Confessions of a Coupon Queen

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:49:00.002-07:00

Wow! What an original and creative post title huh? I am totally ashamed that I have neglected my blog for months and have not posted since September. Life has really just been crazy the past few months. The biggest news to report is that my husband and I bought our first home. We closed on the home November 24th. The few months proceeding that was spent getting the last few items on our credit reports paid and cleared off so that we owed no one anything and all creditors were reporting correctly. Then we began the process of finding a lender and house hunting. It took us about a month and about 50 houses to look at till we found our perfect home. The new house sports 5 bedrooms and 3 baths, a large living room, nice kitchen, a family room in the basement, a kitchenette in the basement, 2 car garage (stockpile!) and a nice fenced in backyard. It had everything we were looking for in a house (except a coat closet and the dining area is a bit on the small size). The day after we closed on our house we were off to California for a family vacation to visit my family (mom, dad, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews..the works), we had planned and paid for (cash) the vacation before we had even considered buying a house. We had a blast seeing the family, eating at all our favorite restaurants and visiting all our old haunts back in CA. We enjoyed the great weather, the beach, the mountains, Disneyland and all the great shopping. It was nice to visit, but alas California is not for me, too many people, too much traffic and it all just felt very overwhelming. We were in CA for a little over a week and came home to freezing Wyoming and had to get packing and moving.

I was not organized and ready for the move and couple that with not having any real time to re-coop from the vacation the house was a wreck, I did not have a chance to go though everything and weed stuff out before packing and so the moving process has been slow. We spend a weekend solid packing up all the necessities that we would need to live day to day at the new house (major furniture, clothing, kitchen stuff, TV's, computers, bath stuff etc. But we still had (have) stuff over at the house and we have slowly been bringing over stuff everyday a little at a time. Tomorrow Rusty and I are going over to pack up the last bits of stuff (we hope) and begin the cleaning process to get ready to turn over the keys.

Combine vacation+moving+Christmas+kids on vacation = crazy, hectic and chaotic life. The kids go back to school on Monday so maybe we can get back in the swing of things...

So theres my story on why I have not posted to my blog since September...and I am sticking to it!

On to the New Year!

Putting Food By

2009-09-09T10:01:00.003-06:00

Yesterday it was a cool 56 degrees out up here in Wyoming. Which means that autumn is upon us. The garden season is almost over for us and that means harvesting and putting up for the winter months so that we can enjoy the bounty throughout the year. And while the grasshoppers have decimated my tomato crop this year I still have been able to get quite a bit of green beans, sugar snap peas, zucchini. The carrots this year have been lots of fun. I have a full crop out there now, but I cannot seem to get them out of the ground without them breaking off in the ground. I have tried digging them up with a shovel (cuts them off) and with a weed digger (bent my weed digger!) The watermelon and pumpkins we planted this year (a first time for us) have lots of leaves and vines but as of yet no fruit. Although the pumpkins have flowers so if the cold holds off we might get something...

This past weekend I spent a little time putting up food from both the garden and the grocery store too.

From the garden:

Baked 2 batches of zucchini bread and froze (4 loafs total) - Great for snacks or a quick breakfast.
Steamed green beans and froze (1 gallon sized freezer bag) - We like these sauteed in garlic and olive oil.
Steamed snap peas and froze (1 gallon sized freezer bag) - Perfect for stir fries.

From the store:

Raspberries! Albertsons had them on sale last week for $9.99 a flat (a flat is six 6 Oz. containers) and so I purchased 4 flats and frozen (1 gallon sized freezer bag plus 3 large Ziploc twist top containers) - I would have loved to freeze raspberries from my own raspberry bushes but alas my dog at the bushes, thorns and all!) - These will be used for yogurt and muffins.
Vidalla onions. I had bought a big bag at Sam's club 2 months ago and hardly had made a dent in them so I chopped up the 6 I had left and froze them. - These are good in soups, casseroles, meat loaf etc...any dish where you are cooking the onion.

All of these items were flash frozen before putting in their respective containers. I flash freeze by getting out my two big baking sheets and lining them with my Silpat silicone pan liners (you can use plastic wrap, wax paper or even tin foil.) and putting the prepared fruits or veggies on the baking sheet and placing the sheet in the freezer for 5-6 hours till frozen solid. Then I put the frozen food into bags or containers. For the onions I tightly wrap the whole tray in plastic wrap before putting into the freezer so that my freezer does not smell like onions.

I will continue to look for deals at the grocery stores for items that I can freeze and there might be more from the garden...only time shall tell!

In other notes while I had the kitchen and freezer in work mode this weekend I went ahead and made up some meatballs, baked them in the oven, drained the fat off and flash froze them too. I had some ground turkey in the freezer and hamburger meat was on sale thanks to Labor Day sales. Pre-made meatballs are great to have on hand for quick spaghetti & meatball dinner, meatball sandwiches, or even my kids favorite...meatballs and mac-n-cheese!

So readers...did you garden this year? What are you putting up for the winter?

Halloween Costume Ideas/New Desk/Back to School

2009-08-30T21:06:00.003-06:00

OK so the title of this facinating entry in my blog pretty much sums it up.

Halloween Costume Ideas: So I was reading over on Confessions of a Coupon Junkie that she is already working on a paid Halloween costume. Which made me think that I really need to think about what the kids are going to dress up as this year. The best part about Halloween is that my twins (Liam & Carly) birthday is on Halloween. So it is pretty fun to think of twin outfits for them. Last year they were Thing 1 and Thing 2 with their older brother Parker playing The Cat In The Hat.

Below is a rare rare picture of my children. I don't make it a habit of posting pictures of them online because there are some crazy stalker people out there. But if they have something bad to say about my cute Trick & Treat they can kiss my...you know what.

So now I need to start thinking about something cute and fun for this year. Since their birthday is Halloween we don't do a big party. We figure dressing up, eating candy and staying up late is party enough.

So I am looking for suggestions from any one that still happens to read my boring blog. LOL. Some ideas I have had is "Super Twins" (they have dubbed themselves this), Raggedy Ann & Andy, and Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum. That is all I have come up with yet.

New Desk: I ordered a new desk today from Office Depot. I get most of my office supplies there and they gave me a rewards card the other day in the mail, plus you know I had a coupon. And I was really in the market for a new desk. Looking forward to getting it delivered and set up. My old desk is starting to look pretty junky and really no matter if I declutter it once a week it gets pretty clutterd with all the coupon stuff, buisness stuff, and just STUFF! The new desk is an armoire type so that I can close it all up and contain the clutter. I will post before and after picture in a future post. Fun fact: Did you know that the smallest Office Depot location is in Gillette, Wyoming? Yeah that is what they told me today at the Gillette Office Depot. LOL

Back to School: Kids go back to school on Tuesday! Can we say ParTAY at my house! I am going to be running around tomarrow getting the last few things the kids need. Mostly stuff for Hannah since we just got her school supply list on Friday. I think we are just about stocked but there were a few things we need like 3 inch binders instead of the 1 1/2 inch ones I got on sale. And then I am debating on if I am going to get Parkers hair cut or not. He has mad curly blonde hair and I just love them. And am wondering what it would look like if I just let it grow long. Probably NOT going to cut it. But am debating it.

So that is about it in my life. Been working like a dog on behind the scenes stuff at HCW but it never feels like I am going to get caught up. PM's are crazy and I am way behind on them. But I love my work and wouldn't change for a million bucks....well maybe for 5 million. LOL

Bath & Body Works: FREE Lip Item With Any Purchase

2009-08-29T10:48:00.000-06:00

Bath & Body Works: FREE Lip Item With Any Purchase

New coupon clipping service - The Coupon Cutters

2009-08-26T11:35:00.003-06:00

Just a quick blog post about a new coupon clipping service on the block that you may want to give a try.

The Coupon Cutters is located out of Charlotte NC and offers a nice variety of clipped coupons and it looks like they charge about 10% of the face value of the coupon. So a $1.00 coupon is $0.10. This is pretty much the going rate if you were going to pay a handling fee at any of the coupon forums like Hotcouponworld. They do require a minimum purchase of $4.00 and shipping is $0.50 for all orders. I don't think that ordering $4.00 worth of coupons is too bad although I must admit that I am not really a big fan of them. I understand the reasoning behind the need for a minimum order. They also offer a nice VIP Gold membership for $6.95 a month or $14.95 quarterly which will you give you 50% off their handling fee, which looks like a good deal if you are one to order a lot of coupons.

Anyways..feel free to check them out and if you need a referrer when you join you can use me CouponGirls as your referrer. And you can find a link to them in my left side bar. Nice people to work with!

New Shortcuts Coupons - Kroger

2009-08-19T18:11:00.003-06:00

SAVE $.50 when you buy any flavor/variety Fiber One™ Box Muffin Mix Expires: 09/27/2009	Save $1.00 When you buy any ONE Kid Cuisine® meal Expires: 09/30/2009 View offer restrictions
SAVE $.55 when you buy Trix® cereal Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.50 ONE any flavor Betty Crocker® Warm Delights® Bowls OR Betty Crocker® Warm Delights® Minis Bowls')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy ONE any flavor Betty Crocker® Warm Delights® Bo... Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.50 ON TWO BOTH Betty Crocker® Cake Mix AND Betty Crocker® Frosting (any flavors/varieties)')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy BOTH Betty Crocker® Cake Mix AND Betty Crocker® ... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.40 ONE BOX any variety Betty Crocker® Fruit Flavored Shapes')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy ONE BOX any variety Betty Crocker® Fruit Flavored Shape... Expires: 10/27/2009

SAVE $.75 when you buy Whole Grain Total®, Total® Raisin Bran, Total® Honey Clusters®... Expires: 09/27/2009	SAVE $1.50 Good on any package of HUGGIES® Diapers Expires: 09/14/2009
SAVE $.50 when you buy any flavor 4.5 OZ. OR LARGER Chex Mix® OR Chex® 100 Calorie Sn... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.50 ON TWO when you buy TWO any variety Green Giant® Frozen Boxed Vegetables Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $1.00 on any ONE (1) pack of Energizer_® brand batteries Expires: 09/30/2009	SAVE $.40 ON TWO TWO Pillsbury® Italian Meal Breads (Includes any Loaves, Breadsticks, Dinner Rolls, and Pizza Crust)')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy any TWO Pillsbury® Italian Meal Breads (Includes any Lo... Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.40 when you buy ONE BOX any flavor/variety Nature Valley® Granola Bars Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.40 when you buy ONE BOX any flavor Fiber One® Chewy Bars Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.50 ON TWO TWO BOXES any flavor Betty Crocker® Fruit by the Foot®, Fruit Gushers®, Fruit Roll-Ups® OR Fruit Roll-Ups® Fruit Stickerz ® Fruit Flavored Snacks')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy TWO BOXES any flavor Betty Crocker® Fruit by the Foot®,... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $2.00 on ONE On any ONE (1) PULL-UPS® Training Pants (Jumbo Pack or larger) Expires: 09/14/2009

SAVE $.75 ON THREE THREE any flavor Hamburger Helper®, Tuna Helper® OR Chicken Helper® Home Cooked Skillet Meals')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy THREE any flavor Hamburger Helper®, Tuna Helper® OR Chi... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.50 19 OZ. - 24 OZ. ONLY Green Giant® Frozen Bagged Vegetables')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy any variety 19 OZ. - 24 OZ. ONLY Green Giant® Frozen Ba... Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.50 ONE 4.5 oz. or larger Chex Mix® Select Chocolate Turtle, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate OR Sweet ‘n Salty Trail Mix')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy ONE 4.5 oz. or larger Chex Mix® Select Chocolate Turtle... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $1.00 when you buy ONE BAG any flavor Nature Valley® Granola Nut Clusters Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.50 OR Nature Valley® Dark Chocolate & Nut Bars')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy Nature Valley® Cranberry & Pomegranate Bars OR Nature V... Expires: 09/27/2009	SAVE $.40 ON TWO when you buy any TWO Pillsbury® Sweet Rolls or Grands!® Sweet Rolls Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.50 ON TWO when you buy any TWO Pillsbury® Crescent Dinner Rolls Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.55 ON TWO when you buy any TWO Pillsbury® Toaster Strudel® Pastries Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.75 ON TWO when you buy TWO any flavor Betty Crocker® Box Supreme Brownie Mixes Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.65 When you buy any ONE (1) Kroger Kid-O's cookie Expires: 09/30/2009

SAVE $.60 when you buy any ONE (1) Kroger Salad Dressing Expires: 09/30/2009	SAVE $.75 when you buy any ONE (1) Kroger Frozen Novelty item Expires: 09/30/2009
SAVE $.80 ON TWO TWO any flavor Yoplait® products listed: • Yoplait® Go-GURT® Yogurt • Yoplait® Trix® Multipack Yogurt')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy TWO any flavor Yoplait® products listed: • Yoplait® Go-... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $1.00 when you buy any ONE (1) Kroger Frozen Breakfast Sandwhich Expires: 09/30/2009
SAVE $.55 when you buy any flavor 32 OZ. Yoplait® Yogurt Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $1.00 ON TWO TWO any size/variety Refrigerated Pillsbury® Grands!® Biscuits')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy TWO any size/variety Refrigerated Pillsbury® Grands!® B... Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.75 ON TWO TWO Frozen Pillsbury® Grands!® Biscuits, Cinnamon Rolls, OR Mini Cinnamon Rolls')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy any TWO Frozen Pillsbury® Grands!® Biscuits, Cinnamon R... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.50 when you buy any ONE (1) Big K OH! Cola 12-Pack Expires: 09/30/2009
SAVE $.60 when you buy ONE BOX any flavor Chex Mix® Bars Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.55 ON TWO when you buy TWO PACKAGES any flavor/variety Totino’s® Rolls Snacks Expires: 10/27/2009

SAVE $.40 when you buy any flavor Box or Pouch Betty Crocker® Potatoes (Except Potato... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.75 When you buy any ONE (1) Kroger Trail Mix Expires: 09/30/2009
SAVE $.50 ON SIX SIX any variety Yoplait® Yogurt cups (Includes Original, Light, Thick & Creamy, OR Whips!®) OR any flavor Yoplait® Original OR Light Smoothie')" onmouseout="hidepopup()">when you buy SIX any variety Yoplait® Yogurt cups (Includes Orig... Expires: 10/27/2009	SAVE $.55 when you buy Honey Nut Cheerios® cereal Expires: 10/27/2009
SAVE $.50 when you buy ONE any variety Progresso® Broth Expires: 10/27/2009

Back to school list - 8/9/09-8/15/09

2009-08-13T09:37:00.002-06:00

I love back to school shopping. Although I really don't need much this year I will be restocking my back to school totes and even my own office supplies durring this time of year. Even if you have no-one going back to school this is the time of year to stock your house with pens, pencils and paper!

