Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bath & Body Works Semi-Annual Sale

It's that time again. Bath and Body Works has pretty good discounts on their body wash, lotion, wall flowers, candles, hand sanitizer and hand soap.

I'm starting my New Year's Resolution early! I'm going to TRY to focus on getting the most for my money (meaning spending less) in 2012. With that in mind, I did order some body wash and lotion in matching sets to give as gifts. The next Semi Annual sale will be in July so I will get some more stuff then for friends, teachers, etc.

If you order the Ebates.com you can also get 3.0% cash back from your purchase.

If you don't already shop through Ebates.com it's a good way to get cash back on your purchases. They have a lot of merchants and the cash back for each merchant varies.

They have a referral program. You get $5.00 for each friend you refer. Here is the link for me.
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=i%2FYPnC15PNVZYl0803Zkmw%3D%3D

Monday, November 7, 2011

Juggling

I have been doing a LOT of juggling over the last few months. Since school is back in session, I have been trying to fit in all of the things I need to do and failing miserably!

Between working a full-time job and doing homework with my kids at night, it feels like anything and everything else is not getting done. I haven't been diligently couponing because I don't have the time to dedicate to searching for all the coupons I need, and have been unsuccessful in finding a lot of the ones posted on blogs because my weekly paper just simply does not have them which is depressing!

I'm keeping my chin up, but only barely.

I have been trying to stretch my grocery budget as far as possible so I have been doing a couple of things to get multiple uses out of my grocery items. Some of these things I have read about on other blogs, but here are a few things that I do to save a SMALL amount of money:

1. When I buy a bunch of bananas and we don't eat them all, I stick the over ripe ones in the freezer to use for baking.

2. I have been buying a roasted chicken to make chicken salad for lunches. After I pick the chicken and cut up all of the vegetables, I throw the bones and skin from the chicken along with all of the discards from the veggies and make chicken stock.

3. When we finish a loaf of bread, I stick the ends in the freezer until I have several, then I put then in the oven to dry them out and put then in the food processor for bread crumbs.

4. This weekend I took the pumpkins from Halloween and roasted the pumpkin and the seeds. I use the pumpkin to make pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving (and other baking) and the seeds make a delicious snack.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Good Shopping Day

I had a pretty good shopping day today. I found these flip flops at Academy Sports + Outdoors priced $2.99, but they rang up at $.88. They had them in this hot pink color and a bright blue. TARGET I was also able to get cheap Zyrtec on the 5 pack package. I had a $4.00 Targe Coupon and stacked it with a $2.00 printable. I can't really tell if they were free (it looks like I was charged $.76 for each) because the receipt is really confusing.


I also got 2 of the Purex Crystal Softeners for free (I think!). I had a $2.00 manufacturer coupon and stacked it with a $1.00 Target coupon. My total savings at Target for my entire trip was $30.99.


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

1/25/11 CVS Trip

I was able to get 5 cases of Coke products for $6.00 + tax and CVS sleep pants for $5.49 + tax. Here's how.

This week CVS has Coke 12-packs 5/$15.
I had 2 coupons for a free 12-pack from MyCokeRewards and 3 ECBs.
$15 - $6 for the MyCokeRewards coupons - $3 ECBs = $6.00
Earned 5 ECBs

Bought CVS sleep pants (I know Huggies are on sale this week w/ECBs but I need a bigger size) for $10.49 - 5 ECBs from Coke purchase = $5.49

Total spent: $11.49 plus tax (less than the original price of the Cokes!)

Not a bad trip!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Back on Track

Wow! I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted, but it's almost 2 years. 2010 was a tough year and I pretty much gave up on using coupons except on the rare occasion when I had easy access to them.

It took me a while to figure out what I was going to have as my New Year's Resolution for 2011, but I finally figured it out over this past weekend.... I'm going to start couponing again! I have depleted my stockpile so I need to rebuild it and the best way to do that is by doing the research, pulling those coupons together and planning BEFORE I go shopping.

I had pretty good trips this weekend to both CVS and Winn-Dixie. I have been utilizing Winn-Dixie's new Fuel Perks program to get cheaper gas while still checking their sale ad to make the most of my shopping trips, but I just didn't use coupons as much.

Saturday is my usual shopping day and I'm going to designate time on Sunday to do all the research needed to compile the list and coupons I need for my shopping each week.

I'll keep you posted, and wish me luck!