Shameless.... or hopeful?

I am was a giveaway entering fool.  There are still times when I do sit down and actually have the time to enter a few here and there.  One I had entered, but not won, was for a Baby Bullet.  BUT... I (along with others who lost) were given a second chance to win!!!  An easy popularitiy contest for the messiest baby.  I seem to have confused my friends.  They have liked the beg for votes on my wall, not on the picture itself.  You see, my friends need to go to FrugalNovice's Facebook Page and like her page... then look at her photo album for Malia and "Like" this picture HERE.

So... in an effort to make it a little less confusing, I'm trying again to solicit votes for my messy face :)

I covet any and all votes!!!  Thank you in advance!! xoxo

Gotta Love Frozen Food Month at Martins!

So... noticed that March was Frozen Food Month at Giant/Martin's... I like frozen foods... a lot.  Love the convenience of them as well as the variety of options.  So, I figured I had month to buy $100 worth of frozen foods and in return, get a $25 Catalina coupon printed to use on my next purchase at Martins.... BUT the deal got sweeter.  I was able to get $100 of frozen foods way cheaper..

How? ... you say... well, I'm so glad you asked. 

This week you were able to piggy back the Catalina coupon deals.   If you buy $25.00 worth of  SPECIFIC frozen foods you would get a $10.00 coupon to use on your next purchase.... I think I smell some savings!!

So first I go and buy (4) Wanchi Ferry frozen meals.  I had $6.00 worth of coupons, plus they were on sale... so, my total with tax came to $17.06 PLUS I got a $10.00 coupon for my next purchase


Total:  $17.06 out of pocket

Next purchase was for (5) Freshetta pizza... On sale, of course.... with coupons (including my $10.00 from my last purchase)... came to $10.63 out of pocket

I am halfway to my $100.00 goal.... and only have $27.69 out of pocket....

To I went and bought (5) boxes of Lean Pockets on sale (5) for $10 and (5) Stouffers entree's, also on sale (5) for $10.00 and one more Freschetta Pizza....

Total after coupons, including my $10.00 coupon from last purchase....   My total:  $12.63 out of pocket... would have been less but I seem to have forgotten my other Freschetta coupon... bummer

So now I am 3/4 of the way to my $100.00 purchase and only have spent $40.32  total out of pocket...

My final purchase needs to be made before last night was over.  What shall I get?   Decisions, decisions....  I decided to go and pick up 4 more Wanchai Ferry meals and a bag of Dole sliced strawberries...less mfg coupons, $10.00 from my last purchase coupon, and sale price, my out of pocket $9.06 thus netting me my $10.00 on my next purchase coupon AND my $25.00

Let's recap... under $50.00 out of pocket for over $100.00 of food and I still have $35.00 to use on my next 2 purchases.  Now I know that I could have done this a little cheaper, but I only wanted what I knew I would use and had coupons for.  Other bloggers have done a lot better and my hat is off to them! 

Love when I get paid to shop!! How about you?



Ahh, the sweet smell of saving money... part 2

Like I said before, (I think I said before..) I use to coupon a lot, but got out of the habit.  Recent situations required that we re-aquaint ourselves with that special form of currency!    It took me a few weeks to get myself together, but the Target frozen food/gift card deals were a great jump start!  It was a win-win!  At least for us! 

Now, last week was technically week 2, but it was really the first week I was able to really get down and dirty with the ads and printables.  Kudos to my mentors, The Krazy Coupon Lady and Totally Target!  They ROCK!  There are MANY others, too many to mention here.  Suffice it to say FB newsfeed and my email in box are rocking with deals.   My hat is off to them all!  Thank you!!!

So..  week 2 of serious couponing begins when I started Sunday out with another trip to Food Lion to take advantage of yet another pack of Pampers.  I grabbed a pack of  50 newborn pampers for $2.99 plus tax. (regular 10.99).   It looked so nice sitting next to the one I got on Saturday... ok, maybe not, humor me, ok?

Monday, I had my Pediacare coupons cut along with my Walgreens pedicare coupon with the intention of scoring 2 bottles of fever reducer for free.  Sadly, I had to pay $1.00 each because the children's dosage ran higher than the infant drops.  BUT, I still saved 11.50, so all was not lost.  SOOO.. I decided to go the next day when I was directed to better coupons from my sources.  The poor young sales clerk was totally confused with how I could stack coupons, so she had to call the manager.  Finally I walked out with (2) more Pedicare infant drops for 50 cents.   (the coupons I had were resulted in a money maker and the manager would not push it through so I had to go back to my old $1.50 off two).  So, bottom line, I have (4) bottles of fever reducer that was worth $27.00 for the bargain price of $2.63 after tax.  Not too shabby!

