This morning I was able to buy:
2 more Cascade gels (for $1.91)
3 packs of wooden pencils
3 packs of mechanical pencils
3 packs of Bic pens
1 folder (for $0.14)
6 children's books
(Witch of Blackbird Pond,
a pirate book, The Shakespeare
Stealer, Island of the Blue Dolphin,
and 2 Little Bear Books) (gift card. Free.)
and one Frappuccino (gift card. Free.)
Grand total $2.05
When money is tight and I start worrying about finances, I need to remember days like these!
Showing posts with label coupons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coupons. Show all posts
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 09, 2010
Couponing Success Story
It's been awhile since I've shown a success story, so here is mine for this evening:
2 Cascade gels
2 Dawn dish soaps
1 pack of Little Swimmers
1 pack Duracell AA batteries
1 Gillette Proglide razor
2 Covergirl mascaras
2 Covergirl eyeshadows
(not shown: Free Dove candy bar that I ate on the way home! *grin*)
Total out of pocket that I spent this evening: $15.95
Total ECBs that I got back: $16.50
In other words, I earned $0.55 buying all this stuff.
For all those in my neck of the woods (the Southeast, that is), I highly recommend going to the Southern Savers website. Jenny makes it SOOOOO easy to print off everything you need for a round of grocery store shopping. May God bless her richly for her ministry to us moms!
Of course, The Thrifty Mama and Money Saving Mom are two others sites that I check out several times a week. Don't pass up the opportunity to shop for next to nothing! You really can do this!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Ah, but will she rest on Sunday?
That's the goal, people... it's the goal.
All that planning last night paid off. I was able to take two of my kids with me (Reilly and Christopher) for a day o' shopping. Ten stores and 4+ hours later, Reilly said, "Mom, I'm never, ever going to ask what's taking you so long at the store again."
Yes indeed, I outshopped her!
I spent more than I wanted to, but I have STOCKED UP on so many things I think we can safely live through a several week-long blizzard... not that that's going to happen, mind you, in upstate South Carolina, but it feels good to know that if it did, we'd be prepared.
As long as the power stayed on, that is.
But, if it went off, we'd just cart all the perishables out in the snow, and we'd be golden.... couldn't heat up anything in the kitchen, but hey! at least nothing would go bad, and we'd fire up the grill and get creative with food prep.
After we got home, it was an afternoon of serious work. The kids worked on getting the back yard raked while dh worked on the new homeschooling room and I worked my tail off getting laundry done and the whole house clean.
I'm pooped. I'm seriously pooped.
After a nice, long bath, however, and a relaxing drink (French connection... 2 parts brandy to 1 part amaretto. Total yum!), I am thrilled to say that I am done for the day. For the next 24 hours (barring a sudden vomit episode that will throw the house house into a panic), I will attempt to do nothing more than focus on lots of God, lots of family, and lots of rest.
Let's see how tomorrow goes, and how Monday works for me as well!
All that planning last night paid off. I was able to take two of my kids with me (Reilly and Christopher) for a day o' shopping. Ten stores and 4+ hours later, Reilly said, "Mom, I'm never, ever going to ask what's taking you so long at the store again."
Yes indeed, I outshopped her!
I spent more than I wanted to, but I have STOCKED UP on so many things I think we can safely live through a several week-long blizzard... not that that's going to happen, mind you, in upstate South Carolina, but it feels good to know that if it did, we'd be prepared.
As long as the power stayed on, that is.
But, if it went off, we'd just cart all the perishables out in the snow, and we'd be golden.... couldn't heat up anything in the kitchen, but hey! at least nothing would go bad, and we'd fire up the grill and get creative with food prep.
After we got home, it was an afternoon of serious work. The kids worked on getting the back yard raked while dh worked on the new homeschooling room and I worked my tail off getting laundry done and the whole house clean.
I'm pooped. I'm seriously pooped.
