50 cents or less

Well this was kind of a big week for me...well, if you include last week too. I didn't do my grocery shopping until last night, about 10pm, so I barely made it in to (now) last week's grocery ad. I also made it into town last week and picked up some deals while I was there, so here goes...

These items came from Albertson's and Walgreens. Last week Albertsons had a TON of coupons on their ad. Don't forget that you can stack those coupons with manufacter coupons to double your savings. The candy was a splurge at 29 cents a piece. The Pop Secret ended up being 50 cents a box and the Marcal products were free. Watch the Sunday coupons and you'll find Marcal coupons off and on for a free roll of paper towels or $1 off. Albertsons had their toliet paper on sale for $1 so that's how I ended up with that for free.

The Colgate was Walgreens. They had a register rewards deal which made the Colgate free (buy it for $3.49 and get $3.50 back in RR) but then I had $1 off coupons so it was a money maker. I had to do seperate transactions to get the 2 tubes, but then I used my register rewards to get diapers so it worked out great.

The training pants and the Snikiddy were free from Babies R Us. BRU released a $5 off any purchase coupon that was only good for 2 days so I got some training pants for Nora (priced at $5). Snikiddy was an online coupon for a free bag.

The cat food was free! I was led to a link where you could request a coupon for a free bag of food (cat or dog). I had to go to a special pet store to pick it up but it was on route while I was traveling around so I got it. The bag retails for $24.99!! I hope my cats don't get used to it because I won't ever buy this on my own. lol

And this was all King Soopers last night. A lot of this came from the Buy ten get $5 off sale. To save time I'll just put "B10" buy it if it was. Also, since KS doubles coupons I'll just put the doubled price...

Aquafresh kids - B10 + $1 off coupons = free

Satin Care shave cream - B10 + $1 off coupons = .50 a piece (won't have to buy that for a long time now)

Softsoap - B10 + .70 coupon = .30

Irish Spring - B10 + $1 off 2 = .50 a piece

Wish Bone - B10 + $1 off coupon = .50

Motrin PM - B10 + $3 coupon = .50 money maker

Philadelphia Cream cheese - part of B10 sale at .99 a piece. KS currently (through mid-August I think) has a deal where if you buy 5 Kraft dairy products you get a $5 catalina back. I bought the 3 cream cheese (YUM!), the sliced cheese (had a $1 coupon on that so I paid .17 out of pocket for it) and the shredded cheese was on sale for $1.88 (no coupon this time) so I paid $5.02 for all 5 and got $5 back. woohoo!

Spaghettios - B10 +  $1 off 2 coupon = Free

Diet Snapple - Free from playing the Kroger Summer of Savings game online

Lady Speed Stick - B10 + $1 off coupon = free

Idahoan potatoes - B10 + $1 off 3 coupon = .16 a piece

The Bic pens actually came from Target last week but I forgot them in my other pictures. I know there are a ton of deals for school supplies right now but this was a pretty good one when you the coupon I had, which is why I'm listing it. They were on sale for .60 a piece and I had two $1 off of 2 coupons. So that made the bags .10 a piece. They will be good to use when I'm doing my Avon parties. :)

Last night was a good shopping night for me. I spent $54 and saved $80. If you are still reading this, I hope these posts don't come off like I'm bragging. I guess I am a bit because I'm proud of the money I save but I mainly do it because I want you all to realize that you can do it too!! I am happy to help you if I can. I don't have the time or energy to post all the links to online coupons, myself, but there are some GREAT blogs out there that will do it for you (and for me). Let me know if you need help finding a great one.

I heart Verizon

There have been a few times when I've been a bit irritated with the cost of cell phones and cell phone plans, especially considering how much we use them now a days. I've had Verizon as my carrier since, gosh, 2002 I think. I just never wanted to take the energy to change to someone else but now that we are out in the country, I'm glad I never changed. We actually have decent cell service out here, except some times in our basement, and other people who come out usually don't have any service at all. So, because of coverage we are sticking with Verizon.

If you don't know, Verizon has a deal called "new every 2" where you can get a new cell phone every two years. Mine was coming up on Sept. 2nd and I was SO excited for that. I currently have a flip phone with a non-qwerty keyboard. It was fine for me back when I got it because I didn't text much at all. Now I text frequently so it's kind of a pain. I was resigned to getting my phone in another month+ until my current phone started acting up. Something is loose with the battery connection and it shuts off frequently. I decided to go online and see what I could get without the discount. THEN I decided to call Verizon and see what happens. I'm so glad I did!

I talked to a very nice rep. and told him my situation. After putting me on hold and talking with his supervisor I was able to get my "new every 2" discount date changed to TODAY! Online discounts are usually better than buying in the store, so I went to the website and got myself a new phone. I didn't get a smartphone, although I could have, but I found a multimedia phone with the best reviews and now it's mine. I will be the proud (I hope) owner of the Samsung Reality in City Red.

Woohoo! So just remember that making a phone call can really pay off. I know in reality I only saved myself $20, but that's still $20 and I should get my phone tomorrow. :)

1 pound to go!