Well, I am not proud of this, but I could not help myself.  I got a little OCD with the Rite Aid $3.99 coupon against the $3.99 Thermacare back thingy... I could not have an odd number.  So I ended up with 20.oops.... just recounted I have 26.  Holding my head in shame, (but do know that I did not wipe out the shelves at the 5 Rite Aids I visited during the whole week), my total of (20) (26) 3.99 Thermacare Back thingy's cost me out of pocket... ZIP / ZERO dollars and ZERO cents.  Total saved: $83.79 $108.93

So in the meantime,  my other coupons for my Purex 3 in 1 detergent arrived mid week and I was oh so pleased to be able to use them with my final rain check at CVS...  Regularly 8.79 each x 10 = 87.90 plus tax = $92.30...  but my rain check was for $3.99 and I had (10) $3.00 coupons plus $8.00 in extra care bucks... my total cost out of pocket... are you ready?  $3.89 for a savings of $88.41... color me happy.   Between last week and this week, I should not have to buy laundry detergent for a VERY long time!

So, thus far, all together $214.80 $239.94 in merchandise.

$9.66 out of pocket

Total savings $205.23 $230.27 (can you say cha-ching?)

I've been checking out next weeks coupons and deals getting my game plan on.  Not really sure if I will have much to post as we are in the midst of remodeling the bathroom.  The way I see it, there will always be similar deals in a few months if I do miss them.  
Well, off to do laundry!  Have a great week!

Ahh, the sweet smell of saving money!

I love coupons.  We try not to pay retail for anything, if at all possible.  There are tricks to the trade.  As I blogged and entered giveaways, I was introduced to some amazing coupon queens!  They have taught me, via their blogs and FB posts, how to fully utilize the coupons and play the drugstore games.  I've been renewed!

Last week I was able to save oodles of money on frozen food at Target stacking coupons PLUS gained $5.00 gift cards every time I purchased any 7 frozen food items.  I banked all those gift cards and was able to use it to buy 2 video games for Wii (Zumba and Just Dance 2 on sale at Target for $29.99 each)  Well.. I don't have Zumba yet, but I do have the raincheck and the gift cards on hand when it gets back in stock! 

Speaking of stock... Our stock pile had been drawing low so I used this week to help regenerate it...

I got some amazing deals and my game plan all plotted out.  I spent under $40.00 and saved over $100.00!  Not too shabby, don't you agree?  

The young lady at CVS stood there with her mouth hanging open after I purchased (7) Purex 3 in 1 detergents and (1) Pro Glide razor.  After coupons and ECB's (extra care bucks) my OOP (out of pocket) total was under $5.00. 

The nice lady at Rite Aid was equally amazed when I bough (4) Nivea Lip Care and (6) of the new Snacker candy (and 1 bag of Princess candy rings) all for nothing... zip... nadda!

At Walmart I was able to get (15) cans of Muir Glen organic tomato paste that sells for .97 each... all for total price of $3.25

Target and Food Lion are where I spent the most money... but even that was minimal compared to what I got.  Febreze Sport, Gain Fabric Softener , Nature Valley Granola bars (free),  ibuprofen, Pampers (a DEAL at 2.99 after sale price and stacking coupons).  The only unplanned purchase was the Stouffers frozen lasagna.  It came with free frozen garlic bread, free frozen Birds Eye Steamers, and free Pepperidge Farm cake.  So.. I spent and extra 11.00, but dinner is served!!

Speaking of giveaways!

Together we save is giving away a $35.00 Kroger gift card... in honor of the Cart Busting Sale Event!
Head on over there and enter all my your info for a chance to win!

HUH???

When did it become March?  Wasn't it just Christmas the other day?  My momma always told me that when I got older the days would go by quicker.  She was not lying!!  I sit here in amazment as I look at the calendar and see that I forgot to change it to March... Excuse me while I correct that little issue.

OK, I'm back now...

So.. I've been really busy both at the day job, the home front and all hours in between.  Thus, I have been really behind on my contest entering self.  I've entered the one or two here and there but really not like I was doing for my Christmas gifts!  I really need to figure out how to squeeze more time in so that I can get those gift cards, and really neat products.  I'm sitting on $30 worth of Amazon cards right now that I am saving for Christmas.  Hoping to add a whole lot more to it via Swagbucks!  (That's where I got the $30 worth I have on hold now).  If you are not swagging yet, please hit the link below and sign up!  (and yes, you will be giving me credit for doing it.. hope you don't mind!)



SO... Back to work I go... I had my 10 minute break to swallow some food down... If anyone figures out how to slow down time... let me in on it!!  At this point, I may have to give up sleep... or (smile) excercise! Just kidding!!  (not really)... I'm kidding... (no, I'm not!)

Have a great day!!  Hope to see you soon!