A little bargain shopping today

Today I was out and about, running a few errands and wanted to share a few of my deals. I know I haven't done much of that lately. We are still having home internet issues so between that and everything else going on around here (getting boy things ready for consignment, garage sales and giving to friends) I haven't taken a lot of time to just sit on the computer.

Can I tell you my other issue? It's not a bad thing, but ever since I received my iPhone I have been using it to check email, Facebook, etc so that's another reason I haven't been on my laptop as much...and blogging from my phone isn't very easy. :)

So on to the deals...

My first stop was at Walgreens. I went in with one thing in mind...pacifiers! Maybe I should have waited until they were on sale but I didn't want to have to deal with them being out of stock when/if that time came (especially since I'm about 30 minutes from my closest store).

The Avent Soothie was Nora's favorite when she was a baby. I couldn't get her to use any other kind. Emmett didn't like them as much so it's a toss up as to which ones the new addition will like. I thought I'd take a risk and pick some up. If she doesn't like them, I can give them to friends who are also expecting, or donate them elsewhere.

Regular price of $4.49 - $2 off coupon from the Walgreens May coupon book (pick one up in the store) - $1.50 off from an online coupon = .99 for a 2 pack!
I also received a coupon for $3 off an Avent bottle. Not sure if I'll use it but that's a great coupon to be given (it's the thought that counts, right?)
With tax I paid $5.40 for all four packages, with a savings of $14!!

Collin at Hip2Save posted about this deal so you can check it out here. I reached my print limit on the coupon so I can't tell if it's still available to print or not. If so, pick a couple up! What a great baby shower gift or item to donate.
A note with the Walgreens coupons - one coupon will deduct for as many as you buy, unless there is a limit specified on the coupon itself. So I only needed one coupon to get the $2 off all four packages.

Next I went to Safeway.

I did most of my end of the month grocery shopping at King Soopers this week (as usual) and used up my grocery budget for the week, but decided to pop into Safeway anyway to pick up a couple things.

Everything below cost a total of $8.21 with a savings of $25.20 (75%).

We were out of bananas so those were just something we needed.
Kix was also something we were also dangerously low on, and if you are in my house at breakfast time and we don't have Kix for Nora it can get ugly! lol They weren't on sale (ugh) but I did have a $1 off coupon so that helped a little.
The Ken's Salad dressing was FREE with the .99 sale - minus a $1 off coupon expiring today. The cashier did have to adjust down my 4th coupon because of the .01 overage on the coupons but he did it with no problem. :)
The Precious String Cheese was a part of their BOGO free sale, ending today (and also something we were low on). They were $5.99 a pack and then I used a $1 off coupon from yesterday's newspaper, which made them $2.50 a package for the 16 count. Not to shabby, I think!

Note - at Safeway you can only use one coupon, for your two items, on a BOGO free sale (unlike at King Soopers). You can check out Safeway's coorperate coupon policy here (the BOGO senario is noted on #4).

My last stop was to run into the Dollar Tree and see if they still had any Sunday newspapers left. Luckily they did and I picked up a couple extra since yesterday's paper had 4 inserts!

I hope you all have had some fun and successful shopping lately.

Love and a few good deals,

Stephanie

The thoughts in my head...

...rarely make it to my blog. I can believe it's been almost a months since I've posted.

Part of that time we were dealing with computer issues. Our home internet would go off and on constantly and then was off for about 2 days. We have a new router and (knock on wood) it looks like it's finally fixed.
So, during all that time, I didn't feel like toying with my computer too much...at least doing much of anything overly productive.
In the meantime, I have aquired a new iPhone 4S so luckily I had that as a back up to check messages and such...just not a great tool to create a blog post.

Since my last post, I've been chugging along in my pregnancy. I'm now 23 weeks along and a few weeks ago, when we had our ultrasound, we found out we are having another girl! Poor Emmett will be stuck in between 2 girls. lol And poor daddy is going to have to deal with a lot of hormones (right now mine are enough for him to handle).

I'm glad Spring has finally sprung. I love the warmer weather and I really look forward to it continuing. Everyone comments on how I'll be very pregnant during summer, and how horrible that will be, but I went through that with both Nora and Emmett so it's nothing new. I'd rather be warm, with a fan blowing on me (or inside with the A/C going), than cold. I really don't like to be bundled up and feeling cold.

As far as couponing...of course I've been keeping that up. I went shopping today and saved 48% on my bill, picking up laundry detergent and fabric softener for $1.99 each, free Suave deoderant and boxes of Jello, and .99 boxes of cereal!

I know that as time goes on, and I get more uncomfortable, my grocery trips may be shortened but I love grocery shopping! I'm blessed to have occassions when I can go by myself and take my time going through the aisles. Besides, I have to continue to keep active, right? Walking through King Soopers won't raise my heart rate (unless I find FABULOUS unadvertised deals like I did today on the Sauve and Jello) but it's something. :)

So until next time, I hope you have successful, money saving ventures.

Love and little baby kicks in my belly,

Stephanie

Some birthday creativity

Last Sunday was my husband's birthday and I always have a tough time figuring out just the right gift for him. This year, my idea came from Pinterest and with a few adjustments it turned out great.

I found a simple, plastic, flower pot at the dollar store and put in craft/floral foam inside. I purchased 5 mini bottles of liquor (some of his faves) and some of his favorite candy bars and hot glued them to wooden skewers. The skewers poke right into the foam so they stand up perfectly. Then I picked up a few gift card, taped those to skewers as well and then finished it off with some gift bag filler to cover the foam. Voila!

It seemed like my husband enjoyed his gift...so much so that he thought it was professionally done (like I had just went out and bought it like that)! That's a great compliment.