After a nice, long bath, however, and a relaxing drink (French connection... 2 parts brandy to 1 part amaretto. Total yum!), I am thrilled to say that I am done for the day. For the next 24 hours (barring a sudden vomit episode that will throw the house house into a panic), I will attempt to do nothing more than focus on lots of God, lots of family, and lots of rest.
Let's see how tomorrow goes, and how Monday works for me as well!
Whew.
It's been a busy day!
I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that, inspired by this video
The Wanna Be and I decided we were going to give exercising en masse a shot. If the nuns can take the kids in their care on a four-mile run every day, we can certainly do some sort of group walk/run a few times a week!
The kids were incredibly excited about doing this (God bless 'em!), and I was amazed at how far they were able to run! (Marie, too!) Grace, of course, not having had a nap today, decided this was NOT the time to do any sort of exercise, so yours truly got to carry her the whole way. I wasn't able to run, but I'd like to think that I got an extra dose of exercise just from holding her while I tried to power walk!
I'm telling y'all this not to brag, but to hold myself accountable. I do NOT want to be this out of shape ever again, and scheduling-wise this is the only way I'm going to be able to do anything. (some of my friends are probably reading this saying, "You can always go jogging with us at 5:30 am!" I admire their dedication, but there is NO WAY I could get up that early unless someone's life depended on it..... and even then I'd probably be mighty grumpy and complain a whole lot.)
Hopefully I'll be able to report some sort of success next week!
--------------------------------------------------------------
After everyone went to bed this evening, I sat down to work on getting my coupons and grocery list together for tomorrow. It took a little over two hours, with a break in there to make banana bread for tomorrow's breakfast. (I despise... hate... and loathe banana bread; my family, however, loves it, so there you go.)
As you may recall from posts from earlier this year (like this one, and this one), I am one of those "crazy binder ladies" that you see in the grocery store.
Yeah, I admit it.
Once I saw how much money I could save every week, it would have been a crime for me NOT to go this route. The planning takes some time, of course, but the results are worth it. On a big week -- that is, when I'm stocking up on things -- I'll spend around $200 (that includes all cleaning products, diapers, pet food, etc. EVERYTHING.) It still sounds like a lot, until you divide it out.
I am feeding each member of my family on $22 a week, AND getting enough to share... to stockpile... and to feed us all well.
I believe that's worth the time I spend!
Now, however, this pooped mama is going to bed...
I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that, inspired by this video
The Wanna Be and I decided we were going to give exercising en masse a shot. If the nuns can take the kids in their care on a four-mile run every day, we can certainly do some sort of group walk/run a few times a week!
The kids were incredibly excited about doing this (God bless 'em!), and I was amazed at how far they were able to run! (Marie, too!) Grace, of course, not having had a nap today, decided this was NOT the time to do any sort of exercise, so yours truly got to carry her the whole way. I wasn't able to run, but I'd like to think that I got an extra dose of exercise just from holding her while I tried to power walk!
I'm telling y'all this not to brag, but to hold myself accountable. I do NOT want to be this out of shape ever again, and scheduling-wise this is the only way I'm going to be able to do anything. (some of my friends are probably reading this saying, "You can always go jogging with us at 5:30 am!" I admire their dedication, but there is NO WAY I could get up that early unless someone's life depended on it..... and even then I'd probably be mighty grumpy and complain a whole lot.)
Hopefully I'll be able to report some sort of success next week!
--------------------------------------------------------------
After everyone went to bed this evening, I sat down to work on getting my coupons and grocery list together for tomorrow. It took a little over two hours, with a break in there to make banana bread for tomorrow's breakfast. (I despise... hate... and loathe banana bread; my family, however, loves it, so there you go.)
As you may recall from posts from earlier this year (like this one, and this one), I am one of those "crazy binder ladies" that you see in the grocery store.
Yeah, I admit it.
Once I saw how much money I could save every week, it would have been a crime for me NOT to go this route. The planning takes some time, of course, but the results are worth it. On a big week -- that is, when I'm stocking up on things -- I'll spend around $200 (that includes all cleaning products, diapers, pet food, etc. EVERYTHING.) It still sounds like a lot, until you divide it out.