I stepped on the scale this morning to find that I have ONE POUND to go! I know it's just a scale. I know the numbers don't accuratly represent how my body actually looks. I know that I need to tone up my legs and midsection so I can get back in to (and look good in) some of my prepregnancy clothes, but I love seeing the numbers go down.

It is a shining star in my morning that currently has a little gloom so I'll take it and run with it. :)

Out and About

Today Jim was home so I was able to get out of the house, go into town, and run some errands. I was hoping to meet up with a couple friends but it just didn't pan out. I did, however, get a chance to stop at my friend Robin's house. Living out where we do it's not a usual occurrance to just be able to stop over at a friend's house. I was very happy to see her and her 2 youngins' for a few minutes. :)

It was nice to just be able to run in out and of a few stores to rock some deals for the week. My hitlist included Target, ARC thrift store, Walgreens, King Soopers (the one on Quincy and Buckley had some special deals so I only picked up a couple things), Albertsons and Walmart. I don't think I have been to that many stores in one day in a long time. When I have the kids I just don't feel like lugging them in and out of the car and in and out of stores. Plus they get grumpy...then I get grumpy and that's just not pretty.

Besides visiting with Robin, I didn't have much "me" time but being able to look around stores, hit so many places at one time, and take advantange of deals was really nice. AND since I had dinner in the slow cooker, I didn't have to come home and slave away in the kitchen and THAT made a nice day even better.

50 cents or less!

I decided to change my title this week because I didn't get too much for free...just a lot of good 50 cent or less deals. King Soopers has their buy 10 items get $5 off deal this week so I took advantage of that by pairing items with coupons. So here goes...

Loreal kids Shampoo - $1.50 with the sale and I had 2 coupons that doubled to $1 each so .50 on each of those.

Fuze drinks were on sale for .89 a piece. I downloaded a coupon off of King Soopers website that ended up giving me $1.59 off (not sure how that worked out), so I got those 3 for .36 a piece.

Suave deoderant was a part of the buy 10 sale, for $1 and I had a $1 off coupon so it was FREE

Dixie plates, also a part of the buy 10 sale, were $1.50. I had 2 coupons that doubled to $1 each so those were .50 a piece.

The A&W I got FREE because of playing the King Soopers Summer of Savings game. Go to http://www.kingsoopers.com/ to play and maybe you'll win something too!!

The Turkey Hill Pomegranite Lemonade was on sale for $1 and I had a buy 2 get $1 off coupon so those were .50 each (I'd like to thank Ann for hooking me on this beverage)

Palmolive was in the buy 10 sale for $1.50 and I had a $1 off coupon so that was .50

Boulder Chips were also in the buy 10 sale for $1 a piece! I had a buy 2 get $1 off coupon so those were .50 each.

The General Foods International Coffee was in the markdown bin for $1.50. I had a $1 off coupon so I got it for .50.

And lastly the Easy Mac was a part of the buy 10 sale and were .38 each. I didn't have a coupon for them, but I needed 2 more items to get a second $5 off so I picked those. For .38 a piece that's a good deal. Especially when I'm too tired to make lunch for Nora. :)

Did you get some good deals this week??

Free (and near free) for me this week...

Last week wasn't too exciting but I guess I made up for it this week. Let me tell you again how much I LOVE the markdown areas!

The Fast Fixens Chicken Strips were on sale for $1 and I had a $1 off coupon. :)

The Sobe drinks were on sale for .88. I had 2 BOGO coupons so normally you'd think I would get them for .44 each, but no. The cashier just rang the coupons to the max. amount allowed which was $1.69 so I paid .14 for all 4 of them.

The Hunts Ketchup was on sale for $1 and I had a .20 coupon. That's a pretty lame coupon but with doubling it that means I got ketchup for .60. That's ok with me.

The Starkist tuna was on sale for $1. I had a buy 2 get $1 off so I paid .50 a piece for them. Not the best deal, but not bad considering they are normally $1.99 each.

The Dan-o-nino's were in the markdown area for $1.09 a piece. I had 3 coupons, 2 for $1.50 off and one for $1 off!! Doing the math on that means I MADE .73 on them.

The Danimals Coolisions were also in the markdown area for 1.29 each and I had two $1 coupons so I got those for .29 a piece.

So I guess I didn't get that much for free this week, but this is just an example of holding onto coupons and matching them with a sale. Some of those items aren't things I normally buy, but when I can get them for next to nothing then it makes it worth it. Plus they are little extra special treats for Nora and myself. :)

Hitting the nail on the head

This last Avon order I ordered some items for myself both in my regular order and via direct delivery (long story, but it helps with my earnings percentage). There was some of Avon's regular nail polish on sale, which I ordered regularly, and then their Speed Dry Nail polish in the outlet (clearance section), which I ordered in my direct delivery order. When I recieved my orders I realized that I should have paid more attention to the colors I bought...

Do you think I should have bought a little variety?? lol I guess I wanted to get a red, a pink and a really light pink (that's what the far right is...not the nude color it looks like). I thought about returning some of them but I decided I'd keep them. The speed dry will be good for Nora's toes (she's now obsessed with her "pretty toes") and my fingers. Then I can use the regular polish on my toes. Besides they were really inexpensive...I just thought it was a little funny.