A pretty sad blog!

I'm so sorry I've been ignoring my blog!! I'm just too busy right now between work and everyday life. I can't even tell you the last time I went to Walgreens or Rite Aid-- thank goodness I had a massive stockpile of household and personal care items because if not I'd be paying full price right now!

I'm hoping to get a Target trip in this week still, but I have a lot of coupon sorting and deal hunting before I do so. One of these days I'll get a minute and get back into super couponing mode... but for now, I'm just catching some deals on groceries at Meijer. I don't plan on getting rid of the blog, but it will probably be pretty boring still for awhile-- hopefully you find the links and favorites on my sidebars helpful and can use them to get to all the current deals.

Meijer Deals!

We had another showing on Wednesday so I figured I'd do some deal shopping. There are plenty of deals at Meijer this week, so the kids and I (plus the dog in the car) headed to Meijer for some deals. We had an hour to kill so we ventured over to the toy section (which I usually avoid when I have the boys) and found a great clearance toy for my youngest's birthday in March.

I did two transactions so I could do the Mott's deal twice- and here were my totals:

$107.42 before sales and coupons
-$38.09 sales
-$41.50 coupons
======================
$27.83 subtotal
+$2.35 tax
======================
$30.18 OOP! That's 72% savings!

When we were in the toy clearance, I found a Glow-doodle on clearance for $7.49- normally $14.99. That's going to be a great birthday gift for my almost 3 year old! Some of the other highlights of my trip were $.19 tuna (great donation items!), $.79 Batman toothbrushes (great reward for the boys being good while shopping), &.75 Barilla pasta sauce, FREE Pictionary card games, FREE Bic pens and super cheap Motts applesauce and apple juice.

Check out this week's Meijer deals using the links on the top left sidebar.
See-- I do still coupon!

Still not getting any breaks!!

Sorry to give yet another post saying that I'm just too busy right now to get caught up blogging! I started a new job the beginning of the year and I'm working a few more hours each week (still part-time, just more hours) and between that, showings and everyday life, I've got my hands full. We had showings Friday and Saturday (we were suppose to have 3 but one cancelled because of the snowstorm) and we have showings tomorrow and Wednesday... and then we may be having some second showings over the weekend. I can't even let my house get messy right now! This puts us in the mid-forties for the number of showings over the past ALMOST year of having our house on the market. The end of January will be our one-year anniversary of being on the market-- yuck! Not an anniversay to be proud of-- but we're still getting good feedback, and usually managing to be in the top-2 or 3 for most people.... but still not a single offer. I'm hoping the new paint in the kitchen and new table helps- our realtor came over and took updated pictures Friday and was very impressed with the update.

So, once things start to settle down, I'll be back to posting. After taking quite a break from the drugstores, I did manage to have a decent Rite Aid trip last week... I just haven't had a minute to post the picture! I did get a few minutes today (thanks to having the day off work for MLK day!) to get some inserts organized and even clipped some coupons. They're not in their fancy little spots in my binder, but they're at least clipped! I'm hoping I can get some time to get some coupons for freebies and do some free shopping on Wednesday during that showing...

Happy New Year!

I'm not sure about all of you, but I'm very glad the holidays are finally over! The past couple months I've been pretty busy and haven't done much couponing. My coupon binder and folder are a complete mess! This week I hope to get my binder back in order and purge my old coupons and inserts.

Here's a great posting I found last year that Bargains to Bounty did about knowing when you can purge coupon inserts- check it out here. One of the challenges I have with keeping whole coupon inserts is finding the time to go through old inserts and knowing when I can get rid of the whole insert. Bargains to Bounty solves that problem using a regional coupon database on The Coupon Mom's site. I was going to do a big coupon purge in December but figured I might as well wait until after January 1 since so many coupons expired then.

Yikes!