I am feeding each member of my family on $22 a week, AND getting enough to share... to stockpile... and to feed us all well.
I believe that's worth the time I spend!
Now, however, this pooped mama is going to bed...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
More victories!
Again, merely of the "grocery store" kind...
Behold the purchases for this evening (and the yummy loaves of bread I baked earlier today. Yeah!):
2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios
2 bags of plastic Easter eggs
2 bags of Easter grass
5 packages of Mentos gum
Total out of pocket expenses for me: $0.42!
Behold the purchases for this evening (and the yummy loaves of bread I baked earlier today. Yeah!):
2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios
2 bags of plastic Easter eggs
2 bags of Easter grass
5 packages of Mentos gum
Total out of pocket expenses for me: $0.42!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Still saving money
Remember this post? I know you've all been eagerly anticipating the final result, so here it is:
I'm sticking with the binder.
I gave the accordion-file system the old "college try," but ultimately it had too many drawbacks for me.
-- The box was too big, so it was bulky to carry around.
-- If I carried it in a bag, I had to place it in sideways... (big "spillage" factor)
-- The dividers weren't working with the size of the box, so my coupons kept flopping around... (it messed with my chi).
-- I had to balance the box, plus a handful of grocery lists, everytime I went shopping. It didn't fit in the child seat in the front of the cart, unless I placed it sideways, which made looking for coupons a frustrating experience... plus the fact that I kept dropping the lists through the leg holes in the child seat whenever I put them down to look through the box! Comical, but not practical.
-- It took WAY too much time to get it organized each week.
So, back to the binder I went!
Now the binder has drawbacks, too -- the biggest one being that it's big, so I have to make an effort to remember to BRING IT WITH ME whenever I go out. However, even though the binder is big, it FITS IN THE CHILD SEAT. All I have to do is open it up and it lays nicely in the front. As I go through the store, I can easily turn the pages from lists to coupons (and back again!) without juggling loose papers or risking dropping the whole thing and dissolving into a puddle of gasping sobs as I see hours worth of work scattered on the grocery store floor!
I also mentioned in my previous post that the clear baseball card holder pages made "seeing" the coupons difficult, since I could see through ALL the pages, and therefore was visually assaulted every time I opened the binder. I fixed that by putting some colored paper behind each category and voila! visual harmony restored!
Next, I set up the categories based on aisle set up of my usual grocery store. The categories are color coded, which makes it a heck of a lot easier for me to find what I'm looking for.
Michelle asked what categories I used. (hey, Michelle! *waving*) I set them up according to my usual store -- how it's laid out, what sorts of coupons I usually get, and what we normally buy:
bread, deli meat, chips
crackers, dressings, condiments, pickles, snacks, PB&Jelly
soup/broth, side dishes, vegetables, Mexican
rice, cereal, outmeal/grits, granola, syrup/fruit
oil/spices, baking
tea/coffee, pasta
frozen: vegetables, meals, breakfast, desserts
baby
deodorant, razors, toothpaste, first aid, make-up, soap, shampoo, fem. care
bags/foils, paper products, dish detergent, cleaners, laundry
cat food, dog food
juice
milk/butter, rolls, dairy
It's a pretty detailed list, and each item listed has its own page (1 for bread, 1 for deli meat, etc...). Some, like pet food, cleaners, etc have more than one page.
Whew! That's a lot of binder info! Is anyone still reading this?
So, the big question is, is it worth all the work?
Well, I've been keeping track of my spending since the beginning of September. The shelf price of everything that I've bought is $1020.12. MY cost has been $567.34, which is a savings of 44.38%. Yippee!! (keep in mind that I was spending close to $1200 to feed and clothe... and diaper... my family of nine... and feed two pets... so this is HUGE savings!!!)
As a final note, here is a picture of my CVS purchases this evening:
I had a coupon for $10 off of $50 that was going to expire today, so I shopped with that total in mind.