I posted this list over on Hotcouponworld's Back To School 2009 thread but am cross posting it here too.

Format is: Category~Price~Store~Start Date~End Date~Brand/Size~Notes

Current Deals:

Backpacks:

$5.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic ~ B1G1, 2/$9.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$5.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Licenced Backpacks ~ Buy 1 At $9.99 Get 1 Free, With Card, Discount applies to item(s) of equal or lesser value
$6.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Athletch Backpacks
$9.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Embark Basic Backpack
$10.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ G.I. Joe Motion Light Backpack
$18.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Starter And Fuel Backpacks
$27.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Ful Sweet Melissa Backpack ~ Purple, Blue, or Orange
$35.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Ful Refugee Or Remix Backpack
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ All Back To School Backpacks, Swiss Gear, Jeep, etc.
50% Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Backpacks, All Excluding Mini Backpacks
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mini Backpacks
FREE ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Tug, Assorted Colors ~ With $10 Minimum Purchase

Binder - 0.5 Inch:

$1.45 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Corner Office Binder ~ B1G1, 2/$2.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.75 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery, 1/2 - Inch Durable Binders
$3.25 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery, 1/2 - Inch Durable View Binders

Binder - 1 Inch:

$0.50 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Wilson Jones, 1-Inch ~ Limit 5
$1.45 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Corner Office Binder ~ B1G1, 2/$2.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.75 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery, 1-Inch Durable Binders
$3.25 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery, 1-Inch Durable View Binders
$4.19 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Avery Durable View Binders, All
$5.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Binder, Silhouette View
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Darling Back To School ~ Patterned

Binder - 1.5 Inch:

$5.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Binder, Heavy Duty ~ With Card (2/$10.00)
$6.00 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery, 1.5-Inch Heavy-Duty EZD Binders

Binder - 2 Inch:

$5.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Binder, Durable

Binder - All Sizes:

B2G1 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Heavy-Duty View Binders, All
B3G1 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Better Binders, All
B3G1 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Durable View Binders, All

Binder - Bundle:

$2.79 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Binder Bundle ~ Includes 1.5" Premium Binder, Dividers, Zipper Pocket And Ruler

Binder - Trapper Keeper:

B1G1 50% Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Trapper Keeper, All Items ~ Buy One, Get Second One at 50% Off Regular Retail Up to $10 Single Check Rebate

Binder - Zippered:

$6.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Basic 1.5 Inch Zipper Binder
$11.00 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pro Platinum Zipper Binder
$10.00 Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star Zippered Binders ~ Up to $10 Single Check Rebate
$5.00 OFF ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Zipper Binder
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Zippered Binders, All

Book Covers:

B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Stretchable Book Covers

Compass:

$2.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Compass
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Microban Antimicrobial School Tools

Composition Books:

$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Mini Composition Book, 50 Or 80 Sheets ~ With IVC, Limit 6
$0.50 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic ~ Limit 3
$0.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Marble Composition Books
$1.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway, 80 Sheets ~ B1G1, 2/$1.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$2.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Select Theme Composition Books ~ Choose From One World, Scrapkins, Tie Dye, Frenzy, Flirty Floral, Hannah Montana Or Bakugan
$2.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Fashion Composition Books ~ Styles Shown

Crayons:

FREE ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack ~ With Purchase Of Crayola Conical Tip Markers 10-Pack ($1.99)
$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Crayons, 24-Pack
$0.20 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack ~ Limit 3
$0.25 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack ~ Washable
$0.50 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack
$0.69 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ RoseArt, 24 Ct.
$0.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack
$0.99 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack
$1.70 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 64 Ct.
$2.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola Crayons, 8 Ct. ~ With Card (2/$4.00)
$2.79 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Crayola, 64 Ct.
$2.99 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 64 Ct.

Dividers - 5 Tab:

$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Assorted 5-Tab Insertable Dividers
$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Assorted 5-Tab Write-On Laminated Dividers
$1.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 5-Tab

Dividers - 8 Tab:

$2.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Assorted 8-Tab Insertable Dividers
$2.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Write-On Assorted 8-Tab Dividers

Dry Erase Cleaner:

$2.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sanford Expo Dry-Erase Cleaner, 8 Oz.

Dry Erase Starter Kit:

$4.69 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ SRX Dry-Erase Starter Kit ~ Includes set of markers, eraser, cleaner and free dry-erase board
$7.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Expo Starter Kit, Free 8-1/2"X11" Dry Erase Board With Marker

Dust Remover:

$2.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ 3M Dust Remover (Canned Air)

Envelopes:

$0.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Polly Letter Envelope, 1 Ct. ~ 2/$1.00

Erasers:

$0.75 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Paper-Mate, 3-Pack ~ Pink Pearl
$0.89 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Cap Erasers, 12 Ct.
$0.89 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pink Pet Erasers, 2 Ct.
$1.00 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 2-Pack ~ Pink
$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staedtler White Vinyl Erasers, 4-Pack
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Microban Antimicrobial School Tools

Expanding Files:

B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Darling Back To School ~ Patterned

Glue - Bottle:

$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway, 4 Oz.
$0.25 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 4 Oz. ~ Washable
$0.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy School Glue, 5 Oz. ~ With Card (2/$1.00)
$0.50 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers Glue, 4 Oz. ~ With IVC, Limit 4 (2/$1.00)
$0.69 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Elmers, 4 Oz.
$1.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 4 Oz.
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 3 Ct.

Glue - Sticks:

$0.25 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 2 Pack ~ Washable
$0.49 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Scholastic ~ White
$0.89 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Elmers, 2 Pack
$1.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers Glue Sticks, 2-Pack ~ B1G1, 2/$1.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 2 Pack
$1.50 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers Glue Sticks, 3-Pack ~ Single Check Rebate
$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Avery Glue Sticks, 3-Pack
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 1 Ct.
B1G1 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Elmers, 2 Pack

Index Card Case:

$0.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Polly Index Card Case, 1 Ct. ~ 2/$1.00

Index Cards:

$1.29 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Oxford, 300-Pack
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Rite Aid Index Cards, 80-100 Ct.

Lunch Bags/Boxes:

$7.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Transformers Or Tinker Bell Lunch Kits
$9.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Arctic Zone Lunch Kit (Bag With Reusable Water Bottle)
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ All Back To School Lunchbags, Swiss Gear, Jeep, etc.
50% Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Lunch Kits, All

Markers - Colored:

$1.00 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 10-Pack ~ Washable
$1.50 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ RoseArt Classic or Bold, 10 Ct.
$1.79 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Crayola, 10-Pack
$2.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola Markers, 10 Ct. ~ With Card (2/$4.00)
$2.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 8 Ct.
$2.99 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola Markers, 8 Ct. ~ Washable
$4.99 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic Fine Tip Markers, 80 Ct.
B1G1 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Mark-It Markers, 8 Ct.

Markers - Dry Erase:

$2.99 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Expo Dry Erase Markers, 4 Ct. ~ With Card
B1G1 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Dry Erase, 4 Ct.
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Expo ~ Regular Price .99-24.29

Markers - Highlighters:

$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Highlighter, 1 Ct. ~ With IVC, Limit 6
$1.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Brite Liner, 5-Pack ~ Assorted
$1.99 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Highlighters, 4-5 Ct. ~ With Card
$1.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Accent Grip, 2-Pack
$1.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Accent, 4-Pack
$3.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Frizion, 3-Pack
$3.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Accent Pocket Highlighters, 10 Ct.
B1G1 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Brite Liner, 5-Pack
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pilot Frixion Erasable Highlighers, 3-Pack
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Highlighters, All

Markers - Permanent:

$1.99 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Pens Or Markers, 2 Or 3-Pack
$2.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Fine Tip, 5-Pack
$2.49 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie, 3 Ct. ~ Black Or Assorted Colors
$5.49 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Retractable, 6 Ct. ~ Bonus Pack
$6.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Shapie Accent Retractable, 7 Ct. ~ Bonus Pack
$6.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Pen, 6 Ct. ~ Bonus Pack, Blue Or Black
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie Markers, All
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Sharpie ~ Regular Price .99-24.29

Misc:

$1.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, Back To School Items ~ Stationery set, pencils, pens, highlighters or pencil sharpener & more.
B1G1 $0.01 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Swingline Light Touch Stapler, Get A Compact 3-Hole Punch For $0.01 ~ A $5.99 Value
B1G1 $0.01 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ [In] Fuse Board, Any And Get A 12-Pack Of Basic TUL Dry Erase Markers for $0.01 ~ An 18.49 Value
B1G1 $0.01 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ iPoint Pencil Sharpener at 25% Off, Get A 24-Pack Of Ticonderoga Yellow Pencils For $0.01
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola Products, ALL ~ Regular Price 1.49-16.49

Notebooks:

$0.01 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 70 Sheets ~ Spiral Wide Or College Ruled
$0.01 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples, 70 Sheets ~ Wire-Bound, 1-Subject
$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Mini Memo Book, 50 Or 80 Sheets ~ With IVC, Limit 6
$0.33 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Fashion Theme Books ~ 1-Subject
$0.33 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Notebook, 70 Sheets ~ 1-Subject, Single Check Rebate
$0.49 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Memo Book ~ With Card
$0.49 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway, 60 Or 70 Sheets ~ With IVC, Limit 3
$0.99 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star, 100 Sheets ~ 1-Subject
$0.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Generic, 70 Sheets
$1.00 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star ~ 1-Subject, College Or Wide Ruled
$1.45 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway, 180 Sheets ~ 5-Subject, B1G1, 2/$2.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.99 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Accel, 100 Sheets ~ 1-Subject
$1.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star ~ 1-Subject
$1.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 80 Sheets ~ Wireless
$2.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Select Theme Books ~ Choose From One World, Scrapkins, Tie Dye, Frenzy, Flirty Floral, Hannah Montana Or Bakugan
$2.47 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Ed Hardy Notebook
$2.47 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Shape It Up Notebook
$2.47 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Hot Chocolate Notebook
$2.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Premium, 150 Sheets ~ 3-Subject, With Card (2/$5.00)
$2.99 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Spine Guard, 100 Sheets ~ 1-Subject, College-Ruled
$10.00 Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Wireless Notebook, 60 Ct. ~ Up to $10 Single Check Rebate
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star Flex NoteBiners ~ Regular Price 3.99-12.99
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Darling Back To School ~ Patterned
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Officemax Polly And [In] Place Notebooks, 3 Or 5-Subject ~ Regular Price 1.99-6.99

Paper - Construction:

$1.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 96 Sheets ~ B1G1, 2/$1.99, Must Be Of Same Price

Paper - Copy:

$1.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Multipurpose Paper, 500 Sheet Ream
$3.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ HP Multipurpose Printer Paper, 500 Sheet
$3.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Georgia-Pacific Copy Paper, 500 Sheets
$5.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Brights Colored Paper ~ After Easy Rebate
$24.99 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ HammerMill CopyPlus Copy Paper, 10-Ream Case ~ After Easy Rebate

Paper - Drawing:

$0.88 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pacon, 40 Sheet

Paper - Filler:

$0.49 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway, 120 Or 130 Sheets ~ With IVC, Limit 3
$0.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 150 Sheets ~ Wide Ruled Or College Ruled
$0.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Generic, 150 Sheets ~ Wide Ruled Or College Ruled

Paper Punches:

25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Microban Antimicrobial School Tools ~ Single Hole Punch

Pencil Box:

$1.49 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Soho ~ Assorted Colors
50% Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Back To School Storage Products, All
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Darling Back To School ~ Patterned

Pencil Cases:

$4.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Licenced Pencil Cases

Pencil Pouches:

$0.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Polly Pencil Case, 1 Ct. ~ 2/$1.00
$1.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Carry-All Pouch, 7X10 Inches ~ B1G1, 2/$1.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber OR CVS/Pharmacy Pencil Pouch ~ With Card (2/$3.00)
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Zippered Pencil Pouches, All

Pencil Sharpeners:

FREE ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Slim-Line Pencil Sharpener ~ After Easy Rebate
$8.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ iPoint Pencil Sharpener
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Microban Antimicrobial School Tools

Pencils - Colored:

$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Colored Pencils, 12-Pack
$0.88 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ RoseArt, 24 Ct.
$1.00 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 12-Pack
$1.45 ~ Colored $2.00 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola Colored Pencils, 12 Ct. ~ With Card (2/$4.00)
$2.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 24-Pack
$2.79 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Crayola Colored Pencils, 24-Pack
$2.79 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Crayola Twistables, 12-Pack
$2.99 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola Colored Pencils, 24-Pack

Pencils - Mechanical:

