Look and See What Was Free!

Today I did my weekly shopping at King Soopers and here are all the goodies I got for FREE!

Yes, even the flowers were free! I received a catalina (from a DiGorno promotion a few weeks ago) for $5 off my next floral purchase. I found this nice $5 bouquet and voila! Free flowers!
The Acqua Panna was also free from a catalina I received.
The Crave cat treats were on closeout for .95 and with my $1 off coupon they were free (I think I actually made .05 on each of them because I noticed the coupon didn't adjust down)!
The Friskies cat treats were actually not free, but I found this one variety on closeout for $1.19 so with my $1 off coupon they were only .19 each.
The Good and Natural bars were free because of using the free coupon in last Sunday's paper (I bought 3 but one made it's way into my belly before I could take the picture)
The Blue Bunny ice cream was free with a coupon I received from being chosen as a HouseParty host.

So nothing toooo mind blowing...just some good luck with some catalinas and a couple closeouts. I did save 60% at the store this week so that made me very happy!

Before grocery shopping, I stopped at Walmart to pick up a couple things. One of the things on my hit list were these candles.

They were FREE after coupon (actually a .03 money maker) so you can hop over to Hip2Save and find out where to print out the coupons for these.

Not too shabby of a day all in all. Tomorrow I'm hitting some garage sales and can't wait to see what kind of deals I can score.


Love and taking home the free stuff,

Stephanie

Update on King Soopers "Incident"

My previous post was about an interaction I had with one of the cashiers at my local King Soopers. I meant to update you on this earlier but better late than never, right?

I did send a "comment" to King Soopers via their website, later that afternoon, and waited for a response.

I didn't have to wait that long because the next day the store manager called me to ask about it. He wanted to find out who the cashier was who handled me and wanted to make sure I was taken care of. He told me that he was going to have a talk with her about it and I made sure he knew that she wasn't rude to me, just that she made the comment regarding the coupon and that she did go ahead and ring them in. I also, kindly, stressed how I just wanted to make sure she (and other cashiers) were knowledgable regarding the print on a coupon.

I did receive an email back, regarding my comment, from a customer service rep. but it was very generic and didn't really address my concern. It didn't matter though. I was blown away that the store manager called me to talk to me about it. It made me feel better about walking into the store last week to do my shopping.

It's nice to know that even a big company like King Soopers does care about their customers.


Love and continuing to be a King Soopers shopper,

Stephanie

Understanding the fine print

While at the grocery store today, I was thinking all about the blog post I was going to write - about the great deals going on right now and some of the freebies I picked up. My focus shifted after I went through the checkout line and had a small incident with my cashier. For the record, it wasn't really an "incident" because I didn't want to continue to disagree with her. I'm not a confrontational person in the first place, plus there was a lady in line behind me and I didn't want to hold her up. But here's what happened...

I was redeeming my FREE Starbucks Refreshers coupons that came in last Sunday's paper. I had 4 of them and they were on the top of my coupon pile, along with my other "free" coupons (I always try and do that to help out the cashier). As she was entering them in she commented that the computer was beeping because the coupon says "One coupon per purchase." My response, "Yes, one coupon per item purchased." She disagreed with me saying that that phrase meant one coupon per purchase, as in transaction. I decided at that point to let it go because that's when I didn't want to start an arguement. She did go ahead and ring the coupons through for me and it was left at that.

I was riled up on the way home (and a couple hours afterwards), frustrated that the cashier (who was a "head cashier" according to her nametag) was not knowledgable about the wordage on a coupon. Even more so, I was upset because I don't like the feeling that someone thinks I'm someone trying to take advantage of the system, like I'm doing something wrong.

Since I have become an avid couponer, I try and be very careful to follow coupon wordage and follow a store's coupon policy. I don't try and get away with things that I shouldn't because I know it will just come back to bite me in the rear (and all the other couponers out there).

I'm still trying to decide if I want to call (or go back into) King Soopers and explain the situation to them. I just don't want to be marked as a trouble maker because I know I'm not. I think, for now, I will just send a general comment to King Soopers, via email (is that passive aggressive enough?) lol

So for those of you who aren't familiar with the fine print on a coupon, and what it actually means, I found a blog that explains it all. I was going to do it myself, but she has it laid out really well. So hop over to the Krazy Coupon Lady and make sure you know what it all means. Maybe I should just print this out and take it into the store with me next time I go. lol

In the meantime, check out the deals at King Soopers and Safeway this week so you can grab your freebies and steals. I saved 62% off my order today thanks to Bargain Blessings. :)

Love and reading the fine print,

Stephanie

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