I bought 2 packages of Huggies (on sale) and two packages of wipes (on sale), to take advantage of their "spend $25 and get $10 back in ECBs".
I bought two packages of toothbrushes... $3.98 each, get $3.98 back in ECBs for each. Yep. That means they are free.
I bought two tubes of Colgate Whitening, on sale for 2/$2.79. I had a $1 CVS coupon for it, plus a $1 manufacturer's coupon for it. Grand total for two tubes: $0.79.
I needed $10 to reach my $50 total, so I picked up Tide (on sale, had $1 coupon).
The original total at the checkout was $52.
After all my coupons and ECBs, it was $20.
After I paid, the nice printer spit out $18 in ECBs, PLUS another $10 off of $50 and another $2 off wipes coupon.
SCORE!
I'm sticking with the binder.
I gave the accordion-file system the old "college try," but ultimately it had too many drawbacks for me.
-- The box was too big, so it was bulky to carry around.
-- If I carried it in a bag, I had to place it in sideways... (big "spillage" factor)
-- The dividers weren't working with the size of the box, so my coupons kept flopping around... (it messed with my chi).
-- I had to balance the box, plus a handful of grocery lists, everytime I went shopping. It didn't fit in the child seat in the front of the cart, unless I placed it sideways, which made looking for coupons a frustrating experience... plus the fact that I kept dropping the lists through the leg holes in the child seat whenever I put them down to look through the box! Comical, but not practical.
-- It took WAY too much time to get it organized each week.
So, back to the binder I went!
Now the binder has drawbacks, too -- the biggest one being that it's big, so I have to make an effort to remember to BRING IT WITH ME whenever I go out. However, even though the binder is big, it FITS IN THE CHILD SEAT. All I have to do is open it up and it lays nicely in the front. As I go through the store, I can easily turn the pages from lists to coupons (and back again!) without juggling loose papers or risking dropping the whole thing and dissolving into a puddle of gasping sobs as I see hours worth of work scattered on the grocery store floor!
I also mentioned in my previous post that the clear baseball card holder pages made "seeing" the coupons difficult, since I could see through ALL the pages, and therefore was visually assaulted every time I opened the binder. I fixed that by putting some colored paper behind each category and voila! visual harmony restored!
Next, I set up the categories based on aisle set up of my usual grocery store. The categories are color coded, which makes it a heck of a lot easier for me to find what I'm looking for.
Michelle asked what categories I used. (hey, Michelle! *waving*) I set them up according to my usual store -- how it's laid out, what sorts of coupons I usually get, and what we normally buy:
bread, deli meat, chips
crackers, dressings, condiments, pickles, snacks, PB&Jelly
soup/broth, side dishes, vegetables, Mexican
rice, cereal, outmeal/grits, granola, syrup/fruit
oil/spices, baking
tea/coffee, pasta
frozen: vegetables, meals, breakfast, desserts
baby
deodorant, razors, toothpaste, first aid, make-up, soap, shampoo, fem. care
bags/foils, paper products, dish detergent, cleaners, laundry
cat food, dog food
juice
milk/butter, rolls, dairy
It's a pretty detailed list, and each item listed has its own page (1 for bread, 1 for deli meat, etc...). Some, like pet food, cleaners, etc have more than one page.
Whew! That's a lot of binder info! Is anyone still reading this?
So, the big question is, is it worth all the work?
Well, I've been keeping track of my spending since the beginning of September. The shelf price of everything that I've bought is $1020.12. MY cost has been $567.34, which is a savings of 44.38%. Yippee!! (keep in mind that I was spending close to $1200 to feed and clothe... and diaper... my family of nine... and feed two pets... so this is HUGE savings!!!)
As a final note, here is a picture of my CVS purchases this evening:
I had a coupon for $10 off of $50 that was going to expire today, so I shopped with that total in mind.
I bought 2 packages of Huggies (on sale) and two packages of wipes (on sale), to take advantage of their "spend $25 and get $10 back in ECBs".