$1.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Mechanical Pencils, 10-Pack ~ With Card (2/$3.00)
$2.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Zebra Stainless-Steel Pencil, 1 Ct.
$3.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Z-Grip Pencils, 7-Pack
$3.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC #2, 26 Ct.
$4.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ RoseArt, 24 Ct.
$4.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Paper-Mate Clearpoint Starter Kit, 2-Pack W/Refills
$6.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Zebra Cadoozle 0.7 mm Mechanical Pencils, 28-Pack ~ Assorted Colors
$6.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Zebra Cadoozle 0.7 mm Mechanical Pencils, 28-Pack ~ Clear
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Quick Dock Automatic Pencil, 1 Or 2-Pack

Pencils - Standard:

FREE ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Woodcase Pencils, 10 Ct. Free With Any $15 School Supply Purchase
$0.10 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Dixion #2, 10-Pack ~ Limit 3
$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Yellow Pencils, 10-Pack
$0.33 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Harvard Square Or Pentech #2 Pencils, 10 Ct. ~ 3/$0.99
$0.89 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Harvard Square Or Pentech #2 Pencils, 20 Ct.
$0.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 6-Pack ~ Mechanical
$1.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway Yellow Pencils, 24-Pack ~ B1G1, 2/$1.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Wood Pencils, 24 Pack ~ With Card (2/$3.00)
$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Ticonderoga #2 Pencils, 12-Pack
$1.69 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ RoseArt #2 Pencils, 10 Ct.
$2.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Cadoozles, 6-Pack
$4.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Ticonderoga #2 Pencils, 24-Pack

Pens - Ballpoint:

$0.50 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Paper-Mate, 10-Pack
$0.50 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Round Grip Pens, 8-Pack
$0.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Stick Pens, 10 Ct.
$1.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Atlantis Ballpoint Pens, 4-Pack ~ Assorted
$1.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pilot Easy Touch Pens, 2 Ct.
$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Round Stic Grip Pens, 12-Pack
$1.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Paper-Mate, 12-Pack ~ Black, Blue or Red, Recycled Pens
$1.99 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Pens, 4-5 Ct. ~ With Card
$1.99 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Paper-Mate Erasermate Pens, 4-Pack
$2.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Zebra Stainless-Steel Pen, 1 Ct.
$2.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Pilot G2, 2-Pack
$2.84 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Paper-Mate Ball Point Pens, 4-Pack
$3.00 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Z-Grip Pens, 7-Pack
$3.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Frizion, 2-Pack
$3.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pilot G2, 4-Pack
$6.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Staples Retractable Ballpoint Pens, Medium, 50-Pack ~ Assorted
$6.29 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Uni-Ball 207 Needle, 7- Ct ~ Bonus Pack
$6.29 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Uni-Ball 207 Medium, 7 Ct. ~ Bonus Pack
$7.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Uni-Ball Jetstream Bold, 5 Ct. ~ Bonus Pack
$7.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Uni-Ball Vision Needle, 7 Ct. ~ Bonus Pack
B1G1 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pilot G2, 5-Pack
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Paper-Mate ~ Regular Price .99-24.29
B2G1 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pentel, Select

Pens - Gel:

0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Jelly Belly Scented Gel Pen ~ With IVC, Limit 6
$2.50 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Sarasa Zebra, 2 Pack
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Pilot Frixion Erasable Gel Pens, 2-Pack

Planners:

$10.00 Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star Student Planner ~ Up to $10 Single Check Rebate
$6.99-39.99 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead ~ Various Sizes and Colors

Portfolios:

$0.05 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic ~ Limit 5
$0.15 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ 2-Pocket, 3-Prong ~ Assorted Colors
$0.19 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Penway 2 Pocket Folder With Prongs ~ With IVC, Limit 6
$0.45 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Fashion Portfolios
$0.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Five Star
$0.50 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Fashion Portfolios
$0.89 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Trapper Refills
$0.97 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Ed Hardy Folder
$0.97 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Shape It Up Folder
$0.97 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ hot Chocolate Folder
$1.29 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Fashion
B1G1 50% Off ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Mead Portfolios, All ~ Buy One, Get Second One at 50% Off Regular Retail Up to $10 Single Check Rebate
B1G1 50% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Darling Back To School ~ Patterned

Protractors:

25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Microban Antimicrobial School Tools

Rulers:

$0.05 ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Ring-Binder Rule, 12-Inch ~ Limit 3
$0.40 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic ~ Acrylic, Assorted Colors
$0.50 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Flexi Ruler ~ 2/$1.00
$1.50 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott 12-Inch Wave Ruler
$2.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Ruler

Scissors:

$0.25 ~ Office Depot ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 2-Pack ~ Limit 3
$1.00 ~ Walgreens ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ It’s Academic Scissors ~ B1G1, 2/$1.99, Must Be Of Same Price
$1.50 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcot Kid's Scissors
$2.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Scissors
$2.00 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Acme Scissors
$2.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Microban Scissors, 7 Inch Student Or 5 Inch Pointed Or Blunt
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Westcott Microban Antimicrobial School Tools

Sheet Protectors:

$1.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Generic, 20 Ct.

Staplers:

$5.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Swingline EZ-Touch Stapler

Sticky Notes:

$1.00 ~ Walmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Post-It Super Sticky Pads, 90 Sheets
$4.29 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Post-It 3"X3" Memo Cube
$4.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Post-It 3"X3" Recycled Or Ultra Notes Or 4"X6" Super Sticky Pads
$5.00 ~ Staples ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Post-It Super Sticky Notes, 3"X3", 5-Pack ~ Assorted Colors
25% Off ~ Office Max ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Post-It Super Sticky Notes, Flags Or Tabs ~ Regular Price 3.49-18.99

Tape:

$0.99 ~ CVS ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Caliber Or CVS/Pharmacy Invisible Tape, 0.5”x1200” or .75”x1000” ~ With Card
$1.49 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Scotch Magic Tape, 3/4" ~ Donut Dispenser
$1.50 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Scotch Magic Tape, 3/4" ~ Donut Dispenser
$1.50 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Scotch Magic or Giftwrap Tape, 3/4"X300", 3-Pack
$2.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Scotch Magic Tape, 3-Pack
B1G1 ~ Kmart ~ 8/11 ~ 9/14 ~ Scotch 3-Pack Magic Tape Get A Free Mini Tape Dispenser
B1G1 ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Rite Aid Invisible Tape, 3-Pack
FREE ~ Rite-Aid ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Scotch Pop-Up Handband Or Deskgrip Tape Dispenser ~ Single Check Rebate - $2.49

Watercolors:

$1.70 ~ Target ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ Crayola, 8 Ct.

White-Out:

$0.99 ~ Kmart ~ 8/9 ~ 8/15 ~ BIC Wite-Out Correction

Product Review: Smooth Away

2009-08-04T08:11:00.000-06:00

You may have seen the infomercials for this product and wondered if it really does what the commercials say it does. Does it remove unwanted hair? If you are a smart consumer you may have even searched the internet for reviews. I did, and frankly the reviews were not very good. However I decided to give this product a try myself just to see how it works for me. I spotted the product at my local Smith's Food & Drug grocery store for $7.99 and I had a $1.00/1 coupon so thought I would buy it at the price of $6.99 after coupon.

Let me preface this review with a little info on my body hair type. I guess I am blessed with very light colored blond body hair that is very thin and pretty sparse. That being said I can easily go 3-5 days between shaving my legs before you can even start to see or feel the hair re-growth.

Now on to the product review. I opened the box containing the Smooth Away and read the instructions. Put the peeled the paper backing off the Smooth Away hair removing pad and stuck it to the pink body applicator. The instructions said to use it on dry skin. Yep, my skin was dry. The instructions also said to use on hair that was less than 1/4 inch long. I had last shaved my legs about 3 days ago and so my hair was less than 1/4 inch long. It was long enough that I could feel the stubble, but not really see it. Like I said my hair is fine and sparse. I hitched up my pant leg and gave the product a try. I moved the Smooth Away pad in a circular motion clockwise, and then counter-clockwise. And the results were...smooth legs! The product removed all the hair in the first section that I tried it on. I went on to Smooth Away the rest of my legs and was pretty happy with the results. I noticed that there was quite a bit of ashy skin on my legs and the Smooth Away product sort of buffed some of that away in the process too. I was pretty pleased with how the product performed on the knees and the tops of my toes too (yeah I get a little hair on the tops of my toes), areas that I have always found hard to shave with a regular razor. The process was painless, and I experienced no irritation at all. When I was all done, I wiped down my legs with a wet washcloth (to remove some of the dead skin cells more than anything) and applied a nice beach scented body butter. I asked my husband to give them a feel and he said "Nice!" and gave me the "lets go upstairs" look.

I did give the Smooth Away a try on my arm, but it did not work. The hair on my arms was longer than 1/4 inch though. So I guess if I wanted hair free arms I would be best with shaving them first, letting it grow out a little bit and then using the Smooth Away for maintenance.

So, my product review for the Smooth Away is a five star rating and I will probably continue to use this product for my legs. I have not yet tried the small applicator on the face yet, but I will give it a try here soon. I don't have a facial hair problem, but as I have gotten older a stray hair on the chin pops up every now and then.

I cannot vouch for how this product works on other types of hair, but if you have fine hair, and it is less than 1/4 inch long I would urge you to go ahead and give it a try.

10 things I never thought I would say

2009-08-03T07:27:00.004-06:00

Oh sure I sound like my own mother everyday with phrases like "Were you born in a barn? Shut the door" and "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you too?" but more and more I catch myself saying some utterly bizarre things to my children, things I never thought I would say.

Take the handcuffs off of your sister!
No, I don't want to taste your buggers!
We don't put coffee beans in our noses, no matter how good they smell!
Water does not belong in the lawnmower gas tank!
Just because you found a bungee cord does not mean that you can bungee jump off the picnic table.
Why are you eating dirt with a spoon?
Hit her back!
Did you just fill that cup from the toilet?
Get the dog out of that Rubbermaid tote!
OK, that is gross, just throw the underwear in the trash!

Confessions of a coupon queen? Well not much!

2009-07-30T10:34:00.004-06:00

I am so ashamed of myself for not blogging since June but life has just been really busy and to be frank I have not done a whole lot of coupon shopping. In fact I have a 2 gallon bags of coupons to go through and do something with plus 3 flat rate envies of inserts to clip and sort too. Needless to say, disorganization has been the bane of my coupon shopping of late, but finding some spare time to get it done has been hard.

So what has gone on since my last blog post?

Well we had a wonderful old fashioned 4th of July with a pancake breakfast at the fire house, we were in the 4th of July parade for my husbands work (Coke), and then we came home and rested and grilled then went out for free fireworks show as well as lit off a few of our own too.

A few days later, my oldest daughter celebrated her 18th birthday. We took her out to Chinese food (her choice) and gifted her our old mini-van which she has since tricked out with new stereo, speakers, and rock band decals. LOL

We spend a good part of the end of June and beginning of July getting ready for our week long camping trip to Yellowstone. We were in Yellowstone the week of July 11th and had the most wonderful trip. Yellowstone is absolutely, hands down one of the prettiest and majestic places I have ever visited. We had such a great time with our family are looking forward to more camping trips soon.

The highlight of my trip, seeing a Grizzly Bear!

Here are some of my photos from our trip to Yellowstone (just the ones I took on my cell phone, I have yet to download the ones from my camera)

After returning from camping, I have been doing the mad dash to just get caught up on everything, housework, bills, site stuff, garden and the coupon database have been keeping me busy.

Last weekend we bought a new fridge and stove. We are in a rental and the units that came with the place were on their last legs, the fride leaked on the floor and the oven on the stove did not work well and took over 2 hours to heat up. I wanted to get my own appliances that could move with us and I had a 10% off coupon for Home Depot burning a hole in my wallet. We ended up getting the floor models which both had minor dents on the sides (where no one could see them) and so got a 20% discount on top of the 10% off coupon. So in the end we got both (LG models, stainless steel) for a little over $2000. Rusty delivered them and took the old ones to the dump (where they recycle them) and saved on delivery costs too.

Shopping: well I did not do a whole lot of coupon shopping really. A few things here and there and we have just been going to get our milk, eggs, and produce. Yesterday I ran to Smith's for produce, eggs and few items needed like a bag of Doritos (needed, yeah right) and canned corn for a batch of tortilla/taco soup that I am making for dinner tonight.

Albertsons Shopping Trip

2009-06-10T09:21:00.003-06:00

I have not really had a lot of time or inclination for grocery shopping. A lot of that had to do with my garage being an utter mess because we were lazy this winter in putting things away properly. But we tackled the garage and got the stockpile cleaned up and re-organized. Put together a car load of food to donate to our local food bank/soup kitchen. It was a great opportunity to take note of what we need and don't need so that I can re-focus on shopping for deals that are needed to fill in the holes. So that lead me to a nice shopping trip to Albertsons last night. While I know I could have done better in my shopping trip if I did multiple transactions to take advantage of the 3 clippable double coupons I really find that to be time consuming and as a mom of 5 kids, that is really not a good use of my time to get the quanity of product that I want to stockpile. So instead I just did one really big transaction and used just 3 double coupons. I still did a great job and saved over $345.

I stocked up on:
Kraft BBQ sauce
Mashmallows (camping trip in July)
Canned Beans
Soft scrub
Tree-Top Apple Juice Boxes
Kraft Bagle-Fuls
Digiorno Flatbread Pizza pocket thingies
Grey Poupon mustard
Hamburger
Grapes (will freeze them today to eat as a frozen snack)
Jell-O No bake cheesecake mixes
International Delight Coffee creamer

Just to name some of the stuff...

Total OOP was $94 and my savings was $345. The poor guy behind me with his bag of frozen chicken breasts and box of cookies was very kind and patient as they scanned, scanned and scanned some more. I appologized to him for the length of time my transaction was taking but he was cool with it and in the end impressed with how much I saved. My thanks to the great cashiers at Albertsons too who are so great about my coupons. I ♥ Albertsons!

New car!