So next time you don't know what to give someone (especially those hard to shop for men) think outside the box and see what you can throw together.

Love and creative gifts,

Stephanie

Not Irish at all..

but I can't resist a holiday so we were all a little green yesterday.

I've never been one to really care much about St. Patrick's Day because my family isn't Irish (and I'm not a huge drinker), but once you have kids it's so much fun to celebrate every holiday.

We kicked the day off with green pancakes. My kids went nuts over them so I guess they are a keeper. Nothing fancy...just regular pancakes with green food coloring.

As you can see there was nothing left...

 Not much happened at lunch time but for supper the milk went green...

 And so did the jello...

Dessert was a small decorated cookie from my FAVORITE cookie shop, Eileen's Colossal Cookies. I grew with these cookies in Nebraska and was so excited when a location opened up in Highland's Ranch. They are soooooo good.

I hope you all had a little luck of the Irish yesterday!

Love and green goodies,

Stephanie

B.Y.O.S.

I'm sure I get some funny looks when we are out eating and the straw in my kids' cups aren't the same ones my server delivered but I have found a silly little thing that makes life a bit easier when dining out, and my kids love it.

B.Y.O.S.

Bring Your Own Straw

And not just any straw but a "bendy" straw. You know...these!

I picked these up for $1 (maybe at Dollar Tree, or in the dollar section at Target...I don't remember) and they are fabulous!

Why would I bring my own straw? When you have toddlers and they are given a regular straw in their kids' cup sometimes they struggle with drinking out of it. They either have to move the cup off the table, down towards their lap, to take a drink, or tip the cup to be able to drink out of it. Either way, spills usually occur.

Plus, the kids think it's fun to have some little special treat just for them.

The best way, I have found, to transport straws is with a travel toothbrush holder! I think I found the idea in a Parents magazine one time so I can't take credit for it.

I have to cut the straws to fit into the holder but that's ok since they are usually going into kid size cups anyway.

Voila! They just stay in my diaper bag (or you can put them in your purse) and you can B.Y.O.S. too!

Love and bendy straws,

Stephanie

Markdown Madness - UPDATE!

As I was typing out my previous blog post, and looking through my reciept, I noticed that my receipt didn't seem right. I was charged full price for 4 of my Downy products and the 2 Aveeno baby washes. Something didn't seem right when I looked at my original total but I thought it was just pregnancy brain at work.
While at the store, the cashier and I were talking about the markdowns and shared our excitement about it, then I realized I left my wallet in the car (yep, THAT was pregnancy brain at work). She suspended the transaction and I came back in. I also realized that I forgot to hand over 2 of my coupons (after I paid and was getting ready to leave...MORE pregnancy brain at work) but that was a quick trip to the service counter and no big deal.

Even with all of that, I didn't notice that I was overcharged!

Long story short (too late), I recieved an adjustment on 4 of the 6 items, and recieved my money back on 2 of them. The policy, regarding receiving a refund on items that ring up incorrectly (if you buy multiple of the same item they just refund one of them and adjust the rest), is very generous of King Soopers but not one I like to take advantage of. Even though I did have to drive 12 miles out of my way to go back to the store, all I wanted was to get my proper adjustment...no more, no less.

I did adjust my total amount paid in my previous post for what I WOULD have paid had I not been refunded for those 2 items. But my actual out of pocket ended up being $14.44...that seems really low so I'm not sure if another error occured when she was doing the adjustment but that's where I stand.

I just wanted to be honest, and also stress the importance of checking your receipt before leaving the store. 98% of the time I look over my receipt but every now and again (like today) I forget. Even better, if you can make sure to watch the screen as items are getting rung up then you can save yourself a trip to the service counter.

Love and price adjustments,

Stephanie

Markdown Madness!

I had to make a quick trip into the grocery store today because we were low on milk (we must be drinking more than normal...not a bad thing, really) and the kids needed some more yogurt. I always check the markdown areas to see if there are any good deals to snag. To my delight (but not to my weekly budget's delight) I feel like I hit the jackpot. Besides my 3 gallons of milk, here's what I found...

Yep, ALL of this was marked down!

It's a little tough to see the markdown stickers so here's the easy rundown...

Downy - the big 78 (purple) and 90 (blue) load bottles! marked down to $3.59 each - $1 off coupon = $2.59.

Yogurt - 1.09 for the Dananino and 1.39 for the YoBaby (no coupons for either of those but my kids like them and that's still a good price)

Shredded Cheese -  the big 1 lb bags for 2.69 each and a $1/2 coupon = 2.19 each

String Cheese - 2.69 - $1 coupon = 1.69

Aveno baby wash - 1.49 - $1 coupon = .49 each

J&J and soap - $1.29 - a $1.50 catalina they adjusted down for me = FREE

Orajel - $1.39 (no coupon but a great price)

If all of this was purchased at regular price it would have cost $79.90...plus 3 gallons of milk for a grand total of $88.97.

My cost for everything (inlcuding the milk) was $23.94!! That included $10.79 in coupon savings and .30 in King Soopers savings, from the milk.

A note regarding coupons and markdown items - One of the managers was up front when I checked out and made a comment regarding not "normally" accepting coupons on markdown items. I have heard that in the past but, 95% of the time, my cashier doesn't bat an eye over running them through. So this is an instance that will vary by store, by the cashier and by the manager on duty. It's up to you to try using them...I figure it's always worth a shot! All they can do is tell you no and then you can decide if you still want to buy the item or not.

DON'T SHY away from the markdown areas! As long as you pay attention to the expiration dates, and the quality of the packaging, you will be just fine...and pleasantly surprised at the great deals you can find!


Love and madness,

Stephanie