Has it really been almost a month since I've done any postings?? Yikes!! Like continues to be crazy-- instead of focusing completely on saving money, I'm trying to make more money by picking up some extra hours at work. And with two little kids, just a few extra hours a week makes a HUGE difference- it really throws off my schedule! I'm still couponing, trying to focus on getting my grocery bill back down (I did have a good week at Meijer but I was just way too lazy to post about it) and shop frugally for Christmas.

I was successful with the storage unit purge... and with the first real snow this week, I was even successful at getting 2 cars back into the garage! It was a nice area to store things for a little while, but it was time that everything found its new semi-permanent home because I'm tired of one of my van doors being frozen every morning.

I am both sad and glad to admit that it has been over a month since I've done any drugstore shopping. It's nice because I have built up a nice stockpile of household and personal items and can take some time off, but we are running low (down to only 36 rolls) on TP now so it's time for me to start watching for some good TP and paper towel deals, as well as any other fun drugstore deals. I have a friend who now has a 17 year old living with her so I'm anxious to find what good make-up and teenage girl fun freebies I can find to welcome her to the neighborhood.

I hope everyone is busy finding lots of great Christmas deals! I didn't do Black Friday shopping- I did my Black Friday shopping online on Thanksgiving-- we got some super deals and could do our shopping in our PJ's. I really will try to get back in to blogging-- I really do want to start hitting the drugstores again.

Distraction update

I've still been forcing myself NOT to blog until I finish my storage unit purging.... and I am SO happy to report that after 2 more loads tonight (and several over the weekend), I have ONE remaining item left- which I have to wait until my hubby can help me move it. We'll get that home hopefully tomorrow and avoid paying any more storage unit rent-- yippee!

I'm still making myself spend time each day sorting and purging things- I bought a new shredder last week and was able to consolidate 2 file boxes into one (do I really need paperwork, receipts, birthday cards and other similar items from the early 2000's?). My dumpster was full again by Saturday (trash day is Thursday) which I am proud of because it means I'm actually getting stuff out of here!

I'm pretty sure next spring I'll be blogging about a tax audit-- I'm sure we're going to send up some huge red flags when I try to write off half the stuff we donated between Goodwill and the Salvation Army... oh well-- at least it's out of my house and I won't be paying a monthly charge to keep it!

Another end of the month coupon printing reminder

It's almost the end of the October already, so now is the time to make sure you get all your coupons printed before they reset.

Remember, if you use Swag Bucks , print your coupons.com coupons there-- you might as well earn Swag Bucks AND save some money!

Check my sidebar for links to other printable coupon sites (Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, etc.)

Keep checking Coupons.com for the next couple days because the end of the month and beginning of the month coupons are always resetting, coming and going! You can usually count on a few really good ones to appear and disappear within hours!

Distractions....

Yes, here's another posting apologizing for the absence of postings. Right now, I've shifted my priorities a little to saving money in a little different way. When we first put our house on the market in February, we thought it would be a good idea to rent a storage unit (a big one- 10x20) and move some excess furniture and storage bins into it so the house didn't look as full. We had a LOT of furniture in our house, and removing several pieces does make the house look larger. The unfinished portion of our basement was crammed full of storage bins and toys that we rotated out and removing those items opened up a lot of space.

Well, it's the end of October and we still haven't sold our house. We've had tons of showings and open houses (we're up to 40+ now) with great feedback and still not a single offer- it just haven't been the right buyer yet or the right time yet. So, about two weeks ago I decided that $85 per month on storage unit rent was NOT a good use of my money and have been working to sort and purge enough to get the things we still may want back into the house. I started out by working on the items we had kept in the basement, and am happy to report that after 2 weeks and many trips back and forth from the storage unit I've taken two HUGE loads of clothes and household items to Goodwill and have I think we're up to 11 empty storage bins that were previously housed in the storage unit.