2009-06-08T08:08:00.003-06:00

Well I hate to admit again that I have not blogged in a while. Life has just been crazy busy the last few weeks with end of school activities and warm weather that draws me outside to putz around in the garden and go for drives around town and surrounding areas. And when I am inside there is work that never ends both for the websites and around the house.

But I wanted to get a blog post out about my "new" car. This weekend we bought a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer. The blue book price on this fully loaded SUV was over $10,000 but we scored ours for a little over $5,000 cash and I just love the notion that we own a newer car and it is paid in full and it's ours. I was not really in the market for a new car but I was just talking to my husband about maybe looking for something to replace the mini van because I wanted to give my oldest daughter the mini-van for her 18th birthday (nothing cooler than an 18 year old in a mini van LOL) so he saw the Mountaineer in a lot here where folks park their cars for sale and checked it out. Then came home and made me check it out. I loved it at first site, it was just what I was looking for size wise (has to fit 6-7 folks) but not too big like a Suburban. Plus it had low miles for a 2002 (80k) and given that I don't do a whole lot of driving anyways (300-400 miles a month) it was a good deal. I came home, pulled a Carfax report on it and did my research to make sure the car checked out and we went back and made an offer. I was so excited to get a great deal on a car and be able to pay cash!

Here is a picture I found online of pretty much the same one we got....

Today my husband has the day off and is going to run around getting it registered and all that paperwork stuff and running to the local Ford dealership to get a new key, see if they can re-set the keyless entry stuff and check out the only thing wrong with it, a window that does not open unless the door is open (weird).

So it pays to save a little money each month and pay cash. I have no plans of ever financing a car and think that paying cash for a used car is the way to go. The money saved can be a small fortune and you do not have to drive a beater either. There are a lot of nice used cars out there that can be found for quite a bargain! I will continue to save money each month in a car fund for repairs or in a few years upgrade to something else when the time is right.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend

2009-05-08T11:53:00.002-06:00

Well the week is nearly over and I have not had a moment to pause and blog all week it seems like. While I did get to go shopping this week I won't bore you with all the details. But I hit Smith's and Albertsons on Tuesday and spent $78 and saved over $180. Then Wednesday I hit Walmart for a few deals (my favorite being organic Sam's Choice 12 Oz. bags of coffee for a $1.00 a bag in their dollar aisle). I spent $45 at Walmart (which included 35 bags of coffee plus some other things that I had coupons for and a magazine)

Most of the things I bought this week were staples like milk, bread, fruits and veggies. Plus DH found a deal on pork chops from a small store that he delivers at that has locally raised meat. The pork chops were $1.79 lb and the most flavorful and juiciest I have ever tasted (we got 50 Lbs!)

But coupon deals included:
- $0.50 overage on Playtex gentle glide tampons (4 ct. box) on clearance at Albertsons
- $2.50 for Precious string cheese at Smith's
- $2.50 for Hillshire Farms brats at Albertsons
- $0.25 for Colgate toothpaste at Walmart
- Free kitten food at Smiths (using free coupon from recent insert)
- $0.64 for Softsoap hand soap (not stellar but was out and with all these germy kids we need our hand soap)

I am sure there were other deals but my mind is drawing a blank. (never claimed this blog to be a deal blog)

Other than shopping this week I have been working working working. Still working on spring cleaning stuff on Tuesdays. This week was tackling the little kids room and closet. And then lots of work on website stuff, most is all behind the scenes stuff that folks don't see like answering emails and PM's (I have 35 PMs today already to get to) and other stuff. We rolled out a new rule about trading IP's and the members are none to happy about it so I am trying to weed though it all and see what sort of compromise I can be come to, if any. And then we rolled out new price books at Organicgrocerydeals today - which you can read more about here = Price Books.

Tomarow I am taking the day off for a trip again to the Black Hills. My daughter Hannah's birthday is the 12th and she wants to go to Mount Rushmore for her birthday so we are taking a trip over there tomarow (its about a 2 hour drive from here) plus we will be taking what I hope will be a very cool train trip through the Black Hills from Hill City to Keystone and back. The kids are very excited about the train trip! I am praying now for nice weather and no snow. Rusty called a little while ago and said it was snowing a bit where he was (about 1 hour from Gillette in Sundance) and its windy and cold here today...so praying for clear skies tomarow!

Hope everyone has a weekend filled with friends, family, peace, joy, good deals and no snow!

Printable Coupon - Yankee Candle $15 Off $45+ (Expires 5/10/09)

2009-04-29T11:45:00.002-06:00

Here is a link to a new Yankee Candle printable coupon.

Save $15.00 Off your purchase of $45.00 or more. This coupon expires 5/10/09.

Yankee Candles would make a really nice Mother's Day gift I think.

Click here to print this coupon!

Free Dog Toy From Mighty Dog

2009-04-27T14:02:00.003-06:00

I guess I am on a roll today...found this freebie and was all over it since our puppy Holly Golightly loves her some dog toys (the other two dogs, Shay Shay and Chicky could care less about toys).

Just sign up for the Mighty Dog Nation (I like to use a separate email address just for freebie sign ups) and your free dog toy will come in 8-10 weeks.

Enjoy!

Bath & Body Works Printable Coupon - $10.00 Off $30.00 Or More

2009-04-27T09:40:00.002-06:00

I don't even have a Bath & Body Works but I wanted to share this anyways for those that do.

Click here for printable coupon

Went to the "Big City"

2009-04-27T06:14:00.004-06:00

Well we had a nice weekend. Decided to take a day trip on over to Rapid City SD (about a 2 hour drive from Gillette). We were not 100% that we were going to go as there was some prediction about snow and I hate traveling in the snow. But we woke up Saturday morning and although chilly, it was not snowing and pretty clear skies.

So we loaded up the van with kids, Big Nut bars and coffee and headed on out. The drive there was uneventful other than the kids arguing with one another and bickering.

Our first stop was for brunch at Golden Corral, not my choice, but it is an easy restaurant when you have little kids. The food there was actually very good and the service was great.

After brunch we headed over to my least favorite store, Cabella's. I hate that store, the dead animals displayed all over the place freak me out and make me angry. We were on the hunt for a tent for our upcoming camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. We were disappointed in the selection there and left empty handed. Next we headed over to another sporting goods store, Schpels (or something like that), for which they were having a grand opening. This store was pretty cool, and although there was a little taxidermy on display over in the hunting section of the store the dead animals were not everywhere, so I was a happy camper. We ended up finding a 3-room big-ass tent here for $120. Works for me, as I was frankly getting tired of hearing my husband talk about getting a tent for the last 3 weeks!

Next we headed over to a brand new Target. And man I wish I had take the time to see what deals were hot there and print out some Target printable's, but I didn't, because I am a dork. Instead I had fun going up and down the aisles looking for deals and coupons. Really the only deal I spotted was Kraft salad dressing for $0.09 cents after coupon. I also picked up a Organic Gardening for Dummies book over in the dollar spot and a few bags of Archer Farms granola/trail mix for the ride home. The little kids got a pin wheel each and a box of Archer Farm fruit bars (OMG those are yummy). And Hannah got a toy that makes animal noises. Rusty picked out a charger for my phone...go figure. LOL I hate to admit that I had never been inside a Super Target and thought that was just too cool. Man sometimes I hate living in the sticks. LOL

After that we decided to just drive around and see where the road takes us. we saw some old Victorian houses and oohed and awwwed at them. They totally reminded me of Redlands, my hometown and made me homesick. After arguing with my husband about what to do next we decided to stop at a gas station for a potty break and to buy a map and ask for recommendation (about 1 hour of our entire trip was spent pulled over on the side of the road because he needed to fart with the GPS), well I got steamed when he decided to get recommendations while I was in the restroom with Carly and by the time we got out he had decided that we were going to go to some amusement park. After getting lost, despite the new map AND the GPS we eventually found the amusement park, but it was closed. So I suggested that we check out Reptile Gardens. For those that have never been to Rapid City SD, well the big attraction out there is Mount Rushmore, so all along the road to see Rushmore there are tourist traps. Some are really dumb and some are really cool. We were not sure what to expect with the Reptile Gardens but frankly I was getting tired of arguing with my husband, and the natives were getting restless in their car seats.

So reptile gardens it was! We first went into the "Dome", in the center of the dome there is a tropical garden atrium filled with tropical plants and a few turtles and Koi fish. I guess there are usually Parrots in there too but the worker told us it was too cold for the birds today. What was weird is that there were tons of young couples dressed to the nines surrounded by cameras. I guess it was prom night and the hot thing to do is get your picture taken at Reptile Gardens...who would have thunk!

Also downstairs in the dome (but not in the garden part) was where they kept the Aligators, Cayman, Crocodiles, large snakes like the Reticulated Python and Anaconda. As well a nice collection of bugs, like Hissing Cockroaches and Tarantulas.

We then went upstairs in the dome and saw all sorts of lizards, snakes, bugs, and turtles. The kids had fun. But it was getting to be the time for the snake show so we headed out of the dome into a small yellow building to see the show. Basically it was a guy, holding various snakes, talking with the audience about the snakes and what not. Good show, the kids had fun and when it was over we got to touch a Albino Boa Constrictor.

After that we decided to see what was located outside. We saw a Bald Eagle, Prairie Dogs, and Giant Tortoises. Those were all fun to see, although the Prairie Dogs were hiding. But we have seen them before over at Devils Tower.

After Reptile Gardens we went and got some dinner at the Golden Phoenix, excellent Chinese food! And the kids by this time were pooped and falling asleep in the back of the car. So we found a Caribou coffee and headed out on the road home. Rusty drove from Rapid City to Wyoming state line, we switched and I drove from state line through Sundance to Moorcroft. It started snowing and I let Rusty drive the last half hour to home.

We got home and totally crashed. It was a long day. But we had fun. And vowed to to take more day trips and perhaps a camping trip or two this summer in the Black Hills.

Spring Cleaning

2009-04-22T06:03:00.004-06:00

Spring weather has finaly arrived here in Wyoming, at least for this week. Temperatures have been in the 70's and I have been inspired to open the windows, let in the fresh air, toss the dogs and kids outside and get some spring cleaning done. Yesterday was spent cleaning my downstairs. While my downstairs is picked up, vacuumed and dusted on a regular basis and never filthy I really wanted to get some of that detail work done.

Here is a breakdown my my spring cleaning efforts yesterday:

I took apart the couches and cleaned under the cushions and gave the whole couch a good vacuuming. (found $2.12 in change in the couches!)
I moved the couches and cleaned underneath them and vacuumed underneath them (found tons of stuff under there, I swear my next set of couches will not have feet on them and will sit right on the floor so junk cannot get under them...I found pens, toys, 3 of my dog Shay Shays outfits, a sippy cup with milk in it ((yulk)) and scads of other junk)
I washed the windows (only have 4 windows)
I washed the walls and ridded them of finger prints and just dirt.
I removed the shoe basket from the entryway and put it in the garage and told my family...NO MORE SHOES BY THE DOOR...I'm tired of shoes all over the place.
I gathered all the coats, hats, gloves and mittens and washed them (not going to put them away for the year just yet...I am sure we will still get more snow.
Dusted the entertainment center, coffee table and end table.
Scrubbed down the kitchen table and then went over it from top to bottom with a little Pledge.
Dusted pictures and light fixtures.

I wanted to get the kitchen deep cleaned but ran out of steam so my daughter did dishes and my hubby ran a wash cloth over the counters and swept and mopped the floors. (that works)

Last night I ran to Smiths (for some fruit and bread) and found some American Beauty pasta on sale for $0.55 a bag picked up 20 bags. Also found a big jug of Palmolive dish detergent on clearance for $2.00 as well as some Easter clearance stuff.

Other than runs for fruit, veggies, meat and bread I have not really been in the mood to do a whole lot of shopping. I really am trying to save money in the grocery budget for our house down payment. And after paying a big ol' tax bill last week I now need to save more to get the savings account back up.

On the agenda for today: work on some detail cleaning in the kitchen. But my biggest goal for the day is to get caught up on my emails and PM's and then I will do housework when the twins are napping.

Happy spring everyone!

Well life has kept me pretty busy!

2009-04-21T08:14:00.004-06:00

I have not posted to my blog in a while, sorry. Life has just been really crazy and busy.

If I were to play catch up this blog post would be a mile long, so instead I will just give you a Wyoming sunset and start back up from where I left of in my next blog post!

On the agenda for today? Some cleaning downstairs. Going to try and get as much done while the kids are at school.

Budget: March 2009 Grocery Spending

2009-04-02T17:22:00.005-06:00

Click picture above to view it larger in a new window

As you can see from the screen capture above from my Mint account, I went over my March grocery budget of $400 by $165. Makes me sad.

Which just means for me that I need to be better and stick to my budget in the month of April.

So do you have a budget and how are you at sticking to it?

Product Review: Taco Bell Fiesta Bowls

2009-03-31T13:31:00.005-06:00

So today, I am going to do my first product review on Taco Bell Dinner Bowls which I blogged about a few days ago. Anyways there is currently a Catalina deal running on these at Albertsons. They are on sale for $2.50, there are $1.00/1 Peelies on the packages (at least here there are), when you buy $10.00 worth (4) you get an instant $3.00 off your order and then there is a Catalina coupon for $3.00 OYNO that prints. So needless to say these come out to be free after coupon, deal and Catalina but you know what these things are disgusting.

I don't know what I was expecting in a heat and eat meal that was not even frozen. But needless to say I tried one, took 2 bites and tried to feed the rest to the dogs. They wouldn't touch it.

Sorry Taco Bell, but these are a bomb. If I want Taco Bell I think I will just run down the street for a bean & cheese burrito.

I am going to need a vacation from my kids!

2009-03-30T09:45:00.003-06:00

Yet another blizzard is sweeping across Wyoming today. The weather reports have said that this one could be worse than last weeks blizzard. So of course the kids have no school today and probably at the least tomorrow as well. Then of course they are on "spring" break next week. So yeah, needless to say I am going to need a vacation from my kids by the time all this is over.

