for it and I just grabbed DH's favorite candy bar to get back over to postive! I paid 23 cents!!

The only “bad” thing was is that the store I went to (Kroger/Scott) is split up into two different stores - the pharamacy stuff (shampoo, body soap/ wash) is in a different building so I could have gotten a way better deal but I’m not complaining!! For both "trips" I got:

• 2 Reddi Wips
• 2 GG Vegs
• 2 Cottenelle TPs
• block of cheese
• candy bar
• 2 Olay Ribbons body washes (the second "store") 55 cents

all this stuff for 78 cents!! (I could have gotten it all minus the candy for I think 24 cents, tax is sometimes hard to figure. )

this is the trip stash:

Go to SouthernSavers and she'll tell you all about Kroger stores and all about e-coupons that you "load" onto your Kroger card. You can totally save big time and "double dip" so to speak like I did. You get overage this way by using your paper coupons with the e-coupons. Have a blessed day!

Help for Couponing and Shopping!

This site has got lots of info and this link below has lots of different stores listed out for you - one may be near you!! It's a great resource for finding different blogs that will teach you how to get the best deal at your particular store. (Or you can click the image to go to the home page.)

My closest stores are: Marsh, Lances, Aldi's, & Wal-Mart. Oh and now we have a Meijers Store here in town - got love the competion for (against?) Wal-Mart!! - Meijers doubles coupons so I'll go there before I go to Wally World now! Meijers prices are in line with Wal-Marts. Also I go to Fort Wayne every once in a while, there's a Kroger up there and I can check Southern Savers for what deals to pick up while I'm there! Food for Free!! Gotta love that!

http://www.becentsable.net/Default.aspx?pageId=331691 - This has the "local" stores in the list (Aldi, Marsh, Kroger, Meijer, Fry's, Jewel-Osco, etc).

http://www.becentsable.net/Default.aspx?pageId=331690 - This has the "national" stores (CVS, Walmart, Target, etc) on this list.

Have a wonderful day!

My Fav's for Marsh:
http://bargainbriana.com/category/marsh/
http://ingoodcents.blogspot.com/search/label/Marsh

My Fav's for Meijer:
http://ingoodcents.blogspot.com/search/label/Meijer
http://bargainbriana.com/category/meijer/
http://www.thecheapsk8mom.com/search/label/Grocery%20Gathering

My Fav's for Kroger:
http://ingoodcents.blogspot.com/search/label/Kroger
http://www.southernsavers.com/category/kroger/
http://www.thriftyandchicmom.com/search/label/Kroger

My Fav's for WalMart:
http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/search/label/Walmart%20Deals
http://www.dealseekingmom.com/category/walmart-deals/

All around Fav's: http://www.thecheapsk8mom.com/

Free Stuff

Free Dr Pepper - call 1-888-DRPEPPER to request your coupon. Guns and Roses finally made their record. Only good (yesterday &) today and their website has been down for the last 2 days because of this free coupon! Call asap!!

Win a Free Ergo Baby Carrier Embroidered Organic Hands Free System. Submit your entry by midnight on December 15, 2008.

http://www.alongfortheride.biz/Win-a-Free-Organic-Embroidered-Ergo-Baby-Carrier-s/49.htm

Free Bertolli Sauce: http://www.condenet.com/promo/bertolli/sweeps/saucegiveaway/entry/long/

Black Friday Info Sites: tgiblackfriday.com, Black-Friday.net, BlackFridayCentral.com, or BlackFriday.Info.

Also I'm thinking of doing most of my Christmas shopping by way of the Internet and have been reading a lot about Ebates.com - go check it out if you do a lot of online shopping. Get money back for shopping online! And finally I read that Visa is doing some great deals too (free shipping & money off, etc): http://www.lifetakesvisa.com/

Happy Shopping! And get your free stuff now!!

Black Friday?

Well I never do Black Friday (http://www.black-friday.net/) but this year since I've gotten back into the whole coupon thing (btw, yes, I'm back from the black hole of cleaning up my computer - thanks for asking :-) I thought that I might do some Black Friday shopping - as long as I can save money in the long run, cas I really hate the early hours they always seem to have and I hate the crowds!!!!!! But it'd be worth it if I could get some good deals for Christmas and be almost done with my shopping all in one day... hmmm, something to think about.

I always try to keep a pretty tight hold on the wallet for Christmas but I've been hearing of some pretty good deals to be had, so I just might try it out this year. And last year one of my DD's best friends made out like a bandit on some great deals - I was sooo jealous.

Also I was reading MoneySavingMethods.com (http://moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-to-buy-for-christmas-gifts.html) and she has found out some of the places that will be closing up shop (Sharper Image, Linen and Things) after the new year for all you folks that like to buy gift cards and also for anyone that gets a gift card - check out her site to see how quickly you'll have to spend that card!! You don't want to waste your money or throw away someone else's money!!

Do you all know of some places that you'll be going to get your Christmas gifts this year? How are you going to be saving money this year as opposed to last year or are you one of the few that will be able to spend more this Christmas than last year?

I did find a couple cute ideas for some far away friends (I like to get unusual gifts that are small for shipping purposes):

• http://www.teroforma.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=00331!VTSOA - Stone Ice cubes (I know it sounds weird but oh so "cool" for that person that's hard to find a gift for!!)


• http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?select=C78&byCategory=C1005&id=2339HZLNUT - Sonoma Syrup, yummy


• http://www.tazachocolate.com/thegoods.php - chocolate

Okay tell me some of your favs for mailing to far away friends and family! And don't forget to give me your ideas for Black Friday!!

There are nice people online!!

My computer was down for 2 days. I didn't know that Spybot wasn't uploading the newer version of the program itself when it did it's daily updates. If you use Spybot this is something to think about and change asap!! My computer has never crashed in the ten or so years I've been online and I've helped others when their machines have gotten all junked up with spyware or gotten virus' but when mine wouldn't let me log in I was stumped.

So I took out my old laptop and hit the search button :-) and found a great site that a guy named Dan (blindwolf8) has. He is such a nice guy! Here's his site if you ever have this logon/logoff problem, he's got the steps to fix it all laid out nice and neat! http://thinkinginpixels.com/quick-fixes/ Plus on top of it all he let me call him and bug him when I got stuck on a step - how nice is that?!? It took way, way longer to find the solution to the problem than to actually fix the problem but it's scary when you turn your machine on and it just hangs there and won't let you logon!

Why people waste their time making spyware and virus' is beyond me but thank you God there are still nice guys around that will take the time to help a complete stranger!!! He didn't know me from Jack! He's going to school for his masters and I think that he's into gaming... I hope he goes far cas he deserves it!

Have a wonderful day,

Christmas Ornament Exchange

So one of my favorite blog writers is having this really neat Ornament Exchange. I think it's a great idea to meet some other blog friends and to be able to send off and receive a cool new ornament for Christmas! If you want to join up, I think today is the last day to sign up!! Click on the banner to go to her site!

Apparently her husbands family does it and now her family is doing it. What a cool tradition. Plus you don't have to think too hard about what to buy for the Christmas exchange and you can put the whole Christmas buying up the store (& putting yourself in debt) on hold!!

My DD and I have been exchanging Christmas pins with each other since she was born (of course those first couple of years I got to pick out my own :-) but now we have quite a few. With DGD being here I wonder if she will continue our little tradition on? What's your family Christmas tradition?