Does your house need a good purging? I had good intentions with lots of the things I'm finally purging-- someday, I will lose enough weight to wear those clothes again, so-and-so gave me this item that I don't have a place for, I could sell that at a garage sale.... but the reality of it is for us right now that at $85 per month, the value of anything I could potentially get from a garage sale next season would not offset the cost of storing the stuff for now.

My personal challenge now (I don't know if I can accomplish this or not) would be to try to empty the unit before the rent is due in mid-November.... I'm not quite sure if I'll accomplish that- but I'm sure making great progress so far!

It's Mega Swag Bucks Day!

It's Mega Swag Bucks Day today! This means more Swag Bucks for your same everyday searching. Make sure to check special offers (you don't have to sign up for anything, just browse through them and you now get 2 points), answer the daily poll and check for surveys each day for one point each to get 4 extra points each day which really do add up!

You can also print coupons and you get 10 Swag Bucks per redeemed coupon- I'm just starting to see the points started to get credited regularly. Check out my posting about all the different ways to earn points. It's a great way to get free gift cards and rewards for everyday internet surfing! My favorite reward is a $5 Amazon gift card for only 450 Swag Bucks.

I don't have the toolbar and still earn tons of points (I don't want any more programs running on my computer). I just keep signed into Swag Bucks all the time and use them to find the websites I'm visiting.

Another great thing about Swag Bucks is you can refer friends and family and you earn points for their wins as well up to 1000 points! So I do ask that if you do decide to sign up, please use the links in my Swag Bucks postings or put down Sarahspendsless as your referral.

Are you signed up for Swag Bucks yet? Do you have any questions about it? I was very hesitant at first, but I'm earning $10-$20 per month in Amazon gift cards and love it!

SUPER couponing at Target!

I had a great shopping trip at Target this week. I ordered more Huggies Overnites from Amazon a few weeks ago and was really disappointed when they arrived to find out that Huggies changed the Overnites. I wrote to Huggies and let them know how disappointed I was, and they sent me TWO coupons for FREE BIG packs of diapers! Not free jumbo packs, free BIG packs (around $20 each!). I was very happy to see Target was doing a gift card promo this week- buy 2 big packs at $18.99 each, get a $5 gift card. So, not only could I get 2 free packages of diapers, I could get a $5 Target gift card! Awesome!

2- Huggies Big Packs of diapers- $18.99 each (buy 2 get a $5 gift card!)
2- FREE big pack coupons
** 2 for FREE!! PLUS $5 gift card! **

4- Target Trail Mix- $2.50
2- $1.50 off 2 Target printable
** $1.75 each! **

Transformer toy- $9.99
$5.00 off Target mobile coupon
$5.00 off Target printable
** FREE!! ** My son is going to LOVE this for Christmas- and I will too since it was FREE!!

$69.11 before coupons and discounts
-$8.86 sales
-$50.98 coupons
====================
** $9.27 OOP!! PLUS $5.00 gift card earned!! **

I'm pretty happy with this Target trip-- Of my $9.27 OOP, $2.28 was tax! I bought the trail mix because it's yummy and the Target registers can be tricky when you're getting a gift card deal. I needed to spend at least $5 OOP so the gift card deal would work without any problems.

Yippee for FREE diapers and a gift card to spend later!!

Walmart shopping

I had a great trip to Walmart last week to get some overage... I'll try to post any coupon links later but just haven't had a chance (and most of the printables are no longer available).

6- Schick Razors 10 pk + 2 bonus- $1.97
3- $6.00 off 2 printable previously available
** ++ $6.18 OVERAGE!! **

Luna Bars- $5.97

2- 8th Continent Soy Milk- $2.73
1- $1.00 off printable
1- $2.00 off printable
** $1.73 each! **

3- Wholly Guacamole- $2.48
2- $1.50 off printables previously available
2- $1.00 off printable previously available
** 2 for $.98 each, one for $1.48! **

$31.40 before coupons
-$25.00 coupons
================
$6.40 OOP!!