Yesterday I ran to Albertsons because my DH wanted to make hot dogs for dinner (oh so healthy!). I have plenty in my freezer but no hot dog buns. So I said I would run to the store, more to get out of the house than anything. I had received a coupon in the mail this week for $5.00 off any Bar-S product so I thought I would pick up some smoked sausages and we could have that instead of plain hot dogs. When I went to get hot dog buns I was amazed to find that the bread aisle was wiped near clean. There was 1 package of hot dog buns and 2 packages of hamburger buns. I nabbed the last package of hot dog buns and then asked a nearby stock clerk what happened to all the bread. He said that everyone was rushing to the store to stock up on necessities before the storm and there had been no bread delivery all week due to the previous storm.

I was ever so thankful that I was just at the store for casual shopping, for things we didn't need and was not caught paying full price for food because I have a stockpile at home.

I also picked up 4 Taco Bell bowls on sale 2 for $5.00, with an instant $3.00 off at the register, $1.00/1 peelies on package, and $3.00 OYNO Catalina that prints when you buy 4. I ended up paying $3.50 for the entire order as I had a $3.00 OYNO Catalina from a previous promotion. So basically I just paid for my hot dog buns.

What I forgot to pick up though, and I am now kicking myself for is not getting some fresh fruit. My fruit bowl is empty. So we will have to make due with frozen fruit for a few days till I can safely get to the grocery store.

When you coupon shop do you ever get so "deal minded" that you forget to pick up staples like fruits and veggies too?

Saturday Shopping - Kmart & Albertsons

2009-03-29T09:50:00.008-06:00

After being snowed in Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then just super busy with kids, work and life the rest of the week, I finally got a chance to get a bit of shopping done yesterday. Once the kids were down for a nap and my DH was settled into a nice car chase type movie I headed off with coupons to Kmart for the last day of $2.00 double coupons. Luckily there are no other serious coupon users in my area as there was plenty of stock on hand. In fact I did not even use my 75 coupon limit and would have gone back for another round but had some stuff that needed to get done. My goal with the super doubles is not necessarily hit every free after coupon but to find things that my family needs and/or items I have a hard time getting a good deal on regularly.

So here is my Kmart haul:

4 ~ Rubbermaid Containers ~ Clearance ~ $2.00 ~ $1.00/1 (Insert) ~ Free
4 ~ Gillette Body Wash ~ Everyday Price ~ $4.49 ~ $2.00/1 (Insert) ~ $0.49
1 ~ Starbucks Gift Set (Includes large cafe latte mug, coffee, cookies) ~ Clearance ~ $3.49 ~ n/a ~ $3.49
2 ~ K-Y Warming Liquid ~ Everyday Price ~ $4.49 ~ $2.00/1 (Insert) ~ $0.49
4 ~ Reach Cleanpaste Dental Floss ~ Clearance ~ $1.84 ~ $1.00/1 (Peelie) ~ Free
4 ~ The Goodlife Cat Food ~ Sale ~ $3.99 ~ $2.00/1 (Insert) ~ Free
4 ~ Ziploc containers (Twist N Lock) ~ Sale ~ $2.50 ~ $1.00/1 (Peelie) ~ $0.50
4 ~ Huggies Wipes (Soft Pack) ~ Everyday Price ~ $1.99 ~ $1.00/1 (Insert) ~ Free
4 ~ Brawny Paper Towels ~ Everyday Price ~ $4.99 ~ $1.50/1 (Insert) ~ $1.99
4 ~ Glade Carpet Freshener ~ Everyday Price ~ $2.19 ~ $1.00/1 (Insert) ~ $0.19
4 ~ Pledge Multi-Surface Duster Refills ~ Sale ~ $2.50 ~ $1.25/1 (Insert) ~ Free
4 ~ Natures Source Cleaners ~ Sale ~ $2.50 ~ $1.00/1 (Insert) ~ $0.50
2 ~ Folgers Gourmet Coffee ~ Everyday Price ~ $5.49 ~ $1.00/1 (Inside Package) ~ $3.49
4 ~ Nabisco Toasted Chips ~ Sale ~ $2.50 ~ $1.00/1 (Peelie) ~ $0.50
4 ~ Celestial Seasonings Tea Bags (Peppermint) ~ Sale ~ $2.00 ~ $1.00/1 (Insert) ~ Free

Total before coupons & sales = $126.50
Total OOP = $46.62 (including sales tax)

Not bad, not stellar but I was happy with it. These were all things that I could use, was out of, or items I have a hard time getting a deal on.

Next I headed on over to Albertsons to get some cheap cereal and free milk Catlaina's.

I had exactly 21 peelies for $1.00/1 Kellogg's cereal and the deal was, when you buy 7 boxes of Kellogg's cereal you get 3 Catalina coupons each for a free gallon of milk (up to $4.69).

Albertsons Haul:

21 ~ Kellogg's Cereal (Various Flavors) ~ Sale ~ $1.67 ~ $1.00/1 (Peelie) ~ $0.67
9 ~ Organic Valley Milk, 1 Gallon ~ Everyday Price ~ $4.50 ~ Free Milk (Catalina) ~ Free

Total before coupons & sales = $126.38
Total OOP = $14.01 (no sales tax on food)

I will toss the milk in the freezer and that should last about 2 months or so. We already have a few gallons of milk in there so I am set for a while.

Hey, I won a blog award!

2009-03-26T09:03:00.002-06:00

I am a relative newcommer to blogging but thus far I have found it to be pretty fun. I am sure that readers are a bit supprised that my blog is not chalk full of money saving tips and deals. But the fact is, I spend my whole day over on Hotcouponworld looking at deals (sometimes at stores I don't even have) and private messaging with members, mods and new members and by the time I get to posting on my blog, well I like to write about other things. So if you are looking for tons of deals, I recomend my website HCW (link above). Oh sure I will post my occassional shopping trip and money saving tips, but this blog is just more about the everyday life of me and my family with some couponing thrown in the mix from time to time.

So anyways...I guess I have been awarded a blog award of some sort and there are some steps I have to follow...I am going to give it a shot (wish me luck)

I just wanted to say thank you to Get Groceries Free for awarding me with the Lemonade Award.

Here’s the scoop:

Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post
Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude
Link to your nominees within your post
Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog
Share the love and link to the person from who you received your award

Here are my 10 nominations for Blogs that show Gratitude:

Honey, I Fed The Kids (love the attitude for sure!)
More or Les(ley) (My good pal)
der(pedia) (Because she would not have a Weinershnitzel t-shirt if it were not for me)
Common Sense With Money (She is great about updating her blog, good deals)
A Budget Bella (Great site for learning to budget)

Oh junk... that is all I can do right now. I know there are other great blogs but I am going to miss an appointment!

BTW - Kids are back at school today, just me and twins today. Maybe I will get some work done!

Snowed In

2009-03-23T16:55:00.003-06:00

I knew the warm weather would not last, the weekend was too good to be true. We even took the kids to the park for a day in the sun. But alas, we woke up to this:

That was this morning...the snow is much deeper now. I just about lost my puppy, Holly Golightly in a drift in the backyard when I let her out to potty. Now after snowing steadily all day there is a 4 ft. drift in front of my van. That is going to be so much fun to shovel out!

The power has been on and off all day (mostly off) so I have had to find ways to keep the kids occupied without DVD's and/or cartoons. We bust out the crayons and some Barbies that I had picked up on clearance a while back. Parker woke up yelling "OHHHH NOOOO THE LIGHT IS BROKEN!!!!" LOL

Luckily we have provisions and our house is well insulated....although everything is electric powered...if we have to we could cook in the backyard on the BBQ grill.

Here...is a weather widget so you can see what the current weather is like in Wyoming

Confession: I can never walk out of Walmart without spending $100

2009-03-22T13:51:00.005-06:00

They should just re-name the store "One Hundred Bucks" as that would be appropriate.

Today I went with a list to get the following

A new toaster, as my toaster bit the dust.

Pork chops (DH wanted them, he is cooking, I shall oblige)

Pringles minis - I found one more coupon for them for $1/1 and they are $1.88

White cheddar Cheez-its, because my husband asked me for them and I said I would, hate those kinds of requests, but I am a nice wife and he was staying at home with all the kids...

I ended up with istead:

A toaster oven with convection and rotisserie

Pork chops

Bananas

Strawberries

Pringles minis

White Cheddar Cheez-its (full price, no coupons)

3 Bags Tyson Any'Tizers (Roll back $6.69 had $1/1 coupons)

3 Bags Banquet Chicken breast fingers (Roll Back $3.59 had $0.75/1 coupons)

2 Packages Precious string cheese ($4.49 had $1/1 coupons)

10 Packages Chinet paper plates (clearanced $1.00 had $1/1 coupons = Free)

Total spent - $109.97

Time away from children and messy house = Priceless

Cleaning...how did I do?

2009-03-19T12:38:00.002-06:00

Well I have to admit defeat. My promise to myself that I would spend the whole day yesterday cleaning house and get my cleaning under control was a partial bust. I totally picked the wrong day to dedicate to housework. I realized shortly after posting to this blog that Wednesdays are not good because my twins are home all day. While on Monday and Tuesday they go to pre-school for 4 hours a day. Not only are the tornado twins home on Wednesday but it was also an early release day for my 11 year old and 6 year old. So that meant that 4 kids home underfoot and messing up things after I clean them.

But the day was not a total loss! I did get my bedroom, the upstairs bathroom, the upstairs hallway and the stairwell de-cluttered, dusted, vacumed, swept, mopped, and even took a swipe at finger prints around the doors and down the stairs. I sprayed some Glade Fabric Refresher on the beds and carpets and opened up some windows and let in some fresh air and I must admit it felt good to have that all tidy.

However, my youngest 3 decided to sneek into a box of organic cereal that I bought on Tuesday and had not yet put in the garage stockpile and when ever they sneek something they take it upstairs and hide on the side of my bed having cereal parties. They left a trail of oat flakes all the way up the stairs, through the hallway and into my room. It was not hard to find them and thier hiding spot. It was much like Hansel & Gretles trail of bread crumbs! So, I had to re-vacume everything. I was going to give them the dustbuster and make them do it themselves but the dustbuster was nowhere to be found.

I also made some signs for the laundry baskets and set up a laundry sorting station in the hallway. The kids today have been having fun finding laundry and sorting it. We shall see how long the novelty lasts!

So...I did not get my downstairs cleaned, oh well. Such is life. The downstairs is not too bad, we tidy it up everynight before bed. The biggest thing I need to do is dust and get out the carpet shampooer on a spot where someone spilled some body wash on the carpet. Once the twins take a nap I am going to run and get the kitchen tidy and sweep and mop and run the vacume.

I am going to make this a habit of taking one day off from the computer and TV till housework is done, but from now on I am going to make that day Tuesday.

Oh yeah...confession...checked email while eating lunch. Shhhh don't tell!

A chore for everyday

2009-03-17T09:54:00.004-06:00

Picture credit to merrileesmusings.blogspot.com I tired to take pictures of my own towels but my computer is not cooperating

I have these cute little dishtowels that my grandmother-in-law made for me, sweetly embroidered by hand that have a little pictures on them and a reminder of that day's chores on them:

Monday: Wash Day

Tuesday: Ironing Day

Wednesday: Sewing Day

Thursday: Market Day

Friday: Cleaning Day

Saturday: Baking Day

Sunday: Day of Rest

And while I think these little reminders are sweet I really do not think they apply to busy women in today's times. Women from those days did not usually work outside of the home, nor did they have computers that require answering emails, checking message boards, updating status on Facebook, writing blog posts. They were not distracted by Oprah or Dr. Phil or Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TV or running out to get the best deal on milk this week.

For me wash day is everyday, I don't iron or sew. Tuesday is Market Day, and so is any other day I want to hit up a great sale. I bake, but not once a week. My kitchen is too small I think anyway to bake for a whole week. Cleaning day...well I try to do a bit everyday too, if I only did it once a week, my house would be a wreck. And while I try to take it easy on Sunday I must admit that it is not always a day of rest.

This is a simple reminder that there does have to be some organization and order to ones life though. I would consider myself pretty organized when all is said and done, however I admit that life sometimes runs me over like a steam roller. I use a online calendar (google) and my Blackberry to keep myself on task with all the million things that need to be done. But sometimes there just is not enough hours in the day to get it all done. I can schedule to my hearts content that I am going to check and answer emails from 9 AM to 10 AM but when a certain little person is grumpy and refuses to get dressed in the morning that can throw the whole thing out of whack. And when a husband offers to help with the laundry yet decides that instead of hanging up the laundry (we hang up everything except underwear and socks) and will instead put all the clean clothes in a laundry basket and he will hang them "later" that can throw a whole weeks of washing through the wringer (so to speak).

But I do wonder if there is something to be said for setting aside a whole day and getting something done fully instead of half-assed (sorry could not think of another term). My biggest pit fall here on the home front is the cleaning. While I tidy up each day and try and get the kitchen and bathrooms deep cleaned once a week. The kids have chores, my husband helps out for the most part. I still feel like my house is a wreck just about every day. It would be nice to take a day a week and get everything ship shape.

So I am going to plan Wednesday as cleaning day. I am not going to turn on my computer or TV on Wednesdays until the housework is done.

So stay tuned tomorrow when (or should I say "if") I am done with my house cleaning.

Wish me luck..I think I am going to need it.

Going to be an aunt!

2009-03-13T15:44:00.005-06:00

My baby sister Jennifer called me to tell me the great news that she is expecting a baby due on my birthday. How exciting for her! This will bring my neice/nephew count to 7 on my side of the family.

I really need to get back home to California to visit my family...I have not seen my brothers and sisters since 2001 and I am missing them all very much.

Shout outs to brothers Doug, Louie and Jonathan!
Shout outs to sisters Melissa and Jennifer!
Shout outs to neices and nephews Wyatt, Weston, Kallie, Victoria, Baby Louie and Annica (and new baby on the way!)

