What a deal!

A fellow Blogger asked how I was saving money at CVS. Here is how I scored today on my best trip yet. The following is a picture of everything I got.


Two Boxes Cereal
One nivea for men body wash
One bag of Candy Corn
One Tylenol Precise Heat therapy patch (4 count)
Three containers of mini candy bars
Four scented oil refills
Three oil warmers


And the grand total out of pocket cost was......$5.77

I made three transactions in order to use the Extra Care Bucks

#1
Nivea - Originally 4.99 (had 1.00off Coup)[Got 4.99 extra care bucks](1.00 Money maker!)
Candy Corn - Originally 0.99 [Received 0.99 extra care buck] (free)

#2
Tylenol Precision 5.99 (had 2.00 off coupon from paper and 2.00 off CVS coupon from Internet) used Extra care bucks from transaction #1 and I also got 2.00 extra care bucks from this one!(free)
#3
Four Airwick Oils (CVS sale - Spend 10 get 5 extra care bucks) + (Coupons for 0.50 off each) [0.75 each]
Three Warmers (had 3 coupons for 'buy an oil get a warmer free') [Free}
Cereal - (CVS sale 1.88 each) + (Coupon for 0.50 off) [ 1.30 each]
Candy - on Sale for 0.77 had to use these to get my total up to $20 so I could use a $4 off $20 internet coupon from CVS) [free]
I also used my extra care bucks from transaction 1 and 2 to help pay for this.

Not every trip is this good...but you get the idea. Yeah for savings!

Saving money

My new job has become learning how to 'play the coupon game'. I have gotten pretty good at it.

I came home last night with 6 bottles of Sobe Water, 8 bottles of Johnson and Johnson babywash and shampoo and 2 sippy cups all for $8 from CVS....(That's about 75 cents per bottle of baby stuff and the Sobe's were free!! Austin will be clean all year now!)

I noticed the bottom of my receipt the following

Summer 2010 spending $163.97
Year to Date Savings $772.50

I think stores like CVS hate customers like me!

I wonder if I can get to $1000 savings before the year is over?

Things Austin is learning about his parents

Dad has A LOT of tools. (And I am thankfull for that!)






Mom can not pass up a deal! (I got 50 free Sobe waters over the course of a week...well, I had to pay 2 cents tax on each, but still that was awesome!)

History of gifts

I admit I am not a history buff...never was my favorite subject in school. But I have been reading a bit in tour books to get ready for our trip to France and realized we did weird things back in the 'old days'.

Take gift giving. We used to give actual presents to people, but recently the gift card has become a very popular item to give people. Back in the old day countries would give huge monumental gifts to each other. For instance the Statue of Liberty...it was a gift to us, the United States. Quite frankly I would not know what to write on that thank you note.

Thank you for the huge statue that we now have to find a place to put, people to ship it there, others to assemble it....etc

Anyway, a lot of the places in the tour books on France talk about how they were built as gifts, or to try and 'smooth the waters' after a certain battle...how odd. We don't do that now-a-days. I wonder what the country size equivalent to the gift card is since we are no longer getting actual gifts....

I am not a runner...Im just saying...

I recently ran in a 5K. That is a little over 3 miles....in a row...running. I think I got tricked into it. A few mom friends of mine were walking in the mornings, then they started walking and running a bit. I joined them and the next thing I know, we're knee deep in four week training course for a 5K. Two of us ran the first race and didn't die. There was a run and a stroller jog. The stroller jog started 5 min after the 5K, so our goal was to not walk and not get passed by someone pushing a stroller. We succeeded in both of our goals, so what do we do?? We sign up for another one. So I have now ran in two 5K's in the past two months and continue to run 2 or 3 times a week.

I ran in high school, but I ran the 100 meter hurdles...one of the shortest races. I did not like running all the way around the track, i preferred the straight line when I could see the finish line at all times and knew when I would be able to stop. Funny thing is, my friend and I keep saying 'we're not runners, we hate running' yet we keep doing it.

We used to run a bit in the morning with the kids in a stroller, then summer came and it was too blasted hot. So now we run at 8:15 at night when it is only 95 degrees out. The kids are asleep at home with the dads so it's our time to be 'not moms'. I guess that's why we do it. We talk the entire time. I didn't realize that was odd until our first race, and no one else was talking. They are all serious and concentrating....and we are just chatting away. Oh well, it makes our race time pass by faster.

I can't believe i am going to type this, but she talked me into running a half marathon in January! Thats 13 miles....about 3.5 hours of running!!! But...I'm not a runner....just so you know.

Brownie trimmer

I admit it....I am a brownie trimmer. Lucky for me, my husband is a crooked cutter.

You know what I mean, right? When the pan of brownies reaches a completed row, and you realize that if you cut one, then it shows and everyone knows that you had two (maybe three) brownies to eat that day. Well, I will just trim the edge so it's like eating one really long skinny brownie. I can go back and 'trim' multiple times and I don't feel as bad about eating them. I have learned to do the same with rice Krispy treats. As I stated above, Bob cuts them very crooked, so I get to do a lot of trimming! Yum.

Fish

We have a fish tank full of fish. They make great pets. They don't chew up your furniture, shed hair, or pee on the floor. They don't have to be walked in the cold or rain, and there is never a debate about letting them sleep in the bed or on the floor on a mat. You can forget to feed them for a day and they are still okay, and if you leave for vacation, they make time release food disks. Some even have personalities...