I bought two packages of toothbrushes... $3.98 each, get $3.98 back in ECBs for each. Yep. That means they are free.
I bought two tubes of Colgate Whitening, on sale for 2/$2.79. I had a $1 CVS coupon for it, plus a $1 manufacturer's coupon for it. Grand total for two tubes: $0.79.
I needed $10 to reach my $50 total, so I picked up Tide (on sale, had $1 coupon).
The original total at the checkout was $52.
After all my coupons and ECBs, it was $20.
After I paid, the nice printer spit out $18 in ECBs, PLUS another $10 off of $50 and another $2 off wipes coupon.
SCORE!
Sunday, September 07, 2008
A work in progress
Ah, the planning is done for this evening -- done, done, done! All the kids' assignments for the week are safely tucked into their binders, awaiting their eager little faces in the morning.
And speaking of binders...
My friend Malia has gotten into this coupon thing with me, and tossed off a little email to me last night, asking "What do you think of this coupon organizer?"
That did it.
You see, I've been using this
and it's gotten awfully full.
I had to spend more time organizing coupons than I wanted to, but that was the only way to be able to find what I needed when I needed it. I knew I wasn't happy with my system, but wasn't doing anything about it.
Until I was shown... the binder.
Seriously, I should have thought of the binder idea long ago. I am somewhat of a binder queen, using them for everything from homeschooling organization, favorite family recipe collections, homekeeping "control" journal, Bible study notes, etc etc etc.
I've got a lot of binders.
So it was with great enthusiasm that I jumped on my next project -- getting a better organization system in place!
I gathered my supplies -- a binder and some trading card protectors...
...but first, I had to make the outside pretty, or I wouldn't be inspired.
Then, I got to work. I figured that the front pocket and the zippered pencil holder...
Would be a great place for the flyers and "coupons I haven't filed yet"
The page protectors seem like they'll be a pretty good solution, although I can tell right now that being able to see through the pages is going to annoy me.
That's too much "visual clutter" for me. My dh, who knows me so well, took my complaint in stride and recommended putting dividers between each page. I was going to just put the adhesive tabs on the plastic pages themselves, but now that I see how it looks, I think he's right.
I'll be working on this more tomorrow... filling up the pages, adding category tabs on the side and... here's the big one -- giving it "the drop test." Will I lose all my coupons if (ahem) some little one drops it off the counter?
Tune in tomorrow and see!
And speaking of binders...
My friend Malia has gotten into this coupon thing with me, and tossed off a little email to me last night, asking "What do you think of this coupon organizer?"
That did it.
You see, I've been using this
and it's gotten awfully full.
I had to spend more time organizing coupons than I wanted to, but that was the only way to be able to find what I needed when I needed it. I knew I wasn't happy with my system, but wasn't doing anything about it.
Until I was shown... the binder.
Seriously, I should have thought of the binder idea long ago. I am somewhat of a binder queen, using them for everything from homeschooling organization, favorite family recipe collections, homekeeping "control" journal, Bible study notes, etc etc etc.
I've got a lot of binders.
So it was with great enthusiasm that I jumped on my next project -- getting a better organization system in place!
I gathered my supplies -- a binder and some trading card protectors...
...but first, I had to make the outside pretty, or I wouldn't be inspired.
Then, I got to work. I figured that the front pocket and the zippered pencil holder...
Would be a great place for the flyers and "coupons I haven't filed yet"
The page protectors seem like they'll be a pretty good solution, although I can tell right now that being able to see through the pages is going to annoy me.
That's too much "visual clutter" for me. My dh, who knows me so well, took my complaint in stride and recommended putting dividers between each page. I was going to just put the adhesive tabs on the plastic pages themselves, but now that I see how it looks, I think he's right.
I'll be working on this more tomorrow... filling up the pages, adding category tabs on the side and... here's the big one -- giving it "the drop test." Will I lose all my coupons if (ahem) some little one drops it off the counter?
Tune in tomorrow and see!
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