Confession: I have not blogged in a few days

2009-03-12T12:27:00.003-06:00

Well this week has been a bust for me and blogging. I have been sick, again. It snowed, again. And I have just been really busy with life, yet it never feels like I accomplish anything!

Saturday was my son, Parker's 6th birthday. We went to Pirates Cove water park, which is a new indoor water park at the local Fairfield Inn. $136 bucks for a party of 10 (which our family was 7 + Grandma Susan + 2 friends). A good time was had by all. The kids are now at the point where they are a bit more independant so I did not have to go swimming with them (yeah no fat chick in bathing suit) but could just "chill" by the side and watch them. Rusty, my husband, took them down the bigger slides and everyone had a blast. The party came with 2 crappy pizzas and 2 bottles of lukewarm Diet Pepsi. Too much money for what it was, but since there are not a lot of options for fun B-day parties here in our town it was not too bad. Plus the novelty of swimming when it is freezing cold outside is a nice change from the winter blues. I am sure we will go back soon.

Sunday was spent cleaning and laundry and all that mundane junk. Rusty took care of laundry for the day, although he did not get it all done. He has his own way of doing things and it's not MY WAY, so I have to learn to be appriciative that he took it upon himself to do the laundry and not get all picky in the way it was done.

Monday brought freezing temps and snow. My van would not start so the kids stayed at home. I did the normal junk like 2 loads of laundry, cleaning, emails, PM's etc.

Tuesday, more of the same...plus I went shopping at Smith's for some goodies. It was -2 when I was out and about and so I was able to leave all the freezer stuff in the car till the morning. Since I like to shop late at night I was too tired anyways to drag all that stuff in. But basically what I got was:

(10) frozen pizzas ($2.99 AC...much cheaper than ordering out)
(6) Gallons of milk ($1.89 a gallon, gotta stock up at that price)
(1) Container Organic Vanilla Yogurt
(2) Pints of strawberries
(6) loafs of 100% whole wheat bread ($1.05 AC, not too bad)
(1) Bottle clearanced Renuzit Super Odor Neutralizer ($0.40 AC...better price than Febreeze, that works for me)
(12) Boxes of Pop-Tarts ($0.69 AC)
(8) Packages boneless-skinless chicken breasts ($1.89 LB)
(1) Box Nature Valley Granola Bars (Had a free coupon that Smith's sent me)
(10) Boxes of Beech-Nut baby cereal ($0.75 each...bought these for someone I know that has a new baby)
(2) Cans of Enfamil formula ($4.00 each after BOGO catalina and forumal checks...got these for same friend)

Total OOP = $112.05 and I Saved $102.42, Not too bad, not that great, but works for me. I fugured that the pizza will save my family quite a bit because we usually order pizza once a week. In fact two frozen pizzas at $2.99 each = $5.98 VS the $35+tip we would normally spend on 2 pizzas that is quite a significant savings for me.

Wednesday, more of the same...

And then today...working my way through emails this morning, organized the inside pantry a bit, so far halfway done. Got some laundry going...

I just checked my Mint.com accounts to check on my balances and spending and so far I think I am doing pretty well in all areas. Last month my husbands "Misc Spending" was way up and I had to have a heart to heart with him and ask him to please curb the spending. He had no idea that the $1 here $5 there was adding up to over $200 for the month of Febuary. While my misc. spending was $15 (2 magazines and a starbucks)

Here is a screenshot of my grocery spending for March thus far:

Find A Penny Pick It Up Challenge

2009-03-06T12:25:00.002-07:00

Update 3/6/09
Old Total: $15.62
New Total: $19.81

"Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford" on Saturday Night Live

2009-03-06T10:52:00.003-07:00

Just had to share this funny clip that I stumbled upon today.

What a novel concept!

Hope you enjoy!

2009-03-03T10:16:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty uneventful day. I did a few loads of laundry (5 more to go) and vacuumed the downstairs (twice... it is shedding season for our dogs). It was semi warm here with a high of 55 degrees so I threw open a window for some fresh air got a bit of cleaning done. Although not as much as I had wanted to get done. Ahh, such is life.

My husband called me when he got off of work and asked "how does BBQ chicken sound for dinner tonight", I said we have no chicken in the freezer and he offered to run to the store and buy some. Me, being the ever "nag" about staying on budget, reminded him that the propane tank was empty on the BBQ grill. So I said, if we spend $17 on propane then we are going to have to forego eating out at all this week. So he agreed and I told him I would check to see who had the best prices on chicken this week. There is just no reason for anyone to just run to the store and buy junk at full price if you have a computer. In a matter of 2 minuites I opened up 3 tabs and checked the prices at Albertsons, Smiths and Walmart to see if anyone had a good deal on chicken. Albertsons won at $1.88 Lb. and I pulled out a coupon for $1.00/1 Fresh Express Salad as a side dish. So we had BBQ chicken and salad for dinner. With leftover chicken for a few lunches.

1 Bag fresh express salad = $0.00
8 Lbs. Bonless Skinless Chicken Breasts = $15.92
Refil on propane tank = $17.00

Total OOP: $32.92 (yep, that rules out eating out this week)

Went to Walgreens at about 8:00 PM just for the heck of it. Had not really shopped much at Walgreens this year and decided to stop in to look around. I did not buy much, but here is what I got:

Axe shampoo which is FAR (free after rebate) this month at Walgreens
2- small boxes of Ritz crackers, on sale B1G1 Free and I had a $2.00/2 coupon (I had a few coupons, but they only had two boxes in stock)
1 - Tube Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste, 4 Oz. which was on clearance for $2.49 and there was a $2.50/1 EasySaver coupon in the monthly booklet which make it free (the coupon scanned for $2.49, so no overage)
2- "Thingamajig" candy bars, which I was suckered into buying by the nice sales clerk that gave me no hassle and a smile when he had to adjust the price on my crackers so that I could get them both for free with my coupon. I was craving chocolate, so figured I would indulge...umm these candy bars were uber sweet to say the least...too sweet for me.

My total came to $7.01 but nothing was paid OOP as I had a gift card balance from rebates from '08) So basically free shopping and I will get $5.99 back on the rebate for the Axe. Works for me!

~~~~~
March Budget: $400
Spent @ Albertsons 3/1/09 = $41.22
Spent @ Albertsons 3/2/08 = $32.92
Spent @ Walgreens 3/2/09 = $0.00

Total spent: $74.14
Total left in budget: $325.86
~~~~~

Today my plans are to finish up laundry, and work my way through some emails and mesages. And take a trash bag out to my garage and just get rid of some random stuff that is out there. Also I am going to put a batch of spaghetti sauce in the crockpot for dinner/leftovers.

Oh yeah...I cleaned my car out yesterday, a deep clean, took all the seats out and everything, and I found my digital camera that was missing since my trip to Kansas City in November. I was freeking out my friend Sara who was making sure she did not throw away my little red camera case while she was packing to move to Tennesee. She is getting settled in her new home now and I am happy to report that the missing camera is now found. I was pretty sure that we had left it in a hotel room on our trip home or it fell out of the car. Yeah, happy to have my camera back!

A new clipping service - My Coupon Hunter

2009-03-01T22:24:00.002-07:00

Wanted to give a nice heads up about a new start up clipping service.

I found My Coupon Hunter on Hotcouponworld (of course), they subscribed for a Hot Entrepreneur subscription there and I want to say thanks for the support. In return I thought I would give them a try and I have to say that I have been nothing but happy. I have ordered a few times and have had nothing but great service. Coupons are shipping very promptly, email receipt of your order is sent right away and they often have online coupon codes to help bring the cost of your order down. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast my coupons got her to Wyoming from Florida. While I did not order anything that I needed right away everything came within 5-7 days which is really good considering my mail here tends to just run slow.

Communication with My Coupon Hunter has been stellar. I had some questions earlier this evening and was very surprised that my email was answered right away.

So if you are looking for a new clipping service or want to give one a try for the first time, I personally put my stamp of approval (whatever THAT is worth!) on My Coupon Hunter.

Closing out Febuary and starting off March

2009-03-01T14:12:00.004-07:00

Well, I never really did get a chance to hit Kmart last week for double coupons. Yesterday was the last day and my mother-in-law was in town, we ran to both Kmart and Walmart yesterday afternoon to pick up some baby stuff for a friend that had a new baby. I did not have my coupon toolbox with me but just my small accordion file of "hotties". I had put aside some coupons for $1.00 off any Huggies Bath & Body product to use for myself at Walmart on travel size wipes but saw that Kmart had the larger full-size boxes for $2.99. So I went ahead and picked up 4 boxes and paid $4.20 for 4 boxes (including tax). At Kmart I spent a ridiculous amount ($98.66!!) on cute little baby duds, but won't count that in my grocery budget. It will come out of my gift budget for the year. But we can go ahead and count the wipes in the budget.

So my end of Febuary budget count goes something like this:
Budget: $400
Spent @ Walmart 2/8/09 = $19.90
Spent @ Albertsons 2/8/09 = $13.12
Spent @ Albertsons 2/22/09 = $67.31
Spent @ Bread outlet (not blogged about) 2/20/09 = $9.08
Spent @ Smith's 2/25/09 = $29.31
Spent @ Kmart 2/28/09 = $4.20

Total spent: $142.92
Total left in budget: $257.08

Pretty good I think, and of course we have an extensive stockpile. So of course the things I purchased just this month would not feed our crew alone.

So...I am going to go ahead and tansfer $257.08 from my checking account to my ING Direct saving account, and this will go towards our "hopefully buying a house fund"

Today starts a new month and a new budget for grocery shopping. Today I ran to Albertsons for some staples. Right now this is where alot of my shopping falls. Meat, produce, bread, milk, etc.

My husband is cooking dinner tonight and is roasting a turkey breast from the freezer and wanted to make roasted vegetables after being inspired by an episode on the Barefoot Contessa we caught on TV this morning. We alreay have potatoes, but there were a few other veggies that I needed to get.

I got the following:

1 - 5 Lb. Bag Carrots (figured I would get a bigger bag this time around since we went through the smaller bag last week pretty fast)
5 Parsnips @ $1.49 lb.
1 big ol' butternut squash @ $1.99 lb. (This puppy cost $8!!! ouch)
1 loaf of garlic french bread from the day old rack = $0.99
2 packages for chuck roast @ $1.99 lb which I am going to cut some into stew meat and grind some into hamburger meat for later use.
2 - Bottles Purex HE laundry detergent = $3.99 each (no coupons)

Total spent $41.22

March Budget: $400
Spent @ Albertsons 3/1/09 = $41.22

Total spent: $41.22
Total left in budget: $358.78

Bring Back The Coupons

2009-02-27T17:29:00.003-07:00

While I know that my little blog here is young and has but a few readers (and no comments) I still feel the need to write about a grass-roots effort that is going on by the couponing community.

If you have not heard the news already, Valassis the company that provides the Red Plum insert in the Sunday newspaper is pulling their coupon inserts from certain newspapers. While this does not affect me personally, my small town in Wyoming never has carried the Red Plum insert, this does affect millions of coupon users and has the potential to spread to other locations.

So I want to encourage any readers of this blog to take a moment and view the following site: BringBackTheCoupons and use the links and contact information provided to let Valassis, the newspapers that are not carrying the Red Plum inserts and the companies that advertise with Valassis that you are not happy with this poor decision.

In these rough financial times I think it is really a poor choice on Valassis part to strap Americans that are looking to save some money on groceries. The timing could not be worse.

Smith's 2.25.09

2009-02-26T07:44:00.003-07:00

So last night I needed to run to the grocery store for some milk and dog food. I had not gotten the weeks sale ads yet so I hopped online to view the ads online for Smith's and Albertsons to see if either store had a sale on milk. Smith's Food & Drug had milk for $1.99 a gallon, and since I needed dog food and I did not have any decent coupons I decided that Smith's was my destination since if I am going to pay full price for dog food I might as well earn some pet points.

I did not take my coupons with me because it was starting to snow and I really just wanted to run and run out and get home before the roads got icy.

Of course I spotted carts of clearance laundry detergent and fabric softener over by the milk. They had one bottle of Purex HE laundry soap for $2.00 and I got 2 bottles of Purex fabric softener for $1.67 each. I actually was out of laundry soap and forgot that I needed some, till I spotted the clearance basket.

I also got my 2 gallons of milk for $1.99 each and a large bag of Iams Healthy Maturity dog food $19.99, yikes but I needed the food and that is what my older dogs eat (the puppy eats Iams puppy food)

So while I was standing at the check out, shooting the breeze with my favorite cashier, Lila, the power went out. It came right back on but then kept on rolling off and on about 5 times. I admit it is pretty darn dark when the lights go out in a grocery store but luckily the power came back on and stayed on. However the register was not scanning products and Lila has to enter the barcodes by hand. I joked with her that I bet she was glad that this trip did not have any coupons as she would have to enter them all by hand.

After check out I got in the car and man it was really coming down outside with the snow in big wet sticky flakes. We did not get much snow overall, a inch maybe but it was wet and now it is icy outside. I am glad I don't have to go anywhere today. It is still fluttering snow here and there this morning.

So anyways..here is where I am with my grocery budget thus far for the month of February:

Budget: $400
Spent @ Walmart 2/8/09 = $19.90
Spent @ Albertsons 2/8/09 = $13.12
Spent @ Albertsons 2/22/09 = $67.31
Spent @ Bread outlet (not blogged about) 2/20/09 = $9.08
Spent @ Smith's 2/25/09 = $29.31

Total spent: $138.72
Total left in budget: $261.28

Still have not gone to Kmart for super doubles...perhaps tonight...we shall see.

Confession: I am a handbag addict. And You Can be too with Olive Juice Bags!