This was a GREAT Walmart trip-- I love overage!! I'll definitely be searching for another Walmart that carries these razors-- I have more coupons and I love overage!

Cheap fun with the kids!

Last week I did another fun project with my boys-- we cleaned out some of the broken crayons in their crayon box and made some new ones! They thought it was lots of fun- and it was very easy!

You can do them a couple different ways, but we chose to put them in muffin tins and melt them in the oven. I preheated the oven to 260 degrees and lined the muffin tins/ silicone liners I planned to use. I found some great Wilton Square Silicone Baking Cups on amazon that were perfect! I thought it might be easier to color with something square shaped versus round, but did make some others with my mini-muffin tin as well.

We first sorted the crayons by colors, keeping similar colors together. Then, we put the crayons in the tins. I could have filled them up more...











Then, I put them in the oven for about 20 minutes and closely watched them and when they appeared to all be melted I took them out. You can use a toothpick and swirl the colors to make them even more fun!



Once they cool, you crack them out of the muffin liners and you have new crayons to use! The first few times some of the edges did crack off and were a bit messy, but my boys are having fun with their homemade crayons!

Another double coupon Meijer trip!

I was in Jackson again yesterday without my kids and stopped at Meijer on my way home to use a couple good "doubler" coupons... here's what I ended up with:

4- Yoplait Greek Yogurt- $.99
$.50 off 2 printable
** $.49.5 each!

2- Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce- $1.29
2- Old El Paso Refried Beans- $1.05
4- $.50 off Old El Paso printable
** $.29 for enchilada sauce- $.05 for refried beans! **
(I could have gotten taco seasoning for free but figured since I got 8 Ortega seasonings free last week at Meijer I'd just get other things that normally cost me more!)

Lettuce- $1.19

I did break this into 2 transactions because only 2 of each coupon double

$9.83 before coupons and discounts
-$3.00 coupons
-$3.00 doubled coupons
========================
$3.83 OOP!!

Just like my last double coupon experience, I would have done better if the items I bought using the coupons were on sale, but it was still cheaper than waiting for the items to go on sale at home and using the coupon without the doubler...

End of month coupon printing

It's almost the end of the September already, so now is the time to make sure you get all your coupons printed before they reset.

Remember, if you use Swag Bucks , print your coupons.com coupons there-- you might as well earn Swag Bucks AND save some money!

Check my sidebar for links to other printable coupon sites (Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, etc.)

Keep checking Coupons.com for the next couple days because the end of the month and beginning of the month coupons are always resetting, coming and going! You can usually count on a few really good ones to appear and disappear within hours!

Getting back into drugstore shopping- Walgreens!

I've taken a couple weeks off of drugstore shopping, but I couldn't pass up the deals at Walgreens this week. I was completely out of women's razors (for some reason I can't bring myself to use any of the freebie men's razors I get) and Walgreens has a great making my favorite kind of razors free after RR!

Here's what I did:

2- Schick Quattro Razors or 4 ct Refills- $8.99 (get $5 RR!)
2- $5.00 off printable previously on coupons.com
** $3.99 OOP PLUS $5 RR earned!! **

2- Zarbee's Cough Night-time- $5.99 (get $6 RR!)
2- $1.00 off printable on coupons.com
** $4.99 OOP PLUS $6 RR!! **

4- Johnson First Aid Kit- $.99
2- $1.50 off 2 from in-store display
** $.49 for 2! ** Great donation item!

2- Hershey's Aid Delights- $.59 (filler items!)

I broke this into 3 transactions to lower my OOP... here are the totals:

$53.95 before coupons and discounts
-$16.81 sales
-$15.00 coupons
-$11.00 Register Rewards redeemed
===========================
** $11.14 OOP!! ** PLUS I have another $11.00 in Register Rewards left to spend! I'll definitely be going back for more Quattro refills!

Meijer doubles!!