2009-02-26T06:14:00.003-07:00

Ok I admit it, I am a handbag-a-holic and while I may not have stacks of shoes in my closet (I have like 6 pairs) or wear designer clothing, I have a weakness for cute handbags. Being the thrifty (AKA CHEAP) sort of person I never pay big bucks for a purse. My favorite finds are the name brand, $200-$500 purses found at my local consignment store for $30-$50. But I have others too that I just bought because they are cute. As a mom of 5 kids my purse needs to be roomy enough to hold all the junk that, well, a mom of 5 kids needs to have in her bag. You know, wallet, quarters, Kleenex, candy, keys, baby wipes, juice boxes, box of crayons, little pads of paper, toys that you have taken away because they can't share, you know the drill...

Olive Juice Bags is a new company that has some really cute eco-friendly (I am all about that!) handbags and is offering a great Bag of the month contest, for which I must blog about in order to try and win. But if you have a blog and are reading this you too can enter to win by blogging! Or you can just order one of their cute bags :)

Olive Juice Bags are made from overrun upholstry fabric which keeps that unwanted fabric out of the landfill and the products are made in the USA, which I just love! With the economy being tough right now it is a great time for those of us who can afford to, to support manufactures that use USA labor! And with the prices of these cute handbags at only $40-$65 these are pretty reasonable. (To purchase a bag, you need to click through to their Etsy shop.

My blog has a new address on the net

2009-02-23T11:41:00.002-07:00

Hey guys when I set up my blog on blogger I also bought the actual domain name. But needed to learn how to move things over. Well blogger gives great direction on how to do this all yourself. So I have switched.

You can find my blog now at http://www.confessionsofacouponqueen.com/

Totally cool!

Albertsons Shopping Trip 2/22/09

2009-02-23T09:57:00.004-07:00

I decided to go ahead and take a trip to Albertsons this week and get a few things. Since I really only am trying to focus on things that we are running low on or need (yep even when it is cheap or free) I did not purchase too much.

The above picture was taken on my cell phone, so it is a tad blurry but its the best I could do.

First to start off as I was entering Albertsons I spotted some Catalinas on the ground, lucky me but I found a $1.50 OYNO and a $10 OYNO so I was ahead of the game already by $11.50!

Here is what I got:

20 - Boxes of cereal (Cheerios, Trix & Lucky Charms)
7 - Boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snacks (Watermelon Gushers, our favorite)

Albertsons is running a catalina deal on the General Mills products of get $10.00 OYNO (On your next order). Unfortunately my supply of coupons was slim pickings. I have not had new inserts except for the junk inserts I find by dumpster diving since November. And my printer is not printing for some reason. So the only coupons I had were a few peelies for $1.00/1 General Mills cereal, Free box of General Mills cereal when you buy 2 and a few peelies for Free Betty Crocker fruit snack when you buy 3 boxes General Mills cereal. I realize that I should have gotten 3 more fruit snacks, but miscounted (yep it happens to the best of us)

20- Cans of College Inn chicken broth (No coupons but was on sale for $0.49 a can and I really just needed some.
11 - Bottles of Coffee-Mate coffee creamer, on sale $1.99 and I had 11 printable coupons for $1.50/1 (printed from various computers in our house and from my friends, since you can only print 2 per computer)
1 - Loaf of Sara Lee Bread
1 - 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke (found a tearpad for $2.00 off any Diet Coke product WYB the Sara Lee Bread and since I needed bread decided to use it.
1 - 3 Pound package of Albertsons brand spaghetti pasta (cause I was out and needed it)
5 Dozen eggs
2 - 6 Oz. Packages of Blueberries (In-ad coupon making them $1.99)
2 - 6 Oz. Packages of Blackberries (In-ad coupon making then $1.99)
1 - Tote bag of navel oranges (7.72 Lbs. Total cost was $9.96)

So while the savings were not stellar I was still pretty pleased that I got a few deals on cereal and treats in the BC fruit snacks. And a treat in the coffee creamer for me. But I also got things that we needed such as a bit of fresh fruit, eggs (yeah I know that is a-lot of eggs but my family likes eggs), and oranges.

My total OOP (Out of pocket) was $67.31 and I saved $150.33 and I received (2) $10.00 and (1) $3.50 OYNO catalinas to use on my next trip. The bag boy was facinated as I checked out and was totally suprised when I saved more than I spent using the coupons. So overall it was a decent shopping trip.

Oh! I also got a coupon for a free loaf of french bread...all I need to do is fill out the survey!

My entire family snacked on the blackberries as soon as we put the groceries away and they were SO yummy. Someday I would like to be growing these myself. I have raspberry and blackberry bushes we planted last spring and I hope we get a few berries this year.

This morning I made the kids blueberry pancakes and they were a big hit. I am thinking about going back and getting more berries with $10 of my OYNO catalinas just because they are so tasty. And then maybe getting some meat or something.

Today I am trying to get my coupons organized so that I can hit Kmart for super doubles. I pulled expireds from my box yesterday and today I just need to file some of the coupons that I have piled on my desk.

A pretty blah week overall

2009-02-19T20:27:00.003-07:00

I have not really been able to come up with any clever blog posts this week because, for whatever reason it has been pretty boring around here. None of the deals really floated my boat last week so no shopping for me. This week looks OK at Albertsons with the General Mills catalina deals going on. I will probably give that a few runs tomorrow night.

Lets see... my Siberian Husky has started her spring shedding, so it looks like it has snowed inside. My Dyson has been running at least 2 times a day to keep up with it. The good news? Maybe that means that spring is going to be here soon.

Nothing extraordinary with the kids this week, school, home, homework, chores...the usual stuff. Oh, my oldest daughter bought a "new" car, a '96 Monte Carlo. She is pretty excited.

Laundry, dishes, and general housekeeping keeps me busy along with all the stuff to do at Hotcouponworld. Between emails, PM's and the database I hardly have time to read much on the site itself. But I try to get in a little time each day.

I have been trying to change my sleep habits by going to bed at a decent hour and waking up earlier. This is a tough transition to make as I am a night owl and usually do not go to bed till somewhere around 1-2 Am. So this week I have been going to bed when my husband does (9-9:30 PM-ish) and waking up earlier at 4-5 AM. The benefits of this is that I get to spend more time with my husband at night (wink wink) and the morning hours, once I have a cup of coffee in me, is a pretty productive time to get work done. But like any habits, there is a transition period. I find that I am having a burn out period in the afternoon and don't feel like doing much. Today I ended up watching Gandhi on the TV, something I rarely do. But it is a great movie and I love the message of being the change you wish to see in the world.

Confession: If one coupon is good, 10 coupons are better!

2009-02-17T06:08:00.004-07:00

One of the key's to shopping with coupons, and one that is often overlooked by many "experts" you may see on on the news and TV is the use of multiple coupons.

Finding a way to obtain multiple coupons and purchase more than one item when it is on sale is really the back bone of saving with coupons. Many times I hear that the time and effort it takes to save money with coupons is not worth it when you are only saving $1.00. But to see the real savings you MUST try getting multiple coupons. Having multiple coupons allows you to STOCKPILE when something is a good price. So if cereal is on sale this week for $1.00 a box and you have $1.00 off 2 coupons you can buy multiple boxes (10, 20, 30, 40, or more) and have enough cereal on hand to last your household till the next time cereal goes on sale.

How do you get multiple coupons you may ask? Here are a few examples:

Buy extra copies of the newspaper (sometimes the cost of the newspaper IS worth the savings in the newspaper if there are good coupons that week).
Ask your friends, family, school, church, groups, neighbors, or whom ever you can think to save the coupons for you if they subscribe.
Post on your local craigslist or freecycle.org to see if anyone is willing to save them for you.
Check out any place where people buy the newspaper and leave it behind for other customers. Places like coffee shops, fast food, laundromats, bagel stores, bakeries, donut shops, etc.
Get connected. Ask your local gas stations, stores, and other places where you can buy newspapers what they do with the left over/un-sold Sunday papers. Ask if you can come in and get the extra coupons out of them before they are taken away. It never hurts to ask, the worse thing they can say is "no". Other connections might be hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, and anywhere else that they offer patrons a free newspaper.
Dumpster dive. While the phrase dumpster diving can have some very weird connotations about rummaging around in garbage cans that is not exactly what I am talking about. What I am talking about is looking in newspaper recycling bins. You can find some great information here in this thread I wrote a few years ago.
Trade for them/pay a "handling fee" for them. If getting muliple inserts cannot be done via any of the above methods then you can try trading or pay a handling fee for whole inserts. Off the top of my head Coupons & Things by DeDe offers whole inserts. You can also post in the trading forums at Hotcouponworld to see if anyone there has whole inserts. (sometimes living in a small town, this is your only option of getting multiple good inserts)

If you cannot get multiple newspaper/insert coupons via one of the afore mentioned methods, have no fear there are still ways you can get multiple coupons!

If you spot some coupons in-store consider taking a few extras and saving them till/when the item goes on sale (Tearpads, Blinkies, Hangtags, Peelies, etc are all fair game, just don't ruin any packaging that these coupons are on).

Trade or pay "handling fees" for individual coupons you want in multiple quanities. Hotcouponworld has a nice little list of coupon clipping sites located here, and again you can trade coupons in the trading forums. I like to use the Coupon Database for most of my trading needs. I always have the newest coupon information at my fingertips when I search the Coupon Database and add the coupons I want to trade for right to my wish list. (this feature of the database is open only to trader group members)

Printable coupons can be a good source as well. While most printable coupons only allow you to print 2 of each coupon that does not mean that you cannot use multiple computers to print extras. When there is a hot printable coupon, I print from my computer, my husbands computer, and then the kids' computer. You can also try printing from work or at the library too (although some networks will have blocked the printing software so this can be hit or miss.)

If you are lucky enough to have a Target store in your area (I don't) you can also print Target store coupons via the Hotcouponworld Target Coupon Generator. This handy dandy tool lets you print multiple's of Target store coupons (the exact coupons you can find on Target's website) but saves you some paper. The closest Target to me is over 2 hours away in either Rapid City SD or Casper WY but we make our way over a few times a year and I always check the Target forum for the latest deals when we go.

For more great tools and resources check out the Resources Tab at Hotcouponworld, here you are just going to find tons to sources for finding coupons and pricebooks and more. It really is a great tool, if I say so myself.

Pretty borring couple of days

2009-02-11T16:58:00.003-07:00

So, we have all been sick this week and really feeling pretty cruddy. With all these kids, sickness just seems to make it's rounds between all the kids and mom. Robitussin (free of course) and Kleenex tissues have been our friends.

Other than being sick and still trying to take care of the house and work at the sites I don't think I have done anything real exciting. We got a new thing installed last night for the auctions forum at Hotcouponworld, so if you are into coupon auctions that should be live here in a few days I hope. I spent the good part of Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday working my way through the coupon database verifying entries and trying to handle reported posts. I still have some work to do. Well actually the work never ends because as soon as you have verified everything you go back and someone has entered a new slew of coupons. By my rough estimates members add approximately 300 new entries a day to the coupon database. It is totally insane. I sometimes wonder if some day I will need to hire someone to help maintain it and take that chore off of my plate. While we have a group of great volunteers that help with the database, I realize that they have real lives too.

Lets see other than that not much else going on right now. I have watched Disneys' Peter Pan 4 times in the last 2 days. Did 5 loads of laundry yesterday and today. Shampooed the carpet in my bedroom last night. Cleaned the upstairs bathroom yesterday afternoon. Did 3 loads of dishes in the past 2 days. Answered or read about 300 emails and 42 private messages (and still have some to get to). Found $3.00 in the laundry yesterday and $0.50 in the coin return at the newspaper stand.

Going to go off and make some spaghetti with italian sausage for dinner and see what else can be accomplished for the day.

Albertsons and Walmart Deals 2.8.09

2009-02-08T15:46:00.006-07:00

My husband begged me to run to Walmart with him to "just look" at a new digital camera he wants. Of course it is the second most expensive camera they have. I told him "very nice" we will have to think about it. Meaning we will have to save for it and see if we can get it cheaper.

But since we were going I took a look at Hotcouponworld's handy dandy Walmart Price Book (most of prices in there are from my own price book) to see if there was anything that I wanted to grab while out.

Here is what I got at Walmart:

(2) Bags Stacy's Pita Chips priced at $2.50 each. Used $2.00/1 coupons that someone sent to me in a trade, I think they were tearpad coupons. = $0.50 each

(2) Bags of Great Value (Walmart Brand) frozen stir fry vegetables (because we are having stir fry tonight and I was out and had no good coupons) priced at $1.88.
(9) Bags of Welch's mixed dry fruit priced at $2.12. Used $1.00/1 insert coupons. = $1.12 each (good price I think for dried fruit)
(4) Packages of Huggies baby wipes priced at $1.67. Used $1.00/1 Huggies Bath & Body Product insert coupon = $0.67 each
(14) Bags of Green Giant Steamers vegetables in corn, brocolli, and green beans priced at $1.27. Used $1.10/1 coupons that I traded for, I think they were booklet coupons. = $0.17 each.

Total spent = $19.90

Next we went on over to Albertsons since I have been too sick to really go take advantage of the double coupons going on there. I decided that I would give 4 orders back to back a try and the cashier was cool with that. I was prepared to have my husband do 2 orders and me do 2 orders but that was not necessary.

This is what I got at Albertsons:

(4) Huggies wipes priced at $2.29. Used $1.00/1 Huggies Bath & Body product insert coupon, doubled = $0.29 each
(4) Snuggle Creme Liquid Fabric Softener priced at $3.99. Used $1.00/1 insert coupon, doubled = $1.99 (I really needed some fabric softener as I was out)
(4) Kellogg's Pop Tarts priced at $2.50 each. Used $1.00/1 peelie coupons, doubed = $0.50 each
(4) Quaker Delights granola bars priced at $2.50 each. Used $1.00/1 coupons they had right there in the store, doubled = $0.50 each

Total spent: $13.12

So even though I have not addressed my budget in this blog I am at $43.02 for the month of February our of my $400 budget. (Earlier in the week DH ran for some milk and fresh fruit at Smith's and bread at the bread outlet and spent $10.00)
Total left to spend from budget = $356.98

Consignment store here I come!

2009-02-07T18:56:00.008-07:00

So our entire household is sick (except my husband who claims that he never gets sick...umm yeah right). But I needed a break from the snotty tissues and whiny kids. So I grabbed my purse and headed to my favorite consignment store. I drop off our old clothes and stuff a few times a month and in return I always have store credit (or I could cash out).

I had lots of fun slowly walking up and down the aisles and leisurely looking at everything that peaked my interest. What a nice way to spend the afternoon.

So here are my finds...

Bird figurines which I thought were very shabby chic looking and in nice pastel greens, blues and pinks. These were $2.00 for the set of three.

Frosted pink hobnail vase, perfect for fresh roses! $1.00

Pretty pink desert plate with pink rose on it. No markings on back to indicate who made it but I don't care, I like it. I also found a plate hanger to hang this on the wall. Total cost $5.70 for both.
Two 100% wool sweaters that I thought I would try my hand at felting and making something out of them. The picture is a bit blury but the top sweater is red and the bottom on a pattern of greens, blues and reds. Both sweaters were $3.00 each.

Not Pictured:
2 Clear glass Pyrex bowls which are currently in the dishwasher. I got both bowls for $4.00

So my total was $15.70 but I had store credit so I didn't pay anything out of pocket for my treasures.

Online Code for Papa John's Pizza: Large pizza with up to 3 toppings for $10.99 (Expires 2/20/09)

2009-02-07T08:58:00.004-07:00

Papa John's is our favorite pizza place...they just taste the best to us and usually have pretty decent specials.

This was sent to me via email:

Get a large pizza with up to 3 toppings for $10.99 with coupon code 20609A (Expires 2/20/09)

Find A Penny Pick It Up Challenge

2009-02-06T09:40:00.003-07:00

So today the kids and I are all sick with what just feels like a head cold. It's probably the Ny-Quil or something but my brain feels a little fuzzy and I am not sure what to blog about this morning. However, yesterday as I was cleaning out my purse I thought that it would be a cool blog challenge to take note of my "piggy bank" and post about how much money you can save just by saving loose change.

I have always been a change saver. Growing up my family would have a big poker game on New Years Eve and we would play with change that was saved up throughout the year. (Luckily the encouragement to gamble never really rubbed off on me, but I got the gist of saving your money).

So at the beginning of the year I put a bank on my desk to collect any loose change that I had in my car, purse, or change found on the ground. Currently the total in my change bank is at $15.62.

As the year goes on I will post about how this challenge is going. What will I do with the money saved? I am not sure yet. Perhaps I will use it to splurge on something nice for myself, perhaps I will put it towards vacation money, I am not sure just yet.

Why don't you too join the Find A Penny Pick It Up Challenge with me?

Albertsons North West Best Sales 2/4/09 Through 2/10/09

2009-02-05T12:01:00.005-07:00

So I decided to show my own personal price book for Albertsons. Since I am totally OCD at times I really like things all nice and neat.

The prices below are WITH double coupons up to $1.00 and do not reflect the entire ad, just the things that I thought were half way decent deals. (Coupon Information is of course from the Hotcouponworld Coupon Database)

You may wish to right click on the price book and show only "this frame", as this is embedded in an iframe.

The Economy and Calvin and Hobbs

2009-02-04T21:10:00.003-07:00

I found this on one of my many ventures into cyber space and had to post it as I thought it was really poignant in today's economic goings on. I gave me a giggle! (Click the image to view it in a larger window)

Freebies for the day

2009-02-04T16:10:00.002-07:00

Enjoy!

Contest: Hotcouponworld's Valentine's Day Wish List Contest

2009-02-04T12:49:00.003-07:00

OK so I am pretty lucky in that I have a very thoughtful husband that does not buy me house numbers for Christmas (he bought me a Kindle). So if you have someone special in your life that gets weird or "practical" gifts for holidays, like my friend Julie, then perhaps you should consider entering into Hotcouponworld's Valentines Day Contest and get a chance to win a Valentines Day present of YOUR choosing ($50 value). Here are the details:

Prize is a Valentine's Day gift of your choosing up to a $50 value
5 winners will be selected
You must be a Hotcouponworld member to enter the contest, if you are not already a member the site is 100% FREE to join. Register Here
Contest ends 2-13-09 at midnight Pacific time
Details on how to enter the contest can be found at the following link: HCW's Valentine's Day Contest

As one of the owners of Hotcouponworld.com I cannot enter to win (I would be sending myself a prize) but if I WERE able to enter and pick out my own Valentine's Day gift I would pick a few of these great romantic movies that I don't own, because there is nothing like snuggling on the couch watching a romantic flick with the one you love (while he snores softly in your ear).

Double coupons this week at Albertsons

2009-02-03T20:20:00.002-07:00

OK so I am way behind the curve in learning that Albertsons, starting tomarow is once again doing double coupons in the Northwest region (Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington State). While for those of us who live in the LOND (Land of no doubles) this is pretty cool, however the limits they are doing for these doubles kind of well...suck. The ad features four clippable double coupons with a value up to $1.00 and a limit of 4 coupons doubled per transaction.

So what that means, is that in order to take advantage of these double coupons you need to either:

Get multiple copies of the sale ad and do multiple back to back transactions. OR
Go to the store every single day...

Either way this is a major waste of time to save $4.00 an order, at least for me.

While I appricate the oppertunity to save extra money, I fail to see why there is such a limit on the double coupons. I know that other stores in other regions have double coupons with limits of 20-25 coupons per order. And while the last time Albertsons here in Wyoming did double coupons (5 years ago) it was unlimited, I can deal with a reasonable limit of 20-25 coupons, that makes it worth my time to go to the store and take advantage. As busy mom I simply do not have the time to do multiple orders back to back (and hold up the lines) or to go to the store every day. I like to go to the store once a week, twice if there is a hot deal. But frankly I don't have the time to do more than that.

So while I may make 2 trips to the store and do a few back to back orders (if they will let me) I am quite frankly not thrilled with the limits of 4 coupons doubled per order.

I have to figure out what I am going to buy still...I guess I will start planning my shopping list by reading THIS post over on Hotcouponworld.

If you are an Albertsons shopper, I would be interested to hear why YOU think about the limit of 4... leave a comment.

Get Your 2009 Entertainment Book

2009-02-03T16:16:00.003-07:00

If you do not already have your 2009 Entertainment Book now is a great time to purchase one.

Click the following banner to purchase:

While I have to admit living in a small town in Wyoming (read middleofnowhere) I do not get a Entertainment Book myself as there are no local offers in the book for my area. However if you live in or near a large city I highly recommend getting an Entertainment Book for your area.

Recently (Nov.) our family was in Kansas City visiting my best friend Sara and her family. Sara, being ever frugal hostess presented us with her Entertainment Book and encouraged us to use whatever coupons we wanted from her book while we were there. Since Sara had to work during the day our family was on our own to entertain ourselves in the fine city of Kansas City. We took full advantage of the borrowed Entertainment Book and were able to get discounts on every meal we ate out, museums, bowling, skating, and more. I dare say that we easily saved $100+ with the coupons from the book. And you can bet your butt if I lived in a bigger city I would be purchasing one of these books for myself.

Wasting time

2009-02-03T11:48:00.003-07:00

OK I have just had the most unproductive morning ever. Besides getting 2 kids out the door for school, feeding the twins breakfast and letting the dogs outside I have basically gotten nothing productive done today.

After first cup of coffee I sat down at my desk with the full intention of blasting through my emails just like my daily agenda says 8:00 - 9:00 AM: Read and respond to emails. I first blasted through the list of 200+ emails and checked off anything that was spam, new posts to subscribed threads at Hotcouponworld (yes I do that too), and anything else that was just fluff and deleted them.

Now...to get to the meat of the emails and get to work. Open first email, an email from MyPoints where I earn 5 points just for reading the email and clicking the link.

This is where things went wrong...

Upon opening the email and clicking the link to get my 5 points (working towards a Starbucks gift card to feed my addiction) I considered doing the offer and earning more points, however I had to research the company first to make sure they were legit. So I opened up a new tab and Googled the company.

Here is the sad facts:

Once I start Googling something I usually cannot stop with just one search. Each new search leads me to yet another search. And this can go on for hours.
I don't even remember what the company I was Googling about but somehow after 3 hours of Googling I went from topics such as website design, cheese, ministry, Windex, china patterns, handmade handbags to the White House official blog.

Luckily for me my Google quests did not land me on YouTube or eBay...as those are 2 other sites I can get lost on for hours.

So needless to say, here it is at 12:01 and I have done absolutely nothing productive. Emails are sitting in my in-box unanswered and unread, private messages at Hotcouponworld are experiencing the same fate too.

Darn you Google!

Freebies for the day

2009-02-02T10:23:00.003-07:00

Here are a few freebies that I thought I would pass along:

FREE Monday RedBox code for today only 2/2/09: D9P24G {credit to computerguy923 at Hotcouponworld}
FREE sample of Chex Chocolate Turtle Snack Mix {credit to WOWme at Hotcouponworld}
Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering a 1 month free trial of eFIT4ME.com which is an online fitness website. I check this one out and it appears legit. The sign up page does not require a credit card to get your free month. However if you do provide your credit card number at the time of sign up when your free month is over you get special pricing of only $5.99 per month (50% off). {credit to myself, I found this in an email}
Coupon for a FREE Diet Dr. Pepper {credit to Susanktz at Hotcouponworld}

Confession: I like Velveeta Cheese

2009-02-02T00:01:00.001-07:00

I admit it, I am a fan of Velveeta cheese, that wonderful soft melt-y bright orange cheese. Yep I like it for things like mac-n-cheese, chili cheese dip, grilled cheese sandwiches, on top of tuna noodle casserole, and in cheese and broccoli soup. It's not something I eat everyday of course, or even every week, but it is a favorite in our household.

However...it rarely has coupons and it rarely goes on sale. Five plus years of couponing however has taught me that Super Bowl season (end of January) is the only time the coupons come out and pretty much the only time it goes on sale.

Right now there are some coupons out for Velveeta cheese:

Velveeta Cheese, Any 1 Lb. + Printable (Rolling)
Ro-Tel , Any (2) Cans AND (1) Velveeta Cheese, Any 1 lb or larger $1.00/3 Tearpad (2/28/2009)
Velveeta, Any 1 lb. + $1.00/1 Tearpad (3/31/2009)
Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes, Any (2) 10 Oz. Cans AND (1) Velveeta Cheese, Any 16 Oz. - Party Playbook $1.00/3 Booklet (4/30/2009)
Velveeta 1lb. or larger (any variety) AND (2) cans of Ro-tel (any variety) - Kraft So Good Together on Game Day Booklet $1.00/3 Booklet (3/31/2009)

I have printed off my printables and have found both of the booklets mentioned in my local grocery stores. Now as far as sales go, well Kroger stores (Smith's Food & Drug) has their Mega Event going on right now and luckily for me, Velveeta is included. So it is stock up time right now, as like I said this is pretty much the only time of the year for Velveeta coupons and decent sales. Luckily the Ro-Tel is on sale too!

If you are a Velveeta fan, I highly suggest that you stock up now.

Recipie: Velveeta Cheese & Chili Dip

2009-02-01T23:59:00.002-07:00

Velveeta Cheese & Chili Dip

Ingredients:
1 Lb. Block of Velveeta Cheese, cut into cubes
3 Cans of your favorite chili

Directions:
In a crock-pot combine Velveeta cheese and chili. Cover and cook on low heat 2-3 hours till cheese is melted. Stir, and serve with tortilla chips, celery, crackers, or bread chunks.

So easy my 11 year old made this yesterday for Super Bowl yesterday.

Options: For a hot-n-spicy version add some chopped jalapenos!

Here are some more Velveeta Cheese recipes for you to try!

Broccoli & Cheese Soup (this is very yummy with a nice crunchy loaf of bread chunked into pieces and dipped in soup.)
Velveeta Fudge (Never tried it, sounds "interesting")

Confession: Free coffee is great.

2009-02-01T15:37:00.004-07:00

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a coffee junkie. My morning routine looks sort of like this. Get up, put slippers on, use bathroom, make coffee, sit on couch till coffee is done, have cup, check emails, have cup after cup after cup.....

Bad habit yes, probably especially since I like my coffee only with real sugar and Coffee-mate.

My coffee habit is pretty expensive too because I only like certain brands of coffee and they must be whole bean. Favorite brands are: Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Folgers Gourmet and Eight O'Clock. However good coupons and sales for these brands can be few and far between. We go through a bag of coffee a week. At $7-$9 a bag that coffee addiction really adds up.

So I was really happy when my ever loving husband came home with 10 bags of Seattle's Best and Starbucks coffee that he had gotten for FREE.

So... how did he get them for free you ask? Well my husband is a delivery driver for a national beverage company and he was delivering his stuff to a local grocery store and noticed the coffee in a box next to the trash can in the back room of the store. He asked if there was a reason they were throwing it away. Well it turns out that it is past it's "sell by date". So he asked if he could have it and they said sure. By no means is this coffee expired or bad to use. Coffee has an astronomically long shelf life when in unopened bags. We have been enjoying "Cinnamon Bun" flavored coffee this weekend, very tasty!

2008-12-31T12:00:00.001-07:00

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Confessions of a Coupon Queen

Happy New Year!

Putting Food By

Halloween Costume Ideas/New Desk/Back to School

Bath & Body Works: FREE Lip Item With Any Purchase

New coupon clipping service - The Coupon Cutters

New Shortcuts Coupons - Kroger

SAVE $.50

Expires: 09/27/2009

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