This picture was from a couple weeks ago-- I was in Jackson without kids and went to Meijer there since they double coupons up to $.50! It was an unplanned shopping trip- so I sat in the car for a few minutes before I went in and pulled out any coupon I thought would be a good doubler and then started shopping.

$100.33 before coupons and discounts
-$18.45 sales
-$36.78 coupons
================
** $45.10 OOP!! **

I was pretty happy with that! It was a great experience- I wanted to see if it made much of a difference to get coupons doubled up to $.50. It definitely helped! I used several coupons that doubled on full price items because it was still a better deal than what I'd get at home without doubles.

I will be going out to Jackson in the next week or two again and have some more coupons set aside to get some freebies after they double. If we ever move to Lansing, I can see that having double coupons will definitely make a difference- I could actually save the coupon until the items are on sale. Until then, I'll just try to set aside coupons that I think will be good to double for the times I'm near a store that doubles!

Yikes!

It's been TWO weeks since I've been to a drugstore!! Yikes! I guess that's one of the nice things about couponing... you can get really stocked up on certain things and then avoid certain stores for a little while.

Last week I spend some time getting my coupons re-organized-- I've been really slacking on the couponing lately. Now it's time to get focused and save some money! I'm hoping to do better meal planning this week-- the past couple weeks have been pretty hectic and I've fallen back into bad habits- stopping at the store to buy ingredients for dinner and not doing a big organized shopping trip.

I've got a bunch of coupons set aside for Meijer this week. I did really well a couple weeks ago shopping at Meijer- I happened to be in Jackson with my coupons and got to enjoy a bit of double-couponing-- SO much fun! One of these days, I'll post that picture. I'm planning a Meijer trip in the next couple days- it's looking like it could be a good week of saving at Meijer this week!

I will get back into blogging-- hopefully this week is the week for me to catch up!

Making meals for kids more fun

Today was my oldest son's first day of preschool. I had to make sure the boys would eat their breakfast in a timely manner instead of being pokey... so I picked up some fun Bento gear at Amazon and they actually sat down and ate their breakfast today!









I found these great Kotobuki Plastic Egg Molds Fish and Car for $3.28- and also the Plastic Egg Molds Heart and Star for $2.72 at Amazon.


The egg molds come in a package with Japanese instructions... but the instructions were listed on the product description- it's very simple. Boil an egg in water as you normally would hard boil an egg- take the egg out- peel it under running water (so you don't burn your hands) and then put in the egg mold. Set the mold in cold water or in the fridge, wait a little while and then you have fun eggs! I used large eggs and the Fish and Car shape a little better than the heart and star- they would have turned out better with jumbo eggs.

This morning's breakfast- a hard boiled egg cut in half, pancakes and blueberries.




I'm definitely going to be trying more things to make their meals more fun! I keep finding more blogs on Bento lunches and muffin tin meals so I'll be posting more ideas soon. It's another way to save money- finding meals that my kids actually eat so we waste less food!

New Pampers Gifts to Grow code!

Happy Labor Day!


If you are a Pampers Gifts to Grow Rewards member, here is another new code worth 10 points:

FAC911PTXD36Y6J

Thanks For the Mommas!!

Shopping online?

Ebates is a free rewards program that pays you cash rewards for shopping online. There are TONS of available stores and as long as you sign up for Ebates and use their site to get to the site you are shopping on, you earn a percentage back for each purchase! Some of my favorites are Shutterfly (10% back), Old Navy (4%), Target (3%) and Diapers.com (1-4%). There are tons of stores, so before shopping, definitely check this site because there are WAY too many to mention.

The only thing you have to do different when shopping is going through the Ebates site to get to the site where you are shopping. Each quarter you earn rewards, and after $5 in earnings each quarter you get a check in the mail (the pay schedule is listed on their site). If you don’t earn $5 in a particular quarter you don’t lose your earnings, they just don’t pay out until you hit the $5 mark… Go here to sign up and start earning!